People Before Profit blog

War talk re Syria ratchets up

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:42:00 +0000

In the wake of the "Islamic State" beheading of a U.S. journalist on Aug. 19, talk of U.S. military intervention in Syria has risen to a fever pitch in Washington and among some European allies. But it is spurring worries of another misguided U.S. military undertaking, escalating war and chaos, with the people of the region bearing the brunt.

Intervention advocates say that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, presents such a threat to the U.S. and the West that the U.S. and its allies must not only widen military involvement in Iraq but also move into Syria with airstrikes and related military ventures, including revving up military aid to "moderate" rebels there.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told a Pentagon briefing last week that ISIS is "beyond anything that we've seen," and represents "a whole new dynamic and a new paradigm of threats to this country."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said, ""We consider this terrorist group is of a different level of dangerousness than others. It is in the business of destruction. Today it is Iraq, but the caliphate is the entire region, and beyond it is obviously Europe." His boss, French President Francois Hollande, said, ""We can no longer keep to the traditional debate of intervention or non-intervention." (France is no stranger to intervention in the region, as it was neo-colonial ruler of Syria and Lebanon for two decades following World War I.)

In the name of defeating ISIS, Germany is shipping weapons to Iraq's Kurds. The BBC calls it a "major departure" for Germany, which since World War II has not participated directly in foreign military conflicts. Italy too is said to be ready to supply weapons.

The military clamor from these former imperial powers brings to mind the western grab for the Middle East at the end of World War I. Some wonder if we are seeing a new grab for the geostrategically important and oil-rich region - this time by the U.S. and Europe allied with reactionary regimes in Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, using the viciously brutal ISIS as an excuse.

The U.S. is entangling itself in a murky situation. U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, which backs reactionary "Sunni" groups in both Iraq and Syria, is known to have funded ISIS/ISIL elements, and is eager to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Former Saddam Hussein officers, also favored by the Saudis, are among the top leaders of ISIS/ISIL. Assad himself allowed Syria to be a haven for Iraqi Baathists, and is said to have promoted ISIS as a way to divide the opposition to his rule. On the other hand his forces are now under attack from ISIS, and Syrian officials have expressed willingness to cooperate with the U.S. in defeating ISIS.

Pentagon officials are said to be pressing the Obama administration to carry out airstrikes against ISIS targets in eastern Syria. A White House decision on this is expected later in September. The New York Times reports that the White House has begun "a diplomatic campaign to enlist allies and neighbors in the region to increase their support for Syria's moderate opposition and, in some cases, to provide support for possible American military operations." The White House says it has already begun air surveillance over Syria in preparation for such actions.

The administration is ruling out cooperation with the Syrian government on defeating ISIS, even though it is now seeking cooperation with former enemy Iran to defuse the situation in Iraq. Instead, President Obama seems to be bowing to the same interventionist advocates of regime-change in Syria that he resisted last year.

And unfortunately, the administration is continuing to deal with both Iraq and Syria simplistically as a collection of religious/sectarian groups - an approach that has done much to create the current crises there. For example, in explaining why the White House is rejecting working with Assad, Benjamin Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, claimed: "Joining forces with Assad would essentially permanently alienate the Sunni population in both Syria and Iraq, who are necessary to dislodging ISIL." Not stated is who speaks for the "Sunni population." Groups backed by Saudi Arabia? Meanwhile, the efforts of nonsectarian Iraqi or Syrian civil society get little or no attention.

U.S. intervention in Syria is a risky business even from a technical point of view. Experts note the difficulty of targeting airstrikes, determining which rebel group to trust, and keeping weapons out of the hands of extremists. More fundamentally, David Cortright, co-chair of Win Without War, points out, "U.S. military intervention created the chaos in Iraq 11 years ago, and it cannot be a solution to the crisis now."

"Past U.S. interventions for supposedly limited purposes have turned into prolonged interventions and in some cases have made matters worse, creating conditions of extended chaos and instability," he says.

The White House is apparently debating whether or not to seek congressional approval for expanding military action, both in Iraq and now into Syria. A battle may be shaping up over the issue. Some in Congress are voicing concern over what exactly the goal of military action would be. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in an Aug. 25 statement, called on the administration to "clearly define the strategy and objectives of its mission against ISIL, then bring it to Congress for a debate and authorization vote." A petition at Moveon.org calls on the president to seek congressional and United Nations Security Council approval for bombing Syria or expanding airstrikes in Iraq. Ultimately, however, pressure is needed to block those in foreign policy circles who promote military intervention and sectarian manipulation as the way to promote U.S. interests in the Middle East (and elsewhere).

Photo: President Obama visits the Pentagon soon after his inauguration, Jan. 28, 2009. U.S. Army photo

"The Tower of David" and Venezuela's housing revolution

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 16:42:00 +0000

Known locally as the Tower of David, this skyscraper has been dubbed everything from a den of thieves to the world's tallest slum. These labels conceal the radical story taking place behind the tower's walls.

This was originally posted on venezuelaanalysis.com.

Photo: Occupied apartments at the Tower of David (Via venezuelaanalysis.com).

Ebola epidemic and African underdevelopment

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 16:09:00 +0000

On Wednesday, August 20, riots broke out in a slum neighborhood of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia in West Africa. During the weekend, local residents had carried out a raid on an isolation screening facility for victims of the Ebola epidemic sweeping Liberia and its neighbors, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Some locals were angry because they thought that people from outside their area were being brought in to be treated for Ebola. Seventeen patients were scattered and raiders walked off with some very dangerous items including blood and vomit stained bed sheets. As Ebola is a viral disease that kills by causing massive hemorrhages, and since it is spread by contact with blood and other bodily fluids of infected people, this incident has caused great alarm regionally, and led to a quarantine of the entire neighborhood.

So far the official death toll for this epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria (where a few cases have occurred) is around 1,350 but could be much higher because authorities do not know what is going on in remote communities. It could also expand geometrically; and as it is public health facilities are near collapse. Health care providers have been killed by the epidemic and the region does not have any to spare (two infected U.S. medical personnel were brought back to the United States are recuperating). Ebola is known to kill well over half the people it infects. Local health facilities cannot afford things like special protective suits.

Some local conditions are cited as aggravating factors. People usually care for sick relatives at home, which means that they touch them and come into contact with blood, feces, mucous and sweat, all of which can transmit the virus to the caregiver. Dead bodies are, by tradition, washed and handled by their relatives, another source of contagion. Many people in the region supplement their meager incomes by hunting wild animals. As there are indications that large fruit-eating bats can be Ebola virus carriers, hunting them for meat is terribly dangerous.

The Ebola crisis in West Africa is not the result of the virulent virus alone. It is also the natural outcome of Africa policies carried out, in collaboration with local elites, by transnational corporations and the governments of wealthy industrialized countries.

These are countries of fabulous wealth, whose people live in grinding poverty. This is the pattern for most of sub-Saharan Africa.

Guinea is vastly rich in aluminum ores and other subsoil items, Liberia in timber and rubber and Sierra Leone in diamonds, gold, cocoa beans and titanium. These are developed by multinational corporations, extracted by means of low paid local labor, and exported to the great enrichment of the corporations. But most of the population still lives by subsistence agriculture and sees little benefit from this commodities export system.

Western corporations are notoriously loath to invest in building up the physical (roads, ports, electricity grids) and human (educational and health care) infrastructure of their poor host countries unless it directly helps their bottom lines (China does better). None of these countries has been able to build up a manufacturing sector, even through foreign direct investment, in no small measure because of lack of things such as roads and electrical generation.

Hence, the poverty: Liberia is the third or fourth poorest country in the world by Per Capita Gross Domestic Product. Guinea and Sierra Leone are not far behind. The countries themselves, not just their inhabitants, are poor and as a result have not been able to consolidate strong state apparatuses. This means that they have not been able to build infrastructure with their own resources, or provide adequate human services (potable water, education, health care) to keep their people alive and healthy without a heavy reliance of on outside, with the usual strings attached.

They have not been able to protect themselves from outside economic and political pressures or even their own predatory elites. The situations of Liberia and Sierra Leone have been particularly dire, with bloody civil wars in the 1990s decimating their health care and educational systems. People do not trust their governments, including health authorities.

World Health Organization statistics tell the story: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have sky-high infant and under-five mortality rates. Malnutrition is endemic. And the health care systems, even pre-Ebola, are utterly unable to cope. Guinea had one physician per 10,000 people, Liberia and Sierra Leone even fewer. Guinea and Liberia had about 3 hospital beds per 10,000 people, and Sierra Leone less than one. Compare this with socialist Cuba, with 59 doctors and 49 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants.

The impact of the Ebola epidemic may have severe economic consequences, with a combination of fear and government "cordon sanitaire" policies depriving people of food supplies and driving up prices.

Photo: Health workers with buckets, as part of their Ebola virus prevention protective gear, at an Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia, Aug. 18. Liberia's armed forces were given orders to shoot people trying to illegally cross the border from neighboring Sierra Leone, which is closed to stem the spread of Ebola, local newspaper Daily Observer reported. Abbas Dulleh/AP

Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea, it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea. Wikipedia

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa that is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. Wikipedia

Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa bordered by Sierra Leone to its west, Guinea to its north and Ivory Coast to its east. It covers an area of 111,369 square kilometres and is home to about 4 million people. Wikipedia

Ukraine: Cracks appear in Kiev coalition

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:01:00 +0000

While troops of the government of President Petro Poroshenko push closer to Lubansk and Donetsk, and casualties rise in disaffected Eastern Ukraine, cracks are appearing in the coalition that brought the current government to power.

In February, protests in Kiev brought down the corrupt but legally elected government of President Victor Yanukovych. A special push arose from far right elements, which drove Yanukovych into exile. The far right forces, mostly from far Western Ukraine, were the Svoboda ("Freedom") party and an alliance of other far right groups called the Right Sector, or Pravy Sektor. These groups were brought into the new government, headed by U.S. designate Arseny Yatsenyuk, some in key positions.

This led to a sharp reaction among Russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine. The ultra right elements brought into the Kiev alliance include admirers of Stepan Bandera. During World War II Bandera and his followers, after a period of friction, allied with Nazi Germany and committed atrocities against Poles, Jews and communists.

Once brought into government, these forces indicated that they would use their new power to push an extreme right wing nationalist agenda, including the downgrading of the status of the Russian language, the native tongue of over 40 percent of Ukrainian citizens. This alarmed people in far Eastern Ukraine, including the provinces of Lubansk and Donetsk, which border on Russia, Crimea, which is mostly ethnically Russian and hosts Russia's Black Sea naval base, and Odessa. Opponents of the new regime seized power in the cities of Donetsk and Lubansk in April, declaring themselves to be "People's Republics." The same happened in Crimea, which was quickly annexed by Russia. On May 2, the fascist ultra right was blamed for an incident in which dozens of people were burned or beaten to death in the Trade Union Hall in Odessa.

The political tendencies that, starting in February have made up the governing coalition in Kiev are disparate in ideology and goals, sharing only the fact that they are right wing and want to suppress the Communist Party.

The Svoboda-Pravy Sektor forces are openly fascist and have a record of anti-Semitism. They are chauvinistically nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-foreign. They have no use for "Europe."

The elites around President Petro Porochenko, elected on May 25 in a fishy election, have other priorities. Poroshenko became a billionaire as Ukraine's "Chocolate King." His prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, now acting as caretaker prime minister after having presented his resignation last month, has a banking background. Several of the governors of Ukraine's oblasts (provinces), who are appointed by the central government rather than elected, are also wealthy "oligarchs." They are suspect in the eyes of both the ultra-right and, of course, the left. Furthermore, several people associated with the Poroshenko government are of Jewish origin, a fact which has been used by the Kiev regime's apologists to prove that the Ukrainian right wing "can't be" fascist.

The main reason this "oligarch" faction supported the Kiev protests was that in November of 2013, President Yanukovych had turned away from a prospective deal with the European Union which they supported and instead reoriented his policy toward a different and more generous deal offered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The goal of the Poroshenko government and the oligarchs is to quickly integrate Ukraine into the institutions of the European Union and NATO. Most people in Eastern Ukraine, however, feel closer to Russia than they do to Western Europe, and the more industrialized economy of the East is closely tied to the Russian markets.

But Poroshenko has needed the Svoboda-Right Sector elements. When, in the spring, Kiev sent troops to crush the insurgency in the East, many of them were captured or defected to the Donetsk and Luhansk forces. Poroshenko found it necessary to use the services of Right Sector's armed militias to spearhead his attacks on Donetsk and Lubansk. This is bearing fruit: After relentless air and artillery strikes which have caused hundreds of civilian casualties, Kiev claims it is close to capturing both cities, though local militias are grimly holding on.

Right Sektor's Azov battalion claims to have played a key role in this.

But now cracks are appearing in this reactionary marriage of convenience. On Monday, Right Sektor's leader Dimitro Yarosh published a letter to the Kiev government in which he demanded that Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and President Poroshenko fire Deputy Interior Minister General Vladimir Yevdokimov whom Right Sektor accuses of being the head of "a criminal police group of separatist stooges and a Moscow puppet." Yarosh also demanded that Right Sector members currently jailed be freed and their weapons be returned. If not, Yarosh says, Right Sector will pull its troops out of the fighting in the East and "March on Kiev." Avakov appears to be giving in to Yarosh's demands, having already taken steps to remove Yevdokimov.

It appears certain that if Lubansk and Donetsk fall, the thieves in Kiev will fall upon each other.

Photo: A local woman stands on her damaged balcony after morning shelling in a northern Donetsk neighborhood, eastern Ukraine, Aug. 9. Sergei Grits/AP

Indonesia elects working-class metalhead president

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:09:00 +0000

Joko Widodo has become the president of Indonesia after winning 53.13 percent of the vote in the country's 2014 presidential election. He will take office Oct. 20. What separates Widodo from other politicians is his willingness to venture into the streets to speak with the people, including the poor, who elected him. As a metal fan ("metalhead"), he is also historically the first known representative of the increasingly diverse heavy metal subculture to take political office.

Widodo has publically declared his love for a number of metal bands, including Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Lamb of God (whose songs have often criticized American foreign policy and international relations), and Napalm Death (whose music has always been pro-labor, and who have played benefit concerts for striking workers). The president-elect has also attended metal shows and once received an autographed bass guitar from Metallica's Rob Trujillo.

Many feel that Widodo could become an exemplar of the rapidly closing gap between culture and politics, especially in the case of the heavy metal subculture, which is increasingly outspoken about world issues and gaining sociopolitical relevance.

Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe cheered Widodo's election, remarking, "Incredibly, the new President of Indonesia is a metalhead. Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the governor of Jakarta and former furniture salesman who was born into poverty, has won the election. I do not know much about Indonesian politics, but from what I can tell, Widodo seems to be a man of the people. A metalhead president - who would have thought? I mean, this is the only president in the world with whom you can sit down and argue about which Slayer record is best."

And there is evidence to suggest that Widodo is, indeed, a man of the people, as he is the first president in the history of the country who did not come from the political or military elite, according to Time magazine. The article noted, "Unlike many established figures who dominate the political arena, the 53 year-old Jokowi came from a humble provincial background." After a career in furniture sales, "he started in politics as mayor of his hometown less than a decade ago - and this rapid rise, along with the level of electoral enthusiasm and volunteerism his candidacy has generated, has invited comparisons to U.S. President Obama."

The BBC added that Widodo ran on a platform of "a decisive break with Indonesia's authoritarian past and better social welfare for the poor," and he "had the backing of urban and rural youth."

Widodo, meanwhile, explained his frequent forays into various neighborhoods to converse with people. He said, "The people say it's 'street democracy' because I go out to them. I explain my positions and programs, and they can also give me ideas about programs." He also assures the residents that he will not support turning their land over to business tycoons and corporate developers, and to this end, he visits and talks with city officials on an almost daily basis.

And these forays do not preclude showing up at metal shows and speaking to the people there - many of whom are the very aforementioned youth and young adults who made up his electorate. He attended Metallica's August 2013 concert, and commented after the show, "I am happy and satisfied with the concert. No one got out of control last night. We showed them that Jakarta citizens are all dignified. We could rock the night away in an orderly fashion."

Photo: Widodo (wearing red) poses with fellow concertgoers in Jakarta, November 2013. AP

Argentina takes U.S. to World Court

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:49:00 +0000

Argentina has taken the United States to the International Court of Justice in the Hague over a U.S. federal judge's actions in a dispute about bond payments. Meanwhile, the judge in that case, Thomas Griesa of the Federal District Court in New York, has threatened to hold Argentina's government in contempt of court because of statements made about the case by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and other officials.

The case is about claims by U.S. hedge fund firm NML Capital Limited, a Cayman Islands branch of Elliot Management Corporation, plus another hedge fund, relating to Argentina's 2002 default on payments of its sovereign debt. Since the original default, Argentina had reached agreement with 93 percent its original creditors whereby they would be reimbursed, via a bond swap, for about 30 percent of the value of the original bonds. This allowed Argentina to re-enter the bond market and protect its poorest citizens.

Long after the original default, the two main holdout hedge funds, not part of the original group of creditors, bought up some of the bad debt at fire sale prices, and then sued Argentina for their whole original value plus interest. Thus the hedge funds and the main investor in Elliot, U.S. billionaire Paul Singer, stand to make a killing of 1,600 percent of their investment.

In 2012, Judge Griesa awarded the holdouts the full value of the original bonds, $1.3 billion, plus interest. The Court of Appeals backed Griesa. This year the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Argentina's appeal, and also gave Elliot Management permission to find out where all Argentina's assets, and those of senior Argentine officials, are held, so it could move to seize them.

If Argentina were forced to pay the holdouts, the bondholders who had accepted the reduced payments could then demand payment in full on the basis of the original value of their bonds, destroying Argentina's entire debt restructuring and jeopardizing half of the country's reserves.

Griesa ruled that Argentina cannot continue to pay the non-holdouts without paying the full sum to the holdouts. Argentina has just deposited $539 million to pay the non-holdouts with Mellon Bank in New York.

Judge Griesa has forbidden Mellon to pass this money on to the creditors, threatening to find the bank in contempt, and has now threatened the Argentine government with contempt of court if it continues to state that it is not in default. So Argentina can't pay anybody unless it pays the holdouts the amount Griesa awarded them. Efforts to negotiate an agreement have so far failed, which led the Standard and Poors bond rating agency to declare Argentina in default as of July 30.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner calls the holdout hedge funds "vulture funds", and has bought ads in U.S. newspapers to explain Argentina's position. This is what led Judge Griesa to threaten Argentina with contempt of court. Argentina argues that its timely deposit of the funds in Mellon Bank shows that it did not default, and that a U.S. federal judge can't treat a sovereign country of 43 million like a parking ticket scofflaw.

The main investor Elliot Management is Paul Singer, a major contributor to Republican Party causes and candidates, including Mitt Romney. He has created a lobbying group whose sole purpose is to get the support of Congress for his claims against Argentina. Investigative reporter Greg Palast points out that Singer has done this to the Congo Republic ("Congo Brazzaville") and Peru.

In the Congo case, Singer's company bought toxic bonds for a song and then forced this extremely poor African country to pay him using, in part, funds that had been donated internationally to help improve its public health system. On a $10 million purchase, Singer realized $127 million.

So Argentina, as well as complaining to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, has gone to the World Court. The International Court of Justice cannot act on Argentina's suit unless the United States agrees to be sued.

Many observers in the United States find this situation extremely alarming. For the sake of Mr. Singer's bottom line, there is a threat of a disruption of U.S. diplomatic relations with Latin America and of the entire world financial system, because if applied generally it would make it impossible to carry out debt restructuring in any country. If just one creditor failed to accept a restructuring offer, payments to all others would be endangered.

Latin Americans are very aware of the things they share with Argentina, including its past of a U.S. supported military dictatorship which incurred some of the original debt.

The Argentina situation gives greater urgency to the efforts of poorer countries to disentangle themselves entirely from U.S. financial institutions. This prospect has U.S. banks worried, so at writing they were scrambling to find a way to appease Mr. Singer.

Greg Palast states that the Obama administration, which has taken Argentina's side with an amicus brief, could stop this nonsense by simply invoking our constitution's "separation of powers" which gives the executive branch exclusive control over foreign relations.

Photo: In this June 17, 2014 file photo, Argentina's Economy Minister Axel Kicillof talks to the media during a news conference. Eduardo Di Baia/AP

German sour pickles: Gauck, militarism, and Gaza

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:40:00 +0000

BERLIN - When politicians vacation and little action is expected, the words German journalists use for such summer doldrums is "Saure-Gurken-Zeit" or "sour pickle time." It may be derived from the time before the harvest when pickles were all that was left to eat. Others think it may be a combination involving the Yiddish word for troubles, "tsores".

Whatever the origin, it seemed to apply soon after a world soccer victory evoking excited adjectives from historical to hysterical, with Berlin marking its euphoria with countless private rockets bursting in air. And the flags were still there too, countless black-red-gold German colors. (The Stars and Stripes were increasingly unpopular here after scandals about the NSA-tapped phone of Angela Merkel - and most likely everyone else as well.) Anyway, after the games things slowed down.

Joachim Gauck

Not sour pickles but sour words had to be swallowed by Joachim Gauck, who is usually expected to stay above the political fray as non-partisan President of all Germans. He has usually a benevolent smile, attaining almost Cheshire dimensions, it is his outstanding feature. He occasionally tempers this with bitter tears when recollecting those awful days before 1989 when he battled Communist repression. (But unfriendly witnesses recall that his battling was quite invisible until just before final victory was assured).

One clerical colleague from those days, Rev. Friedrich Schorlemmer from Wittenberg, says Gauck was never part of the GDR church's peace movement. "For him the Weapons of Freedom, the weapons of the West in other words, have always been the good weapons." Schorlemmer added, "For myself, it's alright to shoot for a goal in soccer but not to shoot at people."

Now this issue landed on his plate again, and the sour herbs irritating his taste buds came not from Left Party foes but again from the very group he once belonged to - East German pastors! What got them angry? More and more sharply, President Gauck has been stressing how Germany must get more involved in the world - militarily! Always and only for good causes, of course!

At the Munich Security Conference, Gauck urged that Germany "must be ready to do more to attain that security which others had guaranteed it for decades". And, as he assured his prominent audience, "... when at some point the extreme case occurs - the need for the Bundeswehr (armed forces, VG) - then Germany can neither respond on principle with 'no' nor on reflex with 'yes'." In a radio interview he made it even clearer: "In the struggle for human rights or the survival of innocent people it is sometimes necessary to take up weapons." In other words, any reticence based on historical German military use had for him become passé.

East German ministers disagree

Sixty-seven East German ministers disagreed. In 1989, when Germany was unified, Gauck had also signed a "Letter to the Children" from Protestant pastors stating: "We are grateful that the fall of the Wall, the end of the GDR and the unity of Germany were achieved without violence and without a shot being fired by the heavily armed forces of the countries involved. ... We must all do everything we can so that never again any person shoots and kills another person in a war."

"This is still valid," the pastors wrote him. "With your speech you have rejected the 1989 consensus and, as president, you recommend a different policy than the one we demanded at that time."

To his rejoinder that good causes justify military involvement they replied: "The Bundeswehr deployment in Afghanistan proves all too clearly how little the use of military forces is conducive to ending conflicts... We owe it to the many meaningless victims of that deployment not to increase our country's military capacities but rather to make civilian peace service our popular German export."

Gauck's bugle blasts for German military intervention in all continents were not solo serenades. Captivating trumpet notes were added by Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, who wants to send more troops to various parts of Africa, while SPD Foreign Minister Steinmeier stresses the need to keep German troops, tanks and planes in Afghanistan. Surprisingly only for those who have not followed the metamorphosis of the Green Party to its current bellicose nature, its top leaders are among the loudest bugle-blowers. Their main foe remains Putin's Russia.

Leaders of the Lutheran Church are split on these issues, like those in many other groups. Yet while popular opposition to keeping German troops in Afghanistan, for example, peaked recently at 69 percent, this was reflected in Bundestag votes (with courageous exceptions) only by the Left Party.

And what about Gaza?

And what about Gaza? There have been many demonstrations against the bombing and shelling, largely but not exclusively by people of Palestinian, other Arab or Turkish descent. Also a few favoring Israel. On these complicated issues even more groups have been split.

There was a clear reluctance by many politicians to stress anything but the subject of anti-Semitism in Germany, France and elsewhere. Indeed, this menace always exists - like anti-Black racism and Muslimophobia, both more widespread today, but in Germany without the same awful echoes from the past. And there are indeed always some fascists, here and elsewhere, who try to misuse anti-Israel feelings, especially when some Jewish and non-Jewish leaders equate Israeli actions with Jewishness, calling any opposition to Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman "anti-Semitic".

Very unfortunately, this evokes the similarly false conclusion blaming all of Judaism for Netanyahu's bloody policies. Sadly, too many fail to regard all human life everywhere as equally sacred - including all children, whatever their ethnicity or religion. Dr. Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Jewish Council of Germany, said: "The West should sometimes try to place itself in the situation of Israeli parents. They must live daily with the uncertainty as to whether, when they say goodbye to their children going to school in the morning, they will ever see them again." No pleasant thought, it is true, but while such fears almost completely fail to materialize, there is no uncertainty at all that over 400 children of Gaza will never see any schoolroom again - nor their parents. The almost total failure to think of their death - and so many others - shocks me with its one-sidedness.

True, a group of emotional Palestinians in Berlin shouted some anti-Semitic slogans on one occasion, and a few excited young Arab men ignited some material at a synagogue door in Wuppertal. Yet while so many mosques in Gaza were destroyed, and although hundreds of children, women and elderly people were killed there, I found it surprising and gratifying that, although anti-Israel demonstrations were undeniably emotional, they were with almost no exceptions free of anti-Jewish slogans or caricatures. All the same, it seemed that for too many this question outweighed any horror at the scenes of death, destruction and so many, many weeping parents.

I must beg forgiveness that I have turned not sour but certainly bitter. I will try to avoid this in future and hope I have offended no one. But I cannot remain silent on events recalling the bombing of Madrid, Barcelona, Guernica [Ed: one of the most notorious crimes of the Spanish civil war, the 1937 bombing of the defenseless civilian population of Guernica by planes of Franco's German and Italian allies, the subject of Picasso's famous painting] and many others. The pictures have been all too similar!

Photo: Joachim Gauck, Woche der Umwelt 2012 (7344500700) CC-BY-SA-3.0-de EnergieAgentur.NRW

German Social Democrats paying the price of too many deals

Tue, 12 Aug 2014 13:45:00 +0000

BERLIN - The Social Democratic Party (SPD) headed by Sigmar Gabriel is in a ruling coalition here with its love-hate partner and rival, Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU). Instead of trying to improve its frayed, faded image as a progressive force, however, Gabriel is now calling on his party to pay even more attention to "healthy business interests" and thus "encourage the economy."

All of this worries the small left-leaning caucus within the SPD as the standing of the party itself is soon to be tested in three state elections, all in former East Germany (the German Democratic Republic).

On September 14 in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin, the SPD is quite safe to win and will almost certainly continue its coalition with die Linke (the Left), which gives that party the only cabinet seats it is currently holding anywhere.

In Saxony, the first to vote on August 31, the Christian Democrats are sure to keep the strong lead they have had there since joining up with West Germany. But they probably won't reach the 50 percent mark and will need a partner. Like Merkel on the national level, they may well offer junior partnership to the SPD (in a weak third place there) whose politicians, if invited, will surely bow their heads, mumble "Yes sir" (the Saxon head of state is male) and settle gratefully into new cabinet seats in Dresden on the Elbe. Any resemblance with Dresden dolls is purely coincidental.

The most suspense will be in Thuringia, Germany's forest-rich "green lung." A partnership between the CDU and SPD has held sway there for five years, but the latter, unhappy with the marriage, may seek a divorce after the September 24 election. Though here too probably strongest, the CDU may well be too far from the needed 50 percent, thus opening the door to a coalition between the Left and the SPD - here a real sensation!

Since the poor SPD now polls only around 19 percent in Thuringia, this would mean having the Left - now at 27 percent - lustily on top in any new coupling. And that means getting the job of minister-president (like a U.S. state governor) and would make Thuringia, the land of Weimar and Jena and long the home of Goethe and Schiller, the very first Left-led state in all Germany. This is still up in the air; five years ago the Social Democrats rejected just such a solution - but later came to regret it.

The Christian Democrats are very sour about perhaps getting ushered off to the cold opposition seats in the state house for the first time since 1990. To no-one's surprise, a leading CDU-man stridently warned the SPD against the Left, "a band of Stalinists, extremists, people from the 'black bloc,' leftist lovers of violence and former Stasi spies."

Actually, the Left leader who might wind up on top in Erfurt, Thuringia's capital, is Bodo Ramelow, 58, a devout Lutheran from West Germany, once a leader in the union of bank, insurance and retail employees, and never yet seen brandishing a Molotov cocktail. Indeed, surprisingly for a Left, socialist party, he chose a peculiar, tame election slogan: "Not everything needs to be changed but we can do many things better."

On the far more earnest international stage the SPD, by no means tame, joins Merkel's CDU and the Greens in blaming Russia alone for the horrifying bloodshed in southeastern Europe. According to party chief Gabriel, "The aggressor in the Ukraine is the Russian government," and he added threateningly: "It cannot be possible for anyone to plunge another country into chaos and then go unpunished... If we accept that then the European Union isn't worth a penny."

Gabriel, who is also Economics Minister, has barred shipment of military training equipment to Russia by the giant Rheinmetall Company. The Left, the only party consistently opposed to the export of any military hardware (at which Germany now ranks third in the world), would be happy if such an arms export ban were strictly applied to the less than democratic countries lining the Persian Gulf and other bellicose customers. Also to Israel and to the Ukrainian rulers in Kiev, who get more and more support despite their bloody battering of all opposition in Donetsk and its surroundings. But Kiev, successfully using the tried and true formula, loudly labels all its opponents "terrorists."

Photo: Bodo Ramelow, top candidate of the party Die Linke, speaks with journalists in Erfurt, Thuringia. Jens Meyer/AP

U.K.: 150,000 rally for solidarity with the people of Gaza

Mon, 11 Aug 2014 12:51:00 +0000

LONDON -- Labour MP Shabana Mahmood called on activists at the weekend to take direct action against British firms that do business with Israel - lauding the success of a Birmingham protest which shut down a Sainsbury's branch for five-and-a-half hours.

Ms. Mahmood, the party's shadow exchequer secretary to the Treasury, made the plea at a 150,000-strong rally for solidarity with the people of Gaza on Saturday.

She told crowds in London's Hyde Park: "Just as powerful as our passion is the practical action we can all take to make our government sit up and take notice.

She pleaded with demonstrators to support the boycott movement and to lobby their MPs.

She said: "We lay down in Sainsbury's in Birmingham and closed down a store for five-and-a-half hours at peak time on a Saturday.

"The bombing must be condemned without equivocation."

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday outside the BBC's broadcasting house, where speakers berated "Auntie" for its alleged pro-Israel bias.

In an electrifying speech, 19-year-old Barnaby Raine blasted the Israeli government, saying: "The lesson of the Holocaust is that crimes are perpetrated when people forget that we are all human beings.

"I am here not in spite of Jewish history but because of Jewish history."

The crowd raised their fingers in the peace sign before marching through central London to Hyde Park. At the front of the procession was Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman.

Explaining his reasoning for raising the Palestinian flag above his east London town hall earlier this month, he added: "Everyone has a role to play in showing their anger. If we don't come together and raise our voices to our government and to the UN, then who will?"

At Hyde Park, Hebron-born European Palestinian Doctors spokesman Tareq Tahboob said: "We've seen death, destruction, disease, deprivation and denigration.

"But they are all swallowed by the great capital D of defiance.

"The 4,500 newborns in Gaza are the soldiers of tomorrow."

Bemoaning the US Congress's overwhelming support for Israel, veteran campaigner and writer Tariq Ali quipped: "If there are a few Arab billionaires left in the United States, and we know there are, buy a few senators!"

Lib Dem peer Lady Tonge told the crowds: "Humanitarian aid is a sticking plaster to make our government feel better. Aid should be what Israel pays for."

Her Lib Dem colleague Bradford East MP David Ward said: "I've been accused of taking up my position to pander to Muslims.

"So I'm delighted to see so many people here who are not Muslims.

"My constituency is half predominantly non-white and half predominantly sort of white. But what do the people in the white working-class area want to talk about on the doorstep? Palestine."

Stop the War convener Lindsey German savaged the "criminal warmongering government which has taken us to war over and over again."

Palestine Solidarity Campaign supporters were also active in Manchester on Saturday.

A "rolling picket" of businesses with links with Israel was launched in the city centre.

Two branches of Barclays bank were picketed.

"There was security outside and only people who showed their Barclays cards were allowed in," said one of the activists.

"So we just stood in front of the Barclays in St Anne's Square with our banners and leaflets and they closed the shop.

"After an hour we moved up to the branch on Market Street and that bank closed as soon as we arrived, we kept it closed until the mass of the rolling picket arrived and it then remained closed for at least three hours."

Reposted from Morning Star.

Photo: In July, thousands of protesters marched through Whitehall in central London, to call for an end to Israeli military action in Gaza and "justice and freedom" for Palestine. John Stillwell/AP

U.S. covert operation against Cuban youth condemned

Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:12:00 +0000

Some U.S. destabilizing assaults against Cuba have become so much the norm that they are no longer news. These include economic blockade and travel restrictions. Others, however, like special covert actions, serve to restore U.S. aggression to public awareness, especially when those covert acts are exposed or when they fail.

That's the case with yet another revelation on intrusion in Cuban affairs by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to a recent Associated Press (AP) story, USAID hired Creative Associates International to recruit 12 young people from Peru, Costa Rica, and Venezuela to pose as tourists in Cuba beginning in late 2009. They were to befriend young Cubans, particularly university students, and try to convert them into "change agents" and anti-government activists. Engaging with them as colleagues in "civic projects," one an HIV-AIDS educational initiative, the visitors gained their confidence. The Cubans received money.

The onset of the program coincided with the arrest by Cuban authorities of Alan Gross, a USAID-funded agent now jailed in Cuba after supplying dissenting Cubans with high technology communications equipment. The AP report reveals that discussions about risk of detection were ongoing between the amateur agents and their Creative Associates handlers, mainly because their indoctrination as to security precautions had been scanty. The program ended in 2011.

In a statement issued August 5, the Cuban Foreign Ministry denounced the U.S. goal of "converting young Cubans ... into political actors." The U.S. government was called upon to "once and for all cease its subversive, illegal, and covert actions against Cuba in violation of our sovereignty." It linked the disclosures to another AP report published in April that told about the "Zunzuneo" project.

Zunzuneo was a USAID-financed initiative administered by Creative Associates that began in 2010. Its purpose was to engage Cuban young people in social messaging after having been lured through music, sports, and cultural information showing up on their cell phones. To evade Cuban detection, the "Cuban Twitter" project utilized text messages and relied upon technical support personnel in other countries. Zunzuneo was financed by funds diverted from USAID projects in Pakistan.

Documents obtained by AP show plans for building a "subscriber base [of] perhaps hundreds of thousands" and collecting contact information. Eventually, "operators would introduce political content that would enable Cubans to organize "smart mobs" - mass gatherings called at a moment's notice that might trigger a Cuban Spring." After two years and only 40,000 Cuban enrollees, the program ended.

Cuban analyst Iroel Sánchez asks: "Will the U.S. government learn from these new failures or will its policies toward Cuba continue as a feast for the incompetent?" The revelations recall earlier U.S. interventionist initiatives put in place after predominantly military and terrorist modes of de-stabilization went out of fashion. Funneling of millions of federal dollars to oppositionists in Cuba through Florida-based private and public agencies came to very little; funds were stolen or went astray and favoritism prevailed in selecting Cuban recipients. The convictions as U.S. mercenaries in 2003 of 75 anti-government activists cast a pall over quiet U.S. interventionist attempts, mainly because of video documentation of U.S. payments shown at their trial.

Yet manipulation of social media continues. According to close observer Tracey Eaton, "The U.S. government awarded an additional $400,000 to the Maryland company that designed and operates Piramideo, a social network aimed at sending millions of text messages to Cuba." The Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), responsible for the U.S. Radio and TV Marti - broadcaster of propaganda to Cuba - "signed the one-year contract with Washington Software on June 20."

The OCB, charged with shaping message content, awarded Washington Software half a million dollars in September, 2011 for a weekly output of 24,000 text messages fixed so as to evade Cuban barriers. Since then, the contractor has received $4,321,173 from the USAID.

Editorializing, the Mexican La Jornada newspaper points out that the U.S. government, no longer wedded to coups, death squads, and invasions, now "relies upon concepts like democratic development, strengthening of civil society, and defense of human rights." But significantly, "this destabilizing attempt occurs just when nations in the region are devising mechanisms of multi-national interaction. [Ultimately] the effect of programs like those under consideration will be to deepen the superpower's isolation in the region." It seems that "Washington, far from being a guarantor of international legality, democracy, and human rights has switched to being a systematic, habitual violator of such principles."

In Washington Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee that oversees the USAID budget characterized the recently disclosed scheme as "worse than irresponsible." Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus," indicated: ""I am appalled by recent reports that the U.S. government orchestrated and funded clandestine democracy promotion efforts under the guise of public health and civic programs."

Although President Obama in November, 2013 lectured right- wing blockade apologists in Miami on outmoded U.S policies on Cuba, he's silent on the current debacle. The same goes with ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who recently called for "normalizing relations eventually," and Democratic candidate for governor of Florida Charlie Crist who condemns the blockade.

Photo: In this July 11 photo, Manuel Barbosa, 25, shows the logo of his "Revolution" audiovisual project during an interview with The Associated Press in Santa Clara, Cuba. Fernando Murillo contacted Barbosa, a founder of the group, while working on a clandestine operation that dispatched Latin American youth to Cuba under the cover of health and civic programs to provoke unrest. Barbosa said he was initially open to collaboration with the foreigners but was never told they were working for the U.S. "They presented themselves as a non-governmental organization," Barbosa said. Franklin Reyes/AP

Video: On Israel-Palestinian peace, a look at one vs. two-state solution

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 16:11:00 +0000

The following is a six-minute clip from Aug. 7 peoplesworld.org Google Hangout with co-editor Susan Webb and special guest Uri Weltmann, peace activist and leader of the Communist Party of Israel. Weltmann explains the difference between and viability of a one-state vs. two-state solution regarding the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Photo: Screenshot of Aug. 7 peoplesworld.org Google Hangout.

Africa conference pushes corporate interests

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 15:54:00 +0000

Africa was in the news this week. An ebola epidemic in West Africa has reached record proportions, there were more threats from the extremist Boko Haram group in Nigeria, and 50 African countries were represented in a massive get together with corporate chiefs and U.S. officials in Washington D.C.

Although we read that Africa is making great strides, most of its countries, particularly those South of the Sahara, are still at the bottom of any measures of human wellbeing. In per capita gross domestic product, infant and child mortality, etc., almost all the countries at the bottom of any list are African, with only a few exceptions such as war-torn Afghanistan.

Various analysts attribute Africa's problems to "corruption," which, by itself, doesn't explain the continent's problems. Nor does abuse of power evident in Africa contribute much to a full understanding of what is going on. What then are some of the root causes of Africa's malaise?

At the Washington conference, the Obama administration was joined by U.S.-based corporate giants like Coca Cola, Walmart, General Electric, Yum Brands and others in promoting the idea that prosperity can come to Africa via massively greater direct foreign investment (DFI) by the U.S. corporate sector. Vice President Biden and former President Bill Clinton joined in boosting U.S. investment as the ticket for lifting Africa out of the doldrums.

Some of the African heads of state and other leaders at the conference, such as President Paul Kagame of Ruanda, strongly supported this line while promoting their own countries as ideal sites for U.S. corporate investment, with stability and good government as major selling points. Corporations stressed the need for African states to create positive conditions for international investment. Human rights received little attention and workers' rights practically none.

A big concern of both the U.S. officials and the corporations present was China's massive trade with and investment in Africa, which has overtaken that of the U.S. and the European Union. The United States has criticized Chinese investment in Africa on two grounds: That China invests without demanding political changes from the African countries, and that, as President Obama hinted, China takes more out of Africa than it puts in. Some of the corporate representatives at the Washington conference specifically said they were "not interested" in funding infrastructure, a major focus of Chinese investment.

What they are interested in is competing for the African markets and also having cheap and safe access to African mineral resources, the name of the game for western corporations since the original "Scramble for Africa" a century ago, which led to the original frenzy of looting African resources.

That China does not pursue "regime change" in the countries with which it trades is seen as positive by most African leaders. As for Chinese business taking out more than it puts in, one might ask whether WalMart and Coca Cola have now become charitable enterprises! There are also big worries in Africa about the increasing U.S. military presence, and the tendency of foreign corporations to take over vast amounts of farmland, harming food security and displacing farmers.

Yet there are also some problems and frictions relating to Chinese-African investments.

The upshot of the conference is that U.S. corporations promised $14 billion of new investments in Africa, while the U.S. government promised $7 billion more in development loans, with the World Bank anteing up more for a total of $33 billion in promises. U.S. government help will go to facilitate deals that open African doors to U.S. corporations.

There was a counter-conference, by organizations including Oxfam and American Friends Service Committee. There were also protests outside the conference venues. Some pointed out that it was hypocritical to deny participation to countries such as Zimbabwe, Eretria and Central African Republic because of disapproval of those governments' methods of rule, while rolling out the red carpet for the likes of Swaziland's King Mswati III, whose government has been suppressing labor, and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame whose government is accused of assassinating its opponents and destabilizing the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

But there was little questioning of the model of African development promoted at the conference, namely direct foreign investment by Western monopoly corporations, tied to commodities exports that heavily emphasize extractive industries such as mining, oil, gas, etc.

African leftists point out that their continent needs infrastructure (roads, electrical generation), greatly increased investment in education and public health, and improved internal and regional markets in order to break away from the colonialist legacy of extractive activities producing, under the control of foreign monopolies, commodities for export. Only this way can needed diversification be achieved. WalMart and Coca Cola will not help Africa break away from the current model which has perpetuated poverty and states so weak that they can't cope with things like the Ebola outbreak.

For now, the African nations, who have to trade somehow, have little choice but to play the Americans and Europeans and the Chinese off against each other to see who offers the best deals under the old model.

But one of the last things President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela did before he died was to suggest that the Bolivarian countries of Latin America start working with the African countries to find better alternatives.

Photo: President Obama talks with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz at the US-Africa summit. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Message from Hiroshima: Abolish nuclear weapons

Thu, 07 Aug 2014 15:24:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Matsui Kazumi, Mayor of the City of Hiroshima, Japan, witnessed all of his school mates die when the atom bomb was dropped on his populous city 69 years ago on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 am. That horror lives with him today, and shaped the Peace Declaration he delivered this year to cities across the world.

Standing on the New Haven Green, the City of New Haven's Peace Commission annual vigil heard his declaration along with a proclamation from this city's Mayor Toni Harp calling for the United States to "lead by example in the area of nuclear weapons reductions so we can work towards President Obama's goal of controlling nuclear weapons proliferation and abolishing nuclear weapons."

A United Nations Peace Messenger City, New Haven is also hosting films and a library exhibit to raise awareness of the extreme danger that nuclear weapons pose to the planet.

Toward the goal of a nuclear-free world by 2020, the United Nations has declared September 26 as International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. This mobilization comes just one week after the September 21 People's Climate March which is expected to draw up to a million participants on the eve of a UN conference on global warming.

The reality of the economic, human and environmental cost of nuclear weapons which sap national resources needed by cities and towns and could obliterate all life, led to a ballot referendum in New Haven where 80 percent of voters called for abolition of nuclear weapons.

Al Marder, chair of the Peace Commission, said peace forces are now calling on the United States to send a delegation to the Third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons to be convened by the United Nations in Vienna, Austria on December 8 "and take part in the discussions of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear disaster and finally negotiate a ban and total abolition of nuclear weapons."

In the Hiroshima Peace Declaration, Mayor Kazumi said, "Each one of us will help determine the future of the human family. Please put yourself in the place of the Hibakusha (survivors of the A-bomb). Imagine their experiences, including that day from the depths of hell, actually happening to you or someone in your family. To make sure the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki never happen a third time, let's all communicate, think and act together with the Hibakusha for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons and without war."

Recalling that Japan is the only nation to have been A-bombed, he said that "precisely because our security situation is increasingly severe, our government should accept the full weight of the fact that we have avoided war for 69 years thanks to the noble pacifism of the Japanese Constitution."

That section of the Constitution, Article 9, which eliminated armed forces is now being re-interpreted by the current government. In response, a Global Article 9 Campaign has been initiated featuring a Japanese initiated international petition.

Photo: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning. Wikipedia/AP

Japan marks 69th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 16:38:00 +0000

TOKYO (AP) - Japan marked the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the U.S. on Wednesday, as Mayor Kazumi Matsui called on President Obama and other world leaders to visit the city to see the scars of the atomic bombing first hand.

In his "peace declaration" speech, Matsui invited world leaders to his once-devastated hometown, referring to a proposal made at a ministerial meeting in April of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative in Hiroshima, urging them to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"President Obama and all leaders of nuclear-armed nations, please respond to that call by visiting the A-bombed cities as soon as possible to see what happened with your own eyes," Matsui said. "If you do, you will be convinced that nuclear weapons are an absolute evil that must no longer be allowed to exist."

Hiroshima launched a campaign this year to send invitation letters to Obama, written on papers recycled from tens of millions of "origami" cranes - a symbol of peace - sent from around the world.

About 45,000 people stood for a minute of silence at the ceremony in Hiroshima's peace park near the epicenter of the 1945 attack that killed up to 140,000 people. A second bombing, over Nagasaki three days later, killed another 70,000, prompting Japan's surrender in World War II.

The number of surviving victims, known as "hibakusha," was just more than 190,000 this year. Their average age is 79, and many of the attendants at the ceremony were their younger relatives and descendants. Hiroshima officials said 5,507 survivors died over the past year.

The anniversary comes as Japan is divided over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent Cabinet decision to allow the country's military to defend foreign countries and play greater roles overseas. To achieve the goal, Abe's Cabinet revised its interpretation of the country's war-renouncing constitution, making it even more controversial.

Abe, among dignitaries attending the event, said that as the sole country to have suffered nuclear attacks, Japan has the duty to seek to eliminate nuclear weapons. But he did not mention his push for a more assertive defense posture under his "proactive peace contribution" policy.

Public polls show more than half of the Japanese are opposed to the decision, mainly because of sensitivity over Japan's wartime past.

Matsui did not directly refer to Abe's recent change to the interpretation of the pacifist Article 9, which is the cornerstone of Japan's pacifist pledge to the world. But he said the pacifist constitution is what has kept Japan out of war for 69 years.

Attendants this year included U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and representatives from 67 other countries, including Britain, France and Russia.

Photo: People pray for the atomic bomb victims in a rain at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, early Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014. Kyodo News/AP

Tomorrow: Join Google Hangout on “Gaza ceasefire: What now?”

Wed, 06 Aug 2014 15:20:00 +0000

Join People's World co-editor Susan Webb Thursday morning, in a conversation and call to action with peace activist and leader of the Communist Party of Israel Uri Weltmann on Gaza and whether Israel-Palestinian peace is possible.

Weltmann was an organizer of the July 19 joint Jewish-Arab national peace demonstration in Israel's northern city of Haifa. His article about the Netanyahu government "Upon the fire of war, they pour gasoline" was published in the Israeli daily, Haaretz, and translated to English and republished on peoplesworld.org. Weltmann also published "The long road to Gaza," an in depth analysis of the strategy of the Netanyahu government to deepen the occupation and the role of the United States in the conflict, which is available on the CPI's English language website.

Watch from the video embed below or from Google+ link: https://plus.google.com/events/cd9lp9fspr8tcunqi99m3a2nt40

Thursday, Aug. 7

8 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Central

Photo: Hadash and Communist Party of Israel demonstration in Haifa last month (Hadash-CPI Haifa)

Fighting intensifies in Eastern Ukraine as Kiev acts against Communist Party

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 15:50:00 +0000

The crisis in Eastern Ukraine is coming to a head, with intensified fighting and mounting casualties, including many civilians. The conflict has made it difficult until now for an international technical team to reach the site of the shootdown of a Malaysian airliner which killed 298 people. Meanwhile, the government of President Petro Poroshenko has moved to suppress the Communist Party of Ukraine.

In February, the government of Victor Yanukovych of the Party of the Regions was overthrown by an uprising in Kiev, the capital. The original stated motive for the disturbances was that Yanukovych had stopped a planned agreement to bring Ukraine into closer relations with the European Union, and was favoring a trade bloc being pushed by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin instead.

Other issues, including corruption, helped spark the protests. The arrival in Kiev of paramilitary forces with extremist right-wing leadership, close to political trends which had collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II, signaled a sharp increase in violence and finally led Yanukovych to flee.

A new government was installed which was a coalition of right-wing and far-right wing elements, the latter including people with clearly fascist ideas. Arseny Yatsenyuk, the United States' preferred candidate, became Prime Minister. But in Eastern Ukraine, site of the country's major smokestack industries, the new government was not accepted as legitimate by most. The three easternmost oblasts (provinces) of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, were most disaffected from the new regime. Locally organized referendums, not recognized by Kiev, led to the complete defection of Crimea which was quickly annexed to Russia, and autonomous local governments in Luhansk and Donetsk. The "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk began to dig in to resist.

A presidential election was carried out on May 25, under conditions which raised questions about its legitimacy. Violent threats and attacks led the Communist Party of Ukraine candidate, Piotr Symonenko, to withdraw from the race, and in some districts of the East the turnout was near zero. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, the Communist Party had come in fourth in the popular vote and had elected 32 deputies to the Rada, or parliament.

On July 22, the Rada rammed through a government sponsored law which requires the dissolution of any party faction (similar to a caucus in the United States Congress) which does not have sufficient members. As a number of the Communist Party's deputies had previously resigned in a split, on July 24 the majority in the Rada declared the Communist Party grouping to be dissolved. The party is appealing this ruling in the courts, but at the same time the Parliament President, Oleksandr Turchynov, called for the Communist Party to be made illegal and communist ideology to be "abolished" in Ukraine.

Turchynov accuses the Communist Party of giving material and moral support to the "separatists" in Donetsk and Luhansk. Symonenko had said, during the presidential election campaign, that if he were elected the first thing he would do would be to withdraw the military forces that Kiev had sent to the east. Overall, the program of the Communist Party for dealing with the crisis has been to maintain a united Ukraine but on a highly federated basis in this exceedingly centralized country where governors are named from Kiev instead of elected by the people in their oblasts. Further, the power of the presidency would be greatly reduced or perhaps eliminated and that of the Rada increased. Relations with both the European Union and Russia's trading bloc would be decided by plebiscite.

On the same day, Prime Minister Yastenyuk's coalition in the Rada fell apart, with the defection of the fascist oriented Svoboda and center-right UDAR parties. Yatsenyuk promptly offered his resignation, but it was not accepted by the Rada. This presumably means that there must be an election in the coming months, but a date has not been set yet. Yatsenyuk will presumably stay on as caretaker prime minister until then.

The fighting in Eastern Ukraine has intensified with several towns falling to the Kiev government's troops, while the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk are holding out. Civilian deaths have been pegged by the United Nations as 799 since April, with mounting damage to infrastructure. There have been many casualties, also, among fighters on both sides. The announcement by President Poroshenko of call up of reserves and the drafting of large new categories of men to fight in the east has led to antiwar protests in other areas of the country.

Meanwhile, the issue of the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner continues to be a complicating factor. Although it is still not clear who shot the plane down and under what circumstances, and at writing international observers had only just gained access to the site which is in an area of sharp armed conflict, the United States and its NATO allies have aligned themselves with Kiev's version of events and have announced new sanctions against Russia.

Photo: At the Malaysian airliner crash site near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, July 17. Dmitry Lovetsky/AP

Celebs, Nobel winners show support for Palestinians in new video

Fri, 01 Aug 2014 15:26:00 +0000

Jewish Voice For Peace along with the Institute of Middle East Understanding launched the #GazaNames Project, featuring prominent artists and activists holding signs with the names and ages of Palestinian civilians killed in the recent Israeli military attacks on Gaza. Well-known Jewish and Palestinian Americans are among the celebrities. Some hold signs saying, "I chose peace" and "I chose freedom for all."

The Institute of Middle East Understanding said the video "is a first of its kind expression of support for Palestinian freedom, equality and justice."

Artists such as Chuck D, Jonathan Demme, Mira Nair, Wallace Shawn, Tony Kushner, Roger Waters, Brian Eno join with activists Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem and Nobel laureates Rigoberta Menchu and Desmond Tutu in showing their solidarity with the people of Gaza and expressing their humanity for the war victims. The video focuses on Palestinian civilians.

In a recent email, Jewish Voice For Peace Deputy Director Cecilie Surasky wrote, "In short, the people in this video represent the human family, standing on the side of freedom- for Palestinians and Israelis alike. And we say No to this unspeakable carnage wrought by one of the world's most powerful militaries dropping explosives on an imprisoned and defenseless population."

As of Aug. 1, the death toll has climbed to 1,418 Palestinians and 66 Israelis, according to the UK's Guardian. Israeli strikes on Gaza total 3,196 and rockets fired into Israel from Gaza total 2,968. According to United Nations reports, some 200 Palestinian civilian deaths were children.

After two hours into a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire, agreed to by Hamas and Israel, Israeli military resumed its operations and Hamas launched rockets towards Israel, reports the Guardian.

Photo: via TwitPic