Issue #75, August 31 – September 14, 2005

a FREE paper for free people

NEW & IMPROVED NYC. INDYMEDIA.ORG

THE INDYPENDENTTHE INDYPENDENT

© Jeff Faerber

Under the EyeSubway Searches p3

Assessing the RNC p6

Pataki’s Home Tapes p4

People’s History of Hip-Hop p10

The Patriotism of Conspiracy Theories p5

Israel’s Hocus Pocus p8

August31_Cover.qxd 08.31.05 4:54 AM Page 1

from the newswire: nyc.indymedia.org

BY SCHULTZ SHILL

To touch off a defiant “sip-in,” the Billionaires prof-fered a toast to “record-

breaking profits,” while DivaDenz phoned her stockbroker,demanding 1,000 more shares ofStarBucks stock. But this celebra-tion was cut short by the arrivalof, alas, StarBucks Union pick-eters! Dr. DeBooks, in a fury notoften exhausted by a Billionaire,snatched one of the union’s flyersand brought it inside the store.Reading out loud in unutterableindignation, he sounded off theunion workers’ grievances,including absurd things like liv-able wages, a decent number ofhours, bathroom breaks, and sim-ilar claptrap that you might oftenhear the indentured class com-plain about.

Thankfully, we Billionaires dis-tributed our own flyers to the cus-tomers, as we had our own pointsto make. Union-busting is “justgood business,” as we all know.And these unprecedented profitsare surely leading to unprecedent-ed pay raises, or at least ChairmanHoward Schultz granted himself a44 percent pay increase whileleaving the baristas to their unliv-able wages. Moreover, whiningworkers, if you need full-time sta-tus, just work more jobs!

At this point, the regional dis-trict manager appeared at thescene in an outrage over the turnof events. Without missing abeat, Billionaire Monet OliverD’Place greeted him with ourprestigious Better BillionairesBusiness Bureau Award forOutstanding Unfair LaborPractices, and as the managerblushed, surely from the unex-pected honor, the stealthily cor-rupt Walkin Ondapoor snappeda camera on his priceless face.

The manager proceeded toescort us out the door, of course,

to suppress the rabble outside.But we Billionaires couldn’tleave the comfort of the storewithout our own security.Indeed, the police arrived at thescene, while Buddy O’Bush, IvyLeague-Legacy, and Ivan Yorzdonned signs with slogans suchas, “We Proudly Screw StarBucksWorkers” and “Think Globally,Oppress Locally.”

As the union workers ralliedbehind fired union worker SarahBender, we Billionaires chanted,“Sarah Bender, don’t defend her, getin there and work the blender!” and

“StarBucks workers, get a clue, liv-ing wages aren’t for you!”

We then marched in triumphto another crowded StarBucksstore, where we were greeted, asusual, with cameras and specta-tors. Ivy League-Legacy assuredeveryone that there was nothingto fear, as we had the situationwell under control. And lo andbehold, we had our police arriveyet again to protect us.

Our bastion of Billionaireswas, once again, triumphant. Aswe well know, “Big money, unit-ed, shall never be defeated!”

Manhattan Billionaires couldnot sip their lattes idly whileStarBucks Corporationfaced attacks by pro-unionprotesters one Saturday inearly August. Instead, a bevyof Billionaires recognizedour #1 specialty coffeeretailer for its outstandingperformance in union-bustingand its continuing commit-ment to pay its baristasunlivable wages.

‘Billionaires’ Rush to the Aid of Starbucks

The city raised the maximum fine for street vendorsto $1,000 for multiple infractions, from the previouscap of $250. Protesting the increased fines asincommensurate with most vendors’ earnings, thevendors were joined in their City Hall protest byDemocratic mayoral candidates.

—Street Vendor Project

Street Vendors Fight City Hall

‘AND NO MORE BATHROOM BREAKS!’ Billionaires stand up to barista union. PHOTO: RYAN SPETHWHAT IS INDYMEDIA?With autonomous chapters in more than120 cities throughout the world, theIndependent Media Center is an interna-tional network of volunteer media activists.

The IMC seeks to create a new mediaethic by providing progressive, in-depthand accurate coverage of issues. We area community-based organization usingmedia to facilitate political and culturalself-representation. We seek to analyzeissues affecting individuals, communitiesand ecosystems by providing media toolsand space to those seeking to commu-nicate. We espouse open dialogue andplacing the means of communicationand creativity back in the hands of thepeople, away from the drive of profit.

The Indypendent is funded by benefits,subscriptions, donations, grants and adsfrom organizations and individuals withsimilar missions.

WHAT CAN I DO TO GET INVOLVED?The IMC has an open door. You can writefor The Indypendent, film events and rallies,self-publish articles to the web, take pho-tos or just help us run the office. As anorganization relying on volunteer support,we encourage all forms of participation.

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specialINTRODUCTORY

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Cover Illustration by Jeff Faerber

new york

BY AKIRA TANAKA

Police arrested 48 Critical Mass bicy-clists at the Aug. 26 ride, marking thehighest number of arrests since the

Republican National Convention ride oneyear ago.

Accounts of the total number of cyclistsvaried since many riders left from differentsites around the city, but Bill Dipaola, anevent coordinator with the cycling activistcollective Times Up! estimated that thenumber of riders totaled 500.

The latest arrests were part of a recent trendof heavier police presence and more arrests atthe monthly rides, whose goal is to raise aware-ness of bicycling as an alternative means oftransportation. At previous rides, police havewandered through pre-ride gathering placeswarning riders they might be arrested for rid-ing their bikes and passing out literature.

“For the last four months they reallyhaven’t announced anything,” said Dipaola.He added that, from conversations held withriders before the event, many did not knowthere was a danger of being arrested.

“The orders are coming from really highup,” said Dipaola. “The police on the scenehave told us that they don’t want to be there.”

According to Gideon Oliver, a lawyer rep-resenting several arrested Critical Mass ridersin criminal and civil cases, ten riders werearrested in June and 33 in July.

“I was extremely disappointed in thepolice tactics,” said Oliver. “The ride was alot smaller than it has been in the past. Thething is, a lot of us have been doing this fora year now, and it’s shocking that the cityhasn’t come up with a better way to deal withCritical Mass. Someone will eventually gethurt or killed.”

One rider, who wished to remain anony-mous for legal reasons, said that UnionSquare South riders left the pre-ride speakoutand started south down Broadway. Afterturning east onto Eighth Street the ride wentabout two blocks before roughly 20 riders atthe rear of the group were penned in bypolice in SUVs and on scooters.

“The cops ran up with no warning, veryquietly, which I guess allowed them to pickoff riders at the front and back of the packfor some time,” wrote one rider on the

NYC Independent Media Center newswire. Using arrestee accounts and police infor-

mation, Oliver estimated that police arrestedriders at four to seven different sites alongthe ride.

Dipaola believes that undercover police inthe ride may be acting as agitators and lead-ing riders to locations where arrests can bemade more easily.

He added that the increased number ofarrests reflected a trend by police of targetingpro-cycling events, noting an intimidatingpolice presence at several of the recent BikeNational Convention 2 rides and workshopshosted by Times Up! “It’s basically an attackon cycling,” he said.

To send a letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg andPolice Chief Ray Kelly protesting the treatment ofcyclists on the Critical Mass ride: worldcarfree.net

Subway Searches: ‘I’d Rather Walk’

BY JAMES KLICKER

Geoffrey Blank, the 31-year-old leader of theNo Police State Coalition, faces four yearsin state prison for charges of resisting

arrest, assaulting a police officer, and inciting toriot. The charges – which the Brooklyn nativesays are trumped up and motivated by objectionto his politics – arise from the dozens of timespolice have made arrests and seized soundequipment to shut down the “speakouts” thesmall group has been holding in Union Squarefor three years. Police arrest reports appear tocontradict some of the charges; for others, Blanksays there are witnesses or videotape that refutepolice testimony.

The group’s public forum carries on a century-long tradition of radical politics in UnionSquare. Their goal is to defeat the corporatemedia’s “political filter.” Blank was driven to thestreets by what he sees as a developing “totalitarianstate” in the wake of September 11. While twoyears of speeches have seen Blank’s analysis turnincreasingly Marxist-Leninist, speakers of all politi-cal stripes have grabbed the bullhorn to address thecrowd lounging on the steps.

The din of Union Square’s traffic drowns outeven the most impassioned of pleas a few yardsfrom the speakout, but by New York City lawbullhorns still require a permit (although anequally loud boombox playing nearby is justfine.) Just two of the 20 charges Blank facesrelate to the use of the bullhorn, but he is rep-resenting himself in the Sept. 12 jury trialbecause “no bar-admitted attorney will chal-lenge the ordinances on constitutional, free-speech grounds.”

The child of New York City public schoolteachers, he participated in the mid-1990sprotests against the CUNY tuition hikes. He isstill moved when describing his first realizationof the power and viciousness of the police at aCity Hall demonstration by students – “skullsbeing smashed, pepper spray, cops pulling their.38s on a protester that tripped up a cop beatingsomeone with a nightstick.”

By his continued and visible refusal to backdown to the police on his free-speech claims,Blank is trying to set an example of an empow-ered Left doing more than reinforcing its victimstatus by focusing on the latest setbacks. SaysBlank: “If you want to have freedom of speech,you have to pretend you have it already.”

Jail for SpeechGeoffrey Blank Faces Timefor Union Square Speakouts

Cops Arrest 48 BikersAt Monthly Ride

CRITICAL HARASSMENT

ONE LESS CAR, A LOT MORE COPS: “The orders are coming from really high up,” said BillDipaola, from the bike association Times Up! PHOTO: FRED ASKEW

IN THE COURTSThe first hearing of the NYCLUlawsuit against the searcheswill be held on Wednesday,Sept. 7, at the Federal Courthouse at 40 Centre Street.

Gather at 9:00 a.m. outsidethat courthouse for a rally andpress conference, then pack thecourt. The hearing starts at 9:30a.m. in Room 706.

IN THE STREETSThe New York Bill of RightsDefense Campaign is cam-paigning against the searches.For information on how to jointheir leafleting at the StatenIsland ferry terminal, check:nycbordc.org

The National Lawyers Guild isdistributing “I Do Not ConsentTo Be Searched” pins: NLG.org

IN THE SUBWAYSThe No Subway SearchesCoalition is going on trains anddistributing the I’d Rather WalkMetrocard, with the FourthAmendment printed on the back.

Riders are urged not to besearched, but to walk to the nextstop and enter there. Call (917)953-5499 for information on howto get involved.

Opposition to subway searches is heating up. Rallies opposing racial profiling and constitutional violations havebeen held in Harlem and downtown. The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city and ad hocactivist groups are taking the Constitution underground. As Frederick Douglass said, “Find out what the peoplewill submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice that will be imposed upon them.”

— MICHAEL SHENKER & CARY ZACHMANOGLOU

CAMP CASEY NYC: With Cindy Sheehan holding it down in Crawford, Texas, New Yorkers set up their solidarity vigil on Aug. 15 at Union Square. A fewdiehards are camped out 24 hours a day, with crowds gathering in the evening. Spirited debate is constant, with most arguments about how to stop thewar. The site’s two camp tents were seized and the camp founder “Zool” Sulkovski was arrested and taken away in handcuffs Monday, Aug. 29.PHOTOS: FRED ASKEW

Geoffrey Blank’s trial starts on Sept.12.PHOTO: IAN ASHBY

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BY LYELL DAVIES

In September the U.S. Senate and the House ofRepresentatives will vote on legislation that willdetermine the future of Public, Educational and

Government Television (PEG) in America.If passed, House Bill H.R. 3146 and Senate Bills

S.1349 and S.1504 will transform the American medialandscape by allowing the telephone companies to getinto the cable television business. In the process, thesebills could strip communities across the country ofvaluable community television channels.

If adopted, the “Broadband Investment andConsumer Choice Act” (S.1504) and other pendinglegislation would free both telephone and cable com-panies from considerable regulation, and eliminatepublic-access TV and the educational and governmentTV cable stations that currently provide distance learn-ing for youth, networks used by libraries and universi-ties, informational programming and other services.

The Washington-based Alliance for CommunityMedia describes these bills as a “national video

disenfranchisement act,” one that will “undo yearsof progress in connecting the people of our com-munities to important local institutions and serv-ices.” Executive Director Anthony Riddle com-mented, the “loss of franchise agreements wouldimmediately dismantle current community accessactivities. No more city meetings on TV, local edu-cational programming or public-access TV.”

The telephone companies are aggressively lobby-ing for these bills, as they want to become the soleproviders of voice, data, and video service. But theydon’t want to agree to the same franchise agree-ments that cable stations have had to negotiate withlocal governments in the past.

Currently, cable television companies must nego-tiate a contract with the local community or munici-pality they serve. These contracts, called franchises,allow cable television providers access to the “pub-lic rights and ways” – in other words, the right to runcables beneath publicly owned streets. In return, thecable company must provide channel space forcommunity programming and funding to assist with

the production of this programming.Riddle estimates that about 5,000 public-access

TV stations around the country will be affected bythese bills, as well as millions of viewers andapproximately 1.2 million people who regularly vol-unteer at these stations.

If passed, these bills will substantially reduce thenumber of PEG channels that communities canobtain, strip communities of the funding to operatethese channels and prevent communities andmunicipalities from managing their own “publicrights and ways.”

Critics also contend that these bills will allowcable and other video delivery companies to “red-line” communities. Entire neighborhoods – ethnic,low-income or ones with a high density of seniors –could be simply “left out” of the communicationsloop because they are economically disadvantagedand seen as unprofitable.

For more information, go to www.alliancecm.org ormnn.org/saveaccess.html.

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BY ANN SCHNEIDER

New York State First Lady LibbyPataki and her husband were stungby the recent publication of their

private conversations in The New York Post.The five snippets of conversations that wereleaked seemed designed to embarass theruling couple and Thomas Doherty, theGovernor’s appointment secretary andpatronage dispenser. Doherty is caught say-ing to former U.S. Senator AlphonseD’Amato, “Just between you and me, if thefucking commissioners of this state were anyslower with this shit, I mean it got to a pointwhere I called [then-Health CommissionerBarbara] DeBuono on something on behalf of[Nassau County Republican boss Joseph]Mondello, and I said to her, ‘You know youhave a fucking Democrat as your No. 2 per-son, and you’re telling me that I can’t get myfucking people hired?’

And then Brad [then-Pataki chief of staffBrad Race] calls me up and says, ‘You reallycan’t call these people like that’… I said,‘Brad, does Barbara DeBuono work for us ordo we work for her?’ ... ‘Joe Mondello can’tget a goddam job, and it still hasn’t beendone yet.’ It’s utter bullshit.”

Mrs. Pataki, complaining that she doesn’tget as many photo opportunities as DonnaGiuliani, is heard to say, “It’s not that I’mnot photogenic.”

The tapes were made in 1996 or 1997 andleaked to the Post anonymously. The Postcalled the tapes “explosive.” Missing thescoop, the New York Times yawned, and said“no shocking revelations.”

For a governor who has railed against theFourth Amendment’s bar on unwarrantedtaping as a “technicality,” it’s lovely to hearhim call for a federal investigation of theseintercepted conversations.

The law in the state of New York and inmost jurisdictions (pre-Patriot Act) makes itillegal to tape a conversation without a court-issued warrant unless one party consents tothe recording.

Even where there is no cause to suspectcriminal activity, we are all vulnerable to thetrust we place in our friends. Not an idealstate of law, but it is well settled. (Allinvolved in the recent releases deny givingconsent or being the recorder.)

George Pataki has for years advocated formuch less restrictive laws on interceptingcommunications. And 9/11 gave him theopportunity to pass much of his pro-prosecu-tion agenda, rushed into law with great fan-fare on September 17, 2001. (By comparison,Congress took three weeks to swallow thePatriot Act.)

But Pataki and his Attorney General EliotSpitzer didn’t get everything they wanted.The strange duo renewed their cry for moreenforcement powers later in 2001, headliningtheir November 1 press release, “Measures toHelp Law Enforcement Fight Evil Scourge.”

Within the release, the governor says, “Thecitizens of New York cannot afford to bestowon defendants accused of terrorist acts thewindfall of the exclusionary rule if a policeofficer makes an honest mistake in the recov-ery of evidence.”

What the governor is referring to is anexception to the Fourth Amendment’s exclu-sionary rule. The exclusionary rule prohibitsthe use of evidence in criminal prosecutions ifit has been illegally obtained. The UnitedState’s Supreme Court has permitted illegallyobtained evidence to come into court when thepolice had a “good faith” belief that they wereacting lawfully in intercepting the evidence.

But New York’s Court of Appeals, thestate’s highest court, interprets the stateconstitution as providing more privacy pro-

tection than the Fourth Amendment. InPeople v. Bigelow (1985), the Court ofAppeals rejected the so-called “good faith”exception, reasoning that in accepting theofficer’s platitudes, “a positive incentive isprovided to other [officers] to engage insimilar lawless acts in the future.” TheCourt of Appeals recognized that allowinglaw enforcement officers to claim theirintentions were honest, even though theyviolated the defendant’s rights, would com-pletely destroy the exclusionary rule.

Somewhere along the line, our governormust have come into contact with the law,because he was careful to characterize therelease of the tapes as “unethical and poten-tially illegal.” He knows that under currentstate law, if any party to the conversationdecided to tape it, even unbeknownst to him,it meets legal standards.

As far as ethics go, his concern seems to beonly for himself, as he is willing to subjectthe rest of us to the “good faith” of his statetroopers.

The People’s Lawyer column is a project of theNational Lawyers Guild, New York CityChapter. Contact the chapter at www.nlgnyc.org orat (212) 679-6018.

community media

Pataki’s OxGets Gored

PEOPLE’STHE

LAWYER

“Have you heard about the Jews?

Four thousand of them called in

sick the morning of 9/11. Did you

hear about the blasts inside the tow-

ers? Planes didn’t destroy the Towers;

the CIA stuck explosives inside and det-

onated them. A janitor heard bombs go off.

Did you ever wonder why we didn’t see plane

wreckage at the Pentagon? There was no

plane. An ex-military guy said a missile hit

it. C’mon, do you really think a bunch of Arabs

with box cutters could’ve pulled all that off?”

Haven’t you heard the whispers? In thebackground, hands cup a tunnel between earand mouth. A secret map is told to the lis-tener, one that explains the chaos of thisworld, one that connects random signs into agrand narrative. Yet the secret of conspiracytheories, especially on the left, is that they donot challenge the order of things but pleadfor its return, thus exposing the latentracism of the left.

Why is this so? Repeating rumors on con-spiracy web-sites reinforces a flawed notionof the infallibility of power. When theplanes went astray, why didn’t Air Forceradars pick them up? When the planes werehijacked, why didn’t they land by automaticpilot? If the towers were so strong, howcould a fire cause their collapse? The ques-tions are less questions than the repeatedhope that power can rescue us from randomchance and human error.

Contrast this with the image of power inthe movie Airplane. In it, the heroic couple ofa pilotless jet save everyone by inflating a

blow-up doll wholands the plane,while protagonistand girlfriend makeout in the cockpit.The doll is the per-fect symbol of thedumb blindness ofthe law, behindwhose back thecouple enjoy eachother. Is this nothow we live? Onthe job or in ourlove lives, we searchfor secret times to daw-dle and day-dream andcheat. We can because the lawis an empty place that can nevercompletely control us. A secretplace exists inside us that we keepfrom others and from ourselves.

So although saying that 9/11 was aninside job sounds like a radical challenge tostate power, it actually is a form of reversepatriotism. The accusation calls out of hidinga puppetmaster whose strings are the web welive in. He is seen everywhere because hecan’t be found anywhere, and his presencemust be manufactured to hold off the deeperterror of life’s absurdity.

An example ofthis is the scene inFahrenheit 9/11 ofPresident Bushreceiving the newsof planes hittingthe Twin Towers.Often it is read asa member of theIlluminati hearinga well thought-out-plan unfold-ing. I oppose Bushutterly, but to me

he remains a flawedhuman being, and in

those recorded moments Idon’t see the Illuminati but a

stunned and scared man rock-ing in disbelief. What kind of patriots are con-

spiracy theorists? If they want thecomfort of knowing someone is in con-

trol we should examine the images of thatsecret control. Often it shows a racist thread,in that whether the conspirators are the Eldersof Zion or the CIA or the Freemasons, what issilently assumed is the inability of people ofcolor to be historical agents. Only the superior,if shadowy intelligence of the West can be thecause of change.

Conspiracy theorists forget the lesson atthe end of every Scooby-Doo episode – thatthe villain is never a monster but a tired, vin-dictive, slightly pedophilic-looking man.Once the mask is taken off we see an all-too-human figure. The same was obvious in TheWizard of Oz, when Dorothy pulled back thecurtains and found a befuddled man movinggears and amplifying his voice.

I remember a friend folding a twenty-dollarbill. “See,” he said, “On one side the Pentagonburns and the other,” he flipped it, “are theTwin Towers.” I wanted to tell him that theonly conspiracy here is the conspiracy of thehope that money and power are more real thanour freedom to create the world anew.

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UNDERGROUND RAILROADSTOP IN BROOKLYNA group of downtown Brooklynresidents are warning that the cityis preparing to seize and demolisha row of homes of Duffield andGold streets that may have oncebeen used as safehouses on theUnderground Railroad.

The homes all fall within theboundaries of the DowntownBrooklyn redevelopment plan.

“These seven houses arelast of their kind in down-town Brooklyn,” writes LewisGreenstein, who lives at 233Duffield. “The basements andtunnels should be retained forposterity so it bears witness tothat era of America’s historywhere people put their lives onthe line to save another humanlife rather then to enslave them.”

Greenstein noted that 227Duffield was built 158 years agoby the prominent abolitionistsThomas and Harriet Truesdell.

The city has so far claimedthat there is no definitive evi-dence linking the homes to theUnderground Railroad. But undermounting pressure, the city ishiring an oral historian to helpmake a final determination. Onehistorian already hired by thecity has suggested the homeswere indeed part of theUnderground Railroad. Aftervisiting the site in July, A.J.Williams-Myers, professor ofblack history at SUNY-NewPaltz, wrote “I saw whatindeed may have been thevery secreted, below-groundfacilities used by those insearch of freedom.”

MINUTEMAN MILITIAHEADS TO NEW YORKThe anti-immigration militiagroup known as the MinutemanCivil Defense Corps is trying toexpand its “border patrols” to theNortheast. The group first madeheadlines when it sent teams ofvigilantes to patrol the Mexico-Arizona border in April. Now thegroup wants to expand to theborder between Canada and NewYork, Vermont, New Hampshireand Maine. The group's founderChris Simcox is scheduled tospeak on Long Island on Sept.10. Simcox is the Tombstone,Arizona-based newspaper pub-lisher who issued “A Public Callto Arms” last year. Simcox willspeak at the Babylon AmericanLegion Post at 22 Grove Place.More info at: MinutemanHQ.com

On Aug. 27, protestersassembled outside theColumbia University-affiliated IncarnationChildren’s Center inWashington Heights,angered by drug trialsconducted on HIV-posi-tive juveniles, almost allof whom were black orLatino orphans.The stud-

ies were conducted overa ten-year period. Familymembers, a staff nurseand other critics note thatthe National Institute ofHealth-sponsored stud-ies were conducted onchildren who were wardsof the state, with “noparents to advocate fortheir best interests.

Federal Judge RichardBerman ruled Aug. 26that information request-ed by the NYCLU intheir lawsuit against theNYPD’s subway searchescould not be released onthe grounds it mightnegate the effectivenessof the search program inpreventing terrorism. The

decision reversed an ear-lier ruling by a lowermagistrate judge whohad ordered the city torelease the data.

Christopher Dunn,NYCLU associate legaldirector, stated that theywould perform theirown audit of the policemeasure.

new york

Protesters Tasered

at Pittsburgh Military

Recruitment Office

Shut-Down

100 protesters from thePittsburgh Organizing Group(POG) shut down a militaryrecruiting center on Saturday,Aug. 20. The police thenattacked the crowd with pepperspray, dogs, and electric tasers.There were six arrests, and twoprotesters were hospitalized.One woman was bitten by apolice dog and then arrested. POGheld another rally on Aug. 27,calling for an end to police vio-lence and an end to the Iraq war.

PHOTO: Pittsburgh Indymedia

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Last year’s protests against the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden were the biggestat any political convention in American history. The Aug. 29 demonstration—despite Mayor Bloomberg’srefusal to give it a permit for a rally—was one of the largest of the last 50 years, up with the 1963 civil-

rights March on Washington, the 1969 antiwar Moratorium, and the abortion-rights rallies of 1989 and 1992. Anddespite the police state atmosphere, the barricades and mass arrests, the neighborhood around the Garden blos-somed with rainbow-colored “We the People Say No to the Bush Agenda” banners. Hundreds of thousands ofpeople turned out to do just that, with near-unanimous support from New Yorkers.

One year later, though, Bush’s near-fascist regime still controls the country. So as big as they were, did theprotests actually accomplish anything to reflect all the effort that went into mobilizing them? Did they gain publicityfor vital issues? Did they disrupt an oppressive institution? Did they lay significant groundwork for future activism?

Many of the answers are negative. Street sit-ins delayed a few delegate buses, and Code Pink protesterspopped up inside the Garden, but otherwise the RNC went off unmolested. Much energy went into trying to defeatBush, and dissipated after the election. The antiwar and labor movements are bitterly divided, and the mainprotests against the Iraq war earlier this year drew an anemic turnout. And outcry against the massive civil-rightsviolations during the convention, when police busted anyone they could catch in their orange nets and locked

them up in a polluted bus garage, has been largely confined to the left and civil libertarians.On the other hand, the protests’ size and ideological diversity were encouraging. Unlike the single-issue and

identity-politics movements that composed much of the left in the ‘80s and ‘90s, virtually all demonstratorswere outraged about multiple issues. The middle-class gay man spoke about poverty and homelessness aswell as AIDS. The tattooed union electrician with an American flag in his baseball cap had a “Bush Lies, WhoDies?” sticker on his shirt. The 23-year-old woman spoke about Social Security, the Puerto Rican indepen-dentista about education and health care. And overall, people spoke about how the country has been“hijacked” by Bush’s far-right cabal.

Even if the demonstrations seem to have had little long-term effect, can you imagine what would have hap-pened if no one had protested? If we’d let the Republicans come into our city unmolested, the far right and thecorporate press would have gleefully written the obituary of any kind of dissent against their Mammonite-funda-mentalist madness.

I’m proud that we didn’t. From the beaches of Coney Island to the swampland high-rises of Co-op City, we saidno. But we’ve still got an incredible amount of work to do.

—STEVEN WISHNIA

BY HANSON JONES

The overwhelming majority of protests during the RepublicanNational Convention were peaceful, but the police were not.More than 1,800 people were arrested. Police officers on

motor scooters and horseback rode into peaceful groups of pro-testers. Police officers in riot gear forced their way through crowdsas helicopters flew overhead.Police officers with dogs reminis-cent of those used at 1960s civil-rights protests in the South wereseen at numerous locations inlower Manhattan. Plastic nettingwas used to corral protestersand bystanders alike.

There were many reports ofpeople violently taken down andinjured, even though they did notresist arrest. Those arrested werecrowded in pens in an abandonedbus garage on the far West Side,and held for hours without food,water or bathroom breaks in abuilding soaked with used motoroil and other toxic substances.Some of them were denied theirmedications. Many were held forperiods far exceeding the 24hours allowed by law, despite ajudge’s order.

In at least one case, policepresented doctored videotapesin court as evidence againstsome protesters, only to backdown when other videographersproduced evidence that exposedthe fabrication

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’sadministration has not announcedany investigation into who pro-duced the false videotape. Themayor has vocally supported thepolice tactics and methods usedduring the RNC.

Why, then, have the mayor and Police Commissioner RaymondKelly not been held responsible? It has been virtually impossibleto find any reporting on who approved those tactics and actions.Why haven’t the Democratic candidates for mayor made the viola-tions of civil rights an issue?

We often hear that single-issue voting is unwise. There aresome issues that are just plain deal-breakers, however. For me, asa member of a minority group, and as a victim of police and judi-cial abuse of power, abuse of authority is always a deal-breaker.

BY LUZ SCHREIBER

T he RNC protests were animatedwith creative art that resembled thecarnival atmosphere of the anti-

corporate globalization protests duringthe late ’90s. The festive atmospherecontrasted sharply with the overwhelmingpolice presence during the convention.

The streets were filled with dozens ofcardboard peace doves, witty signs andhandmade posters. Each day there wassomething interesting and different hap-pening that captured people’s and the

media’s attention. It was inspiring to par-ticipate in a protest that coupled creativitywith sharp political criticism.

Political art can be the most personaland effective forms of public protestbecause people are drawn towardappealing colors, shapes and sounds.Theatrical and cultural protests engageaudiences demanding a response. Andactions utilizing shock value never fail toattract people’s eyes.

Activists organized by ACT UP blockedtraffic around Madison Square Garden.They shed their clothes to reveal hand-painted signs on their bodies that read“Drop the Debt” and “Stop AIDS,”demanding a real solution to the AIDSpandemic in Africa. It caused strong reac-

tions from bystanders and enough com-motion so that several corporate mediaoutlets covered them and it was talkedabout long after it happened.

Humor is very powerful tool, and theBillionaires for Bush know it. Mocking warprofiteers, they dressed up as wealthysocialites who declared their support forBush with signs such as “4 More Wars.”

Some art forms draw immediate com-passion and sympathy from witnesses.One theater group dressed up as mothers,somberly carrying their dead sons, withothers tolling a bell. It evoked a hushedresponse in the crowd.

The Subjective Theater Companystaged The White Plague at the “uncon-ventional theater festival.” Written in1936 by Czech author Karel Capek, theplay uses Adolf Hitler’s language – whichbears an eerie resemblance to the rheto-ric Bush used to entice people to supportthe war in Iraq. “We want to marry theworld of art and politics,” said directorZach Mannheimer.

Creating art means that you have delvedinto your imagination to make somethingdifferent. Expressing your emotions oropinions in ways other than with wordscan have a universal appeal. Making polit-ical art threads together different parts ofyour imagination to understand an issueand propose an alternative. Creating artand beauty is expressing what we envisionin the future; it is a welcome alternative toa discourse of fear, hatred and destruction.It allows us to dream and hope for a possi-ble future.

BY A.K. GUPTA

In the age of the Patriot Act, theRNC protests last summer wereundoubtedly historic. The display

of massive public dissent was a victoryfor all participants.

Organizers count as successes thatthe dissent broke through the mediabubble and the fact that small guer-rilla-style actions harassed Republicandelegates allπweek.

In terms of changing power rela-tions, however, the protests fell short.It was unlikely that protests alonewere going to affect the 2004 elec-tion. And while many activists andgroups developed healthy workingrelationships during the RNC, nolasting coalitions came out of a yearof intense activity.

Other missteps include the failure toorganize a larger direct action capableof disrupting the convention; the side-tracking of the anti-war movementinto an anti-Bush movement; and theinability to constructively address ten-sions over race.

In the summer of 2003, the firstmeetings occurred for what wouldbecome the No RNC Clearinghouse.Present were many former members ofthe defunct NYC Direct ActionNetwork, one of many groups borne ofSeattle. Well-versed in creative directaction tactics, DAN members had the

skills and experience to organize mas-sive actions during the RNC.

Concerned that privileged whiteactivists would dominate the anti-RNC movement, however, the groupeschewed all organizing and insteadchose to form a “Clearinghouse” wheregroups could announce, inform andrecruit. (Some activists say directaction was also stymied by fears of gov-ernment repression as well as a debateover whether it was productive to havedisruptive actions that would likely bemet by a violent police response.)

DIRECT ACTIONAs a result, organizing for a directaction didn’t begin until 2004, and thefirst large-scale meeting took place inJuly, the month before the convention.Nonetheless, some 5,000 people par-ticipated in the “A31” actions, morethan many organizers expected.

Afterward, one organizer, EricLaursen, agreed the actions might havedrawn tens of thousands of people –potentially enough to disrupt the con-vention and make a national impact –if organizing had begun the previoussummer. The energy was there. Whatwas lacking was the organizing.

In addition, the Ruckus Societypassed on its usual role of holding atraining camp in direct-action tacticsbefore a major mobilization, furtherblunting momentum toward a large-

scale action.The Clearinghouse also limited its

appeal by relying on jargon-laden,consensus-based meetings. One RNCprotest organizer, Jennifer Flynn, saidactivists with Still We Rise whoattended Clearinghouse meetings“often felt uncomfortable with thestructure and process.”

Still We Rise, a coalition of peopleof color led local groups that spentmonths planning RNC protests, wasone of the few groups concretely link-ing local issues to anti-RNC organiz-ing – but it was bypassed by mostwhite activists.

People of color were active inorganizing, staging a rally in Harlemand two separate “Poor People’sMarches,” one of which drew 20,000,the other about 5,000. At the Unitedfor Peace and Justice demonstrationon Aug. 29, however, turnout amongpeople of color was spotty.

There were many ideas on how tobroaden participation – “consultas”throughout the major boroughs,door-knocking campaigns, rotatingmeetings around the city, a listeningtour – but most outreach was lim-ited to leafleting and a “come joinus” approach.

Even though New Yorkers wereoverwhelmingly supportive of protests,they weren’t engaged in a lasting way.One organizer says all the groups –

“United for Peace and Justice, theNoRNC Coalition, etc. – [failed] tohook up with local activists in a num-ber of areas,” such as the stadium andgentrification battles.

During the homestretch, theClearinghouse held open houses atSt. Marks Church where differentgroups set up tables to enlist newrecruits. But the outreach turned into“inreach” activist networking eventsbecause so few new people showed up.

WHITE GUILTWeeks before the RNC there was anattempt to strengthen links betweenwhite activists and people of color. Theconcern of white activists dominatingwas (and is) very real. Issues aroundrace are frequent stumbling blocks forthe left.

A retreat was held in upstate NewYork under the banner “Uniting NewYork” that brought together about 75key organizers. Instead of working onbuilding a real radical, multi-racialnetwork, the retreat devolved into a“white people need to confront theirracism” workshop after a trivial com-ment made out of ignorance.

This stemmed from a tendencywithin identity politics that says whilewhites can try to address their ownracism, they will always have white-skin privilege so they must defer topeople of color. Such an approach turnsdialogue into a one-way transmissionbetween the enlightened and thebenighted. It also saddles people withan overwhelming sense of guilt, whilesuccessful movements improve peo-ple’s sense of self-worth.

At the retreat, one participant statedthat white activists “need to take lead-ership from people of color.” Leadershipcan’t be imposed; it comes from acompelling vision, a relevant strategy,creative organizing and a concreteprogram, not an identity.

ANYBODY BUT BUSHMost people who attended the hugeUFPJ march on Aug. 29 showed up toprotest Bush. UFPJ is a coalition ofmore than 1,300 groups, but with fewstaff members it has a limited capacityto create protests. It is best at shapingmass political outbursts into a specificevent, as demonstrated by Feb. 15,2003, the RNC and the upcomingmobilization in D.C.

UFPJ’s raison d’être is to end theIraq war, but it chose to frame theRNC protest as “We Say No to theBush Agenda.” One of their organiz-ers, Hany Khalil, said they were hop-ing for a large turnout among organ-ized labor and liberals and to use thatmomentum to build a broader anti-war movement.

But organized labor, MoveOn andother Democratic Party stalwartsrefused to take an anti-war stance so asto cover for pro-war John Kerry. If UFPJchose to focus on the Iraq war, protestswould have been smaller – there weremany other multi-issue demonstrations– but they could have focused on build-ing an anti-war movement whoeverwon. (In terms of numbers, an anti-wardemonstration on March 19, 2004,drew 100,000 in New York City alone.)

For UFPJ, the RNC didn’t succeedin either building the anti-war move-

ment or having a meaningful impacton the election. By the second anniver-sary of the Iraq war this March 19,protests had dwindled to 5,000 inCentral Park (organized by the TroopsOut Now Coalition), while UFPJcould only muster one busload from allof New York City for protests inFayetteville, North Carolina.

Stanley Aronowitz says UFPJ has a“popular front” strategy of trying tounite people in the broadest possiblecoalition against the war, but at thecost of not engaging in strategic polit-ical discussions.

GENTEEL PROTESTSAn attempt by Jobs with Justice tobring liberals and radicals togetheralso fizzled. A series of meetings wereheld in the spring of 2004 with rep-resentatives ranging from the AFL-CIO, NGOs, environmentalists andwomen’s groups to anarchists,Marxists and anti-war organizers. Themeetings never progressed beyondinformation sharing. The liberalgroups confined themselves to gen-teel protests and there was never anypossibility that they would fund moreradical activities, despite their muchgreater resources.

MoveOn declined to even attendthe Jobs with Justice meetings; amember of MoveOn’s national boardsaid the group didn’t want to be seenas “activists.”

Nor should The Indypendent beexcluded from criticism. We hadextensive discussions as to how tocover the organizing. In retrospect,our reporting was often boosterism.

Agreeing that the RNC was a cyni-cal ploy to exploit Sept. 11, we feltthat we could help promote a largeturnout through our reporting. Butwe weren’t critical enough of theorganizing as it was happening, ask-ing consistently what were thegoals, what was the strategy andhow groups were responding to thepolitical context.

While it’s unfair to call the protestsa failure, they didn’t live up to theirpotential. Clear lessons include theneed to actively link larger battles to

local issues and thereby elevateorganic leadership.

There was also tremendous pres-sure to fall into the “Anybody ButBush” camp. This meant mostgroups failed to vigorously protestKerry’s pro-war stance or held backon a direct action because the chaosmight benefit Bush.

Maybe the most important lesson isthat a dramatic event can only beachieved through creative, resourcefuland well-thought-out risk-taking, toolittle of which occurred last summer.

THE NEW RNCLEGAL NUMBERS [as of April 2005]

Total Arrestees: 1,806

408: Dismissed

1,069: ACD (Adjourned inContemplation of Dismissal)

27: Acquitted at Trial

4: No Charges Filed

19: Guilty Pleas to Misdemeanors

131: Guild Pleas to Violations

12*: Found Guilty at Trial

93: Open Cases Pending

43: Bench Warrants Issued (Missed Court Appearance).

* All but one for violations

Compiled by Manhattan District Attorney’sOffice, National Lawyer’s Guild.

theRNCone year later…

WHERE ARE THEDEMOCRATS?Mayor Not Held Responsible for RNC Police Conduct

A HundredFlowers Bloom

COPS, DEMONSTRATORS ASSUME POSITIONS. PHOTOS: FRED ASKEW

DISSENT ON DISPLAY. PHOTO: ANDREWSTERN.NET

AUGUST 29, 2004. United for Peace and Justice march. PHOTO: ANDREWSTERN.NET

A Missed Opportunity

August31_6_7_center.qxd 08.31.05 7:58 AM Page 1

In this case, the coin is the West Bank andEast Jerusalem, the other part of the occupiedPalestinian territories where withdrawal isnot taking place. Under the disengagementplan, there are approximately 6,000 Israelisettlers being removed from the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, a much greater number ofsettlers – over 200,000 Israeli citizens – arenot “disengaging,” they are digging in thePalestinian West Bank.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairsstated in 2002 that “the present NationalUnity Government, under Prime MinisterAriel Sharon, has officially declared that itwill not build any new settlements.” But onMarch 21, Israel approved plans to build3,500 new housing units between the Jewishsettlement of Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem.And in 2005 alone, over 9,000 additional set-tlers have moved to the West Bank.Currently under construction, the new units

will consolidate Israel's control over EastJerusalem and divide the West Bank in half.

Since January, the Israeli government hasissued nearly 200 tenders for new settlementsin the Palestinian West Bank. According to a2004 report by the Israeli group Peace Now,approximately 51 new outposts were estab-lished between March 2001 and November2004. Altogether, approximately 100 newsettlements have been established since 1996in the West Bank. All of these additions, aswith every single settler camp, are illegalunder international law.

But there is another reason to doubtIsrael’s latest gesture: the Jerusalem sectionof the wall that Israel is building throughthe West Bank.

Under U.N. pressure, the Israeli govern-ment announced a slightly revised wall routein February, annexing roughly 10 percent ofthe West Bank and leaving 240,000

Palestinians trapped within the confines ofthe wall’s checkpoints and watch towers. Thenew route leaves most of the wall deep insidethe northern and central West Bank, whilemaking only minor changes in Jerusalem area.

Withdrawing from Gaza is merely a tacti-cal sacrifice that Israel must make to gain itsstrategic goal of de facto annexation of theWest Bank.

“The disengagement is actually formalde-hyde,” said Dov Weisglass, an advisor toPrime Minister Ariel Sharon. “It suppliesthe amount of formaldehyde that’s necessaryso that there will not be a political processwith the Palestinians,” which enables Israel“to park conveniently in an interim situa-tion that distances us as far as possible frompolitical pressure.”

While the world focuses on the magician’sleft hand, where a few thousand settlers aremoved from the Gaza Strip, the right handis building walls around towns and villages,expanding settlements and maintaininghundreds of military checkpoints in everypart of the West Bank.

A PRISON CALLED ‘GAZA’ The relocation of Israeli settlers will leaveunchanged the desperate conditions of thePalestinians living in Gaza.

The Gaza Strip is the most crowded placeon earth. Under Israeli occupation, unemploy-ment has reached levels near 90 percent inmany areas. Israeli imposed malnutritionafflicts 40 percent of the children, and diseaseis rampant in the crowded refugee camps.

The Israeli military will maintain controlover the shoreline, regulating all shipping,and the fences that currently encircle Gaza.On Gaza’s border with Egypt, the Israelimilitary has already been constructing atrench several hundred meters wide,demolishing hundreds of homes in thesouthern part of the Rafah refugee camp.

No jobs will be available to thePalestinians, many of whom comprised acheap labor pool. They have now beenreplaced by Thai and other east Asianimmigrants, and very little agriculturalspace is available.

The Gaza Strip, completely separatedfrom the West Bank, will continue to be theworld’s largest prison. The Israeli militaryhas guardposts throughout the territory, andwill not remove these when disengagementis through. From these guardposts and mil-itary bases, hundreds of children have beenkilled in their neighborhoods, playgroundsand even inside their homes by soldiers fir-ing randomly or taking pot-shots for fun.

As Palestinian journalist Laila al-Haddadstated in a recent Washington Post article:“The Gaza disengagement will simplyrestructure Israel’s occupation. Instead ofcontrolling our lives from within, Israelwill control Gaza from without.” 8

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THE REAL REASONS FOR ‘DISENGAGEMENT’ According to Israeli peace activists Yehudith Harel and Yaakov Manor, it is extremely unlikely thatthe withdrawal from Gaza will lead to a future withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.Harel and Manor state the real motives:

1) To improve Israeli positions and shorten the border, i.e., a tactical military redeployment.

2) To weaken international pressure, and to obtain an international green light for the perpetuationof Israeli control of the settlements blocs, and the lands which are on western side of the WestBank wall.

3) To strengthen among the Israeli public the idea that there is “no partner for peace.”

4) To make a joke of the Palestinian Authority’s institutions.

5) To create a trauma among the Israeli public, by pretending that the redeployment from Gaza is themaximum of compromise possible with the Palestinians, and that any additional compromise willprovoke a terrible civil war.

6) To continue the construction of the wall and settlements in the West Bank.

These are clearly stated objectives of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli National UnityGovernment. Ariel Sharon was the general under whose watch occurred the massacre of hundreds ofcivilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during the war against Lebanon in the 1980s; a manwho just this past December stated in a speech that Israeli settlers must “take the hills, and then the rest,” is not a man who desires peace with the Palestinians.

BY JENKA SODERBERG

The American, Israeli and even some Palestinian media have been praisingIsrael’s “move toward peace” with their plan of “disengagement” from theGaza Strip. Look a bit more closely, however, and you will see that disen-gagement is in fact a distraction; a magician’s trick to keep the world look-ing at one hand while a coin disappears from the other.

THE DECEPTION IN GAZA

FBI LINKS NON-VIOLENT ACTIVISTS WITH TERRORISMThe ACLU made public FBI documents that list threeMichigan-based activist organizations as potentialterrorist threats. The East Lansing Animal RightsMovement, the anti-war group Direct Action and ByAny Means Necessary, an affirmative action defensegroup, are all under government surveillancedespite no history of violent activity. The FBI hasfought the release of materials related to the moni-toring of dissident groups.

Michigan ACLU Executive Director Kary Moss saysthe documents show the FBI and other law enforce-ment groups pose a “threat to legitimate dissent.”

ABORTION ACCESS RESTRICTED AT STATE LEVELAccording to the Washington Post, state legisla-tures around the country have passed the mostsweeping abortion restrictions since 1999.Governors in states including West Virginia, Floridaand Maryland have signed measures recognizingfetuses as distinct victims of homicide, attemptingto establish personhood. An outright ban is underconsideration in South Dakota. Anti-abortionactivists are pursuing a two-pronged approach:reduce the number of abortions immediatelythrough restrictions, and establish legal precedentsto get the high court to reverse the landmark 1973Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

2004: CRAPPY YEAR FOR AMERICAN POORGas breaking $3 a gallon is the least of it. The num-ber of poor Americans rose by 1.1 million last year,with 37 million now below the federal poverty line.The Census Bureau’s count of medically uninsuredpeople rose for the fourth straight year, jumping to45.8 million in 2004. Adding insult to injury, thetitans of big business are raking it in. According to astudy co-authored by the Institute for Policy Studiesand United for a Fair Economy, for every dollar aworker earns the average CEO now makes $431 –$11.8 million annually to the worker’s $27,460.Leading the pack, Citigroup’s CEO Sandy Weill hastaken home over $1.1 billion in pay since 1990.

Charges were droppedagainst the “raginggrannies of Tuscon”for trying to enlist at amilitary recruitment cen-ter in July. Ranging inage from 65 to 81, theelderly women asked togo to Iraq instead oftheir children andgrandchildren.

Defying Utah’s reputa-tion as one of the mostconservative states inthe country, 2,500locals joined Salt LakeCity Mayor RockyAnderson to protestGeorge W. Bush’s localappearance at a con-vention of the Veteransof Foreign Wars.

Venezuelan presidentHugo Chavez announ-ced plans to help poorAmericans with cheapgas. Chavez said thatVenezuela could supplygas at “half the rate”if intermediaries who“speculated and ex-ploited consumers” werecut out. No mention wasmade of how he wouldactually do this, thoughVenezuela owns Citgoand already provides40 percent discounts toisland nations through-out the Caribbean.

George W. Bush hasentered the ranks ofthe most unpopularpresidents in history.The Gallup opinion pollputs his “disapprovalrate” at a soaring 56percent. At the height ofthe Watergate scandal,Nixon hit 66 percent. Onthe flipside, Republicanpartisans give him 90percent approval rating.

Thousands of strikingairline workers andtheir supporters ralliedin Minnesota. On strikesince Aug. 19, the North-west Airlines mechanics,cleaners and custodianswalked out in response toa proposed layoff of morethan half of their unionmechanics, and a 25 per-cent wage cut for theremaining workers.

Many of the tens ofthousands of NewOrleans residents whosought shelter in theSuperdome were sub-ject to weapon searchesin the rain. As the stormintensified, the searchesmoved inside the Dome.People carried theirbelongings from furni-ture to televisions whilethe sick and elderlylined the hallways.

National briefs

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BY BILAL EL-AMINE

BEIRUT, LEBANON—The first order ofbusiness for Lebanon’s new prime minister,Fouad Siniora, after winning a parliamentaryvote of confidence was a visit to the Syrian cap-ital of Damascus. Siniora was a lifelong friendand confidant of former Prime Minister RafiqHarriri, who most believe was assassinated bythe Syrian military, an act that precipitatedtheir hasty withdrawal from Lebanon.

For weeks after the assassination, Syria wassubjected to a storm of criticism in theLebanese and international media. Some 30Syrian workers were lynched, many morewere attacked, and thousands fled theirhomes in fear.

Just as Siniora was forming his govern-ment and drawing up its manifesto, Syriadecided it was time to hit back. Syria virtu-ally shut down its border with Lebanon andthe only land routes for commercial tradefrom Beirut through Syria to Iraq, Jordan,and the Persian Gulf.

According to some estimates Lebanon waslosing $300,000 a day with no easy alterna-tives – going through Israel was not anoption. Then, in an unprecedented move, theSyrian authorities detained several Lebanesefishermen who crossed into Syrian waters,and publicly demanded compensation for thefamilies of Syrian workers murdered inLebanon.

This had a sobering effect acrossLebanon’s political establishment – in a fewdeft moves, the Syrian Baathist regime

reminded them of their country’s strategicimportance to Lebanon’s economic, if notpolitical, well-being.

The new government in Beirut got thepoint fast. Its manifesto made mendingLebanon’s “unique” relations with Syria itstop priority.

Crucially, the ministers declared that theywould not allow the country to be used as aconduit for anyone (i.e., the United States)intending to harm Syria. And before long,Siniora was boarding a plane to Damascus.

Few could have predicted Syria’s lightningcomeback – just as many were writing it off,it boldly reasserted itself as a regional player.The Arab nationalist Baath regime inDamascus, now passed from father Hafez Al-Asad to son Bashar, was determined not to becornered and given the “Iraq treatment” bythe United States.

Syria’s rulers carefully managed the loss ofLebanon and seem to have absorbed theensuing aftershocks with minimal damageto the regime’s standing at home. OrdinarySyrians, far from rebelling, have largely stoodby their government throughout the crisis.(Interestingly, one Syrian dissident attributesthis popular support to the wave of chauvin-ism against Syrian workers in Lebanon afterthe assassination.)

But this is not the end of the story; undoubt-edly, Washington will respond.

The first opportunity will present itselfwhen the U.N. committee investigating theassassination of Harriri files its final report inthe coming weeks. If it points the finger at

elements in the Syrian government as hasbeen rumored, the U.S. campaign againstSyria will get hot again very quickly, particu-larly on the Lebanese front.

And even though many Lebanese want toknow who killed Harriri, they are getting jit-tery as the deadline approaches, fearing theoutcome may tear the country apart, or sparka confrontation with Syria that Lebanonwould probably lose.

The Bush administration has been gradu-ally raising its stake in the new Lebanon:politically through its very busy ambassa-dor and Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice’s recent visit, economically by offeringall forms of aid and assistance to ease thecountry’s gigantic debt, and now militarilyby working closely with the Lebanesearmed forces.

There are already plans afoot to move theU.S. embassy (now outside Beirut) closer toYarzeh, the same town that the Lebanese min-istry of defense calls home. And the Pentagonis conducting joint exercises with theirLebanese counterparts, offering the army fur-ther training in the U.S. and new weapons.

Given all this, it is understandable whyLebanese are becoming increasingly pes-simistic about the future. Many fear thatcontinued foreign meddling in a divided andconflict-prone country like Lebanon couldusher in another civil war. Washington’sperformance in Iraq certainly does not reas-sure anyone here that the deepening U.S.involvement in Lebanese affairs will stave offsuch a disaster.

SYRIA HITS BACK IN LEBANON

BY DONALD PANETH

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.—At the United Nations, one can con-sider all the environmental, political, social and economic dilemmasof the world. It is a dispiriting endeavor, in the late summer of 2005,as the U.N.’s 191 member states prepare to meet both at its 60thannual General Assembly and in a high-level summit of heads ofstate, premiers and foreign ministers.

Prospects for significant action are not encouraging. Nothing islikely to be achieved at either meeting.

Three drafts of the summit’s “outcome document” have already beenwritten. The third draft contains such assertions as “We recognize thatclimate change is a serious and long-term challenge” and “We empha-size that progress in disarmament and non-proliferation is essential”and “We reaffirm our commitment to strengthen the United Nations.”

No new ideas or proposals are presented in the 39-page docu-ment, which recycles a lot of material from the past 25 years of sim-ilar documents.

Despite the draft’s harmlessness, U.S. demands it either be disem-boweled or replaced with a short statement were reported in the NewYork Times, the Washington Post and the Financial Times during theweek of Aug. 22.

The summit will be held Sept. 14-16. On Sept. 17, the GeneralAssembly will convene.

As usual, the Assembly and its committees will take up every prob-lem under the sun. Its provisional agenda lists 155 items, many withsubsections. Item 98, general and complete disarmament, has themost subsections at 30 – from notification of nuclear tests to problemsarising from the accumulation of conventional ammunition stockpilesin surplus.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has often spoken and submit-ted reports this year on the urgent need to reform the Security Counciland to meet “Millennium Development Goals” by 2015.

China and the United States have already declared that they willnot support changes in the Council.

The Millennium Goals include the eradication of extreme povertyand hunger, universal primary education, the promotion of genderequality, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternalhealth and implementing environmental sustainability.

Those goals will not be met. Neither the political will nor themoney to carry them out exist.

But everybody will go on talking about them.Harvard University Professor John Holdren explored the climate

problem at the United Nations last May 10. Said Holdren, “the problemof global climate by human-produced greenhouse gases in the atmos-phere is coming to be understood as the most dangerous and intractableof all the environmental problems caused by human activity.”

He continued, “the problem is highly intractable because the dom-inant cause of the disruption – CO2 emission from fossil-fuel combus-tion – arises from the process that currently supplies 80 percent of civ-ilization’s energy. The technologies involved represent a huge capitalinvestment ($12 trillion worldwide).”

Major change must start now, he said. But, as is well-known, theBush administration won’t move on it, and as a result, effective worldaction is blocked.

Feeding the hungry, malnourished and undernourished is anotherintractable problem, though more susceptible to solution. A U.N.report published Aug. 25 on the world social situation stated withoutreservation, “There is more than enough food in the world for all itsinhabitants, and low-cost food supplies are produced in quantities suf-ficient to meet the needs of the growing global population, if foodwere distributed equitably around the world.”

Instead, the number of food emergencies has increased from anaverage of 15 per year during the 1980s to more than 30 per year since2000, the report said.

Malnutrition affects around 852 million people worldwide. Itaccounts for about half of the 10.4 million child deaths occurringannually in the developing world.

Which nations and what mechanisms block the equitable distribu-tion of food around the world?

So it goes with every question that the General Assembly will takeup – and fail to act on.

U.S. Blocks U.N. Reform, Efforts Near Collapse

‘intractable’ problems

BRIAN LIGHTBODY

REBELLIONS AND GENERAL STRIKE IN IRANIAN KURDISTANIn late July and early August, the Kurdish provincein Iran of West Azerbaijan was shaken by demon-strations sparked by the killing of Kamal Asfrim,leader of the boycott of the presidential election lastMay. After security services returned Asfrim’s bodyto his family bearing torture marks, word quicklyspread. Shops in the provincial capital were closedin protest and slogans such as, “Death to theIslamic Republic of Iran,” appeared throughout theKurdish districts. At least one soldier was killed.

The government responded with 400 arrests,half of them women. A general strike was calledAug. 7 demanding an end to martial law, identifi-cation of Asfrim’s killers and basic political rightsfor Kurds. Instability in Iranian Kurdistan helpedprecipitate the revolution of 1979.

IMPEACHMENT OF PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT STALLSDespite being caught red-handed in electoralfraud during her 2004 election, Philippine presi-dent Gloria Arroyo has dodged impeachment bythe Congress.

“For all intents and purposes, it’s dead,” said Josede Venecia, the speaker of the House and a supporterof Arroyo.

Opposition leaders are expected to renew streetprotests, but members of the national elite haveclosed ranks behind the embattled president, and fewforecast a reprise of the “People’s Power” proteststhat pushed former-dictator Ferdinand Marcos frompower in 1986.

ANTI-CASTRO BOMBER COULD GO TO VENEZUELA FOR TRIALLuis Posada Carriles, wanted in Venezuela forbombing a Cubana airliner in 1976 that killed all73 passengers, could face extradition toVenezuela if he is found to have entered theUnited States illegally, said Judge William Abbot,who is presiding over his case. Posada wasarrested in May after appearing in Miami, and isseeking political asylum in the United States.

Trained by the CIA for the failed Bay of Pigs inva-sion of Cuba in 1961, Posada went on to claimcredit for the 1997 bombing of two tourist hotels inHavana, and, in 2000, was convicted of planning toassassinate Fidel Castro during a regional summit.

Four 500-pound bombsdropped by the Marinesin Western Iraq killed56 civilians. The U.S.military claimed tohave killed seven mili-tants, denying it targetscivilians.

The southern Indianstate of AndhraPradesh has bannedthe recently formedCommunist Party ofIndia (Maoist) and sevenmass organizations.Police arrested well-known poet VarvaraRao, a member of oneof those organisations,the revolutionary writersassociation Virasam.

S u b c o m m a n d a n t eMarcos appeared forthe first time in fouryears in an Ocosingomeeting of theZapatistas with activistgroups from acrossMexico. Marcos declaredthat the Zapatistas willendorse no candidates inthe upcoming presiden-tial, singling out the cen-ter-left candidate AndresManuel Lopez Obradorfor special ridicule.

War on Terror costsmore than World War I,say analysts fromthe Harvard Universityschool of government.At an estimated cost ofalmost $900 per Amer-ican, including hiddenexpenses such as vet-eran’s benefits, it willhave cost $252 bil-lion by the end ofSeptember.

Pakistan’s SupremeCourt ruled that stu-dents from unregisteredIslamic schools are inel-igible to stand in elec-tions. Hundreds of fun-damentalists elected tolocal positions in Augustface disqualification.

A major internationalconference “in sup-port of the Iraqi resist-ance” will be held inItaly on October 1.Attendees will includeformer Baathists andIslamists, as well as sig-nificant figures from thesocialist left. Forty-fourU.S. congressmen senta letter to the Italiangovernment denouncingthe conference.

World briefs

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Neutralizing Neo-ConservativesRESURRECTING EMPIRE

BY RASHID KHALIDI

BEACON PRESS, 2004

BY BRENDAN STORY

The phrase “heartcheck” isprison slang to call some-one out when you grow

weary of him running his mouth.For example, if a person is wrongedby another and he talks endlesslyabout getting him back, but doesnothing but talk and whine –“Heartcheck!” Do it or shut thefuck up.

Jeffrey “Free” Luers and Rob “losRicos” Thaxton have written aheartcheck for those who identifywith today’s radical social move-ments. It’s disorienting to read amilitant call to action in 2005.Much of the rhetoric and analysiswould be more at home in a publi-cation from the early anti-capital-ist-globalization days of 2000, oreven in times like ‘68 or ‘36.Note the scene of a masked figureaiming his slingshot at a line ofriot cops that shines from within asmoking molotov cocktail.

In most of the radical circles Iinhabit, militancy has fallen out offashion as anarchists and othersdemonstrate a preference for work-ing in issue-based coalitions, if notin neighborhood or workplace-based struggles. There is a world ofreasons for this shift in praxis thathas often led away from directaction and barricade combat, not allof them negative.

Whatever you’re up to, odds areyou’ll react defensively to this missive’smessage. Then, if you’re up for it,you’ll question your commitment to

revolutionary struggle and challengeyourself to walk the walk farther.

Luers highlights the SHAC7(Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty)trial as an example to all anti-capi-talists of the sheer monetary damagethey inflicted on one brutal corpora-tion with practical and excitinganalysis. He suggests that themodel be adopted not only to makeprofit difficult for egregiouslyinhumane corporations but also todisrupt the daily functions of inter-national free-trade-enforcementorganizations outside of their globalsummits. His call for a resurrectionof the alliance between idealistictroublemakers and organized laborneeds to be repeated everywherefrom punk squats to union halls.

Similarly, los Ricos highlightsthe Kabylia Uprising in Algeria asan example of insurrectionary anar-

chist praxis today and the story wasdefinitely news to me.

Is there a bit of prison-sharpenedmachismo in some of this writing?Yes. Is there also a sincere appealto your deepest convictions?Absolutely. Read this zine andkeep in mind where its authors arecoming from. Imagine that you area person who has given up every-thing to act on your convictionsand as a result you spend every dayin prison. You look out at the peo-ple and the social movements youhad hoped to inspire, but you don’tsee the kind of action that wouldreally help you get through theday. Free and los Ricos deserve atleast our attention.

Pick up a copy at Bluestockings, VoxPop, Clovis Press or via email:freefreenow@mutualaid.org

BY KAZEMBE BALAGUN

Jeff Chang has the good sense tounderstand that political move-ments move forward by look-

ing backwards. Perhaps that’swhy Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop feelslike an intervention asmuch as a history ofrap music. By insist-ing that “generationsare fictions” Chang ischallenging the newschool not to acceptthe boundaries set by pop cultureand sociologists. “Whom does itinclude?” Chang writes of the hip-hop generation: “Anyone who isdown. When does it end? When thenext generation tells us it’s over.”

This is a bold statement that cutsto the heart of the current orthodoxyof “keeping it real.” For Chang, hip-hop has always been a balancing act,a particularly African-American art

form that has borrowed heavily fromworld culture; a music that canmove the crowd and recreate com-munity, at the same time pridingitself on fragmentation over staccatobeats. “Hip-hop generation bringstogether time and race, place and

polyculturalism, hotbeats and hybridity,”Chang writes in hisopening salvo; for himhip-hop is the sound-track of globalization.

Then it’s no wonderthat he locates hip-hop’s start at thebeginning of the neoliberal periodof the mid-1970s. Then, the empirestruck back at popular movementsthrough austerity measures onThird World countries and urbanbudget cuts at home. The flightof jobs to the suburbs, along with adisappearing social safety net,turned large sections of Americancities into bantustans. From Los

Angeles to the South Bronx, a newgeneration faced a crack epidemic,AIDS and massive unemployment.

But nature abhors a vacuum;Chang documents the growth ofstreet organizations as political vehi-cles, from the earlier alliances ofBronx street gangs and the YoungLords to the early peace treatiesbetween Blood and Crips after the1992 Los Angeles rebellion. Theseexamples of politics from below(even outside the purview of the tra-ditional left) give hip-hop its earlyurgency and hopes that it would cre-ate a new revolutionary movement.Still, a critical tension remainsbetween art and politics.

Media critic Bill Stephney put itbest: “Woe be it unto a commu-nity that has to rely on rappers forpolitical leadership,” he said.“Now that our community leaderscannot take up their responsibil-ity, you’re gonna leave it up to an

‘Heartcheck’ for the Movement

JEFF “FREE” LUERS, received a 22-year sentence for arson at an SUV dealership.He is incarcerated at a maximum security prison in Salem, Oregon. PHOTO: OSPLIFERS CLUB

A PEOPLE’S HISTORYOF HIP-HOP

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop:A History ofthe Hip-Hop GenerationBy Jeff ChangSt. Martin’s Press, 2005

reviews

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HeartcheckBy Jeff Luers & Rob Thaxton, 2005

THE IN

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BACK IN THE DAY: Graf writer ‘DEZ’ far right, with crew in Spanish Harlem, 1982. PHOTO: HENRY CHALFANT

18-year old with mad flow?” Today, most political rappers have under-

stood Stephney’s challenge and have alignedthemselves with or created political move-ments. M-1 of dead prez was the former pres-ident of the New York City Chapter ofInternational People’s Democratic UhuruMovement; Boots Riley of The Coup was afounder of the Young Comrads, while Mos Defand Talib Kweli continue working with BlackAugust, a hip-hop concert series sponsored bythe Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

But perhaps the power of hip-hop lies notonly in political organizing but also in theability to capture hearts and minds. Hip-hop was most real when it didn’t have totake itself so seriously; when the idea of per-formance was intertwined with a politicalagenda. Groups like Public Enemy andBoogie Down Productions moved the crowdnot only through music, but through visualsas well. Taking advantage of the newmedium of video, they modeled the self-defense strategy of the Black Panthers andMalcolm X. I still remember my heart rac-ing seeing KRS-One peering out a window,holding an Uzi, in veneration of Malcolm Xon the cover of My Philosophy.

Back then, though, hip-hop was the play-

thing of street rebels and art students. Nowit’s a multibillion-dollar industry whereimage is everything. Voices of dissent aremarginalized; Wild Pitch Records paid closeto half a million dollars to suppress TheCoup’s Genocide and Juice album and dead prezhave been declared persona non grata in almostall NYC nightclubs. The political mission ofthis hip-hop generation is twofold: power notonly on the streets, but on the airwaves as well.Chang points to the work of the Third EyeMovement in the Bay Area over Prop 21, aswell as the Hip-Hop Political Convention onthe East Coast as examples of folks freeingminds, with asses following.

Still, will this generation fulfill its missionor betray it? In reading Can’t Stop, Chang does-n’t have the ultimate blueprint. As a musicjournalist he has written a beautiful, accessiblemap, but avoids the tough task of bringingit all together into a political statement.However, one wonders if it’ll take a book tobring about a new chapter of hip-hop historyor the very people reading this newspaper. Or,to paraphrase Mos Def: hip-hop isn’t a giant inthe mountain side, hip-hop is us.

This review will appear in the forthcomingissue of Left-Turn Magazine.

bluestockingsradical bookstore | activist center

fair trade cafe

1 7 2 A L L E N S T. • 2 1 2 . 7 7 7 . 6 0 2 8

b l u e s t o c k i n g s . c o m

WED SEPT 7

7pm • $5 Suggested

CONNECTING TO YOUR LIFE: A WOMAN'S WORKSHOP

This workshop will assist you in exploring the patterns

your life. Through movement, journaling, and guided

visualization, this workshop will help you to identify

your approach to work, health, relationships and your

spirituality.

THURS SEPT 8

7pm • $3 to $5 Suggested

DISCUSSION: PRISONER LETTER WRITING

Join The Josh Demmitt Support Group and the Long

Island Animal Defense League in support of imprisoned

animal rights activists and hear from former political

prisoners on the importance of prison support. Learn

how to how to write letters to prisoners (and enjoy vegan

food compliments of Foodswings) and then get to writing

letters to courageous activists who have lost freedoms

in defense of animals.

FRI SEPT 9

7pm • Free

READING: FEMINISTS CONTEST POLITICS AND

PHILOSOPHY

In the collection "Feminists Contest Politics and

Philosophy," feminist thinkers address key questions in

feminist politics, theory and philosophy. These works were

assembled while the U.S. government was issuing 'orange

alerts' and creating hostility towards critical discussions

of U.S. foreign and domestic policies. In this book, the

writers critique and address a wide range of topics with a

feminist lens, and they examine and discuss the roles of

women in all classes of society.

$15Thi b k b illi l d

DAVE ZIRIN

What’s My Name, Fool?Sports and Resistancein the United StatesIn humorous and accessiblelanguage, Zirin shows how sportsexpress the worst, as well as themost creative and exciting,features of American society.

This book brilliantly andbeautifully makes the connec-tion between sports, politicsand resistance.

� Chuck D., Public Enemy

It is so refreshing to have asportswriter who writes withsuch verve and intelligence, whoalso has a social conscience,and who refuses to keep thoseparts of his life separate.

� Howard Zinn, A People’sHistory of the United States

Comic by Leo Garcia

Saturday

Sept. 24

MARCH ON WASHINGTON

ROUND-TRIP BUS TICKETS FROMNEW YORK CITY $35($20 for students/low income)

to order, call 212-868-5545 or visit www.unitedforpeace.org

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED NOW & ON THE DAY OF THE MARCH!call 212-868-5545

END THE WARON IRAQ!Three Days of Action to Bring the Troops Home NOW

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (details at www.unitedforpeace.org)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 10:00AM All-Day Peace & Justice Festival Begins, Washington Monument Grounds11:30AM Rally, 12:30PM March steps off from Ellipse3:00PM Free Concert & Rally featuring Cindy Sheehan

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 10:00AM - 6:00PM Peace & Justice Festival Continues;

Direct Action and Lobby Trainings, Washington Monument Grounds6:00PM Interfaith Service, Washington Monument Grounds

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 Nonviolent Direct Action at the White HouseGrassroots Congressional Lobby Day

united for peace & justicewww.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545

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