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| News You Should Know About: (PLEASE READ & Spread the Word) Sanctions: SA piles pressure on US, Britain
Bulawayo Bureau/Observer
SOUTH Africa has called on Britain, US and the European Union to extend their aid to Zimbabwe beyond humanitarian assistance by injecting funds directly into the treasury.
Reiterating the call for the West to lift their punitive economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, South Africa’s Finance Minister, Mr Trevor Manuel, said the Western powers who have imposed sanctions on Harare must lift them and support the inclusive Government.
Mr Manuel was quoted as telling the British media yesterday that while humanitarian assistance was welcome, it would not go anywhere in addressing the fundamental causes of the prevailing socio-economic hardships if sanctions were maintained.
"You have to support the Government," Mr Manuel said.
"Zimbabwe’s foreign friends are opposed to the notion that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his ministers are just puppets.
"But if you just have outside agencies running the show, then that notion is amplified. And people will say Tsvangirai is not even trusted by his friends."
South Africa has in recent years taken a leading role in urging the West to lift the sanctions that have caused untold suffering in the country.
Sadc and the African Union have also denounced the sanctions and called for their removal.
Speaking during the launch of the Short-Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP) in Harare last week, President Mugabe again called for foreign aid to revive the economy and urged the EU and its partners to end the cruel sanctions.
Despite the formation of the inclusive Government by Zanu-PF and both factions of the MDC last month and continuing calls for the sanctions to be lifted, the EU and the US have renewed and further tightened their ruinous sanctions on Harare.
Last week, the US said the inclusive Government has "a long way to go" before it (US) can remove sanctions.
A US State Department spokesman, Mr Robert Wood, said in Washington DC that his government had not seen evidence of what he said was an irrevocable move towards effective governance and respect of human rights.
"We have not yet seen sufficient evidence from the Government of Zimbabwe that they are firmly and irrevocably on a path to inclusive and effective governance, and as well as respect for human rights and the rule of law," he said.
He added: "So that government has a long way to go before we will consider . . . easing sanctions with that Government. We’re not in any kind of discussion with . . . the Government of Zimbabwe on removing our targeted sanctions."
Mr Wood acknowledged that the sanctions have indeed caused terrible suffering but claimed that the US remains "very concerned about the plight of the Zimbabwean people".
Mr Manuel said the inclusive Government must be given time to work.
"There is a fundamental set of issues that needs to be addressed. But they (the Government) have to be afforded the opportunity to make a difference," he said.
On whether Sadc would provide an economic rescue package to Zimbabwe, Mr Manuel said African nations did not have the capacity to do so.
"You have to understand this is a region in poverty.
"If large hearts and deep pockets be the measure of goodwill, you couldn’t be asking at a worse time." — Bulawayo Bureau/Observer.
Western double standards exposed
By Reason Wafawarova
THE overriding principle of global politics as defined by the collective foreign policy of Western elites is centred on the vainglorious assumption that misdeeds are only performed by others while the West is only culpable for inadvertent errors or oversights.
The Western media has no problems portraying to the world the lucidity of the democracy of their own countries while they bestow upon themselves the righteous role of being the custodians of the feelings and emotions of people in far away less developed countries.
The furious denunciation of the crimes of others is but one specialty of many journalists in the mainstream Western media.
Just like Britain was the first country to acknowledge the legitimacy of Uganda’s Idi Amin when he overthrew Milton Obote in January 1971, France has been the first Western country to acknowledge the legitimacy of Andry Rajoelina in his military-backed coup against Marc Ravalomanana in Madagascar.
France has declared that it will not change its investment policy and will not review the diplomatic ties with Madagascar and has clearly ruled out sanctions against Madagascar.
Running the risk of being criticised for advocating sanctions against a fellow African country, which this writer is not doing, the irony of France’s position cannot escape common-sense driven observations.
Ravalomanana was not only a neo-liberal economic fundamentalist who was obsessed with opening floodgates for Western foreign investment but also a democratically elected leader of Madagascar whose controversial claim of victory in the December 2001 election was well atoned by his clear win for a second term in 2006.
This democratically elected leader, who was pro-West by every angle of the term, is now ousted by a 34-year-old opposition leader who is clearly scared of an election and France has no intention of going to the Security Council, no intention to reprimand anyone, no plans to review investment in Madagascar and most clearly acknowledges the legitimacy of Rajoelina.
This is the France whose President, Nicolas Sarkozy vigorously supported an EU move to expand sanctions against Zimbabwe in December 2008, regardless of the fact that the country was clearly moving towards an inclusive government endorsed by all interested parties.
Sarkozy had this to say about the man who was endorsed as the President of Zimbabwe at the negotiations that led to the formation of the inclusive Government, "President Mugabe must go. It is time to say to Mr Mugabe: ‘You have taken your people hostage; the inhabitants of Zimbabwe have the right to freedom, security and respect’."
Ravalomanana challenged his opposition leader to a referendum so that the will of the people of Madagascar could be respected and Rajoelina blatantly refused saying "the people (were) too thirsty for change" and there was no time for an election.
After Ravalomanana left office Rajoelina announced that he would organise an election in two years and when asked why that could not be earlier he said he did not want "history to repeat itself" meaning he did not want Ravalomanana to win again.
By using the military and refusing to take part in a proposed referendum, Rajoelina was taking not only the President of Madagascar hostage but also its people.
France is not worried about this military hostage that fronted a baby-faced ex-DJ against the democracy and constitution of Madagascar but was too good to detect the hostage of the inhabitants of Zimbabwe even at a time the Zimbabweans were uniting under an inclusive Government of their choice.
The fact that Zimbabweans were collectively shaping their own future and destiny did not stop France and her allies in the EU from simultaneously expanding the illegal and ruinous sanctions that have ravaged Zimbabwe into the sorry state it is in today.
If democracy and the rule of law were so important to France; surely on the basis of guiding principles only they were not supposed to embrace the leadership of Rajoelina, who by the constitutional requirements of his own country is six years too young to become the country’s president.
Now the military and Rajoelina’s supporters had the audacity to take the Madagascar Supreme Court hostage and demand a statement of legitimacy for Rajoelina and it all happened just like that. France and her Western allies are not talking Security Council or military intervention as they have become known for on matters regarding Zimbabwe in recent years.
Meanwhile the BBC quoted France’s Foreign Ministry as saying France would not stop its aid nor change its investment policy but would, "would maintain its policy of cooperation".
The message that France is sending to the world is that the guiding principles of their foreign policy, and indeed their political conscience are purely based on economic interest and not on the moralistic truisms that we are often bombarded with, and most certainly not on democratic values or the rule of law.
For as long as French investment is not threatened and for as long as French hegemony in the economic affairs of Madagascar is not upset Ravalomanana can be easily counted as collateral damage in the politics of his country.
It is unlike Zimbabwe, that country that is being ruthlessly punished for successful defiance of Western guiding principles of imperial hegemony.
If Zimbabwe had a popular ex-DJ supported by dissident soldiers taken over power while the white settler farmers remained on their properties and white businesses were not disturbed there would be no need to talk about ‘‘lawlessness’’, ‘‘hostage of inhabitants’’ or even sanctions.
Zimbabwe overturned Western hegemony through the leadership and guidance of President Mugabe and an inclusive government featuring the same man is nothing but an insult to the Western elites.
Zimbabwe reclaimed its agricultural land and it uprooted Western hegemony over its economic affairs and for that the language is sanctions, ICC, Rome Statute, The Hague and military intervention.
In the 1960s JF Kennedy’s administration backed military forces that overthrew Brazil’s parliamentary democracy acknowledging their "basically democratic and pro-United States orientation".
Kennedy’s ambassador, Lincoln Gordon hailed the assassins and torturers as having achieved "the most decisive victory for freedom in the mid-twentieth century" and he called it a "democratic rebellion".
Gordon urged Washington to "restrain left wing excesses" of the popular but ousted government of Brazil and he also directed "the democratic forces" of the military coup plotters to "create a greatly improved climate for private investment".
With this history and even worse atrocities in their cupboards the US still have the audacity and arrogance to overlook the importance of the inclusive Government to the people of Zimbabwe, and to proceed and expand the regime of the illegal sanctions even on the same day that Prime Minister Tsvangirai was appealing for the lifting of these "restrictive measures".
The guiding principle here is the US economic interest and not what is of interest to the people of Zimbabwe.
Cuba has been punished for about 50 years now for its successful defiance of imperial hegemony.
The 1975 defence of Angola by Cuban forces against South African mercenaries was remarkable in that it sparked life into the Frelimo liberation fighters of Mozambique and the Zanla and Zipra liberation fighters who were fighting to topple the Ian Smith regime in the then Rhodesia.
Gleijeses wrote of this Cuban achievement, ‘the story of a small country’s vision of defying a big power’s oppression, and, thanks to extraordinary individual heroism and self-sacrifice, changing a continent".
Henry Kissinger did his best to smash the MPLA for representing the hope and aspiration of the Angolan people.
The Unites States has this long history of international terrorism and economic warfare to overcome what Washington has called "successful defiance", "left wing excesses" and "the liberation theology".
These are the target crimes aimed at by Western hegemony and Zimbabwe is guilty of all three crimes.
Zimbabwe now features prominently in scholarly work on democracy but typically as a convict of the crime of violating the virtues of democracies, not as a victim of Western-induced political polarity and economic strangulation.
It is like Cuba featuring prominently in scholarly work on terrorism, typically as a suspect in the crime and not as a victim. In these works the Reagan-Bush Senior international terrorism in Nicaragua and elsewhere does not exist just like Bush Junior’s atrocities and terror campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan do not exist.
After the invasion of the Bay of Pigs and the bombing of the Cuban Airliner as well as a lot other acts of terror, Cuba was ironically added to the US official list of terrorist states in 1982, replacing Iraq, which had been removed so as to make Saddam Hussein eligible for US aid, mainly lethal weapons meant to obliterate Iran.
With these guidelines and the overriding principle of Western exceptionalism, Zimbabwe has no good reason to be overly optimistic about receiving free money from the West for purposes of rebuilding the battered economy.
It appears Finance Minister Tendai Biti has become alive to the reality of Zimbabwe having to go it alone in this rebuilding exercise.
We may take solace in Australia’s announcement that this writer’s host country is using part of our tax to give "developmental aid" to Zimbabwe, the homeland.
Well, Australia is well known in international relations for making very bold statements in a very small way.
They went into Iraq with a couple of thousand soldiers but still told Barrack Obama that he was a darling of terrorists when he announced the need to pull out of Iraq during the launch of his election campaign.
Obama retorted by challenging John Howard to back his commitment to war by adding "at least 20 000 more soldiers" to the battlefield.
That would have been the entire Australian Defence Forces so it would never happen.
Now Australia can equally set lofty benchmarks for Zimbabwe on the basis of the promised 10 million Australian dollars, roughly US$ 6.4 million.
The answer for Zimbabwe lies in boosting production in agriculture, mining and manufacturing, as well as in the tourism sector.
It is futile to place any hope in the hypocritical West for remedy to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis unless we can meet the benchmark of restoring Western economic hegemony over the country’s resources.
Zimbabwe we are one and together we shall overcome.
-Reason Wafawarova contact wafawarova@yahoo.co.uk or reason@rwafawarova.com or visit www.rwafawarova.com
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 John Hope Franklin, Scholar Who Transformed African American History, Dies at Age 94 DURHAM, N.C. – John Hope Franklin, the scholar who helped create the field of African-American history and dominated it for nearly six decades, has died at the age of 94. Franklin died of congestive heart failure at Duke Hospital this morning. He is survived by his son, John Whittington Franklin, daughter-in-law Karen Roberts Franklin, sister-in-law Bertha W. Gibbs, cousin Grant Franklin Sr., a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, other family members, many generations of students and friends. There will be a celebration of his life and of his late wife Aurelia Franklin at 11 a.m. June 11 in Duke Chapel in honor of their 69th wedding anniversary. “John Hope Franklin lived for nearly a century and helped define that century,” said Duke President Richard H. Brodhead. “A towering historian, he led the recognition that African-American history and American history are one. With his grasp of the past, he spent a lifetime building a future of inclusiveness, fairness and equality. Duke has lost a great citizen and a great friend.” Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History, was a scholar who brought intellectual rigor as well an engaged passion to his work. He wrote about history – one of his books is considered a core text on the African-American experience, more than 60 years after its publication – and he lived it. Franklin worked on the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) case, joined protestors in a 1965 march led by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Montgomery, Ala. and headed President Clinton’s 1997 national advisory board on race. He is perhaps best known to the public for his work on President Clinton’s 1997 task force on race. But his reputation as a scholar was made in 1947 with the publication of his book, “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans,” which is still considered the definitive account of the black experience in America. “My challenge was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the story of the United States could be told adequately and fairly,” he said when the 50th anniversary of the book was celebrated in 1997. “That was terribly important.” In January 2005, he spoke at Duke at the celebration of his 90th birthday, displaying the fire that motivated him throughout his long life. While others at the event talked about the past and reminisced about his accomplishments, Franklin focused squarely on the future. He described the event, held the same day as President George W. Bush’s second inauguration, as a “counter-inaugural,” and gave a talk in the form of a letter to a fictional white man he called “Jonathan Doe.” He recounted some of the historical inequalities in the United States and recalled some of his own experiences with racism. He said, for example, that the evening before he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton, a woman at his club in Washington, D.C., asked him to get her coat. Around the same time, a man at a hotel handed Franklin his car keys and told him to get his car. “I patiently explained to him that I was a guest in the hotel, as I presumed he was, and I had no idea where his automobile was. And, in any case, I was retired,” Franklin said. Both of these incidents occurred when he was in his 80s. “What these experiences will do to me in the long run, I do not know. My cardiologist says that they are not good,” he said, continuing with the letter. “I very much doubt, Mr. Doe, that you have had such experiences. Your race and your consequent position of power and privilege have doubtless immunized you from the experiences that a black person confronts daily, regardless of his age, education, position or station in life.” At the time From Slavery to Freedom was published, there were few scholars working in African-American history and the books that had been published were not highly regarded by academics. To write it, he first had to give himself a course in African-American history, then spend months struggling to complete the research in segregated libraries and archives – including Duke’s, where he could not use the bathroom. Franklin accumulated many honors during his long career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He shared the John W. Kluge Award for lifetime achievement in the humanities and a similar honor from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, the nation’s two oldest learned societies. But he also was revered as a “moral leader” of the historical profession for his engagement in the pressing issues of the day, his unflagging advocacy of civil rights, and his gracious and courtly demeanor. Virtually all of the many articles written about “John Hope,” as he was called by friends and colleagues, include the words “distinguished” or “elegant.” His devotion to his wife, Aurelia, who died in 1999, was legendary, as was his love of orchids, which he raised in his Durham home. He even had one named after him: Phalaenopsis John Hope Franklin. Franklin recounted the events of his long life in his autobiography “Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin,” which was published in 2005. To read and hear an interview with Franklin about his book, go to http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2005/11/jhf_qa.html . The grandson of a slave, Franklin’s work was informed by his first-hand experience with injustices of racism -- not just in Rentiesville, Okla., the small black community where he was born on Jan. 2, 1915, but throughout his life. Named after John Hope, the former president of Atlanta University, Franklin was the son of Buck Colbert Franklin, one of the first black lawyers in the Oklahoma Indian territory, and Mollie Parker Franklin, a schoolteacher and community leader. The realities of racism hit Franklin at an early age. He has said he vividly remembers the humiliating experience of being put off the train with his mother because she refused to move to a segregated compartment for a six-mile trip to the next town. He was 6. Later, although an academic star at Booker T. Washington High School and valedictorian of his class, the state would not allow him to study at the state university because he was black. So instead of the University of Oklahoma, in 1931 Franklin enrolled at Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, Tenn., intending to study law. However, a white history professor, Theodore Currier, caused him to change his mind and he received his bachelor’s degree in history in 1935. Currier became a close friend and mentor and when Franklin’s money ran out, Currier loaned the young student $500 to attend graduate school at Harvard University, where he received his master’s in 1936 and doctorate five years later. He began his career as an instructor at Fisk in 1936 and taught at St. Augustine’s and North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University), both historically black colleges. In 1945, Alfred A. Knopf approached him about writing a book on African-American history – originally titled From Slavery to Freedom: A History of American Negroes -- and he spent 13 months writing it. Then in 1947, he took a post as professor at Howard University, where, in the early 1950s, he traveled from Washington to Thurgood Marshall’s law office to help prepare the brief that led to the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision. In 1956 he became chairman of the all-white history department at Brooklyn College. Despite his position, he had to visit 35 real estate agents before he was able to buy a house for his young family and no New York bank would loan him the money. Later, while at the University of Chicago, he accompanied the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in 1965. He spent 16 years at the University of Chicago, coming to Duke in 1982. He retired from the history department in 1985, then spent seven years as professor of legal history at the Duke Law School. Franklin was a prolific writer, with books including The Emancipation Proclamation, The Militant South, The Free Negro in North Carolina, George Washington Williams: A Biography and A Southern Odyssey: Travelers in the Antebellum North. He also has edited many works, including a book about his father called My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin, with his son, John Whittington Franklin. Franklin completed his autobiography in 2005, which was reviewed favorably in many media outlets across the country. He received more than 130 honorary degrees, and served as president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the American Studies Association, the Southern Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. Franklin’s best-known accomplishment in his later years was in 1997, when he was appointed chairman of the advisory board for President Clinton’s One America: The President’s Initiative on Race. The seven-member panel was charged with directing a national conversation on race relations. When he was named to the post, Franklin remarked, “I am not sure this is an honor. It may be a burden.” The panel did provoke criticism, both from conservatives who pressured the panel to hear from opponents of racial preference and others who said it did not make enough progress. Franklin himself acknowledged in an interview with USA Today in 1997 that the group could not solve the nation’s racial problems. But Franklin said the effort was still worth it. In 2007, lent his formidable effort to the issue of reparations for African Americans. Franklin returned to Oklahoma to testify in a hearing urging Congress to pass legislation that would clear the way for survivors of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, one of the nation's worst race riots, to sue for reparations. At Duke, Franklin’s legacy has been honored in many ways. In 2006 he delivered Duke’s commencement address. After celebrating his 90th birthday in January 2005, Duke held a symposium celebrating the 10th anniversary of the John Hope Franklin Collection of African & African American Documentation in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University. The event also marked the publication of his autobiography. A portrait of Franklin was hung in Perkins Library in 1997. And, in 2001, Duke opened the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, (jhfc.duke.edu) where scholars, artists and members of the community have the opportunity to engage in public discourse on a variety of issues, including race, social equity and globalization. At the heart of its mission is the Franklin Humanities Institute, which sponsors public events and hosts the Franklin Seminar, a residential fellowship program for Duke faculty and graduate students. For Franklin, who continued his scholarly work and public appearances full-bore into his 90s, the work he began in the 1940s still was not finished. In a statement to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002, Franklin summed up his own career: “More than 60 years ago, I began the task of trying to write a new kind of Southern History. It would be broad in its reach, tolerant in its judgments of Southerners, and comprehensive in its inclusion of everyone who lived in the region. ... the long, tragic history of the continuing black-white conflict compelled me to focus on the struggle that has affected the lives of the vast majority of people in the United States. ... Looking back, I can plead guilty of having provided only a sketch of the work I laid out for myself.” In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made to the Aurelia W. and John Hope Franklin Endowed Scholarship Fund at Fisk University, c/o Office of Institutional Advancement, 1000 17th Street North, Nashville, TN 37208. For more information on John Hope Franklin, please visit the Franklin Center web site at http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin Obama Pulls U.S. Out of UN Conference on Racism, But Congressional Black Caucus Should Attend Anyway
Submitted by Cynthia McKinney on Wed, 03/04/2009 - 11:31  When Eric Holder, the new U.S. Attorney General called the nation to account for its historic reluctance to honestly talk about race and racism, its manifestations and consequences, he could have been talking about his boss the president. By withdrawing from the UN Conference on Racism he is leading backwards, in the direction of Clinton and Bush rather than forward into the 21st century. The fact that the President of Change wan't bring himself -- or us --- to an honest discussion about race says a lot for his willingness to lead on the subject.
But Obama's willingness to cave in the face of white racism and business as usual is no excuse for the Congressional Black Caucus, supposedly among the best and brightest Black America has to offer. It's time for the CBC to step up where the president has stepped back. The author is a former U.S. Representative from Georgia and Green Party presidential candidate.
“I implore the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus to spearhead the participation of the United States in the United Nation's World Conference Against Racism.”
I have played around with this idea for hours now, on whether or not to write this piece. But the events of the last few hours, I believe, mandate that I raise my voice once again.
I have read and re-read President Obama's Joint Congressional Address. All of the "acceptable punditry" have spoken and given the President glowing reviews. And so, to them and the population that still believes in them, "All is right with the world." But for the rest of us, who refuse to swallow the pill that puts us into the Matrix, a good dose of reality is strongly called for. But reality is not what we're getting, not even from one of the national columnists whom I've met, Maureen Dowd. I think Maureen Dowd characterized it as "Spock at the Bridge." Now, being the Trekkie that I am, that headline grabbed my attention. I nearly gagged, however, when I got to the line supposedly from President Obama calling President Bush to proclaim, "'I’m ending your stupid war.' Mission Relinquished." Why write things like this now that it is clear that the Obama Administration is continuing the Bush policies for missile strikes inside Pakistan; torture; rendition for torture; public release of Bush Administration e-mails; illegal wiretaps; status of prisoners at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan; and workplace immigration raids? For the record, President Obama is also pursuing Bush policies on Iran and Israel. As recently as yesterday, President Obama's Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, responded when asked whether Iran was capable of building an atom bomb. Admiral Mullen replied, "We think they do, quite frankly." Dowd concludes her “Spock” piece by imbuing the President with "a Vulcan-like logic and detachment." But I think the detachment of “acceptable” political punditry from the real world is what is totally lamentable. In the process, they render themselves irrelevant. “The Obama Administration is continuing the Bush policies for missile strikes inside Pakistan; torture; rendition for torture; public release of Bush Administration e-mails; illegal wiretaps; status of prisoners at the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan; and workplace immigration raids.”
So, it's clear. I'm about to step into marshy soil here, by noting that I found 19 questionable Obama policies or statements in his Joint Congressional speech delivered three days before his announcement that upon the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, up to 50,000 U.S. troops could remain through 2011, after the "pullout."
And while various "mint" operations are peddling Obama "Change" coins for purchase, complete with a certificate of authenticity, I wade further into the muck by noting that the President continues the giveaway of our hard-earned coins to an economic team intent on keeping mismanagement structures in place, serving economic ends that do not constitute the common good. I would refer readers to the many statements that I issued during the final days of our Power to the People Green Party Presidential campaign about re-creating an economic system truly and finally owned by the people, operating in our interest. It is possible to do that. All it requires is enough political will. But what forces me out into the open marshland of "non-mainstream" political punditry has to do with the latest Obama "pullout": the decision to withdraw from the April 2009 Geneva United Nations World Conference Against Racism, dubbed Durban II. We heard the same palaver in 2001 from the same forces inside our country, basically that a discussion of Zionism, in the context of such a Conference, would be anti-Semitic; therefore all the world's dispossessed and marginalized people must continue to suffer and sacrifice while muting their grievances so that no discussion of Israel would take place on the world stage in this context. Well, in 2001, upon hearing this line of reasoning, I went to then-Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman, Eddie Bernice Johnson, and asked if I could be appointed as the CBC Task Force Chair on Durban. The non-participation argument was also a handy "peg on the track" with the potential of derailing many conversations, including a real discussion about the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the issue of reparations. Respectful of the excellent preparatory work that had been done, I wanted to avoid that outcome. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson made the appointment and I led a delegation of 5 Members of Congress to Durban. “We successfully argued for U.S. participation in that Conference at a Hearing designed to quash our effort.” The current Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Barbara Lee, was a member of my delegation to Durban. From my position on the International Relations Committee, we successfully argued for U.S. participation in that Conference at a Hearing designed to quash our effort. We not only met with then-United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, we also presented her with the untold story of COINTELPRO and the remaining unsolved deaths of its Black Panther Party member victims, commissioned by me and written by Kathleen Cleaver and Paul Wolf. Our CBC Chairwoman made a beautiful statement of why it was imperative that the United States join with our Native American and Latino brothers and sisters and with oppressed peoples all over the planet and not only make our statement of solidarity, but also institute policies at the Congress that recognized their needs. It is incorrect to say that the United States was not present at Durban. We were there and only when the duties of Congress pressed us to return to Washington, DC did the Bush Administration make a big deal about anti-Semitism and then staged its phony walk out. The United States delegation of Congressional Black Caucus Members was there to support the phenomenal work of U.S. activists and the African and Caribbean delegations, in particular. I think everyone in Durban was moved by the plight of the Dalits in India and understood better the surging political power of Afro-Latinos. Durban was a clear victory for the world's marginalized peoples, including those of us who reside inside the United States. But, when the Congressional Delegation returned to the U.S., there was no time for celebration because the tragedy of September 11, 2001 unfolded. What has happened in the interim has devastated the very people that Durban was designed to address, unfortunately, much of it due to U.S. policy. Now is not the time for the United States to shrink from this call. In order to prevail in Durban, I had to go toe to toe with the Anti-Defamation League and Members of Congress Tom Lantos and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who, among many other Members of Congress, vociferously denounced Durban. This was something that I did because I felt it was the right thing to do. Given Israel's recent actions in Gaza that have brought upon it the world's opprobrium, I can imagine that this is the last point in time that Israel might want to revisit Durban. Israel has said that it will not attend the Conference in Geneva. “The Bush Administration make a big deal about anti-Semitism and then staged its phony walk out.” Early last year, a government official announced Canada's decision to not attend Durban II after deeming the Conference to be anti-Israel. Shortly afterwards, France followed suit with French President Nicolas Sarkozy stating that the "excesses of 2001" transformed the Conference "into an intolerable platform against the State of Israel." I would note also that France must be particularly loath to discuss racism now with what is happening in Guadeloupe and Martinique as I write this piece. And remembering that Paris, itself, was literally on fire just a few years ago. The UK, which has been under severe racial tests with Asians rebelling openly in the streets since Durban 2001, and the Netherlands have both threatened to withdraw their support for the Conference if a "negative spiral" of events takes place. Interestingly, these remarks came at the same time as the release of a European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance report which found that the tone of Dutch political and public debate on immigrant integration, racism, and other issues relevant to ethnic minorities, had experienced a "dramatic deterioration." So, we shouldn't be surprised that the racism stress test is revealing cracks and fissures in human relations. But the United States and President Obama should not shield them or this country from these stresses. This Conference gives us the opportunity to get the issues out in the open and to deal with them. That's the way to put them to an end. The world might have changed because of events occurring in September 2001, but it wasn't because the United Nations successfully convened the World Conference Against Racism. “Given Israel's recent actions in Gaza that have brought upon it the world's opprobrium, I can imagine that this is the last point in time that Israel might want to revisit Durban.” And now that I am as completely in the middle of the marsh as I was as completely in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea when my boat was rammed by the Israelis, let me make an observation about one aspect of marshes. I have witnessed the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets on the Savannah, Georgia marshland. And the most beautiful rainbows. Being away from the glass and concrete can give one a better perspective. I observed last year that I thought U.S. voters went to the polls in large numbers to try and regain a bit of dignity lost during the eight years of outright banditry played out in our names, with our resources, against our interests. But I was reminded at the recently adjourned Transpartisan Alliance convention in Colorado that dignity will not come without first an acknowledgment of the truth: with truth we can have justice; and with justice we can have peace; and it is only with peace that we can truly have dignity. Something as easy as a vote, alone, is not going to be enough to wrest us from this mess that has been wrought. This morning [Monday], I sent the following message to the White House: ‘Mr. President, it was with great disappointment that I read of your decision to pull out of Durban II. Even the Bush Administration, under pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus, provided some funding for the United Nations effort and sent staff to support the Congressional delegation that attended the Conference. I was there. I was head of the Congressional Black Caucus Task Force that negotiated Congressional and Administration engagement on this issue. There is still time for the U.S. to participate. Your decision is not irrevocable. I would encourage you to please reconsider this decision and not only attend the Conference, but also provide funding to ensure its success.” I implore the Members of the Congressional Black Caucus to spearhead the participation of the United States in the United Nation's World Conference Against Racism: to boldly go where we have gone before. Dr. King reminded us that "the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." On this issue, President Obama has shown us his measure. I hope that the Congressional Black Caucus and the Progressive Caucus and the Democratic Caucus can show us, oh, so much more. Cynthia McKinney can be contacted at mckinney.cynthia@gmail.com. | Courtesy of Black Agenda Report & Pan-African News Wire | | Wednesday, 25 February 2009 | by Roland Sheppard "When I looked up, I saw Malcolm X standing up and glaring down at one of his assassins. At that point, from the corner of my eye, nearby to my left, I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back about ten feet." The Day the Music Died: Malcolm X's Assassination by Roland Sheppard An earlier edited version of this article appeared in the San Francisco BayView National Black Newspaper. "It was the saddest day of my life." In the afternoon, on January 21, 1965, I went to the Audubon Ballroom to hear Malcolm X speak. I also went to sell the newspaper, The Militant, a radical newspaper, which at that time, printed the truth about Malcolm X, his speeches, and publicly defended him. When I got to the Ballroom, things were radically different -- there were no cops. (Normally Malcolm's meetings in Harlem were crawling with cops.) As I was selling papers, Malcolm X approached the Audubon Ballroom, I offered to sell him the latest issue, but he told me, "not today Roland, I am alone and in a hurry." A while later, as I entered the meeting room I again did not see any cops. I went in to sit down, where I normally sat along with the rest of the press in the front and the left side of the room. On the way to my seat, Gene Roberts, who later surfaced as a police agent member of the Black Panther Party, told me that I could not sit at my regular place, but on that day I had to sit in the front row on the right side of the hall, facing the stage. As I sat down, I glanced over, to where I normally sat, and saw a large Black man, with a Navy Blue-gray trench coat. When the meeting started all was quiet, as the crowd listened to Benjamin X introducing Malcolm X. When Malcolm approached the podium, he gave the normal Muslim greeting for peace, at that point a disturbance occurred in the room. Two men were standing about halfway back in the room and to the right of the Malcolm on stage. One was shouting "Get your hand out of my pocket." Malcolm was trying to calm things down, when the men, one later identified as Talmadge Hayer, started running down the aisle shouting and firing a pistol at Malcolm and ran out the exit doors by the stage, to the right of Malcolm X. "I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back about ten feet." Suddenly I heard gunshots fired from all over the place, and I instinctively hit the floor. When I looked up, I saw Malcolm X standing up and glaring down at one of his assassins. At that point, from the corner of my eye, nearby to my left, I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back about ten feet. In that instant, when Malcolm died before my eyes, I suddenly realized how big he was and I realized that he was a giant in stature, in the world. This vision of Malcolm X, being assassinated, has haunted me till this day. (The fatal blast, which I later found out to be from a shotgun, came from the area where I had seen the large Black man, with a Navy Blue-gray trench coat!) When I left the hall, Malcolm's bodyguards told me that they had caught two of the assassins, one who was shot (Talmadge Hayer) and one whom the police took away. A few weeks later, when I was questioned in the Harlem Police station, I was shown a series of photos of people whom I recognized as members of the Nation of Islam or Malcolm's organization. I also saw a picture of the large Black man, with a Navy Blue-gray trench coat, that I had seen at the Audubon Ballroom. I was thinking of how to respond to the cops and how to say that I did not recognize the photos of Malcolm's friends and supporters and the members of the Nation of Islam. I then told the cops that I had to go to the rest room. When I got to the men's room door, I saw the same large Black man, coming out of the men's room, that I had seen in the Audubon Ballroom and in the photos that were just shown to me. Then he walked by me, he walked past the desks of the secretary pool, and went to his office inside the police station! At that point I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part of the assassination plot. I became very nervous thinking about what I was going to say to the cops when I got back and how I was going to get out of the station alive. I then came up with, "I can not recognize anyone, for all Black people look the same." The cops nodded in agreement and I was then allowed to leave the police station. "At that point I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part of the assassination plot." Malcolm X was my one of my heroes. He was the most honest mass leader that I have ever known or seen. He was a great orator and his speeches seemed like a conversation between himself and the audience. His speeches were like music to my ear and have inspired me for the rest of my life in the fight for social justice. He was so human in his orations, I still remember him when made the Harlem 'Hate Gang' Scare speech at The Militant Labor Forum, on May 29, 1964 and other speeches when he chuckled a 'heh heh' when he was about to make a special comment. At that Forum he said: "It's impossible for a chicken to produce a duck egg... The system of this country cannot produce freedom for an Afro-American. It is impossible for this system, this economic system, this political system, this social system, this system period. It is impossible for it , as it now stands, to produce freedom right now for the Black man in this country - it is impossible. And if ever a chicken did produce a duck egg, (heh heh) I'm certain you would say it was certainly a revolutionary chicken. (heh heh)" Both he and Martin Luther King had come to similar positions about capitalism and the Vietnam War at the time of their death. That is why this government assassinated them. No one has followed in their footsteps. From the point of view of this government, the world leader in political assassinations, the two assassinations worked. For to this day, no mass leader has had the courage to pick up where they left off. They were able to silence the art, science, and truth, of these two great orators. To me, February 21st is "The day the Music Died." It was the saddest day of my life. Roland Sheppard is a writer and activist and former BA of the Painters Union in San Francisco. Email him at rolandsheppard@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and visit his website, http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret. |
Wednesday, 04 February 2009 |  by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon With the inaguration only two or three weeks behind us, pundits and politicians are already urging us to take our eyes off the health care football while they "fix" the economy. Promises to enact a universal national health care plan, only a few months old, are being forgotten or openly taken back due to supposed "economic necessities". But an authoritative study by the California Nurses Organization details the economic impact of enacting single payer Medicare-For-All national health care: 2.6 million new jobs, $100 billion annually in the pockets of employees, $317 billion to employers and $44 billion in tax revenues to hard-pressed local governments. The choice between enacting health care and saving the economy may be a false one. Fixing health care may be the best medicine for the economy. Medicare-For-All Will Create 2.6 Million New Jobs, Say CA Nurses by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon According to a study released January 14 by the California Nurses Association, adoptiing a single payer system of universal health care in the US would create 2.6 million new jobs, as many as the Bush economy destroyed in 2006, and boost the revenues of private employers by an annual $317 billion. A single payer health care system would put more than $100 billion in the pockets of employees and add $44 billion to state, local and federal budgets in badly needed tax revenues. The CNA study details the economic benefits of healthcare to the overall economy, showing how changes in direct healthcare delivery affect all other significant sectors touched by healthcare, and how sweeping healthcare reform can help drive the nation's economic recovery. "These dramatic new findings document for the first time that a single-payer system could not only solve our healthcare crisis, but also substantially contribute to putting America back to work and assisting the economic recovery," said Geri Jenkins, RN, co-president of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, which sponsored the study. The numbers of new jobs created by single payer health care alone dwarf anything yet proposed by the Obama administration or the “Buy America” add-ons to its stimulus bills, in addition to fulfilling the public expectation that Democrats enact a plan of universal and affordable health care for every American this year. "Through direct and supplemental expenditures, healthcare is already a uniquely dominant force in the U.S. economy," said Don DeMoro, lead author of the study and director of the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the NNOC/CNA research arm. "However, so much more is possible. If we were to expand our present Medicare system to cover all Americans, the economic stimulus alone would create an immense engine that would help drive our national economy for decades to come," DeMoro said. Amid the hue and cry around the bailouts of Wall Street and the unfolding economic meltdown, discussion of universal health care promised by Democrats in the election just past appears to have taken a back seat. But the study demonstrates that the adoption of Medicare-For-All in the US may be a far more potent economic stimulus at a lower price than bailing out the greedheads of Wall Street. Right now, the US spends roughly $2.1 trillion in direct medical expenses, with one third of this total going to private insurance companies. These are the funds which finance their executive bonuses, bad investments, advertising, and a vast machinery of bookkeeping, red tape and litigation to deny the coverage that policy holders have paid for. By comparison, Canada's single payer health care system delivers adequate care to everybody from cradle to grave and spends less than 5% on bookkeeping and other non-medical expenses. Adding a mere $63 billion to what the US already spends would amply finance a Medicare-For-All plan in the regime in which more than 95% of health care expenditures would for the first time be applied to actual health care. Under such an arrangement, all US citizens would be covered, and glaring disparities in health outcomes between black, brown, red, and white America would be immediately and substantially reduced or eliminated,at a fraction of the cost of the Wall Street bailouts. The $63 billion is one sixth the cost of CitiGroup's no-strings-attached welfare check, and less than half the federal bailout for AIG. Expanding Medicare alone to cover the 47 million uninsured Americans (as of 2006 data on which the study is based) could be accomplished for just $44 billion. While nobody can credibly explain the precise voodoo-like mechanisms by which the Wall Street bailouts are supposed to create jobs, the California Nurses Association study demonstrates how health care expenditures have immediate and long term beneficial effects on the economic life of the nation. Overall, every direct healthcare dollar creates nearly three additional dollars in the U.S. economy. In current form, healthcare: Generates 45 million jobs, directly and in other industries. Accounts for 10.5 percent of all U.S. jobs and 12.1 percent of all U.S. wages. Totals 9.2 percent of the nation's Gross National Product. Contributes about 25 percent of all federal tax revenues. Federal, state, and local taxes from the healthcare sector in 2006 added up to $824 billion.
All those numbers would rise dramatically through comprehensive healthcare reform. But a single-payer system would produce the biggest increase in jobs and wages. The reason, DeMoro said, is that "the broadest economic benefits directly accrue from the actual delivery and provision of healthcare, not the purchase of insurance." Medicare for all has numerous other benefits, of course, noted Jenkins, from a streamlined system with tens of billions less in private insurance administrative waste, guaranteed choice of physician and hospital, no loss of coverage when unemployed, and no one denied coverage due to age or health status. "Only a single-payer, expanded Medicare-for-all approach ends the current disgraceful practice of insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment or engaging in rampant price gouging that discourages patients from going to the doctor, seeing specialists, or getting diagnostic procedures in a timely manner," said Jenkins. I n light of the apparent backtracking on national health care by Democrats including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) the study by the California Nurses Association is hugely important. It indicates that the choice between “solving” the nation's economic crisis and delivering a coherent, understandable, affordable and effective system of national health care may be a false choice after all. Those who urge us to take our eyes off the health care ball while they concentrate on “fixing” the economy may intend to do neither. The California Nurses Association study goes a long way toward proving that universal single payer national health care may be the best medicine not only for our health care holes and disparities, but for the economy itself. Whether the politicians who ran just weeks ago promising a national health care plan will take the prescribed medicine depends on our insistence, our tenacity, and our refusal to be distracted. People deserve universal health care, and the 2.6 million jobs created by single payer health care are equal to the president's claims for the entire stimulus package. It's time to take the medicine. Download, read, repost and pass along the full study here. Bruce Dixon is based in Atlanta and can be reached at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com |
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