[Marxism] What's new at Links: Ecosocialism, Tamils, apartheid Israel, Indian election, pirates, Scotland, Ogonis, Vietnam, Great Leap Forward

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What's new at Links: Ecosocialism, Tamils, Kasrils on apartheid Israel, 
Indian election, pirates, Scotland, Ogonis, Vietnam, Great Leap Forward

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    The fight to be a society of good ancestors -- capitalism and
    ecosocialism <http://links.org.au/node/1006>

By *Ian Angus*
Ian Angus was a featured guest at the World at a Crossroads: Fighting 
for Socialism in the 21st Century conference, in Sydney Australia, April 
10-12, 2009. The event, which drew 444 participants from more than 15 
countries, was organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, 
Resistance and /Green Left Weekly/. Below is Angus' talk to the plenary 
session on "Confronting the climate change crisis: an ecosocialist 
perspective".

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1006>


    The Tamils need support; Sign the statement against the war on the
    Tamil people of Sri Lanka <http://links.org.au/node/1003>

April 18, 2009 -- One of the great crimes of modern times is occurring 
on the island of Sri Lanka without a word of protest from governments 
the world over. The Tamil people are facing genocide. Already this year, 
the death toll of Tamil civilians exceeds 4000. Often dozens, and in 
some cases hundreds, are slaughtered in a single day in Sri Lankan Army 
bombings of the so-called safe zone, into which as many as 300,000 
people are crowded. Those Tamils who flee this zone are being placed 
into concentration camps by the Sri Lankan Army.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1003>


    Who are the Tamil Tigers? <http://links.org.au/node/1015>

By *Chris Slee*
April 25, 2009 -- The Sri Lankan government claims to be on the verge of 
totally defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE --- also 
known as the Tamil Tigers). The LTTE has fought for more than 30 years 
for an independent state for the Tamil people on the northern and 
eastern parts of the island.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1015>


    Video: Ronnie Kasrils -- South Africa and Palestine: Long roads to
    freedom <http://links.org.au/node/1014>

*Ronnie Kasrils *spoke at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on 
March 20, 2009, at a talk organised by Pulsemedia.org and the Scottish 
Palestine Solidarity Campaign. During the years of apartheid rule in 
South Africa, Ronnie Kasrils was a leader in the banned South African 
Communist Party and African National Congress, and its military wing 
Umkonto we Sizwe. Hunted by the security police, he was described as 
``armed and dangerous''. Kasrils served as a government minister in 
post-spartheid South Africa until 2008. Today Kasrils is an activist in 
the Palestine Solidarity Committee in South Africa, which recently won 
support from Durban dock workers to adopt a policy of boycotting Israeli 
ships that dock in South African ports.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1014>


    Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation manifesto for
    the 2009 Lok Sabha elections <http://links.org.au/node/1013>

By the *Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation*
The 15th /Lok Sabha/ [April-May 2009] elections have been announced. As 
the country gets ready to vote for the constitution of a new Lok Sabha, 
dark clouds of deepening crisis overshadow our entire economy. While the 
rural economy had long been reeling under an acute agrarian crisis, and 
soaring prices had been reducing the already limited purchasing power of 
the masses, now jobs have started vanishing even in the so-called growth 
sectors and wages are going down to make survival a challenge for ever 
larger sections of the poor and working people. The government's pompous 
rhetoric of rapid economic growth and massive investment inflow has 
melted into thin air, and the people have been asked to get ready for a 
long period of recession.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1013>


    Elections in India: Asserting people's issues above the clamour of
    `crorepatis', communalists and corporate media
    <http://links.org.au/node/1012>

By *Kavita Krishnan*
April 24, 2009 -- The media's poll pundits have already declared that 
there are "no issues" in India's 2009 parliamentary polls. At the same 
time, the corporate media houses have launched campaigns seeking to 
``awaken'' middle- and upper-class voters. They have been awash in 
self-congratulation at their success in mobilising this class of voters 
-- the only class, they imply, which is capable of making Indian 
politics clean and meaningful, because it is not a ``vote bank''. 
``Slumdogs'', they rue, are even willing to sell their kids, so their 
votes are suspect -- while sheer wealth places corporates and 
/crorepatis/ above corruption.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1012>


    Who are the real pirates in Africa's waters?
    <http://links.org.au/node/1011>

By *Tony Iltis*
April 18, 2009 -- The report in the /Times/ of London began: ``Pirates 
caught redhanded by one of Her Majesty's warships after trying to hijack 
a cargo ship off Somalia made the grave mistake of opening fire on two 
Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns 
and SA80 rifles.'' The references to modern weapons and the use of the 
modern term ``hijacking'', indicate that this is a recent article (from 
the November 12, 2008, online edition). In other respects it could have 
been written 300 years ago.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1011>


    Scottish Trade Union Congress votes to support boycotts, divestment
    and sanctions against apartheid Israel <http://links.org.au/node/1010>

By the *Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign*
April 22, 2009 -- The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), 
representing every Scottish trade union, voted overwhelmingly to commit 
to boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. This is the third 
example of a national trade union federation [including Ireland and 
South Africa] committing to boycotts, divestment and sanctions and is a 
clear indication that, while Israel can kill Palestinians with impunity 
and Western support, it has lost the battle for world public opinion. It 
is now seen to be a state born out of ethnic cleansing and still 
expanding through the violent dispossession of the Palestinian people.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1010>


    Iqbal Bano: The subcontinent's voice of defiance against tyranny
    <http://links.org.au/node/1009>

By the *Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation *

April 22, 2009 -- *Iqbal Bano*, the subcontinent's beloved ghazal 
singer, born in India and trained in the Dilli Gharana by the legendary 
Ustad Chand Khan, passed away on April 21, 2009, in Lahore at the age of 74.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1009>


    Wiwa versus Shell: Oil company to stand trial for complicity in
    repression of the Ogoni people <http://links.org.au/node/1008>

 From /*The Case Against Shell*/ website

Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) began oil production in the Niger Delta 
region of Nigeria in 1958 and has a long history of working closely with 
the Nigerian government to quell popular opposition to its presence in 
the region. At the request of Shell, and with Shell's assistance and 
financing, Nigerian soldiers used deadly force and massive, brutal raids 
against the Ogoni people throughout the early 1990s to repress a growing 
movement against the oil company. The Center for Constitutional Rights 
(CCR), EarthRights International (ERI) and other human rights attorneys 
sued Shell for human rights violations against the Ogoni. The case will 
go to trial on May 26, 2009, in New York City.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1008>


    Vietnam: `Building an equitable, democratic and civilised society'
    <http://links.org.au/node/1005>

/ /By *Le Vinh Thu
*This is the text of the speech on behalf of Communist Party of 
Vietnam's delegation to the World at a Crossroads conference, organised 
by the Democratic Socialist Perspective and Resistance, held in Sydney, 
April 10-12, 2009.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1005>


    50 years after: The tragedy of China's `Great Leap Forward'
    <http://links.org.au/node/1004>

By *John Riddell*

On October 1, the People's Republic of China will mark the 60th 
anniversary of its foundation. This will be an occasion to celebrate one 
of the most influential victories of popular struggle in our era. This 
great uprising forged a united and independent Chinese state, freed the 
country from foreign domination and capitalist rule, ended landlordism, 
provided broad access to education and health care, and set in motion 
popular energies that modernised and industrialised its economy. The 
revolutionary triumph of 1949 laid the foundation for China's present 
dynamism and influence, as well as providing an enormous impetus to 
anti-colonial revolution worldwide.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/1004>

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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.

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