Seminar: Venezuela's 'Bolivarian' Process: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects after 10 Years

Seminar: Venezuela's 'Bolivarian' Process: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects after 10 Years
LSE IDEAS Centre presents

Latin America Initiative Seminar:

Venezuela's 'Bolivarian' Process: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects after 10 Years

6th May 18.00 – 20.00

Venezuela’s ambassador to the UK, his Excellency Dr Samuel Moncada and Dr Julia Buxton (University of Bradford) explore the achievements of the Bolivarian process and the challenges it faces within a regional and broader international context. They will then examine the future prospects of the process given the current political and economic environment.

The presentations will be followed by an open discussion.

6th May 18.00 – 20.00
LSE IDEAS Columbia HouseRoom B212
(Aldwych)

Ecology in the QUR' AN

Peace to you,

Here are details of our May monthly forum, a week Sunday. We will be back at the Muslim World League, and hope you can join us.

--
LINE (London Islamic Network for the Environment) Monthly Forums invites you to:

TRUTH & PROPORTION - REFLECTIONS THROUGH THE QUR' AN

Date: Sunday 10th May 2009
Time: 2.15pm to 4.45pm
Venue:4th Floor, Muslim World League, 46 Goodge Street, London, W1T 4LU (entrance on the corner of Charlotte Street); Nearest Tubes: Goodge Street (Northern Line), Euston Square (Hammersmith & City, Circle, & Metropolitan Lines) & Warren Street (Victoria Line).

Please note that we're back at the Muslim World League.

Workshop: Facilitated by LINE team

At this month's forum we will continue with our Reflections through the Qur' an series. Through a facilitated workshop we will reflect on the following verse:
He created the heavens and the earth in true (proportions) (Qur' an: 6:73).

We will consider the implications of the above verse in terms of how it frames our relationship with the natural order; and will also relate it to contemporary environmental themes, including climate change. We will also share insights on the relationship between what is presented in this verse, and the concept of fitrah.

Please bring a copy of the Qur' an (with translation, and preferably also commentary) if you have one.

Also within the forum, we will hear feedback from Fast for the Planet (2nd Main event), a Greening Faiths event in Reading to which we contributed, and our eco-weekend with the Hilfield project in Dorset. There will also be a slot for Resource Cycle and we'll look at LINE projects over the coming weeks. No charge and open to all (whether or not you have attended previous LINE forums). Simply turn up for the start time. Donations welcome.

More info:
LINE (London Islamic Network for the Environment): www.lineonweb.org.uk ; Tel. 0845 456 3960 (local rate)

Follow the repression + why I love Tony B (no not that one)

This is from todays Morning Star...based on my speech to Faringdon Peace Group's massive conference on civil liberties, 240 people turned out for a meeting in very rural West Oxfordshire...hung out with Tony Benn who was great fun to be with, very lovely and fascinating human being and yes Britain's best known socialist.

Tony is pretty ecosocialismo as well, I asked him about vegetarianism, he has been veggie for decades partly because he doesn't really like meat and because his son convinced him that it was a wasteful way of feeding the world. I had such a good day, also ran into some ex-Cowley Motor works workers...isn't it great some of the greenest people used to make cars!

Just think Tony could have been labour party leader in the 1980s and become PM and used all the oil cash to green the UK economy but no we had that loco women who killed the economy built roads, smashed the unions and put the bankers in control.



anyway on to the Star article


I took part in a day conference on civil rights organised by Faringdon Peace Group in west Oxfordshire on Saturday.

I must admit that I was far from happy that recent events have given me plenty to talk about when it came to my chosen topic of civil rights and the environment.

The over-the-top policing of the G20 protests which left passer-by Ian Tomlinson dead after being hit and pushed over by the police is just the worst example of a day of brutality.

As has now been widely publicised, on an entirely peaceful protest to commemorate Tomlinson's death, a policeman from the Territorial Support Group slapped a women around the face and then hit her legs with a baton.

Despite protest, a law was recently introduced which made it illegal to take photographs of the police, so it's easy to see why the Territorial Support Group was so relaxed about hitting non-violent protesters if officers thought they would not be photographed and identified.

It is ironic that this month also saw the 30th anniversary of the death of Blair Peach at an anti-fascist demonstration. He was killed by members of the Special Patrol Group in 1979. Despite weapons and nazi regalia being found after a search of police lockers, his killer or killers were never brought to justice.

The Special Patrol Group was abolished after the outcry and it was replaced with the Territorial Support Group, which was involved in the G20 abuses.

Environmental concern and civil rights are closely bound because green activism often involves challenging vested economic interests.

It is no surprise that the G20's peaceful climate camp was attacked. These activists have pointed out that much of what has been done to tackle climate change is irrelevant.

The climate camp was organised to point out that carbon trading helps the City but does nothing to get to the root causes of an unfolding environmental catastrope.

It has recently been revealed that the police infiltrated the climate camp campaign in 2008 and gave information to the Eon company they were protesting against.

Corporate interests, when challenged by environmentalists, have been willing to assault the human rights of green activists time after time.

I have been reading a lot about the good work of Haringey Solidarity, a network that has been supporting the Visteon workers recently made redundant.

Dave Morris of Haringey Solidarity has written much about how the Visteon workers are keen not only to regain their jobs but to green them by producing environmentally friendly products rather than car parts.

Morris is one of Britain's most effective and long-standing environmental campaigners, so you'd be safe in assuming that he has had his human rights abused - and you'd be right.

Morris and Helen Steel took part in Britain's longest-running libel trial when McDonald's took them to court for distributing a Greenpeace London leaflet which claimed that the firm produced unhealthy food, exploited workers and damaged the environment.

Fran Armstrong, who recently released the climate change film Age of Stupid, documented the trial in her first feature McLibel.

During the trial, it was revealed that McDonald's had hired private investigators to infiltrate the tiny Greenpeace London group that Morris and Steel were members of.

It's incredible that a firm would use the full force of the law to challenge a small radical environmental group that makes critical statements.

Environmentalists often challenge corporations. And corporations spend large amounts of money spying on environmentalists.

At one time, the majority of activists in the Greenpeace London group were paid by McDonald's.

There are countless other examples. The phrase "follow the repression" comes to mind.

The more important the campaign and the more effective its strategy, the more likely that those environmentalists involved will be spied on, beaten up or otherwise harassed.

Of course, such repression is not confined to Britain. Global environmental problems created by corporations create resistance and such resistance is often repressed.

To take one current example, there is a close connection between the European Union and the activities of death squads in Colombia.

The EU has insisted that 10 per cent of vehicle fuel must come from biofuels. Biofuels have numerous negative effects and are one reason why we have a food crisis, because if farmers grow fuel, this reduces the amount of land used for food, leading to rocketing prices.

Many biofuels come from rainforest land specifically cleared for the purpose, as has happened in Indonesia.

However, the main source for EU biofuels is Colombia, where right-wing President Alvaro Uribe has allowed death squads to threaten peasants and indigenous people so that land can be made available for more biofuels.

Another example is the EU free trade agreement with Peru, another Latin American country which routinely ignores human rights abuse and where such abuse allows corporations to gain access to minerals and oil.

Clearly we need to protest and make some noise because British liberties are sliding down the drain. In turn we need to look at how the EU supports repression.

Above all, we must recognise that real environmental action upsets powerful vested economic interests.

Such interests have the ear of government, can help to shape repressive policies and can only be challenged by robust protest.

I often think of Utah Phillips, a radical US green, who believed in such robust direct action. Phillips, who died not long ago, famously stated: "The Earth is not dying. It is being killed and the people killing it have names and addresses."

These people have the cash to employ spies and lobby governments to repress those who draw attention to their crimes.

Whale Wars on discovery channal

had a bit of a review of the Discovery ch programmes on the Whale Wars. Must admit other than a bit of John Snow and the Simpsons, I don't really do TV.

Any way if you want to find more about the good ship Steve Irwin and Captain Paul Watson or even Giles who some of us remember from the anti-roads days, it is fascinating watching.

A bit big brother for me but still good stuff.

i am a great fan of Captain Paul and his full on campaign to save the whales.

On tonight here in the Uk so see what you think

Anglican Mainstream Organisation should be stopped from preaching their so-called ‘treatment’

I am going to go and give a talk to an Anglican group, so a bit worrying this.

Fundamentalist religions of all types seem obssessed with gay sex...God has other things on her mind if she exists.

LGBT Greens: Being LGBT is not a disease!

Anglican Mainstream Organisation should be stopped from preaching their so-called ‘treatment’



For Immediate Release



24.4.9

Green Party activists today expressed their horror at the news that there is a conference in London organised by the Anglican Mainstream Organisation this weekend, aimed at informing delegates about ‘curing’ gay men and lesbians.

“Being lesbian or gay is not a disease!” said Lesley Hedges, spokesperson for the Green Party’s LGBTIQ group and an experienced mental health counsellor. “This kind of mistaken 'treatment' is not just a waste of time and resources, it can be extremely harmful. It is based on the fundamentally unsound idea that there is something wrong with variant sexualities.

Lesley continued: “The World Health Organisation removed Homosexuality from the classification of diseases in the Statistical and Diagnostic Manual in 1990. Significantly, this is used by clinicians to identify mental health problems.[1] The fact that no reputable and ethical therapist would try to change someone’s sexuality speaks volumes about what sort of ‘treatment’ is being advocated by the Anglican Mainstream Organisation. There is a real danger that people referred for such treatment will have an increase in the self-hatred they feel.”

“Young people are especially at risk, especially those whose family and friends do not understand and support them when they begin to understand their sexual identity. That identity is an important part of anyone’s psychological makeup and as stats assert: LGBT youth are at greater risk of self-harm and suicide, which develops from their experience of negative attitudes.

“This kind of so-called treatment,” concluded Lesley “should not be available as it can harm people who are in an already vulnerable state. Claims that being gay or lesbian is a disease not only hark back to a by-gone era but are also about actively blocking the advances that LGBT people have won.

“Anglican Mainstream Organisation: we will not go back into the closet! We are now more able to live openly and comfortably in our neighbourhoods and feel accepted where we work, study and relax. You will not drive us back into the closet through your so-called treatment.”

`Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet'

`Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet' -- ALBA on the 5th Summit of the Americas

Venezuela's resident Hugo Chavez greets Cuba's President Raul Castro.

Translated by Federico Fuentes

Cumaná, April 17, 2009

The heads of state and governments of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela -- member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) -- consider that the proposed Declaration of the 5th Summit of the Americas is insufficient and unacceptable for the following reasons:

•It offers no answers to the issue of the global economic crisis, despite the fact that this constitutes the largest challenge faced by humanity in decades and the most serious threat in the current epoch to the wellbeing of our peoples.
•Unjustifiably excludes Cuba in a criminal manner, without mentioning the general consensus that exists in the region in favour of condemning the blockade and the isolation attempts, which its people and government have incessantly objected to.
For these reasons, the member countries of ALBA consider that consensus does not exist in favour of adopting this proposed declaration and in light of the above; we propose to have a thoroughgoing debate over the following issues:

1) Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet. What we are living through is a global economic crisis of a systemic and structural character and not just one more cyclical crisis. Those who think that this crisis will be resolved with an injection of fiscal money and with some regulatory measures are very mistaken.

The financial system is in crisis because it is quoting the value of papers at six times the real value of goods and services being produced in the world. This is not a “failure of the regulation of the system” but rather a constitutive part of the capitalist system that speculates with all goods and values in the pursuit of obtaining the maximum amount of profit possible. Until now, the economic crisis has created 100 million more starving people and more than 50 million new unemployed people, and these figures are tending to increasing.

2) Capitalism has provoked an ecological crisis by subordinating the necessary conditions for life on this planet to the dominance of the market and profit. Each year, the world consumes a third more than what the planet is capable of regenerating. At this rate of wastage by the capitalist system, we are going to need two planets by the year 2030.

3) The global economic, climate change, food and energy crises are products of the decadence of capitalism that threatens to put an end to the existence of life and the planet. To avoid this outcome it is necessary to develop an alternative model to that of the capitalist system. A system based on:

Solidarity and complementarity and not competition;

•A system in harmony with our mother earth rather than the looting of our natural resources;
•A system based on cultural diversity and not the crushing of cultures and impositions of cultural values and lifestyles alien to the realities of our countries:
•A system of peace based on social justice and not on imperialist wars and policies;
•In synthesis, a system that recuperates the human condition of our societies and peoples rather than reducing them to simple consumers or commodities.
4) As a concrete expression of the new reality on the continent, Latin American and Caribbean countries have begun to construct their own institutions, whose roots lie in the common history that goes back to our independence revolution, and which constitutes a concrete instrument for deepening the processes of social, economic and cultural transformation that will consolidate our sovereignty. The ALBA-TCP [TCP = Peoples Trade Agreement], Petrocaribe and UNASUR [Union of South American Nations], to only cite the most recently created ones, are mechanisms for solidarity-based union forged in the heat of these transformations, with the manifest intention of strengthening the efforts of our peoples to reach their own liberation.

In order to confront the grave effects of the global economic crisis, the ALBA-TCP countries have taken innovative and transformational measures that seek real alternatives to the deficient international economic order rather than strengthen these failed institutions. That is why we have put in [place] a Single System of Regional Compensation, the SUCRE, that includes a Common Accounting Unit, a Chamber of Compensations of Payments and a Single System of Reserves.

At the same time, we have promoted the constitution of grand national companies in order to satisfy the fundamental necessities of our peoples, establishing mechanisms of just and complementary trade, that leave to one side the absurd logic of unrestrained competition.

5) We question the G20’s decision to triple the amount of resources going to the International Monetary Fund, when what is really necessary is the establishment of a new world economic order that includes the total transformation of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO [World Trade Organisation] , which with their neoliberal conditions have contributed to this global economic crisis.

6) The solutions to the global economic crisis and the definition of a new international financial architecture should be adopted with the participation of the 192 countries that between June 1 and 3, 2009, will meet at a United Nations conference about the international financial crisis, in order to propose the creation of a new international economic order.

7) In regards to the climate change crisis, the developed countries have an ecological debt with the world given that they are responsible for 70% of historic emissions of carbon accumulated in the atmosphere since 1750.

The developed countries, debtors with humanity and the planet, should contribute significant resources towards a fund so that the countries on the path towards development can undertake a model of growth that does not repeat the grave impacts of capitalist industrialisation.

8) The solutions to the energy, food and climate change crises have to be integral and interdependent. We cannot resolve a problem creating others in the areas fundamental to life. For example, generalising the use of agro-fuels can only impact negatively on the price of food and in the utilisation of essential resources such as water, land and forests.

9) We condemn discrimination against migrants in all its forms. Migration is a human right, not a crime. Therefore, we demand an urgent reform to the migration policies of the United States government, with the objective of detaining deportations and mass raids, allowing the reunification of families, and we demand the elimination of the wall that divides and separates us, rather than uniting us.

In this sense, we demand the repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the elimination of the policies of ``wetbacks-drybacks '', which has a discriminatory and selective character, and is the cause of loss of human lives.

Those that are truly to blame for the financial crisis are the bankers who steal money and the resources of our countries, not migrant workers. Human rights come first, particularly the human rights of the most unprotected and marginalised sectors of our society, as undocumented workers are.

For there to be integration there has to be free circulation of people, and equal human rights for all regardless of migratory status. Brain drain constitutes a form of looting of qualified human resources by the rich countries.

10) Basic services such as education, health, water, energy and telecommunications have to be declared human rights and cannot be the objects of private business nor be commodified by the World Trade Organisation. These services are and should be essential, universally accessible public services

11) We want a world where all countries, big and small, have the same rights and where empires do not exist. We advocate against intervention. Strengthen, as the only legitimate channel for discussion and analysis of bilateral and multilateral agendas of the continent, the base of mutual respect between states and governments, under the principle of non-interference of one state over another and the inviolability of the sovereignty and self-determination of the peoples.

We demand that the new government of the United States, whose inauguration has generated some expectations in the region and the world, put an end to the long and nefarious tradition of interventionism and aggression that has characterised the actions of the governments of this country throughout its history, especially brutal during the government of George W. Bush.

In the same way, eliminate interventionist practices such as covert operations, parallel diplomacy, media wars aimed at destabilising states and governments, and the financing of destabilising groups. It is fundamental that we construct a world in which a diversity of economic, political, social and cultural approaches are recognised and respected.

12) Regarding the United States' blockade against Cuba and the exclusion of this country from the Summit of the Americas, the countries of the Bolivarian Alternatives for the People of Our Americas reiterates the position that all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean adopted last December 16, 2008, regarding the necessity of putting an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States of America against Cuba, including the application of the denominated Helms-Burton law, and that among its paragraphs notes:

“CONSIDERING the resolutions approved by the United Nations General Assembly on the need to put an end to the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba and the decisions on the latter approved at several international meetings,

“DECLARE that in defence of free trade and the transparent practice of international trade, it is unacceptable to apply unilateral coercive measures that will affect the wellbeing of nations and obstruct the processes of integration.

“WE REJECT the implementation of laws and measures that contradict International Law such as the Helms-Burton law and urge the US Government to put an end to its implementation.

"WE ASK the US Government to comply with the 17 successive resolutions approved at the United Nations General Assembly and put an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo it has imposed on Cuba.”

Moreover, we believe that the attempts to impose isolation on Cuba, which today is an integral part of the Latin American and Caribbean region, is a member of the Rio Group and other organisations and regional mechanisms, that carries out a policy of cooperation and solidarity with the people of the region, that promotes the full integration of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples, has failed, and that, therefore, no reason exists to justify Cuba's exclusion from the Summit of the Americas.

13) The developed countries have destined no less than US$8 trillion towards rescuing the financial structure that has collapsed. They are the same ones that do not comply with spending a small sum to reach the Millennium Goals or 0.7% of GDP for Official Development Aid. Never before have we seen so nakedly the hypocrisy of the discourse of the rich countries. Cooperation has to be established without conditions and adjusted to the agendas of the receiving countries, simplifying the procedures, making resources accessible and privileging issues of social inclusion.

14) The legitimate struggle against narco-trafficking and organised crime, and any other manifestation of the denominated “new threats,” should not be utilised as excuses for carrying out acts of interference or intervention against our countries.

15) We are firmly convinced that change, which all the world is hoping for, can only come about through the organisation, mobilisation and unity of our peoples.

As the Liberator Simón Bolívar well stated:

“The unity of our peoples is not simply the chimera of men, but an inexorable fate.”

[This translation first appeared at Bolivia Rising, edited by Federico Fuentes.]

appeal for witnesses

G20 repression was part of a policy backed up by briefings and strategy, now having failed to lose the CCTV the powers that be are going for the 'few bad apples' approach...I hope the cops involved go Queens Evidence on this, from whacking people to not having numbers, its those higher up who establish police strategy who need to be answering the questions...

by the way just had this from my amigoes in Climate Camp.

URGENT CALLOUT - PASS IT ON - DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN?

We're trying to identify the man who was punched in the face in the final
camp clearance, by the group of officers using a strobelight and torch.
You can see it at 7 minutes 50 seconds on the camp video on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/user/uklegalobserver

Attached to this email is a zoomed and enhanced closeup picture.

Please get in touch with legal@climatecamp.org.uk if you can help us find
this person. It is really important.

Also look at our other videos on this youtube page -
http://www.youtube.com/profile_video_blog?user=uklegalobserver

If you can see yourself or anyone you know being assaulted or wronged by
the police in any of the videos, or have more footage, and haven't got in
touch, please do so.

Tell us in your email what happened to you and at what time in which film
this can be seen.

(We'd also like to know whether or not you would be willing to release
your statement to the press via the Camp Media Team.)

What next? Bindmans solicitors are reading through hundreds of statements
from you all. They are preparing a free legal advice instructions pack
which will be available to all from the legal page of the camp website
next week. Please make sure all your friends know about it.

Please make sure all your friends know about it.
thanks very much from your
legal team