People Before Profit blog

Carter calls for Cuban 5 release, end to blockade

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:53:00 +0000

MIAMI - Former President Jimmy Carter, during a three-day visit to Cuba this week, called for a release of the Cuban Five and an end to the long-standing U.S. blockade against the island nation.

"I believe that the detention of the Cuban Five makes no sense," Carter said in a March 30 press conference in Havana, as reported by Granma, the newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party. "There have been doubts expressed in U.S. courts and by human rights organizations around the world. They have now been in prison 12 years and I hope that in the near future they will be freed to return to their homes."

The five Cubans were arrested in Miami in 1998, where they were sent to investigate possible terrorist activities sponsored by anti-communist Cuban exiles. After finding a potential plot, they reported to Havana, and Havana informed the U.S. government. But instead of acting on that information, U.S. authorities arrested the five and charged them with espionage and other criminal activities. They have since spent more than a decade in prison.

In his remarks Carter referred to the five men as "Cuban patriots."

Carter returned home yesterday after his whirlwind trip in which he met with everyone from dissidents to Cuban President Raúl Castro and former President Fidel Castro.

The purpose of Carter's trip, sponsored by his Carter Center foundation, was officially to discuss with the Cuban leadership plans for economic changes in their socialist economy, expected to be ratified at the upcoming Cuban Communist Party congress. However, many expected that Carter would address the case of U.S. contractor Alan Gross, sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban prison.

"I didn't come here with the idea of arranging any swap," Carter said in response to a question from an Associated Press reporter. "I think the two cases, that of Gross and that of the Five, are separate, different and shouldn't be interrelated. I think Alan Gross should be free because he is not guilty of a serious crime and I think the five Cubans should be freed because they have already been in prison for 12 years and the original circumstances around their original trial are considered questionable, even by the judges and the U.S. judicial system."

Cuba says Gross received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which claims to be a democracy-building organization and which Havana fears is working for the overthrow of their government. Gross was arrested for delivering a satellite phone to dissidents.

An aide to Carter said that Gross told the former president that he didn't realize he was carrying U.S. government-financed equipment. Gross, the aide who traveled with Carter said, was not told about this by the company with which he was working, Development Alternatives, based in Bethesda, Md., and believed he was on the island to help Jewish groups gain Internet access.

While Carter repeatedly stated that he was in Cuba as part of a private trip on behalf of his organization, he said during the press conference that he spoke with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the trip and that he planned to do so again upon returning to the U.S.

The former U.S. president was given time on Cuban television to speak directly to viewers. He said that he was pleased to have met with "some Cuban citizens who are in disagreement with the government. We have been very encouraged in terms of the possibilities of the meeting that is going to take place in the [Cuban] Congress next month."

Separately, Carter said that his hope is for "complete freedom for all Cuban people, for speech and for assembly, for travel." He met with dissident bloggers and others, including leaders of the "Ladies in White" protest group.

What was said in the meetings between Carter and Raul Castro or Fidel Castro is not yet public information. Cuban President Raúl Castro apparently offered friendly relations with the U.S., provided they were based on respect for sovereignty, a sentiment with which Carter agreed. In his meeting with Fidel, Carter said the two ex-presidents chatted "like old friends."

During Carter's presidency, he removed travel restrictions on Americans going to Cuba. As for now, Carter stated his conviction that "we should immediately lift the trade embargo the United States has imposed against the people of Cuba," because "it impedes rather than assists in seeing further reforms made."

Image: Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, greets former President Jimmy Carter at Revolution Palace in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday March 29, 2011. Carter arrived Monday with his wife Rosalynn for a three-day stay on the island. Carter also visited Cuba in 2002, and is the only former U.S. president to do so since the 1959 revolution. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano, Pool)

Japanese Communists mobilize support for quake victims

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:14:00 +0000

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko on March 20 visited disaster-hit Iwate and Fukushima prefectures to deliver 10 million yen, worth more than U.S. $120,000, each in donations that the JCP collected at various locations across Japan.

Takahashi is leading the JCP on-site taskforce to deal with what is being called the Great East Japan Disaster.

Iwate Governor Tasso Takuya expressed his appreciation and said, "I'll put the donations to good use for emergency assistance and to help rebuild disaster areas."

Tasso also demanded that the national government take drastic measures to help and revitalize the areas hit by the earthquake and tsunami. Responding to the governor, Takahashi said that disaster-hit areas lost their administrative functions and that it is necessary for the central government to provide support for those areas beyond the provisions of the existing relevant laws.

Governor Tasso stated, "I hope the energetic work of the JCP, which has grassroots power in local communities and a nationwide network, will continue to assist us."

On the previous day, Takahashi also handed over 10 million yen in donations to Miyagi Prefectural Vice Governor Miura Shuichi.

Local JCP organizations and members throughout the country are holding fund-raising campaigns for the disaster victims in the wake of the devastating March 11 natural earthquake and tsunami.

Donations collected by the JCP will be sent to municipalities and medical institutions in the disaster-hit areas and used for JCP relief activities.

The JCP is making efforts to grasp the real on-the-ground situation of the quake and tsunami stricken areas and respond to disaster victims' demands through the central and on-site taskforces that the JCP immediately established after the devastating disaster struck.

The JCP determines where to send donations it collected based on the degree of damage and informs the public how it used the donations through Akahata, the JCP's newspaper, and its website.

Local assembly members of the Japanese Communist Party have been involved in relief efforts in disaster-hit areas since March 11 when the major earthquake and tsunami occurred.

Minamisoma City in Fukushima Prefecture was devastated by the tsunami in the aftermath of the earthquake. In most of the city, residents are being told to stay inside following the serious damage incurred at the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.

Watanabe Kan'ichi, a JCP city assembly member of Minamisoma, found at one of the evacuation centers in the city a resident who is certified to drive trucks carrying dangerous materials. With the certification, he can drive a tank truck to transport gasoline from Koriyama City, which is 90 kilometers, about 56 miles, away from Minamisoma.

On the night of the 16th, gasoline was finally brought to the city for the first time after the quake by this truck driver.

The amount, however, allowed local cars to refuel with only 10 liters each. "We desperately need gasoline and heating oil. The Internet has been cut off even at the city office. Information networks must be restored as soon as possible," said Watanabe.

Originally published by the Japanese Press Service. Photo: JCP members take donations for hard-hit areas.

World Notes: Italy, Japan, Pakistan – and more

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:57:00 +0000

Italy: Migrant crisis is explosive

Italy's Lampedusa Island in the Mediterranean lies 100 miles east of Tunisia, 175 miles north of Libya. For desperate African migrants, the tiny island is a way station to Europe. Now, turmoil in Northern Africa has resulted in 18,500 migrants stuck there without food or shelter. Some 2,000 arrived on March 28 alone. They come in open boats, escorted by naval vessels. Local fishermen have now anchored those boats at the harbor entrance in barricade fashion. They and their neighbors have "exploded," according to rebelion.org. The Italian government is accused of delaying naval transfer of the migrants to detention centers elsewhere in Italy in order to create a dramatic, emergency situation, the better to persuade northern European governments to lend Italy a hand.

Yemen: Govt. faces secession, humanitarian crisis

The precarious regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is facing growing threats from secessionist movements, particularly Shi'ite Houthi rebels allied to Iran operating in Northern provinces, and the Southern Movement, heir to the former South Yemen socialist government that ended in 1994. Arab News reported March 28 that central government forces have already lost battles for control of Saada, Jawf, and Abyan in the North and Shabwa Province in the South. Looming over this political seesaw is a giant humanitarian crisis. UN Humanitarian Affairs spokesperson Valerie Amos cites 300,000 displaced persons in the North. Severe water and food shortages, exacerbated by drought, have left 2.7 million people facing starvation. Some 40 percent of Yemeni children are malnourished.

Japan: Working families face rough road

In addition to earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant disasters, working people will soon be confronting serious economic troubles. The situation for many is already precarious. Some 15 percent of Tokyo residents depended on welfare payments in January, before "industrial restructuring," added two million more recipient households. Following the earthquake, the government is re-thinking its monthly child care allowance, increased last year. Resort to charitable donations will take on importance. The government expects that costs of recovery and diminished industrial production will result in economic growth falling to 0.5 percent annually. Preliminary estimates allot $309 billion for recovery costs for quake-affected areas. That will exacerbate an already severe debt crisis, with dire effects on social spending, according to Inter Press Service.

Pakistan: Relations with Washington are strained

Part of the arrangements under which the government released U.S. citizen Raymond Davis, accused of murdering two Pakistani civilians, was U.S. acquiescence in eventually withdrawing 331 U.S. officials from Pakistan, specifically those who are, like Davis, "suspected of engaging in espionage under diplomatic cover." According to Indian Express on March 24, the U.S. employees would be required to leave "voluntarily" within a specified, but unknown, time. Pakistan would not classify them as "persona non grata." The U.S. agreed to increase military aid and to subject candidates for diplomatic immunity to mandatory scrutiny. Another marker of precarious U.S.- Pakistan relations surfaced the same day in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, when 800 student activists joined tribesmen in protesting a recent drone attack which killed 44 people.

Bolivia: USAID on the way out

On March 29, the Movement toward Socialism (MAS) Party, which holds a majority in the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies, offered legislation aimed at expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). MAS parliamentary leader Edwin Tupa indicated the measure would also be establishing norms regulating in-country functioning of foreign NGO's. Reports would be required as to sources of foreign money invested in Bolivia .The USAID is "another link in Washington's interference in [our] internal affairs, under the mask of cooperation," he told TeleSur. The legislator made reference also to U.S. clandestine groups still active in the country engaged in destabilization. In June 2010, President Evo Morales threaten to expel USAID, alleging conspiratorial activities, but backed off because legislative approval could not be obtained at that time.

Cuba: Continuing revelations on U.S. subversion

Pediatric cardiologist Manuel Collera appeared on television March 28 as another in a series unmasking US intelligence agents in Cuba. Beginning in 2000 he befriended U.S. and Canadian visitors bringing humanitarian aid. His U.S. assigned job, reports Cubadebate.cu, was to identify Cubans to receive the humanitarian aid, using it as entrée into antigovernment activities. He conferred often with U.S. government representatives. The U.S. Interests Section in Havana arranged contacts with North American visitors. The Donner Foundation of Canada and Pan American Foundation for Development served as conduits of money to fund anti-government projects in Cuba. Jean Guy Allard reported recently that USAID, which funded the latter group, joined the U.S. State Department this year in spending $30 million on Internet destabilization projects.

Carter in Cuba to meet with Raúl Castro

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:19:00 +0000

Former President Jimmy Carter began a three-day visit to Cuba yesterday, amidst a stormy background of seemingly constant escalation and de-escalation of tensions between the U.S. and the island nation.

On the first day of his visit, Carter met with leaders of the Cuban Jewish community as well as the Catholic Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega. The Catholic Church, which had a rocky relationship with Cuban authorities for years, began a dialogue with President Raúl Castro in 2010.

Carter visited Cuba previously in 2002, the first and only U.S. president to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution. According to the Cuban press, the visit "was a demonstration of his interest in better bilateral relations."

The ex-president's trip takes place during uncertain times for the island nation and its relationship with the United States. In what some consider the beginning of a thaw, the Obama administration loosened restrictions that President Bush had imposed on exchanges with Cuba, but tensions flared up again when a Cuban court sentenced U.S. contractor Alan Gross to 15 years in prison for crimes against state security.

Gross, who received funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, contends that he was simply trying to help the island's Jewish community gain Internet access when he was arrested in 2009. Cuban Jewish leaders, however, deny having met Gross, and Cuban authorities charged that he was working as a "mercenary" on behalf of the U.S. to deliver communications equipment to U.S.-backed dissidents.

"We have spoken to some leaders about Mr. Gross's case," Carter told reporters today. He did not say what took place during those discussions, saying only, "I am not here to take him out of the country."

Carter was scheduled to meet with President Raúl Castro later today.

Carter and Cuban leaders have said there are no plans to take up the issue of the Cuban Five, Cuban citizens who went to the U.S. to try to foil terrorist plots against Cuba. The five men are sitting in U.S. jails, convicted of espionage even though they committed no actions against the U.S. But some commentators have suggested Carter may push the Cuban government to release Gross on humanitarian grounds or to broker an exchange of prisoners.

Bolstering the exchange theory is the fact that the lawyer who defended Gross in Cuban courts, Nuris Piñero Sierra, also represents the families of the Five.

Another element in the mix is the case of CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles, who is on trial in El Paso, Texas. Carriles, who masterminded the downing of a Cuban airplane, killing 73 people, and terrorist attacks against Cuban hotels and tourist areas that led to the death of an Italian tourist, is not on trial as a terrorist, but for lying to U.S. immigration officials. Nevertheless, Cuba, which wants Posada extradited either there or to Venezuela, has given major press coverage to the proceedings.

Carter's visit comes just before the next congress of the Cuban Communist Party, set to take place next month. Vigorous debate is ongoing across the island, as Cuba's leadership plans to press for a new economic approach to socialism at the meeting, the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party.

The transition, which borrows some elements from China and Vietnam, will be specifically Cuban, leaders say, and they are consequently encouraging more meetings than normal at the grassroots level. In those meetings, citizens are encouraged to put forward their ideas, fears and especially their complaints about how things are run. The opinions are to be compiled and summarized for the delegates elected to the Congress to better inform the decision-making process.

The party congress is one of the main reasons for Carter's visit. According to the Carter Center, he and former first lady Rosalynn Carter traveled to Cuba to "meet with President Raúl Castro and other Cuban officials and citizens to learn about new economic policies and the upcoming party congress, and to discuss ways to improve U.S.-Cuba relations."

While Carter's trip is technically a private venture, sponsored by his organization, analysts say some sort of policy announcement, either from the Cuban side, the U.S. or both, is possible.

Photo: Former President Jimmy Carter, second from right, and his wife Rosalynn Carter, second from left, are welcomed by Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, right, and an unidentified protocol official upon their arrival at Jose Marti airport in Havana, Cuba, Monday, March 28. (AP/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina)

Honduran teachers’ protests trigger repression, fight-back

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:20:00 +0000

A strike by teachers in the Central American nation of Honduras has led to a confrontation with the right-wing government of President Porfirio Lobo. Soldiers and police seized and jailed 19 teachers and a few others March 24 for demonstrating against educational privatization. Their jail stay may be prolonged. The magistrate in charge of arraignments refuses to inspect police reports, and police officials stormed though judicial offices demanding the prisoners' referral to a court for political cases.

On March 26, the National Front of Popular Resistance (FHRP, for its Spanish initials), which has been fighting for the democratization of Honduran society and politics since the June 2009 right-wing coup d'état, called on March 26 for "freedom for political prisoners."

For two weeks, thousands of teachers had protested in the streets against privatization. Dozens have been wounded and many jailed. A police tear gas cartridge hit a leading activist teacher, Ilse Ivania Velásquez, in the face, killing her. At one point, police swept into the National Autonomous University to block students from joining demonstrators outside. Students resisted. Several were seriously wounded. At various times, police releasing tear gas and wielding clubs attacked teachers gathered in schools.

On March 25 in Tegucigalpa, students' parents assembled to discuss repression unleashed by soldiers and police on a daily basis. Afterwards they demonstrated in the street, only to be met with police clubs and tear gas. Meanwhile President Porfirio Lobo was delivering to the Army's anti-bomb squad two automobiles fitted out with anti-terrorist gear. On March 26, teachers and the FNRP organized a motor vehicle caravan of protest through Tegucigalpa streets. A nurses' group announced they too would soon be protesting.

Soldiers captured youths, incarcerating them in the basement of a military office building despite constitutional prohibitions on using homes, and "special installations" to house prisoners. On March 21, police using clubs and tear gas assaulted 13 reporters at a demonstration, pursuing them with tanks and destroying cameras. One of the reporters credited the police with "establishing attacks on reporters as normal." During 18 months of President Lobo's regime, ten reporters have been murdered.

Also on the eventful March 25, Honduran human rights activists and representatives of an international human rights mission were in Washington, D.C., testifying before the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, The latter group of human rights and religious activists, and lawyers, had recently toured Honduras, interviewing human rights defenders and victims.

In Washington, Marcia Aguiluz and other lawyers sought a declaration by the Commission calling for protection of basic rights in Honduras and identifying the government as responsible for violating rights to legal guarantees, free expression, free association, and judicial protection. The lawyers sought support for their demand that four judges dismissed for protesting President Zelaya's forced removal from power be reinstated. The main issues presented to the Commission were criminalization of human rights defenders, lack of judicial independence, and disproportionate use of force against civilians.

The International Mission brought developments in Honduras' Bajo Aguan region before both the full Commission and its specialist on Honduras, Felipe Gonzalez. In Bajo Aguan, agribusiness impresarios are taking over large tracts of land to establish African palm plantations for biofuel production. In a press report issued earlier in March, the Mission condemned the killings of 19 Bajo Aguan peasants since January 2010, along with rampant kidnapping, torture, sexual abuse and beatings; and displacement of small famers and their families.

Coalition of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras leader Bertha Oliva called upon the Commission to take a stand "to preserve the lives of hundreds of Hondurans living under a repressive regime." She brought up death threats against leaders of the FNRP, denounced persecution of gay people and journalists, and protested army and police violence.

Honduran human rights advocates were on hand in mid-March in Geneva to provide the United Nations Human Rights Council with follow-up information required through the initial phase of its "Universal Periodic Examination" on Honduras instituted in November, 2010.

The government on March 27 announced "the application of strong sanctions against teachers not returning to classes," including suspensions up to a year without pay. The statement characterized both teachers' groups and organizations associated with the FNRP as "vandals," accusing them of infiltrating state security forces and causing violence.

The FNRP has announced a "Great National Civic Work Stoppage," set for March 30. The object, "in each department, municipality, and village [is] is to paralyze the whole country: highways, public institutions, schools, and colleges." The notice says, "Pardon the inconvenience. We are fighting to build a new country!"

Image: Photo from earlier human rights struggle in Honduras. Provided by CODAFEH.

Protests assail rigged trial of Chile indigenous leaders

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:16:00 +0000

The conviction, with harsh sentences, of four leaders of the Mapuche indigenous group in Chile is drawing international and national condemnation of the right wing government of Chilean President Sebastian Piñera.

There are about 600,000 people of Mapuche origin in Chile and neighboring Argentina. About 200,000 of Chile's Mapuche speak the indigenous language, Mapudungun, and live in mostly indigenous communities south of the Bio-Bio River, though there are many people who self-identify as Mapuches in other areas of Chile as well. In centuries past, the Mapuche people gave the Spanish "conquistadores" a run for their money, and they also fought for many years against the government of independent Chile, eventually achieving a modus vivendi by which they basically ran their own affairs while recognizing Chilean sovereignty. However, starting in the 1880s, the Mapuche were subjected to a genocidal policy of war and starvation, which reduced their population and permitted the penetration of their heartland by large outsider-owned agricultural estates and timber companies.

Under the Popular Unity socialist government of President Salvador Allende, (1970 to 1973), the Mapuche people were able to make advances in terms of economic, political and cultural rights. For this reason, most Mapuches supported Allende against his right wing adversaries. So after the US supported military coup of September 11 1973, the Mapuches found themselves among the sectors of Chilean society that faced repression, and they lost ground.

Since the end of the military government, Mapuches have again been able to openly and actively advocate for their core demands: restoral of alienated Mapuche land; the right to be recognized as a special group within Chilean society; and the right to use the Mapudungun language and preserve traditional Mapuche cultural practices. Successive post-Pinochet governments have made some concessions, but the power of non-Mapuche landowners and of foreign and Chilean owned timber companies that exploit the Mapuche area's forest resources has been an obstacle to meeting Mapuche economic demands. The Mapuche organizations, some of whom follow the militant Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee (Coordinadora Arauco Malleco), have used a range of tactics from lobbying to civil disobedience and mass protest to demand that their lands be restored. The previous left-center "Concertacion" government, headed by Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, had tried to initiate a program of buying back historically Chilean land from its non Chilean owners, but that ran into the problem that the owners raised their prices sharply.

Starting in 2007, there were clashes between the Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee and the Carabineros, the Chilean rural police. A Mapuche activist was killed (shot in the back) during civil disobedience at the San Sebastian estate in 2009. However, four Mapuche leaders (Jose Huenuche Reiman, Hector Llaitul Carrillanca, Jonathan Mendez and Ramon Llanquileo Huillical Pilquiman) were arrested for an earlier supposed attack on a government prosecutor. The Mapuche people and their supporters in Chile and beyond were outraged by the fact that the government put them on trial using a special anti-terrorism law that was passed during the Pinochet dictatorship and never repealed. This law allows secret testimony by unidentified witnesses and other things that would not be permitted in courtrooms in most countries.

During the trial, the four defendants have engaged in a hunger strike to demand due process. The Mapuche organizations and the left have organized protests. But they were all convicted and, on March 22, sentenced to prison for 20 years for three of the accused and 25 years for Mr. Llaitul.

The Mapuche community and the Chilean left have expressed outrage at this kangaroo court proceeding and the harsh sentences.

The chairman of the Communist Party of Chile, Congressman Guillermo Teillier, accused the government of punishing the four individuals for being Mapuches. He added that the Chilean people "cannot accept this and we must profoundly call the attention of the Parliament and the executive so that this persecution is ended." Read more here.

An attorney for the four accused, Victoria Fariña, has announced that the case will be appealed on the basis of the inherent injustice of the Pinochet era anti-terrorism law. The case is being raised with international bodies also, including the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization and the Inter American Human Rights Organization.

Photo: A young Mapuche Weichafe, or warrior, patrols on horseback in the Temucuicui community in Chile. Chile is using an antiterrorism law inherited from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in an attempt to control Mapuche Indians. (AP 2009 Photo/Francisco Negroni)

British workers stage massive protest against cuts

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:49:00 +0000

LONDON (Morning Star) - This was the scene on the streets of London on Saturday when three-quarters of a million people staged the biggest protest yet in the fightback against the Tory-led coalition's brutal cuts program.

Some estimates put the number on the Trades Union Council-organized March for the Alternative as high as 800,000 - ordinary women, men and children from across Britain determined to add their voice to the resistance.

The demonstration brought together a broad cross-section of Britain's working class from the public and private sectors, young and old, black and white.

Its huge scale sent a warning to Prime Minister David Cameron that the trade union movement will not stand idly by while millions are made unemployed and public services are decimated.

Setting off from London's Embankment, workers from every walk of life donned union colors, waved flags and passionately chanted as they moved slowly towards a rally in Hyde Park.

People were still arriving in the park after the speakers had finished five hours after the head of the march had set off at 12 p.m.

Unite union General Secretary Len McCluskey, addressing the hundreds of thousands who did make it to Hyde Park by the start of speeches at 2 p.m., pointed out to huge cheers that the tail end was still at Waterloo Bridge four miles away.

McCluskey drew repeated roars of approval from the crowd after declaring of the Tories: "Unless they stop their cuts and drop the NHS Bill, this will be their poll tax." [He was referring to a bill seen as a move toward privatization of Britain's National Health Service.]

Tens of thousands of first-time marchers turned out to march through London.

Maritime worker Martin Ingham had travelled from Liverpool to take part in his first march.

Speaking to the Morning Star he said: "I'm worried about cuts to the Maritime Coastguard Agency, the merchant navy and to the tug fleet."

Ingham added that the cuts were an attack on the poor and that's what made him determined to attend his first protest march.

Selina Clark from Withernsea just outside Hull had left home at 4 a.m. to make the demonstration.

She said that she was marching for the first time because she "didn't want to lose her job" at a primary school.

"Unemployment is getting worse and we are starting to see the consequences," Clark said.

Although the TUC-organized demonstration was trouble-free there were some small scuffles.

And many people were annoyed when the police closed Embankment station before the march began because of the sheer scale of the demonstration, adding an extra mile for would-be marchers.

Originally published at MorningStarOnline.

Photo: National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) members gather for the march and rally in London, March 26. tuc.org.uk

Portugal government falls after losing austerity vote

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:24:00 +0000

Portuguese president José Socrates, of the Socialist Party, turned in his resignation on Wednesday after losing a crucial vote on government austerity. The fall of the Socrates cabinet may lead to new elections in a couple of months, and has profound implications for the future of the strategy of imposing austerity on the Portuguese people so as to avoid having to ask for a bailout from the European Union.

Socrates has been running a minority government as his own party does not have a parliamentary majority. He has been relying on support from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which in Portugal is a right wing formation, to govern. For over a year, Socrates has been trying to impose severe cuts in social programs as a way to avoid the kind of utter collapse that has forced Greece and Ireland to go hat-in-hand to the European Union The EU will certainly impose conditions of austerity on the Portuguese government in exchange for any financial help.

These austerity measures have been strongly opposed by the Portuguese Communist Party (PC) and its ally the Green Party, along with the majority of labor unions and other mass organizations, who demand that the wealthy interests who helped bring about the crisis be forced to pay for its resolution, instead of the workers and the poor. There has been a series of militant, anti-austerity demonstrations on the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities.

On Wednesday, the Communist Party delegation in the parliament proposed a motion rejecting the government's austerity-based economic program, called the "Program of Stability and Growth" (Programa de Estabilidade e Crescimento - PEC). The communist motion received the support of all opposition parties, of both left and right, with only Socrates' own socialist deputies opposing. Alternative bills could not pass either. Prime Minister Socrates then resigned, probably opening the way to new elections.

The government warned that the defeat of the austerity budget would have a bad impact on Portugal's bond ratings, a prediction which almost immediately came true.

The motive of the Communists and the Greens for opposing the government's budgetary program was based on the principle that the economic crisis should not be solved on the backs of the workers. The motives of the PSD and other right wing parties is seen as being opportunistic, to cause a crisis so that they can take electoral advantage of it.

Even some Socialist Party politicians accused the PSD of playing a dirty game for their own advantage.

Interviewed in various Portuguese media, the secretary general of the Portuguese Communist Party, Jeronimo de Sousa, pointed out that there is another way out of the dilemma: To drop the center right alliance between the Socialist Party and the PS, make a complete break with the anti-worker policies of the PS-PSD coalition, and form a new coalition (which would presumably be left-center instead of center-right) to fight for pro-people policies.

De Sousa stated, "There has been a policy of identification of the PS with the PSD, which has been negative for the workers and for the people." De Sousa added that it is not enough to merely "change the government, it is necessary to change the politics." Asked about new elections, he suggested that they might be avoided but on the other hand it would be important for the voice of the people to be heard.

Portugal's semi-ceremonial president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, is now meeting with the leaders of the various parties and will make a decision as to whether to call new elections based on those consultations.

Photo: Young people join a protest in Lisbon, March 12, called onto the streets by a social media campaign to vent their frustration at grim career prospects amid an acute economic crisis that shows no sign of abating. Thousands more attended simultaneous protests at 10 other cities nationwide. The banner reads " Precarious they want us, Rebellious they'll have us" and in the poster, "temporary job = permanent slavery." (Armando Franca/AP)

Communist Party of Egypt resumes open political activities

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:10:00 +0000

On March 15, the Communist Party of Egypt announced that after many years underground because of repression, it will be assuming open, public political activities once more.

The announcement came after "an extensive meeting with all of its bodies" and was unanimous.

The original Communist Party of Egypt, the Hizb al Shuvuci al-Misri had been founded in 1922, when Egypt was still a monarchy and very much under the thumb of British imperialism. The last king of Egypt, Farouk, was overthrown by an uprising of young army officers in 1952. Out of that revolution came the 14-year regime of Colonel Gamel Abdel Nasser, a radical nationalist who worked to break Egypt away from subservience to Western capitalist powers. In 1965, the Communist Party of Egypt merged into Nasser's own movement, the Arab Socialist Union.

A number of former Communist Party activists dissented from this merger and formed their own independent journal, Al-Inisar (Victory), starting in 1973, which led to their re-founding the Communist Party in 1975. Under the governments of Anwar Al Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, the re-founded Communist Party of Egypt faced repression and was not allowed to run in elections. However, it did not disappear and did not abandon the struggle for democracy and socialism.

When the demonstrations against the Mubarak regime began earlier this year, the Communist Party of Egypt, working in unity with other left-wing dissident groups, quickly gained public visibility as a key voice in the secular opposition. Its Feb. 1 proclamation read as follows:

The revolution will continue until the demands of the masses are fulfilled

Statement issued by the Communist Party of Egypt

February 1, 2011 -- The moment of truth is approaching. This is the decisive moment for the Egyptian popular forces for change; to topple the Mubarak regime. It seems that the imperialists, and their American masters in particular, are lifting their hands from him after the continuation of revolution everywhere in Egypt.

Today millions emerge to demand the departure of Mubarak. They will prevent all the conspiracies of the dictator and his gang of spies to thwart the revolution and overcome them.

The formation of a committee, which enjoys the confidence of the people and the demonstrators, is crucial to achieve the demands of the political, economic and social revolution, and we emphasise the basic demands presented by the national forces to the deputies of the people's parliament:

1. Dismissal of Mubarak and the formation of a presidential council for a transitional period of limited duration.

2. Forming a coalition government to administer the country during the transitional period.

3. To convene the election of a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for the country based on the principle of the sovereignty of the nation and ensure the devolution of power within the framework of a democratic just civil state.

4. Prosecute those responsible for hundreds of deaths and injuries of revolutionary martyrs and victims of oppression as well as ensuring the prosecution of those responsible for plundering the wealth of the Egyptian people.

5. Long live the revolution of the Egyptian people!

Although some of these goals have been achieved, such as the dismissal of Mubarak, obviously others will have to be the focus of intensive struggle, and the situation in Egypt is hardly stable. This is why the Party has decided to reorganize itself as a public political force. The Communist Party of Egypt is involved in various discussions with other democratic parties and organizations about the future of the Egyptian nation.

World Notes: Cuba, Palestine, Ivory Coast - and more

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:06:00 +0000

France: Ultra-right, and the left, gain in municipal elections

In first round of voting for local officials on March 21, President Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for Popular Movement added only 16 percent to the conservative coalition's results, taking over 30 percent of all general councilor seats. The Socialist Party elected almost 30 percent of the local officials, followed by the Left Front (in which the Communist Party of France participated) and Ecology Parties, each with 10 percent of the vote. The ultra-right National Front upped its national total to a new high of 16 percent, in the process excluding conservative candidates in 100 departments from the second round of voting scheduled for March 27. Some 56 percent of voters abstained. The results of this last election round prior to presidential voting in 2012 reflect "exasperation over unemployment, living standards and immigration," according to Reuters.

Chile: Obama visit triggers street protests

In a joint press conference on March 21, President Sebastián Piñera called upon the visiting U.S. President to expand the current bilateral free trade agreement and bring Colombia and Panama into trade agreements. President Obama promised increased trade and investment, maintaining, "Our businessmen are dedicated to creating jobs in both countries." He added, "We are expanding collaboration in clean energy," referring to a nuclear power cooperation agreement the two countries signed three days earlier. There were three earthquakes in Chile last year, and in 1960, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded on earth. TeleSur reported thousands of protesters demonstrated against the agreement while Obama was visiting in Santiago, and against the U.S. led offensive in Libya.

South Africa: UN confab highlights water as human right

Cape Town marked World Water Day March 22, 2011, by hosting a UN sponsored three-day event attended by 1,000 people representing 30 organizations. The theme "Water for Cities" was appropriate, with Africa's urban population projected to double over 20 years. Advocates for water privatization were on hand with one quoted by IPS pointing out, "When you talk about water as a human right, investors get nervous." Since 1994, South Africa has increased drinking water access from 60 to 90 percent. Now, however, 95 percent of fresh water resources are already allocated, bad news in a country the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research says is "facing a water supply crisis caused by a combination of low rainfall, high evaporation rates, and an expanding economy."

Palestine: Soldiers unloose collective punishment

"Why do you have to punish all these people?" an Israeli soldier was asked. His reply, according to the International Solidarity Movement: "So they will understand." Some 300 soldiers entered Awarta early on March 11 after five members of a settler family were murdered in nearby Itamar. For five days soldiers ransacked and occupied homes, forcing occupants outside or into single rooms for the duration. Later that day, 300 settlers joined in on destroying property, stealing possessions, inflicting injuries, and polluting water. Over 300 residents taken into custody were subjected to fingerprinting and DNA testing. On March 20, 55 were still detained. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the Itamar murders by announcing construction of 500 new settler homes.

Ivory Coast: Humanitarian crisis looms

Armed conflict between forces loyal to entrenched President Laurent Gbagbo and paramilitaries backing President-elect Alassane Ouattara has precipitated a humanitarian crisis "that is deteriorating alarmingly," says the United Nations. Since the disputed December 2010 elections, the number of displaced persons has risen to 380,000, with many having sought refuge in neighboring countries. In a March 16 report, Doctors without Borders blamed international economic sanctions for causing medical supply and drug shortages; "There are several regions of the country now lacking basic medications." One sector of Abidjan has only one hospital available for 2 million residents. Fleeing teachers have deprived 800,000 children of schooling. World Health Organization officials fear yellow fever, cholera, and meningitis outbreaks, according to rebelion.org.

Cuba: Television series turns to cyber war

The series "Cuba's Reasons" has documented U.S. intrusions, including a Luis Posada agent arranging for hotel bombings and U.S payments to street protesters and sham journalists. Former state security agents infiltrating the groups figure prominently in the showings. On March 21, programming turned toward U.S. destabilization efforts using Internet systems. Telecommunications specialist and former agent Dalexi González told how a U.S. citizen gave him software security systems to hand over to government opponents. The report on Cubadebate.cu includes Information Ministry official Carlos del Porto's description of long-term U.S. efforts to bend the Internet toward disrupting Cuban military, economic, and diplomatic functions. Anti-Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who the UK Guardian says is the recipient of $500,000 in international prize monies, was shown entering the U.S. Interests Section and foreign embassies.

Belarus and European Union enact mutual bans

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:18:00 +0000

More than 150 U.S. and European Union figures will be barred entry into Belarus, says the BelTA state news agency, in response to a January 31 action by the European Union imposing sanctions against 157 Belarusians - including President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus announced the retaliatory measures yesterday, soon after EU foreign ministers voted to enlarge their list of sanctioned Belarusians.

The EU sanctions come as a result of controversy surrounding the Dec. 19 presidential elections in Belarus, in which Lukashenko won with nearly 80 percent of the vote. In the run-up to the vote, monitors congratulated the eastern European state for hosting its most democratic elections yet. Then they changed their minds after the incumbent's victory, and now argue that the vote was rigged. European officials further chide Belarus for imprisoning several presidential candidates, whom Belarus argues worked to instigate violence and rioting.

"I do not think that people who took the decision to expand the list really believe that such action can make a difference," said Nikolai Samoseiko, a member of Belarus's legislature. "Those, who think that in this way they can exert pressure on the judicial system, are profoundly mistaken."

"The judiciary," Samoseiko said, "is independent from politics and subject only to law."

Belarusian officials contend that the vote was fair, and that support for Lukashenko was high because people were rejecting "extremists" who opposed him. For example, one candidate, they noted, had publicly said "Lukashenko should be hanged."

Belarusian leaders claim that their country is being targeted by western powers because they have refused to give up their sovereignty to transnational capital and, instead, focus on bettering the living standards of the Belarusian people. Belarus defines itself as "socialist oriented" and "a state for the people." The largest parties in its parliament are the Communist Party and its allied Agrarian Party.

A Dec. 2 interim report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has a mission in Minsk, noted that ten presidential candidates had been registered by "inclusive" means, and that state television had obeyed the legal rules that all candidates be given free time on television.

However, European officials began to condemn Belarus on the day of the election, when a full-scale riot broke out in Minsk. Police forcefully dispersed the crowd, and several dozen people were arrested, including, reportedly, a number of the opposition candidates.

While the European officials consider the crowd to be "pro-democracy," Belarusian authorities said that most of the people there were either foreign agents or paid by them, and were looking to instigate a riot. Indeed, videos that surfaced on the internet show the demonstrators trying to break their way into government buildings.

"Kill Lukashenko with a bullet?" said Youtube user Rustam Minsk, referring to one of the chants by protestors. The user was responding to another from outside the country, who criticized the government for arresting the rioters. "You realize that you are defending terrorism, right? If you were imprisoned in Belarus, you would probably call yourself 'innocent.' Don't you think that it's too hypocritical from your side?"

The Belarusian president argues that the candidates arrested were helping to lead a riot, and that they have nothing in common with the popular revolutions going on in other countries such as Egypt. He argues that the protesters are "not an opposition but a fifth column," pointing out that, in other countries, people who lose elections don't immediately call for sanctions.

Some Belarusian officials point out that, despite there being far less repression in Belarus, the protestors have never picked up a mass following, as they did in the Eastern European "color revolutions" or in the more recent Middle Eastern uprisings.

According to Lukashenko, 87 million euros from the pockets of Western European taxpayers was sent, though most of it was siphoned off in transit, leaving only 8.7 million euros to the Belarusian opposition, which, he said, "consists of about 800 people, 400 of them militants."

In many ways, Belarus is surrounded by hostile forces. Western states, Belarus says, are unhappy that it pursues an independent policy in all spheres, and that it will not open up its economy to gangsters and unrestricted control by foreign capital the way that other post-Soviet republics have.

But Russia, traditionally an ally, has also pressed Belarus recently, upset that the republic has been attempting closer cooperation with the west.

Speaking March 18 about the detainees, Lukashenko said, "We wanted to clarify who they are and where the money came from," adding, "unfortunately, there had been Russian money, too."

Frustrated with the U.S./European interference in Belarus, Lukashenko said, "To talk to the West ... ? One cannot talk to them and shouldn't! They are indecent people: they say some things but think different things."

Nonetheless, he emphasized the trade between Belarus and its neighbors, both eastern and western. "Can I ignore that half the trade involves the European Union and America? I cannot. Today we use U.S. dollars and euros even in bilateral payments with Russia." Almost half of Belarus' trade is with the west, the other half with the east.

The country is trying to diversify, however, and has signed agreements with Vietnam, China and Latin American nations.

Image: Lukashenko with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Belarus wants to bolster ties with countries in Latin America. chavezcandanga // CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Libya and Japan grab Germany’s attention

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:26:00 +0000

BERLIN - This report was supposed to concentrate on results of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt, the second in a long string of German state elections in 2011. But outside that East German state itself it got less attention than expected, which wasn't much to begin with. It was largely overshadowed by the news from Japan and, far more, from Libya.

Despite weeks of propaganda and preparations, the final United Nations Security Council decision and the almost immediate attacks left many here almost breathless if not in shock.

Germany's abstention in the UN decision was a great surprise to nearly everyone. It had the weird result of suddenly placing Germany's Left party in the same boat with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle from the right-wing Free Democrats (FDP). But there was sharp controversy not only between the parties but inside nearly all of them.

In the Left, one wing of the party had always insisted that all military actions outside Germany must be rejected, even when the UN called for them. It felt that the UN rarely represented the true and peaceful interests of people everywhere but stood largely under the sway of the USA and its closest allies. This wing of the party stated that the decision on Libya defied the UN Charter forbidding any intervention in civil wars within a member country and charged that the Council ignored attempts by Venezuela and the African Union to find a peaceful, probably face-saving solution to the Libyan conflict, and must have prepared the attacks for many weeks. And while it neither praised nor supported Gaddafi, it asked why no such alleged attempt to rescue a popular uprising was considered or even mentioned when rulers in Bahrain or Yemen resorted to violent repression.

The Left hastily organized a protest demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate to support this position. Only about 200 showed up Sunday morning, among them co-president Gesine Loetzsch and other leaders; it was at least a symbol. But a few prominent party members, reflecting the split on the "no military actions ever" issue, did not join in, while former party president Lothar Bisky, now a member of the European Parliament, had already broken ranks and voted to support the intervention in Libya. Most attention within the party was focused on the state election, but possible disagreement on Libya may play a greater role in coming weeks.

The Greens, almost completely pacifist in their early years, supported the Libyan action, at least the more vocal leaders did. What the membership says on the question, if anything, remains to be seen.

Like the Greens, most Social Democrats (SPD) seemed to believe that being in opposition to the government meant opposing the decision by Merkel and Westerwelle. In the end, only the Left praised their abstention in the Security Council vote, a strange turn of events.

However, most of the media agreed that the abstention did not really mean disagreement with the USA, France and Britain, nor did it reflect previous links to Gaddafi and Libyan gas and oil wells which had been just as cozy as those of the other major powers before the current rupture.

The main motivation, it was felt, was rather the state election next Sunday (March 27) in the extremely important state of Baden-Wuertemberg, where the Christian Democrats have ruled the roost since 1953 and fear its very possible loss this time. Although the state is relatively prosperous (with the main Daimler-Benz works), Merkel's party lost face after the Stuttgart railway station violence and is also aware that most people, regardless of their views on Gaddafi, do not want any more German soldiers fighting and dying in other continents. Merkel probably hoped that a cool response on Libya might win antiwar voters, even though the USA command is firmly welcomed on German soil.

And then there was the other main issue of the day: nuclear power. Events in Japan shook Germany even more than those in Libya. It was partly the shock and empathy with those suffering from the quake and tsunami, but also because people, watching the fearful battle with the Fukushima reactors, thought of the 17 nuclear reactors in Germany, many of them 30 years old or older and four of them in Baden-Wuertemberg.

Just last autumn it was the Merkel government which insisted on lengthening the active lives of these reactors, reversing even the relatively weak limitations by the Greens and Social Democrats in 2000. Her move was the embarrassingly transparent result of pressure from three or four giant energy companies and caused huge and growing concern in the country, with angry and dramatic demonstrations reaching the 100,000 level. But the government ignored them and extended the deadlines for as much as 20 years, claiming that the reactors were completely safe.

The events in Japan forced the government to shamefacedly climb down, and to do it fast, with those elections looming close. Merkel therefore shut down seven reactors from the 1970s (another one was shut down in 2007 because of leaks and other problems) and issued a "moratorium" of three months on any decisions about the other 10. But even the seven could be opened up again, nothing was really decided, the official in charge came from the nuclear industry, and it was crystal clear that the three months was based on getting past the remaining elections (except the one in Berlin in September).

Such shenanigans were expected to hurt the two parties running the national government, while helping the opposition Social Democrats and especially the Greens. The Left called for an immediate suspension of all nuclear reactors in light of the Japanese tragedy, but was given, as usual, little media attention.

And so back to the election in Saxony-Anhalt. The state's name was born in 1945 but its traditions are ancient. It includes parts of old Saxony seized by Prussia after the Napoleonic wars and its two main centers are Halle, where George Frederick Handel was born, and the capital Magdeburg, once famous due to the scientist Otto von Guericke who joined two copper hemispheres, pumped the air out of them and showed that two eight-horse teams could not tear them apart, proving the power of air pressure. That was in 1650, but the Magdeburgers are still proud of him. Also in this state, aside from the Harz Mountains, are Dessau, where the Bauhaus school of architecture and design had its home before the Nazis forced it out, and Wittenberg, where Luther is supposed to have nailed his famous 95 theses against the pope on the Palace Church door.

Up to now the state has been ruled by a so-called "grand coalition" of the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats as junior partners. As expected, the Merkel party did lose 3.5 percent of its former vote, but remained strongest all the same. The Social Democrats neither lost nor gained in strength and it seemed almost certain that this same friendly coalition of the two parties - who seemed such sharp opponents on the national scene - would continue its cozy existence in Saxony-Anhalt.

The Left, which a while ago had been first in the polls, was now back to the same position as in the elections four years earlier, somewhat ahead of the third-place place Social Democrats. A left-SPD coalition was possible, but the Social Democrats always refused to form a state government as junior partners with the Left holding the post of Minister President. So, once again, the SPD preferred to be junior partners with the right-wing Christian Democrats.

The only real winners in terms of votes were the Greens, who returned to the legislature after a 13-year absence with 7 percent, almost double their vote in the last election. The Free Democrats of Foreign Minister Westerwelle missed the required 5 percent, and get no deputies.

Luckily, in perhaps the most important result of all, this also applies to the neo-Nazis in the National Democratic Party (NPD). The unexpectedly large number of voters in a state election (52 percent) kept them down to 4.7 percent, close but not quite enough to get into the legislature.

In other words, there were no big changes. The Left held its own with 23.8 percent, making no gains but losing only 0.3 percent since the last election. Its big trial is next week in southwestern Germany in both Baden-Wuertemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, where it hopes against hope to get past the 5 percent hurdle. Aside from Bavaria, where it could not quite make it, these are the last two states where it is not yet represented. It will be no easy matter; the polls give it 4 percent in both states.

Perhaps I may end on a sad note, an item which probably gained the attention of more Berliners than events in all the other continents. Their beloved polar bear Knut, whose growth and amazingly close relationship with his extremely popular, handsome bearded "substitute mother" fascinated the city, was found dead in the water of his enclosure, only 4 years old. His human friend died just as suddenly two years ago, and countless Berliners mourned the two as if they were part of their own families. They were closer to home than other events and headline news for much of the media.

Photo: Activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace put up a banner reading "The lying continues" on one of the cooling towers of the Biblis nuclear power plant in central Germany, early Monday, March 21. (AP/DAPD, Timur Emek)

Aristide returns to Haiti, calls for inclusion of poor and disenfranchised

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:02:00 +0000

Former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti this morning after a seven-year period of exile in South Africa. Speaking at the airport in the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, Aristide used the French, Spanish, English and Zulu languages to address the crowd. Zulu was a gesture of gratitude to his former South African hosts whose President, Jacob Zuma, is a Zulu speaker. Aristide had been studied African languages while in exile.

Aristide did not comment directly on the flawed general elections in Haiti, the second round of which is due to take place this Sunday, March 20. Instead he focused on the need to replace "exclusion" of the mass of the Haitian poor with "inclusion" through educational and economic improvements. "Today there are not even two doctors per 11 thousand Haitians; that is the result of exclusion...Haiti lives in extreme poverty, hunger, unemployment, drugs and injustice and exclusion."

He made a point of thanking Cuba for its solidarity work after last year's earthquake in the Puerto Prince area, which killed 300,000 people, and the current cholera epidemic, which has killed another 4,000.

Aristide, a former Roman Catholic priest, had been a strong critic of the brutal dictatorship of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who has also returned to Haiti after a long exile in France. Aristide was elected president in 1991, but was almost immediately overthrown by the Duvalierist military, which proceeded to massacre thousands of poor Aristide supporters.

In 1994, Aristide obtained the armed support of the Clinton administration to return him to Haiti, in exchange for which he accepted most of the "Washington Consensus" plan of "free trade" (which, in practice, meant eliminating import tariffs on U.S. taxpayer subsidized rice and other imports), privatization and austerity. As a result, thousands of Haitian farmers were driven off the land because they could not compete with U.S. imports, while American rice producers, based in Clinton's home state of Arkansas, reaped a bonanza.

Aristide did succeed in abolishing the army, which had been such a source of instability and human rights abuses in the past. After a period out of power, Aristide was elected again in 2001, with the support of militant poor people's organizations that sometimes constituted themselves as armed militias to fight against the rich and against Aristide's opponents.

In 2004, he was overthrown again by violent right-wing gangs supported by the Bush administration and the French government. Aristide accuses the United States of being directly involved in his overthrow. France was angry with Aristide for demanding reparations for money that France had extorted from Haiti in the 19th and 20th centuries, and thus is seen to have connived in the coup.

Since then there has been a UN peacekeeping contingent in Haiti, which itself has become controversial because of clashes with poor Haitians. Aristide's enemies and the Bush administration made accusations against Aristide of corruption and abuse of power, but his supporters see this as mere propaganda.

Aristide's party, Fanmi Lavalas, very popular among poor Haitians, was excluded from the elections under the pretext of a technicality. As a result, there was to be a runoff between Merlande Manigat, a right-wing candidate with Duvalierist connections, and Jude Celestin, the candidate of the Inte (Unity) party of President Rene Preval. However, the elections were deeply flawed and the United States, Canada and France pressured Preval's government to push Celestin out of the runoff, and instead permit Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly, another Duvalierist who has promised to restore the army, to run against Manigat in the runoff. Martelly, who is a popular singer, has pulled ahead of Manigat in the polls.

The United States had been trying to pressure South Africa into keeping Aristide out of Haiti until after the elections. This was the topic of a last minute phone call by President Obama to President Zuma of South Africa yesterday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had also asked for South Africa to block Aristide's return The South African Foreign Ministry angrily retorted that his country would have no part in "holding [Aristide] hostage" and facilitated his flight to Haiti, in which Aristide was accompanied by his U.S. lawyer, Ira Kurzbahn, and actor Danny Glover.

Aristide may have timed the trip because no matter who wins the election, they would be likely to take action to prevent his return, by cancelling his passport (given to him by the current government headed by Rene Preval) or other means, perhaps including violence.

So perhaps it was now or never.

UN okays "all necessary measures" against Gaddafi

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:51:00 +0000

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously yesterday to call for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, as well as "all necessary measures" to protect civilians.

The resolution, number 1973, allowing military action was passed shortly before forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gaddafi were expected to roll into Benghazi, the rebel stronghold, and crush the uprising. Within hours of the council's action, however, Gaddafi announced a ceasefire.

Celebrations erupted in Benghazi, as rebels and their supporters flooded the streets, waving flags and chanting. But reports via Facebook and Twitter indicate that there is still fighting on the ground, and that Gaddafi's missiles are beginning to fly into the western part of the country.

The move to approve the resolution, sponsored by the United States and Lebanon, comes after weeks of wrangling and intense discussion. While Republicans had pressed President Barack Obama to seek action unilaterally or through NATO alone, he and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made clear that they did not want to move forward on any military action without agreement from the international community, specifically a Council resolution authorizing the use of force.

The Republican leadership repeatedly condemned Obama for not quickly deploying troops to the region. But the president, apparently, worried about a repeat of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in which the Bush administration led an invasion that began what most now consider a disastrous war - without international approval.

Most expected the resolution to fail in the UNSC, or that language authorizing the use of force would be stripped from it, but a request from the Arab League this past weekend, said Clinton, changed minds and brought about a "sea change" in the thinking of the international community.

Li Baodong, China's UN ambassador said after the vote, "China is always against the use of force when those means were not exhausted." He complained, "specific questions" China asked were not answered, but nonetheless, "[China] attaches great importance to the requests of the Arab League and the African Union."

China, one of five countries on the council with veto power, abstained from the vote, giving a tacit approval to the use of force, as did Russia. India, German and Brazil - non-permanent members of the council with no veto power - also abstained. The vote was 10 to zero in favor.

Baso Sangqu, speaking on behalf of South Africa, which currently holds a seat on the council, said his nation was concerned about "what is fast becoming a civil war in Libya." He added that any solution "must also preserve the solidarity and integrity of Libya."

Many non-aligned countries worried that the U.S., NATO and/or the European Union would use the conflict in Libya as a pretext to invade and occupy the country. However, the requests of the Arab League and the UNSC provision that there be no occupational force seems to have moved some support towards intervention.

Andrei Savivykh, speaking on behalf of socialist-oriented Belarus, which plays a large role in the Non-Aligned Movement and frequently butts heads with the U.S. and the European Union, said earlier today, "It is obvious that the UN Security Council Resolution is aimed at de-escalation of the conflict and protecting civilians. We expect that all the UN member states will act to meet this primary objective."

Much remains up in the air. No one yet knows what kind of a role the U.S., along with Britain, France and other NATO countries, will play or, as reports of continued fighting surface, what will happen on the ground in Libya.

The full vote of the council is as follows: Ten countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Gabon, Lebanon, Nigeria, Portugal, South Africa, France, the U.S. and the United Kingdom - voted for, none voted against and five countries - China, Russia, India, Germany, Brazil - abstained.

Image: Anti-Gaddafi posters in rebel held territory BRQ Network // CC BY 2.0

Spurred by youth protests, Palestinian leaders to hold unity talks

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 12:51:00 +0000

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced yesterday he will go to Gaza next week for unity talks with Hamas leaders. His announcement came in response to an invitation issued Tuesday by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a television broadcast in Gaza. Both moves came after mass demonstrations by Palestinian young people Tuesday in both Gaza and the West Bank, calling for an end to the split in the Palestinian movement.

If Palestinian leaders do agree to reunify, it could be a game-changer for the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks on a two-state solution to the 60-plus-year conflict.

Some 300,000 largely young Palestinians demonstrated in Gaza on Tuesday, March 15, and about 3,000 in the West Bank city of Ramallah, calling for an end to division in the Palestinian movement, the independent Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. Rallies were also held in other West Bank cities. The actions were organized by the March 15 Coalition, a group of about a dozen youth organizations in the West Bank and Gaza that is leading the simultaneous protests.

Ma'an reported that 10 hunger strikers and 20 supporters camped out overnight Tuesday in the center of Ramallah, where Palestinian Authority offices are located, waking Wednesday morning to prepare for continued protests.

Organizers of the March 15 Coalition had said Wednesday morning that the hunger strikers would not eat until concrete steps had been taken to end the division, Ma'an reported.

Strikers told the news agency that they wanted to see an end to "media incitement," and a release of all political prisoners by both Abbas' Fatah party and Hamas before they would eat. They would not leave the square until unity had been achieved, they added.

But later on Wednesday, they said they would suspend the hunger strike for three days, starting today, as Abbas and Hamas leaders prepared to meet in Gaza. But the youth activists said they would continue their unity calls with a sit-in in Ramallah.

In Gaza City, organizers released a statement late on Tuesday thanking the estimated 300,000 who participated in the protests "on the first day of the Movement's campaign towards ending the despicable Palestinian-Palestinian split," Ma'an reported.

The organizers said the demonstrations were "only the start of [the] campaign which will continue until the Palestinian split is over." They said they would announce new "peaceful activities" in the coming days.

Organizers insist that their movement is nonpartisan. They condemned attempts to hijack the protests by political parties, with some 200 Hamas demonstrators crashing the Gaza City protest early in the day, and Fatah members and others setting up loudspeakers in Manara to broadcast their own slogans.

In Gaza, March 15 Coalition organizers said hundreds of police and internal security members attacked protesters with batons "without any warning or justification, causing injury to dozens of civilians, journalists and human rights defenders." They said dozens of peaceful protesters were arrested. Reporters were also attacked by Hamas security forces, with the Foreign Press Association, based in the region, charging that "police brutally attacked photographers and cameramen, beating them, breaking equipment and confiscating photos and video footage."

In Ramallah, at least 20 people were reported injured by security forces, with six taken away in ambulances, as demonstrators were told to go home.

Before the demonstrations, March 15 Coalition organizer Hassan Farahat told the Palestine News Network that he was in charge of a planning committee whose job was "to make sure all participants carry the Palestinian flag only." He said, "People are sick and tired of the Hamas-Fatah division, so we will continue to protest until national unity is achieved."

With U.S. policy on the Israeli-Palestinian situation apparently paralyzed, and the Israeli government almost totally isolated and in the grip of right-wing extremism, a reunified Palestinian leadership could give new momentum and even new moral authority to the Palestinian struggle for statehood. The new grassroots Palestinian youth movement, inspired by those in Tunisia and Egypt, using Faceook as one of its organizing tools, could spur action where local and world political leaders have failed.

Photo: Demonstrators wave Palestinian flags during a rally in the West Bank city of Jenin, March 15, calling for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. (AP /Mohammed Ballas)

Rights groups ask U.S. to suspend deportations to Haiti

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:23:00 +0000

Numerous civil liberties and human rights organizations have issued a letter calling for the United States government to suspend further deportations of immigrants back to Haiti as long as the current cholera epidemic is raging.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Linda Shrieves reports that a study soon to be released by the University of California San Francisco and the Harvard Medical School will show that the cholera epidemic in Haiti, which started last fall and has killed about 4,000 people so far, is likely to continue through most of this year and eventually infect up to 800,000 people.

Cholera is treatable if caught in time, but Haiti's poverty and the destruction of infrastructure and health facilities caused by the Jan. 13 earthquake, which killed as many as 300,000 Haitians, means that patients often get medical care too late. There are foreign medical teams working in Haiti, including an outstanding Cuban contribution, but the country is not in condition to be dealing with Haitian immigrants deported from the U.S.

Under legislation passed in 1996, the United States deports non-citizens legally in the United States if in the past they have been convicted of certain felonies and misdemeanors. The 1996 legislation took away from immigration judges the right to take many extenuating circumstances into consideration when ordering such deportations, even in cases in which the individual has had no further problems with the law for decades, and has a U.S. citizen as a spouse and children who are also citizens. Changing this law has been a major demand of the immigrants' rights movement in the United States.

Shortly after the earthquake, Haitian-American and human rights groups persuaded the Obama administration to suspend the deportation of Haitian immigrants, but late last year this suspension was unexpectedly lifted by the Department of Homeland Security, and the deportation of Haitian citizens (with or without immigration papers) who had run afoul of U.S. criminal laws was begun again. Haiti's policy is to jail all such deportees for an indefinite period, even if they had already completed the sentences in the United States for the crimes for which they had been convicted.

Earlier this year, U.S. human rights monitors visited an initial group of 27 deportees, sent back Jan. 20 and currently in detention in Haiti. The prisoners were found to be living in subhuman conditions, with nonexistent sanitation and brutal treatment by guards. One of the deportees, 34-year-old Wildrick Guerrier, died shortly after being placed in detention in Haiti, of what well may have been cholera.

On March 7, the government issued a new policy statement confirming that deportations would resume (after they already had resumed). The public was given until March 18 to comment on the new policy. Human and immigrants' rights advocates complain that this is too short notice, and that the process has not been transparent. They also point out that on the same day that deportations resumed, Dec. 9 2010, the State Department issued a travel warning to avoid unnecessary trips to Haiti because of the cholera outbreak. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has also called for the suspension of deportations to be extended.

A letter addressed to President Obama, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is being circulated by a long list of organizations and concerned individuals, including the Human Rights Clinic and the Immigration Clinic of the University of Miami Law School, the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Alternative Chance and the Loyola University Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice.

The letter calls for the government to. "Immediately halt all deportations to Haiti...grant deferred action and/or stays of removal to all Haitians with final orders of removal; meet with representatives of the undersigned organizations to discuss the March 7, 2011, policy; immediately halt roundups of Haitian nationals in the United States and release those currently in custody; extend the comment period for at least one month and simultaneously suspend deportations to permit a true review process, and publicly release information about the basis for the newly announced DHS policy, and explain what assessment was conducted of the circumstances in Haiti prior to the change in policy."

The sponsors of the letter are asking organizations and individuals of goodwill to sign onto this letter before the March 18 ending date for comments.

World notes: Germany, Niger, Afghanistan - and more

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:57:00 +0000

Germany: Japan disaster inflames anti-nuclear sentiment

In 2001, a Social Democratic-Green coalition government passed legislation to close all 17 German nuclear plants by 2021. As anti-nuclear demonstrations were breaking out in 250 German cities this year on March 14, Chancellor Angela Merkel reversed her center-right government's five month old policy of extending the operation of those plants. She put that decision in abeyance for three months, the delay allowing for safety re-assessments. She also announced closure soon of the two oldest plants. Two days earlier, 60,000 protesters, reacting to events in Japan, had formed a 27 mile long human chain around one of them, near Stuttgart. Protests are expected, according to rebelion.org, at German nuclear power plants and nuclear waste sites on April 26 in memory of the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

Niger: Election of first post-coup president

According to the election commission, Social Democratic Party candidate Mahamadou Issoufou, with 58 percent of the votes, defeated former premier Seini Oumarou in second round presidential voting on March 12. Turnout was 48%. The Army ousted President Mamadou Tandja in February, 2010, They and, remaining neutral during the elections, backing neither candidate. The military has pledged to turn over power in April. Tandja of the MNSD party, under whose banner Oumarou ran, had beaten Issoufou in two previous elections. Issoufou has promised to dissolve parliament and organize elections for an assembly with equitable representation. There is also pressure for redistributing wealth derived from the country's large uranium deposits. Al-Qaeda remains active in the West African country, reports Agence France Presse.

Afghanistan: Karzai wants U.S. to end war

Visiting in Kunar Province on March 12, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai paid homage to nine boys recently killed there by a U.S. air attack. They had been gathering wood. He took the occasion to ask NATO and the U.S. to end military operations in his country. Quoted by informationclearinghouse.info, Karzai said, "Afghans want peace and security and they cooperate with the world to bring peace and security. But we don't want this war to continue any longer. We don't want to repeat such bombardments and casualties." A United Nations report released earlier in March indicated NATO air strikes killed at least 171 civilians in 2010. Two days earlier, a NATO night raid in Kandahar killed one of President Karzai's cousins.

India: Weapons imports are up

A report released March 14 by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute established India as the world's top weapons importer, receiving nine percent of all imports during 2006-2010, ahead of second through fourth place importers China, South Korea, and Pakistan. Russia supplies 82 percent of India's imported arms. India was also the world's top arms importer during 1988-1992. The coutry fields 1.2 million soldiers, funded through a $ 20-25 billion defense budget. India's weapons build-up is directed at alleged threats from Pakistan and China, reports Inter Press Service. The overall volume of arms transfers in the world for 2006 - 2010 was 24 percent higher than for the previous four-year period. http://books.sipri.org/product_info?c_product_id=421 The United States is still the world's top arms exporter.

Ecuador: UNASUR gets to work

Foreign ministers of 12 countries gathering in Quito on March 11 activated the Founding Treaty of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), signed in 2008. The requirement for nine countries approving was reached a month ago when the Uruguayan parliament signed on. The UNASUR ministers chose former Colombian and Venezuelan foreign ministry officials to serve as the organization's secretary general: María Emma Mejía of Colombia and Venezuela's Ali Rodriguez would be dividing a two year term. Apparently the ministers were acting, in pragmatic fashion, to downplay recent confrontations, especially those between Colombia and Venezuela. UNASUR work aimed at regional integration can now begin, reported MercoPress, citing in particular the Bank of the South.

Cuba: U.S. blockade includes health funds

The United Nations Development Program recently informed Cuba that the U.S. government, in unprecedented fashion, has frozen this year's first trimester, $4.2 million dollar allocation of funds that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria provides for Cuba. Cuba would have added the money to $200 million its health system annually dedicates to preventing HIV/AIDS infection and treating affected people. These efforts, maintained throughout the almost thirty years of the pandemic, have earned worldwide recognition. On March 12, foreign trade official Orlando Hernández, quoted by Cubadebate.cu, pointed out that "this action is added to a long list of examples of extraterritorial application of economic, commercial, and financial encirclement of Cuba by the United States for more than 50 years."

Photo: Protesters against nuclear energy demonstrate in front of the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, March 14. Slogan on the right poster reads "Nuclear Energy? No Thanks". Slogan on the left poster reads "Solidarity with Japan!" Ongoing anti-nuclear protests come ahead of three German state elections in the next two weeks. (Michael Sohn / AP)

U.S.-Mexico relations still irritable

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:31:00 +0000

A week after a state visit by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to Washington, U.S.-Mexico relations are still irritable because of undiplomatic comments about Mexico by U.S. officials, and now because of a U.S. government program that ended up putting even more high powered weapons into the hands of drug cartels.

Mexico is wracked by massive violence by cartels, which have arisen due to Mexico's geographic position, which makes it the natural route for cocaine coming up from Colombia for sale in the United States. There is also marijuana and methamphetamine production in Mexico. The battles among the cartels, and between them and Mexican police and military, have caused thousands of deaths in the last couple of years. Very controversial is the decision by President Calderon, on coming to power in 2006, to redefine Mexico's efforts to suppress the cartels as a military operation involving thousands of troops.

Various politicians in the United States, including most recently Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, have expressed fear that the cartel wars will spill over Mexico's 1,900-mile border into the United States, though so far this has not happened. Mexico, in turn, has asked that the United States do something about the vast market for drugs here. As the drugs move north, countless millions of U.S. dollars move south into the hands of the cartels, enriching and empowering them immensely. Mexico also complains that the United States does nothing to crack down on some 8,000 gun shops strung along the border on the US side, which are the main source of automatic and other weapons with which the cartels often outgun Mexican police. Efforts by the Obama administration to control this gun trade have been met with opposition in Congress, led by the National Rifle Association.

Statements by Undersecretary of the Army Joseph Westphal, who compared the drug wars in Mexico to an insurgency and hinted that the U.S. might end up sending in troops (read more here) have caused indignation. Comments by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual, leaked via Wikileaks, which seemed to suggest that the Mexican military is cowardly ("risk averse") were especially galling to President Calderon, who has staked his reputation on his military strategy. In a meeting with the Editorial Board of the Washington Post during his Washington visit on March 3, Calderon strongly hinted that he wants Pascual out.

The idea of any kind of US military presence within Mexico is very sensitive. Between the Texas war of "independence" in 1836, the US-Mexican War of 1846-1848 and the corrupt Gadsden Purchase of 1852, Mexico lost more than half of its original national territory to the United States.

Nevertheless, US involvement in Mexico's drug wars is massive. The Merida Initiative, signed by Presidents Calderon and George W. Bush, is funneling $1.6 billion US dollars into material support. Some of this money has gone to subsidize the services of Colombian personnel to train their Mexican colleagues how to fight drug cartels.

There is a lot of doubt in both countries about this military strategy. One of the worst of the Mexican drug cartels, the Zetas, was initiated by rogue Mexican military officers who had been trained in counterinsurgency methods at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. The Zetas are believed to be responsible for the killing of a U.S. agent in San Luis Potosi in February and many other atrocities.

And less than helpful is Operation Fast and Furious, a program run by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which was supposed to permit a controlled entry of illegal firearms into Mexico with the purpose of being able to trace how these weapons moved. Unfortunately, according to the Center for Public Integrity, ATF lost control of the shipments, which ended up in the hands of the cartels, and may have led to the death of a US agent in December, among others. Mexican authorities charge that the United States never informed them about the program, an accusation which ATF denies. Attorney General Eric Holder is initiating an investigation.

To top it off, the US Department of Justice announced indictments of the mayor and several other officials in the town of Columbus, New Mexico, for running illegal guns to Mexico. Columbus is the town that was shot up by cavalrymen of Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa in March of 1916, resulting in 18 deaths of US soldiers and civilians. The raid led to the farcical expedition into Mexico by U.S. General John Pershing. Pershing never caught up with Villa, and met with antagonism from all political forces in Mexico as a result of this violation of Mexico's national sovereignty.

World Notes: Israel, Philippines, Guatemala – and more

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:32:00 +0000

Israel: U.S. support is unflagging

Quoted recently by the Middle East Monitor, Palestinian official Abdul Hadi Hantash said, "The US veto gave a green light to the Israelis to push ahead with their illegal settlement policy." He was referring to the U.S. veto last month of a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli construction in the Occupied Territories. Since the ending last October of a partial settlement freeze, construction has begun on 427 new houses, a 60 percent rise. Washington provides "basic support for Israel to impose new settlement facts on the grounds," he claimed. As another sign of steadfastness in U.S.- Israeli relations, Ha'aretz on March 8, indicated that Israel was considering a 20 billion U.S. military aid request on the pretext of regional turmoil.

Philippines: Arab world turmoil imperils migrant workers

The government of the Philippines indicated March 8 that having allocated $12 million for repatriation, almost half of 30,000 Filipinos working temporarily in Libya have returned. Those remaining are running out of food, water, and money. Many arriving hurriedly at the Tunisian border had lost documents and were turned back. ERIN news reports one tenth of Filipinos work overseas. Funds they send home add 12 percent to the GDP. Bangladeshi migrant workers, many previously displaced from land, contribute a likeproportion to their nation's GDP. Up to 80,000 of them were working in Libya, yet only 500 or so per day have succeeded in leaving. The Overseas Employment Minister promised to "continue exporting manpower to other countries. We are looking for new markets."

Guatemala: Murders of women reach epidemic proportions

Government figures show 685 women were murdered last year. An Amnesty International (AI) report released March 7 blames the government for failing to protect women. AI demands that murders be investigated and that both police training and court proceedings be improved. Less than four percent of perpetrators face prosecution even though a law was passed in 2008 specifying the criminal nature of anti-women violence and establishing special tribunals and sentencing rules. On March 5 alone, six women were killed. Human Rights activist Evelyn Morales, quoted in the Kaosenlared report, expressed concern also that women's heath status was deteriorating, as signaled recently by unfavorable statistics. Other advocates insist that an education campaign be mounted focusing on women's sexual and reproductive rights.

Native American abused women appeal to UN

Rashida Manjoo, U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women, recently toured the United States as she assessed abuse against U.S. women and particularly against Native American women. The latter "face the highest rates of sexual violence and physical assault of any group in the United States," says the Indian Law Resource Center. Non - Natives are responsible for 60 - 80 percent of such crimes. Manjoo will soon be communicating her findings to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Inter Press Service reported recently. Cherokee lawyer Terri Henry told IPS, "Since 1978 our tribal government, like all Indian nations, has been stripped of the authority to prosecute rapists and abusers that are non-Indians." A Justice Department task force on the matter is being formed.

Japan: Free trade battle heats up

Japan has remained on the sidelines of negotiations among nine Pacific Rim nations over forming the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), seen as prelude to a larger Asia-Pacific free trade agreement. Prime Minister Kan Naoto's TPP advocacy, announced last October, has set up battle lines, however. The Agriculture Ministry late last month warned that the TPP would cause 3.5 million agriculture, forestry, and fishery workers to lose jobs, while free trade legislator Eda Kenji called for farmland consolidation and corporation involvement in farming. Rallying on February 19, The JNEP labor, environmental, and farmers' coalition declared its opposition to the TPP. Speakers cited by the Japan Press Service mentioned fossil fuel wastage and excess carbon dioxide emissions as adverse effects of food importations required by the treaty.

Cuba: UN Human Rights Council hears of the Cuban Five

Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 8, Cuban diplomat Juan Antonio Quintanilla denounced the incarceration in U. S. prisons of Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez. According to the Cuban News Agency, Quintanilla reminded the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that the trial of the Five was biased and that defense attorneys were denied access to documents available to prosecutors. The Working Group had already ruled in 2005 that their detention was arbitrary. Like Cuban spokespersons before him, the official demanded that the U.S. government free the men who at the time of their arrests in Florida 12 years ago were defending Cuba against terrorist attacks.

Vietnam: a wonderful destination

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:08:00 +0000

The following are travel diaries by two social justice activists and retired educators on their recent trip to Vietnam. Beatrice Lumpkin is a longtime contributor to the People's World.

Vietnam, in its struggle to develop its economy, is becoming a tourist paradise. The word is getting out. Tourism revenue increased 40% in 2010.

Pat and I were two of the lucky tourists who took advantage of a last minute price cut. We knew Vietnam would be interesting but we did not expect such lavish good treatment. That included swimming in the South China Sea at a secluded beach and eating fresh sea food scooped out of the sea just minutes earlier.

Few countries are so richly endowed by nature. I can understand why the Vietnamese people fought so heroically to win their independence. The beautiful landscapes include Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Bay is such a fantastic sight that when I first saw it in the movie, "Indochine," I thought it wasn't real. It looked like an imaginary movie location. Over 3,000 rugged hills were carved by the rain to form sinkholes, caves, and sinking streams. What makes Halong Bay unique is that the sea invaded the hills, making for fantastic marine beauty and rich fishing sites.

Vietnam is 1,000 miles long. The eastern side of the country has beautiful beaches, stunning ocean bays and productive fishing villages. The western length of the country runs across mountains glowing with a soft green covering. Still the realities of their wars for independence are barely beneath the surface.

The mountains and hills are green but many are covered with eucalyptus trees, planted in a hurry. The hills used to be covered by centuries-old mahogany and other slow-growing valuable trees. These magnificent trees all died after the U.S. military sprayed them with Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. To save the little soil left, the Vietnamese planted the fast-growing, softwood eucalyptus. But they still mourn the loss of their splendid forests.

The people of Vietnam are warm and welcoming. Their high moral values are shown in their love for "Uncle Ho," their national hero. Ho Chi Minh is respected for his modesty, simple life style and wise leadership.

Education and university students

One of the most enjoyable afternoons of our Vietnam trip was at the University of Dalat in an interchange with students. Students were eager to practice English conversation. They were also curious about the visitors from the United States and we were interested in them.

A professor alerted us to the problems they are facing. The future of the country depends on raising the technical and scientific level of the economy. But there is a shortage of qualified science and mathematics teachers. Teachers are respected and, as in all countries, they work very hard. In addition to their classes, many teachers do private tutoring to supplement their wages.

Education is a priority of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Despite very limited resources, they have achieved a 94% literacy rate. Even in remote mountain hamlets, the children are guaranteed free primary education. They are working on making junior high school universal.

A major need is to improve the qualifications of teachers at all levels. We decided to visit the Center for International Education Culture Exchange and Research Center and learn more. They gave us an immediate appointment with their deputy director, Huynh Xuan Nhut.

Mr. Nhut said his Institute's goal for 2011 was to improve the use of assessment standards both for high school and universities. Teachers enjoy free summer courses to improve their methods of teaching and deepen their knowledge of their subjects. Education is respected. University admission is very competitive. Parents pay for private tutoring to improve their children's academic ranking. About 75% of the population are farmers. For farmers' children especially, high grades are the route to higher education and better jobs.

Development

We were not surprised to learn that Vietnam is a large exporter of rice, second only to China. The Red River and Mekong deltas are very fertile with at least three crops a year in the South. But we were surprised to learn that Vietnam exports more coffee than any other country except Brazil. We can vouch for the excellence of Vietnam coffee, especially "weasel" coffee. It's not really from a weasel but a palm civet cat that partly digests the coffee beans. Of course, it is very carefully washed and makes a rich, much sought-after drink.

But a country cannot develop its economy on an agricultural basis alone. Industry, especially high tech industry is needed. While the wealth of Vietnam is increasing, it is still a poor country. It does not have the capital to develop on its own. After the US normalized relations with Vietnam in 1995, Vietnam opened up to foreign investment. The American, Taiwanese, European and other investors came in with the idea of paying as low wages as they could get away with. Over 7,000 companies have not even paid their social insurance tax. This tax pays for health care and other social services the people need, Vietnam is now suing the worst offenders. Nor is it surprising that there has been a wave of strikes for higher pay, better food and earlier Tet vacations. Given the history, Vietnamese workers are sure to succeed in raising the low pay scales up to a living wage.

Have they recovered?

Friends ask, "Has Vietnam recovered from the war?" The answer is, "Yes and no." The country is now enjoying peace after hundreds of years of wars for independence. That peace is highly valued and most of the war damage has been cleared away.

But as we write these lines, there are Vietnamese children and adults being blown up by land mines and other munitions that still litter the countryside. Whole families earn their living by digging up unexploded bombs to sell the metal. Sometimes the bombs go off and there are casualties. And the loss of millions who died during the war is still keenly felt.

Our trip included a visit to the War Remnants Museum in a state-of-the-art building. Hardest to look at are the photographs of the children born deformed by Agent Orange. In the hall of Historical Truths, one of our tour members told us, "I am so ashamed. I didn't know that Ho Chi Minh was leading the whole country so far back." She was looking at the "historical truth" of 1945 when Ho read the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The exhibit also showed the Geneva Accord of 1954 that called for nationwide elections in 1956 throughout Vietnam. But the United States did not allow the elections to take place.

The most peaceful hall was the "dove," the children's education room." It was lit up with children's paintings asking is for peace. The hall on the "world's people in support of Vietnam's resistance," was interesting. I would have like to have seen more photos of anti-war demonstrations in the U.S. Perhaps some of our great photographers would like to donate a photo to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

- Beatrice Lumpkin

Beautiful country, beautiful people

Every country has a rich cultural heritage and natural beauty, yet Vietnam seems especially endowed. The beauty of nature and its landscape in Vietnam are breathtaking and guaranteed to relax and rejuvenate. But what made the trip to Vietnam a truly treasured experience was the Vietnamese people.

The insight began with Beatrice. This was her second trip to Vietnam and her most convincing point for our making the trip was that "...the people are wonderful!"

Our connections with the Vietnamese people came easily and quickly. Why was this so? From our first day and travels throughout the country, we received warm welcomes from all of the folks we met. The hospitality of people "on the street" was quite remarkable. We noted that almost every time one of us exchanged a glance with a stranger, an instantaneous nod of acknowledgement was directed our way, often followed by a gentle smile-communicating quite clearly "you are welcome among us."

Was it the demonstrations of respect and kindness we received and observed around us, constantly? Was it the people's devotion to family, reverence of ancestors and cultural traditions, great respect for teachers and belief in education as the best promise for a good future?

Was it the countless expressions of creativity and style, and what can only be described as the Vietnamese people's extreme attention to detail? Was it the richness of styles and colors, the delicateness of textures, tastes, fragrances-all complimenting each other, so carefully put together-that delighted our senses so unrelentingly?

So many lasting impressions-the gorgeous flowers and delicious food, beautifully woven tapestries and graceful "ao dai" (women's fitted tunic worn over pants), the exquisite presentation of just about everything, evidenced everywhere: outdoor markets, tourist hotels, historic buildings, monuments, temples and pagodas, private residences, public parks and gardens, even roadside alters.

Constantly and delightfully caught off guard with so many lovely, unexpected jewels, we can never forget- the 3,000 islands of Ha Long Bay; the orchids on the tables at the tiny diner in Dalat; gorgeous Hibiscus blossoms among stacked towels for rent at the beach; and the sunrise sight of hundreds of young women across the country cycling to high school, heads high and backs straight in beautiful flowing ao dai uniforms.

So many memorable experiences of our visit with the people of Vietnam, but nothing stands out more than what we heard from young and old throughout the country, time and time again-the Vietnamese people's pride in their country and their national unity, and their hopes for the future and peace among all peoples in the world.

- Patricia Flagg Poole

Photo: One of the beautiful scenes of Halong Bay, Vietnam. (CC)