African American women in WW II
The LIberators. Fighting on 2 Fronts in World War 2
Three fronts. Testimonies of Black American veterans of WW 2
World War II Black experience
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Category Archives: United States
Expensive short cuts
Already evidence is emerging of risky short cuts to sink the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico which ended up killing 11 on the rig and spewing as yet uncalculated barrels of oil into the ocean. The cost to the environment both at sea and on land is also beyond estimate.
One lesson that won’t be learned is that Capitalism and the system it has spawned is not fit for purpose. As President Obama has found to his cost it is out of control. The mining disaster in the US was down to short cuts. Methane was trapped but the company took short cuts and didn’t allow venting so men died needlessly.
In the UK privatisation of the railways led to unnecessary risks with passengers’ lives. Those with many years experience of signaling and safety went and management was handed over to novices with little if any experience – or concern – in maintaining standards that were part and parcel of the existing organisation. In my experience when a business is taken over the management might go into the hands of an accountant. Knowledge of figures and profits is no substitute for the technical understanding from hands on experience which was carelessly tossed to the wind.
BP are determined to pay dividends to shareholders in spite of everything. The US government is doing what it can to ensure that compensation is paid out fully, if that’s possible in this case. It might have an effect on persuading others to take greater care, but we had the Exxon disaster before which didn’t prevent this bigger and better catastrophe taking place.
So Biden is the mouthpiece and apologist on behalf of the USA
We know where the Bush administration was coming from. Far right over the hills. Joe Biden sounds just like one of them. The problem is that it’s another administration that once proclaimed change. Many among the Jewish community don’t share this view as Jewish Voice for Peace comments.
The Israeli government is still refusing to release most of the members of the flotilla, so not much new information has emerged. But there have been a number of important reactions and comments summarized in the MERIP article below (‘Outlaws of the Mediterranean’ ) and on Democracy Now. Most of the reaction–both official and unofficial–have been highly critical of Israel; but with the conspicuous exception of the United States, which officially ‘regrets’ the incident and seeks to ascertain the facts. The US has already managed to scupper a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel and calling for an independent investigation.
Yesterday’s Democracy Now features interviews with Adam Shapiro, founder of the International Solidarity Movement (whose wife was on the Flotilla), Amira Hass (the only Israeli journalist based in the Occupied Territories), Ali Abunimah (founder of Electronic Intifada) and Richard Falk (an international lawyer and UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestine Territories).
Hass talks about a number of protests in the West Bank (including one at which an American student and ISM volunteer was attacked by Israeli forces with tear gas canisters and lost her left eye as a result) that have called, among other things, for the PA to cease dealing with the Israeli government in either negotiations or any form of security cooperation.
Falk is especially clear that the official Israeli propaganda strategy of focusing attention on whether Israeli commandos were attacked and were acting in self-defense is morally misplaced: the Israeli government launched an unprovoked attack on an unarmed civilian vessel in international waters; the Israeli government was therefore the aggressors and its commandos had no right of self-defense. The civilians being attacked did have such a right.
And Ali Abunimah clearly articulates the rage and outrage felt especially by Palestinians both about this incident and about the euphemistic, misleading and sometimes downright mendacious language that surrounds it.
Today’s Democracy Now contains an interview with Daniel Carmon, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN giving the official Israeli justification for the attack and an interview with Edward Peck, a former US Ambassador who was on one of the smaller flotilla ships and who criticizes the Carmon.
Alistair Welchman
Outlaws of the Mediterranean
From the Editors
June 1, 2010
At 4 am Eastern Mediterranean time on May 31, elite Israeli commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the deck of the Turkish-registered ship Mavi Marmara, part of an international “Freedom Flotilla” that had met in Cyprus and then set sail to deliver humanitarian relief supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip. The Mavi Marmara, the largest of the relief vessels, was carrying some 600 activists, mainly Turks but also others of diverse nationalities. The commandos fired live ammunition at some of the passengers, who Israel claims were lightly armed with metal rods or knives, and may have resisted the raid. Some reports say that other ships were also boarded and/or fired upon. The lowest reported death toll among the activists is nine, and the lowest number of wounded is 34.
The details are unclear, because Israel took custody of the entire flotilla and everyone on board, dragging the ships to the port of Ashdod, where the wounded are being treated and everyone else “processed” at a detention center prepared for the purpose. Communications with all the aid vessels were cut shortly after the raid, and journalists have strictly limited access to the Ashdod facility, which is located in the section of the port belonging to the Israeli navy. The news blackout has been near total, but official Israeli sources have made it known that those of the activists who are unhurt will be deported, except a handful who refused to sign deportation orders and will be jailed. Seven hundred activists in total were aboard the flotilla.
Reaction to the raid, from Turkey to the European Union to the UN, has been swift and (almost) universally condemnatory. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it an act of “state terrorism.” Turkey currently sits on the UN Security Council, which convened an emergency meeting. That meeting went into closed session as night fell on May 31. Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri dubbed the raid a “crazy move.” EU countries have summoned Israeli ambassadors to demand an explanation. “No one in the world will believe the lies and excuses which the government and army spokesmen come up with,” said Uri Avnery, a former member of the Israeli Knesset and leader of the Gush Shalom peace group in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu canceled a visit to Washington scheduled for June 1 — perhaps in tacit agreement with Avnery, though it seems at least possible that President Barack Obama did not wish to be seen “standing with Israel” on this
occasion. Publicly, in any case, the White House remains the odd man out, saying only that it “regrets the loss of life” and is “working to understand the circumstances of the tragedy.”
Much is unknown for certain about the commando operation, but it is nonetheless a moment of clarity in the ongoing drama surrounding Israel’s 43-year occupation of Palestinian lands and its ten-year siege of Gaza, which has been tightened to a stranglehold since the Islamist party Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. Once again, Israel has made the asymmetry of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict crystal clear. With this raid upon a peaceful ship on the high seas, Israel has made clear its disdain for international law — and its contempt for the notion that it will be held accountable for its violations. Israel will persist in this behavior until someone, and that someone is the United States, ends its impunity.
Who?
The “Freedom Flotilla” was a convoy of six ships, three bearing passengers and three cargo, organized by the Free Gaza Movement, a coalition of Palestine solidarity activists from Europe, North America, the Middle East and elsewhere. Two additional boats are being held in reserve in Cyprus. The Free Gaza Movement grew out of the first effort to bring aid by sea, in August 2008, when what organizer Huwaida Arraf called “two humble boats” arrived in the coastal strip with a shipment of hearing aids for Gazans deafened by the sonic booms of Israeli warplanes. Subsequent convoys have delivered other goods, despite attempts by the Israeli navy to deter them. In the summer of 2009, Israel interdicted an aid vessel and diverted it to Ashdod.
The activists are motivated by the desire to “break the siege of Gaza” and “raise international awareness” of Gazans’ plight, according the movement’s website. In one of eight “points of unity” on the site, the group members pledge: “We agree to adhere to the principles of non-violence and non-violent resistance in word and deed at all times.” These tactics, expressing activists’ frustration with the official international community’s inaction on Palestine and aiming to embarrass Israel in the global media, are in line with the peaceful campaigns of Palestinians and Israelis to stop construction of Israel’s wall in the West Bank. They also resemble the goals of the International Solidarity Movement, a group founded by Arraf and her husband Adam Shapiro that housed internationals with Palestinians in the West Bank (and, previously, Gaza) as witnesses to everyday excesses of occupation.
Arraf, a Palestinian-American, was aboard a smaller ship of the “Freedom Flotilla,” along with as many as 12 other US citizens, possibly including an ex-ambassador and also Code Pink activist Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel. Three German members of Parliament embarked on the boats, as well as nationals of Britain, Ireland, Greece, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Australia and Israel, perhaps among other countries. The precise passenger lists of the seized boats are unknown, due to logistical confusion in port in Cyprus. According to Shapiro, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, who was scheduled to travel to Gaza, remained in Cyprus, as did the Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan. Among the passengers who did depart is Hanan Zu’bi, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and member of Knesset. Thus far, the blackout has covered up her whereabouts as well.
On board the Mavi Marmara were hundreds of Turks affiliated with the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (known by its Turkish acronym, IHH), an Islamist organization whose relationship with Turkey’s “soft Islamist” ruling party, the AKP, is fraught. Close to the AKP’s more overtly Islamist precursor parties, which were banned by the Turkish courts, the IHH views the AKP as defectors who are insufficiently vocal in their engagement with “Islamic” issues, notably Palestine. The government did nothing to stop the IHH from departing for Cyprus, despite warnings from its nominal ally Israel, for fear that its own “Islamic” credentials might be further questioned. Early reports say that six Turks are among the dead, meaning that this incident will reverberate loudly in Turkish politics.
What?
Spin doctors in Israel have been working fast and furious to mold the metanarrative of what happened aboard the Mavi Marmara. The American mainstream media has mostly concentrated on Israeli allegations that some of the activists were carrying weapons and thus posed a threat to the lives of the highly trained Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told European diplomats that the ship’s passengers were “terrorist supporters who fired at IDF soldiers as soon as the latter boarded the ships.” An IDF-distributed video, shot from a helicopter, shows what appears to be a melee on deck and says the activists tried to “kidnap” a soldier. The goal is to spread the story that the commandos acted in self-defense. To this tale, Adam Shapiro replies, “Our understanding is that Israeli soldiers fired first.” In Ashdod, the Associated Press briefly glimpsed one American passenger, who blurted out, “I’m not violent. What I can tell you is
that there are bruises all over my body. They won’t let me show them to you,” before being hustled away.
Again, minus the carefully impounded testimony of the activists themselves, it is difficult to know what exactly precipitated the shooting. It is certainly clear that the raid itself was no panicking naval captain’s improvisation, but was approved by the Israeli security cabinet under the imprimatur of Defense Minister Ehud Barak. According to the IDF’s official statement, “This IDF naval operation was carried out under orders from the political leadership to halt the flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip and breaching the naval blockade.”
The dispute over who started the on-board combat misses the point, however. From a legal point of view, the Israeli operation was completely out of bounds and Israel is the aggressor. The raid occurred in international waters, meaning that Israel violated the convoy’s right of free navigation. Richard Falk, an international legal scholar and the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says that the raid is “clearly a criminal act, being on the high seas.” Falk explains that storming a peaceful boat is akin to a home invasion, with the aggravating circumstance that the invaded space in this case was packed with goods intended to alleviate human suffering. “The people on these boats would have some right of self-defense,” Falk continues, as they were the ones who were under unprovoked attack. Israel’s claim of self-defense is preposterous, no matter who threw the first punch, because Israel’s self is not located at sea.
Before the convoy sailed, Israeli passenger Dror Feiler speculated that if the Israeli navy tried to stop the ships by force, “they’ll be the new pirates of the Mediterranean.” The Free Gaza Movement has echoed this charge, as has the Financial Times in its May 31 editorial denouncing “this brazen act of piracy.” This particular accusation will not stick, for the simple reason that by maritime law a state cannot commit piracy, but again it is important not to get tangled up in words. Israel has no legal leg to stand on, because it mounted a military assault upon a civilian boat (which is not, by any conceivable law, barred from carrying knives and metal rods) in waters not its own.
Being fed pig swill
Will the new Tory Lib Dem alliance address the issue of big business pushing genetically modified food down our throats. There is talk of “two tier” food production, the one organic and available to those who can pay the price, the other produced from the untried, and therefore potentially harmful, mass produced g.m.crops. These will produce huge profits to their producers – the human equivalent of feeding pigs.
The power of corporate lobbyists like Monsanto is well demonstrated in pending US legislation where huge sums of money are being fed into g.m. development with no mention of alternatives. The trend is apparent elesewhere, including Britain and India, where the effectiveness of the lobbyists has been shown, Elected members are very keen to assist in this lucrative activity.
The arms dealers rule OK
We know that corporations have the power to persuade, influence, to dictate or override governments with the connivance of politicians who may be getting considerable gains for their efforts. It has been noted that in the UK election debate the fact that Britain is at war is not mentioned. While it is clear that many ordinary citizens want nothing of it, the arms dealers and their mates in government have different ideas. War is profitable, so let’s have bigger and better conflicts with ever increasing and sophisticated weaponry. As we saw in the Gaza conflict that weaponry inflicts greater damage and injury to frail human beings. Injuries to both humans and livestock was reported to be extraordinary in the way it severed limbs,. The use of supposedly banned materials such as phosphorous and depleted uranium has seen to it that the unborn suffers.
So it is good to see some action being taken in the US about continuing arms sales to Israel. Arms that will potentially kill and injure more Palestinians. Arms that might well be used for more widespread conflict in the Middle East as the hawks are straining at the leash to deal with Iran.
Another avoidable disaster
I received the following which includes a letter from a member of the West Virginia mining community which clearly identifies with the miners in the UK. The Washington Post has printed articles about how the private ownership repeatedly ignored warnings about safety violations and how lobbyists on Capitol Hill have managed to safety blunt regulations. The letter explains how in more detail.
On Monday 5th April 2010 at least twenty-five miners were killed in an explosion in the shafts of a West Virginia mine. The SLP sends its deepest condolences to their families and friends and to all the miners and families affected by this avoidable tragedy.
It was avoidable because the owners of this privately owned mine have consistently disregarded safety warnings. Literally hundreds of warnings over the last twelve months alone have been issued and subsequently ignored as the company put the desire for increased profit above the lives of the mineworkers.
The SLP has received a letter from a resident of West Virginia and we publish it below with his permission.
“Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics.”
Barack Obama’s conclusion at the eventual, and extremely narrowly won, introduction of the Health Bill, he stated “Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics.” How significant is this as a statement?
It can be conclude that Obama is admitting that he’s virtually on a hiding to nothing as president of a country dominated by vested interests of powerful corporations where profits are all and people come as a very poor consideration, valued for their purchasing power. Their welfare has to be fought over, and to his credit Obama succeeded where even Bill Clinton had previously failed. It has come to a great cost of his popularity ratings. The Republicans may have lost office but their power did not evaporate with it.
Contrast the mighty effort needed to get minimal reform in health care with berated Cuba, a small country best by continuing sanctions imposed by earlier administrations, but upheld by Obama’s. Cuba not only affords somehow to look after its own people, but exports health care to Latin American and Caribbean neighbours, African nations and the war torn regions like Afghanistan. Here Cuban doctors are trusted, along with Medicin-sans-frontieres, most among the international aid agencies. In Cuba such support is not seen as “charity” but as “duty”. Before the earthquake Haiti only free medical care was given by Cuba. The World Health Organisation looks to Cuba to see how its done. The answer lies in prevention. If people are stopped from falling ill in the first place then care is affordable for those who do. Poor beleaguered Britain whose National Health service is a source of pride, has been fined by the European Community for failing to meet air pollution targets. The money that could have gone to help those falling ill from asthma, lung problem s, cancers resulting from the pollution goes to the EU. Who benefits from this extraordinary action?
Obama is not likely to show signs of softening attitudes to Cuba or Venezuela as his health reform zeal has made him a reputation of introducing socialism. The Capitalists won’t stand for that!
Hillary in Latin America. Both feet first
When George W. Bush visited South American states in 2005 he left quickly. His stay in Argentina finished a day early when he was anxious “to get the hell out of town.” Hillary Clinton serves Barack Obama and so gets the benefit of the doubt, until that is she starts slagging off Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez. President Lula of Brazil and many other countries all share a healthy scepticism about the US and its interventions in the region and many realise the benefits that socialism brings to the people, notably the poor and dispossessed. Many feel empowered by having leaders who identify with their own communities like Evo Morales in Bolivia as well as Chavez. Clinton’s week long tour took in various countries with an itinary which included getting support from Brazil on Iran (their view – no more sanctions) and healing the split between Britain and Argentina over the Malvinas (???) Oh yes and there was quake struck Chile where communications equipment was taken along to assist.
What it takes, The US finally criticises Israel!
The Israeli government has finally managed to get the US administration to show a sign of frustration with its arrogant, self indulgent behaviour. It took some doing. Would you believe they announced the expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem when VP Joe Biden was in town, I had thought, according to earlier reports, that Biden had fallen over backwards, turned himself inside out, to indicate to the Israelis he was with them.
Even at this stage Biden is contriving to sound conciliatory and continued to make war-like noises threatening Iran. However the rebuke has been triggered by the settlement issue, always a precondition for peace talks between Israel and Palestine authorities, where even the enormities of Gaza, still emerging, failed to elicit a squeak.
Towards a Fifth Socialist International
Communism and communists were famously targets of McCarthy in the USA. Today Socialism is also a taboo word, not only in North America but across Europe. New Labour threw it out after Clause 4 was banished so now it is excluded from political discourse. Even at a conference organised by Compass, which puts itself on the left of New Labour attempts to refer to Socialism or its language (Common ownership) was taboo in the sessions I attended.
Now in Latin America there is a resurgence of socialism, and the reviled (in Western media) Hugo Chavez calls for a Fifth Socialist International
To illustrate the problem states like Venezuela face, criticism of Venezuela’s efforts to help Haiti was made in the Huffington Post. Why? It seems that Venezuela has not allied itself with a group effort because it was felt that much aid effort had the aim of landing lucrative contracts to rebuild this shattered nation. Already Haiti is the subject of continuing colonialisation. This is not what the socialist states of Venezuela and Cuba see themselves joining with.