Washington applauds Repression 

E. San Juan, Jr.

With an interview of Dr. Carol P. Araullo, Chairperson of BAYAN, by Dr. Rainer Werning

Except for what may appear to be relatively minor investment of Dutch capital in the Philippines and the presence of 18,456 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Netherlands, nothing really connects Filipinos with the land of fabled windmills. But the events of last week may presage a change. The much-touted bonanza of consumerist globalization may have produced its most hackneyed if repulsive scenario yet, this time in the land of state-approved prostitution, where a handful of Filipino political exiles have taken refuge from the brutal regimes back home. The personnel and offices of the National Democratic Front Philippines (NDFP), legally allowed in Utrecht since the late 1970s, were raided on August 27.

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 Michael A. Lebowitz

'Save me from these so-called Marxists who think they have the key to history in their back pocket! Save me from disciples like those who followed Hegel and Ricardo!' Few people understood better than Marx how a theory disintegrates when the point of departure for theoretical work is 'no longer reality, but the new theoretical form in which the master had sublimated it.'

Happily for him, Marx was spared the spectacle of disciples scandalized by the 'often paradoxical relationship of this theory to reality' and accordingly driven to demonstrate that his theory is still correct by 'crass empiricism', 'phrases in a scholastic way', and 'cunning argument'. Lucky Marx who (if Engels is to be believed) was before all else a revolutionary whose 'real mission in life was to contribute, in one way or another, to the overthrow of capitalist society' - he missed the affirmation by 20th Century scholastics that what the working class really needs for its emancipation is proof that he was right all along about the transformation of values into prices and the tendency for the rate of profit to fall!

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An interview with Senator Jamby Madrigal

E. San Juan, Jr. (with an interview by Dr. Rainer Werning)

"Huwag po nating payagan na bumalik tayo sa kadiliman at takot na dinala ng martial law. Panahon na upang tumindig at lumaban."  (Let us not allow ourselves to return to the darkness and terror of [President Ferdinand Marcos'] martial law [1972-86].  It is time to stand up and fight.) - Senator Jamby Madrigal, "Martial Law in the Guise of Anti-Terrorism Bill," Joint Statement with Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Legend Restaurant, Oct 9, 2006

Last June 26, we attended a historic rally-demonstration of over 4,000 people in Washington, DC, called "Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice." It was the first national mass mobilization of this kind undertaken by the American Civil Liberties Union, a rather staid institution, in cooperation with Amnesty International (USA), Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. It was a coalition representing a fairly broad spectrum of left to right civil-society lobbying groups. A petition bearing tens of thousands of signatures was delivered to Congress expressing five demands on behalf of rights gutted by the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA): the restoration of habeas corpus and due process, ending torture and abuse in secret prisons, stopping extraordinary renditions (secretly kidnapping people and sending them to countries that torture), the closing of Guantanamo Bay prisons and allowing prisoners held there access to justice; and the restoration of the rule of Law. The tide is turning against the rightist, neoimperialist Bush policy of gung-ho war of terror on humanity.

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 Saswat Pattanayak

Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) operates two of the world's leading steel projects--the Pohang and Gwangyang works, and conducts business in over 60 countries around the globe.

Since last couple of years, POSCO has been setting goals for the economically backward and minerals-rich Orissa. If Vedanta promises the biggest university in the world, POSCO promises the largest steel plant, and the biggest foreign direct investment in history (Rs 51,000 crore). After signing a Memorandum of Understanding with POSCO, Orissa-a largely obscured cultural site for Hindu pilgrims, has now found the biggest reserved location on World Exploitation Map.

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