Category: International
Venezuela Launches Int’l Campaign against US ‘Threat’ Claims
| March 26, 2015 | 7:57 pm | Action, International, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Launches-Intl-Campaign-against-US-Threat-Claims–20150318-0028.html

  • Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez announced that he will support the campaign.

    Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez announced that he will support the campaign. | Photo: AVN

Published 18 March 2015

With the phrase “Obama, Venezuela is not a threat!,” civil society will help put pressure on the White House.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Wednesday the beginning of an international campaign to gather signatures to reject the U.S. executive order labelling Venezuela a national security threat.

Venezuela has already received widespread backing from governments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

With the phrase “Obama, Venezuela is not a threat!” the campaign aims to gather millions of signatures, both within Venezuela and worldwide, to pressure the U.S. president into repealing the executive order.

“Venezuela, a peace-loving nation, calls on the U.S. government to fulfill its international obligations regarding the respect for a country’s self-determination and the right of its people to freely choose their own path,” reads the statement people are being asked to sign.

The petition, which can be signed here, calls for “President Barack Obama to repeal the Executive Order against Venezuela and normalize diplomatic relations with the legitimately elected government of President Nicolás Maduro and reaffirm the principles of mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of countries.”

Maduro said people in every city will get involved in the campaign, with collection posts to gather signatures set up nationwide.

The online version seeks to collect as many signatures as possible internationally in support the Venezuelan people.

Nato’s action plan in Ukraine is right out of Dr Strangelove
| March 24, 2015 | 7:58 pm | Analysis, Imperialism, International, political struggle, Russia, Ukraine | Comments closed
 
From China to Ukraine, the US is pursuing its longstanding ambition to dominate the Eurasian landmass

John Pilger , Thursday 17 April 2014 11.41 EDT

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/17/nato-ukraine-dr-strangelove-china-us?CMP=share_btn_link

I watched Dr Strangelove the other day. I have seen it perhaps a dozen times; it makes sense of senseless news. When Major TJ “King” Kong goes “toe to toe with the Rooskies” and flies his rogue B52 nuclear bomber to a target in Russia, it’s left to General “Buck” Turgidson to reassure the president. Strike first, says the general, and “you got no more than 10-20 million killed, tops”. President Merkin Muffley: “I will not go down in history as the greatest mass murderer since Adolf Hitler.” General Turgidson: “Perhaps it might be better, Mr President, if you were more concerned with the American people than with your image in the history books.”

The genius of Stanley Kubrick’s film is that it accurately represents the cold war’s lunacy and dangers. Most of the characters are based on real people and real maniacs. There is no equivalent to Strangelove today because popular culture is directed almost entirely at our interior lives, as if identity is the moral zeitgeist and true satire is redundant, yet the dangers are the same. The nuclear clock has remained at five minutes to midnight; the same false flags are hoisted above the same targets by the same “invisible government”, as Edward Bernays, the inventor of public relations, described modern propaganda.

In 1964, the year Dr Strangelove was made, “the missile gap” was the false flag. To build more and bigger nuclear weapons and pursue an undeclared policy of domination, President John F Kennedy approved the CIA’s propaganda that the Soviet Union was well ahead of the US in the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles. This filled front pages as the “Russian threat”. In fact, the Americans were so far ahead in production of the missiles, the Russians never approached them. The cold war was based largely on this lie.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has ringed Russia with military bases, nuclear warplanes and missiles as part of its Nato enlargement project. Reneging on a US promise to the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that Nato would not expand “one inch to the east”, Nato has all but taken over eastern Europe. In the former Soviet Caucasus, Nato’s military build-up is the most extensive since the second world war.
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In February, the US mounted one of its proxy “colour” coups against the elected government of Ukraine; the shock troops were fascists. For the first time since 1945, a pro-Nazi, openly antisemitic party controls key areas of state power in a European capital. No western European leader has condemned this revival of fascism on the border of Russia. Some 30 million Russians died in the invasion of their country by Hitler’s Nazis, who were supported by the infamous Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the UPA) which was responsible for numerous Jewish and Polish massacres. The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, of which the UPA was the military wing, inspires today’s Svoboda party.

Since Washington’s putsch in Kiev – and Moscow’s inevitable response in Russian Crimea to protect its Black Sea fleet – the provocation and isolation of Russia have been inverted in the news to the “Russian threat”. This is fossilised propaganda. The US air force general who runs Nato forces in Europe – General Philip Breedlove, no less – claimed more than two weeks ago to have pictures showing 40,000 Russian troops “massing” on the border with Ukraine. So did Colin Powell claim to have pictures proving there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What is certain is that Barack Obama’s rapacious, reckless coup in Ukraine has ignited a civil war and Vladimir Putin is being lured into a trap.

Following a 13-year rampage that began in stricken Afghanistan well after Osama bin Laden had fled, then destroyed Iraq beneath a false flag, invented a “nuclear rogue” in Iran, dispatched Libya to a Hobbesian anarchy and backed jihadists in Syria, the US finally has a new cold war to supplement its worldwide campaign of murder and terror by drone.

A Nato membership action plan – straight from the war room of Dr Strangelove – is General Breedlove’s gift to the new dictatorship in Ukraine. “Rapid Trident” will put US troops on Ukraine’s Russian border and “ Sea Breeze” will put US warships within sight of Russian ports. At the same time, Nato war games in eastern Europe are designed to intimidate Russia. Imagine the response if this madness was reversed and happened on the US’s borders. Cue General Turgidson.
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And there is China. On 23 April, Obama will begin a tour of Asia to promote his “pivot” to China. The aim is to convince his “allies” in the region, principally Japan, to rearm and prepare for the possibility of war with China. By 2020, almost two-thirds of all US naval forces in the world will be transferred to the Asia-Pacific area. This is the greatest military concentration in that vast region since the second world war.

In an arc extending from Australia to Japan, China will face US missiles and nuclear-armed bombers. A strategic naval base is being built on the Korean island of Jeju, less than 400 miles from Shanghai and the industrial heartland of the only country whose economic power is likely to surpass that of the US. Obama’s “ pivot” is designed to undermine China’s influence in its region. It is as if a world war has begun by other means.

This is not a Dr Strangelove fantasy. Obama’s defence secretary, Charles “Chuck” Hagel, was in Beijing last week to deliver a warning that China, like Russia, could face isolation and war if it did not bow to US demands. He compared the annexation of Crimea to China’s complex territorial dispute with Japan over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. “You cannot go around the world,” said Hagel with a straight face, “and violate the sovereignty of nations by force, coercion or intimidation.” As for America’s massive movement of naval forces and nuclear weapons to Asia, that is “a sign of the humanitarian assistance the US military can provide”.

Obama is seeking a bigger budget for nuclear weapons than the historical peak during the cold war, the era of Dr Strangelove. The US is pursuing its longstanding ambition to dominate the Eurasian landmass, stretching from China to Europe: a “manifest destiny” made right by might.

• This article was amended on 22 April 2014 to clarify a reference to a US promise that Nato would not expand to the east.

US Combat Forces, FBI and CIA in Ukraine
| March 21, 2015 | 10:48 am | Analysis, Imperialism, International, National, political struggle, Russia, Ukraine | Comments closed
US Combat Forces, FBI and CIA in Ukraine: Vice President Biden Congratulates Poroshenko for Violating Minsk Peace Agreement
Global Research, March 20, 2015
www.globalresearc/4E03C05D.jpg
Obama continues using Kiev junta proxies to wage war on Donbass. He’s gone all-out to sabotage multiple peace efforts spearheaded by Russia.
He didn’t wage war to quit. He’s supplying Kiev with heavy weapons, munitions and other US aid.
US combat forces are in Ukraine working directly with its military. CIA and FBI operatives infest Kiev.
On March 18, Joe Biden called Poroshenko. He congratulated him for violating Minsk.
It calls for granting Donbass special status autonomous rule. Draft Kiev legislation designates it “temporarily occupied territories.”
A White House statement said Biden “welcomed the (parliament’s) adoption of implementing measures relating to the law on special status for certain areas of eastern Ukraine…”
He lied saying legislation adopted complies with terms stipulated under “September 2014 and February 2015 Minsk agreements.”
Kiev continues violating their letter and spirit with full US support and encouragement.
“The two leaders discussed the upcoming multinational training program for Ukraineís (Nazi infested) National Guard forces, which the United States will support,” the White House statement said.
They ‘agreed” on maintaining sanctions on Russia. They lied claiming they’re in response to “Russia(n) violence and instability in” Donbass.
They concurred on pressuring “the international community…to increase the costs to Russia for pursuing such actions.”
Sergey Lavrov responded saying Washington wants Ukrainian crisis conditions settled militarily.
Kiev’s failure to grant Donbass special status violates its pledge to do so.

“If Washington welcomes the action, which undermines the Minsk agreements, then we can only conclude that Washington is inciting Kiev to resolve the issue by military means,” Lavrov explained.

“The Ukrainian leadership..basically terminated their commitments to engage in direct dialogue and negotiate with south-eastern Ukraine, including on the issue of elections, on the implementation of the law on the special status…”

Russia’s OSCE envoy Andrey Kelin accused Kiev of spurning conflict ending dialogue with Donbass.

“No lasting truce and sustainable ceasefire are possible without political settlement, and no such settlement is possible without dialogue,” he said.

“Kiev is categorically reluctant to speak with Donbas about political settlement. Last year’s developments seem to be reoccurring.”

“We saw it a year ago and it ended up, as we know, in Ukraineís aggression against Donbas.”

“Kiev is seeking to fall into the same trap, arrogantly ignoring representatives of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.”

“If they do not observe what has been agreed in Minsk after months of warfare, and Minsk agreements provide for a dialogue between the parties to the conflict to establish the DPR and LPR status, local elections in Donbas and normal political settlement, the risk (of attempts to solve the conflict by military means) considerably increases.”

Kiev systematically breached previous peace initiatives straightaway. It ignores Minsk II provisions.
It wants total control over Donbass regained. It intends seizing it forcefully.
Illegitimate prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk explained it several times. Most recently on Wednesday unambiguously saying “(o)ur goal is to regain control of Donetsk and Lugansk.”
Last April, naked aggression was launched to accomplish Kiev’s objective. Low-intensity conflict continues – heading toward resuming full-scale war at Washington’s discretion.
Expect it any time. Expect likely greater mass slaughter and destruction than before.
“We will fight using all method and techniques,” said Yatsenyuk. Meaning no-holds-barred dirty war – using banned weapons, willfully targeting civilians, and committing other egregious crimes of war and against humanity.
Expect Russia and rebels blamed for US/Kiev crimes like earlier. Chances for peace are nil.
At risk is direct US/Russian confrontation. Fox News is one of many presstitute platforms promoting it.
It features anti-Russian gun-slinging retired generals. Robert Scales told Fox the only way to change things in Ukraine is “start killing Russians.”
A criminal case was opened against him in Russia under Article 354 of its Criminal Code.
He advocates cold-blooded murder. He’s not alone. Active and retired US political and military officials want war on Russia.
Giving them national television air time increases the possibility. Lunatic fringe loose cannons infest Washington.
Retired General/former US army vice chief of staff Jack Keane wants US bases closer to Russia’s borders.
Sanctions and provocative military exercises aren’t enough, he says. He urges tougher actions.

“I think weíve got to recognize that the security issues in Europe are no longer in Central Europe where our forces were post-WW2,” he said.

“The fact is theyíre in Eastern Europe, so we should realign our bases not on a temporary basis but on a permanent basis, put the air bases and the ground bases further into eastern Europe, move them out of Central Germany where they currently are.”

“That’ll cost some expense, but it’s absolutely worth it in terms of letting Putin know clearly that those countries, those Baltic countries…matter to us.”

“They are a part of NATO and we’re not going to accept any challenge to them.”

“This would send a really loud signal to them that clearly the security situation in Europe has changed.”

“Itís recognition of those changes. It’s a recognition of the intimidation and the threatening situation that is clearly developing.”

Fact: America’s only threats are ones it invents.
Fact: Eastern and Western European countries claiming Russian threats lie. None exist.
Fact: Positioning increasing numbers of US military combat troops near Russia’s borders heightens chances for direct confrontation.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
                Copyright © 2015 Global Research
Gerrard Sables Radio Interview
| March 18, 2015 | 11:05 pm | Communist Party Britain, International, political struggle | Comments closed

Election 2015 Q&A: Communist Sables says it’s time for change
| March 18, 2015 | 10:56 pm | Communist Party Britain, International, political struggle | Comments closed

 http://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/home/election_2015_q_a_communist_sables_says_it_s_time_for_change_1_3999200

13:03 18 March 2015

Communist candidate for North Devon, Gerrard Sables

Communist candidate for North Devon, Gerrard Sables

Archant

In the latest of our pieces profiling each of the candidates for May’s General Election, we meet Communist candidate for North Devon, Gerrard Sables

How long have you been in politics?

I joined the Communist Party in 1972 but have been involved since 1966. I joined because I was active in the trade union movement and against apartheid, the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons.

Why have you decided to stand for election?

I want to give the vote to people who believe in socialism. I will be different from all the other candidates as I am against the monarchy, House of Lords, the European Union, NATO and capitalism. I also hate xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and what Shakespeare’s Hamlet called “the insolence of office.”

What are the major issues facing North Devon between 2015-20?

The major issues here are the same as the major issues in the rest of the country namely poverty and inequality. The austerity agenda promotes poverty. The unemployed, the sick and disabled are victimised by the Tory press, by the Department of Work and Pensions and by the mean spirited which seek to limit the amount paid out.

What would you like to see done to combat these?

Let’s close the overseas tax havens and recruit more tax officers. Let’s restore the cuts- all of them. Let’s revoke all anti-trade union legislation and give workers the rights they deserve. Let’s make paying low wages a criminal offence. Let’s have free education, health and care from cradle to grave. Let us stop wasting money on nuclear weapons and let’s reduce our military spending per person to a European average.

How would your party deliver on this for the people of North Devon?

The people would have to claim these themselves. After the election we will still need widespread industrial action, occupations and demonstrations to carry out a left wing programme. A socialist government would support such actions not hinder them. The people must be involved in the decision making process in the workplaces and in their communities.

How much pressure do you think local services will come under should spending cuts continue? Can local authorities cope with these?

If we elect valiant and courageous people to our local councils and are prepared to back them up, cuts can be avoided.

Do you support or oppose further housing and renewable energy developments in the constituency? Why?

We need a large council house building programme and the obligation on councils to sell should be scrapped. Private tenancies should be taken over by councils and fair rents charged. Ten percent of average earnings ought to be more than enough to pay for rent, fuel and water. Tenants movements should be encouraged.

North Devon has renewable energy resources in abundance. We should use them. It is silly not to. Harnessing the wind waves and the sunshine could create climate jobs in the area and North Devon could export the energy.

How confident are you of a successful election campaign for your party, both locally and nationally?

Simply getting our points across and letting people know that there still is an active Communist Party is success enough at the moment. If we recruit members that will be a bonus. At the moment we have seven candidates including two members of the Young Communist League. Our candidate for Plymouth Sutton might well be the youngest in the country. Laura-Jane Rossington is 18.

In one sentence, what would you pledge to offer to the people of North Devon should you be elected?

Like fellow Communist MPs Sharpurji Saklatvala, Willie Gallacher and Phil Piratin before me I would become a hard working, thoughtful and wise tribune of the people. If I am not elected I will continue the fight for peace, socialism and international solidarity.

Why should people give you their vote?

Anybody who is racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic should not give me their vote. Those votes I do not want.

If you are a Christian and believe in the Sermon on the Mount or if you are a Muslim and believe in the Prophet’s Final Sermon then voting Communist makes sense.

If you believe the European Union to be a gigantic protection racket but are not completely bonkers then you must vote Communist. If you believe that capitalism needs to end vote for me and get involved.

I am probably the only candidate to have organised a flying picket and to have been arrested for peace movement activity so if you want someone who has been fighting for peoples’ rights for four decades and who is not frightened of getting into trouble for it you should vote Communist.

What would you say to anyone thinking about not voting in May?

I hear non-voters say, “They’re all the same.” Well at least two of the candidates are not and you decide who the other one is and anyway those who don’t do politics can find that politics will do them.

Away from politics, give us a quirky fact about yourself?

I have played some of the most evil villains in pantomime. The late great Hamish Patrick tended to typecast me although the last time I trod the boards it was as the Dame.

Any other comments?

Let us treat people who come to live and work here from abroad a lot more decently. We Communists love immigrants. Karl Marx was an asylum seeker. Our first MP was an Indian. When a politician uses immigration to grub around for votes it encourages racism and the violence that goes with it.

Asylum seekers should be believed not treated as liars. They are denied benefits and the right to work. It’s a national disgrace and needs to be remedied.

Job centres should be properly staffed to pay people their full benefits and to find them jobs. They should not be used to trick people into losing their benefits. Likewise if a doctor says someone is sick then he or she should be believed.

Let’s put a stop to programmes which vilify the poor.

We support the National Pensioners’ Convention in its campaigns for decent pensions and treatment of the elderly.

Finally just as Norway does not need to be in the EU and Ireland does not need to be in NATO, Britain does not need to be in either of these protection rackets.

We need a Britain that serves the millions not the millionaires.

Communist policies are not just for the Communist Party. We want other progressive forces to take them up.

TELESUR: Venezuelans March against Obama Threats
| March 17, 2015 | 8:57 pm | Imperialism, International, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed
 
15 March 2015
 
The march coincided with a vote in the Venezuelan Parliament on dealing with Obama’s claims that the South American nation posed a security threat.
 
Venezuelans took the streets of Caracas Sunday to reject U.S. threats and to support a new law passed to enable President Nicolas Maduro to respond to the latest aggression.
 
Thousands attended the march, which was addressed by President Maduro, who described it as highlighting the unity of the Venezuelan people in the face of such external threats.
 
The peaceful demonstration began around 10 a.m. in Plaza Bolivar, as the parliament was debating the new measure, which was backed by a majority of legislators.
 
President Maduro also welcomed the “support of the governments and peoples of the world” describing it as “a great victory for the defense of our sovereignty.”
 
Regional blocs UNASUR and ALBA have voiced support for the Venezuelan government since U.S. President Barack Obama declared the Latin American country a “national security threat.”
Demonstration against Fascism and War
| March 17, 2015 | 8:07 pm | Action, International, National, political struggle | Comments closed
CONTACT: Kelly McConnell, Coordinator
                   (213) 448-4363
The Los Angeles Peace Council, in conjunction with the United National Anti-war Coalition, will be holding a rally on Saturday, March 21 at 10am at Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA. 90012 (south lawn). On the west coast we are demonstrating our solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are demonstrating in Washington D.C. against continued United States military aggression around the world.
Joseph Hancock, Chapter Organizer said that our mission is to STOP NATO AGGRESSION, and to build the United Front against Fascism and War. NATO operates as an imperialist army against working people around the world. The imperialist powers, led by the United States, provoke military conflict to achieve strategic objectives that benefit the few at the expense of the many. U.S. foreign policy has nothing to do with protecting the people of the United States.