U.S. Magazine Recalls Its Birth As Washington Waged War 30 Years Ago

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 barely livable 357 ppm of carbon dioxide, Bill Clinton was planning his first missile strikes, Larry Summers was devising a strategy 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, as recalled by its editor Jeffrey St. Clair.

CounterPunch went to press 30 years ago on paper printed with ink that smeared your fingers.

"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, and new wars began: Colombia, Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans, Yugoslavia, Sudan, and Afghanistan. Instead of shrinking, NATO swelled, seeking strategic advantage from the collapse of the Soviet Union, provocations we're now experiencing the predictable and deadly consequences of," it added.

At home, Clinton turned the economy "over to the bond market." He pushed through NAFTA, allowed Robert Rubin to devastate the Mexican peso, and retained Alan Greenspan to stifle the aspirations of working people.

Then Bill and Al went to work cutting the few strands of the social safety net 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 eagerly absorbed them. 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, "Writing is fighting."

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