Winning the War on Terror: Not in Afghanistan

Posted on December 10, 2008 by RagBlog

An Afghan policeman destroys poppies in March. ICOS proposes using the poppies for medicine.

Report: Taliban ‘noose’ around Kabul
December 9, 2008

LONDON, England — The Taliban insurgency is widening its presence in Afghanistan and “closing a noose around Kabul,” an international think tank report says.

The report (PDF) — issued Monday by the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) — said the Taliban movement “now holds a permanent presence in 72 percent of Afghanistan, up from 54 percent a year ago.”

NATO, which commands about 50,000 troops in the country, disputes the figures.

Titled “Struggle for Kabul: The Taliban Advance,” the report said the international community must ramp up grass-roots economic and humanitarian relief to stop the Taliban, the group that once ruled Afghanistan and harbored the al Qaeda terror network when it attacked the United States in 2001.

“It’s a very scary situation,” said Gabrielle Archer, ICOS manager of development policy. “There’s been a dramatic increase in just one year.”

The report said the Taliban have expanded from the country’s southern region to the western and northwestern provinces and near Kabul, “where three out of the four main highways into Kabul are now compromised by Taliban activity.”

Legend:

Dark Pink: Permanent Taliban Presence (72% in 2008) = Average of one or more insurgent attacks per week, according to public record of attacks. It is highly likely that many attacks are not publicly known.

Light Pink: Substantial Taliban Presence (21% in 2008) = Based on number of attacks and local perceptions (Frequency of Taliban sightings)

Grey Areas: Light Taliban Presence (7% in 2008) = Based on number of attacks and local perceptions (Frequency of Taliban sightings)

The colour coded dots on the map represent civilian, military or insurgent fatalities since January 2008

Red = civilian fatalities

Green = military fatalities

Yellow = insurgent fatalities

“Confident in their expansion beyond the rural south, the Taliban are at the gates of the capital and infiltrating the city at will,” according to the ICOS report.

Archer explained the report’s methodology, saying that “permanent presence” is established when there has been one more or insurgent attacks per week in a province.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai, speaking Monday in a BBC radio interview, argued the methodology was faulty. He also said that while the state of affairs “is not exactly at a tipping point of success,” it’s not as bad as the report suggests.

But ICOS’ Archer says the evidence shows that the “Taliban are calling the shots, politically and militarily.”

The report says there has been “talk of reconciliation and power sharing” between moderate Taliban and elected officials nationally. It says the Taliban have filled a governance void locally.

ICOS says military “intervention and intelligence” should continue to be supported, and it wants the number of troops under NATO command increased to 80,000. But military action alone isn’t the answer, it said.

The report urges “closer collaboration between military and development efforts” and says job creation, health care, shelter, effective counter-narcotics policies, literacy, the rule of law, and a free media should also be viewed as “key security instruments.”

Archer also echoed the report’s assertion that even after seven years in the country, the international community hasn’t been able to make sure that every Afghan citizen has access to food and water and that there has been a “lack of effective aid and development” in the country.

ICOS said the Taliban use strong recruitment and propaganda efforts to make inroads among local Afghans — many of whom are disappointed by the failure of the West to eliminate grinding poverty and angered by civilian casualties caused by Western airstrikes targeting insurgents.

“They can move at will and blend into the country at will,” Archer said, emphasizing that the many young, impoverished and jobless Afghans who are listening to the Taliban “are getting angrier and angrier and angrier.”

The report calls for alternatives to fighting the Afghan drug trade, which helps fund Islamic militants and has a long reach into Western cities.

It said that “forced poppy eradication and chemical spraying” to combat the production has served to aggravate “the security situation in Afghanistan, precluding the very reconstruction and development necessary to remove Afghan farmers’ need to cultivate poppy.”

It says the poppy crop should be used for medical purposes in an effort to bring “illegal poppy cultivation under control” and to address the lack of alternatives communities have to the income provided by opium farming.

“In this process, all economic profits from medicine sales remain in the rural community, allowing for economic diversification. The ‘fair trade’ brand of Afghan morphine generated by the scheme would also provide emerging and transitional economies with access to affordable essential painkilling medicines,” the report said.

President-elect Barack Obama has said Afghanistan is the central front in the war on terror and wants to deploy more troops to the country.

Archer said the report notes that the international community can’t just wait for Obama to come up with a plan to deal with problems there; it must act now.

“The longevity of a plan for Afghanistan should not be contingent upon the U.S. electoral cycle and it is wrong for any actor to simply wait for President-elect Obama’s Afghan plan,” ICOS said.

NATO’s Appathurai said the Taliban insurgency has been intensifying its activities in areas where it already has been based — the south and the east, but it doesn’t hold territory in any areas where the Afghan and international forces can go.

He also said one of the problems with the report is that it conflates Taliban activity with criminal activity. He said the problems near the capital will be addressed by 3,000 or so U.S. troops to be arriving there soon.

Source / CNN/Asia

Thanks to Axis of Logic and Les Blough for the map and legend / The Rag Blog

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Massacre at Tlatelolco : Art Can Help Us Remember

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Freedom of Speech (1968) by Adolpho Mexiac. Inspired by the student protest in 1968 in Mexico City and the massacre at Tlatelolco.

As I started to tell the story behind these sculpted ghosts, I realized how little I remembered of the events that took place on Oct 2, 1968, in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City. It was one of the cathartic events of 1968 and a piece of history no one should be permitted to forget.

By Thorne Dreyer / The Rag Blog / November 9, 2008

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of one of the seminal years in American history.

1968, a year of great turmoil and hope, is being observed and analyzed in many corners of the world. Author Mark Kuransky called 1968 “the year that rocked the world.” I was in the middle of that action, working in the peace movement and helping to document the cascading events for the underground press.

This October Alice Embree and I participated in a panel that was part of “1968 A Global Perspective,” an interdisciplinary conference held at the University of Texas at Austin, that featured keynote speeches by Kathleen Cleaver and Daniel Ellsberg. Though not necessarily in such a formal setting, veterans of that era have inevitably been engaging in a lot of reflection.

Recently I hosted a gathering of close friends, some of whom I knew back in 1968. I was asked about a grouping of small metal sculptures depicting figures in poses of suffering and fear. The elegant set was the work of a Mexican artist named Nuñes; it was given to me years ago by my mother, a prominent artist and gallery owner.

As I started to tell the story behind these sculpted ghosts, I realized how little I remembered of the events that took place on Oct 2, 1968, in the Tlatelolco district of Mexico City. It was one of the cathartic events of 1968 and a piece of history no one should be permitted to forget.

In 1968, in Mexico, as in much of the world, there were massive student-led demonstrations that spread into the society at large. The labor movement and other sectors of society had begun to join in the mobilization against an extremely repressive government, and a grass roots movement for change was emerging.

Rallies late in the year brought hundreds of thousands into the streets of Mexico City. The government, seriously concerned about the country’s image with the Mexico Olympics ten days away, seized control of the National Autonomous University (thenceforth no longer “autonomous”) and ordered the student leaders arrested.

Monument at site of 1968 Mexico City Massacre.

In defiance, students called for another demonstration at the Plaza of the Three Cultures on Oct. 2, 1968, in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco district. A crowd of 15,000 marched through the streets to protest the occupation of the university and 5,000 remained for a rally that evening when demonstrators were suddenly surrounded by troops and tanks, helicopters dropped flares into the crowd and snipers in nearby buildings began shooting at the soldiers, resulting in a police rampage.

The students panicked and soldiers began indiscriminately shooting and bayoneting them. Between 200 and 400 died. Many more were arrested and tortured and the killing continued as soldiers went door to door throughout the neighborhood.

The government claimed that the snipers were student provocateurs. However, documents produced by a major investigation by the Mexican government in 2001 would prove that the shooters were in fact members of the Presidential Guard whose orders were to provoke a riot.

Thanks to inquiries made possible by the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archives at George Washington University released papers in 2006 that documented the major role the United States government played in the Tlatelolco events. The CIA helped in the planning of the massacre and the Pentagon provided substantial material support.

In 2006, former President Luis Echeverría Álvarez was formally charged with crimes of genocide resulting from the events but did not go to trial after a court ruled that the statute of limitations had expired.

The Tlatelolco Massacre, commemorated to this day, had a profound effect on public perceptions about the Mexican government and the ruling PRI party. Some say that it forever changed attitudes in Mexico.

Looking back, La noche de Tlatelolco (the name comes from a 1971 book) provides a stark historical capsule of those momentous events of 1968 in the United States and around the world.

The figures by sculptor Nuñes are of the dying and tortured students.

The Rag Blog’s Thorne Dreyer at home. The Tlatelolco sculptures are along the shelf. Photo by Ruth Roberts / The Rag Blog.

[Thorne Dreyer, a pioneering underground journalist in the sixties and a veteran social activist, co-edits The Rag Blog.]

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Athens Shooting Fuels Anarchist Riots

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

A vitrine at Athens main commercial district is smashed by Greek youth following a deadly police shooting of a teenager last night, in central Athens, Dec. 7, 2008. Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP / Getty Images.

A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire in the Monastiraki area of central Athens, Greece early Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008. Photo by Petros Giannakouris / AP.

‘The shooting and its violent aftermath threatens to escalate a decades-long conflict that has simmered between police and far-left groups.’
By Nicole Itano / December 8, 2008

ATHENS – Greece’s worst rioting in years erupted late Saturday night after an Athens policeman shot and killed a teenage boy in a central neighborhood known as the base of anarchist and other antiestablishment groups.

By Sunday morning, with the riots continuing, a trail of devastation had been blazed across central Athens – with the stench of tear gas and smoke from charred vehicles and buildings hanging over parts of the ancient city. The violence quickly spread to other parts of the country, including Greece’s second-city, Thessaloniki, and the vacation islands of Crete and Corfu.

The conservative government, which was already struggling to stay in power in the wake of a recent land-exchange scandal, attempted to calm the rioters by arresting the two police officers connected with the shooting.

The fatal shooting took place in the Athens neighborhood of Exarchia, a dense warren of concrete apartment buildings home to a mix of students and anarchists. Clashes between police and radicals are common in the neighborhood.

Anarchist groups frequently set off small bombs throughout the city – on Wednesday alone a bomb damaged the offices of the French news service Agence France Presse and arsonists torched a Bosnian embassy car and a bank cash machine.

Brady Kiesling, a former US diplomat, who is writing a book about the Greek militant group November 17, says Greek police have limited power to use force against these groups because public sentiment will not tolerate it. This has resulted in a delicate balance in Exarchia, with neither pushing the other too far. Many Greeks cite the events of November 17, 1973 – a day that is still commemorated, when the army stormed the Athens Polytechnic University and killed a number of striking students – as a reason why the police must be restricted.

“The police stay out of certain areas, unless there’s a major emergency, and the anarchists don’t trash things badly unless there’s a good reason,” Mr. Kiesling says. But “once someone gets killed, the doctrine is massive retaliation.”

Details of the shooting are disputed, but police issued a statement saying the two officers had been attacked by a group of youths. One officer threw a stun grenade while the other responded with three shots. At least one bullet hit the boy, reported to be 15 or 16. According to police, he died on the way to the hospital.

The last fatal police shooting of a minor in Greece, in 1985, sparked months of nearly daily clashes between police and anarchists. The terrorist group November 17 also bombed a bus full of riot police in retaliation, Kiesling says.

Both officers involved in Saturday’s incident have been arrested. Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the country’s Interior minister, who is responsible for the police, promised punishment for those responsible.

Mr. Pavlopoulos, and his deputy minister, also offered their resignations, a move that was rejected by the prime minister.

“It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child,” Pavlopoulos said in a press conference Sunday morning. The Interior minister also condemned the actions of the rioters. “No outrage, no matter how ideologically established it is, can lead to such incidents as we witnessed last night.”

Shortly after the shooting, which took place before 10 p.m., an angry crowd – summoned by text message and the Internet – gathered in Exarchia. They clashed with police, shouting “Murderers in uniform,” and burned and looted local shops.

Later that night, the rioters moved to other areas of the city center, burning or damaging at least 31 shops and breaking windows in the tourist neighborhood of Monistiraki and along one of central Athens’ major shopping streets, Ermou. Just a few hundred yards from the ancient site of Hadrian’s Library, a charred building still smoldered late Sunday morning. Some two dozen police officers were reportedly injured in the clashes.

On Sunday afternoon, more than 2,000 people gathered near the Athens Polytechnic to march towards Athens’ central police station in protest of the killings. Greek law bars police from university buildings.

“The feeling is anger,” says John Gelis, a 28-year psychologist, shortly before joining the march. “A kid was killed just like that. It’s a sign of arrogance by the police. It’s an act against democracy.”

Mr. Gelis joined in the riots on Saturday night, saying the targets of the unrest included banks and multinational companies, not small businesses. “No one has anything against the little owners.”

But some small businesses had been ransacked, including a family-run computer store in the heart of Exarchia. Business owners and residents say they are weary of the unrest. “I’m fed up with this,” says Elina Dimitriou, a long-time resident of the neighborhood. “It needs to stop. But I don’t know who to blame.”

[Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.]

Source / Christian Science Monitor

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Bob Jones University Says ‘No’ to Racism, Abercrombie & Fitch

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Students at Bob Jones University becoming smart at the Bob Jones University Library, reading books by Bob Jones. Photo by Francis Miller / Life Magazine / 1948.

‘Finally, BJ University has issued a half-hearted apology for their racist past. They blame their own disgustingly well documented racism on a social “ethos”…’

By Larry Ray / The Rag Blog / December 9, 2008

World religions, right down to localized fundamental religious schools like Bob Jones University in South Carolina, follow what they call the “local ethos” to justify dogmatic religious statements and teachings. Damning faith-based broadsides like the ones from BJ University are always also attributed to some biblical scriptural quote.

But now, finally, BJ University has issued a half-hearted apology for their racist past. They blame their own disgustingly well documented racism on a social “ethos” rather than simply having done the right thing from the beginning. At least it is an admission that what liberals of the day were telling them 30 years ago was, and still is, correct.

Bob Jones U. apologizes for racial past

GREENVILLE, S.C.– Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school in South Carolina, has apologized for its “racially hurtful” past policies.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the university blamed its policies on the “segregationist ethos” of the United States.

“Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures,” the statement said. “We conformed to the culture rather than provide a clear Christian counterpoint to it.”

Bob Jones, founded in 1927 by evangelist Bob Jones Sr., did not admit black students until 1971 and did not admit unmarried blacks until 1975.

Interracial dating and marriage was banned until 2000, a policy the administration justified based on a commandment given Moses against the mixing of unlike things. That became an issue during the presidential campaign when George W. Bush spoke on the campus.

Source / UPI / Nov. 21, 2008

And to further understand BJU: The clothes make the man.

BJU bases its dress codes for men and women on the application of the principles of modesty, gender distinction, appropriateness and distinction from the world. ….

Brand Restrictions. Abercrombie & Fitch and its subsidiary Hollister have shown an unusual degree of antagonism to the name of Christ and an unusual display of wickedness in their promotions. In protest, articles displaying their logos are not acceptable to be worn, carried, or displayed (even if covered or masked in some way).

Go here for a dark chuckle.

See much difference in BJU and a strict Islamic Madrassa? Read this student expectation extract:

“Students are challenged to develop Christlikeness that is evidenced in consistent Christian character. To help each student to grow in Christlikeness, BJU has a reasonable, just, and firm disciplinary system.

Loyalty to Christ results in separated living. Dishonesty, lewdness, sensual behavior, adultery, homosexuality, sexual perversion of any kind, pornography, illegal use of drugs, and drunkenness all are clearly condemned by God’s Word and prohibited here. Further, we believe that biblical principles preclude gambling, dancing, and the beverage use of alcohol.

Dating and Mixed Groups

We want students to have wholesome social opportunities in a setting that provides accountability for biblical requirements of purity. It is with this in mind that we chaperon campus activities where men and women students are present and require a chaperon when students date or interact in a mixed group off campus.”

And to think, some of us went to UT in Austin when we could have been socially neutered and made brain dead in South Carolina!

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Tim Black, Barack Obama and all that Chicago Jazz

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Chicago historian and activist Timuel D.(Tim)Black turned 90 with lots of jazz and a tribute from Barack Obama.

This was also posted in Mike Klonsky’s blog, Small Talk, covering the Small Schools Workshop and its battles, a place where a number of us, including Tim Black, touched base for a while and made a difference.

Carl Davidson / The Rag Blog / December 8, 2008

‘Chicago jazz legends, including Willie Pickens, Corey Wilkes, and Jimmy Ellis, filled the Lounge with great music. But the high point of the evening was Sen. Dick Durbin’s reading of a personal birthday greeting from no less than the President-elect himself.’
By Mike Klonsky / The Rag Blog / December 8, 2008

The Checkerboard Lounge on Chicago’s south side, was jumping last night as a couple of hundred of us celebrated Tim Black’s 90th birthday. The party was organized by Tim’s wife Zenobia and the Chicago Jazz Institute.

Congressman Bobby Rush hailed Tim as the movement’s “field marshal” and the crowd, including politicians, community leaders and educators all joined in a rollicking version of Happy Birthday To Ya.

But the high point of the evening was Sen. Dick Durbin’s reading of a personal birthday greeting from no less than the President-elect himself.

Here’s the full text of Barack Obama’s messsage to Tim:

I wish I could be with you all in person today to celebrate the life of a dedicated teacher and one of the preeminent oral historians of our time, a man who keeps the soul of the South Side alive and shares his stories still, Professor Tim Black.

The Great Migration brought his family to Chicago’s South Side, and the Great Depression started him down the long path of social justice. As a student at Burke Elementary School, he’d often walk across the street to hear the orators in Washington Park argue with passion for jobs that pay a fair wage, for protections to keep workers safe, for an economy that would allow families to live in dignity and dream of a brighter future.Little did they know among their greatest lasting impacts would be the achievements of the man we honor today.

Like my grandfather, he joined the army as a fresh-faced young man in World War II. And like my great uncle, he helped liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp. It was a moment that left a mark on this man; that left no doubt as to his destiny.He returned convinced by his life experiences that the greatest impact he could make on the next generation would be to teach our youth about their communities, about the world they live in, and about how to be responsible citizens of each.

For forty years, he shaped our young men and women into those citizens. And though he may have retired from the teaching profession nearly two decades ago, he never stopped being a teacher. We are all his students in a classroom that never closes.

Because of Professor Black, jazz has a place to call home in Chicago. Because of Professor Black, the rich and vibrant chronicles of Bronzeville and the greater South Side live on. Because of Professor Black, generations of youth have grown up with a better appreciation of their neighborhoods and the history they inherit.

The man we honor today grew up in the midst of Depression and war, yet considers himself part of a fortunate generation. And he’s made it his life’s mission to give each successive generation every possible chance in this world.

“I never lose hope,” he once said. “I believe that I have responsibilities to help younger people to obtain hopes and dreams. Their present condition may be very discouraging; my aim is to help them regain a sense of hope for the future. My main interest is in building a better America, building a better world.”

Tim, for your birthday, I promise you this: that will always be my mission too. Thank you for a life well-lived. I wish you all the best for the stories you’ve yet to tell.

Happy Birthday,

Barack Obama

[Mike Klonsky posts at Small Talk.]

[Carl Davidson is webmaster at Progressives for Obama.]

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A [Sic] Berd in the Hand…

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

My sister took this picture. It’s from the El Paso Independent School District print shop!

She wrote:

‘Look at the signs carefully. The first sign on the fence was the white one, it is a piece of paper in a plastic sleeve. The red sign was ordered and placed above it. I wonder who does the proofreading???’

Sarito Neiman / The Rag Blog / December 8, 2008

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Improving on Worker Exploitation : Smart Stitch

Posted on December 9, 2008 by RagBlog

Ouch !!! What else can we possibly say?

New Portable Sewing Machine Lets Sweatshop Employees Work On The Go

Source / The Onion

Thanks to Diane Stirling-Stevens / The Rag Blog

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Here’s a Plan : Nationalize General Motors

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer


‘The United States government should buy 51% of the GM stock and put a green Board of Directors in place.’
By Terry J. DuBose / The Rag Blog / December 8, 2008

See ‘Here’s a plan: Buy GM’ and ‘Nationalize GM’ by Dan Neil, Below.

Last Sunday I posted on DailyKos (and said to the Hippies of the Square Table), “Bailout the Automotive Industry? GM?” and added why I thought the United States government should buy 51% of the GM stock and put a green Board of Directors in place. Our local paper ran an editorial by Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times that supported that same solution for GM.

He did not have the same reflection on the history of GM’s fight to destroy urban public rail transportation and killing the electric car that I have, but he comes to the same conclusion… nationalize GM.

Here’s a plan: Buy GM
By Dan Neil / December 7, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — At the moment, D.C. and Detroit are brooding on two equally unpleasant choices: Watch the American automakers auger in and take hundreds of thousands of jobs with them, or bail out these failed and incorrigible companies whose management so richly deserves whatever hell (flying coach?) awaits them.

Tops on the critics’ list of grievances is Detroit’s failure to anticipate the inevitable. Why didn’t these companies sufficiently invest in next-generation technology-fuel-efficient small cars, high-mileage hybrids, plug-ins and all-electric vehicles-that could help wean the U.S. off foreign oil and take the automobile out of the climate-change equation? As the auto executives again bring their begging bowl to Congress, a consensus is forming: No bailout unless Detroit buildsgreener cars.

From my perch, as someone who drives all of the Big Three’s North American product offerings, I think a lot of the anger is reflexive and misplaced. Detroit makes some amazing cars, and anyone who thinks otherwise should hold a Corvette ZR1 to his head and pull the trigger. The Ford F-150 pickup I drove last week flat-out humbles rivals from Toyota or Nissan. Considering that the domestic carmakers are shouldering titanic “legacy” costs — it’s estimated that $2,000 in health care, pension and employee post-retirement benefits are baked into the price of every UAW-built vehicle — just being competitive in any segment is a signal achievement.

Nonetheless, the question remains: What to do about the domestic automakers? My modest proposal: Nationalize GM…

Source / Los Angeles Times / Arkansas Online

The LA Times ran this editorial December 2nd.

Nationalize GM…
The federal government should buy GM. We can run it, then sell it at a profit once it recovers.
By Dan Neil / December 2, 2008

At the moment, D.C. and Detroit are brooding on a Morton’s Fork: Watch the American automakers auger in and take hundreds of thousands of jobs with them, or bail out these failed and incorrigible companies whose management so richly deserves whatever hell (flying coach?) awaits them.

Tops on the critics’ list of grievances is Detroit’s failure to anticipate the inevitable. Why didn’t these companies sufficiently invest in next-generation technology — fuel-efficient small cars, high-mileage hybrids, plug-ins and all-electric vehicles — that could help wean the U.S. off foreign oil and take the automobile out of the climate-change equation? As the auto executives again bring their begging bowl to Congress, a consensus is forming: No bailout unless Detroit builds greener cars.

From my perch, as someone who drives all of the Big Three’s North American product offerings, I think a lot of the anger is reflexive and misplaced. Detroit makes some amazing cars, and anyone who thinks otherwise should hold a Corvette ZR1 to his head and pull the trigger. The Ford F-150 pickup I drove last week flat-out humbles rivals from Toyota or Nissan. Considering that the domestic carmakers are shouldering titanic “legacy” costs — it’s estimated that $2,000 in healthcare, pension and employee post-retirement benefits are baked into the price of every UAW-built vehicle — just being competitive in any segment is a signal achievement.

Nonetheless, the question remains: What to do about the domestic automakers? My modest proposal: Nationalize GM.

To be clear, I mean that the federal government should buy GM; forget rathole loans or nonvoting equity shares. The company’s stockholder value has been essentially wiped out. The company’s enterprise value — the lock, stock and forklift price — is about $32 billion; its total debt is $45 billion. Let’s make GM an offer.

If you feel the gall of free-market ideology rising, consider that the measures being bruited about as preconditions for a bailout — firing GM’s top management; forcing a bankruptcy-like renegotiation of contracts with the UAW, suppliers and dealers (it has too many); and creating a czar of product development to force the building of green cars — are nationalization in all but name. I say embrace it. GM-USA.

Here are the benefits of nationalization:

GM’s fundamental problem is that it’s too big — and expecting it to fix itself in exchange for a $10-billion to $15-billion loan (its share of the vaunted $25-billion bailout) or magically right-size in Chapter 11 is foolhardy. It would take too long, cost too much and bankruptcy, should it come, would send customers running for the hills. Time is of the essence. Congress, writing a GM law and using federal power to abrogate contracts, could achieve at least some of these goals at a stroke.

GM is full of talent and potential. The company spent $8.1 billion on research and development last year, second only to Toyota. Of all the carmakers, GM is closest to commercializing a full-size, four-door, plug-in electric vehicle, the Volt, due in the fourth quarter of 2010. The Volt should travel about 40 miles in all-electric mode before requiring the services of its onboard, gas-powered generator. Many owners could go weeks before they used any gasoline. This is precisely the sort of car that environmental and energy security advocates have been clamoring for.

GM’s business is growing in other parts of the world; it’s only the North American operations that are killing the company. This is a corporation that had $181 billion in revenue and sold 9.4 million vehicles in 2007. To put it another way: GM, though distressed, looks like a good investment. Also, the federal government can sell the company — at a profit — once it’s righted and sailing forward again.

GM is competing with companies that are quasi-national now. If you consider the advantages the government of Japan has bestowed on Toyota, Nissan and Honda — in terms of healthcare and retirement benefits for its employees — the unevenness of the field is clear. The same goes for most European companies, and the rising rivals in China will enjoy similar state-subsidized advantages.

The government can afford long-term planning. Many of GM’s strategic missteps — such as betting large on trucks and SUVs and not investing early in hybrid technology — were the result of willful shortsightedness at the board level, responding to a financial market in which shareholders look for the quick return. Putting Uncle Sam in charge would fundamentally enlarge the return-on-investment horizon.

We need government-sized automotive help anyway. This country should be putting millions of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles on the road. As far as I can tell, without big subsidies, there is no way in the near term to build these vehicles and make a reasonable profit, due to the stubbornly high cost of advanced batteries. Besides, if GM were owned by the government, it wouldn’t spend time and money litigating and lobbying against clean-air and safety rules

Why not pick up Ford and Chrysler too? If Chrysler goes south, it’s too small to drag down the rest of the domestic auto industry. Ford, which has been pursuing its “Way Forward” cost-cutting plan for more than two years, will probably survive the moment without government assistance, though it’s going to be close.

To be sure, the yard marks of democratic capitalism have moved under us in recent months. Last week, the feds announced that the government would take a $20-billion stake in Citigroup and guarantee hundreds of billions in risky assets, a move that would have seemed pure socialism had we not lived through the last few months. Have we not in effect nationalized the mortgage-loan industry?

I say, let’s avoid the euphemisms and have the courage of our supercharged Keynesian convictions. By nationalizing GM, we can aim the company’s astonishing resources at one of the biggest public-policy problems we have: oil. Restructured and refocused, GM could build green vehicles by the millions in a few years and still have the capacity to build gasoline- and diesel-powered pickups (which we’ll still need) … and maybe even some Corvettes on the side.

[Dan Neil is the automotive critic for the Los Angeles Times.]

Source / Los Angeles Times

Also see If GM Fails, Then What? by Tom Petruno and John O’Dell / Los Angeles Times / April 23, 2006

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Curbing Emissions Through Construction Retrofits

Posted on December 8, 2008 by RagBlog

Sustainable refit of the Department of Conservation office building in Wellington, New Zealand. Photo: Tom Walter.

Construction Industry Could Trim Climate Emissions Cheaply
December 8, 2008

POZNAN, Poland – Energy use in buildings accounts for one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, but the potential of the construction sector to combat climate change has not been tapped, according to a new report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The report was released Saturday to governments meeting in Poznan for the latest round of UN climate change talks. The negotiations are aimed at reaching agreement on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period ends in 2012.

Today’s commercially available technologies make it possible to halve energy consumption in both new and old buildings without significant investment, the report finds.

Yet only 10 out of some 4,000 projects in the pipeline of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism, which finances initiatives that help reduce emissions, are designed to curb the use of energy in buildings.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, co-recipient of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has warned that building-related emissions could nearly double from almost nine billion tons in 2004 to nearly 16 billion in 2030.

The surge will be driven by construction booms in the next two decades in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.

“Report after report is now underlining the huge, cost-effective savings possible from addressing emissions from existing buildings alongside designing new ones that include passive and active solar up to low-energy heating and cooling systems and energy-efficient systems,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

Dozens of surveys conducted worldwide show that up to 30 percent reduction in emissions from residential and commercial buildings can be achieved by 2030 at a net negative cost.

Effective measures include improved ventilation and insulation, stepped up use of natural lighting and the use of solar and other natural heat sources.

The sector remains virtually untapped because six years after the start of the Clean Development Mechanism, very few building projects have managed to enter its pipeline. Nearly half of all proposals were rejected during the registration phase.

High administrative costs and weak financial incentives as being among the barriers for approval by the CDM, according to the report entitled “The Kyoto Protocol, the Clean Development Mechanism, and the Building and Construction Sector.”

Eight projects proposed by a Brazilian supermarket chain, for instance, were rejected because of difficulties in accounting for the projected 20,000 tons of annual carbon savings. Only $3,000 of carbon revenue would be generated by the store, which is less than the basic operating costs for the projects and would not cover the energy-efficient equipment necessary.

Kuyasa retrofit project in Cape Town, South Africa is the first CDM-registered project to improve the thermal efficiency of low-income housing. The project aims to install solar water heaters, insulated ceilings and compact fluorescent lights in over 2,000 residential homes for low-income families, resulting in cuts of 6,580 tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year.

Resident of a Kuyasa demonstration house points to an energy-efficient lightbulb. Photo: UN Chronicle.

Yet despite successful registration in 2005, the project has yet to take off except for 10 demonstration homes, illustrating the challenge of using the CDM to finance such projects.

In a related development, UNEP announced Saturday in Poznan that the Pacific Island nation of Niue, the United Kingdom city of Slough and the New Zealand city of Waitakere are among the latest to sign on to its Climate Neutral Network.

That initiative brings together countries, cities, businesses and organizations which pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“For many small island developing states like Niue climate neutrality is more than just a concept – it is a matter of survival,” Steiner said. The tiny nation, with a population of some 1,700, releases jsut 0.003 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually but is at risk from rising sea levels as polar ice caps and glaciers melt.

Slough, home to nearly 120,000 people and situated between London and Bath, is seeking to have all public transport and council vehicle run on cleaner fuel and slash its emissions by one-fifth in the next two decades.

Waitakere, the fifth largest city in New Zealand, is aiming to stabilize per capita emissions by 2010 and reduce them 80 percent by 2051.

In addition, 11 companies and organizations have signed on to the Climate Neutral Network in Poznan, joining the four countries, four cities and dozens of other participants in the initiative.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008.

Source / Environment News Service

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Obama Shows Progressive Side : Vocal Support for Chicago Workers

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Thorne Dreyer

Workers laid off from a Chicago factory on Saturday at what they called an occupation of the plant. They criticized their former bosses, the company’s creditors and the federal government. Photo by Beth Rooney / NYT.

There are those on the left who have challenged Obama’s appointees. Some even say that Obama’s presidency is no different than Bush’s. That’s what Nader and McKinney supporters have suggested might be the case. Well, yesterday, we saw concrete evidence that the world has changed.

By Rob Kall / December 8, 2008

Martin Luther King would be proud.

What a difference a president makes. With a few words, workers protesting move from being at risk of being accused of terrorism to becoming national heroes. It took just a few words from President-elect Obama to set an extraordinarily different tone. Perhaps more than anything he’s done or said, Obama’s response to a question at yesterday’s press conference, announcing his latest appointee, exemplifies, in a palpable way, the huge difference between a president who walks to talk about caring about workers, versus one who stiffly issues empty proclamations.

It looks like the laid off workers in Chicago who are sitting-in at the Republic Windows and Doors factory which gave them three days notices, after, for some, 34 years of dedicated work, represent the beginning of a movement, a message we can not only rally around, but have faith that OUR PRESIDENT supports.

This doesn’t mean that we can assume that Obama will support or approve of any kind of escalation of what the workers are engaged in. But what a concept — a president who hears what protesters say… and then, damn, it brings tears to my eyes, actually supports them.

There are those on the left who have challenged Obama’s appointees. Some even say that Obama’s presidency is no different than Bush’s. That’s what Nader and McKinney supporters have suggested might be the case. Well, yesterday, we saw concrete evidence that the world has changed.

A little background: The layoff hit 250 workers. Some of them have been staying at, sleeping at the factory since it was closed this past Friday. The The New York Times’ Monica Davey reports,

“They want the poor person to stay down,” said Silvia Mazon, 47, a mother of two who worked as an assembler here for 13 years and said she had never before been the sort to march in protests or make a fuss. “We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere until we get what’s fair and what’s ours. They thought they would get rid of us easily, but if we have to be here for Christmas, it doesn’t matter.” ….

The workers, members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, said they were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law when companies make layoffs. Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois, said her office was investigating, and representatives from her office interviewed workers at the plant on Sunday. ….

“…Still, as they milled around the factory’s entrance this weekend, some workers said they doubted that the company was really in financial straits, and they suggested that it would reopen elsewhere with cheaper costs and lower pay. Others said managers had kept their struggles secret, at one point before Thanksgiving removing heavy equipment in the middle of the night but claiming, when asked about it, that all was well.

Workers also pointedly blamed Bank of America, a lender to Republic Windows, saying the bank had prevented the company from paying them what they were owed, particularly for vacation time accrued.

“Here the banks like Bank of America get a bailout, but workers cannot be paid?” said Leah Fried, an organizer with the union workers. “The taxpayers would like to see that bailout go toward saving jobs, not saving C.E.O.’s.” ….

In a statement issued Saturday, Bank of America officials said they could not comment on an individual client’s situation because of confidentiality obligations. Still, a spokeswoman also said, “Neither Bank of America nor any other third party lender to the company has the right to control whether the company complies with applicable laws or honors its commitments to its employees.” ….

“…Throughout the weekend, people came by with donations of food, water and other supplies. The workers said they were determined to keep their action reminiscent, union leaders said, of autoworkers’ efforts in Michigan in the 1930s, peaceful and to preserve the factory.”

The workers were visited by two members of congress — Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky, both from Illinois, and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“This is a nonviolent wake-up call to all of America,” the Chicago Sun Times reported Jackson observed. “It’s the beginning of a bigger movement to resist economic violence.”

President-elect Obama commented, in his press conference, yesterday,

“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right.

“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their work forces.

“So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments. Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again.”

But let’s take the follow-through on commitments line a bit further. How about congress. They handed, without supervision, $700 billion to Paulson to dole out to his friends in the finance industry. And they’ve taken it and used it to pay dividends, throw parties, invest in buying up smaller operations. Just about everything except helping the people at the bottom– you know the bottom that Obama seems to talk about every time he mentions dealing with the economy from the bottom-up.

It seems to me these heroic, simple folk protesting at the factory may have, perhaps without realizing it, fired the first shot, like the shot heard round the world– one that will get the congress to listen, to start doing things that FIRST take care of we-the-people.

We know that GM is facing bankruptcy not because it didn’t make green cars. It’s because they didn’t listen to consumers and they failed to learn from the Japanese approach to working with workers, treating them with trust and respect. Refusing to recognize the essential importance of these two bottom-up approaches of the Japanese to the car business, GM took a top-down path that led to certain ruin, without congressional rescue.

But congress is not getting it — the reality that the same top-down mindset in approaching the economic crisis and bailout numbers 2, 3, etc. will not work either.

These factory workers are the flesh and blood victims, whose hearts are bleeding on the factory floor. THEY, have put their thumbs on this travesty, that the big banks get rescued, but the poor, the working, they are allowed to fall through the massive cracks in the net that only helps big corporations.

We need to find some ways to show solidarity with these victims of heartless, shortsighted planning.

We need to DO something local that shows that congress must end its misguided top down simple-minded, quick-fixes. They don’t work.

Obama needs to walk his talk on providing bottom up approaches. His ideas for implementing major infrastructure projects will help those in the construction industry. It’s a start. But between now and then, we need to do more. It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t already been affected by the economic crisis. We know — Obama just reiterated it yesterday — that things are going to get much worse. We MUST make it clear to congress that handing billions over to big companies that have already shown they are failures is absolutely not the way to get out of the mess. And letting the managers and CEOs who rode their companies to close to death are certainly not the ones who should be given the responsibility of using the hundreds of billions in rescue funds we, the American People or footing the bill for.

There may be a time, not too far down the road, when the the Republic Windows and Doors Factory protest will looked at as a tipping point event that woke up the American people. If that happens, it will be because YOU were inspired and did something locally in the next two or three days.

[Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor. He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com and is a columnist with Northstarwriters.com.]

Source / OpEd News

Thanks to Dr. S. R. Keister / The Rag Blog

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Andy Worthington On Addressing the Bush Administration Legacy of Torture

Posted on December 8, 2008 by RagBlog

Eric Holder, Obama’s choice for Attorney General.

Obama and Holder Must Return to a September 10th Mind-Set
By Andy Worthington / December 8, 2008

During the election campaign, one of the sticks with which John McCain’s team attempted to beat Barack Obama was a claim that he was soft on terrorism, or, as Senator McCain’s national security director Randy Scheunemann declared to reporters in June, “Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mind-set … He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face.”

Far from providing a rebuke to Barack Obama, this simple phrase encapsulated all that was wrong with the counter-terrorism policies of the last seven years: a misguided belief that an appropriate response to the 9/11 attacks was to launch an ill-defined but far-reaching global war on terrorism, to grant the President the power to seize anyone he regarded as a terrorist — or a terrorist sympathizer — and imprison them indefinitely without charge or trial, to wage an unprecedented assault on the U.S. Constitution, and to discard the UN Convention Against Torture, the War Crimes Act, the Army Field Manual and the Geneva Conventions.

Even now, apologists for the crimes of the last seven years refuse to concede that the 9/11 attacks had anything to do with U.S. foreign policy, with the failures of the intelligence services to monitor the threat posed by al-Qaeda, and with the failure of successive administrations — both Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush’s — to take the threat on board.

And yet, a September 10th mind-set is exactly what is required to begin undoing the damage inflicted on America’s moral standing by President Bush and those closest to him, who were responsible for driving the country on a fear-filled journey to the “Dark Side.” Specifically, those most culpable are Vice President Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Cheney’s former legal counsel and now chief of staff, David Addington, all exponents of the “unitary executive theory” of government, for whom the declaration of a state of permanent war provided the perfect opportunity to grant the President dictatorial powers.

It remains to be seen whether, in dismantling the tyrannical aspirations of the Bush administration, President Obama will be able to call the crimes to account without implicating the perpetrators. My hope is that it will be impossible to let Cheney, Addington and Rumsfeld off the hook as more is revealed about the extent of their crimes, but in the meantime Barack Obama’s most important course of action is to adhere to the promises he made over the last year and a half: to close Guantánamo, to repeal the Military Commissions Act, to uphold the absolute ban on torture, and to trust the federal court system to bring criminals to justice. He will, in addition, need to make sure that the CIA’s post-9/11 job revision — involving the industrial-scale “extraordinary rendition” of prisoners to torture, and running secret prisons — is also brought to an end.

Much of this return to the law — as it existed on September 10, 2001 — will involve breaking the chain of command that led from the Office of the Vice President to the Pentagon, but if Obama does repeal the Military Commissions Act, then those most closely involved with Cheney and Addington’s pet project will also be out of a job; in particular, Susan Crawford, the retired judge who was the Commissions’ supposedly impartial “Convening Authority,” despite being a close friend of Cheney and Addington, and Daniel Dell’Orto, the acting general counsel who took over from the torture ideologue William J. Haynes II in February, when Haynes resigned following severe criticism by Col. Morris Davis, the Commissions’ former chief prosecutor.

Even more crucial, therefore, is Obama’s choice to overhaul the Justice Department, which, under orders from Cheney and Addington, was ruthlessly purged of any critics of the administration’s law-shredding policies, as it is here that effective plans to close Guantánamo will have to be implemented. These, presumably, will involve a rapid and dispassionate review of the existing cases, the release of the majority of the prisoners, and the transfer of those considered truly dangerous (perhaps three dozen at most) to the U.S. mainland to face trials in federal courts.

Though largely overlooked in the column inches devoted to the return of Hillary Clinton, Obama’s choice of Attorney General, Eric Holder, a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling (where some of his colleagues represent 17 Yemeni prisoners at Guantánamo), seems admirably equipped to oversee the necessary transformation of the Justice Department. Snipers have already picked up on the fact that, in January 2002, Holder delivered a speech about Guantánamo that could have been scripted by David Addington — full of references to the limitations on interrogation imposed by the Geneva Conventions, and his impression that terror suspects were not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions — but as Glenn Greenwald recently pointed out, few lawyers were demanding rights for the Guantánamo prisoners back in January 2002.

More significant, therefore, are the comments that Holder made about the conduct of the “War on Terror” in June this year, to a meeting of the American Constitution Society, in which his rhetoric matched that of Barack Obama. After stating that the Bush administration had taken many steps that were “both excessive and unlawful” in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, he explained,

I never thought I would see the day when a Justice Department would claim that only the most extreme infliction of pain and physical abuse constitutes torture and that acts that are merely cruel, inhuman and degrading are consistent with United States law and policy, [and] that the Supreme Court would have to order the president of the United States to treat detainees in accordance with the Geneva Convention … This disrespect for the rule of law is not only wrong, it is destructive in our struggle against terrorism.

He then signaled his willingness to close Guantánamo, transfer the remaining prisoners to the US mainland, and adopt an “expedited and procedurally fair” review process for evaluating the status of the prisoners, which, of course, is just what long-term critics of Guantánamo have been suggesting. As with all speculation, of course, we will have to wait for January 21 to see what will actually emerge, but for now, at least, the omens are good.

[Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press).]

Source / Informed Comment

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Chicago Workers Forcing Management’s Hand

Posted on December 8, 2008 by RagBlog


Making a new New Deal: Sitdown Strike in Chicago
By John Nichols / December 7, 2008

Much has been made about the prospect that Barack Obama’s presidency might, due to economic necessity and the president-elect’s interventionist inclinations, be a reprise of the New Deal era.

But there will be no “new New Deal” if Americans simply look to Obama to lead them out of the domestic quagmire into which Bill Clinton and George Bush led the country with a toxic blend of free-trade absolutism, banking deregulation and disdain for industrial policy. Just as Roosevelt needed mass movements and militancy as an excuse to talk Washington stalwarts into accepting radical shifts in the economic order, so Obama will need to be able to point to some turbulence at the grassroots.

And so he may have it.

After the Bank of America — a $25-billion recipient of Bailout Czar Hank Paulson’s “Wall Street First” largesse — cut off operating credit to the Republic Windows and Doors company, executives of the firm announced Friday that they were shutting its factory in Chicago.

Instead of going home to a dismal Holiday season like hundreds of thousands of other working Americans who have fallen victim to the corporate “reduction-in-force” frenzy of recent weeks — which has seen suddenly-secure banks pocket federal dollars rather than loosen up credit — the Republic workers occupied the factory where many of them had worked for decades.

Members of United Electrical Workers Local 1110, which represents 260 Republic workers, are conducting the contemporary equivalent of the 1930s sit-down strikes that led to the rapid expansion of union recognition nationwide and empowered the Roosevelt administration to enact more equitable labor laws. And, just as in the thirties, they are objecting to policies that put banks ahead of workers; stickers worn by the UE sit-down strikers read: “You got bailed out, we got sold out.”

“We’re going to stay here until we win justice,” says Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, who was one of the UE members occupying the Republic factory over the weekend for several hours.

Most of Republic workers are Hispanic and they want answers from the Bank of America and the company.

According to the UE, the workers hope “to force the company and its main creditor to meet their obligations to the workers.”

“Their goal is to at least get the compensation that workers are owed; they also seek the resumption of operations at the plant,” explains the union. “All 260 members of the local were laid off Friday in a sudden plant closing, brought on by Bank of America cutting off operating credit to the company. The bank even refused to authorize the release of money to Republic needed to pay workers their earned vacation pay, and compensation they are owed under the federal WARN Act because they were not given the legally-required notice that the plant was about to close.”

UE is an independent union that is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO, although its roots go back to the militant labor organizing of the 1930s that gave rise to the groundbreaking Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Some of the solidarity of old has been on display in Chicago this weekend, as UE members have been supported by unions that are affiliated with both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition of major unions.

Recognizing the absurdity of taxpayer-funded bailouts that enrich banks that in turn cut credit for American manufacturers, Richard Berg, president of Chicago’s powerful Teamsters Local 743, said. “If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country.”

Invoking Chicago’s rich record of labor struggle — from the Haymarket Martyrs in the 19th century to the steel industry organizing of the 1930s — American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 regional director Larry Spivack hailed its latest expression.

“The history of workers is built on issues like this here today,” Spivack told union members at the plant.

Spivack’s right.

But it is not just the history of workers that turns on struggles such as this. It is the history of presidents and the United States.

Barack Obama will not be the new FDR, and this coming period will not see a “new New Deal” unless labor is inspired to fight once more to keep workers on the job, plants operating and American manufacturing industries muscular enough to survive in the global market. Then, the proper demands can be made on an Obama administration to back up not just unions but their expanding membership.

If the right history of this time is written, it will be said that the new New Deal began in Chicago — not just because Obama comes from the city but because workers there chose to stand up by sitting down.

For updates on developments in Chicago, UE website.

Source / The Nation

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