TeleSUR

Published 24 July 2014

President Nicolas Maduro sat down with
Tariq Ali over 40 minutes, for an interview
which will be featured on the new teleSUR
English website.

The renowned scholar Tariq Ali conducted an interview today in Caracas with president Nicolas Maduro, as celebrations on the 231st birthday of Simon Bolivar mark the launch of teleSUR English.

During the interview, which took place in Bolivar’s birth home, Ali and Maduro spoke about the legacy of former president Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan opposition, the economy, and the most recent developments in the world.

Regarding the Venezuelan opposition’s stance against his government, Maduro underscored the importance of recognizing democratic rule.

“In 15 years of Revolution, we have won 18 out of 19 elections, we have built a solid majority based on our projects and on national and international values. The oligarchy, which has inherited anti-values, has a superiority complex and has not been able to respect this new majority that was built by Commander Hugo Chavez” he said.

President Maduro highlighted the importance of the recent changes in world affairs, assuring that the new mechanisms – such as the SUCRE monetary mechanism – and the new Development Bank and the Reserves Bank announced by the BRICS would reshape the world economy.

“We got new mechanisms that have been born…the power of these economies [BRICS] will eventually determine, inevitably, the new world system, and Latin America must spearhead this process”, said Maduro.

During the interview, the Venezuelan president also took the opportunity to call on the Arab leaders to stop the ongoing massacre in Gaza.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Tariq-Ali-Interviews-Nicolas-Maduro-on-the-launch-of-teleSUR-English-20140724-0066.html

Viva Charlie Haden!
– from Zoltan Zigedy is available at:
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Charlie Haden has died.
The liberals have Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder (You can tell liberal political music because its fuzzy message is always easily expropriated by corporate commercialism and even conservatives.)
But the authentic left had Charlie Haden. A man who defined earnestness, Haden was a key figure in the last wave of innovation in the African American-inspired art form, jazz. Concurrent with political stirrings in the 1960s, a musically radical group of musicians pushed improvisational music to its limits. Liberating times produced liberating music. Charlie Haden was an important part of it.
On the economic side, Haden was a charter member of the Jazz Composers’ Orchestra Association, a group dedicated to overturning the greed of club owners and record companies.
On the political side, he founded the Liberation Music Orchestra, a project paying homage to leftist music, ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the South African Liberation movement. A sampling of the LMO can be found here.
Haden’s unassuming manner belied an iron resolve. In 1971, despite warnings, he publicly performed his Song for Che in fascist Portugal, dedicating it to the liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies. Caetano’s political police were not amused, detaining him until US officials intervened. A performance of Song for Che can be heard here.
Charlie Haden, paraphrasing Brecht, was essential…. TO READ MORE, GO TO http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL

An unheard of provocation
by Fidel Castro

THIS morning the cables were full of reports about the unheard-of news that a
Malaysia Airlines passenger plane had been hit at an altitude of 10,100 meters as it flew over Ukrainian territory, along a route controlled by the war-hungry government of chocolate king, Petro Poroshenko.

Cuba, which has always stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and in the difficult days of the Chernobyl tragedy provided medical care to the many children affected by the accident’s harmful radiation, and is always willing to continue doing so, cannot refrain from expressing our repudiation of the action of the anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialist government.

At the same time, coinciding with the Malaysian aircraft crime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the nuclear state, ordered his army to invade the Gaza Strip, where, over the last several days, hundreds of Palestinians have died, many of them children. The President of the United States supported the action, describing the repugnant act as legitimate defense.

Obama does not support David against Goliath, but rather Goliath against David. As is known, young men and women from the Israeli people, well prepared for productive work, are being exposed to a death without honor, without glory. I am not aware of the Palestinian’s military strategy, but I know that a combatant prepared to die can defend even the ruins of a building, as long as he has his rifle, as the heroic defenders of Stalingrad demonstrated.

I only wish to express my solidarity with the heroic people who defend the last sliver remaining of what was their homeland for thousands of years.

Fidel Castro Ruz
July 17, 2014
11:14 p.m. •

Fidel Castro Blasts Downing of Malaysian Plane
and Expresses Solidarity with Palestine

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 18 (acn) The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, expressed his rejection for the downing of a Malaysian airliner on Ukrainian territory and reiterated his solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip amidst the current Israeli aggression.

Fidel wrote an article on Thursday evening, which was published on Friday by Cuban media under the title Unusual Provocation explaining that news wires on Thursday morning extensively talked about the surprising story of a Malaysian airliner attacked while flying at 10,100 meters altitude as it covered a route under the control of the warmongering government headed by Petro Poroshenko, the king of chocolate.

In his article, Fidel Castro recalls that Cuba always supported the Ukrainian people and in the difficult days of the Chernobyl tragedy, the island medically assisted many children affected by the harmful radiations of that accident and will always be willing to keep doing so, but Cuba cannot avoid expressing its repudiation for the action by such anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialistic government.

Fidel also says that parallel to the crime against the Malayan airliner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of Palestinians, mostly children had been killed over the past few days. US president Barack Obama supported the Israeli action by saying that it was an act of legitimate defense, Fidel notes, describing Obama’s position as support of Goliath against David and not David against Goliath.

And the Cuban Revolution leader adds that young women and men from Israel, well prepared for productive work, will now be exposed to death without honor or glory. He said that although he does not know the Palestinian military doctrine, he does know that a combatant who is determined to die can defend even the ruins of a building while he holds his rifle, as it was proven by the heroic people who defended Stalingrad.

And finally, Fidel said he only wanted to express his solidarity with the heroic people who are defending the last shred of what their homeland used to be for thousands of years.

Portrait of Fidel Castro by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban 5

Art by Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban 5

18 julio 2014

Hoy por la mañana las informaciones cablegráficas estaban saturadas con la insólita noticia de que un avión de la línea Malaysia Airlines había sido impactado a 10 100 metros de altura mientras volaba sobre el territorio de Ucrania, por la ruta bajo el control del gobierno belicista del rey del chocolate, Petro Poroshenko.

Cuba, que fue siempre solidaria con el pueblo de Ucrania, y en los días difíciles de la tragedia de Chernobil atendió la salud de muchos niños afectados por las nocivas radiaciones del accidente y siempre estará dispuesta a seguir haciéndolo, no puede dejar de expresar su repudio por la acción de semejante gobierno antirruso, antiucraniano y proimperialista.

A su vez, coincidiendo con el crimen del avión de Malasia, el primer ministro de Israel Benjamín Netanyahu, jefe de un estado nuclear, ordenaba a su ejército invadir la Franja de Gaza, donde habían muerto ya en pocos días cientos de palestinos, muchos de ellos niños. El Presidente de Estados Unidos apoyó la acción, calificando el repugnante crimen como acto de legítima defensa. Obama no apoya a David contra Goliat, sino a Goliat contra David.

Como se conoce, hombres y mujeres jóvenes del pueblo de Israel, bien preparados para el trabajo productivo, serán expuestos a morir sin honor ni gloria. Ignoro cuál será la doctrina militar de los palestinos, pero conozco que un combatiente dispuesto a morir puede defender hasta las ruinas de un edificio mientras tenga su fusil, como demostraron los heroicos defensores de Stalingrado.

Deseo solo hacer constar mi solidaridad con el heroico pueblo que defiende el último jirón de lo que fue su patria durante miles de años.

Fidel Castro Ruz
Julio 17 de 2014
11 y 14 p.m.

Houston – On Saturday, July 12, 2014, about 25 activists braved the Houston summer heat and a thunderstorm in front of the Galleria shopping center to express their opposition to U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. It was a peaceful, spirited demonstration called by the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee. A number of organizations participated including LCLAA, Houston Peace and Justice Center, Houston Communist Party, CPUSA including a number of labor activists.

– from Zoltan Zigedy is available at:
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

zoltanzigedy@gmail.com

As the Sunni Jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham conquer city after city in northern Iraq and as black-clad soldiers from Shiite military muster to repel them, it is tempting to blame the chaos there on ancient religious hatreds. But the strife in Iraq today is less the mystifying product of of primordial grievances than the predictable result of very modern power politics.
The US shouldn’t repeat the mistake made two decades ago, when a generation of Western leaders explained away the wars that ripped Yugoslavia apart as the result of primeval ethnic hatreds. Then as now, such resignation is an easy way to avoid hard thinking. Hatreds Bred by Power Politics, Daniel Benjamin (Wall Street Journal, June 28-29, 2014)

Benjamin, a former US State Department coordinator, is right on both counts: politics fundamentally drives the crisis in the Middle East and simplistic, but convenient explanations for the catastrophic events supplant any real analysis.

Apologists in both Parties and the supplicant media want to pass off the blame to the victims of the quagmire that the US and its allies have created in the Middle East. They insist that it is not a malignant foreign policy designed to advance US corporate interests and install puppet governments lurking behind the violence and chaos, but tribal and religious animosities, disdain for “human rights,” and ignorance of “democratic” values that thwart the “civilizing” mission of the US and the EU. Just as US ruling elites evaded the lessons of defeat in Vietnam, their twenty-first century counterparts revive the same chauvinistic, self-serving explanations for the hatred and mass slaughter they perpetrate.

To his credit, Benjamin insists on more nourishing explanations. As an insider and participant in shaping US policy, he knows better; he knows that interests– economic and politic interests– play the decisive role in shaping the events now spinning out of control in Iraq. He concedes, regarding “the demons of sectarianism,” that “[a]t key points, the US has even unintentionally abetted them…” [My italics] While this confesses far more than most of the US foreign policy commentariat wants to admit, it falls far short of the truth…. To continue the article, go to: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/