Thursday, September 28 , Olympia, Washington

Neoliberal Destructions, featuring

• P. Sainath: The Body Count in India
• Alexander Cockburn: The Counter Attack

When: Thursday, September 28, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Evergreen State College Seminar II, Building D, room 1105
Free Admission

CounterPunch books will be available for anybody who wants to buy them.

P. Sainath, a noted freelance journalist, photographer and media activist, has been reporting about the ground realities of rural India for many years. Dismayed at the complete lack of sensitivity to crucial issues affecting the vast majority of Indians living in villages, hamlets and small towns, Sainath gave up a cushy editorial position at a major English daily in Mumbai (Bombay) about ten years ago, and since then has reported numerous stories from rural India. His book, “Everybody Loves a Good Drought“, published in 1996, provides glimpses of life in many so-called ‘drought-prone’ districts of India that are systematically ignored or distorted by the mass media, and particularly by the English press.

Alexander Cockburn is a self-described radical Irish journalist who has lived and worked in the United States since 1973. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch. He also writes the “Beat the Devil” column for The Nation and a weekly syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times. Cockburn is al so a regular contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

Over the years, Cockburn’s writings have consistently displayed certain themes, including:

• Outspoken criticism of US foreign policy, from its policies in Central America in the 1980s, including the Iran-contra scandal, to the First Gulf War in 1991, the Kosovo War in 1999, and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2003 invasion of Iraq.

• Criticism of the government of Israel based on its treatment of the Palestinians.
• Calls for political reform in the United States, mostly focused on criticising the Democratic Party for failing to provide a progressive alternative to the Republican Party, as well as strong support for Ralph Nader’s presidential candidacies in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
• Contempt for the mainstream establishment, in particular for public figures who, in his view, garner mainstream respectability by criticising those to their left; targets have included the New York Times, Sen. Barack Obama, representative Bernie Sanders, the late academic Irving Howe and some of his The Nation colleagues, including Marc Cooper, David Corn and Eric Alterman. Cockburn has also been highly critical of his former friend and colleague, Christopher Hitchens.

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