People Before Profit blog

Bangladesh election marks end of emergency rule, secular party wins big

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:45:00 +0000

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladeshis voted in droves Dec. 29 in elections that marked the end of two years of emergency rule, with ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed 's Awami League-led coalition claiming a landslide victory.

Hasina, one of two women leaders vying for prime minister, called on her supporters to exercise calm until the results were official. Her rival is Khaleda Zia, head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Hasina’s coalition platform included ensuring food security and capping prices of daily essentials, increasing electricity production, curbing corruption, establishing the country as secular state under the rule of law. Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation and has seen a rise of extremist right-wing groups using the cloak of religion.

Some Bangladesh sources said the landslide for Hasina’s coalition was reminiscent of the historic 1970 Awami League victory that led to the 1971 birth of Bangladesh following a war of independence from Pakistan.

When the defeated British colonial rulers partitioned off Pakistan from India in 1947, they sliced East Pakistan off from Indian Bengal (now the Indian state of West Bengal). The Awami League was a champion of rights and independence for the Bangla-speaking people of East Pakistan.

Now the Awami League seems headed for a majority in Bangladesh that would give the party the power to rewrite the constitution and bring about promised reforms.

Held under tight security, the country’s first elections since 2001 attracted a turnout of 70 percent, with long lines snaked outside voting stations all day. Some reports called the voting festive and joyous.

'I'm a first-time voter and the atmosphere couldn't be any better,' Mamun Howlader, a 21-year-old mechanic, told Agence France Presse. 'There's a festive atmosphere. It's fun.'

The vote was monitored by some 200,000 electoral observers, including 2,500 from abroad.

The current army-backed government took power in January 2007 following months of political unrest in which at least 35 people were killed. The deaths prompted President Iajuddin Ahmed to cancel elections and impose a state of emergency that was lifted only on Dec. 17.

Bangladesh, a desperately poor nation of 144 million people, has a history of coups and counter-coups since winning independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The Awami League and the BNP have often been accused of anti-democratic tactics, with both crippling the country during their spells in opposition by boycotting Parliament and staging national strikes.

Left parties like the Workers Party of Bangladesh and the Communist Party of Bangladesh also ran candidates in the election with their own far-reaching election platforms. Early reports say the Workers Party won two seats.

The Communist Party of Bangladesh is one of only four parties to advocate equality for the low-caste population known as dalits (formerly called “untouchables”). Its 24-point manifesto calls for prevention of corruption and terrorism, alleviation of poverty and creation of new jobs, trial of war criminals, a minimum wage for laborers, reinstallation of the basic pillars of the 1972 constitution, establishing a pro-people education and medical system and formation of an independent commission to prevent child labor and child repression.

Other CPB goals include: ensuring equal rights for women in all strata, providing full constitutional rights to the indigenous people, national legislation for the disabled, ensuring access for all to information technology, establishing state and social control over mineral resources, introducing full-fledged water regulation and preparing an independent and active foreign policy.

The Workers Party’s 21-point platform highlights seven main points: controlling commodity prices, eradication of poverty, establishment of rights of laborers and middle class people, ensuring the rights of women, protecting the country from the World Bank and IMF, conservation of the environment and ensuring the social security of the citizenry.

Calls grow for U.S. action on Gaza ceasefire

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:04:00 +0000

As the United Nations Security Council called for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, Jewish and Arab American groups urged the Bush administration and other nations to act to stop the escalating violence.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said “all parties directly involved” must “immediately work to end hostilities on all sides and arrive at a new ceasefire agreement.” The ADC called on the U.S. government to “exert immediate pressure on its ally Israel to halt attacks on Gaza's population.”

J Street, the Jewish American lobbying group, began a petition campaign demanding that the United States “intervene to bring about an immediate resumption of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.”

The Jewish group, which advocates for a two-state solution, called for “immediate and strong U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to urgently reinstate a meaningful ceasefire that ends all military operations, stops the rockets aimed at Israel and lifts the blockade of Gaza. This is in the best interests of Israel, the Palestinian people and the United States.”

The Israeli aerial bombing of densely populated Gaza, which began Dec. 27, is reported to have killed more than 300 people and injured well over 1,000, including children. A UN aid official on Saturday called the humanitarian crisis there “absolutely disastrous,” CNN reported.

“Similar attacks in the past have failed to make Israeli citizens any safer and resulted in increased support of Hamas extremists,” the ADC noted.

During the ceasefire that began this past summer, rocket attacks by Hamas had greatly diminished, the American Arab group pointed out. But, although Israel relaxed its blockade of Gaza slightly, it never ended the blockade. Israel escalated the situation in early November by killing 4 Palestinians in Gaza, in the bloodiest violation of the ceasefire, the ADC said. “The month that followed brought a return of a suffocating siege on the civilians of Gaza and rocket attacks against southern Israel.”

The tightened Israeli blockade left many of Gaza's 1.5-million inhabitants without sufficient food, water, fuel or medicine. More than half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 16. The UN has listed Gaza as the most densely populated area in the world with a population density that is higher than that of Manhattan in New York City.

Before the current Israeli attacks, the ADC said, over 850 Palestinians had been killed by Israel since the 2007 Annapolis summit, compared to fewer than 20 Israelis killed by rocket fire from Gaza since 2000. “The disproportionate nature of this latest round of violence … continues to fan the flames of discontent in the Arab and Muslim worlds,” the group said.

The Bush administration thus far has expressed uncritical support for the Israeli airstrikes. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday blamed Hamas alone for the renewal of violence in Gaza. White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe said, 'These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill their own people.'

The ADC criticized the Bush administration’s response for placing “all blame on Hamas with no mention of Israel's disproportionate and continuing bombardment of Gaza.”

The administration’s stance “ignored American national and economic interests in addition to international humanitarian law and the laws of war,” the ADC said.

In an e-mail message to supporters, J Street’s Isaac Luria wrote, “While there is nothing ‘right’ in raining rockets on Israeli families or dispatching suicide bombers, there is nothing ‘right’ in punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.

“The United States, the Quartet, and the world community must not wait — as they did in the Israel-Lebanon crisis of 2006 — for weeks to pass and hundreds or thousands more to die before intervening,” he continued. “There needs to be an urgent end to the new hostilities that brings a complete end to military operations, including an end to the rocket fire out of Gaza, and that allows food, fuel and other civilian necessities into Gaza.”

Luria added, “The need for diplomatic engagement goes beyond a short-term ceasefire. Eight years of the Bush administration's neglect and ineffective diplomacy have led us directly to a moment when the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict hang in the balance and with them the prospects for Israel's long-term survival.

“Following a renegotiated ceasefire, we urge the incoming Obama administration to lead an early and serious effort to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts.”

The ADC sent letters to President Bush, President-elect Obama, Secretary of State Rice, and the Israeli ambassador in Washington calling for an immediate end of hostilities on all sides.

The UN Security Council statement called on all parties to address 'the serious humanitarian and economic needs in Gaza.'

It urged them to take necessary measures, including opening border crossings, to ensure Gaza's people were supplied with food, fuel and medical treatment.

The council 'stressed the need for the restoration of calm in full' to open the way for a Palestinian-Israeli political solution.

Other Jewish and Arab American groups that are calling for a renewed ceasefire include Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Peace and Justice), Jewish Voice for Peace and the American Task Force on Palestine.

suewebb @ pww.org

For Cuba, revolution made all the difference

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:29:00 +0000

Observers, for example Michel Chossudovsky (GlobalResearch.ca), predict fallout from the collapse of the U.S. economy will dwarf ramifications of the 1930s great depression. Neither, however, affected the United States as seriously as the calamity triggered by the fall of Soviet bloc allies weighed upon Cuba. The 1990s became Cuba’s “special period” - war conditions during peacetime.

In the United States, 2.7 million people lost jobs during 2008. In December, four weeks worth of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 540,500; continuing claims, to 4.4 million. Funding in thirty states is inadequate to cover ongoing unemployment insurance.

Food banks recently reported a 30 percent increase in requests for assistance. The U.S. Mayors Conference reported a 12 percent rise in homelessness during 2008 in 19 of 25 large cities; 429 school districts saw a 25 percent increase in homeless children. Budget deficits have forced 27 states to slash education funding. When new budgets are released, there will be more. In fiscal 2010, states will face $100 billion in revenue shortfalls.

For the Durham (NC) Herald-Sun, “the bleak economic climate and the approach of the holiday season” explained last month’s local increase in suicides.

This scenario is grim. Cuba, however, abruptly lost 85 percent of its trade, 34 percent of its GDP, and 90 percent of its oil imports. Fertilizers, animal feed, spare parts, and consumer goods all but disappeared, as did sea-borne shipping, agricultural production, and public transportation. New U.S. restrictions on foreign affiliates of U.S. corporations led to a 75 percent drop in both food and medical supply imports.

Food intake and overall domestic consumption each fell 20 percent. Half of Cuba’s factories closed, adults lost 20-30 pounds, housing deteriorated, and 300 drugs disappeared from pharmacies. Leaders took pains to detail causes of the crisis, outline coming privations, and explain the rationale for remedial steps. Consumer goods were added to the food rationing system. Milk was saved for young children. Gasoline supplies were restricted. Unemployed workers drew salaries and retained pensions. Work animals replaced tractors. People traveled by trucks, makeshift buses, and bicycles, the latter supplied by the government. They walked and hitchhiked. Painful compromises were required: joint ventures with foreign corporations, currency modifications, and promotion of tourism. Social gains were protected. “No Cubans lived in the street, nor were schools or hospitals closed,” points out Gracielia Guerrero Garay, writing for rebelion.org. “No one was thrown out of their house, no extra charges were added for established services,” and beneficiaries of social assistance multiplied. New schools, highways, and health centers were built.

The story of burgeoning organic and urban agriculture is well known. Infant mortality fell, life expectancy increased, and Cuban health care progressed.

On display were rights for all, shared sacrifice, bars on special privilege, and equitable implementation of new policies. These rules are socialist standbys, applicable to the immediate relief of suffering and to longer term problems, global manifestations of the current crisis, for example.

Michel Chossudovsky attributes the current collapse to inability of workers to buy goods – cheap labor having been exploited to fatten the U.S. and world market economy - and to maneuvers by finance capitalists to tighten control over production resources. That sector continues to “undermine and destroy large corporate entities of the ‘real economy.’” Chossudovsky calls for “‘financial disarmament’, which forcefully challenges the hegemony of the Wall Street financial institutions.”

To invoke socialist solutions for the disarray of the world financial crisis would be tagged presently as wishful thinking. But they have immediate relevance to the prospect, described by Chossudovsky, of mass impoverishment enveloping developed countries. Hang-ups of those in high places in the United States so far have blocked effectively repair efforts. Instinctively they’ve excluded root causes, real cures, and socialist ethics from public discourse.

The last item is recognizable to Cubans as derived from the teachings of national hero Jose Marti, despite scarcity there of the word “socialist.” The “Apostle,” as Cubans know him, went to Tampa in 1891 to recruit for Cuba’s second War of Independence. His long appeal to an audience of workers ended with “this formula of love triumphant: ‘With all, and for the good of all.’”

Cuba’s socialist revolution, officially 50 years old in 2009, goes back many years.

Cuba Five case to go to Supreme Court

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:45:00 +0000

WASHINGTON: The appeal of the Cuban Five, the anti-terrorist fighters held as political prisoners in the United States, is to be brought before the Supreme Court before January 30, according to one of their defense lawyers.

René González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino and Fernando González have been imprisoned since September 12, 1998 for infiltrating counterrevolutionary organizations in Florida to prevent acts of terrorism against Cuba, Prensa Latina reports.

In an interview with the National Committee to Free the Five, attorney Richard Klugh said that the appeal will ask for all of their sentences to be reviewed, following the decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to deny a change of venue, incorrect conduct by prosecutors and the improper and discriminatory jury selection.

In Klugh’s opinion, the venue is one of the main aspects that need to be reviewed, in line with U.S. law itself and in any legal system.

'If you have a judge or jury who is likely to be influenced by local passions and pressure, what you have is a mob rule and you don’t have justice in any sense,' he said, referring to the original trial of the Five in Miami.

Klugh noted that, in relation to this appeal, the defense has the assistance of attorney Thomas Goldstein from the legal firm Akin Gump, a lawyer of vast experience in Supreme Court cases.

Israeli strikes pound Gaza, kill 192

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:18:00 +0000

GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) — Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years.

Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were also among the dead. Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and responded with several medium-range Grad rockets at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past. One Israeli was killed and at least four people were wounded in the rocket attacks. With so many wounded, the Palestinian death toll was likely to rise.

The air offensive followed weeks of intense Palestinian rocket and mortar fire on southern Israel, and Israeli leaders had issued increasingly tough warnings in recent days that they would not tolerate continued attacks.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would expand the operation if necessary. 'There is a time for calm and there is a time for fighting, and now is the time for fighting,' he told a news conference. He would not comment when asked if a ground offensive was planned.

But asked earlier if Hamas political leaders might be targeted next, military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich said, 'Any Hamas target is a target.'

The strikes caused widespread panic and confusion in Gaza, as black clouds of smoke rose above the territory, ruled by Hamas for the past 18 months. Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children. Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were among the dead.

Said Masri sat in the middle of a Gaza City street, close to a security compound, alternately slapping his face and covering his head with dust from the bombed-out building.

'My son is gone, my son is gone,' wailed Masri, 57. The shopkeeper said he sent his 9-year-old son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. 'May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn,' Masri moaned.

In Gaza City's main security compound, bodies of more than a dozen uniformed security officers lay on the ground. One survivor raised his index finger in a show of Muslim faith, uttering a prayer. The Gaza police chief was among those killed. One man, his face bloodied, sat dazed on the ground as a fire raged nearby.

Later, some of the dead, rolled in blankets, were laid out on the floor of Gaza's main hospital for identification. Hamas police spokesman Ehad Ghussein said about 140 Hamas security forces were killed.

Israeli military officials said more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on Gaza by mid-afternoon. They spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

Defiant Hamas leaders threatened revenge, including suicide attacks. Hamas 'will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood,' vowed spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Israel told its civilians near Gaza to take cover as militants began retaliating with rockets, and in the West Bank, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for restraint. Egypt summoned the Israeli ambassador to express condemnation and opened its border with Gaza to allow ambulances to drive out some of the wounded.

Israeli leaders approved military action against Gaza earlier in the week.

Past limited ground incursions and air strikes have not halted rocket barrages from Gaza. But with 200 mortars and rockets raining down on Israel since the truce expired a week ago, and 3,000 since the beginning of the year, according to the military's count, pressure had been mounting in Israel for the military to crush the gunmen.

Gaza militants fired 30 rockets and mortars Saturday after the air offensive began. A missile hit the town of Netivot, killing an Israeli man and wounding four people, rescue services said.

Dozens of stunned residents gathered around the house that took the deadly rocket hit. Many wept openly. The crowd broke up after an alert siren went off and sent the onlookers running.

Streets were nearly empty in Sderot, the Israeli border town that has been pummeled hardest by rockets. A few cars carried panicked residents leaving town. Dozens of people congregated on a hilltop to watch the Israeli aerial attacks.

Israel declared a state of emergency in Israeli communities within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) range of Gaza, putting the area on a war footing. A siren went off in Kiryat Gat, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the border, but early reports that the town was hit by a rocket for the first time were incorrect.

Barak, the Israeli defense minister, said the coming period 'won't be easy' for southern Israel.

Protests against the campaign erupted in the Abbas-ruled West Bank and across the Arab world.

Several hundred angry Jordanians protested outside a UN complex in the capital Amman. 'Hamas, go ahead. You are the cannon, we are the bullets,' they cried, some waving the signature green Hamas banners.

In Ein Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, dozens of youths hit the streets and set fire to tires. In Syria's al-Yarmouk camp, outside Damascus, dozens of Palestinian protesters vowed to continue fighting Israel.

The first round of air strikes on Gaza came just before noon.

Hospitals crowded with people, civilians rushing in wounded people in cars, vans and ambulances. 'We are treating people on the floor, in the corridors. We have no more space. We don't know who is here or who to treat first,' said one doctor who hung up the phone before identifying himself at Shifa Hospital, Gaza's main treatment center.

Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, a Gaza Health Ministry official, said at least 192 people were killed and 270 wounded. Frantic civilians drove wounded people to hospitals in their cars.

In the West Bank, Hamas' rival, Abbas, said in a statement that he 'condemns this aggression' and called for restraint, according to an aide, Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Abbas, who has ruled only the West Bank since the Islamic Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, was in contact with Arab leaders, and his West Bank Cabinet convened an emergency session.

Israel has targeted Gaza in the past, but the number of simultaneous attacks was unprecedented.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, but the withdrawal did not lead to better relations with Palestinians in the territory as Israeli officials had hoped.

Instead, the evacuation was followed by a sharp rise in militant attacks on Israeli border communities that on several occasions provoked harsh Israeli military reprisals.

The last, in late February and early March, spurred both sides to agree to a truce that was to have lasted six months but began unraveling in early November.

Israeli Communists condemn attacks on Gaza, call for another direction toward peace

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:47:00 +0000

The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) condemned the deadly Dec. 27 attack by the Israeli Air Force on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of over 200 Palestinians.

In a statement issued the day of the massive airstrikes, the CPI called on communist and workers parties and social movements throughout the world to mobilize against what it termed “these Israeli war crimes” and called on the international community to “implement sanctions against Israel and indict Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and other Israeli political and military leadership for these blatant war crimes, committed as part of Israel's election process.”

The CPI said the attack on Gaza is part of the Israeli government’s ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip. “Israel is exploiting the last moments of the Bush administration to implement the deadly but ineffective imperialist policy of utilizing military force to effect political change,” the statement said.

It noted that demonstrations against the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip were planned for Israel’s major cities, with demonstrations to be held that night in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Nazareth. The day before, hundreds of demonstrators attended a rally in central Tel Aviv to protest the expected Israeli military operation in response to Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza. The rally was organized by the Coalition against the Gaza Siege and Hadash.

'I suggest that we go the other direction,' said Hadash Knesset Member Dov Khenin, a leading member of the Communist Party of Israel. Israel’s power, he said, “is our tragedy. One powerful blow will not bring the end. [Hamas] will respond with rockets and eventually we'll embark on an all-out war. Going in the other direction means reinforcing the lull, securing a ceasefire, and lifting the siege that only serves to unite the population around Hamas.”

A genuine peace process has to engage the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, he said. “What's tragic here is that it's possible. We just need the desire.”

Khenin added that it is 'essential to secure a prisoner swap that would include Gilad Shalit.' When asked why few Israelis object to the war in Gaza, he responded: 'People lost their hope. They realize that what's happening is bad, yet they think there's no other option. Yet we are not destined to be the victim of history.'

Another rally participant, former Knesset Member Tamar Gozansky, also a leading member of the CPI, said, 'Two years ago we protested at the same site, before the Second Lebanon War. We were ostracized and referred to as traitors. Yet several months later, all the people who made fun of us carried their own signs to Rabin Square and protested against Olmert's policy. I really hope that we won't have yet another reason to say: 'We told you so.'”

In an earlier statement, Khenin said, 'A comprehensive war in Gaza is dangerous and unnecessary and will put the lives of thousands of Gazans and western Negev residents at risk.'

“War is not the solution” to the problem of the Kassam rockets fired into Israel by Hamas, he continued. 'There is another way: a real truce agreement. Not just a ceasefire, but also ending the Gaza blockade and easing the extreme suffering of a million and a half people.'

Send greetings to the Cuban Five

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:50:00 +0000

We take the occasion of the beginning of a new year to urge readers to write to the Cuban Five. Antonio, Fernando, Gerardo, Rene and Ramon have been in U.S. federal prisons for ten years. They were in Florida to monitor incipient terrorist attacks on Cuba from right-wing paramilitary groups based there. Their cruel sentences followed a most unjust prosecution and trial. Models of dedication and constancy though they may be, they need encouragement and expressions of solidarity.

Ferrnando Gonzalez, address the envelope:

Rubén Campa, No. 58733-004, FCI Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN, 47808

Ramón Labañino, address the envelope:

Luís Medina, No. 58734-004 , U.S.P. McCreary, P.O. Box 3000, Pine Knot, KY 42635

Gerardo Hernandez, No. 58739-004, U.S.P. Victorville, P.O. Box 5500, Adelanto, CA 92301

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, No. 58741-004, U.S.P. Florence, P.O. Box 7000, Florence, CO 81226

Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, No. 58738-004, FCI Marianna, P.O. Box 7007, Marianna, FL 32447-7007

WORLDNOTES December 20, 2008

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:23:00 +0000

Morocco: EU aid promotes trade, military power

Parliament recently doubled 2009 defense spending to 16 percent of state expenses, at the same time the EU is increasing financial assistance to 190 million euros.

Under a new “advanced treaty,” Morocco became the top recipient of funds dispensed to African and Middle Eastern countries under the EU’s European Neighborhood Policy. Moroccan exports gain new access to European markets.

The Afrol news service asserts that stepped-up defense funding will enable Morocco “to buy sophisticated weapons in order to create equilibrium in the region with Algeria.”

Morocco has long resented Algerian support for the Polisario independence movement in Western Sahara, a region Moroccan troops have occupied since Spanish colonists were forced to depart in 1975.

Venezuela: Campaign to end term limits

Last week activists of President Hugo Chavez’ United Socialist Party of Venezuela sought signatures supporting a constitutional amendment to eliminate the present two-term limit on presidential tenure. After receiving the signatures, the National Assembly will discuss the amendment on Dec. 18 and again on Jan. 5. If it gains Assembly approval, it will be submitted to a national referendum vote, probably in March.

The Popular Tribune quoted Communist Party General Secretary Oscar Figuera as saying Venezuela’s Communists will gather signatures in a process viewed as useful for promoting “unity and collective discussion.” Figuera called for abolition of term limits for all elective offices. The next presidential election takes place in 2012.

Nepal: Governing party challenges ex-insurgents

The Congress Party has refused to allow 19,000 ex-guerrillas housed in United Nations camps to enter the army, which the French news agency AFP calls a bastion of Nepal’s elite.

Prime Minister Prachanda responded last week by threatening to dissolve his four-month-old Maoist majority government. Along with land reform, melding of the military forces had been crucial to the deal allowing Maoist insurgents to end their decade-long civil war.

In November, landless street protesters organized by the National Land Rights Forum forced a procrastinating government to establish a commission, opposed by big owners, to implement land reform. Pressures also mounted on the government to make good on commitments to restore land to 200,000 people forced off holdings during the insurgency, or provide compensation.

Iran-Iraq: Building ties

Press TV said last week that Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh has called upon “the new [Obama] administration to open a dialogue with Iran to resolve the exceptional problems which are affecting stability in the region.”

The role of economic imperatives in prompting Iranian-Iraqi rapprochement was evident in a Dec. 10 statement by Iranian oil official Ahmad Nasiri, who announced $32 million in spending toward development of programs to drill nine oil wells in north Baghdad. The Xinhua news service cited Iran’s long-term interest in joining multinational exploitation of Iraqi oil reserves, and “other neighboring countries’ oil industries.”

UN: Growing hunger highlighted

The Rome-based World Food Program this month presented a survey of world hunger. “For millions [in] developing countries, eating the minimum amount of food … is a distant dream,” Assistant Director General Hafez Ghanem said in a press release published on rebelion.org.

Undernourished people, 923 million in 2007, now number 963 million, 65 percent of whom live in India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Causes include lack of land, credit and jobs as well as high costs for food, seed and fertilizer.

Big farms enabled rich countries to increase grain production this year by 10 percent. Production stagnated elsewhere. Halving the number of hungry by 2015 a Millennium Development Goal will require $30 billion annually.

Cuba: Caribbean leaders hosted

The Third Cuba-Caricom Summit, meeting Dec. 8 in Santiago de Cuba, issued a declaration covering Caribbean integration, mutual developmental assistance, climate change, the financial crisis and drug trafficking. Cuba, not a member of the 15-member trade alliance, held the first summit in 2002, three decades after Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago established diplomatic relations with Havana, defying the U.S. blockade.

President Raul Castro reminded the leaders that Cuba’s international solidarity is founded on revolution. The Cuban News Agency noted that 1,013 Cuban health professionals are working in Caricom nations, performing 17 million medical consultations, 300,000 operations and 123,000 deliveries over 10 years. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro was awarded the “Order of the Caribbean Community.”

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

Iraqi CP opens new office in Sadr City

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:26:00 +0000

This is pretty impressive, and probably will not get reported in The New York Times or other commercial media.

Iraqi Letter reports:

A new office for the Iraqi Communist Party was opened in Al-Thawra City (Sadr City) in Baghdad on 5th December 2008. The ceremony, held in open air in Jamila district, was attended by a big gathering of party members and supporters, as well as a delegation from the party Central Committee. The president and members of the municipal council of Sadr City, and other guests were present.

Note: This vast very poor neighborhood was long known as 'Revolution (al-Thawra) City' until the Islamic Shiite upsurge after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein. Today, reports indicate the standing of religious parties has suffered as Iraqis are turned off by the sectarianism and violence.

Abdul Hussein al-Rubaei, representing the party district committee, stressed in his speech the political significance of opening the new party office in this toiling [working class] area. Comrade Izzet Abu-el-Timmen, member of the party Political Bureau, conveyed the greetings of the Central Committee, and reiterated the party's support for the population of the City and their demands to aleviate the injustive they had suffered under the former dictatorial regime. He also called upon them to participate actively in the forthcoming provincial elections and to give their support to the electoral list 'Madaniyoun' (No. 460) that represents the democratic forces.

The secular and democratic left in Iraq has wide and deep roots, and is vastly under-reported in U.S. commercial media and in the left. The provincial elections, currently set for Jan. 31, will show something about how the political trends are shaping up in Iraq. That's why there's been an upsurge of violence with various reactionary elements (right-wing Islamists, former Baathists, etc.) trying to intimidate or eliminate their opponents.

Japan's Communist Party grows during economic crisis

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:29:00 +0000

Japanese Communist Party Chair (JCP) Shii Kazuo on December 14th appeared on TV Asahi's 'Sunday Project' program that aired live. In the interview, he answered questions as to why the JCP is attracting attention now and how the party recognizes serious issues of employment. Citing European governments' measures to secure employment, he stressed responsibilities the government should fulfill and explained the JCP's efforts to overcome 'capitalism without rules.'

At the beginning of the segment TV announcers said, 'Amid the worsening employment situation and working conditions under the recession, the Japanese Communist Party is seen to be very invigorated. Why is the JCP attracting young people's attention? What are they expecting from the JCP? We will ask JCP Chair Shii Kazuo if the JCP has a prescription for improving the economy.'

Then Shii had a discussion with journalist Tawara Soichiro:

Tawara: Many young people are reading Capital. Why Capital now? We've also witnessed the Kanikosen ('The Factory Ship,' a novel by Kobayashi Takiji) attracting a wide readership. And the JCP is increasing its membership.

Terasaki Takashi (TV Asahi announcer): I hear that the JCP is reaching people on the Internet.

Tawara: Yes, on the Internet.

At the start of the interview, video footage from Shii's speech at the December 4 rally for a drastic revision of the Workers Dispatch Law was shown with a narration: 'The rapidly worsening employment situation and the raging storm of restructuring.' Participants in the video were seen shouting, 'Stop the illegal corporate restructuring schemes! Major corporations must fulfill their social responsibility to secure jobs!'

Then it said, 'The JCP is attracting attention amid the economic downturn. It has received more than 13,000 new members since September last year and been covered by magazines targeting automobile fans and business managers,' showing the December issue of 'New Model Magazine X' and the December issue of 'BOSS' magazine featuring Shii's lecture at a business workshop. It also introduced the British newspaper Telegraph's web article entitled, 'Japan's young turn to Communist Party as they decide capitalism has let them down.' The theme of Shii's interview was 'Why is it the JCP now?'

Tawara: We've seen a major increase in public interest in the JCP. In Germany, Marx's Capital is a best-seller. In Japan, in addition to the big Kanikosen boom, increasing number of people are also reading Capital.

Shii: That's right.

Tawara: The JCP has received 13,000 new members between September last year and November this year. The readership of Akahata has also increased by 18,000 in the last seven months.

Shii: Yes, we have long experienced a decline in the Akahata readership since the 1980s. However, the readership has finally begun to increase. So we can say we are turning around and gaining momentum.

Concerning the membership, we have made progress for 13 consecutive months with 13,000 people joining the party. I think this represents a major change taking place.

Tawara: Why are people interested so much in Marx and the JCP now?

Shii: One main reason is that our efforts to resolve the 'working poor' problem have gained support for the JCP.

At the same time, many people are beginning to ask whether or not Japan should continue to accept capitalism without rules. We have no decent rules to defend the people's living conditions regarding employment, social services, medium-and-small-sized firms, and many other fields. I believe that an increasing number of people have empathy for the JCP's call for an end to 'capitalism without rules.'

- Akahata December 16, 2008

Cuba celebrates UN Human Rights Day 60th anniversary

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:52:00 +0000

If scant Internet postings and newspaper coverage indicate anything, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Dec. 10 — designated each year as Human Rights Day — passed almost unnoticed in the United States.

Cuba staged a workshop attended by 200 people from many countries, looking at “Sixty Years After.” In inaugural remarks contrasting U.S. and Cuban stewardship of human rights, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque cited U.S. torture at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, the existence of the Guantanamo prison and base, disappearances and murders by former Latin American dictators favored by Washington, and the safe haven given criminal Luis Posada Carriles, who organized the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people.

He could have added “extraordinary rendition” — one way the U.S. government transports torture victims — and the case of Jose Padilla. For almost four years the Bush administration denied that U.S. citizen a civilian trial. For him and for over 1,000 Muslims rounded up in the United States soon after Sept. 11, 2001, habeas corpus did not apply.

Perez Roque castigated U.S. handling of the case of “Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, René, and Fernando.” The five Cuban men, subjected to flawed prosecutorial and judicial processes, are serving long prison terms for the supposed crime of monitoring private, Florida-based paramilitary groups carrying out murderous attacks on the Cuban people.

The conduct of their prosecution, trial and sentencing violated Declaration prescriptions on judicial norms. Articles 7 through 11 refer to “equal protection of law,” “effective remedy” through courts to correct abuses, provisions against “arbitrary arrest, detention,” and rights to an “impartial tribunal.” Perez Roque further observed, “Today there is not a single Cuban family crying over a family member disappeared over the last 50 years” or assassinated or tortured.

Taking off on an expanded definition of human rights, elaborated upon in a 1993 world conference on human rights in Vienna, Perez Roque is on sure ground: human rights signify a “people’s right to establish their own economic, political, and social system.”

The Cuban foreign minister declared, “Today no Cuban family laments that their child can’t go to school or that a sick relative can’t exercise their right to receive medical attention.” He took note of “a billion victims of hunger and malnutrition [in the world], more than 800 million who can neither read nor write, and 11 million children under five years old dying this year because of preventable and curable diseases.”

Other commentators have noted that while the amount U.S. families must pay for a public university education has risen greatly in recent years, in Cuba cost-free access to university education has contributed to university attendance by 68 percent of people 18 to 26 years old. Some commentators have also pointed out that the UDHR itself suffers from individualism, liberalism and judicial formalism, leaving out collective rights such as people’s struggles against poverty, economic, financial and military domination.

atwhit @ roadrunner.com

Agile Ecuador government riles friends and foes

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:48:00 +0000

Pursuing social justice and national independence, the government of President Rafael Correa has gained new adversaries while prodding old foes. Having won a 57 percent majority in a run-off vote, Illinois-trained economist Correa, candidate of the populist Alianza Pais party, became president in January 2007.

Correa, no shrinking violet, is forcing the U.S. military to leave Manta Airbase, advocates “socialism of the 21st century,” and with Venezuelan and Bolivian counterparts resists U.S. imperialism. Last week in Tehran he and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered into joint banking, energy, trade and scientific projects. Ecuador is requesting loans from Iraq, according to Foreign Minister Maria Elsa Viteri.

In the same vein, Correa responded in kind to a reprimand last week from Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos complaining that Ecuador did little to fight leftist FARC insurgents in Colombia. Diplomatic relations with the U.S. puppet Colombian government were broken last March when Colombia attacked a FARC encampment in Ecuador.

Now, Correa’s government has challenged an ally in the struggle for Latin American unity. Two months ago Ecuador ousted Brazil’s Odebrecht Company because of an unfinished dam project, in the process reneging on four contracts for other company projects worth $700 million. On Nov. 21, Ecuador announced refusal to pay on a $550 million loan provided by Brazil’s state-owned National Bank of Economic and Social Development that had gone directly to Odebrecht.

In response, President Lula da Silva withdrew Brazil’s ambassador in Quito, the first such recall since 1870. Foreign Minister Celso Amorim threatened cessation of trade between the two countries.

International lenders were put on alert in mid-November when Ecuador delayed a $30.6 million interest payment on $3.9 billion in outstanding bonds. A 30-day moratorium period was used to study the possibility of default on all $10.3 billion in foreign debt obligations. Correa and advisors studied a report released Nov. 21 by an international, independent team of debt analysts, a year in the making.

Correa viewed the report as documenting an “illegitimate, corrupt, and illegal debt,” beyond government control. Hugo Arias, one of its authors, indicated that 80 percent of the debt emanated from old debt refinanced, and that $127 billion in principle alone has been paid over decades on loans originally worth $80 billion. Ally Venezuela holds most of the outstanding bonds.

President Correa is following the lead of former Cuban President Fidel Castro who at a conference on foreign debt on Aug. 1, 1985 asked, “Must debts to the oppressor be paid by the oppressed?” The current debt crisis coincides with a 60 percent drop in oil revenues for Latin America’s fourth largest oil exporter. Ecuador’s government must delve into foreign cash reserves when prices dip below $76 per barrel. Plans to fund social programs through oil earnings inexorably went awry.

A back-up plan to use mining revenues, particularly from gold and copper, to cover state obligations boomeranged. On Nov. 17 demonstrations broke out nationwide led by indigenous and peasant groups opposed to a proposed mining law. Protesters concerned about diminished water and soil quality, land rights and local autonomy rejected promises that mining royalties set at 5 percent would pay for social projects.

Two days later 10,000 indigenous and leftist marchers blocked traffic on the Pan American Highway. Chants and banners called dramatically for water rights. Appealing to the new constitution, community leader Jose Cueva spoke for many marchers: “The president needs to first pass a food sovereignty law, a water law and a biodiversity law. Then we can have a national dialogue over what to do about mining.”

President Correa railed against “romantic notions, novelty, fixations or whatever, to say no to mining,” especially when we are “seated on hundreds of billions of dollars.” Calling for “environmentally, socially and economically responsible” mining, he denounced “infantile” and “fundamentalist” ideas.

The indigenous and social movements had been crucial to the 65 percent popular vote in September putting a new, government-orchestrated constitution into effect, one that embraced indigenous rights. Recently in disarray, CONAIE, the main indigenous federation, has revived.

Under the constitution, Correa and 5,993 other elected officials face re-election in 2009. CONAIE and other social movements have been instrumental over the past decade in overthrowing three presidents.

Afghanistan: Peace group projects a way out

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:58:00 +0000

Ex-presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, visiting Afghanistan this week, predicted the situation there will get worse before it gets better, “just like the surge in Iraq was.”

Gen. David McKiernan, who commands U.S. and NATO troops there, foresees a “tough fight” next year. He is calling for increasing the U.S. troop strength in the country to 55-60,000 from the current 32,000, and keeping them there for the next four years. He is also urging NATO members to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, slated to continue in that position in the incoming Obama administration, said last week a new strategy to fight Islamic extremists will be a high priority for the new administration.

But in the war’s eighth year, observers warn that a “troop surge” won’t reverse Afghanistan’s slide into chaos, violence and poverty.

Last week September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, formed in the aftermath of the tragic 2001 attacks, released a briefing saying a military surge will only bring increased violence and the threat of a wider war, and calling for “a drastically revamped U.S. policy focused on diplomacy, negotiation, aid, reconstruction and international cooperation.” Their paper, “Afghanistan: Ending a failed military strategy,” is available at www.peaceful-tomorrows.org.

“The events of the past seven years show that the more U.S. and NATO troops that deploy to Afghanistan, the greater the violence against Afghan civilians and troops, and the greater the recruitment levels for insurgent fighters,” the report’s authors said. They called for “an honest assessment of how the international community, and the United States in particular, can play a positive role in assisting Afghans to counter violence and rebuild their country.”

Their recommendations include setting a “swift timetable” to withdraw U.S. and NATO troops and substitute a UN force for short-term security, immediately stopping air strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, supporting negotiations that include Afghan women leaders, investing in long-term aid projects such as sustainable agriculture and compensating Afghan families and communities affected by U.S. military actions.

Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, has also been rethinking the international troop presence. He recently told visiting UN officials that in the absence of military success a time should be set for the troops to leave, and that talks should be opened with leaders of the Islamic extremist Taliban who demonstrate national loyalty.

To date over 550 U.S. troops and nearly 400 NATO soldiers have died in the Afghan conflict. At least 3,200 Afghan civilians have been killed during U.S. and NATO attacks including the deaths of as many as 90 civilians including 60 children in August, when a U.S.-led air strike hit a memorial service for a tribal leader in the western Afghan village of Azizabad.

In an article posted last week on TomDispatch.com, Afghanistan-based journalist Anand Gopal said the mounting civilian casualties, together with the “mismanagement” and “rampant criminality” of the U.S.-based government headed by Karzai, have opened the way to a “spectacular resurgence” of the Taliban and similar groups, which now control large parts of the south and east.

Though the original Taliban was defeated after the U.S. invasion in 2001, the country’s descent into chaos, as warlords and bandits came to dominate large areas, opened the way for their resurgence and their ability to win people over with promises of security and efficiency, Gopal said. The insurgency now includes nationalists, religious extremists and bandits, and various Taliban factions as well as other armed insurgent groups.

Meanwhile, Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said Afghanistan is the world’s fourth poorest country, with 42 percent of the population below the poverty line and another 20 percent hovering just above it. With Afghans suffering from not only the effects of war, but also from the worldwide rise in food prices, 70 percent of Afghans face food insecurity.

The country is also the world’s largest producer of opium, with poppy production soaring in recent years. Last year a record poppy crop amounted to half the country’s GDP.

Despite the Karzai government’s reforms for women, Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said rampant inequalities and abuse continue and Afghanistan is the only country where suicides among women exceed those by men.

“It is time the U.S. stops playing the game of ‘liberator’ and starts learning to cooperate respectfully with other nations and peoples of the world,” their report said. “Beginning this new strategy in Afghanistan is the best legacy the U.S. can leave for the lives lost on 9/11 and the most effective way to become a friend of the people of Afghanistan.”

mbechtel@ pww.org. Tom Whitney contributed to this article.

World Notes: December 13

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 07:55:00 +0000

India: Russia aids nuclear development

Visiting in India, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed agreements with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh providing for Russian construction of four more nuclear energy reactors in addition to two already being built, all in Tamil Nadu state. Russia will assist India’s space program, sell or lease nuclear submarines and, in a $1 billion deal, provide India with 80 military helicopters.

From the cold war on, Russia has supplied India with 70 percent of its military equipment. Russia had already arranged for nuclear fuel sales worth $700 million. Following the deal it signed earlier this year with Washington, India also secured French assistance in developing civilian nuclear capabilities, the Bloomberg news service said.

Somalia: Slaughter, suffering continue

Al Jazeera reported that Ethiopian troops’ Dec. 5 shelling of a marketplace in northern Mogadishu ended up killing at least 16 people and wounding dozens. Although forces loyal to the ousted Islamic Courts Union government retain control of Somalia’s south, they remain unable to dislodge U.S.-supported Ethiopian and government forces from the city.

Ethiopian plans to withdraw all troops within weeks, in accordance with peace agreements signed in Djibouti last month, have fueled renewed calls for international peacekeepers and U.S. backing of a “unity government.” Fighting has killed 10,000 civilians since early 2007 and displaced more than a million.

“Somalia has the highest levels of malnutrition in the world,” a UNICEF official asserted recently.

Italy: Historic rescue underscores risks

Lampedusa Island, closer to Africa than Sicily, is ground zero for EU authorities protecting “fortress Europe” from undocumented African migrants. Rescues at sea can lead to prosecution on contraband charges. Those seized often end up in camps.

On Nov. 27, the “law of the sea” prevailed. Lampedusa port authorities learned that two crowded boats proceeding from Libya were in danger. Coast Guard lieutenant Achille Selleri radioed captains of four fishing boats docked in Sicily that were large enough to handle high winds and 30-foot seas: “Gentlemen, we can’t save them. I need your boats.”

“We are ready,” they replied immediately. A complicated night rescue operation ensued. Over 650 migrants walked onto Lampedusa’s dock. Terrible disaster was averted.

Colombia: Gov’t evidence evaporates

Under oath, police investigator Ronald Coy, who examined computers belonging to FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes, told prosecutors handling the case of an Ecuadorian politician accused of ties with FARC insurgents that the computers contained no e-mails, only word documents.

The government has alleged that Reyes’ e-mails proved Colombian leftists and Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan activists and politicians maintained FARC associations. The computers fell into military hands following the raid March 1 on a FARC campsite in Ecuador that killed over 20 people including Reyes.

Speaking to reporters after Noticias Uno broke the story on Dec. 2, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos continued to insist on the existence of the e-mails.

Cuba: Scientists, industry respond to world vaccine needs

Twenty years ago Cuba developed the world’s only commercially available vaccine against type B meningococcal bacteria, responsible for meningitis affecting young adults. On Dec. 4, Concepcion Campa, director of Havana’s Finlay Institute, announced Cuba’s donation of 5.2 million doses of the vaccine to African countries. In addition, Cuba and Brazil, encouraged by the World Health Organization, recently outlined cooperative plans to expand vaccine production.

New vaccine manufacturing facilities, developed in response to UN urging and inaugurated last week, are central to the project. Global Insight indicates that Cuba’s pharmaceutical industry ranked second for export income in 2007.

Gaza: Siege builds

The Israeli noose has tightened. Banks in Gaza closed Dec. 4 because cash transfers worth $63 million were blocked, leaving 70,000 civil servants payless. The Arab Doctors Union warned of epidemics due to vaccine and water shortages. Libya last week protested Israel’s interdiction in international waters of its ship Al-Marwa, carrying 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

Israel’s military recently introduced a robot with small weapons capabilities useful for “exploring tunnels and detecting ambushes.” Resumed fighting caused the deaths recently of 19 Palestinians. The Xinhua news reported last week the governing Hamas movement would soon end its six-month truce with Israel. Demonstrators against Israel’s siege congregated in Istanbul and Amman on Dec. 5.

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

World Notes

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:32:00 +0000

UN: Call for action on women’s rights

Observing the United Nations-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Nov. 25, the UN Development Fund for Women identified the fact that one-third of all women have been beaten or coerced into sex as a “problem of pandemic proportions.” Director Ines Alberdi called for worldwide governmental action.

Interviewed in Swaziland by Inter Press Service, anti-violence leader Hlobisile Dlamini-Shongwe discussed causes: victims failing to report incidents; prevailing unemployment, poverty and HIV/AIDS; easy availability of weapons and lax laws. Dlamini-Shongwe spoke during “Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender Violence,” the international campaign launched by the New Jersey-based Center for Women’s Global Leadership connecting Nov. 25 with Dec. 10, the UN’s International Human Rights Day.

EU: Drug firms block generic sales

In a report issued Nov. 28, the European Commission’s anti-trust arm castigated European drug manufacturers for blocking sales of generic drugs costing an average 20 percent less than patent-protected drugs. Generics make up 40 percent of European drug sales and 60 percent of U.S. transactions.

Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes threatened antitrust legal actions against companies protecting the status quo through lawsuits, multiple patents and payoffs to generic manufacturers. Reuters reported that company spokespersons criticized her agency for carrying out “dawn raids” on their headquarters beginning in January.

Extra costs for European health care providers due to high brand name prices came to $3.87 billion during 2002-2007. Critics say the industry introduced only 27 new types of drugs from 2000 to 2004, down from 40 during the previous four years.

Afghanistan: Karzai rethinking troop presence

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently told visiting UN officials that in the absence of military success a time should be set for coalition troops to leave, and that negotiations should be opened with Taliban leaders who demonstrate national loyalty.

Karzai criticized forced entry by international troops into Afghan homes and attacks against civilians. The BBC report sees the president’s new tack as preparatory for presidential elections next year.

Reporting to the UN World Food Program, Karzai’s Ministry of Public Health recently upped estimates of Afghan children at risk of death from malnutrition from 550,000 in July to 1.6 million now, due in part to drought, high food prices and loss of livestock. Women of child-bearing age are also endangered.

Cuba: International relations surge

Cuba last month marked gains in overcoming the international isolation Washington has long sought to impose. Russian spokespersons took the occasion of a visit by President Dmitry Medvedev to reaffirm plans for offshore oil exploration and development of oil storage facilities and pipelines as well as construction of a nickel-processing plant in Holguin.

In a similar vein, officials accompanying Chinese President Hu Jintao to Cuba announced postponement of Cuban debt repayments and $70 million in loans toward refurbishing Cuban hospitals — welcome news following hurricane losses of $10 billion this year. Visiting former Cuban President Fidel Castro, President Hu promised continued Chinese backing of Cuban sovereignty, opposition to “outside interference” and “firm support for the socialist cause,” Xinhua news said. Korea: North-South relations prove fragile

Incensed by inflammatory leaflets, joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and South Korean co-sponsorship of a UN human rights resolution directed at the North, the Pyongyang government forced the exodus of almost 2,000 South Koreans working at the joint Kaesong industrial complex. Recently-initiated rail service and visits by South Korean tourists to historic Kaesong were also stopped.

South Korea’s Yonhap news service associated deteriorating relations with policies of conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who since assuming office in February has reversed openings initiated by liberal predecessors.

North Korea’s government blamed Lee for failing to implement cooperative economic projects requiring large South Korean investments. Over 1,500 South Koreans were allowed to remain at Kaesong after Dec. 1.

Chile: Massive strike underscores worker strength

Described as Chile’s biggest strike in 40 years, the four day walk-out by 400,000 public sector workers ending Nov. 20 led to garbage uncollected, surgeries cancelled, schools closed, exports delayed, and daily losses of $165 million. Faced with 9.9 percent inflation over 12 months, workers led by the National Alliance of Fiscal Employees and backed by the CUT labor federation accepted a 10 percent wage hike after rejecting the initial government offer of 6.5 percent. They had agreed to a 6.9 percent raise in 2007 despite a 7.8 percent increase that year in living costs. For analysts cited by PiensaChile.com, the settlement represented worker mobilization powerful enough to overcome Pinochet-era strictures on public sector strikes and International Monetary Fund rules.

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

Americans favor ending blockade against Cuba

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:57:00 +0000

Spurred by President-elect Barack Obama’s successful campaign and the prospects for stronger Democratic control of Congress, a new crop of analyses, statements and resolutions is emerging against Washington’s nearly half-century-long blockade of Cuba.

“It’s stupid, it’s counterproductive and there is no international support for it,” former U.S. Interest Section head Wayne Smith declared last summer. Smith, who headed the Interests section in Havana from 1979 to 1982, failed to mention the blockade’s cruelty and its illegality under international law.

Cuba’s increasing international ties, economic growth and reforms undertaken by the new Raul Castro government have discouraged U.S. fantasies about Cuban weakness. Business demands for easy trade with Cuba and the unpopularity of Bush administration restrictions on Cuban American support for families on the island also suggest a new era of struggle has dawned.

Obama has signaled plans to remedy Cuban American concerns on visits and aid to families. He has expressed willingness to talk with Cuban leaders and would “take steps to normalize relations once the “post-Fidel government begins opening Cuba to democratic change.”

Last month, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times each called for reappraisal of U.S. policy toward Cuba in the context of overhaul of all Latin American policies. For the former, ending the blockade would test “intentions of the new Cuban leadership.” The latter sees the current U.S. approach as “anachronistic.”

Last month the Brookings Institution issued a report advocating engagement “on a range of issues of mutual concern with a view to ending the embargo.” Earlier, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs published an upbeat appraisal on Cuban developments including decentralized control of agriculture, attention to human rights, economic growth, the discovery of new oil reserves, openings to private businesses, and entrepreneurial farming. The result was a powerful, if implicit, case for ending the blockade, especially in light of the Council’s list of U.S. commercial losses.

In May, the Council on Foreign Relations issued a task-force report on U.S.-Latin American relations suggesting that “the time is ripe to show the Cuban people, especially younger generations, that an alternative exists to permanent hostility.” It proposed increased trade and relaxation of travel rules.

A Zogby survey in September found 60 percent of likely voters (84 percent of Obama voters) favor openings toward Cuba; 68 percent, freedom to travel to Cuba; and 62 percent, allowances for U.S. companies to trade. In Miami, even the Cuban American National Foundation took exception to Bush policies it viewed as “insulting.” U.S. failure to help out with damage caused by hurricanes was seen as a moral rather than political issue. But U.S. unions, anti-war groups, and civil rights organizations have so far maintained a low profile in opposing the blockade.

International pressure is unrelenting. For the 17th time, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution calling for the blockade’s end, this time by a record 185-3 vote. In August the UN Secretary General issued a report on implementation of the same vote last year that because of UN objectivity, promises to become a useful tool for anti-blockade agitation.

The report included statements by 122 nations justifying opposition to unilateral U.S. sanctions and summaries from 22 UN agencies providing comprehensive documentation of blockade effects on food supplies in Cuba, health care, schools, housing, energy, and more. Cuban economists calculate that since 1962, the U.S. blockade has cost Cuba $93 billion — or in today’s dollars, $225 billion. Some 75 percent of Cubans have lived their entire lives under U.S. sanctions.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Presidents Morales and Chavez of Bolivia and Venezuela, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Amnesty International enjoined President-elect Obama directly or through the media to rectify U.S. Cuban relations.

The record of nearly 50 years suggests that for elected officials to accept such advice or act on considerations of utility, legality or ethics is far from certain. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro pointed out last month, “There are those who still dream of bringing Cuba to its knees wielding the criminal blockade,” adding that if they remain in charge, “this useless policy against Cuba may remain in force for another half century.' Analysts see renewed political struggle and energized constituents as crucial.