Writin’ is Fightin’

CounterPunch [A Message From CounterPunch's Jeffrey St. Clair]( When CounterPunch went to press 30 years ago on paper printed with ink that smeared your fingers, Bill Gates was worth a mere $6 billion, the atmosphere was clotted with a (barely) liveable 357PPM of carbon dioxide, Bill Clinton was plotting his first missile strikes (Iraq, of course), Larry Summers was scheming how to turn Brazil into the US’s toxic waste dump and Al Gore’s great invention was little more than a dial-up traffic jam. The fateful year 1993 wasn’t the dawn of neoliberalism, but it was the year the control room passed into the hands of the so-called New Democrats and the great counter-revolution of austerity at home and muscle-flexing abroad shifted into hyperdrive. It wasn’t just trade that was being globalized, but trade enforced by military power, backed by 835 overseas bases. The Cold War was over (or at least put on pause) and new wars began: Colombia, Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, Yugoslavia, Sudan, and Afghanistan. Instead of shrinking, NATO swelled, seeking strategic advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union, provocations we’re now feeling the predictable and deadly consequences of. At home, Clinton, in his own fragrant words, turned the economy “over to the fucking bond market.” He pushed through NAFTA, allowed Robert Rubin to wreck the Mexican peso and kept on Alan Greenspan to strangle the aspirations of working people.  Then Bill and Al went to work slashing and burning the few strands of the social safety that had survived the Reagan years, starting with welfare, food stamps, and aid to mothers with dependent children. As the ranks of the poor grew, the lavishly financed prisons greedily swallowed them up. By the time Clinton left office in 2000, the federal prison population had more than doubled, from 70,000 to 145,000, largely thanks to vengeful crime bills he concocted in collaboration with Joe Biden. These were the kinds of punches that CounterPunch was born under and we came out CounterPunching from the crib. As our esteemed contributor Ishmael Reed says, “Writin’ is fightin’.” [READ THE REST.]( CounterPunch | 707-629-3683 | [email us](mailto:counterpunchbiz@gmail.com) | [homepage](   Connect with us [Facebook](  [Twitter](  [Pinterest](#)     CounterPunch | P.O. Box 228 | Petrolia, CA 95558 US [Unsubscribe]( | [Update Profile]( | [Constant Contact Data Notice]( [Constant Contact](