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PAGE 4 EVIDENCE O F THINGS UNSEEN: RISE OF A NEW MOVEMENT But globalization was emerging long before the 1990s, before NAFTA and the WTO, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The settling of America itself was an act of colonization and “development.” Then came Manifest Destiny, the defeat of the Indian tribes, the annexation of the western lands, the war with Mexico and Spain, the seizure of Hawaii And the Philippines. For indigenous people the Conquest is not over. Most of our foreign aid programs and social policies are only efforts to reform the Conquest, not end its invisible structure of power relations. For Muslims, the Crusades are not over. We should ask if the Crusades are over for President Bush. There was the alleged slip of the tongue when he described the war on terrorism as a crusade. There was his Inaugural, blessed by Rev. Franklin Graham who denounced Muslims and proudly presided over the quadrupling of missionaries in Iraq since the first Gulf War; and there is another Christian crusader at the pinnacle of the Pentagon, General William Boykin. To globalize and militarize are the two strategies of the U.S. will to empire, driving our movements toward a unified opposition. The National Security Strategy of September 2002, which announced the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war, also included the free market, free trade and the FTAA as principles the Pentagon is bound to advance and protect. So our official national security policy is about more than terrorism, nuclear proliferation or legitimate security threats; it is about defending what the document proclaims is a “single sustainable model for national success.” STEVE JONIK BY TOM HAYDEN The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Richard Myers, has said that “Intelligence doesn't necessarily mean something is true. That's not what intelligence is." Keep that in mind as I discuss what James Baldwin called the “evidence of things unseen.” A few weeks ago in Cancún I watched at the barricades as a South Korean farmer appeared to shake his fist in militant anger at the dispossession of his people. I did not know that he was committing ritual suicide with a knife. As far as I know, neither did anyone else.Hours later, the World Trade Associa tion issued a press release stating its “regret" at what it called the “self-inflicted” wound that resulted in the farm leader's’ death. I began to wonder how many other deaths we see but do not see. Farmers in India poisoning themselves with pesti cides. Farmers in America quietly committing suicide. A rise in suicides among American soldiers in Iraq. These unseen deaths should be seen as signs of the times. They are birth pangs as well. For example, in the past weeks some 80 Bolivians have given their lives — hardly the first time in their 500 year-long struggle — but these cocoleros, these sweatshop workers, these indios, have overthrown the government over globalization issues and sent their mine own ing, American trained president packing. The evidence of things unseen. There is a rising move ment in the world. It is bigger than the movement of the 1960s. Yet it is barely seen by the experts and analysts. They look only at the behavior of institutions and politicians, not the underlying forces that eventually burst into visibility. The first strand of this new movement is the global opposition to the war in Iraq and an American empire. One year ago, when over 100,000 demonstrators hit the streets in Washington, D C., The New York Times reported that surprisingly few attended the antiwar march, perhaps out of the fear of the D C. sniper. National Public Radio repeated the story. How could they not see the 100,000? Apparently because such protests were not supposed to happen anymore. Both the Times and NPR were forced to apologize a few days later and report the huge turnout. Then, in another correction, the Times announced in February that there was a “second superpower” in the world in addition to the White House, which was world public opinion. By then 10 million people were demonstrating globally; two million in Rome, one million in London, 200,000 in Montreal in 20-degrees-below weather — even a brave few in McMurdo Station in Antarctica The second strand is the global justice movement, which began with the Zapatistas on the day the North American Free Trade Act took effect, then surfaced in Seattle in 1999 (the WTO protests of November that year). Those were called isolated events. Then came Genoa, Quebec City, Quito, Cancún, the world forums in Porto Allegre. Far from isolated events, these were the historic battle-grounds of a new history being born. THE COMPLEAT PHOTOGRAPHER 475 14TH ST., ASTORIA & 303 S. HOLLADAY, SEASIDE 325-0759 736-3686 i Together these movements mount a challenge to an entire worldview. We are experiencing an enlargement of dignity, an enlargement of what we consider sacred and there fore off the table, not negotiable. The purported Masters of the Universe are becoming as obsolete as those who once claimed the divine right of kings. The earth and its people are not for sale; the environment is not just a storehouse of materials for utilitarian exploitation; and cultural identities can’t be replaced as if they were commodities, whether the treasures of Babylon or the rainforests of the Amazon. This movement is saying that diversity will not be looted. Why is this happening? No one really knows. Move ments arise in mystery at the margins, eventually change the mainstream, are repressed or co-opted, and return to the oblivion we call official history. One explanation is that globalization of U S. military and economic power is globalizing the opposition. It is a dialectic and, as it swirls and intensifies it can even bring down George Bush. This new globalization arises, some say, in response to a power vacuum after the Cold War which the U.S. filled. But contrary to the end-of-history theorists, the failure and fall of communism did not mean the dialectic was dead and that the wretched of the earth would quietly go away. Or as Thomas Friedman, globalization’s leading defender, puts it: “The hidden hand of the market will never work with a hidden fist. McDonalds cannot flourish without McDonnell-Douglas." Take the example of Iraq today, the complete stripping and privatization of the public sector (with only oil exempted so far). L. Paul Bremer, the man who dresses in pinstripe suits and combat boots and represents Henry Kissinger’s invisible corporate clients, is very clear that his mission is to replace sovereign Iraqi control of its economy with a free-market model controlled by absentee foreign owners primarily from the U.S. Helping ourselves to the spoils of war is part of our national security strategy. While there is growing opposition in this country to the American death toll and budgetary costs of the Iraqi quagmire, * there is virtually no debate about our assault on the Iraqi public sector by the writ of Bremer. Only a deeper joining of the global justice movement with the peace movement can begin to expose and protest these policies. Of course these are not new developments. Halliburton is connected to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Texas corporation that funded Lyndon Johnson’s rise to power.lt also built airstrips in Vietnam, which became the corrugated metal fences at the U.S.-Mexico border, and is today reincarnated as a virtual Dick Cheney subsidiary on the battlefields of Iraq. Similarily, the author of the so-called “clash of civiliza tions” thesis, Samuel Huntington, is the same policy advisor who invented the doctrine of “forced urbanization" for South Vietnam, deliberately turning a 90% peasant culture into an urban “Honda culture” in a decade. What is new is the audacity of the drive for an Ameri- THE CHARACTER OF FASCISM BY DR. LAWRENCE BRITT In studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), the regimes are found to share 14 identifying characteristics of fascism. 1 Powerful and continuing nationalism: Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic symbols, mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen every where, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. 2 Disdain for the recognition of human rights: Because of the fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. 3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause: The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists; terrorists, etc. 4. Supremacy of the military: Even when there are wide spread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportion ate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. 5. Rampant sexism: The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male dominated Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid.Opposition to abortion is high; homophobia and anti-gay legislation are enacted as national policy. 6. Controlled mass media: Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government But in other cases the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common. 7. Obsession with national security: Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government National security is invoked for purposes of censorship, secrecy and curtailing civil rights and liberties 8 Religion and government are intertwined: Govern ments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions. 9. Corporate power is protected: The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business-government relationship and power elite. 10. Labor power is suppressed: Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely or are severely suppressed. 11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts: Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. 12. Obsession with crime and punishment: Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuse, and even to forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. 13. Rampant cronyism and corruption: Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and exercise governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and treasures to be appropriated or stolen by govern ment leaders. 14. Fraudulent elections: Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipu lated by smear campaigns against, or even assassination of opposition candidates, by use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and by manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. This article is reprinted from the Spring 2003 issue of Free Inquiry
