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Letter from the Director
Dear IRC Supporters, We’re aware that this issue of the IRC Insider is overdue. The events of the past few months have overtaken us. Our staff (six full-time, three part-time, plus one full-time volunteer) has been frantically running just to keep up with the unfolding drama. No sooner do we think we have a handle on things, when our breath is again taken away by another attack on the framework of global decency by an arrogant administration at the helm of a rogue nation. We kept trying to think of what we could write that would not simply burden you with more bad news. And then that all-important word, CONTEXT, came to mind. In our country the mainstream media always frames events in the context of “Empire America.” “We” define global norms, everything else is foreign. The U.S. mainstream media tells us that those of us who opposed the Pentagon’s nearly unilateral war in Iraq represent only 27% of the population. The percentage opposing preemptive war in general was much higher before the shooting started, of course. But once our troops were committed, our numbers shrank. Most folks circled their wagons and formed a laager, like the Boers in apartheid South Africa. My country, right or wrong. Join the majority. We agree! Join the majority! The global majority! At the IRC we’ve spent nearly a quarter century nurturing the concept of responsible global citizenship. We decry the narrow, greed-based confines of neoliberal economic globalization. We’ve been urging our nation’s leaders to become global partners for years, and we’ve reiterated our commitment to multilateralism and global cooperation. It’s in this sense that we urge Washington to get with the program and join the global majority. And it’s also in this global context that we need to recognize our hope. We’re not referring to some Pollyanna hope that denies reality but rather to a genuine hope that embraces reality. And that reassuring reality is that most of the world’s people reject our nation’s irresponsible behavior. Most of the world recognizes that everyone’s better off when everyone’s better off. True security does not rest with rigging global trade rules in our favor to enrich a few nations while impoverishing the rest. International security and world peace depend on a commitment to the interdependent web of mutual respect and joint progress. Despite all of Washington’s pressure politics and economic enticements, the world’s majority rejects our leaders’ imperialist designs. We ARE the global majority! So as you read about what our staff has been up to lately, know that both you and we have lots of global partners. Not long ago Tom Barry returned from the World Social Forum in Brazil and got a taste of the verve and dynamism of our global partners. Some of you may have experienced similar hopeful insights in your varied activities working to promote responsible global citizenship. Tell us about them! The IRC staff, board, and members represent a potent force for global cooperation. Collectively, we are helping the global majority to increase in numbers with a persistence and drive that mirrors that of South Africa’s majority citizenry. And, like them, we will outlast the current manifestations of rogue behavior and will reinforce the web of multilateral interdependence to promote the global common good, because we truly represent—and are integral members of—the global majority. For a wholesome global future, The IRC Staff
IRC Goings On
Analysis, Education, Action FPIF’s “Our Fateful Choice: Global Cop or Global Leader” statement is quickly becoming the theoretical backbone of a new movement in our country to promote global respect and sharing in national decisionmaking. This prescriptive evaluation of U.S. foreign and military policy advises: “We are compelled—both by our consciences and our hopes for future generations—to call for a new foreign policy that successfully meets the new challenges that threaten global security, peace, and development. Threats to our common security need multilateral responses. Not in our name can the U.S. government ignore world opinion, reject international treaties, adopt first-strike prerogatives, and put power before reason.” Our Fateful Choice is currently being translated into Spanish and French. The entire document is available at the Present Danger website: http://www.presentdanger.org/choice.html. We encourage you to sign on to the statement (on the web) and use it for discussions in your organizing work or as background for developing resolutions in your churches and other organizations. Our analysis of the shifts in U.S. foreign policy after the 9-11 terrorist attacks features prominently in a new book out this month entitled Global Power Trip (Seven Stories Press) and edited by frequent FPIF contributor John Feffer. IRC staffers Tom and John Gershman authored three chapters and the preface of the book. Tom has been contracted by Henry Holt & Co. to write a book on the neoconservatives behind the Bush administration. The Empire Builders will be released in April 2004. Reaching Out Our electronic presence continues to grow by leaps and bounds, as chronicled by the exponential growth in subscribers to our ezines: the Progressive Response (currently with 10,832 subscribers), the Crossborder UPDATER (1,757 subscribers), and the Present Danger (1,798 subscribers). Our busiest website, www.fpif.org, receives just under 10,000 individual visitors daily. John, FPIF codirector, is organizing panels for the Campaign for America’s Future Take Back America conference in Washington, DC, from June 4-6. Americas Program materials have been distributed to international networks resisting Plan Puebla-Panamá and the Central American Free Trade Agreement and to NGOs organizing around the World Trade Organization’s September meeting in Cancún. Americas Program analysts are increasingly being cited/consulted on issues ranging from privatization of biological resources (in La Jornada), women and globalization (for a Bill Moyers documentary), and the Agreement on Agriculture of the WTO (by the Boehl Foundation). Also, Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) is distributing 1,000 copies of the Americas Program profile on MST. New Staff Laura Carlsen has been hired to replace George Kourous, since he moved on to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome at the end of February. Long-term contributing author to the IRC and resident of Mexico City, Laura is coauthor of the book Confronting Globalization with Tim Wise and Hilda Salazar (Kumarian Press, 2003). IRC in the Media In mid-April Tom participated in an hour-long Voice of America debate with former intelligence officers about the next steps the U.S. should take in the Middle East. Tom was solicited to write an op-ed in response to USA Today’s editorial in support of the war in Iraq. His op-ed appeared on March 3rd, as did another in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on March 16th. Tom and John have appeared on numerous radio programs discussing both the influence of neoconservatives in U.S. foreign policy and U.S. policy toward Asia. In January, John provided immediate response to the Bush administration’s State of the Union address for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and IRC board member Salih Booker represented the Foreign Policy In Focus project on CBC on March 19th. John also coauthored a chapter on intrastate conflicts in Asia that appeared in Asia’s Security Order (Stanford University Press, 2003).
Office Contact Information
Albuquerque Box 4506 Albuquerque, NM 87196-4506 Voice: (505) 842-8288 Fax: (505) 842-8288	Silver City Box 2178 Silver City, NM 88062-2178 Voice: (505) 388-0208 Fax: (505) 388-0619 Email: irc@irc-online.org