Women and revolutionary transformation in Venezuela
Yoly Fernandez (left) during her 2009 Australian tour, organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network.
By Coral Wynter
Yoly Fernandez lives in a barrio in the city of Valencia in Venezuela. She has been involved in community politics all her life and is a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), headed by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Fernandez works in Mission MERCAL, the government agency that sells subsidised food to the population. I interviewed her in May 2010.
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How has the life of women improved over the last 10 years of the Chavez government?
Our lives have improved enormously, mainly in the area of humane values; not so much at the level of work or even at the political level. I say humane because now the role of women is valued, not as an object but as a subject, as mother, wife, daughter and sister.
Raul Castro: `Socialism is the only guarantee Cuba will continue to be free and independent'
Delegates at Cuba's National Assembly consider the Draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution. Photo by Calixto N. Llanes.
Below is a translation of Cuba's President Raul Castro's speech, on December 18, 2010, at the close of Cuba's National Assembly session, where the Draft Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution document was debated.
[For more analysis and discussion on the economic reforms in Cuba, click HERE.]
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Comrades all,
US warplanes take off from Diego Garcia.
[Read the Mauritian socialists' open letter to Greenpeace -- `Don't help cover up colonialism's crimes on Diego Garcia' HERE, warning the organisation that it is being manipulated by the US and British governments. This has now been confirmed by Wikileaks.]
By Clency Lebrasse
December 17, 2010 -- Rabble.ca -- Six months ago, I wrote a piece for rabble.ca describing the appalling treatment of the people of the Chagos Islands [which includes Diego Garcia] in the Indian Ocean by the British government.
South Korea: `Just the first round' by `irregular workers' at Hyundai Motors
Hyundai Motors workers' sit-in at Hyundai's plant in Ulsan.
reports on strikes and factory occupations at Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea, which is building solidarity among regular and irregular workers, and among workers internationally.
December 16, 2010 -- Socialist Worker (US) -- "Even a worm will squirm when it is being stepped on" is an old Korean idiom that basically means that even the most powerless creature reacts against an aggressor. However, when such a worm is transformed into a fearful dragon, it will do a lot more than just squirm, to the point that you had better think twice about stepping on it.
That's what happened at one of South Korea's most profitable companies, Hyundai Motors, when the company's irregular workers mobilised with strikes and factory occupations during the middle of November, after decades of being "stepped on". Before we start with that fateful day of November 15, we need to take a look at how it progressed.
Dlaczego żądanie zakazu noszenia burki sprzyja rasistom
[2010-12-17 -- Lewica.pl/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Poniższe
wystąpienie zostało wygłoszone na pełnym ludzi zebraniu w centrum
Sydney 24 listopada 2010r. Pip Hinman była jedną z dwóch mieszkańców,
którzy zorganizowali zebranie na wzór rady miasta w odpowiedzi na
niepokój w lokalnej społeczności spowodowany projektem ustawy
prawicowego parlamentarzysty z Partii Chrześcijańsko-Demokratycznej
Freda Nile'a o zakazie zakrywania twarzy i napisami na sklepie w Newtown
"Powiedz burkom nie". Zebrani wysłuchali muzułmańskiego działacza
studenckiego, lidera związku zawodowego oraz chrześcijańskiego pastora,
którzy byli przeciwni wprowadzeniu zakazu. Wysłuchali oni także jego
zwolenników. Rezolucja sprzeciwiająca się zakazowi przeszła większością
dwóch trzecich głosów. Kliknij: http://links.org.au/node/2012 aby
przeczytać więcej o zebraniu i dyskusji. Zobacz także: Australia –
debata o zakazie noszenia burki: czy jeśli nie mogę nosić burki, to nie
The United Left Alliance in Ireland: Is this the left unity we were hoping for?
Richard Boyd Barrett from the People Before Profit Alliance and Joe Higgins MEP from the Socialist Party, during the launch of the new United
Cuba on Cancun climate talks: `Another year has been lost since the deception of Copenhagen'
Two speeches by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Cuba's minister of foreign affairs, at the COP16 of the UNFCCC, Cancun, Mexico
December 8, 2010 -- Translation by Granma International -- Powerful forces are assuring us without hesitation that climate change does not exist, that there is nothing to be concerned about and that the serious problem bringing us here today is a total fabrication.
They are those in the United States Congress who are currently opposing the ratification of the weak agreements which control the proliferation of nuclear weapons, in a senseless crusade whose sole purpose is to retrieve a small part of the power that they lost barely two years ago.
El capitalismo climático gana en Cancún -- todos los demás pierden
Por Patrick Bond, Cancún
12 de diciembre -- Bolpress/Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- La clausura el 11 de diciembre de la 16 Conferencia de las Partes –la cumbre global del clima– en Cancún fue mostrada por la mayoría de los participantes y periodistas de los medios dominantes como una victoria, un ‘paso adelante’. El jefe negociador del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU., Todd Stern, alardeó: “El año pasado las ideas fueron esquemáticas y no se aprobaron, ahora se han elaborado y se han aprobado”.
Fidel Castro on Wikileaks: The empire stands accused
By Fidel Castro Ruz
December 14, 2010 -- Julian Assange, a man known only to a very few in the world some months ago, is demonstrating that the most powerful empire to have existed in history can be challenged.
The daring challenge did not come from a rival superpower; from a state with more than 100 nuclear weapons; from a country with millions of inhabitants; from a group of nations with vast natural resources which the United States could not do without; or from a revolutionary doctrine capable of shaking to its foundations the empire based on plunder and exploitation of the world.
Wikileaks: Don't forget Bradley Manning -- US detains accused whistleblower in inhumane conditions
Graphic from CourageToResist.org.
December 15, 2010 -- Salon -- Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old US Army private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the US Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture. Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning's detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard), who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subject to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.
South Africa: `COSATU has waged titanic battles' -- COSATU marks its 25th anniversary
Workers celebrate COSATU’s 25th anniversary. Picture: Gallo Images.
The following speeches, by COSATU's president and general secretary, were delivered at a ceremony in Johannesburg on December 3, 2010, to celebrate the Congress of South African Trade Unions' 25th anniversary.
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By Sidumo Dlamini, COSATU president
December 3, 2010 -- Cyril Ramaphosa was prophetic when he declared that “a giant has arisen!” That giant has grown from 130,000 members when it was launched to well over 2 million paid up members today.
While still barely walking, the young giant launched itself into titanic battles against employers and the apartheid regime. In his speech at the launch, founding COSATU president Elijah Barayi gave apartheid ruler P.W. Botha a six-month deadline to do away with passes. Indeed Botha succumbed and the hated pass laws that had humiliated millions for decades were scrapped. Today we carry proper identity documents.