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The Day They Arrested President Roosevelt
What a dark day for American democracy it was - February 5, 1937, the day they arrested President Roosevelt.
The pretext for this assault on democracy was President Roosevelt's proposal of the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937, which would have allowed President Roosevelt to appoint more members to the Supreme Court, which had blocked New Deal measures President Roosevelt had introduced to try to bring America out of the Great Depression. Supporters of the New Deal were particularly galled by the Supreme Court's decision the previous year throwing out New York's minimum wage law.
But some of President Roosevelt's opponents in Congress (including many conservative Democrats), the Supreme Court, and the military claimed the proposed bill was an assault on the Constitution - even though the Constitution doesn't say how many Supreme Court justices there should be, and Congress had changed the number of Supreme Court Justices many times in the past - and that Roosevelt's move was a dangerous power grab. So dangerous, in fact, that Roosevelt's proposal could not even be considered in Congress. Roosevelt's opponents claimed that he had violated the Constitution by even suggesting the idea, and had to be removed from office immediately; that Roosevelt and his supporters were such a threat to the established order that due process had to be dispensed with -- if Roosevelt were put in prison, maybe there would be riots.
Therefore, on the morning of February 5, soldiers under the command of General Smedley Butler arrested President Roosevelt and deported him to Canada, still in his pajamas.
With President Roosevelt out of the way, the Supreme Court overturned Washington State's minimum wage law on March 9. On April 12, the Supreme Court threw out the National Labor Relations Act -- which sought to guarantee the rights of workers to organize into "unions" so they could bargain collectively for higher wages and better working conditions. Finally, on May 24, the Supreme Court overturned the law establishing Roosevelt's proposed "Social Security" system - a public pension scheme to guarantee some income to less privileged workers and their dependents in retirement and to the disabled. The New Deal was crushed.
Imagine how different America might be today, if President Roosevelt had been allowed to continue his term and the New Deal had been allowed to proceed. Maybe sixty per cent of our fellow Americans wouldn't live in poverty, as they do today.
Some of the foregoing things didn't happen in the United States, but some of them did. The Supreme Court really did overturn New York's minimum wage law, and many feared that it would overturn Washington's minimum wage law, the National Labor Relations Act, and Social Security. The Court narrowly upheld them -- 5 to 4 -- after Roosevelt introduced his proposed judicial reform, when one of the anti-New Deal justices switched sides. Roosevelt's proposed judicial reform itself was decisively defeated in Congress, with strong Democratic opposition - many did say, including many Democrats, that it was an attack on the Constitution.
U.S. soldiers never arrested President Roosevelt and deported him to Canada, although General Smedley Butler did testify to Congress that he had been recruited by people claiming to represent corporate interests to lead a coup against President Roosevelt.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was deported by Honduran soldiers to Costa Rica on June 28 for the "crime" of proposing that Hondurans be allowed to consider a non-binding, advisory referendum on reforming their constitution.
US corporate interests -- including textile and clothing importers that pay their Honduran workers poverty wages -- recently sent a letter to President Obama asking for "business as usual" with the coup regime in Honduras, a letter the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation denounced as 'disgusting.'
Today sixty per cent of Hondurans live in poverty. They deserve a better future -- a future they may never see if this coup is allowed to stand.
Democrats in the U.S. Congress are starting to stand up against the coup. Rep. Bill Delahunt and Rep. Jim McGovern have introduced a resolution calling for President Zelaya to be returned to office. Ask your Representative to support this resolution. The Capitol switchboard is 202.224.3121; or you can send an email here.
The Obama Administration has many levers it can use to pressure the coup regime. The Los Angeles Times has called for the Administration to consider "imposing sanctions on individuals involved with the coup, such as canceling visas and freezing bank accounts.". The Obama Administration is much more likely to exert more pressure on the coup regime if Members of Congress speak out against the coup - so call or write your Representative now.
40 Comments so far
Show AllHonduras is where the USA supporters of democracy are winnowed from the supporters imperial interests hiding behind democracy, as in Iran.
".....Roosevelt and his supporters were such a threat to the established order that due process had to be dispensed with -- if Roosevelt were put in prison, maybe there would be riots."
A threat to the "established" order.
Due process had to be "dispensed" with.
Think Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act; a gradual and insidious approach to achieve total control over the people.
"We can have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both." - Justice Louis Brandeis
It will be interesting to see what happens when Arias gets the principals to sit down on this. He's calling for a much larger and wider ranging negotiation than just re-installing Zelaya, actually promoting the reforms that Zelaya was hinting at. We need to get behind Arias and the OAS, rather than move unilaterally. Our backing of the regional group give it and US much more credibility.
The Coup in Honduras may well have been fomented by American elements. Negroponte and Riech are involved with IRI that, like NED, is a private organization using Public money for "democracy promotion". These were set up during the Reagan years, to do covert overthrows and they created the "Color Revolutions" in Eastern Europe, et cetera.
They are not controlled by the Obama administration and they should be. Obama has not yet consolidated control of the US Govt. We get mixed messages and contradictory actions from departments and agencies still dominated by Bush-era holdovers and moles. And these quasi-government agencies are a menace. Taxpayers' dollars with zero accountability, exactly as they were designed.
Funny, the thing about Smedley Butler. The coup plotters included Prescott Bush, father of GHW and grandfather of GWBush (and former financial agent of the Third Riech, founder of OSS and Senator from CT). But the article that's linked doesn't mention him, I wonder why.
Obama can easily prosecute the war criminals but he is impeding that domestically and internationally, this indicates he has no intention to do any better than what is happening.
hey kids - let's forget about the coup in honduras - one of the many south american countries we have occupied, raped and destroyed for hundreds of years
let's focus on the coup here home by the corporations who have been running and ruining the country here since day one
let's put aside the foreign follies of the imperium for a moment and get our shit together here at home
Very fair request is that, however the Obama administration certainly could enforce U.S. laws by withdrawing U.S. military and political, diplomatic, ... personnel from Honduras.
The sooner the U.S. withdraws its imperialist, ... forces and people from other countries where U.S. corporations want the natural and human resources, the sooner it'll be easier to do as you say; forget about U.S. imperialism abroad, allowing greater focus on correcting matters in the U.S. But of course working on correcting the corruption of the U.S. government in the U.S. doesn't need to be delayed; working on both that and withdrawing from other countries could be done in parallel.
Zelaya's crimes also include illegally sacking the commander of the army and ignoring a supreme court order.
People who think this man is a law abiding, good willed man are tragically ignorant about his past.
When he was 18 he and his father participated in the Los Horcones massacre. Where over a dozen students, priests, and other social activists we're found dead on the Zelaya's ranch.
In April of this year he launched a program that eavesdrops on every phone call in the country.
He has also slashed the budget of the Election Commission.
The UN has criticized the dramatic increase in violence against journalists in Honduras. Zalaya has also forced the all the broadcast and radio companies to broadcast several hours of government commentary.
One reason the Congress refused to even vote on the referendum package Zelaya was pushing for was b/c he refused to release the full text of the article. He wanted Congress to allow him to change the constitution and he didn't think they should even know what exact changes he was making.
The Congress, Supreme Court, Attorney General and nations electoral body all declared Zelaya in violation of the constitution.
Zelaya ordered the military to distribute the ballots, the commander of the army refused to follow an unlawful order so Zelaya sacked him. The Supreme Court ruled his removal to be illegal. Zelaya then broke into a military base and stole the ballots. Congress then began the procedure of removing Zelaya from power.
Sadly the Honduras constitution has no articles of impeachment process.
The only way to stop Zelaya's illegal power grab was to forcefully remove him from the country.
The difference between Roosevelt and Zelaya is that when the Congress and the Supreme Court ruled against Roosevelt, Roosevelt acknowledged them and gave up his fight while Zelaya just ignored them and continued in defiance of the law.
Had Roosevelt done what Zelaya did he would have been arrested as well.
Banishing Zelaya from the country is wrong but removing him from power is not..unless you don't think constitutions mean anything.
Steel grey makes a good agruement, but anyone who supports the Gazan Holocaust is highly suspect.
Are you going to support enforcing the USA constitution?
I don't expect you to agree with me always but do please give credit when credits do..i always try too myself.
I forget who said it but i love this quote, "I read the original version of the Patriot Act...It was called 1984."
good reply.
Principles, when enforced for one set of people but dropped for another, deserve no credit.
Such an approach destroys the fabric of morality itself - it is evil incarnate.
Ah well, i have a hard time bring my morality around to support a people that believe strapping a pipe bomb to ones chest and boarding a bus full of women, children, and the elderly is a legitimate form of warfare.
I invite you to argue that it is legitimate...
You deserve no credit, being hypocrite deserves nothing better; no credit. Enough has been written about the real history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, so I won't bother elaborating, but do know your reply is full of hypocrisy and grotesque distortion, lying, massively lying, by omission, etc.
Whatever little credit any such people can have for their insignificant contributions to humanity is far outweihged by their siding with the worst enemies of all, enemies of humanity.
Anyone who denies the crimes committed by the Palestinians is either ignorant or lying.
I have never denied the fact that Israel has committed grave injustices and yes war crimes against the Palestinians but i will never be able to support a people who think intentionally targeting civilians is legitimate warfare. The Palestinians will never have my support or that of the US until the renounce the targeting of civilians.
I cannot be more clear.
Steel grey supports the Israeli hell machine, is against Palestinians? Well, anyone of that sort of view isn't worth spending any time reading. After all, they render themselves complicit with mass murder, genocide, acting against international laws, etc., and if they're U.S. citizens, then they also act against U.S. laws.
steel_gray -
what are your sources? I don't think they're exactly correct. For example, the eavesdropping program was part of a proposed crime-fighting bill, and it was dropped after civil liberties concern was expressed. The "referendum package" consisted of asking the populace, through a poll, whether they wished to establish an elected assembly that would review and possibly revise the Constitution of Honduras. This would place that question on the ballot in November - the same time as Zelaya's successor would be elected - and, if successful, would then require the members of such an assembly to be voted for in a further election. It would, in other words, be a process that would take some time and respect the democratic process. The facts of this procedure have been deliberately obscured by supporters of the coup. The Honduran establishment was trying to prevent the citizenry from even expressing an opinion on this matter, and used a specious assumption about Zelaya's motives - that he was attempting to become "president-for-life" - to guide their rulings on the legality. Other opinions arguing that everything he was doing was perfectly legal have appeared on this website. Please see this: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/01-7
Eavesdropping program:
http://www.coha.org/2009/05/21st-century-socialism-comes-to-the-banana-republic/
Illegally firing the chief of the army:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8120161.stm
"The "referendum package" consisted of asking the populace, through a poll, whether they wished to establish an elected assembly that would review and possibly revise the Constitution of Honduras. This would place that question on the ballot in November - the same time as Zelaya's successor would be elected"
~It doesn't matter if it effects him or not it's unconstitutional! If you are familiar with Latin American politics then you would know that the outgoing president always has a hand picked successor who most often wins.
The President is not legally allowed to offer a referendum on the election ballot. That is their law why can't you respect the constitution of Honduras?
thank you for providing links to your source materials. The COHA page provides a good summary, although it needs to be pointed out that much of the cited criticism of Zelaya's motives remain in the realm of suspicion and inference.
"why can't you respect the constitution of Honduras?" Well, I provided you with a link to an article which outlines why Zelaya's proposals were legal within the constitution, so maybe you should read it and respond to that.
Honestly, I had no idea who the president of Honduras was a month ago, as is true for many weighing in on this issue, but the notion of removing an elected leader at gunpoint and then claiming it was in defense of democracy is an absurdity. The actions of the coup leaders and supporters belie their stated good faith.
"In their rage, the almighty gods of Honduran politics have punished an aspiring titan, President Manuel Zelaya, for attempting to give Hondurans the gift of participatory democracy."
Poetic words, disingenuous but poetic most certainly. Again, the method Zelaya used to institute this referendum was unconstitutional. While his intended goal may have been good he long lost that credit. The Congress refused to go along, Zelaya then tried to supersede the Congres, the Supreme Court ruled against him. That should have been the end of it but instead he ignored the Supreme Court, a court mind you that has not been accused of being corrupt, the Attorney General then warns him that if he carries out his referendum it will be a criminal act. Zelaya then orders the military to pass out the ballots, the chief of the army refuses to follow an ILLEGAL order, Zelaya sacks the General. The Supreme Court rules that removing the General was illegal the Court also places the ballots under the authority of the AG. Zelaya and some followers then storm the base and steal the ballots. The Congress then opens hearings on impeachment and the Supreme Court then issues an arrest warrant for Zelaya.
How would you have handled the situation?
Sure, in theory, you and people who similarly argue, as you do, may be possibly right, but you're all hellishly wrong, nevertheless. After all, the Congress and Supreme court are like in the U.S. They don't truly, honestly, fairly, ... represent The People, and if anything is important in all of this, then it [is] The People!
If they want a referendum at the same time as the next presidential election, or any other time, then it is their right, and no one has any right to obstruct this.
After all, a democracy most essentially, first and foremost is a government by, of and for The People.
Alright then lets point out that the 'people' have given Zelaya a 25% or so approval rating.
The people don't like Zelaya although if a government were to be run by approval ratings then absolutely nothing would ever be accomplished.
Also, an error in your logic, remember that following 9/11 the American people were whole-heartedly for Bush and then for the war in Iraq. A person is intelligent but people are irrational and dangerous in normal times and in a crisis they are certifiably insane.
"The President is not legally allowed to offer a referendum on the election ballot. That is their law why can't you respect the constitution of Honduras?"
It may possibly be their law, but who's "their" or who are they? If it really is Honduran law, then is it The People, the majority of the population, the peasants, ... who made this law, or the ruling "elites', oligarchs of European and Middle Eastern descent or origin, ...? If the latter, then your words are bs.
Now you're just being stupid. You and i both now that every constitution in the world has been written by the elites/oligarchs!
Though you are wrong about the European/mid east remark, the Honduras constitution isn't very old and was written by Hondurans.
The Hondurans seem to wish to limit their president to a single term and if that is their wish who are you to argue with them?
Following September 11, 2001, our Constitution has been circumvented by the "Patriot" Act, Habeus Corpus has been suspended, Posse Comitatus revoked, the Geneva Convention ignored, two presidential elections were fraudulent and surveillance of our domestic life apparently has become universal. Am I wrong to see a coup?
Tony Vodvarka
Eek! You had me going there for a minute!
If you think about it - corporate and military power are closely linked in the US, as well. It really wouldn't be a stretch to imagine the possibility of a violent coup there - a quiet one is happening already - it's called the "bailout".
Obimbo is not FDR, as we have, in the short space of six months, already learned. Mr. Smith did not go to Washington. George Wanker Bushism rules!
The Day They Arrested Democracy, September 11th, 2001. With a Stolen Presidential Election manifestly stripping all restraints, constraints from the Oval Office, the Towers were brought down,
And with them the last shreds of hope for this Fast Falling Country.
Roosevelt, where are ya old soul? Obomba fooled me, was I dreaming of a reincarnation Franklin?
From FDR to DickCheneyObombaBush.....our Decline now will be a free-fall, forget the slippery slope.
As Robert Naiman's piece alludes to, if not for the fact that the corporate backers of would-be coup chose the wrong man (for their purposes), Smedley Butler, to lead it, the USA could be further along the dirt road that is Third world statehood than it already is. That Butler's brave action of blowing the whistle on the incipient coup is not a standard part of US history textbooks until one reaches college is an on-going scandal by itself.
And the part taken by Prescott Bush may not be common knowledge ...
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/240707fascistcoup.htm
NateW July 18th, 2009 1:12 pm
"That Butler's brave action of blowing the whistle on the incipient coup is not a standard part of US history textbooks until one reaches college is an on-going scandal by itself."
For those not familiar with Butler, here's a quote from him:
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer...” -Major-General Smedley D. Butler, U.S. Marine Corps Commander (War Is a Racket, 1935)
Context and detail info such as steel_gray provides in his post above -- if fully accurate -- shows that Zalaya's earlier actions as president had constituted a de facto executive coup d'etat, effectively dissolving the Honduran constitution and creating a state of legal chaos.
But if the formal legal order of Honduras, that other progressives portray Zalaya as nobly fighting against, is basically a Catch-22 sham erected by elites to disallow any popular change, then Zalaya wasn't morally wrong in what he tried to do.
His chief mistake can be seen as his lack of adequate political/logistical planning to 'legally' accomplish from the inside what Chavez (with a lot of unlikely luck and much more help from The People), accomplished in a similar manner, in Venezuela.
This is no doubt why Chavez supports Zalaya.
What's surprising is that the elite-driven US Obama administration would also support Zalaya.
They don't.
if anyone here thinks we have a democracy i have 5 beautiful
bridges for sale here in nyc for you can't charge tolls yet
but we can work on that later.just meet me at the micky ds
at 6th and 3rd with 50 mil. in 20s.we can work out the logistics
next year from my spanking new office in beautiful sunny
brazil! no returns refunds! all sales are final! whats
this all about? same as obama's election! prescott bush's
actions were even darker then is documented here and he should have have been tried as a traitor under the constitutional
law.this would have been the 1st bush to be tried
and if we followed rule of law not the last. well any hoo
the point is you show me a president i'll show you a wanna be
dictator! it takes some ego to just want the job an even
bigger one to go get it.to point out all the current crimes
this is the history of men in office. maybe more women should
run a whole lot less testosterone and more diplomacy .
"The Constitution's just a god damned piece of paper."
---George W. Bush
-30-
Let's get this straight.
1. The Honduran politico-legal system is considered to be one of the most corrupt in the world.
2. The military is headed by guys who were trained in the School of the Americas; many were involved with the Battalion 316 death squad in the '80s.
3. The leading military legal mouthpiece even stated that the coup was illegal.
4. The constitution allows for a constituent assembly to be organized via a people's referedum in order to make constitutional changes.
5. The constitution was constructed in the waning days of the military dictatorship of '82; hence it's basically an oligarchical constitution that allows access to political power to ONLY members of the oligarchy or those it mentors.
6. Micheletti attempted to reconstruct the constitution in 1985...but it was to actually done to prolong the presidential rule of a fellow oligarch. No harm done.
7. Not one government in world recognizes this coupster/gangster government...an entity that has arrested and tortured hundreds if not thousands of labor organizers and social activists. It has also severely censored the news, and restricted internet and cell phone activity.
Let's not mention the rigorous curfew.
In contrast, this entity has not arrested the leadership of any oligarchical organization or interest group.
Need I go on. The oligarchy doesn't want the convenient status quo disturbed. It prefers to quietly rob its citizens of their land, labor and future. In addition, they want to quietly buy their US-produced consumer items in their comfortable US-styled malls, eat at US-owned fast food joint and they want to enjoy their shopping and entertainment sojourns to Miami and Orlando.
I should know. I was a teacher at an elite school in Tegus; I experienced the oligarchs (parent-teacher conferences) and their spoiled-rotten kids close up. Yuck!
These people could care less about their fellow impoverished citizens (these number at least 70% of the population). The oligarchs basically consider these citizens as disposable.
Burp. That was a delicious papusa.
balakirev "I experienced the oligarchs (parent-teacher conferences) and their spoiled-rotten kids close up." You have experienced a feudalistic plantation society up close - Masters, Overseers, and Serfs/Slaves. You might have just as well been dealing with people from the 17th or 18th century. That was a time when a richfilth slave holding animal could rape a 14yo girl in the basement of Monticello in between writing verses of the Declaration. The sense of entitlement by the animals has remained consistent throughout. It has been in fact consistent for 6000 years... with a couple of small additions:
Master never shares.
Master never needed a consumer economy for them to rule with impunity.
A literate middle class with leisure time is the arch enemy of every Oligarchy in the last 6000 years - so Oligarchies murder them to retain their control. A literate people with leisure can become informed. Informed people with leisure wish to participate in the decisions affecting their lives and the lives of their children. This is a direct, authentic, and mortal threat to Oligarchies.
Master (and the Church of Rome) can only operate in a top down 80-20 society where the general population has no access to education, health care, stable jobs, non-toxic food or water...feudalism...
The really horrific part is that White America has fully participated in the resurrection and restoration of our feral blood drinking Oligarchy. At a time when this country had the greatest distribution of wealth among White males ever seen in 6000 years of human history this country turned its back on ending poverty forever, turned its back on making an equal place for everyone at the table, turned its back on creating a society based on Inclusion - and chose instead the old old model of Exclusion and for that model to work there had to be an Oligarchy - so White America threw them the bodies of victims to feed the Oligarchy and bloat it up again to full size...and we are there now...what bodies???
The bodies and the life blood of the children of our constant wars that were turned into profits for the Few. The bodies and the life blood of the union workers first from the NE corridor, the "manufacturing corridor" of the East coast, then to the Taft Hartley South and Southwest, then they weren't enough to feed the greed so the jobs went to slave pits on the Pacific Rim and Master smiles through the bloat... Bodies? Oh yes, lots of bodies...and screams, did I mention the screams, the mortal screams of fear and pain and loss and hunger and despair?
Remember, our subdivisions are built on the mass graves of our massacres. Our freeways are paved with the bones of our victims...Empires are like that...Societies that are run on a foundation of Authoritarian Patriarchy, Male Supremacy, Gender Slavery, Constant War, and Feral Blood Drinking Oligarchy are like that...
Peece.
Sioux Rose
LUCKY: Passionately stated. Some would say you are guilty of hypberbole, but I agree with most that you shared. It's almost too ugly FOR words. You did a good job in the way of description, telling of things I wish were not so and never needed to be stated at all. Shades of "Say it ain't so, Huck!"
"steel_gray July 18th, 2009 11:31 am
Zelaya's crimes also include illegally sacking the commander of the army and ignoring a supreme court order.
People who think this man is a law abiding, good willed man are tragically ignorant about his past."
Etc.
"Honduras: A Coup is Not a Coup. A "Not-Coup" is a Coup",
by Kevin Coleman, History News Network, July 7, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14265
QUOTE: "Kevin Coleman is a doctoral candidate in Latin American History at Indiana University, Bloomington. For the past year, he has been conducting historical field research in Honduras".
He refers to a 2003 coup attempt against Venezuelan President Chavez and I don't know if there was another attempt in 2003, but think he means the one in 2002.
Due to that, I checked for the original article and it still says 2003, but I also read a post by a reader, who evidently is Honduran and says that to understand the present situation in Honduras requires not looking to history, but to The People, who apparently don't like Zelaya or the coup replacement. That reader makes sense, though I haven't read about what the majority of Hondurans think of Pres. Zelaya; except for the one reader post at hnn.us for this article.
http://hnn.us/articles/97437.html
Wow!
You didn't read anything I wrote.
Not one of the oligarchs that illegally dumpt Mel is anyway a better person than he is. Some are far worse. I mean...they reversed Mel's minimum wage hike. After they arrested or scared off the leadership of the unions, social organizations, etc.
This was nothing but a power grab by the oilgarchy for the oligarchy. All the legalisms and rationalizations were constructed later.
Remember, within the bounds of this oligarchical consitution, these scumbags never had to have their reality tested by dealing with the demands and the needs of the majority of Hondurans: the impoverished.
After the US organized, trained and ideologized the Honduran military, the oligarchs ignored and kept at a distance the surrounding humanity with guards, walls, gates, machine and shotguns, exclusive neighborhoods, high-priced shopping malls, corrupt cops,...
In fact, when the head legal mouthpiece of the military actually admitted that the coup was illegal, he also added that he was trained at the School the Assassins (America). And this training made it uncomfortable for him and his kind to work with a Leftist government.
Of course, Zeleya was a very mild Liberal. He introduced reforms that were nice but they were twenty or thirty years past due.
I taught the spawn of these jerks. These young adults were lazy, non-stop talkers, they viewed teachers as servants, they thought rap and hip-hop or heavy metal was God's gift, they believed they were totally entitled to all their parents stole from their fellow citizens, knowledge and curiousity were unthinkable concepts, and they had no respect for the residues of their own or any other culture. They were spoiled, ignorant pigs.
They reflected the attitudes of their oligarchical parents.
The republic was definitively murdered on November 22, 1963.