The section below in red I added as an afterthought. It is from the Guardian UK according to the person that sent it. Although I include the effect of the cable on events in the blog below I am not sure that I stressed enough the link between it and Hilary Clinton's speech on Thursday. We have stressed all along the importance of Wikileaks role. The site is reviled because of this example. The trade off in the relationship between the US and the Tunisian regime was that the US would keep quite about the abuses and absence of human rights and democracy as long as Tunisia toed the line on the War on Terror and bootlicked US imperialism. The leak forced Clinton to make public US capitalism's real view of the Tunisian regime and take a hard line to all the undemocratic regimes in the Arab world in her speech yesterday. It shows how Wikileaks is influencing their decisions to a degree; it must be driving them mad. This release of the cable gave the Tunisian masses added confidence in confronting the regime while increasing division between two capitalist states. This is a good thing.
I changed the title of this blog also. The question was asked by Elizabeth Dickinson at Foreign Policy and is the title of an article she wrote. This first paragraph is from her article. The rest from the Guardian.
"As in the recent so-called "Twitter revolutions" in Moldova and Iran, there was clearly lots wrong with Tunisia before Julian Assange ever got hold of the diplomatic cables. Rather, WikiLeaks acted as a catalyst: both a trigger and a tool for political outcry. Which is probably the best compliment one could give the whistleblower site.
Ian Black, our Middle East specialist, wrote about the WikiLeaks cable in question in December, quoting the US ambassador, Robert Godec:
"The problem is clear," wrote ambassador Robert Godec in July 2009, in a secret dispatch released by Beirut's al-Akhbar newspaper. "Tunisia has been ruled by the same president for 22 years. He has no successor. And, while President Ben Ali deserves credit for continuing many of the progressive policies of President Bourguiba, he and his regime have lost touch with the Tunisian people. They tolerate no advice or criticism, whether domestic or international. Increasingly, they rely on the police for control and focus on preserving power."Joe Lieberman, the conservative independent US Senator who made calls to Amazon and other US corporations to get them to shut down Wikileaks accounts was at it again in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal. Lieberman dragged out the well-worn argument that Wikileaks’ “recklessness compromised our national security and could put the lives of our citizens, soldiers and allies at risk.” (1)
There is little evidence of this and some Pentagon spokespersons have admitted there is no evidence of it as yet although I am sure the CIA can manufacture some; US capitalism is not averse to sacrificing its own citizens to defend the profits of corporations. As this blog pointed out in previous posts, Wikileaks doesn’t have to put US lives in danger, the US government and its foreign policy have done a superb job of that.
We have also stressed the importance of the Wikileaks cables, how their release increases the confidence of the working class while it angers, demoralizes and frustrates the representatives of US capitalism. It is this exposing of their lies and hypocrisy that has them on the defensive and why they are after Wikileaks, Julius Assange and why they have Bradley Manning in prison. It is not that we don’t know their diplomacy is phony in a general sense, it is what the public written evidence of it does--- how it affects the mood of the working class.
US cables revealing US government officials calling for a “military style trade war” on behalf of Monsanto corporation against nations that are opponents of GM foods; Israeli’s demanding bribes from companies hauling supplies in to Gaza concentration camp, these and other details are making the US capitalist class very angry and they would undoubtedly kill Assange if they could.
But the uprising in Tunisia and Hilary Clinton’s public thrashing of the Arab regimes at a conference on democracy yesterday (2) is the most glaring example yet of why they want Wikileaks silenced and should offer a lesson to activists, socialists and other anti-capitalists; do not underestimate the importance of the Wikileaks cables, their release strengthens the working class and we must build on it.
The New York Times reports today that the “conspicuous riches” of the wealthy…."exposed in a detailed cable by the American ambassador and made public by WikiLeaks, have fueled an extraordinary extended uprising by Tunisians who blame corruption among the elite for the joblessness afflicting their country.”
This is the reason for the vicious assault on Wikileaks and Julian Assange by global capitalism, especially US capitalism. It is why Bradley Manning is in jail. Getting this information (and we’re at the tip of the iceberg) is like knowing something is wrong but when validated by another respected source it gives you added strength and confidence. Wikileaks allowing us to hear the truth is what worries them; it has nothing to do with endangering American lives, they don’t care about American lives. They admit that their release has encouraged a mass movement against corruption and wealth in an entire nation; this is dangerous.
The Tunisian government initially responded with severe repression firing live ammunition at protesters. The Regional Federation of Labor, Kasserine released names of those shot by authorities. The protests, have been directed overwhelmingly against the ruling class and their communities and institutions. One such community is Hammamet, a playground of Tunisia’s elite. Yesterday the coastguard and police were cautious about intervening as protests continued, “Hundreds of protesters swarmed the streets, the police fled and rioters gleefully ransacked the mansion of a presidential relative, liberating a horse from its stable and setting aflame a pair of all-terrain vehicles.”, the NYT article reports.
Tunisia’s situation is serious enough that there appears to be some division within the ruling class as the military were pulled off the streets and replaced by “police and other security forces considered more loyal to the ruling party and Interior Ministry”, the Times adds. The military, workers in uniform, are always more open to class solidarity than the police, they can’t be relied upon like the police can.
President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is no longer blaming foreign terrorists and outside agitators for creating the disturbances; how can he? He has publicly stated that his regime will no longer “crack down on protesters” and has pledged to give in to many of the protesters’ demands, although this remains to be seen. A handy lesson for us in the US is that with enough pressure from below, governments can back down. We can certainly win a strike.
Hilary Clinton’s speech, its content and tone is a response to the Tunisian uprising; they are very concerned. Clinton adopted “a tone reminiscent of the Bush administration.” says the Wall Street Journal. She told her audience that the situation in the Arab world is made worse by the, “difficulty of the region's large population of young people in finding jobs or channels through which to express their aspirations. If left unaddressed such limitations could set the stage for more violence and political turmoil.” She warned that, “extremists were exploiting a lack of democracy to promote radical agendas across the Middle East.”
It’s hard to blame what is amounting to a popular uprising on Al Qaeda. A popular uprising around the issues of jobs, food prices and against the rich is more threatening than religious fanatics. Clinton’s comments about disenfranchised youth apply here in the US as well. This is why they want to quell these developments in Tunisia before they spread to other parts of the Arab world and US workers get some ideas. Tunisia’s President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is head of a corrupt undemocratic regime that rules over a highly censored society. It is an ally of the US in its “War on terror”. The US has supported this regime as it has numerous dictatorships throughout the region. It is forced to talk about democracy and rights due to the uprising,
You have to laugh at the US Secretary of State admonishing a North African nation for its lack of opportunity and democracy. As Clinton lectures a North African nation on the need to offer more opportunity, raise living standards and increase democracy for its citizens, her and her class are destroying living standards, reducing opportunity and assaulting democratic rights in the US.
The movement against the “conspicuous riches” of the Tunisian elite is a very positive development. It puts US capitalism on the defensive as the situation on its own turf is potentially very explosive as similar conditions exist here.
Watch out Goldman Sachs.
(1) How to Prevent the Next Wikileaks Dump WSJ 1-13-11
(2) Clinton Rips Arabs on Lack of Reform WSJ 1-14-11
1 comment:
There is great indifference between the people of the world. We don't need to cut ourselves off and divide one another behind boundaries. All religions should have a unified purpose of promoting fairness. Economic fairness should be the first priority. You simply can't have people who don't produce anything,control and have most of the wealth.
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