The Gangs of Medellin
When Medellin's Native Son, ex-governor of Antioquia and now Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was inaguarated, says Forrest Hylton in his NLR essay, Medellins Makeover, "the outlaws became the Establishment". It is a classic case of a term coined by Barrington Moore in his book, Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, "gangsterism that has become society itself".
Medellins brutal history of narco-capitalism and para-military terror run amok is being superceded by a new order of trans-national investment. "After three generations of cocain-fuelled urban warfare," Hylton writes ," Medellin is now positioned to become the leading edge of economic integration with the US."
We should be concerned here in the US with both our corporate and governmental ties to this capitalist gangsterism. We are being asked to supply huge quantities of tax dollars for aid and our Representatives are negotiating trade agreements with a criminal ruling class with ties to horrific state/narco-capital terrorism and paramilitaries used to "secure investment, property rights and profitability.."
In the same Mar/Apr issue 44, there there is a fascinating examination of the situation in Turkey, NATO's Islamists. Author Cihan Tugal explores the hegemonic convergence of neo-liberalism confronting a deeply embedded secular- military vs Islam schism. while balancing extreme nationalism, anti-Kurd xenophobism and a modernist desire to join the EU. Thats a mouthful, but it is a complex State most of us know little about but which contains many of the crucial contradictions of the modern era. Like much of the US working class, the lower statas of Turkish society have turned away from the left towards nationalist religion with a grudging acceptance that "politics and economics have their own self-regulating logics".
posted by troutsky @ 8:14 AM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Despite his best attempts at lobbying the largest labor unions in the U.S. to support a "free" trade agreement with Colombia, Uribe's talk did not prove sweet enough for AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.
Can we count on the new congress to withhold military funding of Colombia?
The trade union movement in Colombia is the most important source for change. It's not going to be the FARC.
Turkey is a quite complex situation. Sarkozy already said, he will never be for Turkey to be a member of the European Union.
Sarkozy will do what big business and Likud tells him to do. Another power gone to the dark side.
I'm off to France next week, somewhat less enthusiastically than would be usual.
I heard at least one Democrat talking about scrapping Clinton's horrid Plan Colombia.
Wrong
The rebels have been funding themselves with narco dollars for years. Hezbollah and the Taliban have done likewise while the left dithers.
There have been stories linking Uncle Hugo and Infidel Castro to narcotics dollars but the left is all in favor of genuine drug dealing. The lefts "vanguard" was the notorious Black Panther Party.
There have been stories linking Uncle Hugo and Infidel Castro to narcotics dollars
Well, there have also been stories linking the Worldwide Jewish Banking Conspiracy and Queen Elizabeth II to narcotics dollars. Which only goes to prove that anyone can make up a story to suit their own nonsensical worldview, and any fool can believe them.
Yep, the Taliban too is one of those great US tax payer investments.
Its like a bad kung fu flick. We need to forage future "enemies" through funding and ignorance.
I can't wait to see what comes out of Colombia.
I have it on good authority that Mossad supplies most of the world's ecstacy.
I'll work on hearing a few more damning rumours, Beaky.
BTW, Beaky, it was not the Taliban profiting from the poppies. It was those great humanitarians and freedom fighters in the Northern alliance who are all now operating from the inside of the puppet government.
It's highly unlikely that Hezb'llah are involved in narcotics.
The primary focus of the organization I work for, Community Action for Justice in the Americas, is Colombia. I've also recently returned from a delegation to Venezuela. Most of what Beak is ludicrous and baseless (as usual), and as the wheels continue to fall off his and his cronies' bus, he'll want a place to bury his shame. But there will be no place to hide. Scary Uncle Hugo will find you Beak-boy.
The FARC were once loosely based on left-wing ideals, but are now a mirror-image of the right-wing paramilitary. That is, they completely lack ideology at this point and are hell bent on terror. Indeed the FARC use narco-trafficking to raise money, while the para-military "innocently" use U.S. tax-paying dollars as well as corporate dollars from the likes of Chiquita Bananas, Drummond Mining, Occidental Petroleum, etc.
But the most important FACT (something beaky, et. al., would do well to gather once in a while) Beak-boy overlooks is that 70% of the atrocities and human right violations committed against Colombians civilians are committed by the paramilitary! In fact, Chiquita Bananas was recently fined by a U.S. Court for supplying financial support to the paramilitaries, a group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
Drug use or paying taxes, either way the gringos provide the arms the Colombians provide the dead!
Che
The Drug dealing of FARC, Chavez and Fidel are in the mainstream press. When Communist misbehave we merely term them right wingers.
It seems that commies get greedy despite their paper thin rhetoric.
The Narcotics dealing of Hezbollah is also a well known fact just in case the clown from Lebanon shows up.
It would seem there is plenty of Superfly in FARC. That is funny I see Venezuelan doctors and professionals fleeing in droves.
Hugo will fail just like Fidel, Mugabe, Pol Pot and all your other heros.
Luis Posada Carriles goes free. What a surprise.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6637481.stm
Beak, just calling something a "known fact" or saying something is in the mainstream US press doesn't make it so in the real world that most of us live in.
The mainstream press in Venezuela is a joke, and they largely supply the US rags with their Venezuela coverage.
Got anything to back up your Hezb'llah claim?
It makes no sense.
Why waste time having a dialog with someone who is an apologist for someone who shoots down passenger plains and blows up hotels?
I'll pretend to be Beak and use his method. The Klan is rightist. Beak is rightist. Beak supports the Klan. His position on the Imus firing was identical. The next step in Beak's technique is change the subject. Denounce rap instead. Beak doesn't mention rap is denounced all the time in the Afro-American church.
He posted once about my statement that there is no basis for dialog between us. He agreed with me. Either ignore him when he is off topic in particular, or go for the jugular.
Ren
Is it my fault you are stupid and useless. First of all the Klan didn't take a position on Imus. Second of all you framed honor killing falsely as a Yezidi phenomena, it is almost entirely a Muslim phenomena. The Yezidi are a genuinely persecuted indigenous people. This would require basic knowledge but as a Commie your head is planted in your posterior and you only know the current slogans.
As far as Posada good for him. It seems that you lefties ignore crimes that are inconvenient. How long has that useless Cop killer been sitting in Cuba. We have over one thousand Cuban criminals in the USA Fidel mixed in with the Marielitos and refuses to take back. If his crimes are real let him teach with Bill Ayers and Dorn.
Moreover, returning any political prisoner to Cuba is a serious matter given the genuine torture you dolts pretend doesn't exist.
As far as law breaking who venerates the "Black Panthers".
Cringing you are too stupid to merit a response. You have been demoted to the canine chew toy status.
Beakie-boy,
"First of all the Klan didn't take a position on Imus."
Is there something you're not telling us? Do you have contact with or keep track of Klan positions?
First you defend of a mass-murdering fuck-head like Posada Carriles and now your consorting with the Klan.
By the way, I kept my promise and checked out from my local library a book by your hero Ronald Radosh. It's called "Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left."
However, just in case I begin to feel my black and red heart shifting from reading this amazingly compelling book, I also checked out "Solidarity Forever: An Oral History of the IWW."
See you all on the other side! Ahhhh!!!
So, Beaky, I'll take that as a weasel way of saying "no, I have no evidence and can't conduct an argument on the topic".
You really are a silly little coward.
Ren, you are right of course, but I wanted it plain to see that his assertions are pulled directly from his fundamental orifice when it comes to Hezb'llah.
I'm just tired of his neofascist drive by tactics. That his ilk will form alliances with the worst of the world's fundamentalists, whether they be european skinheads, the rapturists and charlatans of the christian south or the faux intellectuals of zionist "universities" at the drop of a hat, is instructive as to the make up of their moral fibre.
I wouldn't mind betting our Beak masturbates to Daniel Pipes' rantings.
Che
Radosh has written on the Spanish Revolution as well. When I am in NYC I will retrieve my copy. As far as his autobiography do read the chapter Socialist labotomies for his visit to Cuba. He believed in the exact same myths you do.
Cringing
You are far too stupid to warrant a response. I am not a special ed teacher, nor am I being compensated to deal with your mental pathologies.
If you keep it up some day you might have a mental illness named after you.
Im searching for a voice from the authentic "right" to engage us but for now we will have to use Beakerkin to sharpen our arguments.I appreciate the thoughtful readership here and hope i don't lose you do to the crude antogonistic tone.
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