Beneath The Surface with Suzi Weissman

Referendum on the Treaty establishing a Constitution in Europe held in France on May 29 and the Netherlands on May 31. Results? A resounding no. Only nine countries out of twenty five in the European Union dared submit the Constitution to a popular referendum.

The Netherlands has delivered a crushing "no" vote on the European constitution and plunged the EU into a crisis of confidence unprecedented in almost five decades of European integration.

Dutch voters rejected the constitution last night with 62.6 per cent voting "no" and 37.4 per cent "yes" in a referendum, according to an exit poll. It was the second comprehensive rejection from a founder member of the EU in four days and has effectively killed off prospects of implementing the constitution in the near future and any hopes of a British referendum. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said that the result raises "profound" questions for Europe.

On Tonight’s BTS we look at the massacre last week in Andijon, Uzbekistan – where troops crushed a local uprising and reports on casualties vary widely -- and try to figure out the contentious aspects of what happened. The Karimov regime blames the events on Islamic terrorists, but President Karimov in turn is blamed for repressive Soviet style leadership including censorship and not allowing an independent UN investigation. John C.K. Daly, expert in the region, promises to shed light on what happened.

Later in the hour we talk to Emily Bazelon about the torture and deaths of detainees at the notorious Bagram detention center in Afghanistan. As she indicates in her Mother Jones article, The US Army has been investigating the evidence, but rather than disciplining those involved, the Pentagon sent them to Iraq.

We also talk to Robert McChesney tonight, about the sorely needed Media Reform movement, the recent conference in Saint Louis, and the landscape of resistance and reform in the 21st Century – and the struggle for an independent media in a democratic society.

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Tomorrow Los Angeles voters elect a mayor, possibly the first Latino mayor since the 1870s, more than 130 years ago. Should Antonio Villaraigosa, the front-runner, defeat incumbent James Hahn, will it confirm a social, demographic and cultural shift in big city politics nationwide? What difference will it make for the most pressing issues facing Los Angeles: housing, transportation, immigrant and low wage labor, lack of health care, and education in trouble?

We’ll spend the hour going beneath the surface on these issues on tonight’s program, first with Fernando Guerra from Loyola’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles, then with Angelica Salas, Liberty Hill's 2004 Change Maker Award recipient and director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) to talk about the challenging issues of illegal and exploitative workplace conditions, and at the end of the hour, Jan Breidenbach, Executive Director, Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing and Housing L.A. joins us to discuss the intersections of housing, transportation, health and jobs – focusing on the out of reach, elusive affordable LA house on an LA income.

President Bush has been traveling through the former USSR this week: in Riga (Latvia), Moscow and Tbilisi (Georgia) to meet with Putin during the week of commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Defeat of Nazi Germany in WWII – and Bush has been lecturing to Putin on Democracy -- from the former republics most hostile to Russia. In turn, Putin has reminded Bush of America’s quasi-democratic practices, evidenced in the 2000 election, the electoral college and hinted that Bush shouldn’t poke his nose in Russian domestic politics. Ron Suny joins us to comment on the Bush-Putin relationship.

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We then turn to Los Angeles’ Mayoral Race, its relation to organized labor, the sudden death of LA Labor boss Miguel Contreras on Friday and what it all portends for Los Angeles and labor. Joining us are Occidental College Prof Peter Dreier and UCLA Labor Center’s Kent Wong.

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And we round out the hour with UNITE-HERE’s Christina Vasquez for an update on Angelica’s dirty laundry and its striking workers.

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We go beneath the surface on US foreign policy in tonight’s program: Thomas Ferguson and Robert Johnson have written a fascinating and provocative analysis of the political economy of American Unilateralism, from globalization to Imperialism. Their account fleshes out what is often bandied about but little understood about the apparent momentous shift in US foreign policy with the advent of the two GW Bush administrations, raising provocative questions about the US role in the world now and in the years to come.

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We then turn to the British elections, which take place on May 5th. Labour Party Prime Minister Tony Blair’s popularity has sunk since he became Bush’s partner in war, yet polls show he will probably win again. A secret document leaked over the weekend revealing Blair privately committed Britain to war in Iraq in July 2002 and then set out to lure Saddam Hussein into providing the legal justification. It is explosive, but apparently not enough to unseat Blair. Has Blair become the Teflon candidate, the British Reagan and Clinton rolled into one? Robin Blackburn joins us from London to discuss the issues, ideas and likely outcome of Britain’s general election on Thursday.

Read More for info on today's guests.

You can now listen to Suzi Weissman's "Beneath the Surface" on the Internet!

Click HERE to access all of her shows that are archived online.

Suzi's most recent show features a dialogue with legendary Pakistani-British author Tariq Ali on the upcoming British elections and the American empire's new quagmire in Iraq. Also, a dialogue with author Peter Hudis on contemporary China and its role in the global economy.

Today's interview is with Tariq Ali on repercussions of the election in Iraq.

In the second half, Kevin Anderson discusses Rosa Luxembourg.