Fresh Off Worldwide Attention for Joining Obama’s Book Collection, Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with “Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone”

[We spend the hour with one of Latin America’s most acclaimed writers, Eduardo Galeano. The Uruguayan novelist and journalist recently made headlines around the world when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a copy of Galeano’s classic work, The Open Veins of Latin America. Eduardo Galeano’s latest book is Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. We speak to Galeano about his reaction to the Chavez-Obama book exchange, media and politics in Latin America, his assessment of Obama, and more.]

Fresh Off Worldwide Attention for Joining Obama’s Book Collection, Uruguayan Author Eduardo Galeano Returns with “Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone”

May 28th 2009, by Democracy Now!

Guest:
Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer and journalist. He is one of the most celebrated writers in Latin America. He is author of many books, including Open Veins of Latin America and the trilogy Memory of Fire. His latest book is titled Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We’re joined today for the hour by one of Latin America’s most acclaimed writers, Eduardo Galeano. The Uruguayan novelist and journalist made headlines last month when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Barack Obama a copy of one of Galeano’s books during a brief encounter at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent soon shot to near the top of the bestseller list.
Hugo Chavez later told reporters, quote, “This book is a monument in our Latin American history. It allows us to learn history, and we have to build on this history.”
Since its publication in 1971, The Open Veins of Latin America has sold over a million copies worldwide, despite being banned in the 1970s by the military governments in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

(click here to view entire interview)

Chavez Calls on Workers to Push for Workplace Democracy in Venezuela

[President Chavez recently announced a series of new nationalisations, but he also stressed the need for workers' control, planning and socialism. What now needs to be done is to act on these words and the only force that can do that is the working class.]

Chavez Calls on Workers to Push for Workplace Democracy in Venezuela

May 28th 2009, by Hermann Albrecht - In Defence of Marxism

At a recent gathering in the State of Guayana President Chavez announced a series of new nationalisations, but he also stressed the need for workers' control, planning and socialism. What now needs to be done is to act on these words and the only force that can do that is the working class. Otherwise all the good proposals can be buried by the myriad of reformists and bureaucrats who infest the movement.

On Thursday, May 21, at a workshop with the workers of the basic industries in the state of Guayana, President Chavez announced the nationalisation of the following iron briquette and steel companies: Orinoco Iron, Venezolana de Prerreducidos of Caroní (VENPRECAR), Materiales Siderúrgicos (MATESI), and the Complejo Siderúrgico de Guayana (COMSIGUA), as well as Tubos de Acero de Venezuela (TAVSA) and Cerámicas Carabobo.

He also confirmed the collective bargaining agreement of CVG Ferrominera and spoke of the creation of an industrial steelworks complex, indicating that, "These companies must be placed under workers' control; that's how it has to be." He continued, "let's start the process of nationalisation in order to create this industrial complex," adding that these measures should have been taken a long time ago.

(click here to view entire article)

Latin America’s Pro-Capitalist Elite Hold Anti-Chávez Conference in Venezuela

[Hundreds of right-wing political leaders and representatives of pro-capitalist think tanks from across the world gathered in Venezuela's luxurious Caracas Palace Hotel this week for an exclusive event titled "International Conference for Freedom and Democracy: The Latin American Challenge."]

Latin America’s Pro-Capitalist Elite Hold Anti-Chávez Conference in Venezuela

May 29th 2009, by James Suggett – Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, May 29th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- Hundreds of right-wing political leaders and representatives of pro-capitalist think tanks from across the world gathered in Venezuela's luxurious Caracas Palace Hotel this week for an exclusive event titled "International Conference for Freedom and Democracy: The Latin American Challenge."

A major theme of the conference was how to put an end to the political changes been carried out by President Hugo Chávez and a wave of other progressive presidents who have been elected across the region over the past ten years.

Peruvian author and former Peruvian presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the high profile keynote speakers at the event, framed the Chávez government as the chief obstacle to the progress of capitalist free markets in the region.

(click here to view entire article)

Challenges and Possibilities: Learning from ALBA and the Bank of the South

[At the same time capitalism’s credibility as an engine of development (in both free-market and state-directed forms) is being weakened, the governments of a number of South American countries are working to advance new regional initiatives that have the potential to promote and strengthen socialist-inspired development alternatives-the most important are the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and the Bank of the South. Although these two initiatives do not have the explicit mission of promoting socialist transformation, they are critically important because they concretize the existence of alternatives to capitalist growth strategies and, in the case of ALBA, offer support to governments that are themselves pursuing a socialist-inspired process of transformation.]

Challenges and Possibilities: Learning from ALBA and the Bank of the South

May 22nd 2009, by Martin Hart-Landsberg - International Debt Observatory

This is a time of great challenges and also great possibilities. The first decade of the 21st century may well mark an important turning point in the international struggle to supplant capitalism.

For decades the great majority of third world governments have followed neoliberal policies despite the failure of those policies to deliver their promised export-led growth. As a consequence, anti-neoliberal political movements have grown in strength throughout Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. While an important political development, the emancipatory potential of those movements has remained limited, in large part, because of their focus on neoliberalism as the primary impediment to progress. More specifically, many participating activists and academics continue to draw a sharp distinction between neoliberalism and capitalism; while they strongly oppose the former, they remain largely unwilling to reject the latter.

Most tend to blame the development failures of their respective nations on government policies (often implemented under pressure) that liberalized, deregulated, and privatized economic activity. They believe that the East Asian experience of high-speed, export-led growth and industrial transformation demonstrates that active state intervention and direction of economic activity can produce successful capitalist development. Therefore, they have often directed their efforts at enhancing the state capacities of their respective countries in an attempt to recreate East Asian economic successes.

However, we are now at a point where it may be possible to win a strong majority of these activists and intellectuals to an anti-capitalist perspective, a critical change if we are succeed in building the movement clarity and strength necessary to advance a socialist alternative. One reason is that the exploitative and contradictory nature of the East Asian growth strategy is becoming clearer. Ever more intense intra-regional competition has begun to undermine East Asia’s past social and economic gains and generate worker resistance. Perhaps even more dramatic, the region’s export-led growth strategy has finally run up against its own limits, as an ever deepening global economic crisis triggered by imbalances in the U.S. economy has thrown East Asian economies into their own downward economic spiral.

(click here to view entire article)

Globovisón: The Loose Cannon of Venezuelan Media

[Venezuela’s socialist national project is well underway and making ever more significant strides, in spite of an entrenched, privileged minority in opposition, relentlessly spurred on by the corporate media and its vociferous attacks.]

Globovisón: The Loose Cannon of Venezuelan Media

May 2oth 2009, by Carlos Ruiz - VenCentral

In their classic 1988 book Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demonstrated how corporate media select topics, place emphasis, set boundaries, ask questions and shape content in accordance with broad capitalist imperatives. It’s a largely unconscious process driven by conformist human beings, and infinitely more effective than the heavy-handed methods of past communist regimes.

During the 20th century, ballooning marketing budgets played a crucial role in the marginalization, and ultimate extinction of influential labor-based/progressive media. Today’s mass media subservience to elite power structures is an inevitable consequence of the pursuit of profit. Advertising revenues continue to flow to any given publication, radio or TV station on the condition that its reporting and general content supports a business-friendly status quo.

(click here to view entire article)

Arabs’ New Favourite Leader: Hugo Chávez!?!

[The Venezuelan leader blew away all others as Arabs' favorite world leader in this week's University of Maryland and Zogby International's 2009 Annual Arab Public Opinion Survey.]

Arabs’ New Favorite Leader: Hugo Chávez!?!

May 20th 2009, by Matthew Clark - Christian Science Monitor

That’s right. The colorful Latin leftist has some serious crossover appeal.

He’s now huge – or, as Donald Trump would say, “uuuuuge” – in the Middle East.

So big that he’s surpassed the usual favorites: Osama bin Laden, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedenejad. At least that’s the result of this week’s University of Maryland and Zogby International’s 2009 Annual Arab Public Opinion Survey. (President Obama didn’t place, although George W. Bush still did quite well in the “worst world leaders” category, as Foreign Policy points out.)

It may seem surprising, but a quick look back Mr. Chávez’s statements and visits over the past few years reveal why he’s now a hero for the “Arab Street,” earning nicknames like “Chávez of Arabia.”

(click here to view entire article)

Documentary: Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas

[Watch the first part of the documentary, Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas, by Michael Fox and Silvia Leindecker, below. The documentary's website (http://www.beyondelections.com/) has links to watch the movie in English, Spanish or Portuguese and information about how to buy a copy of it. Click here to watch the remaining parts of the documentary.]

British Government Foreign Office Minister Praises Venezuela’s Anti-Poverty Measures

[British Government Foreign Office Minister Gillian Merron and over 40 Parliamentarians attended a House of Commons reception on 13 May to mark a decade of social progress in Venezuela under the Hugo Chávez-led government. At the reception, Gillian Merron praised Venezuela’s anti-poverty measures.]

British Government Foreign Office Minister Praises Venezuela’s Anti-Poverty Measures

May 14th 2009, by VICUK

British Government Foreign Office Minister Gillian Merron and over 40 Parliamentarians attended a House of Commons reception on 13 May to mark a decade of social progress in Venezuela under the Hugo Chávez-led government. They were joined by more than 100 personalities from the media, trade unions and the wider Labour Party.

At the reception, Gillian Merron MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office said:

“We all welcome policies that help the most vulnerable and the poorest people in our communities -- wherever those communities might be. That is why we very much welcome the efforts of President Chavez, democratically backed by the people, to help the most needy in Venezuelan society. Those efforts undoubtedly have our support.”

She explained that the British governments engages “with Venezuela on many social justice initiatives” and called for more “communication and co-operation” so that both countries “work closer and better together for the benefit of both of our peoples.”

(click here to view entire article)

Separating Fact from Fiction: An Analysis of Venezuela’s Military Power

[Exercises like those carried out with the Russian navy in November 2008 are good for morale, and also helps mold the Venezuelan military into an authentic regional power, though certainly not a hemispheric security threat, given its still very limited capacity to project its force.]

Separating Fact from Fiction: An Analysis of Venezuela’s Military Power

May 13th 2009, by Alex Sánchez - COHA

Following the recently concluded Summit of the Americas held April 17-19, in Trinidad and Tobago, President Barack Obama claimed that the U.S. defense budget was 600 times greater than that of Venezuela. While it is true that, in conventional warfare, a Venezuelan victory over this country is totally beyond any credulity, the question remains regarding how much relative military strength does Venezuela actually project. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is widely acknowledged as having carried out an aggressive policy of military acquisitions in recent years, which has had far-reaching implications particularly through purchasing Russian military equipment. In effect, this arms program made Chávez appear on Washington’s SOUTHCOM security radar screen as well as those of neighboring South American nations, especially Colombia.

Military Overseas’ Providers in the Chávez Era

A key facet of the Russian-Venezuelan military partnership has been Chávez’s continued interest in purchasing state-of-the-art Russian weaponry. This process, which can be traced back to 2006, at the same time marked the beginning of Moscow’s active return to the western hemisphere, as its influence in the region continually has spread through various precise spheres (military cooperation, commerce, trade and cultural relations). Meanwhile, Venezuela significantly has linked itself to Moscow and made Russia its most important military arms-provider in the region. This inevitably has fomented a comparison of the Caracas-Moscow relationship with the Havana-Soviet relationship dating back to the origins of the Cold War, even if such a comparison is not entirely warranted.

(click here to view entire article)

Venezuela Combats Crisis by Fighting Corruption, Bureaucracy

[Confronted by the global economic crisis and a sharp drop in oil prices, the Venezuelan government has launched an offensive against corruption as part of its austerity drive.]

Venezuela Combats Crisis by Fighting Corruption, Bureaucracy

May 2nd 2009, by Federico Fuentes - Green Left Weekly

Confronted by the global economic crisis and a sharp drop in oil prices, the Venezuelan government has launched an offensive against corruption as part of its austerity drive.
This has included measures to cut down on superfluous expenses and bloated salaries of high-ranking public officials. The public prosecutor has also initiated a number of court cases against former and current elected officials for alleged corruption.

(click here to view entire article)

Book Launch: America's Backyard: The United States and Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the War on Terror by Grace Livingstone

Monday 18th May 6.30pm-8.30pm

Hancock Room
Institute of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
28 Russell SquareLondon WC1B 5DS
United Kingdom

http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/book.asp?bookdetail=4267

Toward A Loyal Opposition

[In recent statements and proclamations Venezuela's political opposition declared that President Hugo Chavez has initiated "a reign of terror" against his opponents. It also proclaims that the government is weaker than ever and that the time is ripe for a new round of massive street protests.]

Toward A Loyal Opposition

April 29th 2009, by Zachary Lown – Venezuelanalysis.com

In recent statements and proclamations Venezuela's political opposition declared that President Hugo Chavez has initiated "a reign of terror" against his opponents. It also proclaims that the government is weaker than ever and that the time is ripe for a new round of massive street protests.

This opposition narrative, as it has unfolded over the past two weeks, comes in reaction to a series of centralizing measures and the persecution of oppositionist officials charged with corruption by the Chavez government. Venezuela's divided but vitriolic political opposition is constituted in political parties, the Catholic Church, the universities and the private media.

(click here to view entire article)

Venezuela Rejects U.S. Terrorism Report

[On Thursday, the U.S. State Department released its Country Reports on Terrorism for 2008, in which it asserts that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's "ideological sympathy" with the Colombian guerrillas "limited Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism."]

Venezuela Rejects U.S. Terrorism Report

May 2nd 2009, by James Suggett – Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, May 2nd 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- On Thursday, the U.S. State Department released its Country Reports on Terrorism for 2008, in which it asserts that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's "ideological sympathy" with the Colombian guerrillas "limited Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism."

The report criticizes Venezuela for not systematically policing its 1,400 mile border with Colombia, which left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries from Colombia are believed to have crossed to take refuge and raise funds illegally.

(click here to view entire article)

Venezuelan President Calls for “Re-definition” of Socialist Party

[On his weekly talk show Aló Presidente on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), of which he is president, will undergo a "re-definition" in which sectarianism and corrupt party leadership must end and the party must strengthen its ties to social movements.]

Venezuelan President Calls for “Re-definition” of Socialist Party

May 4th 2009, by James Suggett – Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, May 4th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) -- On his weekly talk show Aló Presidente on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), of which he is president, will undergo a "re-definition" in which sectarianism and corrupt party leadership must end and the party must strengthen its ties to social movements.

The PSUV is "on course toward the redefinition of many things in the party's internal operating," Chávez said on the nationally televised talk show. "In the PSUV, we must distance ourselves from the tendencies of the past; we cannot let ourselves be trapped by sectarianism," he said.

(click here to view entire article)