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Australian Anti-War Activist Joan Coxsedge Condemns `Brutal Cowardly War' in Libya by `Washington and Its Cronies'

In an Oct. 30, 2011 letter from Australia, long-time Australian anti-war activist and writer Joan Coxsedge (who’s also a former elected anti-war member of the Victoria State parliament in Australia and a long-time Latin American solidarity activist) summarized the current world situation, from an anti-war and anti-imperialist left perspective, in the following way:

“I’d prefer to talk about cheerful happy things seeing as how we’re close to Christmas, but the world we live in is so out of whack, so full of hate, deception, war and injustice, we cannot turn our back on its descent into barbarism. I’m thinking of our young and the sort of world I want for them.

“Libya, like everywhere else, wasn’t perfect, and yet it was an example of an independent, prosperous and secular African country which used its great oil wealth for the benefit of the Libyan people, providing free education and health care and decent housing, and helping poor parts of Africa, but which has been completely destroyed in a brutal cowardly war called `humanitarian’ by Washington and its cronies.

“More than 26,000 ‘sorties’ dropped more than 30,000 bombs - an estimated two Libyans killed per bomb without a single NATO casualty. But a major problem looming for freedom-loving NATO and its quisling National Transitional Council (NTC) - now the ‘legitimate’ government of Libya - is that the CIA’s proxy ‘Rebel’ army is led by the violent Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a self-described affiliate of al-Qaida in North Africa. The ‘rebels’ expelled most of Libya’s African migrant population followed by a massacre and ethnic cleansing. Bodies of black men hang along the highways and bound and tortured black Africans are dumped by the roadside, all under the eye of the first Black President of the US of A. The lynchings have been so horrific that African leaders across the continent have been forced to loudly protest, which must have been heard in the White House, but Obama and his cohorts in the western capitals and television news channels prefer words like ‘pro-democracy’, ‘freedom fighters’ and ‘liberation’ to describe the orgy of looting and killing. Mob rule with Orwellian overtones where War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength.

“Qaddafi’s final moments are part of the long trail of savagery. At the end of the battle for Sirte, NATO planes bombed his convoy, killing a large number of people. In Sirte’s Mahari Hotel, more than 50 bodies, some with hands bound, were executed at close range and others were taken from their hospital beds and murdered. Qaddafi survived but was tortured and sodomised by a frenzied mob – captured on phone camera - and allegedly shot by 22-year old Sanad al-Ureibi. Only a few days earlier, US Sec.of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Libya, had said: ‘we hope he can be captured or shot soon’ an incitement against US law and grounds for impeachment.

“I hope Mrs Clinton will be detained in some foreign country and handed a subpoena. According to CBS news, she had a laugh on learning about Qaddafi’s death: ‘we came, we saw, he died,’ she said. Ominous, but should we be surprised? As independent journalist Thomas Mountain writes about the Obama presidency: ’Isn’t this the guy who raised over $500 million to help him buy the White House, with $300 million of that from Wall Street...Isn’t this the guy who surrounded himself before his election with the very worst criminals from the Clinton White House?’

“Meanwhile, the race for juicy contracts has begun. As Qaddafi’s mutilated body lay in a meat store in Misrata, the UK’s Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told British companies to ‘pack their suitcases’ and head to Libya and an Israeli-American company has offered young Libyans jobs to train as police if they refuse to give up their guns.

“Next in line for a ‘democratic’ makeover, Syria and Iran. In Syria, heavily-armed gangs using legitimate demonstrations as cover have killed soldiers, police and civilians in the most brutal way, weapons shipped from Turkey and Lebanon paid for by US ‘fronts’ and others with old scores to settle like the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. If the Syrian government is brought down, there will be bloody turmoil and the status of women and minorities will go down the drain.

“US Attorney-General Holder has upped the ante against Iran by making wild and fabricated claims that it has employed a used-car salesman with a conviction for fraud to hire Mexican gangsters to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. A puerile story but an all too familiar one, using blatant lies to justify another murderous intervention.

“Americans need reminding that while Obama is stripping $320bn from their basic healthcare (50 million can’t afford health insurance and 46 million live below the poverty line), the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost (so far) an obscene $1,268,965,662,411.

“Since we lurched into the 21st century, Washington has destroyed the US Constitution, the separation of powers, international law, the accountability of government and sacrificed every moral principle in its quest to rule the world. Former 4-star general and NATO commander Wesley Clark has described a neocon plan to invade 7 countries in 5 years. On cue, Obama announced he was sending troops to Uganda, South Sudan and the Congo, but only in ‘self-defence’.

“With Libya secured, the US invasion of the African continent is well under way. The target? China replacing al-Qaida as the official American ‘threat’. Whereas China brings Africa investment and infrastructure, Washington sends troops, bombs and military bases. And sooner or later, it’s naked aggression against China and Russia will blow up in our faces, specially here in Australia, where Pine Gap and other US bases play such an integral role in US war games.

“But Americans – like most Australians – have no idea why we’re at war in the Middle East; that our liberties are vanishing and that hard economic times are here to stay, a delusional world created for us by our global masters. While we drown in trivia and irrelevancy no longer permitted to know the truth, our monolithic media bombard us about weapons of mass destruction and demonize Washington’s handpicked enemies.

“But now we have a way to bypass the gatekeepers. All over the web dissident writers are offering alternative analyses of events and drawing attention to significant information ignored or sidelined by the mainstream. Final thought. Barnaby is the 2nd stupidest Joyce in Australia. Unions, fight back!”

Promoting Stupid Growth, Over-Development and Unaffordable Housing in the Back Bay: A brief look at the Back Bay Association and its Special Influence

Most people who live in the Back Bay, the South End and other neighborhoods in Boston don’t think that the Menino Administration’s Boston Redevelopment Authority [BRA] should allow Simon Property/Copley Place Associates to build a 52-story skyscraper of unaffordable apartments and an enclosed “Wintergarden” on public, open space at Copley Place in the Back Bay.

Yet in a recent Back Bay Association press release, Back Bay Association President and “Citizens Advisory Committee” [CAC] member Margaret “Meg” Mainzer-Cohen wrote that “I encourage all of our members to consider sending a letter in support of this project;” and the Back Bay Association president also attached a sample form letter to this press release which claimed that Simon Property/Copley Place Associates’ “Copley Place Residential Addition and Retail Expansion” construction project “will incorporate…smart growth design principles” and “was thoughtful and well-conceived at the outset” and stated that “I urge the Boston Redevelopment Authority to approve this project.”

Coincidentally, the Indianapolis-based corporation that wants to push a massive construction project that actually incorporates stupid growth design principles into the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods—Simon Property/Copley Associates—has had its special, private corporate interests represented on the Back Bay Association board of directors in recent years. According to the Back Bay Association’s website, for example, a Simon Property Group/Copley Place Associates and Residences at Copley Place executive named Bill Kenney has been both a member of the Back Bay Association’s board of directors and the Treasurer of the Back Bay Association’s board of directors in recent years.

In the Form 990 financial filing for 2010 that it submitted to the IRS on May 16, 2011 the “non-profit” and tax-exempt Simon Property-linked Back Bay Association revealed that in 2010 it “worked with the Boston Redevelopment Authority [BRA] on rehabilitation and new construction projects in the Back Bay Area of the City of Boston,” “sponsored study to assess the development of turnpike exit ramp and other transportation issues,” and “worked with city government officials on…development and improvement plans.”

Voters who live in the Back Bay, South End and other neighborhoods in Boston may not have ever cast any ballots that authorized the Back Bay Association to work “with city government officials…on development and improvement plans” and, thus, exercise an undemocratic special political influence within the Menino Administration’s BRA. But Back Bay Association President Mainzer-Cohen and another member of the Back Bay Association board of directors, Back Bay Real Estate Developer Ronald Druker of The Druker Company, have contributed a lot of money to help fund Boston Mayor Menino’s political campaigns in recent years.

Between March 31, 2005 and April 7, 2009, for example, 5 campaign contributions—totaling $2,500—were given to Mayor Menino’s campaign committee by Back Bay Association President Mainzer-Cohen, according to data posted on the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance [MA OCPF] website. And between March 28, 2005 and April 11, 2011, for example, 7 campaign contributions—totaling $3,500—were also given to Mayor Menino’s campaign committee by Back Bay Association Director Ronald Druker.

Besides helping to fund Mayor Menino’s election campaigns, Back Bay Association Director Druker, coincidentally, has also been apparently attempting to gain a special political influence over local and state politicians in recent years by contributing a lot of money to the campaign committees of members of the Boston City Council, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s Political Action Committee [PAC] and the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

Between September 15, 2006 and October 10, 2011, for example, Back Bay Association Director Druker made the following local election campaign contributions:

1. 5 campaign contributions—totaling $850—to Boston City Councilor John Connolly’s campaign committee:

2. 6 campaign contributions—totaling $600—to Boston City Councilor Stephen Murphy’s campaign committee;

3. 3 campaign contributions—totaling $400—to Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo’s campaign committee;

4. 2 campaign contributions—totaling $300—to Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan’s campaign committee;

5. 2 campaign contributions—totaling $250—to Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley’s campaign committee; and

6. 3 campaign contributions—totaling $750—to Boston City Councilor Mike Ross’s campaign committee.

In addition, between June 1, 2006 and February 8, 2011, Back Bay Association Director Druker gave 4 campaign contributions—totaling $2,000—to the Greater Boston Real Estate Board PAC and 3 campaign contributions—totaling $4,000—to the Democratic State Committee of Massachusetts, according to the MA OCPF website.

The Back Bay Association’s Form 990 financial filing for 2010 also indicated that Back Bay Association President Mainzer-Cohen was paid an annual salary of $116,830 by the “non-profit” and tax-exempt Back Bay Association in 2010. In addition, Back Bay Association Director Druker apparently has recently developed an interesting personal business relationship with the tax-exempt and “non-profit” association on whose board of directors he sits. As the Back Bay Association’s Form 990 financial filing for 2010 also revealed:

“Beginning June 1, 2010, the Association entered into a commercial office space lease with a trust of which Ronald M. Druker is a trustee. The amount of rent paid under the lease in 2010 was $18,642.”

Real estate developers like Back Bay Association Director Druker apparently believe they will make more money by promoting more stupid growth design principles, over-development and unaffordable housing construction in the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods at the corner of Dartmouth and Stuart streets. But, from a democratic point of view, that shouldn’t mean that elected officials in the City of Boston allow Back Bay Association executives to exercise an undemocratic, special political influence over neighborhood zoning, development and housing policies in exchange for their election campaign contributions.

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U.S. Male Worker Jobless Rate Increases To 9.5 Percent Under Obama & GOP House of Representatives

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all U.S. male workers over 16 years-of-age increased from 9.4 to 9.5 percent between September and October 2011 under the Democratic Obama Administration and the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives; while the unemployment rate for all Latino or Hispanic workers in the United states increased from 11.3 to 11.4 percent during the same period.

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 16.2 percent in October 2011; while the unemployment rate in October 2011 for all Black workers was still 15.1 percent. The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 37.8 percent in October 2011; while the unemployment rate for Black women over 20 years-of-age was still 12.6 percent in October 2011.

The number of officially unemployed Black workers was still 2,720,000 in October 2011, according to the “seasonally adjusted” data; while the number of officially unemployed Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 1,321,000 in October 2011. The number of jobless Black women workers over 20 years-of-age in October 2011 was still 1,164,000; and the number of unemployed Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of age was still 231,000 in October 2011.

Between September and October 2011, the number of unemployed Latino or Hispanic workers increased by 56,000 (from 2,604,000 to 2,660,000) according to the “seasonally adjusted” data; while the “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino or Hispanic male workers over 20 years-of-age also increased from 9.3 to 9.8 percent during the same period. The number of unemployed Latino or Hispanic male workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 66,000 (from 1,225,000 to 1,291,000) between September and October 2011, according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data; while the official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latina or Hispanic female workers in the United States was still 10.5 percent in October 2011.

According to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the official unemployment rate for Latino or Hispanic youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 27.1 to 31 percent between September and October 2011; while the number of jobless Latino or Hispanic youths increased by 50,000 (from 257,000 to 307,000) during the same period. The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age also increased from 21.3 to 21.8 percent between September and October 2011; while the number of jobless white youths increased by 43,000 (from 1,006,000 to 1,047,000) during the same period.

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white workers was still 8 percent in October 2011; while the number of officially unemployed white workers in the United States increased by 70,000 (from 9,951,000 to 10,021,000) between September and October 2011. The number of unemployed white male workers over 20 years-of-age also increased by 112,000 (from 5,034,000 to 5,146,000) between September and October 2011; while the official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 7.7 to 7.9 percent during the same period. And in October 2011, the official total number of unemployed U.S. workers (male and female) over 16-years-of-age was still 13,897,000, according to the “seasonally adjusted” data.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ November 4, 2011 press release:

“…Government employment continued to trend down….In October, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…

“Among the marginally attached, there were 967,000 discouraged workers in October…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

“Construction employment declined by 20,000 in October…Government employment continued to trend down over the month (-24,000), with most of the October decline in the non-educational component of state government…”