Copenhagen: People's summit develops a people-powered response to the climate crisis

By Lauren Carroll Harris, Copenhagen

December 15, 2009 -- Green Left Weekly -- Just over a week into the December 7-18 United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen (COP15) , thousands of ordinary people from around the world have already participated in what is being billed as the “people’s climate summit”, Klimaforum09, also taking place in the Danish capital. The difference between the two forums could not be more stark.

Outside Copenhagen’s Bella Centre, where COP15 is being held, has a circus-like quality, with delegates battling their way through a gauntlet of protesters and lobbyists. One group carries a banner emblazoned with the slogan “EU: pay your climate debt” and chants “The world is watching”. Inside, registered delegates, government diplomats and NGO members make their way through airport-style security checks to participate in what is increasingly seen as a redundant talkshop.

By contrast, the Klimaforum is open, free and a genuine meeting of different groups, activists, scientists, farmers and artists to discuss a democratic, people-powered response to the climate crisis.

Leninism: It’s not what you think

Lenin (centre) with Trotsky (left) and Kamenev.

By Paul Kellogg

[This article first appeared in Socialist Studies: the Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies 5(2), Fall 2009. It has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission.]

`The main issue for us is Mother Earth' -- Bolivia's delegation to Copenhagen climate talks

‘Repay the climate debt!'

December 9, 2009 – Democracy Now!

Bolivia: Why did Evo Morales win?

By Atilio A. Boron, translated by Richard Fidler

December 8, 2009 -- Rebelión -- A week ago we were celebrating the triumph of Pepe Mujica in Uruguay. Today we have renewed, and more profound reasons, to celebrate the extraordinary electoral victory of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales [on December 6]. [See also Bolivian movement of social transformation continues to inspire the world.]

Indonesia: Anti-corruption protests follow bank bailout


On December 9, 2009, protests against corruption were held in Indonesia. Above are those organised by the People's Democratic Party. Photos by Roso Suroso, Ririn Sefsani, Ulfa Ilyas and Rudi Hartono. Made with Slideshow Embed Tool.

December 9, 2009 -- The great photos above are of a mass demonstration in Jakarta on International Anti-corruption Day December 9, 2009, just one of many demonstrations against corruption have been sweeping Indonesia protesting allegations that a US$600 million government bailout was given to Century Bank on condition that some of the money be used to fund President Yudhoyono's re-election campaign.

Australian Socialist Alliance's address to the International Encounter of Left Parties, Caracas, November 2009

Marta Harnecker on the Fifth International and the left movement in Latin America

By Jesús Manzanárez

December 10, 2009 -- Venezuelanalysis.com/Correo del Orinoco -- Marta Harnecker remains ardent, audacious, reflective and perceptive. A collaborator of the Miranda International Centre [in Caracas], she will today [December 3] attend a reception in her honour in the Teresa Carreño Theatre for her outstanding career, fundamentally in the study of the mechanisms to effective take power at the community level and her contributions to Marxist theory.

In carrying out an assessment of the correlation of forces in Latin America, she laughs at those who reproached her about the “failure” of the left... She is passionate about journalism, although she never studied the profession. In fact she was the editor of the magazine Chile Hoy (Chile Today), published during the government of Salvador Allende.

Copenhagen: System change -- not climate change: the Klimaforum09 Declaration


December 8, 2009 -- Democracy Now! -- Nigerian environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey: ``The global North owes a climate debt to Africa.'' Click HERE for transcript.

A people's declaration from Klimaforum09, Copenhagen, December 10, 2009

Summary

There are solutions to the climate crisis. What people and the planet need is a just and sustainable transition of our societies to a form that will ensure the rights of life and dignity of all peoples and deliver a more fertile planet and more fulfilling lives to future generations.

Unión de Militantes por el Socialismo: Resolución del Comité Central sobre la Vª Internacional/Resolution on the Fifth Int.

[English translation below.]

por Unión de Militantes por el Socialismo (Argentina)

Al Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela

Queridos compañeros y compañeras

New phase in the struggle for Diego Garcia

Diego Garcia.

By Lalit (Mauritius)

Quebec left debates independence strategy (updated December 20, 2009)

Québec solidaire's member of the Québec National Assembly, Amir Khadir, tossing a shoe at a picture of US President George Bush at a rally in Montreal in November 2008

Between Caracas and Delhi -- two important conferences of the international left

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez addresses the conference of left parties in Caracas.

By Reuven Kaminer

December 7, 2009 -- Venezuelanalysis.com -- It seems more than a coincidence that two important conferences of the international left took place in November 2009. One, the 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, was held in Delhi, India, on November 20-22 and issued the “Delhi Declaration” (DD) and the other, a World Meeting of Left Parties, met in Caracas, Venezuela, on November 19-21 and issued a document entitled the “Caracas Commitment” (CC). There were approximately 50 organisations at each conference. I will try to relate here to some of the main issues raised by these two meetings and the calls that they issued.

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