Wednesday 28 January 2009

Mike's Letter from America #12

Inauguration Day

I wasn’t with the crowds who thronged the National Mall in Washington for Obama’s inauguration, but I managed to capture some of the feeling of being squeezed tightly together while trying to catch a glimpse of a distant TV screen. I was teaching at the time, but decided to end my class early, and my students and I gathered around a public TV screen in a crowded corridor to catch the ‘historic occasion’ (copyright: all of the media).

As with all things Obama-related, it is hard to cut through the media hype to understand the true significance of the occasion. The inauguration of the USA’s first African-American president, coming immediately after Martin Luther King Day, was certainly an inspiring reminder of just how far the country has come since the days of segregation and ‘Jim Crow’. But listening to the self-congratulation in the media, you would think that electing a Black president had ended racism and exonerated the USA for over 200 years of systematic oppression of African-Americans.

Despite the hype, there were many genuinely moving moments, mostly related to the presence in the vast crowds in Washington of veteran civil rights activists. Five of the ‘Little Rock 9’ (the black students who integrated an all-white high school in Arkansas 50 years ago, in the face of angry racist mobs) were there, as was a 105-year-old African-American woman who braved the sub-zero temperatures against all the well-meaning advice of her doctors and carers. The record attendance of over 2 million people at the ceremony shows that there is a genuine public mood behind the rhetoric of change.

There are some hopeful signs that Obama does mean what he says about ‘change’, such as his pledge to close Guantanamo, and to roll back Bush’s attacks on abortion rights, as well as a refreshing willingness to proclaim the need for state intervention in the economy. Yet there is a gulf between the expectations placed on Obama and the reality of what his administration is likely to achieve. Partly, this is because of the mess he has been left by Bush – a looming depression and two wars. Partly, too, it is inevitable that any reformist leader will fail to match the hopes of the left – after all, the man is not, nor has he ever been, a socialist (despite what the right wing media pundits claim).  But many of Obama’s picks for his team suggest the he is intentionally moving to the right. They include:

·       Homophobic preacher Rick Warren, chosen to give the benediction at the Inauguration.

·       White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel, son of a member of the right-wing Zionist terrorist organisation Irgun, and, like many Democratic politicians, an uncritical supporter of Israel. Emanuel even volunteered to work with the Israeli military during the 1991 Gulf War.

·       Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – Obama’s foreign policy will be in the hands of somebody who has threatened to ‘obliterate’ Iran

·       Susan Rice, Ambassador to the UN, and the person you are most likely to hear from if Obama plans a ‘humanitarian’ invasion to end genocide in Darfur.  Unfortunately for her humanitarian credentials, during her stint as secretary for African affairs in Bill Clinton’s state department she gave the green light to the Rwandan invasion of the Congo, sparking a civil war that has left 4 million dead.

·       Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary. Voted most likely to get us out of the recession, perhaps because he helped get us into it, during his time with the Federal Reserve (the US equivalent of the Bank of England), where he was a major instigator of the bail-out of Wall Street.

·       Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who knows all about military affairs from his time as a lobbyist for arms manufacturer Raytheon.

Finally, Obama himself has been sounding very hawkish recently. He advocates withdrawal from Iraq, but largely in order to send more troops to Afghanistan. His inauguration speech sounded at times like a challenge to a fight, albeit in more poetic terms then Bush would have managed. Take the phrases “our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred”, or “our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.” These could have come from the Bush ‘War on Terror’ lexicon.

Obama today, like Blair in 1997, is actually to the right of the popular mood that swept him to power. Our best hope is that this mood pushes the new president in directions that he doesn’t want to go. There is, for example, growing pressure on Obama to put members of the Bush administration on trial for their use of torture.  http://washingtonindependent.com/26162/obama-may-be-required-to-prosecute-bush-officials-for-war-crimes When the cable news station MSBNC presented its pre-inauguration coverage from what appeared to be a fish-tank on the National Mall, the crowds outside could be seen holding posters with slogans such as ‘try Bush for war crimes’.

One incident from Tuesday seems to sum up the tensions and contradictions within Obama’s base. In the run-up to the inauguration, tickets for the event were as sought-after as golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, with many changing hands for hundreds of dollars on ebay. Yet, as our local university newspaper reported, many holders of the coveted tickets never made it to their seats, as “a large number of people chanting ‘yes we can’ broke through a police barricade at the main entrance on Independence Avenue.”

Will Obama stand with the people with the golden tickets, or will he be made to listen to the millions standing outside in the cold? That is the question that will define American politics for the next four years.

Two Sides, One Story - Cageprisoners National Tour

From Cageprisoners: 

TWO SIDES - ONE STORY: 
GUANTANAMO FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE WIRE 

A national tour to mark seven years of unlawful detention, abuse and torture 

January 11th 2009 - 4th February 2009 

SAMI AL HAJ (Ex Guantanamo Detainee and Aljazeera Journalist) 

CHRISTOPHER ARENDT (Ex-Guantanamo Guard) 

MOAZZAM BEGG (Ex-Guantanamo Detainee, Spokesman for Cageprisoners)
 


Guantanamo Bay stands as one of the most potent symbols of unlawful detention in the world today. The detention of suspected terrorists as the prison camps has evoked emotion from those seeking its closure and continuance. 

Cageprisoners presents Two Sides – One Story , a tour of the UK that brings those on opposite sides of wire at Guantanamo together for the first time. 

Chris Arendt, a former guard at the base has agreed to speak about his experiences in detaining suspected terrorists and bring new insights into the way the US administration carried out policies against them. 

Also for the first time the detained Al Jazeera journalist Sami El Haj will be speaking withMoazzam Begg as they both reflect on life at the prison on the opposite to Chris. 

This unique tour is a historic moment in the continued War on Terror and will be launched on 11th January 2009, exactly seven years after the first transfers to Guantanamo Bay. 

Visit 
Guantanamo Voices, http://www.guantanamovoices.org/ the new blog by Sarah Mirk, a reporter based in Portland, Oregon. Sarah is travelling around the UK with Cageprisoners as part of our UK tour. 

02/02 -  Oxford Meeting
Supported by the Oxford Union and the Oxford University Islamic Society 
8pm 
The Oxford Union 
Frewin Court 
Oxford 
OX1 3JB 

For further information: 
07973-264-197 
contact@cageprisoners.com 
www.cageprisoners.com/tour 

Friday 23 January 2009

Students occupy Clarendon building over Gaza

Visit the occupation blog:

http://occupiedoxford.wordpress.com/





Saturday 17 January 2009

Hundreds march for Gaza in Oxford Saturday 17th Jan 2009





Branch meeting

OLA branch meeting this Weds 20th, 7.30pm Oxford Town Hall

Gaza protest

Info from Oxford PSC:


The death toll in Gaza currently stands at 1,033 - A third are children and this number continues to rise.

 Come and show this Saturday that you condemn the horror in Gaza and call on our government to put pressure on Israel and stop the attack!
Bring placards, flags, banners etc. - but most importantly yourself!

Saturday 17th January 2009
Assemble 
1:00pm Broad Street, Oxford
There will be a short march to Bonn Square where there will be a rally with speakers

 
We are calling for:

- An end to Israel's military assault on Gaza
- An immediate end to the blockade and siege of Gaza
- An end to Israel's violations of international law
- An end to Israeli occupation

End The Massacres! Israel out of Gaza!

Speakers include Karma Nabulsi, Avi Shlaim, Councillor John Tanner, members of the Palestinian Community and organisations in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Tuesday 6 January 2009

Protest against the bombing

Left Alternative activists joined thousands of protesters from across the country in London last weekend to demand that Israel stops bombing Gaza.

Further protests are planned for this Thursday (Oxford) and Saturday (London)

Oxford Stop the War Coalition has called a vigil to protest against Israel's ongoing attack on Gaza. It will be Thursday evening (Jan 8) from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the Carfax end of Cornmarket Street. 

Please make every effort to join us in condemning Israel's barbaric actions and calling on the British government to exert all possible pressures on Israel to stop attacking Gaza. Bring banners, signs, candles, and friends and family.

The Stop the War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign have called another national demonstration in London for this Saturday, January 10th. We will march to the Israeli Embassy, High Street, Kensington, to demand a stop to the carnage being inflicted in Gaza by Israel. For more information about the national demonstration and the daily protests outside the Israeli Embassy go to www.stopwar.org.uk or 
http://www.palestinecampaign.org.