Cuban search and rescue team returns from Ecuador

Source: Granma
April 28 2016

The search and rescue brigade sent to help those affected by the earthquake in Ecuador returned to Cuba on April 27

by: Lauren Céspedes Hernández | informacion@granma.cu

The search and rescue brigade which left for Ecuador following the earthquake which hit the country’s northern coast on April 16, returned to Cuba on the evening of April 27.

The brigade members were received at Havana’s José Martí International Airport by Marcia Cobas, a member of the Party Central Committee and deputy minister of Public Health, as well as Brigade General and Interior Minister (Minint), José Luis Mesa Silva.

The group of 29 rescue workers traveled to Ecuador where they helped with recovery efforts over 10 days, together with health professionals from the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Large-Scale Epidemics.

Upon receiving the delegation, Cobas highlighted the importance of the mission which saw collaboration between “health personnel and Minint officials,” for the first time.

Cobas noted that the brigade’s work in Ecuador was short but intense; highlighting the team’s rigorous and disciplined efforts, all the while supported by experienced health professionals.

Solidarity and altruism

On behalf of the Minint leadership, Colonel Luis Carlos Guzmán Matos, chief of the Cuban Fire Department, congratulated the team on their work and stated that “once more Cuba’s name was held high with displays of solidarity and altruism.”

Colonel Lázaro Herrera Hernández, head of the search and rescue team expressed his pride at returning home in the knowledge that they had fulfilled their duty.
The brigade members spoke briefly about the moving scenes they witnessed and experienced in Ecuador, something they will surely never forget.

The greatest reward

“I was in Manabí and Porto Viejo. The gratitude shown by people who had lost everything, by children who came up to us and called us heroes, by people who brought us food at our camp, was immense,” said Rafael Velázquez Lalana.
Edel Llópiz Sáchez noted that the greatest reward for his work was seeing the expressions of appreciation on people’s faces.

Each brigade member received a letter of recognition from the Ministry of Public Health and reproduction of a painting of the leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, by Ernesto Rancaño.
Also in attendance at the welcome home ceremony was Regla Angulo, director of the Central Unit of Medical Cooperation, in addition to other Minint officials.

Cuba: Reduction in food prices of up to 20%

Source: Granma
April 28 2016

Cubans welcomed the measure designed to increase the population’s purchasing power over the short term.

by Redacción Nacional | internet@granma.cu

Cubans welcomed the announcement on April 22 of a reduction of up to 20% in the price of certain products, mainly foodstuffs.

The Ministry of Finance and Prices highlighted in an informative note published the same day in the national press, that the Central Report to the 7th Party Congress, held April 16-19, states that “salaries and pensions are still insufficient to meet the needs of the Cuban family.”

Gradually increasing the population’s purchasing power in the short term

The note adds that although the definitive solution to this complex situation will only be reached through an increase in the productivity and efficiency of the national economy, “the political will of the Party and government leadership to do everything possible to improve the situation of the population in the context of existing limitations, as well as a drop in food prices on the world market,” have led to the adoption of such measures, which aim to gradually increase the population’s purchasing power over the short term.

The announcement had an immediate impact: “Great news, I think the country’s policies should continue along this line, not only with well-deserved wage increases based on greater productivity, but by continuing to reduce prices, above all of basic and essential products,” stated Jorge Luis, one of the many readers who expressed his reaction to the measure on the Granma website.

Building a prosperous and sustainable socialism

Cuba is currently in the process of updating its economic model in order to build a prosperous and sustainable socialism. As President Raúl Castro stated at the close of the recently held 7th Party Congress, this process demands “that the principles of justice and equality, which have served as the Revolution’s foundation, be preserved and strengthened.”

The Communist Party of Cuba First Secretary added, “A Revolution of the humble, by the humble and for the humble, as Fidel defined it, with undeniable social works constructed, will never find solutions to its problems behind the backs of the people, or with the restoration of capitalism, which would imply the application of shock therapies to layers of the population with the least resources, and destroy the unity and confidence of the majority of our citizens in the Revolution and the Party. In Cuba, I reiterate once again, no one will be left to their fate.”

 

The Return of the Coup in Latin America

Source:  Counterpunch
April 26 2016
by MANUEL E. YEPE

Venezuela and Brazil are the scenes of a new form of coup d’état that would set the continent’s political calendar back to its worst times. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the brutal model for the demolition of democracy is set forward by the continental oligarchic right and the hegemonic forces of US imperialism who wish to impose their model in the region.

As we can see in the previews that test the memory of the peoples in the continent, it is difficult to accept that the new types of coups are actually softer and more covert than those which Latin America suffered for so long.

No less cruel 

What has been shown so far in Argentina is no less cruel, in terms of contempt for the masses, than the coups carried out by the bloodthirsty dictatorships that sprouted in time of Operation Condor.

In Venezuela the president of the opposition majority in the National Assembly, Henry Ramos, openly declares that in view of the severity of the economic crisis, he fails to see Maduro concluding his term and adds they should put an end to Nicolas Maduro’s legitimate government within six months. Such statements did not compel the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, to formulate even the mildest rejection to such a coup-like declaration. This indicates they are returning to the era of open and brutal coups in the backyard of the United States of America.

The demolition of democracy

Meanwhile, in Argentina, the newly-elected president, Mauricio Macri, moves forward the implementation of his “democratic model” with a brutal demolition of all the advances the nation had made after the collapse it suffered as a result of the neo-liberal economic and political crisis from which it had been rescued by the consecutive popular governments of Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Argentinean writer, journalist, and researcher Stella Calloni, explains that the current coup in Argentina began the same day Macri took office. He is an extreme right businessman who, since 2007 (according to Wikileaks) offered his services to the US embassy in Buenos Aires.

“The coup offensive began with decrees that allowed for the intervention of institutions and absolutely illegal measures, such as the appointment by decree of two judges to the Supreme Court. All economic measures favor the powerful and mark a path of exclusion for the common people,” says Calloni.

Violating the constitution and the laws

Violating the constitution and the laws, and ruling by Necessity and Urgency Decrees(NUDs) since December 2015, Macri took a road that evidently seeks to deliver the country to the global hegemonic power and the destruction of a work that had earned Argentina worldwide admiration and respect. He is delivering the country to the sinister designs of the International Monetary Fund and other agencies, banks and foreign institutions. All his economic actions favor the powerful and mark a path of exclusion for the population”.

“The negative opposition in Congress is part of the ongoing coup the US and its local puppets are carrying out against Venezuela,” Calloni says.

US support for Macri’s unconstitutional decrees

While the United States and its network of partners and local employees –with applause from the hegemonic power– support Macri’s unconstitutional decrees, in Venezuela, the decree of “economic emergency” signed by President Nicolas Maduro, was rejected by the legislative opposition with the acquiescence of the same power.

Never before was the right more willing to violate the Constitution and call to sedition, warned former Venezuelan Vice-President and journalist Jose Vicente Rangel. “Seldom in our country had a coup been announced so clearly and at the same time so elusively; the option would be the presidential recall, but this option –within our constitution– is only tangentially alluded to.”

According to Rangel, the opposition sails in two rivers by affirming, on the one hand, that within six months Nicolas Maduro will leave –by peaceful and constitutional means–Miraflores Palace (seat of government) and, on the other, that they will not even wait that long to oust the Venezuelan president.

“The right has grown presumptuous after its legislative victory of last December 6. But they still remember the failed coup of 2002: a resounding failure that made them switch to peaceful methods –as the ones they are apparently trying to use now– to overthrow the socialist power, But neither the soft blows, the carnival costumes used to confuse, or the violent coups can occur with impunity,” concludes José Vicente Rangel.

This article was translated from the Spanish by Walter Lippmann for the invaluable CubaNews.

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Manuel E. Yepe is a lawyer, economist and journalist. He is a professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana.

More articles by:MANUEL E. YEPE

next – More Than a Few Rogue Cops: the Disturbing History of Police in Schools,

previous – An Ode to the Death of Europe and a Concerned Love Letter to Žižek,

 

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Amercican New Strategy Towards Russia and China

Source:  katehon.com
April 21 2016

Famous American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski once again frightened mankind by saying that “the end of America’s global role … would most probably be global chaos”. To avoid this, the supporter of the American hegemony of the United States suggested Global Realignment. That’s the name of his article in the Journal The American Interest. So, what is the American Interest according to Brzezinski?

To briefly summarize the content of Brzezinski’s article it boils down to two theses:

1) The United States is no longer a global imperial power.

2)  As was already mentioned above – the probable chaos as a result of the collapse of the US imperial hegemony. In order for the United States to maintain its power, Brzezinski offers several recipes:

1. a) Make the main geopolitical rivals of America – Russia and China – work towards US interests. This is supposed to use the crisis in the Middle East as a source of supposed common threats to all three powers.

A coalition that involves Russia and China

“America can only be effective in dealing with the current Middle Eastern violence if it forges a coalition that involves, in varying degrees, also Russia and China”.

“The political prospect for China in the near future is to become America’s principal partner in containing global chaos, of the sort that is spreading outward (including to the northeast) from the Middle East. If it is not contained, it will contaminate Russia’s southern and eastern territories as well as the western portions of China”.

1. b)    Making the Islamic world work towards US interests. To do this, Brzezinski once again recalls his doctrine of “global democratic awakening”, which justifies US involvement in Arab Springs. The gist of it is simple: use the anti-American forces to strengthen US domination through the various mechanisms of influence and direct infiltration. Brzezinski states that special attention should be focused on the non-Western world’s newly politically aroused masses, and this can be understood only in the context of his theory of global democratic awakening. The emergence of ISIS, and before that the color revolutions of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the Islamic world can be regarded as the practical application of this particular strategy. These forces “surprisingly” create problems for anyone except the United States.
2. c) To maintain the US military presence in the Middle East by any means. The text states that this is crucial for the United States, as withdrawal will immediately trigger the collapse of American hegemony:

“A comprehensive US pullout from the Muslim world favored by domestic isolationists, could give rise to new wars (for example, Israel vs. Iran, Saudi Arabia vs. Iran, a major Egyptian intervention in Libya) and would generate an even deeper crisis of confidence in America’s globally stabilizing role. In different but dramatically unpredictable ways, Russia and China could be the geopolitical beneficiaries of such a development even as global order itself becomes the more immediate geopolitical casualty. Last but not least, in such circumstances a divided and fearful Europe would see its current member states searching for patrons and competing with one another in alternative but separate arrangements among the more powerful trio”.

In other words, Brzezinski offers the following strategy, where the Middle East is playing a key role:

1. To foment chaos and war in the region, relying on the strength of “global democratic awakening.”
2. Declare war on terrorism and to shift the burden onto Russia and China, drawing them into a hopeless conflict in the region.
3. Maintain or even increase its military presence under the pretext of preserving stability in the Middle East.

Of course, all of this is masked by the theses of the struggle against terrorism and paying attention to the suffering of Muslims and the inhabitants of the Third World in general, and because the main actors in the crisis in the Middle East chessboard of Eurasia – Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Europe, and Saudi Arabia – are invited to participate in it. The pretext is that they are all interested in resolving the conflict, but in fact it will only lead to a conflict of interest and increase the chaos.

Read full post here:

Zbigniew Brezezinski’s Amercican New Strategy Towards Russia and China

 

May Day in Cuba: Teachers leading the way

Source:  Granma
April 26 2016

Over 40,000 teachers and students from pedagogical schools, accompanied by their families, will lead the May Day march to Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion

This year May Day celebrations will be dedicated to historic leader Fidel Castro’s 90th birthday. Photo: Ricardo López Hevia

By  Nuria Barbosa León | internet@granma.cu

Cuban education professionals honoured

Over 40,000 teachers and students from pedagogical schools, accompanied by their families, will lead the May Day march to Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución, according to Ismael Drullet Pérez, secretary general of the National Union of Education, Science and Sports Workers, speaking to Granma International, who commented on the achievements which have seen the sector awarded the honor of leading the mass procession.

“Firstly, due to the contribution of Cuban education professionals to the country’s development – all the work done in the economic, scientific and cultural spheres has its foundation in the education sector.

In fact, the national literacy campaign is celebrating its 55th anniversary this 2016; a cultural revolution which impacted the scientific-technical development of the country and the world. Born out of this campaign was the Cuban “Yo sí puedo” (Yes, I can) literacy method which has benefited 12 million people in 30 countries worldwide.

55th anniversary of the founding of the trade union for teachers

The celebration also coincides with the 55th anniversary of the founding of our trade union. The National Constitutive Congress was held from November 22 to 23, 1961, in order to unify different teachers’ associations. The union leadership was composed of Dr. Gaspar Jorge García Galló, who served as secretary general, and poet and Professor Raúl Ferrer Pérez, among other outstanding compañeros active in the struggle for better labor rights before the triumph of the Revolution.

The union had a 99% membership rate during those years of intense struggle. We support professionals working in the fields of general, pre-school, technical-professional, special and university education; athletes; sports trainers and workers from scientific facilities not affiliated with the BioCubaFarma Enterprise Group, in addition to over 14,000 sector retirees.

The Union’s chief tasks have been the effective functioning of the organization, with an emphasis on successfully educating and representing workers; creating a supportive climate in every educational facility; and remaining committed to continuing to strengthen the values and ethics, which together with the example set by the workers themselves, we wish to transmit to our athletes and students.”

Planned activities

This event coincides with a group of noteworthy activities. Right now we are celebrating the 55th anniversary of the creation of pre-school day care centers. The national act took place in Pinar del Río where participants honored pre-school education, designed to educate children in their first years.

During the event we presented the Estrella Martiana Award to institutions and individuals who have made outstanding efforts to promote the legacy of the work of José Martí within schools.

We are likewise putting on other activities paying tribute to union leaders, important workers, including that of exemplary teachers, as well as sporting establishments which have produced Olympic gold medal winning athletes. Higher education institutions are recognized with the University of Excellence distinction.

An intense campaign to combat the Aedes mosquito

In honor of the occasion we are carrying out various repairs and maintenance initiatives to improve sanitation and hygiene across educational facilities. The country is currently involved in an intense campaign to combat the Aedes mosquito which causes dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever epidemics, and constantly monitor and attend to our establishments in order to prevent the spread of vectors. Our students participate in mobilization efforts, visiting houses and explaining sanitation methods to residents.

The event is an opportunity to motivate workers to improve the quality of services they provide, with a focus on better training.
May Day is a joyful, celebratory occasion, where we will also be demanding an end to the genocidal U.S. economic, financial and commercial blockade and the return of the territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base.

Unity of the Cuban people 

We are going to express the unity of the Cuban people and our commitment to the homeland and the Revolution. Our professionals educate children and young people in human and altruistic values which benefit our society. During the parade we will reaffirm our patriotism in a strong and colorful display, with our national symbols. We will raise our flags for Cuba and other countries of the continent, plagued by neoliberal policies.

We will be marching in honor of our greatest teacher, Fidel Castro on his 90th birthday. We will have lanterns used by the literacy campaigners, pencils, teaching guides and manuals, all symbols of that great educational achievement.

Our athletes will wear their competition uniforms and we will see glories of Cuban sport alongside those who have qualified for Río de Janeiro, in Brazil, during the march.

International organizations will participate on May Day

We will see leaders from the Confederation of American Educators (CEA)an organization, with which we are affiliated. Representatives from Mexico’s teachers’ union, the Federation of University Professors of Nicaragua and union leaders from around the world, will all be coming to the march.

Union delegations from England, Canada, Portugal and friendship organizations from the continent are scheduled to attend. We hope to see a delegation of education professionals from the Bahamas, together with their president, as well as other friends who accompany us every year.

2016 – strengthening the school’s role as a cultural institution within the community

Last December we held our first union conference and this year we have organized actions geared toward implementing the agreements reached during the meeting.

There, we discussed how to resolve the contradiction between quantity and quality; improving the professional level and training of teaching staff; perfecting the education system; strengthening the school’s role as a cultural institution within the community; guaranteeing the mechanisms to apply decisions made in the teaching-training process; aspects of employment legislation; and creating a positive environment for teachers and the school as a whole.

Through our actions we aim to better meet the needs of those who work or have worked in the humanist and complex task of educating. We make the most of every institutional anniversary to hold acts to commemorate the work.

It is a very seasoned union, which joined the Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC) in 1993, when it was created, and stands out for its support of ideas regarding social change. A large number of government and institutional cadre directors have pedagogical training.

Teachers participate in all the country’s social and political activities. For example, if a census is taken, workers and students participate, as well as in national events and mobilization campaigns.

We host the forum on education in Latin America every year

In regards to the international university and pedagogy event which we hold every year without fail, we host the forum on education in Latin America, organized by the Confederation of American Educators (CEA). Our Union is one of the vice-chairs of this international organization.

We have ties to over fifty trade union organizations around the world and more than thirty in the region. We support common issues such as collective discussions, teacher performance assessments, union membership, quality of teaching and staff training.

We live in a world where there is a tendency to privatize education, limiting access to the majority of the population. Private institutions don’t establish the conditions in which to form a trade union.

We will continue to defend our right to free and quality education

In Cuba the education system is state-run and we will continue to defend our right to free and quality education, an experience which is of interest to the other organizations.

The Cuban system is noteworthy for its teacher training programs and although we don’t have enough teachers to complete school staff rosters, we have progressed in pedagogical and postgraduate training of our teachers and professors.

We receive many delegations interested in Cuba’s experiences, even from the United States. Relations are good in the region; our Union is renowned and is considered to be a reference, which is why international delegations will be accompanying us this May Day.”

The Collapse Of The Western Fiat Monetary System May Have Begun

Source: Global Research 
April 24 2016

By Peter Koenig

The Collapse of the Western Fiat Monetary System may have Begun. China, Russia and the Reemergence of Gold-Backed Currencies

On 19 April 2016, China was rolling out its new gold-backed yuan. Russia’s ruble has been fully supported by gold for the last couple of years. Nobody in the western media talks about it. Why would they? – A western reader may start wondering why he is constantly stressed by a US dollar based fiat monetary systems that is manipulated at will by a small elite of financial oligarchs for their benefit and to the detriment of the common people. 

In a recent Russia Insider article, Sergey Glaziev, one of Russia’s top economists and advisor to President Putin said about Russia’s currency, “The ruble Is the most gold-backed currency in the world”. He went on explaining that the amount of rubles circulating is covered by about twice the amount of gold in Russia’s Treasury.

CIPS replaces SWIFT

In addition to a financial alliance, Russia and China also have developed in the past couple of years their own money transfer system, the China International Payment System, or the CIPS network which replaces the western transfer system, SWIFT, for Russian-Chinese internal trading. SWIFT, stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, a network operating in 215 countries and territories and used by over 10,000 financial institutions.

Up until recently almost every international monetary transaction had to use SWIFT, a private institution, based in Belgium. ‘Private’ like in the US Federal Reserve Bank (FED), Wall Street banks and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS); all are involved in international monetary transfers and heavily influenced by the Rothschild family. No wonder that the ‘independent’ SWIFT plays along with Washington’s sanctions, for example, cutting off Iran from the international transfer system. Similarly, Washington used its arm-twisting with SWIFT to help Paul Singer’s New York Vulture Fund to extort more than 4 billion dollars from Argentina, by withholding Argentina’s regular debt payments as was agreed with 93% of all creditors. Eventually Argentina found other ways of making its payments, not to fall into disrepute and insolvency.

Macri ready to pay Argentina’s illegal debt

All of this changed for Argentina, when Mauricio Macri, the new neoliberal President put in place by Washington, appeared on the scene last December. He reopened the negotiations and is ready to pay a sizable junk of this illegal debt, despite a UN decision that a country that reaches a settlement agreement with the majority of the creditors is not to be pressured by non-conforming creditors. In the case of Argentina, the vulture lord bought the country’s default debt for a pittance and now that the nation’s economy had recovered he wants to make a fortune on the back of the population. This is how our western fraudulent monetary system functions.

CIPS also applied by he remaining BRICS countries, Brazil, India and South Africa

China’s economy has surpassed that of the United States and this new eastern alliance is considered an existential threat to the fake western economy. CIPS, already used for trading and monetary exchange within China and Russia, is also applied by the remaining BRICS, Brazil, India and South Africa; and by the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), plus India, Pakistan and Iran, as well as the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan).

Washington trying hard to destroy BRICS

It is said that CIPS is ready to be launched worldwide as early as September 2016. It would be a formidable alternative to the western dollar based monetary Ponzi scheme.

The new eastern monetary sovereignty is one of the major reasons why Washington tries so hard to destroy the BRICS, mainly China and Russia – and lately with a special effort of false accusations also Brazil through a Latin America type Color Revolution.

The Yuan has become an official reserve currency

In addition, the Yuan late last year was accepted by the IMF in its SDR basket as the fifth reserve currency, the other four being the US dollar, the British pound, the euro and the Japanese yen. The SDR, or Special Drawing Right, functions like a virtual currency. It is made up of the weighted average of the five currencies and can be lent to countries at their request, as a way of reducing exchange risks. Being part of the SDR, the yuan has become an official reserve currency. In fact, in Asia the yuan is already heavily used in many countries’ treasuries, as an alternative to the ever more volatile US dollar.

The western dollar-led fiat monetary system is on its last leg

It is no secret, the western dollar-led fiat monetary system is on its last leg – as eventually any Ponzi scheme will be. What does ‘fiat’ mean? It is money created out of thin air. It has no backing whatsoever; not gold, not even the economic output generated by the country or countries issuing the money, i.e. the United States of America and Europe. It is simply declared “legal tender’’ by Government decree.

No pyramid scheme is sustainable in the long run and eventually will collapse. It was invented and is used by a small invisible upper crest of elite making insane amounts of profit on the back of the 99% of us. Since these elitists are in control of the media with their lie propaganda, as well as the warmongering killing machine, US armed forces, NATO, combined with the international security and spy apparatus, CIA, MI6, Mossad, DGSE, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and more, we are powerless – but powerless only as long as we ignore what’s really going on behind the curtain.

Read full article here:  The Collapse of the Western Fiat Monetary System may have Begun. China, Russia and the Reemergence of Gold-Backed Currencies  Global Research

Black Lives Matter Denounces US Continuing Intervention In Venezuela

By Opal Tometi, www.venezuelanalysis.com
December 28th, 2015

 

The co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Network and Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration warns that the recent electoral victory of U.S.-backed counter revolutionary parties in Venezuela endangers the country’s African-descended population. The letter denounces “corporate media lies about electoral corruption voiced by Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sander’s defamation of late President Hugo Chavez labeling him a dictator.”

“We reject any action the U.S. puts forward to plunder Venezuelan natural resources, occupy the country and incite violence.”

Black North American Solidarity Statement with the Venezuelan People

On December 6, 2015, the eyes of the world turned to the National Assembly elections in Venezuela. For the 20th time in 17 years the Venezuelan people went to the polls, this time to elect the national legislature. In a significant blow to the progressive and most impoverished sectors of Venezuela – working-class, Afrodescendant and indigenous people – and to global allies, the counter-revolutionaries won control of the National Assembly.

Thousands of people who once worked cacao plantations as enslaved Africans, then sharecroppers, now run those fields as cooperatives

In these last 17 years, we have witnessed the Bolivarian Revolution champion participatory democracy and construct a fair, transparent election system recognized as among the best in the world – a democratic process that has advocated the rights of Afrodescendants and other oppressed people within Venezuela and across the globe. We have seen the most marginalized sectors of Venezuela transform into active citizens in collaboration with a government that has responded to their needs and aspirations. Thousands of people who once worked cacao plantations as enslaved Africans, then sharecroppers, now run those fields as cooperatives. The profits from Venezuela’s vast oil reserves that once went directly to U.S. oil now are invested in social programs.

The triumphs of oppressed people anywhere are triumphs for Black people everywhere

Black people in North America understand that the triumphs of oppressed people anywhere in the world are triumphs for Black people everywhere. And so,

• we smile with the young girl in the Venezuelan countryside, as she leaves a Mission Barrio Adentro clinic, her asthma symptoms treated without cost by a Cuban doctor. Her health is our own.
• we stand with the single young mother, as she takes leadership of her community council with unwavering commitment to her barrio’s collective well-being, building their own urban gardens. Her voice is our own.
• we enter the house of a family who has benefited from Venezuela’s housing mission which has built nearly one million homes across the country. Their dignity is our own.
• we stand with the Venezuelan people as they build a revolutionary and popular democracy based on communal power. Their struggle is our own.

“We reject the hypocrisy of the Venezuelan elite – who like settlers everywhere – cling to their white privilege to the point of even lynching Afrodescendants.”

We denounce the United States of America’s continuing intervention and support for the counter-revolution in Venezuela using economic, political, psychological, media and military means.

We will never forget the U.S.’s shameless backing of the 2002 coup carried out by the right-wing Venezuelan elite. We reject any action the U.S. puts forward to plunder Venezuelan natural resources, occupy the country and incite violence. For example, the U.S. supported the opposition’s guarimbas in 2014 resulting in the deaths of 43 people and millions of dollars of property and commercial damage. We reject the hypocrisy of the Venezuelan elite – who like settlers everywhere – cling to their white privilege to the point of even lynching Afrodescendants. We denounce U.S. espionage against Venezuela, illegal surveillance of PDVSA, violation of Venezuelan airspace and sanctions against Venezuela. We denounce the corporate media lies about electoral corruption voiced by Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sander’s defamation of late President Hugo Chavez labeling him a dictator.

Venezuelan solidarity with Black people in North America

We deeply appreciate solidarity that the Venezuelan people have expressed with Black people in North America in our struggles against state violence, social injustice and exclusion from democratic decision making. We recognize how the Bolivarian government offered aid to the people of New Orleans after Katrina and free and low-cost heating oil to communities like the Bronx, New York.

We are Black organizations and individuals fighting against U.S. white supremacy and imperialism and for human rights and social justice. We offer this expression of our unwavering solidarity with the progressive and revolutionary Venezuelan people as they reflect, regroup and rectify to defend the Bolivarian Revolution.

We demand U.S. Hands off Venezuela!

We stand with the Venezuelan people and defend their right to self-determination!

In solidarity,

Opal Tometi

Related Posts:

• Black Lives Matter Schism: A Vision For Black AutonomySeptember 28, 2015
• The Art Of The Black Lives Matter MovementSeptember 17, 2015
• Mayor Calls For End To Black Lives Matter EncampmentDecember 1, 2015
• Why Black Lives Matter Protests Were Nonviolent, But Not CalmNovember 28, 2015
• Black Lives Matter Not Endorsing Presidential CandidateSeptember 20, 2015

 

To See the Real Story in Brazil, Look at Who Is Being Installed as President — and Finance Chiefs

Source:  Information Clearing House
April 24, 2016 “Information Clearing House” – “The Intercept“-  

By Glenn Greenwald

It’s not easy for outsiders to sort through all the competing claims about Brazil’s political crisis and the ongoing effort to oust its president, Dilma Rousseff, who won re-election a mere 18 months ago with 54 million votes. But the most important means for understanding the truly anti-democratic nature of what’s taking place is to look at the person whom Brazilian oligarchs and their media organs are trying to install as president: the corruption-tainted, deeply unpopular, oligarch-serving Vice President Michel Temer (above). Doing so shines a bright light on what’s really going on, and why the world should be deeply disturbed.

The New York Times’s Brazil bureau chief, Simon Romero, interviewed Temer this week, and this is how his excellent article begins:

RIO DE JANEIRO — One recent poll found that only 2 percent of Brazilians would vote for him. He is under scrutiny over testimony linking him to a colossal graft scandal. And a high court justice ruled that Congress should consider impeachment proceedings against him.

Michel Temer, Brazil’s vice president, is preparing to take the helm of Brazil next month if the Senate decides to put President Dilma Rousseff on trial.

An obvious farce

How can anyone rational believe that anti-corruption anger is driving the elite effort to remove Dilma when they are now installing someone as president who is accused of corruption far more serious than she is? It’s an obvious farce. But there’s something even worse.

The person who is third in line to the presidency, right behind Temer, has been exposed as shamelessly corrupt: the evangelical zealot and House speaker Eduardo Cunha. He’s the one who spearheaded the impeachment proceedings even though he got caught last year squirreling away millions of dollars in bribes in Swiss bank accounts, after having lied to Congress when falsely denying that he had any accounts in foreign banks. When Romero asked Temer about his posture toward Cunha once he takes power, this is how Temer responded:

Eduardo Cunha, the scandal-plagued speaker

Mr. Temer defended himself and top allies who are under a cloud of accusations in the scheme. He expressed support for Eduardo Cunha, the scandal-plagued speaker of the lower house who is leading the impeachment effort in Congress, saying he would not ask Mr. Cunha to resign. Mr. Cunha will be the next in line for the presidency if Mr. Temer takes over.

The massive scam taking place in Brazil

By itself, this demonstrates the massive scam taking place here. As my partner, David Miranda, wrote this morning in his Guardian op-ed: “It has now become clear that corruption is not the cause of the effort to oust Brazil’s twice-elected president; rather, corruption is merely the pretext.” In response, Brazil’s media elites will claim (as Temer did) that once Dilma is impeached, then the other corrupt politicians will most certainly be held accountable, but they know this is false, and Temer’s shocking support for Cunha makes that clear. Indeed, press reports show that Temer is planning to install as attorney general — the key government contact for the corruption investigation — a politician specifically urged for that position by Cunha. As Miranda’s op-ed explains, “The real plan behind Rousseff’s impeachment is to put an end to the ongoing investigation, thus protecting corruption, not punishing it.”

Long-time IMF official – strong candidate to become Brazil’s finance minster

But there’s one more vital motive driving all of this. Look at who is going to take over Brazil’s economy and finances once Dilma’s election victory is nullified. Two weeks ago, Reuters reported that Temer’s leading choice to run the central bank is the chair of Goldman Sachs in Brazil, Paulo Leme. Today, Reuters reported that “Murilo Portugal, the head of Brazil’s most powerful banking industry lobby” — and a long-time IMF official — “has emerged as a strong candidate to become finance minister if Temer takes power.” Temer also vowed that he would embrace austerity for Brazil’s already-suffering population: He “intends to downsize the government” and “slash spending.”

Implementing “structural reforms” in Brazil

In an earning calls last Friday with JP Morgan, the celebratory CEO of Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior SA, Rubens Amaral, explicitly described Dilma’s impeachment as “one of the first steps to normalization in Brazil,” and said that if Temer’s new government implements the “structural reforms” that the financial community desires, then “definitely there will be opportunities.” News of Temer’s preferred appointees strongly suggests Mr. Amaral — and his fellow plutocrats — will be pleased.

Media-incited street protests

Meanwhile, the dominant Brazilian media organs of Globo, Abril (Veja), Estadão — which Miranda’s op-ed discusses at length — are virtually unified in support of impeachment, as in No Dissent Allowed, and have been inciting the street protests from the start. Why is that revealing? Reporters Without Borders just yesterday released its 2016 Press Freedom Rankings, and ranked Brazil 103 in the world because of violence against journalists but also because of this key fact: “Media ownership continues to be very concentrated, especially in the hands of big industrial families that are often close to the political class.” Is it not crystal clear what’s going on here?

A conspiracy to install and empower the country’s most corrupted political figures

So to summarize: Brazilian financial and media elites are pretending that corruption is the reason for removing the twice-elected president of the country as they conspire to install and empower the country’s most corrupted political figures. Brazilian oligarchs will have succeeded in removing from power a moderately left-wing government that won four straight elections in the name of representing the country’s poor, and are literally handing control over the Brazilian economy (the world’s seventh largest) to Goldman Sachs and bank industry lobbyists.

An assault on Brazilian democracy

This fraud being perpetrated here is as blatant as it is devastating. But it’s the same pattern that has been repeatedly seen around the world, particularly in Latin America, when a tiny elite wages a self-protective, self-serving war on the fundamentals of democracy. Brazil, the world’s fifth most populous country, has been an inspiring example of how a young democracy can mature and thrive. But now, those democratic institutions and principles are being fully assaulted by the very same financial and media factions that suppressed democracy and imposed tyranny in that country for decades.

 

Activist who Filed Lawsuit in Flint Water Crisis Murdered

Source:  Daily Mail
April 23 2016

By DAILY MAIL ONLINE REPORTER

Woman, 19, who filed first Flint lawsuit against government is MURDERED just days after suspicious death of foreman at city’s water treatment plant

• Sasha Avonna Bell, 19, sued government officials and six companies for allegedly causing her toddler to suffer from lead poisoning
• She was found dead along with another woman on April 19 in a Flint home
• A young child was found alive in the home but has not been identified
• Her death came days after Flint water plant foreman was found dead    

Sasha Avonna Bell was found dead on Tuesday.  She filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son, pictured here with her

A woman who was among the first to file a lawsuit in connection to the Flint, Michigan water crisis was identified as one of two victims of a fatal shooting that happened earlier this week.

She was identified Thursday, the same day the death of a Flint Water Treatment Plant foreman who was wanted for questioning in connection with the crisis was announced.

Sasha Avonna Bell, 19, filed a lawsuit that alleged her 1-year-old suffers from the effects of lead poisoning as a result of contaminated water in Flint.

She was found dead on Tuesday along with another victim, Sacorya Renee Reed, inside a home on Ridgecrest Drive, MLive reported.

A 1-year-old child was found unharmed inside the home, but it was not clear whether the toddler was related to Bell.

A ‘lovely young woman’ who cared ‘deeply’ for her family and child

A suspect was taken into custody, but no charges had been filed as of Thursday, according to MLive.

Bell’s attorney described her as a ‘lovely young woman’ who cared ‘deeply’ for her family and child.

‘Her tragic and senseless death has created a void in the lives of so many people that loved her. Hopefully, her child will be lifted up by the love and support from everyone who cared deeply for Sasha,’ said Corey M. Stern to MLive.

Stern’s New York-based law firm Levy Koningsberg is handling 64 lawsuits filed on behalf of 144 children, along with Flint-based firm Robinson Carter & Crawford.

Sacorya Renee Reed, pictured left, was found dead along with Sasha Avonna Bell on Tuesday. Matthew McFarland, pictured right, was a foreman at the Flint Water Treatment plant who was found dead in an unrelated incident April 16

Bell’s lawsuit named six companies and three current and former government employees, accusing them of shirking their responsibilities for the safety of the water in Flint

Bell’s lawsuit named six companies and three current and former government employees, accusing them of shirking their responsibilities for the safety of the water in Flint.

A GoFundMe page was set up to pay for funeral costs for Bell.

On Thursday, it was revealed that a Flint Water Treatment Plant foreman was found dead on April 16 in his Otter Lake home.

The foreman, Matthew McFarland, was 43. He had been questioned by investigators looking into Flint’s water crisis. The cause of his death is unknown.

The Battle for Venezuela

Source: Clement Payne Movement (Barbados)
April 22 2016

by David Comissiong

After spending one week in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as a participant in a conference of the “International Network In Defense of Humanity”, I have returned to Barbados more determined than ever to offer support to the Government and people of Venezuela and to help foster people-to-people linkages between Barbados and Venezuela.

During my week in Venezuela, my colleague Dr. Tennyson Joseph and I were eye witnesses to the battle that is being waged against the nation of Venezuela by the United States of America-centred international oligarchy, and to the valiant counter attack that has been launched by the Socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

 Hugo Chavez

As many Barbadians would be aware, it was Venezuela, under the leadership of the late Hugo Chavez, that provided the definitive resistance to the efforts of the United States establishment to maintain and intensify a system of neocolonial control over and exploitation of the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Indeed, even before Hugo Chavez took up the mantle of leadership, it was the ordinary, working class people of Caracas  who, in the year 1989, struck the first defiant blow against the system of neocolonialism with the staging of a week long rebellion against the US controlled “International Monetary Fund” (IMF) and its “structural adjustment” policies.

On February 27 1989, the poorest Venezuelans took over the streets in protest against prices increases resulting from the structural adjustment policies of the IMF

In a popular rebellion that was violently suppressed by the then US controlled President of Venezuela, Carlos Andres Perez, and that saw some three thousand working-class Venezuelans losing their lives, the masses of  Venezuela sent a message of rejection of the neoliberal/neocolonial principles and policies of privatization, cuts in social spending, deregulation of the economy, opening up to foreign (North American) capitalist businesses, and subordination to US strategic interests and policies.

It was this popular message that then Major Hugo Chavez Frias took to heart and used as a catalyst for the later formulation of such anti-neoliberal policies as the Venezuela led campaign against the USA’s “Free Trade Areas of the Americas” and the substitution of a socialistic “Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the Americas” (ALBA) and a “Petro Caribe Energy Cooperation Agreement”.

Development for the people

Chavez also repudiated the application of the neoliberal Capitalist policies within Venezuela itself, and instead, for the first time in the history of Venezuela, ensured that the wealth emanating from the country’s massive petroleum industry was directed towards financing social welfare benefits for the masses of Venezuelans – free education and health care, state provided housing, poverty and hunger reduction measures, and cultural and artistic development programmes.

Events subsequent to 1989 proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Venezuelan people (and Hugo Chavez) were absolutely right when they rejected neoliberal Capitalism! I refer to such developments as the 2008 implosion of the parasitic Capitalist financial system; the plague of warfare, barbarism and chaos that the Anglo-American Capitalist establishment has unleashed against dozens of nations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa; and the nihilism and cultural depravity that has come to be associated with North American and Western European cultural imperialism.

But it doesn’t matter how self-evidently right Hugo Chavez and the masses of Venezuelan people were! As far as the international Capitalist oligarchy and their agents in the Venezuelan bourgeoisie are concerned, the welfare of the people is of little or no consideration. As far as they are concerned, the masses of Venezuelans can continue to live in slum-like barrios! The only thing that matters to the oligarchy and their agents is that they must regain control of Venezuela’s precious petroleum resources.

Indeed, the US establishment, faced with the prospect of a further and more severe melt down of its financial system, and requiring additional wars in far away places in order to maintain its increasingly precarious hold on the world economy, is desperate to re-establish control over the massive petroleum resources located in an area that it contemptuously refers to as to its “backyard”.

And so, the battle for Venezuela is well and truly on

The Anglo-American establishment and their Saudi Arabian allies have deliberately driven down international oil prices in an effort to subvert and topple the nationalist governments of Venezuela and Russia.

In addition, the Barack Obama administration has ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela by issuing an Executive Order that has decreed that Venezuela is a threat to the national security of the USA, while influential American newspapers, such as the Washington Post, are calling for a foreign invasion of Venezuela!

Meanwhile, the oligarchy’s agents within the Venezuelan business class are attempting to subvert the Maduro Government by engineering shortages of basic consumer goods within the country’s shops and supermarkets.

The good news is that the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the political party of President Maduro, is fighting back strenuously.

Patriotic Congress launched

After having lost a December 2015 National Assembly election that was contested against the backdrop of a campaign of unrelenting foreign interference and pressure against the Maduro Government, the PSUV has now come to the realization that it is in the midst of a veritable economic, political and diplomatic “war”, and that it has to mobilize the masses of the Venezuelan people to defend their Bolivarian Revolution.

As a result, just last week Wednesday, the 13^th of April 2016, a massive people-based “Congresso de la Patria” (Patriotic Congress) was officially launched at the Poliedro de Caracas indoor arena, with some 30,000 people in attendance.  This Congress of the People, comprised of representatives of popular organizations and communities, is expected to fill the vacuum created by a recalcitrant and non-functioning National Assembly, and will assist the Government in devising and implementing policies to deal with the current crisis situation.

 New policies

The Government has devised a raft of new policies, inclusive of policies for dealing with the deficiencies in the food distribution system, and for controlling prices that are currently being manipulated by the business class through an artificially induced inflation.

Most importantly, the Vice President of Venezuela, the vastly experienced Aristobulo Isturiz, has announced plans to bring on stream a number of new factories that will be devoted to producing quantities of 50 of the most desperately needed goods and materials!

 Taxation revolution

Furthermore, the Maduro Government recently engineered a “taxation revolution” which will see the wealthy bourgeoisie being required to pay more tax revenue that will be applied towards supporting minimum standards of well-being for the masses of people in this “special period” of depressed oil prices and government revenues.

So, the Government and popular organizations of Venezuela are fighting a good fight. And what they need from us now is our solidarity and support.

Stop the outside pressure and interference from the USA

The Maduro Government has thoroughly analyzed the challenges facing Venezuela and has worked out a concrete and practical strategy to overcome the crisis. But what they need, in order to be successful, is to stop the outside pressure and interference from the USA.

And this is where we come in. This is where we can play a role to help the Bolivarian Revolution. We can raise our voices, pens, computers, facebook and twitter accounts to send a message to the Barack Obama Administration and to demand that they keep their hands off Venezuela! We can also intervene with our national governments, and insist that they stand shoulder to shoulder with Venezuela!

The Bolivarian Revolution is relevant to the entire region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Let us ensure that we defend it!

David Comissiong
President
Clement Payne Movement