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Resist Newsletter, Sept. 2000
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Recommended Citation Resist, "Resist Newsletter, Sept. 2000" (2000). Resist Newsletters. 325. https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/resistnewsletter/325 Inside: More Book Reviews
ISSN 0897-2613 • Vol. 9 #7 A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority September 2000 The Unending War In Iraq Considering Sanctions against the People ofIraq
According to reliable international esti RAHUL MAHAJAN mates, another 5,000 or more children un der five die every month as a consequence Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact of of sanctions. These innocent victims are Sanctions and War. Edited by Anthony caught between two forces that have re Arnove. Photographs by Alan Pogue. peatedly shown their callous disregard for South End Press. 216 pages. $16.00 human rights: Saddam Hussein and the US (paper). government. The effects of the sanctions are becom They made a wasteland and called it ing widely known. After years of silence, peace. (Tacitus) the US media, in response to the efforts of a small but dedicated group of international I think this is a very hard choice, but activists, have recently given mainstream the price- we think the price is worth it. coverage to the conditions of life in Iraq, (Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, notably in an excellent feature by the Se when asked by reporter Leslie Stahl attle Post-Intelligencer (available at whether US policy objectives in Iraq were www.seattle-pi.com/iraq/). Although such worth the death of 500,000 children.) coverage is not comprehensive, and is gen erally anecdotal rather than statistical, cu he war against Iraq is not over. The mulatively it does paint an illuminating pic Tpast decade, marked internationally by ture of a country in crisis. a ceaseless US effort to force other coun One cannot, however, rely on the main tries to open their markets t9 First World stream media to understand or report the multinational corporations, has simulta diabolical way in which the sanctions are neously seen Iraq cut off from the world, children, the elderly, and the poor. enforced, the steady stream of lies and under a state of siege known as "economic Th·e effects of this blockade on a coun disinformation disseminated by the US sanctions." The situation is not as para try that once imported 70 percent of its government, the culpability of the United doxical as it first seems, since both "free food, whose entire infrastructure was re States, or, indeed, the real reasons for the trade" and the sanctions involve control duced to rubble by possibly the most in policy. Over the past several years, much of the policies of other countries by the tense bombing campaign in history, have has been written on postwar Iraq. The work elites of the First World. The sanctions been devastating. The number killed by the spans a broad range: Out of the Ashes, by against Iraq constitute the most compre sanctions alone since 1990, variously esti Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, details the hensive economic blockade of any coun mated by different United Nations agen inner workings of Iraq's government and try in modem times: in actual effect, a war cies, is likely over 1 million in all. Half ofthe of covert US operations in Iraq; Endgame, against civilians that preferentially targets dead are children under the age of five. continued on page two
Vol. 9, #7 RESIST Newsletter Page 1 The Unending War continued from page one by Scott Ritter, chronicles the saga of weap ons inspections; Iraq: Sanctions and Be yond, by Anthony Cordesman and Ahmed Hashim, analyzes Iraq as a security issue from a military perspective; The Scourg ing of Iraq: Sanctions, Law, and Natural Justice, by Geoff Simons, is a magisterial analysis and critique of the sanctions and of US motives in Iraq. Interestingly, each of these authors characterizes the sanc tions as a cruel and untenable policy, which inflicts massive harm on innocents while offering no chance of attaining any of the US government's stated goals. Iraq Under Siege: The Deadly Impact ofSanctions and War, a new collection from South End Press, is a valuable addition to this literature. Like Simons' book, it con tains the necessary analysis to see beneath Mothers and children fill the ward at Saddam Hussein's Children's Hospital in Iraq. the surface of US proclamations, and adds Many independent authorities assert that at least 500,000 Iraqi children under the vital dimension of personal experience. five have died since 1990, in part as a result of the sanctions and the effects of the Gulf War. Photo by Tina Manley Most of the contributors have visited Iraq, and among them are some of the foremost ones. Robert Fisk describes an estimated mented shortly after the institution of sanc activists in the anti-sanctions movement. 300 tons of depleted uranium ordnance in tions. That system has drawn praise for its The book includes pieces by political ana southern Iraq, and an explosion of child fairness and efficiency from all knowledge lysts Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn; hood leukemia and grotesque birth defects able quarters. journalists Robert Fisk and John Pilger; in that region since the war. In pre-war Iraq, continued on page three Middle East experts Phyllis Bennis and the cure rate for leukemia was 76 percent; Barbara Nimri Aziz; Peter Pellett, head of under the sanctions, leukemia is a death three U.N. Food and Agriculture Organiza sentence. Professor Pellett covers the ef tion missions to Iraq; Iraqi biologist Ruda fects on the country as a whole: average Ammash; and prominent anti-sanctions food intake has declined by one-third; activists Kathy Kelly (founder of Voices in growth-stunting and wasting are now as the Wilderness, which has made over thirty common as in the worst-off Third World trips to Iraq bringing medicine, in defiance countries; mortality for children under five of the sanctions), and Rania Masri, direc years old is almost two and a half times the tor of the Iraq Action Coalition. The book pre-sanctions rate. also includes an interview with Denis Considering these heavily documented, ILLEGITIMATli AUTHORITY Halliday, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in accumulating casualties, the reflexive US ,=...,.u"' '1ocl.,/ CNWf6'- ~ 1'67 Iraq until he resigned in 1998 in protest of response has been that all this suffering is For Information and grant guidelines, write to: Resist, 259 Elm St., Suite 201 the sanctions. (His successor, Hans von the fault of Saddam Hussein. It is undeni Somerville, MA 02144 Sponeck, and Jutta Burghardt, head of the able that Hussein cares more about his own www.resistinc.org;[email protected] World Food Program's mission to Iraq, have power than about the welfare of his people; Resist Newsletter is published ten times a done the same.) The result is a sustained, that a small elite lives very well while most year by RESIST, Inc., (617)623-5110. The coherent, and comprehensive critique of Iraqis are suffering; and that anyone per views expressed in articles, other than edi US policy on Iraq. ceived as a threat to Hussein's power risks torials, are those of the authors and do not imprisonment or death. But it is also true necessarily represent the opinions of the RESIST staff or board. The Results of the Sanctions that during the Seventies and Eighties, prior Kelly describes hospitals full of children to the Gulf War, Hussein presided over a RESIST Staff: Jacquie Bishop suffering from kwashiorkor and marasmus tremendous increase in the health and well Robin Carton (diseases of severe malnutrition); doctors being of the Iraqi people-illiteracy almost AmandaMatos-Gon7alez forced to stand by and watch while these wiped out, education free through the Carol Schachet children die because they have no medi graduate level, health care excellent and RESIST Volunteer: Daphne Lees cine; people dying from waterborne dis free. In addition, most U.N. relief officials eases because Iraq has been allowed to confirm that the only thing now prevent Newsletter Editor: Carol Schachet import neither enough chlorine to treat the ing mass starvation has been the Iraqi Printing: Red Sun Press water nor new pipes to replace old, broken government's food rationing system, imp le- 0 Printed on Recycled Paper with Soy~-
Page 2 RESIST Newsletter September 2000 The Unending War continued from page two points out, no funds from the Oil-for-Food goods they receive warehoused, hoping It is true that the Iraqi elites-like those program even enter Iraq: all the money goes that the Sanctions Committee will allow the in most countries, including the United to a New York account of the Bank of Paris, complementary equipment in. This prob States-will buy expensive M.R.I. ma from which funds are disbursed by the U.N. lem occurs so often that many activists chines despite widespread shortages of to pay for specific contracts Iraq has with suspect that it is done on purpose. The US basic medical supplies. But the amount of foreign companies. is responsible for over 1,000 vetoes and money re-directed by those sorts of trans Similarly false is the charge, usually ac holds on Oil-for-Food contracts; Britain is actions is minimal in relation to the needs companied in the US press by photographs a distant second with 120. of the Iraqi people. If anything, in the US of warehouses full of goods, that supplies the social inequity is much greater: hospi are being "hoarded" by the regime. U.N. The Stated Motives tals here glitter with fancy equipment while officials in charge of monitoring the distri Such peremptory behavior suggests we 45 million people, disproportionately chil bution disagree. The explanation lies rather should question closely the government's dren, remain uninsured and without access in the way the Oil-for-Food program works. stated motives. The two primary justifica to basic preventative care. It is illuminat Every contract Iraq makes with a foreign tions for US s~pport of the sanctions are ing to see the conventional defenders of company must include a complete specifi (a) that Iraq's weapons of mass destruc the free market and of corporate super-prof cation of the end use of every item con tion make it a threat to its neighbors, and its, when they consider Iraq, suddenly dis tracted for. It must then be approved by (b) that the US is simply interested in up covering socialism. the U.N. Sanctions Committee, a body with holding international law. As Anthony Since the actual facts are far from suffi one representative from each member of Arnove points out in the introduction to cient for the US government to defend its the Security Council, any one of whom can Iraq Under Siege, however, the US has ex sanctions policy, the administration has veto or indefinitely suspend any contract pressed no desire to limit its own weapons resorted instead to a remarkable array of for any reason. If a contract cannot be ful of mass destruction, or those of its allies. disinformation. One of the hoariest charges filled exactly as written, it is cancelled and The US maintains the largest such arsenal is that Saddam has misappropriated United the whole process must begin again. This in the world, including nuclear and chemi Nations Oil-for-Food funds to build pal procedure creates many problems for the cal weapons, and it supports and arms al aces. Yet the simple structure of these trans Iraqis. They are not allowed to import re lied countries with dismal records of re actions make that misappropriation quite frigerated trucks because such trucks could gional aggression and human rights viola impossible. Under Security Council Reso have military uses-which means that per tions, such as Israel and Turkey. Nor is lutions 986 and 1153, Iraq is allowed to sell ishable items ( e.g., cancer medicine) can Iraq the only country to use weapons of up to 5 .2 billion dollars' worth of oil every not be transported. Some warehouses have mass destruction-the US has used such six months (that cap was recently· raised). only a single operating forklift. weapons more than any other country. Roughly 3 billion dollars of that money Equally serious is the problem of Furthermore, Iraq is no longer a threat goes to meet the needs of23 million Iraqis "complementarity." Frequently, the Iraqis to any of its neighbors. Scott Ritter, once a (the rest is designated in advance for "repa receive insulin but no syringes, heart-lung U.N. official in the weapons monitoring rations" to Kuwaitis and others). As the machines but not the computers to run program and no friend of the Hussein re- piece here by Voices in the Wilderness them. They are then forced to keep the continued on page four Help Resist Give Away Money!
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Vol. 9, #7 RESIST Newsletter Page 3 The Unending War
continued from page three question of intent is less clear-certainly gime, writes, "Iraq today possesses no it is not as crude as the express desire to meaningful weapons of mass destruction," kill all Iraqis. and his claim~ have been echoed by other But practically speaking, the continued weapons inspectors. While Iraq's military sanctions hold the Iraqi civilian popula has collapsed and its weapons have been tion hostage against the (undefined) good dismantled, other countries in the area have behavior of Saddam Hussein. Yet Hussein engaged in an orgy of weapons-buying, has no incentive to comply any further mostly from the US for, as even conservatives like Cordesman The international law argument is even and Ritter acknowledge, Clinton and vari more absurd. The sanctions violate the ous subordinates have repeatedly indi Geneva Convention, which prohibits the cated that even should Iraq disarm com . starvation of civilians as a method of war pletely, sanctions will not be lifted until fare, and also, as Pellett points out, the Hussein is dead. Furthermore, the shapers Universal Declaration ofHuman Rights and of the policy consistently proclaim the Convention on the Rights of the Child Hussein's indifference to the suffering of (ratified by every country except the US his people-never acknowledging that this and Somalia). The December 1998 Desert supposition entirely obviates their argu Fox campaign, and the continuing "low ment for the sanctions. Sanctions have often forced Iraqis to wade level" bombing ever since-never autho through raw sewage. Photo by Bill Hackman The basic mandate behind the sanctions rized by the Security Council-are viola is also unreasonably broad-as Chomsky tions of the U.N. Charter. The so-called "no out McDonnell Douglas." To this general says, "There is indeed a way to eliminate fly zones" have no U.N. authorization, and motivation Chomsky adds the first rule of the capability of producing weapons of are simply a bi-lateral (US and Britain) exer US Middle East policy: that the resources mass destruction, only one way, and that tion of imperial power. The bombing of the region belong not to the people of is the Carthaginian solution: you totally barely reported in the mainstream media, the region, but to the US. Any develop destroy the society." However extreme yet the longest campaign since the Viet ment that might imperil that presumed own such a measure might appear, it seems to nam War-has killed hundreds of innocent ership must be met with appropriate force. be, alas, effectively what the sanctions are civilians. Given that unspoken and unacknowledged doing. Another frequent defense of the sanc presumption, Chomsky argues, the sanc Iraq Under Siege concludes on an un tions is that they are somehow intended to tions make sense. After nationalizing its certainly hopeful note,.with a description bring down Hussein and his regime. This oil, Iraq had spread the benefits of its oil of activist efforts against the sanctions, is an odd claim, since observers across the revenues, creating a significant highly which sympathetic readers shall wish to political spectrum - including the Iraqi op educated middle class which could not so pursue. It is mildly heartening to note that position-insist that the sanctions have easily be controlled by a weak feudal elite, a recent letter to the president calling for strengthened the Iraqi leader. The sanc such as those that rule in Saudi Arabia and the lifting of economic sanctions, spon tions give the regime more control over the Kuwait. Under this logic, continuing US sored by Congressmen John Conyers of lives of ordinary Iraqis, who are now en hegemony in the area requires the target Michigan and Tom Campbell of California, tirely dependent on the government dole, ing of not just the rulers, but the general was signed by 70 congresspeople ( only and have shifted the focus of ordinary Ira ·populace. two of whom, Ciro Rodriguez and Sheila qis' anger away from their government and A related question is whether the sanc Jackson Lee, are from Texas). Iraq may still toward the US Moreover, public energy is tions can be considered genocide. As be saved, if enough Americans can be per entirely consumed in the struggle for sur Denis Halliday says in his interview, "It suaded to act on their moral responsibility vival, making political action all the more certainly is a valid word in my view, when to put an end to the genocidal crimes of difficult. you have a situation where we see thou our government. Reading Iraq Under Siege sands of deaths per month, a possible to is a good place to begin. The Permanent Motivations tal of 1 million to 1.5 million over the last So what are the real motives driving this nine years. If that is not genocide, then I Rahul Mahajan is a doctoral candidate policy? It's hard to do more than specu don't know quite what is." The U.N. Con in physics at the University of Texas late, but the writers in Iraq Under Siege vention on the Prevention and Punishment Austin, and actively involved in the present some plausible possibilities. of the Crime of Genocide (adopted in 1948, movement to lift economic sanctions A.move argues that the primary motivation ratified with reservations by the US in ag~inst Iraq. This article is reprinted of postwar US foreign policy has been to 1988), includes within its definition: "De with permission from the Texas Observer retain its position of extreme privilege - as liberately inflicting on the group conditions (www.texasobserver.org). For more New York Times columnist Thomas Fried of life calculated to bring about its physi information, see www.iraqaction.org man put it approvingly, "The hidden hand cal destruction in whole or in part." The (Iraq Action Coalition) and of the market will never work without a hid sanctions do seem calculated to destroy a www. nonviolence. orglvitw (Voices in the den fist. McDonald's cannot flourish with- significant segment of Iraqi society. The Wilderness).
Page 4 RESIST Newsletter September 2000 Blowback Exposes US Conduct Informative Reading for the Activist's Bookshelf
HENRY ROSEMONT, JR. pages is that (massive propaganda cam Consequence of US Actions paigns to the contrary notwithstanding) By focusing on the unintentional con Blowback by Chalmers Johnson, New US foreign policies in East Asia have con sequences of US actions Johnson evades York: Henry Holt & Co., 2000. sistently benefited our economic jugger any hint of capitalist conspiracies on the naut, and the elites who profit from it, at parts of the "best and the brightest" who or anyone interested in formulated and executed for Fthe mischief the US eign policy for the past half government and military century. But these folk will have visited on the peoples find little solace m of East Asia since World Johnson himself demonstrates Blow back, because War II- and the price the US Johnson's penetrating will pay for that mischief in clearly the ubiquitousness of analyses must attribute a the years to come- this is a cold-war ideology in American monumental arrogance and most useful book. ignorance to them, sufficient A distinguished scholar scholarship, and the difficulties in quality and quantity that ofJapan and China, Chalmers the universities who Johnson has come to see in of overcoming a belief awarded them advanced de a new, radical light what his in American benevolence. grees should be ashamed of country has really been do- themselves. ing overseas for the past In a sense, Johnson him half-century, as he con- self demonstrates clearly the fesses in the Prologue to Blowback, a term ubiquitousness of cold-war first coined by the CIA for unintended con the expense of the peoples of East Asia. ideology in American scholarship, and the sequences of its covert operations. As the number of pro-Americans in the re difficulties of overcoming a belief in Ameri Johnson extends the term to include the gion continues diminishing, Johnson can benevolence. His earlier works on overt dimensions of our foreign policies as shows clearly that this is only to be ex China and Japan exemplify a first-rate mind, well, and he now argues that we will shortly pected. one even willing to go against the grain at begin to pay a very high price for those His accounts ofUS military adventurism times- at least in part. Yet in Blowback he imperial policies for many years to come. abroad are especially useful, going a long employs a conceptual framework for ana Although Johnson focuses on East way toward explaining why, for example, lyzing US foreign policy that has been thor Asia, he sees blowback corning from many we continue to station 37,000 troops to oughly articulated and documented for other sources as well, in many ways: from "keep the peace" in Korea, yet remained more than 30 years in the writings ofNoam the Lockerbie disaster being a retaliation silent when the two Kims had their historic Chomsky: At War With Asia (1970), For for our bombing of Libya two years ear meeting this past Summer to achieve peace Reasons ofState ( 1973 ), OfPower and Ide lier- killing Muammar Khadaffi 's step on the peninsula; or why the Okinawans ology (1986), Towards A New Cold War daughter- to much of US materialism and so thoroughly despise the US soldiers, (1988); Deterring Democracy (1991), Year consumerism stemming from our allowing sailors and air force personnel that occupy 501 (1993); to name only a few. But anti-communist client states to import 20% of the arable land on the island's 454 Chomsky is never cited in Blowback, nor much, and cheaply, as checks on the "red square miles. do any of his works appear in Johnson's menace" during the cold war, forcing us He is equally good on military budgets bibliography. into patterns of low savings and high con (p. 222): Thus, for those familiar with Chomsky's sumption which are now running riot. For example, the Pentagon's budget for work there will be very few big surprises in the fiscal year 2000 called for replacing Blowback. But there will be a fair number Policies and Propaganda the F-15, "The world's most advanced oflittle ones, and much useful information The book contains a good deal of im aircraft," with the F-22, also "the world's for progressives. Welcome aboard, portant information about the details of our most advanced aircraft." The air force Chalmers Johnson; better late than never. imperial machinations in Chapters on wanted 339 F-22s at $188 million each, Okinawa, North and South Korea, China, three times the cost of the airplane it is and Japan, with two concluding chapters replacing. The United States already has Henry Rosemont, Jr. teaches philosophy peering through a glass darkly at the con 1,094 F-15s, against which there is no at St. Marys College ofMaryland, and sequences of our actions. What the care equal or more capable aircraft on earth. has been a Resist Board member since ful reader will be able to discern in these 1969.
Vol. 9, #7 RESIST Newsletter Page 5 Reading "The Boondocks" Black and White and Hip-Hop All Over OLIVERWANG
T'm one of those people who buy a pap.er, lflip past all the front sections and go straight for the comics page. Maybe it's avoidance- this backwards progression from humor to horror. Nowadays though, "The Boondocks" is enough justification for my indolence. Created by Aaron McGruder, a 25-year old who is one of less than ten black car toonists to have ever been in syndication, "The Boondocks" sports striking artwork, a brash attitude, and an unflinching por- · trayal of racial politics and identity. Focus ing on the experiences of two young black boys forced to move from black southside Chicago to the lily-white suburb of Woodcrest, the strip mercilessly shakes up the previously apolitical- read: conserva tive and reactionary-space of the comics page. Moreover, for a nation struggling with questions of race and identity, "The Boondocks" might very well be the new test of cultural literacy in hip-hop America. What other comic strip expects its readers to understand the humor in a thug wannabe enjoying Lauryn Hill or a black boy indig nant that his elementary school is named after J. Edgar Hoover? Since its April 1999 debut, "The Boon docks" has expanded to over 150 newspa pers nationally, one of the comic industry's fastest and most successful ever-and one of its most controversial. Irate and de lighted readers have sent hundreds of let ters to newspaper editors, showering the strip with either vitriol or praise. Some read ers have dropped their subscriptions in protest and a handful of small, local news the midst of all this unquestioned white poons the racist fantasy of Gone With the papers have cancelled the strip. The na J?.ess, McGruder sweeps in to drop a color Wind. Clearly, this is no "Family Circus." tional circuit of talk shows and news pro coated bomb. The strip's main character, Not surprisingly, these kinds of themes grams has pulled McGruder into the thick, Huey Freeman (named after Black Panther have earned "The Boondocks" its share of suddenly thrusting the young cartoonist founder Huey P. Newton) is a self-styled virulent opposition. K. Barna, in a letter to into the impossible role of national spokes "radical scholar" and "eternally scornful the San Francisco Chronicle writes, person. Race, it seems, is no laughing mat champion of the dispossessed," a prophet "Switch the words from white people to ter, even in the funnies. of rage in training who spends his early black people and you'd have a lawsuit on days in Woodcrest forming a one-man your hands. This kind of 'humor' only con Furor From Left, Right, and Middle Klanwatch and interrogating random white tinues to perpetuate hate and racial divi It doesn't take a critical race scholar to neighbors with a baseball bat. In the series sion, and I, for one, have no interest in note that the comics page is perhaps the leading up to July 4th, Huey roundly points participating." Put more directly by D. Th most homogenous part of a newspaper out the hypocrisy of a "free" nation ompson from Minneapolis in "The Boon- even the advertising is more integrated. In founded on slavery, and he incisively lam- continued on page seven
Page 6 RESIST Newsletter September 2000 Reading "The Boondocks" continued from page six serious issues behind it while syndication boost by running docks'" own online guest book, "['The still being able to laugh," in The Source, the world's Boondocks'] is a disgusting hateful piece argues McGruder. "I most circulated rap maga of garbage! !! ! Get it out of the paper." don't do 'The Cosby zine. McGruder shares, "I However, it's not just defensive whites Show' [with its] over-ro represent hip·-hop in the who have a gripe with the strip. "The Boon manticized, bourgie portray context of it being an evo docks" has also raised the ire of those als of Black America which lution of the collective black within the African American community, spread intraracial class ism." experience. I look at 'The mostly older people and professionals, Instead, "The Boondocks'" Boondocks' as being a hip-hop who accuse the strip of per brand of satire leaps blackwards strip in the sense that I grew petuating stereotypes of over the politically up loving hip-hop." black youth. In a critique stale black humor University of Virginia that seems reminiscent of of the 1980s and ethnomusicology professor the castigation that followed '90s. Compared to Kyra Gaunt says, "Many [of Robin Harris' "BeBe Kids" rou both Bill Cosby's the strip's] detractors from tine, black readers have denounced bourgeois idolatry the black and white commu the portrayal of Riley Freeman, and. Eddie .Murphy's nity may also be opponents Huey's younger brother, a self-loathing caricatures to commercial and underground rap, using wannabe gangsta who sports a of black life, "The Boon a cartoon espousing hip-hop's cultural val black hoodie and scowling mug. Con docks" shares more in ues as a scapegoat representing a larger sider him a Detroit Red to Huey's common with the radi and more complex problem that McGruder MalcolmX. cal black comics of the 1970s, exem is not responsible for, in and of himself." In reaction to Riley's portrait of a plified by Richard Pryor, Paul Yet, if"The Boondocks" is a symbol of thug as a young man, "Helen" asks Mooney, and Dick Gregory's embrace hip-hop's uneasy position within the in "The Boondocks" online guest book, of political commentary as well as incisive, American imagination, it also perpetuates "Is our entire culture based around pov humorous celebrations of some of the same problems for which hip erty and 'jail'?" Baltimore's "Summar" blackness. As McGruder hop is notorious. In the 1996 parody of suggests, "As I read the comic, I puts it, "['The Boon black "hood" films, Don 1 Be a Menace, envisioned a group of Klansmen docks'] presents a nice al actress Vivica Fox plays a professional sharing it over legory to this larger notion black woman who jokes to her son (Jamie coffee .... Although it seems of the displacement of Foxx), "You know there aren't any positive you're 'keeping it real' on black people and us being in continued on page eight the surface, you're selling a foreign land as a people." us all out for a laugh." Robin D.G. Kelley, black McGruder has also man cultural critic and author of Seeing Double? aged to offend the multiracial Yo ' Mama s Disfunktional, community through the inclusion of• has closely followed the If you are receiving more than one character Jazmine DuBois, a biracial strip. "That _there is contro- mailing from Resist, please let us know. (black dad/white mom) girl who moves versy over the strip reveals Help us save paper and postage by: into Woodcrest soon after the Freemans. the pitiful state of racial discourse," Kelley 1. mailing us all your labels. McGruder describes Jazmine as someone says. "It's not as if 'The Boondocks' is 2. indicating which one is correct. "struggling to find her identity at the bor taking some kind of militant nationalist 3. being patient with us (smile). der of the color line." Some have blasted stance; the characters speak instead to the strip for suggesting that biracial chil boundary crossing, hybridity, and the prob dren are inherently confused. In a recent lems young black people in a post-civil issue of the Interracial Voice, rights suburban context ~ust face. (www.webcom.com/~intvoice/), the "voice McGruder finds humor in alienation and a of conscience of the global mixed-race/in sort of spatial and racial exile, and this prob terracial movement," editor Charles lem has been a source of humor for centuries." Moving? Michael Byrd accuses McGruder of ''wield Please let us know if your address will ing [power] in a racist manner that those Is it a Cartoon or is it Hip-Hop? be changing. Otherwise, Resist pays on the left, the right, and in the middle can What's new is the strip's explicit hip postage twice and you never receive plainly see" in his portrayal of Jazmine. hop attitude. Even the strip's cultural hi the mailing! You can either mail ore jacking ofnewspapers resembles hip-hop's mail your address corrections. Laughing in Exile use of the music industry to package and "White humorists have a long history distribute nuggets of black political Resist• 259 Elm Street• Suite 201 • of sharp satire and their audiences have thought. McGruder is a self-professed hip Somerville, MA 02144 • [email protected] learned to recognize it and understand the hop junkie and his strip got an early pre-
Vol. 9, #7 RESIST Newsletter Page 7 Reading "The Boondocks"
continued from page seven black women in these films"-then promptly disappears from the rest of the movie. "The Boondocks" goes one bet ter-there are no black women in the strip. The Freemans' mother and grandmothers are noticeably absent-their crusty grand father is the only adult family member present. Save the biracial Jazmine, whose character doesn't self-identify as black, there are no black women to be found in Woodcrest yet. This erasure of black women from "The Boondocks" mirrors a similar vacuum within hip-hop music, a point raised repeatedly by black feminist scholars such as Tricia Rose and bell hooks. UVA's Gaunt says, "As an African American woman, and a professor of hip-hop .. .I would voice my own concern about the overgeneralized use of black cultural nationalistic stereotypes and the exclusion of mother figures and non-biracially identified black females. McGruder is a bold voice, but not a wise voice yet." Gaunt also takes "The Boondocks" to task for its distillation of racial diversity to a vision of a masculine America in strictly racial crisis. familiar black/white monochromatics, black and white-even if it is published in That's one of the reasons why I turn to insightfully observing that "most subur color on Sundays. "The Boondocks" first. I take delight in ban communities today are multi-ethnic how it confronts and topples many sacred when it comes to hip-hop. McGruder is Toppling Sacred Cows cows of American liberalism and conser scripting an imaginary past or a stripped Yet, many fail to understand that Riley's vatism by putting hip-hop's confronta down present where only blacks and whites gangsterisms are an internal critique ofhip tional attitude front and center. As every are the primary playa haters and authenti hop 's excesses, especially its penchant for thing from "For Better or Worse" to cators." "The Boondocks" engages many nihilism and materialism. Riley is a walking "Cathy" to "Peanuts" remains sanitized in of the key issues that circulate in hip-hop stereotype of the gangsta rapper, but his a homogenous, static universe of white America, but doesn't necessarily transcend own ridiculous extremes are meant to be a middle class anxieties, there's something them. In short, "The Boondocks" presents caricature, not a promotion. Ifpeople miss wickedly subversive about "The Boon the point-and judging from the responses docks." Planned Giving to RESIST the strip has gotten, many clearly have Ten years ago, Public Enemy's Chuck why is it incumbent upon McGruder to D. complained that hip-hop could only get For more than 33 years, RESIST has re teach readers the finer points of humor, sar "in the mix, late in the night," but here's lied on the support of donors to maintain casm, and satire? "The Boondocks" at 8 a.m., poking fun at our grant giving program to grassroots Most importantly, "The Boondocks" everything from buppies to Mariah Carey groups. There are many ways to extend shares hip-hop's strength in forcing a con to telemarketers. If nothing else, the strip that support, including: versation around race when the national has forced people on both sides of the ra 1. Make a tax-deductible contribution. media would rather flatten society into a cial divide to register their beliefs and ide 2. Join the pledge program (seepage 12). white-normative standard. Huey's attacks als with passion and commitment. Com 3. Donate stocks or other securities. on hallowed American institutions of white pared to the deafening silence of indiffer 4. Include a bequest to RESIST in your privilege-the educational system, July 4th ence, ifMcGruder and his motley crew of will or life insurance policy. celebrations, suburban life writ-large-en misfits bring the noise, it's clear people are 5. Designate RESIST as a beneficiary of code a not-so-hidden transcript of dissent listening. an IRA or pension plan. that speaks to many of the frustrations that people of color share. Compared to the Oliver Wang is a staffperson at ColorLines. For more information about these and blanched, apolitical spate of cartoons that This article is reprinted with permission other options, contact RESIST: greet people's morning routine, "The Boon from the Winter 1999-2000 issue of 617 /623-511 O; [email protected]. docks" jostles readers from casual compla ColorLines. For more information, visit cency; it is an act of resistance in a time of their website: www.colorlines.com.
Page 8 RESIST Newsletter September 2000 Working ffistory Bill Adler on Labor, People, and Loss sembling current MICHAEL KING regulating ballasts for fluorescent lighting MOLLIE'S JOB: A Story ofLife and Work fixtures in Paterson's On the Global Assembly Line. By William Universal Manufac M. Adler. Scribner. 367 pages. $27.50. turing Company "as it passed from the D eaders of the Texas Observer's June 9 urban North to the ru 1'..excerpt of Bill Adler's Mollies Job ral South ... to Mexico (Chapter Thirteen: "On the Border, By the over the course of the Sea") will be familiar with the book's atten past half-century and tion to the extraordinary details of "free the dawn of the new trade" in action, as Adler follows the final one." But in tracing stages of the descent of a single assem that central story bly-line job from Paterson, New Jersey, to Adler also provides Blytheville, Arkansas, to Matamoros, attentive biographi Mexico. That particular job once "be cal portraits of Mollie longed" to Mollie James of Paterson, al James and Balbina though by 1987, after nearly 40 years on Manufacturing jobs, like those held by these GE workers, have Duque (the young the job, the ground is shifting radically been sent oversees. Photo by Marilyn Humphries, Impact Visuals Mexican woman who under Mollie's feet: at the book's close [The] Paterson plant was breathing but eled from the abject poverty of the Arkan holds Mollie's job), as well as many other skeletal-135 workers had already been sas Delta to seek their fortune in Detroit. intriguing men and women who figure in laid off, with the promise of more to go They found that fortune in spectacular and extricably in Mollie and Balbina's story: soon. By virtue of her seniority, Mollie meteoric fashion, in the crack trade-where company founders, working colleagues, James was still on the payroll, but just in a few years the brothers had amassed union reps, labor gangsters, bankers, in then she was out of town; the company and squandered millions, on their inevitable vestors, politicians, and so on. It's an ex had sent her to Blytheville for a week. way to federal prison. But Adler's interest panding web of fascinating historical nar Like a death-row inmate building her was not in sensational criminality: "In rative: "a story about the demise of unions own casket, Mollie was training the deed," he wrote, "their story should and the middle class and the concurrent workers there to do her job. frighten not because it shows what made rise of the plutocracy; about the That stark metaphor is uncharacteristic them different, but rather what made them disposability of workers and the portabil ofAdler's work. Adler is a meticulous, quiet so common." Adler pursued the Chambers' ity of work; about how government and writer, generally content to follow the facts story as a way to examine the broader capi Wall Street reward US-based companies for and let the story tell itself. But by the time talist culture of the 1980s: "The decade's closing domestic plants and scouring the the reader arrives at this somber moment in cult of money, its tone of rising expecta globe for the lowest wages in places where Chapter Thirteen, Adler has more than tions, insisted that the dispossessed as human rights and labor rights are ignored; earned his momentary g·esture. We have pire to the goals of the dominant culture and about the ways in which 'free trade' traveled with Adler and Mollie James and yet denied them the means to obtain those harms democracy, undermines stable busi her honest labor from Virginia, to New Jer goals legally." nesses and communities, exploits workers sey, and now to Arkansas, and we are all And it was while researching the South on both sides of the border, both ends of entitled to an accumulated realization of to-N orth migration of Land ofOpportunity the global assembly line." her loss. that Adler began piecing together the Yet Adler's introductory summary, ac That is by way of suggesting that if you North-to-South migration of Mollies Job. curate as it is, fails to give a full sense of enjoyed and learned from Chapter Thirteen, What he found was another story that the range and engagement ofhis work, from you will simply be astonished by the whole opens a whole modem era to re-examina top to bottom. From chapter to chapter, of Mollies Job. This is a book of impres tion and deeper understanding, although Mollies Job reads like a gripping histori sive historical imagination, akin to Adler's this book reaches back even further, to the cal novel, with a fully realized sense of 1995 Land of Opportunity, although with beginnings ofUS manufacturing in the eigh people embedded in their time and place even greater range and implication. Land teenth century (Alexander Hamilton's that one associates with Dickens or Zola. of Opportunity was a remarkable journey Paterson-based Society for the Establish Here is but one moment with Universal 's in the wake of the Chambers brothers, an ing ofUseful Manufactures). As its central founder Archie Sergy, part hero, part hus- entrepreneurial group of siblings who trav- thread, the book follows a single job-as- continued on page ten
Vol. 9, #7 RESIST Newsletter Page 9 Working History continued from page nine company which in 1986 buys what was southward march, and even into Mexico, tler, as the Paterson company he started once Archie Sergy's Universal: Universal employees often found them (with a few "borrowed" pieces of equip Farley would hold tight to [Northwest selves caught between legitimate union ment) begins to take off in the post-War Industries, Union Underwear, Acme organizers and corrupt leadership inter years: ested only in pro Even as he added production lines, hun tecting their perks dreds of employees, and a third, grave or their white-skin yard shift to keep up with the roaring privilege); how demand, Archie operated as if he were national and in running a comer store in the old neigh ternational poli borhood: He knew and greeted every tics filter down to one by name, often by their street the shop floor, so names-"Hey Munny! Hey Moishe!" that the US Com Or it was like old times at the caddy merce Depart shack: Archie dispensing favors like a ment continues to benevolent overlord. Once he an spend taxpayer nounced bids on a job to paint the plant, dollars to directly and when an old friend's offer sheet sponsor pro-: came in only third lowest, he gave him grams making it the job anyway. Countless were the easier (indeed, employees who came to him with a per tax-deductible) sonal problem-an unpayable debt, an for domestic cor abusive husband, a sick child. And al porations to most always, he intervened, either with move good US a loan or donation or a timely referral or GE workers demonstrate the exportation of their jobs as part of the jobs abroad, al global economy. Photo by Marilyn Humphries, Impact Visuals a phone call. ways in search of Here is a climactic moment in the life of Boot, etc.]; he was dependent on their larger profit margins. One, of course, was Louis Carter, a black employee in the Uni generating enough cash to meet his loan Mollie's job-at last sight (1997) paying versal plant in Mississippi. By 1973, union obligations .... For Northwest's three the unlivable wage of about 92 cents an steward Carter has seen the company em other, smaller operating companies, in hour to a young single mother living in des ployees (in the context of the larger South cluding Universal (Northwest had al perate poverty just outside the fenced en ern civil rights movement) bust segrega ready moved to divest itself of Lone Star closure of the new "MagneTek" tion, yet the union leadership had remained Steel) Farley had other plans. Their util maquiladora. (" 'No alcance,' "the workers white and reactionary. Now he has just ity to Farley was not as manufacturing tell Adler. "It doesn't reach. Over and over been elected the first black president of enterprises. What mattered to Farley one heard this.") MagneTek is Universal's the local union: about Universal was not its product line corporate successor, now manufacturing As Louis headed north toward home on or its commitment to customer service ballasts across the border, and already look Highway 49, he noticed a couple of or its employees or the communities in ing longingly across the globe, to places "maintenance buddies" alongside him which it operated. What mattered was where its labor costs can be even lower. in a pickup truck. 'I was looking at them,' its sale value. 'I never planned on own Mollies Job is an extraordinary work of he recounts, 'and all of a sudden this ing it long-term,' he says. In the par historical research, dogged and sensitive old shotgun pops out the passenger lance of the high-flying financial uni reporting, and contemporary imagination. side. I jam on the brakes and the shot verse Bill Farley and Mike Milken lived It appears the book may be in some danger goes right across the windshield.' Asked in, Universal Manufacturing Company of getting lost in the summer blockbuster many years later if he reported the crime existed only on paper, as an 'asset' to shuffle-publishers, like other factories, to the police, Louis dismisses the ques 'spin off' to raise cash to pay down debt. merge and disappear, in the search for profit tion as hopelessly naive. 'The law Those three passages give some sense at the expense of other values-and it around here was about as useless as of the range and complexity of the story would be a great shame if Mollies Job be tits on a bull.' But Louis was not with and ofAdler's reporting, as well as his thor came one more casualty of the increasing out his protectors, black and white, and oughly unsentimental sense of the compli corporate concentration the book they organized a postwork midnight cations and contradictions of history: how chronicles. Buy it, read it, and enjoy it. It caravan of at least five cars to escort the New Jersey factories were founded in a will arm your understanding against a sea him safely to his and Dorothy's isolated sense of great possibility and also great of troubles. country home, 'way back in the woods,' oppression, triggering explosive unioniz some twenty miles outside Mendenhall. ing (in several senses) over many years; Michael King is the editor of The Texas And here is a foreboding moment with how the unions themselves vibrated be Observer. This article is reprinted with Bill Farley, the Michael Milken associate tween activist idealism and dismal corrup permission from the Texas Observer, who buys the company which buys the tion (so that at each stop on the company's www.texasobserver.org.
Page JO RESIST Newsletter September 2000 GRANTS JANUARY-AUGUST 2000 Asia/Africa/International MiddleEast Filipino/American Coalition for Environ Survivors, Inc. (West Roxbury, MA) Boston Mobilization for Survival mental Solutions (Washington, DC) Union for Radical Political Economics (Cambridge, MA) Free Burma Coalition (Washington, DC) (URPE) (New Haven, CT) Rhode Island Committee for Nonviolence (Freda Friedman Salzman Award) Environment Initiatives (Providence, RI) Central, Latin America & the Caribbean Boston Rainforest Action Group Native Americans Brazilian Immigrant Center (Allston, MA) (Allston, MA) Cincinnati Zapatista Coalition (Cincin CISPES-Bay Area (San Francisco, CA) Cascadia Wildlands Project (Eugene, OR) nati, OH) Committee for Health Rights in the Citizens Awareness Network (Shelburne Peace/Anti-Militarism Americas (San Francisco, CA) Falls,MA) Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice Committee in Solidarity with Central Citizens Awareness Network - CT (Gainesville, FL) American People (Eugene, OR) Chapter (Haddam, CT) Maryland United for Peace and Justice Committee on US/Latin American Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive (Bowie,MD) Relations (CUSLAR) (Ithaca, NY) Dumping (Albuquerque, NM) Peace Action New Mexico (Santa Fe, NM) Promotores de Derechos (Albuquerque, NM) Gateway Green Alliance (St. Louis, MO) Peace Center (State College, PA) Witness for Peace - MidAtlantic (Lewes, DE) Native Forest Network (Burlington, VT) Nuclear Free Great Lakes Campaign Prisoners Community Organizing/Anti-Racism (Evanston, IL) Books Through Bars (Philadelphia, PA) Central City Lutheran Mission (San Water Information Network (Albuquer- Critical Resistance (San Francisco, CA) Bernardino, CA) que, NM) Michigan CURE (Kalamazoo, Ml) Coalicion de Derechos Humanos I Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/fransgender Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against Arizona Boarder Rights Coalition Fed Up Queers (New York, NY) the Death Penalty (Philadelphia, PA) (Tucson, AZ) (Freda Friedman Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization (NY, NY) Prison Activist Resource Center (Berke Salzman Award) Safe Community and Schools Coalition ley, CA) Denver VOICE (Denver, CO) (Athens, OH) Prison Moratorium Project (New York, NY) Family Child Care Association of San Washtenaw Rainbow Action Project South Dakota Peace & Justice Center Francisco (San Francisco, CA) (Ann Arbor, MI) (Watertown, SD) Korean American Resource and Cultural Wisconsin Research Center (Milwaukee, WI) Southland Prison News (Cambridge, MA) Center (Chicago, IL) Women Maine Rural Network (Standish, ME) Health/AIDS/Disability Adbar Ethiopian Women's Alliance Massachusetts English Plus Coalition Coalition of Montanans Concerned with (Cambridge, MA) (Boston, MA) Disability (Missoula, MT) Appalachian Women's Alliance (Floyd, VA) Men's Rape Prevention Project (Wash- Maine Right to Know (Gouldsboro, ME) Association for Union Democracy - ington, DC) Labor Women's Project (New York, NY) Metro Justice (Rochester, NY) Alliance for Workers' Rights (Reno, NV) Hermanas: Sisterhood in Central America Nebraskans for Peace/Lincoln (Lincoln, NE) Good Jobs! (Hartford, CT) & the Caribbean (Princeton, NJ) Sister Spirit Incorporated (Ovett, MS) Hard Hat News (New York, NY) Immigrant Workers Resource Center Texas Alliance for Human Needs (Austin, TX) Los Angeles County Day Laborer (Boston, MA) Utah Pro~ive Netwmk (Salt Lake City, UI) Association (Los Angeles, CA) NARAL - Ohio (Columbus, OH) Economic Justice Miami Workers Center (Miami, FL) Youth Boston Global Action Network (Boston, MA) Montana Community Labor Alliance Bill ofRights Education Project (Boston, MA) Center for Economic Justice (Albuquer- (Helena, MT) Houston Committee for Youth & Nonmili- que, NM) Nicaragua Solidarity Committee (Chicago, IL) tary Opportunities (Bellaire, TX) Connecticut Alliance for Basic Human Media Project YANO (Encinitas, CA) $2,000 Needs (Hartford, CT) Activist San Diego (San Diego, CA) South Carolina Progressive Network Contact Center (Cincinnati, OH) Guatemala Radio Project (Chicago, IL) (Columbia, SC) Flinthills Living Wage Coalition (Manhat Independent Media Center (Seattle, WA) Youth Organizing Communities tan, KS) Missouri Pro-Vote (St. Louis, MO) (Montebello, CA) Mobilization for Global Justice (Washing Pintig Cultural Group (Chicago, IL) ton, DC) Progressive Media Alliance (Ithaca, NY) Loans People Escaping Poverty Project (South Prometheus Radio Project (Philadelphia, PA) US/Guatemala Education Project STITCH Moorehead, MN) Seattle Public Theater (Seattle, WA) (Chicago, IL) $2,000 Santa Cruz County Coalition for a Living Spiral Q Puppet Theater (Philadelphia, PA) Wage (Santa Cruz, CA) Grant totals appear on page twelve.
Vol. 9, #7 RESIST Newsletter Page 11 (3RANIS
RESIST awards grants six times a year to tion of employment. who were in search of a venue where groups throughout the United States en issues and experiences affecting the gaged in activism for social and economic Coalicion de Derechos Filipino American community could find justice. In this issue ofthe Newsletter we list Humanos/ Arizona Border political and artistic expression. Pintig, a a few grant recipients from our August al Rights Project Tagalog word meaning "pulse," has location cycle. For more information, con PO Box 1286, Tucson, AZ 85702-1286 committed itself to using theater as a tact the groups at the addresses below. means to celebrate and express the Since 1986 Arizona Border Rights Project community's rich history and culture. In has sought to strengthen the capacity of doing so, their art empowers the commu Alliance for Workers Rights border communities to exercise their nity and renders it a potent force for 1101 Riverside Drive, Reno, NV 89503 rights and participate in public policy community change. decisions. In part they have achieved Resist's grant of $2,000 will fund In the Fall of 1997, a diverse group of 15 this goal by increasing public awareness Nanny Isog and her Children, a play activists met to discuss forming an orga of the magnitude of deaths and assaults which looks at multinational corporations nization to address workplace issues in at the border and by documenting the in the Philippines and the tensions their Nevada and founded the Alliance for militarization of the border by US troops. operations create between local Muslim Workers Rights. In the past few years the A Resist grant of$2,000 from the and Christian communities. Alliance has fought for justice for immi Freda Friedman Salzman Memorial Fund grant workers killed or injured at a blast will provide general support for a South Dakota Peace and at Sierra Chemical, an explosives manu program addressing the human rights Justice Center facturer; developed a living wage cam issues that have developed with the PO Box 405, Watertown, SD 57201 paign; and organized for changes in militarization of the US/Mexican border, workplace conditions for agrcultural particularly the vigilante-style actions of In 1979, South Dakota Peace and Justice workers. ranchers with large land holdings. Center was formed to enable grassroots A $2,000 grant from Resist will fund a people-motivated by values transmitted campaign to improve the working Pintig Cultural Group to them through their religious tradi conditions of women in the casino 4750 North Sheridan Road, #481, tions-to work across denominational industry using the Kiss My Foot Cam Chicago, IL 60640 lines for peace and justice. The Center paign which opposes the mandatory has been involved in campaigns to honor dress requirement of high heel shoes and Pintig Cultural Group was founded in treaty rights in Indian Country, oppose sexually exploitive clothing as a condi- 1991 by a group of Filipino immigrants the passage ofNAFTA, de-militarize Ellsworth Air Force Base and missile silos in western South Dakota and de •···········································~ Join the Resist Pledge Program : mand the closure of the School of the • We'd like you to consider Yest I'll become a • Americas. RESIST Pledge. A Resist grant of $2,000 will fund the becoming a Resist Pledge. Interfaith Task Force Against the Death Pledges account for over I'll send you my pledge of $__ Penalty which seeks to build awareness every month/two months/ 30% of our income. quarter/six months (circle one). in religious communities about the By becoming a pledge, you help positions their denominations hold guarantee Resist a fixed and dependable [ ] Enclosed is an initial pledge regarding the death penalty. source of income on which we can build contribution of $__ _ our grant-making program. In return, we will send you a [] I can't join the pledge program 2000 Grantees monthly pledge letter and reminder now, but here's a contribution of (January-August) along with your newsletter. We will $___ to support your work. NumberofGrants: 87 keep you up-to-date on the groups we Name ______Number of Emergency Grants: 5 have funded and the other work being Address ______Multi-Year Grants: $18,