Do turkeys enjoy thanksgiving?\r\nBy Arundhati Roy<\/i>\r\n\r\n<\/p>
It's not good enough to be right. Sometimes, if only in\r\norder to test our resolve, it's important to win\r\nsomething. In order to win something, we need to agree\r\non something.\" After a tour d'horizon, the author of\r\nThe God of Small Things calls for a \" minimum agenda\"\r\nas well as a plan of action that prioritises global\r\nresistance to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Here is the\r\ntext of her speech at the opening Plenary of the World\r\nSocial Forum in Mumbai on January 16, 2004:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
http:\/\/www.hindu.com\/2004\/01\/18\/stories\/2004011800181400.htm<\/p>\r\n\r\n
LAST JANUARY thousands of us from across the world\r\ngathered in Porto Allegre in Brazil and declared --\r\nreiterated -- that \"Another World is Possible\". A few\r\nthousand miles north, in Washington, George Bush and\r\nhis aides were thinking the same thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Our project was the World Social Forum. Theirs -- to\r\nfurther what many call The Project for the New American\r\nCentury.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the great cities of Europe and America, where a few\r\nyears ago these things would only have been whispered,\r\nnow people are openly talking about the good side of\r\nImperialism and the need for a strong Empire to police\r\nan unruly world. The new missionaries want order at the\r\ncost of justice. Discipline at the cost of dignity. And\r\nascendancy at any price. Occasionally some of us are\r\ninvited to `debate' the issue on `neutral' platforms\r\nprovided by the corporate media. Debating Imperialism\r\nis a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What\r\ncan we say? That we really miss it?<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In any case, New Imperialism is already upon us. It's a\r\nremodelled, streamlined version of what we once knew.\r\nFor the first time in history, a single Empire with an\r\narsenal of weapons that could obliterate the world in\r\nan afternoon has complete, unipolar, economic and\r\nmilitary hegemony. It uses different weapons to break\r\nopen different markets. There isn't a country on God's\r\nearth that is not caught in the cross hairs of the\r\nAmerican cruise missile and the IMF chequebook.\r\nArgentina's the model if you want to be the poster-boy\r\nof neoliberal capitalism, Iraq if you're the black\r\nsheep.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Poor countries that are geo-politically of strategic\r\nvalue to Empire, or have a `market' of any size, or\r\ninfrastructure that can be privatized, or, god forbid,\r\nnatural resources of value -- oil, gold, diamonds,\r\ncobalt, coal -- must do as they're told, or become\r\nmilitary targets. Those with the greatest reserves of\r\nnatural wealth are most at risk. Unless they surrender\r\ntheir resources willingly to the corporate machine,\r\ncivil unrest will be fomented, or war will be waged. In\r\nthis new age of Empire, when nothing is as it appears\r\nto be, executives of concerned companies are allowed to\r\ninfluence foreign policy decisions. The Centre for\r\nPublic Integrity in Washington found that nine out of\r\nthe 30 members of the Defence Policy Board of the U.S.\r\nGovernment were connected to companies that were\r\nawarded defence contracts for $ 76 billion between 2001\r\nand 2002. George Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of\r\nState, was Chairman of the Committee for the Liberation\r\nof Iraq. He is also on the Board of Directors of the\r\nBechtel Group. When asked about a conflict of interest,\r\nin the case of a war in Iraq he said, \" I don't know\r\nthat Bechtel would particularly benefit from it. But if\r\nthere's work to be done, Bechtel is the type of company\r\nthat could do it. But nobody looks at it as something\r\nyou benefit from.\" After the war, Bechtel signed a $680\r\nmillion contract for reconstruction in Iraq.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
This brutal blueprint has been used over and over\r\nagain, across Latin America, Africa, Central and South-\r\nEast Asia. It has cost millions of lives. It goes\r\nwithout saying that every war Empire wages becomes a\r\nJust War. This, in large part, is due to the role of\r\nthe corporate media. It's important to understand that\r\nthe corporate media doesn't just support the neo-\r\nliberal project. It is the neo-liberal project. This is\r\nnot a moral position it has chosen to take, it's\r\nstructural. It's intrinsic to the economics of how the\r\nmass media works.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Most nations have adequately hideous family secrets. So\r\nit isn't often necessary for the media to lie. It's\r\nwhat's emphasised and what's ignored. Say for example\r\nIndia was chosen as the target for a righteous war. The\r\nfact that about 80,000 people have been killed in\r\nKashmir since 1989, most of them Muslim, most of them\r\nby Indian Security Forces (making the average death\r\ntoll about 6000 a year); the fact that less than a year\r\nago, in March of 2003, more than two thousand Muslims\r\nwere murdered on the streets of Gujarat, that women\r\nwere gang-raped and children were burned alive and a\r\n150,000 people driven from their homes while the police\r\nand administration watched, and sometimes actively\r\nparticipated; the fact that no one has been punished\r\nfor these crimes and the Government that oversaw them\r\nwas re-elected ... all of this would make perfect\r\nheadlines in international newspapers in the run-up to\r\nwar.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Next we know, our cities will be levelled by cruise\r\nmissiles, our villages fenced in with razor wire, U.S.\r\nsoldiers will patrol our streets and, Narendra Modi,\r\nPravin Togadia or any of our popular bigots could, like\r\nSaddam Hussein, be in U.S. custody, having their hair\r\nchecked for lice and the fillings in their teeth\r\nexamined on prime-time TV.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But as long as our `markets' are open, as long as\r\ncorporations like Enron, Bechtel, Halliburton, Arthur\r\nAndersen are given a free hand, our `democratically\r\nelected' leaders can fearlessly blur the lines between\r\ndemocracy, majoritarianism and fascism.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Our government's craven willingness to abandon India's\r\nproud tradition of being Non-Aligned, its rush to fight\r\nits way to the head of the queue of the Completely\r\nAligned (the fashionable phrase is `natural ally' --\r\nIndia, Israel and the U.S. are `natural allies'), has\r\ngiven it the leg room to turn into a repressive regime\r\nwithout compromising its legitimacy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
A government's victims are not only those that it kills\r\nand imprisons. Those who are displaced and dispossessed\r\nand sentenced to a lifetime of starvation and\r\ndeprivation must count among them too. Millions of\r\npeople have been dispossessed by `development'\r\nprojects. In the past 55 years, Big Dams alone have\r\ndisplaced between 33 million and 55 million people in\r\nIndia. They have no recourse to justice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the last two years there has been a series of\r\nincidents when police have opened fire on peaceful\r\nprotestors, most of them Adivasi and Dalit. When it\r\ncomes to the poor, and in particular Dalit and Adivasi\r\ncommunities, they get killed for encroaching on forest\r\nland, and killed when they're trying to protect forest\r\nland from encroachments -- by dams, mines, steel plants\r\nand other `development' projects. In almost every\r\ninstance in which the police opened fire, the\r\ngovernment's strategy has been to say the firing was\r\nprovoked by an act of violence. Those who have been\r\nfired upon are immediately called militants.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Across the country, thousands of innocent people\r\nincluding minors have been arrested under POTA\r\n(Prevention of Terrorism Act) and are being held in\r\njail indefinitely and without trial. In the era of the\r\nWar against Terror, poverty is being slyly conflated\r\nwith terrorism. In the era of corporate globalisation,\r\npoverty is a crime. Protesting against further\r\nimpoverishment is terrorism. And now, our Supreme Court\r\nsays that going on strike is a crime. Criticising the\r\ncourt of course is a crime, too. They're sealing the\r\nexits.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Like Old Imperialism, New Imperialism too relies for\r\nits success on a network of agents -- corrupt, local\r\nelites who service Empire. We all know the sordid story\r\nof Enron in India. The then Maharashtra Government\r\nsigned a power purchase agreement which gave Enron\r\nprofits that amounted to sixty per cent of India's\r\nentire rural development budget. A single American\r\ncompany was guaranteed a profit equivalent to funds for\r\ninfrastructural development for about 500 million\r\npeople!<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Unlike in the old days the New Imperialist doesn't need\r\nto trudge around the tropics risking malaria or\r\ndiahorrea or early death. New Imperialism can be\r\nconducted on e-mail. The vulgar, hands-on racism of Old\r\nImperialism is outdated. The cornerstone of New\r\nImperialism is New Racism.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The tradition of `turkey pardoning' in the U.S. is a\r\nwonderful allegory for New Racism. Every year since\r\n1947, the National Turkey Federation presents the U.S.\r\nPresident with a turkey for Thanksgiving. Every year,\r\nin a show of ceremonial magnanimity, the President\r\nspares that particular bird (and eats another one).\r\nAfter receiving the presidential pardon, the Chosen One\r\nis sent to Frying Pan Park in Virginia to live out its\r\nnatural life. The rest of the 50 million turkeys raised\r\nfor Thanksgiving are slaughtered and eaten on\r\nThanksgiving Day. ConAgra Foods, the company that has\r\nwon the Presidential Turkey contract, says it trains\r\nthe lucky birds to be sociable, to interact with\r\ndignitaries, school children and the press. (Soon\r\nthey'll even speak English!)<\/p>\r\n\r\n
That's how New Racism in the corporate era works. A few\r\ncarefully bred turkeys -- the local elites of various\r\ncountries, a community of wealthy immigrants,\r\ninvestment bankers, the occasional Colin Powell, or\r\nCondoleezza Rice, some singers, some writers (like\r\nmyself) -- are given absolution and a pass to Frying\r\nPan Park. The remaining millions lose their jobs, are\r\nevicted from their homes, have their water and\r\nelectricity connections cut, and die of AIDS. Basically\r\nthey're for the pot. But the Fortunate Fowls in Frying\r\nPan Park are doing fine. Some of them even work for the\r\nIMF and the WTO -- so who can accuse those\r\norganisations of being anti-turkey? Some serve as board\r\nmembers on the Turkey Choosing Committee -- so who can\r\nsay that turkeys are against Thanksgiving? They\r\nparticipate in it! Who can say the poor are anti-\r\ncorporate globalisation? There's a stampede to get into\r\nFrying Pan Park. So what if most perish on the way?<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Part of the project of New Racism is New Genocide. In\r\nthis new era of economic interdependence, New Genocide\r\ncan be facilitated by economic sanctions. It means\r\ncreating conditions that lead to mass death without\r\nactually going out and killing people. Dennis Halliday,\r\nthe U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq between '97\r\nand '98 (after which he resigned in disgust), used the\r\nterm genocide to describe the sanctions in Iraq. In\r\nIraq the sanctions outdid Saddam Hussein's best efforts\r\nby claiming more than half a million children's lives.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the new era, Apartheid as formal policy is\r\nantiquated and unnecessary. International instruments\r\nof trade and finance oversee a complex system of\r\nmultilateral trade laws and financial agreements that\r\nkeep the poor in their Bantustans anyway. Its whole\r\npurpose is to institutionalise inequity. Why else would\r\nit be that the U.S. taxes a garment made by a\r\nBangladeshi manufacturer 20 times more than it taxes a\r\ngarment made in the U.K.? Why else would it be that\r\ncountries that grow 90 per cent of the world's cocoa\r\nbean produce only 5 per cent of the world's chocolate?\r\nWhy else would it be that countries that grow cocoa\r\nbean, like the Ivory Coast and Ghana, are taxed out of\r\nthe market if they try and turn it into chocolate? Why\r\nelse would it be that rich countries that spend over a\r\nbillion dollars a day on subsidies to farmers demand\r\nthat poor countries like India withdraw all\r\nagricultural subsidies, including subsidised\r\nelectricity? Why else would it be that after having\r\nbeen plundered by colonising regimes for more than half\r\na century, former colonies are steeped in debt to those\r\nsame regimes, and repay them some $ 382 billion a year?<\/p>\r\n\r\n
For all these reasons, the derailing of trade\r\nagreements at Cancun was crucial for us. Though our\r\ngovernments try and take the credit, we know that it\r\nwas the result of years of struggle by many millions of\r\npeople in many, many countries. What Cancun taught us\r\nis that in order to inflict real damage and force\r\nradical change, it is vital for local resistance\r\nmovements to make international alliances. From Cancun\r\nwe learned the importance of globalising resistance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
No individual nation can stand up to the project of\r\nCorporate Globalisation on its own. Time and again we\r\nhave seen that when it comes to the neo-liberal\r\nproject, the heroes of our times are suddenly\r\ndiminished. Extraordinary, charismatic men, giants in\r\nOpposition, when they seize power and become Heads of\r\nState, they become powerless on the global stage. I'm\r\nthinking here of President Lula of Brazil. Lula was the\r\nhero of the World Social Forum last year. This year\r\nhe's busy implementing IMF guidelines, reducing pension\r\nbenefits and purging radicals from the Workers' Party.\r\nI'm thinking also of ex-President of South Africa,\r\nNelson Mandela. Within two years of taking office in\r\n1994, his government genuflected with hardly a caveat\r\nto the Market God. It instituted a massive programme of\r\nprivatisation and structural adjustment, which has left\r\nmillions of people homeless, jobless and without water\r\nand electricity.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Why does this happen? There's little point in beating\r\nour breasts and feeling betrayed. Lula and Mandela are,\r\nby any reckoning, magnificent men. But the moment they\r\ncross the floor from the Opposition into Government\r\nthey become hostage to a spectrum of threats -- most\r\nmalevolent among them the threat of capital flight,\r\nwhich can destroy any government overnight. To imagine\r\nthat a leader's personal charisma and a c.v. of\r\nstruggle will dent the Corporate Cartel is to have no\r\nunderstanding of how Capitalism works, or for that\r\nmatter, how power works. Radical change will not be\r\nnegotiated by governments; it can only be enforced by\r\npeople.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
This week at the World Social Forum, some of the best\r\nminds in the world will exchange ideas about what is\r\nhappening around us. These conversations refine our\r\nvision of the kind of world we're fighting for. It is a\r\nvital process that must not be undermined. However, if\r\nall our energies are diverted into this process at the\r\ncost of real political action, then the WSF, which has\r\nplayed such a crucial role in the Movement for Global\r\nJustice, runs the risk of becoming an asset to our\r\nenemies. What we need to discuss urgently is strategies\r\nof resistance. We need to aim at real targets, wage\r\nreal battles and inflict real damage. Gandhi's Salt\r\nMarch was not just political theatre. When, in a simple\r\nact of defiance, thousands of Indians marched to the\r\nsea and made their own salt, they broke the salt tax\r\nlaws. It was a direct strike at the economic\r\nunderpinning of the British Empire. It was real. While\r\nour movement has won some important victories, we must\r\nnot allow non-violent resistance to atrophy into\r\nineffectual, feel-good, political theatre. It is a very\r\nprecious weapon that needs to be constantly honed and\r\nre-imagined. It cannot be allowed to become a mere\r\nspectacle, a photo opportunity for the media.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It was wonderful that on February 15th last year, in a\r\nspectacular display of public morality, 10 million\r\npeople in five continents marched against the war on\r\nIraq. It was wonderful, but it was not enough. February\r\n15th was a weekend. Nobody had to so much as miss a day\r\nof work. Holiday protests don't stop wars. George Bush\r\nknows that. The confidence with which he disregarded\r\noverwhelming public opinion should be a lesson to us\r\nall. Bush believes that Iraq can be occupied and\r\ncolonised -- as Afghanistan has been, as Tibet has\r\nbeen, as Chechnya is being, as East Timor once was and\r\nPalestine still is. He thinks that all he has to do is\r\nhunker down and wait until a crisis-driven media,\r\nhaving picked this crisis to the bone, drops it and\r\nmoves on. Soon the carcass will slip off the best-\r\nseller charts, and all of us outraged folks will lose\r\ninterest. Or so he hopes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
This movement of ours needs a major, global victory.\r\nIt's not good enough to be right. Sometimes, if only in\r\norder to test our resolve, it's important to win\r\nsomething. In order to win something, we -- all of us\r\ngathered here and a little way away at Mumbai\r\nResistance -- need to agree on something. That\r\nsomething does not need to be an over-arching pre-\r\nordained ideology into which we force-fit our\r\ndelightfully factious, argumentative selves. It does\r\nnot need to be an unquestioning allegiance to one or\r\nanother form of resistance to the exclusion of\r\neverything else. It could be a minimum agenda.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
If all of us are indeed against Imperialism and against\r\nthe project of neo-liberalism, then let's turn our gaze\r\non Iraq. Iraq is the inevitable culmination of both.\r\nPlenty of anti-war activists have retreated in\r\nconfusion since the capture of Saddam Hussein. Isn't\r\nthe world better off without Saddam Hussein? they ask\r\ntimidly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Let's look this thing in the eye once and for all. To\r\napplaud the U.S. army's capture of Saddam Hussein and\r\ntherefore, in retrospect, justify its invasion and\r\noccupation of Iraq is like deifying Jack the Ripper for\r\ndisembowelling the Boston Strangler. And that -- after\r\na quarter century partnership in which the Ripping and\r\nStrangling was a joint enterprise. It's an in-house\r\nquarrel. They're business partners who fell out over a\r\ndirty deal. Jack's the CEO.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
So if we are against Imperialism, shall we agree that\r\nwe are against the U.S. occupation and that we believe\r\nthat the U.S. must withdraw from Iraq and pay\r\nreparations to the Iraqi people for the damage that the\r\nwar has inflicted?<\/p>\r\n\r\n
How do we begin to mount our resistance? Let's start\r\nwith something really small. The issue is not about\r\nsupporting the resistance in Iraq against the\r\noccupation or discussing who exactly constitutes the\r\nresistance. (Are they old Killer Ba'athists, are they\r\nIslamic Fundamentalists?)<\/p>\r\n\r\n
We have to become the global resistance to the\r\noccupation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Our resistance has to begin with a refusal to accept\r\nthe legitimacy of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. It means\r\nacting to make it materially impossible for Empire to\r\nachieve its aims. It means soldiers should refuse to\r\nfight, reservists should refuse to serve, workers\r\nshould refuse to load ships and aircraft with weapons.\r\nIt certainly means that in countries like India and\r\nPakistan we must block the U.S. government's plans to\r\nhave Indian and Pakistani soldiers sent to Iraq to\r\nclean up after them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
I suggest that at a joint closing ceremony of the World\r\nSocial Forum and Mumbai Resistance, we choose, by some\r\nmeans, two of the major corporations that are profiting\r\nfrom the destruction of Iraq. We could then list every\r\nproject they are involved in. We could locate their\r\noffices in every city and every country across the\r\nworld. We could go after them. We could shut them down.\r\nIt's a question of bringing our collective wisdom and\r\nexperience of past struggles to bear on a single\r\ntarget. It's a question of the desire to win.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The Project For The New American Century seeks to\r\nperpetuate inequity and establish American hegemony at\r\nany price, even if it's apocalyptic. The World Social\r\nForum demands justice and survival.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
For these reasons, we must consider ourselves at war.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Arundhati Roy<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"In the great cities of Europe and America, where a few years ago these things would only have been whispered, now people are openly talking about the good side of Imperialism and the need for a strong Empire to police an unruly world.","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/02\/102093.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":104457,"heading":"This broad is living proof...","article":"..that being hot doesn't equal being smart. S-M-R-T Smart.","author":"Walker, Texas Plumber","parent_id":102093,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-03-07 02:54:11","modified":"2004-03-07 02:54:11","fileurl":""},{"id":104460,"heading":"wowzers","article":"she sure is s-m-a-r-t-e-r than you seem to be.\r\nyou on the other hand write like an idiot.\r\nare you under medication?","author":"Reader","parent_id":102093,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-03-07 03:25:31","modified":"2004-03-07 03:25:31","fileurl":""}]}