Trinicenter.com

Permanent Aggression: War on the horizon in Latin America

The Empire will stop at nothing to find mechanisms and techniques to achieve its final objective, and we cannot disregard the possibility of a military conflict in the near future. If the US places Venezuela on the “terrorist list” this year, we could be on the verge of a regional war.

By Eva Golinger
March 13, 2010 - chavezcode.com

March 12, 2010 "Information Clearing House" --- Latin America has suffered constant aggressions executed by Washington during the past two hundred years. Strategies and tactics of covert and overt warfare have been applied against different nations in the region, ranging from coup d’etats, assassinations, disappearances, torture, brutal dictatorships, atrocities, political persecution, economic sabotage, psychological operations, media warfare, biological warfare, subversion, counterinsurgency, paramiliary infiltration, diplomatic terrorism, blockades, electoral intervention to military invasions. Regardless of who’s in the White House – democrat or republican – when it comes to Latin America, the Empire’s policies remain the same.

The Right, the Left and the Ugly: Fear and Loathing in White America

By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
March 12, 2010 - blackagendareport.com

"Are we witnessing a left-right convergence – or two fundamentally opposed camps intersecting at a certain point in time on the way to very different destinations?"

When President George Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi first, unsuccessfully, attempted to ram a bank bailout bill through the U.S. House in late September 2008, only one-third of Republicans and three-fifths of Democrats voted for the measure. The Congressional Black Caucus was opposed, 21 to 18, with the more progressive CBC members mostly voting No. Former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich asked, "Is this the U.S. Congress or the board of directors at Goldman Sachs?" Two-thirds of the GOP Caucus bucked their president.

Chomsky on Haiti (interviewed by Keane Bhatt)

Aid Should Go to Haitian Popular Organizations, Not to Contractors or NGOs

By Keane Bhatt
March 09, 2010 - counterpunch.org

For decades, Noam Chomsky has been an analyst and activist working in support of the Haitian people. In addition to his revolutionary linguistics career at MIT, he has written, lectured and protested against injustice for 40 years. He is co-author, along with Paul Farmer and Amy Goodman of Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup. His analysis "The Tragedy of Haiti" from his 1993 book Year 501: The Conquest Continues is available for free online. This interview was conducted in late February 2010 by phone and email. The interviewer thanks Peter Hallward for his kind assistance.

Quo Vadis, Africa? Some historic Reflections about a truncated Future

Quo Vadis, Africa? Some historic Reflections about a truncated Future

By: Franz J. T. Lee
March 10, 2010

"Ex Africa semper aliquid novi"
(Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 - 79)

"If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts."
George H. W. Bush (Daddy Bush) 2/07/06

An article I wrote half a decade ago and which was published by VHeadline on April 3, 2005, "Kwame Nkrumah: The dark face of the Bolivarian Revolution" has, over the years, brought about vivid discussions, with reference to the future of the natural and social resources of the African and American continents, to their respective peoples and therewith to humanity as a whole.

Behind Washington�s Iran policy: Myths and reality

By Stephen Gowans
February 26, 2010 - gowans.wordpress.com

While Washington’s Iran policy is often described as oriented toward containment of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the aims are much broader, and the assumption that Iran has nuclear weapons ambitions is without foundation. US policy is directed at eclipsing the rise of Iran as an independent economic, military and political power, and seeks as an ultimate objective the subordination of Iran to Washington, economically, militarily and politically. Washington’s short-term goal is to prevent Tehran from developing an independent nuclear power industry that is sufficiently advanced to establish a breakout capability — the potential to rapidly manufacture nuclear arms in response to a crisis. An Iran able to rapidly add a nuclear deterrent to its defensive capabilities threatens Washington’s containment policy by taking away the option of low US and ally casualty level military aggression. Since the Vietnam War the United States has avoided engagements or combat modes that would imperil the lives of large numbers of US soldiers. A war waged against a non-nuclear Iran could be long and drawn out, but is unlikely to produce US casualties of such magnitude as to touch off major resistance within the United States. A war waged against a nuclear-armed Iran, however, would be an altogether more dangerous affair.

Empire and Oligarchy: Whatever Happened to "We the People"?

By Ralph Nader
March 1, 2010 - counterpunch.org

The twin swelling heads of Empire and Oligarchy are driving our country into an ever-deepening corporate state, wholly incompatible with democracy and the rule of law.

Once again the New York Times offers its readers the evidence. In its February 25, 2010 issue, two page-one stories confirm this relentless deterioration at the expense of so many innocent people.

The lead story illustrates that the type of massive speculation—casino capitalism, Business Week once called it—in complex derivatives is still going strong and exploiting the weak and powerless who pay the ultimate bill.

Morales in Mexico

By Michael Collins
February 25, 2010 - americasmexico.blogspot.com

It was a hot afternoon in central Coyoacán and the sun beat down heavily on the crowd as they awaited the appearance of charismatic Bolivian leader, Evo Morales. The public queued patiently and edged slowly into the Jardín Hidalgo, following mandatory security checks that are the norm at events of this nature. As the area filled, the more eager of the spectators began to climb onto the bandstand, trees and fences, to get a glimpse of their hero. The smaller members of the audience stood on their tiptoes in preparation for the Bolivian leader’s arrival. A scuffle broke out in the crowd, and the two perpetrators were comically berated by onlookers who reminded them that, “We are socialists, not neocons! Keep the peace.” To warm up the crowd, an M.C. read out some of Evo’s achievements since he began his presidency in 2006. Evo Morales has made Bolivia a literate nation. In 2008, during the financial crisis, Bolivia’s GDP increased by 6%. Evo has successfully nationalized the nation’s gas reserves. He also intermittently entered the stage to give updates on Evo’s whereabouts. “He’s leaving the airport now!” Cheers from the crowd. “His car’s just arrived!” Cheers again. “He’s making his way through the crowd! Yet more cheers.

American Genocides: Is Haiti Next?

By Stephen Lendman
February 22, 2010

Distinguished historian, scholar and activist Gabriel Kolko studied "the nature and purpose of (American) power (since) the 1870s," calling it "violen(t), racis(t), repressi(ve) at home and abroad (and) cultural(ly) mendaci(ous)." It's been the same since inception, historian Howard Zinn calling colonial America:

"a class society from the beginning. America started off as a society of rich and poor, people with enormous grants of land and people with no land. And there were riots, there were bread riots in Boston, and riots and rebellions all over the colonies, of poor against rich, of tenants breaking into jails to release people who were in prison for nonpayment of debt. There was class conflict. We try to" portray a benevolent nation. We weren't then. We're not now.

Zimbabwe: Sophists for sanctions

By Stephen Gowans
February 19, 2010 - gowans.wordpress.com

Tony Hawkins, a professor of economics at the University of Zimbabwe, thinks that Western sanctions on Zimbabwe should be maintained but that their effects "are minimal" and that "their continued existence really plays into the hands of some people in Zanu-PF."

You would think, then, that Hawkins would favor the lifting of sanctions. After all, why continue to play into the hands of Zanu-PF, if, like Hawkins, you're opposed to the party, its direction and its program, and the sanctions' effects are minimal anyway?

Venezuela: From Revolution sui generis to Fifth International

By Franz J. T. Lee
February 10, 2010

A. Towards a New International

All previous Marxist Internationals had a sound theoretical revolutionary foundation. The ideological battles of reformism and Stalinism, accompanied by brutal assassinations and witch-hunt trials, against revolutionary theory, against brilliant men and women, like Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg, were so fierce that the ruling classes practically destroyed four promising emancipatory endeavors within 160 years. Plato died long ago but in capitalism his ideas are more alive than ever. Leon Trotsky was assassinated on Latin American soil, but his international 'dum spiro spero' (as long as I breathe I hope!), his Fourth International still yearns for concrete realization, for permanent world revolution, for emancipation in embryo.

In the attempt to revive massive international working class struggles, inter alia, theoretically what have we in Venezuela especially to take into account?

In this short commentary, for Venezuela, and for the rest of the globe, let us theoretically highlight some essential elements and reflections which are indispensable for the building of a New International.