CoTells theu Factsn and Nameste the NamesrPunch$2.50 November 1-15 2001 Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair VOL. 8, NO. 19

In This Issue What Workers Talk About ANOTHER BUMPER When They Talk About War SPECIAL ISSUE nonprofit sector, read out a statement is- BY JOANN WYPIJEWSKI WAR OR PEACE sued by an ad hoc group called “You know what they say: a conserva- City Labor Against the War: tive is a liberal who was mugged. I was “September 11 has brought indescrib- • “I Was Under Those under those towers, and it changed me”. able suffering to ’s work- Towers and It Changed Dan Walker, a firefighter with Engine 212 ing people. We have lost friends, family Me, and It Hurts My in , had noticed my red, white members and coworkers of all color, na- Heart to Say That.” and blue peace sign button, and somehow tionalities and religions—a thousand of the conversation turned to the subject of them union members. An estimated one Dan Walker, Firefighter, war. They call 212 The People’s Firehouse hundred thousand New Yorkers will lose Engine 212, Brooklyn because back in the1970s, when arson was their jobs. We condemn this crime against New York City’s de facto redevelopment humanity and mourn those who perished. •”We Believe That policy and firehouses in poor and work- We are proud of the rescuers and the out- ing-class neighborhoods were being shut pouring of labor support for victims’ fami- George Bush’s War Is down like runaway factories, the people lies. We want justice for the dead and Not the Answer.” of Williamsburg successfully fought to safety for the living. And we believe that New York Labor save it. Walker told me he’d never been George Bush’s war is not the answer…” Against the War much of a drum-beater for war, but some- When she finished, adding that the thing as arbitrary as time—the fifty-four statement had been endorsed by her local, seconds between when he, his engine- by twelve principal officers of city unions, • “It’s Still the Same mates and some workers at the World by 260-plus New York unionists and 100- System.” Russ Davis, Trade Center escaped from Tower One and plus labor people from around the coun- Jobs With Justice saw it collapse—“that changed me, and it try, there was polite applause and some hurts my heart to say that, it really hurts unspoken anger. Between the silence and my heart, but it did”. the tears lies a space for all the conversa- MARK GREEN’S LOSS I met Walker at a bar called Teddy’s, tions within labor that haven’t happened, where some of the same people who’d or have happened half-way, the conversa- • Another Epitaph to fought for the firehouse were holding a tions about war and foreign policy that some people are too afraid even to con- White Liberal Racism fundraiser for HERE Local 100, whose members used to have jobs at Windows sider, and that others believe must begin, on the World. More than a month had and soon. The question is, How? PLUS... passed since the towers fell, but restau- Working-class people have typically rant workers who’d lost seventy-five col- not been the first ones to show up at a leagues, union and nonunion, were crying peace rally. Individual workers and unions • Anthrax as Normalcy as if it had been only days. In most of the opposed the war in Vietnam, but it wasn’t city the memory is not quite so raw. There until 1971 that unions acting in concert • America’s Most are services to provide, an economy on the broke with the AFL-CIO to form Labor Wanted: Pancho Villa skids and, for some, a war to think about. Against the War. In the 1980s labor com- Earlier that evening at a meeting of the ponents emerged in the nuclear freeze, New York Central Labor Council, Brenda antiapartheid, and Central America soli- • Odd Hitchens Claim Stokely, president of AFSCME Local 215/ darity movements, but it’s not as if every DC1707 representing city workers in the (Workers continued on page 5) 2/COUNTERPUNCH NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 conditions for the murders of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismund, among too OUR LITTLE SECRETS many others. White voters may not have paid attention to this-but black voters did. Green’s attacks on Fernando Ferrer, his WHY GREEN LOST have hammered as a signal of how he’ll Hispanic opponent in the run-off-New Dave Marsh sends us this report. Aside handle those conflicts. If the conflict is- York primaries, weren’t based on Ferrer from being a longtimeCounterPuncher, sue arose during the mayoral campaign, it being a political hack, which he is, but Dave coedits the terrific Rock ’n Rap Con- wasn’t Mark Green’s doing. were laced with implications that Ferrer fidential. The last week of the campaign, was unqualified because he came from the In the November 2001 elections, the Bloomberg fell into an embrace with Rudy wrong part of town. When a Bloomberg Northeast was swept by Democrats. For Giuliani who, even since 9/11, remains staffer got caught with racist literature, the the first time in decades, Democrats in feared and hated by black and Latino vot- staffer lost his job. But when it was re- New Jersey seized the governorship and ers. In fact, Giuliani was vulnerable to vealed that Green’s aides held a meeting both houses of the legislature. In Connecti- exposure of the autocratic, thuggish, de- in Brooklyn to figure out how to exploit cut, Democrats took over almost the en- ceitful way he actually ran affairs down- Ferrer’s ties to Al Sharpton in order to tire city government of Norwalk, the may- town during the post-WTC attack crisis. win more votes from Jews there, Green or’s post in Waterbury, and even the city Mark Green had the same information did nothing. As a result, Ferrer refused to government of Greenwich, the Bush fam- about Giuliani being Giuliani that campaign for Green; Sharpton threatened ily seat. But in New York City, where CounterPunch ran several weeks ago. (I a black boycott of the election; and all the Democratic registrations outnumber Re- know, because I gave it to his staff.) It major black-owned media supported publican by 4-1, the guy who got elected came from notes taken by a city council Bloomberg. mayor is not only a Republican political member with comments from other offi- Green got less than half the Latino vote novice who trailed by double digits com- cials from the affected area. Green never in a city where Democrats always do much ing out of the primary, he’s a Red Sox fan. used it, even though he was tarred and better. Bloomberg got almost 30 per cent Mark Green never mentioned it. feathered for saying he could have done of the black vote, which cost Green at least is also a billion- as well or better than Giuliani in manag- ten to 15 points. Sounding like a Naderite aire with a business deeply entangled in ing the crisis. talking about Al Gore, Muhammad said city affairs, and he’s made no effort to re- But that doesn’t explain why Green that Green winning “would have been a move himself from it while spitting in the lost the election. Nor was it the fact that great tragedy”. What happened here in eye of city campaign finance regulations such big name Democrats as and New York was predictable, not because by spending $60 million to get the job, Hugh Carey turned on Green out of per- Mark Green is a fool but because this is which you’d think his opponent would sonal dislike or because of Green’s pa- the way the Democrats now run their af- thetic last-minute attack ads slamming fairs. Bloomberg for sexual harassment. It Green has been trying to become a Editors wasn’t even because Green was the only high elected official since he ran for the ALEXANDER C OCKBURN idiot in the Democratic primary willing to Senate against Al D’Amato in 1986. That JEFFREY ST. C LAIR say that, because Rudy was so swell at year, he asked me, through a contributor, handling things after the attack that the for help gaining access to performers to Business Manager Mussolini of the Hudson should be given help in his campaign. When told that the BECKY G RANT the extra months in offices for which he’d price was helping to register minority vot- Design been whining. ers in Harlem, Green responded (I was DEBORAH THOMAS Mark Green isn’t mayor of New York told), “I can’t do that, I’m Jewish”. Imag- today because black voters finally said ine a black candidate saying such a thing. Counselor “enough” to white liberal racism and Green, who could not have won the elec- BEN SONNENBERG spited him by voting for his opponent. tion without a huge black turnout, was They had good reason for doing so. Green trounced, visiting six more years of Published twice monthly except spent a year trying to have it both ways. D’Amato sleaze upon the nation. August, 22 issues a year: He had solid credentials as the only big- In 1992, learning nothing from this, the $40 individuals, name pol in town who had consistently Democrats ran Robert Abrams against $100 institutions/supporters attacked Giuliani for his bullying and big- D’Amato. This was the same Robert $30 student/low-income otry. But his first move in the campaign Abrams who had just written the report CounterPunch. assailing Sharpton and company for their All rights reserved. was to bring forth Bill Bratton, the police CounterPunch commissioner Giuliani deposed for being behavior in the Tawana Brawley affair. To 3220 N. St., NW, PMB 346 better liked than the mayor. The message say that this was tone-deaf to race is re- Washington, DC, 20007-2829 Green thought he was sending may have dundant. Abrams also got trounced. When 1-800-840-3683 (phone) been about sticking it to Rudy. But Bratton Giuliani signalled his political intentions 1-800-967-3620 (fax) is mainly a cop, and not just a cop but a by participating in a racist anti-David www.counterpunch.org cop who pioneered the police profiling and Dinkins police riot on the steps of City stop-and-search techniques that created the Hall, prominent Democrats did nothing to NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 3/COUNTERPUNCH head him off. Again, there was no outreach Longshoremen’s Association picketed the struggles can rise where we least expect to minority voters, even though Rudy arrival of a container ship owned by them. The Charleston longshoremen and called Dinkins, the city’s first black mayor, Nordana, which had abruptly switched to their allies can take pride in having shown “a washroom attendant”. nonunion labor. what persistence and solidarity can accom- Back to the recent race. “I think the To the surprise of the workers, over plish, even in the hostile labor hinterlands [Democratic] Party is in intensive care 600 state and local riot cops were also on of the South. from self-inflicted wounds”, Sharpton told hand, massed by air, land and sea in a show Chris Kromm is Director of the Insti- the N.Y. Daily News. To confirm it, party of force. Tensions flared, punches thrown, tute for Southern Studies, based in Dur- chairman Terry McAuliffe condemned not and several workers were arrested. The ham, NC, and publisher of Southern Ex- Green but the pollster and consultant, both case was set to vanish into court docket posure magazine. Democrats, who created ads showing vot- dust, the local authorities pressing only http://www.southernstudies.org ers saying they were Democrats who minor misdemeanor charges. But the couldn’t vote for Green because of the rac- state’s Attorney General and aspiring gov- ANTHRAX AS NORMALCY: ism of his attacks on Ferrer. In fact, all ernor, Charlie Condon, had other plans. Bloomberg’s consultants were Democrats Concluding that to put black union work- 500 CASES A YEAR including the notorious David Garth, who ers in their place was the perfect way to Imagine if the anthrax attacks had ran the racist campaigns of Ed Koch and launch a political career, Condon singled killed nearly 500 people, instead of the Al Gore in hs ’88 New York primary, and out the Charleston Five - Jason Edgerton, four in the US who have died from the William Cunningham, adviser to Daniel Elijah Ford, Kenneth Jefferson, Ricky bacteria so far. Consider further the out- Patrick Moynihan, the white supremacist Simmons, Peter Washington - for felony rage that would most certainly erupt had who coined the terms “benign neglect” charges including rioting and conspiracy it come out that the US government knew and “speciesization” to defraud and de- to riot. The busy Condon even assigned about the anthrax outbreak in advance, but fame black people. himself to prosecute the case, promising failed to take any action to protect people In fact, since Bloomberg was a Demo- “jail, jail and more jail” for the 2nd and from the disease. Then factor in the big crat until he decided he wanted to be 3rd generation longshoremen. drug companies, which have refused to mayor, it would make much more sense Condon’s crusade backfired. First administer out life-saving vaccines be- for McAuliffe to announce that the Demo- Southern progressives, then the national cause to do so might undermine their lu- crats were officially merging with the Re- AFL-CIO and dock workers worldwide crative patents. Mark Green isn’t mayor of New York today because black voters finally said “enough” to white liberal racism and spited him by voting for his opponent. They had good reason for doing it. publicans in order to prevent such unnec- ignited a campaign to free the besieged Sound far-fetched? Hardly. This is a essary conflict in the future. ILA members, culminating in a 5,000- rough description of what has been going strong rally in Columbia, S.C., this past June. on in Haiti since the mid-1970s, where VICTORY IN SO. CAROLINA Longshoremen overseas threatened to close nearly 500 people contract anthrax every ports if the case even went to trial. The out- year. You can search the major media and Chris Kromm sends us this victory pouring of support soon caused Condon to the US government in vain for coverage bulletin, fitting coda to his piece in decide this was a case he could not win - of what can only be called an on-going CounterPunch on the Charleston 5 ear- and he abruptly removed himself from the crisis. At most, CounterPunch has been lier this fall. case, dumping it on a local Charleston pros- able to locate a few press releases from The Charleston Five are free. The case ecutor in October. the State Department warning US tourists of the South Carolina longshoremen, It was an especially sweet turn of jus- about this danger and a move by the Com- whose minor picket-line scuffle with po- tice that, only days after Condon fled the merce Department to restrict the import lice nearly two years ago swept them into scene, the local prosecutor took stock of of certain goods made from animal hides, a colossal conflict with the state’s anti- his own chances, and struck a deal with though not major league baseballs, which union elite, quietly came to a close this the Five. Each would plead “no contest” are manufactured in Haiti by workers mak- week when felony rioting and other to one count of participating in a nonvio- ing about twenty cents an hour. charges against the Five were dismissed lent “riot, rout, or affray”, a minor Here is the text of an advisory from in a Charleston court. misdemeanor usually reserved for bar- the Commerce Department : “Consumers How a dockside skirmish exploded room brawls, and carrying a fine of $100 who may have goatskin items such as into one of the South’s biggest labor bat- - the exact same charge originally brought bongo drums, wineskins, hassocks, small tles in decades is instructive, and helps against the workers last year, before rugs, decorative wall coverings (mosaics), explain why “Free the Charleston Five!” Condon entered the fray. ‘balancers’, ladies’ purses or unfinished became an international rallying cry and The labor movement learned a few les- goatskin hides known to have been im- lit new fire under the Southern labor move- sons in this long road back to square one. ported from Haiti should place the prod- ment. It was in January 2000 that 150 It discovered that labor solidarity cam- ucts in a sealed plastic bag and call a local mostly African-American members of the paigns work, and that militant worker or State health department for disposal Charleston-based International 4/COUNTERPUNCH NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 instructions. Consumers should not at- GET PANCHO VILLA! “pushed around”. Plus, a short little war tempt to sterilize the product, incinerate A history lesson from CounterPuncher with Mexico might quiet the “prepared- it, or throw it away because of the risk of Cheyney Ryan. ness” zealots like Theodore Roosevelt who additional contamination.” A better name than “war” for the US’s were calling for the US to dive into WWI. The fact that so many American tex- activities in Afghanistan might be “puni- The only real sceptic was Army chief tile corporations have moved their sweat- tive expedition”. This would bring out the of staff General Hugh Scott, who replied shop operations to Haiti to exploit patheti- parallels between the current engagement thus to Wilson’s call for war: “Mr. Presi- cally low wages doesn’t seemed to have and an earlier ill-fated venture into an arid dent, do you really want to make a war on prompted much concern for the health of land—-the US invasion of Mexico to cap- one man?” General Scott saw the absurd- their workers. Indeed, the only detailed ture Francisco “Pancho” Villa. ity here. If Villa gets on a train and goes analysis of the situation that we can find The event that prompted the “punitive to South America, he asked, “Do you in- comes from the college of veterinary medi- expedition” was Villa’s 1916 raid on tend to go after him?” In reply, Wilson cine at Louisiana State University. Accord- Columbus, New Mexico, a small town sit- suggested declaring war on no one in par- ing, to the LSU study, “27% to 50% of ting three miles north of the Mexican bor- ticular—just “whoever attacked the town goatskin products are contaminated. Dur- der. Villa’s early morning raid, involving of Columbus”. (Does this sound familiar?) ing 1973–77 there were 1,587 human an- a band of 500, in no way compares with But when Mexico’s Carranza protested thrax cases reported in the southern pe- the magnitude of the 9/11 crimes: only loudly, Wilson finally named the so-called ninsula or 317 per year; 85 cases in 1983; about 17 US citizens were killed, about “bandit” Villa as the enemy of what was and 1,396 cases during 1985 to 1988, or half soldiers and half civilians. But the now labeled a “punitive expedition”. 349 per year.” Then, amazingly, between political motives behind the raid provide Poor Carranza. Hoping to avert inva- 1989 and 1993, no one even surveyed hu- an interesting parallel to today’s events. sion, he desperately sought to assure the man anthrax cases. When the surveys re- The background was the Mexican US President that he would work with him sumed again in 1993, it turned out that in Revolution and the US’s erratic, self-serv- to capture Villa. Wilson wanted none of it. Like our current President, all he wanted “An entire family on our support program was an apology and the handing over of died of pulmonary anthrax . They lived Villa—-even though Carranza had no more clue than Wilson as to his wherea- down wind from a tannery.” bouts. The “punitive expedition” is not much that year more than 100 people contracted ing response to it. In 1911 President spoken of in US history books, mainly the disease. In 1995, 449 people contracted Porfirio Diaz was overthrown by a popu- because it was an embarrassing failure. At anthrax. During these years, more than lar revolution opposed to the old dictator’s the head of a military force that would 700,000 cows and goats were vaccinated subservience to the wealthy and to foreign eventually number over 110,000 soldiers against the disease. No humans were given interests. The US’s response veered back was General John Pershing, whose back- vaccinations. and forth between sabre-rattling and sup- ground included the suppression of popu- “We have an emergency medical clinic port for whichever figure it thought might lar revolts in the Philippines. Pershing in Cap Haitien, dealing mostly with burns, protect its $1 billion in direct investments. knew about the rough, dry terrain he faced but have been working in the north of Haiti After assisting in the overthrow of in Mexico, parts of which bear an eerie for over 30 years,” Eva DeHart, of For Haiti Victoriano Huerta by sending troops to resemblance to the mountains of Afghani- With Love tells CounterPunch. “Anthrax is Mexico’s main seaport, Veracruz, the US stan. But his plan was to prevail through normally ingested in Haiti. The animal gets waffled for a time between support for his massive technological advantage, sick, they slaughter it in the market quickly Venestiano Carranza and his northern ri- mainly airplanes and hot-air balloons (the and unsuspecting victims take it home, cook val, Pancho Villa. It was the US’s opting former being new to warfare). What it, eat it, and because of their already mal- for Carranza that led to the Columbus raid. Pershing did not count on was the total nourished condition and lack of avail- Villa assumed (as Osama bin Laden hostility of the populace who sabotaged able medical care they die. They also assumes) that picking a fight with the US him at every occasion and kept Villa con- contract the disease from the factories. would make him a hero in the eyes of the stantly apprised of his pursuer’s move- An entire family on our support program masses. Even better would be to provoke ments. died of pulmonary anthrax . They lived an outright invasion which would further Pershing’s aimless chase eventually down wind from a tannery when they enhance his status and force the fence-strad- landed him deep into the Mexican coun- were tanning infected hides. I can’t re- dling Carranza to cast his lot with American tryside, where he suddenly faced the pros- member a time where you were not ad- imperialism. It was a fine plan and the US pect of a full scale attack by Mexican sol- vised to avoid skins and hides with hair was quick to play its assigned role. diers supported by Carranza, who had now for items being bought to bring home, The outcry was immediate. We must thrown his hat in the ring against the Yan- and we have been working down there “shoulder the trusty Springfield” and “de- kees. With anti-American riots in every for 30 years. It is a poor country, you fend The Flag, Old Glory” one headline Mexican city, and some of his own troops just accept certain restrictions for your shouted. Villa’s raid was the first foreign mutinying back in New Mexico, own safety.” attack on American soil since the War of Pershing’s aim shifted from capturing Villa 1812. President Woodrow Wilson felt he to getting his army out alive. A major prob- had to show that the US would not be (War continued on page 8) NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 5/COUNTERPUNCH (Workers continued from page 1) dissent on what one member called “OUR membership meeting followed a union hall hosted study circles discussing war”. Despite the concentration of pro- disinvolving pattern. The president, Arthur disarmament and imperialism. Now from gressive unionists in Boston, there has Cheliotis, who’d signed the New York all corners comes the refrain “Everything been no effort there to address the war statement, held forth admirably on the war changed with September 11”, but within outside personal conversations. In San and its ramifications; “none of the members organized labor one can’t consider the jan- Francisco the Central Labor Council for- said much of anything”, according to one gle of responses to that barbarity without also mally adopted an antiwar position similar who attended, “but, then, meetings aren’t noting echoes of history. If labor is having to the one articulated in New York. Out of structured for people to say anything”. trouble talking about foreign policy it’s not Washington, DC, staff members of Interna- Maybe most everyone was on the same page, just because of the extraordinary emotion tional unions initiated another statement de- or maybe they just thought the union hall aroused by an unprecedented attack on ploring the “cycle of violence”. As for the isn’t the place for such conversations. American civilians; it’s also because la- spirit of rank and filers, that was probably There are plenty of people in labor, bor has had such trouble for many years. captured best by SEIU International presi- plenty of them longtime leftists, who don’t Now AFL-CIO president John dent Andy Stern, who characterized the 1.3 think it’s the place. Maybe they were never Sweeney says that labor is with “our presi- million service workers in the union as: open about their politics, maybe for all dent” on the war, but no one is under any “Antiwar activists who now believe their years in they never built a base illusion that he has the kind of seat at the that strong action is needed; Mothers around issues that weren’t strictly eco- table that Sidney Hillman occupied during whose children are in the Reserves, and nomic; certainly they rarely had to talk about World War II or even that George Meany have been called to war, and who wonder war, and now, with thousands of workers had during Vietnam, and he certainly doesn’t whether they will ever return; People who dead, more threatened with anthrax, and an have the kind of numbers or member disci- do not trust our government to act with official enemy who is a theocratic terrorist pline. A lot of things had changed before restraint; Others who want clear-cut re- millionaire, they too are confused and fear September 11, and what makes the current venge; People who are confused because being marginalized or worse. In Lynn, Massachusetts, an IUE Local 201 vice president reprinted the New York labor antiwar statement in her column in the union newspaper and, for that, is being called on by some to step down. period so remarkable given the enormity of they hold seemingly contradictory “This thing has hit the psyche of the loss is the lack of consensus. thoughts in their head.” American people, of course it has, and we In Cleveland, Bruce Bostick, an organ- Stern suggested that the best course of have to address that”, says Ray Laforest, izer for the United Steelworkers, says, action was honest, respectful discussion. one of the conveners of the New York la- “Regular people all over America are re- There is a problem, though, because in bor group and an organizer with AFSCME ally confused right now, and since unions unions, as in so much of America, the ur- District Council 1707, whose offices are are organizations of regular people, unions gency of a subject long neglected has ex- near the Trade Center. “Symbolically, to are confused”. In the immediate aftermath posed the inadequacy of structures long see those towers fall down, it’s incredible. of the attacks, Steelworkers president Leo molded to inhibit discussion. “What this It’s like our whole world is collapsing. We Gerard counseled against “repeat[ing] this thing has shown more than anything is that cannot accept traditional approaches, but most recent tragedy by harming innocent our political program ain’t worth shit”, we cannot go and hide either simply be- men, women and children who, because Bernard Moore, an organizer with SEIU, cause we don’t have all the answers. It was of geography, find themselves in harm’s told me. “Our members will pay the COPE important to be immediately visible. Bush way”. Meanwhile, Tom Buffenbarger, [political action] funds, they might even for me does not represent the United president of the Machinists, was foaming, vote for whoever the leadership recom- States. He stole the election and in a very “It is not simply justice we seek. It is mends, but they won’t look to us for guid- real way he’s stealing the national interest vengeance, pure and complete”. In New ance on questions like this. Members now. We have to discuss how this did not York SEIU/1199, representing 210,000 aren’t coming to us to ask, What’s a clear happen in a vacuum. And we have to be hospital workers, officially declared its way of thinking about this? They’re look- honest. The people who have done this opposition to war, noting with pride that, ing to the press, looking to the President; have no notion of class. They are funda- as in the Vietnam era, it was the first un- we’re like the fourth or fifth in line. We’ve mentalists, following a script. But then ion to do so. At a General Electric plant in got to ask ourselves why?” there is the videotape of [former U.S. na- Lynn, Massachusetts, an IUE Local 201 Part of it is structural: in SEIU, the tional security adviser] Brzezinski telling vice president, Lyn Meza, reprinted the enormous locals (some spanning several these same people when they were fight- New York labor antiwar statement in her states), the heavy reliance on staff, most ing the Russians, ‘God is on your side.’ column in the union newspaper and, for of whom did not come up living the expe- I’m not saying it’s easy; we have to have that, is being called on by some to step riences of a typical SEIU service worker; a more complex discussion than usual. If down. This is a local that has actively pro- in almost every union, the top-down na- we do not, we have a lot to lose. This is a tested the WTO and the FTAA, but now ture of the organization or a culture of dis- very dangerous time, but being on the de- its paper is thick with denunciations of engagement. Even in a progressive local fensive is not enough”. Meza and anyone else who would voice like CWA 1180 in New York, a recent The question of national interest and 6/COUNTERPUNCH NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 who’s ceding it to whom is not academic. an admonition against anti-Muslim bigotry York garment workers, already living on By now the story of Sweeney bellowing but was silent on war. Now it and its thirty- the edge, saw their work disappear almost furiously in the halls of Congress when five chapters are feeling their way forward. as quickly because trucks could not move Senate Republicans filibustered a $2.5 bil- In Cleveland, workers involved with and retailers canceled orders. UNITE!, lion relief package for airline and aviation the organization tell me it is proceeding which had earlier hired an organizer from workers is famous. Earlier he, with many as if September 11 hadn’t happened. In the Direct Action Network and once con- workers, was appalled when House ma- Washington state, the chapter has come out templated chartering a train to bring nee- jority leader Dick Armey dismissed the against war, resisting the national office’s dle trade workers to Washington for the (ul- idea of including such emergency relief caution, while also expressing concern for timately canceled) IMF/World Bank protests in the airline bailout package as “not com- the safety of American soldiers. In New in late September, has now launched a “Buy mensurate with the American spirit”. York City it is involving itself in the de- New York” campaign, and its president, Sweeney was similarly shocked when the bate over rebuilding and the burden of the Bruce Raynor, another sixties antiwar vet- right equated fast-track authorization with economic crisis (its director attended the ini- eran, is giving “America’s New War” a the fight against terror, and when the Re- tial labor antiwar meeting but then removed pass.“Terrorism”, as one AFL staffer put publican Governor of Oklahoma rallied her name from the list of endorsers). In Mas- it, “fucks up the united front forever”. the state to “defend freedom” by voting sachusetts the chapter director, Russ Davis, Meanwhile, the labor right has shown for a “right to work” initiative. (The AFL says, “I think we have a responsibility to no restraint on war. At the recent Transit had expected no more than 400,000 peo- remember what was going on September Workers Union convention in Las Vegas ple to vote; 850,000 turned out, striking a 10. It’s still the same system; the same every delegate was handed a flag; giant blow against terrorism by adopting the forces are still running the world. At this video screens displayed billowing Stars antiunion laws.) Now the AFL is rightly point, I don’t see much of a base for an anti- and Bars; there were patriotic hymns and pointing out how much of a disaster the war movement. But there are two wars go- a resolution embracing war by the same aftermath of the attacks have been for ing on, parallel and interlinked, at home and International leadership that tacitly en- workers: the 108,500 union and nonunion abroad. And people are going to see the war dorsed the circulation of literature linking jobs lost in New York since September 11; at home much sooner. They’re going to be the TWU New Directions reformers to a the 572,923 layoffs nationwide; the loss of health benefits for over a million peo- “I think we have a responsibility to re- ple; the unavailability of unemployment insurance for 60 percent of displaced member what was going on September workers, and the inadequacy of benefits for the rest; the grim employment pros- 10. It’s still the same system.” pects when 8 million Americans are job- without a job; they’re going to be without Red and ruinous conspiracy for “union less; the three out of four taxpayers who health care. That’s going to open their eyes democracy”. On another day in another get no relief at all from Bush’s “economic and lead to fundamental questioning of the setting United Federation of Teachers stimulus” package while the richest cor- system. We have to maintain our forces in president Randi Weingarten pumped for porations get a refund of $25 billion and the field for the war at home. If you work war and then denounced anyone who op- many multibillion-dollar goodies to boot. with people on those issues, maybe you can posed it as a supporter of terrorism. For raise the war abroad and all the stuff about goals, that last statement she was booed by some he weekend before the attack, Jobs policies, intentions, class interests, but it’s part of the rank and file. But where is the alter- TWith Justice, the national coalition of of a process”. native—right here at home—for those who unions, students, environmentalists and re- Looking at it from the outside, it would booed? It’s not to be found in most of ligious people which has been deeply in- seem that organizing around issues of glo- what’s constituted itself as “the anti-im- volved in the globalization movement, bal economic violence should be able to perialist left”. In New York since Septem- held its annual conference. The crowd, at pass naturally to issues of actual violence, ber 11 I’ve heard too many “leftists” skip about 900, was bigger than ever; the dis- terror and war. That it hasn’t suggests in an instant from the 5,000 dead to the fact cussion, on global capitalism, international again that if “globalization” is an ocean, that “people in the Third World die every labor solidarity, the crises of inequity and labor is still wading near the beach. The day”, as if the one could cancel out the other. Third World debt, was rich; the spirit, ebul- shift from “Save Our Jobs” and “Buy A longshoreman with the IBU/ILWU lient. Two days after the conference ended, American” to “Cancel the Debt” and “The out of Seattle, Jeff Engels, expressed better the twin towers collapsed, and almost im- World Is Not for Sale” has not been easy than anyone the tangle of emotions that I mediately people in Jobs With Justice be- or even, as many who’ve raised the ban- suspect many rank-and-file activists are feel- gan worrying if their coalitions would too, ner of internationalism did so as a subter- ing right now. For years Engels has been if unions would withdraw, if dissent would fuge for advancing their own narrow in- involved in the globalization movement, try- finish leftists off. Paul Booth, onetime terests (witness the Teamsters’ effortless ing to build alliances between workers, en- anti-Vietnam war activist and now Inter- transit from their much-overplayed alli- vironmentalists and the “hipster” kids. He national organizing director for AFSCME, ance with “Turtles” to their support for was on a tugboat when I caught up with him. warned them that there was no benefit in Arctic drilling, crackdowns on Mexican “The first couple of weeks [after Sep- taking a position on war. JWJ’s national truckers, and now war). September 11 has tember 11] I was mad and I just wanted to office issued a statement of grief that in- complicated the situation enormously. So, get the terrorists”, he said. “There’s a weak- cluded support for immigrant workers and for instance, the twin towers fell and New ass peace movement that developed over- NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 7/COUNTERPUNCH “I’m almost glad I’m on this boat because I was overwhelmed with too much information. But still, guys on the tug, I’ve heard them say, ‘our policy on Palestine hasn’t helped this.’” night and it doesn’t have much working- Bush’s war council, which recently issued a he said, “An eye for an eye, I don’t believe in class support. Now I’m on this boat, and I’m press release, “Pentagon Seeks Ideas on that. At some point we’re going to have to ask thinking we’ve got to have a message that Combating Terrorism.” The difference is that Why did this happen?” can resonate with working-class people who the latter is willing to sacrifice civilians and That is where the possibility lies, in all aren’t lefties. The peace groups just discard as Dolly Ramos, a union worker at Bellevue those questions and the struggle for answers. that and go out marching. And I think, ‘Oh Hospital who lost six friends in the towers At the first national march against the Viet- God, we’re in trouble now’. but opposes war, put it, “I won’t wish on nam War in 1965, Carl Oglesby of SDS “I walked into one [‘left’/anarchist] anybody what I don’t wish on myself”. made the case for stopping not only inter- meeting about the war, and I just turned That night at Teddy’s bar, I spoke with vention in Indochina but also “the seventh around and walked out. I couldn’t listen to Dennis Diaz, the lead organizer of HERE war from now”, the inevitable product of this crazy sectarian shit. I’m almost glad I’m 100. Something transformative has hap- a military and money system that enriches on this boat because I was overwhelmed with pened in his union and in others that had some and grinds up others. The years since too much information. But still, guys on the members in the twin towers and that now, have offered up too many monuments to tug, I’ve heard them say, ‘Our policy on like the mutual aid societies out of which the job not done. Palestine hasn’t helped this.’ They’re read- unions grew more than a century ago, have At Teddy’s one refugee from the six- ing about Afghanistan. Workers with the become enmeshed in the life-stuff of work- ties who found a place in labor recalled right information are asking questions.” ers and their loved ones. that in the Vietnam era “we could tell I asked Paul Bigman, co-chair of the Even the Central Labor Council, whose people, ‘What the fuck are we doing Washington state JWJ chapter, how its anti- chief business rarely went beyond electing 12,000 miles away? If they [the enemy] war statement was going down with Boeing politicians, has involved itself directly with were here that would be different.’” That workers there, given the Machinists’ call for workers. The CLC set up a hotline to pro- was never satisfactory, and now, with vengeance and the company’s decision to vide people with counseling or help in terror, war, recession, corporate oppor- cut 30,000 jobs. He said there was some disa- maneuvering through the federal, state, city tunism and the awful effects of what in greement but no anger, and some plain talk. and private aid maze. It has a table at Pier a real sense is a clash of Anything could happen, but for now the local 94, the city’s command center for social fundamentalisms, “they are here” in that represents Boeing workers has lent its hall services, to stay with people, union or non- more ways than one. For workers there for a JWJ fundraiser, and Bigman says people union, until they get the help they need. It is always a war at home and a war are treating one another with respect. coordinated volunteers to work at Nino’s res- abroad, and it is not enough to talk about It was out of respect for the belief that taurant to feed rescue and recovery work- one without the other. CP no one should get away with murder, much ers, and set up a job-placement service. It less mass murder, that led New York City has contacted all the city’s unions, investi- SUBSCRIPTION INFO Labor Against the War to include in its state- gating where there might be jobs to get peo- Enter/Renew Subscription here: ment a call for an international tribunal to ple at least through Christmas. Diaz was One year individual, $40 investigate, apprehend and try those respon- working with families of the dead, many of ($35 email only / $45 email/print) sible for the attacks. The language did not them undocumented workers. There were One year institution/supporters $100 satisfy everyone in the group (and was a unemployment and Social Security checks One year student/low income, $30 departure from the citywide antiwar coali- to be secured but, more than that, there were T-shirts, $17 tion, which has been devouring itself with children left behind in Ecuador, Africa, Please send back issue(s) grotesque debates over whether “justice” Mexico; there were immigration issues, rent ($5/issue) needs to be discarded in the ashcan of co- to be paid, apartments to be found, school Name opted terms). But like “The World Is Not registration to see to, friends and relatives for Sale”, the ideas inherent in that state- to console—all the big bills and small Address ment—telegraph it as “Justice, Not War”— change of life. are an invitation for discussion. Since ter- Diaz said the tragedy has encouraged City/State/Zip rorism is a global problem, where are the more people to ask why it took such a trag- possibilities in international law? What edy to perceive immigrant and native-born should be the role of the UN? What would workers equally, just as the images of self- Payment must accompany order, or it mean to treat September 11 as a crime? less firefighters and besieged mail handlers just dial 1-800-840-3683 and renew What are the elements of a political solu- and overstressed public health workers has by credit card. Add $17.50 for foreign tion? In New York the smoking ruins are a encouraged more people to start asking, subscriptions. If you want Counter- too-real representation of the failure of poli- What is the public sector? What is the state, Punch emailed to you please supply your email address. Make checks tics. And for those who complain that the if not these people who provide the serv- payable to: CounterPunch. peace camp does not know exactly how to ices? Diaz said there hadn’t been time yet to Business Office stop terrorism, it’s worth noting that nor does talk about war, but, speaking only for himself, PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 8/COUNTERPUNCH NOVEMBER 1-15, 2001 Amazing new Hitchens claim: As a seven year old he helped found Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. lem was that Pershing’s troops were so far pression that they go to bed saying: what COLE: NO TO TORTURE from home that maintaining supply lines have I done for Saddam Hussein or good We’re glad to get assurances from Pro- was a chronic problem. The only solution, old Slobodan or the Taliban today?” fessor David Cole of Georgetown Univer- Army leaders in Washington were begin- Thus spake Christopher Hitchens in ning to conclude, was a full-scale invasion The London Guardian. sity Law Center emphasizing that “I do not condone the use of torture under any of Mexico. To CounterPunch’s editors the phrase By now President Wilson had had “charter supporter” seems to imply that conditions.” In a recent issue of CounterPunch we expressed our surprise enough. With the war looming larger in Hitchens is claiming to have been in at the at the ambiguous use of a quotation from Europe the United States and Mexico en- birth of the Campaign for Nuclear Disar- tered into face-saving negotiations where mament in Britain. CounterPunch coedi- Cole in the article by Walter Pincus in the Washington Post that kicked off the whole they ultimately agreed that in return for the tor Cockburn was on the second annual withdrawal of troops Mexico would “ensure Aldermaston march, organized by CND, torture debate, which displayed many lib- erals voicing their enthusiasm for thumb- the protection of the frontier” from any fur- in 1958. He marched alongside his friend screws or “truth drugs” or delegating vio- ther Villa raids. Villa marked the agreement Kayo Hallinan, now district attorney of by carrying out several more actions. San Francisco. They were both about lent interrogation to foreign subcontractors. Cole writes to CounterPunch that Villa became a star from all this, but seventeen years old, and didn’t notice then so too did John Pershing who was self-described charter-supporter Hitch- “while as a hypothetical matter reasonable people might differ about whether it would rewarded for his efforts with the command ens, perhaps because the peace-yearn- be justified to torture a person if you knew of American forces in France. The “puni- ing tot would have been about seven and, tive expedition” was very much a training though doubtless morally upstanding in that he (and he alone) knew where a ticking time bomb is, and obtaining the information ground for that Mother Of All Aimless his lust to “ban the bomb”, below their Wars, World War One. And it was the field of vision. will save the lives of 1,000 people, that hy- pothetical never arises in the real world. We model for all those actions in which the Anyway, we’re surprised that Hitch- can never know with certainty whether the US government, confident of its pur- ens is boasting about his support for poses—-and the superiority of its weap- CND, many of whose founders were person being interrogated in fact knows any- thing, nor whether the threat is imminent, ons—-blunders into ventures whose ter- either members of or close to the Com- minus it cannot possibly anticipate. munist Party and thus ripe for his de- nor whether the use of force will result in accurate information. What we can know rision as tools of the heirs of Stalin. with certainty is that if law enforcement HEN E AS EVEN Maybe the term “charter sup- W H W S porter” means something different to agents are given this authority, they will abuse it. Accordingly, I support an absolute “As a charter supporter of CND I can Hitchens. We recall how in the earli- remember a time when the peace move- est days of CounterPunch he used to ban on the use of force in interrogations. So does the Supreme Court and international ment was not an auxiliary to dictators and boast that he was a “charter-sub- aggressors in trouble. Looking at some of law, which treats the ban on torture as one scriber”, a claim that was never but- the mind-rotting tripe that comes my way tressed by the cold cash necessary to of the few legal principles that brooks no derogation under any circumstances.” CP from much of today’s left, I get the im- ratify this titular dignity.

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