People Before Profit blog

World Notes

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:19:00 +0000

Syria: U.S. raid kills 8 At a London press conference Oct. 27, Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moallem condemned a cross-border raid by four U.S. helicopters the previous day that killed at least eight civilians and wounded at least seven more. Al-Moallem called the raid an act of “criminal and terrorist aggression,” and said Syria would defend itself “if they do it again.”

The United States claimed the strike killed a leading al-Qaeda operative. But witnesses said it killed construction workers on a farm five miles from the Iraq border. Witnesses said two of the helicopters landed and troops emerged, firing.

Some U.S. observers saw a link between the raid and the U.S. presidential elections. On his blog, Informed Comment, University of Michigan professor Juan Cole said he thinks that besides any military objective, the Bush administration’s raids into Syria and Pakistan are intended to help the Republicans in some way in the election.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials said a missile fired from a U.S. drone aircraft Oct. 27 killed up to 20 people in the border region of Waziristan. U.S. and CIA military drones fly regular patrols over areas bordering Afghanistan, and reportedly carried out over a dozen air strikes in recent months. Since a Sept. 3 helicopter raid killed over 20 Pakistanis including several civilians, sparking Pakistani protests, the U.S. has stepped up the use of drones, launching 18 such attacks in the last three months.

Congo: Rebels take over gorilla refuge Armed rebels led by renegade army Gen. Laurent Nkunda this week occupied the headquarters of Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest national park and home to most of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. Over 50 park rangers were reported fleeing through the forest to the provincial capital, Goma, itself under rebel attack in the ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hundreds of Congolese soldiers were retreating Oct. 27 ahead of Nkunda’s latest push toward Goma in defiance of the UN Security Council’s demand that he respect the cease-fire the world organization negotiated in January. Last December UN peacekeepers defended Goma by firing on the rebels from attack helicopters; they were reported taking similar action this week.

China: Premier says restructure world finance system Addressing the closing session of the Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing Oct. 25, Premier Wen Jiabao called for new rules for the international finance system.

Wen’s proposals included increased participation of developing countries in international financial organizations, stronger supervision of the international financial system and building a financial assistance system, China Daily said.

Wen told reporters after the summit of leaders and representatives from 45 Asian and European nations and organizations that while the financial crisis has had its effects, China had adjusted its economic policies as early as June. He expressed confidence his country would “continue its stable and relatively rapid development.”

China is slated to participate in a Nov. 15 summit that will bring together leaders from 20 industrialized and developing countries in Washington, D.C.

Poland: Crisis slows economy “Welcome to tough times,” the daily newspaper Dziennik told its readers last week, as Poland’s currency, the zloty, dropped 17 percent last week against the dollar, and over 10 percent against the euro. Building projects ground to a halt as credit froze up, and the leading stock index dropped 12.6 percent in a week. It has lost half its value this year.

Though Poland’s economy had appeared strong, now “Everything is going down,” information technology consultant Lukasz Tync told The New York Times in Warsaw last week.

Other former socialist countries in Eastern Europe are even harder pressed. Hungary and Ukraine have just concluded tentative loan pacts with the International Monetary Fund, notorious for requiring borrowers to stifle public programs in favor of private economic development.

Cuba: Cooperation resumed with EU A leading European Union official last week held meetings with top Cuban leaders during an official visit which ended with an agreement resuming bilateral cooperation.

EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel met with Cuban President Raul Castro and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque during his stay.

Under pressure from the Bush administration, the EU had initiated sanctions against Cuba in 2003. The sanctions were suspended two years later and were totally lifted at the EU summit last June.

Michel and other EU officials visited Cuba’s hurricane-devastated regions during their visit. The EU will provide $2.6 million in emergency aid and starting next year, over $70 million more in assistance to rebuild schools and damaged homes.

This week’s World Notes were compiled by Marilyn Bechtel, mbechtel@pww.org.

Harper loses bid for Conservative majority

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:45:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — After two years of right-wing rule on Oct. 14 voters punished the incumbent Conservative Party government headed by Stephen Harper by refusing to give him a majority government.

The Conservatives, or Tories, won 143 seats and obtained 37.6 percent of the vote, up 16 seats and 1.3 percent more votes from the elections held in 2006. In a number of these districts the anti-Harper vote was split between contending left parties, allowing the Conservatives to win. The Liberal Party lost 20 seats, dropping to 76 seats from 96, and its popular vote shrank to 26 percent, 4 percent less than two years ago.

Women’s and arts organizations in Quebec mobilized effectively to prevent Harper from winning extra seats he needed to form a majority government. The Tories lost in most urban centers, except in Alberta. The Party did not win any seats in Toronto or Montreal and only one in Vancouver, the three largest cities in Canada.

The Conservative lead in the polls began to fade towards election day as the economy began faltering, despite Harper’s assurances that the fundamentals of the Canadian economy were strong. Conservative efforts to capitalize on fear about crime also failed.

The right leaning Liberal Party efforts to campaign from the left, offering to implement a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and more social spending, failed to win over voters.

The Bloc Quebecois, which promised to protect Quebec’s interests in Ottawa, won 50 seats with 10 percent of the vote, two more seats than 2006.

The left improved its electoral results but not its overall presence in Parliament because of the “first past the post” electoral system which disenfranchise most people who vote for small parties and inflates the number of seats in Parliament for the large parties. Small parties, whose support is spread across the country, lack the critical mass of support in many districts needed to win seats.

The social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP) won 37 seats and 18.2 percent of the vote, 7 seats more than in 2006. The Green Party won no seats even though it won 6.8 percent of the vote, up 4.5 percent from 2006. The remaining nine small parties that contested the election and independent candidates, four of which identify as being on the left, including the Communist Party of Canada, garnered 1.2 percent of the popular vote.

The Canadian Communist Party, which ran 24 candidates, reported that its overall vote went up slightly from 2006, despite a lack of coverage from the corporate-controlled national media, which largely ignored small parties. Kimball Cariou, a party candidate in Vancouver and a member of the party’s central executive, told the World in an e-mail interview that the party received a positive response from many voters: “As the economic crisis worsened, the primary concern of most left-minded voters was to defeat the Tories.” He said that the party’s election website received 3 million hits during the election campaign.

A portion of left-wing voters also voted for Liberal candidates in certain ridings, or for larger center-left parties such as the NDP, to keep the Conservatives from winning a majority government.

The election results do not indicate that voters turned to the right, as nearly 62 percent of voters cast their ballots for parties on the left, or for those that campaigned from the left, such as the Liberal Party and Bloc Quebecois. Harper, a fundamentalist Christian who shares an ideological affinity with the right-wing evangelical movement in the United States only increased his party’s share of the popular vote by 1.3 percent from the 2006 elections.

According to Elections Canada, voter turnout was 59 percent, down from 64 percent in 2006, indicating a continuing downward slide in voting rates. Tough new ID requirements to vote, introduced by the Tories before the election, also disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of young people and tenants, charge critics.

Because the Tories don’t have a majority in Parliament they will have to look to other parties for support. The Conservatives need 155 votes to pass legislation, 10 more than what they have. Analysts suggest that they will likely look to the right leaning, divided Liberal party for support. Liberal leader Stephane Dion has said that he will work with Harper to deal with the economic challenges facing Canada.

tpelzer@shaw.ca

World notes: October 25, 2008

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:38:00 +0000

UK: House of Lords protects civil rights

By a 191 vote majority, the House of Lords earlier this month defeated a Labor government proposal to extend from 28 days to 42 days the period police may hold suspects without charges. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith responded by announcing that in future only a terrorist emergency would prompt another try at passing the measure, which was included in a package of augmented antiterrorism legislation.

Conservative Party shadow home secretary David Davis resigned from Parliament last June to protest House of Commons approval then by a slim margin. He told the BBC this week the Labor Party had been seeking “a ‘tougher-than-Tory’ model in the public mind.”

Muslim organizations joined the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in welcoming the outcome.

Bolivia: Constitution now tops government agenda

With President Evo Morales in the lead, indigenous people, unionists and representatives of social organizations set out from Caracollo Oct. 13, arriving in La Paz three days later. Other marches converged on the capital, all aiming to press legislators to authorize a referendum vote on a constitution devised last year.

The document would protect indigenous rights, land reform and the state’s share of wealth generated by hydrocarbon sales.

The action followed failure of government talks with secessionist opposition leaders who last month had encouraged violent, destabilizing protests leading to martial law in Pando. According to Bolpress.com, Morales is taking advantage of enhanced political capital in the wake of an overwhelming referendum victory Aug. 10 approving his continued tenure as President.

China: Reform wave hits agriculture

A Communist Party conference that included President Hu Jintao issued a report Oct. 12 setting the course for farmers eventually to be able to transfer, mortgage or rent land. Details of the plan, unspecified now, will be presented to the National People’s Congress next March.

Inter Press Service speculates that individual land use rights may be extended from 30 to 70 years. The purpose of the reform is to increase consumer income to compensate for falling industrial employment, to counter rural and urban income differences, and to strengthen domestic food production in the face of world food shortages.

Planners envision migrants to cities gaining the ability to rent land they once farmed and farmers enjoying economies of scale through expanded operations.

Iran: Strike forces tax freeze

Imposition of a value added tax in September triggered nationwide strikes by store owners and business persons prompting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to lift the tax. Al Jazeera reported that “the vast Tehran market… shut [down] entirely on Sunday (Oct. 12), a normal trading day, in the biggest such protest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.” The protest comes in the wake of retail price increases over three years culminating in a 29 percent annual inflation rate.

Application of the tax in multiple steps, from production to sales, led to additional 10-15 percent price hikes, although it had been billed as a three percent levy. Economist Saeed Leylaz diagnosed the strike as emblematic of middle class discontent.

Kenya: UN warns of food shortages

As Kenya marked World Food Day Oct. 16, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned that food shortages are worsening in sub-Saharan Africa. Speaking in the capital, Nairobi, FAO Country Representative Castro Camarada called on developed countries to partner with developing countries to help develop sustainable agriculture.

Kenya’s deputy agriculture minister, Kareke Mbiuki, said malnutrition and food shortages in his country are worsened by lack of infrastructure to distribute food that is available. He also cautioned about the increasing diversion of land from food production to growing bio-fuels.

The European Commission is starting an emergency food aid program to help offset the impact of rising food and fuel prices in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti.

Cuba: Foreign minister upholds socialism

At a Madrid press conference last week, held jointly with his Spanish counterpart, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque responded to criticism from a leading European Union official by declaring, “We believe in socialism, in the possibility of social justice and equality.” Referring to the world financial crisis, he said his country doesn’t like “a system run even this weekend on saving bankers, but not run on saving the hungry.”

EU Secretary of State Diego Lopez Garrido had rapped Cuba for shortchanging human rights. His call for “economic and political liberalization” was presumably timed to coincide with the Cuban foreign minister’s tour of European capitals aimed at normalizing relations with Europe.

According to Insurgente.org, Perez Roque added that Cuba’s version of socialism “had to be perfected.”

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

Mexico remembers Tlatelolco, 1968

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:37:00 +0000

On Oct. 2 Mexicans observed the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre with a march of tens of thousands of people through Mexico City and other events. Veterans of 1968 marched alongside students who were not even born then, joining with farmers and striking teachers. In Mexico City, the local government put flags at half mast.

The Tlatelolco massacre took place 10 days before the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City. Student activists had sought to use the international attention the games brought to the Mexican capital to push for democratic freedoms and release of political prisoners. All summer, there had been marches and protests by university and high school students. In September, the authoritarian president, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) ordered the army to take over the National Autonomous University of Mexico, provoking bigger marches.

On Oct. 2, 1968, at least 15,000 marched, and in the evening 5,000 students, workers and neighborhood residents congregated at the Plaza of the Three Cultures in the outlying Tlatelolco neighborhood. Without warning, police and soldiers opened fire on the unarmed crowd and kept blazing away as people desperately tried to seek shelter. Though no official count of the deaths was ever released, and the government put out false information about the demonstrators having “shot first,” Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska published a searing book (“La Noche de Tlatelolco,” 1971) based on interviews with witnesses and survivors. Poniatowska’s book clearly demonstrated that the government had opened fire without provocation and that possibly more than 300 people had been killed.

There was U.S. government involvement. The notorious director of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, as well as the CIA, saw the growth of left-wing dissent in Mexico as a major threat. The Mexican government was fine with this view. While Mexico took a publicly independent stance in the Cold War, some Mexican high officials, including presidents Lopez Mateos and Echeverria, were subsequently revealed by former CIA agent Philip Agee to have been CIA “assets.” The student movement was infiltrated by agents and provocateurs, some of whom took on a disruptive ultra-leftist guise, while others red-baited student leaders.

Left-wing dissent in Mexico, though not part of some “Soviet plot” as both the U.S. and Mexican government alleged, was very real. After the Cuban Revolution, many public figures in Mexico, including revered former President Lazaro Cardenas, expressed strong support for Fidel Castro’s new government and denounced efforts by the United States to topple it. And Mexico had its own rich revolutionary tradition. The Communist Party of Mexico had counted in its ranks some of the most respected figures in the workers movement and in the arts.

In 1959-60, the government had harshly suppressed powerful strikes by railway workers and teachers, jailing a number of left-wing labor leaders. In 1962, the army and police had massacred a noted peasant leader, Ruben Jaramillo, who was both a Methodist minister and a Communist Party member, and his entire family. In 1968, some key leftist labor leaders were still in prison, including railway worker leaders Valentin Campa and Demetrio Vallejo, both Communists. The student demands included the release of all such political prisoners.

The massacre of students and workers in the Plaza of the Three Cultures was not the only repressive act that took place under president Diaz Ordaz and his interior minister and successor, Luis Echeverria Alvarez. There were more killings of farmers, students and workers, often in the form of “disappearances”. But the blatant public nature of the Tlatelolco slaughter stuck in people’s minds both in Mexico and abroad.

Especially since the PRI lost the presidency in 2000, there have been constant demands for the opening of police and army files about the incident, with very limited success. Another demand has been for the prosecution of surviving leaders of the government at the time. These also have not met with success. Recently there have been discoveries of what might be mass graves of people “disappeared” by the authorities of that period.

Last week, the leadership of the PRI, supported by the currently ruling right-wing National Action Party, PAN, made an admission that yes, some bad things had happened in 1968, but suggested that bygones should be bygones. On the other hand, the parliamentary left, consisting of the PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party) and allies, has demanded that the government recognize that the events of 1968 constitute an unpunished crime of the state.

World notes: October 18, 2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:31:00 +0000

World notes

Afghanistan: Military victory unlikely

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, who commands a British Air Assault Brigade that has taken severe losses from the Taliban, told the Sunday Times Oct. 5, “We’re not going to win this war. We have to lower our expectations” — an opinion the UK Guardian said reflects that of British defense chiefs. Carleton-Smith called for a political solution to include the Taliban.

Last week, the UK ambassador in Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, told a French official that foreign troops complicate the country’s problems that will soon include food shortages. Officials with the UN Food and Agricultural Organization say 6 million Afghan people face drought-caused shortfalls of 2 million tons of wheat and rice.

Iraq: Shell scores

Congressional criticism had nixed earlier Bush administration arrangements with the Iraqi government announced last June, under which Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP and Chevron would have gained no-bid contracts to service Iraqi oil fields.

With bidding now allowed, Shell last month entered into a joint venture to process and market natural gas worth $4 billion, thus becoming the first foreign company in 35 years to pursue an energy project in Iraq.

Last year, the Pentagon awarded the five companies $4.1 billion for services. Shell took in $2.1 billion, alternet.org said. So far this year, the Pentagon has paid Shell $1 billion, including $338 million announced on Sept. 17 — part of a $1.5 billion handout on contracts going to 10 oil companies.

Guatemala: Peoples of a continent gather

Meeting Oct. 5-12 in Guatemala City, the Third Social Forum of the Americas invoked the World Social Forum mantra, “Another World is Possible,” as it staged an encounter remarkable for diversity, dialogue and dedication to social action.

Some 6,000 participants heard plenary speakers extol unity as crucial for success in struggles for indigenous rights, the rights of nature, food sovereignty, agrarian reform, and against neoliberal depredations and colonial survivals.

Prensa Latina quoted agrarian leader Rafael González: “Our land is not for sale or purchase. It is respected.” Bolivian President Evo Morales’ message reinforced these themes and added, “We have to improve this socialism of the 21st century, building communitarian socialism, or simply the good life in harmony with Mother Earth.”

Italy: U.S. base plans scrapped

For two years residents of Vicenza have opposed U.S. plans that right-wing politicians have accepted: to locate a large base in their backyard. Residents engineered a referendum proposing to buy the potential base site in order to “designate its use in the public interest,” according to afterdowningstreet.org.

Efforts to block the referendum, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, culminated in an Oct. 1 Council of State decision that reversed court decisions backing the referendum.

That evening, some 12,000 citizens met and decided on a “popular referendum.” Orderly voting five days later was decisive: 24,094 voters representing 95.7 percent of the total population voted for the anti-base referendum. Symbolic votes in solidarity with Vicenza took place elsewhere in Italy.

India: Leaders look to Latin America for food

Increasing food shortages since 2006 and expected food scarcities due to climate change have prompted Chinese and Indian government and business leaders to covet land in South America to shore up soy, sunflower and wheat supplies. Use of soy to produce biodiesel is also envisioned.

The report on the Radiomundoreal web site describes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia as “the last great agricultural reserve of the planet,” although analysts have amply documented environmental and human costs of turning the region into a “green desert.”

Last month, Ashok Sethia, president of an Indian vegetable oil trade group, said representatives of 14 Indian companies were already discussing land purchases with the governments of Paraguay and Uruguay.

Cuba: Committed to health care

The newspaper Granma reported that as university sessions began last month, almost 200,000 young people — a record number — were studying medical sciences, including 22,749 scholarship students from poor countries.

Multidisciplinary institutes teaching medicine, dentistry and nursing are located in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Camaguey and Villa Clara. There are 24 medical schools and four dental schools elsewhere in Cuba, plus 34 facilities including the Latin American School of Medicine aimed at preparing new Latin American and Caribbean doctors.

At a meeting of the Pan American Health Organization in Washington last week, Deputy Health Minister Joaquin Garcia Salabarria reiterated Cuba’s determination to provide health care expertise and training for the region, despite hurricanes and the U.S. blockade.

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

Mexico teacher rebellion gains support, repression

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:43:00 +0000

Widespread popular support and military repression cast ongoing teacher protests in Morelos state — home to famous revolutionary Emiliano Zapata — as a replay of events two years ago in Oaxaca. At issue are measures taken to privatize public education throughout Mexico.

President Felipe Calderon and Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the National Union of Educational Workers (SNTE), are accused of unilaterally imposing the Alliance for Quality in Education (ACE). The ACE program calls for independent councils to secure funds to maintain and operate schools, private gatekeeper agencies to test aspiring teachers, and independent (read private) organizations annually to assess teacher competence and school performance without regard to local circumstances.

Teacher demonstrations in Cuernavaca, ongoing for three months, led to protests in 13 nearby cities by members of the National Coordinating Group of Educational Workers (CNTE), a dissident group. In late September, teachers and supporters put up highway barriers in Xoxocatla.

Beginning Oct. 7, troops and police employing tanks, Hummers, jeeps and helicopters cordoned off the rebellious towns. Some 800 armed men wielded teargas and clubs to subdue women, students and peasants maintaining a highway blockade in Amayuca, arresting over 50.

Teachers in Xococatla removed highway barriers to promote dialogue and then re-imposed them in response to arrests in other towns. Their detention of five local policemen caused state and federal government deployment of 2,000 troops to subdue the 3,000 mostly indigenous citizens of Xoxocatla. Chaos ensued: teargas canisters landed inside homes, tires burned, some 50 teachers disappeared and 20 young people testified to beatings while detained. Schools were closed and scab teachers recruited.

Anti-government protests in Xoxocatla were fueled by resentment at recent moves to privatize underground water reserves and other natural resources. A “yes” answer to “Are you a teacher?” became cause for arrest. That was the situation, points out Jaime Luis Britto, in Mexico City 40 years ago prior to the army’s massacre of students at Tlatelolco. To signify protesters’ presumed criminal intentions, Morales state government officials evoked “Oaxacanizing” tendencies.

Parents, community members and progressive forces nationwide have rallied to the teachers’ cause, in part because of other issues they have raised. For example, one teacher manifesto linking the ACE with privatization of Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, condemned “the two largest privatizing projects that the spurious government has yet undertaken. Both threaten strategic sectors of the country and injure national sovereignty.”

Its list of complaints included: “the new ISSSTE law… unemployment, high prices, rising taxes on electricity, gas and water; and environmental destruction.” ISSSTE refers to Mexico’s social security system set for privatization under the Felipe Calderon government. New provisions are derisively called the “Gordillo law” in honor of SNTE teachers union president Elba Esther Gordillo, closely identified with the ACE school proposals.

Analysis appearing in La Jornada Morales under the name Dulce Maya characterizes the teacher conflict as a “detonator of citizen malaise by ultra-right politicians.” Workers Party leader Rigoberto Lorence López is cited as suggesting instigation of the repression by the Morelos National Action Party “in order to control the social movements because leaders don’t know how to govern. They look to violence to crush the dissidents and induce fear.” In Morelos, he adds, “the people are fired up and tired of government errors.”

On Sept. 21, a plenary session of the 11th National Congress of the left-center PRD party rejected the ACE, which spokesperson Erick Villanueva denounced as “politics agreeable to the World Bank” and as “inserting business management into the educational world.” At a joint press conference, Morales-based leaders of all major political parties except National Action called upon national counterparts to demand that President Calderon respect the states’ autonomy and withdraw troops. As of Oct. 13, negotiations to ease the conflict were underway. Federal troop concentrations were down.

Analyst Gregory Berger, writing on Narconews.com, reported that one of the teargas cartridges discharged inside a citizen’s home in Xoxocatla carried the massage in English “For use only by trained individuals.” He speculates that this and other weapons the Mexican Army uses to rout domestic opposition emanate from the United States under its newly elaborated “Plan Mexico,” established ostensibly to support “war on drugs.”

WORLD NOTES: October 11

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:18:00 +0000

Colombia: Deaths, suffering mount

The forced displacement of 270,675 Colombians during the first half of 2008 signifies a 41 percent rise over the comparable period last year, according to the Council on Human Rights and Displacement. Human rights groups estimate the total displaced at 4 million.

To end the humanitarian crisis, the Pacocol.org web site recently called for sociopolitical reforms and negotiated accords with leftist guerrillas.

In New York, Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced Sept. 30 that from 2002 through 2007, 13,636 Colombians died from “sociopolitical violence”— 10,000 more if combat deaths are included. The report on elspectador.com attributes six of every 10 non-combat deaths to resurgent paramilitary violence and government-fostered impunity.

Western Sahara: Independence struggle continues

“Brutal repression” at the hands of Moroccan police and soldiers in the Western Sahara town of Smara against demonstrators calling for independence for the region was the subject of a petition delivered Sept. 25 to the Moroccan consul in the Canary Islands.

The plea on behalf of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) cited a mounting wave of detentions and assaults on independence advocates in Smara, El Aaiun and Sidi Ifni. Insurgente.org said the petition cited “human rights degradation affecting the Sahara people living under Moroccan occupation.”

The United Nations brokered a Moroccan-SADR truce in 1991 grounded on Moroccan promises, unrealized, for a referendum on independence. The SADR, recognized by 46 other nations, belongs to the African Union.

Israel: Departing leader opts for peace

Caretaker Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, leaving office because of corruption charges, told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper last month that for the sake of peace, Israelis must give up occupied West Bank land or exchange it for land in Israel, and leave East Jerusalem.

Recalling a 35-year political career, Olmert said, “For a large portion of these years, I was unwilling to look at reality in all its depth.” His new position, widely denounced in Israel as “too little and too late,” according to Inter Press Service, is at variance with U.S. government support for Israeli occupation of West Bank lands.

Olmert came under criticism last month for his characterization of settler violence as “pogroms.”

Japan: Anti-nuclear campaign grows

Protests against deployment of the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington in Yokosuka are undiminished. Over 200 marched there Sept. 21, their anger fueled by reports of suspected radioactive leaks from U.S. submarines.

Four days earlier the Okinawa legislature unanimously passed a resolution opposing the entry of nuclear-powered submarines in ports under its jurisdiction. Leaders of the Japan Council Against A and H bombs resolved in mid September to collect 12 million signatures, representing 10 percent of the nation’s population, as part of worldwide preparations for the Review Conference of Parties to the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty set for 2010.

The Japan Press Service suggested that the interregnum between prime ministers favors renewed anti-nuclear pressure.

Spain: Protest privatized health care

On Sept. 23, some 8,000 enraged health workers and health service users demonstrated against the Madrid Health Department’s plans to privatize public health infrastructure. The protesters gathered outside the Ritz Hotel where business leaders were gathered to tap into a billion euros in public funds made available to build new hospitals and health centers and refurbish old public hospitals, all slated for private operation.

The newly formed Madrid Coordinating Committee of Public Health Workers against Privatization mobilized neighborhood groups and health care consumers into a colorful, raucous protest on the theme, “Health care is a right, not a business.” The Committee was lauded on rebelion.org for “brilliantly inaugurating” what will be a long struggle, and for having organized from the ground up.

Cuba: Support sought for hurricane recovery

The Cuban Institute for Friendship among the People (ICAP) last month condemned the U.S. “double standards” under which the media exploits Cuba’s refusal to accept post-hurricane humanitarian aid while a cruel, illegal economic blockade continues.

Cuba will accept no gifts from the U.S. government, it explained, while the blockade persists. But private donations are welcome, even sought.

ICAP provided a listing of agencies accepting donations for Cuban hurricane relief, including:

• IFCO-Pastors for Peace, 418 W. 145th St., New York, NY 10031, (212) 926-2626

• Jewish Solidarity, 100 Beacon Blvd., Miami, FL 33135, Write “Maricusa” on the envelope, “humanitarian relief” on the check.

• Catholic Relief Services , PO Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203. On the check: “For Cuba Gustav relief.”

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

Searching for justice, not theater

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:46:00 +0000

[Oct. 6] marks the 32nd anniversary of the cold-blooded assassination of 73 innocent people aboard a Cubana de Aviacion passenger flight over the waters of Barbados. Thirty-two years of impunity for Luis Posada Carriles, the mastermind behind this sinister act of terrorism who enjoys White House protection and is free in the streets of Miami despite the overwhelming evidence and Venezuela's extradition requests.

Another anniversary can be added to this one. Last month five Cubans who, while in the United States, uncovered the details of the terrorist campaign spearheaded by Posada Carriles against Cuba, marked 10 years of unjust detention in a high security prison. The Cuban Five had infiltrated a Miami network and accumulated the necessary evidence for the FBI to arrest those responsible for bombs which exploded in Havana in 1997. The Cuban government provided the evidence to the FBI, but instead of arresting the terrorists, on Sept. 12, 1998, they arrested the Cuban Five.

In this twisted fable written in Washington, the Cuban Five are spies, Luis Posada Carriles is a patriot, and Venezuela and Cuba belong to the axis of evil. It is an incoherent reversal of reality. The White House wrote this fable with a prosecutor's pen.

Manipulated and inappropriately politicized, prosecutors have forgotten that their principal duty is to justice. Even the Department of Justice concluded just one week ago that the attorney general illegally fired various prosecutors during a 2006 purge because they had refused to follow the party line of their superiors.

The Cuban Five and Posada cases are the other side of the coin: here loyal prosecutors, under orders from the White House, betray justice, manipulate legal proceedings and arrest the innocent while they protect the guilty.

The reality is that there is no evidence the Cuban Five spied, and there is a lot of evidence that Posada is a terrorist. Messages declassified by the CIA say that, one month before the plane was blown up, Posada Carriles informed CIA agents in Caracas that 'we are going to hit a Cuban airliner.' Of course, Washington did not warn Cuba or Venezuela of the upcoming terrorist act. Two of the main perpetrators, Hernán Ricardo and Freddy Lugo, confessed. Ricardo admitted that his boss was Luis Posada Carriles, and that he received $25 thousand to blow the plane up. He calculated that he was paid $342.47 for each life he took.

The Cuban Five were prosecuted in Miami. With no evidence that they had tried to obtain secret government information, a court in Miami convicted three of them for conspiracy to commit espionage. Gerardo Hernández received a double life sentence; he was also charged with conspiracy to commit homicide, although prosecutors withdrew this charge based on a lack of evidence. Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino were each sentenced to life in prison. Fernando González and René González received sentences of 19 years and 15 years, respectively. Miami is so biased against the Cuban Revolution that only there can a court convict five innocent people without evidence.

The prosecutor and the judge knew this, which is why they vigorously opposed a change of venue. That is the main point defense attorneys will raise in an upcoming Supreme Court appeal. Meanwhile, the Cuban Five remain unjustly imprisoned and Posada is free.

The terrorist has not remained silent in Miami. He incites his followers, in public, to use 'the machete's blade' against Cuba. Authorities, of course, do nothing to impede these calls to violence.

To block extradition to Venezuela, U.S. government attorneys say he is a fraud. Not an assassin or a terrorist. The legal strategy is to put on a stage show to avoid the 73 pending charges of homicide in Caracas. Prosecutors know that if a court convicts him of immigration fraud, the maximum sentence would be 12 months in prison. Given that Posada was previously jailed for 18 months, the government could not put him in prison again.

He is the White House's favorite terrorist. The CIA trained him, gave him orders, paid him and now they protect him.

In his speech two weeks ago to the United Nations General Assembly, President George W. Bush said that nothing can justify taking the lives of innocent people, and that civilized nations should not protect terrorists.

However, Washington's actions are incompatible with the words of the president. A war on terrorism cannot be fought a la carte. It is not a question of good terrorists and bad terrorists.

In neglecting extradition requests for Luis Posada Carriles, Washington violates international law: its extradition treaty with Venezuela, the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Civil Aviation, and UN resolution 1373 which prohibits countries from harboring terrorists.

In condemning the Cuban Five in Miami without any evidence, the United States violates its own Constitution and the civil rights of these men. For their brave fight against terrorism, the Cuban Five deserve to be honored, not jailed. For his cowardly history of terrorism, Posada deserves to be extradited and prosecuted, not protected.

Venezuela will not rest in this fight until the United States frees the Cuban Five. Until they extradite Posada to Caracas. Until they respect international law. Until they respect the national sovereignty of other countries. Until they end their philosophy of exploitation, of war and of terror. Until they end this perverse stage show.

----- José Pertierra is a lawyer who represents the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. His office is in Washington, D.C. This article originally appeared in the Mexican daily La Jornada. This translation is reprinted from Cuba’s Juventud Rebelde.

Economy is key issue in Canadas elections

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:52:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — With less than a week to go before Canada’s Oct. 14 federal elections, the country’s faltering economy has become an issue.

The Conservative Party is claiming that Canada’s economy is on a sound footing, and is promising further measures such as tax cuts, deregulation and encouraging foreign investment to foster economic growth. “We don’t have a mortgage meltdown in Canada,” claimed party leader Stephen Harper during a recently televised national debate. “We don’t have a banking crisis in Canada. We should recognize the strengths of our economy.”

Opposition parties, especially on the left, have taken Harper to task on this point. They point out that the country’s manufacturing base is collapsing, unemployment is rising and exports are falling. Furthermore, the housing boom has come to an end, housing prices are beginning to fall and the banks, affected by the subprime crisis in the U.S., are curtailing loans to business and consumers. The economy is barely growing, and declined during the first six months of this year. Some analysts fear that Canada may suffer the same housing meltdown as the U.S.

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion is promising to invest in infrastructure and help the troubled manufacturing sector as well as implement measures to protect consumer mortgages and savings to stem economic decline, if elected.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton accuse the Conservatives of being out of touch with reality and lacking a platform to deal with Canada’s worsening economy. “Either you don’t care or you’re incompetent — which is it?” Layton asked Harper.

Both the Greens and the NDP are proposing greater social spending and measures to save the country’s manufacturing base, building a green energy sector and increased taxes on profitable corporations to counter the economic slowdown.

“Harper’s claim that the Canadian economy is on ‘a solid footing’ looks utterly foolish,” said Communist Party of Canada leader Miguel Figueroa. “In reality,” he said, “Canada is on the brink of a ‘Dirty Thirties’ depression, thanks largely to the neoconservative policies pushed by Harper, Bush and other advocates of ‘unfettered capitalism.’” The CPC warns that “instead of more self-congratulating Tory speeches, the country needs emergency measures to protect working people from the pending economic disaster spreading from our largest trading partner, the United States.”

Canada’s Communist Party, among other things, is calling for nationalization of the oil industry, legislation to halt the exodus of manufacturing jobs, a $15 per hour minimum wage, extension of social programs, and public investment in affordable housing and infrastructure to stimulate the economy. “Defeating the Harper Tories on Oct. 14 is the first step to ensure that it is the big corporations, and not working people, who will bear the costs of this crisis,” remarked Figueroa.

With the Conservatives are ahead in some polls, Liberal leader Stephane Dion is urging progressive voters to back the Liberals to prevent the Conservatives from winning a majority government.

Layton, who is aiming to make the social-democratic NDP the official opposition in Parliament, is fighting to prevent the Greens and Liberals from luring votes from NDP candidates.

Figueroa, whose party is running 25 candidates, is touring the country, urging voters to elect Communists, NDPers and other progressive candidates.

Meanwhile, EGALE, the main lobby group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community, is warning that the election of a conservative majority government would threaten hard-won gay rights. It notes that the Harper government failed to protect and enhance these rights. “With a Stephen Harper majority, what was a subtle, slow slide backwards in the areas of LGBT human rights will accelerate and once again our families will be the target.”

tpelzer @ shaw.ca

Hurricanes over Cuba, a month later

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:58:00 +0000

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike raked Cuba Aug. 30 and Sept. 7-9, causing the country’s worst natural disaster in recorded history. Officials pegged losses at $5 billion, 10 percent of GDP. Some 200,000 people were left homeless, electricity was lost throughout the island, 30 percent of farmers’ crops were destroyed and seven people died.

One humanitarian crisis driven by nature brought into focus another, instigated decades earlier from 90 miles away to bring down the Cuban government. Washington, bent on consistency, was unlikely to overlook an opportunity to sharpen the impact of its economic blockade by exploiting new suffering.

Three weeks ago, the Bush administration authorized $250 million worth of food sales, after Cuba turned down a U.S. offer to donate $5 million. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque explained that Cuba preferred instead an end to the blockade, the cause of $224 billion in losses since 1962 and $3.7 billion in 2007. The Cuban government objected to U.S. insistence on evaluating damage in Cuba before delivering aid.

Perez Roque denounced the food sales arrangements as reworking those already in place and lacking provisions for credit.

Bush administration intransigence riled high profile Cuban Americans who called for a six-month suspension of restrictions imposed in 2004 on visits and money transfers to families in Cuba. They included Joe Garcia, Raul Martinez and Annette Taddeo, vying for Florida congressional seats held respectively by Republicans Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who does not call for ending the blockade, reinforced their demands. Even the rightwing Cuban American National Foundation agreed. In Washington, Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.) and Sen. Chris Dodds (D-Conn.) introduced enabling legislation.

In Cuba, electricity had returned for 88 percent of the population by Sept. 17, and tourist hotels reopened. Volunteers scavenged for coffee beans and citrus fruit on the ground. Construction crews repaired some of the 30,000 damaged tobacco storage sheds, 4,727 food storage centers and 2,640 food outlets. Construction crews joined by foreign volunteers worked on damaged schools. Yet food sales dropped 80 percent over the month, and half a million destroyed or damaged homes were waiting.

The Cuban daily Granma said 230 offers of aid had been received by Sept. 24 from 63 countries and organizations, totaling $30.5 million in kind, cash, and cooperation. Of this, $1 million in resources had arrived. Dozens of planes loaded with goods arrived from Spain, Russia, Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia, and Jamaica. Help is expected from Iran, South Africa, Greece, South Korea, and Portugal. China has sent $1.3 million. Venezuela has promised major assistance. Tiny East Timor provided $500,000. The United Nations dedicated $8.6 million from its Emergency Response Fund to hurricane relief.

Recovery is hampered by pre-hurricane problems. Prices for basic foods have doubled worldwide over two years, and Cuba imports 70 percent of the food it consumes. Some 3.4 million tons of food that cost $1.47 billion last year now cost $1 billion more. A 32 percent rise in domestic oil prices affects both food production and distribution.

Cuban agricultural productivity has fallen. Half the nation’s farmland lies idle, and 80 percent of the cultivated land yields half of all food produced in Cuba. In July, the government opened up unused land to private farmers, transferred agricultural decision-making from ministries to local agencies and upped prices paid farmers.

The government last month accelerated the processing of farmers’ applications to use fallow land. Some 16,000, involving 500,000 acres, were received over one three-day period. Officials publicized a set of 85 measures aimed at increasing food production. Shortages of fruits and root vegetables are expected to continue.

In response to rising prices at Cuba’s entrepreneurial farmers’ markets, the government introduced a price freeze on Sept. 29. Local authorities will determine future charges. First Attorney General Juan Escalona Reguera warned that crimes related to “food, the black market, and sky-high prices” would be punished.

The worldwide crisis affecting banks and credit further complicates recovery, according to Reuters. Cuba’s central bank indicated that Cuba’s international debt, $1.1 billion in 2007, is $16.5 billion now. Exclusion from the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral lenders has long impeded Cuban borrowing.

CUBA: Support sought for hurricane recovery

The Cuban Institute for Friendship among the People (ICAP) last month condemned the U.S. “double standards” under which the media exploits Cuba’s refusal to accept post-hurricane humanitarian aid while a cruel, illegal economic blockade continues.

Cuba will accept no gifts from the U.S. government, it explained, while the blockade persists. But private donations are welcome, even sought.

ICAP provided a listing of agencies accepting donations for Cuban hurricane relief, including:

* IFCO-Pastors for Peace, 418 W. 145th St., New York, NY 10031, (212) 926-2626 * Jewish Solidarity, 100 Beacon Blvd., Miami, FL 33135, Write “Maricusa” on the envelope, “humanitarian relief” on the check. * Catholic Relief Services , PO Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203. On the check: “For Cuba Gustav relief.”

Ecuador celebrates new constitution

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:02:00 +0000

“Today Ecuador has decided on a new country.” — President Rafael Correa

President Correa had promised to resign if voters failed to approve Ecuador’s new constitution in the Sept. 28 referendum. That evening celebrations filled city streets as 64 percent of Ecuadorians affirmed the document, completed in July after eight months of deliberation by a constituent assembly. The no vote totaled 28 percent. Observers from the European Union, Andean Parliament, Carter Center and Organization of American States indicated that balloting by 10 million citizens — 165, 000 of them living in 47 foreign countries — unfolded peacefully and efficiently.

Heading up the ad hoc Alianza Pais coalition, Rafael Correa won Ecuador’s presidency in 2006 by a 57 percent majority. With a 40 percent poverty rate, Ecuador has had eight governments in 12 years. Popular uprisings have removed three presidents since 1997.

Prior to the vote, two million copies of the proposed constitution were distributed and discussions took place nationwide. The government had gained support through salary increases and public assistance programs funded by oil revenues. It also denied the U.S. military use of the Manta air base and seized 200 businesses owned by the Isaias corporation, responsible for the 1999 banking crisis.

Observers agree that the constitution, 444 articles long, fits with Correa’s version of socialism for the 21st century. It guarantees health care, social security and education, establishes a “multinational” society and augments state control over the economy and natural resources. Appropriation of idle land is authorized, foreign troops are banned, and nature has the “right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.” Two indigenous tongues joined Spanish as official languages. A niche was found for indigenous judicial proceedings.

The Constitutional Assembly will establish a National Electoral Council that within 30 days will announce national elections. Meanwhile, the Assembly will serve as the national legislative body. Once re-elected — as expected — Correa will be allowed to run for one more four-year term. He and other elected officials face the possibility of recall referenda.

Opposition came from business interests, the media and conservative sectors of the Catholic Church. Evangelicals joined Catholics in condemning the constitution’s supposed tolerance of abortion — which was not mentioned — and authorization for same-sex civil unions. Resistance centered in the commodity-exporting coastal regions, particularly the city of Guayaquil. Even there, however, and in surrounding Guayas province, the constitution was rejected by the slimmest of margins.

Guayaquil mayor Jaime Nebot of the conservative Social Christian Party has spearheaded opposition to President Correa. Nebot is associated with a Guayaquil separatist movement supported by wealthy classes and, allegedly, by Washington. He reportedly has ties with rightwing separatists in eastern Bolivia.

On the left, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) has a record of ambivalent support for the government, although it backed the new constitution. Leader Marlon Santi has charged that mining operations in southern Ecuador infringe upon indigenous communities and land rights. CONAIE is staging a meeting Oct. 13 in Cuenca to discuss the mining industry, attacks on indigenous people and the organization’s posture toward the government.

Just before the vote, Correa warned that established forces, their privileges threatened, “are going to keep on by other routes, by other methods, trying to destabilize.” Anticipating a disinformation campaign, Correa asked the Organization of American States to endorse the results. Two days later, Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza testified to the “decisive support that the Ecuadorian people have given to their political project.”

On Oct. 1, President Correa joined the presidents of Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia in Manaos, western Brazil, to discuss the world financial crisis and Latin American integration. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez boasted to reporters there that these four anti-imperialist states made up “the great northern arc of South America.” Speaking earlier in anticipation of Rafael Correa’s victory, Chavez recommended to U.S. citizens a government “of, for, and by the people.” He explained: “I would do the same as Ecuador, I would undergo a constituent process to advance a new democratic mode.”

WORLD NOTES: October 4

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Venezuela: Human Rights Watch official expelled

Accusing Jose Miguel Vivanco of visiting Venezuela to sow confusion, the government expelled the head of the Americas section of Human Rights Watch on Sept. 18.

HRW recently issued a report alleging government human rights abuses. The Communications Ministry noted, however, that constitutional guarantees “have been implemented, particularly in relation to the fundamental needs of citizens.”

Roy Chaderton, Venezuelan ambassador to the Organization of American States, recalled that Vivanco had visited on destabilization missions before earlier national elections. Regional and municipal elections take place Nov. 23.

Writing for Prensa Latina, Roberto Hernandez reported that Vivanco served Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship as a diplomat before joining HRW in Washington. Multibillionaire George Soros funds HRW, and board members include former Cold War functionaries.

South Africa: Controversial health minister out

New South African President Kgalema Motlanthe gained wide praise last week for dismissing AIDS-denying health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, replacing her with anti-apartheid veteran Barbara Hogan.

Thus ended an era of AIDS treatment given over to what former UN Special Envoy for AIDS Steven Lewis called the “lunatic fringe.” Recently displaced President Thabo Mbeki had discounted the HIV virus as causing AIDS and advocated nutritional treatment. His government began supplying public AIDS clinics with anti-retroviral drugs only in 2003, and according to the Treatment Action Campaign, Tshabalala-Msimang failed to push implementation.

Belgium: Launch new immigration plan

European Union interior ministers agreed Sept. 27 to institute a “blue card” category under which educated foreign workers with special skills could enter the 27 member states. The ministers also ruled against mass amnesties and laid plans to create an asylum system.

Blue card workers will be required to earn 150 percent of the average wage in countries where they work, 120 percent if labor shortages prevail. The initiative, propelled by France and taking effect in 2011, will be ratified this month.

European nations will be using the proposed system to compete with the United States for foreign workers. French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux explained to Bloomberg News that the ministers sought a “way between creating a fortress ... and a sieve.”

Iraq: Medical disaster prevails

A recent report on envirosagainst-war.org documents grim conditions at Baghdad Medical City. Only one of 10 elevators serving the 18-story complex works. Most physicians have left; many are dead.

Dr. Samir Abdul Zahra told reporters Arkan Hamed and Dahr Jamail that the nation’s premier teaching and referral medical center has “no qualified staff to serve patients, no antibiotics, and sometimes not even basic material for intravenous treatment.”

Most medicines are out of date, according to a pharmacist. Electricity is intermittent, water for hand-washing scarce, and air conditioning nonexistent. Azzaman reported, however, that “hundreds of medical doctors,” attracted by Health Ministry bonuses, have returned to their former posts. Surgeons receive $1,000 per operation.

Laos: Planners see Mekong River dammed

Rising oil and natural gas costs and concerns over climate change have cast the Mekong River, the world’s tenth longest, as a regional source of hydroelectricity.

Nongovernmental organizations, private corporations and officials from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — plus Chinese observers — met in Vientiane Sept. 25-27 under the auspices of the Mekong River Commission to plan for multiple dams.

Advocates touted hydroelectricity as clean and accessible, while critics noted hazards dams pose to the environment and human ecology.

Inter Press Service quoted Carl Middleton, representing the U.S. group International Rivers, as criticizing dam-building corporations from Thailand, Vietnam, China, Russia and Malaysia, whose “accountability, environmental and social cost standards are low.”

Cuba: Wives of the Five gain British labor backing

Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, wives of two of five Cuban men unjustly imprisoned in U.S. jails, spoke Sept. 21 before 350 attendees at a meeting at this year’s Labor Party conference. General Secretaries Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson of the UK’s Unite union, Shane Enright of Amnesty International, and Fr. Geoff Bottoms of the UK Cuban Solidarity Campaign demanded freedom for the men and visiting rights for the women.

Pledging his union’s support for the Five was Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, affiliated with Unite.

The Cuba Solidarity Campaign web site also reported on resolutions supporting the Cuban Five passed recently by Britain’s Trades Union Congress. Unite has produced a five-minute video on the case, accessible at .

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

Billy Bragg sounds off on Wall Street mess

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:36:00 +0000

'The response of Main Street to the idea of bailing out Wall Street is all about Main Street wanting some accountability from the capitalist system,' said musical legend and political activist Billy Bragg in a recent interview with Political Affairs magazine. Bragg is scheduled to open the second leg of his North American tour later this month on the East Coast, and talked with the magazine by phone.

Bragg's latest album, “Mr. Love and Justice” (), has been praised by music critics as one of his most introspective and personal albums. Long-time fans of Bragg, however, will be pleased to know that his turn toward music that addresses personal issues and questions about relationships is not a turn from politics in general.

Talking about how “Mr. Love and Justice” developed Bragg cited his almost two-year effort to publish his book, “The Progressive Patriot,” a 'polemic,' as he described it, against racist hate groups in London. 'When I finally put my pen down and picked up my guitar,' Bragg said, 'the songs that were there waiting to break through the concrete, not surprisingly, were love songs. I was quite pleased about that.'

'I am happy with how this album turned out,' he added.

Still, the creative burst that produced this batch of 'love songs' didn't stop the devoted socialist activist from sounding off on the major issues of the day. Returning to the hot-button issue of the Wall Street bailout, Bragg opined, 'We can hold our elected officials to account, but perhaps we need to extend accountability or at least some sense of responsibility to those who have financial power over us as well.'

Readers will be able to hear the full interview with Billy Bragg on the next episode of the Political Affairs podcast, scheduled for Sunday Oct. 5. See .

An appeal from the Cuban Five

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:05:00 +0000

The following is a letter from Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, who is one of the five Cuban men imprisoned in the United States for fighting terrorism. Known as the Cuban Five, these men were in the U.S. watching right-wing, anti-Cuba groups known for supporting and planning attacks on the island and its people. The Cuban Five’s story is interwoven with the complex and unjust U.S. policy towards Cuba, which includes a many decade-long blockade prohibiting any trade with Cuba and a ban on travel for American citizens wishing to go to the country 90 miles from Florida.

For more information on the Cuban Five and Cuba search pww.org’s website with key word “Cuba.”

Dear compañeras y compañeros,

We arrive at the 10th anniversary of the arrest of the Cuban Five at a crucial moment of our legal process (That is what they call it, although perhaps 'illegal process' would be more appropriate.) The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Atlanta, has just ended our appeal.

That is to say, if it were up to them, things would stand as is, and some day my bones would be sent to Cuba, after death frees me from two life sentences.

The court in question has given unmistakable signals of the type of 'justice' that the Five can aspire to in this country. When there was a decision 3-to-0 in our favor, with 93 pages of solid arguments in which the three-judge panel characterized our trial as 'The Perfect Storm,' the full panel, against all predictions, not only agreed to review the decision, but reversed it without much explanation. The 'perfect storm' quickly became simply a drizzle.

Yet, this time, when the decision was 2-1 against the Five, with obvious legal errors, with a judge arguing in 16 pages that the prosecution presented absolutely no proof that sustains the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, and with a judge who-although voting against us-recognized that it is a 'very close case,' and with several defense arguments were not even seriously analyzed, the 11th Circuit categorically refused to review it.

As we say in Cuba: 'Not even water is as clear.' We have said time and again that this is a political case, and those who do not see it as such, choose not to see it.

Someone recently mentioned that now the Supreme Court has the last word. I would say the second-to-last word. The final word in the case of the Cuban Five rests with you, our sisters and brothers of Cuba, the United States and the whole world, who throughout all these years have been our principal source of encouragement. Our hopes are not placed in any court. Ten years are more than enough to have cured us of any such naïve notion.

You are our hope, who through sacrifice and swimming against the current, have succeeded in making people on all continents aware of the injustice committed against the Five. You are the ones who are not taking time out or resting in your homes but instead are honoring us with your presence in different activities, commemorating the 10th anniversary of our imprisonment. You continue struggling to unmask the double standard of a government that invades other countries to supposedly fight terrorism, at the same time that it harbors and protects infamous terrorists, and imprisons those who are trying to stop those criminal acts.

We have confidence in you to expose the hypocrisy of the corporate media and of certain international organizations, which portray mercenaries-who betray our people for a handful of dollars or a visa-as suffering political prisoners. Yet they are disgracefully silent in the case of two women who have been deprived for a decade of the basic right to visit their husbands in prison.

We know that right is on our side, but to win true justice we need a jury of millions of people throughout the world, and we need you, defenders of just causes, to make our truth known.

The injustice committed against the Five has kept us away from our homeland for ten years, but it has not kept us from accompanying our people through joyful times and also the suffering. A few days ago Hurricane Gustav caused great damage in Cuba, mainly on the Isle of Youth and in Pinar del Río, two territories from where we have received a multitude of support and love all these years.

We are certain that all the people of Pinar del Río and Isle of Youth, together with local and national leadership, with the solidarity of all dignified Cubans and many friends of the world, will become stronger in these difficult moments and-as is characteristic of revolutionaries-will convert the setbacks into victory. Although it is not possible for us to be there physically, today more than ever the Cuban Five are with you in our hearts, with our brothers and sisters in the Isle of Youth and Pinar del Río, who have done so much to support the struggle for our liberation.

Compañeras y compañeros: Ten years after that September 12, 1998, we thank you once again for walking this long and rough road together with us. We know, that to continue this march, we can keep counting on you, and you can also always count on our firm determination to resist, with our heads held high, for as long as it takes.

¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo Victorville Federal Prison, California September 2008