People Before Profit blog

Talking with Taliban takes center stage

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Talking with the Taliban emerged as the headline-grabbing themes at two international meetings on Afghanistan last week.

The two meetings were a regional conference of Afghanistan's neighbors and other key countries in Istanbul, Turkey, on Jan. 26, and a higher-profile conference in London on Jan. 28 attended by officials of 70 nations and international organizations such as the United Nations and International Monetary Fund.

At the Istanbul meeting, leading diplomats from China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, the U.S., NATO and the European Union, backed the idea of national conciliation, Reuters reported.

"We reaffirm our strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Afghanistan," they said in a statement. "We support, therefore, the Afghan national process of reconciliation and reintegration in accordance with the constitution of Afghanistan in a way that is Afghan-led and Afghan-driven."

The London meeting featured talk of international support to bolster the Afghan government, including establishment of a fund to encourage lower-level Taliban fighters to lay down arms. Afghan President Karzai said his government would provide jobs, land and money for those who give up fighting.

But diplomats and others say involving Taliban leaders is necessary.

Afghan officials say they have been engaged in talks with the Taliban, although Taliban statements denied that.

In an effort to promote talks, the UN on Wednesday, the day before the London meeting, removed the names of five former Taliban leaders from the UN terrorism "black list," including the ousted Taliban regime's foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil, who lives in Kabul.

New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, writing from Kabul, reports that "American leaders have begun to search for a road that could eventually lead to a political settlement with the Taliban's leaders.

"Afghan leaders and American officials believe that ultimately the two sides will have to reach a political settlement for the fighting to end."

Dr. Ashraf Ghani, the former finance minister of Afghanistan and former candidate in last year's disputed presidential elections, told Al Jazeera on Jan. 30 that reconciliation talks with the Taliban are under way.

Ghani, currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who said he is an adviser to Karzai, told Al Jazeera the Afghan conflict cannot be settled by use of force. "We must put politics first now," he said.

He said there is a need to "differentiate between the Taliban and al-Qaeda - al-Qaeda is the enemy and there must be a united front against it, but the Taliban are a local and national issue" and it is necessary to find ways of "reaching them and bringing them within the fold."

Ghani said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have been active in mediation efforts.

Karzai has asked Saudi Arabia to mediate with the Taliban and said it would host peace talks if the Taliban cuts ties with al-Qaeda, according to Al Jazeera.

Ghani also said, "We also need the engagement of China to make sure that regional arrangements are put in place" to end use of neighboring countries as sanctuary for armed attacks.

However a report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua expressed skepticism that reconciliation efforts would work, given the Karzai government's weakness and the problematic foreign military occupation.

"Afghans see little chance in bringing militants into mainstream of community and convincing them to lay down arms," the Xinhua article said.

It quoted two Afghan sources critical of the U.S.-NATO role there.

"Taliban would not accept any peace plan presented in London as the militants term the international troops deployed in Afghanistan as the occupying force," an Afghan analyst and former Taliban official Waheed Mughda told Xinhua.

"I do not see any change in the policy of the U.S. and NATO in war against Taliban and associated groups," another Afghan analyst, Qasim Akhgar, told Xinhua.

Akhgar, described by Xinhua as a human right activist and writer, said he doubted the U.S. is serious about conducting a war against terror. "If they (U.S. and allied nations) were serious in war on terror, definitely the Taliban and other militants groups have already been eliminated," said Akhgar.

The article also cautioned that anti-terror efforts require participation of Iran. Iran participated in the Istanbul regional meeting, but did not attend the London conference because of tensions with the British government.

Noting that the Afghan Parliament rejected 11 of Karzai's 25 Cabinet nominees, the Xinhua article says, "experts" believe this evidence of Karzai's weakness "could raise question" about his ability to achieve his ambitious stated plans for "peace through reconciliation, eliminating corruption and ensuring good governance."

Speaking at the Istanbul conference, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi stressed the importance of regional efforts to end the Afghan war.

"Countries in the region have special associations with Afghanistan due to geographical, religious, ethnic and linguistic reasons," he said. "We should employ our unique influence to help Afghanistan realize peace, stability, economic development and social harmony at an early date."

Yang said regional and international efforts must "fully respect the independence of Afghanistan," and also said it is "imperative to respect the leading role of the United Nations in coordinating international efforts."

China is a leading force in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is seen by many as an emerging Asian counterweight to NATO. Its members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Iran, Pakistan and Mongolia are observers.

The SCO appears to be increasing its activity on Afghanistan. On Jan. 25, Russia hosted an SCO meeting on Afghanistan including deputy foreign ministers from Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

At an earlier SCO conference on Afghanistan last March, Secretary‐General Bolat Nurgaliev, of Kazakhstan, said, in an apparent message to the U.S.: "It is stability, not transformation imposed from outside, it is long‐term and steady international aid, not interference aimed to achieve unilateral interests, which Afghanistan needs the most."

Photo: Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband, center, listens during a joint news conference with Dr. Rangin Spanta, left, senior advisor to the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and Kai Eide, special representative of the UN Secretary General, at the end of the London conference on Afghanistan, Jan. 28. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

A tribute to Capt. Hugh Mulzac

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:49:00 +0000

Many working seamen from the Caribbean area signed on ships and came to the U.S. when their vessels docked there. The majority who settled undoubtedly contributed along with other immigrants in building up that nation. One was Captain Hugh Mulzac, a merchant marine captain who was born in 1886 in Union Island, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Eastern Caribbean. He emigrated to Baltimore in 1918.

Mulzac was an important person in the early U.S. civil rights struggles of "people of color" which included Hispanics, Asians and native Indian ("Amerindian") peoples. He was the first African-American to obtain a Master's License. This was the rank of Captain which qualified him to skipper an ocean-going cargo ship.

More importantly, he was a leader in obtaining better wages and working conditions for seamen of all races. Captain Mulzac, who today has a Vincentian Coast Guard vessel named after him, assisted immeasurably in opening the doors for a more equitable and just working environment in the merchant marine service. This was in the early 1940s when the only jobs at sea for ethnic minorities were cooks and stewards ‑ in contrast with today when many large U.S. navy and "cargo boats", as islanders refer to merchant marine vessels, are captained by non‑white officers and also women.

Captain Mulzac's early days in the U.S. were frustrating. The U.S. cargo boat (and liner) was much larger than today. He got a job as a Mate (second in command) on the aging tramp steamer Yarmouth, belonging to Marcus Garvey's all-black owned and crewed Black Star Line. That line went on the rocks in 1922 because of institutional opposition to the firm's owners, Garvey's United African Improvement Association. Captain Mulzac went back to cook and steward jobs whenever they came along. It was hard as he had a wife and four children to support.

At that time, the seamen had a fairly democratic system where they were hired through the union halls. The late Guyanese President Dr. Cheddi Jagan witnessed this when he was studying in the U.S. in the 1940s and praised it. Captain Mulzac got involved with the National Maritime Union (NMU) through a Communist Party USA leader in Baltimore , Al Lannon.

There was a democratic dimension to this trade union which was formed in 1937 in the hectic labor upsurges of the period by Joseph Curran (1906‑1981) an early progressive who later took reactionary positions.

Part of this dimension was its multi‑racial policies. Both black and white seafarers were apparently treated equally by the labor body. Such a remarkable progressive outlook for the conjuncture (some of the seamen's and waterfront workers' unions were led by corrupt Mafia types even before the 1950s of Marlon Brando's movie On the Waterfront) did not extend to the hiring practices of most shipping companies. The NMU's Vice‑President was a black Jamaican seaman named Ferdinand Smith who, like Captain Mulzac who was sympathetic to the CPUSA. The party was then very influential, being active in other civil rights campaigns such as demanding release of nine black young men (The Scotsboro Boys) accused in 1931 of raping two white women.

It was easy for Mulzac to support multi-racialism. Not because his grandfather, who once cultivated cotton on Union island, was white. A sensitive man, Captain Mulzac undoubtedly observed the injustices and discriminatory practices against people of color in the US at the time. There was a shameful racist incident when the young (aged 21) Mulzac tried to attend church when his ship called at Wilmington, North Carolina. He was refused entry because of his color. His involvement, which he always defended as his democratic right in the great traditions of the U.S., with the "white" CP and the union channeled this hatred of racial discrimination along a constructive trajectory, working for the unity of all the races.

While the work of Captain Mulzac, Smith and other outstanding individuals are noted, there were, in fairness, other fronts on the civil rights campaign. The NMU for example supported the meeting between President Roosevelt and black railway porters union leader A. Philip Randolph, who demanded a Fair Employment Practices legislation which led to defense industries (such as the ship building firms) hiring more people of color.

In October 1942, as the USA got more involved in the Allied effort to defeat Hitler's fascist regime, Captain Mulzac was given command of the freighter Booker T. Washington. At first, in keeping with the times where crew on both naval and cargo boats were segregated, the authorities wanted to assign only a black crew to the ship. Captain Mulzac refused to sail with what he called a "Jim Crow" arrangement. As he wrote in his autobiography, "A Star to Steer By," "I wanted the most experienced crew the NMU could supply." For Mulzac, this meant a mixed race crew.

The Booker T., carrying vital war supplies such as tanks, aircraft and ammunition to the European front, made 22 successful round trips across the North Atlantic. Partly by skill and partly by luck, those on board managed to avoid being torpedoed by the German submarines. The subs sunk hundreds of other cargo boats with the loss of many equally courageous and hard working sailors as those in the navy. The efficient operation of the ship was a model for others to emulate.

In 1947, after the war ended, the ship's owners laid up the vessel. Captain Mulzac was out of work. Then 61, he tried his hand at painting maritime scenes and also started a wall painting business. At this time, the anti‑democratic and anti‑left current in U.S. politics known as McCarthyism unjustly blacklisted Mulzac along with many others for their involvement in progressive and democratic causes.

For example, Mulzac ran as a candidate for President of the New York City borough of Queens under the American Labor Party ticket. He lost but received a relatively high 15,500 votes. The New York-based party was much like the social democratic Labour Party in the UK and later the Caribbean islands, though the left like the CP urged people to support it.

For this and other perceived indiscretions, he was blacklisted and his Master's license revoked. He could not get a job when the Korean War broke out, because he was deemed a "security risk." He fought back and in 1960 a federal judge restored his license along with others. He was then 74, but was able to find work as a night mate. He died in New York in 1971.

I had read Mulzac's fascinating book during the 1980s, kindly given to me by Vincentian Renwick Rose (now Coordinator of the Windward Islands Farmers Association) and I in turn gave it away to the office of the National Union of Seamen (NUS) in Barbados. While I was in New York last September I tried to get onto any of Mulzac's relatives for an interview, but time ran away from me and I couldn't reach them.

We must remember the example of Vincentian‑born Captain Hugh Mulzac. Not only becuase of his sterling pioneer work in the U.S. civil rights struggles, but to remind us that immigrants to all countries are good and beneficial additions especially in the area of integrating among the receiving people and working with them for a better all round society.

This article is from the August 1-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Norman Faria is a former seaman on the Geest Line and Guyana's Honorary Consul in Barbados. Responses to nfaria@caribsurf.com.

Anti-abortion church accused of child trafficking

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:49:00 +0000

An Idaho church associated with right-wing causes and politics was accused of child trafficking. Ten Americans associated with Central Valley Baptist of Meridian, Idaho and the New Life Children's Refuge were caught trying to take 33 Haitian children across the border to the Dominican Republic without the proper authorization.

The BBC reports, "Even before the earthquake, kidnap gangs were estimated to take thousands of children from the slums and streets of the Haitian capital every year.

"But the quake has made the situation even worse. Now there are thousands of new orphans, and thousands more children separated from their families.

"For days rumors swirled of children being picked off the streets and whisked out of the country."

Some of the 33 children are not even orphans, the BBC reports. One little girl said through tears she had parents and thought she was just going to summer camp.

The Idaho Baptist church is associated with many far-right causes including anti-abortion mobilizations. One of the church's leaders, Randy Jackson, protested at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, against the Red Cross and Planned Parenthood's condom distribution. Jackson also traveled to Washington D.C. to protest the 2004 March For Women's Lives.

The U.S. State Department announced Jan. 26 that both the Haitian and U.S. governments must approve that children are ready to travel.

"The decision to permit the departure of children before the full and final completion of adoptions is a serious matter. Both the Haitian and U.S. governments must confirm that each child is appropriately authorized for travel.

"In the aftermath of a crisis such as the Haiti earthquake, children are especially vulnerable; and there is increased potential for abuse of, and trafficking in, children. The United States remains committed to working with the Government of Haiti to implement safeguards to protect children and their families in Haiti."

According to a 2002 UNICEF, Haiti has been battling child trafficking, and the United States and Canada are the main receivers of trafficking from the Caribbean. The United Nations Children and Education Fund also estimates 2.5 million children, a majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex industry. NBC reported that an average predator in the U.S. can make more than $200,000 per year off of one young girl.

The church denies any wrong doing. Central Valley Baptist Pastor Clint Henry told CBS, "I know there has been illegal activity that's been going on down there. It's unfortunate that we would be associated with that."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwi/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Oskar Lafontaine and the troubled German Left

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:29:00 +0000

BERLIN -- While German politicians stared at the calendar, wondering nervously what the May 9 elections will bring in the biggest state, North Rhine-Westphalia, with its 18 million people, media attention suddenly switched to a personal drama within the party called Die Linke (The Left). A few years ago this party or its predecessors were getting laughed off the political map. But what is happening today in that party could redraw the whole map.

Problems were brewing for a long time. Die Linke was formed when the Party of Democratic Socialism, a reformed child of the old ruling party in the German Democratic Republic, known best for its witty, mercurial leader Gregor Gysi, joined three years ago with a new West German party, formed in protest against the right turn of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and headed by the charismatic Oskar Lafontaine from little Saarland in the westernmost corner of Germany. He had been a top leader of the Social Democrats before quitting it in disgust and headed the new party on condition that the two parties joined together.

This marriage had several advantages. In the five states of the old GDR the East German party held strong positions. In one state it has now the strongest, in the others it gained second place against five to seven rivals. Even in Berlin, where western boroughs have twice as many voters as the eastern ones, it most recently won 20 percent and moved into second place; it already shares government with the Social Democrats. It thus possessed a solid base, a central headquarters (the Karl Liebknecht House in Berlin), an experienced apparatus, and a modest but relatively stable financial position. But no matter how much it molted its former feathers it was largely unable to break out of East Germany and into the larger, more decisive West German states. There was simply too much prejudice against the old GDR and any party derived from it. Its diminutive role was downplayed or ridiculed.

This changed when it joined with the smaller, poorer West German party. With the GDR stain diluted, a new name and the prestige of Oskar Lafontaine, the new party, Die Linke, got remarkable results in last September's elections, with nearly 25 percent in Oskar's home area, Saarland, 7 or 8 percent in most other West German states and 24 to 32 percent in eastern Germany. The grand total in the whole country, almost 12 percent, gave it 76 Bundestag representatives, ahead of the Greens.

Everyone in Die Linke rejoiced, or nearly everyone. One wing of the party in the eastern states feared that Oskar (as he is often called) was tilting too far leftwards. They had either joined in government coalitions with the Social Democrats (in Berlin and Brandenburg) or hoped to do so in two others after next year's state elections. They insisted that by joining in government whenever possible they could improve life for the people affected and thus strengthen the party. Some speculated about joining a national government after the national elections in 2013 or earlier if Angela Merkel's current rightist coalition falls apart.

It is now clear: the Social Democrats and Greens have only one chance of regaining government power: by swallowing their rejection of Die Linke, adding their seats to their own, thus getting over half of all Bundestag seats and forming a three-way coalition. Among Social Democrats, who took a walloping in the last elections, some voices have also been raised cautiously in this direction, and the Greens would love to get cabinet posts in a new government.

Before the new party was formed, criticism of participation in government was largely limited to a small left wing, often ridiculed as a bunch of unrealistic radicals whose talk about winning socialism only antagonized people. But then along came Oskar who moved sharply towards this same standpoint. Die Linke, he insisted, should never join a national government unless the other parties accepted certain principles: withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan, no further military ventures in other countries; an end to privatization of public utilities and housing; a minimum wage; pension age lowered back to 65 (from 67); a repeal of legislation weighted heavily against the jobless.

Although some of these positions are being rediscovered by Social Democrats after their loss of 6 million votes, others would be difficult to swallow. The probable result: Die Linke remains in the opposition where it belongs, in the view of its left wing, because there it can fight the whole bankrupt system without all the compromises which would only tame and weaken it.

In the midst of this never-ending debate, Oskar suddenly withdrew from the caucus leadership position he shared with Gysi in the Bundestag. Was he giving up, quitting, was he being pushed aside? The media speculated. Then came the disturbing news: he was forced to pause because of a necessary operation for prostate cancer. He became silent for several months.

But the unfriendly media did not remain silent. The important magazine Der Spiegel reported on an alleged rendezvous of Oskar with a leading woman leader of the left wing. Gossip was spread that party leaders discussed replacing Oskar before any medical results were known. Who leaked such gossip to the media? This is still a secret.

Then came another leak to the unfriendly media. The leaders of two West German sections of Die Linke, it was reported, had written Gregor Gysi privately to assert that Dietmar Bartsch, the party's general manager and election organizer, had been acting disloyally to Lafontaine, a hint at the possible source of previous leaks. This caused general turmoil. Then Gysi surprised everyone by supporting them and calling on Bartsch to resign. That really sent the sparks flying; the very tall, handsome Bartsch from the Baltic Coast, as far from Oskar's Saarland as possible, not only geographically, was also a favorite of those leaders, the realists (or Realos), who wished to join in coalition governments and who may have viewed Bartsch as a possible new party head. The political arguments took on an increasingly sharp personal tone.

Tense days followed. Bartsch resigned from his job, but was quickly given another fairly important position in the party's Bundestag caucus. The party membership wondered what was behind all this: would it cause a split between the Realos, mostly in the East, and the more radical sections, mostly in the West? When would Oskar be back? Could he mend the wounded feelings, reflected daily in sad, angry or simply puzzled letters to the editors of the two friendlier newspapers? Above all, when would Oskar speak up and clear things up?

Then, this past weekend, he finally did. Because of his health problems, he stated, he was retiring from party leadership. He said this in a surprisingly vigorous speech in his home state of Saarland, and that is where he wants to concentrate his more limited activities. The loss on the national level of a leader so crucially important in the successes in the western states left a feeling of shock. Since Bartsch was downgraded and the aging Lothar Bisky, another party head, planned to devote himself to all-European activities, there seemed to be, except for Gysi , a worrisome vacuum.

Early Tuesday, after a long, late night session, a new agreement was reached. There would again be a double leadership of the party, a man from the West and a woman (at the top, finally) from the East. Klaus Ernst, 55, a metal worker who got a college degree, who was a leader in the 35 hour week strikes and other union protests, would help strengthen urgently needed connections with the labor movement, many of whose members were disappointed by their traditional Social Democratic representatives. The woman, Gesine Loetzsch, 48, originally a linguist, has been elected time and again by her district in the East Berlin borough of Lichtenberg, most recently - against four main opponents - with an unbeatable 47.5 percent of the votes. From 2002 until 2005 she and one other woman held the only two party seats in the Bundestag and had to overcome giant odds and maintain dignity and composure against daily insults. Her courage is still honored, and this certainly helped win her the new leadership job.

In a TV interview, harassed by the host (unfriendly as usual with leaders of Die Linke), she kept her cool and said that she would now work to cement all sections of the party, east, west, north and south, and step up the fight against widespread hardship and attacks against working people and the jobless. The economic crisis is by no means overcome in Germany, and the May elections in the nation's largest state will be of crucial importance in resisting the rough plans of the right-wing government. Oskar Lafontaine has said his health will permit him to help out. It remains to be seen whether Die Linke can overcome its past differences, at least enough to join in this big new test.

Photo: Oskar Lafontaine at a 2007 election rally. Pujanak/CC

Debt conflict riles Argentina

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:27:00 +0000

Martin Redrado had been president of Argentina's Central Bank. But on Sunday evening, January 24, his entry there was barred. He made the attempt because an appeals court had just backed a lower court injunction against his dismissal by President Cristina Fernandez. The court ruled that presidents of the bank hold their positions at the pleasure of the Congress, not the president.

The fracas began when President Fernandez asked Redrado to transfer $6.57 billion from Central Bank reserve funds into a "Bicentennial Fund" aimed at guaranteeing payments due this year on $16 billion in foreign debt. Congress pressured Redrado to refuse. He dithered, and Fernandez fired him on January 7. The appeals court also ruled that Congress held jurisdiction over the reserve funds, not the President. Congress, in recess until March, will not decide any time soon.

At issue is the notion that central bank funds would be used to pay off longstanding debts and thereby help restore Argentina's international creditworthiness. The government's massive default on international debt repayments in 2002 has cut off foreign loan possibilities. The Fernandez government seeks once more to be able to borrow in order to fund social programs.

Last summer the coalition headed by Fernandez and Nestor Kirchner, her husband and predecessor as president, suffered losses in parliamentary elections, putting Congress in the hands of a conservative opposition bloc. Critics there say Fernandez' expensive initiatives on social spending are geared toward presidential elections in 2011, when Nestor Kirchner will be running. Congress is on summer recess until March.

Earlier last week Fernandez cancelled a trade promoting trip to China. The problem, she told reporters, was Vice President Julio Cobos, whom she saw as scheming in Congress against her government and eyeing her job. Conflict began in July 2008 when Cobos cast a decisive Senate vote defeating taxes on agricultural exports sought by Fernandez to swell government revenues.

Cobos is part of a three person congressional commission that, in accordance with the appeals court decision, is weighing in on the president's decision to fire the bank president. Retrado met with the commission on January 27.

Her opponents warn that drawing down currency reserves held in foreign countries subjects them to sequestration by foreign banks. A U.S. federal judge in New York, in fact, froze Argentinean assets in New York banks last week, indicating they would eventually be released. The Fernandez government portrays as a bad deal 16 percent interest rate payments on Argentina's remaining $29 billion debt, especially in comparison with new loans available at two percent interest.
In tandem with the "Bicentennial Fund," the government is offering to sell old debt for 30 cents on the dollar in return for new loans. President Fernandez' present difficulties are compounded by deficit spending with expenditures up 30 percent annually during her tenure and revenues rising 12 percent annually.
Hints have emerged as to larger struggles in the works, with seasoned combatants. On one side are large landowners, major business interests, and agribusiness exporters. They are tied to international financial institutions and multi-national corporations.

On the other are those who condemn the original purposes of foreign debt, three decades ago. Debt, they say, has facilitated privatizations, sell-offs of public patrimony, and development of environmentally disastrous agricultural and mining projects. Debt is "stained with blood," wrote Nobel laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel last week. Reserve funds must be applied to "hunger and poverty [and] recovering lands, natural resources...and national sovereignty."

CTA labor federation Secretary General Jorge Acedo encouraged discussion on debt within the labor movement in terms of "defense of work, health, education, the environment, and distribution of wealth." Calls are heard - not from President Fernandez - for reappraising the legitimacy of foreign indebtedness. Ecuador's 2008 default on foreign debt worth $31 million on grounds of presumed illegality is seen as a model.

The current government, buffeted on both sides, is being pressured from the right to pay off foreign debt obligations with current income rather than with reserve funds. That would cut into funds available for food supplementation, housing and energy subsidies, and public health programs.

Analyst Jorge Beinstein (http://alainet.org/active/35496) identified other players. One is a new group on the fringes of society that has successfully tied "illegal enterprises (e.g. drugs and arms trafficking), private security firms, media networks, and corrupt police and judges to financiers, industrialists, and big farm operators."

Another is the U.S. government, engaged, according to Beinstein, in back door manipulation aimed at destabilizing vulnerable nations. Disintegration of Argentina's economy could bring the Kirchner era to an end and return to power governments oriented toward business conglomerates and multinational corporations. That turn of events would pose challenges to progressive change in Brazil and contribute to marginalization of the left leaning Ecuadorian, Venezuelan, and Bolivian governments.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jglsongs/ / CC BY 2.

10th World Social Forum in Porto Alegre

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:53:00 +0000

Original Source Morningstar online.

More than 25,000 trade unionists and social, environmental and political activists from around the globe kicked off the first of nearly 30 World Social Forum (WSF) events that will take place throughout the world this year.
Brazilian human rights activist Sergio Bernardo proclaimed that "the rich have driven the capitalist system into chaos, but the WSF will be letting them know that we can create a world free of exploitation that will help the poor."

Brazilian liberation theologist Francisco Whitaker pointed out that "lingering fallout from the financial crisis is proof that the world economy must be re-tooled to benefit people, not big companies."
Whitaker explained that the WSF was set up to counter the "worldview" of rich nations that hold their annual economic conference in Davos, Switzerland.

"The last Davos meeting was similar to a wake and their attitude this year gives the impression that capitalism is on the downfall and hitting its limits," he declared.

Brazil's CUT union confederation president Joao Felicio urged the WSF to "adopt a declaration containing positions on which a consensus has been reached such as anti-imperialism and the financialization of wealth."

"Mass movements are essential in order to change the world, but the game can only be won if you step out in the field to play," added Brazilian MST (Landless Workers Movement) leader Joao Pedro Stedile.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared at the Forum that rich nations were "responsible" for the devastation in Haiti.
Stating that the Caribbean nation had been kept impoverished by the "developed world," Mr. da Silva emphasized that he hoped that "the earthquake will shame the human beings who govern this planet and we can now do what should have been done years ago."

The president pledged that he would visit Port-au-Prince in February and announced that Brazil was sending another £125 million in aid.

According to the WSF website www.forumsocialmundial.org.br:
The World Social Forum is an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. Since the first world encounter in 2001, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies. This definition is in its Charter of Principles, the WSF's guiding document.

The World Social Forum is also characterized by plurality and diversity, is non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party. It proposes to facilitate decentralized coordination and networking among organizations engaged in concrete action towards building another world, at any level from the local to the international, but it does not intend to be a body representing world civil society. The World Social Forum is not a group nor an organization.

In contrast, the World Economic Forum website www.weforum.org/en announces:

2,500 leaders from business, government and civil society are in Davos for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The theme is a call to action for decision-makers to use the opportunity of the five-day Meeting to "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild". Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, will deliver the opening address in a plenary session following the traditional welcome by the Swiss President, Doris Leuthard. Leaders will participate in over 200 working sessions on topics including Haiti, the Millennium Development Goals, the environment and the economy.

Photo: AP PhotoSilvia Izquierdo Young people gather at a youth camp during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jan. 26.

China, India and U.S. role: Afghanistan and beyond

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:28:00 +0000

Of all the world's potential hotspots, one of the most unlikely is tucked into the folds of the Himalayas. This slice of ground is little more than frozen rock fields and soaring peaks that is decidedly short on people, resources, and oxygen. But for the past year this border area has been a worrisome source of friction between India and China, including incursions by Chinese troops, the wounding of several Indian border police, and a buildup of military forces on both sides.

Some Indian analysts go so far as to say that China has now replaced Pakistan as India's greatest threat. And indeed, Beijing has been uncharacteristically assertive in pushing its claims to a sizable chunk of India's Arunachal Pradesh state.

Why the two huge Asian nations facing off over ground that all but the hardiest of goats avoid? The answer involves both colonialism's bitter legacy and current U.S. efforts to maintain its pre-eminent role in the region.

Ghosts of ‘62

The area in question, which borders Tibet and covers an area about the size of Austria, is delineated by a boundary that has shifted over the millennia. The British drew the current line in 1914, but the Chinese have never recognized the agreement that established it -the so-called "Simja Convention" - because they saw it as just another treaty forced on China by Western colonial powers. Because the area in dispute was once connected to Tibet, Beijing says the region is part of China.

So far the tension on the border has resulted in little more than Chinese soldiers painting rocks red on the Indian side. In the one shooting incident, gunfire from the Chinese side of the border wounded two members of the Indo-Tibetan Police Force. The Indians have responded by moving 30,000 troops and its latest warplanes into the area.

The region has long been a volatile one. Similar tensions in 1962 sparked a 32-day war that killed 3,100 Indian and 700 Chinese soldiers, and resulted in a humiliating defeat for New Delhi.

India's right wing, led by the Bharatija Janata Party (BJP), raised the specter of the 1962 war and is now demanding that India respond to Chinese "aggression." "India must take adequate precautions," says BJP President Rajnath Singh. Retired Indian Air Force Marshall Fali Homi says that China now poses a bigger threat than India's traditional adversary, Pakistan, and former Indian National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra predicts a China-India war within five years.

Some Indians even charge - without evidence - that China is supporting India's homegrown Maoists, or Naxalites, who are waging a low-key insurgency against the Indian government.

The rhetoric on the Chinese side is less bombastic, but Beijing's statements have been unusually sharp, especially after the Dalai Lama visited the region this past November.

China's prickliness over its borders is hardly new. But with the exception of its attack on Vietnam in 1979, Beijing has threaded a careful path between asserting its power and reassuring its neighbors that it isn't about to become the bully on the block. Why then the pugnacity over what can hardly be considered strategic ground?

Enter the United States

In 2005, the Bush administration executed a full court press to bring India into an alliance with Washington and its allies in the Pacific region - specifically Australia, South Korea, and Japan - to counter the rise of China. Washington warned that the Chinese military, in particular its naval arm, was expanding rapidly and would soon pose a threat to other nations in Asia. The United States and India held joint military operations, and the Washington urged New Delhi to actively patrol the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

Since 80 percent of China's oil and gas supplies transit the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, talk of joint patrols was certain to draw a response from Beijing. And indeed, the Chinese navy is increasingly making its presence known in the area. China is also in the process of developing a series of friendly ports - its so-called "string of pearls" -from Africa to Southeast Asia.

The Bush administration also pushed through Congress the "1-2-3 Agreement," which allows India to violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by buying uranium on the world market, even though New Delhi won't sign the pact. This will allow India to rapidly increase its nuclear arsenal, which is certain to spark a similar buildup by Pakistan.

As Islamabad's leading military supplier, China has long had a friendly relationship with Pakistan. It's concerned that tension between India and Pakistan could lead to war. A recent study by climate scientists Alan Robock and Owen Toon found such a war would result in a "nuclear winter" that would devastate China, indeed, much of the world.

New Delhi and China are also at loggerheads over Afghanistan, with the Chinese dubious of the U.S. war and the Indians strongly supportive.

China's response to the growing U.S.-Indian alliance was to oppose the "1-2-3 Agreement," block India's application for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, and try to torpedo a loan from the Asian Development Bank to fund flood control in Arunachal Pradesh.

Growing Interdependence

Yet the current tensions between India and China over 90,000 thousand square miles of ice and rock fly in the face of a growing interdependence between the two Asian giants. China is now India's number-one trading partner. Bilateral trade has risen from under $3 billion in 2000 to almost $52 billion in 2008, and is growing at almost three times the rate of U.S.-China trade. Estimates are that by 2020, China-India trade will surpass $410 billion, a figure equal to last year's U.S.-China trade. China's powerful manufacturing sector complements India's wealth of raw materials and cutting-edge technology industry. China needs India's iron ore, bauxite and manganese, and India needs China's low-priced manufactured goods to upgrade its infrastructure. China also has huge foreign reserves to invest, although cross-border investment is still modest.

Both sides have tried to tamp down the border dispute. Asked about tensions between New Delhi and Beijing, India's Deputy Foreign Minister Shashi Tharoor replied that "things seem to be very good," adding that "minor irritants" had been blown our of proportion by the media.

And yet the region remains a witch's brew of dangerous hotspots and powerful cross-currents: the U.S. escalation in Afghanistan, ongoing tension between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and Washington's sometimes warm, sometimes cool attitude toward China.

Indian newspapers have been filled with headlines like "Red Peril," and "Enter the Dragon," and senior Indian national security advisor M.K. Narayaman warned that "media hype" could set off an "unwarranted incident or accident." Chinese newspapers and websites have also reflected strong nationalist sentiments over the issue.

If the Obama administration wants to avoid making a dangerous situation worse, it should revisit the "1-2-3 Agreement" and put the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem back on the table. During his presidential campaign, Obama promised to pressure both sides on Kashmir, the flashpoint for three wars between India and Pakistan. But under intense Indian pressure, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Special Envoy to South Asia Richard Holbrooke dropped the issue.

It's also time for the United States to realize that it can no longer dominate Asia. In its efforts to maintain its former status as top dog in the region, Washington has exacerbated tensions among several countries in the area, tensions that have the potential to produce catastrophic consequences.

Image: Map of the disputed India-China border area. (commons.wikimedia.org)

Originally published at Foreign Policy in Focus under the headline "China, India Battle Over Thin Air," and reposted with permission of the author.

Venezuela cancels Haiti's debt

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:18:00 +0000

"Haiti has no debt with Venezuela...on the contrary, it is Venezuela that is historically indebted to that nation" - Hugo Chavez

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, announced this week that his country is canceling Haiti's debt for the purchase of Venezuelan oil, and ordering the petroleum company that the Venezuelan government owns, CITGO, to make its facilities available for the provision of emergency supplies as well as cooperating with the general fund-raising efforts for the Caribbean nation. Chavez said Venezuela will be providing free fuel to those in Haiti who need it.

The ALBA group of countries, meeting in Venezuela, also announced a massive program of aid, with an initial funding of $100 million, and $20 million for health care help. This comes on top of existing large scale volunteer contingents in Haiti from the ALBA countries, including more than 400 Cuban doctors.

Meanwhile, a group of the wealthier countries and international organizations, meeting in Montreal, Canada, also put forth plans for Haiti. This "Friends of Haiti" group, which includes the United States, Canada, and Brazil plus the European Union, the UN and the IMF, was told by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive that the damage to Haiti is so great that it will take a at least five to ten years to repair, and asked for aid to the tune of about $575 million. As of Tuesday, the UN said that under half of that amount had been offered. Negotiations are ongoing about cancellation of Haiti's debt of $890 million to the wealthier countries, a measure which has been demanded by Oxfam and others. The Haitian government says it lost assets equivalent to 60% of its annual Gross Domestic Product in just a few seconds when the quake struck on January 12.

Chavez said that the cancellation of Haiti's debt should be considered a long-delayed payback by his country for the role that Haiti played in South America's independence. After Haiti won its independence from France in a bloody struggle that began in the late 1700s and ended with the expulsion of the troops of the great Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804, Venezuelan patriot leader Simon Bolivar and his revolutionaries received massive support from Haiti, including thousands of troops and large amounts of military supplies. Bolivar also was give refuge in Haiti on two occasions. President Alexandre Petion, ruling the southern part of a divided Haiti at the time, told Bolivar that the only repayment that Haiti expected was for slavery to be abolished in the liberated territories. This was done.

The Bolivarian Alliance for the People's of Our America, ALBA, is composed of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Honduras was a member under the progressive presidency of Manuel Zelaya, but last week the coup government that overthrew him withdrew from ALBA. ALBA is an economic, aid, trade and political alliance which seeks horizontal integration of the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean as a means of getting out from under domination by the United States, the IMF and World Bank, and the other wealthy countries. Prior to the earthquake, there had been tentative moves by Haiti to affiliate with ALBA.

However, the right wing in the United States, including the Heritage Foundation, has been saying that the earthquake provides an opportunity for the United States to drive a wedge between Haiti and the ALBA countries, by using Haiti's great need for US earthquake assistance as leverage. How the United States will deal with Haiti's relationship to the ALBA countries going forward is yet to be seen. There have been some indications of US-Cuban cooperation on the ground in Haiti. Cuba allowed U.S. aircraft to overfly its national territory to get to Haiti quicker, and the U.S. has offered to help supply the Cuban medical mission in Haiti. But Cuba has also criticized the large U.S. military presence, as have other countries and non-governmental organizations.

At the end of the ALBA meeting, alliance announced a program of aid to Haiti which stressed the following points:

• The people of Haiti must be the principle protagonists in reconstruction.

• There should be coordination of outside efforts through the UN.

• The current heavy presence of the United States military is seen as worrisome.

• ALBA is willing to work with all other countries in the reconstruction (implying the group that met in Montreal and including the United States).

• ALBA's bank will establish a fund to help Haiti, composed of contributions from the
ALBA countries.

• PETROCARIBE, the ALBA related system of providing fuel to the region on generous credit terms, will ensure fuel supplies to Haitian generating plants at Cap Haitian, Gonaives and Carrefour.

• Attention to the needs of children will be prioritized, including reconstruction of schools and food for children.

• Food aid will be greatly increased.

• An immigration amnesty for undocumented Haitians living in the ALBA countries will be considered.

Haiti relief opens doors for U.S.-Cuba cooperation

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:15:00 +0000

In a move to aid relief efforts in earthquake-devastated Haiti, the U.S. State Department says it's prepared to assist over 400 Cuban doctors there with much needed medical supplies.

Last week Cuba announced it would allow U.S. aircraft evacuating the injured from Haiti to cross its airspace, saving critical flight time.

Both moves, many note, could lead to new opportunities for the countries to work together and set a new tone for U.S.-Cuba relations.

Darby Holladay, a U.S. State Department spokesman told TPMmuckcraker, "The United States has communicated its readiness to make medical relief supplies available to Cuban doctors working on the ground in Haiti as part of the international relief effort."

Over half a million Haitians have lost their homes since the earthquake struck the Caribbean island Jan.12. Up to 200,000 people are estimated to be dead and at least 193,000 are injured, reports say.

If relief efforts in Haiti strengthen U.S.-Cuba ties the Obama administration's goal of moving relations between the two nations off their old cold war footing would become more realizable, observers say.

Obama has ordered federal agencies to put the Haiti disaster at the top of their agenda and has already committed to $100 million in U.S. assistance. Around 12,000 U.S. military personnel have been deployed in and near Haiti to help in the relief efforts.

On Friday the UN General Assembly held a special session devoted to the Haiti tragedy.

Pedro Nunez Mosquera, Cuba's permanent representative to the UN, said cooperation and assistance to Haiti should be maintained over time and based on respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, with strict adherence to the policies of non-intervention and non-interference in its internal affairs.

The Haitian people need support to overcome poverty and underdevelopment that they suffered under years of colonialism, neocolonialism, military intervention and imposition of dictatorship, he said.

Meanwhile, Cuba reports that since the earthquake over 400 of its doctors have treated more than 18,000 with injuries and have performed surgery on more than 17,000 individuals.

Mosquera said 240 Haitian medical students training in Cuba joined the Cuban doctors in Haiti. He said there are about 660 young people from Haiti currently studying in Cuba for free and over 500 of them are studying medicine.

Haiti and Cuba signed a medical cooperation agreement in 1998 and before the recent quake there were about 344 members of the Cuban medical brigade providing primary care to people in Haiti, also for free. Obstetrical services and operations to restore the sight of Haitians with various eye diseases were also performed.

Earlier this week Cuba sent another team of physicians along with food, medicine, plasma, and other items.

Immediately following the quake Cuban doctors opened up make-shift clinics in their residences and even led efforts to establish a number of hospitals to help the injured.

Sarah Stephens is the director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, a Washington-based organization that advocates closer relations with Cuba.

The Obama administration's efforts to assist Cuban doctors in Haiti could form the foundation for broad Cuban-U.S. cooperation, she wrote in the Huffington Post.

As U.S. aid and military teams arrive in Haiti, "the U.S. government should make it clear that our personnel should cooperate, coordinate, and work with the Cuban medical personnel in Haiti," said Stephens.

"They know Haiti, they've been providing health care in Haiti since 1998, and they have been running a highly effective medical response since the earthquake occurred," she adds.

If Cuba is willing to cooperate with the U.S. in the air then we should cooperate with Cuba on the ground with initiatives that reflect both countries' shared interests in helping the Haitian people, she said. It only makes sense that the U.S. offer the Cuban doctors medicines and other necessary assistance to help with their medical relief efforts, she notes.

Stephens adds global leaders are calling for a summit to coordinate global responses to the Haiti crisis.

"That summit could take place in Cuba, which is ideally located," she writes. "If it doesn't happen there, Cuba should be invited and encouraged to play a leadership role in the coordination of response efforts."

Stephens claims that if George W. Bush were still president, such cooperation and joint efforts between the U.S. and Cuba would most likely not occur.

After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Cuba's government offered to send 1,586 doctors and 25 tons of medical supplies to help, what Stephens calls an insufficient response to the suffering of American citizens on our own Gulf Coast.

"But Bush being Bush, his administration not only declined the offer but insulted the qualifications of Cuban doctors."

Cuba is known worldwide for its impressive universal health care system and has a decades' long commitment to international cooperation with other countries in the face of national disasters.

Stephens points out that the U.S. should be good Samaritans and not be silent or sarcastic about what Cuba has to offer.

"We have seen the better angels of Obama's nature, and we're hopeful that he would seriously consider cooperating with the Cuban government especially if it meant saving Haitian lives," she said.

This tragedy is about Haiti, not Cuba or Obama, says Stephens. But if the U.S. and Cubans work together in a joint effort to aid Haitians, such moves "would set a new example for U.S. diplomacy that will return long-standing benefits to our nation and our relationships across the Western Hemisphere. And possibly even set a new tone for the U.S.-Cuba relationship. We need it," she writes.

Last year Obama promised to recast Washington's tense ties with Cuba. He slightly eased the longstanding U.S. trade embargo, lifting restrictions on Cuban-American travel and remittances to their homeland. Talks were also initiated on migration and a possible resumption of postal service.

Photo: AP

World Notes

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:06:00 +0000

Iraq: Environment under siege

Interviewed by the U.K. Guardian, Environment Minister Narmin Othman last week commented on a recent study by the environment, health, and science ministries demonstrating radiation and toxic chemicals found at 40 widely distributed sites. Increasing rates of cancer and birth defects have been noted in some of the areas. The Minister attributed high levels of radiation emanating from scrap metal yards in Basra and Baghdad to depleted uranium used in munitions. She also noted dangerous levels of radiation at the sites of destroyed nuclear reactors and research centers of the previous regime and along routes used to remove destroyed tanks. Reports of an epidemic of birth defects in Falluja have yet to be confirmed, she added.

Othman said that severe drought and a "70% decrease in the volume of water flowing through the Euphrates and Tigris rivers" contribute to "an unmatched environmental disaster." Click here.

Cuba: Rights for gay people highlighted at Havana conference

The fifth National Congress of Sexual Education, Orientation, and Therapy took place in Havana last week presided over by Mariela Castro, head of Cuba's National Center for Sexual Education. Over 300 hundred delegates at the five day, UNESCO supported conference attended workshops on trans-sexuality, violence against women and children, sexually transmitted diseases, and treatment options. Castro told reporters that the "strong homophobia of our culture" prevented the National Assembly from including rights for gay and transsexual people in a new Family Code. Advocating legalization of same sex unions, she called upon the Communist Party to deal with discrimination within its own ranks. Interviewed by the BBC, she voiced support for multi-level, multi- disciplinary sexual education. "Whoever is unable to overcome prejudice with knowledge at least can respect the rights of other persons," she pointed out. Click here.

Honduras: Coup government is accused

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, an independent agency of the Organization of American States, last week issued a report condemning the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti for "grave violations of human rights." It cited arbitrary detentions, deaths from excessive use of force, cruel treatment of prisoners, and restrictions on press freedom. The Commission drew attention to "systematic denial" of these violations by governmental authorities and the Supreme Court. Pagina/12 News recalled the Commission's previous call for reinstatement of deposed President Manual Zalaya. Earlier this month, the Prosecutor General brought charges against six army officers involved in Zalaya's forced removal, although they are likely to be amnestied. Zalaya is set to leave the Brazilian Embassy January 27 for the Dominican Republic.

South Korea: Naval base protesters are arrested

Beginning on January 6, citizens of Gangjeong on Jeju Island protested construction of a naval base on an island notable for scenic beauty, unique geologic formations, and governmental autonomy. Last week 500 police confronted hundreds of demonstrators arresting 47 of them, a few having climbed cranes. The base, when completed in 2014, will host 20 South Korean and U.S. Aegis destroyers with missile defense systems said by Environmental News Service to be directed at China and North Korea. (See http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2010/2010-01-18-01.html.) Plans call for the base eventually to accommodate both U.S. aircraft carriers and tourist cruise liners. For pictures of the protests and a listing of 600 persons worldwide who signed an anti-base petition, go to this link.

Belgium: GM closes Opel plant

The European Trade Union Confederation and the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) last week condemned General Motors' closure as of July of its Opel plant in Antwerp. Over 2600 workers there and some 8000 workers in the supply chain throughout Europe will lose jobs. Protesting unionists have vowed to blockade new cars leaving the factory. A GM spokesperson foresaw a 20 percent cut in company output this year while European production overall will be down by 1.5 million cars from 2009 and four million fewer than in 2007. Fiat Company closed its plant in Sicily last month. The EMF web site cites General Secretary Peter Scherrer's view that GM violated a commitment by transferring planned manufacture of small SUV's from Antwerp to South Korea.

Nigeria: Shell taken to court in landmark environmental case.

A Dutch court recently announced the opening next month of a case brought by four peasants and fishermen against Dutch based Shell Corporation for oil leakages and uncontrolled gas discharges in the Niger Delta area. The plaintiffs, quoted at www.omal.info, say "The air can not be breathed, the land can not be cultivated, and the few remaining fish... are poisoned." The NGO Friends of the Earth joined in the suit against Nigeria's largest gas and oil producer, the first to be decided in a European court. Plaintiffs blame Shell for archaic infrastructure and wasteful burning of gas residues. Corrective action and payments for damage are sought. Since 1970, Shell has cut its allocation to the state of Nigerian derived income from 50 to 13 percent. For more information, see this link.

Photo: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic Mariela Castro addressing the Latin America plenary of the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights in Montreal, 28 July 2006

Zelaya to be allowed to leave on January 27: Maybe

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:49:00 +0000

Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will be allowed to leave the Brazilian embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa and go into exile on January 27, maybe.

Zelaya was overthrown by a military coup on April 28 of last year, and sent into exile in Costa Rica. He returned later by a secret route and has been ensconced in the Brazilian embassy since then. A massive resistance movement led by unions, peasants' organizations and other sectors has been demanding his return and the removal the coup installed president, Roberto Micheletti. However, an election on November 29, carried out by the coup government and denounced as illegitimate by much of the world chose the National Party's Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo as president, and the handover of power is scheduled for January 27.

Lobo has announced an arrangement whereby his government will give Zelaya a safe conduct to leave the embassy and go to the Dominican Republic, by prior agreement with its president Leonel Fernandez. Various scenarios have been suggested for the next steps, including that Zelaya will go and live in Mexico.

Previously, the Micheletti government said it would agree to allow Zelaya to go into political asylum in Brazil, but that this must include an agreement that Zelaya not be allowed to participate in Honduran political affairs. Otherwise, Zelaya would have to face criminal charges in Honduras, including treason and abuse of power. The Honduran constitution, which Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has described as "the worst on the face of the earth", defines even broaching the subject of constitutional change by anybody in office as being treason. The pretext for the overthrow, arrest and exile of Zelaya was that he had lent his support to a campaign for a non-binding referendum in which the people of Honduras were to be asked if they wanted to vote on November 29 about a later constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution. This poll was to take place on the day the coup was carried out.

In fact, Zelaya had annoyed the landholding and business oligarchy by raising the minimum wage, increasing workers rights, beginning a land reform plan, promising justice for victims of right-wing death squads, and refusing to let his country continue to be a base for U.S. subversion against left-wing governments such as those of Cuba and Venezuela. He had also annoyed the United States by joining his country to ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our America, a left-wing economic, trade and political bloc involving Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. During the Contra Wars of the 1980s, Honduras was the main launching pad for death squads who penetrated Nicaragua and El Salvador to carry out massacres of teachers, health workers and others. Many of the Honduran participants or enablers of those activities are still involved in Honduran military and political institutions. On the U.S. side, many of the people who supported the Contra War from Honduras are still very active.

The overthrow of Zelaya was strongly supported and abetted by right-wing circles in the United States, including major figures in the Republican Party and some Democrats. At the outset, the Obama administration denounced the coup and reasserted its position that Zelaya was the legitimate president. However, later on it greatly disappointed the Honduran resistance and the Latin American left by breaking ranks with most countries in the area and announcing that no matter what happened, it would recognize the results of the November 29 elections.

Since that time, killings of Zelaya supporters (and a few on the other side) have continued on the streets of Honduras. The Congress voted to withdraw Honduras from ALBA. The Micheletti regime announced that six army officers involved in removing Zelaya from the country would be put on trial, including General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, the army head. However, as Zelaya immediately pointed out, there is less to this than meets the eye, because it is certain that if these officers are found guilty they will immediately be pardoned. A pardon is in the offing for all persons involved in the coup, but not for Zelaya or his supporters.

Pepe Lobos has a difficult situation to face. Very few heads of state are going to show up for his inauguration on January 27, and many sanctions remain on his government. Therefore he has an interest in "resolving" the situation for the sake of the perceived legitimacy of his government. This is the motive behind his efforts to find away to get Zelaya out of the embassy. The U.S. State Department has been pressuring Micheletti to step down before the inauguration, to give the handover more of an appearance of legitimacy. Micheletti has not done so but has agreed to become invisible in the interim.

At this writing, according to the pro-Zelaya newspaper El Libertador (http://ellibertador.hn/Nacional/3708.html), the public prosecutor of Honduras, Alberto Rubi, who is not an appointed member of the president's cabinet, has thrown a monkey wrench into the arrangement for the departure of Zelaya by suggesting that the Lobo-Fernandez-Zelaya deal may be illegal because Zelaya still faces the "treason" charge, and that Lobo may be prosecuted if it is carried out.

The Honduran resistance is now focusing on the fight for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution.

Haiti will rise again

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:33:00 +0000

In 1985, Central Mexico, including Mexico City, was hit by an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale – much larger than the one that hit Haiti on January 12 of this year. Hundreds of buildings collapsed and thousands were killed.

As in Haiti, buildings were not up to code. Corrupt builders saved money by using substandard materials and construction methods, and corrupt officials let them do it. Many newer apartment and office buildings, as well as hospitals and schools, collapsed while older ones, such as the magnificent 17th century cathedral on the Zocalo (main square) came through without major damage.

Mexico City rebuilt, but there was a political change effectuated by the earthquake. In the center of the city, sweatshops collapsed on top of entire shifts of underpaid, overworked employees. The owners, as soon as they managed to extract their more expensive machinery, abandoned the buildings and the workers, including some, living and dead, who were still trapped in the rubble.

Undaunted, the surviving garment workers, mostly women, did what they could to dig their comrades out, and then formed the nucleus of a variety of new grassroots organizations that not only engaged in self help, but also challenged the power structure in Mexico. Through militant but flexible tactics, they backed the PRI government down so effectively that Mexico City ended up with an elected government rather than the previous appointed one. And in the next presidential elections, in 1988, the left-center candidate almost certainly won and would have taken power away from the PRI had it not been for fraud.

The initiative taken by the seamstresses and others when the government proved unable to deal with the aftermath of an earthquake has borne valuable political fruit. I was reminded of those days when reading John Ross' amazing new book “El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City.” I remember well a visit of some of the Mexico City seamstresses to Chicago where I lived at the time. There was no sign of pitiful “victimhood”. Listening to them, we all knew that the Mexican working class and nation would move forward, in spite of national disasters and corrupt politicians.

Though the 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a full point stronger on the Richter scale, the damage in Haiti has been vastly greater. The Haitian government has announced that in the capital of Port au Prince alone the death toll is 150,000. Everything is destroyed, but everything is also slowly coming back to life. There has been much outside help, but the Haitian people have been getting together to help themselves also. Everywhere we read about local committees in destroyed neighborhoods and refugee camps making plans for reconstruction and restoration of a nation. This should not surprise us; this has been the story of Haiti from the beginning. A nation acutely conscious of its history of having arisen from a revolution made by slaves is not to be kept down. Haiti will be rebuilt and, with some help, the Haitian people will rebuild it.

But this frightens certain people. Already we here voices on the U.S. right advancing the discredited idea that the Haitian people are poor because they are culturally inferior. Jonah Goldberg, writing in the reactionary National Review, after falsely claiming that Haiti is descending into violence and chaos, says that there is no explanation for Haiti's poverty except that there is something wrong with Haitian society. “The sad truth about Haiti isn't simply that it is poor,” Goldberg alleges, “but that it has a poverty culture…Haiti will never get out of grinding poverty until it abandons much of its culture.” David Brooks, writing in the New York Times two days after the earthquake, said much the same thing, except that he blamed much of the problem on “voodoo” and what he alleges are irresponsible child raising practices, which he read about in some book or other.

Since, according to these gentlemen and a host of others, the Haitian people are to blame for their own suffering, they can't very well be left alone to rebuild their country. They will need an extended period of tutelage under the gentle but firm of wiser, lighter skinned foreigners, such as the U.S. Marines.

The large U.S. military presence in Haiti, and especially the suggestion that it is going to stay there for a long time, is causing alarm in the region. Specifically, Haiti has an election scheduled on February 28, and there is controversy because the electoral commission has ruled that a number of political parties, including the large left-wing Fanmi Lavalas party of exiled former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, can not participate. There are sure to be protests by the large Lavalas base among the poor against this exclusion. The protesters will be portrayed as a dangerous rabble, and if the Marines are still present, there will be strong pressure to use them to suppress the protests. We can not allow that. But the right wing in the United States will specifically want that to happen. They are already saying that the United States must keep Haiti from falling into the hands of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America, a left-wing political and trade bloc led by Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador which is offering countries in the region a more generous alternative to the trade and development policies pushed by the IMF, the World Bank and U.S.A.

Therefore, now that the main emergency rescue phase is over, we must push for the expeditious removal of the U.S. military and its replacement by UN, NGO and volunteer efforts, always to supplement and never to supplant the efforts of the Haitian people themselves to rebuild. There must be no interference in the February elections and no retribution if the Haitian people choose leaders and policies that Wall Street does not like.

Freedom is a right the Haitian people have earned with their blood.

In 1985, Central Mexico, including Mexico City, was hit by an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale - much larger than the one that hit Haiti on January 12 of this year. Hundreds of buildings collapsed and thousands were killed.

As in Haiti, buildings were not up to code. Corrupt builders saved money by using substandard materials and construction methods, and corrupt officials let them do it. Many newer apartment and office buildings, as well as hospitals and schools, collapsed while older ones, such as the magnificent 17th century cathedral on the Zocalo (main square) came through without major damage.

Mexico City rebuilt, but there was a political change effectuated by the earthquake. In the center of the city, sweatshops collapsed on top of entire shifts of underpaid, overworked employees. The owners, as soon as they managed to extract their more expensive machinery, abandoned the buildings and the workers, including some, living and dead, who were still trapped in the rubble.

Undaunted, the surviving garment workers, mostly women, did what they could to dig their comrades out, and then formed the nucleus of a variety of new grassroots organizations that not only engaged in self help, but also challenged the power structure in Mexico. Through militant but flexible tactics, they backed the PRI government down so effectively that Mexico City ended up with an elected government rather than the previous appointed one. And in the next presidential elections, in 1988, the left-center candidate almost certainly won and would have taken power away from the PRI had it not been for fraud.

The initiative taken by the seamstresses and others when the government proved unable to deal with the aftermath of an earthquake has borne valuable political fruit. I was reminded of those days when reading John Ross' amazing new book "El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City." I remember well a visit of some of the Mexico City seamstresses to Chicago where I lived at the time. There was no sign of pitiful "victimhood". Listening to them, we all knew that the Mexican working class and nation would move forward, in spite of national disasters and corrupt politicians.

Though the 1985 Mexico City earthquake was a full point stronger on the Richter scale, the damage in Haiti has been vastly greater. The Haitian government has announced that in the capital of Port au Prince alone the death toll is 150,000. Everything is destroyed, but everything is also slowly coming back to life. There has been much outside help, but the Haitian people have been getting together to help themselves also. Everywhere we read about local committees in destroyed neighborhoods and refugee camps making plans for reconstruction and restoration of a nation. This should not surprise us; this has been the story of Haiti from the beginning. A nation acutely conscious of its history of having arisen from a revolution made by slaves is not to be kept down. Haiti will be rebuilt and, with some help, the Haitian people will rebuild it.

But this frightens certain people. Already we here voices on the U.S. right advancing the discredited idea that the Haitian people are poor because they are culturally inferior. Jonah Goldberg, writing in the reactionary National Review, after falsely claiming that Haiti is descending into violence and chaos, says that there is no explanation for Haiti's poverty except that there is something wrong with Haitian society. "The sad truth about Haiti isn't simply that it is poor," Goldberg alleges, "but that it has a poverty culture...Haiti will never get out of grinding poverty until it abandons much of its culture." David Brooks, writing in the New York Times two days after the earthquake, said much the same thing, except that he blamed much of the problem on "voodoo" and what he alleges are irresponsible child raising practices, which he read about in some book or other.

Since, according to these gentlemen and a host of others, the Haitian people are to blame for their own suffering, they can't very well be left alone to rebuild their country. They will need an extended period of tutelage under the gentle but firm of wiser, lighter skinned foreigners, such as the U.S. Marines.

The large U.S. military presence in Haiti, and especially the suggestion that it is going to stay there for a long time, is causing alarm in the region. Specifically, Haiti has an election scheduled on February 28, and there is controversy because the electoral commission has ruled that a number of political parties, including the large left-wing Fanmi Lavalas party of exiled former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, can not participate. There are sure to be protests by the large Lavalas base among the poor against this exclusion. The protesters will be portrayed as a dangerous rabble, and if the Marines are still present, there will be strong pressure to use them to suppress the protests. We can not allow that. But the right wing in the United States will specifically want that to happen. They are already saying that the United States must keep Haiti from falling into the hands of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America, a left-wing political and trade bloc led by Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador which is offering countries in the region a more generous alternative to the trade and development policies pushed by the IMF, the World Bank and U.S.A.

Therefore, now that the main emergency rescue phase is over, we must push for the expeditious removal of the U.S. military and its replacement by UN, NGO and volunteer efforts, always to supplement and never to supplant the efforts of the Haitian people themselves to rebuild. There must be no interference in the February elections and no retribution if the Haitian people choose leaders and policies that Wall Street does not like.

Freedom is a right the Haitian people have earned with their blood.

Photo: Brazilian soldiers aid Haitian civilian victims of the earthquake. (Roosewelt Pinheiro/Abr, courtesy Wikimedia Commons, cc by 2.5)

Haiti relief efforts pick up steam

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:22:00 +0000

After a 6.1 aftershock again rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 20, just eight days after a major earthquake devastated the capital, massive health and rescue efforts continue steadily, Obama administration officials told reporters Wednesday.

Capt. Andy Stevermer, of the Department of Health and Human Services' National Disaster Medical System, said, "We are making progress. We're working very hard to bring health care to Haiti and to the victims of this overwhelming tragedy here."

Administration officials and disaster responders spent most of the past week fending off criticism that their efforts were too slow or that some humanitarian aid had been blocked by U.S. military personnel who had taken control of the Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport in Port au Prince.

A military spokesperson said that the real issue was the volume of air traffic into the tiny airport. "There are literally hundreds of flights today trying to get in here," Capt. John Kirby of Joint task Force-Haiti said Monday, Jan. 18. "There is one tarmac, one runway, one ramp for all the aircraft." On an ordinary day, the airport may see three flights land.

"It is a sheer volume issue," he added. "There are more planes that want to land here than we can accommodate in any given hour." Each aircraft is allotted a certain amount of time to land, park, unload and take off again. If any thing causes a delay, the system can back up and force the air-traffic controllers to divert or delay some planes. Kirby said in response to some questions about the diversion of some humanitarian aid planes.

Kirby added that the efforts to land supplies at the airport had steadily improved over the past days and insisted that a major priority of the U.S. military and the Obama administration is to preserve Haiti's sovereignty over its airspace, land and the rescue efforts.

Military officials also estimated that some 10,000 U.S. troops would be sent to Haiti.

Major ministries of the Haitian government, according to media reports, were destroyed during the earthquake, and their responses to the disaster have been hampered. President René Préval, however, has promised that some government operations will re-open this week, including schools, even if classes have to be held in tents.

Part of the cause of delays has been the both the quantity and urgency with which aid has poured into the tiny country. In the United States, efforts by television and movie actors, recording artists and other celebrities have raised millions of dollars for relief.

Labor unions responded swiftly as well. The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists has raised $25,000 for relief efforts so far. Workers have donated $13,000 to the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center's Earthquake for Haitian Workers' Campaign https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=20780. Tens of thousands more have been donated by other state federations and local labor councils. Members of the Ironworkers, Plumbers and Pipefitters and SEIU are joining local Red Cross telethons as well.

Photo: US Air Force, courtesy WikiMedia Commons

Billionaire wins Chile election

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:58:00 +0000

On Sunday, January 17th, Sebastian Pinera defeated Eduardo Frei, the candidate of the governing coalition (Concertacion), becoming the first candidate from the right wing to win Chile's presidency since 1958.

Although Pinera campaigned as a moderate, his coalition (Alliance for Chile) includes former supporters of the Pinochet dictatorship -- the National Renewal Party and the very conservative Independent Democratic Union. The majority of Pinera's members of Parliament come from the IDU, two of his top campaign advisers held posts in the dictatorship and a third is a former Pinochet minister.

Pinera is a billionaire - the 3rd wealthiest person in Chile - and is principal shareholder in LAN airlines and owner of Chilevision television. His investments also include stakes in Chile's national champion soccer team and an upscale Santiago hospital. Already concerns have been voiced about conflicts of interest, and he will clearly be a pro-big business president.

The election is being hailed by some as a shift to the right - and clearly the policies of the Pinera government will represent that. At a news conference called by leaders of the Juntos Podemos Mas coalition, Guillermo Teillier, one of the newly elected Communist members of Parliament, said, "This is indisputably bad news for Chile and for Latin America...and will not bring more democracy, equality, or social justice."

However, even a cursory look reveals that Pinera's victory was not due to a rightward shift in Chileans' politics - starting with the fact that in the first round, the three center-left candidates' combined vote totaled 56%, and the outgoing president, socialist Michelle Bachelet has an 80% approval rating.

So what did happen?

First, Pinera campaigned as a moderate, and pledged to expand the Concertacion's health-care and jobs programs for the middle class and poor. He also vowed to help small businesses and boost investment in state-owned Codelco, the world's largest copper producer. He has pledged to respect human rights and disavows any support for the anti-democratic legacy of the Pinochet years.

Two, the widespread dissatisfaction with the Concertacion was at least partly due to its pro-corporate, privatization (neoliberal) growth model. The deal that was worked out in the transition from the dictatorship explicitly excluded the left and relied on powersharing with the right. Despite being one of the wealthier countries of Latin America, Chile has the widest gulf between rich and poor, which has sharpened given the private control of water, pensions, unemployment compensation, health care and education.

Numerous corruption scandals in the government and concerns about crime were also big issues for voters.

Another obvious factor that allowed Pinera to win was that the opposition was split, and included a new and unknown quantity in the candidacy of Marco Enriquez Ominami, who campaigned as an independent alternative to the traditional left, and appealed to younger voters.

During the run-off campaign, Ominami was slow to support Frei, and when he finally did so, he asked his supporters to vote for "the one who was president before," and only referred to Frei by name when talking about candidates "of the past," in which category he included Pinera.

Finally, Chile's electoral system was rigged during the dictatorship to favor the right. Election districts were wildly gerrymandered to protect right-wing representation, and the system was set up to prevent participation by small party candidates, and those aligned with social movements. And over the 20 years of the Concertacion's rule, alienation from politics, especially electoral politics, had grown.

The victory in the first round election (December 13) of three leading Communists, who did an end run around the restrictive electoral system by putting forward a combined list with Concertacion candidates in a number of Congressional districts, goes against the notion of a shift to the right.

In the initial news conference press statement, Teiller declared that their focus will be the 12 point program put forth by the left and accepted by Frei during the campaign, which calls for a new Constitution, the nationalization of water, greater attention to and resources for health care and education, halting privatization, increasing labor and democratic rights, including for Chile's indigenous peoples, and the protection and retention of the profits from Chile's resources and especially its copper industry.

"The main thing," said Teiller, "will be to continue to fight for workers' rights."

Another major concern is the "truth and justice process," which includes allowing the many cases involving Pinochet-era human rights abuses still in the court system to be resolved.

Teiller underscored the importance of the December election results, calling these "partial victories in the struggle against exclusion," and which will allow it to "continue to struggle against exclusion and for democratic reforms, now both from within the Parliament as well as through the mobilization of the people."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simenon/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

World Notes

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:49:00 +0000

United Nations: Milestone indigenous rights report released

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues last week issued a report, unprecedented for the world body, demonstrating low life expectancy and extreme poverty affecting most indigenous people. "State of the World's Indigenous Peoples" comes as the United Nations studies progress toward the Millennium Development Goals targeted for 2015. According to Inter Press Service, the document identified loss of land and extrajudicial killings as prevalent violations of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, approved by 143 nations, not including the United States and Canada. Forum spokespersons told reporters that private companies aided by governments often move indigenous peoples off their land, often illegally, for the sake of large dams, mining and lumber operations, and tourist projects.

Great Britain: Labor favors proportional representation

Unions are promoting discussion aimed at adopting a system of proportional representation for House of Commons elections. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) last week published "Getting it in Proportion? Trade Unions and Electoral Reform." Introducing the pamphlet, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber noted that the system presently "encourages the major parties to concentrate their efforts in marginal seats," with "core voters" being taken for granted. Demands for change rise from the recent MP expense scandal , declining voter turnout, the rise of third parties, undue influence of rich donors, and governments formed with scanty popular support. "As the largest mass democratic organizations in our society," unions are strategically placed to help "reinvigorate our political system," explains the TUC.

Mongolia: President bans death penalty

President Elbegdorj Tsakhia announced January 14 his imposition of a moratorium on the death penalty. Recommending 30-year jail sentences in place of executions, he noted, "The majority of the world's countries have chosen to abolish the death penalty. We should follow this path." A permanent ban, however, will be up to Mongolia's parliament, presently controlled by the president's political opposition. Elbegdorj has commuted three death sentences since taking office in May, reports Al Jazeera. Crimes punishable by death include treason, espionage and certain cases of rape. The government tightly controls information on carrying out the death penalty, even to prisoners' families. According to Amnesty International, nine prisoners were awaiting execution as of July 2009.

Argentina: Workers confront mining giant

Miners at a high-altitude, open pit silver and gold mining operation last week gained a 23 percent wage increase, return of unpaid wages, and recognition of both their union, Organization of Argentinean Miners (OSMA), and 10-person union negotiating team. And, crucially, Barrick Gold Corporation acknowledged José Leiva's role as OSMA secretary general and returned him to his job. Canadian-based Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining corporation, has mines in 27 countries.

Workers at the Veladero mine formed their union on June 30, 2009. Barrick Gold responded a month later by firing Leiva. In December, 200 workers went on strike to force his court ordered reinstatement. Their walkout and mounting national and international union pressure brought Barrick Gold to heel. Within days, according to argenpress.info, negotiations began, and the strike ended.

Iraq: Sectarian divide grows as elections approach

A campaign by Iraqi security forces in Sunni-dominated parts of Baghdad and other areas has led to mass arrests and a Sunni exodus. Officials of the Shiite dominated national government say prisoners will be detained until after elections in March. Azzaman News also reported the targeting of Sunnis once allied to U.S. troops as the so-called Awakening Councils, with 10 having been killed. The ban issued last week on election participation by the prominent Sunni politician Saleh Al-Mutlaq and his National Dialogue Front triggered widespread antigovernment demonstrations. The Justice and Accountability Commission took the action, explains Al Ahram online, under its mandate to exclude Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from politics. Nevertheless senior Baath Party leaders are holding talks with U.S. officials, according to Azzaman.

Cuba: Cuban Five prisoners ascend great heights

Five Cuban men, Ramón Labañino, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González climbed in spirit to the "roof of America." The Argentinean mountaineers Santiago Vega, Aldo Bonavitta and Alcides Bonavitta reached the top of Mount Aconcagua, elevation 22,841 feet, on January 10. At the summit of the highest mountain in the Americas, they displayed banners in English and Spanish reading: "Obama, free the 5 Cuban heroes now." Never had the international cause to free five men defending their nation against terrorism reached such heights, in a literal sense. The Cuban Five languish in U.S. jails, while, as Argentinean writer and sociologist Atilo A. Boron points out, "Proven and admitted terrorists like Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada enjoy liberty" (in Florida). Extolling the ascent, Boron opined, "The case of ‘the Five' reveals like little else the extent of the empire's moral rot."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Jyoti Basu, great son of India, dies at 95

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:05:00 +0000

Veteran Communist leader Jyoti Basu died Jan. 17 at age 95. This grand man of Indian politics and socialist movement had tremendous popularity and respect among the Indian people, as was evident by huge public outpourings of concern in recent days as his health steadily deteriorated.

According to The New York Times, "Anxious crowds gathered outside his Calcutta hospital, local newspapers carried front-page updates on his condition and a litany of leading Indian politicians, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, made calls to him."

He died of multiple organ failure, according to media reports.

Basu was the longest ruling Communist chief minister (a position similar to a U.S. governor) for 23 years, from 1977 to 2000. His state of West Bengal today is populated by 90 million people. He led the four left and communist parties of India to victory for 32 years through popular elections.

Basu was known as a highly-skilled parliamentarian and builder of coalitions, especially coalitions that would uphold a basic tenet of Indian society, like secularism. So impressive was his secularism that religion-based parties, like the extreme rightwing Hindu BJP, failed to procure a single seat in the West Bengal's legislature.

Basu's signature policies as chief minister were massive land reform and democracy for the rural poor. Immediately after the Communist-led coalition won in West Bengal, eviction of sharecroppers was stopped. Shares of crop were guaranteed by a seemingly easy move now, but difficult then, recording the sharecroppers name.

Large amounts of land were distributed to struggling farmers, reshaping West Bengal and Indian politics for decades.

Democracy was introduced at the grassroots by holding panchayat elections, a form of local self-government, giving poor farmers and villagers a voice in areas where large landowners usually ruled.

Basu was so respected that in 1996, when a majority of non-Congress, non-BJP parties won the majority of the national elections (Lok Sabha), Basu was offered the prime minister post. However, Basu's party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), nixed his accepting the prime minister spot. The reason, the party said, was the CPI (M) did not hold the majority of Lok Sabha seats. Basu called the decision a "historic blunder." Yet, he remained a stalwart leader of the CPI (M).

The CPI (M) leadership sent out messages of "its profound grief at the passing away" of Basu, calling him a "senior most leader of the Party and one of the tallest leaders of the Communist movement in India."

The CPI (M) continued the tribute saying "Basu belonged to the leadership of the CPI (M) which steered the Party through the difficult days of semi-fascist terror in West Bengal in the early seventies. One has to recall how as chief minister he dealt with the situation after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 when violence against Sikhs broke out in various parts of the country, but nothing was allowed to happen in West Bengal." In the early seventies, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had declared emergency rule, suspending numerous democratic rights and imprisoning many political opponents.

Prakash Karat, CPI (M) general secretary, said, "Basu was a great leader of the CPI(M), the Left movement and India. With his passing away an era has passed. Although he died at the age of 95, he leaves us bereft, because there will be none like JB again. An ardent communist, he was one of the few political leaders of independent India who actually deepened democracy, strengthened secularism and got the working people to the center stage of Indian politics."

Others from across Indian politics offered their condolences and paid glowing tributes to Basu. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Basu as "a great son of India."

President of India Pratibha Patil, a woman leader Basu had worked with and helped get elected, paid tribute to the stalwart. The president said Basu earned the unique distinction of being the longest serving chief minister of any state from the late seventies to 2000, and displayed his abilities as a leader of the people, an able administrator and an eminent statesman.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee called him "a towering personality" and credited him as the "architect" of the first UPA government. "I have lost a great well wisher," he said.

Vice President of India Hamid Ansari said, "Basu has made a significant contribution to the public life and especially to the development of West Bengal."

The deep love and respect for Basu among the working masses of India led to a condolence resolution from an unlikely source. The right-wing BJP, against which Basu fought all his life, passed a resolution of condolences, calling Basu, "One of the tallest contemporary leaders of Indian politics."

Poetic statements from Sonia Gandhi, chair person of the ruling party, Indian National Congress, and Home Minister P. Chidambram added to the country's salute.

Referring to his pneumonia lasting 17 days, Gandhi said, " Jyoti Basu did not go gentle into the good night. He fought bravely till his last breath, just as he did throughout his life," and added that "he had a rich, fulfilled and glorious life."

"Basu strode like a colossus on the Indian political scene for several decades. He was a great patriot, a great democrat, a great Parliamentarian and a great source of inspiration," Chidambram said.

Educated in a Catholic school, St. Xaviers, during the British colonial rule, Basu came from a well-off family, who had some connections to freedom fighters involved in the struggle for India's independence. He was sent to the UK to further his education. And it was here Basu met Communists and Marxists like R. Palme Dutt.

He returned to India in 1940 and joined the CPI.

Although a lawyer, Basu became a full-time CPI organizer, and went to work among India's dock and railway workers. He fought and won the release of political prisoners during Britain's colonial rule. And in 1948, he was repeatedly arrested after the Communist Party was banned shortly after Independence.

One example of Basu's personal courage came during a 13-month-long United Front West Bengal government, which was voted to power in 1969. Basu became the deputy to the chief minister and also put in charge of the state's law enforcement agencies. A large group of armed policemen stormed the government offices to protest the death of a colleague, and Basu faced the armed group alone, and defused the situation.

While referred to as a "nonconventional" Communist or "non-orthodox" Marxist, Basu epitomized being a "true Communist and Marxist," many noted. The CPI (M) said Basu was a Marxist who neither wavered in his convictions nor was dogmatic in his approach, becoming a source of inspiration for the Left movement in the country.

It was well known that the CPI (M)'s decision to see the Congress Party as a secular partner in the fight against Indian communalism was largely led by Basu's nonsectarian outlook.

As thousands of red flags are flying half mast through the length and breadth of Indian communist parties' offices, there are tributes received by parties and from political figures of all hues from all over the world.

The Communist Party of India, from which many CPI (M) leaders split in 1964, never dithered in providing its own support to him. CPI General Secretary A. B. Bardhan expressed his heart felt sadness on Basu's demise. Calling him the tallest of leaders, Bardhan recalled the motivation of the veteran's life, "Basu fought for the poor and the downtrodden. He was an icon of working class movement and a model for good governance. He was an able administrator and good human being. His rule of more than quarter century has changed the face of rural Bengal and paved the path for agriculture and industrial development. "

No other Indian top leaders ever donated their body to a medical college, but Basu set an example, by donating his body and its parts to further the cause of medicine and scientific research.

Photo: Jyoti Basu speaks to a CPI (M) mass rally of 150,000 in Hyderabad, India, in 2002. Teresa Albano/PW

Earthquake in Haiti: Cuba responds

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:32:00 +0000

By Jan. 13, less than a day after the earthquake struck Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, 30 Cuban doctors were caring for the wounded in a fully equipped field hospital. Over the next 24 hours they saw 1,000 patients and performed dozens of operations. They were followed shortly by 30 more doctors bringing additional medical supplies. By the week's end the Cuban doctors were working in two of their field hospitals, plus two relatively undamaged existing hospitals.

Some 6,000 Cuban doctors have provided medical care in Haiti since 1998, and almost 400 were on hand there when the earthquake hit. Those in Port-au-Prince, 152 of them, were available to work with the doctors newly arrived from Cuba.

Cuban medical help took the form also of Haitian young people trained as doctors in Cuba, 551 so far. They studied at Havana's famous Latin American School of Medicine (LASM), and in December, 67 of them returned to Haiti for their last student year to work as interns.

Students at LASM from at least 13 countries formed the "January 12 Internationalist Brigade of Solidarity with the Peoples" and asked to go to Haiti. "We feel the moral duty, internationalist and in solidarity, of devoting ourselves entirely to the urgent needs of the Haitian population," they said in a letter. "We've been educated as an army of health guardians at the service of our people and of mankind," they indicated.

Cuba is far from alone in helping stricken Haiti. Countries from every corner of the world have sent medical providers, food, medical and surgical supplies, and much more. The first planes to arrive on Jan. 13 were those of Venezuela, China and Cuba. Bolivian President Evo Morales announced plans to visit Haiti on Jan. 19.
.
Cuban doctors are accustomed to a worldwide beat. The Henry Reeve Brigade, composed of Cuban disaster relief specialists, has responded to floods and hurricanes in Latin America and to the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. There 2,500 Cuban medical professionals working out of 32 field hospitals spent six months caring for a million sick and wounded. Within days of the New Orleans Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, 1,600 members of the Henry Reeve Brigade were ready to go. The U.S. government didn't respond to the offer.

Born in Brooklyn, Henry Reeve died in Cuba in 1876, fighting for the island's independence from Spain. On graduating as doctors, Cuban medical students repeat a pledge that says in part: "True medicine is not that which cures, but that which prevents, whether in an isolated community on our island or in any sister country of the world, where we will always be the standard bearers of solidarity and internationalism."

The U.S. government announced plans to send 10,000 troops to Haiti. By the end of last week two aircraft carriers were en route to Haiti. President Obama announced $100 million in aid. Whether or not that includes the $2 million a day cost of moving an aircraft carrier was unclear. Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were commissioned to mobilize private aid money for Haiti.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed appreciation to authorities in Havana for opening up Cuban air space to U.S. military planes traveling to and from Haiti, thereby saving 90 minutes in flying time.

The Common Dreams web site reported on a media survey showing only two U.S. mainstream news stories on Cuban assistance in Haiti. The story put out by Fox News stated that Cuba had not offered aid. The Christian Science Monitor reported on the Cuban doctors' arrival there, citing former U.S. Defense Department official Lawrence Korb's view on the Cuban doctors that the United States "should see about flying them in."

Photo: Ten-year-old Angie Dumee holds the hand of her father while being treated at a make-shift hospital in the street for injuries sustained during Tuesday's earthquake in Port-au-Prince. (AP/Julie Jacobson)

Urgent action required to free Iran political prisoners

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 11:32:00 +0000

Human rights organizations around the world are combining to call for the release of hundreds of people believed to be held incommunicado following mass arrests in Iran on December 27 and 28, 2009. The arrests followed protests against the regime which took place on the Shi'a Muslim festival of Ashura on Dec. 17.

Amongst those arrested were Leily Afshar, a 29-year-old photographer who was pulled from her car by plainclothes officials near an anti-government demonstration; Atieh Yousefi, a women's rights campaigner arrested in the city of Rasht; and Reza al-Basha, a Syrian national studying in Iran who works as a part-time reporter for Dubai TV.

Leily Afshar has been permitted one phone call to her family in which she confirmed that she was being held in the notorious Evin Prison section 209. Atieh Yousefi was allowed to meet her family on Jan. 1. It is not known where Reza al-Basha is being held.

The three are amongst hundreds of prisoners detained without charge or trial by the government of the Islamic Republic, with little or no access to their families, lawyers or appropriate medical treatment.

These arrests follow a long pattern of arrest and detention without charge or due process following the disputed election of June 12, 2009, which saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad installed as the Iranian president for a second term. Protests against the election outcome have increasingly become expressions of discontent with the regime and have met with violent responses by the security forces.

The wave of arrests at the end of December was the most extensive yet. The opposition website Jaras suggests that at least 1,300 were arrested across Iran and human rights groups calculate that at least 300 prisoners involved in the protests are being held in Evin Prison in Tehran. Jaras also notes that since the demonstrations over 180 journalists, human rights activists and members of political parties linked to Mir Hossein Mousavi and former president Khatami have been detained.

Speaking on behalf of the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People's Rights (CODIR), Assistant General Secretary Jamshid Ahmadi expressed his outrage at the actions of the Iranian government.

"It is simply not acceptable that the government of Iran is able to act with impunity and round up opponents in this manner," he said. "The regime is adopting a strategy of both silencing opposition activists and arresting the journalists who can tell the real story of what is going on in Iran. Ensuring that word of their actions reaches the international community is vital. We must make it clear that their behavior is not acceptable and that people around the world will continue to speak out in solidarity with the Iranian campaigners for peace, democracy and social justice."

Ahmadi pledged ongoing activities of CODIR in support of the campaign for the unconditional release of those arrested in the demonstrations in December and all prisoners held without charge in Iran's prisons.

CODIR adds its voice to the call for the public to please write immediately to the relevant offices listed below, including the following points:

* stressing that Leily Afshar, Atieh Yousefi and Reza al-Basha, and all those detained, must be protected from torture or other ill-treatment and allowed access to their families, lawyers and any necessary medical treatment, and should be brought before a judge without delay so they may challenge the lawfulness of their detention;

* calling for anyone held solely for their peaceful participation in demonstrations on or following Ashura to be released immediately and unconditionally, and for others suspected of criminal offences to be tried promptly and fairly without recourse to the death penalty;

* calling on the authorities to ensure that the policing of any further demonstrations meets international policing standards, including the use of firearms only as a last resort where strictly unavoidable in order to protect life, and urging that an impartial investigation be conducted into the deaths of all those killed.

Please send such appeals before Feb. 19 to:

1. Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street - End of Shahid Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran

E-mail: info_leader@leader.ir

Via web site: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)

Salutation: Your Excellency

2. Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadeqh Larijani
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh (Office of the Head of the Judiciary)
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran 1316814737
Islamic Republic of Iran

E-mail via web site: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx

First Salutation: Your Excellency

And send copies to:

Director, Human Rights Headquarters of Iran
His Excellency Mohammad Javad Larijani
Bureau of International Affairs, Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave. south of Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran 1316814737
Islamic Republic of Iran

E-mail: bia.judi@yahoo.com

Fax: + 98 21 5 537 8827 (please keep trying)

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives of Iran accredited to your country.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arasmus/ / CC BY 2.0

The United States owes Haiti a big debt

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:38:00 +0000

Yesterday the Obama administration announced $100 million in financial aid for earthquake stricken Haiti. At the same time, the U.S. government announced a temporary suspension in the deportation of Haitian immigrants. Both of these things are positive steps. But much more is needed, and in fact, owed to Haiti and its people, by the United States, by France and by the wealthy industrialized countries in general. (Click here for suggestions of where to donate, and here.)

Since Haiti got its independence, through hard and bloody struggle, at the end of the 18^th century (the second country in the Western hemisphere to do so), it has been subjected to 200 years of abuse amounting to national martyrdom. But the average person in the United States has not been made aware of this. In fact, during such epic struggles as the civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, racist reactionaries were always bringing up the subject of Haiti to prove that black people are inherently unfit for self government.

But when one actually examines Haiti's history, one is amazed that the country has survived at all, and highly impressed by the resilience and courage of the Haitian people.

In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of The French, sent a huge army commanded by his brother in law to recapture what had been France's richest colony and return its people to slavery. Two year's later, Napoleon's troops ended up fleeing with their tails between their legs, but in 1825, a French fleet showed up demanding that Haiti pay France the equivalent of $22 billion for the loss of the colony. Of course, there was no mention of compensation to the Haitian people for all those years of slavery.

The ruling class in the United States, via pre-Civil War governments, was terrified that if Haiti prospered, their own Black slaves would also take it into their heads to rebel. So the United States backed France in this outrageous demand. Feeling it had no choice, the Haitian government of President Boyer knuckled under to the French demand, which included a requirement to borrow the money to pay France from French banks, at extortionate interest rates.

All plans for improving the lot of ordinary Haitians were abandoned, and the French debt was finally paid of on the backs of the Haitian peasantry - in 1947!

Even after Abraham Lincoln recognized Haitian independence in 1862, the U.S. showed a growing propensity for interfering in Haitian internal affairs. To give just a few examples: In December 1902, the U.S. Navy intervened to support an attempt by Haitian army general Pierre Nord Alexis to take over the government in a coup. Alexis proceeded to rule as a corrupt dictator until he was overthrown in 1908.

In 1915, the brutal U.S. supported dictator, Vilbrun Guillaume Sam, was overthrown and killed after ordering the execution of 163 prominent political prisoners. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who feared German commercial influence in Haiti, but also that the Haitians might choose a president less friendly to their Uncle Sam, sent in the U.S. Marines, who basically ran Haiti until Franklin Roosevelt withdrew them in 1934, after 19 years of racist misrule and peasant rebellions.

But the nightmare was not over. In 1941, the U.S. and the dictator of the neighboring Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, threw their support to President Elie Lescot, who established his own corrupt dictatorship until driven out in 1946. (In 1937, Trujillo, another gruesome U.S. ally, carried out a massacre of from 20,000 to 30,000 Haitian immigrants).

Haiti had not hit bottom. This came with the dictatorship of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who took power in 1957 and quickly became the most brutal dictator of them all. However bizarre and outrageous Papa Doc's methods of rule, the United States saw him as a valiant foe of communism, and lavished money on his regime - most of which was stolen by Duvalier and his relatives. The Duvalier dictatorship, which was continued by Duvalier's son "Baby Doc" until 1986, murdered tens of thousands of leftists and other opponents, and picked Haiti clean. It also ran up huge international debts for purposes alien to the interests of the Haitian people.

After much struggle, Haiti held elections in 1991 and chose as president the radical Catholic priest, Jean Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was soon overthrown by the leftovers of Duvalier's military and death squads. The Clinton administration intervened to return Aristide to power in 1994 but with a catch: Aristide had to accept the whole "Washington Consensus" package of neo-liberal economic policies, and leave office in 1996 at the end of his term which began in 1991, not taking into consideration the years in which the military had displaced him.

Nevertheless, Aristide's government initiated some progressive policies, including disbanding the army and promoting improvements of education. But the neo-liberal program had the result of driving vast numbers of Haitian farmers off the land and into the slums of Port au Prince and other cities, because they could not compete with taxpayer subsidized U.S. food imports. This created a cheap labor force for offshore "maquiladora" industry, but did nothing to cure Haiti's historic poverty. (Last year, some, but not all, of Haiti's debts were cancelled).

Aristide was elected again in 2002 and, among other things, initiated a campaign to force France to pay back all the billions of dollars that it had extorted from Haiti since 1825. But he was overthrown in 2004, with the connivance of the French and U.S. governments and sent into exile in South Africa, where he now resides.

Given this history, it is clear why Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. But our understanding of the historical, economic and political reasons for Haitian poverty is covered up by a nonstop ideological campaign which seeks to blame the Haitians for their own poverty. We are treated to lurid tales of Papa Doc Duvalier ruling through Voodoo without being told that he was being heavily financed by the Eisenhower administration and its successors, and that today Haiti's poverty is more the result of voodoo economics than of actual Voodoo (Voudon).

Many readers will recall the anti-Haiti campaign in the 1980s when the Haitian people were portrayed as poisonous carriers of AIDS to be kept out of the United States, come what might.

This history should be all that is needed to explain why Haiti was in such bad shape even before the earthquake. In fact, the destruction and suffering caused by the earthquake was made much worse by the poverty of the country-the substandard housing, the lack of emergency services, the denuded hillsides (denuded by people cutting down trees for firewood because they can't even afford kerosene) which gave way, tumbling slum dwellers to their deaths.

There are thousands of Haitian immigrants and Haitian Americans in the United States, and the remittances they send back to their families and communities in Haiti are the country's major source of foreign exchange money. But the United States gives out very few permanent legal resident visas to poor Haitians, and rounds up and deports thousands of Haitian immigrants every year, either for being undocumented, or for minor brushes with the law.

So what should the United States do for Haiti? First, it should stop deporting Haitians immediately, and give them the same Temporary Protected Status (TPS) enjoyed by several other nationalities. The difference between the Obama administration's announcement of a suspension of deportation and actual TPS is that the latter has a fixed time period and permits the person to work in this country. The latter is vitally important right now to allow Haitians living in the United States to send as much money as they can back to their homeland, to help the reconstruction effort. This step, which has been demanded by SEIU, America's Voice and many other labor, community, political and religious figures and organizations, would be a fitting first step in the campaign to pass a comprehensive immigration reform package in Congress.

Secondly, the lesson of Haiti should teach us that the "Washington Consensus" of neo-liberal policies such as "free" trade, privatization of public functions, budget austerity and repression do not bring prosperity but only misery to people in developing countries. If Haiti eventually "moves left" and decides to throw in its lot with the ALBA group of countries in Latin America, led by Cuba and Venezuela, the United States should not oppose this or try to disrupt it. After all, Venezuela and much of the rest of South America owe their freedom in part to revolutionary Haiti, which supported Simon Bolivar's struggle with the sole condition that he abolish slavery in the lands he liberated. (He did.)

And it should be clear that however much money the U.S. sends to Haiti in earthquake aid, Haiti owes the U.S. exactly nothing.

Photo: A man surveys hundreds of bodies of earthquake victims at the make-shift morgue in Port-au-Prince, Jan. 14. The magnitude of the disaster is overwhelming. Grogory Bull/AP

Cuban food production is up

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:33:00 +0000

President Raul Castro last year signaled increased food production as Cuba's top priority. With 75 percent of food being imported and half of Cuba's agricultural land lying idle, food sovereignty had become a matter of national security. In the midst of the world economic crisis, income from Cuban-Canadian nickel production, tourist spending, and remittances from Cubans living abroad has fallen. Compounding matters were drought and flooding and wind damage caused by the 2008 hurricanes.

The government responded by opening up unused land to farming cooperatives and individual farmers under long term contracts, also reducing bureaucratic constraints and aiding farmers with technical support and credit arrangements. Data from 2009, newly available, suggest progress, along with residual sticking points

Granma newspaper last week quoted Orlando Lugo Fonte, President of the National Association of Small Farmers. Lugo, who is also a member of the Council of State, Cuba's top ruling body, applauded "advances with a minimum amount of resources" in milk, rice, and pork production and in cattle-raising. However, Lugo said, improvement was needed "in terms of organization, efficiency and discipline."

Milk sales to the government were up 22 percent over 2008. Some 40,000 small farmers have begun to raise cattle on formerly unused land, Lugo said. A new pilot program to supply fresh milk for children and health impaired adults through neighborhood stores expanded to 89 municipalities and 6000 stores. Imported powdered milk no longer is needed in 66 municipalities. Milk sales by cooperatives and individual peasants to the state rose from 106 million liters in 2006, to 145 million in 2007, to 226 million in 2008, and last year to 290 million. There are plans to manufacture powdered milk so as to take advantage of milk surpluses during peak production seasons.

Pork made available for state purchase represented 70 percent of all pork produced, a significant yearly increase. Lugo Fonte predicted that pork and beef production would continue rising. Reasons include home grown feed substituting for expensive imported grain, replacement hogs being raised on the farm rather than being imported, and simplification of government rules on selling animals for slaughter, and on farmers' income.

Planners have instituted measures aimed at increased rice production by cooperatives and peasants. To improve on the 49,000 ton total of rice produced in 2008, Cuba has put 40 cooperatives on track to produce 5,000 tons each, a goal that ten of them indeed attained last year. Until recently, cooperatives and individual farmers accounted for only 12 percent of total national rice production. Last year they were responsible for 60 percent of Cuba's internal rice production.

Fruit production, however, has not advanced, although improved yields are expected from efforts at multi-cropping and multi-species single orchards. Increased tomato yields - 104,000 tons last year, despite severe drought - did away with imports, making for savings estimated at $8 million. Thousands of acres have been returned to sugar cane production, especially in Camagüey. Cane residue known as bagasse contributes now to biomass used as fuel to generate electricity, replacing almost 40,000 tons of fuel oil.

In recent remarks to the National Assembly, President Castro lauded production achievements but highlighted flaws in food distribution. Suburban farming complementing Cuba's much vaunted urban agriculture is seen as one solution. Initial efforts in this vein centered on terrain around 18 municipalities. Suburban agriculture makes for short transportation distances, closer ties between producers and urban consumers, and reduced spoilage. Small farmers are featured players in this venture, encouraged to utilize draft animals and organic pesticides and fertilizers.

Peter Rosset of Via Campesina was present at the 2^nd International Meeting of Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture held recently in Güira de Melena, Havana Province, which was attended by 170 delegates from 26 countries. The well known advocate of agricultural alternatives held up Cuba as a "beacon" of the world agro-ecological movement, because of its emphasis on family-centered, organic, and small scale agriculture.

On hand at the same meeting, Orlando Lugo Fonte reported that 120,000 small farmers are practicing organic agriculture in Cuba and that last year 100,000 tons of worm - derived humus and 150,000 tons of organic fertilizers were used. The National Association of Small Farmers held its 10th National Congress in mid January. Its focus was on strengthening agricultural cooperatives and increasing food production.

Photo: Farmers from the Granma Cooperative, just outside of Havana, share the fruits of their labor. John Bachtell/PW