People Before Profit blog

Populist revolt in Latin America

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 05:48:00 +0000

A specter is haunting Latin America — the specter of “populism.” Hardly a week goes by without a warning from pundits that the region may return to its “populist” past. We are warned of economic failure, unfavorable investment climates, dictatorships, nationalism, anti-Americanism and protectionism.

But the reality is another story altogether. Consider the economic part of this populist revolt, which is indeed happening. Presidential candidates have promised to fix the economic reforms of the last 25 years, and this promise has won elections in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay and Venezuela.

This is not surprising if one looks at the basic economic facts: the last 25 years have been an unprecedented failure for Latin America. From 1980 to 2000, the region’s income per person — the most basic measure that economists have for economic progress — grew by only 9 percent. For 2000-2005 it has been 1 percent. But from 1960-1980 it grew by 82 percent. This collapse of economic growth means that a generation and a half of Latin Americans has lost out on any chance to improve its living standards.

Fruits of privatization, free trade

Here in Washington, most policy-makers have looked on the bright side — from their point of view — that Latin America has adopted the reforms they have advocated. Governments have removed most restrictions on international trade and investment flows, privatized hundreds of billions of dollars of formerly state-owned industries, allowed their central banks to set higher interest rates and reined in public spending. The dismal results, in terms of economic performance, have not attracted much attention here.

Argentina takes hard line against IMF

Can the new populists do better? Consider some of the most “populist” governments today, according to their critics. President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina took office in May 2003, as the country was recovering from a terrible recession that had put the majority of people below the poverty line. He took a hard line against foreign creditors to whom the country had defaulted, against the IMF, and foreign-owned utility companies. Most experts agreed that Argentina would suffer for this defiance and for pursing macroeconomic policies that the IMF opposed. Instead, the economy has had three years of the fastest economic growth in the hemisphere, more than 9 percent annually, creating millions of new jobs.

Sharing oil wealth with poor

Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is perhaps the most controversial “populist,” but he will almost certainly sweep to yet another electoral victory this fall. The reason? He kept his promise to share the nation’s oil wealth with the poor, who now have free health care, subsidized food, and increased access to education. After surviving a 2002 military coup supported by the United States, and a devastating oil strike by the opposition, the economy has boomed since political stability returned to the country — growing 28 percent in the last two years.

Bolivia’s Evo Morales has also been criticized as a “populist.” He has only been in office for a month, but the movement that brought him there also forced the government last year to get a better deal from foreign-owned gas companies. This is bringing in tens of millions of dollars of new revenue to the government, which will enable it to deliver on its commitments to the country’s poor majority.

Growth of democracy

Democracy has also increased along with the new populism. Kirchner revoked the military’s impunity for the thousands of murders, torture and disappearances during the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Previously marginalized and excluded groups (Bolivia’s indigenous majority, the poor in Venezuela) have been brought into the political process. Maybe that’s what the pundits really don’t like about the new populism.

This article appeared in the Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star-Tribune and Pueblo Sunday Chieftain & Star-Journal. It is re-printed here with permission of the author.

Over 500,000 rally in L.A. for immigrant rights

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 04:59:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — The over half million immigrant rights supporters who rallied in Los Angeles March 25 sent their fellow Americans and their government a clear message: We are Americans, we are workers who build up this economy and society, we are not terrorists nor criminals, we deserve justice and equality with legalization!

Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands in the march sent these messages on their white T-shirts, on placards, carrying banners and American flags, with chants as well as roaring cheers for the speeches of community, labor, political and religious leaders.

The action was timed to precede Senate debate on immigration policy starting March 27. The labor-community coalition has been growing by leaps and bounds, drawing in Democrats, some Republicans, religious groups and some business groups.

The earnestness of the message was embodied in the character of the marchers. They arrived hours early. Hundreds of thousands were already there at the 10 a.m. assembly time. They came as community: whole families, from infants in strollers to grandparents. Others came in groups of co-workers and neighbors. Over two-thirds wore white as a symbol of peaceful advocacy for their rights, as requested by organizers and the Spanish-language radio disc jockeys.

Carrying themselves with dignity, people were so solidly pressed together that smoking was virtually absent. No alcohol was present and no arrests were made.

The L.A. march came in the wake of the huge Chicago rally March 10 that rocked the nation. Millions have taken to the streets in opposition to HR 4437, known as the Sensenbrenner bill, which criminalizes undocumented workers as well as anyone who provides them with assistance. Protesters are demanding “pro-immigrant” immigration reform with a clear path to citizenship.

At the L.A. rally, the crowd resoundingly cheered calls by rally organizers for permanent residency and amnesty, not bracero-like temporary worker programs. They cheered calls to oppose anti-immigrant politicians at the polls, and cheered warnings of boycotts and work stoppages should bad legislation pass.

California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said, “We are a community looking for justice, we want permanent residency. This week President Bush and Congress can decide whether to open their arms … or turn their backs on our beautiful community.” Father Mike Kennedy, pastor of Dolores Mission Catholic Church, spoke of the Catholic Conference of Bishops’ support for immigrant rights. He said that the anti-immigrant proposals in Congress “are sinful … we need an amnesty.” Many diocese leaders are vowing to “get arrested” if laws are enacted that criminalize those who work with undocumented people.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was joined by many others urging legalization. “We are here as one family” seeking legalization as part of the American Dream, he said. “We are not illegal, we are workers.”

Maria Elena Durazo, leader of the 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the nation’s labor movement was “entirely behind you.” Labor union members, along with community activists, led the security detail. Durazo was joined by SEIU Local 1877 President Mike Garcia in calling for keeping up the pressure, including, where appropriate, work stoppages.

Democratic Congresswomen Hilda Solis and Linda Sanchez of California said they were struggling hard against the anti-immigrant measures of Republican leaders. Solis got a rousing cheer when she told the crowd, “We are fighting in Congress. Help us in the elections!”

Other important immigrant rights actions were initiated by students and farm workers. Starting on March 24 and continuing on March 27, tens of thousands of students in the area walked out of school. On March 26, some 4,000 members and supporters of the United Farmworkers Union commemorated the March 31 anniversary of Cesar Chavez’s birth.

Dolores Huerta, a co-founder of the UFW with Chavez, said the farm workers would picket and demonstrate at the offices of every Republican politician in California if the Republican leadership moves forward with anti-immigrant legislation.

BOOKREVIEW: True family values shine in Cuban 5 book

Sat, 25 Mar 2006 05:06:00 +0000

Cuban poet Nancy Morejon provides an introduction for this slim volume of letters, poems, drawings, photographs and diary excerpts exchanged between five U.S.-imprisoned men and their family members in Cuba. Readers, she predicts, will cross a “threshold of feelings [into] a vast edifice built on the foundation of dignified sacrifice and profound moral values.” And we do.

Antonio Guerrero, René González, Fernando González, Ramon Labañino and Gerardo Hernández, known now as the Cuban Five, were monitoring terrorist plotting by right-wing Cubans in Florida when they were arrested in 1998. They are waiting for an appeals court decision on their flawed trial. Their unjust imprisonment has spurred a worldwide campaign to free them.

U.S. writer Alice Walker provides poignant introductory remarks in which she invokes the memory of African families torn apart by slavery and the contemporary reality of African American parents in prison, separated from families, because of racial and class oppression. Appeals attorney Leonard Weinglass summarizes the prisoners’ case.

The book is divided into sections, each with a description from one of the wives (in René González’s case, from his mother) of police, court and prison encounters, followed by family correspondence. It first appeared in 2004 in Cuba as “El Dulce Abismo” (The Sweet Abyss), the title of a Silvio Rodriguez song.

Poetry from life experiences

Morejon states that “this poetry comes from life itself,” from a grim reality, we might add, where survival mechanisms are tested and against which observations on values and purpose carry extra weight.

Humor has a role. Adriana Perez asks that future children “not be disorganized and a bad baseball player like you [Gerardo] or bad tempered like me.” And they dream. Two of the couples plan for children, Adriana and Gerardo by rehearsing name possibilities, and Fernando and Rosa by securing a proxy marriage, where someone else stood in for Fernando at the ceremony.

Gerardo and the rest depend upon the “support we’ve received from our people and government, our relatives, and thousands of brothers and sisters worldwide.” Irmita’s school friends wait for her outside the court where she had gone to attend her father René’s sentencing.

Adriana gives vent to a rare manifestation of anger: we are “victims of a cruel, refined, and sinister method of psychological torture. I have so much rage that I cannot cry.” For the most part, however, the letter writers have a long view and are given to expressions of purpose.

Fernando González suggests to his wife Rosa that “to hatred we have to respond with love — love for Cuba, love for our people, love for Fidel ... that love should and will be reflected in more love between us.” Rosa replies, “It doesn’t matter how long we have to wait, the truth will come out. … I continue to wait with the same love as always.”

Family bonds remain strong

There is strength in family. Olga Salanueva writes, “There is no hatred in me because [the U.S. legal system] has not been able to destroy us. … After five years ... we are still united and will always be a family.”

To son Tony, Antonio Guerrero sends “giant, indestructible love” from “father to son ... or what’s best, best friend to best friend.”

He continues, “I’d tell you always to be a modest person, willing to help anyone who needs it, and above all, be just. You’ll need to study hard since knowledge will help you understand and shape the world around you.” In school Tony is studying agricultural work. “You’ll learn that people have to work to provide food,” dad writes. “It’s important to enjoy work and value its importance for society ... the most important thing is that you be a generous person, since individualism and egotism aren’t worth a thing.”

Four-year-old Ivette hears from her dad René, “Studying will be all that society will ask of you [as a child]. ... You’ll grow up in the most just society the world has ever conceived.”

This book is a must read for every Cuba solidarity activist and anyone who values love, hope, dignity and justice.

Letters of Love and Hope – the story of the Cuban Five Introductions by Alice Walker and Nancy Morejon; commentary by Leonard Weinglass Ocean Press (www.oceanbooks.com.au), 2005 Softcover, 200 pp., $16.95

The death of Milosevic and the death of Yugoslavia

Sat, 25 Mar 2006 04:55:00 +0000

Slobodan Milosevic died recently in his prison cell, tried for war crimes by the NATO states that killed his nation, Yugoslavia, with the bombers and troops they sent to back reactionary separatist forces. Questions continue to surround the circumstances of his death.

As part of the propaganda campaign used to justify NATO’s massive military intervention, the term “ethnic cleansing” was repeated endlessly to portray Milosevic and those Serbians who fought to save Yugoslavia as comparable to the Nazis during World War II. Rarely mentioned is the fact that separatists and nationalists in Croatia and Bosnia and the Serbian province of Kosovo often hailed local World War II fascists who worked with the Nazis to carry out genocide against Serbians, Roma people (gypsies) and Jews.

There were real, monstrous atrocities committed by both Serbian and Croatian nationalist paramilitaries against civilians in the 1990s. Bosnia and Kosovo also served as training centers for Al-Qaeda and other right-wing terrorists fighting Serbian forces, and in addition were used as centers for drug and weapons smugglers connected to international terrorist groups.

But the imperialist powers wanted Yugoslavia dismembered and that was all that really mattered to them. Devastating economic sanctions and military intervention were the methods they used to accomplish those ends.

NATO was established after World War II essentially to fight World War III against the Soviet Union in Europe, and also to bring a number of states with powerful Communist parties at the time, France and Italy particularly, into an anticommunist, anti-Soviet alliance.

If Milosevic had aided and abetted Yugoslavia’s destruction as Mikhail Gorbachev did in the USSR, he would have been a hero to the capitalist media — “our kind of communist.” Had the foreign powers not intervened, I believe that Yugoslavia would have survived, but they did and it didn’t.

Although it was defeated, the Yugoslav side deserves to be seen by anti-imperialists as the right side in Yugoslavia’s civil war. Today, the phony privatization and gangster capitalism of Eastern Europe prevails in the former Yugoslav republics, whose working class has suffered enormously in regard to living standards and future hopes, with foreign capital picking and choosing what it wants in the Yugoslav economy.

This is the legacy of the trial and death of Slobodan Milosevic.

His trial was a political show trial in homage to the Cold War ideology of “totalitarianism,” equating communists and the left with fascists. While there were indefensible atrocities committed in the Yugoslav civil war as there are usually in civil wars, war itself is an atrocity. The NATO bombings of civilians were atrocities. The Serbian Socialist Party was not and is not in any way a fascist party, and the Milosevic government fought what was a defensive civil war to save Yugoslavia, not an aggressive war to achieve racist “ethnic cleansing.”

The trial was orchestrated by those who dismembered Yugoslavia as a socialist country, creating a Balkan map today that is similar to Hitler’s “New Order” of 1941. In essence, the fascist genocide of WWII, which the world calls the Holocaust, was relativized and trivialized by a propaganda campaign to justify imperialist conquest and the “transformation” of NATO into a military force that can theoretically now be sent anywhere on earth to intervene in civil wars on whatever side it chooses.

The 18th century French philosopher Voltaire wrote that history is a “pack of tricks” played on the dead. History as told by ruling classes and victorious nations is often that. For imperialist media, the Yugoslav civil war was and is about Slobodan Milsovevic as a substitute for Joseph Stalin, and the struggles of Serbian minorities in Bosnia and Kosovo and Serbian military forces as “ethnic cleansing,” regardless of the causes, facts and contemporary consequences of the war. Now, all of us who are against imperialism must fight to set the historical record straight, so that people will not continue to be misled by those who cloak imperialist domination and conquest in slogans about the advance of “democracy” and the protection of “human rights.”

Norman Markowitz is a history professor at Rutgers University.

WSF photographs develop another world view

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:02:00 +0000

The World Social Forum by the numbers:

• Over 80,000 participated in the Caracas, Venezuela, WSF, Jan. 24–29. Of these 2,000 came from the U.S.

• 160 countries were represented.

• Of the over 2,000 events taking place in 250 venues during the six days of the Forum, 115 were organized by U.S. groups.

• 2,500 organizations took part.

• There were 4,900 journalists accredited from print, radio, television and web-based news media. They ranged from the commercial press to the independent and alternative press.

• 3,000 volunteers provided technical, logistical and clerical help.

• 6 World Social Forums have been held since 2001. This year the Forum was also convened in Bamako, Mali, and Karachi, Pakistan.

All photos José A. Cruz/PWW-Nuestro Mundo

Venezuelan trade unionist Omar Rangel pauses to show World Social Forum delegates his Hugo Chávez animated sign. Rangel was on his way to the Celebration of Democracy, a weeklong festival in support of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, held just before the opening of the Forum in January.

This shoe cooperative, one of 90,000 set up in the last seven years, employs 200 workers on two shifts. The workers make all business decisions affecting the co-op. Most of the people working in the co-ops were previously unemployed or worked in the “informal economy.”

A child chases pigeons by the statue of Simón Bolívar in the plaza which bears his name just a few blocks from where he was born. Bolívar, known as The Liberator, led the fight against Spanish colonialism in the Americas.

Mayor Luz Estrella Rodríguez, from El Salvador, speaks during a memorial service for Salvadoran leader Schafik Handal the morning after he died of a heart attack in El Salvador after returning from the inauguration of Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Haitian delegates sing and celebrate the ending of a successful meeting on the situation in Haiti held at La Carlota Airport in Caracas. The participants called for support for deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and highlighted the complicity of the U.S., France and the United Nations in the coup of 2004 and its aftermath.

Alicea Hurianes was happy to see people from around the world come to Venezuela so they could see the changes there. Hurianes, a member of the indigenous Guaraní nation from the south of Venezuela, works in Caracas on a street cleaning crew. The pro-Chávez municipal government has hired hundreds of people and is waging a campaign for a clean city, something previous governments hadn’t done.

Co-op farmer Justo Soriano poses with his 3-year-old granddaughter Yarimar in his home in the mountains outside Caracas. Soriano spearheaded the movement to form the farming co-op among his neighbors. At first “there was a lot of resistance” because this way of working was new to folks, he said. Now the co-op numbers 250 families farming 1,000 hectares, about 10 acres per family.

Peace activist Fernando Suárez del Solar, whose son was among the first U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, was among the 2,000 delegates from the U.S. Among other well known U.S. peace activists participating were Cindy Sheehan and Pablo Paredes.

One didn’t have to go to any of the 200 cultural presentations to hear live music. In many places near the Forum, workers, students and musicians, both amateurs and professionals, would take out an instrument and others would gather to listen or join in singing songs of peace, love and struggle.

A delegation of workers from San José, Venezuela, demonstrate in Simón Bolívar Plaza. The sign says, “San José in the struggle against the large landowners – Building 21st Century Socialism.”

Steelworkers hit streets for Mexican miners

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 07:20:00 +0000

Steelworkers are rallying in front of Mexican consulates across the U.S. and Canada to demand that Mexico’s President Vicente Fox reinstate the head of that country’s miners union.

The pro-corporate Fox government has removed Napoleon Gomez Urrutia as president of Los Mineros, the 250,000-member national miners and metallurgical union, and frozen the union’s assets. According to a USW fact sheet, the government’s action came on the heels of a strike by Los Mineros. The miners were protesting a decision to seal a mine owned by Grupo Mexico and end rescue efforts just six days after an underground explosion trapped 65 miners on Feb. 19. Gomez accused Grupo Mexico of criminal homicide and the government of negligence.

In Philadelphia, an outraged USW delegation led a march of several hundred union members and supporters from the Liberty Bell to the Mexican Consulate, March 17. Speakers at the rally compared the abuse of workers’ rights in Mexico to the plight of U.S. Department of Homeland Security workers who are fighting the Bush administration’s attempts to take away their right to collective bargaining.

A delegation led by AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson entered the consulate and presented a letter to Fox demanding Gomez’s reinstatement. “When you tangle with our Mexican sisters and brothers, you tangle with us,” Chavez said.

Similar actions were planned for Detroit, Portland, Ore., Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Chicago.

Gomez was a special guest at the Steelworkers convention last April where he and USW President Leo Gerard signed a “strategic alliance” committing the two unions to cross-border collaboration to take on “the power of global capital and multinational corporations.”

Last year, when USW copper miners in Arizona were engaged in a tough strike at Asarco, a Grupo Mexico subsidiary, Mexican miners staged job actions at Grupo mines in support. “They helped us out. They put hundreds of people in the street,” USW spokesman Gerald Dickey told the World. “Not too long after that we got the deal.”

Dickey said the union is very concerned with the safety of Gomez and his family, whose assets have also been impounded. As word reached the USW that Gomez’s driver had been arrested, the Steelworkers sent a delegation of miners and the head of the USW’s international affairs department, Jerry Fernandez, to Mexico City to offer support to the family and the Mexican union.

Meanwhile a letter from Gerard to Fox condemned the Mexican government’s actions as “a blatant attempt to stifle the voice of workers and all progressive unions in Mexico,” coming a short time before the Mexican elections. Many Mexican union leaders say Fox is trying to deflect criticism of his failure to protect workers’ lives at the mine by shifting blame onto the union. Gomez is one of a growing number of Mexican leaders condemning the negative impact of Nafta on Mexican workers.

USW Rapid Response District 7 Coordinator Brett Voorhies, who worked five years on the ball-bearing assembly line at Rexnord Linkbelt Assembly in Indianapolis, told the World he’s been hanging out at his old union hall, USW Local 1999, with fliers about the upcoming Mexican Consulate action. Steelworkers get it that “forming these strategic alliances is something that needs to be done,” Voorhies said. “So far we’ve got several hundred calls to the Mexican Embassy,” he added with pride.

Secessionists threaten Venezuelas unity

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:35:00 +0000

“It’s new evidence for a destabilization plan that North American imperialism, through the fascist government of George W. Bush, is carrying out in our country to torpedo and sabotage the revolutionary process.”

Oscar Figuera, general secretary of the Venezuelan Communist Party and a National Assembly delegate, was referring to a new secessionist movement in Zulia, the northwestern Venezuelan state where 40 percent of the nation’s oil reserves are located.

It’s the latest in a series of extraordinary counterrevolutionary actions spanning several years that includes a coup attempt, a strike against the state-owned oil company and a boycott of parliamentary elections.

On March 5 the Caracas daily El Nacional reported on plans of the Zulian group Our Own Path to initiate a plebiscite there on Oct. 24. Voters would vote on a “statute on autonomy” to “guarantee their individual rights and their own free enterprise economic system.”

Responding within hours on television, President Hugo Chávez accused the U.S. government of plotting “to take control of the great oil wealth there … and break the country into pieces.”

“North American imperialists are reverting to old ways with a lunatic, proxy fifth column with a mentality that is programmed, colonized and traitorous,” he said.

The separatists reportedly have ties with paramilitaries in Colombia, adjacent to Zulia.

Chávez recalled that separatism is a recurring theme in Zulian politics, beginning with the era of Simon Bolivar. A British observer noted that secessionists and their U.S. backers devised plans in 1935 to convert Zulia into a U.S. dependency.

Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez reported on a criminal investigation of the secessionist movement but admitted that his department lacks hard evidence of U.S. involvement. Homeland for All, a left political party, organized demonstrations outside Rodriguez’s office on March 7 in favor of stepped-up investigations. Rodriguez later announced the appointment of a judge and hinted at “other action in addition to a criminal investigation.”

Freddy Bernal, president of the Association of Bolivarian Mayors of Venezuela, has called for a national mobilization against the separatists. On March 7, National Assembly President Nicolas Maduro complained to reporters of “the conspiratorial silence of the Venezuelan opposition [to Chávez]. … With this silence, they are confirming their complicity.”

Zulian Gov. Manuel Rosales is one of only two state governors who oppose Chávez. Giancarlo di Martino, mayor of Maracaibo, the state capital, accuses Rosales of secessionist leanings. William Lara, national coordinator of Chávez’s political party, claims that Rosales is a confidant of U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield, the two of them meeting 17 times last year, according to one source. Reportedly Rosales crosses the border to meet with Colombian paramilitaries.

A multimillion-dollar publicity campaign for the separatist plebiscite is under way, its onset timed with the reopening of the U.S. Consulate in Maracaibo after years of inactivity.

According to one report, NATO and U.S. commanders staged a war game invasion of Venezuela in Madrid five years ago. “Operation Balboa,” as it was called, was situated in Zulia.

Spokespersons for Our Own Path call for Zulian autonomy and “liberal capitalism.” They envision a president and senate instead of governor and state legislature. Their model for Venezuela and Zulia is China and Hong Kong: “one country, two systems.” They look admiringly upon Taiwan and Singapore.

The parallel situation of separatist agitation riling the eastern Bolivian state of Santa Cruz, rich in natural gas, comes to mind.

Alberto Mansueti, one of the secessionist leaders, explains, “What we want is a statute ... that will allow us to move from socialism to free market norms.” Secessionist ideologue Néstor Suárez argues that Zulians “instinctively reject and resist against socialism” of any variety.

Meanwhile, 500,000 civilian reservists in Venezuela will soon embark upon a four-month weekend training course that emphasizes tactics for “asymmetric war,” the term military planners apply to defense against a powerful foreign force. Chávez predicted on March 5 that “If someday a group of invaders comes looking for me, they will never take me alive.”

Communist leader Figuera condemned attempts “to split the country, converting this region into a beachhead for fratricidal confrontations among Venezuelans, to create international conditions that provide justification for the gringo invasion plan for Venezuela.” His party calls for “the broadest possible national mobilization. … The Venezuelan people are not disposed to accept any action that threatens the integrity of the national territory.”

Urgent appeal to stop anti-Venezuela bill

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:16:00 +0000

H. Con. Resolution 328 will be up for a subcommittee vote this Thursday, March 16. Your help is needed to stop this intellectually dishonest, anti-Venezuela resolution. Please call Congress today!

WHAT IS H. CON. RES. 328?

Sponsored by Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), H. Con. Res. 328 is a misguided and factually inaccurate resolution that condemns Venezuela and recommends funding of Venezuelan opposition parties, in direct violation of Venezuelan law.

The resolution contains so many factual inaccuracies that it should be an embarrassment for most members of Congress to support. For a full description of the errors, half-truths and misstatements please visit out website www.rethinkvenezuela.com.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please call Representative Eliot Engel today. This New York Democrat is the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, which will be taking up the vote. The Congressional Switchboard can patch you through to his office. Call 202-224-3121 today and do the following:

Ask to speak to Congressman Eliot Engel’s Office

When the receptionist answers, ask to speak to the Legislative Aide who works on Venezuela issues.

If you speak to the aide directly, ask him/her to recommend that Rep. Engel speak out against H. Con. Res. 328 in the subcommittee. If you are put into voicemail, please leave a message. Here are some points to consider for your discussion:

The resolution is inaccurate. Among other things:

The resolution states that President Chavez rewrote the Venezuelan Constitution, when in fact it was drafted and approved through a democratic process;

It argues that President Chavez has taken control of the National Assembly, when in fact opposition parties made a decision not to participate in the most recent elections;

It contradicts the 2005 U.S. State Department report that Venezuela has a open and vigorous media; and

It claims that President Chavez “is supporting radical forces” in Bolivia and Colombia. The inclusion of Bolivia seems to be referring to the democratically elected president of that country, Evo Morales, who, while a socialist, is supported and recognized by every country in Latin America. And the Colombia example refers to never-proven allegations of links to FARC rebels—a charge which is not even supported by the conservative President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

The U.S. must have a sane policy toward Venezuela. Last month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared President Chavez to Hitler. Just last week, a California academic was harassed by FBI agents for his support of Venezuela’s democratically elected government. Clearly, the House needs bring a level of sanity back to our discussion of Venezuela.

If we truly believe in the principles of democracy, the U.S. should not be advocating funding for opposition parties in other countries.

NOTE: Rep. Engel is new to the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee. He will likely vote the right way on this bill, but he needs to be educated in order to be able to speak out against H. Con. Res. 328.

Venezuela Information Office 2000 P Street NW, Ste. 240 Washington, DC, 20036 (202) 347-8081 The Venezuela Information Office is dedicated to informing the American public about contemporary Venezuela, and receives its funding from the government of Venezuela. More information is available from the FARA office of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.

Rich history, bright future: The Japanese Communist Party convenes

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 08:08:00 +0000

ATAMI CITY, Japan — It’s 3:55 a.m. A small truck rolls along the dark rain-slick streets of the Seiso District of Odawara City, a little hamlet propped on the coast of Sagami Bay southwest of Tokyo. The truck pulls up to a compact building, the entrance lit by a bare light bulb. The driver drops a bundle of newspapers under an overhang and drives on to the next delivery. Five minutes later, a white-haired man of 75 years, wrapped in a bright blue poncho and sporting a fisherman’s hat, peddles up on a bicycle.

His name is Kunitsugu Wakabayashi, and he is on time for his daily newspaper delivery route. He is a seven-day-a-week volunteer for Akahata (Red Flag), newspaper of the Japanese Communist Party. Like thousands of other volunteers around the Japanese archipelago, he rises early each morning to help deliver copies of the daily and weekly editions of the party’s paper to 1.7 million readers.

“I have difficulties on rainy or snowy days. On those days I don’t want to wake up,” said Wakabayashi as he bicycled through the silent streets. “But I convince myself to go for my health.”

The dedication of Wakabayashi is testimony to the strength of the Japanese Communist Party, a party with a unique political culture and history.

The JCP is the largest Communist Party in the industrialized world, with over 400,000 members organized into 24,000 local branch organizations in this country of 127 million people. There are JCP branches in 98 percent of Japan’s cities, towns and municipalities.

The JCP is also unique in Japanese politics. Founded in 1922, it is the only party that opposed Japanese military aggression during the despotic rule of the Japanese Emperor up through the end of World War II, and that consistently struggles against ongoing U.S. political and military dominance. The JCP is known for its incorruptible elected officials, and its refusal to take government funding.

Besides a rich history of opposition to war, exploitation and tyranny, the JCP also maintains a vibrant political life in Japan today. Perhaps no other organization in Japan has such deep roots among the Japanese people at all levels and in every locality of the country. The JCP lives by the principle enshrined in its constitution: “The people are sovereign.”

24th Congress of the JCP

A few kilometers down the coast from Odawara City, the JCP recently convened its highest decision-making body. The JCP held its 24th Congress Jan. 10-14 in Atami City. Each morning 967 delegates climbed the winding path up a steep hill past stone walls, tangerine groves and tiny private homes, to the congress hall at the JCP’s picturesque compound.

Men and women, young and old, climbed up to the proceedings each day, prepared for a long day of deliberations, before walking back down to their hostels and hotels for the night.

The average age of delegates was 50 years; the youngest delegate was 18.

The eldest was 80. He is the head of a local JCP branch and has 56 years of JCP membership. Like more than half of the other delegates, he was attending his first party congress.

Twenty-five percent of the delegates were women, and many were under 30, including a number of young candidates running for office in the 2006 local elections.

The veteran leader of the JCP, Tetsuzo Fuwa, opened the congress with brief remarks. He was followed by a report from the outgoing central committee delivered by Executive Committee Chairperson Kazuo Shii. Shii reminded the delegates about the extensive work of the party since the last congress and the challenges ahead in the struggle for democracy, justice and socialism. Shii also recalled the 4.92 million votes the JCP received in the 2005 general elections.

Shii then articulated five characteristics making the JCP unique in Japanese politics: it has a comprehensive program upon which it is based; it has its own organizational structure rooted in the people; it is self-financed, refusing corporate or government funds; it has had a consistent policy throughout its history; it promotes international solidarity and exchange based on sovereign independence.

Finally, Shii quoted the congress Draft Resolution, stating, “The future belongs to young people. The JCP is a party oriented toward the future, with a program that can open a bright future for Japan.”

Policies of the Liberal Democratic Party

The main discussion centered on the Draft Resolution, which was discussed in local branches and bodies for two months leading up to the congress. The Draft Resolution addresses the central issues faced by the Japanese people, such as the continued U.S. military presence in the country, the assault on working people and the bankrupt policies of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan almost continuously for 50 years.

“There is no future with the politics of the Liberal Democratic Party,” said Tamura Tomoko, a delegate from Tokyo, addressing the congress as one of the 58 speakers over three days of discussion. The Draft Resolution states that the LDP policies stand in stark contrast to the “public interests” and “the world trend toward peace.” The struggle for peace and for the abolition of all nuclear weapons is a central pillar of the Draft Resolution and the JCP Program, which was adopted at the 23rd Congress in 2004. “A world without nuclear weapons is possible if we make strenuous efforts. That is why I joined the JCP,” said Tomoko.

The Draft Resolution accuses the LDP, led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, of three main “aberrant” policies: justifying the past wars of aggression, acting at the “beck and call” of U.S. imperialism, and acting in the interests of the monopoly corporations.

Opposition party diplomacy

One of the highlights of the congress was the large presence of foreign guests representing left political parties and governments. The JCP is the only major Japanese political party that routinely invites foreign guests to attend gatherings of this type. Representatives of 21 political parties from 18 countries on every continent were present. There were also diplomats from 16 countries in attendance.

The big international presence at the JCP congress is due to its policy of “opposition party diplomacy,” which seeks to counter the pro-U.S. foreign policy of the LDP. The JCP directly engages in diplomatic relations with other left parties around the world as well as with foreign governments.

There were also 20 guests from 16 Japanese organizations, including nine who addressed the congress with short speeches. Among the Japanese guests were Kimiko Tadaka, president of the New Japanese Women’s Association, Kumagai Kanemichi, president of Zenroren (the National Confederation of Trade Unions), and Hiroshi Taka, secretary general of Gensuikyo (the Japanese Council Against A & H Bombs).

Kanemichi congratulated the congress and praised the work of the JCP in the trade union movement. “Organizing the unemployed is a place for cooperation between Zenroren and the JCP,” he said. “Unionization of big corporations declined 10 percent from 58.1 percent to 47.3 percent in 10 years.” Temporary workers now represent 30-40 percent of the Japanese workforce and pose a particular difficulty for unions.

The struggle for peace and disarmament

Gensuikyo is truly a mass organization in Japan, engaging millions of people in the struggle to abolish nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear war. Being the only country in the world to be the direct victim of nuclear attack, abolition is particularly popular in Japan. Hidankyo (the Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) is the organization of the Hibakusha, A-bomb victims from Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Together Hidankyo and Gensuikyo have spearheaded the movement to ban all nuclear weapons.

Gensuikyo launched a new international campaign to press for the “swift abolition of nuclear weapons” in January, the 60th anniversary of the first UN General Assembly resolution for nuclear disarmament. Today, despite the overwhelming opposition to nuclear weapons by the people and governments of the world, nuclear war remains a threat, and the Bush administration declares the “right” to maintain and use nuclear weapons.

The Japanese Communist Party believes one of the greatest threats to a peaceful Japan is the U.S.-Japan Security Agreement, which subordinates Japanese sovereignty to U.S. foreign policy goals. The U.S. maintains approximately 90 military installations, including major air and naval bases, in Japan and stations about 47,000 active duty U.S. troops there. About three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities are located in Okinawa. The presence of so many U.S. troops, besides being an implicit threat to the sovereignty and security of Japan and its neighbors, has also led to numerous crimes and violations. Just weeks before the JCP congress, a Japanese woman was robbed and killed by a U.S. soldier on leave.

Another threat to peace in Asia is the LDP government’s assault on the principles of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. Article 9 is unique in the world as it declares that Japan will have no military capacity for aggression based on the historical crimes of Japanese aggression against its Asian neighbors. In 2003, the Koizumi administration took the unprecedented step of sending Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. Now, under pressure from the Bush administration, the LDP proposes negatively revising Article 9.

Led by the JCP, thousands of Article 9 Associations have sprouted up to oppose the war in Iraq and to oppose the revision of the constitution. Many of the delegates to the JCP congress spoke of organizing Article 9 Associations in schools, hospitals and other workplaces.

Delegate Moru Okama is a taxi driver. He and his fellow drivers took the initiative to establish an Article 9 Association in the taxi drivers union and printed up their own bumper stickers calling for the defense of Article 9.

The members of the JCP are involved in the major democratic and economic struggles throughout Japan from the struggle for health care reform to the fight for quality public education.

The electoral arena

The JCP prides itself on addressing the needs of the people at the grassroots. In his closing remarks to the congress, Shii called the JCP “the lifeline of the people.” From social service work to volunteer projects, to responding to natural disasters like the record-breaking snowfall this winter in western Japan, JCP members fight for policy reform and revolution while serving the people day-to-day.

This deep commitment to the well being of the people helped make the JCP the party with the greatest number of local assembly members nationwide. While the JCP holds 18 seats in both houses of the Japanese Diet, it has 3,600 seats in local assemblies. These elected officials in small towns and large cities use their offices to advocate for people’s needs and to oppose the pro-monopoly policies of the LDP.

Lots of laughter

There was a lot of laughter on the floor of the congress. The domed congress hall sat atop a large swimming pool, where JCP members can come cool off during the summer. The pool was covered up and rows of desks were jammed into the space to maximize participation.

While the delegates were disciplined, dutifully studying the congress documents and taking notes on all the speeches, they were not above laughing out loud at the puns and quips of the speakers addressing the crowd. Delegates did group stretches during the breaks in the program. The congress was a warm and welcoming environment.

The Draft Resolution was amended during the course of the congress based on remarks from the podium and over 1,000 comments from members who watched the congress proceedings by satellite hook-up. The delegates passed the resolution unanimously.

New leadership for the future

The congress concluded by electing 130 members and 14 alternates to the incoming central committee, which is responsible for setting party policy between congresses. The central committee met briefly during the congress to elect its executive committee and officers, including Executive Committee Chair Kazuo Shii, Secretariat Head Tadayoshi Ichida, and Vice-Chairs Ikuko Ishii, Yasuo Ogata and Tadao Hamano.

Outgoing Central Committee Chairperson Tetsuzo Fuwa announced his resignation from the post at the conclusion of the congress. Fuwa, 75, has spent 36 years in top leadership positions of the JCP and has been chairperson of the central committee since 2002. He will remain on the executive committee and will become head of the JCP’s social science institute. The position of central committee chair person was left vacant for the time being.

The leadership team elected at the congress represents the future of the Japanese Communist Party. The JCP is committed to honoring its past while preparing for the future. In January 2005, the JCP inaugurated its new central committee building in Tokyo. It is a building with cutting-edge design and environmentally friendly materials that was built to last 100 years. Kunitsugu Wakabayashi and Tetsuzo Fuwa won’t around 100 years from now, but the Japanese Communist Party will be.

Libero Della Piana (ldellapiana@cpusa.org) is organization secretary of the Communist Party USA and represented the CPUSA at the JCP 24th Congress.

ANC wins big vote in local elections

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 07:02:00 +0000

The African National Congress won two-thirds of the vote in the March 1 local elections in South Africa, handily defeating its closest rival, the Democratic Alliance, which won 16 percent. The Inkatha Freedom Party won 8 percent, and the Independent Democrats, 2 percent.

The ANC’s vote reflected a 7 percent gain over its share of the vote six years ago.

“Our movement has emerged from the elections stronger than ever before, having increased its support within our system of local government,” South African President and ANC leader Thabo Mbeki said March 4.

Mbeki’s party prevailed in 223 of the country’s 277 municipalities, and won a majority in five of its six biggest cities. The only city where the ANC did not win a decisive victory was in Cape Town, where it is expected to share power with the Democratic Alliance and the smaller Independent Democrats.

The results show the majority of South Africans place a great deal of confidence in the African National Congress and its ideology of an inclusive and fair government.

Turnout was 48 percent, about the same as in 2000, although the ANC and election officials had hoped for a higher figure this time.

As early vote totals poured in, showing a big majority supporting the ANC, the party released a statement: “These preliminary observations indicate that South Africans have heeded the call to make local government a dynamic and integral instrument in the struggle to improve the lives of our people. They have endorsed the plan to make local government work better for all South Africans, and have indicated their readiness to play an active part in ensuring that it is effectively implemented.”

Paul Mashitile, the ANC’s election manager in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, said, “We will ensure that the trust and confidence put in the ANC by the citizens of Gauteng are not misplaced and will therefore immediately get down to work on implementing the ANC’s plan to make local government work better for all our people.”

Achieving this goal, the ANC said, includes ensuring that municipalities pay attention to the complaints raised by the people during the election campaign and that councilors be accessible and communicate with the people regularly about improving each district’s development plan and budget. Problems of substandard housing, poor sanitation and insufficient clean water remain acute in many areas, it said.

The ANC said cooperation among local, provincial and national governments will also be crucial to achieving social gains, particularly in reducing unemployment and creating jobs. As part of the ANC’s commitment to the electorate, its candidates signed a code of conduct prior to the election pledging their adherence to high ethical standards.

In the weeks leading up to the election, leaders and members of the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), known collectively as the Tripartite Alliance, vigorously campaigned for the ANC candidates.

Since the abolition of apartheid, the ANC-led government has made great improvements in the lives of the people of South Africa, especially for the poor and oppressed. The ANC program emphasizes unity and cooperation to develop and implement programs for the good of all South Africans.

In a recent statement, it said, “By working together, South Africans can and will overcome the many challenges that still confront our people.”

S. African women helped crush apartheid

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 06:53:00 +0000

The 1950s marked a turbulent period in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

At the beginning of the decade, the apartheid regime banned the South African Communist Party, a longtime, militant foe of racism and inequality. Nonetheless, its struggles and the struggles of others continued in many different forms.

New alliances between Black Africans and progressive Europeans were formed. The Women’s League of the African National Congress founded the multiracial Federation of South African Women. Multiple expressions of resistance emerged.

The primary struggle of the decade centered on the hated “pass laws.” African men were forced to carry these identity documents at all times. Each year an average of more than 339,000 men were imprisoned because of pass laws.

When the regime announced its intention to extend them to African women, it was confronted by a series of militant protests and an upsurge of defiance that carried the anti-apartheid struggle to a new level of resistance.

Aware of the level of organization of the ANC in urban areas, the government’s strategy was to begin delivering passbooks in rural areas. They expected little resistance but found instead a range of spontaneous defiance: deserted villages, burned books, outright refusal. Women threatened with imprisonment simply sat down and were joined by many others. In village after village, women responded with anger and determination.

The height of the women’s resistance came on Aug. 9, 1956. Thousands of women demonstrated in towns and cities throughout the country. Twenty thousand women from all over South Africa converged on Pretoria. They walked, they came by bus and train, they carried 100,000 petitions protesting the pass laws.

The streets were filled with women wearing the colors of the ANC and traditional dress. Since all public processions were banned in Pretoria that day, they marched on the Union Buildings (Congress) in groups of three. Although they had notified the prime minister in advance of their intent, they were refused an audience. So they deposited the petitions in his office, and then inside and outside the building, thousands of women stood in silence for 30 minutes, arms raised in the ANC salute.

Dorothy Zihlangu, recalling the event almost 20 years later, told the South African newspaper Argus, “The only noise in the whole amphitheatre was the cry of babies. Then we went home and organized in our communities.”

As women dispersed to their homes singing, a new freedom song was born: “Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder, you will be crushed.”

Following the march, Chief Albert Luthuli, president-general of the African National Congress and recipient of the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize, said, “When the women begin to take an active part in the struggle as they are doing now, no power on earth can stop us from achieving freedom in our lifetime.”

Although the repression and violence escalated in the following years, and the ANC was soon banned, the liberation struggle still celebrates Aug. 6 as South African Women’s Day, and Chief Luthuli’s words still ring true.

WORLDNOTES

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:17:00 +0000

Iraq: Healing the past and present

The Iraqi Mobile Communist Clinic brought its medical expertise to the people in a special way on Communist Martyr Day, Feb. 14. The clinic set up shop in Baghdad at the same spot where a well-known Iraqi Communist Yousuif Salman Yousif (“Fahad”) was publicly executed in 1949.

Under a banner marking the anniversary, the clinic treated patients, dispensed medicine and gave medical advice from the moment the doctor put on his white coat, signifying his profession.

The Iraqi Communist Party daily paper, Tareeq Al-Shaab (People’s Path), reported that when a traffic police patrol came to see what was going on, they stayed to help organize the crowd into a waiting line.

Altogether, the medics gave medical assistance to about 220 people over a three-hour period, most of whom were elderly and poor. When praised for their efforts, they replied, “We are only carrying out our duty as Communists in helping the people.”

India: Recycling plastic waste

Discarded plastic bags are a major pollutant in many countries of the south. They clog drains, litter streets, fill city dumps and choke the soil.

In Delhi, recycling plastic waste has become a viable micro enterprise employing 300 women with profits of $150,000 each year.

Backed by a newly formed nongovernmental organization called Conserve, bags are collected from city streets, washed and sorted before they are molded into colorful plastic sheets that are stitched into bright, attractive women’s handbags.

National legislation banned the production, storage, use, sale and distribution of the bags in India, although the northern state of Himachal Pradesh has been the first to enforce the law. Violators face up to seven years in prison and the equivalent of a $2,000 fine. In May 2005, South Africa banned the use of thin plastic bags, threatening a jail sentence of up to 10 years.

Ecuador: People vs. oil

The Amazonian Napo Province went under a presidential-declared state of emergency last week as conflict between indigenous of the eastern Amazon and the Ecuador pipeline brought oil production to a halt.

The state of emergency, according to the Associated Press in Ecuador, “gives police and the military the right to make arrests and conduct searches without warrants.” The order was denounced by the parliamentary official representing the region, Napo Deputy Domingo Tanguila.

OCP, owned by a U.S., Canadian and Argentine group, is one of two pump lines in Ecuador that account for 43 percent of the national budget, according to the Canadian Press.

The Ecuadorian Amazon Region has long been the scene of controversy between oil companies and indigenous communities.

In 2003 ChevronTexaco was involved in a billion-dollar lawsuit for dumping toxic materials into unlined pits and polluting the Amazon rivers, according to BBC News.

Chad: Darfur refugees seek peace

The Gaga Camp in eastern Chad is one of 12 refugee camps set up along the insecure border with Darfur, Sudan. In the past two months, more than 1,000 people of all ages have sought refuge there from a new wave of attacks by armed, Arab nomadic militias known as Janjaweed.

For many, it is the second or third move they have made in search of a safe place to live.

“We are so tired of the attacks and having to move on,” one young woman with six children told the UN Integrated Regional Information Network. “All I want now is to stay in one place, build and live, have food and be safe.”

Milaiti Ruben, Gaga camp manager from Africare, said he expects the numbers will increase.

“The stream will continue because insecurity reigns along the border,” he told IRIN. “And the simplest way for people to protect themselves is to flee.”

World Notes are compiled by Pamella Saffer (psaffer@pww.org).

Voices rising worldwide: Free the Cuban 5

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:14:00 +0000

On Feb. 14 attorneys in the case of the Cuban Five took judges’ questions for an hour before the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Meanwhile demonstrations of support for Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González were breaking out all over the world.

The men were arrested Sept. 12, 1998, in Florida, where they had been monitoring right-wing, anti-Cuban terrorists operating there with the connivance of the U.S. government. The five were subsequently convicted of an assortment of crimes, including various “conspiracy” charges. Two of them are serving life sentences; one of them, two life sentences.

Last August, a three-judge appeals court ordered a new trial, saying the atmosphere in Miami, scene of the first trial, prevented the five from getting a fair trial. At the time, the case of young Elián González was roiling the area, and anti-socialist-Cuba forces were working at a feverish pitch.

Defying precedent, U.S. officials refused to accept that ruling, and pushed instead for a new appeals process before the full 12-member court.

It’s unclear if the full court will act any differently. Defense lawyers say that at this most recent hearing, U.S. prosecutors were hard put to answer the judges’ questioning about protective safeguards against bias at the original trial.

Noting the political nature of the case, Leonard Weinglass, appeals attorney for Antonio Guerrero, steered away from predictions. Speaking to the press, he said he hoped that “this court will not convert that ‘perfect storm of prejudice’ [words from last year’s panel decision] into a bright and sunny day of neutrality in Miami.”

“We feel hopeful and even optimistic,” Weinglass said.

International observers and reporters attended the Feb. 14 court session, along with prisoners’ family members, U.S. supporters and a few right-wing Cuban Americans.

Irish journalist and filmmaker Bernie Dwyer, reporting for Radio Havana, and the Rev. Geoffrey Bottoms, leader of the British campaign for the prisoners, were on a speaking tour for the prisoners prior to arriving in Atlanta. Large, diverse audiences heard the pair in Washington, New York, Providence, R.I., Cambridge, Mass., and four cities and towns in Maine, as did radio audiences in the region.

Bottoms, a Catholic priest, described a meeting with clergy in Washington as “groundbreaking.” Almost 500 people showed up Feb. 8 at the appearance in Cambridge with author Noam Chomsky. Along the way, tour organizers raised money for the Freedom Fund for the Cuban five.

Meanwhile, voices were being raised throughout the world for the five. European Trade unionists, meeting at a London-based Cuba solidarity conference on Feb. 24-25, called for releasing the prisoners. A solidarity conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil, did the same, with Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel conveying the message.

Peruvian Cuba Solidarity activists issued a similar demand in Lima on Feb. 17. In Valencia, Spain, Paco Bernal’s paintings devoted to the five went on display there on Feb. 20. In Madrid, the Cuban ambassador honored the city’s coordinating committee for the five for its new web site, www.libertadparaloscinco.org.es.

Delegates to the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Porto Alegre passed a resolution for the release of the five on Feb. 17. Magaly Llort, mother of prisoner Fernando González, thanked the delegates: “The Christians who are here are people with an open heart, and like ourselves, struggle for a better world.” Olga Salanueva, wife of René González, was on hand too.

In Belgium, 32 parliamentarians denounced violations of the prisoners’ human rights. Earlier in the month, 110 Members of the British House of Common demanded their freedom in an open letter to the U.S. attorney general. Nobel Prize-winner Harold Pinter joined them, as did 15 heads of British trade unions, London Mayor Ken Livingston, and 10,000 others in Britain.

The cry, “U.S. justice is a lie” rang out in front of the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland. A banner showing the faces of the five and calling for their freedom waved “high and clear” over Trafalgar Square in London.

The campaign to free the five continues. Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon announced last week a “Time of World Dedication to the Five,” set for Sept. 12 through Oct. 6.

UN mulls eradication of global poverty

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:12:00 +0000

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Commission for Social Development wrapped up its 44th session Feb. 17 after reviewing poverty eradication efforts over the past decade, reaffirming the Millennium Development goals and urging all countries to adopt plans to fulfill them, especially the overriding goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015.

Many of the participating nations spoke against neoliberal trade agreements, saying that they stood in the way of poverty reduction.

“The international financial bodies demand indiscriminate cuts to the developing countries’ social programs,” said Ileana Nuñez Mordoche, representing Cuba, “while they guarantee a flow of $500 billion a year from the South to northern coffers.”

Cuba emphasized integration and cooperation, but not in the “neoliberal conception,” which “only guarantees profits for the huge multinationals.”

Vusi Madonsela of South Africa emphasized the importance of a commitment by the richest countries to devote 0.7 percent of their GDP to development — something the U.S. has failed to do.

Representing China, Zhang Yishan said that while some of the reasons for the poverty of developing nations were domestic, it is “also closely related to the unjust and inequitable world social order.” He also said wars pose a major obstacle, noting that “peace and stability are prerequisites for the eradication of poverty.”

Forum urges probe of FBI raids in Puerto Rico

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:10:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Recent tactics of the FBI, which include military-style assaults and home raids on people in Puerto Rico who favor independence — as well as the pepper spraying of journalists — have provoked public outrage across the island and in the United States. Such outrage was evident at a recent forum in East Harlem.

Four U.S. congresspeople, including New York’s Charles Rangel, José E. Serrano and Nydia Velázquez and Chicago’s Luis Gutiérrez, have joined with forces in Puerto Rico to demand a congressional investigation and an independent inquiry into the FBI’s activities on the island nation.

Reps. Rangel and Serrano were among those on the panel, along with state Sen. José M. Serrano.

Under the guise of looking for terrorists, FBI agents have reportedly been stepping up harassment of Puerto Rican independence activists, particularly since the FBI’s Sept. 23 killing of pro-independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos. On Feb. 10, FBI agents raided several homes and a business, again on the pretext of “antiterrorism,” and then used pepper spray on a peaceful protesters and reporters.

Many fear that the government is using the “war on terror” and the Patriot Act as tools to arrest nonviolent advocates of Puerto Rican independence.

The East Harlem forum, held at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, was called to support the demands for an investigation. Many community residents took part.

City Councilperson Melissa Mark Viverito (D-Bronx), who hosted the event, asked, “On what grounds [did] the FBI determine to bring the war on terrorism to the homes and places of work of Puerto Ricans who favor the island’s independence?”

“We demand answers that can only come through independent hearings and an investigation,” she said.

Mark Viverito was elected in 2005 as the first Puerto Rican woman to represent NYC’s 8th District, which includes the Bronx/Manhattan neighborhoods of El Barrio-East Harlem, Manhattan Valley and Mott Haven.

Several demonstrations against the FBI raids have taken place in Puerto Rico since the Feb. 10 events. On Feb. 26, at least 1,000 marchers rallied in San Juan, the nation’s capital, chanting “Respect Puerto Rico!” and “FBI get out!”

En español Siguen protestas contra abusos FBI

Golden mosque blast brings new Iraq crisis

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:19:00 +0000

The bombing of Iraq’s Askariya mosque, Feb. 22, shattered a 1,200-year-old shrine especially revered by Shiites. Its huge golden dome, now wrecked, dominated the landscape of Samarra, a predominantly Sunni city. Built 100 years ago, it covered the ancient tombs of the 10th and 11th Imams, considered holy descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Another dome marks the spot where the 12th and last Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is believed to have vanished in 878. Much like the Jewish Messiah, believers say Mahdi will return to restore justice to the world.

The bombing touched off demonstrations but also waves of violence. Armed groups targeted scores of Sunni and Shiite mosques. Ordinary people were killed simply because they were Shiite or Sunni. In one report, dozens were found executed, their hands bound, on the outskirts of Baghdad. In Diyala province, gunmen set up a phony checkpoint, pulled 47 largely Shiite factory workers off a bus and killed them.

Estimates of the dead range from hundreds to over 1,000. While the violence has abated amidst calls for unity, suicide bombings and other attacks continue to add to the deaths.

Iraqis widely cited the U.S. occupation as the underlying cause of the crisis, and at the same time said it reflected struggles among contending Iraqi and regional political forces.

In a recent Cairo meeting with leaders of the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization, Iraqi Communist Party leader and former culture minister Mufid al-Jazairy said Saddam Hussein had encouraged differences between religious and ethnic groups that came to the fore after the U.S. toppled Hussein. It created a “new Iraq” dominated by religious sectarianism and racist strife instead of political vision. This enabled the U.S. to play on ethnic conflicts for its own purposes, al-Jazairy said.

A well-known Iraqi newspaper, Azzaman, editorialized, “The occupation may not directly be responsible for the current divisions in the society but it has encouraged them and paved the way for them to take roots that have become almost impossible to wipe out.” The editorial continued, “There are factions who seem to be pleased to see the country in such turmoil. They think immersion in sectarian schemes … and the shedding of innocent blood will serve their vicious intentions.”

Noting that “filling Iraqi streets with tanks, armored personnel carriers and troops will not solve the problem,” the paper called for “a broad national government that reinforces national unity, dissolves armed militias, puts an end to kidnapping and killing and reinstates law and order.”

Many Iraqis blame the Askariya bombing on extreme Islamic fundamentalists known as takfiris, who consider Shiites to be heretics. Many also believe such groups are collaborating with Baathists whose aim is to stoke sectarian conflict even to the brink of civil war, to force their way into power. The attack came as negotiations to form a permanent government had “reached a critical stage, so time to blow things up,” Iraqi Communist Party spokesperson Salam Ali commented sharply.

Then, many Iraqis say, the incident was exploited by various Shiite religious groups for their own narrow agendas.

Ali noted, in a Feb. 26 phone interview, that until the bombing the Supreme Council for an Islamic Republic in Iraq (SCIRI), a major party in the Shiite Islamic alliance, was under tremendous pressure from all other political blocs to retreat from its sectarian positions on the new government. SCIRI has also been on the defensive over torture and murders committed by its paramilitary forces operating under government cover.

The Askariya bombing “helped take the heat off,” and was used to stir up emotions among the group’s supporters and the general public, Ali said.

SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim in turn said that U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, by pushing for a bigger Sunni role in the new government, “gave a green light to terrorist groups, and he therefore bears a part of the responsibility.”

Fundamentalist Moqtada al Sadr further inflamed the situation by spurring attacks on Sunni mosques and individuals, many Iraqis charge.

Ali expects those who planned the Askariya bombing will try again on a similar scale.

Speaking of whoever was behind the blast and its violent aftermath, he said, “Whether these groups are penetrated by U.S. intelligence we don’t know.” But these events, he and others noted, didn’t fit the Bush administration’s intense desire to show a fig leaf of progress and withdraw some troops before the fall U.S. elections. Some see the blast benefiting Iran’s reactionary regime. “Iraq is the battlefield in which Iranian and U.S. interests are currently being played out,” said a column in the Egyptian Al Ahram.

One of the major issues when Iraqis discuss withdrawal of U.S. troops, Ali said, is their fears about security. It is essential to provide an alternative, one that will not leave Iraq in the hands of the Bush administration, he said. “We feel the United Nations has to play a decisive role. Otherwise, you allow the U.S. to bring in NATO or others under the guise of international help.”

“Regardless of our reservations regarding the UN, it’s the only international body at the moment and continues to be a forum for struggle.”