The Red Wombat Hole

AVSN replies to SBS's anti-Chavez propaganda

2010-05-25T13:02:00.003+10:00

“Power politics”: A reply to SBS TV’s political propaganda

The Dateline program “Power politics”, aired on SBS TV on May 23, 2010 (and on SBS2 on May 24) was one of the most blatantly biased reports on Venezuelan politics yet to be aired on Australian TV. The anti-Bolivarian line unashamedly pushed by reporter David O'Shea mirrors (in fact was shaped by) the most right-wing of Venezuela’s opposition parties.

O’Shea’s key spokesperson for the supposedly widespread public disgruntlement with President Chavez and his government was Aixa Lopez. Lopez is presented as an ordinary citizen/mother of an asthmatic daughter/lawyer turned activist who set up the "Association of Victims of the Blackouts" out of fear for her child’s safety. What O’Shea fails to mention is that Lopez is also a long-term, committed activist for the political right, including holding the position of Women’s Secretary in the conservative Accion Democratica (Democratic Action - AD) party.

Almost everyone interviewed by O’Shea are middle-class professionals with axes to grind, and he gives them free, uncritical rein. Their vague but vehement claims that the Chavez government silences dissent are ridiculous in a country where there is greater freedom of movement, speech and assembly than even in Australia.

In this regard, O’Shea’s apparent refusal to absorb the significance of some of his own script is stunning. For example, just seconds after footage showing government critics freely demonstrating outside the ombudsman's office, anti-Chavez leader Vladimir Villegas is presented accusing the Chavez government of “shutting down critics, restricting debate, trying to impose a political view that monopolises society and preventing dissidents from expressing their views, especially internally”.

Just minutes after O’Shea reports that Venezuela’s government has recently armed 30,000 farmers and other ordinary people in national defence militias, Chavez is described as an “egotistical, militaristic totalitarian”.

It doesn’t make sense. If Chavez is such a totalitarian, why would all members of Venezuela’s armed forces be required to pledge not harm their fellow citizens? Why would Chavez have led the radical reform of Venezuela’s military to include social and community work as part of military life?

What does make sense is that, in the face of coup threats and plots, the alarming militarisation of surrounding countries by the United States, and Western TV stations like SBS actively promoting “regime change” in his country, Chavez wants an armed population.

Before Chavez was elected in 1998, Venezuela was ruled by only two parties: Democratic Action (AD) and Copei, the Christian Democrats. By contrast, the September 26^th, 2010, national assembly elections will be contested by around 10 major parties, as well as dozens of smaller parties. This is hardly a state that does not allow dissent.

In fact, this Dateline program is very like the many aired daily in Venezuela by the opposition, who own the licences for all but one state-owned and one community TV broadcasting frequency. Again, hardly evidence of a state that does not allow dissent.

For a program supposedly focused on a basic service – electricity – it is remarkable that there was no mention of the many infrastructure projects the Chavez government has successfully undertaken: a huge expansion of public housing, schools, universities, hospitals and health clinics. Compared to 1998, more than 4 million more Venezuelans now have access to clean drinking water, and more than 5 million more Venezuelans now have access to sanitation.

It is even more remarkable that, having mocked the Chavez government’s public education campaign to reduce energy consumption, Dateline did not even mention the more significant attempts of the government and workers in the electricity sector to address the energy crisis. There was no mention, for example, of the two-day presidential consultation with the rank-and-file electricity workers in April, or the May 15 handover of control of various primary production plants to the workers.

Setting aside the absurdity of implying that President Chavez is somehow responsible for the current drought in Venezuela, or that low-energy light bulbs are evil tools of communist dictatorships, it in evident in every election result since Chavez first came to power that the poor of Venezuela know they would be the last to get any electricity had this happened before Chavez was elected.

And that is the nub of it: it is not Chavez the individual that fills the opposition with fear and loathing as much as the poor majority - the millions of Chavistas who are determined not to let themselves be driven back into an underclass of excluded and oppressed people. Despite undeniable obstacles and problems, in Venezuela a large proportion of people are starting to play an active role in their shaping their society, organising collectively to overcome their problems through mass movements, social missions, communal councils, community media and so on.

Rather than providing a well-researched, credible investigation of the social, economic and political situation in Venezuela, this Dateline program appeared, as one viewer’s comment on SBS’s website put it, to be little more than “an English version of the election launch for the Democratic Action (AD) Party … AD ruled Venezuela badly for 40 years. AD chose to boycott the last elections - their mistake. But now they are running for office with Dateline's help!”

We suggest that SBS endeavour to repair some of the damage to its reputation by commissioning another Dateline report that strives honestly to document the views of some of the majority of Venezuelans, who have repeatedly re-elected Chavez with increasing majorities each time, and who support his efforts to put such vital resources as electricity and the media under their/public control.

As another viewer commented on the SBS website: “For those who have missed out on dreams of a gravy boat ride or a green ticket to the US I imagine that Chavez would be hard to swallow. For the people of the world who support … equality across all economic groups, Chavez is a hero. Chavez supports the poor, obviously the rich are going to cry, they will have to share. Viva Chavez!”

Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network

http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org

May 25, 2010

May 22: Socialist Alliance NSW State Conference & Election Launch

2010-05-20T14:01:00.001+10:00

Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism!

Saturday May 22, 11am -5pm Redfern Community Centre, 29-53 Hugo Street, Redfern.

Socialist Alliance members and supporters from Wollongong, Newcastle, Blue Mountains, Dubbo, Northern Rivers, Armidale, Sydney and Sydney West will gather to launch the Alliance's Federal Election campaign, and plan the Alliance's work in NSW. All-in sessions plus workshops on topics including Aboriginal and refugee rights; climate change action; union struggles; queer & womens rights + much more. All welcome.

Donation entry for the day $10/5.
Ph Paul 9690 1977, 0410 629 088.

Draft agenda:

11::00-11:15am Aboriginal community welcome

11:15am-12:15pm Opening panel: A socialist vision for the Federal Elections
Featuring Socialist Alliance NSW based election candidates Rachel Evans & Soubi Iskander (NSW Senate), Jess Moore (Cunningham), Zane Alcorn (Newcastle), Duncan Roden (Parramatta) & Pip Hinman (Grayndler) outlining a grassroots vision that puts people and the planet ahead of profit.

12:15-1:45 Educational & Campaign workshops
* Climate Action campaigning - the issue of our age
* Sexism & queerphobia under capitalism – our fightback
* Origins of racism & our campaigns for Aboriginal & refugee rights
* International Solidarity: Supporting red shirts: from Thailand to Venezuela

1:45-2:30 Lunch

2:30-3:45 Activist skills and Campaigns workshops
* Skills for using 21st century technology for social change
* How socialists get our ideas across
* Creative socialism - visuals and design to inspire change
* Lessons for community campaigning

3:45-4 – Afternoon tea

4-440 – Workshop report backs and adoption of proposals

440-5 – Organising and building Socialist Alliance

Conference After-Party! Food, drinks, & post-conference festivities!
From 6:30pm @ 17 Holmesdale St, Marrickville

The CFMEU car-bomb hypocrisy

2010-05-20T11:21:00.001+10:00

A former CFMEU insider writes:

So my old workplace was attacked with a car bomb last week. There are not many people in this country who can make that statement! The attack occurred in suburban Western Sydney, missing by less than an hour a community group meeting in the building.

A group of people stole a car, loaded it with canisters of petrol, smashed it through a three-metre high wrought iron gate and crashed it into the front doors of a three-storey office block. I had a look at the damage myself less than 12 hours after the attack. The picture to my eyes looked very Baghdad indeed.

Amazingly, since the attack, not one state or national political figure has come out and condemned the violence. The reason? The target was the NSW headquarters of the construction division of the CFMEU.

Imagine for a moment, if such an attack had been perpetrated on any other part of civil society. A church. An RSL. A scout hall even. Our political leaders would have been racing each other to the scene of the crime. Jostling to inspect the damage, crunch over the broken glass, comfort the staff, condemn the violence.

It would have been (mis)named as a terrorist attack. Bi-partisan condemnation would have come from all levels of government. The papers would be full of it for days.

Instead we get this ... silence.

The attack got good electronic media coverage Friday but major papers such as the so-called "paper of record" in my home town, the Sydney Morning Herald, literally ignored the attack. For the readers of the SMH and The Australian, the attack just simply never happened. Not worthy of being reported on it seems. Middle-class indolence at its most revealing.

But I am mostly angry at Kevin Rudd and our political leaders. Rudd and IR minister Julia Gillard have shown their true colours here. They are fakes. Shallow fakes. A serious attempt to terrorise and intimidate a key plank of our civil society and they are mute. Too busy seeking reflected glory from Jessica Watson, in Rudd's case. For these people, including Kristina Keneally, the puppet in NSW, condemning outrages must clearly never be about principle. This incident has demonstrated how there must always be a cynical political calculation behind every expression of sympathy or outrage. Some hollowman down in Canberra must have just done the calcs on Rudd or Gillard coming out on this and decided it didn't fit the government's "narrative." Or something. Best ignored.

Clearly our political leaders are happy to associate themselves with a disaster when politically expedient, but run a mile when its not. That's not what leadership is in my book. What a bunch of frauds.

The hypocrisy revealed in this incident is sickening. A bit of blue language on a building site and there are screaming headlines, a politicised Royal Commission (which could not find any of the corruption and organised crime in the building industry because it was only looking for it among the unions) and an industrial police with powers and an agenda that would make the Gestapo proud. But drive an improvised explosive device into a union office? Somewhere a cricket is audible in the silence.

The shocking explanation is that what happened at Lidcombe simply does not fit with the anti-CFMEU agenda of the political and media elites in this country.

The CFMEU has all sorts of problems, I should know I used to work there. But the reason a terrorist-style attack on its NSW headquarters can be ignored in this manner is because the union represents a danger to the political and media elites. Along with just a handful of other effective unions, it remains an example, an imperfect and flawed example, of ordinary people having a little bit of power in their working lives.

That's why the CFMEU is fair game.

“Reject the names invaders gave us”

2010-05-16T13:13:00.001+10:00

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 15 May 2010 -- Aboriginal political activist Michael Anderson said today that the second New Way Summit held over the weekend of the 8-9th May at the Sydney University was very successful.

While it was very difficult for many people to attend, the internet is very effective at getting to a large audience, Mr Anderson said.

The issue of the continuing sovereignty of Australia’s Aboriginal nations was the centre piece of the weekend’s discussions and the summit decided that Aboriginal people must assert their continuing sovereignty by identifying their territory and clan country as it was before the British invasion.

“People must reject the nominated names that the invaders gave to us and return to our original names,” Mr Anderson said.

“It is not an easy task to throw away the names and tags that have been imposed upon our peoples throughout Australia, but it is a challenge that we as Aboriginal nations face,” says Mr Anderson.

“The invader has imprisoned us within his society just with name tags that they own. By registering our children under their birth registration the oppressor gets to own our children and us,” the New Way summit was told.

“Mabo Judgment number 2 exposed Australia’s weakness to hold claim over the Aboriginal nations. This is borne out by the Chief Justice alluding to the fact that the High Court of Australia was not the appropriate judicial location for this question to be answered as it belonged to another jurisdiction.

“This means the only appropriate court is the world court and there is already a precedent in the Western Sahara case. In this judgment the International Court of Justice said that sovereignty always remains with the people,” said Michael Mr Anderson.

“The existing Australian society and parliament assert a right of claim. Trying to get them to talk to us about a New Way forward and settlement on our claim to this country on equal terms for negotiations is like asking the thief ‘did you take it’. He will always find a way to say NO, I did not,” Michael Anderson argues.

“What is the claim of ‘right’? It appears that this claim of right comes from the ‘Bible’ where Abraham was told by God that his children would go out and take the lands of others.

“This is the basis upon which the Papal Bulletins were issued to England, France, Spain and others who set sail to locate other lands and settle them for their kings and queens and thereby assert a right of claim upon settlement,” said Mr Anderson.

“In our case we have never ceded nor relinquished our sovereignty to the invaders, the British, nor have we treaties with the existing government,” Mr Anderson said.

“These issues are the ghosts that haunt this country and we must lay to rest this question.

“It is a very daunting task and I understand that people will say ‘what about the assault we are experiencing from these existing governments.

“To that I reply: How many times can a dog stand being kicked? It is time to stand up and say ‘no more’.

“Our people must have a long hard look at our current position and situation. You cannot stand on the sideline and be spectators.

“We must get into the game, and not be cowards and wait for the players of defiance to play the game and when they take some yards from the opposition you step in and take this position from which you yourselves will benefit while tacitly siding in part with the enemy in fear of a loss,” Mr Anderson said.

“There is a plan of action that the delegations will act on and these actions will be rolled out over the rest of this year.

“We are one and we must work together; if we fail, all will be lost,” Mr Anderson said.

The next New Way summit will be at the Melbourne University during the June Queen’s Birthday weekend, when the lead topic will be the British genocide of Aboriginal people and the ongoing war against Aboriginal people through assimilation and absorption. Another key topic to be discussed is the 'Treaty’.

Michael Anderson can be contacted at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax, ngurampaa@bigpond. com.au

Australians to vote on landmark Tamil Referendum

2010-04-14T09:31:00.001+10:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on 14 April 2010

Australians to vote on landmark Tamil Referendum

Thousands of Australians will convene on ballot boxes across the country this weekend to express their desire for an independent Tamil homeland.

Human rights advocates and political figures have thrown their support behind the initiative organised by the Tamil Referendum Council of Australia (TRCA) and based on the Vaddukoddai Resolution (VKR), a mandate for independence drafted in Sri Lanka in 1976 by Tamil leaders that was rejected by the Government and led to full scale civil war.

“The Australian government has done nothing to educate the public regarding the repression of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The VKR referendum can help raise awareness of the situation that the Tamils have faced for decades” said Ian Rintoul, head of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC).

Over 10,000 voters have registered to vote, with thousands more to enrol in the coming days, according to CPI Strategic spokesperson Stephen Newnhman, a consultancy firm hired by the TRCA to co-ordinate the voting process.

Polling booths will be set up in locations across NSW, Victoria and Queensland on April 17 and 18 with large numbers of voters from other states to submit postal votes.

Pip Hinman, federal election candidate for Grayndler in NSW, described the event as an opportunity to “add to the pressure on the Australian government, which is currently turning a blind eye to the ongoing repression of the Tamil people”.

“Together, we must use these polls to push the Rudd government to break completely from the former Howard government's racist refugee policy in which Tamils (and others) are being denied their basic human rights,” Miss Hinman urged citing the recent political furore surrounding Tamil asylum seekers.

The referendum will be the first of its kind in the Southern-hemisphere, following democratically held referenda across Europe and Canada that have established an overwhelming mandate supporting the formation of a sovereign Tamil homeland in the island of Sri Lanka.

The event takes place almost a year since the Sri Lankan government launched a brutal campaign in the island’s North East, slaughtering up to 40,000 Tamil civilians en-route to a crushing defeat against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Seran Sribalan: 0406 123 503 www.vkr1976.com.au

A Vision for a Real Education Revolution

2010-04-13T12:34:00.000+10:00

6.30pm Tuesday April 20 (6pm for cheap dinner)
@ the Resistance Centre
23 Abercrombie St
Chippendale

Did you know that 2/3 of Federal education funding goes to educating the 1/3 of students who attend private schools? Today public education is being attacked on a number of fronts from under funding, league tables in high schools, to attacks on staff and student rights at University and TAFE. Come to this Socialist Alliance forum to hear from education activist fighting back for better quality education for all.

Speakers* include:
John Gauci, Teachers Federation activist
Susan Price, UNSW NTEU Branch President

*Speakers will be appearing in a personal capacity.

Ph 9690 1977 or Paul 0410 629 088 for more information.

"Unite against racism" rally to challenge far-right

2010-04-09T12:11:00.000+10:00

April 9, 2010 - for immediate release

An emergency "Unite against racism" rally has been called for 2pm this Sunday, April 11, outside Villawood Detention Centre. The rally has been organized by a coalition of anti-racism groups, in response to the far-right Australian Protectionist Party who are rallying at the same place to attack refugee rights.

"The Protectionist Party are anti-refugee, anti-immigrant and racist," rally organiser Paul Benedek said. "They letterbox leaflets that scapegoat Africans, Muslims and immigrants for crime, unemployment and other social problems. They are big fans of Pauline Hanson and the British National Party, and target 'non-white' immigration, trying to whip up racial hatred."

"Yet the major parties are also to blame. They have given a green light to racism, by also demonizing refugees & using migrants as scapegoats."

"Racism kills. While the APP cowardly taunt refugees who are locked behind razor wire, with tacit support from Liberal and Labor, refugees face deportation to their deaths. Racist attacks on international students and immigrants are increasing."

"This rally will be a peaceful show of support for refugee rights, for equality and justice. We stand with those desperate asylum seekers who have fled war and persecution – not cowardly blaming them for the problems in this country. We will let all racists know their message of hate is not welcome."

Endorsements for the anti-racism rally include: Refugee Action Coalition, Latin American Social Forum, Sudanese Australian Human Rights Association, Social Justice Group, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, and Resistance.

Full details for the rally are:

"Unite against racism – refugees are welcome, racism is not!"
Rally 2pm, Sunday April 11,
Outside Villawood Detention Centre, 15 Birmingham Ave, Villawood.

More details can be found on facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=109582062406674

The APP's anti-refugee rally is scheduled for the same place at 3pm. To get a sense of the APP’s racist views, just take a look at their website.

For more information or interviews about the anti-racism rally, contact Paul Benedek 0410 629 088 or James Supple 0438 718 348.

Call for Sydney counter-mobilisation to far-right this Sunday

2010-04-09T11:11:00.000+10:00

Please forward this rally to ALL people who would be concerned about the far-right taunting asylum seekers, many of whom have fled war and persecution, while they are locked behind the razor wire

UNITE AGAINST RACISM
Refugees are welcome - racism is not!

The Australian Protectionist Party have called a rally attacking refugee rights for this Sunday, April 11, at 3pm outside Villawood Detention Centre.

The APP are anti-refugee, anti-immigrant & racist. They letterbox leaflets that scapegoat Africans, Muslims & immigrants for crime, unemployment & other social problems. However, the major parties are also to blame - they have given a green light to racism, by also demonising refugees & using migrants as scapegoats.

Racism kills. Refugees are still being deported to their deaths. Attacks on international students and immigrants are increasing.

We need a peaceful show of support for refugee rights, for equality and justice - and to let all racists know that their hatred is not welcome.
Rally Sun April 11, 2pm
At Villawood Detention Centre
15 Birmingham Ave, Villawood (nr Leightonfield Stn)

Please forward this message, organise your friends, bring placards and banners in support of refugees and against racism.

Supported by: Refugee Action Coalition, Latin American Social Forum, Sudanese Human Rights Assoc, Social Justice Group, Socialist Alliance, Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, Resistance.

For information, to add your support, or if you have ideas for the rally, please phone Paul 0410 629 088 or James 0438 718 348 or email paul.benedek2@ gmail.com

I'm A Better Anarchist Than You, Some Thoughts on Vancouver and the Black Bloc by David Rovics

2010-02-27T19:09:00.000+11:00

I love a good riot. The distant sound of things breaking, the smoke billowing from whatever is burning, the young men and women busily smashing whatever they can find into fist-sized pieces, launching the objects over the heads of their fellow rioters (if all goes well) and into the ranks of the black-clad police with their Ninja Turtle armour, translucent plastic shields and their array of far more sophisticated weaponry. I love the scent of tear gas (if I'm just on the outskirts of the cloud), it's exhilarating, the scent of possibility, of the situation's volatility, the thrilling uncertainty. The excitement of seeing the barricades get lit on fire, knowing that no police vehicle, no matter how well-armoured, is going to drive through that.

They're going to have to put the fire out first, and until they manage to get some big hoses to the scene (which might require the participation of the fire department, which might not want to participate), this is our block. Maybe the police even retreat a couple times under particularly heavy volleys of rocks and bottles, the crowd surges and cheers, meanwhile the more experienced rioters stay busy gathering wheelbarrows full of more things to throw at the cops, knowing they'll be back soon. My neighbour says it's because I'm an Aries, but whatever it is, if I find myself in the midst of such a situation, the memories are all fond ones of the rush and the togetherness of the moment. It's a warm, fuzzy feeling, really.

However, most people in most of the countries with which I'm fairly familiar – the US, Canada, England, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Japan – don't feel that way. For most people I meet riots are scary things and they don't care or notice much whether it was a chain store's windows smashed or a local one, whether only SUV's were torched or hybrids, too, whether any passersby got hurt in the process or not. The major news outlets don't pay much attention to what the underlying reasons for the rioting is – just enough about the situation for people to associate the riot with the cause and the cause with scary people who aren't like them.

I've been home in Portland over the past couple weeks, not in Vancouver for the Olympics and the

accompanying protests that tend to materialize when a gigantic corporate event and the international media covering it rolls into (and over) the town. By European standards the event the media was focusing on sounds like it was a pathetic little riot, a few smashed windows and overturned newspaper boxes, but it managed to attract the lion's share of Canadian and even international media coverage, as usual– it's sensational, but more than that it serves the purposes of corporate media outlets who, for political reasons, want to make most protesters look bad and don't want people going out to rock the boat in the first place.

By my informal count traveling around, I'd say that most people in many countries are afraid to go to protests, even if their sympathies are with those protesting. They're afraid of what they've heard in the media about how things get out of control. They'd rather avoid lines of police in riot gear, and they feel unsafe at the thought that what they believed was going to be a nonviolent event might suddenly get scary when a small group of people decide to start throwing rocks through store windows.

Some of the rock-throwing anarchists (as opposed to the far more numerous non-rock-throwing variety of anarchists) will now ask, who cares? Who cares if lots of people are afraid to come to protests because of us. They're “liberals” anyway (anyone who doesn't support your right to riot is a liberal, in case you didn't know).

But here's the thing: we need a mass movement, and contrary to what certain popular primitivist authors like to say, a few thousand dedicated people are not going to accomplish much of anything, let alone revolutionary change, without the support of a mass movement. That is, whatever tactics you're using to organize resistance groups of any kind, the tactics need to be ones that don't completely alienate the general public (very much including the “liberals”). And the general public tends to be freaked out by groups of people committing acts of violence (or forms of property destruction that seem violent to them). In recent decades lots of people in lots of places have embraced all kinds of militant and often effective tactics – strikes, bus boycotts, sit-ins, building take-overs, nonviolent civil disobedience of all kinds. Those of any political persuasion who would say that tactics like these are universally ineffective are simply ignorant.

Equally, there have been some pretty darn effective movements that have employed violence around the world over the past few decades and centuries, and you'd have to be an extremely ideological pacifist not to recognize that. But these movements that have employed violent means have used a lot more than rocks. It takes a pretty desperate situation (say, Cuba in 1959) for movements like that to garner popular support, and there's not a serious guerrilla movement anywhere that wouldn't admit that the fish need the sea in which to swim, or they quickly die.

In the context of most modern, relatively well-off countries, it seems quite evident that rioting – even if it's not much of a riot – only impedes anyone's efforts at building a movement. It is, in fact, a much-used strategy of the police, as we've seen time and time again certainly throughout North America, Europe and elsewhere. I have no doubt that the first rock thrown is thrown by an undercover cop at least half the time in most situations. I also have no doubt that most of the young people participating in Black Bloc and advocating for “diversity of tactics” (translation: “don't tell me not to throw rocks, you oppressive, ageist liberal carnivore!”) are well-meaning people doing a lot of good work in their communities when they're not throwing rocks through windows. But whether or not they want to believe it, when they start throwing rocks during a march they are doing exactly the same work as the police provocateurs – I mean literally, not figuratively.

Black Bloc: doesn't this make you wonder about what the fuck you're doing?

http://www.davidrovics.com/
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/davidrovics
http://www.soundclick.com/davidrovics
http://songwritersnotebook.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/davidrovics
http://www.facebook.com/davidrovics
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http://davidrovics.guestbooks.cc

“Aborigines from across the country will fight nuclear dumping”

2010-02-24T16:10:00.004+11:00

Media Release

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 24 February 10 – Aboriginal people will be called from all over Australia to protest in the Northern Territory against any movement of nuclear waste across their traditional lands, an Aboriginal activist says.

Michael Anderson, chairman of an Aboriginal Summit Task Force recently elected in Canberra (pictured at right), says in a media release: “Nothing will move down the former American Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton railway line from Darwin to Alice Springs.”

Mr. Anderson was responding on behalf of a majority of traditional land owners to an announcement by Resources and Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, that the Federal Government will pursue the first Australian radioactive waste repository at Muckaty Station, about 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.

Mr. Anderson condemned the Bureau of Northern Land Council for “ignoring the majority of the traditional land owners who do not want their country, Muckaty Station, used for nuclear waste dumping”.

He said the general Australian public fails to understand how much influence the federal government has over organisations such as the Northern Land Council, whose CEO is appointed by government.

“Aboriginal people are under siege from the tyranny of a Labor government who have no consideration whatsoever for our rights,” Mr. Anderson charges.

“What we have here is a repeat of the Ranger uranium mine agreement fiasco. The arrangements that are being made are illegal and the government and the Northern Land Council know full well that the traditional owners have little to no chance of fighting against this dictatorship.

“But don’t underestimate our resolve as a resistance group. It is time the Australian government woke up and understands that they are pushing us into a corner and we will come out fighting with all that we have.

“Our communications thus far with the traditional owners suggest that a fight is looming, and maybe then the Australian public will get the picture.”

Mr Anderson, the last survivor of the four Black Power activists who set up the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra in 1972, says he is pleased that the unions are offering support.

“The New Way Summit Task Force has been asked for their support to bring this matter to the attention of the public. The Task Force puts the Australian government on notice that like Noonkanber in Western Australia in 1979, we will call upon Aboriginal people to come from every part of this country and protest any movement of nuclear waste across our people’s traditional lands.”

Muckaty Station is the country of the mother of Barbara Shaw (pictured left), Alice Springs camps activist and a member of the Summit Task Force. Ms Shaw commented on uranium mining in the Northern Territory at the Canberra summit from 30 January to 1 February.

She said only some people agreed to the dump “because they saw the dollar sign”. Although Elders had long warned that the radiation is dangerous, a lot more awareness needed to be created in the area. Listen to the extract at http://www.4shared. com/file/ 228500371/ e1144837/ Barbara_Shaw_ MINING.html.

The Taskforce can be contacted through Michael Anderson at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax, ngurampaa@bigpond. com.au

-o-o-o-o-o-o- o-o-o-o-o- o-o-o-o-o- o-o-o-o-o- o-o-

Mr Anderson’s release in full:

As Chairman of the recently elected Aboriginal Summit Task Force, I condemn the Bureau of Northern Land Council for ignoring the majority of the traditional land owners who do not want their country, Muckaty Station, used for nuclear waste dumping.

What the general Australian public fails to understand is how much influence the Federal Government has over organizations such as the Northern Land Council. In the first instance the CEO of the Northern Land Council is a Government-appointe d person as per the Federal Northern Territory Land Rights Act. This does not fare very well for its perceived independence. Aboriginal people are under siege from the tyranny of a Labor Government who have no consideration whatsoever for our rights.

What we have here is a repeat of the Ranger uranium mine agreement fiasco. The arrangements that are being made are illegal and the Government and the Northern Land Council know full well that the traditional owners have little to no chance of fighting against this dictatorship. But don’t underestimate our resolve as a resistance group.

The public must now realize what this Labor Government are doing to Aboriginal people, blackmailing them to sign over their lands for infra-structure development and housing, but the real issues are now coming to a head and this is just one example of what is coming.

We do have rights and freedoms and it is time the Australian Government woke up and understands that they are pushing us into a corner and we will come out fighting with all that we have.

It is pleasing to see that the unions are offering support and our communications thus far with the traditional owners suggest that a fight is looming and maybe then the Australian public will get the picture.

The New Way Summit Task Force has been asked for their support to bring this matter to the attention of the public. The task force puts the Australian Government on notice that like Noonkanber in Western Australia in 1979, we will call upon Aboriginal people to come from every part of this country and protest any movement of nuclear waste across our people’s traditional lands. Nothing will move down the former American Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton railway line from Darwin to Alice Springs.

“If the Europeans, Americans and China along with the rest of the world want to use nuclear power, then dump your rubbish on your own soil. You take it from us against our will and you now want to return it against our wishes. No, the energy-hungry consumers need to look to a better way of doing business, and in this case bury your own nuclear waste in your own back yards; if you believe what you are told by your leaders that it is safe then you have no fears.

Stop the harassment to solidarity activists in Australia

2010-02-04T11:40:00.002+11:00

PEACE AND JUSTICE STATEMENT

4 February 2010

Take Action: Oppose to the attempts to criminalise International Solidarity

Peace and Justice for Colombia (PJFC) is deeply concerned about the recent questioning and interrogations of activists in Australia that for years have been working in solidarity with Colombia.

On 3 February 2010, a member of our organisation Mr. Alejandro Rodriguez was interviewed by the Australian Federal Police in an attempt to obtain information on individuals, the Agricultural Workers Union of Colombia (FENSUAGRO) and about the activities of our organisation.

Peace and Justice for Colombia is a solidarity organisation that promotes the respect of human rights of all Colombians and in doing so, we have been denouncing the violations of labour and human rights in that country under the regimen of Alvaro Uribe.

It is very shameful that Australian Federal Police is aiding Uribe’s regime that has been engaged in the systematic persecution of human rights defenders, journalists, labour leaders and the opposition. Still worse, there is evidence that Uribe’s regime has been involved in drug trade and paramilitarism.

Peace and Justice for Colombia believes that the actions of the AFP in this particular matter, violates the rights of Mr Rodriguez who for years have been involved in solidarity work with Colombia and with Latin America, but also the AFP action supports the Uribe regime’s campaign against international solidarity expressed by Australian trade unionists, individuals and political organizations.

PJFC requests that you and your organisation write to the Australian authorities to

Protest for the AFP cooperation with the Uribe administration
Condemn any attempts of Uribe to criminalise international solidarity with Colombia.
Demand that the Australian Government suspends its involvement with the Uribe regime until such time human and trade union rights are protected in Colombia.

Post or fax your messages and letters to:

Hon Brendan O’Connor MP

Minister for Home Affairs

PO Box 6022

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2601

Tel: (02) 6277 7290 or

Fax: (02) 6273 7098

Tony Negus APM

Commissioner of the AFP

PO Box 401

Canberra City ACT 2601

Tel: (02) 6223 3000

Copy your letters to:

Peace & Justice for Colombia,

Email: pjfcolombia@gmail.com

Yours in solidarity,

Peace & Justice for Colombia, PJFC-Australia

www.colombiasolidarity.net

www.freeliliany.net

For the respect of Labour and Human Rights!

R.I.P. Alistair Hulett

2010-01-29T15:05:00.004+11:00

January 29, 2010 -- Alistair Hulett died at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow on Thursday evening, January 28, 2010. Alistair's partner Fatima thanks all those who wrote in with messages of support in the past week since news of Alistair's illness became public. The response was overwhelming, and shows just how many people cared about Alistair and his music.

* * *

Alistair, a truly great singer, songwriter, activist and socialist, will be greatly missed by us all.

Alistair Hulett was born in Glasgow and discovered traditional music in his early teens. In 1968 he and his family moved to New Zealand where he established a reputation on the folk circuit with his large repertoire of songs and his interpretation of the big narrative ballads.

In 1971, at the age of eighteen, Alistair moved over to Australia. For a couple of years he sang his way around Australia's festivals and clubs before "going bush" for several years. During this time he began to write his own songs and, following a two-year stint on the "hippy trail" in India, he returned to Australia in 1979 to find the punk movement in full swing. He joined in with the garage ethos in a band called The Furious Chrome Dolls.

In the early 1980s Alistair was again performing folk material around Sydney and was a founding member of a five-piece punk folk outfit called Roaring Jack, which specialised rocking Celtic reels and radical and revolutionary lyrics. Alistair was an active revolutionary socialist, with the International Socialist Organisation, and he and Roaring jack offered their talents for many benefits, rallies and demonstrations, in support of the antiwar movement and solidarity with workers in struggle.

For the next five years the Jacks made a startling impression on the Australian music scene. Their first album, StreetCeltabillity, was released in 1986 and reached No. 1 on the local indie charts. By the time the second album, The Cat AmongThe Pigeons was released in 1988 the band was headlining in major Australian rock venues, as well as opening for overseas acts including Billy Bragg, the Pogues, and The Men They Couldn't Hang. The The Cat Among The Pigeons was nominated for an Australian Music Industry Association (ARIA) award and was released in Europe by the German labelIntercord.

Alistair's solo work was always a part of the Jacks' live shows and offers to appear at festivals and clubs in his own right drew him further back into the folk orbit. By 1989 his songs were being extensively covered by several stalwarts of the Australian folk establishment. The demise of Roaring Jack coincided with this period and after the release of their third album, ThroughThe Smoke of Innocence, the band decided to call it a day despite another ARIA nomination.

Alistair's first solo CD, Dance of the Underclass, was recorded in 1991. Completely acoustic, with contributions from other members of Roaring Jack, the album was instantly hailed as a folk classic and proved to be the turning point in Alistair's return to the folk fold. His position as one of the most influential musicians on the Australian scene was now beyond dispute. In the UK his song, "He Fades Away", was picked up by Roy Bailey and by June Tabor and later by Andy Irvine. All three performers recorded uniquely different but thoroughly compelling interpretations of the song.

Rather than follow with more of the same Alistair recorded his solo CD with a return to the punk fuelled energy of the days with Roaring Jack. In the Backstreets of Paradise was a collection of songs originally intended as the next Jacks' release and rather than let the songs go to waste Alistair formed an acoustic outfit called The Hooligans to complete the cycle. The album caught some of Alistair's new found admirers among the purists unawares but during the next two years The Hooligans won them over with blistering live performances at every major folk festival in Australia. In the meantime Alistair continued his solo gigs with an ever growing reliance on the traditional songs that have always formed the backbone of his writing.

In 1995 Alistair compiled a collection of songs that owed little to punk and everything to the folk revival that inspired him in the sixties. Saturday Johnny and Jimmy The Rat was originally intended as a solo affair in homage to the likes of Ewan MacColl, Jeannie Robertson and Davie Stewart, as well as an acknowledgment of the time when the folk movement was a vital political and musical force.

At the time Dave Swarbrick was living in Australia and Alistair toyed with the idea of inviting Swarb to join him in the studio. Nothing more would have come of the notion had it not been for a phone call from a friend saying that Swarb wouldn't mind working with the bloke who had written "The Swaggies Have All Waltzed Matilda Away". Thus was forged a musical partnership that has won acclaim from audiences and critics alike.

Following a hugely successful Australian tour the duo returned to the UK. A triumphant perormance at Sidmouth in 1996 was broadcast by the BBC and was followed by a live in studio session a few weeks later. Since then Alistair and Dave have toured extensively in the UK, returned to Australia for another successful tour and recorded their second album together. The Cold Grey Light of Dawn was enthusiastically received and gathered some impressive reviews

Alistair, having returned to live in Scotland, continued to work solo and with Swarb. He wrote and performed three workshop presentations. "From Blackheath To Trafalgar Square" looked at "insurrection and resistance in the Disunited Kingdom" from the Peasants' Revolt to the poll tax riots. "The Fire Last Time" was a study of the protest song movement of the 1960s and "Red Clydeside" examined the working class unrest on the Clyde between 1915 and 1920.

Alistair, based once again in Glasgow, toured Australia in a double bill with US singer/songwriter David Rovics in December 2008-January 2009, playing benefits for Australia's leading radical newspaper, Green Left Weekly. Two more solo albums, In Sleepy Scotland and more recently Riches And Rags, confirmed Alistair Hulett’s position as one of the most consistent songwriters, musicians and interpreters of the tradition in Scotland. Folk On Tap called him "One of the defining voices of Scottish music" and a reviewer in the influential music magazine fROOTS wrote: "Hulett is at once an intense singer, radiating conviction, and a genuinely imaginative lyricist."

In partnership with 1960s veteran Scots folksinger Jimmy Ross, Alistair Hulett presented word and song presentations with powerpoint visual images at various events and festivals around the UK. Alistair and Jimmy shared a common political perspective, with both being deeply involved in socialist politics, and this bond was evident in the scripts they prepared together for these presentations. The three they have performed so far are titled Which Side Are You On? The Life And Times Of Pete Seeger, Ewan MacColl And The Politics Of The British Folk Revival and Ireland – A History Of Struggle In Song.

Most recently, Alistair Hulett joined with several Yorkshire based musicians to form a five-piece, semi-electric band calledThe Malkies. This was Hulett’s first return to working with a full-time band since Roaring Jack called it a day in 1992. Their debut album was Suited And Booted (2008).

Alistair toured Australia for the last time in late 2009, and again made his talents available to the socialist cause.

Sources: http://www.folkicons.co.uk/alisbio.htm, http://www.alistairhulett.com/biography.htm, http://www.roaringjack.com/

Reviews of Alistair Hulett in Green Left Weekly:
Revolutionary music from 'Sleepy Scotland'
Album puts Hulett among the best

Please leave your comments at the article at LINKS.

Also:

Vale - Alistair Hulett
Alistair Hulett – friend and comrade
Alistair Hulett: `A truly great singer, songwriter, activist and socialist'
Vale Alistair Hulett, 1952-2010, musician, writer, activist, socialist, Comrade and friend by John/Togs Tognolini
Alistair Hulett has died
RIP: Alistair Hulett (Roaring Jack)

Asylum seekers protest on Christmas Island

2010-01-29T11:04:00.002+11:00

Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 12:07 AM
MEDIA RELEASE

MASS TAMIL ASYLUM SEEKER PROTEST HITS CHRISTMAS ISLAND

In scenes reminiscent of the early protests that rocked Woomera, Port Hedland and Baxter, under the Howard government, a mass protest by Tamil detainees at Christmas Island began at 4.30pm Christmas Island time, on Thursday, 27 January.

The protest is supported by all the Tamils detainees but, “We are hopeful that the Kurdish, Iranians and Arabs people will join us,” a Christmas Island detainee told the Refugee Action Coalition.

At 4.30 around 60 asylum seekers began marching around the path inside the detention with placards saying, “How Long Do we have to wait’, “Oceanic Viking 6 weeks, Christmas Island 6 months”, and “Protection Not Detention.”

The protest coincides wit h the visit to the island by Senator Fielding and Opposition spokesperson on immigration, Scott Morrison.

“People are sick and tired of waiting so long for their the applications to be processed. There are scores of Tamils now who have been waiting for six months and much longer. The government has no explanation for why Tamil asylum seekers are having to wait so long. As their placard says, processing on the Oceanic Viking was done in
six weeks, ” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

“They are also angry at the people being charged for last year’s so-called riot and being put into the Red Compound management units.

“Australian of the year, Professor Patrick McGorry, was right when he called detention centres ‘factories for mental illness’ Perhaps Julia Gillard and Chris Evans will face up to the fact that Christmas Island is just as much a mental illness factory as Woomera or Baxter.

“There is no adequate torture and trauma counseling available and medication of the detainees is increasing. A government with a humane policy towards asylum seekers would close Christmas Island,” said Ian Rintoul.

There will be more protests in the days ahead. The detainees said they will maintain their protest “until we get answers.”

The protest also comes after detainees were told that under a new rule, management would no longer allow detainees to have mobile phones. Detainees in mainland detention centres are allowed to have mobile phones, and Christmas Island detainees have been allowed to have phones for months.

Meanwhile, it is expected that the two Australian refugee activists detained by Indonesian immigration authorities will return to Australian on Saturday morning. Tamil community activist, Sara Nathan will arrive in Sydney (Flight QF 042) at 7.40am. She will be available for media comment/interview at the airport.

For more information contact Refugee Action Coalition Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713

Feb 14 - 6th Anniversary of TJ's Murder

2010-01-23T22:08:00.001+11:00

International justice for Tj day

On the sixth anniversary of TJ’s murder

Rally, Sunday, 14^th February 2010, 10:30 a.m.

Gather at the fence line.

Cnr George and Philips Sts Waterloo

March to The Block

SPEAKERS

A Hickey Family Member                       Aboriginal Leaders                        Raul Bassi

Open microphone for concerned Community members

Rally organized by ISJA. Supported by STICS, Socialist Alliance and Socialist Alternative

  SOVEREIGNTY TREATY SOCIAL JUSTICE

NO MORE BLACK DEATHS IN CUSTODY

"Talk to us or expect a tsunami"

2010-01-23T20:32:00.003+11:00

“Talk to us or expect a tsunami”

Goodooga, northwest NSW, 23 January 10 - - In this year of a federal election, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party had better be prepared to talk to the Aboriginal Nations, or face a tsunami-type backlash, says the convenor of an Aboriginal summit in Canberra from the 30th of January to the 1^st of February.

“We will not lie down and take it anymore,” Michael Anderson writes in a media release.

Delegates are coming from all over Australia, notably Perth, Kalgoorlie, Darwin, Sydney, Melbourne, north Queensland and the bush, he says. “They’re telling me they’re tired of government controls.”

The summit is open to the media and Mr Anderson says SBS Radio, the National Indigenous Radio Network and national Aboriginal TV have indicated they’ll cover it. Proceedings will also be streamed live on the internet.

Mr Anderson calls on elders and youth to find solutions to problems created by Great Britain and “maintained by the colonial state of Australia”.

“If the Australian public truly wants us to bridge the gap and address the disadvantages, then I call upon and urge all people who call themselves Aussies to stand behind us and help us get the message across to those whom you elect to give us a voice and let us deal with the issues that state and federal governments know are of their doing.”

The release lists the issues troubling Aboriginal people:

· rise of racism;

· attacking the poor through Minister Jenny Macklin’s welfare quarantining;

· using children as a way of winning the hearts and minds of the Australian public so as to justify their assimilation policy of forcibly removing children from their families;

· shutting down most of the self-determined Aboriginal programs;

· using government-nominate d and -approved Aboriginal collaborators to impose their will through the so-called Aboriginal advisory panels represents the work of troubled and desperate administrators;

· to continue to use police to daily terrorise our children on the streets is a criminal act of the state;

· to police Aboriginal communities through a programme to make Aborigines fear authority are the actions of a dictator state;

· to maintain an operation of welfarism to control the lives of the Aboriginal people is the also the act of a dictatorship;

· removing children and giving them to non-Indigenous people to raise without their Aboriginal heritage and language is an act of genocide by the state;

· to deny Aboriginal land rights is a continuation of British colonialism

- and the list goes on.

“We are and continue to be sovereign independent Aboriginal nations; the land is ours and always will be. The wealth that has been extracted from the land does not help Australia and we, the traditional owners, get poorer and are forced to live on the state’s welfare system.

“The Australian public have always trusted in the words of the governments that what they were doing was in the best interest of the Aborigines, but the public have no idea of the pain and suffering that we have to continue to endure. The dysfunctionalism that permeates through our communities cannot be dealt with through bricks and mortar alone.”

Mr Anderson, the last remaining founder of the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra in 1972, writes, “We know who we are and from this day forth there will be no words such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, for I am a Euahlayi Dthane, a Black man of the Euahlayi Nation through my mother. Through my father I am a Gumilaroi Murri. This is what we now need to tell the state leaders of this country and we need to demand that when they talk of our issue and our nations they need to identify who and what nation they talk of. This must be a demand that we stand by.”

Mr Anderson’s release in full:

In this year of a federal election Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Labor Party had better be prepared to talk to us, the Aboriginal Nations, or face a tsunami-type backlash.

The rise of racism; attacking the poor through Minister Jenny Macklin’s welfare quarantining; using children as a way of winning the hearts and minds of the Australian public so as to justify their assimilation policy of forcibly removing children from their families; shutting down most of the self-determined Aboriginal programs; using government-nominate d and -approved Aboriginal collaborators to impose their will through the so-called Aboriginal advisory panels represents the work of troubled and desperate administrators; to continue to use police to daily terrorise our children on the streets is a criminal act of the state; to police Aboriginal communities through a programme to make Aborigines fear authority are the actions of a dictator state; to maintain an operation of welfarism to control the lives of the Aboriginal people is the also the act of a dictatorship; removing children and giving them to non-Indigenous people to raise without their Aboriginal heritage and language is an act of genocide by the state; to deny Aboriginal land rights is a continuation of British colonialism - and the list goes on.

We are and continue to be sovereign independent Aboriginal nations; the land is ours and always will be. The wealth that has been extracted from the land does not help Australia and we, the traditional owners, get poorer and are forced to live on the state’s welfare system.

The ‘New Way’ summit I have convened to Canberra from the 30th of January to the 1^st of February is a call to our elders and youth to find solutions to problems that have been created by the foreign state of Great Britain and are maintained by the colonial state of Australia.

If the Australian public truly wants us to bridge the gap and address the disadvantages, then I call upon and urge all people who call themselves Aussies to stand behind us and help us get the message across to those whom you elect to give us a voice and let us deal with the issues that state and federal governments know are of their doing. The Australian public have always trusted in the words of the governments that what they were doing was in the best interest of the Aborigines, but the public have no idea of the pain and suffering that we have to continue to endure. The dysfunctionalism that permeates through our communities cannot be dealt with through bricks and mortar alone.

We know who we are and from this day forth there will be no words such as Aboriginal or Indigenous, for I am a Euahlayi Dthane, a Black man of the Euahlayi Nation through my mother. Through my father I am a Gumilaroi Murri. This is what we now need to tell the state leaders of this country and we need to demand that when they talk of our issue and our nations they need to identify who and what nation they talk of. This must be a demand that we stand by.

As the leader of my nation, the Euahlayi of north-western New South Wales and southern central Queensland, and as the convener of this New Way Summit, I call upon the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, once again to take notice to this summit, for it will lay the foundation for the confrontation that Australians constantly say they never.

The spirits of our ancestors, who fought the white man, are always with us as we have gone from one fight to the other. They are always reminding us that blood was shed every year since the British invasion of our ancestral lands. No Australian history wants to talk of this but we will now remind them that we have survived and we will fight and Australia needs to be aware of the anger that is inside many of our pre-existing diverse nations.

Using the divide of full-blooded Aborigines against the Aboriginal castes has been the backdrop for division as was devised by the governments and their advisors, but do not count on this anymore, for we all share the same shocking history of white oppression and rule over our lives and the way we have done business since the coming of the white man. This will end at this New Way Summit.

We will not lie down and take it anymore.

Outcomes of all discussions at the summit will be available for perusal and comment every day atwww.wgar.info. Live streaming will be accessible at http://www.ustream. tv/channel/ wgar.

Michael Anderson can be contacted at 02 68296355 landline, 04272 92 492 mobile, 02 68296375 fax,ngurampaa@bigpond. com.au.

From Tortuga to Somalia - Piracy and Anti-Imperialism

2010-01-23T19:03:00.002+11:00

Via Duroyan Fertl at Hintadupfing

There is a delicious irony in the recent news - reported by Aporrea.org - that the Somali "pirates" have offered to donate a significant proportion of their booty to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Claiming to have connections all over the world, the Somalis promise to deliver the money undetected by Western "enemy" governments.

But why have they made this offer? The first connection that springs to mind is, perhaps, the piracy itself.

While the Somali youth based out of Eyl and other small towns in coastal Somalia are the modern face of seafaring piracy, Haiti is the traditional stomping ground of the swaggering buccaneers of legend (if we ignore, of course, the tame pets of the major capitalist powers such as Sir Francis Drake).

It was - at one point - the pirate capital of its age par excellence. The Île de la Tortue (Tortuga) which lies just north of the larger island of Hispaniola - of which Haiti is the western half - was used as a base for French, British and Dutch-hired "privateers" to disrupt and loot Spanish shipping form the Americas. While the British moved to Jamaica, and the Dutch moved elsewhere, the French remained active in the area.

In their off-season, these pirates wandered into the largely uninhabited western end of the Hispaniola to hunt and barbeque - earning them the name boucanier ("the open fire men"). Gradually French settlements were set up in the region, the area was ceded by Spain to France in the Treaty of Rystwik in 1697, and the country's history as a slave colony began.

But the pirates had little do with the slave revolution led by Toussaint l'Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1803 that made Haiti the first and only successful slave rebellion in history, even if they were the pioneers of the nation that later became Haiti.

More pertinent and important than the pirate connection is the sisyphean struggle that Haiti has fought ever since. Like so many African and "Third World" countries, Haiti has borne the brunt of centuries of Western oppression - through economic, political, and occasionally military imperialism.

Such was the resentment of their former French masters that they ganged up with the US to starve Haiti into paying "reparations" - a bankrupting 90% of the country's budget, payable for the forseeable future. When Haiti failed to pay, the City Bank offered to "swap" the debt for a long term loan that kept the country on its knees and was only paid off in 1947.

Haiti in the Twentieth Century has seen little more than starvation, poverty, and a series of invasions (including the US occupation of 1915 which used locals for target practice training, as well as more recent "peace-keeping" forces), dictatorships,coups d'état, and the forceful imposition of "Shock Doctrine" neoliberal economic policies.

As a result, Haiti has remained at the bottom of the pile - the poorest nation in the Americas, where children don't just make mud pies, they eat them out of desperation and hunger.

It is perhaps only partially coincidental, but the main Somali pirate town of Eyl - lying on an isolated and mountainous part of the Somali coast - was a centre of Dervish anti-colonial organising in the early Twentieth Century.

There certainly are parallels between the piracy of Somalia, and that of Tortuga. Most importantly, both are responses to the effects of capitalist exploitation.

The present-day Somali pirates are largely young men - aged between 20 and 35 - looking for an alternative to the war-torn, lawless and impoverished reality of a Somalia which has borne the brunt of the same Imperialist, colonial and economic forces for decade after decade, destroying the hopes of independence, and ruining the dreams of everyday Somalis.

The pirates are popular with much of the local population - not only for redistributing much of their booty, but for bringing a sense of order, almost of law, in a country where both these terms have no meaning.

Their presence prevents the further contamination of formerly pristine coasts (Somali seas have been widely used as dumping grounds for toxic waste), the looting of the area's rare reefs and the corrosion of local living standards caused by the massive destruction of local fisheries by illegal European and Asian trawlers. In fact, Somali "piracy" began as small defensive raids by impoverished fishermen against the despoiling of their waters by these fishing fleets.

So it is especially refreshing to see the piratic internationalism expressed by the Somali buccaneers, who typically redistribute their loot amongst relatives and the local population.

As a pirate spokesman said in making the offer to the Haitian people:

"The humanitarian aid to Haiti must not be controlled by the U.S. and European countries - they don't have the moral authority. They are the ones who have been pirating humanity for years."

*******************

Also:

* Haiti needs emergency relief, not military intervention — add your name to open letter

* Who are the real pirates in Africa's waters?

* Updates on the Haiti disaster and struggle at LINKS

Protest Feb 13 - Stop the NT Intervention

2010-01-22T18:58:00.002+11:00

Stop the NT Intervention - Sorry means you won't do it again.

Protest: Saturday, February 13, 2010

9 am LaPerouse point, Bunnerong Rd for the walk against racism to join the Redfern rally.

1pm rally at The Block, Redfern

Speakers include:
Irene Fisher, Sunrise Health (NT)
Pastor Ray Minniecon
Mal Tulloch, CFMEU
Angeline Penrith
Jeff McMullen

Performers:
The Black Turtles
Nadeena Dixon
Michael Donovan
More tba

Supporters include:
NSW Aboriginal Land Council, NSW Reconciliation Council, ANTaR NSW, CFMEU, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning Research, Mudgin-Gal, Babana, Reconciliation for Western Sydney, Guriwal Aboriginal Corp., FBEU, MUA, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Councils, Illawarra LALC, Bahtabah LALC, Narromine LALC, La Perouse LALC

Stop the NT Intervention
End the income quarantine - stop the national expansion
Land rights, not leases
Self-determination, not assimilation
Aboriginal controlled housing, jobs and services for all communities

On February 13, 2010 there will be a national day of action against the NT Intervention and for Aboriginal rights.

This will mark the 2nd anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations, when Prime Minister Rudd committed the government to, "a future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again".

But ongoing NT Intervention policies reek of the same paternalism and commitment to assimilation that created the Stolen Generations.

The Intervention has been a $1.5 billion disaster. The government has taken control of Aboriginal lives and land - but has not yet built a single house. Shamefully, communities will not receive housing until they sign 40-year leases over their land. This policy is expanding nationally.

The income quarantine is leading to greater poverty and social dislocation. Government statistics show reports of domestic violence are up 61%, substance abuse up 77% and 13% more infants have been hospitalised for malnutrition.

Minister Macklin has said the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act has "denied dignity" to Aboriginal people. But her changes to Intervention legislation will see the RDA suspended until December 31, 2010.

Rather than do away with failing policy, new legislation will allow the compulsory welfare quarantining to be extended to "areas of disadvantage" around the country. This will start across the NT from July 2010. Draconian measures such as compulsory acquisition of Aboriginal land and extreme police powers have been rebadged "special measures" under the RDA.

Racism is not a special measure.

The demonisation of Aboriginal people at the core of the Intervention is leading to increased racism across Australia. Indigenous incarceration rates have risen 10% in the past year. Juvenile detention now stands at 30 times the national average. Aboriginal organisations everywhere face aggressive mainstreaming.

Aboriginal people have consistently demanded an end to the NT Intervention measures and resistance is growing.

Turning around the unacceptable disadvantage facing Aboriginal people requires massive increases in resourcing of community controlled organisations - not more racist laws.

No more broken promises - its time to break the intervention

Organised by Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney

Contact: Jean 0449646593 or Mon 0415410558

For the poster of the protest: please click here

For the leaflet of the protest for downloading, printing, distribution: please click here

For STICS' Fact Sheet about the new Legislation: please click here

For STICS' Fact Sheet about the Government's "Consultation" Process: please click here

National Actions in other cities on 13 Feb 2010

Adelaide: 1 pm, at the steps of Parliament House, Speakers: Donna Jackson of Larrakia/Wulna descent, local Kaurna and Ngarrendjeri people. Launch of book "This is what we said". Contact Alitja 0431112898, organized by STICSA

Alice Springs: 10 am Gathering on Church Lawns in the Mall, Speakers on Key Issues. Launch of book: "This Is What They Said", Followed by a March through the CBD, Contact Barbara 0401 291 166 or Marlene (08) 8952 5032, for further info: http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/

Melbourne: 2pm Maysar,184-186 Gertrude St Fitzroy, March to Parliament House, for further infohttp://www.maicollective.blogspot.com/, for the poster: please click here

Perth: 12 noon, Wesley Church (cnr. William & Hay Sts), contact Natasha 0434 303 248 or Sanna 0417 852 628

Venezuelan English-language newspaper launched

2010-01-22T15:02:00.003+11:00

ANNOUNCING VENEZUELA’S FIRST AND ONLY ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER, THE CORREO DEL ORINOCO INTERNATIONAL

Caracas, 22 January 2010 – This Friday, Venezuela celebrates the launching of its first and only English language newspaper, the Correo del Orinoco International. While in the past other English-language publications have existed, none remain in circulation today, and no others have been created during the Bolivarian Revolution.

Editor-in-Chief Eva Golinger explained, “This will be the first newspaper of its kind in Venezuela. We will produce news and information for an international audience, but from the Venezuelan perspective. Most of the news that’s out there in English comes from international news agencies that report with a biased perspective and tend to ignore important human interest stories that paint a positive picture of the Chávez government.”

“Our most important mission is to combat the massive media manipulation and information blockade against Venezuela and to inform the international community about many incredible events taking place daily inside Venezuela that rarely receive attention from the corporate media”, commented Golinger.

The original Correo del Orinoco was founded by Venezuela’s liberator, Simón Bolívar on June 27, 1818. It served as a principal source of information during the time of independence and the creation of the Venezuelan Republic. Bolívar encouraged writing and reporting as a form of “artillery”, termed by him as the “Artillery of Ideas”.

One hundred ninety one years later, the Correo del Orinoco in Spanish was relaunched as part of the Venezuelan people’s effort to combat corporate media misreporting and disinformation campaigns against the Venezuelan government and the Bolivarian Revolution, nationally and internationally. Today, the Correo del Orinoco is a widely-read and referenced daily paper, reporting on political, social, economic, judicial, cultural and international events of importance to the Venezuelan people, with a balanced and informative tone.

In times of Simón Bolívar, the Correo del Orinoco was published not only in Spanish, but also occasionally in English and French. Today this tradition is continued with the creation of the first foreign language version of the Correo del Orinoco International, a weekly paper in English for distribution nationally and internationally.

“Issues and stories of how social and economic justice are being built in Venezuela today will be our priority”, added the editor, Eva Golinger.

The Correo del Orinoco International will be available in print this Friday, January 22, and next Friday, January 29, as a free insert in the Spanish-language daily edition. The English-language paper will be formally launched as a separate publication on February 4, and then will be available every Friday at newstands across Venezuela. International distribution of the print edition is a future goal, but initially, it will be available in digital format on the Spanish-language website, also to be launched February 4.

This week’s trial edition is available at: http://centrodealerta.org/documentos_desclasificados/correo_del_orinoco_internat.pdf.

Brisbane: Red, Green and In-between

2010-01-21T17:54:00.003+11:00

Red, Green and In-between:

Reviewing Labour and the Environment in Historical Context

Please find attached a flyer (with registration form) for a Brisbane conference on unions and the environment, past and present, with keynote speakers Tony Maher, Jack Mundey, Ian Lowe (and many more). The one-day event is being hosted by the Brisbane Labour History Association (BLHA) and sponsored by, among others, the Qld Council of Unions and the Qld Conservation Council

This conference will address:

* The history of the interface of environmental and union campaigns,

* How working people and unions can contribute to environmental campaigns,

* How the environment movement can engage more meaningfully with unions, and

* What kinds of red/green activism could be helpful for the future.

When: Saturday 6 February 2010 – registration 8.30am. Conference 9am – 6pm

Where: Queensland College of Art, 226 Grey Street, Griffith University, South Bank, Brisbane

Could you please distribute electronically to all friends and work colleages

Kind regards

Ross Gwyther

Brisbane Labour History Association

An urgent appeal from the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

2010-01-15T14:41:00.000+11:00

Green Left Weekly, 14 January 2010

Thousands may have been killed and tens of thousands left homeless. This is a moment in which your solidarity is of critical importance.

Haiti's grassroots movement — including labor unions, women's groups, educators and human rights activists, support committees for prisoners, and agricultural cooperatives — is attempting to funnel needed aid to those most hit by the earthquake. Grassroots organizers are doing what they can — with the most limited of funds — to make a difference. Please take this chance to lend them your support.

This is a time for all of us to act.

What can you do?

Since its inception in March 2004, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has given concrete aid to Haiti’s grassroots democratic movement as they attempted to survive the brutal coup and to rebuild shattered development projects. We urge you to contribute generously, not only for this immediate crisis, but in order to support the long-run development of human rights, sustainable agriculture and economic justice in Haiti.

During this period, if you or anyone you know are planning to make a donation to assist those in need, please consider the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

More information, and to make a safe online donation, please gohere

NSW: Free EDO Seminars - Climate Law after Copenhagen

2010-01-15T14:37:00.002+11:00

How can global warming be kept to 2 degrees, as proposed in the Copenhagen Accord?

Free public seminars with the Environmental Defender 's Office Northern Rivers.

An insider 's view of the Copenhagen summit.
The implications of Australia's proposed CPRS and alter natives.
Recent Australian and international climate change court cases

Where: PORT MACQUARIE, Sea Acres Rainforest Centre, Pacific Dve

When: 5.45 for 6 pm sharp to 8 pm, Thursday 4 February 2010

Where: BELLINGEN, Uniting Church Hall, cnr Waterfall Way + Ford St

When: 5.45 for 6 pm sharp to 8 pm, Friday 5 February 2010

Where: BALLINA, Richmond Room, Regatta Ave

When: 5.45 for 6 pm sharp to 8 pm, Wednesday 10 February

Where: MURWILLUMBAH, CWA Hall, 20 Queen St

When: 5.45 for 6 pm sharp to 8 pm, Thursday 11 February

Light refreshments provided. No booking necessary. Presented by the EDO NSW Northern Rivers office

For more information please call Mark Byrne on 66228470 or email edonr@edo.org.au

Please note that the science supporting anthropogenic climate change will NOT be debated at these seminars

http://www.edo.org.au/edonsw/site/pdf/seminars/100114seminars_feb10.pdf

Daniel Bensaïd: militant, intellectual, friend

2010-01-13T17:26:00.001+11:00

François Sabado, in International Viewpoint

Daniel left us today, Tuesday the 12th of January 2010. Born in 1946 he gave his life to the cause of defending revolutionary Marxist ideas right to the end.

He was one of the founders of the Jeunesse Communiste Révolutionnaire (JCR - Revolutionary Communist Youth) and the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR - Revolutionary Communist League, French section of the Fourth International)

A leader of the May 68 movement, he was one of those people with a very sure feeling for political initiative. He had been one of the leaders of the 22nd March Movement. Grasping the dynamic of social movements, in particular the link between the student movement and workers’ general strike, he was also one of those who understood the necessity of building a political organisation, of accumulating the forces for building a revolutionary party.

The quality of Daniel’s intelligence was to combine theory and practice, intuition and political understanding, ideas and organisation. He could, at the same time, lead a stewarding force and write a theoretical text.

He was one of those who inspired a fight which combined principles and political boundaries with openness and a rejection of sectarianism. Daniel, his own political convictions deeply rooted in him, was always the first to want to discuss, to try to convince, to exchange opinions, and to renew his own thinking.

As a member of the daily leadership of the LCR from the end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1990s, he played a decisive role in building a project, an orientation which combined daily activity with a revolutionary outlook. A good part of his theoretical and political work was focused on questions of strategy, and the lessons of the main historical revolutionary experiences.

Daniel was profoundly internationalist. He played a key role in the building of the LCR in the Spanish state in the Franco period. In those years he played a major role within the Fourth International, in particular following closely developments in Latin America and Brazil. He contributed largely to renewing our vision of the world and to preparing us for the upheavals of the end of the 1980s.

Revolutionary election campaign 1969: Daniel Bensaid, Alain Krivine, Henri Weber

From the 1990s until the end, while continuing his political fight he concentrated on theoretical work: the history of political ideas; Marx’s Capital; the balance sheet of the twentieth century and its revolutions, first of all the Russian revolution; ecology; feminism; identities and the Jewish question; developing new policies for the revolutionary left faced with capitalist globalisation. He regularly attended and followed the Social Forum and the global justice movement.

Daniel ensured the historical continuity of open, non-dogmatic, revolutionary Marxism and adaptation to the changes of the new era, with the perspective of revolutionary transformation of society always in his sights.

Although seriously ill he overcame it for years, thinking, writing, working on his ideas, never refusing to travel, to speak at rallies or attend simple meetings. Daniel set himself the task of checking the solidity of our foundations and passing them on to the young generation. He put his heart and all his strength into it. His contributions, at the International Institute in Amsterdam, in the summer universities of the LCR and then of the NPA, at the Fourth International youth camp, made an impact on thousands of comrades. Transmitting the experience of the LCR to the NPA, Daniel decided to accompany the foundation of our new organisation with a relaunch of the review Contretemps and forming the “Louise Michel” society as a place for discussion and reflection of radical thought.

Daniel was all that. And in addition he was warm and convivial. He loved life.

Although many “68ers” turned their coats and abandoned the ideals of their youth, Daniel abandoned none of them; he didn’t change. He is still with us.

Translated by Penelope Duggan

François Sabado is a member of the Executive Bureau of the Fourth International and an activist in the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France. He was a long-time member of the National Leadership of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR).

Israel marks the new year with another war crime

2010-01-08T13:30:00.002+11:00

Via the Palestine Telegraph

Breaking News: Israeli F16s attack Northern, Western, Southern and Middle Gaza Now

Friday, 08 January 2010 00:31 Added by PT Editor Sameh A. Habeeb
Gaza, January 8, 2010 (Pal Telegraph)- A massive explosion took place few moments ago western Gaza City, in Tal Al Hawa neighborhood. Eyewitness reported that Israeli F16s launched an aerial attack midnight. The attack was followed by a series of air raids.

Palestine Telegraph reported that a number of air raids took place northern Gaza Strip while no new reported about the attacks yet. The attacks also targeted the southern and middle areas of Gaza Strip.

Medical sources reported no casualties till this moment while ambulances hurried to the targeted area.
A number of F16 can be heard at the moment and a case of panic and fear spread amongst the civilians who were in a sleep.

The attacks came amid a very densely populated area where around 150 thousands Palestinians live.
Israeli army launched a number of attacks last week killing a number of Palestinians.

Via Ayman Quaider and Sameh Habeeb

Left Unity in Australia: two steps forward...

2010-01-08T12:06:00.006+11:00

There is truly no rest for the wicked.

The wombats are still tired from the extraordinary events of the weekend - in particular, the Socialist Alliance's 7th National Conference, held in Sydney for the first time. But we are obliged to dive head-first back into the battle for social justice and sustainability.

For those who missed it, the Bureau of Meteorology (one of my favourite outfits, truth be told) has released its Annual Australian Climate Statement 2009, which does nothing to calm our fears about climate change, and indicates that 2009 was the second hottest year in Australia on record (and the 5th hottest year world-wide).

Also worth noting is the impending court decision against Chevron Texico in Ecuador, for causing near-apocalyptic pollution-related harm to that country's rainforest. Chevron is facing over US$23 billion in damages. The "Amazonian Chernobyl" continues to unfold, and Chevron seems poised to appeal any decision against it. Readers should head on over to Chevron Toxico for background, sign the sign-on letter/ petition demanding action and watch the new film "Crude".

But the big news of the week (well, not really, the REALLY big news is that we're all going to die in a supernova as the nearby binary stars of T Pyxidis reach the Chandrasekhar Limit in mass and go "bing badda boom", bathing us all in a deadly Gamma ray burst in a couple of millennia. Maybe.) came out of the Socialist Alliance conference.

After several years of a tentative fox-trot with other affiliates who opposed any such move, the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) has formally dissolved/ merged itself into the Socialist Alliance.

Now, to many on the "left" (by which we mean to include all those self-described "vanguards" of circa three people, as well as the more genuine outfits and individuals), this is either:

1) irrelevant, because the DSP already controls the Socialist Alliance;
2) irrelevant, because the DSP had already dissolved into the Socialist Alliance;
3) irrelevant, because both groups are counter-revolutionary/ Pabloite/ class-collaborationist/ Stalinist/ reformist/ {insert random unsubstantiable insult here}/ etc;
4) irrelevant, because the best vehicle for achieving socialist change is via the Greens/ ALP;
5) irrelevant because {insert name of your grouplet here} is the one true revolutionary organisation.

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. None of the above is, of course, true. These views largely serve the sole purpose of quarantining existing groups from engaging with the reality of the Socialist Alliance, the class struggle in Australia, and the need for a new, broad, socialist working class party.

Negative views (and very genuine imperfections) aside, the decision on the weekend could actually be a (another) very interesting and beneficial development, both for the Socialist Alliance, and for the left in Australia more generally. Amongst other things, it removes the DSP from the picture, handing over that group's assets to the larger Socialist Alliance and providing more human resources by removing the need for DSP members to build a parallel organisation.

While individual DSP members will no doubt maintain their political views, and put them forward in the Alliance, in can also be hoped that the death of the DSP may encourage those with paranoiac ideas of a "DSP takeover strategy" to (re)affiliate to the Socialist Alliance. A more successful Socialist Alliance, which welcomes the affiliation of other left groups and individuals, can only strengthen the socialist left in Australia, providing a unified-yet-pluralist and coherent alternative to the disaster which is capitalism.

Of course, there are those who will decry this move by DSP members a retreat from the "leninist" model of party-building, and even from Marxism. I disagree, and perhaps in a further post, I'll return to that claim in order to refute it. But suffice to say that the "Leninist Party" model being constructed by most little left groups today has extraordinarily little to do with what Lenin did in Russia (whatever your views on his successes and flaws).

One of the many (somewhere well over 200) members and delegates who attended the energetic and exciting conference, Ben Courtice, has put together a couple of (somewhat contrarian) analyses of the changes (here and here), not all glowing of course, but interesting reading nonetheless.

The new, improved, Socialist Alliance now has the opportunity to revivify the fragmented left. In one sense, the ball is firmly in the court of other left groups to meet the challenge of creating a genuine socialist alternative in Australia. If Solidarity, Socialist Alternative, the Socialist Party, or anyone else, wants to affiliate, the door remains open, and we will welcome them.

However the Socialist Alliance is not going to be held hostage to the nightmare of the past - a viable, non-sectarian and pluralist socialist alternative must be built, regardless of the involvement of historical divisions. The potential for socialists to present that alternative is greater - and more important - now that ever.

As Olivier Besancenot, the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste's "Red Postie", pointed out recently: "It’s in these times of economic crisis that we will have to show just how useful we really are."

Australia: New era of left unity as DSP votes to merge with the Socialist Alliance

2010-01-06T15:45:00.001+11:00

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

[The following speech, to the opening rally of the seventh national conference of the Socialist Alliance on January 2, 2010, was delivered by Peter Boyle, former national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective.]

Comrades,

My job tonight is to make the unusual – if not unexpected – announcement that the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) decided today at its 24th congress to effectively dissolve into the Socialist Alliance and to transfer all that it has built up, over some four decades of its existence, to the Socialist Alliance.

Sadly, it is an unusual and rare thing for socialist groups, like the DSP, to break from the idea that they are the “true” party of socialism, with the sole correct political program, and seriously embrace left unity.

I say this not to boast but more by way of an apology and excuse for the DSP taking so long to take this step. After all, the Socialist Alliance was launched in 2001 and now it is 2010! I want to thank Comrades Bea Bleile, Dave Kerin, Sam Watson, Pat Eatock, and our many other partners in the Socialist Alliance for their patience and encouragement.

We may have taken a long time to take this step, but at least we can say that when the decision was taken by the DSP today, it had overwhelming support from the DSP members. And this support was also so enthusiastic that we can anticipate that this enthusiasm will be felt in the seventh national conference of the Socialist Alliance over the next three days.

Energy

There's a lot of energy unleashed by this historic decision of the DSP – energy that will give the Socialist Alliance a big boost in the year ahead.

This was the right thing for the DSP to do.

The Socialist Alliance presents an historic opening for the left in Australia because it is an opportunity to unite in a new socialist party socialists from different political traditions, some from pre-existing socialist groups and others who are not members of those groups. And, among those proud members of the Socialist Alliance are some important leaders of the working class and other oppressed groups: people like Comrade Craig Johnston, who went to jail for fighting for workers' rights; and veteran Indigenous activists like Comrade Sam Watson and Pat Eatock ...

Indeed, in the Socialist Alliance today, thanks to our Indigenous comrades, we have an historic opportunity to restore the powerful collaboration between the socialist and the Aboriginal movement, a collaboration that made its mark on the history of Australia, through epic struggles like the Pilbara Aboriginal stock workers strike in the 1940s and the Gurindji walk-offs in the 1960s.

Campaign to link up with working-class leaders

If socialism is not just to be a good idea then it has to become a movement of the working class and other oppressed groups. And it flows from this that to build the socialist movement we have to wage a permanent campaign to link up with the activists and leaders of the working class and oppressed groups who are fighting capitalist oppression.

Of course socialist groups can and do link up with other activists in movement campaigns, in various “united fronts” around specific issues, such as the campaigns against “Work Choices” or Work Choices Lite, or for Aboriginal people's rights. But when the activists and leaders of such movements want to join us in the broader and ongoing struggle against the capitalist system itself then what is our duty? Surely it is to unite with them in a party to wage such a struggle, a socialist party.

To build such a socialist party we must be prepared to look for agreement before disagreement. That's just commonsense. And if we find – as we have in the Socialist Alliance – that we have 80-90% political agreement, then, it is a “no-brainer”: we need to be in a common political party!

But what about those outstanding differences among socialists? What about the 10% (or perhaps even less) that we don't agree on? Surely, the sensible thing is to not let this stand in the way of us working in a common party for real change. Surely, we have a better chance of resolving the differences that need to be resolved after we have gone through a period of collective struggle to advance what we agree on. Surely, in the process of that struggle we'll draw some lessons collectively that will deepen our political unity.

Blind Freddy can see that there is still a lot of work ahead of us before we unite the notoriously fractious left. If you roll up to any protest action in any major city, you will still be confronted with a smorgasbord of socialist groups, each harbouring the illusion that it is the true party of socialism with the correct socialist political program. What a sad sight!

DSP decision to merge

However, we've made a start in uniting more of the left in the Socialist Alliance. And today, another significant step towards unifying the left has been made with the decision of the DSP to merge into the Socialist Alliance.

In the wake of this decision, we can anticipate that more more people will join the Socialist Alliance or step up their commitment to the project. As Comrade Dave Kerin said tonight, the DSP's decision opens the way for others like him to take a further step in commitment to the Socialist Alliance.

Earlier today, the members of the DSP ended a stage in our political organisation and embarked on a new stage. This was both a break from our past as well as a change that grew out of our collective political experience. We said good bye to a party to which we have devoted a tremendous amount of loyalty, energy, sacrifice and indeed the life-long commitment of many comrades over many years. However, we are not mourning this end. Rather we are celebrating. We are celebrating our transfer of that same commitment and energy to the Socialist Alliance.

In his greetings to the DSP congress, Comrade Abelardo Cueda, the ambassador of revolutionary Cuba to Australia, summed up the broad political situation today in one poetic sentence: “Today the capitalists cannot sleep and they cannot dream ...” But we, he added, have a dream of a radically different world.

We embrace that profound reality. We have a dream of a radically different world, a world based on solidarity and sustainability. And at this seventh national conference of the Socialist Alliance, we have greater means to plan and organise the struggle to advance the transformation of that dream into a reality.

Long live the Socialist Alliance! Long live left unity! Long live the power of the people!

Solidarity Action For Kulon Progo Farmers: Melbourne, January 11, 2009

2010-01-06T15:42:00.002+11:00

SOLIDARITY ACTION FOR KULON PROGO FARMERS

WHEN : 10am, Monday, January 11, 2010
WHERE : Indonesian Consulate General, 72 Queens Road, Melbourne

HOW TO GET THERE : By public transport: Take tram numbers 3, 5, 6, 8, 55, 64, 67 or 72. Get off at High St. Walk towards Albert Park, turn left @ Queens Rd.

The Kulon Progo farmers in the Yogyakarta region of Indonesia have been hit by an enormous challenge to their decades of self-reliance and autonomous practice. Their land is being threatened by the prospect of being turned into an iron mine. Not only will this take away the livelihood of the farmers, but the mining project will have a massive environmental impact upon the land.

For decades, the Kulon Progo farmers have overcome obstacles that would otherwise have put a halt to their practice of living, such as daily battering by the wind and the occasional storm, and a ban on farming by the government. But their insistence on being autonomous and independent has helped their survival. Through the custom of meeting, discussing and sharing, they gradually found new strategies to grow and survive together.

That is, until the news came that, under the belly of the sand on which they thrive, there is fresh water and iron. The fresh water has revitalized the lives of the inhabitants of the region. But the iron has brought the attention of investors from mining companies.

In late 2005, PT Jogja Magasa Mining (Indonesia) in collaboration with Indo Mines Limited (Australia), made their way to the region and, with the help of the Indonesian government, imposed upon the farmers the project to mine the region’s iron ore.

Since 2005, through a strong solidarity, the Kulon Progo famers have consistently opposed any kind of intervention into their livelihood as farmers. They have rejected offers to be waged, to work for people they have never known, and to destroy the land they have cultivated for decades.

And here in Melbourne, we would like to call each and every one of you to come out and be with us in opposing the iron mine, to show our support, and our solidarity with, the Kulon Progo farmers.

WE ARE VOCALLY SUPPORTING THE FARMERS AND PPLP*
WE ARE IN SOLIDARITY WITH THEIR STRUGGLE

* Paguyuban Petani Lahan Pantai = Association of Shoreline Farmers.

For more, see:

KP Solidarity
Bertani atau Mati – Tolak Tambang Besi
Eco-Struggle in Kulon Progo - Solidarity Needed (Indonesia)

Copenhagen: Why the West tries to blame China and the poor for COP15 fiasco

2010-01-01T20:19:00.000+11:00

Protest in Copenhagen.

By Roy Wilkes

December 27, 2009 -- Socialist Resistance via LINKS-- Something rotten happened in Denmark. The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15), in which so many had invested so much hope, began as farce and ended in tragedy. Anyone who still had the faintest illusion that the climate crisis could be resolved within capitalism has now seen it fatally dashed against the rocks of Copenhagen.

Of course, our rulers cannot blame themselves for this fiasco. So, who then is to blame? “China”, screams a furious Ed Milliband [the British Labour government's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change] upon his return to London, with the media machine joining the chorus. Blame China! Blame Venezuela! Blame the poor countries who obstructed "The Deal"! Blame the victims who dared to ask for a 1.5 degree C limit, those unrealistic fools who dared to ask to be allowed to live.

But what was this "deal" that these obstinate rascals obstructed? “A 50% reduction in emissions by 2050 and an 80% reduction by the developed countries”, laments Mr Milliband. “Both were vetoed by China.” What he refers to of course is none other than the infamous "Danish Text". But what he carefully omits from his account is the reason why this deal was "obstructed".

Rich must stay rich

The Danish Text, which had been secretly put together by the US, the UK and Danish governments, revealed the true aim of the rich countries in Copenhagen. There was to be a gesture towards cutting emissions, sure there was… on condition that the natural order and balance of the world remains unaffected, that the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor, that growth and accumulation continue unhindered.

The proposal would have sidelined the UN by handing power and control to the rich countries themselves; it would have entrenched global inequality by allowing the rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes of CO2 per capita while granting developing countries only 1.44 tonnes; it would have handed control of climate change finance to the World Bank; it would have locked the world into a disastrous system of carbon trading; it would have attached tight strings to any financial aid; and it would have abandoned any interim 2020 targets. All in all, the "deal" would have condemned the world, and the global South in particular, to a climate catastrophe of unimaginable horror.

Some developing countries, including the Maldives and Ethiopia, were bullied into accepting this deal. But most weren’t. Most African delegates were incensed. “We will not die quietly”, they chanted in the conference halls. Lumumba Di-Aping, delegate head of the G77 of developing countries, rejected the deal as “a suicide pact, an incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a few countries”.

Such "obstructive" behaviour cannot of course be tolerated by the Great Powers. If the delegates of the South are impertinent enough to disagree with their imperial rulers, then they will have something much, much worse imposed upon them. By diktat.

Copenhagen `Accord'

US President Barack Obama, Nobel Peace laureate and the bearer of so much hope and so many expectations, flew into Copenhagen on the last day of the conference. He brought with him an Australian-backed US proposal. He gave a short speech then met Premier Wu of China. The two of them went on to meet Prime Minister Singh of India, President Lula of Brazil and President Zuma of South Africa. These five men agreed to what became known as the "Copenhagen Accord". At 3 am, the Prime Minister of Denmark convened a meeting to conclude the summit. The representatives of the rich countries and those involved in agreeing to the accord attempted to impose it as the consensus outcome of the conference. But as a result of vigorous objections by Cuba, Venezuela and other developing countries, the conference was only able to “take note of the Copenhagen Accord”.

The accord is not legally binding, does not commit governments to interim targets and only expresses a general aim of limiting temperature rises to 2 degrees C. Each country chooses its own targets, which can be whatever they want them to be And that’s it, little more than a vague hope that if our rulers close their eyes and wish hard enough, temperatures will not rise. They may as well have called it the King Canute Accord. The targets will not even be reviewed at COP16 in Mexico 2010, the first review will not be until 2015. Five more wasted years.

Whose interests are most faithfully served by this travesty? Here’s a clue: the world’s biggest coal producer is China, followed by the USA, Australia, India and South Africa. The Copenhagen Accord is the climate strategy of Big Coal.

Nnimmo Bassey, the Nigerian chair of Friends of the Earth International, was scathing: “Justice has not been done”, he said. “Rich countries have condemned millions of the world’s poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life as climate change accelerates. Instead of committing to deep cuts in emissions, and putting new public money on the table, rich countries have bullied developing nations to accept far less.”

Pablo Oroza, Bolivia’s climate change ambassador, explained what the conference should have discussed and what it should have delivered: “We are asking first to discuss the main issue, which is Mother Earth. Second, we are asking for a goal that will save all of humanity. We think the goal they have put on the table is going to save only half of humanity, because a 2 degree Celsius increase and a rise in carbon levels to 450 ppmv means a 50% chance that there will be severe ecological failure. Third, we want the climate debt to be paid … $10 billion! When you compare it to what they have spent in terms of military budgets, or to save Wall Street, they spent trillions of dollars. But to save the future of humankind they are saying only $10 billion!”

Similarly disgraceful is the much trumpeted agreement to "protect" tropical forests, which explains Brazil’s inclusion in the Gang of Five. "Protection", which involves expelling the Indigenous people who inhabit the forests, will be counted against the rich countries’ targets, and will therefore allow the rich to continue with business as usual. The real danger to the tropical forests is not the Indigenous peoples but the emissions of the rich.

Capitalist solutions

But not everyone was disappointed with the accord. “It has been a long battle to get us to this point, but this is an agreement that Canada is very comfortable with”, enthused Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, no doubt still gushing with pride at receiving the Fossil of the Year award from climate activists in Copenhagen. Harper is looking forward to getting away from climate negotiations so he can concentrate on more serious matters. He has implored his fellow G20 leaders to put economic recovery before efforts to protect the environment at their meeting in Toronto later this year. In this he is faithfully representing the real priorities of his class: accumulate, accumulate, accumulate!

And there’s the nub of the matter. For any capitalist power to substantially reduce emissions would risk ceding competitive advantage to the others, hence the wheeling, dealing and childish squabbles in Copenhagen. And the risk is all the greater for those powers with the highest level of fixed capital tied up in fossil fuel and fossil fuel-related industries, in which category we would include the not only most of the advanced capitalist countries (and especially the US, Canada and Australia) but also China.

For very different reasons, many climate scientists are pleased that no legally binding agreement emerged from Copenhagen. James Hansen had said in advance that a failure to agree would be better than a dangerous fudge. Dr Myles Allen, head of climate dynamics at the University of Oxford, explains: “Current thinking that nationally negotiated emissions targets and a system of carbon trading will solve this problem is flawed. A legally binding regime based on that principle would lock us into that process, and it could take 20 or 30 years before it became sufficiently obvious it was not working.”

Dr Allen is spot on. Carbon trading, the key mechanism to emerge from Kyoto, has proved a massive source of windfall profits for capital (and especially for the biggest polluters) while doing nothing to reduce emissions. And it isn’t just a question of tweaking the system. Any trading system which offers further opportunities for capital accumulation is adding to the problem. As Bolivia's President Evo Morales explained to the COP15 delegates: “Who is responsible? The responsibility lies with the capitalist system.”

Mass movement a cause for optimism

The biggest cause for optimism in Copenhagen came not in the official conference discussions but on the streets. Europe has now seen the emergence of a real mass movement on climate. Fifty thousand people marched in London on December 5, compared to previous marches of under 10,000. And 100,000 marched in Copenhagen itself.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez recognised the significance of this movement. “I have been reading some of the slogans painted on the streets”, he told delegates during a landmark speechDon’t Change the Climate, Change the System! Let’s change the system! And consequently we will save the planet. Capitalism is a destructive development model that is putting an end to life; it threatens to put a definitive end to the human species. Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet.” at COP15. “One said,

A ferment of discussion and debate has followed Copenhagen. George Monbiot, Naomi Klein and Johann Hari call for mass action, including mass civil disobedience. Mark Lynas blames China and despairs. And this process is not confined to professional commentators, there is fevered debate among activists too. Old assumptions are being questioned, new ideas sought out. Some retreat into utopian schemas, hoping that sustainable local initiatives will snowball and displace "the elites". Others draw more radical, anti-capitalist conclusions. The emerging movement could go either way: it could fragment in despair and demoralisation; or it could grow, radicalise and deepen.

Copenhagen has given ecosocialists a unique opportunity to promote the latter course, and to thereby influence the course of history.

Klimaforum09, the global civil society counterpart of the official UN conference in the Bella Centre, released its own statement at the end of the conference. The People’s Declaration includes four key demands: (1) A complete abandoning of fossil fuels within the next 30 years. (2) Recognition and payment of the climate debt. (3) Rejection of purely market oriented and technology centred false and dangerous solutions. (4) Real solutions to the climate crisis, based on safe, clean and renewable use of natural resources. The forum calls for a global "movement of movements" which can bring forward peoples’ visions and demands on every level of society.

This movement of movements is already starting to take shape. Spurred into action by the announcement of the accord, activists from Climate Justice Now (which groups the more radical NGOs, such as Friends of the Earth International, Via Campesina, Jubilee South, Focus on the Global South and Attac France) and Climate Justice Action (the younger, direct-action wing of the movement, which includes the British Camp for Climate Action), came together on December 19 after COP15 to discuss building a united global movement in each country. In Britain this will take the form of People’s Assemblies. Every ecosocialist must be fully committed to building these assemblies, which may well become the springboards for a mass movement of civil disobedience.

Climate movement and the struggle against capitalism

Bolivia's President Evo Morales announced on December 20 that a world conference of social movements will be held in Bolivia, as a response to the failure of COP15. The meeting will take place on April 22, which is the International Day of Mother Earth. “It will be a great meeting where we’ll be able to come up with solutions for the problem of climate change”, Morales said.

Struggling over climate change has a huge impact on consciousness, because it doesn’t only question how the pie is divided up, but directly confronts how we live our lives, what we produce and how we produce it. Although many young activists first approach these questions at a personal level, the dynamic is such that the issue quickly assumes a social character. Social relations and alienation are brought into the frame more completely and more directly than struggles over "bread and butter" issues. The climate movement therefore reasserts the primacy of the political struggle.

But of course, this struggle is not being played out in a social or political vacuum. The imperial maps are being redrawn as economic power shifts from West to East. The war in Afghanistan is intensifying, as is the crisis of Zionism. The costs of the banking crisis, which is by no means fully played out, are being passed on to workers through mass unemployment and a drive to savage public spending. Upward pressure on oil prices threatens to derail the economic recovery, while casting millions of the world’s poorest people back into the despair of hunger and starvation. All of these crises are interrelated, all of them point to the desperate need to overthrow capitalism at a global level.

The emerging climate movement will need to reach out to the working class, to sink roots in the workplace, since that is where the social power that can challenge capital resides. The campaign for a Million Green Jobs Now!, launched by the Campaign against Climate Change with the support of several leading trade unionists, will be important, especially in situations where workers fight to defend jobs in response to the bosses’ austerity offensive. And of course, a vibrant mass movement fighting climate change, especially one which is promoting millions of green jobs, will be self reinforcing, in that it will help to embolden workers to act in their own defence.

The transitional demands of the Klimaforum and the Million Green Jobs campaign, and the dynamic activism of Climate Justice Action, are of course to be welcomed. But ecosocialists must go further. Increasing numbers of workers and youth are craving general solutions to the crisis of life in a socially and ecologically decaying society. Many climate activists still equate socialism with Stalinism, as indeed do most workers. We have not yet overcome that historical legacy. We therefore need to promote a positive vision of the socialist future, not just to "create jobs" and tackle the climate crisis, but a positive vision of a disalienated future.

In particular, we need to confront consumerism, which is the corollary of alienated labour. We argue that consumption should be reduced not by austerity, which is the solution advocated by the bourgeois ecologists, but by socialising and collectivising transportation and domestic labour, by a radical reduction in the working week, and by imposing restrictions on the advertising and marketing industries. We mustn’t allow capital to monopolise claims to freedom. True freedom will be that experienced by the associated producers in a classless society. It is by advancing such arguments that we will not only aid the development of an anti-capitalist ecological consciousness, but more importantly promote its evolution into revolutionary class consciousness.

Climate Change is the Achilles heal of the ruling class. The bourgeoisie, that class which in the 19th century heroically proclaimed itself the last word in humans' domination of nature, has now exposed not only its true weakness in the face of the real forces of nature, but also its cynical and callous disregard for other members of its own species. Our ruling class is not only the most powerful class in history but also the most degenerate. Its imperial arrogance will be its downfall. The only question remaining is whether it will fall at the hands of the global working class, in which case humanity will have a chance to establish a rational and sustainable metabolism with nature, or whether it will bring all civilisation crashing down with it.

But as the foundations of the old order start to creak under the strain of its multiple contradictions, so a new force is emerging to challenge its right to rule, a global movement of all those left behind in the unseemly scramble for personal enrichment, a movement of workers, of Indigenous peoples and oppressed nations, of women and youth. Therein lies our hope for the future.

[This article first appeared on the website of the British socialist group Socialist Resistance.]

And you thought carbon offsets couldn’t get worse!

2009-12-29T10:07:00.001+11:00

From Climate and Capitalism:

December 28, 2009

Climate and Capitalism has frequently commented on two widespread illusions – that global warming is caused by overpopulation, and that buying offsets is an effective way to combat greenhouse gas emissions. I never imagined that anyone would try to combine them.Edit

by Ian Angus

Three years ago, Carbon Trade Watch published a report called The Carbon Neutral Myth. Its main conclusion was summarized briefly:

“Carbon offsets are the modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon conscious public to absolve their climate sins. Scratch the surface, however, and a disturbing picture emerges, where creative accountancy and elaborate shell games cover up the impossibility of verifying genuine climate change benefits, and where communities in the South often have little choice as offset projects are inflicted on them.”

I wish I could say that things had improved since then, but they haven’t. It seems as though we hear about a new carbon offset schemes every week, and each one is less credible than the one before.

But competing designers of offset plans will have to work very hard to beat Optimum Population Trust (OPT), an English outfit that campaigns for population control in third world countries and for reduced immigration to the UK. For sheer chutzpah, it will be hard to beat PopOffsets.

You guessed it. Instead of actually reducing your carbon emissions, you can now pay OPT to persuade third world women not to have babies!

What’s more, it’s cheap. According to the website:

“Research is indicating that providing a currently unmet need for family planning is the lowest cost way of reducing CO2 emissions and climate change – possibly less than one third of the cost of other technological fixes – without any environmental downsides.”[1]

They have an online calculator to determine how much money you should pay to salve your conscience. As a resident of Canada, which has one of the world’s highest per capita emission rates, for just 100 euros I can get a Certificate that proclaims me “carbon neutral” for a year.

OPT says that it will use my money (“less minimal/unavoidable costs”) to provide grants to unnamed “family planning organizations.” Just in case you object on religious grounds, they promise that they will “not direct funding towards abortion services.”

Now there are some catches. According to the PopOffsets’ FAQ:

There are no standards for measuring or verifying the effectiveness of any voluntary offset program, including this one.
The PopOffsets plan is not accredited by anyone, but they “are running a campaign to achieve accreditation in the long term.”
They haven’t actually decided who will get the money.
And “more work needs to be carried out on quantifying this methodology of CO2 reductions.”

That last point should be nominated for Understatement of the Year.

I might take this a little more seriously if the money were used to reduce the birth rate among rich Brits. Just think how much lower England’s emissions would be if aristocrats and bank directors were limited to one spoiled child each. How many Bentleys and Jaguars could be taken off the road if the Royal Family stopped reproducing altogether?

But no. Rather than targeting the high-emitting rich, the only concrete project mentioned by PopOffsets is a family planning program in Madagascar, where – according to PopOffsets own website – annual emissions are just 0.1 tonnes per person. Per capita emissions in the UK are nearly 100 times that level – and the emissions generated by rich Britons are much higher.

In short, instead of targeting actual high emitters, PopOffsets blames the world’s poorest people for a problem created by the rich, and it solicits funds for unnamed projects whose impact on global warming is at best unmeasurable. Even if you are totally convinced that reducing population is the way to go, the PopOffsets scheme is hard to swallow.

There’s a satirical website, Cheatneutral.com, which promises to “neutralise your cheating,” by letting you pay someone else to remain monogamous and faithful. It says:

“Cheatneutral is about offsetting infidelity. We’re the only people doing it, and Cheatneutral is a joke.

“Carbon offsetting is about paying for the right to carry on emitting carbon. The Carbon offset industry sold £60 million of offsets last year, and is rapidly growing. Carbon offsetting is also a joke.”

I won’t be surprised if some unsuspecting websurfer mistakes PopOffsets for an even more elaborate joke. Unfortunately, it isn’t one.

* * * * * * * *

Footnote

[1] In case you are wondering, the research turns out to be one paper done as a summer project by a grad student who was paid by OPT. Peer-reviewed? Not a chance.

CPI (ML): `Shameful betrayal' at Copenhagen -- India and China sign undemocratic US-scripted accord

2009-12-25T13:11:00.001+11:00

By Radhika Krishnan (via LINKS)

December 24, 2009 -- Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation -- The 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) has finally ended in Copenhagen, and it is now time to officially write the obituary. This week-long conference, where 110 countries got together to try and evolve a blueprint to handle the climate change crisis, has quite predictably and most unfortunately ended in failure. Predictable, because for a long time now there have been indications that the US would continue to hold the rest of the world to ransom by refusing to accept responsibility for its role in creating the climate crisis.

Much was at stake at Copenhagen. The Kyoto Protocol, which was the first concerted attempt to address global warming, comes to an end in 2012 and the Copenhagen conference was meant to build on the foundations that Kyoto had set. The Kyoto agreement essentially suggested that all industrialised countries cut their carbon dioxide emissions. Scientists however believe that the emissions reductions suggested in Kyoto are far from sufficient to keep the atmospheric carbon dioxide at an acceptable level, and therefore it was widely hoped that the Copenhagen summit would result in an agreement wherein industrialised countries would commit themselves to deep cuts in their current emissions levels.

Before the negotiations officially began, the US came up with a proposal to cut its emissions to just 3 per cent below its 1990 levels. This proposal was patently absurd, since any meaningful effort towards mitigating the climate crisis demands that the US cut its emissions by at least 40 per cent. Apart from this pathetic offer, US President Barack Obama (representing his corporate funders) came to Copenhagen armed with the usual bullying tactics and United States’s oft-used trump card: unless India and China agree to binding emissions cuts, neither will we. In a most shameful betrayal of Third World unity, India and China responded to this blackmail by breaking away from the Group of 77 countries (G-77) and signing a US-scripted "deal" on the last day of the conference. It is indeed shocking and shameful that India and China, along with Brazil and South Africa, decided to sign this deal – an agreement which signifies an important departure from the developing countries’ long-standing position at the climate change talks.

Copenhagen agreement: recipe for disaster

The "Copenhagen Accord" that was finally tabled (though not approved) at the conference is nothing but a recipe for an environmental catastrophe of monumental proportions. To those millions all over the world who were looking forward to an agreement with some teeth, capable of ensuring swift and effective mitigation of the climate crisis, the agreement is a huge disappointment.

To begin with, the agreement mentions no legally binding emission cuts for industrialised countries, thus effectively letting them off the hook. Given the fact that prior to the conference, many other industrialised countries had promised reductions (the European Union for instance had unilaterally agreed to reduce its emissions by 20%, and the UK by 40%), it is clear that the US obduracy and arrogance finally scuttled any meaningful proposal. More importantly, the agreement asks developing countries to also "voluntarily" reduce emissions, thus eliminating the important distinction between developing and developed countries.

Developing countries have fought long and hard to maintain this distinction – and this huge political volte-face aided and abetted by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh absolves the developed world from their historic role in creating the present crisis, and essentially locks existing inequities for perpetuity. The agreement also states that developing countries’ performance on emissions reductions (even those that are not funded by international finance and technology) will be subjected to “international consultation and analysis”. This clause clearly opens the door to enforcing international monitoring, and will soon lead to binding commitments by developing countries.

Regarding the other important agenda of funding mitigation efforts in developing countries, the developed countries have set a goal of mobilisng jointly US$100 billion a year by 2020. This includes a short-term financing pledge (for 2010-2012) of $10.6 billion from the EU, $11 billion from Japan and $3.6 billion from the US. To put this "dole" in perspective, the EU’s contribution (which is the largest) is approximately 0.5% of global entertainment and media spending, 0.7% of the US military expenditure for 2008 and 1.4% of the bailout package that richest corporations of the world received following the economic recession! The priorities of the powers-that-be, and the level of their commitment (or the lack of it) to tackling the climate crisis, has become abundantly clear.

Indian government surrender to US imperialism

At Copenhagen, Manmohan Singh and environment minister Jairam Ramesh worked overtime to broker this blatantly pro-US deal. An effort which earned them praise from none less than Obama in his post-conference speech. And while this betrayal of the G-77 and of India’s poor is shocking, it is certainly not surprising. Some time back, Ramesh wrote a “confidential” letter to the prime minister articulating precisely the agreement which has been now signed. At that time, the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) tried to defend itself and fend off the resulting uproar by distancing itself from Ramesh’s proposals. Now, after Prime Minister Singh himself has signed this proposal, the slavish, pro-US kowtowing of the UPA government stands thoroughly exposed. Let us not forget that India has already announced targets for reducing carbon intensity (i.e. not total greenhouse gas emissions, but emissions per unit of GDP generated) – as a result of a "bilateral agreement" with the US.

Not surprisingly, India’s and China’s stand has deservedly invited an angry response from the other developing countries. And it was not just the content of the agreement that merited their anger. The entire process of drafting the agreement was marked by secrecy and a lack of respect for basic democratic principles -- most countries were deliberately kept away from the drafting process. Bolivia, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Cuba have therefore blamed those who have drafted the deal for showing them great "disrespect" by leaving them out of the drafting process and imposing their document on the vast majority. The Sudanese G-77 delegate Lumumba Di-Aping has gone to the extent of comparing the deal to the Holocaust.

Overall, the Copenhagen summit was a shameful display of the UPA’s subservience to US imperialism. Instead of this betrayal, what Jairam Ramesh and Manmohan Singh should have done was to cash in on the massive worldwide support and aspirations for a meaningful agreement. They should have joined hands with the vulnerable coastal nations most likely to suffer the most from the climate crisis and the G-77 to build pressure on the US. The industrialised countries, including the US, have to be forced to accept responsibility for their huge greenhouse-gas emissions. More importantly, they have to be held accountable for the historic role that they have played over the past two centuries in contributing to the climate crisis through their capital and energy intensive economies.

India's emissions

India should of course also reduce its emissions – not because the US demands it, not even because it is a huge contributor of greenhouse-gas emissions (though India’s total emissions are quite high, its per capita emissions are just 0.9 tonnes per person per year compared to the United States' 20.1 tonnes and China’s 2.3 tonnes) but because it is in the larger interests of India’s poor, and because it is essential for maintaining the delicate ecological balance.

India should have demanded funding and technology transfer from the industrialised countries for reducing its emissions. Let us understand very clearly that this funding is not a "gift" from some of the richest countries in the world, it is rather a small attempt on their part to compensate the millions of poor in the developing countries for the massive crisis that they have plunged the world into through the mindless, profit-driven, ecologically insane "development" paradigm that they have been pursuing for centuries. This funding could have been used to completely revamp our internal energy policy. It is an ideal time and occasion to pull away from our fossil-dependent energy policy to a more ecologically sensible one that depends more on renewable sources of energy.

However, it is clear that the UPA is least interested in pursuing any of this. For instance, forcing India's industry to invest in cleaner technology or to comply with strict pollution standards is complete anathema to the current regime, which is hell-bent on protecting the huge profit margins of corporations. The UPA, with its single-minded agenda of pandering to US imperialism and corporate interests back home, would much rather take the business-as-usual approach.

And in the process, be party to what the Sudan has called the new Holocaust.

[This article will appear in the January 2010 edition of Liberation,the magazine of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.]

Garrett lies through his teeth - again!

2009-12-23T12:12:00.007+11:00

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Artfully Dodging Responsibility, Peter Garrett, has a history of making it up to suit his purpose, but it's not often that it's quite so blatant.

In the aftermath of the disastrous Copenhagen Climate "talks", the Hon. Mr Garrett has issued a press release assuring us again of the government's intention to do something about climate change, someday, somehow. Maybe.

In this case, the magic words were in response to the release of the Final Report (PDF) by Dr Alan Hawke of the Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, namely that Garrett tells us:

The Government favours a market-based system to reduce our greenhouse emissions, and for that reason if the CPRS is passed there will be no need for a greenhouse trigger to be introduced, even as an interim measure. This is entirely consistent with Dr Hawke's intention."

Now, I'm sure Peter was counting on the Australian population being asleep, drunk, or otherwise occupied with stuffing its mouth and shopping trolley with Christmas junk, but some of us are still watching. You know, with the whole planet in the balance, Christmas seems even less meaningful than usual, and all that.

So what did we see, we few Watchmen? Well, hidden in the Hawke Report - on page 156 - was this nugget of gold (hat-tip to Alex Surace on the Grassroots Climate Oz elist):

“In light of the current uncertainty surrounding the CPRS, and the urgency in starting to tackle Australia’s carbon trajectory, the Review recommends that the Government consider implementing the following:

■ an interim greenhouse trigger, to be introduced as soon as possible by way of Regulations, continuing until commencement of the CPRS and ‘sun‑setting’ once the CPRS is operational;”

Et tu, Peter? Rather than meet their election promise of a legislated greenhouse "trigger", enabling the minister, the public and the courts to stop or force changes to developments and activities that would release large quantities of greenhouse gasses, the Rudd government has chosen to continue their abject grovelling before the free market and its polluting profiteers. Rather than regulating - and preventing - greenhouse gas emissions, they've decided to leave it to the market to decide whether we deserve to live or die.

If that were not enough, today we have the wise words from the ~~crystal-ball gazers~~, sorry, "economists", assuring us that the best way to ~~make enormous profits from~~, sorry, solve, the climate crisis is, indeed, an emissions trading scheme. This is despite the failure of an ETS in Europe recently, the relative failure of an ETS in SO2 emissions in the US over the past 30 years, the failure of Kyoto to do anything useful and the abject failure of the global market to do anything more than cause economic chaos, poverty, bankruptcy and a very small number of large bank balances.

[If you want to depress yourself with the facts on carbon trading, The Corner House can oblige you.]

And - as if to underline the "superiority" of the market to, say, direct investment in renewables - AGL has announced that the market mechanism peanuts the government is offering for renewable energy are, well, shit, and don't work, and they won't be investing in any more alternative energy. So there. :-p Brilliant stuff, no?

Add to that the Sinophobic blame-game coming out of Copenhagen (and the responses and rebuttals too).

And then Penny Wong's jealous dig at Hugo Chavez and the radical bloc in latin america:

"There are a few radical nations, a few radical states seeking to block action on climate change internationally, seeking to derail this process,"

These are of course the same radical countries actually calling for serious action on climate change, standing by Tuvalu and the small island nations most under threat from climate change, and calling for an absolute maximum of 1-1.5 degrees warming (but don't let that get in the way of a good lie, Penny).

It's enough to curdle your eggnog!

FARC is being demonized: scholar

2009-12-22T12:22:00.002+11:00

Colombia Reports
MONDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2009 07:13 BRYON WELLS

A controversial new book by a Canadian scholar who spent nearly ten years studying the FARC-EP says the rebel group has been “demonized” by domestic and foreign powers. His book is intended to dispel the myths surrounding their cause.

In an interview with Colombia Reports, James J. Brittain, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, said that the book, released three months ago in North America and Europe, had already had an intensely polarized reception in academic and political circles.

Brittain said his research, which includes interviews carried out in the field with guerrillas and peasants alike, gave him an understanding of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Peoples’ Army (FARC-EP) different from that portrayed in the “mainstream media.”

Scholars, journalists, and governments alike have categorized the FARC-EP as a “movement void of ideological position seeking individualistic economic power through violent means,” he claims.

On the contrary, in his book, titled “Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP,” Brittain argues that history has shown the rebel group to be “the most powerful and successful guerrilla army in the world.”

He says that no in-depth scholarship has previously been conducted on the FARC-EP’s ideological or practical relation to contemporary social change.

The book traces the growth of the rebel movement, from its roots in the Colombian Communist Party following the tumultuous era of political upheaval known as “La Violencia,” to its emergence as the FARC in the 1960s and early skirmishes with U.S.-backed government forces, and finally to the present day FARC-EP.

Brittain’s book is highly critical of U.S. involvement in Colombia, and argues that Washington has been the most influential force in the demonization of the FARC.

From his home in Canada, Brittain spoke with Colombia Reports about his fieldwork, and the passions his research has invoked from both sides of the political spectrum.

Colombia Reports: What was your motivation in conducting this study? Was it for political reasons, or scientific research?
Brittain: Definitely scientific research. I was interested; can a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla movement really create change? Can we see a Marxist-Leninist revolution create change that is legitimately of the people? Is the FARC really a people’s army? Over the years, I was amazed at a lot of the responses of everyday people - campesinos and indigenous people. There seems to be a very different presentation of the FARC coming from them than what I was reading in El Tiempo and the international mainstream media. Not that all the people were in open arms, but people were expressing different opinions of the FARC.

CR: Was the Colombian government aware of the theme of your research? Were there any problems from the government with visa issues or restriction of movement?
Brittain: There weren’t too many problems until the last year and a half. There have been issues, but interestingly they were from the Canadian government. The Canadian government seems to be really interested in what I was doing and they were getting info from the Colombian government. I had members of the Canadian version of the DAS (immigration service) contact me, asking what is the research about, etc. There have been threats, though. For example I received messages from the paramilitaries, from the Black Eagles. And most recently there have been accusations that I am not an academic but a sympathizer of the movement.

CR: How did you make contact with the FARC? And how did you move in and out of FARC-held territory?
Brittain: Since 2002 - this was when Plan Patriota was in full effect - it was actually quite easy. I was surprised. I think the FARC did a lot of intelligence to see who I was, what I was doing, but to get into guerrilla territory was easy. Because of the economic disparity, you can ask someone to take you to rebel areas for 50 bucks. And they'll do it. You hop into a boat, and sure enough it doesn’t take time for a guerrilla to stop the boat. Later there was an increased sensibility of what I was doing. You can literally email the FARC through a website. After I sat with them a few times they became comfortable enough to let me sit in a camp and let me document; that I wasn’t a gringo informant but an actual academic.

CR: Was there any moment when you felt threatened? Or that you felt uneasy?
Brittain: Well I think there were several times I was nervous, because I was obviously asking questions that perhaps they didn’t want to be asked. But I never felt threatened. The attitude was, among the peasants, that there was no one coming to talk to them. So on that end there was an attitude among the peasants, "please come and see what the guerrillas are doing here." I think, if something did happen to me, there would be backlash. It would have reflected negatively on them. The only times I felt threatened was running into state forces, or paramilitary groups; that was a whole different ballgame. There was one time I was stopped and they said freely, "let’s just take him out back and shoot him." Being told, "we could disappear you," that really stayed with me.

CR: How do you perceive the rebels, and why do you say people misunderstand the guerrilla?
Brittain: I think geopolitically Colombia is very important, and that there is a need to make Colombia look dangerous. Washington worked very closely, especially with Pastrana, to stabilize the country. From their perspective you have to make sure you eliminate any viable alternative, be it the Bolivarian alternative or what the FARC is doing. I think what is being portrayed in the mainstream media, they tell very clearly one side of the story. It is always from a single lens, be it the military or government officials. It paints a very different picture of the civil war.

CR: Your work is highly critical of U.S. involvement in Colombia. How has that been received?
Brittain: It is quite interesting because there has already been controversy...there seems to be almost a complete divide, people either agree with it or there is a completely polar opposite response, where people are dramatically opposed to the research, where they feel it’s propaganda or not true. And the fact that the government seems to be so interested in the research shows there is some interest in the subject.

CR: You mention the book as dispelling many of the myths surrounding the rebel group. What are the myths?

Brittain: The absolute number one myth is their indirect relationship to coca cultivation and the drug trade. It has not been thoroughly addressed. I hope what one gets out of the book is how the guerrilla is not directly involved in the process, cultivation, production or trafficking of drugs. But there are clearly fronts that are involved in taxing of the trade. It is clear they receive income from taxing but not from the production.

CR: What about reports of the FARC killing those engaged in coca eradication, some of them campesinos themselves? Doesn’t that suggest they have more of a keen interest in protecting the illicit crops and have more involvement than you say?
Brittain: Yes it has been seen that they will protect coca fields that are the only source of income for campesino farmers, to guarantee a return on their income. But unfortunately you get a minimal form of eradication, it is severely down recently. But their involvement is indirect. Another myth is the issue of human rights abuses. I think there is some very good work coming out by international human rights groups. But who is the actual perpetrator of human rights abuses? Since 2003 you see a significant proportion of human rights violations are at the hands of state or state-assisted paramilitary forces. Since ‘98 you see a minority of human rights abuses perpetrated by guerrilla fighters. Obviously the guerrilla is going to be involved in atrocious violent acts, but you have to put it in a proper context so that you don’t say the guerrilla is primarily responsible.

CR: Based on your personal experience, what sort of people is the FARC comprised of at present; are they forced conscripts, or are these really idealistic, radicalized peasants?
Brittain: The issue with force conscription is important to address. Unlike the paramilitary the FARC do not pay a monthly income to their average fighter. I actually argue forced conscription is potentially not as truthful as the state or the main media makes it out to be. From what I have seen if there were forced conscription there would be terrible low morale. If people wanted to leave, they could. People are overly encouraged to leave if they feel they can not devote their entire lives to the movement. In my ten years of research I have not seen one case where there was a child under sixteen, or any forced conscription at all.

CR: Do you think the common peasant, given the conditions in the campo, such as illiteracy and lack of education, can truly have a grasp on Marxist theory? Couldn’t it be argued that they are influenced by anti-Yankee demonization, i.e., they idea that the United States is the cause of all their problems?
Brittain: In the camps, you'll have some peasants that don’t know how to read at all. It’s ridiculous for a comandante to start lecturing on Trotsky because many of them can not read. Their education is very basic. It is only at higher levels that Marxist theory is touched upon. And outside the camps, the guerrillas are working with peasants, teaching them how to read. But, on the other hand, what ended up being said at a lot of these camps, in the aftermath of 9-11, is that they are not against the United States. What they are against is the political-economical system that is often enforced on the world. Instead of breeding this "Yankee imperialism blah blah blah," what they are doing is educating the average peasant that it is not the average American citizen that is against them.

CR: A lot of reports seems to indicate that lately the FARC have degenerated into a corrupt, dirty organization. Has the FARC tarnished itself through forced conscription, use of child soldiers, landmines, extortion, its leaders enjoying lavish lifestyles, and extrajudicial killings both within and outside their ranks?
Brittain: I have found very different reactions. There are many international actors looking to label FARC as a belligerent force, which under the Geneva Conventions would legitimize their fight to confront the state. The landmines they use are really primitive; they use whatever they can improvise to confront the state. So yes they do use this horrible weapon in their war. As for lavish lifestyles, in the camps the comandantes live the exact same life as the average fighter. On one trip I made, the lavish meal I shared with them was rat. That was the big fancy meal the comandante was eating. There is more of an outside distortion of what the FARC is, rather than them tarnishing themselves. I think the FARC are still for what they have been fighting for the last 45 years.

CR: What do you think about the recent account that three American contractors wrote about their observations of the guerrillas while held in captivity for 5 years? They describe inequality in the ranks between FARC commanders and subordinates, rebels who question their cause – even to the point of suicide as a way out.
Brittain: I think it is interesting what arises with the three contractors. They were treated as prisoners of war. If the FARC didn’t want to hold them according to the Geneva Conventions, they would have eliminated these people. They saw them as political commodity; they see all prisoners as a way to enter into peace talks. In my research what I saw was different. I think it is far more important to look at why the guerrilla continues to keep these people prisoners still. What I suspect is that they’re using these people, many of whom the FARC see as involved in the conflict; members of the government, members of the military, large landowners. They see these people as a means to set up a humanitarian exchange or to bring about peace negotiations. I think it is in no way comparable to Middle East image of hostages, where they are torturing or pulling out toenails. They are seen as political commodities as a way to get the state into negotiations to end the conflict.

CR: What would it take to get the FARC to the table? Do you think they could follow the example of FMLN in El Salvador, which fought a civil war, then became part of the political process, and now has seen the election of its first president?
Brittain: I really do, 100%. The parties can very easily start a peace process and negotiations. First of all a demilitarized zone, respected by all sides, where all can sit down in a place without conflict, with no threat from the resurgence in paramilitary activity which we have seen lately. Then I think we can see humanitarian exchange take place and also negotiations to end the conflict. Until there is a demilitarized zone there is no assurance. You have to stop the fighting in order to have negotiations.

CR: A demilitarized zone was ceded to the FARC in the past, and weren’t there accusations that they violated the ceasefire?
Brittain: Well yes, in the first days of that the AUC paramilitaries [United Self-Defence Groups of Colombia] murdered hundreds of people. In the past the state did nothing, so the FARC again took up arms in self defense and the defense of civilians. We can learn from the 1998-2002 peace process to set up a new, lasting peace process. The state has to ensure that there is a demilitarized zone, with enforcement to prevent aggression from gangs or paramilitaries. That was what we saw at that time, it was state forces or state forces with paramilitaries committing massacres. That's what we were seeing with the "false positives" [extra-judicial killings of civilians by the military, which are reported as FARC fighters killed in combat].

CR: What changes do you foresee in Colombian society, should the FARC ever achieve political power?
Brittain: I think it's really hard to foresee what they would do. If the FARC ever took state power, the response from the U.S. would be incredible, and we would see something like what happened in Nicaragua in the 1980s. If the FARC are to achieve any form of political power it would have to be with the backing and support of the people.

A climate con: Analysis of the "Copenhagen Accord"

2009-12-22T11:02:00.002+11:00

By David Spratt and Damien Lawson - Climate Code Red
21 December 2009
Climate Action Centre Briefing Note

''In biblical terms it looks like we are being offered 30 pieces of silver to betray our future and our people … our future is not for sale.'' Ian Fry, Tuvalu negotiator

"This is a declaration that small and poor countries don't matter, that international civil society doesn't matter, and that serious limits on carbon don't matter. The president has wrecked the UN and he's wrecked the possibility of a tough plan to control global warming. It may get Obama a reputation as a tough American leader, but it's at the expense of everything progressives have held dear. 189 countries have been left powerless, and the foxes now guard the carbon henhouse without any oversight." Bill McKibben, 350.org

"The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport. There are no targets for carbon cuts and no agreement on a legally binding treaty. It is now evident that beating global warming will require a radically different model of politics than the one on display here in Copenhagen." John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK

"So that's it. The world's worst polluters – the people who are drastically altering the climate – gathered here in Copenhagen to announce they were going to carry on cooking, in defiance of all the scientific warnings. They didn't seal the deal; they sealed the coffin for the world's low-lying islands, its glaciers, its North Pole, and millions of lives. Those of us who watched this conference with open eyes aren't surprised. Every day, practical, intelligent solutions that would cut our emissions of warming gases have been offered by scientists, developing countries and protesters – and they have been systematically vetoed by the governments of North America and Europe." Johann Hari, The Independent, 19 December 2009

"I think that our prime minister has played an outstanding role ... He's been working very hard for the last few months... and he's just been fantastic all the way, he just shines at it... he's been really important through these meetings". Tim Flannery, ABC News, 19 February 2009

WHAT IS IN THE ACCORD

read the full article here

LINKS resources on Copenhagen

2009-12-22T10:42:00.002+11:00

Resources on the Copenhagen climate talks from LINKS - International Journal or Socialist Renewal

Copenhagen: `Imperial' climate deal rejected by poor-country delegates

Hugo Chavez denounces Obama's ``imperial'' deal. Photo COP15.

December 18, 2009 -- Speaking on behalf of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela took the floor at the plenary of the COP15 climate talks in Copenhagen to denounce the final ``deal'' that was soon to emerge and be imposed on the majority poor-country delegates, and which would fall far short of their demands.

Chavez accused US President Barack Obama of behaving like an emperor “who comes in during the middle of the night … and cooks up a document that we will not accept, we will never accept”.

Chávez declared that “all countries are equal”. He would not accept that some countries had prepared a text for a climate deal and just “slipped [it] under the door” to be signed by the others. He accused them of “a real lack of transparency”.

“We can’t wait any longer, we are leaving … We are leaving, knowing that it wasn’t possible getting a deal,” he said.

Copenhagen: Democracy Now! interview with Evo Morales -- `We cannot end global warming without ending capitalism'

December 17, 2009 -- Democracy Now! -- Bolivia's President Evo Morales joins us in Copenhagen to talk about the UN climate talks, capitalism, climate debt and much more. “Policies of unlimited industrialisation are what destroys the environment”, Morales said. “And that irrational industrialisation is capitalism.”

AMY GOODMAN: This is Climate Countdown. It’s Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from inside the Bella Center [in Copenhagen].

It’s just one day before the COP15 UN climate summit comes to a close. The summit has been described as the biggest gathering on climate change in history. And now, ten days after it started, are the talks on the brink of collapse?

Copenhagen: Full speech -- Chavez salutes protesters, calls for system change to save planet

Hugo Chavez speaking to the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. Photo from Telesur.

By Kiraz Janicke, Caracas

December 16, 2009 – Venezuelanalysis.com – During his speech to the 15th United Nations Climate Change Summit (COP15) in Copenhagen, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez slammed the “lack of political will” of the most powerful nations to take serious action to avert climate change, and called for systemic change to save the planet.

Copenhagen: People's summit develops a people-powered response to the climate crisis

``System change not climate change'' protest, Copenhagen, December 12, 2009. Photo Klimaforum.

By Lauren Carroll Harris, Copenhagen

December 15, 2009 -- Green Left Weekly -- Just over a week into the December 7-18 United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen (COP15) , thousands of ordinary people from around the world have already participated in what is being billed as the “people’s climate summit”, Klimaforum09, also taking place in the Danish capital. The difference between the two forums could not be more stark.

Outside Copenhagen’s Bella Centre, where COP15 is being held, has a circus-like quality, with delegates battling their way through a gauntlet of protesters and lobbyists. One group carries a banner emblazoned with the slogan “EU: pay your climate debt” and chants “The world is watching”. Inside, registered delegates, government diplomats and NGO members make their way through airport-style security checks to participate in what is increasingly seen as a redundant talkshop.

Fidel Castro: The truth about what happened at Copenhagen

Copenhagen, December 12, 2009. Photo by Lauren Carroll Harris.

By Fidel Castro Ruz

December 19, 2009 -- Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centres on whether human society will survive. These are not dramatic phrases. We must get used to the true facts. Hope is the last thing human beings can relinquish. With truthful arguments, men and women of all ages, especially young people, have waged an exemplary battle at the Copengahen COP15 summit and taught the world a great lesson.

It is important now that Cuba and the world come to know as much as possible of what happened in Copenhagen. The truth can be stronger than the influenced and often misinformed minds of those holding in their hands the destiny of the world.

Beyond Copenhagen: left alternatives to capitalism

Copenhagen, December 12, 2009. Photo by Lauren Carroll Harris.

By Lauren Carroll Harris, Copenhagen

"Can a finite Earth support an infinite project? The thesis of capitalism, infinite development, is a destructive pattern, let’s face it. How long are we going to tolerate the current international economic order and prevailing market mechanisms? How long are we going to allow huge epidemics like HIV/AIDS to ravage entire populations? How long are we going to allow the hungry to not eat or to be able to feed their own children? How long are we going to allow millions of children to die from curable diseases? How long will we allow armed conflicts to massacre millions of innocent human beings in order for the powerful to seize the resources of other peoples?"

-- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, speaking at COP15, December 16, 2009

Copenhagen: ALBA (Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela) representatives at COP15 speak

Joint press conference of the ALBA (Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela) representatives at COP15, December 10, 2009.

1 comment

Lumumba Di-Aping: Third World hero of Copenhagen

Lumumba Di-Aping. Photo by Jens Norgaard Larsen/Reuters.

By Derek Barry

December 16, 2009 -- Woolly Days -- Lumumba Di-Aping has made the brave call that no Australian politician has been game to make, callin Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a climate sceptic. The key negotiator at Copenhagen on behalf of the G77-China group told the ABC (also see below) that Rudd’s message to his own people was a fabrication which “does not relate to the facts because his actions are climate change scepticism in action”. Di-Aping was pointing the disparity between Rudd’s sayings and actions on climate change. “It's puzzling in the sense that here is a Prime Minister who actually won the elections because of his commitment to climate change”, Di-Aping said. “And within a very short period of time he changes his mind, changes his position, he start acting as if he has been converted into climate change scepticism.”

Evo Morales at Copenhagen: `Shameful' for West to spend trillions on war and just $10 billion for climate change

December 16, 2009 -- Democracy Now! -- In a press conference on December 16, Bolivia's President Evo Morales said, “The budget of the United States is US$687 billion for defence. And for climate change, to save life, to save humanity, they only put up $10 billion. This is shameful.”

AMY GOODMAN: As we wrap up today's broadcast with a leader from another side of the world, from Latin America, we’re going to turn right now to Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, who, just a few minutes ago, finished a speech in the next room. He just recently arrived here in Copenhagen. The Bolivian President Morales.

PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] And if we don’t—and I repeat this—we’re going to end our lives, all of us. So, as with the last country and with our black and indigenous brothers who were treated as slaves, and their rights were not recognised, now, today, too, our Mother Earth, she is treated as if she were a thing without life, as if she didn’t have rights.

Copenhagen: Venezuela accuses -- `Thirty industrialised countries are destroying the world'

By Telesur, translated by Kiraz Janicke

December 15, 2009 -- Venezuelanalysis.com -- The Venezuelan delegation to the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, denounced today the attitude of developed countries in the world meeting for not committing to reduce emissions of polluting gases because this would presumably affect their economies. The delegation said that developing nations “will not let them get away with it” because it is unacceptable that they do not take into account that they are responsible for the future of the planet.

In an interview with Telesur, Claudia Salerno, director of the Venezuelan environment ministry’s Office of International Cooperation, explained that the 30 industrialised countries have the potential to “change the destiny of the world, but today they are telling us that it is too expensive and they are unwilling to let the GDP of their economies be impacted by the response measures to climate change.”

“That is unacceptable, I not only point out to them, but I accuse them… not only are they going to be responsible for climate change but they will be responsible for the future of this planet”, said the official.

Copenhagen: Maldives, Tuvalu, small island nations lead fight for real action on climate

President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed: ``You can't negotiate with physics!''.

December 15, 2009 -- Klimaforum09 -- The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, stressed the power of people to take action on climate change, when he spoke to a packed audience at Klimaforum09, the alternative climate summit in Copenhagen, on December 14.

“The social movements have the power to save the planet from the effects of climate change. My message to you is to continue the process of movement building after the conference”, the president said.

Mohamed Nasheed used his own personal story to illustrate the point. A few years ago he was in prison because of his work as a human rights activists, but upon his release he became the first democratic elected president of the island nation acutely threatened by the rising sea levels.

`The main issue for us is Mother Earth' -- Bolivia's delegation to Copenhagen climate talks

`Repay the climate debt!'

December 9, 2009 -- Democracy Now!

ANJALI KAMAT: Angelica, maybe we can start with you. Talk about the Danish text and your reaction.

ANGELICA NAVARRO, chief climate negotiator for Bolivia: Well, I have to say that everybody was taken a little bit by surprise, but I also want to congratulate the very good work that the press has been doing, because we have learned it from the press, actually. And the reaction has been quite straightforward from the G77, and in two accounts: on process and on the content.

And on the process, I have to say that we are quite surprised, because this is not what we were expecting. One hundred and ninety-two countries are united here to try to come to a deal. And there is this pallid process that basically seems to be untransparent, undemocratic, nonparticipatory, top down, that it seems to be imposing itself on what we are trying to achieve with 192 countries. We think that we have to come back to the real track, and that is a track with participation, inclusiveness and democracy. That is for the process.

A lesson from Seattle for Copenhagen: Vigorous activism can defeat the denialists

Protest in Seattle, 1999.

By Patrick Bond

December 1, 2009 -- Preparations for the December 7-18 Copenhagen climate summit are going as expected, including a rare sighting of the African elites' stiffened spines. That's a great development (maybe decisive), more about that below.

While activists help raise the temperature on the streets outside the Bella Centre on December 12, 13 and 16, inside we will see global North elites defensively armed with pathetic non-binding carbon emissions cuts (US President Barack Obama's promise is a mere 4% below 1990 levels) and carbon trading, but without offering the money to repay the North's ecological debt to the global South.

The first and third of these are lamentable enough, the second is the most serious diversion from the crucial work of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. A nine-minute film launched on the internet on December 1, The Story of Cap and Trade, gives all the ammunition climate activists need to understand and critique emissions trading, and to seek genuine solutions.

COPENHAGEN: A DISASTER FOR THE WORLD'S POOREST

2009-12-19T11:54:00.001+11:00

MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release, December 18, 2009

COPENHAGEN: A DISASTER FOR THE WORLD'S POOREST

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK -- Commenting on the failure of rich country governments to secure a strong and fair UN agreement to tackle climate change in Copenhagen, Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth
International, said:

“Copenhagen has been an abject failure. Justice has not been done. By delaying action, rich countries have condemned millions of the world’s poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life as climate change
accelerates. The blame for this disastrous outcome is squarely on the developed nations.

“We are disgusted by the failure of rich countries to commit to the emissions reductions they know are needed, especially the US, which is the world's largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases. In contrast African nations, China and others in the developing world deserve praise for their progressive positions and constructive approach. Major developing countries cannot be blamed for the failure of rich industrialised countries.”

A confidential United Nations paper leaked on December 17 predicts that average temperatures rise will far exceed the 2 degree threshold set by the UN even if current international pledges are fully implemented. This is effectively a death sentence for many in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, including small island states, who had demanded a limit of 1.5 degrees.

Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, added:

“Instead of committing to deep cuts in emissions and putting new, public money on the table to help solve the climate crisis, rich countries have bullied developing nations to accept far less. Those most responsible for putting the planet in this mess have not shown the guts required to fix it and have instead acted to protect short-term political interests.

“The only real leadership at the conference has come from the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who’ve come together to demand strong action to prevent climate catastrophe. Their voices are loud and growing – and Friends of the Earth International will continue to be part of the fight for climate justice.”

Friends of the Earth International has been one of the key contributors to the alternative people's summit known as the Klimaforum with allied organisations such as La Via Campesina and the World March of Women.

Friends of the Earth will continue to fight for a strong and fair agreement to tackle climate change.

“There is a growing climate justice movement and more and more people are getting involved. This is the beginning of change. Everyone can pressure their government to take a stronger stance. Everyone can take action to tackle climate change, consuming less, saving energy and improving energy efficiency for instance,“ said Palle Bendsen from NOAH / Friends of the Earth Denmark.

WHAT THE COPENHAGEN TALKS FAILED TO ACHIEVE:

* Rich, developed countries did not commit to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% in comparison with 1990 levels by 2020. These cuts should be made at home - with no offsetting. Offsetting, including through the 'Clean Development Mechanism', is a false solution and should be rejected.

* Rich, developed countries did not acknowledge the climate debt that they owe to developing countries as a result of decades of pollution.

* The World Bank and its climate funds have not been rejected despite the fact that they are set to increase developing country debt and promote dirty energy such as “clean” coal.

* Forests are still included in ‘carbon offsetting initiatives’ and this does not help to combat climate change. It diverts attention from the real solutions to climate change and deforestation. Copenhagen talks did not state that plantations are not forests. Damaging monoculture tree plantations have not been excluded from the UN climate negotiations.

* False solutions like nuclear energy and agrofuels have not been excluded from the UN talks.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Nnimmo Bassey, Chair of Friends of the Earth International: + 45 61 72 57 01

Meena Raman, Hon. Secretary, Friends of the Earth Malaysia: + 45 52 68 46 29

Erich Pica, Friends of the Earth US President, + 45 30 74 47 09

Elizabeth Bast, Friends of the Earth International: + 45 61 27 63 06

Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth England, Wales & Northern Ireland, + 44 7720 147280 (+45 6178 2833)

Lars Haltbrekken, Friends of the Earth Norway chairman: + 47 916 12 191

Palle Bendsen from NOAH / Friends of the Earth Denmark: + 45 30 13 76 95

Helen Burley, Friends of the Earth International media line: + 45 53 99 59 27

Henry Rummins, Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland email: henry.rummins@foe.co.uk or call +44 776 16 01 666 (UK mobile) or + 45 617 20 747

Nick Berning, Friends of the Earth US communications: +45 30 48 31 73 or email NBerning@foe.org

Rikke Rasmussen, NOAH / Friends of the Earth Denmark press officer: Tel: +45 21 68 18 05 or email _rikrassen@gmail.com