Freedom

Freedom is what Americans are told we fight for, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. But what does the Bush Administration mean when it invokes it as a mantra?

Does it mean the ability to elect any government its people want? The Palestinians elected a Hamas government, but that's not freedom, apparently; we disapprove of it and have withdrawn all funding. There are a number of democratically elected governments of which the US, under Bush, has more than disapproved and defunded; whether the US collaborated in the effort to overthrow Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is disputed, but Bush certainly approved of the effort, even though Chavez was elected quite convincingly. One could probably cite other cases, too.

Does it mean being able to designate a union of your choosing to represent you when you go to work? Apparently not, when it comes to the oil workers union in Iraq, whose leadership may already be under arrest.

A union card-check provision in the US is anathema to Republicans, and although the National Labor Relations law still permits free election of unions, Republicans and business-Democrats prefer to keep the process as difficult as possible, so that corporations can combat unionization with scare tactics and propaganda. That is probably one of the reasons why the unionized work-force in private employment in the US is less than ten percent, while a large majority of workers (above 60%) say they would prefer to have a union represent them. So, Americans don't have that freedom either.

No, no, you just don't understand! It's not about freedom of speech or the press--unless it's about large media firms or billionaires running for office; it's not about the right of association, either, if it's about unions. It's not about rights to petition redress of grievances--been to demonstrations lately, where the protesters are confined to "Free Speech" corrals far from whoever or whatever it is they're protesting?

It's not about controlling your own property, either, (at least if you're small potatoes) since the US Supreme Court has ruled that public entities can force you to sell it under eminent domain even for private purposes such as a luxury condo development, if they declare it to be in "the public interest."

So, what is "freedom?" As currently used by the administration and their sympathizers, it means electing governments of which they approve, ones that open their nation to the "market," meaning to international investors; in that case it means that investors cannot be excluded or limited in their control of the market--they can control it, but governments cannot, and government services should be privatized, and bought up by international corporations.

So in South Africa it was permitting a US corporation to buy up public water services in a black township and then raising the prices so much that many could no longer afford clean water: the resultant spread of disease was also freedom, you see.

Freedom in the case of Iraq means passing an oil law which would vest control of the oil industry in private hands, i.e. the international oil companies, most importantly, American oil companies. It also means passing a status of forces agreement that will legitimize permanent US bases, extra-territoriality for American forces, and open investment--by international investors--even if that means that private, foreign corporations can take over what is left of the Iraqi economy. We're not talking about freedom for Iraqis here.

Earlier this year there was speculation that the US would replace Maliki--never mind that the Iraqi parliament elected him PM. Freedom is for American corporations, not for elected governments which don't do what the American government thinks they should.

That's what we're fighting for.

Another word for it is empire.