Call to action from CISPES - Wednesday 12 March 2014

Committee in solidarity with the people of El Salvador

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It’s hard to believe that only two days have passed since the FMLN’s thrilling victory on Sunday night – so much has happened in the meantime. The right-wing is moving swiftly to derail the democratic process and stop Salvador Sanchez Ceren from being announced as president – we need your help.

www.vivavenezuela.co.uk

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Join us on Wednesday 5 March for a day of solidarity with the Venezuelan people who are under attack from US imperialism, private media agencies and Latin American right-wing extremists who distort the truth about what is happening in Venezuela.

They deceive the world by presenting civilian deaths at the hands of right-wing paramilitary groups, and the destruction of schools and power stations, as covert government actions designed to blame the opposition. They portray the lack of certain foods and the high price of others, which are actually the result of economic sabotage and hoarding by large private corporations, as the responsibility of the Bolivarian government’s misguided and inefficient economic and social policies.
 
They lie when they claim that the Venezuelan right are acting in favour of democracy, economic prosperity and against dictatorship. In reality their actions are part of a destabilisation plan, promoting violence and US military intervention in a country with one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Venezuela, along with other Latin American countries, has set out to build a more just, democratic, Bolivarian and anti-imperialist society. This is necessary to liberate the oppressed and excluded - the vast majority of those in our Latin America - from the small ruling class which acts in the interests of the imperialists. 
 
On Wednesday 5 March we will also be paying a heartfelt tribute to comandante Hugo Chavez, on the first anniversary of his death. A tribute to a Bolivarian leader who, with his struggle, determination and social conscience in favour of the poor, helped to forge the dream of independence and sovereignty for people across Latin America and the world.
 

Day: Wednesday 5 March

Time: 5 to 7pm

Place: Trafalgar Square

 

Join us!!

Called by:  Venezuela Solidarity Network
                   Bolivia action group
                   Revolutionary Communist Group
                   Rock around the Blockade
                   Movimiento Micaela Bastidas UK
                   Marcha Patriotica Britain

We also encourage everyone to participate in the following event:

Cuban Foreign Minister, Burno Rodriguez Parrilla addresses a press conference
Cuban Foreign Minister, Burno Rodriguez Parrilla addresses a press conference

By Helen Yaffe*

On 28-29th January 2014, Havana hosts the Second Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC in Spanish), with the participation of the heads of states, chancellors and other representatives of all 33 independent nations in the region. The Summit rounds off Cuba’s one-year presidency of CELAC, which focussed on combating regional poverty, hunger and inequality. Cuba is part of CELAC’s three member troika, along with Chile, which held the presidency in 2012 and Costa Rica which takes over in 2014. Over 30 documents are being drawn up for discussion and analysis, including a Plan of Action, and standards and principles which will govern cooperation. The Summit was preceded by two days of discussions by national experts on 25-26 January and a meeting of chancellors on 27 January. The Summit is expected to emit specific statements, for example, demanding that Britain return Las Islas Malvinas (the Falkland Islands) to Argentina and that the US blockade of Cuba be lifted.

RCG in QuitoAlerta Alerta que camina, la juventud del mundo por America Latina!

(Watch out watch out, the youth of the world are marching for Latin America!)

This was the chant and message ringing out around the World Festival Of Youth & Students, held in Quito, Ecuador, this December. Our organisation the Revolutionary Communist Group, fundraised to send a delegation of three comrades from London, Newcastle and Glasgow. They were able to speak with and interview anti-imperialists from around the world and bring back with them awealth of information and inspiration for the fight against the cuts and imperialism here in Britain, the belly of the Beast.

The gains and achievements of socialist Cuba, the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and the movement for socialism in Ecuador and Bolivia show in practice that socialism is the only system capable of meeting the needs of humanity. This lesson must be taken up in Britain where thousands are being punished by cuts to welfare while the ruling class plan their next imperialist venture abroad. To successfully resist the war on welfare and peoples abroad we must support the struggle for welfare and freedom from imperialism taking place across Latin America.

2014 will be a key year in the fight for socialism in Latin America. From the Colombian Peace talks and upcoming elections in Bolivia and Ecuador, to the student movements in Chile and the fight for against economic sabotage on the streets of Venezuela, Latin America is on the frontline of the battle for socialism globally. These social movements are fighting for a real alternative to racism, war and poverty-for a collective socialist society. Their fight is our fight! Another world is possible! Another world is being built!

Come to the meetings listed below, get involved, get active in Britain as real solidarity with Cuba and the revolutionary movements internationally is building a movement for socialism here.


18 World festivalDuring 7-13 December, three supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Group will be in Quito, Ecuador at the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students 

As the capitalist crisis bites in Britain, spreading war, poverty, austerity and despair worldwide,  To successfully resist the war on welfare and peoples abroad we must support the war for welfare and for people’s freedom taking place across Latin America.

We will be blogging from the festival, putting you in contact with activists from all over the globe, gaining an insight into the citizens’ revolution in Ecuador and the movement towards socialism across Latin America today.

Visit the blog at:

http://rcg-ecuador2013.tumblr.com/

Please share widely. We will organise report-back meetings in January, details will be posted here soon.

 

www.venezuelanalysis.com 30 OctoberNo to the blockade

Venezuela condemned the United States embargo against Cuba on Tuesday, as the United Nations General Assembly again called for an end to the 53 year-old trade restrictions.

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) voted for the 22ndconsecutive year to reject the US embargo, with 188 nations opposed the embargo and three abstentions. Only the US and Israel voted in favour of the continuation of the embargo, which has been in place since 1960. The UNGA resolution is non-binding.

“Such measures are in violation of the right to peace, development and security, while contravening the rules of the multilateral trading system,” Venezuela's permanent ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, stated. Moncada also argued that the embargo is impeding the pursuit of the UN  Millennium Development Goals.

Moncada called on the US to comply “with the resolutions that the General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted since 1991, that lead to immediate and definitive lifting of this inhumane blockade implemented for more than fifty years”.

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 235 October/November 2013

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Arnold August, Zed Books 2013, £16.99

In Cuba and its neighbours: democracy in motion, Canadian journalist Arnold August demolishes the bourgeois propaganda that socialist Cuba is somehow ‘undemocratic’ by examining the very idea of what we mean by democracy.

The first part of this comparative study, ‘Cobwebs around democracy’, is an analysis of the US system. August exposes the deceptive character of the US two-party system as a cover for what he describes as an ‘oligarchic’ state but we would call imperialist. Using Barack Obama as a case study, he shows how a cautious ‘benefit of the doubt’ attitude towards Obama by Latin America faded in the face of a military coup in Honduras, perpetrated with US backing. August points out that ‘a new face’ changed nothing in US relations with Cuba: ‘His role, based on the illusion created regarding the two-party system, was to change tactics because they had failed to reach the same goal of regime change.’

August argues that Obama recreates the chimera of the American Dream at home, while promoting war abroad. The two-party system ‘constitutes the lifeline of maintaining the status quo and averting a crisis in the US political system.’ August shows that this system excludes up to half the voting age population, including convicted felons – the majority black – and those without official papers, such as many Latino immigrants. Thus large numbers of the most oppressed sections in US society are disenfranchised.

Article by Fernando Molina. Introduction and translation by Richard Fidler, Life on the Left

Evo Morales fistBolivia’s achievements in recent years have inspired interest and solidarity among many on the left outside that country, and not just in Latin America. Conversely, the government of Evo Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) has produced corresponding hostility from Washington and its allies. But some of the harshest criticism has also come from some left critics, including a few foreign academics and Bolivia-based NGO activists. Readers of their accounts might wonder how it is that the Morales government still gets the popular support it clearly does in Bolivia.

The following article by a leading Bolivian journalist sheds considerable light on the matter. He focuses on the domestic scene — more particularly, the government’s economic and social reforms — and astutely explains both the accomplishments of the administration and the reasons for discontent on both the left and the right within the country.

syria strikeCuba and Venezuela maintain their anti-imperialist principles, condemning Britain and the US's war drive in the Middle East and their latest threats to bomb Syria. Quotes taken from www.dailystar.com and www.venezuelanalysis.com

 Cuba warned on Wednesday 28 August that an attack on Syria would have serious consequences for an already unstable Middle East and be in 'flagrant violation' of the United Nations charter.

In a statement, the Cuban foreign ministry condemned the use of chemical weapons but called for a political solution to the crisis in Syria.

'An aggression against Syria would provoke very serious consequences in the already convulsed Middle East, would constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of the U.N. charter and international law, and increase the dangers to peace and international security,' it said.

'It needs to be remembered that those advocating the most for military action against Syria are the same ones who launched bloody wars without a U.N. Security Council mandate, under cover of the deliberate lie about the existence of weapons of mass destruction or under the pretext of protecting civilians,'