People Before Profit blog

Murdered because they wanted to protect the environment!

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:31:00 +0000

Environmental activists world wide - including community leaders and journalists - were being killed at a rate of one per week during 2011 alone, reports The Guardian. Today, the persecution of environmentalists is on the rise, as pro-oil corporate interests seem to prevail over ecological concerns; depleting resources are exacerbating the situation.

In the last three years altogether, say researchers, the death toll has risen considerably, particularly in Latin America and Asia. But killings, they say, have happened in at least 34 countries, and many of them were instances in which indigenous groups and landowners clashed with powerful industries and corporations, according to a report released June 19 by London-based nonprofit organization Global Witness.

Bill Kovarik, a communications professor at Virginia's Radford University, has been compiling data on the killings of environmental leaders since 1996. He remarked, "For many years, intolerant regimes tolerated environmental activists. That was the one thing you could do safely, until some crossed into the political area. Now, environmentalism has become a dangerous form of activism, and that is [a] relatively new [phenomenon]."

Among the recent deceased who sought progressive change include:

* Rev. Fausto Tentorio, an Italian priest who fought against mining companies to protect the native lands of the Manobo tribe in the southern Phillippines. His murder was believed to be a revenge attack for his activism.

* Thongnak Sawekchinda, an activist who campaigned against the pollution of coal-fired factories in his province near Bangkok, Thailand. He was gunned down by several men who were paid $10,000 to execute him.

* Two high-profile Amazon activists, Jose Claudio Ribeiro de Salva and Maria do Espirito Santo, a couple that protested and blew the whistle on illegal loggers decimating the rainforest. They, too, were gunned down.

And a particularly notable example of a more corporate attack on environmentalism came in the form of oil company Royal Dutch Shell, which conspired with the Nigerian government in committing human rights atrocities in Nigeria throughout the 90's. After the native Ogoni community was exposed to illness and disease by one oil spill after another, they led protests against Shell. The oil giant and government responded by working to gag the affected people by way of murder and torture. This culminated in the execution of journalist/environmentalist Ken-Saro Wiwa, who had made serious moves to put an end to the company's ecoterror.

Tragedies such as this occur every day, and wherever Big Oil and corporations seem to fail to silence the outcries of environmentalists, there appears to be a concentrated effort on the part of the right wing to paint environmental activists as unbalanced extremists and liberal conspiracy theorists.

This has resulted in a wave of profit-driven, corporate-backed climate change denial as Republicans and other members of the One Percent attempt to implement this strategy.

The Heartland Institute, part of the anti-science/anti-environment agenda, recently outraged many by putting up ads in which environmental activists were compared with the Unabomber. Many environmentalists responded by staging a protest at Chicago's Hilton hotel on May 22, where the Institute was meeting for a conference.

For those activists who seek positive change, many realize that it can't be properly achieved under capitalism.

"Capitalism can't think ahead; it is fundamentally incapable of dealing with climate change," said microbial ecologist Steve McCallister, a shop steward for biology professors with the American Federation of Teachers Local 3544. Oil production, he stressed, "is not going to give us energy independence." The solution is to "end this notion that corporations have the same rights as people. They have to be regulated, because the balance of ecosystems is at risk."

It would seem that until capitalism is defeated, fossil fuels and their corporations will tighten their grip, slandering and victimizing environmental activists alongside workers, people in poverty, and others who are part of the progressive movement.

"It is a well-known paradox," stated Global Witness, "that many of the world's poorest countries are home to the resources that drive the global economy. Now, as the race to secure access to these resources intensifies, it is poor people and activists who increasingly find themselves in the firing line."

Photo: A protester holds a rose as he mourns the death of activist Rev. Fausto Tentorio, who fought against mining companies in the southern Phillippines. Bullit Marquez/AP

Paraguay President Lugo ousted by the rich and powerful

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo, a former Catholic bishop, advocated for his country's rural poor. His removal on June 22 illustrates the process by which the wealthy few of one poor but resource-rich nation retain their power and why in such circumstances democracy is a chancy business. Lugo's electoral victory in August 2008 interrupted the long reign of the conservative Colorado Party whose dominant figure, dictator Alfredo Stroessner, ruled from 1954 through 1989.

Investigative journalist Idilio Mendez Grimaldi points to "three sets of interests" - those "of the agribusiness trans-nationals and financial sector, those of the landowning oligarchy allied to transnational capital, and those of the right wing political parties - all backed by the United States."

Lugo's departure following congressional impeachment was so abrupt he couldn't defend himself. Although conservative holdovers from earlier governments and rightist political groups had maneuvered against him throughout his tenure, the pace quickened from late 2011 on.

In October 2011, Paraguay's SENAVE seed control agency refused to authorize U.S.-based Monsanto Corporation to sell its a new genetically modified (GM) cotton seed Bollgard BT. Director Miguel Lovera, viciously attacked in 2010 after SENAVE destroyed 110 acres of GM corn, cited lack of authorization from the health and environmental ministries.

Small farmers and environmental organizations protested the release of the new Monsanto seed. The tense atmosphere intensified in March 2012, when demonstrators in Asunción called upon Lugo's government to restore land to displaced farmers, as promised.

Meanwhile, the Union of Production Associations (UGP), the main agribusiness-landowner organization, was mounting an anti-government media campaign. A close ally, the Zuccolillo industrial and media conglomerate, utilized its "ABC Color" newspaper to accuse Lovera and the health and environmental ministers of corruption and nepotism. Along the way, Monsanto announced plans to introduce another variety of GM cotton seed.

UGP director Héctor Cristaldo serves on boards of directors of several Zuccolillo companies. The Zuccalillo group is Minneapolis-based Cargill Corporation's lead Paraguayan partner. At the time of Lugo's removal, "ABC Color" was publicizing UGP plans for demonstrations set for June 25 demanding Lovera's removal and easing of restrictions on all GM seeds. Tractors and other farm machinery were to have clogged highways nationwide.

But Lugo had already suffered an immobilizing blow. In Curuguaty district, in Paraguay's east, land hungry squatters were claiming 2,000 acres they say former Stroessner associate and Colorado Party president Blas Riquelme had stolen, a tract not part of the 175,000 acres Riquelme already owns. On June 15 a Colombia-trained police force moved in on a judge's order to remove the squatters. Sharpshooters ambushed the police, killing six of them. In the melee, 11 protesters were killed and 50 wounded.

With congressional enemies casting the incident as "malfeasance," a pretext was created for Lugo's impeachment. Mendez Grimaldi, however, wonders about sharpshooters placed among peasant activists and an elite police unit's unexpected vulnerability. It was a trap, he suggests: "Only an internal sabotage within police intelligence units, with the attorney general's complicity, explains the ambush."

President Lugo had indeed been whisked away by powerful forces. In Paraguay, 1 percent of the population owns 77 percent of the land. Wealthy landowners, prone to anti-communist rhetoric and dedicated to military power, collaborate with international agribusiness corporations to produce and export agricultural commodities, primarily soy, cotton, corn, rice, and meat. Such exports account for 30% of the country's GDP, which in 2010 expanded by 15 percent. Land taxation adds only 0.04% to the government's tax income.

Landowners depend upon Monsanto and Cargill Corporation, or their affiliates, for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and for processing and marketing of their products. Paraguay is the world's fourth largest soy exporter, which in 2010 made up 55.3% of its export income. Most Paraguayan soy ends up in Europe as biodiesel and cattle feed. Monsanto's soy operations in Paraguay produce $30 million in tax-free annual income from royalties on GM seeds and tens of millions more from seed sales. Cargill controls 40% of soy production there.

Rubén Candia Amarilla replaced an interior minister removed following the June 15 shoot-out. Earlier, as attorney general, he had sought to criminalize social movements and, according to Mendez Grimaldi, promoted large-scale agricultural operations by using strong-arm tactics to expel small farmers from land. He's known too for having promoted United States Information Agency influence within Paraguay's government.

Paraguay's agricultural capacities, the wealth it brings to U.S. corporations, its proximity to regional power Brazil, even its huge Guarani aquifer, have long entered into U.S. strategic calculations. The U.S. government maintains a large air force base in Mariscal Estigarribia, its troops deploy in Paraguay ostensibly for humanitarian reasons, and the U.S. embassy has urged the Paraguayan military to augment its presence in the country's north.

Photo: Fernando Lugo, via website.

Third oil spill in a month hits Canada

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:13:00 +0000

On June 19, 1,450 barrels of crude oil spilled from a pumping station on a pipeline operated by the Enbridge company. It sloshed onto farmland near Elk Point, Alberta, Canada, becoming the third spill in the area this month. Environmental groups now share a sense of heightened concern over Big Oil's increasing stronghold on Canada, and the risk factors involved.

The culprit pipeline (called the Athabasca Pipeline) was promptly shut down, but restarted on June 26. Enbridge, whose lines carry the majority of Canadian oil exports to the U.S., said that a piece of malfunctioning equipment on the pipeline caused the incident, which soiled a portion of farm territory and has potentially put wildlife nearby at risk.

The spill was the third after two other prior leaks in June, both of which crews are still working to clean up. The first incident happened on June 7, when a pipeline owned by Plains Midstream Canada ruptured, spewing oil beneath Jackson Creek, which ends in a reservoir. Residents living downstream from the nearby, interconnected Red Deer River thus feared that their water supply was at risk. The Alberta government is still monitoring water in that river for signs of taint.

Local resident Chris Huhn said that he and other residents havea feeling of deja vu, as a previous oil spill of 125 barrels occurred there in 2008. "I just hope this beautiful lake isn't going to be wrecked with this terrible spill," he remarked. "I know we need oil, but at what cost? This is our drinking water and we're gambling with it."

The second incident - on June 18 - involved an oil leak of more than 22,000 barrels from a Pace Oil & Gas Ltd. well in a more remote corner of Alberta. Though the company managed to keep the spill quiet because of its location, it is considered one of the most problematic and severe oil disasters in North America in recent years.

To environmental activists, these incidents are extremely worrying. Even more unsettling to many is Enbridge itself, as this newest spill comes at a time when the corporation has been lobbying to build the $5.4 billion Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would carry oil from the Alberta tar sands to a port in Kitimat, British Columbia. Along the way - as it stretches 700+ miles through pristine wilderness and territory of First Nations tribes - it would put the natural habitat and wellbeing of hundreds of animal species at risk, including otters, whales, seabirds, and bears.

To exacerbate concerns, the federal government is currently speeding up the reviews of Big Oil and mining projects. On June 18, Prime Minister Stephen Harper passed legislation that cut environmental review departments left and right, and - in some cases - fired workers including scientists as part of what is being called a "streamlining process."

"It's ironic that [around the same time] that the House passed the budget bill that significantly rolls back environmental laws, there was a major oil spill in Alberta," said Nathan Lemphers, senior policy analyst with the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank.

Simon Dyer, also with the institute, remarked, "Given the significant number of pipeline spills in recent months, Alberta should conduct a review of the integrity of its pipeline system. Pipeline spills are inevitable, but the risks can be reduced through stronger regulation and practices."

David Akis, writer for Canada's Chronicle Journal who works in the retail industry, noted that in addition to Big Oil tearing the environment apart beneath its barrels of spilled crude, it is also stripping dollars out of communities and small businesses. "I have seen a huge drop-off in local spending," he said. "If Canada wants job growth, Big Oil has to be brought in line. Take away over a billion in oil subsidies and regulate them. Their ridiculous profits placed back in the people's hands could put a huge number of Canadians back to work.

"Millions upon millions of dollars" are being put in the hands of oil corporations, "hurting most retail businesses and, most of all, families who have to struggle to survive at the expense of Big Oil profiteering."

Activists also seem to agree that Alberta pipelines are doing nothing for jobs in any field, including manufacturing. "Right now, 95 percent of the oil is in Alberta, but 75 percent of the manufacturing jobs are in Ontario and Quebec," said economist Robyn Allan. "If you have a policy that deliberately supports Alberta at the expense of Eastern Canada, then you're stretching the national fabric. The jobs are not there; the benefits to Canada are not there."

Photo: Greenpeace sets up an example model of what the environment might look like exposed to another Enbridge oil "accident." greenpeace.org

Cuba struggles for food self-sufficiency

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:34:00 +0000

Responding to popular expectations, diminished worker productivity, the U.S. blockade, and skyrocketing costs of imports - particularly food - Cuba is restructuring its economy. Agricultural changes are part of the process.

In 2008, the government opened up idle land for long-term, independent use by individuals and cooperatives. The action came in response to the annual cost of food imports rising to above $1.5 billion and to the reality that half of Cuba's arable land, 8.5 million acres, was idle. Policymakers hoped many of the half million workers removed from state jobs would take up farming.

Almost four years later, on May 17, agricultural official Pedro Olivera reported that 163,000 farmers or cooperatives had received 3.8 million acres of idle land, of which 79 percent was being farmed.

Many recipients say the process was long and tedious. Some found contracts they were signing difficult to understand. Their farming operations often were delayed due to non-availability of credit and promised supplies. Transportation of products to market remains problematic. Many farmers protest remaining state controls over food distribution. Plans are afoot to restructure the Agricultural Ministry.

The government is trying to persuade young people and city dwellers to take up farming. Renewed efforts to remove the invasive marabú plant from idle land received a boost from increased use of that plant as biomass for producing energy. Although new harvest and irrigation techniques are being applied to sugar cane harvesting, holdover of inefficient milling facilities hampers sugar production. Vietnam continues to advise Cuba on rice production.

Led by successful rice and bean harvests, agricultural production expanded 9.8 percent over the first four months of 2012, and Cuba is having to import less rice than before from Vietnam, Cuba's main foreign supplier. Yet overall 2012 production levels so far fall below those achieved in 2005. Cuba's apparent inability to increase overall food production is part of a long pattern of relatively low production levels.

In 2010 Cuba's rice production per acre, poultry production, and corn production were all below the annual averages established over 50 years for these food products. Cuba that year spent $159.9 million and $155.9 million to import poultry and corn, respectively. In world rankings Cuba's current production levels for rice and corn are very low.

Cuba in 2010 had to import 40,000 tons of powdered milk costing $194,000 million. Milk and beef production is down, so far, in 2012. Analysts say farmers' perennial difficulties in maintaining the health of their cattle contribute to low production levels. Over half the new farmers receiving land under the 2008 reforms plan to raise cattle.

Paradoxically, Cuba's agricultural reformation following the Soviet bloc collapse and loss of its trading partners earned worldwide praise for Cuban farmers' practice of sustainable agriculture. Cuba's 4.2 percent average annual growth in agricultural production from 1996 through 2005 was tops in Latin America. Midway during the 1990s, the government began to transfer small holdings to individual farmers for long-term use. City and country populations alike applied ecological principles to small-scale farming.

In their recent article "The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture," Miguel Altieri and Fernando Funes-Monzote attribute agricultural success then to decentralized controls and the newly ascendant role of individual farmers and cooperatives. Small farmers in 2006 controlled only 25 percent of cultivated land in Cuba, but accounted for 65 percent of the island's food production while reducing their use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

The recent agricultural reforms came about in response to Cuba's burden, as reported, of having to import 70 percent of its food. Altieri and Funes-Monzote say that estimate refers to food provided through the rationing system. They indicate data for the production and distribution of some basic foods like seafood, many vegetables, eggs, and fruits are less well known and that, in fact, Cuba may be approaching self-sufficiency in these categories.

Agriculture seems to be evolving on parallel tracks in Cuba. Human and animal powered organic farming coexists with signature tools of industrial agriculture like genetically modified seeds, big farm equipment, and elaborate irrigation systems. Yet if farmers' resiliency after disastrous hurricanes and the economic collapse of the 1990s means anything, Cuba may end up attaining a measure of food independence sometime soon.

And importantly, Cubans don't go hungry. According to the United Nations Agricultural and Food Organization, their average daily per-capita caloric intake hovers around 3,200 calories - the highest in Latin America.

Photo: Cybersquare // CC 2.0

Nuclear waste and other tales from London: Capitalism and the Olympics

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:50:00 +0000

In an idealized worldview, the Olympic Games are a symbol of international sports excellence and friendly global competition.

A symbol of what could be, perhaps, but the "corporatization" of the Games have made it a playground for the super-rich and a profit-driven event. The Games have become a hopeful, yet often futile, source of economic revitalization and jobs for the host city or country, which instead often winds up in debt. Greece is case in point.

In a crowd-funded video from Italy, documentarian Enrico Masi shows the underbelly of the London Games. It is in English with Italian subtitles.

"The Golden Temple" tells a bleak story from East London. Capitalism - a society based on consumerism and maximum rate of profit - falls far short in meeting the needs of all in attempts at economic revitalization.

Most startlingly, the Olympic stadium is built on a dump that has radioactive nuclear waste!

Called a "mirror of present times" and "a human odyssey" through "desperate and paradoxical capitalism," the video questions consumerist gentrification and regeneration. Why, for example, do Olympic visitors have to pass through the biggest shopping mall in Europe to get to their destination, and why does a 2,000 volts electric fence surround a square mile Olympic site.

The trailer is available here.

Photo: (Via Aplysia)

Paraguay President overthrown in “express coup” by Congress

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:26:00 +0000

On June 22, Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was deposed in a 39 to 4 impeachment vote by the country's Senate. Vice President Federico Franco was sworn in as the new president. The move took Paraguayans by surprise because of its speed (Lugo called it an "express coup"), lasting only 48 hours from start to finish.

Paraguay (population 6.5 million) has been one of the poorest countries in South America since its neighbors invaded it, took away its access to the sea and killed most of its male inhabitants in the War of the Triple Alliance in 1864-1870.

Among South American countries, it has the largest proportion of speakers of an indigenous language (Guaraní). Two percent of the population owns more than 80 percent of the agricultural land, raising soybeans, cattle, tobacco, yerba maté and other products for export. The per-capita Gross Domestic Product (PPP) is only about $5,500.

From 1954 until he was overthrown in a coup in 1989, a U.S. supported military dictator, General Alfredo Stroessner, ruled Paraguay with an iron hand. Stroessner was supported by the Colorado ("Red") Party, and played an important role in U.S. efforts against the Latin American left.

In Apr. 2008, Fernando Lugo, a former Roman Catholic cleric, was elected president on a promise to help the poor, including instituting land reform. However, he did not have his own major political party and therefore has had to rely on unstable alliances with other parties in Congress.

One of these is the Authentic Radical Liberal Party of Vice President (now President) Federico Franco, with 26 seats in the 80 seat Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, and 14 in the 45 seat Senate. Another is the National Union of Ethical Citizens, controlled by former General Lino Oviedo, suspected by many of dictatorial ambitions. This has 16 seats in the Chamber and 9 in the Senate. The Colorados have 29 seats in the Chamber and 15 in the Senate.

Concessions to these forces have annoyed the left, which has called on Lugo to rely, rather, on mobilized mass movements in the style of Venezuela's Chavez or Bolivia's Morales. Lugo has been accused by the right of stirring up trouble by encouraging the aspirations of the poor, and his efforts to bring Paraguay into full participation with the economic integration projects of the region have brought accusations of high-handedness and lack of patriotism. Added to these troubles have been bouts with cancer and accusations of having fathered children out of wedlock.

Nevertheless, with elections scheduled for Apr. 2013, Paraguay's economic indicators have been looking up under Lugo, with a steady growth rate and advances in health care.

The principal incident that was used as a pretext to unseat Lugo was a clash between squatters and police on an estate near Curuguaty. The estate belongs to Blas Requelme, a Colorado politician, who acquired it during the Stroessner dictatorship (illegally, according to the squatters). In the clash, at least 17 people were killed: Six police officers and the rest peasants.

President Lugo expressed regret, and pushed out his Minister of the Interior and Chief of Police. Nevertheless, on June 21, the entire Radical Liberal group in the lower house of Congress ditched Lugo and voted with the Colorados and Oviedo's supporters to impeach him for "poor performance of his responsibilities," with only one vote against. A trial was set up in the Senate for Friday. Lugo himself boycotted it because he was given practically no time to prepare his defense, and no evidence was presented. Lugo was ousted and Vice President Franco immediately sworn in as president.

Lugo said he accepted the verdict, but called for the struggle for justice to go on by other means, including the setting up of a parallel government. The ALBA group of countries have denounced the coup against Lugo.

Venezuela may cut off oil. Several other South American countries are refusing to recognize Franco, and Brazil has called for Paraguay to be expelled from the MERCOSUR and UNASUR trade blocs, both of whom are having meetings this coming week.

Other member countries disinvited Paraguay from the MERCOSUR meeting. Franco, on the right wing of the Radical Liberal Party, had opposed Venezuela's application, supported by Lugo, to join MERCOSUR.

The left and the mass movements in Paraguay are not taking this lying down. There were demonstrations on Friday. The Communist Party of Paraguay, which supported Lugo in 2008 but has since been critical his concessions to the right, said:

"The miserable attitude of the majority in the National Congress, to take advantage of the blood which was shed by [our] compatriots in the Curuguaty massacre, in the context of the long struggle for the land ... so as to consummate a coup d'etat by means of impeachment, demonstrates the profoundly anti-democratic stance of the right wing politicians who mock the people's wish, so roundly demonstrated in April 2008, to initiate a process of change..."

The Party called for popular resistance, citing a poll, which showed 67 percent of Paraguayans opposed to the coup. The communists also called for strengthening the Frente Guasú - the coalition of the left, which supports Lugo.

Photo: Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo gives a news conference at the government palace in Asuncion, Paraguay, June 21, 2012. Cesar Olmedo/AP

French elections increase European crisis drama

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:00:00 +0000

The French elections June 17 produced a decisive victory for President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party.

In the elections for the French Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the National Assembly, or Parliament, voters go to the polls twice. In each of the 577 single-member electoral districts, all candidates who got at least 12.5 percent of the vote in the first round have the right to compete in the second round, if they (or their parties) wish. This year, the first round happened on June 10, and already showed a clear leftward tendency, which had been first indicated by the defeat of conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy by Socialist Francois Hollande in April and May.

On Sunday, in the second round of the parliamentary elections, this trend was firmly consolidated. The Socialist Party won 306 seats for itself and close allies (up 104 from the last elections in 2007 and more than enough to legislate by itself without even having to reach out to the Left Front (the Communist Party and close allies) to get its measures passed.

Since the Senate already has a Socialist Party majority, this gives Hollande a very strong hand not only in internal French politics, but in France's relations with the other countries in the European Union and the joint Euro currency zone.

France is one of the biggest economies in both of these bodies, and Sarkozy had made a united front with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to fiercely impose a policy of austerity on those countries whose economies have been faltering because of the world economic crisis.

How Hollande will actually handle these matters is yet to be seen, but earlier he had been calling for policies more focused on growth and less on austerity, as well as the creation of new European mechanisms of funding development projects.

The gain by the Socialist Party largely came at the expense of ex-President Sarkozy's UMP (Union for a Popular Majority), which, in spite of some small gains for allies, lost 119 seats, ending up with 229 seats for itself and allies. This is a much bigger swing away from the UMP and toward the Socialists than was seen in the presidential election.

The Left Front (Front Gauche) - though during the presidential elections its candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon was able to generate a lot of enthusiasm - did not do well, losing eight seats and ending up with 10 in the new Chamber of Deputies. It seems likely that at the last moment, a large proportion of the Left Front's base moved to the Socialist column.

The extreme right-wing, verging-on-fascist, National Front did better than the last time, and entered the Chamber of Deputies with two seats, having had none before. The National Front's ferociously reactionary presidential candidate ran for a seat in the constituency of Henin-Beaumont in the north of France, but was narrowly defeated by a Socialist Party candidate. The overall national vote for the anti-immigrant National Front was 13.6 percent, down from the nearly 18 percent in the first round of the presidential elections, but nevertheless the biggest advance for the extremist right in recent Western European elections.

The new majority in the Chamber of Deputies is center-left and "pro Europe," which means that they will make some moves to restore their own country's social safety net, shredded under Sarkozy, but they do not intend to do anything like pulling France out of the European Union or the Euro zone.

An important item will now be whether Hollande, his hand strengthened by the parliamentary victory, will try to modify the European fiscal compact called the "Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union" that the German government and the "troika" of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission want to use to force even more austerity, especially on the poorer governments in the area, even if it causes them to collide with the wishes of their own people. Many in Europe see this treaty as a gross violation of national sovereignty, but so far not enough pressure has been generated against it for it to be significantly changed.

Hollande has said that he does not intend for France to "play the game of exercising extortion against Greece", but it remains to be seen what will actually change in French policy.

Photo: Socialist Party of France Facebook page.

Canada may fast-track Big Oil at expense of environment

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Activists and critics alike are outraged at the Canadian government's recent decision to drastically downsize its environmental assessment process. Most believe this is a profit-driven bid to push environmental review and regulation aside in pursuit of oil and gas projects.

The planned changes were first announced April 17, but prior to that had been mentioned in March's federal budget. The changes would hand federal-level environmental oversight on projects down to the Canadian provinces to manage (which many feel will lessen the amount of effort put into it). Worst of all, they would reduce the number of federal environmental review organizations and departments from 40 to three.

This comes as a serious blow, not only to the departmental jobs that will be lost, but also to the environment itself. It may be particularly troubling given that this move directly follows massive layoffs at the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which resulted in top world ocean scientists finding themselves suddenly jobless.

Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver has argued that the "cumbersome" current assessment process needs to be streamlined, and that doing so would free up the government to focus on "major projects." But most aren't buying that. Critics have questioned, moreover, what constitutes a "major project" - many believe Oliver is talking about Big Oil.

Provincial environmental oversight - as opposed to federal review - also worries people, who look back on a January 2010 incident in which a British Columbia review process approved an $800 million proposal for a gold and copper mine. The federal government vetoed that proposal when it was found that the project would have adverse effects on fish habitat. Essentially, environmentalists say, it would have turned the area's Fish Lake into a waste dump.

Allowing provinces to oversee environmental issues would probably not end well, said Devon Page, executive director of Ecojustice, a nonprofit Canada-based environmental law firm. "My understanding is that they've done no review of the provinces' ability to take on that responsibility," remarked Page. "We have direct experience with how that could play out," he added, referring to the Fish Lake proposal.

The big environmental downgrade will happen via legislation that will be introduced "fairly soon," according to Oliver. The law would also introduce two-year limits for assessments of major oil and gas mining projects.

In the midst of all this, there is also a third opinion. Some Canadians believe that environmental review and protection can co-exist with oil and gas production. According to the research company Ipsos Reid, which conducted a survey on the matter, "most Canadians believe we have the technology, the insight, and the means to be able to do [both]," said the company's senior vice-president, John Wright.

"We've now reached a stage in our lives having witnessed the advent of technology and oversight, that it's within the grasp of companies and governments to actually be able to do this and to enforce it," he added.

But what is occurring right now in Canada, said Page, marks a definite shift in priorities - one that "speaks more to dismantling environmental protection laws than it does to streamlining." He noted that, since smaller projects will no longer enjoy careful review, their cumulative environmental impact won't be known.

"This approach epitomizes death by a thousand cuts," he remarked.

Photo: Peter Blanchard // CC 2.0

At G-20, union leaders make the case for jobs not austerity

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:24:00 +0000

LOS CABOS, Mexico (PAI) -- A group of union leaders, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, delivered the strong message that "austerity does not work," and indeed only makes things worse for workers, to the G-20 leaders of the industrialized world, meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico.

The world's unions, who now have "a seat at the table," made the point that the crisis of jobs, worker rights and social protection must be solved to help pull the globe out of its tailspin, according to Philip Jennings, general secretary of Union Network International (UNI), a coalition of 900 world unions with 20 million members.

The world's national leaders are "more focused" on the crisis in jobs in their countries and globally than they were six or seven months ago, as Europe is in another recession and the rest of the world may be heading for one, Jennings says.

One difference this time, Jennings said in an exclusive interview with Press Associates Union News Service, is that union leaders were "inside the room" making their case to U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders.

Another difference is world leaders - or at least some of them - are listening.

Obama, Merkel and the others met in Los Cabos against the background of sluggish to non-existent worldwide growth, the European slide - which affects workers in other nations - and what Jennings, Trumka and other unionists call the failure of austerity policies preached by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, both Conservative Party leaders, and U.S. tea party Republicans.

Union leaders spent the days before Los Cabos meeting with the G-20's labor ministers and drafting an agenda to restore growth and jobs. They've spent the summit itself in formal presentations and one-on-one lobbying of the national leaders.

"Our key point is the austerity that Cameron and Harper in particular pushed onto their colleagues at the last summit is not working to produce jobs or pull the world out of its slump," Jennings said. "So we have to rethink the harshness of austerity."

Trumka convinced Obama, Jennings said. The AFL-CIO leader met at the White House before the summit at Los Cabos, to make the same points: "Obama came out with two messages: He agrees with us on ways to get jobs and growth and his message to Europe is to 'Get your act together.'" Trumka had no immediate comment.

The union leaders' blunt messages for the world leaders demanded that nations get large firms to "put the mounting cash pile they're sitting on back into the economy to stimulate investments."

The unionists added that abandoning austerity schemes "would put more money back into working people's pockets," in turn stimulating demand and create jobs.

Finally, unionists demanded world leaders "change the rules of the game," to speed up financial market reforms and deliver a coordinated international jobs plan.

And they cited an International Trade Union Confederation poll of citizens in 13 of the developed nations at the summit that showed mass discontent with the economic austerity foisted upon the world, and its impact.

"People think the banks have too much power, that politicians are not listening" to their citizens "but looking the other way, and that they (leaders) are not helping working people," he said.

The unionists got positive reactions from Obama and new French President Francois Hollande, as well as leaders of Brazil, Argentina and India. Cameron refused to meet with the union leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin met Russia's union leaders attending the G-20. Merkel also reacted positively, but was puzzled when Jennings told her that her words ran counter to the austerity that Germany imposed on Greece.

The Greek financial crisis led to a European bailout, conditioned on deep cuts in wages and pensions, plus mass layoffs. The crisis there continues, with Greeks trying to form a government that would stay in the European financial system - instead of one that would pull out, producing a cascade of dominoes in other financially troubled nations and another worldwide slump.

When Jennings warned Merkel of the impact of the Greek austerity moves, she "promised to look into it," he said. "But I can't believe she was unaware of the effect."

He also said that what the leaders say and what they may do for their workers, coming out of Los Cabos, could be very different.

"They're coming up with a response" to the world jobs crisis "but not at the speed we'd like," Jennings said of the G-20 leaders.

"And their response looks good on paper, but can they bring it home?" he asks.

Photo: Front pages of newspapers the day before elections in Greece, June 16. Greeks vote for the second time in six weeks on strict austerity measures taken in return for billions of euros in rescue loans from other European countries and the International Monetary Fund. Dimitri Messinis/AP

Greek left misses winning by a hair

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:39:00 +0000

On Sunday June 17, Greece held a new election to correct the fact that in the last one, on May 6, voters split their votes in such a way as to make the formation of a governing majority impossible. Now it looks as if a coalition will be built around the conservative New Democratic Party (Nea Demokratia), but how this coalition will deal with Greece's punishing economic crisis is anybody's guess.

The major dynamic leading up to Sunday's election was the galloping pace at which the left-wing SYRIZA party was advancing in the public opinion polls. SYRIZA is a heterodox leftist party which includes some former members of the Greek Communist Party but also some Trotskyites, Maoists, social democrats and others. It had surprised many by coming in second after New Democracy in the last election, leaving the social democratic Pan Hellenic Socialist Party, PASOK, in its dust.

The question now was would SYRIZA overtake ND also. A bizarrely undemocratic feature of the Greek electoral system is that the party that comes in first in parliamentary elections, even if just by one vote, is immediately awarded 50 extra seats in the 300-seat parliament. When ND came in first in April, even those 50 seats were not enough to let it head a coalition government.

Sunday's result for SYRIZA was, as Marx (Groucho) used to say, "close, but no cigar." Both SYRIZA and ND increased their popular vote. SYRIZA increased its seats in parliament by 19, to a total of 71 as opposed to the 52 it won in the last election. ND edged out SYRIZA by 1,825,609 to 1,655,053, and so came in first and won the extra 50-seat bonus, for a total of 129.

The advances for both the conservative ND and the leftist SYRIZA came mostly at the expense of PASOK, which dropped by eight seats to only 33 in the new parliament. This was voter punishment of PASOK for having presided over the start of the current financial crisis, and having accepted the austerity program imposed by foreign creditors.

Very bad news was the overtly fascist Golden Dawn party saw only a very slight reduction in its popular vote of 425,980, and retained 18 of the 21 seats it had won in May. Golden Dawn celebrated this victory by an orgy of hooliganism featuring violence against leftists and immigrants.

The Greek Communist Party, KKE, saw severe losses. Its popular vote dropped somewhat from the last election, but this was reflected in a reduction of parliamentary seats from 26 to 12.

The previous ultra-right parliamentary party, LAOS (Popular Orthodox Rally), wiped out on May 6, did not succeed in re-entering parliament.

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of SYRIZA, made it clear that his party will not join a government which is committed to the austerity program, so New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras went shopping to smaller parties. On Wednesday, it was announced that a coalition will be formed of New Democracy, PASOK and the Democratic Left, with Samaras as prime minister.

Why did New Democracy edge out SYRIZA? Both had said they would prefer to keep Greece within the Euro zone, and both had promised to try to negotiate changes to soften the austerity program. In contrast, the KKE had openly called for Greek withdrawal from the Euro and the European Union (as well as NATO) no matter what the consequences. Public opinion polls had shown that Greek voters, though very angry with the parties that had got their country into its present straits - New Democracy and PASOK - were also afraid of the consequences of leaving, or being kicked out, of the Euro zone.

But the most important question is: What happens now? Greece is an economic basket case and its creditors, including the "troika" (International Monetary Fund, Central Bank of Europe and European Commission) and the Germans and other wealthy European states, are saying that they will offer little or no flexibility on the terms of the austerity programs that they have imposed in exchange for bailout loans. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said that it would be a pity if Greece left the Euro zone, but that if that is inevitable, so be it.

But new factors that have emerged include the spread of the financial and economic contagion from Greece, Ireland and Portugal to Spain and most likely also Italy, the latter two being much larger economies than the first three combined. And many economic commentators, not only on the left, point out that trying to get out of a depression by shrinking the economy is deranged: That just intensifies the problem.

It will now be seen whether France, the United States and other powerful countries can persuade the Germans to back off their intransigent position on austerity, and what this will mean for the Greek situation specifically.

Photo: Greeks wave banners of the left-wing SYRIZA party, June 14 in Athens. bluto blutarski // CC 2.0

Canada, bowing to oil companies, fires ocean scientists

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:34:00 +0000

After massive layoffs at Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, leading ocean scientists - and the environment itself - will suffer the consequences.

Scientists believe this is a profit-driven attempt by the government to eliminate environmental regulations to protect the oil and gas industry, at the expense of jobs and the health of marine life.

To add to the problem, the DFO's ocean contaminants program - which involves marine pollution research and the study of contaminants in fish - will be shut down effective Apr. 1, 2013. As a result, 75 jobs will be slashed, putting research scientists, chemists, and technicians out of work. This is all happening because the Canadian government is cutting $5.2 billion in spending over the next three years, during which 19,200 federal government jobs will be eliminated. 13,000 of those will be union jobs.

Among the scientists being laid off, many are the world's leading experts on marine mammals and contaminants. One such expert is Peter Ross, who noted that this seems like the first step in "the wholesale axing of pollution research," which will leave Canada - and much of the world - without the scientific knowledge to protect ocean life. It will also affect indigenous peoples who rely on ocean animals for traditional foods, according to Environmental Health News. And this is more, he remarked, than cost cutting - it's an attempt to act in the interests of the oil industry.

"Since being hired 13 years ago as a research scientist at [DFO]," said Ross, "I have been fortunate enough to conduct research on such magnificent creatures as killer whales, beluga whales, harbor seals, and sea otters. I have visited some of the wildest parts of British Columbia, Arctic Canada, and further afield." As a main part of his career, he said, he has "looked into the lives of fish and marine mammals, and the ways in which some of the 25,000 contaminants on the domestic market affect their health.

"Our knowledge has drawn on the combined expertise of dedicated technicians, biologists, vessel operators, and aboriginal colleagues. This is knowledge that informs policies, regulations, and practices that enable us to protect the ocean and its resources.

"It is with deep regret that I relay news of my termination of employment at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the loss of my dream job. It is with even greater sadness that I learn of the demise of DFO's entire contaminants research program. It is with apprehension that I ponder a Canada without any research or monitoring capacity for pollution in our three oceans, or our ability to manage its impacts on commercial fish stocks," which are "traditional foods for over 300,000 aboriginal people and marine wildlife."

One of the more recent contamination problems that will grow much worse with the dismantling of contamination research involves killer whales, which ingest chemicals from Chinook salmon in the Vancouver Island area - particularly, in the polluted Puget Sound. This species of whale is the world's most contaminated animal, and scientists say situations like this need much more research.

The whales are specifically contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which have toxic effects, including the ability to negatively alter hormones in the body; they are also believed to cause cancer.

The Chinook salmon that the whales eat inhabit waters tainted by pulp mills, military bases, and urban runoff, Ross explained. And because the salmon in the Puget Sound have a lower fat content, the killer whales need to consume about 50 percent more of them.

"Salmon are telling us something about what is happening in the Pacific Ocean," said Ross. "They're going out to sea, and by the time they come back, they have accumulated contaminants over their entire time there."

Other issues that ocean scientists were addressing, noted Ross, included "the effects of flame retardants on beluga whales, hydrocarbons in sea otter habitat, use of pesticides on salmon, and risk-benefit evaluation of traditional sea foods of First Nations and Inuit peoples.

"Past scientific discoveries such as high levels of PCBs in Inuit foods and eggshell thinning in seabirds formed the basis for national regulations and an international treaty that have led to cleaner oceans and safer aquatic foods for fish, wildlife, and humans."

With the closing of the DFO's contaminants research program and the firing of thousands of workers, this all goes right out the window. And, scientists feel, it does not bode well for the environment's future.

"Canada's silence on these issues will be deafening this summer and beyond," Ross concluded.

Photo: The risk that killer whales face will be exacerbated by a recent decision to excise Canadian pollution research, and to fire leading ocean scientists. Guillermo Arias/AP

Higher credit rating no help to the people of Honduras

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:39:00 +0000

Ever wonder about the purpose of those international "credit rating agencies" such as Moody's, Standard and Poor's and Fitch? Those are the people who have assigned themselves the task of raising and lowering the credit ratings of entire nations, including the United States, and thus greatly affecting the ability of those nations to sell bonds at reasonable rates?

Well, now you can see for yourself. Standard and Poor's just announced that it is raising the credit rating for the Central American nation of Honduras, from B/B to B+/B (for long term sovereign and local currency sovereignty credit), while leaving the short term rating at B.

This should make it slightly easier for Honduras to borrow money at lower rates. But there are extreme costs to the Honduran people for this kind of "stability."

What was the reason for this little gift? "Stability" has been improving in Honduras, according to the gnomes at Standard and Poors, meaning since the overthrow of the legally elected president, Manuel Zelaya, in 2009, and the very dodgy election in the fall of 2010. That election, carried out with troops on the street repressing the left-wing opposition, brought the conservative president, Pepe Lobo, to power, and he has enjoyed full support from the U.S. since then.

How does this stability manifest itself? By all accounts, in a greatly increased level of drug smuggling and the violence connected thereunto, under the conservative presidency of Pepe Lobo. Another sign of the kind of "stability" that Standard and Poor's likes is massive lawlessness and repression, directed at labor, peasant and social justice activists, the press (26 reporters murdered in 2 years), lesbians and gays, and national minorities.

Oh, yes, there have been improvements. According to Standard and Poor's, one of them is the "reform" of the government pension plan for teachers, INPREMA. No mention of the repression of unionized teachers in Honduras, of course. Standard and Poor's says that they think they can maintain this enhanced credit rating until after the next elections, scheduled for November 2013, but warn that if the government makes any concessions to the masses in the election setting that involve increased taxes or more social spending, it could lead to a revision downward.

As in other countries, Standard and Poor's sees the situation for investment improving when the situation of survival for workers, poor farmers and ordinary people is declining, sometimes catastrophically. The only danger they see comes from the Honduran working class and masses defending themselves, and perhaps winning the 2013 elections. According to the credit rating people, such things will not go unpunished.

Standard and Poor's, Fitch and Moody's are not objective analysts of the fiscal condition of nations like Honduras, Greece or the United States. They are watchdogs of international finance capital.

Old mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago once inspired much unintended mirth by explaining to Walter Cronkite, after the police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, that "The policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder." This is the kind of police function to which Standard and Poor's and the rest of rthe credit rating agencies are dedicated.

As for the kind of stability they foment, I close by quoting Rosa Luxembourg, penned after the authorities had restored order (i.e. stability) to the German capital after the failed Spartacist revolt of January 1919, and shortly before she was murdered:

"'Order prevails in Berlin!' You foolish lackeys! Your 'order' is built on sand. Tomorrow, the revolution will 'rise up again, clashing its weapons, and to your horror it will proclaim, with trumpets blazing:

"I was, I am, I shall be!'"

Photo: "Credit rating agencies give new right-wing government a higher credit rating than they gave Zelaya (pictured), so as to encourage the Right's current policies of austerity." Ed Betz/AP

Left wins first round in French legislative vote

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:11:00 +0000

There is good news for France's new Socialist Party President, Francois Hollande. In the first round of legislative elections on June 10, voters gave a rousing victory to the left (the Socialists, the Greens, and the Left Front, which includes the Communist Party), and a stinging defeat to the UMP party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy and its allies.

According to official figures the vote went 46.77 percent for the left parties, and 37.07 percent for the UMP and its allies. The ultra-right National Front got 13.6 percent, a drop from the 18 percent they got in the presidential election.

The breakdown on the left was Socialists and close allies 34.4 percent, Greens 5.46 percent and Left Front 6.91 percent. On the right, the UMP itself got 27.12 percent, the Radical Party 1.24 percent, the New Center 2.2 percent and other right wing candidates 3.51 percent. Turnout was rather low, about 43 percent.

We won't know precisely how this translates into seats in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the French Parliament) until the second round is finished on June 17. But most commentators are saying that President Hollande's hand is greatly strengthened and that either the Socialist Party alone, or together with the Greens and the Left Front, will have a firm majority of at least 289 seats in the in the 577 seat Chamber. The old conservative Sarkozy coalition will be reduced, and the fascistic National Front, which blames France's economic and social problems on immigrants and especially Muslims, will have a couple of seats in the Chamber for the first time.

The French two-round system is unusual; instead of a runoff between the two top scoring candidates in the first round, it is between all candidates who, the first time, got at least 12.5 percent of the popular vote. However, there is not a third round; a plurality in the second round puts a candidate into a parliamentary seat.

One piece of bad news was that the ferocious leader and former presidential candidate of the National Front, Martine LePen, got the most votes, about 42 percent in the Northern constituency of Henin-Beaumont, and the Left Front presidential candidate, Jean Luc Melenchon, was eliminated from the second round. However, there is a good chance that the Socialist Party candidate can defeat LePen in the second round.

With strong backing in Parliament, Hollande will not only be able to achieve his legislative program in France, but also internationally.

In domestic affairs, he has already turned sharply away from Sarkozy's neo-liberal austerity programs, ending tax breaks for the rich and pushing for the retirement age of some workers to be restored to 60 years.

In European affairs, it remains to be seen to what extent he will be able to counterbalance the Right Wing, pro-austerity policies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the "Troika" (International Monetary Fund, European Union, and European Central Bank) who have been pushing drastic austerity policies on the European countries that are currently facing sharp economic crises.

Hollande also has promised to withdraw all French troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012.

Photo: Mathieu Cugnot/AP

Greek fascist assaults two women on television

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 22:03:00 +0000

A male Greek fascist politician physically assaulted two left-wing women members of parliament during a television show June 8. There has been a warrant issued for his immediate arrest, although the man is in hiding currently.

Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman of the violent far-right extremist group Golden Dawn, got into a shouting match with the two women MPs, Liana Kanelli, a Communist from the KKE, and Rena Dourou, who's with the leftist SYRIZA Party.

Attempting to shout them down Kasidiaris took to violence and threw water in the face of Dourou. When Kanelli came to her aid, Kasidiaris smacked her three times in the face.

The Golden Dawn is a far-right extremist group linked to violent attacks against immigrants. (Story continues after video.)

The assaults took place before a new round of elections June 17. SYRIZA and other left parties are favored to win.

In last month's elections, voters, angry over more than two years of austerity measures and the misery resulting from them, punished the two ruling parties associated with those measures, New Democracy and PASOK. The anti-bank bailout left-wing SYRIZA (Radical Coalition of the Left) won a large number of seats, but all parties failed to form a coalition government.

A reflection of Greek voters' anger and the inherent danger of the economic situation for the people, fascist Golden Dawn won seats in parliament in that election for the first time.

Greece was under Nazi occupation and fascist rule in the 1930s and 40s, and a military junta from 1967-1974. Golden Dawn associates itself with those rulers.

Greek journalist Joanna Kakissis, for National Public Radio, reported:

"Kasidiaris snapped. He threw a glass of water in Dourou's face. And then - to the horror of the host who kept screaming no, no, no - he stood up and hit Kanelli in the face three times. Nick Malkoutzis, an editor at the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, says Greeks are horrified at the act.

"Malkoutzis said, 'Greece is still a very sort of traditional male-dominated society, and punching a woman is completely unacceptable to most people, let alone if you're doing it on live TV.'

"Kanelli told reporters later that the attack shamed the entire country:

"It happened to be my face, she said, but there are many faces that get hit by these people - faces of weak and scared victims that we never see.

"Political science professor Kostas Ifantis says he hopes voters now see Golden Dawn for who they really are.

"'These people are not just pro-violence. It's the definition of political violence. The hope is that at least some of those 440,000 people who voted for them will realize what their choice was,' he said.

"Golden Dawn leader Nikolas Michaloliakos blamed the two women for provoking his party's spokesman into losing his temper, Kakissis said in Athens."

On a historical note, U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist, was severely beaten on the Senate floor by a pro-slavery representative. Sumner nearly died from the inflicted wounds. The near-fatal beating came two days after Sumner's indictment of slavery speech, "Crime Against Kansas."

The war on Palestinian soccer: Free Mahmoud Sarsak

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 15:44:00 +0000

On June 3, Palestinian national soccer team member Mahmoud Sarsak completed 80 days of a grueling hunger-strike. He had sustained the strike despite the fact that nearly 2,000 Palestinian inmates had called off their own 28-day hunger strike weeks ago.

Although the story of Palestinian prisoners in Israel speaks to a common reality of unlawful detentions and widespread mistreatment, Sarsak's fate can also be viewed within its own unique context. The soccer player, who once sought to take the name and flag of his nation to international arenas, was arrested by Israeli soldiers in July 2009 while en route to join the national team in the West Bank.

Sarsak was branded an "illegal combatant" by Israel's military judicial system, and was since imprisoned without any charges or trial.

Sarsak is not alone in the continued hunger strike. Akram al-Rekhawi, a diabetic prisoner demanding proper medical care, has refused food for over 60 days.

At the time of writing of this article, both men were reportedly in dire medical condition. Sarsak, once of unmatched athletic built, is now gaunt beyond recognition. The already ill al-Rekhawi is dying.

According to rights groups, an Israeli court on May 30 granted prison doctors 12 more days before allowing independent doctors to visit the prisoners, further prolonging their suffering and isolation. Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI), which has done a remarkable job battling the draconian rules of Israeli military courts, continues to petition the court to meet with both al-Sarsak and al-Rekhawi, according to Ma'an news agency.

Sadly, the story here becomes typical. PHRI, along with other prisoners' rights groups, are doing all that civil society organizations can do within such an oppressive legal and political situation. Families are praying. Social media activists are sending constant updates and declaring solidarity. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is merely looking on - not due to any lack of concern for human rights, but due to the selective sympathy of Western governments and media.

Think of the uproar made by U.S. media over the fate of blind Chinese political activist Chen Guangcheng. When he took shelter in the U.S. embassy in Beijing, a near-diplomatic crisis ensued. Guangcheng was finally flown to the U.S. on May 19, and he recently delivered a talk in New York before an astounded audience.

"The 40-year-old, blind activist said that his lengthy detention (of seven years) demonstrates that lawlessness is still the norm in China," reported the New York Post on May 31. "Is there any justice? Is there any rationale in any of this?" Chen asked. Few in the U.S. media would contest the statement. But somehow the logic becomes entirely irrelevant when the perpetrator of injustice is Israel, and the victim is a Palestinian. Al-Rekhawi is not blind, but he has many medical ailments. He has been in Ramle prison clinic since his detention in 2004, receiving severely inadequate medical care.

Sarsak, who has been a witness to many tragedies, is now becoming one. The 25-year-old had once hoped to push the ranking of his national team back to a reasonable standing. If Palestinians ever deserve to be called "fanatics," it would be in reference to soccer. As a child growing up in Gaza, I remember playing soccer in few minute increments, braving Israeli military curfews, risking arrests, injury and even death. Somehow, in a very crowded refugee camp, soccer becomes tantamount to freedom.

Palestine's ranking at 164th in the world is testament not to any lack of passion for the game, but to the constant Israeli attempts at destroying even that national aspiration.

The examples of Israeli war on Palestinian soccer are too many to count, although most of them receive little or no media coverage whatsoever. In 2004 Israel blocked several essential players from accompanying the national team out of Gaza for a second match against Chinese Taipei. (Palestine had won the first match 8-0.) The obstacles culminated in the March 2006 bombing of the Palestinian Football Stadium in Gaza, which reduced the grass field to a massive crater. Then, in the war on Gaza ("Cast Lead" 2008-09), things turned bloody as Israel killed three national soccer players: Ayman Alkurd, Shadi Sbakhe and Wajeh Moshtahe. It also bombed their stadium again.

Sarsak was a promising new face of Palestinian soccer. In times of Palestinian disunity and factionalism, it was the national team that kept a symbolic unity between Gaza and the West Bank - and indeed Palestinians everywhere. These young men exemplify hope that better times are ahead. But Sarsak's star is now fading, as is his life. His mother, who hasn't seen him since his arrests, told Ma'an that she thinks of him every minute of each day. "Why is there no one moving to save his life?" she asked.

Writing in the Nation on May 10, Dave Zirin wrote, "Imagine if a member of Team USA Basketball- let's say Kobe Bryant - had been traveling to an international tournament only to be seized by a foreign government and held in prison for three years without trial or even hearing the charges for which he was imprisoned...Chances are all the powerful international sports organizations - the IOC, FIFA - would treat the jailing nation as a pariah until Kobe was free. And chances are that even Laker-haters would wear buttons that read, 'Free Kobe.'"

Sarsak is the Bryant of his people. But ask any political commentator and he will tell you why Mohmoud Sarsak is not Kobe Bryant, and why Al-Rekhawi is not Chen. It is the same prevalent logic of a powerful Washington-based "pro-Israel" lobby and all the rest. Even if the logic was founded, why are international sports institutions not standing in complete solidarity with the dying Sarsak? Why don't soccer matches include a moment of solidarity with killed Palestinian players, and the dying young man aching to join his teammates on the field once more? Why is Israel not fully and comprehensively boycotted by every international sports organization?

"As long as Sarsak remains indefinitely detained and as long as Israel targets sport and athletes as legitimate targets of war, they have no business being rewarded by FIFA or the UEFA, let alone even being a part of the community of international sports," wrote Zirin.

It would be a belated step, but an unequivocally urgent one, for Palestinian sportsmen are literally dying.

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. Photo by Joe Catron // CC 2.0

Red scare front and center in Colombia

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 11:42:00 +0000

At first glance, chaos and death in Colombia seem random. The numbers are vast: 5 million people displaced from the land, 50,000 "disappeared," and 2,000 bodies found in one of many common graves there. Yet special targeting is readily apparent. Victims of choice are those fighting for social change.

The toll of labor leaders and union activists, for example, is high: 2,800 murdered between 1984 and 2011. Students, indigenous leaders, and teachers have been killed. It's clear now that Communist Party leaders are in danger.

Carlos Lozano is a member of the Colombian Communist Party's executive committee; director since 1994 of the Party's weekly newspaper, Voz, Truth of the People; and a dedicated member of Colombians for Peace. Lozano and others returned recently from a trip through Britain, Ireland, and Belgium, aimed at securing international support for peace in Colombia. He conferred with parliamentarians and high government leaders.

Lozano indicated on June 4 that he had learned "hit men" in Bogota would be sharing $200,000 for killing him. The paramilitary group "Los Urabeños" was putting up the money. Piedad Cordoba, the leader of Colombians for Peace, was named as a target also. Evidently, the message for Lozano had been sent to Ivan Cepeda, director of the MOVICE human rights group, for delivery to the Communist leader.

The death threat for Carlos Lozano comes as David Ravelo, another Communist leader, approaches the second anniversary of his incarceration following a paramilitary leader's accusation that Ravelo was involved with a 1991 murder. Ravelo, a member of the Party's central committee, and leader of the CREDHOS human rights group, is awaiting a decision from a judge who heard testimony earlier in May.

Danger hanging over Lozano comes in the wake of murders, "disappearances," and intimidation visited upon leaders of the new Marcha Patriotica movement. That coalition of social movements and leftist political groups emerged publically in mid April as 200,000 Colombians demonstrated and marched in Bogota. The Communist Party plays a leading role in Marcha Patriotica.

Colombian observers are making a grim historical association. The Patriotic Union (UP) appeared in 1985 as part of President Belisario Betancur's attempt to settle an internal war. The plan was for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to abandon armed struggle and enter regular politics.

The FARC did just that, laying down its arms, and partnering with the Communist Party to form the UP electoral coalition. Killings started at once. Eventually public security forces and paramilitaries would murder 5,000 UP members, including elected officials, and the FARC took up its arms once more as a consequence. Meanwhile, the Communist Party and the FARC formally split from each other in 1993, with the Communist Party beginning then and continuing since to call for a peaceful, political solution to the civil conflict.

Now, with death threats mounting against the leaders of the Marcha Patriotica, and with threats, violence and other reprisals against leaders and cadre of the Communist Party as well, many Colombians now ask whether or not the emergence of the Marcha Patriotica, and the Colombian Communist Party's leadership role in the new formation, are triggering a replay of the violent assault against the UP.

U. S. and Colombian activists for social justice are calling for responsible Colombian officials to protect Lozano and to free David Ravelo. The situation is ripe, however, for more far-reaching responses. There's the matter, for one thing, of a U.S. hand in the violence and repression.

On May 30, the International Federation for Human Rights and other groups reported on the Colombian Army's "false positive" scandal to the Hague Institute for Global Justice. They showed that the Colombian Army killed 3,345 civilians in 2002-2008, dressed bodies in FARC uniforms, and reported them as guerrilla casualties.

The purpose was to flaunt high "body counts," seen as useful for encouraging U.S. support for the Colombian military. The National Security Archives has released declassified material showing U.S. officials were aware of the false positive phenomenon and other atrocities. Critics see the $8 billion the U.S. government has provided the Colombian military and police since 2000 as signaling U.S. complicity.

Blame falls also on the capitalist system itself, with its constant drive for profits. Paramilitaries work to protect Colombian drug trafficking moguls. Many paramilitary leaders have been traffickers. Marketing of illicit drugs to northern consumers is enormously profitable for banks in Europe and the United States. A recent London Guardian report suggests paramilitaries are an important cog in this worldwide system of enrichment. Their usefulness shines through in the long-established collaboration they enjoy with the Colombian Army, which continues. On June 4, El Tiempo published an interview with a jailed former Army officer. He took that opportunity to "acknowledge the nexus of one group of army officers with bands of hired assassins and paramilitary cartels."

To function, Colombian militarization and its paramilitary arm need an acceptable public face. Consequently, Lozano and other prominent Colombian peace activists have been falsely labeled as FARC supporters, often by means of fruitless investigations. Attempting thus to link them with terrorism, the Colombian government tries to blunt natural outrage at paramilitary excesses. Too often criminal behavior gets a pass, and perpetrators' usefulness to the rich and powerful is preserved.

Photo: Plano Sur // CC 2.0

Iranian union leader calls for workers' solidarity

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:27:00 +0000

The following letter was distributed by Reza Shahabi's Defense Committee:

To all my fellow workers, participating in the International Labor Organization's annual conference: My name is Reza Shahabi. I'm a board member of Tehran Bus Workers' Syndicate and its secretary treasurer. Due to my trade union activities, I was arrested and incarcerated on June 12, 2010. I was brutally attacked and beaten during my arrest, and severely afflicted, physically and psychologically.

Subsequently, I spent 11 months in solitary confinement, without my family having any information about my whereabouts during that entire period of time. Finally I've been sentenced to six years of imprisonment, banned for five years from any trade union activities and a fine of 7,000,000 Tomans (approximately $4,000). Because of all the beatings and physical and psychological abuses I have endured, I'm suffering from severe back and neck pain, and the left side of my body is practically paralyzed. Currently I am in hospital waiting for an operation.

Have I done anything outside the accepted protocols and conventions of ILO?

The query I have from you, my dear fellows participating in ILO's annual conference [May 30-June 14 in Geneva, Switzerland], is that: what role shall ILO and workers' representatives participating in its conference perform under such circumstances?

The only time we are of any significance to capitalist systems is when we're producing goods and services for them, and contribute to their interests. Otherwise, we get incarcerated, like myself, and all benefits and protections for our families are cut off, so as to force us to give in to their demands.

What crime have I committed to be incarcerated for six years and banned from any trade union activity for five years? Are demands for wage increase and benefits according to international standards and cost of living adjustments a crime? Is collecting membership dues from members in our syndicate a crime? Is asking for implementation of laws protecting workers from hazardous work environment a crime?

Is demanding job classifications illegal? Is asking for equality between women and men, and abolition of child labor a criminal act? Is compliance with health and safety codes and educating others in labor relations a crime? Is aspiring to have a dignified honorable human life compatible with international norms and standards illegal?

Is going to Labor Ministry and attempting to resolve labor issues through dispute settlement panels and in Court of Administrative Justice as a representative of workers, and defending their rights, deemed illegal?

Is creation of an independent, autonomous workers' organization considered a crime?

The query I have for all of those participating in this annual conference of ILO, is this: Have you asked this body and the representative of the Iranian government,"Based on what charges have workers and labor activists, such as myself or Messrs, Ali Nejati, Behnam Ebrahimzadeh, Rasol Bodaghi, Mehdi Farahi Shandiz, Shahrokh Zamani, Mohammad Jarahi, Alireza Akhavan, [or] Fariborz Raisdana have been arrested and incarcerated?"

And what role shall ILO and the workers' representatives at the International Labor Conference perform in such circumstances?

In the end, I would like to thank all workers and labor activists in Iran, France, and worldwide, who have been actively supporting us and working towards my freedom and freedom of all other incarcerated workers in Iran.

Reza Shahabi is a board member and secretary treasurer of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company. On June 4, 2012, he was hospitalized at Imam Khomeini Hospital-Tehran.

Photo: CODIR

Extremism, foreign intervention dangers increase in Mali

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:07:00 +0000

The political situation in the West African country of Mali (population 14.5 million) has taken a significant turn for the worse, with continued instability in the capital and major gains for groups wanting to break the country in half and create an Islamic state.

Such a state will possibly serve as a base of operations for al-Qaeda in Muslim Africa. The possibility that western nations, including the United States, might intervene with "boots on the ground" is getting stronger.

When Libyan strongman Muammar Gadaffi was overthrown last year by a combination of NATO forces and indigenous rebels, a large number of his fighters from the Tuareg ethnic group found themselves cut loose but in possession of vast amounts of armaments formerly belonging to the Libyan armed forces. They proceeded to invade the vast northeastern sector of Mali with the goal of establishing an independent Tuareg state, to be called Awazad. In this effort they made an alliance with Ansar Dine, Salafist Islamic forces with reputed links to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (North Africa), which is also headed by a Tuareg, Iyad ag Ghaly. The combined rebel forces quickly overran a large area, sweeping aside Malian army units and killing many.

This led to uproar in Mali's capital, Bamako, where the president, Amadou Toumani Touré, was accused of feckless irresponsibility for not providing enough support for his own troops in the northeast. On March 22, junior army officers, led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, overthrew Touré and established a military junta with the stated purpose of prosecuting the northern war more vigorously. But the army became even more disorganized as a result of the coup. Meanwhile Mali's neighboring states, grouped as ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) used sanctions to try to reverse the coup and restore civilian government. The result was that the northern rebels swept forward, as Malian troops fled and local militias found themselves outgunned.

So the combined Tuareg MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) and Ansar Dine (Defenders of the Faith) forces quickly captured all major towns in northeastern Mali, including the historic city of Timbuktu, a UNESCO world heritage site because of its distinctive mosques and other buildings and its collection of ancient Arabic script manuscripts.

Reports from Timbuktu and other captured towns indicate that the Tuareg separatists would sweep through, defeat any defending forces, and be on their way, but the Ansar Dine forces would come to stay, providing economic help to the poor but also immediately implementing strict sharia law, which they hope to spread to all of Mali and beyond. This clashes sharply with West African Muslim customs, which are heavily suffused with Sufi influences distinct from the austere practices that Ansar Dine shares with al-Qaeda and the extremely conservative Wahabbi Islam of Saudi Arabia. Women must cover their faces, restrictions are placed on music, and, especially, the Sufi practice of venerating Muslim "saints" and praying at their tombs is declared blasphemous and illegal.

There are indications that local people are pushing back, but their conquerors are heavily armed.

The fighting in Mali has led to a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to neighboring countries and aid agencies being unable to function.

The Tuareg separatists and Ansar Dine appear on the surface to have formed a mere alliance of convenience. The Tuareg leaders say they want to create a separate Tuareg republic, Azawad, and oppose strict sharia law. On the other hand, Ansar Dine originally did not want to break up Mali, but rather wanted to impose extreme sharia law on the whole country. But in May they came to an agreement to rule northeastern Mali together, and declared the national independence of Azawad.

Now the agreement appears to have fallen apart, the different goals of the two groups being an insuperable obstacle.

Meanwhile, in Bamako, after much international pressure, especially from ECOWAS, and an unsuccessful counter-coup, the military junta headed by Captain Sanogo agreed to step down (maybe - there are lots of conditions), and ex-President Touré agreed to step aside while new elections are prepared. An interim president, Dioncounda Traoré, who had been the speaker of the Malian parliament, was installed. But some supporters of the military junta were not happy with this and broke into Traoré's office and beat him so severely that he lost consciousness and had to be flown to Paris for medical tests.

Under such circumstances, the idea that the Malian government, whoever it is, could rally its army and reverse the gains of the northern rebels is a non-starter. But almost all African political leaders are horrified at the precedent of countries on the continent breaking up along ethnic or religious lines. So all the neighboring countries have denounced the breakaway of the Malian northeast and promised to reverse it. Intervention by armies of neighboring African states seems highly likely.

The French government takes the attitude that as the former colonial power which retains a lot of economic control over Mali, it has a responsibility not to let things get out of hand. Algeria, to the north, is particularly worried about having a radical Salafist state on its borders, as is Niger to Mali's east. Both these countries have significant Tuareg minorities.

A repeat of last year's intervention in Libya is not impossible.

Photo: U.S. soldiers in Mali in 2007. U.S. Army // CC 2.0

Iran rights group demands release of political prisoner “hostages”

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:22:00 +0000

The UK-based Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People's Rights (CODIR) says the Islamic Republic's political prisoners are hostages held to terrorize the nation.

In a June 2 statement, CODIR pledged its full support for campaigns launched by Iranian political prisoners and their supporters to secure the immediate release of all political prisoners in Iran. CODIR called on trade unions and human rights organizations internationally to give their full backing to the campaigns by expressing solidarity with the victims of the Iranian regime's reign of terror and demanding an immediate end to the detention of all those held on political grounds.

The arrest and imprisonment of trade unionists, women, students and political and human rights activists is commonplace in Iran. Their cruel abuse in captivity has been used as a tool by the Iranian theocratic regime for repressing the people. The regime's level of brutality in its treatment of political prisoners has always been a measure of the strength of the peoples' opposition.

The detention of two prominent members of the Iranian Writers' Association, Dr. Fariborz Raisdana and Ms. Manijeh Najm-Araaghi, are the most recent examples of such abuse.

The Iranian Writers' Association has been consistently critical of the regime's censorship and violation of the freedom of expression.

Following his speech criticising the government's decision in November 2010 to remove subsidies from most basic goods and services, Dr. Raisdana, a left-leaning economist and social and political activist, who had been detained and imprisoned several times previously, was first detained in relation to this matter in late 2011. Following payment of bail, he was released after a month but, on May 20, 2012, was rearrested and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

Praised by the World Bank and the IMF and hailed as the cornerstone of the Ahmadinejad government's economic policy, the removal of subsidies, which Dr. Raisdana was criticizing, has devastated the Iranian economy and national production.

In support of and in solidarity with Dr. Raisdana, a large number of Iranian social and political activists have signed a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights requesting the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran. Their letter states:

"We condemn the Islamic Republic's dictatorial actions and request that all international human rights organisations, especially the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, take resolute action to demand the freedom of all political prisoners in Iran."

On May 27 this year, Manijeh Najm Eragi, a writer, translator, women's rights activist, and the secretary of the Iranian Writers' Association, was transferred from court to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Charged with "propaganda against the regime," she had been convicted and sentenced to a year in prison.

Included in accusations against her was her attendance at ceremonies commemorating the lives of Mohammad Mokhtari, Mohammad Ja'afar Poyandeh and the accomplished poet Ahmad Shamlu, all of whom had been brutally murdered by the regime. Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Ja'afar Poyandeh were prominent members of the Iranian Writers' Association. In opposition to Ms, Najm Eragi's detention, more than 400 women's rights activists, writers and political and social activists signed a statement demanding her immediate and unconditional release.

In another initiative, four political prisoners from Rajaei Shahr Prison sent a letter on May 1 to Chief Prosecutor Mohsen Ejeehi, warning him of intensifying pressure on political prisoners during the past 18 months. In their letter, Massoud Bastani, Rasoul Bedagi, Keyvan Samimi and Heshmatolah Tabarzadi stated that, "according to the prison infirmary, prohibition of daily telephone calls to our families has caused an increase in the use of anti-depressants."

They highlighted the fate of a fellow prisoner. "Mansour Radpour's death from a stroke," they said, "was a predictable tragedy concerning which his family and cellmates had warned the prison authorities repeatedly." Radpour, who was held in the Special Security Section of Rajaeih Shar Prison, had been a strong wrestler and capable head-chef for the political section of the prison.

In another signed statement, more than 350 women's rights, human rights and social and political activists have protested against the detention of Ms. Narges Mohammadi and demanded her release.

According to the statement:

"On Sunday 23rd April 2012, Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist and Vice-President of the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights, was transferred to the Evin Prison to begin her six-year sentence.

"The unjust ruling against this brave woman, a human rights supporter, was based on unfounded accusations of unlawful assembly and conspiracy to act against national security; membership of the Human Rights Supporters' Centre and propaganda against the regime. She was unlawfully arrested and detained and, in an undisclosed and unjust court, was sentenced to six years of prison."

Photo: Steve Rhodes // CC 2.0

Irish voters hold their noses, OK forced austerity

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:12:00 +0000

The referendum on approval of the European Fiscal Compact ("Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union"), required by the Irish constitution, yielded a vote of 60.3 percent for approval and 39.7 percent against, with only about half of eligible people voting.

This will be seen as a victory for those who are promoting austerity as the solution for Europe's fiscal woes.

But rather, it shows that when you put a pistol to someone's head and order them to "stand and deliver," you usually can get your way.

The European Fiscal Compact was finalized and signed by all the European Union countries except the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic in March of this year. It is a toughening of the Stability and Growth Pact, approved in 1997, which had required that all countries keep their annual budget deficits at no greater than three percent, and their total national debt no higher than 60 percent of Gross Domestic Product. In practice, that pact had proved to be unenforceable: Countries big and small, including powerhouses like Germany were regularly out of conformity with those norms. While many on the left felt that the Stability and Growth Pact was too rigid to work, the right and the European ruling class came to the opposite conclusion, that it was not strict enough and lacked enforcement mechanisms.

So the new European Fiscal Pact made the criteria stricter: Now no country is to be allowed to run a deficit greater than 0.5 percent (half of one percent) annually. This must be enshrined in legislation in each country - that is, every country has to pass what we in the U.S. would call "balanced budget" legislation.

Further, not only must the national debt of each country not exceed 60 percent, but also in those countries whose debt already exceeds this amount, it has to be reduced by 5 percent each year.

There will be various monitoring mechanisms based in Brussels, the capital of the European Union, and countries out of compliance will be fined each year, by the European Court of Justice, an amount equivalent to 0.1 percent (one tenth of one percent) of that country's Gross Domestic Product.

This will force the poorer countries to carry out even more drastic retrenchments of education, health care services and other forms of social welfare. And there is no sign it will produce either "stability" or "growth." Many economists feel that one cannot grow an economy by impoverishing a large part of the population, and this pact guarantees political instability.

This pact is to come into force in January 2013 if only 12 countries' legislatures have approved it, but it then will be enforceable on all. Those who don't approve it will not get bailout loans.

Ireland is the only country whose constitution required a plebiscite to approve the pact. It has already been approved by the legislatures of Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. Everywhere, this pact has been opposed by the communist parties, some others on the left, and a section of the socialists and of the labor unions.

The Irish government of Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, of the Fine Gael Party and his coalition partners from the Labour Party stumped for the "yes" vote, which was demanded by the "troika" of the European Commission (governing body of the European Union), the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In contrast, the Irish left, including the Communist Party of Ireland, the Socialist Party and Sinn Fein, as well as some but not all labor unions, pushed hard for the "no" option.

There was no enthusiasm for the "yes" vote. Rather, voters opted for it out of fear of what the powers that be in Europe would do to them and their country if they did otherwise.

A major argument for the "no" vote was the issue of national sovereignty. The Irish people have sacrificed their lives for centuries in order to become "a nation once again." The European Fiscal Compact and the related European Stability Mechanism substantially curtail the right of the elected government of each member country to run its own economic affairs.

But Ireland is a small country with only 5.6 million inhabitants. In 2008, as part of the worldwide financial crisis, there was a crisis in Ireland caused by the collapsing real estate bubble, which in turn caused a massive bank crisis. The Irish government of the time went deeply into debt bailing out the banks, and sharply cut its social welfare budget. Unemployment and emigration skyrocketed amidst mass demonstrations and Prime Minister Brian Cowan's coalition was driven out of power. This is what has put Ireland in a situation in which a significant loss of sovereignty seems a lesser evil to those who voted "yes" in the plebiscite compared to the damage that could be done to their country if they did not go along with the program.

The new French president, Francois Hollande of France's Socialist Party, has said that he wants to renegotiate the European Fiscal Compact. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to accomplish this.

Photo: Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny speaks to the media. Peter Morrison/AP