People Before Profit blog

Benicio del Toro awarded Tomas Gutierrez Alea Prize

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:28:00 +0000

On July 30, President of the Cuban Union of Artists and Writers Miguel Barnet presented to Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro the Tomás Gutiérrez Alea International Film Prize, an award sponsored by the Cuban Union of Artists and Writers (UNEAC). The award ceremony took place at UNEAC’s Martínez Villena hall.

Del Toro was accompanied by U.S. actors Robert Duvall, James Caan and Bill Murray, as well as producer Steve Bing.

Benicio said he shared this award with all Cuban artists and he felt very proud to receive this important prize because Gutiérrez Alea had influenced him so much by his 1966 film “La muerte de un burócrata,” (Death of a Bureaucrat).

Del Toro said that he was not lucky enough to meet Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, but h e did meet some of his disciples, Daisy Granados, Jorge Perugorría and Luis Alberto García.

Barnet said that he was very fortunate to receive a group of outstanding U.S. and Puerto Rican actors after so many years because this is a sign of respect toward the Latin American and the Caribbean culture despite the U.S.. blockade against Cuba.

Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría, who worked with Benicio del Toro in the famous film “Che” by director Steven Soderbergh, said that Del Toro was very humanitarian and commended him for his professionalism and commitment not only socially and politically but also to the history and current situation of all countries all over the world.

After the award ceremony piano player Guillermo Tuzzio played a selection of Cuban and international songs. Bill Murray joined him in singing “As Time Goes By,” the famous theme from the film “Casablanca.”

From Juventud Rebelde — The newspaper of Cuban youth www.juventudrebelde.co.cu/

WORLDNOTES: Spain, Japan, Pakistan, Venezuela, Niger, Cuba

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Spain: ‘The future in flames’:Such was the title of a recently-released Greenpeace report attributing “a new generation of fires with unknown social and economic consequences” to climate change (greenpeace.org espana). High temperatures and strong winds spread fires across southern Europe in July ravaging 500,000 forest acres. Losses in Spain approaching 188,000 acres far exceeded last year’s total. Meanwhile United Nations officials are preparing for the December gathering in Copenhagen where a new climate pact is anticipated. Reuters reported that at talks Aug. 10-14 in Bonn, 180 nations delivered pledges of 15-21 percent cuts in carbon emissions. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change established in 2007 that 25-40 percent reductions are required to reduce climate change effects.

Japan: Opposition leader scores U.S.-led globalization: A poll last week gave the Democratic Party of Japan a 30-point lead over the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party in Aug. 30 parliamentary elections. Party leader ― and possible prime minister ― Yukio Hatoyama has denounced “U.S.- led market fundamentalism” that damaged “local communities.” Quoted by the Financial Times, he promised not to leave “economic activities in areas relating to human lives and safety, such as agriculture, the environment, and medicine, at the mercy of the tides of globalism.” Hatoyama condemned recent post office privatization as violating his party’s concept of “fraternity.” “We are moving away from a unipolar world,” he suggested. He advocates closer ties with China and South Korea, adding that regional integration must include “regional currency integration.”

Pakistan: Opinion survey gives U.S. low grades Release last week of an Al Jazeera poll of 2,600 supposedly representative citizens signified bad news for Washington. Opinion as to Pakistan’s greatest threat ranged from 11 percent identifying the Taliban; 18 percent, India, to 59 percent, the U.S. military. The Gallup-conducted survey showed 41 percent support for the U.S.-Pakistan anti- Taliban military offensive and 22 percent backing for neutrality. But given the option, 43 percent chose dialogue. Some 67 percent of respondents oppose U.S. military operations on Pakistani soil, particularly drone attacks, still unacknowledged by Washington. Critics cite violations of national sovereignty and civilian deaths. A report last week on economistan.com centered on land purchased for building a $1 billion military base joined to the U.S. embassy.

Venezuela: Trade ties build with Argentina Argentine President Cristina Fernández brought a team to Caracas last week to sign trade agreements unprecedented in scope. The agreements are crucial for Venezuela following its cut-off of commercial relations with Colombia, an action prompted by Colombian acceptance of seven U.S. military bases. To compensate for reduced imports from Colombia, Venezuela will spend $1.1 billion for Argentinean goods, including 10,000 cars, 18 million eggs, 2 million pairs of shoes, and great quantities of beef, rice, corn and milk. “We are collaborating with this brother republic with the object of achieving sovereignty and food security,” observed President Fernández, quoted by TeleSur. She emphasized the goal of Latin American integration. President Chavez’ ban on exports to Colombia, particularly gasoline, will cause hardships there.

Niger: Tandja presidency continues, corruption charged PressTV reported that the Constitutional Court last week okayed referendum results removing term limits for President Mamadou Tandja. Prior to the Aug. 4 vote he had dissolved Parliament and the Constitutional Court and muzzled the press. His plans, according to Inter Press Service, are to enrich family and clan through a giant uranium mine (and hydroelectric project) planned by a French government-owned company and through a Chinese-built oil refinery, all projects claiming association with Tandja’s relatives. The French group Sortir du nucléaire denounced “the complicit silence of French authorities facing a coup organized by Tandja.” Four-fifths of France’s electricity derives from nuclear power, which depends entirely upon imported uranium. Niger is the world’s third largest uranium producer.

Cuba: Food imports from U.S. drop Pedro Álvarez, president of the Cuban food import corporation Alimport, told a Cuban business weekly that food imports from the United States, worth $4.4 billion over eight years, have recently fallen. The report appearing Aug. 7 on opciones.cubaweb.cu/leer argues that because of U.S. proximity and high food quality, and Cuban needs for imported food, imports could exceed $21 billion over five years, especially if U.S. impediments disappeared. Exporters require licenses for Cuban travel and are prohibited from granting credit to Alimport. Only third-country banks may dispense loan money that reaches exporters via U.S. banks. Food shipments must be licensed, ships must return empty from Cuba, and they undergo coastguard anti-terrorist inspections.

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

Letters

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:19:00 +0000

Thanks from an autoworker

I want to thank John Rummel for his article about the letter sent to President Obama by 50 autoworkers, retirees and supporters calling for the rapid “green” conversion of shuttered auto plants in the wake of the disaster that’s hit the Midwest (“Unemployment in Detroit reaches 17%, autoworkers send Obama letter on high-speed rail and jobs,” online).

Rummel very correctly points out that it will take much more than the action of the president to revolutionize the entire network of Midwestern cities to leap from their 20th century history into the 21st, advancing earth-friendly manufacturing. It will take a movement that brings together workers and communities, workers and environmentalists, workers and engineers, elected officials, nonprofits, not to mention our unions.

Many of the signers of the letter took the first step last December when two dozen of us caravanned to Washington D.C. to respond to the vitriolic attacks against our union workforce. It was there that the “autoworkercaravan.org” put forward that we must tackle the crisis hitting the unionized U.S. auto industry and address the growing crisis of climate change — simultaneously. The Autoworker Caravan has been working to get out our message; thank you for bringing the subject of the “letter to Obama” to your readers. Readers can read the complete letter and add their name by clicking on www.autoworkercaravan.org.

Frank Hammer

Michigan

Frank Hammer is a retired UAW International representative.

Red-baiting in the media

Since the presidential election, the frightened Right has been rabidly attacking all things even remotely progressive (and as of today, at times physically attacking, too). In addition to doing all they can to destroy the Obama presidency, this same fascistic group is trying to kill off the proposal for health care reform, stop the Employee Free Choice Act in its path, turn back the clock on civil rights and raise the specter of Ronald Reagan as a means to call for a renewed ultra-conservative movement. And Reagan’s history shows that he was a Cold War opportunist who reported on the members of the Screen Actors Guild to HUAC — while he was a sitting president of that union. Reagan, working in concert with McCarthy and the rest of the witch-hunters, also helped to establish the use of red-baiting to silence political enemies.

Red-baiting is back, as a means to stop the even moderately progressive agenda of Obama. They red-baited Obama during the election and are doing so again — just as sure as they race-bait him and even attack him with xenophobia. Health care reform is “socialism” we heard in November, but nowadays they are even using the “c” word. It’s part of his “communist plan.” Consistently, we hear the lambasting of socialism, Marxism and as a result — anything liberal. It’s a combined attack from the monopoly capitalists, the religious Right, the America Firsters, the conservative lunatic fringe, racists and anti-communists, and the Republican Party itself.

This assault on all things progressive is serious business and we need to bring it to the media’s attention. Here is a link to a petition called “Stop the Hate Speech and Red-Baiting in the Media” petition at iPetitions.com website:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/commiesrpeople?e

I signed it and I encourage you to add your signature, too. It’s free and takes less than a minute. We cannot lie back while the neo-fascists break down our ideals and vision for the future.

John Pietaro

New York NY

Hiroshima

August 6, 1945-2009

It was not in vain

that victims of Hiroshima

got burned in the atomic dust

thrown from an airplane sent by

the United States of America.

Since that blow

and the anguish of the world

a conscience is born

with a reassurance of respect

for life on the planet

which is renewing

year after year

with wishes for peace

with justice and equality

for all the people.

Teresinka Pereira

Via e-mail

Print vs. online

In regions where the computer is likely just starting to make headway, the only available antiquated units are in some schools and public facilities. This does not lend to convenient availability. The computer and its machinations are still bourgeois tools. Access to working people and the underprivileged is still somewhat limited.

I started out in our progressive movement as an early teenager, more than six decades ago. Instead of Saturday high school and college sports pep rallies and Sunday morning church socials and the like, I went off with my father and “brother” to all sorts of deprived neighborhoods, first stopping off at the office of the PWW forerunner, the great Daily and Sunday Worker, then selling at the newsstands for three cents and a nickel. We went forth with strict instructions to sell anyone and everyone the papers for a penny. And if that proved to be too costly, we were to distribute the copies for free. Not a person or household was to be left without a paper. That was all that counted. We visited the migrant worker camps in both New York and New Jersey, where men from the South had trekked north to provide their families with a hot meal and enough warm water for a Saturday night bath. None were denied copies of The Worker. All were grateful.

I fear that so strongly going electronic, as modern and dramatic as it sounds, could be a step backwards. The PWW is a lifeline.

I am well aware of the financial hardships at PWW. But I hope you will think again. Hopefully there are other ways to preserve the printed page.

Don Sloan

Via e-mail

As Communists and non-Communists assess the changes taking place in the PWW, still in the throes of the George W. Bush economy that continues to plague and threaten the entire world, it might be helpful for us to remember that Lenin saw meaningful change — or if one prefers, revolutionary change — as being synchronous and synonymous with the building of a national press, or more specifically, a national press of local news and events.

The PWW and its predecessor newspapers, thanks to its staff and contributors, have been a #1 source for the organizing, building and inspiring of mass movements and vast coalitions that are at the heart of America’s struggles today and tomorrow. Also, the newspaper has set good groundwork for the ongoing need to build a massive and united Communist Party program taking on the enormous fight ahead at the level of class struggle.

Let’s continue to support the paper however we can and continue to learn from the paper whether it is in our hands physically or in PWW hyperspace, always remembering its essential purpose and need in the struggles ahead for a better, survivable world.

George Mores

Via e-mail

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Socialist feminist revival

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:15:00 +0000

Original source:

I just returned from a workshop on gender-based violence organised by the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Venezuela and the UNDP. Speakers at the workshop included Maria Leon, Minister of Women's Affairs and Nora Casteneda President of Banmujer or Bank for the Development of Women. The two women explained the gains made by women as a result of Bolivarian socialist revolution in Venezuela. A record which was truly amazing in the attempts made in empowering women towards achieving gender equality, reported candidly by both women, who also outlined the challenges women in that country have as yet to overcome.

The Bolivarian constitution is the first in the South (and possibly the world) to recognise women's housework as a legitimate economic activity producing wealth and contributing to the social welfare of the population: 'The State will recognise household chores as an economic activity that creates added value, produces wealth and social welfare. Housewives have the right to social security according to the law.' (Article 88) As Maria Leon explained in Article 88 'the work of all previous generations of women are also recognised and valued'.

In March 2007 the right of women to live a life free of violence became an organic law enacted by the National Assembly of Venezuela. Now the law must be effectively implemented. This includes setting up special courts or legal units to handle violence against women cases across the country, with some 19 courts already set up covering all regions. These courts were described as 'new institutions of the Venezuelan state to eradicate violence against women'. The first courts were on violence against women were set up in Caracas on June 27, 2008.

These courts have the authority to temporarily arrest perpetrators of violence against women and prohibit them from leaving the country. The first dates for the trial should be set ten to twenty days after the act of violence, with sentencing on the same day with penalty and fines. Appeals processes exist. These courts were also described as 'specialised organs on violence against women' and as 'weapons in the struggle against violence against women'.

According to Maria Leon, 'Talking is not enough. Laws are not enough. Institutions are not enough. We need a cultural change in our views and outlook.' This required mobilising women to become 'a real force, a deterrent force, an army to combat violence against women and to change the notion of women as battered victims and weak human beings'. To mobilise women some 25,000 'points of encounter' for women are being set up where women have easy access to information and services without cumbersome requirements and bureaucratic regulations. These 25,000 'points of encounter' will consist of at least ten women, who will then organise more women to create 'an army to combat violence against women ... the point is not only to decrease violence against women, but to eradicate it'.

The Ministry for Women's Affairs and Gender Equality was set up on March 8, 2009. One of the first activities of the new Ministry was to organise a congress of women to consult women on the plans and work of the Ministry. A key objective of the Ministry is to advice the President on 'human development with gender equality' and the 'active participation in the defence and guarantee of women's rights in the revolutionary transformation of the country'. Linked to this a key task of the Ministry is to 'design the criteria for allocating financial and social resources and investments targeting women, especially those who are marginalised and excluded, suffering discrimination, exploitation and violence ... in order to promote a socialist production model with gender equity in the socialisation of the means of production'.

Maria Leon and other Venezuelan women speakers all emphasised the importance of the local popular power structures, the commune councils, in the mobilisation and empowerment of women. According to Leon 'Peoples power, popular power, is most important [and] 70% of the commune councils are headed by women'.

Nora Castaneda provided updates on the work of Banmujer. Banmujer is a key political instrument of the revolution in the economic and political empowerment of poor and ethnic minority women. Since 2001, Banmujer has redistributed wealth of around US$179 million in 106,616 microcredits to poor women. In 2008 alone it approved a total of 13,689 microcredit loans worth US$35 million.

Meanwhile in Cuba pathbreaking proposals and measures are being advocated and discussed amongst the entire population to advance gender equality in relation to sexual rights, spearheaded by the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX). According to CENESEX Director Mariela Castro this year's celebration of International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia will be held in Havana on Saturday, May 16. It will be dedicated not only to youth, but also to the family, 'so that fathers and mothers can better understand their homosexual or transsexual children.'

The National Assembly (Cuba's parliament) will include in its work agenda an initiative to reform the national Family Code, which has been effective in Cuba since 1975 and contains proposals on gender identity and rights of 'sexual minorities.' The initiatives include the legal recognition of the same sex unions, whereby they will enjoy the same rights as consensually united heterosexual couples.

In June 2008 a resolution of the Ministry of Public Health leganised the performing of sex change operations on transsexual persons. Resolution 126 establishes the creation of a center for integral healthcare for people who are transsexual, which will be the sole institution in the country authorized to carry out total or partial medical sex change treatments.

This is a far cry from the former Soviet project with its idealisation of motherhood or anything in the experience of the Chinese revolution. And it is a distinct trend in the opposite direction to what is taking place in a number of industrialized countries in the West, the US and Australia included, where the trend is to take away a range of even formal rights won in gender equality and related sexual rights.

WORLD NOTES Nepal, Turkey, Cuba, Russia, Haiti, Madagascar

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:30:00 +0000

Madagascar: Pact paves way for elections Interim President Andry Rajoelina and former President Marc Ravalomanana, whom the military forced from power in March, have signed an agreement for a period of political transition leading to elections within 15 months, Bloomberg news reported. The two met in Maputo, Mozambique for talks mediated by former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano. Two former presidents of Madagascar also participated. Ravalomanana’s ouster was preceded by two months of protests by Rajoelina’s supporters. Since Rajoelina became president, arrests, widespread violence and killings have prevailed and international aid has fallen precipitously. Ravalomanana, who had earlier been sentenced in absentia to four years in jail, agreed not to participate in the political transition. In return, he and his supporters received a general amnesty under the pact.

Haiti: Minimum wage law for a few By a 55-6 majority, Parliament last week doubled the current daily minimum wage to $3.75. The law affects only 250,000 people, with most employed Haitians working on small farms or in the informal sector. The vote was preceded by street clashes between police and demonstrators demanding $5 a day. President Rene Preval opposed the measure for its adverse effect on the export garment industry. Claiming pay increases would hurt efforts underway to combat unemployment, “development experts” cited by AP noted that garment exporters had to choose between expanding factory jobs and raising wages. In a recent UN report Paul Collier noted that “in garments” labor costs loom large and that poverty and an “unregulated labor market” make Haiti competitive with China, “the global benchmark.”

Russia: Auto workers urge nationalization Thousands of the 100,000 workers at Russia’s largest auto factory demonstrated last week, threatening to strike. Workers at the Avtovaz plant in Togliatti and at the Avtovaz GM joint venture were protesting plant closures during August and plans afterwards for half-time operation and 50 percent wage cuts. Sales of the company’s Lada cars are down 49 percent and 26,000 workers may soon be dismissed, according to Moscow News. Pyotr Zolotaryov, spokesperson for the Unity trade union, asserted that if “existing problems” [are not solved], nationalization is an idea ― the government should own and control the company.” A banking official criticized Avtovaz, recipient of $800 million in government aid, for lack of diversification, innovation and upgrading of technology.

Nepal: Maoists said to threaten peace process The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is preparing to carry out civil disturbances that, according to Reuters, will endanger the peace process that ended 10 years of civil war. On Aug. 7 Maoist deputies stormed out of parliament, promising street protests against parliament’s failure to debate civilian control of the military. Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda resigned in May to protest the president’s reversal of his dismissal of Nepal’s top general, who blocked integration of Maoist insurgents into the Army. Impasse in Kathmandu played out against a rural backdrop where, according to a World Food Program spokesperson, food shortages have become “an issue of national and international concern, a reality which is destroying the future prospects of an entire generation of Nepalese.”

Turkey: Gov’t reaches out to Kurdish party Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week took the unprecedented step of meeting with Ahmet Türk, leader of the Democratic Society Party (DTP). The Kurdish nationalist DTP, politically social-democratic, holds 21 seats in Parliament. The European Union and United States have labeled it as terrorist because of supposed links with the Party of Kurdish Workers whose armed struggle for Kurdish autonomy in Turkish territory has claimed some 40,000 lives since 1984. Erdogan said he was meeting with Türk in his capacity of leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party rather than as prime minister. The government last month announced plans to enhance democratic rights for Kurdish people, according to Chinaview News.

Cuba: Educating physicians for the U.S. After six years of study, 17 U.S. students graduated last month from the Latin American School of Medicine. Residency training in the United States will prepare them for practice in underserved areas, an obligation assumed by each of the school’s 1,400 to 1,500 graduates each year. Students enrolled at the school begun in 1999 come from 29 countries, over 100 of them from the U.S. “We have studied medicine with a humanitarian approach, explained Kenya Bingham of Alameda, Calif., quoted on ifconews.org. “Health care is not seen as a business in Cuba,” she added. Student Jose De Leon from Oakland, Calif. savored no-cost medical education; he avoids debt that for most stateside medical graduates exceeds $250,000.

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

POEM Hiroshima

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:40:00 +0000

On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped the first atomic bomb ever on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On Aug. 9, three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. More than 200,000 people were killed or injured in the immediate wake of the bombings.

Teresinka Pereira is a Brazilian American poet and president of the International Writers and Artists Association.

HIROSHIMA August 6, 1945-2009 It was not in vain that victims of Hiroshima got burned in the atomic dust thrown from an airplane sent by the United States of America. Since that blow and the anguish of the world a conscience is born with a reassurance of respect for life on the planet which is renewing year after year with wishes for peace with justice and equality for all the people.

Obama announces electric car grant

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:30:00 +0000

Elkhart, Indiana, residents cheered President Obama Aug. 5 as he announced $2.4 billion in federal grants -- $39 million of it for economically devastated Elkhart -- to develop electric cars and trucks “right here in the U.S. of A.”

“This is more than an economic crisis,” the president told the crowd in a speech at the Navistar International Corporation factory in nearby Wakarusa. “Its goes to the heart and soul of a community.”

He derided those who see economic collapse of towns like Elkhart as “inevitable” and that they should be left to die. “I’m here because I believe that the battle for America’s future will be fought and won in places like Elkhart.”

He chided his Republican critics who “created the problem and now want to blame somebody else” for the deep economic crisis. Elkhart, population 53,000, was once home to a thriving recreational vehicle industry with a 2007 jobless rate of 4.8 percent. As the recession hammered the auto and RV industry, unemployment peaked at 18.9 percent in March, easing slightly to 16.8 percent in June. The town lost 15,000 jobs in the past year as RV and manufactured home sales plummeted.

It was Obama's second visit to Elkhart in six months. He pointed out that the Indiana town has the second highest jobless rate in the nation. Yet he predicted a turn for the better. “Just a few months ago, folks thought these plants were closed for good. Now they are coming back to life,” he said. The shift to new, clean energy vehicles “will create “tens of thousands of jobs” across the nation. “I don’t want to have to import a hybrid car….a hybrid truck, a wind turbine,” he said. “I want to build that wind turbine right here in Indiana.”

He defended his $768 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as the “economic stimulus” for provising middle-income tax relief, extending unemployment compensation for millions of jobless workers, and saving hundreds of thousands of public employees threatened by layoffs by deficit-stricken state and local governments. The stimulus package, he said, has also pumped billions into clean industries like electric powered trucks and cars and wind turbines, he said.

The president also argued that health care reform is crucial to economic recovery. “We must pass health care reform that brings down costs,” he said. “I promise you we will pass (health care) reform by the end of the year because the American people need relief.”

He urged support for his efforts to strengthen public education including increased federal funding of the nation’s system of community colleges. By 2020, he added, the U.S. should regain its position as the nation with the highest proportion of college graduates. “Energy innovation, health care, and education. These are the pillars of the new economy,” he said.

Some of the strongest applause from the crowd came when the president directed his fire at the right-wing naysayers seeking to obstruct or delay his reform program. “They don’t want to be constructive,” he said. “This country was not built by griping and complaining. It was built by working. There are folks out there who fail to meet their own responsibility, from Wall Street to Washington…We’ve got to set our sights higher, not lower…a brighter future for Elkhart, for Indiana, for the United States of America.”