[Marxism] What's new at Links: Venezuela; Nicaragua; Zimbabwe; Korea; left unity; Pope protests; Diego Garcia; Argentina; Middle East; forests;

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  Subscribe free to /Links - International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ 
- at http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

Visit and bookmark http://links.org.au and add it to your RSS feed 
(http://links.org.au/rss.xml). If you would like us to
consider an article, please send it to links@xxxxxxxxxx

*Please pass on to anybody you think will be interested in /Links./*


    Venezuela: The hard battle for socialism <http://links.org.au/node/532>

Interview with *Rafael Ramirez*, Venezuela's minister of energy and 
petroleum from /Punto Final/. Translated by *Federico Fuentes* for/ 
Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal <http://links.org.au>/ 
Up until now, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's socialist project has 
counted on broad popular support. But it is encountering -- as was 
foreseen -- numerous difficulties and an opposition that is not 
disgusted by coup plots nor assassination attempts. On November 23, the 
revolutionary project will have to submit itself to a new test, this 
time in the form of elections for governors and mayors.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/532>


    July 19, 1979: Nicaragua's Sandinista revolution remembered -- Video
    by John Pilger <http://links.org.au/node/530>

On July 19, 1979, the Nicaraguan people led by the Sandinista National 
Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the brutal US-backed dictator Somoza. 
In this film, made by *John Pilger* in the 1980s, the background to the 
revolt and the gains won -- and the United States' virulent opposition 
-- are graphically explained.

Watch at http://links.org.au/node/530


    Zimbabwe socialists: `Mobilise against the Mugabe regime!'
    <http://links.org.au/node/531>

By the *International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe*

On June 29, 2008, Robert Mugabe was announced the winner of the 
presidential runoff ``election" with a vote of 2.1 million as opposed to 
233,000 for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan 
Tsvangirai and 131,481 spoilt ballots. The regime claimed a sweeping 
victory, "winning" in all constituencies even in areas where it did not 
win a single seat in the March parliamentary elections. As the ISOZ had 
warned, these elections were not going to bring real democratic change. 
Rather the regime of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic 
Front (ZANU-PF) would ensure its victory by hook or crook and then seek 
a government of national unity with the MDC as a junior partner to deal 
with the imploding economic crisis.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/531>


    South Korea: Mass movement stops the neoliberal bulldozer
    <http://links.org.au/node/529>

By *Christopher Kerr*

July 12, 2008, Seoul -- The neo-conservative regime of President Lee 
Myungbak has been humbled by the spontaneous emergence of a mass 
movement --- sparked by female middle and high school students. This 
movement has resulted in the largest and longest sustained 
demonstrations since the fall of the military dictatorship. The mass 
protests have been primarily against the imposed resumption of the 
importation of US beef but have, in the course of their development, 
tapped into latent anger against the implementation neoliberal policies.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/529>


    Who's afraid of Liberation Theology? <http://links.org.au/node/528>

By *Barry Healy*

/[This is the text of a talk presented at the Marxism Summer School 
conducted by the Australian Democratic Socialist Perspective in January 
2005. The pope referred to is the then-reigning Pope John-Paul II. The 
current Pope Benedict XVI is mentioned, being Cardinal Ratzinger at the 
time this talk was presented. See the appendices for more on Ratzinger 
and his background.]/

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/528>


    Mauritius: Britain cites Lalit's support for Chagossians to oppose
    their return <http://links.org.au/node/527>

By *Lalit de Klas*

July 16, 2008 -- According to attorney-at-law Robin Mardemootoo, who 
represented the Chagos Refugee Group at the House of Lords Judicial 
Committee, which acts as the ultimate court of appeal in London, last 
week, the Mauritian revolutionary organisation Lalit was referred to 
during one hour of pleadings by the UK government legal representative 
Jonathan Crow, QC.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/527>


    Argentina: It's only a small step from sectarianism to support for
    Kirchner <http://links.org.au/node/526>

**By *Sergio Garcia*, translated and introduced by *Federico Fuentes* 
for /Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/ <http://links.org.au>
After more than 100 days of intense conflict between supporters and 
opponents of the Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner government in Argentina, 
centred on the conflict over the divisive move to increase taxes on 
exports of foodstuff such as soya and sunflower oil, Fernandez has been 
forced to put the resolution to debate in congress.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/526>


    Palestine in the Middle East: Opposing neoliberalism and US power
    <http://links.org.au/node/524>

By *Adam Hanieh*

July 15, 2008 -- Over the last six months, the Palestinian economy has 
been radically transformed under a new plan drawn up by the Palestinian 
Authority (PA) called the Palestinian Reform and Development Plan 
(PRDP). Developed in close collaboration with institutions such as the 
World Bank and the British Department for International Development 
(DFID), the PRDP is currently being implemented in the West Bank where 
the Abu Mazen-led PA has effective control. It embraces the fundamental 
precepts of neoliberalism: a private sector-driven economic strategy in 
which the aim is to attract foreign investment and reduce public 
spending to a minimum.

Read more <http://links.org.au/node/524>


    Forests and climate change -- examining the spin
    <http://links.org.au/node/522>

By *Susan Austin*

Tasmania, Australia -- It's easy to get confused about the issue of 
forests and climate change. Climate scientists say that preserving our 
forests is a quick, easy and cheap way to prevent further global 
warming, and Australia's previous federal government allocated A$200 
million towards preserving forests in South-East Asia. Yet both the 
federal government and the Tasmanian state government are overseeing the 
continuing destruction of Tasmania's old-growth forests to feed a 
profitable wood-chip export industry and a soon-to-be-built pulp mill. 
And what's more, they say that the industry is carbon-positive and 
sustainable. What's really going on?

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/522>


    Pope's immoral stance a death sentence; protest the unholy father + pics
    <http://links.org.au/node/521>

By *Tony Iltis *

July 12, 2008 -- The visit to Sydney for World Youth Day (WYD), July 
15-20, by Pope Benedict XVI and 300,000 Catholic pilgrims is set to 
become the scene for protests. Ironically, the protests are being 
fuelled by the clumsy efforts of the NSW state Labor Party government to 
suppress them --- passing laws making it illegal to "annoy" pilgrims and 
defining "annoy" broadly enough to include having signs, or even wearing 
t-shirts, with messages that the doctrinally rigid pope or his followers 
disapprove of.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/521>


    Videos: European revolutionaries discuss left unity experiences
    <http://links.org.au/node/520>

The British socialist newspaper /Socialist Resistance/ on June 28, 2008, 
sponsored a fascinating day of discussion and debate on building broad 
left parties across Europe, attracting a comprehensive list of speakers 
from key left unity projects. The videos of the following talks were 
recorded on the day. They include speakers from the Left Bloc Portugal, 
Respect in Britain, the Socialist Party in the Netherlands, Die Link in 
Germany, Sinistra Critica (Italy) and the European Greens. They are 
reposted from Liam Mac Uaid's essential weblog, with permission. More 
videos of the day are available there.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/520>


    Venezuela: Moves towards unity and democratisation of the workers'
    movement <http://links.org.au/node/519>

By *Stalin Perez Borges*

July 14, 2008 -- In recent elections in the Sindicato Nacional Fuerza 
Magisterial (Sinafum -- National Union of Teachers' Force), which groups 
an important section of teachers, a slate headed by Orlando Pérez, a 
supporter of the proposal that Sinafum remain affiliated to the Unión 
Nacional de Trabajadores (UNT, National Union of Workers), won by a wide 
margin. Elections have been announced for October 1 in the Federación 
Nacional de Trabajadores del Sector Empleados Públicos (Fentrasep, 
National Federation of Public Sector Workers), to which more than 90% of 
public servants are members. The national coordination of the UNT has 
set dates in September for the holding of a new congress and elections.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/519>

 /Links/ seeks to promote the international exchange of information, 
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political 
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for 
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from 
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the 
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social 
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in 
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing 
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
*
ATTENTION: Sign up for regular ``what's new'' announcement emails at 
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu