Thousands March In London For Economic Fairness; How Will Obama Respond?

March 29th, 2009 - by: danny

Lights Out. Brains On?

Las Vegas Earth Hour – Lights on the Las Vegas Strip are viewed looking northbound from the Mandalay Bay Resort just before “Earth Hour” in Las Vegas, then after many of the lights went off as the event began at 8:30 Saturday night. (Las Vegas Sun, Steve Marcus)

AP: From an Antarctic research base and the Great Pyramids of Egypt, from the Colosseum in Rome to the Empire State building in New York, illuminated patches of the globe went dark Saturday night to highlight the threat of climate change.

Time zone by time zone, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries dimmed nonessential lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. READ FULL STORY HERE Click here for more photos and here for the Earth Hour web site, videos, and more photos.

OBAMA GOES OVERSEAS THIS WEEK
PROTESTS IN LONDON DEMAND ECO JUSTICE
SPAIN THREATENS US TORTURE PROSECUTIONS

There were no fewer than three largish portrait- sized color pictures of a pensive and smiling Joseph R. Biden Jr. above the fold in the center of the Sunday Times saluting the central role the Vice President is playing in Obamaland. One was reminded by his slip of the tongue oh so many months back during the campaign that this Administration wouldn’t last long before it was tested by a foreign policy crisis. At the time, the media speculated, focusing its lack of attention span on a threat from Iran, or from that boogieman for all seasons, Usama bin Laden.

Flash forward to Sunday, the beginning of the third month of our new dispensation, and the crisis is right on time. No, its not Tehran, not even Mexico. It’s the whole rest of the world that the Times characterizes as “DEFIANT OVER ECONOMY” as the President leaves on his first overseas trip.

The financial crisis that turned into a economic crisis and then a social crisis is now a political crisis, with many in the world blaming it on the free market foolishness of the Bush and, before it, the Clinton Administrations. The President of Brazil Lula says he blames “white people with blue eyes.” The right is having fun blasting this suggestion with the NY Post calling Lula “lulu” and a Brazil Nut.

Right wing outlets have no problem totally blaming Aids on African sexual irresponsibility, or economic distress worldwide on corruption, but the thought that a rich elite–not all white or with blue eyes, of course, is to blame is too much for them. Who was it that first wrote about the White Man’s Burden?

According to Maureen Dowd, who also mocked Lula in The New York Times, he put his comments this way:

“This crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing,” charged the brown-eyed, bearded socialist president. ….”I do not know any black or indigenous bankers,” said Lula.

Since my own ojos are greenish gray, I can’t accept personal responsibility but his blunt and even racialist comment has millions resonating with its spirit. In Timesspeak, this translates into “Challenges to American power on many fronts.”

The leaders of the G20 nations Meet Tuesday in London, but, ONLY FOR ONE DAY. Does that make sense? Are they going to solve this crisis in one meeting? So strange: all this hype about the need for an international approach and none of the “leaders” apparently have time for an extended and substantiative debate and discussion.

Oh yes. Europe will be marching again as thousands did in London on Saturday. There was a little reported summit in Chile over the weekend attended by none other than Mr. Biden of whom the chefs in the White House kitchen say, “Biden eats anything. He’s a pretty easy guy that way.”

The Chinese press agency did not ignore it:

VINA DEL MAR, Chile, March 28 (Xinhua) — Leaders from Latin America, Europe and the United States on Saturday appealed for preventing the economic recession from becoming a social crisis and urged a bigger role of governments in addressing the financial crisis.

The plea was made on the one-day Progressive Governance Summit held in the Chilean resort city of Vina del Mar.

“It can not be avoided the economic recession to be transformed into a social recession if it is not possible to achieve policies to restart the growth, to reinforce the social protection and to stimulate the creation of employments,” the leaders said in their final declaration.

In the declaration signed on Saturday, the leaders also pleaded to “reform the domestic regulation of the financial institutions and to have international coordination in those regulations.”

This last point, “international coordination in those regulations” is far from certain.” Obama’s emergence on the world stage is unlikely to be the festive affair it was before his election. The honeymoon is over and serious questions are being raised worldwide about his foreign policy including the tilt towards Israel, escalation in Afghanistan, delay in withdrawing troops from Iraq, delay in shutting down Guantanamo, and other “Bush-lite” proclivities and policies.

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FREEDOM TO PROTEST AT RISK

A peace activist sent me this concern:

On March 26 members of a German left-wing political party protested in their parliament about NATO’s anti-democratic clamp-down of the public in Strausbourg, France where the NATO 6oth Anniversary celebrations will be held in early April.

Police in Strasbourg have already forced local people to take down rainbow peace flags emblazoned with the slogan “No to NATO” which they had hung from their balconies. NATO’s insistence that protests be banned during the “celebration” have led police to deny all permits for public demonstrations in the city. Residents are even being told they must stay off the streets while NATO is in the city.

Major protests are planned in Strausbourg by European activists on April 3-5. Last week over 400 peace activists were arrested in Brussels, Belgium when they tried to non-violently occupy and shut down NATO headquarters which are based there.

Sadly few activists in the US are even aware of the growing anti-NATO movement sweeping Europe. Since the US drew NATO into Afghanistan, and is now using the “alliance” to surround Russia, activists in Europe understand that the once “defensive” NATO is now an integral component of aggressive US empire building plans.

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CONFRONTATION LOOMING IN SPAIN

A new confrontation of a different kind is emerging in Spain where the Court is threatening to go after Americans accused of complicity in torture. David Swanson writes:

Spain has begun a criminal investigation into six of Bush and Cheney’s torture lawyers, and our own Justice Department has got some ‘splaining to do.

“You see, it’s actually required by our laws and by international law and treaties that we prosecute our own torturers. It’s not optional. It doesn’t matter whether our television stations can handle more than one news story at a time, or whether our president wants to avoid anything that might limit presidential power, or whether Eric Holder thinks this is a good year for torture prosecutions. It’s not optional. Spain is enforcing the law because we are illegally failing to. Spain is child services come to tell us we’re not running our household legally, and Spain is obviously right. Of course Americans want prosecutions, but we have failed to compel our government to do what we want. In the absence of anyone to thank in Washington, we should thank Spain.

We should send thank you notes to their courts and newspapers. Those of us who can vacation abroad should do so in Spain. We should buy products from Spain, eat Spanish food, and learn to speak Spanish, because our basic values are not spoken in English anymore. Well, American English anyway (the language of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and “looking forward, rather than backward”). Britain, too, has begun a criminal investigation.

Related: The Washington Post reported Sunday that the “harsh interrogation techniques” (ie. torture) produced no useful information.

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The Obama Administration is seeking to signal some new initiatives.

The U.S. State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement has donated $1.5 million to The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), which works to clear southern Lebanon of mines and unexploded cluster bombs left over from the war between Hizbullah and Israel in July 2006, the Daily Star Lebanon reported.(DS: Yet, of course, it was the US that supplied the cluster weapons to Israel in the first place.)

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

LONDON MARCHES

BBC: Tens of thousands of people marched through London Saturday demanding action on poverty, climate change and jobs, ahead of next week’s G20 summit.

The Put People First alliance of 150 charities and unions walked from Embankment to Hyde Park for a rally. Speakers called on G20 leaders to pursue a new kind of global justice. Police estimate 35,000 marchers took part in the event. Its organizers say people wanted the chance to air their views peacefully. Protesters described a “carnival-like atmosphere” with brass bands, piercing whistles and stereos blasting music as the slow-paced procession weaved through the streets.

Unite union, general secretary Derek Simpson said: “I think it’s an important message but whether it will get through to the people meeting in London I don’t know. Anyone who sees the numbers on this march should realize how important it is.”

PUT PEOPLE FIRST: DEMANDS

• Democratic governance of the global economy
• Decent jobs and public services for all
• An end to global poverty and inequality
• Establishment of a green economy

Recession rallies G20 protesters

TUC: “We need a fresh start from Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and the other world leaders coming to London for the G20 summit.

“They need to admit the mistakes of the past, but more importantly build a different future that fights recession by making the world a fairer and a greener place.”

Save the Children: “The G20 summit must do more than bail out the banking system; it needs to be as concerned with protecting the poorest from the harmful consequences of an economic and financial crisis that was not of their making.

“First, a global economic stimulus package must offer something very tangible to the world’s poorest countries, especially additional resources to manage the effects of economic crisis. Second, proposed reforms to global economic governance must include a bigger voice for the world’s poorest countries. Third, there needs to be new focus on helping the very poorest communities.”

Stop Climate Chaos Coalition: “World leaders must seize the opportunity to tackle climate change and the economic downturn together. Only by investing in green jobs and thriving low carbon economies will a sustainable way of life be secured for generations to come.”

PLAN: “While people are feeling the pinch here in the UK, it’s the poorest of the poor in the developing world who face the worst hardships, and even death. Children and young people make up half the population in the developing world and yet their voices are rarely heard. We believe it is vital that the world leaders at this year’s G20 conference in London listen to what young people have to say.”

Salvation Army: “The church service and the march through London are a perfect opportunity to ask members of the G20 to consider the wellbeing of the world’s most vulnerable people.

WWF: “We believe that the response to the economic crisis from the G20 leaders needs to take us forward, to a new kind of economic system, and that a return to ‘business as usual’ is simply not an option. Measures to reform the global economy to achieve economic security will only succeed We call for the G20 ministers to own up to their mistakes and admit that their global dominance – the dominance of finance capitalism – is the problem, not the solution to the current economic, ecological and political meltdown.

G20 MELTDOWN: DEMANDS

• Oust bankers from power
• Get rid of corrupt politicians
• Guarantee of job, home, future for everyone
• Become patriots of the planet, not countries
• Stop climate chaos
• Make capitalism history

“While two million are now out of work in Britain alone, the G20 ministers still resist nationalising the banks, instead continuing to pour trillions into the black hole of bankers’ bad gambling debts. Those ministers should now make way for government by the people, for the people, of the people, across the planet. Let’s be patriots for the only country we have got: Planet Earth. Only then can we adequately respond to the message of the climate scientists about the clear and present danger to our biosphere, investing in life for our grandchildren, not in death and oil wars.”

OBAMA MAKES NICE WITH BANKERS: Exercise to “Soothe Tensions”

Top bank chief executives held peace talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday as the administration sought to soothe tensions over lavish Wall Street bonus payments.The meeting came at the end of a week in which in which Mr. Obama pushed back against efforts by Congress to slap hefty tax penalties on bonuses and warned people not to demonise investors and entrepreneurs.

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William Greider on the Obama Economic Plan

RELATED: PBS: Bill Moyers Journal – March 27: For years best-selling author William Greider sounded the alarm about Washington’s unholy alliance with Wall Street and the failure of the Federal Reserve and other regulators to take preventive measures to avoid disaster. Now, he offers some suggestions to the question everyone is asking: “What do we do now?”

Watch full video here [24 minutes] and read transcript.

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Joe Stiglitz, former World Bank VP and Nobel Laureate, On What’s Needed:

Reform is Needed. Reform is in the Air. We Can’t Afford to Fail — The task is to build a new financial architecture. If we flunk it, the pain will strike most cruelly in the world’s poorest countries by Joseph E. Stiglitz

While this is a global crisis, responses are undertaken by national governments, who quite naturally look after their own citizens’ interest first. Particularly invidious are protectionist measures, such as the US “buy America” provision in its stimulus package. In fact, the World Bank reports that 17 of the group of 20 countries have engaged in protectionist measures, after making a commitment not to do so in their meeting in Washington in November. By focusing on national, as opposed to global impacts, the global stimulus will be less – and the global recovery weakened. READ FULL STORY HERE

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Afghanistan: Obama Announces Plan, Critics Question Cost and Lack Of Exit Strategy

Taking firm control of the war that dominated Bush’s presidency, Obama broke with his predecessor in significant ways but also used phrases that sounded strikingly familiar. Bush often reminded the nation that terrorists were plotting to kill Americans, even as the public fear dissipated with each passing year after the 9/11 attacks.

Mar 27, 2009 By Ben Feller – The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Widening war in “the most dangerous place in the world,” President Barack Obama launched a fresh effort Friday to defeat al-Qaida terrorists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, defending his strategy with shades of the dire language of George W. Bush.

Stirring echoes of Sept. 11 and making the war his own, Obama warned that al-Qaida is actively planning attacks on the United States from secret havens in Pakistan.

He said he was setting new benchmarks and sending in 4,000 more troops, hundreds of civilians and increased aid for a six-year war that has seemed to be easing in Iraq but still has no end in sight.

The president, who declared last weekend an “exit strategy” was needed for Afghanistan, never used those words in announcing his plans on Friday.

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Karzai: Better Than Expected

LBN: President Hamid Karzai on Saturday praised U.S. President Barack Obama’s new plan for the war in Afghanistan. “He has our full support,” Karzai told a news conference. “This was better than what we expected.”The administration’s plan for Afghanistan followed a fierce internal debate in which the vice president urged caution against a quagmire, while military advisers argued for more troops.

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Some Strategists Cast Doubt on Afghan War Rationale Analysis by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Mar 28 (IPS) – The argument for deeper U.S. military commitment to the Afghan War invoked by President Barack Obama in his first major policy statement on Afghanistan and Pakistan Friday – that al Qaeda must be denied a safe haven in Afghanistan – has been not been subjected to public debate in Washington.

A few influential strategists here have been arguing, however, that this official rationale misstates the al Qaeda problem and ignores the serious risk that an escalating U.S. war poses to Pakistan.

Those strategists doubt that al Qaeda would seek to move into Afghanistan as long as they are ensconced in Pakistan and argue that escalating U.S. drone airstrikes or Special Operations raids on Taliban targets in Pakistan will actually strengthen radical jihadi groups in the country and weaken the Pakistani government’s ability to resist them.

The first military strategist to go on record with such a dissenting view on Afghanistan and Pakistan was Col. T. X. Hammes, a retired Marine officer and author of the 2004 book “The Sling and the Stone”, which argued that the U.S. military faces a new type of warfare which it would continue to lose if it did not radically reorient its thinking. He became more widely known as one of the first military officers to call in September 2006 for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation over failures in Iraq.

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Robert Naiman: Afghanistan: The Four Questions

“It is widely recognized that sending more people – whether soldiers or civilians – is very unlikely in itself to change anything fundamental because the order of magnitude is wrong. The United States has not been, is not, and almost certainly never will be willing and able to commit the resources, which would be necessary to transform Afghanistan into a peaceful ‘democracy’ according to the present policy. The most that could be plausibly hoped for is that additional resources would help make a new policy work: a new policy based on a fundamental, political shift in US policy, including accommodation with the bulk of the political forces now backing Afghanistan’s various insurgencies.”

The News Dissector