The dispatches he circulated online, first through emails and then through his site, quickly grew into an essential resource for those in the west desperate for an alternative take on the war on terror. They remain today a vital channel for struggling voices inside occupied Iraq.

A collection of Dahr's work called Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq is coming out this month on Haymarket Books, prior to its release he sat down with Indymedia Ireland to talk about his journalism and the situation in Iraq.

Tell me about the thought process that drove you into making that first trip to Iraq, the resources you had at your disposal and how you coped with such dramatically different and dangerous place?

"I followed the media coverage of the selling of the war by the Bush administration, and compared that to the UN reports and other reportage I was scanning in foreign media outlets, and knew that this war was based on lies. Watching the mainstream media in the US act as functional propagandists rather than critical journalists, I became enraged. I could barely believe my eyes, watching a war being sold to the American public, as propaganda disguised as news.

"I felt that as a US citizen the best thing I could do was go report on what I saw myself, so after the invasion took place and the occupation began, (and reporting continued to be horrible overall) I decided to head to Iraq. I had saved $2000, had a laptop and a small digital camera, and made connections with a couple of people in Baghdad via the Indymedia Beirut website. Through a Lebanese man who was in Baghdad writing about what he saw, I obtained the necessary information to get into Baghdad relatively safely.

"I had few resources and was totally independent. Luckily, I began to meet just the right people at the perfect times-which is how I met my first interpreter in Baghdad, met other foreign journalists to work with to share costs, and eventually began to get hired and paid to report.

"I had previously done a lot of international travel, so going to a new country wasn't terribly difficult for me. However, going into a war zone was different, and certainly took a lot of getting used to."

In your book you describe having the feeling that "most people seemed blissfully unaware" of what is going on in Iraq. Some of this you put down to the corporate media, in a sense I think people have a difficulty coming to terms with Iraq because it is all news-flashes lacking a wider context, then there is dis-information on the level of stabilisation and an expert led discussion on geo-politics that dissuades people from trying to get a grip. For those that want to come to terms with what is happening in Iraq, apart from your book where would you advise them to start looking?

"First I think it's important that people read about US foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East. Read the document the current National Security Strategy (updated 2006) is based on, the Project for the New American Century. Then read the NSS, then the Quadrennial Defense Review Report. Those lay out, quite clearly, US goals for using the military to control strategic oil/gas reserves and transportation lanes around the region.

"Then for news, read foreign media, or alternative media. Democracy Now! in the US is good, as is the Independent newspaper in the UK, Al-Jazeera Arabic television, and other good information websites like informationclearinghouse.info. Needless to say, almost all of the best resources people need for tracking what is happening in Iraq are found online. This includes various Indymedia sites around the globe as well."

You left Iraq for home just before the transfer of sovereignty, and upon your return you found "Iraq is yet another country" - that was pretty much two years ago, how different again is it now today and what is required for unembedded journalists like yourself to remain safe?

"The situation in Iraq degraded so quickly once the occupation began that each and every trip I went back it felt like a different country. I have not returned to Iraq since just after the elections of January 2005. All of the fixers/interpreters I had worked with told me to return would mean almost certain death to me, or to them. Any Iraqi working with a westerner now is seen as a collaborator or as a spy, and will likely be killed or kidnapped. Thus, I decided it would be incredibly selfish of me to return and risk the lives of any Iraqi working with me.

"My contacts there tell me it is nearly impossible to work as a western journalist without embedding with the military. I know a few westerners who have gone back recently-and they barely left their hotels. Reporting safely from Iraq now, for an Iraqi or westerner, is impossible. We're now in a position where we must rely on Iraqis to do all the reporting about what is happening in their country."

How did Iraqis view the massive anti-war movement that developed around February 15th and in the run up to the invasion and what forms of solidarity from western activists have the most value in the current context?

"Iraqis told me they were inspired by the pre-war displays of dissent in the west on that date. I was told repeatedly by Iraqis that they liked the American people, but not their government. Even well into the occupation when the country was disintegrating, Iraqis continued to make the distinction between US citizens and their government. However, a deeply troubling crisis is that that distinction is no longer being made by most Iraqis. They've seen Bush reelected in 2004, and more recently the so-called Democrats win the mid-terms in the US and do nothing but continue to fund and support the occupation. Thus, western activists have their work cut out for them."

What do you make of the internal debates in the western left about the nature of the Iraqi resistance and the recent "third camp?" I'm sure you've come across arguments about how the resistance is politically Islamic in composition, and that we should be trying to support a secularist resistance rather than homogenizing support to the resistance with no critical take?

"I think the elements of the western left who are engaged in this debate about what is or isn't the legitimate resistance in Iraq haven't a leg to stand on. What I mean by that is that it is the failure of the so-called anti-war movement, particularly in the US, to stop the war from being launched in the first place. Thus, whatever form of resistance used in Iraq, and whoever chooses to participate in it, is of no business of the so-called anti-war movement, particularly when much of that movement continues to support so-called Democrats who continue to fund the occupation.

"The Iraqi people have a legitimate right, under international law, to resist the occupation of their country. It was an illegal invasion which contravened the UN charter, and is thus by definition an illegal occupation. There are countless forms of resistance in Iraq today-political, civil, and armed, and they are all legitimate under international law."

There's an interesting section in the book where you mention mass dissent against the newly proposed Iraqi flag, with people tearing it down everywhere it was flown and driving occupation forces crazy by putting the old one on display everywhere they could. Can you tell us of some more mass acts of popular resistance to the US forces along these lines?

"Across the board Iraqis opposed the occupation. Like the flag example, this took many forms-not giving information to US soldiers about whether or not there were resistance fighters in their area, not supporting the US-backed Iraqi puppet governments (all of them), and doing what they could to report what was actually happening in their country to reporters willing to write it. These were all consistent acts of popular resistance I saw, and which continue today."

Have other forms of resistance outside of militarism arose to sea changes like privatization of the oil industry, water supply and so on?

"Yes. The oil union workers in Basra continue to play a critical role in staving off the privatization of Iraq's oil infrastructure. Without their strikes, their ability to apply political pressure, as well as their efforts to educate people in the west about what is being done to attempt to control Iraq's oil, it may well have already been privatized. The same can be said, although less obviously, regarding other aspects of Iraq's infrastructure."

With companies like Bechtel failing to restore water supplies, you describe how people in an area near Najaf collected funds to repair it themselves - is this sort of self-organised community response to the failure of the occupation a developing theme in Iraq or is it rare?

"It is common, but on a micro-scale. One thing that is difficult to impart to the west is how grave the situation in Iraq has become. As brutal as so many of the stories are in my book, it is far worse today. People there are literally in survival mode. So, for example, one person who can afford a generator in a neighborhood gets one. Then they'll run wires to all their neighbors homes to share. The same can be said of someone who can afford some cooking gas, or a doctor in the neighbourhood will treat people there in their homes, etc. Particularly in Baghdad, self-organizing communities are all that is left now, so that is how most people are getting along, and this is spreading all over Iraq as a matter of necessity and survival. It's literally band together as a community or die."

In one short section in your book you mention the strategies people have come up with to over-come unemployment, things like re-selling petrol to those sick of waiting in station queues and the like – could you tell us some more about the toil of unemployment in Iraq and how people are faring in this new informal labour economy?

"Some of this I've mentioned-doctors are treating neighbors and friends who can't leave their neighborhoods because of the security situation. Engineers are running electrical wires through their communities to share what little electricity there may be. Teachers are teaching locally rather than in schools. These efforts are traded for food or other skills...it is quickly becoming, and in many areas already has become, a barter/trade economy out of necessity."

Do you think embedded journalists can play a challenging critical role too in Iraq? I'm thinking for instance of Sean Smith, a UK Guardian journalist who documents the disillusionment and harrowing exhaustion of those fighting in Iraq through his photography?

"I think journalists who choose to embed and actually report on what the troops are doing, saying, feeling and thinking, is rare. This article you mention, was one of these rare cases I've seen where the journalist did their job, and did it well. This, with few rare exceptions, does not happen in any of the US papers. We see embeds write maybe about how a soldier misses their family, but nothing more critical than that, for the most part.

"I have seen instances of some good, critical reporting from embeds, but it remains the exception. I am confident that if every reporter who embedded actually reported the reality of what they saw, the embed program would be promptly dissolved by the Pentagon-as they are who instituted it and maintain it."

Just following on from that do you hear much about problems in the US military, such as break downs in command and resistance from troops to orders? The sort of stuff that really gets down-played as a reason for pulling out in Vietnam but it obviously played some role in the decision to withdraw there.

"Morale is very, very low with most US soldiers today. That is according to recent polls conducted by the Army itself, and the most recent Zogby poll which found over 70% of the troops think the occupation should end in less than a year. There have been a few instances of troops refusing orders, but this still does not begin to compare to the rampant dissent seen during Vietnam. Part of this is because there are far fewer troops in Iraq, and the casualty counts are far lower, for now.

"The other reason is that what dissent is happening, of course, is getting no media attention. The discussions I have had with troops while in Iraq, in addition to those I've had with troops back home, all point towards low morale, anger towards the US government and misdirected anger towards the Iraqi people.

"All the seeds are there to repeat a growing troop resistance movement like we saw in Vietnam-disillusionment, betrayal, anger when troops realize they have been used, exploited and lied-to, poor leadership, being under-equipped....all of this is leading towards a growing troop resistance...which in time I feel confident we'll hear more about, because it will eventually grow too large for even the corporate media to ignore."

May I ask what plans you have for yourself after the book publicity run is over?

"To return to the Middle East and continue my reporting."

Labels: Interviews, Iraq

This Ain't No Roller Disco

It's not every day you get tempted to a roller derby game with a free ticket, and I was hardly going to turn it down. My only expectations of the sport were rooted in bleary late night memories of a sci-fi dystopian called Powerball, where nutters wielding chainsaws whirred around a track after each other on skates and motor bikes.

After half an hour spent on transit I'm outside a high school on the outskirts of Montreal, watching promoters strain to organize a growing throng of fans panicked by rumours of sold out tickets for a Triple Threat Match play off that's set to decide the city's roller derby league final.

The contest tonight is between Les Filles Du Roi, a team of "roller skating misfits who love to knock other chicks to the floor and crack a smile when they bruise" and Los Contrabanditas, a bunch of "bootlegging betties" who escaped to Montreal after issues with US Customs to dish out some "black market brutality" or so an over blown biography claims. Inside the door, a stand sells cans of beer to fans for a couple of dollars, but most are whipping out their own from bags or starting to crack into slabs carried in with their mates.

Its only when you see a swelling audience of hipsters begin to chant along to tinny baile funk rhythms breaking across a high school auditorium PA system that you get even half way to grasping the buzz of the DIY grass roots roller derby rebirth sweeping cities across North America.

"I waited and waited for it to start here, and it didn't happen, so I started it myself. Derby has turned into a big sisterhood across the world. I was just in Vegas at Rollercon '07 and I met tons of amazing roller gals from all over the place," explains Georgia W Tush, a fan favourite in the Montreal League she helped found and now stars in.

The atmosphere is thick with pre-club land anticipatory ramblings crossed with a football match; and with so many sub cultural codes on display you'd be forgiven for thinking all the record stores had emptied out at the news roller girls were about to don short skirts and helmets.

Down a set of bare concrete steps closer to the hockey rink, two off track derby girls power a table, one gathers disclaimers from fans waiving any rights to personal injury claims, as the other tags passes on to eager wrists as people scramble for "suicide seats."

These are located right at the corner of the track behind a yellow line, an area where throughout the game the gallant spill of the chase is most likely to career violently out of control right in front of you. As Georgia describes, the injuries can be excessive.

"I've only been involved since April 2006 and I have seen broken ankles, noses, collar bones, the most disgusting bruises ever, and some mad fishnet burns. It's not if you're going to get hurt - but when."

The standard jam lasts 20 minutes and consists of five girls from each team—three blockers, a pivot and a jammer. At the first whistle, the skate starts, four from each team form a pack, while another player takes on the role of the pivot setting the pace and directing the team.

Suddenly there's another whistle and two girls begin to hurtle through the pack, they score points by lapping the track and forcing their way through over and over again. Of course, the opposite team tries desperately to take them down while their team mates guard them.

Left sort of dumbed by the circling effect of the skaters and the difficulty of following the rules I was happily distracted by the carnivalesque moments that dotted the game. They early started with a fake brawl between two of the team managers.

At half time two semi nude luche libre wrestlers emerged from the crowd, to chase each other around the ring, before being humiliatingly chased off by a demonically skating queer in a dress with wings stitched on. Eventually she gave up and grabbed a mike to provide a foul and sharp mouthed bi-lingual commentary on the game.

On the track the players are clad in short red skirts, some are ass busting dyke like, others play bookish, often with sex kitten lingerie tricks and fishnets to accompany their retro-style roller skates; some have cut their uniforms to a provocative approximation of suicide girls on skates.

This is the image obsessed over in the media and on the web, to the detriment of other aspects of the sport much to the frustration of skaters like Mia Culprit, a representative for the Toronto league of six teams and 75 players.

"Although there are the guys that go on and on about us being cute girls in skirts who fight, most people love it because we're for the skater, by the skater. We're passionate about it and it shows. People want to be involved and be a part of something like that"

Most of the players' names send mixed messages, trapped between punk zine politics and glamour rag personality. Georgia W Tush has her name spray painted across her arse stencil style like a Holy Bible era Manic Street Preacher on roller skates. She also carries her own crowd of piss taking friends from game to game. Tonight they stood at the side wielding placards inviting her to invade their bedrooms in a blend of sexual and political double entendre.

(Photo courtesy of Bubba Brown)

Laden with alter egos and theatrical characters, the sport allows its mainly twenty something participants, who like most of us, are stuck chasing ambitions in between McJobs, school, internships and the cacophonous ho-hum of the ordinary an escape.

The Montreal league's derby logo gives visual bent to this empowerment, being an image of a skating fifties waitress about to fling a skull in a patron's face.

"I think the alter-egos give derby an extra excitement during a bout. Some women live a generally normal life throughout the day, and by night there are the bad-ass of the track.," says Tush.

Then with a quickly developing fan culture outside the original mix bag base of new wave psycho-billies, punks and the queer scene, some new elements mightn't get the staged aspect of the theatrical sass, so there is the security of anonymity as Mia Culprit hints.

"I don't have to worry about any fans finding out more about me than I care to tell them. It also allows me to be someone else when I'm out on the track and live through Mia Culprit. She's a little terror!"

The sport has a growing surrounding culture that strikes like an ambiguous dance between a respectful but ironic reclamation of white trash culture and a third wave feminism busy re-assessing aspects of feminine sexuality and fifties kitsch.

Within this critical space some derby participants and fans are remarkably conscious of the potted social history of their sport, both haunted and inspired by the forgotten starlets and stories of a predominantly female sport as Mia tells me.

"This sport used to consist of a man with money dressing the girls and telling them what to do. The players knew what was coming and those women who did skate, didn't have any control over the game."

If you can remember an old Waltons episode where Jim Boy came up with some scam to win enough money to buy a type writer by dancing all night in a marathon competition, then you have some hint of roller derby's origins in working class depression era desperation.

A canny business man, Leo Setlzer, realised such dance marathons were interfering with his cinema takings, so he moved into simulated cross country roller skate races with two teams circling a track repeatedly for paying fans.

Of course the charm in this dizzying medley of repetition wore off quick for the spectator. Setlzer realised the most interesting aspect of his idea lay in dramatic collisions and falls, so with the help of a sports writer he developed a set of rules to maximise the carnage.

The fifties saw the North American public go on a derby binge, with a movie about the sport staring Mickey Rooney called The Fireball propelling its growth further. Troupes of women toured the states in exhibition roller derby games that pulled in massive crowds every night

"These were like touring punk bands lugging their own gear around the country" enthused Rebel Rockit to me, as I scabbed fags off her drunk outside a Toronto after game party.

At its height the sport featured on TV several times a week across 120 syndicated channels, with the indoor crowd record set at 19,507 at Madison Square Garden in 1970.

Just three years later the Seltzer killed off his league, due to the expense of moving teams around thanks to the oil crisis. Competing leagues continued, split along business lines much the same as the factionalism in pro-Wrestling.

Powerless players were trapped in the middle and the classic era of derby was over. Then the ad men pulled their money out.

Sociologist Paul Fussell sees it as a simple equation, "they discovered that the people watching it were so low-prole or even destitute that they constituted an entirely wasted audience for the commercials: they couldn't buy anything at all, not even detergents, antacids, and beer."

The leap of difference between that incarnation of derby and today's grassroots revivalist leagues couldn't be more pronounced as Tush explained to me.

"MTLRD is a non-profit organisation run by elected board members. We keep checks and balances by voting on major issues at general meetings. Anytime an outsider gives us fancy pants propositions, we often stand our guard and keep caution. Others realize there's a lot of money that can be made out of this, so it's always important to keep control close to home."

With a documentary called Hell On Wheels about the 2001 Austin league that sparked the current rebirth, piquing attention at South by Southwest back in March and Melissa Joulwan's anthology of Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from The Track sneaking around as cult bathroom reading, Georgina is optimistic about skater run derby.

"I'm sure there will be a league in most cities in Canada and US, and many more popping up all around the world."

Back inside Les Fils du Roi have taken the Triple Threat cup and track invading fans have built massive beer can pyramids for celebrating skaters to smash through.

Outside, as people wait for the teams to get their asses in gear to hit the after party, a cop car and a fire brigade have arrived in a hysterical over-reaction to the sight of some supporters with swirling fire poi and en masse street boozing.

The crowd of around 200 jeer them good naturedly, and some of the derby girls offer the uniforms swigs of lagar as they start to back off. I'm left to think what more evidence is needed for the momentum behind derby, than a football style roving, belligerent mob of drunk and happy fans heading into the Montreal night?

Shouts to Coach McWhopper, Mia Culprit, Georgia Tush and any one else from the Toronto and Montreal Leagues and thanks to Totally Dublin for carrying it.

Labels: montreal, roller derby, sport, Travel

# posted by antrophe @ 8:22 PM

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