Politics Archives - Page 2 of 5

Intifada – Zachary Lockman & Joel Benin

Published on April 5, 2009

Cover of Intifada

Intifada
Zachary Lockman & Joel Benin
423 pages including index
published in 1989

During Israel’s invasion of Gaza this January there was one of those stupid drummed up controversies that always happen whenever Israel’s engaging in warcrimes again and hence coming under foreign pressure. In this case it was Dutch Socialist Party member of parliament Harry van Bommel who got into trouble after his call for Intifada was twisted from being a call to resistance into not just a call for armed resistance but fullblown terrorism. Various zionist pressure groups were keen to pretend that intifada invariably meant terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings while ignoring that the first Intifada had been characterised by non-violent protests and most socalled Palestinian violence only happened in self defence against IDF aggression. Nobody honest can call boys throwing stones at tanks terrorists, but that didn’t stop our local zionists from pretending it was, helped by conflating the much more violent Second Intifada with the first.

Now I grew up in the eighties and I remember the first Intifada. I was barely in highschool when it started in 1987 and not very politically aware, but I did notice that by late 1988, early 1989 there were quite a lot older students wearing keffiyehs, usually as shawls, as a symbol of their support for the Palestinians; this at a not too leftwing Christian school. The Intifada had the same sort of stature as the ANC’s struggle to end Apartheid had because everybody could see how the Palestinians were being oppressed and how justified they were in their (largely non-violent) resistance despite IDF agression. It was therefore a blatant rewriting of history to equate Intifada with terrorism and to confirm this, I read this collection of essays on the Intifada.

Dansen met de Duivel – Peter Rensen

Published on February 28, 2009

Cover of Dansen met de Duivel

Dansen met de Duivel
Peter Rensen
167 pages
published in 1994

Geert Wilders is far from the first racial demagogue to appear in Dutch politics; he’s just more succesful than most. His most recent predecessor was Hans Janmaat, who at his best only managed to get three seats in parliament with his party, the socalled Centrumdemocraten. In constrast, Wilders managed to get nine seats in his first election and is currently polling anywhere from fifteen to twenty seats. Of course, Wilders is operating at a time when rightwing radicalism and Islamophobia have almost become respectable and opinions that would’ve gotten him ostracised twenty years ago are now applauded. But, as Dansen met de Duivel (“Dancing with the Devil”) shows, there are other reasons why the Centrumdemocraten never grew very far beyond the real hardcore racist vote of about two percent or so.

Dansen met de Duivel is the story of how its author, Peter Rensen, infiltrated the party and his experiences working for them. Inbetween his personal experiences he also sketches a quick history of Janmaat and his party. What comes across is a party that’s content to stay relatively small, doesn’t really want to move beyond the comfortable limits of the protest pary, as that might entail losing control. Janmaat himself was kicked out of the first racist group he was involved with and got elected for, the Centrumpartij, who remained first competitors and were more openly racists than Janmaat’s party. He wasn’t about to let that happen again.

What We Say Goes — Noam Chomsky

Published on October 5, 2008

Cover of What We Say Goes

What We Say Goes
Noam Chomsky
223 pages including index
published in 2007

Noam Chomsky has been one of the most consistent critics of American hegemony and empire of the past four decades, maintaining a prodigious rate of output over the years as one of the few socalled public intellectuals who does not see his role as parroting received wisdom. His books, articles and interviews have always managed to explain in clear, understandable language how America and its ruling class keeps its power both domestically and abroad and particularly how it dictactes the boundaries of acceptable discourse. A measure of his importance as a critic of American power can be found in the vehemence of the criticism aimed at him by both conservative and liberal commentators. Despite their differences, both groups believe in American exceptionalism, the idea that America has a right, or even a duty to shape the rest of the world according to its own desires. What Chomsky has done for so long has been to show the reality behind “defending democracy” and “humanitarian intervention” and neither liberals nor conservatives like this.

What We Say Goes is his latest book, a collection of interviews he gave to David Barsamian about “U.S. power in a changing world”. It’s fair to say that there are few surprises here for those who’ve read his previous books, with the interview format used here precluding much indepth analysis. However, if you look at this book as an introduction to Chomsky and his concerns, What We Say Goes works fine. It’s short and to the point and as per usual Chomsky manages to cut to the heart of things quickly. He talks about all his usual obsessions — the way in which democracy and human rights are used against official enemies, the role of the US in the Middle East and South America, the role of the socalled free press in determining the boundaries of criticism allowed — and ties them together, with the interview format helping in keeping things rolling along.

Reporting War — Stuart Allan and Barbie Zelizer

Published on August 20, 2008

Cover of Reporting War

Reporting War
Stuart Allan & Barbie Zelizer (editors)
374 pages including index
published in 2004

Having kept a politically orientated weblog the past half decade or so I’ve become acutely aware of the limitations of journalism, particularly during wartime. The current war for South Ossetia provides a good example of these limitations, were we’re seeing live how difficult it is for journalists to even get to the combat zone, not to mention how dangerous, as the death of a Dutch camera man proved. Perhaps more worrying, as the conflict continued the reporting on it which started off fairly neutral has become more and more partisan, especially once the United States and the European Union got involved in its resolution, with Russia pictured as the agressor when in fact it was Georgia who started the war. Russian statements are treated with skepticism while quotes from approved official sources, like the Pentagon or NATO are quoted verbatim. In general the war is treated through an American or European lens, rarely from the point of view of the Russians or Georgians, let alone
the Ossetians…

All these problems are described in Reporting War, a collection of essays on the role of journalism in wartime, its difficulties and dillemas. Published a year after the American invasion of Iraq, a lot of attention is of course paid to the problems of that particular war. The book doesn’t just look at the role of the journalists themselves, but also how they are dealt with by armies and governments involved in war, with a specific focus on the US army’s management of journalist during the first and second Gulf War. What’s more, several essays look beyond the physical reality of reporting wars to the role the media plays in general in covering wars. Not every conflict is covered equally after all.

Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side — Clive Stafford Smith

Published on August 17, 2008

Cover of Eight O'Clock Ferry to the Windward Side

Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side
Clive Stafford Smith
307 pages including index
published in 2007

Lord knowns there have been a lot of depressing books published about America’s war on terror; not to mention a metric shitload of blogs writing about it, including my own. So what good is yet another book decrying the injustices committed at Guantanamo Bay? After all, if you don’t know about them by now, you’ll never know. But when the author is one of the lawyer volunteers defending the victims of the war on terror, who has been coming to Guantanamo for years and who also manages to inject some humour in what’s otherwise a bloody dreary subject.

Clive Stafford Smith is somebody who has a lot of experience with worthwhile but hopeless causes, as he spent years working on death penalty cases in the American Deep South. When the news about the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp became known he didn’t hesitate, but immediately got involved. Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side is based on his personal experiences at Guantanamo. The title is a reference to the fact that all the lawyers have to stay on the leeward side of the bay and therefore have to take the morning ferry to get to their clients each day. Surprisingly for a book on such a dark subject matter, Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side is quite funny in places, due to the absurdity of some of the situations Clive Stafford Smith and his clients find themselves in.