~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANDRE GUNDER FRANK 250 Kensington Ave - Apt 608 Tel: 1-514-933 2539 Westmount/Montreal PQ/QC Fax: 1-514-933 6445 or 1478 Canada H3Z 2G8 e-mail:agfrank at chass.utoronto.ca
My Home Page is at: http://www.whc.neu.edu/gunder.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 12:48:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Gunder Frank <agfrank at chass.utoronto.ca> To: agf <agfrank at chass.utoronto.ca>, Michael Albert <sysop at lbbs.org>,
Jay Moore <pieinsky at igc.apc.org>,
jeff sommers <jsommers at lynx.dac.neu.edu>,
WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn at csf.colorado.edu>, psn at csf.colorado.edu,
Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>, predator at nitrogen.org,
mpastor at prairienet.org, David Jacobs <david at ShellJacobs.com>,
Sergei Plekhanov <splekhan at yorku.ca>,
Metta Spencer <mspencer at web.apc.org>, SMULAY at RVHMED.LAN.MCGILL.CA,
Vijaya <VMULAY at LEACOCK.Lan.McGill.CA>, dvarma at pharma.mcgill.ca,
Maya khankhoje <khankhoje at sprint.ca>, Gregory Shank <GregoryS9 at aol.com>,
Albert J Bergesen <albert at U.Arizona.EDU>,
Hannes Hofbauer <H.HOFBAUER at SIGNALE.comlink.apc.org>,
Mitja ®agar <mitja.zagar at guest.arnes.si>, jan.oberg at mailbox.swipnet.se,
D Shniad <shniad at sfu.ca>, Carlos Vilas <cvilas at sfp.gov.ar>,
Paz Gutierrez <mpazgut at hotmail.com>, fgodfrey at pt.lu,
Marianne Brun <manni at berlin.snafu.de>, Michael Brun <brun at uiuc.edu>,
mi-silva at students.uiuc.edu,
"Tony M. Platt" <platttm at hhsserver.hhs.csus.edu> Subject: Whats Left? Do the Right Thing! Whats That?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANDRE GUNDER FRANK 250 Kensington Ave - Apt 608 Tel: 1-514-933 2539 Westmount/Montreal PQ/QC Fax: 1-514-933 6445 or 1478 Canada H3Z 2G8 e-mail:agfrank at chass.utoronto.ca
My Home Page is at: http://www.whc.neu.edu/gunder.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Humanitarian, progressive, and left inclined people and organizations are engaging in some serious soul searching about why so many of their brethren and comrades have fallen by the wayside or worse are now lining up behind the United States and others' governments and NATO bombing of civilians in Yugoslavia. Our friends seem to think that the leopard has suddenly changed its spots to 'defend humanitarianism.' This issue split the recent Socialist Scholars Conference in New York, whose co-chairs were themselves split on this issue. Z-Net has requested its members and others also to address the reasons for this split elsewhere in the left.
I have myself already posed - if not disposed of - this problem in an April 5 posting [Znet,Jays,WSN, etc] on NATO violation of international law and the urgent need to preserve it, however deficient it may be, as the best thing we have in the defense of human rights internationally. Of course, that does not diminish the importance also of relying on national state laws where they do and can to defend human rights. I wrote in part
"It is therefore alarming indeed that today many individuals who are well meaning but perhaps lack some sophistication in international law [as does the present writer as well], let themselves be led down the garden path in the name of humanitarianism. [The utter hypocrisy behind the official claims to that effect are examined in a parallel note on NATO Hypocrisy]. Even more alarming is that some major human rights organizations of long international experience now fall in line with those who suddenly and hypocritically appeal to such law only to further their own narrow political economic interests. …. More alarming is the position even of Amnesty International [AI] and Human Rights Watch [HRW] among other humanitarian organizations, who have long found ample reason to be critical of the powers that be for violating human rights. Now AI and HRW suddenly support these same powers in their own flagrant violation of human rights in the name protecting them. The situation was already well put in the days of Richard Nixon regarding Vietnam :We have to destroy it to save it. An AI release reads "violations of human rights lie at the heart of the current conflict in Kosovo" Human Rights Watch has also pressed the cause of military intervention, using their Kosovo Human Rights Flash to draw attention to Serbian abuses. After a week of unrelenting missile attacks in Yugoslavia and Kosovo, none of the Human Rights Watch reports included any tallies of civilian casualties from the NATO bombings…."
Further to address this important issue I can literally do no better than to quote at length from Diane Johnstone, who deals with the same as part of a still much longer historical analysis of the situation in Yugoslavia:
SEEING YUGOSLAVIA THROUGH A DARK GLASS: Politics, Media and the Ideology of Globalization by Diana Johnstone --------------------------------------------- The document below is too long to post in its entirety, so here are some excerpts [thanks to Jan Slakov], and the entire document will be posted on the Science for Peace website at www.math.yorku.ca/sfp/
Diana Johnstone was the European editor of "In These Times" from 1979 to 1990, and press officer of the Green group in the European Parliament from 1990 to 1996. She is the author of "The Politics of Euromissiles: Europe in America's World" (London/New York, Versa Schucken, 1984) and is currently working on a book on the former Yugoslavia. This article is an expanded version of a talk given on May 25, 1998, at an international conference on media held in Athens, Greece. -------------------------------------------------
Down with the State
This ideology is the expression in moralistic terms of the dominant project for reshaping the world since the United States emerged as sole superpower after the defeat of communism and collapse of the Soviet Union. United States foreign policy for over a century has been dictated by a single over-riding concern: to open world markets to American capital and American enterprise. Today this project is triumphant as "economic globalization". ...
For all its shortcomings, the nation-state is still the political level most apt to protect citizens' welfare and the environment from the destructive expansion of global markets. Dismissing the nation-state as an anachronism, or condemning it as a mere expression of "nationalist" exclusivism, overlooks and undermines its long-standing legitimacy as the focal point of democratic development, in which citizens can organize to define and defend their interests.
The irony is that many well-intentioned idealists are unwittingly helping to advance this project by eagerly promoting its moralistic cover a theoretical global democracy that should replace attempts to strengthen democracy at the supposedly obsolete nation-state level. ... This has much to do with the privatization of "the left" in the past twenty years or so. The United States has led the way in this trend. Mass movements aimed at overall political action have declined, while single-issue movements have managed to continue. The single-issue movements in turn engender nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) which, because of the requirements of fund-raising, need to adapt their causes to the mood of the times, in other words, to the dominant ideology to the media. Massive fund-raising is easiest for victims, using appeals to sentiment rather than to reason. Greenpeace has found that it can raise money more easily for baby seals than for combatting the development of nuclear weapons. This fact of life steers NGO activity in certain directions, away from political analysis toward sentiment. On another level, the NGOs offer idealistic internationalists a rare opportunity to intervene all around the world in matters of human rights and human welfare. ..... NGOs and NATO, hand-in-hand
In former Yugoslavia, and especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Western NGOs have found a justifying role for themselves alongside NATO. They gain funding and prestige from the situation. Local employees of Western NGOs gain political and financial advantages over other local people, and "democracy" is not the peoples choice but whatever meets with approval of outside donors. This breeds arrogance. among the outside benefactors, and cynicism among local people, who have the choice between opposing the outsiders or seeking to manipulate them. It is an unhealthy situation, and some of the most self-critical are aware of the dangers.
Perhaps the most effectively arrogant NGO in regard to former Yugoslavia is the Vienna office of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki. On September 18, 1997, that organization issued a long statement announcing in advance that the Serbian elections to be held three days later 'Will be neither free nor fair." This astonishing intervention was followed by a long list of measures that Serbia and Yugoslavia must carry- out or else", and that the international community must take to discipline Serbia and Yugoslavia. .....
And herein lies a new danger. Just as the "civilizing mission" of bringing Christianity to the heathen provided a justifying pretext for imperialist conquest of Asia and Africa in the past, today the protection of "human rights" may be the cloak for a new type of imperialist military intervention worldwide.
Certainly, human rights are an essential concern of the left. Moreover, many individuals committed to worthy causes have turned to NGOs as the only available alternative to the decline of mass movements - a decline over which they have no control. Even a small NGO addressing a problem is no doubt better than nothing at all. The point is that great vigilance is needed, in this as in all other endeavours, to avoid letting good intentions be manipulated to serve quite contrary purposes.
In a world now dedicated to brutal economic rivalry, where the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer, human rights abuses can only increase.
>From this vast array of mans inhumanity to man, Western media and
governments are unquestionably more concerned about human rights abuses
that obstruct the penetration of transnational capitalism ...
....