Editor's Note

Editor’s Note

VENEZUELA is currently being crucified by a US- to the extent of consulting his advisers on how he could led coalition of states simply because it has chosen to trigger a war with Venezuela to seize the oilfields as embark on an alternative path of development. Such a war booty. brutal response by the US to any nation state opting Given this obsession, Trump’s first concern was for a different model of development is not in itself to ensure that the man at the helm in Venezuela was a anything new. Cuba has been the victim of US sanctions pliable person who would dutifully see to it that US since 1959 when Fidel Castro emerged victorious in interests were protected. Since Maduro did not fit the the guerilla war which toppled the corrupt US-backed bill, the only way out was regime change. In a brazen regime of Fulgencio Batista. Originally limited to the display of imperial power, Trump even effectively purchase of arms, the restrictions were subsequently nominated the candidate whom the Venezuelan people expanded to make it a more comprehensive sanctions were supposed to elect if they wanted the US to lift regime. sanctions. When Hugo Chavez became the President of The US’ man was Juan Guaido, who had been Venezuela in 1999 and proclaimed the Bolivarian groomed by an elite US-funded regime change training Revolution (a socialist political programme named after academy. Known by its acronym CANVAS, the the South American independence hero Simon Bolivar), organisation has, according to award-winning journalist the US was anything but pleased. Venezuela is home Max Blumenthal, been ‘funded largely through the to the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and the National Endowment for Democracy, a CIA cut-out US simply could not countenance the continued that functions as the US government’s main arm of possession of such a vital resource by a socialist regime. promoting regime change’. Guaido was only the Meanwhile, the political contours of the whole President of the Venezuelan National Assembly but Latin American region were fast changing, particularly after a single phone call from Trump’s Vice-President in the first decade of the 21st century. The election to Mike Pence, he proclaimed himself President of office of progressive governments in Chile, Brazil, Venezuela. He was a virtual unknown but a media blitz Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and transformed him into President-in-waiting. Guatemala (the so-called ‘Pink Tide’) provided a climate Meanwhile, Canada, numerous European nations, of solidarity for Chavez to undertake important social Israel and the bloc of right-wing Latin American governments known as the Lima Group recognised reforms and programmes to uplift the poor and Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. What is destitute. shocking is that almost everything the US has done in But such a respite was shortlived as the Pink Tide prosecuting this war is a breach of international law, governments failed to hold their ground against the yet Canada and the European countries, which regularly assault from the Right. Venezuela was now left alone pontificate to Third World nations about the to face the full force of US imperial might. The US importance of the rule of law, are prepared to go along kept ratcheting up the pressure with all the tools in its with the US in flouting the law. arsenal, including sanctions, sabotage, lockouts and The US and its allies have now stepped up their hoarding. In 2002, the US nearly succeeded in ousting economic warfare against Venezuela, effectively Chavez from office by a military coup. depriving it of the right to import food and medicine Having weathered the storm, Chavez moved for its people. The suffering of the people has been ahead with his reforms to bring about a more egalitarian compounded by frequent blackouts, which in turn society. Unfortunately, he was not able to carry out the impact adversely on water supplies. There is strong most critical structural reform necessary to stabilise circumstantial evidence for holding the view that the the Venezuelan economy – reduce its dependence on US is behind this sabotage of the power grid, but that oil. This made the country vulnerable to market forces has not prevented Guaido from leading demonstrations outside its control. It also made it easier for the US to against Maduro blaming him for Venezuelans’ plight. put the squeeze on Venezuela as it was oil revenues In the absence of any action by the international which paid for all essentials including food and community, the only question is how long the people medicine. can hold out for. When Chavez died in 2013, his successor Nicolas In our cover story, we seek to highlight the pitiless Maduro inherited these problems. But with oil prices war that the US and its allies have launched against a down, he could barely get down to addressing them. Latin American nation whose only crime is its desire An even bigger problem was the new man in the White to forge its own path of development. House, whose main obsession was acquiring Venezuela’s rich oil resources for the US. All along, Donald Trump had made it plain that he wanted these – The Editors resources for US multinationals, and he had even gone Visit the Third World Network website at: www.twn.my

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 Third World RESURGENCE www.twn.my No 337/338 Jan/Feb 19 ISSN 0128-357X 39 Diego Garcia: The ‘unsinkable carrier’ springs a leak – Conn Hallinan 41 India: The Modi years – Prabhat Patnaik 44 Campaign to criminalise criticism of Israel: A challenge to free speech, Jewish values – Allan C Brownfeld 46 The anti-Semitic con – Paul Edwards 48 The Assange arrest is a warning from history – John Pilger The US’ attempts to effect regime change in Venezuela have not cowed 50 Why the prosecution of Julian Venezuelans into submission. Picture shows a rally in Caracas Assange is troubling for press supporting the government of President Nicolas Maduro. 13 freedom – Alexandra Ellerbeck and Avi Asher- ECOLOGY right-wing rollback – Interview Schapiro with William I Robinson 2 Emissions inequality: there is 18 Blackouts as a weapon for HUMAN RIGHTS a gulf between global rich and regime change – Max poor – Nicholas Beuret Blumenthal 52 Feminist Palestinian law- 20 The origins of Venezuela’s maker free after 20 months in HEALTH & SAFETY economic crisis – Greg prison without trial Wilpert 4 Why is the US government 23 Getting real with the US sanc- WOMEN allowing its own drug re- tions imposed on Venezuela – search to be monopolised for Alexander Campbell 54 No revolution without femi- profit? – Ryan Cooper 25 US sanctions killed over nism: Weaving together 6 Universal healthcare in Africa 40,000 Venezuelans since Venezuela’s feminist move- is a necessity for genuine 2017 ments – Ricardo Vaz development – Abayomi 26 A ship adrift: Cuba after the Azikiwe Pink Tide – Sujatha ACTIONS & ALTERNATIVES Fernandes ECONOMICS 57 Yellow Vest movement WORLD AFFAIRS struggles to reinvent democ- 9 The case for a financial racy as Macron cranks up transaction tax –Kavaljit 29 Algeria’s uprising: The propaganda and repression – Singh beginning of the end of ‘Le Richard Greeman Pouvoir’? – Tin Hinane El COVER Kadi 32 What is behind the economic VIEWPOINT Containing Chavismo, and political crisis in Sudan? – Rabah Omer 62 The West’s irrational fear of Overthrowing Maduro: 34 The ousting of Bashir: Coup Iran is a disaster waiting to The US War Against Venezuela or popular uprising? – Beny happen – Seyed Mohammad Gideon Marandi 13 The crisis in Venezuela – 36 Africa as colonial as ever: US’ Alfred de Zayas ‘new Africa strategy’ old oil in POETRY 15 Venezuela: The epicentre of the new bottles – Cale Holmes ‘Pink Tide’ and now of the and Erica Jung 64 The dictators– Pablo Neruda

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE is pub- THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE is pub- Publisher and Chief Editor: S.M. lished by the Third World Network, an in- lished monthly by Third World Network, 131 Mohamed Idris; Managing Editor: Chee ternational network of groups and individu- Jalan Macalister, 10400 Penang, Malaysia. Yoke Ling; Editors: T Rajamoorthy, Lean als involved in efforts to bring about a Tel: 60-4-2266728 Fax: 60-4-2264505. Ka-Min, Evelyne Hong; Contributing Edi- greater articulation of the needs and rights Email: [email protected] tors: Roberto Bissio (Uruguay), Charles of peoples in the Third World; a fair distri- Printed by Jutaprint, No. 2, Solok Sungai Abugre (Ghana); Staff: Linda Ooi (Design), bution of world resources; and forms of de- Pinang 3, 11600 Penang, Malaysia. velopment which are ecologically sustain- Cover Design: Lim Jee Yuan Lim Jee Yuan (Art Consultant), Lim Beng able and fulfil human needs. Copyright © Third World Network Tuan (Marketing), Yap Bing Nyi (Editorial) E C O L O G Y Emissions inequality: there is a gulf between global rich and poor American Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez created waves in Washington with the release of an outline of her Green New Deal. Nicholas Beuret comments.

AMERICAN Congresswoman Alex- andria Ocasio-Cortez recently shook up environmental politics by releas- ing a broad outline of a Green New Deal – a plan to make the US a carbon-neutral economy in the next 10 years while reducing both poverty and inequality. President Donald Trump responded on Twitter in typical style to what was lauded by many as a radical and necessary step: ‘I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal. It would be great for the so- called “Carbon Footprint” to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military – even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!’ The Green New Deal doesn’t di- An affluent suburb in California, USA. In both the US and the UK, the richest 10% rectly call for people to consume less produce at least five times the emissions of the poorest 50%. meat. But the argument that solving climate change means changing our Globally uneven consumption being directly responsible, through diets is widespread, and Ocasio- either consumption or control, for the Cortez herself has made the link. This point has been made before, majority of the world’s carbon emis- Yet Trump’s tweet was actually but bears repeating. Most of the sions. For instance, the charity Ox- on the money in more ways than one. world’s population produces very lit- fam has found that the richest 10% of Environmental measures, and solu- tle in the way of either carbon emis- people produce half of the world’s tions to climate change, often appear sions or broader environmental im- carbon emissions, while the poorest (or are talked about) as programmes pacts. We can go further here by also half contribute just 10%. of austerity. To reduce ‘our’ impact, looking at imported carbon emissions Who are the richest 10%? The ‘we’ need to consume less: eat less – that is, the emissions that come from figure is not about nations but people meat, walk and not drive, fly less, buy the production of goods and services – the 770 million or so people who less fast fashion, and so on. in countries such as China that are make up the richest tenth of the From personal carbon footprint then consumed in the wealthy coun- world’s population. The disparity is calculators to articles outlining how tries of the Global North. If we in- even more startling when we look at many Earths we need to sustain the clude imported emissions, the UK’s the differences between the ultra-rich consumption of the average citizen of overall emissions have only margin- and the bottom 50% at a global level, the UK, Europe or the US, consump- ally decreased since 1990. where a typical ultra-rich individual tion is identified as the problem. Re- When we approach carbon emis- produces 35 times the carbon emis- duce consumption, runs the argument, sions this way, it’s clear the problem sions of someone in the bottom half, and you solve climate change. But is isn’t overpopulation or China, but the and 175 times the amount of some- ‘our’ consumption really the prob- richest people on earth. After all, be- one in the poorest 10%. This cohort lem? Who is ‘we’ anyway? ing rich, especially ultra-rich, means of ultra-consumers are not spread

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 2 E C O L O G Y evenly around the globe. Some 40% live in the US, around 20% live in the EU and 10% in China. Focusing on the richest 10% is a useful way of looking at things as carbon emissions aren’t only globally uneven, they are also uneven within national borders. The key detail here is the massive disparity in most wealthy countries between the emissions of rich and poor households. In both the US and the UK, the richest 10% produce at least five times the emissions of the poorest 50%. And this is just their consumption emissions (and doesn’t include those emissions produced by the people who work for them – their cleaners, driv- ers and so on – which would further expand their impacts). We could further compound these figures by looking at the imbal- ‘Being wealthy... means control over major corporations, and thus power over the ance between genders, where men businesses and industries which produce most of the carbon emissions.’ tend to produce more carbon emissions than women, or racial inequali- and lobbyists. And it means control ey left over after paying for everything ty that extends even to emissions, with over major corporations, and thus you need – increases the richer you white people producing more than power over the businesses and indus- get. For most people, there just isn’t everyone else. tries which produce most of the car- much left over once you’ve paid for But that’s not all. While it’s rela- bon emissions. the things you need. And if we then tively simple to account for the vast include those so-called discretionary initial disparity – being rich after all A problem of choice? items that really aren’t anything of the is about having more money, more sort – mobile phones, for instance – stuff, bigger super-yachts and houses The problem with stories of over- then most people really don’t ‘choose’ – this fails to account for the entirety consumption isn’t just that consump- to consume in any meaningful way. of the disparity. Being wealthy gives tion is far from even – the problem is More than this, what they can choose you more political influence. It means that consumption is often made out from is largely determined by large funding political parties and cam- to be a matter of choice. Discretion- transnational corporations, which are often controlled by the same ultra- paigns, having access to lawmakers ary income – the portion of your mon- wealthy people whose consumption is disproportionately the problem. Given the problem is overwhelm- ingly, dare I say it, rich white men, we don’t do ourselves any favours by assigning blame to whole populations – be it humanity, Americans, or even the whole Global North. Thinking this way makes it harder to identify the actual source of the problem and formulate solutions to it. That is to say, rather than signing on for yet another call for meat-free Mondays and giving up meat, we’d be better off ‘eating the rich’. ◆

Nicholas Beuret is a lecturer at the Univer- sity of Essex in the UK whose work focuses on the environmental politics of climate change and resource use. This article is re- Overconsumption is often seen as the problem at the root of climate change, but produced from The Conversation consumption patterns are highly uneven across the world’s population. (theconversation.com).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 3 H E A L T H & S A F E T Y Why is the US government allowing its own drug research to be monopolised for profit? Ryan Cooper questions the rationale of the US government granting a pharmaceutical company the monopoly over the distribution of a drug which has been researched at public expense.

HOW do we eradicate HIV/AIDS? One route is a vaccine, but so far that has proved a very difficult research problem. There is an ongoing clini- cal trial of one promising treatment in South Africa, but unlike the smallpox or polio vaccines, it appears to provide only moderate protection. Another approach is ‘pre-exposure prophylaxis’, or PrEP – drugs which prevent HIV infection if taken every day. One such treatment called emtric- itabine/tenofovir (better known by its brand name Truvada) works very well for this, cutting the risk of infection by up to 93%. But there is a problem. As The Washington Post reports, in the Unit- The drug Truvada works well in preventing HIV infection but is monopolised by phar- ed States, Truvada is monopolised by maceutical giant Gilead, which charges up to $2,000 a month for the treatment. the pharmaceutical giant Gilead, which charges between $1,600 and $2,000 a month for the treatment (the progress. Two government-funded Meanwhile, the government isn’t wholesale price is $1,414). Bizarre- scientists proved it could be used to even collecting any royalties on this ly, the studies proving Truvada works prevent transmission – first Thomas cash cow it paid to develop. Why is for PrEP were conducted and paid for Franks at the CDC, who demonstrat- that? Georgetown Law Professor almost entirely by the US federal gov- ed it worked with monkeys; then Rob- Neel U Sukhatme told The Washing- ernment (the Gates Foundation also ert Grant, who showed the same for ton Post it’s because government of- helped). The government’s Centers humans with a grant from the Nation- ficials want to facilitate private prof- for Disease Control (CDC) even al Institutes of Health (NIH). That iteering from government research: holds a patent on this specific treat- work was completed around 2004. ‘Rather, NIH and CDC officials ment. Gilead immediately set about see their role as encouraging the com- Yet the government is doing noth- marketing and selling Truvada for mercialisation of government-fi- ing to prevent this outrageous price- PrEP, which brought in $3 billion last nanced discoveries, not placing curbs gouging, which places a near-insur- year and $36.2 billion since 2004. Yet on them, Sukhatme said. That tends mountable barrier to getting the drug because of the eye-watering price to take patent infringement lawsuits out to all who need it. It’s an object (and broader dysfunction in the Amer- off the table. “They may not want to lesson in the dangers of allowing pri- ican healthcare system), only about be in the position of suing these com- vate companies to profiteer off gov- 20% of the people who need the drug panies that arguably are producing ernment research. are getting it, and many who do have valuable stuff,” he said.’ (The Wash- First, some background. Truva- to navigate hellish bureaucracy to get ington Post) da was originally developed to treat access. The extreme cost also sucks In the first instance, it is outra- people who already had HIV, as part money away from other priorities, geous that the government is just of the usual suite of antiretroviral particularly for cash-strapped state handing valuable research it literally medications to slow down the virus’ Medicaid programmes. paid for itself over to a private com-

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 4 H E A L T H & S A F E T Y pany so it can pillage Amer- ican society. (A month’s supply of the drug in South Africa costs about $6.) It should demand drastic price cuts, or license its patent to a generics manufacturer. In- deed, it could just manufac- ture the drug itself and sell it at cost. But that reasoning shouldn’t stop just at government-funded research. A patent is itself a government creation – a monopoly enforced through the state legal system. The purpose, as the Constitution spells out, is ‘to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts’. Patents, and private pharmaceutical companies in general, are useful only insofar The US government’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) holds a patent on the use of Truvada to as they lead to the creation prevent HIV infection. of broadly useful inventions and treatments. Now, drug development is expen- atitis C, which affects perhaps 41,000 ery year (or hepatitis C, or many oth- sive, and there could be a place for Americans in acute form. But they er diseases), the obvious best strate- private companies in the national re- charge about $84,000 for a 12-week gy is to make treatment widely avail- search portfolio. But especially for course of treatment. able to everyone who needs it as vitally important treatments that are Incidentally, this kind of thing is cheaply as possible. That’s how it was only needed for a small fraction of the why Americans spend roughly twice done with smallpox. All people who population, allowing merciless mo- per person what peer nations in Eu- need PrEP should have ready and dirt- nopolist price-gouging is simply un- rope do on pharmaceuticals. It’s pure cheap access to Truvada. tenable. For instance, Pharmasset (lat- corporate profit. And as demonstrated by Franks er purchased by Gilead) developed a If we want to eradicate HIV, and Grant, good old government re- genuinely revolutionary cure for hep- which infects 40,000 Americans ev- search laboratories and grants work great to keep the drug development pipeline flowing. For private research, antitrust policy like forced patent li- censing to stop monopolist price- gouging could keep other prices relatively cheap – or we could set up a prize system for certain key treatments (like new antibiotics), whereby the government makes a large one- time payment to any company that develops one, after which the drug goes into the public domain. But allow unrestrained corporate profiteering, and we’ll allow these dangerous diseases to fester forever.◆

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com, from which this article is reproduced. His work has appeared in the Collecting medications for prescriptions at a pharmacy. Americans spend roughly Washington Monthly, The New Republic and twice per person what peer nations in Europe do on pharmaceuticals. The Washington Post.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 5 H E A L T H & S A F E T Y Universal healthcare in Africa is a necessity for genuine development Making the case for a universal healthcare system in Africa, Abayomi Azikiwe argues that any genuine development strategy cannot be successful without the maintenance of a healthy and productive youth population, workforce and senior sectors of the population.

MANY of the news stories about Af- rican Union (AU) member states focus on the outbreak of infectious diseases, which are a direct result of the legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism, where healthcare institutions were deliberately left underdevel- oped. A conference held in South Afri- ca in October discussed the potential for building a universal system for providing medical care in the most industrialised state on the continent. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa convened the gathering, which brought together over 600 professionals in the medical field. The aim was to enhance the services provided to the population of a country where poverty and joblessness remain serious obstacles nearly a quarter-century after the demise of the racist A hospital in South Africa. The bulk of spending on healthcare in the country is pro- 1 apartheid system. vided by the National Treasury. In the aftermath of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Summit, the South African cabinet approved rec- Inside the country there are both Such a system left the majority Afri- ommendations from the conference private and public healthcare institu- can and Black (Asian and mixed race) by drafting a National Health Insur- tions. The more affluent middle, up- population groups at an extreme dis- ance bill to be deliberated on within per-middle and ruling classes largely advantage. Life expectancy rates were the National Assembly. Such a break- rely on private physicians, clinics and highly racialised, with the African through in South Africa could provide hospitals. people suffering from premature and a blueprint for the AU member states Statistics published in 2012 indi- unnecessary deaths. as a whole. cated that the bulk of spending on Even today those who can afford South Africa at present is under- healthcare is provided by the Nation- the cost utilise private health insur- going a ‘technical recession’ charac- al Treasury. This reality stems from ance plans. Conversely the low-wage terised by stagnant wages and record the necessity beginning in 1994, af- working class, rural proletarians and unemployment along with instability ter the ruling African National Con- jobless people are dependent upon the in the financial sector. These prob- gress took power, to transform the state for the financial underwriting of lems make the imperative of revamp- apartheid-era system where 14 differ- their healthcare needs. ing the healthcare system more urgent ent bureaucracies had been estab- South Africa is not alone in the although it poses profound challeng- lished to cater to people based upon search for more efficient and effec- es to the state. their racial and ethnic backgrounds. tive healthcare delivery systems.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 6 H E A L T H & S A F E T Y

Former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete addressed this issue within the context of the broader global need for universal health coverage. Kikwete wrote in an editorial published on 5 November: ‘It has been three years since world leaders committed to one of the boldest goals ever set in global public health: achieving universal health coverage by 2030. Achieving this objective will mean that every person in every community has access to affordable care, both to prevent them from falling ill and to treat them when they do.’2 The former leader went on by recognising: ‘The stakes are simply too high not to deliver on this promise. We cannot eradicate poverty, protect people from pandemics, advance In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a recent outbreak of the Ebola virus disease gender equality, or achieve any of the has presented another major healthcare challenge to this already troubled state. other 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without accelerating progress toward universal health cov- the DRC in the mid-1970s. Recurrent rica. It is estimated that 23.8 million erage.’ pandemics have occurred over the people on the continent are infected Within this essay Kikwete em- previous four decades. with HIV. Some 91% of children liv- phasised the need to guarantee prima- The worst EVD pandemic took ing with HIV are in Africa, which ry care. Providing primary care to all place in 2014-15 in the West African continues to threaten the well-being citizens and residents will address nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and of successive generations. 80% of the problems that could po- Liberia where tens of thousands were Over a million people die from tentially arise from the absence of sickened and over 11,000 died. The AIDS every year in Africa, out of the such services. extent of the West African outbreak overall 1.7 million who perish due to President Uhuru Kenyatta of prompted international interventions the disease around the world. Fifty- Kenya is launching a pilot programme from the United Nations World nine percent of those infected with to provide universal health coverage Health Organisation (WHO), the HIV in Africa are women. to 3.2 million people in four counties. United States military and hundreds Although many more people are The counties of Kisumu, Nyeri, of healthcare professionals from undergoing treatment through the tak- Machakos and Isiolo are leading the Cuba. ing of antiretroviral drugs, it is esti- country in communicable and infec- An experimental vaccine has mated that only half of HIV-positive tious diseases. Kenyatta has given been introduced in the DRC in an ef- patients in Africa have access to the approval for the UHC intergovern- fort to contain and halt the spread of medications. As a direct result of the mental committee to proceed in de- the virulent strain of this viral haem- neo-colonial system, which fosters the veloping Memoranda of Understand- orrhagic fever. Since 1 August, there contraction and lack of adequate treating between the county administra- have been 300 confirmed and proba- ment for HIV/AIDS, average life ex- tions and the Ministry of Health. The ble cases of Ebola in the North Kivu pectancy in sub-Saharan Africa is programme is part of a broader na- and Ituri provinces of the DRC. Of 54.4 years. Research studies suggest tional plan to provide free healthcare these, 186 people have died, includ- that due to the mortality rates related to all in need of it in Kenya. ing in 151 confirmed cases and 35 to HIV/AIDS, the average life expect- probable cases. ancy in some countries on the conti- High-profile diseases need Among other infectious diseas- nent is as low as 49 years.3 immediate attention es, HIV/AIDS has remained a seri- Cholera is another disease which ous problem in Africa for over three has had a devastating impact in some In the Democratic Republic of decades. The overwhelming majori- African states. The ailment is con- Congo (DRC), a recent outbreak of ty of people contracting, living with tracted through the consumption of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) has and dying from HIV/AIDS are in the contaminated water. A cholera epi- presented another major healthcare sub-Saharan regions of Africa. demic erupted last year in the South- challenge to this already troubled Of the 34 million HIV-positive ern African state of Zimbabwe, re- state. EVD was first documented in persons in the world, 69% are in Af- quiring the declaration of a health

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emergency. WHO said in a report issued in October: ‘The cholera outbreak in Harare was declared by the Ministry of Health and Child Care of Zimba- bwe on 6 September 2018 and noti- fied to WHO on the same day. As of 3 October 2018, 8,535 cumulative cases, including 163 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 50 deaths have been reported (case fatality rate: 0.6%). Of these 8,535 cases, 98% (8,341 cases) were reported from the densely pop- ulated capital Harare. The most affected suburbs in Harare are Glen View and Budiriro. Of the 8,340 cases for which age is known, the majority (56%) are aged between five and 35 years old. Males and females have been equally affected by the outbreak. From 4 September through A nurse at a clinic in South Africa draws blood from a patient for an HIV test. Of the 34 3 October, the majority of deaths were million HIV-positive persons in the world, 69% are in Africa. reported from health care institutions.’4 agricultural products. In fact the re- strengthening of state structures. Pri- Nonetheless, Zimbabwe was not emergence of the African debt quag- vate for-profit healthcare schemes can the only country impacted in 2018. mire in recent years is directly linked and do have a role to play. Neverthe- In the West African state of Niger, to the decline in commodity prices on less, as is illustrated in the United there were 3,692 cases of cholera re- the global market, which is still dom- States, millions will go without any ported in July resulting in 68 deaths. inated by the Western imperialist medical insurance coverage if profit- Algeria reported a cholera outbreak countries. making is allowed to determine how in August with at least two deaths. Moreover, the fragility of neo- healthcare systems are administered. Other African countries where there colonial dominated states is reflected The healthcare crisis in Africa is were problems just in 2018 alone in- in the often-precarious social posi- inextricably connected to the strug- cluded Cameroon, Somalia, the DRC, tions of healthcare professionals. gle against the legacy of colonialism Mozambique and Tanzania.5 Leading African states such as South and neo-colonialism. Any genuine Ebola, HIV/AIDS and cholera Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nige- development strategy cannot be suc- are diseases which trigger health ria have experienced low salaries for cessful without the maintenance of a alerts on national and international nurses, physicians and medical re- healthy and productive youth popu- levels. However, other, chronic ail- searchers. Many of these healthcare lation, workforce and senior sectors ments such as hypertension, heart dis- workers have engaged in strikes de- of the population. ◆ ease, kidney failure, cancer, malnu- manding the regular payment of sal- trition, alcoholism, drug addiction aries, higher wages and improved Abayomi Azikiwe is Editor at Pan-African and diabetes serve to lessen the aver- conditions of employment. Many pro- News Wire. This article is reproduced from age life expectancy as well as drain fessionals operating in the medical Pambazuka News (www.pambazuka.org). the productive capacity of African field have been recruited to work in societies. the capitalist countries of Europe and Notes This glimpse into the healthcare North America, further hampering the 1. https://allafrica.com/stories/ crisis in AU member states reveals the ability of AU member states to ad- 201811050716.html dress the monumental healthcare desperate need for a UHC system 2. https://www.project-syndicate.org/ across the continent. Even though problems on the continent. commentary/keys-to-universal- there has been substantial economic As discussed at the beginning of health-coverage-by-jakaya-kik- growth in various nations and regions this article, South Africa provides a wete-2018-11 of Africa over the previous two de- clear example of the burden facing the 3. https://www.dosomething.org/us/ cades, these levels of expansion can public sector with regard to provid- facts/11-facts-about-hiv-africa in no way be considered sustainable ing medical services for the working 4. http://www.who.int/csr/don/05-oc- based upon the continuing dependen- class and impoverished. Other gov- tober-2018-cholera-zimbabwe/en/ cy of the region on the trade in ener- ernments in Africa are facing similar 5. http://www.who.int/csr/don/ar- gy resources, strategic minerals and situations, which necessitate the chive/disease/cholera/en/

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 8 E C O N O M I C S The case for a financial transaction tax There has been a revival of interest in a financial transaction tax, especially in the US where several Democratic Party lawmakers have even introduced bills in Congress to realise this tax. For all this, however, there is still much confusion about this tax. Kavaljit Singh attempts to add some clarity in a discussion of this tax.

THE financial transaction tax (FTT) is an issue that never goes away from the public agenda completely. It keeps coming back to the policy and political discussions in different forms across the world. Currently, the idea of an FTT is gaining popularity within the Democratic Party of the Unit- ed States as a policy tool to curb excessive speculation and high-frequency trading that destabilises markets, and to generate a significant amount of revenue to finance social programmes such as free college tuition. The trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The potential revenue that could On 5 March, Democrats in both be raised with a financial transaction tax in the US is very large because more than $1 houses of the US Congress intro- trillion in stocks and bonds is traded each business day in its financial markets. duced bills to impose an FTT in the US. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii introduced a bill titled ‘The Wall ing law in 2019 seems remote, how- chase price of shares of a company Street Tax Act of 2019’1 in the Sen- ever, because not a single Republi- incorporated in the UK or shares of a ate, while Representative Peter De- can in either chamber of Congress has foreign company that has a UK share Fazio of Oregon introduced a com- extended support. Moreover, there is register. panion bill in the House of Represen- strong resistance from the powerful From 1914 to 1965, a federal FTT tatives. The bill proposes a 0.1% tax financial lobbyists. Despite these ob- was levied on sales and transfers of (i.e., 10 cents on every $100 finan- stacles, the FTT may become a part stock in the US. At present, the US cial transaction) on stocks, bonds, of progressive tax ideas with the ap- Securities and Exchange Commission foreign exchange, derivatives and proach of the 2020 presidential and (SEC) levies a modest ‘Section 31 other financial assets traded in the US congressional campaigns. Some pres- fee’ on stock transactions, and the markets. Initial public offerings idential candidates – including Bern- proceeds are used to fund the agen- (IPOs) and short-term debt of fewer ie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren – cy’s regulatory costs. In 2018, about than 100 days would be exempted have supported versions of an FTT in $2 billion was collected by the SEC from the proposed FTT. Further, the the recent past. from this fee. proposed tax would apply to the ac- In 1984, Sweden introduced a tax tual payment for derivatives contracts The history of financial of 1% on stock transactions. The tax between the seller and the buyer, rath- transaction taxes was doubled in 1986, and it was ex- er than to the notional value of the tended to fixed-income securities and contracts. Contrary to popular perception, derivatives in 1989, albeit at lower The bills are co-sponsored by financial transaction taxes are not rates. In 1991, the tax was abolished. more than a dozen lawmakers (includ- new. Many countries including the There is a broad consensus in the eco- ing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and US, the UK, Australia, Belgium, nomic literature that the Swedish FTT Kirsten Gillibrand) from the House France, India, Italy, Sweden and Tai- was a failure. There are three key rea- and Senate. Besides, labour unions, wan have already implemented simi- sons why it failed. Firstly, the tax rates civil society groups and progressive lar taxes on a variety of financial on stocks and some derivatives trans- economists have also supported the transactions with mixed outcomes. actions were too high. Secondly, the idea of an FTT. In the UK, investors pay a stamp tax was poorly designed as it was lev- The likelihood of the bill becom- duty reserve tax of 0.5% on the pur- ied only on registered Swedish bro-

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kerage services, which encouraged foreign investors to avoid the tax by moving their trading in Swedish stocks to non-Swedish brokers based in London. As a result, more than half of the equity trading volume migrat- ed from Sweden to London. Thirdly, some fixed-income securities were exempted from the FTT due to its narrow scope. Nevertheless, there are many important lessons to be learnt from Sweden’s failed experience with the FTT in the 1980s.

The potential revenue The European Commission headquarters in Brussels. The Commission in 2011 proposed an EU financial transaction tax that would apply to all financial transactions There is no denying that the rev- except bank loans and primary markets. enue potential of any financial transaction tax would depend on its spe- Further, the FTT is a progressive Strange as it may sound, too cific design. However, the potential way to generate tax revenues as the much finance could be bad for the revenue that could be raised with an top 10% of American households own economy, as a growing body of eco- FTT is very large in the US because 84% of all stocks. Therefore, anyone nomic literature shows that financial more than $1 trillion in stocks and concerned about the growing income development benefits the economy bonds is traded on each business day and wealth inequality in the US only up to an optimal point, beyond in its financial markets. should welcome the FTT as it would which the costs begin to rise.3 As several FTT proposals have be progressive in nature. While analysing the relationship been floated in the US in recent years, Will the FTT drive trading away between financial development and the revenue potential estimates vary from the US to FTT-free jurisdic- growth, an International Monetary depending on the design of the FTT tions? Not necessarily. An FTT in the Fund (IMF) staff discussion note stat- and modelling assumptions. Also, it US may encourage other countries to ed that ‘the effect of financial devel- is difficult to predict precisely how adopt a similar tax, thereby reducing opment on economic growth is bell- the behaviour of financial market par- the scope of tax avoidance. As dis- shaped: it weakens at higher levels of ticipants will change due to a small cussed below, some European Union financial development’.4 transaction tax. Besides, actual reve- member states are supportive of im- On whether the real economy has nue collections can fall short of the plementing an FTT within the bloc. benefited from the recent growth of estimates if market conditions deteri- If both the US and the EU agree on the financial sector, Adair Turner, the orate. tax harmonisation, international co- then chairman of the Financial Ser- Nevertheless, most estimates operation on the FTT is also feasible vices Authority of the UK, wrote in show that an FTT in the US could in the long run. 2010: ‘There is no clear evidence that raise between $35 billion and $100 the growth in the scale and complex- billion annually. These are not trivial Taxing the bloated financial ity of the financial system in the rich amounts. A recent Congressional sector developed world over the last 20 to Budget Office report2 calculated that 30 years has driven increased growth a 0.1% tax on the value of the securi- It is widely acknowledged that or stability, and it is possible for fi- ties and 0.1% tax on payments flows the financial sector in the US has re- nancial activity to extract rents from under derivatives would increase rev- mained undertaxed despite achieving the real economy rather than to de- enues by $777 billion over 10 years unprecedented growth in the last three liver economy value.’5 (2019-28), based on an estimate by decades. For instance, most financial Excessive finance can not only the staff of the Joint Committee on services are exempted from value- increase the frequency of boom-bust Taxation. This estimate takes into ac- added tax (VAT) in the US. The same cycles, thereby undermining financial count offsets in income and payroll is the case with other developed coun- stability, but it can also divert resourc- tax revenues. tries. At its peak in 2007, the finan- es, talent and human capital from pro- Apart from reducing the federal cial sector contributed 8.3% to the US ductive sectors of the economy to the budget deficit, part of the proceeds gross domestic product (GDP) and financial sector. of an FTT could be used to fund the accounted for 41% of total corporate The 2008 financial crisis and the Green New Deal (proposed recently profits. Eleven years later, Wall Street ensuing bank bailouts have clearly by Congressional Democrats), health- profits are heading back to pre-crisis shown that a bloated financial sector care and other welfare programmes. levels. can impose significant costs on the

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broader economy and society. Hence stability as witnessed during the 2010 Europe leads the way there is a strong rationale for seeking ‘flash crash’ when a rogue algorithm a ‘fair and substantial contribution’ sparked a sudden 9% fall in the Dow In the aftermath of the 2008 fi- from the financial sector to the fiscal Jones index and wiped out nearly $1 nancial crisis, the idea of introducing costs of bank bailouts. trillion in market value within a few a financial transaction tax has gained The 2008 crisis has also raised minutes. There are also legitimate momentum in Europe. After the lead- legitimate questions about the bene- concerns that the high trading vol- ers of the G20 major economies failed fits of an oversized financial industry umes generated by HFT firms can to endorse an FTT for raising new in the US. There is a growing con- push prices away from fundamental resources for poor countries, the Eu- sensus that a stable and well-regulat- values. ropean Commission in 2011 proposed ed financial sector is vital for the The supporters of HFT often an EU financial transaction tax that achievement of long-term sustainable highlight its important role as provid- would apply to all financial transactions except bank loans and primary economic growth and developmental ers of liquidity. However, that role is markets. The base of the proposed EU objectives. Post-crisis, there has been increasingly being questioned by ex- FTT is very broad, covering a wide a great deal of discussion on curbing perts in the light of evidence which range of financial instruments and short-term speculative trading in the shows that high-frequency traders can transactions such as securities, deriv- US financial markets. In this context, withdraw from their market-making atives, repos and money market in- a financial transaction tax could be a role if the volatility rises abruptly or struments. Under this proposal, the part of the policy toolkit to dampen if they detect markets are becoming trading of shares and bonds would be the unproductive parts of the finan- more one-sided. taxed at a rate of 0.1% while deriva- cial sector. As most high-frequency traders tive contracts would be taxed at employ similar algorithms and adopt 0.01%. Further, the FTT would have Curbing high-frequency similar strategies, a simultaneous to be paid if one party to the transac- trading withdrawal by these traders can pose tion is located in the EU. The proposed tax was supposed a systemic risk to the entire market, Another key objective of a finan- to be launched in January 2014 but it as happened during the flash crash. cial transaction tax is to curb high- got postponed several times due to As pointed out by Nikolaos Panigirt- frequency trading of doubtful social lack of unanimity among EU mem- value. zoglou of JPMorgan: ‘A simultaneous ber states on how it should be imple- In the last two decades, the land- withdrawal by HFTs not only ampli- mented. In 2013, an attempt was made scape of stock market trading has fies the initial market move, but also to introduce an FTT in 11 member changed drastically after high-fre- creates step changes or gapping mar- states through the instrument of ‘en- quency trading (HFT) came into kets as liquidity provision gets im- hanced cooperation’. After that, the vogue during the 2000s. On Wall paired and quotes are withdrawn.’6 UK’s 2016 referendum to leave the Street, the high-frequency traders rely In a relevant research paper, Di- European bloc has further delayed this process. on high-speed connections to trading dier Sornette and Susanne von der It is important to note that some platforms, use high-powered comput- Becke noted that ‘HFT provides li- member states such as France, Bel- quidity in good times when it is per- ers to execute trading orders, and take gium, Italy and Greece have already very short-term positions. haps least needed and takes liquidity introduced a tax on financial transac- These traders belong to a broad- away when it is most needed, there- tions within their jurisdictions. France er group called algorithmic traders. by contributing rather than mitigating introduced an FTT on equities in Au- Algorithmic trading is based on a instability.’7 gust 2012 while Italy introduced it in technology-driven, pre-programmed After the 2010 flash crash, regu- March 2013. These countries have mathematical model that allows exe- latory authorities in the US and Eu- confirmed their commitment to intro- cution of trading orders at a very high rope have introduced new measures ducing an EU-wide FTT despite speed (without human intervention) (such as circuit breakers) to regulate strong opposition from European fi- in order to benefit from the smallest the harmful HFT. A financial trans- nancial firms and some member states movement in the prices of stocks, action tax could also complement such as the UK and Sweden. commodities and currencies. Com- such regulatory measures to rein in In the coming years, the FTT is puters execute the buy or sell orders HFT in the US markets. An FTT will likely to remain on the EU agenda not in seconds but microseconds. The make transactions with a shorter time even though the bloc is currently high-frequency traders take advan- horizon costlier, hence curbing ag- grappling with the potential Brexit tage of tiny differences in prices to gressive short-term trading that ben- fallout. book profits at the expense of retail efits high-frequency traders more than investors with slower execution ordinary investors. Financial transaction taxes in speeds. What is good for high-frequency India: Alive and kicking Fears have been expressed that traders is not necessarily good for HFT could be a source of market in- ordinary investors. India introduced a securities

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transaction tax (STT) on stock mar- ity brokers were alleged to have col- Madhyam Briefing Paper No. 24 (23 March ket transactions in 2004 and, based luded with the exchange to defraud 2019). The full paper with illustrations is available at www.madhyam.org.in. on its success, a commodity transac- investors. Since 2017, trading vol- tion tax (CTT) on trading of non-ag- umes and liquidity at the Indian com- Notes ricultural commodity futures con- modity exchanges have gone up. tracts in 2013. From 2018 onwards, Besides broadening the taxation 1. The text of the bill is available at ht- the CTT has also been imposed on of the financial sector, these taxes can tps://www.congress.gov/bill/116th- commodity options contracts which enable Indian authorities to trace cer- congress/senate-bill/647/ were introduced in the Indian mar- tain transactions that undermine mar- text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5 kets. The STT rate varies with the type ket integrity. The transaction taxes B%22congressId%3A116+AND+b of transaction and security. could be particularly valuable to the illStatus%3A%5C%22Introduced In a recent op-ed in the Finan- authorities as alternative mechanisms %5C%22%22%5D%7D. 2. Congressional Budget Office, ‘Bud- cial Times, Kirsten Wegner, chief ex- to track the flow of illicit money into get Options: Impose a Tax on Finan- ecutive of Modern Markets Initiative, the Indian financial markets are weak. cial Transactions’, 13 December an advocacy group sponsored by Besides, a centralised database of 2018. Available at https:// high-frequency traders, claimed that money flows helps fill the large in- www.cbo.gov/budget-options/2018/ India’s experiment with the FTT had formation gaps about the real owner- 54823. failed badly.8 ship of financial assets. 3. See, for instance, Stephen G Cec- Contrary to Wegner’s assertion, chetti and Enise Kharroubi, ‘Reas- financial transaction taxes are alive sessing the Impact of Finance on Is the FTT a silver bullet? Growth’, BIS Working Paper No. and kicking in India. From a revenue 381, Bank for International Settle- generation perspective, the STT has Of course, an FTT is not a pana- ments, July 2012; Stephen G Cec- been a success story, with average cea to all the ills plaguing Wall Street chetti and Enise Kharroubi, ‘Why collection of $1 billion for the past but its potential to raise substantial tax Does Financial Sector Growth eight fiscal years. During 2017-18, revenues and to curb high-frequency Crowd Out Real Economic the STT collection touched Rs.118 trading of doubtful social value can- Growth?’, BIS Working Paper No. billion ($1.6 billion), not a trivial not be overlooked. 490, Bank for International Settle- ments, February 2015; and Ratna amount in a country with a narrow tax The success of an FTT in the US would largely depend on the design Sahay et al., ‘Rethinking Financial base. Deepening: Stability and Growth in The Indian experience shows that of the tax. The tax should be levied Emerging Markets’, IMF Staff Dis- both transaction taxes are an efficient widely, covering a wide range of fi- cussion Notes 15/08, International instrument of tax collection as the tax nancial instruments, transactions and Monetary Fund, 2015. institutions to prevent tax avoidance. is collected by the exchanges which 4. Sahay et al., op. cit., p. 5. The US authorities need to design the then pay it to the exchequer, thereby 5. Adair Turner, ‘What Do Banks Do? FTT in a manner that maximises rev- Why Do Credit Booms and Busts overcoming cumbersome bureaucrat- enue and minimises distortions. Occur and What Can Public Policy ic processes. Achieving multiple policy objectives Do About It?’, in The Future of Fi- Some of the concerns raised by through an FTT will always be a bal- nance: The LSE Report, London the critics of India’s financial trans- ancing act. To make it effective and School of Economics and Political action taxes have not yet materialised responsive, the proposed FTT may Science, 2010. Available at https:// harr123et.files.wordpress.com/ in the Indian markets. The critics had need additional fine-tuning as nowa- 2010/07/futureoffinance5.pdf. anticipated a lower trading volume days market conditions change rap- would reduce liquidity, and thereby 6. Quoted in Tyler Durden, ‘JPM Ex- idly. plains How HFTs Caused Friday’s market quality. There is no evidence The US is in an advantageous Sterling Flash Crash’, Zero Hedge, to suggest that the transaction taxes position as it can learn from different 10 September 2016. Available at ht- have triggered a liquidity squeeze in countries’ experiences (both positive tps://www.zerohedge.com/news/ the Indian markets. and negative) with an FTT. It can de- 2016-10-09/jpm-explains-how-hfts- Wegner refers to a fall in trading sign the proposed tax based on some caused-fridays-sterling-flash-crash. volume in the Indian commodity mar- successful examples while avoiding 7. Didier Sornette and Susanne von der kets during 2013-14 and puts the the design flaws of the Swedish FTT. Becke, ‘Crashes and High Frequen- blame solely on the CTT. There is no If carefully designed, and used in cy Trading’, Swiss Finance Institute denying that the commodity trading conjunction with other regulatory Research Paper No. 11-63, August volume dropped during that period, measures, an FTT has the potential 2011. Available at https://ssrn.com/ but the principal reason behind the to rein in the casino mentality and abstract=1976249. 8. Kirsten Wegner, ‘US Financial drop was a Rs.6 billion payment scam short-termism that characterise the ◆ Transaction Tax Would Put Unfair that broke out at National Spot Ex- US financial markets. Burden on Savers’, Financial Times, change Limited in July 2013, not the 11 March 2019. Available at https:// CTT of 0.01% as argued by Wegner. Kavaljit Singh is Director of Madhyam, a New Delhi-based non-profit policy research www.ft.com/content/5a0c9816- In this scam, some 200 big commod- institute. The above is reproduced from 41b9-11e9-9499-290979c9807a.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 12 C O V E R The crisis in Venezuela A former UN human rights rapporteur who led a mission to Venezuela in 2017 contends that the country’s crisis is the result of the cumulative impacts of 20 years of internal and external war, financial blockade and sanctions imposed by the US.

Alfred de Zayas

MY mission to Venezuela in Novem- ber/December 2017 was the first by a United Nations rapporteur in 21 years. It was intended to open the door to the visit of other rapporteurs and to explore ways to help the Venezue- lan people overcome the protracted economic and institutional crisis. In preparation for the mission, I studied all pertinent reports by the Inter-American Commission on Hu- man Rights, UN High Commission- er for Human Rights, Amnesty Inter- The writer (left) meeting Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza (centre) during national, Human Rights Watch, his 2017 mission to the country as a UN rights rapporteur. Provea, Fundalatin, Grupo Sures, Red Nacional de Derechos Humanos, etc. a meeting with UN agencies in order logues and relative scarcity of tech- During the mission, thanks to the to explore concrete strategies. nocrats in government. professionalism of the UN Develop- In a six-page confidential mem- Most importantly, the crisis is the ment Programme (UNDP), I was able orandum to the government and in my result of the cumulative impacts of 20 to meet with members of the opposi- report to the UN Human Rights years of internal and external econom- tion, National Assembly, chamber of Council, I formulated constructive ic war, financial blockade and sanc- commerce, churches, professors, stu- recommendations, some of which tions. dents, representatives of the Organi- were quickly put into effect. The mainstream narrative at- sation of American States (OAS), the I had requested the release of 23 tributes the crisis to incompetence and Carter Center, victims of violence, detainees; 80 were released on 23 corruption, but these also plague most and civil society. December 2017, more in the course Latin American countries. Besides, Since my mother tongue is Span- of 2018. the level of corruption in Venezuela ish, it was easy to interrelate with UN agencies, in particular the in the 1980s and 1990s was higher Venezuelans, walk the streets, visit the Food and Agriculture Organisation and Hugo Chavez won the 1998 elec- supermarkets. I learnt about the scar- (FAO) and the UN Industrial Devel- tions on a wave of disgust at the cor- city of foods and medicines, black opment Organisation (UNIDO), no- ruption of the neoliberal govern- markets, and smuggling of subsidised ticeably intensified their assistance, ments. petrol, foods and medicines into especially to manage the impacts of I spent two hours with the cur- neighbouring countries. the sanctions. rent Attorney-General in Caracas, The situation did not reach and Following my visit, I continued from whom I received ample docu- still does not reach the threshold of a to follow developments and study mentation on the government’s vig- ‘humanitarian crisis’ as we know from documentation, statistics and argu- orous anti-corruption campaign, in- Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Haiti, etc. ments from all sides. vestigations and ongoing prosecu- A major obstacle to solving the My diagnosis: The crisis is not tions. problems was the polarisation of the caused by the ideological ‘failure of US efforts to topple Chavez start- population and the dearth of confi- socialism as an economic model’ (so- ed early, and the CIA cooperated with dence-building measures. cialism has not failed in Norway, the Venezuelan oligarchy in the failed I recognised that the government Sweden, China), but by concrete and coup against Chavez on 11/12 April needed advisory services and techni- palpable causes, the dramatic fall in 2002. The 48-hour President Pedro cal assistance from UN agencies in the price of crude oil, the over-depen- Carmona had promptly issued a de- order to carry out needed economic dence on exports, the failure to diver- cree doing away with 49 pieces of and institutional reforms. I convened sify the economy, an excess of ideo- social legislation, suspending the Su-

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is OIL. The US covets the largest oil reserves in the world, as well as the third largest reserves in gold and coltan. If Maduro is toppled, it will be a bonanza for US investors and transnational corporations. What is sad is that some countries ostensibly committed to democracy, the rule of law and human rights are supporting the sanctions and the Guaido coup. We observe a Machia- vellian, cynical instrumentalisation of human rights and humanitarian aid for purely geopolitical reasons. A solution to the crisis depends on direct dialogue between the opposition and the government. Such dialogue already took place in 2016-18. Oil facilities on Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. ‘“Human rights” has nothing to do with Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose the US’ Venezuela policy. As it was in Iraq 2003 and Libya 2011, it is OIL.’ Luis Rodriguez Zapatero hosted these talks and arrived at a reasonable ac- preme Court, the Chavez National ient, it was necessary to use more cord. On the day of signature, 6 Feb- Assembly, dismissing governors, etc. muscle, and General Augusto Pi- ruary 2018, Julio Borges, the leader Although there is nothing more un- nochet carried out the coup that ush- of the opposition, refused to sign. democratic than a coup, Carmona and ered in 17 years of ‘democracy’ – and This augurs badly for any kind the US media spoke of ‘restoring de- torture – in Chile. of international mediation by the UN mocracy’ in Venezuela. As we know from the studies of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Back in 1970, when Salvador Stephen Kinzer and William Blum, by the UN High Commissioner for Allende was democratically elected US military and CIA interventions in Human Rights Michelle Bachelet or President of Chile, US President Ri- Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Repub- by Mexico and Uruguay in the con- chard Nixon called in his National lic, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, text of the Montevideo mechanism. Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Paraguay etc. have cost tens of thou- History shows us that sanctions told him that the US would not toler- sands of lives and brought untold kill, and when the level of killing ate an alternative socio-economic sys- misery to millions of Latin Ameri- reaches a certain threshold, sanctions tem in Latin America and that the US cans. become a crime against humanity. would make the Chilean economy ‘Human rights’ has nothing to do This is a worthy challenge for the In- ‘scream’. When in spite of sanctions with the US’ Venezuela policy. As it ternational Criminal Court. the Allende government proved resil- was in Iraq 2003 and Libya 2011, it What Venezuela needs is an end to sanctions and interference in its internal affairs, an end to the violations of Articles 1-2 of the UN Char- ter and of Articles 3, 19 and 20 of the OAS Charter by the US and its ‘coalition’. Venezuela needs international solidarity and respect of its sovereignty. – IPS ◆

Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (USA, Switzerland) is Professor of Law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy. He is a former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, former Sec- retary of the UN Human Rights Committee, and former Chief of the Petitions Department at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He is the author of nine The CIA cooperated with the Venezuelan oligarchy in the failed coup against Presi- books and numerous scholarly articles. The views expressed in this article are those of dent Hugo Chavez in April 2002. Picture shows Chavez supporters surrounding the the author and do not necessarily represent presidential palace during the coup, demanding he be reinstated in office. the views of Inter Press Service (IPS).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 14 C O V E R Venezuela: The epicentre of the ‘Pink Tide’ and now of the right-wing rollback The attempt to roll back Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution must be seen as part of a determined effort to pry open all economies to transnational capital – it’s about access, explains sociologist of globalisation William I Robinson in a February interview with Greg Wilpert from The Real News Network. The transcript of the interview is reproduced below.

GREG WILPERT: It’s The Real in Brazil last year. News Network, and I’m Greg Wilp- Is there a pattern, ert, coming to you from Baltimore. and are there larger On Monday [18 February], US forces at work behind President Donald Trump held an the reversal of the so- important rally in Miami, Florida, called Pink Tide in where he reiterated his pressure on Latin America? Join- Venezuela, giving the Maduro gov- ing me to discuss this ernment the choice between resign- issue is William I. ing and facing a coup or US mili- Robinson. William is tary intervention. He also promised professor of sociology A protest against the government of President Nicolas that socialism, more generally, at the University of Maduro. ‘The very epicentre of the turn to the left in Latin would soon come to an end in the California, Santa Bar- America was always the Venezuelan revolution. And Western Hemisphere, naming bara. He has written therefore, the epicentre of counter-revolution... has al- Cuba and Nicaragua as the next several books on the ways been the destruction of the Venezuelan revolution.’ governments in the region to fall. political economy of Here’s an excerpt of his speech. Latin America. His most recent reversing the Pink Tide. But there’s a DONALD TRUMP: The days of book is Into the Tempest: Essays on larger structural story that you’re ask- socialism and communism are num- the New Global Capitalism, which ing me to speak about, and that is bered not only in Venezuela, but in just came out recently. Thanks for what I term the structural power of Nicaragua, and in Cuba, as well. And joining us today, Bill. transnational capital over the direct one day soon, with God’s help, we are WILLIAM ROBINSON: Thanks power of states, or the straitjacket of going to see what the people will do for having me on. global capitalism. Now let me unpack in Caracas, and Managua, and Ha- GREG WILPERT: So over the that. vana. And when Venezuela is free, and course of your books and articles, The Pink Tide governments had Cuba is free, and Nicaragua is free, you make an overall argument a model, and their model was not only this will become the first free hemi- about how the governments of Lat- not to break with global capitalism, sphere in all of human history. in America, including the progres- but as you pointed out, to deepen their GREG WILPERT: Indeed, sive or centre-left ones, did more or economies’ integration into the new there has been a significant roll- less the same thing actually. They circuits of global capitalism. And I’ve back of leftist or centre-left govern- integrated their respective econo- been critiquing this and plenty of oth- ments in Latin America over the mies more tightly into the global er people have as well. past 10 years, beginning with the economy. If that’s the case, give us In all of the Pink Tide countries, coup in Honduras against Manuel some examples of what exactly including in the most radical experi- Zelaya in 2009, the legislative coup these progressive or left-of-centre ments in Venezuela and in Bolivia, the against Fernando Lugo in Para- governments did while they were governments deepened the depen- guay in 2012, the electoral defeat in office. dence on extractivism. Venezuela, of the Peronists in Argentina in WILLIAM ROBINSON: Right. over the last 20 years, became more, 2014, and of course the legislative Well, I mean, obviously, US interven- not less, dependent on oil exports. In coup against Dilma Rousseff in tion played a key role in the resur- Argentina, in Brazil, for that matter 2016 and the imprisonment of pres- gence of the right politically in Latin in Bolivia, in Uruguay, there was a idential frontrunner Lula da Silva America, as it played a key role in vast expansion of soy plantations to

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 15 C O V E R export to the global economy. And es fall, these agents now move onto what these governments could have these were not small farmers. We’re the offensive. And so, that’s the re- done differently perhaps. And here talking about giant transnational agri- surgence of the far right. I would actually want to point spe- business being invited in and scoop- And if I can make one other cifically to the case of Venezuela, ing up millions of acres of land which point, I know this is a long explana- which I’m most familiar with. Be- displaced small producers. And then tion, but this is the larger background cause in the case of Venezuela, they you have the increased [dependence] that gets lost in the headlines, such as actually did invest billions and bil- in Bolivia and Ecuador on gas and oil Trump’s speech in Miami the other lions of dollars in trying to diversi- exports. And then you have, in other day. And that is that where we are fy the economy, and this has hap- countries, increasing dependence on right now in 2019, well global capi- pened before, this was actually a mining. So you see this extractivism talism is in deep crisis. And summa- second cycle of trying to do that. intensified in the Pink Tide govern- rising very quickly, there’s two di- Back in the 1970s they made that ments. mensions. Global capitalism is losing effort as well and it failed. And And more of this extractivism hegemonic legitimacy everywhere. In there were some very interesting was based on an alliance with what I part, Trump is critiquing so-called so- analyses written back then by call the transnational capitalist class, cialism in Latin America because he’s Fernando Coronil and by Terry with transnational corporations. Re- scared that socialism is gaining pop- Lynn Karl about why those efforts ally, the Pink Tide did not threaten the ularity in the United States. So there’s failed. And I would argue that ba- fundamental interests of transnation- a loss of legitimacy in hegemony. But sically for the same reasons that al capital in Latin America. What in- the more significant dimension of the they failed back then, they failed stead was the model is that the Pink global crisis we’re in right now is during the Chavez period. And so, Tide governments captured surplus- what I call the structural crisis of over- when the commodity boom ended, es generated by this extractivism and accumulation, meaning the global the economy basically collapsed as then redistributed those surpluses economy can’t expand anymore be- a result. through social programmes. And as cause there’s so much inequality. No Now, I’m wondering, what long as prices for these commodities, one can consume. One percent of the would have been the alternative if such as oil, such as soy, were boom- world’s population has 50% of the they really did try to diversify, at ing, and that boom took place from world’s wealth. The 23% with afflu- least in the Venezuelan case? Now, the early 2000s up until about 2012- ence has 95% of the world’s wealth. I can’t really speak for the other 13 – it started to deteriorate after the So there’s this crisis of stagnation and cases so well. But what could they financial collapse of 2008, but it accumulation in the global econo- have done differently from your wasn’t until 2013-14 that you really my… perspective? felt the impact of the deterioration of In response to that crisis, the sys- WILLIAM ROBINSON: Sure. those prices. tem led by the US state, the US gov- Let me respond to that. But let me first So it’s true that the Pink Tide government and the transnational capi- say that in part we can critique the ernments lowered poverty levels and talist class is seeking to push forward governments, but we need to expand improved health and improved edu- expansion wherever it can, and that that critique. First, as I’ve already cation, but all of that was dependent includes expansion through wars, mentioned, we need to see that of on high commodity prices. There conflict and militarisation, it includes course no single country in the world, were no structural changes in the po- expansion through a new round of but especially not Venezuela, not Bo- litical economy of the Pink Tide coun- violent dispossession of peasants, and livia, controls these global markets, tries. Now I want to add another point it includes expansion through a fur- global oil markets and so forth. But onto this, and that is that if you have ther plunder of the state. And those to ask what these governments could the Pink Tide governments, the Pink three dimensions of expansion in the have done differently is also to ask: Tide countries, becoming more and face of stagnation and over-accumu- what are the internal political and so- more dependent on global commodi- lation are most evident in Latin Amer- cial processes and class and social ties and financial markets … that ica. Crystal-clear evidence in Vene- forces which made up these govern- means that the internal agents in Bra- zuela, Guatemala, with Bolsonaro and ments and which pushed policies in zil and Argentina, in Venezuela and the Amazon, Colombia. Everywhere one or another direction? Bolivia and so forth, the internal you go, this violent new round of ex- So one of the problems I see with agents of these global commodities pansion the system is trying to under- the left project in which politics is and global capital markets inevitably take really explains a lot of this in- linked to economics is that the model are going to have more and more of tensified assault on what remains of was certainly to try and subordinate an influence on state policies and on the Pink Tide. the social movements to the state’s the whole direction of the political GREG WILPERT: I don’t policies. And those state policies are and economic system in these coun- know if we’re going to have time to being dictated by global markets, glo- tries. So at a certain moment when get into this, but actually, at one bal financial commodity markets. the crisis comes and commodity pric- point I would actually question So the leftist political model was

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 16 C O V E R also a problem for the economy, beat the same time, it seems to be also cation of US interventionism. And cause the only model that’s viable for doing the bidding of transnational one is the political, the military, the revolution, or even for just radical capital. And I’m just wondering, ideological dimension of putting the progressive change in the 21st centu- especially because Trump is always transnational capitalist class firmly ry, is, in my view, the complete au- decrying the globalists and global- back in power in Latin America and tonomy of social movements to be isation and so on, I’m just wonder- taking advantage of the conjuncture able to press for the interests of the ing, what’s your take on that? of crisis to roll back even the mild re- popular classes from below to counter Which role is Trump actually play- forms of the Pink Tide governments. the pressure of transnational capital ing and whose interests is he serv- But those politics are in conjunction and elites from above. And that was ing, particularly in this effort to roll with that economic project of return- not the model, and this brought about back the Pink Tide or the socialist ing the region fully under the control a lot of conflict in Ecuador and Bo- governments of Latin America? of the transnational capitalist class livia, also in Venezuela. WILLIAM ROBINSON: I mean, and its local agents in each country. But the other, more practical re- it’s an extremely important question Why specifically Venezuela? sponse to your question … is that because I think much of the left, and Well, that should be pretty obvious. Venezuela still could have done tre- And I’ve stated this for the last 20 the public in general, gets it wrong mendously more, even being depen- years and I got criticised for it earlier. because there is a confusion … the dent on transnational capital and sub- In fact, I’m sure you did too. It’s that problem is taking discourse at face ordinance of the global economy. We the very epicentre of the turn to the know, and you know this better than value rather than looking at underly- left in Latin America was always the I do, that 70% of the banking system ing essences of these processes and Venezuelan revolution. And there- how they’re expressed in discourse. still remains, to this day, in private fore, the epicentre of counter-revolu- So Trump is trying to regain the le- hands. And any leftist project, the first tion, and the reversion of the region gitimacy of the US state. I mentioned thing you want to do is nationalise the to total subordination to global capi- the crisis of hegemony previously. financial system. That would not have talism politically as well as economi- And so, Trump has to have the rheto- brought any massive negative conse- cally, has always been the destruction ric of populism and nationalism. But quences for the interest of the popu- of the Venezuelan revolution. That’s we don’t judge Trumpist policies on lar classes in the revolution. the larger story here that we can’t lose the basis of rhetoric, but what those That is certainly one example that sight of. actual policies are. And those policies could have been done tremendously Yes, it’s true that Venezuela has differently in Bolivia, look at what have very little to do with national- the largest oil deposits in the world. happened in Bolivia. The natural re- ism and even less to do with popu- Yes, it’s true that [US National Secu- sources were not nationalised. Actu- lism. And I think, as you stated cor- rity Advisor John] Bolton recently ally, they’re still in the hands of tran- rectly, what the US state is doing in said, ‘We want US oil companies snational corporations. It’s simply the Latin America, and more generally back in’ – what he really means is marketing and the mechanisms that around the world, in general is to push transnational oil companies – to take allow the government to capture some forward the interests of transnational full control of the oil fields and so of those surpluses. So I mean, I don’t capital and the transnational capital- forth. But that again needs to be seen have the answer of what I would do ist class. in the context of Venezuela being the if I were in the government in Vene- Even – to look outside of Latin epicentre both of that turn to the left zuela or Bolivia or Brazil, but I think America for just a moment – even and the epicentre now of the complete unleashing popular forces from be- with China, the US pressure on China reversal of the [Pink Tide] that the US low, from a different leftist model of is to open up China further to state is attempting on behalf of glo- politics, might have forced these gov- transnational capital and to integrate bal capitalist interests. ernments to do more than they did. China deeper into, or openly into, glo- GREG WILPERT: Well, we’re And again, one of the things, bal capitalism. And for that matter, going to have to leave it there for Greg, is that there is such a vast dif- this trade deficit with China, sure it’s now. I hope to come back to you ference. Venezuela was, again, a true a real trade deficit, but a big part of very soon to further explore these effort at socialist transformation, that trade deficit is US-based, and issues. I was speaking to Professor whereas Brazil was at best a mild so- corporations based from all over the Bill Robinson, Professor of Sociol- cial democracy, and Argentina was a world inside China exporting to the ogy at the University of California, mixture of populism and social de- United States, so they’re transnational Santa Barbara. Thanks again, Bill, mocracy. So also it’s hard to genera- corporate exports from China to the for joining us today. ◆ lise. US. So it’s not nation-state rivalry the GREG WILPERT: The Trump way it’s posed. The Real News Network is a non-profit mul- administration seems to act as if it’s Now going back to Latin Ameri- timedia news and documentary service head- ca, the same thing. There are two di- quartered in Baltimore in the US. This inter- representing the interests of nation- view transcript is reproduced from its web- al capital in the United States. But mensions to this incredible intensifi- site therealnews.com.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 17 C O V E R Blackouts as a weapon for regime change Electricity blackouts have been a regular feature in the campaign led by Juan Guaido to overthrow Maduro. Guaido has skilfully used such blackouts as evidence of the incompetence of the Maduro regime. However, it now transpires that Guaido had been a participant in a US-funded organisation geared for regime change.

Max Blumenthal

A SEPTEMBER 2010 memo by a US-funded soft power organisation that helped train Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaido and his allies identifies the potential collapse of the country’s electrical sector as ‘a watershed event’ that ‘would likely have the impact of galvanising public unrest in a way that no opposition group could ever hope to generate’. The memo has special relevance today as Guaido moves to exploit nationwide blackouts caused by a major failure at the Simon Bolivar Hy- Commuters in a Caracas neighbourhood waiting in line for the bus during a blackout. droelectric Plant at Guri dam – a cri- The Venezuelan opposition has tried to exploit nationwide power outages to stir un- sis that Venezuela’s government rest against the government. blames on US sabotage. It was authored by Srdja Popov- electric Plant as a friction point, em- across the Venezuelan border, the Si- ic of the Center for Applied Non-Vi- phasising that ‘water levels at the Guri mon Bolivar Hydroelectric Plant ex- olent Action and Strategies (CAN- dam are dropping, and Chavez has perienced a major and still unex- VAS), a Belgrade-based ‘democracy been unable to reduce consumption plained collapse. Days later, electric- promotion’ organisation funded by sufficiently to compensate for the de- ity remained sporadic across the coun- the US government that has trained teriorating industry’. try. thousands of US-aligned youth activ- Speculating on a ‘grave possibil- Meanwhile, Guaido has done ists in countries where the West seeks ity that some 70 percent of the coun- everything he can ‘to take advantage regime change. try’s electricity grid could go dark as of the situation and spin it’ against This group reportedly hosted soon as April 2010’, the CANVAS President Nicolas Maduro – just as Guaido and the key leaders of his leader stated that ‘an opposition group his allies were urged to do over eight Popular Will party for a series of train- would be best served to take advan- years before by CANVAS. ing sessions, fashioning them into a tage of the situation and spin it against ‘Generation 2007’ determined to fo- Chavez and towards their needs’. ‘A period of suffering’ ment resistance to then-President Flash forward to March 2019, Hugo Chavez and sabotage his plans and the scenario outlined by Popovic The Venezuelan government has to implement ‘21st century socialism’ is playing out almost exactly as he had placed the blame squarely on Wash- in Venezuela. imagined. ington, accusing it of sabotage In the 2010 memo, CANVAS’s On 7 March, just days after through a cyberattack on its electri- Popovic declared, ‘A key to Chavez’s Guaido’s return from Colombia, cal infrastructure. Key players in the current weakness is the decline in the where he participated in the failed and US-directed coup attempt have done electricity sector.’ Popovic explicitly demonstrably violent 23 February at- little to dispel the accusation. identified the Simon Bolivar Hydro- tempt to ram a shipment of US aid In a tweet on 8 March, US Sec-

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 18 C O V E R retary of State Mike Pompeo framed Upon his mention of the consti- CANVAS produced a series of mem- the electricity outage as a pivotal stage tutional article, Guaido’s supporters os outlining the plans they had in US plans for regime change: ‘No responded, ‘Intervention! Interven- hatched with ‘non-formal actors’ like food. No medicine. Now, no power. tion!’ Guaido and his cadre of student ac- Next, no Maduro.’ tivists to bring down Chavez. ‘This At noon on 7 March, during a Exploiting crisis to ‘get back is the first opportunity for the oppo- hearing on Venezuela at the US Sen- into a position of power’ sition to get back into a position of ate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, power,’ Popovic wrote at the time. Senator Marco Rubio explicitly called As Dan Cohen and I reported pre- In his memo on electricity out- for the US to stir ‘widespread unrest’, viously on The Grayzone website, ages, Popovic highlighted the impor- declaring that it ‘needs to happen’ in Guaido’s rise to prominence – and the tance of the Venezuelan military in order to achieve regime change. coup plot that he has been appointed achieving regime change. ‘Alliances ‘Venezuela is going to enter a to oversee – is the product of a de- with the military could be critical be- period of suffering no nation in our cade-long project overseen by the cause in such a situation of massive hemisphere has confronted in mod- Belgrade-based CANVAS outfit. public unrest and rejection of the pres- ern history,’ Rubio proclaimed. CANVAS is a spinoff of Otpor, idency,’ the CANVAS founder wrote, Around 5 pm, the Simon Bolivar a Serbian protest group founded by ‘malcontent sectors of the military Hydroelectric Plant experienced a Popovic in 1998 at the University of will likely decide to intervene, but total and still unexplained collapse. Belgrade. Otpor, which means ‘resis- only if they believe they have suffi- Residents of Caracas and throughout tance’ in Serbian, was the student cient support.’ Venezuela were immediately plunged group that worked alongside US soft While the scenario Popovic en- into darkness. power organisations to mobilise the visioned failed to materialise in 2010, At 5.18 pm, a clearly excited protests that eventually toppled the it perfectly describes the situation Rubio took to Twitter to announce the late Serbian President Slobodan gripping Venezuela today as an op- blackout and claim that ‘backup gen- Milosevic. position leader cultivated by CAN- erators have failed’. It was unclear CANVAS has been funded large- VAS seeks to spin the crisis against how Rubio had obtained such specif- ly through the National Endowment Maduro while calling on the military ic information so soon after the out- for Democracy, a CIA cut-out that to break ranks. age occurred. According to Jorge functions as the US government’s Since The Grayzone exposed the Rodriguez, the communications min- main arm of promoting regime deep ties between CANVAS and ister of Venezuela, local authorities change. According to leaked internal Guaido’s Popular Will party, Popov- did not know if backup generators had emails from Stratfor, an intelligence ic has attempted to publicly distance failed at the time of Rubio’s tweet. firm known as the ‘shadow CIA’, himself from his record of training Back in Caracas, Guaido imme- CANVAS ‘may have also received Venezuela’s opposition. diately set out to exploit the situation, CIA funding and training during the Today, however, Popovic’s 2010 just as his CANVAS trainers had ad- 1999/2000 anti-Milosevic struggle’. memo on exploiting electricity out- vised over eight years before. Taking A leaked email from a Stratfor ages reads like a blueprint for the to Twitter just over an hour after Ru- staffer noted that after they ousted strategy that Guaido and his patrons bio, Guaido declared, ‘The light will Milosevic, ‘the kids who ran OTPOR in Washington have actively imple- return when the usurpation [of Ma- grew up, got suits and designed CAN- mented. Whether or not the blackout duro] ends.’ Like Pompeo, the self- VAS … or in other words a “export- is the result of external sabotage, it declared president framed the black- a-revolution” group that sowed the represents the ‘watershed event’ that seeds for a NUMBER of color revo- CANVAS has prepared its Venezue- outs as part of a regime change strat- ◆ egy, not an accident or error. lutions. They are still hooked into US lan cadres for. Two days later, Guaido was at the funding and basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and Max Blumenthal is an award-winning US centre of an opposition rally he con- journalist and the author of several books, vened in affluent eastern Caracas, autocratic governments (ones that US including the best-selling Republican Go- bellowing into a megaphone: ‘Arti- does not like ;).’ morrah, Goliath, The Fifty One Day War and cle 187 when the time comes. We Stratfor subsequently revealed The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of publica- need to be in the streets, mobilised. It that CANVAS ‘turned its attention to tions, many video reports and several docu- depends on us, not on anybody else.’ Venezuela’ in 2005, after training mentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumen- Article 187 establishes the right opposition movements that led pro- thal founded The Grayzone website of the National Assembly ‘to autho- NATO regime change operations (thegrayzone.com) in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetu- rise the use of Venezuelan military across Eastern Europe. al war and its dangerous domestic repercus- missions abroad or foreign in the In September 2010, as Venezue- sions. This article is reproduced from The country’. la headed for a parliamentary election, Grayzone.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 19 C O V E R The origins of Venezuela’s economic crisis Venezuela has become a popular argument against socialism amongst conserva- tives because of the deep economic crisis it is currently traversing. Defenders of the Bolivarian project, though, say that US sanctions and economic war are to blame for the crisis. The following is the transcript of an analysis by Greg Wilpert on The Real News Network that tries to take all the factors into account.

GREG WILPERT: It’s The Real News Network, and I’m Greg Wilp- ert in Baltimore. One of the main talking points of the Trump administration and the Venezuelan opposition is that Vene- zuela is suffering a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions because its economy has collapsed. Ac- cording to them, the reason for the economic crisis and the emigration from Venezuela lies in the effort to build socialism in Venezuela. DONALD TRUMP: But it’s a very sad thing. We’re not looking for anything other than taking care of a lot of people that are starving and dying in the streets. What’s happening there is a disgrace. This was one Customers line up to shop at a state-run supermarket in Caracas. The Venezuelan of the wealthiest countries in the economy is suffering from shortages and hyperinflation. world, and all of a sudden it’s just, it’s greed-stricken, poverty-stricken. matter of fact, in 1920 Venezuela was instability, Venezuela’s economy also No food, no water, no air condition- the world’s largest oil exporter. Mid- lurched from one crisis to the next. ing, no anything. dle Eastern oil production did not This provided the background for GREG WILPERT: Leaving exceed Venezuela’s until the 1960s. Chavez’s election in 1998. Venezue- aside the question of whether the sit- Just like today, already back then oil lans were fed up with the economic uation deserves to be called a human- exports made up over 90% of Vene- uncertainty and consistent decline. itarian crisis, something former UN zuela’s export revenues. As a result, Real per capita GDP had dropped by Special Rapporteur Alfred de Zayas all other forms of economic produc- 27% in the 20 years between 1979 and has disputed, what is undisputed is tion, such as agriculture, dropped to 1999. Meanwhile, poverty rose from that there is an economic crisis in a very small fraction of the country’s 15% to over 65%. Venezuela. Exactly how did this eco- economic activity. As long as oil pric- Chavez’s first move on the economic crisis, with its hyperinflation es rose, which they did fairly consis- nomic front was to raise oil prices. and shortages, come about? Whose tently until the late 1970s, Venezue- He toured OPEC member countries fault is it? Is socialism to blame? And la’s economy grew in tandem with and convoked the second ever sum- can Venezuela get out of this econom- rising oil prices. The economy mit of OPEC heads of state in Cara- ic crisis? boomed when oil prices quadrupled cas in late 2000 to convince OPEC Before we examine Venezuela’s during the 1978 OPEC oil embargo. members to adhere to oil production economic performance during the However, little by little, oil pric- quotas and raise oil prices. Gradually Maduro presidency, it makes sense to es began to enter a phase of instabili- oil prices rose, with an additional take a brief look at the time before ty and even decline, dropping below boost due to the Iraq war in 2003. Oil Maduro took office. Ever since the $10 per barrel in 1998, the year that prices continued to rise steadily 20th century, Venezuela has been a Hugo Chavez was elected president throughout this period, reaching a major oil-exporting country. As a of Venezuela. Along with this oil price high of $140 per barrel before the

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 20 C O V E R

Lehman Brothers collapse and the 2013, the pressure on the currency in the same time that the Trump admin- global financial crisis of 2008. Simi- the form of the black-market ex- istration sanctions took effect. Vene- larly, Venezuela’s economy boomed change rate took another hit. The gap zuela’s oil industry depends on cru- and per capita GDP rose steadily, in- between the official exchange rate cial replacement parts and oil deriva- creasing by 35%, and poverty and the black-market exchange rate tives from the US, which it could no dropped by half from 54% to 27% of began to increase to unprecedented longer import. As a result, Venezue- households between 2003 and 2007. levels, further exacerbating inflation, lan oil production decreased from A new period of volatility set in corruption and shortages. When oil about two million barrels per day to following the global financial crisis prices declined during Maduro’s first 1.2 million between August 2017 and when Chavez decided to reduce pub- year in office, reducing imports, this August 2018. The rapid decline in oil lic spending because oil revenues vicious cycle intensified yet again. revenues from $93.6 billion in 2012 were down. As prices recovered, the Maduro tried to adjust his economic to $30.9 billion in 2018 led to a rapid economy recovered as well. A com- policies periodically by adjusting the decline in imports. Imports practical- mon criticism of Chavez’s economic official exchange rate slightly, but the ly also nosedived from $66 billion in management during this period is that gap between the official exchange 2012 to $11 billion in 2018. This de- oil revenues were not used to diversi- rate and the black-market rate contin- cline in imports, along with the smug- fy the economy. This, however, is not ued to grow, so that a dollar purchased gling of its massively subsidised prod- quite true. Chavez did try to diversi- at the official rate eventually cost ucts to neighbouring Brazil and Co- fy the economy by investing billions merely 1/100 of what it cost in the lombia, inevitably meant that there of dollars from oil revenues in agri- black market. were shortages of food and medi- culture and in new industrial produc- cines. tion facilities, ranging from cell- By late 2017 shortages and infla- phones to automobiles to bicycles to The lost revenues due tion had gotten so bad that hyperin- petrochemical products. Also, the to sanctions, the declin- flation set in. Inflation kept rising as massive investments in educational a result of the vicious cycle of the programmes were aimed at helping to ing price of oil and the ever-growing gap between the offi- diversify the economy. hyperinflation created a cial exchange rate and the black-mar- Ultimately, though, these efforts ket exchange rate. Since more and at diversification failed. They failed perfect economic more products were imported with- for two closely related reasons. First, storm. out subsidies, Venezuelans were thus ever since 2003, the government im- forced into a position of spending plemented a fixed exchange rate in Then in 2015 President Obama their money the instant they earned order to control capital flight and the declared Venezuela to be an ‘unusual it, so as to make sure that it did not depreciation of its currency, and also and extraordinary threat to the nation- lose any value while they had it on as a means of subsidising essential al security of the United States’, al- hand. goods by allowing importers of things lowing him to impose targeted sanc- Some economists estimate that like food and medicine to have access tions against individual government revenues that Venezuela lost as a re- to cheap dollars. The fixed exchange officials that the US accused of be- sult of the decline in oil production rate system worked reasonably well ing involved in drug trafficking or are estimated to have been at least $6 as long as there were enough dollars corruption. These sanctions, although billion per year. In addition, the sanc- coming into the economy. However, they were targeted on individuals, tions have prevented Venezuela from when the price of oil began to decline, began a cascade of financial restric- repatriating $1 billion of dividends first in 2008 and then again in 2014, tions on Venezuelan financial trans- per year from its US-based oil com- the government reduced its subsidies actions and on bank accounts, lead- pany CITGO. The Venezuelan gov- for the purchase of dollars at the offi- ing to closings of accounts, making ernment now estimates that the total cial rate and thereby for imports. This imports and financial transactions in- losses in revenue to the government meant that imports went down and creasingly difficult for the govern- over the past four years due to sanc- their prices went up, heating up in- ment. tions amount to at least $30 billion. flation. The government tried to main- In August 2017, President Trump The lost revenues due to sanctions, tain low prices by holding on to the drastically intensified the sanctions by the declining price of oil and the hy- fixed exchange rate and by introduc- prohibiting US institutions and indi- perinflation created a perfect econom- ing stricter price controls. But black- viduals from trading in Venezuelan ic storm that contributed to a dramat- market activity circumvented these debt. This made it impossible for Ven- ic contraction of Venezuela’s econo- policies, leading to more inflation, ezuela to restructure its debt, and fur- my. By 2017, per capita GDP had more price distortions and countless ther restricted the government’s abil- declined by two-thirds relative to its opportunities for corruption. ity to engage in international trade. It level in 2012. Immediately following President was no coincidence that Venezuela’s The big question at this point that Chavez’s death from cancer in March oil production began to plummet at remains is whether Chavez and Ma-

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 21 C O V E R

that the price of oil would soon reach $200 per barrel. Chavez dismantled the fund, believing it was no longer needed. Third, also following the 2003 oil industry shutdown, Chavez introduced a rigorously controlled fixed exchange rate. This was no doubt necessary at the time because of the run on the Venezuelan currency, the bolivar, in the aftermath of the 2002 coup attempt and the shutdown of the oil industry in 2003. As long as the oil revenues flowed and kept increasing, it was relatively easy to maintain this fixed exchange rate. However, by Venezuela’s bolivar currency notes. The fixed currency exchange rate has been one of the factors contributing to the Venezuelan economic crisis. 2013 when Chavez died, the gap between the official rate and the black- market rate had grown so large that duro could have handled the econo- Second, Chavez did not take oil an adjustment would have meant ma- my differently so that it would not be price volatility into account. Actual- jor economic dislocations – which in the terrible shape it is now. This ly, in the beginning of his presidency Maduro was unwilling, and political- question is difficult to answer, but Chavez did consider volatility to be a ly perhaps unable, to risk. there are perhaps three interrelated problem and supported the creation Finally, we cannot leave out the macroeconomic issues that Chavez of a sovereign wealth fund called the impact of the sanctions. As mentioned failed to tackle during his presiden- Macroeconomic Investment and Sta- earlier, their effect has been devastat- cy. First, as many have argued, bilisation Fund. It was designed to set ing. But they are not the cause of the Chavez failed to wean Venezuela off aside funds from when the price of onset of the economic crisis. Rather, oil. However, as mentioned earlier, oil was high, and allowed the govern- the roots of the crisis can be found in this is not for lack of trying. Chavez ment to draw on it when the price was massive capital flight and the related invested billions in a wide variety of low, thus evening out the flow of oil effort to maintain a fixed but overval- efforts to increase oil derivatives, revenues. However, following the oil ued exchange rate. [Following] inac- manufacturing and agriculture pro- industry shutdown in 2003, when rev- tion in the face of ever-growing price duction. However, what economists enues were extremely scarce and the distortions and price differences be- call the ‘Dutch disease’ took hold, price of oil began to rise rapidly, oil tween Venezuela and its neighbours, whereby domestic currency was over- industry economists began speculat- and an inability to overcome the struc- valued and these new facilities could ing about peak oil and the inevitabil- tural obstacles for diversifying the not compete with far cheaper imports, ity of a decline in oil production. Es- economy, the sanctions have now thus making them uneconomic. timates were circulating at the time made a bad situation far worse, and on top of it have made it almost impossible for the government to take corrective action, because it lacks the resources to do so. ◆

Gregory Wilpert is a German-American sociologist who lived in Venezuela between 2000 and 2008, briefly teaching sociology at the Central University of Venezuela and then working as a freelance journalist, writing on Venezuelan politics for a wide range of publications. He also founded Venezuelanalysis.com, an English-langugage website about Venezuela. In 2007 he published the book Changing Venezuela by Tak- ing Power: The History and Policies of the Chavez Government (Verso Books). In early 2016 he began working for The Real News Network as host, researcher and producer. Since September 2018 he has been working A billboard of former President Hugo Chavez at a gas processing plant east of Cara- as Managing Editor at The Real News, from cas. Chavez had tried but failed to wean the Venezuelan economy off oil dependency. whose website (therealnews.com) the above transcript is produced.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 22 C O V E R Getting real with the US sanctions imposed on Venezuela There appears to be some confusion about the sanctions imposed by the US on Venezuela. Alexander Campbell clarifies.

ON 29 January, the US formally adopted sanctions on Venezuelan national oil company PDVSA, as well as on CITGO, its US-based distribution arm, as part of its press for regime change in Caracas. US Nation- al Security Advisor John Bolton estimated the actions would affect some $7 billion in assets and would block $11 billion in revenue to the Venezu- elan government over the next year. The US State Department was quick to add, ‘These new sanctions do not target the innocent people of Vene- The port in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. The US oil sanctions are expected to hit Ven- zuela…’ ezuela’s capacity both to produce oil and import goods. But of course they do. The Wall Street Journal reported: ‘The sanc- sanctions to intensify the severe hard- nearly all of the country’s hard cur- tions could create deeper gasoline ships and suffering that millions of rency income. Until now, US sanc- shortages in Venezuela. The country’s Venezuelans are enduring. Venezue- tions were largely limited to individ- refineries are already operating at a lans are already facing widespread uals in Venezuela’s regime.’ fraction of their capacity, crippled by scarcities of essential medicines and Another example from an NYT a lack of spare parts and crude. Vene- basic goods. Venezuela’s oil exports article a few days earlier: ‘The oil zuela only produced a third of the represent the main source of hard cur- sanctions amount to the first punitive 190,000 barrels of gasoline it con- rency used to pay for imports. With- action taken by the United States sumed a day as of November, accord- out this revenue, it is clear that the against Mr Maduro since the power ing to Ivan Freites, a leader of the importation of food and medicine struggle in Caracas erupted last week, country’s oil union. “Immediately, it’s could be put at risk. In turn, this will and it is intended to starve the gov- going to hurt the average Venezue- further accelerate a migration and ref- ernment of Mr. Maduro of cash and lan,” Mr. Freites said.’ ugee crisis that has strained neigh- foreign currency. Oil production in Meanwhile, The New York Times bouring countries and put many of the Venezuela has already plummeted noted: ‘But just across the street, a over three million Venezuelan mi- because of mismanagement and poor group of senior citizens waiting in line grants and refugees at risk.’ policies, and the country’s economy to collect their pensions worried that It appears as though there is in- is in shambles.’ the Trump administration’s actions creasing acceptance of the basic fact These examples are certainly not would further bankrupt their country that the US sanctions on Venezuela alone in their misunderstanding of the and deepen the humanitarian crisis will have a negative impact on the sanctions and their impact on the oil that has left so many starving, sick people of Venezuela, but all this anal- industry. But it’s not terribly difficult and without basic services. ysis misses two important points. to find information on the impact of ‘“The United States has no busi- First, the Trump administration had the 2017 sanctions. Venezuelan econ- ness meddling in this,” said Aura Ra- already imposed broad economic omist Francisco Rodríguez provided mos, 59, a retiree who can barely af- sanctions in 2017, though apparently a useful analysis last year explaining ford blood pressure medicine. “It’s the both The Wall Street Journal and The just this – and it is even in English.1 regular people who will be affected.”’ New York Times were unaware of this Rodríguez’s basic story: the oil The Washington Office on Latin development. industry is critical to the Venezuelan America released a statement criticis- From the same WSJ article above: government; underinvestment and the ing the announced sanctions, writing: ‘…this week’s sanctions mark the rapid decline in oil prices caused a ‘[W]e are deeply concerned at the po- first targeting of Venezuela’s life- significant drop in revenue; then, as tential for the recently announced US blood industry, which accounts for oil prices began increasing, Trump

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 23 C O V E R imposed sanctions making any inter- the US first announced its recogni- the people of Venezuela – irrespec- national financial transaction ex- tion of Juan Guaidó as president of tive of sanctions, oil embargos or tremely difficult and potentially ‘tox- Venezuela on 23 January, the decision whatever else is announced. The ic’. Rodríguez explained how Vene- was met largely with applause within Trump administration succeeded in zuelan and Colombian oil production the foreign policy establishment. It de facto implementing an oil embar- both declined at the same rate, until seemed like nobody bothered to think go, without taking any of the heat they the Trump financial embargo was about what, practically and economi- would have if it were done explicitly. implemented in August 2017. Then, cally, the decision would mean. Since And then they announced broader Venezuela’s oil production collapsed: Trump’s election, and his increasing- trade sanctions that appeared to make ‘It is striking that the second ly threatening rhetoric in relation to explicit the recognition of a parallel government, with some specific change in trend in Venezuela’s pro- Venezuela, there has been wide agree- carve-outs for American oil compa- duction numbers occurs at the time ment that a full-scale oil embargo nies already in Venezuela, like Chev- at which the United States decided to would be terrible, both for Venezuela ron and Halliburton. impose financial sanctions on Vene- and the US. Yet somehow hardly any- Of course, there are plenty of zuela. Executive Order 13.808, issued one realised that by recognising people who will argue that this pain on 25 August of 2017, barred US per- Guaidó, the US was de facto putting and suffering is worth it in order to sons from providing new financing to an oil embargo in place. Once again force Maduro from power. That’s the Venezuelan government or PD- we turn to Rodríguez, who, for what their right, but the media should force VSA. Although the order carved out it’s worth, has been publicly support- them to make that argument openly, allowances for commercial credit of ive of the decision to recognise and honestly confront the pain and less than 90 days, it stopped the coun- Guaidó and wrote the following on suffering these policies will inflict. try from issuing new debt or selling 28 January,2 a day before the most Finally, if asking for the media previously issued debt currently in its recently announced sanctions: to get the sanctions story right is too possession. ‘By giving it the legal authority much, maybe they can give some cov- ‘The Executive Order is part of a to invoice Venezuelan oil, the deci- erage to the fact that National Secu- broader process of what one could sion to recognise the Guaidó admin- rity Advisor Bolton went on national term the “toxification” of financial istration, therefore, would have the TV and openly said the following: ‘It dealings with Venezuela. During same implications for bilateral trade will make a big difference to the Unit- 2017, it became increasingly clear of an oil embargo. Applied by the ed States economically if we could that institutions who decided to enter countries that provide for nearly have American oil companies really into financial arrangements with Ven- three-fourths of Venezuela’s imports, invest in and produce the oil capabil- ezuela would have to be willing to pay the decisions can be expected to have ities in Venezuela. It would be good high reputational and regulatory a significant effect on the country’s for the people of Venezuela. It would be good for the people of the United costs. This was partly the result of a capacity both to produce oil and im- States. We both have a lot at stake here strategic decision by the Venezuelan port goods. As a result, we expect making this come out the right way.’ opposition, in itself a response to the Venezuela’s oil production to decline A decimated oil industry in the growing authoritarianism of the Ma- by 640tbd to 508tbd in 2019 (a fall of nation with the largest proven oil re- duro government.’ 55.7%), as opposed to our prior fore- serves in the world would appear It’s not just the media’s apparent cast of 1,070tbd. Exports will fall to to serve some alternative i nterests amnesia with regard to those 2017 US$13.5 billion (US$12.3 billion beyond ‘democracy’ and ‘human sanctions and their impact on the oil from oil), nearly half our previous es- rights’. ◆ industry that is the problem here. In timate of US$23.8 billion. Imports of fact, the impact of those sanctions was goods will decline to US$7.0 billion, This article is reproduced from the website even larger. As my colleague at the a 40.3% decline (we expect the en- of the Washington-based Center for Econom- Center for Economic and Policy Re- trance of some humanitarian aid as ic and Policy Research (cepr.net). search, Mark Weisbrot, has previous- well as the default on payments of all ly explained, and as Rodríguez notes, debt to cushion the fall). Venezuela’s Notes the sanctions made it virtually impos- economy is highly import dependent, sible for the Venezuelan government as illustrated by the strong empirical 1. Francisco Rodríguez, ‘Crude Real- ities: Understanding Venezuela’s to take the measures necessary to correlation between import and GDP Economic Collapse’, Venezuelan eliminate hyperinflation or recover growth. As a result of the additional Politics and Human Rights blog, from a deep depression. Such mea- import crunch, we expect Venezue- Washington Office on Latin Amer- sures would include debt restructur- la’s economy to contract by 26.4%, ica, venezuelablog.org, 20 Septem- ing and creating a new exchange rate as opposed to our previous forecast ber 2018. system (Exchange Rate Bases Stabi- of 11.7%.’ 2. Francisco Rodríguez, ‘Ecuador & lisation), in which the currency would The impact is clear. The decision Venezuela This Week’, Torino Eco- normally be pegged to the dollar. to formally recognise Guaidó will nomics and Torino Capital Group But it actually gets worse. When have a massive economic impact on Company, 28 January 2019.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 24 C O V E R US sanctions killed over 40,000 Venezuelans since 2017 A new study reveals that Trump’s animosity towards Venezuela has caused grave harm to the most vulnerable Venezuelan social groups.

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s economic sanctions against Venezu- ela are affecting not only President Nicolas Maduro’s administration but also the civilian population, with over 40,000 deaths reported in a study released by the Washington-based Cen- ter for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) on 25 April. ‘The sanctions are depriving Ven- ezuelans of lifesaving medicines, medical equipment, food and other essential imports,’ said Mark Weis- brot, CEPR Co-Director and co-author of the study. ‘This is illegal under US and international law, and treaties that the US has signed. Congress Venezuelan migrants in northern Brazil wait in line for food. The US sanctions dis- should move to stop it.’ placed millions of Venezuelans who fled the country as a result of the worsening The study, titled ‘Economic economic depression and hyperinflation. Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela’, was co-writ- ernment, the United States has ‘effi- ‘The sanctions reduced the pub- ten by Jeffrey Sachs, a world-re- ciently’ affected Venezuela’s oil pro- lic’s caloric intake, increased disease nowned economist who teaches at duction, which can be clearly seen and mortality (for both adults and in- Columbia University and was a direc- when a correlation is drawn between fants), and displaced millions of Ven- tor of the Harvard Institute for Inter- oil production levels and the dates ezuelans who fled the country as a national Development at the Kennedy when the sanctions went into effect. result of the worsening economic de- School of Government. The loss of oil-based incomes has pression and hyperinflation. They Besides pointing out that the US prevented the Venezuelan govern- exacerbated Venezuela’s economic actions have been rapidly worsening ment from not only improving the crisis and made it nearly impossible the humanitarian crisis, the CEPR country’s balance of payments but to stabilise the economy, contributing study notes that a new set of finan- also buying food and medicines in further to excess deaths. All of these cial and trade sanctions have been de- international markets. impacts disproportionately harmed ployed to devastate the Venezuelan ‘Since the January 2019 sanc- the poorest and most vulnerable Ven- economy since the US recognised tions, oil production has fallen by ezuelans,’ said the study. Juan Guaido’s parallel government in 431,000 barrels per day or 36.4 per- CEPR estimated that US actions January 2019. cent. This will greatly accelerate the since August 2017 prompted more ‘Venezuela’s economic crisis is humanitarian crisis, but the project- than 40,000 deaths. That figure is routinely blamed all on Venezuela. ed 67 percent decline in oil produc- based on an estimated 80,000 people But it is much more than that. Amer- tion for the year, if the sanctions con- with HIV who have not had antiret- ican sanctions are deliberately aim- tinue, would cause vastly more loss roviral treatment since 2017; 16,000 ing to wreck Venezuela’s economy of human life,’ the report warned. people who need dialysis; 16,000 peo- and thereby lead to regime change,’ The CEPR report also reveals ple with cancer; and 4 million with the Columbia professor said. ‘It’s a that Venezuela’s economic contrac- diabetes and hypertension, many of fruitless, heartless, illegal and failed tion is clearly not a ‘natural fact’ but whom cannot obtain insulin or car- policy, causing grave harm to the Ven- rather a consequence of the current diovascular medicine. ◆ ezuelan people.’ US foreign policy, which represents By prohibiting international a ‘very serious harm to human life and This article is reproduced from the teleSUR transactions with the Bolivarian gov- health.’ English website (www.telesurenglish.net).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 25 C O V E R A ship adrift: Cuba after the Pink Tide With Venezuela in crisis and the Pink Tide in decline, what’s next for Cuba?

Sujatha Fernandes

IN the early years of the post-Soviet period, when Cuba was reeling from the collapse of its main benefactor, a young Cuban emcee known as Rand- ee Akosta rhymed, ‘We are a ship adrift that sails aimlessly, and without money, we’ve lost half our crew.’ He was referring to the economic and cultural isolation of Cuba in the 1990s. But with the demise of the regional left-wing allies who boosted the socialist nation during the boom of the Pink Tide, Akosta could have just as easily been rapping about the uncertain fate that Cuba is facing once again today. Compared with just five or 10 A Venezuelan oil tanker enters the Bay of Havana, Cuba. The crisis in Venezuela has years ago, when Cuba benefited from had reverberations in Cuba, which was hit especially hard by decreased Venezuelan a net of supportive allies in the region, oil production. chiefly Venezuela, uncertainty amid the rise of far-right leaders, the internal turmoil of leftist nations, and the when he proclaimed himself president ident Nicolás Maduro’s government. aggressive machinations of the Trump of Venezuela on 23 January. Mean- Cuba was removed from this list in administration determined to break up while, the administration’s actions, 2015 during the period of normalisa- the Cuba-Venezuela nexus have such as meeting with defecting mem- tion. marked recent years. bers of the military last year in Wash- On 4 March, the Trump admin- ington, have indicated that it would Déjà vu istration announced that it will tight- back a military coup in the country. en the embargo against Cuba by au- Sending humanitarian aid trucks to Nearly three decades ago, Cuba thorising lawsuits against Cuban com- the Colombia-Venezuela border as a faced a similar confluence of events. panies which use properties that were way to provoke conflict with the Ven- The Soviet Union collapsed, causing confiscated after the 1959 Revolution, ezuelan military also provided evi- a massive economic crisis in Cuba under Title III of the Helms-Burton dence of this confrontational strate- that famously led Fidel Castro to pro- Act. Although the move only applies gy. claim a ‘special period’ on the island. to about 200 companies and appears In addition to punishing Cuba, The effect on the living standards of largely symbolic, it presages larger the tightening of the embargo is an Cubans was drastic, with massive lay- measures, more sanctions and travel attempt to put pressure on the island offs, reductions in transportation and restrictions against the island nation. at a difficult time. Since Trump’s ear- frequent blackouts. Cold War trium- These moves can be read as ret- ly days in office, he has sought to phalism was in full effect, with free- ribution for Cuba’s ongoing backing strengthen the economic embargo and market revolutions taking place in of Venezuela as the Trump adminis- reverse the normalisation efforts of Eastern Europe in the midst of the tration has doubled down on its sup- the Obama administration. Trump has global rise of neoliberal austerity pol- port for a regime-change strategy by also threatened to put Cuba back on icies. The Clinton administration also means of a coup. The United States to the list of countries supporting ter- sought to push a beleaguered Cuba was one of the earliest and most en- rorism, citing the influence of Cuban towards an Eastern European-style thusiastic supporters of Juan Guaidó military advisers in Venezuelan Pres- free-market transition by putting im-

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 26 C O V E R mense pressure on the Cuban econo- litical and economic power of US fos- Algeria to exchange crude oil for doc- my and people through punitive pol- sil fuel companies. As Bret Gustafson tors. And the Cuban economy has icies like the 1996 Helms-Burton bill. argued in the NACLA Report on the some level of autonomy through the Through a long and difficult pro- Americas, the Petrocaribe initiative growth of diverse foreign invest- cess, Cuba pulled itself out of a se- brought more energy sovereignty to ments, revenue received through tour- vere economic recession by courting the region, and although it was de- ism and remittances, and new trade foreign investment from a range of pendent on fossil fuels, it provided a agreements with US companies initi- countries, establishing joint ventures vehicle for regional cooperation and ated under the period of normalisa- with foreign firms, developing its a challenge to US oil hegemony over tion. Although the stricter travel reg- tourism sector, encouraging the flow Caribbean nations. Chávez, Castro ulations put in place by Trump re- of remittances, earning hard curren- and Evo Morales of Bolivia were fre- duced the number of American tour- cy through providing overseas medi- quently photographed together, rep- ists in 2018, by the end of the year cal services, and taxing artists, ath- resenting a new axis of hope for the numbers had bounced back to 4.75 letes and musicians working abroad. socialist left. million international visitors, largely Then, in the late 1990s, Cuba’s buoyed by a 48% increase in cruise- fortunes turned around. Left-wing The rise of the far right ship arrivals and visits from Cubans governments started coming into of- residing abroad. These may mitigate fice across the region, in many cases Chávez’s death in 2013, along the difficulties somewhat – and en- powered by massive mobilisations of with the collapse of the commodity hance the Revolution’s chances of urban movements, peasants, unions boom that had financed the Bolivari- survival. and Indigenous peoples. A key ally an revolution, an opposition-led eco- Cuba still has some left-wing al- for Cuba was the oil-rich nation of nomic war, and economic misman- lies in the region, especially follow- Venezuela, whose leader, Hugo agement led to a growing crisis in ing the election of Andrés Manuel Chávez, maintained close ties with Venezuela under Chávez’s successor López Obrador in Mexico, as well as Cuba’s Castro. Maduro. This internal crisis has had in Uruguay and Bolivia. While these The rise of Chavismo helped bol- reverberations in Cuba, which was hit nations would be unlikely to replace ster the Cuban nation, revitalising it especially hard by decreased oil pro- the economic muscle of an alliance after the crisis of the special period. duction in Venezuela. Cuba current- like Petrocaribe, they may provide The Cuban economy received a boost ly receives about 55,000 barrels of some moral support for Cuba, as they through an agreement signed in 2000 crude oil per day from Venezuela, have done to varying degrees for an which stipulated that Venezuela sup- down from 100,000 barrels per day embattled Venezuela. ply subsidised oil to Cuba in exchange five years ago. With the rise of the for Cuba’s sending healthcare work- far right, Cuba also has fewer allies What’s next for the left – and ers, physicians, sports coaches and in the region to count on for medical Cuba? arts workers to Venezuela, as well as and other exchanges. In January offering free medical treatments to 2019, 8,300 Cuban doctors were set As far-right forces ascend in the Venezuelans in Cuba. Venezuela also to withdraw from Brazil, after the region, what is the current fate of the provided loans and grants to Cuba, newly elected far-right president Jair leftist and revolutionary governments planned to construct an underwater Bolsonaro questioned the terms of that supported Cuba? As well as be- fibre-optics cable to improve Cuba’s their contracts and qualifications. ing under attack by longstanding im- Internet capacity, and agreed on a For Cuba, there would be a sig- perialist and hegemonic powers, they number of production and research nificant impact if Venezuela were to have become victim of their own de- projects on rice, nickel and electrici- succumb to a coup or right-wing take- velopmental logics and extractivist ty. over because it would mean the loss policies, which depend on highly fluc- The Cuba-Venezuela bloc also of a vital trading partner – albeit a tuating and ecologically finite re- had symbolic importance as an alter- weakened one – though it would like- sources such as oil. Like in Venezue- native to US hegemony. Not just sail- ly not provoke a major crisis in the la, the massive infrastructural projects ing aimlessly, Cuba was at the centre Cuban economy. In 2017, trade be- undertaken as part of the Citizen’s of new regional initiatives such as the tween the two nations totalled more Revolution in Ecuador under Rafael Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of than $2.2 billion, or 12% of Cuba’s Correa were made possible by oil Our America (ALBA), which sought GDP. rents in the context of high oil prices, to strengthen regional sovereignty in Still, Cuba’s dependence on Ven- which collapsed by 2014. This was the face of ongoing attempts by the ezuela is far less significant than its also the case in Bolivia’s gas-fuelled United States to impose its free-trade dependence on the Soviet Union in social revolution. The underlying eco- agenda. The Petrocaribe initiative 1991. In recent years, the Cuban gov- nomic model of ‘21st-century social- launched by Chávez in 2005, which ernment has been looking for alter- ism’ needs rethinking, especially giv- offered subsidised oil to debt-strapped native oil sources, and in 2018 it en the climate crisis currently threat- Caribbean nations, displaced the po- signed a three-year agreement with ening the planet.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 27 C O V E R

These governments have also been marked by an unbalanced con- The EAST ASIAN Development centration of power in the figure of the presidency and a top-down ap- Experience proach to solving issues such as pov- The Miracle, the Crisis and the Future erty. Although the Pink Tide as an electoral phenomenon dependent on by Ha-Joon Chang highly charismatic leaders is in de- Today East Asia is the richest part of the world cline, the social forces that brought outside the old industrial centres of Western these leaders to power continue to Europe and North America. Despite political struggle at the grassroots. From the authoritarianism, human rights violations, Landless Workers’ Movement in Bra- corruption, repression of labour unions, gender zil to the communes in Venezuela and discrimination and mistreatment of ethnic Indigenous movements in Ecuador minorities, the citizens of the East Asian and Bolivia, social movements hold economies have experienced improvements in income and general well-being unparalleled in the key to an ecologically sustainable, human history. democratic, anti-capitalist future for In this book, Ha-Joon Chang provides a the region. fresh analysis of this spectacular growth. He For these grassroots movements considers East Asian economies’ unorthodox and others, Cuba still stands as a sym- methods, and their rejection of ‘best practice’ ISBN: 983 2729 72 6 320 pages bolic pole, reminding us that human and so-called Washington Consensus policies. society can be organised on the basis East Asia, he claims, can teach us much about the whole process of economic of solidarity, cooperation and respect. development. Full of new facts and policy suggestions, this is a lively and This is a profound vision that stands unconventional introduction to a global phenomenon. clearly at odds with the individualist, profit-driven mantras of far-right lead- Price Postage Malaysia RM30.00 RM2.00 ers like Trump and Bolsonaro. Cuban Developing countries US$10.00 US$5.00 (air) society itself has been undergoing a Others US$15.00 US$7.50 (air) much-needed transformation from within, as local neighbourhood asso- Orders from Malaysia – please pay by credit card/crossed cheque or postal ciations, cultural groups and anti-rac- order. ist movements are challenging old Orders from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, dogmas and introducing new means Thailand, UK, USA – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/ international money order in own currency, US$ or Euro.If paying in own of participation. currency or Euro, please calculate equivalent of US$ rate. If paying in US$, In a global era, Cuba will find a please ensure that the agent bank is located in the USA. means of recreating and fostering al- Rest of the world – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international liances. At a moment when democrat- money order in US$ or Euro. If paying in Euro, please calculate equivalent of ic socialism has come back into the US$ rate. If paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is located in parlance of dominant presidential and the USA. parliamentary contenders, and people All payments should be made in favour of: THIRD WORLD NETWORK are looking for an alternative to fail- BHD., 131 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Penang, Malaysia. Tel: 60-4-2266728/ ing systems of neoliberal capitalism, 2266159; Fax: 60-4-2264505; Email: [email protected]; Website: Cuba may well emerge once more as www.twn.my ◆ a buoy. I would like to order ...... copy/copies of The EAST ASIAN Development Experience. Sujatha Fernandes teaches political economy and sociology at the University of Syd- I enclose the amount of ...... by cheque/bank draft/IMO. ney in Australia. She is the author of several Please charge the amount of US$/Euro/RM ...... to my credit card: books, including Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures (Duke University Visa Mastercard Press, 2006) and Who Can Stop the Drums? A/c No.: Expiry date: Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Vene- zuela (Duke University Press, 2010). Her Signature: latest book is Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling (Oxford University Name: Press, 2017). She is currently completing a collection of essays entitled The Cuban Hus- tle. The above article is reproduced from Address: nacla.org, the website of the North Ameri- can Congress on Latin America.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 28 W O R L D A F F A I R S Algeria’s uprising: The beginning of the end of ‘Le Pouvoir’?

Tin Hinane El Kadi writes about a revolutionary movement in Algeria which poses a real threat to the survival of the regime. She describes a young generation determined to go beyond the usual arrangements between parties and the establishment to produce radical change. The slogan in the streets is ‘El Chaab yourid isskat ennidam’ – ‘The people want to bring down the system.’

ALGERIA is going through a revo- tion took place on 24 February at the Old faces of the system such as lutionary moment. Algiers, once call of Mouwatana, a political plat- Noureddine Bedoui, Ramdan known as ‘the Mecca of Revolution- form in the opposition. These dem- Lamamra and Lakhdar Ibrahimi have aries’, had the largest demonstrations onstrations grew in the following days been appointed to lead the announced in its history as millions of citizens to involve millions of Algerians transition. protested against President Abdelaziz across the country. These mass pro- This manoeuvre failed to appease Bouteflika, who is seeking to remain tests have been mainly peaceful, with the movement. On 15 March, millions in power after 20 years of continuous the slogan ‘Silimya, Silmiya’ (Peace- of Algerians took to the streets in what rule. The protest movement now de- ful, peaceful) emerging as a defining were arguably the biggest demonstra- mands the removal of the entire re- motto of the movement. tions in the country’s history. People gime. The phrase ‘Yetnahaw gaa’ (all The mass contestation includes demanded the immediate departure of of them will be removed) has become all social classes, old and young peo- the president and his entourage and widespread among protesters and on ple as well as many women. Students expressed their mistrust of any gov- social media, reinvigorating a wave have been leading impressive anti- ernment-led transition. Protesters of mass emancipatory politics in the Bouteflika rallies on weekdays. The chanted slogans like ‘Bouteflika country. government announced the early clo- Matzidch Edkika’ (Bouteflika, do not To what extent can the current sure of universities in an unsuccess- stay an extra minute), ‘FLN, Degage’ protests really challenge the system? ful attempt to weaken the students’ (FLN, get out), ‘Djazair hourra, Will the country go through a phase mobilisation. Several corporations democratia’ (a free and democratic of superficial reforms allowing the have joined the protest movement in- Algeria) and the regionally-famous regime to survive by making a few cluding lawyers, trade unionists, ‘El Chaab yourid isskat ennidam’ concessions, or will this mass move- teachers, journalists, lecturers and (The people want to bring down the ment produce revolutionary change? even judges. system). Algeria’s regime, referred to among Bouteflika, 82 years old, has been Algerians as ‘Le Pouvoir’ (the Pow- president since 1999. He has been A delayed spring er), constitutes an opaque network of confined to a wheelchair after suffer- military, political and economic elites ing a stroke in 2013. The ailing octo- For the past couple of years, Al- who have, despite some variations genarian rarely appears in public and geria appeared impervious to the pop- and turbulence, astutely managed to has not given a public address for the ular demonstrations sweeping across rule the country without interruption past seven years. Realising the threat the region. Despite the outbreak of since independence. Radical change posed by the upheaval, the regime sporadic strikes and protests, these will depend on the capacity of the responded with a letter attributed to have remained contained and failed popular movement to maintain pres- Bouteflika published by Algeria’s to transform into confrontations sure on the system and shift the bal- Press Agency on 10 March. The let- against the regime, until now. ance of power. ter announced the delay of the presi- The confluence of two key fac- dential election initially set for 18 tors can explain Algeria’s long ‘sta- Background on recent events April and promised that the incum- bility’. First, Algerians mostly feared bent president would not run for a a return to the political turmoil and On 22 February, hundreds of fifth term. This means that Boutefli- violence of the 1990s civil war. The thousands of Algerians took to the ka’s mandate will be stretched inde- painful memories of the décennie streets to voice their rejection of terminately until the organisation of noire (black decade) are still present Bouteflika’s decision to run for a fifth a vaguely defined transitional confer- in people’s collective consciousness. term. Another large-scale demonstra- ence, led by the incumbent regime. Second, oil rents have allowed the

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government to buy social peace and lossal cocaine scandal. The regime’s The violently repressed 1980s Berber co-opt several opposition groups over logic was to encourage Bouteflika to Spring represented the first large- the past two decades. Government run for a fifth term to maintain ac- scale rebellion against the system. In subsidies cover a vast array of goods cess to state privileges and sustain 1986, the decline in oil prices reduced and services ranging from bread and accumulation within its networks. Algeria’s external revenue by 55% in milk to energy subsidies and social However, the announcement of the a single year. This hastened an acute housing programmes. They reached regime’s aim to present Bouteflika for socio-economic crisis characterised a total of €62.8 billion in 2018. This another term came as an unbearable by high unemployment, soaring infla- high level of redistribution makes extra humiliation for Algerians. ‘Le tion and widespread shortages in es- Algeria Africa’s least unequal soci- Pouvoir’ was not prepared for the sential goods. By October 1988, anti- ety. massive mobilisation the declaration government riots spread across the But as Frantz Fanon, who was a created. country, forcing the abolition of the fervent supporter of Algeria’s inde- one-party system, the introduction of pendence, rightly says in The Wretch- the first democratic reforms in North ed of the Earth published in 1961: The wall of fear Africa and the Middle East, and the ‘The big confrontation cannot be in- move from a state-socialist econom- definitely postponed.’ The strength collapsed thanks to a ic model to a market-driven econo- of the two inhibiting forces described generational change. my. above faded with time. Firstly, the Yet political Islam emerged as a wall of fear collapsed thanks to a gen- serious challenge to the FLN-military erational change. Over 70% of Alge- In neighbouring Egypt, the deep coalition. After the left-leaning oppo- ria’s population today is believed to state emerged intact from its confron- sition had been crushed, the Islamic be under the age of 30. The young tation with the protests. Resistance to Front of Salvation (FIS) emerged as generation who have been leading the the system has been either violently the only serious political force chan- protests are not old enough to remem- repressed or strategically co-opted, nelling popular anger. The idea that a ber the civil war and are thus not im- allowing the old order to thrive, be- return to Islamic values was the solu- paired by the spectre of political vio- hind a new face. In Egypt, as in Alge- tion to the Algerian predicament was lence. Moreover, the regime’s attempt ria, the army holds tremendous polit- widespread among disenfranchised to spread fear by bringing up the Lib- ical power, and thus the question of segments of the population. In the first yan and Syrian scenarios failed mis- whether Algerians will succeed where multi-party legislative elections held erably, with protesters chanting, Egyptians have failed is pertinent. in the country in December 1991, the among other things, ‘Dzayer machi However, the Egyptian scenario is in FIS was poised to win the popular Sourria’ (Algeria is not Syria). some respects similar to Algeria’s vote. Threatened by the loss of its Secondly, the drop in oil prices aborted transition of 1988. This time monopoly on power, the military, in 2014 undermined the government’s around, Algerians seem determined to backed by high officials within the redistributive capacity. Recent finan- break free from the established sys- FLN, staged a coup d’etat in 1992. cial laws have shown an apparent turn tem despite its renowned tenacity. The coup radicalised FIS supporters towards austerity, with cuts in social and Algeria entered a decade-long spending and new taxes. While Al- ‘Le Pouvoir’: A history of civil war during which the army and geria has free universal healthcare and survival various Islamist groups fought mer- free education, including tertiary ed- cilessly, causing an estimated 150.000 ucation, the quality of these services After independence from French deaths. has deteriorated tremendously over colonialism in 1962, the National Lib- ‘Le Pouvoir’ eventually succeed- the years due to lack of investments eration Front (FLN) emerged as the ed in crushing the Islamist insurgen- and tensions created by demographic sole actor with political and histori- cy, restoring its grip on power. The growth. Besides, the incumbent re- cal legitimacy. The critical role played deep state emerged virtually un- gime failed to build a vibrant indus- by the FLN in the decolonisation pro- scathed from the civil war. In 1998, trial sector and to diversify the econ- cess and its centralisation of power Bouteflika – who had worked as omy away from hydrocarbons, result- during the last years of the colonial Fanon’s secretary before indepen- ing in a vulnerable economy and high period were the determining factors dence – was elected president after rates of unemployment, estimated at in the establishment of the postcolo- all other candidates had withdrawn 30% among the youth. nial FLN one-party system. The po- from the race claiming that the mili- Public frustration was burgeon- litical and armed wings of the FLN tary rigged the elections. Bouteflika’s ing over limited freedoms, decreas- allowed for the creation of a regime rule was marked by political repres- ing purchasing power and significant based on a strong alliance between the sion, the emergence of a prominent corruption scandals. In the summer of army, the presidency and the party. oligarchy and rampant corruption. In 2018, senior politicians and military The ongoing contestation of the this period, the regime demonstrated figures were found involved in a co- political order is not unprecedented. a somewhat confused ideological ori-

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entation, which combined features of tests. Mouad Bouchareb, the head of system. both economic nationalism and the FLN, has declared in a press con- A truly popular and democratic neoliberalism. Depending on wheth- ference that he stands with the peo- Algeria would undoubtedly challenge er oil prices were in a ‘boom’ or a ple. Similarly, Hocine Kheldoun, a France’s interests. Algeria’s relation- ‘bust’ cycle, the ruling elite either senior party figure in the FLN, said ship with the old colonial power is adopted a protectionist policy or es- during a TV interview that the long- based on asymmetric exchange. For poused a path of austerity and liber- serving president was ‘history now’. years, French firms have benefitted alisation. Most of the opposition was The military has so far stayed in from juicy contracts, including the co-opted, including Louisa Ha- its barracks. Recent statements made Metro of Algiers and the management noune’s Parti des Travailleurs (Work- by the army have expressed sympa- of several airports across the coun- ers’ Party), a Trotskyist party which thy for the protest movement. The try. These benefits came despite no regularly voiced its support for Boute- messages emphasised the privileged meaningful technology transfers in flika and the regime. relationship between ‘the army and return. The free trade agreement be- the people’. The protests have, ac- Power fragmentation tween the EU and Algeria has result- cording to General Saleh, shown a ed in a significant trade deficit for ‘great sense of patriotism and unpar- Algeria. It is estimated that between While the regime succeeded in alleled civic behaviour’. Yet no ref- adjusting and manipulating the pre- the agreement’s adoption in 2005 and erence has been made to Bouteflika’s vious crisis by making concessions on 2016, Algeria lost over €7 billion. suggestion that he remain president. the margins, its current ability to come New leadership is required for the While there is no explicit support for up with a survival plan appears ex- country to challenge inherited un- tremely weak. The mere fact that the the protest movement’s demands, it equal agreements and put structural ailing Bouteflika was the only option looks like the army is in the process transformation back on the agenda. the regime had to sustain itself in of distancing itself from Bouteflika In brief, the historical mobilisa- power indicates its fragility. The re- and his clan. tion which started on 22 February gime’s inability to find a successor is poses a real threat to the continuity partly due to the difficulty in agree- French interventionism of ‘Le Pouvoir’. Young people leading on a consensual figure from with- ing the demonstrations are aiming to in the system who could guarantee the Former colonial power France go beyond the usual arrangements sustainability of access to existing has already voiced its support for between parties and the establishment power networks. Bouteflika’s plan to unconstitutional- to produce radical change. A mean- The regime is far from homoge- ly remain in power until a transition- ingful transition entails dissolving the nous, and power struggles between al conference is held. French Presi- current political order and building a different clans are evident. The 2015 dent Emmanuel Macron applauded fresh democratic system based on firing of intelligence chief Mohamed Bouteflika’s move and described it as popular inclusion. The Algerian re- Mediène, known as Toufik, who was ‘opening a new phase in Algeria’s gime seems quite fragmented, and it has so far failed to find viable alter- perceived as the true power-holder in democracy’. Dominique de Villepin, natives for its endurance. This situa- the country, was an illustration of this. previous French minister of foreign tion opens the doors of optimism and After Toufik’s eviction, it seemed that affairs, has praised the regime for hope. This being said, the black box the presidential clan, which includes avoiding a disaster through the an- the president, his brother Saïd Boute- of the regime is notorious for its ma- nounced reforms. noeuvres and it may have new cards flika, and several political and busi- For the West, the ‘security’ and ness figures, and the military clan led to play. The interaction of mass mo- ‘stability’ paradigms have long tri- by General Gaid Saleh, chief of staff bilisation with organised politics in umphed over other concerns. Based of the national army, had settled on a the coming weeks will determine the on a colonial doxa which posits that new, more centralised balance of rules of the game. ◆ power. countries in the region can be ‘sta- However, signs of power frag- ble’ only under the rule of an auto- Tin Hinane El Kadi is a member of Le Col- mentation were apparent as the coun- cratic regime, Western powers have lectif des Jeunes Engagés (The Collective of not voiced serious support for the pro- Young Algerian Activists), an Algerian or- try headed towards the electoral peri- ganisation advocating political change and od, with a broad restructuring in the test movement. Europe’s incommen- youth involvement in public affairs. She is army, and a severe institutional crisis surate fear of a new migration wave also a political economy researcher working means that the EU will back the al- on the ESRC (UK Economic and Social Re- within the Algerian National People’s search Council)-funded research project Assembly (APN) in 2018. The ongo- ternative that ensures the most ‘sta- ‘Tale of two green valleys’ at the London ing popular uprising has further pre- bility’. Yet, for the millions of Alge- School of Economics and a data analyst for cipitated fragmentation within the re- rians determined to change the course the Citing Africa project. The above article is reproduced from the blog of the Review of gime. Several allies of Bouteflika of history, ‘stability’ lies in emanci- African Political Economy (http://roape.net/ have voiced their support for the pro- pation from a corrupt and repressive our-blog/).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 31 W O R L D A F F A I R S What is behind the economic and political crisis in Sudan? Since the beginning of 2018, demonstrations have erupted in all the major cities of Sudan. Although these protests were ostensibly against the high price of goods, specifically bread, it soon became clear that what the protesters were demanding was the ouster of the ruling regime. To date, while one component of the ruling regime – the National Congress Party of General Omar al-Bashir – has resigned, the other – the Army – is still holding out. The following article by Rabah Omer, which was written before the ouster of Bashir, provides a background analysis of these momentous developments.

IN October 2017, Sudanese were major factors that underpin Sudan’s cies and their social impacts, and thrilled with the decision of US Pres- political and economic interactions against Sharia law, toppling the dic- ident Donald Trump to lift economic with the West. tatorship through a popular uprising. sanctions in place since 1997. The first is the Sudanese govern- The election of a democratic govern- Sudanese social media buzzed with ment’s Altamkeen (empowerment ment jeopardised the economic clout great expectation. This enthusiasm and solidification) policy. In 1989 of the Islamists and threatened their was legitimate given the drastic im- when Islamists, led by Dr Hassan Al- political goals. They then moved to pact of two decades of sanctions on turabi, first came to power via a mil- retake power, and eventually did so Sudanese society, but how realistic itary coup, Altamkeen served to em- through a military coup in 1989. was it? power their affiliates and supporters. The new regime adopted neolib- The US first imposed restrictions In practice, it translates into using the eral policies such as privatisation and in 1993 on Sudan, which was on a state and its institutions as tools to lifting subsidies, and promoted a free- US State Department list of countries serve party goals. The Altamkeen market economy. It sold off major said to be supporting ‘terrorism’. In policy is better understood by link- public enterprises, benefiting a small 1997 the Clinton administration an- ing it to the Islamist group’s history minority linked to the generals and the nounced comprehensive economic, with the West. ruling National Congress Party of trade and financial sanctions against Sudan became independent in General Omar al-Bashir. Sudan. Then in 1998, the US bombed 1956. From the outset, the West ma- The second factor driving the cri- a pharmaceutical factory in the capi- noeuvred to influence the new na- sis is the long-term effects of the eco- tal Khartoum, claiming that the fac- tion’s politics, pushing the govern- nomic sanctions, which affected the tory was manufacturing chemical ment to take right-wing positions. technological and social development weapons. The sanctions remained in This agenda was aided by coups, in- of the country. Travel restrictions on place throughout the Bush years un- terventions in parliamentary politics Sudanese have drastically affected til, in 2016, Obama announced they and assassinations. During the Cold exchange of skills, education and would be lifted after a six-month pe- War, Islamists in Sudan, like other training in the country, and negative- riod. This was later confirmed by political Islamist groups in the region, ly impacted economic development. Trump when he withdrew the sanc- were nurtured by the West to combat The third factor contributing to tions in October 2017. and minimise the influence of leftist the current economic debacle in Sadly, the hopes of revitalising parties. Sudan is the austerity project of the the Sudanese economy and boosting In the mid-1970s the Islamists’ IMF, which has resulted in the stag- social and economic development influence was particularly powerful gering accumulation of debt, stunted were dealt a blow when drastic infla- and the ruling party imposed Interna- economic growth, and social and po- tion hit the economy a month later, tional Monetary Fund (IMF) policies litical destabilisation. For instance, in causing near-implosion. of subsidy cuts, liberalisation and pri- 2001 the IMF praised the economic Since the start of January 2018, vatisation. The government also performance of Sudan – despite the demonstrations spread in all Sudan’s worked to impose Sharia law. The sanctions – and announced it would major cities. Protesters cited the high IMF policies engendered a climate of facilitate debt relief if the government prices of goods, specifically bread. profiteering and corruption that ben- followed its lead. The independence Many Sudanese families reported efited the Islamist group through the of South Sudan in 2011 caused a loss they were eating only one meal a day. creation of multiple businesses, banks of 46% of the national income, result- And many claimed they could not af- and companies. ing in a major shock to the Sudanese ford to buy medications. However, in 1985 the Sudanese economy, which the government, ex- The crisis is the result of three public rebelled against the IMF poli- pectedly, did not prepare for. The IMF

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 32 W O R L D A F F A I R S intervened again in 2013 and 2017 and pushed for further austerity mea- The Third World in the Third Millennium CE sures and liberalisation. This caused The WTO – Towards Multilateral Trade or Global Corporatism? commodity prices to soar. Frustrated Sudanese took to the streets again. In By Chakravarthi Raghavan November 2016, the Sudanese public organised a successful civil disobe- THE second volume of The Third World in dience campaign for a week, which the Third Millennium CE looks at how the led to massive arrests. Since the be- countries of the South have fared amidst the ginning of January 2018, civil soci- evolution of the multilateral trading system ety demonstrations have been a con- over the years. Even as the General stant in Sudanese cities, also trigger- Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) gave way to the World Trade Organization (WTO) ing a wave of arrests. as the institution governing international trade, The Altamkeen policy could be this book reveals, the Third World nations considered a recipe for corruption and have continued to see their developmental nepotism, yet the IMF policies have concerns sidelined in favour of the emboldened it, giving it international commercial interests of the industrial legitimacy even as the liberalisation countries. of the economy has hit the masses From the landmark Uruguay Round of talks hard. Every time the government an- which resulted in the WTO’s establishment ISBN: 978-967-0747-00-2 448 pages 14 cm x 21.5 cm Year: 2014 nounces austerity measures, it appeals to the ongoing Doha Round and its tortuous progress, the scenario facing the developing to the public to be thrifty and patient, countries on the multilateral trade front has been one of broken promises, attributing the economic difficulties onerous obligations and manipulative manoeuvrings. In such a context, the to the sanctions. At the same time, the need is for the countries of the Third World to push back by working together government spends munificently on to bring about a more equitable trade order. All this is painstakingly documented its security apparatus. The govern- by Chakravarthi Raghavan in the articles collected in this volume, which ment also relies on high taxes and oth- capture the complex and contentious dynamics of the trading system as seen er means of collecting money from through the eyes of a leading international affairs commentator. the public, thereby hindering produc- Price Postage tion and victimising the ordinary Malaysia RM45.00 RM2.00 Sudanese. Developing countries US$18.00 US$9.00 (air) The lifting of sanctions without Others US$25.00 US$12.50 (air) political reform has not solved the Orders from Malaysia – please pay by credit card/crossed cheque or postal order. political and economic crisis; it only Orders from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, UK, exacerbated it. If accompanied by USA – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international money order in own political reform to reinforce transpar- currency, US$ or Euro.If paying in own currency or Euro, please calculate equivalent ency and accountability, the end of of US$ rate. If paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is located in the USA. Rest of the world – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international money sanctions would have presented a order in US$ or Euro. If paying in Euro, please calculate equivalent of US$ rate. If golden opportunity for economic paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is located in the USA. growth and social development. It would have stimulated the economy All payments should be made in favour of: THIRD WORLD NETWORK BHD., 131 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Penang, Malaysia. Tel: 60-4-2266728/2266159; and potentially drawn thousands of Fax: 60-4-2264505; Email: [email protected]; Website: www.twn.my Sudanese in exile to return and par- Or visit our Online bookstore at www.twn/my to order. ticipate in the development of the country. The need is thus ever press- I would like to order ...... copy/copies of The THIRD WORLD in the Third ing for major political reform that Millennium CE: The WTO – Towards Multilateral Trade or Global Corporatism? addresses endemic corruption and I enclose the amount of ...... by cheque/bank draft/IMO. encourages political and economic participation. Please charge the amount of US$/Euro/RM ...... to my credit card: With a weak and divided opposition that lacks a comprehensive plan Visa Mastercard for a political transition, the only op- A/c No.: Expiry date: tion for young activists and youth movements is to continue demonstrat- Signature: ing. ◆ Name: Rabah Omer is a researcher working on Sudanese politics and society. This article is Address: reproduced from the Africa Is a Country website (africasacountry.com).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 33 W O R L D A F F A I R S The ousting of Bashir: Coup or popular uprising? This article is an analysis of the eruption of civil disorder motivated by different actors against Sudan’s government which successfully led to the ousting of President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on 11 April.

Beny Gideon

CIVIL disorder broke out in the eastern town of Atbara on 19 December 2018 and increasingly spread to major towns including the capital Khar- toum. The disorder was initially caused by the rise in bread and fuel prices. In just two weeks, the targeted end game of the persistent protest became obvious: the removal of the long-serving Bashir. In fact, the civil disorder had been planned and coordinated for some time and it was executed by Sudanese professional associations. As confir- mation of such plans, it took only two weeks for civil society organisations and the political opposition to adopt what they called the ‘Freedom and Change Declaration’ calling on Bash- Sudanese celebrate the ousting and arrest of President Omar al-Bashir. ir and his government to step down and form a transitional government over. ‘grows out of deeper crises looming that could meet the aspirations of the The protesters not only were over the country for the past fifteen Sudanese people for peace, freedom against Awad’s leadership of the tran- years in terms of regional conflicts, and democratic transformation. sitional military council but rejected human rights violations and financial Until the last hours of the protest, the entire transitional military rule mismanagement’. Allegations of cor- there were three competing forces at- even under Abdel Fattah. The rejec- rupt practice furthermore appear to be tempting to remove the National Con- tion is grounded on the legitimate confirmed by Transparency Interna- gress Party-led government: internal question of whether the ousting of tional, which ranked Sudan 175th out political movements led by the Islam- Bashir is a coup or popular upspring. of 180 countries and reported that ist groups; workers federation union The answer to this question will en- Bashir and his cronies have likely represented by Sudanese profession- able the Sudanese, regional and in- embezzled up to $9 billion from the al associations; and the army. ternational communities to provide oil sector. This massive alleged cor- The eventual arrest of Bashir and correct diagnoses of the situation and ruption is coupled with the govern- other key political leaders and the appropriate political solutions, partic- ment policy of introducing economic subsequent announcement that First ularly on who should form the gov- restrictions, which has weakened the Vice President and Defence Minister ernment and run the state during the state’s capacity to manage the eco- General Ahmed Awad Ibn Ouf would transitional period. nomic crisis. head a military council to lead the At the political level, the opposi- transition for two years sparked a Causes of protest tion alliance has decried a lack of cloud of doubts. As a result, Awad had equal representation in the govern- to step down a day later, and more or According to an open letter on ment at all levels and imbalanced ser- less neutral army officer General Ab- Sudan by a group of African civil so- vices delivery and infrastructural de- del Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan took ciety organisations, the public outcry velopment. After Bashir and the Is-

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 34 W O R L D A F F A I R S lamist movement came to power in 1989, Sudan shifted from a multi-party democracy to a typical mirage state where kleptocrats entrenched themselves in power by use of the patron- age system and maintaining the political marketplace by auctioning individual loyalties. It is because of these lucrative political-business tactics that the war is not ending in Sudan, as various political or military actors individually negotiated their prices in and out of the government. It depends on who can put in the high- est bid for one’s loyalties. Thirty years on, in April 2019, the power of the people finally prevailed over the people in power. Yet there remains a lot to be desired in Sudan’s current transition. It is clear that A sit-in at Armed Forces Square in Khartoum demanding full transfer of power by the Sudan is still at a crossroads as the ruling transitional military council to civilians. professional associations are still strongly holding their ground in re- jecting the newly formed transitional is not the appropriate response to the respecting the rule of law, democrat- military council, and this has seem- challenges facing Sudan and the as- ic principles and human rights. There- ingly been supported by the regional pirations of its people’. All these state- fore, the replacement procedures for and international communities. ments are streaming in because what the office of the President and other On 10 April, the troika countries was kickstarted by a civilian-led up- top constitutional positions must be of the United States, the United King- rising ended up in the hands of mili- in accordance with provisions of the dom and Norway issued a statement tary officials who for one reason or constitution and the electoral laws. declaring that ‘the time has come for another set a two-year transitional In view of the ongoing develop- the Sudanese authorities to respond period to conduct general elections. ments, one may conclude that Sudan to these popular demands in a seri- It is evidently clear that the oust- shall never be the same again. The ous and credible way’. They conclud- ing of Bashir was indeed brought way the Sudanese people protested ed that ‘the Sudanese people are de- about by a popular uprising and not a amid fears of violence was an indica- manding a transition to a political sys- coup or military takeover. The Lomé tion of their determination to change tem that is inclusive and has greater Declaration of 2000 and the African the style of governance in Khartoum. legitimacy’. Similarly, on 11 April, the Charter on Democracy, Elections and It is therefore highly advisable that the Chairperson of the African Union Governance strongly condemn any military council accept an inclusive Commission Moussa Faki said in a unconstitutional change of govern- political process that brings in inter- statement that ‘the military takeover ment and commit member states to nal Sudanese political forces and armed opposition movements of the SPLM-North, Justice and Equality Movement, Sudan Liberation Move- ment and the Beja Congress amongst others. Equally important to be included in the political process are the professional associations and civil society organisations, so that an inclusive transitional government is formed that can chart a clear course for a democratic transition. ◆

Beny Gideon is South Sudan’s Human Rights Commissioner. This article, which is reproduced from the Sudan Tribune website (sudantribune.com), does not represent the It was reported that Omar al-Bashir (pic) and his cronies likely embezzled up to $9 position of any institution or government but billion from the oil sector. solely the author.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 35 W O R L D A F F A I R S Africa as colonial as ever: US’ ‘new Africa strategy’ old oil in new bottles Months after US National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the ‘new Africa strategy’, the US’ new policy has killed civilians, exploited Africa’s resources and used the continent as a battleground for provoking tensions with Russia and China.

Cale Holmes and Erica Jung

IN February 2011, then-US Defence Secretary Robert Gates stated at West Point that ‘any future defence secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia, or into the Middle East or Africa, should have his head exam- ined’. While blood was spilled in Lib- ya by NATO coalition forces, killing hundreds from the sky and giving cover for religious extremists to kill thousands, Gates’s advice was arguably taken and military engagement has been stretched thin, quietly and discreetly, especially in Africa. One of the new War on Terror projects the Obama administration Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti is the flagship base under the US’ AFRICOM military inherited from the Bush administra- command. tion was the United States Africa Command, or AFRICOM. By the time Donald Trump won the presiden- ahead of the 2018 re-election of National Security Advisor John Bol- cy in 2016, AFRICOM had grown France’s neoliberal favourite Paul ton’s ‘new Africa strategy’. While into a $250 million behemoth. Much Biya, greenlighting deepened conflict petrodollars are on the mind, the con- of AFRICOM policy consists of train- there. However, in 2018 Trump gave tinued ability to exploit African econ- ing local forces with a focus on free rein to the CIA to expand drone omies is a cornerstone of US finan- ‘counter-terrorism’. Jessica Piombo, warfare throughout Africa. cial dominance on the continent. editor of The US Military in Africa: There are at least 34 US military Enhancing Security and Develop- sites in Africa now, including three Africa as the frontline for a ment?, writes, ‘[T]he US military has in Libya, where tensions between ri- US-China arms race attempted to create new programmes val militias have displaced 3,400 and that involve a range of government may soon plunge Tripoli into chaos. Last year at the Heritage Foun- and nongovernment actors in securi- The focus of AFRICOM’s presence dation, Bolton said that the West ty programmes that focus on more is largely in oil-rich nations in West needs to ‘wake up’ to the threat posed than training and equipping African Africa and in the Horn of Africa, ad- by China and Russia in Africa, warn- militaries.’ jacent to the oil-rich Arab Peninsula. ing that ‘China’s foreign direct invest- In 2018, the administration de- Like other military expansions ment (FDI) toward Africa totalled clared interest in downsizing US mil- undertaken from Washington, there $6.4 billion’ between 2016 and 2017, itary presence in Africa – officially at are very clear economic, profit-driv- well above US direct investment, about 6,000 troops, including 300 en motives for AFRICOM, and those which has continued to slump. Ac- who trained forces in Cameroon motives serve as the backbone for US cording to the United Nations Con-

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ference on Trade and Development, tise fiscal responsibility, promote fair terests 69 times in 2017 and voted in the FDI decline stems from corporate and reciprocal trade, deregulate their support only six times. On average, income tax cuts. From 2017, US mul- economies, and support their private African countries vote in line with the tinational enterprises have embarked sector. He touted negotiations of bi- US at the UN 31% of the time, pro- on a large repatriation of accumulat- lateral trade agreements and the bas- viding the Trump administration a ed foreign earnings, indicating a ing of the new Africa strategy in the clear motive to operate on the conti- growing reluctance to engage in in- Marshall Plan, stating how ‘the Mar- nent with as little multilateral account- vestment abroad. The speech came shall Plan furthered American inter- ability as possible. months after China’s pledge of $60 ests, bypassed the United Nations, Bolton’s plans for a new US strat- billion to Africa in aid and loans. and targeted key sectors of foreign egy towards Africa remain vague and Djibouti, a focal part of the strat- economies rather than dissipating aid largely non-specific. For example, the egy, is home to the largest known US across hundreds of programmes’. US Agency for International Devel- drone complex in the world, as well Bolton’s seemingly new strategy opment (USAID)’s GEEL project in as the flagship US base under AFRI- mirrors the Clinton administration’s Somalia calls for coordination be- COM, Camp Lemonnier, a former ‘trade not aid’ doctrine promoted in tween the national government and French Foreign Legion outpost. The the late 1990s. China may have not the local private sector, but the details base hosts 4,000 US and allied per- been a threat to the empire back then, of this partnership fostered by USAID sonnel, and is close to a Chinese Lib- when annual trade of China with Af- are not provided and therefore do not eration Army Navy base staffed by rica totalled only $10 billion in take into account the severe corrup- 400 personnel. The disparities were Clinton’s last year in office, compared tion that continues to plague the coun- just enough to gain the ire of the US with the current $170 billion. Bolton try. According to the Devex develop- last year when the Department of did not give any evidence to prove ment news website, USAID released Defence accused China of unverified China’s supposed neocolonial role in its first Acquisition and Assistance laser attacks on US pilots, used to jus- Africa, but US objectives are coun- Strategy ‘outlining changes to design tify additional US military spending tering China’s ‘predatory’ preference and procurement systems promoting in Africa. to deal with African governments and innovative methods of collaboration’. Bolton’s concerns stem from the work towards local priorities, as con- However, the page cannot be found. fact that Djibouti may allow Chinese trasted with the US approach of The absence of a transparent and state-owned enterprises to partially transnational corporate and charity- functional financial sector serves as control the Doraleh Container Termi- led programmes. a major obstacle to economic growth nal, a Red Sea shipping port. ‘Should ‘Prosper Africa’ is the Marshall in Somalia, especially if there is a de- this occur,’ said Bolton, ‘the balance Plan-style approach the administra- emphasis on state-led social invest- of power in the Horn of Africa – tion is taking to reduce aid on top of ment, which Bolton would favour. astride major arteries of maritime promoting unregulated capitalism. While Kenya and Ghana are lead- trade… – would shift in favour of The potential risks attached to financing initiatives to promote intra-conti- China, and our US military person- ing infrastructure development will nental trade, Bolton has been calling nel at Camp Lemonnier could face most likely fall on the government for bilateral trade deals between the even further challenges in their efforts rather than the private sector, compro- US and Africa, highlighting the ad- to protect the American people.’ mising the transparency of such ministration’s commitment to its projects, as seen in the case of South- ‘America First’ policy. The US is How Wall Street is ern Europe. Moreover, there is strong pushing for the development of an underdeveloping Africa evidence that shows large companies, expensive project in Kenya that including multinational corporations would cost $3 billion, which the gov- For an Africa strategy, Bolton’s and international banks, engage in il- ernment will likely need large credit speech seemed to express more inter- licit financial flows from Africa. facilities to finance. With countering est in China-in-Africa’s implications In line with Bolton’s priorities, China a main priority, the US will be for ‘American national security’, the lack of oversight from the United incentivised to take over debt man- while mentions of the national secu- Nations represents the trend of neo- agement, putting in place additional rity of African nation-states were conservative attempts to subvert as- measures such as demanding the ex- quite sparse – perhaps appropriate, as pects of the UN system that allow for tension of International Monetary any mention of the security of Afri- checks on US power. Zimbabwe, his- Fund (IMF) bailouts to African coun- can peoples would call into question torically known as the ‘breadbasket tries on the condition that such finan- the arrival of forces from the same of Africa’, is set to join the six fast- cial assistance would not be used to country that took enslaved people est-growing economies on the conti- repay China. from the continent mere generations nent, despite being held back in re- On Libya, much of US diplomat- ago. cent years by US sanctions. The geo- ic effort in recent days follows the Bolton did talk of trade though, politically rising albeit economically spike in oil prices that the civil war calling on African countries to prac- isolated country voted against US in- there is provoking. While Khalifa

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new strategy, we will also take additional steps to help our African friends fight terrorism and strengthen the rule of law. We will assist key African governments in building the capacity of partner forces and security institutions to provide effective and sustainable security and law enforcement to their citizens.’ The US drone war in Africa has hit southern Somalia particularly hard. With General Thomas Waldhauser admitting the US killed 14 Somali civilians in March in five airstrikes, anti-American sentiment is mounting on top of an already existing Somali public debate critical of US policy. It follows last year’s dead- US soldiers assigned to the East Africa Response Force prepare to depart Camp ly US assaults, accompanied by AF- Lemonnier for a mission in Gabon, January 2019. RICOM-backed Somali forces, on Somali rural workers in Afgooye, kill- Hafter is threatening the current gov- di, is more interested in de-escalat- ing people the Pentagon alleged were ernment in Libya, which has been ing civil tensions in Libya, hoping to Al-Shabab militants. After US attacks working with Western governments, get in on the spoils. on Somali people, many local lead- he is genuinely Europe’s man in Lib- ers now anticipate how stories will be ya – one who intends to guarantee the Peace by pacification spun to paint victims as terrorists. flow of profits from newly discovered US policy in Africa intends to put low-sulphur petroleum northward and Under the pretext of fighting Al- more effort into Vietnamisation-style westward, as opposed to staying in Shabab, the resurgence of airstrike operations in Niger, Mali, Libya and Africa or going to China or Russia, diplomacy doesn’t skip a beat as US Somalia, and since the French inva- Libya’s long-time allies. As such, US policy, even when the leadership of sion of Mali in 2012, the US has tried Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a the people we victimise comes to to exert its influence within the G5 break from his usual modus operan- Washington. Said Bolton: ‘Under our Sahel Force (with the intent of adding 5,000 troops – Bolton’s favourite number) of which Mali is a key member. Mali’s northern oil reserves – bordering fellow G5 countries such as Mauritania – are being pursued by oil interests among businesses in Aus- tralia, France and Qatar. The Trump administration is jus- tifying an expansion in US military presence in these African countries as a means of securing an environment that would be stable enough to clear the way for economic pursuits – mainly for US businesses to take advantage of Africa’s light industry while profiting from mineral wealth across the continent. As such, it is perhaps no surprise there is very little public support within these countries for US military intervention. ◆

This article is reproduced from MintPress News (www.mintpressnews.com/us-new-afri- A camp in Somalia for internally displaced persons fleeing US airstrikes against Al- ca-strategy-promotes-deep-states-neo-colo- Shabab militants. nial-agenda/257470/).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 38 W O R L D A F F A I R S Diego Garcia: The ‘unsinkable carrier’ springs a leak A court ruling against colonial exploitation could threaten a strategic US military base in the Indian Ocean. Indigenous advocates say it’s about time.

Conn Hallinan

THE recent decision by the Hague- based International Court of Justice that the Chagos Islands – with its huge US military base at Diego Garcia – are being illegally occupied by the United Kingdom has the potential to upend the strategic plans of a dozen regional capitals, ranging from Beijing to Riyadh. For a tiny speck of land measur- US military planes parked at its Diego Garcia base. Diego Garcia’s strategic location ing only 38 miles in length, Diego gives the US access to the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the vast Indian Garcia casts a long shadow. Some- Ocean. times called Washington’s ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’, planes and war- luctantly agreeing only after Britain go planes. The lagoon has been trans- ships based on the island played an threatened to withdraw its offer of in- formed into a naval harbour that can essential role in the first and second dependence. handle an aircraft carrier. The US has Gulf Wars, the invasion of Afghani- The Court ruled 13-1 that the UK built a city – replete with fast food stan and the war in Libya. Its strate- had engaged in a ‘wrongful act’ and outlets, bars, golf courses and bowl- gic location between Africa and In- must decolonise the Chagos ‘as rap- ing alleys – that hosts some 3,000 to donesia and 1,000 miles south of In- idly as possible’. 5,000 military personnel and civilian dia gives the US access to the Mid- contractors. dle East, Central and South Asia, and ‘The Great Game’ in the What you can’t find are any na- the vast Indian Ocean. No oil tanker, Indian Ocean tive Chagossians. no warship, no aircraft can move The Indian Ocean has become a without its knowledge. While the ruling is only ‘adviso- major theatre of competition between Most Americans have never ry’, it comes at a time when the US India, the US and Japan on one side, heard of Diego Garcia for a good rea- and its allies are confronting or sanc- and the growing presence of China son: No journalist has been allowed tioning countries for supposedly ille- on the other. Tensions have flared there for more than 30 years, and the gal occupations – Russia in the between India and China over the Pentagon keeps the base wrapped in Crimea and China in the South Chi- Maldives and Sri Lanka, specifically a cocoon of national security. Indeed, na Sea. China’s efforts to use ports on those the UK leased the base to the Ameri- The suit was brought by Mauri- island nations. India recently joined cans in 1966 without informing either tius and some of the 1,500 Chagos with Japan and the US in a war game the British Parliament or the US Con- islanders who were forcibly removed – Malabar 18 – that modelled shut- gress. from the archipelago in 1973. The ting down the strategic Malacca The 25 February Court decision Americans, calling it ‘sanitising’ the Straits between Sumatra and Malay- has put a dent in all that by deciding islands, moved the Chagossians more sia, through which some 80% of Chi- that Great Britain violated United than 1,000 miles to Mauritius and the na’s energy supplies pass each year. Nations Resolution 1514 prohibiting Seychelles, where they’ve languished A portion of the exercise in- the division of colonies before inde- in poverty ever since. volved anti-submarine warfare aimed pendence. The UK broke the Chagos Diego Garcia is the lynchpin for at detecting Chinese submarines mov- Islands off from Mauritius, a former US strategy in the region. With its ing from the South China Sea into the colony on the southeast coast of Af- enormous runways, it can handle B- Indian Ocean. To Beijing, those sub- rica that Britain decolonised in 1968. 52, B-1 and B-2 bombers, and huge marines are essential for protecting At the time, Mauritius objected, re- C-5M, C-17 and C-130 military car- the ring of Chinese-friendly ports that

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run from southern China to Port just one of some 800 American Sudan on the east coast of Africa. military bases on every continent Much of China’s oil and gas sup- except Antarctica. Those bases plies are vulnerable, because they form a worldwide network that al- transit the narrow Mandeb Strait lows the US military to deploy ad- that guards the entrance to the Red visers and Special Forces in some Sea and the Strait of Hormuz that 177 countries across the globe. oversees access to the oil-rich Per- Those forces create tensions that sian Gulf. The US 5th Fleet con- can turn dangerous at a moment’s trols both straits. notice. Tensions in the region have in- For instance, there are current- creased since the Trump adminis- ly US military personal in virtual- tration shifted the focus of US na- ly every country surrounding Rus- tional security from terrorism to sia: Norway, Poland, Hungary, ‘major power competition’ – that Kosovo, Romania, Turkey, Latvia, is, China and Russia. The US ac- Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, cuses China of muscling its way Ukraine and Bulgaria. Added to into the Indian Ocean by taking that is the Mediterranean’s 6th over ports, like Hambantota in Sri Fleet, which regularly sends war- Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan that ships into the Black Sea. are capable of hosting Chinese Chagossians march by the British Parliament. Much the same can be said for warships. Will they eventually be allowed to return to their China. US military forces are de- India, which has its own issues native islands? ployed in South Korea, Japan and with China dating back to their Australia, plus numerous islands in 1962 border war, is ramping up its any conflict with Iran. If the current the Pacific. The American 7th Fleet, anti-submarine forces and building up hostility by Saudi Arabia, Israel and based in Hawaii and Yokohama, is the its deep-water navy. New Delhi also the US towards Iran actually trans- Navy’s largest. recently added a long-range Agni-V lates into war, the island will quite lit- In late March, US Navy and missile that’s designed to strike deep erally be an unsinkable aircraft carri- Coast Guard ships transited the Tai- into China, and the right-wing gov- er. wan Straits, which, while international waters, the Chinese consider an ernment of Narendra Modi is increas- Given the strategic centrality of unnecessary provocation. British ingly chummy with the American Diego Garcia, it’s hard to imagine the military. The Americans even ships have also sailed close to Chi- US giving it up – or rather, the Brit- nese-occupied reefs and islands in the changed their regional military organ- ish withdrawing their agreement with South China Sea. isation from ‘Pacific Command’ to Washington and decolonising the The fight to decolonise the Cha- ‘Indo-Pacific Command’ in deference Chagos Islands. In 2016, London ex- gos Islands will now move to the UN to New Delhi. tended the Americans’ lease for 20 General Assembly. In the end, Brit- The term for these Chinese- years. ain may ignore the General Assem- friendly ports – ‘string of pearls’ – was Mauritius wants the Chagos bly and the Court, but it will be hard- coined by Pentagon contractor Booz back, but at this point doesn’t object pressed to make a credible case for Allen Hamilton and, as such, should to the base. It certainly wants a big- doing so. How Great Britain can ar- be taken with a grain of salt. China is ger rent cheque and the right eventu- gue for international law in the indeed trying to secure its energy sup- ally to take the island group back. Crimea and South China Sea, while plies and also sees the ports as part of It also wants more control over ignoring the International Court of its worldwide Belt and Road Initia- what goes on at Diego Garcia. For Justice on the Chagos, will require tive trade strategy. But assuming the instance, the British government ad- some fancy footwork. ‘pearls’ have a military role, akin to mitted that the Americans were using In the meantime, Mauritian 19th-century colonial coaling sta- the island to transit ‘extraordinary Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth tions, is a stretch. Most of the ports renditions’, people seized during the calls the Court decision ‘historic’, and would be indefensible if a war broke Afghan and Iraq wars between 2002 one that will eventually allow the out. and 2003, many of whom were tor- 6,000 native Chagossians and their tured. Torture is a violation of inter- descendants ‘to return home’. ◆ An ‘historic’ decision national law. As for the Chagossians, they Conn Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Diego Garcia is central to the US want to go back. Policy In Focus, from whose website this war in Somalia, its air attacks in Iraq article is reproduced (fpif.org). He can be Diego Garcia is immensely im- read at and Syria, and its control of the Per- portant for US military and intelli- dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com sian Gulf, and would be essential in gence operations in the region, but it’s and middleempireseries.wordpress.com.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 40 W O R L D A F F A I R S The Modi years The Narendra Modi years in India have witnessed an authoritarian imposition upon society by an increasingly centralised state, the setting up of one segment of society against another and the promotion of a cult of hatred, behind which the state acts directly in corporate interests.

Prabhat Patnaik

IN its attack on civil liberties, its restructuring of the state to effect an acute centralisation of power, and its pervasive purveyance of fear, the Narendra Modi years resemble Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. But the resem- blance stops there. In fact, the two differ fundamentally in several ways. First, there were no lynch mobs or street thugs terrorising people and giving them lessons in ‘nationalism’ during the Emergency. It was only the state that repressed people then; now we have gangs of Hindutva hoodlums A Hindu nationalist march in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been instru- who force critics of the government mental in effecting a ‘“partnership” between big business and the Hindutva crowd’. to apologise for their ‘misde- meanours’, with the additional threat of arrests still hanging over these in- During the Emergency, the print me- that Jawaharlal Nehru, the Hindutva timidated critics. One cannot easily dia was subject to pre-censorship; bete noire, did not have enough funds forget the sickening sight of a profes- papers would appear with vast spac- to visit his wife, Kamala, when she sor being made to ask for forgiveness es inked out, because of which they was dying of tuberculosis in a Swiss on bended knees for a Facebook post actually gained people’s respect. Now sanatorium and had refused G D Bir- that was critical of the government. the media, barring a few honourable la’s offer of financial assistance; even- Second, unlike the Emergency, exceptions which, too, may not re- tually Nehru himself managed to raise the current repression invokes an ide- main so for long, are totally in the the money.) ology, that of ‘nationalism’, interpret- Hindutva camp, and the task of de- The fifth difference is the Modi ed as being synonymous with Hindut- stroying the moral stature of the op- government’s thrust against minori- va but cashing in opportunistically on ponents is facilitated because of the ties, especially the hapless Muslim the prestige of India’s anti-colonial media’s complicity in it. minority. Indira Gandhi’s repression nationalism despite having nothing in The media’s changed role, in did not have any specific ethnic or common with it. As a result, while turn, is linked to the fourth difference communal or caste target. It was re- Indira Gandhi’s repression had the between then and now: the Modi gov- pression pure and simple, directed at effect (no doubt unwanted by her) of ernment is entirely in cahoots with her opponents and those of her son making her critics appear honourable, corporate interests, while the Indira Sanjay, who was notorious for his the current repression deliberately Gandhi regime maintained its differ- shenanigans. Correspondingly, it did portrays them as dishonourable, as ence with the corporates and even not have any grandiose projects of ‘enemies of the people’. This vilifi- presented a ‘progressive’ anti-corpo- rewriting history, of presenting a nar- cation is further magnified when state rate image. Indeed, no government in rative vilifying a particular religious agencies are used to accuse these op- post-independence India has been as community, and of using state power ponents of ‘corruption’ and ‘wrong- close to the corporates as the Modi to thrust this narrative down the doings’ of various kinds; the idea is government, a point exemplified by throats of even schoolchildren, incul- to destroy their moral standing before his travelling in an Adani Group- cating in them a sense of hatred to- the people. owned aircraft to New Delhi to be wards fellow countrymen belonging The third difference is the gov- sworn in as Prime Minister. (It is to a different religion. ernment’s capturing of the media. worth recalling, by way of contrast, The sixth difference, associated

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 41 W O R L D A F F A I R S necessarily with this project, is a promotion of unreason, a prioritisation of faith over rational discourse, a cultivation of disdain for evidence and even for the internal consistency of argumentation. This phenomenon has for long characterised the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, but it has now invaded official public discourse, with even the Indian Science Congress not in a position to free itself of this discourse. The seventh difference is the destruction of institutions that the Modi government has initiated, and this is especially true of public universities and other publicly funded centres of learning. All these institutions are faced with a ‘heads I lose, tails you Modi displays his inked finger after casting his vote in the ongoing Indian election. win’ situation. If they cave in to the demands of the government to change a setting up of one segment of soci- ny, one that can shift the popular dis- their ambience and curricula, they ety against another and the promotion course away from the flaws of the become intellectually dead since in- of a cult of hatred, behind which the system to the danger supposedly tellectual survival requires indepen- state acts directly in corporate inter- posed by the ‘other’, some hapless dent critical thinking. But if they per- ests. The difference in a word is be- minority that can be made the focus sist with independent critical think- tween authoritarianism and fascism. of anger. Corporate capital in such ing, then they are starved of funds and The statistics of repression, such as situations picks up some ‘suprema- charged with harbouring ‘anti-nation- the number of persons jailed, were cist’ fringe group (such groups spew- al’ seditious elements, as has hap- worse during the Emergency. But the ing hatred against a minority exist in pened to Jawaharlal Nehru Universi- potential for repression being built up most modern societies) and pushes it ty (JNU). The fact that some of the now is much greater, more far-reach- centrestage through massive financial finest institutions in the country, from ing. backing: what the renowned Polish JNU to the University of Hyderabad Every single one of the charac- economist Michal Kalecki had called to the Film and Television Institute of teristics mentioned above as being a ‘partnership of big business with India, Pune, to the Tata Institute of specific to the Modi years is in fact a fascist upstarts’ comes into being. Social Sciences and the Tata Institute characteristic of fascism: the rampag- This is what has happened in In- of Fundamental Research, have been ing mobs, the ‘fusion of corporate and dia too, with the promise of neoliber- struggling for breath is symptomatic state power’ (supposed to have been al capitalism waning because of the of our times. Nothing like this has Benito Mussolini’s definition of fas- prolonged stagnation that the world happened before; no government in cism), the targeting of a hapless mi- economy has entered into after 2008; the past has ever shown such disdain nority, the promotion of unreason, the Modi has been instrumental in effect- for thought. destruction of universities, and so on. ing this ‘partnership’ between big These differences between the To say this does not mean that we business and the Hindutva crowd, Emergency years and the Modi years shall have a re-enactment of the whence his current political impor- can be summed up as follows. The 1930s. We have fascist elements in tance. Emergency was an authoritarian im- power but not yet a fascist state, and There is, however, a basic differ- position by the state, which had got today’s context being different from ence between the 1930s and now, extremely centralised by then, upon the 1930s, we are unlikely to even which consists in the fact that the cor- society or upon the people at large; it have one. porate-financial oligarchy in the cap- was no doubt a fallout of the contra- To be sure, as in the 1930s, the italist countries then was nation-based diction between the logic of capital- current tendency towards fascism, and engaged in acute rivalry with sim- ist development and a democratic which is not just an Indian phenome- ilar oligarchies of other nations; the polity, but it did not represent direct non but a global one, arises from the apotheosis of militarism which is nec- corporate rule. The Modi years have crisis afflicting capitalism. Such a cri- essarily associated with fascism inev- witnessed not just an authoritarian sis brings with it a threat to the hege- itably led to war in that situation. imposition upon society by the state, mony of the corporate-financial oli- This had two implications: one which has also got extremely centra- garchy, which therefore looks for an was that military spending in prepa- lised; they have witnessed in addition additional prop to retain its hegemo- ration for war, financed mainly by

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 42 W O R L D A F F A I R S government borrowing, got the fas- proving the material conditions of life nata Party in Madhya Pradesh state cist countries quickly out of the Great of the working people, and at the is emulating the latter in cashing in Depression and its associated mass same time, it is not going to extinguish on the appeal of Hindutva is a point- unemployment (Japan was the first to itself through war as fascism in the er to this phenomenon of a gradual recover, in 1931, followed by Germa- earlier era had done. fascification of society through oscil- ny, in 1933). There was even a brief It cannot also do away altogeth- lations in government formation. interregnum, therefore, between the er with the institution of parliamen- We could, in short, witness a fas- recovery from the Depression and the tary elections because of the precious cification of society over time, under devastation unleashed by war when legitimacy that such elections provide pressure from the fascist elements the fascist governments actually be- to the hegemony of globalised fi- who continue to remain strong wheth- came quite popular for having over- nance. (It is significant that the coups er or not they are actually in power. come unemployment. The second we are witnessing these days against This would be a case of fascification implication was that fascism also progressive regimes in Latin Ameri- without a fascist state actually being burned itself in the process, through ca that have dared to break away from imposed on society in the classical the war. The cost extracted for this neoliberal policies are parliamentary fashion of the 1930s, a case of ‘per- extinction was, no doubt, terrible, but coups, which are undertaken in the manent fascism’, unless the conjunc- it did mean the extinction of fascism. name of preserving democracy, unlike ture that gives rise to fascism is itself Today, by contrast, we do not find the Central Intelligence Agency-spon- eliminated. rival corporate-financial oligarchies sored coups of an earlier era, such as This conjuncture is one of neolib- engaged in intense rivalry. All of them those that toppled Iran’s Mossadegh eralism in crisis. To counter fascifi- are integrated into a structure of glo- or Guatemala’s Arbenz or Chile’s Al- cation effectively in India, it is nec- balised capital, which does not want lende.) essary to go beyond the current re- the world broken up into separate gime of neoliberal capitalism that has ‘economic territories’ through war; it Fascification of society reached a dead-end and has envel- would rather have a world that re- oped the world in a crisis, from which mains open for capital, especially fi- It is in this context that the fol- even Donald Trump sees no way out nancial, flows. This does not rule out lowing denouement becomes a dis- for the United States except by im- wars, but wars today are directed by tinct possibility. Notwithstanding un- posing trade protection (which leading powers against those states warranted interference with the elec- amounts to a certain negation of that either are not under the hegemo- toral process, notwithstanding the dis- neoliberalism). A step towards such ny of globalised finance capital or are course shift away from issues of ma- a transcendence of the current neolib- challenging it. terial life to jingoistic nationalism eral capitalism would be the formu- Likewise, since finance capital which occasional terrorist actions lation of a programme of action that dislikes fiscal deficits, and since the make possible (there is a dialectic brings about an immediate improve- writ of globalised finance capital must here between terrorism and the fas- ment in the material conditions of life run against any nation state (other- cist elements in state power, each, of the working people. wise it would quit that country’s objectively, serving to strengthen the To say all this is not to underesti- shores, causing an acute financial cri- other), the Modi government could mate the importance of ensuring the sis), increased government spending, lose the forthcoming parliamentary defeat of the Hindutva forces in the even military spending, cannot be fi- election. But the government that fol- coming election and the importance nanced by a fiscal deficit. Nor can it lows, if it does not break away from of unity among all the secular forces be financed by taxes on capitalists, the neoliberal paradigm to provide to achieve this. But while that is a first which finance capital would obvious- succour to the peasantry and other step, rolling back the fascification of ly oppose. But these are the only segments of the working people, will our society and polity would require means of financing government ex- also lose its popular support after a lot more than that; it would require penditure that can lead to an increase some time, which will once again above all a programme that provides in employment (for government enable the fascist elements to come relief to the people from the depreda- spending financed by taxes on work- back to power in a subsequent elections of neoliberal capitalism. Only ers who consume most of their in- tion. if such relief is provided (and appro- comes anyway does not add to aggre- We may thus have oscillations priate measures to sustain it are made gate demand). Contemporary fascism, with regard to government formation, to follow) can we succeed in over- therefore, is incapable of making any with the fascist elements never get- coming the fascistic legacy of the difference to the state of unemploy- ting extinguished, but on the contrary Modi years. ◆ ment under neoliberal capitalism. And enforcing a gradual fascification of being corporate-financed, it cannot the society and the polity through Prabhat Patnaik is Professor Emeritus at the challenge neoliberal capitalism either. such oscillations. For instance, the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This means both that it cannot way that the Congress government This article first appeared in Frontline (12 acquire political legitimacy by im- that has succeeded the Bharatiya Ja- April 2019, frontline.thehindu.com).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 43 W O R L D A F F A I R S Campaign to criminalise criticism of Israel: A challenge to free speech, Jewish values The remarkable success of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement against Israel has unnerved some sections of the latter’s supporters. Attempts are being made in the US Congress to silence critics of Israel by making it illegal to advocate boycotts against that country even though such moves would violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protecting free speech. Allan C Brownfeld explains.

FREEDOM of speech and votes in the days ahead. A the right to dissent is under rare Republican dissenter attack by Israel’s Washing- was Senator Rand Paul, ton lobby, the American Is- who declared: ‘I am not in rael Public Affairs Commit- favour of boycotting Isra- tee (AIPAC), as well as by el ... At the same time, I am most of the organised Amer- concerned about what the ican Jewish community and role of Congress can and casino mogul Sheldon Adel- should be in this situation. son, the Republican Party’s I strongly oppose any leg- single largest contributor. islation that attempts to The goal is to make it ille- The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement ban boycotts or ban people gal to advocate a boycott of against Israel’s Palestinian policy is being targeted by existing who support boycotts from Israel in protest of its more and proposed federal and state legislation in the US. participating in our gov- than 50 years of illegal oc- ernment or working for our cupation of the West Bank and East only Israel’s adversaries who find the government. We must be very, very Jerusalem, and its mistreatment of movement appealing. Many devoted careful here to not let our dislike for Palestinians. supporters of Israel, including many something cloud our judgment. Amer- This effort is being conducted on American Jews, oppose the occupa- ica is the land of freedom of expres- both the federal and state levels. Al- tion of the West Bank and refuse to sion, and the hallmark of a truly free ready, 26 states have enacted such buy products of the settlements in country is that it allows expressions, laws. In the last Congress, legislation occupied territories. Their right to speech and actions that we don’t agree introduced in the Senate, called the protest in this way must be vigorous- with.’ Israel Anti-Boycott Act, was co-spon- ly defended.’ Indeed, America has a long his- sored by Senators Ben Cardin and Senators Dianne Feinstein and tory of embracing peaceful boycotts. Rob Portman. In a 20 December 2018 Bernie Sanders issued a joint state- It was founded amidst a boycott of editorial, The New York Times char- ment saying that ‘while we do not English tea. Abolitionists boycotted acterised the legislation as ‘clearly a support the BDS movement, we re- goods produced by slaves. Rosa Parks part of a widening attempt to silence main resolved to our constitutional led a boycott against segregated bus- one side of the debate. That is not in oath to defend the right of every es in Montgomery, Alabama, which the interest of Israel, the United States American to express their views lasted for 381 days in 1955 and 1956. or their shared democratic traditions’. peacefully without the threat of, or More recently, a peaceful internation- The growth of the BDS (Boycott, actual, punishment by the govern- al boycott helped bring down apart- Divestment and Sanctions) movement’. heid in South Africa. In the case of ment, which is the target of this leg- This legislation failed in the last NAACP v. Claiborne Co., the US islation and that in the states, is, in Congress, but was introduced in the Supreme Court held in 1982 that the the Times’ view, a reaction to Israel’s new Congress in January as part of a economic boycott of white-owned move away from a peaceful settle- larger bill, which fell three votes shy businesses by blacks was entitled to ment with the Palestinians, and the of the 60 needed to overcome a fili- First Amendment protection. The movement includes many Jews in its buster. Republicans made it clear they court found that ‘a non-violent, po- ranks. As the Times notes: ‘It is not weren’t giving up, and planned more litically motivated boycott’ was po-

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 44 W O R L D A F F A I R S litical speech and was, therefore, pro- September 2018, a federal court laws as having ‘all the appearances tected. blocked Arizona from enforcing a law of an overbearing government Consider the extremes to which requiring state contractors to certify thought-police pressing down on the the laws in 26 states now go in crim- that they are not participating in boy- little guy, holding pay checks hostage inalising criticism of Israel. The case cotts of Israel. The court agreed with to demand ideological support for a of Bahia Amawi is typical. The chil- the American Civil Liberties Union country two continents away. What dren’s speech pathologist who has (ACLU) that the law was likely in possible business is it of Texas what worked for the past nine years with contravention of the contractor’s free a random speech pathologist does or developmentally disabled, autistic speech rights under the First Amend- doesn’t think about Israel? Condem- and speech-impaired elementary ment. ‘A restriction of one’s ability nation has been swift and brutal and school children in Austin, Texas, has to participate in collective calls in many cases has crossed partisan been told she can no longer work with against Israel unquestionably burdens boundaries.’ the public school district after she re- the protected expression of compa- While the organised Jewish com- fused to sign an oath vowing that she nies wishing to engage in such a boy- munity supports Israel’s occupation, ‘does not’ and ‘will not’ engage in a cott,’ US District Judge Diane J Hu- the majority of American Jews oppose boycott of Israel, or ‘otherwise take metewa wrote in her decision grant- it, and support the creation of a Pal- any action that is intended to inflict ing a preliminary injunction against estinian state. Many Jewish critics of economic harm’ on that foreign coun- the law. Israel support the BDS movement, try. This was the second federal court such as the increasingly popular Jew- A lawsuit on her behalf was filed to arrive at the same conclusion: A ish Voice for Peace. Others, such as J in December in a federal district court court in Kansas held that the First Street, while opposing BDS, do op- alleging a violation of Amawi’s First Amendment protects the right of cit- pose the anti-BDS legislation which Amendment right of free speech. Dis- izens ‘to band together’ and ‘express criminalises criticism of Israel. J cussing the oath she refused to sign, collectively their dissatisfaction with Street notes that these laws could have Glenn Greenwald wrote in The Inter- the injustice and violence they per- a harmful effect by treating the set- cept on 21 December 2018: ‘The lan- ceive as experienced by the Palestin- tlements in the occupied West Bank guage reads like Orwellian – or Mc- ians and Israeli citizens’. as similar to or part of Israel proper. Carthyite – self-parody, the classic The ACLU declared, ‘The Kan- By embracing the anti-BDS laws, political loyalty oath that every Amer- sas and Arizona decisions sent a clear AIPAC, the American Jewish Com- ican should instinctively shudder message: The First Amendment right mittee and other establishment Jew- upon reading ... The received certifi- to boycott is alive and well. But our ish groups are not representing the cation about Israel was the only one work is far from over. Similar con- thinking of the vast majority of Amer- in the contract that pertained to polit- tract requirements are on the books ican Jews. They are turning their ical opinions or activism. In order to in 24 other states. All of these laws backs not only on the First Amend- get a contract in Texas, then, a citi- violate the First Amendment.’ ment guarantees of the Constitution, zen is free to denounce and work Legal scholars on both the right but upon the Jewish value of free and against the United States, to advocate and left agree that these laws crimi- open discussion as well. for causes that directly harm Ameri- nalising criticism of Israel are in vio- If Israel has a good case to make can children and even support a boy- lation of the First Amendment. Walter against the BDS movement, it and its cott of particular US states – such as Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato In- American supporters should use our was done in 2017 to North Carolina stitute’s Center for Constitutional free speech guarantees to make that in protest of its anti-LGBT law – to Studies, expressed the widely shared case. Only those without such a per- continue to work.’ view that ‘It is not a proper function suasive case would want to silence its Greenwald pointed out, ‘The sole of law to force Americans into carry- opponents by criminalising their free political affirmation Texans are to ing on foreign commerce they person- speech rights. That, it seems, is the sign in order to work with the school ally find politically objectionable, path that Israel and its friends have district’s children is to protect the eco- whether their reasons for reluctance chosen. In a battle against both the nomic interests not of the US or Tex- be good, bad or arbitrary.’ Constitution and the Jewish moral and as – but Israel. The anti-BDS oath is The idea that this legislation ethical tradition, they are unlikely to the result of an Israel-specific state somehow is supported by most Amer- succeed. ◆ law enacted on May 2, 2017 by the ican Jews is at odds with the growing Texas State Legislature ... when Gov- division between mostly liberal Amer- Allan C Brownfeld is a syndicated columnist ernor Greg Abbott signed the bill at a ican Jews and the increasingly right- and associate editor of the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute ceremony at the Austin Jewish Com- wing Israeli government, which is for Research and Education, and editor of munity Center, he said, “Any anti-Is- actively promoting the anti-BDS Issues, the quarterly journal of the Ameri- rael policy is an anti-Texas policy”.’ laws. Editorially, the 8 December can Council for Judaism. The above article The federal courts have agreed 2018 issue of The Jewish News of first appeared in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (March/April 2019, with those challenging these laws. In Northern California described the www.wrmea.org).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 45 W O R L D A F F A I R S The anti-Semitic con A favourite tactic of Israeli authorities in responding to any criticism of Israel is to accuse the critic of being anti-Semitic. The effect of such a charge is electric as no one wants to be tagged with Hitler. It quite often silences the critic. Paul Edwards explains.

WITH the Putin/Russia Collusion Fairytale debunked, the undeniable cancer of real foreign interference in the US government demands an hon- est airing. Since American politics is mor- tally corrupt, one might wonder: Why bother to expose one prime cause of its ethical degeneracy? If the beast is dead, what use is determining what killed it? Well, it isn’t quite dead and we have to live with it. If the public knew one country has done more to subvert our government than all others combined, it might raise enough hell to stop it. In terms of influence, there can be no serious denial that Israel exerts A Washington DC conference of AIPAC, a leading pro-Israel lobby group in the US. by far the most powerful suasion of any foreign power on America. Influ- by two years of fraud and insanity sively powerful Israel Lobby, a uni- ence exerted by a foreign power’s reg- regarding imagined Russian collusion fied phalanx of militant American istered lobby is legitimate per our – is that influence is what your friends Zionists. toothless protocol. Israel’s is not so have; interference is what your ene- To be clear: Zionism has always registered, but… details, details. So, mies do. insisted that Israel exists for Jews when Republicans invite Israeli pre- Why, when it is so blatantly ob- only. mier Bibi Netanyahu to smarmily in- vious as to be a source of outspoken The Israel Lobby – financed by sult a sitting US President in a joint pride for them, is the fact that Israel’s vast American Zionist wealth – po- session of Congress, that’s influence, right-wing ruling clique brazenly and tent as it is, could not leverage our not interference. When, besides fi- continually interferes in American politics if its tactics were exposed, and nancing most Senators’ and Repre- government in the most aggressive it knows it. History gives it the key sentatives’ elections, Israel takes them and offensive way, universally de- that makes rational assessment of Is- on cushy, free PR junkets to Tel Aviv, nied? You want flagrant foreign col- rael’s policies impossible: the Holo- that’s influence, not interference. lusion with high officials in US gov- caust and the true anti-Semitism that Conversely, when Clintonista ernment? Open your eyes. And your was its cause. subversion of the Bernie Sanders mind… Evocation of that horror allows presidential campaign appears on The reason it’s officially denied any critique of Israeli government to WikiLeaks and this is instantly imput- is that Israel’s Congressional whores be sleazily labelled anti-Semitism, ed to Russia and Putin – without proof know that not to do so violates their thereby effectively nullifying argu- and against expert technical evidence deal. Not to back Israel unquestion- ment. The dishonest and cynical Is- – that’s not influence, it’s Russki in- ingly terminates it, and the loss of that rael Lobby uses this tactic shameless- terference. More absurdly, when – money means loss of office… to say ly to blunt and derail sound criticism again, without proof – the same Dem- nothing of the beating they’d take in or even plain examination of Israeli ocratic CFOs howl that Putin trolls the press and on their reputations. state behaviour. bought chump change worth of din- The great mass of Americans What then is anti-Semitism? By gy ads on Facebook that swung the won’t admit what many can’t help but definition, it is antipathy or hatred of election to Trump, that’s… but you know because they, too, fear being the Jewish people as a whole. An get the picture. attacked for such bold honesty. They anti-Semite espouses that categorical What is obvious and has long are equally vulnerable to rough han- prejudice, and anti-Semitism in word been so – and has been emphasised dling from the same source: the mas- or deed pertains to Jews in toto. In

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 46 W O R L D A F F A I R S

Israel and the Israel Lobby deploy against any criticism of their history and policy is, in addition to being morally contemptible, deeply counter- productive in terms of Israel’s standing in world opinion. Mounting a transparently false, blanket, all-purpose lament as a cover for their most obvious and glaring crimes and cru- elties cannot prevent the world from seeing them for the corrupt and un- just power they are and fiercely, ada- mantly opposing them. Beyond the damage Israel’s cow- ardly dishonesty does to itself, a more Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of the US Con- critical concern for Americans per- gress in 2015. ‘In terms of influence, there can be no serious denial that Israel exerts tains to what it has done and is doing by far the most powerful suasion of any foreign power on America.’ to exacerbate the rolling debacle of our misruled and floundering country. The Israel Lobby, Zionism’s contrast, behaviour that is ugly, hate- more legitimate than to say that con- American voice, wielding the bogus ful or injurious but not directed at demnation of the American state’s trope of anti-Semitism as a club, in- Jews as a whole, though execrable, is vicious imperialist wars makes one fects and pollutes through its agents not anti-Semitic, just as it’s possible anti-American. This disingenuous and activists every niche of our gov- to hate a Catholic or Muslim without con needs to be named and refuted ernment from the presidency and hating their religion or their people. around the world. Congress to federal departments and It follows, then, that criticism, Is there criticism of Israel that is bureaus, to state and local offices. even vicious, hateful criticism, of the clearly anti-Semitic? Of course there Without Zionist acceptance, Israeli state is not inherently anti- is! Plenty of it. Anti-Semitism is no Trump would not have been Presi- Semitic, and the claim is false on its less real and evil because it does not dent, but neither would Obama. face. To attack the Israeli state is not apply to all critiques of Israel or all Through the Lobby’s diligence, we to attack Jews as a people since Isra- insults to Jews or Jewish entities. Pre- have made our country hated by car- el is not home to most of Jewry and cisely because anti-Semitism is so vile rying Israel’s dirty water in the Middle its polity by no means defines or rep- and toxic a disease, and because it will East, crippled and hamstrung enlight- resents Jews in all their broad, com- continue to live in its odious carriers, ened policy at home, and been af- plex range of beliefs, practices and it is critically important not to vitiate flicted with such creatures of night- principles. the ubiquitous contempt it arouses by mare as the Harpy Nikki Haley, To say that criticising the brutal, cynically muddling its meaning. bughouse pseudo-Christian loon repressive apartheid Israeli govern- The dishonest and defensive cry- Mike Pompeo and murderous psycho- ment’s actions is anti-Semitic is no ing of wolf that the government of path John Bolton. Nothing suggests the death grip Israel and its Lobby have on our fate can be broken. So long as the Anti- Semitic Con is viable, even our security is in jeopardy, with its blind, sick, demented chosen monsters in charge. The fable of the eagle and the scorpion comes painfully to mind. When the bird, stung and bearing them both down to death, asks how the scorpion could sting it after swear- ing not to do so, the scorpion replies, ‘You knew what I was when you let me ride.’ It was all too clear what Is- rael was in 1947. ◆

Paul Edwards is a writer and filmmaker in ‘To attack the Israeli state is not to attack Jews as a people...’ Montana, USA. This article is reproduced from CounterPunch.org.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 47 W O R L D A F F A I R S The Assange arrest is a warning from history The shocking arrest of Julian Assange, says John Pilger, carries a message for all those who sow the seeds of discontent: What happened to Assange can happen to you.

THE glimpse of Julian Assange being dragged from the Ecuadorean embassy in London is an emblem of the times. Might against right. Muscle against the law. Indecency against courage. Six policemen manhandled a sick journalist, his eyes wincing against his first natural light in almost seven years. That this outrage happened in the heart of London, in the land of the Magna Carta, ought to shame and anger all who fear for ‘democratic’ societies. Assange is a political refugee protected by international law, the re- cipient of asylum under a strict cove- Julian Assange being taken away from the Ecuadorean embassy in London by po- nant to which Britain is a signatory. licemen. The United Nations made this clear in the legal ruling of its Working Par- ty on Arbitrary Detention. can happen to you on a newspaper, blog that ‘Scotland Yard may get the But to hell with that. Let the thugs you in a TV studio, you on radio, you last laugh’. The Guardian has since go in. Directed by the quasi-fascists running a podcast. published a series of falsehoods about in Trump’s Washington, in league Assange’s principal media tor- Assange, not least a discredited claim with Ecuador’s Lenin Moreno, a Lat- mentor, The Guardian, a collabora- that a group of Russians and Trump’s in American Judas and liar seeking tor with the secret state, displayed its man, Paul Manafort, had visited As- to disguise his rancid regime, the Brit- nervousness with an editorial that sange in the embassy. The meetings ish elite abandoned its last imperial scaled new weasel heights. The never happened; it was fake. myth: that of fairness and justice. Guardian had exploited the work of But the tone has now changed. Imagine Tony Blair dragged from Assange and WikiLeaks in what its ‘The Assange case is a morally tan- his multi-million-pound Georgian previous editor called ‘the greatest gled web,’ the paper opined. ‘He [As- home in Connaught Square, London, scoop of the last 30 years’. The paper sange] believes in publishing things in handcuffs, for onward dispatch to creamed off WikiLeaks’ revelations that should not be published ... But the dock in The Hague. By the stan- and claimed the accolades and riches he has always shone a light on things dard of Nuremberg, Blair’s ‘para- that came with them. that should never have been hidden.’ mount crime’ is the deaths of a mil- With not a penny going to As- These ‘things’ are the truth about lion Iraqis. Assange’s crime is jour- sange or to WikiLeaks, a hyped the homicidal way America conducts nalism: holding the rapacious to ac- Guardian book led to a lucrative Hol- its colonial wars, the lies of the Brit- count, exposing their lies and empow- lywood movie. The book’s authors, ish Foreign Office in its denial of ering people all over the world with Luke Harding and David Leigh, rights to vulnerable people such as the truth. turned on their source, abused him Chagos Islanders, the expose of Hill- The shocking arrest of Assange and disclosed the secret password ary Clinton as a backer and benefi- carries a warning for all who, as Os- Assange had given the paper in con- ciary of jihadism in the Middle East, car Wilde wrote, ‘sow the seeds of fidence, which was designed to pro- the detailed description of American discontent [without which] there tect a digital file containing leaked US ambassadors of how the governments would be no advance towards civili- embassy cables. in Syria and Venezuela might be over- sation’. The warning is explicit to- With Assange trapped in the Ec- thrown, and much more. It is all avail- wards journalists: What happened to uadorean embassy, Harding joined able on the WikiLeaks site. the founder and editor of WikiLeaks the police outside and gloated on his The Guardian is understandably

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purpose of cheating the tiny, impoverished nation out of its proper share of the oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea. Their trial will be held in secret. The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, is infamous for his part in setting up concentration camps for refugees on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus, where children attempt self-harm and sui- cide. In 2014, Morrison proposed mass detention camps for 30,000 people. Real journalism is the enemy of these disgraces. A decade ago, the Ministry of Defence in London produced a secret document which described the ‘principal threats’ to public order as threefold: terrorists, Rus- A 2010 photo of Assange holding up a copy of The Guardian which reported on sian spies and investigative journal- WikiLeaks’ revelations. ists. The latter was designated the major threat. nervous. Secret policemen have al- be a very, very bad precedent for pub- The document was duly leaked ready visited the newspaper and de- lishers ... from everything I know, he’s to WikiLeaks, which published it. manded and got the ritual destruction sort of in a classic publisher’s posi- ‘We had no choice,’ Assange told me. of a hard drive. On this, the paper has tion and the law would have a very ‘It’s very simple. People have a right form. In 1983, a Foreign Office clerk, hard time distinguishing between The to know and a right to question and Sarah Tisdall, leaked British govern- New York Times and WikiLeaks.’ challenge power. That’s true democ- ment documents showing when racy.’ American cruise nuclear weapons What if Assange and Manning would arrive in Europe. The and others in their wake – if there Guardian was showered with are others – are silenced and ‘the praise. When a court order de- right to know and question and manded to know the source, in- challenge’ is taken away? stead of the editor going to prison In the 1970s, I met Leni Rief- on a fundamental principle of pro- enstahl, close friend of Adolf Hit- tecting a source, Tisdall was be- ler, whose films helped cast the trayed, prosecuted and served six Nazi spell over Germany. She told months. me that the message in her films, If Assange is extradited to the propaganda, was dependent America for publishing what The not on ‘orders from above’ but on Guardian calls truthful ‘things’, WikiLeaks ‘has always shone a light on things what she called the ‘submissive what is to stop the current editor, that should never have been hidden.’ void’ of the public. Katherine Viner, following him, or ‘Did this submissive void include the previous editor, Alan Rusbridger, Even if journalists who published the liberal, educated bourgeoisie?’ I or the prolific propagandist Luke Har- WikiLeaks’ leaks are not summoned asked her. ding? by an American grand jury, the intim- ‘Of course,’ she said, ‘especially What is to stop the editors of The idation of Assange and Chelsea Man- the intelligentsia ... When people no New York Times and The Washington ning will be enough. Real journalism longer ask serious questions, they are Post, who also published morsels of is being criminalised by thugs in plain submissive and malleable. Anything the truth that originated with sight. Dissent has become an indul- can happen.’ WikiLeaks, and the editors of El Pais gence. And did. in Spain and Der Spiegel in Germa- In Australia, the current Ameri- The rest, she might have added, ny and the Sydney Morning Herald ca-besotted government is prosecut- is history. ◆ in Australia? The list is long. ing two whistleblowers who revealed David McCraw, lead lawyer of that Canberra’s spooks bugged the John Pilger is an award-winning journalist The New York Times, wrote: ‘I think cabinet meetings of the new govern- and documentary filmmaker. This article is the prosecution [of Assange] would ment of East Timor for the express reproduced from his website JohnPilger.com.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 49 W O R L D A F F A I R S Why the prosecution of Julian Assange is troubling for press freedom After a seven-year standoff at the Ecuadorean embassy in London, British police arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – a development press freedom advocates had long feared.

Alexandra Ellerbeck and Avi Asher-Schapiro

FOR years, journalists and press freedom advocates worried the US would prosecute Assange under the Espio- nage Act for the publication of classified information, a scenario that potentially would have set a devastating legal precedent for US news organisations that regularly publish such material. During the Obama administration, officials ultimately said they would not prosecute because of the Journalists outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2017 where Julian As- possible consequences for press free- sange had taken refuge. Assange’s subsequent prosecution comes in a time of height- dom. ened concern for investigative journalists and national security reporters. It was unclear whether the Trump administration would have the same compunction: while Trump praised would news orgs do that? (Not in my tempts were successful, they would WikiLeaks, then-CIA Director Mike experience.),’ Greg Miller, a national have helped Manning cover her Pompeo labelled it a ‘non-state hos- security reporter at The Washington tracks, but not let her break into a sys- tile intelligence service’. Post, said on Twitter. tem to which she didn’t already have Trump has shown little concern But press freedom advocates, and access. for freedom of the press, once alleg- some journalists, have not expressed Prosecutors have a wide range of edly urging then-FBI Director James relief based on the indictment. A host latitude; it’s worth remembering that Comey to jail journalists. (In response of organisations, including the Com- the Obama administration likely had to news of Assange’s arrest, Trump mittee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), all the same information, but declined said he would leave it to the Justice spoke out against the prosecution. to pursue an indictment. Department.) Here’s why: Matthew Miller, a former Justice In this context, the charge on (1) The indictment is flimsy and Department spokesperson in the which Assange was arrested seemed could simply be a pretext to punish Obama administration, told The New modest: A single count of conspiracy Assange for publishing classified York Times that he thought the charge (with former Army Pfc. Chelsea Man- information. was justified but ‘This is not the ning) to ‘commit computer intrusion’ The diplomatic time and resourc- world’s strongest case.’ under the US Computer Fraud and es expended between three countries So, is it just a pretext on the part Abuse Act, with a maximum penalty to detain Assange strike some observ- of the US government to punish As- of five years. ers as disproportionate to the single sange for the publication of classified Unlike the publication of classi- computer misuse charge. information – a practice that should fied information, hacking computers The indictment is vague about the be constitutionally protected? The is- is not a tool for reporters. Some jour- exact nature of the aid Assange alleg- sue comes in a time of heightened nalists were quick to point this out. edly provided Manning in the course concern for investigative journalists ‘[The] charge here is attempting of their interaction, but it does not and national security reporters. to help crack a password to steal clas- appear that Assange successfully Since the 9/11 attacks, the gov- sified material. Didn’t work but hacked any password. Even if his at- ernment has increasingly classified

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 50 W O R L D A F F A I R S large amounts of material and pun- indictment sweeps in a broad range could potentially create a dangerous ished those who share it with the of legally protected and common jour- legal model. press. CPJ has written extensively nalistic activity. While reporters do not conspire about the chilling effect of this crack- Count 20 of the indictment states, to decrypt passwords, they are often down on reporting in the public in- ‘It was part of the conspiracy that aware of, and might actively discuss terest. Assange encouraged Manning to pro- with sources, activities that could fall ‘Given the nature of the charge – vide information and records from under the broad frame of ‘unautho- a discussion 9 years ago about an un- departments and agencies of the Unit- rised access’. successful attempt to figure out a ed States.’ As the Cato Institute’s Julian password – I think it’s fair to debate The indictment goes on to char- Sanchez wrote on Twitter, ‘The way whether this is a fig leaf for the gov- acterise a number of journalistic prac- “helping to hack” is being charged is ernment punishing someone for pub- tices as part of a criminal conspiracy, as a conspiracy to violate 18 USC lishing stuff it doesn’t want pub- including use of a secure message §1030 (a)(1) [of the Computer Fraud lished,’ tweeted Scott Shane, a nation- service, use of a cloud-based drop and Abuse Act]. And good reporters al security reporter for The New York box, and efforts to cover Manning’s conspire with their sources to do that Times. tracks. constantly.’ ‘If it wasn’t Julian Assange, it The cultivation of sources and the ‘For almost every reporter work- would be very unlikely you’d see this use of encryption and other means to ing with a source, the source is pro- prosecution,’ Cindy Cohn, executive protect those sources are essential to viding information in digital form. director of the Electronic Frontier investigative journalism. While the Anyone who is working with a source Foundation, told CPJ. ‘This is what government may include these details who obtained that info in a way that over-broad discretion in prosecution to show intent or to describe the they weren’t supposed to has a CFAA does, it gives them a pretext for go- means and context for the alleged risk,’ Cohn said. ing after people they don’t like.’ criminal action, they seem to go be- She added that any journalists (2) The charge could be a place- yond what is necessary. who don’t think there are broader holder, with more to come. Barton Gellman, who led The press freedom implications to the Another reason why the charge Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-win- Assange prosecution are ‘whistling may seem so modest: It could be the ning reporting on the Snowden doc- past the graveyard’. first of several. In the week of 8 April, uments, told CPJ, ‘If asking questions (5) Ecuador’s withdrawal of CNN cited US officials promising and protecting a source are cast as asylum raises questions. additional charges against Assange. circumstantial evidence of guilt, we’ll Assange’s arrest came after Ec- The press freedom implications of be crossing a dangerous line.’ uador withdrew his asylum protec- any future charges could be signifi- ‘A lot of the way the crime is de- tion. In a tweet on 11 April, Ecuador- cant – especially if they involve the scribed here could be applied to oth- ean President Lenin Moreno said the Espionage Act. er journalists,’ Wizner, at the ACLU, decision came after Assange’s ‘re- ‘It may be part of a larger case,’ told CPJ. ‘If the government wanted peated violations to international con- Ben Wizner, the director of the Amer- to just target the attempted intrusion, ventions and daily-life protocols’. ican Civil Liberties Union, told CPJ. they could have written a very differ- In a video statement accompany- The current indictment already cites ent complaint.’ ing the tweet, he cited Assange’s re- the Espionage Act and describes the (4) The Computer Fraud and peated ‘intervening in the internal af- cracking of a password as part of a Abuse Act is incredibly broad. fairs of other states’ via WikiLeaks conspiracy to violate it. In all of the concern over the Es- publications. The Justice Department’s legal pionage Act, journalists may not have Ecuador had previously restrict- strategy could be to pile on more sufficiently raised alarm over the law ed Assange’s access to the Internet charges after Assange is extradited. under which the US charged Assange: based on allegations that he was in- The extradition treaty between the US the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act terfering in US elections and in the and the UK says an individual can (CFAA). ‘Thinking we should referendum for Catalan independence only be charged for the ‘offence for breathe a sigh of relief because it was from Spain. which extradition was granted’ or the CFAA instead of the Espionage While Assange’s unusual pres- similar offences, but it also stipulates Act is premature,’ Cohn, of the Elec- ence in a diplomatic mission created how governments can waive this rule. tronic Frontier Foundation, told CPJ. tensions – both inside the embassy Assange has an extradition hear- The CFAA carries its own set of and in Ecuador’s broader internation- ing on 2 May, which gives the US free expression issues. While it en- al relations – withdrawing asylum is government time to develop new compasses clearly illegal behaviour an extreme measure, and one that charges. like hacking, it also criminalises ‘un- could have troubling implications if (3) The language of the case authorised access to a computer’. it was done in response to publish- seems to criminalise normal jour- Manning was prosecuted under ing. – IPS ◆ nalistic activities. the CFAA in addition to the Espio- While the charge against Assange nage Act, but prosecuting a publish- Alex Ellerbeck is North America Programme Coordinator at the Committee to Protect relates to the alleged conspiracy to er under the CFAA for conspiracy in Journalists. Avi Asher-Schapiro is CPJ’s hack a password, the language of the obtaining the classified information North America Research Associate.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 51 H U M A N R I G H T S Feminist Palestinian lawmaker free after 20 months in prison without trial The incarceration of a Palestinian lawmaker for nearly two years without trial highlights the abuse by Israeli authorities in the use of administrative detention. This article below exposes this abuse which has been going on for so long without attracting any Western chastisement.

PALESTINIAN parliament member Khalida Jarrar was released on 28 February after nearly two years in Is- raeli administrative detention. ‘I still do not know what I was arrested for, I was only told that I am dangerous,’ Jarrar said during a reception in Ramallah after her release. ‘This is what we have always said when it comes to administrative detention – that it’s arbitrary. That it’s always political. Therefore we demand an end to this illegal practice.’ This was not the first time Israel had put Jarrar under administrative Khalida Jarrar greeting supporters after her release from Israeli administrative deten- detention, a practice in which detain- tion. ees are held without charge or trial. Jarrar was first arrested in April ment to kidnap Israeli soldiers. In been told ahead of time that the ad- 2015 and placed under administrative December 2015, Jarrar was sentenced ministrative order would not be re- detention for six months, after she to 15 months in prison as part of a newed unless significant new infor- refused to comply with a military ex- plea bargain. mation was received. Jarrar was orig- pulsion order. The Israeli army had She was released in June 2016, inally supposed to be released on 28 ordered her at the time to leave her only to be re-arrested a year later, in February afternoon, but Israeli author- home in Ramallah within 24 hours July 2017. She had been in adminis- ities decided to let her go in the early and move to Jericho for a period of trative detention ever since. hours of the morning, most likely in 1.5 years. Israeli military authorities ‘I met prisoners from all over order not to draw the attention of the accused her of being a member of the Palestine, from ’48, from Jerusalem media. Popular Front for the Liberation of to the West Bank and Gaza,’ she told Administrative orders can be re- Palestine (PFLP), a party she repre- journalists during the reception in newed indefinitely for up to six sents in the Palestinian Legislative Ramallah. ‘Women prisoners and months at a time, and can be used to Council (PLC) but which is outlawed minors. Their message is one: they extend the jail time of someone who by Israel. want freedom. The second demand is has finished serving their sentence. Jarrar’s detention led to a global a call for Palestinian unity.’ The orders are reviewed every six campaign for her release. She was ‘I have mixed feelings. I left be- months, but the detainees are not al- eventually released from administra- hind 48 women prisoners who suffer ways told of what crimes they are tive detention and put on trial, where and want freedom,’ Jarrar continued. being accused of or shown the evi- she faced 12 charges, the majority of ‘On the other hand, I’m very happy dence against them. The result is that which involved her parliamentary to be released because there is noth- it is virtually impossible to defend work and activism: her association ing like being free. It gives me the oneself. with the PFLP, participation in pro- strength to continue fighting for im- Under international law, admin- tests, giving speeches and interviews prisoned women.’ istrative detention should only be to the media, a visit to a solidarity tent According to Jarrar’s attorney used in the most extreme cases. In for Palestinian prisoners, and incite- Mahmoud Hassan, her family had most modern legal systems, police or

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 52 H U M A N R I G H T S prosecutors release suspects when they don’t have enough evidence to A Summary of Public Concerns on charge them with a crime. In Israel, Investment Treaties and Investor-State especially when the suspect is Pales- tinian, prosecutors and security forc- Dispute Settlement es often find other ways to keep them by Martin Khor behind bars. Several years ago, at the height International investment agreements, of mass hunger strikes by Palestinian specifically bilateral investment treaties and prisoners, a senior Israeli security of- the investment chapters in free trade ficial confirmed that the state uses agreements, have come under the spotlight administrative detention in many cas- for what are seen as skewed provisions that es out of laziness and when it just grant excessive rights to foreign investors hadn’t bothered to collect enough and foreign companies at the expense of evidence. national policymaking flexibility. Of Then-public security minister particular concern is the investor-state Yitzhak Aharonovich recommended dispute settlement framework embedded in to security officials at the time that many of these treaties, which enables foreign administrative detention be used ‘only investors to sue host-country governments if there is a need and not in all cases’, in opaque international tribunals. an implicit admission that the prac- The serious risks involved have tice was being applied in far more ISBN: 978-967-0747-28-6 cases than the exceptional, extreme prompted a rethink of investment pacts in circumstances in which international developing and developed countries alike. law permits its use. In a number of In place of the current lopsided system, calls are growing for agreements high-profile cases over the years, Is- which would balance legitimate investor rights with the rights of the state to rael has implicitly exposed once again regulate investment and formulate policies in the public interest. that it is using administrative detention as a first, and not last, resort. According to Palestinian prison- PRICE POSTAGE er rights group Addameer, at the end Malaysia RM8.00 RM2.00 of December 2018, Israel was hold- Developing countries US$6.00 US$3.00 (air) ing 480 Palestinians, including eight Others US$8.00 US$4.00 (air) members of the PLC, in administra- Orders from Malaysia – please pay by credit card/crossed cheque or postal order. tive detention. Orders from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, UK, USA Jarrar was elected to the PLC in – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international money order in own cur- January 2006, following years of po- rency, US$ or Euro. If paying in own currency or Euro, please calculate equivalent of litical activism in support of women US$ rate. If paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is located in the USA. and prisoners. She is married, has two Rest of the world – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international money daughters, and was the first woman order in US$ or Euro. If paying in Euro, please calculate equivalent of US$ rate. If to be elected to the PLC on behalf of paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is located in the USA. the PFLP. Between 1993 and 2005, All payments should be made in favour of Third World Network Bhd., 131 Jalan she was the head of Addameer, and Macalister, 10400 Penang, Malaysia. Tel: 60-4-2266728/2266159; Fax: 60-4-2264505; she remained a member of the PFLP’s Email: [email protected] managing committee after her elec- I would like to order...... copy/copies of A Summary of Public Concerns on tion. Investment Treaties and Investor-State Dispute Settlement. I enclose the amount of Beyond her parliamentary work, US$/Euro/RM ...... (cheque/bank draft/IMO). Jarrar has been a left-wing and femi- Please charge the amount of US$/RM ...... to my credit card: nist activist for years. She was previously involved in the Palestinian Au- Visa Mastercard thority’s bid to the International Crim- inal Court over allegations of Israeli A/c no.: Expiry date: war crimes against Palestinians, Signature: which many claim was the real reason for her arrest and continued de- Name: tention. ◆ Address: This article was written by the staff of +972 Magazine (972mag.com), from which it is reproduced.

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 53 W O M E N No revolution without feminism: Weaving together Venezuela’s feminist movements Amidst a complex reality, feminist movements in Venezuela look to advance their struggle and build unity.

make specific stops (see below). INTERNATIONAL Working Wom- Ricardo Vaz en’s Day, 8 March, landed this year In the end, the true obstacle was in the midst of a complex scenario in a power outage that left more than Venezuela, with an ongoing coup at- boosting the efforts to topple the Bo- 70% of the country in the dark after tempt and a simmering threat of for- livarian government. With that in an alleged cyberattack against the eign intervention. Juan Guaido, the mind, the feminist movements’ con- electricity grid. With no transporta- latest opposition leader, had sworn sensus was to reaffirm their solidari- tion or communications, Caracas and himself in as ‘interim president’ on ty with feminist struggles worldwide, the rest of the country were brought 23 January, a move that was followed but without calling their mobilisation to a standstill. Nevertheless, several by escalated international aggression a ‘strike’. The slogan ‘We Strike’ women managed to meet and march against Venezuela. (‘Nosotras Paramos’) seamlessly to Caracas’ Plaza Bolívar, with anoth- In this context, the natural ten- turned into ‘We Fight’, or ‘We Strug- er improvised and appropriate slogan, dency is to close ranks and centralise gle’ (‘Nosotras Luchamos’). ‘With or without power, we fight.’ discourse, as much as possible, Laura Franco, spokeswoman against the foreign threat. The tension from the Lydda Franco Farías Popu- Weaving struggles together paralysed popular movements to a lar Feminism Movement, explained certain degree, calling on everyone to this necessary balance: ‘We under- There are currently a number of defend the country. Nevertheless, as stand the internationalist dynamic and feminist movements in Venezuela. 8 March approached, several feminist embrace the struggle of all women Although many struggles naturally movements held meetings to discuss who, like us, struggle against all kinds precede Chávez, the feminist move- the agenda and struggle.1 of oppression around the world. But ments that debated and prepared in our national context we decided ahead of 8 March can be considered Feminism in times of coup that “we fight”, not as something op- part of the Bolivarian camp, with posed to the call for a strike but sim- varying levels of closeness and criti- Alejandra Laprea, a member of ply adjusting it to our reality. Today cism with respect to the state. the Feminist Spider Network (La Venezuela is facing the most serious To this diversity we must add the Araña Feminista) and of the Purple threat of a war it has seen in the past ‘conflict and cooperation’ relation Ink collective (Tinta Violeta), told us 20 years, with an ongoing coup.’ between popular organisations and that despite standing firm against a The risk of embarking on a mo- the state, and the co-optation logic possible invasion, popular struggles bilisation that in the current context that is always there, regarding both cannot be left ‘for later’. could have ended up playing into the the agenda and bringing people from ‘Capitalism, patriarchy, are like hands of the coup was a concern, the popular movement into the state weeds. If they’re not pulled out at which was spontaneously resolved institutions. Once on the inside, the once, at the root, they reproduce. That with an unambiguous slogan: ‘No struggle is between the ‘normal func- is why even in a country under threat Revolution Without Feminism’ (‘Sin tioning’ of the state and the need to and under siege we cannot leave it Feminismo No Hay Revolución’). subvert it. “for later”, because otherwise, regard- The march that was prepared was Therefore the current challenge less of the outcome, the right wing put in doubt by the possible holding is to build unity among popular fem- will win.’ of an ‘official’ march on 8 March. inist movements. Or, as Alejandra However, feminist movements Were that to be the case, the idea puts it, weave them together (‘tejer’). internationally were calling for a would be for these feminist move- ‘For us as a network [the Feminist strike on 8 March. But, with opposi- ments to march as a block, since a Spider], it is very important to build tion leader Guaido also talking about separate march did not make sense. links between different organisations a strike, there was a risk that a wom- They would, however, make small so that our banners grow stronger. In en’s strike in Venezuela would end up detours from the official route to that sense “weaving” is a metaphor

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 54 W O M E N we have used for many years.’ During several meetings and discussions, feminist compañeras from different movements were also literally weaving/knitting, using recycled materials and threads donated in solidarity by the Chilean chapter of the World March of Women. ‘Faced with an economic war and blockade, our response is to create, produce and weave solidarity among us,’ Alejan- dra added. The end result was a ban- Ketsy Medina Sifontes/Venezuelanalysis.com ner that can be seen in the accompa- nying photograph. In this regard, the idea was then to stage a march in Caracas on 8 March with several stops. At each stop a banner would be unfurled, with one or more collectives taking the lead in the action. One of the struggle fronts that was present belonged to the Tenants’ Movement, which is part of the Set- Alejandra Laprea speaking in Caracas’ Plaza Bolivar on International Working Wom- tlers’ Movement, with a particular en’s Day. The banner on the left was woven collectively by members of different women’s movements. focus on eviction resistance. ‘Patriarchy has as a consequence that most Venezuelan households are production that results in the respon- The Organic Law on the Right of headed by women. Therefore most sibilities of the home falling on the Women to a Life Free from Violence tenants are women! That is why we shoulders of women is not exclusive is another important example of an are taking part in this feminist plat- to urban settings. As a consequence, advanced piece of legislation which form, to defend housing as a funda- women in the Venezuelan countryside is not enforced. Be it because prose- mental right,’ stressed María Fernan- are also affected by violence. One of cutors classify crimes not as gender da López Leiva, a member of the the planned stops of the march was violence but as crimes of passion, or movement. precisely the Ministry for Agriculture because the dominant patriarchal cul- María Fernanda said that the and Land, to demand answers to sev- ture leads to ‘losses’ of evidence, the number of evictions is on the rise, eral unresolved cases of campesino result is a piece of legislation that does despite the existence of laws protect- struggles for land. not fulfil its role in stopping violence ing tenants. ‘It is a contradiction that A common thread to many cur- against women. in a supposedly socialist state a fam- rent feminist battles is the existence ily can be thrown out on the street. At of very advanced legislation, such as ‘Feminist’ Chávez as an ally the end of the day the issue is class the law protecting tenants or the land struggle, because tenants are from the law, which are, however, not en- ‘The world has always been ma- pueblo, they are workers who cannot forced. This grants a legal basis to chista. That is why I declare myself a afford to buy a home,’ she explained. demand action from the state, and at feminist. The socialist revolution Among the demands or banners, the same time shows that having ad- should be feminist,’ Chávez said in a the struggle for sexual and reproduc- vanced legislation is not enough to 2011 speech. This is one of the many tive rights had an important place. change a macho, patriarchal culture cases where one of Chávez’s main Taking advantage of the fact that there in society and in state institutions qualities shone, namely his ability to is an ongoing constituent process, themselves. ‘talk’ directly to popular movements movements have pressed the Nation- A very dramatic case was the re- without the intermediation of the al Constituent Assembly to advance cent murder of Mayell Hernández. state. Though his notion of feminism their agenda in the new draft consti- The young mother and dancer was is not necessarily the one espoused tution on issues such as legalising killed and everything pointed towards by feminist movements, his position abortion (which is currently penalised her ex-partner, yet it took an intense offers an important tactical advantage. in Venezuela) or same-sex marriage. campaign and mobilisation from fem- ‘We claim the feminist Chávez,’ There was also an effort to bring inist movements in order to finally Laura explained. ‘While for some campesino (peasant) and indigenous spur the Attorney General’s office into feminist movements it may seem con- movements on board. The social reaction. tradictory that we claim a man, and a

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 55 W O M E N military man at that, it is thanks to Hugo Chávez that we could open a Katowice News Updates and Climate Briefings dynamic of participation that was de- (December 2018) nied to us before.’ This dynamic of participation is what has generated this plethora of This is a compilation of 15 News Updates, an feminist movements under the um- overview and a briefing paper prepared by the brella commonly referred to as Third World Network for and during the recent Chavismo, grouped around different United Nations Climate Change Talks – the banners of struggle and with differ- twenty-fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on ent levels of tolerance and coopera- Climate Change (COP 24), the fourteenth tion with state institutions. The state session of the Conference of the Parties serving will continue to be there, with its genas the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto erally progressive content and its con- Protocol (CMP 14), the third part of the first tradictions, and the challenge is to session of the Conference of the Parties serving continue building the revolution. as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris ‘We have to find a way, as a peo- Agreement (CMA 1-3), the forty-ninth sessions ple and as a feminist movement, to of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI ISBN: 978-967-0747-29-3 49) and the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and move forward in the construction of the feminist and socialist revolution, Technological Advice (SBSTA 49), as well as the seventh part of the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA 1-7) – in Katowice, without leaving any banner behind, Poland from 2 to 15 December 2018. without thinking that one struggle is more important than any other,’ Ale- Price Postage jandra summarised. Malaysia RM10.00 RM2.00 Amidst a coup and amidst an eco- Developing countries US$6.00 US$3.00 (air) Others US$8.00 US$4.00 (air) nomic war/crisis; with or without the state; with or without power, feminist Orders from Malaysia – please pay by credit card/crossed cheque or postal movements will continue raising their order. banners and weaving their unity. The progress, or the mere survival, of the Orders from Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, revolution will only be assured by the UK, USA – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international money order in own currency, US$ or Euro.If paying in own currency or Euro, please calculate leading role and the achievements of equivalent of US$ rate. If paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is popular movements. And there is no located in the USA. revolution without feminism. ◆ Rest of the world – please pay by credit card/cheque/bank draft/international Ricardo Vaz is a writer and editor with money order in US$ or Euro. If paying in Euro, please calculate equivalent of Venezuelanalysis.com, from which this arti- US$ rate. If paying in US$, please ensure that the agent bank is located in the cle is reproduced. USA. Notes All payments should be made in favour of: THIRD WORLD NETWORK BHD., 131 Jalan Macalister, 10400 Penang, Malaysia. Tel: 60-4-2266728/ 2266159; Fax: 60-4-2264505; Email: [email protected] Website: www.twn.my 1. The movements that took part in the meetings leading up to 8 March I would like to order ...... copy/copies of Katowice News Updates and Climate were the following (original names Briefings (December 2018). in Spanish): La Quinta Ola, Briga- I enclose the amount of ...... by cheque/bank draft/IMO. da Feminista Latinoamericana, Tin- ta Violeta, Movimiento de Feminis- Please charge the amount of US$/Euro/RM ...... to my credit card: mo Popular Lydda Franco Farías, La Estafeta, Faldas-R, Frente Cul- Visa Mastercard tural de Izquierda, Rebeldía Lés- bica, VenezuElla, La Araña Femi- A/c No.: Expiry date: nista, Universidad Popular de las Comunalidades, Organización de Signature: mujeres indígenas Yukpa Oripanto Oayapo Tuonde, Tetas en Revolu- Name: ción, Colectivo Cimarrón, Género con Clase, Movimiento de Mujeres Address: Clara Zetkin, Plataforma Golpe de Timón, Movimiento de Inquilinos (Plataforma de Pobladores).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 56 A C T I O N S & A L T E R N A T I V E S Yellow Vest movement struggles to reinvent democracy as Macron cranks up propaganda and repression The Yellow Vest movement has so suddenly burst upon the French political scene that it has left political commentators hard-pressed to explain its rise. Originally viewed as a protest movement against a hike in taxes on diesel fuel, it has since emerged as a massive self-organised social movement which is prepared to challenge the very foundations of French society. Richard Greeman traces the development of this phenomenon.

AFTER five months of constant presence at traffic circles, toll booths and hazardous Saturday marches, the massive, self-organised social movement known as the Yellow Vests has just held its second nationwide ‘As-

sembly of Assemblies’. Hundreds of Archive Media Vests Yellow autonomous Yellow Vest activist groups from all over France each chose two delegates (one woman, one man) to gather in the port city of St Nazaire for a weekend of deliberation (5-7 April). After weeks of skirmishing with the municipal authorities, the local Yellow Vests were able to host 700 delegates at the St Nazaire ‘House of the People’, and the three-day series of general meetings and working The Yellow Vest movement held its ‘Assembly of Assemblies’ in St Nazaire in April. groups went off without a hitch in an atmosphere of good fellowship. A sign on the wall proclaimed: ‘No one phrase ‘government of the people, by to take up a conflictual stance against has the solution, but everybody has a the people, and for the people’. I of- the present system in order to create, piece of it.’ ten wonder if they know who coined together, a new ecological, popular Their project: mobilise their ‘col- it. social movement’. lective intelligence’ to reorganise, This shows growth from the orig- strategise and prolong their struggle. Yellow and green unite inal Yellow Vest uprising which be- Their aim: achieve the immediate and fight gan as a protest against a hike in tax- goals of livable wages and retire- es on diesel fuel imposed in the name ments; restoration of social benefits Particular attention was paid to of ‘saving the environment’. (Less and public services like schools, the issue of the environment, reaffirm- well known is that only 17% of that transportation, post offices and hos- ing the popular slogan ‘End of the tax was actually earmarked for the en- pitals; taxing the rich and ending fis- week. End of the world. Same logic, vironment. In any case, French Pres- cal fraud to pay for preserving the same struggle.’ (It rhymes in French.) ident Emmanuel Macron rescinded it environment; and, most ambitious of The Assembly went further and called in an early attempt to pacify the move- all, reinventing democracy in the pro- on ‘all persons who wish to put an ment.) Since then, the Yellow Vests cess. Their Declaration ends with the end to the expropriation of the living have tentatively converged with the

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 57 A C T I O N S & A L T E R N A T I V E S

environmental groups, whom many poor and working-class Yellow Vests can’t help seeing as bourgeois on bicycles wanting to be nice but unwilling to struggle directly against the establishment. So their call for unity is also in part a challenge to the environmental movement: ‘Join us in the struggle for social equality and be ready to fight the whole system.’ Brilliant! Who said an unstructured autonomous movement of ordinary, not well-educated people could not come up with strategies and tactics? Psychologists explain that this ‘wisdom of crowds’ emerges whenever people are on an equal footing and free of constraint. It grows through experience. And discussion. A dialectical process leading to its emergence. ‘No one has the so- Riot policemen apprehend a Yellow Vest demonstrator in Paris. The government has lution, but everybody has a piece of unleashed unprecedented police brutality against the movement. it.’ This was the basis of direct democracy in Athens, from which the Yellow Vests have also borrowed the Paris Commune in 1871. There dele- point in voting in this sham election. idea of choosing representatives by gates were given limited mandates, As everyone knows, the European lot. subject to instant recall, regularly ro- Parliament has no power or even vis- tated, and paid at workmen’s wages. ibility. It’s not even in Brussels, where Autonomy The Communards also called on oth- the important decisions are made by er cities to rise and link up as a feder- representatives of the German banks The Assembly of Assemblies re- ation. This is precisely the Yellow and multinational corporations. affirmed the Yellow Vest founding Vests’ modus operandi. Moreover, it limits the deficit spend- principle of keeping clear of political This critique of representation ing of its member countries, thus parties. Also of leaders. To my mind, explains the Assembly’s attitude to- making it illegal for France to finance this is a genius stroke. Every popular wards the upcoming elections for the the social services and environmen- mass movement I have participated European Parliament, which will play tal reconstruction the people are de- in over the past 60 years has been co- out as a rehearsal for the next nation- manding. opted by the establishment (or al legislative elections when parties crushed). Leaders set up an office, will be competing seriously for votes. Restructuring and reflection they try to raise money and gain ac- The fear of being manipulated for cess to power, and end up compro- political purposes is strong. Yellow The Assembly of Assemblies co- mising; they treat the rank-and-file Vests at a Paris demonstration in incided with ‘Act 21’ of the Yellow activists like a mailing list and the March recognised a Yellow Vest who Vests’ long struggle to occupy public power and dynamic of the mass had just declared her candidacy to spaces and freely proclaim their hopes movement melts away. For instance, great media fanfare, apparently in the and grievances. The 21st week the Nuclear Freeze movement in the name of the Yellow Vests. They were brought out only 23,400 people (gov- US once mobilised millions; eventu- furious and yelled at her until she ernment count) across France, the ally, the Democratic Party lured them. withdrew, shaken. Ugly, but a neces- lowest number so far. Small wonder Here in France, the Socialist Party sary example to anyone else who after five straight months of bloody swallowed SOS Racism, the embryo would rather be a politician than a repression. The police were as usual of a much-needed civil rights move- Yellow Vest (without resigning first). out in force, and they stopped and ment for the country. As far as Europe is concerned, frisked 14,919 people, according to Instinctively, from the beginning, the Assembly, far from calling for a the Paris Prefecture. After 21 weekly the Yellow Vests seem to have assim- Frexit, reached out to social move- battles, many of us are too tired, too ilated and put into practice the pro- ments in the other countries of the scared and/or too old to continue ‘run- found criticism of representative de- European Union in a call to come to- ning with the bulls’ through the streets mocracy that goes back to the 18th gether and struggle against its neolib- dodging gas canisters. century and was applied during the eral policies. The Assembly saw no ‘We thought we were off for a

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sprint. In fact we were involved in a ber) while only 29% approve of Ma- declared: ‘We are here to say we have marathon and we need to prepare our- cron. the right to demonstrate … We will selves,’ admitted one speaker. ‘We re- PR aside, the Macron govern- leave this square when we choose. alise we need to vary our tactics, re- ment’s real answer to public opposi- And if they use force… Then we’ll fine our goals, organise our democrat- tion posed by the Yellow Vests has see. I’m not afraid. I’m 73 years old, ic structures better for the movement been brutally stark: slander, violent what could happen to me? I’m fight- to last,’ and the Assembly of Assem- repression and strict new laws limit- ing for my grandchildren. Against tax blies attempted to face this challenge. ing the right to demonstrate – a right havens, and all the money the banks Among the new tactics discussed enshrined in the Declaration of Hu- are laundering, against fossil energy.’ was a huge nationwide protest against man Rights and the French Constitu- Moments later, Police Com- the increasing repression being im- tion. Macron and his ministers have mander Souchi ordered his heavily posed by the Macron government, publicly denounced the Yellow Vests armed riot police to charge the peace- calling for the liberation of all those as ‘anti-Semites’, ‘fascists’, ‘a hateful group among whom Legay was in jail for participating in the Yellow ful mob’, and a violent conspiracy of standing, and she found herself on the Vest movement or in other ‘crimina- ‘40-50,000’ terrorists ‘of the extreme ground, surrounded by riot cops, lised’ struggles, and referring direct- left and extreme right’ out to destroy bleeding profusely, with a cracked ly to the oppressed North African and French institutions. skull and broken ribs. She is still in immigrant communities in France, This vicious caricature, echoed hospital with serious injuries. whose 2005 youth rising was brutal- endlessly by the media and reinforced On 25 March, the Public Prose- ly put down. ‘[The violent repression] by scary images of violence and van- cutor and Macron categorically de- we are experiencing today has been dalism against the symbols of wealth nied that she had had any contact with for decades the daily experience in the and power in Paris, is designed to the police. The president, interviewed popular quarters [ghetto-like ‘sub- dehumanise the protesters, otherwise by the local paper, made a hypocriti- urbs’] … Now authoritarianism is easily recognisable as poor provin- cal apology, ‘wishing her a speedy being generalised to the whole soci- cials who are tired of being ignored. recovery and hoping that she might ety.’ Thus demonised, the Yellow Vests’ learn some sagesse [literally “wis- actual demands for dignity and jus- dom” but typically applied to children Macron’s response: tice can be ignored. As a threat to in the sense of learning to “behave”]’. Propaganda and violent France, they must be repressed by any According to Macron, as a frag- repression means necessary. ile elderly person Mme Legay should Since November 2018, when the have known better than to go out to In contrast to these deliberations, Yellow Vest movement suddenly the square in the first place, and so in the same weekend as the Assem- sprung up 300,000 strong, the gov- had got herself trampled in the crowd. bly, the Macron government delivered ernment has unleashed unprecedent- (The haughty Macron, like the arro- the results of its official ‘Great De- ed police brutality, using military- gant Trump, seems to enjoy adding bate’, a publicity stunt organised at a grade weapons against unarmed dem- insult to injury.) But, as her TV inter- cost of €12 million to showcase the onstrators, provoking hundreds of view makes clear, Geneviève Legay president articulately answering ques- serious injuries (including blindings, knew very well she was risking her tions from selected audiences of may- loss of limbs and broken faces). Al- life to defend the democratic freedom ors and local notables in towns and though invisible on French main- to demonstrate and foresaw such an villages across the country. (In all, stream media (government-subsidised attack moments before it was ordered Macron logged 92 hours of speaking.) and corporate-owned), this French by the police commander. France’s elected monarch con- government violence has been repeat- Indeed, videos taken on the spot cocted this ‘debate’, whose limits edly condemned by human rights pan- and the testimony of street-medics were set in advance (taxing the rich els in France and the European Union, and other eyewitnesses (including and the corporations was off the ta- as well as by Michelle Bachelet, UN policemen) told a different story from ble), as his ‘answer’ to the Yellow High Commissioner for Human the official version. Apparently a po- Vests’ demand for participatory de- Rights and former President of Chile. liceman wielding a shield hit her in mocracy. The results were unsurpris- On 23 March, as Macron was vis- the head and knocked her down, ing: the French want ‘lower taxes, no iting the Riviera, 73-year-old Genev- whereupon he and other cops stridled cuts to services’ (The New York Times, iève Legay, local spokesperson for her and dragged her away bleeding, 9 April). Asked if the ‘Great Debate’ ATTAC (a 20-year-old international refusing to allow street-medics to at- was a ‘success for Macron and his NGO that proposes taxing financial tend to her. They may also have government’, only 6% of those polled transactions for social purposes), kicked her when she was down, by BFM-TV answered ‘yes’. Anoth- joined the Yellow Vest demonstration which would explain her cracked ribs. er poll revealed that 35% of French at Nice to speak out against this re- Later, police entered Legay’s hos- people still approve of the Yellow pression. Interviewed on local TV pital room, where she was alone (her Vests (down from 70% last Decem- carrying a rainbow peace flag, she daughters having been barred with-

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out explanation). They repeatedly tried to get her to admit that a ‘cameraman’ had pushed her down, but when she repeated that it was a po- liceman, they stopped taking notes. Meanwhile, videos of the attack were all over the Internet, and the independent, subscriber-supported news site Médiapart gathered eyewit- ness evidence and presented it to the Public Prosecutor, who on 29 March was obliged to reverse himself and affirm police involvement. Then, on 8 April, Médiapart exposed the deliberate official cover-up of this attack. It turns out that the person placed in charge of the investiga- tion, Hélène P, one of the police of- ficers who had pressured Legay in her French President Emmanuel Macron speaking during a public meeting held as part of hospital room to declare that she had the official ‘Great Debate’. The ‘Great Debate’ has been seen as a PR stunt organised been pushed down by a ‘cameraman’, in response to the Yellow Vests’ demand for participatory democracy. was none other than the common-law wife of Commander Souchi, who had shouted the order to ‘Charge! scams, which continue to tarnish Vests.’ Charge!’ at the peaceful group among Macron’s Mister Clean image in Here are the statistics. whose ranks Legay was standing. France as new evidence emerges. No policemen have been report- This scandal has finally broken Nonetheless, Macron, a former ed as seriously injured during the five official silence on French police bru- Socialist, is still seen internationally months of weekly clashes with the tality after five months of violent, in- as a progressive, democratic leader Yellow Vests. On the other hand, the discriminate attacks on Yellow Vests efficiently modernising France’s ar- latest official Interior Ministry figures – visible on YouTube but not on TV. chaic ‘exception’ to neoliberal dog- list 2,200 wounded demonstrators, 10 Even the death, during a housing ma, basically a friend to human rights. eyes permanently put out, 8,700 ar- demonstration in Marseille, of Zaineb The extraordinary violence of his re- rests, 1,796 convictions, 1,428 tear- Redouane, an 80-year-old woman gime has remained hidden behind a gas canisters fired, 4,942 dispersion who was killed on 4 December at her smokescreen of demonisation of the grenades fired, 13,460 ‘flashballs’ upstairs window when shot directly Yellow Vests and de facto censorship fired. in the face with teargas grenade, went by the mainstream media. Even the ‘Flashballs’, manufactured in unacknowledged. (She was only an liberal New York Review of Books, Switzerland, are listed as ‘sub-lethal Algerian.) which in the 1960s printed a diagram military weapons’ but when they cross of a Molotov cocktail on its front the French border, they magically Macron’s lies and cover-ups page, has clung to this line, placing become crowd-control devices. They the blame for ‘violence’ on the pro- are extremely powerful and accurate Thus, the President of the Repub- testers. So before leaving this subject, at 50 yards, and the number of head lic was caught outright lying to cover let’s look at some unpleasant statis- wounds indicates that they have been up police brutality. Not as strange as tics and then examine the role of the deliberately aimed at demonstrators’ one might think, given that the scan- Black Block of so-called casseurs heads, as have teargas canisters and dal that has clung to him like a tick (‘trashers’) in sustaining this image. grenades. since last summer, also uncovered by Médiapart’s list counts 606 dem- Médiapart, is the Benalla Affair – Whose violence? onstrators wounded including one named for Macron’s security chief, death, five hands ripped off, 23 blind- who last year was captured on video The official narrative is that the ed in one eye, 236 head wounds (in- in a borrowed riot police uniform, Yellow Vests have been attacking the cluding jaws ripped off) and 103 at- viciously clubbing a demonstrator forces of order, and indeed they are tacks on journalists. The wounded lying on the ground – apparently for often seen on TV throwing teargas have included 39 minors, 22 bystand- the fun of it. It then emerged that canisters back at the police. Interior ers, 61 journalists and 20 medics. Macron’s protégé and left-hand man Minister Christophe Castaner has Concerning the Black Block and Benalla was also involved in a vari- been categorical: ‘I know of no po- other casseurs, they are certainly ety of international intrigues and liceman who has attacked the Yellow guilty of property damage on a fairly

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significant scale, but have as far as I ing it nearly impossible for ecologists, to demonstrate, along with the Yel- know not wounded, blinded or crip- trade unionists or Yellow Vests to low Vests on Saturday, 13 April. I pled any human beings. That, to me demonstrate. hope it will be massive. (but apparently not to the French me- For example, if you are a small- The choice of Saturday is signif- dia), is a significant difference. town Yellow Vest and take the train icant as an act of solidarity with the My problem with the Black to Paris on a Saturday, you are likely Yellow Vests, who alone have been Block at Yellow Vest demonstrations to be stopped several times between defending the public’s right to assem- is that they never get arrested or struck the station and the Champs Elysées. ble in public places, and this at con- by ‘flashballs’. Go on YouTube and If you have in your backpack Vase- siderable personal risk. For 22 weeks, you can see dozens of videos of line, eye drops, ski goggles, a bicycle the Yellow Vests have been acting out masked, black-clad guys with crow- helmet, a face-scarf or, God forbid, a this basic democratic right through bars smashing banks and trashing gasmask, you can be arrested, brought their principled refusal to beg the po- stores in plain sight. No one ever stops to summary trial and convicted the lice for special permission for citizens them. Why? very same day for being part of a to gather in a public square or parade A certain number of casseurs ‘group organised for the purpose of have been spotted (and videoed) as through the streets. Imagine Occupy destroying public order and obstruct- Wall St happening all around the police provocateurs, infiltrating the ing the forces of order’. demonstrations, smashing stuff and country, in cities and on traffic cir- Of course if you insist on a real cles, on a weekly basis. All alone, the then being exfiltrated through police trial with lawyers and everything, they lines. This is an old French police tac- Yellow Vests have sustained thou- will gladly hold you over in jail, but sands of injuries and thousands of tic designed to spoil the image of a if you’re not at work on Monday arrests through this weekly act of civil demonstration and justify violent re- you’ll lose your job and meanwhile pression, but the whole truth is that disobedience, proclaiming the right to who is minding the kids? And if you Europe is full of angry young men, the city. Now, at last, they have rec- eventually do get to demonstrate and self-styled anarchists, deeply invest- ognition and allies. the demonstration leads to property ed in fighting the establishment by This new convergence of other damage, you may also be made legal- smashing its symbols. They come in groups, along with the new perspec- ly and financially responsible. You from all over Europe. tives flowing from the Yellow Vests’ may also be placed on a list of dan- So the cops leave them alone and Assembly of Assemblies, may mark gerous people and barred from dem- concentrate on their main mission: a new phase in their long struggle onstrating again at the whim of the brutalising the crowds of ordinary against Macron’s harsh, anti-demo- local prefect. demonstrators to scare them off and cratic, neoliberal regime in its impla- The chilling prospect of turning stifle dissent. Moreover, the Black cable drive to wipe out the relative these absurd police-state practices Block folks are more likely to kick advantages in living standards, social into law is what brought pacifists like the shit out of the cops who try to stop services and personal liberties won by them than are high-school kids, par- Geneviève Legay out into the streets previous generations of French peo- ents with children, and old folks like with the Yellow Vests. Interviewed in ple in 1936 (the general strike), 1945 me and Geneviève. I’d like the Black the hospital, where she is still in pain (the Liberation) and 1968 (the gener- Block much more if they would fight and recovering slowly from multiple al strike and student uprising). Indeed, the cops themselves, instead of using injuries, she declared: ‘Today I am since 1789 (the Declaration of the us as human shields while express- determined to carry on the fight. It is Rights of Man, which enshrines the ing their quite understandable rage ever more necessary to do so when people’s right to demonstrate griev- while we get gassed and shot at. you see the anti-democratic drift of ances). ◆ this government … The Yellow Vests ‘Libertycidal’ legislation support me and I will continue sup- Richard Greeman is a Marxist scholar long porting them. I am not going to stop active in human rights, anti-war, anti-nucle- The new ‘anti-casseurs’ laws that fighting to defend our rights, as I have ar, environmental and labour struggles in the Macron is pushing through the legis- for 50 years, and to struggle against US, Latin America, France and Russia. Gree- lature will legalise and set in stone for man is best known for his studies and trans- state repression whatever form it may the future the repressive practices lations of the Franco-Russian novelist and take.’ used against the Yellow Vests, mak- revolutionary Victor Serge (1890-1947). Greeman also writes regularly about politics, ing them permanently available to his She will not be alone. The League for the Rights of Man and international class struggles and revolution- successors (who could include Ma- ary theory. Co-founder of the Praxis Re- rine Le Pen). They have nothing to more than 50 other civil liberties search and Education Center in Moscow, and do with actual casseurs (who are ob- groups, religious associations, trade director of the International Victor Serge viously breaking existing laws and unions, civic associations and far-left Foundation, Greeman splits his time between parties have just called for a massive Montpellier (France) and New York City. The need only to be apprehended under above article is reproduced from the LA Pro- them) and everything to do with mak- national demonstration for the right gressive (www.laprogressive.com).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 61 V I E W P O I N T The West’s irrational fear of Iran is a disaster waiting to happen The West must come to terms with its irrational fear of Iran, says Seyed Mohammad Marandi. The continuance of the current hostile attitude towards the Islamic Republic can only result in a disaster in which the West comes out worse.

WHILE Western regimes craft a fresh humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, their corporate and state-owned media and corrupted think-tanks embody what Shakespeare’s Lorenzo describes as ‘this muddy vesture of de- cay’ – and, true to form, frustrate attempts to provide voice to their latest subaltern victims. Increasingly vitriolic voices, from Paris to Washington, reveal ex- asperation and express a need to intimidate and justify the eviction of the many increasingly difficult tenants of the Fifth Estate. Just as advanced capitalism has successfully transformed the first four An oil facility on Kharg Island off the coast of Iran. The Iranian oil sector has been the target of US sanctions. estates into an almost homogeneous, postmodern utopia for well-heeled Wall Street and Ivory Tower dwellers soldiers have targeted unarmed civil- tinues to decline, their response to – amid a deluge of conspiratorial nar- ians. events appears increasingly frantic ratives of existential threats – West- In this brave new world, Hump- and crude. They appear to be engaged ern regime-affiliated intellectual elites ty Dumpty linguistics and semantics in imperial overreach. vigorously promote a ‘benign’ mo- are key to ‘civilised’ conceptual un- The rise of the alt-right and fas- nopoly in this lucrative piece of real derstandings. Al-Qaeda are ‘freedom cism, the appalling brutality of estate. fighters’ and ‘rebels’ in Syria, but ter- France’s elitist Macron regime, the rorists in the United States, France incompetence of the British political Ethnocentric worldview and the United Kingdom. order, the abduction of Julian As- US President Donald Trump is sange, and rising authoritarian politi- As in Palestine, excavation and condemned for his slurs against His- cal correctness – along with an in- construction can only begin with a panics and Latinos, but praised for his creased frequency of wars, coups and purge of ‘inferior’ races, religions and tangible acts to starve Venezuelans. interventions across the globe – are social classes, as well as other ‘ma- The US-Saudi-imposed mass starva- signs of a rising anxiety in the ‘me- lign’ influences. After all, as Israeli tion and genocide in Yemen was en- tropolis’. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tirely acceptable for Western pundits, Massive atrocities in multiple il- reminds his European and North while a clear schism exists in relation legal wars, a recourse to crude, old- American allies, there is no place for to the Jamal Khashoggi killing. school imperialism in Venezuela, and the weak, who are destined for Now that Iranian, Palestinian, increasing repression, discontent and slaughter, while the strong survive. Venezuelan, Russian and even West- censorship at home have concurrent- Based on this Eurocentric, clini- ern detractors – among others – are ly exposed the underlying nature of cal diagnosis and ethnocentric world- being purged from the public sphere dominant Western narratives to a view, language is reformed and po- and even social media platforms, con- broad, diverse and often subjugated liced so that anti-apartheid now trolling and manipulating the public global audience. means racism. When it is stated that discourse may seem much more un- Western-funded trolls and bots, Palestinian medics, reporters and chil- demanding in the corridors of power. along with foreign language media dren have been killed or maimed in However, as the power and fortune mouthpieces and their comprador in- ‘clashes’, it means that Israeli regime of the US and its European allies con- tellectuals, no longer have the ability

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economic mismanagement. These regimes fail to recognise that it is in part their amoral policies that reinforce resistance among so many Iranians. Along with a natural cultural, religious and political convergence, it is partially this absence of morality, as well as Eurocentric arrogance, that has drawn Turkey and Iraq, among other states, closer to Iran. The US attempt to impose its will upon newly elected Iraqi members of Refugees wait to board a rescue vessel after being rescued from a boat sailing out of control in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya. ‘By staying the current course, Europe parliament through threats and coer- and North America will likely soon trigger overwhelming and endless waves of hu- cion – as well as Trump’s failure to man migration.’ summon the Iraqi prime minister during an illegal, uninvited and humili- to push the ‘free and civilised world’ and North America will likely soon ating secret visit to Iraq – show an myth with substantial success. Be- trigger overwhelming and endless open lack of respect for the Iraqi peo- sides the comprador class and West- waves of human migration. The so- ple. ern-based native informants, few gaze cio-political implications for Europe US support for PKK affiliates, at Western manifestations with much and the US will be staggering. Jamal Khashoggi’s killing and the awe anymore. Unless, of course, it is failed 2016 coup attempt, along with ‘shock and awe’. Inflicting human suffering its repeated threats over Turkish mil- For many, the West is not, in the itary purchases and open engagement words of Wordsworth, a ‘Utopia-sub- Yet, the case of the irrational in economic warfare against Istanbul, terranean fields/Or some secreted is- Western hostility towards Iran is also inform the Turkish public where land Heaven knows where’, but rath- unique. For more than four decades, their interests really lie. er where they are forced to go when Europe and the United States have The failure to bring about eco- barbarians plunder and wreck their used chemical weapons, starvation nomic collapse in Iran, the destruc- world. Indeed, European and US elite and violent extremism to punish Ira- tion of state institutions in Syria and and redneck concerns about migration nians and their allies for asserting in- submission in Yemen, and the inabil- and refugees would be much better dependence. ity to intimidate Iraq and Turkey are dealt with if their long-cherished tra- American nastiness, in particular, all further indications that all is not dition of war, strangulation and de- knows no bounds, as US leaders and going according to the pied piper’s struction came to an end. their affiliates gloat openly when they plan to maintain Western domination. End it must. Otherwise, they will succeed in inflicting human suffering Nevertheless, it is fatefully im- be destined to reap what they sow. By through sanctions, yet paradoxically portant for Western leaders to sober staying the current course, Europe and audaciously censure their prey for up and recognise that those who live in glass houses are in no position to throw stones. Iran’s adversaries have so much more to lose than Iran does, and there are more than enough motivated General Qassem Soleimanis in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to make sure everything is lost. A clear-headed view of a map, and an appreciation of the formida- ble capabilities of Iran and its allies, should make it clear that if the Trump regime miscalculates, the house can easily come crashing down on its head. Iranians know this all too well. ◆

Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi (right) greets Iranian President Hassan Rou- University of Tehran. This article is repro- hani during the latter’s visit to Iraq in March. Iraq is among the states that have been duced from the Middle East Eye website strengthening relations with Iran. (www.middleeasteye.net).

THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No 337/338 63 P O E T R Y

As more countries in Latin America move to the Right, there has been a tendency to whitewash the rule by military dictators during much of the 20th century. The following poem by Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) should serve as a reminder of how bloody the rule of these dictators was.

The dictators

Pablo Neruda

An odour has remained among the sugarcane: a mixture of blood and body, a penetrating petal that brings nausea. Between the coconut palms the graves are full of ruined bones, of speechless death-rattles. The delicate dictator is talking with top hats, gold braids and collars. The tiny palace gleams like a watch and the rapid laughs with gloves on cross the corridors at times and join the dead voices and the blue mouths freshly buried. The weeping cannot be seen, like a plant whose seeds fall endlessly on the earth, whose large blind leaves grow even without light. Hatred has grown scale on scale, blow on blow, in the ghastly water of the swamp, with a snout full of ooze and silence

Translated by Robert Bly

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