The Guardian 24 October, 2007
Culture and Life
by Rob Gowland
Calling the tune
Under capitalism, big business calls the tune. And the bigger the profits the more loudly it can call the tune.
You can be in the same line of business, but if you are only making a small profit then you will not command the ear of government like a big profitable company can. I am sorry, I know I have shocked you, but it’s a fact.
Look at the energy and mining industries, for a moment. Coal mining is spewing lung-damaging dust all over the environment, endangering the health not only of coal-miners but also of people living or working in the vicinity of coal mines, coal stockpiles, coal loaders, the railways that carry the coal trains, and more.
But for the Federal and State governments, the coal industry can do no wrong. The Federal government is now proposing to use public money to clean up the industry’s public image by funding the development of so-called "clean coal". The coal companies will still reap the profits while the public will pay to make the coal industry seem less polluting.
Meanwhile the uranium industry is intent on turning much of Central and Northern Australia into a quarry producing the raw material for making radioactive waste. Howard seems to think this is a much better alternative to solar power or wind generating systems or indeed any other form of renewable energy.
Surely this could not be because coal and nuclear power stations can make much bigger profits than wind generators or solar panels? Eh? Of course not!
And before you say it, I do realise that Howard and his backers are interested in more than just profit. In fact, their prime concern is and has been for a long time global dominance.
As oil supplies diminish (they are a finite resource, after all), the hugely wealthy energy corporations are looking for alternative sources of power that are also capable of being brought under the control of the energy monopolies, in order to sustain their profits and their position.
Not surprising then that Howard keeps on spruiking for the big boys of the energy industry, trying to convince us that nuclear power in particular is "the way of the future".
He offers no solution to the problem of radioactive nuclear waste, apparently unconcerned at the prospect of inflicting such a problem on humanity for thousands of years to come. But that’s in the future: profit and geo-political power — not to mention political support — are now. And Howard, it seems, can only think in terms of now.
Tony Kushelew in South Australia sent me an extract from The Economist of September 8th, 2007. It adds a possible extra dimension to the reasoning of Howard’s friends in the energy industry: "Western governments are concerned that most of the world’s oil and gas is in the hands of hostile or shaky governments. Much of the nuclear industry’s raw material, uranium, by contrast, is located in friendly places such as Australia and Canada."
As Tony says, "How comforting it is to know that we are such valued friends to the great, peace-loving, just and humane US of A!"
The US has shown, especially during period in office of both the Presidents Bush (father and son), that American imperialism is totally ruthless in pursuit of its goal of world domination. War, subversion, assassination — there is nothing that it would shy away from.
If, as US sources of oil supplies diminished, we were to elect a government that decided to ban the mining or export of uranium, we would soon learn just how friendly the US superpower really was. Not very, I confidently predict.
Imperialism and anti-imperialism
The shameless disregard for historical fact that permeates the statements and propaganda of imperialism is truly staggering, isn’t it? And it isn’t only what they say, that is so astonishingly amoral: it’s also what they actually do.
The Bush regime in the US, ignoring the steady flow of flag-draped coffins coming back from Iraq, continues to insist on young men and women going there to join the fight for US strategic interests.
True to form, US leaders (and flunkeys like Howard) proclaim that these troops are there to bolster the US effort to "establish democracy" in Iraq. This is a tragic farce that bids fair to destroy Iraq, and is certainly a long trial for its suffering population.
What makes this imperialist action so shameless is that it was Anglo-US imperialism that destroyed popular government in Iraq in the first place and deliberately delivered it into the hands of a ruthless dictator named Saddam Hussein.
After World War II, the US, in pursuit of its anti-Soviet goals (the elimination of all socialist governments and the creation of a uni-polar world with the US as its only super-power), tried to make oil-rich Iraq the anchor of a NATO-like pro-Western alliance, the Baghdad Pact.
However, in 1958, Iraq’s pro-imperialist government was overthrown by a revolution led by ‘Abd al-Karim Qasim. It was during the political upsurge leading to this revolution that Saddam Hussein joined the Ba’ath Party.
In 1959, Saddam took part in a Ba’ath attempt to stage a coup and assassinate Qasim, fleeing to Cairo when it failed. There, he came into contact with US intelligence officials who from then on encouraged and supported Saddam and Ba’ath to gain and then retain power in Iraq.
"The CIA’s efforts proved successful. On February 8, 1963, a combination of Ba’athists, Nasserists, and right-wing nationalists staged another military coup, seized power, and summarily executed Qasim.
"According to Palestinian journalist and Saddam Hussein biographer Said Aburish, Qasim ‘refused to arm the tens of thousands of Communists, peasants and workers who had trekked to his headquarters to offer to defend him...’." — Larry Everest, Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the US Global Agenda [Common Courage Press, 2004].
Qasim was replaced by Abd al-Salam ‘Arif, but, like the similar regimes the CIA was busy installing in South Vietnam at the time, ‘Arif’s government did not last long. It was overthrown by another Ba’athist coup in 1968, again (or still) with the aid of the US Central Intelligence Agency.
"Some 40 years later, the US would denounce Ba’ath Party tyranny and call for regime change. In February 1963, however, the US directly assisted in the establishment of that tyranny by providing the Ba’ath Party with lists of suspected communists, left-leaning intellectuals, progressives, and radical nationalists.
"On the night of the coup, with the CIA-provided lists in hand, the new Ba’ath regime unleashed a reign of terror." — Larry Everest, op cit.
US imperialism behaved in the same manner in Indonesia when it utilised an ambitious general, Suharto, to stage a coup against the popular democratic (but anti-imperialist) government of Soekarno. In Indonesia too, the US intelligence agencies provided lists of "Communists, left-leaning intellectuals, progressives and radical nationalists".
These unfortunate people were murdered or else imprisoned under inhumane conditions in many cases for decades.