Inside the city that was left to die | David McMillan THE Prisoner who Says ‘No’ to big brother | John Pilger TV’s debt to x-man comics | J Andrew Deman Issue 180

Writing worth reading n Photos worth seeing Mid-march 2019 . Antisemitism, the Israel lobby, and the manıpulation of media and Jonathan Cook, Chris Hedges, Caitlin politics Johnstone, CJ Hopkins, Robert Inlakesh 2

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Writing worth reading Photos worth seeing Issue 180 Mid-March 2019

Issues 4 Labour Party erupts into civil war over israel .Jonathan Cook 8 Israel’s stranglehold on American politics ...... Chris Hedges 14 how (and how not) to beat smear campaign ..... Caitlin Johnstone 18 a pandemic of antisemitism ...... CJ Hopkins 21 UN report slams Israel’s gaza massacres ...... Robert Inlakesh 24 Inside The city that was left to die ...... David McMillan

30 The prisoner who says ‘No’ to Big Brother ...... John Pilger 3 34 Monkey business ...... Linh Dinh 38 The comic that inspired modern Television ...... J Andrew Deman 42 Dodging nukes in South Asia ...... Conn Hallinan

Insights 45 New statistical shell game for justifying billionaires ...... Sam Pizzigati 47 Britain puts new roof on Skripal house of horrors ...... George Galloway 48 ‘In a mirror darkly’ – the reflection of Donald Trump. ....Emanuele Corso 50 It’s time for black women to rule the United States ...... Dell Franklin

ColdType 7 Lewis Street, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada LG7 1E3 Contact ColdType: Write to Tony Sutton at [email protected] Subscribe: For a FREE subscription to Coldtype, e-mail [email protected] Back Issues: www.coldtype.net/reader.html or www.issuu.com/coldtype © ColdType 2019

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net COVER STORY / 1

Threats by a Jewish group to split from Britain’s Labour Party is not evidence of antisemitism, but of the party’s long indulgence of anti-Palestinian racism, writes Jonathan Cook Labour Party finally erupts into civil war over Israel 4

n announcement by On the defensive, Corbyn the Jewish Labour was prompted to write to the Movement (JLM) that JLM expressing his and the it is considering split- shadow cabinet’s “very strong ting from the British desire for you to remain a part ALabour Party could not have of our movement”. More than That appeared to be a swipe come at a worse moment for 100 Labour MPs, including mem- at Corbyn himself, who is the Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour bers of the front bench, similarly first leader of a British politi- leader is already besieged by pleaded with the JLM not to cal party to prioritise Palestin- claims that he is presiding over disaffiliate. They apologised for ian rights over the UK’s ties to a party that has become “insti- “toxic racism” in the party and an Israeli state that has been tutionally antisemitic”. for “letting our Jewish support- oppressing Palestinians for The threats by the JLM ers and members down”. decades. should be seen as part of con- Their letter noted that the Earlier this month, the certed efforts to oust Corbyn JLM is “the legitimate and Labour leader renewed his call from the leadership. They fol- long-standing representative of for Britain to halt arms sales to low on the heels of a decision Jews in the Labour party” and Israel following a UN report that by a handful of Labour MPs last added that the MPs recognised said the Israeli army’s shoot- month to set up a new faction the importance of “calling out ing of Palestinian protesters in called the Independent Group. those who seek to make solidar- Gaza’s Great March of Return They, too, cited antisemitism as ity with our Jewish comrades a could amount to war crimes. a major reason for leaving. test of foreign policy”. Despite the media atten-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 5

FOR THE MANY: Graffiti on a wall in Spitalfields, London. Photo: Duncan C, via Flickr.com tion, all the evidence suggests publicly coming out in sup- to underscore that there are that Labour does not have port for him and discounting progressive Jews who welcome a problem of “institutional the claims of an “endemic” an- Corbyn’s leadership. antisemitism”, or even a prob- tisemitism problem. In the current hysterical cli- lem of antisemitism above the Some 200 prominent Jews mate, however, no one seems marginal racism towards Jews signed a letter to the Guardian interested in the evidence or found in the wider British newspaper calling Corbyn “a these dissenting voices. It is, population. Figures show only crucial ally in the fight against therefore, hardly surprising 0.08 percent of Labour mem- bigotry and reaction. His life- that Corbyn and his supporters bers have been disciplined for time record of campaigning are on the back foot as they face antisemitism. for equality and human rights, losing from Labour an affiliate including consistent support for group of 2,000 members who initiatives against antisemitism, represent a section of the UK’s Also largely ignored by the is formidable.” Jewish community. British media, and Corbyn’s At the same time, a new But paradoxically, the loss opponents, is the fact that a organisation, Jewish Voice for of the JLM may be inevitable if growing number of Jews are Labour, has been established Labour is serious about becom-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net ing a party that opposes racism rights to almost all land in Isra- ultra-nationalist government of in all its forms, because the JLM el, and corralled into their own Benjamin Netanyahu. His coali- has proved it is incapable of separate and massively inferior tion allies seek not a two-state meeting that simple standard. school system. solution, but the takeover of While the Labour Party has All of these policies were most of the occupied territories been dragged into an increas- instituted by Israel’s Labor and ultimately their annexa- ingly fractious debate about Party, the sister organisation tion, again in violation of inter- whether anti-Zionism – opposi- of the JLM in Britain. The JLM national law. tion to Israel as a Jewish state not only refuses to oppose these Ella Rose was appointed – equates to antisemitism, eve- policies, but effectively shields director of the JLM in 2016, ryone has been distracted from Israel from criticism about them straight from a post at the Israe- the elephant in the room. from within Britain’s Labour li embassy. In fact, it is political Zionism, Party. Times – and politics – move at least in the hardline form on. The JLM is a relic of a peri- adopted by groups such as the od when it was possible to claim JLM, that is racism – towards The JLM has remained mute to be anti-racist while turning Palestinians. on the structural violence of Is- a blind eye to the oppression of Zionism, we should recall, rael’s occupying army, and the the Palestinian people. Social required the ethnic cleansing of systematic racism – encoded in media and Palestinians armed 750,000 Palestin- with camera phones – ians to engineer not just Corbyn – have a “Jewish state” Israel’s most ardent supporters, and made that evasion no on the ruins of Corbyn’s enemies, in Labour will play dirty to longer possible. 6 Palestinians’ Labour giving pride homeland. It protect Israel and their own role from scrutiny of place to groups such fuelled Israel’s . as the JLM or Labour hunger for an Friends of Israel – to enlarged territory that led to it Israel’s laws – towards the fifth which 80 of its MPs proudly occupying the West Bank, Gaza of its population who are Pales- belong – is, in the current cir- and East Jerusalem, and fur- tinian citizens. cumstances, as obscene as it ther dispossessing the Palestin- Meanwhile, the JLM’s would have been 40 years ago ians through illegal settlement mother body, the World Zion- for British parties to host their building. ist Organization, has a division own Friends of South Africa Zionism has made it impos- that – to this day – finances the groups. sible for any Israeli government establishment and expansion of The Labour Party bureauc- to offer meaningful concessions settlements in the West Bank, racy is being dragged, kicking to Palestinians on statehood to in violation of international and screaming, into the mod- create the conditions necessary law. ern world by its members, who for peace. It has justified policies Added to this, an Al Jazeera have felt liberated by Corbyn’s that view “mixing between the undercover documentary leadership and his history of races” – between Jews and Pal- broadcast in 2017 showed that supporting all kinds of anti- estinians – as dangerous “mis- the JLM was covertly work- racism struggles, including the cegenation” and “assimilation”. ing with an Israeli government Palestinian one. Furthermore, Zionism has official, Shai Masot, to damage While Britain has major kept Israel’s Palestinian citi- Corbyn because of his pro-Pal- and pressing issues to tackle, zens a segregated minority, estinian positions. from dealing with its exit from hemmed up in their own ghet- Israel, remember, has for Europe to imminent climate col- toised communities, denied the last decade equated to the lapse, Labour’s energies have

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net been sidetracked into a civil lution declared: “Let the Arabs hang on to outdated, hardline war about Israel, of all things. be encouraged to move out, as Zionist positions. The old guard want to be the Jews move in.” The JLM’s claim to speak allowed to support Israel, even That is exactly what Israel for all Jews in Labour has been as it heads towards full-blown did by expelling 750,000 Pales- challenged by anti-racist Jews fascism, while much of the tinians, more than 80 percent of like those of the Jewish Voice for membership want to dissociate the Palestinian population, in Labour. Their efforts to defend from what looks increasingly events we now call the Nakba Corbyn and Labour’s record like another apartheid state (Catastrophe). have been widely ignored by – and one whose leaders are For decades after Israel’s cre- the media or, encouraged by seeking to stoke conflict across ation, Labour Party members JLM, dismissed as “downplay- a volatile region. happily travelled to Israel to ing” antisemitism. Israel’s most ardent support- toil in agricultural communes, The JLM’s discomfort may ers, and Corbyn’s enemies, in such as the kibbutz, that were be unfortunate, but it cannot Labour will play dirty to protect built on stolen Palestinian land be avoided. It is the price to Israel and their own role from and which, to this day, refuse to be paid for the continuing bat- scrutiny, as they have been allow any of the country’s 1.7 tle by progressives to advance doing all along. million Palestinian citizens to universal rights and defeat rac- The JLM led moves last year live in them. ism. This battle has been waged intended to divide the party by In a speech in 1972, after since the Universal Declaration insisting that Labour redefine Israel seized yet more Palestin- of Human Rights was published antisemitism to include criti- ian lands, including East Jeru- in 1948 – paradoxically, the year cism of Israel. salem, Labour leader Harold Israel was established by violat- Rumblings of dissatisfaction Wilson urged Israel to hold on ing the core principles of that 7 from the JLM will be cited as to these conquered territories: declaration. further evidence of the mem- “Israel’s reaction is natural and Israel’s racism towards Pal- bership’s antisemitism, because proper in refusing to accept the estinians has been indulged by that is the most powerful weap- Palestinians as a nation.” Labour for too long. Now his- on they have to silence criticism This is the dark, dishonour- tory is catching up with Israel, of Israel and deflect attention able underbelly of Labour rac- and with groups such as the away from their role in shield- ism, and the party’s decades- JLM. ing Israel from proper scrutiny long support for colonialism in Labour MPs have a choice. within Labour. the Middle East. They can stand on the wrong Labour created a hierarchy side of history, battling the of racisms, in which concern tide like some modern King Politics is about choices and about hatred towards Jews Canute, or they can recognise values. Labour has for many enjoyed star billing while rac- that it is time to fully enter the decades sided exclusively with ism towards some other groups, modern era – and that means Israel and ignored the rights of most especially Palestinians, embracing a programme of Palestinians. barely registered. anti-racism that encompasses In 1944 – four years before Under Corbyn and a much- everyone, including Jews and Israel’s creation – Labour’s expanded membership, these Palestinians. CT annual conference recommend- prejudices are being challenged ed that the natives of Palestine, in public for the first time – and Jonathan Cook is a Nazareth- a large majority population, be that is justifiably making the based journalist and winner ethnically cleansed to advance party an “unsafe” space for of the Martha Gellhorn Special the goals of European Zionists groups such as the JLM and Prize for Journalism. His web colonising their land. The reso- Labour Friends of Israel, which site is www.jonathan-cook.net

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net COVER STORY / 2

The harder it becomes for Israel to sell its apartheid state, the more pronounced its already massive interference will become, writes Chris Hedges Israel’s stranglehold on American politics 8

he Israel lobby’s buying under threat of dismissal, off of nearly every senior to sign a pro-Israel oath and politician in the United promise not to support the Boy- States, facilitated by our cott, Divestment and Sanctions system of legalised brib- movement is not an antisemitic Tery, is not an antisemitic trope. trope. It is a fact. It is a fact. The shameless decision in The lobby’s campaign of 2014 by all 100 US senators, vicious character assassina- including Bernie Sanders, to tion, smearing and blacklist- pass a Soviet-style plebiscite Marchers help a young victim ing against those who defend proposed by the Israel lobby to of Israeli gunfire during the Palestinian rights – including affirm Israel’s “right to defend Gaza Great March of Return the Jewish historian Norman itself” during the 51 days it protest on March 31, 2018. Finkelstein and university stu- bombed and shelled homes, Photo: Mohammed Zaanou, ActiveStills dents, many of them Jewish, in water treatment plants, power organisations such as Students stations, hospitals and UN for Justice in Palestine – is not schools in Gaza, killing 2,251 international bodies, to criticise an antisemitic trope. It is a fact. Palestinians, including 551 Israel’s apartheid state and rou- Twenty-four state govern- children, is not an antisemitic tine violation of international ments’ passage of Israel lobby- trope. It is a fact. law is not an antisemitic trope. backed legislation requiring The US refusal, including in It is a fact. their workers and contractors, the United Nations and other The well-funded campaigns

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 9

by the Israel lobby, which works not an antisemitic trope. It is Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closely with Israel’s Ministry of a fact. (One infamous example to address Congress in 2015 Strategic Affairs, to discredit of a US politician kowtowing to denounce President Barack any American politician or was the unconstitutional invi- Obama’s Iranian nuclear academic who even slightly tation by then-House Speaker agreement.) deviates from Israeli policy is John Boehner to Israeli Prime The massive interference in

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net our internal affairs by Israel and mitic. The more Israel and the oppression and murder and you the Israel lobby, far exceeding Israel lobby abuse the charge of are a friend of the Jews. that of any other country, includ- antisemitism, a charge the Israel ing Russia or China, is not an lobby has levelled against Brit- antisemitic trope. It is a fact. ish Labour Party leader Jeremy Have Jewish leaders forgot- Israel’s lackeys in the politi- Corbyn, among many others, ten their own history? An- cal class, along with bankrupt the more they lose their effec- tisemitism is wrong and dan- courtiers in the US press, includ- tiveness against the dangerous gerous not only because it is ing former American Israel Pub- antisemites whose ranks are bad for the Jews, but because lic Affairs Committee (AIPAC) growing within the far right and the dark forces of ethnic and employee Wolf Blitzer, are across the Muslim world. religious hatred, used by Israel making a serious mistake, how- Israel and its lobby do not care and the lobby against critics, ever, in refusing to acknowledge if its political allies, including are bad for everyone, including Israel’s outsized, transparent those in the Christian right and the Jews and the Palestinians. and often illegal meddling in the the Trump White House, pos- You open this Pandora’s box of American political system and sess warped and racist attitudes evils at your peril. Israel’s brutal oppression of Pal- about Jews. The Christian right The interference by Israel in estinians. It is too obvious and and many of those in the White the American political system is too egregious to hide. House, while embracing Zion- amply documented, including in The longer the rul- the Al-Jazeera four-part ing elites ignore this series The Lobby, which reality and censor and It is difficult to get a man to understand Israel and its supporters attack those such as something, when his salary depends upon managed to block from 10 Rep. Ilhan Omar who being broadcast. In the have the temerity to his not understanding it” – Upton Sinclair film, a pirated copy of name this interference . which can be watched on and the human rights the website Electronic abuses perpetrated by Israel, the ism, are also antisemitic. Presi- Intifada, the leaders of the Israel more it gives credence to the rac- dent Donald Trump has called lobby are repeatedly captured ists, bigots, conspiracy theorists neo-Nazis “very fine people”, on a reporter’s hidden camera and white hate groups, many and once tweeted an illustra- explaining how they, backed by rooted in the Christian right, tion of Hillary Clinton against the intelligence services within who are the real antisemites. a background of hundred-dollar Israel, attack and silence Ameri- Israel and its lobby, rather than bills and with the Star of David can critics and use huge cash protecting Israel and Jews, are superimposed near her face. donations to control the Ameri- steadily nullifying their moral The sole criterion of Israel and can electoral process and politi- and ultimately political force. the Israel lobby in determin- cal system. Criticism of Israel and the ide- ing who to support and who to The Israel lobby, lacking ology of Zionism is not antisemit- demonise is identifying who any plausible deniability, has ic. Criticism of Israel’s influence backs the far-right agenda of the remained stunningly silent about and control over US foreign poli- apartheid state of Israel and who the film. The corporate press, in cy, and of Israeli efforts to silence does not. Genuine antisemitism the face of pressure by the lobby, those who champion Palestinian is irrelevant. has ignored the documentary. rights, is not antisemitic. For Israel, the world is divided The series exposes the vari- C r it ic i sm of I srael’s oppre ssion along the fault line of Palestinian ous machinations of the Israel of the Palestinians or its danger- rights. Stand up for the Palestin- lobby. ous campaign to orchestrate ians and you are an antisemite. “We made sure that there were a war with Iran is not antise- Cheer their marginalisation, people [agents of the lobby] in

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net every single congressional dis- lawmaker”. idea they’re working in tandem trict”, MJ Rosenberg, a former One of the fundraising events with each other”. editor of the AIPAC policy jour- captured in the film was for nal Near East Report and now Anthony Brown, a Democrat a critic of AIPAC, said in the who successfully ran for Con- The Israel lobby also flies hun- film in an on-the-record inter- gress in Maryland in 2016. dreds of members of Congress, view with Al-Jazeera. “You call “You strategically pick the often with their families, to [politicians] and say, ‘I’m calling ones who are in close races and Israel every year for lavish from AIPAC in Washington’. I [whom you] want to build rela- junkets at expensive resorts. did these calls. ‘We hear you’re tionships with”, David Ochs, the These Congress members run good friends with Congressman founder of HaLev and an activ- up individual bills that fre- So and So’. ‘Oh my God, yes, ist for Israel, says in the docu- quently exceed $20,000. The we’ve been friends with so and mentary. “We want the Jewish Honest Leadership and Open so’. ‘Well, what does he think community to go face to face Government Act of 2007 at- about Israel?’ ‘I never talked to in this small environment – 50, tempted to restrict lobbyists him about Israel’. ‘Well, can I 30, 40 people, and say, ‘This is from offering paid trips lasting come down and talk to you? And what’s important to us’.” more than one day to members help you figure out a way to talk “They’re actually buying of Congress. But AIPAC, which to him about Israel?’ ‘No, just tell these officeholders”, Public Citi- has never been forced to regis- me. What should I say? I’ll just zen’s Holman says in the docu- ter as a foreign agent, used its tell him’.” mentary. Speaking from the clout to insert a clause in the Craig Holman, who cam- lobby’s point of view, he says act to exclude so-called educa- paigns for lobbying reform “we’re chipping in all this mon- tional trips organised by chari- with Public Citizen, is another ey so we can hand over $100,000 ties that do not hire lobbyists. 11 participant in the film who or $200,000 to the officeholder AIPAC is affiliated with such denounced the Israel lobby’s so we can buy them.” a charity, called the American fundraising practices. “What [the] group is doing to Israel Education Foundation. “Right now our current [fed- avoid that [federal] disclosure “It doesn’t have an office”, eral] contribution limit from any requirement is it isn’t taking Holman says about the foun- person to a candidate is $2,700”, money and putting it in its own dation. “It doesn’t have any Holman says. “That’s a lot of account and then handing it employees. It’s just a tax form money. It can certainly buy … over to the officeholder”, Hol- they [Israel lobby agents] file. some gratitude with a lawmak- man says of the Israel lobby. Gives some dinners, gives some er. But if you really want to add “It’s just collecting credit card wonderful resorts to stay at, punch to that type of buying of information and turning that entertainment, all of which favours, what you do is you get over directly to the candidate. is packed up into one of these 50 or 100 people together at an Therefore, it’s not violating the trips. It’s a very, very effective event like this, all chipping in earmarking law and they’re not tool at influence peddling”. $2,700 and then you bundle it reporting this. All we can see on The investment by Israel all together and hand the total the campaign finance reports and is backers is worth it. The amount to the lawmaker. At are the individuals who contrib- United States Congress in 2018 that point, we’re talking any- uted. But there are no records on authorised a $38-billion defense where around a quarter-million those campaign finance reports aid package for Israel over the dollars. So suddenly you’ve got that they weren’t together in next decade and has spent over a group of people with the same a bundling group who are all $5.6-trillion during the last 18 demand they want from the law- at this event. All we’d know is years fighting futile wars that maker, handing over a quarter Person A gave $2,700; Person B Israel and its lobby pushed for of a million dollars. That buys a gave $2,700. And we’d have no in the Middle East.

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net “If you wander off the res- of concerned activists will send warned me that if I voiced my ervation and become critical of out postcards, make phone calls, views about the Israeli lobby Israel, you not only will not get they’ll organise. That’s the demo- that my career would be over, money, AIPAC will go to great cratic process. They understand and implied that it would be lengths to find someone who the democratic process”. done through the [Washington] will run against you”, John “They threaten”, MJ Rosen- Post. Sure enough, the Washing- Mearsheimer, professor of politi- berg says of the Israel lobby lead- ton Post editorialised brutally. cal science at the University of ers’ response to elected officials Everyone ganged up.” Chicago and co-author of The who become critical of Israel. The film shows a screen shot Israel Lobby and US Foreign “They immediately threaten. of a 2003 headline in The Wash- Policy, says in the documentary. Even if [politicians] know AIPAC ington Post: “Sorry, Mr. Moran, “And they support that person can’t defeat them, AIPAC can You’re Not Fit For Public Office”. very generously. The end result make their lives more difficult. In following years there were is you’re likely to lose your seat They can make sure that their a number of other negative in Congress”. next town meeting or something, commentaries. The film focuses in part on some members of the Jewish In the film, Eric Gallagher, former Rep. Jim Moran, who congregation jump up and say, then with The Israel Project, tells was in the US House of Repre- ‘But you’re anti-Israel!’ ” the undercover reporter that sentatives from 1991 to 2015 and Moran was targeted by the AIPAC has a close relationship who was an open critic with the Washington of the Israel lobby. Post editorial board. “They have ques- Rabin did not invite the leaders of the Israel Moran says, “The tionnaires”, Moran says lobby to his inauguration and referred to the principal edito- 12 about AIPAC in the rial board of the Post film. “Anyone running leaders of the Israel lobby as “scumbags” itself has been a very for Congress is [pre- . effective instrument sented with a demand because they have been from AIPAC] to fill out a ques- Israel lobby because he raised able to maintain their credibility. tionnaire. And they evaluate the questions about the 2001 Author- It’s a great paper in every other depth of your commitment to ization for Use of Military Force way. Because they have such Israel on the basis of that ques- Act, which authorized the wars credibility, they’re extremely tionnaire. And then you have in Afghanistan and Iraq. effective”. an interview with local people. Moran told a Jewish constitu- “Both of my daughters mar- If you get AIPAC support, then ent at a town hall meeting in his ried Jewish men”, Moran says. more often than not you’re going district that “if the Jewish com- “My grandchildren are Jewish. to win”. munity was opposed to the war, Anybody who considers me an “You are told that ‘Israel con- I think that would make a dif- antisemite is ignorant”. tinues to be under siege from ference” in whether the United hundreds of millions of its neigh- States would invade Iraq. He was bours who are Muslims and they immediately accused by the Isra- AIPAC, while it presents itself hate Israel and Jewish people’,” el lobby of being an antisemite as an impartial supporter of Is- Moran says. “You’re told, ‘They and fostering the belief that rael, has long been an arm of the have only survived because of there was a Jewish conspiracy Israeli right. It vehemently op- the United States, because of to push America into war. posed the Oslo Accord and the American politicians like you “There was a conserva- peace process with the Palestin- who support us’.” tive rabbi in my district who ians engineered by Prime Min- “You realise it’s not just the was assigned to me, I assume, ister Yitzhak Rabin. It poured money”, he goes on. “A number by AIPAC”, Moran says. “He money and resources into the

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 1992 Israeli election campaign young American Jews. Israel, Pelosi faced a revolt by younger, to back Rabin’s political oppo- unable to justify its human more progressive members of nents in the Likud party. Rabin rights abuses and atrocities, the House over her proposal to did not invite the leaders of the has opted for harsher forms of pass an antisemitism resolution Israel lobby to his inauguration control including censoring, pushed by the Israel lobby and and, according to an aide in his spying on and attacking its designed to shame Rep. Omar. office, referred to the leaders of critics. It has pressured the US A reworded resolution, one that the Israel lobby as “scumbags”. State Department to redefine did not please the lobby, was He repeatedly denounced the antisemitism under a three- passed, condemning anti-Mus- lobby as an impediment to Is- point test known as the Three lim bias and white supremacy rael’s security and democracy. Ds: the making of statements and citing “African-Americans, The Israeli newspaper that “demonise” Israel; state- Native Americans, and other Haar-etz characterised Rabin’s ments that apply “double stand- people of colour, Jews, Muslims, remarks to American Jewish ards” for Israel; statements Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants and leaders during a visit to the that “delegitimise” the state of others” victimised by bigotry. United States as “brutal”. “You Israel. This definition is being Israel’s dominance of the have hurt Israel,” the newspa- pushed by the Israel lobby in Democratic Party is eroding. It per quoted Rabin as saying. “I state legislatures and on college is losing legitimacy in the eyes will not allow you to conduct campuses. of the public. Israel’s tactics, for my dealings with the [US] this reason, will become more administration”. vicious and underhanded. Its Washington Jewish Week It spreads the hate talk of interference in the democratic reported that Rabin told the Islamophobia, including by process will be characterised AIPAC leadership, “You failed sponsoring the showing of less by an attempt to persuade 13 at everything. You waged lost the racist film “Unmasked and more by the use of money battles. … You caused damage Judeophobia” on college to ensure fealty to its policies, to Israel. … You’re too nega- campuses on Holocaust Re- censorship, the enforcement of tive. … You create too much membrance Day. The film ar- legally binding oaths in favour antagonism”. gues that Muslims embrace of Israel to blunt the BDS move- The Israel lobby, after Rab- a Nazi-like antisemitism and ment, and the kind of racist in’s assassination in 1995 by a are seeking to carry out an- hate talk it unleashed against right-wing Jewish fanatic and other holocaust against Jews. Rep. Omar. The lobby, as Rabin the 1996 electoral victory by Nearly all American Mus- understood, was never a true Likud under the leadership of lims targeted by law enforce- friend of Israel. CT Netanyahu, returned to the ment since 9/11 were singled good graces of the Israeli gov- out for their outspokenness Chris Hedges spent nearly ernment. The lobby, as Israel about Palestinian rights. two decades as a foreign has lurched further and further Most of those arrested had correspondent in Central to the right and adopted ever no connection to al-Qaida, America, the Middle East, more overtly racist policies Hatem Bazian, lecturer in the Africa and the Balkans. He was toward the Palestinians under department of Near Eastern part of a New York Times team Netanyahu, has become more studies at UC Berkeley, says of reporters awarded a Pulitzer intrusive in American political in the film – “no relationship Prize in 2002. He also received life. Israel’s apartheid state, rac- whatsoever to what is called the Amnesty International ism and murderous assaults on transnational terrorism.” Global Award for Human unarmed Palestinians increas- There are fractures in the Rights Journalism in 2002. ingly alienate many of its tra- Democratic Party, evidenced This essay was first published ditional supporters, including when House Speaker Nancy at www.truthdig.com

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net COVER STORY / 3

Anyone who attempts to control the dominant narrative about who you are and what you stand for is trying to control you and your voice. They must be resisted, writes Caitlin Johnstone How (and how not) to beat a smear campaign

nyone who opposes a different one, as powerful peo- effective smear campaigns are western interventionism ple are currently attempting to currently those that paint the or thinks the poor are do, in theory it is possible to target as a servant of the Krem- human beings is a Rus- effect a coup by pure narrative. lin or a hater of Jews. sian antisemite. If you You couldn’t ask for a more per- British Labour Party leader Adisagree, it’s because you are a fect illustration of the power of Jeremy Corbyn’s populist left- Russian antisemite, too. narrative control. ism and support for Palestinian 14 Narrative is a funny thing. Smear campaigns work in rights has got him targeted by You can do everything right, the same way. Anyone chal- an amazingly virulent smear cross all your ‘T’s and dot all lenging authorised narratives campaign which journalist your ‘I’s and colour within and the status quo of oligar- Jonathan Cook describes as all the official lines, but if you chic hegemony can have their “a perfect, self-rationalising offend the powerful they can reputations destroyed by the system of incrimination – deny- still rearrange the dominant lackeys of the plutocratic class ing the victim a voice, even in narrative underneath you to which exerts massive influence their own defence.” A narrative kill your public influence. over the political/media class, has been promulgated with In Venezuela right now, thereby neutralising their abil- extreme aggression by the UK some guy named Juan is being ity to influence the public. media that a horrifying epidem- elevated to the leadership of the ic of antisemitism has somehow nation simply by the govern- overtaken the Labour Party ments of other nations referring If the public distrusts some- under Corbyn’s leadership, and to him as “President Guaido”, one, they aren’t going to be- that Corbyn himself is (despite and denying the legitimacy of lieve the narratives that per- a lifetime of opposition to all the actual guy who is running son is putting forward, even if forms of racism and bigotry) a the Venezuelan government. those narratives are as sane as closet antisemite as well. The funny thing about that is protecting the poor, opposing Corbyn has responded to if enough people believe it, it senseless warmongering, or this fact-free smear campaign can theoretically work; the only defending Palestinian rights. with capitulation after capitu- thing keeping leaders in place In today’s political climate lation, most recently with the is the agreed-upon narrative where smearing someone as suspension of MP Chris Wil- that they’re the leaders. If you a socialist or communist is liamson on baseless accusa- can replace that narrative with increasingly ignored, the most tions of antisemitism and a

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Twitter post of a video warn- Photo: Steve via Flickr.com Eason, ing about antisemitic conspir- acy theories. There is nothing inherently wrong with warning people about antisemitic con- spiracy theories (which are tox- ic for a whole host of reasons), but the video Corbyn chose to share explicitly cited criticism of Zionism as an example of one such conspiracy theory. Zion- ism is the racist ideology sup- porting the continued existence of a Jewish ethnostate (much like the white ethnostate sought by American white nationalists like Richard Spencer), and it is the driving force behind the oppression and persecution of the Palestinian people today.

Validating this conflation of anti-Zionism with hatred of 15 Jews is a capitulation to the de- mands of those who have been advancing this smear cam- paign, and it is the wrong way to fight it. It will never work, because the goal has never been to fight antisemitism, the goal has been to destroy Corbyn. It wouldn’t matter if Corbyn did everything eve- ryone demanded of him and then posted a video of himself being whipped while scream- ing, “Lord have mercy on this wicked Nazi Jew-hater!” on his knees – no amount of capitula- tion will end this campaign to eliminate him. The target is not antisemitism, the target is Corbyn. And the goal is not to tell the truth but to advance a narrative. JEREMY CORBYN: Targeted by an amazingly virulent smear cam- We are seeing the same type paign. of smear campaign advanced

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net against Congresswoman Ilhan Venezuela and Iran, her criti- are highly questionable in a vain Omar in response to her sup- cisms of disastrous US inter- attempt to appease her smearers. port for Palestinian rights, criti- ventionism in the past in Iraq This is not how you beat these cism of the US Israel lobby, and and Libya, and her calls to end creeps. The way to beat them is opposition to US regime change the new cold war against Rus- to attack the smear directly. interventionism in nations sia. American mass media has like Venezuela. Currently she been flipping the fuck out ever is again being smeared as an since she announced her can- I’ve been the target of smear antisemite for making the didacy for the presidency and campaigns myself, and I’ve demonstrably true claim that working overtime to smear her had blunders and successes influential Americans push as a friend of the Kremlin and in dealing with them. The fact for allegiance to Israel, even of Syria’s President Bashar al- that I’m still here speaking to while the GOP is taking a much Assad. During a recent guest a large readership without my smaller amount of flack for appearance on The View, the influence having been killed putting up a poster which liter- Hawaii Representative was off means I’ve picked up a clue ally depicts her as having ties told by the ditzy daughter of or two about dealing with at- to the 9/11 attacks. The fact that late bloodthirsty psychopath tempts to manipulate the pub- this brazen Islamophobia is John McCain that, “When I lic narrative about me, so I’m receiving far less establishment hear the name Tulsi Gabbard, I just going to share what I’ve media attention than learned here in case it’s fact-free accusations useful to anybody. of antisemitism tells Still we see Omar attempting to appease these Anyone who attempts you that this smear unappeasable smearmongers by apologising to control the dominant 16 campaign has noth- narrative about who you ing to do with fact and for truthful and accurate statements are and what you stand everything to do with . for is trying to control narrative. you and your voice. It is Yet still we see Omar think of Assad apologist”. a direct attack on your ability attempting to appease these Gabbard’s response? Con- to influence your world, and if unappeasable smearmongers tributing to the war machine’s it succeeds you will necessarily by publicly apologising for per- propaganda narratives about be rendered impotent. It is there- fectly truthful and accurate Syria: “There is no disputing fore necessary to fight a smear statements. The campaign to the fact that Bashar al-Assad campaign about you as directly kill her influence will continue in Syria is a brutal dictator”, and aggressively as any other for as long as she continues to Gabbard said. “There is no dis- attempt to rob you of your facul- disrupt the official narratives puting the fact that he has used ties or capabilities. This means of the US-centralised empire, chemical weapons and other not ignoring your smearers, nor so no amount of apologising or weapons against his people”. capitulating to their demands, sensitivity to concern trolling Again, Gabbard is not being but engaging their smears loud- about antisemitism will ever targeted by establishment ly and publicly in a way that fully stop the smears. mouthpieces such as John Mc- exposes what they are attempt- Cain’s hellspawn because there ing to do to you. is an actual concern that she If you are being lied about by Congresswoman Tulsi Gab- holds some weird kind of loyalty someone attempting to influ- bard has also been subject to to a random Middle Eastern lead- ence public opinion about you, the same narrative control er on the other side of the world. debunk that lie and loudly draw subversion for her opposition Yet Gabbard capitulated to nar- attention to it. If your position is to US interventionism in Syria, ratives she knows damn well being misrepresented by some-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net one attempting to influence service of the powerful against sage as well; don’t let fighting public opinion about you, cor- the interests of the disempow- smears become the majority rect that misrepresentation and ered. All you need to do, then, of your output, but don’t give call attention to how manipula- is forcefully draw attention to them a single inch of control tive and dishonest your smear- what they’re doing to the point over the public narrative about er is being. Explain their real where their engagement in the you, either. If you see someone motives for coming after you smear campaign makes them smearing Corbyn, Omar, Gab- and dismiss their false stated look worse than they’re trying bard, or any other target of reasons for the bogus justifica- to make you look. This will kill establishment campaigns such tions that they are. their ability to manipulate pub- as Julian Assange, the best way They are trying to control lic perception of you. to help them continue to disrupt the narrative about you, so the the narrative matrix is to (a) idea is to take back that control ref ut e t he sme a r, t hen ( b) ag g re s - of your narrative. You don’t It sucks to have to do this. It sively expose the smearer for need to convince everyone that feels really gross to keep hav- what they are and what they’re you’re right, you just need to ing to wade into the muck and about. prevent their malicious narra- fight your smearers on their Whoever controls the nar- tive about you from becoming level, but the alternative is let- rative controls the world, and the one everyone accepts as ting them control the narrative whoever controls the narra- true because that’s what every- about you, which is the same tive about a particular thing one else is saying. as handing them control over controls that thing. If that par- Most people believe things not your voice and, to an extent, ticular thing is something or because of facts and evidence, your life. Because you can be someone you care about, don’t but because other people in their 100 percent certain that they let them control the narrative 17 life believe those things. If you will not cease working to kill about it. can create enough doubt in the public trust in you and your Never treat an argument malicious narratives being cir- words if you just ignore them made in bad faith like it’s an culated about you and enough or be nice to them hoping that argument made in good faith. trust in your own, you can punch they will stop. Expose their lies and force a through that dynamic of unani- Remember, they are not actu- conversation about the despica- mous consensus and keep your ally concerned about you being ble tactic that they are employ- influence from being killed. a Nazi/antisemite/Putin-lover/ ing. CT When you see it for what it Assadist; they don’t actually actually is, a smear campaign care about fighting antisemitism Caitlin Johnstone is an is actually really gross to in the way you or any healthy Australian-based blogger. look at. People have a natural adult does. They have one sim- She has a podcast and a new revulsion to manipulation and ple goal, and that is to kill off book Woke: A Field Guide for deception once they’ve seen it, your influence over the herd. Utopia Preppers. Follow her at especially when it’s done in the Keep putting out your own mes- www.caitlinjohstone.com

Read the best of Joe bageant www.coldtype.net/joe.html

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net COVER STORY / 4

Scour the Internet for any criticism of the capitalist ruling classes, the corporate media, neoliberalism, or any other antisemitic tropes! writes CJ Hopkins A pandemic of antisemitism

et the kids into the Virologists are working es and the media to contain its house! Lock your doors! around the clock to map the spread, several new cases of Board up the windows! genome of this scurrilous antisemitism have been report- Break out the gas masks scourge, about which very little ed throughout the Kingdom, and hazmat suits! Ac- is known, other than that it has or at least among the Labour Gcording to the corporate media, a sudden onset, and attacks the Party, which, at this point, has we are now officially deep in the language centre of the brain, been so thoroughly infected throes of a deadly antisemitism causing the sufferer to express that it resembles a neo-Nazi 18 pandemic! And just as the opinions about “Zionism”, death cult. threat of mind-controlling Rus- “globalism”, “the Israel lobby”, Jeremy Corbyn, who con- sian influencers was finally “banks”, and other code words tracted the virus more or less waning! It seems the fabric of for “Jews”. the moment he assumed the Western democracy just can’t Patients appear to be una- leadership, is now exhibiting catch a break these days. ware that they are spouting symptoms of late-stage disease. The origins of this perni- these antisemitic code words Reliable sources close to the cious, panic-inducing pes- until they are told they are by party, reached for comment at tilence remain shrouded in the corporate media, or their a brunch in Qatar with Tony mystery, but epidemiologists colleagues, or some random Blair and a bunch of Saudis, now believe that it began in the account on Twitter, at which report that Corbyn is running spring of 2015, shortly after the point their symptoms alter around Momentum HQ in full resignation of Ed Milliband as dramatically, and they suffer Nazi regalia, alternately heiling UK Labour Party leader, and a series of petit mal seizures, Hitler and looking for journal- went global in the summer of causing them to repeatedly ists to apologise to. 2016, right around the time of apologise for unintentionally Another Labour MP, Chris the Brexit referendum and the advocating the extermination Williamson, had to be summar- nomination of Donald Trump. of the entire Jewish people and ily quarantined after publicly (Although the circumstantial the establishment of a world- apologising for not apologis- evidence is overwhelming, to wide Nazi Reich. ing for inciting a gathering of date, there exists no conclusive Labour members to stop apolo- proof that Russian bio-weapons gising for refusing to apologise designers cooked up the virus in At the moment, Britain is tak- for being disgusting antisemites a hotel in Salisbury and sprayed ing the brunt of it. Despite the … or something basically along it onto anyone’s doorknob.) best efforts of the ruling class- those lines.

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Riot police stand guard close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris during Gilets Jaunes protests calling for lower fuel taxes, reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth, a minimum wage increase, and Emmanuel Macron’s resignation as President of France. Photo: Norbu Gyachung / Wikimedia.com

Guardian columnist Owen the pages of the Guardian). onism as form of antisemitism, Jones is fiercely denying deny- Nor has the Continent been such that anyone implying that 19 ing that the party is a hive of spared! What at first appeared Israel is in any way inherently Nazis, and that he ever denied to be a series of spontaneous racist, or a quasi-fascist Apart- that denying the fact that there protests against Emmanuel heid state, or making jokes is zero actual evidence of that Macron, economic auster- about “elites” or “bankers”, can fact is essential to preserving ity, and global capitalism by be detained and prosecuted for what is left of the party, once it the so-called “Yellow Vests” committing a “hate-crime”. has been cured of antisemitism, in France has now been offi- Meanwhile, in the United or disbanded and reconstituted cially diagnosed as a nation- States (where Donald Trump, from scratch. wide antisemitism outbreak. “US patient zero”, had already Emergency measures are In a heroic attempt to contain single-handedly infected the now in effect. A full-scale the outbreak, Macron has dis- vast majority of the American Labour Party lockdown is patched his security forces to populace, and transformed imminent. Anyone not already shoot the eyes out of unarmed the nation into an unrecognis- infected is being advised to flee women, pepper spray paraple- able, genocidal Nazi Reich), the the party, denounce anyone gics in wheelchairs, and just antisemitism virus has now who hasn’t done so as “a Hitler- generally beat bloody hell out of spread to Congress, where loving Corbyn-sympathiser,” everyone. Representative Ilhan Omar and prophylactically apologise (reputed to be a hardcore for any critical statements they member of the infamous “Axis might have made about Israel, Strangely, none of these tac- of Antisemitism“) has appar- or “elites”, or “global capital- tics have worked, so France ently totally lost her mind and ism”, or “bankers”, or anything has decided to join the USA, the started talking about the Israel else that anyone can construe UK, Germany, and the rest of lobby, and the billions of dollars as antisemitism (preferably in the empire in defining anti-Zi- the US government provides to

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Israel on an annual basis, and democracy that Vladimir Putin soulless, conniving, sociopathic other Israel-related subjects set in motion the moment the scumbags, what purpose would one simply does not talk about Global War on Terror seemed it possibly serve for them to (unless one writes for the New to be running out of steam. If whip the public up into a series York Times and isn’t a hijab- you are, you need to close this of fits of mass hysteria over wearing Muslim, in which case essay, pull up either MSNBC or antisemitism, or “populism”. it’s completely fine to character- the Guardian website on your or imaginary Russian hackers ise support for Israel as being phone, and inoculate yourself (or imminent lone-wolf terror- “bought and paid for by the against such thoughts. ist attacks, possibly with home- Israel lobby”). That conspiratorial type made nuclear devices)? That Now, this is where things get of thinking is one of the wouldn’t make any sense, now really confusing. Trump (who, early warning signs that would it? let’s remember, is Literally Hit- you have been infected with People would be so consumed ler, or was until he green-lit the antisemitism! Unless you act with fear and hatred that they attempted US coup in Venezue- now to protect yourself, before could hardly think. They might la) and the Republicans have you know it, you’ll be raving not even notice how they were now united with the Democrats about “the ruling classes”, “glo- being cynically manipulated, to denounce Ilhan Omar as a balist elites”, “austerity”. “neo- and were contributing to actual filthy antisemite, and possibly liberalism”, “the Israel lobby”, antisemitism by rendering the a full-fledged Islamic terrorist or even “Palestinians”. term devoid of any meaning. (or to condemn the existence of No, the sudden antisemitism “hate”, or something). pandemic theory makes a lot The corporate media, Face- So just put all that stuff out more sense. 20 book, and Twitter have been of your mind! This sudden an- So get out those vintage overtaken by hordes of angry tisemitism outbreak has noth- plague doctor masks, lock your antisemites accusing other ing to do with the War on Pop- critical thinking up in your antisemites of antisemitism. ulism that the global capitalist anti-antisemitism safe room, Congress is on the verge of ruling classes have been wag- and pull up Schindler’s List on convening a House Un-Israeli ing for the last two years. Netflix … oh, and don’t forget Activities Committee to inves- It’s not like the establish- to scour the Internet for any tigate anyone who might have ment would stoop so low as to criticism of the capitalist ruling ever trafficked in “antisemitic use antisemitism (and even the classes, or the corporate media, tropes”. holocaust!) as a cynical propa- or neoliberalism, or any other Meghan McCain was so hor- ganda ploy to delegitimise their antisemitic tropes! CT rified by the hateful, antisemitic myriad opponents and critics. things that Ilhan Omar never No, it’s much more believable CJ Hopkins is an award- said that she broke down blub- that an idiopathic, worldwide winning American playwright, bering on national television antisemitism pandemic erupt- novelist and political satirist and begged Joy Behar to call in ed, for no apparent reason, pre- based in Berlin. His plays a Rabbi to convert her to Juda- cisely as the capitalist ruling are published by Bloomsbury ism on the spot … which some classes were beginning to sus- Publishing (UK) and Broadway viewers found a bit unseemly. pect that they had a widespread Play Publishing (USA). His OK, I know, you’re probably “populist” insurgency on their debut novel, ZONE 23, is questioning the fact that this hands. published by Snoggsworthy, antisemitism pandemic just Plus, even if our democratic Swaine & Cormorant sprang up out of the ether one leaders, and the professional Paperbacks. He can be day, more or less in perfect sync journalists in the corporate reached at cjhopkins.com or with the Russian plot to destroy media, were, in fact, a bunch of consentfactory.org.

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net COVER STORY / 5

The commission found serious human rights violations that may constitute crimes against humanity and called on Israel to “Lift the blockade on Gaza with immediate effect, writes Robert Inlakesh UN report slams Israel’s Gaza massacres

he United Nations (UN) Here are the most important intentionally shot health work- Human Rights Council points concluded in the report: ers, despite seeing that they has released a power- l The commission found in were clearly marked as such”. ful report, on the Gaza the killings of 189 demonstra- l On the killings of journal- “Great Return March’ tors between 30 March and 31 ists, “the commission found rea- Tdemonstrations”, stating that December 2018, 183 were killed sonable grounds to believe that they have grounds to believe with live ammunition, including Israeli snipers shot journalists Israel committed International 35 children, three health work- intentionally, despite seeing 21 War Crimes against demon- ers and two members of the that they were clearly marked strators during “large-scale ci- Press. Only 29 of those killed as such”. vilian protests”. were members of Palestinian l The commission found that The 22-page document has armed groups. both male and female protes- been condemned by the Israeli l Only four Israeli snipers tors were shot in the groin. The government, as there is talk of were lightly injured; none were female victims told the commis- the country being brought to killed by demonstrators. sion they are now “unlikely to the International Court of Jus- l 23,313 Palestinian demon- be able to have children”. tice and tried for war crimes strators were injured during the l The policy of the Israeli and violations of International 2018 demonstrations, 6106 with Minister of Defense, was to Law against demonstrations live ammunition, “contributing deny passage to any person that “were civilian in nature”. to the highest toll of injuries injured during demonstrations, The commission conducted recorded in the Occupied Pales- causing unnecessary deaths 325 interviews and meetings tinian Territory since 2005”. and life changing injuries. with victims, witnesses, gov- l On the killing of child l According to the commis- ernment officials and members demonstrators, the commission sion, except in two possible of civil society, from all sides, found “reasonable grounds to cases, “the use of live ammuni- and gathered more than 8,000 believe that Israeli snipers shot tion by Israeli security forces documents, including affidavits, them intentionally, knowing against demonstrators was medical reports, open source that they were children”. unlawful”. reports, social media content, l On the killing of health l Israel used a “dispropor- written submissions and expert workers, “the commission tionate use of force”. legal opinions, video and drone found reasonable grounds to l The “demonstrators were footage, and photographs”. believe that Israeli snipers shot in violation of their right

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net to life or of the principle of dis- Activities such as the use of “Bader, from Jabaliya, was tinction under international incendiary kites, cutting bar- killed by Israeli forces when humanitarian law”. bed wire or tire burning were they shot him in the head as he l The commission found organised by “self-declared” stood smoking a cigarette 300m “reasonable grounds to believe units. The report further states from the separation fence”. that the excessive use of force “the commission found no evi- by Israeli security forces vio- dence to suggest that they were Injury and murder of schoolgirl lated the rights” of thousands directed or coordinated by (13 years old) and Marwan of demonstrators who were armed groups”. Qudieh (45 years old) peaceful. The commission interviewed “Israeli forces injured a school- l The commission found what it called an international girl with bullet fragmentation. “reasonable grounds” to journalist who said, “I have As she lay on the ground, four believe that Israel violated The covered wars in Syria, Yem- men attempted to evacuate her. Convention on the Rights of the en, Libya. I have never seen The forces shot three of them, Child. anything like this. The slow killing Marwan Qudieh (45) l “Violations of internation- methodical shooting. It was just from Khuzaa village and injur- al law, such as those committed shocking…” ing a potato seller and another by Israeli security forces and The commission also noted man in the legs. One of the res- set out in this report, give rise that Israel refused to assist cuers had to have a leg ampu- to State responsibility…”. with the UN investigation and tated”. The commission found seri- did not “cooperate or provide ous human rights violations information”. Injury of Alaa Dali that may constitute crimes The following is a sample of (21 years old) 22 against humanity and called on the cases investigated by the “Alaa, a member of the Pales- Israel to “Lift the blockade on commission. tinian cycling team, was shot Gaza with immediate effect. by Israeli forces in the leg as he The often repeated Israeli March 30 demonstrations stood holding his bicycle, wear- claims of the protests being Injury of 17 Mohammed Ajouri ing his cycling kit, watching inspired and organised by (17 years old) the demonstrations, approxi- “Hamas terrorists”, were also “Israeli forces shot Mohammad, mately 300m from the separa- addressed in the report, which a student-athlete, in the back of tion fence. His right leg had to stated that the demonstrations his right leg as he gave onions to be amputated, ending his cy- were inspired by the internet demonstrators to relieve tear- cling career”. posts of 34-year-old Palestin- gas symptoms, approximately ian poet and journalist, Ahmed 300m from the fence. His leg May 14 demonstration, Abu Artema, with the demon- had to be amputated”. seven children killed strations being organised by “A “On 14 May, Israeli security higher national committee and The murder of Abdel Fatah forces shot and killed seven 12 subcommittees”. Nabi (18 years old) children: a girl, Wisal Khalil The report went on to say, “Israeli forces killed Abed, from (14), and six boys: Izzedine al- that “while the members of Beit Lahia, when they shot him Samak (13); Said al-Kheir (15); the committee held diverse in the back of the head as he Ahmad al-Sha’ar (15); Talal Ma- political views, they stated that ran, carrying a tyre, away from tar (15); Saadi Abu Salah (16); their unifying element was the and about 400m from the sepa- and Ibrahim al-Zarqa (17)”. principle that the march was to ration fence”. be “fully peaceful from begin- The murder of Mohammad ning to end” and demonstrators The murder of Bader Sabagh Najar (33 years old) would be unarmed”. (19 years old) “Israeli forces shot Mohammad,

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net a naval police officer, in for a documentary. He was the chest, killing him, wearing a blue helmet and as he sat on a hill with a a dark blue bulletproof vest friend, around 500m from clearly marked “Press”. He the separation fence”. died the following day”.

The murder of Yasser Amputation of Abed Nofal Abu Naja (11 years old) (11 years old) “On 29 June, Israeli forces “On 17 April, Abed, a killed Yasser from Khan schoolboy from the Bureij Younis with a shot to the refugee camp, was shot by head as he was hiding Israeli forces while he was with two friends behind playing football near the a bin, approximately separation fence. His leg 200m from the separation had to be amputated”. fence. The children had The extended version been chanting national of the report is set to be slogans at Israeli forces”. Yaser Murtaja was shot by an Israeli sniper, de- released on March 18, 2019. spite wearing a high visibility PRESS flak jacket The commission recom- The murder of Nasser and helmet. mended that UN members Mosabeh (11 years old) consider imposing indi- “Nasser was from Khan Younis. standing with other volunteer vidual sanctions, such as travel On 28 September, Israeli forces paramedics approximately bans or an asset freezes on those shot him in the back of the head 110m from the separation fence, responsible. CT 23 as he stood 250 m from the sepa- in the chest at the Khuzaa site, ration fence. He died the same east of Khan Younis. She died in Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, day”. hospital”. political analyst and human rights activist who specializes The murder of Razan Al-Najar The murder of Yasser Murtaja in delivering insight into (20 years old) (30 years old) the geopolitical scene of the “On 1 June, an Israeli sniper “On 6 April, Yasser, a journalist Middle East, specialising in bullet hit Razan, of the Pales- from Gaza City, was shot in the the political and humanitarian tinian Medical Relief Society lower abdomen by Israeli forces situation in Palestine. This and who at the time was wear- at the Khan Younis site while he report was first published at ing a white paramedic vest and was filming the demonstrations www.mintpressnews.com

Get your FREE subscription to ColdType Send an email to [email protected] – write subscribe in the subject line

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net It was considered one of the finest places to live in the old Soviet Union. Then the nuclear reactor melted down . . .

Railway Station, Village of Janov, October 1996 24 PrypiatDavid McMillan Inside the city that was left to die In 1994, I began photographing in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, an area created in the aftermath of the accident at the nuclear power plant. Within its millions of acres, there are fields left to lie fallow and cities and villages where the vestiges of the defunct Soviet Empire and the everyday remnants of the lives of the former citizenry

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Photos from Growth and Decay, by David McMillan, published by Steidl – www.steidl.de

It was considered one of the finest places to live in the old Soviet Union. Then the nuclear reactor melted down . . .

25

Sinking Boat on the Prypiat River, Chernobyl, October 1998

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net School, Village of Shipelicki, April 1995 remain. I’ve photographed almost exclusively within the city of Prypiat. Once home to 50,000 26 people, it was built to house the workers from the nuclear power plant, and several apartments were still under construction at the time of the accident. The city was considered one of the finest places to live in the former Soviet Union, with many schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, hospitals, and cultural facilities, but it will never be lived in again. Within this area, virtually untouched by civilisation since the 1986 accident, there have been dramatic changes that have become the subject of my photographs, particularly the proliferation of nature and

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Photos from Growth and Decay, by David McMillan, published by Steidl – www.steidl.de

27

Portrait of Lenin, Kindergarten, October 1997

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Lobby, Children’s Hospital, October 2012 the deterioration of the built environment. This is a tragic place, but one which continues 28 to offer mystery and surprise. – David McMillan, Introduction to Growth and Decay: Prypiat and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Growth and Decay: Prypiat and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone David McMillan Published by Steidl www.Steidl.de / $95

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Photos from Growth and Decay, by David McMillan, published by Steidl – www.steidl.de

29

Riverside Cafe, Prypiat, October 2016

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net If Julian Assange can stand up to Big Brother, so can you: so can all of us, writes John Pilger The prisoner who says ‘No’ to Big Brother

henever I visit Jul- the wall. This is how we catch ian Assange, we meet up: whispering and writing to in a room he knows each other on a notepad, which 30 too well. There is a he shields from the cameras. bare table and pic- Sometimes we laugh. Wtures of Ecuador on the walls. I have my designated time There is a bookcase where the slot. When that expires, the books never change. The cur- door in Room 101 bursts open tains are always drawn and and the guard says, “Time is there is no natural light. The air up!” On New Year’s Eve, I was is still and fetid. allowed an extra 30 minutes This is Room 101. and the man in the phone box Before I enter Room 101, I wished me a happy new year, must surrender my passport but not Julian. and phone. My pockets and Of course, Room 101 is the possessions are examined. The room in George Orwell’s pro- food I bring is inspected. phetic novel, 1984, where the The man who guards Room thought police watched and 101 sits in what looks like an tormented their prisoners, old-fashioned telephone box. and worse, until people surren- Australian, who has changed He watches a screen, watch- dered their humanity and prin- the way many people think ing Julian. There are others ciples and obeyed Big Brother. about duplicitous govern- unseen, agents of the state, Julian Assange will never ments. For this, he is a political watching and listening. obey Big Brother. His resilience refugee subjected to what the Cameras are everywhere in and courage are astonishing, United Nations calls “arbitrary Room 101. To avoid them, Julian even though his physical health detention”. manoeuvres us both into a cor- struggles to keep up. The UN says he has the right ner, side by side, flat up against Julian is a distinguished of free passage to freedom, but

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 31

Local hero: Graffiti on a wall in Sydney, Australia. Photo: Threthny, via Flickr.com this is denied. He has the right to record of accuracy and authen- For example: medical treatment without fear ticity which no newspaper, no Last month, the International of arrest, but this is denied. He TV channel, no radio station, Court of Justice ruled that the has the right to compensation, no BBC, no New York Times, British Government had no legal but this is denied. no Washington Post, no Guard- powers over the Chagos Island- As founder and editor of ian can equal. Indeed, it shames ers, who in the 1960s and 70s, WikiLeaks, his crime has been them. were expelled in secret from to make sense of dark times. That explains why he is being their homeland on Diego Garcia WikiLeaks has an impeccable punished. in the Indian Ocean and sent

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Karen Greenberg

Illustration: Antonio Marin Segovia Marin Antonio Illustration: into exile and poverty. Kremlin, telling us more Countless children died, about the machinations many of them, from sad- of power in that country ness. It was an epic crime than the specious hyster- few knew about. ics of the Russiagate pan- For almost 50 years, tomime in Washington. the British have denied This is real journal- the islanders’ the right to ism – journalism of a kind return to their homeland, now considered exotic: the which they had given to antithesis of Vichy jour- the Americans for a major nalism, which speaks for military base. the enemy of the people In 2009, the British For- and takes its sobriquet eign Office concocted a from the Vichy govern- “marine reserve” around ment that occupied France the Chagos archipelago. on behalf of the Nazis. This touching concern Vichy journalism is for the environment was censorship by omission, exposed as a fraud when such as the untold scandal WikiLeaks published a of the collusion between secret cable from the Brit- Australian governments ish Government reassur- and the United States ing the Americans that to deny Julian Assange 32 “the former inhabitants his rights as an Austral- would find it difficult, if ian citizen and to silence not possible, to pursue him. their claim for resettlement on a direct connection between In 2010, Prime Minister Julia the islands if the entire Chagos Clinton and organised jihadism Gillard went as far as ordering Archipelago were a marine in the Middle East: terrorists, the Australian Federal Police to reserve.” in other words. One email dis- investigate and hopefully pros- The truth of the conspiracy closed that when Clinton was ecute Assange and WikiLeaks clearly influenced the momen- US Secretary of State, she knew – until she was informed by the tous decision of the Internation- that Saudi Arabia and Qatar AFP that no crime had been al Court of Justice. were funding Islamic State, yet committed. she accepted huge donations for her foundation from both WikiLeaks has also revealed governments. Last month, the Sydney Morn- how the United States spies She then approved the ing Herald published a lav- on its allies; how the CIA can world’s biggest ever arms sale ish supplement promoting a watch you through your I- to her Saudi benefactors: arms celebration of “Me Too” at the phone; how Presidential can- that are currently being used Sydney Opera House on March didate Hillary Clinton took against the stricken people of 10. Among the leading par- vast sums of money from Wall Yemen. ticipants is the recently retired Street for secret speeches that That explains why he is being Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ju- reassured the bankers that if punished. lie Bishop. she was elected, she would be WikiLeaks has also pub- Bishop has been on show in their friend. lished more than 800,000 secret the local media lately, lauded as In 2016, WikiLeaks revealed files from Russia, including the a loss to politics: an “icon”, some-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Karen Greenberg

one called her, to The persecution of Julian Assange is the persecution in be admired. Bahrain, is ca- The elevation conquest of us all: of our independence, pable of bring- to celebrity femi- our self respect, our intellect, our compassion, ing home Julian nism of one so Assange. politically primi- our politics, our culture The refusal tive as Bishop . by the Depart- tells us how much ment of Foreign so-called identity politics have present a diplomatic solution Affairs in Canberra to honour subverted an essential, objective that would bring Julian home. the United Nations’ declaration truth: that what matters, above But this required the courage that Julian is the victim of “arbi- all, is not your gender but the of one proud to represent a sov- trary detention”, and has a fun- class you serve. ereign, independent state, not a damental right to his freedom, Before she entered politics, vassal. is a shameful breach of the letter Julie Bishop was a lawyer who Instead, she made no attempt and spirit of international law. served the notorious asbestos to contradict the British For- Why has the Australian miner James Hardie which eign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, government made no serious fought claims by men and their when he said outrageously that attempt to free Assange? Why families dying horribly with Julian “faced serious charges”. did Julie Bishop bow to the asbestosis. What charges? There were no wishes of two foreign powers? Lawyer Peter Gordon recalls charges. Why is this democracy traduced Bishop “rhetorically asking the Australia’s Foreign Minister by its servile relationships, and court why workers should be abandoned her duty to speak integrated with lawless foreign entitled to jump court queues up for an Australian citizen, power? 33 just because they were dying.” prosecuted with nothing, The persecution of Julian Bishop says she “acted on charged with nothing, guilty of Assange is the conquest of us instructions ... professionally nothing. all: of our independence, our and ethically”. Will those feminists who fawn self respect, our intellect, our Perhaps she was merely “act- over this false icon at the Opera compassion, our politics, our ing on instructions” when she House be reminded of her role in culture. flew to London and Washington colluding with foreign forces to So stop scrolling. Organise. last year with her ministerial punish an Australian journalist, Occupy. Insist. Persist. Make chief of staff, who had indicated one whose work has revealed a noise. Take direct action. Be that the Australian Foreign Min- that rapacious militarism has brave and stay brave. Defy the ister would raise Julian’s case smashed the lives of millions thought police. and hopefully begin the diplo- of ordinary women in many War is not peace, freedom matic process of bringing him countries: in Iraq alone, the US- is not slavery, ignorance is not home. led invasion of that country, in strength. If Julian can stand up Julian’s father had written a which Australia participated, to Big Brother, so can you: so can moving letter to the then Prime left 700,000 widows. all of us. CT Minister Malcolm Turnbull, ask- ing the government to intervene John Pilger gave this speech at a diplomatically to free his son. He So what can be done? An Aus- rally organised by the Socialist told Turnbull that he was wor- tralian government that was Equality Party for Julian ried Julian might not leave the prepared to act in response to Assange in Sydney on March embassy alive. a public campaign to rescue the 3. Read more of John Pilger’s Julie Bishop had every oppor- refugee football player, Hakeem award-winning work at his tunity in the UK and the US to al-Araibi, from torture and website, www.johnpilger.com

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 34 A shrine to the Monkey King in a shaman’s house at Vinh Chau. Linh Dinh takes a trip to the shaman’s surgery, where people pay tribute to the Monkey King and the shaman sits on a bed of sharp nails Monkey business

fter three weeks in white poodle demands attention. year. My brother in law is very Saigon for Tet, I’m back I pet him. She brings me my cof- superstitious. To reverse some in Ea Kly. It’s 5:33am as fee and tea. Two long distance business setbacks, he had a back I begin this, and I’ll type buses pause in the dark. tattoo etched with a sadistically until 6:45, to begin my After Tet, most Vietnamese long needle for half an hour by a Awork day at the plastic recy- businesses reopen with a cer- renown monk in Thailand, and cling plant. emonial food offering to the God magical charms given to him As usual, I sit at Mrs. Ha’s of Prosperity [Ông Than Tài] by a Teochew shaman in Vinh cafe. I’m her first customer. and God of the Soil [Ông Đja], Chau, 125 miles south of Saigon. Unlike Saigon, it’s chilly here. two Chinese deities, and the This shaman only sees people Appearing suddenly from the date has to be carefully chosen, by special recommendations and shadow between my thighs, her to ensure success for the coming charges no fees, though grate-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 35 The shaman is about to land hard on chair of nails. ful supplicants will bring gifts. lennia, the Chinese have many ion was Lloyd Luntz, a 6ft 9in, He can channel the Monkey legends tracing their roots to red-headed New York Jew, who King, it is said, but isn’t that a monkeys. simply freaked out the back- fictional character? Yes, but the woods locals. Kids ran up to Monkey King is based on Chi- pull the hair on his arms. nese mythology, so those who There are tales of monkeys Being on the coast, Vinh worship him insist there is such turning into a man or woman Chau was the starting point a god, as real as any, and there to have sex with humans, or for thousands of boat people, are perhaps a thousand temples become a Buddha. Magical so many natives escaped. Pros- dedicated to the Monkey King monkeys abound, but the most pering in the USA, Canada and across the Chinese universe, badass is the Monkey King, Australia, they’ve sent lots of with most of them in Fuzhou. for he can shape shift, walk money back, transforming their Communists couldn’t stand on water or through the earth, hometown. this. Trying to eradicate tradi- stop rivers, grab the moon, The shaman’s house is tional religions and cults, they transfer his pain onto your 50 yards from a road. I half destroyed countless temples, body, give you nightmares, expected to find some scowl- including those worshipping the divide himself to confuse en- ing, intimidating dude, but only Monkey King, but in China and emies and grow another head found a half dozen middle aged Vietnam, all these folk beliefs if he’s decapitated. men, sitting cross legged on a have made a huge come back. Very few people go to Vinh wooden bed, drinking tea. The You must honour your ances- Chau, but I made my first visit sun there is fierce, so people tors. Predating Darwin by mil- in 1998. My travelling compan- tend to be darker, but one bare-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net chested, white bearded guy was my cheeks painlessly, maybe I the garbage. Both her parents particularly dark. That’s the can become a shaman also, but work for us. Every so often, we shaman. just for thinking that, I will like- get a kid inside our plant, and I His concrete house was mod- ly be disfigured, if not killed, this try to humour them with cook- est and rather ugly, his wife year, so should it happen, you ies or candies. With heavy bags and kids were cheaply dressed can trace it to this blasphemous being moved about and bottles and there was a shallow bamboo sentence. “Fuck your mother!” of insecticides among our recy- basket where six puny fish and Forgive me, Monkey King. clables, this environment is not three flayed frogs were being Each in our party of six left exactly child friendly, but Rabbit dried, probably to make rousong. with magical charms, and the is reasonably well behaved and At a nearby patch, rows of pur- shaman also granted our plastic rarely throws a tantrum. Next ple onions waited to be uprooted. recycling plant strips of paper to broken dolls, a “HAPPY” In the distance, a spired Cambo- imbued with supernatural pow- rooster, brightly coloured combs dian grave magnificently rose. er, to be posted at strategic loca- and a matchbox sized shopping We entered a small-yet-elabo- tions. Most importantly, we got cart, she fusses with a tiny oven. rate shrine to the Monkey King, our lucky reopening date. “Make me some food,” I tell her. with murals on the walls illus- “I’m hungry!” trating episodes from Journey 9:34am. After the last paragraph, Rabbit looks up, “What will to the West. we’ve unloaded two truckloads you have, Uncle Linh?” Being seeing us, the sha- of plastic garbage, and the work “Broken rice with pork man had to take care of a man day is going reasonably smooth- chops.” who was made to sit on a chair ly. By reopening a bit later than “Lots of vegetables?” of nails, as the still bare-chest- expected, we lost a handful of “Lots!” 36 ed holy man shouted abuses at workers, for they simply couldn’t She’s wearing a red muscle him, with “fuck your mother” a hang around without an income. T-shirt with a tiara-crowned constant refrain. Enduring the Also, Mr. Cuc is hospitalised, blonde mermaid holding a sea- ordeal, the distressed benefici- thanks to decades of heavy horse, and, “Friends love wheres ary was actually the police chief drinking. YOU find them.” Even if the Eng- of Bac Lieu Province. In Vietnam, Though he’s our oldest work- lish was good, no one here could an official of that rank can expect er at 58, he seriously hauled decipher it anyway. It’s just cool to rake in lots of illicit loots, and ass. Mrs Vinh is also not likely to be adorned with the language make plenty of enemies, so some- to return, for she continues to of that most magical place, body must have put a curse on suffer beatings by her husband. America, where everything, as him, hence this exorcism. “Fuck The laws can’t prosecute since projected, is beyond real, and your mother!” she won’t report these abuses. the further you are from it, the Performing his rituals, it’s A few times, her male relatives more fantastic it becomes. standard for the shaman to pierce have come over to rough up her On the way back to Ea Kly, his cheeks with two long rods, husband in retaliation, but they we passed a town, Kin Đuc, that without drawing blood. can’t keep doing that unless Mrs. seemed oddly desolate, with He knelt, prayed, waved a fan, Vinh wants them to. Black and many restaurants empty or out spoke in Vietnamese and Teo- blue, she stands by her man. In of business. chew, wrote magical charms the US, too, I know women like “They must have suffered a in red ink with a brush and this. bad season,” my brother in law answered questions about our concluded. futures, along this line, “Your “What do they grow here?” I break won’t come this year, but As I type, a small girl, nick- asked. you must be patient. Don’t lose named Rabbit, plays behind me, “Sichuan pepper [tiêu] and heart”. If I can learn to puncture with plastic toys scavenged from cashews [điu].”

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 37 Rabbit playing with found plastic toys while her mom works in the plastic recycling plant.

Since “tiêu điêu” in Vietnam- mon sense, for otherwise, they Marx is a false god, conclude ese is also “desolation,” I joked, wouldn’t be able to survive or most Vietnamese, so now you “That’s what they get for grow- even thrive. Take my brother- can drive hundreds of miles ing desolation. They should in-law. Though prone to mumbo here without encountering his switch to growing apricots jumbo, the 43-year-old has risen bearded face once, but every- [mai] and making fermented from nothing to become a mil- where, temples and churches fish [mam].” lionaire, with his main business are being built, and statues of Mai mam, you see, sounds a the making of plastic crates Guanyin, Jesus and the Virgin bit like “may man,” or “lucky”. that are exported to Thailand. Mary front millions of homes. Vietnamese think like that. Two years ago, he travelled to Vietnamese breathe easier Since mai alone also means India to explore the possibilities because the state no longer lucky, most Vietnamese over- of exporting organic Vietnam- micro manages their lives or, spend during Tet to buy at least ese fruits and vegetables. worse, try to control their every one apricot tree in blossom, to There is much that is irration- thought. Surely, that’s the worst ensure good luck for the rest of al or fantastical in every society, evil. CT the year. It’s an absurd belief, with some beliefs imposed from but that’s culture for you. above, sometimes abruptly, Linh Dinh’s latest book The Vietnamese suscepti- even violently. The worst beliefs is Postcards from the End bility to magic is more than aren’t just costly, but suicidal, of America. He maintains a counterbalanced by a clear but you can’t see what’s killing regularly updated photo blog at headed practicality and com- you if you’re mesmerised. www.linhdinhphotos.blogspot.ca

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net J Andrew Deman tells how an X-Men writer’s vision led to the creation of binge-worthy, character-driven TV from Buffy to Game of Thrones The comic that inspired modern television

quiet revolution has Claremont took over as the new sion the next week at the same occurred within all of writer of X-men. time to see the next episode. our homes, one that has Claremont expected the job With the rise of VHS or DVD fundamentally altered to last six issues, but he instead boxed sets, personal video the way we watch televi- wound up writing the series for recorders and later, stream- Asion. 16 consecutive years. ing services, television was set Given the North American In that time, X-Men went free to use long-form continu- 38 love of television, it is not hyper- from a B-list title to the best- ity-based storytelling. Those bole to say this revolution has selling comic book in the world, stories featured more complex had a notable effect on our lives, and Claremont holds the Guin- character dynamics within our culture and our identities. ness World Record for the best- more continuous, open-ended It is strange to consider that we selling single issue comic of all- plots and structures. might owe a great deal of these time: X-Men (vol 2) #1. As a result of this transi- cultural changes to the work of tion, the way most of the globe a single X-Men comics writer. consumed television changed This writer played a sig- All of this is established com- within a very short period of nificant role in developing the ics history. What does it have time. This shift led us from self- long-form storytelling tech- to do with television? contained, non-continuous sto- niques that have since found By the late 1990s, television ries to the very concept of being their way into everything from had begun a transition. Accord- “binge-worthy”. Buffy the Vampire Slayer to ing to culturalist Jimmie This same type of transi- Game of Thrones to Stranger Reeves and his colleagues, TV tion is exactly what Claremont Things. started “programming forms contributed to comics, decades In the 1960s, X-Men com- that inspire devoted rather than prior. ics were a failure for Marvel, casual engagement.” When Claremont started on despite boasting the creative Before this, TV was depend- X-Men in 1975, comics were also pairing of Stan Lee and Jack ant on broadcast scheduling and written for a casual audience. Kirby. After 63 issues, the had to be designed to be acces- Stan Lee is famously quoted as series was effectively cancelled sible to casual viewers. This saying: “Every comic book is and left in limbo for five years. was simply because there was someone’s first.” Casual engage- Then in 1975, a 24-year-old edi- no way to guarantee audiences ment needed to be woven into torial assistant named Chris would be in front of their televi- the books. That was the sta-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 39 tus quo and creators were not put it, “the allowed to drift too far from it. soapiest soap Chris Claremont took X-Man from B-list tltle to the But Claremont was not inter- saga ever put best-selling comic book in the world. ested in telling the same stories forth by the over and over, and because he House of Ideas, filled with ago- not have created Buffy or Angel wrote X-Men for 16 years, he nised romances, self-confidence were it not for Claremont’s covered a lot of stories. This crises, lectures on morality, X-men.” necessitated a new approach psychic scars, and worrying.” Similarly, comics historian to writing, one that allowed for Jason Powell believes Whedon’s change: new characters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is “an new directions. In light of this, If these elements sound famil- avowed K itty P ryde [a character Claremont’s X-Men were con- iar, they should. Most of our Claremont created for X-men] stantly changing and growing current television programs analogue, and an entire season in a way that did not conform to use the same components to of Buffy riffed on Claremont’s Stan Lee’s mandate. build their devoted followings. Dark Phoenix Saga.” Claremont’s growth of writ- The most direct successor The same can be said for ing style was rooted in an inter- of Claremont’s work is Joss an entire season of Whedon’s est in character over plot. Com- Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Angel, which used Claremont’s ics historian Sean Howe noted: Slayer. According to cultural Illyana Rasputin character as “All Claremont cared about critic Geoff Klock, Claremont’s the basis for a long arc about were the emotional relation- influence “looms too large for Angel’s son, Connor. Whedon ships of his characters.” As a many to see. A lot of folks don’t is quite open about how Clare- result, X-Men became, as Howe know that Joss Whedon would mont inspired him, and Buffy is

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net frequently cited as a touchstone use of women in his stories was, because he refused to comply moment in the development according to Powell, “ahead of its with an editorial mandate that of long-form storytelling in time 30 years ago, and modern requested a return to status television. comics are still catching up.” quo, to casual engagement all Beyond this direct influence, over again. Claremont’s techniques are vis- His greatest accomplishment ible among the best-loved televi- His cultivation of strong fe- — developing ways by which sion series within this current male characters such as Storm, a character-based story could golden age: nested story struc- Carol Danvers, Rogue, Colleen unfold slowly over time — was, tures, drawn-out mysteries, Wing, Misty Knight, Phoenix ironically, what cost him his character melodrama and dys- and Psylocke set a new stand- job. But if our current television functional collectives that have ard for action heroines in popu- landscape is any indication, our to put aside their differences to lar culture as a whole, one that culture has profited greatly defeat a common foe. manifests readily in some of from the choices Claremont The only thing missing is the great, badass heroines pop- made, and from the ingenuity the yellow tights. Perceived as ulating our screens today. that followed those choices. CT a whole, Claremont’s work con- When Claremont was finally structed a sort of long-form sto- pushed out of X-Men comics, he J. Andrew Deman is a professor, rytelling toolbox, one that our was the No. 1 comics writer in at the University of Waterloo, TV creators have been dipping the world. Canada. This article into ever since. He wasn’t pushed out because was first published at Additionally, Claremont’s he was failing at his job, but www.theconversation.com

40

Get your FREE subscription to ColdType Send an email to [email protected] – write subscribe in the subject line

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net 41

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Nuclear powers need to disarm before we get caught up in the after-effects of a ‘limited’ nuclear war, writes Conn Hallinan Dodging nukes in South Asia

he recent military clash While over the years the On the New Delhi side is a between India and Pa- Americans and the Russians doctrine called “Cold Start” kistan underscores the have reduced the number of that permits the Indian military need for the major nucle- warheads in their arsenals, to penetrate up to 30 kilometers ar powers – the US, Rus- they – along with China – are into Pakistan if it locates, or is Tsia, China, Britain and France currently in the midst of a major in pursuit of, “terrorists”. – finally to move toward fulfill- modernisation of their weapon On the Islamabad side is 42 ing their obligations under the systems. Instead of a world a policy that gives front-line 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation without nuclear weapons, it is Pakistani commanders the Treaty (NPT). a world of nuclear apartheid, authority to use tactical nuclear The Treaty’s purpose was with the great powers mak- weapons. not simply to prevent the spread ing no move to downsize their The possibility of a nuclear of nuclear weapons, but to serve conventional forces. For non- exchange is enhanced by the as a temporary measure until nuclear armed countries, this is disparity between India and Article VI could take effect: the the worst of all worlds. Pakistan’s military forces. One “cessation of the nuclear arms does not have to be Karl von race at an early date and to Clausewitz to predict the likely nuclear disarmament, and on a The folly of this approach was outcome of a conventional war Treaty on general and complete all too clear in the recent India between a country of 200-mil- disarmament under strict and and Pakistan dust-up. While lion people and a country of effective international control”. both sides appear to be keep- 1.3-billion people. The 191 countries that signed ing the crisis under control, Pakistan reserves the right the NPT – it is the most widely for the first time in a very long to use nuclear weapons first. subscribed nuclear treaty on the time, two nuclear powers that India has a “no first use” policy, planet – did so with the under- border one another exchanged but with so many caveats that standing that the major powers air and artillery attacks. it is essentially meaningless. In would de-nuclearise. But in the While so far things have not brief, it wouldn’t take much to 50 years since the Treaty was got out of hand, both countries ignite a nuclear war between negotiated, the nuclear powers recently introduced military them. have yet to seriously address policies that make the possibil- If that happens, its effects eliminating weapons of mass ity of a serious escalation very will not be just regional. destruction. real. According to a study by the

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net CIA map / Wikimedia map CIA University of Colo- invasion of Iraq. rado, Rutgers Uni- The ease with versity and UCLA, which US forces if Pakistan and dispatched the India exchanged Iraqi army was a 100 Hiroshima sobering lesson sized nuclear war- for many coun- heads (15 kilotons), tries. they would not In part, it is only kill or injure the conventional 45-million people, power of coun- but also generate tries like the US enough smoke to that fuels the plunge the world drive by smaller into a 25-year long n at ion s t o ac q u i r e nuclear winter. nuclear weapons. Both countries Libya is a case have between 130 in point. That and 150 warheads country volun- apiece. tarily gave up its Temperatures nuclear weapons would drop to program in 2003. Ice Age levels Less than seven and worldwide years later Mua- 43 rainfall would mmar Gaddafi decline by six per- Battle lines: The dispute between India and Pakistan was overthrown cent, triggering over Kashmir could become a nuclear nightmare. by the US and major droughts. NATO. At the The Asian Monsoon could be now only marginally fed might time, the North Koreans essen- reduced by between 20 and 80 die from starvation and disease tially said, “we told you so”. percent, causing widespread in the aftermath of a nuclear The NPT has done a gener- regional starvation. conflict between Pakistan and ally good job of halting prolif- Between the cold and the India.” eration. While Israel, Pakistan, drought, global grain produc- In short, there is no such India and North Korea obtained tion could fall by 20 percent in thing as a “local” nuclear war. nuclear weapons – the first the first half decade, and by 10 three never signed the Treaty to 15 percent over the following and North Korea withdrew in half decade. Article VI is the heart of the 2003 – South Africa abandoned Besides cold and drought, the NPT, because it not only re- its programme and other nucle- ozone loss would be between 20 quires abolishing nuclear ar capable nations like Japan, and 50 percent, which would weapons but also addresses the Brazil, Argentina, Iran, South not only further damage crops, fears that non-nuclear armed Korea and Saudi Arabia have but harm sea life, in particular nations have about the major not joined the nuclear club plankton. The reduction of the powers’ conventional forces. – yet. ozone layer would also increase A number of countries – China But it is hard to make a case the rate of skin cancers. in particular – were stunned for non-proliferation when the The study estimates that by the conventional firepower major nuclear powers insist on “two-billion people who are unleashed by the US in its 2003 keeping their nuclear arsenals.

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net And one can The international community must become the incident. It hardly blame is not unlikely smaller coun- involved in a solution to the Kashmir problem. that the attack tries for consid- Kashmir has already led to three wars between was homegrown ering nuclear India and Pakistan – the bomber weapons as a was Kashmiri counterbalance . – although possi- to the conven- bly aided by JeM. tional forces of more powerful This latest crisis started over It is also true that Pakistan does nations like the US and China. a February 14 suicide bombing not have total control over the If there is anything that might in I ndia n occupied Kashmir that myriad of militant groups that make Iran abandon its pledge killed more than 40 Indian para- operate within its borders. The not to build nuclear weapons, it militaries. While a horrendous Pakistani Army, for instance, is all the talk in Israel, the US act, the current government is at war with its homegrown and Saudi Arabia about regime of India’s brutal crackdown in Taliban. change in Teheran. Kashmir has stirred enormous The Kashmir question is a There are specific regional anger among the locals. complex one, but solutions are problems, the solutions to Kashmir is now one of the out there. The United Nations which would reduce the dan- most militarised regions in the originally pledged to sponsor a gers of a nuclear clash. The US world, and India dominates it plebiscite in Kashmir to let the has taken some steps in that through a combination of force local people decide if they want direction on the Korean Penin- and extra-judicial colonial laws to be part of India, Pakistan, or sula by downsizing its yearly – the Public Safety Act and the independent. Such a plebiscite 44 war games with South Korea Special Powers Act – that allows should go forward. What cannot and Japan. Declaring an end to it to jail people without charge continue is the ongoing military the almost 70-year old Korean and bestows immunity on the occupation of 10 million people, war and withdrawing some US actions of the Indian army, the most of whom don’t want India troops from South Korea would paramilitaries and the police. there. also reduce tensions. Kashmir is no longer a Halting the eastward expan- regional matter. Nuclear weap- sion of NATO and ending mili- Since 1989, the conflict has ons threaten not only Pakista- tary exercises on the Russian claimed more than 70,000 lives nis and Indians, but, indeed, the border would reduce the chanc- and seen tens of thousands of whole world. The major nuclear es of a nuclear war in Europe. others “disappeared”, injured powers must begin to move In South Asia, the interna- or imprisoned. toward fulfilling Article VI of tional community must become India blames the suicide the NPT, or sooner or later our involved in a solution to the attack on Pakistan, which has a luck will run out. CT Kashmir problem. Kashmir past track record of so doing. But has already led to three wars that might not be the case here. Conn Hallinan can be read at between India and Pakistan, Even though a Pakistani-based www.dispatchesfromthe and the 1999 Kargil incident terrorist organisation, Jaish-e- edgeblog.wordpress.com and came distressingly close to Mohammad (JeM) claims cred- at www.middleempireseries. going nuclear. it, both sides need to investigate wordpress.com

Get your FREE subscription to ColdType Send an email to [email protected] – write subscribe in the subject line

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net Insights

world’s second-largest for- tune, agrees: “The idea that there shouldn’t be billionaires – I’m afraid if you really imple- mented something like that, that the amount you would gain would be much less than the amount you would lose”. Gates doesn’t offer any evi- dence for that claim. Neither do Hiatt or any of the more froth- ing foes of moves to level down New statistical shell game the billionaire class. In fact, the only response to the billionaire abolitionist movement that for justifying billionaıres bothers to offer up any statisti- cal evidence on behalf of bil- By Sam Pizzigati lionaires has come from a small group of daring conservative analysts. These analysts are 45 merica’s billionaires case against billionaires as using the world’s most egalitar- have suddenly realised “irredeemably stupid”. Any ian nations – the Nordics that they just may be facing attempt to tax billionaires out conservatives typically love to A an existential crisis. A of existence, suggests three- hate – to argue that life with good chunk of the American comma investment banker Ken billionaires can be incredibly people, they now understand, Moelis, would surely “crush the sweet. would rather billionaires not economy”. Will Wilkinson, a self- exist. Every billionaire, as a key More sober defenders of the described “recovering Washing- aide of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- billionaires in our midst take care tonian” who used to labour at Cortez has famously quipped on to acknowledge the widening the Cato Institute, has penned his popular Twitter feed, repre- – and troubling – gap between the cleverest exposition of this sents “a policy failure”. The na- the fabulously wealthy and eve- billionaires-make-fine-neigh- tion needs, posits a recent New ryone else, but then urge us, all bours thesis. Wilkinson points York Times op-ed, to “abolish the same, to “think twice before out that the Scandinavian billionaires”. seeking to flatten every tycoon”. nations that progressives regu- Our more pugnacious bil- “It may seem counterintui- larly swoon over – egalitarian lionaires – and their devoted tive”, adds Washington Post edi- pace-setters like Sweden and admirers – have greeted this torial page editor Fred Hiatt, Norway – actually have more new abolitionist thrust with “but billionaires can be good billionaires per capita than predictable scorn. National for democracy, and a bulwark the billionaire-packed United Review columnist Kevin against tyranny”. States. Williamson has tagged the Bill Gates, the holder of the “So what’s the prob-

ColdType | March 2019 | www.coldtype.net

Insights

lem?” asks Wilkinson. “If there how deep that concentration stomp a much larger financial are billionaires in all the places goes, we need to look at more footprint than their Norwegian where people flourish best, why than the number of billionaires counterparts. think getting rid of them will a nation may host. We need In Scandinavia overall, make things go better?” to look at how many billions a economist Gabriel Zucman The American Enterprise nation’s billionaires hold. and his colleagues calculate, Institute’s James Pethokoukis Taking this step flips the the wealthiest 0.01 percent of points to the United Nations Nordic billionaire picture. Yes, households hold under 5 per- Human Development Index, a the Nordics may have more cent of their nations’ wealth. widely used metric for meas- billionaires per capita than the The comparable figure in the uring social well-being. Six United States. But those Nordic United States: just about 8 countries, he notes, outrank the billionaires have far fewer percent. United States on this well-being billions. But figures like these, index and have more billion- researchers at the Swiss bank aires per capita. These half- Credit Suisse point out, over- dozen nations include the three Consider Norway, for instance, state the level of Scandinavian most populous Nordics: Nor- the world’s highest-ranking na- inequality as average Scandina- way, Sweden, and Denmark. tion on the UN Human Develop- vians experience it – because Wilkinson and Pethokoukis ment Index. Scandinavians live in nations have not fudged any of these The latest global billionaire that work for working people. figures. The Scandinavian census, released earlier this In the United States, average 46 countries do have more billion- week in China, counts 10 dollar- families are constantly feeling aires per capita than the United billionaires in Norway, down pressured to set aside limited States. And the Scandinavian one from last year’s Hurun paycheck dollars for college countries do rate highly on all Global Rich List. Not one of tuition or unexpected medical the standard measures of social these 10 Norwegian billionaires expenses or a home downpay- well-being, as the British epide- ranks among the world’s 100 ment. In Scandinavia, average miologists Richard Wilkinson richest billionaires, an elite club families face no such pressure and Kate Pickett have com- that requires at least a $13-bil- to slash daily living expenses pellingly documented, most lion fortune to enter. and save. Why the difference? recently in their new book, The Forbes magazine won’t In Scandinavia, Credit Inner Level: How More Equal release its 2019 annual Suisse explains, “strong social Societies Reduce Stress, Restore global billionaires tally security programs, good public Sanity and Improve Everyone’s until later this month. Last pensions, free higher educa- Well-Being. year’s Forbes list gave the tion or generous student loans, Does all this mean, as con- largest Norwegian private unemployment and health servative analysts delightedly fortune to retailer Odd Reitan, insurance can greatly reduce advise, that Americans have at $6.6-billion. Norway’s billion- the need for personal financial no reason to worry about our aires last year, the Forbes fig- assets”. own billionaires, no reason ures indicate, held a combined And public housing pro- to flatten their fortunes? Not fortune of $39.1-billion. grams in Scandinavia take the really. Counting the number By contrast, 16 US billion- pressure off saving for a down of billionaires in a nation can aires individually held more payment. That leaves “the mid- give us a vivid anecdotal sense wealth than all of Norway’s bil- dle and lower classes”, adds of how concentrated a nation’s lionaires combined. American Credit Suisse, with “no pressing wealth has become. But to see billionaires, in other words, need for personal saving”. They

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net

Insights can use more of their incomes the other Nordic nations rated as you’ve followed the story in Brit- instead to enrich the lives they deeply unequal – and unpleas- ain’s mass media. In fact, the and their loved ones lead. ant – nations for most of their more you’ve read, the more con- The result? Less stress, populations. But mass social fused you’re likely now to be. better health, and longer lives movements across Scandinavia There are some things I do than people enjoy in the United changed all that and forged know, however. States, where billionaires societies that have flourished for The first is that the Russian and the rest of the awesomely almost all within them since the state had as little to gain from affluent have the wealth and years of the Great Depression. attacking this pair in broad day- power to rig the economy at the In today’s deeply unequal light on a Salisbury street with expense of average working world, Scandinavian activists a signature Soviet-developed families. readily recognize, egalitarians weapon, ‘novichok,’ as I said at Scandinavia’s billionaires, can’t take for granted what ear- the time. to be sure, have some power, lier generations achieved. They It was exactly 100 days before too. In Norway a half-dozen need to work at protecting the the World Cup, just days before years ago, a coalition govern- equality those generations fought President Putin’s re-election. If ment they supported ended the so diligently to forge. Billionaires, – and it’s a big if – the Russian Norwegian inheritance tax. even lowly ones, make that work state wanted to kill the Skripals, That move would assure bil- harder. CT many things would’ve been lionaire status for the young different. Norwegian woman who now Sam Pizzigati is an associate Firstly, they would’ve been ranks as the world’s youngest fellow at the Institute dead. Yulia would’ve been dead 47 billionaire, the 22-year-old heir- for Policy Studies. This in Russia where she lived. And ess Alexandra Andresen. article first appeared at Sergei would’ve been dispatched A century ago, Norway and www.otherwords.org at a less sensitive time by rather more reliable, less identifiable means, and by rather less comi- cal killers. The killers would not have Britain puts new roof on flown directly from and back to Moscow. They would not have entrusted their egress to the Skripal house of horrors Sunday service of Wiltshire By George Galloway public transport. They would not have smiled up at every CCTV camera they could find. n 12 months of shifting of course where they are. They would not have stayed at sands, one thing remains as One year ago, a nerve agent a downscale small hotel in East its original foundations: the was allegedly sprayed onto their London, they would not have British state narrative on front doorknob. One year later, smoked drugs there, and they Salisbury stands as a castle their house needs a new roof as would not have noisily enter- Iin the air. a result. And why the roof? And tained a prostitute in their room. One year from the dastardly why only the roof? They would not have left traces fate of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, I don’t know what happened of their nerve agent in their no one is a step forward on what to the stricken pair but then, hotel room. They would not have happened to them, how, why, or neither do you, however much spent a mere hour scoping Salis-

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net

Insights

bury the day before the alleged the restaurant? If Detective Ser- Their answers were swift and poisoning of the Skripals. Nor geant Nick Bailey was affected, have had serious consequences would they have returned by why wasn’t the first responder? for Russia, for Britain, and for public transport to London for How come the first responder the world. That they have made their sex and drug party, only turned out to be a most senior no effort to persuade a highly to retrace their steps by public British Army nurse? skeptical British public, relying transport the next day. Why did the police wait on crude methods of informa- If they were going to kill a months before publishing the tion warfare instead, is a further man and his daughter, they likenesses of the two chief reason why I and many others would not have trusted nerve suspects? simply don’t believe them. agent on a doorknob when If the Skripals were merely Neither will history, if I’m any there was no conceivable way victims, why have they been judge. of knowing who’s hand would hidden, why haven’t they told us Journalism – history’s first touch it. Yulia? Sergei? The what happened? draft – is easy to purloin when milkman? Any Tom, Dick or Why was there a second bot- most journalists haven’t the Harry in the street (or any of tle of perfume? How did it get time, inclination or resources their children)? into the hands of Dawn Stur- to question the state – espe- If they were going to smear gess? Why would the assassins cially inclination. History nerve agent on a doorknob, they need two bottles of perfume? books though, grind exceed- would’ve done it in the dark – Why and where did they discard ingly fine. CT not at noon the next day, when the second, unopened, bottle? 48 anyone or any camera could Believe me, I could adumbrate George Galloway was a member watch them doing so, yet no one 500 questions more but you’d be of the British Parliament for did. Quite apart from the salient dropped down at your door if I nearly 30 years. He presents TV fact that by noon the victims did – from fatigue! and radio shows (including on had already left the house never Suffice to say, there are way RT). He is a film-maker, writer to return to it. more questions than answers in and a renowned orator. If the Skripals were merely the Skripal story. But not for the This article first appeared at victims in this case, why were British government. www.rt.com both of their phones switched off in the hours between leaving their home and their afternoon repast. How did they manage to ‘In a mirror darkly’ – happily feed ducks in the park with bread between drinks and lunch, and share that bread The mirror that is Trump with a local child – but neither child nor ducks suffered any ill By Emanuele Corso effects? If they left home early that ikipedia offers that, useful purposes, to see oneself morning, why were no signs of “…the first mirrors used “as others see us”. A historian illness observed until after the by humans were most of mirrors cites Socrates who pub and the restaurant at least W likely pools of dark, still thought, “the mirror can aid five hours later? If the roof of water, or water collected in a moral meditation between man the Skripals’ house has to be vessel of some sort”. Mirrors and himself”. The reflected im- replaced, why not the roof of fascinate as much as they serve age, in one way or another, both

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net

Insights fascinates and serves utilitarian that you? Are those your neigh- but very different from what purposes. Whether an ancient bours? Your fellow Americans? we have become today. This human looking into a deep dark “For now we see in a mir- memory is the mirror I look into pool of still water recognis- ror, darkly; but then face to when attempting to understand ing himself or a modern man face: now I know in part; but the complexity of these times. making sure he has shaved the then shall I know fully even as And what do we see? last errant hair from his face, also I was fully known”. Corin- Are we ready to go face to “There I am!” and now, here I go thians 13:12 face with what our nation is into the world, ready for the day, becoming? Is that really us ready for what’s to come. reflected or merely some minor- Another mirror is a nation’s On November 4th, 1944, when ity of loud demonstrative fellow reflection in its leaders. Societies I was six, my mother and I took Americans riled up to some have had their “finest hours” the short city bus ride from kind of fever pitch by an unscru- under the leadership of men Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, pulous political cheer leader? such as Winston Churchill and to Springfield where we stood And if immigrants are today’s John F Kennedy. On the other below the railroad station’s targets who will be tomorrows? hand, it often takes extraordi- great stone arch. There was You perhaps? Your neighbours nary courage to look into a dark an enormous crowd packed and people of colour in the mirror to learn what has become elbow to elbow stretching back supermarket? My grandparents of one’s society or what has for several blocks. On that day, on both sides were immigrants been there all along but we have Franklin D Roosevelt who and the stories they told reflect- avoided looking at it. We all age, had confronted the 1929-1939 ed the rejection and ridicule 49 of course, and in that outward Great Depression and created they faced not unlike what we reflected image we can see what the New Deal, was greeted by are witnessing now. Today, how- we have become. Looking into working people who, like my ever, the Cheerleader-In-Chief the mirror that represents cur- parents, had suffered through is the President of the United rent events and the conduct of the Great Depression. At the States and his audience are the our societies presents another rampart of the overpass the descendants of the same earlier range of similar possibilities. great man appeared, by then immigrants. Surely this can- For example, a crowd chanting afflicted by polio, and was not not truly be what we have full-throat, “Lock her up!” is greeted with the most tumultu- become, what we are as a peo- one of those mirrors. View his- ous expression of respect and ple, as a nation. What is at stake torical newsreels of Hitler and affection I have experienced. is basic respect for your fellow Mussolini working their crowds There was no resentment, no Americans, our immigrant fore- with similar tactics – identify an anger, only respect and grati- bears, our fellow human beings, enemy, vilify them, follow the tude for the better future he and ourselves. And, if for no leader into a future where they had nurtured. This was the other reason than that, we must will be dealt with, you can see America that defined my basic live with each other or fail as a the pattern. All of those events understanding of our social nation. CT and consequences are mirrors contract, my social reality. of their societies. And so now we This was the America I grew Emanuele Corso taught at have come full circle in the land up in. This was the country I the University of Wisconsin- of the brave and the home of the eventually joined the military Madison where he took his PhD free to a mirror held up by the to serve. It was a very different and three Master’s degrees. current president. Take a look. country, certainly not equal for He can be reached at ecorso@ Do you like what you see? Is all, certainly not without fault earthlink.net

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net

Insights

and earthy and felt a natural nurturing from them, a com- fort that put me at ease. They looked at me as if I was some- body of value, and that allowed me to actually like myself at a discontented time in my life. There were five of them, all from Memphis, and when we docked in Memphis for a layover their grown-up sons and daughters picked them up and toted their suitcases. The ship’s chef, also from Memphis, told me that most of the maids on the Queen had grown up in Mississippi sharecropping cotton and had later moved to Memphis to do domestic work Kamala Harris: My pick for the Democratic ticket. while raising their children. At night the crew’s dining 50 room became the place to listen It’s time for black women to music and chat. The maids always sat at together and endured the wisecracks from to rule the United States cocky porters – once, a lady named Dolores slapped one in By Dell Franklin the face so hard that the sound reverberated throughout the cramped dining room. These obody has had it tough- were the backbone of the majes- churchgoing ladies, who sent er than black women in tic queen of the river. most of their paychecks home the United States, and The maids all seemed to but dressed up to go to lunch N nobody is tougher. be in their forties and, when- when we hit New Orleans, were In 1969, I was 25 years old, ever I ran into one of them, not to mess with. and in New Orleans, hired off they always smiled, and said, A waiter called Davis, a the street as ship’s storekeeper “Hi, mistah sto’keepah, how former Pullman porter who’d on the Delta Queen riverboat – y’all doing today?” I always played baseball in the negro the last stern-wheeler to ply the answered, “Just fine, ma’am. leagues and was still spry as a Mississippi and Ohio Rivers as How are you?” 25-year-old in his fifties, took a passenger carrying vessel – As time went on, they me under his wing as a sort the only white face, other than found humour in my bearded of mentor, smartened me up, the officers and two engineers. sloppy appearance, giggling and took me to a blues club in Porters, deck hands, bartend- in a fond, motherly way, nod- Memphis where he promised to ers, waiters, the kitchen crew ding and always making eye show me the “real blues”, some- and maids were all black, and contact. I found them sensuous thing of which I knew nothing,

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net

Insights being atypical whitey raised Now, in the year 2019, they wealthy white people. They on generic rock ’n’ roll in Los have emerged as the bedrock were seen as background Angeles. of the Democratic Party, the objects, always in support, Three of the maids and single last hope for this coun- and surely never groomed for three of the waiters came along try. Those bad times also made greatness, unless they were and we brought in our own them 10 times tougher than the entertainers or athletes. bottles and sat at a long table old pasty-faced, saggy-jowled No more. Now there is in the dimly-lit, packed blues white Republicans who are burgeoning pride among club and listened to the grating presently disgracing them- these gals, led by the likes of shiver of guitars, the groaning selves and the country in the powerful black women who of a harmonica, the constant present Trump government. have been through it all. As a beat of drums, the deep rasp consequence, they are tougher of a singer, and the melding than anybody in this country, of down home blues from the Out of this ongoing morass know how to talk to people Delta. It was the saddest music came the likes of Oprah, Kama- eloquently on a human level, I’d ever heard, yet I’d never la Harris, Michelle Obama, Sta- and shimmer with pride at seen people so happy partying cey Abrams, and Maxine Wa- who they are and what they’ve to it. ters. Only a fool would want to accomplished. Behind them, Dolores forced me onto the tangle with any of them on an in a massive show of genuine floor to dance with the black intellectual or common sense black pride, are all the black folk, who made me feel lame level. These spirited women women in this country who and awkward as they moved are the spawn of a world where have come so far and have 51 about so easily to the music. black mothers were often sad- these dynamic leaders to look “Don’t y’all be shy now, mis- dled with men humiliated by up to and follow. tah sto’keepah, jes’ follow mah a system that offered them lit- That’s why I say, Put Kama- lead, chile”. tle compared to the white man la Harris on the Democratic Dolores got me moving and and beat them down further ticket for the next election, into the swing of things, mak- when they were rejected for She’ll carry whomever else ing me forgetting my self-con- the colour of their skin, and is on it. It’s time black women sciousness. She did it without educated in crappy schools that stood together behind a black saying a word, merely nodding offered them little but crappy female leader and explained in and smiling and encouraging jobs, crappy wages – or no jobs passionate terms just exactly me. at all. what they’ve endured, and At one point, I asked her, In most cases, the women why they have earned the right “Dolores, I’ve never seen peo- held everything together. to lead this country against ple have so much fun dancing They raised their children in legislation that has filled the to such sad music; it’s all about blighted projects and gave them coffers of rich white men and heartbreak and betrayal and the only thing that enabled their club of blood-sucking lob- suffering and misery”. She them to survive: food, clothing, byists. CT lifted her face, looked me in love, warmth, encouragement – the eye, and said, “Baby, us and hope. Dell Franklin is a long-time black folks jes’ got to celebrate They were treated as chat- journalist and founder of our bad times or they kill us”. tels destined to drudge work for the now-defunct Rogue Voice That statement could be an the lowest of wages. In movies, literary magazine. He blogs at anthem for most of the black they were doting nannies or www.dellfranklin.com women in the United States. servile maids humoured by

ColdType | Mid-March 2019 | www.coldtype.net For a Free subscription, email [email protected] (write Subscribe in Subject Line)