Category: International
Imperialism’s Trusted Governess
| March 17, 2015 | 8:00 pm | Imperialism, International, National, political struggle, Russia, Ukraine | Comments closed

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

Her face is on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek (3/9-3/15/2015) next to a dramatic headline: Putin vs. the Accountant. Her name is Natalie Jaresko. And, if Bloomberg’s Brett Forrest is to be believed, she and some of her colleagues may hold the fate of Western Ukraine in their hands. As the Minister of Finance, she must find a way to salvage an economy that is in free fall.
Forrest paints a flattering, sympathetic picture of a feisty expatriate determined to rescue Ukraine economically and from the clutches of the evil Putin. Jaresko is encountered visiting hospitalized Ukrainian troops wounded while attacking the resistance fighters in Eastern Ukraine or, as Forrest prefers: consoling “convalescing veterans of recent battles against Russian forces and their proxies in the Ukrainian East. ‘When did you serve?’ she asks, moving slowly from room to room.’How were you wounded?’”
Apart from recounting Jaresko’s mimicking of the obsequious and opportunistic condescension of veterans displayed universally by Western politicians, Forrest offers a calculated adulation of the Minister that conjures many less laudatory questions and suspicions.
For someone who holds the fate of Ukraine in her hands, Jaresko appears to be somewhat of a carpetbagger. Her appointment to lead the Finance Ministry came before she was granted Ukrainian citizenship, a fact that would only be curious outside of a government where two other cabinet members were also not citizens when appointed: her counterpart in the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Lithuanian Aivaras Abromavicius, and Minister of Health, Georgian Alexander Kvitashvili. Jaresko, a US citizen, has two years to renounce her US citizenship. She and her other imported colleagues were appointed by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsunyuk, the infamous “Yats” vetted by foul-mouthed US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland.
Obviously the US and the EU had to scramble after they encouraged and supported the coup deposing the elected President in February of 2014. They had to reach outside Ukraine to find reliable clients to support the hastily elected candy baron, Petro Pershenko. The story of the clumsy construction of the post-coup government from non-nationals, careerists, and unstable rightists would make for an entertaining episode of House of Cards if Western journalists had the spine to tell it.
So what has Jaresko done to deserve a phone call from Nuland? Er, Pershenko?
Her credentials begin with a master’s degree from the Kennedy School at Harvard, a training ground for those tasked with delivering the US ruling class message to friends and foes alike. Doors opened immediately at the State Department’s Soviet Affairs division. She coordinated her work at the State Department with all of the big national and international trade and economic organizations. When Ukraine left the Soviet Union, Jaresko was perfectly suited to operate on the US State Department’s behalf at the newly installed US Embassy. Her position– Chief of the Economic Section– was a trusted position of a type often calling for close collaboration with covert agencies.
She parlayed that experience into the creation of an “investment“ vehicle for Ukrainian businesses funded by USAID, again a position of great trust and associated in many countries with US influence peddling. Documentation of the modest seed capital from USAID– $150 million– can be found here. One would expect that a 30-year-old entrusted with this task surely had the confidence of highly placed officials in the US government.
Her 1995 venture was absorbed by a new investment management firm, Horizon Capital, which she founded in 2006. Journalist John Helmer documents the consistent losses of Horizon Capital in his detailed report on Dances with Bears (12-03-2014). Despite his discovering only two years of modest gains in a decade, both Bloomberg and Forbes laud the success of Horizon Capital.
Helmer also discovers the fallout from Jaresko’s divorce from her spouse and business partner. Her former husband, Ihor Figlus, has accused her of saddling him with debt from “improper” loans. Their contentious relationship continues. Helmer comments: “It hasn’t been rare for American spouses to go into the asset management business in the former Soviet Union, and make profits underwritten by the US Government with information supplied from their US Government positions or contacts. It is exceptional for them to fall out over the loot.”
Jaresko’s own account of her recruitment bears telling: “…representatives from a headhunting firm hired by the new government, WE partners, visited Jaresko at the Horizon Capital offices. They discussed candidates for various government posts before asking her if she would be willing to serve…” (Bloomberg Businessweek)
While some may find it odd that an independent, sovereign state would engage a US-based (parent company: Korn Ferry) headhunting firm to fill top political posts, Jaresko explains: “I think the president and prime minister wanted me to bring [my] experience.”
Within a week, she was vetted and appointed.
Anticipating skepticism, Bloomberg’s reporter, Brett Forrest, notes that “Jaresko’s appointment… provides fuel to conspiracy theorists…”
Indeed.
His apologetics continue: “No matter their origin, these ministers– and the numerous Poles, Germans, Canadians, and other foreigners who’ve joined the government in senior and mid-level positions– are pulling the same oar.” Forrest joins a host of Western journalists and commentators who find no contradiction in a rabidly nationalistic government staffed with foreigners.
Despite generous aid from the US, the EU, and the IMF, Ukraine has experienced a 21% loss of industrial production, a 69% drop in the value of the currency against the dollar and a 6.9% decline in GDP in the last year.
Estimates of Ukraine debt go as high as $40 billion. Recently, Jaresko announced that investors should expect a “haircut” which “…will probably involve a combination of maturity extensions, coupon reductions and principal reductions.”
Compare the matter-of-fact reporting of this announcement in papers like The Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal to the hysterical media response to the faintest hint of a possible reduction in Greek sovereign debt. Clearly assuming client status, selling your sovereignty to imperialism, earns generous debt forgiveness.
Despite the media-spun fairy tales about Ukraine’s struggle for democracy and independence, the facts challenge that narrative. Behind the curtain of deceit and fabrication is a motley crew of foreign agents, corrupted officials, oligarchs, and neo-Nazis. But one would never know it from the Western media.
Zoltan Zigedy

 

Hundreds of Waffen-SS veterans march in Riga, antifascists ‘sanitize’ square after them
| March 16, 2015 | 8:34 pm | International, political struggle, Russia | Comments closed

Hundreds of Waffen-SS veterans march in Riga, antifascists ‘sanitize’ square after them

Published time: March 16, 2015 17:40
Edited time: March 16, 2015 18:41

 

Up to a thousand Nazi Waffen-SS veterans and their supporters have marched through Latvia’s capital, Riga, in their annual commemorating procession. In response, Latvian anti-fascists came out to “clean up” the route.

The march of the SS veterans started in Vecriga, in Riga’s old town, at 11:00 local time Monday after a religious service. The participants, holding the national flags of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, walked through the city to the Monument of Freedom, where they lay flowers. Many veterans wore uniforms of the legion and pre-war uniforms.

The use of Nazi and Soviet symbols was forbidden in the parade and the participants were not allowed to veil faces.

READ MORE: Dark past: Latvia blocks Nazi Holocaust exhibition in Paris due to image fears

The annual march causes controversy among various social groups. Anti-fascist and Jewish organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, believe such rallies glorify Nazism.

“These people fought for the victory of the Third Reich, the most genocidal regime in human history,” Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, told RT in Riga. “Among the people who served in Latvian SS Legion there were those who previously served in area commando, Latvian security police, actively involved in mass murder of Latvian Jews and Jews brought to Latvia to be murdered.”

 

Zuroff says the participants of the march are often associated with the fight for Latvia’s independence.

“Here they try to create the impression that these people helped bring about independent Latvia,” he said. “There is a direct line from fighting the military service to independent Latvia today. But nothing can be farther from the truth because Nazi Germany had absolutely no intention to give Latvia independence. That is only because the Nazi Germany lost the war that today there is independent democratic Latvia.”

Numerous policemen were present at the march and also a private security agency’s employees as the authorities expected confrontations with local anti-fascist organizations. Latvian Interior Minister Rihard Kozlovskis had earlier called on the residents to stay away from the city center unless absolutely necessary. The US Embassy in Latvia also recommended its citizens to pay more attention to security.

Anti-fascist activists staged a protest, wearing white overalls and pretending to “disinfect” the area from the “Nazi disease,” cleaning and washing the pavement near the Freedom Monument. Other participants displayed photos from concentration camps in Latvia.

Read moreEx-Nazi collaborators equating USSR with fascists to whitewash own sins – Jewish intl. organization

Russia has condemned the holding of the Nazi veterans’ march as a violation of international law.

“This is a direct contradiction against the ruling of the Nuremberg Trials,” Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights ombudsman, told the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, in Moscow.

The Latvian legion of the Waffen-SS consisted of almost 150,000 Latvians and was split into two divisions. The legion was created in 1943 on the orders of Adolf Hitler. In March of the same year, the legion was already battling the Soviet Red Army near the town of Pskov. It was among the last of the Nazi forces to surrender in 1945.

The Waffen-SS march has been held annually on March 16 since 1998, although it is not an official holiday. Latvia’s national day of remembrance for war heroes is on November 11.

UNASUR Rejects US Aggressions on Venezuela
| March 16, 2015 | 8:28 pm | Analysis, Imperialism, International, National, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11270
3/16/2015

By TeleSur English

Venezuela received strong backing from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Saturday afternoon, at an emergency summit addressing the recent aggressions from US President Barack Obama.

Obama had signed an executive order earlier in the week declaring Venezuela an“extraordinary threat to national security.”

At a press conference following the meeting of the foreign ministers, UNASUR Secretary General Ernesto Samper read out a statement that said, “The member states of UNASUR reject the executive order approved by the United States government which declares Venezuela a threat to national security.”

The statement describes the executive order as an “interference” and a “threat to sovereignty and to the principle of non-intervention.”

“We call upon the United States to evaluate and implement dialogue as an alternative,” adds the statement

“The UNASUR member States believe the internal situation in Venezuela shall be resolved through the democratic mechanisms established in the Venezuelan Constitution”

As a result the 12 nation body called for the “derogation of the Executive Order.”

In an exclusive interview with teleSUR after the statement was released, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said that “UNASUR has stood firm against imperialism,” and that the meeting was “aware of the seriousness” of the threat “not only for Venezuela but for the whole region”.

Referring to the UNASUR statement Minister Rodriguez said that “we know Venezuela is not alone” which she explained was important as “if there were to be an intervention on Venezuela, we wouldn’t know when it would move beyond our borders”

She added that “UNASUR ratified the principle of unity, of independence…this meeting was marked by the Latin American spirit of liberty” and that despite any differences between the bloc’s 12 nations “we can agree on the biggest issues.”

​Minister Rodriguez described the Executive Order, signed by President Obama as a reflection of a “a political class that does not believe in the principles of international law.” Addressing the claim that Venezuela represents a threat to the United States and carries out human rights abuses, as Obama claimed, the Foreign Minister added that “we see terrible racial discrimination cases (in the U.S.) … hundreds of human rights violations” and that the U.S. hasn’t ratified key international treaties on gender equality or childrens’ rights”

She explained that Venezuela seeks an “equal dialogue with the U.S. government.”

Earlier UNASUR Secretary General Ernesto Samper had explained that the bloc’s aim is to preserve peace and democracy in Latin America.

“The main principles that gave birth to UNASUR were the preservation of this region as a peace zone, the reinforcement of democracy and the guarantee of human rights … those are the three points in which we are and will continue to work on,” he explained.

In recent days, many regional leaders – such as Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez – have rejected and criticized the measure taken by the U.S. government.

Social movements from across the region have also expressed solidarity with the people and the government of Venezuela. Even the main group of opposition parties in Venezuela rejected the claims that Venezuela posed a threat.

UNASUR Statement (Unofficial translation)

The member States of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) manifest their rejection of the Executive Order issued on March 9, 2015 by the government of the United States of America, for it constitutes a threat of interference against sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in other States’ affairs.

The UNASUR Member States ratify their commitment with the application of International Law, Peaceful Resolution of Disputes and the principle of Non-Intervention, and calls upon governments to withhold the use of coercive unilateral measures that violate international law.

UNASUR reiterates its request to the United States’ government to evaluate and implement dialogue with Venezuela as an alternative, under the basis of respecting sovereignty and self-determination of the people. Consequently, we request the derogation of the Executive Order.

Response to “Venezuela Conducts 10 Days of Military Exercises”
| March 15, 2015 | 1:14 am | Analysis, Imperialism, International, National, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed
by A. Shaw
Venezuela prepares for an aggression from the bestial bourgeois and imperialist regime in Washington under Obama.
On Monday, March 9, a huge pack of imperialist dogs and running dogs threatened Venezuela.
Obama issued an executive order Monday declaring a “national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.”
This,the above statement, is the how imperial canines growl when their master sic them on somebody.
Acts of  aggression by the US regime almost always begins with lies — for example, the aggression against the people of Iraq began US imperial lies about “weapons of mass destruction.”
When you hear US imperialists telling lies, you know sooner or later they will drop bombs and missiles on innocent people.
The US electorate or people is divided into three roughly equal sectors — reactionaries, independents (better describe as flip-floppers), and liberals. Bourgeois politics in the USA is basically a struggle between the reactionaries and the liberals over whether reactionaries or liberals will exercise state power for the next four years. The flip-floppers don’t pursue power for themselves, they merely decide whether reactionaries or liberals will exercise power for the next four years.
For the most part, US reactionaries are incurably rotten. They are not insane. Reactionaries are worse than nuts. They clearly see the difference between right and wrong before they firmly choose wrong over right.
US reactionaries resemble Nazi fanatics, but US reactionaries are a whole lot worse than the Nazis.
 So, this implies that two-thirds of the electorate or people — flip-floppers and liberals — are cool. Only reactionaries are no good.
Bourgeois reactionaries (e.g., Koch brothers) are the real head of US imperialism. Middle and working class reactionaries (Joe six-packs) are the rear or the behind of imperialism.
Obama says Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, doesn’t respect the USA; indeed, Obama claims falsely that Maduro is a national security threat to the USA.
This is another imperialist lie. Maduro respects the USA.
 Maduro respects the US people and territory under their Constitution.
In essence, the USA is the US people and territory under their Constitution.
So, if either the people or territory or constitution vanishes, the USA, in essence, disappears. Something else will survive it or displace it.
Imperialism is not the USA, because imperialism is not the US people and territory under their Constitution. Imperialism is not something that should be respected. The USA, not imperialism, should be respected.
Imperialism is the US people [as well as other people] and territory under the whim and caprice of bourgeois reactionaries, the richest and most powerful stratum of the capitalist class. When the Constitution agrees with the whim of bourgeois reactionaries, the Constitution may be observed. But when the Constitution opposes the whim of bourgeois reactionaries, the Constitution will usually be denounced and repudiated.
“The US Constitution is nothing but a God-damn piece of paper,” President George W. Bush in early 2003 shouted at four GOP congressmen as they sat in  the Oval Office.
Venezuela Conducts 10 Days of Military Exercises
| March 15, 2015 | 1:07 am | Analysis, Imperialism, International, National, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed

 http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuela-Conducts-10-Days-of-Military-Exercises-20150314-0006.html

  • Around 100,000 people are expected to take part in drills across Venezuela over the next 10 days.

    Around 100,000 people are expected to take part in drills across Venezuela over the next 10 days. | Photo: @armadaoficial

Published 14 March 2015
The Venezuelan military says it’s ready to defend the country from any possible U.S. invasion.

Venezuela conducted a series of large scale military exercises Saturday, aimed at testing the country’s ability to resist a foreign invasion.

Defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez described the drills as preparation for any “imperial aggression.”

“The participation of the population is intended to be an expression of the civil-military (alliance), in the face of the U.S. government’s declaration that considered Venezuela an unusual threat,” the minister stated.

Along with regular forces, Venezuela’s voluntary militias have been invited to join in the exercises, along with visiting Russian troops.

One of the first operations to kick off was a naval drill that took place near Caracas.

On the ground, teleSUR correspondent Angel Cedeno said at least 100 personnel were involved in the drill.

“There will also be participating Russian military (troops), that will be deployed in these exercises,” Cedeno stated.

In total, around 100,000 people are expected to take part in the drills, including 20,000 civilians. Operations are taking place across the country, for the next 10 days.

Venezuela Isn’t Iraq

Ahead of the drills, President Nicolas Maduro stated his country “has the force to defend itself.”

“Venezuela must be prepared, because Venezuela can never become like Libya or Iraq,” he said.

Earlier this week, Venezuela’s government accused the United States of plotting an “economic blockade,” arguing recent sanctions against several top officials in Caracas may be just the tip of the iceberg of future U.S. intervention.

“They are considering a financial and commercial blockade, an economic blockade, and the entire country (of Venezuela) should know this,” said Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez during an interview with broadcaster Venevision.

Rodriguez said the latest round of U.S. sanctions pose a major threat to “all Venezuelans,” dismissing claims from Washington that the sanctions will only affect a small group of government officials.

The U.S. Department of State has officially denied allegations the U.S. government is seeking to overthrow Maduro, though on Thursday the head of U.S. Southern Command hinted in the future there could be “some arrangements to change leadership.”

RELATED:

Venezuela Hopes for the Best, Prepares for the Worst

Partido Comunista rechaza maniobras militares en Puerto Rico
| March 14, 2015 | 7:59 pm | International, Latin America, National, Party Voices, political struggle | Comments closed

  • El Partido Comunista de Puerto Rico rechaza la presencia militar de EE.UU. en la isla caribeña.

    El Partido Comunista de Puerto Rico rechaza la presencia militar de EE.UU. en la isla caribeña. | Foto: EFE

Publicado 13 marzo 2015 (Hace 21 horas 38 minutos)

La organización comunista asegura que esas maniobras responden a un ensayo para luego imponer el orden militar cuando se desplome el poder colonial impuesto por Estados Unidos en Puerto Rico.

El Partido Comunista de Puerto Rico (PCPR) rechazó este viernes los ejercicios militares que realizará la próxima semana la Guardia Nacional con la presencia de soldados estadounidenses.

A través de un comunicado, la organización comunista lamentó que Puerto Rico sea utilizado como el centro de entrenamientos militares de Estados Unidos.

“Resulta inexplicable, desde la perspectiva humanitaria, que se militarice a Puerto Rico ante eventuales catástrofes naturales, cuando la respuesta del Estado (federal y colonial) debería ser simulacros de las agencias encargadas de protección y socorro de la población”, subraya la comunicación.

El PCPR lamentó que la denominada Operación Respuesta Borinqueña conformada por soldados puertorriqueños y unos mil efectivos de los estados de Nebraska, Vermont, West Virginia y Washington sean enviados a realizar esas actividades en vez de promover la paz y la integración entre los pueblos.

Asimismo, el partido advirtió que estos ejercicios que se realizarán en San Juan (capital de Puerto Rico) y otros municipios del país caribeño responden a las recientes amenazas del presidente estadounidense Barack Obama contra Venezuela.

“Los ejercicios se realizan como parte de la política norteamericana de usar a Puerto Rico como plataforma de lanzamientos de agresiones militares contra los gobiernos de Latinoamérica”, añade el texto firmado por la dirección del PCPR.

Response to “EU Parliamentarians Join US-Led Aggressions on Venezuela”
| March 13, 2015 | 10:22 pm | Analysis, Imperialism, International, National, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed
By A. Shaw
The slave states of Europe (the “EU”) bow once again to their supreme imperialist master state, the bourgeois regime in the USA.
The aim of the latest EU and US scheme is to isolate Venezuela.
The pretext for this scheme is the dirty EU and US lie that Venezuela is not a democracy, because democracy is a form of  state in which elected representatives exercise state power in accordance with the rule of law.
The lying EU and the US regime maintain that Venezuela doesn’t respect rule of law.
The  elected liars of the EU and the USA claim Venezuela doesn’t respect the the rule of law when it stops protests and arrests leaders of the protesters.
For more than year, Latin America  and the Caribbean and much of North America and Europe  watched the protests in Venezuela, sometimes live on Telesur TV.
The protesters  burned buses and health centers, stopped children from attending school, prevented sick people from getting to hospitals, and murdered people who tried to clear barricades so that they could go to work or wherever they chose to go.
The lying EU referred to such actions by these protesters as “peaceful,” thus, such actions are permitted by the rule of law as the right of assembly of the protesters and the right of freedom of expression of the protesters.
How do the lying leaders of the aggressively imperialistic US regime and vile slave states of the EU believe they can get away with their huge, obvious, and dirty lies about Venezuela?
The big bourgeois media – or, better named, “the lying cappie press” — is on the side of lies and liars.
About a third of the US people are crackpot fascists and degenerate reactionaries, the preferred prey of the big bourgeois media. The size to the reactionary sector of the European population is more difficult to estimate.
Whatever story the big bourgeois media covers prominently and continuously is presumed by crackpots to be real. So, to the US crackpots, reality is nothing but continuous prominence in the lying cappie press. If a story has less prominence than another story, then the former has less reality than the latter.
The two-faced regimes in North America (USA and Canada) and most of Europe are confident that their lies will be more prominently and more continuously covered than the facts in the big bourgeois media .
The regimes in USA and Europe are indeed bourgeois democracies, but the government of Venezuela is presently also a bourgeois democracy.
The late Hugo Chavez himself used to call the Venezuelan Government a  “bourgeois state.”
But the bourgeois democracy in Venezuela is a peculiar bourgeois state in which a proletarian democracy is emerging. Bourgeois democracy is giving birth to a glorious proletarian democracy.
The slimy leaders of the USA and EU ordered the Venezuela people, state, and party to abort the emerging proletarian democracy.
The Venezuelan people, state, and party refuse to abort proletarian democracy.
The Obama regime argues that Venezuela occupies USA’s “backyard.” Therefore, Venezuela, like all other Latin American and Caribbean states, is bereft of sovereignty. Without sovereignty, Venezuela lacks standing to refuse to abort the emerging proletarian democracy.
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