UAE Controls the Port of Vancouver

The storm of protectionism disquised as concern over terrorism and security continues in the United States. Bush faces bipartisan backlash on Arab port administration And these guys talk about Free Trade, until they realise that it means foreign ownership.

In an opinion article in the Chattanogan Jason Kibby writes; The United Arab Emirates also controls a port at Vancouver, Canada. Should we tell the Canadians to send them packing? Guess that's why Fox TV says Canada exports terrorists to the U.S.


My Libertarian pal Brad Spangler says the solution is worker ownership of the ports, what a novel idea, but it will never happen in the dog eat dog world of monopoly state capitalism. Though we can hope one day this solution will happen;says Brad; People are furious about this. I’ll repeat again my own call for non-violent revolutionary community seizure of the ports.



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Capitalism Kills

Often overlooked by the defenders and apologists of capitalism, is that the bottom line is just that the bottom line, and how profitable a company is, is more important than worker or public safety, as todays headlines show;

Hope fading for 65 Mexican miners

55 killed, 100 injured in worst garment factory fire in Chittagong

Building collapse in Dhaka kills 16, injures 45

Moscow police arrest director of collapsed market hall
Most of the victims of the collapse, almost all guest workers from former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia, have already been identified by relatives and work colleagues.

The price of capitalist development understood as a whole, in its facets as development and underdevelopment, is unsustainable because it consists of death. As I have argued elsewhere (Dalla Costa M., 1995), a central assumption must be that, from the human viewpoint, capitalist development has always been unsustainable since it has assumed from the start, and continues to assume, extermination and hunger for an increasingly large part of humanity.
Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Development and Reproduction [.pdf]

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The Zarqawi Factor

The destruction of the Shia's holiest shrine, the Golden Mosque, in Iraq and the immediate reaction that IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE SUNNI'S, has created a condition that favours one particular group.

What seems to have been lost in all this is cool heads and reasoned thinking ,that perhaps the actual bombers were followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, after all two years ago he announced this as his strategy to divide the Sunni's and Shia's.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is Iraq's most notorious insurgent - a shadowy figure associated with spectacular bombings,

Bomb attacks on Iraq's Shia-dominated government and security forces have continued apace, however, with many of the bloodiest strikes of 2005 blamed on Zarqawi's group, now renamed al-Qaeda in Iraq. An intercepted letter released by the Americans in February 2004 seems to support their claim that targeting Shias is central to Zarqawi's strategy in Iraq. In it, Zarqawi appears to share his plans for igniting sectarian conflict in Iraq as a means of undermining the US presence there. Within days of the letter's release, bomb attacks on recruiting centres for the Iraqi security forces had killed nearly 100 people. Attacks are now a daily occurrence in Iraq. Whether or not Zarqawi is behind them all, he is seen by the US as the biggest obstacle to their hopes of progress in Iraq - their most dangerous enemy in the country.

With the current division politically in Iraq and rising internecine incidents of mutual attacks and reprisals, between these two groups, the outrageous bombing of the Shia's Golden Mosque would hasten further sectarian violence, and benefit the divide and conquer strategy of Zarqawi. At last early this morning a spokesperson for the Shia, has come out and pointed the finger at Zarqawi as the possible provocatuer.

As Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al- Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said in a statement calling for national unity:

It is regrettable that things reached the degree that Sunni and Shiites are paying for the crimes committed by the enemy of Islam and Iraqis. This is what Zarqawi is working for -- that is, to ignite sectarian strife in the country. We call for self-restraint and not to be dragged by the plots of the enemy of Iraq.

In the Middle East it appears that forty eight hours later cooler heads are now prevailing. Despite the usual blame the US and Israel tripe, the reality is now setting in, that the fascists in Al Quiada would benefit most from this bombing.

US, Iran and al-Qaeda are each accused for the Samarra mosque bombing

Religious and political leaders are multiplying their appeals for unity against division. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Shia Islam’s highest authority in Iraq, spoke again today. According to one his aides, Mohammad Hakkani, the issue is not only rebuilding the mosque, but building Iraq with all its ethnic and religious components.

For his part, Mgr Shleiman Warduni, auxiliary Chaldean bishop of Baghdad, said that the purpose of the attack was clear: “It was meant to spread division and hatred and stop the country’s progress. We are not yet in civil war, but when such bloodbaths occur we should not take that risk too lightly”.

Extremist Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr from Qom (Iran) told al-Jazeera that Sunnis should join Shiites in pledging not to kill fellow Muslims and should distance themselves from “takfiris”, Sunni extremists who target Shiites.

According to the Khaleej Times, during protests in Bahrain against the mosque bombing people shouted slogans against Al-Qaeda and its supporters, accusing them of trying to fuel sectarian hatred. Many marched holding pictures showing the damaged dome and placards equating the attacks with the controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

Asia Times also pinned the blame on al-Qaeda-linked groups calling them the “prime suspects” but also saying that they might “be the biggest losers in the fallout” because once the wave of outrage subsides the “Iraqi resistance will be viewed in a new light. And plans for a region-wide anti-US resistance movement centred on Iran will have to be rethought.”

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