home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
What You're Missing in Our Subscriber-only CounterPunch Newsletter
Paul Craig Roberts on the mounting dollar crisis.
"If foreigners take the next step and begin dumping their dollar holdings, there is nothing the U.S. government can do to avert the catastrophe." Roberts explains the options. Thomas Naylor separates post 9/11 hysteria about terrorist money smuggling from the realities of Islamic charity today. Alexander Cockburn: cut war-enabling Democrats in Congress no slack! Remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation towards the cost of this online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now
Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year
Today's Stories January 17, 2007 Franklin Spinney John Ross Susan George Paul Craig Roberts Joshua Frank David Lindorff January 16, 2007 Col. Sam Gardiner Marjorie Cohn Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Susan Block Ken Couesbouck Website of the Day January 15, 2007 Roger Morris Paul Craig Roberts Kathy Kelly William Blum Ralph Nader Saul Landau Website Of the Day January 12 / 14, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn David Rosen William S.
Lind Laith al-Saud Paul Craig
Roberts John Ross George Ciccariello-Maher Christopher Brauchli Robert Buzzanco Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost,
MD. Mike Whitney Yifat Susskind Saul Cohen Missy Beattie Stephen Lendman Website of
the Weekend
January 11, 2007 Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly Dave Lindorff Jeff Leys Richard W.
Behan Col. Douglas MacGregor Website of
the Day Speech of the Day
Peter Linebaugh Robert Fantina Patrick Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Ben Tripp Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Mike Ferner Dave Zirin Website of
the Day Bootleg of the Day
R. T. Naylor Jonathan Cook Mike Ely and Linda Flores Joshua Frank Norman Solomon Sen. Russell
Feingold Joe Allen James T. Phillips Brian Concannon Leonard Peltier Website of the Day
January 8, 2007 Werther Jeff Leys Paul Craig Roberts Shulamit Aloni Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor Seth Sandronsky Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Franklin C.
Spinney Paul Craig
Roberts Ralph Nader Walden Bello Marleen Martin Brian Cloughley Uri Avnery Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Joseph Nevins William S. Lind Gary Leupp Elisa Salasin George Ciccariello-Maher Beyond Chavistas and Anti-Chavistas: Deepening the Bolivarian Revolution Stefan Wray Michael Leonardi Richard Rhames Jeffrey St. Clair Barbara LaMorticella Website of the Weekend Song of the
Weekend
Jorge Mariscal John Walsh Christopher Brauchli Travis Sharpe Tom Barry Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese Tiffany Ten Eyck Mahmoud El-Yousseph Lucinda Marshall Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Winslow T.
Wheeler M. Shahid Alam Raed Jarrar Bert Sacks Kathy Rentenbach Stephen Fleischman George Bisharat Peter Rost, MD Evelyn Pringle Website of the Day
January 3, 2007 Kathy Kelly Paul Craig
Roberts William Johnson Stan Cox Trita Parsi Declan McKenna Joe Bageant Nicola Nasser Missy Beattie Website of
the Day
Michael Watts Amina Mire James Brooks Alevtina Rea Al Krebs Peter Rost Niranjan Ramakrishnan John Stanton Website of the Day
January 1, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Uri Avnery Joshua Frank
December 30
/ 31, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Tariq Ali Paul Craig Roberts Douglas Valentine Brian M. Downing Michael Donnelly Stephen Lendman Fred Gardner Bailly / Caudron / Lambert Ralph Nader Nick Dearden Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Missy Beattie Ron Jacobs Dan La Botz Andrew Wimmer Dr. Carol Wolman, MD Martha Rosenberg Dick J. Reavis Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend Music Video of the Weekend
Norman Finkelstein John Borowski Abid Mustafa Greg Moses Uri Cohen Bailly / Caudron
/ Lambert Website of
the Day
December 28, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Anthony Cowell John Ross Hilaria Cruz Greg Moses Brittany Bond Website of
the Day
December 27, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Faruq Ziada Christopher Brauchli Michael Ortiz
Hill Nikolas Kozloff Mark Schneider
Peter Stone
Brown Tito Tricot Gary Leupp John V. Walsh Reza Fiyouzat Ron Jacobs Website of
the Day
Saul Landau Lang / McGovern Michael Dickinson Website of
the Day
Marjorie Cohn Jeffrey L.
Gould Diane Christian William Loren
Katz Greg Moses M. Shahid Alam Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Azmi Bishara Ralph Nader Seth Sandronsky William Hughes Ron Jacobs Jeffrey St.
Clair
December 22, 2006 David Rosen Christopher
Brauchli John Ross J.L. Chestnut,
Jr. Rahul Mahajan Arthur Neslen Peter Rost, MD Website of
the Day
Rosa Mariam
Elizalde Arundhati Roy Brian Cloughley Daniel White John V. Whitbeck Sam Smith Paris Reidhead Kevin Wehr Website of the Day
Gabriel Kolko Winslow T.
Wheeler Tariq Ali Saree Makdisi Bruce Jackson Dave Lindorff Leslie Radford Dave Jansson Johnny Barber Website of
the Day
Alexander Cockburn Jonathan Cook Greg Moses Sean Penn Dave Lindorff Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Carlos Villarreal Website of
the Day
Luis J. Rodriguez Norman Solomon Uri Avnery Ron Jacobs Phil Gasper Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi William Blum Jim Goodman James Brooks Maria C. Khoury Website of the Day
Vijay Prashad Saul Landau Anthony Arnove Paul Cantor Annie Nocenti Nicole Colson Stephen Gowans Jordan Flaherty Fred Gardner P. Sainath Seth Sandronsky Nadia Hijab Deb Reich Susie Day Albert Wan Missy Beattie Martha Rosenberg Lee Ballinger Michael Dickinson Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
December 15, 2006 Eliza Ernshire Virginia Tilley Mike Ferner John Ross Fred Wilhelms Kevin Zeese David Severn Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor Website of
the Day
December 14, 2006 Jonathan Cook Riz Khan Jason Hribal Pennick / Gray Richard Levins Pat Williams Peter Rost, MD Website of
the Day
December 13, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Greg Moses Elizabeth Schulte Joshua Frank Debra Eschmeyer Leon Hadar Peter Rost, MD Margaret Knapke Reza Fiyouzat Fred Wilhelms Website of
the Day
Fernando A.
Torres Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen Soldz Uri Avnery William S. Lind Missy Beattie Dave Lindorff George Pyle Norman Solomon Website of
the Day
December 11, 2006 Virginia Tilley Roger Burbach Col. Douglas MacGregor Fawwas Traboulsi Ron Jacobs Gideon Levy Mary McGrane Bernardo Ruiz Website of the Day Video of the
Day
December 9
/ 10, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Sen. Gordon Smith Greg Grandin
Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Ralph Nader Behrooz Ghamari Rev. Willliam Alberts James T. Phillips Bennis / Leaver Dave Lindorff Nikolas Kozloff Seth Sandronsky Lucinda Marshall Mike Whitney John V. Whitbeck Faisal Kutty Hugh Sansom Robert Gold Boots Riley Jeffrey St.
Clair Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
Patrick Cockburn Leutisha Stills Norman Finkelstein Will Youmans Peter Rost, MD Jonathan Demme Ray McGovern Lucinda Marshall Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn Website of
the Day
December 7, 2006 Alex Friedman Maureen Webb Paul Craig Roberts Dave Lindorff Matt Vidal Yifat Susskind Rodriguez / Jones Website of
the Day
Robert Bryce
William S. Lind Zoe Blunt Corporate Crime Reporter Amira Hass Richard W. Behan Sophie McNeill
Virginia Tilley Sharon Smith Joe Bageant Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Mike Whitney Derrick O'Keefe Julian Assange Missy Beattie Website of
the Day
December 4, 2006 Alexander Cockburn George Ciccariello-Maher Ray McGovern John Ross Walden Bello Peter Rost,
MD Stephen Lendman Gideon Levy Website of the Day
December 2
/ 3, 2006 Barucha Calamity
Peller Paul Craig
Roberts Ralph Nader Winslow T.
Wheeler Amira Hass Maymanah Farhat Dave Lindorff Fred Gardner Col. Dan Smith Raed Jarrar Seth Sandronsky K.-Y. Taylor Yifat Susskind David Rosen Ron Jacobs Nikolas Kozloff Talli Nauman Alan Gregory Joe Allen St. Clair /
D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
December 1, 2006 Greg Grandin Linn Washington,
Jr. George Ciccariello-Maher Brian J. Foley Dave Zirin Joshua Frank Chris Floyd Ingmar Lee Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Website of the Day Video of the
Day
Subscribe Online |
January 17, 2007 Oaxaca's RisingVibrant as the Paint on the WallsBy JOHN ROSS OaxacaThe walls of this city of painters have been freshly whitewashed on orders from a much-lampooned governor, the whiteout financed by transnational tourist moguls to promote the illusion that peace has returned to Oaxaca. Neat squares of blankness cancel out the visual rebellion that exploded on the streets of this colonial city, once declared the patrimony of humanity by the United Nations. There were seven months of dramatic confrontations between striking teachers and their allies in the Oaxaca Peoples Popular Assembly (APPO) and security forces backing the despotic governor Ulisis Ruiz whose removal from office the insurgents demand. Over 200 prisoners were taken during the skirmishing and another 60 are listed as disappeared. 19 dissidents have been gunned down by Ruiz's death squads. But despite the savage repression, if one keeps an ear to the ground and an eye to the whitewashed walls once plastered with revolutionary slogans, tags, full-length murals, throw-ups, and ingenious stencils, it doesn’t much sound or look like the Oaxaca Intifada is done with yet. The anger is palpable in the markets and on the streets of this handsome state capital. "Boleros" (shoe shine men) crouch over boxes bearing the APPO's initials in the central plaza, defiantly cursing the state and municipal cops who patrol in pairs, prepared to subdue any expression of support for the popular movement. A woman in a polka-dot dress stands hands on hips on a downtown street corner and glares at a phalanx of police in vizored helmets and bullet-proof vests to which are pinned tear gas canisters, as they install a metal barricade, their shields and batons at the ready to "protect" the few tourists in town from the rage of the popular classes. "This city is only for the foreigners and the rich now. The workers out in the periphery who make a lousy 400 pesos a week ($40 USD) can't even come downtown anymore" she complains to a passerby. A second woman, fuming because her car has been blocked by an illegally parked Nissan, screams at a speeding motorcycle cop to rescue her but the officer only laughs and zooms off to ferret out APPO subversion. "Pinche policias!" she snarls, "they only work for the killer Ulisis." The irate companera explains that a cousin disappeared last June 14 when the governor dispatched hundreds of police to push the striking teachers out of the plaza and concussion grenades rained down on the demonstrators from low-flying helicopters. The bitterness of those who have suffered seven months of depravities at the governor's hands finds distinct outlets. "I'm not a guerrillero yet but we shall see. We shall see" belts out Fernando Guadarrama, a "Jarocha" or Veracruz-style singer to the rollicking tune of "La Bamba" at a local cantina. A poetry reading advertised as being clearly seditious draws swarms of supporters of the popular movement to a downtown cultural center - some have outstanding warrants pending and risk arrest by attending. Oaxaca is a city of painters, the cradle of the late master colorist Rufino Tamayo and the very much-alive Francisco Toledo who stands with the resistance movement, and during the long struggle the walls of the city were transformed into a dizzying open-air gallery of popular art. Despite the thousands of gallons that have been expended to blot out the rebellion in a doomed campaign to assure tourists that "no pasa nada aqui", that nothing is happening here and it is safe to return, the images, like the anger, endure just beneath the surface. "The white paint cannot erase the blood of our comrades" defiantly advertises a spray-painted wall scrawl. A remarkable archive of over a thousand images of the struggle for the walls of Oaxaca offers poignant witness to the ongoing resistance. Some of the works were spray painted freehand, others stenciled onto every available space, still others printed out on paper and fastened to the walls with a wheat glue tough as steel so that to remove the offending art requires dismantling the buildings to which they were affixed brick by brick. Although Ulisis's obliteration teams stalk the streets, new art goes up every day right under the noses of the police. Indeed, Ulisis is everywhere on these walls - as a burro, as a rat, a raccoon, a chimpanzee, a skull and crossbones, with shit on his head. A mammoth Mayan head was painted to scale by an apparently well-coordinated team of throw-up artists, a Playboy nude appeared curled up on the wall of the Cathedral rectory and tagged as "The Pope's Girlfriend" - the Church played an equivocal role in the Oaxaca uprising. Some murals are left unfinished, the work of the artists disrupted when Ulisis's goons - mostly off-duty police - swung around the corner in the deep of the night spraying automatic weapon fire at the barricades. Some, in fact, were painted from the ashes of the tire fires the protestors burned all night on the thousand or so barricades piled up in and around the city. Still stippling public walls posted with "Do Not Post" warnings and private businesses (a Neurotics Anonymous billboard was an appealing target) is a ubiquitous image of a supermarket-shopping cart filled with rocks and ready for the next march. Anarchist A's are everywhere. A little girl in a pink dress hugs a large bomb. The machetes of San Salvador Atenco are a repeated icon. A stencil of a protestor aiming a slingshot at a helicopter. A stencil of a kneeling youth spray-painting a wall. The Mexican penchant for mocking death is pervasive - a humming bird sucks nectar from a grinning skull. A horribly mutilated dove of peace. A stylized assassination scene featuring hated Teachers Union boss Elba Esther Gordillo. There are many women's' fists (tagged "the weaker sex") and a mysterious war between stenciled "chapalines" (grasshoppers) and "priratas" (PRI rats.) Zapata in a gas mask is still up there just under the whitewash, Benito Juarez with a Mohawk. Mug shots of Gandhi, the old anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon, the martyred guerrillero Lucio Cabanas, the Zapatistas' Comandanta Ramona. Sometimes the walls functioned as the morning newspaper. One day, Oaxaca arose to find life-sized photo-real figures of three presidential candidates dressed as boxers in a ring. The stolen July 2 election was a touchstone for the street artists. This ebullient outpouring of graphic resistance to the caprices of a governor whose sanity is openly questioned, and the connivance of a government under the "hard hand" of a president much of the electoral considers a usurper, is firmly rooted in the popular traditions of Oaxaca, the most indigenous entity in the Mexican union with 17 distinct and largely destitute Indian peoples fueling the socio-political mix. Last summer, enraged because Ulisis and his predecessors had turned the Guelaguetza, a dance festival with millennial antecedents, into a crass tourist trap at the height of the struggle, the APPO and the teachers forced cancellation of the event - and held their own "Peoples' Guelaguetza" on the streets of the city. The November 1-2 Dias de los Muertos, a deeply rooted ritual in Oaxaca, were transformed into anguished protest and solidarity with the victims of Ruiz's murder machine. One altar was created for the freshly slain U.S. independent reporter Brad Will. Similarly, this December 23, "the Night of the Rabanos" (radishes), when Oaxaca artisans fashion the giant roots into fantastical shapes, the APPO set up tables in the courtyard of sprawling Santo Domingo church and carved the radishes into figures of Ulisis as Satan and other nefarious personas. The governor responded by ordering his police to break up the celebration. But perhaps URO's (Ulisis Ruiz Ortiz) most offensive slap at Oaxacan and national tradition came January 6, the day the Three Kings bring toys to all Mexican children, when the despised governor sicced 500 cops on the APPO to disrupt a toy drive for the children of the protestors, many of whose parents are still in prison. In spite of Ruiz's Grinchiness, the popular movement was undeterred. Barred from using Santo Domingo despite having the Bishop's permission, protestors marched through the downtown streets and occupied a nearby plaza to hold their fiesta. What’s on the plate for Oaxaca in 2007? There is much speculation about a political solution - that Ulisis will appoint an interim governor of his choosing and step up into President Felipe Calderon's cabinet or maybe an ambassadorship to Fiji, and that APPO's politica prisoners will be amnestied (including the three Sosa brothers who Calderon has fingered as the ringleaders of the rebellion) and everyone will live happily ever after. Certainly the release of all the prisoners is a condition of any settlement but whether the popular movement which has battled back valiantly with its "fuego y palabra" (fire and word) for so long. will be ready to deal for such a hollow and symbolic "victory" remains to be seen. The Oaxaca Intifada smolders on into the New Year and despite the whitewash job, the writing on the walls is perfectly clear. "I'm not a guerrillero yet" lilts Fernando Guadarrama on stage at the Nuevo Babel, "but we shall see. We shall see."
John Ross will be traveling the southwest (February), the south and Midwest (March), and the Right Coast (April) with his latest opus Zapatistas! Making Another World Possible - Chronicles of Resistance 2000-2006. For bookings and suggested venues write johnross@igc.org. (Note: the dates are disappearing fast.)
|
CounterPunch Books / AK Press The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Kay Graham, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh |