---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

Where you can still see the "must-see" film, WMD: Weapons of
Mass Deception.

This film is being downplayed by the mass media. It must have
something to do with the searing criticism of that very media that
is the content of the film. Go and see it.

WMD will play in the following theatres in the
Bay Area on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2004:

San Francisco, CA
Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema
601 Van Ness Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 267-4893

Berkeley, CA (currently playing)
The Oaks Theater
1875 Solano Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 526-1836

Orinda, CA
Orinda Theater
2 Orinda Theater Square
Orinda, CA 94563
(925) 254-906

Richard Castro
Outreach & Special Distribution
Cinema Libre Studio
818.349.8822 Ph.
818.349.9922 Fax
www.cinemalibrestudio.com

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Holiday Benefit Sale
at the Middle East Children's Alliance
Saturday, December 18th, 10 AM to 6 PM at
901 Parker Street, Berkeley (corner of 7th and Parker)

2) Respite
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
December 14, 2004

3) Line the Inaugural Route on January 20
Be there by 9:00 am!
Update on CounterInaugural Demonstration permits

4) Blast in Kandahar, Kidnap Victim Killed in Afghanistan
By Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters)
Wed Dec 15, 2004 08:26 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7101445&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news

5) The Voice's James Ridgeway reveals who controls what
Raw Deals
by Matthew Fleischer-Black
Village Voice, December 13th, 2004 5:10 PM
It's All For Sale
By James Ridgeway
Duke, 250 pp., $18.95
Buy this book

6) UK to keep foreign nuclear waste
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Wednesday December 15, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,2763,1373964,00.html

7) Did British soldiers lose all control
and decency at the notorious Camp Bucca?
As the MoD investigates the death of a
seventh Iraqi in British custody, attention is
focused on one detention camp
By Andrew Johnson and Robert Fisk - 15 February 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=491465 (Full
Story)
http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles357.htm

8) Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
BY Yoshie Furuhashi
Wal-Mart 's dedication to "low, low wages" is a satirist's
dream. The Onion zeroes in on it in "Wal-Mart Announces
Massive Rollback on Employee Wages" (December 8, 2004):

9) Faced with US Threats, Cuba Flexes Military Muscle
Pensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

10) New Year Glum As Prices Soar
By Irina Titova
STAFF WRITER
The St. Petersburg Times
#1029, Tuesday, December 14, 2004
TOP STORY

11) States and Cities Must Hunt Terror Plots,
Mass. Governor Says
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON
December 15, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/national/15secure.html?ex=1104131929&ei=1&
en=9376916c110d0bab

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

1) Holiday Benefit Sale
at the Middle East Children's Alliance
Saturday, December 18th, 10 AM to 6 PM at
901 Parker Street, Berkeley (corner of 7th and Parker)

There is something for every budget! There will be traditional
embroidered work from Dheisheh, Olive Oil Soap from Nablus,
Olive Oil from Jayyous, and ceramics from Jerusalem. There will
also be beautiful hand-woven carpets, kilims and textiles from
Turkey. These items are not easily available ... this is a very
special opportunity.

This is an opportunity to purchase a beautiful gift and make
a humanitarian contribution at the same time. This sale
benefits for the work of the Middle East Children's Alliance.

Take a look at MECA's New Website!!
www.mecaforpeace.org

It is still a work in progress but we are working every day to
bring you more and more information about the Middle East,
in particular Occupied Palestine and Iraq.

Today, you can contact us directly, join our emaol or
snailmail list, donate, shop and find out more about us.

Take a look at our: Palestine/Israel Delegations * Community
Activism/Events * Resource List * Home page article and
photos

Coming Soon! Information about MECA projects and partners
* Information about humanitarian aid programs * Background
information on the issues * Take action! section * Photos
documenting our work and and delegations

Sign up Now!
Join MECA's Palestine/Israel Delegation February 14-27

Meet with Palestinian and Israeli activists, academics,
politicians, civil society leaders and healthcare workers.
Our trips to Ramallah, Haifa, Hebron, Nablus and Gaza,
among others areas, help North Americans get familiar with
the social and geo-political landscape as well as learn more
about the history of the current situation.

Cost: $1600 for shared accomodation, three light meals and
transport (not including airfare)

For more information or to read reportbacks from past
delegates go to
http://www.mecaforpeace.org/ Delegations.html or call 510-548-0542

email: meca@mecaforpeace.org
phone: 510-548-0542
web: http://www.mecaforpeace.org

This email was sent to bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com,
by meca@mecaforpeace.org
Middle East Children's Alliance | 901 Parker Street | Berkeley | CA | 94710

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

2) Respite
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
December 14, 2004

December 11-13, 2004

11 Dec.
"My list is now 32," says Salam as he arrives at the hotel, "Now 32 of
my friends have been killed."

He still has tears in his eyes, even though he's being stoic. Another of
his friends has been shot and killed.

"You know I feel like shit every time I add someone to my list.
Sometimes it feels like it is every day," he says.

Welcome to Iraq. Where the news gets better with each passing day.

Heavy fighting is continuing in Fallujah. While the military claims to
be in control of the situation, they are bombing areas of the city again
with warplanes.

Sources in and around the city continue to state that the mujahideen are
in control of large sections of the city as they've somehow managed to
get more weapons in the city.

As far as Baghdad-fierce fighting in Adhamiya once again and Iraqi
National Guard roam the streets with their black facemasks.

The gas crisis grinds on, and now the cell service barely works as of late.

It feels as though nothing is working right here. No gas, not much
electricity, don't drink the water, prices of everything going up.
People dying everyday.

"This is the freedom," as Iraqis say, and the perfect title to the new
book by my colleague Christian Parenti, "The Freedom," which I highly
recommend.

This is my birthday...which was celebrated by sharing a large meal with a
Sheikh and some of my Iraqi friends.

Capped off with the aforementioned news from Salam, more bombs going
off, and the usual gunfire in the streets. Hence, my dark mood.

The next day, the 12th, was grey and raining off and on in Baghdad.
Salam and I said our prayers for safety and braved the airport road.

Sitting in a long line of vehicles we were quiet. Holding our breath.

Imagine sitting in a long line of cars knowing that any one of them
could be a car bomb, waiting with you to inch closer to the checkpoint.

I only saw one US soldier there-the horrible duties of searching cars
and manning the checkpoint is being handled almost entirely by "Global"
security contractors, most of them Nepalese. The rest are ING. Imagine
that as your job.

My bag was never searched, and the car wasn't searched thoroughly in the
least.

"Watch your ass and get the hell out of here habibi," I told Salam as we
shook hands.

Goodbyes in Iraq are always sincere...because the possibility of never
seeing one another alive again is very real. Our eyes tell it all to one
another.

In the airport the electricity cuts. I just laugh, and finally I board
the plane and we do the usual spiral take-off.

Above the clouds we fly west towards the setting sun, and I being to
really relax for the first time in 6 weeks. Relaxation accompanied with
the usual sadness and guilt which stems from being able to leave, when
most Iraqis are now trapped inside their own country.

13 Dec.

7 Marines have been killed in Al-Anbar province-read Fallujah. Does the
military think it helps them to not announce that there has been ongoing
heavy fighting in Fallujah for the last few days? How does this help the
families of the soldiers there? What is this like for the loved ones
back home who are living in an information blackout? When they know that
the only hard news they will truly get from the military is when they
are informed that their loved one is dead?

Families of the soldiers watch the news for the horrible car bombs,
hoping against hope someone they know wasn't there. Imagine living like
that each day.

Heavy fighting continues, as do the car bombs, as a relatively 'quiet'
few days were followed by more blood. Thus has been the pattern
throughout the occupation. Except the periods of 'calm' are shorter, and
the bloodshed more widespread than ever.

Expect this to continue until the 'elections' as well as afterwards.
It's called escalation.

I'm in Jordan for a break, and will return to Iraq in January well
before the end of that month.

I want to thank everyone for the amazing support and readership. Without
your help, this work would not be possible. I'll be out of email contact
for about a week, then back to work posting stories and blogs I'd
written in Iraq, but didn't have time to post.

More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/ to
subscribe or unsubscribe to the email list.

Or, you can unsubscribe by sending an email to
iraq_dispatches-request@dahrjamailiraq.com and write unsubscribe in
the subject or the body of the email.

(c)2004 Dahr Jamail.
All images and text are protected by United States and
international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's
Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright
notice and a prominent link to the DahrJamailIraq.com website.
Any other use of images and text including, but not limited to,
reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing
requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to
forward Dahr's dispatches via email.

Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

3) Line the Inaugural Route on January 20
Be there by 9:00 am!
Update on CounterInaugural Demonstration permits

Four years ago as George W. Bush rode in his limousine along the
Inaugural parade route, he was met by a sea of vocal protestors
and anti-Bush signs. Vividly captured in a dramatic scene from
the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, the anti-Bush demonstrators lining
the inaugural route on Pennsylvania Avenue became the dominant
feature of the inauguration, his first day in office.

On January 20, 2005, 21 months after the criminal invasion and
occupation of Iraq and 39 months after the adoption of the USA
Patriot Act, the Bush administration is planning to privatize
Pennsylvania Avenue so that Corporate America and the ultra-
right can line the route of march. To succeed they must push
antiwar demonstrators and all those defending civil rights and
civil liberties off to the margins and try to scare people into silence.

7,000 Endorsers: "We'll Line the Parade Route"

The January 20 call for a CounterInaugural antiwar demonstration
was issued by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in June of 2004 and has
now received the support of more than 7,000 endorsers. People
are planning to come from all over the country to line the
inaugural route. People are coming by bus, car and train because
they are determined to line the inaugural route and let the world
see that the people of the United States are taking a stand against
the criminal war in Iraq and in defense of people's rights at home.
The Bush White House, which has been greeted by massive
condemnation and protests in every country he visits, is now
worried about avoiding a huge political embarrassment in
Washington, DC. They are fighting for legitimacy and working
to divert or thwart the demonstrations.

Working through the Bush-Cheney Presidential Inaugural
Committee (PIC) and the U.S. government, the White House is
doing everything in its power to prevent a repeat of the 2001
CounterInaugural demonstration when tens of thousands of
anti-Bush demonstrators lined Pennsylvania Ave. between
3rd St. and 15th St. and became the major world news story.

Don't Be Diverted

Bush and his billionaire supporters want to enjoy a sanitized
coronation and remove all evidence to the world of just how
much the people of the United States stand against this
administration and their criminal conduct. They want the
protestors who come to Washington to go anywhere but the
parade route. Just like during the RNC in New York, the Bush
administration wants protest to be relegated to other parts
of the city.

The Bush administration and the government are trying to
prevent people from effectively accessing the inaugural route.
Some groups have announced plans that also divert protestors
from lining the front of the inaugural route. Agreeing to permits
from the government for demonstrations at far off places
in Washington DC effectively removes anyone who attends
these actions from being able to line the inaugural route.
The Bush administration and the government know full well,
from the experience of the January 20, 2001, CounterInaugural
demonstration, that the only way anti-Bush protesters were able
to secure a spot at the front of the inaugural route, and often
even get in at all, was by arriving before 9 o'clock in the morning.
In order to divert anti-Bush demonstrators four years ago, the
government, using "national security" as a pretext (remember
this was before September 11), established check points for
the first time in the history of inaugural parades. Some groups
have advocated that people who do go the parade route should
conform to the administration's efforts to limit dissent by
volunteering to be silent and carrying no signs. Those who
were in DC four years ago well remember that the government
and the Bush/Cheney PIC tried then to take our signs or scare
people from bringing them, but we wouldn't let them - the
route was packed with visible and undeniable opposition
messages to the incoming administration. They tried to
silence our voices, but we wouldn't let them - Pennsylvania
Avenue echoed with the sound of thousands of people
chanting against Bush.

Free Speech and the Permit Battle

It was only because of the determined effort of anti-Bush
demonstrators, along with the legal efforts to secure
protestors' rights initiated by the Partnership for Civil
Justice and the National Lawyers Guild, that anti-Bush
demonstrators overcame these obstacles and became
a dominating political force at the inauguration.

On Monday, protest organizers from A.N.S.W.E.R. and
their lawyers met with the National Park Service, which
has been delaying meeting to discuss the permit requests.
Despite the fact that A.N.S.W.E.R. applied nearly a year ago
for areas along the inaugural route of Pennsylvania Avenue,
law enforcement has stated that it will not yet tell the
protest organizers whether and where they will grant
inaugural route permits. Instead, they are asserting that
they are waiting for the Bush-Cheney Presidential Inaugural
Committee to decide how much space along the route it
wants to consume and privatize. Those who reflect an
antiwar view or a view in opposition to the Bush
administration's domestic policies, according to the
government, will come last, if at all. Law enforcement
authorities refused to confirm that there would be
equal access for those who are not paying Bush and
Cheney for the privilege of standing along Pennsylvania
Avenue and they also would not tell the A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition what areas would be available to construct
antiwar bleachers similar to those it permits the
Bush/Cheney PIC to construct for each inauguration.

Corporate America Does Not Own Pennsylvania Avenue

In fact, the National Park Service has for this inauguration,
just as it did for the last inauguration, itself taken out
a permit in advance to sublet to the PIC and thereby
deprive any opposition group equal access to the inaugural
parade. The PIC is a private corporate-funded organization
that is expected to raise $40 million from solicitations to
the president's biggest campaign contributors - that is,
from the biggest banks, corporations, oil and energy
companies, and military contractors. The A.N.S.W.E.R.
Coalition asserts that the National Park Service has no
right to privatize Pennsylvania Avenue on behalf of the
Republican Party, the Bush administration, Corporate
America and the Christian Right.

The PIC sent letters to potential donors in early December
asking them to purchase a $250,000 "Underwriter Package"
that will give them the tickets to exclusive inaugural balls
and tickets to possess spots along the inaugural parade
route on January 20. A $100,000 "Sponsor Package" offers
most of the same benefits but omits a special lunch with
President Bush.

Here is the civil rights, civil liberties issue at hand: Pennsylvania
Avenue is described as "America's Main Street" on the White
House website, on the website of the National Park Service
and in a U.S. Senate Resolution. On January 20 every four
years, the president-elect of the United States travels by
limousine down "America's Main Street" before and after
taking the Oath of Office on the steps of the Capitol. Bush
wants to allow his supporters and his corporate constituents
to take ownership over Pennsylvania Avenue to conduct
a stage-managed sanitized spectacle bestowing legitimacy
on his lawless enterprise. To accomplish this he must find
a way to banish dissent from the scene of the planned spectacle.

Be there by 9:00 am!

We will not let this stand. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition calls on
all those who want to hold a visible demonstration to come
to the site of the inauguration, where the whole world will
indeed be watching. Be there by 9:00 a.m. Make a pledge to
be at the site of the inauguration. Don't let Corporate America,
the Bush administration and the U.S. government make you
invisible. We are launching a political struggle, and a legal
effort, to secure the rights of the people to be visible on
Pennsylvania Avenue with signs and slogans denouncing the
Bush administration for its criminal war on Iraq and its anti-
people policies at home. At the same time as we are continuing
to secure permits along the parade route we want to make it clear
to everyone you do not need a permit to come to Pennsylvania
Avenue and to make your views known. Pennsylvania Avenue
does not belong to Corporate America and the ultra-right.
Everyone organizing buses, car caravans or individual
transportation should be at Pennsylvania Ave. by
9:00 am on January 20.

We will demand:
1) US Out of Iraq Now, End the Occupation - Bring the
Troops Home Now
2) End Colonial Domination from Palestine to Haiti, and
Everywhere
3) Health Care, Education, Housing, and a Job at a Living
Wage Must be a Right!

Help Organize Transportation

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition will send out an email update
in the next few days regarding logistics, bus drop off and
other transportation information. If you are organizing
transportation from your city, fill out the Transportation
Form to list your information on the A.N.S.W.E.R. website
and help spread the word.

Pledge now to support the January 20 demonstration.
To endorse, click here.

Funds are urgently needed to make January 20 the visible
and vocal display of opposition that Bush is trying
desperately to thwart. You can make an urgently needed
contribution for the January 20 mobilization through
a secure server by clicking here, where you can also find
information on how to contribute by check.

* * * * *

Media coverage of free speech fight at CounterInaugural

Excerpt from the New York Times:

First Inauguration Since 9/11 Spurs Tightest Security
By Michael Janofsky
December 13, 2004

Brian Becker, national coordinator for the Answer Coalition,
an antiwar and antiracism group, said he expected thousands
of protesters to line the parade route "in a legal, spirited,
peaceful demonstration," carrying signs calling for the
withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq and for
Mr. Bush's impeachment.

Excerpt from Fox News:

Protesters Don't Feel the Love in D.C.
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
November 21, 2004

While the Department of Homeland Security recently
designated the Jan. 20 inauguration a National Special
Security Event, thus putting into place multi-agency security
for the presidential swearing-in ceremony, parade and inaugural
balls, protest organizers like Brian Becker of ANSWER
(Act Now To Stop War And Racism) say the move is less
a response to post-Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist threats, and
more a way to discourage demonstrators.

"It's not the first time that the Bush administration has used
national security and the war on terrorism as a pretext to
determine who can exercise free speech and whose free
speech rights should be put on the back burner," Becker
told FOXNews.com.

"The idea that the Army must be mobilized and the most
extreme national security precautions announced three
months ahead of time - that's not designed to intimidate
'terrorists', it's designed to intimidate protesters."

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

4) Blast in Kandahar, Kidnap Victim Killed in Afghanistan
By Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters)
Wed Dec 15, 2004 08:26 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7101445&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A blast in the Afghan city of
Kandahar wounded at least four government soldiers on Wednesday,
a day after security forces said they caught Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammad Omar's security chief.

Elsewhere, the body of a kidnapped Turkish construction engineer
was found in eastern Afghanistan, an Interior Ministry official said.
He had been abducted by a militant gang on Tuesday on the road
between the city of Jalalabad and Kunar province.

Up to five people were wounded in the southwest in clashes
between a district commander's militia and government forces,
the governor of Helmand province, Shair Mohammad Akhundzada,
told Reuters.

Eight people were detained after the clash between troops
supposedly on the same side.

Police were not sure whether the blast in Kandahar was
caused by a bomb or a rocket striking an ammunition store at a
pro-government militia base near the city center.

"This was carried out by an enemy of Afghanistan and it
might have been a time bomb," police chief in the southern
city, Khan Mohammad Khan, told Reuters.

His deputy later said the blast may have been caused by a
rocket. Reporters were stopped from approaching the scene.

Security forces said on Tuesday they had captured Toor
Mullah Naqibullah Khan, who they identified as Taliban leader
Omar's household security chief and a dangerous killer, on the
outskirts of Kandahar.

He was among 27 suspected militants arrested in Afghanistan
since Saturday. About half of them were detained in Kandahar,
the Taliban's former power base.

Seven militants were killed by U.S. artillery fire on
Monday night in the southern province of Khost, said U.S.
military spokesman Major Mark McCann.

COUNTER CLAIMS

Kandahar authorities said Naqibullah Khan was still heading
Omar's security, leading to speculation he might have
information about Omar's whereabouts.

But a U.S. official in Washington, who said he could not
confirm Naqibullah Khan's capture, said he was a former Taliban
security official and not a "significant figure" now.

Several reporters got phone calls from people claiming to
speak for the Taliban denying knowledge of Naqibullah Khan,
and from men purporting to be him, denying he had
been captured.

Kandahar's police chief Khan dismissed those claims.

Official sources said they had a videotape of Naqibullah
Khan asking for mercy which could be used to reinforce a call
from President Hamid Karzai for Taliban fighters to lay down
arms.

Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first democratically
elected president last week and wants to wipe the slate clean
with all but the most hardened Taliban loyalists.

The kidnapping and killing of the Turkish engineer,
identified by the Interior Ministry as Mohammad Ayub, in the
east did not appear to be linked directly to the Taliban.

A small militant group operating in forested mountains
close to the border with Pakistan was suspected of being behind
the abduction and murder.

The man was killed on Wednesday morning as rescuers closed
in on the kidnappers' hideout, the Interior Ministry said. His
Afghan driver and interpreter were released.

Karzai issued a statement condemning the killing.

Police said the militant group suspected of kidnapping the
man had about 20 members and was led by a commander who had
links in the past with the Hezb-i-Islami group of renegade
former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is now a Taliban
ally.

Ayub is the second Turk to be killed in a kidnapping in
Afghanistan the past year. Two others were released. All of the
victims were working on road projects. (Additional reporting by
Yousuf Azimy)

(c) Reuters 2004

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

5) The Voice's James Ridgeway reveals who controls what
Raw Deals
by Matthew Fleischer-Black
Village Voice, December 13th, 2004 5:10 PM
It's All For Sale
By James Ridgeway
Duke, 250 pp., $18.95
Buy this book

The aluminum pan you cooked your egg in this morning began as a bauxite
deposit in a mountain in Jamaica. The cinnamon on your toast was once the
bark of a tree in Sri Lanka—not a cinnamon tree, either. The cut flowers on
your table? From Colombia.

Start questioning where everyday things come from, James Ridgeway tells us
in It's All for Sale, and often you will get a surprisingly simple answer.
Behind the scenes of it all, he says, a small group of private companies
governs trade of the world's materials. Five companies control the flow of
petroleum. Four corporations reign over the grain trade. Three each
dominate timber, uranium, and tea. Two lead the way on fresh water and
coffee, while one each runs diamonds and cigarettes.

Ridgeway, the veteran Washington correspondent for the Voice, traces the
journey made by many of the natural materials we depend on. The book is
organized by resource. For each item, he sums up how its market developed,
where in the world it comes from, and who controls the business now.

Across the chapters, Ridgeway's preoccupied with compiling all the tactics
that mega-corporations use to keep their invisible role supplying us. They
take over an entire supply chain. They underreport reserves of exhaustible
resources and overstate demand, inducing the public to fixate on shortages.
(The natural-gas industry once failed to report to regulators 8.8 trillion
cubic feet of fuel.) Less cleverly, they pay off military strongmen, hire
mercenary armies, and exploit labor.

People have long used violence and operated in bad faith to lock up vital
goods, and Ridgeway has looked at the specifics industry by industry
before. This book expands and updates his Who Owns the Earth? (1980), which
was based on a natural-resources newsletter he edited, The Elements. A
quarter-century later, not that much has changed among the core
industrial-revolution items. Natural gas has taken on a larger role and
coal use has doubled. He has added discussions of water ("the commodity
that we most take for granted"), flowers, slavery, cadavers, body parts,
oceans, sky, and genetics.

The emergence of these new types of merchandise from formerly free entities
does not inspire Ridgeway to any grand explanation beyond companies'
competitive desire for profit. Still, that explains a lot: Some of the most
sprawling of the conglomerates are trying to make money from the new
products. Bechtel Corporation and Vivendi Universal, for instance, are now
selling fresh water to governments.

By laying out our possessions' material origins, the book should earn a
place in homes next to other popular reference works like The Book of
Lists. Ridgeway offers a canon of information that anyone might want to
know and teach their kids. Plus, his book is skimmable, good to pick up for
short sittings. (You could keep it in the bathroom.) Memorable factoids
abound: Pepper accounts for one-quarter of the world spice trade. Sales of
jewelry claim almost one-quarter of all dollars spent in the U.S.A. on
retail goods. One-third of fish eaten in the industrialized world come from
aquatic farms. And most cinnamon in the U.S. comes from cassia, a related
plant.

Broad popularity is a long shot, though. For one thing, It's All for Sale
educates better than it entertains. Unlike the 1980 version, and many
bestselling popular-reference books, it lacks illustrations or graphics.
More frustrating is its inefficient provision of essential information. In
many chapters, readers must dig to learn how the particular material
figures into our average U.S. lives, whether we truly need it and whether
alternatives exist, and even who controls its supply. As inevitably happens
in a survey book, Ridgeway omits subjects that deserve entry. He fails, for
instance, to look at coltan, a mineral used in mobile phones and laptop
computers. It often is illegally mined and smuggled. Also, the book could
use an index, or at least a chart, to keep track of the corporate giants it
features.

Like The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Ridgeway's book condenses
knowledge of specific information essential to our culture—and which few
discuss. A book that performs such a fundamental service deserves to be
updated more often than every 25 years. Next time, its presentation should
be even more elementary.

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Marxism mailing list
Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

6) UK to keep foreign nuclear waste
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Wednesday December 15, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,2763,1373964,00.html

Anybody see the priceless episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer is
elected director of sanitation for Springfield, promising a lavish expansion
of waste collection services? He is utterly profligate in his expenditures
and exhausts his annual budget within a month. To generate the extra funds,
he agrees to let nearby towns bury their trash in an abandoned mineshaft in
Springfield. All goes swimmingly until we see Homer playing golf with Mayor
Quimby, who is singing Homer's praises when suddenly garbage starts to burst
through the surface of the putting green. Soon garbage is seen shooting out
of the ground like a geyser, eventually burying the entire town in refuse.
This forces Mayor Quimby to resort to "Plan B," Springfield's contingency
plan for (un)natural disasters: picking up the entire town and moving it
five miles away. The show amounts to a parable for the consequences of
administrative short-sightedness and capitalism's tendency to resort to
unsustainable practices in the service of short-term gain. Well, despite the
UK's affinity for "The Simpsons," it seems New Labour wasn't watching the
night they showed this episode. And unfortunately for Britons, "Plan B"
doesn't look like an option for a country sitting on an island! This would
all be quite funny if we weren't talking about NUCLEAR WASTE here. --CP

UK to keep foreign nuclear waste
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Wednesday December 15, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nuclear/article/0,2763,1373964,00.html

The government has decided to bury Japanese, German, Italian,
Spanish, Swiss and Swedish nuclear waste in Britain as a money-
making venture to help pay for the UK's own unresolved nuclear
waste problems.

The decision, announced in a written Commons statement, has
been taken by the trade secretary Patricia Hewitt despite the fact
that Britain as yet has no depository for the waste. It overturns
a 30-year-old policy that the UK would not become a dumping
ground for other countries' nuclear waste.

Previously both Conservative and Labour governments have said
waste arising as a result of lucrative nuclear fuel reprocessing
contracts at Sellafield in Cumbria should be returned to the
country of origin.

Successive governments had intended to return all highly
dangerous waste contaminated with plutonium to its country
of origin - a total of 225 nuclear shipments. This week's
decision means keeping and disposing of the bulk of that
toxic waste in Britain.

Mrs Hewitt said: "The benefits are both environmental and
economic."

She said the additional income - up to £680m - would be
"used for nuclear clean-up which will result in savings for
the UK taxpayer over the longer term".

Environmental groups warn that it will leave Britain with
thousands of tonnes of waste for which there is currently
no form of disposal.

Jean McSorley, nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace, said:
"The government is trying to encourage Japanese utilities,
and others, to sign more reprocessing contracts at Sellafield
knowing that they will not have to have their nuclear waste
returned."

The government has set up a committee to find a way of
disposing of high- and intermediate-level nuclear waste
safely. It considered 20 options, including burying the waste
in the Antarctic and firing it at the sun. No preferred method
has been established, but it is likely to be either storage
above ground or disposal below ground in deep rock caverns.

British Nuclear Fuels, which currently stores the foreign waste
at Sellafield, said it was delighted by the decision. A spokesman
said it would mean up to 3,000 cubic metres of radioactive
waste would now not need to be shipped back to its place
of origin, saving tens of thousands of tonnes of greenhouse
gases in ship fuel.

As a result of this week's decision, the foreign waste that
will remain in Britain will be exchanged for much smaller
quantities of waste of a higher radioactivity produced from
British reactors - up to 38 shipments. The government says
this trade amounts to an equal quantity of radioactivity.

Critics though raise the prospect of the British waste being
hijacked by terrorists. Llew Smith, Labour MP for Blaenau
Gwent, last night asked a written question of Ms Hewitt about
her assessment of any increased terrorist threat.
"Intermediate level waste is bulky and difficult to handle
but shipments of high level waste in smaller cannisters
might be an attractive terrorist target," he said.

The policy would mean very long-lived, high-activity
radioactive waste from Sellafield being shipped to Japan.
To European continental customers it will be carried on
ferries and trains to Germany, Switzerland, Spain,
Sweden and Italy.

The government says using armed police and transports
mounted with guns to escort the high level waste
minimizes the risk.

Currently overseas nuclear waste is stored at Sellafield
either in the form of glass blocks, untreated liquid
waste, or in drums of solid waste. It is mixed up
together with UK waste but British Nuclear Fuels
keeps a log of how much radioactivity had been
allocated to each country.

Gordon MacKerron, head of the government's
committee on radioactive waste management,
said: "Of course the volumes of nuclear waste
we will have to deal with in Britain will be
substantially greater... but overall because of
the large existing volume of UK waste it will
not make a big difference in percentage terms.

"In practical terms it does not make a lot of
difference to our overall nuclear waste problem."

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

7) Did British soldiers lose all control
and decency at the notorious Camp Bucca?
As the MoD investigates the death of a
seventh Iraqi in British custody, attention is
focused on one detention camp
By Andrew Johnson and Robert Fisk - 15 February 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=491465 (Full
Story)
http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles357.htm

Photographs brought home from Iraq by a British soldier
caused a scandal last year when he took them to be developed.
One showed a prisoner of war, gagged and bound in
netting, dangling from a forklift truck driven by a soldier.
Others depicted squaddies performing sex acts close to
Iraqi PoWs.

It may be understandable, though not excusable, that in the
heat of battle troops do not always accord prisoners the
dignity to which they are entitled. But the Army is now
facing accusations of mistreatment of civilian detainees,
several of whom have died in custody, long after the war
was officially declared at an end.

Charges may soon be brought in the case of Baha Mousa,
26, who died after he and seven colleagues working at
a Basra hotel were arrested by British soldiers of the Queen's
Lancashire Regiment in September. The eight men had their
hands tied and were all hooded during prolonged assaults
in which the prisoners have described being "kick-boxed"
by uniformed soldiers.

Mousa repeatedly complained to his British attackers that
he was having difficulty breathing. When Baha's father,
Daoud, and brother, Alaa, went to see Kifah Taha, one of
those arrested, in hospital, they did not know Baha had been
killed. "Kifah looked like half a human, he was so badly beaten,"
Alaa said. "When we asked him about Baha, he said he didn't
know. Then he said: 'I hope God will not show any human
what I witnessed.'"

Mr Taha said the soldiers had given their detainees the names
of footballers. Ironically, the practice of giving false names to
prisoners under assault or torture is common in Arab prisons.
Iraqi inmates were often given fake names by their interrogators
during torture sessions, and male prisoners have often been
given female names by Egyptian prison wardens before
being assaulted.

Mousa's father, an Iraqi police colonel who was present at
the arrest, saw two British soldiers looting cash from a hotel
safe. He brought this to the attention of the troops'
commanding officer, who disciplined the soldiers on the
spot and took their weapons. As a result, the Iraqi policeman
believes, his son may have been singled out for revenge.

An Army spokesman confirmed last week that a soldier had been
found on the date in question with a large sum of Iraqi money.
He had been disciplined by his commanding officer and the other
troops reminded of their duty in Iraq.

British military investigations have been carried out or are
continuing into 37 deaths of Iraqi civilians since the end of
the war. Nineteen of those were judged to be "insurgents",
and the rules of engagement followed. Of the others, the
Ministry of Defence says three were the result of road
accidents and nine, one of whom was a 14-year-old boy,
were shot during demonstrations.

Six were deaths in custody - a seventh case, which happened
just before the war was declared over, is also being examined -
but there are concerns over how long the investigations are taking.

The names of the seven who died in custody have been released
by the MoD, but in most cases no details of age, sex, occupation
or cause of death were included. The first was Ather Karen al-
Mowafakia, who died on 29 April. Radhi Natna was judged to
have died from natural causes on 8 May after a heart attack.
But his family say he had no history of heart trouble, and
questions remain over his treatment.

Abd Al Jubba Mousa, 53, a headmaster, was seen being beaten
with rifle butts as he was led away. He died on 17 May. Nothing i
s known about the deaths of Ahmad Jabber Kareem on 8 May,
Said Shabram on 24 May, or Hassan Abbad Said on 4 August.

Twenty-two MPs have called for an independent inquiry into
Mousa's death. The Labour MP Harry Cohen said this should
be extended to all deaths in custody, a call echoed by Amnesty
International, which says the Army should not investigate itself.

The director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, said:
"Justice must be done and be seen to be done. Amnesty
International has been calling on the coalition forces to
investigate all cases of civilian deaths by their troops, and
we believe that it is imperative that all investigations into
allegations of human rights violations by members of the
armed forces against civilians should be civilian-led
and supervised."

"We've killed just one more terrorist than innocent civilians,"
said the Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price, who has asked a series
of questions in Parliament on the issue. "It seems a little out
of kilter. For every terrorist we kill, we kill an innocent civilian."

Until Christmas, all British detainees were taken to the Camp
Bucca prison near the southern port city of Umm Qasr, about
70 miles from Basra. The camp is run by the Americans, but
the British have a "secure and discrete" unit within the camp.
Three American reservists were discharged from the army
last month after being found guilty of abusing Iraqi prisoners
last May, kicking and beating them in the groin, head and
abdomen.

In their defence, they claimed there was poor morale among
the troops and poor leadership.

One of the soldiers wrote in an email to a family member:
"We've had a couple of riots here in the ... holding area. We
were attacked and assaulted with rocks and stones. Two
prisoners had to be shot during the riot. This took place
on Palm Sunday. Four days later, during another uprising,
two more prisoners were shot, with one being killed
because he attempted to kill an MP [military policeman]
with a steel tent stake."

Former prisoners speak of daily riots and poor conditions.
Rahad Naif, 31, released from Camp Bucca in September,
said: "The demonstrations happened almost every day at
Bucca. Sometimes we'd fight the Americans with tent poles.
The Americans would come at us behind riot shields, firing
plastic bullets and electric pistols. We can't fight against that,
we knew they'd win."

He said that the prisoners were demonstrating against what
they considered to be their poor treatment in the camp.
They would have to share a desert floor with scorpions
and snakes. They had only one blanket at night, when it
was below freezing, while daytime temperatures could
reach 48C.

http://www.robert-fisk.com

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

8) Attacking Wal-Mart's Supply Chain
BY Yoshie Furuhashi
Wal-Mart 's dedication to "low, low wages" is a satirist's
dream. The Onion zeroes in on it in "Wal-Mart Announces
Massive Rollback on Employee Wages" (December 8, 2004):

The Onion can take on "the $259 billion retail behemoth" (Liza
Featherstone, "Will Labor Take the Wal-Mart Challenge?" The
Nation,June 28, 2004 ) satirically, but can American trade unions
organize it, whose managers are directed by Bentonville to make
"a full-time commitment" to "staying union-free" ("Labor Relations
and You at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center #6022," September
1991 , p. 7)?

Wal-Mart has been reined in by the labor movement abroad:
"in Germany, . . . many Wal-Mart workers are unionized and
the company abides by a sectorwide agreement with a large
retail union, and has been the target of pickets and warning
strikes . . . . In Brazil Wal-Mart has had to reach agreement
with unions on some workers' rights issues, while in Japan
all of the company's workers are unionized, and Wal-Mart
abides by an agreement reached with the stores' previous
owner"

(Featherstone, June 28, 2004). To the surprise of many,
even Chinese workers (whose "right to strike was removed
from China's constitution in 1982" [John Pomfret, "Labor
Unrest in China Reflects Increasing Disenchantment,"
The Guardian Weekly, May 4, 2000, p.37]) recently saw
Wal-Mart reluctantly agree to allow the All China Federation
of Trade Unions to unionize Wal-Mart workers. The Chinese
Communist Party and its unions, fearful of the political
fallouts of naked capitalism ("[S]ome action by Beijing is
crucial. Workers are increasingly taking to the streets.
The number of protests reached 300,000 in 2003
estimates [Robin] Munro [research director at China
Labor Bulletin]. This year more than 500 workers in
Dongguan damaged facilities and injured a manager
at a big Taiwanese shoemaker" [Dexter Roberts, "China:
A Workers' State Helping The Workers?" BusinessWeek,
December 13, 2004]), are at least willing to make
a show of standing up for workers' rights.

Will organized labor in the United States? So far, the
United Food and Commercial Workers has spent little:
"the UFCW devotes only 2 percent of its national budget
to the Wal-Mart campaign" (Featherstone, June 28, 2004);
and the UFCW has won nothing: "In the United States, only
one group of Wal-Mart employees has successfully
organized. In February 2000 ten meatcutters in Jacksonville,
Texas, voted 7 to 3 to unionize their tiny bargaining unit.
Two weeks later, Wal-Mart abruptly eliminated their jobs
by switching to prepackaged meat and assigning the butchers
to other departments, effectively abolishing the only
union shop on its North American premises"
(Featherstone, June 28, 2004).

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International
Union, wants to change that. Stern recently gave the AFL-
CIO an ultimatum: adopt the changes he proposes, or the
SEIU will pull out of the federation. Among the changes he
demanded in his ten-point program, "he called for the AFL-
CIO to return half of all dues to unions to fund aggressive
organizing drives. And he said the federation should set
aside about $25 million -- out of its $118-million annual
budget -- for an effort to organize Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "
(Nancy Cleeland, "The Service Employees International
President Threatens to Leave the Umbrella Federation,"
Los Angeles Times, November 11, 2004). Whatever you
think of the rest of Stern's program, you would have to
agree that spending more on organizing is the way to go.

The question is how the money will be spent, however.
Peter Olney argued that union organizing should focus on
"the most strategic sectors of the economy that are crucial
to labor's overall power and place in society," one of which
is the "logistics (transport and storage)" sector ("The
Arithmetic of Decline and Some Proposals for Renewal,"
New Labor Forum, Spring/Summer 2002). Why logistics?
First of all, it is impossible for capital to offshore the jobs
of transport and warehouse workers. Furthermore, corporations'
obsession with "just-in-time" inventory control makes them
vulnerable to supply disruptions.

Efficient supply chain management is the key to the profitability
of Wal-Mart, which pioneered "just-in-time" inventory in the
retail industry: "The 'Wal-Mart model' is the leading retail
strategy (perhaps the leading business strategy in any sector)
to emerge since the 1970s. This model features a super-
efficient production process in which each operation --
buying products from manufacturers, distributing them to
the retail stores, and selling them to customers -- is linked
to the next in a continuous 'just-in-time' chain" (Annete
Bernhardt, "The Wal-Mart Trap," Dollars & Sense 231,
September-October 2000). Wal-Mart's zeal to "hold the
lowest feasible [inventory] level while avoiding the risks
of 'stock outs'" (Bahar Barami, "Productivity Gains from Pull
Logistics: Tradeoffs of Internal and External Costs," Paper
presented at the Transportation Research Board Conference
on Transportation and Economic Development, September
23-25, 2001), its competitive advantage, is also the weak
link in its anti-union empire.

According to the Teamsters, Wal-Mart had 78 distribution
centers that employed approximately 25,000 workers by
the end of 2001 ("Wal-Mart: Driving Down Standards in
the Food Industry," July 11, 2000) -- about 3% of the total
Wal-Mart employees in the United States at that time. By
now, it has more than 100 distribution centers, but the ratio
of Wal-Mart distribution center workers to Wal-Mart store and
office clerks is likely to have remained roughly the same (and
it will decline further soon, upon the introduction of radio-
frequency identification). It makes sense to concentrate on
organizing distribution center workers, who represent a small
proportion of the total Wal-Mart workforce and yet control
the strategic points of the Wal-Mart supply chain, as several
labor writers suggested (for instance, Marc Brazeau, "What
Would a Successful Recognition Campaign for Wal-Mart
Workers Look Like?" The Joe Hill Dispatch, April 30, 2004; and
David Moberg, "The Wal-Mart Effect: The Hows and Whys of
Beating the Bentonville Behemoth," In These Times, June 10,
2004 ). What if the unions spent $25 million salting the
distribution centers? "Training and hiring new professional
organizers, Olney argues, is not as important as encouraging
potential organizers to take jobs themselves, in target
workplaces. This 'salting' -- taking a job with the intent to
organize -- was one factor in the massive drives of the
1930s," says Jane Slaughter ("Organizing for Numbers --
Or for Power?" Labor Notes, October 2002).

Distribution centers are good targets from the point of view
of using public subsidies already lavished upon them for an
argument for working-class community control. Philip
Mattera and Anna Purinton found that "90 percent of the
company's distribution centers have been subsidized" and
that Wal-Mart has received an average of about $6.9 million
per subsidized distribution center, far more than $2.8 million
that it captured per its subsidized store ("Shopping for
Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance
Its Never-Ending Growth," May 2004). A Wal-Mart distribution
center generally employs "660 to 800 employees" (Mary
Hopkin, "Grandview Official Wants Grant Put on Hold," Tri-
City Herald, December 20, 2002). That's $8,600-10,000
per job in direct subsidies alone, not counting the costs of
"food stamps, Medicaid, the earned income tax credit and
other social safety-net programs that Wal-Mart retail workers
(and their families) may be eligible for because of the low
wages and limited health insurance coverage they receive":
"A state survey [in Georgia] found that 10,261 of the 166,000
participants in the PeachCare program, which provides health
care coverage for youngsters in low-income uninsured families,
were children of Wal-Mart employees. This was more than
10 times the number for any other employer" (Mattera and
Purinton, May 2004).

The main obstacle is locations, locations, locations. Take
a look at the map of Wal-Mart distribution centers: [map
not shown...bw]
Source: Teamsters, "Wal-Mart Organizing Update," Warehouse
Newsletter, (August 2000)

Many of them are in the South, especially outside metropolitan
areas, where unions have had little success organizing. Wal-
Mart's aggressive expansion, however, has brought it into the
traditional strongholds of organized labor in the East, the West,
and the Midwest, laying the ground for a coordinated national
campaign.

Then, there are choke points at ports. Chris Kutalik's
article on the "[w] wildcat strikes, rallies, and highway
blockades by port truck drivers [that] rocked West and
East Coast ports in late April and early May" demonstrates
their potential power to impact the bottom lines of many
bosses, "from ship owners to port authorities to retailers
like Wal-Mart":

Wildcat strikes, rallies, and highway blockades by port truck
drivers rocked West and East Coast ports in late April and
early May. Angered by rising diesel fuel prices and other
factors that keep them at or under the poverty line, hundreds
of mostly African-American and Latino owner-operators
(sometimes called troqueros) parked their trucks and
blocked terminals . . ..

The troqueros' unique position in the transportation system
enabled them to shut down freight traffic and force powerful
interests, from ship owners to port authorities to retailers like
Wal-Mart, to listen to their demands.

Troqueros move freight between ports and inter-modal
terminals, the sites where truck cargoes are loaded onto
rail cars or unloaded from them. All freight that enters the
country must pass through a troquero's hands before being
loaded onto other trucks or onto trains for its journey to
warehouses, stores, and factories around the country.

In West Coast ports truck drivers are paid $50-$200 per cargo
container hauled (often a truckload), depending on length of
the trip. After expenses for fuel, insurance, registration, and
maintenance, earnings average $8-$9 an hour, according to
Teamsters Port Division estimates. With diesel prices hitting
record highs -- $2.39 per gallon in California on April 30 --
drivers' income has been eroded even further, pushing drivers
to desperation.(Chris Kutalik, "Dockside Wildcats Halt Freight
Traffic: Gas Prices Fuel Port Drivers' Revolt," Labor Notes
,June 2004 )

The issues that drove the port truckers to their direct actions --
"a 30 percent rise in freight rates paid by trucking companies,"
"fuel surcharge increases of 5 percent, plus 5 percent for each
$.25 a gallon when diesel fuel tops $1.95 a gallon," "[r]ecognition
of the drivers as workers" rather than "independent contractors"
were their demands (Kutalik, June 2004 ) -- remain unresolved,
providing opportunities for joint actions between them and Wal-
Mart distribution workers, attacking Wal-Mart's supply chain
simultaneously.

#posted by Yoshie : 8:20 PM : :1 blogger comments :comments(0)
http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/12/attacking-wal-marts-supply-chain.html
Tuesday, December 14, 2004

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

9) Faced with US Threats, Cuba Flexes Military Muscle
Pensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Havana, Dec 14 (PL) Having successfully passed its first day of military
maneuvers, Cuba will carry on Tuesday its Strategic Bastion 2004 War
Games, conceived as a deterrent to eventual military attacks on the
island from the United States.

On Monday, Army Commander Raul Castro, also Minister of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), gave the go ahead to the exercise,
which advocates the military doctrine of the War of the Entire
Population, meaning that every Cuban will have the means, a place and a
way to fight the enemy.

The first of the exercise's three stages took place under a sham
attack by US forces, as the prelude to large scale invasion.

The Cuban FAR chief explained that tens of thousands soldiers and
million citizens will participate in the exercises for seven days,
warning Cuba will become a huge hornet nest if any enemy dares to attack
it.

After decreeing general mobilization and warning regular armies and
reservists, units of the FAR and Interior Ministry checked that every
order issued by the higher echelons was fulfilled, thus showing the high
capacity of the local population to fight a war.

In line with preparations, the exercise includes guaranteeing the
protection of lives and adequate supplies such as water, food, medicines
and other goods.

Raul Castro, who holds the possition of Cuba's first vice president,
recalled Cuban president Fidel Castro's words that defense must become
a top priority, as history has eloquently demonstrated that those who
forget this principle did not survive their mistake.

ile/iff/asg
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

10) New Year Glum As Prices Soar
By Irina Titova
STAFF WRITER
The St. Petersburg Times
#1029, Tuesday, December 14, 2004
TOP STORY

{As part of Russia's agreement to enter the World Trade Organization,
expected to take place in 2007, the Putin regime agreed to European
Union demands to allow energy prices in Russia to rise to "market
levels". Natural gas in Russia had been selling at 20% of what E.U.
customers had to pay. The following article shows the consequences for
the workers of Russia's this further integration into the world
imperialist system...Ernest Tate}

With New Year just a couple of weeks away, many Russian are looking to
the future not with joyful anticipation of holidays or optimism, but
with dread of financial instability and rising prices.

"I don't feel excited about the New Year holidays because, as usual, on
Jan. 1 prices will shoot up," said Tatyana Rybkina, 42, a teacher.

St. Petersburg residents already have an impending taste of the doom
approaching them; long lines have formed at metro stations ever since it
was announced that the cost of one ride on public transportation
services in St. Petersburg price will rise from 8 rubles (28 cents) to
10 rubles (36 cents) on Jan. 1.

As they did in Soviet times, people not only tried to buy as many tokens
as they could to save money, but they also hoarded them because they
feared that there might not be any left because others are also hoarding
them.

The metro first limited sales to 10 tokens at a time, but this has now
been reduced to two tokens, meaning people have to line up every second
ride. On Tuesday, a new type a plastic card will be issued in place of
tokens.

"It's very hard for me as a pensioner to have prices going up for
transportation when from next year we pensioners will no longer be able
to ride for free," said Tamara Sokolova, 60, who boosts her pension by
working as a librarian. "My income is 3,000 rubles ($107), and now I'll
have to pay about 500 rubles a month on public transportation all together."

She doesn't "experience any joy expecting New Year, because nowadays New
Year automatically means prices go up," she added.

"It's a modern gift for this holiday from our government - they increase
the prices of everything - food, fuel, services, etc," she said.

In Soviet times prices would go down before the New Year holidays, she
added.

Food prices have been skyrocketing in recent months, she said.

In early fall, Sokolova could buy 10 eggs for 23 rubles, while the same
number costs 32 rubles.

The price of meat in markets has doubled since spring; a kilo of beef or
pork cost 100 rubles in May, today it's 200 rubles and more, Sokolova said.

Consumer price inflation is 11.9 percent this year, RIA Novosti reported.

According to the Federal Statistics Service, egg prices rose 12.9
percent in November and 24.3 percent for the year to date.

The service said milk prices rose 6.6 percent and meat prices 1.7
percent in November. Experts say the rising food and transportation
prices are related to rising fuel prices.

Valery Nesterov, an oil and gas analyst at Moscow's office of brokerage
Troika Dialog, said the prices for oil in Russia doubled between October
2003 and October 2004.

Thus, if at the end of 2003 a liter of A-92 gasoline in St. Petersburg
cost 8 or 9 rubles, this month it costs almost 16 rubles. The rise has
been so great that it stimulated President Vladimir Putin last week to
ask Vagit Alekperov, head of leading oil company LUKoil, to lower prices
for oil products on the domestic market.

Putin expressed his hope that if LUKoil did so, other big oil companies
would follow suit, which would improve the situation that "one cannot
describe as normal."

On Friday, State Duma deputies also expressed their deep concern about
fuel prices, saying they were holding back economic development.

Alekperov said LUKoil will lower its domestic wholesale but that it is
no less important that oil retailers do the same. Troika Dialog's
Nesterov said that although Putin's approach to Alekperov was unusual,
it was still a positive moment.

"Such action creates an image that the government is working and cares
about the economic situation in the country," Nesterov said in a
telephone interview. "However, it's better not to rule by giving such
kind of directions, but to do so by a providing well-balanced economy
and preventing the influence of monopolies."

Dmitry Belousov, an expert with the Center for Microeconomic Analysis
and Short-Term Factors, named several other factors that he linked to
rising prices.

Rising grain prices led to higher meat prices because of the fodder feed
to livestock. The stabilization of ruble in relation to the dollar led
imported goods getting more expensive, there had been fears about banks,
and the dollar had depreciated. At the same time prices for communal
services had gone up.

The effects of these had hit some sectors of the population harder than
others, he said.

"Today prices for the poor grow quicker than for the wealthy," Belousov
said. "The prices for household equipment, which are products that
mainly interest the well-off are stable. Prices for products such as
bread and communal services, which are of bigger demand among the poor,
are rising."

Sokolova said that her librarian's wage, which is paid by the state, is
supposed to be raised in line with rising costs, but the raises never
catch up with runaway prices.

"I feel that I'm catastrophically short of money," she said. "Today I
have to think hard about buying meat. Usually, we buy it only by for a
festive dinner."

Ordinary Russians not only have to count their kopeks when it comes to
buying food, they say they barely have enough money to buy clothes.

"I can't afford to buy good clothes," Sokolova said. "That's why I can't
buy good quality winter shoes for 2,500 rubles and I buy lower quality
ones for 1,000 rubles. Such shoes wear out very quickly, I mend them,
and wear them again."

Nadezhda Chekhovich, 50, a historian who works at one of the city's
scientific institutes, said her monthly salary is 1,700 rubles.

"I buy only secondhand clothes," Chekhovich said.

The prices for books and concerts, products that are important to her,
have doubled in recent times, she said.

However, not all are down about life, even if it is becoming more expensive.

Pensioner Alexander Vasserman, 60, said he is not depressed about the
economic situation despite his low income.

"I'm sure there are always at least two ways out of a difficult
situation," he said. "Sometimes there are even more ways out. It means
we'll find a way out that will enable us to live no worse."

"For instance, instead of complaining about the metro getting more
expensive, I will ride a bicycle because it's healthy and free," he said.
-- 30 --

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11) States and Cities Must Hunt Terror Plots,
Mass. Governor Says
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON
December 15, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/national/15secure.html?ex=1104131929&ei=1&
en=9376916c110d0bab


{The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by fogel@marshall.edu.
Here's the full article--let me know if
it comes through. Thanks,
Jerise fogel@marshall.edu}

BOSTON, Dec. 14 - To protect America against terrorists,
state and local agencies, as well as private businesses,
need to gather intelligence themselves and not just rely on
intelligence gathered by the federal government, Gov. Mitt
Romney of Massachusetts, the leader of a national working
group on safeguarding the nation, told homeland security
officials on Tuesday.

"The eyes and ears which gather intelligence need to be as
developed in our country as they were in foreign countries
during the cold war," Mr. Romney told the group. "Meter
readers, E.M.S. drivers, law enforcement, private sector
personnel need to be on the lookout for information which
may be as useful."

In a presentation by telephone to Tom Ridge, the secretary
of homeland security, and members of the Homeland Security
Advisory Council, who were meeting in San Diego, Mr. Romney
said that local law enforcement agencies should stop
believing that they could protect all possible targets of
terrorism.

"We could increase our law enforcement personnel tenfold,
but we can't protect every target," Mr. Romney said. "There
are just too many schools, churches, stadiums, bridges,
tunnels, roads, subways. We have to be able to find the bad
guys before they carry out their acts, and that can only be
done through intelligence. The financial resources of our
nation and our states should be increasingly devoted to
this effort."

The proposal by Mr. Romney's working group represents a new
and more assertive role for many local law enforcement
agencies and other public and private entities in fighting
terrorism, some experts on domestic security said.

Some cities and states, including Massachusetts, Colorado
and Los Angeles, have set up or are planning "fusion
centers," which collect information from local sources and
seek to analyze it and draw conclusions. New York City goes
beyond that, sending detectives to places like Israel and
Singapore, as well as to other states to investigate
businesses that sell explosives.

But under Mr. Romney's proposal, every state would be urged
to marshal local agencies and businesses, with the goal of
collecting details and observations that might, when
stitched together, point to a potential terrorist attack.

"If you have a transit system that circles a major city and
you get reports of people photographing trains at various
locations, well, the report from one police station may be
meaningless, but several of them may be a pattern," said
John D. Cohen, senior homeland security policy adviser to
Massachusetts.

The proposal "makes a great deal of sense to me," said Dave
McIntyre, who teaches about domestic security at Texas A&M
University. "I don't see how you're going to protect every
high school football stadium, every school bus, every
theater. I do think that we might find that a better
investment of resources is to look at intelligence and
investigative development."

Mr. Romney, who dealt with post-9/11 security issues as
president of the organizing committee for the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City, said in an interview on Monday
that his involvement with the domestic security working
group was an outgrowth of the concern he felt as governor
about the way the federal government was transmitting
information and the lack of direction that the federal
government was giving the states.

"I was initially quite frustrated that the homeland
security money came without any sense of what states should
do," Mr. Romney said, saying that when he raised those
concerns, he was asked to assemble and lead a working group
on the subject.

Mr. Romney, who is often mentioned as a Republican with
potential or ambition to occupy a national office, insisted
in the interview that he had no desire to be the next
director of homeland security, or to take any other
position in the Bush administration. He said that after the
November elections, he told Andrew H. Card Jr., the White
House chief of staff, "in case my name gets bandied about
for any position, I'm filling my entire term" as governor,
which expires in two years.

Dr. McIntyre said a potential pitfall of the working
group's proposal was the issue of making sure that local
agencies and businesses did not violate civil liberties.
"How do we properly ensure that we're investigating some
Americans without investigating all Americans?" he asked.

Mr. Cohen, the security adviser, said: "When we're talking
about engaging frontline personnel, we're not asking them
to go out and spy on people. In the course of them doing
their jobs day to day, they collect information. And we're
talking about teaching people to be more sensitive when
information that is collected in the course of their
day-to-day business may actually have a nexus with
terrorism."

At Tuesday's meeting in San Diego, with Mr. Romney
presenting his report from Boston, Mr. Ridge asked about
the cost of the working group's plan. Mr. Romney, whose
group included state and local officials and business
executives from around the country, said some of the money
for training local officials and setting up fusion centers
could come from federal homeland security grants to states.


But, he added: "Whether I'm going to get funding from the
federal government or not, this is a priority and I'm going
to go after this. I went to the Legislature this year to
get funding for our fusion center."

Mr. Romney said the intelligence that states received from
the federal government was "oftentimes confusing" and
sometimes contradictory. His report recommended that
information be disseminated through a single federal
agency.

Mr. Romney's report also said that too much information
from the federal agencies was classified as secret or top
secret, barring state officials from giving details to most
local officials, who do not have adequate security
clearance.

"You're put in a position of not passing it on or passing
it on to someone without the right clearance and violating
the law," Mr. Cohen said.