People Before Profit blog

In the shadow of NASDAQ, Dominican Americans decry gas speculation

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK—A group of Dominican American and other Latino elected officials with dozens of community members protested petroleum speculation here in Times Square July 30. Called by the League of Dominican American Elected Officials and hosted by New York State Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, the protest was held outside the headquarters of NASDAQ, which trades oil futures.

“We are here to address rampant unregulated speculation conducted in the NASDAQ trade market,” said Espaillat, who is co-chairman of the league. He and other speakers blamed market speculators and deregulation of the oil markets for the unprecedented oil and gas prices in working-class Dominican American communities in the U.S., and in the Dominican Republic. The national average for a gallon of gas in the United States is now $3.89 and in the Dominican Republic gas tops $6.00 a gallon, according to some reports.

Speakers blamed the staggering gas prices on the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which opened the door to speculation on energy commodities. U.S. gas prices have more than doubled since the act was passed. The league is supporting legislation introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), which would reestablish some regulation to curb such speculation. President Bush vetoed an attempt to reform the act earlier this year. Espaillat told reporters that Congressional Republicans attempted to kill Reid’s bill by introducing offshore drilling proposals into it last week.

“This winter in New England is going to be a difficult one,” said Rhode Island State Senator Juan Pichardo, referring to predictions of high heating-oil prices next season. “We are stepping up not only for congressional action but to build an alliance with [Dominican Republic] President Fernandez.” Pichardo is the other co-chairman of the league.

In response to the global oil crisis, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez is proposing a Global Petroleum Solidarity Fund be created to assist countries with annual per capita income less than $6,000. Under the proposal, oil-producing nations would allocate 3 percent of their record earnings to the fund.

“Our goal is to let the speculators on Wall Street know, we will not be invisible. We are being impacted by oil prices not only in this country, but in the Dominican Republic,” Councilman Reynaldo Martinez of Haledon, N.J., told the World.

Elected officials from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland participated in the protest and press conference. The American Northeast is home to the majority of Dominican Americans.

The crowd chanted, “Lower the prices!” as they picketed. Some held signs reading, “Talk is cheap. Gas isn’t,” and “Wall Street gets drunk and effects everyone” in English and Spanish. Some held Dominican flags, but one protester assured a curious passerby, “This is for everyone. Gas prices are killing everyone.”

Pichardo said in a written statement, “Without a legal framework to halt market speculation, U.S. Hispanics, as well as all the most disadvantaged groups and countries around the world will end up paying for the profits of speculators who don’t see beyond their own greed.”

Zimbabwe negotiates on power-sharing

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:44:00 +0000

In a triumph for African diplomacy, the ruling and opposition parties of Zimbabwe are in the midst of negotiations toward a power-sharing agreement. Despite Zimbabwean opposition calls for his replacement as mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki succeeded in bringing together President Robert Mugabe and his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), for their first face-to-face talks in a decade.

Major obstacles remain in the negotiations, particularly Mugabe's possible role in a unity government, but Zimbabweans across the political spectrum expressed relief that the two sides are meeting in Harare. After months of often violent confrontations between government and opposition supporters, Zimbabweans were enthused by a photo of Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC splinter-faction leader Arthur Mutambara holding hands and smiling on July 21, when the talks formally were announced.

The negotiators committed to a tight two-week deadline for putting together the agreement. The MDC demands Mugabe step down and the creation of a 'Transitional Authority' to monitor new elections. The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) calls for the opposition to accept Mugabe as president and an end to western sanctions against Zimbabwe.

The crisis in Zimbabwe began after a first round of elections in December, which was relatively peaceful and declared free and fair by international election observers. Although Tsvangirai received the most votes, he did not pass the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a run-off, a result confirmed by independent election monitors. The MDC insisted their leader won outright and declared they would not participate in a run-off, as Tsvangirai spent weeks shuttling around southern Africa trying to persuade neighboring leaders to force Mugabe out of power. The opposition then shifted gears, saying Tsvangirai would stand in the second round, before again deciding to not participate in the run-off only days before the vote because of violence against opposition supporters. This ensured Mugabe's re-election, analysts said.

The MDC charges 120 of its followers were killed since the first round of elections by state-sponsored campaign of violence against the opposition. The Zimbabwean government denies the charge and points out that supporters of both sides committed violent acts. In fact, last week the BBC reported that MDC members attacked a group of liberation war veterans, who overwhelmingly support Mugabe.

While the electoral violence generally appears to be dissipating, the Zimbabwean economy continues its freefall, as the government recently issued a new 100 billion Zimbabwean dollar note.

Meanwhile, capitalist powers continue their campaign against the Zimbabwean government as both the European Union and the Bush administration enacted new sanctions even as the negotiations were taking place. The latest sanctions come after the United States and Zimbabwe's former colonial power the United Kingdom were rebuffed by the United Nations Security Council. The sanctions resolution they sponsored in that body was opposed by, among other member countries, South Africa, and vetoed by permanent members Russia and China, two nations that supported Zimbabwe's anti-colonial struggle in the 1970s.

Sanctions against Zimbabwe means no U.S. firms can conduct business with the organizations targeted, such as the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe. These sanctions just further the hardship for the people of Zimbabwe without resolving any political issues.

Some African observers believe the capitalist powers seem more interested in punishing and isolating Mugabe rather than promoting dialogue and peace in Zimbabwe.

In many African societies, appeasing both sides and achieving consensus is the customary approach to settling disputes. The South African-mediated talks are an illustration of the renewed commitment to pursuing Pan-Africanist approaches to resolving conflicts within the African Union. Ordinary Zimbabweans are placing their hopes in a successful round of negotiations leading to a national unity government, similar to the recent agreement signed in Kenya ending a violent upheaval there following a disputed election last December.

July 26, Cubas National Holiday

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:56:00 +0000

At dawn on July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, a young lawyer, told a group of young people, “Comrades, within a few hours, we will either succeed or be defeated. But regardless of the outcome, listen well, comrades, this movement will triumph.”

Losing would be acceptable. “The action will serve as an example to the people of Cuba, to raise the flag and continue forward.”

They lost. Of the 134 rebels who attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, regional headquarters for the Cuban Army, and 30 more who fought in Bayamo, 78 were killed.

Eight years later, on July 26, 1961, Fidel Castro spoke at the first mass celebration of the day designated as the beginning of the revolution that took down the tyrannical and corrupt Batista regime. Since then the holiday has begun the night before with neighborhood parties throughout the island. A city is selected to host the day’s major rally.

On that first occasion, Fidel Castro spoke of struggle “to give to the men who had nothing, everything, and everything for a man is bread, bread to nourish him and bread to nourish his mind — knowledge.” The theme of the battle of ideas thus emerged.

Struggle then, and now, meant defense against “direct and indirect attacks organized against us by the imperialist government of the United States. For this reason we, the Cubans, must have nerves of steel.” Fidel Castro’s long speech was replete with history, analysis, and ideals, but above all else, it signified combativeness.

The revolutionary government, Castro explained, results from “a long process of struggle, the culmination of a great desire of all of our people, who began to struggle in the past.” The notion of the long haul is one that would resonate later.

Or it seemed 50 years later, on July 26, 2003. That year President Castro delivered the main speech of the day at the Moncada Barracks, now a school and museum. To remind Cubans of prerevolutionary horrors, he quoted from his famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech given as legal defense at the trial following the Moncada attack.

In the speech, Castro described describing “six hundred thousand Cubans without work ... five hundred thousand farm laborers who work four months of the year and starve the rest.” Castro noted “retirement funds embezzled,” “wretched” housing, “productive land in foreign hands,” “starving children” and “mass murder of so many thousands of children.”

Fifty years later, Fidel Castro catalogued the social achievements of the revolution he led. For one such as the present author, a Cuba watcher then for almost 50 years and present in the audience that day, this was icing on the cake. History was unfolding in front of me.

But — surprise — history did not stop. Fidel Castro castigated the European Union for sanctioning Cuba that month, withholding its scant humanitarian aid. (The sanctions had been imposed in response to the jailing earlier that year of 75 counterrevolutionaries convicted of taking U.S. money. They were lifted this year.)

Yes, the July 26 event serves as an educational forum and an occasion for rededication. But it seemed that day to grab onto the present moment. In Cuba, immediate realities are always on the agenda, and combativeness never far below the surface.

atwhit @roadrunner.com.

Ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula is the urgent task of our times

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:26:00 +0000

Commentary

PYONGYANG, Korea – Reducing military tension and ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula is a matter of the utmost urgency, in regard to both the demands of the current world situation and the desire for peace on behalf of the vast majority of the world’s people.

When peace is ensured in Korea, one of the most volatile hot spots on the face of the earth will disappear and humanity’s aspiration for peace will be much closer to realization.

But to ensure peace on the Korean peninsula means removing the factor obstructing it.

A long period, more than half a century, has already passed since the Korean war came to an end in July 1953. However, the peninsula is still in a state of cease-fire. The root cause of this situation lies in the hostile policy of the United States towards the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea). As in the years of the Cold War, so in the present century there is no great change in the U.S. hostile policy.

Now is the 21st century.

Fundamental changes are taking place both in the thinking and practice of the world’s people and in international relations. These developments are bringing about a considerable change in the relations between countries.

The change of the times as seen today demands that the United States make a turnabout in its hostile policy towards the DPRK.

If the United States continues to turn away from the demands of the times, and does not change its hostile policy toward the DPRK, there can be neither improvement in DPRK-U.S. relations nor can there be the relaxation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Replacing the armistice agreement with a peace agreement is one of the basic conditions for ensuring peace on the peninsula.

The prevailing tense situation and the ever increasing danger of war in the area are, as seen today, can be traced to the failure in establishing a system for permanent peace and, instead, to the continuation of a state of ceasefire in this region. The armistice agreement is not a step for ensuring durable peace but is, literally, a step for the temporary cessation of hostilities.

When the armistice agreement is replaced with a peace agreement, military confrontation can be removed and the matter of building trust between the DPRK and the United States can also be solved

However, the United States is holding back on replacing the armistice agreement, a legacy of the Cold War, with a peace agreement.

This shows that the United States has no intention to abandon its hostile policy toward the DPRK and ensure peace on the Korean peninsula. There is no region in the world where a state of ceasefire is kept up for more than half a century as has been the case on the Korean peninsula.

The United States is currently trying to use the peninsula as a military foothold and a point of strategic importance for holding in check its military rivals on the Eurasian continent and realizing its aggressive policy towards Asia. That is why the United States is so against replacing the armistice with a peace agreement so far.

If it truly wants peace on the peninsula, the United States should make no bones about concluding a peace treaty with the DPRK; the U.S. even stated on several occasions that it would not militarily threaten or invade the DPRK.

Ending hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. and, instead, promoting trust is necessary in realizing the normalization of DPRK-U.S. relations—and improving the image of the U.S. as well, to say nothing of ensuring peace on the peninsula.

One important condition for peace is for the U.S. to stop its ongoing attempts to change Japan and the southern part of Korea into American military bases and to withdraw its armed forces from the Asia-Pacific region.

At present, Japanese militarists and forces in south Korea are hell-bent on anti-DPRK maneuvers, such as the attempts to apply sanctions against the DPRK and re-invade it— under the patronage of the U.S.

If there is no support and protection for these policies by the U.S., the peril of war will be reduced on the peninsula.

Bringing peace to Korea and achieving its reunification is the earnest desire of the Korean people. The U.S. should properly face up to the times, boldly perform a turnabout in its policy toward the DPRK and fulfill the responsibility it bears in ensuring peace in Korea.

Reprinted from Korea Today magazine

Oil, independence, and gunboat diplomacy

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:24:00 +0000

In Buenos Aires earlier this month, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Shannon rejected theories that the U.S. Fourth Fleet, assigned to watch over South America, had been reactivated for offensive purposes. So that means defense, Brazilian Senator Pedro Simón observed, “but defending against whom?”

Before it was reestablished July 1, the Fourth Fleet had not functioned since 1950. Its operations had been absorbed by the Second Fleet, which patrols the Atlantic Ocean.

The senator related the fleet’s reactivation to recent discoveries of petroleum reserves under the Atlantic off Sao Paulo. They are so large, according to ex-Brazilian President Jose Sarney, that they “will turn the region into one of the great centers of petroleum production.” Simón pointed out that the zone of anticipated oil exploration extends 150 miles beyond the 200-mile limit of Brazilian maritime sovereignty.

A report last year from the James Baker III Institute, “The Changing Role of National Oil Companies,” sets the stage. The institute, whose namesake and honorary chair was President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state, argues that because state-run oil corporations control 77 percent of the world’s oil reserves, the U.S. government needs to ward off “onerous government interference” with national companies and “break up ... the monopoly power of oil producers.”

It’s that power, suggests analyst John Bellamy Foster (Monthly Review, July 2008), that enables states to use “oil resources to pursue national goals other than purely commercial ones.”

For an empire whose life-sustaining oil supply is precarious, that’s worrisome.

Meanwhile in Latin America plans are moving ahead to produce and distribute oil for the sake of human survival, regional independence and unity.

Member states of Petrocaribe, the cooperative energy project organized by Venezuela in 2005, met July 12-13 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. They agreed to adjusted terms enabling states to continue inexpensive purchases of oil from the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA despite rising prices. Guatemala became the 18th Petrocaribe member, and Costa Rica is next in line.

Through President Hugo Chavez, PDVSA encouraged payments in goods and services. He asked states to produce their own oil by developing enterprises that together with PDVSA would extract oil from Venezuela’s Orinoco region. He encouraged the development of manufacturing facilities using oil by-products. Emphasizing local fertilizer production, Chavez announced the availability of urea, a prominent fertilizer ingredient, at a 40 percent discount.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and President Chavez signed agreements July 15 to build a refinery on Ecuador’s Pacific coast that by 2013 will be processing 300,000 barrels of crude oil daily. The project costing nearly $7 billion will yield annual savings worth $3 billion through cutbacks in fuel imports. PDVSA will also build refineries in Brazil and Nicaragua.

Over four months, the Venezuelan and Bolivian governments have been formulating plans to explore and develop natural gas and oil reserves throughout Bolivia. PDVSA reportedly will invest $881 million in the initiative.

Areas of seabed under the Gulf of Mexico assigned to Cuba were opened for exploration in 1999. Since then, companies from Canada, Spain, India, Malaysia, Venezuela, Vietnam and China have taken the bait. Brazil’s Petrobras oil giant joined them last year. Cuban reserves are estimated as comparable to those of Ecuador, fourth highest in Latin America behind Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico.

Cuban oil production undertaken by the Cuban state oil company CUPET, together with foreign companies, is projected to reach 525,000 barrels a day in 10 years. Cuba presently utilizes 145,000 barrels a day.

In mid-July, Cuban oil authorities announced plans for a refurbished refinery in Santiago and expanded output from the refinery in Cienfuegos — built recently with Venezuelan help — aimed at an eventual daily refinery capacity of 350,000 barrels.

Increasingly in Latin America, oil production serves social and political ends. And barriers are up putting hydrocarbon resources off limits to northern predators. That’s where the dispatch of warships fits in, a traditional North American remedy.

Understandably, Senator Pedro Simón thinks of defense. “It’s a good moment,” he suggested, for the newly established Council of South American Defense “to study the roads to follow with the countries of the region.” He observed that Brazilian President Lula and President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina both “energetically spoke out against the Fourth Fleet. … We are arriving at common points of view,” he concluded.

atwhit @roadrunner.com

WORLD NOTES: July 26

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:55:00 +0000

Ecuador: Reckoning for past crimes

Ecuador’s government this month confiscated nearly 200 properties of the Isaías Group including three television stations, businesses and land. Alainet.org said the properties will be sold to reimburse depositors using banks owned by Robert and William Isaias. In 1999 the brothers froze $661 million, resulting in bankruptcies, unemployment and billions in losses. Facing prosecution, they moved to Miami. Ecuador’s government seeks their extradition.

Finance Minister Fausto Ortiz, described as the most “market friendly” member of the government, responded by resigning. Replacing him was Wilma Salgado, whose job as head of Ecuador’s Deposit Guarantee Agency had been to rein in bankers.

Opponents of leftist President Rafael Correa (approval rating now 62 percent),protested seizure of the TV channels by invoking freedom of the press. But polls show most Ecuadorians backing the action.

Senegal: Africans, choose your union!

Senegal’s president has objected to the “Union for the Mediterranean” materializing in Paris July 13 under the auspices of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In a statement from Dakar, Abdoulaye Wade, veteran spokesperson for African unity, predicted that the union of 43 European, Middle Eastern and Northern African nations will spurn southern, or Black, Africa.

Wade envisions “two-speed [European] cooperation” — fast for Northern Africa, showered with favors for gas and oil, and slow for south of the Sahara. Reuters said Wade and Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi are seeking exploitation of natural resources through a continent-wide government of African unity. Gaddafi absented himself from the Paris assembly which focused primarily on Middle Eastern issues.

Iran: U.S. tries diplomacy

The Bush administration has apparently backed off from bellicose anti-Iran rhetoric.

The U.S. State Department will soon open an “interests section” in Tehran to restore diplomatic relations broken in 1979, albeit in limited fashion. The Iranian government already has an interests section in Washington and reportedly will accept the U.S. proposal.

According to the U.K. Guardian, the initiative represents a State Department victory over a faction led by Vice President Cheney seeking military assaults on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The U.S. government sent high State Department official William Burns to participate in Iranian-EU nuclear talks July 19 that reportedly ended in deadlock.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino had declared beforehand, “There is no negotiation here.”

Ukraine: NATO is not welcome

Progressive Socialist and Communist Party activists, joined by Orthodox Church adherents, this month protested Operation Sea Breeze, NATO’s Black Sea war games. Centered near Odessa, the multinational training exercise involving 1,000 troops, 15 vessels, airplanes, submarines and helicopters was intended as a display of European-Ukrainian military cooperation.

Authorities banned demonstrations, and on July 7 attackers, some in police uniforms, demolished protesters’ camps. Nevertheless, hundreds, helped out by local residents, put tents back up and on July 14 — the first day of the exercise — proceeded to block roads and navigate boats offshore adorned with anti-NATO signs.

However, Ukrainian Admiral Viktor Maksimov told the Itar-Tass news agency that he anticipated “building up confidence and cooperation between the United States and Ukraine.”

China: Wal-Mart store unionized

Once Wal-Mart Corporation authorized its store in Shenyang, capital of China’s northeastern Liaoning Province, to bargain collectively with employees, only five hours were required on July 15 for managers and the employees’ union to negotiate overtime pay, paid vacations, social security improvements and annual 8 percent wage increases for two years. The store thus became the first of Wal-Mart’s 100 stores in China to conclude negotiations with a union.

In 2006, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions began a high profile campaign to unionize all Wal-Mart stores in China. Last year, according to the China Labor Bulletin, Shenyang city issued its “Collective Contract Regulation” under which managers are fined for rejecting union requests for bargaining.

Cuba: Major land use reforms

“Go back to the land,” Cuban President Raul Castro urged before the National Assembly on July 10. His government later announced provisions to encourage private farming.

Experienced farmers may use up to 99 acres of unused land, novices up to 33 acres. Their nontransferable and taxable usage rights are renewable every 10 years, and every 25 years for cooperatives and state farms permitted to farm larger tracts.

Granma said President Castro foresees a $1.2 billion rise this year in the cost of food imports, accounting for half the Cubans’ food intake. Castro said earlier that with half of Cuba’s tillable land lying idle — a 33 percent increase over nine years — national security is at stake.

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

Iraq leaders set deadline giving Republicans PR disaster

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:26:00 +0000

Republican John McCain's touting of superior foreign policy credentials over his Democratic opponent foundered Monday as Iraqi officials pointed to a 2010 deadline for troop withdrawal, an almost identical time table favored by Barack Obama. The Arizona Republican has been opposed to setting any deadline even as the Bush administration itself last week offered “time horizons” marking a 180 degree turn from previous positions. Press reports that Bush administration officials scrambled over the weekend seeking clarification of the widely reported Iraqi president statement in Der Spiegel supporting a timetable, apparently to no avail.

Mr. McCain appearing on all three network morning news programs Monday morning in an effort at damage control reiterated his positions even going so far as to arrogantly claim that as a veteran of several trips to Iraq he knew better than the leaders of the war ravaged country.

In this regard Thinkprogress.org reports that McCain on the Today Show “was again dismissive of Maliki, suggesting that only he knows what the Iraqis really “want”:

Q: If the Iraqi government were to say, if you were president, ‘we want a timetable for troops being removed,’ would you agree to that? McCAIN: I’ve been there too many times. I’ve met too many times with him. And I know what they want. They want it based on conditions. And of course they’d like to have us out. That’s what happens when you win wars.'

In a recent news broadcast, the Republican presumptive nominee and foreign policy expert also referred to growing violence on the Iraqi/Pakistan border, even as Iraq shares no border with that country.

'It's a shame and sign of the times when the Iraq government's call for a time table creates a public relations crisis for the Bush administration' said Judith Le Blanc, national organizing director of United for Peace and Justice.

McCain later in the day at Maine picnic with former President Bush according to the New York Times continued to attack Obama, portraying the “presumptive Democratic nominee, as too green to be commander-in-chief — he has had “no military experience whatsoever,” Mr. McCain told reporters — and for opposing the troop escalation that has helped lead to more stable conditions in Iraq.”

The Times also reports that McCain aids have begun to sarcastically refer to Obama as “The One,” a title perhaps given to him by supporter Oprah Winfrey and drawn from the popular cult movie The Matrix. A widely circulated photo of Mr. Obama wearing wrap around sunglasses aboard a military helicopter with General Petraeus may have added to the McCain campaign's discomfort.

The beginning of Mr. McCain's week was also hampered when an op ed by the conservative Republican was also rebuffed by the Times as lacking substance on future war plans in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain's public relations problem continued when a new ad was aired claiming Obama was responsible for the rise in gas prices by opposing domestic and off shore drilling. The new attack ad entitled 'Pump' coincides with Al Gore's widely touted call for ending US use of carbon based fuels in 10 years.

Weekend polling shows McCain trailing Obama by 8 points in the important battleground state of Ohio but running close to even in New Hampshire.

Canada implicated in torture at Guantanamo

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:52:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Canadian government is once again being accused of breaking international human rights laws, including the Geneva Convention. Newly released documents and DVD footage reveal that the Canadian government knew, as far back as 2003, that American interrogators had tortured Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Despite this, the Canadian government has never made any effort to secure Khadr’s return to Canada.

U.S. officials told visiting Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) officials that they moved Khadr, a Canadian born citizen, every three hours over 21 days to “make him more amenable and willing to talk,” according to a Canadian government document marked “Canadian eyes only.” Federal Court judge Richard Mosley recently ordered the Canadian government to release the documents and DVDs to the media and Khadr’s legal defense team.

The documents contain written summaries of video recorded interviews by CSIS officials with Khadr in 2003 and 2004. The documents also reveals that U.S. officials told the Canadian agents that Khadr, then 17, would be placed in solitary confinement for three weeks prior to the second interview. As a result, Canada “became implicated in the violation” of international law, including the Geneva Convention, by the way its officials went ahead with its interrogation of Khadr in 2003, as well as the way in which they treated him, according to Mosley.

The DVDs, which contain seven hours of video footage, show that Khadr was initially happy to see the CSIS agents, believing that they came to rescue him. Khadr burst into tears, retracting statements he made to U.S. interrogators earlier on, claiming that he made them under torture. He is seen complaining about wounds to his chest, eyes and shoulder, which was seeping blood. U.S. marines shot Khadr in the neck, shoulder and chest during a July 2002 battle between marines and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan where he was captured. The bleeding, six months after his capture, suggests that U.S. officials had not provided Khadr with adequate medical care.

Later during the interview, Khadr realizes that the CSIS is not there to help him but to get a confession and he cracks. A CSIS agent makes jokes, ridicules his complaints that he was tortured, and tells Khadr that he can’t help him.

The U.S. military alleges that Khadr, then 15, killed a U.S. marine medic during the July 2002 battle in Afghanistan with a hand grenade. Khadr was found with a group of dead Taliban fighters in a compound. The teenager, son of a dead Al Qaeda leader, denies killing the marine. He has been interned in Guantanamo for the last 6 years and like all other prisoners there, has still not been tried for any crime.

The document and DVDs contradict ongoing Canadian government claims that it has been receiving assurances from US officials that Khadr is being treated humanely. The materials are further evidence that Canadian governments have been aware that the U.S. tortures prisoners.

In January 2008, Amnesty International obtained a Canadian Foreign Affairs document through legal action that identifies the U.S. as practicing torture. The document, a power point presentation to Canadian diplomats on how to recognize torture cases abroad, lists Guantanamo as a place where torture is practiced. It lists U.S. torture techniques such as waterboarding, blindfolding or hooding, forced nudity, isolation and sleep deprivation.

Judge Mosley also revealed that the U.S. expressed interest in having Khadr tried in Canada and provided detailed evidence against him to Canadian officials. According to Khadr’s lawyer, the government refused to allow his return.

Despite evidence of U.S. torture, Prime Minister Steven Harper has said that he will leave Khadr, now 21, to be tried by the U.S. legal system.

Amnesty International is calling on Harper to repatriate Khadr back to Canada. “The treatment (that Khadr was subjected to), which included extensive use of sleep deprivation and use of disorienting ‘frequent flyer’ practice, amounts to torture and ill-treatment, both of which are clearly banned under international human rights law,” according to an open letter to Harper. “Your government’s position that such a request is premature and that justice must run its course in the U.S. is quite simply untenable.”

tpelzer @shaw.ca

Looking Global Warming in the Eye

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:44:00 +0000

When I first reported on global warming in the 1990s, events unfolded relatively slowly. Now they occur in such a blur that they barely have time to register on the media eye. Here's a sampling from only the last thirty days:

The United Nations reported in July that the current world food crisis will intensify due to climate change, with more drought and other extreme weather impacting crops. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program concurred, saying that as carbon emissions rise, America will experience more droughts and excessive heat in some regions even as intense downpours and hurricanes pound others.

As if to validate these projections, the public's attention was riveted on Mississippi Valley floods that drowned huge swathes of farmland (the second such deluge in fifteen years); while in Texas the U.S. cotton crop was savaged by heat, wind and blowing sand. The evening news featured images of Iowa under water and northern California on fire.

Elsewhere, scientists worried that North Pole ice may completely vanish this summer, while a new study suggested that Arctic ice loss could cause tundra permafrost to melt far more quickly, releasing vast stores of carbon, triggering runaway global warming.

Just four weeks ago, respected NASA climate researcher James Hansen told Congress that: 'we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb... The next President and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation.'

Hansen joins Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and renowned British ecologist James Lovelock -- who have said that humanity is about to pass or already has passed a 'tipping point' in terms of global warming. The IPCC, which reflects the findings of more than 2,000 scientists from over 100 countries, recently stated that it is 'very unlikely' that we will avoid the coming era of 'dangerous climate change.'

Still, the environmental establishment, the leading presidential candidates, and the G8 nations continue to peddle the notion that we can solve the climate problem. -- We can't.

We have failed to meet nature's deadline. In the next few years, our world will experience progressively more ominous and destabilizing changes. These will happen either incrementally -- or in sudden, abrupt jumps.

Under either scenario, it seems inevitable that we will soon be confronted by water shortages, crop failures, increasing damages from extreme weather events, collapsing infrastructures, and, potentially, breakdowns in the democratic process itself.

Even assuming the wildest possible success of our current climate initiatives -- say that humanity decided tomorrow to replace all fossil fuels with non-carbon sources -- it would still be too late to avert major climate disruptions.

The unprecedented planet-wide unraveling of our climate system demands an unprecedented response. The only antidote to a potentially cataclysmic future is a revitalization of government -- an elevation of public mission above private interest and an end to the free market fundamentalism that has blinded much of the American public with an unfounded belief in boundless profit and the divine power of markets.

In short, our response requires a revival of participatory democracy that reflects our collective values far more accurately than the corporate state into which we have slid.

We need to think of ourselves now as citizens of a profoundly distressed planet. As nature washes away our resources, overwhelms our infrastructures, and threatens to splinter our political institutions, our survival will depend increasingly on our willingness to join together as a global community.

As the former Argentine climate negotiator, Raul Estrada-Oyuela, said: 'We are all adrift in the same boat -- and there's no way half the boat is going to sink.' To keep afloat, we need to change the economic and political structures that determine how we behave.

To survive the catastrophe of global warming, with civilization intact, we need to elevate the ethic of cooperation and peace over the ingrained reflex of competition and war. We need to elevate our human similarities over our geographical differences. We need to reorganize our social structures to reflect our most humane collective aspirations.

We need to share our money, food, technology, know-how, even our land, as the world's coasts begin to disappear beneath incessantly rising seas, and warming-driven crop failures leave millions hungry. There is no body of expertise -- no authoritative answers -- for the unfolding crisis. We are crossing a threshold into uncharted territory. And our only position of strength lies in crossing that threshold as a global community, joining together in a common global project to rewire the world with clean energy.

Since there is no precedent to guide us, we are left with only our own hearts to consult, whatever courage we can muster, our instinctive dedication to a human future -- and the intellectual integrity to look reality in the eye.

Ross Gelbspan was a reporter and editor at the Philadelphia Bulletin, Washington Post, and Boston Globe (where his work won a Pulitzer Prize). He has authored two books on global warming The Heat is On and Boiling Point, and his website outlines plans for a rapid shift to alternative energy sources: www.heatisonline.org

(c) 2008 Blue Ridge Press

WORLD NOTES: July 19

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:30:00 +0000

Peru: Workers, peasants mount general strike

The General Confederation of Peruvian Workers protested Peru’s free trade treaty with the U.S. as well as low wages and rising costs by staging a nationwide general strike on July 10. Two peasant groups orchestrated the participation of small farmers, many irate over legislation subjecting land tenure to mine owner needs.

The strike’s main impact was in rural areas, especially in the poverty-stricken south. The report on rebelion.org cites the coexistence in Peru of widened income disparities and annual economic growth rates of 8-9 percent. In Ayacucho, protesters invoking national sovereignty demanded that 200 U.S. troops in the area, supposedly on humanitarian missions, leave.

President Alan Garcia initially commended marchers and those blocking highways for protesting peacefully. Later he announced, “What we are seeing is a conspiracy,” adding, “They want to attack the democratic system.”

Somalia: U.S. complicit in humanitarian disaster

Osman Ali Ahmed, UN development head in Somalia, was killed in Mogadishu July 6. Within two days, 40 more civilians were killed. The 18-month-long war between Ethiopia’s army and guerrillas allied to the Islamic Courts Union — the short-lived former government — has triggered Africa’s worst humanitarian disaster, Mike Whitney reports on Indymedia.org.uk.

Famine looms for 2.6 million Somalis. Over one million are displaced. Mogadishu is largely rubble. Under Bush administration pressure, the UN Security Council authorized the Ethiopian intervention in late 2006 as a counter terrorism measure. Deep water ports and sites for military bases reportedly serve as enticements for Washington.

Amnesty International issued a report in May citing violations of human rights and international law.

Saudi Arabia: Domestic workers abused, exploited

Human Rights Watch issued a report July 9, based on in-country research and interviews, testifying to grief suffered by domestic employees in Saudi households. They total 1.5 million and originate from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia. Many work 18 hours per day, receive little or no pay, have no day off, and are subjected to forced confinement, sexual and physical abuse.

According to the UK Guardian, Saudi labor law does not cover domestic workers except to grant employers control over their visas, thereby preventing many from changing jobs or leaving the country. Commissions for those recruiting domestic workers for Saudi Arabia far exceed those earned by recruiters for other countries.

Britain, Ireland: Unions protest Israeli crimes

Britain’s largest public sector union UNISON, meeting in late June, reaffirmed previous resolutions calling for boycotts of Israeli imports produced in occupied Palestinian territories and divestment from companies building the Israeli wall ringing Palestinian settlements, Labornet.org reported.

The resolutions parallel those passed earlier this year by IMPACT, Ireland’s largest public sector union, and NIPSA, its counterpart in Northern Ireland. They too called for boycott and divestment with IMPACT demanding Irish independence from EU positions denying Palestinian rights.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, having passed similar resolutions last year, issued a statement backing IMPACT: “Israeli terror and violence ... is right in front of our eyes.” We risk “being brutalized ourselves.”

Japan: Guests pressure G8 host

At the recent G8 summit, hosted by Japan, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met with seven African presidents present as observers. He learned that of $25 billion the G8 pledged for Africa in 2005, only $3 billion had materialized.

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman reassured the African leaders that the funding would arrive, citing expansion of Japan’s own aid package to $1.8 billion annually.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded by calling for doubled G8 aid by 2010, according to Inter Press Service.

At the summit, Japan faced pressures from President George Bush to deepen its military alliance with the U.S., a move the Japan Press Service warns is likely to weaken Japan’s commitment to dealing with climate change, a principal summit theme.

Panama: A measure of justice but more is needed

Panama’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously June 30 that outgoing President Mireya Moscoso’s pardon of Luis Posada and three others jailed in connection with an assassination attempt against Fidel Castro in 2000 was unconstitutional. Posada then entered the United States illegally and lives freely in Miami.

Few deny that Posada, while living in Venezuela, engineered the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 killing 73 people. Venezuela, through its U.S. lawyer Jose Pertierra, has requested his extradition. Now Pertierra demands Posada’s return to jail in Panama.

Panama’s National Assembly convoked a meeting July 7 of Latin American and Caribbean parliamentarians to demand freedom for five Cuban men who in September will have served 10 years in U.S. jails. Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández and René González tried to block terrorist attacks perpetrated in Florida by the likes of Luis Posada. That was their crime.

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

Palestinians hit by food and water crises

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:11:00 +0000

Three United Nations agencies have warned of a decline in Palestinian living standards, with a new report showing that high food prices and falling incomes are forcing families to manage with less and lower quality food.

The main driver of Palestinian food insecurity is political, the agencies say, “ rooted in the military and administrative measures imposed by the Israeli occupation” — including road closings, punitive permit regulations and destruction of homes and farmlands, as well as the expansion of settlements and related infrastructure, cutting off access to land and water.

Global food prices, combined with Israeli government actions in the occupied territories, are making Palestinians more dependent on relief aid. At the same time, rising food and fuel prices make it increasingly expensive to deliver that aid, the UN agencies say.

The report, giving findings of a food security survey conducted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Program, and Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), shows soaring prices, falling incomes and growing unemployment have brought Palestinian purchasing power to an all-time low this year, jeopardizing family livelihoods and leading to heavy debt. All Palestinians surveyed had reduced their consumption of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

The UN agencies say the situation is especially desperate for the population of the Gaza Strip who have been heavily affected by Israel’s economic blockade.

As one indication, UNRWA reported in 2002 that 19 percent of Palestinians in Gaza suffered from anemia. The agency now estimates that figure at 77.5 percent.

The report says closed areas of the West Bank are equally affected due to “high unemployment rates, wage depreciation, declining business opportunities and increased restrictions on movement and access.”

A third of Palestinians have reported a fall in income this year, and the poor suffered most heavily with a 40 percent drop. Thirty-seven percent of breadwinners in Gaza are now unemployed and 27 percent in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem is warning of grave water shortage in the West Bank this summer.

The chronic water shortage in the West Bank, resulting from an unfair distribution of water resources shared by the Palestinians and Israel, will be much graver this summer because of this year’s drought, the group says. In the northern West Bank, water consumption has fallen to one-third of the minimal amount needed.

Israel holds complete control of the water sources and prohibits Palestinian drilling of wells without a permit. At the same time, Israel draws water from the West Bank but allocates to Palestinians only a fraction of that water to the Palestinians, and prevents the Palestinian Water Authority from developing additional water.

This year’s drought, the most serious in the area in the past decade, aggravates the situation. The Palestinian Water Authority has asked Mekorot – the Israel Water Company – for an emergency supply.

Some 20 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank are not connected to a water network. Even for those that are, water supply is irregular and sometimes may be disconnected for days or weeks. Communities report that the Israeli company discriminates against them, reducing water supply to Palestinian residents to enable it to meet the increased demand in the settlements.

Many Palestinians have to buy water on the private market. Last year water prices were three to six times higher than Israelis pay, and they are expected to be even higher this year. High unemployment and poverty rates in the West Bank have made water purchases an economic burden for a substantial portion of the population, B’Tselem says.

According to the World Health Organization, the per capita minimal amount of water needed for household and urban needs is 100 liters a day. Due to the chronic water shortage, average per capita water consumption throughout the West Bank is 66 liters, two-thirds of the minimal amount needed. Average daily water consumption in Israel is over 200 liters.

The Israeli group points out that, under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Israel ratified, it is obligated as the occupying power to ensure access to clean drinking water without discrimination.

B'Tselem has called on Israel to “ensure, immediately and without discrimination, adequate, regular water supply to all residents of the West Bank.”

Irelands No vote challenges pro-business pact

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:08:00 +0000

The people of Ireland voted resoundingly against the Lisbon Treaty in a popular referendum vote June 13. The vote was 53.4 percent “No.” Opponents of the pact said the vote demonstrated the strong will of the Irish working people to reject a treaty that serves only the interests of big business and the military.

The Lisbon Treaty, critics charge, represents an attempt by the European Union leadership to push through the failed European Constitution in an underhanded manner. In 2005, France and the Netherlands held public referendums where the constitution was torpedoed. EU leaders essentially redrafted it as amendments to existing treaties in order to avoid holding referendums. These amendments were incorporated in the Lisbon Treaty.

To date, only 18 of the EU’s 27 member countries have ratified the Lisbon Treaty. This was achieved by right-wing conservative and social democratic forces forming coalitions in most of the 18 nations where it has passed and pushing it through their parliaments.

Ireland was the first country where the treaty was actually voted on in a popular referendum, as the Irish constitution requires that EU treaties be put to a public vote. Left forces in Ireland, including the Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of Ireland, opposed the treaty. The Workers’ Party called it “seriously dangerous especially in the areas of democracy, workers’ rights, militarism, the privatization of basic public services, and EU relations with the developing world.” These parties called for a united left opposition to the treaty.

Early on a coalition was formed, Campaign Against the EU Treaty (CAEUC), which united all the left groups on a common platform to defeat the treaty. UNITE, one of the largest trade unions in the country, was a key player in the “No” campaign.

CAEUC’s platform says the Lisbon Treaty “safeguards competition and profit rather than the basic needs and rights of the majority of its citizens. It does not serve the interests of women, children, the poor, ordinary working people, immigrant workers and their families, or people throughout the majority world.”

The “No” campaign took to the streets in an attempt to reach every working class household in Ireland. Mass public meetings were organized in every major city. Thousands of leaflets, posters and newspapers were distributed throughout the working class sections of the cities, and houses were canvassed. National media coverage of the “No” campaign was nil, so organizers made use of local media. These tactics broke through the veil of silence around the treaty that had been created by the “Yes” side. The “Yes” supporters had refused to circulate the treaty and to discuss the details publicly. Their main slogan was “The EU has been good for you — trust us, vote ‘Yes’.” Yet the prime minister and the Irish Commissioner admitted that they had not even read the treaty.

The final result in the Irish referendum showed 862,415 “No” votes to 752,451 “Yes” — a majority of 109,964. A breakdown of the vote showed that wealthy areas supported the treaty while the working class, lower middle class, farming and fishing constituencies voted to defeat the referendum. In many large working class areas hit by job losses, low wages and privatization of basic public services due to EU economic policies, the “No” vote had a striking 2-to-1 majority.

Left forces in Europe are gearing up to defend the Irish “No” vote and to extend the spirit of democratic process. The Communist Party of Ireland said in a statement, “The central question now is winning the support of the progressive forces throughout the European Union to defend the Irish ‘No’ vote and to stop the whole ratification process altogether.”

EU law stipulates that the treaty cannot be ratified without unanimous support of all 27 EU countries. Reactionary forces are mounting a campaign to push through ratification in the remaining countries and to find ways to circumvent the Irish veto in order to achieve unanimous adoption of the treaty. They may force a revote on the present treaty, amend the treaty, or even propose some type of two-tier EU. But the treaty’s opponents say the Lisbon Treaty must now be considered legally dead and the Irish “No” vote must be respected.

Lula takes to the road for Brazil

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:56:00 +0000

Brazil, the world’s 10th largest economy, has adopted an increasingly assertive role in world politics as it promotes Latin American unity, justice for the poor world especially in regard to food supplies, and Brazil’s place in the global market economy. The recent travels of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president since January 2003, make the point.

Growing up poor, lacking formal education, Lula moved from steel workers’ strikes to helping found and organize the Brazilian Workers Party, the grassroots, leftist coalition movement under whose banner he became president.

On June 27, Lula was in Caracas meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Quarterly meetings between the two have led to accords on energy, agricultural development, trade, and cooperation in science and education. This time they discussed the processing of Venezuelan natural gas at a new Brazilian refinery, melding of electricity grids, Venezuelan financial help for a new Brazilian oil refinery, Venezuelan import of Brazilian soy and poultry products, and Brazilian agricultural expertise as part of Venezuela’s campaign for food sovereignty.

Lula and Chavez discussed Venezuela’s prospects for becoming a full member of the South American trade group Mercosur and the future of the new South American Defense Council, seen as a coordinating and conflict resolution body. Trade between Venezuela and Brazil reached $5 billion last year, a 22 percent one-year hike. Chavez told reporters, “Our countries are set to become driving forces” in Latin American integration.

On July 1, Lula assumed the rotating presidency of Mercosur at a regular meeting of the trade group in Tucuman, Argentina. In his acceptance speech he noted that “Mercosur is the principal promoter of economic development,” adding, “We resolve to double our bets with more integration” because “commerce is crucial to the economy of integration.” Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina are full Mercosur members; six other nations are associate members.

Lula articulated Mercosur’s rejection of Europe’s recently adopted “return directive” under which migrants without authorizing documents are to be imprisoned. “Again,” he said, “the cold winds of xenophobia are blowing with misguided responses to challenges faced by the economy and society.”

At the G8 Summit of the world’s richest nations held in Hokkaido, Japan July 7-9, Lula led in discussions of the burgeoning world food shortage. He spoke on behalf of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, the “outreach five” group of nations present at recent G8 meetings.

He called upon the UN Food and Agricultural Organization to look into causes of rising food prices, which he attributed to speculation. For five years, according to Lula, “the world has been eating [food] reserves. If reserves are eaten and not saved then one day, they’re going to run out.”

Lula dissented from a recent World Bank report claiming that 75 percent of the price rise is due to diversion of food crops to bio-fuel production. Brazilian sugar cane and U.S. corn account for 70 percent of the world’s bio-fuel production.

In Vietnam on July 10-11, Lula and Vietnamese officials discussed trade, investment, agriculture, and cooperation in vocational training and infrastructure development. Over 40 representatives of Brazil’s banking, agriculture, aviation and energy sectors joined Lula at a Vietnam-Brazil Business Forum. Trade between the two countries has quadrupled since 2004.

The next stop was East Timor, a nation sharing both colonizer and language with Brazil. Lula offered President Jose Ramos-Horta Brazilian assistance in agriculture, fisheries and judicial administration. Before departing for Indonesia, nemesis of East Timor since its invasion in 1975, Lula assured the nation’s parliament, 'East Timor is a sovereign nation and worthy of our support.”

In Indonesia, Lula and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed bio-fuels, agreeing to share knowledge on bio-fuel technology. Indonesia is now the world’s top palm oil producer. Lula advised his host to regard the fuel crisis as “a great opportunity,” rather than just a problem. Food shortages caused by bio-fuel production can be remedied, he suggested, by listening to the world’s poor: “Ask us to produce more and we’ll do it because we have the competence to do so.”

President Yudhoyono expressed his backing for Brazil to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Iraqis celebrate anniversary of 1958 revolution

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:52:00 +0000

BAGHDAD — The National Theater in central Baghdad was packed with an enthusiastic audience waving the Iraqi flag and red banners, July 12. The event, organized by the Iraqi Communist Party, was a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the July 14, 1958, revolution that overthrew Iraq’s reactionary monarchy and ushered in tremendous social and political transformations, changing Iraq's class and social landscape.

The program included poetry and a theatrical and musical production, presented by Basra-based Al-Nas Group, in cooperation with the Cinema and Theater Department and the National Group of Popular Arts in Basra.

In a speech to the crowd, Mohammed Jassim al-Labban, a leader of the Iraqi CP, hailed the achievements of the 1958 revolution, including broad civil freedoms, withdrawal from the Cold War-era Baghdad Pact, a 1958 land reform law, the progressive Personal Status Law of 1959 which provided civil and women’s rights unprecedented in the region, and Law No. 80 (1961) which seized back control over 99.5 percent of the concessions previously held by oil multinationals.

He also pointed to lessons of the July 14 revolution, with special emphasis on the need to uphold national unity, both political and social, and to discard all forms of sectarianism. 'Political democracy, which was ignored or underestimated after the 1958 revolution, is also indispensable,” al-Labban said. “There should be no reliance on foreign powers, whether nearby or far away, because Iraq's problems can only be solved by Iraqis themselves.” Intensified hostility to the 1958 revolution by anti-people forces culminated with the bloody fascist coup of Feb. 8, 1963 and the rise to power of Saddam Hussein.

The 50th anniversary of the July 14 revolution was celebrated throughout Iraq and among Iraqi communities abroad. It has been declared a national holiday in Iraq.

WORLD NOTES: July 12

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:28:00 +0000

Egypt: ‘Emergency’ rule goes on

Parliament voted June 30 to extend emergency rule, in place since 1981, for two more years. In 2006, President Hosni Mubarak’s government promised that after two years of discussion new antiterrorism legislation would be introduced to replace present arrangements under which citizens are held indefinitely without charges.

Al-Ahram Weekly quoted Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif as saying he seeks continuing “national dialogue over a bill” seen as “propelling us along the road to democratic reform.” Opposition MPs issued a statement blaming emergency rule for “the proliferation of human rights abuses, including systematic torture in prisons and police stations.”

Members of Parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood say jailed victims include 50,000 members of the Brotherhood.

Italy: Racism is official policy

Reporting June 25 to a parliamentary committee on a so-called “security emergency,” Interior Minister Roberto Maroni announced government plans to fingerprint all Roma people in Italy. Maroni represents the xenophobic Northern League as part of Italy’s governing right-wing coalition.

Guardian correspondent Peter Popham speculates that racist media hype propelled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s re-election in April by distracting voters from economic woes.

Italian police have recently taken to raiding Roma camps, claiming to conduct census surveys. Advocacy group Opera Nomadi links mounting Roma fears to memories of fascist depredations during Europe’s 20th century holocaust, when 1.6 million Roma were killed. Spokesperson Marco Nieli recalled that Roma people first arrived in Italy in 1400.

Occupied Territories: Israel limits water

Water available to West Bank Palestinians has fallen to two-thirds the minimum daily requirement. Israeli authorities prohibit new wells and preferentially divert water from the Jordan River and aquifers to Jewish settlements. Water systems fail to reach 20 percent of Palestinians. Water bought privately costs three to six times more for Palestinians than Israelis.

The report issued July 1 by the B’Tselem human rights group documents Israel’s role in water shortages, compounded this year by drought. And according to Inter Press Service, blockade-induced fuel shortages in Gaza have closed down water supply pumps, resulting in lack of regular access to water for most inhabitants.

Shortages of fuel and spare parts mean that tons of unprocessed sewage are pumped daily into the Mediterranean.

Argentina: Summit highlights integration, solidarity

The twice-yearly summit of Mercosur, the South American Common Market, took place early this month in Tucuman, Argentina.

Representatives of associate members Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador joined leaders of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay in denouncing the European Union’s recently adopted “return directive” authorizing member nations to jail migrants without papers for 18 months before deportation.

Cuba’s Granma newspaper also said Mercosur leaders expressed “solidarity and support” for Bolivia’s government, announcing plans to send observers for that country’s recall referendum Aug. 10. They criticized market speculation on food and energy and named Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano as Mercosur’s first “Illustrious Citizen.”

Cuba: U.S. actions condemned

Cuba’s Foreign Ministry issued an unusual declaration July 2 listing recent actions orchestrated by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana it regards as interventionist, provocative and illegal.

The ministry condemned “courses” for “self-proclaimed journalists” financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and held at the Interests Section, “semi-clandestine” meetings between U.S. diplomats and heads of counterrevolutionary groups and instructions transmitted to “mercenaries” engaged in public protests.

Interests Section personnel are accused of providing government opponents with cell phones, computers, internet access, “counter-revolutionary propaganda” and money.

The ministry denounced Interests Section head Michael Parmley for his role, revealed in May, in transferring money from anti-Cuban terrorist Santiago Alvarez, now jailed in Florida, to leaders of the anti-government group “Ladies in White.”

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

Honoring Nelson Mandela at 90

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:15:00 +0000

Statesmen, royalty and major world figures in business, sports and entertainment celebrated the life of South African anti-apartheid and national liberation leader Nelson Mandela during a Hyde Park concert in London, June 27. The event honored Mandela’s 90th birthday, which is July 18, and comes 20 years after the 1988 Free Mandela concert that was held in London to demand his release from prison.

Proceeds from the concert went to the 46664 charity, the AIDS campaign named after the number Mandela wore while imprisoned by South Africa’s apartheid authorities. Approximately 46,664 tickets were sold, packing the concert venue.

South Africa is one of the countries worst hit by HIV, with 5 million people living with the illness. Mandela lost a son to AIDS in 2005 and has now made the fight against the pandemic his main cause.

Mandela addressed the crowd praising the event but said it was time for “new hands to lift the burdens” of human suffering.

“Even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete,” he said. “Where there is poverty and sickness, including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is freedom for all.”

Mandela was a devoted freedom fighter against white colonial rule that had for centuries concentrated all South Africa’s political, economic, social and military power in the hands of the white minority. As an anti-apartheid activist against the country’s racist institutions Mandela eventually became a national liberation leader with the African National Congress (ANC) and helped establish its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe while going underground in 1961.

After being caught and convicted of capital crimes against the apartheid regime in 1963, he spent 27 years in prison on Robben Island with numerous ANC and other political prisoners. The prison is now a museum and tourist destination.

At his 1963 Rivonia Trial Mandela made his now famous political protest statement: “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal, which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Mandela became a worldwide symbol of freedom, hope, peace and equality and was finally released from prison in 1990, leading the movement to end apartheid to victory. In the country’s first all-inclusive, multi-racial election in 1994, Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically-elected president and served for five years. He has received numerous human rights awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He retired from politics in 1999 and has since campaigned to prevent the spread of AIDS and raise awareness about the disease.

Meanwhile President Bush recently signed a bill passed by Congress that removes Mandela and the ANC from a decades-old terrorist watch list. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the restriction “embarrassing.” But it was the GOP’s Reagan administration that helped prop-up the racist South African regime, and designated the ANC a terrorist organization.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) said, “Today the United States finally has removed from its legal code a vestige of that time of collective insults against human dignity. Our country stands with those who struggled to bring the reprehensible system of apartheid to an end.”

plozano @pww.org

WORLD NOTES: July 5

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:56:00 +0000

India: Left stands firm on nuke deal

Leaders of India’s left parties and India’s governing United Progressive Alliance are at a stand-off over the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal. Left parties have been meeting with UPA’s Congress Party and its allies to overcome the impasse. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, after securing the support of one of Congress’ old foes, threatened to take the deal to the International Atomic Energy Agency, a move that would force the left to withdraw its support for the UPA. Left parties oppose the nuclear deal for a basket of reasons, including, they say, that it would undermine India’s long-standing independent foreign policy and make the country a “junior” partner in the Bush administration’s drive for domination of Asia.

Israel: Rights group documents torture

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (stoptorture.org) released a report June 22 documenting violence directed at imprisoned Palestinians. The report’s authors, made up of analysts and lawyers, described “a routine of beating, degradation and additional abuse,” at every stage of the detainee experience including arrest, transportation, interrogation and incarceration. Findings were based on testimony since 2006 from 90 Palestinian prisoners. The report notes that scant legal and administrative remedies are available to prisoners and complaints are generally met with indifference. Jailers are accused of abusing minors.

Ireland: Unions help defeat Lisbon Treaty

Labor was central in Ireland’s rejection June 12 of the Lisbon Treaty, a pact aimed at firming up the European Union. Irish workers have faced downward pressure on wages, job loss and other economic challenges because of the EU agreements. For example, migrants from Eastern Europe, who face terrible economic conditions in their homelands, go to Ireland to work under EU auspices. Employers then can pay immigrant workers less than what they would pay Irish-born workers, effectively forcing a race to the bottom for workers while fattening their profit margins.

The Irish Sunday Business Post cited union condemnation of recent rulings by the European Court of Justice seen as anti-worker. With leader Gerry Adams castigating a “race to the bottom,” Sinn Fein gained during the process.

Nigeria: Oil production down 50 percent

Office workers incensed at safety infractions and replacement of Nigerian workers with foreigners went on strike against Chevron last week. The workers stopped administrative staff from getting to their offices in the main commercial city Lagos, but output has not been affected, the government and company say.

Attacks, however, by armed groups on a Chevron pipeline in the Niger Delta region, and on a Shell offshore rig, cut oil production by 50 percent, according to This Day, a Lagos-based newspaper. As a result, government revenues are down $84 million per day, and Angola has surpassed Nigeria as Africa’s biggest oil producer.

Delta region leaders have called for a cease fire beginning June 25, in preparation for an upcoming government meeting with insurgent leaders.

Haiti: Drinking water shortage

The U.S. government, intent upon pressuring the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, blocked $54 million in loans in 1998 from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) aimed at paying for drinking water facilities. Loans were eventually approved, but the water projects are still a dream because Washington blocked disbursement of the funds. “One of the most egregious examples of malfeasance” was the subject of a report issued June 24 by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, Partners In Health, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center and Zanmi Lasante. The IDB charter is noted as proscribing political interference. The Water Poverty Index, a common public health tool, indicates that Haiti presently ranks last among 147 countries surveyed.

Cuba: Free lung cancer drug

A Cuban Scientific Research Institute just patented a promising new drug that it says helps terminal lung cancer patients live longer.

In some cases, the drug known as CimaVax EGF extended the lives of participants in the treatment trials by close to a year.

CimaVax EGF, is classified as a therapeutic vaccine, because it is composed of modified proteins that help the body recognize and destroy cancer cells for those already suffering from lung cancer. It does not prevent lung cancer.

While the research team would not identify any side effects of CimaVax EFG, Gonzalez says it has numerous advantages over traditional treatments alone. Patients breathe easier, experience less fatigue, less pain and increased appetite.

The new drug, like all other health care, is free for Cubans as part of their national health system.

World Notes are compiled by Tom Whitney (atwhit @roadrunner.com).

Cuban exiles linked to Mexican gangs

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:29:00 +0000

A scandal is brewing that connects right-wing Cuban exiles in the United States with violent Mexican drug gangs trained by the U.S. military. The story first broke in the left-wing Mexico City daily, La Jornada.

On June 12, 33 undocumented Cuban immigrants and four Central Americans were picked up by Mexican immigration authorities. A gang of armed men held up the bus transporting the immigrants and kidnapped them.

However, the incident in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas was no common crime, because within a short period of time 18 of the migrants materialized safe and sound in Texas. What the U.S. government will now do with them is not yet clear. The whereabouts of the other migrants are not known.

Mexican authorities, embarrassed by having their prisoners snatched in such a blatant way, opened a major investigation which so far has resulted in the arrest of four people. Two of these were low level Mexican officials who are accused of accepting bribes in order to allow the caper to go forward unhindered.

The other two arrested are Nairobi Claro and Noriel Veloz, Cubans who, according to La Jornada, admitted they are operatives of an anti-Castro group, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), based in Miami.

The Cuban American National Foundation issued a statement denying any involvement or connection with Claro and Veloz, and demanded a retraction and apology from La Jornada. The reporter and newspaper are standing by their story.

La Jornada reported that Claro and Veloz, who were arrested off the Yucatan Peninsula by Mexico’s Navy, were part of the group that brought the Cubans into Mexico in the first place. Claro and Veloz refused to be released on bail for fear that assassins from CANF will kill them when they step out into the street.

The Cuban government has for some time been warning of links between the Gulf Cartel, which controls much of the drug trade along the U.S.-Mexico border, and what it calls the “Miami Mafia” of violent right-wing Cuban exiles.

A variety of Mexican media report that the actual snatch job was carried out by “Los Zetas,” a criminal gang of ex-army officers trained by the U.S. for anti-drug action. Once trained, the Zetas broke away from the Mexican military and formed one of the most formidable and violent gangs involved with drug smuggling on the U.S.-Mexico border.

If indeed Los Zetas were responsible for the snatch job and for slipping the Cubans across the U.S. border, it has serious implications for the Bush administration.

The U.S. Congress is on the way to approving a $400 million package of military and crime fighting aid for Mexico. President Bush had lobbied for this package, called the “Merida Initiative,” on the basis of the threat to the U.S. posed by Mexican drug gangs. Now it appears the coddled Cuban exile organizations allied to rightwing U.S. politicians may have a hand in the border carnage.

South Africans pledge solidarity with Zimbabwe

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:28:00 +0000

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party held a widely condemned election on June 29 in which the opposition dropped out because of widespread violence and intimidation. The African Union on June 30 joined the international chorus in rejecting the outcome. South African President Thabo Mbeki is mediating a power-sharing deal between ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for a Democratic Change.

The South African Communist Party issued a statement, excerpted below, just before the election, pledging solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.

The SACP is extremely disturbed by the latest developments in Zimbabwe, including the increase in violence directed at opposition members and supporters, the arbitrary arrest of opposition leaders, trade unionists and other sections of civil society, now culminating in the withdrawal of the MDC from the presidential run-off.

The SACP strongly condemns the decision by the Zimbabwean government to proceed with the elections. Such a decision can only create further chaos and instability and it is not in the interests of the Zimbabwean people.

It is for these reasons that the SACP pledges its continued solidarity with the struggles of ordinary Zimbabwean workers and the poor for democracy and the reconstruction of the economy of that country. It is not for us to choose which party must rule Zimbabwe, but we are in solidarity with the struggle for conditions to be created for the people of Zimbabwe to freely exercise their choice.

The SACP has consistently warned of the deteriorating situation in the country, and called for the Southern African Development Community to intervene and insist on the strict observance of its own protocols on free, fair and democratic elections.

At the heart of the crisis in Zimbabwe has been a degenerating ZANU-PF characterized by use of the state as a means [of wealth] accumulation by elites, gross mismanagement of the economy, leading to a growing gulf between the government and the people. This has led to the alienation of key former constituencies of ZANU-PF from this once heroic liberation movement, culminating in the loss of elections by ZANU-PF on March 29. Much as imperialism will always try to undermine all progressive revolutions in order to establish neo-colonial regimes in its former colonies, it is disingenuous for ZANU-PF to blame all of its problems on imperialism. How come that in the 1960s and 1970s imperialism failed to win the majority of the Zimbabwean people onto its side, but now, according to ZANU-PF, the people are being successfully “manipulated” by these imperialist forces? Any revolution that begins to turn its guns on the people is surely a revolution in deep trouble, and requires serious self-reflection by the liberation movement itself.

During the mid-1990s the ZANU-PF government itself colluded with the imperialist structural adjustment programs imposed on the people, with sections of the elite benefitting handsomely in the privatization and outsourcing of state services.

This was the beginning of the seeds of the destruction of the Zimbabwean revolution.

The SACP will intensify our solidarity work, in collaboration with all progressive forces, in our quest to find lasting solutions for the crisis of Zimbabwe.

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