Seachange Bulletin #119September 15, 2003Seachange Bulletin ArchivesEmail the editorSeachange Bulletin #119: Another World Is Possible 2. Help organize turnout: post flyers, forward this message to everyone you know and alert your co-workers and neighbors - email masscare@aol.com if you would like flyers to post! 3. Call, write, or email your legislators and ask them to testify in support of S.686. If you are able to attend the hearing ask them for a meeting after the hearing as part of our lobby day. 4. Call, write, or email members of the Health Care Committee and tell them you want them to report S.686 out of committee with an "OUGHT TO PASS" recommendation. A list of the members is posted on the MASS-CARE web site <http://www.masscare.org>. 5. Visit the MASS-CARE web site for the most up-to-date information <http://www.masscare.org>. Eight Topics on Track for Ballot Votes in ‘04 & ‘06 as Reilly Okays Questions Michael P. Norton, State House News Service, September 3, 2003 Boston, Massachusetts - Sponsors of potential ballot questions covering eight public policy topics and running the gamut from health care to education to tolls were cleared Wednesday by Attorney General Thomas Reilly to take the next step in the petition process - collecting thousands of voter signatures. ... Topics addressed by the questions still in the mix for the ballot in 2004 or 2006 include abolishing the motor vehicle excise tax, giving local officials the power to set high school graduation requirements, ending tolls on western portions of the Massachusetts Turnpike, and calling for health care coverage for everyone in the state. Signature-gathering will also soon begin on behalf of questions that would allow political candidates to be nominated by more than one political party, require binding arbitration for police officers and firefighters, and protect whales by restricting the types of allowable fishing gear and equipment. To have their proposals considered by the state Legislature, supporters of initiative petitions, which propose new state laws, must collection 65,825 registered voter signatures by Dec. 3, 2003. If the Legislature does not act on the petitions by May 2004, supporters must gather another 10,971 signatures by July to earn a spot on the 2004 ballot. ... Two of the proposals - one calling for universal health care and the other calling on residents to join a global union of democratic nations - would amend the state Constitution, an endeavor that is even more arduous. In addition to meeting the same signature requirements as initiative petitions, Constitutional amendment backers must also get their proposals approved by 25 percent of lawmakers meeting at two successive Constitutional Conventions, or joint meetings of the House and Senate. As a result, the earliest such proposals could reach the ballot would be 2006. Dr. John Goodson, a sponsor of the universal health care proposal, said unnamed groups challenged their proposal during the certification process, alleging that it was duplicative of language in a 2000 ballot question and questioning the legality of taking on health care access as a constitutional responsibility. ... In a 16-page legal analysis urging Reilly not to certify the health care question, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Retailers Association of Massachusetts and Associated Industries of Massachusetts said the question is unconstitutional, too broad to implement, would require court intervention, and would be "prohibitively expensive." They said the petition requires a plan for coverage for all residents and all "medically necessary" health care. "There is no conceivable public or private insurance program that can meet all of these requirements simultaneously," Douglas Wilkins wrote in the brief. ... Editorial Comment: There assuredly is a program to provide all medically necessary care to everyone: single-payer universal health insurance, cutting the overhead and bureaucracy that currently consumes nearly forty cents of every healthcare dollar in Massachusetts. If you live in or near Massachusetts, come to Gardner Auditorium in the State House in Boston on October 8th to show your support. And email us for more information on the campaign to amend the state constitution to make health care a right in Massachusetts. Let us know how many petitions you need. - SE State of the World: US turns to the Taliban Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times, June 14, 2003 <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EF14Ag01.html> Karachi - Such is the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, compounded by the return to the country of a large number of former Afghan communist refugees, that United States and Pakistani intelligence officials have met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being further ripped apart. According to a Pakistani jihadi leader who played a role in setting up the communication, the meeting took place recently between representatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Taliban leaders at the Pakistan Air Force base of Samungli, near Quetta. The source told Asia Times Online that four conditions were put to the Taliban before any form of reconciliation can take place that could potentially lead to them having a role in the Kabul government, whose present authority is in essence limited to the capital ... New Iraq needs labor unions They're a vital part of democratic societies Julius Getman & F. Ray Marshall, Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2003 <http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6262176.htm> In Iraq, we are now in the hard part: creating a viable society from the ashes of a murderous totalitarian regime. The task is daunting, but history and common sense tell us that it can be made easier by a policy that encourages the creation and support of democratic, independent trade unions. Since World War II, unions have been a barometer of liberty. Totalitarian regimes have not permitted strikes, collective bargaining or independent worker organizations. ... Bush deserves to be impeached Eric Margolis, Canoe, July 20, 2003 "Worse than a crime, it was a blunder," was how the cynical Talleyrand famously described Napoleon's murder of the Duke d'Enghien. The same may be said of President George Bush's attempts to murder the leader of a sovereign nation, Saddam Hussein, and his foolhardy eagerness to invade Iraq. Thanks to Bush's blundering, nearly 50% of US Army combat units are now stuck in a spreading guerrilla war in Iraq, costing $4 billion US monthly, that is becoming the biggest, most expensive, and bloodiest foreign mess since Vietnam. This when the US is threatening military action against North Korea. As the furor in Washington grows over Bush's admission of now-discredited claims about Iraqi uranium imports from Africa in his keynote state of the union address, administration officials are viciously blaming one another. ... Ten Questions For Cheney A letter from Representatives Dennis J. Kucinich, Carolyn B. Maloney and Bernie Sanders TomPaine.com, July 21, 2003 <http://TomPaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8417> While it has been widely reported that the President made a false assertion in his State of the Union address concerning unsubstantiated intelligence that Iraq purchased uranium from Niger, your own role in the dissemination of that disinformation has not been explained by you or the White House. Yet, you reportedly paid direct personal visits to CIA's Iraq analysts; your request for investigation of the Niger uranium claim resulted in an investigation by a former US ambassador, and you made several high-profile public assertions about Iraq's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. ... Scientist's Demise Stalks Blair Christine Boyd, Toronto Globe & Mail, July 21, 2003 British Prime Minister Tony Blair struggled yesterday to quell the biggest crisis of his leadership, ruling out his resignation over the apparent suicide of a government weapons expert but promising to take responsibility if an inquiry finds that the government had a role in the man's death. Mr. Blair persevered with a tour through East Asia despite a weekend in which journalists peppered him with questions about his role in the scandal over the handling of intelligence used to justify war against Iraq. But he was unable to shake the spectre of David Kelly, found dead with his left wrist slit near his Oxfordshire home on Friday. The British Broadcasting Corp. confirmed yesterday that the scientist was its source for a May report that Downing Street inflated the threat posed by Iraq. ... Don't Extend Them & Don't Replace Them Just Bring 'Em on Home Now! Stan Goff, Counter Punch, July 26, 2003 <http://www.counterpunch.org/goff07262003.html> On July 23rd, my son, who is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, was told along with the rest of his company at morning formation, to get his affairs in order. They are going to replace the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. Jessie spent his first thirteen years around the military, from which I retired just seven years ago right there in Ft. Bragg. It's no surprise, then, that in the face of all my protests he joined the army anyway. The military is 'normal' to him. His mother and I have been scrupulously 'normal' for the last few days, self-consciously so. ... I reassure her and myself that he is a light wheeled vehicle mechanic, that he won't be participating in convoys when his unit goes to Iraq in September, that Baghdad airport, where the motor pool probably is, has by now been turned into an impregnable fortress, that perhaps there wasn't as much depleted uranium fired there as in some Baghdad neighborhoods, that he won't be obliged to take lives and lose that little piece of his soul, that he won't fall into the habit of calling Iraqis ragheads or hajjis, that he can just save some money, do his job, and stay busy and out of harm's way. ... Why the US needs the Taliban Ramtanu Maitra, Asia Times, July 30, 2003 <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EG30Ag01.html> Since Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf made his much-acclaimed visit to Camp David and met US President George W Bush on June 24, new elements have begun to emerge in the Afghan theater. US troops in Afghanistan are now encountering more enemy attacks than ever before, and clashes between Pakistani and Afghan troops along the tribal borders have been reported regularly. On July 16, speaking to Electronic Telegraph of the United Kingdom, US troop commander General Frank "Buster" Hagenbeck, based at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, reported increased attacks over recent weeks on US and Afghan forces by the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other anti-US groups that have joined hands. He also revealed some other very interesting information: the Taliban and its allies have regrouped in Pakistan and are recruiting fighters from religious schools in Quetta in a campaign funded by drug trafficking. Hagenbeck also said that these enemies of US and Afghan forces have been joined by Al-Qaeda commanders who are establishing new cells and sponsoring the attempted capture of American troops. One other piece of news of import from Hagenbeck is that the Taliban have seized whole swathes of the country. ... Labor Boss (sic) Finds Himself Kingmaker of the Israeli Left Jo-Ann Mort, Forward, August 1, 2003 <http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.08.01/faces.html> Tel Aviv - Amir Peretz, chairman of the Histadrut labor federation, is a hot commodity these days, to the apparent surprise of just about everybody but him. He's emerged as the main threat to Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial budget reforms. His name is spoken with awe on the streets of Israel's urban slums and development towns. Politicians in Labor and the parties to its left talk about him as the white knight who will rescue them from oblivion. Heady stuff for the head of an institution usually thought of as a hidebound dinosaur. For that matter, he's not even a member of the Labor Party. ... Army probes cause of severe pneumonia Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press, August 6, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/218/nation/Army_probes_cause_of_severe_pneu monia+.shtml> Washington - The Army is telling troops to take precautions as it tries to figure out the cause of pneumonia cases, including two deaths, among forces in the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns. Officials are investigating the cause of some 100 cases of the illness counted since March, focusing on 15 cases so serious the patients had to be put on ventilators and flown to Europe, defense officials said at a Pentagon news conference yesterday. ''We're deeply concerned about the deaths,'' David N. Tornberg, a deputy assistant secretary for health policy. ''We'd like a comprehensive understanding to be available to the families ... of our servicemen so they better understand the nature of these conditions.'' ... Prewar neglect, postwar chaos plague hospitals Alex Rodriguez, Chicago Tribune, August 15, 2003 <http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0308150174aug15,1,3829669.s tory> Baghdad - Inside a darkened ward at Mortar Qassim al Mubarqaa Hospital in Baghdad's slums, a handful of patients are recovering from surgery in 104-degree heat on soiled sheets that haven't been changed for days. Many of the hospital's air conditioners don't work. Its generators, a lifeline for hospitals during Iraq's electricity crisis, sputter because Iraqis routinely splice into them. Hospital stockpiles of essentials - gauze, painkillers, vaccines, laboratory vials, even surgical gloves - are perilously low. A neighborhood hospital on the bottom rung of health care in Baghdad, Mortar Qassim is in dire need of assistance but has yet to see any of the $210 million the US-led coalition says it is committing to health care in Iraq, the hospital's doctors and nurses charge. "Nobody cares about this hospital," said Shareef Ahmed, chief of Mortar Qassim's 40-bed emergency room, which treats more than 1,000 patients a day. "We're getting no aid at all." ... In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime "War Makes Privatization Easy" David Bacon, Counterpunch, August 25, 2003 <http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/inthenews.php?singleItemFlag=1&news_id=1686> Iraq's legal code may be in disarray. The streets of Baghdad may be filled with thieves and hijackers who seem to have little fear of being arrested. But US occupation authorities seem to have no trouble identifying one crime, at least. For the four million people out of work in Iraq, protest is against the law. On July 29, US occupation forces in Iraq arrested a leader of Iraq's new emerging labor movement, Kacem Madi, along with 20 other members of the Union of the Unemployed. The unionists had been conducting a sit-in to protest the treatment of unemployed Iraqi workers by the US occupation authority, and the fact that contracts for work rebuilding the country have been given overwhelmingly to US corporations. Their protest started when hundreds of unemployed workers gathered in front of an old bank building on Abu Nawas Street. From there they marched to the office of the ruling occupation council. According to Zehira Houfani, a member of the Iraq Solidarity Project in Canada, who witnessed the protest, workers in similar demonstrations in the past had normally dispersed at that point. Each time, however, Madi told Houfani, "the representatives of the occupation forces meet and discuss with us, promise to solve the problem, but each time their promises are not fulfilled and we are forced to take to the streets again." On this occasion they decided to step up the pressure on US authorities. In the time-honored tradition of workers from Mexico to the Philippines, they set up a planton, or a tent encampment, outside the council gates. US soldiers on guard ordered them to disperse, but the workers refused. Night fell. Then, at one in the morning the soldiers returned, arrested 21 protesters, and took them inside the compound, where they were held until the following morning. ... Wounded, Weary And Disappeared Bill Berkowitz, TomPaine.com, August 28 2003 <http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8736> The nation reached a sad milestone in late August. With the death of an American soldier in a roadside bombing on August 29, the number of soldiers killed in Iraq after the official end of the war reached 139, exceeding the "postwar" casualty count. Nightline aired a feature; the Associated Press posted a story on the war dead - but most media outlets continue to ignore an equally dreary reality. In a summer dominated by the Bryant sex case, Arnold's debut in California's recall election and the killing of Saddam Hussein's sons, no hordes of television cameras await the planeloads of wounded soldiers being airlifted back to the states, unloaded at Andrews Air Force Base, and stuffed into wards at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other facilities. We see few photos of them undergoing painful and protracted physical rehabilitation, few visuals of worried families waiting for news of their sons or daughters. The men and women injured in Iraq and Afghanistan have become the new disappeared. ... Iraq Occupation Could Cost $29B a Year Alan Fram, Associated Press, September 2, 2003 <http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030902/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ira q_us_costs> Washington - A US occupation of Iraq that relies on the creation of two new Army divisions could cost up to an estimated $29 billion annually, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. Relying on existing soldiers serving one-year tours would cost as little as $8 billion a year but would mean the force would steadily shrink as troops were rotated out of Iraq, the study said. The report, released Tuesday, was requested by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., one of Congress' most outspoken critics of Bush administration policy in Iraq. In remarks on the Senate floor, Byrd said the report "is quantified evidence that the long-term occupation is straining our forces close to the breaking point." ... Number of Wounded in Action on Rise Iraq Toll Reflects Medical Advances, Resistance Troops Face Vernon Loeb, Washington Post, September 2, 2003 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12096-2003Sep1.html> US battlefield casualties in Iraq are increasing dramatically in the face of continued attacks by remnants of Saddam Hussein's military and other forces, with almost 10 American troops a day now being officially declared "wounded in action." The number of those wounded in action, which totals 1,124 since the war began in March, has grown so large, and attacks have become so commonplace, that US Central Command usually issues news releases listing injuries only when the attacks kill one or more troops. The result is that many injuries go unreported. The rising number and quickening pace of soldiers being wounded on the battlefield have been overshadowed by the number of troops killed since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1. But alongside those Americans killed in action, an even greater toll of battlefield wounded continues unabated, with an increasing number being injured through small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, remote-controlled mines and what the Pentagon refers to as "improvised explosive devices." ... Facing the truth about Iraq James Carroll, Boston Globe, September 2, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/02/f acing_the_truth_about_iraq> The war is lost. By most measures of what the Bush administration forecast for its adventure in Iraq, it is already a failure. The war was going to make the Middle East a more peaceful place. It was going to undercut terrorism. It was going to show the evil dictators of the world that American power is not to be resisted. It was going to improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis. It was going to stabilize oil markets. The American army was going to be greeted with flowers. None of that happened. The most radical elements of various fascist movements in the Arab world have been energized by the invasion of Iraq. The American occupation is a rallying point for terrorists. Instead of undermining extremism, Washington has sponsored its next phase, and now moderates in every Arab society are more on the defensive than ever. Before the war, the threat of America's overwhelming military dominance could intimidate, but now such force has been shown to be extremely limited in what it can actually accomplish. For the sake of "regime change," the United States brought a sledge hammer down on Iraq, only to profess surprise that, even as Saddam Hussein remains at large, the structures of the nation's civil society are in ruins. The humanitarian agencies necessary to the rebuilding of those structures are fleeing Iraq. ... Counting the Bodies Hard to Keep Track of the Dead in Iraq James Ridgeway, Village Voice, September 3 - 9, 2003 <http://villagevoice.com/issues/0336/mondo3.php> Amid increasing suspicions that the US media have been underestimating Iraqi casualties, here are the latest more or less reliable figures culled from several sources, including the government: Iraq Body Count (iraqbodycount.net) reported that the number of civilian deaths in Iraq ranges from 6,113 to 7,830. Military.com reports that as of August 28 a total of 281 US soldiers have been killed since the start of the invasion - that includes 143 since major fighting was declared "over" on May 1. The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count ( lunaville.org/warcasualties/summary.aspx), based on tallies from Centcom, the Defense Department and the British Ministry of Defence, shows that, as of August 27, 281 US soldiers, 50 British soldiers, and two "other" coalition soldiers have been reported killed. The estimated wounded? 1,212. But by far the most interesting and quite possibly most realistic report comes by way of Jude Wanniski, the supply-side economist and ex-Wall Street Journal reporter who has struck up a correspondence with Mohammad al-Obaidi, an Iraqi doctor living in Britain. Al-Obaidi coordinates the small Iraqi Freedom Party, which favors free enterprise and is both anti-Saddam and anti-US. ... Al-Obaidi told Wanniski that "hundreds of our party's cadre" spent five weeks interviewing undertakers, hospital officials, and ordinary citizens in all of Iraq (except for what's controlled by the Kurds) and came up with a total figure of 37,137 civilians killed since the beginning of the invasion, 6,103 of them in Baghdad. Those figures, according to al-Obaidi, do not include members of unofficial militias, paramilitary groups, or Saddam's Fedayeen units. Who's counting the dead in Iraq? Helen Thomas, Miami Herald, September 5, 2003 <http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/6695128.htm> Remember the enemy body counts during the Vietnam War? Some of those US tabulations were highly exaggerated in an effort to show gains on the battlefield. Well, we don't do that anymore. The Pentagon has meticulously reported the American fatality toll in Iraq, now up to 286. That number includes 183 deaths from hostile fire since the start of the war. It also includes 148 dead since May 1 when President Bush declared the end of major combat operations. A Pentagon spokesman said that 1,105 US service personnel have been wounded since the war began. That kind of numerical precision doesn't apply throughout Iraq. Trying to find the death count among Iraqis has proved to be mission impossible. I asked Pentagon officials: "How many Iraqis have been killed in this war?" The answers were given "on background" - meaning that the Pentagon spokesmen requested anonymity. The spokesmen were honest. They clearly were following orders from the policymakers when they replied that the Iraqi fatality toll was simply not our concern. ... Ex-Envoy Criticizes Bush's Postwar Policy Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post, September 5, 2003 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27846-2003Sep4.html> A former US commander for the Middle East who still consults for the State Department yesterday blasted the Bush administration's handling of postwar Iraq, saying it lacked a coherent strategy, a serious plan and sufficient resources. "There is no strategy or mechanism for putting the pieces together," said retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, and so, he said, "we're in danger of failing." In an impassioned speech to several hundred Marine and Navy officers and others, Zinni invoked the US involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s. "My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice," said Zinni, who was severely wounded while serving as an infantry officer in that conflict. "I ask you, is it happening again?" ... Muslims feel targeted, fear the future Dan DeLeo, The Patriot Ledger, September 10, 2003 <http://ledger.southofboston.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2003/Septe mber/10-1345-news02.txt> Quincy, Massachusetts - Zaida Hassan Shaw still cries when she recalls the hatred in the voice of a man who called her on Sept. 11. Sitting in her small, corner office at the Islamic Center of New England, a mosque in Quincy Point, Hassan Shaw spoke to many angry, confused people that day two years ago. But when the man on the other end of the phone line said, ‘‘I want your filthy religion out of my country,'' over and over, Hassan Shaw, the mosque's secretary, realized fully that her faith would long be misunderstood - and persecuted. ‘‘It was horrible,'' she recalled. ‘‘All I could do was ask God to forgive (the man's) ignorance.'' It has been two years since the Sept. 11 attacks, and although many local Muslims say they feel strong support within their communities, many remain fearful about the future. ‘‘These past two years have been the worst two years of my life here in America,'' said Imam Talal Eid, the spiritual leader of the Quincy mosque. ‘‘There are people who are committed to hatred, who just hate us. Period. Before Sept. 11, we weren't living a honeymoon, but it wasn't like this.'' The war in Iraq and the growing number of American casualties coupled with public unease about the conflict has made their religion a target all over again, some Muslims say. ... For bereaved mother, world is a bigger place Brian MacQuarrie, Boston Globe, September 11, 2003 <http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2003/09/11/for_bereaved_mother_worl d_is_a_bigger_place> Standing on a dust-carpeted New York sidewalk the day after the World Trade Center attacks, waiting for information about her missing son, Elinor Stout resolved that she would strive to make the world a better place. Stout decided to help bridge the chasm between the Western and Muslim worlds. Such a goal might seem startling in its sheer ambition. But coming from the mother of a 42-year-old man whose life ended high in the North Tower in an act of methodical, willful horror, it seems even more improbable. "I thought that this can't happen again in this country," said Stout, a former reporter for WGBH radio. "I thought that whatever I could do as a communications professional, for better understanding between East and West, I would do." Today, as relatives of the World Trade Center victims mark the second anniversary of the attack, Stout remains committed to transform that resolution into reality. The Watertown woman readily concedes that she had only a sketchy understanding of Muslim culture before Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, however, she has reached out to Muslim academics and activists in the Boston area, spoken at Trinity Church and elsewhere of the need for tolerance, and worked with organizations composed of victims' families. ... Bush Resignation Hailed by World Leaders Greg Palast, September 11, 2003 <http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=275&row=0> Washington - The surprise resignation of the forty-third President of the United States, George W. Bush, on the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on America was hailed by chiefs of state throughout the world. Mr. Bush announced that, after "two years of bloodshed, economic devastation, and spreading fear in America and abroad," he saw no choice but to accept that, "I have held a title which I did not win, and for which I have proven unqualified." ... America set to torpedo trade talks Nick Mathiason & John Madeley, The Observer, September 14, 2003 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/wto/article/0,2763,1041883,00.html> Cancún - Fears are growing that the United States could effectively walk away from crucial trade talks in the Mexican resort of Cancun aimed at solving the deepening economic and social crisis afflicting billions of the world's poorest people. As the World Trade Organisation negotiations entered their final hours, business leaders feared that efforts to strike a ground-breaking deal on trade distortions harming the developing world were in the balance. A high level source in the UK delegation told The Observer said: 'It's difficult to know what the Americans want. They're staying in their hotel. They're behaving like the Soviet Union in the Eighties. It's making it difficult to know what they want.' ... It is understood that the European Union has yet to make any significant concessions on agriculture, although these are expected to come later today. The EU is putting pressure on the Americans to conclude a deal on cotton which will see the Bush administration drop its subsidies to farmers. International power brokers are increasingly pre-occupied with a deepening alliance between Brazil, India and China, representing half the world's population. Senior government officials in Mexico say this will alter the geo-political balance, and it is understood to have made Washington deeply uneasy about a new rival to challenge its economic supremacy. A statement by ActionAid, War on Want and the World Development Movement said: 'The Brazilians have brought a sense of social justice to this conference which is a great antidote to the faux development agenda of the European Commission and the bullying behaviour by the US.' Across the US, Concern Grows About the Course of War in Iraq Adam Nagourney, New York Times, September 15, 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/15/national/15MOOD.html?th> Omaha - Becky Bunting, a 45-year-old job recruiter, was a big supporter of the invasion of Iraq and applauded the fall of Baghdad and President Bush's execution of the war. But these days, Mrs. Bunting is growing concerned about what is taking place there, unhappy with the mounting costs, disturbed by the casualties and, most of all, wondering how it is all going to end. "I am very worried about it," Mrs. Bunting, a Republican, said today as she lounged in the crisp September sun in the Old Market district here. "I have two brothers in the Navy. I think there are going to be a lot more casualties. I think we are in there for the long haul. "I believe we did the right thing," she said. "But I don't see a winning situation here for anybody." The sentiments expressed by Mrs. Bunting today were hardly unusual. A week after President Bush's speech seeking to rally support for the campaign in Iraq, the nation appears increasingly anxious about the war effort and worried that the United States may be trapped in an adventure from which there is no evident exit, according to interviews during the last five days with Americans across the nation, historians, social scientists and pollsters. Some people went so far as to suggest a comparison with an earlier military action that had an unhappy history: the war in Vietnam. ... Pop Quiz: The Bush/Blair/Howard invasion of Iraq took place in order to: a. privatize the oil reserves of the Iraqi people, rendering them accessible to Western oil corporations, b. create the base for a free trade zone in the Middle East, like NAFTA or FTAA, c. provide a boondoggle for such corporations as Bechtel, Halliburton and Stevedoring Services of America, d. all of the above. The Other September 11th: Musicians Gather in Homage to Allende Larry Rohter, September 7, 2003 <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/08/arts/music/08CHIL.html?th> Santiago, Chile - More than just a pair of concerts, it was also a kind of exorcism. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the bloody coup that overthrew the leftist government of Salvador Allende, some of Latin America's best-known pop, folk and rock stars performed over the weekend at the National Stadium here, the site of some of the worst atrocities committed by the government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. "The Dream Exists" was the name given to the two nights of music, in which artists from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay joined their Chilean colleagues in a tribute to Allende, who died in the Sept. 11, 1973, coup. Even India was represented with Shalil Shankar leading a quartet that performed a raga called "Salvador Allende, Son of God." ... Chile Pays Tribute to Slain Musician 30 Years Later Gabriela Donoso, Reuters, September 8, 2003 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41859-2003Sep8.html> Santiago, Chile - Though the music of Chile's Victor Jara for decades has been an international symbol of the repression suffered under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, and though Chile has been a democracy for 13 years, the government is only now paying homage to the man. Three decades after the musician with a social conscience was tortured and murdered by Pinochet's military government, the covered concert stadium in downtown Santiago where he was slain will finally be named after Jara. Jara's widow Joan, an English-born dancer, welcomed the government's decision as a miracle. "We've been requesting that the stadium be named after Victor for years but we never received an answer either way. Now, miraculously, it's going to happen," said Joan Jara, who has lived in Chile for most of her life. "Many people have never wanted to return to the stadium because they know people were tortured there, which is the case with a lot of places in Chile," Jara told Reuters in an interview. Chile's left-leaning President Ricardo Lagos will officially rename the stadium on Sept. 12, a day after the 30th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende. ... Mass Worldwide Protest During Republican Convention New York City: Sunday, August 29, 2004 <http://www.cofc.org/Newsflash/mass_worldwide_protest_during_th.htm> In the last three years, George W. Bush has presided over a radical right-wing takeover of the US government whose ramifications have been felt all over the world. Not only has he waged two wars, killing thousands of innocent people, during his short time in office, but he has also implemented a policy of pre-emptive war that violates international law and threatens global security. On the home front, unemployment soars, the federal budget deficit swells into the billions, and states prepare to slash funding for everything from healthcare to education, yet Bush responded with two huge tax cuts that will primarily benefit the wealthy rather than the people who are most in need. On every issue - from environmental regulations and international treaty participation to worker rights, civil rights and civil liberties - George W. Bush has pushed for unprecedented and destructive changes in US foreign and domestic policy that even more sharply favor corporations and the wealthy, especially Bush Administration supporters, at the expense of the people of the world and our environment. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration shamelessly uses the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001 to justify its aggressive and militaristic policies. In its most recent attempt to exploit the grief and fear that were provoked after September 11, the Republican Party pushed back its 2004 convention to August 28 - September 2, 2004 and will hold it in New York City, not far from Ground Zero. SAVE THE DATE: ON AUGUST 29, 2004, THE WORLD SAYS NO TO BUSH On February 15, 2003, millions of people all over the world took to the streets in protest with the message The World Says No to War. On August 29, 2004, we will come together in New York City and in cities throughout the world to say The World Says No to Bush! We are also organizing a protest for Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004, the day of Bush's official selection as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Initiated by United for Peace and Justice <http://www.unitedforpeace.org> a US anti-war coalition with more than 600 member groups. UFPJ looks forward to working with many other organizations on this day of protest, so please contact us at info@unitedforpeace.org if your group wants to work collaboratively on these actions and to let us know about other actions being planned to coincide with the Republican Convention. Let America be America again By Langston Hughes Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek - And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed! I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean - Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today - O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home - For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free." The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay - Except the dream that's almost dead today. O, let America be America again - The land that never has been yet - And yet must be - the land where every man is free. The land that's mine - the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME - Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again. Sure, call me any ugly name you choose - The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America! O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain - All, all the stretch of these great green states - And make America again! From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright (c) 1994 the Estate of Langston Hughes. 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