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InlheseTimes Editorial INDEPENDENT NEWS & VIEWS "... with liberty and justice for all" James Weinstein A Scandal Bigger than Enron Founding Editor and Publisher ust as President Bush pretends that he The second level of scandal is that Enron's frf/tor:JoelBleifuss Managing Editor: Craig Aaron barely knew "Kenny Boy" Lay, the contributions and influence spread across Senior Editors: Patricia Aufderheide, David Moberg, J major financial backer of his career, the political spectrum. Corporate money Salim Muwakkil many conservatives are pretending that not only won influence among ideologically Culture Editor: Joe Knowles Enron is a scandal of business, not politics. sympathetic Republicans, but corrupted the Associate Editor. Kristie Reilly Contributing Editors-. Terry J. Alien, Bill Boisvert, The roster of business misdeeds is already Democrats, who have largely abandoned the Susan J. Douglas, Barbara Ehrenreich, Laura long and likely to grow, but the rise and fall party's claim to represent the "little guys" Flanders, Annette Fuentes, Juan Gonzalez, David of Enron is a major political scandal on at and the broader public interest. Graeber, Miles Harvey, Paul Hockenos, George Hodak, least three levels. The Democrats are marginally better on Doug Ireland, Naomi Klein, Dave Mulcahey, Geov Parrish, Kirn Phillips-Fein, Jeffrey St. Clair, Jane First, the Bush administration is perhaps corporate issues: In recent years, some Dems Slaughter, Jason Vest, Fred Weir, G. Pascal Zachary the most unabashedly pro-corporate ever. tried to push modest regulations that would Proofreaders: Man Kimmel, Norman Wishner No industry has more influence than the have restrained abuse of tax havens and /nferas.-Sara Berndt, Daniel Braithwaite, Brian Cook energy sector, and no company had more retirement plans, as well as the use of audi- Art Director: Jim Rinnert clout than Enron. At least eight of the tors as consultants. But much like the Associate Art Director: Seamus Holman most powerful members of the administra- savings-and-loan debacle of the '80s, this is Illustrator: Terry LaBan tion, including both Bush and Vice a scandal tainting both parties. Publisher-. \K\ Bleifuss President Dick Cheney, had significant Yet the biggest scandal is ideological. For Associate Publisher: Joshua Rothkopf Communications/Circulation Director: Luli Buxton ties to Enron—receiving pay or campaign at least the past 25 years, there has been a Assistant Publisher: Aaron Sarver contributions, investing in the company, concerted attack on government and a wor- Circulation Manager: Peter Hoyt or gaining appointment on the basis of shipful adulation of the "free market" as the In These Times (Km 0160-5992) is published Enron's recommendation. Enron's tenta- answer to all problems, including the ones biweekly by the Institute for Public Affairs, 2040 N. cles reach even further into Congress, it creates. The balance sheet of this ideo- Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. Periodicals state governments and the Republican logical attack deserves to be audited—but postage paid at Chicago, IL and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address Party, whose new head, Marc Racicot, was not by Arthur Andersen. changes to In These limes, 308 E. Hitt St., an Enron lobbyist. Such an audit would show that few of Mt. Morris, IL 61054. This issue (Vol. 26, No. 8) In just its first year in office, as Rep. the promises have been delivered, and that went to press on February 15 for newsstand sales Henry Waxman (D-California) cata- the Democrats have offered weak resis- March 4 to March 18,2002. logued in a request for an The entire contents of In These Times are copyright investigation, the Bush ©2002 by the Institute for Public Affairs, and may There has been a a worshipful not be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or administration delivered in part, without permission of the publisher. Copies almost everything Enron adulation of the 'free market' of In These 7/mas'contract with the national Writers wanted: an energy plan Union an available upon request. Contact the union with at least 17 policies as the answer to all problems, at (212) 254-0279 or http://www.nwu.org. Enron favored, opposition Subscriptions ate $36.95 a year ($59 for institutions; to electricity price caps in including the ones it creates. $61.95 Canada; $75.95 overseas). For subscription questions and address changes ca\\ (800) 827-0270. California (which Cheney announced a day after meeting with tance and frequent collusion. At the same Editorial correspondence and tetters should be Lay), numerous interventions by time, social and economic inequality and sent to: 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60647. Phone: (773) 772-0100. Fax: (773) 772-4180. Cheney and others to help Enron sell a instability have grown, and democracy has E-mail: [email protected]. controversial power plant in India, a been undermined. Publisher does not assume liability for unsolicited proposed repeal of the corporate mini- Congressional and courtroom investiga- manuscripts or material. Manuscripts unaccompa- mum tax (further helping a company tions may expose some of the political nied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope will not that had already avoided paying taxes for dimensions of the Enron scandal in the be returned. All letters received by In These Times five years), appointment of Enron's Bush administration. And real campaign become property of the magazine. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form. choice to head the Federal Energy finance reform—public financing of elec- Regulatory Commission, and opposition tions, not the weak compromise recently For back issues and advertising rates, call toll free (888) READ-ITT. Available back issues are $3 each, to efforts by the other major industrial approved by the House—could seriously $5 each overseas. Complete issues and volumes of In countries to rein in offshore tax havens reduce the corruption of politics. These Times are available from Bel! and Howell, Ann (where hundreds of Enron special enter- But it will take a broad citizen move- Arbor, Ml. In These Times is indexed m the Alternative prises were set up). ment on the scale of the Populist or Press Index and the Left Index. Newsstand circulation through the IPA International Sales Cooperative at Enron couldn't overpower other corpo- Progressive movements of a century ago to (415) 643-0161, or [email protected]. rate interests to win support of the Kyoto dig out the roots of the Enron scandal— agreement (and its lucrative promise of overwhelming corporate power—and IJMmTiH > 759-C Bl emissions trading), and the company didn't demand the revival of democracy and gov- get a bailout, but it was stunningly success- ernment in the public interest. ful at influencing the administration. —David Moberg
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Infliese Times V©Dmime 26, Number 8 March 18, 2002 www.inthesetimes.com
2 Letters 3 News Bush's bloated military budget, a stealth attack on abortion rights, the Christian right dictates AIDS policy, and Chechnya remains mired in misery. 6 Appall-o-Meter By Dave Mukahey 8 In Person By Megan Rowling Ann Pettifor: Discrediting the creditors. 9 Back Talk By Susan J. Douglas McCarthyism redux.
10 Europe's Right Turn By Doug Ireland Social democracy in peril. 12 Mussolini's Ghost By Dario Fo The new fascism. 15 Coming Together at the Seams By Naomi Klein The view from Porto Alegre ... 17 Rethinking Democracy By David Graeber ... and direct action in New York. 18 Not Just Black and White By Darryl Cater LOCAL MOTION: Oak Park, Illinois.
22 Party Animals By Doug Ireland BOOKS: Micah Sifry follows the third way. 24 Spreading the Word By Alex P. Kellogg BOOKS: Randall Kennedy's Nigger. 25 Welsh for Zen By Joshua Klein MUSIC: Something is in the water. 27 Technical Foul By Joshua Rothkopf FILM: Let's play Rollerball. 30 An Open Letter to George W. Bush By Michael Moore Kenny Boy? Never heard of him.
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Not So New America carries more weight than those of us work- kets, globalization and the corporate char- The United States did not initially ing against AIDS in the trenches everyday. ter. To do any less is to deprive our ideas of impose uniformity upon newcomers as G. Only in San Francisco. Pass the Kool- any meaningful contemporary critique. Pascal Zachary contends ("The New Aid, please. And give Doug Ireland a dose Joel Hildebrandt America," January 21). A vibrant German of the truth. Berkeley, California language community thrived until World John Iversen War I and Prohibition. (German-speaking ACT UP/East Bay Word Choices socialists customarily plotted strategies in Berkeley, California In "Treaty's End" Jeffrey St. Clair makes the beer halls.) Other linguistic communi- reference to a meeting and uses the word ties, especially Spanish and Chinese, have Smoke and Mirrors "pow-wow" (January 21). I know it's unin- always existed in the United States. The David Moberg's editorial on the Enron tentional, but the use of this Native situation today does not differ markedly scandal is no doubt accurate, but it is inade- American word is incorrect in that its usual from the situation in the 19th century and quate for a socialist newsmagazine ("Market context is "dance" or party or reunion. We earlier, when immigration was free to who- Magic's Empty Shell," January 21). Perhaps white folks "appropriated" it wrongly, like ever got here. Enron's deliberate rip-off of its own stock- so many other things, and use it as a cute It is mostly in the 20th century that holders and employees represents a new way to say "meeting." I would encourage immigration restrictions were imposed and level of greed in the corporate world. Yet resistance to this urge. There are better "Americanism" was promoted. These many of Enron's practices are just business words in our own language. restrictions had less to do with race-based as usual: the shameless influence-peddling Jan and Patrick Pesek-Herriges nationalism and more to do with anti- with our elected officials, the lies to investi- Clayton, Wisconsin communism. Restrictions were suspended gators and the public, the use of taxpayers' for people "fleeing" from "communist" soci- money to bolster private profit, and the jus- Mind Your Ts & As eties. The United States has always granted tification of all such immoral actions under I was greatly discomfited by Terry citizenship to someone born here, while the term "free enterprise." LaBan's drawing in the November 12 countries such as Germany have not. A socialist analysis of this situation Appall-o-Meter. Please don't do anything Chris Vail needs to look beyond the smoke and mir- like this again. If the problem is not obvi- San Jose, California rors of Enronomics to the very question of ous, consider a couple of focus groups. whether society can justify the existence Amelia Screen A Dose of the Truth? of such entities. Certainly, if we have to Lebanon, New Hampshire Rep. Nancy Pelosi—writing in the live in a world with faceless and unan- February 18 issue in response to Doug swerable corporations, the very least we Ireland's "Liberty on the Defensive" need to advocate is some form of genuine (January 21)—should be calling the IRS corporate accountability (not just to the concerning David Pasquerelli, who oper- stockholders, but to the public affected by ates an annual $1.6 million medical their actions) and some real restrictions marijuana business. He and his AIDS- on what these creatures can get away with. denialist cult hypocritically sell pot to This fiasco should be ammunition for those with a disease they say doesn't exist. questioning the very notions of "free" mar- Truly bizarre. Ireland himself should have noted that for six years the denialists have conducted a Terry LaBan calculated, deliberate campaign of stalking, intimidation, harassment, threats and phys- ical violence designed to silence anyone who disagrees with their views, including people with AIDS and activists fighting pharmaceutical companies. These cultists have largely succeeded in their efforts. For some time it has been impossible to have a public forum or meet- ing on HIV treatment or prevention issues in San Francisco without a heavy, armed security presence. As a result, few such meetings have occurred. Two years ago, more than 1,300 mem- bers of the Bay Area AIDS and queer communities signed a statement asking the San Francisco district attorney to bring charges against Pasquerelli and his partners in crime. District Attorney Terance Hallinan ignored the petition and only brought charges when asked to do so by the San Francisco Chronicle, which obviously
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iky High The military busts the !003 federal budget ly Frida Berrigan Clad in a leather bomber jacket and surrounded by the weapons of the war on terrorism, President Bush was certainly trying to link his new budget to the fight against the "axis of evil." At the Elgin Air Force base in Florida on February 4th, he announced his request for a $48 billion increase in military spending, the largest in almost two decades. If Bush has his way, the total budget for military spending in 2003—includ- ing military functions of the Coast $48 billion in military spending increases, wrapped in the flag. Guard and the Department of Energy— will reach $396 billion, an $87 billion the entire military budget of every other A Bush administration official increase from when he took office in country in the world except Russia, defended the cuts, saying the aim was to January 2001. which spends about $60 billion on the get rid of "duplicative services" and sup- Standing against a backdrop of F-15 military each year. port proven programs like the Job Corps. and F-16 fighter planes, an A-10 Bush's new budget is a four-volume But job-training programs such as the warthog, and a huge American flag, tome printed on heavy glossy paper. The Youth Opportunity Center are only two Bush argued that the United States cover is a picture of the American flag, years old, and program backers say it is needs new military spending to address and the pages are full of photographs and too soon to gauge their overall impact. new threats and a new security environ- charts. In language clearly drafted before The center's executive director, ment. "It is very clear that the defense the Enron scandal hit the front page, the Antoinette Edwards, says, "Given the budget is cheap when one compares it to budget calls on government to emulate time we've had, it feels as though we're putting our security at risk, our lives at the efficiency of the private sector, say- about to have the plug snatched out. We risk, our country at risk, our freedoms at ing, "dollars will go to programs that feel like we're onto something big." risk," Bush said. But his rhetoric ignores work, those programs that don't work It's not just job training that Bush seems the fact that this new military spending will be reformed." to think "doesn't work." The White spree has little to do with fighting the What works and what doesn't can House's budget proposes cuts at the Justice war on terrorism. depend on where you are sitting. and Labor departments and appropriates About one-third of the $68 billion Jesse McDonnell and other high school no new money for Commerce, Agriculture allocated for weapons procurement in students at the Youth Opportunity Center or the Interior. Moreover, proposed the new budget proposal would pay for in Portland, Oregon probably thought increases in the budgets for education, the Cold War systems with no relevance to their program was working pretty well. environment and space exploration do not the current war or future conflicts being President Bush even told them so. On a reach the rate of inflation. imagined by war planners. This includes West Coast jaunt in early January, Bush But the Pentagon wants even more an additional $12 billion to fund three dropped in on the center that provides job money. The ink was barely dry on the new fighter plane programs: the Joint training to about 1,400 students in one of White House proposal when the Strike Fighter, F-22 and Super Hornet. Portland's poorest neighborhoods. He Pentagon began preparing its case that On the campaign trail, Bush repeatedly praised "the good instructors" there for the $48 billion increase over last year's said that the U.S. could not afford and "helping people help themselves." allocation is not enough money. Gen. did not need all three systems. Bush's new budget slashes $545 mil- Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint The 70-ton Crusader artillery system, lion from job training programs around Chiefs of Staff, addressed Congress the despite being designed to fight land bat- the country. For the Youth Opportunity next day to call for increased spending of tles against the Soviet Union, too would Center, that is likely to mean 80 percent more than $100 billion a year "for sev- be fully funded at $475.2 million. These cuts in funding and maybe the end of the eral years." Can we really afford that? • and other Cold War relics are slated to program. McDonnell was stunned when receive $21.2 billion in the fiscal year he heard about the cuts. "I was like, Frida Berrigan is a senior research associ- 2003 budget. The Bush administration's 'How could you come visit here if you're ate with the World Policy Institute's Arms proposed increase alone is larger than going to do that?'" Trade Resource Center.
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allowing states to cover children "from 29th annual Conservative Political conception to age 19"—in essence Action Conference, where attendees defining a fetus as an unborn child. reportedly greeted the news with cheers. Word Games Thompson said the proposal was moti- The CHIP proposal is troubling, say Bush stealth-attacks vated by the need to provide care to women's health advocates, because it women and children, saying, "Prenatal offers low-income women vitally impor- reproductive rights care for women and their babies is a cru- tant prenatal care. "We're strongly in cial part of the medical care every per- favor of extending prenatal care as well By Annette Fuentes son should have through the course of as comprehensive health care for With Washington and the rest of the their life cycle." women," says Amy Allina, program nation transfixed by the unfolding polit- But his announcement was hailed by director of the National Women's Health ical and financial fiasco at Enron, the anti-abortion activists and attacked by Network. "But I don't want to see fetuses Bush administration in one week reproductive rights advocates as a cyni- granted personhood in order to get at unleashed a double whammy against cal ploy to chip away at the right to abor- pregnant women. Women shouldn't women's reproductive health rights, tion. "It's political maneuvering and have to be pregnant to get health care." according to abortion rights advocates. worse," says Vicky Saporta, executive The CHIP proposal will likely become First, on January 31, Secretary of director of the National Abortion policy after the brief public comment Health and Human Services Tommy Federation. "It's a clever backdoor period, and it is unlikely it could be suc- Thompson unveiled a new health care attempt to undermine Roe v. Wade. By cessfully challenged in court, Crepps policy to expand the state Child Health granting medical benefits to a fetus, it says. But if the language of the new pol- Insurance Program (CHIP) to provide creates a precedent to overturn Roe." icy were ultimately used to take legal prenatal and delivery care to eligible Establishing personhood from concep- action against a pregnant woman on pregnant women. CHIP, created by tion has long been a goal of the behalf of an "unborn child," that could Congress in 1997, covers some 3.3 mil- Christian right. If a fetus is a person, provoke a legal challenge by abortion lion children up to age 19 whose family according to conservative strategy, abor- rights advocates. incomes are too high to qualify for tion could be defined as murder and Then, on February 4, Attorney Medicaid, but too low to be able to made illegal. The political underpin- General John Ashcroft filed an amicus afford private health insurance. The new nings of the new policy were hard to brief supporting Ohio's ban on late-term policy would include prenatal care by miss: Thompson announced it at the abortions. The Ohio ban was over- turned by a lower court, which ruled that it didn't adequately guarantee that THIS M*»UU WtlLB by TOM TOMORROW a woman could get a late-term abortion FOR A LONG TIME, EVERYTHING SEEMED TO BE GOING if it was medically necessary. The Sixth HIS WAY...ESPECIALLY AFTER ONE OF HIS LONGTIME FRIENDS AND BENEFICIARIES BECAME PRESIDENT Circuit court is hearing an appeal of of THE UNITED STATES... —SO You SEE, IT WILL CLEARLY INCREASE OUR TH£ FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS I'LL HAVE THE VICE that decision. PRODUCTIVITY IMMEASVRABLI- APPROACH TO GASOLINE-SOAKED PRESIDENT CONVENE Pro-choice advocates saw Ashcroft's RAG STORAGE MUST BE RE- A SECRET GASOLINE- EXAMINED.' SOAKED RA6 COMMIS- action as part of the Bush administra- --IF WE STORE 6«OUW£-«I LIKE IT, SIR.' IT'S SION IMMEDIATELY SOAKED RASS NEAR AN ^"«"«'•>'OUTSID=E *••"TH=E BOX"»««"!' tion's renewed focus on an anti-abortion oP£N FLAME IN THE agenda. "I wouldn't have been as sur- prised [by the brief] if the case was at the Supreme Court," says Janet Crepps, staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. "Generally, the admin- istrations haven't come in at this level. It signals that the Bush administration is looking for every opportunity to make a f MONEY BUYS SO MUCH DAMN INFLUENCE—THEN stand against abortion rights. It's politi- VHY DIDN'T WE STOP THOSE GASOLINE-SOAKED RAGS cal grandstanding for Bush's anti-abor- THE BUILDING—IT JUST BURST INTO FLAME--FOR MO •ROM APPARENT REASON'. tion supporters." INABILITY TO INTERVENE PROVES Crepps believes the Justice Depart- WHO COULD HAVE fO«£-II] ANYBODY GOT INNOCENCE. CASE CLOSED. SEEN SUCH A TRAGEDY? IPI ANY MARSH- ment's brief was not very persuasive and MALLOWS? ABOUT THAT TERRORIST THREAT- is "unlikely to persuade the Sixth Circuit court." Still, Ashcroft's strategy may be to provoke legal challenges that would ultimately lead to the highest court in the land. "This is just a preview," she says. "They would love to see the Supreme Court take this. I don't think they will." •
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Hard-liners Bush hands AIDS policy to the Christian right iy Doug Ireland AIDS will surpass the Black Death as the world's worst pandemic ever in the next 10 or 15 years unless access to treat- ment is improved, according to the Family Health International AIDS Institute. And yet President Bush's latest AIDS-related appointments cap off what has been a dreadful first year on AIDS policy from the administration. As co-chairmen of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, Bush has named former Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, co-chairman of the president's HIV/AIDS council. Rep. Tom Coburn and Louis Sullivan, former Health and Human Services for legislation that would force doctors to on entry into the country of those living Secretary for Bush pere. report the HIV-infected to the govern- with HIV and AIDS. When France and Coburn has long been the bete noire of ment, and had one of the most homopho- many AIDS organizations boycotted the the AIDS community. As a leading bic records of any member of Congress. As Sixth International Conference on spokesman for the House OOP on health the San Francisco Chronicle editorialized, he AIDS in San Francisco in 1990 because matters, Cobum (a darling of the religious "is the sort of hard-line ideologue whose of the HIV ban (which resulted in for- right who is also an M.D.) called for firing narrow views should disqualify him from eign delegates being detained at the air- the head of the Centers for Disease Control any role in designing federal policy." port when AIDS medication was because the CDC recommends condom Sullivan, nearly invisible as HHS sec- discovered in their luggage), Sullivan use to prevent AIDS, wrote and crusaded retary, was noted for extending the ban distinguished himself by making a
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speech at the conference suggesting gay right groups; Henry McKinnell, presi- men and the HIV-positive simply stop dent and CEO of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals; having sex. His speech was drowned out I anld John F. Galbraith, acting executive by boos from conference delegates and director of the Catholic Medical Mission Forgotten Land protesters.from ACT UP. Board, which opposes condom use. Chechnya remains In addition, Bush last November chose Says ACT UP Philadelphia's Asia Patricia Funderburk Ware as the advisory Russell, "It's as if [Bush] had declared mired in misery council's executive director. Ware is for- [people with AIDS] public enemy No. 1, mer director of Americans for a Sound so assiduous has he been in undermining By Fred Weir HIV/AIDS Policy (ASAP), a conserva- the human rights of people with HIV." SLEPTSOVSK, RUSSIA—Zara Bashayeva is tive organization with deep ties to the It has taken Bush a year to finally fill a statistic no one in Moscow or religious right whose principle function vacancies on the council, but he has Washington wants to hear about. In early was to support abstinence as the only stacked it with a gaggle of docile January, Bashayeva gathered up her three allowable form of sex education. Republican political operatives and children and left the family home in Only three • of the 35 members campaign contributors, people with Serzhen Yurt, eastern Chechnya, for the appointed by Bush are Ml^positive, and little or no background in HIV-AIDS relative safety of a muddy and squalid none come from the rrtedical research issues, Christian-right zealots, and refugee camp just inside the neighboring community. Among them: Rashida condom-use opponents. republic of Ingushetia. Jolley, a college student and former Miss By contrast, Bill Clinton's council Why did she flee a war the Kremlin District of Columbia who travels with a proved so obstreperous it publicly con- has repeatedly declared over? "Life has !group of beauty-contest winners promot- demned Clinton for refusing to support become impossible in Chechnya," she ing sexual abstinence for Project Reality, clean needle exchange for IV drug users', says. "There is no food, no jobs, no elec- an anti-safe sex group; Dr. Joe a proven way to cut new AIDS infec- tricity or gas, no schools, no doctors. But Mcllhaney, founder and director of the tions. Under the Coburn-led Council, all that might be bearable if not for the Medical, Institute for Sexual Health in there will be no such unwelcome constant zachistki" periodic Russian Austin, Texas, which crusades against remonstrances. With AIDS at the low security sweeps aimed at uncovering ^condom use, arid co-author of The Myth end of the priorities list in the middle of arms caches and rebel fighters concealed •of Safe Sex with' the notorious homo- .a long war, AIDS activists will have lit- in civilian areas. phobe James Dobson, president of Focus tle recourse but to take to the streets Bashayeva fears mainly for her two on the Family, one of the largest religious once again. • sons, ages 13 and 11. "The Russian troops
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come and seize the men; sometimes they are never heard from again. At least in a refugee camp, my sons will not be taken." It's hard to independently assess her claims, since the Kremlin and Russian military still severely restrict journalistic access to most parts of Chechnya. But international aid workers and Chechen refugees—many of whom are enduring their third winter living in rough Ingush tent camps and abandoned buildings— say conditions in Chechnya are actually worsening. "Life inside Chechnya has broken down, and there is only a grim hanging on for most people," says Tamara Khaduyeva, a Chechen psychologist working for a Dutch NCO that provides services to war-traumatized children. "In the first war things were tough, but peo- ple endured it. Now everything is ruined, the feelings of terror are escalating, and people just want to get out. The idea that Chechen life is normalizing can only be heard from officials who are paid, and protected, by Russian troops." Chechnya, a mountainous, Muslim republic on Russia's southern flank, declared independence as the former U.S.S.R. was disintegrating a decade ago. Since then, Moscow has invaded Chechen refugee Zara Bashayeva at a tent camp in Ingushetia. twice in an effort to crush the secession movement. The first offensive ended in ble conditions to investigate allegations sect in Russia's Caucasus region. 1996, when Russian troops were forced against Russian troops by the increasing Moscow also claims its troops have to withdraw, and the Kremlin recognized flow of refugees. killed a few Arab "mercenaries" fighting the election of rebel leader Asian Since September 11, Russia has alongside Chechen rebels in the past Maskhadov as the republic's president. largely succeeded in convincing the two years. But it has yet to produce proof But Maskhadov failed to build a viable United States that the war in Chechnya of systematic contacts with bin Laden or state, Chechnya spiraled into lawless- is a department of the global battle his organization, and, according to the ness, and Moscow—blaming Chechens against Islamic extremism and terrorism, New York Times, no Chechens were for a wave of terrorist bombings— and that has practically driven the issue among the 3,500 Taliban prisoners being invaded again in 1999. from Washington's official dialogue with held by U.S. forces and their allies in Virtually all of Chechnya is now occu- Russia, as well as from the pages of most Afghanistan in early January. pied by Russian troops, who fight against Western newspapers. "Every day Russian TV says, as if it a vicious insurgency campaign led by Nevertheless, there seems little evi- were a known fact, that Chechens are Maskhadov that continues to kill about a dence to back Kremlin allegations that allied with Osama bin Laden. But I have dozen Russian soldiers weekly. "Chechnya Chechen rebels are tightly linked with never met any Chechen who supports ' has become a chronic problem for us, like Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda ter- him or has ever had anything to do with Northern Ireland or Palestine, and the ror network. During the U.S.-led mili- his cause," Khaduyeva, the Chechen Russian elite appear incapable of even tary campaign in Afghanistan, the psychologist, says. "Our people have suf- understanding this," says Alexander Western media regularly reported fered terribly, and we have only sympa- Iskanderyan, director of the Center for rumors of thousands of "Chechen vol- thy for victims of terrorism." Caucasian Studies in Moscow. "The situ- unteers" fighting beside the Taliban and After almost three years of savage, ation is growing harsher and more hope- al-Qaeda. One Chechen warlord, the grinding counter-insurgency warfare in less with every passing month." Jordanian-born Khattab, who goes by Chechnya, the promised Russian victory As always, it is civilians who bear the just one name, is a veteran of the anti- seems as elusive as ever. Yet the Kremlin brunt in the continuing conflict. A Soviet Afghanistan war of the '80s; he is remains adamant there will be no talks handful of human rights organizations, known to have taken money from Saudi with rebel leaders. For the tiny republic's including the courageous Russian group Arabia and other sources to promote the long-suffering people, that would seem Memorial, struggle amid almost impossi- austere Wahabbi Islamic fundamentalist to augur endless war, misery and exile. H
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s McCarthyism Redux Susan J. Douglas in his real West Wing documentary? thought we had. The Democrats did clap Here we learned that Bush is a worka- as loudly and frequently as the kemember back in the '70s and '80s, holic who gets up at 4:30 a.m. and Republicans when Bush was fulminating when Victor Navasky's Naming bench presses hundreds of pounds about the war on terrorism. But they sat iNames, Lillian Hellman's Scoundrel between high-level policy meetings on their hands when Bush turned to the Time and even the Hollywood weepy The where he's always in charge. economy. You saw it right there on the Way We Were all made McCarthyism In the years ahead, we can argue about screen—the Republicans clapping like seem like a time-bound, fossilized moment whether this new McCarthyism is more seals for more tax cuts and greater mili- that could never, ever happen again? pernicious than its predecessor. Despite tary spending, while the Democrats sat Well, here we are, as unthinkable as it may as a block in silence. seem, living through McCarthyism redux. But ABC's Claire Shipman told us we Only this version is different: It owes saw something different. She gushed over less to purges and pogroms and much the solid display of bipartisanship more to censorship, public relations and throughout the speech. The omnipresent hyperbolic spectacles filled with patriotic and deeply tiresome William Schneider excess. This version doesn't require con- of CNN lauded Bush's impressive display formity to one ideological line; it simply of character. To those of us who thought insists that such conformity, such "unity," the "axis of evil" pronouncement was a has already been achieved. If you aren't in major bombshell, and a highly inaccurate the same ideological space as everyone and dangerous one to boot, character was else, then you must be a crazy outsider Lynn Cheney and Joe Lieberman's efforts not the first word that came to mind. who doesn't belong here anymore. to promulgate a blacklist for academics, The next day, the front-page of the The iconography of the Super Bowl, most of us with progressive politics have New York Times announced in a headline with its visual overlaying of servicemen not been fired—not yet, anyway. So far that Bush had displayed a "Surer Voice, and football players, and its spanning of as we know, there are no massive purges Wider Vision" as its article praised his musical generations from Paul McCartney in the State Department or blacklists cir- forceful 50 minutes of plain speaking (remember "Revolution"?) to Mariah culating in Hollywood. Congressional and moments of eloquence. Parroting Carey, was adamant about this supposed hearings are focusing on massive corpo- the spin of the right, the article likened new chauvinistic consensus. rate corruption, not on whether some Bush to FDR. (As media critic Norman As for the opening ceremonies of the government employee ever participated Solomon has already pointed out, there Olympics, they kept bringing to mind in a cultural exchange with Muslims. is a special irony in the right claiming the Nuremberg rallies. Native peoples in Instead we're getting exactly what we the mantle of FDR for Bush, since they costume did what they do best—danced got during the presidential debates of have devoted the past 20 years to undo- and played drums—as they joyfully wel- 2000: an insistence that we are not really ing any vestiges of the New Deal, with comed everyone to Utah. Then we met seeing and hearing what we think we are only Social Security and unemployment the real and only heroes of the West, the seeing and hearing. Let's recall that after insurance still left standing.) brave white settlers who brought civi- the presidential debate on foreign policy, Surely there are cracks in this ideo- lization to the land (while dancing to, for example, when Bush referred to logical edifice—Enron being a rather you guessed it, "Appalachian Spring"). Nigeria as a continent and said that large fissure. People don't seem to be Not since the Lone Ranger and Tonto credibility comes from "resoluting your buying Linda Lay's tearful tales of has such a reductionist, stereotypical rep- determination," pundits hailed him as poverty, or Jeffrey Skilling's assertions resentation of native peoples been the next Disraeli. Many of us thought that he knew squat about what was going offered up for the flattery of white folks. that what we had actually seen was a on at his company. Yet with the ongoing But under the new unity, the new con- total moron, but, no, no, no. We only hagiography of the president, and these sensus (and the new imperialism) Mani- thought we had seen that. relentless media geysers of coercive, fest Destiny is back. Similarly, after last month's State of patriotic sludge, it can seem real, real And did anybody see Tom Brokaw's the Union message, media pundits told lonely these days sitting on your sofa and slavish profile of the Bush White House us we hadn't seen or heard what we watching TV. H NEED TO CATCH UP? For back issues of InTheseTimes call 773-772-0100
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By Doug Ireland
specter is haunting Europe — the specter of the they have never been accepted into French society. Penned extreme right. George W. Bush's long war has dramat- in the desolate, stifling, low-income high-rises of the isolat- ically accelerated the brown-shirted emotions of xeno- ed suburban cites that ring urban France (and victims of phobia, racism and anti-immigrant hysteria all across unemployment rates as high as 50 percent) many idle ghetto Athe Continent. Undermined by corruption and programatically youths find their only real identity in gangs of petty crimi- bankrupt, European social democracy is on the run, and, where nals—and are seen as the cause of rising crime. still in power, its political leadership is taking the blame for the All this helps explain why the French left lost control of 40 deepening economic crisis. The "Rose Europe" of the '90s — in cities in last year's municipal elections, in a harbinger of things which social-democratic governments of the left, or left-center to come. The Socialist Party's Jospin is slightly behind or even coalitions, held power nearly everywhere in Western Europe — is with conservative incumbent Jacques Chirac in the polls for coming to an end. April's presidential elections. But Jospin's strongest challenge The "Third Way" dear to Germany's Gerhard Schroder (and may be from his former minister of the interior, Jean-Pierre Britain's Tony Blair) represents the "Clintonization" of tradi- Chevenement, a hard-liner on immigrants. Chevenement, a tional social democratic politics, and French Prime Minister fervent nationalist and Eurosceptic, had quit as minister of Lionel Jospin's compromises are pretty weak tea, indeed. But defense for a previous Socialist government in 1991 to protest those vying to replace the temporizers of the watered-down France's support of the Gulf War. He then founded his own European left are much, much worse. The Franco-German party, the Citizen's Movement (or MDC, its French acronym), entente has traditionally dominated Euro-community politics which until his latest resignation had been a part of Jospin's and economics, motoring the drive toward an increasingly fed- governing coalition. Posing as a guarantor of order, the man eralized Europe. But this year's elections on either side of the the French press ironically has nicknamed "k Che," in moving Rhine threaten to shift the balance of power sharply to the right. sharply to his right, has stitched together a crazy-quilt coalition of supporters that includes former Communist ministers, lead- rance's lurch rightward is driven by the fact that it has a ers of the Radicals of the Left (a small, middle-class party F larger North African population than any other Euro- which is neither) and Viscount Phillipe DeVilliers, an ultra- pean country. It imported hundreds of thousands of manual right Catholic politician. laborers from its former colonies in the postwar growth years Chevenement's anti-Americanism and pandering to security of the '50s and '60s. The second- and third-generation hysteria is attracting more of Chirac's voters than Jospin's in the youths from these traditionally large immigrant families are polls, making him le troisieme homme (the third man) in the first trapped in an identity crisis: French-speaking and rarely round of the two-stage presidential election process. He's doing knowing the language and culture of their parents' origins, so well that many perspicacious French political analysts believe
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that the runoff could well be between Jospin and le Che rather making serious inroads in the economically depressed former than a Jospin-Chirac duel. East Germany—into martyrs. What's more, at least five NPD Chirac himself has been undermined by a continuing scandal leaders whose anti-immigrant excesses were cited as reasons over the organized bribery that financed aU of France's impor- for the ban have been revealed as German intelligence agents. tant political parties (with the exception of the Greens). But All this has created extraordinarily fertile ground for the can- the Socialists, too, have been hit by the corruption scandals, didate of the conservative Christian Democratic Union and ministers from both left and right parties have been impris- (CDU), Edmund Stoiber, a protege of the late Franz Josef oned on a variety of corruption charges. Although Strauss, the authoritarian strong- Jospin's personal financial integrity has never f man of Bavarian politics and been questioned, his credibility has been seriously This year s notorious coddler of ex-Nazis. A undermined by revelations that he first joined the flaming nationalist and Euroscep- Socialist Party as a mole for a super-secretive Trot- elections threaten tic, Stoiber's law-and-order, skyite sect known as the Lambertistes (after their tough-on-immigrants discourse is paranoid, reclusive leader Pierre Lambert). For to shift the highly popular, particularly in years Jospin denied rumors of his Trotskyite past— East Germany, where unemploy- claiming he had been confused with his brother. ment has hit 17 percent. Bavaria But an accumulation of public testimonies from balance of power. under Stoiber has become the his ex-Trotskyite colleagues, showing that Jospin's high-tech capital of Europe, relationship with the ultrasectarian group continued well into thanks to the windfall subsidies Stoiber handed out to business, his years as first secretary of the Socialist Party under President with an unemployment rate of little more than 5 percent, Francois Mitterand, finally forced Jospin to admit the truth. roughly half that of the country as a whole. This has given ammunition to the right, and snide references to Schroder's chances of hanging on as chancellor against the "Comrade Michel" (Jospin's underground code name) dot the man posing as the author of the "Bavarian miracle" are further discourse of his critics. undercut by the fact that this fall, Germany's parliament will Meanwhile, the race-baiting neofascist Jean-Marie Le Pen—a find its number of seats decreased by almost 10 percent (when notorious anti-Semite whose National Front had been written a law passed by the previous conservative government in 1996 off when corruption and mismanagement lost it the three impor- goes into effect). According to the influential daily Frankfurter tant mayoralties it controlled in last year's municipal elections— AUgemeine Zeitung, "If this year's election results were to come is once again getting as much as 13 percent in some presidential out the same as in 1998, the SPD and the Greens' lead of 21 opinion polls. (Le Pen, whose ex-wife has said that at home he seats would probably shrink to eight as a result of the reforms." always called Hitler "Uncle Adolf," is famous for having declared But the traditionally pacifist Greens' support has plummeted the Nazi concentration camp ovens "a detail of history.") At the in the polls since September 11, despite the pro-war sentiments same time, two other members of Jospin's "plural left" alliance, of their leader Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister. the Communists (once France's largest postwar political party) Schroder's only hope of survival likely rests in a future coalition and the Greens, have both sunk to around 5 percent in opinion with the PDS, ex-Communists led by Gregor Gyisi who are sur- surveys. If Jospin is defeated for the presidency—in a runoff in prisingly strong, and not only in the East. The SPD already has which Le Pen and Chevenement hold the balance of power— coalition governments with the PDS in several Lander (includ- the left coalition will have serious trouble hanging on to its ing Berlin—where they supported the election of Mayor Klaus majority in the legislative elections in June. Wovereit, the openly gay SPD leader). While Schroder has denied he'll ever form an alliance with the PDS, a February poll • erhard Schroder is likewise in deep trouble in the forth- shows that only 38 percent of Germans believe him. ' coming September elections. Just weeks after Bush declared war on "evil" before Congress, his German Socialist Party hen there is Italy, where Premier Silvio Berlusconi— (SPD)—with its historical roots as the mother party of European Telected by his virulently anti-immigrant and racist socialism—was swept from power in Hamburg, where it had campaign—governs with the support of the post-fascist ruled for 50 years, as a newly created, anti-immigrant Law and National Alliance Party and the xenophobic Northern Order Party won a stunning quarter of the vote (much of it League of Umberto Bossi. Berlusconi's Forza Italia (Onward poached from the SPD's traditional working-class electorate). Italy!) is unlike any other party in Western Europe. Italy's The German economy is almost in free fall. Unemployment, richest man built it as a business, rather like Amway, handing the issue that more than any other brought Schroder to power, out prizes in cash and gifts to those who enrolled the most is nearing 10 percent and growing rapidly. German cities are members and corralled the most votes, a practice he contin- slashing services and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy ues. As a magnate, he owns 45 percent of Italy's television, because of a business-friendly change in the tax law (pushed and as head of government he now commands 45 percent through by Schroder) that gutted municipal revenues. And a more (via the three state-run TV networks). major scandal has erupted over the falsification and inflation of Italy's vice-premier, Gianfranco Fini, the head of the Nation- job-placement figures under Schroder's labor minister. al Alliance, joined its predecessor, the MSI (or Italian Social Another scandal making headlines concerns Schroder's Movement, founded by ex-Fascists in 1946), at the age of 17 attempts to ban the neo-Nazi German National Party (NPD). because, he claims, leftist demonstrators had blocked him from Attempting to outlaw any political party in a country with going to the movies to see John Wayne's The Green Berets. Yet Germany's totalitarian past touches a raw nerve, and making as recently as 1994, he told La Stampa that Mussolini was "the the NPD illegal would turn the neo-Nazis—who have been greatest statesman in history." Now Berlusconi has thumbed his
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nose at the European Union by appointing Fini as Italian rep- ing power to the charismatic young conservative Anders resentative to the European constitutional convention. Fur- Fogh Rasmussen, who ran on an anti-immigrant, law-and- thermore, Berlusconi's minister of immigration was part of Mus- order platform. Meanwhile, the extreme-right Danish Peo- solini's last-ditch Salo Republic, while he chose a former Fascist ple's Party racked up enough votes to make it the third- youth leader to oversee state television. And his culture minis- largest party in the country (though nowhere in Scandinavia ter—former TV host of a home-shopping program—has has the immigrant population surpassed 5 percent). recently denounced contemporary art as "excremental." In Spain, the popularity of conservative Premier Jose Maria Yet the opposition—the center-left Olive Tree coali- Aznar has never been higher in the six years since he defeated tion—is in complete disarray, preoccupied with internal the corruption-tainted Socialist government of Felipe Gonza- power struggles. Its leader, Francesco Rotelli, the former lez. And in Belgium, the neo-fascist Flemish nationalists of the mayor of Rome, is, as the Guardian recently put it, "wan and Vlams Blok won 10 percent of the vote two years ago in elec- passionless." Piero Fassino, the gangling leader of the PDS tions that saw it and other far-right parties gain at the expense (the Democratic Left Party, ex-Communists) hardly seems of the corruption-plagued Socialist coalition government to offer a more charismatic alternative. The cri de coeur of there. The xenophobic security hysteria magnified by the war Nobel laureate Dario Fo on the following pages makes clear has also considerably helped the fortunes of Nazi-loving Aus- the grave threat Berlusconi poses to democracy as, one by trian demagogue Jorg Haider and his neo-fascist party, the one, he puts the institutions of state (like the judiciary) FPO, which in late January was polling 25 percent, equal to under his thumb. that of its coalition partner in government. Elsewhere, fear and hatred of brown- and black-skinned If Edmund Stoiber becomes the new German chancellor immigrants has even infected historically tolerant and social- next fall, there is a grave danger that a new Rome-Berlin- democratic Scandinavia: Last October, the Norwegian Labor Vienna axis of conservative, nationalist, immigrant-baiters Party suffered its worst general election result in 90 years, would halt the construction of a federal Europe and roll back evicted by a conservative coalition led by Kjell Magne Bon- the European Union's sterling commitment to human rights. devik, a Lutheran priest. The next month, Denmark's social With the dark cloud of racism hanging over the Continent, the democrats were handed their worst showing in 50 years, los- future of European social democracy looks increasingly bleak. •
Dario Fo, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in literature, is an Italian anarchist playwright and actor. The following text is taken from a speech about the decline of democracy in Italy given on January 12 in Paris. Mussolini's Ghost By Dario Fo e are witnessing in Italy a never-ending series of aber- rations and hypocrisies by various political groups W that are invoking—almost to the point of reclaiming the same words and gestures—a fascist climate. They use the same repertoire and shout the same slogans: freedom, effort, fatherland, Italy, defense of the race, culture of our civilization, original civilization. ... Add to that what we call a "conflict of interest." Mussolini himself did not have the system of political privilege that Sil- vio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, has. On the other side, there's an eerie absence of opposition. It's true. It's a reality that can be felt: Our role has become one of mere dissidents trying to fill the void of political opposition. I attended the When someone like Pier Ferdinando Casini, president of convention of the Democratic! di Sinistra [Democratic Left the Parliament and member of the Union of Catholic Party]: They seemed paralyzed. "We must change, or we will Democrats, says things that sound like they should come from die," they exclaimed. And having said that, they remained on the left, such as, "Before changing anything at the RAI [Ital- the podium like statues of salt. ian State TV], we need to resolve issues involving conflict of
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interest," then we are in the midst of madness. This is some- era firsthand say that they feel like they are reliving the '20s, one on the right parroting the critical voice of a left that no the years of the birth of fascism. longer exists, at a time when the right's efforts should be Furthermore, we read the newspaper and see that Berlus- protested with important debates, meetings, demonstrations— coni's attorney, when presenting himself to the court for in other words, any kind of presence. It's absurd that Casini the first time after being charged with corruption, leaves tells his party members: "Wait, let's not overdo it." Even if this the courtroom shouting: "There's no more justice!" His situation ends as a travesty or in nothing at all, the right will lawyers are there alongside Berlusconi's lawyers to demand still have succeeded in speaking in the place of the opposition. the intervention of the minister of justice, a member of the But one also sees new movements on the rise, especially Northern League, and chosen, conveniently, by Berlus- among students, young workers and the coni's government. elderly, who, through great and generous We have before us the most participation, seem to restore the waters of irrational paradoxes, like some- the resurrection. And I say, even, in the new thing out of Alfred Jarry's King Catholic sense of the term, the waters of Ubu, the farce of the impossible: purification. These movements testify to an is there in their Laws are made expressly for the awe-inspiring resurgence. king, ministers are elected from However, instead of going along with these his court to defend only his own new movements, supporting them and language and in interests, and the public applauds. applauding them, the left runs from them, as At most, someone delivers a if disgusted. These are the same leftists, we their expressions minor burp of indignation. With a should note, who are responsible for selling clear conscience, the Cavalier off our public schools, a plan young people, and his men take every power in teachers and democratic-oriented families have made clear hand and enjoy total impunity. It is the logic of, "We will with the slogan: "Don't turn our schools into businesses." never go to prison." Before creating a private school system, we should concern I heard someone from Berlusconi's government say that ourselves with putting the one that already exists—the public they will meet with the center-left. "In one hand," he said, school system—back together. "we'll hold an olive branch and, in the other, a gun." Those The same goes for their position on the war. Representatives were his exact words. It's true. The new fascism is there in of the center-left, in order to mitigate their position, plead: their language and in their expressions. Beginning with "Let's be careful not to upset the people. Let's not turn inno- "Business Italy" and moving to the "Business Party," we are cent people into victims." Let's be careful? Is that a joke? By all made into employees of the government, with the Big now we know that 90 percent of victims are innocent, as Gino Boss at the center. Strada, the author and founder of Emergency, an Italian orga- "Losers Beware!" was another fascist slogan. Today, it is nization that provides medical aid to war-torn regions, has enough to see the gestures, words, attitudes and the arro- explained to us. But, of course, we already knew that. gance of these politicians, who beat their fists on the table, shouting "You're busting my balls" or "Get the hell out of my H t has been calculated that the past three months of bombings business" (like the Minister of Communications). We also H fin Afghanistan] have claimed more than 3,000 civilian vic- hear "Arabs get out," "They can build their fleabag mosques tims, equivalent to the victims of the Twin Towers. This does not somewhere else," and "They should stay in their ghetto." count the victims of the devastated cities, who live with atro- There's a new idea: a ghetto for those who are different, for cious hardships, or the invisible victims—"the invisible dead," as those who are not willing to conform. Strada once called them—whose numbers are frightening: thou- At times I feel anguished by this whole situation, a mute kind of sands of orphans, whose parents were blown to bits by bombs and melancholy. I continue to work in the theater, of course, and in land mines. In this immense war-torn territory, it will take an parts of our performances we deal widi these topics. And the pub- estimated 200 years to clear the millions of land mines. lic responds, but of course we're preaching to the converted. And all this for what? For a Pashtun victory that takes opium The best thing today is this fantastic breeze and sun—these production back from the Taliban, opium that will still be sent young people who are organizing themselves across the world. to Pakistan to be refined and transformed into heroin. In the They need our help, information and the truth. But today we end, this means everything is put back into circulation with great have no Jean-Paul Sartre who goes to speak at universities. In force—the profits of the drug traffic recycled through American 1968 he held a conference on the theater of circumstance— and European banks in a vicious circle of terrorist financing. As political, popular theater. He opened the conference with a a journalist asked an official of the American government, quote from Alberto Savinio: "Oh men, narrate our story." "Given the financial trail of money-laundering that Swiss banks Today, it is no longer a question of giving a history of the are involved in, when do you plan to bomb Switzerland?" The present, a sense of I'esprit du temps. Today theater directors reply: dead silence. and directors of theaters are on the right (some more recent But to return to Italy and to the decline of democracy that converts than others) and have acquired a flair for flag- manifests itself there daily, I would not want this moment to waving. Most intellectuals, in the meantime, are sleeping or become similar to what occurred when that other absolutist simply pretending the warning signs don't exist—pretending government was born, the one my father used to tell me that they have better things to think about. • about—he who, when very young, was a political refugee in France. I'm struck when I listen to those who witnessed that Translated by William Finky Green.
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Together at the Seams
A protester raises his fist while marching down Lexington Avenue in New York. As many as 20,000 descended on the city the weekend of February 2 to protest the World Economic Forum. aomi Klein there as a Trojan Horse. The tone—if not the times—has cer- Porto Alegre, Brazil tainly changed. n the first day of the World Social Forum, the hall- The World Economic Forum used to be a place for the rich ways were buzzing with rumors of defections from the to be utterly unapologetic about their wealth, and for the elite North, Top delegates were jumping ship from the to be absolutely defiant about their elitism. But over the course World Economic Forum in New York and coming to of only three years, Davos has been transformed from a festi- Porto Alegre instead: a European prime minister, World Bank val of shamelessness to an annual parade of public shaming, a directors, even corporate executives. dour capitalist S&M parlor. Some never showed up, others did. But debates raged Instead of gloating, the ultrarich now attempt to outdo each nonetheless about what it all meant. Was it evidence of the other with self-flagellating speeches about how their greed is World Social Forum's new strength (it attracted some 60,000 unsustainable, how the poor will rise up and devour them if participants, after all) or a sign of imminent danger? they don't change their ways. Again and again, delegates will- The World Social Forum was founded last year as an alterna- ingly strap themselves in for whippings from their critics, from tive to the annual gathering of corporations, world leaders and •Amnesty International to U2's Bono. opinion-makers who usually meet in Davos, Switzerland but this This year, when the conference fell off its alpine perch and year convened in New York City. With these new high- landed in the rubble and rabble of New York, the abuse powered arrivals, however, the World Social Forum risked turn- climbed to a peak higher than Davos itself. "The reality is ing from a clear alternative into a messy merger: Teams of that power and wealth in this world are very, very unequally photographers trailed politicians; market researchers from shared, and that far too many people are condemned to lives PricewaterhouseCoopers trolled hotel lobbies, looking for of extreme poverty and degradation," said the Chief Davos opportunities to "dialogue"; students threw a cream pie at a Dominatrix, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "The per- French minister. ception, among many, is that this is the fault of... the people It was much the same muddle in New York, with NGOs act- who attend this gathering." ing like corporations, corporations rebranding themselves as Ouch! As one protester's sign put it on the streets outside, NGOs, and pretty much everyone claiming they were really "Bad Capitalist! No Martini."
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o, are these public floggings, from the World Economic Forum to the Enron hearings, a sign of actual progress? What, to borrow a phrase more often directed at those of us who gathered in Porto Alegre, are their alternatives? Do they have clear ideas about how to better distribute wealth? Do they have concrete action plans for ending the AIDS crisis or slowing climate change? No. The core economic policies governing globalization have only accelerated in the past year—fresh tax cuts, plans for new oil pipelines, deeper privatization programs, weaker labor protections. No wonder so many young people have concluded that it is not the individual policies or politicians that are the problem, but the system of central- ized power itself. For this reason, much of the appeal of the World Social Forum is that its host city, Porto A billboard greeting the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Alegre, has come to represent a possible chal- lenge to this trend. The city is part of a growing political move- or me, the crystallizing moment came late one night at ment in Brazil that is systematically delegating power back down the youth campsite in Porto Alegre. Around a thousand to people at the municipal level. The architect of this decen- f young people were gathered in front of a loudspeaker. It tralization in Brazil has been the Workers Party (or PT, its was broadcasting live news from the street demonstrations in Portuguese acronym), which is now in power in 200 municipal- New York outside the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The news was ities and leading in the polls federally. coming from an Indy Media Center reporter who was on her Many PT cities have adopted the "participatory budget," a cell phone in the crowd. Her voice was being streamed live on system that allows direct citizen participation in the allocation the Internet. It was picked up by a micro-radio station set up in of scarce city resources. Through a network of neighborhood the camp, where her words were translated into Portuguese and and issue councils, residents vote directly on which roads will then broadcast. At one point, the U.S. server went down and be paved and which health care centers will be built. In Porto was immediately replaced by a backup in Italy. Alegre, this devolution of power has brought results that are Pretty much everyone agreed that the heart of the World the mirror opposite of global economic trends. For Social Forum wasn't really in the official events. It was instance, rather than scaling back on public in unscripted moments like when my Italian services for the poor, the city has friend Luca Casarini tried to sum up the sum- increased them substantially. And mit over dinner. "It's about—how do you rather than spiraling cynicism and say it in English?—this," he said. And voter dropout, democratic partici- using the forum's activist Esperanto of pation increases every year. butchered second languages and The participatory budget is far mime, he tugged at his T-shirt sleeve from perfect, and it was only one and showed me the seam. "living alternative" on display at Right, the seams. Maybe change the World Social Forum. isn't really about what is said and However, it's part of a pattern of done in the centers, it's about the rejection of what Portuguese seams, the in-between spaces with political scientist Boaventura dos their hidden strength. In Porto Santos calls "low-intensity Alegre last week, much of the talk democracy" in favor of higher was about nearby Buenos Aires, impact democracies, from indepen- where some say a revolt from the seams dent media activists creating new is already taking place. Street demon- models of participation to landless strators aren't calling for a changing of the farmers occupying and planting on political guard, but have instead adopted the unused land all over Brazil. sweeping slogan "Get rid of them all." Many remain unimpressed, still waiting for a They have concluded that it's not enough to new top-down ideology,to chart the course. One overthrow one political party and replace it with reporter attending the forum told me that all the focus on local another. They are instead attempting something infinitely power represented "a Maoist retreat to countryside." The New York more difficult: to topple an economic orthodoxy so powerful, Times declared in one headline, "Brazil Forum More Local Than it can withstand even its strongest advocates whipping and Worldly." In fact, with simultaneous mass events in New York and kicking it from the center. Porto Alegre, this was a truly global moment for this movement. The question is: Can it sustain an attack from the seams? B
IN THESE TIMES /£ MARCH 18, 2002 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ieinventing Democracy iy David Graeber begin experimenting with things like direct democracy. It's about a vision for what a truly free society might look like. But in order New York to do this, one must transgress the law. At least, this is what we 'he way you usually read about globalization protests in discovered as soon as anyone applied for a permit. The moment the media—even the progressive media—there are you start submitting to the logic of the state, everything changes. "good" protesters (labor unions or NGOs like Public Organizers ended up submitting themselves entirely to the Citizen and Global Exchange) and then there are "bad" whims of the police, who predictably broke every agreement protesters—scary, window-smashing anarchist kids whose sense- they'd made and began arbitrarily stopping, randomly attack- less "violence" only acts to bring down police repression and ing, delaying and generally harassing the marchers. By the time undercut the good protesters' message. This was always a ridicu- they reached the depressing, barricaded "protest pens" two lous dichotomy, but the January protests in New York surround- blocks from the Waldorf, 20,000 people had dwindled to 2,000, ing the World Economic Forum ought to lay this myth to rest. and CNN could dutifully report "2,000 protest in front of The World Economic Forum, essentially a dining club for the Waldorf without even broaching the question of why 90 per- world's ruling class, had been held every year for decades in the cent of the marchers had dropped out before they even got resort town of Davos, Switzerland; that is, until a concerted there—or, in fact, that the 90 percent had been there at all. campaign of direct action made things so unpleasant for them Nightline had taped an elaborate segment which, for once, that they were, for all practical purposes, driven out. actually would have discussed the central issues of the global- So after September 11, the World Economic Forum declared, ization movement. But producers cancelled the show because for this year at least, that they were relocating to the Waldorf- of the lack of "violence" in the news—even after police pre- Astoria hotel in Midtown Manhattan. It seemed a perfect for- emptively swept up 150 activists the next day for the crime of mula: New York had the largest police force in the entire world, walking down the street. The prisoners were held for days, and not to mention one already made heroes in the media. A sin- as they emerged from jail, nursing broken fingers and black gle shard of broken glass would be enough to give the pundits eyes, almost all had exactly the same reaction: We tried being an excuse to frame the global justice movement as another al- nice. Now we know where that gets us. H Qaeda come to terrorize an already traumatized community. Certainly, the unions and NGOs were terrified; one by one, d\ey David Graeber, an assistant professor of anthropology at Yale, is effectively dropped out. All that remained were the anarchists, active with the Direct Action Network and Ya Basta!. students and direct action people, who were left with the respon- sibility of—in a matter of weeks—putting together a nationwide mobilization effort, organizing housing, press conferences and seminars, and even applying for a police permit for a legal march Domini cares (something none of us had ever done before, but which had to be done if a safe space was to be provided for ordinary citizens who did not wish to risk arrest). This was all done with no funding, no about diversity real budget, no professional organizers and no leadership structure. And it worked. In that sense, at least, it was a magnificent success. This is what the direct action movement is ultimately ,4 commitment to diversity represents about: reinventing democracy. Far from lacking an ideology, more than a commitment to baite those new forms of radically decentralized direct democracy fairness. We believe that companies that are its ideology. If nothing else, the "bad" protesters have man- support and encourage diversify in their aged to prove that they can do anything the (hierarchical) work force -will be better able to serve the needs NGOs or unions can, probably much better. of a diverse society, where women and The "hardest of the hard core" showed up—everyone from minorities are extremely important customers. the notorious Eugene anarchists to the "Urban Guerrilla Division" of the Earth Liberation Front, to groups like the Divas for Democracy and the Tute Neri (Black Overalls). Not only did they respect the mood of the city, they filled it with samba bands, tango dancers, giant puppets of the Statue of Liberty and Ken Lay, and chorus lines of Radical Rockettes. If anything, they were victims of their own success: When something like 20,000 people magically appeared for the start of the march, the organizers hardly knew what to do with them. But alas, we were not only victims of success. We were The Way You Mvest Matters* also victims of the very logic of our compromise with power— and many of us will not forget this. 800-762-6814 Anarchy and direct action are not about transgressing laws www.domini.com Domini "I simply for the sake of it, but ultimately about creating spaces that DSIL Investment Services LLC, Distributor. 2/01 can stand outside of power, autonomous zones in which one can
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Social change often has its origins in political initiatives that begin at the local level. With this issue, In These Times inaugurates "Local Motion," an occasional series of articles that explore how progressives in diverse locales, from big cities to rural counties, have found solutions to the challenges facing their communities. These success stories, it is hoped, will provide models and inspiration for activists across the country. The series begins with the story of how Oak Park, Illinois has become one of the most integrated towns in America. —Joel Bleifuss Not Just Black and White Oak Park, Illinois grapples with questions of diversity
By Darryl Cater
eing liberal in Oak Park, Illinois is not quite the same job it was 30 years ago. Not that this progres- siveB, middle-class suburb is any more conserva- tive now than it was in the '70s, when the town became nationally famous for its success in stopping the tide of white flight. In fact, until 1988 Oak Parkers were still voting Republican in presidential elections by com- fortable margins. For most of the 20th century, Oak Park was seen as literate but not necessarily liberal. The town was known for a pair of hometown boys whose alternative lifestyles didn't fit the conser- vative mold: Ernest Hemingway (who found the village, a town of "broad lawns and narrow minds," a bit too stuffy for his taste) and Frank Lloyd Wright (who left behind his studio—and the largest collection of Wright homes any- where—when his private life became too scan- dalous for his upright neighbors). tions to the anti-gay hiring policy of the Boy Scouts of Nowadays Oak Park is a firmly liberal town. Seventy-two America. (The scouts responded by refusing to renew the percent of Oak Parkers voted for Al Gore in the 2000 pres- charter of local troops.) idential election. The village board boasts the only openly Some real-estate peddlers even employ Oak Park's lefty- lesbian elected official in the state, Joanne Trapani, who college-town-without-a-college reputation as a marketing was promoted last year from village trustee to village pres- niche. And while quite a few Republicans still send brave let- ident. Virtually no one said a word about her sexual orien- ters to the local newspapers beseeching liberal neighbors to tation, except to marvel that no one was saying a word extend their self-touted tolerance to the conservative minor- about her sexual orientation. On the same election night, ity, right-wingers seem resigned to living in an enemy camp. the elementary school board gained its first gay member. This liberal camp, however, has spent the past year arguing Meanwhile, soccer moms in Oak Park's PTOs received over the very issues that defined the town as a lefty haven in national TV attention last year when they voiced objec- the first place: the government programs that helped turn the
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village into one of the nation's thoroughly integrated commu- No one, however, seriously argues that the policies have nities and made Oak Park a darling of urban scholars. failed. The 2000 Census shows that 66 percent of Oak Park's The village government and the elementary school district residents are white; 22 percent are black. While the number of will soon decide what to make of reports from a citizen task white residents has steadily dropped since the '60s as the num- force appointed to re-evaluate some of the town's famous ber of black residents has continued to rise, 22 percent is a diversity policies. The commission was surprisingly divided strikingly low figure considering the predictions of sociologists about how best to regulate the racial balance in elementary in the '70s that Oak Park would be virtually all black by now. schools. These conflicts reflect a seemingly growing resis- More striking, however, is the distribution of the two popu- tance to the very word "integration"—a term that was excised lations: Eighty-nine percent of the blocks in this village have in 1999 from the village's 26-year-old official diversity state- both white and black residents living on them. The elemen- ment by a group of minority-sensitive "political correctors." tary school district divides the four-and-a-half-square-mile rectangle that is Oak Park into eight roughly rectangular small fraction of the town's 52,000 residents who neighborhoods: Of those, none are more than 34 percent JL avidly follow these issues tend to hold complex and African-American. Some people talk about Oak Park as nuanced views on this subject. They though it were a segre- are often ambivalent and obstinately gated town (the east resistant to pigeonholing. But the The integrationists side is viewed as the arguments, if not the players, general- black neighborhood, ly fall into one of two categories. In worried? How we be the west as white) but one corner: the "progressive" view, as Census numbers show advocates have described it, that some sure wMte homeshoppers such talk makes car- of the integration programs are (at toon caricatures of rel- best) no longer necessary and (at aren't going to start atively minor trends. worst) racist. Ironically, these "pro- (By contrast, the gressives," many of whom are African- steering their Dodge Austin neighborhood American, take as a point of liberal remains 90 percent pride the traditionally conservative Caravans to other suburbs? black—which would call for less intrusive government. In not be alarming were the other corner: the "old-school" liberal view, as it is some- the area not also gang-infested and economically blighted.) times derisively called, held by those who feel the threat of However, Oak Parkers have begun debating whether local racial resegregation is still around and getting more ominous. neighborhoods may be in danger of re-segregating. For the The progressive argument, using the trendy language of first time ever, three elementary schools are teetering on the multiculturalism, seems to have gained ground as old racial brink of "majority minority" status, with enrollments close to prejudices have melted and morphed. Meanwhile, as local 50 percent black. One school in the northwest corner of the home values soared at the outset of the new millennium, the village is nearly 80 percent white. old fears that segregation would lead to disinvestment seems a distant nightmare from a bygone time. bjections to Oak Park's integration policies have come The objections to the policies are nothing new. Similar argu- S from several corners recently. Some of the very ments have been tossed around since 1968, when town liberals African-Americans to whom the village opened its doors in triumphantly rallied for the passage of a local Fair Housing the '60s now say they are tired of being "counted," "managed" Ordinance (in advance of the national version) and began and shuffled about by village leadership like pawns in a pater- actively courting black citizens. Three years later, Chicago's nalistic chess game. Many blacks are ambivalent. They know Austin neighborhood, which sits across the street from Oak the policies made it possible for them to live in Oak Park Park's eastern border, had turned from all blanc to all black. without sacrificing the characteristics that made Oak Park an Oak Parkers adopted an arsenal of tools to keep their village attractive place to live in the first place. from following in Austin's footsteps: banning "For Sale" signs to Others want Oak Park's famous focus on "racial diversity" to keep whites from panicking when neighbors moved; offering expand to "multiculturalism." Census numbers show this is still equity insurance packages for homeowners convinced their prop- pretty much a two-race town. Around its borders, other suburbs erty values would plummet as neighborhoods changed (though have exploded with Hispanics and Asians. But the percentage of fewer than 200 residents took the village up on the offer); coun- Oak Park's population that is Hispanic or Asian still hovers in seling both blacks and whites to think about moving into neigh- the low single digits. Some feel the timeworn arguments about borhoods they might not ordinarily consider; redrawing school blacks and whites in Oak Park have simply started to mildew. boundaries when racial balance in any one of the elementary A handful of the town's most influential homosexuals par- schools started looking less like the community as a whole. ticularly like this emphasis on multiculturalism, which makes Other more draconian proposals were rejected. Village offi- sense. Oak Park was less preoccupied in the '90s by racial cials in the mid-'70s voted down the idea of a literal quota on diversity than by gay-rights issues. The decade began with the number of black people in certain neighborhoods. While fiery fights at the local high school over the addition of "sex- the event is largely forgotten, this long-dead notion still ual orientation" to the list of categories protected by discrim- looms large in the emotions of some who suspect old-school ination. By 1998, Oak Park had established a groundbreaking integrationists are secretly seeking to cap the black popula- "domestic partnership registry" for married gay couples. The tion somewhere around 30 percent of the village total. village is now known as a sort of evolving capital for gay fam-
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ilies in Chicagoland, as gay couples with children move out the task force generally drew no more than 40 people. Neigh- of Chicago's swinging "Boy's Town" neighborhood and settle borhood meetings on controversial economic development down in alternafamily-friendly Oak Park. One percent of projects, meanwhile, have been known to draw more than a local households are headed by "unmarried same-sex part- hundred. An all-day rally to save a local hot dog stand from a ners" as classified by the Census bureau—among the top pop- condo developer's wrecking ball drew more than a thousand. ulations of gay couples in the state. Indeed, as the real-estate market has sent home values soar- At the same time, influential whites are eager to be sensi- ing and the village government has begun to attract major tive to the concerns of blacks in a town where African- national and regional retailers to a town that had struggled to Americans have bafflingly little governmental involvement. attract investment for years, many of the Oak Parkers of 2002 In April's local elections, one (white) village board candi- seem less afraid of an influx of poor black people than the in- date, attorney John Troelstrup, called for a "less managed" migration of too many rich people. town where the leadership stops "talking about black people In addition, Supreme Court rulings have strained the polit- as though they're problems." His supporters included a black ical and legal will to reinforce integration efforts. In recent incumbent elementary school board candidate, Ade Onaye- weeks, Cambridge, Massachusetts joined a small handful of mi, who complained, "When communities experimenting you start telling me that you've with progressively venturesome got to keep [the number of efforts to integrate schools by black residents] at 30 percent income level. To date Oak Park, or 20 percent, I get very upset." where school enrollments range In his losing campaign, from 1 percent to 20 percent Troelstrup renewed familiar "low income," has conducted its complaints about some poli- discussion almost entirely in cies of the Oak Park Regional terms of race. Housing Center, a semi-gov- ernmental apartment-finding n February 2001, the task service that encourages users to I force's education subcom- consider housing in neighbor- mittee, which was entrusted hoods where they might be in with the most controversial the minority. Troelstrup's com- issues, decided there is no plaint: Only blacks receive lists immediate need for the shifting of apartments outside of Oak of school racial balances. They Park. The program is designed to suggest housing opportuni- emphasized less controversial efforts to shrink the gap ties in all-white suburbs to blacks, who the center's support- between the grades of white and black students, banking that ers say are often discouraged from buying homes close to the measures will improve the attractiveness of all schools to their jobs because of lingering institutional racism. (The both races. And they advised the school district, which had center has never been sued on fair-housing grounds, probably been reluctant to tinker with racial balance any time soon, because they provide all clients with a notice explaining to keep watching the numbers and consider redrawing school their mission. All clients are reminded that in the end they boundaries if necessary. can choose to live wherever they want.) The language of the final report reveals the soul-searching that took place in board rooms, e-mails and conversations n the summer of 2000, Oak Park commissioned a group of over the past year. The committee even took issue with the Ivolunteers called "the Commitment to Diversity Task term "racial balance," which had been used to guide school- Force" to determine whether neighborhoods were resegregat- boundary decisions since 1976. "First there was the troubling ing and advise the school board on its decades-old policy of question about how far away from the district-wide racial changing school boundaries when racial enrollment ratios slip ratios a school had to be in order to be 'racially unbalanced,' " out of balance at individual schools. the education subcommittee's report concluded. "Second The report was commissioned after calls for immediate there was the troubling suggestion built into the concept of action from urban scholars like Evan McKenzie of the Uni- 'racial balance' that it was the increase in the number of black versity of Illinois-Chicago (who is writing a book on the sub- students in certain schools that was driving the concern and ject) and Gary Orfield of Harvard University (who helped get the quest, by some, for 'remedies.' " Oak Park started on the road to integration years ago). Members of the task force finally reached what in Oak Schools, the social scientists said, historically have been bell- Park once seemed like a relatively self-evident conclusion: wethers of neighborhood change. The integrationists wor- Racially diverse schools are good and the community likes ried: even if Oak Park parents can be trusted not to flee from them. That conclusion came after hearing complaints from rising black enrollments (and, thanks to the persistent racial parents of students at Oak Park's 80 percent white school: achievement gap, the concomitant drop in test scores), how Hey, I was promised a multicultural experience! Where are can we be sure white homeshoppers aren't going to start steer- all the black kids? That unusual perspective helped grease ing their Dodge Caravans to other suburbs? the wheels for a consensus. • While no one seriously advocated forcibly busing students to other schools, these arguments sounded unnecessarily Darryl Cater writes for Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and shrill to some villagers. The "town hall meetings" called by River Forest.
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Culture-
the very organization supposedly designed to increase it in the nation, Animals hiring rafts of ex-military men who By Doug Ireland would blindly carry out his orders as the movement's state directors. hen the Socialist Party was Sifry traces this movement's origins in its heyday under Eugene back to the man he calls the "Patient ood Terkelian that Sifry is, like the W Victor Debs in the early Zero of the Perot epidemic"—Jack G noble Studs he lets us hear through- 20th century, it had dozens of its own Gargan, the self-described "retired work- out the book the voices of the footsoldiers daily newspapers to spread its message. In ing stiff' who invested his life's savings who did what old Socialists used to call today's America, the mainstream press in a series of full-page newspaper ads to the "Jimmy Higgins work," the nuts-and- create THRO Inc. (for "Throw the bolts grassroots organizing that is the life Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Hypocritical Rascals Out"), demanding blood of any meaningful social move- Politics in America that every incumbent senator and con- ment. The story of the, valiant struggles of By Micah L. Sifry gressman be voted out of office. Gargan's the freshly minted centrist activists for Routledge ads caught on like wildfire, brought in control of UWSA and the Reform Party 365 pages, $27.50 money for more ads, and created a siz- against the "Perotbots" is often quite able roster of disaffected voters, most of moving, as once bright hopes for a new corps gives scant, if any, attention to whom had never been actively engaged political beginning were dashed by dis- attempts to create alternatives to the two in electoral politics before. affection, disillusionment and burnout. major parties, even as the differences Gargan's project became the basis . v By the time the Reform Party was offi- between them have become blurred— for his Draft Perot effort and the cially founded four years after Perot's first and often erased—in a political culture nucleus of United We Stand America, presidential campaign, the movement dominated by money and greed. the Perot-funded organization that was had already substantially evaporated. For a number of years Micah Sifry has later transmogrified into the Reform And when the nativist Buchanan took worked the other side of the street, as it Party. Sifry shows how "the Perot over the party (with the aid of Lenora were, reporting on those who are movement was both a victim of its own Fulani and Fred Newman's cult-racket, "rebelling against the rotten and dysfunc- success—the major parties the New Alliance Party) at a raucous tional two-party duopoly." And in co-opted the deficit brawl in Nashville in 2000, there was lit- Spoiling for a Fight: Third Party Politics in issue—and destroyed tle left except a ballot line in a third of America, he has given us a sterling piece by its own leader's the states and $12.6 million in federal of contemporary political history authoritianism. Perot matching funds. that examines several of the most exterminated Sifry also devotes a lengthy chapter to recent efforts to create alterna- democracy in Reform's Minnesota affiliate, the tives. He also delivers a Independence Party, and the stunning tough-minded critical analy- election of Gov. Jesse Ventura, sis—based on detailed, catapulted into office in 1998 by work- first-hand observation—that ing-class and younger voters, many of can serve as a manual of dos- them brought to the polls for the very and-don'ts for citizens striving for first time by Ventura's unorthodox a new kind of electoral politics. populist style. Why and how Ventura succeeded by targeting "unlikely voters" irst, Sifry takes up the explo- even as the national movement was col- Fsion of discontent with lapsing makes for a fascinating read. traditional party politics that gave Sifry calls the Perot and Ventura con- rise to the Ross Perot phenomenon stituencies the "angry middle" (as and, eventually, the Reform Party. opposed to the "radical middle," the "How," he asks, "does a movement term adopted by much of the main- that garnered 19 million votes in stream press) because "the actual 1992 and spawned a mass member- footsoldiers I talked to who were at the ship organization of 1.5 million core of the movement seemed more people end up a mere eight years motivated by a gut-level anger and later with less than a half-million sense of betrayal than a truly radical votes for its presidential candi- questioning of American society. ... date, Pat Buchanan, with its one [But they] saw all existing political popularly elected official, Jesse institutions (the two parties, the busi- Ventura, deserting it, and with ness establishment, the mainstream an almost non-existent degree of media, and the established left and local organization?" right) as part of the problem."
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Culture
I n Sifry's view, one of the major rea- Green Party—already somewhat dis- AFL-CIO's executive committee, 1 sons Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential trustful of him after his prima donna labor's inner sanctum—its strategy was campaign failed to win even its minimal behavior in 1996, when he refused to undone by the Supreme Court's iniqui- goal of 5 percent of the national vote campaign or accept contributions after tous 1997 decision in Timmons v. Twin (which would have qualified the Green they'd made him their candidate—anx- Cities Area New Party, which upheld Party for federal campaign financing in iously waiting for Nader to drop the Minnesota's ban on cross-endorse- 2004) was Nader's failure—in both tone other shoe. His campaign didn't really ments. Thus undercut, the New Party and strategy—to begin in earnest until late in the sum- turned its attention to New York, one make more of mer, when his two major-party of the few states that still permits effort to opponents had been on the stump cross-endorsements, and helped spark the for more than a year. The cam- the creation there of the Working paign was further crippled by Families Party, whose executive direc- Nader's selection of a well- tor is now Cantor. meaning but completely Full disclosure obliges me to say that amateurish campaign Sifry and I have been friends and col- staff, and by the difficul- leagues ever since his long stint as an ty in many places of editor at The Nation; but that doesn't merging the 150,000 prevent us from having some differ- new Nader volunteers ences. Sifry tends to see the glass as with what Sifry calls the half-full, while in my pessimism I often "granola culture" of the see it as half-empty. In his final pages, Greens, too many of Sifry offers the WFP as a potential whom had only the model for others to follow, while I have slimmest interest in seri- reservations about whether the party ous electoral politics. can be the broad labor-community Nader's only success coalition it hopes to be, given the was in driving Al Gore imposition of unmerited endorsements rot and Ventura courted the into populist rhetorical on certain candidates by the labor mode. As Sifry shows, leaders who pay the party's bills. The angry middle1' of citizens that's when Gore's poll Vermont Progressive Party, co-chaired numbers began to rise, by two trade unionists and also recom- lisgusted by the system, but bringing home disaf- mended as a model by Sifry, is more fected Dems who had congenial—but its successes would iader would not. been considering a vote have been impossible without that __ for Nader. But accom- state's law providing public financing panying that verbal of campaigns, even for third parties. angry middle, a natural constituency for shift by the notoriously bland and cau- But in the end, even Sifry admits Nader's crusade for democratic empow- tious Gore was the blitzkrieg of assaults on that, since September 11 and the erment. "The Nader campaign tended Nader by liberals that the Gore campaign country's lurch to the right, he is to focus its energies more at students, organized. On this point, Sifry effectively "pessimistic" about the short-term young people and progressives than at demolishes the arguments of those who prospects for third parties. Perhaps one political independents," Sifry writes. blame Nader for Dubya's victory, noting should remember the old Jewish folk- "Despite the opportunity created by that, for example, Buchanan "cost" Bush tale from which the late Irving Howe Buchanan's hijacking of the Reform more states than Nader "cost" Gore. drew the title of one of his books. A Party, Nader never made a concerted mendicant came to the mythical vil- bid for former Perot voters." ifry also devotes an important lage of Chelm seeking woric, and was But that's hardly the only fault Sifry Schapter to the New Party, founded offered a job sitting outside the town's finds with the Nader campaign. Sifry is by organizer Daniel Cantor and gates to watch for the coming of the anything but a Nader-hater; indeed, it academic Joel Rogers, whose build- Messiah. "How much does the job was his December 1999 cover story in from-the-bottom-up strategy was based pay?" the mendicant asked. "Ah," said The Nation, "Public Citizen No. 1," that on the notion of "fusion"—that is, the village elder, "It doesn't pay any- first sparked enormous interest in a cross-endorsements of major party can- thing—but the work is steady." Nader candidacy among many on the didates (or the withholding of same) The steady work of building alterna- committed left and Democrats disgusted serving as both carrot and stick. But tives to the duopoly will be long and by the downright boodling of the just as the New Party was showing hard—or, as Cantor likes to say, "there Clinton years. But Nader shot himself in signs of successes—racking up an are no short cuts." If Nader runs again the foot by Hamlet-like dawdling, wait- impressive number of local victories, for president in 2004—and he almost ing nearly until March to formally and becoming the first third party ever certainly will—one can only hope that declare his candidacy. This left the invited to make a presentation to the he attentively reads this book. H
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Culture. Spreading the Word ByAlex P. Kellogg erhaps no other insult can be spo- by name? "Is Kennedy's Nigger in stock landmarks previously known as Nigger ken with more malice, or received by any chance?" Lake, Niggerhead Hill or Old Nigger P with more outrage, than the word Creek. And from the more recent man- "nigger." By the same token, there may ccording to Kennedy, "nigger" is ifestations of "nigger" in Quentin be no other word in the history of the A derived from the Latin term for the Tarantino's Pulp Fiction to virtually any English language that has been so bril- color black, niger. When exactly the hip-hop song made in the past five word transformed from racial moniker years, Kennedy points out that the Nigger: The Strange Career of to racial slur is unknown, but by the word's meaning varies by content and a Troublesome Word early 19th century "nigger" was a famil- context, depending largely on the indi- By Randall Kennedy iar insult. By 1871, the term had made vidual circumstances in which it is used. Pantheon its first recorded appearance in a court But Kennedy is largely interested in a 224 pages, $22 of law. Since then, as Kennedy illus- careful examination of the legal history trates, nigger "has seeped into of "nigger." For "like every other signifi- practically every aspect of American cant feature of American life—including liantly adopted and subverted by the culture, from literature to political cigarettes, guns, pornography, drugs, oppressed and aggrieved. debates, from cartoons to songs." stock trading, sex, religion, and money," Nigger, by Randall Kennedy, a "Nigger" is all over the place, from well- he argues, "nigger is thoroughly Harvard law professor, takes a long, hard known nursery rhymes such as enmeshed in litigation." He notes that look at the N-word, as it is often polite- "Eeny-meeny-miney-mo! / Catch a nig- while a Lexis-Nexis search of state and ly denoted, attempting, as he puts it, to ger by the toe!" (I grew up thinking it federal cases pulls up 84 instances of "put a tracer on nigger, report on its use, had always been "tiger") to prominent "kike," 50 of "wetback," 90 of "gook" and and assess the controversies to 286 of "honky," "nigger" appears which it gives rise." in the text of 4,219 decisions. For Kennedy, the word In one instance, a black man seems in some ways an odd attempting to return merchan- choice of subject matter. An dise at a store was forced to sign a advocate of a colorblind soci- return slip on which a sales clerk ety and an outspoken critic of had written "arrogant nigger racial solidarity, I once heard refused exchange" in order to him ask Cornel West in a obtain his refund. Courts in debate what value blacks Illinois ruled in 1977 that the could find in identifying with notation, however rude, was not each other. After a brief pause, harmful enough to warrant a law- West replied: "We can share suit. In another case, one James our nigger stories." The H. Spriggs quit his job at an auto response, which rendered glass company in Maryland in Kennedy temporarily speech- the early '90s and sued after less, elicited uproarious being subjected to what he applause from the audience. described as years of listening to Certainly Kennedy has a fair his supervisor refer to black cus- share of his own "nigger sto- tomers and employees as ries," though they don't make it "monkeys and niggers." Spriggs into his latest work. Still, won his case on appeal. despite his aversion to racial Although he carefully ties, Kennedy is not blind to explores the legal intricacies the the history of white supremacy, use of "nigger" has given rise to, in which "nigger" plays such a Kennedy has little patience for central part. Nor is he aiming the arguments of p.c.-minded to make money off the N-word, advocates of banning so-called or stir unwarranted controversy, hate speech, or those who mere- though the title of his book ly attempt to limit or confine the cannot help but furrow a few uses of the word. He argues that brows: How are bookstore even the best-intentioned hate patrons to ask for the volume speech law cannot accomplish
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its goal—while such laws ultimately Given these facts, Kennedy argues, for Nigger for different reasons. Though it undermine fundamental rights. "bad and for good, nigger is thus des- couldn't be more thoroughly researched Thankfully, as Kennedy notes, the tined to remain with us for many years or meticulously argued, the book tells us hate speech debate is largely dead in to come—a reminder of the ironies and surprisingly little about the power of lan- the water, though the issues it raised dilemmas, the tragedies and glories, of guage or the language of power. One is about the boundaries of contemporary the American experience." left wondering how the word has dialogue remain relevant. The debate's remained at once so scathing an insult very defeat, in his view, is a measure of ew could argue that point, and for and so treasured a term of endearment, progress, and a sign of the health of Fthose unaware of just how pervasive and from whence comes its power both our democracy. the use of the word was and is, Nigger will to oppress and to liberate. The growing Another sign of progress, to Kennedy, provide a jarringly educational wake-up paradox of the word in the modern con- is that more blacks are using the term call. (Even as an African-American, I text is what makes it so alluring a openly, regardless of the confusion or was shocked by many of the examples subject, and so perplexing a puzzle. Yet haphazard mimicry it elicits among Kennedy lists.) While readers will cer- Kennedy does not manage to fully flesh some whites, or even the backlash from tainly appreciate the lucidity with which out the implications of nigger's simulta- some blacks. He's happy too that many Kennedy presents complicated legal neous ability to empower and humiliate. whites and other non-blacks are start- issues, and the sheer breadth and depth That said, Nigger tells us more—about ing to use the word to refer to each of his overall analysis, some may still our country and ourselves—than most other, in both the positive and negative prickle at the idea that we should all books do in volumes. Given this one senses, shedding much of the term's accept "nigger" as here to stay. word's horrible, often neglected past and racial specificity. In a sense, he points Such detractors could probably never its complicated, conflicted future, that is out, as the meanings and uses of "nig- be satisfied, and the linguistic tide they an important contribution. S ger" (and its variants) have become stand against will all but certainly swal- more variable, its prominence in the low them whole. Still, even those on Alex P. Kellogg is a reporting fellow for American dialect has been revitalized. Kennedy's side may feel a tad cheated by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
further testament to the skill of the Velvets as a live act. Rather than flaunt for Zen abrasive edges and avant-garde pedigree, Joshua Klein The Quine Tapes find the band in com- plete control of its twin tendencies as there ever been a band as what the rest of the country might have toward noise and quiet. immediately identified with a thought about the obscure quartet. specific place as the Velvet The band never played Peoria, but it art of the Velvets' power stemmed Underground? The New York group, did occasionally find its way outside the Pfrom founding member John Cale, among the most influential musical acts of bounds of New York. The previously easily their most versatile player and no released 1969 Velvet Underground Live stranger to balancing light and dark. Lou Series Volume 1:The set gives a glimpse of the band at its Reed still gets the lion's share of credit, musical peak, touring through Texas and but the band's early output underscores The Velvet Underground San Francisco. The performances cap- Gale's invaluable contribution. Reed may Universal/Polydor ture several otherwise unreleased songs have provided New York swagger, but it and definitive arrangements of album was Welshman Cale who brought to the gs around the World tracks (like the slow "Sweet Jane"). In a band its "out" cred ftnd, possibly, its gen- Super Furry Animals sense, the Velvets were ambassadors tler inclinations as well. Epic/XL Recordings venturing out into a great wild world, The tracks on The Quine Tapes feature ' I Long To Feel that Summer where the rivalry between squares and Gale's replacement Doug Yule, whose om My Heart the counterculture didn't leave much workman-like playing makes for a fine Gorky's Zygotic Mynci room for oddballs like them. Cale proxy, and perhaps provided some Mantra/Beggar's Banquet More recordings of New York's finest, additional stability. (Gale's own copious out of their element, can be found in the drug use rivaled only Reed's.) Whether essential Bootleg Series Volume 1: The speeding through "Foggy Notion" or the past 30 years, perfectly epitomized die Quine Tapes, a recently released three- taking their time with a nearly 12- local squalid sex-and-drugs scene, setting disc set. Recorded mostly in 1969 on the minute "Waiting for the Man," the the stage for the rise of punk and setting band's West Coast leg of the tour, where Velvets sound in a weird way like the the standard for grungy verisimilitude in their shockingly fresh minimalist sound classic pop act the perverse Reed always song. But so much has been made of the must have unsettled the less confronta- wished for. At least, they do until you Velvet Underground's role as Andy tional and more psychedelic hit any of the three versions of "Sister Warhol's house band that one wonders counterculture there, these discs offer Ray" included herein, ranging from 24
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to 38 minutes in length. The las- Yet both bands have found a way to civious goof-off of a song may incorporate their national heritage into represent Gale's most apparent their music; both have recorded in contribution, and even though by Welsh, and often return to the language this point he's long gone, the as a badge of pride as well as willful dis- band revels in sheets of distorted play of stubborn eccentricity and and droning sound. obscurantism. In a sense, the music they Cale first arrived in New York make is as much a part of their particular to study classical piano and viola, location as the Velvet Underground were which he had begun to master to their own. The isolation of Wales mir- back in Wales. But once in New rors the isolation of New York's outsider York, Cale quickly fell in with scene of the late '60s, enabling artists to Tony Conrad and La Monte gleefully make music free from the con- Young, players in the nascent straints of expectation. Whether in his minimalism school, whose com- writing or in his music (like the Dylan positions were sometimes little Thomas tribute Words for the Dying), Cale more than hours and hours of regularly returns to Wales as a source of multi-layered drones; the qualities energy and inspiration. There must be, as lay more in nuance than in the saying goes, something in the water. melody. Gale's pre-Velvet years were documented in New York in the 1960s, a collection of lo-fi Clockwise from top left: the Velvet recordings made with the likes of Underground, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Conrad, Young and Angus Maclise. Super Furry Animals. Here one gets the wall-of-noise blue- print for songs such as "Sister Ray" and Veering radically from sweet soul "Venus in Furs," both boasting Gale's ("Juxtapozed with U") to noisy pop tearing, distorted viola playing. ("[Drawing] Rings around the After his departure from the Velvet World") to electronica ("[A] Underground, Cale continued to explore Touch Sensitive"), the album the world of edgy rock, but he eventually refuses to settle down at some com- returned to his classical and Welsh roots. promised sonic center. The disc is In Wales, Cale found his calming center, pure id unleashed, as if the Beatles a quiet corollary to New York's volume developed with the same ear for and certainly the antithesis of the reck- abrasive mischief as the Velvets. less spirit he brought to the Velvets. The disc does bear at least a side- Reading his candid autobiography What's ways semblance to a good deal of Welsh for Zen, it becomes clear that Gale's Gale's solo work in the mid-'70s, a upbringing played a big part in fostering period when he teamed up with the dual extremes of his personality and Brian Eno for a trio of ambitious his music. Wales instilled in him the and weird rock albums. contradictory spirit that would bring a More mellow is the latest from quiet schoolboy who practiced organ at Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, How I Long the local church all the way to New York To Feel that Summer in My Heart, a gentle One assumes that the Super Furry to hang out with the wild things and album that has more in common with the Animals and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci find make a bigger racket. Velvet Underground's softer, post-Gale their homeland as magical as Cale does. music. The group is the yin to the Super Paired together, the two groups represent n recent years, Wales has again become Furry Animals' yang, though in its the same extreme dualities that Cale I something of a center for new and younger years Gorky's mined a similarly brought to the Velvet Underground, adventurous rock bands. Cale himself unpredictable rock sound. Houi I Long teamed to create something fresh and appears on the new album by the Super continues in the acoustic vein of their pre- exciting. Both bands wield the element Furry Animals, whose manic and unpre- ceding EP, The Blue Trees; "Honeymoon of surprise like an instrument, and while dictable structures owe as much to classic with You," "Stood on Gold" and "Let it's doubtful we'll be listening to archival psychedelia as they do to the Velvets' Those Blue Skies" are pure bliss and live sets from either outfit in 30 years, more disturbing take on drug music. Rings heartache. The band does get slightly there's no question that they make for an around the World is also more dramatic wilder and weirder with "Her Hair Hangs invigorating now. • and conventionally melodic, but the disc Long" and "Hodgeston's Hallelujah," does display a certain familiar dedication respectively, but Gorky's never go as far Joshua Klein is a freelance critic in to chaos and compositional anarchy. out as the Super Furry Animals. Chicago.
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to work with here: some pretty flesh, a good eye and the whirling, sadistic con- echnical Foul test itself. Can't these elements Joshua Rothkopf occasionally cohere into cinematic rock candy? Bad for you, sure, but irresistible ife, for all its mysteries and riches, now set in rampantly capitalist pockets of on certain trips to the carnival? Hopes was somehow found lacking. Here, the former Soviet Union, with lucrative rise early on, when a gaggle of hyperac- then, is a remake of Rollerball, cable deals the goal of its ex-KGB entre- tive TV commercials scurry by; MGM having no other choice but to pro- preneur, Petrovich (Jean Reno, all but tastebuds are whetted for, say, a sticky vide and, in so doing, maybe heal. I did twirling his mustache). Hasn't he heard of gob of Star ship Troopers. not enjoy this motion picture. I was not the World Wrestling Federation? No mat- But now like a vengeful ghost, the healed. But somewhere a board meeting ter, we have, and lacking the corporate corporate spirit of the original swoops stranglehold of the original, his "enter- down on McTiernan with a fierceness tainment startup" has all the appeal of a that seems oddly appropriate. (At least Rollerball bargain-basement Cirque du Soleil, worth by Hollywood metaphysics.) Poor Directed by John Mdlernan about a second of channel-surfing. screen tests and noxious word of mouth led to a rethink on the part of the stu- must be convening, of jubilant men con- he shift wreaks worse damage on dio, forcing him to sanitize his picture to vinced that an aching need has, by them, Twhat the Greeks, though not the a PG-13. Thus McTiernan has the dubi- been filled. Not for cynical sports futurism inventors of rollerball, might have once ous honor of releasing a satire on (this version winks with right-around- termed the Central Drama. In the rapid- extreme bloodlust that's tamer than its the-corner newness) or amplified ly improving first version, Jonathan, the 2 7-year-old inspiration. A collective gri- violence—as you may have heard whis- hero player, threatened the synergistic mace develops in the cast, responding to pered, all gratuities have been digitally horrors rarely seen. Could they be react- erased. At last: a Rollerball for babysitters. ing to their own predicament, trapped Why should we be caught rubberneck- in hiccuping rhythms like Hot Wheels ing? Only because Rollerball is, stuck on a similar figure-eight track? conclusively, the Watergate of studio dis- Rolkrball is an unbelievable bomb, asters, a coverup you won't discover in but one of the most educational— theaters (hurry, you have but minutes) or revealing corporate desperation at its on the balance sheet. The smoking gun vulgar low. Before that gets interpreted lies in the 1975 original—pop it in. Do I as praise, allow me to reveal what would hear a chuckle at that first line, a sports have been its secret weapon: breasts. announcer welcoming us to Houston, The league is now co-ed (hubba "the Energy City"? Here they come now, hubba), but sneak into their discretely in their football pads and skates. The decent locker room and you'll see team forms a line and removes its hel- there's good money in computer- mets. The crowd rises for the Corporate generated towels. After the game, it's a Anthem. There is silence, rectitude. romp over to the local strip club where None of this makes the cut for the the boys like to ogle some nice, uh, remake; you just might get weepy over the dresses. Even the cars have bras on. passing of '70s sci-fi earnestness. RollerbaR Don't call it a comeback. Women were the plastic "rewards" in was the ripest: a future world of mighty the original too; here they're intended as conglomerates presided over by the exec- state with his growing celebrity. (James morsels still in their wrappers. Clearly, utive class which, having done away with Caan, dimly unable to grasp the retire- today's teens don't even rate a dirty treat. wars, nations and poverty, serenely ment forced on him, must have required And while Petrovich might be the administers a brutal outlet to the under- director's notes of the strongest proof.) resident baddie, thereby allowing consumers. (Memo to tomorrow's CEOs: But this new Jonathan has no discovery Jonathan to wrest an absurd triumph This does not actually work.) Fully baked other than—wait a minute!—the game from the moral muck, the film points its or not, Rolkrball still commands any self- is rigged for maximum carnage. While gloved finger outward to the real culprits: respecting anti-globalization slumber actor Chris Klein cannot fairly be faulted us, with our global ratings that spur them party. White-walled living quarters and for this, his agent should be flung in the on. But if we're so bad, can't Rollerball at permawaves—par for the genre—take on penalty box for making his client's pitch- least let us earn it? This, finally, is the one an aptness; dreams are murmured about perfect doofus in Election seem artless. thing both versions get wrong. wearing a gray suit and making decisions. So on we go to Plan B, thrills and Audiences would never be treated so dis- John McTiernan and his team of spills. McTiernan may not have a func- courteously by any smart company. screenwriters have seen fit to chuck out tioning script, but he can claim to have Rebellion would be instantly packaged this context, and the error is fatal, like once made Die Hard, as well-tooled as and resold to us. This movie is a defect doing Jaws without the shark. The game is the scrap heap ever gets. He has plenty broken in transit. •
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Continued from back. page » he saddest part of this whole affair was the day the scan- dal was revealed—and you denied that you even knew he only thing that surprises me more than all the Enron your good friend, Kenneth Lay. "Ken who?" you said. Oh, 11 henchmen who ended up in your cabinet and administra- he's just some businessman from Texas. "Heck, he backed my tion is how our lazy media just rolled over and didn't report opponent for governor, Ann Richards!" was your way of try- it. The list of Enron people on your payroll is impressive. ing to deflect the truth that was hitting you like a Mack truck. Lawrence Lindsey, your chief economic adviser? A former You knew that he, in fact, endorsed you and gave you three adviser at Enron. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill? Former times the money Ann Richards ever saw from him. CEO of Alcoa, whose lobbying firm, Vinson and Elkins, was I hardly ever talk to the guy, you said. You were like Peter the No. 3 contributor to your campaign. Who is Vinson and outside the walls of Herod after they grabbed J.C. from the Elkins? The law firm representing Enron. Who is Alcoa? The Garden of Gethsemane. Three times he denied he knew Jesus, top polluter in Texas. Thomas White, the secretary of the and three times the cock crowed. But Peter, unlike you, felt Army? A former vice-chair of Enron Energy. Robert Zoellick, shame and wept, and then ran away. your federal trade representative? A former adviser at Enron. What shame do you feel tonight, George, for the lies you Karl Rove, your main man at the White House? He owned a have told? What shame do you feel using the dead of 9/11 as quarter-million dollars' worth of Enron stock. a cover for your actions, hoping that our sorrow for those lost Then there's the Enron lawyer you have nominated to be souls and our fear of being killed by terrorists would distract a federal judge in Texas, the Enron lobbyist who is chairman us from what your boys and Kenny Boy were up to during of the Republican Party, the two Enron officials who now those horrific weeks in September and October? work for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, and It was during those very days, while the rest of us were the wife of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm who sits on Enron 's in shock and sadness, that the executives at Enron were sell- board. And there's the aforementioned Mr. Pitt, whose job it ing off their stock and shifting assets to their 900 phony is now as SEC head to oversee the stock markets. George, it partnerships overseas. Did they notice the remains of the never stops! My fingers are getting tired typing all this up — dead being pulled from the rubble while they were down- and there's lots more. loading their millions, or were their eyes glued only to the Don't get me wrong, George — I do not think you're an bottom third of the TV screen as the stock ticker with the evil man, and you don't need any crap from people like me — rigged Enron price crawled across the images of firemen heck, you got mother-in-law problems! Now, I have a very desperate to find their fallen brothers? good relationship with my mother-in-law, but then, I never The country was behind you when you said you were told her to put $8,000 of her money into a company my fighting the evildoers who did this. In fact, all the while, the administration knew was going belly-up. real fight your friends at Enron were conducting was the fight You say you didn't know? Your bag man — Don Evans, the against the clock, to see how fast they could transfer all the guy who squeezed all that money for you from Enron as your loot to their personal accounts and run away. Those were the campaign finance chairman (and is now collecting his reward evildoers, George, and you knew it. And because you, by as your commerce secretary) — has admitted that he got calls design or negligence, allowed this to happen, it is time for from Enron begging for help last year because they were you to resign. The cock has crowed for the last time. going under. Didn't he tell you this? At the very least, your mother-in-law deserves better. Then Paul O'Neill admitted that Enron and Kenny Boy Yours, called him, too, for some special favors to save Enron. Didn't Michael he mention this to you? They claim to have called your chief of staff, Andrew Card, and he said he didn't bother to inform *A version of this letter first appeared on you. What does your mother-in-law think about these boys her www.michaelmoore.com. daughter's husband consorts with? Enron and Kenny Boy bought your silence and the silence of your cabinet members. You Defending Democracyan Activist Resource Kit available from PRA didn't have to actually raid the 401(k) accounts of those poor people in Houston The U.S, political Right is escalating its le or fax or (many of whom probably voted for you every attack on a range of hard-won rights and contact us on the Web time your name was on a ballot). All you had protections. Defending Democracy provides: Political Research Associates to do was remain silent, change the govern- if Overview of the Right 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, la-depth articles. Somerville, MA 02144 ment regulations that let them get away with Phone: 617-666-5300 Fax: 617-666-6622 it, and install their hand-picked cronies to sit v Organizing Advice Practical gijidaiic* for activists, Cost: $15, low income $10 (includes postage). on the "oversight" boards that were supposed Visa/Mastercard accepted. MA residents add to be keeping an eye on them. ^/Resources 5% sales tax. Detailed directory of major tight*win| Organ- izations and those challenging the Right. Web: www.publiceye.org
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An Open Letter to from Michael Moore George W Bush Dear George, "T A fhen it's all over in a couple months, and V V you're packing up your pretzels and Spot and heading back to Texas, what will be your biggest regret? Not getting out more often and seeing the sights around Rock Creek Park? Never once visiting the newly renovated Ikea in Woodbridge, Virginia? Or buying your way to the White House with money from a compa- ny that committed the biggest corporate swindle in American history? You should have known that there was no way you would ever finish your term by hopping into bed with Kenneth Lay. • It's kind of sad when you think about it. Here you were— the most popular president ever!—the recipient of so much good will from your fellow Americans after September 11, and then you had to go and blow it. You just couldn't stay away from your old cowpoke friend from Texas. Kenny had always been there for you. You needed a way to fly around to all the primaries and campaign stops in the 2000 election—so Kenny gave you his corporate jet. Did you tell the voters when you arrived in each city that the bird you flew in on was from a billionaire who was secretly conspiring to give the He interviewed those who would hold high-level Energy bird to all his employees and investors? He flew you around Department positions in your administration. America on the Enron company jet, and for that favor you You not only let Kenny Boy decide who would head the touched down on tarmac after tarmac to tell your fellow citizens regulatory agency that oversaw Enron, you let him hand-pick that you were "going to restore dignity to the White House, the the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commis- people's house." You said this standing in front of an Enron jet! sion, Harvey Pitt—a former lawyer for his accountant, Man, you loved Lay so much, you not only affectionately Arthur Andersen! referred to him as "Kenny Boy," but you interrupted an Kenny and the boys at Andersen also worked to make sure important campaign trip in April 2000 to fly back to Houston that accounting firms would be exempt from numerous regula- for the Astros opening day at the new Enron tions and would not be held liable for any "funny bookkeeping." Field—just so you could watch Kenny (Don't you wish you were this forward-thinking?) Boy throw out the first pitch. How The rest of Kenny Boy's time was spent next door with his sentimental! old buddy, Dick Cheney (Enron and Halliburton, as you'll I mean, you loved this man recall, got the big contracts from your dad to "rebuild" so intensely that, when you Kuwait after the Gulf War). Kenny and Dick formed an. were awarded a set of keys "energy task force" (Operation Enduring Graft) which put the Supreme Court had together the country's new "energy policy" This policy then made for you so you could went on to shut down every light bulb and juicer in the state live in the White House, you of California. And guess who made out like bandits while invited Kenny boy to set up "trading" the energy California was in desperate need of? shop—at 1600 Kenny Boy and Enron! No wonder Big Dick doesn't want to Pennsylvania turn over the files about those special meetings with Lay! -• Avenue! Continued on page 29
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