People Before Profit blog

Trinidad & Tobago engulfed in political turmoil

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:38:00 +0000

The oil-rich island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, which is located in the Caribbean just off the coast of Venezuela and not far from Cuba has, since mid-year 2012, become engulfed in political turmoil, in part a result of the breakup of the country's ruling coalition.

In 2010 the People's Partnership, or PP, a coalition of five parties that included the UNC (United National Congress), COP (Congress of the People) and MSJ, (Movement for Social Justice), came to power after defeating Patrick Manning and the PNM, (Peoples National Movement) - the remnants of the old Eric Williams regime.

With the victory of the PP, the UNC's Kamla Persad-Bissessar became the nation's Prime Minister and Errol McLeod, a former leader of the powerful Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), was named Minister of Labor. David Adulah, the current political leader of the MSJ, is also a leader of the OWTU.

The PP had come to power pledging honesty and transparency. The progressive and labor constituents of the coalition, including the MSJ, had expected a real sharing of power, including a decisive voice for labor right down to the shop floor level. They were quickly disappointed in this, although they remained, for a time, in the coalition government.

Beyond such disappointments, however, the MSJ and others have accused elements of the PP coalition of corruption, nepotism, cronyism, and abuse of power and authority, all things that the PP had pledged, in its statement of principals, to work against.

For this and other reasons the MSJ formerly left the government on June 17, 2012 and Abdulah resigned from his elected position as Senator, saying that the MSJ could not remain in the PP government because it was guilty of the same abuses that it had previously accused the Manning government of.

In this McLeod, evidently, has broken with his OWTU and MSJ comrades and has remained in the PP government. Now the remnants of that government, dominated by the UNC, are being accused of playing the "race card," The UNC has traditionally been considered as an "Indian" party in T&T's ethnic-based political environment although, as part of the PP coalition, it had originally pledged to move away from narrow ethnic politics. It is important to understand that T&T, like much of the Caribbean, still suffers from the legacy of the British divide and rule tactics, in this case applied between those of Indian and African background.

According to the official statements of Adulah and those of the MSJ the goal is to transform society and to build a mass party of farmers, workers and "patriotic" national bourgeoisies. A party that is not ethnically based and is committed to integrity, openness, transparency and accountability, features that, according to the MSJ and its allies, are lacking in the current government.

Local elections are scheduled for February on Tobago and the MSJ will be fielding candidates. However, Tobago, which has a smaller working class than Trinidad proper, has been described as not being as politically advanced and this may affect the outcome. Because the ruling PP has been discredited the former ruling party, the PNM, may do well in these elections, however, the more right-leaning constituent of the PP coalition, the COP may also appeal to Tobago voters.

Photo: Oil companies have their eyes on Trinidad and Tobago because it is rich in the source of their profits. Mike Baird/Flickr

Thousands take to streets to mourn Delhi gang-rape victim

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:56:00 +0000

Thousands poured onto the streets of India over the weekend to mourn the death of a pre-medical student who was subjected to a brutal gang rape.

The 23-year-old woman, still unnamed but dubbed "Nirbhaya" meaning "Braveheart," was cremated in a private ceremony in New Delhi, the city where she was viciously assaulted Dec. 16, 2012. Media reports say she bravely fought her attackers, and just as courageously fought for her life, before succumbing to her injuries on Dec. 29.

Six men arrested for the attack have now been charged with murder.

Protests have rocked India since the horrifying rape became known two weeks ago. According to numerous media reports the young woman was returning home from a movie, accompanied by a male friend, when men on a passing private bus urged the two to board, suggesting the bus was going to their neighborhood. There were six men on the bus, including the driver.

Reportedly when the young woman's companion demanded they be let out, the men beat him with an iron rod. As the young woman defended her friend, the men turned and attacked, beat and gang raped her. They then threw the two out of the moving bus onto the street.

Doctors said the men must have used the iron rod in the rape as the young woman suffered extensive damage to her intestines and other organs. She died from her injuries after being flown to a Singapore hospital known for its organ transplant surgeries.

The attack became a protest flashpoint for pent up anger over the sexual harassment and assaults that Indian women face daily, across class, religious and caste lines. The case has highlighted the danger faced by women in India, and caused mounting anger over police and politicians' failure to take the issue seriously. The protests evidently caught the government by surprise. And police use of tear gas on peaceful protesters was widely condemned.

Veteran Communist Member of Parliament Brinda Karat said it was a shame that it took "a death of such a brave healthy woman to wake India and wake up this government."

The rape and subsequent death of the woman has "shaken the conscience of the nation," Communist Party of India leader D. Raja said, adding that society has to challenge itself to change its laws as well as its consciousness and culture regarding women.

He said both government and the wider society have to "acknowledge the act of gender equality, giving equal rights and dignity to women."

"This is not an isolated incident. Sexual assault cases are the fastest increasing crimes in India," the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said in a statement.
Left parties and women's organizations have a program to prevent violence against women, "which the government has failed to accept and implement," the statement said. Such measures include police and legal reforms that could guarantee rapists are arrested and prosecuted.

The mostly spontaneous protests have included a wide range of Indian society, political and apolitical. Women, especially younger women, are among the leading forces.

Because of the broad and spontaneous nature of the protests, multiple demands have emerged. Some have demanded the death penalty or castration for rapists. Others say the death penalty does not guarantee justice, nor does it prevent sexual assault and violence.

Prosecutors have "fast-tracked" the case and reportedly will seek the death penalty.

In announcing the Jan. 2 inauguration of a fast track court to try sexual violence cases, India's chief justice, Altamas Kabir, cautioned against lynch-mob mentality, while promising swift justice.

"It is good to know that after this rather tragic incident of December 16, people have started raising their voices against certain crimes against society, against crime against women," Kabir said.

But the immediate reaction of people, he said, has been to say, don't put these persons to trial, hand them over to us, we will deal with them, hang them.

"Now these kinds of sentiments, which are emotional, are rather dangerous sentiments. But these emotions will continue until the matter comes to us and we deal with them expeditiously," he said.

The new court is just the first of five fast-track courts that will hear cases of sexual offenses against women.

Photo: Protesters light candles as they mourn the death of a gang-rape victim in New Delhi on Dec. 29 (AP). Teresa Albano contributed to this story.

After four decades, Victor Jara’s killers charged

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:07:00 +0000

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Eight former army lieutenants have been charged in the killing of communist singer and songwriter Victor Jara in 1973.

A January 2 press conference took place in Santiago with Jara's widow, Joan Jara, and their daughters, Amanda and Manuela, along with members of the Victor Jara Foundation and the prosecuting attorneys, Nelson Caucoto and Francisco Ugaz, along with others representing culture and human rights.

Joan Jara spoke from her heart: " It seems almost impossible that we are back. We have fought for decades and things are now moving. It is very difficult to talk .. There is a time for celebration but a time when we must be calm and know that there is much work ahead to finally achieve true justice. And especially true justice for all victims. "

Amanda Jara, Victor's daughter, also expressed the feelings of the family in relation to recent prosecutions "We want to take this time to ask the [Chilean] Supreme Court to get the United States to extradite Pedro Barrientos [living in Florida] to answer for what he did. I think it is important to acknowledge the will of the Visiting Minister, Appellate Court Magistrate Miguel Vasquez, for taking steps. The first complaint was filed September 12, 1978, and now is an important time for us and we recognize that the judge has done something very significant. " Amanda also thanked the prosecuting attorneys for their work, and thanked the Legal Medical Institute and the Human Rights Brigade. "We are excited, I'd say a little anxious, but expectant and must continue working because this is not over."

Gloria Koenig, Executive Director of the Victor Jara Foundation, spoke to the will of the judiciary: "It is vital that the judiciary send a loud and clear signal regarding their willingness to advance the investigation into the murder of Victor Jara and that means getting the U.S. government to extradite Pedro Barrientos, meaning he comes to Chile and can testify."

Vazquez ordered the arrest of Hugo Sanchez Marmonti and Pedro Barrientos Nunez, who lives in the U.S. in Florida, as the authors of the killing, and the other six former military officials as accomplices. All have been detained except Barrientos, who is expected to undergo extradition proceedings.

The day after the Sept. 11, 1973, coup that toppled elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, Victor Jara was arrested and held at the Santiago football stadium with 5,000 other supporters. Jara's body was found several days later, riddled with bullets and bearing signs of torture. His widow Joan arranged a hasty, clandestine burial in Santiago's general cemetery before fleeing into exile.

Victor Jara has long been revered as a champion of Chile's working people and was a national symbol of resistance during the years of the repressive regime of ultra-right army general Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.

Under Pinochet's brutal rule, thousands of workers, students, artists, progressives and their leaders were murdered, kidnapped and disappeared. Tens of thousands were tortured and 10 percent of the population forced into exile.

Pinochet did not commit these crimes without help. Then President Richard Nixon, then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and big corporations like ITT helped engineer the 1973 coup that overthrew Allende, the democratically elected president.

The 1975 Select Committee Report by Sen. Frank Church revealed, "On September 15, 1970, President Nixon informed CIA Director Richard Helms that an Allende regime in Chile would not be acceptable to the United States and instructed the CIA to play a direct role in organizing a military coup d'état in Chile." This document also showed that the U.S. role in the coup was illegally kept secret from Congress. It adds, "In the end, the whole of U.S. policy making may be affected."

Pinochet set up "Operation Condor," a terrorist alliance that killed Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his associate Ronni Moffett, in a 1976 car bomb in Washington, D.C.

The extent of U.S. involvement in the brutal activities under the Pinochet regime includes training tortures and murderers at the School of the Americas. The SOA is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located in Fort Benning, Ga. It has trained tens of thousands of Latin American soldiers since 1946. After the Pentagon was forced to acknowledge the use of torture manuals discovered at the school, it was closed down, but almost immediately reopened under a new name: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The SOA has been popularly dubbed "the School of Assassins."

Victor Jara came from humble rural roots and rose to become one of Chile's most beloved musicians and a well-known theater director in the 1960s and early 1970s. At that time Chile was witnessing a growing movement of radical ideas that led to the presidential election of popular socialist candidate Allende in 1970.

In Joan Jara's book, "An Unfinished Song," she made a powerful and eloquent statement about the invaluable role that the cultural movement, and especially the folk music of the people, plays in the radicalization and fighting spirit of a people's movement for justice and social change.

In 2009, Jara's body was exhumed in an on-going investigation to clarify the circumstances of his murder. In December of that year an estimated 6,000 mourners accompanied Jara's remains in a four-mile procession that ended in a cemetery in the nation's capital, Santiago, where he was buried for the second time.

Then Chilean President Michelle Bachelet hailed Jara as a great poet, singer, social justice activist, actor and a man essential for understanding Chile's national identity.

"Finally, after 36 years, Victor can rest in peace," said Bachelet, who was herself persecuted under the Pinochet dictatorship.

Video of Victor Jara's last performance, August of 1973, in Peru. He sings the haunting, "Pienso en ti." I think of you.

Associated Press and Barbara Russum contributed to this article.

Photo: Joan Jara, from the Facebook page of the Chilean music group Inti Illimani.

Support urged for trade unionist on hunger strike in Iran

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:40:00 +0000

A trade unionist imprisoned since June 2010 by the Iranian authorities is now into his second week of hunger strike to protest against mistreatment by prison officials in Tehran.

Reza Shahabi, treasurer and executive board member of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company trade union, went on hunger strike on December 17, 2012, to protest mistreatment by jail guards as well as prevention of medical treatment for him by the judicial authorities. Shahabi last went on hunger strike two years ago, protesting his imprisonment.

Shahabi, who had undergone major surgery on his neck, was deemed by doctors to be in need of at least "two months rest at home." Doctors stated that he was "incapable of withstanding any further punishment," but he was nevertheless sent back to Ward 350 of the notorious Evin prison in Tehran on August 14, 2012. Since then, his health has deteriorated significantly.

In addition, Shahabi has had to endure verbal abuse and physical intimidation from his jail guards. Shahabi was taken to the hospital on December 15, but the jail guard accompanying him refused to allow him to be properly examined and forced Shahabi, with threats of beating and assault, to go back to prison.

As a result of such treatment Shahabi has announced that he will refuse to take his medication or eat until he is allowed to be transferred to a hospital outside prison for complete treatment.

Committee for Defense of the Iranian People's Right (CODIR) Assistant General Secretary Jamshid Ahmadi,condemned the ongoing persecution of Shahabi, in particular, and the members of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company trade union and other Iranian trade unionists in general.

"Reza Shahabi's health deteriorated significantly after severe beatings and mistreatment following his arrest", stated Ahmadi. "The authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are directly responsible for any consequences resulting from the continued imprisonment and mistreatment of Reza Shahabi. The Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company has more than 17,000 employees, of which a significant number are members of the trade union. All executive board members of this union have been persecuted, dismissed and many jailed since the formation of the union in 2005. This systematic intimidation of workers must be highlighted and stopped."

Members of the union have been active recently in protests against unpaid wages and the unequal treatment of employees, and are demanding the dismissal of the Tehran Bus Company managing director. Many of the union's members, including its president Mansour Osanloo and deputy president Ibrahim Madadi, have spent years in prison for defending the rights of the workers of the company.

The International Transport Workers Federation, to which Shahabi's union is affiliated, has called for his immediate release.

Although several Iranian trade unionists, including some from Shahabi's union, have been freed after international trade union campaigns, he remains in jail and had his six-year sentence confirmed in April 2012. Over the summer, Amnesty International added their weight by focusing on the cases of Reza Shahabi and three other jailed Iranian trade unionists with a postcard protest in the UK and Turkey.

CODIR, as a matter of urgency, calls for

* the immediate release of all political prisoners in Iran;
* an immediate end to all manifestations of abuse of human rights;
* the Iranian authorities to agree to implement the terms of ILO conventions 87 and 98 guaranteeing trade union rights and freedoms and the right to belong to a trade union and be active within it'
* human rights and trades union organizations to protest against the arbitrary actions of the Iranian government; and
*human rights and trades union organizations to highlight the case of Reza Shahabi in particular and to demand his immediate release.

Alan Gross and the Cuban Five: Why not exchange holiday gifts?

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:50:00 +0000

There has been a media flurry over Mr. Alan Gross, a U.S. government consultant serving a 15-year jail sentence in Cuba. Cuba strongly hints that it would be receptive to a "humanitarian exchange" of Mr. Gross for five Cubans imprisoned in the United States (Gerardo Hernandez, two life terms plus 15 years; Ramon Labañino, 30 years; Antonio Guerrero, 21 years & 10 months; Fernando Gonzalez, 17 years & 9 months, and Rene Gonzalez, 15 years).

The U.S. has said it will not consider such an exchange. Some politicians and media, including the Washington Post, demand punishment for Cuba instead of any negotiations. Mr. Gross's wife has sued the U.S. government for getting Gross into this situation.

The U.S. is raising the alarm about Mr. Gross' health. He has lost much weight since his arrest, and has a lump on his shoulder. Cuban doctors say that the weight loss is healthy, as he was overweight before, and a biopsy shows the lump is not a tumor but an accumulation of subcutaneous blood, which should go away by itself.

Mr. Gross was arrested in 2009 and convicted for illegally smuggling sophisticated electronic equipment into Cuba; equipment that was normally possessed only by military forces, whose purpose is avoiding government detection mechanisms. Gross did this for Development Alternatives Inc., which contracts with the U.S. government to do work to undermine Cuba's socialist government. Gross did not register with the Cuban government or ask for any permit; he simply came in as a tourist with the items in his baggage, or induced others to smuggle them. He claims that he was helping Jewish communities in Cuba to connect to the Internet. Cuban Jewish leaders say they don't know him and that they already are connected to the Internet.

Gross and his employers ignored the risks and penalties. Cuba has fought a 53-year struggle against U.S. efforts to topple the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The Cuban parliament has passed specific legislation forbidding its own citizens or foreigners on its soil from cooperating with precisely the kind of U.S. government program for which Mr. Gross was working.

The Cuban Five were members of the "Wasp Network," which monitored potential attacks on Cuba from South Florida right-wing Cuban exile groups. The fear of terrorist attacks is not exaggerated. A year before the Cuban Five were arrested (in 1998), terrorist groups headed by former CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles had set off bombs in Havana which killed an Italian traveler, Fabio de Celmo. These were the latest of a string of deadly and destructive terrorist attacks on Cuba. Repeated Cuban pleas to suppress this activity are regularly ignored by the U.S. government, which has historical ties to some of the terrorist groups through the CIA and FBI.

The Cubans continued to hope the U.S. administration would act against the Miami terrorists. Ironically, the Cuban government had given the FBI information collected by the Wasp Network, in the belief that U.S. authorities might suppress exile terrorism. Instead, the U.S. used the information to arrest and prosecute the Five.

After a trial in Miami, during which the exile-controlled media created a circus atmosphere (a request for a change of venue was refused), the five were convicted on 26 counts in June 2001. Later, it was discovered that the U.S. government was paying some of the media whose agitation had made a fair trial impossible.

One of the five, Gerardo Hernandez, was given two consecutive life sentences for supposedly having helped the Cuban armed forces to shoot down two small aircraft in 1996. The aircraft had been illegally (under both U.S. and Cuban law) penetrating Cuban air space to drop anti-government leaflets. The Cuban government warned that if these illegal flights were not stopped by the U.S., it would take action, and it did. Hernandez credibly denies having anything to do with this, and is fighting his case in the U.S. legal system.

Since the conviction, a worldwide campaign to "Free the Five" has attracted the support of many distinguished individuals and groups, including Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, ex President Jimmy Carter, Amnesty International.

The latest controversy over Gross' health is a propaganda response to the Free the Five campaign. That the Cuban government would try to undermine Gross' health staggers the imagination. This would hand the United States a great propaganda weapon and if Gross should die in prison, all efforts to get the Five back through a "humanitarian exchange" would go down the drain.

Although the U.S. government has been saying "no exchange," Mr. and Mrs. Gross are not, because it is not in their interests to shut off the possibility of an exchange.

Gross is beginning the fourth year of a 15-year sentence. With one exception, the Cuban Five are in the 14th year of much longer sentences. Rene Gonzalez who was released from jail last year but is required to stay in the United States for two years more.

The United States could move beyond the rigid Cold War parameters of its endless campaign against socialist Cuba to view such an exchange, which has precedents, as a reasonable deal to reduce tensions between the two countries while restoring six families. But it won't do this without pressure. Various petitions are circulating, including one on the White House petition site.

In Cuba, like in much of Latin America, gift giving is traditionally done on January 6, Three Kings Day. Here we do it in December: Hanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. How about a joint celebration of all these holidays with a gift of freedom and peace?

Thanks to Ismael Parra and Henry Lowendorf for help with this article.

Photo: Mario Carvajal/Flickr

Left makes big advances in Venezuela regional elections

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:33:00 +0000

The Venezuelan left made big advances in regional elections, Dec. 16, even as President Hugo Chavez remains hospitalized in Cuba after his third cancer operation.

At stake were governorships and legislative council seats in all 23 of Venezuela's states. Going into the election, Chavez' own party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) held all but eight of these governorships, with the rest held by the right-center MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable) alliance of opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski. Chavez beat Capriles by a margin of 55 percent to 44 percent in the Oct. 7 presidential elections.

The Dec. 16 results were striking: Going forward, the PSUV will now govern 20 of the 23 states, a net gain of five governorships. This will allow the PSUV leadership to advance projects for local mass democratic participation in building the nation.

The Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV), which supports Chavez and his policies, supported the PSUV candidates in all but four of the states. In those states, the Communist Party ran its own candidates. It did not win any of the governorships but in Portuguesa state its candidate, Oswaldo Zerpa, outpaced the MUD candidate with 23 percent of the vote, coming in second after the PSUV candidate. But there and in the other three states where the Communist Party ran candidates, the PSUV won; in other words, the Communist candidacies did not cause the MUD candidates to win by taking away votes from the PSUV.

Of particular importance is the fact that the PSUV candidate, Francisco Arias, won in Zulia state, which borders Lake Maracaibo and contains much of Venezuela's crucially important oil reserves and production. In the past, Zulia, which is Venezuela's most populous state with 4 million inhabitants in this country of 29 million, has been touted as a hotbed of opposition to Chavez and his policies. There have been worries that the United States would use Zulia's disaffection to try to separate the oil-rich state from the rest of Venezuela. However, these fears will now recede with the PSUV victory. Chavez also won Zulia in the presidential election.

Local and outside observers were particularly interested in the results of Miranda state, which includes part of the metropolitan area of the capital, Caracas. There, Henrique Capriles Radonski, who was bested by Chavez in the October presidential election, is the governor and was challenged by the PSUV's Elias Jaua, Chavez' former vice president and minister of agriculture.

Capriles won the governorship of Miranda by a vote of 52 percent to 47 percent, but the PSUV won a majority in the state legislature.

The PSUV also took the governorship of Carabobo state, which had been ruled by the MUD; it is an important industrial center.

The opposition won in Amazonas state, which is the most sparsely populated of the states and contains vast forested regions, and in Lara state. Nationwide, there was an unusually low turnout for the opposition.

Depending on how Chavez' recuperation goes, Venezuelans may face another election. Having been reelected to the presidency in October, Chavez is to be sworn in on January 10. If he is not in shape to do so, or has to step down, the Venezuelan constitution stipulates that a new presidential election must be held within 30 days. Before heading to Cuba for the latest bout of surgery, Chavez asked that in such a case, Venezuelans vote for Vice President Nicolas Maduro to replace him.

The regional election results suggest that the Venezuelan phenomenon is not just a one-man show, as the corporate-controlled media here in the United States like to claim, but has much deeper popular roots among the working class, the peasants and other mass sectors who have benefited greatly from Chavez' redirection of the country's oil wealth into raising living standards. The opposition's strategy of denouncing Venezuelan aid to poorer countries in the region, and especially to Cuba, seems to have failed. This would augur well for a Maduro victory, if a new election is needed, and for a continuation of the "Bolivarian Revolution" which is so important not just for Venezuela but for the entire Latin American-Caribbean region and beyond.

Photo: Globovisión // CC 2.0

Mexico’s high court protects gay marriage rights

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Mexico is moving closer to marriage equality. A Supreme Court ruling last week allows same-sex couples to legally marry, if they request special legal protection from federal tribunals.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Mexican state of Oaxaca discriminates against same-sex couples wishing to marry. The state marriage law only allows opposite sex couples with the intent to procreate to marry, and therefore violates the country's constitution, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

State legislatures in Mexico are in charge of marriage laws. While the Supreme Court cannot revise or throw out Oaxaca's or any other state law dealing with civil and family law, gay and lesbian couples wanting to marry can apply for federal legal protection that will override Oaxacan law.

"The court's decision does not mean the legalization of same-sex marriage. What the court decision means is something deeper," according to Armando Rivera Barragan, a Mexico City-based lawyer during an interview with the People's World.

"State laws cannot contradict the Constitution or international treaties in material of human rights that Mexico adheres to. If the laws discriminate, same-sex couples can demand federal legal protection," he said.

"Same sex couples can marry in states where local legislation prohibits it only if they go to the Federal Tribunals and solicit that the homophobic law does not apply and only the Mexican Constitution and international treaties apply,"Rivera said.

With the exception of the Federal District and Quintana Roo, all other Mexican states only allow marriage between opposite-sex couples. The state of Coahuila allows same-sex civil unions.

The court ruled that Oaxacan law is discriminatory in two ways: it denies same-sex couples the right to marry, as well as all the rights and privileges that all other married couples are entitled to, such as joint medical and pension benefits.

The matter went to the Supreme Court after local authorities denied three same-sex couples the right to marry in Oaxaca.

On Dec. 9, 50 members of the gay and lesbian community marched through Oaxaca City to celebrate the court ruling. Alex Ali Mendez Diaz of the Oaxacan Front for Respect and Sexual Diversity said that the court decision represents a parting of waters in all of Mexico as many gay couples are now requesting the special legal protection to marry.

Like most of Latin America, Mexico is a conservative society where homosexuality is still considered a taboo. Gay rights groups report that violence and discrimination against gays and lesbians is widespread.

However, in recent years there has been a decline in homophobia and growth in acceptance and legal rights. On Dec. 21, 2009, the Federal District's (FD) legislature legalized same-sex marriage in a 39-20 vote, which includes the right to adopt children, apply for bank loans, inherit wealth and be included in the insurance policies of their spouses.

The FD is a large state that includes Mexico City with more than 20 million people (out of a population of 101 million people). Opinion polls at the time suggested strong public support for allowing same-sex marriage. The legislature has also passed laws protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination and harassment, even allowing transgendered people to change their names and gender in official documents.

In the southern state of Quintana Roo, same-sex couples have been marrying since 2011, after it was discovered that the state's marriage laws do not mention gender, only specifying "people interested in getting married." In the northern state of Coahuila, the legislature in 2007 legalized same-sex civil unions, giving property and inheritance rights to same-sex couples.

Photo: Gay and lesbian couples celebrate marriage equality victory in Mexico City (GLAAD)

President Chavez of Venezuela to Cuba for cancer treatment

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:53:00 +0000

For the fourth time in a year and a half, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez left for Cuba on Sunday for cancer treatment. He has expressed confidence that he can beat the illness, but has also asked that his supporters vote for Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro in case things turn out otherwise.

Chavez was diagnosed with a cancerous lesion in his hip region last year while on a state visit to Cuba. The story goes that he was conversing with Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro when Castro noticed that Chavez was experiencing discomfort, and insisted that Cuban specialists be allowed to examine him. The lesion was found and excised, but recurred, necessitating another trip to Cuba for surgery. This time, Chavez had gone to Cuba for treatment for after effects of the cancer treatments, and more malignant cells were found.

In October, Chavez was re-elected as president of Venezuela over conservative candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, the governor of Miranda state, by a margin of 55 to 44 percent. Local elections are due on December 16^th, next Saturday. Should Chavez not be able to be inaugurated on January 10, the Venezuelan constitution calls for a new election to be conducted within 30 days.

In an emotional get together with his followers in Caracas on Saturday, Chavez promised to fight the illness but said that should there not be a positive result, he wants them to vote for Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro, 50, is a former driver for the Caracas metro transport system, a labor union leader and a founding member of Chavez' political party, the Venezuelan United Socialist Party, as well as of its predecessor, the Fifth Republic Movement. He was chosen as foreign minister by Chavez in 2006 and vice president earlier this year.

He is described as a skillful politician and has received plaudits for his handling of Venezuela's foreign relations. Along with Chavez, he has been a major factor in the building of alliances in the Latin America-Caribbean region that have created hopes among millions of getting out from under U.S. hegemony. In addition, Maduro was instrumental in facilitating the current peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP Marxist guerillas.

While Western corporate media gloated over Chavez's heath problems and speculated that they could lead to the overthrow of Venezuela's left wing policies and alliances, progressive and working class Venezuelans expressed their full solidarity for Chavez.

Venezuela plays a key role in the leftward movement and unity of Latin America not only because of Chavez's personal popularity and prestige, but because Venezuela's large scale oil production has been used to finance development projects which have been especially useful to other countries which do not have sufficient oil production of their own, such as socialist Cuba. Candidate Capriles had promised to continue some of Chavez's very popular social welfare programs while cutting off economic support to Cuba.

The Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) published a statement on their website which said in part:

"In the PCV and the JCV (Venezuelan Communist Youth) and in our membership and friends, we have hope and confidence that the comrade president, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, will again be able to overcome this challenge which life has placed before him...with the firm and decisive will of President Chavez to continue fighting for the transformation of society to benefit our peoples."

Photo: President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez holds a copy of the Constitution as President of the Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, left, and Vice President, Nicolas Maduro, look on, during a televised address from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas December 8. Marcelo Garcia / Miraflores Press / AP

Today in labor history: Workers take power in Kiev

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:00:00 +0000

On December 11, 1905, in support of the worker uprising and general strike in Moscow, the Council of Workers' Deputies of Kiev, in the Ukraine, decided to stage a mass uprising against oppressive czarist rule. The next day, all major organizations of the city stopped operation. The majority of the protesting workers were concentrated in the Shuliavka district of Kiev.

They declared Shuliavka a workers' republic in Kiev. Students and faculty of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where the uprising's headquarters was based, supported the workers' struggle.

On the first day of the uprising, the Council of Workers' Deputies published a manifesto whose wording resonates for us today. It proclaimed:

"Citizens of the Shuliavka republic protest for the abolition of absolute monarchy, for the freedom of speech and assembly, for social services, for amnesty of political prisoners, for a national emancipation of Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews, and other nationalities of the Russian Empire, for the immediate end to the Jewish pogroms, which embarrasses our people."

In addition, the workers demanded a pension, normal working conditions, removal of unnecessary fines, a better medical service, and a system of government protection.

On December 15, the territory of Shuliavka was surrounded by the Russian Army and local czarist authorities. The police began mass arrests and confiscated any weapons they found. More than 78 people were arrested. The next day, the uprising was put down by a 2,000-strong armed force consisting mainly of gendarmes and Cossack cavalry.

Just 12 years later, in the virtually bloodless Russian Revolution of 1917, workers and peasants led by V. I. Lenin and the Bolsheviks, overthrew the czarist empire under the slogan "Peace, bread, and land."

Photo: A monument to the Shuliavka Republic in Kiev, Ukraine. Wikipedia

Free David Ravelo! Peace in Colombia - with justice!

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Amidst civil war and humanitarian disaster - 400,000 Colombians murdered or "disappeared," poverty exceeding 60 percent, and five million people displaced - prisons in Colombia are tools of war. A delegation of U.S., Canadian, and German activists was in Colombia recently in solidarity with political prisoner David Ravelo.

Ravelo, a well-known human rights activist, is the victim of flawed judicial processes. Delegation members seek to publicize Ravelo's case and thereby contribute to an international campaign on his behalf aimed at liberation.

Ravelo was arrested on September 14, 2010 in oil-producing Barrancabermeja, where he heads the CREDHOES human rights organization and the regional section of the MOVICE advocacy group for victims of state crime. The Catholic Diocese there honored him in 2008 for 35 years of human rights work. Ravelo serves on the Colombian Communist Party's Central Committee. Trial proceedings in his case ended in May 2012.

Prison authorities allowed two delegation members to visit Ravelo in Bogota's La Picota prison. Over three hours on November 29, he outlined the government's vendetta against him beginning in the late 1980's when the newly formed Patriotic Union (UP) was winning elections and its candidates and office-holders were being killed. UP member Ravelo served in local governments then.

He recalled a 1993 frame-up putting him in prison for two years. In the late 1990's violent paramilitaries took over in Barrancabermeja and surrounding areas. Murders and disappearances mounted. From then on, Ravelo and family members began facing death threats. He provoked high-level animosity in 2007 by disseminating a video showing ex - President Uribe socializing with Barrancabermeja paramilitaries.

Ravelo indicated two jailed paramilitaries had accused him of helping murder Barrancabermeja mayoral candidate David Nuñez Cala in 1991. One is seeking government favor so as to have his 40-year sentence reduced to eight years under Colombia's Law of Justice and Peace. Ravelo said his judge prevented the testimony of 30 defense witnesses. Her concern, he says, is job security: lacking tenure, she wants her contract renewed.

Lawyer Diego Martinez representing the Permanent Committee on Human Right, the delegation host, attended the prison visit. He broke into Ravelo's narrative to inform him about news just received: he was convicted and likely would receive an 18 year sentence. The prisoner showed no reaction.

Instead he focused on new information. His adversary, prosecutor William Pacheco Granados, turns out to have been removed in 1992 from his post as police lieutenant in Armenia, Quindío. A year earlier he apparently helped engineer the forced disappearance of Guillermo Hurtado Parra. Under Colombian law he is thus disqualified from serving as prosecutor.

Billboards demanding Ravelo's liberation appear at both ends of a Barrancabermeja street. His wife Francia Elena Durán Ortega told the delegation, "He was dedicated to life, was there for everybody." In tears, daughter Leydi Tatiana Rabelo Gutíerrez described him as "a model father... loyal and dedicated to the struggle for human rights. I have never seen him sad."

Son David Ravelo Gutiérrez accompanied the delegation. His father is "a political leader who defended poor people... In 1998-1999 paramilitaries wanted to take over the place. Everyone else was afraid [to show the video] but his father showed it."

David Ravelo's fight for human rights, his taking on paramilitaries, and now his imprisonment play out within a larger context. Struggle against military violence, for example, puts him on the side of agrarian reform, the first agenda item in negotiations in Havana between the government and FARC insurgents.

The delegation's overnight trip by pick-up truck and motorized canoe to the remote Puerto Matilde settlement afforded a look at a cooperative, autonomous, and sustainable farming project aimed at strengthening displaced small farmers' hand against further paramilitary ravages. The Association of Campesinos of the Valley of Rio Cimitarra (ACVC), based in Barrancabermeja, supports them and 35,000 other small farmers. ACVC president Miguel Cifuentes, survivor of assassination attempts, earlier had condemned mining, oil - extraction, and agri-business corporations' attempts to take over their land.

Persecution of activists like David Ravelo coincides with sharpening struggle. Marcha Patriotica is a new resistance movement comprising almost 2000 social and political organizations. Many of its leaders, some of whom gained experience with ACVC, now face violent attacks and judicial frame-ups. Miguel Gonzalez, head of the Colombia Association of Democratic Lawyers, reported to the delegation on the arrests November 21 of eight leftist activists, several associated with Marcha Patriotica. Arraigned November 22 in Manizales, Caldas, they are teachers, social workers, and physicians.

David Ravelo's case epitomizes regime use of prisons as tools for criminalizing peaceful protest. According to Juan Camilo Acevedo of the Communist Party's National Commission on Political Prisoners, not only are they centers of torture, but are also overcrowded, filthy, and often without drinkable water and live-saving medical care. Colombia's prison population has risen 30 percent during President Juan Manuel Santos' tenure. The U.S. government funded and designed many Colombian prisons. There are 10,000 political prisoners.

Ravelo's fight plays out on a world stage. "We recognize deepening social clashes everywhere... [T]he world capitalist crisis has bred widespread discontent and will be worsening. Democratic forces must stand up against interventionists." Communist Party Secretary General Jaime Caycedo Turriago explained also that government insecurity is driving its extreme measures. It must cope with gross inequalities in Colombia while democracy spreads in Latin America. In Havana it must end war but also look like it's advancing democracy and agrarian reform.

Caycedo's message to Ravelo's U.S. supporters was that the US Southern Command directs war on the insurgency and that Colombia's upper classes are allied to the United States. Indeed, U. S. Plan Colombia "changed the logic of the situation," making it "more barbaric," explained lawyer Franklin Castañeda of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE). U.S. largesse extends to both paramilitaries and the Colombian Army, he said.

David Ravelo is optimistic. Speaking to Bucaramanga's Liberal Vanguard newspaper soon after learning about his sentence, Raveleo declared, "I believe there are costs a defender of human rights must pay. I'm not going to be discouraged now...I am going to summon up energy to demonstrate my innocence and show this is all a montage."

To join the campaign to free David Ravelo contact organizers of the delegation at freedavidravelo@gmail.com or go to www.justiceforcolombia.org. For more information about Ravelo's case, go to www.pacocol.org and/or www.davidravelolibre.org. For information on Colombian political prisoners, see www.afgj.org, www.traspasolosmuro.net, and/or www.inspp.org.

Oscar Niemeyer, visionary architect and Communist, dies at 104

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Oscar Niemeyer, the pioneering architect and life-long Communist, died Dec. 5 at the age of 104. He was stricken with kidney problems and pneumonia about a month ago.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff praised Niemeyer in a statement as "a revolutionary, the mentor of a new architecture, beautiful, logical, and, as he himself defined it, inventive." In the Brazilian media, Niemeyer was hailed as "the concrete poet" and the "traditionalist for tomorrow."

Best known for the breathtaking buildings he designed for Brazil's capital, Niemeyer inspired generations of architects with his embrace of curves, creative use of concrete, and reliance on local materials and techniques.

And, as a Communist who experienced persecution, exile, and the shifting fortunes of our movement over the past century, his dedication to the struggle for a better world inspired generations of activists.

Niemeyer joined Brazil's Communist Party in 1945 because, as he once explained, "I understood right away that we had to change things. The path to change was the Communist Party. I joined the party and have remained in the party up to today, following all the ups and downs that life has imposed."

Born on Dec. 15, 1907 in Rio de Janeiro, Niemeyer spent his life melding his profession and his politics. His buildings were designed to convey hope for a just future while forcing rich and poor to interact in cultural, governmental, and residential settings. "Many of my buildings have been political and civic monuments," Niemeyer reflected, "but perhaps some of them have given ordinary people, powerless people, a sense of delight. That is what architects can do."

Niemeyer was a giant of the Modernism school of architecture, hailed as a genius for his unique and influential contributions. He described his work as architecture of curves, the body of a woman, the sinuous rivers, the waves of the sea."

In 1956, Brazil's populist president, Juscelino Kubitschek, came up with the idea of building a new capital in the country's central savannah. He invited his friend Niemeyer to design some of its most prominent structures, including the presidential residence, the congress building, the Palace of Justice, and the cathedral as well as a series of apartment blocks. The city, named Brasilía, was completed in only four years and Niemeyer's creations dazzled the architectural world. Today, Brazil's capital has a population of 2.2 million and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

When the military staged a coup in 1964, Niemeyer's offices were raided and his work was halted. He went into exile the following year, settling in Paris, where he continued to create architectural marvels such as the headquarters of the French Communist Party in Paris, the Penang State Mosque in Malaysia, and the campus of Constantine University in Algeria. He finally returned to Brazil in the 1980s after the collapse of the right-wing regime.

Until earlier this year, Niemeyer continued to work in his office overlooking the beach in Rio, enjoying cigarillos and coffee, working on new commissions, hosting weekly political discussions, and welcoming visits by friends. He counted amongst his closest Fidel Castro, who once joked: "Niemeyer and I are the last communists on this planet."

Niemeyer is survived by his wife and longtime assistant, Vera Lúcia Cabreira, eight years his junior whom he wed six years ago, along with five grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren. His former wife of 75 years, Annita, died in 2004 and their only child, Anna Maria, died this year aged 82.

A public memorial service will be held today in Brasília while a funeral is planned for Friday in Rio. The city's mayor, Eduardo Paes, has declared three days of mourning.

Niemeyer once advised: "You have to keep your mind alive, work, help others, laugh, cry, and experience life intensively. It only lasts for a brief moment."

And, in an interview with the French newspaper L'Humanite, he offered these words of encouragement to fellow communists: "There are too many injustices. But commitment to the Communist Party provides hope, solidarity, and the realization that it is possible to struggle together for a better world."

Photo: Oscar Niemeyer (via Vermelho)

New Egyptian president’s labor takeover plan riles unions

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:49:00 +0000

CAIRO (PAI) - Egypt's independent unions and their confederation, praised by the AFL-CIO for their role in peacefully ousting strongman Hosni Mubarak during the "Arab Spring" more than two years ago, are extremely upset by present Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's labor takeover plan.

Morsi's Decree 97 would rewrite Egypt's labor law to let the nation's Manpower (Labor) Minister, now a member of the president's Peace and Justice Party, name enough leaders to control labor federation boards, among other changes.

The decree says the minister may replace any federation board members aged 60 or over with second-place finishers in regime-run 2006 elections for board seats. But if there was no second-placer - and that was the case for most of the races - the minister would name a replacement. New labor board elections, scheduled for last month, were postponed for six months.

Morsi's labor takeover plan accompanied other decrees giving himself sweeping powers over parts of the government, notably the Mubarak-era judiciary, that his party and its parent organization, the Moslem Brotherhood, do not now control.

His takeover decrees sent hundreds of thousands of protesters - including unionists-into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities, with pro-Morsi forces staging their own retaliatory demonstrations

Ayman Bialy, deputy president of the Independent Teachers Union, urged his members to join the anti-decree protests. Morsi's labor decree and his other decrees are "dictatorial decisions" by "the new Pharaoh," the teachers union said. "We reject those who would trade in the blood of the martyrs."

"These decisions were made by a head of state who came to power through elections, the results of which everyone accepted, and which appeared to mark the restoration of a state of law. But as soon as he and his organization came to power they forgot what they had promised, and forgot the people had offered up martyrs in the cause of dignity, freedom, bread and social justice" the teachers union added.

The Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU) - one group the AFL-CIO cited - said Morsi's labor law isn't the only problem. He dissolved the Constituent Assembly, which has guaranteed workers' representation, too. Even the assembly, controlled by Morsi's party, has not stood up for workers, EFITU said. And

Morsi's draft constitution lacks worker representation in parliament.

"Workers are represented in this Constituent Assembly by the Minister of Labour, Khalid al-Azhary. Can anyone who has seen his performance during his time in office believe that he will defend workers' rights?" EFITU asked. Al-Azhary is a member of Morsi's Peace and Justice Party.

"We are not basing this on guesswork: All the drafts which came out of the Constituent Assembly have been completely empty of rights for workers, peasants, fishermen, and workers in informal jobs. The articles which mention workers and social justice do not commit anyone to actually implementing anything - not the government and not the bosses," added EIFTU, which has 2.5 million members.

"At the same time, the drafts protect the interests of factory owners and company directors. At present we find bosses refusing to pay workers' wages and sacking them, or issuing orders to close down the factory and throw workers out of their jobs, even when they have enjoyed privileges and tax exemptions. They even took out bank loans and never paid them back!

"There will be no-one at all to defend the rights of everyone who works in Egypt, like our right to have a labour law to replace the unjust law of 2003, or a genuine law on the minimum and maximum wage, or social security, or universal health care for all citizens, or any of the other laws which protect many of the rights of hard-working people."

EFITU board member Fatma Ramadan told the leading independent newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm, "Morsi's first decree, following his complete takeover of state powers, is a labor decree. This is a clear indicator that Morsi is seeking to monopolize the labor movement by first 'Brotherhoodizing' the Ministry of Manpower, and now the Egyptian Trade Union Federation," Egypt's 4-million-member "official" labor federation.

"Morsi is clearly preparing a systematic crackdown against Egypt's union movement, against the right to strike, against the right to organize and against union plurality," Ramadan continued. "Morsi is attempting to put on a mask of democracy as he points out the ETUF leadership was appointed by the Mubarak regime. Yet he is not seeking democracy in the ETUF, he is only looking to fill the federation's seats with members of his own regime."

Even the ETUF is upset. Morsi's decree is "an attempt by the (Muslim) Brotherhood to control the union structure which had previously been monopolized by the Mubarak regime," Wael Habib, a caretaker board member of the federation, told Al Masry Al Youm. Habib said that "Morsi is seeking to hijack the ETUF, the ministry and the rest of the country."

Photo: In Oct. 2011, employees of Egypt's Public Transportation Authority rallied in Cairo supporting the general strik. Protests demanded better wages, working conditions and basic labor rights. Arabic in the banners reads "A full incentive bonus and End of service bonus". Nasser Nasser/AP

UN vote on Palestine shakes things up

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:59:00 +0000

Last week's vote in the United Nations General Assembly which afforded "nonmember observer state" status to Palestine, and the Israeli government's subsequent response, has created a storm of controversy that has refocused attention on the stalled Israel-Palestine peace negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, had threatened drastic consequences if Palestine were recognized as a state entity, up to and including a re-invasion of the West Bank.

The actual measures now being taken are drastic enough.

First of all, Israel is now refusing to turn over West Bank tax monies it collects to the Palestinian Authority, saying that these funds will be applied instead to back electricity bills. These are funds that the Palestinian Authority would otherwise use to pay the salaries of its civil servants and for other expenses of running public services.

Secondly, the Netanyahu government announced that it is authorizing the construction of more than 3,000 new units of settlement housing in the E-1 sector between East Jerusalem and the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim.

The effect of actually building these units would be to cut off the rest of the Palestinian West Bank from mostly Arab East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for their capital. It would practically cut the West Bank in half, making a potential Palestinian state non-viable. The Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Hebron in the south would be completely cut off from Ramallah and Nablus in the north. The West Bank is already so cut up and intersected by Israeli settlements and restricted access roads that many have remarked that it looks more like the Bantustans in apartheid-era South Africa than an actual country.

Netanyahu's move provoked a predictable angry response from the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced it as an effort to sabotage a future Palestinian state.

In fact, the Palestinian move to get recognized as a state entity was in response to the fact that for many years, negotiations toward a two-state solution have been stalled because of the issue of settlements. In the original Oslo accords of 1993 - in which the Palestine Liberation Organization headed by the late Yasser Arafat agreed to peaceful negotiations, which were expected to lead to a two-state solution - the issue of settlements was not nailed down. However, the Israelis continued expansion of settlements on land that would be essential for a future Palestinian state is seen by the Palestinians and many others as an act of bad faith. For the past two years, the Palestinians have suspended negotiations until settlement building stops. But there are already more than 600,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Numerous other countries have weighed in to protest the reprisal measures announced by Netanyahu. French President Francois Hollande was joined by British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama in sharply condemning the new settlement plans and demanding that they be dropped. France had voted in favor of the resolution on Palestinian statehood, while Britain and Germany had abstained and the U.S. had voted "no." Many other countries also condemned the Israeli move, as did UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the European Union.

One of the issues that had arisen before the vote was whether the Palestinians would now go a step further and try to use the International Court of Justice in the Hague and perhaps also the International Criminal Court to go after the Israeli government, something made possible by their new UN status. Initially, President Abbas had said that he had no intention of doing that unless the Israelis took aggressive new actions. It will now be seen whether Israel's announcement of the new settlement building would be interpreted by the Palestinians as a sufficient provocation to do just that. Palestinian President Abbas said that proceeding with the settlement expansion would constitute a "red line" triggering Palestinian demands for further international action. This would include a call for a Security Council resolution condemning the settlements, something that in the past has been blocked by the U.S. veto. All the permanent member states on the Security Council have condemned the Israeli settlements move, including the United States. Palestinians are now waiting to see if this time, the United States will let a resolution go through and not use the veto.

Next year there are legislative elections in Israel. There is a fluid panorama of different parties splitting and combining, plus several new ones on the scene. Netanyahu's Likud is combining at least for the election with Foreign Minister Lieberman's Homeland Party, which may pull the whole Israeli dynamic to the right on the Palestinian issue.

Photo: Palestinian school children near East Jerusalem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Susan Webb/PW)

The end of Internet freedom: Coming soon to a computer near you

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:20:00 +0000

Between December 3 and 14, the International Telecommunications Union is convening a conference in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, to renegotiate a treaty that would give the group (a part of the United Nations) crippling new powers over the Internet. The idea of creating international Internet surveillance and regulation - which many feel is an attack on civil liberties - has resulted in worldwide outrage from various groups including labor, nonprofit, and companies like Google and Mozilla.

According to a press release by the AFL-CIO, the treaty's implications for the U.S. include increased restriction on certain content at the whim of the government, creation of a global regime of Internet content monitoring, a requirement that the Internet only be used in "rational ways" (parameters that are widely open to interpretation), government ability to shut down the Internet if they believe it will interfere with international affairs, and an incease in Internet costs.

Vint Cerf, vice president of Google, underscored the fact that the conference would "revise a decades-old treaty, in which only governments have a vote. Some proposals could allow governments to justify the censorship of legitimate speech, or even cut off Internet access in some countries."

Terry Kramer, the U.S.'s ambassador to the World Information Technology and Services Alliance - an information technology coalition - said, "There have been active recommendations that there be an invasive approach of governments in managing the Internet, in managing the content that goes via the Internet, what people are looking at, and what they're saying. It fundamentally violates everything we believe in terms of democracy and opportunities for individuals, and we're going to vigorously oppose any proposals of that nature."

Cerf added, "A state-controlled system of regulation is not only unnecessary, it would almost invariably raise costs and prices and interfere with the rapid and organic growth of the Internet we have seen since its commercial emergence in the 1990's."

Ellery Roberts Biddle, a policy analyst with the Center for Democracy and Technology, condemned the treaty, believing it "would mitigate the Internet's growth and inhibit its impact on economies and societies around the globe."

The basic idea here is that the UN's ITU members feel the Internet ought to be government-controlled, rather than, for example in the U.S., run by nonprofit private organizations like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN, a Los Angeles, California-based company that oversees the operational stability of the Internet). While the ITU's desire, at first glance, might seem like an anti-corporate move, it poses terrible threats to the liberties of working class Internet users all over the world.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has urged for the proposal to be nixed, noting it will have a negative effect on workers in the U.S. "So many workers are affected by Internet policy," he said, "even if we don't think about it as we go about our day. The Internet represents one of the few places in our world that is open and accessible by everyone. We need to make sure our voices are heard."

The AFL-CIO also released an official statement accompanying a petition to stop the treaty. It said, "Internet governance decisions should be made in a transparent manner with genuine multi-stakeholder participation from civil society, governments, and the private sector."

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, meanwhile, called on the Canadian government to veto the UN scheme outright. "In Canada, we have many [ways] to ensure that our freedom of speech is protected. In that regard we are lucky, but in other parts of the world, governments look for more ways to watch public opinion and monitor dissent," said CCLA public safety programs director Abby Deshman. "Freedom of expression is a basic human right and we would urge the countries that vote on this proposal to keep that in mind.

Simon Kent, a writer for the Toronto Sun, highlighted the desperation Internet users may be feeling at this point. "Cyberspace is the last frontier," he said. "It is free, deregulated, and untouched by the dead hand of government bureaucracy."

But European Union digital commissioner Neelie Kroes perhaps summed up the problem best when she took to Twitter and tweeted a simple message to the ITU: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Photo: Vint Cerf, vice president of Google, attends an ICANN meeting. He is among the fierce opposition to the ITU's proposed Internet-restricting treaty. Veni Markovski/Flickr

Trumka: Mexico on path of “low wage development”

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:08:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Mexico, the large U.S. trading partner and southern neighbor, is on a path of "low-wage development," including weakening its labor law and oppressing independent unions, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says.

Those issues should have been among the top topics when President Obama met with Mexican President-Elect Enrique Pena Nieto at the White House on Nov. 28, Trumka added. But they weren't.

At least according to media reports on the White House meeting, workers' rights went unmentioned. The presidents discussed increasing employment on both sides of the border but there were no reports that they talked about the quality of the jobs both say they want their economies to create.

And the closeness of the two governments was re-emphasized on Dec. 1 when Vice President Joseph Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis headed the U.S. delegation to Pena Nieto's inauguration.

The Obama-Pena Nieto meeting and workers' rights in Mexico are important to U.S. workers. Ever since NAFTA, the U.S.-Canada-Mexico (North American) "free trade" pact passed 15 years ago, U.S. firms have decamped for Mexico to make products for shipment back here. Mexico's low wages, lax environmental rules and the pro-corporate policies of its presidents attracted companies, and hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers lost jobs. The deal damages the Mexican economy too, forcing many to leave the country and emigrate to the U.S. in search of a better life.

The Mexican government aids its industrialists by harassing and trying to co-opt the few independent unions and weakening its labor law, Trumka said. Mexico's longtime large official union confederation worked hand-in-glove for decades with Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico from 1929-2000.

"The fundamental right of workers to democratically organize and bargain with their employers is central to achieving the 'economic competitiveness' Obama and Nieto seek," Trumka said. "The Mexican government's continuing attacks on these rights greatly reduces protections for Mexico's most vulnerable workers and is of grave concern."

Among the attacks on workers cited by Trumka is Mexico's new labor law, passed Nov. 13, which, according to the U.S. labor leader, "limits seniority, weakens remedies for unjust dismissal and promotes subcontracting, temporary contracts and payment by the hour. This legislation reflects an overly simplistic view of 'economic competitiveness' as simply the reduction of labor costs." He also noted the Mexican Supreme Court recently weakened the right to strike.

The outgoing Mexican government drove a top independent union leader, President Napoleon Gomez Urrutia of the Mine, Metal and Steelworkers, into exile on trumped-up charges of fraud. The United Steelworkers are sheltering Gomez Urrutia in Vancouver, British Colombia.

Trumka noted five Mexican appellate courts have ruled for Gomez Urrutia and his union against the government's attempt to break it. Meanwhile, the Mexican government has "increased use of repression through direct use of security forces to undermine workers' organizing campaigns."

The Mexican government is also defying an Oct. 9 court ruling for Mexico's independent electrical workers union and its 44,000 members. They were illegally fired three years ago when the government dissolved the state-owned power company by decree. The court ruled the workers' individual contracts and the union's contract with the power company still should be in effect, Trumka said.

"All of these examples, along with many more well-documented cases, demonstrate Mexico is continuing to pursue a path of low-wage development. Far from achieving competitiveness, security, or respect for the rule of law, this path is exacerbating economic marginalization and insecurity for a large part of the workforce while systematically violating international labor standards," Trumka concluded.

Photo: Some 200+ Teamsters protest NAFTA trucking regulations. Denis Poroy/AP