the guy by the door …

I had breakfast with a friend who is not at all political, but by his estimate has followed the Olympics very closely. He remarked that there had been very little in the way of protests. He watches corporate controlled broadcast television. One need go no farther than Harvard Square to know that they are not telling the whole story.

The Tibetans have spent evenings in the Pit since at least March 15. Seeing this peristance first hand inspired the title. [More pictures from April. It is incredibly bad form to explain a double entent¹. For example, to say that the Tibetans show great determination in the quest for self-determination would display bluntness worthy only of an underemployed physicist library doorchecker. ]

Democracy Now! has had a number of reports of repression of Pro Tibet protest. Reporters sans Frontieres² offers a chronology of repression of the press. Students for a free Tibet have spawned a website specifically for the Olympics and a video blog Free Tibet 2008 TV.

¹I was dissuaded from using double entendre by the Wikipedia entry for it, since there is nothing obscene about self-determination. In fact, I will argue that the lack thereof is obscene.

²My French desparately needs pardoning, but doesn’t “sans frontieres” sound way cooler than “without borders”?

How Terrorist Groups End

Of the 648 groups that were active at some point between 1968 and 2006, a total of 268 ended during that period. Another 136 groups splintered, and 244 remained active. As depicted in the figure, the authors found that most ended for one of two reasons: They were penetrated and eliminated by local police and intelligence agencies (40 percent), or they reached a peaceful political accommodation with their government (43 percent). Most terrorist groups that ended because of politics sought narrow policy goals. The narrower the goals, the more likely the group was to achieve them through political accommodation — and thus the more likely the government and terrorists were to reach a negotiated settlement.

More…

Most of today’s Democracy Now! about workers¹: I) layoffs at the newspapers and II) a new book: The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.

I. The discussion of layoffs at the newspapers raised the question of whether bloggers aka citizen journalists can/will fill the gap. Chris Hedges, senior fellow at the Nation Institute is not optimistic:

I could believe that if there was reporting on the internet. You know, most of the bloggers don’t even pick up a phone, much less go out and report a story. Reporting a story, especially doing an investigative piece, is laborious, expensive, time-consuming.

Linda Jue, Director of New Voices in Independent Journalism and the past president of the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, on the other hand:

…I am witnessing, actually, in the Bay Area numerous new enterprises starting to come up, being formed actually by journalists, to find new business models that would be—that will sustain very good journalism…

II. The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. Steven Greenhouse, labor reporter for the New York Times, discusses the plight of workers and the role of contemporary unions. He has some interesting remarks about the “Change to Win” coalition of 5 major unions that left the AFL-CIO.

[More when DN! gets the transcript up.]

¹There is brief mention of more bank failures in the headlines. See next post.

Central bankers and government connected economists have been telling us, for quite some time now, “Everything will be OK if you just don’t look down.” Senator Chuck Schumer sent out a letter warning of the shakiness of IndyMac which has now collapsed. Regulators who were supposed to prevent such collapses are blaming Schumer for causing it.

Another thing you’re not supposed to notice, where will all the billion$ pumped into to the banking system to keep it afloat utimately come from. In the case of IndyMac it’s no mystery – the taxpayers. 🙂 NPR, has been taking the line that it is that shareholders who will pay. They had an expert from the Wall Street Journal espousing this view. But who ultimately underwrites the FDIC? We’ll see how this shakes out.

In the case of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which back half of all of the nations home mortgages, it’s clear that the guarantor is the taxpayer – i.e. you and me.

[Update: July 29, 2008] From DemocracyNow!: 2 More Banks Close as Crisis Widens

In banking news, federal regulators have shut down two banks in California and Nevada. First National Bank of Nevada and the Californian First Heritage Bank were both folded for lacking sufficient capital. The closures come two weeks after the collapse of the California bank IndyMac.

 

An explication of the relationship between Beauty, Sexuality, Marriagability, and Class. I’d love to write it right now, but I have to go guard the library. Read the next post down 🙂 bbiab.

Jenna, Aggasiz Theater February 2006.

The Vagina Monologues

The Vagina Monologues has been performed on campus a number of times. I assume that all of them were in the Agassiz Theater in the Radcliffe Yard. I just discovered that Professor Juliet Schor, economist and feminist activist performed in 2000. I went in February of 2006. I did not know Jenna would be in it, but I was not surprised. I had met Jenna shortly after her arrival at Harvard at the Harvard Social Forum. She asked if she could interview me for a paper she was working on. I agreed on condition that I get to see the finished product. She seemed so delicate, I was afraid she would break if I even touched her. I was quite surprised when she was quoted in the Crimson. She was introducing Kim Airs, former HUCTW member, secretary to Dean Harry Rosovsky, and proprietor of the Grand Opening sex boutique. Jenna said, “Last year, before this, I thought I was having really good sex,…” At least, that’s what the Crimson says she said.

I was very impressed with the Vagina Monologues. It was highly graphic, but everyone was fully clothed. Most impressive was the comraderie nee sisterhood that permeated the cast and audience flowing seamlessly through the procenium.

The Women’s Center Art Show: More than Skin Deep

I am not free of sexism anymore than I am free of racism, anti-semitism, anti-Islamism, or any other form of xenophobia¹. I am very much a work in progress. I may have a certain vestigial prudery That is, I may have not fully escaped confusion about the relationship between Capitalism, Empire, and Sex. So when I received an invitation to the show, I wondered. I knew Jenna was in it. In fact, her’s was the “centerpiece.” Would she want me there to support her political activism? Or would she discover ways in which she is still a work in progress. That is, would she be creeped out showing a giant picture of her vulva to man in a dead end job who is older than her father? So I wrote to the curator of the exhibit. “By all means come, ” would have been fine. Or to tactfully decline with, possibly a hint about the reason, would have been fine. But what I got was no response at all. I feel that the Woman’s Center, an otherwise nobel effort, failed on that one.

I did realize there most probably are disparate views about how to address the relationship between class and sexuality. The woman HUPD officer, whose name I have temporarily forgotten, probably has a somewhat class bound view of things. Don’t get me wrong. The Center needs a Woman officer and self-defense training is highly recommended. But, the police should not be the major determinant of the sexual mores on campus. Similarly, the issue of rape, which Citizen Harry² regards as the most pressing issue of student life, cannot be solved by appeal to administrative authority.

¹Were I to include the full list it would consume a petabyte of storage on the server. [Canadian blogger jurgen claims this is half the content of all U.S. academic research libraries, but he gives no reference. Maybe j knows.] You may have noticed that Christianity is missing from the list. This is because having been raised in several disparate flavors of the Beast, my uneasiness is not based in ignorance as with those things I named. Based in familiarity, my critique of Christianity is somewhat more animated.

²“Citizen” is the appelation I use to refer to a member of the community who had administrative responsibility and subsequently returned to civilian life. I told Citizen Harry that I did so with love and he said he believed me. The statement about rape is from his book, “Excellence without Soul.”

Coming to a blog near you real soon now. Highlights:

Talk ain’t always cheap.

Maintenance deferred is maintenance denied.

Fixing a hole where the rain gets in.

What’s up with the endowment?

This one’s easy. Way up! 9% in 10 months. Due largely to commodities! Now before you say oil. Wheat, copper, and other commodities are up too. Of course, that may be passed along cost from higher oil. Then there’s food prices which the World Bank says went up 75% due to biofuel. Then there is the debate about how much of the price rises are due to speculation. And a new unexpected weirdness. I agree with Joe Lieberman on something! Large institutional investors, like Harvard, should not be allowed to speculate in energy and food.

And we save how much by de-unionizing labor?

So what are Allied-Barton and Harvard administrators talking about all this time?

The old contract was supposed to expire on June 30, 2008. Like a week ago. Nothing has been heard. BTW, the guards at Harvard Medical School don’t wear Allied-Barton whites. I shall make further inquiries.

Still trying to get caught up on the news. Seymour Hersch, in the New Yorker, reports newly uncovered information about the Presidential Finding¹ to sponsor covert activities in Iran. Because of secrecy, the Finding actually occurred at about the time of and in direct contradiction to the National Intelligence Estimate that discounted the likelihood of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Andrew Cockburn² made a brief report in Counter Punch in early May. [He makes a not entirely whimsical quip about Harvard Fellow³ Robert Rubin’s efforts to keep Citigroup afloat amid the subprime mortgage debacle, by borrowing yet more billions from Abu Dhabi [].

Most of the people of the world, including the U.S. Joint Chiefs think invading Iran is a bad idea. But you have Dick Cheney, arguably diminished in power, but is he still a big enough tail to wag the American dog? He still seems to be able to wag the Bush. What if Israeli hardliners launch a pre-emptive attack knowing they can’t win a war by themselves. Will this smaller tail try to wag the Cheney tail in a direction it already wants to go.

The folks at Middle East Strategy at Harvard, more specifically, Chuck Freilich, seem to think the consequences of invading Iran would be small.⁴ Sounds a lot like the runup to Iraq – flowers and chocolates, it’ll pay for itself, shock and awe will eliminate resistance. How’s that worked out? Chuck Freilich, by the way, was Israel’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Foreign Affairs. So there’s that ‘vested interest’ thing again. It’s not about Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. For Israeli hardliners it’s about losing, some years from now, the nuclear monopoly in the region. For Bush-Cheney-Haliburton it’s about control of oil.

I hope to tell you about Bradford Little, highly eccentric but correct. Who’s “entitled” to nuclear weapons?

a) Iran.

b)Israel.

c)United States of America.

d)All of the above.

e)None of the above.

f)Nobody anywhere.

It’s (f). I will show all work, but it will be necessary to attach additional sheets.

¹Yet another way of dunning Congress for money, but because National Security is involved only a handful of “select” Congresspersons need to know the details.

²I’m slowly coming to appreciate the Cockburn clan. I did, like everybody in my generation, read Alexander when he wrote with James Ridgeway in the Village Voice. Just recently, I discovered that Harvard’s Legal Left has it’s very own member of the clan. My only hope is that the Federalists don’t squeeze the rainbow out of her.

³There are Harvard Fellows and there are Harvard Fellows. There are Junior Fellows who are top shelf post docs. There are faculty members who are Senior Fellows. But a Fellow, is a member of The Corporation. Rubin was the Fellow who lent the rest of the Fellows the subprime President recently departed.

⁴Not known for dovishness, former National Security Advisor Zbignew Brezinski in testimony before Congress [English with French subtitles] disagrees with Freilich’s assessment.

For the couple from Seattle who came on Memorial Day. This it what it looks like when it’s working.

Thinking outside the rectangular parallelepiped.

*Thanks Joni!

On May 15th, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) begin the process of righting this imbalance with Winter Soldier on the Hill. Nine members of IVAW will testify before the CPC about rules of engagement, the killing and abuse of civilians, the use of drop weapons, and the true consequences of the “surge.”

The original Winter Soldier investigation during the Vietnam War, ultimately led to Congressional hearings and the recognition of mainstream politicians that the American people were not going to tolerate an endless war in Southeast Asia. Is this event part of a similar chain of events? Will mainstream politicians recognize that the American people will not tolerate an endless war in the Middle East?

Watch It Live! [Hearings begin at 9:30 AM, Pacifica coverage starts at 9:00 AM] Details on the IVAW website.

Meanwhile, on the floor on the floor of the House, $170 Billion of addition funding for the Iraq war is being considered. The IVAW website has good resources for contacting your congresspersons. And while you’re doing that you can help stop future war in Iran that Bush, Inc. has been warming up for, for many long times now. From the Dorchester People for Peace newsletter:

Oppose IRAN “DIVESTMENT” BILL (House 4270) at State House—

Please contact your representatives! H.4270 has now been referred to the Committee on Ways and Means: Rep. Bob DeLeo is the chairman- Telephone: 617-722-2990 E-Mail: Robert.DeLeo@state.ma.us; House members (includes St.Fleur of Dorchester and Mallia of JP), Senate members (includes Wilkerson, Joyce) Let them know you are opposed to measures aimed at raising tensions in the region and promoting the slide toward war with Iran — and would cost the system $5million and increase annual administrative expenses by up to $40,000.

You can read the innocuous-seeming text of the House 4270 here. DPP member Jeff Klein testified against the measure at a hearing April 10 (read the testimony here) and wrote an article published in this week’s Dorchester Reporter, April 24, 2008, page 10

Many useful resources on Iran, the nuclear issue and US-Iran relations available at these sites:

http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/, http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com, http://www.newiranpolicy.org/

All of this raises some interesting questions. Should we, as my young friend from Pakistan suggests, frame oppostion to the ‘war¹‘ in Iraq as opposition to empire? Is capitalism the inescapable cause of imperial excesses? Or is it merely the current mode d’emploi? [Scroll down.]

¹Forumgal of Dorchester People for Peace says that it should more properly called an occupation. I don’t know who she thinks she is, but I think she is correct.

The Workshop on the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism wrapped for the year on Monday with student presentations:

April 28: New Research in the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism

• Meghan Morris: “Ethical Consumerism Meets Enviro-Capitalism: The ‘Moral Economy’ of Fair Trade Chocolate Production”

Meghan reported on first hand experience and struck a downbeat note:

… fair trade leaders forming part of the new transnational capitalist class disseminate fair trade ideology, notions of indigeneity and environmental sustainability, and the culture of ethical consumerism, peddling not only chocolate but transformed and reworked peripheral capitalisms, borne out of both resistance to and acceptance of the neoliberal paradigm.

On the other hand, Meghan won’t be at May Day – she will be making her compromise with the prevailing paradigm.

• Di Yin Lu: “Plunder and Profit: The Sacking of the Yuan Ming Yuan and the International Art Market”
• Shekhar Krishnan: “Bombay Cotton: Share Mania in the Colonial City”
• Caitlin Rosenthal: “Accounting for Labor: Information and the Factory in America, 1800-1850”

I will report on the other papers, but first… the practicum.

The Harvard contingent is just entering from the right.

The May Day Coalition website for 2008.

Tibetans and supporters have been in the Harvard Square Pit every evening since at least March 15 when they marched past the Winter Soldier gathering at the Unitarian Church.

Tibetan Monk in the Harvard Square Pit chanting ‘om mani padme hum’
– a mantra for compassion.

Sweat-free UNC banners outside the South Building University of North Carolina. [Photo: United Students Against Sweatshops]

University of North Carolina students are in day 5 of a sit-in of the lobby outside Chancellor James Moeser’s office. [Their statement via YouTube]

Similar protests ended in 31 arrests at Penn State, 6 at Appalachian State, and 9 at University of Montana¹.

¹The result of the U Montana protest was pointed out to me by Canandian blogger Molly who seems to know more than I do about what Boston’s anarchists are doing. Their link to the Boston May Day Coalition site is broken. Try this instead.

Paul Jay, senior news editor for the alternative media startup The Real Network, finds a split between General Petreus and Iran hawks. [The picture is not an embed. It’s a screen capture over a link. Sorry 🙁 ]

GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ COMMANDER: And Iran has fueled the violence, as I noted, in a particularly damaging way through its lethal support to the special groups.

But later describing how the conflagration in Basra was brought to an end:

PETRAEUS: Iran, at the end of the day, clearly played a role as an arbiter, if you will, for talks among all of the different parties to that particular action.

Jay interviews, Sabah al Nasseri is Professor of Political Science (Middle East Politics) at York University, Toronto.

SABEH AL NASSERI, PROF., POLITICAL SCIENCE, YORK UNIVERSITY: I think because there are two interests. One is in the short term. The other one is the long run. In the short term, the United States is interested in securing a security agreement with the Iraqi government, because the Iraqi Parliament decided last year that there will be no extension of the international troops in Iraq beyond December 2008. So since last August, the United States is trying to convince the Iraqi executive to sign a long-term security agreement with the United States to keep the US troops and military bases in Iraq.

JAY: So the very legal basis of the American occupation could be in jeopardy if they’re too aggressive towards Iran.

AL NASSERI: Exactly. On the other hand, the whole report of Petraeus and the Iraq ambassador was in the long run to say we need the US troops, we need the US troop presence in Iraq, we need the military bases in Iraq, because Iran is the most dangerous place now, because they have affiliation to al-Qaeda, they support these so-called special groups, they create a lot of instabilities in Iraq, etcetera.

JAY: There’s certainly no evidence that Iran has any connection with al-Qaeda.

AL NASSERI: Exactly. So in the long run, this is the message of the neocons. Iran is an issue. But now–not now.

Stop torture took time from the home stretch pace of spring term to report on newly revealed remarks in the Whitehouse “Principles Committee”. Also, questions of the complicity of yet another Harvard Law School alum.

“Our Clothesline Project” by Take Back the Night April 2008

Guys,

You’re mentioned on the Take Back the Night “Our Clothesline Project” edition 2008. You’re not mentioned by full name and in mosts cases only by deed. I don’t judge, but I hear the pain in these women’s ‘voices.’ I simply want to share what I’ve learned. I’m am old bachelor. Desire is not as urgent as it once was, but I remember. Elektra says that because I’m a man, by definition, I hate women. I don’t believe it. I’ve done bad things to women. None of them would meet the legal standard of rape, but they might be called hateful. I don’t remember when I first began to realize it. Even in this very moment, I’m struggling to bring it further into the light. I’m afraid of women.¹ Part of it is her greater role in reproduction – the nearest reality to the impossible dream of immortality. That’s something well worth being afraid of. But it’s not the whole story. I remember when Faith was so desperately trying to get pregnant. It was like she was on trial. If she could not have a child, she would be condemned to a lesser class. It did not seem fair.²

In my youth, the conventional wisdom was that women want intimacy first and sex second – for men, the reverse. Young men would threaten to withhold intimacy to get their way. I played that game and sometimes it ‘worked’. But I didn’t win anything. For one thing, three minutes³ of panting and sweating lasts … well… just about three minutes. By the time you go through all the plotting and conniving, it really would be easier to take care of it by hand, unless … For another thing, if you think you have most of the say in the important things where women are concerned you’re an idiot. There really is nothing like it – when she has unambiguously, unmistakably chosen you.

I don’t know what I can tell you about intimacy, but from what I remember it was quite scary for me. From what I can see, it’s not easy for anybody. You might think staying aloof is the easy way out. I do not recommend it.

I gather from the shirts⁴ that listening and being able to hear is an important skill. Perhaps you can give it another try. Come hear the voices of women unheard. No one need know. Except you.

¹And yet I spend so much time thinking about them. But I’m told the younger men think a sexual thought every 7 seconds. I can go at least 10 without breaking a sweat. But seriously, I think about women often, but differently now.

²I was raised in the Episcopal Church – my mother’s church. I was at one point rehearsed in the six wives of Henry VIII – divorce, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. He declared himself head of the Church of England denying the authority of the Bishop of Rome. My mother denied, in a highly unspecific way, that Henry’s desire for a male heir was the cause. Catherine, the first wife got off easy. Her marriage was annulled, and she was consigned to living in minor castles with few servants for the rest of her life. Her successor, Anne Boleyn, having suffered more than one miscarriage and given birth to a daughter but no male heir, was beheaded.

³I know, stud. You can go sooooo much longer. Save it for the locker room.

⁴Some of the shirts are addressed to a male parent. I don’t know if I will have anything to say to them. I know only that when a child cannot say “no”, whatever “yes” might be coerced from her is bound to be meaningless or worse.

The Lorraine Motel Memphis TN. It is now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. The wreath marks where Martin stood and fell – felled by an assasin’s bullet. [Photo: Wikmedia Foundation]

Fourty years and two hours ago, Martin King, standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, slumped to the ground. He said to musician Ben Branch, “Ben, make sure you play Take My Hand, Precious Lord in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.” He died an hour later. Mahalia Jackson sang the hymn at his funeral.

His last address was prophetic:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Alas, as a people, the promised land is still a dream deferred.

[Photo: Wikimedia Foundation]

Half my adulthood has been despair. Martin’s speech, Beyond Vietnam, pretty much describes the other half:

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality…and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing “clergy and laymen concerned” committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

I remember Martin. I dared to hope then – despite Albert convincing me that hope, in itself, is the problem. But it’s not that simple. The problem with us is that too many of us relied on Martin for hope.

Democracy Now! has dedicated most of today’s broadcast to him.

Norman Finkelstein speaking at Suffolk University [Photo: Wikimedia Foundation]

Born of a mother who survived the Warsaw Ghetto, Majdanek concentration camp, and two slave labor camps, Norman Finkelstein could hardly be called a Holocaust denier. Yet there are some who do. Dr. Finkelstein¹ has been joined by two Holocaust scholars, Raul Hilberg and Avi Schlaim in questioning the official story of the conduct of the State of Israel in its treatment of the Palestinians.

He spoke at MIT: 60 Years of Dispossession and Displacement
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the humanitarian crisis today and since 1948.²

His talk was reasoned, measured, well documented, and based in international law. At the end, he asked that the question period begin with people who disagree with him i.e. dissenters. I did not follow the first question. I think it was from David Solden and I think he regards Dr. Finkelstein is not pro-Palestinian enough.³ The second question was, “How can you view the 1973 Yom Kippur war as anything but aggression?”

Dr. Finkelstein based his answer on a principle of international law – it is illegal to acquire territory through war. The Sinai and the Golan heights were the spoils of the 1967 war still occupied by Israeli forces. “Sadat looked across to the Sinai and saw Eqyptian territory occupied by Israeli forces.”

The Calculus of Suffering

Dr. Finkelstein remarked that a major portion of Israel’s justification of its actions is the notion that The Holocaust is unique among occurrences of genocide – case in point; the use of capital T and capital H.

¹Norman Finkelstein, until recently was Professor Finkelstein, but having been denied tenure at DePaul University, arguably in part due to Allan Dershowitz, he has been busted back to Dr.

²Sponsor(s): ASO, Muslim Students’ Association, MIT, Social Justice Cooperative, Latino/a Cultural Center, GSC Funding Board, Palestine@MIT For more information, contact: Palestine@MIT pal_xc@mit.edu
Dr. Finkelstein’s website: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com

³Perhaps Dr. Trumpbour will help us out here.

My mother Jo in the arms of Coco*, Pine St. somewhere in the South

My mother Jo, who as I mentioned, took me to see Gone with the Wind countless times. blamed slavery on the Northern businessmen. It may seem like a facile excuse, but apparently there is enough blame to go around.

Kathryn Boodry of Harvard presented her thesis proposal. Seth Rockman (Brown University) and Caitlin Rosenthal (Harvard University) were commentators.

Sven Beckert, Caitin Rosenthal, Kathryn Boodry, Seth Rockman, Louis Hyman. Beckert and Hyman are the unindicted co-conspirators cofacilitators of the seminar.

There were, in the antebellum period¹, two distinct sets of labor relations in the South and North – slavery and ‘free labor’ repsectively². According to Kathryn, the conventional wisdom is to view these as two separate economic systems. However, due to capital flows – trading and lending – the two are inextricably linked to the point that Kathryn proposes that they should be viewed as two parts of a single system. In fact, she finds including the end use of cotton in England to be essential to the analysis – not the American economy, the Atlantic economy. They’re kind of big on that kind of stuff at the Warren Center. A seminar participant from the Caribbean pointed out that due to trade in sugar cane and rum Atlantic economy should include the  Caribbean. Jack Womack was not there to represent South America, which does, if I remember correctly, border the Atlantic.

…more to come…

The workshop website.

*Coco was a servant at the time ~1917-18. My mother argues that the slaves must have been happy because they stayed on with the families as servants. My argument, underscored by an African scholar I know, ‘what choice did they have?’

¹I have to admit that in the preGoogle period, I never got it together to look up antebellum.

²Lauren Coyle, who was an editor of Unbound last year, objected that ‘free labor’ is a misnomer. “Where can you find working class people whose work is not coerced?” Professor Seth rejoined that there were differences in the details of compensation and the levels of violence used in the two cases.

The subject of a previous post has said there are factual inaccuracies. I’ll post a correction as soon as I have a chance to talk to him.

I’ve found a video clip of James Gilligan’s testimony at Winter Soldier¹. First off, I missed that he was promoted to sergeant while on inactive duty. During his testimony, the IVAW A/V personnel had trouble with his slides. Between that and other inaccuracies I’ve committed, Sargeant Gilligan has had a hard time being heard. I will be talking to him soon. You can read the transcript of the incident mentioned in my earlier post. Then watch the video again.

Striking to me was James’ struggle to be precise as he retold events which he clearly feels should not have happened. Obviously some of the other soldiers felt that same way and wondered whether he was to blame:

Later that night they called me over to their tent and they asked me if i was qualified to call for fire. and i told them i was not qualified, however i was asked and i gave the responses needed to … to quickly assess the danger and proceed forward with the mission. My sargeant came over and luckily intervened before anything got hostile. There was no repercussion.

His last remark on this incident was clearly delimited as hearsay²:

… this is again what I was told… that our unit had informed the Afghanis of the village that if the Taliban does it again, you let us know.

I don’t know what the IVAW plans in the way of corroborating the testimony of the Winter Soldiers, but they might be able to use some help. Maybe some law students?

Because a Winter Soldier should be heard.

¹All the clips are on the IVAW site, but their software is too recent for the computers in the Harvard Science Center 😛

²Those of us not in the law school who once watched “Law and Order” believe that ‘hearsay’ has limited probative value. I would be grateful to hear a professional opinion on this. Gratitude is beyond any monetary value.

You can honestly say that you don’t watch/listen to MSM [blogese for mainstream media]. On the left 🙂 find a blogroll category “Actual News! Really!” cursor.org gives a concise well linked survey of the days print media and has an extensive list of links to other news sources. Democracy Now!, Link TV, Free Speech TV are available on cable as well as the internet. And there are several internet radio sources. Independent Media Center can be screechy, but then Fox has pretty much sucked any possible meaning out of “Fair and Balanced.”

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. -‘widely believed to be’ Karl Rove[1] [Karl wasn’t actually at the rally. Photo: Wikipedia]

We on the left should frame our opposition to the war as opposition to empire.

– Adaner Usmani

—
Some folks at Harvard Law School are doing just that with their event series, Confronting Empire: 5 Years of War in Iraq. The series is over, but the website has a link for each and every speaker, many of whom have freely downloadable articles. I’m told that proceedings from it, will, in time, appear. [And I’ll point you to my faves.] The series was sponsored by, Justice for Palestine at Harvard Law and:

—

Harvard Anti War Coalition passing Langdell Hall, Harvard Law School.
Skewers in the foreground each commemorate 100 deaths, Iraqi and American, since March 19, 2003. Signs along the “Iraqi Freedom Trail” explain.

A report of this action for 5yearstoomany.org and one for the rally on Boston Common.

^[1]In an earlier edition, I quoted Karl as saying, “We make our own reality. We’re an empire now.” I relied on memory. I’m sorry. What appears in the text now is the quotation reported by Ron Suskind in an opinion piece of October 17, 2004 of the New York Times Magazine, Without a Doubt. The quote is from Paragraph 8 on Page 7.

The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

As you can see, Ron attributed to “the aide”. In paragraph 7 on Page 7, he uses the phrase “senior advisor’. It was only later that undisclosed pundits decided it was Rove. There are some, who, as I did, make the unqualified claim that it was Rove. I can’t find anyone who will say how they know what they claim. Again, I’m sorry. That said, I’ll bet it was Rove.

The invasion of Iraq took place on March 19, 2003. Tomorrow, Wednesday March 19, 2003 will mark five years, the death of 3990 American service personnel, the 82,000 to ~800,000 ¹Iraqi civilians, the expenditure of $1 Trillion to $3 Trillion², and the release of unknown amounts of depleted Uranium and carbon dioxide into the environment. At Harvard the day will be marked by two events:

The Harvard – Cambridge Walk for Peace will have their regular Wednesday vigil meeting at the John Harvard statue at noon.

A group formed this year, the Harvard Anti-War Coalition, which brought us:

***HAWC members and [not really] John Harvard in their Abu Gharib finery. [Photo: HAWC]***

will hold a rally. From their Facebook entry:

Rally Against the War March 19, 2:30pm
To End the Occupation Science Center
For Immediate Peace Harvard Yard

Join students, teachers, staff, and community members to rally against the war on the 5th Anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. [Black Hood optional. Ed.]

The rally kicks-off at 2:30pm and will feature a great array of speakers and student groups. At 3:30pm, the rally will march to the Boston Common to join a citywide vigil[see below].

**Bring All The Troops Home Now!
**End All Funding for the Iraq War Now!
**Don’t Attack Iran
**Support Our Communities, Fund Human Needs!
**Stop the Attacks on Civil Liberties, Defend Human Rights!

—–

Finally, from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM at the Park Street T station:

***”Answer Cindy’s Questions” Vigil for Cindy Sheehan, Park Street T station, August 13, 2005.***

United for Peace with Justice is sponsoring a vigil, one of over 660 nationwide. The 5 Years Too Many Website has a locator for events nationwide.

¹Depending on whether you believe the Iraq Body Count website or extrapolations of the Ocober 2006 John’s Hopkins Cluster Analysis published in the british medical journal The Lancet.

²Depending on whether you believe the Government Accountability Office or Bilmes and Stiglitz.

Hart Viges in Iraq [Photo: IVAW]

We were driving down Baghdad one day and ah … we found a dead body on the side of the road. So we all pulled over to … to secure it and wait for MP’s or whatever authorities would come and take care of this … this dead man here who was clearly murdered. And my friends jumped off and started taking pictures with him, you know, with big ol’ smiles on their faces … and they said, ‘Hey, Viges, you want a picture with this guy?’ And I said no. But no not in the context of that’s really messed up because it’s just wrong … on a ethical basis, but I said no because it wasn’t my kill. You shouldn’t take trophies for things you didn’t kill. I mean that’s … that’s where my mindset is…WAS back then. Cuz I wasn’t even upset that this man was really dead. They shouldn’t have been taking credit for something they didn’t do.

-Hart Viges; 82 Airborne Division 1st 325 HHC Battalion Morters¹ Testimony at Winter Soldier, Silver Springs Maryland March 14, 2008

The Monday March 17, 2008 edition of Democracy Now! has a large segment covering Winter Solder testimony as well as a retrospective of the My Lai massacre including an interview with Seymour Hersch. Most of the Tuesday March 18, 2008 edition is devoted to Winter Soldier including Hart Viges’ testimony.

Tomorrow marks the 5th Anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

¹“I joined the army right after September eleventh and asked for airborne … asked for infantry and ended up with 82nd Airborne Division 1st 325 HHC Battalion Morters … ‘hunters in the sky’ … ‘death from above'”

Photo presented at Winter Soldier hearings. [Photo: IVAW]

Sunday, March 16 – Silver Springs Maryland. Winter Soldier testimony concluded today with two sessions:

10:00AM – 1:00PM The Breakdown of the Military
2:00PM – 3:15PM The Future of GI Resistance

Iraq Veterans Against the War has posted photos from Saturday’s testimony. The’ve promised clips, but they haven’t appeared yet. As of 10:40 PM only a few clips have appeared on the net. Alternative video news startup Independent World Television has 8 clips on their The Real News Net Beta site. DemocracyNow! will undoubtedly devote a good portion of Monday’s show to the hearings.