POLO-UK select election candidate

Dr Glory Saavedra just sent me this, gracias


English:
We here include the campaign proposal of the elected POLO-UK candidate for the House of Representatives in the forthcoming Congressional elections in Colombia - 14 March 2010. Manuel Puerto proposes to defend the conditions and rights of Colombian migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and also to ensure that Colombian exiles and those abroad have full democratic representation in Congress. The Presidential election is set for May 30th, 2010.

Español:
Incluimos aquí la prospuesta de campanha de Miguel Puerto, abogado y sindicalista Colombiano, residente en UK.
Manuel es el candidato de POLO-UK y propone defender las condiciones de l@s migrantes/asilad@s, refugiad@s Colombian@ en el exterior y también asegurar la voz de los Colombianos en el exterior en las políticas del país.

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Congressional and Presidential elections in Colombia 2010.

Elections are coming up, not just in the UK, but in Colombia. Bearing in mind the dire state of the country under President Alvaro Uribe’s so-called “Democratic Security” policies and the high degree of corruption amongst Uribista senators and members of congress - this is an opportunity for the people to have their say and elect those who will turn the country around away from yet more militarization, poverty, oppression and violence.

From the late 1950s to the mid 1980s, the Frente Nacional – the agreed alternate Conservative and Liberal governments every four years - suffocated democracy. The two main parties are both neo-liberal in essence. Even the more recent apparent diversity of parties fielding candidates, does not hide the mostly accurate perception that, no matter what, it is always the same elitist and corrupt bunch standing for office - the representatives of the ruling class and/or drug mafia who have brought the country to its knees (witness the past questionable dealings of ex-mayor of Medellin/proposed presidential candidate, Sergio Fajardo. See also http://www.cipcol.org/?cat=89). In the last presidential elections of 2006 therefore, over ½ of the total electorate of 26m abstained. Thus Uribe’s “62%” victory (7m votes) is a scourge brought about by just ¼ (26%) of the possible electorate.

This year, however, despite the ever present assassinations, threats and illegal harassment which real critics of Uribe’s government have to endure, remarkable politicians have once more emerged as viable alternatives to the persistent repressive and clientelistic regimes. Two examples stand out. The first, and an exception in the otherwise confused and divided Liberal Party, is the outstanding peace campaigner, Senator Piedad Cordoba from the progressive Liberal left-wing current, Poder Ciudadano. [For more info on Piedad Cordoba see the latest issue of Frontline Latin America, January – March 2010 - out now!]. Senator Cordoba is standing this year as candidate for the Senate. On the other hand, the Liberal party’s postulated, presidential candidate, Rafael Pardo, though now critical of dictatorial Uribe, has supported Uribismo in the past and, despite his precarious support within his own party, will still pursue further militaristic policies which will deny the radical transformations necessary in Colombia.

The more promising party is the Polo Democratico Alternativo, a left alliance, which has now matured into serious opposition to the Uribistas. Its ranks include the brilliant and ethical lawyer Carlos Gaviria, Senator Jorge Robledo and Senator Gloria Cuartas amongst others. Their recently chosen presidential candidate Senator Gustavo Petro carried out distinguished leading investigations, over the last 4 years, which outed the illegal alliances made by the paramilitaries with hundreds of majority Uribista politicians. The Parapolitica scandal revelations rocked Colombia as they exposed the true extent and reach of mafia infiltration of government. The Polo Democratico has the potential to place a progressive president in power, one who will lead the way to build a new Colombia, a Colombia which will not be left behind by the inspiring tide of social, economic and democratic progress now often seen in the rest of the Latin American continent. [For a rough overview of some of the Polo’s other leading Senators and activists, see http://www.cipcol.org/?p=162 (English). View Senator Petro’s discussion of the manifesto at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-42Kmkf1UM&NR=1 (Spanish - 30mins)].

Colombians resident abroad, who registered their ID documents last year, will be able to vote and it is of utmost importance this year to do so in order not to condemn Colombia to 4 more years of rapacious capitalist exploitation and suffering. The Congressional Election date is 14 March whilst the Presidential Elections may be as early as 30th May. In the UK, the POLO-UK branch has elected a candidate for the House of Representatives on behalf of Colombian residents in exile, asylum seekers, migrants and their families. Miguel Puerto, human rights lawyer and trade unionist, has a programme proposal to improve the lot of Colombian exiles and for Colombians abroad to have a say in the future of Colombia. Miguel Puerto’s election manifesto is included (Spanish - pps). Open debate will carry on through Sussex Colombia Solidarity. Please feel free to email us your views and queries or come to our campaign meetings.

Dr Glory Saavedra, sussexcolombiasolidarity@gmail.com

BENT

Originally a play, this is another must see movie. It's about the persecution of gay people in Nazi Germany.

Along with Jews, homosexuals were murdered in concentration camps by Hitler's regime.

Makes you think about continuing far right hostility to the LGBT community and the Pope's recent rantings.

Its an essential film not just for these points. It portrays totalitarianism and resistance even from those who have virtually no space left to resist.

Impressively acted much of it looks like a Beckett play, i.e the rocks and the snow.

Do take a look.

Clive Owens doesn't come over as especially German but plays a powerful role nonetheless.

Romantic in places, in unlikely places. Grim but leading somewhere less grim. Heroic is a cliche but you have the H word here.


The sex scene is a critique in its self of film representations of getting it on, full stop.

Going to post on Walter Benjamin's Illuminations later or tomorrow, amazing.

Peter's says 'Protest the Pope.'

Peter Tatchell's Protest the Pope 10 Downing Street Petition


Please sign: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ProtestthePope/

The petition reads: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to disassociate the British government from the Pope's intolerant views ahead of the Papal visit to Britain in September 2010.

We urge the Prime Minister to make it clear that his government disagrees with the Pope's opposition to women's reproductive rights, gay equality, embryonic stem cell research and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. We ask the Prime Minister to express his disagreement with the Pope’s role in the cover-up of child sex abuse by Catholic clergy, his rehabilitation the Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson, and his decree paving the way for the beatification and sainthood of the war-time Pope, Pius XII, who stands accused of failing to speak out against the Holocaust.


We also request the Prime Minister to assure us that the Pope’s visit will not be financed by the British taxpayer.


Additional explanatory notes The Pope not only opposes the right of women to have an abortion butalso their right to contraception to prevent the need for abortions. He also opposes women’s access to IVF fertility treatment to give childless couples the chance of parenthood. He condemns potentially life-saving embryonic stem cell research. Pope Benedict denounces the use of condoms, even to stop the spread of HIV, as well as claiming falsely that condom usage “increases” the rate of HIV infection. This puts millions of lives at risk.

Brighton events.

BRIGHTON BENEFITS CAMPAIGN PUBLIC MEETING

Friday 5 February 7.30pm at the Brighthelm Centre North Road Brighton

A public meeting to launch the Brighton Benefits Campaign, with speakers from a variety of backgrounds,
including Caroline Lucas, Benefits & Poverty Campaigners, Trade Unionists & others


STRIKING FOR JOBS - LOCAL WORKERS SPEAK OUT

Public meeting Tuesday 9th February at 7.30, Brighthelm Centre North Road Brighton

Speakers from:
Unite at BOC Edwards - fighting local closures
UCU at Sussex University - facing 115 job losses
RMT at Network Rail - considering strike action to save 1500 track maintenance jobs
FBU at Preston Circus Fire Station - local firefighters campaigning to stop management moving the station to a less suitable location


MARCH FOR JOBS!

Jobs & services not bailouts for the rich.
Demonstrate on Saturday 6 March - assembling at The Level in Brighton at 12 noon

A demonstration has been organised by trade union activists and campaigners as a call to action to fight back against the unjustified job losses taking place across the city and the country.

Delegates and organisers put together plans for the demonstration at a meeting held by Brighton Hove and District Trades Council and are urging trade union branches, students, the unemployed, workers and their families to take part in this important march which will take place on Saturday 6 March.

Assembling at The Level at 12 midday, the demonstration will march past significant workplaces and sites in the city effected by the current threat of job losses. It will march to Brighton town hall where a rally will be held to put forward demands to defend all jobs and prevent any public service cuts as part of a fight back campaign against these unjustified attacks on working people.


Pip Tindall
B&HGP
Brighton Workers Solidarity Group
http://brightonworkerssolidarity.wordpress.com/

Howard Zinn, Master Historian

Howard Zinn, Master Historian
[col. writ. 1/28/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal

It should surprise no one when a man, nearly 90, dies. It is as natural as moonlight, as regular as a rainbow after a summer shower.

And yet, the passing of Howard Zinn surprises. He was a few months shy of 90, true, but he was still a bright eyed and brilliant lecturer, whose sense of humor gave a wondrous sparkle to his speeches and humanized his writing.

He is perhaps best known for his masterwork, A People's History of the United States; 1492 - Present, (Harper Collins, 1980/2003. which sold millions of copies. Zinn was an adherent of the 'history from below' school of history, and wrote from the perspective of the bottoms of societies, not the top. He wrote about Black slaves fighting for freedom, Native folks fighting for sovereignty, poor white workers fighting for the right to unionize, women fighting for the right to work and vote, soldiers, gay folks, prisoners, and students struggling to learn about the history of their country.

And while Zinn was indeed a brilliant, ground-breaking historian, he didn't write about the poor from a scholars distance; he grew up desperately poor in New York, joined the Air Force during World War II, and became a bombardier. Like many young service members, he read incessantly. When he left the service, he used the G. I. Bill to study at Columbia where he earned his Ph.D.

And while he earned an advanced degree, he learned things he hadn't planned on when he taught at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, for his teaching took place during the eruption of the Civil Rights movement, and student protests against the U.S. apartheid system of segregation. Spelman, a Black women's college, had its share of activists, who, when they tried to leaflet, were stopped, threatened and prevented from leafleting by the cops.

Zinn, teaching legal history and constitutional law to many of these students, learned that what the law books and cases said meant nothing in the real-life world of Georgian apartheid. In his 1990 book, Declarations of Independence, Zinn wrote:

The law was plain. A series of Supreme Court decisions made
the right to distribute leaflets on a public street absolute. It
would be hard to find something in the Bill of Rights that was
more clear cut than this.
I told my students this. But I knew immediately that I must tell
them something else; that the law didn't much matter. If they
began handing out leaflets on Peachtree street and a white
policeman (all police were white in Atlanta at the time), came
along and said "Move!" what could they do? Cite the
relevant Supreme Court cases to the policeman. {p.198}

This was Atlanta: 1961, and the Movement taught Zinn many realities about America.

Howard Zinn. Historian. Activist. Playwright. Prodigious writer. Father of the People's History movement. Friend.

--(c) '10 maj

Vote for the worst economist!

Just got this from the hetrodox, I am not hetrodox I am open source everything (See K.Marx and E.Ostrom for further details)....however while I am not hetrodox, this looks worth a click.


Voting is now open for the Ignoble Prize for Economics


The Ignoble Prize for Economics is to be awarded to the three economists who contributed most to enabling the Global Financial Collapse (GFC)


Voting is ultra quick and easy.

http://rwer.wordpress.com/poll-procedures-for-the-ignoble-prize-for-economics/vote-for-the-ignoble-prize-for-economics/
or go to http://rwer.wordpress.com/


and you will see the ballot. Click on your three choices and then the big yellow “vote” button.


22 economists were nominated for the prize. Through consultation with contributors to the Real-World Economics Review Blog, the following short list of ten, including two pairs of economists, has been selected for the ballot.




Dossiers of short-listed of nominees for the Ignoble Prize for Economics



Fischer Black and Myron Scholes


They jointly developed the Black-Scholes model which led to the explosive growth of financial derivatives. The importance given to their hypothetical calculation of derivative prices was baneful not just because it was bogus, but also because it meant that relevant and often urgent real-world economic research was widely neglected by the profession.



Eugene Fama


His “efficient market theory” provided the moral umbrella for all sorts of greed, predatory behaviour and incompetent corporate management. It also provided the rationale for deregulation. And his theory’s widespread acceptance meant that “discussion of investor irrationality, of bubbles, of destructive speculation had virtually disappeared from academic discourse.” In these three ways Fama’s work created the environment which made possible the GFC.



Milton Friedman


He propagated the delusion, through his misunderstanding of the scientific method, that an economy can be accurately modeled using counterfactual propositions about its nature. This, together with his simplistic model of money, encouraged the development of the financial theories with unrealistic assumptions that facilitated the GFC. In short, he opened the door for everyone subsequently to theorize without fear of having to be attached to reality.



Alan Greenspan


As Chairman of the Federal Reserve System from 1987 to 2006, he both led the over expansion of money and credit that created the bubble that burst and aggressively promoted the view that financial markets are naturally efficient and in no need of regulation. Before a Congressional committee on 28 October 2008 Greenspan confessed that his theoretical beliefs of 40 years were now proven to be without foundation, hence his total confusion and failure at his job.

Assar Lindbeck
By working to make the Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (“Nobel Prize in Economics”) almost exclusively a prize for neoclassical economists, this Swedish economist has contributed significantly to the conversion of the economics profession and of world public opinion to market fundamentalism.




Robert Lucas


His development of the rational expectations hypothesis, which defined rationality as the capacity to accurately predict the future, both served to maintain Friedman's proposition that monetary factors do not affect the real economy and, in the name of “rigor”, distanced economics even further from reality than Friedman had thought possible.



Richard Portes


As Secretary-General of the Royal Economic Society from 1992-2008, he helped suppress worries expressed by non-mainstream economists about developments in the financial sector. In 2007 he wrote a Report for the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce giving a clean bill of health to Icelandic banks only a few months before they collapsed. When investigators called attention to the real state of Icelandic banking, he wrote a series of letters to the Financial Times defending the soundness of Icelandic banks and imputing professional incompetence to those who doubted it.



Edward Prescott and Finn Kydland


For jointly developing and popularizing “Real Business Cycle” theory, which by omitting the role of credit greatly diminished the economics profession’s understanding of dynamic macroeconomic processes.



Paul Samuelson


Through his textbook Economics: An Introductory Analysis (19 English language editions and translated into 40 languages), he popularized neoclassical economics, contributing more than any other economist to its diffusion and thereby to the deregulation of financial markets which made possible the GFC.



Larry Summers


As US Secretary of the Treasury (formerly an economist at Harvard and the World Bank), he worked successfully for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which since the Great Crash of 1929 had kept deposit banking separate from casino banking. He also worked with Greenspan and Wall Street interests to torpedo efforts to regulate derivatives.


Procedures

The voting is being conducted using PollDaddy. Its system uses cookies to prevent repeat voting. A voting box showing the short-listed candidates and a link to their dossiers will remain till voting closes near the top of the right-hand column on the home page of the Real-World Economics Review Blog . Voting is open to all interested parties. Each voter can vote for up to three of the listed candidates. The ballots are secret. Voting will remain open for several weeks. No results will be announced before closing the poll.

Burn Baby Burn!

Burn! Marlon Brando stars in this classic ecosocialist film of revolution and conflict on a sugar producing island, slave rebellion, colonial independence and sugar futures, its all wrapped up by the director of 'Battle of Algiers'