People Before Profit blog

Verizon workers face down corporate greed

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:42:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications, which raked in $19.5 billion in profits over the last four years and paid its top five executives $258 million during that period, is demanding drastic givebacks from its 45,000 unionized workers on the East Coast.

Verizon, despite its status as one of the most profitable American companies, is demanding the concessions across the board - in workers' health care, benefits and pensions.

Unions are fighting the demands for concessions, pointing not just to company profits but to what they say has been unprecedented growth in the company's Verizon Wireless subsidiary, its cell phone operation and in the company's Internet services.

35,000 members of the Communications Workers of America yesterday voted overwhelmingly to authorize CWA leaders to call a strike as early as Aug. 7, when the current contract expires. CWA reported that 91 percent of the workers voted in favor of the strike authorization.

The other union involved, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents several thousand additional Verizon workers, also voted the same day to authorize a strike.

In addition to benefits and wages, a key issue for both unions is the refusal of Verizon to allow the unions to organize at its rapidly growing Verizon Wireless subsidiary. Most of Verizon's unionized employees currently work on phone landlines that the company, they say, is trying to dump, or in FiOS TV, which needs little maintenance after initial installation.

"They fight us about Verizon Wireless, which is a fight about the future," IBEW spokesman Jim Spellane said. "They made $19.5 billion in profits and paid their executives $258 million, yet they demand major concessions across the board while they offshore jobs to Mexico."

Unions see the demands for concessions as an attack against the very workers who have made the company the success that it is in today's communications market.

"CWA members are determined to fight back against Verizon's corporate greed and bargain a fair contract, one that reflects workers' contributions to Verizon's success," said CWA Region 2-13 vice president, Ed Mooney.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is set to join the CWA by phone Aug. 4 for a virtual town hall meeting where she is to link Verizon's attempt to squeeze its workers to what she calls "the disastrous right-wing proposals Congress is considering that put corporate profits and luxury tax breaks ahead of working people."

Verizon, whose current CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, earns $55,000 a day, is demanding that workers pay into their health care premiums - as much as $3,000 for family coverage and that annual raises be ended. The company also wants to freeze pensions for current employees and eliminate them altogether for future employees. It also wants to limit sick days to five per year.

"This is an attempt," said Robert Master, a spokesman for the CWA, "to turn good paying middle class jobs into low-wage, less secure jobs by a company which has, despite a deep recession, made unprecedented profits."

The wireline division that Verizon says is doing so poorly had revenues of $41.2 billion last year. At Verizon Wireless, revenue was $63.4 billion.

Union members from all over the East Coast are planning to board buses for what they say will be an enormous rally this Saturday in New York City outside Verizon headquarters.

At yesterday's virtual town hall more than 5,000 union activists heard organizers from the New England and Middle Atlantic states discuss mobilization plans for the rally.

"These negotiations and the demonstrations are all about good jobs," said CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. "Companies like Verizon should be investing in rebuilding the American economy, not contributing to the destruction of good, middle-class jobs."

Photo: CWA members rally at the opening of bargaining talks in June at Verizon headquarters in New York City. (Dawn Sickles/CWA 1101)

Turkish Cypriot unionists call for support

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:58:00 +0000

Authorities in occupied northern Cyprus assaulted July 19th Turkish Cypriots as they peacefully protested a visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan. The people were not simply protesting the visit but also its purpose, which was to commemorate Turkey's 1974 invasion and partial occupation of the island. The protestors were also expressing their anger over certain ongoing negative consequences of the invasion and occupation, which include not only the expulsion of Greek Cypriots residing in northern Cyprus but also the marginalization of native Turkish Cypriots, who have been displaced by settlers imported from the Turkish mainland.

Since the attacks, new details have been provided by leading Turkish Cypriot trade unionists and members of the New Cyprus Party, a political party in north Cyprus that has fraternal relations with AKEL, the governing party of the republic.

Sources report that the series of incidents began with an attack on the headquarters of the Cyprus Turkish Civil Servants Union. Banners and placards deemed by the occupation authorities to be offensive to Erdogan were seized or torn down. In this initial attack Devrim Barcin, the organization secretary of KTAMS and Ayca Soygur Cirali, the general secretary of the Municipality Workers Union, were arrested.

After attacking the union headquarters, the armed men forcibly prevented peaceful protestors from approaching the road where Erdogan was scheduled to pass. Several protestors suffered minor injuries and one, who was carrying a sign saying, "I fought in 1974, America won," was arrested. This particular sign referred to the belief, held by most Cypriots, that the 1974 Turkish invasion and occupation, and the right-wing coup attempt that precipitated it, were really directed from Washington. Meanwhile, those holding pro-Erdogan and pro-Turkey signs were not harassed or kept from the road.

Later that same evening, a protest tent set up by the Cyprus Turkish Airways Workers union was attacked. Six protestors, including a member of the executive committee of the New Cyprus Party and the coordinator of its weekly newspaper, were arrested. Other protestors were badly beaten, including the heads of KTAMS and the Cyprus Turkish High School Teachers Union and a leader of the Telecommunication Workers Union.

In official statements, Gurven Varoglu of the Turkish Cypriot Teachers Union called for international support and solidarity and Murat Kanatli, secretary of the New Cyprus Party, referred to Erdogan's visit and the events surrounding it as "tyranny in every way."

Photo: Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. World Economic Forum // CC 2.0

Afghanistan: anatomy of a hit

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:27:00 +0000

The assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai in Kandahar July 12 is one of those moments when the long and bloody Afghanistan war suddenly comes into focus. It is not a picture one is eager to put up on the wall.

Karzai, a younger half brother (because their father had multiple wives) of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, was the Kabul government's viceroy in southern Afghanistan. What his nickname, "the king of Kandahar," translates into is "warlord." He controlled everything from the movement of drugs to the placement of car sales agencies. Want to open a Toyota dealership? See "AWK," as he was also known, and come with a bucket load of cash.

AWK's power, according to the Financial Times, "lay in a mafia-style network of oligarchs and loyal elders, funded, according to U.S. media reports, by heroin trafficking." He was also on the CIA's payroll. No truck moved through the south without paying him a tax. No United Nations or North Atlantic Treaty Organization projects could be built without his okay. In case someone didn't get the message, his Kandahar Strike Force Militia explained it to them. Next to AWK, Al Capone was a small-time pickpocket.

And he was our guy.

So was Jan Mohammed Khan, assassinated July 17, a key ally and advisor to the Afghan president, and a man so corrupt that the Dutch expeditionary forces forced his removal as the governor of Uruzgan Province in 2006.

The entire U.S. endeavor in Afghanistan - from the initial 2001 invasion to the current withdrawal plan - has relied on a narrow group of criminal entrepreneurs, the very people whose unchecked greed set off the 1992-96 Afghan civil war and led to the victory of the Taliban.

AWK was a member of the Popalzai tribe, which along with the Alikozai and Barakzai tribes, has run the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand since the early 1990s, systematically excluding other tribes. According to the Guardian's Stephen Gray, "The formation of the Taliban was, in great measure, a revolt of the excluded."

When the Americans invaded, "AWK and the Barakzai strongman and former Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai not only seized control of NATO purse-strings by acquiring lucrative contracts, but they also manipulated U.S. intelligence and Special Forces to gain help with their predatory and retaliatory agenda," says Gray, harassing and arresting Taliban members until they fled to Pakistan.

AWK not only poured money into the coffers of the Kabul government, he insured a second term for his brother by stuffing ballot boxes in the 2009 election, and he was a key actor in identifying targets for U.S. night raids. It is the success of these night raids in killing off Taliban leaders that has allowed the Obama administration to claim a measure of victory in the Afghan war and to lay the groundwork for a withdrawal of most American troops by 2014.

With U.S. polls running heavily against the war - 59 percent oppose it - and with more than 200 votes in Congress for speeding up the withdrawal timetable, the White House wants the war to be winding down as the U.S. goes into the 2012 elections.

For the Afghan central government and the Obama administration, then, AWK was probably the most powerful and important warlord in the country.

As in chess, there are winners and losers when a major piece falls.

The assassination has dealt a serious blow to the Americans. The rosy picture of progress painted by the U.S. Defense and State departments is shot to hell, literally. The Taliban have demonstrated that all the hype on "improved security" is about as real as an opium dream. Even if the assassination was due to a personal quarrel rather than a Taliban hit, few will believe that is so, particularly after Khan's assassination just five days later.

While the Kabul government has appointed another Karzai in AWK's place, there is almost certainly going to be a bloody intercine battle among surviving Kandahar power brokers. A major infight will end up robbing Kabul of much needed funds and further isolate the government. The only hope for the Karzai government now is to ramp up talks with the Taliban while Kabul still has some power and influence.

And that fact puts Pakistan in the driver's seat, because there will be no talks without Islamabad. The Americans need these talks as well, so don't pay a lot of attention to the White House's huffing and puffing over aid.

In any case, the decision to cut some $800 million in aid to the Pakistani military has been less than a major success. Pakistan Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told Express TV that "If Americans refuse to give us money, then okay...we cannot afford to keep the military out in the mountains for such a long period."

Pakistan currently has tens of thousands of troops on the 1,500-mile Pakistan-Afghan border, fighting an insurgency that did not exist until the American invasion drove the Taliban into the Tribal Areas and the Northwest Territories. From Pakistan's point of view, it is fighting its own people, and losing up to 3,000 soldiers and civilians a year, because of Washington's policies in the region.

One loser is India, even though in the long run peace in Afghanistan will allow New Delhi to reap the rewards of a Central Asia gas pipeline. In the short run, however, Indian diplomacy in the region has badly misfired. India intervened in Afghanistan - providing more than a billion dollars in aid - in order to discomfort Pakistan.

But in 2009 New Delhi withdrew its support for the Karzai government because India was convinced the Americans were about to jettison the Afghan President. That never happened, but Karzai decided that his long-term survival lay in making peace with the Taliban, which in turn meant warming up ties with Islamabad.

In the meantime, Pakistan - fearful of India and suspicious of the U.S. - tightened its ties with China (discomforting the Indians even more). In fact, in the end, China may be the big winner. Beijing runs a huge copper mine and seems to have no trouble getting its ore out of the country, which suggests there is a deal among China, Pakistan and the Taliban to keep the roads open. China is also building a railroad, as well as exploring for iron ore and rare earth elements.

There are other potential winners here as well. Iran has traditionally been involved in northern Afghanistan, where it has roots among the Tajiks, who speak a language similar to Iran's Farsi. Iran also has close ties to the Shiite Hazaras and pumps aid into western Afghanistan. Iran's help will be essential if the Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks are to join in any peace agreement.

Whatever the final outcome, the U.S./NATO adventure has been an unmitigated disaster. With Europeans overwhelmingly opposed to the war, there is a stampede for the exit by virtually every country but Britain and the U.S. In the end, Afghanistan may well end up the graveyard of NATO.

The major losers, of course, are the Afghans. So far this has been the deadliest year for civilians since 2001. Most of those deaths come via roadside bombs, but casualties from NATO air attacks are up. In spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in aid, Afghanistan is still grindingly poor and stunningly violent. After almost a decade of war the words that spring to mind are Macbeth's: "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Conn Hallinan's writings are at Dispatches from the Edge.

Norway terror exposes Europe's far right

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:56:00 +0000

Norway, population 5 million, was rocked July 22 by two of the most heinous terrorist acts in recent history. First, a massive bomb, evidently made from fertilizer and chemicals (remember Timothy McVeigh), rocked downtown Oslo, the capital, wrecking government buildings and killing eight people. Two hours later, a man dressed as a policeman appeared at a youth camp organized by the Labor Party, part of Norway's ruling coalition, on the island of Utøye, and opened fire, killing at least 68 young people.

The perpetrator of both incidents was Anders Behring Breivik, born in 1979, who was known for extremist anti-Muslim, anti-Marxist and anti-immigrant views, but who did not have a known prior history of violence. This was in spite of initial speculation that Islamic extremists could have been to blame, perhaps exacting revenge for Norway's participation in the Afghanistan War as part of NATO. Breivik is now under arrest, and is by no means denying his actions, which he sees as "necessary." The immediate questions that remain are:

Was there, or is there, a wider conspiracy? (Breivik talks about two other "cells," but police doubt it). And: Is Breivik mentally ill, as his lawyer claims? The more important question, about the political roots and ramifications of Breivik's terroristic act, must be raised.

A short while before his rampage, Breivik distributed a 1,516 page screed, titled "2083: A European Declaration of Independence." The number evokes the year 1683, when Christian troops headed by King Jan Sobieski of Poland repelled the last attempt of the Ottoman Turkish Empire to capture Vienna. The memorandum, published under the pseudonym of Andrew Berwick (perhaps a reference to James Fitzjames, First Duke of Berwick, an illegitimate son of King James II of England and VII of Scotland, and another general who fought against the Turks), is a denunciation of supposed imminent Muslim takeover of Europe, including Norway, in which the Christian peoples will be forced to submit to Sharia law and the status of "dhimmitude," the inferior, but tolerated, status of Christian communities within the old Ottoman Empire.

Breivik blames multicultural policies and "Marxists," as well as feminism and women in general for this coming catastrophe. The suggestion is that the targets were selected because of Breivik's idea that the current left-center coalition government of the Labor Party (of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg), the Socialist Left Party and the Center Party has opened Norway's gates to massive Muslim and other foreign immigration.

Breivik's manifesto is full of iconic European historical references. He claims to be part of a movement to restore the Knights Templar. This order of knights was established during the Crusades, in 1120 AD, with the purpose of providing protection for Christian Pilgrims to Jerusalem. The Templars were ferocious anti-Muslim warriors, but also shrewd bankers and financial managers, and eventually became wealthy and powerful in Western Europe. They were violently suppressed in 1312, by King Philip IV of France, who owed them money and did not feel like repaying it.

In current European and U.S. culture, there is interest in a supposed survival of the Knights Templar, which shows itself in fictional works like Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. This resonates with mystical chords in the minds of some romantic fantasists.

Breivik also toys with Masonic imagery, but there are no indications of an actual connection with Freemasons. Some sources refer to Breivik as a Christian "fundamentalist" but this appears to be a misapplication of the term; "white Christian bigot" would seem to be closer to the mark.

And in that, Breivik is not alone. Unlike many violent European ultra-rightists, Breivik is not an anti-Semite and in fact admires Israel as a staunch ally against the Muslim "invasion." He also sees anti-Muslim Hindu nationalists, and, for good measure, Vlad Dracula, "the Impaler" of Medieval Romania who was the inspirer of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula, as heroic anti-Muslim fighters.

Norway is part of NATO but not of the European Union; nevertheless it has been receiving a fair number of new immigrants lately. About 12.2 percent of the population is foreign born, a figure slightly less than that of the United States (12.8 percent). The largest numbers of foreign-born people in Norway are from Poland (about 60 thousand), followed by Sweden (34 thousand), Pakistan (32 thousand) and Iraq (28 thousand).

Most new immigrants are settled in Oslo and other major cities. Though this has changed the physical complexion of the country, it is hard to see it as a new "Muslim invasion." However, Breivik is not alone in weaving conspiracy theories on the theme: Paranoid accusations against Muslim immigrants coming to impose Sharia law, denunciations of multiculturalism and rants about Marxism are common not only in Norway, but all over Europe and the United States. Many people on the U.S. right have been snookered into the idea that the city of Dearborn, Michigan, is under Sharia law, a complete falsehood.

The combination of new immigration with the economic and financial crisis that started with the U.S. mortgage meltdown of 2008 has led to new anti-immigrant aggression all over Europe. The worst of these come out of fringe right-wing groups, but major conservative leaders in politics and the media have been harping on the theme, probably as a way of deflecting public anger from their own failed policies. These include British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In the United States, anti-immigrant and especially anti-Muslim hysteria is stock in trade for the Republican right, including the tea party, and such media personalities as Glenn Beck.

In Europe, all major political groupings from communists to monarchists denounced the massacre, but some people broke ranks and seemed to condemn the victims and praise or sympathize with Breivik. In the United States, Glenn Beck caused outrage by comparing the Norwegian Labor Party's youth camp with the Hitler Youth.

Whether Breivik is technically "insane," as his attorney claims, or not will be decided by the courts as advised by medical experts. The longest prison term in Norway, which has no death penalty, is 21 years. But in the court of world public opinion, the ideologues and agitators who have been playing with fire by whipping up anti-foreign and anti-Muslim sentiments are now in the dock.

Photo: Protest against the extremist British National Party, a Nazi-like organization with representatives in the European parliament. Rude Cech // CC 2.0

Syrian activist: Regime making political solutions impossible

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:48:00 +0000

Our special correspondent in Damascus interviews Michel Kilo, a giant figure in the struggle for democracy in Syria. A historical opponent of the regime, Kilo has been jailed several times.

How much do you think has been achieved in the last four months since the rebellion started?

KILO: For the people, the losses are enormous. Politically, the state no longer exists as such: it has turned into a party that fights against the people. Economically, Syria stands on the verge of the abyss. Internationally, or even regionally, the country is isolated, having lost even its friends. The fact that security is the regime's top priority makes all political solution impossible even within the framework of the national dialogue the government has initiated. Worse still, the fabric of Syrian society itself is being torn apart, which may lead to the destruction of the Syrian state should the regime win.

How is the protest movement getting organized?

KILO: There are two sorts of opposition. One comes from classical parties and intellectuals that have put forward the idea of a civil movement. The other sort is unprecedented: it is a mounting street protest, which is still in want of symbols and representatives. But it is setting up its own structures. And we, intellectuals, are also part of this new opposition, to which we contribute ideas. Somehow we are those committees' ideologists even though our contacts with them are not on a daily basis.

Would you agree to talk with the regime?

KILO: Before we can agree to talk with the regime the regime must first give up its security-first option and choose a political solution; it must also release prisoners, acknowledge the freedom to demonstrate and put an end to intelligence operatives' interference in people's lives. That's what the government must commit itself to. But the government has not answered our demands. They must declare that the reforms will lead to a democratic, pluralist parliamentary system. Short of this, our participation in a dialogue makes no sense. We call for a new system, but through gradual change. Never mind who takes part in the process. It could be done with Basher Assad even. What matters is to create the conditions that will compel the president to bring in a transitory phase toward real change. It would be extremely difficult to do away with the regime overnight.

Is there not a risk that Islamists, notably the Muslim Brotherhood, might take advantage of this movement to impose their ideas?

KILO: Between 2000 and 2010 the only movement extant was the grassroots social movement. The Muslim Brotherhood took up our slogans in favor of a civilian state, citizenship... The traditional Syrian society is Muslim, but not Islamist. Which it can become if the military option continues to oppress society. Society is going to defend itself by having recourse to force and intrumentalizing fundamentalism. We are working with the Syrian youth in order to win the traditional society over. There are two main currents in Syria, the Islamist current and the democratic current. The one that will get the upper hand is the one that will succeed in winning over the civilian society. It's a struggle.

Is no international interference to be feared given Syria's geopolitical position?

KILO: The security option opens the door to foreign interference. There is an open conflict in Syria today between Iranians and Saudis, Turks and all those regional powers. That's very clear. The Iranian and Turkish leading diplomats have met to discuss the Syrian issue. We have warned against such interference from the very beginning. The Syrians can solve their own problems through dialogue. The U.S. are said to have laid down a calendar for the implementation of reforms. There are rumors afloat about Iran's logistic support of the regime. Which shows that Syria is the nexus of an international conflict. It has also been said that Iran and Syria have accepted that the U.S. armed forces remain in Iraq in exchange for reduced pressure on Damascus. The notion of a buffer zone, as Turkey proposed, is also a back door for major foreign interference. And that door is already open.

This article originally appeared in L'Humanite, the newspaper of the French Communist Party. It was translated into English by Isabelle Métral and reviewed by Derek Hanson. Photo: Syrian demonstrators in front of embassy in Cairo. Maggie Osama // CC 2.0

Turkish leader's visit to occupied Cyprus sparks protest (video)

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:41:00 +0000

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan made a highly provocative visit July 20 to the Turkish-occupied region in northern Cyprus.

Erdogan's purpose in coming to the region was to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the invasion of Cyprus by Turkish troops. This invasion, which Erdogan came to celebrate, was, and continues to be, universally denounced; in fact the UN has declared the invasion and the continued occupation to be violations of international law.

Although Erdogan came to celebrate the invasion, Turkish Cypriots, many of them trade unionists, had other ideas and staged demonstrations.

According to Cypriot sources, armed men in the Turkish-controlled area attacked the Cypriot demonstrators without regard to age or gender and seized their banners and placards. Later, Turkish authorities raided the offices of labor unions in the occupied areas and made several arrests.

Despite repression and intimidation demonstrators were able to photograph and videotape the attacks and raids so that occupation authorities could not deny what happened.

Police Violence in North Cyprus / Kuzey Kıbrıs'ta Polis Şiddeti from Baris Parlan on Vimeo.

GOP-dominated House votes to defund Organization of American States

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:42:00 +0000

In another fit of the kind of lunacy that is turning the Republican majority in the House of Representatives into a source of universal wonder and fear, the House Committee on Foreign Relations voted 22 to 20, in a party-line vote, on Wednesday to cancel the payment of this year's $48.5 million dues to the year-old Organization of American States.

The attack on the OAS was instigated by Republican members of Congress, led by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), the current Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Florida Republican representative David Rivera even characterized the OAS as an "enemy" of the United States. The GOP politicians portrayed the OAS as an organization controlled by left-wing states such as Cuba and Venezuela. They also denounced the OAS for opposing the June 2009 military coup d'état against leftist President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras.

A number of right-wing 'heroes' on Capitol Hill, including Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, were heavily involved in organizing support in the United States for the coup government led by businessman Roberto Micheletti, and have strong ties to ultra-rightist and anti-democratic circles in a number of Latin American countries, including people involved in various coup plots.

So what is the real situation?

The Organization of American States was founded in 1948 at the instigation of the United States, with the openly stated goal of stopping the "spread of communism" in Latin America. It started with a bang: Just as then U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall was in Bogota, Colombia, for the founding session, the assassination of a populist candidate for Colombia's presidency, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, set off a wild riot (the famous "Bogotazo") and initiating decades of violence in Colombia's countryside and cities, a situation that still goes on today.

In its 63 years of existence, the OAS has, for the most part, turned a blind eye to brutal abuses of power and violations of human and democratic rights all over the hemisphere. However, it has been consistent, until very recently, in one thing: The exclusion of Cuba (in 2009, over strenuous U.S. objections, the OAS retired its general objection to Cuban membership; however, a formula has not yet been found to integrate Cuba into the organization).

For the most part, the OAS has been seen by the Cubans and left-leaning Latin Americans as simply an instrument of imperialism; of guaranteeing U.S. domination of the politics of the western hemisphere.

However, in recent years, the coming to power of left and left-center governments in many countries of the region has meant that the United States has not been getting its way every time. For example, the OAS had voted to cut economic support for Honduras after the 2009 coup, but the U.S. State Department did not entirely go along with this, and furthermore started a separate process, outside of the structure of the OAS, to "mediate" the Honduras dispute, using then Costa Rican President Oscar Arias as a go-between. This was seen by many in Latin America as a mechanism for taking pressure off the Honduran coup government.

For this reason and others, 32 Latin American and Caribbean countries have been getting together in recent years to start a new organization whose purpose is to fend off U.S. efforts to control the region. The organization, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) explicitly excludes the United States and Canada from membership, based on bad memories of the OAS.

This is co-chaired by left-wing President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and conservative President Sebastian PiÒera of Chile. Besides left and left-center governments such as those of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay and Venezuela, right-wing governments such as those of Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico, Piñera of Chile, Santos of Colombia and others are participating.

The initiation of CELAC was announced on February 23, 2010. On July 5 of this year, CELAC was supposed to be officially launched in a meeting and ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela. However, the illness of President Chavez led to a suspension of the event, as he has gone to Cuba for follow up treatment for cancer. A new date for the event is being decided. (Vice President Elias Jaua will stand in for Chavez while he is away).

Democrats in Congress reacted angrily to the GOP maneuver to defund the OAS as a new form of isolation. They pointed to the help the OAS provided for this year's cycle of elections in Haiti.

However, many feel that even that is a dubious boon; the elections excluded, on technicalities, the presidential candidacy of anybody from Haiti's most popular party, ex President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas, and the OAS meddling brought about the choice of the most right-wing candidate in the Haitian election, namely Micky Martelly, who has links to the old Duvalier dictatorship.

The GOP measure also cuts off much aid to Pakistan.

Photo: The people attending the 2009 Extraordinary Assembly of the Organization of American States vote to suspend Honduras. Via Wikipedia.

Amidst violence, Guatemala heads for Sept. elections

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:57:00 +0000

On September 11, there are elections in Guatemala to choose a successor to President Alvaro Colom (who, according to the constitution, cannot succeed himself), national legislators and local officials. Guatemala, with a population of about 13 million, is the second most violent country in the Western Hemisphere (after Colombia) and the election campaign is shaping up to be violent also. Moreover, it is not clear to what degree poor and working class Guatemalans, or the 40 percent of the Guatemalans who are indigenous Mayas, can hope for a positive outcome.

President Colom, of the social democratic UNE (National Union for Hope) party has been under siege as Mexican drug cartels, most especially the feared ZETAs, have been moving in on Guatemala. Like the other Central American countries, Guatemala is on the main route for cocaine shipments moving from Colombia to Mexico and thence to the United States. So the ZETAs appear to have decided to take over the smuggling operations on Guatemalan territory. On May 15 2011 they massacred 27 Guatemalans agricultural workers, probably as part of that takeover scheme.

Guatemalan politics are beyond bizarre. On May 10, 2009, Rodrigo Rosenberg, a conservative lawyer, arranged for his own assassination in an effort to frame President Colom and his wife for the murder. Rosenberg recorded a video in which he stated that if he were killed, the Coloms and their advisors would be the guilty parties. He then calmly hired some hit men to kill him. An international investigation revealed the plot and exonerated Colom.

But far worse than that weird conspiracy is the long-term effect of the decades of butchery which followed the 1954 overthrow of left-wing president Jacobo Arbenz by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Guatemalan reactionaries. This led to a 40-year civil war between a series of extremist right-wing governments and left-wing guerillas in which at least 200,000 civilians were massacred by the army and right-wing death squads. The worst happened during the brief dictatorship of General Efrain Rios Montt (1982-1983) in which the army's decimation of Mayan indigenous communities reached genocidal proportions. Thousands of progressive Guatemalans, both indigenous and "Ladinos" as Spanish speaking people of mixed ethnic background are called in Guatemala, were tortured, murdered, "disappeared" or driven into exile by utterly undemocratic regimes supported by several U.S. administrations.

Negotiations in 1996 put an end to the civil war and created the outward form of elections. But the society is still suffused with violence and with impunity: Ninety percent or more of murders in Guatemala go unsolved, and right-wing death squad activity still exists. One of the latest is the assassination on July 9 of Facundo Cabral, a noted left-wing Argentine folk singer (two suspects have been arrested).

For the September 11 elections, as President Colom cannot succeed himself, his UNE party had to search for a candidate. They came up with none other than Colom's wife, Sandra Torres, said to be popular in Guatemala because of social welfare projects she has led. The trouble is that the Guatemalan constitution bars close relatives, including spouses, of sitting presidents from running for the position. Colom and Torres tried to get around this by getting a divorce, but it would appear that the Supreme Court is not buying this, and most likely Torres will be disqualified. As the time period for filing for election is now past, it would appear that the UNE, the largest party of the center and "moderate" left, might not have a candidate.

Further to the left is the "Broad Front" (Frente Amplio) consisting of the Winaq Party, the New Republic Alliance and the National Revolutionary Union of Guatemala (URNG-MAIZ) which is the political descendent of the guerillas who laid down their arms in 1996. The Frente Amplio has chosen indigenous rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum as their presidential candidate, with labor lawyer Anibal Garcia for vice president.

Menchu has announced a progressive program designed to put a stop to corruption and impunity, to improve health and education services for the poor, to protect the environment and to protect migrant workers. But it is possible that Menchu's candidacy will also be disallowed on technicalities by election authorities. Menchu ran in the last presidential elections, in 2007, and got a very small portion of the vote. Guatemalan mass media are already cranking up a racist red baiting campaign against her.

If neither Sandra Torres nor Rigoberta Menchu qualifies for the ballot, Guatemalan voters could be faced with an array of candidates who range from the far right to outright fascists, without even any centrist candidate to vote for.

According to most polls, General Otto Perez Molina of the Patriotic Party is leading and could get an actual majority on September 11 (if nobody does, there is a runoff on November 6). He is a right-wing military man with a history of suspected violations of human rights, who was defeated by Colom in the presidential runoff election of 2007. But there are candidates even scarier than the general.

Though the election procedures in a country like Guatemala are neither fair nor democratic, and are especially rigged against rural indigenous communities, the right is also strengthened by public fears of violent crime. Promises of a "mano dura" ("hard hand") play well in such a context. And the killing goes on, with candidates for lower level office already beginning to kill each other.

At writing, the election authorities are finalizing the list of candidates for president and other offices.

Photo: Nobel Peace prizewinner Rigoberta Menchu Tum, center, in a protest by indigenous farmers in Guatemala City, March 31, 2009. (Moises Castillo/AP)

Women's World Cup: bright spot for Japan, women's sports

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:44:00 +0000

After a deadly earthquake, followed by a devastating tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster, the Japanese people got some good news July 17, when their women's soccer team won the 2011 FIFA World Cup Final.

The Japanese team "Nadeshiko," the name for a pink mountain flower that symbolizes beauty and strength, ranked No. 4 going into the games. Japan beat two-time World Cup champions, team USA, 5-3 in penalty kicks.

The final game in Frankfurt, Germany, was a thriller. Twice the Japanese team came back tying the score in overtime. Japan hit three of its penalty kicks. The U.S. made only one.

"I never felt this day would come," said Homare Sawa, Japan's team captain and the final game's Most Valuable Player, to the Associated Press.

Speaking to reporters in Japan after returning home, Sawa said, "It's just now setting in. We played hard as a team. We didn't give up. I have to dedicate this win to the people who suffered the disaster."

Team member Toru Komatsu added, "This is a chance to forget the nuclear disaster and everything else, to just unite and celebrate."

On March 11, more than 20,000 people in Japan were left dead or missing after a massive earthquake and tsunami ravaged much of the country's northeast coast. The aftermath caused a nuclear power plant disaster, the worst in the world since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan hailed the teams victory as the "greatest gift" to uplift the country's on-going recovery efforts. "I think they brought courage to the whole nation," he said.

Despite their loss, team USA played one of their best games and graciously saluted the Japanese team for their heroic performance.

Team USA hopes their success in the tournament and high ratings, encourages more Americans to support initiatives in women's sports.

"I think we did something pretty special for women's soccer here in America," said Megan Rapinoe, a midfielder for team USA, to CNN. "Hopefully this has kind of opened people's eyes a little bit to how beautiful the women's game can be."

Soccer like many women's sports in the U.S. has long labored in the shadow of men's games, especially professional football, baseball, basketball and other major league sports.

Critics note the recent Women's World Cup proved to be an engaging showcase of just how far women's soccer has come and a sober reminder of how far it has to go both nationally and internationally.

This year's games marked the sixth World Cup for women. The tournament began in 1991, six decades after the first men's World Cup. But as recently as six years ago Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, sparked controversy saying women could enhance their game by wearing tighter shorts.

For the first time Colombia qualified for the World Cup along with Equatorial Guinea.

France was a first-time semifinalist, and Japan a first-time champion.

The New York Times writes how Eucharia Uche, Nigeria's coach, tarnished her team's appearance with homophobic remarks, saying that she had attempted to rid the squad of lesbian behavior, calling homosexuality "a dirty issue" and "spiritually, morally very wrong." This was a clear violation of FIFA rules against discrimination, but, critics noted, as usual when charged with policing itself, FIFA did nothing but issue empty words.

However gay rights supporters note the recent World Cup final may have been the first where fans at the stadium during the game were seen waving supportive LGBT pride flags.

Meanwhile players from Germany and France posed nude in attempts to draw attention to their World Cup teams. And it was only after pressure from fans that the BBC televised England's quarterfinal match against France. The game ended up drawing 1.8 million viewers in England, the country where modern soccer was invented. However women's soccer still remains largely dismissed there.

Women athletes in soccer have it very hard in Latin America, because many male players there seem to see sports as their domain. But such attitudes remain a big problem in the U.S. and worldwide wherever men don't accept women athletes, constantly put them down and view them as lesser achievers.

Critics say one way to deal with this problem is properly funded sports programs for young girls and women, beginning at a young age and continuing through college and into professional sports. And many are coming around to the idea that we should celebrate and encourage women in sports, and that men (fans, friends, fathers and brothers) must play an active role in supporting and advocating for equal opportunities in sports and recreation for girls, and for women athletes and teams.

Photo: From left, Japan's Homare Sawa, Aya Sameshima, Mana Iwabuchi, Yukari Kinga, Nahomi Kawasumi celebrate winning the final match between Japan and the United States at the Women's Soccer World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany, July 17. (Michael Probst/AP)

Chileans demand free education

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:52:00 +0000

In the past four weeks, the Chilean education system has been caught in the eye of a storm driven by hundreds of thousands of students and teachers who are demanding democratic education reforms.

The central demand is for equal, free and fair higher education, government control of secondary education, and an end to a "market based" educational model.

"We are thousands of university and secondary education students across the country, occupying the universities, high schools and streets in order to say that education is a social right to which all of us, men and women, boys and girls should have access free of charge," declared protesters, who criticized the fact that the Chilean government has left the crucial education sector in private hands, creating immense social differences in Chile.

The Sebastián Piñera administration was not the first to turn education into a profit-making institution, but it has taken this process to an openly commercial extreme.

Many of the country's current problems date from the neoliberal reforms that were applied under the Pinochet dictatorship from 1973 to 1990, which cut public education funding and pushed the creation of private educational institutions. As a result, the Chilean education system today shows a high degree of social segregation.

After the end of the military dictatorship, efforts were concentrated on extending the coverage of the nation's school system. Today, Chile budgets about 4 percent of its gross national product for public education, a figure UNESCO recommends should be at least 7 percent.

Chile has 3.5 million primary and secondary students and around a million students in higher education.

In Chile, primary and secondary education is offered free of charge by municipalities and on a pay-as-you-go basis by educational corporations that may also receive government subsidies depending on what they charge families for tuition and fees.

However, at the level of higher education, the problem is that all the universities must find their funding on the open market, even public institutions. For this reason, the financial burden falls primarily on families, who have to go heavily into debt to pay tuition and fees, with student loans that finally end up as costly as a mortgage.

It was in this context that students returned to the streets on July 14 to demand "free and quality education," and a free and public university system, and to reject the intervention of private businesses in the education sector.

"We want to move ahead to an education system that opens up possibilities for breaking with this unequal and socially-segregated model for Chile," declared student leaders.

The crisis of the educational system, which has been brought out very powerfully in the students' demands and mobilizations, is only one expression of a much broader and deeper problem: the extreme degree of social inequality that currently exists in Chile.

This is a society that has watched itself disintegrate thanks to economic policies that were imposed from above, and by a resulting extreme ideology of individualism that has minimized and eroded any sense of social responsibility.

This is the social context that explains the current crisis in the educational system, which only works to reproduce existing inequalities.

What is needed is access to the resources that would be required to substantially improve quality of public education at all levels, resources that under the present social system can only be obtained by imposing a significant tax-hike on highest-income individuals, that is to say, the establishment of a progressive tax system.

Perhaps most notable is that the students in their demands, beyond that of simply improving the education system, have been able to focus on transformations that aim at the very heart of the system.

Thus, for example, "re-nationalization of the copper" is a central theme of the national economy. The Chilean copper-mining industry was turned over to the transnational corporations under Pinochet.

In 2010, the country's great copper mines earned some $14.3 billion dollars in profits. This is the figure that the students have brought to the table, because of its obvious relationship to the financing of education.

The budget of the Education Ministry for 2011 was fixed at $10.777 billion dollars, which means that the profits made by the great mining corporations are about 25 percent more than Chile's entire education budget.

The fight for a basic transformation of the educational system thus shows itself as one part of a larger struggle for social justice and for the democratization of the country.

Alberto Ampuero is a journalist based in Riverside, California. Photo: Classroom chairs piled up during a demonstration in defense of public education. Francisco Javier Argel // CC 2.0

Planned gas pipeline in Puerto Rico brings criticism

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:42:00 +0000

Its supporters call it the "Green Way" (Via Verde), but the massive planned liquefied natural gas pipeline that is going to cut across the island of Puerto Rico diagonally for 92 miles (148 kilometers) has environmentalists and opponents of Puerto Rico's right-wing governor, Luis Fortuño of the New Democratic Party, seeing red. Although the pipeline is billed as a means to radically decrease energy costs in Puerto Rico, its opponents think that the benefits are exaggerated and instead point to the damage the project may do to the environment. Moreover, questions have been raised about the contract bidding process.

The $450 million pipeline, designed to facilitate a large-scale transition from oil to natural gas, will start in the Peñuelas-Guayanilla area on the southwest coast (where imported natural gas will be received), and end in the northwest around Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan. The problem is that this cuts diagonally through sensitive mountain forest regions, the largest on the island, home to much of Puerto Rico's biodiversity, including key areas of karst topography where more than 30 endangered species make their home.

Karst topography means land areas that are undercut by caves and underwater channels due to the long-term effect of water draining through limestone rock and other materials that, over millennia, dissolve in water (the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is another famous region of karst topography). Many rare animal and plant species are adapted to this type of topography, with its special access to clean underground water supplies. In addition, the karst water supplies are the source of fresh water for important coastal wetlands.

Contamination of the karst water supplies is one concern; another is that the area is not uninhabited, and local farming and other populations will be exposed to possibilities of explosions and fires. There are also important archeological sites in the area.

The reason given for the pipeline is fuel economy: According to the project's sponsors, the Autoridad de Energia Electrica, the project will allow a transition from oil to natural gas fuel in six electrical generating facilities when it is up and running. This, says the government, will save between $60 and $100 million, cutting the cost of generating electricity by nearly a third. Natural gas is also considered to be cleaner.

However, a study by environmental scientist Arturo Massol and his colleagues of the organization "Casa Pueblo" (House of the People), made public on July 13, suggests that the savings will be offset by environmental damage and risks to the 200,000 people who live in the area through which the pipeline will pass too closely, according to Massol's study. Environmentalists say that there are other ways, such as green energy, that the island's high electrical bill could be brought down.

Furthermore, there is controversy over the contracting. U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, has raised questions in Congress about possible conflicts of interest between Gov. Fortuño and the biggest contractor, Pedro Ray Chacon, who has no past experience with this type of project but appears to be a personal friend of the governor. The legislative opposition is demanding an investigation.

The project is awaiting final approval from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulation Commission. On June 27, Gov. Fortuño sent a letter to federal authorities calling for authorization to be expedited; opponents of the pipeline are lobbying against it.

Murdoch hacking scandal crossing the Atlantic

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:41:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., July 19 called for a congressional investigation of charges that Rupert Murdoch's News of the World journalists attempted to bribe a New York police officer to obtain phone records of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Said Rockefeller, "I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans. If they did, the consequences will be severe."

Rockefeller's statement was the clearest evidence yet that the scandal engulfing billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the New York Post, is crossing the Atlantic.

The evidence stems from a story in the London Daily Mirror which quotes a former New York police officer, now a private investigator, who charged that he was offered money to steal the phone records of 9/11 victims. The officer claims that the person who contacted him "wanted the phone numbers of the dead as well as details of the calls they made and received in the days leading up to the attacks" on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in which nearly 3,000 people died.

During hearings before a committee of the British House of Commons, July 19, James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, said, "Those are incredibly serious allegations.... It's appalling to think that anyone associated with one of our papers would do that."

Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, promised a full investigation of the Daily Mirror charges during an emergency House of Commons meeting July 20. "I am confident the Metropolitan police will get to the bottom of this," Cameron said during the raucous session.

But there is plenty of reason to think Cameron's confidence is misplaced. Scotland Yard and the London police are deeply implicated in the crime itself and efforts to hush it up. Indeed, Cameron denied during the session of the House of Commons that he or his lieutenants met with Scotland Yard or London police to pressure them to squelch the investigation of the phone hacking. But he did not deny that he met more than two dozen times with News Corp. executives, including Rupert Murdoch himself, from May 2010 until today.

One of Murdoch's most trusted henchmen, Les Hinton, CEO of Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, resigned July 15 amid charges that he orchestrated the coverup starting in 2007 when Murdoch brought him in to deal with the scandal.

Hinton's attempts to quiet the outrage reportedly ranged from destruction of evidence by News Corp. and the police to huge cash payments, including a 600,000 pound settlement of a complaint by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown that Murdoch hackers had spied on his phone messages and personal bank account.

Hinton hired the law firm Harbottle & Lewis to conduct an internal inquiry. It produced a report now called the "Harbottle file," revealing that hacking was a routine practice by many journalists on the staff of News of the World, not the work of "a single rogue correspondent."

Yet Hinton testified twice before a committee of the House of Commons that the hacking was limited to only one person, Clive Goodman, who covered the royal family. It is a crime to lie to a parliamentary committee and Goodman served a prison sentence.

Murdoch rewarded Hinton for his role in the coverup by appointing him CEO of Dow Jones. It was also convenient to get Hinton out of the UK and across the Atlantic to Dow Jones headquarters in New York.

"To risk any perception that Number 10 (Downing Street) was seeking to influence a sensitive police investigation in any way would have been completely wrong," Cameron said.

Ed Milliband, leader of the Labour opposition, accused Cameron of a "catastrophic error of judgement" in hiring Andy Coulson as his spokesperson even though he had resigned as editor of News of the World amid charges he had approved the hacking. Coulson later stepped down as Cameron's spokesman and was arrested earlier this month for his role in the hacking and coverup.

Murdoch, himself, made clear his crony ties to 10 Downing Street in his testimony July 19.

Labour MP Jim Sheridan asked Murdoch about his visits with the Prime Minister. Murdoch replied, "I was asked to come through the back door ... I was invited for a cup of tea for the support we provided Mr. Cameron. I also went in the back door when I visited Prime Minister Gordon Brown."

Photo: Murdoch in 2009. World Economic Forum // CC 2.0

Celebration marks 32nd anniversary of Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:05:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Nicaragua is a small tropical country and although it's the largest nation in Central America, it's also the second poorest in the western hemisphere. Thirty-two years ago, a Marxist-led national liberation movement forever changed the history and political dynamics of Nicaragua.

Following the ideals of Nicaragua's legendary revolutionary Augusto César Sandino and inspired by both Russian and Cuban revolutions, the people of Nicaragua fought and won a revolution over the repressive U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship on July 19, 1979.

Recently at the Los Angeles Workers' Center, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) celebrated its 32nd anniversary of the revolution and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the guerilla movement-turned political party. Nearly 200 people attended the celebration.

Representatives of the FSLN and the Salvadoran Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) addressed the crowd including Francisco Mayorga, FSLN's political secretary of Southern California.

Mayorga said he was honored to celebrate the group's anniversaries - 50 years since the founding of the FSLN and the 32 years since the FSLN "took down one of the most perverse dictatorships in Latin America at that moment."

Mayorga noted all the former guerillas in attendance and reflected on the armed struggle paying tribute to all those that fought in the revolution.

Augusto César Sandino led the first armed uprising against the U.S. military intervention in Nicaragua in the 1920s and 30s. He led battles against the U.S.-allied Anastacio Somoza García's regime. Those struggles later inspired Nicaraguans to lead a second wave of revolution against the Somoza's sons - Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastacio Somoza Debayle. Carlos Fonseca, a Marxist, and a small group of Nicaraguan socialists help found the FSLN in 1962.

Fonseca had traveled to Cuba and Russia in his early 20s and was heavily influenced by both socialist nations.

He once said, "It is not our job to discover the universal laws that lead to the transformation of a capitalist society into a society of free men and women; our modest role is to apply these laws, which have already been discovered, to the conditions of our own country,"

In 1976 the National Guard eventually killed Fonseca during combat. But on July 19, 1979 the Somoza dynasty was ultimately toppled.

In 1984, the FSLN called for elections and won.

During this time the Contra War had just started. The Contras, supported by the U.S., were remnants of the Nicaraguan National Guard. The Contras coupled with the U.S.'s economic blockade against the new socialist-leaning government, devastated Nicaragua.

Because of these factors-among others-the Sandinistas lost the elections in 1990 to the right-wing United National Opposition (UNO) led by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

After a 16-year Neoliberal rule that reversed several revolutionary government programs, Daniel Ortega and the FSLN won back the presidential seat in 2006. Prior to the 1979 revolution Nicaragua suffered more than 40 years of military right-wing rule.

Back at the Los Angeles Workers' Center, Carlos J. Flores, youth secretary of the FSLN in Southern California, spoke in support of the Sandinistas in this year's election.

Next Nov. 6 Nicaragua will hold presidential elections with its candidate and current president, Daniel Ortega, running on the FSLN ticket.

According to Flores current polls show FSLN ahead, just slightly over 50 percent.

"But," Flores warns, "We cannot think that we have it made and rest on our laurels-

Because that's what the right-wing wants."

Flores recalls in 1990, similar polls said the FSLN was ahead but the revolutionaries ended up losing the elections.

"There has been 16 years of Neoliberal rule which pretty much messed up the country," said Flores. "Venezuela and ALBA are helping Nicaragua. Cuba sends doctors. We send them our resources. It's a mutual cooperation," he added.

And it's not just the poor people of Nicaragua that understand this, notes Flores. The right-wing forces have subtly admitted to the vast improvements the Sandinista government has brought to the country, he said.

"Right now-we're in transition toward socialism. You can't go from capitalism to socialism right away," Flores said.

Augusto César Sandino, who after evading the U.S. marines in the mountains of his own country, once said, "Nicaragua shall not be the patrimony of imperialists. I will fight for my cause as long as my heart beats."

And although Sandino's heart has long since stopped beating, the movement he inspired toward a more free and equal society, where the public wealth of a nation is kept in the hands of workers that create it, lives on.

Photo: Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega looks on during an event marking the 32nd anniversary of the Sandinista's withdrawal to Masaya in Managua, June 25. The withdrawal to Masaya was a tactical move by the Sandinistas that was critical in the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza's dictatorship in 1979. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Chile's right-wing president on the ropes

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:01:00 +0000

At the beginning of 2010, right-wing billionaire Sebastian Piñera Echenique defeated Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, candidate of the "Concertacion" coalition of social democrats and centrists, which has ruled Chile since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship, by a margin of 51 to 49 percent in a runoff election. In October of that year, Piñera managed to manipulate the media into giving him credit for the rescue of 33 miners in a collapsed copper mine, and his popularity rating went up to 63 percent.

Now, as the latest of blows from a mass upsurge not seen since the days of socialist President Salvador Allende, Piñera's popularity rate is at 31 percent. And 31 of the 33 miners are suing the Chilean government for negligence, for not having properly supervised safety conditions at the privately owned San Jose copper and gold mine in the bleak Atacama region. The mine had a history of safety problems, which the plaintiffs say were not properly dealt with by the responsible government agency, the National Service of Geology and Mines (Sernageomin). They are asking courts for the equivalent of U.S. $16 million. They are also suing the owners, according to AFP.

The announcement of the suit comes on top of massive student demonstrations, a one-day strike in the biggest copper mine in the world, and a long running fight against the construction of a huge hydroelectric project farmers and environmentalists say will wreck an environmentally sensitive area. In the Chilean Congress, deputies from the Communist Party and its allies have introduced legislation to nationalize private mining concerns.

The student protests have roots in the measures taken in education by the military regime of General Agosto Pinochet Ugarte, who overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende Gossens on September 11, 1973. Pinochet broke up the national education system by devolving control to local communities, which had the effect of greatly increasing inequality of educational resources and quality between rich and poor students.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education announced sharp cuts to the budgets for schools and universities. Almost immediately, protests arose. Tens of thousands of students and teachers, in this country of 15 million people, have been marching and protesting since the middle of June. Protesters want an end to the decentralized system and its inequities, and budget increases to increase educational opportunities from kindergarten to university for the poor and working class.

Students in the United States can sympathize, especially, with the Chilean students' complain that to study, they have to get themselves deeply into debt through student loans. At writing, Piñera made an offer of an increase in scholarship funds, but student and teacher organizations are holding out for much more money and a complete restructuring of the system.

On July 14, a particularly militant demonstration in downtown Santiago, Chile's capital, led to a wild melee between students and police, with a number of injuries and arrests. Chilean Communist Party deputy Lautero Carmona hailed the marchers and denounced the repression, pointing out that, against the expectations of the government, the students had managed to put together a protest of over 150,000 people. Carmona also warned that repressive actions toward protesters reflect nostalgia for the Pinochet days within the present government.

On July 11, as many as 40,000 unionized employees and subcontracted workers, members of the Federacion de Trabajadores de Cobre (Copper Workers Federation), carried out a highly effective one-day strike at the Chuquicamata mine, the largest copper mine in the world, which is run by the government's Codelco company. Other Codelco units were also struck. The strike by the miners, who have some of the best pay and benefit scales in Chile, was in response to "restructuring" plans announced by management. Management wants to cut about 2,600 jobs, but the union suspects that privatization schemes are also in the works.

Chuquicamata produces about a third of Chile's copper, which is a big part of copper production worldwide. The Chuquicamata mine was nationalized by Allende's socialist government in 1971, and never re-privatized up till now. But the head of Codelco is now Diego Hernandez, who formerly headed Chilean operations of the private Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton, giving the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The environmental and farmers protests in southern Chile have to do with a massive hydroelectric project to be carried out by the HidroAysen Company, the BBC reports. The project, designed to increase the generation of power other than from fossil fuels, involves damming two important rivers in Patagonia, in the far south of the country. Local farmers object to being forced off their lands, and environmentalists worry that the damming of the rivers will upset delicate ecological balances. They also say that Chile would not need huge expansions of its electrical generating capacity if the huge overuse of power by private industry, especially the mines, were better regulated. Opponents of the dams have gone to court to stop them, as well as protesting.

To these massive protests one may add a long conflict over the treatment of the Mapuche people, the major indigenous group in Chile, and investigations into the real circumstances of the 1973 deaths of President Allende and of communist poet and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda.

Photo: President Piñero. Cristian Ocampo // CC 2.0

World honors Nelson Mandela at 93

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:35:00 +0000

The 93^rd birthday of Nelson Mandela was celebrated around the world July 18, paying tribute to the hero who spent 27 years in prison for his leading role in the fight against South Africa's apartheid regime.

Mandela was released in 1990. Just four years later, he was elected the first black president of the new multiracial South Africa, serving until 1999.

Affectionately known to millions in South Africa and around the world by his clan name - "Madiba" - Mandela spent the day with his extended family in his home village, Qunu, about 600 miles south of Johannesburg.

Before visiting Mandela, South African President Jacob Zuma vowed to increase the membership of the governing African National Congress to 1 million in the former president's honor. Speaking at Liliesleaf Farm, a historic site of the anti-apartheid struggle, Zuma said the ANC had grown by nearly 200,000 in less than a year.

"The ANC is immensely proud to have Madiba as its leader," Zuma said. "We are proud to share his legacy with all our people and the world today, on Nelson Mandela International Day."

The other member organizations of the country's Tripartite Alliance, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), also sent warm greetings.

"For years as an ANC activist and leader, [Mandela] led and served with selfless dedication and embodied values that have been adored beyond the realms of our national liberation movement," the SACP said in a statement.

The trade union federation joined the tributes: "On this day COSATU remembers a devoted fighter against racial oppression, a champion of the Freedom Charter ... a comrade whose life history is an epitome of selflessness and service to the people."

Since 1990 the three organizations have worked together to build a democratic and nonracial South Africa, and for a continued process of political and economic democratization.

Tributes poured in from around the world.

"Madiba continues to be a beacon for the global community, and for all who work for democracy, justice and reconciliation ... we congratulate Nelson Mandela and honor his vision for a better world," said President Barack Obama.

At the United Nations, which has declared July 18 "International Nelson Mandela Day," leaders of regional groups in the General Assembly joined in sending their good wishes.

Just after 8 a.m. in South Africa, millions of school students simultaneously sang a special version of "Happy Birthday."

Around the country, and in many places around the world, people observed Mandela Day by giving 67 minutes to honor the anti-apartheid leader's 67 years of public service. Among service projects: bringing donated food, blankets and other supplies to the elderly, fixing potholes, giving books to schools, taking children on outings, tweeting inspiring Mandela quotes.

Dennis O'Donnell, station director at SAFM, a sponsor of Mandela Day activities, summed it up for a Los Angeles Times reporter: "There's a lot of healing that needs to take place in this country, and these acts of kindness will eventually break down the barriers and mistrust between the races in this country."

Born in 1918 into a junior branch of a traditional ruling family in the Transkei, Mandela became an attorney, practicing for several years in Johannesburg together with fellow anti-apartheid activist Oliver Tambo. Mandela later headed Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's armed wing. He spent a major part of his 27-year imprisonment in the harsh, isolated Robben Island Prison.

Mandela has received over 250 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

Since his retirement, one of Mandela's primary commitments has been to the fight against AIDS. His second son, Makgatho Mandela, died of the disease in 2005.

Photo: Nelson Mandela with family members at his hometown in Qunu, South Africa, July 17. (Peter Morey/AP)

Massive explosion rocks Cyprus naval base

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:33:00 +0000

A massive explosion took place at the Evangelos Florakis naval base on the island of Cyprus, July 11. The base is located on the southern coast of Cyprus, on the Mediterranean Sea. At last count the blast left at least 12 dead and one seriously injured.

It is said to have been one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. The effects of the blast were felt up to 10 kilometers away and caused extensive damage to the adjacent Vasillikos power generating facility. The Vasillikos facility is the most important power installation on the island.

Contributing to the devastating power of the blast was a large cache of munitions which were stored at the base. These munitions were seized, at the behest of the U.S., from a ship that was en route from Iran to Syria in 2009.

Quickly following the explosion the government took emergency measures to address the nation's power demands, including the purchase of electrical power from the Turkish occupied area in the north and the installation of auxiliary generators supplied by other European Union nations. However, despite these interim measures, it is feared that the incident will result in long-term damage to the Cypriot economy.

Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias has ordered an investigation into the causes of the incident and has appointed an independent investigator to head up this effort.

Photo: Police and investigators search near a guard post destroyed as a result of the explosion near the Evangelos Florakis naval base in Cyprus, July 11. (AP/Petros Karadjias)

Obama threatens veto of tighter curbs on Cuba travel

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:35:00 +0000

In a move that took some Cuba-watchers by surprise, President Obama has threatened a veto of a House bill if it includes tightened restrictions on Cuban-American travel and aid to Cuba, among other things.

The president issued the warning in a Statement of Administration Policy on HR 2434, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of 2012.

Earlier, the Obama administration had lifted restrictions on the ability of Cuban-Americans to travel to Cuba or to send money to their relatives in the island. This was part of a set of small steps to soften U.S. anti-Cuban measures that came into effect after the Cuban Revolution, which triumphed on January 1, 1959. The measures were greatly intensified by the Torricelli Act of 1992 and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996. In addition to easing the restrictions on Cuban Americans, the Obama administration has been more willing to grant visas to Cubans to come to conferences and cultural activities in the United States.

But the major items in the blockade against Cuba still remain: The restrictions on trade with Cuba by United States citizens and those of other countries; the general travel ban on U.S. citizens going to Cuba without special permission; U.S. government financial support for Cuban dissidents and the continued listing, based on no evidence, of Cuba as a "state sponsor of terrorism;" and again this month, again on no evidence, of Cuba as a country that is not doing enough against human trafficking. In addition, ultra-right-wing Cuban exile reactionaries who have committed terrorist acts against Cuba live in the United States with impunity, while five Cuban patriots languish in U.S. prisons, after a highly criticized trial, because they tried to act against terrorist threats arising from U.S. soil (a petition is available on the People's World homepage calling for these five men to be released.

The increase in remittances from Cuban Americans to their relatives in Cuba is also not a completely unmixed blessing. In a recent conference in Washington, D.C., on the issue of race and racism in Cuba, sponsored by the Center for International Policy and organized by Wayne Smith, President Carter's chief diplomat in Cuba, Dr. Heriberto Feraudy, head of the Cuban Commission on Racism and Racial Discrimination (a spinoff of the National Union of Artists and Writers) pointed out that there is a disparity between the remittances sent to Black Cuban families as opposed to whites, for the reason that lighter skinned Cubans represent a wealthier and more powerful sector of the Cuban-American diaspora than do darker skinned ones, and that this works to increase economic disparities among the races in Cuba.

Nevertheless, advocates of the end to the blockade and the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations have seen President Obama's moves as small but welcome steps away from the intransigent policy of the last 50 years.

The fact that Dr. Feraudy, and also Cuban sociologist of race Esteban Morales, were able to participate in the D.C. conference, was also due to the Obama administration's changes. The Bush administration, for example, would likely never have issued the visas for such participation.

In the wording of an amendment to HR 2434 attached by right-wing U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a major leader of the hard-line sector of the Cuban exile community, the situation of Cuban-American remittances and visits to Cuba would be restored to the severely restrictive policy imposed by President George W. Bush, in which no exceptions to the limit on travel were allowed, even in hardship cases like a dying mother or father on the island, and remittances were restricted to $300 per year.

Obama's Statement of Administration Policy reads, "The Administration strongly opposes a number of provisions in this bill. If the president is presented with a bill that undermines either the Affordable Care Act or the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protections Act through funding limits or other restrictions, or reverses current policies on Cuba, his senior advisors would recommend a veto."

People working to reform U.S. policy toward Cuba found the threat of a veto of HR 2434 to be a very positive surprise; "jaw dropper" in the words of the Latin American Working Group.

They, along with other proponents of change in U.S. Cuba policy urge full support for President Obama for this new stance.

Photo: Many Cubans depend on remittances from the U.S. Justin Otto // CC 2.0

Friendshipment en route to Cuba, breaking U.S. blockade

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:51:00 +0000

The U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, which has lasted 50 years, targets people. As explained by a State Department official in the Eisenhower era: the aim is "for a line of action that... would achieve major progress in denying Cuba money and supplies [and] thereby cause hunger, desperation, and the collapse of the government."

The Cuban people thus became pawns, many say, in order to undo a revolutionary movement that, fighting for national independence and social justice, had put an end to a corrupt, murderous, U.S.-supported dictatorship. The cruelty of a blockade restricting goods needed for human survival, and the lawlessness of attacks on Cuba's national sovereignty have been widely condemned. The human rights group Pastors for Peace and its leader, the late Rev. Lucius Walker, led in pointing out that such U.S. policies aimed at causing human suffering are immoral.

But Pastors for Peace and its supporters have taken action. During early July this year, buses loaded with donated aid material followed routes across the United States south to McAllen, Texas. Along the way, supporters got on board to go to Cuba, in the process participating in 130 solidarity events where Cuba and the blockade were discussed, new supplies taken aboard, and purse strings opened up. On July 21 the entire "Friendshipment Caravan" will proceed from McAllen to Tampico, Mexico, where the donated supplies and buses will be loaded onto a ship bound for Cuba. A Cuban airliner will take the travelers to Cuba for a week of educational and solidarity activities.

The Friendshipment Caravans began some two decades ago. By 1992 the collapse of the Soviet bloc had caused terrible shortages in Cuba. The U.S. government took advantage of that occasion to block companies throughout the world with even flimsy U.S. connections from sending food and medical supplies to Cuba. Pastors for Peace responded with its first Friendshipment.

Objecting to the entire policy of blockade, Pastors for Peace refuses to secure licenses required for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Cuba. And Friendshipment travelers visit the island without authorization. One need not ask permission to help out a neighbor, Rev Walker used to say. He characterized the campaign as a "people's foreign policy."

The Maine Cuba solidarity group Let Cuba Live has participated in all 22 Friendshipment caravans. Indeed, the caravans have gone ahead entirely through the involvement of similar groups throughout the United States and Canada. The Caravane d'Amitie Quebec-Cuba, for example, has supported the last 17 caravans, all in conjunction with Let Cuba Live. This year both groups once more collected donated medical, education, and construction materials. Let Cuba Live held educational and fund raising events complete with food and music and provided support for three Maine people going to Cuba this year with the Friendshipment Caravan. Dozens of other Mainers have visited Cuba in the same way.

On July 2, Let Cuba Live people joined 35 activists from Montreal and Quebec City outside the Hotel de Ville in Coaticook, Quebec. The Montreal contingent had arrived on a labor union bus. Canadian media interviewed members of both groups. The bi-national solidarity effort eventually moved on to the nearby U.S. border station in Norton, Vermont, where Mainers and Quebecers together presented boxes of Quebec aid material to U.S. border authorities.

This time, the U.S. officials facilitated easy transfer into the United State of supplies they knew were destined for Cuba. On earlier crossings, activists of the two countries had resisted U.S. harassment and confiscations. Let Cuba Live representatives on hand this year heard one U.S. official express relief at not having to deal with such unruliness. Moved apparently by the unhappy memory, he seemed to be offering assurance that future crossings of suspect goods would pass through without problems. "See you next year!" he said as the fully loaded Maine vehicles headed south.

A day later, Let Cuba Live gathered aid material in an event on the Green in Brunswick, Maine. Construction materials and devices used in deaf people's education were added to other supplies contributed from Maine and Quebec. On July 6, the entire collection was moved by truck and trailer to Massachusetts where, at a solidarity event in Cambridge, all of it ended up on a Friendshipment bus. The three Maine participants got on board there.

At Let Cuba Live public gatherings during the month, speakers raised the case of the Cuban Five political prisoners. Those in attendance were urged to sign a petition calling upon President Obama to free from jail those Cuban men defending their people from terrorism. Later on, a Let Cuba Live representative assisting at Caravan gatherings in the Carolinas again sought signatures for the petition, which is accessible at the People's World homepage.

Photo: Members of the 19th Friendshipment in 2008, via the group's blog.

It's ugly: Germany arms Saudi Arabia

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:22:00 +0000

BERLIN - Angela Merkel just wouldn't let the cat out of the bag. In the first days after the arms sale scandal began, her front seat in the Bundestag was conspicuously empty. When she finally did show up she wore a sour look but said not a word. The decision made and any reasoning behind it were highly secret, legally so, according to the Constitution, and she meant to keep it that way.

On July 4^th the magazine Der Spiegel defied this secrecy to print part of the story, enough to see what was up and far too much for Angela Merkel. For this cat was no cute little kitty but a big, strong, very ferocious "Leopard" tank, or rather 200 state-of-the-art 2A7+ tanks, 68 tons each, as powerful and efficient as you can get, especially for crushing street demonstrations. And they were being sold to that great standard-bearer of the "Arab spring" - Saudi Arabia!

It was not new for Germany to sell weapons to countries around the world, from Heckler-Koch pistols to super-heavy submarines - and tanks. In fact, it has moved into third place in weapons export, behind only the USA and Russia.

On paper, Germany had committed itself to sending no weapons to countries in conflict areas - but then gradually relaxed such restrictions. Yet this spring, Merkel and her Foreign Minister Westerwelle had waxed so beautifully eloquent in support of democratic developments in Tunisia and Egypt (but only after the people had ousted their dictators), then, perhaps almost too enthusiastically, in Libya and Syria. But somehow similar peoples' movements in Yemen and notably in Bahrain won far less praise in the media and eloquent speech making; perhaps they are not seen as so important or so rewarding. So why not sell to the Saudi sheiks?

But there was outrage in the Bundestag [The Lower House of Parliament in Germany]. Even a few brave souls from the ruling coalition parties expressed indignation and dared to use the word "hypocrisy". But Philipp Missfelder, up-and-coming young foreign policy spokesman for the Christian Democrats, pinch hit for the silent Merkel in vigorously quashing any disobedience. A deal to support Saudi Arabia was "in Germany's interest," he explained and added portentously, there had been no objections from Germany's close allies. "Every step that we take in the region we take with the condition that it promotes the security and the right of Israel to exist."

His explanations and justifications were all unnecessary. Decisions like this one, which added an estimated 2.6 billion dollars to Germany's trade surplus, were matters decided in secret by the German Security Council, composed of top cabinet ministers and top military men.

All the same, the three opposition parties demanded and got a special Bundestag session. Each one, Social Democrats, Greens and The Left, submitted its own resolution demanding that permission for the deal be denied. There was heated debate. Klaus Ernst, The Left Party co-chair, said government approval of the deal illustrated its "real operating maxim: The deadliest tanks for the worst oppressors". The head of its caucus, Gregor Gysi, passionately denounced the deal. So did several Social Democrats and Greens, most forcefully the legendary Green deputy Hans-Christian Stroebele from a key Berlin borough, always outspoken against German expansionism, economic or military. But the protests of Social Democrats and most Greens, angry as they sometimes sounded, were painfully weakened by sneers from the ruling parties, reminding them that when they had run the government from 1998 to 2005 they too had approved substantial weapons sales to the Saudis.

When it came time to vote the ruling coalition, despite a few "renegades", used its majority to beat all three protesting motions. In the only unusual note, 12 Social Democrats and 60 Greens not only approved their own resolutions but the sharper one of The Left as well.

With that taken care of, they could all pack their bags and begin their summer vacations, though not before Christian Democrat specialist Missfelder once again made clear:

"We cannot act as though we can paint the world pink and everything will be O.K...We are a grown-up country and must define our policies through strategic interests."

Frau Merkel maintained her sour expression and kept her mouth shut till the end. Her silence was understandable.

Media reports left two aspects unmentioned. The tank manufacturers profiting most from the deal, Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann and Rheinmetall, have always been generous in political donations. Between 2002 and 2009 they gave the two Christian parties 298,000 euro, the Free Democrats 79,000 euro and even the Social Democrats 249,500 euro. The figures for 2010 and 2011, not yet available, will undoubtedly be at least as generous.

The other aspect is historical. Rheinmetall and Kraus-Maffei Wegmann have histories going back to the 19^th century. They both armed Germany in World War One. Rheinmetall was one of 29 corporations to finance Hitler's successful attempt to gain total power. Both joined in destroying the Spanish Republic and blasting the little town of Guernica in 1937, a deed made famous by Picasso's painting. Their especially deadly bombs, their handguns, artillery and tanks killed anti-fascists and civilians from Narvik in Norway to Monte Cassino in Italy, from Jarama in Spain to the farthest reaches of the Soviet Union.

Their wealth and power were built in no small measure by the toil of forced laborers and prisoners of war from all Europe; the British army freed five thousand survivors in one single plant near Hamburg, where Krauss-Maffei is again testing new weapons.

The firms were barred from making weapons for a while after both world wars, but the bans soon ended. Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann is now the third largest manufacturer of tanks and military vehicles in the world.

Personnel and share-holding proportions have changed since then: Have the goals of Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, Rheinmetall or those who now own and run them also changed?

Helmut Kohl said in 1990: "Germany has ended an historic phase; in future it can openly assert its role as a world power, and extend it." The 2.5 billion dollar sale to Saudi Arabia may be seen as a great coup and another lucrative and significant omen

Photo: A German Leopard 2 A6 EX tank in a testing area of German producer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann in Munich. Sebastian Widmann/dapd/AP file photo

Fair and balanced? Hacking scandal rocks Murdoch media empire

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:06:00 +0000

Billionaire Rupert Murdoch tried to squelch the hacking scandal engulfing his media empire by closing down his London-based tabloid, News of the World, but the firestorm continues to spread.

It was revealed July 11 that two more Murdoch newspapers engaged in hacking including electronic spying on former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's bank account. The hackers also stole the medical records of Brown's four-year-old son, a victim of cystic fibrosis. The Murdoch publications also bribed bodyguards assigned to Queen Elizabeth II for information about the monarch, a potential danger to her safety and a clear breach of national security.

Peter Hart, activism director of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), the media watchdog group, told the People's World, "Murdoch may have hoped that he could close down News of the World and make it go away, but the story is getting bigger by the day if not by the hour."

He cited an article in Newsweek by journalist Carl Bernstein, who exposed Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal in the 1970s. In the article, titled "Murdoch's Watergate?" Bernstein points out that this scandal now threatens to engulf the Tory regime of David Cameron, whose press secretary, Andy Coulson, previously served as editor of the Murdoch tabloid.

It couldn't come at a worse time for Cameron, facing a nationwide revolt as 750,000 public workers went on strike last week to protest his austerity policies including savage cuts in pensions and other benefits.

Morning Star, the British left-wing daily, reported that the scandal has rocked the prime minister on his heels. Their story quoted veteran left Labour MP Dennis Skinner, who called Murdoch "a cancer on the body politic"and denounced Cameron as a "smug, arrogant man" with deep crony ties to Rebekah Brooks, current head of Murdoch's News International, who was editor of News of the World at the time it was involved in the cell phone hacking that has now been exposed.

Cameron, Murdoch and Brooks are part of the so-called "Chipping Norton set" who wine and dine together in Oxfordshire or even at Number 10 Downing Street, official residence of the prime minister, Morning Star reports.

When the scandal broke, Murdoch fired 200 News of the World reporters instantly but is defending Brooks.

Among those hacked by Murdock's News of the World minions was actor Hugh Grant and Prince William, an heir to the British throne. But even more outrage has greeted the revelation that Murdoch reporters hacked into the cell phone of a 13-year-old murder victim, making deletions and alterations that gave her parents false hope that she was still alive. Also hacked were the private phone calls of relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The behavior was so widespread and shocking that reporters are now keeping this scandal alive," said Hart. "This isn't just some rogue correspondent. They are asking the question: Who was in a position of power to approve this hacking? Does it trace back to Murdoch himself?"

The hacking went on for years and involved many news-gatherers. Tens of thousands of dollars was paid to police and others in exchange for lurid and salacious gossip to be used against targeted people, including elected officials.

There is a long history of this brand of sensational, scurrilous media on both sides of the Atlantic, Hart continued, but Murdoch is the "purest expression of this brand of partisan journalism."

He added, "At least in England, people in the Labour Party are saying we have to be more vigilant in curbing the power of one media owner to control so much of the media."

Murdoch's central role in promoting right-wing extremism stretches back to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who owed her hold on power to Murdoch's vicious incitements against embattled British coal miners as well as locked out union printers who produced his newspapers.

He played a role in the election of Ronald Reagan, cheerleading the "Great Communicator" for his attacks on workers and union rights including the mass firing of PATCO air traffic controllers.

Murdoch, an Australian by birth, began his invasion of the U.S. by buying the New York Post, turning the once respected liberal newspaper into a gossip-mongering rag. Then he bought the Wall Street Journal and moved its editorial page even further to the right, into the ideological center of far-right extremism. His empire generates an estimated $33 billion in profits annually.

Murdoch created Fox News in 1996. It has served as the round-the-clock mouthpiece of right-wing "attack journalism" featuring charlatans like Glenn Beck, who spout a fake brand of "populism" aimed at giving a grassroots veneer to the corporate takeover of all branches of government. Beck spread so many patent falsehoods that he became an embarrassment even for Murdoch, who fired him recently.

Between the Post, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, Bernstein writes, "it's hard to think of any other individual who has had a greater impact on American political and media culture" than Murdoch. "But now the empire is shaking and there's no telling when it will stop."

He continues, "It will remain for British authorities and presumably disgusted and/or legally squeezed News Corp. executives and editors to reveal exactly where the rot came from and whether Rupert Murdoch enabled, approved, or opposed the obvious corruption that infected his underlings."

Many of those same questions could be asked on this side of the Atlantic.

Photo: Rupert Murdoch, corporate guru, at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in 2009. World Economic Forum CC 2.0