December 2010
Vol 10, No 12
WIKILEAKS AND THE NEW GLOBAL ORDER By Jonathan Cook
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he Wikileaks disclosure this week of confidential cables from United States embassies has been debated chiefly in terms either of the damage to Washington’s reputation or of the questions it raises about national security and freedom of the press. The headlines aside, most of the information so far revealed from the 250,000 documents is hardly earthshattering, even if it often runs starkly counter to the official narrative of the US as the benevolent global policeman, trying to maintain order amid an often unruly rabble of underlings. Is it really surprising that US officials appear to have been trying to spy on senior United Nations staff, and just about everyone else for that matter?
correspondence, into Washington’s own sense of the limits on its global role — an insight that was far less apparent in the previous Wikileaks revelations on the US army’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Or that Israel has been lobbying strenuously for military action to be taken against Iran? Or even that Saudi Arabia feels threatened by an Iranian nuclear bomb? All of this was already largely understood; the leaks have simply provided official confirmation. The new disclosures, however, do provide a useful insight, captured in the very ordinariness of the diplomatic
Underlying the gossip and analysis sent back to Washington is an awareness from many US officials stationed abroad of quite how ineffective — and often counterproductive — much US foreign policy is. While the most powerful nation on earth is again shown to be more than capable of throwing its weight around in bullying fashion, a cynical resignation nonetheless shines through many of the cables, an implicit recognition that even the top dog has Turn to next page
STATEMENTS
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THE KOREAN CRISIS: A CALL FOR THE E STABLISHMENT OF AN I NDEPENDENT PANEL...........Citizen groups the world over are deeply
D WINDLING F OSSIL F UELS FOOD SYSTEM
By Lester R. Brown......................................Page 5
concerned about current political tensions in the Korean Peninsula..................................................................Page 4
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AUNG SAN SUU KYI
By Carlos Perez de Alejo.............................Page 6
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JUST warmly welcomes the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s most famous political prisoner, from house arrest on 13 November 2010..................................................Page 4
IRAQ -
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.........The massacre reveals how bloody, brutal and barbaric al-Qaeda and its affiliates can be..............................................................................Page 5
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FAQ ON B OYCOTT , D IVESTMENT S ANCTIONS
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to recognise its limits. That is most starkly evident in the messages sent by the embassy in Pakistan, revealing the perception among local US officials that the country is largely impervious to US machinations and is in danger of falling entirely out of the ambit of Washington’s influence. In the cables sent from Tel Aviv, a similar fatalism reigns. The possibility that Israel might go it alone and attack Iran is contemplated as though it were an event Washington has no hope of preventing. US largesse of billions of dollars in annual aid and military assistance to Israel appears to confer zero leverage on its ally’s policies. The same sense of US ineffectiveness is highlighted by the Wikileaks episode in another way. Once, in the pre-digital era, the most a whistleblower could hope to achieve was the disclosure of secret documents limited to his or her area of privileged access. Even then the affair could often be hushed up and make no lasting impact. Now, however, it seems the contents of almost the entire system of US official communications is vulnerable to exposure. And anyone with a computer has a permanent and easily disseminated record of the evidence.
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The impression of a world running out of American control has become a theme touching all our lives over the past decade.
most scientists, and starting to register with the public, even if it is still barely acknowledged beyond platitudes by US officials.
The US invented and exported financial deregulation, promising it to be the epitome of the new capitalism that was going to offer the world economic salvation. The result is a banking crisis that now threatens to topple the very governments in Europe who are Washington’s closest allies.
The repercussions of ecological meltdown will be felt not just by polar bears and tribes living on islands. It will change the way we live — and whether we live — in ways that we cannot hope to foresee.
As the contagion of bad debt spreads through the system, we are likely to see a growing destabilisation of the Washington order across the globe. At the same time, the US army’s invasions in the Middle East are stretching its financial and military muscle to tearing point, defining for a modern audience the problem of imperial over-reach. Here too the upheaval is offering potent possibilities to those who wish to challenge the current order. And then there is the biggest crisis facing Washington: of a gradually unfolding environmental catastrophe that has been caused chiefly by the same rush for world economic dominance that spawned the banking disaster. The scale of this problem is overawing
At work here is a set of global forces that the US, in its hubris, believed it could tame and dominate in its own cynical interests. By the early 1990s that arrogance manifested itself in the claim of the “end of history”: the world’s problems were about to be solved by US-sponsored corporate capitalism. The new Wikileaks disclosures will help to dent those assumptions. If a small group of activists can embarrass the most powerful nation on earth, the world’s finite resources and its laws of nature promise a much harsher lesson. 30 November, 2010 Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest book is Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books).
Source: Countercurrents.org
WIKILEAKS: UK, US PLANNED TO PRESSURE IAEA ON IRAN, TIE TEHRAN TO PYONGYANG By Juan Cole Scott Peterson’s fine piece at CSM on Iranian reactions to the Wikileaks cables is given further credence by yet another document that surfaced Tuesday. Peterson says that the Iranians took the documents to suggest that President Obama was all along plotting against them even while pursuing a diplomatic track in public,
and that a breakthrough through negotiations is now very unlikely. It is an account of conversations between the US undersecretary for arms control and British officials in early September, 2009. It shows that the then British Labor Government supported President Obama’s
diplomatic outreach to Iran but was very much prepared for it to fail, and fail quickly, and so was already focused on ratcheting up further economic sanctions on Tehran. Simon McDonald said that the prime minister did not think Obama’s diplomatic efforts should be “open-ended,” and continued next page
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seemed to have a 30-day deadline in mind for Iran to respond.
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country’s experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and his consequent personal commitment to nonproliferation.
That sort of impatience does not comport with genuine diplomacy, and it seems clear that the British were eager to impose further sanctions as soon as possible. Another passage suggests strong British and American pressure on Yukiya Amano, the then incoming head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Under his predecessor, Mohammad Elbaradei, the IAEA had steadfastly refused to rubber stamp US and Western European charges that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon. The inspectors could find no evidence of it, and were able to certify that no nuclear material had been diverted from the civilian program. They were extremely frustrated by Iran’s lack of complete cooperation, and some entertained dark suspicions, but Elbaradei’s reports only included what could be proven from the inspections. Foreign Minister David Miliband spoke of putting some “steel” in Amano’s spine. Ellen Tauscher, the US undersecretary for arms control and international security affairs, said that the US and the UK must work to make Amano a “success.” Reading between the lines, it seems clear that London and Washington intended to get hold of Amano as soon as Elbaradei had departed, and twist his arm to be more alarmist in his reports on Iran. Surely from Washington’s hawkish point of view, any “success” of the IAEA would be in demonstrating an Iranian weapons program and giving evidence that could be used to ratchet up sanctions at the UN Security Council. Ironically, the 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran had supported Elbaradei’s careful approach. Amano may have been predisposed to be suspicious of Iran because of his own
It was improper for Miliband to have spoken of putting steel in Amano’s spine, with the obvious meaning that the UK wanted the IAEA to put out reports on Iran’s nuclear activities that mirrored Whitehall’s suspicions– suspicions for which there is no known proof. (Iran has a civilian nuclear enrichment program; no one has found any dispositive evidence that it has a nuclear weapons program, and there is much evidence to the contrary). There is also a passage about tying Iran’s nuclear program to that of North Korea, said to be urged by then National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones. That strategy is shot through with propaganda, since North Korea went for broke to get a nuclear warhead and has a handful of them now. North Korea conducted underground nuclear detonations in 2006 and 2009, as confirmed by seismic activity. In contrast, Iran has no bomb. All Iran can be shown to have done is to whirl radioactive material around to produce about two tons of uranium enriched to 3.5% and a very small amount enriched to 19.75%, intended for use in Iran’s small medical reactor, given it by the US in 1969. Both these levels of enrichment are considered LowEnriched Uranium (LEU) and are irrelevant to bomb-making unless they are further processed to 95%–
LEAD ARTICLES something there is no evidence of the Iranians trying to do or even being able to do. Remember, their facility at Natanz is being inspected. So, Iran is just not like North Korea. The latter is a known violator (like Israel, Pakistan and India) of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nothing Iran has done since 2003 violates the NPT, which it signed– unlike Israel. The USG Open Source center today translated an Iranian Fars News Agency, Wednesday, December 1, 2010, report of a television discussion in which an Iranian security expert complained about this very strategy: ‘ Fars News Agency: An expert on Iran and the region emphasized with the new atmosphere of controversy the Zionists are creating they are trying to show that Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is connected to North Korea’s nuclear program. Fars reports Amir Musavi in an interview with this week’s program The Israeli Eye on the Al-Alam News Network mentioned the creation of controversy by the Zionists against Iran’s nuclear program and said the Zionists are trying to divert world public opinion away from their own nuclear armory towards other directions, and to portray Iran’s peaceful nuclear program as a threat they are connecting North Korea’s nuclear program to Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. This expert on Iran and regional affairs added: However, unlike North Korea the Islamic Republic of Iran consistently cooperates with the IAEA.’ Musavi added: If the Islamic Republic of Iran were seeking to conceal its peaceful nuclear program it could have done this but Iran has always sought mutual cooperation with the IAEA. 3 November, 2010 Juan Cole has published several books on the modern Middle East and is a translator of both Arabic and Persian. Source: www.juancole.com
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STATEMENTS THE KOREAN CRISIS: A CALL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INDEPENDENT PANEL Citizen groups the world over are deeply concerned about current political tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Both North Korea and China, on the one hand, and South Korea and the United States, on the other, should do their utmost to defuse the tense situation. Pyongyang’s bellicose postures only serve to exacerbate an already critical crisis which could explode into open warfare at any time. Likewise, the intensification of military exercises by the South Koreans and the threatening presence of the US nuclear powered carrier, George Washington, in Korean waters have heightened the danger of a huge military conflict that will engulf the entire region. The North Korean dictator, Kim Jongil, should be prevented from launching another attack upon South Korean
territory. The Chinese leadership should use its influence over Kim and Pyongyang to ensure that there is no further provocation from North Korea. At the same time, US warships and aircraft should not enter the sensitive northern end of the Yellow Sea which could lead to an armed clash with China. Both North and South Korea should be persuaded to agree to the establishment of an independent panel to investigate the exchange of fire on Yeonpyeong Island on 23 November 2010 which ignited the present crisis. The panel should comprise former leaders of ASEAN states who command a certain degree of respect in the region. Dr. Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia and Fidel Ramos of the Philippines would be choice candidates for the proposed panel. Both the North
and South Korean governments should at the outset agree to accept the findings of the panel. Once the findings of the panel have been made public, one hopes that a third Inter-Korean Summit will be inaugurated. The first two Summits, in June 2000 and October 2007 respectively, were relative successes. They gave a boost to the “Sunshine Policy” of the late South Korean President, Kim Dae-Jung, whose longterm goal was to overcome the tragic division of the Korean Peninsula, and to unify the Korean people. A united Korean nation will strengthen world peace. Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), 2 December, 2010.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI IS FREE! The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) warmly welcomes the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s most famous political prisoner, from house arrest on 13 November 2010. Imprisoned for 15 out of the last 21 years by a military junta which has suppressed the people’s struggle for human rights and democracy in Myanmar, Suu Kyi has emerged as an enduring, universal symbol of the eternal quest for freedom. Her indomitable courage and her unwavering perseverance have won accolades from individuals and groups all over the world. What is remarkable about her commitment to her cause is her ability to retain her dignity and her integrity in the face of formidable odds.
There is much speculation on why the junta set her free. Since a political party spawned by the junta, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won a farcical election by a huge margin a few days ago, the regime may have felt that its position is secure enough to release Suu Kyi. On the other hand, given widespread allegations of electoral fraud, her release may also be a way of refurbishing the regime’s tattered public image. It is also true that for some years now, Myanmar’s ASEAN partners and even its close ally, China, have been quietly cajoling the regime to end Suu Kyi’s incarceration. Whatever the reasons, JUST hopes that her freedom will not be short-lived.
She was released in 1995, after six years in detention. Then in 2000 she was arrested and imprisoned again for two years. After a brief spell of freedom, she was imprisoned for a third time in 2003. She remained in prison or under house arrest for the next seven years. ASEAN governments and China should go all out to dissuade the military junta from detaining Suu Kyi again. To prove that it is sincere about Suu Kyi’s release, the junta should set free the 2,200 political prisoners languishing in jails in different parts of the country. It should also begin to relax its iron grip upon the media and allow social groups to exercise a degree of continued next page
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autonomy in their evaluation of the regime’s governance. Myanmar’s monks should also be given some latitude to act as the nation’s conscience. Suu Kyi would certainly want to
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encourage the regime to move in this direction. In this regard, she should be more strategic than she has been in the past. While holding on to her principles, she should act in such a manner that the regime will have no excuse to abrogate her freedom or to
S T A T E M E N T S tighten even further its hold upon society. Let Suu Kyi’s freedom this time pave the way for the eventual liberation of the people of Myanmar. Chandra Muzaffar, 14 November, 2010.
IRAQ - MASSACRE IN A CATHEDERAL The International Movement for a Just World (JUST) condemns the massacre of 44 Christian worshippers and two priests at the Sayidat al-Nejat cathedral in Baghdad on the 31st of October 2010. An al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, has claimed responsibility for the massacre. It is allegedly part of the attempt to drive out Christians from Iraq. The massacre reveals how bloody, brutal and barbaric al-Qaeda and its affiliates can be. It is a manifestation of the vile hatred and vicious bigotry that characterise the actions of this terrorist group. Al-Qaeda demeans Islam through its senseless, mindless violence. Its massacre of Christians worshipping in a cathedral violates every tenet of Islam— its acceptance of the right of people to worship in a manner of their choosing; its respect for the sanctity of all places of worship; its observance of the bond it shares with Christians as people of the book and as coreligionists within the Abrahamic tradition; and most of all, its commitment to our common humanity. The Christians of Iraq who before the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003
by the United States and Britain constituted three percent of the population, are an ancient community which has lived in peace and harmony with the Muslim majority for centuries. They have contributed immensely to the advancement of Iraqi society. Before the invasion, there was hardly any political pressure upon Iraqi Christians. Today, many of them are leaving the land of their forefathers out of fear and anxiety.
Muslims to Christianity.
In this regard, it should be emphasised that before occupation, there was no al-Qaeda in Iraq. Religious bigotry had no adherents in Iraqi society under Saddam Hussein. Atavistic notions of religious exclusiveness and doctrinal purity had no followers.
It is true that in the wake of occupation, Christian Right evangelism, sometimes allied to Christian Zionism, has become active and aggressive in various parts of Iraq. Though they have had very little success in converting Muslims, their belligerent thrust has created a great deal of uneasiness within the country’s deeply rooted Christian community. These ancient Christians sometimes refer disparagingly to these Christian Right elements as the “new” Christians. Needless to say, the “new” Christians— like the al-Qaeda bigots— are driving a wedge between the Muslims and Christians of Iraq and have inflicted massive damage upon the nation’s social fabric.
These destructive religious sentiments have come to the fore as a consequence of the Anglo-American occupation. At one level, al-Qaeda sees itself, and is perceived by a small segment of Iraqi society, as a resistance movement fighting the unjust occupation of the Iraqi nation. At another level, it has fashioned itself as a group protecting Muslims from the alleged onslaught of Christian evangelists determined to convert
The time has come for Muslims and Christians who value harmony and amity to join hands and hearts and fight these divisive and destructive forces within both our religious communities. For a start, let us express our solidarity with the Christians of Iraq who have displayed such restraint and compassion despite their pain and anguish Chandra Muzaffar, 11 November, 2010.
ARTICLES DWINDLING FOSSIL FUELS AND OUR FOOD SYSTEM By Lester R. Brown Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted from the earth has exceeded new oil discoveries by an everwidening margin. In 2008, the world
pumped 31 billion barrels of oil, but discovered fewer than 9 billion new barrels. World reserves of conventional oil are in a free fall, decreasing every year.
It can’t be denied: Agriculture uses a vast amount of oil. Most tractors use gasoline or diesel fuel. Irrigation pumps continued next page
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use diesel, natural gas or coal-fired electricity. Fertilizer production also is energy-intensive. Natural gas is used to synthesize the basic ammonia building block in nitrogen fertilizers. The mining, manufacture and international transport of phosphate and potash fertilizers all depend on oil. Our answer to the question of how we can end world hunger has thus far been to focus on increases in agricultural technology. These advances, unfortunately, require even more fuel. Fertilizer production accounts for 20 percent of energy use on U.S. farms, and the demand for this fertilizer continues to climb. In addition, the international food trade separates producer from consumer by thousands of miles, further disrupting soil nutrient cycles. For example, the United States exports some 80 million tons of grain per year — grain that contains large quantities of basic plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The ongoing export of these nutrients will slowly drain the inherent fertility from U.S. cropland if the nutrients are not replaced. This international food trade is responsible for more than just soil nutrient depletion. Sustainable farming
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alone cannot solve this problem.The amount of energy used to transfer goods from farmer to consumer equals two-thirds of the total amount of energy used to grow it on the farm (see “U.S. Food System Energy Use” chart in the Image Gallery). An estimated 16 percent of food system energy is used to can, freeze and dry food — everything from canned peas to frozen orange juice from concentrate. Food miles — the distance food travels from producer to consumer — have risen in the United States thanks to cheap oil. Fresh produce routinely travels long distances, such as from California to the East Coast. Most of this produce moves on refrigerated trucks.
A R T I C L E S example. But more recently, fresh fruits and vegetables have begun to travel vast distances by air; few activities are more energy-intensive. Packaging is surprisingly energyintensive as well, accounting for 7 percent of food system energy use. Along with marketing, it also can account for much of the cost of processed foods. On average, a U.S. farmer gets only about 20 percent of the total consumer food dollar, and for some products, that figure is much lower. What’s the most energy-intensive segment of the food chain? The kitchen. We actually use more energy to refrigerate and prepare food at home than our farmers use to produce it in the first place. With higher energy prices and a limited supply of fossil fuels, the modern food system that evolved while oil has been cheap clearly cannot survive as it is currently structured. 18 August, 2010 Lester Russel Brown is an American environmentalist, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C.
In the international food trade, staples such as wheat have historically moved long distances by ship — traveling from the United States to Europe, for
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Source: Motherearthnews.com
COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT
By Carlos Perez de Alejo In the midst of mounting economic insecurity, fueled by widespread unemployment, foreclosures and budget cuts, many people are seeking alternative models to business as usual. From community gardens to bartering networks, grassroots efforts are sprouting up across the country. One of the main pillars of this growing trend is an international institution with over 160 years of experience in local, sustainable economic development: a
cooperative. Since the mid-1800’s, cooperatives have promoted a unique, peoplecentered model that sets them apart from conventional businesses. Unlike traditional corporations, which are owned and controlled by outside shareholders, cooperatives are businesses that are owned and democratically controlled by their members – the people who use their services or buy their goods. In other
words, cooperatives are member driven institutions that put people before profit to meet community needs. Co-ops exist in a variety of forms in countless industries across the country and around the world. United on the basis of member-ownership and democratic control – generally following the decision-making principle of “one-member, one-vote” – co-ops have a range of ownership structures, continued next page
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from consumer-owned food co-ops to worker-owned manufacturing firms. In whatever form they take, however, surveys repeatedly demonstrate that consumers rate co-ops as more trustworthy than investor-owned corporations. In the US alone, the model has been embraced by more than 130 million members, served by over 29,000 cooperatives operating in nearly all sectors of the economy. Cooperatives play a vital role in local economic development, helping people improve their lives through empowering jobs and access to goods and services that would otherwise be more expensive, lower in quality, or simply unavailable. These demonstrated benefits have sparked growing interest in the cooperative movement worldwide. Indeed, the United Nations recently declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. In light of the economic crisis, many people have embraced worker cooperatives in particular as an effective pathway out of poverty. Owned and controlled by the people who work in the business, worker coops have an impressive track record of providing stable jobs with assetbuilding potential, higher wages, a deeper connection to the local community, and an array of personal and professional development opportunities. Worker cooperatives often operate on the basis of a “triple bottom line”, measuring success not simply by the money they earn, but by the well-being
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of their workers; their sustainability as a business; and their overall contribution to the community and the environment. Cooperatives have served as a foundation for growth in the green economy, where workerowned businesses operate primarily in labor-intensive sectors such as recycling, solar installation, landscaping, green cleaning, and deconstruction. Internationally, the bulk of worker cooperatives are concentrated in countries like Spain, Italy and Canada.
Yet in recent years the movement in the United States has become increasingly organized. In May 2004, members of the worker co-op community founded the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, a national membership-based organization “of and for worker cooperatives, other democratic workplaces, and the organizations that support the growth and continued development of worker cooperatives.” For the past two years, membership in the Federation has grown 25 percent per year, with the majority of growth coming from cooperatives developed in response to social, economic and community needs sharpened in the wake of the financial meltdown.
A R T I C L E S Here in Austin, Third Coast Workers for Cooperation, a cooperative development center dedicated to building worker-owned green businesses with low-income communities, is working with a group of low-income women to establish Yo Mamas Catering Co-op, a workerowned catering business. “We wanted jobs that would provide a good living for ourselves and our families”, says Sylvia Barrios of Yo Mamas. “We’ve spent a lot of time working for other people...now we want more control over our lives and we think Austin is ready for more worker-run businesses.” Indeed, Austin already has its share of notable worker-run businesses: Ecology Action, a recycling center in downtown; Tribe Creative Agency, an advertising agency focused on the “Common Good”; and the recently opened Black Star Co-op, a worker self-managed, consumer-owned brew pub. As one of the more noteworthy cities for socially and environmentally responsible local businesses, Austin is ripe for more growth in the cooperative sector. Socially and environmentally responsible practices are not just a trend within cooperatives – it’s just how they work. That’s the cooperative difference. 26 October, 2010 Carlos Perez de Alejo is co-director of Third Coast Workers for Cooperation in Austin, Texas.
Source: www.culturechange.org
MYTH OF TIANANMEN AND THE PRICE OF A PASSIVE PRESS By Jay Mathews
President Clinton’s precedent-setting visit to China filled the front pages of American newspapers and led the evening television news for many days this summer. The stories focused on
his controversial decision to attend a welcoming ceremony in Tiananmen Square, despite the stain of what reporters called the massacre of Chinese students there on June 4, 1989.
Over the last decade, many American reporters and editors have accepted a mythical version of that warm, bloody night. They repeated it often before and continued next page
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during Clinton’s trip. On the day the president arrived in Beijing, a Baltimore Sun headline (June 27, page 1A) referred to “Tiananmen, where Chinese students died.” A USA Today article (June 26, page 7A) called Tiananmen the place “where pro-democracy demonstrators were gunned down.” The Wall Street Journal(June 26, page A10) described “the Tiananmen Square massacre” where armed troops ordered to clear demonstrators from the square killed “hundreds or more.” The New York Post (June 25, page 22) said the square was “the site of the student slaughter.” The problem is this: as far as can be determined from the available evidence, no one died that night in Tiananmen Square. A few people may have been killed by random shooting on streets near the square, but all verified eyewitness accounts say that the students who remained in the square when troops arrived were allowed to leave peacefully. Hundreds of people, most of them workers and passersby, did die that night, but in a different place and under different circumstances. The Chinese government estimates more than 300 fatalities. Western estimates are somewhat higher. Many victims were shot by soldiers on stretches of Changan Jie, the Avenue of Eternal Peace, about a mile west of the square, and in scattered confrontations in other parts of the city, where, it should be added, a few soldiers were beaten or burned to death by angry workers. The resilient tale of an early morning Tiananmen massacre stems from several false eyewitness accounts in the confused hours and days after the crackdown. Human rights experts George Black and Robin Munro, both outspoken critics of the Chinese government, trace many of the rumor’s roots in their 1993 book, Black
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Hands of Beijing: Lives of Defiance in China’s Democracy Movement. Probably the most widely disseminated account appeared first in the Hong Kong press: a Qinghua University student described machine guns
mowing down students in front of the Monument to the People’s Heroes in the middle of the square. The New York Times gave this version prominent display on June 12, just a week after the event, but no evidence was ever found to confirm the account or verify the existence of the alleged witness. Times reporter Nicholas Kristof challenged the report the next day, in an article that ran on the bottom of an inside page; the myth lived on. Student leader Wu’er Kaixi said he had seen 200 students cut down by gunfire, but it was later proven that he left the square several hours before the events he described allegedly occurred. Most of the hundreds of foreign journalists that night, including me, were in other parts of the city or were removed from the square so that they could not witness the final chapter of the student story. Those who tried to remain close filed dramatic accounts that, in some cases, buttressed the myth of a student massacre. For example, CBS correspondent Richard Roth’s story of being arrested and removed from the scene refers to “powerful bursts of automatic weapons, raging gunfire for a minute and a half that lasts as long as a nightmare.” Black and Munro quote a Chinese eyewitness who says the
A R T I C L E S gunfire was from army commandos shooting out the student loudspeakers at the top of the monument. A BBC reporter watching from a high floor of the Beijing Hotel said he saw soldiers shooting at students at the monument in the center of the square. But as the many journalists who tried to watch the action from that relatively safe vantage point can attest, the middle of the square is not visible from the hotel. A common response to this corrective analysis is: So what? The Chinese army killed many innocent people that night. Who cares exactly where the atrocities took place? That is an understandable, and emotionally satisfying, reaction. Many of us feel bile rising in our throats at any attempt to justify what the Chinese leadership and a few army commanders did that night. But consider what is lost by not giving an accurate account of what happened, and what such sloppiness says to Chinese who are trying to improve their press organs by studying ours. The problem is not so much putting the murders in the wrong place, but suggesting that most of the victims were students. Black and Munro say “what took place was the slaughter not of students but of ordinary workers and residents — precisely the target that the Chinese government had intended.” They argue that the government was out to suppress a rebellion of workers, who were much more numerous and had much more to be angry about than the students. This was the larger story that most of us overlooked or underplayed. It is hard to find a journalist who has not contributed to the misimpression. Re-reading my own stories published after Tiananmen, I found several references to the “Tiananmen massacre.” At the time, I considered this space-saving shorthand. I assumed the reader would know that I meant the massacre that occurred in Beijing after the Tiananmen demonstrations. continued next page
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But my fuzziness helped keep the falsehood alive. Given enough time, such rumors can grow even larger and more distorted. When a journalist as careful and well-informed as Tim Russert, NBC’s Washington bureau chief, can fall prey to the most feverish versions of the fable, the sad consequences of reportorial laziness become clear. On May 31 on Meet the Press, Russert referred to “tens of thousands” of deaths in Tiananmen Square.
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The facts of Tiananmen have been known for a long time. When Clinton visited the square this June, both The Washington Post and The New York Times explained that no one died there during the 1989 crackdown. But these were short explanations at the end of long articles. I doubt that they did much to kill the myth. Not only has the error made the American press’s frequent pleas for the truth about Tiananmen seem shallow, but it has allowed the bloody-minded
A R T I C L E S regime responsible for the June 4 murders to divert attention from what happened. There was a massacre that morning. Journalists have to be precise about where it happened and who were its victims, or readers and viewers will never be able to understand what it meant. 4 June, 2010 Jay Mathews is an education reporter for The Washington Post. Source: Columbia Journalism Review
FAQ ON BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS By Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) What is BDS? BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. On July 9, 2005, one year after the historic Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel’s Wall built on occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal, an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society called upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. What are the goals of BDS? According to the 2005 call by Palestinian civil society: Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions are nonviolent punitive measures to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to selfdetermination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by: 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. Who is calling for BDS? A 2005 call for BDS was endorsed by over 170 Palestinian parties, organizations, trade unions and movements representing the three major constituents of the Palestinian people, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinians living in the Diaspora. On July 13, 2005 the UN International Civil Society Conference adopted the Palestinian Call for BDS. Today, hundreds of organizations and people of conscience around the world are actively supporting the Palestinian BDS call by engaging in a variety of BDS actions and initiatives. What are some examples of how BDS was used during Apartheid in South Africa? US-based Motorola was providing radio equipment to the apartheid government in Pretoria, where the police and army were using it. A US campaign calling for boycott of and divestment from Motorola products and subsidiaries resulted in Motorola’s sale of its South Africa subsidiary to Allied Technologies Ltd in 1985. In October of 1981, the board of the
Associated Actors and Artists of America - an umbrella organization of major actors’ unions with a total membership of over 240,000 actors took a unanimous decision that its members should not perform in South Africa. What is the call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel? Similar to the boycott against apartheid South Africa, the Palestinian call for boycott includes an institutional boycott of Israeli cultural and academic institutions. The website of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) provides a thorough explanation of the nuanced cultural & academic boycotts, clarifying some key misunderstandings of the boycott, and providing guidelines of how to apply it. Who are some of the people endorsing the Palestinian-led BDS campaign? 1. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner & chairman of the Post-Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa 2. Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and poet 3. Naomi Klein, award-winning author continued next page
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of the Arab Film Festival
4. Judith Butler, author and awardwinning philosopher
24.Cathy Gulkin, award-winning film editor
5. Cynthia McKinney, former US Congresswoman & presidential candidate
25. Sarah Schulman, award-winning novelist, historian, and playwright
6. Ken Loach, award-winning film and television director 7. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, founder of Shomer Shalom Institute for Jewish Nonviolence
26. Saree Makdisi, literary critic 27. Naseer Aruri, author & former board member at both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch 28. Joel Kovel, author
8. Arundhati Roy, award-winning author.
29. Betty Shamieh, award-winning playwright
9. Hamid Dabashi, world-renowned cultural critic and award-winning author
30. Ilan Pappe, historian and Columnist
10. Ali Abunimah, author and commentator
32. John Williams, grammy awardwinning guitarist
11. Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Report
33. John Pilger, award-winning journalist and filmmaker
12. Adrienne Rich, Award-winning poet and essayist
34. Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, M.M., former President of the United Nations General Assembly and former Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
13. Stéphane Hessel, diplomat, former ambassador, French resistance fighter and BCRA agent. He participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. 14. Annemarie Jacir, award-winning filmmaker 15. Hany Abu-Assad, oscar-nominated and Golden Globe winning filmmaker
31. John Berger, award-winning author and artist
Who are some of the people that have been involved in or endorsed a particular campaign of Boycott, Divestment, or Sanctions? 1. Noam Chomsky, linguist, author, philosopher, and cognitive scientist.
16.Udi Aloni, award-winning filmmaker
2. Danny Glover, award-winning actor and film director
17. Emily Jacir, artist and recent winner of the Hugo Boss prize.
3. Harry Belafonte, award-winning musician and actor
18. Ahdaf Soueif, best-selling novelist and political and cultural commentator.
4. Norman Finkelstein, political scientist and author
19.John Greyson, award-winning filmmaker
5. Howard Zinn, award-winning historian, author, and playwright
20. Ronnie Kasrils, former minister in the South African government
6. Rashid Khalidi, author and historian
21. Nancy Kricorian, author and poet 22. William Fletcher Jr., executive editor, The Black Commentator and immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum 23.Michel Shehadeh, executive director
7. Debra Chasnoff, Academy Awardwinning filmmaker 8. Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constiutional Rights 9. Viggo Mortensen, award-winning actor, poet, and musician
A R T I C L E S 10. Wallace Shawn, actor, author, and playwright 11. Nigel Kennedy, award-winning English Violinist & Violist 12. Vincenzo Consolo, award-winning author 13. Augusto Boal, award-winning theatre director, writer and politician 14. Gerald Kaufman, British Member of Parliament 15. Richard Falk, author and United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights 16. Neve Gordon, Israeli Academic & Author What are some of the key successes the BDS movement has achieved? Consumer and Corporate Boycott Success
July 2010: U.S.-based Olympia Food Co-op (two grocery stores) voted to stop selling all Israeli goods with the exception of a single brand called “Peace Oil.” June 2010: Responding to appeals from Palestinian civil society after Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza, dockworkers in Oakland - California, Sweden, and Norway all refused to dock and unload Israeli ships, imposing a blockade soto-speak on Israeli goods. Similar historic action was taken by South African dockworkers in February of 2009. July 2009 – 2010: As part of a CODEPINK campaign against Israeli settlement-based and settlementowned Ahava Dead Sea Cosmetics, Kristen Davis was suspended from her post as Oxfam spokesperson after it was revealed that she also represented AHAVA Beauty Products. Davis later ended her contract with Ahava. CODEPINK also confirmed with Costco that it would no longer carry Ahava products after a letter-writing and calling campaign by activists across continued next page
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continued from page 10 the U.S. Finally, the Dutch government is currently investigating Ahava and its practices.
100,000 members, voted to sever all relations with the Histadrut union in Israel and commence looking into the boycott of Ariel College.
2006 - 2010: The “Derail Veolia” campaign against French corporation Veolia, for its involvement in the construction of a light rail train from Jerusalem into Israeli settlements or colonies on Palestinian land, led to a loss of over •7 billion for the company across several countries. Israeli news daily Ha’aretz reported that after the losses Veolia had decided to withdraw from the project.
April 2010: Gil Scott-Heron announces that he will not play an upcoming show in Israel.
November 2007 - 2010: A global campaign against Israeli billionaire, diamond mogul, and settlement-builder Lev Leviev initiated by US-based Adalah-NY has led to his renunciation by UNICEF, denunciation by Oxfam, the removal of a promotional section of his website featuring actors like Salma Hayek, Drew Barrymore, and Halle Berry at some of their requests, a UK government decision not to rent embassy space from his company, Cultural and Academic Boycott Success
July 2010: According to festival organizers, Hollywood actors Meg Ryan and Dustin Hoffman cancelled plans to attend the Jerusalem film festival following Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine dead. June 2010: California-based folk artist Devendra Banhart canceled two shows he had been set to play in Tel Aviv just hours before his scheduled arrival in Israel. June 2010: Rock band The Pixies cancelled their first ever concert date in Israel just after the Gaza flotilla incident, blaming “events beyond our control.” May 2010: Elvis Costello pulled out of two concerts in Israel, saying that his appearance there could have been “interpreted as a political act.” May 2010: The University and College Union in Britain, with well over
March 2010 - Award-winning novelist, historian, and playwright, Sarah Schulman, chose not to accept the invitation to participate in a conference at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Universities. February 2010: According to Israeli producers, guitarist Santana canceled his concert in Israel due to pressure not to play there. This was after letters directed at him, including one from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel. 2008-2009 included: The Government of Spain’s exclusion of an Israeli university in the illegal settlement of Ariel from a prestigious international university competition for sustainable architecture in the world, organized by both the Spanish Government and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; rapper Snoop Dogg’s cancellation of a concert in Israel; The Yes Men withdrawing their film from the Jerusalem Film Festival; Roger Waters of Pink Floyd refusing to play in Israel again until it removes the wall it built largely on Palestinian land; and film director, screen writer, and critic JeanLuc Godard canceling plans to attend a Tel Aviv film festival. Divestment Success
July 2010: Jewish Voice for Peace activists presented over 15,000 petitions and postcard signatures to one of the world’s largest retirement funds, TIAA-CREF, asking them to divest from companies documented as profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. June 2010: Students at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, voted to divest the college foundation’s funds from companies profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation.
A R T I C L E S September 2009: The Norwegian Pension Fund announced its divestment from one of the most important Israeli defense contractors, and constructor of Israel’s wall, Elbit Systems. August 2009: British bank Blackrock divested from the West Bank settlement projects of Lev Leviev and his company, Africa Israel Investments Limited. This was especially significant since Blackrock was the second largest shareholder of Africa Israel. February 2009: Hampshire College, a pioneer in the 1970s by becoming the first U.S. university to divest from apartheid South Africa, decided to divest from some 200 companies that “violated the college’s standards for social responsibility,” including six companies with close connections to Israel’s occupation. Sanctions Success
February 2010: The European Union court in Brussels ruled that products from Israeli settlements on the Occupied Palestinian Territories are not Israeli and are therefore not eligible for the trade benefits between Israel and the European Union. July 2009: Britain blocked the sale of spare parts for Israel’s fleet of missile gunships because they were used in the 2009 bombing of Gaza, revoking five of Israel’s arms licenses with the UK. January 2009: The European Parliament managed to halt negotiations on strengthening the trade relationship between the EU and Israel in the framework of the Association Agreement and there are new, emboldened efforts to try and get the Association Agreement suspended altogether. 12 August , 2010 IMEU
is
an
independent,
non-profit
organization that provides journalist with a quick access to information about Palestine and the Palestinians.
Source: IMEU
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TERBITAN BERKALA
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