People Before Profit blog

Egypt uprising is turning point for region and U.S.

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:29:00 +0000

When the mass uprising in Tunisia spread to Egypt last week, it took a qualitative turn.

Unlike Tunisia, Egypt has for decades been a linchpin of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Egypt occupies a highly strategic position, straddling Africa and Asia, and it controls the Suez Canal, the vital shipping link for oil and other products moving between Asia and Europe and beyond.

With the largest population of any Mideast country and a highly developed working class and intelligentsia, Egypt is perhaps the pre-eminent intellectual, cultural and political center for the entire region.

And since signing a separate peace pact with Israel in 1978, Egypt has been seen as a key silent partner for U.S. policy in the region. Since 1978, the U.S. has given Egypt about $60 billion in foreign aid. Of that, $35 billion has been military aid, according to the New York Times, "making Egypt the largest recipient of conventional American military and economic aid after Israel."

Yet, as in Tunisia, economic inequality has sharpened. Add in decades of political repression and the result is an explosive mix.

While a small group has benefited from what Georgetown University political scientist Samer Shehata has described as "merciless" neoliberal economic policies pushed by the U.S., World Bank and International Monetary Fund since the 1990s, nearly half of Egyptians live at or below the poverty line, and prices have soared for basic items like bread.

Film star Omar Sharif put it this way in an interview with France Inter radio from his Cairo home: "The president [Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak] hasn't improved the standard of living of Egyptians. There are some people that are very rich - maybe 1 percent - and the rest are all poor trying to find food."

Shehata, interviewed about Tunisia on The Real News, said, "Tunisia was referred to as an economic miracle because of the high rates of growth - and in fact they were high rates of growth. But as many people have said, you know, average citizens don't eat macroeconomic statistics. And this is the problem, that on paper the economies look quite good, but when you really get down to income inequality, who gets what, as it were, things look significantly different."

The same applies to Egypt, and across the region, Shehata told American Public Radio's Scott Tong. Egypt's economy is growing and opening up to the free market. "Big government" - nationalized industries and public services opened by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser with Soviet support in the 1950s - is shrinking, foreign investors keep coming. But Shehata says the "vast majority" of Egyptians aren't keeping up. Citing the young Tunisian who set himself on fire last month and died, Shehata said, "The gentleman who set all of this off, the 26-year-old high school graduate who resorted to selling fruits and vegetables in a stand, he is symptomatic of the condition of millions of people in the Arab world."

In Egypt as in Tunisia, young people under 30 make up a growing chunk of the population, and while many are well educated they can't find jobs.

Shehata estimates unemployment among new college graduates is 30 percent, and they are turned off by the notion of the "market economy."

Emad Shahin, an Egyptian who is associate professor of religion, conflict and peace-building at the University of Notre Dame, wrote in the New York Times that Mubarak's regime has "produced an army of educated, unemployed youth; and created deep social and political malaise."

Thus we should not be surprised that young people have played a leading role in the uprising, and that the April 6th Youth Movement, formed largely through Internet social media like Facebook, has drawn diverse parts of Egyptian society into the streets.

The April 6th Youth Movement's Facebook page features the slogan, "The people united will never be defeated." That is a slogan associated with Chile's Popular Unity government led by socialist Salvador Allende, crushed by a bloody U.S.-backed coup in 1973.

The movement, formed three years ago, takes its name from an April 6, 2008, general strike that itself stemmed from a year-long strike by textile workers in Ghazi el-Mahalla. Key issues in the general strike were the soaring cost of bread and other basic necessities, and demands for increased wages.

The call for the 2008 strike was issued by doctors, educators and lawyers associations, grain mill workers, and several opposition parties and movements. They said in part, "We need salaries allowing us to live, we need to work, we want our children to get education, we need human transportation means, we want hospitals to get treatment, we want medicines for our children, we need just judiciary, we want security, we want freedom and dignity, we want apartments for youth; we don't want prices increase, we don't want favoritism, we don't want police in plain clothes, we don't want torture in police stations, we don't want corruption, we don't want bribes, we don't want detentions."

The same themes and social forces, but perhaps on an even broader scale, are on the streets of Egypt today.

"What we're seeing right now is very interesting," Ahmad Shokr, an editor at the influential Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, told Democracy Now. "We're seeing all kinds of different groups coming out. We're seeing workers. We're seeing opposition political parties, who had at first been reluctant to support these protests, coming out in full force. And so, I think what we're witnessing is a transformation from what started as a youth-led movement, a movement of Egyptian young people demanding change, to a popular uprising."

This ideologically diverse, nonviolent movement is united around a few key demands, summarized by Shahin as: "freedom of expression and association, and an end to corruption, poverty, unemployment and Mubarak's three decades long reign." This is not an Islamic-led movement. Its makeup and demands should put an end to the stereotyping of Arab peoples as uniquely mired in religion.

Regardless of the immediate outcome, the mass uprising in Egypt marks a turning point not only for Egypt, but for the Middle East and surrounding countries, and for U.S. foreign policy.

Mass protests have erupted in nearby countries ruled by U.S.-backed "great leader" dictators and rulers-for-life, including Sudan and Jordan. Sooner or later, the feudal Saudi regime will undoubtedly face its own moment of truth.

Shahin and Shehata are among a growing list of scholars (currently over 100) who have signed an open letter to President Obama calling for a new U.S. foreign policy that treats Egypt and the Middle East region "through a framework of shared values and hopes, not the prism of geostrategy."

"We urge your administration to seize this chance, turn away from the policies that brought us here, and embark on a new course toward peace, democracy and prosperity for the people of the Middle East. And we call on you to undertake a comprehensive review of U.S. foreign policy on the major grievances voiced by the democratic opposition in Egypt and all other societies of the region."

Photo: Protesters fill Tahrir square in downtown Cairo on Sunday, Jan. 30. (AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Time to normalize relations with Cuba

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:20:00 +0000

It's safe to say that no issue in U.S. foreign policy has lingered so long, fundamentally unchanged, as our country's economic blockade and draconian restrictions on other relations with a very near neighbor, Cuba. President Obama's recent moves to ease those restrictions, including those announced in mid-January, are a promising start to a long-overdue normalization of U.S. relations with our island neighbor.

Begun in October 1960 - just months after the Cuban people overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista - the blockade and other bans have been strengthened several times over the decades.

Besides severely restricting trade with Cuba and imposing penalties on other countries' trade with the island, successive U.S. administrations have imposed onerous conditions on travel there by U.S. citizens.

Soon after becoming president, Barack Obama signaled a new opening toward Cuba by greatly easing restrictions on travel to Cuba by Cuban Americans, and on their sending remittances to family members in Cuba.

In mid-January the president again moved to ease travel restrictions, this time reopening the way for educational and cultural exchanges and enabling all Americans to send financial support to people in Cuba, as well as expanding the number of U.S. airports that can receive flights from Cuba.

Longtime supporters of normalizing relations are calling the measures a promising step, and urging that full diplomatic and economic relations be reestablished.

"I am extremely gratified to see the series of positive changes to come from this administration, first in 2009 with its new policies for reuniting families and increasing telecommunications and humanitarian aid to Cuba, and today with the announcement of these encouraging policy changes," said U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., in a Jan. 14 statement. Lee headed a 2009 Congressional delegation to Cuba, which on its return called for positive changes in relations between the two countries.

Noting that Cuba is the only country in the world where Americans are forbidden to travel, Lee called the blockade "one of the nation's longest-held foreign policy failures," and expressed the hope that the administration's latest announcement was "just one more step" toward normalized relations.

Wayne Smith, who under President Jimmy Carter headed the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba, and is a longtime backer of normal relations, also "strongly endorsed" Obama's latest announcement and said, "We must build on it if we are to move toward a policy that serves U.S. interests, as present policy clearly does not."

Smith, now head of the Cuba program at the Center for International Policy (CIP), called for ending the embargo, but noted that the current Congress is unlikely to take that action. He and other participants in a late January CIP conference on Cuba urged the president to act quickly on other measures including removing Cuba from the U.S. list of terrorist states, closing the "provocative" Radio and Television Marti, ending funding of programs to destabilize the Cuban government, and working for "resolution" of the imprisonment of the Cuban Five.

Cuba-born U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., is the new chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She is a strong supporter of the blockade and other anti-Cuba policies. However many Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress, particularly from agricultural states, would like to see trade restrictions eased. Some Republican elected officials have even participated in trade delegations to Cuba.

After Congress in 2000 allowed export of medical and agricultural products, the U.S. became Cuba's largest supplier of food and agricultural products, with food exports reaching nearly $500 million in 2009. Among U.S. firms doing business with Cuba are such corporate giants as Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill. But, in part because Washington bans U.S. banks or firms from financing credit terms, Cuba has more recently bought these products from other countries including Canada, France, Brazil, Russia and China.

Polls have also consistently shown a significant majority of Americans favor normal relations with Cuba.

For all these reasons, it's more important than ever to back President Obama as he moves in the direction of normalizing relations. It's also important to encourage forces like the Congressional Black Caucus and the 120 House members from both parties who co-sponsored a bill in the last Congress to end the travel ban, and to support the many initiatives coming from a broad range of U.S. organizations working to break down the six-decades-old barriers dividing us from our island neighbor.

Photo: Children, dressed as revolutionary guerrilla fighters, walk during ongoing celebrations to mark the triumph of the Revolution in El Cotorro, on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba, Jan. 8, 2011. Although the Cuban revolution is celebrated on Jan. 1, Cubans mark Jan. 8th as the day Fidel Castro entered triumphantly into the capital in 1959. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)

Tunisian uprising inspires democracy fight

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:49:00 +0000

The North African country of Tunisia exploded with a mass democratic uprising in December 2010 and it is still unfolding today.

The country of about 10 million people was ruled by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (many call dictator) since 1987 until the Tunisian people forced him to flee the country and take up residency in Saudi Arabia on January 15, 2011.

The rebellion, referred to by the media as the Jasmine Revolution, was sparked by a single, unemployed, university graduate Mohammad Bouazizi. The 22-year-old Bouazizi made his living with an unlicensed vending cart on a market street in the town of Sidi Bouzid, a place described as "hard scrabble," and is 190 miles south of the country's capital of Tunis.

Bouazizi was roughed up by the police and his cart was confiscated. Angry and upset, the young man did a dramatic protest. With a message that he "can't live without food anyway," Bouazizi set himself on fire and died. Self-immolation has been used throughout many countries as a form of protest.

Bouazizi's dramatic action sparked mass protests throughout the country. Tunisians were fed-up with the mass unemployment and government corruption.

Democratic forces including left groups and unions took to the streets, 300,000-strong, and have been protesting for more than a month.

Ben Ali's police attacked protesters, shooting into the crowds. At least 80 people died. That angered and shocked more Tunisians and turned them against the repressive government.

After Ben Ali and his family fled, his prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, offered to form an interim unity government with opposition parties joining the discredited ruling party. The opposition accepted but the wrath of the public was so great, four opposition leaders stepped down and joined the protests. Tunisians were demanding the resignation of all ruling party ministers, and action on jobs for the mass numbers of unemployed.

These developments have been so massive and quickly developing, almost taking everyone off-guard, that the President of the United States mentioned it in his recent State of the Union speech.

Tunisia's neighbor on the west, Morocco, issued a statement expressing "concern" about the overthrow of Ben Ali and its impact on Morocco and the region. Libya, Tunisia's neighbor on the east, and Egypt have expressed similar concerns.

And with good reason, these governments are concerned. There have been thousands demonstrating in Egypt against corruption, unemployment and repression, representing the biggest challenge to the Mubarek government yet.

And now thousands demonstrate in Yemen.

Tunisia's Communist Workers Party leader Hamma Hammami declined to meet the prime minister and respond to his invitation to join the government. Hammami had been arrested during the earlier protests, but released after civil liberties leaders demanded his release. He issued a statement calling for a constitutional assembly "to lay the foundations of a democratic republic."

The Iraqi Communist Party issued a solidarity statement with the Tunisian people and workers saying,

"What has happened in Tunisia is an example for our Arab peoples, who are fighting for their freedom, bread and happiness, and for their legitimate aspirations in establishing the political, economic and social system which they desire, a system of democracy, peace and social justice."

State election may determine future of Mexican left

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:29:00 +0000

On July 3, voters in the central State of Mexico, in Mexico, will elect a new governor, to succeed Enrique Peña Nieto of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI). More is at stake than one governorship out of 31 in this country of 108 million people. The future of the main left-center electoral party, the PRD (Revolutionary Democratic Party) also hangs in the balance.

Mexico is the largest Mexican state, with more than 15 million inhabitants. It includes much of the old Aztec Empire, and surrounds Mexico City on the North, East and West. It contains huge Mexico City suburbs, including Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, Ecatepec, Texcoco, and the state capital Toluca. It has a high concentration of industry, and thus a very large working class.

The left-center PRD was formed in 1989, with a coming together of left wing dissidents from the PRI, former members of the old Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) and others. During the 1988 presidential elections, most of the left supported the candidacy of Cuautehmoc Cardenas Solorzano, the son of Mexico's revered former president (1934-1940), Lazaro Cardenas del Rio. Cardenas won, but the election was stolen and the PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was imposed. Cardenas' supporters decided to merge several existing parties into the new PRD structure.

But the combination of former communists with former "priistas" has been fractious, and there has been a lot of opportunism within the PRD. In the 2000 presidential election, two major PRD leaders, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo (former leader of the PRI) and Jorge Casteñeda (former communist), ditched the PRD's presidential candidate and supported Vicente Fox of the right-wing National Action Party (PAN). They said they wanted to back the candidate most likely to end the PRI's 70 year stranglehold on power. But Fox took Mexico even further in the direction of free market, neo liberal policies than had his PRI predecessors.

In the 2006 presidential elections, the candidate of the PRD and allies was former Mexico City region governor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ("AMLO"). He won the Mexico City area easily, but PAN candidate Felipe Calderon was declared president. AMLO and his supporters claimed fraud and refused to recognize Calderon, but also complained that some regional PRD leaders did not lift a finger to help.

Since then, fierce internal fights have harmed the PRD's prestige.

Now Mexico's 2012 presidential elections loom.

The country is in bad shape, hit especially hard by the world financial and economic crisis of 2008 which led to a 6.8% drop of the Gross Domestic Product. Wars between drug gangs have undermined people's sense of security, and food prices are rising sharply. Things are looking bad for the PAN, on whose watch these disasters have happened.

The PRI is grooming outgoing governor Peña Nieto of the State of Mexico as its candidate. He may be movie-star handsome and articulate but he has been accused of vicious violations of citizens rights. In any case the PRI may well sweep back into power in 2012.

The right wing leaders currently dominant in the PRD propose joint candidacies with the PAN, explaining that they want to prevent, at all costs, a PRI comeback. They tried this in state elections last year, with poor results, but they still want to have another go at it in the gubernatorial election in the State of Mexico.

The left wing of the PRD, including AMLO, is against this on principle. The PAN for them epitomizes a reactionary trend, which has favored foreign corporations and hurt Mexican farmers and workers. The PRD left has promised to try to repair some of the damage that neo-liberal policies of privatization, austerity and union-busting have done. AMLO has formed a coalition with two smaller leftist parties with congressional representation rather than cozying up to the PAN.

Veteran leftist Alejandro Encinas has made clear that he will run for governor, and that he opposes an unprincipled pact with the PAN. But the state organization of the PRD is going ahead with conversations with PAN leaders for such a pact and is setting up a "consultation" with the PRD base to get support.

AMLO has been touring Mexico State to promote Encinas and to oppose the idea of a PRD-PAN bloc. He is obviously seen by the PRD left as their best prospect as a 2012 presidential candidate. His book on the future of Mexico, La Mafia que se Adueño de Mexico, y el 2012 ("The Mafia Which Took Over Mexico, and [the election of] 2012") has won the praise of former Cuban President Fidel Castro and also of the People's Socialist Party of Mexico, a Marxist party which up to now had stayed at arm's length from the PRD.

AMLO will also probably have the support of independent unions and farmers organizations. Whether this can outweigh the opportunistic currents in his own party, not to mention the massive support of the Mexican ruling class and international monopoly capital for both the PRI and the PAN, is yet to be seen.

Photo: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ("AMLO") meeting with supporters.

Rotten Apple: iPod sweatshops hidden in China

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:41:00 +0000

Apple, famous for its Mac computers and iPhones, spends millions to create the image of a benevolent corporate giant that, while making money, does more than its part to better the world.

But a new study by China's Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs sharply contradicts this claim. The report, The Other Side of Apple, slams the corporate behemoth for mistreating its workers and poisoning the environment.

"Behind their stylish image," reads the introduction, "Apple products have a side that many do not know about - pollution and poison. This side is hidden deep within the company's secretive supply chain, out of view from the public."

Apple, according to its social responsibility website, ensures "that working conditions in Apple's supply chain are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible."

The IPE investigated, clearing away "some of the dense fog that enshrouds" the highly secretive company. IPE was able to piece together a list of "suspected" suppliers. It seems certain that these suspects actually do supply Apple, for several reasons; employees, for example, mention that Apple representatives came to the factories often. Further, many of the products were produced with the iconic Apple logo.

Suppliers - Apple has no factories of its own - routinely violate China's "Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases." Several manufacturers replaced alcohol, used to clean parts, with n-hexane, a chemical that works better than alcohol - but poisons workers. Because of the chemical in suspected supplier Lian Jian Technology's plant, Suzhou No. 5 People's Hospital admitted 49 employees who fell ill. More employees were likely poisoned, but many were pushed out before they fell ill, and Lian Jian forced them to sign papers saying they would not hold the company accountable.

"They left with 80 or 90 thousand yuan [$12 - $14,000]," said a Lian Jian worker, "that they got in exchange for their lives and health, with fees and medical costs they would have to pay for the rest of their lives."

In these factories, the workers, often women in their teens or 20s, were forced to work with the poison in unventilated rooms.

Xiao Zhan, a 19-year-old who was poisoned at Yun Heng Hardware and Electrical, where Apple logos were polished, described in her blog how she and her coworkers became more and more sickened by the poison, until they eventually needed intensive medical treatment.

In less than six months, 12 employees of Foxconn, "Apple's largest supplier in China," committed or attempted to commit suicide by jumping from buildings. This, according to the study, "shocked the nation. Chinese society began to rethink how best to give workers proper respect..."

The local government checked 5,044 workers, finding that 72.5 percent had been forced to work more overtime than legally allowed. Many have blamed the harsh working conditions on the suicides.

Workers at Dafu, another plant, were forced to undergo extreme humiliation. Female workers were searched - they were forced to remove clothes - in full view each time they left work.

"Watching a younger girl stand on the inspection platform with her pants suddenly falling down and run away as everyone laughed at her," said one worker there, "my eyes filled with tears and I did not laugh." It wasn't until Chinese authorities forced the plant to establish trade unions that conditions began to improve.

Further, many of these suppliers have been cited by Chinese authorities for far exceeding the amount of toxic waste allowed by law.

How can Apple get away with this? the IPE asked. The answer: the "culture of secrecy," doesn't only hide trade secrets, but suppliers' identities - and abuses of workers and the environment.

In a typical response to questions from an NGO, Apple wrote July 15, 2010, that they "will not disclose any information about suppliers, including anything about an investigation, its timing and/or the results of the investigation."

China's NGO network, the Green Choice Alliance, monitors corporate polluters. Numerous companies, even Wal-Mart and Nike, are working with the GCA and "many best practices have emerged." About 330 companies so far are participating - but not Apple.

Apple stands alone even among other IT companies - which routinely cause problems of heavy metal pollution - in its evasiveness and refusal to work with green groups.

Socialist China has empowered its trade union movement - which is backed by the government - and has been attempting to strengthen regulatory laws. However, even the Chinese state has great difficulty in enforcing fines and penalties when companies - primarily foreign - violate labor and environmental laws.

As the report notes, the problems in China are typical of many developing countries, which "make and export cheap products; however the pollution is then dumped in their own backyards.

Photo: Creative Commons

World Notes: Cuba, Israel, Venezuela - and more

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:15:00 +0000

Pakistan: U.S. drones threaten civilians

Hundreds of rural inhabitants of the North Waziristan tribal region staged a protest march Jan. 23 in the town of Mir Ali. Three days earlier, over 2,000 demonstrated in nearby Miranshah. Their protests targetted U.S. drone attacks, one of which killed seven people, mostly innocent civilians, in the Datta Khel area on Jan. 23. Throughout the region, according to the Xinhua News, markets, businesses and truck traffic closed down. Religious leaders, tribal elders, and students speaking at the demonstrations castigated the U.S. government. Mir Ali business leader Abdul Hakim Nasir testified that drone attacks inflicted on the population an unacceptable state of fear. Speakers blamed the national government for tolerating the attacks.

Venezuela: Fiber optic cable on the way to Cuba

Ceremonies unfolded in Vargas on Jan. 22, marking the beginning of operations to extend a submerged fiber optic cable to Jamaica and Cuba. "End the blockade of Cuba" and "Unity for all the Peoples!" proclaimed Technology and Sciences Minister Ricardo Menéndez at the event. The report from VTV television suggests improved telecommunications access will serve regional social, economic and cultural integration. Both China and France assisted with the project carried out by Venezuela in cooperation with Cuba and Jamaica. U.S. economic blockade policies denying Cuba access to under-sea fiber optic cables are responsible for having sharply reduced the island's Internet capabilities. That situation will improve when cable use begins in June. Officials in both Cuba and Venezuela also anticipate tightened bi-national communications security.

South Africa: Government initiative will cut HIV treatment costs

The Department of Health recently negotiated a two-year procurement contract with manufacturers of anti- retroviral drugs. Savings may exceed $685 million. The monthly cost, for example, of supplying one patient with the commonly used drug Tenofovir will drop from $23 to eight dollars. Presently, 18 percent of South Africans are HIV-infected, with a million people receiving ARV drugs. According to Inter Press Service, the deal represents a shift to big national buyers procuring ARVs and diminished reliance on donors. The advent of powerful purchasing blocs is expected to result in manufacturers' guarantees of drug availability and reduced costs to national health services. Critics suggest the new purchasing arrangement failed in protecting the government from supplier price manipulations during the contract period.

Nepal: Peace stumbling block is removed

A UN-guided peace process, stalled for three years while former Maoist guerrillas participated in government, has been revived. On Jan. 22, caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), signed an agreement with Maoist leader Prachanda, transferring control of 19,000 former insurgents living in camps to a multi-party, 64-person monitoring committee headed by the Prime Minister. Its task, reports Al Jazeera, will be to integrate Maoist troops into civilian life or national military service. Controversy over their fate has stymied the formation of a government. The Maoists assumed power following their victory in constituent assembly voting in 2008. Prachanda resigned as prime minister shortly thereafter. Prime Minister Nepal did likewise in June 2010.

Israel: Democratic opposition mobilizes

Coming together as the "Democratic Camp," Tel Aviv protesters on Jan. 15 denounced the government's "McCarthyite witch hunt" .against dissent, human rights, and Arab - Israeli collaboration. Describing the gathering of 20,000 people as "the biggest demonstration for years," the UK Guardian reported the protest as being triggered by the Knesset's recent approval of investigations carried out against civil rights groups and new citizens being subjected to a "loyalty oath." Proposals to prohibit Jews from selling or renting property to Arabs further inflamed the situation. The Labor Party came under criticism for partnering with the right-wing Netanyahu government, characterized by one speaker as "the most racist coalition in the history of Israel." Two days later, that party split when three Labor Party ministers resigned.

Cuba: U. S. mail deliveries are ended

As of Jan. 21, postal authorities began refusing to process mail addressed to U.S. recipients. Beginning in November, they disallowed mail to the United States weighing more than 453 grams. That action came about in response to U.S. restrictions, ostensibly anti-terrorist in nature, imposed on mail received from Cuba and other countries. Since 1963, when the United States ended direct mail communication with Cuba, mail has flowed by way of third countries, primarily Mexico and Canada. The most recent Cuban action is attributed to cost increases stemming from airlines of those countries having to return undelivered mail. There are no political undertones, reports La Jornada newspaper. Bilateral talks on re-establishing direct mail service took place in September 2009.

Dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier's strange return to Haiti

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:45:00 +0000

He has visibly aged since he was run out of Haiti in 1986. He still has the malevolent stare he inherited, along with the presidency, from his father, Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, president of Haiti from 1956 until his death in 1971.

The return of former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to Haiti on Sunday, Jan. 16, has further unsettled an already chaotic situation.

Duvalier senior was one of the worst tyrants to rule in the Americas in the 20th century, and his son was a chip off the old block. Ruling through a super-violent militia called the "Tonton Macoute" (bogeyman), the Duvaliers, father and son, are thought to have murdered up to 60,000 political enemies. They stripped Haiti bare. But they were supported by the United States, because they were stalwart anti-communists.

When Baby Doc was finally overthrown in 1986, the Tonton Macoute and military stayed behind, protecting the interests of a tiny opulent minority. A radical priest, Jean Bertrand Aristide, swept the presidential elections of 1991, but was quickly overthrown by the military. In 1994, the U.S. administration of Bill Clinton intervened to return Aristide to power, exacting trade concessions that harmed Haitian small farmers. Aristide was elected again in 2001 but was overthrown once more by the Bush administration in 2004.

Then came a United Nations intervention that has been resented by the Haitian poor, last year's earthquake and a cholera epidemic that has killed 4,000 people. Billions in earthquake reconstruction aid has been trickling in at a snail's pace.

Haiti's Nov. 28 election was marred by fraud and disorganization. Aristide's party, Fanmi Lavalas, was barred on the basis of ridiculous technicalities. Many could not vote. A panel from the Organization of American States is calling for the Haitian government to change the results so a runoff, as yet not scheduled, would be between Mirland Manigat and Michel Martelly, instead of between Manigat and the current government's favorite candidate, Jude Celestine. Both Manigat and, especially, Martelly have Duvalierist connections. The government so far has resisted this demand.

People are asking, "Who facilitated Baby Doc's return? Is some powerful country backing Duvalier?" He traveled on an expired diplomatic passport. The French government says it was not aware of Duvalier's plans. Haitian Prime Minister Max Bellarive simply remarked that all Haitian citizens have a right to be in their homeland.

"Really?" asks former President Jean Bertrand Aristide from exile in South Africa. Aristide's overthrow occurred reportedly at the instigation of the French and U.S. governments who were angry, partly because Aristide kept needling the French to repay Haiti $21 billion for money they had extorted at gunpoint during the 19th century. Aristide, who says he has medical problems that cause him discomfort in South Africa's sometimes chilly winters, has not ceased to demand the right to return, but the government of his former ally, President Rene Preval, refuses to renew his passport. On Wednesday, Aristide once again demanded the right to return.

Trey Wilkinson of the Los Angeles Times speculates that Duvalier's timing may have to do with personal finances. When he left Haiti, Baby Doc reportedly cleaned out the treasury and absconded with hundreds of millions of dollars, which he stashed in Swiss bank accounts. He lost most of this in legal actions, especially his divorce. What remains was frozen in Switzerland, but may be handed over to the Haitian government on Feb. 1. So Duvalier may want to be in Haiti to try to recapture that money.

Runoff elections have not been scheduled. Preval must, by law, leave office by Feb. 7. Perhaps Duvalier and his supporters hope to use a power vacuum to stage a comeback.

In the United States, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., issued a statement on the return of Baby Doc, in which she blasted the mishandling of the elections and added "I am deeply concerned that the wealthy elites of Haiti who supported Duvalier's regime in the past, along with the assistance of international agencies, may have encouraged Duvalier to return in the hope that the flawed elections will create a power vacuum that could allow him to take power once again. I am even more concerned that OAS officials may be wittingly or unwittingly helping to create precisely the type of power vacuum that would enable him to do so"

Duvalier was going to give a press conference on Wednesday, but instead was briefly arrested and interrogated, then released. The Haitian government says it may prosecute him for embezzlement and theft, but says nothing about murder and the violation of human rights. Lawsuits are being filed by individuals who suffered at the hands of his Tonton Macoute.

Tunisia: new government already in crisis

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:13:00 +0000

The following is a report from Jan. 19 L'Humanité translated by Scott Hiley.

The Tunisian transitional government, which held its first Cabinet meeting today, Jan. 20, is already facing protests for keeping within its ranks members of overthrown President Ben Ali's administration.

"The most important point we will consider," says a government source, is "the plan for general amnesty," announced on Monday by the prime minister. The other important business of the day will be application of the principal of the separation of the state from the former ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally, which, according to some, must disappear from the political landscape altogether.

The three ministers belonging to the central labor party, the Tunisian General Labor Union, stepped down the day before, at the request of their organization, in order to denounce the continued presence in the government of members of Ben Ali's CDR. Opposition member Mustafa Ben Jaafar, the minister of Health, suspended his participation in the government.

In an attempt to pacify Tunisians, interim President Foued Mebazaa and Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi broke on Tuesday with the Constitutional Democratic Rally party.

"It is not enough. I don't think the population will accept it. People want to see a definitive end to the CDR," declared Abdellatif Abid, a member of the political bureau of the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberty.

These announcements take place in the context of a vigorous backlash against the composition of Monday's new government, in which eight members of the former dictator's administration - all members of the CDR - were once again admitted to key positions. This step roused massive protest and led three ministers from the central labor union federation, the TGLU, to step down.

Yesterday, thousands of Tunisians showed their anger in Tunis and in several other cities, notably Sfax (eastern central Tunisia), the country's economic capital, and Sidi Bouzid (western central Tunisia), the cradle of the "Jasmine Revolution."

In Sousse (eastern central Tunisia) and Tataouine (southern Tunisia), protesters climbed the facades of CDR headquarters to remove and destroy flags and symbols of the party.

In the capital, Tunis, police used clubs and tear gas to violently scatter a thousand protesters, including, for the first time, Muslims.

"We can live with just bread and water, but we can't live with the CDR," chanted the protesters.

Translator's note: I have given English names and abbreviations for political parties. Here are their French equivalents: Constitutional Democratic Rally (CDR)=Rassemblement Constitutionel Démocratique (RCD); Tunisian General Labor Union (TGLU) = Union Général Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT); Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberty (DFLL)=Forum Démocratique du Travail et de la Liberté (FDTL).

Photo: (l'Humanité)

Rain is not only cause of Brazil disaster

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:22:00 +0000

BRASILIA, Brazil - Deaths from torrential rains in southeast Brazil has risen to 711, as rescuers continued searching for corpses under the mud and rubble of homes destroyed by landslides last week. Over 14,000 people had been evacuated or were without shelter.

Heavy rains caused devastating landslides and flooding throughout a number of states and more than 100 cities.

The death toll could continue to rise because of the large number of missing people, and the devastated sites and destroyed roads have prevented rescue workers to reach many areas.

This is the worst natural tragedy in Brazilian history.

President Dilma Rousseff presented a national disaster prevention system that should be up and running in four years, but says she hopes for other solutions by the summer, at least for the most prone areas of the country.

But in too many states and municipalities flood and disaster infrastructure is nonexistent.

Local officials have acted with indifference and negligence towards the majority of their population, which is mostly poor, and colluded with real estate speculators, driving people off "high value" land into high risk areas.

To cover-up their complicity, some officials are blaming the disaster solely on the heavy rains. Others are charging that the lack of sustainable urban planning is also to blame. For example, the development of the urban car culture, including the paving of roads and parking lots, with impermeable materials leads to more run-off and landslides.

The rainfall has not measurably increased this year, experts say.

São Paulo, the richest city of the country, does not have any emergency flood or evacuation plans. It has had successive right-wing administrations since 1993, with a short reprieve from 2001-2005. But from 2006 to 2010, São Paulo's mayor invested less than half of what was necessary for flood prevention infrastructure, despite an increase in taxes.

Many charge political negligence towards prevention is also to blame, because the rains always come.

This article is based on reports from Cuba-based Prensa Latina and Brazil-based Vermelho.

Photo: People wear face masks due to dust and smell from rotten mud after landslides in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Jan. 18. (Felipe Dana/AP)

Thousands of Israelis march against “witch-hunt”

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Some 20,000 Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Jan. 15, to protest the Knesset decision to investigate Israeli human rights and left political organizations - specifically their funding sources. Representing a broad swathe of Israel's center and left political spectrum, marchers and speakers denounced the action as akin to U.S. McCarthyite witch-hunts of the 1950s.

The protest was sparked by the Knesset vote last week to move toward establishing a panel of inquiry into left-wing groups, alleging they engage in "delegitimization" campaigns against the State of Israel and its armed forces. The probe will focus on the groups' funding, purportedly to see if they are getting money from foreign sources or groups considered to be involved in terrorist activities. The measure was initiated by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party.

Saturday's marchers, under the slogan "Demonstration (since it's still possible) for democracy," represented a wide range of groups including the centrist Kadima party, Israeli Peace Now, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the left social democratic Meretz party, the Israeli Communist Party and an array of human rights organizations. Knesset members who opposed the "witch hunt" panel were among the marchers and speakers.

The marchers carried signs reading "Danger! End of Democracy Ahead," "Fighting the Government of Darkness" and "Democracy is Screaming for Help," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Kadima Knesset member Meir Sheetrit called the Knesset's action "offensive and dangerous to the state of Israel ... it makes Israel one of the states of darkness." He called on organizations to spurn the investigation if it is launched.

Meretz Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz declared, "We are here in opposition to religious radicalization, racist laws and sickening incitement against foreign workers and against those who are not loyal to Lieberman. And now they are putting human rights organizations in the crosshairs."

Horowitz said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares the blame, since he is "encouraging the racist celebration in the Knesset." He also criticized Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has just led a breakaway from Israel's Labor Party. "How are you not ashamed Mr. Barak?" Horowitz asked. "You and your party are supporting and enabling the existence of the most racist government in the history of the State of Israel."

Hagai Elad, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said, "The thousands of people who are here understand that our democracy needs protection against its destroyers. We are voicing a clear voice in support of human rights and democracy, and against racism, McCarthyism and future destruction. We will continue to fight for democratic values, freedom of speech, equal rights for citizens and the end of the occupation."

Elad's organization was among 16 well-known Israeli human rights groups that signed an open letter protesting the Knesset measure.

"Investigate us all, we have nothing to hide," their letter said. "You are invited to read our reports and our publications. We will be happy if for a change you relate in a germane way to our questions instead of trying to besmirch us. It did not work in the past and it will not work this time."

Right-wing Knesset member Michael Ben Ari denounced the protest. Labeling the targeted groups "movements on the extreme left," he claimed they "would like to see the State of Israel destroyed" and are "betraying the state and therefore there is no escape from taking steps against them. We will reveal that they are funded by enemy states."

Yet even Israeli President Shimon Peres opposed the Knesset probe, telling Haaretz it harms Israeli democracy.

In a statement issued before Saturday's march, Dov Khenin, an Israeli Communist Party leader, Knesset member and civil rights attorney, warned of the lessons of U.S. McCarthyism.

"The creation of parliamentary committees for the investigation of political activities is associated with the name of the Republican Senator for Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, who was active in the U.S. in the darkest days of the Cold War," said Khenin.

"McCarthy is infamous for his initiative, presented in a speech of February 1950, to investigate government employees for 'collaboration with the enemy.'

"Senator McCarthy was placed at the head of the Sub-Committee of Investigation. The House Committee on Un-American Activities worked in parallel. The two committees published a list of hostile organizations to be investigated. Among these was the National Lawyers' Guild - charged with anti-Americanism for including black lawyers in its ranks.

"Since it is very difficult to set limits to political investigations, the committee extended its activities from organizations to people in film and entertainment. Thus individuals such as Charlie Chaplin, Berthold Brecht, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger, and many more, were investigated or ordered to testify.

"The witch-hunt against progressives gripped the Congress for three years, causing great human misery and social damage. American society managed to get over the trauma and its heavy social and historical price. We should learn from this experience. We must not go down this road and create a parliamentary investigation committee."

"McCarthyism aims at intimidating people involved in legal acts from exercising their democratic rights," Khenin said. "This is what the Likud and Yisrael Beitenu are suggesting: a lethal injection for democracy."

Photo: Thousands of Israelis march in Tel-Aviv to protest the government move to investigate human rights and left-wing organizations, Saturday Jan. 15. (AP/Oded Balilty)

Floods raise major implications for Australia's future

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:32:00 +0000

The following is an editorial by Austalia's Guardian newspaper, the workers' weekly, on the devastating floods in Queensland.

BRISBANE, Australia — The floods in Queensland and other states have brought tragedy on a massive scale, but also wonderful examples of heroism, cooperation and sacrifice. Volunteers arrived to help from all over the country, and also from other nations. Emergency services and other organizations at all levels of government cooperated and acted with efficiency and dedication. Residents fleeing flooded homes, or returning to begin the heartbreaking task of cleaning up, have often found themselves assisted by total strangers.

A UN official has praised the nation, and the Queensland government and people in particular, for their wonderful performance in dealing with this catastrophe. Nevertheless, the story of the floods includes some official blunders, and has major long-term implications for the entire nation, particularly regarding climate change and environment policies.

Devastation on an unseen scale

The scale of the flood crisis is the greatest in Australia's recorded history. River height records were broken in most of the towns affected. In Brisbane, the floods did not quite reach the heights of the 1974 floods. However, this was largely because the Wivenhoe dam, built after 1974, retained the water until it nearly reached the top of the dam, forcing authorities to open the sluice gates. If it had not been for the dam the total amount of water reaching Brisbane would have been far greater.

Other states as well as Queensland were also affected. Rivers broke their banks with a vengeance in northern NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

Nor was the flooding limited to Australia, for that matter. Floods have made a million people in Bangladesh homeless, and have killed 355 people in Brazil.

As The Guardian goes to press, 18 people are known to have died and about 60 are missing. Various areas of Queensland are still flooded, and are likely to remain so for several weeks. Floodwaters are still rising in Victoria and South Australia.

That process will be very long, very difficult and very expensive. Damage to crops will result in shortages of fruit and vegetables. The estimated cost of repairing the damage in Queensland alone is $5 billion, and a 0.75 percent rise in inflation is expected.

Planning for the aftermath

Discussion is well underway with regard to recovery and rebuilding in the aftermath of the Queensland crisis. The floods have revealed weaknesses in local and state planning laws and procedures, for example the granting of permission by councils for building development in flood-prone areas. The floods have also demonstrated the importance of public health services and public railways as a means of transport. In one area, with all the roads cut off, a historic rail service proved vital in bringing in emergency service volunteers. Consideration is now being given to construction of a special rail network to service north Queensland coastal areas.

Attention has also been focused on other issues that had a direct bearing on events, for example the rejection by the state government and most Queensland councils of an offer from Telstra of a free emergency warning phone call system for residents in areas threatened with flash flooding.

Residents of Toowoomba suffered the terrible "inland tsunami", with tragic results, including many casualties. The state emergency services were not able to issue warnings in time. The Telstra service might have done so, but the local Council is said to have failed to respond to the company's offer at all.

Despite its initial mitigation of the flooding of Brisbane, the Wivenhoe dam proved unable to avert the swamping of low-lying areas. The building of more dams will doubtless be advocated by Labor and Liberal politicians, particularly because of their very cozy relationships with major development and construction corporations.

However, hydrology professor Dr Willem Vervoort has warned against the building of further dams, which he says lull people into a false sense of security. For a start, constructing a dam is extremely expensive, and its effectiveness in dealing with floods is limited by its use for other purposes, for example retaining water for agricultural, domestic or industrial consumption, or for hydro-electricity generation.

Moreover, planning the capacity of dams is not straight forward because climate change is making it difficult to predict the likely frequency or level of future floods. Last, but certainly not least, dams also have severe impacts on the environment, particularly regarding downstream flora and fauna, as demonstrated in the Murray-Darling system.

Other countries are now concentrating on alternative measures to deal with floods. These include the cessation of residential and industrial development in flood-prone areas, increasing surface infiltration, and taking measures to slow the flow of floodwater.

Professor Vervoort has also suggested rerouting floodwaters to less critical areas of floodplains. This also raises the question of redirecting floodwaters above maximum critical levels out of the floodplains altogether, possibly to supplement ailing river systems such as the inland Murray-Darling system.

There has also been much concern about the traumatic effect on people whose homes and workplaces have been damaged or lost in the flooding. Public health is a source of serious concern, as is the difficulty flood victims experience in making insurance claims.

The insurance industry is reluctant to offer cover against floods, and policies that are available are extremely expensive. Moreover, the industry has decided not to offer voluntary (no liability) compensation and it is entirely possible that some companies that have offered flood cover will attempt to dodge any liabilities for compensation arising from their policies.

The changing climate

Prior to the arrival of "white invaders" from Britain, floods were far less frequent in Australia, and were mitigated by the Aboriginal people's maintenance of a landscape in which the flow of rainwater was slower and far more inclined to permeate the soil. Since then land clearing and mono-cultural crop cultivation on a vast scale, together with the widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides, has altered the soil's characteristics, and made it susceptible to erosion. Floods are now frequent and savage, and are progressively stripping off the frail and ancient topsoil.

And now we also have the threat of climate change. The scientific discovery of the El Niño and La Niña weather patterns, which bring about Australia's "droughts and flooding rains," is only relatively recent. So is the detection of climate change, which some scientists think is now bringing about extreme weather events worldwide, as well as the Australian floods - for example the extremely bitter winters in Britain and Western Europe, which may be a result of the slowdown of the Atlantic Gulf Stream current.

Throughout the flood crisis, mass media news reports barely mentioned climate change. This is astonishing, because for years climatologists have been warning that it is likely to bring about an increase in extreme weather events in certain areas of Australia, particularly the eastern coast and hinterlands, combined with long periods of drought in other regions.

It is ironic that coal mining was one of the industries worst hit by the flood crisis, given that the global emission of vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the industrial combustion of coal is probably humankind's biggest single contributor to climate change.

Until the floods began, Queensland was supplying almost 25 percent of the world's sea-borne coal exports, including about half of the world's coking coal, which is used in the production of steel. Before the floods Queensland Premier Anna Bligh managed to sell off most of the infrastructure for transporting and processing coal. Apart from disposing of tremendously valuable public assets, the government has ensured that the purchasers will be extremely tenacious in maintaining coal as the nation's primary energy source.

However, much of the rail network used to transport coal to the coastal ports is now in ruins, and many of the mines are inundated or damaged. Coal production has fallen by about 75 percent and it could take a year for full production to be resumed.

It is possible that the shortage of coal arising from the Queensland crisis, combined with the near-certainty of increasingly unstable weather patterns in future, may prompt governments and industrial corporations to begin phasing out the use of coal as an energy source. Who knows, perhaps the tragic 2011 floods will end up helping to save humankind and the rest of the world's living creatures from the terrible threat of climate change.

Photo: (Via The Guardian)

Trial of Posada Carriles starts in Texas

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:48:00 +0000

On Monday January 10, the trial of Luis Posada Carriles began in the federal courthouse in El Paso, Texas. Posada is seen in most of Latin America as a terrorist, responsible for many deaths. He is credibly accused of masterminding the bombing of a Cuban airliner in Barbados in 1976, an act in which 73 passengers and crew died, including the whole Cuban junior Olympic fencing team. Yet he is only being tried on two counts of perjury, one of obstruction of justice, one of naturalization fraud and seven of lying to immigration authorities.

Coming to the United States after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Posada (now 82) helped organize the unsuccessful 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and, in the 1960s, was trained in methods of terrorism at School of the Americas in Georgia. Soon Posada became a major CIA asset in Latin America. In 1968 Posada moved to Venezuela where he obtained citizenship and headed the Venezuelan political police. He lost that job in 1974, but he reportedly retained his formal ties to the CIA until at least 1976.

In Venezuela, he worked with Orlando Bosch and other Cuban exiles in the plot to blow up the airliner. Venezuelan authorities arrested Posada and Bosch, but they were acquitted by a military court. They escaped in 1985 while awaiting another trial that was based on the prosecutors' appeal.

Posada then settled in El Salvador. In the 1980s, is known to have played a major role as a gunrunner in the bloody Contra wars in Nicaragua.

In 1997 Posada masterminded bombings in Cuba which killed an Italian tourist. Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a Salvadoran Posada operative, was captured by Cuban authorities, confessed the crime and is serving a long prison term. Last July, another Salvadoran, Francisco Chavez Abarca, was tried in Cuba and found guilty of planning terrorist acts. He confirmed Posada's relationship to the 1997 bombing campaign.

In November 2000, Posada and three associates were arrested in Panama with massive quantities of explosives with which they evidently intended to blow up an auditorium at the University of Panama while Cuban President Fidel Castro was speaking. They were convicted and imprisoned but in 2004, right-wing Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned them.

In 2005, Posada showed up in the United States again and requested political asylum, but was arrested. An immigration judge denied a Venezuelan extradition request on an unsupported allegation that he would be tortured there. Subsequently, Posada applied for U.S. citizenship. Based on what the U.S. government claimed were untruthful answers during his citizenship interview, Posada was again arrested for immigration violations and perjury, but U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone dismissed the initial indictment on the grounds of prosecutorial malfeasance. Cardone's decision was reversed on appeal, and the case was remanded back to her courtroom.

Meanwhile, Posada has been feted in the South Florida Cuban exile community where he has long ties to groups such as the Cuban American National Foundation, an organization dedicated to the overthrowing of the Cuban government "of Fidel Castro."

In 2009, a federal grand jury again indicted Posada for perjury and immigration violations, leading to the current trial.

Numerous documents show that the government considers Posada to be a major terrorist and a danger to national security. The unit of the Justice Department that is prosecuting him specializes in terrorism. Yet he is not being tried for any of this.

Many have questions about the proceedings. For example, Attorney Jose Pertierra, who is representing Venezuela on the case, asks why did the Justice Department wait until the last minute to request permission to gather evidence against Posada in Cuba? Could they not have anticipated that Cardone would turn them down because of this tardiness?

Posada and his allies have bragged that he and the U.S. have been fighting on the same side, and that the United States does not dare to indict him for terrorism because his long working relationship with the CIA means that he could seriously embarrass powerful people.

Speculation as to who these powerful people might be include former President George H.W. Bush, who was head of the CIA when the airline bombing was carried out; Oliver North and other figures in the Contra wars; former Florida Governor Jeb Bush; and the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.

The first day of the trial was spent in jury selection. For the rest of the week, the government has been presenting evidence about Posada's background. The defense requested that evidence coming from Cuban sources be excluded, but Judge Cardone denied this. In the coming weeks, prosecution witnesses will testify.

Progressive organizations have been holding demonstrations demanding that Posada be prosecuted for terrorism, and that, in a related case, the Cuban Five be freed.

Photo: Relatives hold signs and pictures of victims at the Colon Cemetery in Havana, at a ceremony in memory of the Cubana Airlines bombing of 1976. Cubans marking the anniversary expressed frustration and sadness at the fact that Luis Posada Carriles has yet to be punished for his involvement in masterminding the crime. Jorge Rey/AP

Send greetings to the Cuban Five

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:58:00 +0000

The Obama administration has made steps forward on U.S. relations with Cuba, especially in terms of loosening travel restrictions for Americans who wish to visit the island. Still, there are five innocent anti-terrorist fighters sitting in U.S. prison, and it's important to keep their spirits up.

People's World once more takes the occasion of a new year to urge readers to write to the Cuban Five. Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino have been in U.S. federal prisons for twelve years - unjustly so. After a biased trial, they received long, cruel sentences. Their job had been to help protect their homeland from terrorist attacks originating in the United States.

They want to hear from people on the outside, not only those who have joined solidarity efforts on their behalf, but those too who would reach out in friendship. They are principled individuals unfairly removed from family, friends and homeland.

For more information, go to www.freethefive.org, www.antiterroristas.cu, or www.thecuban5.org.

Here's how to address your letter:

Gerardo Hernandez, No. 58739-004
U.S.P. Victorville
P.O. Box 5300
Adelanto, CA 92301

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, No. 58741-004
FCI Florence
P.O. Box 6000
Florence, CO, 81226

Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, No. 58738-004
FCI Marianna
P.O. Box 7007
Marianna, FL 32447-7007

To write to Fernando Gonzalez, address the envelope:
Rubén Campa, No. 58733-004,
FCI Terre Haute
P.O. BOX 33
Terre Haute, IN, 47808.
(But address the letter inside to Fernando.)

To write to Ramón Labañino, address the envelope:
Luis Medina, No. 58734-004
FCI Jesup, 2680, 301 South
Jesup, GA 31599
(But address the letter inside to Ramon.)

Image: J.G. Blanchard Lewis // CC BY-NC 2.0

A blind eye for terror in Colombia

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:13:00 +0000

In Washington, business interests are pushing the Obama administration to submit a U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement for congressional approval. Yet terror prevails under the new regime of President Juan Manuel Santos

With Republicans riding high, the Washington Post predicts, "all three trade agreements (with Colombia, Panama and South Korea) have better prospects - good news for the American companies and workers." NACLA Report correspondent Dawn Paley claims "transnational corporations throughout all sectors" are backing the Colombian agreement. Under a trade pact, markets there in plastics and resins, construction, mining and communications would each be worth $2 billion a year. U.S. oil and gas service companies would take in $1.2 billion annually.

Critics say that a bilateral trade agreement would augment the effect of U.S. military aid to Colombia in providing sanction for human rights abuses. The circumstances of incidents occurring there recently are politically instructive.

Labor union President Martha Diaz, for example, reports from Bucaramanga that on December 30 a thug pushed her 17-year-old daughter into a car, put a gun in her face, and accused her mother of being a guerrilla. Unless her mother ceased anti-government activities, they warned, "the consequences would be worse." She was returned home with a letter from paramilitaries threatening death to family members. Observers say designation as a guerrilla signals that anyone so targeted is fair game for deadly attacks. In her appeal for international solidarity, Martha Diaz sees the incident as "the price to pay for a firm class consciousness."

Nelson Lombana Silva found himself similarly categorized. He is the regional secretary of the Alternative Democratic Pole, a leftist electoral coalition. He heads the Communist Party in Tolima and writes for that party's press. An e-mail he received on January 3 said, "Lombana is only one more guerrilla." The message added: "The Communists are the same guerrillas that for so many years have only caused chaos, evil, kidnappings, extortions, genocide."

On New Year's Eve, gunmen stepped out of a crowd in La Unión, in Valle del Cauca, to kill storeowner José Lenin Mayuza. In a radio interview, his sister Carmen Mayuza told why her family has been decimated: the "state [is] doing little more than searching out an opposition ...in order to exterminate it."

Her brother Solomon was "disappeared" in 1998. The body of her brother Alexander was returned in pieces in a plastic bag in 2003. Her brother Luis was assassinated in 2008. She, her brothers and three sisters, many of them labor activists, have been jailed and exiled. The "paramilitary war against all militants of the Patriotic Union" had forced the family to leave Meta in 1988, she said.

Colombia's Communist Party and leftist insurgents launched the Patriotic Union (UP) as an electoral coalition in 1985. In Meta, José Lenin Mayuza served as a UP city councilman. The murder campaign against UP participants continues, so far claiming over 4,000 victims.

Murder also occurs in the context of removing peasants and poor workers from valuable land. There were 26 murders last year in Guapi, in Cauca, presumably by paramilitaries, who undertake "private justice in a municipality with a strong public security force," reports analyst Azalea Robles. The last victim, 16-year-old, African-descended Juan Carlos, died on December 11. Paramilitary activities began in that area a decade ago in concert with land takeovers for industrial-scale palm oil production and a hydroelectric project.

The Colombian resistance movement relies on international solidarity, and blocking a U.S.-Colombia trade deal is one ingredient of that. David Ravelo, jailed almost four months ago, is part of that movement. The Communist Party leader and director of the CREDHOS human rights group, says he is persecuted because he denounced extra-judicial killings, disappearances and displacements. "They are looking," he told an interviewer on January 7, "to silence a leader of the people who has never let himself be intimidated and that the establishment could not co-opt." To block dissent, he said, "there exists a whole organized system of terror."

Ravelo is charged with "rebellion and aggravated homicide," the latter allegation served up by a jailed paramilitary leader and self-confessed murderer. Ravelo said his morale is high, "because sooner or later, the truth will free me."

Popular forces in Colombia expect that the terror campaign and the presence of a resistance movement will inspire foreign support. The U. S. labor movement, moved by persecution of Colombian unionists, has worked to delay imposition of a U.S.-Colombia trade pact. Full realization that in Colombia repression extends widely, that state-fostered violence serves corporate and imperial interests, and that resistance there has valiant, even heroic, qualities has the potential for broadening opposition within the United States to new forms of capitalist intrusion in Colombia.

Photo: Repression of Colombian indigenous protest, Fellowship of Reconciliation, CC 2.0

World Notes: Cuba, Spain and more

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Cuba: Infant Mortality rate hits new low

The Cuban nation's infant mortality rate (IMR) last year was its lowest ever, and lowest in the western hemisphere: 4.5 first year deaths for every 1000 babies born. That skilled, specialty level health care played a role is illustrated by Villa Clara Province's experience last year. At 2.5, the IMR there was Cuba's most favorable. Of 8,083 babies born, 546 were diagnosed with serious medical problems, 75 of them requiring assisted respiration and 20 needing surgery. Remarkably, all but 16 of that group survived.

A report on Cubadebate.cu attributes the Cuban achievement to high educational levels, universal health care, an ethos of prevention and health education, blanket immunizations, and "the political will of the revolutionary government" to improve the health of all Cubans with special attention to women and children.

Spain: An end to armed conflict by Basque separatists?

After 50 years of violent conflict and a four month cease fire, the Basque separatist group ETA on January 10 declared the cease fire permanent. Press conference spokespersons invited international verification. One quoted by the UK Guardian promised a "firm commitment towards a process to achieve a lasting resolution and towards an end to armed confrontation."

As its price for a ceasefire, the clandestine group is demanding negotiations and recognition of Basque self determination in Spanish and French territories. Spain's government rejected the proposal, calling upon ETA to "lay down arms definitively." Any verification would be carried out by state security forces, the government said.

Observers say that with 550 members in Spanish and French jails including recently arrested leaders, ETA was responding to pressures from within its formations by announcing the cease fire.

Palestine: Civilians under siege

On January 7, Israeli settlers uprooted 100 olive saplings belonging to residents of a West Bank village near Nablus. The day before, they took 16 acres of land belonging to residents of nearby Ein Jaloud.

But assaults on the West Bank food supply are dwarfed by war and blockade effects in Gaza. According to the group Physicians for Human Rights, 17 percent of Gaza's agricultural lands have been rendered unusable, 61 percent of the population experience food shortages, and 71 percent depend upon international humanitarian aid. Its 87-page report, says food insecurity is "compounded by the severe infrastructural damage to the water purification and sewerage systems: 90-95 percent of the water provided by Gaza's coastal aquifer is unfit for human consumption."

Afghanistan: Grim death toll statistics

After nine years of war in and around Afghanistan death toll statistics are as bleak as ever. Official Afghan figures indicate 2,043 civilians, 1,292 police, and 5,225 Taliban combatants died during 2010. The 10,081 total of deaths last year also included 810 Afghan soldiers and 711 international troops - for the latter, the war's heaviest annual toll to date.

Global Research cites the Pakistan-based Conflict Monitoring Center to report that CIA drone attacks over Pakistan's tribal areas killed 938 people in 2010. Last year's 132 drone attacks exceeded the total of the previous five years.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's Human Development Index ranks in 181^st place in world rankings. In 2007 Afghanistan ranked in 176^th place, with a life expectancy at 43.6 years.

Tunisia: Protests continue, spread to neighboring Algeria

Weeks of demonstrations in several Tunisian cities left at least 20 protesters dead and dozens wounded due to police actions. On January 9, thousands of unionists belonging to the UGTT, the country's main labor confederation, gathered in the capital city Tunis to condemn repression. Protests have centered on extreme poverty in interior sections of the country and youth unemployment.

Spokespersons for a government much praised in the West for its moderation inveighed against "turbulence" threatening to scare off investors and tourists. The mainstream European and U.S. media stepped up news coverage once unrest spilled over into neighboring Algeria. Although protesters have similar issues in both countries, Algerian demonstrators point also to official corruption and rising prices in their country.

South Africa: Zuma speech has unifying effect

After helping to bring about Jacob Zuma's election to the presidency, the COSATU labor federation, concerned about rising unemployment and slow progress in social programs, has criticized Zuma, leader of the ruling African National Congress . Zuma's speech January 8 at the ANC's 99^th birthday celebration, attended by 45,000, did, however, draw praise from COSATU spokesman Patrick Cravan who called it "one of [his] best ever." Zuma's call for job creation was well received as was his insistence on unity within the ANC, COSATU, and Communist Party tripartite alliance.

Extolling the ANC, Communist Party General Secretary Blade Nzimande pointed to "the single biggest threat that faces our revolution today, the politics of money, the politics of selfishness, the politics of greed." He warned against "full ideological assault by liberals on our movement," according to timeslive.co.za.

Photo: Cuba reduces infant mortality rate to 4.7, www.juventudrebelde.co.cu

Student strike in Puerto Rico met with repression

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:59:00 +0000

A student strike against the neoliberal education policies of conservative Governor Luis Fortuño Burset of the right-wing, pro-statehood New Progressive Party has led to the invasion of the University of Puerto Rico's campus in Rio Piedras, just outside San Juan, by police.

But the students are not giving up.

The central issue in the strike is the role of the university as an educational center available to the whole population (about 3.76 million) of Puerto Rico regardless of economic status. Early in 2010, the island's government announced that it was going to add an extra "Fiscal Stabilization Fee" of $800 for each student per semester, starting in January 2011. The reason given for this action was the bad state of the Puerto Rican economy, which has been hard hit by the world financial and economic crisis.

However, student activists and their supporters in labor and the general community are not buying this, and accuse Fortuño's government of aiming at a corrupt privatization of university functions. Student leaders say that the new fees would push as many as 10,000 students out of 65,000 in the 11-campus University of Puerto Rico system. The Puerto Rican government, pleading budget shortfalls, has failed to honor commitments to fund the university facilities, provoking the crisis and endangering the accreditation of some of the campuses.

Students at the main campus of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, just outside the capital of San Juan, began protests against these policies in the Spring, when they shut down the campus for two months amid clashes with police.

On December 14, students again went on strike at Rio Piedras and five other campuses (out of the total of 11), with demonstrations, rallies and marches involving at least 500 people. On December 20, police units, including the SWAT team and private rent-a-cops contracted by the University, were sent onto the campus to suppress student protests.

This violated a major tradition in all of Latin America which is that university campuses are autonomous and are not to be entered by police or troops. Before the police invasion, the Puerto Rican Supreme Court had issued a ruling that student strikes can be prohibited. Police used tear gas, beat students and arrested 18, some accused by the police of using smoke bombs to roust non-striking students from the Natural Sciences Faculty. In response to the police action, a protest of 15,000 people marched on the governor's mansion, La Fortaleza (the Fortress) in San Juan.

Governor Fortuño blamed the disturbances on "leftists", and the Chancellor of the Rio Piedras campus, Ana Guadalupe Quiñones, expelled one of the main student leaders, Giovanni Roberto, and prohibited him from coming on campus.

Authorities are insinuating that the people who are striking and protesting are not real students at all, but individuals with left-wing political agendas who hang around campus to agitate.

Even though the strike does not have 100 percent support from students, it is supported by unions representing both teaching and non-teaching personnel, as well as UTIER, the Puerto Rican electrical workers' union, and other organizations.

As the re-commencement of classes January 11 approached, student organizations were meeting with university president Jose Ramon de la Torre to press demands to cancel the $800 fee and find other ways to finance the university, but so far to no avail. On Friday January 7, student representatives met with Puerto Rican Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock to press their demands. Omar Ramirez, president of the Council of Students on the Rio Piedras campus, reported that insufficient progress had been made to call together a student assembly to consider government proposals.

The administration of Governor Fortuño has a well-deserved reputation for union-busting and anti-worker policies, having pushed through legislation that has cancelled all public worker labor contracts. Thus many people in Puerto Rico and beyond are looking at the student strike, which is similar to others that have been happening as far away as France, Italy and the United Kingdom, as having a wider societal importance, as a line in the sand against neoliberal "solutions" to the world financial and economic crisis. .

Accordingly, the Organization in Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) issued a statement of support for the students, which says in part "we make manifest our unbreakable solidarity with [the students'] struggles and demands, by which they are defending a future of dignity, a different and inclusive society for all, a country that breaks the chains of oppression and looting based on the principles of privatizing neoliberal policies".

Miguel Cruz and Luis Mojica of the Communist Party of Puerto Rico put the decision starkly: "Education is not a commodity and the University won't be destroyed".

To read more see here and here.

In Spanish see these: Puerto Rico, Student Protest.

Photo: University students shout at police during a protest inside the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Dec. 20, 2010. Students are on indefinite strike to protest an $800 yearly fee that takes effect next year to help reduce the system's budget deficit. Students already pay $49 per credit. (AP Photo/El Nuevo Dia, J. Ismael Fernandez Reyes)

Governor's murder is crime against Pakistani people, too

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:10:00 +0000

The following is a statement issued by the Communist Party of Pakistan on the day of the murder of Governor Salmaan Taseer.

The brutal murder of Mr. Salmaan Taseer, the governor of the Pakistani state of Punjab, is yet another substantial proof that the wrath of the Islamic religious fanatics endangers the lives of the common citizens of Pakistan, and leaves them far from peace.

If a governor cannot speak up with freedom on the subject of human rights, or talk about religious tolerance, then just imagine, what will be the fatality of a common citizen of Pakistan?

The Communist Party of Pakistan strongly condemns and denounces this audacious murder of the only liberal democrat and secular head of a province.

The state of anarchy in Pakistan has prevailed and reached its peak, to such a point that Islamic religious political leaders issued Sharia edicts (fatwas), sanctioning in public the murder of Gov. Taseer for his talk and condemnation of the misuse of blasphemy laws against minorities and others.

But, ironically, the government functionaries could not apprehend these instigators of barbarism, because behind this whole game are the mighty iron hands of the military establishment, which has tactfully adopted, on one hand, the promotion and husbandry of Islamic religious fanaticism as a great profitable business, and on the other hand uses Islam as the basis for Pakistan's very existence.

The left and progressive, secular, democratic forces in Pakistan have been so weakened that it is just not possible to confront these maverick forces of jihad and fanaticism.

The present government, which to a minor degree represents a liberal trend, has been paralyzed by these intransigent assassin forces of bigotry.

The right wing and religious political parties at times, upon the directives of the fostering military establishment, do create an environment of such chaos around the president, the prime minister and parliament that NO secular legislation can be adopted at all.

CPP demands the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and other democratic parliamentary parties work diligently for the complete repeal of the notorious blasphemy law and apprehend and award due punishment to the political Islamic religious fanatic leaders for the public instigation of the murder of Taseer.

CPP is deeply shocked and extends its heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family, his friends, comrades and the PPP.

Photo: Governor of the Punjab Salmaan Taseer visits Nov. 10, 2010, Aasia Bibi, Christian woman condemned to death under the Blasphemy Law. The governor is accompanied by his wife Mrs. Aamna Taseer and daughter Shehrbano Taseer. (Salmaan Taseer/CC)

Cuba retools its socialism

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 11:24:00 +0000

"The old story of non-compliances and overdrafts must come to an end," Cuban President Raul Castro told the National Assembly on December 18. "The plan and the budget are sacred."

Cuban socialism is changing. Foreign onlookers on the right welcome the prospect of a failed socialist state. Others on the left warn of alleged capitalist accommodation. But for many who respect Cuba's sovereign right to chart its own course, the assumptions, goals, and methods involved are of intense interest.

Recently released documents, reports and interviews are relevant. Divided into 11 work groups, the Cuban Communist Party's Economics Commission last November released its "Draft Economic and Social Policy Guidelines for the Party and the Revolution." This detailed, comprehensive summary of proposed changes was prepared for nationwide study prior to the Sixth Communist Party Congress in April, 2011. It's available here.

Cuba's hand is forced. Affected by the world economic crisis, export and tourist income is down and import prices, particularly for food, are high. Internal waste and low agricultural production weigh heavily. Foreign debt is past due or coming due. The U.S. economic blockade ups the cost of buying and transporting vital foreign goods. International lending institutions and banks, under U.S. influence, interfere with Cuban trade and borrowing. Hurricanes in 2008 caused damage costing $10 billion.

Finance Minister Lina Pedraza recently called for "guaranteeing income levels sufficient to back up decisions on social spending." She indicated income from state enterprises and projects had covered only 55 percent of recently budgeted state expenses.

Economic adjustment began in 2007 with diagnostic commissions and new models of business management. In 2008, the government opened up sales of personal communication equipment and access to tourist facilities for use by Cubans. It expanded direct food sales to consumers and initiated land-use reform aimed at utilizing idle land.

In 2009, Cuba modified its budget, reduced imports, created an accounting agency, and removed some free services and subsidies. Last year the government eased home construction and repair regulations, and expanded taxable self-employment opportunities. Municipalities began incorporating small businesses and cooperatives into local development plans. Tourist facility developers gained long-term land-use rights. Farmers could now purchase supplies on their own. Agricultural cooperatives began planning for the manufacture of agricultural products. The government announced elimination of 500,000 state jobs over six months and authorized 250,000 small, privately owned businesses that would be allowed to hire their own employees.

The planning process features attention to detail, establishment of priorities, and efforts at consensus. Haste and improvisation are out. With the "Draft Economic and Social Guidelines" as centerpiece, discussions have focused on goals, methods and mindset of a process in motion. Socialist purposes, current economic pressures and priorities, local autonomy, international collaboration, separation of long- and short-term goals, and environmental sustainability are on the agenda. That agenda includes taxes, enforcement of compliance, foreign and internal investments, management of debt and credit, salaries, pricing, cooperatives, import substitution, agricultural production, tourism and educational correlates. A multifaceted educational and deliberative process has extended throughout the island.

Recurring themes are self-criticism, decentralization, prioritization of economics, wealth redistribution through taxation, and emphasis on efficiency, work and self-pay programs. Speaking to leaders of the CTC trade union confederation, President Castro and Finance Minister Murillo urged unionists to take on key roles in implementing new tax policies and encouraging production and work efficiency.

A recent interview by Cuba's "Rebel Youth" (Juventud Rebelde) newspaper with former economics official Joaquin Infante provides useful background information. Australian Marce Cameron's translation is available on her valuable new Cuba Socialist Renewal blog.

According to Infante, "Administrative management of the economy has a long history," with a "cult of plans for material output, not of ... financial balances. We became accustomed ... to always covering deficits and deficiencies whether or not results were obtained." He recalled, "Finances smacked of capitalism to us, and this led to an extreme centralization of planning and economic decision-making. With this rigidity and inflexibility, finances cannot function."

Subsidies applying originally to "products sold to the population" extended to "thousands of products and productive activities," he said. However, "if you subsidize all production, nobody knows the cost of anything," he said. "One of the key changes is that losses will no longer be subsidized. Thus, the enterprise will be obliged to become more efficient."

"This implies a decentralization of power towards the enterprise system," Infante explained. Currently, he said, "funds from earnings cannot be kept in the enterprise... and everything goes up." Opportunities are lacking to reward "work excellence and quality." "With an economy that doesn't prosper, how can the social programs be sustained?" he asked.

Asked about criticisms from "leftist theoreticians who believe they're seeing the end of socialism in Cuba," Infante replied: "Is it about resolving the concrete problems of a country? I'm a practical theorist. Nobody has managed to construct an ideal socialism. Here we do things in our own style, for more socialism. And what is socialism, if not to give well-being to the people and redistribute the resources in the best way possible?"

He added: "When you put an end to administrative tutelage, and you are ruled by economic-financial results, you will be cornering bureaucratism. The priority is to change our conception of the economy, for more and better socialism." He said the aim is for "planning to take precedence over the market, but [leaving] spaces for the market."

Raul Castro, speaking to the National Assembly, repeated his earlier declaration that "I was not elected President to restore capitalism in Cuba nor to surrender the Revolution. I was elected to defend, maintain and continue improving socialism, not to destroy it." Castro insisted, "The Socialist State shall not leave any citizen unprotected and via the social welfare system it shall ensure that people who are unable to work will receive the minimum required protection."

The Cuban president said the new guidelines "signal the road towards a socialist future, adapted to Cuba's conditions and not to the capitalist and neo-colonial past which was defeated by the Revolution. Planning and not free market shall be the distinctive feature of the economy ... the concentration of ownership shall not be allowed."

Photo: A mural in Havana in 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. PW/John Bachtell

Southern Sudan begins vote on separation

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:43:00 +0000

Despite ominous predictions of delays, threats and violence fostered by the mainstream media over the past several months, voters in southern Sudan, over a one-week period beginning this Sunday as scheduled, will be choosing between unity and separation.

If they vote for independence from Sudan, as widely expected, Africa's largest country will be split, and the new Republic of South Sudan will become the 54th state in the African Union and the 193rd member of the United Nations.

The vote is the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and the Southern People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), ending two decades of civil war that claimed about 2 million Sudanese lives.

The CPA created a north-south unity government, allowed semi-autonomy for southern Sudan, mandated the even splitting of oil revenues, and stipulated that a referendum would be held in six years. In order for the results of that referendum to be valid, 60 percent of voters must participate.

The corporate media persistently doubted the poll would proceed, repeating unfounded allegations of stalling and intimidation by the government in Khartoum. But, after the peaceful registration of about 4 million potential voters in Sudan and eight other countries, and subsequent coordination between northern and southern leaders, the referendum now is only days away.

To disprove the naysayers, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday visited Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, to pledge Khartoum's help if southerners voted for separation. While he said a split would sadden him, Bashir vowed, "Anything you need in terms of technical, logistical or professional support from Khartoum, you will find us ready to give it. The benefit we get from unity, we can also get from two separate states."

Many difficult issues will need to be resolved should the south secede from Sudan. About 80 percent of oil reserves are located in southern Sudan, but all the pipelines pass through the north for export at Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The fate of the oil-rich area of Abeyi, where the north and south have violently clashed in the past, is yet to be determined. The 2005 peace agreement called for a special referendum for residents of Abeyi to decide if they wish to remain part of Sudan or join a breakaway South Sudan, but that vote has been postponed while voter eligibility is settled.

The stability and sustainability of an independent, land-locked southern Sudan is in question. Grossly underdeveloped, lacking basic infrastructure, and devoid of industries, a Republic of South Sudan would stay economically dependent on Khartoum. A number of rebels, once allied with the SPLA/M but now opposed to its leadership, operate in parts of the south. Regionally, southern Sudan is surrounded by unstable neighbors, particularly the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a myriad of unpopular and brutal militias, most notoriously the Lord's Resistance Army formerly based in neighboring Uganda, terrify the countryside.

Yet, northern and southern leaders seem ready to confront these challenges, agreeing to an African Union-mediated framework in November, for instance. The accord establishes a "soft border," allowing the free movement of trade and nomadic groups, the right of Sudanese to choose their citizenship after a split, and a commitment to demarcate the border if southern Sudan becomes independent. The two sides also pledged to avoid a resumption of war.

Behind the scenes, U.S. and UN diplomats have offered Khartoum various incentives to permit the south to secede, including debt relief and the easing of sanctions. The Obama administration reportedly promised to remove Sudan from the State Department's list of so-called state sponsors of terrorism, evidence of that list's deceitful function.

A complication to these negotiations is the fact that Bashir, re-elected last April in a presidential poll boycotted by opposition parties, faces an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide committed in the Darfur region of western Sudan. African leaders largely back Bashir, viewing his indictment as an obstacle to their peacemaking efforts in Sudan.

Like most African countries, Sudan is the creation of European colonists, who mostly delineated borders without local consent. Sudan was administered as two separate provinces by the British until independence was granted in 1956 and power was centralized in Khartoum. While there are some major ethnic and religious differences in Sudan - for example, the north is predominantly Muslim and southerners generally practice African religions (or what the media calls "animism") and Christianity - Western governments and the corporate media, influenced by right-wing activists and Christian fundamentalists, exaggerate these distinctions.

The U.S. has been training the southern Sudanese army and providing it with what it terms "nonlethal" supplies. Two years ago, however, Somali pirates detained a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks, rocket launchers and small arms destined for southern Sudan via Kenya. According to secret State Department cables recently released by WikiLeaks, Bush administration officials condoned that shipment as well as previous secret weapons cargoes.

Although Communists as a principle support the right to self-determination, they see the further division of the continent as a setback in the struggle for African unity. Indeed, the Sudan Communist Party, whose leaders and members hail from both the north and south, campaigned against separation. Until the opposition boycott, SCP Secretary General Muhammad Ibrahim Nugud ran in last year's presidential election on a platform of national unity and development. Interestingly, until the death in 2005 of its famed leader John Garang, the SPLA/M itself did not exclusively advocate independence for southern Sudan, and its leadership historically included many Marxists and northerners committed to a unified and democratic Sudan.

Nevertheless, according to reports from Juba, a resounding vote for secession seems to be a foregone conclusion. A huge digital clock in the city's downtown displays in bright red numbers the days, hours and minutes to the referendum. Radio stations feature local hip-hop music encouraging voters to break with Khartoum. And on his visit Tuesday, Bashir was warmly welcomed by spectators waving posters featuring the outline of an open hand, the symbol for separation.

For more background, see my earlier article on Sudan.

Photo: Justice Chan Reec Madut, center, the chairman of the Southern Sudan Referendum Bureau, discusses the referendum ballot during a press conference in Juba, southern Sudan, on Jan. 3. (AP/Pete Muller)

UK students to launch new wave of protests

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:00:00 +0000

LONDON (Morning Star) - Students will mark Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's birthday this Friday by marching on his party's headquarters as a reminder that young people have not forgotten about his tuition fees betrayal.

A spokesman for the Education Activist Network said: "Students will march on the Liberal Democrat HQ to present Clegg with his birthday gift. After the police repression of last term's demonstrations - with protesters dragged from wheelchairs, detained en masse for hours in freezing weather and beaten over the head to the point of brain hemorrhage - it seems only pertinent for us to get him a new kettle."

This year's first wave of action will be followed by a national walkout from schools, colleges and universities by students on January 29 and three days later national demonstrations will be held in London and Manchester. A fresh round of occupations is also expected when universities announce their new tuition fees before the end of February.

A National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts spokesman said that students might have been on holiday but were "still pissed off" at the withdrawal of EMA (education maintenance allowance) and the rise in fees.

"They understand they're still going to see thousands of working-class young people forced out of education. We have the organisation, activists and political will to make the movement even bigger than last year."

This afternoon the eight-week long occupation of the University of Kent ended.

On their Facebook page the occupiers wrote: "We feel we have achieved all we can in this occupation but we are still in dispute with the university and so will be reconvening at the start of next term to decide what action will be taken next."

Reposted from Morning Star.

Photo: National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts