CounterPunchTells the Facts and Names the Names $2.50 October 16-31 2000 Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair VOL. 7, NO.18 You Could Smell the Fear In This Issue Get Nader ! THE PAY-OFF political culture was under paign to reelect Ron Carey as president siege. Hear the panic as the of the Teamsters) A waters poured into Atlantis. Clinton threw the crime bill and the • The Nader/Green Jesse Jackson cried out that “Our welfare bill at the liberals and they took Surge Has Given very lives are at stake”. Paul Wellstone it with barely a bleat. In 1996 he never quavered that George W. Bush will “re- faced a challenge, as had Jimmy Carter Many Young Folk peal the twentieth century”. Martin from old-line liberalism embodied in the Peretz wrote furiously in The New Re- form of Ted Kennedy. In 2000 the only a Taste for the public that “Naderism represents the halfway-serious threat to Gore came Excitement of Radical emotional satisfaction of the American from another neo-liberal, Bill Bradley. left at the expense of the social and eco- By the early summer we were set for Organizing. People nomic satisfaction of women, blacks, another status quo election, a reaffirma- Carry Such Hours gays, and poor people in America.” tion of the one-party state. Back in 1992 Jackie Blumenthal, Somewhere in the third week of Oc- and Days With Them wife of Sidney Blumenthal, was asked tober the Gore crowd woke up to the for the Rest why she and her husband were such clear and awful thought that they might rabid supporters of a con man from Ar- not make it, that maybe it wasn’t their of Their Lives kansas called Bill Clinton. “It’s our turn any more and that the man to blame turn”, she hissed at once, as though that was Ralph Nader. It wasn’t the first time settled the matter once and for all. Nader had shown up on the crisis radar JIM CROW AT EPA And so indeed it was: the turn of that screen. Right around the time of the whole class that had endured the twelve Democratic convention in August Gore • Carol Browner long years of Reagan/Bush time to take had felt it necessary to make a populist their rightful place in Washington. Of feint to his left. Surrogates like Pat Ire- Heads Up course, in terms of substantive change, land of the National Organization of Racist Sinkhole America remained a one-party state. By Women, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, the spring of 1993 Al Gore was sitting Barney Frank and Jesse Jackson were VENTURA’S SCORE down to write the press release announc- sent out to firm up the faithful and paint ing the recruitment as White House sen- George Bush as the Great Beast. But at ior counselor of David Gergen, hauled that time, before the debates, Gore was • Fun Guy, But out of the archives of Reagan/Bush time to heading up in the polls to what looked What’s He Done? take over as impresario of the floundering like an impregnable 10 point lead and Clinton presidency. It was all over. the Nader numbers were around 3 per cent. There didn’t seem too much point UR ITTLE ECRETS The amazing thing is that Clinton O L S never endured mutiny from his left. He in roughing up Ralph and the Greens. stuffed NAFTA down the throats of Best let the defectors slowly trickle back • Studs Terkel labor and the AFL-CIO endorsed him in across the lines. Describes a Dinner 1996. (Why so quick with another en- By October 21 it was a very differ- with Churchill dorsement in 2000? One incentive may ent story. Gore had bombed in the de- have been a White House threat to un- bates. The Greens had organized a whole leash the Justice Department on Rich string of Nader super-rallies across the • Gen. Wesley Clark Trumka, top AFL-CIO official, for fi- northern half of the country from Seattle and His Mustang nancing shenanigans during the cam- (Nader continued on page 7) 2/COUNTERPUNCH OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 derided the Democrats for years, made sarcastic comments about his distant cousin? Studs said he reckoned he knew 0 utz /2ittle Sectzets the reason. Many years before Vidal had James Cameron, a fine British journalist come to Chicago to promote a book. long dead, who was always in trouble with Though Studs welcomed him to his show, LUNCH WITH STUDS Phil Donohue, at that time riding high as In Chicago to speak on Gore and his various employers for inconveniently honest reporting from Korea and other a radio host, declined to interview him. Nader at the 57th St Bookstore, part of the parts. Cameron once worked for the press These days Donohue is one of the chairs ever valuable independent store, the Semi- of the Nader campaign. Vidal is not a man nary Coop, we went along with our host magnate Max Aitken, aka Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian-born tycoon to forget a slight and Studs reckoned that Danny Postel for lunch with Studs Terkel, this was probably Vidal’s long postponed aged 88. Studs claims he’s deaf now. We who had also served with ruthless verve as Churchill’s minister of aviation during revenge on Donohue. say “claims” because thirteen years ago the war. Beaverbrook had fired Cameron, Then Terkel hauled out of his pocket a Studs interviewed a CounterPunch editor clip from the late Chicago columnist Mike for his radio show and exhibited similar but suddenly sent him a telegram from the south of France, telling him to come at Royko, published in the Chicago Daily facility in ignoring any unwelcome inter- News on December 1, 1970. Royko had polations and in guiding the conversation once, to have dinner with his former em- ployer, along with two other guests, printed a coupon carrying the names of the along his preferred path. Winston Churchill and Aristotle Onassis. four men most often mentioned as possible Studs generously entertained us in a Democratic nominees for the presidency in pleasant Armenian restaurant in the Loop. This was at a point in the 1950s when there was widespread speculation that 1972: Muskie, McGovern, Kennedy and Having recently lost his wife of 60 years Humphrey. Then Royko added Nader’s Studs lives alone in the Uptown Churchill, who spent much of his time on the Cote d’Azur at Beaverbrook’s villa, name. 2,067 people responded to this cou- neighborhood. Watching a game on tv one was in a state of senile dementia. Cameron, pon. Their vote went as follows: Nader, night, Studs observed a burglar poking 1,614; Muskie, 148; Kennedy, 42; about in the bedroom. Studs hailed him by now working for one of Beaverbrook’s rivals, perceived he was being offered, for McGovern 41; Humphrey, 11. cautiously, then got up and went over to “The response to Nader,” Royko his jacket to give the intruder some money. some inexplicable reason, the possibility of a great scoop. He hastened to the south wrote, “was surprising for something be- “I meant to give him maybe a couple of $20 of France and made his way to sides its volume. About a third of the peo- bills”, Studs rasps, “but I came up with the ple who said they like him as a possible whole roll, which was $220. So I went over Beaverbrook’s place, to find his host peer- ing through binoculars at another villa presidential candidate also wrote accom- to hand it to him. He kept his face turned panying letters. I’ve never received that away, but said Thank You and made off.” lower down the hill, where Cameron could dimly see a very old man being lowered much mail about any political figure I’ve Studs reminisces about his close friend into a swimming pool by attendants. Cack- written about. ling malignly, the elderly but still vigor- A couple of days after the lunch with Terkel we went to a debate at the Hothouse Editors ous Beaverbrook told Cameron the man in downtown Chicago, a great club fea- ALEXANDER C OCKBURN splashing about in the pool was Somerset turing good music and political events. JEFFREY ST. C LAIR Maugham, whom he held under close ob- servation for the next few minutes, cack- Here were ranged advocates of the Nader/ Business Manager ling vulgarly about the great writer’s en- Green third party bid against Democratic BECKY G RANT feebled physical condition. loyalists. We heard Sam Smucker, an or- The butler finally called Cameron to ganizer from the United Electrical Work- Design dinner. Inside the dining room he found ers, put up a strong argument as to why DEBORAH THOMAS Beaverbrook and Onassis deep in tedious labor should rethink its loyalty to the conversation about business matters. Sud- Democrats. He pointed out that at the Counselor stroke of a pen Clinton could have helped BEN SONNENBERG denly the doors burst open and the butler and a footman carried in Churchill and labor immensely by any number of execu- tive orders. No such orders came. Published twice monthly except deposited him in a chair at the head of the August, 22 issues a year: table, where the great man remained in- $40 individuals, ert. Many minutes passed in this manner, PUNKS & REDS $100 institutions/supporters before Churchill suddenly raised his head CounterPunch has many friends in $30 student/low-income and said “Max, didn’t I send you to Mos- Chicago, and we made some new ones. CounterPunch. cow to talk to Stalin during the war?” Our talk at Great Expectations bookstore All rights reserved. Beaverbrook briefly looked up from his par- in Evanston was cancelled at the last CounterPunch minute by the owner Jeff Rice. (We heard 3220 N. St., NW, PMB 346 leys with Onassis. “Yes, Winston, you did.” Washington, DC, 20007-2829 Long pause. “Well, did you go?” At which no convincing explanation and, to be 1-800-840-3683 (phone) point Churchill relapsed into coma. frank, wondered whether aversion to our 1-800-967-3620 (fax) Why, we asked Terkel, was Gore Vidal denunciations of the Gore/Lieberman www.counterpunch.org so lukewarm, even hostile to Nader, whom ticket had fuelled Rice’s move. Gore loy- he stigmatized as “boring”. Hadn’t Vidal alists were frantic to keep us off public OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 3/COUNTERPUNCH The doors burst open and the butler and the footman carried in Church- ill and deposited him in a chair, where the great man remained inert. radio on the University of Illinois campus began teaching black history at YMCA, cles" (aka cars, trucks) to repair. Typically at Champagne-Urbana. At other places Edgewood College, PTA groups, a customer borrows tools from the shop, too.) Worried that CounterPunchers fol- churches, neighborhood centers and else- rents the bay for some nominal fee, and lowing our published schedule might show where. By about 1971 or 1972, got the then changes oil or fixes brakes, etc. We at Great Expectations, we went along to school system to adopt new textbooks. had had hourly employees from the local check out the scene and sure enough, there With the help of a number of black peo- town working there to help sign out tools, were some expectant faces including that ple, we got the school system to form a clean up and just keep an eye things. They of Daniel Sinker, maestro of Punk Planet, human relations department and hire a di- were young, underpaid and were asked to a fine, very well-produced zine. Dan’s rector. Worked with the “Madison Area manage things when I could not be there. Nov/Dec issue was filled with interesting Committee on Southern Africa” which The shop closed at 9:00 pm so patrons political material, every line of which ex- carried on anti-apartheid activities, organ- were asked to turn in their tools and start plains why the frantic injunctions of the ized protest against a racist plaque “NIG”, wrapping up for the night at 8:45. These mainmstream Dems that Naderites vote for that had been erected at Hoover Dam, were the basic rules because we could “the lesser of two evils” was at least in the Nevada. Plaque dedicated to a black dog not pay our employees for the extra time case of many radical people under thirty, who was a mascot to the men who built of keeping the auto craft shop open af- tending to fall on indifferent ears. the dam. Action received nation-wide at- ter 9:00 PM. On the ears of people over eighty too, tention and plaque was removed. Received “One evening two middle aged men at least in the case of Clarence Kailin. many death threats as a result.” dressed in civilian clothes and driving their Departing Chicago for a talk to a crowd The next day Kailin took us down to a '67 Mustangs (yes both!) came to the shop mustered by the Rainbow Bookstore col- little park on the shore of Lake Mendota to change their oil at around 8:55 PM. The lective in the lecture hall of the legendary and proudly showed us the memorial to employee working that night told the cus- teacher Harvey Goldberg on the UW cam- the US volunteers who went to Spain to tomers that it was too late to start any new pus, we saw Clarence among a sea of faces fight Franco and fascism. He got the idea work. The men became angry and de- fifty years his junior, applauding our ex- and the designer (David Ryan of Oakland) manded to sign out tools and use the shop. position of the “wasted vote” factor as it from a similar memorial put up at the Uni- The kid explained the rules and said that concerned Gore. Clarence, 86, is one of versity of Washington in Seattle. The he had to close the place at 9:00. Eventu- the 230 or surviving Lincoln Brigaders, handsome bronze plaques front and back ally the men left in a big huff. and like so many of them still an indefati- of a good chunk of granite was entirely “The next day, when I came in to work, gable organizer. his idea and after working for most of last the post Inspector General was at the shop Among the many acivities on the po- year and raising $15000, Kailin had the to "document all of the problems" with it. litical cv of this Brigader: “Worked at pleasure of seeing an opening ceremony The IG, as I understand it, is a supposedly Gisholt Machine Co. 1945-1949 where on October 31, 1999 with Madison mayor a quasi-independent office that responds I was very active in the United Steel- Susan Bauman, also the head of the state to complaints of problems or corruption workers of America union (Local 1404) AFL-CIO, the president of the Wisconsin in the military. The IG and his henchmen August, 1949. Our home at 109 S. Park state senate and prominent Madison left- walked all over the place to find problems. Street (in the triangle) was headquarters ists among the crowd. I was really intimidated and didn’t know for 100 black striking farm-workers (im- Memorials and memories. Even if the why they were there. They could not find ported mostly from Florida) in Nader/Green surge vanishes off the mar- anything wrong -- the place was run pretty Mazomanie. Raised money, food, gin of history by the end of the year(which well so there was no ammunition to use clothes as they were destitute. Strike we hope won’t happen) it still will have against us. lasted 30 days when the sheriff and his given many young folk a taste for the ex- “Later my manager came to the shop friends raised money to put them on citements of radical political organizing. to tell me what was going on. As you may buses and send them home. Racism and People carry such hours and days with have guessed, one of the guys that came segregation extremely pervasive in them for the rest of their lives. to the shop the previous night was Gen- Madison at that time. eral Clark --the other was a notorious colo- “Around 1950 went to Washington DC THAT GENERAL CLARK nel, Harold Fuller the second in command. to lobby legislators to protest the US build- CounterPuncher Jessica Matthews Clark had ordered the Inspector General ing of hydrogen bomb. Same time I got a writes the following memoir of her expe- to the shop as punishment for not being black man from our neighborhood to run rience ten years ago with General Wesley allowed to change oil! for Alderman. The first time a black per- Clark, ex-Nato supremo: “My husband “Anyway from my point of view it is son had tried for that position. He lost. was a junior officer at Ft. Irwin when Clark all true about Clark and was true 10 years Worked with Measure for Measure, organ- was the commander there. I managed the ago! He is a vain, career-obsessed courtier ized to assist the Sunflower County Co- "Auto Craft Shop" on post. An auto craft who does not deserve to be in charge of op in Mississippi (leading figure there was shop is a large garage where servicemen the lives of a division of squirrels let alone Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer). Before black can bring in their "privately owned vehi- American kids.” CP history was taught in Madison schools, I 4/COUNTERPUNCH OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 One Outsider Who Won est value lies in his use of the bully pulpit to sound themes of popular discontent. Jesse is a sort of political missing link; in him re- How’s Ventura Doing? sides all the hope and bitterness of middle America’s largely silenced white working BY STEVE PERRY took up wearing Don’t Touch Me buttons. class—and most of its flaws, too. Ventura is Public decorum aside, this pretty much at heart a moralist, and hence his analysis of innesota Governor Jesse captures the tenor of Ventura’s present rela- what’s wrong with politics and media tends Ventura has taken to the talk tionship with the legislature. His legislative to be based in misplaced assessments of char- M show circuit once again, this time cornerstone for 2001, a plan to stop funding acter, topped with a dollop of conventional to promote his second book, Do I Stand public schools through local property taxes wisdom. He is eloquent in his condemna- Alone?: Going to the Mat Against Political and make the state 100 percent responsible tions of cant and false piety, and he sees in Pawns and Media Jackals, which recently for the K-12 education tab, will receive se- very general terms that money in politics is entered the New York Times nonfiction list rious consideration, if only because business a large part of the problem. But no sooner at number 16. Under Ventura, whose 1998 sees in it the alluring potential for rollbacks has he said so than he’s off on some well- triumph engendered fear and contempt in its own taxes. worn tangent. He excoriates the public for among pundits and party hacks all across the By conventional standards of measure, its apathy toward politics, never stopping to land, the national book tour has become an Ventura has generally proven to be the fis- consider that their disaffection may be a di- annual rite of governance. At home cal conservative/social liberal he always ad- rect result of the candidates purchased for Minnesotans think that Jesse’s tops; his job vertised himself to be. John Wodele, his chief their consumption. He maintains, nonsensi- approval rating holds steady in the 70 per- mouthpiece and a principal adviser, was for cally, that Democrats and Republicans dif- cent range, wavering little since an early years a DLC Democrat. Former congress- fer radically on public policy, and what’s dust-up over his bluff characterization of man Tim Penny, another DLCer, is also a needed is a new wave of centrists. institutional religion as “a sham and a crutch” Ventura intimate, or was until he spurned an Then there is his animus toward the in a Playboy interview. Independence Party run for the U.S. Senate. In press. There are plenty of good reasons to At the State Capitol it’s a different story. matters of policy, Ventura gives short shrift to hate the media, but they are not Jesse’s rea- Ventura has declined to build lasting accom- most social spending proposals, though he’s sons. His is a personal beef. Years ago modations with either major party, and he refuses to meet with lobbyists who stalk the halls there. The 1999 legislative session His greatest value lies in his use of the bully opened with both parties thrown off kilter pulpit to sound themes of popular discontent. by Ventura’s ascension and unsure how to play him, and ended in a flurry of vetoes — more supple and less punitive on welfare than Ventura won a landmark lawsuit against a - 39 in all, mostly line-item cuts —- glee- the mainstream of either major party. pro wrestling promoter for the unpaid and fully rendered by Ventura with a pig-shaped Where the public purse is not centrally unauthorized use of Ventura footage in a stamp. Ventura’s legislative agenda for ’99 at issue, though, Ventura’s positions are of- series of videos, and since then he has never was modest; he prevailed in his quest to re- ten very good. He steadfastly condemns the quite gotten over the abiding conviction that duce Minnesota’s progressive motor vehi- mounting use of sanctimonious religious he ought to be compensated, or at least con- cle licensing fees while resisting a Republi- rhetoric in politics, favors extensive cam- sulted, every time his name is mentioned in can push for much deeper permanent tax paign finance reform and the a public forum. (Last year when Garrison cuts. He labored successfully to shepherd decriminalization of most drug offenses, and Keillor published his satiric novella about through a light-rail mass transit plan. opposes three strikes and mandatory sentenc- Ventura’s rise, Jesse’s first public complaint Come the 2000 session, Ventura’s main ing guidelines. He declares Washington’s was that he wouldn’t see any of the pro- priority was a proposal to replace the two periodic assaults on the entertainment indus- ceeds.) To say he hasn’t chosen his battles houses of the legislature with a single body. try to be fatuous and politically motivated, well is a considerable understatement. Besides trimming the cost of government, and sneers at what he calls “morality bro- But on the whole he has shone a wel- he argued sensibly it would make for more kers” in politics. He terms himself a “mod- come and sometimes telling light on busi- open and democratic affairs by doing away erate libertarian” but in reality he is what ness-as-usual. His prior celebrity may com- with the House-Senate conference commit- used to be known as a liberal Republican, in plicate the mythology of Jesse-as-Everyman tees routinely used by pols to lard bills with the days before Tailgunner Joe Lieberman that helped him win his seat, but there’s no pork and to blunt or sharpen their purview extinguished the species’ last exemplar, question that Ventura has played a salutary according to the wishes of the legislature’s Lowell Weicker, in 1988. [Eds’ note: role in demystifying the business of politics cash patrons. When legislators predictably Lieberman Castro-baited Weicker back then, and reviving the forgotten figure of the citi- kept the bill from reaching a floor vote, so we weren’t surprised to see the godly zen-politician. There is no great mystery to Ventura called them “gutless cowards” in the Senator paying a special visit this campaign politics and governance, he said on Politi- press. Far from being chastened, however, to the grave of Jorge Mas Conosa, the Cu- cally Incorrect. Eyeing his fellow panelists, several began sporting Gutless Coward but- ban émigré leader thankfully taken from us he averred that “any of us four could under- tons on the floor. Likewise, when Ventura a couple of years ago.] stand it”. In its quietly perverse way, that’s groused publicly over what he deemed a fe- Minnesota’s brewing legislative gridlock as radical a statement as any elected official male legislator’s unduly friendly hands, they is of little consequence to Ventura. His great- has uttered this year. CP OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 5/COUNTERPUNCH Jim Crow at EPA Driving Ms Browner

ver the past eight years Environ Take the case of Anita Nickens, who percent of the EPA workforce, they rep- mental Protection Agency direc works as a mid-level staffer at the EPA’s resent 57 percent of those fired by the Otor Carol Browner has visited American Indian Environmental Office. Agency. “The EPA is a 21st century Chicago more than a dozen times. Each In 1993, she was one of six EPA employ- plantation”, Coleman-Adebayo said. time she comes to the Windy City, ees on a staff retreat at a lodge on the “Promising careers have been destroyed Browner has requested that Ronald Cherokee Indian Reservation in North and other colleagues have suffered Harris, an EPA staffer at the Region 5 Carolina. She was the only black in the stress-related illnesses and perhaps even headquarters, serve as her driver and group. Just prior to Carol Browner’s ar- early death, like Lilian Peasant [an EPA gofer. At first Harris felt honored. But rival at the lodge, a supervisor instructed staffer who was the victim of abuse and then he began to wonder if he wasn’t be- to Nickens to go and scrub the toilet. harassment]. Many blacks have seen ing singled out for malign reasons. “Director Browner does not use the toi- their lives compromised and aspirations Harris is black. let behind anyone else”. Nickens was crushed.” When confronted by this inequity, told. In testimony before the House Sci- Carol Browner shrugged as if to say Nickens says she was repulsed by the ence Committee, Coleman described what’s the big deal. “I look forward to order, but did the job because she feared how racism at the highest levels of EPA going to Chicago so that Mr. Harris can retaliation. Later she overheard her su- has impeded the agency’s willingness to drive me”, Browner testified at an Oc- pervisor bragging about this humiliating help African nations address toxic waste tober 4 hearing before the House Com- order to others. “I went back into my problems and other issues. “Because Ms. mittee on Science, which was investigat- room, locked myself in and cried”, Browner fails to act, US foreign policy ing charges of whistleblower abuse in- Nickens says. “I was so embarrassed and suffers, as well. For example, on a trip side the federal government. The big deal is that racism appears to be running rampant throughout Browner’s agency Just prior to Carol Browner’s arrival and she has done nothing to stem it. For decades, the Departments of In- at the lodge, a supervisor instructed terior and Agriculture have been known to be sinkholes of racism and Nickens to go and scrub the toilet. sexism. A recent report by Blacks in Government describes Bruce Babbitt’s blamed myself for giving in to that re- to South Africa during a Gore/Mbeki Interior Department as “the whitest of quest. I feel like I let down other black commission meeting ( a meeting chaired all federal agencies”. In a recent case, a women.” When Nickens filed a com- by Vice President Al Gore and South staffer at Interior confronted her man- plaint, she was punished by the agency. African President Thabo Mbeki), the ager after learning from a colleague that In August, a US District Court Assistant EPA Administrator for Inter- he had called her “a Mississippi nigger”. awarded Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo national Activities referred to Peter The woman asked if he had indeed made $600,000 in a suit brought against the Mokaba, then Deputy Minister of the this slur and the manager replied, EPA. The court ruled that Coleman- Environment in South Africa and a hero “Would it make you feel better if I called Abedayo had been subjected to a racial in the struggle for freedom in that coun- you a ‘good Mississippi nigger’?” discrimination and a hostile work envi- try as a ‘necklacer’—that is a mur- The USDA is currently facing seven ronment. Coleman-Adebayo, an EPA derer—while talking about him with class action suits alleging systemic rac- program director, says that she was rou- Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson. Mr. ism in its agencies. One case cites the tinely passed over for promotions at EPA Mokaba has never been accused, much experience of a Hispanic female re- despite holding a doctoral degree. She less convicted of any such crime! But, the cruiter. The woman had been hired pre- says a colleague told her that she didn’t EPA officials’ libelous acts and prejudices cisely to recruit more minorities into the get promoted because she was “uppity”. are allowed to taint the fabric of US inter- lily-white Forest Service. She did her job Coleman-Adebayo recounted a scene national environmental policy. so well that a Forest Service supervisor that she says is all-too-familiar for “In another example of gross insen- erupted at her, screaming: “Don’t send blacks inside the EPA. “I was the only sitivity, South Africa requested EPA’s me any more cunts, niggers or spics!” black person at a staff meeting and one assistance on behalf of a community These cases are appalling. But civil of the others in the room called me ‘an which had been poisoned by Vanadium. rights organizers in DC say that the situ- honorary white male,’” Coleman- We had agreed to help. When I at- ation inside the EPA may be worse and Adebayo said. tempted to meet our obligations, I was that conditions there have deteriorated Coleman-Adebayo noted that while officially reprimanded, refused travel since the election of Clinton in 1992. African-Americans represent only 17 requests, and removed from the position. 6/COUNTERPUNCH OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 I was replaced by a white male with no regional office effective November 5, quit and now works as a technical special- background in Africa. As with other 2000 — a position she held for 16 years ist at GZA GeoEnvironmental in Newton, African-Americans, I was hindered by — to a position handling grants at EPA Massachuesetts. “Working at that site put managers from providing my expertise headquarters. In the October 3 decision, a lot of stress on me,” Townsend says. “It’s to address international environmen- the Department of Labor directed EPA hard to believe that this kind of discrimi- tal issues.” to cancel the transfer because it was nation still happens, especially on a gov- based on retaliation. “We’ve made these ernment-contracted site.” hese complaints appear to be the complaints known to Ms. Browner, but Townsend’s attorney, Margaret Trule, not the exception at EPA—an they have been ignored”, said Leroy Burnham, says that EPA has been aware agency that is charged with fighting en- Warren. Warren described Browner and of the problems at Foster/Wheeler for vironmental racism. In September more her top staffers as being “arrogant,” “re- nearly a decade and has taken no action. than 150 black EPA employees filed a mote” and unwilling to punish racists “These kinds of incidents are now wide- class action suit against Browner’s inside the agency. As a result, the spread across the country,” Burnham said. agency, alleging widespread bias, dis- NAACP has asked Browner to resign. “But this one was particularly egregious crimination and retaliatory practices. The Browner’s EPA has also turned a because Terry Townsend was personally suit catalogues an appalling record: of ar- blind eye to discrimination and racist targeted. This was not just a generic act.” bitrary performance reviews, crackdowns conduct by some of its favored contrac- The racial bias at EPA, and other fed- by supervisors on whistleblowers, blacks tors. A notorious example is the case of eral agencies, has been excacerbated by being passed over promotions, denied the Foster/Wheeler company, a New Jer- Gore’s Reinventing Goverment scheme, raises and punished for complaining about sey-based construction firm that has en- which has slashed away internal controls environmental and workplace hazards. joyed numerous EPA contracts despite on discriminatory hiring and promotion The suit is backed by the NAACP. “The persistant complaints of sexual harass- practices and destroyed the merit pay sys- careers of an excessive number of black ment and systemic racism inside the tem. A chilling report by Blacks in Gov- scientists and other minority employees company. In January, a federal court lev- ernment calls the effects of REGO a kind at EPA have been unjustly devastated by the ongoing and rampant racism “Promising careers have been de- occuring throughout the agency”, said Leroy Warren, head of the NAACP’s stroyed and other colleagues have suf- federal sector task force. “In too many instances within EPA, Jim Crow Jr. ap- fered stress-related illnesses and per- pears to be using mercenaries to control and punish racial minorities, women and haps even early death… Many blacks decent white men.” The suit details a number of other have seen their lives compromised and cases of discrimination. A black female staffer in the EPA’s Office of Pollution aspirations crushed.” Prevention and Toxics said that after she ied a $1.3 million judgement against of “ethnic cleansing” of the federal took her complaints to the internal un- Foster/Wheeler in a class action suit workforce. ion she suffered lower performance rat- brought by 100 black employees work- Adequate merit protections and the ings and other reprisals. She says that ing out of the company’s Chicago office. control of favoritism and corruption have after filing a complaint she received a tel- This August another Foster/Wheeler been the concerns of every civil service since ephone call from her second-line supervi- employee, Terrence Townsend, filed suit the dawn of civilization. Yet Gore’s cock- sor who called her “a black bitch”. A against the firm, alleging racial discrimi- sure reinventors, with “reengineering” blue- former black attorney with EPA, Lashanda nation at an EPA contract site in Stratford, prints from the corporate sector in their brief- Holloway, was paid $30,000 less per year Connecticut. Towsend says that black cases, staked all on “flexible” management than white lawyers with similar experience employees of Foster/Wheeler are “given tools, meaning that managers could now and credentials. Dana Hawkins, a black heavier workloads, more undesirable as- favor their buddies, without accountability. staffer in the EPA’s Atlanta office, claims signments and paid far less than our white It’s the same with the Secret Serv- that her supervisor illegally used her So- counterparts”. After Townsend com- ice. A few months ago detail of black cial Security number to acquire informa- plained to company officials about these Secret Service agents took their com- tion about her personal life and then discriminatory practices, a white co- plaints about racial harassment inside used it to harass her. worker handed him a hangman’s noose the agency to Al Gore. They told Gore The Atlanta office has been plagued and told him, “This noose is for you if you stories of watching as their colleagues by racial problems. Most recently, the get out of hand”.Townsend also said he took target practice at the Secret Serv- Department of Labor found EPA that re- was forced to use a portable toilet at the ice firing range by placing photos of taliated against Dr. Rose Russo for co- EPA site which was covered with Ku Klux Martin Luther King Jr. on the targets. operating with an investigation into Klan graffiti. Townsend said he interpreted Gore dismissed the complaints from his whistleblower harassment at the agency. the noose and the KKK graffiti as warn- own black bodyguards, telling them that The EPA reassigned Dr. Russo from her ings that he would suffer personal injury it was the Treasury Department’s prob- position as lab director at the Georgia if he stayed with the company. He soon lem and not his concern. CP OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 7/COUNTERPUNCH and Portland, through the upper midwest supporters to vote the Gore-Lieberman public. to New York. In Minnesota Nader was ticket, and would be accepting an “in- Under the headline “Nader’s Green polling over ten per cent on some counts. fluential” position inside the next Demo- Party Calls For Halt of Aid to Israel / In parts of south Minneapolis, Pat cratic administration (something we’ll Gadfly Charges Gore, Bush ‘Taking Costain of the Resource Center of the bet the Gore camp already tried). He’d Sides’ for Israel” the Forward’s Nacha Americas told us, there are so many no doubt prefer to be running at over 30 Cattan reported that “Ralph Nader’s Nader signs on the front lawns you’d per cent, but short of that, the privilege Green Party called this week for a sus- think he was Democratic candidate of being able to influence the race in at pension of United States aid to Israel and against Bush. In Washington, Oregon, least six states is exactly what Nader had blamed the Jewish state for the current Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and been waiting for all along: the power to violence in the Middle East”. Cattan pro- Maine, maybe even California, Nader remind the Democratic Party it can’t duced the sinister news that “Mr. Nader, could make enough of a dent to put Bush take for granted the progressive slice of a son of Lebanese immigrants … is said over the top. the country. to be fluent in Arabic”. Then the kicker: And so the Get-Ralph campaign be- Get Nader! 2,500 words from Todd “Democratic activists are calling the gan in earnest. In many ways the con- Gitlin in Slate, still flourishing the in- Green Party’s statement one of the most tour of the attacks reminded us of the structive fable of Hubert Humphrey, anti-Israel ever attributed to a party en- last time the Democrats had to deal with dissed by radicals in ’68. To be attacked gaged in a presidential campaign. They dissidence, back in 1988 with Jesse by Gitlin, as the British politician Dennis are demanding that Green Party Jews Jackson’s populist challenge. “What Healey once remarked of one of his par- abandon Mr. Nader and his running does Jesse want?” was reborn as “What liamentary opponents, is like being mate, Winona LaDuke, a Native Ameri- does Nader want?” But Jackson was run- savaged by a dead sheep. “If Nader had can activist whose mother is Jewish.” ning inside the Democratic Party. By the run in the primaries”, Gitlin wrote, “or As one might expect , Peretz was time the ’88 convention in Atlanta rolled half the Naderite energy went to organ- cruder. After noting the outrageous fact around, Jackson was back on board. By izing a Million Human March to wel- that Ralph Nader had dared to open his the start of 1989 and the Bush years, he’d come Gore to Washington the day after mouth on the topic of the Middle East, brusquely disbanded the Rainbow and he’s inaugurated, we on the left would Peretz went to work: “There is some- fallen into line. stand a reasonable chance of seeing a thing even more curious than Nader’s “If the basis of popular government Gore more to our liking.” Oh yeah? Just sudden pandering. (Excuse us, his sud- in time of peace is virtue, the basis of like Michael Dukakis responded to Jesse den hunger for Levantine [!] peace.) It popular government in time of revolu- Jackson’s challenge in the ’88 primaries turns out that Nader’s cheapness on this tion is both virtue and terror: virtue with- by speaking to the concerns of the poor question, and his conspiratorial view of out which terror is murderous, terror and the black in the fall campaign? the world, go back very far. They go without which virtue is powerless.” That Dukakis’ first symbolic act in that same back to March 1960, when the left’s was Max Robespierre, back in 1794. campaign was to visit the Neshoba gaunt hero published an article called We’ve always seen Ralph as our County Fair in Mississippi (where Robespierre, having to make do with Reagan had opened an earlier election class actions suits instead of the guillo- bid) at which venue Dukakis conspicu- SUBSCRIPTION INFO tine. Years ago the late Jim Goode, at ously failed to mention the three civil Enter/Renew Subscription here: that time editor of Penthouse, used to rights workers slain in the 1960s not so One year individual, $40 look across the piles of pin-ups with a far away. And how, four years later, did ($35 email only / $45 email/print) shudder of distaste (he was gay) and Clinton and Gore respond to the Jackson One year institution/supporters $100 snarl at one of us, “Alex, is your hate push? By insulting Sister Souljah, as a One year student/low income, $30 T-shirts, $17 pure?” “Yes, Jim.” Ralph’s hate is pure. way of telling white voters the Clinton Please send back issue(s) So when the Democrats came at campaign was not held ransom by the ($5/issue) him, when he saw Toby Moffett, for- “special interests”, i.e., blacks. After merly a Nader Raider and until recently reading Gitlin we bet that within Nader Name a Monsanto lobbyist, lining up squad- would soon be under attack as a dirty rons of Nader bashers, he didn’t blink Arab who wants to destroy the state of Address and say he’d just had a long conversa- Israel. Sure enough. Within 48 hours we tion with Al Gore and he’d be suspend- had a piece in the Forward and we had a City/State/Zip ing his campaign, was instructing his blast from Marty Peretz in the New Re-

Payment must accompany order, or We’ve always seen Ralph Nader as just dial 1-800-840-3683 and renew by credit card. Add $17.50 for foreign our Robespierre, having to make do subscriptions. If you want Counter- Punch emailed to you please supply with class actions suits instead of the your email address. Make checks payable to: CounterPunch. guillotine. Business Office PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 8/COUNTERPUNCH OCTOBER 15-31, 2000 “Business Is Deserting America”, in someone at the ADL was taking careful anti-Zionist conspiracy, Judas, and a big which he warned ominously of “our in- note of the fact that Nader was of Leba- pay-off. It made Jack Tapper’s attack on grained gullibility to internationalism.” nese origin and might, one day, repre- Nader’s stock portfolio look pretty tame, The remarkable thing is that Nader pub- sent a threat to Israel. Perhaps the in- even though Tapper did get what looked lished his piece in The American Mer- vestigators working for GM workeed like a solid hit against Nader for having cury, an obscenely anti-Semitic maga- hand in hand with the ADL from the investments in the Fidelity Magellan zine. Nader’s piece appeared in the same start. And so then Nader keeps his mouth mutual fund which itself has positions months that the magazine was publish- tactfully shut for forty years on all ques- in some no-no stocks, such as ing a series called “Termites of the tions relating to the Middle East, know- Occidental, Boeing and Raytheon, from Cross”. … ing full well that the moment he opens the Nader point of view. “As soon as anyone demonstrates it on a matter unrelated to consumer is- A final irony. As the Gore attack that he is willing to expose the enemies sues, the Israeli lobby will try and blow whippets snapped at Nader the most con- of communism or world Zionism, their his head off. Finally, as a presidential spicuous effect was a turn-off by Demo- vast machines start working to advance candidate who is supposed to have views cratic voters, in the form of lower pre- his interests. The Disciples of Judas do on such affairs, Nader has the effrontery dicted turn-out. Early checks of Or- By the time we worked our way through Peretz’s next paragraph, Nader was associated with com- munism, a vast anti-Zionist conspiracy, Judas, and a big pay-off. not even have to be openly pro-Commu- to criticize Israel. And lo! Here comes egon’s postal ballots showed a sharp fall- nist or pro-Zionist to qualify for the big Peretz, who has spent forty years oppos- off from the vote four years ago, but with payoff....” ing any decent settlement in Israel and Nader’s numbers going up. This boded bolstering his former student Gore to do ill for any hopes of a Democratic re- ust think! For forty years either Peretz the same, waving his tattered old page capture of the House of Representa- Jhas been keeping that old copy of the from the American Mercury, where Nader tives. Not that Gore probably cared. American Mercury ready against the day has been warning about gullibility to in- Back in 1996 he denied House lead- he might have to prove that Nader is ternationalism, exactly as he is today with ers vital campaign funds with which Himmler’s first cousin, or more likely, his attacks on “free trade”. they might have recaptured the House someone at the Anti-Defamation League Truly, there’s no one more venom- back then. He didn’t wan t to see his riffled through that outfit’s files and ous than a cold war liberal on the ram- rival Dick Gephardt as house major- rushed the clip over. It’s awe-inspiring. page. By the time we worked our way ity leader. There’s Al for you. And Way back in the mid-Sixties, when through Peretz’s next paragraph, Nader they attack Nader as bad for the Nader was attacking General Motors, was associated with communism, a vast Democratic Party! CP

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