People Before Profit blog

Hope in 2011: Peoples, Civil Society Stand Tall

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:50:00 +0000

When the Iraqi army fell before invading US and British troops in 2003, the latter’s mission seemed to be accomplished. But nearly eight years after the start of a war intended to shock and awe a whole population into submission, the Iraqi people continue to stand tall. They have confronted and rejected foreign occupations, held their own against sectarianism, and challenged random militancy and senseless acts of terrorism.

For most of us, the Iraqi people’s resolve cannot be witnessed, but rather deduced. Eight years of military strikes, raids, imprisonments, torture, humiliation and unimaginable suffering were still not enough to force the Iraqis into accepting injustice as a status quo.

In August 2010, the United States declared the end of its combat mission in Iraq, promising complete withdrawal by the end of 2011. However, US military action has continued, only under different designations. The occupation of Iraq carries on, despite the tactical shifts of commands and the rebranding effort.

However, were it not for the tenacity of the Iraqi people, who manage to cross-sectarian, political and ideological divides, there would be no talk of withdrawals or deadlines. There would be nothing but cheap oil, which could have ushered in a new golden age of imperialism - not in Iraq, but throughout the so-called Third World. The Iraqi people have managed to stop what could have become a dangerous trend.

2010 was another year where Iraqis held strong, and civil societies throughout the world stood with them in solidarity, a solidarity that will continue until full sovereignty is attained.

Palestine provides another example of international solidarity, one that is unsurpassed in modern times. Civil society has finally crossed the line between words and sentiments of solidarity into actual and direct action. The Israeli siege on Gaza, which was supported by the United States and few other Western powers, resembled more than a humanitarian crisis. It was a moral crisis as well, especially as the besieged population of Gaza was subjected to a most brutal war at the end of 2008, followed by successive lethal military strikes. The four year long siege has devastated a population whose main crime was exercising its democratic right to vote, and refusing to submit to the military and political diktats of Israel.

Gaza remains a shining example of human strength in our time. This is a fact the Israeli government refuses to accept. Israeli and other media reported that the Israeli army will be deploying new tanks to quell the resistance of the strip, with the justification that Palestinians fighters managed to penetrate the supposedly impenetrable Israeli Merkava tank. Israeli military chief Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who made the revelation in a recent parliamentary session, may never comprehend that neither a Mekava (or whatever new model he will be shipping to Gaza soon) nor the best military hardware anywhere could penetrate the will of the unwavering Palestinians.

Gaza is not alone. Civil society leaders representing every religion, nationality and ideology have tirelessly led a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The breadth and magnitude of this solidarity has been unmatched in recent times, at least since the anti-fascist International Brigades units resolutely defended the Second Spanish Republic between 1936-1939.

The solidarity has come at a cost. Many activists from Turkey and various other countries were killed in the high seas as they attempted to extend a hand of camaraderie to the people of Gaza and Palestine. Now, knowing the dangers that await them, many activists the world over are still hoping to set sail to Gaza in 2011.

Indeed, 2010 was a year that human will proved more effective than military hardware. It was the year human solidarity crossed over like never before into new realms, bringing with it much hope and many new possibilities.

But the celebration of hope doesn’t end in Palestine and Iraq. It merely begins there. Champions of human rights come from every color and creed. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, The Most Rev. Dr. Desmond Tutu of South Africa, former US President Jimmy Carter and other luminaries and civil society heroes and heroines from across the world will continue their mission of peace and justice, as they have for many years.

These well-known names are only part of the story. There are literary millions of unsung heroes that make the hardship of the years more tolerable, and who will continue to guide us through new years and unknown challenges.

Haiti was one country that was hit hardest in 2010. The small nation was greeted on January 12, 2010 with a most catastrophic earthquake, followed by 52 aftershocks. Over half a million people were estimated killed and injured, and many more became homeless. The year ended on a similarly devastating note, as over 2,000 people died and 105,000 fell ill (according to estimates by the Pan American Health Organization) after a cholera outbreak ravished an already overwhelmed country.

It is rather strange how leading powers can be so immaculate and efficient in their preparations for war, and yet so scandalously slow in their responses to human need when there is no political or economic price to be exacted. But this discrepancy will hardly deter doctors and nurses at the St. Nicholas Hospital in Haiti, who, despite the dangerous lack of resources, managed to save 90 percent of their patients

Our hearts go out to Haiti and its people during these hard times. But Haiti needs more than good wishes and solemn prayers. It also needs courageous stances by civil society to offset the half-hearted commitments made by some governments and publicity-seeking leaders.

It must be said that hope is not a random word aimed at summoning a fuzzy, temporary feeling of positive expectations for the future. To achieve its intended meaning, it must be predicated on real, foreseeable values. It must be followed by action. Civil society needs to continue to step up and fill the gaps created or left wide open by self-seeking world powers.

Words don’t end wars, confront greed or slow down the devastation caused by natural disasters. People do. Let 2011 be a year of action, hope, and the uninterrupted triumph of civil society.

Photo by wools, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0

Thousands Apply for Heating Assistance in Fulton

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:46:00 +0000

Original source: The Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA -- Things were chaotic for the first couple weeks after Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program funds became available to the general public on December 01. The LIHEAP funds--which are administered through counties across the US and are targeted to the winter season--had been available for seniors since November 01.

On the first few days, people were lining up as early as midnight in the freezing cold. The Fulton Atlanta Community Action Authority (FACAA) had asked people not to line up outside, but it couldn't be prevented.

Because there were only so many applications the FACAA staff could take in a day, many people were asked to come back the next day, with no guarantee of being seen on that day either.

"Some applicants became frustrated, especially if they were facing a power disconnection," Joyce Dorsey, Executive Director of FACAA, told Atlanta Progressive News. "Many of the people we serve become boisterous or restless."

"If I've been out since midnight in the bone-chilly cold, it does incite people to restless anger," Dorsey said.

Dorsey says the initial rush of LIHEAP applications has relaxed a bit, but FACAA is still seeing 500 applications a day at its different locations. Thousands of Fulton residents have applied, just since December 01.

Dorsey says she has dispatched many of her corporate office staff to other locations to take the LIHEAP applications.

"At the beginning, people in the most dire need were the ones out there. They were antsy and raising the roof. Those people have been addressed. Now there are more people with ordinary needs than in crisis," Dorsey said.

LIHEAP funds are limited and are first-come, first-serve. FACAA estimates they may run out of funds in February 2011, even though the program period extends through March.

Funds are distributed to counties based on the percentage of poverty in each county. Some counties, like Cobb, have already exhausted their funds, having received less than Fulton.

"For the amount of money we receive, 2.5 million to 3 million dollars, that will serve about 12,000 people, as many as 14,000, depending on how much people are approved for," Dorsey said.

"Many people are accustomed to take care of themselves. People call me because they don't want to call the hotline because of stereotypes. Sally Smith got let go from General Electric, and has exhausted her 401(k). They'll say, 'I know how to budget. I know how to rob Peter to pay Paul. Peter doesn't have enough,'" Dorsey said.

"We're calling this the new faces of poverty. People who thought it'd never happen to them. Children of baby boomers, now adults, who thought they had a piece of the American dream. Many of them started with a college education and a good salary, until the ladder was pulled out from under them," Dorsey said.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for LIHEAP, visit one of the five site office locations (addresses and hours below).

Bring a photo ID; proof of income for the last one month; social security card; and the electricity or gas bill, including any disconnect notice.

Applicants must complete a brief application, and will be approved according to the LIHEAP eligibility guidelines.

LIHEAP assistance is a one-time payment ranging between 200 and 350 dollars.

Once the payment is approved, it takes several weeks for the check to be mailed from FACAA to the utility company.

Each applicant will receive a copy of the approval form in the mail. This can be taken to the utility company as proof of payment.

In the meantime, an applicant may need to make temporary payment arrangements with the utility company. If no arrangements are available and the power is in danger of being shut off, FACAA can call or fax information to the utility company to pledge the amount. The utility company generally accepts the pledge as if it were a payment guaranteed.

Households are eligible to receive LIHEAP in Fulton if they make no more than the maximum household income for the program. For one person, that is 21,940 dollars; for two people, that is 28,691 dollars; for three, it is 35,442; for four, it is 42,193; for five, it is 48,944; for six, it is 55,695; for seven, it is 56,961; for eight, it is 58,226.

After receiving the one-time per year LIHEAP payment, households may also be eligible for a second emergency assistance payment under another program through FACAA.

East Atlanta residents can visit the Dekalb-Atlanta Human Service Center at 30 Warren Street, SE Ste. 280, Atlanta 30317, every weekday from 9am to 3pm.

South Fulton residents can visit the Department of Family and Children Services on 5710 Stonewall Tell Road, College Park 30349, every Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am to 3pm.

South Fulton and Downtown Atlanta residents can also visit FACAA's Community Resource Center on 341 Kelly Street, Atlanta 30312, on Wednesdays from 1pm, to 730pm.

North Fulton residents can visit the Pleasant Hill Community Center at 725 Pleasant Hill Street, Roswell 30075, every Monday and Thursday from 9am to 3pm.

North Fulton residents can also visit the North Fulton Charities on 11270 Elkins Road, Roswell 30076, every Tuesday from 9am to 3pm.

The Migrant Hotel – Where Deportees Find Shelter in Mexicali

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:39:00 +0000

Original source: New America Media

MEXICALI, Mexico-- Last year, almost 400,000 people were deported from the United States. That's the largest wave of deportations in U.S. history, even larger than the notorious "Operation Wetback" of the 1950s, or the mass deportations during the Great Depression.

Often the Border Patrol empties buses of deportees at the border gates of cities like Mexicali in the middle of the night, pushing people through at a time when nothing is open, and no services are available to provide them with food or shelter. Most deportees are young people. They had no money in their pockets coming to the United States, and have nothing more as they get deported back to Mexico.

These are invisible people. In the wave of anti-immigrant hysteria gripping the United States, no one asks what happens to the deportees once they're sent back to Mexico.

In Mexicali, a group of deportees and migrant rights activists have taken over an old, abandoned hotel, formerly the Hotel Centenario (the Hundred Year Hotel). They've renamed it the Hotel Migrante, or the Migrant Hotel. Just a block from the border crossing, it gives people deported from the United States a place to sleep and food to eat for a few days before they go home, or try to cross the border again. The government gives it nothing. Border Angels, the U.S.-based immigrant rights group, provides what little support the hotel gets. A cooperative of deportees cooks the food and works on fixing the building.

During the winter, about 50-60 people live there at any given time, while five or six more knock on its doors every night. Last summer, at the peak of the season when people try to cross the border looking for work, the number of deportees seeking shelter at the hotel rose to over 300.

"A lot of people get hurt trying to walk through the mountains around Mexicali," says Benjamin Campista, a cooperative member. "It's very cold there now, and when they get caught and deported, many are just wearing a T-shirt and tennis shoes. Some get sick -- those we take to the hospital. The rest stay here a few days until their family can send them money to get home, or until they decide to try to cross again."

Border Angels and the hotel collective agreed to pay the landlord 11,000 pesos a month in rent (about $900 USD), but they're already six months behind. Every day hotel residents go out to the long lines of people waiting to cross through the garita (the legal border crossing). They ask for money to support the hotel, and each person gets to keep half of what they're given. The other half goes mostly for food for the evening meal. Deportees have plenty of time to explain their situation to people standing in line, since on a recent afternoon the wait to get through the garita was two hours.

Every day Campista hears deportees tell their stories. "Three brothers stayed here last summer, before they tried to cross. A month later one came back. I saw him on the roof, crying as he looked at the mountains where the other two had died from the heat. A woman came here with her two-month-old baby. Her husband had died in the desert too."

"We're human beings!" Campista exclaims. "We're just going north to try to work. Why should we die for this? Our governments should end these violations of human rights. Then our hotel wouldn't even be necessary.

[All photos by David Bacon]

The hotel used to be called the Hotel Centenario, and had a sports bar on the ground floor. A deportee works on fixing one of the upstairs windows.

Gerardo, who was deported a few days earlier, sits on the bed in his room.

Viviana "Chiques" Cervantes has been living at the hotel for several months. On the wall is a sign warning deportees, "Don't Visit Arizona!"

Another deportee tries to sleep after being deported the previous night. The Border Patrol puts many people across the border in the hours just after midnight, when no stores or restaurants are open, or taxis or other services available to provide shelter, food or transport.

Gabino Gonzalez, the cook, ladles out soup in the kitchen in the hotel.

Adriana, a woman from a Zapotec family in Oaxaca, was deported just hours earlier.

Benjamin Campista, a leader of the cooperative, recalls the stories of those who've died trying to cross, and the survivors who've arrived at the hotel after losing members of their families..

On the roof of the hotel dozens of deportees sleep during the summer, when the number of people trying to cross the border is at its peak.

Deportees on the steps leading to the tunnels under Mexicali. An abandoned staircase and locked doors lead into the tunnels that lie under Mexicali, some of which lead across the border.

White Paper with Africa on Economic Co-op Unveiled

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 10:27:00 +0000

Original source: Xinhua

The Chinese government Thursday [Dec. 23] released a white paper on China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, highlighting achievements and a bright future for China and African countries to boost their growth.

It was China’s first-ever white paper on its economic and trade cooperation with Africa.

“Practice proves that China-Africa economic and trade cooperation serves the common interests of the two sides, helps Africa to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals, and boosts common prosperity and progress for China and Africa,” said the white paper.

The 29-page white paper, released by the State Council Information Office, introduced facts of trade development, investment expansion, infrastructure construction collaboration and other fields of cooperation between China and Africa.

China-Africa economic and trade cooperation plays a significant role in promoting the establishment of a fair and rational new international political and economic order, according to the white paper.

The white paper said the China-Africa economic and trade cooperation was now “on a new historical starting point” with the revitalized development of trade, investment, infrastructure and capacity building, along with gradually expanding cooperation in finance and tourism between both sides.

“China would like to work with other countries and international organizations to enhance consultation and coordination with African countries, participate in the construction of Africa, and jointly promote peace, development and progress in Africa,” it said.

Further, China pledged in the white paper to promote China-Africa economic exchanges within bilateral or multilateral frameworks, and broaden the scope of cooperation with African countries on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and common development.

China and Africa enjoy complementarity with expanding common interests and a bright future of their economic and trade cooperation, the white paper said.

According to the white paper, the scale of China-Africa trade has expanded rapidly in recent years and China has become Africa’s largest trade partner after six decades of development.

China-Africa bilateral trade volume was only $12.14 million in 1950 and it jumped to $114.81 billion from January to November in 2010, up 43.5 percent year on year.

The white paper said China has been promoting trade facilitation and China-Africa trade for years on the principle of mutual benefit and reciprocity.

The China-Africa trade has great potential as China and Africa are both in the process of industrialization and urbanization, which means great market demands for both sides, it said.

As for mutual investment, the white paper said China’s investment in Africa has been growing rapidly since 2000, driven by the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), while a number of African enterprises are growing their business fast in the Chinese market.

According to the white paper, the Chinese government encourages and supports Chinese enterprises with strength and good reputation to expand their investment in Africa, and has adopted necessary measures to guide them in this respect.

Cooperation in resource development is a significant part of China-Africa investment cooperation as African countries possess rich resources, said the white paper.

It noted Chinese enterprises adopt open, transparent and multiform ways of cooperation to jointly exploit and utilize resources with African countries and international enterprises against monopoly and exclusiveness.

China encourages and supports its enterprises to participate in the infrastructure construction of African countries, it added.

The white paper elaborated China’s assistance to Africa in helping the continent to improve people’s lives.

“China shows great concern for the livelihood of African people,” it said, detailing China’s efforts to help African countries to build public facilities, increase agricultural production, improve medical care and public health service, reduce debts, and provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid.

The white paper said new areas of China-Africa cooperation, such as banking, tourism, civil aviation and environmental protection, have shown good momentum for development in recent years.

“China and African nations have strengthened cooperation and mutual support in many areas of global concern, including actions to address climate change,” said the white paper.

Hailing the FOCAC for its guiding role in China-Africa economic relations, the white paper said the Chinese government will work together with African countries to strengthen their economic and trade cooperation within the FOCAC framework in the future.

Such cooperation will be based on mutual benefit and progress, friendly consultation, pragmatism and high efficiency, which will also guide the development of a new-type of China-Africa strategic partnership.

Founded in 2000 by China and Africa, the FOCAC has formed dialogue and cooperation mechanisms at various levels such as ministerial conferences, senior official meetings and entrepreneurs’ conferences.

So far, four ministerial conferences and a summit have been held within the FOCAC framework.

China’s Green Growth

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Original source: China Daily

High hopes have been pinned on Chinese consumers, whose potential purchasing power is deemed crucial to future global economic growth, even as many of their counterparts in rich countries are now busy reducing spending and paying off debts.

Yet, before China can transform itself into a consumer society, how it invests and produces will continue to matter more to global growth than how it consumes.

Fortunately, the rapid growth of Chinese investment in clean energy indicates that the world’s fastest-growing major economy is becoming, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the champion of green growth.

For those developed countries that have been reluctant to shoulder their due responsibilities in combating climate change, citing inadequate efforts from developing countries, they should take a look at a recent report by Ernst & Young which shows that China has overtaken the United States as the most attractive market for renewable energy investment.

According to the report, in the second quarter of 2010 alone, China spent about $10 billion on wind energy, or about half of the global total of $20.5 billion.

Though such a quarterly investment in wind power barely makes a dent in the huge energy-efficiency gap that exists between China and developed economies, it is still an impressive testament to the country’s determination to go green.

As the world’s most populous country, China is fully aware of the imminent energy and environmental challenges it faces. The country’s per capita energy consumption is only one fourth of the US, but no Chinese policymaker has ever considered it a policy option to allow energy consumption to grow to the level it is in the US.

With an average per capital income equal to about one tenth that of rich nations, China has decided to do its utmost to embrace a low-carbon future. To help cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by up to 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2020, China is trying to develop renewable and nuclear energy with the goal of increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in total primary energy consumption from 7.8 percent in 2009 to 15 percent by 2020.

It is such government enthusiasm to go green that has enabled China to surge ahead of the rest of the world in renewable energy.

Some Western companies, which for most of the past decade enjoyed a leading position in clean technology, will no doubt have been shocked by the rapid progress made by their Chinese counterparts. But instead of complaining they should ride on China’s green investment boom while urging their own governments to elevate and fulfill their commitment to a low-carbon future.

Massive green investment is essential to any global deal to effectively fight climate change. And the world simply cannot afford to postpone pursuing green growth, no matter what negotiators in Cancun come up with. China has already made that commitment. Will rich countries do so too?

Cancunhagen: Glass Three-Fourths Empty

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:02:00 +0000

Original source: People's Democracy (India)

The climate summit in Copenhagen a year ago inspired many catchy nicknames starting with “hopenhagen” to portray early expectations that it would deliver a solution to the climate crisis, and later “nopenhagen” and the famous “flopenhagen” capturing its failure. Given the deeply flawed Copenhagen Accord (CA) and the dynamics at that summit, there were hardly any expectations from the recently concluded 16th Conference of Parties (COP 16) in Cancun, Mexico, and observers would not have been astonished if this summit too had collapsed without further progress. Probably for this reason, many commentators including several progressive groups have been not merely pleasantly surprised that the Cancun summit actually delivered a set of agreed documents collectively termed the Cancun Agreements, but have even broadly welcomed it as a positive development that bodes well for the next summit at Durban, South Africa in December 2011 when a legally binding treaty to replace the extant Kyoto Protocol is slated to be finalized.

To be fair, many progressive commentators and activist groups such as Greenpeace and the Tck-tck-tck campaign have qualified their positive assessment by noting that while Cancun may not have delivered the deep emissions cuts required for averting the climate crisis, it appears to have at least laid the foundation for a possible global agreement at Durban and has certainly restored the credibility of the multilateral negotiations process under UN aegis. A frequently heard phrase in commentaries was that the Cancun outcome has saved the UN process, even if has not saved the planet, a glass half full in that sense.

A closer look at what was actually decided at Cancun, and equally important what was not said, would reveal a very different picture. It would show that in fact all the disastrous formulations in the US-driven Copenhagen Accord have been carried through and formalized at Cancun, and will now inevitably form the basis for any new global climate agreement arrived at in Durban next year. Much has been made of the better atmospherics and greater transparency in Cancun compared to Copenhagen, and therefore the big difference between the two summits. But the clear continuity in content has prompted some radical critics to label the recent COP 16 Summit “Cancunhagen.”

The Kyoto Protocol, with its crucial distinction between developed and developing countries, was critically wounded in Copenhagen and has virtually been buried at Cancun. It is now almost certain that the Kyoto Protocol will be replaced by a single framework for all categories of nations. Binding targets for developed countries decided on the basis of the science regarding sustainable limits for atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations now appear set to be replaced by a pledge-and-review process with highly uncertain outcomes. And even these voluntary emission reduction pledges will be “achieved” mostly through offsets especially reduced deforestation in developing countries, CDM projects and other market-based mechanisms that have clearly failed in the past. Discussions on funding and technology transfer to assist developing countries have advanced in Cancun, but hedged in by numerous conditionalities. Glass three-fourths empty, one would say.

END OF KYOTO

The Copenhagen Accord forged by countries accounting for over three-fourths of current emissions, namely the developed countries and a few large developing countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa, and now signed by over 80 nations, followed US prescription very closely. At Copenhagen, the US pushed hard for a single framework to replace the Kyoto structure of binding emission cuts by developed countries and capability-based mitigation actions by developing countries. CA provided just such a framework in which both developed and large developing countries took on voluntary emission cuts or slowing down of growth rates, and also allowed the US to stick to its miserably low emission cut target of 3 percent below 1990 levels.

CA was simultaneously hailed as a major breakthrough and defensively projected as a temporary multi-lateral agreement, but in reality it dealt a major if not fatal blow to the Kyoto Protocol. By focusing attention on future emissions of contemporary “major emitters,” it glossed over the prime cause of climate change, namely the historical stock of accumulated emissions amounting to around 80 per cent of atmospheric greenhouse gases. This diluted the crucial differential between developed and developing countries as regards responsibility for creating the problem, and therefore for its solution. It also gave an excuse to developed countries to avoid compensatory reparations for damages caused, and removed finance and technology transfers from developed to developing countries as a pre-condition for the latter to undertake mitigation actions besides helping them to adapt to climate change. The US and its Northern allies sought to achieve the same ends at Copenhagen also by subverting the negotiations process, by focusing sharply on the Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA) track, which deals mainly with mitigation actions by developing countries and related steps by developed nations, rather than on the Kyoto Protocol (KP) track where binding commitments by developed countries were to be taken up.

All these struck at the roots of the Kyoto Protocol but a fig leaf of adherence to it was maintained at Copenhagen. So too at Cancun, except that it covers very little now.

It is telling that in the Cancun Agreements, the LCA document is of 30 pages, the one on Forests again mainly in developing countries nine pages, and the Kyoto Protocol document is just two pages long. And most of even this brief document does not prescribe any binding targets but only “takes note of” and goes on to dilute whatever low voluntary commitments have been made in the CA. Most of the meat of the Cancun Agreements is contained in the LCA text and it can safely be predicted that the LCA text will form the “single framework” basis for any agreement that emerges at Durban, and the KP text, which in any case operatively contains only an annexed listing of voluntary pledges as does the LCA document, will be incorporated within it.

There is little doubt that the Kyoto Protocol was killed at Cancun. And what greater irony could there be than Japan itself inflicting the cruelest cut, announcing that it would not sign on to the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

SERIOUS CLIMATE CONSEQUENCES AHEAD

Much has been made of phraseology in the KP text adopted at Cancun recognizing the IPCC’s recommendation of emission cuts by developed countries in the range of 25-40 percent below 1990 levels, and urging them “to raise the level of ambition of the emission reductions to be achieved by them individually or jointly.” It has been argued that this has resulted from pressure from developing countries and that it opens up the possibility of developed countries raising their CA pledges. That is wishful thinking indeed.

It is well known that the voluntary pledges of the CA, which have merely been reiterated at Cancun and will be appended to the KP text, are pitifully low and will definitely not be able to contain global temperature rise within 2 degrees C, the pious goal repeated ad nauseam for some time now cynically and in the full knowledge that it cannot be achieved with currently pledged emission reductions by the developed countries.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released an Emissions Gap report on the eve of the Cancun summit, compiled in coordination with 25 climate research institutions worldwide. The report takes into account all the pledges made at Copenhagen and afterwards by all the developed countries, large developing nations and others together comprising the 85 countries that pledged to reduce emissions or constrain their growth as part of the Copenhagen Accord. The report estimates that whereas keeping global temperature rise to within 2 degrees C would require that total emissions till 2020 should not exceed 44 billion tons or Giga tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e), even if all the CA pledges were adhered to, total emissions by 2020 would reach 53 GtCO2e leaving an emissions gap of 9 Giga tons. The report further goes on to show that, if slightly more ambitious targets were adopted and if leniency were avoided in offsetting emissions against reduced deforestation or carry-forward of surplus emissions reductions from the first commitment period of Kyoto, then this gap could be reduced to 5 Gt. But even this would be only 60 percent of the requirement for containing temperature rise to 2 degrees C.

Worse, all the “leniency” scenarios feared by the UNEP fire specifically built-in and provided for in the KP text of the Cancun Agreements, showing that developed countries intend to fully exploit these. The Cancun KP text is riddled with qualifiers and escape clauses for developed countries. The text emphasizes that “emissions trading and the project-based mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol… [and] measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance removals resulting from anthropogenic land use, land-use change and forestry activities shall continue to be available to Annex I Parties as means to meet their quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives.” In other words, Northern countries would pay developing countries like, say, Brazil or Indonesia to reduce deforestation and adjust this against their own emission reduction pledges. It also provides for the “carry-over of units from the first to the second commitment period,” a provision originally intended for adding-on first-period deficits to second commitment period targets, but here clearly intended to permit countries such as UK, Germany and an admittedly few developed countries to deduct excess emissions reductions achieved during the first period from second-period targets!

The much touted REDD (Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) scheme, now certain to be part of any future global arrangement, which has at its heart the correct idea of reducing deforestation and thus increasing the capacity to absorb carbon emissions, has now become the main mode of fund transfer from developed to developing countries, and a means for the former to avoid actual emissions reductions in their own countries. CDM projects and other project-based financing, again used as offsets, will further reduce actual emissions reductions by developed countries.

Clearly, the emissions reduction pledges under the Copenhagen Accord, which have been endorsed at Cancun and are most likely to be the anchor of any global agreement to emerge from Durban next year, are grossly inadequate and could well see temperature rising around 3 degrees C by 2020 with devastating impact.

FUDGING ON FUNDING

The Cancun Agreements have reiterated the CA idea of fund transfers from developed to developing countries, but it is made clear in many ways that these funds are not to be seen as reparations but as financial assistance. Of course, least developed countries and small island States are happy that funds are actually beginning to flow, and indeed the US and other developed countries have used funding along with other inducements and threats as powerful levers to coerce these countries into the CA and Cancun frameworks, as the Wikileaks documents have also shown. But in the general sense of relief that some funding commitment has been made, and figures of fast-track funding of $30 billion by 2012 and $100 billion dollars a year by 2020 are being spoken of, the fine print seems to have escaped attention.

The LCA text reveals the many loopholes for developed countries to slip through, and the many strings tied to these “green funds.” The text makes clear that these supposedly additional funds would include forestry funds for offsets and “investments through international institutions” such as the World Bank which could also be soft loans! The seemingly large fund flows are also a mirage since the commitment is only to “a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion” which “may come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources”! And this only if developing countries behave properly, since these funds are conditional upon “meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation,” that is, developing countries should do what they are told and their compliance will be strictly supervised before being rewarded.

So yes, there is some justification to a feeling of relief, after the disappointment of Copenhagen, that at least some global agreement on climate change finally appears to be on the cards. And it is also good that this will be under UN aegis. But the agreement promises to be a poor one from the point of view of the science and what the planet needs, especially the poor in developing countries. Market mechanisms will now clearly dominate how emissions reductions take place, and the planet’s ecology has been fully commodified. And the UN process has been successfully moulded to yield an agreement that meets the requirements of the US and its Northern allies. Some may argue that at least Cancun produced some agreement, and that without this, despondency would have set in and disaster would have loomed around the corner. Some may raise a glass to cheer this so-called achievement, but there is little in the glass to drink from.

2011: The Santa of Peace and Prosperity – Or the Grinch of War and Austerity?

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:53:00 +0000

In a new article to be released Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz paints a stark picture of economic prospects for 2011:

The global economy ends 2010 more divided than it was at the beginning of the year. On one side, emerging-market countries like India, China, and the Southeast Asian economies, are experiencing robust growth. On the other side, Europe and the United States face stagnation – indeed, a Japanese-style malaise – and stubbornly high unemployment. The problem in the advanced countries is not a jobless recovery, but an anemic recovery – or worse, the possibility of a double-dip recession.

Asia’s economic output is too small to pull up growth in the rest of the world, but it may be just enough to suck all the wind out of the recent effort by the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy through so-called "quantitative easing" -- that is, printing money. In globalized markets, money looks for the best prospects around the world, and these prospects are not the US. The money won’t go where it’s needed, and will likely cause further increases in asset and commodity prices, such as food and energy, especially in emerging markets.

Stiglitz argues that, given the high levels of excess capacity and unemployment in Europe and America, printing money is unlikely to trigger a bout of inflation. But it could, however, "increase anxieties about future inflation, leading to higher long-term interest rates – precisely the opposite of the Fed’s goal."

Despite the hysterical ravings of Fed haters like Rand Paul, this outcome is hardly the the gravest threat. That threat comes from the wave of austerity sweeping the world, as governments, first in Europe and now manifest in the Republican House majority in the US, come under tremendous pressure from a group now known as "the bond vigilantes". The latter is just a new code word for finance capitalists. These forces are panicking, and spreading panic far and wide, over their anxiety about countries’ ability to meet their debt payments to them. This panic is contributing greatly to financial-market instability.

The outcome of this hysteria is all but certain: growth will slow, possibly even decline again. Tax revenues will diminish. But employment will not significantly recover and thus deficit reduction will be disappointing, creating a self-reinforcing downward spiral.

In our globally integrated world, the slowdown in Europe will exacerbate the slowdown in the US, and vice versa.

Stiglitz argues its clear what we should do: "With the US able to borrow at record-low interest rates, and with the promise of high returns on public investments after a decade of neglect ... a large-scale public-investment program would stimulate employment in the short term, and growth in the long term, leading in the end to a lower national debt."

But the "bond vigilantes" will have none of it, and are exerting their immense and increasingly corrupt power in the opposite direction, applying pressure for spending cuts, even if that implies reducing badly needed public investments.

Political gridlock following the 2010 mid-terms ensures -- barring a big public rebellion and mobilization -- little will be done to address the American economy: mortgage foreclosures will continue unabated; small and medium-sized business will be starved of funds; small and medium-sized banks that provide the latter with credit will struggle to survive.

The EU, after weeks of procrastination, managed to come to the rescue of Greece and Ireland with loans. But the interest rates on these loans are very high. Political instability is growing rapidly in both countries. In the run up to the crisis, both were governed by right-wing, crony capitalism and worse, demonstrating once again that free-market fundamentalist economics doesn't work in Europe any better than it does in the US. Further the contagion is spreading to Portugal, Spain, and Italy. The latter two countries, of course, are large enough to ignite an avalanche of defaults, devaluations that could bring the collapse of the European Union and of the global recovery from the current depression.

In both Europe and America, the free-market ideology that allowed asset bubbles to grow unfettered – markets always know best, so government must not intervene. "One might have thought," writes Stiglitz, "that the crisis itself would undermine confidence in that ideology. Instead, it has resurfaced to drag governments and economies down the sinkhole of austerity."

If politics is the problem in Europe and America, only political changes are the solution. Or else they can wait until the overhang of excess capacity diminishes, capital goods become obsolete, and the economy’s internal restorative forces work their gradual magic. The 20th Century -- and previous ones too -- teach that people don't wait that long. Wars, including world wars -- intervene.

Following the recent debates over the Tax Deal Obama negotiated with Republicans (where the latter held unemployment benefit termination and workers' take-home pay cuts hostage to tax cuts for the rich), some on the Left have expressed deep concern that the president has failed to pass the "Lincoln Test"; that, in the confrontation with ultra right forces, he will fail to meet the key challenge of our time, and our democracy: to rollback the power of finance capital in the wake of this devastating depression, and to choose peace and prosperity (Santa Claus) over war and austerity (the Grinch). I think the Tax Deal is a bad foundation for making such charges, given the political relationship of forces currently in place.

However, its true, I think, that we are as a telling moment. The Deficit commission appointed by the president could not issue a majority report. But its co-chairs, former Senator Alan Simpson, and banker and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, the austerity Grinches, have placed a rollback in social security and other fundamental rights on the new year agenda -- it's a stinking pile of manure under workers' Christmas trees, to be sure.

In Lincoln's time the firmness and depth of the free-labor, free-soil, Abolitionist and anti-slavery movements gave the president the strength to persevere, and become perhaps our greatest president. So too here, in our own time, it will be the determination and unity of progressives and the working class movements that win this emerging and fateful contest – being played for mortal stakes; and that give president Obama the opportunity to meet the challenge of this century.

Santa goes nowhere without the labors, and leadership. of the reindeer and elves. In times of great upheaval a century's worth of changes can take place in days. Be prepared. Its a long night on Dec 24 – and we have to reach everyone in the world.

Photo by Tony the Misfit, cc by 2.0, courtesy Flickr

Climate Change: A Lesson for Cancun

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:29:00 +0000

Deception would be a less violent term to characterize the sessions of the recent international conference on climate change held in Cancun, Mexico where the planet´s environment is still a serious problem.

The battle to come will become much more intense among those that are truly interested in a clean and prosperous world and those that are blind to the problem do not think that the destruction of nature will not penetrate their security box, mansions and armored limousines.

That is what we are dealing with, the confrontation between those that want to save our species and the interests of our worst enemies.

The battle began full force in the 1990´s, specifically in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the first summit on climate change and where the leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro predicted the environmental crisis that was already underway.

He also warned on the urgent need to protect our environment for the good of humanity, position in which Cuba has reiterated since then with profound conviction.

Former US President George Bush Senior was one of the few Heads of State that did not sign the agreement for the reduction of contaminating gases.

What really interferes in the agreement in favor of improving global environment is imperialism´s uncontrolled desire for richness at all cost, mistake which seems to estimate that when there is a lack of uncontaminated air or a rise of the sea level, the rich will live in glass tents and will remain immune to world tragedies.

As in many other cases, capitalism proves that it is not interested in the large global ecological concerns; the stubborn defense of the monopolies and transnational that damage nature and their destructive nature.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said in the Cancun Summit, in what Cuba defined as a valid exponent and authorized, due to their ethnic origins, in defending and protecting nature; capitalism is an ecological criminal.

This is translated as genocide because killing human habitat is the same as assassinating the plant in which we live in.

The failure of the Cancun summit should not be interpreted as a sign of defeat or impotence, on the contrary. It points out who are the true enemies of humanity and civilization and meanwhile, those that love our planet and all manifestations of life and well being will continue their fight to save our home.

Recovery Act Brings Jobs to Kokomo: Obama in the Conservative Heartland

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:16:00 +0000

Original source: Diary of a Heartland Radical

    At the east end of town, at the foot of the hill
    Stands a chimney so tall that says "Aragon Mill."
    But there's no smoke at all coming out of the stack.
    The mill has shut down and it ain't a-coming back.

    Well, I'm too old to work, and I'm too young to die.
    Tell me, where shall we go, My old gal and I?
    There's no children at all in the narrow empty street.
    The mill has closed down; it's so quiet I can't sleep.

    Yes, the mill has shut down; it's the only life I know
    Tell me, where will I go, Tell me, where will I go?
    And the only tune I hear, is the sound of the wind
    As it blows through the town,
    Weave and spin, weave and spin.

    -- Si Kahn, “Aragon Mill”

President Obama comes to town

On a cold and sunny Tuesday morning Air Force One flew into the Grissom Air Base just north of Kokomo, Indiana, carrying President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Just two days before Thanksgiving the presidential team had programmed a trip to highlight job stimulus successes in this declining factory town in North Central Indiana. Democratic leaders, outgoing Senator Bayh, and Congressman Joe Donnelly were part of a delegation to welcome the visitors.

According to press reports, bigger welcomes than from politicians were noted among Kokomo UAW workers and children from local elementary schools. Kokomo is one of Indiana’s small manufacturing towns dominated by the auto industry (along with Anderson, and Indianapolis).

Kokomo, with a population of only 46,000, houses 10 parts plants operated by General Motors, Chrysler, and Delphi. As recently as 1990 Indiana was ranked tenth in union density, largely due to auto and steel plants around the state. Kokomo’s UAW Local 685 played a pivotal role in the campaign to pressure Indiana Congressmen to vote “no” on NAFTA in 1994.

Because of declining manufacturing and the crisis in the auto industry, unemployment in Howard County (where Kokomo is located) topped out at 20.4 per cent in June, 2009. With the federal program to save the auto industry and various stimulus packages to save local jobs, including Kokomo fire stations, unemployment has been cut to 12.7 per cent. Jerry Price, president of UAW local 685 representing three Chrysler transmission plants pointed out that “The bailout has meant the survival of Kokomo.”

The White House reported that a Recovery Act grant of $89 million helped open a plant to make parts for hybrid vehicles. Also Chrysler invested $300 million in transmission plant renovation leading to the retention of 1,000 jobs. In addition, government funds stimulated the opening of 12 new businesses in the city’s downtown, including Sweet Poppins, a popcorn shop.

Tashia Johnson-St. Clair, the shop’s owner, said the downtown area used to be like a ghost town. After the government funds stimulated new businesses downtown, she said: “It’s absolutely beautiful. It looks like a scene off a TV show.”

The Kokomo Tribune noted in muted terms the general appreciation of Kokomo residents for the government’s job saving and creation programs:

The workers, many of whom undoubtedly voted to end the president’s Democratic House majority two weeks ago, applauded the speech, particularly when both Obama and Biden referenced the news that the American automakers are gaining market share for the first time in 24 years.

Critics of the Obama/Biden visit

Not every Hoosier politician or activist appreciated the presidential visit or the policies it was trumpeting. Governor Mitch Daniels was too busy to attend the Kokomo celebration. Indiana state party chairman Murray Clark said that members of the presidential team “are here today to cherry pick a single success story: at worst, it further proves how out of touch this administration is with an electorate that sent a clear message on Nov. 2.”

Local Tea Party activists condemned Obama’s stimulus policies arguing that businesses should be allowed to fail, rather than “throwing money” at them. (Labor activists have concluded that Kokomo would have been destroyed as a city without the emergency assistance.)

Perhaps the most telling commentary appeared in an editorial in the Lafayette Journal and Courier on Monday, November 29, 2010. It denied that Kokomo’s economic rejuvenation should be seen as an indicator of a more general economic recovery. The editorial reminded readers that Kokomo still had almost 12 per cent unemployment and the state and nation close to 10 per cent unemployment.

The Journal and Courier argued that the accolades and pep talks provided by Obama and Biden were misguided. What the president should have done was to “discuss how he planned to work with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives to reach compromises for job creations... Tuesday’s visit was a missed opportunity for Obama to celebrate Chrysler’s investment in Kokomo while reassuring workers across the country how he planned to create jobs working with a split Congress.”

The Kokomo dilemma

As the song says, “The mill has shut down: it’s the only life I know.” Under capitalism production and reproduction of life requires work -- wage labor -- for most people. Jobs are central to life. But in an era of financialization and economic crisis jobs are declining, workers are pitted against each other worldwide to work for less, and with declining incomes demand for products declines. Towns and cities are destroyed by lack of investment. The industrial base of the Midwest has been in decline for years. Whole regions of countries have experienced economic devastation. And employed workers everywhere live in fear for their economic security.

Government stimulus packages don’t resolve the growing contradictions between the shift toward jobless economies, declining wages, and reduced demand for goods and services. But they do provide relief for those who suffer. Kokomo, Indiana, is a success story. It needs to be replicated all around the country. And tales of successes need to be heralded from coast to coast.

The political dilemma, however, is reflected in the newspaper editorial cited above. Critics of government efforts to create and maintain jobs, such as reflected in this editorial, rather than encouraging greater efficiencies and improvements in government programs, demand the Obama administration “reach compromises” with political opponents who have made it clear they will never work with the administration.

The dilemma the Kokomo story poses for progressives is how to force the administration and its allies in Congress to fight for job creation programs in the face of an opposition that is inalterably opposed to these goals.

Photo: President Obama and Vice President Biden visit an auto parts factory in Kokomo, Indiana, November 23, 2010. (White House photo)

China: Stick to the path of peaceful development

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:02:00 +0000

Stick to the path of peaceful development
Original source: China Daily

The CPC Central Committee’s Proposal for Formulating the 12th Five-Year Plan for China’s Economic and Social Development adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee has drawn the grand blueprint for China’s development in the next five years. It is reiterated in the part on external relations that China stands firmly for peace, development and cooperation, pursues the independent foreign policy of peace, sticks to the path of peaceful development and the win-win strategy of opening-up, safeguards China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, and is ready to work with other countries to build a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity. This explains fully China’s external stance, its path of development, its goal and the way to achieve the goal. Therefore, it has great relevance and far-reaching significance to China’s diplomacy under the new circumstances.

1.Why has China chosen the path of peaceful development?

To stick to the path of peaceful development is not an impulsive decision. On the contrary, it is a carefully considered choice based on our analysis of the great changes that have taken place in the world, in China and in China’s relations with the rest of the world. We realize that we must adapt to the changing situation and follow a path that suits the trend of world development and China’s national conditions.

The world is undergoing extensive and profound changes. Economic globalization and development of information technology are gaining momentum. Science and technology are advancing fast. The world is getting smaller and has become a “global village”. Countries are more closely linked and interdependent with their interests more closely integrated than ever before. They find more areas of common interests and more issues that need joint response. They want to engage in mutually beneficial cooperation more than ever before. To some extent, the world has become a community of interests. No country, even the most powerful ones, can stand alone and survive. The behavior of one country will have an impact not only on itself, but also on other countries. Those selfish practices of conquering or threatening others by force, or seeking development space and resources by non-peaceful means are losing ground. It has also become very unpopular for some countries to identify friends and foes on the basis of ideology and gang up under various pretexts in quest of dominance of world affairs. In response to increasing risks and challenges, the international community has opted for peace, development and cooperation, which is the irresistible trend of the times. Countries should consider themselves passengers in the same boat and cross the river peacefully together instead of fighting one another and trying to push one another off the boat.

China is undergoing extensive and profound transformation. More than 30 years of reform and opening -up has brought about earth-shaking changes in the country: from “taking class struggle as the key principle” to focusing on economic development and building socialist modernization on all fronts, from planned economy to socialist market economy through reform across the board, from a closed society and over emphasis on self-reliance to opening up and international cooperation, from emphasis on ideology in external relations to advocating harmonious co-existence of various social systems and development models and developing external relations in an all-round way. All this calls on us to act in light of the basic national conditions and features of development at the current stage of our country, deepen the reform and opening-up and accelerate the transformation of economic growth pattern.

China’s relations with the rest of the world have also undergone historic changes. With deepening reform and opening up and sustained economic and social development, China is increasingly integrated into the international community and closely connected with the world. Its future and destiny is increasingly linked with that of the world. China cannot develop in isolation of the world. And the world cannot achieve prosperity and stability without China. If we fail to manage well our relations with the rest of the world, we might miss the development opportunities provided by the overall peace in the world, relative stability in relations between major countries and fast progress in new science and technology revolution in the first 20 years of the new century.

2.What is the path of peaceful development?

Sticking to the path of peaceful development is a brand new development path put forward by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as the General-Secretary on the basis of the features of the times, China’s national conditions, domestic and international situations, and development experiences and lessons of other major countries. This is a major decision on China’s development strategy and a major statement of China’s external strategy.

In my view, there are five features of this path. First, the peaceful nature of development. China will not engage in invasion, plundering, war or expansion that Western powers used to practice. Our strength will be harnessed to serve world peace and integrate development with peace. Second, the independent nature of development. Independence is the fundamental feature of China’s diplomacy. And self-reliance is our fine tradition. Over the past 30 years and more, in our efforts to develop the country, we have mainly relied on reform and opening-up, our own wisdom and hard work, expanding domestic demand and transforming economic growth pattern. Third, the scientific nature of development. According to the requirement of the Scientific Outlook on Development that puts people first and pursues comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, we have intensified efforts to promote sound and fast economic development and the building of a harmonious society with a view to securing a sound domestic environment for peaceful development. Fourth, the cooperative nature of development. China is a member of the international community. It best serves our own and others’ interests to cooperate with others, and share interests and responsibilities. In external relations, we advocate friendship instead of animosity, cooperation instead of confrontation, trust instead of suspicion, and treating each other as equals instead of imposing one’s will on others. Fifth, common development. China’s national interests are consistent with the common interests of mankind. In developing itself, China aims to achieve common development with other countries and never does anything at the expense of others. We know full well that if a country wants to develop itself, it must let others develop too. If a country wants to have security, it must make others feel safe too. And if a country wants a better life, it must let others have it too.

3.What is China’s direction and strategic intention?

After over 30 years of reform and opening up, especially after China successfully hosted the Beijing Olympic Games and withstood the test of the international financial crisis, the world has shown a stronger interest in China’s strategic direction. Let me point out that China’s strategic intention is not as complex or unfathomable as some people may think. Nor is there any hidden agenda or ambition. In fact, China’s strategic intention can be defined in two words: peaceful development, i.e. harmony and development at home and peace and cooperation abroad. This is what we must focus on and achieve – not just this generation but for generations to come. This is the policy that will not change in 100 years or 1,000 years. To be specific, we need to achieve the goal by peaceful means, by continued reform and improvement of our own system, and through hard work, creativity and ingenuity of the Chinese people, and long-term friendly co-existence, equality and mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries.

This way, the Chinese people, accounting for one-fifth of the world’s total population, will rid themselves of poverty and lead a better life. This way, China will develop into a country where people are contented, society is harmonious, and political, material, cultural and environmental development proceeds in a balanced way. This way, China will become a most responsible and law-abiding member of the international community. In this process, we will develop socialist democracy and political system in light of China’s national conditions. In a word, the Chinese people have suffered long enough from poverty. Our greatest and only strategic intention is to live a better life, where every day is better than the previous one. We wish the same for all the people in the world. The CPC has termed this process “peaceful development” and the ways and means to achieve peaceful development “the path of peaceful development”. As one may notice, this path has been solemnly incorporated into the Report at the 17th Party Congress and reiterated in the proposal for the 12th Five-Year Plan at the latest plenary session. This speaks volumes about CPC’s sincerity and resolve to stick to the path of peaceful development.

4.How to see China’s development?

After over 30 years of reform and opening-up, China has achieved remarkable progress in its economic and social development. In recent years, in particular, China’s development has attracted even more international attention. Many think that China is already a developed country, on a par with the United States. This view indicates that the path of peaceful development can lead a nation to development and we have made the right choice. However, it also shows a lack of comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the level of China’s development. The reality is that China’s GDP, however big it may grow, must be shared among the 1.3 billion people. China’s per capita GDP is only $3,800, ranking about 104th in the world, even lower than many African countries. By the United Nations standard of one US dollar a day, 150 million Chinese are still living below the poverty line. Even by the standard of 1,200 yuan per capita income, over 40 million Chinese are still in poverty. Today in China, 10 million people have no access to electricity and each year, employment must be provided for 24 million Chinese. China has a huge population and a weak economic foundation. The urban-rural gaps, imbalances in industrial structure and underdevelopment of productivity are issues yet to be fundamentally addressed. In whatever sense, China is big in terms of population but small in terms of economy. It is a developing country in every sense of the term. The economic and social problems we face are the biggest and most difficult in the world. We have no reason whatsoever to be conceited or arrogant. Our road to real development and better life for our people will be long and hard. This will require the unremitting efforts of several generations or even more. Even if one day China comes close to Western countries, like the United States, Europe and Japan, in per capita GDP, the quality of our economy and life will still lag far behind.

I must point out in particular that even if China becomes stronger, it will remain a member of the developing world and will continue to stand by the developing countries and work in unity with them for common development. That is because we share similar historical experiences with developing countries, we were comrades-in-arms with them, and we have common development tasks and strategic interests. Our position will never change even when China’s economy has grown or its international status has changed. Now and forever, China is, and will remain the most sincere and trustworthy friend, brother and partner of the developing countries. Although there is room for improvement in our relations with the developing countries, China’s cooperation with them is open and honest and based on equality, mutual benefit and sincere friendship. The hat of the so-called “neocolonialism” does not fit China.

5. Will China seek hegemony when it becomes more developed?

This concern is unfounded. To oppose hegemony has been written into China’s Constitution and the Constitution of the Communist Party of China. Probably, no other big country or political party in the world has ever done that.

In terms of history, China has no culture or tradition of seeking expansion or hegemony. Throughout our history of thousands of years, benevolence and harmony are at the heart of our political and cultural tradition, which values harmony, good-neighborliness and friendship with all. China never sought expansion or hegemony even in its heyday centuries ago, when it accounted for 30 percent of the world’s GDP. Zheng He, a great Chinese navigator, led the world’s strongest fleet to the Western Seas on seven voyages, taking with him not bloodshed or war, pillage or colonization but porcelain, silk and tea. In the height of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 – 907), what Japan got from China was not threat but prosperity. China’s territory has basically been what it is today since the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC – 24 AD).

In terms of world development, revitalization of a country in the era of economic globalization can be well achieved through equal and orderly international competition and mutually beneficial cooperation. It’s no longer necessary or possible to take the old path of challenging either the existing international order or other countries. The rise and fall of some big powers in the world tells us: Expansionism leads to nowhere; arms race leads to nowhere; seeking world domination leads to nowhere; and peaceful development is the only right path. The more developed China is, the more it needs to strengthen cooperation with the rest of the world, and the more it needs a peaceful and stable international environment. Mutual benefit and common development is what we have learned most profoundly from over 30 years of experiences in foreign relations since reform and opening-up. That is also a key to our success. We must hold on to the key and never give it up.

In terms of our basic policy, never seeking leadership, never competing for supremacy and never seeking hegemony is our basic national policy and strategic choice. Whether a country is a threat to the world or not is a matter of what policies it pursues. China always adheres to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, respects the right of the people in all countries to choose their own development paths, never seeks hegemony or leadership and never tries to dominate the world. As Comrade Deng Xiaoping once said, if one day China tries to seek hegemony in the world, people of the world should expose, oppose and overthrow it. The international community can hold us to account.

Some say China wants to replace the US and dominate the world. That is simply a myth. Politically, what we practice is socialism with Chinese characteristics. We do not export our social system or development model and we respect the choice of the people of other countries. Economically, we focus all our efforts on development. We are happy to see lasting prosperity and development in all other countries and we pursue common progress. Militarily, we reject any arms race. Our top priority is to enable the 1.3 billion Chinese people to have better clothes, better food, better housing and more convenient transportation. We cannot and will not spend heaps of money on weaponry.

We do not seek hegemony and will never compete with other countries for leadership in our region, seek so-called joint hegemony or follow so-called Monroe Doctrine. What we pursue is a policy of friendship, security and prosperity with our neighbors. The purpose of our Asia-Pacific strategy is to create a good, stable neighboring environment for our own development and achieve common progress with all countries. We want to be a good friend, good neighbor and good partner of ASEAN and all countries in Asia. The bilateral and multilateral agreements we have signed with Asian countries do not have a single article that is exclusive. We are open to regional cooperation and our intentions are transparent and good. We hope that what other countries do in Asia is not aimed to keep off, contain or harm China. We hope that what they say and do at our gate or in this region where the Chinese people have lived for thousands of years is also well intentioned and transparent. Take China’s development as an opportunity and seize it, and one stands to benefit.Doubt China’s regional and international strategic intentions and focus on finding fault and making trouble, and one will lose the good opportunity to cooperate with China. The attempts to team up to counter or contain China and the practices of sowing discords between countries in the region and conducting joint military exercises in China’s adjacent waters are a clear demonstration of the Cold War mentality. It is out of date and cannot stop China’s advances. It can only lead to the loss of the historical opportunity of developing cooperation with China. It is doomed to failure.

Some people misinterpret the Chinese idiom “keep a low profile and make due contributions”. They take China’s announcement of a peaceful development path as a smokescreen for its real intention before it gets strong enough. This is groundless suspicion. That Chinese idiom was quoted from Comrade Deng Xiaoping’s remarks from late 1980s to early 1990s, saying that China should keep modest and prudent, not serve as others’ leader or a standard bearer and not seek expansion or hegemony. This is consistent with the idea of the path of peaceful development.

In short, the Chinese is a good-will and responsible nation. We respect others, but do not allow others to bully us. We are developing socialist democracy based on our national conditions. We value, respect and protect human rights. We may encounter many difficulties on our way forward, but we will never waver in reform and opening-up. We will always keep an open mind and learn from others. In our relations with other countries, we will seek equality, harmonious co-existence, mutual benefit and common development. Ours is a country that follows the path of peaceful development and treats others with candor and sincerity. The world may feel reassured and confident in dealing with such a country as China.

The international community should welcome China’s peaceful development rather than fear it, help rather than hinder it and support rather than constrain its effort. The international community should understand and respect China’s legitimate interests and concerns in the course of its peaceful development.

6. How will a fast developing China handle its relations with other countries?

As a Chinese saying goes, “Scooping rice from the same pot, the ladles may inevitably knock against each other”. As we live in a global village, frictions and clashes of various kinds are inevitable. It is nothing alarming. What matters is the principles that one follows in trying to tackle the problems: A tit-for-tat tactic or making a fuss of a minor problem, or rather, a totally different approach? We have our basic principles in our external relations, which have proven effective over the past decades. First, we follow the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. To be specific, we reject interference in others’ internal affairs and the use or threat of use of force and we do not enter into alliance with any country. Second, we follow the win-win strategy of opening-up and never adopt the beggar-thy-neighbor policy. We value, develop and protect common interests and strive to make the pie of common interests bigger and better. Third, we stand for settlement of disputes and conflicts through dialogue and negotiation and by seeking common ground while shelving differences. That is what we have been doing over the past years. We have set up strategic dialogue and consultation mechanisms with the United States, Europe, Japan and some emerging countries and have been engaged in in-depth exchange of views with them on important overarching and long-term issues concerning the world situation and bilateral relations. Those discussions have helped to enhance mutual understanding and trust, seek strategic consensus, expand common interests and reduce troubles and setbacks. For knotty problems, we have proposed that they be put aside until conditions are ripe for solution. Some issues can even be left to future generations.

Some people argue that since the Chinese government has never renounced the use of force for the settlement of the Taiwan question and China’s military spending is growing continuously, it is contradictory to China’s statement about its path of peaceful development. In my view, no development path should be chosen at the expense of major national interests, core interests in particular. What are China’s core interests? My personal understanding is: First, China’s form of government and political system and stability, namely the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the socialist system and socialism with Chinese characteristics. Second, China’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity. Third, the basic guarantee for sustainable economic and social development of China. These interests brook no violation.

The Taiwan question constitutes China’s core interest concerning its unification and territorial integrity, dear to the heart of the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens and the whole Chinese nation. On this question, we pursue the basic principle of “peaceful unification and one country, two systems”. We will never allow Taiwan to split from China, nor will we ever commit ourselves to the renunciation of force. This is not targeted at our Taiwan compatriots but a handful of Taiwan separatists. In recent years, the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations has made positive and significant progress as evidenced by the signing of Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement between the two sides, which opens up greater prospects for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations. However, there are those who, out of Cold War mentality and geo-political needs, have continued to sell weapons to Taiwan in disregard of China’s firm opposition. Such failure to keep one’s word should be corrected at once as it is not conducive to the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and runs counter to the trend of peace, cooperation and development in the Asia-Pacific region.

China pursues a defense policy that is defensive in nature. Its military building is aimed at upholding sovereignty and territorial integrity, safeguarding its more than 22,000 km-long land boundary and 18,000 km-long sea boundary and ensuring development in a peaceful environment. It is neither driven by arms race nor the desire to seek hegemony or expansion. Some people in the world have the unnecessary worry that China will turn its growing economic power into military might. Compared with quite a number of countries such as the United States and Japan, China’s military spending is minimal both in aggregate and per capita terms and cannot pose a threat to other countries. As for transparency, there is no country that is absolutely transparent in the military field. China’s military transparency has been rising over the past decades. Its strategic intent, in particular, is more transparent than many other countries, especially some major powers. For example, we have openly declared to the world that we will never seek hegemony and openly committed to no first use of nuclear weapons and no use or threat of use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states. If other countries follow suit, it will no doubt be a great contribution to world peace, stability and development.

7. How will China use its growing power and influence?

The objective of China’s development boils down to one sentence: to build a harmonious society at home and help build a harmonious world abroad. This means China will first of all be responsible to its 1.3 billion people and also responsible to people across the world and world peace and development so that the fruits of China’s development can benefit both its own people and the international community. There is misunderstanding about “giving top priority to China’s development”. Some people take it as a sign of ducking China’s international obligations. In fact, since the beginning of the reform and opening-up, the Communist Party of China has made it one of its three historical tasks to uphold world peace and promote common development. In recent years, the Party has further introduced the idea of building a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity. We are paying greater attention to and giving more input in international and regional affairs. First, China has taken an active part in the joint response to global issues such as energy, food, climate change, terrorism, natural disasters, infectious diseases and financial crisis as well as the settlement of regional hotspot issues such as the Korean nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue, Palestine-Israel conflict and the Darfur issue in Sudan. Second, China is active in the building of the international system. China has been a responsible player in the international system. It is a beneficiary as well as a builder and contributor. The current international system is not perfect and should be reformed and improved to keep pace with the changing time so as to be fairer and more rational. China is ready to play a more active role in this process, including the making and improvement of international rules and will continue to assume international responsibilities and obligations commensurate with its national strength. Third, China has actively promoted the development agenda. We have focused on our own development. As China’s development is an integral part of the world development, the further it develops, the better for the world. Over the years, China’s economy has contributed over 10 percent to world economic growth and over 12 percent to international trade growth, creating millions of job opportunities for relevant countries and regions. At the same time, we are not only an important participant in but also a major promoter of global development. We are ready to work with other countries to push forward the UN Millennium Development Goals in the interest of world prosperity and progress.

8. How is the path of peaceful development related to socialism with Chinese characteristics?

These are the two sides of the same coin. On one side, the path of peaceful development is intrinsic to socialism with Chinese characteristics. At the end of the day, a country’s choice of development path is determined by the nature of its system. The innate greed of capitalist society and capital determined that the rise of Western powers was accompanied by aggression and expansion, full of blood and violence. China, a socialist country, is committed to the goal of prosperity, social justice, national development and world peace. China will remain in the primary stage of socialism for a long time to come, and the mismatch between the people’s increasing material and cultural need and the backward production is still our major problem. This fact dictates that we must constantly put development on top of the agenda in the Party’s effort to rule and revitalize the country, and create a stable international environment of lasting peace; it also determines that “in pursuing socialism, we should constantly raise productivity and advocate peace.” (Deng Xiaoping). On the other side, the path of peaceful development is an integral part of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which manifests itself in many respects, such as in the economic, political, cultural, social, ecological and other fields. And its manifestation in external relations is the path of peaceful development. In other words, peaceful development represents the basic nature, features, content of and means to achieve socialism with Chinese characteristics in external relations. To hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics means we should hold high the banner of peace, development and cooperation and never waiver in taking the path of peaceful development. This is a basic conclusion our Party has reached after analyzing the world situation and summarizing the experiences and lessons of development history of both China and other countries. It is an important result we have achieved in suiting Marxism to Chinese realities and the time; it is also a fundamental guarantee for China to realize scientific development in the complex and volatile international situation.

9. What is the relationship between the path of peaceful development and the building of a harmonious world?

To stick to the path of peaceful development is to make known to the world how China is to realize development and revitalize itself. It represents essentially a choice of the development path and strategy our Party has made. To promote the building of a harmonious world tells what kind of world and international order China is committed to build. It represents essentially the international order and code of conduct our Party advocates. A commitment to the path of peaceful development is the basis and prerequisite of building a harmonious world while the latter is the inevitable need of the former. China upholds the unity of the two and advocates both patriotism and internationalism. By taking the path of peaceful development, the Chinese people, accounting for one-fifth of the world population, can lead a better life, which will be a tremendous contribution to mankind and make the world a more harmonious place. China has made clear to the world and repeatedly stressed its commitment to the path of peaceful development, because we want to demonstrate our sincerity in pursuing peaceful development and also to inspire more countries to join us on the path of peaceful development. If more countries do so, a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity won’t be far away. And if the world we live in becomes more harmonious, China’s path of peaceful development will also become more smooth and stable. Taken in this sense, the commitment to the path of peaceful development and the building of a harmonious world serve as each other’s condition and are mutually-reinforcing and they cannot be separated artificially.

10. Will China’s path of peaceful development lead to its desired outcome?

It will. The world may notice that in the past 30 years, we have broken the precedents of emerging powers engaging in plunder, aggression and rivalry for hegemony by opening a whole new path in the time of globalization, the path of peaceful development through hard work, wisdom and win-win cooperation. China’s progress in the five years of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) has proved once again that the path of peaceful development will lead to a bright future. In the past five years, China’s aggregate national strength has kept growing; it has taken part in international cooperation in a wide range of areas; its international standing and influence have risen remarkably; its relations with other countries have deepened and its diplomatic work has achieved great success.

In these five years, under the wise leadership of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, we have worked to serve the overall interests of development, bearing in mind our central task, seized opportunities and coped with various challenges. We have hosted grand events, overcome crisis, promoted development and built a good image. We have furthered China’s interests and made new strides in our diplomatic work. The CPC Central Committee has successfully convened the meeting on foreign affairs work. In the meeting, on the basis of a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the developments and changes in the domestic and international environment, the central leadership has stressed that China’s relations with the rest of the world have gone through historic changes. And a host of major strategic thoughts on foreign affairs, such as the overall consideration of domestic and external situation, the commitment to the path of peaceful development and an opening strategy of mutual benefit and win-win progress, and building a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity have been put forward, which will guide our diplomatic work along the path of scientific development.

During the past five years, we have taken into account domestic and international situations, conducted diplomatic work in all fields and endeavored to create a peaceful international environment and favorable external conditions for China’s modernization drive. We have steadily promoted China’s relations with major countries, neighboring countries and developing countries and further pushed forward our friendship and cooperation with other countries in a comprehensive manner. We have actively conducted multilateral diplomacy and summit diplomacy, Party and State leaders have stated our major policies and positions on many occasions and we have taken an active part in the cooperation to tackle the international financial crisis and efforts to push forward reform of the international economic system. We have played a unique constructive role in dealing with climate change and other global issues. We have integrated the “bring-in” and “going global” strategies and energetically carried out economic and trade cooperation with other countries, and rendered good service to the domestic efforts to fight the crisis, maintain stability, promote development and transform economic development pattern. We have made good use of the hosting of the Beijing Olympic Games, the 60th anniversary of the founding of new China, the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, the Guangzhou Asian Games and other major events to strengthen public diplomacy and people-to-people and cultural exchanges and build up China’s image as a culturally-advanced, democratic, open, progressive and responsible major country, make more friends among countries in the world and deepen our friendship with them, actively guide international public opinion and help deepen the building of state soft power. We have firmly safeguarded our country’s sovereignty and security, resolutely countered separatist and sabotaging activities and actively engaged in international cooperation in non-traditional security. We have put people first, made diplomacy serve the people, safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese businesses and citizens abroad and carried out a lot of international rescue and peacekeeping activities. We have expanded our shared interests with other countries through extensive cooperation and promoted common development with mutual benefit and win-win progress. We have also worked energetically to diffuse frictions, differences, misgivings and misunderstandings through various forms of strategic dialogues and policy consultations.

It has been proven by practice that as we pursue reform and opening-up to stay in line with the trend of economic globalization, build friendly partnership with other countries through peaceful development and international cooperation, properly handle various problems and frictions, play a constructive role in international affairs, move the international order in a fair and rational direction, we will be able to open a path of peaceful development in line with the trend of the time and this road will lead to a bright future.

The People of Watsonville 2 – Migrant Head Start

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 11:11:00 +0000

Children of migrant farm workers, many of them from indigenous Mixtec families from Oaxaca, begin learning basic reading, writing and social skills in a day care nursery school program run by Migrant Head Start, part of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. Children who go through Head Start programs learn much more quickly, and have an easier time making social adjustments, once they begin regular school.

The Migrant Head Start program has been going on for two decades. It tries to provide both childcare and a learning environment for the children of people who work in the fields, including families who travel with the crops. Other families work several months in the U.S., and return to Mexico during the off-season.

Many of the teachers who run the centers were field workers themselves earlier in their lives, and know the difficulties migrant families face introducing children to schools and education. Some teachers speak the same language the children speak, not just Spanish, but Mixteco. They help children to begin learning English as well.

Learning in a home environment has important advantages, according to Teresa Gallegos, whose center is in a Watsonville working-class neighborhood. "Parents who live in this neighborhood can drop their kids off before they have to be at work," she says. Field labor jobs start at 6 or 7 AM, while it's still dark, long before schools open. "Plus we share the same culture and know what's happening in their lives."

Karen Osmondsen, a member of the Pajaro Valley school board, goes to every one of the monthly meetings organized for Migrant Head Start parents. "I really love this program, and I'm very close to the families here," she says. "This is what we really need to make sure the children from farm worker families can make it into and through our education system. Like the name says, it's a head start."

(All photos by David Bacon)

Teresa Gallegos and the children in her center.

Maria Juarez and her sister Clarita taking a nap.

Clarita Juarez learning to look at books.

Yesenia Gallegos and children look at books.

Marcos Gonzalez and Nathaniel Rivera are friends and are learning to read in the center run by Ofelia Ortiz Maldonado.

Yareli Reyes shows the paper where she is learning to write letters, in Maria Ines Rocha's center.

Brisa Avalos' parents work in the fields, and she's using the plastic vegetables to explain what they do.

Children sing and gesture with their hands as they follow Veronica Fernandez in her center.

Children playing ball outside Veronica Fernandez' center.

Olivia Diaz draws on an easel with her marker.

Impacts of Desertification

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:53:00 +0000

EarthTalk®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Can you explain what “desertification” is and why it is an important environmental issue? -- Jay Harris, Nashville, TN

Desertification is the degradation of land in already dry parts of the globe that results from various factors, including natural climate changes as well as human activity. As the name connotes it is the expansion of desert-like conditions which render useless land that was once biologically and/or economically productive. According to the United Nations’ Convention to Combat Desertification, the phenomenon occurs in “drylands” (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas) on all continents except Antarctica and affects the livelihoods of millions of people, including a large proportion of the world’s poor.

Drylands constitute about 40 percent of the world’s total land area, and are home to some two billion people—a third of human population. Water scarcity in existing drylands makes it difficult for plants, animals and humans to thrive there; desertification makes it impossible, forcing those affected to flee to more hospitable lands, whether they are welcome or not. The United Nations estimates that 10-20 percent of the world’s drylands are already degraded to the point where desertification is an imminent threat.

While global warming – and the resulting intensification of fresh water scarcity – is the most serious factor in converting drylands into deserts, population pressure and lack of proper land use planning only serve to make matters worse. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one of the regions most vulnerable to desertification, severe droughts already lead to major food and health crises once every three decades or so on average; environmentalists and planners worry that human-induced warming and other factors will increase the frequency of such debilitating droughts and lead to even more problems with desertification there. The African Union is working to muster international support for the creation of a “Green Wall”—a forested green belt—to help hold back the Sahara desert.

Other governments are also taking steps to keep desertification in check. China is working to create a 2,800-mile forest belt that will not only block the fast advancing sands of the Gobi desert but serve as a “carbon sink,” as well, to absorb greenhouse gas emissions. And Algerian leaders are optimistic that the recent creation of a 600,000 acre national park will head off a looming desertification crisis there.

Desertification is also a problem right here in the United States, mostly a result of overgrazing by farm animals and poorly designed irrigation schemes across especially vulnerable parts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Some 40 percent of the continental U.S. is dry enough to be at risk for desertification.

Historians point to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s as proof positive of America’s susceptibility to such problems. Lessons learned then led to the creation of the Soil Conservation Service—now called the Natural Resources Conservation Service—to teach farmers and other landowners agricultural practices that reduce soil loss and maintain biological diversity around agricultural operations. In spite of such efforts, desertification still plagues parts of the U.S. today. The hope today is that global warming won’t tip us to the point where have to learn some hard lessons all over again.

CONTACTS: UN Convention to Combat Desertification, www.unccd.int; African Union, www.africa-union.org; Natural Resources Conservation Service, www.nrcs.usda.gov.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

Photo: Arthur Rothstein, courtesy Wikipedia

Insisting on Their Humanity: "The Plight of the Palestinians"

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:47:00 +0000

When a copy of William A. Cook’s latest book, The Plight of the Palestinians arrived in my mailbox, I initially felt a little worried. The volume, featuring the work of over 30 accomplished writers, is the most articulate treatise on the collective victimization of Palestinians to date. From Cook’s own introduction, ‘The Untold Story of the Zionist Intent to Turn Palestine into a Jewish State’ to Francis Boyle’s summation of ‘Israel’s Crimes against the Palestinians’, it takes the reader through an exhaustive journey, charting the course of Palestinian history prior to and since al-Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1947-48.

Still, I feared that something might be missing in this noble and monumental undertaking: Palestinian people’s own responses to the cruelties they’ve suffered. Would Palestinians be presented yet again as merely poster-child victims, eager for handouts?

The photograph on the cover was telling: a kindly old man with a white beard, who could have been any Palestinian or Middle-Eastern grandpa, is lovingly touching the hair of a toddler. The two are crouching before a small, stained tent. Al-Nakba was still recent, and the two Palestinians, separated by two generations appear tired and haggard as they are caught in this hopeless scene. Yet, somehow the grandfather insists on preserving his right to love his grandson. This insistence on one’s humanity has been the key strength which has allowed the Palestinian people to preserve their struggle and resistance before the wicked arm of occupation and oppression for nearly 63 years.

Do most academics know this? Do they truly comprehend what it is that makes an old man from a West Bank village face the brutality of Jewish settlers, year after year, as he returns to harvest his few remaining olive trees? Or a Palestinian woman from Gaza who keeps coming back to hold a vigil before the Red Cross office with a framed photo of her once-young son, now ailing in some Israeli jail?

What keeps them going is something that cannot be dissected scientifically or analyzed intellectually. It can only be felt, experienced, and partially understood. This understanding is essential, for without it much more time and effort would be wasted, discounting the most important component in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the Palestinian people.

Some intellectuals, although well-intentioned, often conflate the understandable weakness of the current Palestinian leadership and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people. They write about both entities as if they are one and the same. One of the best authors on Palestine rightly pointed at the huge discrepancies of power between Palestinians and Israel, noting that such an imbalance could not possibly lead to an equitable platform for negotiation. To demonstrate the point, the author refers to Palestinians as “almost totally powerless people”, negotiating with a “powerful occupier.”

But the Palestinian people are currently negotiating with no one. Their representatives merely represent themselves and their own interests. It is important that we preserve that distinction - between the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and Palestinian people, who have held on to their rights for so many years, and unleashed two of the greatest expressions of people’s power and resolve: the First Uprising of 1987 and al-Aqsa Intifada of 2000. A whole population taking on the self-celebrated “greatest army in the Middle East” is hardly “powerless”. The Palestinian people have printed themselves on the practical discourse of this conflict, and they have proved themselves to be powerful players in determining their own fate.

Jeff Halper, the Director of the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, understands this fact well. The peace and justice activist has spent decades working for a just settlement to the conflict, a journey that’s allowed him to work with numerous Palestinians. He has thus grasped something many politicians have intentionally or inadvertently missed. “Until they - the Palestinian people as a whole, not the PA - say the conflict is over, it's not over.” He further states, in a recent article entitled ‘Palestine 2011’, that “Israel and its erstwhile allies have the ability to make life almost unbearable for the Palestinians, but they cannot impose apartheid or warehousing.”

Halper is correct, and history has repeatedly validated his assertion. There are limits to the power of the “powerful occupier”. It can kill, confiscate, destroy and burn, but it can never force the other into submission. Thus to speak of Palestinian victimization without discussing their collective resistance presents an incomplete version of the story.

The Plight of the Palestinians turned out to be an essential read, and a full and authoritative discourse. It offers a grim and detailed story of suffering and the ‘slow motion genocide’, which is important in order to appreciate the harshness of the Palestinian experience. Without this, one can never understand the anger, resentment and pain that are shared by several generations of Palestinians, in Palestine and in the Diaspora.

‘The Human Tragedy’ is laid bare in Part I. Every paragraph confronts the reader with gory details. But if such violence is the reality of the history of this conflict, why do many people understand it differently? The answer lies in Part 2: ‘Propaganda, Perception and Reality’. It starts with a quote, the Israeli Mossad’s own pre-2007 slogan: “By way of deception, thou shalt do war.” It seems that such a slogan has defined Israeli official conduct. However, civil society cannot be misled forever, and the powerful initiatives carried out by ordinary people around the world are what give Part 3 its value. ‘Rule by Law or Defiance’ is an uplifting introduction to activist efforts, with topics ranging from ‘The Russell Tribunal on Palestine’ to the ‘Necessity of the Culture Boycott’.

The Plight of the Palestinians is not just another chronicle of the history of a defenseless nation. While it is an unhesitant acknowledgment of that reality, it is far from being a celebration of victimhood. Rather, it documents the logical evolution from suffering to resistance.

In the essay, ‘Does It Matter What You Call It?’ two of my personal favorite authors, Kathleen and (late) Bill Christison write: “Palestinian resistance does figure in this dismal story. In the same small village where one is uprooting his family, others are building...”

It is the very balance between destruction and rebuilding, despair and hope, occupation and perseverance that makes the Palestinian people powerful. Their power cannot be demonstrated in numbers, but it can be felt, experienced, and understood. The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction spreads the seeds of understanding, which is so essential to any meaningful and lasting change.

Rights Advocates Make Final Push for DREAM Act

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Labor and Civic Engagement Leaders Call DREAM Act Vote a Defining Moment in History

Washington – With a Saturday vote on the DREAM Act looming, Latino, labor and community leaders hosted a telephonic press conference today to call on senators from both parties to support the DREAM Act. Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on the bill, setting up a Saturday vote that will determine whether the DREAM Act becomes law this year, and whether thousands of bright and talented young people who grew up in America can get on a path to legal status and achieve their dreams.

Labor and advocacy organizations that mobilize Latino and new American voters are calling Saturday’s vote a defining moment in each senator’s career. Immigration has become a litmus test issue for Latino and immigrant voters and tomorrow’s vote will be a moment of truth in Washington. Will senators stand with the DREAM students and give them an opportunity to further their educations or join the military in the only country they know as home? Or will they turn their backs on these young leaders, and ignore the calls from the educators, military, law enforcement, religious, labor, business, and civil rights leaders to help them realize their dreams?

“We will be watching closely to see which Senators choose to rise above the deadening partisanship in Washington,” said Josh Bernstein, Director of Immigration for Service Employees International Union. “We will be watching closely to see who will be ‘dream killers’ rather than pass smart common sense legislation that helps our economy, shores up our military, and opens the doors of opportunity to these high-achieving youth.”

Gabe Gonzalez, National Director for the Campaign for Community Values at the Center for Community Change, emphasized the strength of the pro-DREAM Act movement. “This year, immigration reform advocates have repeatedly shown our movement’s power. In the last two weeks alone, we’ve delivered more than 200,000 calls to Congress and will make tens of thousands more in the next 24 hours before the vote. For our constituencies, this is not just another vote. This is about our young people. It is personal, and we will remember who stood with them and who stood in their way. We will be watching this vote, because we vote, too.

“Tomorrow’s vote draws a clear line. Arguments and objections to get to this vote have been addressed. There is nowhere left to hide. It comes down to a very simple and clear choice: members who choose to stand for innocent children, and members who do not,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. “Latinos, the fastest-growing electorate in the country, will remember exactly which side these Senators chose, and will see it as an indication of who stands for our families and our communities. It is a vote that we will remember for generations to come.”

Tom Snyder, Chief of Staff for UNITE HERE, provided a reminder of the voting power of the Latino and immigrant community. “Last month, immigrants came out to vote in huge numbers in places like Nevada, California, Colorado and elsewhere. There can no longer be any doubt that in the coming years they will vote in ever larger numbers. And they will remember who stood up for their dreams and who stood against them.”

Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, concluded, “The only way to find out if we have the 60 votes needed is by calling the question with the vote in the Senate on Saturday. It’s worth recalling that when the vote was called in the House of Representatives most predicted we would fall short, and we won by a margin of 20 votes. Each and every Senator knows that a vote against these talented young people will define them with Latinos and new American voters the rest of their political careers. ”

The DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill that is supported by 66% of the American people, would enable young people who came to the country as children, but lack legal immigration status, to enlist in the U.S. military or attend college on their way to becoming full U.S. citizens. Seventy-five percent of Latino voters say passing the DREAM Act in short order is either extremely important or very important.

White House makes final push for DREAM Act

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:04:00 +0000

The Obama administration stepped up its campaign Friday, Dec. 17th, to overcome a possible Republican filibuster of the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide undocumented immigrant youth a pathway to legal status through public service.

The law would enable tens of thousands of immigrant youth to attend college or enter military service as well. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled a procedural vote on the DREAM Act for Sat., Dec. 18.

A number of Republicans who are either co-authors and co-sponsors of past versions of this bill have yet to indicate whether they will support overcoming a Republican filibuster.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called passage of the bill urgent for the American economy. "We have to educate our way to economic recovery," he told reporters on a conference call Friday. "The only way we're going maintain our country's competitiveness in a knowledge-based, competitive global economy is by providing high-quality education, by providing more opportunity not less."

Duncan welcomed the energy and hard work of young people into the workforce and into American colleges and universities. "So far we've been fundamentally backward on this issue," he said.

"To have a chance to change this tomorrow in the Senate would be an extraordinary moment for this country and this country's economy," Duncan added. He characterized passage of the law as the right thing to for the young people as well as for the economy. "This is going to go down as an absolutely historic vote," he said.

Senior White House officials explained that members of the Cabinet and the President himself have campaigned vigorously for passage of the bill and will work through Friday and Saturday to win a successful outcome on the filibuster vote.

The House narrowly passed a version of the DREAM Act earlier this week. Republicans remain split on the measure, however. While a number of current and incoming Republican members of Congress used anti-immigrant hostility and racist imagery of Latinos they associated with the immigration issue, some prominent Republicans fear their inability to move forward on the issue could harm their future electoral chances in states where they now hold large majorities but in which the number of Latino voters is on the rise.

Atlanta: Concerned Black Clergy Opposes APS Witch Hunt

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:42:00 +0000

Original source: The Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA -- The Concerned Black Clergy held a press conference on Monday, December 06, 2010, denouncing what they characterize as a witch hunt against the Atlanta Public Schools.

"This morning the Concerned Black Clergy call on local and state prosecutors, the Governor of Georgia, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to stop their attacks on the public schools and public educators in general," Rev. Dr. Richard Cobble said, according to a video posted on Atlanta Progressive News, produced by Clyde Bradley of Voice of the Voiceless. 

"The recent move by Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard to empower prosecutors Mike Bowers and Bob Wilson, is disturbing, reprehensible, and misguided," Cobble said.

"We expect prosecutors to go after criminals and not our educators," Cobble said. "This criminalization process negatively impacts our schools, our students, our teachers, and our ability to attract businesses."

"We expect our governor to show amends for three centuries of disparity amongst education opportunities for Black Georgians," Cobble said.

"During this difficult economic times, Georgia leadership cannot engage in a costly witch hunt on Black teachers, school children," Cobble said. 

"Already over one million dollars of taxpayers money has been wasted on a useless investigation that has intent to trash public education," Cobble said.

"We expect Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the paper that wrote against integration in 1950's, to acknowledge its role in undermining the education aspirations of Black Georgians," Cobble said.

"Throughout the 1950s, this reporting body of biased news aided and abetted racist leaders in denying equal education to Black Georgians," Cobble said.

"We expect educational leaders to tell the truth about standardized testing. They must acknowledge in Georgia there is no standard... For centuries, there was one standard for White students, and far lower standard for Black students... Standardized testing fails to acknowledge our history," Cobble said.

"Standardized testing is cheating our students out of a genuine education... Standardized testing cannot measure initiative, creativity, imagination, conceptual thinking, curiosity, efforts to build and improve, good will, ethical reflection, or a host of other valuable attributes," Cobble said.

"Standardized testing create the conditions for cheating, by measuring students' achievement and teachers' performance solely on the basis of test results. Will we put teachers in jail because they knew or they know that students were smarter than a test measured?" Cobble said.

APN interviewed activist Joe Beasley, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement and also a member of CBC, regarding Cobble's claims.

"I believe the Governor thing, is excessive in what he's doing. He's mean-spirited. I think he's flexing muscles unnecessarily. He brought in people like Mike Bowers and the former DA... who don't have good records relative to people on our side of town," Beasley said.

"I just think it's excessive. The meeting Concerned Black Clergy brokered with Paul Howard, and the subsequent meeting with Howard and his commitment that he would move slowly before they try to indict someone I think is a kind of reasonable approach. I think Paul is an honorable man," Beasley said.

"My understanding the districts Gov. Perdue has pursued has been predominantly African American districts... three African-American school districts," Beasley said.

"Atlanta had done so well on the CRCT, it was like, it can't be, those Black children don't have the ability to make that much of a gain so there must be some malfeasance. The way he responded without any allegations was distasteful," Beasley said.

"I think that you need to call the dogs off. And I think Concerned Black Clergy did the right thing and approach to say this is not a criminal matter. Even if the worst is the worst, we shouldn't have this hanging over the School District; the teachers and the children suffer," Beasley said.

Last week, APN reported that the new APS Board Majority has been assisted by a pro-privatization activist, Glenn Delk, who seeks to privatize public schools.

"This whole matter of Glenn Delk. I've been on this character for over 20 years. He's the same guy that wants to secede Buckhead from Atlanta. You get a sense of where he's coming from, he's not a friend of Atlanta Public Schools for a while. We've been in contention with him over 20 years. This is not a battle he started recently. They're out to get a system like the APS system," Beasley said.

"The Chair of the School Board might be in bed with him, and the Gang of Five. I was disappointed in [Khatim El and] Courtney English -- if in fact they're in bed with Delk, I think that's not good, I think that's not good at all," Beasley said.

Estate tax giveaway: I paid my millions – now I want my billions

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:16:00 +0000

Republicans demanded "liberalization" of the estate tax on inherited wealth as the second part of the payback to the rich in exchange for letting workers and the unemployed keep their benefits and income for the coming year. Why not? After all, corporations and the rich lavished hundreds of millions on their Republican rubber-stamps through anonymous campaign contributions in the November midterm elections. Now they want theirs!! Along with extension of the billions in Bush era tax cuts on income, the rich certainly got a huge return on their investment: $139 Billion for just the top 2% of the population, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities! The campaign contributions were enabled by the outrageous Supreme Court decision which permits "corporate fronts" to contribute unlimited funds to candidates without ever revealing the names of the real donors.

The estate tax rate was lowered to 35 percent, from 55 percent, and the per person exemption raised to $5 million, from $1 million. The cost to the public for this bennie: $23 billion. Of course, without the current tax deal negotiated by the president, the estate tax would have expired altogether and would have reset to 55% on amounts over $1M – just one more ransom in the hostage taking Republican agenda.

As Justice Louis Brandeis said, “We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy, but we can’t have both.” Even Andrew Carnegie testified in Congress in favor of an estate tax as the best way to address wealth concentration.

In its first 60 years, the estate tax, along with other progressive policies, went a long way toward accomplishing this goal. By 1976, the amount of the nation’s wealth controlled by the richest 1 percent of Americans had fallen from more than 50 percent to only 20 percent. And this greater dispersal of wealth fostered a strong middle class.

The tax policies of the past 35 years, however, have reversed the trend. Today the wealthiest 1 percent own more than a third of the country’s wealth, leaving 80 percent of Americans with just 16 percent of it.

But there is no good reason inherited wealth should not be taxed the same as wages, lottery winnings and all other forms of income. In an ideal world – at least my ideal – there would be no inherited wealth. Essentially, the concept violates the principle of equal opportunity. While its not unnatural for people to want to secure their children's future, to do so at the expense of other children does them no particular favor, since the price tag always includes a strong dose of corruption. Death urges all to seek some measure of immortality, to leave a legacy remembered beyond ones time. Accumulated wealth creates an illusion that this can be found in property passed on to one's heirs. The illusion is often, ironically, exposed by the very richest men and women who choose philanthropy over their own children. Warren Buffet decided to pay for his children's education but donate the remainder of his immense fortune to public goods. Bill Gates' heir is really his foundation, busy (at least attempting) to improve health care and education across the world.

Woody Guthrie died a pauper, but left a legacy more profound than Croesus – This Land Is Your Land. "As I was wanderin, I saw a sign. That sign said, 'No Tresspassin'. But on the other side, It didn't say Nothin' – This land was made for you and me"!

Eliminate inheritance and leave a legacy of public goods: In its place provide education and health care and housing and opportunity to pursue happiness – for all!

Japan Peace Conference calls for Asia Without Military Bases

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Original source: Akahata (Japan)

Nearly 1,200 people took part in the 2010 Japan Peace Conference from December 2nd to 5th, calling for a peaceful Japan and Asia without U.S. bases or military alliances. It was held in Nagasaki's Sasebo City which hosts a huge U.S. Naval base.

Taking place annually under the demand for abrogation of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and removal of U.S. bases from Japan, the conference this year focused on the task to further develop solidarity with anti-base struggles in Okinawa, which just had its gubernatorial election at the end of last month with both candidates running on a platform opposing bases.

At an international symposium on the first day of the conference, panelists from the U.S., South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan stressed the need to pursue a diplomatic solution to the military tension on the Korean Peninsula and to increase international efforts to realize a base-free Asia.

Lee Jun-Kyu, lecturer at the Laborer Academy for Alternative Society in South Korea, said that for an order guaranteeing peace in Asia, not a bilateral military alliance but a framework for multinational negotiations must be established.

Joseph Gerson from the American Friends Service Committee stated that the structure and alliance serving the "U.S. Empire" is increasingly losing validity.

Corazon Valdez Fabros from the Philippines, representing the International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases, described the Okinawan resistance as a symbol of hope for a peaceful and base-free Asia-Pacific region, calling for continuous efforts to build up international solidarity.

In a special report, Afghan journalist Mohammed Ibrahim Alkozai reported on the situation in Afghanistan.

During the following three days, participants exchanged their experiences in anti-base struggles taking place throughout Japan, including Yokosuka, Iwakuni, and Okinawa, at plenary sessions and workshops. They also took part in a tour of the Sasebo base as well as in a demonstration march through downtown Sasebo.

Tax cut deal: "A tremendous sacrifice" says Solis

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:55:00 +0000

The Obama administration pressed hard this week for passage of its framework on unemployment compensation and tax cuts. Just a day after former President Clinton endorsed the measure, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, on a telephone press conference Monday, Dec. 13, added, "This week President Obama provided the American people a true act of leadership."

"By the President's own account, the agreement is not perfect," Sec. Solis continued. "Forging compromises, as you know, isn't easy, but it's what the American people are counting on us to do."

"Right now we've made a tremendous sacrifice," she said. "There's no pleasure in us giving the high income tax bracket these cuts. But we know we wouldn't have been able to get what we need for the unemployed and middle class families."

A recent Washington Post/ABC poll revealed broad support for the President's tax framework with about seven in 10 expressing support. While the polling data showed that Americans supported extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, the pollsters failed to ask voters whether they favored a middle-income tax cut extension over one for the richest Americans.

With an overwhelming majority of 83-15, the U.S. Senate, Dec. 14, agreed to close debate on a framework negotiated by President Obama to maintain the Bush-era tax cuts for two years in order to extend unemployment compensation for another 13 months.

Despite a nearly 9-hour filibuster by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that body moved forward with the bill, and will likely pass the measure.

Senate Democrats argued favor of extending the middle income tax cuts and extending the unemployment benefits.

Republicans, however, used Senate filibuster rules to block a bill on middle-income taxes and have refused to even consider extending unemployment benefits.

Only after President Obama brought these measures together in his framework did the Republicans allow any legislation to move forward in the Senate.

House Democrats registered their opposition to the framework in a caucus meeting earlier in the week, with a majority urging improvements to it.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters that many of his colleagues are most opposed to a restoration of the estate tax, which had expired this year, to lower levels.

"There's much consternation in the House about the estate tax. I expect there to be some consideration of that," Hoyer told McClatchy Newspapers.

The Congressional Black Caucus has also indicated it would push for unemployment extensions for people who have been jobless for more than 99 weeks in addition to the provisions in the President's framework.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who has expressed support for the framework, had previously introduced a bill to extend unemployment benefits an additional 20 weeks for people out of work for more than 99 weeks.

Observers expect a close vote in the House.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis urged passage of the framework, emphasizing that a total of 2 million people will have lost their unemployment benefits by the end of the month.

"The bipartisan framework agreement on taxes undoubtedly secures vital tax relief and investments for our workers that will create jobs and accelerate economic growth," Sec. Solis told reporters. "This plan is a smart thing for our recovery and the right thing for our nation's most vulnerable."

"It also ensures that millions of working-class Americans won't see their taxes go up next year," she said.

The framework continues important Democratic programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits millions of individuals and working families earning under $30,000 annually, Solis added. The extension of a college tuition tax credit and a child tax credit have also been included in the framework.

In all, the tax proposals will benefit 156 million households and has been estimated to create 3.1 million jobs over the next two years, she said.

Solis also pointed to a letter from the Social Security chief actuary who said the payroll tax cut, a provision of the framework, would have a "negligible" effect on the Social Security Trust Fund.

Opponents of this measure argue that once the payroll tax cut is put in place, it will be difficult to restore the current rate. Over time, the loss of revenue will likely harm the financial security of the trust fund.

"It would be unfortunate" if the framework failed to pass in this lame-duck session of Congress, Solis explained. If the unemployment extension does not pass, in addition to the 2 million people who will have lost their benefits by the end of the month, an additional 7 million could lose theirs in January.

"This certainly isn't an end all," Solis said. "We need to do more."

Video: Organizing is empowering

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:08:00 +0000