People Before Profit blog

World Notes: Brazil, Turkey, Laos - and more

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:03:00 +0000

Brazil: Construction workers revolt

Some 80,000 workers stopped work in mid March at hydroelectric plants, refineries, and electric generating facilities in "the biggest social protest by workers in many years," according to upsidedownworld.org.

Aat a hydroelectric construction site on the Madeira River, over 20,000 workers headed for their homes. Work was still down several weeks later. As of April 14, the government was preparing to set baseline work conditions. Complaints had proliferated of labor recruiter trickery, no overtime pay, company store debt, abusive security forces, and private jails. The Movement of those Affected by Dams attributes the revolt to "authoritarianism and the drive for accumulation of wealth through the exploitation of both nature and the workers."

Turkey: Greenpeace protests Arctic oil drilling

Until gale winds forced their departure, protesting Greenpeace climbers on April 22 were perched 80 feet above Sea of Marmara waters on the side of the world's second largest oil exploration rig. The Leiv Eiriksson was proceeding from Turkey to Baffin Bay off Greenland to drill four exploratory wells. It's the first of many such ventures in Arctic waters, the UK Guardian says. To operate the rig, owner Cairn Company, yet to release a spill response plan, will be paying $500,000 a day and $500 million in coming months. Greenpeace spokesperson Ben Ayliffe affirmed, "Any Arctic spill would be very difficult, if not impossible, to contain and clean up." "This is the most controversial rig in the world," he claimed.

Laos: Decision on contested dam is put off

On 19 April, three members of the Mekong River Commission, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, put off approval of a future dam upstream in Laos, the Commission's fourth member. The meeting in Vientiane deferred a decision pending an upcoming ministerial meeting. Environmentalists warn the $3.8 billion dam project will cause the extinction of dozens of fish species and threaten the livelihoods and food security of millions of people living in downstream countries. Laos, hoping to benefit from electric power sales, has already begun construction on the dam, reports the IRIN news service. In all, 11 dams have been proposed for the Lower Mekong River in response to a six percent annual rise in electrical power use, mainly in Thailand and Vietnam.

Italy: Nuclear power emerges as divisive

The Senate on April 20 approved dropping plans for a return to nuclear power, which Italy gave up on in 1987 following the Chernobyl disaster a year earlier. Critics say the Senate action represents less a rejection of nuclear power than a moratorium designed to undermine anti-nuclear sentiment as Italy heads for a referendum in June on nuclear power. Attending Chernobyl commemoration events in Kiev on April 25, Prime Minister Berlusconi confirmed that impression by praising nuclear power as the "safest" form of energy. With the EU preparing to legislate oil company responsibility for pollution up to 200 miles off shore - no longer 12 miles - oil industry uncertainty exacerbates European quandary over nuclear power, reports AFP.

Cuba: Kudos for bringing back forests

In its recently released report on the "State of the World's Forests 2011," the UN Food and Agriculture Organization gives Cuba high marks for achieving the highest rates in Latin America and the Caribbean for setting aside forest acreage for protective purposes. Beginning in 1998, Cuba's forestry restoration program has added some 250,000 acres to the island's forests. Anticipating a reforestation rate of 120,000 acres annually, Cuba plans to increase its forest coverage from 26.9 percent at present to 29 percent by 2015. Speaking of new tree plantations, national forestry director Carlos Alberto Díaz Maza says, "60 percent will be conservation forests, protecting our coasts, our river basins, and soils." Cuba joins 11 other countries in achieving the world's highest reforestation rates.

Iraq: Government tries to quash antigovernment and anti-U.S. protests

Widespread demonstrations, ongoing for two months, have met repression. Security forces killed 12 protesters in nationwide protests on February 25. Since then, 250 demonstrators have been wounded and many imprisoned in Kurdistan. Labor Start says enforcers include masked gunmen in civilian clothes. By mid April, the government had upped the ante. In Baghdad on April 13 police raided adjoining offices of a labor federation and a women's group. Five days later security forces killed two protesters and wounded 30 more in Northern Iraq. CNN reports demonstrators are demanding the release of detained prisoners, improved government services, and departure of U.S. troops.

In regard to the latter, the Iraqi al-Mashriq newspaper, cited by Xinhua news on April 26, predicts, "The Iraqi government will arrange a special status" allowing 15,000 U.S. troops and thousands of foreign contractors to remain in Iraq "to protect the U.S. interests after the deadline of U.S. troops' pullout by the end of 2011."

Photo: Cambodian fishermen on the Mekong River at the outskirt of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, April 19. Neighboring Laos has deferred decision on erecting in the first dam on the lower Mekong River in the face of strong opposition. (Heng Sinith/AP)

Is the "war on drugs" in Mexico leading to a police state?

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:41:00 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks, more than 183 bodies, thought to be of migrants kidnapped en route to the U.S.-Mexico border, have been found buried in common graves near San Fernando, in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. These are in addition to the 72 bodies of immigrants from Central and South America, who were found nearby in the summer of last year.

These individuals were kidnapped, sometimes by the busload, by drug traffickers, probably the "Zetas." A possible motive is to force their relatives to pay ransom. Sometimes the gangsters kill the migrants if they refuse to work for them. Another motive may be simple highway robbery. The social disruption is immense, with the main highway from Matamoros, opposite from Brownsville, Texas, to the Mexican interior now being navigable only by armed convoys.

These are only a few of the 34,000 or more people who have been murdered in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon of the right-wing National Action Party (PAN) came to power in 2006, and declared a "war" against drug trafficking. The Bush and Obama administrations have poured millions of dollars into Calderon's "war." And now it is being used as a pretext to give the armed forces and security services a dangerous amount of unaccountable power that some say could lead to a police state.

A new "National Security Law," which the PAN and the formerly ruling Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) are trying to fast track through the Mexican Congress this week would give the military and the state security agency Cisen the right to use force to deal with "movements or conflicts of political, electoral, labor or social nature" on the simple declaration that they constitute a national security threat, says CIP Americas.

Opposition legislators from the Revolutionary Democratic (PRD), Labor and Green parties oppose the legislation. Calderon's government has a history of criminalizing dissident labor unions, as shown by its nonstop persecution of both the Mine and Metal Workers Union and the Electricians Union (SME).

Opposition to militarization of the anti-drug fight is growing. On April 21 there were demonstrations against it all over Mexico, organized by the poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered by drug traffickers. The demand is the demilitarization of the anti-drug effort, an effort that has also led to many violations of human rights.

Jesus Zambada Niebla, son of a leader of the Sinaloa cartel, awaiting trial in the United States, claims that from 2004 to 2009 he was a U.S. "asset," working with approval from the F.B.I., the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, and that both the U.S. and Mexican government are actually favoring a victory of the Sinaloa drug lords over their rivals, on the theory that if there were just one cartel, things would be more peaceful, according to Narconews.

One must be cautious in evaluating these statements. But there is the precedent of General Jose Gutierrez Rebollo, head of Mexican counter-narcotics in the late 1990s, and now serving a 30-year jail sentence. While striking blows against some of the cartels, he was discovered to be living in a luxury apartment paid for by the Juarez Cartel. So he was being rewarded by one cartel for destroying its rivals.

"Operation Fast and Furious," a program formerly run by the U.S. Department of Justice, is a big scandal. In this program, U.S. agents allowed the trafficking into Mexico of large numbers of high powered automatic weapons purchased at gun stores in the U.S., on the theory that it would help them to track these weapons and thus understand the distribution networks. Apparently, the Mexican government was never informed abut this risky strategy, which led to many deaths, including that of a U.S. agent. According to CIP Americas, Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered the program stopped and investigated.

What alternative tactics are there to declaring "war" on drugs, a war that is tearing the country apart and also causing wide disruption and bloodshed in the Central American countries through which the drugs, originating in Colombia, have to pass?

The Mexican and U.S. governments could put more resources into shutting down the financial mechanisms by which drug money is laundered.

The United States could do something about the cross-border gun trade. Even though some of the weapons used by drug cartels originated in the Contra Wars in Central America, Operation Fast and Furious shows that there is a significant southward movement.

The United States could do far more to dry up the demand by increasing resources for drug abuse prevention and education and rehabilitation. But things are trending the other way, as states cut back their drug prevention and rehabilitation budgets. And the budget proposed by the U.S. government still is relatively weak on prevention and rehabilitation.

Bringing undocumented immigrants "out of the shadows" would undercut the traffickers' exploitation of immigrants. But quick passage of immigration reform in the U.S. Congress seems unlikely under current political conditions.

Image: LWY // CC BY 2.0

Thomas Jefferson: On the breeding of kings

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:41:00 +0000

As the world prepares for the royal wedding between Prince William and soon-to-be Princess Kate, it's important to take a look back at our own American traditions, and what our founding fathers had to say about royalty. We are, after all, a nation born out of a revoultion against a monarchy. With that in mind, we present to you Thomas Jefferson's letter, "On the Breeding of Kings." We're guessing that Jefferson wouldn't have been enthused by the pomp and pageantry.

To Governor John Langdon
Monticello, March 5, 1810

When I observed, that the King of England was a cipher, I did not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that throne. The practice of Kings marrying only in the families of Kings has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a stable, or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let everything bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think, and in a few generations they become all body and no mind ; and this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England, you know, was in a strait-waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine, who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is as yet an exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good men and true, in His holy keeping.

Image: Dome Poon // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Iran opposition grows as regime increases repression

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:06:00 +0000

Having announced in November last year, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that the Iranian economy was "booming," President Ahmadinejad more boldly proclaimed recently that unemployment in Iran would be eradicated in two years. With official unemployment at 14.6 percent, and much higher according to unofficial estimates, this is indeed a wild claim.

Flying in the face of reality however has not been a problem for Ahmadinejad who praised Iran's economic "development" further in a speech on Feb. 28 in which he asserted that "Iran is one of the few countries in the world where no one goes to sleep hungry."

Workers in Khorammabad were quick to pick up on the president's words when he visited their town on March 1. Ahmadinejad was faced with banners proclaiming that the local factory workers were indeed hungry and that they had had enough of Ahmadinejad's "official optimism" about the economy.

It is unlikely that those workers will have had access to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Iran report (December 2010) which would have told them that high inflation would be a factor in Iran's economy for the next four years. The current inflation rate is 15 percent, which Ahmadinejad has responded to by keeping the exchange rate artificially high. The outcome of this strategy is that the price of foreign goods remains more stable than those produced in Iran, at Khorammabad or elsewhere, meaning that Iranian-produced goods remain on the shelves.

These are facts which the factory workers in Khorammabad would not need the EIU report to understand. They would also fully understand the doubling of the price of bread and the quadrupling of gas prices in recent weeks, pushing them further into poverty and, in spite of Ahmadinejad's pronouncements, hunger.

Protests in the major cities of Shiraz and Isfahan, as well as the capital Tehran, have underlined the growing discontent in recent weeks. Al Jazeera reported that "silent" protests in Shiraz on March 27 were broken up by the regime's feared Basij corps on motorcycles.

The official IRNA news agency reported that Faezeh Rafsanjani, the daughter of ex-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had been among those arrested for participating in the protest. Fars news agency reported that she was released shortly thereafter.

Arrests took place in the Azerbaijan province during the traditional spring festival on April 2 while Amnesty International has indicated that 70 Azerbaijani citizens were arrested in Tabriz and 20 others at Uremieh at the same time.

While tackling any open signs of protest with its usual display of brute force and arrest the government is also taking measures to restrict the development of Iran's civil society. As online news agency Rooz reported recently:

"The Majlis, Iran's parliament, is in the process of approving a bill that according to civil activists aims at eliminating independent civil institutions and replacing them with government organization.

According to the provisions of this bill not only are individuals who plan to establish non-governmental or civil organizations required to be fully cleared and approved by the Ministry of Intelligence and supervisory committees, but even organizations that already have operational licenses and have been active need to reapply for new permits. If the latter are not approved, the supreme supervisory committee will annul their current permits and ban their activities."

The approval or otherwise of civil society organizations has, until now, been the provenance of the judiciary in Iran, thus restricting the ability of the security forces to interfere. The current bill, in moving responsibility to the supreme supervisory committee, would create the basis for a pseudo government-operated civil society.

According to Sohrab Razzaghi, managing editor of Arseh Sevom (Civil Society), the bill would be "yet another nail in the coffin" of civil society in Iran. In relation to civil associations in Iran, Razzaghi went on to say that the bill would:

"... deny them their freedom and would result in the elimination of all the achievements that people have gained in this respect by the government. The implementation of this bill would end the life of the country's independent civil society and in its place create an obedient and quiet dependant society."

Arseh Sevom, along with Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and eight other civil and human rights organizations, has issued a statement expressing concern over the bill.

Former MP Mousavi Khoeiniha sees the bill as part of a wider push to neutralize opposition in the build-up to the 2013 presidential elections:

"The recent Majlis election and the issues that have come up since are concerning for the regime," he said, so they are planning for the upcoming Majlis and presidential elections and believe that civil society institutions will cause them problems then."

There is little doubt that as the economic crisis in Iran worsens the population is turning to more open ways of expressing their anger against the regime's policies. As the repressive machinery of the state moves into higher gear, with the approach of the 2013 presidential election, the means of opposition will also diversify.

Solidarity with the Iranian people will be more vital than ever to ensure that the tactics of the regime are exposed and that the true voice of the people of Iran, both on the streets and in the organizations of civil society, is heard.

Photo: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a press conference in Tehran, Iran, April 4. (AP /Vahid Salemi)

Is Myanmar at a crossroads?

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:56:00 +0000

So far 2011 is proving to be an eventful year for Myanmar, formerly known as and still generally called Burma. Despite the slight easing of restraints put on Aung San Suu Kyi, there is widespread distrust of the country's rulers and their version of reality.

This distrust was exemplified by the junta controlled media reports after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Shan State in northeast Burma on March 24, minimizing the number of dead.

Now the U.S. is sending a new envoy to Myanmar: Derek Mitchell, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific affairs. It is an open question: What will be his role in Burma?

The generally under-reported fact is that over the past 20 years of military dictatorship in Myanmar, the government's repressive leaders have had a close relationship with U.S. and European oil, gasoline and gem corporations. These capitalist enterprises reap billions in profits from Burma, prop up the military junta, and leave most of the country underdeveloped, with few freedoms and a permanent state of poverty.

As a result, one third of Burmese children are malnourished according to the World Food Program.

The primary western companies benefiting from a relationship with the junta ruling Burma are Chevron and France-based Total, as well as Norway state investment gas and oil ventures in a pipeline running from Burma into China, a project that has been marked by numerous allegations of human rights abuses.

Coupled with these capitalist ventures is heavy western trade in the lucrative gems market. Burma is said to have 90 percent of the world's rubies, and large deposits of jade and blue sapphire. These resources are worth billions of dollars, and, like the gas deposits, go to prop up the junta and enrich private interests rather then do anything to lift the nation, out of poverty.

It would seem that the revenue from these resources would be better spent for building schools, roads and hospitals for the benefit of the people of Burma, now numbering over 54 million, in one of the poorest countries in the world.

What direction will Derek Mitchell, the new U.S. envoy, encourage Myanmar to take? Only time will tell, but the operations of Chevron in other countries besides Burma is possibly an ominous sign of events to come. Particularly the devastation that Chevron has caused in Ecuador does not bode well.

Some references to learn more: Earth Rights International focusing on human rights and environmental abuse in Myanmar and across the world at http://www.earthrights.org, news covering Myanmar and Southeast Asia at http://www.irrawaddy.org/, news concerning human rights issues in Myanmar at http://burmadigest.info and Urge Chevron to Clean Up its Oil Spill in the Amazon.

Photo: Burmese expatriates in London call for democracy in Myanmar (by English PEN/cc by 2.0/Flickr)

Reject terrorism, extradite Posada

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:17:00 +0000

Acquitted in a federal court in El Paso, Texas, on April 14, Luis Posada Carriles now walks free in Miami. Yet the U.S. government is aware of Posada's record of terrorism. Evidence to that effect was presented in the trial, even though that trial was only about immigration fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice. In conformity with international law, the United States should either try Posada here for the terrorist crimes of which he is accused, or to extradite him to Venezuela. He awaits trail there for masterminding the blowing up of a Cuban civilian airliner in 1976, which caused the deaths of 73 people.

After a long career of mayhem, as an agent first of the CIA, then of Venezuelan national security (DISIP) and then as the leader of anti-communist terrorist networks, Cuban-born Luis Posada, a naturalized citizen of Venezuela, arrived illegally in Florida in March, 2005. Immigration authorities tried for two years to deport him. No country would take him, save one: Venezuela, had submitted its extradition request within weeks of Posada's arrival. The administrative judge handling his case, however, forbade deportation on the grounds that Posada might be tortured in Venezuela, the only evidence of this being the testimony of a witness who had been Posada's Venezuelan colleague in torture.

The scenario changed a little when Posada, applying for U.S. citizenship, was accused of lying about, among other things, how he entered the United States. He ended up in a federal court this time, in El Paso, where his case meandered for four years. Posada meanwhile lived in Miami as the toast of the town.

After a 13-week trial, on April 14 a jury took two hours to acquit Posada, after having been denied access to key evidence by a Republican-appointed judge.

At issue now is the Venezuelan extradition request. Posada escaped from jail in Venezuela in 1985. But there's more to the story. Posada escaped to evade prosecution for the 1976 bombing of the Cuban airliner by his Venezuelan employees Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo Lozano. Testimony landing them in jail implicates Posada as one of the masterminds of the bombing plot. Declassified U. S. documents do likewise. Venezuela's extradition treaty with the United States dates from 1922. Extradition or full prosecution of Posada is required under two treaties the U.S. signed, one on international terrorism, the other on civil aviation safety.

On April 19, U.S. authorities announced proceedings aimed at returning Gen. Eugenio Vides Casanova, resident in Florida since 1989, to El Salvador. The military he headed there in the 1980s massacred civilians. That's a precedent that applies to Posada. On April 11, a court in Costa Rica ordered Henry López Sisco's deportation to Venezuela. He will be answering for murders he, like Posada, carried out for Venezuela's DISIP intelligence agency. That's another precedent.

The time is overdue for justice-minded people to organize to secure Luis Posada's extradition to Venezuela.

In extraditing Posada, the U.S. government will be making amends for complicity in keeping the terrorist going. With money from U.S. supporters, Posada arranged for hotel bombings in Havana in 1997. One of them killed Italian visitor Fabio di Celmo. Cuba provided information to U.S. authorities as to who in the United States helped Posada. Nothing happened, except that the FBI arrested five Cuban men, the "Cuban Five," for having monitored Posada's Florida associates.

In 2004, U.S. diplomatic pressure was instrumental in securing Posada's release from jail in Panama. He'd been part of a plot to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro, visiting Panama in 2000. A Panamanian court had convicted Posada and some associates, but right-wing President Mireya Moscoso, who is close to Republican Party politicians in South Florida, pardoned them.

If the U.S. government extradites Posada, it will be showing some backbone. Standing up to politically and financially powerful forces in South Florida operating as proxy deciders of U.S. Cuba policies would be all to the good. So too would be confronting U.S. intelligence services solicitous of ex-CIA asset Posada. They are afraid he will make good his threat to "tell all" about past CIA activities. Concealing this information does not serve the interests of the American people.

The occasion calls for forthright action. All progressive people should unite around the demand for Posada's immediate extradition to Venezuela.

Right and wrong in the matter are clear. More accommodation of terrorist gangs is not an option.

Photo: This sign in Havana, Cuba, reads, "What barbarians! They have liberated a terrorist." Photo taken in 2007. Peter Vanderheyden CC 2.0

New WikiLeaks documents add to Guantanamo controversy

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:16:00 +0000

WikiLeaks, the controversial whistleblower website run by Australian Julian Assange, has released yet another cache of highly secret, highly controversial documents - this time about the U.S. detention facility at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. More than half a dozen newspapers globally, including the Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and the Daily Telegraph, published information from over 700 files relating to the prison Sunday night.

These files detail the condition in which each detainee was obtained, their medical condition, and any information they have provided via interrogation. Of the more than 700 prisoners that have been at the facility, the documents show that only 220 were assessed by military and intelligence officials to be dangerous international terrorists. Another 380 were determined to be low-level Taliban or Al Qaeda foot-soldiers whose level of danger outside Afghanistan was considered questionable.

Perhaps most shockingly, these documents acknowledge that at least 150 of the prisoners were completely innocent Pakistanis or Afghans. These prisoners were rounded up by, or even occasionally sold to, American forces and transferred to the Guantanamo prison. In these documents, it is revealed that U.S. commanders commented on the transfer of innocent men to Cuba with, "No reason recorded for transfer." Given the controversy around the interrogation techniques used by officials at this facility, it is a possibility that these men were tortured before being assessed as having little to no value as information sources.

Likely the most valuable prisoner at the facility is reputed operational commander of Al Qaeda and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is scheduled to face a military tribunal later this year. In the WikiLeaks documents, his file states that Al Qaeda has planned or is currently planning attacks in Asia, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Perhaps the most frightening revelation is his claim that the terrorist group has hidden a nuclear bomb somewhere in Europe which he threatens will explode if Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is ever captured or killed. Other threats that have been extracted from prisoners includes possible gas attacks, including using cyanide in the air ducts of public buildings. However, such claims must be looked at with a healthy level of skepticism, as many were extracted under the "enhanced interrogation techniques" that many would argue qualify as torture.

It is likely that the release of these classified documents will renew the fierce debate about the controversial prison, which President Obama promised but so far failed to close.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Cuban Communist Party congress recalls victories, projects more

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:29:00 +0000

The Cuban Communist Party's sixth congress, meeting April 16-19, coincided with the 50-year anniversary of victory over U.S. forces at the Bay of Pigs and with Fidel Castro proclaiming Cuba's revolution as socialist. It was an occasion for remembering and rededication.

A million and half people began gathering in the streets of Havana at 5 a.m., April 16, in order to, three hours later, file past a reviewing stand in front of Cuba's monument to national hero Jose Marti. Military formations went first, followed by Cuban young people.

Maidel Gómez Lago, president of the University Students Association, spoke to the multitude, saying, "A young women like myself ... born under the skies of a just and independent Cuba can tell about and value our history, can read and write about these deeds because we spread schools around, like the seeds those hundreds of thousands of young people, primers in hand, planted that same year 1961, when they taught 700,000 Cubans to read." She added, "This is and will be a revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble, just as Fidel said 50 years ago today."

There were so many people actually participating in the lead-up to the congress, and at full capacity, as to suggest a uniquely Cuban way of doing democracy. And for a congress to have closed leaving a full agenda of follow-up tasks presupposes a confident people expecting that work under way would, in time, be finished.

"In our country, ideas enter into battles the way events do," said Fidel Castro at the party's first congress.

From the beginning, says literacy campaign expert Felipe de J. Perez Cruz, "Education would have a protagonist role." Before 1959, half of all school aged children attended no school; 37 percent of those in school completed only the third grade. Rural illiteracy was 41.7 percent.

Preparing for the party congress 53 years later, the government distributed a document called "Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution." For nearly three months, millions of Cubans discussed the document and suggested changes, prompting the congress to approve a new set of guidelines. Only 94 of the original 291 items remained intact, 16 were folded into other guidelines, 181 took on new content, and 36 were new. The revised "Guidelines" document goes next to the National Assembly for legislative action.

Five commissions held forums at the congress, allowing delegates to critique the guidelines. Ample media coverage served to return the discussions back to the people. One commission covered industry, energy, tourism policies, construction, and housing; another, "agro-industry, transport and commerce;" another, jobs, salaries and social security and the economy.

The congress named new Central Committee members to replace 59 retiring. Not only were they selected so as to increase representation of women, young people and African descended Cubans, but they were chosen also because they were prepared. Closing the congress, First Secretary Raúl Castro indicated they were "selected from the immense pool of university graduates and qualified specialists, which the Revolution lost no time in educating." They have "risen from the most humble homes, with active participation in student organizations, UJC [youth organization], and the party," he said. They've worked at the grassroots level, "while continuing to work in the professions which they studied."

Cuban Communists learned about their "battle of ideas" from independence leader Jose Marti who, over a century ago, founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party, the Communist Party's precursor. Basic to Marti's "love of people and human dignity ... of independence and anti-imperialism," explained Perez Cruz, was his idea that "to be cultured is the only way to be free." The Cuban Revolution "rescued" that sentiment, he said.

Having confronted economic collapse and international isolation after the Soviet Union fell, dealing now with a world economic crisis, an outmoded style of governance and unrelenting U.S. blockade, the Cuban Communist Party is the protagonist of change. Some of Cuba's foreign supporters worry about a drift into capitalism. Yet Raúl Castro testified as to his "principal mission and purpose for being: to defend, preserve and continue perfecting socialism, and to never allow the return of the capitalist system." Castro plans not to be alone in his resolve. An engaged, historically aware people realize, he said, "that their strength lies in their iron-clad unity."

A national party conference meets on January 28, 2012, the 159th anniversary of Jose Marti's birth, to continue the work of this congress. Its job will be periodically to reevaluate party functioning and to implement changes in structures and policies.

Image: James Bridle // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Czech Communist Party faces repression

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:49:00 +0000

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia is facing a repressive campaign organized by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Petr Nečas. If the government has its way, the party will be officially dissolved and forbidden from participating in electoral and other activities. In 2006, there was a similar effort to destroy the Communist Youth Union, which, however, failed in the courts for "lack of evidence."

In the "democratic" Czech Republic, the government argues that communism is a criminal ideology, just like Nazism. Supposed evidence for this is that communists do not respect constitutional guarantees for private property or foreswear any hypothetical resort to armed struggle. Also, the communists will not repudiate Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto. All this is alleged to violate the Czech Constitution.

The Czech regime also wants to provide compensation to people who fought against the socialist government that arose after World War II, taking the money from the pensions of communists. Forgotten is the fact that Czech and Slovak communists played a major role in fighting the Nazi regime that wiped out most of Czechoslovakia's Jewish population and carried out other horrors, including the extermination of almost the whole town of Lidice. Communists, like other members of the Czech anti-Nazi resistance, suffered brutal repression. Equating of communists to Nazis is therefore deeply repugnant.

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia rose from the ashes of the old Czechoslovak Communist Party when that country split after the collapse of socialism. It is rooted in the working class in this most industrialized of Eastern European countries. In the last parliamentary elections, in May of 2010, the Communist Party came in fourth, receiving 589,765 votes in this country of about 10 million, and kept its 26 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Although this was down from previous years, it is respectable support for a party that has been the target of such intensive red baiting. (The Social Democratic Party came in first with 1,155,267 votes and 74 seats, but the right had enough seats to form a coalition).

So for the Czech government to push for the abolition of the Communist Party is to wish to deny the political options of a considerable part of the working class.

But maybe that is the point.

The Czech regime is reactionary. The Prime Minister, Petr Nečas, is from the right-wing of the right-center Civic Democratic Party. The foreign minister, Prince Karl zu Schwarzenberg, from the TOP 09 party, is the head of what was formerly the most powerful Austro-German noble family in Bohemia (use of titles of nobility are forbidden in the Czech Republic, but he is widely known in Europe as "Serene Highness"). The minister of Interior until last week, Radek John, from the Public Affairs Party, is one of the main instigators of the anti-communist campaign.

Since the current world financial and economic crisis began, the Czech government has jumped on the anti-worker bandwagon. A vote is coming up soon on a program of austerity to bring the budget deficit down to the level of European Union rules. Pensions, labor rights, health care and social services face the axe.

Opposition comes from Communists, Social Democrats and others. So to attack the communists, and deprive them of their 26 seats in parliament, would weaken the resistance of the Czech working people to the attacks on their wages, working conditions and rights.

To slander the communists by equating them with the Nazis, even while authorities wink at the rise of far right and racist anti Roma (Gypsy) groups, also serves to distract people from remembering that the communists have always been a bulwark against fascism. The Czech government is, in fact, opening the door to a resurgence of fascism by repressing the communists.

In the last few weeks, the smallest coalition partner, Public Affairs, has been rocked by corruption scandals, suggesting that the coalition might collapse. Meanwhile, polls have shown the prestige of both Public Affairs and TOP 09 to be in sharp decline, while that of the Communist Party is on the ascendant. So the communists and the social democrats have called for a vote of no confidence on April 26, and new elections if the government loses it.

At the last minute, Nečas may have managed to patch up the differences. But even if the left does not manage to get a vote of no confidence, Social Democrats and Communists are going to keep agitating for new elections, including at rallies scheduled for May 1.

The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, meanwhile has called on democratically minded people worldwide to contact Czech embassies and consulates to express their repudiation of the undemocratic and repressive acts of the Czech government.

Image: Picturesque Prague, Czech Republic, is the site of the anti-Communist battle. Vlastimil Ott // CC BY-SA 2.0

Tough elections for India's communists

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 15:44:00 +0000

Two Communist-led states of India, West Bengal, with a population of 90 million and Kerala, with 30 million, are in the midst of tough elections.

Kerala is the southernmost coastal state of India. Elections for the state legislature's 140 electoral districts were held on April 13. Results, withheld so as not to influence elections in four other states, will be declared on May 13.

West Bengal had its first phase of elections on April 18. Another four phases are spread over several days so that sufficient security personnel can be deployed to protect the polls. Maoist violence, in league with the anticommunist opposition TMC party and the federal ruling Indian National Congress party has created a serious law and order challenge. The Left Front, composed of the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and two smaller parties has ruled West Bengal for 35 years, in seven continuous five-year terms. The bourgeois opposition is determined to use all means to prevent another communist victory.

Kerala was the first state to elect a communist majority in the second election of independent India in 1957. The then undivided Communist Party of India held an extraordinary convention to formulate their resolve to strive for a peaceful transition to socialism, amending the party constitution for that purpose. The division of the party in 1963-64 into the CPI and CPI (Marxist), has not altered their course.

Since the first victory, the number of communist organizers has grown every year and every election, but the reaction to their good work by profiteers has also grown. Except for one five-year election cycle, won by the communists, the communists have alternated in power with the opposition.

This time, the Left Democratic Front and the rival United Democratic Front in Kerala mobilized 23 million voters to 20,578 polling stations. About 80 percent voted, and victory margins appear pretty narrow. By mutual agreement, the left grouping, led by CPI-M, is contesting 93 seats of the 140 and the CPI is contesting 27. Others have 13 seats. The UDF comprises the Indian National Congress for which the main ministers, led by the prime minister, canvassed for more than a month. They are in alliance with Muslim League Party in Kerala and some Christian minority-led parties (Interestingly, Christianity and communism both arrived in Kerala early in their development). Using religion against communists is done without qualms.

Predictably, managers of Christian schools mostly favor the Congress-led front, but the School Teachers Union has been affiliated with communists since 1957. Their leader was the first education minister of the communist government.

This time the UDF is claiming its right to alternate victory, and its leader, Chandi, is seeking to become chief minister, replacing the communist chief minister Achutha Nandan, who is still popular at age 87.

The UDF's claims of a shot at victory are based on well-advertised differences between CPI-M's state level party secretary his own chief minister. The central Politburo of CPI-M suspended the chief minister and state secretary from the Politburo as punishment, though the state secretary was reinstated later. There are complaints of CPI-M party organizers showing high handedness towards people and towards allied parties.

Nevertheless, the left front's record of mass work and its record for state-run welfare is considered exemplary. Of India's 35 states, Kerala is the only one with 100 percent literacy for both sexes. The vast numbers of party members and organizers have expertise in linkage of legislators to the people. This time the aggressiveness of the federal ruling party against communists is extraordinarily sharp, as the government's majority at the national level has been under threat since the communists withdrew their support over the government's strategic cooperation with U.S. President George W. Bush and the nuclear deal signed by India and the United States.

The communists in Kerala pioneered the system of state licensed subsidized food ration stores some 50 years back. Other states later imitated this system, but not whole-heartedly. Before the election of 2011, the poor were getting subsidized rice at a mere U.S. 2 cents (one Rupee) per pound up to 35 pounds per family of uncooked rice each month. They have had access to this help for at least five years. This time, only one week before the declaration of the election date, the communist-ruled state ordered the opening of these facilities to any citizen asking for it for next five years. The opposition condemned the move as bribe to voters on the eve of elections. The communist explanation, that this is not a new scheme, but an extension of old rule was not accepted by the state high court, though a lower court agreed and extended it. Now the ball is in people's court. The opposition has effectively obstructed the flow of rice to the hungry. Chandi says he is not against the rice supply system but asks from where the funds are to come.

West Bengal had peaceful polls on April 18 and will have subsequent elections on April 23 and 27,and on May 3, 7 and 10. On May 13, the results will be counted. Of the 290 electoral districts the, left put forward 150 new faces. Incumbents with re-election difficulties were changed in party discussions. The ruling front dropped nine of its ministers to counter resistance of voters to incumbency and give chance to new cadre. The state has asked the central government to provide 100 companies of central reserve police to counter violence from the Maoists, a third subset of communists divided into numerous known and unknown factions who believe that power must emerge from the barrel of the gun. They are opposed to the CPI, and CPI-M and also the bourgeois state. But in West Bengal, to end the 35-year communist monopoly of elected power, the Maoists have joined hands with the opposition. Hundreds of communists have lost lives in terrorist violence by the Maoists, and voters are threatened. Immense resources have been tapped for the TMC opposition, which is the profiteer's darling party and is an ally of the Congress Party, which is in national power.

The opposition has inflicted serious blows, defeating communists in local elections in West Bengal recently. But people in rural areas have affinity for the red flag. Sita Ram Yechury, leader of the federal communist parliamentary group, summarily declared, "Nobody can take Bengal from us communists."

On May 13, 1611, the Red Fort in Delhi was built. On the same date in 2011, the red flag of the West Bengal communists might still keep fly, despite hostile winds, and raise an emerging hope for a new phase in the history of the left in India, and send a message for the world.

Image: Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, chief minister of West Bengal.

Cuban communists elect new leaders, plan for changes

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:32:00 +0000

The sixth congress of the Communist Party of Cuba wound up on April 19 with the election of a new leadership for the party and a set of proposals to be submitted to the National Assembly of People's Power, Cuba's legislature, for approval.

Party leaders stressed that even though some of the proposals may seem radical, their purpose is not to dismantle, but to strengthen Cuba's socialist system.

The present Communist Party of Cuba is the result of the coming together, after the Cuban Revolution of January 1 1959, of the communist People's Socialist Party, Fidel Castro's 26 of July Movement and others.

It has a history of innovativeness and adaptability, combined with a firm commitment to socialism. It also has a remarkable record of international solidarity, and continues to make major contributions to Marxist theory.

The Party has nearly 800,000 members in this nation of 11 million. There were 1,000 delegates to the congress. To prepare for the it, there were 163,000 discussion meetings, based on a set of guidelines or proposals, in workplaces and the community over the last several months, with nearly 9 million Cuban citizens participating and proposing changes to the draft proposals. In other words, not only party members but the whole of Cuban society participated in these consultations, which resulted in a significant evolution of the original proposals.

President Raul Castro, in his address to the congress, exemplified both the firmness and the adaptability of the Cuban communists. He strongly criticized some tendencies that had developed in the functioning of the party and state, which in his view sap the efficiency of economic institutions and need to be changed.

Among the most controversial proposals is to phase out the food ration book, which has been so all-encompassing that until recently it covered the purchase of cigarettes, at a time when Cuban health authorities have been trying to curb smoking. Also, the book provides for coffee rations for newborn babies, not big imbibers even in coffee-loving Cuba. The idea of phasing out the ration book at a time when food prices are rising worldwide has caused some worry, but President Castro said that nothing would be done precipitously; there will be consultation and adjustment of these plans as they are gradually implemented. "The Revolution will not leave any Cuban helpless. The social welfare system is being reorganized to ensure a rational and deferential support to those who really need it. Instead of massively subsidizing products as we do now, we shall gradually provide for those people lacking other support."

The government has already begun laying off state workers while at the same time opening up opportunities for small businesses, cooperatives and self-employment in non-crucial areas of the economy. Over time, it is anticipated that over a million will be laid off. Government land had also been distributed to persons willing to try their hand at farming. The congress voted to ask the legislature to lower proposed taxes on these "micro-enterprises," and called for phasing out the current "dual currency" system, devolution of some central state powers to local governments and a looser central control over state economic enterprises.

Many Cubans will be happy to hear that the congress recommended making it easier to sell one's house or automobile. Castro stressed that by rationalizing all these things, the state will be able to focus its resources better and, thus, socialism will be strengthened.

Raúl Castro proposed a radical change in the way that the party relates to the government. He believes that these functions have become muddled leading to a difficulty in decision making in both entities. He called for the Communist Party to withdraw from involvement in the running of state entities, and to concentrate on its role as educator and moral conscience of the Cuban nation. At the same time, he recommended that elected state officials be limited to two five-year terms, to stimulate the advancement of younger people.

Castro reiterated Cuba's willingness to talk to the United States without preconditions, but deplored the fact that the U.S. has intensified enforcement of some aspects of the trade blockade it has maintained against Cuba for more than 50 years.

The party leadership elected by the Congress contains a mixture of old and new. The new 15-member Political Bureau, the highest ongoing body of the Party, is notable for an absence: Former President Fidel Castro, who attended the Congress, no longer is listed. He has explained that when he fell dangerously ill from an intestinal ailment in 2006, he withdrew from both government and party posts. Raúl Castro now moves into Fidel's old position of First Secretary. Veteran revolutionary Jose Ramon Machado Ventura is the Second Secretary, while the rest of the membership includes well known figures such as Vice President Ramiro Valdez Menendez, Vice President Esteban Lazo Hernandez, parliament President Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, Cuban Confederation of Workers secretary general Salvador Valdez Mesa and Havana Province party leader Mercedes Lopez Acea.

The 7-member secretariat and the other 95 Central Committee members included a wide array of interests and activities in Cuban society, with a strong representation of women. The 115-member Central Committee is composed of 48 percent women, 31 percent Afro-Cubans and people of mixed race, and many younger people. They represent a wide array of interests and activities in Cuban society, including agriculture, industry, sports, foreign affairs, science, health care, academia, environmentalism and other fields.

Image: Fidel and Raúl Castro confer at the recent congress of the Cuban Communist Party, via Associated Press.

World Notes: Finland, Honduras, Japan – and more

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:16:00 +0000

Finland: Anti-bailout Populists win

Buoyed by opposition to EU bailouts and disillusionment with government scandals and arrivals of new immigrants, the populist True Finn Party won 19.1 percent of the votes in elections April 17. The gain from five parliamentary seats in 2007 to now 39 represents Finland's biggest election turn-around ever, said rebelion.org. The Party will probably collaborate in forming a new government with the conservative National Coalition Party that took 19.9 percent and with Social Democrats accounting for 19.2 percent of the vote. Placing fourth, the Center Party dropped from 52 to 35 seats. Finland is the only EU country requiring parliamentary approval for participation in EU bailouts. Ultimately, however, the True Finns will likely support a Portugal bailout, in exchange for the government not pursuing tax and retirement age hikes.

Honduras: Chavez takes on mediation role

At a Caracas press conference April 17, exiled President Jose Manuel Zelaya, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and leaders of Honduras' National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP), announced Chavez would be attempting to mediate conflict within Honduras. Chavez and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos earlier had conferred with serving Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. FNRP official Juan Barahona, quoted by aporrea.org, said Chavez would be conveying four FNRP stipulations: “return of exiles [including Zelaya], respect for human rights, convocation of a constituent assembly, and recognition of the FNRP as a political organization.” He later expressed hope Zelaya would return in May setting the stage for the Organization of American States meeting in June to readmit Honduras, ostracized because of the coup in 2009.

Japan: Public service workers under the gun

Spurning International Labor Organization recommendations, the government indicated April 5 that public sector workers lacked rights to strike and bargain collectively. These are “fundamental labor rights,” responded labor union activists, according to Japan Press Service. Projected civil service reforms also entail reducing government employees, which critics say weakens the public response to natural disasters. Civil service overview is moved from the National Personnel Authority, a “neutral and specialized organization” its website says, to a cabinet office. Personnel there will be negotiating salary demands and working conditions. The reforms offer no protection against “Amakudari,” the time honored arrangement encouraging senior bureaucrats to take lucrative, influence peddling positions in the private and public sectors.

Swaziland: Protests mount against oppression

Meeting in Accra on April 11-12, the African section of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) denounced repression of trade unionists and other pro-democratic forces in Swaziland. Naming eight high-level labor leaders arrested along with other activists on April 12, the censure hit violations of rights of free speech and assembly and use of torture. The besieged unions are demanding the royal government revoke its emergency decree of 1973 that criminalizes political dissent. The ITUC statement appearing on its website condemns the government for corruption, extravagant displays of wealth and institutionalization of poverty. Days before, activists inside the country and outside had met across the border in Kamhlushwa, South Africa, to inaugurate a new Communist Party of Swaziland.

Syria: Opposition group receives Washington money

As anti-government demonstrations continued in mid April, revelations from cables made available by the Wikileaks website indicate that from 2006 through at least 2010 the U.S. State Department funded activities directed at overthrowing President Bashar Al-Assad's government. Over $6 million flowed to the Los Angeles-based Democracy Council which dispersed money to exiled dissidents in London forming the Movement for Justice and Development. That group beams anti-government programming into Syria through its Barada satellite TV channel. Global Research reports that the cables identify the group's leaders as “liberal, moderate Islamists,” who formerly belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood. Ironically, endeavoring to build relations, the U.S. government in January 2011 sent an ambassador to Syria after a six-year hiatus.

Cuba: Spanish Bank kneels to U.S. whim

Spain's BBVA bank has 100,000 employees worldwide. One works in Cuba. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made the discovery while perusing the giant bank's annual report. Washington, reports La Republica, quizzed bank financial director Javier Malagón about the “reach and nature of [the bank's] past, present, and future activities” in Cuba and identity of its Cuban government contacts. Although the sole BBVA representative there deals only with banking needs of non-Cubans, BBVA is under the gun. There are SEC rules applying to traders on the New York Stock Exchange keeping up ties with an allegedly terrorist nation. BBVA and other foreign banks have already had to close offices in Iran. “The U.S. doesn't let down its guard,” commented elpais.com.

Strike shakes up Bolivian government

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:08:00 +0000

President Evo Morales' socialist government is close to warding off a challenge to its staying power. On April 7, the Bolivian Workers' Central, a labor federation founded in 1953 and a former Morales ally, began a national strike over wages. After 36 hours of resumed negotiations, the action was winding down on as of April 18. Highway blockades, demonstrations around government buildings, and work stoppages by teachers and health workers had been paralyzing the country.

Strikers had demanded a 15 percent wage hike. The government, set on a ten percent increase, secured tentative agreement on a 12 percent raise. Final settlement awaits approval from 55 affiliated unions. The government and the labor federation's leaders had earlier agreed on future legislation aimed at replacing fiscal and market regulations imposed in 1985 under Decree 21060. However, with only 15 percent of Bolivians being salaried, most had little stake in the strike outcome.

The strike highlighted divisions among supporters of the movement led by Morales. Mobilization headed by the region's first indigenous president originated in rural areas, among coca workers, indigenous peoples and women's organizations. To have replaced repressive regimes tied to foreign financial masters with their own government fueled enthusiasm. The government launched programs ensuring access to education, social security for elders, and aid for young mothers. Morales' electoral marjority increased from 53 percent in 2005 to 63 percent in 2009. The President easily fended off a recall referendum. There was a new constitution, oil company revenues approached $1 billion annually, and right-wing separatist plotting had quieted. Yet despite victories, schisms developed.

The 2 million-strong labor federation, which had backed Morales, encompassed unions joined by teachers, health workers, coca farmers, and women's groups. Leaders include salaried miners inured to violent struggle against industry privateers. Their resistance to the government's imposition of a 70 percent gasoline price rise led to retraction in early January. Later, the federation launched one-day general strikes against high food prices.

In the past year, inflation jumped from 2.5 percent to 10.4 percent, the second highest rate in Latin America. In late March, Morales dropped negotiations with Chile over access to a Pacific Ocean port. Turning to the International Court of Justice, he was accused of diverting attention from economic woes.

During the present strike, coca workers' unions and peasant women's organizations gravitated to the government side. With doctors on strike for two weeks, the government assigned publically employed doctors to care for neglected patients. Workers Central affiliated teachers were impervious to government and parental accusations of abandoning schools and children's education. Government negotiators blamed the federation's leaders for making outsized strike demands to protect leadership positions up for vote in May. That was interfering with union independence, the union alliance claimed.

Facing an $880 million budget deficit, the government warned of cuts in social services if departments and cities had to increase wages by 15 percent. Proposals to use foreign currency reserves worth $10 billion were rejected on grounds they were the "nation's patrimony."

During the strike, President Morales alluded to deadly consequences of division: "If the police let demonstrators in [to the Plaza Murillo], they would have dynamited the Legislative Palace, the Palace of Government, and if they found me, they surely would have dynamited me." His reference was to allegations that union miners bring dynamite to demonstrations. The federation does take street work seriously. "Mobilization at a thousand corners was accompanied by a strategy known as 'snake,'" reports one militant. "Groups of protesters station themselves at strategic corners until traffic is blocked off, and then move on. This generates chaos with vehicles on the sidewalks."

Weighing in against some federation leaders leaders, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera accused them of "not being ultra-leftists but instead camouflaged ultra-rightists. Dangerous!"

"We have to resist this arrogance and abuse by the leaders," he said, adding that, "The peasant confederations have announced they are going to take reprisals in rural areas." The Vice President prioritizes indigenous nationalism, according to Bolpress.com.

The Bolivian Communist Party, supporting President Morales "process of change" and intent upon bridging gaps, calls for "collective struggle, "particularly workers of field and city alike, together with the parties of the left." The party urges support for non-wage earning consumers, "the most humble and passed over," and condemns "revolutionary adventurism."

Image: Phil Whitehouse // CC BY 2.0

World's unions call for ending attack on Bahrain labor

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:32:00 +0000

As of April 20, the authorities in Bahrain have launched an all-out attack on the Bahraini trade union movement. Thousands of workers have been dismissed for taking part in trade union activities in support of the peaceful calls for greater democracy and reform.

Many of the Executive members of the General Federation of Bahraini Trade Unions have been dismissed from their jobs, as have many local trade union leaders. The people of Bahrain are living in a state of fear of further killings and other violence, arbitrary detention, and loss of their livelihoods. Bahrain is sliding into absolute dictatorship, and the elimination of trade union activity is being given a high priority by those in the ruling circles who intend to complete the transformation of the country into a totalitarian state.

Click here to support Bahrain's workers.

Originally published by the International Trade Union Confederation.

Left advances in Peru's elections

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:51:00 +0000

In the April 10 Peruvian elections, the most left-wing presidential candidate, Ollanta Humala of the "Peru Wins" (Gana Peru) alliance, came from behind and bested a whole array of right-wing candidates to enter a runoff on June 5.

Humala, a former army officer, also ran for president in the previous elections, in 2006. At that time, he also entered the runoff, against Alan Garcia of the right-populist APRA party. Polls had Humala winning but shortly before the runoff election a clever smear campaign was organized. Supporters of his opponent spread rumors that, during the Peruvian army's war against the Maoist "Shining Path" (Sendero Luminoso) guerillas, Humala was implicated in human rights abuses, though investigations have basically discounted this. This rumor campaign cut into his support from the left, while he was also portrayed from the right as a clone of Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez. This was enough to give Garcia a slight 53 to 47 margin, even though he had his own baggage coming from the huge corruption scandals of his first term as president, from 1985 to 1990.

This time around, Peru found itself with much-touted indicators of economic "prosperity," but an unsatisfied people. The dissatisfaction has arisen from the fact that the prosperity has been confined to upper strata of Peruvian society, while indicators for the mass of workers and farmers, and especially for the millions of indigenous Peruvians in the Andean highlands and the Amazonian forested regions, have remained unfavorable. There is concern about the impact of the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement and especially about corruption.

Ollanta's candidacy joined his own Nationalist Party with others, including the Peruvian Communist Party (no relation to the Maoist terror group), to form the Gana Peru alliance, which took a cautious stand for greater economic equality and social justice. All the other major candidates were right wing and based their economic proposals on the neoliberal program of "free" trade and privatization.

President Alan Garcia's own party, the venerable APRA, ended up being in such disarray that it did not even field a presidential candidate. This appears to be a historic collapse; for much of the 20th century, APRA was seen by the Peruvian upper class and especially the military as a bogeyman that on no account was to be allowed to win an election. More than one coup was plotted in the Peruvian officer corps with the purpose of preventing a victory by the APRA "reds" and their leader, Victor Raul Haya de la Torre (1895-1979). Whether APRA will ever recover remains to be seen.

Humala, who got about 32 percent of the vote in the first round, will face Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, in the runoff; she took about 23 percent of the vote. Support for Fujimori seems to be based on the idea that she would be tough on crime and disorder. Third was former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczinski. Former President Alejandro Toledo trailed far behind with about 15 percent.

Support for Humala came heavily from indigenous populations who have suffered poverty and repression from Garcia's government, as well as from the working class and the left.

Writing for the Peruvian Communist Party, Teofilo Bellido hailed the results of the runoff as a popular victory, characterizing it as "a repudiation of the existing poverty, of 'entreguismo' [subordination of Peru's interests to foreign capital], of corruption, of environmental contamination and of the absence of dignified work," and warned that a massive effort will be required not to see a repeat of the 2006 runoff disappointment.

Peru's other Communist Party, "Patria Roja" (Red Fatherland, also no connection to the Maoist Sendero Luminoso), initially not enthusiastic about Humala, also called for a repudiation of Fujimori and for a vote for Humala in the runoff, bannering the statement on its website with "Close the road to the Fujimori mafia! Vote for Ollanta Humala!" It characterized the regime of Alberto Fujimori as "incarnating one of the most dark and corrupt phases" in Peruvian history.

The senior Fujimori is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for corruption and abuse of power when he was president. Although she says she will not, many Peruvians fear that Keiko Fujimori might find a way to free her father from jail if she makes it to the presidency.

Image: Young people show support for Humala, via his campaign site.

What’s going on in Haiti

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 11:19:00 +0000

In Haiti, where the U.S. government wages what amounts to low-intensity war, the balance of forces does not favor the people. Successive U.S. governments, once the servant of slaveholders, long ago undertook to clean the Western Hemisphere of popular rebellions. France, the colonial power jilted by a slave rebellion in Haiti 200 years ago, weighs in as needed.

Popular mobilization lifted Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti's presidency in 1990 and 2000. It impelled thousands of Aristide's Lavalas Party adherents to accompany him from Port-au-Prince's airport to his residence on March 18, when he returned from U.S.-imposed exile in South Africa.

Supporters credit Aristide in office with school construction, women's education projects, health care and medical education initiatives, and AIDS programs. Aristide governments doubled the minimum wage and taxed the wealthy. He demanded France return money extorted for loss of slave property.

After the January 2011 earthquake devastated Haiti, international solidarity mushroomed. Cuba, Brazil and Venezuela fashioned an aid system focusing on construction, education and health care. Namibia, Norway, South Africa, Australia and Spain jointly contributed $350 million. Cuba, having trained doctors and provided medical care in Haiti for a decade, has maintained 1,200 doctors there since the earthquake. They work in 23 hospitals and have carried out 2 million patient visits. Joined by Doctors without Borders, they fight a cholera epidemic projected to cause 11,100 deaths by year's end.

Yet forces of repression remain fully engaged. Ex-dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier's return from exile in France on January 16 seemed effortless. Washington was maneuvering meanwhile to block President Aristide's return. President Obama tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade South African President Jacob Zuma to delay Aristide's departure.

Haiti's President-elect Michel Martelly, victor in second-round voting on March 20, actually took third place in the first round. But U.S. Secretary of State Clinton arrived on January 30 to force Haiti's Electoral Council to implement the OAS Verification Mission's ruling that Martelly be given a second-place finish, thus enabling him to move into the second round. U.S., French and Canadian representatives dominated on the OAS commission. The Lavalas party had been banned from election participation. Turnouts for first- and second-round voting reached 25 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Political novice Martelly's campaign benefited from $29 million in foreign financial backing. He was once affiliated with the murderous "Tonton Macoutes" and, later, with CIA-supported FRAPH paramilitaries. Martelly, a self-described "entrepreneur," promises Duvalier a role as advisor. He pledged to restore Haiti's army, disbanded by Aristide for human rights abuses.

Meanwhile, other international earthquake recovery efforts have been playing out beyond Haitian borders. A UN-sponsored donor conference in March 2010 pledged $10 billion in aid, plus debt relief, with $4.7 billion scheduled for delivery within 18 months. Only 37 percent has been disbursed 13 months later. The U.S. has so far handed over only $120 million of its $1.15 billion commitment.

The former U.S. coordinator for relief and reconstruction, Lewis Lucke, claims he helped the Haiti Recovery Group Ltd. gain reconstruction contracts worth $20 million. His lawsuit seeking $500,000 in compensation for the favor highlights the priorities of one U.S. operator. According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Lucke traveled to Haiti to ensure the new government works "closely with private local and international donors to ensure prompt delivery and effective use of $10 billion in foreign aid." But Haitian members of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, have expressed outrage at being "completely disconnected from the activities of the IHRC." Haitian organizations are demanding that the commission be dissolved.

Foreign domination involves direct outside military occupation, under United Nations cover. Soldiers and police of the UN's MINUSTAH contingent, presently numbering 12,200, arrived shortly after Aristide's removal. UN troops maintain repression of Lavalas activists. U.S. funding covers one-fourth of this year's $854 million MINUSTAH budget. A U.S. armada showed up off Haiti immediately after the earthquake with thousands of troops going ashore. Some 300 of them returned for the second round of presidential voting.

Military invasion, whether by U.S or UN proxy troops, is in the North American grain. Under U.S. military occupation from 1915 to 1934, Haitian independence fighters were brutally suppressed. Later, invasion and occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1965 were aimed at warding off another Cuba, i.e., another socialist-style revolution. The United States invaded Cuba in 1898 in part to scuttle another Haiti, i.e. "another Black republic." For Washington, completing the circle may seem logical.

In Haiti, a million people remain homeless with excreta going into open-air pits. As of this January, reports Oxfam, only 5 percent of city rubble from last year's earthquake has been cleared. Amnesty International reports rampant abuse in displacement camps of women and girls.

Photo: Patients wait in line at the CDTI Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in February 2010. Phong Tran / IRIN | www.irinnews.org CC 2.0

Scientists to look at Big Bang

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:56:00 +0000

While the vast majority of the world's scientists agree that the universe started with the Big Bang, no one has actually seen it, since it happened nearly 14 billion years ago at what most assume to be the beginning of time.

No one has seen it until now, that is.

"In a few years from now," wrote B.S. Sathyaprakash, of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Cardiff University, on his webpage, "a network of kilometer baseline laser interferometric detectors of gravitational waves will be in operation opening a new window onto the universe."

These "detectors," essentially a super-strong telescope, to be constructed nearly half a mile below the earth's surface and more than a mile in length, may be able to look far out into space, and into the distant past, to see the Big Bang and, possibly, to determine whether any universes existed before our own.

Scientists have long understood that gazing into the night sky is actually a look into the past. While light travels extraordinarily fast - the speed of light - it does take time to cross vast distances. Thus, when looking at a star that is one light year away from the earth - that is, the distance it takes light to travel in a year - the viewer actually sees a star as it was a year ago.

The closest star is more than four light years away. The further away the star viewed, the further into the past the viewer looks.

The new Einstein Telescope is so powerful that it should enable study, instead of light, gravitational waves, inferred to exist by indirect evidence. These waves are thought to ripple through the universe as curves in space and time. The new telescope should be able to pick up the waves from the Big Bang.

In addition, it will likely allow scientists to see, for the first time, black holes and even into neutron stars, the extremely compressed remains of stars that experienced supernovas. Perhaps most exciting to scientists is the possibility of picking up trace waves from theorized previous Big Bangs - which could mean that our universe was not the first.

In addition, the telescope would be able to help scientists better understand the nature of gravity itself.

"These detectors would facilitate to test many predictions of Einstein's theory of gravitation and would help to understand the formation of black holes and neutron stars," wrote Sathyaprakash, "late stage evolution and end state of binaries consisting of black holes and/or neutron stars and the nature of the universe at the earliest moments of its creation."

The project is not the first to attempt to study gravitational waves. However, previous attempts have encountered interference due to objects on and around the earth. The new telescope's proponents, however, believe that it will encounter far less "noise" because it will be so far under ground. Another attempt, a collaboration between the European Space Agency and NASA, was jeopardized by U.S. budget cuts.

Scientists, under the auspices of the European Gravitation Observatory, will meet in Pisa, Italy, to determine exactly where the new telescope should be built.

Image via NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

NATO blocks possible peace deal in Libya

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:09:00 +0000

As the war in Libya continues, observers are foreseeing protracted, bloody conflict with considerable loss of life. While the rebel forces appear strongly supported in the Eastern part of the country, the Gadaffi regime seems to have support in the Western portion. There is also a mounting refugee crisis as Libyan citizens and many non-Libyan workers in the country's oil and gas industry are fleeing for their lives.

The two European NATO countries which have spearheaded the intervention in Libya, the United Kingdom and France, are calling for an intensification of the intervention.

A stalemate and a continuing civil war are not in the interests of the people of Libya. Therefore we should pay serious attention to attempts at mediation and a cease-fire.

From the beginning, a number of countries and blocs have called for precisely this. These include the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America) group of Latin American and Caribbean states, and also Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The African Union (AU), after being blocked by NATO bombing for a while, was able to get a delegation composed of the presidents of South Africa, Mauritania, Mali and the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) and the foreign minister of Uganda into Libya last weekend.

Our corporate-controlled press immediately belittled this delegation, pointing out that many of the African Union countries are not exactly paragons of democracy, and that the African Union and several of its component countries are deeply beholden to Gadaffi for economic support. However, the strongest figure in the delegation is South African President Jacob Zuma, whose government voted for the UN resolution enabling the no-fly zone, and has clashed with Gadaffi on other issues. So to represent the AU delegation as mere Gadaffi puppets is not correct.

The government in Tripoli reacted positively to the AU initiative but the rebel leadership in Benghazi on Monday rejected it because it does not call for the immediate removal of Gadaffi, his sons and his close associates.

Now the five countries called the "BRICS" (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), meeting in China, have come out in favor of a negotiated, peaceful settlement in Libya.

The total population of the BRICS countries and others who have stepped in to call for a cease-fire and negotiations amounts to nearly half of the population of the planet. The BRICS countries are also a rising force in the world, economically and diplomatically.

Imperialist leaders have taken the position that NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) as an "international organization" gives legitimacy to whatever they do in Libya. Nothing could be further from the truth. NATO is not an "international organization." It was founded after the Second World War as an anti-communist military alliance. Under this cover, NATO, with its Operation Gladio "stay behind" organizations, has a sinister history of intervening in the internal affairs of European countries. This includes organizing terrorism in Italy (killing scores of innocent people) so as to be able to blame it on communists, and supporting the vicious dictatorship of the colonels in Greece from 1967 to 1974. Since the collapse of Soviet and Eastern European socialism, NATO has greatly expanded its role, intervening in the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia and now operating in Afghanistan. At its meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, late last year, NATO made it clear that the "North Atlantic" for its purposes now includes just about the whole planet.

The United States is still the strongest state within NATO, but the leaders of other major NATO countries have their own imperialist agendas, which are becoming very visible as France and Britain push for escalation of the Libya war. Back in the 1960s, France (under de Gaulle) pulled out of the NATO command structure, partly because of the perception that it was dominated by the U.S. and Britain, but also because NATO at that time refused to help with France's troubles in Algeria. In 2008, the current French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, re-inserted the French armed forces into the NATO command structure. This coincides with increased French interventionism, from West Africa to Haiti. Could it be that Sarkozy now sees NATO as a useful mechanism for advancing the interests of French imperialism?

The interests of the NATO governments are those of their own ruling classes, not of the Libyan people. These ruling class interests include control over Libya's oil, gas and underground water resources, as well as geopolitical influence in an important area of the world which appears to be slipping out of imperialism's grasp.

Therefore progressive people in the United States should support any efforts of third parties to promote a peaceful solution to the growing Libya stalemate.

World Notes: China, Hungary, Ivory Coast – and more

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:08:00 +0000

China: BRICS group of nations meets

Heads of states comprising the BRIC group of nations - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - held their third meeting April 14 in China's Hainan province. President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, whose country is now part of the group, joined them. Liu Youfa of the China Institute of International Studies indicated that BRICS, as it's now referred to, was meeting "because of the similar economic development stage they are in." There was no political agenda. Yet People's Daily, commenting on the gathering, opined that "Western countries, led by the United States and France, organized a coalition and rudely interfered in Libya's civil affairs." BRICS nations last year accounted for 18 percent of global GDP in 2010, with intra-group trade growing 28 percent over eight years.

Hungary: Labor marches

An estimated 50,000 unionists affiliated with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) marched in Budapest April 9 in protest against European Union (EU) "reforms" aimed at cutting wages and pensions in member nations. The demonstration was timed with a two day meeting of EU finance ministers there, who confirmed they would be pressuring financially beleaguered Portugal into spending cuts in return for a $115-billion EU bailout. "We want jobs, growth, our welfare state intact, and we are not going to pay for bankers' mistakes," declared ETUC general secretary John Monks. The Deutsche Welle report predicts average EU deficits will fall from 6.8 percent in 2010 to 5.1 percent this year, short of the 3 percent EU recommendation.

Ivory Coast: French military role seems likely

Reports surfaced soon after President Laurent Gbagbo's removal from power that the French military engineered his capture on April 11. Communist Party parliamentary deputy Roland Muzeau, cited by L'Humanite, rejected his government's denial of a military intrusion, noting, "There is a considerable amount of doubt." Leftist European Parliament members also protested. One of them, Slovenian Ivo Vajgl, observed, "We simply jump from one area (referring to Libya) to another...we are moving back to 19th Century colonialism." France, announcing $580 million in aid to its former colony, denied the charge, and EU spokespersons defended the UN sanctioned intervention, pointing to humanitarian goals. Strife between the Muslim North and Christian South has, since the Ivory Coast's 2002 Civil War, fueled instability in the world's leading cocoa producing country.

Palestine Authority: Preparations for statehood intensify

In preparation for a donor country meeting, the United Nations issued a report April 12 testifying to progress by Palestinian leaders toward building institutions for a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority issued its own report for the meeting claiming to have effectively used financial assistance, reported Reuters, to create "health, education, energy, water, security, justice, and housing services." The target date for readiness is September, when Palestinian delegates at the UN General Assembly, representing the occupied territories and Gaza, will seek statehood recognition. The UN report expresses concern over adverse social economic conditions in Gaza and lack of meaningful Palestinian Authority presence there. IMEMC News reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying unilateral Palestinian action "will push the peace process backwards."

Costa Rica: Accused terrorist extradited to Venezuela

A court April 11 ordered the extradition to Venezuela of Henry López Sisco. He had joined Venezuelan state security services in 1966 and is accused of torture and killings. Trained in the United States, he and anti-Cuban terrorist Luis Posada, affiliated with the CIA, collaborated in the 1970's as top functionaries of Venezuela's DISIP intelligence agency. A decade later in that capacity, López Sisco and others "perpetrated massacres" of leftist activists, reports Aporrea news. He was the leader of a gang assaulting the Cuban embassy on April 12, 2002 during the unsuccessful coup against President Hugo Chavez. In late 2005, Venezuelan authorities ordered for López Sisco's arrest in the murder of Attorney General Danilo Anderson. He escaped to Costa Rica the next year.

Cuba: No easy fix for agriculture

Agriculture will be on the agenda of the Communist Party Congress opening in Havana April 16. A recent review traces progress following implementation of a 2008 decree opening up unused, arable land to private farming. Cuba then was spending $1.5 billion annually to import 60 percent of food consumed there. There are now 100,000 new farms on previously idle land, with 50,000 more targeted for 2015. They are in addition to the 350,000 farms functioning as of 2009. Three fourths of formerly unused land delivered to aspiring new farmers is under cultivation. Problems noted by the report on larepublica.es include: ongoing drought, diminished credit availability, delayed processing of land use applications, hurricane recovery costs from 2008, and effects of the U.S. economic blockade. Some 50 percent of arable land remains idle.

Union leaders: World climate meet must include green, decent jobs

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:42:00 +0000

International trade union leaders meeting April 12 in Madrid with the UN Panel on Sustainability and business and NGO representatives are calling for decisive and ambitious climate action in the lead-up to the Durban climate summit at the end of this year, and the "RIO+20" meeting in 2012. The union proposals are centered on a tax on financial transactions, a universal social protection floor, doubling the number of green and decent jobs and ensuring a just transition to a greener future.

RIO+20 is the nickname for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that will take place in Brazil, June 4-6, 2012, marking the 20th anniversary of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.

"This dialogue is a first step in the mobilization of the trade union movement towards RIO+20," said International Trade Union Confederation general secretary Sharan Burrow. "We share with the Panel the responsibility of ensuring the Rio Summit delivers on concrete actions which will reduce inequalities, create decent jobs, save the climate and protect the environment."

Burrow's organization is an international organization of national labor federations, including the AFL-CIO.

"The current economic model is heading us towards more crises, unemployment and environmental degradation", said Zwelizima Vavi, General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, which is a member of South Africa's governing three-party alliance. "If we are serious about addressing the vulnerability of poor workers and communities, RIO+20 needs to shift from piecemeal commitments and deliver a universal social protection floor, which will ensure dignified livelihoods for all. The climate negotiations in Durban must support this effort through the protection of the poorest from a climate perspective: with ambition in terms of emission reductions and climate finance."

At the Madrid meeting, organized by Sustainlabour, an international labor-based organization pushing for sustainable development, trade union leaders are meeting the "Sherpas" of the UN sustainability panel, CEOs from Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the International Wind Energy Council and the UN agencies ILO and UNEP.

"Workers in Brazil and around the world will be proactive in the preparations for the Summit in Brazil, said Artur Henrique, president of the CUT Brazil labor federation. "Even if we could guarantee our national government commits to prosperity, equality and environmental protection, this will not suffice for ensuring sustainable development. We need to transform the development and growth paradigm, and this can only be done at the international level; the Summit is an opportunity to make it happen."

"When we look at the situation today in the UK and in Europe, we realize that fiscal consolidation is being used to introduce more unfair taxation systems and undermining public services," said Frances O'Grady, Deputy General Secretary of Britain's Trade Union Congress. "RIO+20 can make a difference in the path towards a new fair and green taxation policy, notably at the international level, through the creation of a tax on financial transactions, or Robin Hood Tax, which could generate revenue for the transition towards a green economy."

"A green economy based on rights, sustainability principles and decent work can meet the challenge of our societies, said Ambet Yuson, general secretary of the Building and Woodworkers International. "We need the investments for these jobs to be created, and we need the regulations to ensure they are a first step towards the transformation of our societies. A just transition, as the ... unions are calling for, needs to be based on the transformation of all jobs into sustainable ones, and workers in all sectors, including construction and forestry, will support them."

"The UN Panel has made clear that the inputs from labor leaders are necessary to build a sustainable world, and we are glad to convene these dialogue. The inclusion of the concrete proposals just mentioned in the panel's work will influence the capacity of the RIO+20 Summit to decide on 'out of the box' ideas." said Laura Martin, Director of Sustainlabour. "We will maintain our commitment to this process and do our utmost to ensure union's voices are loud and clear in the run up to Durban and RIO+20."

Article and photo originally published by the International Trade Union Confederation.