Comments on: Nonviolent Imperialism: Major Revision

By: sk

sk — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:27:46 +0000

If it's government disinformation Stephen Zunes is worried about, maybe he should get his Senator to investigate the subversive disinformation put out by "State Department Socialists". For someone so skilled in talking out of both sides of his mouth, he'll find plenty of interesting examples of word usage in their Orwellian lexicon.

By: Stephen Gowans

Stephen Gowans — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:27:41 +0000

Stephen Zunes,

Let me see if I can follow this. The efforts of myself, Michael Barker and others to expose your links to the US ruling class through its corporate foundations and wealthy individuals who have assumed a leadership role on its behalf (including Michael Milken’s former right hand-man, Freedom House supremo and Council of Foreign Relations member Peter Ackerman) is part of a Bush administration disinformation campaign to discredit you? The logic escapes me. Since I have no links to the US ruling class, its corporate foundations or its leaders, and you do in spades, it is to difficult to see how I can be part of a Bush administration disinformation campaign. This strikes me as part of a Zunes’ disinformation campaign.

As to “a number of scheduled participants at a recent workshop” canceling when they discovered your less than reputable connections, I am encouraged to hear there remain principled people in the world.

Steve Gowans

By: Michael James Barker’s Weblog

Michael James Barker’s Weblog — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:42:14 +0000

[...] Rethinking ‘Opposing Imperialism’ (Response to Stephen Zunes), Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2008. Nonviolent Imperialism: Zunes on Gowans, The Fanonite, March 8, 2008. (Major Revision) [...]

By: Stetphen Zunes

Stetphen Zunes — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:18:03 +0000

This is a total fabrication. Anyone who has bothered to review my collected writings will show that 99% of my hundreds of critical commentaries over the years which focus upon a particular government are in regard to the U.S. government and U.S.-backed regimes. I have never written any articles about Zimbabwe, Belarus, and Myanmar and virtually every article about Iran I have ever written has focused upon my opposition to U.S. intervention, so they idea that I am “primarily concerned” about these countries is a complete lie.
I have also consistently opposed U.S. efforts to undermine, subvert, overthrow these or any other governments.
I do support, however, the right of people to challenge and, if necessary, overthrow repressive corrupt regimes that fail to meet the political or economic rights of their people, such as the popular uprisings against such regimes as Somoza, Marcos, Pinochet, Milosevic, Traore, Suharto, and others. These regimes were overthrown as a result of popular struggle, not as a result of the limited support the opposition may have received in some form from the United States, the Soviet Union, or any other foreign government.
My colleagues and I have been active in supporting the struggles of Palestinians, Sahrawis, West Papuans, Egyptians, Azerbaijanis, Maldivians, and others struggling for their freedom through offering workshops on the history and dynamics of strategic nonviolent struggle. A number of people have speculated that efforts by Gowans, Barker and others to discredit me may be part of a broader Bush administration disinformation campaign to undermine the solidarity work of me and my colleagues, trying to confuse people into thinking that our workshops offered to progressive activists in these and other countries are somehow part of the sinister interventionist agenda of the U.S. government. Though I have no direct evidence to support such speculation, such false charges against me and my colleagues are already having an impact: a number of scheduled participants at a recent workshop canceled when they heard false rumors that we were funded by or otherwise linked to the U.S. government.
Hopefully, readers of this web site, instead of falling for this disinformation campaign, will check out my web site: http://www.stephenzunes.org to see where I’m actually coming from politically.

By: 10 Rules for Understanding Civil Society Imperialism « what’s left

10 Rules for Understanding Civil Society Imperialism « what’s left — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:50:46 +0000

[...] of hope for Zimbabwe. Never mind that it is funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy (3) – an organization that does overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. Plenty of civil society [...]