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Vol.
8 Issue 32…Dedicated to the Dialogue
on Race…August 12, 2005
Venue for an Artist
a revolutionary coalition
By Jimi Pocius
i'm
sick and tired of waitin
for
that turn that never comes
to
feed my children i'm slavin'
while
they're cavorting in the sun
the
more i look you know it
it
makes me sick
that
we allow what's being done
promise
the moon but pick our pockets
yet
we still reelect these scum
ya
know someday it just won't matter
as
this rock hurtles round and round the sun
all
their misdeeds and inactions won't repair
all
the willfull evil that they've done
i'd
always hoped that they would join us
and
we could live our days as one
but
they prove to me at each election
they
just lookin' out for number one
and
brother, that ain't you
be
you muslim, christian pagan or jew
we
all slaves to these oppressors
now
what ya gonna do?
a
coalition of the willing
is
indeed just what it takes
revolutionary
coalition
of
the few who stand awake
they
extend their hand in your direction
it's
a choice you can't negate
a
time to stand united together
becoming
one it's not too late
and
brother, ain't that you?
be
you muslim pagan christian or jew
not
a slave to removable oppressors
know
what ya gotta do....
gotta
fight for justice
gotta
fight for truth
gotta
fight for freedom
ya
gotta fight for you
a coalition
of the willing
is
indeed just what it takes
revolutionary
coalition
we
united stand awake
extend
our hand in your direction
we
can live in freedom still someday
a
time to stand as one together
we
must be one before it's too late
About Me: I can usually be found fronting a classic rock cover
band called Smokin' Herb. I play guitar and sing primarily, and have been
playing music since I was 7. I dabble in keyboards, most string instruments,
but a few years ago, I got into guitar synthesis. I recently wrote this song
for Rick Stanley's Revolutionary Coalition; it can be downloaded from http://jimipocius.com/.
More songs can be found at http://songplanet.com/jimipocius.
With registration on Wednesday and classes beginning August 15,
the summer break from school is officially over. In a radical departure from
the norm, the Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro did not complain when
informed he would be returning to school soon. He was playing his favorite
video game, and thus slightly distracted. Nonetheless, he has matured a great
deal over the summer recess. Reflecting this revolutionary change, the Dark
One/Ninja/Zorro deftly operated the machine's controls saying, "School?
That's cool."
Iranian Revolution
An ancient nation, Iran was known as Persia prior to 1935. During the reign of
the Kajar dynasty, particularly during the fifty years before its overthrow in
1925, European powers, especially Britain and Germany, economically and
politically dominated the country.
After WWI, Reza Khan, an army officer, overthrew the Shah and established the
Pahlavi dynasty. Under pressure from Western powers, he abdicated in favor of
his son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (1941).
With the Shah's abdication, Mohammed Mossadegh, leader of the militant National
Front, and others demanded the nationalization of the British-controlled
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Mossadegh chaired the committee that drafted the
bill nationalizing Iran's oil industry. On April 29, 1951, the day after the
bill's passage, Mossadegh was selected as prime minister. In August1953,
Operation Ajax, a CIA planned and funded coup, which was backed by the Shah and
European powers, forced Mossadegh from office. His arrest and imprisonment
ended his progressive policies and returned control of Iran's oil to the West.
To quell opposition, the Shah (1957) created the SAVAK, a secret police charged
with finding and destroying anti-government groups. By 1963, the Shah
completely controlled the government. His regime- supported by the US- became
increasingly repressive. Yet, popular opposition, which began following a
rigged 1963 referendum, grew in intensity. A coalition of groups, students,
workers, moderates and militants, organized demonstrations in a number of major
cities to demand reform, more freedom and human rights. Fundamentalist Islamic
leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was deported to Iraq, where he continued his
activities from Najaf. His writings and other protest literature and music
flooded Iran.
Street demonstrations, in which police opened fire on protestors became
routine, further fueling opposition to the Shah's reign. The 1960's and 1970s
were marred by demonstrations in which police killed protestors. The bloodiest
one occurred on September 8, 1978; more than 600 people were killed in Zhaleh
Square. The day became known as Black Friday and the square's name was changed
to Square of the Martyrs.
Rather than end the massive protests and strikes, demonstrators dressed in
white as martyrs prepared to die in the Iranian revolution. As the
demonstrations grew more massive and intense, the Shah realized he had effectively
lost control and fled Iran on January 16, 1979. On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah
Khomeini returned to Iran and established an Islamic republican government.
On September 22, 1980, Iraq attacked Iran, claiming rights to some oil
producing territories. Armed with US-supplied weapons, including chemical and
biological, Saddam Hussein's army scored initial successes against the new and
supposedly weaker Islamic republic. Under Hashemi Rafsanjani, commander of the
Revolutionary Guards, Iran regained lost territories. On August 20, 1988, both
nations accepted UN Resolution 598 and signed a cease-fire to end the war.
(Sources: www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/SHIA/REV.HTM,
www.internews.org
and Encyclopedia Americana)
Disgruntled feels: Cold-Blooded! Gleefully, members of the Bush administration speak
of killing our "enemies" in Afghanistan and Iraq, a former US ally
that had nothing to do with the 9-11 terror attack. Their glee reminds one
there is evil among us. For the evil people, the loss of countless lives -
innocent men, women and children - since it is not theirs, is the price paid
for achieving goals masked by the lies told to spin this nation into war and a
brutal occupation. On camera, they pretend otherwise, but there is no remorse;
some people are just cold-blooded.
Disgruntled wants to know: Iran is a big news item!
Mainstream media are filled with news about the country. It is reminiscent of
the news coverage during the lead up to the war against Iraq. The US public is
being primed to accept the idea that the US must attack Iran before it attacks
the US. First, there will be the head fake to the UN Security Council, then the
US Congress will pretend the threat is real and the next thing you know, a
coalition of the willing, i.e., Western nations, will be dropping bombs on
Iranian "nuclear installations." Question is, will US citizens be
duped again and support armed conflict against Iran?
Disgruntled says: If Patrick Fitzgerald
lives up to his billing as a tough non-partisan prosecutor, then he may get
fired like Archibald Cox did during the Watergate investigation. Rumor has it,
Fitzgerald's investigation has veered into perjury and obstruction of justice,
which implicates the Oval Office. If that is truly the case and he persists in
following all leads, then Fitzgerald is a goner.
Revolution Redux:
Iranian Oil Bourse
"The nation that controls the world's oil and natural gas reserves
controls the world."
Throughout the ages, wars have seldom been fought for the publicly stated
reason. Government propaganda about democracy, freedom or defending our way of
life is mere sop for the masses, while the real reasons are more likely
economic advantages, such as control of vital resources, or strategic real
estate. US citizens dismissive of the assertion that oil is the real reason the
US invaded Iraq do not understand the geopolitical significance of controlling
the vital resource.
We all now know that the Bush administration, packed with oil men and women,
planned the war against Iraq well in advance of 9-11. In his August 5, 2005
"Petrodollar Warfare: Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil
Bourse" (www.mediamonitors.net),
author William R. Clark reiterates an earlier contention that "Saddam
Hussein sealed his fate when he announced on September 2000 that Iraq was no
longer going to accept dollars for oil being sold under the UN's Oil-for-Food
program, and decided to switch to the euro as Iraq's oil export currency."
At a loss to Iraq, the US switched oil sales back to dollars as soon as it
deposed Hussein.
US mainstream media have provided plenty of coverage on Iran, including reports
of covert US military operations inside Iran, war plans in the event of another
9-11 incident, plans to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions given the threat Iran
poses should it acquire nuclear weapons and accusations that Iranian weapons
are crossing the porous Iraq-Iran border to arm insurgents. There is little
publicity about Iran's oil bourse, a stock exchange for trading securities, in
this case oil in euros.
Slated to go online in March 2006, the Iranian Oil Bourse is a revolutionary
challenge to the hegemony of the petrodollar. It will compete with New York's
Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and London's International Petroleum Exchange
(IPE), which was purchased in 2001 by a consortium that includes British
Petroleum (BP), Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. If it goes online and trades
oil in euros, the dollar will have serious competition as the world reserve
currency.
In comparison to Saddam's transgression, i.e., switching from dollars to euros
within the Oil-for-Food Program, an Iranian Oil Bourse is a revolution.
Sheehan Says “No More!”
Cindy Sheehan is a 48-year-old California mother. On April 4,
2004, her 24 year-old son, army specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed in Sadr
City. In June 2004, she and families of other fallen soldiers met with George
W. Bush at Fort Lewis. According to Sheehan, Bush acted as if he was at a
party. Allegedly, Bush told them he could not imagine losing a loved one like
an aunt, uncle or cousin. Sheehan told Bush that Casey was her son, and that
she thought he could imagine what it would be like since he has two daughters
and that he should think about what it would be like sending them off to war.
Sheehan, angry that her son was sent to fight and die in an unjust
war, joined other families in Real Voices (http://realvoices.org/rv/index.html)
to tell Americans about the real costs of the war and the impact of Bush's
failed policies and lies. With Bush's approval ratings slipping below fifty
percent and rising Iraq war casualty figures, Sheehan's message just may be
getting across.
Sheehan stepped up her campaign with a visit to Crawford, Texas.
Blocked by the police five miles from Bush's 1,600-acre ranch, Sheehan set up
camp along the dusty road, the act caught media attention. While antiwar
protestors are fixtures wherever Bush goes, few have received any press
coverage. Sheehan's vow to remain at her Crawford campsite until Bush agrees to
a face-to-face to answer questions about the war has made the nightly news
across the nation. On vacation, Bush is scheduled to remain in Texas the entire
month of August.
To head off the snowballing situation, National Security Adviser
Stephen J. Hadley and Deputy White House chief of staff Joe Hagin were
dispatched from the ranch to speak with Sheehan on Saturday. Apparently, the
conversation did not sway Sheehan from her location. According to posts at www.afterdowningstreet.org,
the Secret Service (SS) also tried to intimidate anti-war coalition members,
which include Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War,
Veterans for Peace and Real Voices. SS agents warned protestors that they could
get hit as their vehicles exceeded posted speed limits traveling down the dusty
Texas road.
Despite these veiled threats, Sheehan and anti-war coalition
members have no plans to leave Crawford. The anti-war coalition is demanding
that Bush brings our troops home. No more of our sons and daughters should die
in Bush's unjust oil war.
Reparations Revisited
On July 6, 2005, US District Judge Charles Norgle dismissed the revised version
of Farmer-Paellmann v. FleetBoston Financial Corp., et al., the lawsuit brought
by descendants of slaves seeking monetary damages from modern-day corporations
with historical ties to enterprises that profited from slavery. Like the
original lawsuit Norgle dismissed in 2004, the revision named seventeen (17)
corporations as defendants, including Aetna Insurance, Brown and Williamson
Tobacco, CSX and Lehman Brothers.
Judge
Norgle allowed plaintiffs to file an amended lawsuit, but essentially agreed
with the defendants in dismissing the revision on the same grounds, i.e., no
standing to claim damages resulting from slavery, expiration of several
statutes of limitations and lack of connection between plaintiffs and
defendants. While plaintiffs can appeal Norgle's ruling to the 7th Circuit
Court of Appeals, the court is unlikely to overturn the lower court's decision.
The consensus is, reparations for slavery is essentially a political issue to
be decided by the legislative or executive branch.
Unless there is a revolutionary change in the attitude of the dominant society
regarding the need to repair damages caused by slavery and Jim Crow
segregation, there is little chance a lawsuit will successfully clear all the
legal barriers erected to maintain the status quo. Other supporters of
reparations are taking alternate routes, including pursuing justice through
international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court and the
United Nations.
Several reparation activists have called on these disparate groups to join
forces and pursue strategies that are more likely to yield positive results.
However, given the seeming intransigence of leaders of these groups to move
beyond the narrow niche they have carved out around this issue over the years,
such a revolutionary coalition is unlikely to be formed any time soon.
In the meantime, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America
(N'COBRA) is holding another meeting on Saturday, August 20, 2005 at the Frank
D. Reeve Center in Washington, DC. Among the topics on the meeting's agenda is
the Millions More Movement/Day of Atonement March on Washington, DC, October 14
- 16, 2005. Additional information is available at N'COBRA's website www.NCOBRA.org.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and
Telephone Calls
Email noland@aol.com
On Saturday, August 6, 2005, Tehran rejected Europe's proposal for ending the
standoff over Iran's nuclear program. According to Iran's Foreign Minister Hamid
Reza Asefi, "The European proposals are unacceptable." Iran has
indicated it will resume its nuclear activities, which were suspended pending
conclusion of a political settlement. Now, the matter may head to the United
Nations Security Council, where the US is anxious to impose sanctions against
Iran.
Email http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
In January, The New Yorker magazine reported that US commandos have been
operating inside Iran since last summer, identifying suspected weapons sites
for possible air strikes. Award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, who exposed the
extent of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, wrote that he was repeatedly told
by US intelligence and military sources that "the next strategic target
was Iran." US government has authorized spying missions inside Iran at
least since mid-2004 to gather intelligence on declared and suspected nuclear,
chemical and missile sites. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen,
and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and
short-term commando raids."
Email www.newsweek.com
A classified analysis by the US intelligence community warned administration
officials last spring that the theocratic reign of Iranian mullahs could be
entrenched for years to come. This National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), issued
by a unit of the new National Intelligence Director's Office, reported that
Iran is not in a pre-revolutionary state and that near-term regime change
appeared unlikely. Analysts also noted that Iran's new president and former
Tehran mayor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, might have a surprisingly strong following
among poorer Iranians because of his reputation as an anti-corruption campaigner.
Email http://atimes.com
Speaking of business as unusual. A mere two months ago, the news of a
China-Kazakhstan pipeline agreement, worth US $3.5 billion, raised some
eyebrows in the world press, some hinting that China's economic foreign policy
may be on the verge of a new leap forward. A clue to the fact that such
anticipation may have totally understated the case was the signing of a
mega-gas deal between Tehran and Beijing worth $100 billion. Billed as the "deal
of the century," this agreement delivers a major blow to the Bush
administration's unilateral economic sanctions on Iran.
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