Issue 64
Table of Contents |
What is at Stake |
by Dennis Bernstein
Pacifica's tactics mirror those used in corporate takeovers. It has hired
lawyers who specialize in fighting unions, a high-powered PR firm and IPSA
International, a security firm which specializes in "hostile terminations"
or firing in hostile takeovers. These moves took place with the connivance
of the government's Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which worked
closely with the top Pacifica management and encouraged the move away from
local oversight
| |
Fortress Pacifica |
by Chris Thompson
As the battle for control of KPFA continues, evidence continues to mount
suggesting that Pacifica began preparing for its showdown with the community
radio station more than a month before the lockout. In addition to hiring a
consultant specializing in corporate downsizing and a security firm that
boasts of its ability to keep order during labor difficulties, Pacifica
executive director Lynn Chadwick even took the step of shipping up boxes of
old tapes from the Pacifica archives in Los Angeles ten days before the
lockout
| |
No Middle Ground |
by Alexander Cockburn
Above all, the directorate wants obedience. KPFA was shut down when a
broadcaster began to discuss the proposal of Pacifica's treasurer-elect for just
such a sale. Berry and the directorate have now begun to talk about mediation.
Aside from the lawsuit filed by the KPFA rebels, they probably are worried by
the plan of a committee in the California Legislature to audit Pacifica's books
| |
KPFA Battle Reaches Crisis |
by Norman Solomon
At 6PM, as usual, "Flashpoints" ended and the KPFA evening news began. After a lead story about health care proposals in Washington, anchor Mark Mericle moved on to read a report about the latest developments in the dispute between KPFA and Pacifica. Suddenly, listeners heard "Flashpoints" producer and co-host Dennis Bernstein yelling his protests as security guards surrounded him
| |
Berkeley or Belgrade? |
by Dennis Bernstein
In the name of diversity, this community radio station that championed "free
speech" is being systematically dismantled by powers-that-be in Washington
who pull the plug on any staffer who dares to question their actions on the
air
| |
Study Predicts Complete Loss of World's Coral Reefs |
Unless the United States and other industrial countries work quickly to cut pollution from the burning of coal, oil, and gas, a new study warns that global warming may wipe out all coral reefs on the planet within the next few decades
| |
KLA Campaign Against Serbs Rages |
by Brian Kenety
Lt. Col. Rick Swengros, in charge of the military police in the
U.S.-controlled sector of Kosovo, said that nearly every day, Albanians
acting in the name of the KLA bring his soldiers the names of suspected Serb
war criminals.
Most are questioned and occasionally taken into custody, but are released
within 24 hours as there is scant evidence to support the claims.
U.S. Army personnel from the 82nd Airborne Division, which patrols
eastern Kosovo, say that while the KLA is no longer displaying weapons,
paramilitaries, sympathizers and common criminals are manning roadside
checkpoints, confiscating identity papers and other documents from the few
Serbs who remain
| |
New Reports of Atrocities by and Against Serbs |
Human Rights Watch documents Serb killings in spring, NATO documents killings of Serbs in summer
| |
Serbs and Albanians Victims of the Same Game |
by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic
The truth about atrocities committed against Kosovo Albanians is slowly
surfacing in Serbia, while the country watches the massive reprisals executed
by KLA fighters against ethnic Serbs and Gypsies
| |
Serbs Protest, Frightened of Unbearable Winter |
by Vesna Peric-Zimonjic
NATO targeted important
sectors of Yugoslavia's factories, refineries and
power plants, leaving the country practically in ruins, leaving many people in Serbia are "on the verge of
starvation." But there is little hope for a quick recovery, as NATO and the European Union
also blame Milosevic for the conflict and have denied any reconstruction
assistance while he remains in office
| |
Poorest Countries Will Pay Heaviest to Rebuild Kosovo |
by Niccolo Sarno
Although U.S. bill will eventually total about $25 billion, it will hit hardest the former communist
bloc countries may lose around 10 percent of
their total budgets for next year
| |
Kosovo War Crime Investigation Will Have to Include NATO |
Analysis By Milo Branic
One of the largest criminal investigations in
recent history, the case of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, risks losing
credibility if it fails to conduct inquiries on the NATO air attacks against Yugoslavia, lawyers and rights groups warned
| |
Poverty, Not Y2K Bugs, Threaten Russian Nuclear Plants |
by Sergei Blagov
While concerns grow in the West about Russia's
nuclear industry's capability to meet the "millennium bug" computer deadline,
Russian experts warn that the real threat lies in unhappy workers and lack of
maintenance
| |
The Ugly Rider Game |
by Donella H. Meadows
This is only a game. Many of these riders won't survive. They'll get
knocked off through negotiations, threats, publicity, back-room deals
Passing every rider is not the point.
The point -- one of them anyway -- is to let politicians assure campaign
contributors that they TRIED to sneak through their special way of
exploiting public assets for private gain. Failing is actually better for
the politician than succeeding; if the ranchers ever got their outrageous
grazing bills through, they wouldn't have to go on ponying up to keep Sen.
Domenici in office
| |
GOP Panders to Billionaires With Tax Cuts |
by Mark Weisbrot
More than two-thirds of the benefits from this legislation would go to the
top 10 percent of taxpayers -- the same people who got 86 percent of all the
gains in the stock market over the last decade. The lower 60 percent of
taxpayers would get about 9 percent of the benefits.
There is also about a hundred billion dollars worth of tax breaks for every
special interest -- insurance, energy, banking, multinational corporations
-- with an army of lobbyists to push its snout up to the public trough
| |
Revenge of the Reaganuts |
by Ted Rall
Isn't it funny that the GOP didn't believe that you deserved your
hard-earned money in 1997 or 1998? There's something about impending
primaries that causes politicians to focus on voters' fiscal health. Make
no mistake -- this is all about getting George Quincy Bush into the Oval
Office next year, at the expense of paying down a national debt
conservatives spent decades warning us would ruin the economy
| |
Cherchez Les VP Femmes |
by David Corn
Time to talk about running mates. In the hyperspeed
campaign of 2000 (by election day we'll be ready to boot out of office
whoever is elected) it's not too early to consider number twos
| |
Clinton Poverty Tour Dodges The Poor |
by Mark Weisbrot
Talk is cheap, and so is the Clinton administration when it comes to doing
anything for the poor. This is a case where numbers speak louder than words.
The annual amount of money that the President has proposed to spend for his
"New Markets Initiative" is less than a few days supply of cruise missiles
dumped on Belgrade in April
| |
Smoggy Logic on Capitol Hill |
by Cecil L. Bothwell III
After the United States signed the Kyoto accord on global warming, an
international agreement to reduce emission of greenhouse gases, the Senate
flew into a high dudgeon. Their argument runs like this: If we take on the expense of reducing air
pollution while developing nations like China and Mexico do not, then our
effort will have been wasted and at the same time put us at a competitive
disadvantage. Never mind that the U.S. currently produces 30 percent of the
pollution in question
| |
George W. Bandwagon Hard to Fathom |
by Judith Gorman
Democrats tend to choose policy wonks as Presidential candidates, even if
their social skills are a bit rusty. Republicans, on the other hand, go for
the dim bulb, the easy-going doofus who volunteers to go out for a case of
Cheetos and a keg
| |
Hostile AIDS Activists Target Gore |
by Karine Cunqueiro
AIDS activists have zeroed in on
Vice President Al Gore, disrupting his presidential campaign with
a series of protests over his support for U.S. policy on
pharmaceutical patents
| |
Native Groups "At War" With ARCO in Ecuador |
by Danielle Knight
Native groups in Ecuador warn of
extreme violence ahead as opposition grows to any form of oil
exploitation on their territory in the Amazon rainforests. Along with environmentalists, Native leaders say the British
Petroleum-Amoco company will inherit a "nightmare" when it takes over
Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), which is pushing forward with
exploration plans despite local opposition
| |
Error 404: News Not Found in Your Daily Paper |
What the American media didn't report about the Kosovo War; probation for white man who murders black recalls worst of the Jim Crow era; journalist beats police entrapment rap; Salon magazine enthusiastically tilts toward the joy of sex and celeb hoopla
| |
Poised to Kill |
by Jeff Elliott
Benjamin Smith killed two
and wounded twelve during
his July 4 weekend killing
spree. Should his white
supremacist 'church' be held
responsible?
| |
Smith Described Racist Hate in 1998 Interview |
by Lisa Sorg
In an interview last year with the Bloomington Independent, neo-Nazi Benjamin
Nathaniel Smith said his hate list was lengthy: African-Americans, Hispanics,
Christians, Jewish people, gays and lesbians
| |
Pat Robertson Blames Watchdog Group for Killing Spree |
TV preacher Pat Robertson's attempt to implicate
Americans United for Separation of Church and State in neo-Nazi Benjamin
Nathaniel Smith's deadly shooting rampage is "ridiculous and outrageous,"
according to AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn
| |
Korean Americans Cope With Racist Murder |
by Terry Lee
The fact that an angry racist singled out Korean Americans
in his shooting spree against minorities has shocked and frightened the
Korean community, as Korean Americans
are realizing that a "hate crime" is not some political abstraction -- it
could target them anywhere, even while attending church
| |
CIA is Rogue Agency Working Against Clinton, Ex-Official Says |
by Tim Shorrock
While leaks to the press were common in the nation's capital,
"the leaks to the Washington Times are unprecedented in the
level of intelligence," he said. "I would go to jail if I
discussed the contents of those kinds of documents with you."
The leaks are also unusual because they flow directly from the
intelligence community and are "pointed at attacking specific
White House policies"
| |
Mexican Drug Use Skyrockets |
by Diego Cevallos
U.S. anti-drug chief, Barry MacCaffrey and Mexico's Secretary
of Health, Ramon de la Fuente, signed declaration to
continue their cooperation in "a central strategy promoting education to
reduce demand."
MacCaffrey and De la Fuente said they are open to new theories and scientific
advances that help control drug use, but the word "legalization" did not
appear during the talks
| |
The City With the Grittiest Air |
A 7-year-old with tiny pigtails, has an unexpected answer to a simple question: What color is the sky? Ê"White," she says. "Sometimes yellow." ÊÊÊÊJun-jun lives in Lanzhou, the world's most polluted city. It is a place where simply breathing is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day
| |
Angry Scientists Tell Congress: Take Global Warming Seriously |
by Danielle Knight
Scientists are demanding that Congress heed
their calls to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed for global
warming. More than 50 prominent experts climbed Capitol Hill here June 28 to give
legislators a refresher course on climate change -- and to berate them for
not joining a worldwide effort to control the heat-trapping gases
| |
Court Rules States Cannot Protest Against Multinational Companies |
by Jim Lobe
"This is a major setback," said Simon Billenness, a leader in the
international campaign to force Burma's military junta to improve its human
rights record and recognize the winner of the aborted 1990 elections, the
National League for Democracy led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Kuu Kyi.
"If this ruling had been applied to anti-apartheid selective purchasing laws
in the 1980s, then (former South African president) Nelson Mandela would
still be in prison," he added. While activists were despondent, the big U.S. corporations which brought the
lawsuit last year voiced jubilation
| |
Pinochet Launches PR Campaign to Fight Extradition |
by Gustavo Gonzalez
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has
declared his innocence in the London media, complicating his legal
situation and eliminating the Chilean government's chances for obtaining
his release for humanitarian reasons
| |
Japanese Gangsters Control Stockholders' Meethings |
by Edwin Karmiol
Corporate
executives normally do not relish
stockholders' meetings, but in Japan, the annual events conducted in the
middle of the year by publicly held companies are particularly dreaded.
Their concerns stem from the fact that June is when these companies become
subject to threats of blackmail and intimidation from the Japanese
underworld
| |
Native U.S. - Canada Groups Form Unique Alliance |
by Mark Bourrie
The theme of the uprecedented meeting was the fulfillment of 19th century
Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who tried to forge an alliance of Canadian
and U.S. Indians in the Great Lakes region to oppose the expansion
of U.S. settlers across the Appalachian Mountains.
He was killed at the War of 1812 Battle of Moraviantown in
Ontario, fighting alongside the British. His battle cry was "one
body, one heart"
| |
Little Attention Given to Persecution of Gypsies |
by Katalin Karcagi
There is
nothing new about the plight of gypsy
minorities in Kosovo, Hungary and the Czech Republic: they are as excluded as they
have always been. Nobody has ever fought a war for them, but many would like
to fight one against them
| |
"Channel One" Critic Hit by Dirty Tricks Ad Campaign |
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
In April 1998, GOP Senator Richard Shelby issued a news release expressing
his concerns about Channel One and calling for Congressional hearings. A year passed, then, all of the sudden, radio spots started airing in Alabama attacking
Senator Shelby, implying that he was part of a left-wing plot to put the
kibosh on the pro-Christian values of Channel One
| |
Taking Personal Responsibility for our Pollution |
by Donella Meadows
At the University of Wisconsin's program on Climate, People and Environment
Dr. Jonathan Foley makes computer models to study what might happen if the
human economy continues to emit greenhouse gases. Like hundreds of other
climate scientists, he is deeply worried about global warming. Unlike most
scientists I know, he carries that worry into his personal life
| |
A Life Lived Deliberately |
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Chosen by the 800 graduating seniors at Evergreen State College in Olympia Washington, death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal delivered the commencement address June 11 via tape recording. The participation of a man charged with killing a police officer raised the ire of conservatives, including the governor of Washington who cancelled his appearance at the event. Yet despite the controversy, few have had the chance to read the eloquent speech speech, which addressed injustice and the need to live by the "joy of doing the right thing"
| |
Ex-Welfare Recipients Do Okay -- For Now |
by Ted Rall
Welfare removal appears to be
working -- for now. The big caveat is that we live in a boom-and-bust economic cycle,
and that this fiscal fiesta is fated to fail as surely as Cher will make
another comeback. After Wall Street tanks, former welfare recipients, with
their lousy resumes and marginal education, will be the first to get
canned
| |
Discrimination Alive and Well in Corporate America |
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
The very small numbers of blacks that have cracked the corporate glass
ceiling tell a story less of corporate progress than of corporate apartheid.
There are still only a handful of black CEOs at the Fortune 1000
corporations. Nearly ten out of ten senior managers are white males. Black
managers make up less than ten percent of the total managerial positions for
all races and earn, on average, less than their white counterparts.
And as the recent discrimination lawsuits against the three companies show,
many corporate managers and employees continue to regard blacks as pariah --
lazy, undisciplined, poorly organized, incompetent affirmative action hires,
with bad attitudes, outspoken and rebellious, and quick to blame management
(or white employees) for any problems or failures
| |
How to Best Waste Budget Surplus? |
by Molly Ivins
Gee, I can remember when Republicans were considered the party of fiscal restraint and sanity. Of course, that was before Ronald Reagan introduced us all to supply economics, where they cut taxes, increased military spending by $2 trillion and waited for the deficit to go away. Fixing that mess cost George Bush the presidency and the Democrats control of Congress
| |
Racing Back to the Bad Old Days |
by Molly Ivins
How many times should a corporation be allowed to violate
the law before the government refuses to do business with it? How many workers should they
be allowed to fire for being in favor of a union? How many times should they be allowed to
endanger the lives of workers by putting padlocks on fire exit doors? How many tons of
untreated waste should they be allowed to illegally dump into a lake or river?
| |
Pill Makers Ignore Third World |
by Molly Ivins
Only 1 percent of new medicines brought to market by multinational drug
companies between 1975 and 1997 were designed to treat the tropical diseases that
kill millions in the Third World
| |
Misinformation For Patients' Bill of Rights |
by Molly Ivins
I have yet to see any way to limit corporate greed except through either
government regulation or fear of lawsuit. "Sue the bastards!" is an ancient American
right in danger of extinction these days because corporations have so much political
stroke through their enormous campaign contributions. At the same time, and for the
same reason, deregulation is the political fashion of the day, leaving consumers with
no protection at all
| |
No Sympathy for Doctor's Union |
by Molly Ivins
I would feel more sympathy for the docs, however, had the American Medical Association not been a key player in wrecking the original Clinton plan for universal health coverage. And one suspects what the docs are really upset about is their falling income
| |
Faux Mourning of a Media Prince |
by Norman Solomon
Around the country, when the news of JFK Jr's death broke, television reporters dashed out
to streets, malls and parks, searching for grief. Naturally, they found
some. The death of a person so early in life is very sad, and the death of
President Kennedy's son certainly was a terrible blow to an extended family
that has suffered many human losses. But for a broad cross-section of
Americans, this was hardly the enormous national tragedy announced by news
media
| |
The Triumph of Celebrity Culture |
by Norman Solomon
With the year 2000 just months off, a media rush is underway to characterize the importance of a decade -- and even an entire century. No news outlet is ahead of the world's biggest media conglomerate, Time Warner, which owns more than 200 subsidiaries across the globe.
Time magazine is now trying to sum up the past 100 years by conducting an Internet poll to identify the "Person of the Century." The absurdity of the stunt is enhanced when you consider that the poll is just advisory: The guys who run Time will determine the Person of the Century
| |
The Sham of Spotted Owl Protection |
by Alexander Cockburn
George W. was recently in the Pacific Northwest, painting Al Gore as a
tree hugger and proclaiming himself a friend of the chain saw (and therefore apt
for contributions from timber corporations). But at the level of substance, there's
no way Al Gore can be damned (or for that matter praised) as a friend of the
ancient forests
| |
Ventura Run For President? Sure |
by Alexander Cockburn
As a force capable of reinvigorating our political DNA, the left is in terrible
shape. The radical right -- which has contributed 80 percent of the political
energy in the country for the past 20 years-- is almost as impotent, although
more healthily endowed with a hostility to state power. The left will never break
away from the Democratic Party to any important degree, since the institutional
ties between labor and the Democrats will never allow it. The right might well
tear itself loose from the Republicans. Bob Smith of New Hampshire is now
leading such a breakaway. Who else might precipitate an invigoration of the
system?
| |
Victims of Both Drugs and the Drug War |
by Alexander Cockburn
"The CIA suit is important as a vehicle to expose what the CIA is capable of doing,"
Linda Fullerton said to me later. "Bottom line, everyone has to take responsibility for the
drug-dealing here, but we can't look at drugs in a vacuum. First, we need to look at the
politics of the Drug War and the law supporting it. Both target a false enemy, the individual
black or Latino street dealer. Second, we need to identify the victims of the Drug War, which
include the dealers for sure, along with all others crushed by poverty, addiction, disease,
violence, incarceration, death. Third, we need to look at drugs and the big picture. Drugs not
only support this community economically, they support the prison-industrial complex, the
DEA, the ATF and others, all the way down to the local police"
| |
Letters |
JFK Jr. and the hubris of the rich; crisis at KPFA; giveaway of the broadcast spectrum; comparing N Ireland and Kosovo; the problem of news updates
| |
Albion Monitor Issue 64 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor)
All Rights Reserved.
Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to use in any format.
|