Fw: March 2000

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>    Le Monde diplomatique
>    -----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>                                  March 2000
>
>
> LEADER
>
> Reform in Iran *
>
> by IGNACIO RAMONET
>
>            <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/01leader>
>
>                                                   Translated by Ed Emery
>
>
> SUPPLIES HELD OVER A BARREL
>
> What future for the oil industry?
>
> by NICOLAS SARKIS
>
>      The price of a barrel of oil has more than tripled in the space of
>      a year, several times passing the $30 mark. The reason for the
>      surge is the increase in energy needs consequent on growth and a
>      deliberate cap placed on production by Opec, which on 1 April 1999
>      decided to stick at 22.98 million barrels a day (not including
>      Iraq). To try and force Opec to turn the taps on fuller at the 27
>      March summit, President Bill Clinton has quite exceptionally
>      threatened to draw on the United States' strategic reserves. If no
>      agreement is reached between exporting countries and consumers, the
>      oil market is likely to experience renewed shocks which, despite
>      the West's reduced dependency, will dampen the nascent recovery.
>
>                                          Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
>
>
> SOCIAL CRISIS, POLITICAL STALEMATE
>
> Why did Austria lurch to the right?
>
> by PAUL PASTEUR
>
>      When Jörg Haider's Freedom Party joined the Austrian government on
>      3 February, it aroused heated emotions all round Europe. The
>      reaction of the European governments - spectacular but short-lived
>      - was followed by massive demonstrations in Vienna and other
>      capitals. But opposing the far-right means getting a clear idea of
>      the various forms it takes from one country to another and the
>      reasons for its success.
>
>                                         Translated by Derry Cook-Radmore
>
> Europe's new fascist order
>
> by JEAN-YVES CAMUS
>
>      The far right has never entirely disappeared from the scene in
>      Europe, witness current developments in Austria (see article by
>      Paul Pasteur). Some movements, excluded from the electoral system
>      as in Scandinavia or the United Kingdom for example, turn to
>      terrorism, others exploit the blurring of distinctions between
>      right and left which makes a nonsense of political representation.
>      Thus the problem is not so much the resurgence of 'fascism' as the
>      numbing effect on democracy of political and economic consensus.
>
>                                             Translated by Barbara Wilson
>
>
> CAUGHT BETWEEN ARMY AND SEPARATISTS
>
> Indonesia faces dual assault
>
> by FRANÇOISE CAYRAC-BLANCHARD
>
>      Since the fall of General Suharto, Indonesia has elected
>      Abdurrahman Wahid, a democrat and a Muslim, as president and
>      recognised the independence of East Timor. If he is to restore
>      democracy, however, Wahid must reduce the role of the army which
>      has had too much power for too long. His task is all the harder as
>      he must urgently resolve two separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua
>      and deal with an explosive situation in the Moluccas.
>
>                                          Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
>
>
> LESSONS OF WAR
>
> Another way for Kosovo?
>
> by NOAM CHOMSKY
>
>      On the night of 24-25 March 1999 Nato unleashed an air attack on
>      Yugoslavia that lasted for 78 days. How should the operation be
>      viewed one year on? The suffering of the Kosovar Albanians has
>      ended and the refugees have returned to their homes - more often
>      than not destroyed - but Kosovo's Serbs and Gypsies have in turn
>      been forced to leave. Mitrovica, the last great multiethnic city,
>      is the scene of fearsome clashes. And Slobodan Milosevic is still
>      in power in Belgrade. Such a failure means the real nature of this
>      war needs to be examined. The "genocide" of the Kosovar Albanians
>      had to be stopped. But was it not a question of the United States
>      using Nato to imposing its grip on the Balkans? Which would explain
>      why the allies stubbornly refused any diplomatic solution.
>
>                                                 Original text in English
>
> Media and disinformation
>
> by SERGE HALIMI and DOMINIQUE VIDAL
>
>      For over ten years Kosovo bore the brunt of Belgrade's policy of
>      apartheid. Then in 1998 repression of the Kosovo Liberation Army
>      (KLA) was brutally stepped up. However was this really, as the
>      flood of refugees suggested, a case of genocide that only Western
>      intervention could stop? A year later this justification for the
>      war waged by Nato has lost a great deal of its credibility, as has
>      the supposedly "exemplary" media coverage of the conflict. The
>      enquiries by the International Criminal Tribunal for former
>      Yugoslavia (ICTY), by European and international bodies, and by a
>      number of journalists, show a radically different train of events.
>      Nor is the story over, for the Serbs and Gypsies in Kosovo are now
>      the targets of "counter ethnic cleansing".
>
>                                              Translated by Harry Forster
>
>
> ELECTIONS TO THE SOUND OF WAR
>
> Russia seeks a 'new deal' *
>
> by JEAN RADVANYI
>
>      If Vladimir Putin is elected president of the Russian Federation on
>      26 March, he will largely owe his victory to the war in Chechnya,
>      with its appalling catalogue of massacres, destruction, pillage and
>      torture. But Izvestia says that "Putin, man of iron" also likes to
>      think of himself as "Vladimir Vladimirovitch Roosevelt". Many
>      questions surround the true programme of Boris Yeltsin's successor.
>      At any rate he will have to take account of the state of the
>      country he has inherited as acting president.
>
>            <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/08russia>
>
>                                               Translated by Julie Stoker
>
>
> ECONOMIC CRISIS CRIPPLES THE POOR
>
> Eruptions in Ecuador
>
> by JOSÉ MARÍA TORTOSA
>
>      By dollarising the economy and making the most disadvantaged
>      sections of the population pay for the economic crisis, President
>      Jamil Mahuad provoked a coup led by several dozen progressive
>      officers, the powerful indigenous movement and a few opposition
>      politicians. Removed from office on 21 January, he was replaced by
>      his vice-president, Gustavo Noboa, who intends to pursue the same
>      policy. The army high command and heavy United States pressure lie
>      behind this surprising outcome - and the sidelining of the National
>      Salvation Junta born of the uprising.
>
>                                          Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
>
>
> THE NAZARETH MOSQUE DEBACLE
>
> Growing force of Israel's Islamists
>
> by JOSEPH ALGAZY
>
>      When the Pope visits Nazareth on 25 March he will see the mosque
>      which for two years has symbolised the Islamists' growing influence
>      in Israel's political and religious life. They are represented in
>      almost all the municipal councils in Arab districts and their
>      pragmatic wing has two members in the Knesset. Yet militants from
>      their radical wing were charged with armed attacks inside Israel
>      last September. In spite of these internal divisions the Islamists
>      are now the main force among Israel's Arab minority - displacing
>      the communists and nationalists. As elsewhere in the Middle East,
>      this comes from their social and political agenda as much as their
>      religious one.
>
>                                         Translated by Wendy Kristianasen
>
>
> THE POGROM AT EL EJIDO
>
> Spanish apartheid, plastic-wrapped *
>
> by VICTOR ANGEL LLUCH
>
>      The spectacular development of greenhouse crops in Andalucia relies
>      on exploiting a mainly Moroccan immigrant community and denying
>      them a simple claim to social rights. Pushed out to the outskirts
>      of towns, despised for the wretchedness in which they are forced to
>      live, some of them are reacting with anti-social behaviour - which
>      in turn arouses fear. It is this state of affairs, not just the
>      murder of a Spanish woman by a young, mentally-disturbed North
>      African, that lies behind the wave of racist violence that engulfed
>      El Ejido for three days in early February.
>
>            <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/11spain>
>
>                                         Translated by Derry Cook-Radmore
>
>
> BACK PAGE
>
> Blue gold of the 21st century
>
> by RICCARDO PETRELLA
>
>      Between 17 and 22 March the second World Water Forum will be
>      meeting in the Hague, organised by the Dutch government on the
>      basis of an initiative by the World Water Council (WWC), and
>      including an international ministerial conference. Such
>      international initiatives are at least a start, since those in
>      charge of the world's water believe that water has to be treated as
>      an economic commodity. They argue that this is the only effective
>      way to combat shortages and rapidly rising prices. Water has become
>      expensive, and it will be even more expensive in the future, which
>      will make it the "blue gold" of the 21st century. To counter this
>      grassroots mobilisation is urgently needed.
>
>            <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/12water>
>
>                                                   Translated by Ed Emery
>
>
>
>
>
>
>           English language editorial director: Wendy Kristianasen
>
>      _________________________________________________________________
>
>      (*) Star-marked articles are available to every reader. Other
>      articles are available to paid subscribers only.
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