Check out this link and sign the petition to support Houston Janitors

http://tx.seiu.org/page/s/stand-with-houston-janitors-demand-good-jobs

Janitors fight for justice (September 29, 2011)

Janitors in Houston march for justice (July 15, 2012)

The situation in Ukraine now is out of control.

Some minutes ago, Ukrainian fascists from the ‘Svoboda’ party destroyed Lenin’s monument in the centre of Kiev.

Now, at 19.00 Kiev time, crowds of opposition in the city centre are saying that their next target will be the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovich. They are calling for the arrest of the Ukrainian government.

There is a strong chance that we will now see a state of emergency in Ukraine.

The fascists have also called for the destruction of the CPU office and expressed a desire to kill all of our employees.

That is why I and my comrades will defend our holy house.

Thank you for your solidarity.
Anatolii Sokoliuk

(Head of the foreign affairs department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine)

By George Greene

All the bourgeois press has been crying crocodile tears over the death of Nelson Mandela, the long-time leader of the South African National Congress (ANC) and first president of post-apartheid South Africa. But they mostly neglect to mention that Mandela was arrested in 1962 based on intelligence information from an agent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency inside the ANC, that the ANC was considered a terrorist organization, and that the U.S. government had to grant a waiver for him to come to the U.S. for the first time in 1990, when he was given a hero’s welcome in the streets of Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and elsewhere in New York and around the country. They also did not like the fact that South Africa’s liberation was aided by other anti-imperialist and revolutionary countries, such as Libya under Muammar Gadhafi and Cuba under Fidel Castro, aid that Mandela continued to extol during his visit to the U.S.

While they hypocritically decry Mandela’s 27 years in prison, they do not mention such political prisoners in the U.S. as Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has already spent 32 years in prison, Leonard Peltier now imprisoned for 37 years, Oscar Lopez Rivera imprisoned for 32 year, Affia Siddiqui, captured in Pakistan in 2003 and kidnapped to the U.S. where she is serving a sentence of 86 years, David Gilbert imprisoned for 32 years, or Lynne Stewart who has already served over 4 years of a 10 year sentence.

The bourgeois press also praised Mandela for “peacefully freeing” South Africa from white minority rule, while condemning President Mugabe of Zimbabwe who not only freed his country from white minority rule through armed struggle, but went on, at the end of the 20-year period mandated by the British-imposed Lancaster Agreement, to take over white-owned plantations and divide them up among landless African peasants. For this Zimbabwe has been placed under sanctions by the U.S. and Western Europe, and Mugabe himself has been demonized by the bourgeois press and its Trotskyite hangers-on.

In 1993, at the end of the apartheid era, Mandela together with F.W. de Klerk, the last apartheid president of South Africa, was given the Nobel Peace Prize. In a similar action, in 1973, after the conclusion of the Peace Accords on Vietnam, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to both Le Duc Tho, the chief negotiator for the Democratic Republic of [North] Vietnam, and Henry Kissinger, the U.S. Secretary of State and one of the chief architects of that imperialist war. But, unlike Mandela, Le Duc Tho declined to accept the prize.

There are further reasons why the bourgeois press praises Mandela and the ANC government. The agreements ending apartheid in South Africa, accepted by the ANC, included clauses saying that the major corporations in that country, owned by white South Africans and British and U.S. capitalists, could not be nationalized. At best, a few members of the African elite were put on the Boards of Directors of these corporations (similarly to allowing token representatives of unions on the Boards of Directors of U.S. corporations, such as Doug Fraser, then head of the UAW, who served on Chrysler’s Board of Directors). In doing this they violated the provisions of the Freedom Charter, adopted by the ANC in 1955, which stated: “The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;” and that “Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger.” (See http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=72)

The fact that there has been no genuine change in white imperialist property relations in South Africa has led to the continuing poverty of the African masses, which has led to increasing revolts in recent years, especially among the miners.

The ANC, while it played the largest role in the fight against white minority rule, was never the only liberation movement. One cannot forget the Black Consciousness Movement, founded by Steve Biko, who was killed in prison in 1977 by the apartheid regime, or the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania. In the late 1920s and 1930s, the South African Communist Party (SACP), under the influence of the Comintern, took up a revolutionary position, calling for an “independent native [Black] South African republic as a stage towards a workers’ and peasants’ republic with full, equal rights for all races.” (See the Resolution of the Comintern on the South African Question, at www.RedStarPublishers.org/sacp1928.doc. )  However, for decades the SACP, following the Khrushchevite line of “peaceful transition,” has become a thoroughly revisionist party that has abandoned any fight against the imperialist bourgeoisie in South Africa.

The gains of bourgeois democracy, in oppressed nations as well as in imperialist countries, are important to the working class because they clear the way for the further development of the class struggle, as Lenin frequently pointed out. This is clearly seen in the Black liberation movement in the U.S. Here, it was particularly after the formal defeat of Jim Crow with the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, that the movement moved beyond the demand for peaceful reforms. It was the Harlem rebellion of 1964, the rebellions in Detroit and Watts in 1967, and the hundreds of rebellions that broke out throughout the country after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. that marked the high-points of the movement here.

The petty-bourgeois left in the U.S., including the anti-imperialist left, confines itself to praising Mandela, while making no criticism of the accommodations made by him and the ANC with the white-led ruling class there. This is another example of their failure to provide any leadership in training proletarian and anti-imperialist revolutionaries in understanding current events along the road to a socialist revolution in the United States.

By W. T. Whitney Jr. December 1, 2013

For months prior to the Honduran presidential elections of November 24, polls favored Libre party candidate Xiomara Castro. One week later the Supreme Election Tribunal (TSE) had named right wing National Party candidate Juan Hernandez as the winner and a large Libre Party march through Tegucigalpa was protesting election fraud. A day later, on December 2, the Libre Party demanded a vote recount.

By then, Libre Party adherents, the Anti-corruption Party, and even the center – right Liberal Party had joined in charging fraud. What happened, some said, was an electoral coup to match the military coup that removed the progressive President Manuel Zelaya from power in 2009.

The National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP) took shape amidst street demonstrations protesting Zelaya’s ouster. The FNRP eventually formed the Liberty and Refoundation Party, known as Libre, whose just – completed campaign advanced a social democratic and anti-imperialist program. Presidential candidate Xiomara Castro – ex-president Zelaya’s wife – gained 28.8 percent of the recent vote, far below the National Party’s 36.8 percent result.

The Anti-Corruption Party’s presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla secured 13.5 percent of the votes. The combined totals of that party and the Libre Party account for 42.3 percent of all votes. Second round voting is not part of Honduras’ electoral system.

At a press conference on November 29, the Libre Party released its own vote tally. The party’s election observers at the polls had received 14,593 out of 16,135 copies of sheets showing voting results. Comparison of that data with figures posted on the TSE website demonstrated 82,301 excess votes assigned to the National Party and 55,720 taken away from the Libre Party. Reportedly, “at least 2,805 sets of certified voting documents were neither transmitted to the political parties nor made public by the TSE.”

While demanding a TSE vote recount, Libre Party Lawyer Ricci Moncada charged “that on the night of November 24, the TSE removed from the system more than 20 percent of the voting documents sent for further examination due to bar code irregularities” Reporting to the press on November 29, Xiomara Castro declared Libre would not recognize the TSE results. She indicated the votes of 883,140 electors were invalid because of fraud.

Libre partisans described National Party promotion of voter abstention through offers of commercial discounts and cell phones, medical supplies and food. The votes of dead people were cast and live voters were blocked because records showed them to be dead.

The elections played out amidst repression and fear. Reportedly, an antiterrorist law and militarization of the streets facilitated the imposition of electoral fraud. Assailants killed four Libre Party activists during the voting and subsequently. TSE president David Matamoros released a voting report accompanied by a text message warning that “soldiers and police are already ready in case of any protest.”

Three weeks prior to the elections, U.S. ambassador Lisa Kubiske advised Hondurans, “to think hard about which candidate will create more jobs and an atmosphere in which the private sector feels confident about investing.” Afterwards she expressed gratification for a “fiesta of electoral democracy.”

European Union electoral observers judged the voting to be “transparent.” Speaking to a reporter, however, dissenting observer Leo Gabriel of Austria suggested his fellow observers had been pressured. The EU wanted to project a favorable image of Honduras, he alleged, especially in the wake of new EU trade agreements with Central American nations. And, “I can attest to countless inconsistencies in the electoral process…. there was a huge mess at the voting stations, where the hidden alliance between the small parties and the National Party led to the buying and selling of votes.” Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón, another international observer, declared, “We all unanimously established that there were clear indications of manipulation and electoral fraud.”

News sources offered little indication as to the Libre Party’s future direction. Responding to the likelihood of a stolen election, Party leaders issued militant declarations of returning to street demonstrations. That rhetoric has quieted. One commentator explained that the leadership “assumes as valid the idea that dominant sectors manage protests.” Within the Party, that approach, if it exists, may not be universally accepted, and the possibility thus emerges of division within Libre Party ranks.

The theory is that Libre Party caution relates to support received from big business interests, notably from Adolfo Facussé, President of the National Association of Manufacturers. Facussé backed the coup against President Zelaya. His is a powerful, landowning family with far-reaching commercial enterprises.

The Libre Party broke the monopoly on political power the National and Liberal Parties had enjoyed for decades. It elected 39 deputies to the Congress. They and 13 deputies from the Anti-Corruption Party constitute a voting bloc larger than the National Party bench. And there is “a great discontent and a social wakening among youth, workers, and small farmers protesting daily against electoral fraud under the auspices of the FNRP.”

By W. T. Whitney Jr. Dec. 10, 2013

Negotiators of the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been at work in Cuba for over a year. Their purpose is to end well over sixty years of war. Peace hopes are up because of agreements reached on agrarian rights and recently on political participation. But prospects for peace depend ultimately on what happens in cities and regions like Barrancabermeja.

The plight of political prisoner and Barrancabermeja native David Ravelo points to difficulties ahead, as does violence directed against Credhos (Regional Corporation for Defense of Human Rights), the Barrancabermeja human rights group Ravelo founded and led. A solidarity delegation joined by the present writer visited Ravelo in Bogota’s Picota prison in late 2012 and also called at CREDHOS headquarters in Barrancabermeja. This report serves as follow-up of that delegation.

By 1987 when Credhos was founded, paramilitaries were on the way to subjecting Barrancabermeja to a reign of terror. David Ravelo and Credhos resisted. According to Peace Brigades International, Credhos provides “promotion, defense, and protection of human rights, democracy, and international humanitarian law.” It pursues “actions and scenarios for understanding, tolerance, living together, and civilized peace.” Over time killers eliminated nine Credhos activists.

Credhos secretary-general, David Ravelo, reported in 2010 that, “There are many murders and forced disappearances in Barrancabermeja and in the Magdalena region. Credhos accompanies victims’ families who are seeking the truth and damages for harm that was done. We demand reparations on their behalf and justice that is their due.”

Credhos’ formation coincided with growing repression against the newly formed Patriotic Union (UP). That electoral coalition emerged from a government – FARC agreement in 1984 that insurgents would give up arms in return for being able to help build a left political movement. U. P. activist David Ravelo gained a seat on the Barrancabermeja city council. Then in 1993 amidst murders, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances, he went to jail for two years on fabricated charges.

Some 20 years later, violence was still the norm in Barrancabermeja. Credhos reported that during the first two months of 2013, there were “five murders, three forced disappearances, two people wounded, and 20 death threats.” Blame fell on paramilitaries intent upon “maintaining social and political control of the city’s poor districts and thus sustain drug trafficking, a lucrative business through which they finance their criminal action.” Credhos activists were being tracked and spied upon.

David Ravelo was in prison again. Detained on September 14, 2010, he learned in December, 2012 he would remain there for 18 years. Ravelo is one of 9500 Colombian political prisoners, most of them varyingly accused of “rebellion,” terrorism, and ties with the FARC. Thousands are held without trial. Reports abound of prisoners subjected to water shortages, contaminated food and water, terrible sanitation, no family visits, gruesome medical care, and endemic violence.

In April and early May assailants killed 10 individuals in Barrancabermeja. Rafael Rodríguez, secretary general of the USO oil workers union, narrowly escaped an attack. Abelardo Sánchez is the current Credhos secretary general and target of repeated death threats and attacks. In November, both he and Credhos president Ivan Madero Vergel escaped attackers.

The Santander Superior Court in October, 2013 rejected David Ravelo’s appeal. Responding, Credhos blamed a “lack of guarantees and weakened due process” Indeed, at Ravelo’s trial in early 2012, the prosecution relied upon accusations from two jailed paramilitary chieftains once active in Barrancabermeja. They gained reduced sentences in return for testimony accusing Ravelo of complicity in the 1991 murder of a Barrancebermeja city official. Allegedly they bribed a corroborating witness. The judge refused to hear testimony from 30 defense witnesses.

Ravelo’s appeal had centered on a crime committed by his prosecutor. As a police lieutenant in 1991, William Pacheco helped arrange for the forced disappearance of Guillermo Hurtado. Pacheco spent a year in a military prison. Colombian law bans criminals from serving as prosecutor. Pacheco entered his resignation early in 2013, but remains on the job.

What with judicial persecution of the Credhos founder and ongoing chaos and murder in Barrancabermeja, the Credhos story is a cautionary lesson as to troubles ahead for the project of peace in Colombia with social justice. The Credhos view is that “at the highest levels of the Colombian state they want to weaken social protest.” And, “there are hundreds of cases in which they have opened criminal investigations [of individuals] for daring to defend and promote human rights as a fundamental principle of a society dedicated to human development and defense of vulnerable communities.” As to the Colombian state: “experience has shown us that [its] strategies are structural and systematic.”

That insight speaks to North Americans who would confront their own government’s war-making. Colombia is the prime U.S. military ally in Latin America and, as such, is the recipient of military aid funds well known to trickle down to the benefit of paramilitaries and other lawless characters.

Check out this link for a video of a conversation with LaToya Ruby Frazier from Paris:

http://www.parisphoto.com/paris/program/2013/the-paris-photo-platform/latoya-ruby-frazier

By James Thompson

Rally against Ted Cruz 12/7/2013

HOUSTON – At 2pm today, Saturday, December 07, 2013 in the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston, Texas about 30 progressive activists, union members and residents of this city braved the cold weather and drizzling rain and gathered in front of Ted Cruz’ residence. Cruz has a condominium located in the most exclusive neighborhood in Houston, River Oaks. River Oaks is home to Houston’s multibillionaires and has some of the most expensive residences in the area. The theme of the gathering was “Ted Cruz does not represent us!” Ted Cruz is the newly elected Tea Party Senator from Texas. Participants in the rally included women and men and they were multi-ethnic and multi-racial. The crowd also included adults as well as children.

Cruz has distinguished himself in the U.S. Congress by leading the obstructionist sector of the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress. In his successful campaign for the seat in the U.S. Senate, Cruz brayed that his parents left Cuba to escape from Fidel Castro. When the facts were checked, Cruz’ parents left before Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba, so that, in fact, Cruz’ parents fled Batista, the U.S. backed, terroristic dictator who ruled Cuba before the revolution. Mendacity has never been a disqualifying characteristic for holding public office in Texas. Cruz was born in Canada, so it was a progressive step for Texas to elect an immigrant. Unfortunately, Cruz is an immigrant who fights against immigrant’s rights. Some people quipped that Cruz just wants to make the world safe for hypocrisy.

The rally was loud, vigorous and peaceful in its demonstration that not all Texans support the reactionary views of this vicious right winger. The rally was organized by the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee and the Latin American Organization for Immigrant Rights. The flyer for the rally noted that Cruz: “led the shutdown of the federal government in order to prevent the expansion of health care. He rejects a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. He opposes women’s health care and reproductive freedom. He opposes LGBT anti-discrimination laws and marriage equality. He has made racially charged statements about President Obama, segregationist Jesse Helms, and other people. He denies human-caused climate change and opposes new environmental protections. He supports unbridled capitalism and more wealth for the 1% while opposing unions, workers’ rights, Social Security, and food stamps.”

The temperature was in the thirties, which is very cold for Houston, even in the winter. The organizers led the rally with a number of lively chants including:

Rally against Ted Cruz 12/7/2013

“Hey, hey, ho, ho — Ted Cruz has got to go!

Health care is a human right! Cruz is wrong—we’re going to fight!”

Rally against Ted Cruz 12/7/2013

Sexist, racist, anti-gay!
Ted Cruz — go away!

Keep Food Stamps!
Fire Ted Cruz!

Cruz says: Cut back!
We say: Fight back!

Cruz says: Get back!
We say: Fight back!

Cruz is harming us by the hour!
What do we do? Fight the power!

Women need the right to choose!
When we vote, Cruz will lose!”

It should be clear from this rally that not all Texans want Ted Cruz to be their senator. He continues to build a strong case for removing him from office in the next election cycle. Some feel that Cruz is a blatant traitor to working people and has already jeopardized the brittle social safety net in the U.S. Although he represents his wealthy benefactors and wealthy neighbors very well, his reckless antics have pushed marginalized sectors of the population closer to the brink of disaster. More demonstrations are needed to confront and expose this negative character in U.S. politics.

Here are the links to videos of the rally against Ted Cruz held in Houston on 12/7/2013:

http://youtu.be/Iw3I80PwpBE

http://youtu.be/t0vXk6p3o-8

http://youtu.be/Olyo69R2DMw

http://youtu.be/E11XnwAMKUg

http://youtu.be/7ofVCXwVDm8

http://youtu.be/TX3TZiFEc1E

http://youtu.be/UPzvHG5TD2I

http://youtu.be/w2HIlyfk9ec

http://youtu.be/Ux12T7juGPc

http://youtu.be/8Y4Pq6l5S_s

Rally against Ted Cruz 12/7/2013