“I want to declare myself a Marxist and a communist. Let’s see if the OAS expels me.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During his speech at the seventh summit meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, recalled the documents of the Organisation of American States that resulted in Cuba being expelled from the organisation in 1962 and described the importance of reflecting on the motives for that expulsion.
The resolution asserts that the adherence of any member-country of the organisation to Marxism-Leninism, or the association of any member-government with the communist bloc, broke the unity and solidarity of the hemisphere. Therefore, given that the government of Cuba identified itself as Marxist-Leninist, it was incompatible with the purpose of the OAS and was excluded from participating.“I want to declare myself a Marxist and a communist. Let’s see if the OAS expels me.
“Cuba was expelled for being Leninist, Marxist, communist,” Morales declared. “I want to say to the members of the OAS here, I want to declare myself Marxist, Leninist, communist, socialist. And now let them expel me. I want them to expel me from the OAS. It is unbelievable that for being Marxist-Leninist one can be expelled from the OAS.”
He referred to the recent declarations by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, that there is no democracy in Cuba. He recalled that once when he was in the United States he found out that candidates who do not win more than 50 per cent of the votes cannot be sworn in, and the vote has to occur again. “The United States has no right or authority to speak of democracy, because they are the ones that foster coups, military coups, just as they are now arming a civic coup in Bolivia.”
He drew attention to the fact that in Cuba, on the other hand, they exercise full democracy, where bribes or million-dollar campaigns do not exist.
Morales proposed the creation of an ALBA Council for Human Rights. This proposal is a departure from the situation where there exist many institutions that issue reports on human rights but the only thing they do is report on anti-imperialist governments. “No matter what good things we do, they never recognise them. They do not take into consideration that we are in a process of liberation, of deep transformation,” he declared.
He stated that those international human-rights institutions only condemn governments of liberation. Therefore, in this framework he proposed the creation of an ALBA Council for Human Rights, to be able to state the truth on human rights.
He pointed out that the general objective should be to investigate and denounce political, military and cultural interference, carry out investigations of policies that go against our countries, establish a permanent system of monitoring media attacks, exchange information among countries that make up the council to evaluate systematic violations of human rights, and promote the exercise of human rights, especially in regard to the sovereignty and self-determination of the member-countries.
According to his proposal, the council would be made up of representatives of all the member-countries, representatives of social movements, human rights experts, and representatives of any non-member country that wanted to be part of the council.
President Morales expressed his thanks for all the international solidarity he received during his recent struggle for the approval of an electoral law in Bolivia and expressed his enormous satisfaction at being present as part of the anti-imperialist struggle, which he declared is the struggle of our peoples.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Turkey May Day Protest
Unions were allowed to march to Taksim Square in Istanbul. And we're very pleased to report that for the first time in more than 30 years, trade unions were in Taksim Square, able to commemorate the massacre that took place there in 1977.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Palestine the Truth
From The Morning Star Monday 4th May
Myths, spin and misery
Monday 04 May 2009Ramzy Baroud Printable Email The struggle between Hamas and Fatah appears from a distance like a typical Third World political scuffle.
It has been depicted as a battle over the interpretation of democracy that's got out of control or simply a "power struggle" between two political rivals vying for international aid and recognition.
It's common to read deceptive news reports that promote this line.
"Hundreds of Palestinian patients have been trapped in the Gaza Strip, unable to travel abroad for crucial treatment for cancer and other diseases, because of political infighting between Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and their Palestinian rivals," was how one Associated Press report put it.
Such sinister terminology as "Gaza's Hamas rulers" - which happens to refer to a democratically elected government - is now commonly used by Western news agencies and those who readily recycle their reports.
The AP report above makes no mention of Israel's role in Palestinian rivalry. The only mention of the US referred to "US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas," (main pic) who "controls the West Bank."
Is this journalist serious? Even if they willingly overlooked the fact that Palestinian rivalry has little to do with Israel's blockade of Gaza, even if the US-led international campaign to isolate Gaza and its government was purposely disregarded, since when did Abbas "control" the West Bank?
That's the same West Bank that remains in the grip of a decades-long Israeli military occupation, where illegal Jewish settlements run into the hundreds and where countless checkpoints, "bypass roads," military zones and the giant Israeli wall - an entire matrix of control - has been described by many leading international observers as apartheid.
True, the situation in Gaza has reached such harrowing levels that the injustices committed in the West Bank have been shunted down the agenda as if they are inconsequential. But the Israeli assault on Palestinian freedom, human rights and international law in the West Bank has not ceased for a moment, even when thousands of Palestinians in Gaza were being brutally murdered.
But neither the inhumane siege and murder of Gazans nor the suffocating occupation of the West Bank seem to awaken the curiosity of those who, foolishly or cunningly, blame the victims for their own misery.
That shouldn't mean that Hamas and Fatah or any other Palestinian party is absolved from their own failings when it comes to human rights, freedom of speech or any other area over which they possess an iota of control.
If individuals from Hamas have violated human rights in Gaza, then such actions should be recognised, condemned and corrected. The same is true when Abbas's government violates the edicts of democracy in whatever limited jurisdiction it has.
But the media's outrageous claims, whether indirectly blaming Hamas for the deadly Gaza siege and its consequences or haphazardly granted Abbas a position of "control" over the occupied West Bank, are plain contemptible.
The manipulation of the term "democracy" is also worthy of note.
An unsuspecting follower of the media would never guess that Hamas was elected democratically and that a democratic government with a majority in the parliament could not possibly have staged a "coup" against itself.
That same individual would no doubt also be unaware that the legal term in office of celebrated Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has already expired and that its renewal would require fresh elections or the consent of the Hamas-dominated parliament.
Now President Abbas is reportedly assembling a new government which is expected, once again, to exclude the majority party in the parliament.
The government, if formed, will likely be headed by Salam Fayyad, whose international prestige stems solely from the fact that top US officials including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice have praised him as trustworthy. Fayyad has never been elected and has little popularity among Palestinians.
And even if Hamas agreed to Abbas's appointed government, it would be impossible for the parliament to convene and vote. A large number of elected Palestinian legislators are currently being held as political prisoners in Israel.
When a news story is dominated by selective terminology, numbers, names and dates without proper and balanced context, the reader is sold nothing but misinformation.
Consider an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report published in late 2008 which ranked and classified 167 countries into four categories - full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.
The Palestinian Authority was ranked number 85, crossing from a flawed democracy into the hybrid regime category. The explanation? According to the EIU, "the Islamist Hamas movement that won the parliamentary election in early 2006 and Fatah, who hold on to the presidency, have failed to bridge their differences.
"Instead, factional infighting has worsened in recent years, culminating in the takeover of power in the Gaza Strip by Hamas while the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah has tried to maintain his grip on the West Bank. Political violence has worsened."
The word "Israel" is not mentioned. Not once.
Despite the fact that "factional fighting" and failure to "bridge their differences" are largely down to external pressures - including Israeli and US ultimatums to Abbas, violence against Hamas and conditional international aid to both - Palestine is ranked as if it were an independent nation in complete control of its own affairs.
Israel, meanwhile, was listed by the EIU at number 38, merely a "flawed" democracy, perhaps for the simple fact that it recognises itself as a "Jewish state" and discriminates against anyone who doesn't fit the criteria.
"If you control the language, you control the debate," it's been said.
But, when the perception of an entire nation depends on how terms are coined and sentences are constructed, then language takes on other meanings - deceptive, demonising and immoral ones.
Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Myths, spin and misery
Monday 04 May 2009Ramzy Baroud Printable Email The struggle between Hamas and Fatah appears from a distance like a typical Third World political scuffle.
It has been depicted as a battle over the interpretation of democracy that's got out of control or simply a "power struggle" between two political rivals vying for international aid and recognition.
It's common to read deceptive news reports that promote this line.
"Hundreds of Palestinian patients have been trapped in the Gaza Strip, unable to travel abroad for crucial treatment for cancer and other diseases, because of political infighting between Gaza's militant Hamas rulers and their Palestinian rivals," was how one Associated Press report put it.
Such sinister terminology as "Gaza's Hamas rulers" - which happens to refer to a democratically elected government - is now commonly used by Western news agencies and those who readily recycle their reports.
The AP report above makes no mention of Israel's role in Palestinian rivalry. The only mention of the US referred to "US-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas," (main pic) who "controls the West Bank."
Is this journalist serious? Even if they willingly overlooked the fact that Palestinian rivalry has little to do with Israel's blockade of Gaza, even if the US-led international campaign to isolate Gaza and its government was purposely disregarded, since when did Abbas "control" the West Bank?
That's the same West Bank that remains in the grip of a decades-long Israeli military occupation, where illegal Jewish settlements run into the hundreds and where countless checkpoints, "bypass roads," military zones and the giant Israeli wall - an entire matrix of control - has been described by many leading international observers as apartheid.
True, the situation in Gaza has reached such harrowing levels that the injustices committed in the West Bank have been shunted down the agenda as if they are inconsequential. But the Israeli assault on Palestinian freedom, human rights and international law in the West Bank has not ceased for a moment, even when thousands of Palestinians in Gaza were being brutally murdered.
But neither the inhumane siege and murder of Gazans nor the suffocating occupation of the West Bank seem to awaken the curiosity of those who, foolishly or cunningly, blame the victims for their own misery.
That shouldn't mean that Hamas and Fatah or any other Palestinian party is absolved from their own failings when it comes to human rights, freedom of speech or any other area over which they possess an iota of control.
If individuals from Hamas have violated human rights in Gaza, then such actions should be recognised, condemned and corrected. The same is true when Abbas's government violates the edicts of democracy in whatever limited jurisdiction it has.
But the media's outrageous claims, whether indirectly blaming Hamas for the deadly Gaza siege and its consequences or haphazardly granted Abbas a position of "control" over the occupied West Bank, are plain contemptible.
The manipulation of the term "democracy" is also worthy of note.
An unsuspecting follower of the media would never guess that Hamas was elected democratically and that a democratic government with a majority in the parliament could not possibly have staged a "coup" against itself.
That same individual would no doubt also be unaware that the legal term in office of celebrated Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has already expired and that its renewal would require fresh elections or the consent of the Hamas-dominated parliament.
Now President Abbas is reportedly assembling a new government which is expected, once again, to exclude the majority party in the parliament.
The government, if formed, will likely be headed by Salam Fayyad, whose international prestige stems solely from the fact that top US officials including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice have praised him as trustworthy. Fayyad has never been elected and has little popularity among Palestinians.
And even if Hamas agreed to Abbas's appointed government, it would be impossible for the parliament to convene and vote. A large number of elected Palestinian legislators are currently being held as political prisoners in Israel.
When a news story is dominated by selective terminology, numbers, names and dates without proper and balanced context, the reader is sold nothing but misinformation.
Consider an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report published in late 2008 which ranked and classified 167 countries into four categories - full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.
The Palestinian Authority was ranked number 85, crossing from a flawed democracy into the hybrid regime category. The explanation? According to the EIU, "the Islamist Hamas movement that won the parliamentary election in early 2006 and Fatah, who hold on to the presidency, have failed to bridge their differences.
"Instead, factional infighting has worsened in recent years, culminating in the takeover of power in the Gaza Strip by Hamas while the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah has tried to maintain his grip on the West Bank. Political violence has worsened."
The word "Israel" is not mentioned. Not once.
Despite the fact that "factional fighting" and failure to "bridge their differences" are largely down to external pressures - including Israeli and US ultimatums to Abbas, violence against Hamas and conditional international aid to both - Palestine is ranked as if it were an independent nation in complete control of its own affairs.
Israel, meanwhile, was listed by the EIU at number 38, merely a "flawed" democracy, perhaps for the simple fact that it recognises itself as a "Jewish state" and discriminates against anyone who doesn't fit the criteria.
"If you control the language, you control the debate," it's been said.
But, when the perception of an entire nation depends on how terms are coined and sentences are constructed, then language takes on other meanings - deceptive, demonising and immoral ones.
Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5th May.Is George Lee standing for the Blueshirts
The Nation holds it breadth tonight wonderring will former RTE man George Lee be standing for the Blueshirts in Dublin, We will keep you posted
5th May Local Elections Start today
The locals start tonight all Activists across the 26 county State will be out sticking up their repsective posters.trying to out do the others.
Multiple state pensions for Ministers yet low income family Child Benefit slashed – its time to get this government outMay 5, 2009 by sinnfein
Filed under Latest News
Leave a comment
Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald MEP has this afternoon described Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s decision to cut Child Benefit payments across the board as ‘ another shameful attack on families’. Ms. McDonald added, “It is time to stop the madness. Fianna Fáil and the Green’s cannot be allowed to make struggling families pay the heaviest price for government mistakes. Mary Hanafin, the Minister who will oversee the cuts in Child Benefit, will on retirement benefit from three state pensions. Surely the irony of this will not be lost on her and her cabinet colleagues?”
Speaking from Strasbourg the Sinn Fein Deputy Leader said:
“Child Benefit is not simply some sort of bonus payment from the state. It is a critical source of income that many hundreds of thousands of families rely on for the most basic of childcare needs.
“Low income families are already shouldering the heaviest burden of the governments emergency budget. Workers on an annual salary of just €15,028 have been slapped with a 2% income levy. Struggling families have seen their mortgage interest relief withdrawn and the early childcare supplement abolished by the year-end. Now it is reducing all child benefit payments to the tune of €55 for a family of three. It is worth reminding ourselves that 32% of workers in this state earn €18,300 a year or less. How much more punishment does this government intend to inflict on families for its mistakes?
“It is galling that the Minister who will oversee the Child Benefit cuts, Mary Hanafin, is one of the government cabinet who will benefit for from three state pensions when she retires. How is this ‘fairly’ sharing the burden of Fianna Fáil’s recession? Sinn Féin in our emergency budget submission called for a cap on all TDs salaries at €80,000 per year. We have also called for an end to Oireachtas and European parliamentary members collecting multiple pensions from Ireland’s public purse. State childcare provision is in disarray. The government has withdrawn financial supports and there is confusion from all quarters on how it intends to deliver on its promise to provide on 15 hrs care per week for young children.
“As the economy collapses around our ears Fianna Fáil and the Green’s level the charge at opposition parties that we have no solutions. Well, Sinn Féin have plenty of solutions. The government just refuses to listen. They choose instead to protect and serve their developer and banker cronies.
“My message to the Irish people today is a straightforward one. Stand up for yourself; stand up for each other. It’s time to get this rotten government out. June 5th is an opportunity for the people to signal the beginning of the end for Fianna Fáil and the Green’s. We deserve better.” ENDS
Filed under Latest News
Leave a comment
Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald MEP has this afternoon described Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s decision to cut Child Benefit payments across the board as ‘ another shameful attack on families’. Ms. McDonald added, “It is time to stop the madness. Fianna Fáil and the Green’s cannot be allowed to make struggling families pay the heaviest price for government mistakes. Mary Hanafin, the Minister who will oversee the cuts in Child Benefit, will on retirement benefit from three state pensions. Surely the irony of this will not be lost on her and her cabinet colleagues?”
Speaking from Strasbourg the Sinn Fein Deputy Leader said:
“Child Benefit is not simply some sort of bonus payment from the state. It is a critical source of income that many hundreds of thousands of families rely on for the most basic of childcare needs.
“Low income families are already shouldering the heaviest burden of the governments emergency budget. Workers on an annual salary of just €15,028 have been slapped with a 2% income levy. Struggling families have seen their mortgage interest relief withdrawn and the early childcare supplement abolished by the year-end. Now it is reducing all child benefit payments to the tune of €55 for a family of three. It is worth reminding ourselves that 32% of workers in this state earn €18,300 a year or less. How much more punishment does this government intend to inflict on families for its mistakes?
“It is galling that the Minister who will oversee the Child Benefit cuts, Mary Hanafin, is one of the government cabinet who will benefit for from three state pensions when she retires. How is this ‘fairly’ sharing the burden of Fianna Fáil’s recession? Sinn Féin in our emergency budget submission called for a cap on all TDs salaries at €80,000 per year. We have also called for an end to Oireachtas and European parliamentary members collecting multiple pensions from Ireland’s public purse. State childcare provision is in disarray. The government has withdrawn financial supports and there is confusion from all quarters on how it intends to deliver on its promise to provide on 15 hrs care per week for young children.
“As the economy collapses around our ears Fianna Fáil and the Green’s level the charge at opposition parties that we have no solutions. Well, Sinn Féin have plenty of solutions. The government just refuses to listen. They choose instead to protect and serve their developer and banker cronies.
“My message to the Irish people today is a straightforward one. Stand up for yourself; stand up for each other. It’s time to get this rotten government out. June 5th is an opportunity for the people to signal the beginning of the end for Fianna Fáil and the Green’s. We deserve better.” ENDS
May Day Celebration
Al Jazeera and agencies
Clashes mar May Day celebrations
Protesters in Moscow called for a return to communism [AFP]
Tens of thousands of May Day protesters have taken to the streets across the world, clashing with police in several European cities amid mounting social unrest over the global economic crisis.
Traditional Labour Day demonstrations were reported to have turned violent in Germany, Greece and Turkey, while thousands of protesters rallied in Russia, France and Spain.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans filed through Havana's Revolution Square where they were exhorted to work harder to help their country's battered economy.
Earlier, marches were held in the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong, where demonstrators called on officials to work harder to protect jobs.
Cuba march
In Cuba, Raul Castro, the country's president, waved from a podium overlooking Revolution Square in the capital as the flag-waving crowd moved past.
In pictures
Labour Day around the worldCastro did not speak, leaving that task to Salvador Valdes Mesa Cuban, a labour leader and high-ranking Communist Party official .
Valdes spoke about Cuba's economic woes, saying three hurricanes last year and an ongoing global financial crisis had inflicted much damage.
Workers, he said, needed to work to raise "production and productivity, for the reduction of costs and expenditures, to grow exports and [reduce] imports".
Fidel Castro, who led Cuba for 49 years before ceding power last year to his younger brother, was not present, missing his third straight May 1 parade.
Bottles hurled
Twenty people were injured and five arrested after police clashed with demonstrators at a rally in the city of Linz, in north Austria.
In Berlin, demonstrators hurled bottles and rocks at police on Friday, injuring a number of officers, while clashes were also reported in Hamburg.
The protests were fuelled by the worsening financial crisis, especially in Germany, where the economy is expected to shrink by six per cent this year.
"No one could have imagined that this crisis could have been so profound," Michael Sommer, head of the DGB trade union federation, told a crowd in Berlin.
"There is no light at the end of the tunnel."
About 5,000 officers were on standby in the German capital, where counter-demonstrations were also expected to cause havoc.
Turkish clashes
Clashes between police and demonstrators were taking place in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with hundreds of protesters battling riot police in the streets.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in cities across France [AFP]Security forces fired water cannons and arrested several protesters, largely made up of union and left-wing activists.
The violence has overshadowed the landmark return of annual labour rallies to the city's central Taksim Square, where on May 1, 1977, suspected rightwing snipers killed 34 people.
Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Istanbul, said the square had "become a lightning conductor for protests because of previous crackdowns and because of the events of 1977".
"Today, the decision has been made to allow a limited number of protesters to come right to Taksim Square to commemorate workers' day but also to commemorate the people who died in 1977.
"This is a test of crowd control on the part of the Turkish authorities but also a test of restraint on the part of the demonstrators."
In Greece, police fired tear gas at demonstrators who burned a car in Athens, while other activists attacked banks and traffic cameras.
Thousands of protesters in Moscow called for a return of communism, waving banners and red Soviet flags.
Far-right protests also took place in Russia, with police arresting members of anti-immigration groups in St Petersburg.
Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets across France in protest against their government's handling of the economic crisis.
France's eight main trade unions had agreed to hold united rallies across the country for the first time since the end of World War II.Leaders of Italy's main unions held a rally in the earthquake-hit town of L'Aquila, in a show of solidarity.
Clashes mar May Day celebrations
Protesters in Moscow called for a return to communism [AFP]
Tens of thousands of May Day protesters have taken to the streets across the world, clashing with police in several European cities amid mounting social unrest over the global economic crisis.
Traditional Labour Day demonstrations were reported to have turned violent in Germany, Greece and Turkey, while thousands of protesters rallied in Russia, France and Spain.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans filed through Havana's Revolution Square where they were exhorted to work harder to help their country's battered economy.
Earlier, marches were held in the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong, where demonstrators called on officials to work harder to protect jobs.
Cuba march
In Cuba, Raul Castro, the country's president, waved from a podium overlooking Revolution Square in the capital as the flag-waving crowd moved past.
In pictures
Labour Day around the worldCastro did not speak, leaving that task to Salvador Valdes Mesa Cuban, a labour leader and high-ranking Communist Party official .
Valdes spoke about Cuba's economic woes, saying three hurricanes last year and an ongoing global financial crisis had inflicted much damage.
Workers, he said, needed to work to raise "production and productivity, for the reduction of costs and expenditures, to grow exports and [reduce] imports".
Fidel Castro, who led Cuba for 49 years before ceding power last year to his younger brother, was not present, missing his third straight May 1 parade.
Bottles hurled
Twenty people were injured and five arrested after police clashed with demonstrators at a rally in the city of Linz, in north Austria.
In Berlin, demonstrators hurled bottles and rocks at police on Friday, injuring a number of officers, while clashes were also reported in Hamburg.
The protests were fuelled by the worsening financial crisis, especially in Germany, where the economy is expected to shrink by six per cent this year.
"No one could have imagined that this crisis could have been so profound," Michael Sommer, head of the DGB trade union federation, told a crowd in Berlin.
"There is no light at the end of the tunnel."
About 5,000 officers were on standby in the German capital, where counter-demonstrations were also expected to cause havoc.
Turkish clashes
Clashes between police and demonstrators were taking place in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with hundreds of protesters battling riot police in the streets.
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in cities across France [AFP]Security forces fired water cannons and arrested several protesters, largely made up of union and left-wing activists.
The violence has overshadowed the landmark return of annual labour rallies to the city's central Taksim Square, where on May 1, 1977, suspected rightwing snipers killed 34 people.
Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Istanbul, said the square had "become a lightning conductor for protests because of previous crackdowns and because of the events of 1977".
"Today, the decision has been made to allow a limited number of protesters to come right to Taksim Square to commemorate workers' day but also to commemorate the people who died in 1977.
"This is a test of crowd control on the part of the Turkish authorities but also a test of restraint on the part of the demonstrators."
In Greece, police fired tear gas at demonstrators who burned a car in Athens, while other activists attacked banks and traffic cameras.
Thousands of protesters in Moscow called for a return of communism, waving banners and red Soviet flags.
Far-right protests also took place in Russia, with police arresting members of anti-immigration groups in St Petersburg.
Tens of thousands of activists took to the streets across France in protest against their government's handling of the economic crisis.
France's eight main trade unions had agreed to hold united rallies across the country for the first time since the end of World War II.Leaders of Italy's main unions held a rally in the earthquake-hit town of L'Aquila, in a show of solidarity.
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