People Before Profit blog

Iran, Brazil, Turkey and the ghost of Lord Palmerston

Fri, 28 May 2010 16:16:00 +0000

Lord Palmerston - twice England's prime minister during the middle 1800s - once commented, "England has no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests." Watching the fallout over Brazil's and Turkey's recent diplomatic breakthrough on Iran brings Palmerston's observation to mind: while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hailing our "friends'" support for tough sanctions aimed at Teheran, much of her supporting cast were busy hedging their bets and deciding that their interests just might lay elsewhere.

True, Russia and China signed on, but their endorsements were filled with ambiguity and diplomatic escape hatches.

As Clinton was dismissing the efforts of Brazil and Turkey, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said his country "expressed its welcome and appreciation for the diplomatic efforts of all parties." A Foreign Ministry spokesman added that the agreement to send 58 percent of Iran's nuclear fuel to Turkey for enrichment "will benefit the process of peacefully resolving the Iran nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiations."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for "urgent consultations with all interested parties, including Iran, to decide what to do next," hardly a call to arms. His First Deputy Prime Minister, Sergi Ivanov, said that while his country was "supportive" of the U.S., it was drawing a "red line" at sanctions that were "suffocating" or would affect ordinary Iranians.

He then added a pinch of Palmerston: "We have a completely different position. We have a trading relationship, and the potential to develop it. We have energy interests, human interests, and tourism."

The Russians also made it clear that they would be unhappy with unilateral sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union. Such unilateral actions would be "of an extraterritorial nature beyond the agreed decision of the international community and contradicting the principle of the rule of international law, enshrined in the UN Charter," according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The U.S. State Department's claim that the "international community" is behind the U.S. is increasingly sounding like whistling past the graveyard.

Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna said the Brazil/Turkey/Iran deal was "a constructive move," and pointed out that India has a "deep desire to have a friendly relationship" with Iran. He also pointed out that "The U.S. has its own foreign policy and India has its own."

The Arab League's General Secretary Amr Moussa said he hoped the agreement would "solve the current problem regarding the Iranian nuclear file."

United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, "We hope that this and other initiatives may open the door to a negotiated settlement."

France's President Nicholas Sarkozy, normally hawkish on Iran, called the deal a "positive step."

Even the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Supreme Commander, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis said the fuel swap deal was a "a potentially good development."

This should hardly come as a surprise; just follow the ruble, the yuen, and the franc.

In his visit to Ankara earlier this month, Medvedev said, "Russia and Turkey are strategic partners, not only in words but genuinely." That was certainly strange talk about a key member of NATO with which Moscow has gone to war in the past.

But with rubles at stake, who worries about history?

Medvedev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed 17 agreements worth some $25 billion, including building four nuclear power plants. The two countries also discussed Russian participation in a Black Sea-Mediterranean pipeline that would make Ankara a player in the Central Asia energy game. The Turks also seem to be more favorably disposed toward Moscow's South Stream natural gas pipeline to Europe.

And lastly, the Russian president said he would push to raise bilateral trade from $40 billion a year to $100 billion within five years.

If the U.S. thinks the Russians are going to have a falling out with the Turks over the Iran sanctions, then delusion is the order of the day in Washington.

And China? Brasilia's number one trading partner, which loaned Petrobras $10 billion to develop Brazil's huge South Atlantic subsalt oil deposits? And just signed an agreement with Brasilia to develop a joint defense industry (no doubt lured by the $20-plus billion that Brazil is handing out in defense contracts)? Will China go to the mat for the U.S. over the Iran sanctions? See "order of the day" above.

France appears to be playing the dog that didn't bark. Might Gallic discreetness have anything to do with a $12 billion defense deal with Brazil for 50 helicopters and four Scorpene submarines? Could it be the $10.2 billion Brasilia is shelling out for 36 of France's Rafale fighter jets? The Rafale is very a cute airplane, not terribly fast, that came in third in an open competition with fighters made by Boeing and Saab. But as Rhys Thompson of ISN Security Watch notes, "The Brazilian government reiterated that the final choice of a fighter jet would be based on political and strategic considerations and not primarily guided by technical aspects." In short, we buy your cookies, you be nice to us in return (and maybe lower European Union tariffs for Brazilian agricultural goods).

As more and more countries line up behind the Turkish-Brazilian deal, it looks less and less likely that the Security Council will pass sanctions, in part because the deal is a good one and represents a sea change in international power relations. But also because countries like Russia, China, India, and France are also keeping Lord Palmerston's dictum in mind.

Originally published at Foreign Policy in Focus and reposted with permission of the author.

Unholy alliance: Israel, apartheid South Africa and nukes

Fri, 28 May 2010 13:14:00 +0000

"We stand for Christian Nationalism which is an ally of National Socialism [Nazism]," John Vorster said in 1942. But when the South African Prime Minister visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel on April 9, 1976, he laid a wreath and said a prayer in Afrikaans in memory of Nazi victims. It was an anomalous situation for the state of Israel, founded on socialist and communitarian values, and as refuge for victims of racial oppression, to have welcomed this top-level proponent of apartheid racism.

A rationale became clear earlier this month with the publication on May 25 of Sasha Polakow-Suransky's book "Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa."

Chris McGreal, reporting for the UK Guardian, surveyed revelations in the book, written by a U.S. scholar and child of anti-apartheid South African exiles. Polakow-Suransky based his conclusions on interviews and on perusal of 700 declassified documents, released by the current South African government.

According to McGreal, the once secret papers provide "the first official documentary evidence of the [Israeli] state's possession of nuclear weapons."

The revelations came about just as United Nations discussions were beginning on nuclear non-proliferation, with a special focus on the Middle East. Israeli spokespersons have denied charges of Israeli nuclear cooperation with apartheid South Africa.

In his book's preface, Polakow-Suransky provides an explanation for rapprochement, coming about after years of Israeli support for liberation struggles in Africa. "Material interests gave birth to an alliance that greatly benefited the Israeli economy and enhanced the security of South Africa's white minority regime," he writes. Ideology was operating too, he contends. Both the Israeli and apartheid state projected a racist image of a minority people "under siege."

Israel was looking primarily for a reliable source of yellow cake uranium and, less crucially, for military weapons buyers. South African military leaders, seeking to develop missile capabilities, specifically with nuclear warheads, needed hardware and technical expertise.

South Africa's offer to buy nuclear armed missiles from Israel, and Israeli officials' willingness to sell, never resulted in actual transfer of nuclear material. Polakow-Suransky speculates that the South Africans had hopes of adapting their own nuclear weaponry to missile use, thereby saving money.

The main point, however, is that bilateral approval was secured for the deal, and it could have been consummated.

Interviewed by Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now," the author discussed key documents. One describes Israeli and South African defense officials agreeing March 31, 1975, on the transfer of nuclear-armed Jericho missiles to South Africa. A document from later that day has one of South African military participants in the talks extolling to superiors the security benefits of nuclear armed missiles headed presumably to South Africa. Polakow-Suransky referred to another document from a few days later, the only one with signatures, demonstrating that the two countries' defense ministers, Shimon Peres and P.W. Botha, had agreed on secrecy. Lastly, documents are presented showing South Africa interested in Israeli missiles, only if they were nuclear equipped.

Delving below the "tip of the iceberg," Polakow-Suransky told Goodman, "Throughout the late '70s and the mid-1980s, these two countries were cooperating in South Africa on building missile technology that the South Africans intended to use for a second generation of their nuclear weapons."

Another important revelation had to do with yellow cake uranium, which South African had supplied Israel since 1961. The two nations had agreed that South Africa was providing the material exclusively for domestic use. In 1976, South Africa Prime Minister Vorster instructed Minister of Mines Fanie Botha "to release the safeguards on the uranium," freeing it up for nuclear weapons use.

Polakow-Suransky read from an interview with the now elderly Botha: "I didn't sell it to them. I didn't give it to them. But when I became minister, they had it. They couldn't use it unless South Africa lifted them, the safeguards, so that's what I did."

Israel's role as arms supplier to apartheid South Africa played out as the nation was becoming, as of three years ago, the world's fourth largest arms purveyor, accounting for 10 percent of all arms exports.

From the 1960s on, weaponry buyers included notable human rights abusers, including the Pinochet and Somoza regimes in Chile and Nicaragua, along with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Oil - rich Angola and Nigeria are Israel's top African arms buyers now, with Kenya, worried about Somalia, getting in line this year.

Tensions and rhetoric rise after sinking of South Korean ship

Thu, 27 May 2010 18:04:00 +0000

UNITED NATIONS-The turmoil that has swept Korea after the tragic March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean naval ship, and the subsequent death of 46 sailors has left the peninsula closer to the war than it has been for decades, leaving nerves in the region on edge.

South Korea concluded, after the results of an international investigation team were released on May 20, that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine sunk the ship. North Korea has denied this and said that the conclusions of the team, made up of South Korean, U.S., Australian, Swedish and British investigators, were a "fabrication."

The south has vowed to bring the issue to the UN Security Council and press for sanctions.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, addressing reporters, said that "such an unacceptable act by [North Korea] runs counter to international efforts to promote peace and stability in the region."

The peninsula is already technically at war: military hostilities ended in 1953 not with a peace agreement, but with a truce, or armistice. An outright resumption of fighting would be disastrous, as the number and power of weapons in Korea and the region has increased dramatically. North Korea has enough conventional weapons to destroy Seoul, and other war tools as well: certain dams, if opened could destroy much of the south. Further, North Korea now is said to possess enough nuclear fuel for several nuclear weapons.

South Korea also has a huge military and weapons stockpile, as well as U.S. bases with tens of thousands of American soldiers. In addition, it is rumored that the U.S. has secret nuclear stockpiles there as well.

While the two halves of Korea are pointing the finger at each other, many observers say that both sides are, if not equally, at least partially to blame. The south has ramped up militarism and, for the first time since the thaw in relations in the 1990s, the right-wing President Lee Myung-bak has declared that the north is South Korea's "arch-enemy." North Korea, which denies that it fired the rocket that sunk the Cheonan and killed the sailors, has stated that it will not dialogue with the south until at least 2013, when Lee's term ends. Further, it has threatened "all out war" if sanctions are imposed.

Regional neighbors are hoping for a different approach.

"We always believe that dialogue is better than confrontation," read a May 20 statement from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "and abatement is better than tension. China sincerely hopes that all parties concerned will stay calm, exercise restraint and properly handle relevant issues to avoid the escalation of tension. This is in the fundamental interest of the South and North of the Peninsula and in the common interest of all parties."

That same day the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga concurred. "Vietnam," she said, "consistently and persistently supports peace, stability in the Korean Peninsula, and favors dialogue for peaceful settlement of all matters. Vietnam wishes that parties concerned could exercise restraint for the sake of peace, stability in the Korean Peninsula and in the region."

Nguyen also expressed condolences to South Korea over the loss of lives.

The United States, in a change of course with the previous administration, has reacted cautiously. While underscoring the U.S.-South Korea alliance, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, May 26, that reaction should be strong "but measured." During the Bush administration, when conflicts arose on the peninsula, the standard response was that "all options are on the table." Now, however, the Obama administration, through Clinton, has been pushing to take the issue to the UNSC to ask for sanctions. Further, Clinton not specified what sort of sanctions the administration would like to see taken and is, instead, waiting for China's response.

It is likely that the north sank the ship. According to Ban, speaking at a press conference on May 24, "the evidence laid out in the joint international investigation report is overwhelming and deeply troubling." Still, North Korea has denied the incident and demanded the opportunity to send its own investigators. While Lee has written off the possibility of a North Korean investigation, many in the south and elsewhere are demanding it.

"We need to actively consider a joint North Korean-South Korean investigation, if only to boost the credibility of the results of the joint military-civilian investigation," said the south's leading liberal newspaper, the Hankyoreh, in an editorial.

While Lee has condemned the north for allegedly violating the 1991 Basic Agreement, which set some ground rules for relations between North and South Korea, his government also appears to be in violation. According to the agreement, if one side violates its terms, there must be a joint investigation.

Many questions are still up in the air. No one is yet certain as to how China will react to the incident, a key factor, given China's stature, seat on the Security Council and role as North Korea's chief ally. While progressive forces in Korea and neighboring countries are demanding that both sides move a step back from the belligerence that has set the region on edge and start a dialogue, the best possible outcome remains unclear.

Photo: The two Koreas maintain a Joint Security Area at the Demilitarized Zone. (CC)

World Notes: Cuba, Romania, Bolivia, Palestine, Kenya, India

Thu, 27 May 2010 09:48:00 +0000

Cuba: Government dialogue with Catholic Church evokes hope

Hunger striker Orlando Zapata's recent death, marches by the dissident Ladies in White, prisoner Guillermo Fariña's new hunger strike, and a recharged international media barrage have conspired to embolden U.S. and EU intransigence against Cuba. Yet the four hour meeting May 19 of President Raul Castro, Havana Archbishop Jaime Ortega, and aides hinted at a break in the stalemate. Discussion centered on prisoners and the Ladies in White, and reports circulated afterwards that prisoners would be moved to jails close to families and that the sickest of them would be hospitalized. The Church has taken on an ongoing mediation role. According to the report on aporrea.org, Archbishop Ortega characterized the dialogue as "different and new," as "about Cuba, this moment, and Cuba's future."

Romania: Popular resistance triggers repression

To meet debt obligations, the government has fashioned policies aimed at cutting public sector jobs and reducing already low salaries and pension benefits. In response, 50,000 people protested May 19 in central Bucharest. Public transport services stopped, teachers stayed away from classes, hospitals attended to emergency cases only, and public administrators stayed home. Unions are preparing for a nationwide general strike in early June, timed to follow expected parliamentary approval of the austerity measures. Such was the setting for the parliament's recent passage of "political cleansing" legislation that deprives communists, real or imagined, of future political responsibilities. Thus emerged, reported a rebelión.org blogger, "a new manifestation of fascism masked under the label of liberalism."

Bolivia: Morales defends Mother Earth

Returning May 23 from Europe, President Evo Morales called for suspension of the United Nations Climate Change Summit set for Cancun, Mexico in December. He suggested that differences between proposals articulated at the recently concluded Peoples' Climate Change Summit in Bolivia and the UN Climate Change Summit last year in Copenhagen are too wide to be bridged. Morales projected a political campaign aimed at persuading industrialized nations, notably the United States, to adopt measures that would limit the rise of global temperatures to one degree C. Another failed climate summit, he told TeleSUR, would provoke loss of hope in governments and the United Nations itself. Morales envisions a Latin American - European alliance directed toward combating climate change.

Palestine: Documentation emerges as to U.S. support for apartheid road system

Reporter Jonathan Cook this month accused the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of bankrolling 71 miles, or 23 percent, of Israeli new road construction in the Palestinian West Bank over ten years. Israel's B'Tselem human rights group claims the purpose of the road network to be separation of Israeli settlers from Palestinians, many of whom lost homes and land to builders. Some 105 miles of new road remain off limits to Palestinians. The USAID itself reports financial assistance over ten years for Israeli construction of 146 miles of new roads, with projected spending this year for 74 more miles. Total USAID 2010 outlay for West Bank infrastructure projects comes to $153 million, up from $65 million last year.

Kenya: Fish yield is down, as water temperatures rise

Data from sediment cores suggest that surface temperatures of Lake Tanganyika, East Africa's second largest inland water, have risen progressively over 1,500 years with accelerated warming over the past 90 years. U. S. scientists writing for Nature Geoscience attribute recent temperature elevations to global warming caused by human activities. Having reported too that the Lake's fish catch has trended downward, they pioneered in linking diminished productivity to rising lake temperatures, according to Paul Redfern. The fishery's current estimated annual catch of 200,000 tons provides employment and, crucially, dietary protein for 10 million people living in the region. UN environmental specialists based in Nairobi warn that other African lakes are undergoing similar processes of deterioration.

India: EU free trade agreement meets opposition

A statement issued May 23 by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) took the governing United Progressive Alliance, with the Congress Party at its head, to task for an European Union-India free trade agreement alleged to have been negotiated in secrecy. If discussions concluding in October hold, EU agri-business will be inundating India with subsidized farm products, and EU rules will define intellectual property in ways that put restrictions on the Indian generic drug industry and on farmers' access to seeds. The proposed treaty, says the statement, will place already beleaguered Indian manufacturers at risk through "massive cuts in import duties on industrial goods." The statement at cpim.org asks that negotiations cease pending deliberations by Parliament and state government.

Photo: A section of the wall in the East Jerusalem area cuts off farmers from their land. (Susan Webb/PW)

35 years after war’s end, Vietnam pushes friendship

Tue, 25 May 2010 16:33:00 +0000

I never had the chance to meet Danny Manzaro, my father's best friend and whose name I bear. Manzaro, a corporal in the 3rd battalion, 7th Marines, killed at age 21 in what is now Quang Nam province in the U.S. aggression against Vietnam. He should have been home when the bullet took his life, but he was still fighting in Vietnam; his tour of duty had been extended.

My father, of course, was devastated when he learned of the loss of his friend. He didn't serve in that war, because of a trick knee. He felt, perhaps still feels, a sense of guilt over this. Though he harbored no resentment against the Vietnamese, he didn't feel that it was right that so many of his friends were dying overseas while he was stateside (though, of course, my family was and is glad his knee wasn't up to military par). The loss of his best friend only compounded the guilt.

Though Manzaro was killed well before I was born in 1976, some of my earliest memories involve him. I remember my father showing me, as a child, the last letters Manzaro had sent. The brightly colored envelopes had "air mail" written repeatedly in human script on their front and back. I was told that the soldiers fighting were so desperate to keep in touch with friends and family back home that they went to great lengths to ensure that letters sent were received. A few years later, in the early 1980s, a moving Vietnam War memorial came through Worcester, Massachusetts, my hometown. My family went downtown and found Danny's name written on it.

The way the war was taught to me as a child was abstract: there were battles and they were particularly violent. Innocent people were being killed everywhere. But what the war was about really was never entirely clear. Perhaps no one in the family was really sure. There were two sides, but I had no idea what each side stood for. Back then, I never thought to ask. The war was a fact, as is water and the sky, and there seemed to be no reason to question why it was there.

In one of those strange twists of fate, this past weekend, 35 years after the end of that horrible war, which we all now know was a vicious attack by U.S. imperialism on a nation simply trying to free itself from colonial chains, I escorted Vietnam's deputy ambassador to the United States around the 29th Convention of the Communist Party USA.

When he was a child, Ambassador Minh T. Nguyen had to leave his village several times because of American air raids, and he surely knew many people, friends, who were killed in the atrocities. Yet here he is today, in the United States, bringing and advocating friendship and always better ties. In private, and in reading official greetings from the Communist Party of Vietnam, he spoke not about the horrors that the U.S. imposed on his country, but of pushing forward and building closer friendship between not just our two parties, but the whole of the American and the Vietnamese peoples.

What he said is wholly representative of today's Vietnam. In fact, while the fight against U.S. imperialism was heroic and inspiring, Vietnam's leadership in the push for peace and solidarity-and forgiveness-is no less inspiring or heroic.

While working to build their socialist society and to develop the country, they have eschewed the anti-U.S. rhetoric of a number of states that have been in conflict with the U.S. Instead, they've chosen the path of cooperation and, in the 1990s, the two nations normalized relations to such an extent that trade between Vietnam and the U.S. is now equal to trade between Vietnam and China.

Our two nations never should have been enemies. The Vietnamese resistance fighters, including and especially Ho Chi Minh, born 120 years ago, drew inspiration from the ideals of the American Revolution. In fact, 65 years ago, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence, opening his speech with the second paragraph of our own Declaration of Independence.

While the Communist Party USA's National Convention was going on, tens of thousands of U.S. veterans of the war gathered in Lambeau Stadium in Green Bay. The main message on display was simple: war is hell. This is something to which both the Vietnamese people and American soldiers can attest.

Animosities are now fading into the past, and it is to the great credit of the Vietnamese people that they are actively working to bury them for good. We in the U.S. should continue to take up this cause of friendship and peace.We can start by working to ensure that our government does its part in aiding all the victims of Agent Orange, Vietnamese and American.

Photo: Dan Margolis stands with Mr. Nguyen, deputy ambassador of Vietnam to the United States. (PW)

Urgent appeal for solidarity with Iraqi workers

Thu, 20 May 2010 13:45:00 +0000

BAGHDAD - The Executive Bureau of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers has issued an "urgent appeal to Arab and international trade unions" for solidarity with textile workers killed in bombing attacks at their factory last week.

The labor federation strongly condemned a series of terrorist attacks in Baghdad and other towns and cities on May 10 that killed at least 110 innocent civilians and wounded more than 500, including dozens of textile workers in the city of Hilla, capital of Babil province. It called for urgent security measures to provide protection for citizens and workers.

The workers at the textile factory in Hilla, including many women workers, were targeted by three bombings as they were leaving the factory at the end of the working day. The attack killed at least 40 people and injured many more.

"We urge you to raise your voices to denounce this heinous crime, strongly condemn the terrorist killers and express solidarity with the workers of the textile factory in Hilla and the families of innocent victims," the May 12 labor appeal says.

"We also urge you to call upon the Iraqi authorities to take urgent measures to provide all the necessary protection for the workers and to provide compensation to the families of the martyrs and wounded."

The federation said it looks forward to "your solidarity with the Iraqi workers and your support for their struggle for a free, dignified and secure life in a democratic, fully sovereign and prosperous Iraq."

The Babil provincial committee of the Iraqi Communist Party issued a statement May 10 sharply condemning the terrorist bombings in several areas of the province, particularly the attack that targeted textile workers in Hilla. It held the criminals of al-Qaeda and remnants of Saddam's Baath party responsible for the attacks.

Photo: Bombing at Hilla textile factory May 10. Courtesy of Iraqi Communist Party. http://www.iraqicp.com/english/71-iraqi-letter/2870-general-federation-of-iraqi-workers-strongly-condemns-barbaric-attack-on-textile-workers-in-hilla-.html

Iran executions prompt mass condemnation

Wed, 19 May 2010 12:52:00 +0000

International condemnation by trade unionists and human rights activists has greeted the execution of five political prisoners by the Iranian authorities on May 9. The response of the international community was followed by a general strike in the Kurdistan province in the west of Iran on May 13 in protest at the executions. Shops, factories, schools and many offices were closed in the region as the regime deployed the military in key towns in the area.

In a letter to the Iranian government the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has urged the Iranian president to halt any further escalation of trade union repression and human rights abuses against trade union members. The ITUC is to complain to the International Labor Organization Committee on Freedom of Association about the Iranian regime's gross violation of the principles of the ILO. It has called upon its affiliates across the entire world to denounce the executions.

"The ITUC is shocked with what happened to Farzad Kamangar [a 35-year-old teacher and member of the Teachers' Trade Association of Kurdistan]. Imprisoned trade unionists must be freed and all other threats of imprisonment against independent trade unionists for their legitimate activities must be lifted," said Guy Ryder, ITUC General secretary.

On May 11, the British Trades Union Congress general secretary, Brendan Barber, supported the ITUC position and pledged the solidarity of trade unionists in the UK with those in Iran, confirming this in writing to the Iranian ambassador to the UK.

"The TUC will call on its affiliates to denounce this inhumane act, and show solidarity with our Iranian brothers and sisters," states Mr. Barber. "In that respect, we continue to express concern about the other teachers and trade unionists languishing in Iran's jails, such as bus workers leaders Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi. I cannot emphasize enough the damage that this execution has done to the reputation of Iran and your government."

Farzad Kamangar, an active member of his local teacher's union, was arrested by Ministry of Intelligence officials along with two other members of the Kurdish minority, Ali Heydariyan and Farhad Vakili, in Tehran around July 2006. The three men were sentenced to death on Feb. 25, 2008, after being accused of taking up arms against the state, in connection with their alleged membership in the armed group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The trial took place in secret, lasted only minutes, and failed to meet Iranian and international standards of fairness.

Heydariyan and Vakili also received additional sentences of 10 years' imprisonment for forging documents. Under Iranian law, they must serve their prison sentences before being executed. The death sentences of all three men were upheld by the Supreme Court. Ali Heydariyan and Farhad Vakili were executed on May 9 along with Farzad Kamangar, Mehdi Eslami and Shirin Alam Hooli.

All five victims had repeatedly rejected the allegations of being involved in terrorist activities. In the case of Kamangar, his main "crime" was that during a short visit to Tehran he had stayed in the house of Heydaryan and Vakili whom he knew. The authorities alleged that they had discovered explosive materials from a car belonging to Heydaryan and Vakili. Kamangar's crime in effect was that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Shirin Alam Hooli was a 28-year-old Kurdish woman who had been sentenced to death in Iran for her alleged support for PJAK, a militant opposition group. Convicted of "enmity against God," since her arrest she had routinely and repeatedly been subjected to torture and degrading treatment to confess to supporting PJAK. She had no access to legal representation during her long and grueling interrogation period. Her rights as an accused were never observed.

The left and progressive movement in Iran has categorically condemned these executions. The Tudeh Party of Iran, in a statement last week, condemned the regime's action. While expressing concern about the continuation of executions and the dangers that are threatening the lives of all political prisoners, especially those followers of ideologies other than Islam, the Tudeh Party called for the establishment of a united campaign to resist and stop the crimes and executions in the prisons of the Islamic Republic.

Throughout the week there were a number of protest demonstrations across Europe to condemn the regime's action. In Paris, on Monday, the demonstrators attacked the regime's Embassy and 200 people were arrested.

Jamshid Ahmadi, assistant general secretary of the Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People's Rights (CODIR), strongly condemned the action of the Iranian regime in executing the five political detainees.

"Fearing the eruption of a new wave of popular protests on the first anniversary of the fraudulent presidential election of 12 June 2009, the regime has attempted to spread a climate of fear and terror in Iran," he said.

"The regime's rush to execute these prisoners, in the face of international concerns about the worsening of the human rights situation over the past year, is a disgrace. Instead of engaging in dialogue with international human rights agencies such as Amnesty International and the UN Commission on Human Rights, the regime is intensifying its murderous activities against the opposition. It seems that the clerical regime does not want to take any notice of international public opinion. As we can see from the response of the people of Kurdistan yesterday, this will be a very dangerous tactic."

Further information on Iran is available at www.codir.net or by contacting codir_info@btinternet.com

Photo: A 2008 rally to appeal for the life of Farzad Kamanger, on the road leading to Tehran. (Education International www.ei-ie.org)

José Luís Centella leads Spanish Communist delegation to Cuba

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:41:00 +0000

In Havana on May 1, Secretary General José Luis Centella and other leaders of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) joined their hosts, the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, in celebrating International Workers' Day. Afterwards Centella conferred with Cuban President Raúl Castro and Political Bureau member José Ramón Machado Ventura.

The visit took place as a U.S. and European media campaign, orchestrated particularly by right wing Spanish publications, reached full throttle. Serving as pretext was the death from a hunger strike of Cuban prisoner Orlando Zapata who had been jailed for non-political crimes. He has been cast as a political prisoner.

At a press conference before returning to Spain, José Luis Centella demanded an end to the European Union's so-called "Common Position," which conditions any full European opening to the island on Cuban protection of human rights. Former right wing Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar instigated the Common Position in 1996 and has quarterbacked anti-Cuban media and governmental campaigns since then.

Centella suggested that the EU summit with Caribbean and Latin American nations, celebrated in May in Spain, represents a "magnificent opportunity" to end unilateral hostility toward Cuba.

The Spanish La República newspaper published Guillermo Nova's interview with José Luis Centella on May 13. W. T. Whitney Jr. translated.

José Luís Centella: "They blame Cuba for not knuckling under."

Interview with the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Spain.

At some points during the heavy European attacks against Cuba for its policies on human rights, the Communist Party of Spain has wanted to reaffirm its commitment to the Cuban revolution. That's why a high level delegation visited the island. In a break during its tight agenda, we interviewed its Secretary General Jose Luis Centella in Havana. He had been received by the Cuban President Raul Castro.

On balance what do you make of your visit to Cuba?

It's been a positive and very productive visit that has allowed us to exchange ideas with the top political leadership of the country, but also to speak with many citizens through whom we've been able to gain first hand acquaintance with the Cuban reality. All this experience lends urgency to a series of commitments with which we'll work in the coming months in Spain.

Coming from Spain are very hard criticisms of Cuba in regard to human rights. What is the position of the Communist Party of Spain in that regard?

These criticisms come from an enormous cynicism which revealed hidden interests in this campaign that are nothing more than an attempt to keep the European Union from abandoning the common position. As far as the Spanish Communists go, we have no problem in speaking of human rights and participating in whatever discussion, anytime. We won't employ any trickery. We'll speak of human rights in Havana but also in New York, in Seville, or in Madrid. We will balance things. But what we are not going to do is enter into any discussion that tries to manipulate the Cuban reality, one that tries to de-legitimize a revolution that keeps on representing hope for many men and women throughout the world.

Within the full agenda for the PCE delegation, elucidate the personal meeting you had with President Raul Castro. How was it?

It was a friendly encounter, as it could not have been otherwise between comrades. It was very interesting to exchange opinions on Cuban and Spanish realities. Based on the meeting, I can testify to how the Cuban government is on the way toward obtaining maximum efficiency in acting for peace, taking maximum advantage of Cuba's own resources.

Spain is the President of the European Union for this term. Do you think that the Common Position ought to be changed?

The Common Position of the European Union has no parallel. In no way is it justified. It's a hypocritical decision, because while Morocco is no example of defending human rights, it's treated like a favored partner. That means that for the European Union, they are not interested in human rights. What is important is business and submission. And Cuba is punished for not submitting. On that account, we ask for the end of the Common Position, because it makes no sense that a parameter be applied to Cuba that spares all other countries.

Presently there are five Cubans imprisoned in the United States for fighting terrorist actions against the Cuban people. What ought to be the Obama's administration's position in the matter?

As long as they don't free the Five and while there are self confessed terrorists like Posada Carriles walking around and leading demonstrations in Miami, the U.S. war on terrorism lacks all credibility. We see it as a shame before humanity, because they are imprisoned strictly for having acted to prevent attacks.

That's why we demand that the Obama government liberate the Five, that it no longer commit itself to the posture it inherited of punishing Cuba, that it no longer engage in an attitude of submission to what are probably hidden schemes against Cuba. We demand they free five persons who committed no crime other than having fought terrorism.

Source: http://www.larepublica.es/spip.php?article19784

World Notes: Uganda, Romania, Australia

Wed, 19 May 2010 11:31:00 +0000

Uganda: Nile agreement is divisive

Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania agreed May 14 on equitable sharing of Nile River waters. An Ethiopian official predicted that Nile Basin countries Kenya, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo would eventually sign the agreement. The four signatory countries would consult with Egypt and Sudan on irrigation and hydroelectric projects, but no longer recognize those countries' veto power granted under a 1929 colonial era treaty. The two downstream nations - Egypt and Sudan - have maintained control over 90 percent of Nile waters under arrangements set in 1959. European Union spokesperson Marc Franc backed Egyptian and Sudanese condemnation of the treaty. Threatening legal action, the Egyptian state minister for legal affairs categorized the water deal as "mistaken."

Romania: Bucharest on board for NATO missile defense

U. S. and Romanian "technical talks" taking place in Bucharest in early May followed Czech Republic rejection last year of a U.S. missile defense system projected for Europe. Global Research reported that Romanian officials announcing the upcoming negotiations last February expressed hopes that national and regional defense capabilities would be served. Meanwhile Russian military spokespersons announced plans recently to develop naval bases in Ukraine in response to NATO activities in the region. Media reports have circulated as to the expected re-opening of a Soviet-era Crimean submarine base - rental agreements have been signed - and construction of three Black Sea bases. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign a package of defense agreements with Ukraine on his visit there in May.

Australia: Protect refugee rights, say unions

In a letter May 8, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and 19 other unions called upon Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to honor asylum claims by Afghan and Sri Lankan refugees. The Australian Guardian newspaper reported on warnings by the unions of violations of international law and exploitation of xenophobia. The letter condemned reopening of an isolated detention facility in Western Australia to house detainees. Recently the ACTU recognized the "bravery, courage and compassion" of "Front Puffin" crew members who last year rescued 34 injured refugees. On May 9, authorities removed 59 hungry, thirsty Sri Lankan refugees from a disabled boat. The government has refused to investigate an eight-day rescue delay contributing to five refugee deaths.

Photo: Tisissat, the Blue Nile Falls close to the city of Bahar Dar in Ethiopia. During some days of the week, the water is redirected for a damn and what is left of the falls is only a trickle. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mk_b/ / CC BY 2.0

Con-Lib coalition deal could mean 170 new peers

Mon, 17 May 2010 12:59:00 +0000

LONDON (Morning Star) -- The coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats could result in the parties appointing more than 170 new peers [House of Lords members] despite being committed to a largely or fully elected upper house, it has emerged.

The agreement, published May 12, states that a committee will be set up to come forward with draft motions by December to create a reformed upper house elected by proportional representation.

With Labour currently represented by 211 peers, on a strict mathematical calculation, this would imply an increase from 186 to 263 in Tory numbers in the House of Lords and a boost in Lib Dem places from 72 to 167 - a total of 172 new peers.

And with current peers expected to benefit from a "grandfathering" arrangement, which would allow them to retain their seats in an otherwise elected house, any new appointees could remain in Parliament for the rest of their lives.

Scottish National Party MP Angus MacNeil said: "This just shows how the Tory coalition is the same old politics continuing.

"The public will not understand why money is being wasted to pay for hundreds of partisan peers whilst massive cuts are being planned."

Voters say No to a Tory government

British voters have sent out a clear message that they don't want a Tory government by denying the party a majority in the House of Commons.

And strong performances by left Labour candidates in the general election have boosted the coming fight against a fierce Westminster coalition for cuts.

Hayes and Harlington incumbent John McDonnell won a big majority of 10,824 and Jeremy Corbyn increased his share of the poll in Islington North, notching up a majority of 12,401 over the Lib Dems.

Nearly 20 successful Labour candidates were backed by the Labour Representation Committee, which is pledged to fight the cuts, tax the rich and repeal the anti-union laws.

Mr McDonnell said that the left and trade unions would forge a powerful alliance "to resist attacks on our communities" by a "neoliberal coalition government."

Meanwhile, the Tories and new Labour leaders were competing unashamedly to woo the Liberal Democrats into such a coalition to break the stalemate hung parliament.

This seduced Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg into brazenly seeking to dictate terms, making his first choice a link-up with the Tories.

Mr Clegg declared that it was for the Conservative Party to seek a government "in the national interest" since it had the most votes and the most seats.

The inflated media-pumped Lib Dem bubble had been well and truly punctured when the actual results came through. The party gained barely an extra 1 percent of the votes and actually lost seats.

However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown still stood in Downing Street appealing to any Lib Dems who would listen that their party should join new Labour in "ensuring continuing economic stability" and introducing legislation for a referendum on electoral reform.

With an air of doom, he referred to the deepening crisis in world financial markets centred on the euro and Greece.

But, even after that, Mr Brown added: "I understand and completely respect the position of Mr Clegg in stating that he first wishes to make contact with the leader of the Conservative Party."

Soon afterwards, Tory leader David Cameron started his overtures to woo the Liberal Democrats into a "strong and stable government."

He proclaimed that such a government would take "urgent action" to slash Britain's "dangerous" financial deficit, "the biggest threat to our national interests."

Boasting that the Tories had achieved "a bigger increase in seats than even Margaret Thatcher in 1979," Mr Cameron offered the Lib Dems reforms to the tax system, opposition to ID cards and a vague promise on "reform" of the electoral system.

The Tories secured just over 36 per cent of the votes, but only managed to win one seat in Scotland. Labour scored over 28 per cent, the worst performance since 1983. Lib Dems scored around 23 per cent.

Late predictions were that the Tories would win 307 seats (+94), Labour 259 (-88) and Lib Dems 56 (-5). In addition, the Scottish National Party had six seats and Plaid Cymru three.

Parliament also gained the first ever Green Party MP when Caroline Lucas won Brighton Pavilion with a majority of 1,252 over Labour candidate Nancy Platts.

Another newcomer will be Unite deputy general secretary Jack Dromey, who was elected for Birmingham Erdington with a majority of 3,277.

Left-of-centre figure Jon Cruddas was returned as MP for Dagenham and Rainham, securing a majority of 2,630 over the Conservatives. The [far-right] British National Party left in third place with 11.2 per cent of the vote.

Respect leader Salma Yaqoob piled up 12,240 votes in Birmingham Hall Green, coming a respectable second to Labour candidate Roger Godsiff who won 16,039.

Your guide to the poll results that matter

Conservative: 307 seats (2005: 198) Votes:10,706,647 36% (+3.8%)
Labour: 258 seats (2005: 356) Votes:8,604,358 29% (-6.2%)
Lib Dem:57 seats (2005: 62) Votes:6,827,938 23%(+1.0%)
DUP: 8 seats (2005: 9) Votes:168,216 0.6% (-0.3%)
SNP: 6 seats (2005: 6) Votes:491,386 1.7% (+0.1%)
Sinn Fein: 4 seats (2005: 5) Votes:171,942 0.6% (-0.1%)
Plaid Cymru: 3 seats (2005: 2) Votes:165,394 0.6% (-0.1%)
SDLP: 3 seats (2005: 3) Votes:110,970 0.4% (-0.1%)
Green: 1 seats (2005: 0) Votes:285,616 1% (-0.1%)
Alliance Party: 1 seats (2005: 0) Votes:42,762 (n/a)
Ukip: 0 seats (2005: 0) Votes:917,832 3.1% (+0.9%)
BNP: 0 seats (2005: 0) Votes:563,743 1.9% (+1.2%)

Photo: The British Parliament and Big Ben. Maurice/CC

Germany’s Left Party defies split predictions

Mon, 17 May 2010 11:37:00 +0000

BERLIN - Wily media experts hunted breathlessly in the big congress hall for a split, either between delegates from East Germany and West Germany, between party currents of "Realo" realists versus "Fundi"-fundamentalists, or maybe between personalities; just any old split weakening or even crippling this nasty young interloper which was causing so much trouble for Germany's four traditional parties.

In Rostock, a port city on the Baltic Sea, 558 delegates gathered for the second congress of the party, founded just three years ago, called Die Linke, The Left. It had been a hasty marriage; one partner was a large East German party which, in the years since it severed ties with its deceased parent, the old ruling party in East Germany's German Democratic Republic, had moved into second place, sometimes first place in the five eastern states and the boroughs of East Berlin. The other far smaller partner was a mainly West German amalgam of disgruntled Social Democrats, militant union members and various leftist groups and grouplets. Under the leadership of the East's Gregor Gysi and Lothar Bisky and the West German Oskar Lafontaine, the two had joined together.

The charismatic Lafontaine from the far western state of Saarland, the Social Democratic candidate for chancellor in 1990 and its head for four years, had quit that party when it veered sharply to the right. He retired for a few years until the chance for a new party arose. In no small measure due to his popularity, this newcomer had overcome anti-GDR, anti-Communist emotions enough to win 11.6 percent of the vote in last September's nationwide elections, placing 76 delegates in the Bundestag, more than the long-established Greens, and creating an unaccustomed, complicated five-party situation. It was also able to overcome the 5 percent hurdle in 13 of the 16 German state legislatures thus far, most recently in the key state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

But now in Rostock the two co-presidents, in their mid-60s, bade their farewells, Lafontaine for health reasons after a cancer operation, Bisky because he is active in the European Parliament and heads the European Left Party. Would the party break in two without them?

There were undeniably problems and disagreements, some based on the very different backgrounds of Westerners and Easterners (or "Wessies" and "Ossies"). Ironically, most East German leaders tend to be more reform-minded, or, as some would say, less revolutionary. The Left is already junior partner in the city-state of Berlin and in Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin. It just missed government leadership in Thuringia after the Social Democrats finally preferred a coalition with the Christian Democrats. Next year, after state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, both in the East, The Left has good chances of joining or even heading two more government coalitions.

But such successes are also a main source of problems and disagreements. Once in government, tight budget pressures can cause The Left to take positions contradicting its own policies, like laying off government workers, reducing some social programs or continuing the open-pit mining of lignite coal to save jobs. Some party members, mostly in the generally more militant West, look askance at such compromises and stress opposition, extra-parliamentary actions, including civil disobedience, and even a possible future general strike, now forbidden in Germany.

Suddenly, after elections a week ago in North Rhine-Westphalia, this problem also arose in a West German state. The Social Democrats and Greens could now govern there, but only with The Left and its 11 legislature seats. Will they accept such an alliance? And if so, should The Left accept it? Social Democrats and Greens used left-wing slogans and made progressive promises in the election campaign but have been known to forget such promises when in office. This also raises a deeper question: should The Left work for reforms here and now, tacitly accepting the present social system, or rather reject any role as "doctor at the death-bed of capitalism," as such a policy was once optimistically described. These and similar questions were discussed in a surprisingly militant draft program by Lafontaine and Bisky, now up for debate in the party. Not a few in the East are very critical of its unusual militancy. That too is where the media hunters searched for splits.

Not every "Realo" loves such strong positions of Oskar Lafontaine. But his half-hour farewell speech was so analytical, vigorous and moving that he brought the house down, for many, many minutes, making it difficult for anyone to say anything against him or, more important, against his views.

Yet Oskar, as everyone calls him, attacked no one in the party. His scorn was reserved for those financial speculators largely responsible for the economic woes in Europe, the USA and elsewhere. In recent years, he claimed, they have gained such immense power that "the parliaments and governments are now no more than marionettes panting to keep up with the finance markets." He spoke of athletes honest enough to wear the names of company sponsors on their jerseys and suggested that politicians do the same. Foreign Minister Westerwelle, for example, might wear the logo of the big hotel chain which paid for much of his campaign and was rewarded by special tax treatment. Lafontaine demanded global regulation of the financial markets, whose international nature made it impossible to solve the problem on a purely national basis. He pointed out that when he and The Left warned of the crisis well in advance they were dismissed as fools or demagogues.

Oskar spoke of the party's goal, democratic socialism, meaning an end to exploitation and oppression and as much freedom as possible for every individual, limited only where it impinged on the freedom of others. The traditions of The Left, he maintained, did not only reach back to the history of the two German states with all their differences, or to the older working class movement, but also to the slave revolts in ancient Rome, peasant uprisings in the Middle Ages, the French Revolution, the November revolution in Germany and what he described as the freedom fight in the GDR in 1989. This freedom struggle will never be ended, he stated.

He also outlined current goals of The Left: a minimum wage law, reversal of the increased pension age to 67, cancellation of laws forcing the unemployed to accept any and every job at ridiculously low wages. He called for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan, saying with pride, "We are the only anti-war party in Germany!"

And like so many speakers he stressed the need to oppose neo-Nazis wherever they showed their heads. He praised the achievements of the party in only three years, which often forced other parties to improve their programs. And he thought The Left might join coalition governments with Greens or Social Democrats, but only if they were willing to revert to their own principles, siding not with the shareholders, financiers and speculators who seize the wealth, but with the working people who create it, who must one day control their own labor. Not new words, perhaps, but daring ones.

There were other impressive speeches, especially by Gregor Gysi, who will remain leader of the party's Bundestag caucus. None of them dwelled on differences, all stressed the need for East and West members to grow, work and fight together, with a stress on the grass roots membership.

The first months of 2010 had seen difficult times for the party after both Lafontaine and Bisky announced they would resign. The vacuum needed a quick response. There had been recrimination among some leaders, including Lafontaine. Though not completely forgotten, these were now smoothed over in a conciliatory manner; all those involved got ovations. As a result of these tremors over 80 percent of the participants in a postal referendum had agreed to elect a new double leadership. This was accomplished at Rostock. One new chairperson is the universally popular Gesine Loetzsch, a Bundestag delegate from the borough of Lichtenberg in East Berlin who, with one other woman delegate, spent three isolated and discriminated years as the lone party representatives in the Bundestag. In Rostock she received 92.8 percent of the separate vote. The other chairperson is Klaus Ernst, a metal workers union leader from Bavaria, more controversial than Loetzsch, whose total was 74.9 percent, far below that of Loetzsch but well above the 60 percent he received three years ago. A third largely unknown candidate got 13.9 percent and was applauded but not elected.

For the job of managing secretary this pattern was maintained: a man from West Germany and a woman from East Germany (who had moved there from the West). Elected as vice-chairs were a parliamentary delegate from West German Saarland and three women from East Germany, the fiery Sara Wagenknecht from the Communist Platform, Halina Wawzyniak from the reformist or Realo wing and the Dresdener Katya Kipping. A financial expert (whose father was from India) became treasurer, and the executive committee was a large mixed team, with 17 women, 17 men, and about the same East-West ratio. Election rules in The Left prescribe at least half women in elections; in the Bundestag caucus the ratio is 40 women to 36 men.

The problems and disagreements did not disappear; there is plenty to argue about in the draft program before it is voted on next year. But at the congress there was a constant call for respectful dialogue and for unity in working towards the main aims of The Left, a better life for all without war or poverty. The party defied some hopes and predictions and stayed together so the media hunters, in their persistent search for some kind of split, will have to settle this time for a banana split.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hailippe/ / CC BY 2.0

Stanford academics hit U.S. blockade on Cuba

Fri, 14 May 2010 13:59:00 +0000

The April 30 issue of the journal "Science" documents both Cuban health care accomplishments and harm to Cubans' health from the U.S. economic blockade. Authors Paul Drain and Michelle Barry, Stanford University global health experts, recommend that sanctions against Cuba be dropped.

Their article "Fifty Years of U.S. Embargo: Cuba's Health Outcomes and Lessons," is useful for arriving at conclusions that, while not new, do warrant fresh dissemination. Central to their critique of U.S. policies is Washington's targeting of Cubans' access to food and medicine.

No comprehensive overview of adverse health effects from the blockade has appeared since publication of a study in 1993 by the American Public Health Association and another in 1997 by the American Association for World Health. Summaries by Columbia University Professor Richard Garfield in the 1990's covered similar ground highlighting the uniquely U.S. device of a unilateral trade embargo restricting food and medicine.

Tightening of sanctions in 1992 through the Cuban Democracy Act relied upon blocking foreign companies with U.S. ties from exporting food and medical supplies to Cuba. Such materials became critical to Cubans' survival after the Soviet bloc fell. The purpose of the legislation was to finish off the newly vulnerable Cuban revolution using the prescription outlined in a State Department memo of April 6, 1960.

There, Deputy Under-Secretary of State Lester D. Mallory proposed "denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government." Thus began, according to Cuba's National Assembly Ricardo Alarcon, "probably the most prolonged act of genocide in history,"

Drain and Barry go on to laud Cuban emphasis on preventative health care, implementation of primary care, favorable indicators of health outcome, universal access to care, and global health outreach, all at comparatively low cost. These accomplishments lead the authors to suggesting that Cuba could teach health care to the United States.

They ask that U.S. policies be revised. "We encourage legislation that at least allows unrestricted travel to Cuba and eliminates medicine and medical supplies from the embargo. Better policy would eliminate the trade embargo."

For a mainstream U.S. scientific journal to give voice to such information and advocacy is all to the good.

However, casting doubts on the blockade, the authors confine themselves to saying it hasn't worked to bring about democracy. Buried in their notes, unlikely to be read, is one reference to a human rights group's judgment as to the blockade's illegality (among several that could have been cited) They also point out that, "Domestic and international favor for the embargo is not strong." The understatement is clear from another note referring to repeated and overwhelming UN General Assembly rejection of the blockade.

Drain and Barry correctly offer Cuba's high life expectancy and low infant mortality (IMR) as evidence of health care achievements. To back up their point as to Cuba's potential educational value to the United States, they might have compared Cuba's 2009 IMR of 4.8 with the U.S. IMR in 2005 of 6.9, 13.3 for African American infants, a rate little changed since then IMR is the number of babies from 1000 births dying during their first year.

The article cites polyclinics in Cuba as an early attempt to provide people with first contact care. That the policlinics, small group practices modeled on Soviet Union examples, didn't work was overlooked. In response, planners instituted doctor - nurse family practice clinics, moving the polyclinics to a teaching and consulting role complementing Cuba's network of specialty hospitals. That change of gears testifies to Cuban pragmatism.

Lastly, the authors' reference to health outcome measures in pre-revolutionary Cuba as higher than Latin American averages overlooks urban - rural differences. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro was on target in this regard in his famous "History Will Absolve Me" speech in 1953. He spoke of "six hundred thousand Cubans without work... five hundred thousand farm laborers who work four months of the year and starve the rest." "Ninety per cent of the children in the countryside are consumed by parasites," he said, adding, "They will grow up with rickets." At issue was "the mass murder of so many thousands of children who die every year from lack of facilities."

Photo: From a PowerPoint presentation on Health in Cuba.

Venezuela’s Chavez tweets for the revolution

Fri, 14 May 2010 13:23:00 +0000

I've not joined the "Twitter Generation" because somewhere deep down my leftist ideology believes that Marx really would not want a believer to go along with the technology pushed by large corporations. I may have to change my thinking after the news this morning that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has "tweeted."

Twitter, for those of us who grew up before Generation X, is a micro blogging website where an individual can sent a message, no more than 140 characters, to cell phone users who sign on to the sender's account. The message is called a "tweet."

The president's first tweet, translated said, "Hey, how's it going? I appeared as I said, at midnight. I'm off to Brazil and I'm very happy to work for Venezuela. We will win!"

Chavez sent his first Tweet at midnight Wednesday, April 28. Just 22 hours later more than 79,000 persons had signed on the Chavez's account. Press reports on Thursday morning, April 29, stated that number had almost increased to 100,000.

President Barrack Obama has 3.7 million followers on his Tweeter account, so Comrade Chavez has a bit of catching up.

The second Tweet sent by Chavez read, "This has been an unexpected explosion. Thanks, I'm here with Evo. We will conquer." Chavez was hosting Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Both messages were brief and to the point. Not too bad for a guy known for giving some speeches which lasted several hours.

Under the Chavez administration, the Venezuelan government set up 668 "info-centers" to fight false information generated by opposition leaders or media. These centers offer free Internet service and computers to the population.

Chavez's twitter address is twitter.com/chavezcandanga for those interested. Something tells me that if it is good enough for Chavez it would be good enough for Marx.

"Candanga" is Venezuelan slang for people who are restless or tireless. It is also used to mean blunt and to the point.

Newspapers accounts in the U.S. however report "candanga" means devil or rabble rouser, another indication most U.S. media unfairly portray Chavez.

Until I decide to sign up I'll just have to visit www.venezuelanalysis.com to get Chavez's side of issues.

A life-long resident of Chicago's South Side, Tomás frequently clashes with co-workers over his support of Hugo Chavez and other progressive issues. He can be spotted at White Sox games wearing his Venezuela World Baseball Classic tee shirt.

World Notes: Afghanistan, Greece, Egypt, South Africa, Ecuador, Cuba

Fri, 14 May 2010 11:51:00 +0000

Afghanistan: Women, children die as war spending skyrockets

In its annual Mother's Day report on women's and children's survival, Save the Children gave its lowest marks to Afghanistan among 160 countries surveyed. Specifically, one in eight Afghan women die in childbirth, women's life expectancy is to age 44, and 259 children die by age 5 per 1,000 births. Almost half the children are moderately underweight or worse, 75 percent of Afghans drink contaminated water, and only 14 percent of women giving birth receive midwife help. Afghan women average four years of schooling. The report says, "An alarming number of countries cannot provide the most basic health care." As of July 2009, the U. S. government was spending $3.6 billion monthly in Afghanistan, reported the Congressional Research Service.

Greece: Arms vendors first in line, parliamentarian charges

Green Party leader in the European Parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit on May 7 accused Germany and France of forcing Greece to pay up on arms purchases from France and Germany as a condition for accepting the European Union's 110-billion-euro bailout of the heavily indebted nation last week. As reported by Agence France-Presse, Cohn-Bendit learned of the arrangement, denied by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, in conversations with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. The preceding conservative Greek government of Kostas Karamanlis had contracted to purchase submarines, warships, helicopters and war planes worth billions of dollars from France. The Greek military, alleging significant military threat from regional rival Turkey, has emerged as a top European arms buyer.

Egypt: Social movements rise up in anger

The government disregarded a court order April 30 for a wage increase to replace the monthly $6 minimum wage in effect since 1984. On May 2 opposition groups and thousands of unionists protested in Cairo, joining counterparts already camped in front of Parliament and others engaged for months in street actions for higher wages. The heightened militancy builds on wage and benefits protests ongoing since 2006, especially in the textile, public and transportation sectors. Women activists, undeterred by the "threat of state-sponsored brutality," have assumed leadership roles in the strike wave, reports the Huffington Post. "This is the largest social movement of its kind in the Arab world since the end of the Second World War," observed Stanford historian Joel Beinin.

South Africa: Transport workers join in big strike

Adherence May 11 by the United Transport and Allied Trade Union to a day-old strike initiated by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union meant that 40,000 of 54,000 employees of state-owned Transnet Corporation were fighting together for a 15 percent wage increase. The employer proposed 11 percent. The nationwide job action threatened passenger transportation services along with exports of coal burned in European and Asian power plants, fruit worth $1.2 billion in annual sales, and ferrochrome, of which South Africa is the world's leading producer. A Reuters report, like others, cited worries over preparations being disrupted for the upcoming World Cup soccer games hosted by South Africa. Demands have surfaced for a strike moratorium.

Ecuador: Indigenous and government at odds over water

Beginning May 10, indigenous groups blockaded highway access to the capital, Quito, in protest against the Rafael Correa government;s proposed "Law on Waters." Citing ancestral rights, CONAIE Federation President Marlon Santi expressed indigenous peoples' fears of eventual privatization of water access, especially by mining corporations. TeleSUR reported that calls for radicalization of the protests mounted in advance of National Assembly reconsideration of the legislation on May 11. Parliamentary President Fernando Cordero reiterated claims that indigenous and peasant representation there made demonstrations unnecessary. He pointed to new constitutional prohibitions against water privatization, also to restrictions the legislation envisions against water hoarding. Nationwide protests against the law expanded into calls for protection of food sovereignty and defense against multinational corporations.

Cuba: UN representative says eliminate all nuclear weapons

At the United Nations Conference on Nuclear Non-Proliferation this month, Cuba advocated gradual abolition of nuclear arms by 2025. Lamenting the current slow pace toward eradication, Cuba's UN representative, Pedro Núñez Mosquera, affirmed his country's view that elimination is of the highest priority. Calling for non-tolerance of pretexts for delay, he observed that ridding the world of nuclear weapons constitutes the most promising road toward combating nuclear terrorism. Núñez signaled Cuba's support for a Middle Eastern nuclear-free zone to which end, he said, Israel must join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, submitting its nuclear installations to international inspection. The five countries with Security Council veto power have already expressed support for a nuclear-free zone in the region, reports Prensa Latina.

Photo: Afghan women at a market. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Afghan_women_at_market_2-4-09.jpg

Latin America condemns Arizona's anti-immigrant law

Tue, 11 May 2010 14:51:00 +0000

The Arizona anti-immigrant law is garnering international attention. South American presidents issued a declaration condemning it during a 12-nation summit in Argentina, the first week in May, as part of the Union of South American Nations.

The declaration argues the law is a violation of human rights and criminalizes immigrants. It allows for the "detention of persons on a discretionary basis by racial, ethnic, phenotype, language and immigration status considerations, through the questionable concept of reasonable doubt," says the declaration.

The statement continues noting the controversial law could lead to "the legitimization of racist attitudes" and "regrettable incidents of violence due to racial hatred, of which many South American citizens have already been victims."

The South American presidents that signed the declaration included Brazil's Luiz Inacio "Lula" Da Silva; Uruguay's Jose Mujica; Ecuador's Rafael Correa; Paraguay's Fernando Lugo; Chile's Sebastian Pinera; Bolivia's Evo Morales; Venezuela's Hugo Chavez; and Argentina's Cristina Fernandez. Foreign ministers represented by Peru, Colombia, Surinam and Guyana also co-signed the declaration.

The Organization of American States has also denounced the law.

The measure requires local police in Arizona to detain, based on "reasonable doubt" any person they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant. The bill was signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer last month and is scheduled to go into effect this summer.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has also voiced his opposition to the law calling it "racial discrimination." Mexico has warned its citizens to avoid traveling to the border state.

Calderon said relations between Mexico and Arizona will suffer due to the measure. He has also instructed the Foreign Relations Department to double its efforts to protect the rights of Mexicans living in the U.S. and seek help from lawyers and immigrant rights advocates.

The government of the Mexican state of Sonora, which borders Arizona, announced it would not attend a cooperation meeting the two states have held annually for four decades. The meeting of the Sonora-Arizona commission was set for June in Phoenix, Ariz.

"This is not about a breaking of relations with Arizona, but rather a way to protest the approval of the law," the Mexican state government said in a statement.

Others in Mexico have criticized Calderon for not taking a tougher stance against the Arizona law. Some Mexican legislators have urged a boycott against Arizona and several called the federal government's response lukewarm.

Mexico is Arizona's largest foreign market. Arizona has sent $4.5 billion in exports to Mexico in 2009 - nearly a third of its total exports.

The World Boxing Council and the Federation of Boxing Commissions of Mexico has announced they have decided not to allow Mexican boxers to fight professionally in Arizona due to the law. The measure is "no other than a flagrant violation to the basic principles of dignity and equality between races," they charge.

Speaking to a largely Latino audience at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, President Barack Obama said he wants to pursue an immigration bill this year, despite challenges.

"Make no mistake, our immigration system is broken," the president said. "And after so many years in which Washington has failed to meet its responsibilities, Americans are right to be frustrated, including folks along border states. But the answer isn't to undermine fundamental principles that define us as a nation. We can't start singling out people because of who they look like, or how they talk, or how they dress. We can't turn law-abiding American citizens - and law-abiding immigrants - into subjects of suspicion and abuse. We can't divide the American people that way. That's not the answer. That's not who we are as the United States of America."

Obama reiterated he has instructed his administration to closely monitor the new law to examine the civil rights and other implications that it may have.

"That's why we have to close the door on this kind of misconceived action by meeting our obligations here in Washington," he said. "The way to fix our broken immigration system is through common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform."

The president said it won't be easy and bipartisan support will be required, "but it can be done. And it needs to be done."

The city councils in two of Arizona's largest cities have voted to file suit over the state's law. The Tucson City Council voted 5-1 to file suit, and the city council in Flagstaff approved a similar measure 7-0.

In Boston the city council there passed a resolution this week calling on the mayor to cut ties with Arizona companies doing business with the city.

And civil rights and labor organization teamed up Thursday to announce a nationwide boycott of Arizona unless the law is repealed. The groups include: the National Council of La Raza; the Asian American Justice Center; the Center for Community Change; the Service Employees International Union; and the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Opponents of the law have called for a boycott of Arizona tourism and urge that no one engage in any commerce with businesses located in the state.

Meanwhile New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, is asking Arizona Gov. Brewer to delay the start of the law until Congress can try and pass broad new federal policies that would put millions of undocumented immigrants on a path toward citizenship.

Photo: From Chicago's May Day 2010 immigrant and labor rights march. (Courtesy of Adrian Garcia)

South American summit tackles regional integration

Tue, 11 May 2010 11:51:00 +0000

Another step in the tortuous process of Latin American integration was marked May 3-4 when representatives of all 12 states belonging to the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) met near Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a special summit meeting. President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and host President Cristina Kirchner co-chaired the meeting attended by eight heads of state.

Foreign ministers gathered May 3 for a preparatory meeting. Heads of state of four nations did not attend, including the presidents of Peru and Colombia, both allied to the United States.

UNASUR, formed in 2004, has taken steps toward a single market, coordinated military policies, shared infrastructure projects, promotion of economic development, and control of cross border migrations. The alliance is based in Quito, Ecuador. Plans are under way for a headquarters building there.

Deliberations began with the selection by consensus of former Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner to serve as UNASUR secretary general. "We'll see if this new appointment strengthens UNASUR or leads to its death," was Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos' comment, according to colombiareports.com. Many observers believe, however, that Kirchner's appointment will greatly enhance administrative capabilities of the organization that until now have lagged.

Deliberation on providing aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti and Chile was the occasion for soul-searching and new commitments. Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patiño reminded delegates that at a special meeting February 9 in Quito, UNASUR nations created a $100 million fund, promising then to contribute $81 million with 40 percent due in four months. Only $7.5 million has been delivered so far. The assembly approved Brazilian President Lula da Silva's recommendation that member states make good on commitments within 15 days. After hearing from Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, delegates indicated their governments would be deciding on assistance to Chile.

Summit action took on an anti-imperialist flavor. Delegates united in backing Argentina's struggle with Great Britain to regain sovereignty over the Malvinas islands, where significant oil reserves have been identified recently. UNASUR took the U.S. state of Arizona to task for legislation enacted April 27 that, sanctioning racial profiling, has the potential of subjecting all migrants to repression. Minister Patiño spoke of "obvious racist consequences signaling disrespect for human rights."

UNASUR once more condemned the military coup that last year removed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office. Colombia and Peru are the only UNSAUR states recognizing the present Honduran government headed by Porfirio Lobo. Delegates instructed the current UNASUR head, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, to inform Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero that most South American governments would not be attending the European Union-Latin American and Caribbean summit set for mid-May in Madrid, hosted by Zapatero. That was because Lobo would be there. "We believe it was tactless that the governments in the region were not consulted about the invitation to an unrecognized government, one outside the inter-American system," declared Correa.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva took pains to inform summit attendees of the content of his country's agreement with the United States on April 12 regarding military cooperation. The Brazilian president explained that the agreement involved neither U.S. bases in Brazil nor permission for U.S. troop transit within the country. UNASUR countries had received a communication along these lines prior to the meeting. Observers say Lula's effort at transparency was in reaction to the firestorm enveloping the region after disclosure last year of the U.S.-Colombia agreement on U.S. bases there.

Summit participants discussed mechanisms for achieving transparency on matters like member states' organization of defense departments and command structures, their military expenses and military activities.

UNASUR offered support for Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo in "his struggle against criminal violence affecting five departments." The threat to Lugo comes from an opposition congress and vice president allied to holdovers from the right-wing Colorado Party ousted when he became president in 2008. In part to counter accusations of complicity with a small guerrilla group, the Paraguayan People's Army, operating in the northern departments, Lugo was forced to send in the military and suspend the constitution there for 30 days. The volatility of the situation is such that "the Honduras ghost is hovering like a sword of Damocles over Fernando Lugo," commented analyst Pablo Stefanoni.

Photo: South America's leaders pose for a photo at the end of the South American Union of Nations (UNASUR) summit in Los Cardales, Argentina, May 4. In the front row from left to right are Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Argentina's former President Nestor Kirchner, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, Bolivia's President Evo Morales, Chile's President Sebastian Pinera, Uruguay's President Jose Mujica and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)

Greece and Angela Merkel

Tue, 11 May 2010 11:19:00 +0000

BERLIN (May 7) - Pity poor Angela! The rock is Greece and its economic woes. The hard place is North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's largest state, where an extremely crucial election is due on May 9. And Germany's Chancellor Merkel is caught directly in the middle!

Europe and the world have been waiting for Germany to commit to aiding the Greek economy before it slips into total bankruptcy. It needs a big dose of financial support, and with its credit rating plummeting, it needs it fast. Much of the credit must come from Germany, economically the strongest country in Europe. The original sum in discussion was 8 billion Euros, but it is now clear that this would only be a small down payment. Every delay could unsettle the whole Euro zone, encompassing much of Europe and even affecting markets as distant as Hong Kong and Wall Street.

But Angela Merkel, despite years of heart-moving support for the European Union, has thus far done nothing but invent excuses and conditions for aid, none of them convincing. Her tactics became so disastrous that the top leaders of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank visited Berlin to appeal to her. The economic calamity which has befallen Greece now threatens Portugal, Spain, maybe even Ireland and other countries, but Merkel remains adamant.

The solution to this mystery is that election on May 9. Most of the German media have been waging a merciless war of words, saying that the Greeks were lazy, received much too high pensions, and Germany had better not throw its money to that useless, coddled bunch. Few of the media made clear that foreign banks, not least of all the Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, helped push the Greek government into the mess it is in. The media bashing has been directed mostly at the working people of Greece, now fighting in the streets to maintain a halfway decent livelihood. What "Bild", for example, never says is that if the European Union, with the current right-wing German government in the lead, can force down working conditions and living standards in Greece, this could make it more attractive to run-away German companies. It could certainly lead to more unemployment and worse living standards all over Europe, including Germany.

The coming election will not only be crucial because North Rhine-Westphalia is the largest German state in population, with 18 million of Germany's 82 million people. Once the main industrial region, with Ruhr Valley coal and steel, it is currently a rust belt, rivaled in economic troubles only by the five East German states.

For decades it was a bastion of the Social Democrats, but in 2005, thanks to the abandonment by Gerhard Schroeder's national government of most social welfare policies, they were ousted by Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), and the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), the same duo which now rules nationally. But the CDU was caught up in too many scandals, while the Free Democrats kept losing ground, especially after their boss in Berlin, Foreign Minister Westerwelle, implied that workers on jobless insurance were parasites.

The chances for a renewed coalition of the two right-wing parties do not look rosy. A loss would be painfully embarrassing; the same two parties now run the federal government in Berlin. Worse yet, a loss in North Rhine-Westphalia would cost the government its majority.

The media have misrepresented the credit, implying it would be a multi-billion-Euro gift to unworthy Greece (it would actually be repayable at a high interest rate). But inflamed nationalist passions could mean losing even more votes. So Merkel has tried to wait with the money until May 9.

The elections are crucial to all the parties. The Free Democrats won an unprecedented 14 percent of the vote last year. But the hangover has dropped it back down and a serious loss on May 9 would severely cut its new-found anti-social haughtiness. The Social Democrats, who suffered a crushing defeat in last year's federal elections, dream of a comeback. Like their favorite partners the Greens, their defeat inspires them to speak out once again from the left side of their mouth, hoping that voters will forget their sell-out when they held power. They skirt carefully around the Greek issue.

For the Left Party (Die Linke), too, the vote is very crucial. If it wins 5 percent or more it will get seats in the legislature of Germany's largest state, greatly expanding its influence in the west. Its hopes and fears may also explain why it too has seemingly avoided much stress on the Greek question. It, too, may have decided to let Angela face the music.

If the Left does make it into the legislature it will mean reshuffling lots of cards. The CDU and the FDP will hardly have enough to keep their present majority. The Social Democrats and Greens would love to return to their old power-sharing combination, but 50 percent is no easy goal for them either. Joining with the Left would seem natural, but red-baiting frightens the Social Democrats. Since the Greens reject joining either the Free Democrats or the Left, this could mean that the Greens join with the Christian Democrats, another move towards total sell-out.

The old Rhine River faces days of great suspense. It is sad that those who are at the very bottom will most likely be people living far away, at the sun-baked Mediterranean shores of in Greece. To their credit, they have been fighting back, hard!

Photo: "Stop privatization," a German Left Party poster says. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hailippe/ / CC BY 2.0

Colombian elections offer something new, something old

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:25:00 +0000

The process of finding a successor to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has yielded an unconventional favorite. Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus registered 38 percent approval in polls four weeks ahead of elections set for May 30, up 18 points in two weeks and 9 points ahead of the runner-up, former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos. Mockus is projected to beat Santos in June 20 second-round voting, 58 percent to 37 percent.

Santos, member of a powerful political and publishing family, embodies the current government's anti-terrorism line and war against leftist guerrillas. A court in February denied Uribe's unconstitutional bid to run for a third term.

The son of Lithuanian immigrant parents, Mockus served twice as Bogota's mayor, ran as Conservative Party vice presidential candidate in 1998, gained 1.2 percent of votes in 2006 presidential voting, and joined the Green Party last September. Many regard the former philosophy professor at Colombia's National University, where he served as rector, as eccentric, considering that he bared his backside to protesting students, threw water at a debate opponent, and rode an elephant at his wedding. He bicycles to work.

As mayor, Mockus built a reputation for efficiency, honesty and ethical behavior. That positions him well as an alternative to current leaders identified with corruption and scandals including: payoffs to land owners, ties to paramilitary killers and drug impresarios, payoffs to congresspersons, special privileges for family members, and promotion of terror and spying against political opponents. Juan Manuel Santos' defense ministry was responsible for the "false positives" scandal: the killing of citizens so bodies could be dressed as guerrillas to advertise victories.

Analysts of the Mockus phenomenon emphasize the role of his candidacy in obscuring working class election alternatives and glossing over class-based exploitation and oppression in Colombia. According to Nelson Lombana Silva, middle class voters, dismayed at the "Uribe Project splashed with narcotrafficking and paramilitarism," look favorably upon values represented by Mockus who is seen as such as "cultivated," "decent" and "pure."

For Milton Caballero honesty is fine, "but it's not enough." Mockus' neo-liberal instincts are clear, Caballero suggests, in support for partial privatization of state-owned Ecopetrol, hikes in student fees, labor "reforms" in 2003, and support for recent Uribe health system cuts.

While casting Democratic Security - the U.S.-supported militarization project costing $19.2 billion annually - as "democratic legality," Mockus refuses to "condemn state crimes committed by the present government." He promises to sustain war against FARC guerrillas while rejecting humanitarian exchange of prisoners and, by implication, negotiated settlement of civil war. President Uribe said in 2003: "I have found in Mayor Mockus a firm helmsman, unwavering and steady." Mockus recently suggested, "Bullets are also a pedagogical resource."

Mockus obtained his Ph.D. degree in France. Part of his 2004 world tour included a stint at Harvard University where he taught Spanish. His trajectory puts him at considerable distance from realities like Colombia's oppressive rural-urban divide. The poor, most of them inhabitants of rural areas or displaced from the country, increased by 20 million during Uribe's tenure. Some 60 percent of Colombians live in poverty, 65 percent in rural areas.

Left electoral prospects are grim. In the 2006 presidential elections, Carlos Gaviria, candidate of the left coalition Alternative Democratic Pole, gained second place with 22 percent of the vote. Polling now gives Pole candidate Gustavo Petro 2.9 percent and fifth place. One analyst with a long memory wonders about the worrisome precedent of General Rojas Pinilla in 1970. After defeating traditional parties in first-round voting, he lost the second round through fraud.

Mockus proposes a referendum on continuing Colombia's toleration of drug trafficking. That's good news for writer Raúl Crespo who says, "It's time to take off the mask of Colombian-U.S. drug trafficking," but perhaps bad news for Washington. Mockus' discounting of links between FARC survival and Venezuela's government would fall in the same category. "Nations ought to respect the sovereignty of [other] countries," he suggested.

Argelio Pérez Fabra provided apt summation: "Mockus and Santos are each a horse of the same neo-liberal color. Soon one will be playing the good cop role, the other the bad cop, like in the gringo movies."

Photo: Antanas Mockus speaks at a rally in 2008.

World Notes: Somalia, Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico and UN

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:56:00 +0000

Somalia: Soldiers desert as Western money runs out
Somali government soldiers are deserting because their $100 per month salaries paid by the United States, France and Germany arrive only sporadically. Some 2,100 of them posted for training in Djibouti and Kenya absorbed $6.8 million in U.S. funds last year. The Associated Press reported that troops stationed near Mogadishu received U. S.-provided "food this month to try to help the malnourished soldiers regain their strength." Since 2007, Washington has spent $14 million on salaries, supplies and transport for soldiers who on deserting return home or switch allegiance to al-Shabab rebels. The U.S.-supported coalition government controls little of the Somalia countryside and only parts of Mogadishu. Hizbul Islamic combatants seized a northern coastal town on May 2, pledging to enter nearby towns.

Spain: Unemployment skyrockets
The European debt crisis is spreading beyond Greece. A credit rating decline on April 28 led to a 3 percent stock market downturn in Europe's fourth largest economy. Two days later it became clear that people's lives were taking a hit when Spain's National Statistics Institute reported first quarter unemployment at 20 percent. PressTV indicated that the 700,000 jobs lost last year translated into a doubling of unemployment since January 2008. Only Latvia's unemployment is higher within the European Union, where overall joblessness was 9.6 percent in March. Speaking in Melilla on May 1, labor leader Alonso Díaz warned, "This city runs the risk of ... stark differences between the comfortable population and others in a very precarious situation."

Cuba: Workers Day highlights values and goals
Cubans marked International Workers Day, May 1, with rallies throughout the island. In Havana 1,300 labor leaders from 56 countries were on hand. Some 10,000 women there marched as a block with hundreds of thousands, the throng taking two hours to pass through the Plaza of the Revolution. A giant banner made up of 52 large Cuban flags - signifying 52 years of revolution - served as rear guard. Addressing the gathering, CTC Labor Federation General Secretary Salvador Valdes emphasized that for "preserving our social system" and raising living standards, "we will have to share the lack of resources and our efforts in order to overcome them." Valdes lauded work "as a creative source of material and spiritual wealth and a molder of conscience." His speech appeared in Granma International.

United Nations: Press freedom at low ebb
At a panel discussion prior to World Press Freedom Day on May 3, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the murder last year of 77 journalists worldwide. He cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as enshrining freedom of expression. Far from being "high-profile war correspondents," victims worked for local publications in peacetime, Ban said, adding that they were "attempting to expose wrongdoing or corruption." The panel focused on Southeast Asia, where, according to Inter Press Service, 40 reporters and bloggers are presently in jail. President Porfirio Lobo of Honduras last month promised his government would investigate the recent killings there of seven journalists. He anticipates help from Colombia - no paragon of journalist protection - and the United States, nations that recognized his election as president when others in the region did not.

Puerto Rico: University students rebel against privatization
Proposals to hike tuition and slash government support for university education reflected a push over years to privatize much of the island's higher education. NCM Noticias noted, for example, that a U.S. accreditation agency had hired a consultant espousing "universities as an industry." The consultant condemned an almost total lack of private funding for a system serving 65,000 students at 11 University of Puerto Rico campuses. A student strike and occupation of campuses that began April 23 had by May 3 spread throughout the island despite a heavy police presence and administrators' attempts, foiled by the judiciary, to declare the universities in recess. In fact, said the report, the government was up against a "perfect storm" carrying students forward to a likely "negotiated outcome."

Photo: Somali army recruits train using sticks instead of guns at Camp al-Jazira, the government's main military base, in Mogadishu. (AP/Katharine Houreld)

Germany: Left goes in, right goes out - or does it?

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:53:00 +0000

BERLIN -- The state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the valleys of the Rhine and Ruhr is far and away the most populous German state, with 18 million people. Once extremely prosperous, much of it is now in the Rust Belt category. But it still has key political importance, and was ruled for the past five years by the same two right-wing parties as those ruling the whole nation, Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats of Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

In Sunday's election, both of them took a beating. The ruling Christian Democrats, whose local leader, Ruettgers, had hopes of following Angela Merkel at the top spot in Berlin, or even pushing her out, can now forget about it. His home state handed him and his party their worst defeat ever, a loss of over 10 percentage points.

And yet, to the end, it was a nip and tuck battle between his party and its main rivals, the Social Democrats. The latter also lost voters, though not nearly so many (2.4 percent), and came out second best in the rivalry, not quite catching up to the Christian Democrats. The final result was tight, 34.6 to 34.5 percent.

The difference between their two smaller partners was much clearer. While the other big business party, the Free Democrats, could only tread water, ending up with 6.7 percent, the Greens were the big winners of the day, almost doubling their number, with over 12 percent of the voters. They were understandably in a jubilant mood.

But what counts when forming a government in German politics (as in most of Europe) is not the number of voters but the number of seats in the legislature, where a majority is needed to form a stable cabinet. In this case that means getting 91 or more of the 181 state seats. And when all the counts came in during the night, the Social Democrats and their favorite partners, the Greens, ended up with just 90, ten more than their two old rivals, but still one seat short of victory.

The reason neither pair got over half the seats was because of the new addition, the Left. It made its debut in the state by squeezing past the required percentage with 5.6 points and thus getting eleven seats in the legislature. A wagon with four wheels can usually be steered; one with five wheels is far more skittish.

For the Social Democrats to form a government they must either join up with their traditional rivals, the Christian Democrats, and fight over top positions, a very unpleasant and uncertain prospect, or else accept not only the Greens as partners but the Left as well, just to reach that magic number of 91. That too is anathema, however, especially since national party leaders in Berlin fear any similar opening for the Left on a national scale in 2013 and could try to prevent it. Some local Social Democrats are also so fierce in their rejection of this "formerly Communist" party, their term for the Left, that they might even rebel at any such three party solution and desert to the other side - as happened two years ago in Hesse (perhaps with some desirable temptations as incentives for the deserters).

To make matters even more wobbly, the Left in this state is allegedly the very farthest to the left in all the party. It has not only horrified many good citizens by calling for the legalization of marijuana, but also supported the nationalization of banks and major utility giants. The media like to call its leaders " chaotic" and have unhappily been supported in such attacks by some leaders of the Left in other states, who went so far as to say it is "incapable of holding government posts," statements seen by others as suicidal backbiting.

Thus, the future in North Rhine-Westphalia is still undecided. If the Social Democrats emerge as leaders, in one way or another, this would cost the central government its present majority in the national Upper House, or Bundesrat, where each state is represented. Without this majority, Angela Merkel's government may find it very difficult to get laws approved. In the past, of course, all four older parties, including the Greens and the Social Democrats, joined in supporting a nasty collection of reactionary measures and in approving military engagement in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and other areas. Currently, more social or leftish sounds from their headquarters, which undoubtedly helped them in Sunday's election, have only been audible since they were forced into opposition. The Left was almost always alone in its consistent, continuous pressure on matters of domestic and foreign affairs.

Many questions remain as to what compromises, if any, the Left will make to get into the state government in Dusseldorf or, in 2013, into the national government in Berlin. Such matters will almost certainly be debated, perhaps hotly, at its party congress next week in the Baltic Sea port of Rostock. For a variety of reasons, therefore, the coming days and weeks may be very stormy.

Photo: A full moon shines over Dusseldorf, the capital of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. (Dirk Hartung/http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirkhartung/598401454/)