Iraq's Pre-1950 History Revisited: Part 1

Nearly 150,000 U.S. military troops and 200,000 private contractors are still in Iraq trying to exercise a special influence on Iraqi history, by waging an imperialist war on behalf of special U.S. corporate interests. Yet most people in the United States probably didn't learn very much about Iraqi history in their high school social studies courses. But some knowledge of pre-1950 Iraqi history may be of use to U.S. anti-war activists when arguing with U.S. opponents of immediate withdrawal from Iraq during the Obama Era.

Prior to the Zionist movement's 1947-49 expulsion of Palestinian Arabs and establishment of an undemocratic state of Israel, between 130,000 and 150,000 people of Jewish background lived in Iraq, including 30,000 Kurds of Jewish background. About 109,000 Iraqis of Jewish background, for example, lived in Baghdad in 1948. Prior to 1948, people of Jewish background had been living in Baghdad for over 2,500 years, many in a relatively prosperous way.

When Iraq was under Turkish rule in the 19th century as part of the Ottoman Empire, people of Jewish background in Iraq (unlike people of Jewish background in Russia in the 19th-century) apparently did not experience any special economic oppression. As the 1971 Encyclopedia Judaica recalled:

"The economic situation of the Jews during the 19th century was good. They controlled the country's commerce and exerted considerable influence in government circles. Some of them were appointed as high-ranking officials in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul…

"The Jewish merchants traded with Syria, India, Singapore, Persia, London, Vienna, and other commercial centers. They engaged in all branches of trade, especially in those of textiles, silk, indigo, precious stones and pearls, ironware, glassware and porcelain, gallnuts, foodstuffs and liquor,…and medicine."

In the early 20th century, several Iraqis of Jewish background were elected to the Turkish parliament as delegates of Iraq after the new Young Turk rulers of Turkey established equal legal rights and freedom of religion for non-Muslims within the Ottoman Empire. The economic situation of Iraqis of Jewish background also "improved greatly" between 1917 and 1932, after the UK imperialist government took control away from the Turkish government in 1917 and established a "British Mandate" in Iraq in 1921, according to the Encyclopedia Judaica.

Following the UK imperialist government's granting of formal independence to a puppet Hashemite monarchical government in Iraq in 1932, the economic situation of people of Jewish background in Iraq did not noticeably deteriorate prior to the Zionist movement's establishment of the undemocratic state of Israel. In 1947, for instance, Iraqis of Jewish background held top posts in Iraqi banking and commerce; and they handled 70% of Iraqi imports and 40% of Iraqi exports. According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, immediately prior to the 1947-49 expulsion of Palestinian Arabs, "30% of Iraqi Jews were engaged in trade, 25% were official or professional men, 3% were farmers (almost all of them in Kurdistan), and the rest artisans, building workers and workers in services." Many Iraqi bank clerks, railway officials and postal officials were also of Jewish background in 1947.

Despite the relative affluence of about 55% of the Iraqis of Jewish background within pre-1948 Iraqi society, most people in Iraq did not prosper between the arrival of British imperialist troops in Baghdad on March 11, 1917 and the establishment of the undemocratic state of Israel in 1948. So, predictably, resistance to both UK imperialism and the domination of Iraqi society by the traditional Iraqi feudal landlords began as early as July 1920 with a failed Iraqi uprising against British imperialism. About 10,000 Iraqis, mostly rural tribesmen, were killed by the UK's occupation army of 101,000 troops (many of whom were colonized Indian soldiers from Britain's India colony) before the rebellion was finally suppressed in October 1920. Over 450 British soldiers were also killed while putting down the Iraqi insurgency of 1920. (end of part 1)

African-American Male Worker Jobless Rate Under Dem Obama Regime: 15.8 Percent In January

The official “not-seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for African-American male workers in the United States under the Democratic Party's Obama Regime jumped from 13.8 percent to 15.8 percent between December 2008 and January 2009, while the “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for African-American male workers increased to 14.1 percent, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The “not-seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all African-American workers increased from 11.7 percent to 13.4 percent during this same period, while the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all African-American workers increased to 12.6 percent.

For all U.S. workers, the “not-seasonally adjusted” jobless rate jumped from 7.1 percent to 8.5 percent between December 2008 and January 2009, while the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all U.S. workers increased to 7.6 percent. The “not-seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers also increased from 6.8 percent to 8.3 percent between December 2008 and January 2009.

Between December 2008 and January 2009, the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for African-American youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 33.7 percent to 36.5 percent, while the “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age was 18.4 percent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February 6, 2009 press release:

“In January, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.

“Both the number of unemployed persons (11.6 million) and the unemployment rate (7.6 percent) rose in January….

“The civilian labor force participation rate, at 65.5 percent in January, has edged down in recent months. …

“Total nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply (-598,000) in January…
In January, employment declined in nearly all major industries…

“Manufacturing employment fell by 207,000 in January, the largest 1-month
decline since October 1982. In January, durable goods manufacturing lost
157,000 jobs, with notable decreases in fabricated metal products (-37,000),
motor vehicles and parts (-31,000), and machinery (-22,000). Employment in nondurable goods manufacturing declined by 50,000 over the month.

“Construction lost 111,000 jobs in January….Employment fell across most component industries over the month.

"The temporary help industry lost 76,000 jobs in January…Professional and technical services lost 29,000 jobs in January.

"Retail trade employment fell by 45,000 in January…In January, employment declined in automobile dealerships (-14,000), building material and garden supply stores (-10,000), department stores (-9,000), and furniture and home furnishing stores (-7,000). Over the month, wholesale trade employment fell by 31,000.

"Transportation and warehousing lost 44,000 jobs in January…In January, employment fell in truck transportation (-25,000), support activities for transportation (-9,000), and couriers and messengers (-4,000).

"Employment in financial activities declined by 42,000 over the month…In January, job losses occurred in securities, commodity contracts, and investments (-15,000) and in credit intermediation (-10,000)…”

Massachusetts Jobless Rate Under Dem Patrick Administration: 6.9 Percent

When Deval Patrick was campaigning for Governor of Massachusetts in 2006, some local DSA members were skeptical that a former top corporation executive at the labor movement-boycotted Coca-Cola Company would be likely to restore economic prosperity to Massachusetts—even though Patrick was then being skillfully marketed as an “agent of change” by a Chicago-based campaign media consultant named David Axelrod. Well, today, it looks like these dissident DSA folks were accurate when they predicted that just electing Deval Patrick as Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 would not magically bring economic prosperity back to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—even though the Democratic Party has controlled the U.S. Congress since 2007.

Between November 2008 and December 2008, for example, the official Massachusetts jobless rate jumped from 5.9 percent to 6.9 percent and 16,000 more jobs in Massachusetts vanished, according to a January 22, 2009 press release of Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

The same press release also noted:

“Education and Health Services, Massachusetts' largest sector, lost 700 jobs in December...

“Jobs in the Professional, Scientific and Business Services declined by 7,500 in December. Over half of the monthly job loss was recorded in the Administrative and Support Services component, which includes Temporary Help. At 478,000, employment is down 6,200 from one year ago…

“Financial Activities employment was off 900 over the month, with losses in Finance and Insurance and Real Estate, Rental and Leasing. At 217,500, Financial Activities jobs are down 7,000 or 3.1 percent from one year ago…

“Trade, Transportation and Utilities jobs shed 3,400 jobs in December, with Retail Trade again accounting for most of the losses…At 557,300, employment is down 14,100 from one year ago…

“Leisure and Hospitality jobs were down 900 in December with losses divided between Arts, Entertainment and Recreation and Accommodation and Food Services. At 296,900, jobs are off 6,100 over the year…

“Manufacturing jobs declined by 1,000 in December after losing 3,300 the previous month. Most of the losses over the last two months have been in durable goods. At 285,000, Manufacturing employment is down 8,600 or 2.9 percent from one year ago with the largest losses in Computer and Electronic Products, Fabricated Metals, and Machinery.

“Construction jobs which were down 2,500 in December have declined by 9,400 over the last four months. At 125,400, jobs are down 11,700 or 8.5 percent from one year ago, the largest percentage decline of any sector…

“The Bay State's labor force was down 3,100 over the month with 35,700 fewer Massachusetts residents employed and 32,600 more unemployed. At 3,418,100, the labor force is up 15,300 from this time last year as 74,000 fewer residents were employed and 89,300 more were unemployed.”

Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'-`NY Daily News' Media Power Historically

Under U.S. anti-trust law, it may not have been really legally proper in the 1990s for just one multi-millionaire to monopolize ownership of both a two-million-plus circulation newsweekly magazine and a supposedly competing major New York City metropolitan daily newspaper—with the same corporate executives running both mass media properties. Yet Mort Zuckerman was allowed to use about $36.5 million of his surplus wealth to take over the New York Daily News in the early 1990s. So you aren’t likely to read many satirical expose’s of U.S. News & World Report in the Daily News.

After moving into his New York Daily News office in January 1993, Zukerman then immediately “fired 180 out of 540 members of the Newspaper Guild,” “axed two-thirds of the African-American reporters, including all black males” and “dismissed veteran reporter Dave Hardy, who was one of the black journalists who won a racial discrimination suit against the newspaper in 1987,” according to the Daily News Workers Campaign for Justice, which was urging people in New York City to boycott Zuckerman’s Daily News in 1993.

One reason why NBC News may not have been too interested in talking too much in the early 1990s about either how Zuckerman acquired his $265 million or about U.S. News & World Report’s historic FBI connection was perhaps because U.S. News & World Report also had a business relationship with the supposedly competing NBC in the late 1980s. In its Oct. 18. 1989 issue, the Wall Street Journal noted that “The Consumer News and Business Channel cable network and U.S. News & World Report have formed a joint venture to produce cable program versions of special issues of the magazine” and “CNBC is a joint venture of the National Broadcasting Co. and Cablevision Systems corp.” The Wall Street Journal also reported that “the program will be written and produced by CNBC, with background and research provided by staff for U.S. News & World Report.”

(Downtown 4/14/93)

Hidden History of Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'--Part 4

(The following article first appeared in the April 14, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. See Parts 1,2 and 3 of article below.)

Mort Zuckerman’s U.S. News & World Report has never been particularly noted for the way it fights to end institutional sexism in the United States. Yet the multi-millionaire member of the White Corporate Male Power Structure who was the boyfriend of Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem during much of the 1980s was apparently U.S. News & World Report Owner Mort Zuckerman. In a 1985 article on Zuckerman, Fortune magazine noted that Zuckerman “currently spends a lot of time with Gloria Steinem, one of the founders of Ms. magazine.” And in its 1992 article on Zuckerman, New York magazine revealed that Zuckerman’s “most famous love affair was with Gloria Steinem” and quoted Jeffrey Steingarten as recalling that Steinem and Zuckerman “were very much in love for a long time.” One Newsday gossip columnist in 1992 also reported that U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman has apparently indicated that he lent money to Steinem’s Ms. magazine during the 1980s, when Ms. magazine was experiencing financial difficulties.

Downtown telephoned Ms. magazine in early 1993 four times, requesting an official response to the question of whether there has ever been any connection between Ms. magazine and U.S. News & World Report Owner Mort Zuckerman since the early 1980s. But nobody at Ms. magazine was willing to officially comment on its past or present connection to U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman, and Downtown was then told that “Gloria Steinem’s office will be getting back to you.” Not surprisingly, however, “Gloria Steinem’s office” apparently decided not to get back to Downtown in 1993 to discuss past or early 1990s connections between U.S. News & World Report and Ms. magazine.

Coincidentally, few satirical exposes’ of either Zuckerman’s male chauvinism or U.S. News & World Report’s institutional sexism were apparently published by Ms. magazine during the 1980s.

In addition to apparently being closely connected to U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman during the 1980s, Ms. magazine founder Steinem was also accused by Evergreen Review during the 1980s of having been closely connected to a CIA-linked organization in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In an article entitled “Allard Lowenstein’s CIA: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” by Richard Cummings, which appeared in 1984, Evergreen Review stated the following:

“While Lowenstein worked for Senator Humphrey in the late Fifties, he did things like go to a dinner given by the Council Against Communist Aggression and help organize the effort to send American students to disrupt the Moscow-backed International Youth Festival in Vienna in 1959. In that particular effort, he had collaborated with Gloria Steinem, Smith graduate and Fulbright scholar to India, who founded the Independent Service for Information on the Vienna Youth Festival, an organization that became the Independent Research Service, a CIA-funded operation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was used to get the anti-communist Americans to Vienna.”

Although U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman’s close friend of the 1980s—Gloria Steinem—has carved out a lucrative career for herself by posing as a champion of equality for working-class women, U.S. News & World Report’s top managers in the early 1990s were still mostly male. The editor-in-chief, the executive editor, the deputy editor, the editor-at-large, the special projects editor, the art director, and the photography director at U.S. News & World Report as late as 1993 were all men, as were at least 16 of the Establishment magazine’s 22 Senior Editors. Although the majority of people who live in Washington, D.C. are African-American, Downtown was unable to determine whether the majority of editorial employees at the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. News & World Report were yet African-American in 1993. Downtown was also unable to determine how many open lesbians and gay males were employed at U.S. News & World Report in 1993.

In its Nov. 18, 1988 issue the Wall Street Journal also reported that one of Zuckerman’s top managers, then-U.S. News & World Report President and Chief Executive Officer Fred Drasner, “was loudly booed at a lawyer’s convention when he made a remark about women lawyers that many in the audience considered offensive.” Ironically, Zuckerman named Fred Drasner to be the chief executive officer and co-publisher of the New York York Daily News after Zuckerman purchased this newspaper in the early 1990s. (end of part 4)

(Downtown 4/14/93)

Hidden History of Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'--Part 3

(The following article first appeared in the April 14, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. See Part 1 and Part 2 of article below.)

At the time Mort Zuckerman purchased U.S. News & World Report Inc. in 1984, its magazine employed 205 people on its editorial staff. More than 10 of these editorial employees ended up becoming instant millionaires as a result of selling their stock in U.S. News & World Report Inc. to Zuckerman in 1984. By October 1984, Zuckerman had moved into the U.S. News & World Report magazine executive offices in Washington, D.C. and began to replace top U.S. News & World Report editorial managers with his own editorial people.

As Fortune magazine noted in an Oct. 14, 1985 article, “Zuckerman bought U.S. News out of his personal real estate fortune in order to call the shots at the magazine;” and one year after his 1984 purchase of U.S. News & World Report, Zuckerman “put himself on the masthead as editor-in-chief”—although he had originally “promised” when he purchased U.S. News & World Report that “he would never be editor-in-chief,” according to the January/Feb. 1993 issue of F.A.I.R.’s Extra! magazine. Zuckerman continued to be the U.S. News & World Report editor-in-chief in the 1990s.

The Oct. 14, 1985 Fortune magazine article also observed that in the U.S. News & World Report editorial offices at that time Zuckerman was “all over the magazine—hiring, suggesting stories, reviewing covers, conferring daily by phone with [then-U.S. News & Report editor Shelby] Coffey, even helping to interview subjects for articles.” Zuckerman also told Fortune magazine in 1985 that “the country is becoming more conservative,” “he is conservative in fiscal matters and defense” and “he supports U.S. policy in Nicaragua and El Salvador.” And in 1992, Zuckerman told New York magazine that “he has devoted two-thirds of his time” to his U.S. News & World Report property since he purchased it. In its Oct. 5, 1992 issue, New York magazine estimated that U.S. News & World Report Owner Zuckerman’s personal worth in the early 1990s was $265 million.

As U.S. News & World Report’s Editor-in-Chief, Zuckerman hasn’t provided much job security for his editorial employees. Between 1984 and 1989, for example, Zuckerman hired and fired “five editors in his first five years” and by 1989 “80 percent of the entire news staff had left” at U.S. News & World Report, according to the January/February 1993 issue of Extra!. The same magazine also noted that “Zuckerman has seemed to use his power of ownership” at U.S. News & World Report “to influence coverage of issues that he had a personal stake in” as when a U.S. News & World Report “story on the decline of California’s real estate market was reportedly scaled down after concerns were raised that the story could cause further harm to…a market that Zuckerman’s development company, Boston Properties, has a sizable stake in.” Extra! also reported that “Under Zuckerman, U.S. News had a contract with a dubious Israeli news service called Depth,” that helped Zuckerman utilize U.S. News & World Report to support Israeli government policies during the 1990s.(end of part 3)

(Downtown 4/14/93)

Hidden History of Mort Zuckerman's `U.S. News & World Report'--Part 2

(The following article first appeared in the April 14, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. See below for Part 1)

By early 1984, the employee-owned U.S. News & World Report Inc. had evolved into a company whose major assets were its magazine publishing operation, its Downtown Washington, D.C. real estate holdings, its radio programming service business and its Publisher Services International typesetting subsidiary. From its sale of U.S. News & World Report ad space at about $44,000 per full-page in each issue, around $94 million was earned by the magazine in 1983. Another $47 million was taken in during the early 1980s from the sale of the magazine to around two million subscribers. When founded by David Lawrence in 1948, U.S. News & World Report initially had only about 380,000 subscribers. In the early 1980s, though, only about 78,000 copies of its magazine were sold by U.S. News & World Report Inc. on U.S. newsstands, each week.

From the U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s Publishers Services International typesetting subsidiary—which assembled Newsweek, Business Week and other publications, as well as U.S. News & World Report--$18 million was earned in 1983. In addition, in 1983 U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s four acres of Washington, D.C. land surrounding its magazine’s building and its 50 percent ownership of a Downtown Washington, D.C. real estate development project were estimated to be worth about $45 million. The pretax profits of U.S. News & World Report Inc. in the early 1980s equaled about $4 million per year.

The real estate business partner in Washington, D.C. of the then-employee-owned U.S. News & World Report Inc. since 1981 had been the Boston Properties real estate development firm of the then-multi-millionaire owner of The Atlantic monthly magazine—Mort Zuckerman. In 1981, Zuckerman had announced that on U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s Washington, D.C. land his Boston Properties was going to “construct a new 160,000 square-foot headquarters building for the magazine, a 233-suite luxury hotel and a hotel annex with more rooms, a 300,000 square-foot office building, and two residential complexes totaling 200,000 square feet,” according to the March 16, 1984 issue of The New York Times.

Coincidentally, in May 1984 the seven-member corporate board that represented the employees who owned U.S. News & World Report Inc. decided to sell their magazine and their other assets to their real estate business partner, Zuckerman, for about $168 million. The deal was subsequently almost unanimously approved by the U.S. News & World Report Inc. employees.

To gain control of U.S. News & World Report Inc.’s magazine, real estate properties, typesetting subsidiary and radio programming service, Zuckerman agreed to pay its employee-owners about $3,000 per share of stock for stock that had previously been valued at only $625 per share. He also agreed to pay $25 million to purchase an additional 2,400 shares of stock that were owned by the seven individual corporate board members of the previously employee-owned magazine company who apparently arranged the deal with Zuckerman. (end of part 2)

(Downtown 4/14/93)