Mending Party Rifts

Last night I was one of the last people to find a seat in the Pepsi Center before the fire marshals closed the doors at full capacity. From the nose-bleed section, we had a bird’s-eye view of the sea of signs and bodies that filled the stadium.

Although most of the people, like me, were there to see if the party would achieve the closure it needed after the bitter primaries, the drama temporarily took a backseat for a surprisingly invigorating speech by Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. With an Everyman charm, Schweitzer took on the issues and slammed the Republican leadership to the choreography of dancing red “McCain—the same” signs.

Hillary Clinton’s appearance began with a video tribute to her life, focusing on biographical trivia, her long battle for healthcare and the “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” (in reference to the number of primary votes she won)—a phrase echoed by Michelle Obama in her speech the night before.

There was very little ambiguity in Clinton’s speech. She recounted moments from her campaign and stated, “I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to this government… and they are the reason I support Barack Obama.” She scoffed at the Bush-McCain duo soon to meet in the “Twin Cities” (“it makes perfect sense”).

On the anniversary of women’s suffrage, she recounted the struggles of Harriet Tubman and Seneca Falls, dear to the hearts of her feminist followers. And just as we began to wonder if the exhortations to “keep on” didn’t have a sub-text ("we’re not big on quitting,” she said in an under-statement), she quickly turned it around to a plea to support Barack Obama.

Having successfully navigated the Hillary moment with a clear message of unity, the next telling moment came at today’s roll-call vote. Earlier in the day, Hillary Clinton “released her delegates” without telling them what to do with their votes. Many of the delegates from states where Clinton won the primary cast their votes for Obama. As the vote made its way down the alphabet, and Obama racked up votes, hundreds of Clinton delegates cast their votes for Obama, with several states like Arkansas, New Jersey and New Hampshire casting a unanimous group vote for Obama.

So then New Mexico yields in florid terms to Illinois, Illinois yields to New York and Hillary Clinton files onto the floor to suspend the roll call vote and nominate Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate.

The whole process seemed a little contrived to me, but I’m not much on rituals of power.

Anyway, it worked—Clinton was poised and dignified, the delegates accepted the measure to much acclaim, and everybody danced to “Love Train” in the aisles. Of course, all the states with the misfortune of beginning with letters after “n” missed their moment in the limelight and had to pocket their speeches about the beauty and benevolence of their states. But, hey, unity requires sacrifice.

The final important step on the road to post-primary unity was Bill Clinton’s speech tonight. The media reported some jostling between the Clinton and Obama camps on that one, with Clinton reportedly asked to pave the path for Obama’s debut as the unity candidate, and Clinton insisting on a forum to extol some of the accomplishments of his presidency.

President Clinton had one thing he HAD to say: Barack Obama is ready to be president. He said it, textually. He then went on to talk about what the United States should be, restoring work with international institutions and using diplomacy first and military force as a last resort, on this, the foreign policy night. “People abroad are always more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”

The former president made a strong case for Obama, endorsing his qualifications directly in a way his wife avoided. The rest of the evening consolidated the critique of the Bush administration and McCain’s candidacy, adding praise of the Obama candidacy. John Kerry compared the Obama/Biden platform to McCain’s positions with the rhetorical statement “Who can we trust to keep America safe?” Biden followed up, Obama took the stage in an unannounced appearance to cement the fact that it was his party, and some of the citizen participants made really remarkable contributions.

So the Democratic Party now has closure. But closure is an opening. The scripted opening is the path cleared for Barack Obama’s general elections campaign—the bottom line for the Party convention. That was a foregone conclusion but required careful packaging to begin to draw in sectors of the population that weren’t among the hardcore democrats on the floor of the Pepsi Center.

But the real opening is to give content and commitment to all the words heard here. Nobody expects the politicking to end here—in fact in many ways it’s just getting started. But what a united party now has to tell voters what it’s united behind, and how that differs substantially from the Republicans, to meet next week in their own convention.

The first day of the Democratic Convention

The Big Tent, a blogging center set up by the Daily Kos and other groups, is full and buzzing already. It’s an exciting tribute to a new kind of journalism, what Markos Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, has called bypassing, crushing and influencing the gatekeepers. The people who work here are the critics, and not the sycophants of the mainstream media. So while the mainstream media attempts to impose its own news agenda on the convention process, many of these people look for the stories that aren’t being covered and debunk some of the “news” being fed through the usual channels. They’re wiring back to networks that crisscross regions, sectors, interests in thousands of ways and forms.

The mainstream media has decided that supposed internal bickering is more newsworthy than grassroots organizing and has turned its cameras on the disgruntled Hillary supporters for today. Conflict trumps unity as a headliner and much of the media feels a need to create tempests in teapots to feed the news cycle. But as usual, the story at eye level is more interesting and has more long-term implications than the politicking in the stratospheres of power.

In talking to people, there are many who have become grassroots organizers in this campaign--and electoral campaigns in the U.S. are not known for bringing about that particular type of conversion. Among progressives, some simply switched causes, augmenting a wide range of NGO work with the Obama campaign. But others are looking at organizing for the first time and breaking down the mystique surrounding both elections (usually restricted to vote casting or at best canvassing) and organizing itself.

Sure, it’s still in the context of representative democracy—not a really hands-on brand by nature—and the activism might be ephemeral, the heat of the electoral moment inspiring normally complacent citizens. But there’s always that handful who will come out of it saying, if we did this, maybe we can improve our community or make the democratic party more responsive, or reform foreign policy, or…

Some will shipwreck early on the rocks of disappointment or frustration. The U.S. political system guards its shores with these obstacles. But others--who knows where they’ll sail off to.

The campaign is encouraging, even promoting, this kind of conversion through organizing workshops and new technological tools for multiplying voter registration efforts like this one.

Even the stodgy Democratic Party has adopted a fifty-state strategy that goes beyond the pollsters and pundits to, at least theoretically, validate everybody’s role. In my state of Oregon that’s actually a big change. As a blue state on the last-in West Coast, we were typically downplayed in party politics. The strategy moves away from the exclusive focus on swing states to develop dynamic (and presumably funded) organizing in all states using local organizers rather than party hacks. Part of the idea is to create new structures that go beyond 2008.

The contemporary historical record on real change through the two party system is not encouraging. But seeing more and more people, and especially citizens usually left out on the margins, take part and feel more invested in the process is a step forward.

Mexico's Gold Medal in Kidnappings

The Dutch NGO IKV Pax Christi has come out with a report that Mexico now leads the world in kidnappings, beating out competition from Colombia, which once topped the list, and even Iraq.

In response to some high profile kidnappings recently (especially that of Fernando Marti) there are marches for "security" being organized in Mexico City. The organizers have called for the dealth penalty for kidnappers, which would require modifiying Mexico's long term stance against capital punishment.

The danger of this reaction to the situation, explained Emilio Alvarez Icaza, at a panel organized by the Fundación Heinrich Boell last week, is that "A crisis is the absolute worst time to legislate. Mexico signed two agreements specifically against the death penalty just last year."

Hopefully this knee jerk reaction to the situation, which clearly needs a more comprehensive solution than just radical legislation, won't prevail.

El Universal article: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/161690.html

Laura Carlsen on Democracy Now! on Plan Mexico/Merida Initiative

Check out Laura's interviews on Plan Mexico, they are short and informative about the situation.

Democracy Now! (Today, July 31)

In this interview, Democracy NOW! interviews CIP Americas Program director Laura
Carlsen, TV host and documentary-maker Avi Lewis, and Global Exchange's
John Gibler on NAFTA and the implications of Plan Mexico.

Watch or listen here: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/31/plan_mexico

InsideUSA with Avi Lewis on Al-Jazeera English (July 26)

Watch this interview with footage from the drug war and a rooftop Mexico City
interview with Laura Carlsen and Jorge Chabat on Plan Mexico, the war
on drugs and the human rights casualites of militarization:

Part One (15 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyDHNeJxazU

Part Two (8 minutes): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz8k39p8z4U

The Riz Khan Show on Al-Jazeera English (July 8)

In an interview focused on the recent torture tapes from Mexican police
training programs, Human Rights Watch and Americas Program debate
whether the Merida Initiative will have a positive or negative effect
on human rights in Mexico.

Watch at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=busyzt3GzaA

Resources on Plan Mexico page

Plan Mexico and the Billion-Dollar Drug Deal

"Deep Integration"≈the Anti-Democratic Expansion of NAFTA

If you'd like to interview Laura you can contact us at lcarlsen(at)ciponline.org and americas(at)ciponline.org.

Border activist on trial for leaving water for migrants

This is taken from the press release today

"Trial for Border Volunteer, Cited for Littering while Picking Up Trash"

A humanitarian aid volunteer goes to federal court Friday over a littering
citation received while picking up trash along the Arizona – Mexico
border. No More Deaths volunteer Dan Millis, 29, has entered a plea of
not guilty to the Class B Misdemeanor offense of littering on a National
Wildlife Refuge. He faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or
$5,000 in fines.

The trial is this Friday, July 25, at 9:30 a.m., at the DeConcini federal
courthouse, 405 W. Congress, in Tucson. A press conference will be held
in front of the courthouse at noon or immediately following the trial.

Millis and three other humanitarian aid volunteers were picking up trash
and leaving jugs of drinking water along border trails in Brown Canyon
north of Sasabe on February 22, 2008, when they were confronted by U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement. Officers informed volunteers that they
could neither leave water nor recover trash without proper permits, and
Millis was presented with a $175 ticket for littering.

“I felt especially compelled to leave drinking water out that day, because
only two days earlier I found the body of a young girl in the desert. She
was only fourteen,” states Millis. “It was heartbreaking.”

238 migrants were found dead in the Arizona borderlands during the 2007
fiscal year. During the summer of 2007, No More Deaths encountered 388
migrants along the Arizona – Mexico border, including twenty seven women,
fourteen children, and one pregnant seventeen-year-old. Many required
serious medical attention. No More Deaths has been working to provide
humanitarian aid to people along the border since 2004, including the
Brown Canyon area where Millis was cited.

For more information, please visit www.nomoredeaths.org, write us at
action@nomoredeaths.org, or (928) 821-0331.

Mexican Oil Referendum Next Sunday

Mexicans will cast a historic vote this coming Sunday July 27th on the fate of the much-debated Petróleos Mexicanos. The privatization debate and reform proposals have been making continuous headlines, and now the general population will vote in this unique referendum. The two questions will have two answer choices each and deal with the modernization of Pemex, the participation of private investors in the transportation, ducts and storage of hydrocarbons and on budget autonomy and administrative controls for the national oil company.

The Mexican people are in general very proud of their natural resources, and it's important to note that Pemex contributes nearly 40% to the federal budget. Mexico City residents and nine other states will vote at 5,600 community sites from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Politicians of all stripes are campaigning for the "correct" answers. Lopez Obrador says to vote "no" and Calderon's administration is in the midst of a media blitz using the slogan "The oil is ours, lets go get it" (El petroleo es nuestro, vamos por el).

The exact questions are:

"La explotación, transporte, distribución, almacenamiento y refinación de los hidrocarburos son actividades exclusivas del gobierno, ¿Está usted de acuerdo o no está de acuerdo que en esas actividades puedan ahora participar empresas privadas?"

"En general, ¿está de acuerdo o no está de acuerdo con que se aprueben las iniciativas relativas a la reforma energética que se debaten actualmente en el Congreso de la Unión?"

Previous surveys have shown high majorities voting to keep Pemex as nationalized as possible. On Sunday I'll interview voters on their reactions to the referendum and hopefully post some short video and quotes here.

Back to Oaxaca

I was in Oaxaca City last week for a workshop on the Security and Prosperity Partnership, Plan Mexico, privatization reforms to Social Security, and job insecurity. That sounds like a wide range of issues, and it is—especially considering the complexity of each one.

But that was the point—to give workers from the state a broad picture in which to understand what´s happening to them. It turned out to be one of those very fruitful gatherings where those of us who analyze “broad pictures” got a chance to work together with those who experience the worst consequences on a daily basis. The workshop was sponsored by the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras and Mujeres Sindicalistas (Women Union Members), bringing together Oaxaca maquiladora workers, state employees from the Health and Transportation departments, and teachers.

Being back in Oaxaca was a strange experience in itself. I had been back since the uprising but still the images burned into my mind were from late 2006 when federal troops were sent in to put down the teachers’ strike that spread into a popular uprising.

Then it was a city occupied by machine guns and fear. Where you’d turn a corner on a quaint colonial street and run into a row of shield-yielding, riot-geared cops. Where groups playing music or selling crafts shared the sidewalk with heavily armed federal police looking like they didn’t quite know what they were supposed to be doing.

If those images are burned into my memory, they’re branded into the flesh of the participants of the movement. But despite lingering trauma from the torture, repression, assassination and imprisonment they faced, Oaxacans continue to fight back. Now the tourists have returned en force and the hated Governor Ulises Ruiz repeats ad nauseum that everything is back to normal. The crimes committed during and after the uprising have gone unpunished and in most cases the government has failed to carry out even a pretense of an investigation. Given the lack of response from the state government, the Mexican Supreme Court agreed to form a commission to investigate what happened. Oaxaca will be yet another test case of the highest court’s commitment to justice when entrenched political interests are involved.

Apparently “normal” in Oaxaca means a fresh onslaught of offensives. The women workers discussed the way privatization of social security is cutting back their hard-earned pensions and benefits, intensification of work in the maquiladoras means obligatory overtime under the threat of closure, President Calderon’s labor reform—on his checklist of neoliberal “reforms” after social security and privatization of PEMEX—would create “flexible” working conditions and further erode job security and working conditions. The Plan Mexico discussion was lively as participants asked about the plan and discussed the already dire situation of human rights violations in the state.

We just put up a new Human Rights section of the website that contains a series on Oaxaca. These are papers presented at the “After the Barricades” conference sponsored by Simon Fraser University a few months back. They cover many aspects of the conflict and its aftermath: the viewpoint of surrounding rural communities, the linkage between freedom of expression and rights the breakdown of the social compact in Mexico and the dynamics of the conflict.

We’ll be posting more there over the next few days, so check back in as documents from the Oaxaca Women’s Coalition, Section 22 of the Education Workers Union and the Human Rights Commission report go up.

Oaxaca: After the Barricades

http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5364