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The State

January 14, 2005 - 9:35am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

A Glossary of the Right-Wing Sectors in U.S. Foreign Policy

Tom Barry, Interhemispheric Resource Center


[Militant] Anticommunists: Until the collapse of the Soviet bloc, militant anticommunism served to unify right-wing sectors around a foreign policy that stressed military budget increases, rationalized U.S. support for dictatorial regimes, and supported armed intervention. Unlike cold war liberals, who also identified themselves as anticommunists, the militant anticommunists of the right believed that the battle against communism needed to be fought at home as well as abroad, and they advocated aggressive rollback strategies rather than merely containment and deterrence. Militant anticommunism no longer functions as the backbone of the right’s approach to international affairs, although anticommunist convictions still shape the foreign policy agendas of many right-wing ideologues regarding U.S. relations with China, Cuba, and North Korea. This political agenda of crushing all forms of communist governance has created fissures within the right, dividing the proponents of free trade from those who resist establishing normal business relations with countries ruled by Communist parties.

January 13, 2005 - 6:22pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

nolympics writes:

"Cut Nur and Kausar Before the Tsunami"
David Martinez

I remember the first time I laid eyes on her. She stood in the doorway of her stately house as we trudged up the muddy street hauling backpacks and cameras, dripping with sweat. It was December of 2002 and the air in Banda Aceh felt like mulled soup. As we collapsed on the couch, Cut Nur and her daughters brought us water and tea and welcomed us to stay in their home.

She was tall, with a wide smile and purple dress. Her home was always bustling with activity, and the narrow courtyard was often filled with people and vehicles. Many of them worked at the hotel she owned, the Raja Wali, a sprawling building fronted with a leering plaster statue of an eagle located a few blocks away.

She welcomed anyone who sympathized with the cause of the Acehnese. After all, Cut Nur had been involved in the independence struggle for years.

January 11, 2005 - 12:36pm -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
The State

Ana Amorim writes:

"What Has Changed After Lula?"
Plinio Arruda Sampaio, Brasil de Fato


To evaluate is to compare facts and values. In this evaluation of the first two years of Lula’s government, we chose as a term of comparison, the project for national construction. Using a synthetic and precise formula from Caio Prado Jr.: to what extent these two years of government have contributed to accelerate the transition between the “Brazil-Colony from yesterday into the Brazil-Nation of tomorrow”?
Three aspects of this transition will be examined: reduction of inequality; increase in autonomy; and political organization of the people. As for the reduction of social inequality, it should be mentioned that: for the two year period, the growth of the Gross National Product (GNP) was mediocre, and did not even manage to affect the GNP per capita. There was an improvement in 2004, but without a bigger impact — in terms of jobs (there was a small increase in comparison to the size of the work force), in terms of salaries ( in fact the average salary decreased in the two year period).

December 20, 2004 - 1:39am -- jim
News
The State

2001 Memo Reveals Push for Broader Presidential Powers
Michael Isikoff, Newsweek


A Justice Department lawyer may have been laying the groundwork for the Iraq invasion long before it was discussed publicly by the White House.


Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales' office concluded that President Bush had the power to deploy military force "preemptively" against any terrorist groups or countries that supported them — regardless of whether they had any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon.

December 14, 2004 - 4:03pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"After the Empire — What?"

Kirkpatrick Sale and Thomas H. Naylor

[A call to a Radical Consultation in Middlebury, Vermont, to discuss issues involving secession, November, 2004.]

No empire has ever survived the test of time — Greek, Roman, Chinese, Ottoman, French, British, or Soviet. Is there any reason to believe that the United States will prove to be an exception to the rule?


Our government's dogged, mean-spirited, zero-surn pursuit of the war on terrorism, and a foreign policy based on full spectrum dominance and imperial overstretch, appear to be leading us into a death spiral. So too is its unwavering commitment to globalization and environmental degradation at any cost. There is resounding evidence that it is only a matter of time before corporate behemoths implode and then the fragile house-of-cards economy and its otherworldly stock market collapses.

December 14, 2004 - 3:45pm -- jim
Announcements
The State

"The Green Mountain Manifesto"

Thomas Naylor, Second Vermont Republic


Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Second Vermont Republic?


The Second Vermont Republic is a peaceful, democratic, grassroots, libertarian populist movement opposed to the tyranny of the U.S. Government, Corporate America, and globalization and committed to the return of Vermont to its rightful status as an independent republic as it once was between 1777 and 1791.


2. What is the primary objective of the movement?


Independence. To extricate Vermont peacefully, legally, and democratically from the United States as soon as possible and create an independent nation-state based on the Swiss Model.


3. Does that mean secession?

Yes.

December 14, 2004 - 3:40pm -- jim
Announcements
The State

"The Middlebury Declaration"

Issued Novenber 7, 2004

Middlebury, Vermont

We gathered here this weekend to explore the possibilities of a new politics that might provide a realistic and enactable alternative to the familiar sorry political scene around us that has just ratified its decadent and corrupt nature with the re-election of George W. Bush.

We are convinced that the American empire, now imposing its military might on 153 countries around the world, is as fragile as empires historically tend to be and that it might well implode upon itself in the near future. Before that happens, no matter what shape the United States may take, we believe there is at this moment an opportunity to push through new political ideas and projects that will offer true popular participation and genuine democracy. The time to prepare for that is now.

December 14, 2004 - 3:10pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"The Constitutionality of Secession"

Thomas H. Naylor, Second Vermont Republic

Few words are perceived to be more politically incorrect in America than the s-word, secession. Thanks mostly to Abraham Lincoln, secession is considered to be a complete anathema by liberals and conservatives alike. Although most Americans believe the Civil War proved once and for all that secession is illegal and unconstitutional, nothing could be further from the truth.

December 14, 2004 - 3:02pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"Free Vermont!?"

Peter Lamborn Wilson

Should Vermont secede from the USA and declare itself independent again (as it was from 1777 to 1791) under the name Second Vermont Republic? This question was posed to attendees at a conference and a town meeting, both held in Middlebury, VT on the weekend after the national election, Nov. 5–7; and in both cases the answer was a nearly unanimous YES.


The conference — Rad.Con 2 — was organized jointly by the Second Vermont Republic (SVR) and the UK-based Fourth World Organization (publishers of Fourth World Review), which sponsored the first "Radical Consultation" in Britain in September, 2001. American historian Kirkpatrick Sale contributes regularly to Fourth World and made the keynote speech at Rad.Con 2 in Middlebury.

December 7, 2004 - 11:59pm -- nolympics
Events
The State

Public Hearing Against the Reinstated Death Penalty in New York
Wed, December 15th, 9 AM
New York City Bar Association
42 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenue)



This is even more important now that the first executuon in the North East since the 1960s is scheduled to take place in January in Connecticut. Read more Here

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