ISSUE 1: #1; MARCH 2004
–Publication for Andes Rising:
Education: Bolivarian Resistance
– Viva Chavez
A Magazine of Frontline Action Against US Imperialism:
Close All US Military Bases:
"Most of the people in Latin America no longer believe that US-IMF-World Bank policies can work.
More ominous for the US is
that people are rejecting liberal democratic politics and even US culture
ADIOS: US MILITARY BASES
Si… Resistance is Everywhere
From Japan to the 2004 Mumbai, India World Social Forum and the streets of Quito, Ecuador 100s of millions of people are calling for an end to US militarism and an end to US economic domination. In Latin America we have a long history of Yankee (Gr!!!ngo) meddling and terrorism. There have been very few wars in the Americas and the people who share the hemisphere with the US have never been any kind of threat and yet the US has intervened, backed dictators or overthrown governments in every country in the region -- some many times (Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil…Haiti come to mind). Somehow the US kept this up despite rulings by the World Court and condemnations from Europe and the UN.
P H O T O L I N K S - - - Fumigation and State Terrorism
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/1682845.php http://www.rebelion.org/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=Cecilia_Areito&id=Fumigaciones_del_plan_Colombia So why revolutions everywhere now?
Why will Wal-Marts and Monsantos soon be burning or taken away?
The US is one very tricky salesman. In cahoots with the Latin American elite the US imported US products, US marketing and US culture: glamour, adoration of the rich-and-beautiful and greed. We already had some weaknesses in these areas and in most regions the church, the Catholic Church, went along with the program… in Colombia and Guatemala they still bless the Death Squads. Latin America continues to be the only region where the US maintains a trade surplus. Capitalism creates crisis. Corruption. Free trade neoliberalism has been an orgy of privatizations and foreign investments. Selling off the national treasures to giant corporations kept our economies going for a few years, but now the debts are pilling up and the promised jobs don’t exist. Most of the people in Latin America no longer believe that US-IMF-World Bank policies can work. More ominous for the US is that people are rejecting liberal (representative) democratic politics and even US culture, materialism and hype.
Now we have Bolivar, Chavez, the Amayra, the Andes, Piqueteros, Augusto César Sandino, Emiliano Zapata and we still have Che… always Che
(Y tambien tenemos: José Carlos Mariátegui, Camilo Torres Restrepo, Manuel Vázquez Castaño, Manuel Pérez Martinez, Jacobo Arenas, Farabundo Martí, Carlos Fonseca Amador)
Each of these names represents tens of millions of people who won’t listen anymore to the foreign bankers, the White House or the Miami-based elite of Latin America. We make our own future. As a Bolivian urbanized peasant said during the recent overthrow of President Goni Lozado “We just want to move from slavery to poverty.”
The US has military programs, bases or spies in every country in Latin America Only Cuba and Venezuela restrict US official activities. We want this entire military-espionage regime out! We won’t pay you anymore debt peonage and we take back all of our resources, our industries and our power. The Venezuelan military just quit – dropped out – of the US SOA-Wisk military torture training school where 60,000 Latin American officers have been trained and embedded in US plans. Many thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the SOA.
This magazine – Adios: US MILITARY BASES; brings you frontline reporting about the people struggling to make a new world in the Americas. You can make this happen, you can be a Bolivarian Circle, and you can spread the word about what we need to make this a useful tool to understanding and mobilization.
Photos, inside stories and secret documents from US military activities in Latin America can create interest and inspire other whistle-blowers. Seek out Interviews, photos and research on the insurgents, the fighting women and the strategies that can win the war: the war for hearts and minds… and the war for land and opportunity.
See Final page For THE FEW THE BRAVE – THE GENOCIDAL – US Military Base Awards
http://ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2004/02/4896.shtml I. A. VENEZUELA: March 1, 2004
Dear Senor Hugo Chavez: Teach GW Bush a Lesson
“George Jr. thinks coca is an evil bush. Most people know an evil Bush when they see one.”
At the beginning of the year, President Chavez declared this the year that the Bolivarian Revolution would take the offensive. In the realm of social policy great strides were made. The economy is the fastest growing in Latin America and high oil prices guarantee that the government will have enough money to fund expansion of the agrarian reform, urban land reforms, education and investments in state-owned and local businesses. In foreign policy Chavez has been a beacon for the whole hemisphere, championing South American integration and his ALBA plan to replace the FTAA and dependence on the US.
Despite the odious involvement of the US in Venezuelan, Bolivian, Colombia, Ecuador and Curacao/Aruba, Chavez has been polite to Bush and his foreign policy mouthpieces. With increasing evidence of past and present US collaboration and funding of the opposition – AND the US kidnapping of Haitian President Aristide, Chavez is forced to act strongly. First he should continue to replace unreliable military and diplomatic employees. Good riddance to Venezuela's Ambassador to the UN, Milos Alcalay, who tendered his resignation in protest over what he termed Chavez’s conflict diplomacy.
http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16221 Other actions that Chavez could enact:
1. The Venezuelan National Assembly , where the government maintains a majority, is about to petition the Supreme Tribunal of Justice to immediately dismiss Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez, Baruta's Enrique Capriles Radonsky, El Hatillo's Alfredo Catala and the Governor of Miranda State Enrique Mendoza, among others, for having abandoned their constitutional obligations as elected-officers. Opposition protesters rioted and committed acts of violence in recent weeks while the local police did nothing.
http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16220 2. Increase regulation and monitoring of private news media and require them to run more public service announcements. Investigate the Cisneros Group.
3. Release information on US-CIA involvement in drug trafficking and weapons smuggling.
4. Release information and continue investigations of White House dirty tricks experts Otto Reich, Roger Noriega and the other ex-Cuban Miami terrorists.
5. Increase efforts to interdict and arrest drug organizations related to the Colombian death squads (AUC) and the Colombian government. Increase border patrols with Colombia and set up listening devices to record communications between the Colombian armed forces, the death squads and their US advisers.
6. Restrict travel by wealthy Venezuelans and require background investigations of US, Colombian and Haitian citizens entering the country.
7. Maintain currency controls and investigations of tax paying by opposition and US connected businesses and organizations.
8. Phase out the US embassy and all US governmental offices in Venezuela. Post guards and restrict entry and exit from these buildings.
9. Accept only Euro currency for oil, institute a surcharge on all exports to the US and all US ships and planes entering or leaving the country.
http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16154 10. Stop oil and other exports to US client regimes in the region starting with the Dominican Republic and Haiti… then Aruba and Curacao… and aimed at Colombia.
11. Form closer relations with Andean Indigenous groups, campesino organizations, Cuba, Trinidad, Bolivia and Colombian departments on the Venezuelan border.
12. Sell CITGO and all non-Venezuelan-based assets; place high tariffs on luxury goods.
B. VENEZUELA: February 9, 2004.
Chavez continues Solidarity Economics program of Cooperatives and Bolivarian Circles
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1103 Civil Society, Social Movements, and Participation in Venezuela's Fifth Republic; By: Dawn Gable
# See also, a booklet on combining the policies of Chavez and the Brazilian MST;
SolidarityEconomics and Excerpts from Adios on Cuba:
http://www.solidarityeconomics.blogspot.com The most notable social movement in Venezuela since the beginning of the Fifth Republic is that of cooperatives. Cooperatives are forming in every sector of society and within every social movement. There are artisan, security, cultivation, sanitation, community media, and women’s cooperatives to name a few (PROVEA). According to the National Superintendency of Cooperatives (SUNACOOP) there were 1900 cooperatives in 2001. By July 2003 this number has risen to 10,000 representing 659,000 individuals. SUNACOOP lists 34 percent of all coops in the category of goods and services, 31 percent in food production, and 23 percent in transportation (Gov. pub. 2003)
For More Art and Chavez Social Economy See Venezuela: at :
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/88603/index.php Or original article:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1103 C. VENEZUELA. : February 2004; Venezuela and Colombia:
Two brother peoples that are resisting the imperialist offensive together; By Eduardo Farfan, a Venezuelan popular activist
http://www.farcep.org/pagina_ingles/ zonadistension@hotmail.com The US has drawn up an expansionist, war-mongering plan for South America embodied in the FTAA. One of its elements, Plan Colombia, places special emphasis on Venezuela and Colombia as countries of the Andean region that constitute an important obstacle to the imposition of its hegemony over the continent. That explains the direct intervention of the CIA and ambassador Shapiro in the furtive coup d’etat of last April 11, in which the alliance of Fedecamaras (business association), Primero Justicia, the ill-named Civil society, the bureaucratic and opportunist leadership of the CTV (Venezuelan Workers’ Central) and the most reactionary sector of the military forces imposed a fascist dictatorship for 48 hours. Thanks to the reaction of the patriotic sector, the military forces and the Bolivarian people, President Hugo Chavez Frias, who was elected with the largest number of votes ever in the last decades, was restored to power. Nevertheless, the conspiracy continues and preparations are underway to launch another coup… as they attempt to find an institutional way out, such as the referendum or resignation of the President.
The decision of the US and the Creole oligarchy is to get rid of the government of Chavez since it disturbs their interests to have the presidential tribunal used to impregnate the people’s spirit with the ideas of Simon Bolivar and to call upon them to exercise their full sovereignty. On the other hand, let us not forget that Venezuela supplies the US with the petroleum needed for its development and is the leader of OPEC, so they need to have this vital resource secured in the hands of the bourgeois class, the guardian of their interests.
We Venezuelans have been obliged to play a decisive role in the current phase of the imperialist expansion because we possess such rich petroleum deposits, invaluable bioenergetic resources in the Amazonia, are the neighbors of Colombia and Cuba, and have a Constitution that prohibits the installation of foreign bases in our territory or use of our airspace for military actions and declares our territory a zone of peace. This of course forbids any possibility of an attack being launched, legally, from our soil against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) or the National Liberation Army (ELN) or Cuba, which impedes the smooth application of Plan Colombia that the empire needs.
As Simon Bolivar said, “Our homeland is America” and “the US seems to be destined by Providence to plague America, in the name of freedom, with hunger and misery.” In the popular movement we are clear that only a political alliance of those who have always been excluded, armed with a program, a plan of struggle and our own, autonomous political project, will be capable of defeating the counterrevolution. This is what we strive for in our daily work with the communities that are organized.
While the working class remains held hostage by the CTV clique, the popular movement in the cities and the campesinos are on the offensive, and it is there that the enemy has his eyes fixed in the present juncture, particularly on the Bolivarian Circles which are multiple, diverse and various expressions of the people that in every neighborhood are for the defence and deepening of this process of democratic changes. After the events of April 11, we have proof of what awaits us if the right returns to power. Our people were assassinated in the streets of Caracas, the leaders of the popular movement were persecuted, harassed, some were taken prisoner, others tortured, and a big wave of police raids was unleashed all around the city. We have learned the lesson. We have revolutionary reserves for a long resistance because the problem is not if Chavez goes or if he stays; the problem is that the entire poor, marginalized, excluded people who in a short time have raised their level of political consciousness and are prepared to stake their lives because there is no turning back.
The president must feel very alone. He was betrayed by the military men who had his closest confidence, his Fifth Republic Movement, with a few exceptions, were caught in Miquelena’s nets, his directors are repeating the bureaucratic, patronage-based and corrupt practices of Puntofijismo, and have separated themselves completely from the people and their interests. If Chavez does not break through that cloud which keeps him from seeing and hearing the people, and really get into sync with them, he will be lost. The ones closet to him are opportunists who will jump ship when the situation gets complicated and will be the first to negotiate his head.
We believe the hour has arrived for the Latin American peoples and particularly the people of Venezuela, because what happens to us here will be critical for the brother Colombian people, and what happens there will also have repercussions here; there is no other alternative but to develop joint plans and programs, convert our borders into zones of revolutionary Bolivarianism. And what is more, it is already clear that in order to hit Cuba, that strategic alliance of evil will first have to bring down Venezuela and the insurgent forces of Colombia.
It is essential to rescue the spirit of popular rebellion and build the foundations of a true popular power with a sense of political and geographic territoriality, where the alternative communications media are the fundamental instrument for the organization and education of the people… we know that the next time the fascists are going to shoot and we want to avoid as many losses as we can.
The hope of the Bolivarian revolution is not in the parties that are with the President, nor in the patriotic sector of the armed forces, which are without a doubt important. The real actor is the organized people where there exists true leadership that is for structural changes, those for which the Bolivarian Constitution is not an end but an instrument for deepening this process of democratic change which, until April 11 had been peaceful. We are faced with the great challenge of becoming a country that advances toward socialism. If Simon Bolivar had to struggle against the monarchy to establish the liberal republic, we have to fight against that liberal republic to build our own model that fits our Latin American homeland’s yearnings for freedom.
As never before there is a space in Venezuela for freedom; no one is persecuted for publicly expressing their views. Our weakness is that there does not exist clear leadership other than that of President Chavez and the endeavors at unity in the bosom of the people are still very fragile. We are sure that those new leaders will appear in the midst of the struggle to guide our ship to a secure port. Little by little we will build the necessary instruments.
III. A. COLOMBIA: October 10, 2002; THE US-NARCO-DEATH SQUADS AGAINST THE PEOPLE
[Ed. This is a story that could have been from 10 years ago or from tomorrow: Try to remember that there are only two sides in Colombia: The Oligarchy and their US-Backed Narco-Paramilitary, Colombian Government Approved Armed Forces vs. the People and their armed forces the FARC-EP and ELN – and the thousands who risk their lives as human rights and labor organizers year after year.]
http://www.anncol.com/October_eng/0410_rebels_kill_19_soldiers_in_antioquia.htm REBELS KILL 19 SOLDIERS IN ANTIOQUIA; In response to Colombian army troops and death squads attacking civilians in the east of Antioquia department a joint guerrilla force counterattacked and forced the state security forces to leave the area. ANNCOL received the following information from the FARC-EP and ELN guerrilla organisations. The information comes from a joint communiqué released from the mountains of Antioquia department on September 21st by the 9th Front of the FARC-EP and the ‘Carlos Alirio Buitrago’ Front of the ELN. Public Communiqué: - We would like to inform the people of Colombia and the World that between the 5th and 12th of September 2002 troops of the 4th and 14th Brigade of the Colombian Army, including among them men of the 4th Artillery Battalion, with the help of the Colombian Air Force, carried out a terror operation in the municipality of Granada in eastern Antioquia department. In the rural communities of Bellavista, Travesias, La Maria, El Libertador, La Estrella, El Oso, Bella Maria, and Buenavista and in the town of Santa Ana, the security forces attacked the civilian population and destroyed their property. They set fire to the property of peasant farmers, destroyed vehicles belonging to local residents, knocked down two warehouses containing food for the communities, destroyed six food shops and burnt down the community pharmacy. They also raided various houses and set alight to some of them. Four civilian inhabitants of the area were also detained and accused of being guerrillas. These actions were committed by regular troops in the presence of and with the assistance of members of the Attorney General’s office and the CTI special police. The attackers told the civilian population that paramilitaries would soon be arriving and they painted slogans on walls, on the district school and on the local sports arena announcing that the paramilitaries were on the way. This operation was confronted by a strong joint action by the 9th Front of the FARC-EP and the ‘Carlos Alirio Buitrago’ Front of the ELN. This joint force was assisted by the population of the zone and together we struck serious blows against the enemy, leaving 19 military dead and a large number injured. One of our own comrades also died in the battle. However, this operation did not stop the security forces from attempting to continue their campaign of terror against the population of eastern Antioquia. Again, this time on September 19th, they returned to the community of El Moline in the municipality of Cocorna and attacked the civilian population. Although this time they were dressed as AUC paramilitaries they were actually troops from the same Brigades as was confirmed by the identification cards found on the bodies of those we killed in our counterattack.
We would also like to draw attention to the permanent joint roadblocks maintained by the army and paramilitaries on the entrance and exit routes of the town of Granada where killing defenseless peasant farmers seems to have become their favourite sport. Only two days ago on the path leading from the community of Santa Ana to the town of Granada, three members of one family – a mother, father and child – were killed by these men. This is the daily horror faced by the population of the region as a result of the policy of terror that the Colombian State is implementing.
It is because of the permanent campaign of official terror described above that we would like to reaffirm our struggle and hope for a future of life and dignity for the Colombian people.
The Resistance is organised and the future is ours…!
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP)
- National Liberation Army (ELN).
B. COLOMBIA: March 1, 2004; Quotes of Life -Colombiana
“This is my coin,” he assured me. “I would recognize it anywhere.” Faced with his emphatic tone, I had to admit my flippancy and ask for forgiveness. Then I tried to explain that I had invited him to look for the coin [he had told me about], because those of us who make a living by writing live for the hunt of minute coincidences and subtle proofs that reassure us that what we write is, if not necessary, at least useful. Because it responds to currents that flow beneath what is ordinarily apparent, currents that turn back upon themselves and twist fate in circles… the more I talked the more I got tangled up and the more magical my words seemed, and he listened to them, hypnotized, as if they were being spoken in some archaic tongue… (p. 19)
… “See that herd of wild pigs? They come down to the riverbank when they’re thirsty… if you look careful you can see tracks from the turtles who come out at night to lay eggs.” … a cadaver floated by, solemn and swollen like a bishop, so close to the boat that one of the boatmen had to push it away with the tip of his pole so that it wouldn’t flood them with its sweet smell of death. “Was he killed by the good guys or the bad guys?” he asked while the others continued to dance as if they hadn’t seen anything. “You never know she answered. “More every day. I don’t know why the dead look for the river, who knows where they want it to take them.”
- - Laura Restrepo, The Dark Bride, 1999.
C. COLOMBIA: March 1, 2004: US Embassy a Military Facility: a Target.
The US Embassy in Bogotá is the largest in the world. Most of the 1000 people who work there are CIA, NSA, DEA or functioning at least in part in a military capacity. Add to this the 800-900 official military related personnel active in military or police training and directing the coca fumigation drug war and pipeline protection programs and it is apparent that thousands of US military and espionage forces have already invaded Colombia with thousands more to come.
See: US war on Colombian rebels escalates;
http://www.anncol.org/side/286 http://indymediapr.org/news/2004/02/1409.php D. COLOMBIA: January 27, 2003
Security Risk - Bogotanos ignore civil war. BOGATÁ DISPATCH - Security Risk by Rachel Van Dongen
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030127&s=vandongen012703 Two days before he left office last August, Colombian President Andrés Pastrana was feted at Harry Sasson, a restaurant in the heart of this city's trendiest neighborhood. Dining on fusion cuisine on Sasson's patio, Pastrana chatted with the chef. Around him, Bogotá's rich and powerful danced salsa between the tables.
Bogotanos often ignore their country's serious problems, a willful denial that creates a massive divide between residents of the capital and other Colombians, fosters regional fragmentation, and--worst of all--helps prolong the country's conflicts. Large swaths of rural Colombia lack any military or police presence. It is here where the country's guerrilla movements prosper--in poor, rural areas, where their ideology and their promise of a better life appeal to peasants with no alternative other than coca-growing or subsistence-farming. It is in this environment that the FARC has grown from a peasant cooperative called the "Independent Republic of Marquetalia," numbering 1,000 in 1964, to an estimated 18,000 members with 70 fronts that today roam 40 percent of the country.
Politicos like Leon Valencia, a former ELN commander and now a political analyst, argue that this indifference has prolonged the 39-year conflict. In the sophisticated and well-protected capital, far-off provinces have long been ignored by policymakers, who pay little heed as militia movements in the hinterlands recruit members. Representing 25 percent of its gross domestic product, Bogotanos have the influence to demand an end to the conflict, yet they do not.
But perhaps a more serious long-term effect of Colombia's civil war is the threat of regional fragmentation. Colombia is broken up into 32 departments, the country's equivalent of states, and they are becoming so frustrated with Bogotano indifference and the central government's lack of success against insurgent groups that they are pursuing their own solutions. For departments like Arauca, along the Venezuelan border, priorities are simply different than those in the capital. In Bogotá, for instance, one major debate these days is whether the residents are overtaxed. In Arauca, by contrast, there were more than 300 homicides last year. The international Red Cross is also providing aid for Colombia's one million displaced persons.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=576&ncid=576&e=3&u=/nm/20040204/sp_nm/colombia_crisis_dc_1 E. COLOMBIA: February 4, 2004
UN Refugee Official Sees Major Colombian Crisis, - Millions of people are fleeing armed violence in Colombia in the world's worst -- but largely ignored -- humanitarian crisis outside Africa, said a senior UN official, assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Kamel Morjan. He said the crisis was a regional and international problem, spilling across the borders of Colombia into neighboring countries and boosting refugee flows to the United States and Europe. "This is the worst humanitarian situation in the Western hemisphere, and the third-worst in the world after the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo (news - web sites)) and Sudan," he told a news conference after a visit to the region.
F. COLOMBIA: February 28, 2004
Colombian rebels counter-attack in Huila: Clever Tactics Embarrass Military and Yield Rich Businessmen
Info drawn from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3488166.stm FARC Colombian guerrillas hit back at government forces in the southern province of Huila. At least 12 soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in the attacks which end a series of victories by the security forces. The rebel operation began with an attack on an army camp in the town of Santa Maria where 50 rebels roundly defeated the military force leaving heavy casualties. But this attack was just a diversion to cover a kidnap operation in the nearby city of Neiva where guerrillas dressed as police drove into town and snatched three wealthy citizens. The guerrillas in both operations escaped back to their jungle strongholds.
President Uribe, elected on a promise to crush the rebel insurgency was furious at the guerrillas' audacity and sacked the general in command of the region and the head of the secret police.
See related comment at: www.anncol.org/side/288
G. COLOMBIA: February 2004; Silencios -
Por Juan Salvador
http://www.movimientobolivariano.org/revista/revistanuevacolombianr1/silencios.html Tantas y tantas veces ví en los ojos de mi abuelo el brillo del orgullo cuando descubría en mis infantiles actos una señal de inteligencia precoz en la manera como planeaba mis pilatunas; y ese brillo me decía que podía contar con su silencio; silencio cómplice como siempre lo llamaba mi Madre.
Aquellas escenas infantiles rebotan en la adolescencia cuando ese silencio que yo suplicaba en mi Madre se traducía en la confianza de que mi Padre no se enteraría pronto de las irresponsabilidades cometidas en las obligaciones colegiales. Silencio cómplice, el silencio de mi Madre.
Que distinto y que rabia cuando mi pequeño hermano de quien me vi amarrado a cuidarle su crecimiento, por la fuerza del proceso generacional, y tener que callar sus errores so pena de recibir los castigos por haberme descuidado. Mi madurez aun retardada no conocía la diferencia teórica del silencio solidario y del silencio obligado, pero las vivencias y los impactos en mis afectos y principios lograron marcar esa diferencia, la misma que hoy confunden desproporcionadamente para acomodar imágenes y redactar encuestas los que siempre han amordazado los gritos, las palabras, los cantos y los ayes.
Qué alegría de clase, qué felicidad militante siente un revolucionario cuando su gente, su pueblo, lo esconde, lo protege, le informa y siempre calla. Silencio conspirativo, silencio solidario, silencio que retumba y aturde los insensibles tímpanos del tirano. Qué rabia se siente cuando las protestas y reclamos, la denuncia y el dolor solo pueden expresarse con la mirada. Y son gritos silenciados que ahogan la garganta y agotan las cuerdas vocales por que la fría mirada de las armas y los asesinos te recuerdan que hasta el uso de la palabra es en Colombia un delito castigado con la muerte.
Para mas (en English, Portuguese, French) visita :
http://www.movimientobolivariano.org/revista/revistanuevacolombianr1/silencios.html IV. A. HATI: 28 de Enero de 2004 ; Casual US Violent Coups Utilizing Death Squad Drug Gangs!; Macdonald Stainsby
Para: Discussions on the Socialist Register and its articles<
SOCIALIST-REGISTER@YORKU.CA>
Asunto: US Pushes For Regime Change In Haiti :
Washington has been determined to put Haiti under its complete control, get rid of President Aristide and install someone who will fully represent U.S. corporate interests. It has pursued this course ever since Aristide first won a smashing victory over the pro-U.S. candidate, Marc Bazin, in 1990. That was much more than an electoral victory--it was a mass movement that put into office someone the Haitian people wanted. U.S. policy since then has been set on reversing this defeat for U.S.- managed "democracy" in Latin America. Even though Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, economic pressure from the EU and the U.S.--shutting off promised aid, forbidding the Development Bank from distributing loans--hasn't been enough to dislodge Aristide. He still has a tremendous base of support among the poorest people. Progressives in the United States and other developed countries who want to support Haiti must realize that the media are waging a massive campaign of disinformation against the Haitian people and their government. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY,
NY 10011; via e-mail:
ww@wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews-
on@wwpublish.com. In the contradiction lies the hope --Brecht.
B. HAITI : March 2004: Ah!: Arsonists for Haiti?;
By RICHARD OXMAN
http://www.counterpunch.org/oxman03042004.html "To become a civilized, moderate, responsible nation, in other words, we must first become a nation of extremists." -- George Monbiot
I almost spilled a hot cup of coffee on my son's lap when I overheard the talk in the adjacent booth at Peet's. … with all of my experience at the barricades-- I still did a cranial double-take when I heard three men discussing arson in nearby Aptos...on behalf of the Haitian people!
As George Monbiot points out in his Guardian/UK piece of March 2nd, "Extreme Measures: The Only Way to Bring Down Blair and Change the Political Context is to Take Direct Action", people taking to the streets "must be accompanied by polite campaigns of lobbying and letter-writing." However, he's crystal clear that nothing will happen "unless we get off our butts and make it happen." He addresses the need to take some risk, and as I read his words I found myself nodding in agreement, noting the parallels for us in the U.S.
C. Haiti: March 1, 2004: X. Haiti: Monroe Fascism Again and Again;
Haiti, Is That One of the Tahitian Islands?: The Yuppie Silence; By JG
The "progressive" community in America has always and will continue to flabbergast my perception of know-all. The inherent quandary arises when we as activists posture as bovine simpletons, endorsing solely, strictly and religiously the movements associated with Pop Culture. For years I have battled a rising tide of anger, disbelief and RAGE. Oddly enough, these sentiments haven't been poised to attack the Dixiecrats of this era, rather aimed at the so-called activists. I wholeheartedly admit to a degree of selfishness pursuant to this discontent. By rite of heritage and blood, my foremost concern is that of the valiant men and women of Haiti.
At every juncture where I've taken to stage, in either a musical or oratorical capacity, the very mention of the word "Haiti" disconfigures otherwise stoic brows to shriveled temples of confusion. There may be a soul or two who are familiar with the Mariel Boat Lift, Abner Louima or the Crome Detention Center. On rare occasion, a timid comrade will approach me wishing to debate the guerilla strategies perfected by L'Overture and Desaillines. However, I can't possibly count the incidents of "Dude, I really feel for your people of Tahiti" Tahiti, this from a cadre ostensibly involved with progressive endeavors!
This phenomenon of intellectual ignorance could partly be blamed on the indoctrination of educational systems stateside; partly. The ideological commissars have done well in reducing Haiti's entire existence to a mere 12 syllables: The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. If their wiles were flawless, we would all be imprisoned by the incessant humdrum of consumerism, oblivious to even the most fractional of societal abuses Please! How is that this planetary orb has often been wondered by macrocosmic manifestations of solidarity and humanitarianism; exhibitions in defiance of the power structure's mendacity and disdain, preceded by infinite microcosmic, grass-roots trials; how? As evidenced by the past and current showings of leftist complacency (for the most part) specific to the socio-economic plight of the Haitian Global Village, there is a lurking stimulus aside from the aforementioned ones.
Many countries in Latin America have a valid claim to being the beacon for Third World oppression, injustice etc. The progressives have sanctioned a milieu of struggles in a majority of the countries in query, and rightly so But, and a gargantuan one at that, if there is a single nation in this hemisphere that has beheld the back of humanitarian… it is Haiti… Confused and bewildered I remain.
For more see:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/index.php [ JG is the lead Emcee for the politically leftist Hip-Hop duet, Over The Counter Intelligence (JG & HavikenHayes), based in Fort Lauderdale Florida. They are most recognized through their support of various grassroots organizations throughout the country; most notably The Coalition of Immokalee Workers -- The Taco Bell Boycott ]
V. FACTS AND FRAUD:
A. Late 2002 – 75% of US people thought US foreign policy considers other countries interests. Of 30 countries surveyed – only 35 percent believed the same –
B. In 2002 the US bombed Iraq more than once a week.
VI. A. ECUADOR: January 2003; by James Petras, Rebelión
http://www.rebelion.org/petras/english/petras290103.htm In Ecuador, for instance, many of the Indians who are leaders integrated into electoral politics and part of the center-left regimes are local traders, transport owners and recipients of funds from overseas NGO's. They profit as intermediaries and see themselves as part of the upwardly mobile middle class. When I asked one such indigenous leader about bi-lingual education, he told me that it was for "poor people", he sent his children to Spanish language schools, because "that is the way to achieve success in life". The growing class differentiation within "Indian communities" shatters the image of identity ideologues who reject class analysis in favor of imputing cultural attributes to entire ethnic groups. The centrality of socio-economic divisions within ethnic groups has pronounced political consequences - the transformation of movements into reformist electoralist parties.
B. ECUADOR: March 1, 2004; The MOBILIZATION SUMMONED BY THE CONAIE ACHIEVED THE REARTICULACION OF THE MOVEMENTS INDIGENA, SOCIAL AND POPULAR.
Leonidas Iza, Presidente of The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), who suffered an assassination attempt in February by forces connected to Presisdent Gutierrez (his brother!) says that the mobilization can be reactivated at any time and rise against the government if it does not understand the message that was sent to him. CONAIE decided to suspend the national mobilization after having reached the objective of rearticulación of the indigenous, social and popular movement that has demonstrated its capacity of mobilization to challenge the government of Lucio Gutiérrez who is forced to change the political and socioeconomic conduction of the country. "This position cannot be waived for the Ecuadorian people feels today more than ever betrayed. True destabilizing and the one that dictates to governments in Ecuador and other countries is the IMF."
The provincial, regional and local mobilizations that defend the people demand the fulfillment of their aspirations. CONAIE endorsed the demands of the Provincial Assembly of Cotopaxi as well as the sovereignty of the actions that decide to reach the objective of the construction of the Plurinacional State.
The CONAIE reiterates its repudiation of the violence and the persecution of indigenous, social leaders and protesters, demands a deep investigation of the actors, accomplices and accessories after the fact of the homicides and attacks against sectors of the political opposition. As well as indemnification for the hurt companeros caused by the bullets of repression: the Armed Forces in the Nabón Corner province of the Azuay and in the province of the Cotopaxi, We demand the immediate freedom of all the prisoners from the mobilizations.
The Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador present the MANDATE FOR PEACE and a LIFE WITH DEMOCRACY and SOBERANIA that constitutes the urgent demands of the Ecuadorian people. CONAIE, Ecuarunari, CONFEUNASSC and other organizations of the mobilizations made during days 16 and 17 of February, 2004 have demonstrated their unshakeable unity and their rejection of the policy of terror, repression and violence generated by the National Government. The Social and Popular Organizations who mobilized in defense of Peace, Democracy and the Sovereignty demand:
* The immediate investigation of the attacks to the companion Leonidas Iza, Patricio Bell, the threats and persecution to leaders (Imprisonment of the companion Humberto Cholango); to demand the sanction for the intellectual and material authors of the attacks and threats.
* Indemnification immediate to the wounded in the mobilizations and immediate freedom of the prisoners in Nabón-Azuay and Cotopaxi
* Respect and guarantee to the freedom of expression, the free exercise of mass media (radios the Moon, Tarqui and Quito) and guarantee to the right of protest.
* To demand the National Government to undertake the measures necessary to face the farming crisis of Ecuador and the clear implementation of policies and strategies for the productive reactivation of the Ecuadorian land, specially of the small and medium producers.
* To implement: credit for medium and small producers, irrigation, commercialization and better prices and technologies.
* Creation of the Institute of Irrigation Farmer
* Creation of Compensation of 200 million dollars to face the farming crisis caused by the drought, frosts and ash.
* To facilitate and to make access to credit for small producers from the Development bank (250 million dollars) with diminished requirements and proceedings.
* To reject the Plan "New Horizons" of the South Commando of the U.S.A. and the military maneuvers "Cabins" in as much are strategies to involve to the country in the Colombia Plan and to demand the Head of the Joint Commando who explains to the country the commitments that are being assumed with the South Commando of the North American Army.
* To demand to the government the suspension immediately of all negotiations to any treaty of free commerce with the United States that injures the interests of the Ecuadorians.
* To reject the negotiations of the ALCA and the TLC and to demand its immediate suspension
* To demand to the National Congress immediately pass the Law of Biodiversity.
* To demand to the government suspend the payment of the External Debt and its immediate audit.
* To demand the National Government send to the Congress the Reformation de Laws of the constitution of the FEIREP, in such a way that 70% of these funds are destined to education, Health and community development.
•* To demand that the national Government budget take care of the necessities for Bilingual Intercultural Education, the Direction of Indigenous Health and the Council of Nationalities and People of Ecuador.*
•* To demand to the National Government the following points with respect to the Social Security:* Creation of the Social Bank of Ecuador
* Extension and improvement of the services that lend the IESS and the SSC
* Payment of the 2,200 million dollars owed by the State to the IESS.
* Restitution of the 300 million trimmed dollars of the budget of the IESS.
* To guarantee the provision of cheap medicines for the clinics of the SSC
* To endorse provincial mandates and to demand to the National Government its immediate answer and fulfillment.
VII. MOVIES A. : March 5, 2004: The Red By Prensa Rural/IPS:
The Colombian documentary film "El baile rojo" (The Red Dance), marks an effort to restore collective memory of an experiment in reconciliation that was erased by blood and fire from the country's political map. The film's title comes from the name of the extermination operation against the Patriotic Union (UP), a legal leftist movement proposed in 1984 by the FARC guerrillas as a political means to end the civil war.
The documentary, by Yezid Campos, has testimonies from 25 survivors of nine different incidents, of the 3,000 that were tallied by Reiniciar ('restart'), a non-governmental organisation that is leading the UP's collective petition filed with the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. One of the victims was the popular UP senator, Manuel Cepeda (picture), who was killed by fascist paramilitaries linked to Colombian Army units in 1994.The UP emerged as part of the peace accords reached in March 1984 between the government of Belisario Betancur (1982-1986) and the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). It was to serve as the tool for the country's largest guerrilla force to lay down arms after 20 years of waging war against the state. The UP was intended as the means to shift the insurgents to civilian life and legal political activity.
Amidst an atmosphere of optimism and hope, political leaders promoted the creation of the UP through alliances with regional movements of a range of ideological leanings. Joining the UP was the Communist Party, which had a national presence, and the guerrillas, who participated in public meetings in which the aims of the UP were explained. The new political group was successful in its first elections, in 1986, putting 14 of its representatives in Congress, including two FARC commanders. The UP also won 18 seats on 11 regional legislatures, and 335 seats on 187 city and town councils. That same year, former judge Jaime Pardo Leal, as the UP presidential candidate, won the most votes ever obtained by a party other than the long-standing Liberal and Conservative parties.
But the peace experiment was cut short by the pure and simple elimination of UP militants -- whether through outright massacres, extra-judicial executions or forced disappearances. The UP supporters were also subjected to baseless criminal trials, attempted assassinations and threats of all kinds.
Read more at Prensa Rural
VIII. BOOKS A. : A Future for Socialism by John Roemer
- Review by Robin Hahnel
http://www.ideas.coop/portada.html According to Samuel Bowles, A Future for Socialism by John Roemer is “measured, highly accessible, and most of all compelling.” Spurred by this enthusiastic recommendation [his former teacher] I tore into the text anticipating penetrating insights about why, in Roemer’s words, “socialism is not dead.” I found Roemer’s book uninformed rather than measured, pedantic rather than accessible, and completely uncompelling. [I]f Roemer’s model of what he sometimes calls “managerial market socialism” and sometimes a “coupon economy” were all that remains of socialism—socialism should be dead. In his chapter “A Brief History of Market Socialism” Roemer manages never to mention a single theorist of labor-managed market socialism. Apparently Benjamin Ward, Evsy Domar, Branko Horvat, Jaroslav Vanek never wrote a worthy word on the subject of market socialism… without mentioning them or their arguments, Roemer tells us: “Contemporary models of labor-managed market socialism all recognize that firms must raise capital from non members and this would, to some unknown extent, compromise the autonomy of workers with regard to control of the firm.” Roemer does not enlighten us on why the autonomy of stockholders is not compromised when capitalist firms “raise capital from non members” by selling bonds or taking out bank loans. But no matter. He continues: “it is therefore not clear to what extent the managerial and labor-managed proposals for market socialism really differ.” I think I will leave modern disciples of labor-managed market socialism like David Schweikart and Tom Weisskopf to educate Roemer on the difference
BOOKS B.: WWW.AntiWar.Com; Center for Responsive Politics:
Where to find what lobbyists work for which corporations at what price. CIA Electronic Documents Release Center: A catalogue of CIA materials released through the Freedom of Information Act. Name Base: Find out who's who in the CIA. One of the web's leading research sites. Open Secrets:
“One prince of the present time, whom it is not well to name, never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both he is most hostile, and either, if he had kept it, would have deprived him of reputation and kingdom many a time." -- Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince: Concerning The Way In Which Princes Should Keep Faith, Florence, 1532
BOOKS C. – Masters of War: Latin America and US Aggression – Clara Nieto, 2003 by 7 Stories Press – On the mining of Nicaragua’s harbors and ports at Puerto Sandino, Bluff and Corrinto in Jan 1984, an angered US Senator Barry Goldwater said: “[it’s] an act of violating international law. It’s an act of war. For the life of me, I don’t see how we are going to explain it.” – p. 3 44, “Under the Reagan administration the US was the paradigm of a terrorist state.”
BOOKS D.: Shooting the Moon: True Story of an American Manhunt, David Harris
– “General Manuel Noriega is a POW: the only officially recognized US prisoner held under the Geneva conventions “ – he is the only one…
BOOKS E. - Death Squads in Global Perspective
- B. Campbell and A. Brenner
BOOKS F.: The powerlessness of anti-power [ Powerlessness ]
http://www.isreview.org/issues/27/holloway.shtml See also :
http://www.rebelion.org/petras/english/040304capitalism.htm Review of Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today,
by John Holloway, Pluto Press 2002, 237 pages, $25; Review by Paul D'Amato
THIS BOOK has made a stir among the new left in Latin America. Its author, John Holloway, a Scottish professor who teaches at the Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Autonomous University of Puebla (Mexico), has been compared to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, authors of Empire, as having written a book that reflects the sensibilities of broad sections of the newly emerging left in Latin America, if not the concerns of global justice movement activists everywhere. The popular Spanish-language Web site Rebelion has a "left debate" page that has had numerous articles over the past year revolving around the ideas expressed in Holloway’s book. And no wonder. His philosophy of "anti-power" in many ways mirrors the anti-political tendencies in the struggles which exploded in Argentina in December 2001… Holloway’s most important influence is the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, whose 1994 rebellion was in many ways the political touchstone of many global justice activists. The significance of the Zapatistas, for Holloway, is that they aim to "make the world anew, to create a world of dignity, a world of humanity, but without taking power."
[I]t is a painfully abstract and difficult book to read, repetitive, tedious and full of jargon that seems to have been specially invented to package the author’s ideas–and to confuse the rest of us. Holloway’s views are an eclectic mix. His opposition to all forms of "power" is reminiscent of classic anarchism. His rejection of our ability to have scientific knowledge of a fragmented reality, and that reality consists of a series of fragmented power relations, is reminiscent of the postmodernist theories of Michel Foucault and others. Holloway’s most important influence is a set of ideas advanced by Italian autonomists such as Antonio Negri, called "Open Marxism." Holloway’s line of argument is as follows:
1. Human beings are trapped like flies in a web of unequal social relations–which, from our limited, partial vantage point, we struggle against. To change the world, however, we cannot do as past social movements based on Marxism have done, that is–seize power. The attempt to seize state power (by force or through elections) always ended in recreating the power relations the revolution was meant to abolish.
… -[ but ] If workers seize one factory in Buenos Aires and decide to run it themselves, this is not necessarily a problem for the system as a whole. The workers will be forced, according to the pressures of the market, to adapt, to exploit themselves. But if there is a whole series of factory takeovers, and those factories link up and form an assembly of factory delegates–that is when capital begins to worry. The success or failure of this process can only be determined, in the end, by a revolutionary event, in which it is decided which class will run society as a whole.
In the final chapter, "Revolution?," (in a rare moment of lucidity) Holloway agrees along with Marx that the "expropriators must indeed be expropriated." This, whether Holloway likes it or not, requires power, that is, the power of the working class first to take over the factories, the hospitals, the mines and the schools and to break up the armed forces of reaction. Any rejection of this necessary organized, centralized power by the working class will result in the movement’s defeat. Was this not the lesson of the Spanish Civil War, in which the anarchists who had virtual control of Barcelona in 1936 ceded power to the old state because, as anarchists, they rejected all power?
The movement in Argentina is already grappling with the question of how to move beyond "they should all go," whereas Holloway wants to "fix" the struggle at this stage. "They should all go" [Que se Vayan Todos!] can be interpreted, ultimately, in many different ways. The question of what next will eventually be answered either by the reconstitution of order on the basis of the emergence of new reformist parties or leaders who will counter some degree of legitimacy to the political process, even if only temporarily; or by forcible restoration of order. Holloway’s book not only fails to answer the key questions of what do to next, but logically leads away from the right answers and toward a glorification of utopian lifestyle experiments that cannot offer a way forward.
See full article at:
http://print.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/1734.php THE FEW THE BRAVE – THE GENOCIDAL – US Military Base Awards
http://ecuador.indymedia.org/es/2004/02/4896.shtml http://rebeledit.blogspot.com/ MARCH 2004 – A Publication for Andes Rising:
Education: Bolivarian Resistance – Viva Chavez
A Magazine of Frontline Action Against US Imperialism:
Close All US Military Bases:
"Most of the people in Latin America no longer believe that
US-IMF-World Bank policies can work. More ominous for the US is
that people are rejecting liberal democratic politics and even US culture
ADIOS: US MILITARY BASES
Si… Resistance is Everywhere
