People Before Profit blog

Ecuador national park to be abused for oil exploration

Fri, 30 May 2014 17:16:00 +0000

On May 22, Ecuador's environmental minister Lorena Tapia authorized permits for oil exploration to begin in the sensitive Yasuni National Park, including the development and production of two oil fields, Tiputini and Tambococha, within the park. The area is home to many sensitive animal species, as well as two indigenous communities who reside there in voluntary isolation. Above all, the park is considered one of the most biodiverse places in the world. Oil production could begin as early as 2016.

The culprit behind the oil exploration is Chevron, a corporation with a well-known history of environmental destruction. The decision led to a demonstration against Chevron organized by Amazon Watch on May 21 in multiple countries, including Ecuador. The group christened the day "Anti-Chevron Day." The group called Chevron a "gangster corporation" that has "perpetrated ecocide with impunity."

Uproar immediately followed the announcement that Yasuni National Park was potentially going to be victim to such devastation. "Yasuni is exceptionally rich in species and home to diverse cultures," said Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "Its protection defends nature and peoples. Destroying it would be a particular tragedy."

Amazon Watch's indigenous rights NGO, Adam Zuckerman, added, "In its announcement the Ecuadorian government forgot to mention that it has already divided up 45 percent of Yasuni National Park into seven oil concessions. According to its own records, Ecuador's state oil company averages nearly an oil spill every week, and just one spill in the most biodiverse and culturally sensitive part of the Amazon would be tragic. This is a cold, calculated move that insults our collective intelligence."

Chevron, meanwhile, has done much oil exploration in other parts of the country already, including on the outskirts of Yasuni. Environmental blog Chevron in Ecuador noted, "For over three decades, Chevron chose profit over people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The cold decision to poison entire communities is compounded daily as Chevron continues its PR campaign to suppress the truth and barrage the media with lies about its actions and responsibility."

Already, due to Chevron's contamination of ground water, soil, rivers, and streams from prior oil accidents, local indigenous communities have suffered an epidemic of cancer, birth defects, and miscarriages. The company has also conducted deliberate dumping of toxic wastewater that has further poisoned local people. And the contamination has rendered entire areas devoid of fish and game, choking the very natural resources that indigenous peoples have always relied upon for their livelihoods.

Indigenous peoples themselves have come out in protest of this. Members of the Waorani community joined a demonstration against the extraction of oil from Yasuni in October 2013.

The Ecuadorian victims of Chevron's tampering filed a class-action lawsuit against the company's predecessor, Texaco (which was purchased by Chevron) back in 1993, and the trial remains ongoing.

In a statement by Amazon Watch, the group remarked, "A victory for these affected communities would send shockwaves through corporate boardrooms all over the world, putting corporations on notice that they can and will be held accountable for environmental abuses, no matter where they are committed. Amazon Watch is working with the affected communities to monitor the trial and keep the ongoing fight for justice in the spotlight." It's time, the group noted, "to put the heat on Chevron to clean up its toxic legacy in Ecuador."

Photo: Members of the Waorani indigenous community take part in a protest against the decision to allow Chevron to conduct oil exploration in Yasuni National Park. AP

Unions organize historic event on Cyprus

Thu, 29 May 2014 15:39:00 +0000

LEFKOSIA, Cyprus - On the island country of Cyprus, May Day is a national holiday. Most businesses are closed, festive parades take place in all the major cities; and restaurants, cafes, and beaches are filled with holiday crowds. May Day on Cyprus is always a big deal, but on this particular May 1, beginning in the late afternoon and continuing into the evening, an event of historic dimensions was organized by the Pancyprian Federation of Labor (PEO) and Devrimci çi Sendikalari Federasyonu (Confederation of Revolutionary Labor Unions, Cyprus) (Dev-Is).

The big event was held in the capital city of Lefkosia (Nicosia) and attracted a massive turnout from the populace, especially labor. Of note were the drum & bugle corps from local communities across the country. In the part of Nicosia controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, the celebration began with a rally in front of the government ministry of finance, serving as a challenge to the current government's capitulation to the demands of foreign bankers, to the detriment of the working people of Cyprus. After that rally the march proper stepped off, heading towards the North to the accompaniment of the marching bands.

The route took marchers past Ledra Palace, where current president Nicos Anastasiades was entertaining foreign dignitaries, not to celebrate May Day but rather to commemorate Cyprus's becoming part of the EU. At the same time as these marchers were heading north a group of mostly Turkish Cypriot workers was headed south after a similar May Day rally held in the Turkish occupied northern part of Nicosia. The two contingents meet inside the UN patrolled buffer zone, the "no man's land" separating the southern 2/3rds of the Republic of Cyprus from the north.

This meeting, inside the buffer zone, was unprecedented.

In the 1970's ultra-right nationalists from both communities, the Turkish Cypriot TMT and Greek Cypriot EOKA-B, went to great lengths to separate the two communities, even waging campaigns of terror and assassination against those Cypriot's who struggled for unity. The inter-communal violence perpetrated by these nationalist sought to divide the Cypriot people and opened the door to the Turkish invasion and subsequent occupation. Fortunately the right nationalists were discredited and now, although the nationalists continue to have some following, most Cypriots of Greek and Turkish origin alike aspire to a reunified Cyprus with a single sovereignty and international personality, an aspiration that was borne out by this historic May Day meeting.

The historic meet up was followed by speeches from Pambis Kyritsis, secretary general of PEO, Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the CC of AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People, the communist party of Cyprus), and progressive leaders of the Turkish Cypriot community. The speakers delivered their remarks in their native languages which were displayed on jumbotrons, translated into Greek or Turkish. A program presented by progressive Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot musicians followed the speeches.

May Day, the workers day is special in itself, but the historic buffer zone rally at the culmination of Nicosia's May Day parades served to emphasize the essential unity and solidarity of Cyprus's two communities, a unity that was symbolically borne out by the joint appearance of Dimitris Christofias, former GS of AKEL and former President of the Republic, and Mehmet Ali Talat, former leader of the Turkish Cypriot community.

Photo: Gary Bono/PW

UE condemns U.S. role in Ukraine crisis

Thu, 29 May 2014 12:03:00 +0000

The three top officers of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) issued a statement on May 27 condemning the actions of the current coup government in power in Kiev and the role of the United States and its Western allies in fueling the crisis in that nation. The full text of the statement follows:

"On February 22, the elected president of Ukraine was overthrown in a coup which was supported by the Obama administration. Since then, the country has been torn apart and violence has escalated. On May 2 in the southern city of Odessa, supporters of the new unelected Kiev government, including members of the violent extremist Right Sector party, surrounded peaceful, unarmed anti-government protestors who had taken refuge in the city's main union hall. The right-wing crowd then set the union hall on fire, and 46 people died by being burned alive or jumping to their deaths trying to escape.

"We are troubled by this horrific atrocity, and by the fact that mass murder was committed by burning a union hall. We are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine, by the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine's eastern border and U.S. and NATO troops and planes in neighboring Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which signal the return of the Cold War and the threat of a much hotter war.

"A defining period in the history of UE was our union's courageous opposition to the Cold War. At the end of World War II there was great hope among union members and other Americans for a continuation of FDR's New Deal, with progressive social and economic policies including national healthcare, expanded Social Security, and progress against racial discrimination in employment. What we got instead was the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and the Cold War. Military spending, including the nuclear arms race, continued to trump all other priorities. Local conflicts all over the world were treated as global showdowns between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. In the name of "fighting communism," the U.S. sided with the French and British colonial empires against independence movements, and backed many brutal dictators against their own people. The 40-year-long Cold War included some very hot wars - notably Korea and Vietnam. The CIA organized coups that overthrew democratic governments that dared to disagree with the U.S. government or corporations. On the domestic front, the Cold War was a massive attack on civil liberties and an effort to wipe out organizations, including UE, that refused to enlist in the Cold War.

"UE said the U.S. government should direct its resources toward making life better for its own people. UE favored negotiations to resolve differences between the U.S. and the Soviets, and to end conflicts such as Vietnam. UE said the arms race robbed human needs on both sides of the Cold War divide. As UE President Albert Fitzgerald often said, "You can't have guns and butter."

"The Cold War supposedly ended with 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which had been composed of the U.S.S.R. and its Eastern European allies. A key event was the 1990 agreement between the U.S., West Germany and the Soviet Union allowing the reunification of Germany. In those negotiations, President George H.W. Bush promised Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO - the U.S.-led anti-Soviet military alliance - would not expand any further east than Germany.

"Yet despite that promise, and despite Russia and its former allies no longer having communist governments, NATO has moved steadily eastward toward Russia. NATO now includes the former socialist states of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as three former republics of the U.S.S.R. which border Russia - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. "Two more former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, have been promised eventual NATO membership. NATO is now clearly an alliance against Russia, sitting on Russia's doorstep.

"In late 2013 the U.S. began expressing hostility toward Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and sympathy with the often violent anti-government protestors in Kiev. Yanukovych was not an exemplary leader - we now know that he'd been feathering his own nest - but he was elected in a fair election, and the U.S. supports many governments that are more corrupt and undemocratic than his.

"What made Yanukovych a target for regime change was his decision in November to reject harsh loan terms from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - including the kind of pension cuts and austerity that have driven Greece into poverty. Yanukovych instead accepted a more favorable offer of economic aid from Russia. His proposal that Ukraine have good economic relations with both Russia and the EU was rejected by the EU and the U.S., which wanted a Ukrainian government hostile to Russia.

"U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met in December 2013 with Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the far-right Svoboda Party. In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament had called Svoboda 'racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic' and appealed to democratic parties in Ukraine 'not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party.' In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress labeled Svoboda 'neo-Nazi' and called for the party to be banned. Svoboda leader Tyahnybok has called for ridding Ukraine of the influence of 'the Moscow-Jewish mafia.' Svoboda is also anti-gay, anti-black, and hostile to equal rights for women.

"But since the overthrow of Yanukovych, Svoboda holds four cabinet ministries in Ukraine's 'provisional government' (including deputy prime minister.) In a Feb. 4 conversation caught on tape, Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Kiev discussed who would get which positions in the new government, including cabinet seats for Svoboda.

"In Europe since the end of World War II, there has been a political taboo against allowing fascist and neo-Nazi parties into any government. The Obama administration has now broken that taboo and allied our country with fascists in Ukraine. According to German media reports, about 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious U.S. private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in Ukrainian military operations against anti-government protesters in southeastern Ukraine. News that Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden has joined the board of directors of Ukraine's largest private gas company adds the element of conflict of interest. Obama's policies toward Ukraine and Russia have significantly increased the chances of military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, the world's two nuclear superpowers. This threatens world peace.

"It is unclear whether the presidential election conducted on May 25, under conditions of near-civil war, will help to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

"We reaffirm UE's historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe."

Bruce Klipple, General President

Andrew Dinkelaker, General Secretary-Treasurer

Bob Kingsley, Director of Organization

Photo: Ultra-rightists attack the parliament building in Kiev. AP

Okinawa mayor appeals to Americans to help stop military base

Wed, 28 May 2014 12:29:00 +0000

The mayor of Nago City, Okinawa, wants Americans to help him stop construction of a U.S. military base in his small city. He traveled to the U.S. last week to make his case.

Susumu Inamine was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term as Nago's mayor this January because of his strong opposition to the U.S. plan to build a massive new base in this environmentally sensitive coastal city of 62,000 residents.

The base would replace the existing U.S. Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, which is located in a densely populated urban area in central Okinawa. The planned move is a response to long-standing pressure from local residents to close Futenma. Repeated polls show 74 percent or more of Okinawans oppose relocating the Futenma base within Okinawa. In fact, the overwhelming majority want all U.S. bases out of Okinawa. Nevertheless, both the U.S. and Japanese governments say they are forging ahead with the relocation plan.

Mayor Inamine is appealing to Americans to help stop it.

Visiting New York and Washington last week, Inamine met with government officials, congressional staffers and think tank policy experts, and spoke with interested Americans. He found some sympathetic ears, including at the libertarian Cato Institute, Inamine said. However "the reaction of U.S. officials was pretty tough," he said in a phone interview. "But we can still persuade." The mayor spoke in Japanese, with English provided by a translator.

"Americans should know that local residents are not welcoming the base," Mayor Inamine said. "U.S. residents should consider the huge budgetary burden and environmental impact on the local community."

Inamine says he intends to use his rights as mayor to block the construction of the base. Japanese law stipulates the rights of local municipalities, he noted. "According to this, I have the right" to stop the construction. In order to use roads, piers and other public facilities, he said, "they have to get my approval. I will exercise my right as mayor." He said residents are planning to create "a line of boats on the sea" in the Henoko area to demonstrate their opposition to the project.

The U.S. currently has some 85 military bases and installations in Japan, with about 50,000 military personnel, plus thousands of civilian Pentagon employees and dependents. The island of Okinawa, at the southern tip of Japan, is about one-third the size of Rhode Island. It constitutes only 0.6 percent of Japan's land area, but contains more than 30 U.S. bases, taking up 20 percent of its land.

After more than 20 years of U.S. occupation following World War II, Okinawa reverted back to Japanese control in 1972, but, said Mayor Inamine, "for Okinawan people the situation has not changed."

The state-of-the-art Futenma replacement base, part of the Obama administration's "Asia pivot," is tied to Japan's current national and foreign policy, Inamine said. He noted that the Japanese government, which backs the U.S. presence, is trying to expand the re-militarization of its own "self-defense" forces.

The new base "is pushed strongly by the [Japanese] government against the wishes of the people," he said. "Okinawans are not only controlled by U.S. military forces, they are also unfairly treated by the Japanese government. People strongly feel that Okinawa is being colonized by Japan."

Residents have been actively organizing for years to get U.S. bases closed, either relocated to elsewhere in Japan or out of Japan entirely.

Okinawans are upset about crimes committed by U.S. service members, including rapes. Some 5,600 criminal charges have been brought by Okinawans against U.S. military personnel since 1972. They are also angry about noise pollution from military aircraft, firing ranges and other base activity, and about environmental harm. Earlier this year, U.S. military officials admitted that they had covered up massive PCB contamination at the U.S. Kadena Air Base since the 1980s. A furor also erupted among both U.S. service members and Okinawans over last year's unearthing of 83 barrels containing dioxins and other toxic chemicals, including barrels labeled Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of Agent Orange, on land formerly part of the Kadena base that is now the Okinawa City soccer field.

The new base is slated to be constructed in the small seaside community of Henoko, part of Nago City, with runways built on an enormous landfill dumped into scenic Oura Bay. Oura Bay is home to rare types of coral and endangered species such as the dugong, a type of manatee. Relocation of the Futenma base to Henoko, Inamine says, "means destruction of this global treasure." It is not just a local issue but also "very important in our global village," he said.

Thus, the "dire situation in Nago City" should be of concern to environmental groups and civil society internationally, the mayor said.

He noted carefully, "I am not against the entire U.S. armed forces in Japan. I am opposed to construction of this base."

Inamine, 68, is described as non-political. He was a city administrator for 30 years before being elected mayor in 2010. In his work, he said, "I always emphasized dialogue with the community." He feels his current role is a continuation of that work.

"Whatever we do here is a legacy for future generations," he said. "I would like to leave something for the future. The new base is supposed to last 100 years. We have already suffered 60-plus years [from the impact of U.S. bases]. If we leave this over another 100 years, it's a negative heritage for our children."

"Please, please spread what Okinawa people are feeling," he concluded.

Photo: Nago City Mayor Susumu Inamine, center right, and his wife Ritsuko celebrate his re-election, Jan. 19, 2014. AP/Kyodo News

Fixing U.S. intervention capabilities in Cuba

Fri, 23 May 2014 16:30:00 +0000

What people think seemingly has little effect on ending what Cubans say is the longest and cruelest economic blockade in human history. Polls show overall U.S. disapproval, Cuban-Americans included. The UN General Assembly has repeatedly and overwhelmingly rejected the blockade. The prestigious Atlantic Council NGO recently disapproved. Former high-profile blockade defenders in Florida, notably gubernatorial candidate Charley Crist and Cuban-American sugar baron Alfonso Fajul, changed their thinking. U.S. food producers, Illinois corn producers most recently, have called for new regulatory arrangements allowing exports to expand.

Even President Obama, fundraising in Miami in November 2013, lectured Cuba's enemies. "[T]he notion that the same policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as effective as they are today ... doesn't make sense." Yet those in charge don't budge.

Nevertheless, Josefina Vidal, head of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's U.S. department, was in Washington on May 16 to discuss unspecified topics with Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) noted that previous bi-national contacts, technically oriented, "are not comparable to Vidal's visit to Washington, which constitutes high-level diplomatic dialogue."

Then a real breakthrough seemed to materialize. According to a report, "44 former high U.S. government officials on May 19 ... sent an open letter to President Barack Obama asking for an improvement in Washington's relations with Cuba." They included John Negroponte, former Director of National Intelligence, Deputy Secretary of State, and veteran ambassador, including at the United Nations.

Joining him were five former deputy or assistant secretaries of state, two former heads of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, a former NATO supreme commander who once headed the U.S. Southern Command, an ex-U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, three former cabinet members, several former ambassadors, and David Rockefeller. Financiers, businesspersons, and NGO heads signed on.

In fact, the letter conveyed interventionist recommendations as to new ways to make the blockade effective. "Now more than ever," it claimed, "the United States can help the Cuban people determine their own destiny by building on the U.S. policy reforms that have already been started" by the Obama administration. The United States should "deepen contacts between the U.S. and Cuban society [and] help Cubans increase their self-reliance and independence." "[T]his window of opportunity may not remain open indefinitely," the letter cautioned. Now "public opinion on Cuba policy has shifted toward greater engagement with the Cuban people." And, "the U.S. is finding itself increasingly isolated internationally in its Cuba policy."

Rather than engage with Cubans through ending the blockade, or bow to international opinion, the signatories remain faithful to old U.S. purposes. They urged the president to take executive actions, because "In the current political climate little can be done legislatively." The 1996 Helms Burton Act did leave the fate of the blockade up to Congress.

The president is urged to "Expand and safeguard travel to Cuba for all Americans," specifically "licensed travel to include exchanges by professional organizations including those specializing in law, real estate and land titling, [also] financial services and credit." "NGOs and academic institutions" having gained "expanded travel" could "open Cuban bank accounts with funds to support their educational programs in Cuba." Travel suggestions are lacking for other Americans.

Obama should, "Allow unlimited remittances to non-family members for the purpose of supporting independent activity in Cuba," also grant "new licenses for the provision of professional services to independent Cuban entrepreneurs."

The long list of recommendations includes: U.S. loans "directly to small farmers, cooperatives, self-employed individuals, and micro-enterprises in Cuba," sales of "telecommunications hardware," and scholarships for "exceptional Cuban students."

The president should authorize "the import and export of certain goods and services between the U.S. private sector and independent Cuban entrepreneurs." Presidential discretion would be used for implementing this far-reaching proposal that presumably would exempt it from congressional authority.

Miami-area Congressperson Joe Garcia, former head of the counter-revolutionary Cuban American National Foundation, commented. "The president's policy of allowing more travel and remittances to Cuba," he said, "has produced more change in Cuba in the last five years than the previous 50 years." He thus articulated the establishment notion evident in this letter that a dependent Cuban people aren't capable of shaping their own destiny, and shouldn't have tried.

Former high officials of the national government fashioned the letter. They were reacting, one assumes, to the threat of a near-by social revolution, one reverberating through the centers of U.S. power for half a century. The list of names below the letter documents where parties primarily responsible for U.S. counter-revolutionary policies may be found. That would be in and around Washington, not in southern Florida where Cuban exiles, who supplied the proxy warriors, often take most of the heat for the blockade's long duration.

In India, fears accompany right-wing Modi's landslide victory

Wed, 21 May 2014 17:32:00 +0000

India has voted, and the 1.2 billion-person democracy delivered a resounding victory to the right-wing party of Narenda Modi on May 16. Modi was named India's next prime minister on May 20. This is the first time since India won independence in 1947 that a rightist party has won a clear majority in parliament.

The margin of victory for Modi's party, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) surpassed its own expectations, bagging some 286 seats out of the 543 in India's parliament, the Lok Sabha, thus winning a majority outright. With other parties that formally ally with the BJP, the coalition won 336 seats. The ousted ruling Indian National Congress party (Congress for short), fell to an all-time low of 44 seats, an abysmal figure for a party that ruled independent India for most of its 67 years. India held its first election after overthrowing British colonial rule in 1947.

The left alliance, in which India's two major Communist Parties participate, garnered only 12 seats with nine of the 12 going to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, a number too low to keep its national party status. The Communist Party of India won one seat.

The Modi victory is being compared to the victories of Margaret Thatcher in the UK in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. in 1980, which in both cases ushered in an era of corporate and financial deregulation, privatization of public services and entities, union-busting and other economic-social policies detrimental to working people. Echoes of Reagan's famous "Morning in America" speech rang throughout Modi's May 20 speech. Like Reagan, Modi referred to himself as "optimist" by nature, and he brandished his populist credentials, saying his government would be "dedicated to the poor, millions of youth and mothers and daughters who are striving for their respect and honor. Villagers, farmers, Dalits [formerly known as "untouchables"] and the oppressed, this government is for them, for their aspirations and this is our responsibility. ... I have seen people who had only one piece of clothing on their body but had the BJP's flag. This section is looking at us with hope and aspirations. ...people have voted for hope."

Notably missing from the list is a mention of India's 177 million Muslims. As chief minister in the state of Gujarat, Modi presided over the worst sectarian violence since the partition of India in 1947. In 2002, a fight between Hindu extremists and Muslim tea vendors at a train station in Godhra, Gujarat, which resulted in a fire that killed 47 Hindus on a train for a religious pilgrimage. In response, Hindu far-right extremist groups began a deliberate campaign of violence against any and all Muslims.

M.K. Moorthy, reporting for People's World at the time, wrote, "Hindu fascists took charge with the blessings of the state apparatus governed by BJP Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Many fact-finding missions found that the Modi government allowed mobs of armed men to attack the Muslim community and burn down and destroy Muslim-owned businesses without any interference from the police. After many days the national government was forced to send in the Indian Army to gain control."

Because of Modi's role in the carnage, which resulted in 2,000 deaths, the United States twice refused him a visa to visit.

Capitalizing on corruption scandals involving the Congress party, the BJP jumped into the leadership void, projecting Modi as its prime ministerial figure much like a U.S. presidential election. Flanked by PR firms and armed with corporate cash, Modi campaigned nonstop for his party. Hindu nationalist groups conducted grassroots campaigns in support of Modi, while the BJP leader tried to distance himself from the extremists and quell fears among the electorate as well as internationally, especially among corporate investors anxious to get more of a foothold in the Indian market.

In addition to the well-grounded fears of increased sectarian violence with a BJP victory, many say that Modi's populist rhetoric is a cover for the BJP's pro-corporate agenda, similar to the Thatcher-Reagan years.

"If you define Thatcherism as less government, free enterprise, then there is no difference between Modi-nomics and Thatcherism," Deepak Kanth, a London-based banker now collecting funds as a volunteer for the BJP, told Reuters.

The London-based Economist declared, "The last [Congress Party-led] government dithered and was preoccupied with bolstering India's welfare state. India's new rulers must be more strategic and ruthless."

But, given the tremendous problems of poverty and unemployment that exist side by side with tremendous wealth in India, Modi's election has created high expectations for him to deliver on his promises to everyone regardless of caste, class, gender or religion.

As one commenter at The Hindu wrote: "All because of one man named Modi. The entire nation narrowed their focus on him thinking that he would deliver to them what he had done to Gujarat. We will see what he is going to do. The people are not interested in 'Bullet' trains, nor in 'Ram' temples. Let him provide to the people safe drinking water, safety in travels, communal harmony and usher in a corrupt free society. Let him also keep in his mind that the last BJP government was not there for a second term."

Photo: India's next Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a gathering of supporters in his home state of Gujarat after his landslide victory, May 16. (AP/Dharmesh Jobanputra)

Catastrophic destruction from floods in Balkans, landmines swept away

Wed, 21 May 2014 16:27:00 +0000

BRCKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - Floodwaters triggered more than 3,000 landslides across the Balkans on Sunday, laying waste to entire towns and villages and disturbing land mines leftover from the region's 1990s war, along with warning signs that marked the unexploded weapons.

The Balkans' worst flooding since record keeping began forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and threatened to inundate Serbia's main power plant, which supplies electricity to a third of the country and most of the capital, Belgrade.

Authorities organized a frenzied helicopter airlift to get terrified families to safety before the water swallowed up their homes. Many were plucked from rooftops.

"The situation is catastrophic," said Bosnia's refugee minister, Adil Osmanovic.

Three months' worth of rain fell on the region in three days, producing the worst floods since rainfall measurements began 120 years ago. At least two dozen people have died, with more casualties expected.

The rain caused an estimated 2,100 landslides that covered roads, homes and whole villages throughout hilly Bosnia. Another 1,000 landslides were reported in neighboring Serbia.

In Serbia, more than 20,000 people have been forced from their homes. Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Sunday that 12 bodies have been found so far in Obrenovac, site of the coal-fired Nikola Tesla power plant, Serbia's biggest.

Parts of the plant and a nearby mine that provides its fuel were underwater.

Serbia's state power company, EPS, said crews were doing all they could to prevent any further damage to the plant. Damage to the mine alone is estimated at more than 100 million Euros ($137 million).

Serbia's energy minister, Aleksandar Antic, appealed to people to conserve power, calling the threat to the plant "very serious."

The floods and landslides raised fears about the estimated 1 million land mines planted during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Nearly 120,000 of the unexploded devices remain in more than 9,400 carefully marked minefields. But the weather toppled warning signs and, in many cases, dislodged the mines themselves.

Beyond the immediate danger to Bosnians, any loose mines could also create an international problem if floodwaters carry the explosives downstream. Experts warned that mines could travel through half of southeast Europe or get stuck in the turbines of a hydroelectric dam.

The United Nations reports that over 110 million land-mines of various types - plus millions more unexploded bombs, shells and grenades - remain hidden around the world, in at least 68 countries.

From the air, the northeastern third of Bosnia resembled a huge muddy lake, with houses, roads and rail lines submerged. Officials say about a million people - more than a quarter of the country's population - live in the worst-affected areas.

Residents told stories of narrow escapes from injury or death:

Mesan Ikanovic said. "I ran out of the house barefoot, carrying children in my arms." Ikanovic said 10 minutes separated him and his family from likely death. He carried his 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son to safety.

More than 10,000 people have already been rescued from the town of Bijeljina in northeast Bosnia. Trucks, buses and private cars were heading north with volunteers and tons of aid collected by people in cities outside the disaster zone.

The Bosnian Army said it had 1,500 troops helping on the ground. But many bridges have been washed away, leaving communities dependent on airlifts.

Helicopters from the European Union, Slovenia and Croatia were also aiding rescue efforts.

Large parts of eastern Croatia were underwater too, with several villages cut off and hundreds still fleeing the flooded zone in boats and trucks. Refugees were being housed in sports halls and schools, and aid centers were set up to distribute medicine, food, blankets and clothing.

The Raiffeisen Investment Group said in a note to investors that preliminary estimates are nearly 1.3 billion Euros ($1.8 billion) for Bosnia alone. Bosnian President Bakir Izetbegovic also said damages are in the billions.

In neighboring Serbia, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said damages could range up to 1.5 billion Euros ($2 billion).

Both countries have already begun talks with the EU for getting international help with reconstruction efforts. Separately, Bosnia's Serb region is talking with the Russians.

The flooding affected 40 percent of Bosnia, Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said. It wrecked the main agriculture industry in the northern flatlands, wiping out infrastructure, farms, buildings and homes. One quarter of the country's 4 million people have been affected by record floods and landslides.

In addition, Bosnia's infrastructure minister said 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) of roads have been destroyed or damaged and 30 percent of railway lines are still unusable.

"This country has not experienced such a natural cataclysm ever," Lagumdzija said Wednesday.

Bosnia has one of the lowest gross domestic products in Europe and an unemployment rate of up to 44 percent. Almost no one has property insurance, meaning many residents lost virtually everything.

On Wednesday, a mine exploded near the northern village of Cerik, where the flooding had moved one of the more than 9,000 minefields left over from Bosnia's 1992-95 war. Nobody was hurt.

Serbia, like much of the Balkans, is poor. The country's economy has failed to fully recover following the wars and international sanctions in the 1990s. The unemployment rate officially stands at 20 percent, but is much higher in reality.

Associated Press writers Aida Cerkez in Sarajevo, Marko Drobnjakovic in Veliki Crljeni, Serbia; Almir Alic in Doboj, Bosnia; Amel Emric in Brcko, Bosnia; and Sulejman Klokoqi in Horozovine, Bosnia contributed to this report. Jovana Gec reported from Belgrade, Serbia. Irena Knezevic contributed from Banja Luka, Bosnia, Jovana Gec reported from Belgrade, Serbia. Irena Knezevic contributed from Banja Luka, Bosnia.

Photo: A man holds his dog during the evacuation from floods in Obrenovac, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of Belgrade Serbia, May 17. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

German Left party tackles the tough issues at its congress

Mon, 19 May 2014 15:03:00 +0000

BERLIN -- The Ukraine crisis was high on the agenda of die LINKE party congress here May 9-11. Opinions did differ, but the entire congress gave major blame for the crisis to NATO, the European Union and the German government. It opposed both sanctions against Russia and financial assistance for Kiev.

Even those critical of Putin called for more respect for Russia; Berlin chairman Klaus Lederer said: "We must never forget the immeasurable losses of the people of the Soviet Union during the invasion by Nazi Germany nor the sacrifices they made in freeing Europe from fascism." Above all, the congress demanded negotiations and a rejection of any military escalation. Its Ukraine resolution, with some compromises, was passed almost unanimously by the congress.

Also almost unanimously, such agreement dismayed all its foes, and not just because of the one resolution. In the Bundestag the LINKE, which must be given at least a little TV time, offers the only real opposition to military adventures and rightwing actions, at home or abroad. It is therefore universally loathed (or secretly feared) by the other parties and their pet media. They always hope such a congress will end in a knock-down-drag-out fight, maybe even a fatal split. To their disappointment there was neither the one nor the other.

There was indeed some tension leading up to the congress. In a Bundestag vote on April 9 on sending a German frigate as escort to the American ship carrying poison gas away from Syria, LINKE delegates experienced a real split for the first time. Five, from the so-called "reformer" group, joined the other parties and voted in favor. 18 members abstained; they saw the deployment as part of a disarmament move - and thus not to be opposed. But 35 delegates braved angry attacks from the entire establishment (with two courageous exceptions from other parties) and voted No. For them sending that warship to the Mediterranean was no real necessity at all but rather one more global extension of German military and naval strength. The LINKE, they insisted, must keep its position of adamantly rejecting all such expansion. It must remain the one party of peace.

The main repercussions came from the outside. Both Social Democrats and Greens regard this strict "hands off" principle, extending even to causes they label, rightly or wrongly, as "humanitarian", as a major stumbling block against any electoral coalition with the LINKE in 2017. That worries some so-called reformers who hope for just such a coalition. Others, who proved stronger at this congress, fear that weakening this basic tenet would land the party on the same slippery slope which turned the SPD and the Greens into weak-kneed collaborators with the same old powers-that-be and thus render the LINKE largely superfluous.

Such basic principles were not directly involved on a state level, thus permitting more flexibility on joining with other parties. Some approve cooperating with the SPD, others maintain that such coalitions do the party more harm than good. No general rules were determined. In the state of Brandenburg the two parties have governed together since 2009 and will most likely continue to do so after state elections in September. In Thuringia there is even a chance that LINKE and SPD could win a majority and form a coalition. But this time, with the LINKE stronger, and if the SPD agrees to be junior partner this could result in the first LINKE minister-president in unified Germany. That would be a true sensation, but one fraught with many possible traps and temptations.

On other issues there was general agreement: support for Venezuela against violent putsch attempts; rejection of military drones for Germany or their use from its bases; basic rejection of a capitalist system now forcing so many into poverty, also in Germany; rejection of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being secretly negotiated between the EU and the USA, and support for the OCCUPY movement, now planning a world "BLOCKUPY" action against the big banks.

Calls to oppose neo-Nazis, fascists or any racists wherever they raise their hateful banners and stiff-armed salutes against Muslims, Jews, Roma people or immigrants were especially stressed by Gabi Zimmer, chair of the small leftist alliance in the European Parliament in which the LINKE, with 8 seats, has until now been the biggest group.

On May 22-25 Europeans from 28 countries will vote for a new parliament; it seems almost inevitable that the extreme right (and an only outwardly more moderate extreme right) will become much stronger, with more mandates for the Hungarian Jobbik, the Golden Dawn of Greece, France's Front National, the United Kingdom Independence Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, maybe even Germany's almost openly pro-Nazi National Democratic Party (NDP) and certainly the new Alternative for Germany (AfD), still wobbling in its position but like the others based on hatred toward foreigners and most minorities.

Gabi Zimmer stated that despite justified aversion to the European Union and its aims, it is wrong of some further-left groups and parties to reject participation. The European Parliament, the only elected part of the European Union, is worth fighting for; even the small Left wing alliance she has chaired, whose 35 members from 13 countries vary quite widely, has had some surprising achievements. She hopes for encouraging increases in its numbers from Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, and most of all from Greece.

Alexis Tsipras, top foreign guest at the congress, head of the strong Syriza party in Greece and candidate of the 26-member Party of the European Left for president of the European Commission, called for increased solidarity among progressives in Europe and a build-up of the left alliance within the European Parliament "as the only counterweight to the nightmare of the extreme right and the rebirth of the specter of fascism in Europe."

In its election of all LINKE party officials, conflicts between the varying party wings resulted in some tight races. But despite conflicts there was no split but again a balance, with an equal number of women and men, of easterners and westerners, of reformers and more leftist "radicals." Both co-presidents were re-elected: Katja Kipping, a woman from Dresden in East Germany, not really in the "reformer" camp, and Berndt Riexinger, a more leftist West German union leader. Together the two have managed to calm the stormiest party waves during their time in office and both are quite popular (the pro-and-con vote for Kipping was 77 to16 percent, for Riexinger 89 to 7 percent).

Here are some quotes from Riexinger's main speech.

"...Looking back at the last two years we can feel truly proud of what we have achieved and accomplished together. I can well recall those months before and the weeks after Gottingen [the last congress] the negative poll results, the positional struggles which upset, demotivated - yes frustrated so many in the party. We presented no good image then. But together we have moved out of this trough. We are now the strongest opposition party in the German Bundestag!

"... While a small sector of society spends its boundless income and its fortunes on luxury apartments in the world's big cities and showing off the size of its yachts, millions of people in factory jobs, temp work, mini-jobs and midi-jobs, short term contracts, low income jobs or self-employed, do not know whether they will still have work in the month ahead, or how they can pay rent and electricity bills and manage to live on their slender incomes.... We must spread hope that circumstances can be changed and improved. We must give people courage and the assurance that they can alter things, with elections and in the streets...

"... If one says one is a leftist one often feels pressure to say what one is not for. Not for barbed wire, not for dictatorship, not for injustices in China or some other place. No, we're not. Period. But we must proudly say who and what we are for. We are for social justice, which is a thousand times better than being for injustice. We are proud to be on the left because that means we are against war, we favor policies of peace. We are for a future for young people, for unity of ecology, social justice and the economy. We are against exploitation and oppression. We believe that people can take their future into their own hands.

"... The LINKE will never become adjusted to a system that excludes millions of people from equal participation. We will never accept a situation where, in one of the world's wealthiest societies, people must work and live in insecure, even lawless conditions. ... No, dear comrades, we need not be ashamed of ourselves. Looking at the world today, it is those who are not on the left who must try to justify themselves. That is why we are proud to be on the left. To be a leftist means to squarely face the people, life and the future."

Meet Victor Grossman In New York City at the People's World table at the Left Forum, May 30 - June 1. Grossman will be autographing copies of his book, "Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany."

Photo: Die Linke at BLOCKUPY protest

Turkish unions, charging "murders," stage national strike over mine disaster

Fri, 16 May 2014 13:49:00 +0000

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's four union federations called a one-day general strike on May 15 over the coal mine disaster in Soma, 150 miles southwest of Istanbul, where a fire, explosion and toxic gases on May 13 killed at least 284 miners and left more than 100 others missing. It was Turkey's worst mine disaster, in a nation with a high coal mine death rate.

"The TURK-IS executive board decided to exercise their right to stop work for one day following the Soma tragedy", the union, the largest and oldest of the four federations, said on May 14. It called the results of the explosion and fire "murders." Members of TURK-IS, the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, are also striking against the excessive use of "subcontract work," it said.

The strike targeted the mine's owners and also Turkish Prime Minister Reycip Erdogan, whose government has been lax in enforcing safety rules and which has refused to ratify an International Labour Organization convention covering mine safety, said the European-based union federation IndustriALL. It includes the union, Maden, which represents Soma's miners.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a third-generation coal miner and former United Mine Workers president, also mourned the dead miners. Flags in front of the federation's headquarters were at half-staff. "The thoughts and prayers of millions of workers go out to their families and communities," Trumka said.

"This disaster is a stark reminder of the danger workers face every day around the world due to corporate negligence and the failure of governments to protect their citizens," he said.

"There are steps we can and should take to ensure no worker has to choose between a day's pay and their life. Our concerns are grounded in reams of evidence that show the reach of corporate irresponsibility and government incapacity knows no borders. We must dedicate our efforts to ensuring every workplace is safe. He said, "the challenge ahead" is "to ensure that every worker can live without fear of workplace injury or death."

United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement Thursday:

"The horrific news coming from the coal mine near Soma is a punch in the gut for every coal miner everywhere in the world. The hearts and prayers of every UMWA member and our families are with the families of the miners who lost their lives, and we sincerely hope that rescue efforts are possible and successful for those who remain trapped.

"The magnitude of this tragedy is appalling. I see where the media is calling this an industrial 'accident,' but a disaster on this scale is no accident. This mine was clearly a bomb waiting to go off. There could not have been any regulatory enforcement or company oversight of what went on in that mine.

"It has been nearly a century since we have seen disasters on this scale in the United States or Canada. Through strong laws and regulations, we have been able to develop workplace protections that keep our miners safe from the kinds of conditions that must have existed in that Turkish mine.

"What we have done here isn't magical. It can be and has been applied elsewhere in the world. We stand ready to work with the Turkish miners and their government to help develop safety and health procedures that can help put an end to the possibility of these sorts of massive disasters in the future."

IndustriALL reported "an electrical fault triggered a transformer to explode causing a large fire...The fire caused a power cut in the mine rendering mine cages unusable and the majority of workers trapped two kilometers underground and four kilometers from the exit."

Mining engineer Ãetin Uygur, former chair of the Underground Mine Workers Trade Union, called the explosion and fire "the greatest workplace massacre in the history of the Turkish working class." He also noted there are close ties between Erdogan's party and the mine's owners, ranging from state subsidies to personal relationships. "Subcontracting of unskilled mining labor was one of the main factors in reducing the costs," at Soma "as the average monthly wage of nearly 5,000 mine workers is only $500," Uygur said.

There have been prior, smaller accidents in the Soma mine, as well as accidents elsewhere, Uygur added. Opposition lawmakers in the Turkish parliament proposed an investigation of the past Soma accidents on April 29, but Erdogan's majority defeated it.

Photo: Miners and members of the rescue services at the mine in Soma, western Turkey, May 15. Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Germany’s Ukraine policy aims for the impossible

Thu, 15 May 2014 14:52:00 +0000

BERLIN - Germany is having difficulty with its Ukraine policy. Running up a down escalator is difficult enough but trying to keep your footing both on the up and on the down escalator at the same time is simply impossible. Yet that's what Germany is attempting with its current Ukraine policy.

Between 1989 and 1994 (after Soviet soldiers left the German Democratic Republic -- East Germany) the newly-unified country swiftly forgot all promises to the contrary and joined in expanding the more economic European Union and the more military NATO. The EU and NATO went on to include Poland, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, to Bulgaria, Rumania and, not yet quite fully, to Azerbaijan and Georgia.

A glance at a map makes it all too clear: adding the wide Ukrainian expanse would mean almost total western encirclement of Russia's main territory, further diminishing its access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and moving alarmingly close to its heart.

At first Berlin joined in happily with Washington. But Ukraine's Maidan Square hero, the tall, tough German-backed boxing champion Vitali Klitchko, was pushed out of the ring. The famous hacked telephone call of the State Department's Victoria Nuland with the US ambassador, at ringside in Kiev for the Kagan-Clinton-Kerry "betting syndicate", made it clear that the U.S. man Yatsenyuk was fixed in advance to win the champion's belt as new premier. And the entries from the European Union? "Fuck the EU ... 'Yats' is the man", Nuland declared primly. When the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland and France tried to referee the bout, and cool it, they landed on the ropes. Cooling was out, "Yats" was in - and still is today.

Now Chancellor Merkel and her Social Democratic foreign minister Steinmeier are caught on those contrary moving escalators. They can no more buck the stronger players in Kiev from across the Atlantic than they can keep Obama's inquisitive experts from tapping telephone talk by Angela and her team. But Berlin's Spree River and the Rhine are far closer to the Moskva than the Potomac, geographically and economically; many weighty German corporations feel protective about Russian oil and gas pipelines or export and investment opportunities, and keep pushing for moderation. Which way to go?

This split helps explain why Ursula von der Leyen, German Defense Minister, talks tough and sends the military to Russian borders while Foreign Minister Steinmeier keeps on with building bridges and round tables, hopefully with success, while Merkel urges the European Union to step up pressure against Russia with sanctions and visa denials but then cautions against any military actions.

Most media are less cautious. They were always careful never to criticize one word or action of men like Sharon, Netanyahu or Avigdor Lieberman in Israel - because of Germany's horrendous past (and/or a desire for recognition and respectability). Yet the same media rarely if ever recall that Nazi Germany killed 25 million or more Soviet people, in the majority women, children or starved POWs. It appears at times as if such media never really "forgave" the Russians for horrors like the Nazi siege of Leningrad.

But Putin will not have forgotten them or the immense destruction as he observed the growing NATO encirclement of Russia. Nor will he have missed stray, unofficial hints that some view Maidan Square as a dress rehearsal for a grand-scale repeat performance on Red Square. Yet somehow it is Putin who is unceasingly accused of aggressive ambitions!

Aside from the balancing acts, neither Merkel, Steinmeier nor the media majority seem to note - or care - that the Kiev junta includes members of the Svoboda party, leaders in the Maidan uprising, with a menacing fascist past. Its boss, Oleh Tyahnybok, says it stands for "Christian values" and the "rejection of various deviations". While it has discreetly superseded its early hero, Hitler deputy Josef Goebbels, with Stepan Bandera, who joined the Nazis in 1941 in killing Russians, Jews and Poles, Svoboda not only wants bans on most abortions and homosexuals (its only agreement with Putin) but wants to make Ukrainian the only legitimate language, pushing out the Russian spoken in the eastern Ukraine.

Svoboda party's ally, a band of extremists called the Right Sector, is evidently being built up as a sort of National Guard, uniformed, more disciplined, but as violent as ever in its killing sprees - from the flaming building in Odessa to tank and parachute raids into the Eastern Ukraine. Both groups conceal only thinly their anti-Semitism and seem to have had ties to neo-Nazis in other countries, yet western leaders remain oh-so-generous in sending money, arms and propaganda to what a retired top German Social Democrat called the "only government in Europe which includes open fascists". Especially disappointing perhaps: the Green Party in Germany is the most belligerent of all, rejecting any criticism of Kiev and all but demanding provocative action against Russia.

One major party in Germany refuses to join the dangerous game: the LINKE - or Left Party. The Ukraine crisis was high on the agenda of its congress in Berlin May 9^th-11^th. Opinions did differ; Gregor Gysi, its best-known leader, chair of the party's caucus in the Bundestag, criticized Putin on the Crimea annexation. Others supported him. But the entire congress gave major blame for the crisis to NATO, the European Union and the German government. It opposed both sanctions against Russia and financial assistance for Kiev.

The almost equally well-known LINKE leader Sahra Wagenknecht charged: "A coup-d'état government with neo-fascist and anti-Semitic members has been installed with the blessing of Merkel and Steinmeier". Even those critical of Putin called for more respect for Russia; Berlin chairman Klaus Lederer said: "We must never forget the immeasurable losses of the people of the Soviet Union during the invasion by Nazi Germany nor the sacrifices they made in freeing Europe from fascism." Above all, the congress demanded negotiations and a rejection of any military escalation. Its Ukraine resolution, with some compromises, was passed almost unanimously by the congress.

Photo: In Kiev, Ukraine, people put flowers to the monument to WWII victims of the Nazis, at a Victory Day celebration that commemorates the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany, May 9. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

Meet Victor Grossman In New York City at the People's World table at the Left Forum, May 30 - June 1. Grossman will be autographing copies of his book, "Crossing the River: A Memoir of the American Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany."

Cuba arrests presumed terrorists from Florida

Thu, 15 May 2014 12:40:00 +0000

Beginning over 50 years ago, terror attacks emanating from the United States struck ships, crops, and infrastructure in Cuba. They killed people there and around the world. Cuban leaders faced murder plots. Terrorists bombed an airliner fully loaded with passengers. Such murderous, destructive attacks seemed to stop, however, with the Havana hotel bombings in 1997. But you would have lost your bet that terrorist preparations had ended.

On May 7 Cuba's Interior Ministry announced that four men of Cuban origin living in Miami were arrested on April 26. Jose Ortega Amador, Obdulio Rodríguez González, Raibel Pacheco Santos, and Félix Monzón Álvarez reportedly "admitted that they intended to attack Cuban military facilities in order to promote violence. [T]hree of them had traveled to Cuba in several occasions in 2013 to study the scene and prepare their actions."

Why is this no surprise? One, the Miami area continues as a safe haven for Latin American terror perpetrators fleeing their homelands, Cuba in the lead with Venezuela not far behind. Secondly, the U.S. government, not shy about anti-terrorist rhetoric, never really has condemned terror assaults against Cuba. Third, U.S. government actions or inaction may signal official approval for anti-Cuban terror.

Thus Luis Posada entered the United States illegally in 2005, never to be convicted on that count, or for serious crimes, among them: the airliner bombing attack in 1976, Cuban hotel bombings, and his plan with others to assassinate former Cuban President Fidel Castro in Panama. Despite requests, the U. S. government refuses to extradite Posada to Venezuela to face legal proceedings related to the airliner bombing.

And in 1998 the Cuban government gave FBI personnel reams of incriminating material on terror activities in Florida. The FBI responded by arresting Cuban undercover agents who helped collect that intelligence information.

And at their trial in Miami, five of those anti-terrorist agents - now known as the Cuba Five- received sentences so outlandish as to suggest that some terrorism is allowable. Their combined total of four life sentences plus 75 years contrasts sharply with the usual 10-15 sentences handed out to defendants convicted of spying for Iraq, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, or Israel.

Moreover, the U.S. government made sure those anti-terrorists were convicted. Its Office for Cuba Broadcasting subsidized Miami area journalists to produce over 800 prejudicial newspaper reports or television presentation so as to influence community and jury before and during their long trial.

Lastly, for the sake of destabilization a flood of U.S. money flows through private and university affiliated agencies in Southern Florida on its way to counter-revolutionaries in Cuba. Likely fallout from such a program would be a community ethos that encourages the terrorist faithful to move ahead on their own.

The sparse announcement from the Cuban Interior Ministry indicated that the four men arrested "admitted that these plans have been organized under the leadership of Miami-based individuals, such as Santiago Álvarez Fernández Magriñá, Osvaldo Mitat, and Manuel Alzugaray who are closely linked to international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles."

Lawyer and construction magnate Álvarez contributed mightily to Miami's terrorist-friendly atmosphere. In August 2004 he sent two airplanes to Panama to fetch Posada and three Miamians released early from prison to which they were sentenced for the assassination attempt against President Castro. Posada was dropped off in Honduras. Álvarez' yacht brought him to Miami the following year.

In late 2005 Broward County police discovered Álvarez' cache of 20 automatic weapons, plus grenades, a grenade launcher, ammunition, gas masks, and a silencer. Other illegal weapons belonging to Álvarez surfaced in the Bahamas. Through plea bargaining he and employee Osvaldo Mitat received reduced sentences of 30 months and two years, respectively. Allegedly Álvarez once tried to have Havana's Tropicana nightclub bombed.

At far as the New York Times is concerned, the arrest in Cuba of men bent on terror is a Cuban problem, not a U.S. one. Its May 8 report said that Álvarez "denies any involvement in the alleged plot. Some others here (Miami) raised questions about how much the case is about crime and how much is about politics.... [A] week after Washington again kept Cuba on its short list of state sponsors of terrorism, the Cuban government publicly announced that violent plots persist. Cuba-watchers said the case was hard to separate from political theater."

Photo: AP

Colombian peace talks in serious jeopardy

Tue, 13 May 2014 16:11:00 +0000

Negotiations to end 50 years of armed conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have continued in Havana for 18 months. But presently the talks are in trouble.

After reaching partial agreements on agrarian reform and political participation, negotiators tackled drug trafficking. However, on May 4 after five months of discussion, they recessed without an agreement. Remaining agenda items are: care for victims of violence, disarmament, and implementation of peace.

FARC negotiator Fidel Rondón told an interviewer that drug trafficking is "the nodal point of the Colombian economy." Discussion of how to curb the drug flow, he said, became "uncomfortable to the present economic model, previous governments, the financial sector, and industry." He further explained: "The FARC's sin was to share space with small farmers and exist in areas where illegal cultivations predominate. We impose a tax on all big capital circulating through our regions in order to develop the struggle for peace in Colombia."

Fellow negotiator Andrés París warmed to the interviewer's suggestion that the U.S. government be at the negotiating table. "Drug war is an integral part of how narco-trafficking works as the link between North Americans arms sales to Colombia and equipping the Armed Forces," he said. "And there are the chemicals supplies for processing these drugs that also are North American." The negotiators denounced the U.S. State Department's $5 million reward for help in capturing top FARC leader Timoleón Jiménez as "interventionist pressure and blackmail." The United States views Jiménez and the FARC negotiators "as principal Colombian narco-traffickers" and targets of extradition.

In an early May press conference Iván Márquez, head of the FARC negotiating team, condemned Colombia's ambassador in the United States, Luis Carlos Villegas, for his stipulation that with peace, "Colombia will not abandon certain tools such as extradition [of FARC leaders] which could serve as an instrument to ensure the non-repetition of crimes by the FARC."

Márquez said responsibility for drug trafficking has to be share. "The production and marketing of illicit drugs has been permeating the whole country for decades, starting with the oligarchy's links to finance capital," he said. "That sector is so powerful today, among other reasons, because of money laundering from drug sales and other not so holy businesses. Drug trafficking is a transnational, capitalist business, which has penetrated institutions and the national economy."

FARC negotiators are refusing to begin talks on victims, the next agenda item. As explained by Rondón, "We want to deal with the whole weight of responsibility borne by both the establishment and the insurgency ... We ask for creation of a commission to clarify the conflict and move beyond the government's version of the last three or four decades. There needs to be a discussion of responsibility for the state's war against the people going back to 1936."

París reiterated Iván Márquez's "warning that if creation of this commission is not facilitated, it will be difficult to begin the point of discussion. The government starts out as if we were an insurgent state having to respond to the country." In fact, said Paris, "we are victims because the guerrillas came into being because of state violence. The government ... is working to turn the negotiations in Havana into a Nuremberg tribunal to put guerrillas on trial. We have to say the truth here: He who began the conflict has the major responsibility for this ominous 50-year era. If there is no advance on forming this commission, the talks end there."

París observed, "We would be agreeing with a government that ... puts us in the national and international public pillory for being responsible for more that 600,000 Colombians disappeared and dead in this long conflict. ... And they want to make us responsible for the internal displacement of millions of Colombians."

According to a FARC statement on April 30, newly appointed army commander-in-chief Juan Pablo Rodríguez asserted, "It will only be possible to reach peace in Colombia when the [FARC] terrorists are defeated completely." But that's an "authentic declaration of war," the FARC said, adding, "True peace is not victory, but is social justice and democracy for all Colombians."

On May 6. Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre's revealed that emails of the FARC negotiating team and those of Cuban journalists and President Juan Manuel Santos himself had been intercepted. The hacker, he indicated later, had "sold the information obtained illegally to particular people and also to sectors of the public [security] force. Political groups are involved with this action against the peace process."

The outcome of presidential elections May 25 is important. President Santos, running for re-election, supports the peace process. Ex-President Alvaro Uribe, Santos' predecessor, epitomizes opposition. His protégée Oscar Iván Zuluaga, candidate of the conservative Democratic Center Party, is gaining ground on Santos. A crucial poll four weeks prior to the elections indicated 27 percent of likely voters favor Santos, with 19 percent of them supporting Zuluaga. In an almost certain second round of voting, the candidates are separated by two points.

According to analyst Humberto Vélez R., the Zuluaga campaign and high military commanders are demanding pre-conditions and FARC concessions for talks to continue, especially because "military defeat of the guerrilla is just around the corner." Recent Datexco polling data suggests that "the end of internal armed conflict is in sixth place among the electorate's concerns; unemployment and security are more worrisome." Polling in Colombia is problematic, however, insofar as almost 60 percent of adult Colombians do not vote, and polling is concentrated in urban areas.

Photo: Iván Márquez, center, chief negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) speaks to journalists accompanied by fellow FARC members Jesus Santrich, left, and Ricardo Tellez at the close of a round of peace talks with Colombia's government in Havana, Cuba, May 4. (AP/Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate)

South Africa 2014 elections: ANC triumphs, opposition gains ground

Fri, 09 May 2014 13:41:00 +0000

PRETORIA -- South Africa's fifth democratic national elections since 1994 and the end of white minority rule saw the ruling African National Congress retain power with another landslide victory.

This gives the ANC a strong mandate to continue the policies pursued by the administration led by President Jacob Zuma, since he was first elected president in 2009. Then, the party won with 65.9 percent of votes. This year it lost a few percentage points, winning 62.2 percent of votes.

In 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the country's first democratically elected president, it swept the polls with a 62.6 percent win. The next two elections saw its margin increase to 66.3 percent in 1999, and 66.7 percent in 2004.

The centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) has steadily gained ground as the official opposition party, rising from 12.4 percent in 2004, to 16.7 percent in 2009 and now 22.2 percent.

The biggest change in the party political terrain has been the rise of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema, who in 2012 was expelled from the ANC and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) and faces fraud, corruption and tax evasion charges. The EFF has won 6.2 percent of votes and will have more than 20 MPs in the National Assembly.

The other small parties have been roundly thrashed. The inauspiciously-named COPE (Congress of the People), which split from the ANC following the removal of President Thabo Mbeki in 2008, and wider changes to the ANC leadership the year before, won fewer than one per cent of votes. This is down from 7.4 percent in 2009.

Similarly, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), whose stronghold is in KwaZulu Natal won only 2.4 percent of votes, down from 4.5 percent in 2009, and way down from the 10.5 percent of votes it won in 1994. The IFP has long been the powerbase of the one-time Prime Minister of the KwaZulu bantustan, Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The apartheid government used the IFP as a violent buffer against the ANC in the dying days of minority rule. Its steady demise reflects the unwinding of its historic standoff with the ANC.

The Afrikaner right-wing Freedom Front Plus has also steadily waned since 1994. Then it won just 2.1 percent of votes, but now only managed 0,9 percent.

Mainstream media political pundits have been quick to point to a rapid decline of the ANC's fortunes due to corruption scandals, lack of leadership and policy indecision.

Raging controversy over the amount of state spending on security upgrades to President Zuma's home in Nkandla has tended to obscure the government's policy impact. It is this impact, not blind loyalty, that in emerged in the countless community debates broadcast mainly on local media before the election as uppermost in people's concerns. There is a sense that though the ANC certainly has its problems, it is the only political force with the vision to tackle poverty and underdevelopment.

Since 2009, the government has scored big successes in cutting HIV-AIDS and the ensuring full availability of anti-retroviral treatment, and in improving treatment of the country's biggest communicable disease killer, tuberculosis. Life expectancy has increased by an average of five years.

The recent R22-billion [$2.1 billion] injection of state investment in the auto sector saved some 46,000 jobs and added a further 9,000. Government infrastructure improvement has transformed many townships, adding roads, clinics and improving schools.

A new R1-trillion [$96 billion] economic and social infrastructure program aims to transform many poor areas by building new roads, rail links, ports, universities and schools. The electrification of poor areas has increased more rapidly with a further 1 million households connected in the last five years, bringing the total to over 5.4 million connections since 1994.

Government has also started supplying free solar water heaters to poor homes, installing over half a million in the last five years. In the contested area of land restitution, the government has re-opened the process of lodging land claims, in the face of much protest from the political conservative opposition.

The significant downside is that in some areas of the country the demand for better basic services and infrastructure continues to outweigh supply. Nearly 3 million small, low-cost housing units have been provided since 1994, mainly to replace shack housing. Millions of water and sanitation connections have also been made since 1994. But the lack of housing and insufficient water supply, sanitation and health clinics in many rural townships and villages spark almost daily service delivery protests up and down the country. There were some 13 000 such protests in 2013.

Unemployment continues to be ruinously high. This is despite government schemes and increased higher education investments, including a strong nascent industrial policy focused on developing domestic production.

All this, coupled with corruption in local government, which drastically affects the supply and quality of services, has fuelled resentment at the pace of transformation in South Africa.

It is one reason why the popularity of the EFF has rocketed. EFF supporters proudly sport red berets. Many of its leaders wear military fatigues, and expensive red leather jackets emblazoned with the party's logo. Julius Malema, its portly leader, goes under the title commander-in-chief. Party functionaries are called commissars.

The EFF alleges that the ANC and its partners have sold out. It promises that under EFF rule South Africa would undergo rapid economic transformation, with nationalization of mines, land expropriations from white landowners, a massive increase in social benefits, the provision of high quality large houses for all, and strong minimum wages across all sectors.

Much of the EFF's language and iconography has been lifted from the traditional left, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). They form two pillars of the tripartite ANC-led Alliance, which has been more prominently included in all levels of government under the Zuma administration, and which was the key constituent of the ANC as a broad liberation movement during the struggle against apartheid.

The SACP charges that the EFF is reminiscent of the German National Socialists (Nazis) of the 1920s, which stole the language of the left opportunistically to force through far-right agendas, with murderous consequences.

Its support base is largely among disaffected township youth, including many who are new voters or had previously supported smaller parties. There is little evidence that the EFF has siphoned off much support from the ANC.

The big question now in many people's minds is how the EFF will behave in parliament, whether it will perform as a party of the left, whether it will cooperate with the ANC-led Alliance, and how it will pursue its policies, which overlap greatly with what the ANC, SACP and COSATU say though in more shrill and generalized language.

But the main opposition winner in the elections is the DA. ANC economic empowerment policies since 1994 have swelled the numbers of the black middle class and upper middle class. Ironically, the political and class allegiance of the newly enriched and financially empowered is starting to veer towards the conservative DA.

The DA has doubled its support among the ANC stronghold of Gauteng province, home to densely populated Pretoria and- Johannesburg, including Soweto. The party has also astutely courted support from the Indian and "coloured" populations, which have tended to be neglected by, or have less robust ties to, the ANC compared to the majority African population.

The DA currently draws its support mainly from the wealthy white population, which continues to dominate South Africa's corporate sector. Like the EFF, it appropriates the language of liberation, the Mandela legacy and the discourse of non-racialism in a fervid attempt to generate its township appeal.

So, while South Africa's 2014 election results in many ways announce a business as usual continuity in national government and ANC rule, the political opposition terrain is changing apace.

Photo: lines of voters queuing to cast their ballots at a polling station in the Alexandra township of Johannesburg, South Africa, May 7. AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

#Bring our girls home

Fri, 09 May 2014 12:31:00 +0000

A wave of revulsion has spread worldwide over the news of the kidnapping of at least 276 young girls from a school at Chibok, in Borno State in Northwestern Nigeria by the violent Boko Haram sect. This revulsion has been intensified by the slaughter this week of at least 300 villagers in nearby Gamboru Ngala, on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

"Boko Haram" means "Western Education is forbidden" in a mixture of Hausa and Arabic. The ultra-violent sect is just the latest of a series of such groups, going back to the 1970s, which consider that "western", meaning modern, education is sinful because of its teaching of scientific concepts, because it is associated with Christian proselytization, and because it promotes the education of women and thereby alters patriarchal gender relations.

But this is not the whole story.

Modern Nigeria, with its 170,000,000 people Africa's largest state, is a product of British and French colonial rivalries in West Africa in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Feudalistic Muslim emirates, stretching East to West along the Sudanic belt of West Africa, were seized by the direct or indirect military intervention of the rival colonial powers.

Borno Emirate, where Boko Haram started, was an ally of the British, so when it became part of the Empire in Africa in 1905, the ruling dynasty was kept on. The idea of administering colonial possessions through traditional rulers ("indirect rule") was promoted by colonial administrator Lord Frederick Lugard, who extended the practice to other Muslim principalities. As governor of Northern and Southern Nigeria from 1912-1919, Lugard continued the policy of leaving the North essentially neglected under the control of traditional feudal rulers, while southern areas were developed more but without concessions to labor unions and democracy.

When Nigeria got independence in 1960, the stage was set for north-south frictions that have persisted to this day. A 1966 coup by junior army officers from the South, in which a number of Muslim leaders were killed, set off bloody reprisals against Southerners living in the North, followed by the Biafra war of independence. Since then, friction between the Muslim North and the mostly Christian South, and a series of military coups, has bedeviled Nigeria.

The roots of Boko Haram, whose full name is "The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad", lie in the isolation, backwardness and poverty of the North. The sect had its origins in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, and recruited its first adherents from poor and unemployed youth. It was formally founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002, but did not begin violent attacks against Christians, orthodox Muslims and government facilities until some years later.

Yusuf was killed by government forces in 2009 and succeeded by the present leader, Abubakar Shekau. At that point, attacks by Boko Haram became much more frequent and violent, hitting their stride in 2012 and 2013 and including several deadly attacks in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Christian churches have been destroyed and their parishioners massacred. Many students and teachers have been killed in attacks on schools. The girls at the school at Chibok had returned to prepare for examinations after threats had previously closed their school. They were kidnapped in mid April but only this past week has this become a national and international scandal.

What has turned the world's attention to Boko Haram has been the kidnapping of the girls, who include both Muslims and Christians. In attacks on schools, Boko Haram has often killed all the boys, but this time Abubakar Shekau had a video made in which he laughingly boasts that the girls he has captured would now be sold as slaves, by order of God: "I sell women!" The image of lascivious old men buying little girls has added to the worldwide furor over the incident.

Anger exploded all over Nigeria, much of it directed not just at Boko Haram but at the Nigerian government of President Goodluck Jonathan, a Southerner, who is seen as having been slow and ineffective in mobilizing security forces to search for the girls. Muslim leaders denounced Boko Haram as distorters of Islam. Demonstrations have been carried out all over the country and, through social media, have now reached worldwide proportions. There have been demonstrations in Washington D.C., and the Obama administration is announced that it is sending intelligence and logistical military help to Nigeria, though not "boots on the ground". This adds to an increasing U.S. military presence in Africa.

Yet there are also complaints that the Nigerian military have already, before the kidnapping, gone after Boko Haram's social base with extreme harshness, committing many murders and other violations of human rights. And a similar hue and cry to go after Joseph Kony of the violent "Lord's Resistance Army" in Central Africa has so far not brought him to book, in spite of a U.S. military aid mission and a social media campaign in the United States.

Boko Haram can easily move across international borders to evade pursuit. Some reports suggest that the girls have been moved into a forested area in neighboring Cameroon, while others speculate that they have been moved into islands in Lake Chad which abuts on Borno State, or that some of them have already been sold.

There is a danger of losing sight of the root of the problem, namely the neglect and poverty of huge areas of Africa like Borno State.

Photo: A demonstration calling on government to rescue kidnapped school girls, during workers day celebration in Lagos, Nigeria. May 1. (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba)