» Archive: September 2004
Haiti and Kerry, new COHA Release
See Council On Hemispheric Affairs's latest: Haiti: Smoldering on the Edge of Chaos
Also see Ben Terrall's "Will he Stand up? Kerry and Haiti"
Canada’s vote in the US election
by Stephen James Kerr
I was surfing the net on Friday September 3rd when I came across a link to a story in the Globe and Mail about the Martin government's adoption of a no-fly list, similar to the one in the United States. Under Canada's Public Security Act, the government can restrict travel within Canada based on… they don't have to tell you why.
read more...Building A "Canadian" Decolonization Movement
Fighting The Occupation At "Home"
by Devin Burke
devin@riseup.net
If you've been following the news, it would appear that the current situation in Kanehsatake has been unravelling over the past 7 months, from the time when James Gabriel, unannounced to the community, first attempted to establish his own personal police force, with the stated purpose of "cracking down on organized crime". However, if you speak to a Kanehsatake community member and ask when this problem began, you will likely be told that it's a situation rooted much more deeply in the history of Mohawk-Canadian relations, that it dates back well before the time when Jimmy Gabriel came into power, and even long before the 1990 uprising known as the "Oka Crisis". Many would likely say that the current conflict is merely symptomatic of a greater problem, that being Canadian colonialism.
read more...Resist.ca review
In the last few days on resist.ca... OCAP is giving food to the poor and sending McGuinty the bill, demonstrators were arrested at Sun Peaks, the arrests were condemned by the BC Chiefs, FN blockades blocks hunters, and the big unions are giving up on fighting free trade by being wishy-washy.
Old Interview with Aaron McGruder
The Washington Post cancelled some Boondocks strips, which led me to look up a few interviews with the cartoonist...
"I think that the audience can generally handle more than the gatekeepers think they can."
Africana.com interview with Aaron McGruder
What I was also telling those kids was that whatever message you want to get across, make sure that you're doing it effectively, and that's the whole point when I say the primary job is being funny. The reason that is, is because if I'm not funny no one pays attention to anything I'm saying. People who are trying to sort of counteract all of this negativity that we all talk about that's in the media can often shoot themselves in the foot by being ineffective communicators, meaning that if you're in the entertainment business and you're trying to get a message across, you have to be entertaining first. Or else, you'll end up like some of these underground rap groups that are "positive," but no one's listening to them. It really requires a sort of sophisticated understanding of how to walk that line between being entertaining and giving your audience what it wants, and then trying to sort of do something to sort of raise awareness at the same time.
Haiti Floods and more...
Flashpoint Radio interviews Kevin Pina, who provides the political context to this that is *completely* absent from corporate coverage. Read the transcript of the interview here ,or listen to the Tuesday, September 21st broadcast at Flashpoints.net
Fenton's latest commentary is up: "From Monroe to Bush...to Martin? Failed State Doctrine in Haiti
Also, read up on the latest human rights delegation "Worsening Conditions Continue to Plague Haiti," from the latest issue of Worker's World
1000 march in support of Palestinian refugees
About 1000 people marched in Montreal last Saturday in support of the Palestinian refugees in Canada who are facing deportation... in some cases to refugee camps where they are at risk of being persecuted or attacked. One old couple that was driven from their homes in 1948 have been taking refuge in the basement of a church for eight months, because immigration Canada is threatening to send them back to refugee camps in Lebanon.
The march also commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
See Stateless and Exhausted, by Aaron Lakoff. There are also photos and a good video of the demo. Most of the video is in French.
New Haiti Analysis
Extensive piece by Charles McCollester, "Haiti Matters!" in Monthly Review
Press
Vancouver Co-op Radio's Charles Boylan interviews Kevin Pina, "Rolling Back Haiti to Colonialism"
UBC Professor Claude Adams discusses poor journalism in "Blindsided in Haiti"
The Creator vs. Canadian Imperialism
Check out this solid piece: "Exercise Narwal, Gunboat Diplomacy, and Oil," by Macdonald Stainsby
Cuba and Hurricanes
The most recent issue of Seven Oaks also has a fascinating assessment of Cuba's example in the context of the recent slew of hurricanes.
Feds Raid Radio Station
mediageek: Feds Raid Knoxville Community Radio
At roughly 10:00 am this morning, three federal agents rom the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Atlanta offices, accompanied by three US Marshalls, broke into the KFAR radio station in South Knoxville and confiscated all of its equipment, knocking noxville's community voice off the air.In the US, where even the most limited licenses are tightly restricted for community radio, the only successful model seems to be to set up a "pirate" radio station, gain community support, and then fight the feds when they try to shut it down. It certainly has the effect of highlighting the insanity (and corporate domination) of the current regulatory process in no uncertain terms.
KFAR has been broadcasting alternative news, music and commentary for the past three years, and while the station has still not been granted an official license, it has exceeded all FCC regulations and does not interfere with the signal of any other radio station.
Haiti Updates
Interview with Anthony Fenton in the latest issue of Seven Oaks
*Important,* Human Rights Office Attacked by reactionary thugs in Haiti:Haiti Action Committee
Pilger's Distractions
John Pilger: "Blair's distractions, not his victims, are news"
Workers in Argentina are pressuring the government to formalize their de facto control over the factories that they occupied after the owners declared bankruptcy and took off.
In other important news of international significance: after a long hiatus, I'm writing things and posting them at misnomer again.
'Haiti's 9/11' and 'Untold Story' of Aristide's Overthrow
See: Lavalas Braves Climate of Terror to March and Demand for Aristide's Return:
"September 11th is a date well-fixed in the consciousness of progressive Haitians. It marks the anniversary of a brutal massacre in Aristide's former parish of St Jean Bosco in 1988 as well as the anniversary of the slaying of Lavalas supporter Antoine Izmery in 1993. To honor the victims and demand the restoration of democracy to Haiti, thousands of Lavalas activists took the streets this September 11th and braved the climate of terror that has gripped the country."
and
Kevin Pina's latest on Black Commentator One Man's Democracy is Another Man's Chains:
"In the days preceding Aristide’s overthrow a press report surfaces that causes panic in the U.S. State Department. An undisclosed Venezuelan diplomat is quoted as saying his government is prepared to provide unilateral assistance to the Haitian government under the terms of the Rio Treaty and the Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States."
Venezuelan Statement to UN
The communication states the following:
The Permanent Mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United
Nations, complies in manifesting that, according to a press release on
Friday, September 10, 2004, the President of the United States of America,
George W. Bush, informed of his determination to express to international
financial organizations in which that country participates, its opposition
to the concession of credits to Venezuela.
Interview With Denis Paradis on Haiti Regime Change
Interview Conducted September 11, 2004
Despite Paradis contradicting what he himself told Vastel, which was also, according to Vastel, corroborated by the French government, Paradis denies that regime change was discussed in January 2003.
I will be following this up soon with an analysis of the "Responsibility to Protect" to which - as you will see - Paradis refers repeatedly, like a mantra. Clearly, it is a corollary to the emerging Failed State Doctrine that has "evolved" in the broader post-9/11 Bush Doctrine and the 'war on terror,' which the Canadian state is fully committed to waging.
DEA whistleblower exposes CIA's 'war of pretense'
"Some people will find it easy to dismiss as a whacked-out conspiracy theory any suggestion that the CIA is complicit with drug-traffickers. But it's not a conspiracy theory, according to law enforcement sources. It's a marriage of convenience, with each side getting something of value in the exchange: money and protection in the case of the traffickers; information and access in the case of the CIA.
It may well be a pact with the devil, but it's an old bargain in a big game that is not likely to end without a major reshuffling of the status quo. However, when that game starts to reach into this country's courts and subverts the ultimate U.S. interest, the Constitution, it may be time to start drawing some lines."
From the latest Online Journal
Foreshadowing Haiti Coup - The 'If at First you don't succeed' M.O.
Look at this 1993 LA Times article that shows the modus operandi of the "political opposition" in Haiti. At the time they were openly in bed with the U.S. supported death squad FRAPH, and the military regime that overthrew Aristide, led by Raoul Cedras. These tactics re-emerged in February of 2004. The difference this time around has largely to do largely with public opinion.
9/11 gave the "opposition" the "diplomatic" support they needed for reinstituting authoritarian rule to Haiti. Where in 1991 the OAS, the UN, followed by the U.S., Canada, etc. condemned the coup and acknowledged Aristide's Presidency, everyone was on board this time around thanks to a significant 'Orwellian shift' by way of the invocation of imperial doctrines such as the "Responsibility to Protect" and the emerging Failed State Doctrine.
Where Western governments actually brought about the "failure" of democracy in Haiti, they simultaneously managed public opinion through their control of the mainstream [corporate] media. The *real* propaganda war of the "low intensity" variety, manufactured the perception that Aristide was "failing," brought about the "justification" for intervention, "legalised" through the new post-9/11 'war on Terror' framework, which effectively re-legalises imperialism [or, at least the "option" of imperialism], by suspending the parts of the UN Charter pertaining to state sovereignty and the right to self-determination. They can do this when the "international community" [see: "rich white people"] deems a country to have failed to maintain their conception of "good governance."
Russia's Going Authoritarian
From the Globe and Mail
Putin moves to tighten Kremlin's control
Moscow — Charging that the Beslan hostage-takers' real aim was to break Russia apart, President Vladimir Putin has announced sweeping changes to the country's political system that will see power further consolidated in the Kremlin, a move that his opponents called a threat to the country's already wobbly democracy.
Mr. Putin told a rare assembly of regional leaders and the federal cabinet yesterday that the future of the country is at stake, saying that a stronger central government is needed. He announced a plan that would see the country's 89 regional governors, who are currently elected, appointed directly by the president and approved by largely obedient local legislatures.
He also proposed an overhaul of the way deputies are elected to the State Duma through the introduction of representation by population, a move that could see the few remaining independent voices forced out of the federal parliament. The electoral changes require the approval of parliament, but since the United Russia party, which backs Mr. Putin, controls more than two-thirds of the 450 seats, that is a near certainty.
Mr. Putin said the entire country needs to be mobilized to fight terrorism after a series of attacks that have killed 450 people over the past three weeks, including the Beslan hostage taking, a suicide bombing in Moscow and the downing of two passenger airliners.
"The organizers and perpetrators of the terror attack are aiming at the disintegration of the state, the breakup of Russia," he said at the meeting, which was held in Russia's House of Government, more commonly known as the White House. "I am convinced that a united country is the most important condition for victory over terror."
Mr. Putin called for the creation of a single, powerful agency charged with fighting terrorism and repeated his assertion that Russia has the right to strike at "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world.
"We need a single organization capable of not only dealing with terror attacks but also working to avert them, destroy criminals in their hideouts and, if necessary, abroad," he said.
CNN Interview With Jean-Bertrand Aristide
If you haven't read this CNN interview, conducted on March 1, 2004, the day After Aristide was kindapped by "foreign" forces, please do so. It is very revealing. It is clear why the U.S. and France scuttled attempts to investigate the circumstances of his "departure."
Given the mysterious RDI broadcast the night of his overthrow, which announced that Canadian troops had secured the Port au Prince airport, one has to wonder the extent to which Canada was involved on the ground during the kidnapping. It was proven on March 3rd that it was Canadian Joint Task Force Two special forces that flew to Haiti on February 25th, joining five others who were already there.
Bear in mind also that South Africa, where Aristide is living in exile, is still recognizing him as the legitimate President of Haiti...
Working Class Perspective on NB's Irving Family
by Aaron Doncaster
In the anticapitalist movement, you hear much about the uscupulous
Practices of the companies like Enron ,worldcom, Nortel, Wal-Mart, Mcshites
And Arthur Anderson to name a few, but there is not much written about the
uscupulous practices of regional monopolies like Irving, Sobey's and Mccain(
all from the Maritimes in Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to be exact)
IRAQI KURDS’ SUSPICION OF U.S. GROWS
The latest issue of Socialist Voice
Remarkable.
CBC's The National tonight managed to spend a whole segment discussing the root causes of the recent slew of hurricanes without once mentioning human-driven climate change.
Denying it is one thing. Completely ignoring the possibility of its existence is quite another.
Congresswoman Waters Slams Canada's Liberals for Duplicity in Haiti
Press Conference yesterday on Capitol Hill:
"These former members of the Haitian Army are the same thugs and killers that carried out the coup d'etat that overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically-elected President of Haiti, on February 29, 2004, with the cooperation of the United States, France, Canada and the Haitian opposition's Group of 184."
[...]
"The United States, France and Canada created this mess, and they have an obligation to clean it up. There can be no democracy in Haiti until these thugs and killers are disarmed."
Read on at www.haitiaction.net
URGENT: Bush's Policy Returns Predators to Haiti
Dear Friends,
As I write this, Haiti's former military is being allowed by the Bush administration and the United Nations to return to power. While the U.S. and U.N. have been quite effective in backing the current regime and its police in arresting and persecuting members of the Lavalas political party, they have done absolutely nothing to challenge the former military and their allies from seizing and controlling territory in Haiti. The summary executions, political murders, brutal repression and corruption in the areas they control are a mere foreshadowing of what daily life will look like in the country if they are allowed to resume their traditional role in Haitian society.
Live From Occupied Haiti: Interview With Kevin Pina September 8th
Tune in live to Vancouver's Co-op Radio, for an hour long interview and discussion with journalist and filmmaker Kevin Pina, 7:00-8:00 P.M. PST Wednesday, September 8th.
Pina will join host Charles Boylan along with Anthony Fenton.
Pina is co-editor of the Black Commentator.
Show will be archived at Wake Up With Co-op
Two Kinds of Regulation
Asian Pacific Post: Canada goes to Vietnam's deadly roads to find truckers
NarcoNews tackles "super cocoa" and smells (but doesn't snort) a hoax.
George Monbiot: Adventure playground
The British are still hated in Africa, and with good reason. Blair might huff and puff about the continent being a scar on the conscience of the world, but while our own citizens still regard it as their personal fiefdom, it’s hard to see why anyone who lives there should take him seriously.
Monbiot again: Living with the Age of Entropy
There are two sets of regulations in the United Kingdom. There are those which the big corporations campaign against, and those which they tolerate and even encourage, because they can afford them while their smaller competitors cannot. This is why it is legal to stuff our farm animals with antibiotics, our vegetables with pesticides, our processed food with additives and our water tables with nitrates, but more or less illegal to use any process which does not involve stainless steel, refrigeration and fluorescent lighting. The clampdown on small food businesses, on the grounds that their produce might contain bacteria, has been accompanied by a massive rise in food poisoning cases since the 1970s: largescale production and long-distance transport provide far greater opportunities for infection.
Propaganda System Number One: From Diem and Arbenz to Milosevic
Classic Edward Herman:
"The United States is not only number one in military power but also in the effectiveness of its propaganda system, which is vastly superior to any past or present state-managed system.
A further important feature of the U.S. system is that this propaganda service is provided without government censorship or coercion, by self- censorship alone, with the truth of the propaganda line internalized by the numerous media participants. This internalization of belief makes it possible for media personnel to be enthusiastic spokespersons in pushing the party line, thereby giving it a naturalness that is lacking in crude systems of government-enforced propaganda."
Interview With Ben Dupuy of Haiti's National Popular Party
In the latest issue of Socialism and Liberation
Q: Do you have a message you would like to give to the progressive movement, the working-class movement in the United States, who want to support the struggle of the Haitian people?
Yes, I think it is very important for U.S. progressive forces to understand the dynamics of the struggle in Haiti and to be aware of the force of the traditional media in shaping public opinion. Sometimes even progressive people fall victim even unconsciously to this form of propaganda. We think that the struggle in Haiti should not be looked at from a racialist standpoint but from a class struggle standpoint, and as a struggle for national liberation, which is the only basis that can create the conditions for a new socialist society.
Ward Churchill in Vancouver Audio
Listen to Ward Churchill's Keynote Address at Under The Volcano August 8, 2004...
NYC: Civil Disobedience Turns to Rebellion in Face of Police Repression
NYC Protests and Repression:
See: The New Standard
TML Daily is on the scene as well.
Always a solid live report on Flashpoints
Realizing Native Sovereignty at Sun Peaks
From the latest issue of Seven Oaks Magazine:
"On Sunday, August 29, a group of nearly two hundred Native and non-Native demonstrators led by grassroots Secwepemc activists took to the sprawling and malignant Sun Peaks ski resort to protest the expansion of the mini-Whistler and its centerpieces – the Delta hotel and an incipient golf course."
For updates on the ongoing occupation of Sun Peaks, visit the Anti-Poverty Committee:
"On August 29, shortly after the 250-strong protestors left, the provincial government served a Trespass Notice on the Skwelkwek’welt Protection Center. The Trespass Notice articulates the position that the construction of a permanent monitoring center on unoccupied Crown Land adjacent to Sun Peaks’ expansion is a violation of the BC Land Act. Janice Billy has said “it is business-as-usual for the province and Sun Peaks. They are both treating Aboriginal Title as if it does not even exist. The BC Land Act is outdated because even the Supreme Court of Canada has recognized Aboriginal Title in all of unceded lands, including Sun Peaks.”