Re: Japanese infrastructure question again

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim D.:

> At 12:39 PM 12/19/00 -0500, you wrote:
> > Perhaps, but the Zapatistas, too, have been of the "good
> > government" variety, helping in a small way to topple the PRI, with
> > their appeals to the Mexican & international "civil society."  They
> > are part of the trend, rather than a counter-trend.  I say this
> > even though I'm a big fan of Subcomandante Marcos, the world's
> > second-best-looking revolutionary (after Che, of course).
>
> 1) I'm not against "good government" _per se_. It's common for mass
> movements ( at the beginning of the 20th century, the Populist
> Party, the Socialist Party-USA, the IWW) to promote "good
> government" (the Progressive movement). The question is whether or
> not what Jesse Jackson once called the "street heat" is kept up, so
> that the movement can get beyond such reforms. So whether the
> Zapatistas are part of the neoliberal trend rather than a
> counter-trend remains to be seen.

There are (at least) two ways in which movements on the Left can add
to the hegemonic trend, instead of a counter-trend:

1.  You topple your local enemies (e.g., the PRI, Suharto, etc.),
only to have your nation even more fundamentally subjected to the
global neoliberal hegemony than before.

2.  You seek to emancipate victims from a tyranny of one kind, only
to subject them to another: e.g., to emancipate the mentally ill from
imprisonment & ill treatment in centralized hospitals, only to leave
them "free" to wander in the streets, unable to take care of
themselves on their own, until they get into trouble with laws &
become inmates of real prisons; to "rescue" foreign women from
"sexual slavery," only to have them deported:

*****   In These Times, January 8, 2001

Slaves of Chicago, by Charity Crouse

This city has become the focus of growing investigation into the sex
trafficking of foreign women and girls -- what the CIA calls a
"modern-day form of slavery" that yields $7 billion a year in profits.

In October, Chicago Police began investigating prostitution in the
Chinatown neighborhood.  Officers called eight massage parlors
advertising in a local publication and found that all of them had
women working as prostitutes.  After further investigation, officers
learned the women had been brought to Chicago from rural China, after
being promised high-paying jobs in America.  Upon arrival, the women
were forced into prostitution in order to pay off their $60,000
"travel fee."  The owners of two parlors were arrested for soliciting
prostitution and several of the women now languish in custody as law
enforcement officials and the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) decide their fate.

The Chinatown case comes on the heels of a Chicago trial that yielded
the first conviction for trafficking in women and girls in nearly two
decades.

That case began in 1995, when Alexander Mishulovich and his
associates approached five young women on the streets of Riga, Latvia
with flattery and an offer of employment in the United States.  While
the average Latvian makes $200 to $350 a month, Mishulovich promised
each of the women more than $60,000 a year.  All they had to do was
dance in "upscale" nightclubs completely clothed, lie at the embassy
about their purpose for traveling to the United States, and hand over
half of their earnings until they paid off their transportation debts.

The women jumped at the opportunity, but soon discovered the offer
that sounded too good to be true was just that.  When they arrived in
Chicago in November 1997, they were told they would be dancing
topless.  Their identification papers were taken and they were
required to give all but $20 of the $200 to $600 they made nightly to
Mishulovich.  "He inflated the costs and kept building their debt,"
explains FBI Special Agent Michael E. Brown.  "He told them he needed
the money to pay living expenses and bribes to police and
politicians."

The women were not allowed to leave the one-bedroom apartment
Mishulovich had rented in suburban Mt. Prospect, Illinois, except to
work at various strip clubs, including the Admiral Theater in Chicago
and the Skybox in Harvey, Illinois.  They were physically beaten and
sexually abused.

Such treatment continued until June 1998, when FBI agents arrested
four of Mishulovich's associates after following leads from U.S.
Embassy officials in Latvia.  Mishulovich and the others were
indicted for a variety of offenses, including conspiracy to commit
peonage, fraud and obstruction of justice.  Four men were convicted
and currently await sentencing; Mishulovich fled the country and
remains a fugitive.  All of the women were deported to Latvia....
*****

Feminists who organize against "sexual slavery" & "trafficking in
women" should try not to become an adjunct of Law & Order....

> BTW, not all of the "progressive reforms" are a good thing, despite
> the positive connotations of the word "progressive" among leftists
> these days. Here in Los Angeles, the progressive era gave us a
> powerless mayor (with powerful city council-people) and I believe
> our county government, which is quite powerful but has no elected
> person in charge. (The Supervisors are elected, but there's no
> overall authority who's elected.)

On subjects like this, there is no better authority than Michael Hoover!

> 2) how do you know that Marcos is the world's second-best-looking
> revolutionary? he wears a mask. Also, wasn't Leon Trotsky pretty hot?

Marcos's eyes alone are to die for, no?  The mask, which I naturally
assume he uses to hide his good looks out of a sense of modesty (in
addition to a utilitarian purpose of hiding his identity from forces
of repression), merely adds to his seductively mysterious air.
Reportedly, Mexican women, who I believe have exacting standards,
have treated him like a matinee idol.  In the event that he turns out
not to look like what many imagine him to, the second place should go
to Angela Davis or Malcolm X.

> Third, you've never seen me. ;-)

I expect you look as charming as you sound in your posts.  :)

Yoshie