People Before Profit blog

VP Biden affirms Obama admin.'s support for EFCA

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 07:25:00 +0000

Rumors of the demise of the Employee Free Choice Act are greatly exaggerated. In a teleconference with reporters April 29th to tout the administration's accomplishments in its first 100 days, Vice President Joe Biden told reporters that the president continues to support and work for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

'We believe the present system is tilted against what was initially intended by the NLRA,' Vice President Biden noted. 'If you go back and look at the legislation from back in those days it says that one of the purposes is not to guarantee unions but to promote, though, promote the ability of people to organize.'

'We think, as my grandfather used to say, it has been stood on its head,' Biden added, referencing the current state of federal labor law.

Biden expressed optimism that EFCA will pass. 'We're supportive of it, and we will continue to support it,' he said.

Biden refused to speculate too much on what Sen. Arlen Specter's defection from the Republican Party would mean for the bill's chances for passage, except to say that Sen. Specter would likely keep an open mind on compromise proposals that may arise in the future.

Specter, a former co-sponsor of the legislation, earlier this month flip-flopped his position on the bill by publicly stating that he would support a Republican filibuster against it. Immediately after his resignation from the GOP April 28th, he reaffirmed that stance on EFCA.

As reported exclusively in the , some union leaders have suggested that a compromise proposal which keeps the basic principles enshrined in the bill but overcomes objections held by Specter and others could be in the offing.

Biden pledged to work with labor, business and Congress to get the legislation passed and to remove 'significant inequities' for working Americans.

100 days

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:52:00 +0000

As we mark the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, it is still necessary to ask, “Is this real? Is the eight-year Bush nightmare really over?”

The response, of course, is, “It’s real, but the incredible damage wrought by that awful eight-year nightmare will take a lot more than 100 days to fix.”

President Obama has hit the ground running. Here’s a breath-taking inventory so far: a pledge to shutter Guantanamo; ending torture at secret military prisons; passage of a strong economic recovery bill; a progressive budget; a push for a new direction for the economy that breaks with the discredited ultra-right “trickle-down” theory; reversal of anti-labor policies; pro-labor executive orders; revitalization of OSHA and other regulatory bodies; release of memos exposing high crimes of top Bush officials; restoration of science as a guide to policy; steps on climate change and clean energy; backing, rather than denigrating, the UN; improving relations with Cuba; initiatives for Israeli-Palestinian peace; call for worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons; resetting our relationships with Russia; reexamining the insanity of “missile defense” and reigning in NATO expansionists; diplomatic overtures to Iran; and committing to withdrawal from Iraq.

Few presidents have tackled so many problems in so short a period of time. These first 100 days are an impressive beginning.

There are major concerns, though.

Military escalation in Afghanistan is a bad and dangerous move. It has the potential to exacerbate the problems there, further destabilize Pakistan, open rifts with many countries we could be cooperating with, and hurt our economic recovery.

On the banks, democratic public control makes more sense than continued bailouts for the people who caused the problems.

The president has shown the ability and the willingness to shift positions when he sees a better way and when he sees support for that better way.

Whether we, as a people, continue to move forward will depend on the ability of the labor-led people’s movement that won a victory last November to continue to engage and grow in all areas of the struggle. We pledge our continued support for that movement and pledge to do everything in our power to help it grow.

Clinton arrives in Lebanon

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 03:25:00 +0000

Beyrouth, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Lebanese citizens to vote 'away from foreign meddling, violence and fear' in 'fair and transparent' elections, upon arrival here for a brief unannounced visit. 'Lebanon is facing a new challenge in the upcoming elections,' and the Lebanese should choose their representatives 'away from foreign meddling, violence and fear,' said the head of US diplomacy.

Her comments on the June 7 legislative elections appeared to be a sly action against the Shiite resistance group Hezbollah (Party of God), which leads the opposition coalition in Parliament and is on top of surveys.

Analysts think that Hezbollah, whose leaders have openly defended the group's relationship with Syria and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which rules the Gaza Strip, will be the possible winner in the June elections.

The Barack Obama administration has expressed concern about the growing influence of the Party of God, which Washington has labeled as a terrorist organization, but it tries not to be seen as an element of foreign interference in the Lebanese elections.

According to diplomatic sources, Clinton met with President Michel Sleiman, and lauded his efforts 'to build a peaceful, prosperous, sovereign and democratic Lebanon'.

Clinton said her country supports 'moderate voices in Lebanon, the state institutions and Lebanese armed forces.'

The visitor laid a wreath at the grave of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in Beirut, along with 22 people, in February 2005. Hariri's assassination resulted in anti-Syria protests encouraged by the government of then US President George W. Bush.

Syria denied any involvement in the attack and collaborated in the investigations with the United Nations and Lebanese authorities, a gesture that led to the normalization of bilateral relations in October 15, 2008.

LETTERS

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:06:00 +0000

School has no heat!

I opened the Denver Post to see a shivering child’s picture on the front page.

She was from a small K-12 school in Silverton, Colo., where winter temperatures often drop below zero.

In November the boiler broke beyond repair. The gym was so cold it couldn’t be used. Pen ink froze and only pencils were useable! Installed space heaters from volunteers overworked and caused the circuits to blow!!

This is a small town with no other suitable building to use for a school and busing is not possible due to snow blocking or causing dangers in the mountain passes. So these kids have braved it through the winter and hope to have a new heating system by next winter.

These children and the community are proud and hope to save this old school that is part of their history.

What a difference between them and the billionaires who have more homes and boats and money than they could ever need or know what to do with.

This school could use a worthy donation for the efforts of the children and staff that have braved it through this long cold winter.

Vivian Weinstein

Colorado Springs CO

Immigrant and worker rights

I have disagreed with much of what Ray Marshall did and said as Carter’s secretary of labor, starting from when he was nominated for the post and said moving forward on full employment (the Humphrey-Hawkins bill) had to be put off until the problem of undocumented immigrants was solved. It seems he has improved a bit — like his call for improving temporary worker programs rather than expand them.

I say we should nationalize the economic activities where temporary workers are “needed,” with a unionized 21st century WPA. The “adjusted” undocumented here now could be part of such programs with “middle class” jobs, health care, vacations, etc.

Anyway, let’s study what he has to say for “sausage” ideas for a possible compromise package that can get the needed votes.

A May Day idea: The original May Day was a call for solidarity with U.S. workers facing the corporate robber barons who brought us state monopoly capitalism. Such international solidarity can help pass just immigration reform, the Employee Free Choice Act and other labor and democratic rights, especially with the progressive possibilities with the Obama administration and improved Congress.

We face the biggest and strongest ruling class in world history. Equality for immigrants and others at home is key to blocking and eventually dismantling U.S. imperialism.

Rosalio Muñoz

Los Angeles CA

Fickle and volatile

Populist outrage at taxpayer-funded bailouts of big financial institutions and auto companies presents both opportunities and dangers to the left in its efforts to consolidate the hard-earned victory over the ultra-right in the 2008 elections.

Populism is volatile and fickle. It can quickly move either left or right, and therein lies the danger.

The specific problem is that people’s understandable frustration and anger, expressed in slogans and demands such as “Bail out people, not banks” can easily be manipulated by the right into an anti-regulation, anti-worker, pro-laissez-faire backlash.

Drop all references to the people from such demands, and we are back to “No bailouts!” — the simple-minded economic do-nothingism that’s exactly where the ultra-right wants us to be.

Foreseeing the inevitable shortcomings of Obama’s economic recovery plan, the right tries to paint the administration as socialist, so that future problems can be sold to the public as failures of “socialism” that can only be fixed by a return to the same unrestrained, neoliberal capitalism that got us in this mess in the first place.

The right will do everything in its power to ensure that the American people do not perceive the truth that Obama’s failures will result from too little socialism rather than too much.

The left has the opportunity right now to tell the truth to the American people about the need for socialism at a time when they are more willing to listen than at any other period in recent history. That’s why it is so disturbing when some socialists merely jump on the bandwagon and repeat populist phrases without elaborating on the need for socialism as a basis for the realization of all such demands.

There will never be meaningful bailouts for people, national health care and an end to foreclosures and other devastating effects of capitalist economic crises unless we move toward socialism in a conscious, scientific manner.

This is an important part of the message we and our allies need to get out in the lead-up to the 2010 elections.

David Pena

West Palm Beach FL

Support dental funding

Thousands of low-income children and adults in Illinois suffer from untreated dental disease. They can’t eat or sleep properly, can’t do their best at school or work; they can’t smile. They are at risk for other, serious health problems. All because of a disease that could easily have been prevented and could easily be treated.

On average, each American drinks 53 gallons of soda a year, and the consumption of soft drinks in general has increased 500 percent in the past 50 years. Soft drinks have no nutritional value and pose many oral and overall health risks, including enamel loss and obesity.

We applaud Illinois state Rep. Lisa Hernandez for introducing legislation that would fund much needed improvements to Illinois’ dental care system, dramatically increasing the number of people receiving dental care, through a modest increase in the sales tax on soft drinks.

Under an amendment to HB 388, revenues generated from a 5 percent statewide soft drink sales tax would fund dental clinics in underserved areas and increase funding for Medicaid dental coverage.

Illinois has among the lowest rates in the nation for government-funded dental care. As a result, we face an oral-health-care crisis. Dental clinics have closed; services have been sharply reduced. All while the need for government-funded dental care has dramatically increased due to the economic downturn and massive job loss. Illinois currently has just one clinic per 8,400 children who rely on government insurance.

HB 388 will help end a lot of needless suffering among the most vulnerable Illinoisans. I urge you to tell your legislator to support this bill. The future of healthy smiles depends on it.

Lauri Frichtl

Springfield IL

Lauri Frichtl is executive director of the Illinois Head Start Association.

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Abraham Lincoln Brigade reunion to celebrate humanitarian legacy

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:48:00 +0000

The Lincoln Vets represent a life-long commitment to international humanitarianism.

Less well known is that their work on behalf of the 500,000 refugees of the Spanish Civil War—like the Brigadistas, border crossers—helped lay the basis of refugee relief as we know it today.

In this homage to the Lincoln volunteers, we are proud to feature never before seen work by Robert Capa and David “Chim” Seymour, pioneers of modern war photography, from the “Mexican Suitcase” —three cardboard boxes containing 128 rolls Spanish Civil War images that were long thought to have been lost forever.

A little over a year ago, this “holy grail of war photography” was turned over to the International Center of Photography, which is allowing ALBA to share some of these images with you.

Join us for an afternoon of music, photography, film and conversation to honor the enduring legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Our program features:

Oberlin College professor Sebastiaan Faber on the newly discovered Capa and Seymour photographs of the Brigadistas and refugees, refugee photos by Walter Rosenblum and rare Spanish Civil War footage (courtesy of the Rosenblum Family and Tamiment Library).

Angela Giral, director emeritus of Columbia’s Avery Architectural Library and granddaughter of the Prime Minister of the Spanish Republic, on the Refugee Experience.

Perry Rosenstein, president of the Puffin Foundation, on Remembering the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Songs of the Spanish Civil War directed by Bruce Barthol.

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009, 2p.m. The Florence Gould Hall at the French Institute Alliance Française 55 East 59th Street (Between Park and Madison Avenues) New York, N.Y. 10022

Tickets: $50, $20 for students with ID Click here to buy tickets

Environmental community supports Employee Free Choice

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:40:00 +0000

Original source:

Happy Earth Day! It’s a great time to celebrate the cooperation between the environmental movement and the union movement in building a stronger, greener economy. A big part of that collaboration is making sure that green jobs are good jobs, so workers can bargain for health care, pensions, job security and fair wages.

That’s why it’s encouraging that so many environmental groups have joined the coalition supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill is critical to protect workers’ freedom to form unions, and give them a voice in the workplace and the ability to have a say in how their jobs impact their community.

Environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthAction and Green America have joined the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, as has the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of union, environmental, business and community groups focused on building a new energy economy.

Here’s what Allison Chin, president of the Sierra Club, had to say about the Employee Free Choice Act earlier this year:

Our members overwhelmingly support the Employee Free Choice Act, and we are proud to stand strong with our brothers and sisters in organized labor. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act is one of our highest priorities, and we pledge to work tirelessly until it is on President Obama’s desk.

We support this vital piece of legislation because it’s right for workers, right for America and because it is simply the right thing to do. But we also know that companies that treat their workers right are much more likely to treat our environment right.

As we build the clean energy economy and create the millions of new green jobs that will put our economy back to work, we need to make sure those green jobs are also good jobs. Protecting workers’ most basic rights, including the right to choose how and when to form a union, is an essential part of building a clean energy economy that lifts up all workers.

Chin was one of the many community leaders who spoke at the Feb. 4 rally on Capitol Hill in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Rebuilding a new energy economy that works for everyone will require that workers have the ability to bargain and hold their employers accountable for safe workplaces and community-friendly practices. The freedom to form unions will be critical to a stronger, cleaner and more sustainable economy.

Venezuela to restore its US ambassador

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:08:00 +0000

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced that he is restoring his country's ambassador to Washington.

After exchanging greetings with US President Barack Obama at the Americas Summit in Trinidad and handing him a Spanish-language copy of Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano's book Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, the Venezuelan premier voiced hopes of beginning a 'new era' in relations - and said that he had already chosen the new envoy.

Mr Chavez expelled the US ambassador from Caracas in September in solidarity with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who ordered the top US diplomat out of his country for helping the right-wing opposition incite violent anti-government protests.

Washington hit back by kicking out both countries' ambassadors.

Mr Chavez said: 'I have spoken with former foreign minister Roy Chaderton and I have designated him as the new ambassador to the United States.

'Now we just have to wait for the US to give Mr Chaderton the approval to take up this most important post to direct a new era in our relations.'

The US State Department said later that it would 'work to further' diplomatic relations.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood described Mr Chavez's initiative as 'a positive development that will help advance US interests and the State Department will now work to further this shared goal.'

Mr Obama struck a conciliatory note at the start of the summit, saying: 'I have a lot to learn and I'm very much looking forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively.'

Latin American leaders, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and even Colombia's ultra-right President Alvaro Uribe, pressed Mr Obama to scrap the illegal 47-year-old blockade of Cuba.

Mr Uribe said: 'The Colombian government considers it necessary to begin the process of completely reintegrating Cuba.'

But Mr Obama rejected the calls to lift the blockade, saying only that the US is on a path towards 'changing the nature of its relationship' with the socialist country.

Mr Chavez and Mr Morales said that they would not sign the summit's final declaration in protest at the fact that it excluded Havana.

WORLD NOTES: Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Russia, West Bank, Cuba

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:40:00 +0000

Nigeria: Transnat’l plunder leaves loose ends

The government last week denied responsibility for failing to identify bribe-takers, blaming the U.S. Attorney General instead, vanguardngr.com reported.

Despite requests, facts are being withheld that entered into the trial and guilty plea last September of the former head of KBR (formerly Kellogg Brown and Root).

Jack Stanley admitted $182 million in bribes were delivered to Nigerian government officials to secure contracts to build a $6 billion natural gas facility in Rivers State. The Ossundefender and Africaloft web sites allege the officials included former presidents Obasanjo, Abacha and Abubakar. Investigations of KBR agents implicated in the scandal continue in five countries.

The Houston court assessed fines totaling $579 million against KBR and parent corporation Halliburton, then headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Sri Lanka: Noted author charges genocide

“A bloodbath on the beaches of northern Sri Lanka seems an increasingly real possibility,” writes UN Under-Secretary General Sir John Holmes. The army is pushing Tamil Tiger insurgents to the end of a peninsula inhabited by 200,000 civilians.

Renowned author Arundhati Roy writes on alternet.org that “civilian areas, hospitals and shelters are being bombed,” thousands have been killed or wounded, and those escaping end up in “compulsory holding centers.” Registration of all Tamils in Colombo is required on security grounds. The purpose, she maintains, is to “dismantle any semblance of democracy in the country, and commit unspeakable crimes against the Tamil people.” “A brazen, openly racist war” is possible, Roy writes, “because of the silence that surrounds it.”

Venezuela: Pacts on oil and more

Accompanied by ministry officials, President Hugo Chavez was in Japan April 5-6 to sign energy, finance and manufacturing accords, in particular cooperation in making oil-based products, fertilizers and automobiles.

Venezuela’s state oil company and Japanese corporations will together extract and refine extra heavy Orinoco basin oil. Japanese financing will be used to fit out refineries for the task. Oil exports taken from the world’s second largest reserves will start out at 100,000 barrels per day, perhaps rising to 10 times that level, Chavez said. He told reporters, “Japan automatically assures its supply for at least 25 years.” Venezuelanalysis.com quoted him as saying, “The center of gravity of the world is moving toward the East and toward the South.”

Russia: Workers hit the streets

Nationwide worker protests were joined last week by 800,000 unpaid civilian navy employees who threatened to strike.

Russian manufacturing dropped 13 percent in February. Projections put new car sales as falling by 25-50 percent.

The Lada automobile factory in Togliatti, widely regarded as obsolete and inefficient, is being bailed out. Yet the factory’s 104,000 assembly line workers see their jobs as secure. They are working four-day weeks and six-hour shifts, with employees taking voluntary furloughs at two-thirds pay. Suppliers for the factory account for almost 2 million additional jobs.

The New York Times business reporter quoted a factory clerk: “The factory is our wet nurse … If it stops, the whole town will be out on the streets.”

West Bank: Intimidation mounts

Retaliating for the murder of an Israeli youth, West Bank settlers backed by soldiers rampaged through the Arab village, Safa, on April 8 wounding 38 residents, according to Ma’an news.

Meanwhile, attacks and evictions were underway in East Jerusalem. An Israeli court approved the Jerusalem mayor’s order to demolish three homes situated on land deeded to their Palestinian owners since Ottoman times.

Removal of Arab homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan will free up land for almost 300 settler houses and a theme park.

Community leader Al-Ghawei refused a lawyer’s offer of a financial settlement. Inter Press Service recorded his reply: “$17 million cannot pay for my memories. I was born in this house.”

Cuba: Support reform of UN Security Council

Contributing to intergovernmental negotiations on much-sought changes in the Security Council, Cuban UN Ambassador Abelardo Moreno presented recommendations April 7 to improve Security Council integration and work methods. That body, he was quoted by Prensa Latina, “is neither transparent, nor democratic, nor efficient.”

Moreno called for a series of public and private discussions. The ambassador emphasized that the Security Council’s functioning should be adjusted to the needs and interests of underdeveloped nations. He also noted that after 60 years, it is high time to make regulations governing Security Council operations official rather than provisional.

The India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum has elaborated recommendations for comprehensive reform, while Washington has agreed only to expand permanent African representation.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney, Jr. (atwhit @roadrunner.com)

Latin American World Economic Forum starts

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:11:00 +0000

Rio de Janeiro, Apr 14 (Prensa Latina) Latin America's World Economic Forum, which will discuss strategies to eliminate the international financial crisis' effects on the region, is starting on Tuesday in this capital, attended by 500 delegates from 35 countries.

Forum Director Emilio Lozoya told press the preparatory meeting for the Summit of the Americas, to be attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will also tackle business opportunities in the area.

He highlighted that the meeting is being held in an important moment for Latin America, with intensive growth of the internal market. This opens a new window for opportunities in the region, especially to Brazil, he asserted. He also asserted that this nation is in a better situation than it was decades ago to come out of the crisis, having gained strength. Stability and improvement of the economy are an opportunity for Brazilian companies to grow, within and outside of the country.

In this respect, Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency Chair Alessandro Teixeira said Brazil is in the position to emerge from the international crisis, with a stronger stance and a higher political qualification.

Teixeira said this is largely due to the Brazilian credit structure, the banking and the public financing systems and the macroeconomic and tax policies implemented by the government.

Latin American Manager for the Forum Arturo Franco said that besides seeking solutions to the economic crisis, the participants will tackle other sides to the problems like poverty and unsustainable development in the region. Franco held that with the layoffs originated by the financial situation there is a risk of moving backward in important areas.

The event's agenda includes debates, as that of writer and Theologist Frei Beto, a representative of the struggle for human rights, and that with ex President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who will speak about fighting drugs, together with Colombian ex President Cesar Gaviria.

The meeting's conclusions will be presented in the 5th Summit of the Americas, to be held in Trinidad and Tobago during the coming weekend.

Prosecutors indict Posada on criminal charges

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:05:00 +0000

A grand Jury in El Paso handed down an 11 point indictment April 10 against Luis Posada, superseding an earlier desultory prosecution for alleged immigration fraud. As a sign Washington may be serious about dealing with Posada as murderer and saboteur, the action buoyed up hopes that Posada might be extradited to Venezuela or tried for murder in the United States.

The indictment overlooks Posada’s central role in the 1976 bomb attack on a Cuban airliner, killing all 73 people aboard. Nor does it cite arrangements he made for hotel bombings in Havana in 1997 and the explosion tearing apart the Copacabana night club that killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo.

Posada’s lies to investigators as to how he entered the United States in March 2005 led to a trial in May 2007 on immigration fraud. But Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone, citing prosecutorial incompetence, called that trial off, and Posada went home to Miami. Cuban émigré Posada, later a citizen of Venezuela, had served in the U.S. army and worked for the CIA.

An immigration judge had earlier refused to deport Posada to Venezuela to complete judicial proceedings aborted by his CIA-assisted escape from jail there in 1985. The judge relied upon the testimony claiming Posada would be tortured there. That the single witness was a former Posada business associate and collaborator within Venezuela’s intelligence service was kept from the judge. Had Posada been convicted of immigration fraud, he would only have been deported. Bush administration pleas failed in recruiting a country willing to accept him.

During immigration interviews in 2005 and 2006 Posada falsely denied knowing or assisting Raul Cruz Leon, the El Salvador hit man convicted in Cuba of carrying out the Havana bomb attacks almost 12 years ago. Allegations of perjury and obstruction of U.S. investigation of international terrorism form the bases for new criminal charges against him.

Posada will enter a plea in El Paso on April 17. Jury selection for a new trial begins on Aug. 10. Free on $350,000 bail until then, he has been ordered to steer clear of violence-prone Miami colleagues who may serve as trial witnesses.

The indictment is unrelated to an ongoing New Jersey grand jury investigation into allegations that Cuban-Americans there funded Posada in El Salvador as he organized attacks on Havana. Speaking at a telephone news conference, Jose Pertierra, Venezuela’s attorney in Washington, saw that investigation as possibly leading to his future prosecution for murder. (See yahoo.group/CubaNews/message/99979)

Jose Pertierra commended the Obama administration for a “wonderful first step” in linking Posada to international terrorism. He added, however, “you don't simply say that he lied … nYou have to follow up [which] means that they have to indict Posada Carriles for the murder of Fabio di Celmo.”

Livio di Celmo spoke to reporters, emphasizing the power of available evidence demonstrating Posada’s responsibility for his brother’s murder. He referred to a 1999 UN report on the Havana bombings and declassified U.S. documents made available by the National Security Archives of George Washington University.

A New Orleans federal appeals court issued a ruling last year, backed by the U.S. Supreme Court last month, that prosecution on immigration fraud should resume. For whatever reason, however, prosecutors upped the ante.

“A criminal prosecution of Posada is severely hobbled,” Ann Louise Bardach wrote in the Washington Post, Nov. 12, 2006. That investigative reporter disclosed that the Miami FBI office in 2003 “made the startling decision to close its case on Posada.” It discarded evidence. FBI head at the time there was Hector Pesquera, who earlier had directed the FBI investigation of the Cuban Five.

Livio di Celma had a tip: “The five Cubans that are in jail in the United States for having infiltrated these terrorist organizations … are the ones that could testify very well about the terrorist acts that have been going on against Cuba since 1959.”

WORLD NOTES: Hungary, Afghanistan, Philippines, Canada, Colombia, Cuba

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Hungary: Economy fells prime minister

Economic minister Gordon Bajnai is slated to succeed socialist party head Ferenc Gyurcsany as prime minister on April 14. Bajnai promised to strengthen austerity measures imposed by the minority government, despite their failure to ward off adverse effects of an economic crisis particularly disastrous for Eastern European countries. Industrial production fell 23 percent last year, and experts say the economy will shrink this year by 5 percent.

IMF loans totaling $27 billion and conditioned on reducing social services, staved off looming bankruptcy and replenished the coffers of banks, many owned in Germany. The government cut public employee wages, imposed a value added tax and devalued the currency.

Global Research news predicts the likely new government will serve banking and business interests and prepare to confront popular movements.

Afghanistan: People’s needs still neglected

“Now is the time for the international community to put the people of Afghanistan first,” wrote Oxfam official Farah Karimi as power brokers discussed Afghanistan’s future earlier this month in The Hague. On Oxfam International Blogs, she noted consensus “that there is no military solution to the problems facing Afghanistan.”

Half the Afghan people live in poverty, one third lack sufficient food, and survival is at risk for 1.5 million malnourished children and women.

Last year’s Joint Emergency Appeal for $404 million in aid yielded a 42 percent return. Support for health and school services has been nil. Donors supplied 70 percent of the $185 million requested by the United Nations World Food Program, according to the UN’s IRIN news service.

Philippines: Protests mount against U.S. military

Almost daily protests outside the U.S. embassy in late March began by marking the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Demonstrators condemned both the continuing U.S. occupation there and, according to GMANews, the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement, under which Washington supports the Philippines military to the tune of $200 million annually. Binational military exercises begin next month.

The recent recanting by a Filipina woman of 2006 testimony helping to convict a U.S. soldier for rape brought new protesters to the embassy. PressTV news reported the Gabriela women’s rights group as denouncing the agreement for casting Filipinos as “second-class citizens of the United States.” On March 25 riot police injured 20 of the women protesters, none seriously.

Canada: Movement grows vs. deportations

Parliament has once more condemned the deportation of former U.S. soldiers resisting deployment in Iraq. The non-binding resolution passed March 30 demanded permanent resident status for resisters and their families.

On its web site, the War Resisters Support Campaign called upon the immigration minister to exercise discretion based “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.”

At a press conference the week before, opposition parliamentarians protested the looming deportation of former U.S. soldier Kimberly Rivera. A judge subsequently ruled in her favor, following the lead of previous magistrates by citing the prospect of unduly hard U.S. punishment. A public opinion poll last year found 64 percent of Canadians favoring permanent residence for the war resisters.

Colombia: FARC promotes prisoner exchange

The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have failed to agree on setting aside a demilitarized area in which to negotiate humanitarian exchange of prisoners.

The Colombian Communist Party recently published on its web site a FARC communication to the group Colombians for Peace that signals relaxation of its requirement for a safety zone and also willingness to exchange the remains of fallen combatants. Three potential negotiators have been designated in advance of possible talks on an exchange involving 20 prisoners.

The month before, the government reiterated its refusal to open talks. The FARC denied government allegations it holds 3,800 prisoners for ransom, placing the number instead at nine. It unilaterally freed 12 prisoners last year.

Cuba: Chernobyl rescue anniversary marked

April 1 marked the 19th anniversary of the medical program the government and medical specialists established in Cuba for children suffering radiation-associated illnesses following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The Cuban News Agency reported the estimate of program coordinator Dr. Julio Medina that every year up to 800 children have come to Cuba accompanied by at least one parent for care that is cost-free to families. The 20,000 children arriving since 1990, 16,000 of them Ukrainian, were housed at a former Pioneer Children’s Camp in Tarará, east of Havana. Medical care offered the children has included treatment for various types of leukemia, bone marrow and kidney transplants, and surgery for congenital heart defects.

World Notes are compiled by W.T. Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

Poll: Many Americans prefer socialism over capitalism

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:53:00 +0000

This poll made our day.

According to a recent Rasmussen Report, only 53 percent of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.

Not a very good spread for the profits-before-people, greed-is-good crowd. Ayn Rand must be rolling in her grave.

These numbers of course reflect the deep, transformative moment we are living in. An economic depression is a powerful force for people to experience, leading them to question the system that got us here.

Then there is the 20 percent that say socialism is better than capitalism, according to Rasmussen. Another wow! Twenty-seven percent are not sure which is better. As the population gets further away from the Cold War years, the more they are open to socialism. The under 30 population is essentially divided: 37 percent prefer capitalism, 33 percent socialism and 30 percent are undecided.

Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the current system with 49 percent for capitalism and 26 percent for socialism.

But the ones over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13 percent of those believe socialism is better. What happened to the radical baby boomers?!

As you may imagine, those who have money to invest chose capitalism by a 5-to-1 margin. But for the rest of us who have no money to invest – a quarter of us say socialism would be o.k. Only 40 percent of non-investors think capitalism is better.

These are amazing statistics considering Rasmussen did not define either capitalism or socialism in their questions.

In an earlier survey by the polling firm they found, 70 percent of Americans prefer a free-market economy. When using the term “free market economy,” Rasmussen asserts, it attracts more support than using the term “capitalism.”

“Other survey data supports that notion. Rather than seeing large corporations as committed to free markets, two-out-of-three Americans believe that big government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors,” the poll summary stated.

Imagine how Americans would react if truly a national conversation was had on the benefits of socialism. Right now most Americans see it as a “government-managed” economy and they aren’t convinced the government could do any better than the corporate royalty, according to further poll findings.

Not included in the current popular view of socialism is democratization of the economy – where representatives of all communities, unions, schools, etc., would actually be involved in steering economic policy and decision making on all levels – micro and macro.

Recently, a colleague of mine, Sam Webb, the chair of the Communist Party said of the current economic and political situation:

“Is there any reason to think that millions in motion can't transform this country and world into the just, green, sustainable and peaceful 'Promised Land' that Martin Luther King dreamed of?

“It would be a profound mistake to underestimate the progressive and socialist potential of this era. The American people have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity within their reach.”

While polls are just a snapshot of a very fluid and dynamic process of what people think, the more long term forces of the economy are already having this profound effect.

Anti-communists attack Moldova parliament

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:52:00 +0000

Original source:

Anti-communists stormed Moldova's parliament on Tuesday, hurling computers through windows and setting fire to furniture in a violent demonstration against what they claimed were fraudulent elections.

Police initially stood by but turned water cannons on protesters when they began hurling stones at officers.

Chisinau Emergency Hospital doctor Iuri Baziluc said that 30 police officers and protesters had been injured in the clashes, which occurred two days after the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) had won its third consecutive parliamentary election.

Initially about 7,000 people demonstrated peacefully, waving European Union, Moldovan and Romanian flags outside the parliament building, demanding new elections and shouting 'Down with the communists' and 'Freedom.'

But later, some protesters smashed windows on two floors of the presidential office and set fire to furniture inside, while others broke through a side entrance to the parliament, set furniture on fire and threw computers out of the windows.

The PCRM, which has been in power since 2001, won about 50 per cent of the vote in Sunday's poll, which was monitored by 3,000 national and international observers.

Monitors declared that it had been a fair election held in 'conditions of political pluralism,' but Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca asserted that some voters had cast multiple ballots.

Mr Chirtoaca, who is also the deputy leader of the opposition Liberal Party, said that he believed that the official voter turnout of some 60 per cent for the ballot was inaccurate.

President Vladimir Voronin, who leads the PCRM, held an emergency meeting with ministers on Tuesday afternoon.

U.S. economic policy faces a defiant planet

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Original source:

As President Obama begins his first European tour this week, starting with the G20 economic summit, he’s finding that much of the rest of the world has suddenly become quite uppity.

If all goes as planned, by the time these word are published, floats will have departed in late morning April 1 on a 'Financial Fools Day' parade from four different subway stations in London and formed a cross in front of the Bank of England to stage a “Bankers Banquet.” Meanwhile, British global warming protestors will have set up “Climate Camp,” a tent city in front European Climate Exchange on Liverpool Street while a giant iceberg is slated to start melting in front of the Excel Center where on April 2 the G20 Economic Summit will be getting underway. But that’s not all. Demonstrations are planned at the Royal Bank of Scotland and the U.S. Embassy and a “shadow summit” will have opened at the University of East London near where the actual summit will be held.

All this follows last Saturday’s massive Put People First march to Hyde Park, sponsored by a coalition of more than 100 unions, churches, charities and political activist groups that paraded under the slogan 'Jobs, Justice and Climate.”

'It is right to be angry as there is nothing inevitable about this recession,” Trade Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber told the protestors Saturday. 'Today is the birth of a powerful progressive voice.'

The London protests, both in their size and political content, should put to rest a notion that the spirit of the 1999 anti-globalization outpouring in Seattle had died. Those demonstrations were prescient, coming as they did before a gathering of the World Trade Organization and warning of the foreboding direction underway in international economic affairs – the pitfalls of then little-understood, unrestrained and unregulated process of globalization.

The outcome is clear now: an economic crisis has hit hard in the biggest and richest capitalist countries evoking pain and anger on the part of the working and middle classes and, instead of economic advance, many of the poorest regions of the planet are facing dire circumstances.

Last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the host of the G20 summit, was appealing to people to not be cynical about the summit and its prospects for success. However, at the same time, officials in the UK and the United States were clearly in a damage control mode, trying to lower expectations about what might come out of the Excel Center deliberations. According to one report British officials have been suggesting the G20 leaders might have to reconvene in six months or so to take another stab at resolving their differences and rescuing the world’s economy.

Brown said he had not been traveling across the globe to have the summit close with a bland statement of little agreement on how to tackle the growing crisis. Yet that is exactly what seasoned observers in the world of capitalist economic are predicting will happen.

For while the economic crisis is worldwide, and nearly everyone agrees the only possible corrective action must be global, the governments of the 20 or so countries involved in this week’s talks are a complete loggerheads over where to go from here. While they rail against “protectionism,” each nation or region involved is advancing its own interest in the negotiations while shoring up their economies along national or regional lines.

The United States wants the major powers to step up efforts to stimulate their economies through government spending. The response from Europe has been an adamant “no.” The Europeans want the U.S. to agree to a new architecture for the world capitalist system that would involve cross border regulation and policing they believe would militate against the current crisis re-occurring. United Nations officials and non-governmental organizations are pressing for immediate and massive aid for the poorer countries of the world that stand to be devastated by the crisis. Such assistance would logically come through the International Monetary Fund (IMF); emerging states like, China, Brazil and South Africa are insisting on easing the austerity demand the IMF usually makes on aid recipients and greater representation of the fund’s governing body (currently pretty much run by the U.S.)

However, as the prospect or progress at the summit dims, impatience with the leading participating governments is mounting. Last week, Reuters news agency reported, “resentment is rising about how catastrophic errors in the boardrooms of the West are hurting the poor.”

The step up in demands for stronger and comprehensive action with regards to the international economy isn’t restricted to Europe. Prime Minister Brown probably heard its sharpest expression when he visited Latin America.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is clearly exasperated. He had previously said that he didn’t want the summit - which he will attend - to only produce an agreement to meet again. Perhaps Brown had conveyed to him the “another-summit-in-six-months” suggestion his aides in London were then floating to the media and are now voicing publically. Lula went off.

'If the G20 becomes a meeting just to set another meeting, we'll be discredited and the crisis can deepen,” said Lula.

The financial crisis was not caused by any 'black person' or 'poor person,' Lula said, adding that the major Western capitalist countries should take responsibility for solving the current economic situation. 'This was a crisis fostered and boosted by the irrational behavior of people that are white and blue eyed,' he said. 'Before the crisis it looked like they knew everything about economics. And now they have demonstrated they don't know anything about economics,” adding, 'These were people who appeared to be gods of wisdom.'

'Brazil for a long time has been highly responsible in terms of regulating our financial system,' he said at a joint press conference with Brown, “The part of humanity that is responsible should pay for the crisis.' He called on the rich countries to avoid limiting immigration during the crisis because that would make poor people its 'victims.' Lula also criticized the U.S. and Britain for their plans to bailout banks by buying or insuring their “toxic” assets, saying the money involved could be better spent.

One press report said Brown “looked uncomfortable alongside his Brazilian counterpart.” Another reported that UK Cabinet Minister Douglas Alexander, who was in the audience, “rolled his eyes.”

Asked later to explain his 'white people with blue eyes,' comment, Lula said he was not being prejudiced, only underscoring the fact that poor people stand to bare the brunt of the crisis.

You wouldn’t know it by depending on the major U.S. media, but Brown’s trip to Latin American had another purpose of which the huddle with Lula was only part. He went from Brasilia to a meeting in Vina del Mar, Chile – of Centre-Left leaders from around the world seeking a united approach to the issues before the G20 summit. Present were prime ministers Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and Jens Stoltenberg of Norway; US Vice President Joe Biden; and presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

One result of the Lula-Brown meeting was the British leader’s endorsement of a call by Brazil for the creation of a $100 billion fund to boost international trade. In Chile, Brown pledged to carry the proposal to the London summit.

On the eve of the Vina del Mar summit, Bachelet cited the present economic crisis as a 'great opportunity to lay the groundwork for a second stage in globalization.' She called for joint actions at the global level, more open markets, and stronger governments with the aim of 'prosperity for all and not just for some.' 'The 21st century will either be governed by all of us together or it will be governed by no one at all,' she said.

Argentine President Kirchner complained that the current system is in disarray. 'It is a world without rules,' she said.

Spanish President Zapatero said the world economic order must undergo 'reform and change,' be further democratized and incorporate environmental changes. 'The future of the economy is the green economy,' he said.

Lula has also demanded that the world economic powers take immediate steps to head off a looming a crisis in the markets for energy and food amid the global economic downturn.

On Tuesday, Bachelet, Lula, Kirchner and Venezuelan Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana and Ronald Venetiaan of Suriname, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, and vice presidents of Uruguay, Ecuador, and Colombia were scheduled to arrive in Doha, Qatar for the second Arab-South American countries summit where the world economic crisis is on the agenda along with plans for expanded trade and cooperation between the two regions.

Meanwhile, while visiting Moscow where the crisis is evoking almost continuous street protests, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned of a potential catastrophe arising from the world economic crisis. 'I am concerned that if we do not properly address this issue swiftly, this may develop rather alarmingly into political instability, into a political crisis.'

'Looking around the world we see a growing list of political instability,” said Ban. “If we do not manage it properly, this crisis, I am concerned that this crisis may develop into global political instability. If life goes much like this and harder...social unrest will surely increase.'

Whatever proposals are actually adopted in London this week and whatever the wording of a final communiqué turns out to be, there are larger questions that are unlikely to be taken up seriously but remain world agenda when the meeting is over. These include:

* Merkel’s call for the creation of an international economic body, similar to the United Nations Security Council, and a “new charter for a global economic order,' 'This may even lead to a UN Economic Council, just as the Security Council was created after the Second World War,' Merkel said. A similar proposal has been offered by UN Commission on international financial reform headed by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics. Stiglitz has coupled a call for a quick restructuring of the IMF and the World Bank with the creation of UN Economic Council. He was one of President Bill Clinton's chief economic advisers and was once chief economist at the World Bank.

* A suggestion by the government of China that there be a global reserve currency instead of the U.S. dollar. The Obama Administration has officially blown off the proposal and the British have made it clear it is not going to get much attention at this week’s summit. However, the issue will not go away, having been met sympathetically in various countries including Russia, France and the countries of Latin America.

* The insistence by Lula and other emerging nations’ leaders that the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade negotiations be jumpstarted. The now-stalled negotiations have floundered over disputes over export opportunities and protections for local industries from import surges.

The lower-your-expectations spin was in full motion on the eve of the G20 summit. Before departing Washington this week, President Obama both rejected the idea of a split with Europe and appealed for unity. 'The most important task for all of us is to deliver a strong message of unity in the face of crisis,' he told the Financial Times.

“Yet none of this renders the summit either meaningless or counterproductive,” said the British Independent newspaper. “Rhetorical commitments to a coordinated stimulus, even if they are largely descriptive of what is happening anyway, help to herd national economic policies in a similar direction. They also make it less likely that countries will resort to protectionism, which was a main cause of global deflation in the 1930s. Far better, then, that the leaders of the world should meet, talk and issue bland communiqués than that they should stay at home and indulge in populist gestures, which often include tariffs on imports and subsidies for domestic producers.”

That prescription is not likely to be swallowed by the protestors in the streets or the capitals of the emerging or the poorest nations. Nor will it stem the outrage the “populist gestures” are intended to assuage.

'The old ideas of unregulated free markets do not work, and have brought the world's economy to near-collapse, failed to fight poverty and have done far too little to move to a low-carbon economy,” the British labor leader Barber said. 'If we can generate fabulous wealth, as we can, then surely we can learn how to distribute that wealth more fairly. If we can unleash a technological revolution then surely we can ensure that everyone on this planet gets the food, the shelter and the health care that they need.”

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union.

30,000 jobs lost a day in March

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Original source:

The bloodletting of U.S. jobs continues at an unprecedented pace: In March, the number of jobless workers worsened by 663,000, to 13.2 million, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent. That’s about 30,000 jobs lost for each work day in March.

In its monthly jobs report, the Labor Department sums up the latest data, which paint a dire picture of the labor market:

Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last five months.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) economist Heidi Shierhotz doesn’t mince words about the shockingly bad unemployment rate:

This morning’s unemployment report offered no hint of light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, it showed that the labor market is still in its darkest months.

If those who are underemployed or who want a job but have given up looking are counted, the U.S. unemployment rate stands at a horrifying 15.6 percent—nearly 25 million Americans.

Worse, those who are jobless can’t find new employment.

According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and Institute for Research on Labor and Employment:

In March 2009, 24.2 percent of the jobless were out of work for more than six months, surpassing the previous recession peak of 19.8 percent in November 1982. There are nearly four jobless workers for every job opening, according to the groups, and long-term joblessness is likely to grow further in the months ahead. The long-term unemployed may approach or exceed 30 percent of all jobless workers by 2010.

This from Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment:

Today’s jobless numbers are striking, given both the staggering number of newly unemployed as well as th swelling ranks of long-term unemployed. All the trends indicate that th worst is yet to come. Long-term unemployment usually peaks after the official end of the recession, but with levles already this high it is likely that long-term joblessness will hit an all-time record in the months ahead.

Job loss in March included a loss of 161,000 manufacturing jobs and 126,000 in the construction industry, where jobs have fallen by 1.3 millin since peaking in January 2007. Nearly half of that decline occurred over the past five months. Jobs in retail fell by 48,000.

The loss in manufacturing jobs, according to Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, shows tha the United States must

seek to rebalance trade flows, especially with mercantilist nations like China. G-20 missed in important opportunity this week when it failed to agree to smooth out global imbalances, which have been a contributing factor to the financial and economic turmoil we have experienced over the last 16 months. Until the United States balances its curren account, we’ll see continued weakness in financial and employment markets.

The past five months of job losses are the worse on record, since we began tracking this data in 1939.

As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says:

It is unacceptable that America’s workers are suffering through the worst job loss in a generation while many politicians are still sitting back and standing in the way of reform. Fixing our unemployment problem is as important to ending the recession as addressing the banking system.