MP3's
AUDIO FILE: INTERVIEW WITH WARD CHURCHILL
While Ward was in town for his Reed college appearance, I had the opportunity for a quick interview with him. In this 30 minute interview, he explains and defends those comments which led to his recent notoriety.
Ward says that many people have written to him and remarked, by way of criticizing his stance on free speech, that free speech has consequences, insinuating, I suppose that he should be fired for his explanation of why the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001. "I would point out that if it has consequences, it's not free; by definition. They've got no conception of it; they've got no conception of critical engagement; they've got no conception of the right to express and opinion; they do have a conception of order-an order to maintain business as usual, period."
When asked about his calling those who lost their lives in the WTC attack "little Eichmans," Ward stressed that they were "little," that "they were what was symbolized by Eichman, that is, people who engage in pursuit of structural efficiency and perfection, of structure, of system, of process that generates human carnage as a result. They do so knowingly, amidst rationalization, justification, prevarication and so forth, in order to further their own interest irrespective of the cost and consequence to others.
If you can engage in that, if you can rationalize it, if you can moralize it to a justification, if you can do what ever is necessary in order to participate irrespective of the cost and consequence, then you are symbolized by Eichman, because that is after all, what he excelled at. He was the consummate technician, bureaucrat of genocide. He was not a killer. He didn't kill anyone himself, he just made the killing not only possible ultimately efficient, to further the interests of the system in which he found himself"
When asked if this could be extended to consumers of that society, Ward said that "it could, it doesn't necessarily. One consumes by virtue of existence and you are in the structure. The question is not whether or not you consume or whether you adopt particular postures and stylistic gestures in terms of lifestyle, it's a question of whether you deliberately and in all consciousness do what you can do to oppose and transform the system that generates these results. You will participate, by virtue of breathing, the question is whether you offset that participation with opposition, and the people in the Trade Center that I was referring to were a sort of technocratic core of Empire, were not in opposition in any sense at all. They were vested in furthering and maximizing the efficiency or maximizing the profit, which symbolizes the efficiency of that system."
And this is just the first 4 minutes of the interview. Ward continues describing the machinations of the U.S. Empire, in the Far East, in the Middle East, in South America, and closer to home, the holocaust visited upon the Indigenous populations of the American continent and U.S. complicity in the African slave trade.
April 16, 2005 Ward Churchill Interview, MP3
THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL SECURITY
These are two audio files taken from a presentation given on February 3, 2005, at the First Unitarian Church, by Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Representative from Oregon's 3rd District, and Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington D.C. Mark is also co-author of "Social Security: the Phony Crisis" published by University of Chicago Press, 1999.
A longer write up about this event can be found at the PhilosopherSeed Audio Page
For those who have cable television, this event is now scheduled to play on Portland Community Television. in April of 2005.
Earl Blumenauer
Mark Weisbrot
WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT GENETIC ENGINEERING?
This is a presentation given by Antje Lorch, a freelanch scientific consultant to different NGO's in Europe, where she lives. She is also one of the founders of Biotech IndyMedia For articles by Antje, or to contact her: ifrik.org
In this file Antje compares and contrasts the resistance to Biotech in the United States and, mainly, Europe. The first file is her presentation; the second is the questions and answers.
Antje Lorch
Antje Lorch, Questions and Answers
BREAK THE CHAINS
Ed Mead: Break the Chains Presentation
AUDIO FILE: A RETURN TO DEMOCRACY.
As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of changes in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice(1939-1975)
With this quote, Thom Hartman begins the eighth chapter of his book, What Would Jefferson Do? A Return to Democracy. Hartmann is the author of numerous books, among them are, "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance And The Theft Of Human Rights" and "The Last Hours Of Ancient Sunlight." Since Hartmann was in town in October of last year he has written two more books. The opening quote was taken from the first of these two books; the second book is "We The People: A Call to Take Back America."
Friday evening, September 24, 2004, at the First Unitarian Church in Portland Oregon, the author again visited Portland, his presentation drawing on his vast knowledge of American history and love of his country. This was an excellent presentation, which I have broken up into three segments unequal in length.
The first segment is 27 1/2 minutes in length. Here Hartmann lays the groundwork of the points he develops throughout the remainder of his talk, which lasted about an hour and 15 minutes. He speaks mainly about Corporate Personhood, how corporations have become the equal of individual persons, and by doing so have slowly gained control over many of the aspects of our lives.
Quoting from historical documents, Hartmann demonstrates how the famous Boston Tea Party wasn't an act aimed at the British government so much as against the greed of the East India Company, a multi national corporation. He then develops the notion of the three tyrannies, as espoused by Thomas Jefferson. Hartman says: "It turns out that historically humans have always been governed....by warlord kings......the theocrats.......and rule by the rich, ....the shorthand definition of feudalism is rule by the rich.. What was significant about these three forms of government is that in each one of these three forms of governance..........the primary assumption was that the rights were held by the rulers." The rulers decide what those privileges are, and they can change their minds, at any time.
Hartmann speaks much about the interaction between Jefferson, Madison, and many of the other Founding Fathers, their agreements and disagreements over many of the rights and privileges that comprise the Democracy we know today, and are in grave danger of surrendering. "Jefferson was of the opinion that simply by birth into the natural world, all living things had rights, and that those rights included the right to life, the right to liberty......and the pursuit of happiness." This was in opposition to the common philosophy of the day, which professed, life, liberty and the ownership of private property. The Declaration of Independence was the first time in the creating and the founding document of any government in the history of civilization that the word happiness appeared."
Following this, Hartman speaks about the Democracy inherent in Nature, as opposed to the generally accepted theory that the natural order in animals is to obediently follow the dominant animal, alpha male, alpha female.
Thom Hartmann, Part1
The second segment is 32 1/2 minutes in length. Here Hartmann briefly refers to the fact that in order to insure the new government against warlord kings, only Congress can declare war. Then he discusses the second tyranny, the theocrats and quotes from Jefferson's diary concerning the clergy's attempt to force George Washington into declaring his belief in the Christian religion. Hartmann says that Jefferson was not a religious man, but was deeply, intensely spiritual, as was Franklin.
Though not alone in the project, James Madison essentially created the Constitution, after studying every Constitution he could get his hands on for five years. Once the task was completed, he sent the finished document to Jefferson in France, where, in 1787, he was the U.S. Envoy to Paris. Jefferson wrote back praising the Constitution, admiring the fact that the President doesn't have the power to make war and the division of power, among other things. Then he states: "And now I will tell you what I do not like about this Constitution. What I do not like about this is that it does not state explicitly.......the absolute primacy of human rights. It must absolutely assert human rights. And then he gives a list which is what is now the Bill of Rights. With two exceptions."
The first exception arises from the fact that Jefferson had a great fear of standing armies during peacetime, saying that they "always got into mischief, sucking up the public purse and building power, and very often they end up overthrowing the governments which are their hosts....therefore we should have a militia." The second exception is that we should have an absolute ban of monopolies in commerce. "Now a monopoly in commerce was a corporation doing more than one thing, living longer than the life span of a productive person, a corporation owning another corporation,...basically what he wanted to wrote into the Constitution a prohibition of anything even closely resembling the East India Company, ever raising its ugly head in North America."
Hartman continues on, and finishes this segment discussing the Santa Clara County vs Southern Pacific Railroad case, where Corporations gained personhood. in 1886.
Thom Hartmann, Part 2
The final segment, 16 1/2 minutes in length, discusses what can be done about this and what is being done. "There is a huge movement to do something about this right now, to rein in Corporate power, that is, to take these three tyrannies, and at least one of these three, the feudal power, that has claimed rights, and say 'sorry guys, you only have privileges,' and put it back the way the Founders had originally intended. We're going to return to Democracy."
Thom Hartmann, Part 3
AUDIO FILE: SUPERPATRIOTISM, SUPEREMPIRE.
A presentation by Michael Parenti at PSU on Wednesday, October 6, 2004.
I have broken the 70 minute or so talk into three unequal portions.
Parenti begins, "there is an enormous disparity between what Empires actually do and the way they are represented in history by their leaders and their apologists and their chroniclers. Empires are presented to us as creations of peace. They're even given names of peace: Pax Romana; Pax Britanica; and we even hear of Pax Americana."
He goes on to list the many attributes these Empires give themselves as represented in history, ...."often represented as selfless organizations, that bring order where there is disorder." He adds that these Empires often represent themselves as having become established unintentionally, "the product of unconscious circumstance." For example, "the British Empire was formed in a state of absent-mindedness....the U.S. was reluctantly thrust into the world of world leader, we found ourselves, this responsibility, this obligation has been put upon us."
Having sufficiently established the view Empires have of themselves, Parenti continues to analyze the concept of Empire, stating that "in fact it's the product of deliberate contrivance and manipulation, and very systematic force and interest involved." He says that they are tremendously costly, "they cost more than they bring in, But it doesn't matter because the profits go to one group and the costs go to another group. Empires are very profitable for their ruling elites and interest. And Empires are enormously costly for the common populace of the Imperial Nation. The Empire feeds off the resources of the Republic."
Parenti then enumerate an incomplete list of the victories of the United States Empire, since World War 2. "...over the last 50 years the U.S. national security state has been a key force in overthrowing reformist, democratic governments in Guatemala; Guiana; the Dominican Republic; Brazil; Chile; Uruguay; Syria; Indonesia, under Sukarno; Greece twice; Argentina, twice; Haiti, twice, Haiti three times if you count a couple months ago; Bolivia; and other countries. And replaced them in each instance with pro capitalist military regimes, that open their resources, their markets and cheap labor to US corporate investors, on terms completely favorable to the investors..."
And further: "U.S. leaders have actively pursued covert actions or proxies mercenary wars against popular revolutionary governments in Cuba; Angola, Mozambique; Ethiopia, Portugal, SOUTH Yemen; Nicaragua; Cambodia; East Timor; Western Sahara; Iraq, and elsewhere." Parenti then examines Iraq.
Towards the end of this first segment, Parenti states,"look at the fact that U.S. power has never been used to assist popular reformist governments or revolutionary movements of governments in any of these countries...never been used to assist broad, mass based revolutionary democratic agitation...the U.S. never gave them any help."
He continues for a total of about 26 minutes.
Michael Parenti, Part 1
In the second segment, Parenti begins by looking at the role of U.S. Empire in Africa. He states that when progressive critics in America discuss U.S. Empire, they usually focus on Latin America. "But the story in Africa is really something. Through the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund)U.S. leaders have demolished African economies, including their public health and education sectors....most African nations have sunk into a debt structure that leaves them in peonage to western investors. U.S. leaders have also fueled 11 wars on the African continent since 1950, resulting in the death of some seven million people, with millions more facing starvation and ever deepening poverty. That's why the Africans are so poor. It's not that they can't get it together.........It's because of the way they've been ravaged and stripped and forced down today. Washington has given arms and military training to 50 African countries, that is to the ruling elites and thugs who rule in 50 different countries. There is only 53 countries in all of Africa, so you see how they try to lock down the whole continent. All of this has helped Africa to become the most war torn region in the world."
"The more war ravaged, the more poverty stricken the African nations become, the more they are ready to sell their labor and their abundant natural resources at rock bottom prices to the U.S. and other investors. Almost 80% of the strategic minerals that the U.S. requires are extracted from Africa."
This segment continues for a total of about 20 minutes total.
Michael Parenti, Part 2
In the third and final segment, Parenti begins by discussing Iraq. "There are three basic reasons for U.S. intervention in Iraq, and these are the same three reasons that dictate U.S. interventions most elsewhere.
There's first the systemic monopoly...the need to impose and maintain a global free market system. Iraq had an economy that was completely publically owned.....was self defining, self developing, not completely a free market client state."
"Second, Iraq was also a bad example to other countries in the region that might want to be self defining. That's the same reason the U.S. invaded Grenada, remember, in the Carribean.....we went in there...to serve notice to every other nation in the Carribean, that if you try this course, this is what will come down on you. If you get rid of these corrupt leaders who are our buddies...if you start doing these other kinds of subversive things like health care programs and new farming cooperative programs and all that, this is what you're gonna get. And today Grenada's unemployment is up 40% since the U.S. invasion. And those farming cooperatives have been turned into golf courses for the rich tourists....And the poorer you can keep people, the hungrier you can keep them, the harder they will work for less and less, and the richer I get. The more they will turn over their country to you."
So Iraq was a bad example...had the highest standard of living in the middle east...Iraq was taking a different course, other countries might get the same Idea."
Third, in the case of Iraq, there's that straight old colonization resource plunder consideration. Direct colonizing, grabbing the riches of the country. Iraq has 115 billion barrels of fine quality crude. At $50 a barrel, we're talking close to 4-5 trillion dollars. I submit to you ladies and gentleman, that's not a narrow economic interest....it's the biggest oil grab in the history of the world. It's a humongous, broad interest.
At this point Parenti speaks about the old ploy of Empire: Fear. "What the Empire does is that it teaches our fellow citizens to have a competitive, nationalistic, egoistic view of the virtues of their country. And it teaches them to live in fear. Fear of internal menaces, fear of external menaces." He then quotes from a book describing how the Roman Empire used this ploy and draws parallels with current U.S. policy. This segment continues for a total of about 19 minutes.
Parenti was extremely illuminating, especially concerning the actual agenda of U.S. policies. Michael's style is, as usual, animated, humorous and at times sarcastic. This presentation will be presented on Community Television in the future, sometime before the end of the year. Check out T.V. Schedule for scheduling.
Michael Parenti, Part 3
AUDIO FILE: KLAMATH BASIN WATER AND TRIBAL RIGHTS
The 9th annual Environmental Justice Conference, organized by the Coalition Against Environmental Racism, was held in Eugene Oregon over the week end of January 23-25, 2004.
Saturday afternoon I attended a panel entitled Klamath Basin Water and Tribal Rights. This is an audio report of the two speakers from that panel.
The first speaker was Don Gentry, of the Klamath Tribe.After playing a song on his flute and saying a prayer in his language, he spoke of the history of his people and the area which they share with two other tribes, those to the south and those to the east.
He laid a little foundation for what the next speaker had to say, focusing on "the living and thriving community of Native Americans where we are at. And, despite everything that has happened to us with the loss of our reservation over time, parts of our lifestyle and culture are still there, the hunting, fishing, gathering lifestyle that allowed us to survive, even Mt. Mazama blowing and creating Crater Lake. Those parts of our culture are still alive are valued today. We are still linked to our natural resources."
He speaks of the establishment of his reservation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs management of it, and the loss of that Reservation which is now managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Yet, "we still hunt, fish, we gather; we still have legends we try to teach our people. And we're trying to bring forth, with everything that's coming against us, the things that are important and will allow us to survive into the future."
He then goes into a history of his people, "how the treaty was established and the reservation was formed, and how the land has changed until we're in the postion that we are in now. And give folks an understanding of why we have treaty rights even."
Many non Indians question why Native people's have these special rights, and this is especially the case when there is a battle over natural resources, such as whaling with the Macah, fishing rights in Washington state, or the recent struggle over access to water here in the Klamath basin.
"I feel that it's important for people to understand where we are coming from and the o nly thing we ask as a tribal people is that you consider our rights, so to speak. I believe the Creator placed us where we are at. Our legends have us created there. We've been in that basin according to archeological evidence for 14 thousand years."
Don speaks eloquently and with passion for his people, and for a way of life they are struggling to maintain and prosper. He continues to speak for about a total of 20 minutes, setting the stage for the next speaker who will give a history of water usage in the area. Though the tribes reserved first rights of the water to themselves and the needs of their culture, the government slowly permitted developing needs to compete or eclipse the aboriginal rights of the Klamath tribe.
Don Gentry
The second to speak was Bud Ullman, an attorney for the tribe. He says that he wants "to deal with two matters having to do with land and water issues in the Klamath Basin from the standpoint of the Klamath tribes....First of all I want to deal with overappropriation of the water resource." According to Ullman, "there have been committments made to Indian people's that have been overwhelmed by subsequent committments to other people and all of them add up to more committments of water than Nature gives us...."
"The second thing I want to talk about is the experience in the Klamath Basin with disparaging resource related communities, particularly the Indian community and the really unfortunate precipitation of violence that occurred there two years ago."
The goal of the treaty of 1864 was two fold: it wanted to open the area for settlement, but also to preserve the self sufficiency of the Indians people of the area. "This included a promise to continued access to fish and wildlife resources on which they depended, and a promise of enough water to support those resources....These were reservations made by the Indian people with the assent and the guarantee of the United States of rights that the tribal people always had." This promise was to the Klamath in the north and the Karuk, Hoopa and Yurok tribes, which were the Federally recognized tribes on the California end of the river.
Over the course of the next century or so, other demands were made of the precious water resource, "to anybody who would do that hard work of homesteading in an arid land." No attempt was made to reconcile these new demands with the treaty promises given to the native peoples of the area. "On top of that, the states of Oregon and California undertook their own water permitting systems in addition to the water permitting system that the U.S. had developed....these systems continue today unreconciled with the earlier committments of water that had been made to Native people......nor is their a system reconciling the state and federal water permiting system in the Klamath irrigation project."
Two more demands were soon made of the water. The next was a hydroelectric system on the Klamath River, consisting of six dams, which, although these are not consumers of water, they have a great impact on the water quality and the timing of the flows, affecting the fisheries. And, "the construction of the dams completely extirpated the anadromous fish from the upper Klamath Basin....which at one time were the third largest run of anadromous fish on the west coast." Again, this demand was added to existing demands with no attempt to reconcile them.
"And finally, the wildlife refuges. The Klamath Basin hosts about 80% of the birds on the Pacific flyway in the course of a year.....here again is another committment that has been made to keep these Refuges lively as refuges, that has not been reconciled with the other committments of water in the Basin."
From here Bud talks about the second point of his presentation, the process of demonizing the "sucker fish," and from there the people whose subsistance lifestyle depended upon them. A process that soon led to violence and discrimination and the endictment of some local people on hate crime charges.
This file is about 30 minutes in length.
Bud Ullman
AUDIO FILE: WINONA LA DUKE AT Oregon State University.
Winona La Duke, speaking at the University of Oregon in Corvallis in January 2002. The talk was entitled, "Indigenous Thinking On Sustainability."
In this 10 minute clip from her presentation, she speaks of the need for sustainable energy development and how Indigenous peoples, especially in the midwest, are in a position to provide a significant amount of this energy from the wind.
Sustainable Energy, Real Player
Sustainable Energy, MP3
