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WHO RULES: THE ISRAEL LOBBY
OR UNCLE SAM?
The answer
at last! Uri Avnery, former Knesset member, assesses the Lobby's
power. "If the Israeli government wanted a law tomorrow
annulling the 10 Commandments, 95 U.S. Senators (at least) would
sign the bill forthwith." But, yes, in the end the dog wags
the tail.Fifty
years ago Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" blew the cobwebs
out of millions of young minds and drove a stake through the
heart of Eisenhower's America. Lenni Brenner remembers Ginsberg
in the East Village.Dr Mengele died in exile, in disguise. Dr Ishii
died rich and recognized, in his own Tokyo home. Christopher
Reed on Japanese WW2 medical tortures and how the U.S. covered
them up.CounterPunch
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With the nationalization of Bolivia's
natural gas and petroleum resources President Evo Morales, the
country's first Indian president, is dramatically reshaping his
country's destiny. On May 1st he proclaimed "an historic
day has arrived. Now the gas and oil that flows from our land
will no longer belong to foreigners." This came just after
his return from Havana, Cuba where he signed the People's Trade
Agreement with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Until these dramatic steps,
it was somewhat unclear what direction Morales was moving in
during his first three months in office. He and his foreign minister
held at least four talks with the US ambassador David Greenlee
in which both sides seemingly extended the olive branch. As Greenlee
said in March after one meeting, "we have a constructive
dialogue with the government of Bolivia over a wide range of
themes and mutual interests."
Two factors compelled Morales
to seize the country's national resources and to realign the
country internationally: the militancy of the country's peasant,
worker and indigenous movements, and the decision of the United
States to foist free trade agreements on Colombia and Peru that
severely damaged Bolivian exports to other Andean nations.
Evo Morales and his political
party, MAS, the Movement for Socialism, took power in January
with a clear popular mandate. Social uprisings starting in 2000
demanded that the state nationalize the country's natural gas
and petroleum so the lucrative profits of these industries could
be used to help lift South America's poorest country out of poverty.
Three presidents resigned or were forced out of office by these
popular protests.
Until May 1st, some of the
country's popular movements felt that Morales had reneged on
his campaign promises as he did little more than state that Bolivia
already "owned its resources." His approval ratings
dropped from 80 to 68 percent. But as one observer in La Paz
notes, "Evo is a masterful politician." Morales chose
this moment to act because of the elections for the Constituent
Assembly that are scheduled for July. The assembly will have
the power to redraft the country's constitution and reshape its
political institutions.
As Vice-President Alvaro Garcia
Linares has noted, the goal of MAS is "to achieve hegemony,"
and the Constituent Assembly is central to this process. Bolivia
has been unstable for years because of poverty, military revolts,
and the conniving of the country's political elites as they loot
the public treasury. As in Venezuela prior to Hugo Chavez' election,
the traditional parties are viewed as bankrupt. Evo and MAS want
to breathe new life into the country's political and social institutions,
to give voice to the country's indigenous poor who have been
exploited by the "caras," the faces of white oppression
that have dominated Bolivia since the Conquest.
With the government's expropriation
decree, fifteen corporations have been nationalized, with foreign
capital from a wide variety of nations, including the United
States, Spain, Great Britain, Brazil, France and the Netherlands.
Seizing control of these enterprises goes to hand in hand with
Bolivia's audacious steps in the trade arena. MAS and Morales
view neo-liberalism, US trade agreements, and corporate-driven
globalization as major obstacles to the country's development.
This year Colombia signed a so called "free trade agreement"
with the United States that is particularly harmful to Bolivia.
Sixty percent of Bolivia's major agricultural export, soy beans,
currently go to Colombia. The US- Colombian accord means that
cheap, subsidized US grains will flood Colombia, driving out
Bolivian soy production.
Peru has also just signed a
trade agreement with the United States that will have an adverse
impact on Bolivian exports to Peru. These accords have ruptured
the thirty-seven year old Andean Community of Nations, a trade
pact that included Venezuela and Ecuador as well as Bolivia.
Hugo Chavez announced in April that Venezuela is withdrawing
from the pact because the United States has "fatally wounded"
the community. Evo has also stated that Bolivia is reconsidering
its membership.
This discontent with the Andean
community led to the signing of the People's Trade Agreement
between Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia on April 29th. The accord
is particularly favorable to Bolivia as Cuba and Venezuela have
agreed to take all of Bolivia's soy production as well as other
agricultural commodities at market prices or better. Venezuela
will also ship oil to Bolivia to meet domestic shortfalls in
production while Cuba will send doctors to Bolivia.
The trade agreement and the
nationalization of Bolivia's natural resources mark a dramatic
shift in hemispheric affairs. Morales is serving notice on Washington
that he is becoming part of a radical bloc of nations in Latin
America that are no longer subservient to the United States.
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