People Before Profit blog

Planning an Eco-friendly Wedding

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:28:00 +0000

4-29-08, 9:29 am

EARTH TALK From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I am getting married this summer and was wondering if you have any tips on how to make the festivities greener? -- Tara McCarthy, Los Angeles, CA

You know environmental consciousness has really taken hold when couples start to worry about whether their weddings will be green enough. But more and more people who care deeply about the planet view getting married as a chance to show off their values; so green nuptials make all the sense in the world.

To help remove the guesswork, many couples turn to wedding planners well versed in environmental issues. According to Idaho-based Angel Wedding Planners, every element of the wedding planning process can provide an opportunity to make choices that minimize waste and environmental impact. One of the easiest places to do right by the environment is in choosing invitations. Angel suggests going with tree-free or recycled paper, and also points out that a one piece folded design can save paper and envelopes.

In regard to feeding your hungry and thirsty guests, Angel recommends sourcing food and drink from local organic producers, if possible. Some caterers specialize in preparing and serving such items. Organic flowers (from local vendors or online via Organic Bouquet) are another way to make a green statement.

Another way to help ensure that your wedding is as green as can be is by avoiding disposable products wherever possible. Caterers should use real dishes, linens, cutlery and glassware, or rent them if necessary. Other areas where “green” decisions can make a difference include: wedding attire (consider a dress rental or buying a used one and then re-selling it); transportation (carpooling works for weddings, too, at least from the wedding to the reception); photography (those disposable cameras at every table are fun but they can be very wasteful); and wedding registries (there are numerous to be found through a Google search, or support a local green store).

Speaking of the Internet, many websites have sprung up in recent years to make the process of planning a green wedding easier. Valerie Edmunds, founder of Green Elegance Weddings, hopes her company can make an important environmental contribution by directing some of the $25,000 people typically spend on a wedding toward greener products and services. Her advertising-supported website provides page after page of free useful information about eco-friendly wedding apparel, invitations, gifts, flowers, food and beverages, even the honeymoon. The site’s Resource Directory contains links to a wealth of online information and to businesses and organizations that provide related earth-friendly products and services.

Those looking for even more virtual handholding might want to visit the website, OurWeddingDay.com, which provides dozens of free online tools (including an “RSVP Manager,” Save-the-Date E-cards, a Gift Registry and an Event Manager) to help couples create the “ultimate green wedding from start to finish.” The site also posts hundreds of articles from leading bridal magazines so brides can save paper by not having to go out and purchase any of the 135 or so foot-thick bridal magazines clogging the newsstands.

CONTACTS: Angel Wedding Planners, www.angelweddingplanners.com; Organic Bouquet, www.organicbouquet.com; Green Elegance Weddings, www.greeneleganceweddings.com; OurWeddingDay.com, www.ourweddingday.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

John McCain Pushes Plan to Tax Health Care Benefits

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:24:00 +0000

4-29-08, 9:25 am

John McCain visited Miami Children's Hospital April 28 where he no doubt scared some babies while attempting to kiss them. His main purpose for being there was to give an impression that he understands the health care issue, but he managed only to underscore the fact that he has no plan to solve America's health care crisis.

After politely listening to a few voters talk about serious problems with the health care system, McCain rejected government involvement in providing health care and pushed his plan which would impose a new tax on health care benefits. Unfortunately for McCain's presidential hopes, we have arrived at a moment in history when insisting that the free market can ensure that children get access to health care is belied by the fact that because there has been only limited intervention, limits championed by McCain and his Republican Party, nearly 10 million children lack coverage.

While at the Miami Children's hospital, McCain appeared to campaign against his own Senate record of blocking increased access for children's health care.

In 2007, McCain opposed reauthorizing S-CHIP and providing insurance for millions of additional uninsured children. Before casting his vote, McCain claimed the reauthorization bill would have covered too many children. The S-CHIP reauthorization would have helped provide health care coverage to 3 to 4 million of the nation's 10 million uninsured children.

Two years earlier McCain basically said tax breaks for the rich were more important to him than providing insurance for children when he voted to block a 'sense of the Senate' motion that said the Senate should not a enact a cut in the capital gains tax for the richest Americans until additional funding for S-CHIP could be provided.

Last year's vote against children's health insurance wasn't the first for McCain either. In 1997, McCain voted with the tobacco lobby to block a measure that would have used additional tobacco taxes to pay for children's health insurance.

in 1995, McCain voted to eliminate a children's vaccine program that provided discounted or free vaccines for the purpose of increasing immunization rates.

That same year he voted for a Republican budget bill that would have cut guaranteed coverage for preventative, primary and hospital care for about 18 million children under Medicaid.

In the eighth decade of his life and nearing the end of the third decade of his career in Washington and with a strong record of voting against health care programs, it is a funny time for McCain to suddenly claim an interest in children's health care.

As McCain tries to find ways to make his lack of a health plan more palatable for Americans, who say that health care is one of their top concerns this elections cycle, it is increasingly clear that McCain plans to continue the Bush administration's policy of ignoring the health care crisis.

--Reach Joel Wendland at

Nepal: Four Leading Parties Discuss Country's Future

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:19:00 +0000

4-29-08, 9:18 am

Kathmandu, Apr 28 (Prensa Latina) Aware of the significance of the recent election, the four main Nepalese parties have stepped up efforts to define the new Constitution and the future government of this budding federal democratic republic.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), CPN-M which won a majority of 220 seats for the Constituent Assembly, the Nepali Congress party (NC), 107 seats, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) with 100 seats and the regional Madhesi People Rights Forum with 48 seats have been meeting for three days.

The remaining seats were won by minority parties and independent politicians. The prime minister is expected to appoint 26 posts to complete the 601-seat Constituent Assembly.

At the end of the weekend meeting, the CPN-UML called on all forces for consensus and cooperation to draft the new Constitution and to form a coalition government, said CPN-UML acting leader Amrit Kumar Bohara.

As a first demonstration of this necessary collaboration, the four main parties agreed on Monday to remove from the future Constitution a provision requiring a two-third majority to form or invalidate a government.

The Maoists, who first opposed this amendment, later agreed on condition that a presidential system is established, with the president belonging to the party winning the majority of the votes. It is yet to be seen if this proposal wins widespread acceptance.

CPN-M leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal has insisted on the possibility of being president and not prime minister.

At the end of a meeting of their executive committee, several NC leaders claimed that, being the oldest party of Nepal, they should be in charge of forming the government, even when they failed to win a majority of seats.

However, top NC leader and current acting Prime Minister Koirala said the main priority is to establish a republic as soon as the Constituent Assembly puts an end to a 240-year old feudal monarchy, and then form the government.

MJF leader Upendra Yadav met separately with the Maoists, the CPN-UML and the NC to reach an understanding in forming government and drafting the Constitution to guarantee the rights of the Mahdesi community.

Madhesh, also known as Terai or Tarai, is a 25-mile strip of flat territory bordering India, the population of which (of Indian origin) is 41 percent of the country's inhabitants.

ANFREL (the Asian Network for Free Elections) described the post-election atmosphere as peaceful, with result of these historic polls accepted by parties and people alike.

Prensa Latina

Vermont AFL-CIO Resolution in Solidarity with Longshore Union's Strike Against War

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:30:00 +0000

4-28-08, 9:31 am

April 2008

Whereas the war in Iraq is immoral, unwanted, and unnecessary,

Whereas this unjust war is opposed by the great majority of Americans & Vermonters, the bulk of organized labor, and by thousands of enlisted military personal,

Whereas this unjust war has already resulted in over 4000 American dead (including a disproportionate number of brave Vermonters), and tens of thousands of service men & woman being wounded,

Whereas this unjust war has further resulted in untold number of Iraqi deaths,

Whereas the Federal Government has not made any constructive moves towards the ending of this war and the full removal of US troops, and instead has taken the course of escalation and indefinite occupation,

Whereas the government of Vermont, and especially Governor Jim Douglas, have failed to find ways to bring Vermont National Guard troops home from Iraq,

Whereas this war will only be brought to an end by the direct actions of working people,

Therefore, Let It Be Resolved that the Vermont AFL-CIO continues to stand in firm opposition to this war, and unequivocally supports the decision of the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) to shutdown the west coast ports for a period of 8 hours on May 1st, 2008, as a means of resistance.

Let It Be Resolved that the Vermont AFL-CIO stands in full solidarity with the New York Metro National Association of Letter Carriers who have resolved to conduct two minute periods of silence on May 1st, 2008, at 1PM, 5PM & 9PM in protest of the war and in support of the Longshoremen.

Let It Be Resolved that the Vermont AFL-CIO encourages all Vermont workers to stand in solidarity with the historic actions being taken by the Longshoremen & other labor unions to end this war.

Let It Be Further Resolved that the Vermont AFL-CIO calls for all Vermont workers to discuss the actions of the Longshoremen, to wear anti-war buttons, and to take various actions of their own design and choosing in their workplace on May 1st, 2008 as a means of resistance against this unjust war.

West Bank farmers face ruin after trees uprooted

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:28:00 +0000

4-28-08, 9:29 am

Original source: IRIN News

JEET, WEST BANK, 27 April 2008 (IRIN) - It was difficult for 87-year-old Jamil Khader to discover that nearly all of the 1,400 olive trees his extended family planted in February had suddenly gone missing, having been uprooted and stolen.

'He became very ill when I told him. He was hospitalized and was in bed for a week,' his son Khalil, from the small town of Jeet in the northern West Bank, told IRIN.

The family reckon that the trees were uprooted in March but they did not find out about it until 16 April, when they got to the land, which they do not do regularly because of its proximity to the nearby Israeli settlement of Kedumim.

'We only go to work the land in coordination with the [Israeli] military. I am afraid to go alone, as the settlers have pulled guns on me in the past,' Khalil said.

The family and aid workers blamed settlers from Kedumim for the missing trees.

'There have been many violent incidents against Palestinians in that area of the West Bank,' said Emily Schaefer, a lawyer from the Israeli rights group Yesh Din, which specializes in such cases.

'In the three years we have been operating, not a single [Israeli] was convicted for uprooting or damaging Palestinian olive trees,' she said, noting that from her research she was doubtful anyone had ever been brought to justice by the Israeli authorities for such crimes.

Jamil was born in Nazereth, in what is now Israel, in 1922. During the spring of 1948, as the first Arab-Israeli war waged, his family became refugees.

'We left Nazereth with nothing at all,' he said, retelling his life as a policeman with the British during World War II, a soldier with the Arab armies in 1948 and later as a police officer with the Jordanians when they ruled the West Bank.

The last job gave him enough money to purchase the plot of land near Nablus, which has become the family's most important possession. They, like others, have become increasingly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood as harsh restrictions on movement have cut them off from their former jobs as laborers inside Israel.

Reliant on agriculture

'I am completely reliant on agriculture; I don't have any other work,' said Khalil, who is also registered with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

'The olive trees and the other products from the land help support my family and my brothers and their children.'

With the local economy faltering, aid agencies had stepped in and tried to help: Of the missing trees, 1,000 had been donated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which said Jeet and the neighboring villages were especially vulnerable due to their limited land access and proximity to Israeli settlements.

'It is very disturbing to see that the farmers yet again have had their trees uprooted. Unfortunately it proves how difficult daily life is for these people,' Helge Kvam, a spokesman for the ICRC in Jerusalem, told IRIN.

This was, in fact, the fourth time in a decade that the village's agriculture had been attacked. In the 1990s arsonists burnt down many hectares of olive trees. In 2005 another wave of violence destroyed most of the remaining trees.

In 2007 the Israeli Rabbis for Human Rights purchased and planted some 500 olive trees, hoping to improve the local economy. But over the following four months nearly all those trees were destroyed or uprooted and taken away.

With the ICRC donation now missing, residents feel at a loss and do not know if it will be possible to continue counting on agriculture as a source of livelihood, which was their fallback option.

In response to the incident, the Israeli military said it fell under the jurisdiction of the Civil Administration which in turn asked IRIN to contact the Israeli police. A police spokesman could only say that as the Palestinians had filed a complaint the case would be investigated, and suggested contacting the military.

From IRIN News

In Mississippi, Work is now a Felony for Undocumented Immigrants

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:26:00 +0000

4-28-08, 9:27 am

JACKSON, MS (4/20/08) - On March 17, Mississippi Governor Hayley Barbour signed into law the farthest-reaching employer sanctions law of any on the books in the U.S. Employer sanctions is a shorthand name for laws that prohibit employers from hiring immigrants who don't have legal immigration status in the U.S. That provision was part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, passed by Congress in 1986, which for the first time in U.S. history required employers to verify the immigration status of employees.

The Mississippi bill, SB 2988, requires employers to use an electronic system to verify immigration status, called E-Verify. That system has only recently been developed by the Department of Homeland Security, and by the department's own admission, is not a complete record. Its accuracy is unknown, but by comparison, the Social Security database of U.S. workers, compiled since the 1930s, contains millions of errors.

The Mississippi bill goes much further, however. Employers are absolved from any liability for hiring undocumented workers so long as they use the E-Verify system. But it will become a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job. Anyone caught 'shall be subject to imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than one (1) year nor more than five (5) years, a fine of not less than one thousand dollars ($1000) nor more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or both.' Anyone charged with the crime of working without papers will not be eligible for bail. The law is set to become effective for large employers on July 1.

In the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, University of Mississippi journalism professor Joe Atkins called the law 'a new xenophobia...that threatens once again to lock down the state's borders and resurrect the 'closed society' that once made it the shame of the nation.' According to the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, the bill got the support of many Democratic state legislators because party leaders 'wanted the house to bring out at least one bill dealing with immigration to relieve the political pressure being put on members (i.e. white Democrats), by right-wing forces in their districts. Many Black Caucus members were persuaded to go along. Unfortunately the bill they brought out was the worst of the six the Mississippi Senate passed.'

Passage of the bill was a setback to the political strategy that has shown the most promise of changing the old conservative power structure in the state, the 'closed society' described by Professor Atkins. That strategy, building over the last several years, has relied on creating an electoral base of African Americans, immigrants and unions. The new employer sanctions law, according to supporters of that strategy, is intended to drive immigrants out of the state by making it impossible for them to find work.

In Mississippi African American political leaders, and immigrant and labor organizers have cooperated in organizing one of the country's most active immigrant rights coalitions – the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance. They see hope for political transformation in the demographic changes sweeping the south. Beginning before World War 2, Mississippi, like most southern states, began to lose its Black population. Out-migration reached its peak in the 60s, when 66,614 African Americans left between 1965 and 1970, while civil rights activists were murdered, hosed and went to jail. But in the following decades, Midwest industrial jobs began to vanish overseas, the cost of living in northern cities skyrocketed, and the flow began to reverse.

From 1995 to 2000, the state capital, Jackson, gained 3600 Black residents. In the 2000 census, African Americans made up over 36% of Mississippi's 2.8 million residents – no doubt more today. And while immigrants were statistically insignificant two decades ago, today they're over 4.5% of the total, according to news reports. 'Immigrants are always undercounted, but I think they're now about 130,000, and they'll be 10% of the population ten years from now,' predicts MIRA Director Bill Chandler.

'We have the chance here to avoid the rivalry that plagues Los Angeles, and build real power,' says Chandler. Erik Fleming, a MIRA staff member and former state legislator who recently filed for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat held by Thad Cochrane, believes 'we can stop Mississippi from making the same mistakes others have made.'

The same calculus can apply across the South, which is now the entry point for a third of all new immigrants to the U.S. Four decades ago, President Richard Nixon brought its white power structure, threatened by civil rights, into the Republican Party. President Ronald Reagan celebrated that achievement at the Confederate monument at Georgia's Stone Mountain. MIRA-type alliances could transform the region, and change the politics of the country as a whole. SB 2988 is not only intended to stir anti-immigrant sentiment, but to reverse that demographic change and the political transformation it might make possible.

MIRA is the fruit of strategic thinking among a diverse group that reaches from African American workers' centers on catfish farms and immigrant union organizers in chicken plants to guest workers and contract laborers on the Gulf Coast, and ultimately, into the halls of the state legislature in Jackson. Activists look back to changes that started when Mississippi passed a law permitting casino development in 1991, bringing the first immigrant construction workers from Florida. Employers in gaming then began to use contractors to supply their growing labor needs. Guest workers, eventually numbering in the thousands, were brought under the H2-B program to fill many of the jobs development created.

Through the 90s more immigrants arrived looking for work. Some guest workers overstayed their visas, while husbands brought wives, cousins and friends from home. Mexicans and Central Americans joined South and Southeast Asians, and began traveling north through the state, getting jobs in rural poultry plants. There they met African Americans, many of whom had fought hard campaigns to organize unions for chicken and catfish workers over the preceding decade.

It was not easy for newcomers to fit in. Their union representatives didn't speak their languages. When workers got pulled over by state troopers they found themselves, not only cited for lacking drivers' licenses, but also often handed over to the Border Patrol. Sometimes their children weren't even allowed to enroll in school.

In the fall of 2000, labor, church and civil rights activists formed an impromptu coalition, and went to the legislature. At their heart was the core of activists who'd organized Mississippi's state workers, and a growing caucus of Black legislators sympathetic to labor. Jim Evans, a former organizer for the National Football League Players Association, helped lead the group on the House side, while Senator Alice Harden, who'd led a state teachers' strike in 1986, organized the vote in the Senate. 'We decided that the place to start was trying to get a bill passed allowing everyone to get drivers' licenses, regardless of who they were or where they came from,' Evans remembers.

Harden's efforts bore fruit when the drivers' license bill passed the Senate unanimously in 2001. 'But they saw us coming in the House, and killed it,' Chandler says. Nevertheless, the close fight convinced them that a coalition supporting immigrant rights had a wide potential base of support, and could help change the state's political landscape. In a meeting that November, the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance was born.

To build a grassroots base, MIRA volunteers went into chicken plants to help recruit newly-arrived immigrants into unions. In the casinos, MIRA volunteers worked with UNITE HERE organizers. In Jackson, the coalition got 6 bills passed the following year, stopping schools from requiring Social Security numbers from immigrant parents, and winning in-state tuition for any student who'd spent four years in a Mississippi high school.

Then Katrina hit the Gulf. MIRA fought evictions and the cases of workers cheated by employers, and eventually recovered over a million dollars. MIRA organizer Vicky Cintra and other activists participated in several celebrated cases defending guest workers, especially in the Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula. 'There's still a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment here,' Cintra says, 'but when people give the police their MIRA ID card they get treated with more respect, because they know their rights and have some support.' Laborers Union organizer Frank Curiel says, 'In Kentucky, outside of Louisville, Latinos are afraid to go out into the street. In Mississippi it's different.'

Not always that different, however. In Laurel and many other Mississippi towns police still set up roadblocks to trap immigrants without licenses. 'They take us away in handcuffs and we have to pay over $1000 to get out of jail and get our cars back,' according to chicken plant worker Elisa Reyes. And the way the state's Council of Conservative Citizens demonizes immigrants is reminiscent of the language of its predecessor - the White Citizens Councils: 'The CofCC Not only fights for European rights, but also for Confederate Heritage, fights against illegal immigration, Fights against gun control, fights against abortion, fights against gay rights etc. SO JOIN UP!!!' its website urges.

In 2007 the Republican machine introduced twenty-one anti-immigrant bills into the state legislature, including ones to impose state penalties for hiring undocumented workers and English-only requirements on state license and benefit applicants, to prohibit undocumented students at state universities, and to require local police to check immigration status. MIRA defeated all of them. 'The Black Caucus stood behind us every time,' Evans says proudly. There are no immigrant or Latino legislators. Without the Caucus all 21 bills would have passed in 2007, and 19 similar bills in 2006.

The 2008 legislative session was different, however. Chandler describes three factions in the party - the Black Caucus at one end, white conservatives hanging on at the other, and 'liberals who will do whatever they have to do to get elected' in the middle. After some Democratic candidates campaigned in 2007 on an anti-immigrant platform, MIRA wrote a letter in protest to Howard Dean, national chair of the Democratic Party. Those tactics, it said, were undermining the only strategy capable of changing the state's politics. 'The attacks on Latinos, initiated by Republican Phil Bryant a year and a half ago, and joined by other Republicans, are now being echoed by Democrats like John Arthur Eaves and Jamie Franks,' the letter said. State party leaders who 'would go along to be accepted, rather than show the courage necessary for positive change... are peddling racist lies against immigrants that violate the core of the party's progressive agenda.'

Anti-immigrant campaigning by Democrats was unsuccessful. Conservative Republican Hayley Barbour was returned to the governor's mansion and Phil Bryant was elected lieutenant governor. And in the legislative session that followed, some Democrats began to buckle under pressure from vocal rightwing groups, including the Klan.

During the 2007 elections the Ku Klux Klan held a rally of 500 people in front of the Lee County court house in Tupelo, wearing white hoods and robes, and carrying signs saying, 'Stop the Latino Invasion.' Their presence was so intimidating that Ricky Cummings, a generally progressive Democrat running for re-election to the State House of Representatives, voted for some of the anti-immigrant bills in the legislature. When MIRA leaders challenged him, he told them that Klan-generated calls had 'worn out his cell phone.'

The Klan's website says 'it's time to declare war on these illegal Mexicans ... The racial war is among us, will you fight with us for the future of our race and for our children? Or will you sit on your ass and do nothing? Our blissful ignorance is over. It is time to fight. Time for Mexico and Mexicans to get the hell out!'

The web site has links to the site of the Mississippi Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (the state affiliate of the Federation for American Immigration Reform), directed by Mike Lott, who sat in the state legislature before being defeated in a run for the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State. After MIRA's Erik Fleming urged Governor Barbour to veto the employer sanctions bill, saying it would be 'devastating to our economy and community here in Mississippi,' he was then targeted on the MFIRE website.

For those threatened by changing demographics, and the political upsurge they might produce, SB 2988 law is a finger in the dike. The fight to implement it is not over, however, and MIRA has assembled a legal team to challenge its constitutionality in court.

--David Bacon, Photographs and Stories. See:

‘Blood Diamonds’ ‘Blood Oil’ and ‘Blood Food’

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:23:00 +0000

4-28-08, 9:24 am

For a while now, I have been thinking about what George W. Bush signifies from a socio-political perspective. Looking at the world from the time of the ‘Big Bang’ of September 11th, 2001, until today almost seven years later, one can clearly observe how monstrous our human interaction has become. After much reading and analysis, I now understand that September 11th was not the starting point of a new world order, but to the contrary, it was purely the end of a specific human state of affairs.

When one grows up in the west, our history books tell us stories about past events in our world. As we grow up, those same stories shape the way in which we look at the world around us. Once this history is indoctrinated into our minds, it frames the scope of our objective judgment. This in turn, leads to a very narrow analysis of our current reality.

As westerners we have the tendency to feel superior to the rest of the human species. Somehow, we have come to believe that our crusades, empires and colonization have led us to a higher understanding of kindness, compassion, love and equality. As westerners, we seem to see ourselves in a higher plane of collective awareness, intellectual and spiritual attainment. I do not doubt for a single minute that in other cultures they have similar prejudices, but I learned from an early age through Christian scriptures, that one must look deep into his or her consciousness, in order to identify mistakes and make corrections. Therefore, for me it is important to focus only on the culture that I know, I live, and that I am an active member of -- the western world, as defined by the politicians of the ‘Axis of Good’ who govern us.

We are very comfortable in the west, all of us. Even the most deprived are not as deprived as the whole of Iraq, and by the whole of Iraq, I do mean everyone including the Al Qaeda terrorists, the international soldiers, the Iraqi militias, the possible Iranian insurgents, the government officials, doctors and nurses, contractors, private army operatives, NGO workers, the rich, the poor, the women, men and the children. Nobody there is as good as we are here. Iraq is just one of the many examples of places where the whole population is on its knees as we in the west enjoy our ‘morally evolved’ societies.

People in Haiti are eating mud cakes because of the soaring food prices, the people in Gaza have no electricity, in Afghanistan, the only royal visit they receive, is of a British prince dressed in military gear going to kill on Afghan soil. In India, the farmers are committing suicide due to failed harvests of genetically modified Monsanto crops. Around the world, people are rioting because of lack of food or basic human necessities. Yet in the west, we can move around freely, we can cross borders and fly our budget airlines from capital to capital, observing the comforts of western existence. Organized streets, clean cars, wonderful shopping malls, great monuments, everything is civilized and could be admired, that is, if it was honest. But it isn’t, it is morally wrong and deep down we all know it. We know it, but we just don’t want to do anything about it, because we are comfortable. Only a very small proportion of the population would truly change their position for that of a person in Iraq. I suppose that is why we choose to keep Iraq as a problem of our governments, and the terrorists whom must be eliminated to protect us from ‘evil’.

As westerners, we feel that our commitment to morality and justice is apparent once in a while, with an Anti-War demonstration scheduled in a city for a particular day. We come out to the streets that day, all united, the young ‘Che’ impersonator, holding hands with the 60’s hippy, the businessman who inherited his mother’s company and is well established within his city, the University professor who still holds faithful to her ‘liberal’ values, the working class family which feels that a one day revolution is better than nothing, the yuppie banker, etc… Representations of various segments of our population are present at the event. It lasts a few hours, there is music on the streets, the cameras are filming everything to air it across the television channels of the world. Once the demonstration is over, we all go back to our jobs, we have expressed our concern on schedule and we should not disrupt the system of things any longer. After all, we all have bills to pay, we all must take care of our families or simply ourselves, and there is not that much we can do beyond demonstrations. At least that is the sentiment, which seems to perpetrate from the tragic reality of these events, which although well intended are not truly committed.

True commitment to stopping the war in Iraq requires a global human rights strike, in which the working population of the world stops producing, until the governments and the corporations realize that the voice of the people does indeed matter. If we had the courage to do this, the power would shift automatically from the politicians, bankers and corporations to the majority of the population. This would have been unimaginable just seven years ago, but with the advances in communication technologies and the global mobility of the work force, a global change is plausible.

People in the west however, are generally not interested in change, at the moment. Things are still good. We are having hiccups in our economies and problems in our internal social systems, but these issues are not yet affecting a large enough proportion of our population, in order to get us united. Besides, most people are not fully aware of the connection between the human strife in other countries and the policies of our governments and growth strategies of global corporations. Right now, for most of the west, it would be too cumbersome to focus honestly, on the cruelty which our governments are perpetrating around the world to keep us from loosing our mortgaged style of living.

As speculators are busy speculating with food and commodity prices, causing instant death around the world and indescribable misery, creating a market for ‘blood food’ and ‘blood oil’. We in the west will attribute this failure to a few unwanted elements in our society. It is evident now, that if the west attacks Iran, the western population will pinpoint the blame on George W. Bush. He will then move on, and someone will clean up the mess. The fact remains however, that George W. Bush is indeed serving the interests of America and its allies. Unless the western population is willing to lower its standard of living and cut down on its thirst for natural resources, we are going to fight a perpetual war, defending our privileges and exploiting the basic human rights of others.

For this war, George W. Bush is the right man. However, if we decide that annihilating the rest of the world is not the way to go about it. We must learn to cut back on spending, organize ourselves as tax payers, and begin to demand disarmament from our governments, to pull them out of those apparently “unwanted” wars. Until then, the diamonds in our stores will be bloody, the food in our supermarkets will be bloody and the gasoline at our pumps will be bloody. Washing our hands of the problem will maybe help us in the short-term, but in the long term, we will see that just like in the times of the Nazi’s, our collective hands are tainted with innocent blood.

It is time for the west to accept that although some might hate George W. Bush’s style, he is fighting to guarantee our privileges and is a reflection of our socio-political interests. Let us stop our double standards and begin to look at our reality. A lot of people are dying hoping for some solidarity, yet in the west, we are reluctant to accept responsibility for our cruelty to other human beings.

--Pablo Ouziel is a sociologist and freelance writer

Wind: Powering Energy Alternatives

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:21:00 +0000

4-28-08, 9:22 am

EARTH TALK From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: How is wind power faring in the U.S. now? Is more of it coming on line and becoming a larger percent of the grid? And what about some of the highly publicized efforts to build wind farms, such as in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Has that been approved? -- Paul Howe, San Francisco, CA

Clean and green wind energy is the new darling of alternative energy developers, and the U.S. industry has been surging the past three years, especially as developers take advantage of government incentives—in the form of the so-called Production Tax Credit (PTC)—for erecting turbines and connecting them to the grid.

The non-profit American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that, in 2007 alone, total U.S. wind power capacity grew by a new record of 45 percent, injecting some $9 billion into the economy. These new installations provide enough electricity to power 1.5 million typical American homes while strengthening the nation’s energy supply with clean, homegrown electricity.

According to AWEA, utility-grade wind power installations are now in operation across 34 U.S. states, generating more than 16,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity cumulatively—enough to power upwards of 4.5 million homes and to generate 45,000 new domestic jobs. But even with this growth, wind energy still accounts for just one percent of U.S. electricity supply. Continued growth apace with that of recent years, though, should make it a major player in the American energy scene within a decade. President Bush himself recently suggested that wind has the potential to supply up to 20 percent of the nation’s electricity.

Of course, the volatility of oil prices has helped wind energy gain its foothold. Once a wind farm is built, the fuel cost is essentially zero (as long as the wind blows), whereas fluctuating fossil fuel prices have made traditional power sources more costly and risky. Upping our reliance on wind power has also allowed us to lower our overall carbon footprint. If coal or natural gas were to be substituted to generate the electricity we now get from wind, it would put 28 million additional tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Wind power also saves water by not requiring the billions of gallons of water used to cool coal-fired power plants, an increasingly contentious issue in arid areas with limited access to fresh water.

As for the contentious Cape Wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts, the federal agency in charge, the U.S. Minerals Management Service, is sifting through tens of thousands of public comments and expects to make a final decision on the project by next winter. But even if they give it the green light, extensive permitting demands and legal challenges will likely hold up construction for years.

AWEA thinks that 2008 can be as much of a growth year as 2007 if Congress extends the PTC program. The Senate has already approved extending the PTC for at least one more year, but the House has yet to bring it up for a vote. Meanwhile, wind energy proponents are pacing the halls of Congress trying to persuade their Representatives that what’s good for the wind industry is good for America.

CONTACTS: American Wind Energy Association, www.awea.org; Cape Wind, www.capewind.org; U.S. Minerals Management Service, www.mms.gov.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.

Canada: Vancouver Labor Union Demands Action on Homelessness

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:18:00 +0000

4-28-08, 9:19 am

Original source: People's Voice

'Homelessness in Vancouver has reached crisis levels,' said COPE Councillor David Cadman, after the latest homeless count found more than 1500 people are living on Vancouver streets. 'With people dying as a direct result of being homeless, City Hall has to act immediately,' Cadman urged.

The 2008 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count, conducted on March 10, found that the number of people without a home in Vancouver increased by 19 percent since 2005.

Cadman wants Mayor Sam Sullivan to scrap the Eco-Density policy of massive development in the Downtown East Side (DTES) that allows developers to scrap affordable housing and build three units of high-price condos for every unit of affordable housing. He also wants the City to enforce its current DTES Housing Plan that requires a one-to-one replacement of low income housing in all condo redevelopments.

'If we continue with rampant condo development in Gastown, Chinatown and the DTES, without safeguards, all we're doing is pushing prices up for all and driving people into the streets,' said Cadman.

Meanwhile Cadman wants the City to release its list of rooms that are sitting empty and that could be used to house the homeless.

'The City has a list of single occupancy rooms that are being vacated by the owners,' said Cadman. 'We know of 54 empty units at the Colonial, and more than 100 units at Little Mountain that are empty and unused. The city can use its powers under the Standards of Maintenance By-law to make these rooms fit for occupancy.'

Former Vancouver councillor and long-time housing advocate, Ellen Woodsworth, is concerned that homelessness is spreading across the city because Sullivan and his NPA councillors have failed to implement the 2005 Homelessness Action Plan, and the Provincial Government is not doing enough to create more affordable housing.

'Now we are seeing homeless people on Commercial Drive, in Kitsilano, the West End and virtually every neighbourhood and in many city parks,' said Woodsworth. 'Meanwhile the province has a $250 million Housing Endowment Fund sitting unused in the bank. In just the last four months, 375 single occupancy rooms, for many the last stop before being on the street, have closed in the Downtown Eastside.'

From People's Voice

Ukrainian Parliamentarians Criticize Use of Faulty Nuclear Materials

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:48:00 +0000

4-26-08, 9:48 am

Kiev, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) The use of faulty nuclear fuel from the US in Ukrainian electronuclear plants is a risk, explained an expert commenting on the agreement of US Westinghouse and Ukraine's nationally owned Energoatom.

Nestor Schufrich, former minister of a Ukrainian ministry that oversees post-Chernobyl emergency operations, considered the agreement impossible without previous corresponding tests of the nuclear fuel being imported.

Also popular deputy to Ukraine's Supreme Rada (national parliament), Schufrich expressed doubt over the agreement signed March 31 between the two specialized energy corporations, 24 hours before the arrival of President George W. Bush to Kiev.

Finland and the Czech Republic have Russian reactors working with light pressurized water as in the Ukraine, but past experience with Westinghouse has demonstrated frequent problems, recalled the legislator for the Regional Andrei Kluyev Party.

Incompatibility of the equipment causes the unsafe functioning of heat generators made by the US company, he warned the parliament.

Voice of Russia radio also reported recently that Kiev would be affected both economically and environmentally because the Russian elements are cheaper and waste products are removed, according to a signed agreement. Westinghouse products are more costly and the company will not handle waste.

For his part Gennadi Chufrin, vice-director of the Russian-based Institute of World Economy International Relations, said that the agreement with Westinghouse corresponds to the political interests of US-backed Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko and his group.

Chufrin said all Yuschenko's efforts point to Ukraine substituting purchases from Russian and other Eurasian companies with others of Western origin.

From Prensa Latina

Two New Novels from Old Favorites

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:25:00 +0000

4-25-08, 12:26 pm

A Father's Law By Richard Wright New York, Harper Perennial, 2008.

Diablerie By Walter Mosley New York, Bloomsbury, 2008.

By Clara West

Shortly after Richard Wright's passing in 1960, Julia Wright found hidden in her father's papers the manuscript for A Father's Law, the last unfinished novel by the iconic American novelist. According to her introduction to the newly published book celebrating the centennial of Wright's birth, Julia Wright sees the manuscript as speaking across the generations in a deeply personal way, but also directly to the social ills of yesterday and today.

Wright's last work records the investigation of Chief Ruddy Turner into a series of slayings in an affluent Chicago suburb. Similar to several of Wright's novels, A Father's Law opens with the the central character awakened by the shrill sound of the telephone. Turner, an African American police captain with 25 years on the force and preparing to retire, is called mysteriously into the office by the city police commissioner.

Turner is a man of the law. He sets his watch by it. The pistol he carries and the uniform he wears has a magical power of erasing the social stigma of his race. A quick touch of the pistol, in fact, will chase away his recurring sense of powerlessness.

Turner is promoted from captain to chief of police of the suburb. He is ordered to uncover the perpetrators of a series of brutal murders that have the community in an uproar. Turner's experience as an efficient detective suit him for the task, his superiors tell him.

Meanwhile, his personal life is in a shambles. He hasn't been able to talk to his son for years. Tommy Turner is a quiet, intelligent college student whose ideas about crime and society unnerve is father. Tommy is studying sociology and looks for social explanations for the existence of crime, while his father is adamant that illegal behavior should simply be tracked down and punished regardless of mitigating circumstances.

Still, Ruddy Turner can't shake the feeling that his son is involved in suspicious activities. After years of experience with guilty criminals and how they act under a police grilling, Ruddy suspects something is behind his son's late nights and stand-offishness.

In the end, Turner comes to question the objectivity and neutrality of the law. Events lead Turner to challenge his own rigid moral code and make steps toward understanding what might drive some people to disregard the law he upholds unquestioningly.

Wright's last book is rough. Many of the details don't jibe, and there is some repetition that would have been fixed certainly if he had not passed away before completing the project. Still, the book is worth the read both as a story and as an historical document on the final creative efforts of one of America's most treasured authors.

Sharing similar themes with Wright, Walter Mosley, in his latest psychological/crime thriller, Diablerie, explores the internal life of Ben Dibbuk, a man without a past. Repressed memory syndrome may be a controversial subject in real life, but here it is the stuff of great fiction.

Dibbuk is a middle-aged African American computer programmer (a real life passion of Mosley's) for a large New York bank. But when he runs into a white woman named 'Star' who claims to know him, his entire life turns upside down. The forgotten past comes back to haunt him.

Relations with his wife are strained. After 22 years of marriage, Mona, a freelance editor for a new magazine, seems distant. Ben realizes that he has difficulty feeling any emotion for her or for their daughter, and he isn't sure why or what to do to overcome it. It is a vast emotional emptiness that he seems to bear physically on his back like a burden.

One day, Ben suspects his wife's claim that she is visiting her sick mother isn't completely honest. So he walks over to his mother-in-law's apartment where, while hiding in a closet, he secretly catches his wife in an affair with a co-worker. After the two lovers finish, Ben hears his wife ask the man, who happens to be a former police officer, about the progress of his investigation into Ben's background. (Warning: many scenes in this novel, such as this one, are explicit and geared toward an adult audience.)

As you might expect these revelations send Ben over the edge. Simultaneously discovering one's wife is cheating and that she has asked her boyfriend to look into one's past would probably be too much for most people.

Suddenly, an array of powerful people and institutions are interested in Ben Dibbuk, who had up to now been an anonymous computer programmer, even at his own place of work. They are digging into his past, asking questions about his involvement in an unsolved murder. But it is a past he knows nothing about. Could he have been involved? Do his nightmares reveal the hidden truths about a violent past he has covered up? Is this blank in his memory somehow linked to his lack of an emotional bond with his family?

This novel draws deeply on the noir tradition that invokes the individual's confrontation with overwhelmingly powerful social forces and agents. Survival and redemption depend on maneuvering – often, as in this case, with the aid of equally marginalized allies and friends – through a landscape designed to capture the suspected renegade or outsider. It is also about resistance to the abuse of power.

For example, in one illuminating scene, Ben is meeting a friend, Cassius, who may be his only ally in this confusion, at a local restaurant. The restaurant owner is physically enormous, wealthy, and powerful former member of the military intelligence community named Joey. Joey, who is old friends with Cassius, asks the hostess to seat the two men in a private dining room and to bring them anything they want. The waitress responds, 'As you say.'

For Ben this moment reveals to him the secret of power. The hostess' words, to Ben's mind, 'seemed to imbue the restaurant owner with great power. It struck me,' Ben thinks, 'as odd that the one obeying was also the person who articulated the degree of Joey's influence. This seemed very important to me at the time.'

Mosley is hinting that while the employee's obedience and consent to authority expresses and the greatness of Joey's power, it also signifies the limits of that power. Afterall, what would Joey be without an obedient employee? To my mind, this is one of the most brilliant dramatizations of social relations put out by an American novelist in a long time.

Both Wright and Mosley have produced tremendously powerful novels whose key themes challenge unthinking acceptance of power and law. Because Wright anticipates Mosley by almost 50 years, it is wonderful to see such an important tradition in American letters being maintained so skillfully and creatively.

Republicans Block Fair Pay

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Senate Republicans filibustered a bill Apr. 24 that would have helped women workers achieve pay equity. Republican presidential nominee John McCain expressed opposition to the bill but refused to take responsibility for his position by returning to the Senate to cast his vote on it.

The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was named after Lily Ledbetter who after 19 years Goodyear Tire Inc. discovered that her supervisors deliberately paid her male co-workers more than she. A jury awarded compensation for back pay plus punitive damages. Republican appointees in appellate courts, however, overturned the jury's decision and used a technicality to throw out the award.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to uphold the jury decision even though it agreed the company's behavior was illegal. The conservative majority cited a rule that required Ledbetter to sue the company within six months of her first unfair pay check. Of course, Ledbetter did not find out about the inequity until years after her first paycheck.

The Fair Pay Act changes the rule to give workers who face discrimination, including by gender, race, disability, religion or age, the power to sue six months after their last unfair paycheck.

The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) said, 'Workers shouldn't have to be mind-readers to protect themselves from discrimination. Those who suffer from pay discrimination shouldn't run out of time to file a claim for back pay simply because the employer initially managed to hide its illegal behavior.'

Supporters of the bill argue that without revising current law, companies will have no incentive to ensure fair pay for all of their employees.

Rosalyn Pelles, director of the AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Department, told reporters that the bill was about basic workplace fairness. 'Like our founding fathers—and mothers—we in the labor movement have some basic beliefs that we hold to be self-evident,' she said.

'We believe in paychecks that reflect an honest day on the job,' Pelles added. 'We believe in fairness. We believe that there is dignity in work—all work. Paying a woman less than a man is an affront to human dignity.'

Deborah L. Frett, CEO of Business and Professional Women/USA, expressed strong disappointment at the Republican filibuster. 'None of the Senators voting against the bill will admit that they favor pay discrimination,' Frett told reporters. 'Yet by voting against this bill they are saying that during the first six months you are hired you must aggressively find out what your peers are making, because if you don’t – too bad.'

Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama voted for the bill and told a crowd in Evansville, Indiana that unequal pay 'is not just bad for women, it's bad for their families. It makes it harder for working families to make ends meet. That kind of pay discrimination is wrong and it has no place in the United States of America.'

Obama cited McCain's opposition to the bill and his refusal to even cast a vote on it as yet another sign of his being out of touch with the majority of working Americans.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) also voted for the bill.

Passage of the bill was backed by a broad coalition of labor, civil rights, and women's organizations including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Organization for Women, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the two major labor federations.

Cuba Blows Whistle on US Meddling

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:59:00 +0000

4-25-08, 10:00 am

Havana, Apr 24 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry announced Thursday that the US government fosters counterrevolutionary provocations and media campaigns against the island.

The MINREX declaration stated that the empire, impotent against the unstoppable advance of the Revolution, has decided to step up its subversive plan.

According to the text, between 1996 and 2006, the United States has supplied the internal counterrevolution with about 385,000 pounds of medicine, food, clothing, over 23,000 short-wave radios and millions of books, bulletins and informative material.

The document notes that only in the present year, the US government provided $45.7 million to pay mercenary groups in Cuba and to stage provocations like that of April 22.

That day, the US administration issued a press release, distributed through the US Interest Section (USINT) in Havana, in which it 'condemned' the immediate and spontaneous rejection by the Cuban people of a reduced group of counterrevolutionaries carrying out a blatant provocation in the area around the Revolution Square, states the declaration.

In accordance with a report published by the US Government Accountability Office on November 15, 2006, USINT imports between 2000 and 2005 increased by almost 200 percent, 70 percent for mercenary groups in Cuba.

One of those small groups particularly supported and financed by the USINT is the so-called 'Ladies in White,' sponsored by President George W. Bush and his special services as a spearhead on Cuba, the text states.

'Cuba,' stresses the document, 'reaffirms its right to impede, neutralize and respond to provocations conceived, financed and encouraged by the US government and the USINT.'

'The most powerful empire humanity has known should not underestimate the Cuban people's capacity of crushing any attempt to take away the future this country has conquered with effort, dignity and sacrifice,' concludes the declaration.

Prensa Latina

ALBA Summit in Venezuela Responds to World Food Crisis and Bolivian Crisis

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:56:00 +0000

4-25-08, 9:58 am

Original source:

Mérida, April 24, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez convened an extraordinary meeting of member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in Caracas early Wednesday morning to discuss the world food crisis and the political crisis in eastern Bolivia.

At the meeting, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, and Chávez signed a series of accords to promote mutual agricultural development, create a joint food distribution network, and create a $100 million ALBA food security fund.

“The food crisis is the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model,” President Chávez declared.

Highlighting the most recent report by the United Nations World Food Program which called the food crisis a “silent Tsunami” and demanded an internationally coordinated response, Chávez said, “ALBA announces its willingness to assume responsibility, ALBA responds immediately… here we are.”

Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage commented that the crisis is part of an “unjust international economic order” in which “the logic is profit and not the satisfaction of peoples` needs.”

Lage further denounced the fact that the United States spends $500 billion per year on the Iraq War while the U.N. had to plea last month for $500 million donations in order to meet its emergency food quotas.

Social unrest has burgeoned in over thirty countries following an 80% increase in world food prices over the last three years, according to the World Bank. U.S. President George W. Bush authorized $200 million in global emergency food aid April 14th, while Venezuela, which has faced food shortages recently, sent 364 tons of meat, chicken, ham, milk, lentils, olive oil, and vegetables to its neighbor Haiti, which has experienced violent riots over rising food costs.

President Morales affirmed Wednesday that “it is the responsibility of presidents to act in concert to guarantee the food security of our peoples.”

Morales also criticized the diversion of farmland for the production of biofuels, which is widely recognized to have contributed to rising food prices, in a speech at the inauguration of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York Monday.

“If we do not bring an end to the capitalist system, it will be impossible to save the Earth,” Morales concluded.

The agricultural development agreement signed by ALBA nations Wednesday will focus on rice, corn, oil for human consumption, beans, beef, and milk, and the improvement of watering systems. To avoid price speculation by private intermediaries, the heads of state agreed to create a public food distribution network with regulated prices. To fund these projects, the presidents agreed to create a $100 million fund in the Bank of ALBA, which is still in formation.

The four leaders also signed a joint statement Wednesday, expressing solidarity with Bolivia, where there is a secessionist movement led by elite landowners in the natural resource-rich lowland Bolivian provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, and Pando.

ALBA countries pledged “unrestricted support for the process of sovereign and democratic changes” in Bolivia, and harshly denounced the separatist movement, calling it a “frank violation of the constitution and Bolivian laws.”

The declaration was read publicly by Vice President Lage and advocated open dialogue to solve the crisis in Bolivia. It rejected foreign interference, but at the same time called on the international community to “act quickly and decisively in solidarity with the people and the government of Bolivia to consolidate political, economic, and social stability in the region.”

Chávez made clear his suspicion that the “empire wants to halt South American integration and they have chosen, now, Bolivia as a target [because] they do not want the grand fatherland of Latin America and the Caribbean to be born.”

In February it was revealed that the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia had pressured Peace Corps volunteers and Fulbright scholars to spy on the activity of Cubans and Venezuelans working in Bolivia. A report by Bolivia-based independent journalist Ben Dangl the same month revealed evidence that the U.S. is channeling funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to the secessionist groups.

In New York Monday, Morales said the separatist referendum planned for May 4th was “a bridge point for the Empire here in Bolivia disguised by the euphemism of autonomy.”

Morales also asked for international support to end what he called “slavery” in Bolivia, following recent denunciations by sugar cane laborers on large estates in the Santa Cruz province that over 8,000 children work in the fields without pay.

Chávez, whose administration has redistributed over 2 million hectares (4.94 million acres) of mostly state owned land and some from large estates and increased government financing for agricultural production by 728% over the past three years, proposed Wednesday that Bolivian agricultural development be a priority of ALBA, “with the permission and the pardon of Nicaragua, which is also on the priority list.”

He also said ALBA countries are lucky to have responded so quickly to the present food crisis, but are now “obligated to amplify, make more dynamic and profound” these regional food security initiatives.

ALBA is a fair trade block created by Cuba and Venezuela in 2005 as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA) promoted by the U.S. government. Since then, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Dominica have joined the block.

From

Japanese High Court Rules Iraq Involvement Unconstitutional

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:53:00 +0000

4-25-08, 9:50 am

Original source: Akahata

The Japanese government has made it clear that it does not agree with the Nagoya High Court ruling that Air Self-Defense Force’s airlift missions in support of U.S. forces in Iraq is unconstitutional.

Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo said, “I will not be affected by the court decision.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka and Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru are also insisting on continuing to deploy SDF units to Iraq.

How arrogant it is for the government to dismiss the court ruling that the airlift missions runs counter to Article 9 of the Constitution, trampling upon the principles of a law-governed country. We cannot allow the government to continue to turn its back on Article 9.

Airlifting U.S. troops in violation of Article 9

Presiding judge Aoyama Kunio of the Nagoya High Court ruled that the Air Self-Defense Force’s airlift missions for U.S. forces in Iraq includes activities contravening Article 9 of the Constitution and the Special Measures Law on Iraq. Concerning the plaintiffs’ claim of the constitutional right to live in peace, the court recognized that “people can seek legal protection and relief based on the Constitution.”

Notably, the court based itself on the stated government interpretation of the Constitution to deny the reasoning the government used to rush to send Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq.

Referring to the situation in Iraq, the ruling said, 'The ongoing combat in Iraq is an extension of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. It is an international conflict between a multinational force and Iraqi insurgents.' The government sent Ground Self-Defense Force units to southern Iraq and has expanded the area of Air SDF missions to include Baghdad, claiming that although Iraq is in a bad security situation, it is not correct to characterize the whole of Iraq as a 'combat zone.' The ruling thus exposed the government’s use of deception.

It is particularly important that the ruling characterized Baghdad as a “combat zone where the killing of people and destruction of properties are taking place.” It confirms that it is untenable for the government to assert that Baghdad, where Air Self-Defense Force planes are landing and taking off, is a non-combat zone. The fact that transport aircraft are compelled to land at Baghdad Airport using a decoy flare is proof that Baghdad is a 'combat zone.'

The ruling also said, 'The ASDF’s airlift missions in support of the multinational force should be regarded as an act integral with U.S. forces’ military activities. The ASDF cannot deny exercising military force.” The ASDF’s airlifting of U.S. troops and supplies to Baghdad enables U.S. forces to obtain reinforcements to continue military operations. No one can deny the fact that the ASDF airlifting mission in Iraq is integral with the U.S. forces’ military activities.

The government has stated that it is unconstitutional for SDF activities to be integrated with the use of force by foreign forces. So, there is nothing peculiar in the high court ruling.

It is also important that the high court ruling stated in its arguments on the right to live in peace, which is stated in the Constitution’s preamble.

The judge stated that the right to live in peace should be recognized by law as a concrete right of the citizens instead of a mere ideal. This has an important bearing on the future struggle of the citizenry.

Make best use of this verdict

Now that the high court ruling recognized that the plaintiffs’ opposition to sending SDF units to Iraq and their call for an immediate withdrawal of SDF troops from Iraq is a legitimate demand based on the Constitution, the government must respect this ruling.

In defiance of the court ruling that some of the SDF activities in Iraq are unconstitutional, the government is insisting on keeping SDF units in Iraq. We will be able to meet the people’s wish for peace only by isolating the government which insists on sending troops to Iraq, to get Air SDF units withdrawn and prevent the enactment of a permanent law that is aimed at sending more SDF troops abroad.

From Akahata

Open Letter on 'Toronto 11' to Authorities from 19 Groups

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:41:00 +0000

4-24-08, 11:42 am

Authorities Asked to Consider Reasonable Bail Terms and Re-examination of Solitary Confinement for 'Toronto 11'

- For Immediate Release -

(Ottawa, Canada - April 22, 2008) - In an open letter, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) in partnership with the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC), Federation of Muslim Women (FMW), Islamic Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada, Islamic Circle of North America Canada (ICNA Canada), Islamic Society of North America Canada (ISNA Canada) and Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), along with an additional 11 organizations, today asked authorities to consider reasonable bail terms and re-examine the use of solitary confinement for the 'Toronto 11.'

In the letter the 19 organizations wrote:

Subject: Authorities asked to consider reasonable bail terms and re-examine solitary confinement for 'Toronto 11'

April 22, 2008

During the week of April 14, 2008, charges against four more of the 'Toronto 18' were stayed. Along with the three men who were previously released, the case of the 'Toronto 18' has now been whittled down to the 'Toronto 11.'

As representatives of Canada's Muslim communities, we are committed to Canada's security, while also ensuring that due process and civil liberties are respected. Thus, in consideration of the public knowledge we have of the cases, and the impact the proceedings have had on the accused and their families, we are requesting an end to solitary confinement and that their right to reasonable bail be seriously considered.

Citizens of conscience, including Canada's Muslims, are deeply concerned about the status of each of the remaining 11 men still facing trial. It appears that our government, intelligence and law enforcement agencies have cast an extremely 'wide net' in their quest to catch criminals and terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedies. As a direct result, innocent persons continue to be harassed, interrogated, detained, arrested and incarcerated. The reputations of many have been smeared and lives reduced to tatters.

This phenomenon has been exemplified in the cases of Maher Arar and Project Thread. The Arar case, as citizens are aware, resulted in a public inquiry and Mr. Arar's complete exoneration. In the less well-known Project Thread case, 24 South Asian men were wrongly labelled as terrorists. They had their lives turned upside down. Ultimately, despite the media circus, no terror related or criminal charges were even laid. Most were deported on minor immigration offences.

It is now clear that the lives of seven more men and boys and their families have been irreparably harmed. Initially assumed to be part of the 'Toronto 18' plot, some of these men and boys have, as a result, spent nearly two years of their lives in jail. The majority were held in solitary confinement for 23½ hours a day. They have now been released and charges against them stayed.

Balancing the pursuit of law, order, peace and security with the protection of individual human rights and civil liberties is a difficult task, especially when the balancing process involves individuals who may be unpopular. Are we, as a society, prepared to suspend basic rights, such as freedom of association and the presumption of innocence, in the name of anti-terrorism?

Ten of the initial 'Toronto 18' remain incarcerated pending trial. Three men continue to be held in solitary confinement. Extreme isolation, conditions more severe than the majority of Canada 's convicted murderers and rapists are subject to, is hardly appropriate for persons who have not been found guilty by our justice system. Perhaps it is time that the use of solitary confinement in the case of the Toronto 11 be re-evaluated, especially given its extensive use in the cases of the seven who were recently released.

Like any other individual who is subject to the operation of the law, each of the remaining accused have the right to be granted reasonable bail terms, as the court deems appropriate. This Charter right should be seriously considered, especially if strong sureties are provided to ensure that bail conditions will be fully respected.

It is in this spirit that we respectfully submit that the rights of the remaining accused be given every consideration and protection under the law. We respectfully request that the use of solitary confinement for the Toronto 11 be re-evaluated. Finally, having regard to all of the circumstances, we respectfully ask that their requests for bail be given the fullest consideration.

Sincerely, Ihsaan Gardee

Director of Community Relations Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations CAIR-CAN

On behalf of:

Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) Canadian Coalition for Peace and Justice Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) Canadian Islamic Congress (CIC) Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association (CMCLA) Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF) DawaNet Canada Federation of Muslim Women (FMW) Islamic Ahlul Bayt Assembly of Canada Islamic Circle of North America Canada (ICNA Canada ) Islamic Society of North America Canada (ISNA Canada ) Islamic Society of Toronto Muslim Community Council of Ottawa-Gatineau (MCCOG) Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) Ottawa Muslim Association (OMA) Salaheddin Islamic Centre South-Western Ontario Muslim Students' Association Young Muslims Canada

India and the Struggle against Imperialism: Interview with Teresa Albano

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:24:00 +0000

4-24-08, 11:26 am

Editor's Note: Teresa Albano is editor of the People's Weekly World. To see Albano's photoblog of her trip to India click here.

PA: Why are there two Communist Parties in India and what is their relationship with one other?

TERRIE ALBANO: The two Communist Parties in India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) both derive originally from a united Communist Party of India, which was formed in the 1920s, during a time when many Communist Parties around the world were being founded in the wake of the Russian Revolution. The United Communist Party of India was part of the Indian independence struggle – the great anti-colonial struggle against British colonialism - and it has done tremendous things, both during that time and since. But in the 1960s, there was a split in the world communist movement that mirrored the Sino-Soviet split of that period between China and the Soviet Union. This split affected a number of communist parties around the world, including the Communist Party of India. It was then that a section of the Communist Party of India’s membership left the party and formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Those were pretty turbulent times in the world and in India, and the relations between the two parties became quite violent, with one party attacking the other. But since these parties had a common beginning and share a common vision in many ways, over the years they have managed to work out their differences and work very closely together. They are now part of the same electoral coalition and share a very similar political outlook.

PA: What is their current role in the Indian government?

ALBANO: The CPI-M and CPI are the two largest communist parties in India. There are other parties that call themselves communist, but these are the two largest and most active. Together they represent over 1.5 million members, and they currently head three state governments – similar to states in the US. There are 26 states in India, and the Communists lead the government in three of those states – West Bengal, Kerala, and Tripura, where they hold the chief minister position (similar to a governor here in the United States) and are the leading force in those governments. They also did well in the 2004 national elections, with the Left Bloc as they call it (the CPI-M, the CPI and two other left parties) winning around 65 seats in Parliament. They now support the Congress Party-led government, which is a coalition government. The most seats in Parliament were won by the Congress Party, so they chose to support the government – but “from the outside,” as they call it. In other words, they did not want to ministerial position in the national government, but they also did not want the far-right party in Parliament – the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP – to be able to form a government, so the Left threw its support to the Congress Party and the Congress Party-led government. However, they did not want to be part of the government on the ministerial level, because they knew that then there would be limitations, and they did not want to be in a situation of not being able to deliver sound and helpful programs for the working people and farmers, the oppressed castes, women, etc. in India. So they support the government from the outside.

PA: The main reason for your trip, apart from a brief vacation, was to attend the conventions of these two Communist Parties. What were the main issues the two Communist Parties were talking about at their conventions?

ALBANO: The main issues were the issues of struggle – the mass struggles in India that the two parties are very much a part of. They are both very involved in educating and mobilizing the people, not only their political base, but also their bases in the trade union movement, the women’s movement, the farmer-peasant movement, and the student movement. Domestically, a big part of the two conventions dealt with issues regarding the agricultural crisis that India is now facing. India’s economy, although it is growing rapidly as a modern industrialized economy, is still largely agricultural, and they are experiencing a severe crisis in the agricultural sector, mainly among the smaller farmers. There are still quite a few big landlords, so small tenant farmers make up a huge percentage of the population – and they are saddled with debt. When their crops go bad, they are stuck with huge debts. Just over the past 10 years thousands of these farmers have committed suicide. That is just one part of the agricultural crisis they are facing.

One of the main things they were talking about at the Party congresses was fighting the rising cost of basic foodstuffs – cooking oil, grain, rice, vegetables, etc., and making plans for direct mass action immediately after the congresses. This is all part of the worldwide food crisis that many nations are seeing, including those of us in the United States – with food prices going up and up. This is happening for a number of reasons. One is the big emphasis now on using corn and other foodstuffs as bio-energy, which has created a huge leap in commodity prices. A more fundamental problem than that, however, is having the food we eat placed at the whim of the capitalist market system. That is the more basic question, and one that is causing food prices to go up around the world, in really crisis proportions in a number of countries. We’ve heard about Haiti recently, but this is happening in India, too.

The Communist Parties in India were taking concrete steps. There was a mass action yesterday and today on this issue. Since they have seats in Parliament, they are working on that level too to insure that there is food security for the masses of India’s people. I had already heard that about half of the world’s hungry are in India, and when I was there they had an exposé on Indian television about the number of children who face hunger. So this is a big and growing crisis for India. The Communists were talking about that a lot – and not only about the prices. In India they have a system of public food distribution which has come under attack and dismemberment, like so many public programs around the world that have suffered privatization and, of course, deterioration at the hands of neo-liberal economic policies. India has had to face that too. So they are actively discussing and working on many levels to reinvigorate the public food distribution system, fighting hard against the private interests that have been hoarding food and pushing for privatization, etc. they are doing all they can to save this basic safety net that serves the needs of the people.

PA: What was your sense of the Indian Communist Parties’ view of US involvement in Asia generally?

ALBANO: I’m glad you asked that question, because the other major issue that the two congresses discussed, in terms of India’s foreign policy, was the proposed Indo-US nuclear deal. The Left in India has been successful in holding up the signing of this treaty. They realize that the US imperialist forces – the big corporations and the military – are trying to gain a foothold in India in order to make Indian interests subservient to US imperial interests in the region. Since winning its independence from the British, India has had a long history and a lot of pride in possessing its own, independent foreign policy. It always been a leader in the Nonaligned Movement, which was an important factor during the Cold War and still exists. India’s foreign policy has been subservient to no one. It is an independent foreign policy. They see this nuclear deal as having a lot of strings attached to it. One of them involves their long – and I mean thousands of years - relationship with Iran (formerly Persia). They have always had strong trade relations with Iran, and they currently have a deal with them to build a gas pipeline from Iran to India. But if this nuclear deal with the US goes through, one of the strings attached is that, in exchange for the nuclear energy and technology that the US would provide, they would have to abandon this longstanding pipeline project with Iran. There are many other strings attached as well. Granted India has great energy needs, but the Communists see this deal as not being the way to meet them.

To answer your question more directly, the Indian Communists clearly recognize that US imperialism has a plan for Asia, and that plan is to continue to strengthen US military and corporate domination in the region. The US imperialist interests are facing a big challenge, and that challenge is coming from China, which is itself, like India, a developing country, but also a rapidly growing economic and political power, especially in the Asian region. The US, of course, does not want to see China’s influence increase, so they are attempting to draw India into the US orbit as a kind of a tool to be used against China. I was asked a lot of questions by the Indian media about the nuclear pact. My response was that Indian foreign policy has long had a stabilizing effect in South Asia and the region, and that we just have to look at the last 8 years of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq and the Middle East to see what a destabilizing factor it has been. I think the Communists are making some very good points about why the Indian people need to be very alarmed at the signing of this deal, as well as about the possibility of making India a junior partner in US imperialist goals in the region of Asia.

PA: Finally, could you talk about some of your experiences in India that were not related to politics, things that really sum up your trip there and give us a feel about what it was like?

ALBANO: India is a vast country of great contradictions. There is so much richness among its people, its culture and history. There is great wealth that is concentrated in very few hands in India, and there is also incredible, grinding poverty that is really hard to compare with the poverty we have here in the United States. Yet, at the same time, the richness of the people and its history and culture is so vast that it would take a lifetime to even scratch the surface of it. India is a very diverse country – I saw that with my own eyes – in terms of religion, ethnicity, and language. I was in two southern Indian states for the Party congresses. South India is made up of four states – Karnataka, Andrha Pradesh, Tamil-Nadu, and Kerala (so now when you go to South Indian restaurants you’ll know where the food hails from!). These states have four very distinct languages, which themselves are very distinct from the languages of the North. The linguistic base in South India is not Indo-European but Dravidian – that’s one of the many things I learned when I was there.

In India you are talking about a very complex and ancient culture. The friendliness of the people – especially the comrades – but the friendliness and interest of the Indian people in general toward the United States and our delegation from the Communist Party, USA was really wonderful. We also got to see a bit about the lives of working people there. We visited a cotton mill and a garment factory, and we visited market places – so we saw how everyday people live their lives. These images will always stay with me.

After the Congresses, I was able to go for a week in Delhi where I had a chance to be just a tourist. I guess the biggest thing for me – and I’m saving the best for last - was that I was able to go to see the Taj Mahal. That was just a spectacular trip. I am sure that when anybody in the United States thinks about India, they think of the Taj Mahal – and it really is a tremendous monument. I was really taken aback, because I never really made the connection until I was there that the Taj Mahal is really one of the highest forms of Islamic architecture and art. It has inlaid stone with the writings of the Koran all around it. I simply didn’t realize the extent of Muslim influence in India – I thought it was much more localized to areas like Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad in South India, but it is very much an influence in India as a whole.

China and Africa: A Different Relationship?

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:22:00 +0000

4-24-08, 11:23 am

No region of the world was so devastated by both commercial and industrial capitalism and the imperialisms they fostered than Africa. From the 16th to the 19th century, Africa was robbed of tens of millions of its people for the slave trade that European and later North American states used to enrich themselves by developing much of the Western Hemisphere with human chattel. This was followed by colonial empires which looted Africa of its natural resources and also condemned tens of millions of Africans to forced labor in mines and on plantations to pay feudal taxes that were imposed on them.

“Africa Arises,' chapter six of Gerald Horne’s fine new book, Blows against Empire, looks at a different relationship between Africa and a new world power, the Peoples Republic of China. Along with a huge rise in trade relations and Chinese investments, China is working with Africans to build roads, to assist Ethiopia in constructing the continent’s largest dam, to aid Nigeria in developing a communications satellite system, and to introduce life saving anti-malarial drugs in Uganda.

While some critics may argue that the Chinese are doing what the European and U.S. colonial powers have done in the past, Chinese investments in projects to facilitate their gathering of resources, clearly aid African development in a direct way.

Horne looks at the positive role that China is playing in the Congo. By contrast, the U.S. through the CIA subverted the anti-colonial peoples revolution led by Patrice Lumumba at the end of the 1950s. CIA operatives and assisted in Lumumba’s murder and installed as its major African “asset” the brutal and corrupt Joseph Mobuto, whose dictatorship lasted three decades and was considered as one of the worst in the world.

Horne is not uncritical of China’s past support in the 1970s of adventurist and elements in Africa as part of its anti-Soviet stance and its subsequent “strategic alliance” with the U.S. But, whereas U.S. and European states hypocritically pose as defenders of “democracy” against governments like that of Zimbabwe (Horne reminds readers that it was China which supported Robert Mugabe in the 1970s against political rivals who had Soviet support), China has continued to develop economic relations with various African states that are helping Africans raise their standards of living and improve their overall quality of life.

The U.S. is not the only nation by any means involved in neo colonial activities in Africa. France. A large colonial power in Africa until the post WWII era, in a more direct way than the U.S. has its firms and “expatriates” working with local “allies” to control oil, bauxite, and other important resources. French military power is also around in a direct way to back up its firms. But Horne suggests that the “relative decline of U.S. imperialism – the locomotive of world imperialism – may be so significant that it will be unable to arrest the rise of Africa in league with China.”

Horne is at his best in this chapter in untangling the complex geopolitical manipulations of U.S. imperialism in Africa, from its continuing attempts to create a dangerous new Africa Command (AFRICOM) for the U.S. military on the continent to advance its imperialist interests, to its struggles to control oil resources to its attempts to undermine Chinese relationships with African nations in a wide variety of ways.

Horne also follows the money, showing how predatory “lenders” including U.S. GOP backers “buy up the debt of impoverished African countries from pennies and then force those countries to “renegotiate” under constitutions which give deepen their poverty and provide the ‘lenders’ with super profits.

He also shows how U.S. based pharmaceuticals have sought to deny HIV and other life saving drugs to poor African nations, where these diseases are epidemics, in order to retain their profit margins in the developed countries. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization and the IMF continue to put the squeeze on African nations as they do on Latin American and other nations, limiting social sector development in education and other areas in order to foster “free markets” and “fiscal responsibility” (neo colonialism in what is a fairly crude form). Finally, American based big agribusiness firms are exploiting African land and in effect increasing hunger among its peoples.

All of this open plunder should make the critics of Chinese policy in Africa, along with those who selectively criticize the “human rights” abuses of some African states, take pause. Whatever contradictions may exist in China’s policy in Africa(which one might say is clearly one is seeking to develop resources for its own industries) its Communist leadership and revolutionary anti-imperialist traditions have kept it from engaging in the crude forms of exploitation that have characterized the Euro-American states for five centuries.

Horne concludes optimistically that the role of China in Africa along with possible role of India (which has, as a legacy of British imperialism, its own Diaspora on the continent) and the global Diaspora created by slavery and colonialism, especially the large African-American community, offers hope for both African liberation and global victories against U.S. imperialism.

Whether that, “the coming together of progressive Africans transnationally,” which Horne also sees as “a vindication of (W.E.B.) Du Bois vision” will occur remains unclear. But that it can occur and that all anti-imperialists should struggle to make it occur, not only for Africans but for Americans and all the world’s peoples, is clear.

Venezuela Solidarity Symposium

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:45:00 +0000

4-24-08, 9:46 am

Leading academic scholars and grassroots activists gathered at historic Howard University in Washington, DC, from April 18-20 for the national symposium “What’s Up With Venezuela: Participatory Democracy or Democracy as Usual?” The meeting provided an opportunity for 200 solidarity activists from across the United States to study the revolutionary changes sweeping through Venezuela.

In 1998, Venezuelans elected Hugo Chavez as a left-populist president to lead the country. Since then, he has worked toward regional integration and against US domination of Latin America. This has placed Venezuela on a collision course with the US. “Chavez is threatening,” political scientist Steve Ellner argued, “because he shows that there are viable alternatives to neoliberalism.” In a region that seems to produce its share of bad news, Venezuela is an example of hopeful and positive change.

A principal theme that ran throughout the symposium was that the Bolivarian Revolution (so named after Venezuela’s independence leader Simon Bolivar) is not a movement built around one person. James Early, Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution, said “Chavez is not the revolution, but a conduit for it.” Supreme Court justice Fernando Vegas explained institutional divisions of power in Venezuela to make his point that Chavez is not a dictator and does not control everything in the country.

Instead of emphasizing Chavez’s role, most of the presenters stressed the importance of constructing a participatory and protagonistic democracy to build new relations between the government and popular organizations. “Democracy is not just formal institutions,” labor leader Gonzalo Gomez with the National Union of Workers (UNT) said, “but also the mobilization of people.” Venezuela Solidarity Network organizer James Jordan argued that participatory democracy begins with organizing at the grassroots level.

While the presenters defended Chavez, they did not give him their uncritical and unqualified support. Gomez argued that much of the positive progress that has been made in Venezuela is not due to Chavez’s leadership, but from dedicated activists pushing him in a leftward direction.

Jorge Guerrero, Venezuelan Consul in New Orleans, explained the growing role of communal councils that are leading toward self government. In the future, Guerrero predicated, they would not need mayors because people will solve their own problems. Julio Chavez, the mayor of Torres, Venezuela, said that he was one of those working to realize that goal. “How can they accuse of us being authoritarian and centralist,” Chavez asked, “when we are giving power to the people?”

The communal councils are only one example of the many fundamental transformations in Venezuela. Antonio Gonzalez from the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) noted that Venezuela’s wedding of multi-party, participatory elections with a socialistic redistributive process is rather unique. Not only has this led to success for the Bolivarian Revolution, but hopefully it will also make it much more difficult for the United States to justify an invasion of the country.

Although there have been significant advances, there are still numerous bureaucrats from previous governments who are still in positions of power. Perhaps more dangerous are political opportunists who paint themselves as Chavistas (supporters of President Hugo Chavez), but are not ideologically committed to the Bolivarian Revolution. Increasingly, however, career diplomats and government bureaucrats are being replaced by movement activists who are committed to pushing the country toward socialism.

In addition, institutional interests can also place a break on revolutionary change. The Venezuelan Embassy’s Labor Attaché Marcos García emphasized that leftward pressure comes from people (workers) rather than institutions (labor unions) that too often become bogged down in bureaucratic concerns. Social movements are important so that the government does not sell out a revolutionary and socialist project. Gonzalo Gomez called these social movements the “motor of the revolution.”

Clara Herrera from Venezuela’s Central University observed that Chavez is just the tip of the iceberg of changes sweeping through the country as people become increasingly energized through grassroots popular movements. Omar Sierra and Jorge Guerrero from the Boston and New Orleans consulates discussed the roles of Indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants in the Bolivarian Revolution. Sierra said that changes in Venezuela are not the will of only one man, but the result of 500 years of Indigenous struggle.

Guerrero presented Chavez as a tool that embodies the hopes and aspirations of historically oppressed and excluded peoples to build a new protagonistic and participatory system. Imperialists are opposed to the Venezuelan government because it has allied with the downtrodden. This extends to international policies, as Venezuela has significantly expanded its diplomatic relations with Africa and the Caribbean. For example, students from Mali are studying textile manufacturing in Venezuela so that they can help their country gain value from cotton production rather than exporting the raw materials. These are not vertical relationships of domination, but horizontal ones built around ideas of solidarity.

Economists Adina Mercedes Bastidas and Mark Weisbrot presented data that illustrates dramatic recent economic growth in Venezuela. Chavez’s economic priorities have led to notable increases in health care, education, and employment. Weisbrot responded to an essay that Francisco Rodríguez published in Foreign Affairs that maintained that the poor have been hurt by Chavez’s policies. In a detailed analysis on the Center for Economic and Policy Research website (http://www.cepr.net/), Weisbrot shows how Rodríguez cherry-picked his data to reach misleading conclusions. In fact, poverty has dropped in half. Some of the current economic problems, such as a high inflation rate, are the result of long-term structural problems that cannot be turned around overnight.

Miguel Rodríguez, Vice-Minister for the Environment, discussed the challenges of attempting to improve standards of living while still preserving the environment. Venezuela is energy rich, and seeks to develop a sustainable economy. Although as a petroleum exporter gasoline is cheap, the government has emphasized public transit and produces most of its electricity from hydroelectric dams. Furthermore, the government emphasizes conservation as a way to meet peoples’ needs. “Socialism of the twenty-first century has to be ecological,” Rodríguez said, “and it also has to be materially possible.”

The US government and mainstream media, both in Venezuela and internationally, have engaged in a relentless disinformation campaign against the Bolivarian Revolution. Steve Ellner said that the hostility has little to do with Chavez’s style, but rather his economic and social policies. In Venezuela, the intransigent opposition to Chavez is based on conservative support for neoliberal policies that advocate shifting resources from the poor and marginalized and back towards the wealthy and privileged elite classes.

During the 1980s, Venezuelan governments engaged in blatant censorship of the media. Today, that does not happen, and there are more press freedoms than at any other point in the country’s history. The press remains overwhelmingly in private hands, owned by a wealthy elite deeply antagonistic to Chavez’s socialist project.

Mark Weisbrot gave Francisco Rodríguez’s essay in Foreign Affairs as one example of the constant barrage of misinformation. Without a popular media, Gonzalo Gomez said, a participatory and protagonistic democracy will not be possible. This does not happen automatically, but we need to get people accustomed to using these tools. The Venezuelan government has facilitated a move in this direction by creating spaces for community radio. “If the press is less anti-Chavez,” Olivia Burlingame Goumbri from the Venezuela Information Office contended, “it is because of growing popular support for Chavez.”

Journalist and sociologist Greg Wilpert explained how Venezuela has one of the most safe and secure voting systems in the world. Perceptions of fraud or a politicized electoral council are not based in fact. Wilpert positioned himself as a free speech advocate, and argued that the media is too important to be held in private hands that respond to corporate interests. Rather, public accountability is important to democratize the means of communication.

Attorney Eva Golinger explained how the attacks on Venezuela increased dramatically in 2005 when Condoleezza Rice was elevated to Secretary of State in the United States. The United States creates and funds a right-wing opposition in Venezuela through institutions such as the National Endowment for Democracy.

Venezuelan lawyer José Pertierrra pointed to the hypocrisy in US attempts to classify Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism. While there is no evidence that Venezuela sponsors or engages in terrorism, the US military is in the midst of its own torture scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. More blatant is the case of Luis Posada Carrilles who blew up a Cuban airliner with a toothpaste bomb in 1976 as it left Venezuela. Not only was Posada Carrilles a CIA operative, he also currently lives freely in the US. Refusals to extradite him to Venezuela means that the US supports terrorism.

The symposium ended with a Lobby Day, with participants taking what they learned to Congressional Representatives on Capitol Hill.

The Venezuela Solidarity Network (http://vensolidarity.net/) sponsored the symposium. The purpose of VSN is to increase communication among groups that oppose US intervention in Venezuela, support the right of the Venezuela people to self-determination, and support the Bolivarian revolution.

Marc Becker is a Latin American historian and a member of Community Action on Latin America (CALA), in Madison, Wisconsin. Photos from the symposium are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/marcbecker2/VenezuelaSymposium.

Special ALBA Summit Backs Bolivia

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:48:00 +0000

4-23-08, 11:50 am

Caracas, Apr 23 (Prensa Latina) The situation in Bolivia is on the table in this capital Wednesday at a special summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), called by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Interviewed on 'Venezolana de Television,' Chavez stated that the aim is to seek ways to avoid worsening the situation in the Bolivian territory, amid attempts to divide that country.

'Bolivia is on the verge of breaking out and the fascist right-wing does not want to meet,' said the statesman before accusing the US Empire of injecting hatred into those people through a media war.

'We sometimes have the terrible and dramatic sensation that we can do nothing, but I had an idea of calling a special ALBA meeting and talking about the issue with presidents of Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina,' Chavez noted.

The summit, attended by Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, will also analyze topics like food and energy alliances.

The Venezuelan head of state pointed out that participants will boost the energy security treaty inked in the framework of the ALBA, and generate new projects and grand-national companies for the development of regional countries.

Lage said the current largest challenges include preserving peace faced with an empire 'striving to impose its domain on the world' through destruction, war and death.

At his arrival to the Miraflores Palace, Morales expressed gratitude to his host and confidence in the wisdom of native peoples and social movements.

Prensa Latina