By Kiraz Janicke

Caracas, March 10, 2008 - The so-called ``traditional'' or moderate left wing prevailed in the elections for the provisional national executive of Venezuela's new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) on March 9. The party's vice president, Alberto Müller Rojas, announced the results of the elections for the fifteen principal delegates to the national executive and fifteen substitute delegates at a press conference , after 87.7% of the votes had been scrutinised.

While key figures associated with the right wing of the Chavista movement, such as Diosdado Cabello and Francisco Arias Cardenas, failed to get elected to the national executive (Cabello made it on to the list of substitute delegates), the preferred candidates of the radical left, such as Fernando Soto Rojas, Vladimir Acosta and Lidice Navas, were also not elected.

By Srinivasan Ramani

The Indian Premier League is seen as a bonanza for cricket viewers, players and corporate owners, but hidden behind the glitz is the fact that it represents a distorted form of commodity and consumer excess. The Indian Premier League (IPL), a corporate-driven tournament featuring a set of city teams playing Twenty20 cricket, has made news with a multimillion dollar player auction. Players from various cricket-playing nations were ``bought'' and ``sold'' through bids made by the corporate-owned teams (the franchisees).

Cricket in India has become the only sport that has captured widespread mass and media attention. The popularity of the sport has increased in leaps and bounds, and the way the sport has been managed and administered has reflected the dominant mode of economic transactions in the country.

Click here to watch Bolivia's President Evo Morales on the emergence of Bolivia's Indigenous movement.

Thanks to http://boliviarising.blogspot.com

By James J. Brittain[i]

By Farooq Tariq, Lahore

March 7, 2008 -- 2008 will be a year of decisive struggle in Pakistan. Over the past year an advocates' (lawyers') movement rose to confront the dictatorship of President Pervez Musharraf. Its aim is to create an atmosphere where the judiciary can work independently, without being under the influence of any regime, whether military or civil.

Only a year old, it has achieved impressive results.

The movement began on March 9, 2007, when the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry, responded negatively to the request from five generals -- including Musharraf -- that he voluntarily resign. Offered several other lucrative posts, he responded with a firm ``No'', resulting his immediate arrest and termination from the Supreme Court.

Video: interview with Farooq Tariq

By Katarina Pujiastuti

March 1, 2008 -- Beginning last Monday, the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) held two-day demonstrations in Jakarta to campaign for the nationalisation of oil, gas and mining industries. On the first day, about 150 students representing several campuses in Java and Sumatra protested against ExxonMobil in front of the commercial building that houses its headquarters.

The richest energy company was targeted because it recently attacked Chavez's anti-imperialist government by taking legal action to freeze the assets of the Venezuelan state's oil company, PDVSA. ``Therefore, LMND made a good decision in protesting in front of Exxon's headquarters, as the company rightly symbolises foreign corporation in the extractive sector'', said Rudi Hartono, an LMND leader.

By Peter Boyle

The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) won two of the four seats it contested in the general elections on March 8. Dr Jeyakumar, a central committee member of the PSM defeated a senior leaders of the ruling Barisan Nasional, Minister of Works Samy Vellu, in the seat of Sungai Siput in Perak. Last August I visited Sungai Siput with Jeyakumar and other PSM comrades. Their strong base among plantation workers (mostly descendants of indentured labourers brought from India in the British colonial era) was very obvious.

PSM president Dr Nasir Hashim won the state Legislative Assemby seat of Kota Damansara in Selangor. “Today is a great day for all Malaysian opposition parties including PSM”, declared the party’s website.
See http://www.parti-sosialis.org

Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network

March 5, 2008 -- What only a few days ago seemed like a remote prospect has suddenly become a real possibility. The Colombian military’s brutal massacre of 21 (at last count) guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -– Peoples Army (FARC-EP), including Raul Reyes, the FARC's chief negotiator and spokesperson, in Ecuador on March 1 marks a dramatic leap in the United States' plan to potentially trigger off an armed confrontation between Colombia and Venezuela.

These events should be of major concern for all supporters of the Venezuelan revolution, and anti-war and peace activists the world over.

By Hugo Blanco

March 4, 2008 -- Not long ago repression in Peru was more a matter of laws than actions. Now, however, APRA's legislation (APRA is President Alan García's party), with basic support from the ultra-rightist Unidad Nacional party, and from the party of Fujimori, who is now being tried for massive crimes, and with no consequent parliamentary opposition, is being used to launch a full assault against the people.

Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist (Liberation)

March 5, 2008 -- The draft political resolution released by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for its 19th Congress provides quite a revealing commentary on the opportunist political trajectory of the party. The resolution is characteristically elaborate about the description of the international and national situation. But when it comes to spelling out the concrete positions and role of the party, the resolution is rather vague and evasive. And as for the debate that the party now increasingly faces in its own circles, the resolution dismisses everything as a big anti-CPI(M) conspiracy!

By Nelson P. Valdés

The transfer of political power away from Fidel Castro was planned years ago. Preparation for it went into effect when he fell ill, and by the end of July 2006 Fidel provisionally delegated power to his brother Raúl. What had been provisional became permanent on February 18, 2008. But this was no longer a personal delegation of power; rather, the decision would depend on what elected officials at the National Assembly decided.

Over the years, there has been much speculation, and many imaginary scenarios have been concocted, regarding the end of the charismatic leader's rule. But what these various alternative scripts did not consider was the possibility of several preludes to succession.

By Vaughan Gunson and Grant Morgan -- March 2, 2008 -- In 2006, the neoliberal maniacs at the World Bank ranked New Zealand as No.1 in the world for doing business, out of 200 countries surveyed.