People Before Profit blog

Crisis in Germanys Social Democratic Party

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:29:00 +0000

BERLIN — The big weekend blowout in Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) demonstrates how to cut off your nose to spite your face. In a series of small, smaller and smallest secret gatherings the party leaders — facing a disastrous seepage of members and voters because of their switch rightwards in recent years — got rid of party chief Kurt Beck, who had tried to repair things by risking a few timid steps in a vaguely ‘leftish’ direction, and put the party’s future into the hands of two unabashed right-wingers, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeyer and the former Vice-Chancellor and party head Franz Muentefering.

The Social Democrats, in Schroeder’s coalition with the Greens until 2005 and since then with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) until next year, have joined eagerly in worsening standards of living for all but the wealthy and then calling that a “reform” package to “create jobs”. Their reforms, known as “Agenda 2010”, included cutting the rights of the jobless, chopping welfare rates to a minimum and threatening to withhold even these miserly rates unless their victims sold all property of any value, moved if required to cheaper, worse housing and accepted jobs paying as low as 1 Euro an hour. Or else! Other measures increased costs for medical and dental care, medicine and medical aids, raised retirement age to 67 (from 65), demanded much higher Values Added Taxes (a form of sales tax) while lowering corporate and inheritance taxes. Who could be surprised that their poll percentages dropped from the upper 30’s to the lower 20’s while members quit in droves?

Meanwhile, however, the new party called The Left, a merger of the former largely East German PDS with a small but militant West German party, was finally able to break out of its almost completely East German confines, overcome the 5 percent hurdles to get 53 seats in the all-German Bundestag and win first-time seats in one West German state after another. First Bremen, then Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Hesse, with more expected when elections are held. These successes were due In part to the charisma of former SPD leader Oskar Lafontaine, known and still respected by many in the western regions. More important doubtless were the economic downturn hitting ever larger sectors of the population and the program of The Left, which rejected the phony reforms and demanded a minimum wage, a return to full medical coverage, a reversal of increasing college tuition charges, the lowering of the pension age and a withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan and all foreign conflict areas.

All major parties - the CDU, the Free Democrats, the Greens, but above all the SPD - reacted with shock and fright at the rapid progress of The Left. There was a double response: constant, nasty attacks on The Left in anti-Communist tones recalling the iciest Cold War days, but also weak, clumsy attempts to back off from the nasty “reform” measures enacted by all four traditional parties, banking on people’s poor memories.

The party chairman leading this attempt to give the SPD a new, socially-conscious image was Kurt Beck, a stout, rather jolly fellow with a carefully cultivated three-day beard. Facing pressures from all sides, he zigged and zagged. When the election in the state of Hesse ended in a cliff-hanger result, the SPD leader there, a dynamic woman named Andrea Ypsilanti, decided to throw out the ruling, rabid Christian Democratic minister president by joining with the Greens and persuading The Left, whose six seats in the state legislature could just barely provide a one-vote majority, to “tolerate” the ruling coalition with its votes, without being a member of it. Such a precedent-breaking plan, which would give The Left a kind of veto power, was immediately attacked by nearly everyone, including many SPD leaders. Beck wobbled again, saying every state had the right to make its own decisions, then adding that it should not be seen as a precedent. His attempts to keep everybody happy didn’t work. The mass media attacked him and Ypsilanti mercilessly.

This made it possible for the right wingers to move in with a three-pronged attack. First, against Ypsilanti — who is currently defying them and carrying on delicate negotiations with The Left in her state — no easy process reconciling all sides.

The second attack was against 60 prominent members of the SPD, who demand a new, more social course at home and a less belligerent policy abroad. At least temporarily they have been silenced — or ignored.

The third attack was against Beck. Franz Muentefering, who had left politics for some time because of the terminal illness of his wife, now returned with the same brutal self-confidence he had always displayed as Schroeder’s main lieutenant, especially with pushing through the raising of retirement age to 67. He joined with the silvery-haired and silvery-tongued Steinmeyer, another Schroeder protégé, who helped frame and push though the whole tough Agenda 2010 program. In the middle of the main secret session this weekend Beck suddenly emerged and left for his home state of Rhineland-Palatinate, without a word or a glance for the assembled eager journalists. He was thus ousted from national politics — and hopes at least to keep his leadership position in his winegrowing little province near the Rhine. He has since spoken angrily of intrigues against him.

Neither Foreign Minister Steinmeyer, temporary party head and probably the main challenger of Angela Merkel in next year’s national elections, nor Muentefering, who expects to be party chairman after the next party confab in October, plan to even dilute their anti-social policies or their military buildup and engagement in other continents. They believe that with more discipline and toughness they can regain the ground lost by the SPD in recent years and put up a fight for national leadership after September 2009.

Leaders of The Left have expressed their doubts about this return to tough positions. . “This is a comeback for the Schroeder men,” said Oskar Lafontaine, whose poll results in his home state of Saarland now stand at 25 percent, several points higher than those of the SPD. “It has been the path of losses and defeats.” And a main spokesman for The Left called this “a time when we must publicize more than ever before the demands we have been making.” It remains to be seen whether the new tough leaders of the SPD can regain any of the grounds they have been losing so steadily in recent years. The next tests will be in the municipal elections in Brandenburg and in traditionally right-wing Bavaria on September 28.

Austria, Bavaria and Brandenburg go to the polls

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:08:00 +0000

Berlin — Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, borders on Austria: Both have countless Alpine peaks, lots of men in lederhosen, and many right-wing Roman Catholic traditions. Both had elections on Sunday. Before nightfall many an otherwise happy yodeler showed tightly compressed lips and a grim look.

In Austria the main parties, the conservative Austrian People’s Party and the lukewarm Social Democrats, had maintained an uneasy coalition until July, when the former quit, forcing the new elections. It paid dearly for this, losing severely and getting only 25.6 percent. The Social Democrats also lost, nearly 6 percent, and though they remained the strongest party, with a total of 29.7 percent, another unhappy coalition between the two, as in Germany, may well be the weak result.

The true winners, now beaming broadly with their crooked smiles, can afford to yodel. Both extreme right-wing parties – the smaller one led by the notorious demagogue Joerg Haider, the other by an equally bigoted man named Heinz-Christian Stracke (their split was more about personality issues than policy) climbed from under 16 percent in the last election to an alarming 29 percent this time. If they should reunite they would be the strongest political force in the country. Their success was due to general dissatisfaction with the main two parties, a lack of enthusiasm about the European Union, which the government had favored, but most of all, their ranting against foreign immigrants, the same racist strategy increasingly and dangerously menacing North America and most of Europe. In addition to their usual “Hate Immigrants” slogans these right-wing extremists have been trying to seem somewhat less fanatic while calling for social improvements so as to appeal to working-class and middle-class voters. This paid off, and it is still possible that one or both might be invited to join a new coalition. Nothing is certain as yet.

Bavarian voters also caused a sensation. For over 40 years this South German state, where Munich and Nuremberg are located, was run by one single party, the semi-autonomous sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union; in Bavaria it calls itself the Christian Social Union (CSU). Older newspaper readers may recall its blustering, controversial leader of past decades, Franz-Josef Strauss. Its current leaders, no less rightist in their thinking but lacking his tough oratorical skills, suffered a crushing defeat. From 60 percent in the last state elections they were reduced to 43.4 percent, thus losing their absolute majority and suffering the biggest such drop in post-war history. Though still the largest party they must now seek a partner to gain over half the seats in the legislature and thus stay in office. Their likely choice will be the equally reactionary but secular Free Democratic Party which, despite a few remaining libertarians from earlier years (it is still referred to as the Liberal Party), is even more pro-big business.

The Social Democrats did not profit at all from the losses of their traditional opponents, getting only 18.6 percent, their worst result in history. Their only thin joy after the Sunday vote was schadenfreude – satisfaction at the loss of the others.

But The Left, the young party which finally broke through the 5 percent hurdle in four West German states in the past year, failed to make it in largely rightist Bavaria. It would have taken a miracle to succeed here, too, and delegates to the founding convention in 2007 had laughed when a main leader, Gregor Gysi, joked about such an incredible possibility. A small but growing number of adherents fought hard, however, they were able to nominate candidates in all of Bavaria’s many towns and counties, they campaigned on the issues everywhere, from rustic Alpine nests to industrial centers on the shores of the Danube. They hoped against hope, but in the end received 4.3 percent, good in Bavaria, but 7 tenths less than required. “Better luck next time” was all they could say, and work for increased results in the national elections next year.

Thus, as in Austria, votes lost by the main right wing party, the CSU, did not go leftwards. Luckily, they did not go to the extreme right, the neo-Nazis, either, but rather to the Free Democrats, to some degree to the Greens (with 9.4 percent) and to the Free Voters’ Initiatives, loose groups, mostly split-offs from the CSU, which campaigned largely on local issues. They got a surprising 10 percent.

It would seem that Bavarians are worried about problems like jobs, schools, wages and prices, they are disappointed by both the two main parties, but are looking neither leftward nor to the extreme right for solutions.

Things looked rather different in Sunday’s elections in the East German Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin. The vote here was for city and county councils and mayors, and results varied widely. In the capital, the old Prussian stronghold of Potsdam, The Left pushed past the Social Democrats (SPD) with a score of 31 to 27 percent. In Frankfurt on the Oder, long a Left stronghold, it got 37.4 percent to 20.8 for the SPD and only 17.7 for the Christian Democrats (CDU). In Cottbus the SPD won the mayoralty; in the town of Brandenburg a Christian Democrat remained mayor. In the state as a whole, this party of Angela Merkel took a beating, landing in third place to the SPD and The Left, which are still neck and neck, with only a thin lead for the traditionally strong SPD.

And the neo-Nazis? As in Austria, they have two parties here, but the two cooperate and divide any spoils. One of them got 1.8, the other 1.6 percent, which does not sound like much, but enabled them (with no 5 percent hurdle in local bodies) to get seats in all but one of Brandenburg’s 14 counties, and in the city councils of Potsdam and Cottbus. Though only 1, 2 or at most 3 seats, this was enough to make trouble and work for further gains in coming elections.

Angela Merkel is still quite popular on a national scale, but her party (or its Bavarian sister) took heavy beatings in Bavaria and Brandenburg, while the Social Democrats were stuck at much the same level as before their recent leadership crisis. The Left was able to move forward, but needs more street action outside the various local and national legislatures if it is to buck the unchanging maltreatment by the media and nasty attacks by the established politicians of all other parties – and offer genuine solutions to harassed, threatened or jobless working people, especially younger ones, who are being wooed by the neo-Nazis. More state elections are due early in 2009, but most suspense now (after watching the outcome of US elections) is directed at the vote for the European parliament next year and, most of all, the national Bundestag elections in a year’s time.

Update: According to later news, a special election held in the East German city Schwerin was won by the LEFT candidate, Angelika Gramkow. The former mayor of Schwerin, capital of the northeast German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, was voted out of office after a scandal following the death of neglect by a young child and the off-handed treatment of the case by the local government and mayor. Six candidates competed to succeed him; the run-off between the two front-runners was on Sunday. The result was very close, 50.5 to 49.5 percent. Schwerin with its 100,000 inhabitants will be the largest city in Germany governed by a mayor from the young LEFT party.

For Canadian elections, left parties urge green economy, social spending

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:44:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The country’s political parties are on the campaign trail in the wake of Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent surprise call for an election to be held Oct. 14.

Harper, who has led a minority government for the last two years, called the election because he said Parliament was dysfunctional.

The front-runners are the Conservative and Liberal Parties. The Conservatives are running on a platform emphasizing law and order. Taking advantage of widespread fear that crime is out of control, they promise a clampdown on crime and tougher penalties for offenders even though criminologists contend crime rates have been dropping since the 1970s.

The Conservatives also promise strong, stable leadership to help guide the country through a worsening economic environment. Mirroring the world economy, the Canadian economy is barely growing and unemployment is rising. They advocate more corporate tax cuts, incentives to promote innovation and the elimination of red tape. Harper also promises to cut fuel taxes.

The Liberal Party, which usually rules from the right when in power, is campaigning from the left, promising a carbon tax on all fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gases as a centerpiece of its platform. Party leader Stephane Dion says revenue collected through the tax will be redistributed in the form of tax cuts for individuals and corporations. He also promises reductions in corporate and personal income taxes, investment in infrastructure and subsidies to manufacturers.

Dion also pledges to expand social benefits for low-income people and seniors, and accuses Harper of wanting to impose “a neo-conservative agenda” on the country.

On the left, the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP) is promising to renew Canadian manufacturing, with a focus on creating a green energy sector. The NDP would halt corporate tax cuts and create a $2 billion fund to support manufacturing, especially of low-emission cars and trains. The party wants trade policies to protect the country’s withering manufacturing sector. It also proposes more social spending to combat poverty. Recent polls state that NDP leader Jack Layton is the second most popular choice, after Stephen Harper, for prime minister.

Running 25 candidates, the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) is making its “People’s Energy Plan for Canada” a centerpiece of its campaign. It calls for nationalization of the oil industry and massive investment in research and expansion of solar, wind and other forms of renewable clean energy, along with expansion of public transit, to combat global warming. It wants record oil profits to be used to fund the green retrofit of all buildings and homes.

The party is also campaigning to reduce the workweek to 32 hours and stop the privatization of Medicare, pensions, education and social services. “The CPC and its candidates will be campaigning for fundamental change that will place people’s needs first, not the profit interests of the corporate elite,” said party leader Miguel Figueroa.

The Green Party is campaigning for a carbon tax, a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhoue gas emissions in industry and support for renewable energy, state support for the development of clean technology and a massive investment in public transit and rail service, higher taxes on the rich and big corporations, a 35-hour workweek, three-week paid vacations for all workers and more social spending to combat poverty and homelessness. The Greens are now at 10 percent in the polls — up from 4.5 percent in the 2006 elections.

The three left parties are taking aim at Harper’s policies. Over the last two years, the Conservative government has continued to erode healthcare and social services. It has cut taxes for large corporations while failing to implement measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The left parties are also campaigning for electoral reform that includes some measure of proportional representation. NDP leader Jack Layton said the country’s first-past-the-post system “leaves countless Canadians underrepresented in Parliament.”

In Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois is promising to defend provincial interests in Ottawa.

tpelzer @shaw.ca

Zimbabwe welcomes power-sharing pact

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:36:00 +0000

Nearly half a year after disputed elections and following two months of delicate negotiations, Zimbabweans on Sept. 15 welcomed the signing of a unity government agreement by President Robert Mugabe and opposition politicians.

While talks continue on assigning specific cabinet positions, the power-sharing agreement designates the new post of prime minister to Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Arthur Mutambara, head of an MDC splinter faction, serves as deputy prime minister.

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) is allocated 15 ministries, while 16 go to the two MDC factions. As prime minister, Tsvangirai heads a council of the 31 ministers, but President Mugabe leads the overall government, maintains veto power and controls the military.

Opposition sources say the talks are deadlocked as ZANU-PF seeks the ministries of finance and foreign affairs, among other powerful posts. Clearly, the MDC hopes to secure the most important ministries in order to implement its neoliberal economic policies. Tsvangirai also wants control of the police as a counterweight to the ZANU-PF dominated army.

Nonetheless, all three leaders made clear their commitment to carry out the agreement. In a symbolic gesture at the signing ceremony, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara clasped hands beside Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president who mediated the deal, a remarkable sight considering the violence during the campaign for the June run-off elections which were boycotted by the opposition.

Events outside Zimbabwe may further complicate realization of the unity government. This week’s resignation by Mbeki, who mediated the negotiations on behalf of the Southern African Development Community, may embolden the two sides to stick to their positions.

During the elections and throughout the negotiations, the MDC questioned Mbeki’s impartiality and called for his replacement as mediator. Tsvangirai’s party hopes the new South African administration may be less supportive of Mugabe’s position, but analysts note the Zimbabwean president’s popularity among rank-and-file members of the governing African National Congress (ANC), especially its youth wing.

ZANU-PF, on the other hand, consistently praised Mbeki’s efforts but may consider his demotion by the ANC leadership as a chance to backtrack on power-sharing. Moreover, regional attention has shifted to next year’s South African elections which ANC leader Jacob Zuma is expected to win easily.

The global financial crisis may also weaken the willingness of capitalist nations to provide assistance to the new Zimbabwean government. The U.S. and former colonial ruler Great Britain fully supported Tsvangirai and made clear their willingness to help pull Zimbabwe out of its current economic mess, with inflation running at an incredible 11 million per cent, only if he comes to power.

Promises of economic assistance may be less generous when the European Union meets next month to discuss Zimbabwe. And in the U.S., the so-called Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act currently prohibits American representatives to international financial institutions from voting for aid to Zimbabwe. Sanctions also bar American companies from conducting business with Zimbabwe.

While Tsvangirai is often hailed as a labor leader who once called the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank “devils,” more recently as leader of the MDC he has been eager to invite those capitalist institutions into Zimbabwe, convinced their neoliberal programs will alleviate the economic problems Zimbabwe faces today.

ZANU-PF supporters, however, maintain that Washington and London are responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, as their trade sanctions and backing of the MDC have destabilized the nation. Western hostility to Mugabe’s government became pronounced when the country’s controversial land redistribution program was initiated over a decade ago.

The corporate media has failed to report that the power-sharing agreement signed by both sides places blame for the country’s political crisis on the international community, particularly Britain, and declares there will be no reversal of the redistribution of white-owned farms, a major victory for veterans of the liberation struggle against colonial rule.

The power-sharing deal has been trumpeted as “an African solution to an African problem,” despite outside meddling. As Mugabe declared at last week’s ceremony, “African problems must be solved by Africans. The problem we have had is a problem that has been created by former colonial power. Why, why, why the hand of the British? Why, why, why the hand of the Americans here? Let us ask that.”

WORLD NOTES: September 27

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:54:00 +0000

Pakistan: Incursions escalate violence, confrontations

Reacting to U.S. missile attacks and a troop incursion two weeks ago in Pakistan areas believed to harbor Taliban fighters, tribal leaders representing half a million Pakistanis vowed Sept. 14 to join Taliban forces on both sides of the frontier against the United States if cross border attacks continue.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meeting this week with President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, backed U.S. plans for incorporating tribal areas into the Afghan war, despite Zardari’s earlier statement that “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country should be respected at all cost.”

The Daily Pakistan editorialized that with U.S. military over-extension and Russian resurgence, “Pakistan, too, can deftly handle the cowboys.”

Venezuela: Numbers tell story

Rebelion.org this month traced the course of Venezuela’s revolution in numbers. Extreme poverty, 42.5 percent in 1999, has dropped to 9.4 percent; overall poverty went from 80 to 33.1 percent. In 1998, 21 babies out of 1,000 died in their first year; now 13 die. Access to drinkable water increased from 80 to 92 percent, children of school age attending school from 44.7 to 60.6 percent.

Venezuela’s 40 percent hike in gross national product over eight years ranked fourth in Latin America. International currency reserves grew by $4 billion last year to $38.1 billion. The state-owned petroleum company contributed $13.9 billion to social development last year, $6.8 billion to infrastructure projects, $5.7 million to social missions and $1.4 billion to housing and agriculture. These are “eloquent results,” said author Hedelberto Lopez Blanch.

China: Unionization grows

Both foreign and Chinese companies face a state-imposed Sept. 30 deadline to allow establishment of local labor unions. Non-complying companies face public scorn, union blacklisting, or possible penalties.

Wang Ying, speaking for the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, told the New York Times, “China needs to improve workers’ legal rights and interests, which is a demand of a civilized society.” She said the present campaign is concentrated on international corporations, of which she predicts 80 percent will eventually have unions.

Unionists report that some non-manufacturing companies — Microsoft China is cited as an example — are resisting. Business operations in China already face rising labor and commodity costs due to inflation.

Nigeria: Oil facilities under siege

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) announced resumption of war against oil facilities that make Nigeria the world’s eighth largest oil producer. Despite recent attacks on pipelines, storage facilities, platforms and oil fields described as the most intense in two years, the government, denying losses and even the existence of war, characterized its response as a police action and rebel proclamations as fear mongering.

Claiming to fight for local control of oil wealth, MEND has taken 27 hostages recently and caused facilities to be abandoned. Reuters reported daily oil production is down by 150,000 barrels. Overall production has dropped 20 percent since 2006. Betraying concerns over stability, the government established a Niger Delta Affairs Ministry.

France: Nuclear power safety questioned

Nuclear power, providing 77 percent of the nation’s electricity, took a hit this summer due to at least five accidents occurring at the vast Tricastin nuclear complex in southwestern France.

Rebelion.org reported that on Sept. 8, two fuel rods “jammed” during maintenance operations, leading to shutdown and evacuation. In July, 30 cubic meters of non-enriched uranium from another plant went into a river. Elsewhere some 100 people were “lightly contaminated.” Deriving little comfort from industry-wide safety checks, tourism promoters in a region famous for truffles and grape production are demanding explanations.

In Spain, the nuclear industry poses another problem: “unsustainable” costs for solar power stem from high prices for photovoltaic units promoted, according to Insurgente.org, by the nuclear industry.

Cuba: EU relations back on track

The Foreign Ministry this month notified the European Union that Cuba had accepted an invitation to resume “formal political dialogue,” issued in June following the lifting of EU sanctions. Euobserver.com said the effect will be to encourage member nations to renew high level contacts with Cuba. Analyst Simon McGuiness attributed the improved climate to innovations introduced by the Raul Castro government and to European determination to regain African and Latin American trust — lost, the European Council on Foreign Relations said, from over-identification with U.S. aggressiveness.

Cuba’s support, as leader of the Non-Aligned Movement was seen as crucial to making the shift.

Spain has propelled improved EU-Cuba relations and led in European assistance for hurricane recovery in Cuba.

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

Venezuela & Honduras defy Bush administration

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:30:00 +0000

In an act of solidarity with Bolivia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy on Sept. 11, one day after Bolivian President Evo Morales had declared Ambassador Philip Goldberg “persona non grata.” Proclaiming that “until there is a government in the United States that respects the people of Latin America, there will be no Venezuelan Ambassador in that country,” Chavez withdrew veteran ambassador Bernardo Alvarez from Washington, just a step ahead of his expulsion.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack called the Venezuelan and Bolivian actions a “grave error,” accusing the presidents of inability to deal with internal crises. 'The only overthrow we seek is that of poverty,” he said.

The U.S. government responded by accusing three high Venezuelan government officials of support for the leftist Revolutionary Army Forces of Colombia, alleging cooperation in drug trafficking and arms supply. They are former Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacín (who recently resigned for “personal reasons”), military intelligence head Hugo Armando Carvajal, and civilian intelligence director Henry de Jesus Rangel. Rodriguez Chacín participated in Venezuelan efforts to mediate the release of hostages held by the FARC. Assets of the three men were frozen.

President Chavez also acted in response to an alleged anti-government plot tainted by U.S. complicity. On Sept. 10, Chavez supporter Mario Silva ran an audio recording on his television program La Hojilla on which retired and active duty military officers were heard discussing plans for a coup. They spoke of attacks on an airplane carrying Chavez and bombing the presidential palace.

The report on Venezuelanalysis.com alleged that retired Defense Minister and former Chavez intimate General Raul Baduel took part in the scheming and that silence from the opposition media suggested ongoing plotting. Some of those accused of involvement have already given statements to investigators, others have been arrested and a few more have left the country. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro informed foreign ministries worldwide that Washington is on a destabilization campaign against Venezuela and Bolivia.

As U.S.-Venezuela relations were deteriorating, Venezuela and Russia were solidifying ties. Russian bombers arrived in Venezuela last week to carry out training exercises. The same day, Chavez spoke of purchasing anti-aircraft defense systems from Russia to complement a $4 billion purchase of fighter planes and helicopters. Navies of the two countries will carry out joint exercises in mid November.

At the same time, in an act of solidarity with both Bolivia and Venezuela, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya called off ceremonies set for Sept. 12 to accept Hugo Llorens as U.S. ambassador to his country.

Although Honduras has signed free trade agreements with the United States, the Zelaya government last month announced its decision to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). That alliance, initiated by Venezuela and Cuba and joined so far by Nicaragua, Bolivia, three Caribbean nations and Honduras, bases trade, energy and educational relations on principles of solidarity rather than on market imperatives.

On Aug. 27, President Zelaya recalled for reporters the story of Washington’s request in January 2006, shortly after his inauguration, to grant terrorist Luis Posada a visa. The U.S. was intent upon finding a way to deport Posada on immigration charges to avoid dealing with crimes of murder and terrorism. Zelaya explained, “It was impossible to give a visa to Luis Posada Carriles when he was a person being questioned for acts of terrorism. They defend that type of terrorism, it seems to me.”

The Cuban daily Granma points out that in the mid-1990s, Posada conspired with Honduran military officers and Cuban-born criminals to overthrow or kill Honduran President Carlos Roberto Reina.

— W.T. Whitney Jr.

World Notes: Sept. 20, 2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:22:00 +0000

Afghanistan: EU envoy issues warning

Ending six years as EU ambassador to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell told reporters Aug. 31 that a NATO military victory against the Taliban is “impossible” and that a “change of strategy,” a “political solution,” is required.

The Spanish diplomat blamed a U.S. leadership that in 2002-2004, “did almost nothing” to impede the Taliban which he said has gained popular support from killings of civilians by NATO forces and enormous extralegal detention centers operated by “foreign troops.”

Vendrell maintained on rebelion.org that because Pakistan “appears to have lost control” of border regions serving as Taliban bases, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai government faces mounting pressures. Citing the independent Senlis organization, he added that the Taliban is well along toward encirclement of Kabul.

Panama: Strike shuts down cities

A one-day labor-led anti-government warning strike earlier this month immobilized transportation, businesses, schools and hospitals nationwide. Over 800 strikers  workers, students, community activists and peasants  delivered 15 demands Sept. 4 to the National Assembly in response to privatization plans aimed at schools, health care and water supply. Protesting inflation, the strikers sought salary and pension increases.

China’s People’s Daily reported violent confrontations between police and strikers.

Genaro Lopez, secretary-general of the 40,000 member SUNTRACS union, denounced repression of workers and students, warning, “We will keep on with actions, including an open-ended national strike.” We are engaged in “legitimate defense of the right to life.”

Lebanon: New peace moves

President Michel Sleiman’s Sept. 9 call for talks between rival Lebanese factions to start in mid-month stems from an agreement reached last May in Qatar under Arab League auspices to move dialogue forward and accept Sleiman as president.

Al-Jazeera said the main issue is possible incorporation of Hezbollah forces into the army. The initiative was welcomed by the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni, whose prime minister father was assassinated in 2005.

Al-Hariri was fresh from having arranged talks in northern Lebanon leading to a reconciliation agreement between Sunnis and Alawite supporters of Hezbollah aimed at ending violence there through a takeover of security responsibilities by the army.

India: Left front mounts mass protests

When marchers bearing anti-imperialist and peace slogans reached North Kolkata Sept. 1, those four miles back had yet to start. High school students walked “hand in hand with eminent lawyers,” tobacco workers with coal workers, Ganashakti.com reported.

Joining unionists, women activists, peasants and teachers, 82-year-old Puspa Dutta walked the distance. Left Front Chairman Biman Basu, State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), denounced “imperialist aggression,” specifically U.S.-Indian naval exercises and nuclear collaboration.

The latter prompted the left recently to withdraw support from India’s ruling coalition. This “historic rally vibrated ... under the banner of the red flag,” Ganashakti said.

Angola: Big win for ruling party

The MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), which has governed the country since independence from Portugal in 1975, has scored an 82 percent victory in the country’s first parliamentary elections in 16 years.

After the National Electoral Commission dismissed its complaints of electoral fraud, the minority party, UNITA  a past pawn of Washington and South Africa’s apartheid regime  conceded defeat Sept. 8.

The head of the European Union’s observer mission called the election a major step forward for democracy, while noting organizational problems including confusion and disorganization on Sept. 5 which led election officials to extend voting to a second day in many locations.

Cuba: U.S. unmoved by vast storm suffering

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, cut electricity throughout the country and ruined crops. Over one-fifth of Cubans were evacuated amid unprecedented rains and flooding. Ike killed seven there, Gustav none.

Washington’s pegging of humanitarian aid beyond an initial $100,000 to on-site U.S. damage appraisal provoked a war of words. Why, asked Cuba’s foreign ministry, is U.S. assessment required when Cubans are expert along these lines, and other foreign donors made no such stipulation?

On Sept. 11 the ministry asked that Cuba be allowed to buy construction materials and that credit be granted for food purchases.

U.S. refusal to grant requests from Cuban Americans and Democratic candidates, including Barack Obama, temporarily to suspend restrictions on Cuban American visits to the island and delivery of money to families there revived debate over the U.S. Cuban blockade.

Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, joined in asking President Bush to remove such restrictions. The New York Times editorialized: “We believe the embargo against Cuba is about as wrongheaded a policy as one can devise.”

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

Why Bolivia said Yankee go home!

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:10:00 +0000

As the struggle sharpened to uphold national authority and oppose forces for autonomy in Bolivia’s East, Washington’s role in weeks of conflict there led the government of Evo Morales to eject U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg on Sept. 10.

Two days later the government established martial law in Pando department (state). There, hired thugs and paramilitaries killed at least 30 unarmed peasants, wounded 80, and “disappeared” over 100 on their way to a pro-government rally. Prefect (governor) Leopoldo Fernández, whom government-friendly media label the “butcher of Porvenir” (the town where the ambush took place), is accused of organizing and financing the slaughter. Fernandez, who had promised resistance to government troops, was arrested Sept. 16. He stands accused of hiring the hitmen who did the killing.

Only the army and national police remained as manifestations of national authority in four eastern departments, Pando, Beni, Tarija and Santa Cruz, and in Sucre, capital of Chuquisaca. Paramilitaries and bands of right-wing youths occupied national tax and land reform offices, transportation centers, pro-Morales television and radio stations and regional airports. They blocked highways and sabotaged natural gas pipelines to keep oil and gas from reaching Brazil and Argentina.

Interior Minister Alfredo Rada characterized the situation as a “coup” by civic committee leaders and prefects to “carry out this strategy of violence, destabilization and assault on Bolivian Democracy.”

Last month, Ambassador Goldberg met with Prefects Savina Cuellar of Chuquisaca and Ruben Costas of Santa Cruz. The government based its expulsion of Goldberg on that violation of diplomatic norms and on U.S. funding of separatist agitation.

Armed Forces head Luis Trigo assured reporters the “state of siege” in Pando is legal and described the military’s role as guaranteeing “constitutional rule.” He pledged protection of the “national patrimony and functioning of the state apparatus.”

Santa Cruz and Tarija are centers of large-scale soy and cattle production and natural gas extraction. They are controlled by 20 families who shape decisions elsewhere in Bolivia’s East, according to analyst Joaquín Saravia. Racist slander directed against the country’s indigenous majority is a staple of autonomist propaganda. The malcontents are demanding the return of $49 million in natural gas taxes that has been applied to pensions.

The crisis follows Morales’ two-thirds majority victory in an Aug. 10 referendum on his tenure as president, in which he gained pluralities in 82 of the country’s 98 provinces.

In response, Morales set a Dec. 7 referendum vote on Bolivia’s new constitution. The National Electoral Council, however, ruled that congressional approval is required.

The government is now mobilizing its social base to pressure the Congress. The proposed constitution calls for limiting the size of large land holdings, reason enough, say observers, for moneyed interests to use chaos to derail the referendum.

Peasants, indigenous people and women’s groups are opposing the paramilitary brawling. The National Coordinating Group for Change called for permanent demonstrations throughout the nation until the Congress acts. Fidel Surco of the Confederation of Colonizers urged that citizens defend democracy and unity. Government supporters are attempting to fence in Santa Cruz, at the center of the autonomy drive, by means of demonstrations and roadblocks.

President Morales has persisted with attempts at dialogue. Earlier in the week he assembled a new cabinet to promote “convergence among Bolivians” through measures to lessen poverty and build unity. Later, he promised eastern leaders that if stolen goods are returned and natural gas and oil facilities protected, other regions could avoid Pando’s fate. Far left critics — notably econoticiasbolivia.com — chastised the government for inaction while “fascists walk over the police and military.”

Analysts attribute government caution to the view that tumult and confusion are right-wing tools to provoke a full-fledged military response, demonstrating inability to govern. That was the situation in Chile 35 years ago, explains Angel Palacio, writing on rebelion.org, except that unlike President Salvatore Allende, Evo Morales is not alone.

Venezuela and Honduras took diplomatic action against U.S. ambassadors (see article below). Support also came from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Uruguay, Cuba, the Organization of American States and even Peru. President Chavez initiated a Sept. 15 meeting in Chile of the South American intergovernmental group UNASUR, to fashion a collective response to Bolivia’s plight.

Bolivia’s government got high marks for standing up to Washington, historically prone to exploiting chaos and homegrown right-wing bullying for imperial advantage as in 1970s Chile.

“Without fear of anybody, without fear of the empire, I declare before the Bolivian people the U.S. ambassador is persona non grata,” declared President Morales. Defense minister Walter San Miguel chimed in: “The fascists will not pass.” Imagine, asked Angel Palacio: “An Indian booting out a gringo! When have we seen such daring?”

atwhit@roadrunner.com

Celebrating Mexican independence

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:34:00 +0000

The biggest national holiday in Mexico, and celebrated by Mexican people living all over the world, is Mexican Independence Day, Sept. 16.

A little history: Before Mexico became Mexico, indigenous people first cultivated and inhabited the land, creating civilizations such as the Olmec, the Teotihuacan, Maya, Toltec and the largest of them all, the Aztecs.

When the Spaniards landed in 1521 during their expeditions in search of riches, they encountered the great Aztec empire that ruled Central America. The Spanish captured the Aztec emperor Cuauhtemoc and destroyed the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Three centuries of Spanish colonial rule began. The invaded territories were renamed Nueva España, New Spain.

The Spanish conquerors brought guns and germs that exterminated the majority of the indigenous population. There were approximately 20 million native people living in Central America before the conquest. One century later, only 1 million survived.

Spain imposed a caste hierarchy beginning with Spaniards born in Spain, who held the highest posts and were the wealthiest. Then came the criollos, those born in the colony from Spanish parents. Lower down were the mestizos, the mixed offspring of Spanish and indigenous people. Lowest were the indigenous people and African slaves.

In 1808, when France invaded Spain, the criollos in Nueva España began to seriously mobilize for independence. They were influenced by concepts of liberty, equality and democracy put forth by the French Revolution and French philosophers Rousseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire. They were also influenced by the American Revolution.

Freedom of speech, representative government, and restrictions on the power of the Catholic Church were major goals. They began to reject feudal Spanish values and seek to participate in the emerging world of commerce and industry.

One leader emerged. Today he is called the father of Mexico. Miguel Hidalgo was a priest from the Mexican town of Dolores who helped plan a revolt against Spain. The Spanish army found out and ordered his arrest. Before they could catch him, Hidalgo called a meeting where he rang his church bell on the eve of Sept. 16, 1810, calling his congregation to mass. Hidalgo gave a spirited speech and rallied people to rise up in arms and fight for independence. The battle cry, “Long live Mexico,” and “Long live Mexican independence,” became known as the Grito de Dolores, the Cry of Dolores.

Hidalgo sparked a growing movement for freedom from colonial rule. He was eventually captured and executed. Yet he is remembered as one of the most important leaders of Mexico’s independence. And after 11 years of war, the Mexican people finally won.

Celebrations usually begin on the eve of Independence Day, when massive crowds gather in the central squares (zócalos) of cities, towns, and villages across Mexico.

In Mexico City thousands gather at the main zócalo which is decorated with flags, flowers and hundreds of red, white and green lights — the colors of Mexico. When the clock strikes 11 p.m. the crowd becomes silent. The Mexican president usually steps out on the palace balcony and rings a historic liberty bell in re-enactment of Hidalgo’s famous call to the people. The president gives the Grito de Delores, shouting, “Viva Mexico” and “Viva la independencia,” and people all over the country celebrate.

Much like the Fourth of July in the United States, colorful parades are led by men and women in traditional Mexican dress, traditional music is played by mariachi bands, and dancing, food and festive drinks are enjoyed throughout the week, which also includes bullfights, rodeos and fireworks. Streets, buildings and cars are decorated, and people make joyous sounds with noisemakers and whistles.

Of course, the Mexican people’s struggles are far from over. But this is a day for celebration.

plozano@pww.org

NATO, an idea whose time has gone

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:23:00 +0000

When NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was founded after World War II, its first secretary general, British general Lord Ismay, succinctly stated its real, original purpose: “To keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” In other words, NATO was supposed to be an instrument not for spreading democracy, but for maintaining geopolitical hegemony in Europe by the Western capitalist states. Very soon, of course, the idea of keeping the Germans “down” was scrapped, and Germany became a major actor in NATO military matters.

But now NATO is being repackaged for the media as a sort of organization of world crusaders for democracy. New NATO members have been recruited from former socialist states and former member states of the Soviet Union, under the slogan of “protecting” those countries’ freedom. NATO participated in the destruction of Yugoslavia and in the Gulf War and Afghanistan, and now may recruit Georgia, which is pretty far from the “North Atlantic.” It is no coincidence that the pattern of new and prospective NATO states forms a close ring around Russia, with an interesting proximity to major oil pipelines also.

While our corporate media paint a pretty picture of NATO, its real history shows it to be much closer to Lord Ismay’s depiction of a grouping aimed at issues of power, not democracy.

A particularly sinister aspect of NATO was what came to be called Operation Gladio (“gladius” means “sword” in Latin), for its Italian manifestation. This was (and probably still is) a NATO-sponsored top secret “stay behind” program, operating under various names in all the NATO countries and in several neutral ones, including Finland, Switzerland and Sweden. The official purpose was that if the USSR and its allies would some day overrun Western Europe (a thing that never happened, and was never going to happen), there would be clandestine networks of military and civil personnel who could disrupt, attack and eventually drive out the Soviet forces.

In reality Operation Gladio became a mechanism whereby fascist and criminal elements could be secretly mobilized, not against a foreign invasion, but against progressive and labor forces within each country. To this day, there has not been a full public airing of just exactly what arrangements were made under Gladio in every NATO country.

But we do know something about what Gladio did in Italy, and it has nothing to do with democracy, freedom or the rule of law.

In Italy, the original Gladio formed its clandestine networks on the basis of old fascists (Mussolini leftovers) and their younger imitators, the Mafia and other criminal organizations, and the extreme right wing of the Roman Catholic Church, including the well known organization Opus Dei. It had a close link to a corrupt Masonic lodge, Propaganda Due (or P2) to which key military and civilian officials belonged. Funding came partly from the CIA.

When Osama bin Laden was just a callow youth, the Gladio-P2 network carried out bombing campaigns which they then blamed on the far left. The idea of this “strategy of tension” was to maintain a high level of fear and uncertainty in the population, which would lead people to reject voting for the then-huge Italian Communist Party (PCI), and that might make a right-wing coup possible. Only the most violent of many such actions was the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan, which killed 17, and the 1980 bombing of the train station in Bologna, in which 85 innocent civilians died. There may have been a connection to the kidnapping and murder of Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 as well: Moro had been working toward a “grand alliance” of his Christian Democratic Party with the PCI. He was killed by ultra-leftist terrorists, but Gladio sometimes manipulated such people and encouraged their terrorism, because it helped the “strategy of tension.”

The Italian setup metastasized into other countries, building links with dictatorships like that of Argentina’s Jorge Videla and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, and leading to terrorist actions all over the world.

When the relationship between Propaganda Due and Gladio came to light, in the wake of the huge Vatican banking scandal (Banco Ambrosiano) which forms part of the plot of the movie “Godfather III,” there was a wave of indignation in and beyond Italy. When it was discovered that the CIA was funding much of the Gladio-type activity, and along with Britain’s MI6 was participating in planning functions, Italian authorities asked for clarification from the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations, which to date have not been given.

The NATO “stay behind” networks have been involved in many other undemocratic actions in the NATO countries and beyond, including massacres of leftist protesters in Turkey, the 1967 “colonels’ coup” in Greece, and, possibly, the assassination of African freedom fighters against Portuguese colonialism, Amilcar Cabral and Eduardo Mondlane. In the former West Germany, the U.S. and the Adenauer government did not shrink from working with Gen. Reinhard Gehlen’s secret network of former (?) Nazis when setting up equivalent structures.

We now see NATO incorporating more and more countries which are many long miles from the “North Atlantic” region. The pretext is to defend democracy against outside threats, but the reality is that the point of NATO’s sword is aimed at democratic and left-wing forces within the countries in which it establishes itself, as well as at economic and military rivals.

NATO is not a force for democracy, but its opposite. And far from being an organization for fighting terrorism, NATO itself stands accused of fomenting terrorism. It is time for it to go.

Emile Schepers is a social justice activist in Virginia.

World notes: Sept. 13, 2008

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Cuba: No one died with Gustav The most destructive hurricane in 50 years hit western Cuba on Aug. 30 with gusts up to 212 mph, the strongest ever recorded during any hurricane anywhere, according to head meteorologist Jose Rubiera.

Gustav’s destruction was terrible: 20,000 homes on the Isle of Youth, 90,000 in Pinar del Rio, the entire electrical infrastructure in western Cuba, crops on 32,000 acres, and 3,306 tobacco houses.

The storm had already killed over 80 people in Haiti and dozens elsewhere in the Caribbean. With its intensity cut in half, Gustav went on to kill 18 people in Louisiana.

No Cubans died. (Although during hurrican Ike four Cubans were killed.) The Mexican daily La Jornada described “well oiled civil defense, a political-military system experienced in massive evacuations.” This time, 467,000 Cubans, 4.5 percent of the population, moved to public buildings and homes of friends and family.

Planes arrived from Russia and Spain with humanitarian aid. Tiny East Timor donated $500,000. The U.S. government offered $100,000 and promised more, but only to non-governmental organizations pending assessment in Cuba by U.S. experts. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry suggested Washington drop its blockade, the cause of losses far exceeding those of Hurricane Gustav.

In conjunction with Florida Democratic congressional candidates opposing the right-wing Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ross-Lehtinen, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed that restrictions on travel and financial assistance the Bush administration imposed on Cuban émigré families be suspended for 90 days.

Haiti: U.S. bullies the down-and-out

Human rights lawyer Evel Fanfan reported last week that with help from the U.S. Embassy, the U.S.-based DynCorp is preparing to raze 155 houses in Port-au-Prince’s Cité Soleil neighborhood to make way for a complex housing Haitian police and United Nations soldiers.

The Haitian government has remained silent while desperately poor residents remain uninformed about further plans, compensation or resettlement options.

Cité Soleil residents strongly support ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted by the U.S. in 2004. Haiti Liberte says wealthy Haitians covet the area for real estate development.

U.S. Agency for International Development funding for the project will dwarf the token $100,000 the embassy handed over for hurricane relief this week.

Spain: Gov’t to ease abortion laws

Making good on an area of social change promised during his 2004 election campaign, newly reelected Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is prioritizing ending barriers to abortion. On Sept. 4, Equality Minister Bibiano Aido said implementing legislation would be introduced early next year, based on recommendations from a panel of 13 experts.

Abortions are legal now only for pregnancies that follow rape, result in fetal malformations or cause psychological distress in women.

The Roman Catholic Church and right-wing politicians oppose liberalization. Police are accused of harassing private abortion clinics.

Pakistan: U.S. troops invade

“We will not compromise on any violation of our sovereignty,” Foreign Minister Shah Memood Qureshi told Pakistan’s National Assembly Sept. 4. The previous day, U.S. and Afghan troops arriving at a frontier village in U.S. helicopters killed 20 people, including women and children. This was the first known U.S. troop incursion inside Pakistan, where previously remote-controlled missiles had been used to hit Pakistan bases of Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Inter Press Service suggests divisions besetting Pakistan’s new civilian government, and the traditional autonomy of its military, add uncertainty to the country’s response to the widening U.S. war. Press reports say Pakistani officials at the Khyber Pass have blocked NATO supply trucks headed for Afghanistan.

Pakistan: U.S. troops invade

In the lead-up to Sept. 19 parliamentary elections in this landlocked southern African nation, Jan Sithole, secretary-general of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, promised mounting strike actions supporting the Peoples United Democratic Movement’s calls for multiparty democracy.

In unprecedented fashion, women’s groups led by Swaziland Positive Living for Life have joined protests timed with the Sept. 6 celebration of the 40th anniversary of independence from Britain.

Reuters reported that King Mswati III, ruler since 1986, is criticized for his lavish lifestyle while his government gets low marks for neglecting poverty afflicting two-thirds of the population and HIV infecting 40 percent of adults.

Cyprus: New talks for reunification

Proclaiming “Today is an historic day for Cyprus,” UN Special Envoy Alexander Downer told reporters Sept. 3 that Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, would start serious negotiations for reunification Sept. 11 in Nicosia.

Outstanding issues include restoration of property rights, details of power sharing and acceptance of foreign guarantors sought by Turkish Cypriots.

In a statement, Christofias endorsed UN resolutions callng for a “bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality.”

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

Cuba devastated by Ike, but Cubans show grit

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:42:00 +0000

HAVANA – (Sept. 10) Cuba has been, and continues to be, devastated by Hurricane Ike.

The only thing, and without question the most important thing, that hasn't been devastated is the will and determination of the Cuban people to surpass this disaster and go forward.

There's lots of information circulating in the international press about the extent of damages. But there are perhaps a few things that haven't and it's these I want to briefly mention to give you an idea of the extent of damages.

There's not one province that has gotten off easy. More destruction, less destruction - but all fourteen provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud have suffered from Hurricane Ike. And some have suffered a double impact, especially Pinar del Rio, which is still -- as I write this -- under alarma ciclonica (hurricane alarm) due to the intense rains and tropical storm winds that are still hitting the province. All of the province's 14 municipalities are suffering, but the two municipalities of Los Palacios (south) and Las Palmas (north) have taken the brunt of both Gustav and Ike.

The eye of Ike has left Cuba, but the body is still kicking strong, sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour. Still category 1 but category 2 starts at 154 kph. In Havana, we're still getting gusts up to over 80 kph. All western coastal areas have been evacuated due to inundations. Last night, for instance, ocean waters penetrated two km inland in the Batabano area, on the central southern coast of Provincia Habana.

Lots of “firsts,” but for which no one will get a ribbon:

As of 4:30 yesterday afternoon, over 2.5 million people -- or almost 21 percent of the country's population of some 12 million -- have been evacuated. And the number is slowly growing, as rivers that have never flooded before leave their banks, fattened by torrential rains, and dams that are full and spilling over contribute even more to the flooding.

Two and a half million people! In the 17 years I've been in Cuba, including through many hurricanes, I don't remember that many people ever being evacuated before. That's an immense undertaking involving organization, coordination and cooperation.

Significantly, over two million of these people were able to get shelter in the homes of family and friends, yet another indication of the incredible solidarity that is an everyday functioning part of Cuban society.

The damage to food crops as well as export crops is extensive. In Villa Clara, some 70 percent of plantains -- all kinds -- have been knocked down, with corn, papaya and yucca also seriously affected.

In Holguin, plantain, yucca, vegetables and beans have been affected. In Santiago de Cuba, damages to plantain, yuca, maize, plus sugar cane have been burned by the winds. Lots of coffee beans have fallen off trees and, weather permitting, they'll try to save what they can.

In Ciego de Avila, a strong producer of plantains for the entire country, the greatest damage has occurred in the agricultural sector, in particular - but not only - to the plantain crops.

In Cienfuegos, plantain and sweet potato are affected, as well as vegetables and citrus such as grapefruit and orange. The one crop that hasn't been affected is malanga - a tuber kind of like potato. And they're trying to recuperate coffee beans that have fallen on the ground in the Escambray Mountains. The same in Baracoa and Maisi, both in Guantanamo, which are key (actually, the main) coffee-producing areas in Cuba.

Housing has been seriously affected everywhere. Preliminary reports from Holguin indicate that over 150,000 houses have been affected, of which 37,000 have been totally destroyed. The province of Las Tunas says that nothing like Ike has ever hit the province during the last fifty years. In some municipalities, 80 percent of the housing stock has been affected. I can't even begin to estimate how many hundreds of thousands of houses have been either damaged or destroyed on a national scale! The final numbers are bound to be high.

And the rains! That's the most serious part of Ike right now, even more than the winds. In the Escambray, over 500 mm has fallen in some areas. Some communities are still incomunicado due to roads blocked with trees. But before Ike arrived, experienced personnel, including health specialists, had been sent to these mountain communities, along with additional food stocks, in anticipation of such problems, as Hurricane Fay, which affected Cienfuegos just before Gustav, had already affected electricity networks in the Escambray.

The beautiful area of Las Terrazas, in Pinar del Rio - which many of you have no doubt visited, got over 400 mm of rain in the last 24 hours, as have many other areas in the province, and elsewhere in the country. Pinar is completely without electricity. Vinales and many other areas are completely incomunicado. To the impact of Gustav is being added the impact of Ike. Some people in Pinar del Rio were even asking if Ike is returning, as they're without communication or up-to-date access to information and the rains seem worse than before!

Everywhere in the country, dams are full and overflowing, causing inundations - still - in low zones, which are fully evacuated. In Las Tunas, before Ike passed, the province was experiencing a drought with dams only 50 percent full. Now, all dams are spilling over. The Bulgara Dam in Camaguey, built 22-years-ago, has NEVER been full, but now, after Ike, it's full and spilling for the first time since it was constructed.

Also, for the first time since it was built, the carretera central, Cuba's main central highway, has flooded.

One bit of very good news, though, to come out of Cienguegos is that the new 'more hurricane proof' houses that were built to replace coastal settlements that had been completely demolished by Hurricane Dennis (2005) were able to withstand Ike. This is very good news indeed!

Jose Rubiera, the head of Cuba's weather forecast department, was asked if Cuba has ever had a hurricane that has touched every part of the country as has Ike. He replied that Hurricane Dennis (2005) entered Granma and then blasted up the centre of Cuba, but that the eastern part of Cuba has never had a hurricane as strong as Ike.

Assistance is coming from everywhere, both inside and outside the country. Examples: Santiago de Cuba has sent brigades to help Baracoa and Holguin. Camaguey, which has brigades in Pinar del Rio who went there after Gustav, has told those brigades to stay put and continue to help reconstruction efforts in that sister province. Camaguey, which has gone at least 25 years without being hit by a hurricane of this magnitude and which says they don't have the same experience confronting them as does Pinar, has reached out a very substantial hand of solidarity to los pinarenos.

And from overseas. You already know about the assistance from Russia: food, huge tents, construction materials. And $500,000 from poor little Timor Leste. Mexico is offering aid in housing and electricity. Uruguay is making a call to the international community to help Cuba with foods, medicines and construction materials. Brazil is putting together an inter-ministerial Assistance Group to help both Cuba and Haiti. After Gustav, solidarity and offers of help were already coming from China, Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, Spain, Brazil Mexico, Guatemala, the Cayman Islands, Peru, Santa Lucia, etc.

Cuba has the will and determination, yet, it will indeed need a great deal of material assistance for their reconstruction efforts. Tonight, on Mesa Redonda (Round Table) on TV, we'll be getting more detailed information about the extent of damages in the different provinces. They're still preliminary, since there are still so many areas incomunicado. But information is coming in. I started this email at 1:30 p.m. It's now 4 p.m. At 1:30pm, my area finally got electricity back. But many parts of the city are still without electricity. Calle 23, that main street in Vedado, has lots of tree limbs down and lots and lots of electrical wires. We're still having high gusts of wind. It's too dangerous for linemen to go up the posts, so full repairs will still take a while. Then, at 2:30pm - only one hour to try to get my fridge cold again so that food won't spoil (everyone has this same concern) -- a torrential storm began. Lightning and very loud thunder. I had to shut down the computer as my dining room window was leaking terribly because of the angle of the rain and the force with which it was falling. My two kitties, Mariposa and Luisito, were terrified! The electricity has gone out again and I'm finishing this up and sending it out on battery. So once again, I don't know when I'll be sending the next one. It's important that you know, though, that whereas Ike's eye has left, we're still very much under the winds and rains of this hurricane. It's immense!

One thing that Hurricane Ike has been unfortunately shadowing - and it's important that we make sure it too gets some visibility, are the Paralympic Games in Beijing. Cuba is doing great! To date, four golds, two silvers and four bronzes. And setting world records, such as in the 100-metre women's run and the 400-metre men's run. And when these impressive young men and women are asked to whom they dedicate their medals, they respond: 'To Fidel, to Raul, to my mother, my family, my community, and to the people of Cuba who are bravely battling the hurricane!'

U.S. communists urge solidarity with people of Caribbean

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:22:00 +0000

The following is a press statement released by the Communist Party USA on the recent devastating hurricanes. Spokespeople are available. Contact Jarvis Tyner, (646) 437-5310. For more information go to www.cpusa.org.

The Communist Party USA notes with alarm the heavy loss of life and massive property and economic damage inflicted by three powerful hurricanes in succession – Gustav, Hanna and now Ike – on all the nations of the Caribbean, including Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cuba.

Such storms are not mere “acts of God.” For years, scientists have been warning that global warming would lead to increases in the incidence of this type of disaster. Hurricanes are nourished by the heat energy of the sea, and as the sea gets warmer, we can expect more frequent and more intense storms of this type. To prevent this from happening will require drastic action by governments, especially those of nations like the United States whose energy use contributes most to global warming. Yet the Bush administration, faithful ally of the oil companies, pays no heed to these warnings.

The high death toll in Haiti (several hundred people from an incomplete count) is also related to other preventable factors. Extreme poverty in Haiti has let to the denuding of hill and mountainsides of forest that have been cut down for fuel, thus removing natural barriers that used to absorb rainfall and protect people from storms. Housing for millions of people in Haiti and its neighbors is inadequate for providing protection against storms. There is no money for infrastructure improvements that would mitigate the impact of hurricanes. The poverty of Haiti and its neighbors is directly related to a world economic order in which the inhabitants of poorer countries are made to suffer so that multinational corporations can enjoy ever greater profits. The CPUSA denounces the current U.S. government for acting as the “enforcer” of this brutal state of affairs.

Nor are the people of our own country immune from these disasters, which show that the lives of our people on the Gulf Coast and Southeastern United States are intimately linked with those of our Caribbean neighbors. The example of Hurricane Katrina three years ago, nearly repeated by Hurricane Gustav last week, show that these are not things that just happen to “other people.” We need solidarity between our own nation and neighboring nations like Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic if more massive loss of life is to be prevented in the future.

The Communist Party USA salutes the government of Cuba, whose commitment to policies of human solidarity has produced impressive mechanisms for protecting its people from natural disasters like the hurricanes. We are impressed, as always, by the way in which Cuban authorities, the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuban civil society organizations have worked together to bring people and livestock out of harm’s way, leading to little loss of life in Cuba so far. Even though we know that thousands of houses have been destroyed, we know that nobody will be left homeless or be forced to fend for themselves in this crisis situation. Reports from Cuba indicate that there will be considerable economic damage, but we know also that reconstruction will be carried out with the wellbeing of the whole Cuban people as the goal. And we know also, that whatever damage Cuba has suffered, the Cubans will be at the head of the line of countries offering disinterested help to those more gravely affected.

Nor have we forgotten that when Hurricane Katrina all but destroyed a major U.S. urban region, Cuba was quick to offer disinterested aid, which was churlishly rejected by the same Bush administration which so callously failed to help its own citizens victimized by Katrina, many of whom still have no homes to return to 3 years later.

We also agree with the millions of U.S. people and their numerous organizations that President Bush’s restrictions on family remittances and travel of Cuban-Americans to the island be suspended in order to help overcome this disaster. We would add that the Bush restrictions be ended completely and permanently and that the new Congress and president abolish the shameful, 49 1/2-year economic blockade of Cuba.

Finally, we call upon the American people to respond to the natural disaster by giving generously, but also demanding changes in U.S. policy toward the region.

Cuba: in the eye of Ike

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:49:00 +0000

HAVANA -- All day we've been increasingly getting the 'hurricane sky.” That's when the sky gets full of darkening clouds that appear as if you're looking at the bottom of a huge drum top, and they move in an immense counterclockwise circle. We've also been getting increasingly stronger wind gusts although nothing really serious yet. And it's started to rain more stop start stop start but with the feeling that it'll eventually not stop until Ike passes north of Cuba.

The other weather forecaster I have here in my house are my two cats, one of whom is getting increasingly more anxious, going outside to look up at the sky and then crying worriedly. It's the change in atmospheric pressure that he feels and he doesn't like it. It's the same as when horses start to panic and want to run when they feel the deep tremous in the ground from an imminent earthquake, even if everything is appearing on the surface.

These two back-to-back hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, have been firsts in many way.

A first: two category 4 hurricanes battering Cuba within a very short time. Never before has the country been hit by such strong hurricanes back-to-back.

A first: the extent of penetration of the sea in Baracoa, up to six blocks, something which has never happened before.

A first: Las Tunas evacuated more people than it's ever done in its history.

A first: Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Rio passing from the Information Phase directly to the Alarm Phase, without going through the Alert Phase. This has never happened before in Cuba and relates to a certain unpredictability of Ike on the southern coast of Cuba.

As of 8p.m., Ike is a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 130 kph. The gusts are going up to some 200 kph though, so it's still a serious hurricane. The central pressure if 966 and it's moving 20 kph in a west to a westnorthwest direction. The eye is skimming the southern coast of Cuba, meaning that there's a large penetration into Cuban territory of winds and gusts of hurricane force, and the southern coast is having serious penetrations and floods. It's almost perfectly round and it's immense. Right now it's about 55 km east of Cienfuegos but its strong rain and wind 'rings' - and don't forget, it has two! which is another unusual feature - extend a significant distance beyond the northern side of the island and the eastern part of the country - the Oriente - up through Santiago de Cuba is still getting rain - plus we're already getting Ike-related rains well to the west of where it is presently located.

But because the eye is skimming the coast, this impedes it from strengthening, at the moment, much beyond a category 1 hurricane. If, however, it distances itself just a bit from the coast, it'll immediately start getting stronger.

And the serious thing about Ike is the rains, which are heaviest BEHIND the eye, in other words, to Ike's west. And Cuba has already had lots of rain first from Fay, and then from Gustav, and now with Ike being the wettest of all three, there's very serious concerns - and constant alerts - about heavy flooding and land slides in the entire Escambray mountain range in the southern part of the provinces of Villa Clara to Cienfuegos to Sancti Spiritus.

Tuesday, it'll be in the southern coast of Matanzas. That will be about the time that we'll know more clearly what part of western Cuba - the Occidente - will have the 'pleasure' of its eye. At the moment, it could be anywhere from western Pinar del Rio to the eastern side of Provincia Habana, or even over the city of Habana itself. Just don't know at the moment. But whether it does or doesn't, for the city of Habana and the Occidente in general, the most difficult time will be from mid-day tomorrow, Tuesday, into tomorrow night.

This morning, thirteen of Cuba's fourteen provinces were in the Alarm Phase, with the Isla (a special municipality, as you know, rather than a province) and the province of Pinar del Rio being in the Information Phase. Now the latter two are in the Alarm Phase. I don't know if this is another 'first', that is, that the entire country, every province, has been in the Alarm Phase during the same hurricane.

As well, for the Isla and Pinar del Rio, the Alarm Phase has also meant a full suspension, for the moment, of recuperation efforts, with a focus on protecting the work done to date and ensuring the protection of the material resources that have been sent there to date.

While all this is going on, we're already starting to get preliminary reports from Oriente about some of the damage caused by Ike, and in some areas, such as Baracoa, else in Guantanamo, and even Holguin under rains, recuperative programs are already starting. For instance, the Farola, that beautiful road that connects Baracoa on the northern coast with the southern coast of the province, and from there to the capital city of Guantanamo and the rest of Cuba (there's a road from Baracoa on the northern coast that goes to Moa in Holguin province, but it's in very bad shape) has already been cleared of fallen trees and posts. And earlier this evening, the first trucks began to arrive in Baracoa carrying roofing tiles, steel beams, wood, etc. Three of the city's six electric circuits have already been repaired and it's hoped that the other three will be operative sometime tomorrow. This country doesn't wait to get things going! Ike is still battering Cuba, and will continue to do so for another day and a half at the lease, and the eastern part of the country is already engaged in recuperation. With a tremendous outsurge of participation by the people to clean streets of debris, assist with the distribution of materials, sift through rubble for not only their own belongings, but help others who have perhaps been more unfortunate, etc.

Other areas, though, such as Camaguey, can't begin even basic clean up as it's still heavily pouring all over the province, since early last night. And all over, some municipalities are still incomunicado, for the destruction to the communication / electrical system, for the roads blocked with fallen trees and posts, for the overflowing rivers. And the reports that are coming from these areas, by radio interviews on the TV, show that people are anxious to start the work of recuperation... there's a hunger to get beyond the hurricane experience and to get into rebuilding and back to normalcy.

All the above brings me to another observation: An important part of Cuba's system of Civil Defense - perhaps the key thing that truly makes it work well - is that the country has created a culture of prevention, a culture of protection, and a culture of collective recuperation. These are not insignificant things. In creating this culture, it’s created a consciousness among the people, the simplest of whom are exceedingly wise about what to do, when and how. It's also created a culture of collectivism. People take care of each other, they're aware of each other, they're not 'in it' only for themselves. And there's no 'show', no 'taking credit'. It's simply the way things are. Those of you who have lived here or visited here have seen this for yourselves, in one way or another.

A culture of caring. It has nothing to do with whether or not you like a particular individual, nothing at all. A culture of caring is simply about the recognition that 'the other' has the same value as a human being as you do, the same right to live and 'take space' in the world. Cuba has developed this to a very high degree, and it shows brilliantly at times like this. It's now 8:30pm and I'll stop here to take advantage of the electricity and light to send it out. I've been receiving calls from others in Havana saying they think the lights will go out soon. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think we'll have electricity all night. In any event, I already have my candles and matches at hand, and the batteries in my little Sony radio. And before I sat down to write this, I took the plants off the veranda - my living room is now a jungle! And a bit earlier this afternoon, I checked the drains on the roof, rolled up the rubber water tube and put it under the water tank up there, and re-cleared out the drains in the garage. What with the wind all day and lots of little leaves flying here and there, they had gotten slightly plugged up again from the cleaning I did several days ago.

With luck - and electricity of course! - I'll send another update. If not, I'll send an 'aftermath' email.

No one died! Cuba and hurricane solidarity

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:12:00 +0000

The most destructive hurricane in 50 years hit western Cuba Aug. 30 with gusts up to 212 mph — the strongest ever recorded during any hurricane anywhere, according to head meteorologist Jose Rubiera.

Gustav’s destruction was terrible: 20,000 homes on the Isle of Youth, 90,000 in Pinar del Rio, the entire electrical infrastructure in western Cuba, crops on 32,000 acres, and 3,306 tobacco houses. The storm had already killed over 80 people in Haiti — where 15,000 houses were destroyed — and dozens elsewhere in the Caribbean. With its intensity reduced by half, Gustav went on to kill 18 people in Louisiana.

No Cubans died. The Mexican Daily Jornada described “well-oiled civil defense, a political-military system experienced in massive evacuations.” This time, 467,000 citizens — 4.5 percent of the Cuban population — moved into public buildings and homes of friends and families.

Planes from Russia and Spain arrived with humanitarian assistance. Tiny East Timor donated $500,000. The U.S. government offered $100,000 and promised more — only to non-governmental organizations — pending assessment in Cuba by U.S. experts. Cuba’s Foreign Ministry suggested instead that Washington drop its blockade, the cause of far greater losses than those from Hurricane Gustav.

In conjunction with Democratic congressional candidates running in Florida against the rightwing Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed that restrictions on travel and financial assistance the Bush administration imposed on Cuban émigré families be suspended for 90 days.

How is Cuba able to prevent hurricane deaths? Mutual support, or solidarity, is one aspect, something much in evidence in Pinar del Rio if stories on Cubacoraje.blogspot.com are any indication. For example:

• “It is not his home that Roberto Amador is working on, but that of a neighbor. ‘Mine had less damage, only ten roofing sheets. First one must help those most needy; this woman has four small children.’”

• “Three men find some material to build a room. The temporary shelter will be for Tomasa Barbosa, an old woman who was left without a roof over her head and she doesn’t have family.”

• “The brigade of 52 linemen from Camaguey, who had worked until 3:00 a.m., resumed their work at 6:30 a.m. and in very high spirits; they are expecting another group of some 60 men who will be coming from Holguin [at the other end of the island].”

• “The conditions of the hospital are subhuman. Everybody is working intensively (patients, relatives and medical personnel). The 32 patients requiring hemodialysis — each accompanied by a relative and nurses — arrived in the capital yesterday at approximately 4:00 p.m. They had spent 48 hours without treatment but they were still doing well.”

• “In Vinales they began to distribute coal to families so they could cook. From one house came food for neighbors. Coffee was shared. Some houses have been converted into storehouses for their neighbors.”

Surely, however, reaching out to neighbors and to strangers is hardly unique to Cuba. Perhaps Cuba’s history contributes to its success in dealing with hurricanes.

Reporting Sept. 1 from Pinar del Rio, Jorge Gonzalez observed, “It looked like recuperation would be impossible and those thousands and thousands of victims this time would have to wait for a heavenly miracle to help them ease their hunger and thirst and retrieve a bit of their scattered or destroyed belongings. I know it’s not like that since the miracle in Cuba is permanent.”

“From 1959 on,” Gonzalez said, “a process of social change began developing here in which the human being has been the protagonist for excellence. Everybody knows that for those who have lost everything and whose electricity has been out for just a few hours, help will arrive without fail, their houses will go back up and the roofs reappear, not through magic but because the country offers them moral and material support. Give or take a few days, solidarity brigades from every province will fix the roads and electrical wires and life will return to normal.

“They know the top state leaders don’t hide in some underground bunker or take an airplane keeping them at a distance from the tragedy. No, they will be there where things happened, encouraging the neediest and carrying a message of hope and certainty that no one will be forgotten. Almost half a million of our citizens were moved to safety in sufficient time, some in schools, others in secure houses of family, friends, or neighbors with whom they’ve perhaps never exchanged even a greeting, sharing there the little bit of food and available blankets, but with confidence that their lives are out of danger.

“Nothing has been left to chance since years of accumulated work by Civil Defense exists in the background as sufficient guarantee that all the gears would function like a high precision watch ... Only one word comes to my mind now to put this all together and to express appreciation to anyone involved in preparations so that we might live: Revolution!”

On Aug. 29, as Gustav threatened, former President Fidel Castro observed, “We are lucky to have a Revolution! It is a fact that nobody will be neglected. Our strong, forceful and farsighted Civil Defense protects our people.” He added, “The growing frequency and intensity of these natural phenomena show that the climate is changing due to the actions of human beings.”

Castro said he had heard from a resident of the Isle of Youth: “I can’t find the words to relate to you what I saw yesterday ... In my 38 years of life I had never seen anything like it and the people I talked to in my territory had never seen anything worse; it’s incredible how their morale is so high … many have lost their homes and most have seen their belongings, beds, mattresses, TV sets, refrigerators, etc. ruined. Most of the population is in this situation.”

Castro’s informant continued: “At the moment, human solidarity is the most important thing. The people’s morale is high but that will not last forever; it will be necessary to solve some things in the next few days. As the energy services are reestablished, it will be necessary to set up information centers where the people can gather to know what’s going on in the country and the municipality, or even to listen to music or spend some time together.”

Cuba: Weathering the storms, from Gustav to Ike

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:59:00 +0000

HAVANA – (Sept. 8) A little report on the TV just updated the situation in Guantanamo. The entire province is without electricity. Cuba has a policy of turning off electricity and gas, as a preventive measure to prevent short circuits and even fires in walls, once sustained winds reach 60 kph. Flooding everywhere along the coast. Some 60,000 evacuees in just this one province and a possibility that the number might grow as the night progresses. Some people do self-evacuation, i.e., they may not be in a potential flood area, but if their house is of a weaker construction, they'll go to a family or neighbour's house that is more solid. People are being advised to go to what are called category 1 structures, meaning buildings or houses with concrete / cement walls and roof, with windows and doors that are reinforced – these are the only kinds of structures that are considered to be able to resist a hurricane of this force.  When I last spoke with my mother-in-law in Baracoa, about two hours ago (it's almost 8pm now), she had 14 friends and neighbors in her house – which is category 1 – each family unit bringing food and kerosene with which to cook. She mentioned that a family doctor making an urgent house call near the Malecon got a broken leg when a strong wave came over the low Malecon wall and knocked him down. (Just now, on the TV, the Guantanamo provincial president of the Consejo de Defensa said that seven people have been injured but none seriously, and that there are no deaths.) Also, the TV report from Baracoa (by radio) says that the Malecon has flooded up to 400 metres into the city, in some areas between five-six blocks penetration, making it the greatest penetration in Baracoa in recorded history. For those of you who know Baracoa, water has come up to the party headquarters and very near the municipal administration building.

Although northeastern Cuba has been hit by many hurricanes over the years, this is the first time that this part of the country is being hit by a hurricane of such force. Another important detail: by no means is this the first time that Cuba has had two successive hurricanes in a very short period of time. In 2002 Hurricanes Lili and Isidore – both category two, if I remember correctly – hit western and central Cuba, with tremendous damages to all sectors and especially to housing. And there have been other times that two hurricanes were separated by only a few days, or a week, or ten days. In the case of Gustav and Ike, it's eight days.  

But this is the first time in the last two centuries that Cuba has been hit successively by two category FOUR hurricanes! This has never before happened in the country's recorded history.  And I'm sure that the relationship between more frequent and more violent weather systems around the world, whether hurricanes or tsunamis or whatever – and global warming is not far from anyone's minds, nor the fact that this is what we can anticipate seeing more and more of in the very near future...  

Virtually the entire country is mobilized for Ike. As of 3pm, eleven of the country's 14 provinces were put into the Alarm Phase. And Ciudad Habana and Provincia Habana are now in the Information Phase. Over 1,700 evacuation centers are organized around the country, each with the necessary supplies of medicines (and on-site health specialists), food and water. Over 900 food elaboration centres are stocked, and already working. Some 56,000 students around the country have been sent to their homes from residential schools. All classes have been suspended around the country.   

Some of the country's parabolics – antennae, whatever – have been dismantled to protect them. This means that some areas of the country will be without TV and local structures will have to rely on phone and radio for communication. Some areas, such as Maisi in the far eastern part of Guantanamo, are already incomunicado. La Farola, that beautiful road that goes over the mountains from south to north, connecting Baracoa with the rest of the country (for those of you who don't know this area...) is experiencing lots of landslides, fallen trees and electric posts, etc.  

As of 8pm, Ike was 35 km east of Punta Lucrecia in Holguin, with landfall expected in an hour (9:30pm more or less). It's a high category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 195 kph. central pressure of 945 and moving west at 22 kph.  

Fidel has just issued his most recent 'Reflection' that was read on tonight's Mesa Redonda (Round Table). No doubt a copy of it is already available in Internet. He started out by saying that before the country's psyche (and material base) has begun to recover from the lashing from Gustav – because although it's destruction is mainly localized in the Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Rio, the psychological impact has been countrywide – Cuba is being hit by another equally strong, and potentially more widely destructive, hurricane. People in the bread line this afternoon were talking about this very thing, in different words but the same thought.

  One last thing I want to briefly mention is that, as you know, the U.S. is one of many countries that have offered assistance to Cuba in the wake of Gustav. And, as you also probably know, Cuba turned it down. First, the U.S. wants to send people to evaluate the damages. The U.S. ALWAYS wants to send people to Cuba to evaluate damages.   

They seem to have a hard time understanding that Cuba is highly prepared, with a very wide number of trained and experienced professionals, to analyze its own damages – and does so very, very quickly, making this information available to the public through newspapers, the TV, the radio, etc. Second, Cuba said that if the US really wants to help Cuba, it should let Cuba buy – note, Cuba didn't say that the US should 'donate,' just let Cuba buy – what it needs directly from the US. In other words, stop the embargo, which does a lot more damage to Cuba than any hurricane.  

I'll send this out now. FYI, as I can only send one email to five people at once – it's a technical limitation of the Cuban server – I've been sending out about six copies of these updates, to a total of some 30 people, some of whom have been sending them on to others. I'll likely send you another one tomorrow.  

Meanwhile, to those of you who have been calling and/or sending emails, thank you! This is very welcome.  

Several people have also written asking if I know about any plans in Canada to organize hurricane reconstruction assistance for Cuba. I understand that the CNC (Canadian Network on Cuba, an umbrella organization for Canadian friendship and solidarity groups) is organizing and sponsoring a campaign. I don't have the details, and would appreciate hearing what campaigns are being organized, as on this end, people are very interested to hear about this. 

From Susan Hurlich on Sept. 7

This email is about something very immediate and of much collective concern: the imminent arrival of Hurricane Ike.  

I'm sure you're all following Ike's path and developments, as well as the heroic and extremely efficient recuperation efforts in the wake of Hurricane Gustav – which, as you know, did horrendous damage in Isla de la Juventud and Pinar del Rio, but which also shows an impressive victory by the Cuban people and its system of Civil Defense in that not one life was lost.  

What a tragedy that we can't say the same for Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and even the U.S., all of which had loss of life, especially Haiti.

  I'm writing this email to give you an idea of the 'feel' on the streets, what people are saying, what people are doing. As of noon today, Ike remains a category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 215 kph and gusts higher. It's 270 km east of Isla Inagua Grande in the eastern Bahamas and 465 km east of Punta Lucrecia in Holguin, moving eastsoutheast at 24 kph.

  All the eastern provinces, from Camaguey to Guantanamo, are in the Alarm Phase. Cuban Civil Defense has four phases for hurricanes: Information, Alert, Alarm and Recuperation. Ciego de Avila west to and including Matanzas are in the Information Phase. CubaVision (TV) as well as Radio Rebelde are already dedicating full-time reporting to what's happening in all the eastern provinces: the state of preparations (evacuations, for instance, virtually complete in many locations), mobilized support services (health, food preparation, etc.), the status of dams (i.e., their existing capacity and how much additional water they can accept; if they're super-full, the spillways are open to increase their capacity), etc.   

Coastal areas are being virtually cleared out as heavy inundations are anticipated – and the Instituto de Meteorologia is saying that its direct impact on Cuba – meaning its presence on Cuban territory – will likely last for at least two full days. Reports are also saying that it's the first time since 1959 that a hurricane this strong has the potential to affect such a large part of Cuba.  

Aside: in the evacuation centres, not only are evacuees given health and food support, but there are also culture and indoor sports programs, as well as ongoing information programs.  

This morning, at about 9am, I called family and friends in Baracoa, Guantanamo. At that time, heavy rains were already falling, and in the local meteorological station about 20 km outside Baracoa, gusts of 120 kph were being registered. Even people in areas that don't flood are taking precautions, boarding up their windows for reinforcement from the anticipated strong winds. And people from lower areas are seeking shelter in the homes of family and friends on the higher grounds of Baracoa.  

(For instance, some four families in the home of my in-laws.) It's anticipated that in another eight or so hours (possibly by 10pm or so tonight), Ike will actually be on Cuban territory, and although it's entry point will likely be somewhere between Camaguey and Holguin, it's an immense system and its hurricane winds and torrential rains will (are already) affect a huge area.  

Aside: I had a long interruption – two visitors – since I wrote the above, and now it's a couple of hours later. It's now just before 3pm as I continue writing...  

About half an hour ago, I called Baracoa – my in-laws; the phone lines are still working – to find out how things are, and to give them the latest news about Baracoa that was just on the TV. The electricity in Baracoa was cut at 11 this morning and they don't have a radio, so as long as the phone is working, they said they're counting on me to be their 'news reporter' about what's happening in their area.   

Here's what the TV said – and keep in mind that Ike is still some eight hours EAST of Baracoa! Gusts about 130-140 kph and one recorded at over 200 kph; 50 mm of rain in 24 hours; over 24,200 evacuated from around the municipality of whom over 23,500 are in the homes of family and friends (this is typical; the extremely high solidarity among Cubans. Even so, the 21 evacuation centres that exist in the municipality were prepared to receive the full number); over 3,000 students from residential schools already at home; some coastal areas such as Turey already flooding; some trees and posts down. This morning, Sunday, all ration stores were open in Baracoa so that people could buy what they wanted. And, to repeat, Ike is still over 200 km east of Baracoa.  

Here in Havana, we had heavy rains all morning, not related to Ike but, as people on the street were saying, part of the rains that Gustav was supposed to drop but didn't. Lines at the stores – whether peso or CUC – are immense, going out to the street and along the sidewalk. The CUC bakeries are sold out. The peso bakeries are the priority, though, and are working full time, with long lines. At the peso bakery nearest my house, the line is over a block long. I just went to mark my place in line, and will return in an hour to hopefully buy bread – if it hasn't already been sold out in which case more batches will be in the oven.  

The big concern that everyone has is that Ike might well be similar to Hurricane Dennis, which entered Cuba as a category 4 hurricane in July 2005 (the year of Katrina, just over a month later), and left in its wake ten of the country's fourteen provinces seriously affected and 16 deaths, one of the highest in Cuba since 1959.

  For Hurricane Ike, most of the 15 hurricane diagnostic tools show it morning northwest after it enters Cuba, and since Cuba's landmass itself goes northwest, this means that Ike will most likely blast right up the length of the island, possibly all the way to Pinar del Rio! And it'll hit both sides of the country. It's about as wide as Gustav (over 250 km in radius), and when you consider that Cuba's width ranges only between 31 and 191 km, well, you can see the kind of damage that a strong hurricane could cause if it marches up the island.  

And imagine the irony, actually, a painful irony, of seeing the news report on TV a couple of nights ago, of Santiago de Cuba filling two ships with roofing sheets and 500- and 1,000-gallon water tanks to send to Isla de la Juventud, and preparing a train shipment with the same for Pinar del Rio – well, imagine this going on at the same time that Santiago de Cuba is simultaneously preparing for the arrival of Ike.  

It's an awful lot for one country! But then I keep thinking of Haiti, and the consequences of what happens when a nation has neither the politics nor the ability to prepare are sobering. But then, as we know, Haiti is an internationally-caused tragedy...  

There's much more to say, but I know that you can also get a lot of the 'data' information on Internet. I'll continue to try sending you updates giving you a sense of what people are doing and how they're feeling. 

Colombia scapegoats left opposition

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:21:00 +0000

Peace in Colombia, seen as humanitarian exchanges of prisoners and negotiations with guerrilla insurgents, took a hit recently with the government revving up a smear campaign against leftists. With approval ratings allegedly approaching 91 percent, President Alvaro Uribe is preparing for a second unconstitutional reelection bid.

A judicial inquiry as to Carlos Lozano’s alleged support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), originally set for Sept. 3, has been delayed until Sept. 15. Lozano belongs to the Communist Party’s Executive Committee and is editor of the party newspaper Voz. Senators Piedad Córdoba and Gloria Inés Ramírez, Representative Wilson Borja, journalist William Parra and former presidential candidate Álvaro Leyva also face official questioning on supposed ties with terrorists.

The government had enlisted Lozano and Leyva in May to communicate with the FARC, only to accuse them later of FARC sympathies. On Aug. 8, the regime jailed sociologist Liliana Patricia Obando, charging her with diverting funds to the FARC from FENSUAGRO, the rural labor organization she served as consultant. The government based all allegations on FARC computer files, widely discredited, seized during its March 1 raid on a FARC encampment in Ecuador.

On Aug. 27, a thousand Lozano supporters heard Carlos Gaviria, president of the Alternative Democratic Pole, Colombia’s left opposition coalition, contrast French bestowal of its Legion of Honor upon Lozano for contributions to humanitarian exchange with “this government [that] looks to put him in jail.” Lozano serves on the Pole’s National Council. Liberal Party Senator Piedad Cordoba extolled Lozano’s bravery and the courage of his party.

On the CP web site, General Secretary Jaime Caycedo denounced “McCarthyist” charges from Vice President Francisco Santos that the Communist Party, dedicated to violence, created the FARC. The FARC, Caycedo explained, grew out of “peasant defense against attacks and expropriations of productive lands by landowners,” not from “communist influence.” Importantly, “state terrorism against the Communists and the Left began long before the existence of the FARC.”

On Aug. 19, armed assailants trailed Caycedo, who represents the Pole on the Bogota City Council. Communist youths have been assaulted and party offices ransacked. Most of the accused have over years been subjected to injuries, failed attacks and/or death threats. Caycedo and others see horrors like the 1928 banana workers massacre, the slaughter after populist leader Jorge Gaitin’s assassination in 1948, and killings of over 4,000 Patriotic Union candidates and office holders two decades ago as backdrop for persecution today.

Caycedo asserts the government has created a “smoke screen” to “hide the intellectual authorship and the organic bond between powerful sectors of businesses and the government with the narco-paramilitary apparatus.” Investigations by the Colombian Supreme Court have led to 80 government officials, over 40 members of Congress among them, being charged with paramilitary ties.

In late August, Semana magazine reported that the Uribe regime plotted against the Supreme Court. Under Colombia’s Peace and Justice Law, paramilitary leaders accepted short jail terms in return for confessing crimes. Their revelations put members of Congress in jail. Earlier this year lawyers for paramilitary head Diego Fernando Murillo sought to forestall his extradition to the United States by providing Uribe officials with information discrediting the court.

The scandal came to light during the visit to Colombia of International Criminal Court investigator Luis Moreno. Not only did the Argentinean jurist hear pleas from human rights organizations to try politicians allied to paramilitaries for crimes against humanity, but he also met with Supreme Court President Francisco Javier Ricaurte over concerns that 15 paramilitary leaders had been extradited to the U.S. on drug charges in order to cut off testimony.

Other embarrassments threaten. The House of Representatives sought the president’s explanation for bribing jailed Senator Yidis Medina. The International Caravan of Jurists just completed an investigatory tour of Colombia. In July the Permanent Peoples Tribunal issued a report covered in the European press charging corporations with human rights abuses. The International Tribunal of Opinion will convene in Brussels this month to condemn human rights violations in Colombia as a state crime.

Colombian social realities beg for distraction. Recent studies show Colombia ranks 11th in the world for inequalities, childhood malnutrition is expanding, and 20,000 children die annually from preventable diseases. Over 4,000 common graves of paramilitary victims have been uncovered over two years.

atwhit@roadrunner.com

Afghanistan: Protests grow over civilian deaths

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:23:00 +0000

New protests erupted in Afghanistan this week as the number of civilians dying during U.S. and NATO attacks on insurgents continues to soar.

In the capital city, Kabul, hundreds of protesters blocked the highway to Pakistan Sept. 1. They were protesting the killing of a father and two of his sons — one of them an 8-month-old baby — during a post-midnight raid in eastern Kabul that Afghans said was conducted by foreign troops. The children’s mother was wounded in the attack. NATO’s U.S.-commanded International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) later claimed no NATO or U.S. forces were involved.

In another incident the same day, the ISAF acknowledged accidentally killing three children in southeastern Paktika province.

Anger is growing among Afghans over the killings of around 700 civilians so far this year during U.S. and NATO military operations targeting Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents.

The biggest single civilian toll occurred Aug. 22 when the Afghan government and the United Nations said as many as 90 civilians, including 60 children, died as a U.S.-led air strike hit a memorial service for a tribal leader in the western Afghan village of Azizabad.

U.S. military forces said this week that only five to seven civilians were killed there, along with 30 to 35 Taliban fighters. But an Afghan government investigating team confirmed the larger civilian toll Sept. 1.

Fox News reporter Oliver North, who was with the U.S. forces during the Azizabad attack, interviewed an unidentified U.S. major who cited reports the Taliban would meet there. But Afghan officials said clan rivals gave false information. North was a central figure in the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra scandal.

Afghanistan’s U.S.-installed President Hamid Karzai has strongly criticized the U.S. and NATO forces over the civilian toll, and has said the Taliban uses the deaths to turn people against the government. He is requesting a review of rules governing international military forces in the country.

Meanwhile, nearly seven years after the U.S. invaded the country following Sept. 11, conditions there remain grim. Some 70,000 U.S. and NATO troops, the majority from the U.S., have been unable to keep the Taliban from adding conventional military attacks to their longstanding smaller raids. U.S. military deaths are now well over 500, with over 100 killed so far this year.

As winter approaches, Oxfam International warns that as many as 5 million Afghans face severe food shortages, aggravated by rising food prices, drought and the growing and spreading insecurity.

In a report, “Falling Short,” issued earlier this year, Oxfam said reconstruction aid is falling far behind military spending, with much of the aid being allocated to urban areas rather than to rural regions and agriculture, where it is urgently needed.

Though some strides have been made in reducing the amount of land devoted to growing opium poppies, Afghanistan still provides a very large percentage of the world’s opium supply.

Many political leaders who urge an end to the Iraq war nonetheless view the war in Afghanistan as necessary to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But a number of commentators warn that a military solution is perhaps even less possible in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

In a report issued last month, the Rand Corporation called the idea of a “war on terror” counterproductive, and called for intelligence and police cooperation instead. Afghanistan expert Rory Stewart, writing in Time magazine, has warned that “a troop increase is likely to inflame Afghan nationalism because Afghans are more anti-foreign than we acknowledge, and the support for our presence in the insurgency areas is declining.”

Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel recently wrote, “We need to think beyond the reflexive response of troop escalation and begin the necessary, tough search for sane alternatives. If Americans are given a clear choice,” she asked, “how many would support bleeding more lives and resources in another failing occupation as an effective strategy of combating terrorism and promoting our national security?”

mbechtel @pww.org

World Notes: September 6

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:12:00 +0000

Gaza: Aid, solidarity arrive by sea

Two ships loaded with humanitarian aid arrived in Gaza from Cyprus on Aug. 24. Aboard were 46 international solidarity activists. The Free Gaza Movement, organizer of the shipment, described the activists as the first in 41 years not subjected to Israeli border controls.

In Gaza, citizens and political leaders provided an enthusiastic welcome. The vessels departed Aug. 30 carrying seven Palestinians, several of whom are seeking medical care denied because of continued Egyptian closure of the Rafah border crossing.

The venture aimed to encourage activists in neighboring Arab countries to expand waterborne trade, solidarity efforts and humanitarian assistance to Gaza, a prospect Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper said was unlikely to please cautious regional governments.

Though it had threatened naval interdiction despite a lack of jurisdiction over waters off Gaza, Israel ignored the ships’ passage and announced non-interference with future humanitarian and human rights missions to Gaza.

Switzerland: Inequities kill

The Geneva-based World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health has issued a report protesting “inequitable distribution of power, money and resources.” The Aug. 28 report on a three-year study suggested that national wealth may contribute less to health outcome than “equitable distribution of benefits.”

Good examples include Cuba, Costa Rica, the Indian state of Kerala, and Sri Lanka. In Spain, the report said, contract workers suffer from four times as many mental health problems as full timers.

Australian aboriginals live 17 percent fewer years than other citizens. Poor Indonesian women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die in childbirth than women with more resources. Had African Americans enjoyed prevailing U.S. infant death rates, 886,202 African American infants would not have died between 1991 and 2000.

India: Children die in drug trials

The Ministry of Health is investigating the deaths of 49 young children over two years during 42 drug trials carried out by the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences.

Shilpi Singh, writing for the EFE news service, cites pharmacologist Chandra Gulhati who focused on hypertension drugs under development by the Swiss corporation Novartis. Gulhati castigated as “unethical” the administration to children of drugs intended for adults.

Singh charges that in India, where drug trials are inexpensive and consent from illiterate parents is easy to obtain, children become “guinea pigs.” He adds that transnational corporations extend drug patents by “taking advantage of poverty and ignorance.”

Having propelled the outcry against the trials, Rahul Verma, founder of the nongovernmental Uday Foundation, is demanding an investigation by the National Commission of Human Rights.

Honduras: Joins ALBA, defying Washington

“Honduras and the Honduran people do not have to ask permission of any imperialism to join the ALBA,” President Manuel Zelaya declared in Tegucigalpa Aug. 25.

Founded by Venezuela and Cuba in 2004, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA by its Spanish initials) fosters trade, technical support and educational exchanges based on values of solidarity.

At ceremonies making Honduras the sixth nation to join ALBA, 50,000 unionists, peasants and social movement activists heard Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promise Honduras inexpensive Venezuelan oil and 100 tractors from other ALBA nations.

Venezuelanalysis.org reported that failure of international financial institutions to support Honduran developmental projects had prompted President Zelaya’s decision.

Canada: Big gains for union women

Statistics Canada, the “National Statistical Agency,” reported recently on unionization trends. With union membership growing less rapidly than employment, unionization declined from 29.7 percent last year to 29.4 percent so far in 2008. The unionization rate for women exceeds that for men. Unionized women working full time were paid 94 percent as much as their male counterparts. Unionized women working part-time earned 14 percent more.

Unionization rose in the mining, oil and gas, public service and educational sectors. Some 300,000 nonunion employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and 71 percent of public sector workers belong to unions four times the rate of those working for private enterprises.

Cuba: Social security changes

Beginning Sept. 1, Cuban workers will engage in “popular consultations” on initial proposals to change Cuba’s social security system agreed to by the National Assembly in July.

Granma reports that for two months some 3.5 million members of the Central Labor Federation (CTC) will be gathering in some 80,000 meetings to consider arguments for introducing the modifications now. These include plans to gradually raise the retirement age. It is anticipated the sessions will lead to suggestions for altering the proposals. Officials from the National Institute for Social Security and Ministry of Labor and Social Security will be available to provide technical information.

The proportion of senior citizens in Cuba’s population is expected to double over the coming decades.

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

Washington's echo in Iran

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:13:00 +0000

As Iran struggles to win the confidence of the West to head off a military attack, the ordinary people of the country struggle daily with rising prices and growing unemployment.

It can only be with a sense of profound amazement then that the Iranian people greeted the recent pronouncements of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In two days at the end of July, Ahmadinejad turned reality on its head.

In a meeting with senior economics officials from the private sector to discuss a proposed economic reform package, the president boldly claimed: 'We can quickly rank first in the world economy.'

Echoing the Khomeini-inspired mantra that 'economics is for donkeys,' Ahmadinejad went on to accuse previous administrations of 'obsessing too much with expertise' in their consideration of economic planning.

Claiming, nonetheless, that experts and economics activists agreed with the regime's economic strategy, Ahmadinejad went on to proclaim: 'We have to, hand in hand, place our dear Iran on top of the world.'

Clearly, Ahmadinejad and his advisers had not been informed of the latest public opinion poll published by Internet news site NoAndish.

Although not claiming to be 'experts,' the Iranian people are nevertheless the victims of the regime's actions.

When asked about the new economic reform package, 71 percent said that they did 'not consider the plan beneficial to the public.'

Petrol is the most telling symbol of Iran's economic failure.

Three years ago, the oil minister boasted that Iran would be moving towards self-sufficiency in domestic gasoline needs.

However, in the middle of June, a supplementary budget was presented to the Iranian parliament requesting $7.5 billion to import petrol and diesel. The budget for the current fiscal year stands at $3.5billion.

Despite the fact that Iran is the second-biggest oil producer in OPEC, the request for additional funds for imports has been justified because of the rising price of oil on the international market.

The reason why Iran needs to import so much petrol is that its refining capacity remains insufficient. The essential investment which could move this oil-rich nation towards self-sufficiency in its petrol needs has not been made.

Ahmadinejad may be laboring under the illusion that he is leading the country, but it has clearly been some time since he looked over his shoulder. If he did so, he would find that many of his compatriots are a long way behind him.

And the Iranian president's detachment from reality does not end in the realm of domestic politics.

Speaking to a group of clerics in Kahgiloie va Bovir about his trip to New York last year, Ahmadinejad pronounced: 'The world is with us.'

More amazingly still, the president claimed that one of the U.S. presidential candidates had told him: 'Your words have resonance here.'

It is possible to believe a great deal of U.S. presidential candidates, but to suggest that any, in the present political climate, would give Ahmadinejad such an endorsement is stretching credulity to its limits.

In the build-up to the country's 2009 presidential elections, Ahmadinejad wants to present himself as an international statesman capable of playing a leading part on the world stage.

Ironically, Ahmadinejad's words often do resonate.

His claim to be on a 'global mission' has an uncanny resonance with the simplistic jargon of the 'war on terror' and the characterization of states as being part of an 'axis of evil.'

These are resonances that the world can do without and that the people of both the U.S. and Iran, in their respective elections, would no doubt be relieved to be freed from.

Jane Green is campaign organizer for CODIR, the UK-based Committee for the Defense of the Iranian People's Rights. This article is reprinted with permission from CODIR. For more information, visit www.codir.net or e-mail codir_info@btinternet.com.