18 September 2008 — Socialist Worker
Brian Kwoba reviews C.L.R. James’ groundbreaking account of the Haitian revolution, The Black Jacobins, on the 70th anniversary of its publication.
MORE THAN 200 years ago, a revolutionary uprising in the French colony of Saint-Domingue produced the most successful slave revolt in history. The revolution established Haiti as the first free nation of former slaves and an independent revolutionary Black republic in the heart of the Americas.
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Recent clashes between President Evo Morales’ constitutional government and the pro-autonomy opposition in Bolivia’s eastern provinces have left 15 people dead, 35 injured and 100 missing, according to official reports. The government has accused the prefect of Bolivia’s northern Pando province, Leopoldo Fernandez, of hiring professional assassins to ‘massacre’ pro-Morales campesinos. Fernandez, now under arrest on charges of genocide, denies the accusations, claiming that the deaths resulted from an ‘armed clash between rival groups.’ With accusations flying from both sides, it is natural to begin to ask: who is to blame? It is easy to assume, given the high level of tension in the country, that escalation of the violence could have been caused by either party. However, a close analysis indicates that this violence had precedents which are mostly one-sided. In the pro-autonomist regions of Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz and Tarija, a cadre of right-wing groups have consistently employed tactics of violence and intimidation in order to suppress peasant mobilization and maintain their traditional social privilege.
Source: FPIP
September 18, 2008
The alleged support by the United States of wealthy landowners, business leaders, and their organizations tied to the violent uprising in eastern Bolivia has led U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg’s expulsion from La Paz and the South American government’s demands that the United States stop backing the illegitimate rebellion. Goldberg had met with some of these right-wing oppositionist leaders just a week before the most recent outbreak of violence against the democratically elected government of Evo Morales, who won a recall referendum in August with over 67% of the popular vote.
U.S. subversion has assumed several forms since the leftist indigenous leader became president in 2005. For example, the U.S. embassy — in violation of American law — repeatedly asked Peace Corps volunteers, as well as an American Fulbright scholar, to engage in espionage, according to news reports.
Source: Black Commentator
September 18, 2008
Slightly more than a year ago, a Haitian associate of mine was kidnapped in Haiti and, from the looks of it, was murdered. His body has not been recovered and nothing has been heard from him. Despite significant international attention to his case, Lovinsky Pierre Antoine, a noted Haitian activist and leader, an associate of deposed President Jean Bertrand Aristide, has been “disappeared.”
Source: Global Research
A Review of Danny Schechter’s book ‘Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal’ by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, September 18, 2008
Danny Schechter is a media activist, critic, independent filmmaker, TV producer as well as an author of 10 books and lecturer on media issues. Some call him ‘The News Dissector,’ and that’s the name of his popular blog on media issues. He’s also co-founder of Media Channel.org. It covers the ‘political, cultural and social impacts of the media,’ and provides information unavailable in the mainstream.
Schechter’s books include Media Wars; Embedded – weapons of Mass Deception; The Death of Media; The More You Watch The Less You Know; and his newest and subject of this review, Plunder. Subtitled: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, Schechter examines the fallout from the current economic and financial crisis. What the mainstream media (MSM) suppresses:
The New Dark Age 