Bulletin N° 696
Subject: “Because
they own you . . . !”
7 May 2016
Grenoble, France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Has
anyone seen the electoral path to socialism?
In
schools –including institutions of higher education— one finds teachers whose
aim it is to train students for allegiance to the corporate hierarchy. But one
also finds educators who attempt to prepare students for acts of solidarity
with society. The former usually “teach the exam,” and other “transactional”
communication skills, based on definitions of
equitable exchange; while the latter facilitate discussion and reflection in
their classrooms, which is correctly perceived as a microcosm of society; the
skills taught by the latter classroom educators are in the realm of
“transformational” communication. In any classroom there are students who
aspire to conform to the rules of corporate hierarchy, in hopes of assuring for
themselves a secure life, while others seek an education that will provide them
with the ability to learn new skills and to affect social change in the midst
of corporate sclerosis.
As
we see in the 14 items below, at this late stage the battle lines are
fairly drawn: It’s the “workers” against the “owners” of corporate capitalist
society and their well-paid stooges.
Greenpeace
Leaks Secret Pro-Corporate Trade Agreement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLhvPB4lyc4dSHlxRTdX_ACvGFomxJ5D-p&v=vaFTF7-OQJE
Jorgo Riss of
Greenpeace says leaked TTIP documents show a huge transfer of power from people
to big business and negotiators consulting with the corporate sector
Francis Feeley
Professor of American
Studies
University of Grenoble-3
Director of Research
University of
Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced
Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The University of
California-San Diego
a.
Ralph Nader Goes to Cayman Island Offshore Tax Haven
http://www.lauraflanders.com/?video=KmfY-HZZf1k
===========
b.
NATO On
Trade, In Europe And Asia, Is Doomed
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44594.htm
by Pepe Escobar
===========
c.
"We Will Prevail": Three Words, Three American Presidents
& An Endless War in Iraq
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/8/we_will_prevail_obama_echoes_ghw
From Alan Haber:
===========
d.
Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy the Oil
Thriller
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/341107-saudi-arabia-oil-wars/#.VyI2k0b4Ln4.facebook
by Pepe
Escobar
===========
e.
Andrew Bacevich: America's War for the Greater Middle East Cannot
Be Won
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/8/andrew_bacevich_americas_war_for_the
===========
f.
On Stone Mountain
(revisited)
White Supremacy
and the Birth of the Modern Democratic Party
http://bostonreview.net/us/christopher-petrella-stone-mountain-white-supremacy-modern-democratic-party
===========
g.
Jeremiah Wright in the
Propaganda System (using Stone Mountain’s symbol of ‘white supremacy’)
http://monthlyreview.org/2008/09/01/jeremiah-wright-in-the-propaganda-system/
by Edward S. Herman
and David Peterson
The same was true for Barry Goldwater in
1964, Richard Nixon in 1968 and 1972, and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, who, as Dan Carter recalls, "showed that he could use
[racially] coded language with the best of them, lambasting welfare queens,
busing, and affirmative action as the need arose." Reagan's first campaign
stop after winning the 1980 Republican nomination was the Neshoba County Fair
in Philadelphia, Mississippi—the city where Freedom Summer activists Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman had been
"slain with the complicity of local police officials in 1964," the
press reported at the time. "Just as Goldwater had drawn virtually
all-white audiences in the Deep South in 1964, so Reagan was greeted by a
'crowd almost entirely made up of whites'. He did not let them down. 'I believe
in states' rights', Reagan said....As [the Washington Post's Lou] Cannon
observed, 'The visual statement of television the next day was a sea of white
faces at the Neshoba Fair with Reagan's words floating about them'. The Mississippi
event powerfully communicated Reagan's sympathies and electoral targets in the
rural Deep South."
-- David Peterson
===========
h.
Unprecedented Student Involvement in French Labor Protests
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16073
Trade
unions and students are preparing for a massive demonstration this Saturday
against the overhaul of longstanding worker protection laws in France,
says Renaud Lambert of Le
Monde diplomatique
===========
i.
Francis,
Painful
but very enlightening review of a must-read book.
ed
herman
Reading Jeff Halper’s
‘War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians
and
Global Pacification’
by Richard Falk
April 9, 2016
[Prefatory Note: The review
below was published in the current issue of Journal of the Society for
Contemporary Thought and Islamicate World. I am
posting it here because I believe that Jeff Halper’s
book deserves the widest possible reading. It explains clearly and convincingly
one of the deepest and least understood roots of Israel’s diplomatic support
throughout the world, which is its role as a niche arms supplier and
influential tactical specialist in waging wars against peoples who dare offer
resistance to state power as variously deployed against them. The Israeli
experience in exerting oppressive control of the Palestinian people provides
the foundation of Israel’s international credibility and perceptions of
effectiveness in disseminating for economic and political profit its hardware
and software associated with managing and suppressing the resistance of popular
movements fighting for their rights. The Israel stress on pacification rather
than victory exposes the true nature of what Halper
identifies so vividly and comprehensively as the distinctive character of
waging ‘war against the people.’ ]
===========
j.
Now is not the time to
surrender to Israel's bullying on 'anti-Semitism'
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/surge-palestinophobia-585899317
#JeremyCorbyn - See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/surge-palestinophobia-585899317#sthash.LWBuUX6z.dpuf
===========
k.
Saudi Arabia and Israel's Growing Alliance,
a Match Made in Hell
http://www.alternet.org/world/saudi-arabia-and-israels-growing-alliance-match-made-hell
The Iran nuclear deal is redrawing political lines in the Middle East.
by Alli McCracken,
Raed Jarrar
===========
l.
From: "Jim O'Brien" <jimobrien48@gmail.com>
Subject: [haw-info] HAW Notes 4/26/16, including links to recent
articles of interest
Note:
The
IndieGoGo fundraising effort for the Vietnam draft
resistance documentary-in-progress, The Boys Who Said No, is in its last
week, with over $45,000 already raised out of a goal of $50,000. Judith
Ehrlich, the director, has twice won film awards from both the American
Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Info about
the film, with a donation link, is here.
Links
to Recent Articles of Interest
"The Al-Qaeda Leader Who Wasn't: The Shameful Ordeal of Abu Zudaybah"
By
Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch.com, posted April 24
The
author's book American Nuremburg, on US crimes following 9/11 has just
been published by Skyhorse Press.
"Andrew Bacevich
and America's Long Misguided War to Control the Greater Middle East"
By
Charles Glass, The Intercept, posted April 23
A
review essay on Andrew Bacevich's new book, America's War for the
Greater Middle East: A Military History. The reviewer is a former chief
Middle East correspondent for ABC News.
By
Paul R. Pillar, The National Interest, posted April 21
On the origins of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy views. The author, a 28=year
veteran of the CIA, is a visiting professor at Georgetown University in
security studies.
"Why America's All-Volunteer
Force Fails to Win Wars"
By
Andrew J. Bacevich, Dallas Morning News, posted
April 18
The
author is a professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston
University.
"Mercy Street in Context: Historian Pamela Toler on the Real
Nurses of the Civil War"
By
Robin Lindlay, History News Network, posted
April 17
"How a Simple Request Got Me Blacklisted
by the Pentagon"
By
Nick Turse, The Intercept, posted April
16
One
researcher's experience with the Freedom of Information Act
"What's the Meaning of Failure: A Dictionary of Eupehmisms for Imperial Decline"
By
William J. Astore, TomDispatch.com, posted
April 14
The
author is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and formerly taught at the
U.S. Air Force Academy.
"I'm on the Kill List: This Is
What It Feels Like to be Hunted by Drones"
By
Malik Jalal, The
Independent, posted April 12
"Panama Another
Regime Change Failure by U.S. a Generation Ago"
By
Jeremy Kuzmarov, Huffington Post politics
blog, posted April 9
The
author teaches history at the University of Tulsa.
"Why Thucydides Is (Sadly) So Relevant Right Now"
By
Eric Orlin, History News Network, posted April
9
The
author teaches Classics at the University of Puget Sound.
Thanks
(as usual) to an anonymous reader for suggesting some of the above articles.
Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
===========
m.
George Carlin - Who Really Controls America
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14837.htm
Warning -
Some viewers may be offended by adult language.
Runtime
5 Minutes
===========
n.
The Junior High School,
a two-hour documentary on the junior high school experience. A full year in
production. First broadcast in 1971. “Heaven, Hell or Purgatory, Part
I,” October
17, 1971. “From A to Zoo, Part II, October
24,” 1971.
“Heaven, Hell
or Purgatory”
Part
I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2cgWhyiuyM
and
Part
II