><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><
DISKUSSION
><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

================================================
01 Solidarität mit Ulrike Lunacek!
From: Karl Reitter <karl.reitter@univie.ac.at>
================================================

Angesichts der Gaskammern von Auschwitz zählt der Vorwurf des
Antisemitismus wohl zu den schwerwiegendsten Beschuldigungen, die
überhaupt erhoben werden können. In seinem Beitrag "Kein Nachspiel:
Österreichs Grüne unter Antisemitismusverdacht" stellt Karl Pfeifer
Ulrike Lunacek unter diesen. Der Beifall der sogenannten antideutschen
Kreise ist ihm dabei sicher. Daß seit Monaten unsere antideutschen
TheoretikerInnen ein Weltbild verbreiten, in dem einzig und allein jene
angegriffen werden, die sich gegen Rassismus, Antisemitismus und
Kapitalismus engagieren, ein Weltbild, in dem George Busch als wackerer
Kämpfer gegen den Antisemitismus erscheinen muß und die klammheimliche
Vorfreude über kommende Bomben auf Bagdad unübersehbar ist, ist eine
Sache. Eine andere ist es, wenn offen Personen zur Treibjagd freigegeben
und engagierte PolitikerInnen wie Ulrike Lunacek unter
Antisemitismusverdacht vorgeführt werden. An den mit unglaublicher
Überheblichkeit vorgetragenen Antisemitismusanalysen, aus Versatzstücken
der Wertformanalyse und Adorno-Zitaten zusammengebastelt, mag sich
berauschen wer will. Und wer sich ständig durch den Pauschalvorwurf
gegen die Linke, sie sei strukturell antisemitistisch, Identität und
Selbstbewußtsein verschaffen muß, soll dies tun. Aber den Verdacht des
Antisemitismus an konkrete Personen, in diesem Falle an Ulrike Lunacek,
im selben Tonfall wie banale Alltagsvorwürfe aussprechen, das möchte ich
nicht unwidersprochen lassen.

Im übrigen möchte ich all jenen, die zum Betrag von Karl Pfeifer Beifall
klatschen empfehlen, mit ihm einmal über den vorgeblichen Antisemitismus
des Herrn Marx zu diskutieren. Die entsprechenden Zitate aus "Zur Judenfrage"
und
"Die Klassenkämpfe in Frankreich" werden sich finden lassen.

Karl Reitter

================================================
02 Antwort auf Reitter
From: Claudia Volgger <claudia.volgger@chello.at>
================================================

eigentlich wäre es ganz einfach: der beitrag von karl reitter beruht auf
zwei prämissen, beide sind falsch. die erste: antisemit ist, wer auschwitz
bejaht, in der umkehrung: wer auschwitz nicht bejae, könne somit auch nicht
antisemit sein. das ist zwar konsequent gedacht, aber in der umlegung auf
konkrete menschen, die bekanntlich selten konsequent denken (geschweige denn
handeln - zum glück) funktioniert es als exkulpierung all derer, die zwar
finden, dass hitler wirklich übertrieben hat, aber auf befragen lieber nicht
neben juden wohnen möchten, z.b.
die zweite: wenn jemand öffentlich gegen antisemitismus auftritt, dann
handelt es sich um eineN antideutscheN. das ist nicht konsequent, sondern
entweder gar nicht oder taktisch gedacht: als abschreckung gegen alle, die
auch auf blöde ideen kommen könnten, aber deswegen noch lange keine
antideutschen sein möchten.
so weit, so schlicht.
leider ist das nicht alles.
sondern es handelt sich um einen solidaritätsaufruf.
solidarität ist nicht nur die zärtlichkeit der völker, sondern im üblichen
wortgebrauch auch eine unterstützung, die denen entgegengebracht wird, die
in einer auseinandersetzung unterliegen könnten, machtloser sind als das,
was sie bedroht. wie ist also das machtgefälle zwischen lunacek und karl
pfeifer konkret zu bewerten?
karl pfeifer ist ein pensionierter journalist, dessen beiträge zum
(alltags-)antisemitismus in österreich in verschiedenen, nicht nur
österreichischen medien, üblicherweise hierzulande nicht in den
einflussreichsten, grössten, veröffentlicht werden. was er einsetzen kann,
ist seine analyse, sein moralisches gewicht (beruhend auf dem mut, gegen ein
schweigetabu anzuschreiben), seine fähigkeit, pointiert zu formulieren.
ulrike lunacek ist grüne nationalratsabgeordnete, aussenpolitische
sprecherin ihrer partei, mit gewissen zugriffsmöglichkeiten auf ressourcen
dieser partei, die es ihr u.a. auch ermöglichen, öffentliche veranstaltungen
abzuhalten.
wer sieht hier ein machtgefälle, das ulrike lunacek krass benachteiligt?
karl pfeifer hat ulrike lunacek mangelnde sensibilität im umgang mit
antisemitismus vorgeworfen (dezidiert nicht: dass sie selbst antisemitin
wäre).
karl reitter sieht darin eine "treibjagd" auf ulrike lunacek.
gut, man muss nicht über alles informiert sein, und es ist karl reitter im
zweifel zu unterstellen, dass er nicht wusste, wer karl pfeifer in welchem
medium bereits vor jahren aufgrund eines antisemitismus-nachweises ähnliches
vorgeworfen hat. tip: er soll es
mal mit google probieren, stichworte "pfeifer" + "zur zeit", oder "pfeifer"
+ "mölzer".
es scheint das in österreich für manche menschen ein sehr naheliegendes
vokabular zu sein.
ich bitte ulrike lunacek dringend, sich gegen solche "solidaritätsaufrufe"
zu verwahren. in der hoffnung, dass sie inzwischen verstanden hat, was die
menschen meinten, die sie davor warnten, in österreich eine so einseitig
besetzte diskussionsveranstaltung zum thema israel-palästina zu
veranstalten. was da zum vorschein kommt, ist grauenhaft.
claudia volgger

================================================
03 Antwort auf Reitter - Österreichische Normalität
Von: Karl Pfeifer
================================================

Ich finde es interessant, wenn Karl Reitter, anstatt auf meine konkreten
Vorwürfe einzugehen, mir unterstellt ich wäre ein "antideutscher" und
darüber spekuliert, meine Kritik könnte diesen gefallen. Was soll das bei
einer innerösterreichischen Diskussion?
Reiter beschuldigt mich Ulrike Lunacek, außenpolitische Sprecherin der
Grünen, für eine "Treibjagd" freigegeben zu haben. Mölzers "Zur Zeit" darf
laut OLG-Urteil behaupten, "der jüdische Journalist Karl Pfeifer" hat mit
seiner 1995 publizierten Rezension "eine Menschenhatz eröffnet" die in der
Folge (im Jahr 2000) zum Tod des ("aus dem katholischen Umfeld" stammenden)
Gehetzten führen sollte, der Selbstmord beging. All das ist halt
österreichische Normalität und wenn ein Jude hierher zurückgekehrt ist und
sich gegen diese wehrt, dann bekommt er das zu spüren, von rechts aber auch
von links.
Weshalb empfiehlt Reiter mit mir über den "vorgeblichen Antisemitismus" von
Karl Marx in "Zur Judenfrage" zu diskutieren?
Edmund Silberner hat sich in seinem 1962 im Berliner Colloquium Verlag
erschienenem Buch
"Sozialisten zur Judenfrage" ausführlich mit dieser Arbeit von Karl Marx
auseinandergesetzt.
Marx fragt: "Welches ist der weltliche Grund des Judentums? Das praktische
Bedürfnis, der Eigennutz.
Welches ist der weltliche Kultus des Juden? Der Schacher.
Welches ist sein weltlicher Gott? Das Geld"
Religiöses Judentum wird ebenso abgetan:
"Welches war an und für sich die Grundlage der jüdischen Religion? Das
praktische Bedürfnis, der Egoismus." "Der Gott des praktischen Bedürfnisses
und Eigennutzes ist das Geld. Das Geld ist der eifrige Gott Israels, vor
welchem kein anderer Gott bestehen darf."
Und ganz prophetisch: "Die gesellschaftliche Emanzipation des Juden ist die
Emanzipation der Gesellschaft vom Judentum."
Das alles ist laut Karl Reitter "vorgeblicher Antisemitismus"! Was ist dann
realer Antisemitismus?
Silberner resümiert: "Die Zahl jener, die ihm Glauben schenkten, war viel,
viel größer als die Zahl derer, die Widerspruch oder Einwände zu erheben
wagten. Ob Marx es wollte oder nicht, er hat machtvoll dazu beigetragen, in
seinen nichtjüdischen Anhängern antijüdische Vorurteile hervorzurufen oder
sie in diesen Vorurteilen zu bestärken... Er nimmt daher unbestreitbar eine
Schlüsselstellung in dem ein, was man mit einem neuen, aber treffenden
Terminus nicht umhin kann, als die antisemitische Tradition des modernen
Sozialismus zu bezeichnen."

Der linke Antisemitismus in Österreich bleibt weiter ein Thema, das zu
diskutieren ist.
Karl Pfeifer

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><
AKTIONEN UND ANKÜNDIGUNGEN
><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

================================================
04 Widerstand dem globalen Krieg - Friedensforum in Graz
From: Thomas Roithner-ÖSFK <aspr.vie@aspr.ac.at>
================================================

Einladung zum

Österreich_Forum.Frieden&Gewaltfreiheit # 1
"Widerstand dem globalen Krieg - Allianzen für den Frieden bilden"

am 26. und 27. Oktober 2002
Universität Graz/RE-SO-WI-Zentrum, Universitätsstraße 15, 8020 Graz

Dieses FriedensForum soll die erste einer jährlich einmal stattfindenden
österreichweiten Tagung der Friedensbewegungen sein. Ziel ist es, durch
Informationsaustausch über laufende Vorhaben und Aktionen sowie durch
gemeinsame Aktivitäten die Friedensbewegten besser zu vernetzen, unsere
Arbeit wiederzubeleben und neue FreundInnen und Kräfte zu gewinnen. Geplant
ist u.a. die Verabschiedung eines "Kommuniqués" der Friedensbewegungen sowie
die (verstärkte) Einbeziehung der globalisierungskritischen Kräfte, die sich
gegen die neoliberale Wirtschaftsform wenden. Am zweiten,
österreichspezifischeren Tag wird "EU-Militarisierung, Euro-Armee und
Neutralität" das Hauptthema darstellen. Es soll aber nicht nur die
österreichische Situation diskutiert werden, auch wenn diese sicher im
Vordergrund steht, sondern durch die Einbeziehung von ReferentInnen aus dem
Ausland eine Erweiterung des Blicks gesucht werden, weshalb auch "Widerstand
dem globalen Krieg - Allianzen für den Frieden bilden" der Gesamttitel des
ersten Forums ist.

Die US-Administration hat ja nach dem 11. September einen "nicht-endenden
Krieg" angekündigt, die Bombardierung Afghanistans - wo auch nach wie vor
Soldaten aus dem neutralen Österreich stationiert sind - ist keineswegs zu
Ende, die Benennung des Irak als unmittelbares Kriegsziel und die anderen
Drohungen der Kriegsherren - auch der EU-europäischen - im sogenannten
"Globalen Krieg gegen den Terror" sind in gut in Erinnerung.

Die unerträgliche Eskalation der Situation im Nahen Osten, die aggressive
Besetzung palästinensischer Gebiete durch die israelische Armee und die
Tatsache, dass Verhandlungslösungen immer unerreichbarer scheinen, drängt zu
gemeinsamen Aktivitäten von Friedensbewegungen. Mit dem FriedensForum wollen
wir einen breiten Verständigungsprozess zu diesen Fragen beginnen.

Programm:

Samstag, 26. Oktober 2002

13.30 Uhr: Begrüßung und Eröffnung
14.00 Uhr: "Friedensbewegungen und der Prozess der Sozialen Foren"
mit Einleitungsreferaten von
Horst Eberhard Richter (IPPNW & ATTAC Deutschland)
Peter Strutynski (Friedensratschlag, Universität Kassel)
Moderation: Gudrun Harrer (Der Standard)

16.00 - 18.00 Uhr: parallel stattfindende Arbeitskreise:
Integrativer Arbeitskreis zu Friedensbewegungen und der Prozess der Sozialen
Foren mit Horst Eberhard Richter; Moderation: Andreas Pecha (Friedensbüro
Wien)

Globalisierungskritik aus feministischer Sicht mit Claudia von Werlhof
(Universität Innsbruck), Moderation: Claudia Krieglsteiner (Wr.
Friedensbewegung)

Strategien gegen den globalen Krieg am Beispiel der Friedensbewegungen in
Israel / Palästina mit Amos Gvirtz (Versöhnungsbund Israel) und Noah Salameh
(Versöhnungsbund Palästina); Moderation: Hildegard Goss-Mayr
(Versöhnungsbund); in englischer Sprache

500.000 Tote jährlich und wer trägt die Verantwortung? - Fakten zur Analyse
der verheerenden Folgen von kleinen und leichten Waffen. Österreichs Anteil
daran und sein möglicher Beitrag zu einer Prävention mit Klaus Renoldner
(Vorsitzender von OMEGA), Moderation: Herbert Peherstorfer (Versöhnungsbund)

European Peace Corps als zivile Alternative zu militärischem Peace-keeping
bzw. Peace-enforcement mit Christine Schweitzer (Nonviolent Peaceforce);
Moderation: Hans-Anton Ederer (Pax Christi)

Zwischen 18.00 und 19.00 Uhr Buffet

19.30 Uhr: Podiumsdiskussion:
"Globaler Krieg - Globaler Widerstand: Strategien gegen die neue
Weltordnung"
Amos Gvirtz (Versöhnungsbund Israel)
Noah Salameh (Versöhnungsbund Palästina)
Claudia von Werlhof (Universität Innsbruck)
Christine Schweitzer (Nonviolent Peaceforce)
Peter Strutynski (Universität Kassel)
Moderation: Hannes Hofbauer

Sonntag, 27. Oktober 2002

8.30 Uhr: Ökumenisches Friedensgebet (ChristInnen für die Friedensbewegung)
9.15 Uhr: "EU-Militarisierung, Euro-Armee, Neutralität"
Franz Leidenmühler (Völkerrechtler der Universität Linz)
Karl Kumpfmüller (Grazer Büro für Frieden und Entwicklung)
Christian Wlaschütz (Iustitia et Pax)

Anschließend offene Debatte bis 12.15 Uhr
Moderation des Vormittags: Claudia Krieglsteiner (Wr. Friedensbewegung) und
Thomas Roithner (Friedensforschungszentrum Schlaining)
12.15 - 13.00 Uhr: Besprechung und Verabschiedung des Kommuniqués

Veranstalterinnen des Forums: ARGE Wehrdienstverweigerung und
Gewaltfreiheit, ATTAC Österreich, Friedensbüro Salzburg, Friedensbüro Wien,
Friedenswerkstatt Linz, Grazer Büro für Frieden und Entwicklung,
Internationaler Versöhnungsbund - Österreichischer Zweig, Iustitia et Pax,
OMEGA/IPPNW - Österreichische MedizinerInnen gegen Gewalt und Atomgefahren,
Österreichische Friedensdienste, Österreichische HochschülerInnenschaft -
Universität Graz, Pax Christi Österreich

Mit Unterstützung durch: Abflug!, ARGE Jugend gegen Gewalt und Rassismus,
Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit, ChristInnen für die
Friedensbewegung, Deserteurs- und Flüchtlingsberatung, Evangelische Akademie
Wien, Forum Lebens- und Sozialberatung - Elternwerkstatt, Frauen in Schwarz
(Wien), Friedensinitiative 14/15, Friedensinitiative 22, Hiroshima Gruppe
Wien, Kinderstimme, LehrerInnen für den Frieden, Österreichischer
Friedensrat, "Radio Helsinki", Steirische Friedensplattform.

Sponsorinnen: Grüne Akademie (Graz), Grüne Bildungswerkstatt, KPÖ, Renner
Institut, SJÖ, Stadt Graz

Anmeldungen an:
Österreichische Friedensdienste
Maiffredygasse 11, 8010 Graz
Tel (0316) 38 22 58, Fax (0316) 93 17 51
e-mail: oefd@Eunet.at
Schlafplätze mit Schlafsack sind vorhanden: 1 Nacht zu Euro 7.-, 2 Nächte zu
Euro 10.-, 3 Nächte (Anreise 25.10., Abreise 28.10.) Euro 13.-
Bankverbindung: Kto.Nr.: 2.467.033, bei RLB (BLZ 38000)

Wer selbst bucht:
Grazer Tourismusgesellschaft: +43/(0)316 - 8075-10
Online buchen auf www.graztourismus.at
Jugendgästehaus: +43/(0)316 - 714 876

LITERATURTIPP:
Andreas Pecha, Thomas Roithner, Thomas Walter (Hrsg.): Friede braucht
Bewegung. Analysen und Perspektiven der österreichischen Friedensbewegung,
2. Auflage, Wien 2002, 327 Seiten, 43 Beiträge, ISBN 3-9502098-1-6, Preis:
Euro 7,-- zuzüglich Porto.

Die Friedensbewegung in Österreich sieht sich schwierigen Aufgaben
gegenüber. Das macht es notwendig, einen Sammlungsprozess in Gang zu setzen,
der zu einer verstärkten Zusammenarbeit der Friedenskräfte in Österreich
führt. In den Bereichen kirchliche Friedensarbeit, Sicherheitspolitik und
Neutralität, Neue Weltordnung, Gewaltfreiheit, Friedenserziehung, Abrüstung,
neoliberale Globalisierung und zivilgesellschaftliche Perspektiven soll
versucht werden, die Friedensbewegung in Österreich zu verorten
beziehungsweise Möglichkeiten und Perspektiven für die Zukunft aufzuzeigen.

Bestellungen: thomasroithner@yahoo.com zum Preis von Euro 7,-- pro Buch
zuzüglich Porto.

Herzliche Grüße
Thomas Roithner

Österreichisches Studienzentrum für Frieden und Konfliktlösung (ÖSFK)
Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR)
Außenstelle Wien - Vienna Office
Bearbeitung: Mag. Dr. Thomas Roithner
Wiedner Gürtel 10, A - 1040 Wien
Tel. ++43 - 1 - 79 69 959
Fax ++43 - 1 - 79 65 711
e-mail: aspr.vie@aspr.ac.at
Homepage: http://www.aspr.ac.at/

================================================
05 Petition for Maria do Ceu
From: <selbstbestimmungsrechtderfrau@gmx.net>
================================================

Liebe Leserinnen und Leser des MUND:
nochmals zur gestrigen Protestnote für MARIA DOCEU, der Krankenschwester,
die wegen Illegaler Abtreibungen (in Portugal ist die Abtreibung illegal!)
zu 8 1/2 Jahren Haft verurteilt wurde.
Folgede Website enthält ein automatisches Online-Formular, wo die Protest-
bzw. Freilassungsnote unterschrieben werden kann.

http://mariadoceu.planetaclix.pt/
oder Ihr schreibt eben and die angegebene E-mail-Adresse
Thanx a lot!

--
Aktionskomitee für das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Frau, Wien

Selbstbestimmungsrechtderfrau@gmx.net

(detailierte Infos auch in einem Artikel von Viktoria Roth:
http://wolfsmutter.frauenweb.at/news/prolife.html#geschichte )

================================================
06 Alles was Recht ist ...
From: Recht Beweglich <rb@rechtbeweglich.at>
================================================

Rechtskomitee LAMBDA & HOSI Linz
laden zur Tagung

Alles was Recht ist ...
Homosexualität & Recht

07.-08. Dezember 2002

in
Linz

www.RechtBeweglich.at

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><
KOMMENTARE - MELDUNGEN
><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

================================================
07 ES: Internet-Inquisition
From: "q/depesche" <depesche@quintessenz.org>
================================================

q/depesche 2002-10-17T18:25:09

ES: Internet-Inquisition

Dank des "Gesetz für die Dienste der Informationsgesellschaft und des
E-Commerce", kurz LSSI, haben bisher mehr als 220 Sites geschlossen. Das
Gesetz zwingt Websitebetreiber, ihre Seiten amtlich registrieren zu lassen
und illegale Inhalte unter Strafandrohung von 600.000 Euro an staatlichen
Behörden zu melden. Mehrer Webseiten, darunter auch stop1984.com[1],
bekunden ihre Solidaritaet mit den spanischen Internetnutzern.

[1] http://www.kriptopolis.com/

-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
Mehr:
"REVISTA INDEPENDIENTE SOBRE SEGURIDAD EN INTERNET"
http://www.kriptopolis.com/

"Umstrittenes spanisches Internetgesetz in Kraft"
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/13416/1.html

"Web sites blackout over Spanish monitoring law"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27589.html

"Spaniens Web mit schwarzen Balken"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/hps-17.10.02-000/

"FUCK THE POLICE,FUCK THE CONTROL,FUCK THE LSSI"
http://www.antilssi.com/

- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
relayed by Abdul Alhazred
- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
q/depesche is powered by
http://www.ewave.at

subscribe/unsubscribe/digest
http://www.quintessenz.at/q/depesche/
comments to abdul@quintessenz.org,harkank@quintessenz.org

================================================
08 Innenminister Strasser privatisiert "Rückkehrberatung von Flüchtlingen"
From: <global@no-racism.net>
================================================

Am 16. Oktober 2002 hat Innenminister Strasser die Privatisierung der
"Rückkehrberatung von Flüchtlingen" bekanntgegeben. Die Firma European Homecare
GmbH aus Essen wird in Zukunft laut Vertrag mit dem Innenministerium Heimereisen
innerhalb von einer Woche organisieren.

European Homecare betreibt u.a. in Deutschland das Erstaufnahmeeinrichtung
Chemnitz (750) Plätze und stellt sich auf ihrer Homepage als soziale Einrichtung
dar. sicher ist jedenfalls, dass es sich um eine Firma handelt, die kräftig am
Geschäft mit der Abschiebung verdient. Die "Rückkehrberatung" in der
Bundesbetreuungsstelle Traiskirchen von je 110 AsylwerberInnenn pro Woche kostet
laut Angaben des Innenminsteriums pro Monat 100.000 Euro. Das "Projekt" soll ab
Ende Oktober 2002 bis vorläufig Jahresende.

Ein Konflikt zwischen Caritas und dem Innenministerium über die Effizien der von
der Caritas bisher durchgeführten "Rückkehrberatung" hat - so zumindest die
offizielle Version - den Innenminister veranlasst, die deutsche Privatfirma zu
engagieren. Die Caritas wies lt. Presse die Kritik zurück, dass sie den
AsylwerberInnen falsche Hoffnungen gemacht habe - sie habe Strassers Ziel sogar
überschritten! 2001 seien 350 Repatriierungen geplant gewesen, die Caritas
brüstet sich nun, sie habe 429 Menschen zur Rückkehr bewogen.

Ein Vergleich oben genannter Zahlen macht ersichtlich, dass die dem
Innenministerium zu wenige "freiwillige" Rückkehrwillige sind. Laut Standard
sollen in Traiskirchen je Woche 110 AsylwerberInnen eine Woche lang beraten
werden, sodass am Ende die Rückkehr ins "Heimatland" steht. Eine Sprecherin von
European Homecare im Standard dazu: "Wenn wir diese Aufgabe nicht bewältigen
könnten, hätten wir den Vertrag nicht abgeschlossen."

Ein Blick auf die Homepage von European Homecare verrät ein wenig über das
Image, dass sich die Firma selbst zuschreibt:
"Im Mittelpunkt steht immer der Mensch, nach dieser Devise handeln wir seit über
10 Jahren. Gerade im Umgang mit sozialen Randgruppen verbinden wir persönliches
Engagement mit wirtschaftlicher Kompetenz. Dadurch sind wir in der Lage als
Dienstleister für die öffentliche Hand zu mehr Wirtschaftlichkeit beizutragen."

Es wird kein Geheimnis daraus gemacht, dass es vor allem um Wirtschaftlichkeit
geht - um Gewinne, wie sie sicher auch bei der sogenannten
"Erstaufnahmeeinrichtung Chemnitz" gemacht werden. Auf der Homepage von European
Homecare erfährt mensch, dass die 750 Plätze fassende Einrichtung am Stadtrand
von Chemnitz seit der Inbetriebnahme der ehemaligen Kaserne im Jahr 1995 privat
betreut wird. Am Gelände befinden sich neben den Unterkünften die zentrale
Ausländerbehörde und eine Außenstelle des Bundesamtes für ausländische
Flüchtlinge. "Die Aufnahme und Unterbringung, die Versorgung, Verpflegung und
soziale Betreuung von bis zu 750 Personen wurde von Beginn an durch die European
Homecare (ehemals KM GmbH) wahrgenommen. In enger Zusammenarbeit mit den
beteiligten Behörden werden alle anfallenden Aufgaben, welche sich in der
täglichen Arbeit mit ausländischen Flüchtlingen ergeben, bewältigt."

Über ihre Beratungstätigkeit, jene Aufgabe, die die Firma aus Sachsen in
Traiskirchen durchführen wird, gibt es folgende Auskunft:
"Wir entwickeln Projekte im sozialen Sektor und unterstützen bei der Planung.
Wir begleiten Sie bei der Umsetzung und beraten bei der Ausführung vor Ort. Wir
analysieren die Kosten und realisieren Ihren optimalen Nutzen."

Mit keinem Wort wird hier klar, dass es sich um die Zukunft von Menschen
handelt, über die beraten werden soll. Dass wirtschaftliche Interessen im
Mittelpunkt stehen, ist klar. Und witschaftliche Interessen sind mit dem
Werbeslogan "Im Mittelpunkt steht immer der Mensch" wohl kaum vereinbar.

Ende 2001 gab es bereits Proteste gegen die Privatisierungsplänen Strassers, die
vorsahen, dass Unterkünfte nicht mehr von öffentlicher Hand angeboten sondern
von privaten Vereinigungen und Organisationen zur Verfügung gestellt werden
sollen. Weitere Informationen dazu unter:
http://no-racism.net/deportatiNO/traikirchen_kundgebung191201.htm

weitere Informationenim Internet:
http://no-racism.net
http://at.indymedia.org
European Homecare: http://www.eu-homecare.com

================================================
09 Erklärung: 275
From: DHKC Informationsbüro <dhkc@chello.at>
================================================

Datum:14. Oktober 2002 Erklärung: 275

Der Angriff in Bali ist ein Massaker!

Der Angriff, der am 12. Oktober im indonesischen Bali verübt wurde, ist ein
Massaker, das mit keiner Argumentation gerechtfertigt werden kann.

Unschuldige Menschen wurden massakriert.

Wer mit religiösen Motiven handelt, sieht den Kampf zwischen dem Imperialismus
und den Völkern dieser Erde als einen "religiösen", der zwischen den Christen
und Moslems stattfindet, an. Jene, sehen alle Christen oder die Völker aller
imperialistischen Länder als "Angriffsziel" an.

Das ist genau wie die Haltung des US-Imperialismus, der alle Völker dieser Erde
als Feind betrachtet, Regierungen die sich nicht beugen, stürzen möchte, ganze
Völker massakriert.

Genau wie die USA, die in Afghanistan und anderen Teilen der Erde nicht
unterscheidet zwischen schuldig-unschuldig, verhalten sich auch diejenigen die
aus religiösen Motiven handeln.

Diese Methode im Kampf der Völker gegen den US-Imperialismus hat und wird keinen
Nutzen haben.

Zu dem Anschlag in Bali hat sich noch niemand bekannt. Dass er von Menschen
ausgeübt wurde, die aus islamischen Motiven handeln, ist eine der Möglichkeiten,
er könnte auch von den USA oder der kollaborierenden Konterguerilla verübt
worden sein. Der Grund warum beides in Betracht gezogen werden muss ist die
Tatsache, dass beide ihre Aktionen auf die selbe Art und mit dem selben
Verständnis ausüben.

Beide sind nicht darauf aus das Volk für sich zu gewinnen, sondern
einzuschüchtern und Angst zu verbreiten.

Die Marxisten-Leninisten und RevolutionärInnen lehnen jegliche Aktionen ab, die
nicht unterscheiden zwischen schuldig und unschuldig und das Volk einschüchtern
möchten. Revolutionäre Aktionen dagegen sind nicht darauf aus, das Volk
einzuschüchtern, sondern es zu gewinnen und zu beschützen.

Die Völker dieser Erde, alle anti-imperialistischen, anti-amerikanischen Kräfte
müssen sich in ihren Politiken, Aktionen, klar unterscheiden von den
Imperialisten und ihren Kontra-Methoden. Es muß klar zu unterscheiden sein, wer
Freund und Feind des Volkes ist.

Jede Aktion, die diese Klarheit benebelt, dient den Imperialisten.

Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi

Revolutionäre Volksbefreiungsfront

================================================
10 Red Newsletter 46
From: ASt-LRCI <ast-lrci@utanet.at>
================================================

Informationsdienst des ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt, 16. Oktober 2002

INHALT

(1) Flugblatt zu den EisenbahnerInnenprotesten
(2) Termine
(3) Adressen

===================

Aktuell: Aktion gegen den drohenden US-Angriff auf den Irak
Wann: Samstag 19. Oktober 14.00-18.00
Wo: Maria-Restituta-Platz, 1200 Wien (U6 Handelskai)

Im Falle eines Angriffs rufen wir zu einer spontanen Demonstration am
selben Tag um 18.00 am Stephansplatz auf.

===================

(Folgendes Flugblatt haben AktivistInnen und UnterstützerInnen des
ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt in den letzten Tagen in Wien an KollegInnen der
ÖBB verteilt. Die Redaktion)

Solidarität mit den Kollegen und Kolleginnen der ÖBB

Wie in fast allen Bereichen des öffentlichen Dienstes werden die
Kollegen und Kolleginnen der ÖBB im Namen des Wettbewerbs und im
vorgegaukelten Interesse der KundInnen mit Verschlechterungen ihrer
Arbeitsbedingungen konfrontiert.

Das Management der ÖBB will bis 2007 7.000 MitarbeiterInnen abbauen, um
"die Qualität für die Kunden zu verbessern". Wie man aber im
internationalen Vergleich sehen kann, wurde durch Personaleinsparung
noch keine Verbesserungen erreicht! Das Zugsunglück von Potters Bay in
England nördlich von London ist nur ein extremes Beispiel für die
falschen Antworten. In England, wo die Privatisierung und
Rationalisierung bei der Eisenbahn am weitesten fortgeschritten ist,
sind Unfälle und Zugausfälle 'üblich'. Welch ein "Dienst am Kunden"! Die
KundInnen in England, vor allem die Unfallopfer und ihre Angehörigen
können wirklich dankbar sein für soviel Service!

Die Arbeitsbelastung der Kollegen und Kolleginnen der ÖBB gehört im
internationalen Vergleich zu den höchsten. Auf Grund der ständigen
Überstundenleistung werden die Familien durch eine hohe Scheidungsrate
zerrüttet. Die Nachtarbeit sorgt auch dafür, dass die Lebenserwartung
unter dem Durchschnitt liegt. Bei jedem Wetter Dienst zu tun, um das
Werkel am Laufen zu halten, führt eben zu einer frühzeitigen Abnützung
und Zerstörung des Körpers. In diesem Zusammenhang will das Management
der ÖBB das Personal reduzieren, um mit überlasteten MitarbeiterInnen
die Qualität zu verbessern - ein Hohn!

Das klare Nein der ÖBB-Belegschaft zu dieser Perspektive gehört
unterstützt und verteidigt!
Dienst nach Vorschrift ist ein guter Weg, um aufzuzeigen, wie viele
Arbeitsplätze eigentlich ungenügend besetzt sind. (Alleine durch die 1
Million geleisteter Überstunden bei den LokführerInnen wurden bisher 680
Arbeitsplätze ersetzt.) Wir sollten aber nicht dabei stehen bleiben, da
die Angriffe, denen sich die KollegInnen der ÖBB ausgesetzt sehen, auch
den Beschäftigten der andern öffentlichen Dienste bevorstehen!

Der Widerstand muss ausgeweitet werden!

Um eine breite Solidarisierung zu erreichen, wird es notwendig sein,
Delegierte zu den anderen Bereichen des öffentlichen Dienstes zu
entsenden, um aktiv für Unterstützung zu werben. Dieser Schritt ist
notwendig, da es in Österreich kaum Erfahrung mit der gegenseitigen
Unterstützung von Arbeitskämpfen gibt. Solidaritätsbekundungen sind gut,
aber um der Gier des Management entgegen zu treten, ist die aktive
Unterstützung aus anderen Sektoren der ArbeiterInnenschaft notwendig.

Dienst nach Vorschrift ist ein wichtiger erster Schritt. Um den
Kahlschlag des Management auf Dauer zu stoppen wird aber eine Ausweitung
der Kampfmaßnahmen notwendig sein. Nur ein gemeinsamer Österreichweiter
Streik mit den andern Betroffenen kann die Kürzungen von Regierung und
Geschäftsführung stoppen!

Im Kampf gegen das Rationalisierungsprogramm der Von der Walde&Co müssen
heute dies Forderungen im Mittelpunkt stehen
*Kein Personalabbau!
*Offenlegung der Arbeitszeitbilanz, wo alle Überstunden der
LokführerInnen, des Wartungsbereiches und aller anderer Teilbereiche
aufgelistet werden.
*Aufstockung der Beschäftigtenzahl, bis keine Überstunden mehr geleistet
werden müssen, um so einen sicheren Betrieb zu gewährleisten!
*Entsendung von Delegierten zu anderen Betrieben, um die Kampfmaßnahmen
auszuweiten und um Unterstützung zu werben!
*Solidarität mit den Beschäftigten des Post-Bus!
*Gemeinsamer Widerstand aller Beschäftigten im öffentlichen Dienst, um
den Kahlschlag zu stoppen!
*Für ein Streikkomitee, um die Kontrolle über die Aktionen und ihre
Umsetzung durch die Beschäftigten auszuüben!
*Arbeitszeitverkürzung jetzt! Für die Aufteilung der Arbeit auf alle Hände!

===================

Abonniert den ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt!
EUR 11,-- (Solidaritätsabo EUR 22,--) für 12 Ausgaben
Bestellungen unter: mailto:arbeiterInnenstandpunkt@gmx.at

===================

TERMINE:
Mittwoch, 30. Oktober 17.30 Uhr: Demonstration gegen den drohenden
US-Angriff auf den Irak; Treffpunkt: Stephansplatz (Route über
Ballhausplatz zur US-Botschaft)

7.-10. November: European Social Forum in Florenz

===================

OFFENE TREFFEN des ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt:

* Freitag 18.10.2002, 19 Uhr: 85 Jahre Oktoberrevolution
jeweils: Gschamster Diener, Stumpergasse 21, 1060 Wien (Nähe Westbahnhof)

===================

KONTAKTADRESSEN:

ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt:
Stiftgasse 8, 1070 Wien
E-Mail: mailto:arbeiterInnenstandpunkt@gmx.at
Tel.: 0699/140 37 707
http://www.arbeiterinnenstandpunkt.org/

Revolution
Stiftgasse 8, 1070 Wien
E-Mail: mailto:revo_austria@hotmail.com
http://www.revolution-austria.at/

Gruppe Arbeitermacht
PF 146, 13091 Berlin
E-Mail: mailto:gam@arcormail.de
http://www.arbeitermacht.de/

Die website der Liga für eine revolutionär-kommunistische
Internationale: http://www.workerspower.com/

Weitere websites der LRKI:
http://www.arbetarmakt.com/ (Schweden)
http://www.pouvoir-ouvrier.org/ (Frankreich)
http://sop-lrki.webpark.cz/ (Tschechische Republik)

================================================
11 Zivilgesellschaft?
From: heinz blaha <heinz-blaha@chello.at>
================================================

Das konkurrierende Marktgeschehen des Wertes frißt alle auf. Geschäftemacher
ebenso wie die Eltern der Kinder. Die Nachkommen werden als bellizistische
Monster herangezogen und das bedeutet Kampf um Gesellschaftlichkeit und
gegen die Naturalisierung dessen.
"Die rechte Antimoderne ist immer irrational und biologistisch; sie
verlängert den liberalen Naturalismus des Sozialen in darwinistische Rassen-
und Volksmythologien. Die emanzipatorische "Antimoderne" dagegen kannnur der
vollständige Bruch mit jeder Art von Naturalisierung des Gesellschaftlichen
sein; sie begreift die GESELLSCHAFT als eine Daseinsebene sui generis (von
eigener Art), die nur in sozialen, psychischen und historischen Kategorien
zu entschlüsseln ist."
(Robert Kurz; Schwarzbuch Kapitalismus; S790)

US-Kids spielen Krieg

Tora Bora Ted" und G.I. Joe" erobern die Kinderzimmer, Amerikas
Eltern rüsten ihre Kids mit Kriegsspielzeug auf. Moderne Ausrüstungen in
Miniaturform - vor allem für den Kampf in der Wüste - seien im anlaufenden
Weihnachtsgeschäft besonders gefragt, sagte der Betreiber der
Spielzeug-Webseite "Protect and Serve Toys" dem "San Francisco Chronicle".
Ein US-Kaufhaus hat für Kinder ab fünf Jahren eine "komplett ausgerüstete
Kampfzone" im Angebot. Eine Spielzeugkette fordert mit seinem "Elite
Operations"-Kommandoposten zum Krieg in der Puppenstube auf. In einem
zweistöckigen Puppenhaus eines Konkurrenten kann Amerikas Nachwuchs den
Häuserkampf üben: Die Hauswand ist zerstört, die Scheiben sind zerbrochen
und die Zimmer mit Einschusslöchern übersät. Eine "World Peace Keepers
Battle Station" - laut Hersteller geeignet für Kinder ab drei Jahren -
enthält Raketen, Granaten, Maschinengewehre und jede Menge Munition.

16.10.02, 14:09 Uhr focus online

[Die Teile dieser Nachricht, die nicht aus Text bestanden, wurden entfernt]

LIST48 - Mailingliste zu Wertkritik,
kooperativen Projekten, freien Kooperationen, Ideen für ein "besseres
Leben" - incl. Linkliste u.v.a.
http://de.groups.yahoo.com/group/list48

================================================
12 News from the at.indymedia.org:8081 newswire
From: -@indymedia.org
================================================

Story from the at.indymedia.org:8081 newswire

Checkout independent media coverage of politics, protest, and life
at: http://at.indymedia.org:8081

This message was sent to you by: m. novak

Comments:

---------------------------------------------------------------

Article by: IMC UK
Thursday 17 Oct 2002

Summary:Indymedia preserves the legitimate right to provide a platform allowing
people to determine the content of their own media. This interactive tool is
both informative and educational and provides a platform for the news and
concerns of people and groups dedicated to environmental, human and social
justice issues. The site offers free and open publishing but editorial
guidelines help to liberate sites from discriminatory posts.

Reference at indymedia website:
http://at.indymedia.org:8081//front.php3?article_id=16515

Article:
Legal and political sanctions are often the first tools used by those seeking to
sabotage people or groups engaged in information projects or campaigning. A
compliant corporate media manipulates to divide and destroy values, and state
governments are engaged in increasingly extreme repression of protestors and
minority groups particularly immigrants. International law and the United
Nations are becoming increasingly powerless in the face of this new neo-liberal
order.

Now groups including the global Indymedia network, which provides an independent
alternative media platform, are also being targeted for political reasons. Here
are just a few examples of the attacks and challenges facing Indymedia (examples
mostly within Europe):

Attacks on Indymedia

IMC Athens ­- Police and media repression

IMC Athens has been subjected to media manipulation. It began with state and
mainstream media using hysteria around a 27-year-old terrorist organisation
known as November17 to attack left wing political groups including branding
Indymedia Athens as a \"terrorist\" web site and calling for it to be shut down.
The Greek National Police Department Head of Cyber Crime also attempted to
infiltrate the editorial group of the Athens IMC. A few days after this,
Indymedia Athens received a posting, which was erased within 20 minutes, as it
was clearly false and claimed responsibility for an attack on a newspaper
office. A public prosecutor has since launched an inquiry for the police to
discover the source of the posting and it is expected they will use this to try
and obtain sever logs.

IMC Basque - Tension rising

The newly formed IMC Basque is fearful after the right-wing Spanish government
banned the Basque party Batasuna claiming it was directly linked to the
terrorist organisation ETA. IMC Basque continues to provide a platform for the
language and views from the Basque country.

IMC Belgium - Police Intimidation

Belgium police summoned a single individual to a police station and claimed that
a file was being kept on Indymedia Belgium since December 14 of last year. The
police also claimed that they might take future legal action over published
photographs of plain-clothes policeman.

IMC Germany -­ Police State and Media Intimidation

IMC Germany has so far politely declined police requests for user log files of
posted articles but is aware of an intimidation process instigated by police and
a growing number of repressive state bodies. It has also been threatened with
several civil lawsuits for libel/defamation by a fascist right-wing journalist
who also participated in a press campaign against Indymedia supported by
Conservative politicians after it won a prestigeous media award. One local
section of the secret police refers to Indymedia as \"extremist\" which in
German legal terms means \"criminal\".

IMC Italy - Post G8 Genoa Protests 2001 ­ repression and police intimidation

During the anti-G8 protests in genoa Italy in July 2001 police conducted a
brutal midnight raid on two buildings being used by Indymedia and the umbrella
organisation the Genoa Social Forum. Indymedia volunteers were among scores of
people hospitalised, beaten as they slept and subsequently subjected to shocking
torture. One Indymedia reporter was almost killed sustaining ribs broken, a
punctured lung and ruptured spleen. Police smashed lawyers computers and
confiscated computer discs and footage from the media centre.
This year on February 20 several social centres with alleged links to Indymedia
Italy were raided by police who seized video footage and documents related to
police brutality. The government has still not produced an independent inquiry
despite condemnations from Amnesty and the UN. Volunteers from Indymedia Europe
believe the Italian governments launch of such a spurious evidence gathering
exercise is a blatant attempt to criminalise all those connected with Genoa,
with a complete disregard to human rights law both nationally and
internationally.

IMC Melbourne -­ Police Minister threatens to Shutdown anti-WTO websites

NSW Police Minister Michael Costa has included Melbourne Indymedia in attempts
to shutdown several anti-WTO (World Trade Organisation) websites because he
claims the sites are designed to aid the violent disruption of the forthcoming
World Trade Organisation meeting in Sydney in November.

IMC Netherlands - Internet Test Case ­(appeal pending)

German railway network Deutsche Bahn brought an action against Indymedia
Netherlands for not removing indirect links to two internet pages. The links led
to several mirror sites of the German periodical Radikal, containing two-pages
which the original host in the Netherlands was forced to take offline because it
gave tips on how to obstruct trains carrying nuclear waste. Other sites such as
the search engine google removed the links (and specific indirect links) when
requested.
The judge\'s decision that all links that lead \"directly or indirectly\" to
these two pages should be removed prove either a complete misuderstanding of the
way the web works or a specific desire to target Indymedia. Indymedia
Netherlands was fined and the links have now been removed, however they plan to
appeal against the decision but they needs funds. Send MONEY to Indymedia NL for
its appeal to preserve the democratic right to publish indirect links and to
document content.

IMC Switzerland -­ Re-launching website after being temporarily Offline

In February 2002 IMC Switzerland faced a lawsuit accused of publishing
anti-semitic race hate material - a cartoon by artist \'Latuff\' which was not
hidden from the newswire. This however was part of an ongoing conflict initiated
in December 2001 by a leftist group who started to attack them with legal
proceedings. The Indymedia group began a process of re-evaluation and took the
decision to temporarily close the website down. The site is still "under
construction" and the problems and conflicts must still be resolved but recently
a judge decided the posting of the Latuff cartoon was not anti-semitic because
it was not against the Jewish race, but against the state of Israel.

Indymedia Europe will continue to watch the actions of the state and remains
concerned about the continued erosion of the human rights of those engaged in
political dissent. Indymedia Europe is committed to showing solidarity when any
local Indymedia faces legal challenges from institutions and the state.

================================================
13 RAWNEWS on the USA - 17/10/02
From: RAWNEWS <rawnews@btopenworld.com>
================================================

RAWNEWS on the USA - 17/10/02

1) Bush Invokes Taft-Hartley Act to Open West Coast Ports. Excerpts - NYT
2) Ports Reopen, But U.S., Asian Economies Not Out of Woods - Stratfor
3) America's For-Profit Secret Army - By LESLIE WAYNE
4) Nobel Peace Prize goes to Jimmy Carter-the "friendly" face of US
imperialism - World Socialist Web Site
5) Singer Belafonte Likens Powell to 'House Slave' - Reuters

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush Invokes Taft-Hartley Act to Open West Coast Ports. Excerpts.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush intervened in the 11-day shutdown of 29
West Coast ports today, successfully seeking a court order today to
halt the employers' lockout of 10,500 longshoremen, because the
operation of the ports is "vital to our economy and to our military."

Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco issued
a temporary injunction tonight that ordered the ports reopened
immediately.

In seeking to suspend the shutdown for 80 days, Bush became the first
president to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act emergency provisions since
President Richard M. Nixon sought to stop a longshoremen's strike in
1971.

Judge Alsup said he would hold a hearing in a week on whether to
grant a full 80-day injunction. If he grants it, the dispute would be
pushed past the Nov. 5 election, past the Christmas buying season
and, perhaps, past the start of military action against Iraq.

Bush said he was worried about the movement of military supplies.

The Pentagon often uses commercial shipping lines to send supplies
and equipment overseas, and those lines would undoubtedly fill that
role from the West Coast if fighting erupted in Iraq or elsewhere in
the Middle East, because the route avoids the Panama Canal.

The president sought the court order after Labor Secretary Elaine L.
Chao was unable to negotiate a 30-day contract extension to reopen
the ports. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union agreed to
a 30-day extension.

But the employers' group acknowledged that it had rejected an
extension, saying it feared that the longshoremen would engage in a
work slowdown.

On Sept. 29, the Pacific Maritime Association, a group of port
operators and shipping lines, shut the ports and locked out the
longshoremen, accusing the workers of engaging in a slowdown.

Union officials said the workers were merely observing safety
precautions, because five longshoremen have died on the job this
year.

The union said the lockout was a management ploy intended to have the
president to intervene.

"We're extremely disappointed," said Bret Caldwell, a spokesman for
the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

"The whole strategy of locking out the workers and urging the
president to invoke Taft-Hartley was clearly an employer strategy to
get around negotiating a contract with these workers. It's a bad
precedent. It gives management the upper hand."

NYT. 9 October 2002.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Ports Reopen, But U.S., Asian Economies Not Out of Woods

Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and a U.S. court ordered an end to
the lockout of 10,500 unionized dockworkers

9 October 2002

Summary

Clogged West Coast ports could take weeks to clear following a court
injunction to end a lockout of unionized dockworkers. With a massive
cargo backlog and no guarantee that ports will operate at full
capacity anytime soon, delays and disruptions will persist along the
entire international commerce supply chain -- from Asian producers to
U.S. retailers and manufacturers -- creating an economic drag on both
sides of the Pacific.

Analysis

U.S. West Coast ports were scheduled to reopen Oct. 9 after President
George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and a U.S. court ordered
an end to the lockout of 10,500 unionized dockworkers. Although they
have failed to come to an agreement over issues of technology and
union jurisdiction that led to the work stoppage, the dockworkers and
shippers were ordered back to work, and on Oct. 16 the courts likely
will impose an 80-day "cooling-off period" -- during which time the
ports will remain open.

However, the problems the stoppage has caused are far from over. When
the ports do reopen, they will face a tremendous backlog of cargo
that could take almost two months to clear. Though Bush may have
averted economic disaster by forcing the ports to reopen, continued
delays and disruptions will create a practical and psychological drag
on both the Asian and U.S. economies.

Inventory backlogs, empty shelves, higher freight costs and other
inefficiencies will cut into corporate profit margins on both sides
of the Pacific, stifling industrial investment and growth over the
next quarter. Moreover, there are signs that a disgruntled union
workforce could slow efforts to get ports back to normal.

The 10-day shutdown already has trimmed billions of dollars from the
global economy. A study conducted by consulting firm Martin
Associates put the cost to the U.S. economy in lost business and
wages at $19.4 billion. South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry
and Energy said the dispute has disrupted between $400 million and
$500 million in exports. Loading at Asian ports has slowed
considerably, and Australia has complained that perishable products
have gone bad aboard ships.

Despite the reopening of the ports, those costs will keep rising as
inefficiencies continue.

Two hundred ships are waiting to be unloaded at the West Coast ports,
Bloomberg reported Oct. 9, with more than 100 either at berth or
anchored outside of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two largest U.S.
ports. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) -- which represents the
shippers in the labor dispute -- estimates it will take eight to nine
weeks to clear this backlog.

The West Coast strike and subsequent backlog destroyed the delicate
rhythm of international commerce. It will take weeks if not months to
regain the equilibrium of ships and cargo containers moving across
the Pacific -- an equilibrium that is vital to commercial efficiency.
At about that time, the 80-day "cool-off" period will end.

The world's largest shipping company, Maersk Sealand, already has
stopped accepting cargo bookings from certain Asian ports because it
lacks sufficient empty cargo containers, the Wall Street Journal
reported Oct. 8. And the chairman of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping
Association said Oct. 7 that several other shipping liners had
stopped accepting West Coast-bound bookings out of Hong Kong, the
world's busiest port. The slowdown in cargo loading will persist
until equilibrium can be restored.

As a result, Asian exporters are struggling to ship product to U.S.
markets, creating inventory backlogs that could prompt slowdowns in
Asian manufacturing in Japan, China, South Korea and across Southeast
Asia.

The concerns certainly are not limited to the export-dependent Asian
economy. U.S. retailers risk falling short of products in their
stores for the Christmas shopping season. Just-in-time manufacturers
dependent on foreign suppliers of parts also are struggling to keep
factories open.

Retail products and manufacturing parts are not just being held up at
Asian ports or on cargo ships off the West Coast. A backlog of U.S.
road and rail transport is also imminent as they turn on the taps at
West Coast ports. Even after a break in the work stoppage, Japanese
companies like Toyota and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. were
chartering planes to airlift parts to their U.S. subsidiaries because
of concerns that delays would persist for weeks after ports reopen,
Bloomberg reported.

And underneath all of these concerns is the prospect that reopened
ports may not operate at full capacity. The International Longshore
and Warehouse Union (ILWU) clearly was not happy with the
government's intervention, which it feels played into the hands of
the shippers.

In response to the court order, a union spokesman confirmed that the
dockworkers would return to work, but also said, "We're gonna move as
fast as we can but we'll do whatever it takes to protect the safety
of our workers." A statement on the union's Web site reiterated the
safety issue, noting, "The ILWU is very concerned that when its
members do get back to work, the backlog of cargo will create an
unsafe speed-up."

Those warnings are reminiscent of earlier statements on safety made
when the negotiations between the dockworkers and shippers -- which
began in May -- hit an impasse in September. The PMA believes the
union's invocation of security rules was actually a thinly veiled
excuse for a deliberate slowdown by workers trying to gain leverage
in negotiations. The shippers claim such a slowdown caused a 54
percent loss in production and prompted them to lock out the workers.

The use of Taft-Hartley did nothing to bridge the substantial gap
that still exists between the ILWU and PMA, and perhaps widened it
further. The unions are at a political disadvantage -- especially
with a war in Iraq looming -- and may seek to keep the pressure on
the shippers, and the federal government, by orchestrating a covert
slowdown. If they do, costs will go even higher. And even if they
don't, the impacts of the West Coast port lockout will continue to
add up.

http://www.stratfor.com/standard/analysis_view.php?ID=206749

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

'Hard to Tell Where the US Military Ends and Mercenaries Begin'

A story of, "sex rings, deals with dictators, misused military training and
tragic accidents."

Also, a story of how US evades responsibility for its despicable brutality. No
wonder it demands immunity for its 'citizens.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
America's For-Profit Secret Army
By LESLIE WAYNE

With the war on terror already a year old and the possibility of war against
Iraq growing by the day, a modern version of an ancient practice (one as
old as warfare itself) is reasserting itself at the Pentagon. Mercenaries,
as they were once known, are thriving - only this time they are called
private military contractors, and some are even subsidiaries of Fortune 500
companies.

The Pentagon cannot go to war without them.

Often run by retired military officers, including three- and four-star
generals, private military contractors are the new business face of war.
Blurring the line between military and civilian, they provide stand-ins for
active soldiers in everything from logistical support to battlefield
training and military advice at home and abroad.

Some are helping to conduct training exercises using live ammunition for
American troops in Kuwait, under the code name Desert Spring. One has just
been hired to guard President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the target of a
recent assassination attempt. Another is helping to write the book on
airport security. Others have employees who don their old uniforms to work
under contract as military recruiters and instructors in R.O.T.C. classes,
selecting and training the next generation of soldiers.

In the darker recesses of the world, private contractors go where the
Pentagon would prefer not to be seen, carrying out military exercises for
the American government, far from Washington's view. In the last few years,
they have sent their employees to Bosnia, Nigeria, Macedonia, Colombia and
other global hot spots.

Motivated as much by profits as politics, these companies < about 35 all
told in the United States < need the government's permission to be in
business. A few are somewhat familiar names, like Kellogg Brown & Root, a
subsidiary of the Halliburton Company that operates for the government in
Cuba and Central Asia. Others have more cryptic names, like DynCorp;
Vinnell, a subsidiary of TRW; SAIC; ICI of Oregon; and Logicon, a unit of
Northrop Grumman. One of the best known, MPRI, boasts of having "more
generals per square foot than in the Pentagon."

During the Persian Gulf war in 1991, one of every 50 people on the
battlefield was an American civilian under contract; by the time of the
peacekeeping effort in Bosnia in 1996, the figure was one in 10. No one
knows for sure how big this secretive industry is, but some military experts
estimate the global market at $100 billion. As for the public companies that
own private military contractors, they say little if anything about them to
shareholders.

"Contractors are indispensible," said John J. Hamre, deputy secretary of
defense in the Clinton administration. "Will there be more in the future?
Yes, and they are not just running the soup kitchens."

That means even more business, and profits, for contractors who perform
tasks as mundane as maintaining barracks for overseas troops, as
sophisticated as operating weapon systems or as secretive as
intelligence-gathering in Africa. Many function near, or even at, the front
lines, causing concern among military strategists about their safety and
commitment if bullets start to fly.

The use of military contractors raises other troubling questions as well. In
peace, they can act as a secret army outside of public view. In war, while
providing functions crucial to the combat effort, they are not soldiers.
Private contractors are not obligated to take orders or to follow military
codes of conduct. Their legal obligation is solely to an employment
contract, not to their country.

Private military contractors are flushing out drug traffickers in Colombia
and turning the rag-tag militias of African nations into fighting machines.
When a United Nations arms embargo restricted the American military in the
Balkans, private military contractors were sent instead to train the local
forces.

At times, the results have been disastrous.

In Bosnia, employees of DynCorp were found to be operating a sex-slave ring
of young women who were held for prostitution after their passports were
confiscated. In Croatia, local forces, trained by MPRI, used what they
learned to conduct one of the worst episodes of "ethnic cleansing," an event
that left more than 100,000 homeless and hundreds dead and resulted in
war-crimes indictments. No employee of either firm has ever been charged in
these incidents.

In Peru last year, a plane carrying an American missionary and her infant
was accidentally shot down when a private military contractor misidentified
it as on a drug smuggling flight.

MPRI, formerly known as Military Professionals Resources Inc., may provide
the best example of how skilled retired soldiers cash in on their military
training. Its roster includes Gen. Carl E. Vuono, the former Army chief of
staff who led the gulf war and the Panama invasion; Gen. Crosbie E. Saint,
the former commander of the United States Army in Europe; and Gen. Ron
Griffith, the former Army vice chief of staff. There are also dozens of
retired top-ranked generals, an admiral and more than 10,000 former military
personnel, including elite special forces, on call and ready for assignment.

"We can have 20 qualified people on the Serbian border within 24 hours,"
said Lt. Gen. Harry E. Soyster, the company's spokesman and a former
director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. "The Army can't do that. But
contractors can."

For that, MPRI is paid well. Its revenue exceeds $100 million a year, mainly
from Pentagon and State Department contracts. Retired military personnel
working for MPRI receive two to three times their Pentagon salaries, in
addition to their retirement benefits and corporate benefits like stock
options and 401(k) plans. MPRI's founders became millionaires in July 2000,
when they and about 35 equity holders sold the company for $40 million in
cash to L-3 Communications, a military contractor traded on the New York
Stock Exchange.

Within the military, the use of contractors is Defense Department policy for
filling the gaps as the number of troops falls. At the time of the gulf war,
there were 780,000 Army troops; today there are 480,000. Over the same
period, overall military forces have fallen by 500,000.

Pentagon officials did not respond to many telephone calls and e-mail
messages requesting interviews, but they have maintained that contractors
are a cost-effective way of extending the military's reach when Congress and
the American public are reluctant to pay for more soldiers.

"The main reason for using a contractor is that it saves you from having to
use troops, so troops can focus on war fighting," said Col. Thomas W.
Sweeney, a professor of strategic logistics at the Army War College in
Carlisle, Pa. "It's cheaper because you only pay for contractors when you
use them."

But one person's cost-saving device can be another's "guns for hire," as
David Hackworth, a former Army colonel and frequent critic of the military,
called them.

"These new mercenaries work for the Defense and State Department and
Congress looks the other way," Colonel Hackworth, a highly decorated Vietnam
veteran, said. "It's a very dangerous situation. It allows us to get into
fights where we would be reluctant to send the Defense Department or the
C.I.A. The American taxpayer is paying for our own mercenary army, which
violates what our founding fathers said."

They are not mercenaries in the classic sense. Most, but not all, private
military contractors are unarmed, even when they oversee others with guns.
They have even formed a trade group, the International Peace Operations
Association, to promote industry standards.

"We don't want to risk getting contracts by being called mercenaries," said
Doug Brooks, president of the association. "But we can do things on short
notice and keep our mouths shut."

That, some critics say, is part of the problem. By using for-profit
soldiers, the government, especially the executive branch, can evade
Congressional limits on troop strength. For instance, in Bosnia, where a cap
of 20,000 troops was imposed by Congress, the addition of 2,000 contractors
helped skirt that restriction.

Contractors also allow the administration to carry out foreign policy goals
in low-level skirmishes around the globe < often fueled by ethnic hatreds
and a surplus of cold war weapons < without having to fear the media
attention that comes if American soldiers are sent home in body bags.

At least five DynCorp employees have been killed in Latin America, with no
public outcry. Denial is easier for the government when those working
overseas do not wear uniforms < they often wear fatigues or military-looking
clothes but not official uniforms.

"If you sent in troops, someone will know; if contractors, they may not,"
said Deborah Avant, an associate professor of political science at George
Washington University and author of many studies on the subject.

Only a few members of Congress have expressed concern about the phenomenon.

"There are inherent difficulties with the increasing use of contactors to
carry out U.S. foreign policy," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of
Vermont and the chairman of the foreign operations subcommittee. "This is
especially true when it involves `private' soldiers who are not as
accountable as U.S. military personnel. Accountability is a serious issue
when it comes to carrying guns or flying helicopters in pursuit of U.S.
foreign policy goals."

In the House, Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, led the
battle against a Bush administration effort to remove the cap that limits
the number of American troops in Colombia to 500 and private contractors to
300.

"American taxpayers already pay $300 billion a year to fund the world's most
powerful military," Ms. Schakowsky said. "Why should they have to pay a
second time in order to privatize our operations? Are we outsourcing in
order to avoid public scrutiny, controversy or embarrassment? Is it to hide
body bags from the media and thus shield them from public opinion?"

SUCH concerns are hardly slowing the pace across the Potomac, at MPRI in
Alexandria, Va. The company may look like hundreds of other white-collar
concerns that fill small office buildings in northern Virginia, but there
are telltale signs to the contrary: the sword that serves as the corporate
logo and conference rooms named the Infantry Room, the Cavalry Room and the
Artillery Room. Its art consists of paintings of celebrated battles, largely
from the Civil War.

It's hard to tell where the United States military ends and MPRI begins. For
the last four years, MPRI has run R.O.T.C. training programs at more than
200 universities, under a contract that has allowed retired military to put
their uniforms back on. It recently lost the contract to a lower bidder, but
MPRI offset the loss with one to provide former soldiers to run recruitment
offices.

The company, which has 900 full-time employees, helps run the United States
Army Force Management School at Fort Belvoir. It also provides instructors
for advanced training classes at Fort Leavenworth, teaches the Civil Air
Patrol and designs courses at Fort Sill, Fort Knox, Fort Lee and other
military centers.

The Pentagon has even hired MPRI to help it write military doctrine <
including the field manual called "Contractors Support on the Battlefield"
that sets rules for how the Army should interact with private contractors,
like itself.

Overseas, MPRI is, if anything, more active. Under a program it calls
"democracy transition," the company has offered countries like Nigeria,
Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Ukraine, Croatia and Macedonia training in
American-style warfare, including war games, military instruction and
weapons training.

In Croatia, MPRI was brought in to provide border monitors in the early
1990's. Then, in 1994, as the United States grew concerned about the poor
quality of the Croatian forces and their ability to maintain regional
stability, it turned to MPRI. A United Nations arms embargo in 1991,
approved by the United States, prohibited the sale of weapons or the
providing of training to any warring party in the Balkans. But the Pentagon
referred MPRI to Croatia's defense minister, who hired the company to train
its forces.

In 1995, MPRI started doing so, teaching the fledgling army military tactics
that MPRI executives had developed while on active duty commanding the gulf
war invasion. Several months later, armed with this new training, the
Croatian army began Operation Storm, one of the bloodiest episodes of
"ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, an event that also reshaped the military
balance in the region.

The operation drove more than 100,000 Serbs from their homes in a four-day
assault. Investigators for the international war crimes tribunal in the
Hague found that the Croatian army carried out summary executions and
indiscriminately shelled civilians. "In a widespread and systematic matter,
Croatian troops committed murder and other inhumane acts," investigators
said in their report. Several Croatian generals in charge of the operation
have been indicted for war crimes and are being sought for trial.

"No MPRI employee played a role in planning, monitoring or assisting in
Operation Storm," said Lieutenant General Soyster, the MPRI spokesman. He
did say that a few Croatian graduates of MPRI's training course participated
in the operation.

Yet what happened in Croatia gave MPRI international brand recognition and
more business in that region. When Bosnian Muslims balked in 1995 at signing
the Dayton peace accords out of fear that their army was ill-equipped to
provide sufficient protection, MPRI was called in.

"The Bosnians said they would not sign unless they had help building their
army," said Peter Singer, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings
Institution who is writing a book on contractors. "And they said they wanted
the same guys who helped the Croatians."

That is who they got. Under a plan worked out by American negotiators, the
Bosnian Muslims hired MPRI using money that was provided by a group of
Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Brunei, the United Arab
Emirates and Malaysia. These nations deposited money in the United States
Treasury, which MPRI drew against.

"It was a brilliant move in that the U.S. government got someone else to pay
for what we wanted from a policy standpoint," Mr. Singer said.

At the moment, MPRI is advertising for special forces for antiterrorist
operations, is bulking up to train American forces in Kuwait and is looking
for people with special skills like basic-training instruction and
counterintelligence. Recently, however, it lost a $4.3 million contract to
provide training to the army in Colombia when officials there complained
about what they called the poor quality of MPRI's services.

In Africa, MPRI has conducted training programs on security issues for about
120 African leaders and more than 5,500 African troops. Most recently, it
went toe to toe with the State Department, and won, gaining permission to do
business in Equatorial Guinea, a country with a deplorable human rights
record where the United States does not have an embassy.

After two years of lobbying at the State Department, and after being turned
down twice on human rights grounds, MPRI was finally given approval last
year to work with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, whom the State Department
describes as holding power through torture, fraud and a 98 percent election
mandate. MPRI advised President Obiang on building a coast guard to protect
the oil-rich waters being explored by Exxon Mobil off the coast.

More recently, when MPRI and President Obiang proposed that MPRI also help
the country build its police and military forces, the State Department
objected and the project is now dormant.

"We thought helping the coast guard would be pretty innocuous in terms of
human rights," Lieutenant General Soyster of MPRI said. But Ms. Avant of
George Washington University disagreed, saying any alliance with United
States military contractors would strengthen President Obiang's power.

MPRI is not the only company to have run into problems overseas. DynCorp, a
privately held company in Reston, Va., with nearly $2 billion in annual
sales, has been tapped to provide protection for Mr. Karzai in Afghanistan.
DynCorp also provides worldwide protective services for State Department
employees.

In late September, DynCorp settled charges < for an undisclosed sum <
brought by a whistle-blower the company had fired after he complained of a
sex ring run by DynCorp employees in Bosnia. In August, a British court,
meanwhile, ruled in favor of another former DynCorp employee in a separate
whistle-blower case. DynCorp is appealing.

The two employees made similar accusations: that while working in Bosnia,
where DynCorp was providing military equipment maintenance services, DynCorp
employees kept underaged women as sex slaves, even videotaping a rape. Among
the charges was that while the DynCorp employees trafficked in women <
including buying one for $1,000 < the company turned a blind eye. Since the
DynCorp employees involved were not soldiers, their actions were not subject
to military discipline. Nor did they face local justice; they were simply
fired and sent home.

In both cases, after complaining, the two employees who blew the whistle
were fired. Ben Johnston, one of them, said last April in Congressional
testimony: "DynCorp employees were living off post and owning these children
and these women and girls as slaves. Well, that makes all Americans look
bad. I believe DynCorp is the worst diplomat our country could ever want
overseas."

A DynCorp spokesman, Chuck Taylor, said the company "felt horrible" and held
its own internal investigation before firing the employees who operated the
ring.

DynCorp also handles aerial anti-narcotics efforts for the United States
government in the skies over Colombia and nearby countries < where several
employees have been killed. Because of Congressional caps on the use of
private military contractors, DynCorp has hired local citizens; two were
recently killed.

Still, in its recruiting material, the company plays up the excitement of
this type of work: "Being the best is never easy and when your office is the
cockpit of a twin-engine plane swooping low over the Colombian jungle, the
challenges can often be enormous."

Incidents like these < sex rings, deals with dictators, misused military
training and tragic accidents < raise questions about the use of
contractors. To whom are they accountable: the United States government or
their contract? When such incidents occur, who bears the responsibility?

Moreover, while the general mantra about military privatization is that it
saves money, there are few studies to prove the case < and in fact, reports
exist to the contrary.

For instance, Kellogg Brown & Root, which was paid $2.2 billion to provide
logistics support to American troops in the Balkans, was the subject of a
General Accounting Office report entitled, "Army Should Do More to Control
Contract Costs in the Balkans." The office found that the Army was not
exercising enough oversight on Kellogg Brown & Root as contract costs rose,
to the benefit of the company. Still, the company continues to pick up new
business.

Questions about security and control are even more basic. In the
battlefield, a commander cannot give orders to a contractor as he can a
soldier. Contractors are not compelled by an oath of office, as soldiers
are, but instead by an employment contract that provides little flexibility.
Nor are contractors subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Contractors cannot arm themselves < they risk losing their status as
noncombatants if they do and, in the extreme, could be declared mercenaries
and subject to execution if captured. Yet in the gulf war, contractors were
in the thick of battle, providing maintenance to tanks and biological and
chemical vehicles as well as flying air support.

Should there be a war in Iraq, the line could be even blurrier.

"There are no rear areas anymore," Colonel Sweeney of the Army War College
said. With chemical and biological weapons, "no place is safe," he said.

"You can't draw a map and say `no contractors forward of this line,' " he
added. "The American concept of combat is to take the battle to the rear
areas and be as disruptive as possible. The other guy is thinking the same
thing."

One tenet of warfare is that soldiers handling support functions can grab a
gun and hit the front lines if needed. While this is often dismissed as a
quaint World War II concept, it happened in Somalia in 1993 when Army
rangers were in trouble and military supply clerks came to their rescue.
When the support staff is filled with contractors, would they do the same?
Or would commanders in the field become responsible for the safety of the
growing number of contractor employees at the expense of advancing the
battle?

The issue is just beginning to generate some attention in military circles.

"We sort of blur the lines," Col. Steven J. Zamparelli of the Air Force said
in an interview. In an article in 1999 for the Air Force Journal of
Logistics, Colonel Zamaparelli said: "The Department of Defense is gambling
future military victory on contractors' performing operational functions in
the battlefield."

Others in the military are more blunt about the effect on soldiers. "Are we
ultimately trading their blood to save a relatively insignificant amount in
the national budget?" said Lt. Col. Lourdes A. Castillo of the Air Force, a
logistics expert, in a 2000 article in Aerospace Power Journal. "If this
grand experiment undertaken by our national leadership fails during wartime,
the results will be unthinkable."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/oct2002/cart-o12_prn.shtml

Nobel Peace Prize goes to Jimmy Carter-the "friendly" face of US imperialism
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org

WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

By Bill Vann
12 October 2002

It was highly appropriate for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award its
annual Peace Prize-named for the inventor of
dynamite-to former US president Jimmy Carter. The consequences of
actions initiated under his administration 25 years ago
are today producing a veritable explosion of American militarism from
Afghanistan to the Persian Gulf.

Having for years shamelessly lobbied for the prize, Carter now joins the
ranks of three prior US statesmen who were honored
by the committee in Norway as men of peace. The first was Theodore
Roosevelt, who explicitly embraced the "white man's
burden" of American imperialism. Announcing that his policy was to
"carry a big stick," he repeatedly used military force to
suppress the democratic aspirations of the peoples of Central America,
the Caribbean and the Philippines.

The second was Woodrow Wilson, who continued these colonial
interventions, led the US into World War I, and dispatched
American troops to Russia to aid the counterrevolutionary White armies
in their attempt to overthrow the workers' state that
emerged from the October, 1917 socialist revolution.

The third was Henry Kissinger, who now is unable to leave the US for
fear of being dragged into courts in Latin America and
Europe as a war criminal. His award was given in recognition of the
Paris peace accord, extorted from the Vietnamese after the
Christmas 1972 terror bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong.

Carter's record during his four years in office places him squarely
within the ranks of such well-known pacifists.

The committee's citation singled out Carter's role in negotiating the
Camp David treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1978.
Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
that year. While the Nobel committee wanted to include Carter at that
time, they were unable to because his nomination had
been submitted too late.

The Camp David accord was not a framework for Middle East peace, but
rather an instrument of rapprochement between a
section of the Arab bourgeoisie on the one hand and Israel and US
imperialism on the other, at the expense of the Palestinian
people. The main "achievement" of this deal was to isolate the Palestine
Liberation Organization and leave the central questions
of the status of the Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and the
rights of Palestinians unresolved to this day.
Twenty-five years later, Israeli military occupation and raids in those
territories continue, while the death toll among both
Palestinians and Israelis has never been higher.

Carter, who served a single four-year term as the 39th president of the
US from 1977 to 1981, has often been cast as a
dedicated advocate of human rights by his supporters and an ineffectual
and bungling appeaser by his Republican opponents. In
reality, the Carter presidency, which coincided with a sharp
intensification of the crisis of US and world capitalism, set the stage
for both the eruption of US militarism and a ruthless
government-corporate offensive against the working class at home.

A former naval officer and nuclear submarine expert, Carter entered
politics as a state senator in Georgia and was later elected
as the state's governor. He was the first Democrat from the deep South
to be elected president since the Civil War, and his
nomination signaled a sharp turn to the right by the national Democratic
Party.

Entering office after defeating Gerald Ford, whose pardon of Nixon had
only deepened the atmosphere of political crisis and
corruption that surrounded the White House, Carter made populist
promises of economic reform while promising a foreign
policy centered on the promotion of "human rights."

Both of these declared shifts in policy proved largely rhetorical. On
the international front, the Carter administration preached
détente with the Soviet Union, while initiating an aggressive
policy-which would be intensified under his successor, Ronald
Reagan-aimed at undermining and rolling back the USSR.

The most infamous operation in this regard was the covert US support for
Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas fighting against the
Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan. Washington poured money and
arms into the country-ultimately spending about $5
billion-to foment a war that devastated the country and claimed 1.5
million lives.

While the Carter and Reagan administrations portrayed their backing for
the Afghan Mujaheddin as a response to the Soviet
Union's dispatch of troops across the border to back the secular
government in Kabul, this has since been exposed as a lie.
Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted in a
1998 interview with a French newspaper that the CIA
began the operation well before the Soviet invasion, with the aim of
drawing the USSR into a "trap."

"It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap ..."
declared Brzezinski. "The day that the Soviets officially
crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the
opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war."

Asked whether he regretted US actions, given their effect on Afghanistan
and the rise of an armed right-wing Islamic
fundamentalist movement, Brzezinski replied: "What is most important to
the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse
of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of
Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" Among
those whom Washington armed and funded was Osama bin Laden.

Thus the Carter-Brzezinski provocation in Afghanistan set in motion a
process of turmoil and destabilization that ultimately led
to the terrorist attacks that took nearly 3,000 American lives on
September 11, 2001.

Elsewhere, Carter's professed dedication to human rights was allowed to
influence foreign policy only to the extent that it did
not conflict with US geopolitical interests and the profits of the major
US corporations and banks. It was notably absent in
relation to Iran, where Carter praised the Shah, a dictator installed by
the CIA in a 1953 coup, for his "progressive
administration," even as Iranian security forces were massacring
thousands of unarmed demonstrators. When US support
proved unable to rescue the Shah from revolution, the Carter
administration unsuccessfully attempted to foment a military coup.

In response to the upheavals in the region, Carter announced in his
January 1980 State of the Union Address a new US policy
that came to be known as the Carter Doctrine. He warned: "An attempt by
an outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf
region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the
United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled
by any means necessary, including military force." He went on to explain
that this policy was necessitated by the "overwhelming
dependence of Western nations on vital oil supplies from the Middle
East."

It is essentially a more aggressive version of this same doctrine-the US
right to use military force to control Persian Gulf
oil-that is now being implemented by the Bush administration in its
preparations for an unprovoked war to conquer and
occupy Iraq.

Carter first established the military means for carrying out this kind
of aggression, founding the Rapid Deployment Joint Task
Force (RDJTF) and reorganizing the US military for intervention in the
Persian Gulf. By the time Reagan took office in 1981,
this intervention force had already grown to include more than 200,000
troops.

The human rights approach found expression only in what were peripheral
areas for US imperialist interests. Security assistance
was cut off to the dictatorships in Ethiopia, Chile and Uruguay. In the
latter two countries, ties with the US military and
economic aid remained untouched. Moreover, the secretary of state
announced that the military regime in South Korea and the
Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines would be exempted entirely from
the policy on grounds of "national security."

In Central America, the Carter administration came up with a unique
method for limiting direct security assistance to right-wing
dictatorships, while assuring that they remained armed to the teeth for
the purpose of suppressing popular revolt. Israel was
recruited to fill the gap, supplying Galil assault rifles and Uzi
submachine guns to substitute for American-made M16s. Israeli
military advisers were likewise dispatched to the region, while US aid
to Israel rose dramatically.

The Carter administration attempted unsuccessfully to bring Nicaragua's
infamous National Guard to power following the
overthrow of the dictator Somoza. Having failed in this attempt, it
began the process of regrouping ex-guardsmen into a military
force that, under Reagan, would become known as the "contras" and would
wage a war of terror, claiming tens of thousands of
lives.

The Carter administration steadily increased aid to the regime in El
Salvador, where in 1980-Carter's last year in the White
House-the death toll reached an estimated 13,000, the vast majority
peasants massacred by the army and police.

At home, Carter responded to a growing economic crisis with policies
aimed at slashing social services and attacking the power
of the working class. The blueprint for the Reagan administration's
smashing of the air traffic controllers' union, PATCO, and
replacing striking controllers with scabs was drawn up by the Carter
administration. This action signaled a nationwide onslaught
against the working class by the employers and the government.

Prior to Bush's invocation of the Taft-Hartley law against the West
Coast longshoremen earlier this week, Carter was the last
president to use this strike-breaking legislation. He declared an
emergency under Taft-Hartley in an unsuccessful attempt to
force coal miners back to work and break their 1977-78 national strike.

The widening of social inequality in the US and internationally
accelerated under the Carter administration, which tapped Chase
Manhattan banker Paul Volcker to serve as chairman of the US Federal
Reserve Board in 1979. Volcker announced that "a
decline in real income" was necessary to fight inflation, and
implemented a high interest rate policy that saw the prime rate hit 20
percent. The result was a deep recession in which less profitable
sections of industry failed and layoffs mounted. These policies
set into motion what became a vast transfer of wealth from the working
class to the financial aristocracy.

The economic crisis and the attacks on working people eroded the
Democrats' electoral support, allowing Ronald Reagan to
defeat Carter and drive both foreign and domestic policy further along
the rightward trajectory that has continued until this day.

Carter meanwhile, established his Atlanta-based Carter Center, which
serves as a non-governmental instrument of US foreign
policy, carrying out operations in areas such as the former Yugoslavia,
Cuba, North Korea, Central America and the Horn of
Africa.

A regular mission of the former president has been election monitoring
in the former colonial countries, to assure that they meet
the "democratic" standards set by Washington. Given the suppression of
the vote and the outright theft of the presidency by the
Republican Party in the 2000 US election, Washington's seal of approval
in such questions has become more than a little
tarnished.

The Nobel prize is a European institution, and the selection of Carter
was bound up with the increasingly poisoned state of
political relations between Europe and America. The judges made it clear
that their choice was intended as a rebuke to the
present occupant of the White House. As improbable as it may sound,
George W. Bush was also a candidate for the award.

This year's prize "can and must be interpreted as a criticism of the
position of the administration currently sitting in the US
towards Iraq," Nobel committee chairman Gunnar Berge told reporters. "In
a situation currently marked by threats of the use
of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far
as possible be resolved through mediation and
international cooperation based on international law, respect for human
rights and economic development," the committee said
in its politically pointed citation of the former American president.

In reality, the foundations for the criminal policies now being carried
out by the Republican administration of Bush were laid by
the Democratic President Jimmy Carter a quarter of a century ago.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Singer Belafonte Likens Powell to 'House Slave'
Wed Oct 9, 5:06 PM ET
By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Harry Belafonte (news) lashed
out at Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) in a
racially charged radio interview, likening the former general to a
plantation slave who had sold out his principles "to come into the
house of the master."

Belafonte, 75, who has long been outspoken on civil rights and
other political issues, leveled his criticism at Powell during an
appearance on Tuesday on a morning talk show airing on AM
station KFMB in San Diego.

A partial transcript of his remarks, and a link to a recording of the
interview, were posted Wednesday on the radio station's Web site
(http://www.760kfmb.com).

The entertainer, who like Powell is a black man of Jamaican
descent, criticized the secretary when asked by radio host Ted
Leitner whether he thought Powell had taken a low profile as the
Bush administration pressed its case against Iraqi ruler Saddam
Hussein (news - web sites). Powell initially had been seen as a
leading proponent in the administration for seeking U.N. support for
any military force against Iraq as opposed to unilateral action by
the United States.

"There's an old saying, in the days of slavery, there were those
slaves who lived on the plantation and were those slaves that lived
in the house," Belafonte said. "You got the privilege of living in the
house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master
intended to have you serve him.

"Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master,"
the performer continued. "When Colin Powell dares to suggest
something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be
turned back out to pasture."

Belafonte went on to suggest that Powell's presence in the Bush
cabinet amounted to racial tokenism, saying, "What Colin Powell
serves is to give the illusion that the Bush cabinet is a diverse
cabinet, made up of people of color ... when in fact none of that is
what is true."

Belafonte, who popularized calypso music with such 1950s hits as
"Banana Boat (Day-O)" and "Jamaica Farewell," also repeated his
criticism of Powell and the Bush administration for not attending an
international conference on racism in South Africa.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
told reporters that Powell "smiled" when he heard of Belafonte's
remarks.

"He also said that both the IRS and his accountants thought he
was better off as a field hand," Boucher said, adding that Powell
had no other particular comment. The State Department has not
tried to contact Belafonte, he said.

Leitner, a local sportscaster who hosts his morning talk show on
KFMB each weekday, told Reuters that Belafonte was in San
Diego for a performance there on Saturday.

Leitner said he was struck by the bluntness of Belafonte's remarks.

"People have become so politically correct," Leitner said. "Even on
talk radio nowadays, for someone to come out, an African
American, to go after Colin Powell like that ... was so unusual in
this day and age that it really stood out."

================================================
14 Stop Dumping Now
From: Jo Fox - Oxfam Trade Campaign <oxfam.en-e2-800939@prq0.com>
================================================

Dear supporter,

European Union agricultural subsidies are threatening the livelihoods of
millions of farmers in the developing world. Subsidies encourage overproduction
in Europe, and the huge surpluses they create are then dumped in developing
countries - undercutting and ruining farmers in many of the world's poorest
countries.

Find out how dumping affects Jamaican dairy farmers who throw away milk that
they are unable to sell - thanks to subsidised imports from Europe by clicking
here:
maketradefair.com/go/dumping

As part of Oxfam's ongoing campaign to 'Make Trade Fair' we have to take every
opportunity we can in order to influence decision-makers to change the unfair
trade rules. We're asking you to take action because the EU is discussing its
agricultural policy now.

Add your voice to ours by emailing Anders Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister,
currently holding the EU presidency, today.

Write in your own words, urging him to make sure that November's EU Agriculture
Council meeting takes action to:
a.. agree on a clear timetable for getting rid of agricultural export
subsidies
b.. stop dumping subsidised milk and other products on developing countries
Take action now - help millions of poor farmers. maketradefair.com/go/dumping

Thank you very much.

Jo Fox
Trade Campaign Manager

P.S. Please forward this on to any of your friends, family, and colleagues who
might be interested in helping or might like to join the Big Noise to Make Trade
Fair.

If you've had this passed to you by a friend and want to receive email updates
yourself, visit: maketradefair.com/go/join/

If you have any questions e-mail oxfam@oxfam.org.uk In the subject line, please
write "Make Trade Fair" and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><
WAHLKAMPF
><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

================================================
15 Traiskirchen - Demo - Gewalt von rechts
From: Franz Breier jun. <slp@slp.at>
================================================

Rechter Übergriff nach antirassistischer Demo in Traiskirchen

Entgegen der Propaganda der FPÖ verlief die Demo "Bleiberecht für Alle!
Gemeinsam gegen Rassismus und Sozialabbau!" von seiten der rund 80
DemonstrantInnen ruhig. Gewalt gab es durch einige aufgehetzte Jugendliche,
die nach der Demo zwei Aktivisten der SLP attackierten und dabei ein
SLP-Mitglied verletzten. Die FPÖ ist für dieses Klima der Gewalt politisch
verantwortlich!

Auf der Demo wurden Slogans wie "Arbeitsplätze statt Ausländer-Hetze"
gerufen. Eine Reihe von Diskussionen und das Verteilen von Flugblättern
wurden von der Bevölkerung durchaus interessiert und positiv aufgenommen.
Die SLP fordert neben dem Bleiberecht das Recht auf einen Arbeitsplatz für
alle Menschen in Österreich. Betreuungsstellen müssen österreichweit
ausgebaut und verbessert werden; auch um Traiskirchen zu entlasten.

SLP-Spitzenkandidatin und Bundessprecherin Sonja Grusch kündigt weitere
Aktionen an: "Die SLP wird im Wahlkampf weiterhin auf jede Provokation der
FPÖ entsprechend antworten. Das ist unser Wahlversprechen!"

SLP - Liste 6 in Wien am 24.11.2002

Informationen unter (01) 524 63 10 oder 0699 120 44 002 (Bundessekretär
Franz Breier jun.)

================================================
16 NRW/Steiermark/KPÖ/Wahlauftakt
KPÖ Steiermark [mailto:kpoe_stmk@hotmail.com]
================================================

KPÖ Steiermark
Lagergasse 98a
8020 Graz

Donnerstag, 17. Oktober 2002
Presseinformation der KPÖ Steiermark
KPÖ-Steiermark : Wahlziel 1 Prozent
Eigenständiger Wahlkampf

Die KPÖ kandidiert bei der Nationalratswahl in der Steiermark als Liste 5.
Wahlziel ist ein Achtungserfolg in unserem Bundesland - ein ähnliches
Abschneiden wie bei der Landtagswahl 2000, als die KPÖ über 1 Prozent der
Stimmen erreichte. Diese Aussagen trafen SpitzenkanidatInnen der
KPÖ-Steiermark auf einer Pressekonferenz am Donnerstag.
Spitzenkandidat auf der Landesliste ist der Pucharbeiter Peter Scherz. Peter
Scherz: "Es geht darum zu zeigen, dass Wahlen nicht nur für Millionäre und
Privilegienritter da sind. Auch Arbeiter haben ein Recht, gehört zu werden."
Der Werkzeugmacher Peter Scherz ist Arbeiterbetriebsrat im
Magna-Steyr-Fahrzeugtechnik Graz-Thondorf (Puchwerk) und AK-Rat.
An zweiter Stelle der 18 Plätze umfassenden Landesliste kandidiert die
Grazer Bezirksrätin Mag. Ulrike Taberhofer, die sich als Sprecherin der
Fraueninteressen versteht. Zwei ihrer Forderungen: Ein Sozialpass für
Menschen mit geringem Einkommen und ein Hilfsfonds für Frauen in sozialen
Notlagen.
Zentrale Slogans des eigenständigen Wahlkampfes in der Steiermark sind: "Ein
Arbeiter steht zur Wahl!" und "Die EU kommt uns zu teuer!"
Signal für Universitäten
Die KPÖ-Steiermark freut sich darüber, dass der Wiener Assistenzprofessor DI
Dr. Hans Mikosch (TU-Wien) an dritter Stelle der Grazer Wahlkreisliste
kandidiert. Hans Mikosch ist Interessensvertreter des akademischen
Mittelbaus und will in diesem Wahlkampf das Eintreten für die Rücknahme des
Universitätsgesetzes in den Mittelpunkt seiner Argumentation stellen. Hans
Mikosch: "So wichtig es auch ist, Studiengebühren, Ambulanzgebühren und
andere soziale Untaten der blau-schwarzen Regierung zurückzunehmen, es
erfordert mehr: Das Unterwerfen öffentlicher Güter unter die
Finanzspekulation des 'Marktes' ist zu beenden und rückgängig zu machen, und
zwar so rasch als möglich, und nicht erst, nachdem absehbare Katastrophen
eingetreten sind".
Auch auf der Bundesliste der KPÖ sind VertreterInnen der KPÖ-Steiermark zu
finden. An 6. Stelle kandidiert die Knittelfelder Gemeinderätin Renate
Pacher, an 9. Stelle Peter Scherz, am 20. Platz Ulrike Taberhofer.

KPÖ-Steiermark
Lagergasse 98 a
8020 Graz
Tel.: 0316 71 24 36
Fax 0316 71 62 91
email: kp.stmk@kpoe-graz.at; kpoe_stmk@hotmail.com