August 11, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Cindy Sheehan On The Ballot: Cindy Sheehan qualified Friday for a November showdown with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, collecting the signatures needed to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for Congress in California. (San Francisco Chronicle) August 9, 2008

Georgia, Russia, and the USA: The "New Cold War" Escalates: The US ruling class, in pursuing its "new Cold War", has introduced an infernal logic of mutual escalation, so that even if this crisis simmers down, a new one is bound to emerge soon. The much-vaunted new world order is increasingly resembling the old one, but with more nuclear weapons and less stability. (Lenin's Tomb) August 9, 2008

President Morales Wins Bolivian Election: President Evo Morales of Bolivia won a resounding victory in a recall vote yesterday after calling a referendum to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist campaign. More than 63 percent of voters in this bitterly divided Andean nation ratified the mandate of Mr Morales. (Times Online) August 11, 2008

Exit Polls: Morales Ratified by Larger Margin than in 2005: The Morales-García Linera duo got more than 7 percentage points above 53.7 percent that they needed. (MR Zine) August 8, 2008

Israel's Siege of Collective Punishment: Imagine if Chinese-Americans visiting relatives were prevented by the Chinese government from returning to America. Or if an American traveled to Iran and was then forbidden from reaching an airport to come home. This happened to me at the hands of Israel, supposedly America's closest ally in the Middle East. I am a US citizen from Olathe, Kansas. I am also a Palestinian born in Gaza. I traveled to Gaza last December to care for my ill father. Israel trapped me there for four months. Yaser Wishah comments. (Electronic Intifada) August 7, 2008

Greens Launch Effort Against Electoral College Manipulation Of Presidential Elections In US: The Green Party of the US says that the outcome of the 2008 presidential election may be affected by the antidemocratic apportionment of Electoral College votes, with the popular vote misrepresented by the winner-take-all system of assigning votes to electors. (GP.org) August 5, 2008

Ecuador: Chevron Battles Government, Indigenous People (Green Left Weekly) August 10, 2008

July 11, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney has named Rosa Clemente as her Vice Presidential running mate.

‘Progressives for Obama’ Fool Themselves: Barack Obama's rush to disavow the "tag" of the "Left" should surprise no one. For straight language and unambiguously progressive politics, support Cynthia McKinney, who is expected to win the Green Party presidential nomination, this week in Chicago. (Black Agenda Report) July 9, 2008

Yeah, They Did It: Bowing to President Bush's demands, the Senate approved and sent the White House a bill Wednesday to overhaul bitterly disputed rules on secret government spying and shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans. Let it be noted clearly that Barack Obama, who previously pledged to join in a filibuster of any bill that contained telcom immunity, not only didn't join any filibuster attempt, not only voted for the damn bill, he voted in favor of cloture. (Lotus - Surviving a Dark Time) July 10, 2008

'Longest Walk' Reaches Washington: Thirty years ago, 40,000 Native Americans and their supporters participated in an historic cross-country march called the Longest Walk. Commemorating that event, two groups of walkers set out from Alcatraz Island last February. Today the marchers are due to end their journey at the White House and later present a 30-page manifesto to a Democratic Congressman, Rep. John Conyers, who advocates on a wide range of minority issues. (Sky News) July 11, 2008

Indigenous communities in Bolivia and Brazil have declared an emergency in response to the construction of the Madera River Hydroelectric Complex, which Brasilia is pursuing even as independent research efforts try to measure the impacts of what will be one of South America's largest energy projects. (Inter Press Service) July 10, 2008

"Health Care for America Now": Which Side Are They On? (MR Zine) July 10, 2008

July 2, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

International Statement of Solidarity With the Zapatistas: As members of diverse collectives and organizations in different corners of the World, we wish to express our outrage and complete repudiation of the renewed military invasion of Zapatista communities on June 4th 2008. (Indymedia UK) June 18, 2008

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders leads with proposal for 10 million solar rooftops, While Bush Admin puts brakes on solar projects (Buzzflash) July 1, 2008

What the Census Didn't Count: Water Rights and Privatization in El Salvador (Upside Down World) June 18, 2008

Mexicans Protest Canadian Mining Company: Residents and activists from the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosí travelled to Toronto to tell the shareholders of a Canadian mining company that their investments are at risk because the billion-dollar Cerro San Pedro gold and silver mine is illegal and environmentally unsafe. (Inter Press Service) June 28, 2008

Protest Zone Far Cry From Pepsi Center, ACLU Says: New suit claims delegates won't hear activities: The designated protest zone at the Democratic National Convention will be more than two football fields away from the Pepsi Center - a revelation that drew new legal challenges Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union. (Rocky Mountain News) July 1, 2008

Who Cares What Bill Clinton Says? Even liberals, who have historically been too trusting, should have gotten the message by now. Bill Clinton never was a liberal, and he’s no friend to liberals. (Another Socialist Blog) June 29, 2008

June 29, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Amazon Tribes Fight to Keep the Xingu Alive: For five days in May, hundreds of tribal people from the far reaches of the Amazon Basin came together to protest plans for huge dams on the Xingu River, the largest tributary of the Amazon. (IRC Americas Program) June 24, 2008

Green Fascism and the Greening of Hate: Population control — the ideology of the green right (Climate and Capitalism) June 27, 2008

War As Environmental Disaster (The Mahatma X Files) June 28, 2008

Mike Davis: The real question is this: Will rich counties ever mobilize the political will and economic resources to actually achieve IPCC targets or, for that matter, to help poorer countries adapt to the inevitable, already "committed" quotient of warming now working its way toward us through the slow circulation of the world ocean? The real danger is that human solidarity itself, like a West Antarctic ice shelf, will suddenly fracture and shatter into a thousand shards. (TomDispatch.com) June 26, 2008

Great Apes To Have Rights in Spain (Telegraph UK) June 27, 2008

Circus Brings USDA-Documented Animal Cruelty to Dallas (In Defense of Animals) June 27, 2008

Obama’s Circle of Imperialist Foreign Policy Advisors (Socialist Worker) June 18, 2008

June 14, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Kucinich Vows New Round of Impeachment Articles Against Bush if Measure Dies (Online Journal) June 13, 2008

The Myth of the Market: The increasing injustice and environmental destruction of recent years has been justified by the alleged 'efficiency' of the market. But both theory and evidence show that markets are economically inefficient, wasteful of human and natural resources. (21st Century Socialism) June 11, 2008

Three Cheers For The Irish "No" Voters!: Irish voters torpedoed the Lisbon Treaty Friday. In the face of an almost united political establishment, a majority of voters decided to vote in favour of Irish independence and neutrality and against the nefarious plans of the European Business elite and their paid political agents. (Greenman's Occasional Organ) June 13, 2008

Only Nuclear Dreams Mushrooming: The proposal by the Paris-based International Energy Agency for more than 1,400 nuclear power plants to be built over the next 40 years is unfeasible, environmental activists say. (Inter Press Service) June 13, 2008

Hunger Strike by Bhopal Victims in India: The three organisations of Bhopal survivors leading the 111 day-long campaign in Delhi, along with participants from more than 18 countries announced the launching of a global hunger strike from June 10. (Business Standard, India) June 9, 2008

Activists Launch Protests Against Corporations in 8 Brazil States: Thousands of landless rural workers invaded dams, railways, plantations and corporate headquarters in a wave of protests across eight Brazilian states on Tuesday. (International Herald Tribune) June 10, 2008

How Europe Underdevelops Africa And How Some Fight Back (Counterpunch) June 13-15, 2008

Racism in the Tar Sands: Exploiting Foreign Workers and Poisoning Indigenous People in Canada (Oil Sands Truth) June 12, 2008

June 4, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

The 2nd of May Revolt at the UN Forum on Indigenous Peoples: The United Nations censors indigenous people at a forum for indigenous people (w/ links to video) (Climate and Capitalism) June 2, 2008

From Kennedy to Obama: Liberalism's Last Fling: John Pilger refers back to his travels with Robert Kennedy to describe the false hopes offered by those, like Barack Obama, who exploit the appeal of liberalism then present a very different reality. (JohnPilger.com) May 29, 2008

The American Electoral Charade: Two candidates with almost identical positions on virtually every issue fight to exhaustion over non-substantial concerns for months, and will doubtless soon celebrate having achieved "unity." Those citizens that want to abolish the American oligarchic form of government should vote for the Green Party, and put Cynthia McKinney at the head of the ticket. (Black Agenda Report) June 4, 2008

Dirty Deeds in Bolivia: Bolivia’s right-wing extremists who have been doing their best to rip their own country apart for the past two years rather than accept the rule of their constitutionally elected President Evo Morales finally have showed themselves in their true colours. (Bolivia Rising) June 2, 2008

Blackwater: From the Nisour Square Massacre to the Future of the Mercenary Industry (w/ audio and Video) (Democracy Now!) June 2, 2008

West Coast Winter Soldier: “Enough Is Enough, It’s Time to Get Out”: Dozens of veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq converged in Seattle over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed daily in Iraq, in a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March. (Inter Press Service) June 2, 2008

Whalemeat Traders Defying Ban: Icelandic and Norwegian companies have begun exporting whalemeat to Japan (BBC News) June 2, 2008

June 2, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

New Round of Climate Talks Open Today With Big Agenda, Small Hopes (Canadian Press) June 1, 2008

Iraq Death Toll 'Above Highest Estimates': The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say. (Inter Press Service) June 2, 2008

Local Indigenous Leaders Beaten and Publicly Humiliated in Bolivia (Inter Press Service) May 27, 2008

The Crime of Indigenous Insubordination in Bolivia (MR Zine) May 31, 2008

Rank-and-file Members to Challenge Stern at SEIU Convention (Fight Back!) May 2008

Where does Andy Stern want to take labor? Turns out that the man hailed as the savior of the U.S. labor movement for the 21st century is an old-school labor bureaucrat after all. (Socialist Worker) June 2, 2008

Egyptian Protests: Falling Wages and High Prices (The Bullet) June 2, 2008

New Labour's Time Is Up: From the start New Labour was pledged to consolidate the Thatcherite paradigm rather than offer anything different (Guardian Unlimited) May 27, 2008

May 24, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info Links

Amazon Indians Lead Battle Against Power Giant's Plan to Flood Rainforest (The Independent UK) May 23, 2008

US Empire in Somalia: Hidden Catastrophe, Hidden Agenda (Media Lens) May 13, 2008

US Senate Passes No-Strings War Funding Bill (Inter Press Service) May 23, 2008

“War, Inc.”: John Cusack’s New Film Satirizes the Corruption, Profiteering and Hubris Behind the Iraq War (Democracy Now!) May 23, 2008

Why Cusack's War, Inc.. Is Must-See Political Filmmaking (Alternet) May 21, 2008

Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU): Say No to Xenophobia (MR Zine) May 21, 2008

Union-Busting at Woodman’s Grocery Chain in Wisconsin (Socialist Worker) May 23, 2008

May 19, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Plans For New Coal Plants Under Fire In UK: Protesters are to launch one of the hardest-hitting environmental campaigns for more than a decade over plans to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations in the UK. (London Observer) May 18, 2008

I Give Up, Says Brazilian Minister Who Fought To Save The Rainforest: In a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ms Silva said that her efforts to protect the rainforest acknowledged as the "lungs of the planet" were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies. (The Independent UK) May 15, 2008

The Emergence of Real Trade Unionism in Wal-Mart Stores in China (China Labor News Translations) May 4, 2008

Comments on the Strike Movement in Egypt (International Socialist Review) May-June 2008

Women - The Guardians of Potato Biodiversity in Peru (Inter Press Service) May 16, 2008

Iraq Veterans Describe Atrocities to US Lawmakers (OneWorld.net) May 17, 2008

Santa Ana, California Labor Rally: HEY, ARNOLD! NO BUDGET CUTS! (Los Angeles Indymedia) May 15, 2008

May 11, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Hollywood Could Soon See Another Strike (Workers Independent News) May 8, 2008

A Nuclear Problem: Oglala Sioux Fight Expansion of Uranium Mine (Indian Country Today) May 9, 2008

Regime in Burma Worsens Suffering from Cyclone (Green Left Weekly) May 10, 2008

World's Native Peoples Take on Climate Change (Living on Earth) May 9, 2008

Journalist Kevin Pina on the Neoliberal Roots of Haiti's Food Crisis (Socialist Worker) May 5, 2008

May 10, 2008 - Some News, Views, and Info

Indigenous Speak Out Against Carbon Markets (Inter Press Service) May 4, 2008

Two More Gruesome Weeks Under Colombia's Alvaro Uribe (Latin America News Review) May 7, 2008

The Wages of Left Capitulation to the Democratic Party 1 (Counterpunch) April 26/27, 2008

McCain, Clinton, Obama and the Wages of Left Capitulation to the Democratic Party 2 (Counterpunch) May 9, 2008

Polarizing Bolivia: Santa Cruz Votes on Autonomy (Upside Down World) May 8, 2008

Expanded Undercover Investigation Shows Mistreatment of Downer Cows Is Commonplace at Livestock Auctions (Humane Society of the United States) May 7, 2008

Mumia Abu-Jamal Asks: Who's uncle is really crazy? Uncle Jeremiah or Uncle Sam? (Prison Radio) May 1, 2008

Rockefeller Family Fables (Dissident Voice) May 8, 2008

Burger With a Side of Spies: How Burger King Hired a Sketchy Private Security Firm to Spy on Non-Violent Activists (New York Times) May 7, 2008

Daryl Hannah, Environmentalists Protest in Westwood, Demanding That Occidental Oil Company Clean Up Amazon

The actress and representatives of several groups say the firm's operations in Peru left behind toxics that continue to contaminate an indigenous people's waters.
By B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2008

Wearing white hazmat suits and carrying brooms and mops, dozens of activists crowded the entrance to Occidental Petroleum's headquarters in Westwood on Wednesday to demand that the company clean up toxic contamination they say it left behind in the rain forest of the Peruvian Amazon.
"Oxy, Oxy, clean up now!" chanted the protesters from various humanitarian organizations, including Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network.
During the 30 years that the oil company operated in the Peruvian Amazon, activists claim, it dumped hundreds of thousands of barrels daily of toxic oil byproducts and wastewater into rivers and streams used by the indigenous Achuar people for drinking, bathing and fishing.

Continue reading 'Daryl Hannah, Environmentalists Protest in Westwood, Demanding That Occidental Oil Company Clean Up Amazon'. . .

Evo Morales: 10 Commandments to Save the Earth

Climate and Capitalism, April 21, 2008

Speaking at the United Nations today, Bolivian president Evo Morales proposed 10 commandments to save the planet, life and humanity.

1.Acabar con el sistema capitalista
Putting an end to the capitalist system
2. Renunciar a las guerras
Renouncing wars
3. Un mundo sin imperialismo ni colonialismo
A world without imperialism or colonialism
4. Derecho al agua
Right to water
5. Desarrollo de energías limpias
Development of clean energies
6. Respeto a la madre tierra
Respect for Mother Earth
7. Servicios básicos como derechos humanos
Treat basic services as human rights
8. Combatir las desigualdades
Fighting inequalities
9. Promover la diversidad de culturas y economías
Promoting diversity of cultures and economies
10.Vivir bien, no vivir mejor a costa del otro
Living well, not living better at the expense of others

LINK

Biofuel Demand Leading to Human Rights Abuses, Report Claims

By Jessica Aldred, The Guardian, February 11, 2008

EU politicians should reject targets for expanding the use of biofuels because the demand for palm oil is leading to human rights abuses in Indonesia, a coalition of international environmental groups claimed today.
A new report, published by Friends of the Earth and indigenous rights groups LifeMosaic and Sawit Watch, said that increasing demands for palm oil for food and biofuels was causing millions of hectares of forests to be cleared for plantations and destroying the livelihoods of indigenous peoples.

Continue reading 'Biofuel Demand Leading to Human Rights Abuses, Report Claims'. . .

Latin America's Democratic Revolution and the Greening of the Left

By Daniel Denvir, AILA, Latin America in Movement, January 26, 2008

Global warming, indigenous rights, energy sovereignty and Latin America's democratic revolution were on the top of Ecuador's colloquium celebrating the Action Week / 2008World Social Forum here in the capital.
The set of panel discussions, entitled "Another Latin America: Where Are the New Revolutions Going?" took place on Friday January 25th, at the Simon Bolívar Andean University.
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The Correa government is considered a step in the right direction by most social movement activists but is bitterly opposed by the nation's wealthy and largely European elite.
The first panel of the colloquium focused on the environment, indigenous rights and the necessity of building alternatives to the system of industrial capitalism where "growth" is premised on resource extraction.
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The indigenous and campesino leadership of Ecuador's Left is one of the main reasons that social movements here have such a green hue.

Read all of 'Latin America's Democratic Revolution and the Greening of the Left'. . .

2008: Latin America's Hope and Challenge

By Laura Carlsen, IRC Americas Program, January 18, 2008

It's becoming a platitude to refer to Latin America as the region of hope, and from here in Mexico the perception is tempered by a reality that looks more ominous than hopeful. Throughout Latin America, attempts to build more just and peaceful societies have met with a thousand obstacles, both internal and external.
But what has rightfully captured the attention of the world is that there are efforts at real change in the hemisphere. And "hope" is not defined by guaranteed success, but by belief in an animating vision.
In the 21st century Latin America has produced more than its share of individuals, organizations, and even governments that hold new animating visions. Many have bucked the system in the most literal sense to seek different and better ways of living together, living with the environment, and living in the world.
A few examples from our archives over the past year illustrate the point.

Continue reading '2008: Latin America's Hope and Challenge'. . .

Ben Dangl on Social Movements in Bolivia

NOTE: The volume on these videos is extremely low so you may have to turn it up a bit.

In Part 1 of the Mediamouse.org interview with author Benjamin Dangl on social movements in Bolivia, Dangl explores the last six or seven years of popular movements, the privatization of Bolivia's water by Becthel, and the response to the water privatization by the popular movements.

In Part 2 of the Mediamouse.org interview with author Benjamin Dangl on social movements in Bolivia, Dangl discusses Evo Morales and media coverage of Latin America and Bolivia.

In Part 3 of the Mediamouse.org interview with author Benjamin Dangl on social movements in Bolivia, Dangl discusses the nationalization of Bolivia's natural resources, the privatization of water as it relates to struggles against water privatization in Michigan and the United States, and the role of hip-hop in Bolivia's social movements.

Why Bolivia Matters

By Laura Carlsen, Foreign Policy in Focus, December 31, 2007

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Bolivia today is an open laboratory. It might seem an unlikely stage for such an ambitious experiment: a landlocked nation of scarcely nine million with strong vestiges of colonial rule and the continent’s highest poverty rate. Yet the effort to use the state to retake and redistribute resources ceded to private economic interests under globalization, to enfranchise indigenous populations, to narrow the appalling gap between the haves and have-nots of our era deserves a chance and will no doubt provide lessons for the rest of the world.

Read all of 'Why Bolivia Matters'. . .

Regime Change in Australia

By Mahir Ali, ZNet, November 26, 2007

No one should be under any illusion about the implications of Australia’s change of government: sharp deviations from the country’s political or economic trajectory are an unlikely consequence of the Labor Party’s return to power at the federal level after nearly a dozen years in the wilderness. All the same, the long overdue comeuppance of John Howard’s government at the hands of voters was delightful to witness.

Continue reading 'Regime Change in Australia'. . .

Where Anticapitalism and Ecology Intersect: Audio of a Speech on Ecosocialism by Ian Angus

Climate and Capitalism, November 17, 2007

A speech by Ian Angus, presented at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, on Friday November 16, 2007

This was a very successful public meeting, organized by the Vancouver Socialist forum and co-sponsored by the New Socialist Group and the International Socialists. It was recorded by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock.

Audio Here

LINK