Repression

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Repression

• An Example of Social Control

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This Week

• Repression as a means of social control
• Whose Responsible?
• Real Examples Lynching and War
• Torture and Warfare

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Things to think about

• How is repression part of socialization?
• What are the goals of repression?
• Responsibility is mixture of small and large
  scale.
• How effective is torture as a means of social
  control and intelligence gathering?

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Repression and Social Control

• How does society keep people in line?
• Internal Sources of Social Control
• Socialization internalizes societys goals and
  values
• External Sources of Social Control
• Informal sanctions - pressure, humiliation, etc.
• Formal sanctions - rules, laws, etc.
• Repression
• Use of coercion to enforce goals of the
  repressing group
• Application of force (mental or physical) to
  obtain goals

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Repression to Silence Opposition

• At this anti-war rally, police used bean-bag
  bullets on protestors.
• Thus, people are encouraged to seek only
  legitimate means of voicing dissent, like
  voting.
• Agent Provocateurs to delegitimize movement
• http//www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/24/ot-monte
  bello-sq-070824.html?refrss
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vSt1-WTc1kow

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Repression to Maintain the Privileges of the
Dominant Group

• Attacking Civil Rights Activists
• Lynching and Killing in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921

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Responsibility for Repression

• While connected, it is necessary to separate the
  institution promoting repression from people who
  engage in it.
• Governments, military and political officials
  sanction the use of repression.
• War, dictatorial regimes, and governments
  encouraging fear of others promotes the use of
  repression.
• Mixture of the large-scale (institutions and
  context of repression) and the small-scale
  (individuals who participate)

8
Some Individuals Participate

• At the Small-scale, people will engage in
  repressive activities, officially sanctioned or
  not.
• Some people enjoy their role in the repressive
  regime!

9
Others Refuse to Participate

• Revealed U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After
  Objecting to Interrogation Techniques
• Editor Publisher
• http//www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1102-05.ht
  m

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But, Torture is Official Policy

• Large-scale institutions like the US government
  sanction and officially engage in repressive
  activity.
• The US engages in the practice of rendition, in
  which dozens of suspects have been seized and
  turned over for interrogation to other countries,
  including several known to engage routinely in
  torture.
• Torture Victim Had No Terror Link, Canada Told
  U.S. Scott Shane, NY Times 9/25/06
• http//www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/world/americas/2
  5arar.html?_r1orefslogin

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Torture

• The report concluded that some practices --
  including the force-feeding of hunger strikers --
  must be assessed as amounting to torture.
• U.N. Draft Decries U.S. On Detainee Treatment
• http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
  le/2006/02/13/AR2006021301848.html

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Torture Produces Little Useful Intelligence

• Torture was used to obtain justifications for the
  invasion of Iraq
• Confession That Formed Base of Iraq War was
  Acquired Under Torture
• Agence France Presse
• http//www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1027-04.ht
  m
• Information Obtained through Torture is
  Unreliable
• Campbell warns against torture
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/329539
  7.stm

13
War Worsens Threat

• Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism
  Threat
• New York Times
• http//www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast
  /24terror.html
• Civilians main cluster bomb victims
• 98 Percent of Cluster Bomb Victims are Civilians
• The Guardian - http//www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade
  /story/0,,1938494,00.html

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Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq
Toward ChaosNew York Times 11/1/2006
-http//www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/world/middleeas
t/01military.html?hpex1162443600enae294d1d13ae
d188ei5094partnerhomepage
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War

• The Art of Deception
• Hiding the Grisly True Goals Behind Lofty Ideals

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(No Transcript)
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History Repeats

• Colonial powers attempt to exploit a nation.
• The population resists, and a popular, anti-West
  leader emerges.
• This leader attempts to improve the conditions of
  the people.
• The Western nations, being pushed out of
  capitalist markets, foster rebellion to regain
  access to resources and markets.
• The Western nations tend to support right-wing
  extremist groups.
• Moderate opposition is destroyed through
  repression.
• Repression of the population leads to further
  civil conflict.

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Iraq 1991

• We supported Saddam in the war against Iran.
• We supported Saddam in his repression of the
  Kurds.
• We provided military support that included
• Chemical weapons
• Helicopters with crop spraying equipment for use
  with chemical weapons
• Nuclear technology
• Advances in missile technology
• Kuwait was slant drilling into Iraqi territory.
• Saddam made his intentions clear.

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Justification by Deception

• Gulf of Tonkin - Vietnam
• Shooting unarmed US personnel - Panama
• Soviet Migs - Nicaragua
• Babies and Incubators - Iraq 1991
• Genocide - Yugoslavia
• WMDs and al-Qaida - Iraq 2003

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Pretexts for War

• Democracy
• Freedom
• Liberation from Tyranny

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What are the real reasons?

• Battleground (clips)
• Economic stability
• For the US
• For multinational corporations
• (primarily US)
• Political-Military influence/control of the region

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Dick Cheney on Iraq in 1994

• Quagmire
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYENbElb5-xY

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Architects of Disaster

• William Kristol
• Part of Neo-Conservative movement
• Interview with NPR on April 1, 2003
• Second Iraq War started March 20, 2003

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What is the state of the insurgency?

• Battleground (Clip)
• Like many regions that are plagued with high
  unemployment, low security and rampant poverty,
  people are easily swayed by extremists.
• Look at the immigration debate in the US - the
  poor, working class tend to be most antagonistic.
• Lack of clean water, electricity and jobs, Abu
  Ghraib, car bombings, civilian casualties
• All of these issues provide fodder for extremist
  groups, some of which participate

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Incompetence or Deceit?

• Claims by Kristol
• Iraqis have different culture than US
• Pop Sociology that there will be conflicts
  between Shia and Sunni
• Fractious, Semi-democracy better than Saddam
• Iraq War will be good for the Middle East

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Kristol - Iraqis have a different culture?

• Is it really the culture causing the conflict?
• Why are people upset?
• How Western was Iraq prior to 1991 compared to
  neighboring states like Saudi Arabia and Iran?

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Kristol - Potential conflict between Shiite and
Sunni is pop sociology?

• they will not meekly surrender to the imminent
  American-led military occupation of their
  country. And that fact itself carries grave
  consequences for American imperialism's broader
  designs.
• Behind the Invasion of Iraq (2003)
• You will also see that Iraq will not be allowed
  to balkanize in order to keep the Shiites and
  the Kurds from gaining too much control.
• My Own Lecture Notes (April 14, 2003)

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Kristol - Iraq will be an unbelievable
improvement?

• Deaths under Hussein
• Chemical attacks - 30,000 Iraqi and Iranian
  deaths
• 250,000 people were killed during the 1991
  uprisings
• http//www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20
  030404-1.html
• Deaths as a result of sanctions and destruction
  of Iraqi infrastructure 1991-2003
• 1 million, 500,000 were children
• Deaths since the invasion
• Approximately 650,000
• http//www.commondreams.org/views06/1016-20.htm

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Kristol - Good effect elsewhere in the Middle
East?

• Palestinian Landslide The Elections Hamas Routs
  Ruling Faction, Casting Pall On Peace Process
• http//select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/articl
  e?resF10B1EFA3A5B0C748EDDA80894DE404482
• Occupation Made World Less Safe, Pro-War
  Institute
• The assessment, by the International Institute
  of Strategic Studies (IISS), states that the
  occupation has become "a potent global
  recruitment pretext" for al-Qa'ida, which now has
  more than 18,000 militants ready to strike
  Western targets.
• http//www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0526-05.ht
  m

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The Big Question

• Are the neo-conservatives who led the charge to
  war
• Thoroughly incompetent and short-sighted?
• Sadistic murderous opportunists for global
  economic goals?
• Deceitful war-mongers to protect US
  political-military objectives?
• A combination of the above?
• The Big Answer They intentionally or
  unintentionally did not take Political-Economy
  into account.