People Before Profit blog

Cutting cane in Colombia, workers win sweet victory

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:12:00 +0000

Colombian sugar cane production is confined to 500,000 acres in Valle de Cauca and Cauca, departments situated in the country’s southwest. From legalized slavery on, Afro-Colombians have done most of the cutting. Recently they’ve worked 12-14 hour days, every day, under contract with facade cooperatives, an arrangement allowing landowners and refinery operators to avoid paying for tools, transportation and workers’ retirement costs. After deductions, cutters earn less than Colombia’s minimum wage of $222 per month.

According to the Assoc. of Indigenous Councils web site, the sale of four 50 kg. bags of refined sugar yields pesos equivalent to $104. Blacks and Indians, sweating and hungry, receive $2.47 for every four bags sold — before multiple deductions. “We are the black part,” said one worker,” buried to produce the white powder that sweetens and enriches.”

Some 18,000 sugar cane workers stopped work Sept. 12. By Nov. 12 most owners of 13 big refineries had agreed to worker demands. Leaders of the Sinalcorteros union declared victory. Reflecting on the strikers’ unprecedented unity, endurance and solidarity, union spokesperson Adolfo Tigreros lauded the strike as “historical for Colombia’s working class,” having “revived our unions, encouraging us to reorganize and mobilize.” He anticipated the recovery of rights taken away by “this neoliberal government, which set out to destroy the labor movement.”

Until now, the Asocaña group of owners had relied upon blackmail, repression and deals with individual labor leaders to wear down divided sugar workers, according to TeleSur. This time, owners up against a “united assembly” faced only one set of demands. Catholic Church officials mediated an eventual settlement.

Pay is to be upped 15 percent, and the workday was cut to eight hours after which two hours of work would be allowed at overtime rates. The companies promised to pay for tools, transportation and some housing and health care, and to contribute to retirement and education funds. The system of outsourced contract labor remained intact, however, as did pay based on piecework, although cutters will supervise the weighing of cane.

Citing international conventions under the UN International Labor Organization, Jorge Gamboa, an advisor to the strikers, identified the use of contract labor by companies to confound labor organizing as a violation of human rights. Gamboa suggested that a unified nationwide campaign would be required to undo this element of President Alvaro Uribe’s reactionary politics, one sanctioned by his Ministry of Social Protection.

Weighing in on behalf of the sugar industry, Uribe proclaimed that because leftist guerrillas allegedly had organized the strike, national security was at risk. For a while police repression was the rule. The government then found reasons to back off.

Falling sugar production threatened an annual income of $250 million from sugar exports. And Colombian law requires that gasoline sold in cities contain 10 percent sugar-based ethanol. To that end, the government subsidizes sugar producers to the tune of $100-120 million annually. That the system had gone awry was evident during the first two weeks of the strike when processors had to import 42,000 tons of sugar.

The violence-prone Colombian government was also restrained by “the solidarity of international organizations,” according to Adolfo Tigreros, who noted that U.S. labor supporters were ready to use reports of violence in their ongoing campaign against the proposed U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement. The International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) came in for praise for its “huge role in this struggle” that included financial support and dissemination of strike news reported by regional representatives.

Sinalcorteros membership jumped threefold during the strike, and the union joined the IUF. A contingent of striking workers maintained a street presence in downtown Bogota.

Sugar cane workers and indigenous activists joined in mutual solidarity. Cane cutters marched with the “Minga” (“collective encounter”) of Indigenous and Popular Resistance as it progressed from Cali to Bogota. Indigenous spokespersons, Luis Evelis Andrade in particular, testified to indigenous backing for the strikers. In Bogota’s Simon Bolivar Plaza Nov. 21, thousands of activists of all stripes heard indigenous leader Aída Quilcué announce that the Minga would “persist on all roads of struggle in Colombia,” one of them presumably that of sugar cane workers.

atwhit@roadrunner.com

By bus, canoe and burro, Communists gather for Bogota meet

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:07:00 +0000

“From the four cardinal points of the country, some by bus, others in canoes, on burros, and by airplane they came to Bogota,” Juan Cendales wrote on rebellion.org. “They got their bags ready, went over their ideas, and reaffirmed dreams and hopes,” before heading for the 20th Congress of Colombia’s Communist Party, Nov. 14-16.

A few travelers encountered police and military harassment. Prevented by authorities from boarding airplanes, some party leaders had to travel overland, taking on additional risk. Displaced peasants were with them on the roads, moving like “condemned souls.”

Almost 500 members of the 78-year-old party chose 56 of their number from a slate of 133 candidates chosen by regional party branches to make up a new Central Committee. Executive committee members included Jaime Caycedo, member of the Bogota City Council; Carlos Lozano, director of the party newspaper Voz; Senator Gloria Inés Ramírez; and CUT labor federation leaders Jorge Gamboa and Alfonso Velázquez, the former an advisor to 18,000 recently victorious striking sugar cane workers. Delegates re-elected Caycedo as the party’s secretary-general.

Opening ceremonies took place before 1,500 seated onlookers plus hundreds standing or watching the proceedings by video in nearby rooms. Representatives of fraternal foreign parties conveyed greetings. Secretary General Caycedo paid homage to 14 jailed party leaders, victimized through government accusations of associations with leftist guerrillas cast as terrorists.

The meeting’s theme was “For a democratic government and toward a second independence.” According to Voz, participants dealt with details of party operation, methods for bringing left political movements together and tactics for strengthening the Alternative Democratic Pole (“Polo”), Colombia’s electoral coalition of left parties. Discussions covered the current crisis of capitalism, government ties to paramilitaries and the recently discovered killings of civilians by soldiers in order to inflate body counts during anti-insurgent operations.

Senator Piedad Cordoba of the Liberal Party, negotiator with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of humanitarian exchange of prisoners, brought listeners to their feet. She referred to “weighty reasons why the Communist Party of Colombia keeps going, its “combativeness, tenacity, and courage.” “Without the communists,” she added,” we could not have made denunciations stick, could not have submitted “claims before international courts, [secured] reparations for victims,” or propelled campaigns for human rights. “You are not necessary,” she declared, “you are indispensible; without you this country will not be able to move ahead.”

The Congress issued a 10-point political declaration. It held up the present global economic crisis as evidence of capitalism’s historical limits. Other theses followed: U.S. “imperialist hegemony” is waning, the U.S. lifeline to Colombia’s “democratic security” regime is frayed, popular mobilization and social movements are expanding, an “authoritarian, criminal, and militarist” regime faces the “democratic and emancipating aspirations” of working people, armed conflict will end through negotiated settlements, left unity is a priority, the task at hand is building the Polo, and honor is due those in struggle, the Colombian people, and “communist militancy.”

Responding to an interviewer’s inquiry regarding party collaboration with the Polo, Jaime Caycedo praised that political party — a “process in construction” — as essential for left unity and important to the future of the Communist Party.

While speakers cast U.S. President-elect Barack Obama as potentially sensitive to human rights issues, none envisioned him bringing basic change to U.S. foreign policies. The Congress supported alliances with social movements and people’s organizations aimed at shaping a “grand democratic coalition,” but under no circumstances with “the bourgeoisie and even less with Uribe forces.” The Congress issued statements of solidarity with the Minga (meaning collective action) indigenous march en route to Bogota, and with the sugar cane workers’ strike.

Reviewing the 20th Party Congress, party leader Nelson Lombana Silva cited “a lavish, dynamic interchange of opinions, concepts, and political positions” bearing upon humankind’s “bold struggle against capitalism and the neoliberal model and for an option distinct from utopian socialism.” The next congress takes place in 2011.

atwhit@roadrunner.com

WORLD NOTES: November 22

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:14:00 +0000

Gaza: Collective punishment remains

Aljazeera and Imemc.org reported earlier this month that an Israeli crackdown on food and fuel deliveries was intensifying Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. Israel acted in response to rocket attacks that followed Israeli air assaults. The halt in fuel deliveries for Gaza’s only electrical generating facility paid for by the EU, caused lights out and stalled sewage treatment plants.

UN Relief and Works Agency spokesperson Christopher Gunness said border hold-ups of food for 750,000 Palestinian refugees conveyed a “physical sense of punishment but also a mental one.” Last month, Israel prevented 100 international specialists from attending a World Health Organization mental health conference. Journalists were barred from entering Gaza. Food and fuel deliveries resumed Nov. 12.

Malaysia: Rights protests grow

Weekly protests in four cities since September against Malaysia’s Internal Security Law, which authorizes indefinite detention without trial, now attract up to 300 people.

On Nov. 10, near Kuala Lumpur, police abused and arrested 23 demonstrators. On hand and unscathed was government critic and blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, released from jail shortly after an unexpected Superior Court ruling Nov. 5 acknowledging his rights under habeas corpus “a brave decision,” according to Bar Council vice-president Ragunath Kesavan.

Analysts cited by Inter Press Service attributed the crackdown to the government’s poor showing in elections last March, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s decision to resign as of next March, and jostling among possible successors.

Nicaragua: Sandinistas win city elections

Three days after municipal elections Nov. 9, with 86 percent of the votes counted, the Supreme Election Council reported victory by the ruling Sandinista party (FSLN) in 91 municipalities. The Constitutionalist Liberal Party took 49 mayoral posts. On hand were 120 international observers from 12 countries.

In Managua, Liberal candidate and banker Eduardo Montealegre charged election officials with skewing election results to give FSLN rival Alexis Arguello, an ex-boxer, a 7-point advantage. Street protests there left one dead and several wounded. Victory in the Managua mayor’s race is being viewed as necessary preparation for aspiring to Nicaragua’s presidency, according to Prensa Latina. Montealegre lost the 2006 presidential contest to Sandinista Daniel Ortega.

Switzerland: Gender gaps shrink

The World Economic Forum issued a press release last week (see www.weforum.org) providing a one-year update of its Global Gender Gap Index. The survey ranked Norway first in closing gaps between women and men, followed respectively by Finland, Sweden, Iceland and New Zealand. Their percentages hover around 80 percent; countries at the bottom score 45 percent and upwards.

Measured categories include economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. A positive correlation is suggested between gender gap scores and national economic viability. The report emphasizes that it is possible to achieve improvements over brief periods of time; it also warns that gaps in health status have generally widened. The United States was in 27th place.

Zambia: Change in the wind

With defeated presidential candidate Michael Sata challenging victor Rupiah Banda in court and the price of copper, source of 80 percent of Zambia’s foreign income, falling 55 percent over two years, the world’s seventh largest copper producer is facing uncertainty.

On Oct. 31 business-friendly Banda, an aide to former president Levy Mwanawasa who died in August, narrowly turned back Sata, whose campaign focused on poverty reduction.

The UN’s IRIN news service cited experts’ predictions that government social support programs could go awry in tandem with declining copper prices and reduced yield from recently increased royalty taxes on copper. They identify rising food prices as contributing to popular unrest. Maize costs 61 percent more now than in 2006.

Cuba: New cooperation with Russia

Bilateral visits hint at tightened Cuban-Russian relations. On his third trip to Cuba in three months, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin signed automobile, nickel, energy and grain deals Nov. 8 after meeting with President Raul Castro.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visits Cuba later this month. Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque conducted an official visit to Russia on Nov. 11-12, meeting with Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and legislative leaders. Trade and military cooperation were discussed, along with anticipated Russian investments in oil exploration, tourism and mining.

Russia was the first country to send Cuba humanitarian aid following hurricanes Ike and Gustav. President Raul Castro will visit Russia next year, according to the Cuban News Agency.

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

Update: Articles and resources on the economic crisis

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:28:00 +0000

What will be impact of the Wall Street bankruptcies, bailouts and blunders on working people in this country and worldwide? What's the solution to the crisis?

Perhaps only time will tell the full extent of the impact. Needless to say, this week’s developments don’t bode well for the future. Here are some thoughts from contributors to the People’s Weekly World and Political Affairs on the current economic crisis, the policies that got us to this point and the historical precedents.

We will update this resource list in the days and weeks to come, as the full scope of the crisis is better known.

Latest headlines...

Nationalization (Not Loans) Can Save US Auto
by John Case
Nov. 18, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

World unions: Time for a global economic fix is now
by John Wojcik
Nov. 17, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Opinion: Recovery Package for Working Women
by Ellen Bravo
Nov. 17, 2008 – People's Weekly World

How More Socialism Can Save the Economy
by John Case
Nov. 12, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Jobs Report Signals Need for New Stimulus Package
by PoliticalAffairs.net
Nov. 7, 2008

240,000 Jobs Lost Last Month
by John Wojcik
Nov. 7, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Economy fix can’t wait until 1.20.09
by John Wojcik
Nov. 6, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Government by Market Gods or for the People?
by Anna Pha
Nov. 5, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Inject Demand into the Economy not Liquidity
by Prabhat Patnaik
Nov. 3, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Oct. 2008

Credit Crunch Hits College Students
by Matthew Cardinale
Oct. 24, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

'Jobs for workers come first'
by John Wojcik
Oct. 23, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Time Warp: Hoover, Bush, McCain and Economic Crisis
by Norman Markowitz
Oct. 23, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Economic crisis clobbers California
by Marilyn Bechtel
Oct. 17, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Marx was right
by PWW/NM Editorial Board
Oct. 17, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Nationalize banks, employ unemployed
by John Case
Oct. 16, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Revising the Social Contract
by Norman Markowitz Oct. 16, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Presidential Debate Fact Check: McCain's Big Bank Bailout
Oct. 16, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Some Reflections on the Turbulence of Alan Greenspan
by Thomas Riggins
Oct. 15, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Labor-led coalition demands recovery plan for Main Street
by John Wojcik
Oct. 9, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Is this Capitalism’s End of Days?
by Norman Markowitz
Oct. 8, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

The crisis of family debt
by Art Perlo Oct. 6, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Obama calls for 'middle class' bailout
by Joel Wendland
Oct. 3, 2008 – People's Weekly World

To bail, or not to bail?
by Teresa Albano and John Wojcik
Oct. 1, 2008 – People's Weekly World

OPINION: Finances and the current crisis: How did we get here and what is the way out? Part 2
by Sam Webb
Oct. 1, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Taking it to Wall Street: Rallies vs. bailout crowd 'the street'
By Libero Della Piana
Oct. 1, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Why the Rush
by Peter Zerner and Joel Wendland
Oct. 1, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Obama Calls for Comprehensive Response to the Economic Crisis
Oct. 1, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

International Perspectives

Results of G-20 Meeting on the Global Economy
by Fidel Castro

Canada: Invest in Jobs and Improve Employment Insurance
by People's Voice

Vietnam Creates Measures to Tackle Financial Turmoil
by Vietnam News Agency

Another World Depression? Finance Capital and Neo-Deflationism
by Utsa Patnaik, People's Democracy

Australia's Bailout Black Hole
by Anna Pha, The Guardian

Japan: Government Plans to Force People to Pay for Financial Fallout
by Akahata

Israel and the Current Capitalist Crisis

Economy is key issue in Canada's elections

RECESSION

Trade Unions Demand Effective Responses to Worsening Financial and Food Crises

Financial Crisis in Europe: Alternatives Demanded

US Crisis Affects Central America

Bailing Out Capitalism
From The Guardian (Australia), Sept. 24, 2008

Bush's Self-criticism
From Cuban News Agency, Sept. 28, 2008

The End of the Illusion
From People's Democracy (India), Sept. 28, 2008

Time to Break with Casino Capitalism
From Akahata (Japan), Sept. 24, 2008

Sept. 2008

Financial Crisis, Bailouts, and the Real Economy, Speaking with Sam Webb
by PoliticalAffairs.net
Sept. 30, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

How about a trickle-up bailout instead of trickle down
by Scott Marshall
Sept. 29, 2008 – Labor Up Front

Stock market drops 777 points as House votes down Wall Street bailout
by Joe Sims
Sept. 29, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Audio: Interview with Sam Webb, CPUSA
Sept. 28, 2008 – Political Affairs Podcast

OPINION: Finances and the current crisis: How did we get here and what is the way out?, Part 1
by Sam Webb
Sept. 28, 2008 – People's Weekly World

What the Banking Crisis Really Means
by Norman Markowitz
Sept. 2008, PoliticalAffairs.net

Editorial: Shock and Awe Revisited
Sept. 25, 2008 – People's Weekly World

$700,000,000,000 for what?
By John Wojcik Sept. 25, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Reject the 'Bankers' Strike': Groups Demand No Bailout Without Conditions
Sept. 25, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Rescue Me!: What Else Could We Use the Bailout Money For?'
By Peter Zerner and Joel Wendland
Sept. 25, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Barney Smith, Not Smith Barney
By Joelle Fishman
Sept. 24, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Save Main Street, Not Wall Street
By Communist Party USA
Sept. 23, 2008 – CPUSA.org

Ramming Through the Bailout
By Sam Webb
Sept. 23, 2008 – CPUSA.org

Wall Street Bailout: Not Without Preconditions
By Joel Wendland
Sept. 23, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

EDITORIAL: Bailout Main Street
Sept. 19, 2008 – People's Weekly World

Economic Meltdown
By Joel Wendland
Sept. 19, 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Wall Street meltdown wallops Main Street
By Phil Cadman
Sept. 19, 2008 – People's Weekly World

From Archives:

Is Freddie Mac really never coming back?
By John Wojcik
Sept. 8, 2008 — People's Weekly World

Got money?
By Marilyn Bechtel
Aug. 15, 2008 — People's Weekly World

Mac the Knife: Cut the Needy to Feed the Greedy
By Joelle Fishman
July 24, 2008 — PoliticalAffairs.net

Interview with Doug Henwood, Left Business Observer
May 29, 2008 — PoliticalAffairs.net

It’s

Time for a New Deal
by Norman Markowitz
May 29, 2008 — PoliticalAffairs.net

Financial Crisis and Class Struggle
By Paulo Nakatani and Rémy Herrera
May 28, 2008 — PoliticalAffairs.net

Foreclosures point to systemic crisis
By Denise Winebrenner Edwards
April 4, 2007 — People's Weekly World

Bailout goes to Wall Street, not Main Street
By John Wojcik
March 20, 2008 — People's Weekly World

Things Fall Apart: Wall Street and the Crisis of US Imperialism
By Joe Sims and Joel Wendland
March 2008 – PoliticalAffairs.net

Weathering

the Storm: the economic recession
Video interview with Sam Webb
March 10, 2008 — Communist Party USA

Unions tackle

housing, foreclosure crisis
By John Wojcik
March 9, 2008 — People's Weekly World

Interview

with Art Perlo, CP Economics Commission
Feb. 15, 2008 — PoliticalAffairs.net

To fix economy

put working class first
By Teresa Albano
Jan. 24, 2008 — People's Weekly World

Banks bilk

homebuyers, Black, Latino families hit hardest
By Tim Wheeler
Jan. 19, 2008 — People's Weekly World

A look behind

the housing crisis
By Art Perlo
Aug. 30, 2007 — People's Weekly World

Mortgage crisis

stoked by incredible greed
By Susan Webb
Aug. 16, 2007 — People's Weekly World

Corporate thievery, a new political moment
By Sam Webb
July 20, 2002 — People's Weekly World

En Español:

Salvemos al pueblo, no a Wall Street
por Partido Comunista de Estados Unidos de América (PCEUA).
Oct. 2, 2008 – Nuestro Mundo

¿Rescate económico o no rescatar?
por Teresa Albano y John Wojcik
Oct. 2, 2008, Nuestro Mundo

La crisis económica y las viviendas
Por Art Perlo
26 de Julio, 2008 — Nuestro Mundo

La crisis economica hoy: Entrevista con Douglas Henwood
29 de Mayo, 2008, – PoliticalAffairs.net

Cuba survives third major hurricane, this time Paloma

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Aida Perez, 44 years old, was waiting out Hurricane Paloma with her two daughters in a dormitory at the University of Camaguey inland, along with 900 others from Santa Cruz del Sur, a small city on Cuba’s southern coast. Her house was probably gone, she told an AP reporter, “But what’s important is that we are alive.”

In fact, no Cuban died as the third major hurricane to hit the country in seven weeks struck Cuba’s southern coast Nov. 8. The category 4 storm moved northeasterly to exit as a tropical storm. In Santa Cruz del Sur, 9,889 houses were damaged and 1,353 destroyed. A 12-foot wave traveled one mile inland.

Reports on pre-storm preparations underscore the contribution of hard work. When Paloma hit Guayabal, 15 miles along the coast from Santa Cruz del Sur, all 2,032 inhabitants had already been evacuated. Over 48 hours, civil defense services moved 1.2 million people via buses and trains.

Flood gates were opened to allow reservoirs to receive rain, crews harvested plantains spared by the earlier hurricanes. Remaining hurricane debris was picked up. Food supplies in the open were put in storage. Students in residential schools were sent home. Road, rail and boat transport was suspended. Poultry and pig farms were secured. Tree branches were trimmed, storm drains cleared out. In Camaguey, over 403,000 farm animals, mainly cattle and poultry, were evacuated. Agricultural equipment was moved, over 600 windmills dismantled, and greenhouses taken down.

In its efforts to mobilize people to collective action, Cuba has prioritized education, particularly knowledge about storms and climate. Journalist Susan Hurlich, a veteran observer of Cuba’s civil defense capabilities, writes of Jose Rubiera, Cuba’s chief meteorologist, and a TV personality: “He’s considered a treasure in Cuba. People say that just hearing and seeing Rubiera, they feel more confident.” She adds: “He’s a professor, with an ability to explain the most complex weather phenomenon in ways that make it comprehensive  and educational  to all.”

Cuban President Raul Castro toured affected areas of Camaguey and Tunas a day after the storm. He told evacuated families, “Every preventative measure is justified because for us, the priority is to save human lives … “We are spending what we have and,” he added, “what we do not have,” referring to purchases of food and construction material. Total losses from three hurricanes came to $10 billion. Government leaders assured residents that homes would be rebuilt soon, and important belongings replaced.

Castro explained that increased frequency and severity of hurricanes stem from climate change and that Cuba must prepare to “coexist” with hurricanes. He cited a study indicating that for storm resistant houses, reinforced concrete roofs are essential. Industrial production of construction materials is being reoriented along these lines. Estimates earlier this year placed Cuba’s housing shortage at 600,000 units. Added to that deficit are half a million houses damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Cuban First Vice-president Jose Ramon Machado told storm victims that because of long-term considerations of climate change, thought is being given to rebuilding settlements away from the coast.

Historical memory serves to prepare for hurricanes. Residents of Santa Cruz del Sur knew of the hurricane 76 years ago that killed 3,000 people in and around the city. Professor Ben Wisner of Oberlin College has explored other elements in Cuba’s ability to deal with hurricanes. Writing in the UK Guardian, the specialist in disaster response analyzed Cuba’s experience with Hurricane Michelle in 2001.

There are these other factors, he suggests: timely evacuation; effective communication systems; “neighborhood-based organizations capable of mobilizing labor;” “self-help and citizen-based social protection;” “trust between the authorities and the population;” and investments in “social capital,” scientific capabilities and prevention of imminent risks. Wisner asks if socialism is necessary, a question he leaves open, suggesting only that Cuba “has lessons for the rest of us.” He is silent on the U.S. blockade of information from Cuba.

Pakistan's Home Workers' Union starts paying off

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:12:00 +0000

LAHORE, Pakistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Asia Afzal, 35, wipes her forehead with the corner of her duputta scarf as beads of perspiration gather on her face.

In her two-room house, a solitary ceiling fan is still due to the tedious hours of energy rationing. As her four children, ranging from 6 to 9, loiter around her, Afzal sits cross-legged in the center of her front room surrounded by the ice-cream sticks, beads, laces, glue and fabrics she molds into decorative pieces. She utilizes a variety of materials for the decorations, ranging from brightly colored glass flowers to spare buttons and even X-ray paper which she chews in her mouth to soften up and make it easier to mold before painting.

It takes her an entire day to make a single decoration. She says she makes an 'abysmal' profit of less than 10 rupees, about 13 cents per piece, and sells all her stock to a single middleman who visits her every 10 days.

'My fingers often get tired and I develop blisters on my hand,' she says. 'But what can I do? I have to help my husband make ends meet.'

Until recently, Afzal was sure her future was going to be grim. But due to efforts from female activists, she is now making history as the general-secretary of Pakistan's first union of home-based workers, the Aurat Workers Union Pakistan, which officially formed on Aug. 22 with more than 600 members.

Now every day Afzal wakes up determined to take steps to unite all home-based workers on the union platform. She believes workers like her can pressure middlemen to provide better wages and facilities. The government too could be pushed to provide better benefits, such as free health care and more protective labor laws. Nascent Unionization

The verdict is still out on whether the union will be able to gain lasting improvements in how the home-based workers are treated or influence government oversight.

But it has already begun making small differences in the lives of women in one rural region, says Saima Zia, a union consultant who works at the Lahore-based Women Workers Help Line.

'Some members of ours working in Kot Lakhput are involved in stitching uppers onto leather shoes,' she said. They were paid meager amounts, about 50 cents for 24 shoes. Zia encouraged them to organize and approach their buyer as a collective force. 'As a result they first got a pay raise to about 60 cents and now they are almost getting a dollar for 24 shoes,' doubling their revenue, she said.

Zia says similar stories are emerging from other areas where the union has started to organize workers. Workers are organizing for better wages and conditions.

Before that, Afzal and other home-based workers--about 65 percent of all working women--thought they had no option other than being overworked and grossly underpaid, she says. And in Pakistan, where prejudices against women stepping out of their homes to earn remain strong, many are compelled to find work they can perform within their own four walls.

In 2007-2008 Pakistan was ranked 136th out of 177 countries on a gender empowerment index, which measures inequalities between men's and women's opportunities in political participation and decision-making, economic status and power over economic resources, according to a U.N. Development Program report. 10 Million Toiling Women

Over 10 million women in Pakistan are involved in home-based work sectors like sewing garments, bangle-making, shelling nuts, shoe-stitching and embroidery. Their average earnings range from 10 to 50 rupees per day--less than one dollar--and they work 12- to 16-hour-long days.

'These women represent the most underprivileged and exploited sector of society,' says activist Bushra Khaliq, who is affiliated with the Women Workers Help Line. 'Their efforts are persistently ignored.'

Toward the end of 2006, spurred by nongovernmental groups that work on women's economic development issues, the women began organizing to form Pakistan's first home-based workers union.

For many months, organized groups were busy establishing cooperative centers in the four provinces of Pakistan to provide home-based workers with trainings and inform them of their rights. Labor organizers motivated several hundred workers to take to the streets earlier this year to protest against the conditions they worked under and to demand their rights under international standards established by the United Nations' International Labor Organization.

'This is truly a historic step toward women's empowerment in Pakistan,' said Zia, the union consultant. 'For the first time, home-based working women have a voice.'

The union was formed on Aug. 22 at a national congress held in Lahore. More than 600 home-based working women participated at the congress. Elections were also conducted leading to the selection of a 31-member national committee and 11-member executive committee.

Afzal, who was elected general-secretary of the union's Punjab committee, remembers the day with pride and glee.

'I want to see a Pakistan where women workers are paid well and treated with respect,' says Afzal, who views her work supporting the union as an investment in her children's future. 'Since no one else is helping us, we will help ourselves.' Seeking Power of Collective Bargaining

Union officials claim it will improve their members' ability to collectively bargain and leverage their position in negotiating with middlemen for better wages.

'This initiative has given us hope,' said Rozina Saif, 31, a home-based worker who spends her days stitching sequins onto blankets. 'I now believe things can improve, and will improve.'

Saif, who has been elected chair of the union's national committee, says she has seen the benefits of collective action. 'Some months back, the middle-agent was only giving me five rupees (6 cents) per blanket,' she says. 'I gathered together all the women who were supplying him and we went to negotiate with him.'

The women threatened to stop supplying if he didn't increase the rates. Much to their surprise, he immediately agreed to raise the price of one blanket to seven rupees, about 9 cents. It was the first time they had received a raise in their earnings.

'When we go and talk to contractors on an individual level, they don't listen,' said Saif. 'But when we go there collectively, they have no choice but to hear us out.'

Though Saif lives below the poverty line, she says she sees far worse when she visits other home-based workers. 'In one house I saw all the women working--from the grandmother to the daughters-in-law to the children--and all they make at the end of the day is 70 rupees (90 cents). Then they wonder about how to fill their stomachs with such a meager amount,' she said.

Economist Shahida Wazarat of Karachi University says informal-sector workers are left out of the standard benefits of Pakistan society, such as women working as tailor-masters, jewelry makers or factory workers. 'About 80 percent of our industrial labor force is made up of the informal sector,' she says. 'The contribution of these people to our economy is huge but our contribution to their welfare is negligible.'

Nasir Khan is based in Lahore, Pakistan.

What Cubans expect from Obama

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:41:00 +0000

Original source: CubaNews

As expected, Barack Obama's electoral win has raised new questions all over the world given the United States of America's place in the current system of international relations.

We would be hard pressed to find a region or country whose links with the superpower are not important to their domestic and foreign policies.

That a non-white American has been elected president of the U.S. for the first time in history goes beyond the superpower's global policy or any consideration related to Obama's skin color or ethnic group. What matters is that it raises hopes for an end of the ferocious hostilities toward the revolutionary project embraced by our people as the crowning achievement of an independence struggle started 140 years ago against Spanish colonialism.

As we Cubans know only too well from our own hard experience, the facts and promises underlying this historic event – should they be fulfilled – would inevitably lead to a counterattack by the big financial and industrial/military corporations whose grim interests would be affected.

In order to defend both the status quo and their privileges, they not only count on the power of their weapons, but also on their tight grip on the media and most cultural and educational means, which they use to mess with people's minds and fool them into acting against their most elementary interests and rights within the framework of a legal and social order ruled by money and the marketplace which makes it sure that their wealth prevails over natural human aspirations of peace, solidarity and equality.

We Cubans have reason to expect that a president-elect who has promised change, himself an expression of change in the correlation of political forces right on the powerful neighbor's ground, will pave the way for a new stage in the relationship between Havana and Washington.

However, we are aware that in order to keep the promise he made to the popular movements and middle-class families who gave him their vote, Obama would have to stand up to the same US reactionary attitudes that have hindered the development of the Cuban Revolution for half a century.

If we follow that logic, this means a spectacular shift in the state of affairs between Cuba and the US as we have known them throughout the 20th century and the first years of the 21st.

And for such things to become real in the Caribbean region, the US must give up not only its age-old ambition to have a say in the island's fate, but also its thirst for global dominance. This is because Cuba cannot turn its back on longstanding commitments made to the Third World and the poor from rich nations whose solidarity has been in the final analysis its principal means of support to fight and resist for the last 50 years.

Millions of African Americans – an ethnic group who suffered from a slave trade that remained legal until 1865, followed by a century of Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan's terrorist outrages capped later on by the violent repressive action against the civil rights struggle in the 1960s, from which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and many other leaders of stature came up.

We Cubans, of course, had no right to vote in this election, but the fact that we have been victims of the same cruel policies makes it clear to us that this victory of the American people could give rise to a period of goodwill, peace and neighborly gestures in the region and fuel democratization in international relations.

Cuba only seeks respect for its independence from Washington when the new government takes over on January 20, 2009.

It has been repeatedly said that Cuba's support to Obama's candidacy stemmed from a wish to see the end of the economic blockade or the release of the five heroic Cuban anti-terrorists who were passed unjust prison sentences in the US more than ten years ago. Or perhaps from hopes that a different administration could put a stop to the attacks on and threats to the island and make it possible to devote all human and material resources to the Cuban people's economic and social development. Or to spread to the full the profoundly democratic character of the Cuban socialist project, without any hostile, powerful neighbor interfering in its domestic and foreign affairs.

Valid though they may be, all these reasons fit into a single hope: that by express wish of the American people a US government be elected that respects Cuba's independence.

-A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann

World Notes: November 15, 2008

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 01:41:00 +0000

Australia: Unions go global re climate change

The Australian Workers Union (AWU) is supporting the Kevin Rudd labor government’s advocacy of a global emissions trading scheme (ETS) despite its potentially negative effect on jobs.

AWU National Secretary Paul Howes attended a meeting in Japan this week of the Steel Action Group where steel union representatives from 10 countries discussed effects of the global economic downturn on their unions’ response to climate change. He pointed out the necessity to evaluate an Australian ETS in terms of plans put forth by steel unions in other countries.

Howes said on the AWU web site, “Together we have the potential to join up domestic schemes, build sectoral agreements ... all as a stepping-stone to a comprehensive global framework.”

Iraq: Awakening Council role in question

The Iraqi government, having taken over payments to the Awakening Councils from U.S. occupying forces, announced reduced salaries for the 100,000 mostly Sunni paramilitaries, effective Nov. 10. U.S. military leaders view the councils’ armed resistance to Al Qaeda as crucial to the reduction over two years of violent attacks in Iraq.

Writing in the Chicago Sun, Liz Sly predicts that the Shiite-led Iraqi government will eventually drop all payments, although there are plans for 20 percent of the militiamen to enter the army. A government spokesperson, pessimistic about reconciliation, expressed concern that the remainder, once idled, will rejoin insurgency groups or form criminal gangs. He observed, “When Americans try to achieve reconciliation, they buy it.”

Italy:School privatization elicits protests

Nationwide student demonstrations against government plans to privatize public education culminated in students, unionists, teachers and left parties taking to the streets Oct. 30 amidst right-wing provocations. A million demonstrators in Rome and over 200,000 in Milan were reacting to a Senate law passed the day before that, according to Kaosenlared.org, imposed deep funding cuts, threatened teachers’ jobs and introduced separate education for immigrant children. Final approval is set for Nov. 29.

Meanwhile, the center-left opposition is preparing a repeal referendum. Identifying the proposals as budgetary rather than reform measures, the General Confederation of Labor Unions accused the right-wing Berlusconi government of “destroying public schools and replacing them with a private system.”

Japan: Profitable Toyota lays off thousands

As a result of declining car sales over several years, Toyota Corporation has dismissed thousands of “fixed term workers” — 2,000 of them during a six-month period this year plus 4,000 since 2004. Nor are temporary workers immune; a Lexus assembly plant in Fukuoka Prefecture fired 8,000 of them last summer.

The Japan Press Weekly reports, however, that Toyota’s profits for the fiscal year ending last March came to a record $17 billion. They are predicted at $13 billion this year. The corporation has accumulated $130 billion in reserve funds. Toyota now is forcing fixed term workers to sign new contracts covering 12 months or less, once their 35 month contracts have expired. Panama: Tolerance of terrorism gets second look

Prosecutor Mercedes de León last week announced that a former justice minister, police chief and immigration official are to stand trial for arranging the release from prison in 2004 of four Miami-based anti-Cuban terrorists. In June, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled that pardons issued at Washington’s behest by outgoing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso were unconstitutional.

The released prisoners — candidates for extradition to Panama, according to Cuba’s Granma newspaper — now live in Miami. They had been convicted for attempting to assassinate former Cuban President Fidel Castro while he was visiting Panama. The jailing of one of them, Luis Posada Carriles, represented the only occasion he was called to account during a lifetime of terrorist offenses.

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

Populist president faces long odds

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:46:00 +0000

President Fernando Lugo, up against an agrarian oligarchy and answerable to a mobilized peasant movement, has yet to introduce transformative measures reminiscent of those initiated by his Venezuelan, Bolivian and Ecuadorian counterparts.

The former bishop’s election on a record of solidarity with struggling peasants ended 60 years of Colorado Party rule, 35 years of them marred by the U.S.-supported Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship. Promising to end corruption and redistribute land, Lugo assumed power in August as head of an ad hoc coalition of small center-left parties, hardly as leader of a battle-hardened political movement.

Corrupt office holders had already emptied ministries of operating funds. Colorado Party stalwarts presently staff bureaucracies and control the Congress. A potential military-old guard plot against Lugo surfaced in September.

Beginning that month, peasants stepped up a campaign of land redistribution. Evictions of the landless in Alto Paraná resulted in the death Oct. 3 of peasant leader Bienvenido Melgarejo.

Earlier this month, 50,000 militants organized by the Social and People’s Front, a coalition of 100 groups, protested in cities. In Asuncion, thousands massed in front of the attorney general’s office to demand dismissals of Supreme Court justices and the attorney general, all Colorado Party members. Protesters alleged bias toward large landowners. Demonstrators called for the release of jailed comrades, the hand-over of land, and social assistance. On Nov. 5, police wounded 70 of them.

Lugo persuaded peasant leaders to call off demonstrations in return for renewed commitment to their cause and formation of a National Council on Agrarian Reform involving government and peasant representatives. He warned that destabilizing actions would be punished. Urged on by Catholic bishops, Lugo agreed to state purchase of 41,000 acres in San Pedro for transfer to peasants occupying the land.

In Paraguay, land distribution is the most unequal in Latin America. One percent of the population owns 77 percent of the productive land. Large estates average 68,000 acres; 351 landowners own 24 million acres. Annually 90,000 people are displaced from small holdings. In 1989, 60 percent of Paraguayans lived in rural areas; in 2008, 40 percent.

Soy beans, essential for livestock feed and biodiesel fuel, are as gold in the global market economy. Between one-half and two-thirds of Paraguayan farmland is dedicated to soy production; 375, 000 acres are added annually. Marketing 30 percent of Paraguay’s soy production, Cargill Company epitomizes corporate ascendency in Paraguay, now the world’s fourth leading soy producer. Peasant groups protest toxic chemicals used in soy monoculture. Environmentalists point to the loss of millions of acres of forest.

Brazilian farmers, who migrated into Paraguay over 40 years, control 80 percent of Paraguay’s soy production, having acquired cheap land often in deals with corrupt officials. Their outsized role in Paraguay’s economy has combined with agribusiness’ growing insertion into the globalized economy to stack the decks against the Fernando Lugo presidency.

In early October, landless peasants invaded acreage owned by Brazilian growers, who appealed to Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Citing threats from Paraguayan social movements, Brazil deployed 10,000 soldiers along the frontier, reportedly to showcase their ability to occupy shared hydroelectric facilities. Spokespersons admitted the maneuvers were to press Paraguay to control “excesses” against the Brazilian soy growers.

Later the two governments discussed revising agreements on joint operation of hydroelectric dams. Paraguay argued for expanded sales of hydroelectricity and allowances for price increases in return for protecting the soy growers. President Lugo took the dispute to the Organization of American States. Brazilian farmers agreed to sell 55,000 acres to Paraguay for redistribution.

The confrontation added the burden of history to the paradox of a populist president defending agribusiness interests. Television images of Brazilian troops concentrated at the border resurrected collective pain. The New York Times suggested that Paraguayans remember the war of 1865-1870 when Brazil, allied with Uruguay and Argentina, killed over 50 percent of the population, including 90 percent of the men, and occupied the country.

Meanwhile, according to analyst Raul Zibechi, “With the ascent of Lugo to the presidency, those from below felt that the time had come to begin to resolve historic injustices and they decided to begin to collect on the bill.”

Gardens, forests and Black artists: documentaries worth seeing

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:40:00 +0000

Some of the documentaries shown at the 44th Annual Chicago International Film Festival should be of interest to progressive activists. They deal with flora — one in the form of a community garden, another the Amazon rainforest — and with Black artists and film.

“The Garden,” winner of the Discovery Channel’s Silverdoc Film Festival, tells the story of America’s largest community garden. In 1992, after the three-day riots in South LA following the videotaped police beating of Rodney King, which left 53 people killed, 2,000 wounded and some $1 billion worth of damage, a 14-acre plot called the South Central Farm was taken over by itinerant farmers. It became a miracle organic garden in one of the most blighted areas of the city. Founder of the garden Doris Bloch stated the logical equation, “Land-people-food-happy days.” The city allowed the farmers to remain until 2004, when the land was sold cheap to wealthy developers, and the farmers were forced to evacuate. The film chronicles the actions of the Latin American immigrants to organize and fight back in the attempt to save their life-sustaining garden. The well-filmed drama that enfolds makes for a stirring and uplifting production. (blackvalleyfilms.com)

Martin Sheen supplies the dramatic narration for “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” a documentary about the tragic killing of a 72-year-old Catholic nun from Ohio who had moved to the Brazilian Amazon forest in 1967 to work with the poor. She traveled there to support the PDS (Sustainable Development Project), a program that gives land to the poor and protects a large portion of the rainforest. She went to a little town called Anapu to help install the PDS, against the wishes of locals who relied on logging and cattle-raising to sustain the community. She challenged and fought illegal logging and cattle-raising, and eventually became known as the Angel of the Amazon by the local people who became her supporters. Her friend and associate, Sister Becky Spires, describes the tragic stripping of the forest canopy and deforestation at the rate of 10 square miles a day at the time. In the last three decades there have been 800 murders over land disputes, but only six faced trial and only one was imprisoned. Dorothy was killed in 2005, possibly with involvement of local officials, and the dramatic trial of her killers is documented in the film. One result of her death was that the rate of deforestation has been reduced. The Silver Hugo Award was given to this USA-Brazilian co-production directed by Daniel Junge.

“Wesley Willis’s Joyrides,” another film from Just Media in Denver, is a charming and loving tribute to an extraordinary people’s artist, a Black man who only wanted to stay out of prison and away from the police. The 6’5” 300-plus-pound rock singer-songwriter-painter, who loved McDonalds, freeways, cars and music, drew pop art with magic markers. He was a friend to thousands and his death saddened the Chicago community where he created his art. Wesley had no pretensions and lived simply. His family members and friends are interviewed throughout this memorable gem.

Brad Osborne has created a great and inspiring documentary about the Black film industry, “In the Shadow of Hollywood — Race Movies and the Birth of Black Cinema.” The film starts with a powerful quote from the great actor Ossie Davis: “Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can effect change — it can not only move us, it makes us move.” He added, “We need to know there is a history,” and Osborne sets out on that task and accomplishes it admirably. “Race movies” are those created by and for the Black community. From 1917 to 1947 an entire parallel industry shadowed the official Hollywood fare. Black theaters, actors and films served the segregated Black audience.

Dorothy Dandridge, Paul Robeson, Lena Horne and Cab Calloway are only four of the many actors who began their careers in race movies, when mainstream film producers refused to hire Blacks. The films afford a rare historical perspective based on Black interpretations of Black culture. Osborne’s well researched and produced documentary is must seeing for those interested in Black film history, film in general, and U.S. cultural and social history.

World reacts to Obama presidency

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:38:00 +0000

International media coverage of the election last week of Barack Obama has continued non-stop. A survey follows.

Africa

Barack Obama’s Kenyan relatives and Africans in general sang and danced in the streets following Barack Obama’s election win. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared a national holiday. Associated Press writer Tom Maliti reported on a fortified U.S. reputation “as a land of staggering opportunity.”

Ghanaian Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general, had never expected this “historic event” during his lifetime. Nelson Mandela, emblematic figure in the anti-racism struggle, wrote to Barack Obama, “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world.” Mandela encouraged Obama to fight poverty and disease and make the United States a “full partner in a community of nations.”

The Times of India quoted anti-apartheid veteran Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “It is almost as when Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa.”

Latin America

Bolivian President Evo Morales was amazed: “In Bolivia, an Indian president; in the U.S. a Black president. I don’t know what’s happening.” Morales, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and President Lula da Silva of Brazil added pleas to their congratulations that Obama end the U.S. blockade against Cuba. Amnesty International concurred, calling upon Obama also to close the Guantanamo prison, according to Reuters. President Chavez told the president-elect that “the time has come to establish new relations between our two countries and in our region.”

A community organizer in the Brazilian city Salvador told Al Jazeera that “all our local Black candidates in the elections always lose,” even though its population is 80 percent Black. Obama’s victory showed him “that yes we can also govern anywhere in the world” — perhaps even in Brazil.

Europe

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev congratulated Barack Obama and called for “constructive dialogue.” The day after the U.S. elections, his government announced plans to establish a missile base near the Polish border in reaction to U.S. moves to set up missile defense systems in the Czech Republic and Poland. In a telephone conversation Nov. 8, Medvedev and Obama discussed an “early bilateral meeting.”

Reflecting pervasive anti-Iraq war sentiment in Great Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown referred to “values that I share with Sen. Obama and the policies we hold in common.” He sought collaboration “to bring the world together.” Paris lawyer Ahmed Kelifi told National Public Radio, “I love America today. I’ve seen the first Black president in America. I’m sure the world is going to change.” President Nicolas Sarkozy told Obama, “Your election has raised enormous hope in France, in Europe and beyond.”

Asia

The Chinese government lauded Obama’s youth and presumed energy as useful in dealing with the global financial crisis. The official China Daily news service noted that “a strong U.S. economy is in the interest of China and all other countries.” Obama’s plans to tax high earners were seen as good for the “appallingly spiraling [U.S.] budget deficit.”

Official India articulated a watch-and-wait approach toward Obama, especially in regard to his economic program. The Indo Asian News Service quoted C.K. Chandrappan, a leader of the Communist Party of India, who observed “change in the mindset of people in a white-dominated country … Indians should learn lessons from the greatness of Americans.” Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) advised caution: “Obama has not revealed his mind fully on the Iraq war [nor on] his policies towards third world countries.”

Middle East

In an overture unprecedented since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad congratulated Barack Obama. In a letter, he expressed hope that Obama would “use the opportunity to serve the [American] people,” also his confidence that “fundamental and clear changes” are on the way.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari congratulated Obama, indicating his government expects no “immediate change in the U.S. policy toward Iraq.” UK Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn believes Iraqi leaders view Obama as potentially more flexible than his predecessor in modifying the stalled Status of Forces Agreement to allow for parliamentary approval.

In Israel, the Haaretz newspaper praised the U.S. election as an “example of democracy at its best.” It paid tribute to Obama as a unifier and predicted Obama would “rehabilitate the status of a superpower.”

Obama is an issue in the upcoming Israeli elections. Kadima party candidate Tzipi Livni has emphasized affinity with Obama on the peace process. Likud Party rival Benjamin Netanyahu cites meetings with Obama that created “personal chemistry.”

The other Colombia stirs

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:07:00 +0000

“What was new was the breadth, extent, and depth of the protest, and above all the confluence of actors.” For analyst Raul Zibechi, the “other Colombia” was manifest in a wave of indigenous and workers’ protests against the regime of President Alvaro Uribe. Along the line, Uribe, custodian of a militarized U.S. puppet state, blinked.

Judicial workers pursued a 43-day strike. In October truck drivers and election council workers stopped work. Teacher and student protests proliferated. On Sept. 15, 10,000 Afro-Colombian sugarcane workers launched a strike in Valle del Cauca that continues despite food shortages. They downplayed competing union loyalties to achieve unity and spurned union hierarchy rules, often sullied by union ties to sugar mill operators.

Falling production of sugar-based ethanol necessitated imports. The government charged the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had incited the strike.

A one-day strike Oct. 23, organized by Colombia’s CUT union, brought together 500,000 unionists in support of these labor actions.

On Oct. 12, Día de la Raza (Day of the People), indigenous people organized by two regional leadership councils, began a 60 mile march from La Maria Piendamó reservation in Cauca department to Cali. The “Minga” (signifying collective work for the common good) of indigenous and popular resistance brought 45,000 protesters from 20 of 32 Colombian departments to the nation’s third largest city. Thousands marched elsewhere.

Demands included cessation of land takeovers, repeal of oppressive laws on land, water and mining, the honoring of government commitments, adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and rejection of the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Act. Spokesperson Daniel Piñacué told an interviewer, “We are asking not to be violently pushed off our lands … so that transnational companies can exploit our land, leaving us without water and without minerals.”

Demonstrators called for an end to murder. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia places the toll during the Uribe presidency at 1,253 indigenous people killed, 19 of them during a recent two-week period.

Outside La Maria Piendamó, three marchers were shot dead and over 100 wounded. The government denied its soldiers were responsible. Spokespersons alleged the FARC had inspired the march. They recanted only after international media ran video images of soldiers firing on marchers.

Sharpening of class and national struggles in Colombia was monitored internationally. Leaders of Canada’s public sector unions demanded of President Uribe that he satisfy “legitimate concerns” of indigenous people and withdraw army perpetrators of the “massacre” against the Minga. Marchers were joined by sugarcane strikers, CUT unionists, UN and EU emissaries and representatives of foreign embassies.

In Cali, President Uribe had agreed to enter into a dialogue at an outdoor rally. But on Oct. 26, his chair was empty as he faced new distractions.

He had already rejected charges that the Colombian Army murdered 19 young men from Soacha municipality outside Bogota. Their bodies had been found in a common grave 300 miles away. They were alleged to have been killed as FARC combatants in yet another successful anti-insurgent operation. The scandal widened as hundreds of other so-called “false positives” were identified. Many of the disappeared had been poor, unattached or handicapped. Observers saw their extermination as a form of “social cleansing.”

On Oct. 29, the government announced the sacking of 27 soldiers for carrying out the killings, including three generals and 11 colonels. The turnaround coincided with the release in Bogota of reports by the Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination Group, a consortium of human rights groups that included the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Between January 2007 and June 2008, security forces killed 535 persons, 58 percent of them less than 30 years of age.

In Madrid that day, Amnesty International released “Leave Us in Peace,” a report documenting the killing of 70,000 Colombians — mostly civilians — over 20 years. It showed that in 2007 security forces carried out almost one-third of civilian murders involving a known perpetrator. Analysts pointed out that implicated military units had benefited from U.S. aid under Plan Colombia.

Unexpectedly, President Uribe agreed to join with Minga participants, this time in La María Piendamó where he met Nov. 2 with 4,000 indigenous people. Simultaneously, marches were being planned from various Colombian cities to Bogota.

atwhit @ roadrunner.com

Economy fix cant wait until 1.20.09

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:50:00 +0000

$700 billion bailout ‘like using a can of Red Bull and a candy bar’

As the economy continues crashing and as Congress readies for a special post-election Nov. 17 session at which it could pass a new stimulus package of more than $300 billion, labor and its allies are pushing for sweeping measures aimed at getting millions back to work and putting money into the pockets of the people.

Not waiting for the January inauguration of Barack Obama and the swearing-in of the new more labor-friendly Congress, unionists are already knocking on the doors of Capitol Hill lawmakers. They are determined to see the stimulus result in reconstructed schools and extended unemployment benefits on the one hand, to a new network of modern roads and expanded Medicaid aid to states on the other.

Labor is fully aware, however, that it may have to do battle with lame duck President Bush and Republican obstructionists in the Senate to win economic relief for Main Street before the new administration takes office.

As evidence of the need for emergency action now they point to the sharp decline in gross domestic product, 0.3 percent from July 1 through September. At the same time ExxonMobil announced its $11.7 billion profits, the largest profit margin in U.S. corporate history.

“Even Bush should realize something has to be done,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “We need a genuine economic stimulus package now, in the next 30 days, to boost our economy before already struggling, hard-working families suffer even more from a downward spiral.”

Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan insisted when he spoke before the congressional Transportation Committee on Oct. 29 that the tax rebates given to consumers earlier in the year and the $700 billion Wall Street bailout have had no lasting impact because they created no sustainable jobs. “It was like using a can of Red Bull and a candy bar to fix the problem,” he declared.

O’Sullivan said thousands of construction projects could be started immediately and that, with a jobless rate of 10 percent in construction, the workers are available now.

In the public sector alone, retrofitting of buildings to save energy would put almost a million people to work at an average pay of $40,000 and would provide long-term benefits to the nation, he said.

Presidents of the nation’s two huge teachers’ unions, Randi Weingarten of the AFT and Dennis Van Roeckel of the NEA are telling Congress that the schools must be part of any stimulus package.

Weingarten says the squeeze on state budgets is hurting schools badly. Marcia Reback, AFT president in Providence, R.I., provided an example when she told lawmakers that all music programs in her district have been eliminated.

“Education and the economy are intertwined,” Weingarten said. “When the economy is weak, workers lose their jobs, their homes and their healthcare. The effect of these losses doesn’t just hit the workers, it also affects their children, our students.”

She said the nation’s school buildings need at least $286 billion in immediate repairs that, if done, would put people to work and bring in more tax dollars to hard-pressed school districts.

NEA President Van Roekel said, “Many districts are being forced to raise prices for school meals due to escalating food costs. Schools report a steady stream of anxious parents, often in tears, pleading for free meals for their children because they do not have 70 cents a day for reduced price meals.”

When Ron Blackwell, the AFL-CIO’s chief economist testified he laid out numerous recommendations that would put more money in the hands of workers, not the least of which was extension of unemployment benefits from their current 26 weeks to 39.

Blackwell used his time to testify, however, to go well beyond the immediate stimulus package and to discuss longer term fixes for the economy.

He said the nation’s trade deficit could be fixed by making the terms of trade more equal and by protecting the rights of workers in other countries. He said the harmful economic imbalance between workers and bosses could be corrected by passing the Employee Free Choice Act:

“The imbalance of bargaining power between workers and their employers is responsible for the stagnation of wages and the rupture of the crucial relation between wages and productivity that served as the foundation of the social contract,” he said. “It also led to low savings and forced workers to use credit to keep going.

“Correcting this imbalance means creating full employment, a meaningful minimum wage and reforming our labor law to allow workers to freely associate with their fellow workers and form a union to bargain collectively. This is essential to restoring the economy to strength and sustainability,” he said.

jwojcik@pww.org

Worldnotes: November 8, 2008

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:28:00 +0000

Greece: Labor builds toward political change

Striking workers brought schools, hospitals and transportation services — and half of Greece’s factories — to a 24 hour halt Oct. 21 as the Confederation of Greek Workers, joined by the Public Sector workers’ confederation, launched the ninth general strike in four years against the center-right New Democracy party, presently mired in land sale scandals.

With its parliamentary majority reduced to two seats, polls place New Democracy’s popular support at 27.5 percent. Workers’ parties have gained, according to Rebelion.org, with the Communist Party laying claim to 7.5 percent of the electorate. Demanding a minimum wage hike, strikers protested rising prices and privatization plans, particularly government proposals to sell off Olympic Airlines.

Brazil: Workers’ Party, allies dominate city elections

The second round of municipal elections Oct. 26 upped the number of mayors identified with President Lula da Silva’s Workers Party by 36 percent. The Democratic Movement Party and Socialist Party, each allied to the Worker’s Party, scored 13.9 and 80.4 percent increases respectively.

Opposition parties will govern in only six of Brazil’s 26 capital cities, although they include Porto Alegre and Salvador. In Sao Paulo, Workers’ Party candidate Marta Suplicy lost decisively to Democrat Party opposition candidate Gilberto Kassab who, according to Insurgente.org, gained ground as a future presidential candidate. Suplicy had been viewed as a potential successor to Lula who is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2010.

Benin: Poor nations want in

Speaking at a conference on African governance on Oct. 25, President Thomas Boni Yayi protested against the exclusion of poor African countries — “the victims of the current system” — from representation at a meeting of finance ministers and bankers planned for Nov. 7-9 in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

That gathering will prepare for a G-20 summit of industrialized and large developing nations a week later in Washington to deal with the world financial crisis.

Reuters also reported on African Union plans to hold a summit in Tunis Nov. 12 in conjunction with the African Development Bank, to develop an African response to the financial downturn.

Iraq: U.S. forces agreement may fail

The Iraqi government indicated last week that without amendments Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki describes as essential, it will not submit for parliamentary approval an agreement authorizing continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq. The UN mandate authorizing the U.S. troops there expires in December.

Proposed amendments would limit the U.S. stay to three years, subject off-duty U.S. soldiers to Iraqi laws and authorize inspections of incoming and outgoing U.S. military shipments. Iraq seeks to ban U.S. use of Iraqi territory to attack neighboring countries.

The Associated Press report suggests that concern expressed Oct. 29 by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani about weakened Iraqi sovereignty under the proposed treaty signifies early agreements are unlikely.

China: Partnership grows with Russia

Premier Wen Jiabao’s participation in the 13th annual bilateral prime ministers’ meeting in Moscow Oct. 27-29 testified to “enhanced mutual trust and support” and dedication to “strategic cooperation,” according to People’s Daily, newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

Talks joined by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev covered joint space projects, cooperation on border issues, high technology industrial production, shared telecommunications and scientific research. A joint communiqué highlighted trade expansion, cooperative industrial production and two-way investing.

China gained assurances of Russian deliveries of oil and natural gas. The Global Research web site reported last week that the state-controlled pipeline corporation Transneft has designed a spur into China from the pipeline delivering Siberian oil to Russia’s Pacific coast.

Cuba: General Assembly nixes blockade

“You have the force, it’s true, but we have justice,” Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the U.S. delegate to the UN General Assembly on Oct. 29 as he introduced the 17th annual resolution condemning the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba.

This year, 185 nations sided with Cuba — up from 184 last year, 183 in 2006 and 182 in 2005. The United States, Israel, and Palau dissented.

Cuba alleged crimes of genocide and economic warfare, according to cuba-l.unm.edu. Perez Roque said losses since 1962 measured under current valuation, total $224.6 billion dollars — equivalent to losses if hurricanes Gustav and Ike arrived every year. The new U.S. president was urged to abandon attempts “to wear out the Cuban people with hunger and disease.”

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

Human beings, not commodities

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:57:00 +0000

People’s Global Action held demonstrations Oct. 27 as the opening of the UN-sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development kicked off in Manila. Under the theme, “Migrant workers are human beings, not commodities,” the nine-day PGA activities are “meant to supplement” the UN event.

There are more than 8 million Filipinos working overseas, some one-third of whom live in the United States. Others are concentrated in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe. According to the United Nations, there are currently 192 million migrants working outside their home countries. Last year alone, Filipino migrant workers sent back $14.4 billion to support their families back home and supply a valuable boost to the country’s economy.

But migrant workers face many challenges around the world, including discrimination and being forced to work in slave-like conditions. According to the International Labor Organization the United States hosts the biggest number of undocumented migrants. It said that of the 40 million estimated undocumented migrants, 10 million, or 25 percent, are in the U.S.