A real financial reform package must include an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency, restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, and strict new limits on the derivatives market.
To protect citizens from rapacious banks, we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to stop abusive mortgages and credit card terms, and other predatory financial schemes.
The Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking, was enacted after the financial crash of 1929, but it was repealed in 1999. It is crucial to preventing the reckless investing by commercial banks that caused some of the greatest financial disasters in U.S. history.
Rampant speculation in the unregulated derivatives market was a major factor in the collapse of the global financial system. We need tough new restrictions on the derivatives market, or speculators will continue to imperil our country's economic stability for short-term profit.
Michael Walzer's piece entitled "Missing the Movement" is so relevant and smartly written that I felt inclined to read it through four times before beginning to thinking about formulating an adequate response that would do it justice. I am overjoyed to find someone who has managed to put forth a strong, sound hypothesis as to why recent reform efforts tied to a resurgent liberalism have been so limited while setting out cogently what we ourselves ought to do to fix the problem. Having identified what went wrong, let us now proceed to take on the hard work and soul searching necessary to get past it. For as it is written, "Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house."
Walzer writes,
Liberalism is the American version of social democracy, but it lacks a strong working-class base, party discipline, and ideological self-consciousness. None of these are in the offing, but we need to be aware of what we are missing, and we need to begin at least the intellectual work of making up for it. European social democrats are on the defensive right now, but they have a lot to defend. Liberals here are in catch-up mode, and not doing all that well. We know more or less what we have to do, but we haven't managed to give the American people a brightly colored picture of the country we would like to create. There is a lot of wonkishness on the liberal left, among American social democrats, but not much inspiration. We haven't found the words and images that set people marching. As an old leftist, I can talk (endlessly) about citizenship, equality, solidarity, and our responsibility to future generations, but someone much younger than I am has to put all this in a language that resonates with young Americans-and describe a "city upon a hill" that may or may not be the same hill that I have been climbing all these years.
It is this section in particular which resonates most strongly with me. I notice this kind of stultifying dullness among those who have, for reasons unknown, exchanged wonkery for truly impassioned discourse and inspirational rhetoric. The result produced is robotic and bloodless, for one. For another, it's downright Pharisaical. In this circumstance, Dictionary.com defines Pharisaical as "practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit." I have noted, sometimes with anger, sometimes with frustration, never with satisfaction, that this is true not just in gatherings of religious liberals, but also quite evident in multiple settings and causes comprised of vocally secular liberals. Going through the motions without understanding the passion will never serve anyone's cause well and indeed, it is partially why we find ourselves in the mess in which we are now. Layering laws upon laws, formalities upon formalities, and procedures upon procedures might seem to be helpful upon first glance, but they end up separating ourselves from each other, not pulling us together.
Unemployment in the United States is a heart-wrenching problem, with 14.8 million Americans seeking work.1
Yet the same U.S. senators who gave trillions to bail out Wall Street are now offering a paltry $15 billion for a jobs bill that won't create many jobs.
What an insult. In effect, senators are telling unemployed Americans that they matter little compared to Wall Street.
With unemployment so high, it's time for a Green New Deal to tackle economic and ecological problems at the same time.
We should put Americans back to work with living-wage green jobs: retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, building modern mass transit systems, installing renewable energy technology, and conserving our irreplaceable ecosystems.
Instead, the Senate's current bill fails to offer even a short-term solution to joblessness.
After bailing out Wall Street at a cost of trillions, all that the Senate Democratic majority will offer 14.8 million unemployed Americans is a jobs bill that union leaders have called "puny" and "like sticking a band-aid on an amputated arm".2
In Part 3 Cohen talked about the struggle for power and direction within the Democratic Party from the days of the Viet Nam War to the present, and wound up with "Frankly... I would love to see a primary challenge to Obama when he's up for re-election... Because unless you build a base through elections and then you hold the officials accountable, then you'll never get anywhere."
Here in the conclusion of the interview Cohen expands on those ideas and fills in some of the outlines to draw a rough set of guidelines or roadmap of how to get from where things stand now with the Democrats as out and out corporatists to a world of the kind of progressive populism they have been well known for at various points in history, and how it is going to take a no more Mr. Nice Guy approach from progressives and a lot of very hardnosed and fearless aggressiveness, of the kind that I think Muhammad Ali meant when he noted so many years ago "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."
Lately there has been a spate of diaries at such web sites as FireDogLake and "Open" Left wherein lay members - typically under attack from site moderators, who act as Democratic Party hacks and gatekeepers - have sought ways to bring back the Progressive Party, or join the Greens, or build up some other institution, that will allow progressives to act together as a cohesive political unit. (I posted an entry there myself, only to end up being attacked by site moderators, threatened with banishment, and ultimately banned when I refused to back down against their incessant bullying.)
Fellow FDLer TalkingStick points out the wisdom of studying the teabaggers for ideas about how we progressives can rebuild our own movement.
Mason calls for progressives to join him in building a Progressive Party from the ground up, apparently not aware that it already exists in states such as Vermont and Washington, and as Green Party affiliates inMissouri and Wisconsin. He is joined in this effort by MadHemingway, who posted the 1912 platform the Progressive Party ran on.
FDL members are not alone in Left Blogsylvania in expressing their utter disgust with the Democrats; at "Open" Left, such lay members as Arthur Lukas gripe about where progressives are and asks where we should go from here. Even at the Daily Obama, whereupon I also post, a poll I put up asking if it is time for progressives to break away from the Democratic received a fifty percent yes-vote.
Such discontent is often met by moderators and site owners with derision, insults, threats, and banishments of the "offending" members. Nevertheless, it has grown more difficult for the access-bloggers to bully progressives into submission, a lesson FDL's Jason Rosenbaum refused to learned after the beat-down his contemptuous post before the Massachusetts special election received. In short, no one on the left is buying into the Big Lie that Democrats are any different from Republicans in terms of substantive policies, nor are we responding to threats and insults anymore for "failing" to be bullied into supporting Democrats no matter what.
This discontent and refusal to be bullied has created an opening for progressives seeking to organize the left back into a cohesive and more importantly, effective movement in opposition to the far right. There are angry voices aplenty, people outraged by the betrayals of the man they though they were electing president in '08 and the endless capitulations to the GOP made by Democrats. Here we have an advantage.
The only thing lacking in the new political environment is effective leadership among progressives. We will not find it among the self-appointed "leaders" of the 'netroots, the access-bloggers like Chris Bowers, Markos Moulitsas, and the aforementioned Rosenbaum whose only real goal is to gain access for themselves - and only themselves - to the inner circles of "serious" political power and corporate media recognition. It is therefore up to us to take on leadership roles and organize the left.
If we can take charge, we the progressive base, then we can finally begin the work of taking back America from the fascist elements that have usurped it for their own ends to the detriment of everybody else. The Full Court Press is one tool for doing that, and it's a very good start.
As they say, "just one individual CAN make a difference."
"Prof. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois College of Law, of Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A., has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.), in The Hague, against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the Accused)." The Complaint is based on the "criminal policy and practice of 'extraordinary renditions' perpetrated upon about 100 human beings," which practice represents "Crimes against Humanity" and are "in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C." * (emphasis mine)
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the "Accused") for their criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition." This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition" upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men. . . . .
[Note:A reading of the entirety of the Complaint can be found here.
I originally posted this interview with Howard Zinn back in April 2009 following the then recent revelations of President Obama's DOJ under Eric Holder betraying Obama's campaign promises to instead embrace the Bush administrations claims for immunity and "states secrets" in the case of clear FISA violations and illegal wiretapping.
So much more has gone down since then, including his troop increases in Afghanistan, his expansion of drone strikes, his coddling and enriching of Wall Street investment bankers at your expense, and his effective sellout of the American people to the health insurance industry.
And Obama has turned his back on so many of his campaign pledges to make his administrations policy decisions so far essentially a direct extension of the policies of the the Bush/Cheney years, with most of the bigger points outlined in Paul Street's recent article The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left that I thought that in light of Obama's SOTU speech that this might be a good time time for revisiting what Zinn had to say in this interview.
I also suspect that Zinn would be honored to have us honor his ideas more than himself.
RIP Mr. Zinn. We'll do our best.
In part three of what was a series of interviews, historian, political scientist, social critic, activist, author and playwright Professor Howard Zinn talks here with Real News CEO Paul Jay about why so many people seem to be convinced that Obama is anything more than what he appears to be given his actions and policies implemented since inauguration, and about how to create a mass popular movement to pressure Obama for progressive results in a supportive way, and concludes that social turmoil is not only not bad but necessary if it leads to something good in the sense of creating real change.
As aid trickles into Haiti and news trickles out, and as the extent of the horror unfolding there following the earthquake becomes more widely known, decisions are already being made that will affect the kind of country surviving Haitians will live in that emerges from the disaster.
In this video from The Real News today independendent journalist Ansel Herz reports live from Port-Au-Prince on the role that the deployed US troops are playing, while author Peter Hallward weighs in on the role that the US has played in Haiti's recent history and shares his concerns that post-earthquake Haiti will further cement the domination of the Haitian people by foreigners.
Ansel Herz is an independent journalist and web designer originally from the United States but currently based in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. His personal website can be found at www.mediahacker.com.
Peter Hallward is a Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University in England. In 2007 he published the acclaimed historical account of post-1990 Haitian politics, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment. He is the editor of the journal Radical Philosophy and a contributing editor to Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities.
... then give us some small tactics. You'd find a lot of folks would join in, well at least I would. I am not experienced at this. I'm not even sure I understand it! But I'm ready to help even if I'm not yet ready to lead in this kind of project. I'd love an essay from you with concrete action items that illustrate these "small tactics."
I responded to Ground with a tactic for a group of maybe 10 people that begins thus:
Go to your representative's office, present your demands, and insist on seeing him or her. Staffer tells you congressperson is in Washington and isn't available. You say, we'll wait here until he/she comes back on the next plane. Staffer says that's ridiculous. You say you're staying. Staffer threatens to call police. Fork: If police come, you treat them politely, explaining the justice of your position, then you leave, having provoked a response that provides a news hook. If police don't come, you stay 5 minutes past closing time, then leave. You have defied authority, stayed out of jail. And upset the staffer.
You could also come back when the rep is in town.
Another I've toyed with is for a small group of people to prepare a flier and go to a jobs fair (New York State even gives a schedule of them here). These grotesque spectacles give the illusion that you could get a job. The flier could say any number of things. If the small group included unemployed people, the flier could advocate not leaving until jobs were offered to all. Tactically, you could back down when pressured by security. Having to be forced out by security or police becomes an issue all by itself. If the group were all employed, it could have a general statement about unemployment and call a meeting. Give a phone number and web page (not that expensive since the traffic would not be massive). The very act of trying to organize at such events could provoke a reaction, and that reaction, however small, then becomes an issue. Then you could take your group and "Go to your representative's office ..." as above, demanding the right to organize at these events. (Organize for what? You'd have to figure that out.) Some of the fairs listed are for government jobs, and thus the issue would be more sensitive than if the jobs were private sector.
PDA takes a courageous, principled stance against typical democratic cronyism. I offer this diary as a continuation of Tom P's recent essay discussing Winograd, Waxman, and Harmon, and primarily as an example of real courage and standing on principle rather than compromise.
PDA founder Tim Carpenter and the executive board members have signed a letter asking Lynn Woolsey, co-founder of the CPC and a PDA board member herself, to cancel her scheduled speaking engagement at a campaign event for Harmon.
Tim Carpenter writes;
We have heard from many progressives, both inside and outside PDA, expressing disapproval of PDA advisory board member Lynn Woolsey's decision to headline a fundraising event for Jane Harman this coming Saturday in Venice, California. As you probably already know, PDA has endorsed Marcy Winograd in California's 36th Congressional District, the seat currently held by Jane Harman.
The letter follows, and there is a link for you to become a co-signer at the end of the letter:
In another arrogant collusion to once again deny us any possibility of what we want -- real health care reform, single payer, public option -- those who do what they want, but not what we want, have decided to scrap the conference committee to reconcile the Senate and House versions. Instead, they have decided to have a secret meeting of the 3 major players, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, behind closed doors without reporters or C-Span.
This is a call to action. We need to call congress and tell them we are furious. Like modern day Paul Reveres, we need to ride through the countryside on our internet horses and yell from the rooftops, "The fascists are coming. The fascists are coming." And we aren't gonna take it any more. No we aren't.
It's time for the Second American Revolution. We need to let Congress know we aren't going to take this any more. No taxation without representation. No mandates to force us to buy junk health insurance when we don't have a democratic say in what is being put into law.
To the rooftops, to the tubes, to Congress, say NO! We won't take it any more. The Second American Revolution is coming. The Second American Revolution is Coming.
Follow below for more to do and a very cogent letter from PDA.
I have recently been calling for a large social movement (or, more realistically, an expansion of the social movements for justice already in existence) and here are a few ways we can all get started on being part of this movement.
(Included: Cindy Sheehan's thoughts on recent events and a list of upcoming action events you can get involved with.)
The 35-year-old chairman was camped on 7,100 acres of wind-swept, snowy land owned by Crow Creek Tribal Farms. The IRS recently seized the tract and on Dec. 3 auctioned it off for $2 million less than its $4.6 million value to pay a purported tax bill for the tribe, a separate legal entity.
I am very far from being okay. The murder of handcuffed Afghan schoolchildren by American "civilians" (CIA?) who have access to helicopters has me in a surly mood. I have to repeat to myself over and over, "small steps, small steps, stick to the plan." So I stick to the plan. The Full Court Press is a good plan, a very good plan. But I'm feeling a little less tolerant of bullshit today, so let's have a fight. Over strategy and method. Let me pick on ActBlue, because variations of its strategy of funding liberal candidates to replace the worst of the Democrats has been holy writ among progressives for so many years.
At one level, no such fight is necessary. I'm sure the ActBlue folks are good people. If I were in the right district, I'm sure I would vote for many of the candidates they funnel money to. In fact, a key feature of the Full Court Press is its flexibility, its compatibility with other tactics. It merely calls for filing candidates in all 435 congressional primaries around a modest but pointed program:
WPA-style jobs program
Medicare for all
Repeal Stupak and Hyde and their ilk
U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan
It does not comprise a complete strategy. Since the only bottom line is supporting the above points and getting on the congressional primary ballot, it does not require campaigning hard against Dennis Kucinich if he doesn't endorse the program. We would not want to undermine an effort to defeat Stupak. On the other hand, if an incumbent said they agreed with "U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan" but had voted to fund the war effort, they wouldn't get the FCP stamp of approval either. Our tactics may be flexible, but our principles are not. Being flexible doesn't mean being a patsy.
Did you ever think of yourself as actually dead, lying in a box with a lid on it?
No.
Nor do I really. It's silly to be depressed by it. I mean, one thinks of it like being alive in a box. One keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead, which should make all the difference, shouldn't it? I mean, you'd never know you were in a box, would you? It would be just like you were asleep in a box. Not that I'd like to sleep in a box, mind you. Not without any air. You'd wake up dead for a start, and then where would you be? In a box. That's the bit I don't like, frankly. That's why I don't think of it. Because you'd be helpless, wouldn't you? Stuffed in a box like that. I mean, you'd be in there forever, even taking into account the fact that you're dead. It isn't a pleasant thought. Especially if you're dead really. Ask yourself, if I asked you straight off, "I'm going to stuff you in this box. Now, would you rather be alive or dead?" naturally, you'd prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all, I expect. You'd have a chance, at least. You could lie there thinking, "Well, at least I'm not dead. In a minute somebody is going to bang on the lid, and tell me to come out."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D OH-10), Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is calling for an investigation of lifting of the $400 billion cap by the Treasury Department and possible corruption.
As Chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I'm announcing that the Subcommittee will launch an investigation into the Treasury Department's recent decision to lift the current $400-billion cap on combined federal assistance to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, opening the way for additional, unlimited funds through the end of 2012. This investigation will include the role played by Fannie Mae chief executive Michael J. Williams and Freddie Mac chief executive Charles E. Haldeman in the decision, if any, and will seek to ensure that the additional assistance is used for homeowners and not Wall Street.
Many questions remain unanswered regarding this move by the Treasury. Why suddenly remove the cap? Indications are that Freddie and Fannie, even as millions of Americans lose their homes, have used just $111 billion of the $400 billion previously available to them. Is lifting the cap on assistance a back-door TARP?
Additionally, I want to determine whether Fannie and Freddie have a cohesive plan to buy up the under-performing mortgages that remain on the books of the big banks, at appropriate prices, and undertake a massive reworking of the terms of the mortgages so as to stem the foreclosure crisis that continues to plague our country.This new authority must be used responsibly and for the benefit of American families. This cannot be used simply to purchase toxic assets at inflated prices, thus transferring the losses to the U. S. taxpayers and acting as a back-door TARP.
As a result of a curiously-timed Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department, the mortgage giants will have access to unlimited funds without having to come back to Congress. Since the federal government is the majority owner of both companies, their operations will remain under Administration control.
This relationship between Treasury and Fannie and Freddie bears inspection, particularly in the wake of reports that the mortgage giants' chief executives will now receive $900,000 each in annual compensation, bonuses of up to $6 million each, and an additional $42 million in special compensation will be spread among a dozen other executives.
The New York Times, responding to a coordinated call for their editors to cover the story of the Gaza Freedom March, has done so. The Washington Post has responded to a similar call by posting a more generic and sanitized Reuters version, but there's more comprehensive coverage from Democracy Now (including an exclusive interview with Roger Waters - Code Pink meets Pink Floyd!) and Dandelion Salad, who in addition with Democracy Now have broken the story in the US that 100 marchers will be allowed access into Gaza. The marchers categorically rejected this deal as a group and insist that the entire group of 1362 activists be allowed to enter Gaza, although it was left up to individuals whether to proceed into Gaza, and some did so. Medea Benjamin clarifies:
The deal that we made with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to send a 100-person delegation found itself on rapidly shifting ground this morning. While last night the Steering Committee approved of the plan, by the early hours of the morning it had determined by a majority vote that it did not think the smaller group was a good idea. The buses went ahead with loading, but during the process word came that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had announced to the press a very different version of the deal. Their characterization was that they had "selected" the 100 people because they were the only truly peaceful members of the delegation, which was entirely false - the group was selected on short notice to represent all nations and affinity groups as proportionately as possible. Some people got off the bus, others did not.
The buses went ahead, carrying individuals who felt compelled to travel to Gaza. The Gaza Freedom March Steering Committee encourages everyone to follow their hearts and act in good faith and love toward one another in these trying times. We will march, as coalition of nations worldwide, tomorrow here in Cairo.
The primary march/action is scheduled for tomorrow. The increased scrutiny from the world community is moving things in a positive direction, but the marchers aren't all the way there yet. KEEP THE PRESSURE ON! KEEP CALLING AND FAXING!
Egyptian Embassy in Cairo:
Phone: 25741344
Fax: 25749682
Egyptian Embassy in Washington DC:
Main phone: 202.895.5400
Press & Information office phone: 202.667.3402
Fax: 202.244.4319
Right now, 1362 activist marchers are attempting to get into Gaza from Egypt with humanitarian aid (food and medical supplies) and toys for children.
The Egyptian government has closed the border and will not allow anyone through. CodePink is one of the organizations supporting the march, and has requested that people who want to show support call the Egyptian Embassies both in Cairo and/or Washington DC. Desiree is there with beanie babies for the children. Desiree and Liz got back to me 24 hours ago and said no, they are still not in.
Main phone: 202.895.5400
Press & Information office phone: 202.667.3402
Fax: 202.244.4319
More information about this action can be obtained here and here.
Press release:
One year after Israeli invasion of Gaza, world leaders fail to act but global citizens step forward Medea Benjamin
One year ago, the brutal Israeli 22-day invasion of the Gaza Strip shocked the world, leaving some 1,400 people dead, thousands more wounded, as well as hospitals, schools, prisons, UN facilities, factories, agricultural processing plants and some 20,000 homes damaged or destroyed.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of the invasion, the plight of the people of Gaza continues unabated:
· Despite pledges of money for reconstruction, Israel refuses to allow in the machinery necessary to clear the rubble or the materials needed to rebuild--banning cement, gravel, wood, pipes, glass, steel bars, aluminum and tar. Many who were made homeless during the bombing are still living in tents amidst the onset of another cold winter. Desperate, some are reverting to the ancient techniques of building homes made of mud.
· Trade depends on an elaborate system of illicit and dangerous tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. The goods brought in are expensive, but they are the lifeline for the 1.5 million people who live under siege. The Israelis periodically bomb the tunnels, the Egyptians inject them with gas, and now, with U.S. technology and funds, Egypt is building a wall descending 70 feet into the ground to seal up the only trade route the inhabitants of Gaza have with the outside world.
· Recent restrictions on the transfer of gas resources into Gaza have left many without adequate means to cook or provide heating as winter deepens. The Ministry of Health says that several hospitals lack the gas supplies to provide adequate hygiene for their patients. Similar restrictions on the movement of industrial fuel into the Strip have forced Gaza's sole power plant to drastically limit the amount of electricity.
· Water and sewage infrastructure has reached a crisis point, with tons of raw sewage pumped daily into the Mediterranean. Amnesty International recently deemed that 90 to 95 person of the water available to Gaza's inhabitants was unfit for human consumption, and 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip's residents have only irregular access to water. Repairs to Gaza's overburdened sewage and water networks are largely prevented by the blockade.
· The once-steady flow abroad of many hundreds of students a year, often to pursue postgraduate studies in Western universities, has slowed to a trickle. Israel is not even allowing students from Gaza to study in the West Bank.
· Attempts at hold Israel accountable for crimes committed during the invasion have been thwarted. The September 2009 Goldstone Report recommended that if Israel and Hamas did not investigate and prosecute those who committed war crimes, the case should be referred to the International Criminal Court. But US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, and the U.S. Congress, condemned the report, assuring that it will not be brought before the U.N. Security Council.
In a report released on December 22 called Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses, a group of 16 humanitarian organizations detailed the ongoing suffering of Gaza's 1.5 million people from Israel's invasion and ongoing siege. "It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few," said Jeremy Hobbs Oxfam International Executive Director. "World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza's ordinary citizens."
While international governments and UN institutions have failed their obligations, global citizens and civil society organizations have stepped forward. The past year has seen the mushrooming of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aimed at Israel. South African dockworkers refused to offload an Israeli ZIM Lines ship in February; the British bank BlackRock divested from Lev Leviev settlement projects on the occupied Palestinian territory; the Norwegian government pension fund withdrew its investments in the Israeli military contractor Elbit Systems; following the lead of South African, Irish and Scottish trade union federations, Britain's 6.5-million member labor federation, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), called for a consumer-led boycott and sanctions campaign against Israel, specifically targeting settlement products; and Hampshire College decided to divest from several companies profiting from the Occupation.
Another group making waves is Free Gaza, which has broken the siege by bringing shipments of aid by boat. Sometimes their boats have miraculously managed to sail from Cyprus to Gaza without Israeli interference. On their last effort, however, their boat was illegally intercepted on the high seas by the Israeli Navy.
Viva Palestina, a group led by British MP George Galloway, organized a massive convoy of material aid to Gaza in a month after the attack, using public pressure to force the Egyptian government to let the convoy pass through the Rafah crossing. They sent another caravan of aid in July, and to mark the one year anniversary, Viva Palestina is bringing 210 trucks and 450 activists laden with massive quantities of humanitarian aid. It is unclear whether or not the Egyptian government will let them in.
Another creative initiative is the Gaza Freedom March. Conceived in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, the Gaza Freedom March was designed to mark the one-year anniversary with a massive march to the Israeli border. Some 1,350 international participants from 43 countries are setting out for Gaza via Egypt to join with thousands of local people for the march. On the Israeli side of the border, Israelis and Palestinians will gather to join the call for an end to the siege. While the Egyptian government is refusing give permission for the international delegation to enter Gaza, the group is challenging that decision with thousands of phone calls to Egyptian embassies worldwide. They are also organizing solidarity actions in cities all over the world.
The Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, noting the world community's failure to help the people of Gaza, cited the Gaza Freedom March and the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as "the only meaningful current challenge to Israel's violations of its obligations as the Occupying Power of the Gaza Strip under the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter."
As the year-end brings horrifying memories to the Palestinians in Gaza, we hope they recognize that grassroots groups the world over are not only thinking of them, but actively organizing to lift the siege that makes their lives so difficult.
Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org) is cofounder of CODEPINK and Global Exchange.
Please help them out and call today to urge the Egyptian government to LET THEM IN! Peace and prosperity for ALL!
Have we become too comfortable, sitting behind our keyboards and silently typing away our anger? Has the progressive movement embraced the wonderful technology of the internet at the expense of real world activism and organizing?
I'm afraid this might be so. And it's time to turn that around. On Bill Moyer's Journal this past Friday, economist Robert Kuttner brought up a striking fact that is missing from nearly all of the plethora of analyses - ranging from Obamapologist to Obama hater to everything in between - that I've seen of this presidency:
ROBERT KUTTNER: The other thing that's missing, if you compare him with Roosevelt or LBJ or Lincoln, the other thing that's missing is a social movement. In all of these great periods of transformation, you had social movements doing a complicated dance with the president, where sometimes they were working with him, sometimes they were beating up on him. That certainly describes the civil rights movement and Lyndon Johnson. It describes the abolitionists and Lincoln. It describes the labor movement and Roosevelt. Where's the movement?
March on Washington
