News of the Restless

Chilean copper miners go on 24-hour strike

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Sabina Becker

chilean-miners

Remember how, a few years ago, Sebastián Piñera was hailed by a gullible world media as a hero for the rescue of a group of miners who were, in fact, rescued by their own resourceful comrades? Well, today we see hard evidence of just how much of a miners’ hero Piñochetera ain’t. This is major, folks:

Workers from the National Copper Corporation (CODELCO) and private mining companies in Chile have decreed a 24-hour strike for today, to reclaim workers’ benefits and what they call the “renationalization” of the industry.

The strike was called by the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), and the Miners’ Federation of Chile (FMC), a work-stoppage that they consider historical, in that it synchronizes the actions of one of the unions at CODELCO and the syndicate active in the private industries.

On March 15, the FTC announced that the national strike would be carried out in all of CODELCO’s facilities, in rejection of a process of “covert privatization”, among other reasons.

According to the union, the 24-hour work stoppage was decided “as a result of weariness over the arrogance, high-handedness and blatant inefficiency of the executives towards the workers and the country.”

The call to strike was announced after the closing of an extraordinary congress of the syndicate, which made the determination in order to repudiate and demand changes and rectifications to a conjuncture of situations which affect the workers of CODELCO.

“When they don’t respect you or the collective agreement you signed, when there are problems with the governance of the business that affect workers, there is no doubt that measures must be taken,” said Raimundo Espinoza, president of the FTC, a union consisting of 16,000 workers.

The syndicate opposes the continued out-contracting of CODELCO functions, a process considered to be a covert privatization of the activities of the state company.

In contrast to that dynamic, the union considers it necessary to make substantial changes to the mining politics of the land, a process they call renationalization.

For their part, the Copper Workers (CTC) expressed solidarity with the FTC strike, after deeming it necessary to hold a large short-term nationwide strike in the copper sector.

Cristian Cuevas, the president of the CTC, announced that the union, which brings together more than 30,000 contract workers for the state company and another 10,000 from the private sector, shares the demands of the FTC, and the call to mobilize, even though they have their own agenda.

The minister of Mining, Hernán de Solminihac, issued a call to dialogue, and noted that the contribution of the mining sector to the national budget is considerable.

With the pressure on CODELCO, which is the largest copper producer in the world with some 5.6 million tonnes per year, one-third of the world’s copper supply is now at stake.

Along with the work-stoppage in the state company, the strike includes the Minera Escondida, operated by the Anglo-Australian corporation BHP BIlliton; Collahuasi and Anglo American Sur, administrated by the Anglo American corporation; and the Chilean company, Antofagasta Minerals, among others.

Translation mine.

Copper is to Chile what oil is to Venezuela, but Chileans haven’t seen the benefits trickle down because, thanks to Pinochet and the Chicago Boys and their ironically named “miracle”, the government has seen fit to slash the public sector to the point where, like the average working-class Chilean, it’s all but dead. Education and healthcare and even pensions are privatized, and unless one is awfully rich to begin with (with an inherited copper mine to one’s name, perhaps), they are all terrible. It’s not just the Chilean miners who are on strike; the Chilean students have been striking for years already for a better education system, a public one which is free and of good quality (as opposed to the expensive, shitty private system they have now.)

It’s not hard to see, given that Chile produces one third of the world’s total copper, how a proper nationalization of the industry, with proceeds going toward social programs as oil money does in Venezuela, would make all the difference…and work a REAL economic miracle. I hope these workers are ready to bunker down, though, because it’s going to take much more than just a one-day strike to make real changes in this ghastly situation.

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Posted in Barreling Right Along, Chile Sin Queso, Economics for Dummies, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Socialism is Good for Capitalism! | Comments Off

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 15

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Sabina Becker

rats-sinking-ship

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today’s installment of VenOpIronía. This time, it’s all about Venezuelan oppos who give new meaning to old clichés about rats jumping from sinking ships. Well, these “rats”, like their rodentian counterparts, aren’t stupid. Majunche Capriles Radonski (must resist temptation to type RATonski!), far from being a uniter, is as much a divider as Dubya, and these people are all living proof:

The National Opinion Party (OPINA), which belonged to the so-called Unity Table (MUD), and supported candidate Henrique Capriles in the October 7 elections, in which he lost, announced on Thursday that it has decided to separate from the opposition coalition and withdraw its support from the right-wing candidate.

“We wish to announce to the country our firm disposition to support Nicolás Maduro as candidate for the presidency of the Republic. We have made this decision very conscientiously, with full responsibility, bearing in mind the future of Venezuela, the need to develop and guarantee the process of change, and the transformations of our country. OPINA is a 51-year-old organization, which has Bolivarianism as its doctrine,” said the party’s secretary general for the capital region, Marcos Torres.

Accompanied by Omar Quiaragua and Rodrigo Carrizo, both members of the party directorate, Torres stated that the decision to withdraw support from Capriles Radonski follows an internal dispute which began three years ago, when the party split between those who supported President Hugo Chávez and those who supported the right.

However, following the death of the revolutionary leader, OPINA held an extraordinary meeting on March 16 to analyze the new political situation and as a consequence, the organization considered “that the process of revolutionary change initiated by President Chávez must continue in order to perfect the important achievements made in social, economic, and educative matters, in health, culture and sport, because they have benefited the majority of the Venezuelan people,” Torres explained.

“OPINA participated in the so-called Unity Table, supporting Capriles Radonski. This decision was already under study within OPINA, the party was divided, some supporting Capriles and others among us supporting Chávez; lamentably, at that time they [Capriles supporters] were in the majority, but later, many opened their eyes and took the decision to support the candidacy of Maduro.”

In OPINA’s view, Nicolás Maduro “possesses the credentials, the experience, the capability, and the honesty to efficiently hold the highest office in the land.”

Party representatives added that they support achievements of the Revolution, such as “the social missions, the pensions to almost 3 million senior citizens, the construction of new homes, Mission Barrio Adentro, among many others which have improved the quality of life for the Venezuelan people.”

Translation mine.

And these people aren’t the only ones who’ve seen the light. In addition to the originally-Bolivarian contingent of OPINA that unhijacked itself by junking support for Capriles, we have…

…Yolanda de Díaz, who says she feels she has been “deceived and defrauded” by Majunche. She is trading in her Capriles shirt for one supporting Nicolás Maduro, “man of the people”. She has seen the good Chavecito’s missions have done, and is angry and disappointed in Capriles for his “two years of inactivity” on behalf of his own constituents.

…Luis Toro, who says he has two reasons: his friendship with William Ojeda (of the PSUV), and his desire to see his municipality, Petare, improve. The barrio is in a very poor state, “invaded”, its streets clogged and impassable. This thanks to Capriles.

…Luis Vargas, who has a radio show called “Hot Coffee”, and says Mission Barrio Adentro deserves to be “dignified, not eliminated”. He’s very unimpressed with Majunche’s “old” discourse about the presumed evils of the Cubans and his fanatical anticommunism. He also denounces various opposition figures associated with Majunche as violators of human rights. He praises Maduro’s willingness to work with the grassroots from all parties, regardless of how corrupt the leadership is, and his willingness to recognize that the base is not to blame for the crookedness of the top level. He finishes off with a fiery declaration in favor of the revolution.

…Byron Velázquez, a youth activist, who supports Maduro because the opposition has often excluded young Venezuelans and failed to hear them out, despite its oft-professed fondness for “students”. He praises Chavecito’s social programs for their positive impact on the youth.

…and Leandro Pérez, who praises Maduro’s straightforwardness and his humble origins, finding that they represent the fighting spirit of ordinary Venezuelans. He speaks out for tolerance, inclusion and participation. He calls on fellow oppos to “dare to think differently” and support Maduro, too.

It’s funny, but hearing these folks talk, I’d never guess that any of them were ever opposition supporters. They all sound remarkably like dyed-in-the-wool Bolivarians!

And I’m not at all sure that this is what Majunche had in mind as he was trying so hard to be more Bolivarian than Bolívar and more Chavista than Chavecito. Instead of pulling off loose PSUVistas, he’s losing his own support…to the PSUV.

If that’s not ironic, then tell me…what is?

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Milk Snatcher is history

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Ding, dong.

Seriously, though, it’s not nice to call that horrid old beast a witch. We Witches find that horribly insulting, since it’s not us who threw Britain into its current state of decline, oppression, and police brutality. We’re not the ones who condemned British schoolkids to malnutrition (as though milk and proper lunches were unaffordable for a government with such a huge purse!) We’re not the ones who tried to impose poll taxes, or forbid workers from striking. We’re not the ones who fought a ridiculous war over some islands no one had even heard of in the South Atlantic, just to prove some stupid point about “mettle”. We’re not the ones who latched onto Cold War fanaticism out of some facile effort to look like the heroes we weren’t. We’re not the ones who preached morality to the masses while living in unabashed decadence. We’re not the ones who made the rich richer and the poor eat stones.

And, above all, we’re not the ones who will miss her. Maybe clueless twits like David Fucking Cameron will, and some of those gap-toothed neo-Nazis from the English Defence League might, but that’s about all. The rest of the world does not thank her for the ruinous example she set; we’re just sorry she didn’t kick the bucket thirty years ago, when it might have counted for something. The rest of the world has already moved on; she and her ilk died unmourned, for us, long ago.

It was no triumph for feminism the day she entered office. Anyone who thought that a female PM would make a positive difference was severely disappointed to learn that a female Conservative is nothing but a mean old man in skirts. She was the first PM to drive home the ugly truth: that Conservative women are Conservatives first, and women dead last. And that anyone who would elect one, male OR female, does so at their peril.

Personally, I think it’s a crime and a sin that Chavecito had to die before her. But at least, while he lived, he got to bury her bad economic policies under a mountain of socialist success. He proved her “There Is No Alternative” dictum dead wrong. He left the legacy of a thriving Venezuela whose Bolivarian revolution will long outlive him; she left Britain in decline even before she left office, and it has only gone downhill since.

So long, Maggie, you evil old rotter. You will never be missed.

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Neruda to be exhumed tomorrow

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Sabina Becker

neruda-grave

The grave of Pablo Neruda, overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Isla Negra, Chile. After nearly 40 years, it is about to give up its biggest secret: How did the great poet, a Nobel-winning national icon before his death and a legend thereafter, die?

Preparatory work for the exhumation of the body of Pablo Neruda began on Sunday, so that his remains can be removed on Monday from his grave on Isla Negra to be analyzed, to determine whether he died of cancer or was assassinated by the Pinochet dictatorship on September 23, 1973, just days after the military coup.

The earth-moving operation took place today on Isla Negra, about 100 kilometres west of Santiago, where the Nobel literary prizewinner lies buried alongside his third wife, Matilde Urrutia. Their graves overlook the Pacific Ocean, in the garden of their home, now a museum which receives thousands of visitors every year, and which closed its doors on Sunday afternoon.

For the exhumation, a tent will be installed and special protective gear will be worn in case of any toxic substances. The task will be completed by a multidisciplinary team of Chilean and foreign forensic scientists: five from the Chilean state medico-legal service, four experts from the University of Chile, and four international experts. Among them will be the US toxicologist Ruth Winecker and three Spaniards: toxicologist Guillermo Repetto, surgeon Aurelio Luna, and forensic doctor Francisco Etxeberría, who also participated in the 2011 exhumation of Chilean president Salvador Allende.

There will also be three international observers, and the president of the Chilean Communist Party, Guillermo Teillier; the party attorney, Eduardo Contreras; a nephew of the poet, Rodolfo Reyes; and Neruda’s former chauffeur, Manuel Araya. It was Araya who, in 2011, suggested the possibility during an interview that Neruda could have been assassinated. He took this to the Communist Party, to which Neruda belonged, in order to present in May of that year a lawsuit that touched off the judicial investigation.

Judge Mario Carroza, of the Court of Appeals in Santiago, decided in February that it would be necessary to disinter the remains of the author of “Twenty Poems of Love and One Song of Despair”, to clarify the causes of his death. According to the official version, Neruda died in a private clinic in Santiago on September 23, 1973, twelve days after the coup d’état by Augusto Pinochet (who ruled from 1973 to 1990), due to cancer of the prostate gland, which he had suffered from for years.

However, Manuel Araya maintains that Neruda’s death was due to an injection he received that same day, on the eve of a trip that would have taken him to exile in Mexico, where he could have become a thorn in the side of the military government. Neruda “was a very dangerous figure for Pinochet, due to the international prestige he had,” said Araya, who now lives in the coastal town of San Antonio, a few kilometres from Isla Negra. The chauffeur asserts that the poet had accepted the refuge that Mexico offered after the coup, and that he was ready to travel there in order to actively involve himself in the political fight against the Pinochet régime.

Manuel Araya has criticized the forensic team chosen to participate in the exhumation, although others involved in the process discounted his observations. Araya contends that Judge Carroza “vetoed the team of experts proposed by the family of Pablo Neruda, represented by his nephew Rodolfo Reyes, and by the Communist Party, represented by Eduardo Contreras.”

However, Contreras indicated that he does not agree with this assertion, and that the Party will rely on the expert Gloria Ramírez during the exhumation, and on the neurologist and psychiatrist Luis Fornazzari, and the geneticist, Cristián Orrego during the examinations to come. The lawyer did, however, agree with Manuel Araya that the judge should have accepted, as per the Neruda family’s request, the presence of medical examiner Luis Ravanal, who became famous in 2008 for publishing an article on the 1973 death of Salvador Allende.

Before Neruda, other cadavers from the recent history of Chile have also been exhumed in the last two years to clarify the causes of their deaths.

In the case of Allende, in 2011, it was established that the president did indeed shoot himself during the bombing of the Moneda palace by the putschists. On the other hand, in the case of his former minister José Tohá, in 2012, analyses revealed that he did not commit suicide, but that he died at the hands of a third party, by strangling or hanging, when he was interned in the Military Hospital in Santiago in 1974.

But the situation that most resembles that of Neruda is that of former president Eduardo Frei Montalva, who died in 1982 in the same clinic, in Santa María, when he led an incipient opposition to the dictatorship. Over the years his death was attributed to septicemia, but in 2009 a judicial investigation established that he had been fatally poisoned.

In his official statement on the Neruda case, Judge Carroza mentioned that none of the three hospital centres where Neruda was treated during 1973 had kept their medical records, even though the law required them to be kept for 40 years. Also, “now there are doubts as to the real identity of the doctor who injected a drug (dipirona) into the poet, supposedly to relieve his pain that Sunday,” according to the lawyer, Eduardo Contreras.

“There are many contradictions in what happened in the clinic with Neruda so, at the least, we have legitimate doubts that he died of cancer,” the lawyer said. Initially, he explained, “it was thought that it was a doctor named Sergio Draper, but there are witnesses who say that Draper was not the one who injected him.

“It’s very strange that Draper started working at the clinic just three days before Neruda’s death. He has been linked for many years to the Military Hospital. He is also mentioned in the death of ex-president Frei in 1982, in the same clinic — due to a deliberate poisoning, as has been legally established,” said Contreras.

All these doubts will begin to resolve themselves on Monday, tomorrow, when, upon exhumation, the remains of Neruda will be transferred to a special laboratory at the headquarters of the Medico-Legal Service in Santiago, under constant surveillance by guards and cameras.

“There will be an anthropological and medical analysis. A biological profile will be constructed, and the condition of the remains will be examined. Samples will be taken for toxicological examinations,” said the director of the service, Patricio Bustos. They will look for signs of bone metastasis and possible toxic substances which will help to unravel a mystery which, as Eduardo Contreras says, could turn into a “blow to international memory”.

Determining the cause of death will be “a difficult task”, says Patricio Bustos, director of the Medico-Legal Service. “The samples have deteriorated over the years, but we are used to working in adverse conditions,” says Bustos, who underscored the constant disposition of the service to “search for the truth”.

Translation mine.

There has long been a hinky odor surrounding Neruda’s death. The timing alone is suspicious: Less than two weeks after Pinochet’s coup, a famous Communist critic of the general is suddenly dead? How fortuitous…for Pinochet.

Hinkier still is the fact that none of the hospitals that supposedly treated Neruda for prostate cancer have kept their records, even though Chilean law requires them to do just that, for at least 40 years. In the case of such a famous patient, one would imagine, the records would be kept indefinitely. Yet none exist. Even though not quite 40 years have passed since his death. Surely that’s illegal!

And the hinkitude is especially strong with the (again fortuitous, for Pinochet) death of Eduardo Frei, the former president who preceded Salvador Allende, who was overthrown and killed (I will never believe he truly committed suicide) in the coup. Just as Frei was about to spearhead a major opposition push against Pinochet in 1982, poof! Dead. At the hands of the same doctor who supposedly injected Neruda with a painkiller for his prostate cancer. A doctor who happens to be associated with a clandestine prison and torture centre of the Pinochet dictatorship, at that. And the cause of Frei’s death is known to be deliberate poisoning. Verdict: Murder.

Hinkiest of all is the fact that Neruda’s own chauffeur, Manuel Araya, steadfastly refuses to accept the official version of his employer’s death. Araya would have been aware of Neruda’s state of health, and probably much more so than most. He does not think the poet was terminally ill at the time, and seeing as Neruda was about to go into exile in Mexico, that means he would have been well enough to travel. In short, hardly at death’s door!

So, tomorrow, we will see whether Araya’s assertions (which I’ve blogged on here before) will be borne out by the experts. In the meantime, I’ll just leave you with a few lines of Neruda’s that I have always found to be poignant…and telling:

Pablo Neruda does not sing
The general’s verses.
He is too much of a poet
To see his people die
And survive it.

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if that refusal was what ultimately cost Neruda his life.

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Posted in Chile Sin Queso, Fascism Without Swastikas, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, Mexican Standoffs, She Blinded Me With Science, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | 3 Comments

Open letter to a friend who must go nameless

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Sabina Becker

It has recently come to my attention that another friend, a progressive blogger, has become the target of a cyberstalker. The culprit: you, her (former) collaborator.

Now, I should state in advance that I did not see the blog entries (she tells me there were two) in which you started blaming women and feminism for all your current problems. She deleted them because they were so ugly that she could have gotten into trouble with her supervisors at work.

But you, rather than understanding her legitimate concerns, decided to step up your attacks. Now, not content to blame women and feminists in general, you seem to have fixated on her in particular as the cause of all your woes. You have repeatedly blocked her on Twitter, only to harass her afresh under new handles, but with the same old bizarre accusations. I haven’t been on the tweeter myself that much lately, so I missed all that.

However, I have seen your latest entry on your own (formerly deleted, now resurrected) blog, in which you go on to trash her and claim that she’s the reason you’re mentally ill, you’ve gone through more than $100,000 of your savings, and you’re just a few thousand more away from landing on the street. You seem to think it’s her fault that you are sick, broke, and can’t get laid (your words). Or is it the fault of feminism? Either way, your barely coherent rant appalled me, and I will not link to it; in your shoes, I would delete it and refrain from blogging for the time being, as such defamatory rambling could only hurt you in your efforts to rebuild your life. That is why I am not addressing you here by name.

I don’t know what it’s like to lose $100,000 in savings, as I have never been able to accumulate anywhere near that much. I do, however, know what it’s like to be depressed. I’ve been lucky; thanks to good self-care and daily doses of Vitamin B complex, I haven’t had a relapse in nearly 20 years. If you cannot afford a shrink, at least spend a few dollars on vitamins; they can’t hurt you, and who knows how much they will help? All I know is that they lifted the pall from my own mind and enabled me to function fully as a human being again. Before that, I was much like you: paranoid, irrational, all too willing to blame everyone and everything else, and unable to take responsibility for myself. I couldn’t see past the end of my nose, and I was forever flailing about in a grey fog of pain and exhaustion. The things I did when I was sick still make me blanch with humiliation to this day, nearly 20 years after the fact. And I deeply regret the things I was not well enough to do, too.

That’s why I advise you, as your friend, to cease and desist from tweeting, blogging, and online ranting. Back when I was sick, I didn’t have recourse to any of those things, and it’s a good thing I didn’t; I could so easily have cyberstalked the former boyfriend who wronged me, too. I am grateful that it never came to that, because what with the ol’ Google Cache, those things could have come back forever to haunt me. Luckily, Google was not yet a “thing” back then.

You can ill afford to be sued for defamation of character, and should you find yourself in the position of applying for a job, the last thing you want is for your prospective employer to run an online search on you and find that you wrote all sorts of nasty, ugly things about a woman you wrongly blamed for all your woes while you were sick. I think you know that, since I’m told that you deleted your old blog, where you first started spewing these spurious accusations. In your shoes, I’d delete your new one too, since carrying on in the same vein is self-destructive and counter-productive.

If you are not seeing a psychologist already, start now. Write your thoughts in a paper journal, not a blog, so that there is no electronic record of your worst moments. Share this journal with your therapist if asked to do so. Use it to reorganize yourself and reorient yourself mentally, because if what our friend told me is true, you have gotten very badly disoriented.

As for what you said about feminism turning women into abusers, that is straight-up MRA bullshit and you ought to know it. You say you grew up as the only male in an otherwise all-female household; therefore, you have no excuses for spewing such a load of misogyny. Being the guy who grew up surrounded by women, and presumably more sensitive to their issues, does not excuse it. It means, on the contrary, that you, of all men, should know better than to go tarring women with a broad brush of blame.

So why did you do it, then? Because you had a bad female boss? Because you had a couple of them? Listen, my friend, so did I. I don’t blame feminism for them; I blame THEM for them. And I blame another ism, too: CAPITALISM, which rewards psychopathy in the ruling classes, particularly corporate bosses. Profit is not only unpaid wages that should accrue to the worker, it is the reward of corporate psychopathy; you know this, and I know this. I’ve also had some seriously dickish male bosses, for what this is worth. But you won’t hear me going off on a man-hating tangent because of them. I know that dickishness is a depressingly common trait of the boss class, not males in general. And dickishness, in this context, knows no gender.

Feminism is not your foe; it is your ally, and at this time, you are obviously in no fit state to realize it. After all, it is not about female supremacy, reverse sexism, or penis-bashing as you seem to think; it is plainly and simply about social equality, and human rights for all.

Right now you seem to feel that you have been denied a fair share of something; I’m not sure exactly what you expected, but you sound to me like you have jumped the rails of reason. I am not so much afraid OF you as FOR you. I worry that you might hurt yourself.

Assuming that one day you will be well enough to work again, and that the odds are roughly 50-50 that you will be working for a female employer, again, I advise you to delete that blog. It can only hurt your prospects, and it can only embarrass you when you are well enough to look back and regret the damage you have done. The fellow blogger at whom you have aimed your ire deserves better than that, and so do you.

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Nicolás Maduro denounces dirty tricks, assassination attempt

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Nicolás Maduro holds up evidence of a Salvadoran mercenary cell in Venezuela, complete with pictures of the individuals involved, the cars they drove, and where they met. He connects them to both a leading opposition party co-ordinator, and the US embassy in Caracas.

Well, that didn’t take long. If anyone thought the US State Dept. was through meddling with Venezuelan elections now that the man they hated most is dead, you can think again. They haven’t given up the old bag of dirty tricks; they’ve simply opened it up on a new man…the current (and soon to be duly elected) president of Venezuela:

The presidential candidate and current acting president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, made a denunciation during a meeting with residents of the state of Bolívar as part of his electoral campaign.

“We have found a group of Central American merceneries, co-ordinated with the right-wing in a Central American country and with a person close to the opposition, who are here to raise the homicide rates and scandalous crimes to exacerbate public fear. Their second objective is to go on sabotaging the electrical system.

“The third objective of these mercenaries is to kill me. They want to kill me because they know they wouldn’t win any free elections. Roger Noriega and Otto Reich and the Salvadoran right-wing have sent some assassins, paid by them, to kill me, and I denounce this to the world,” Maduro said.

“I won’t let them kill me, that’s for certain, but they won’t get me out of the streets,” Maduro continued, adding that “if anything happens to me, you know what to do.”

The PSUV candidate also informed that “a woman from the United States embassy held a meeting [for the purpose of] causing a massive blackout in Bolívar. She met with the co-ordinator of the Primero Justicia party, Wilson Castro.”

Translation mine.

Power blackouts are nothing new in Venezuela, and ever since Chavecito became president, they — and oil industry lockouts before that — have been an opposition sabotage strategy of choice. The reason? Simple: The opposition can then plausibly (or so they think) claim that the PSUV is “causing insecurity” or running things incompetently, and that the only way to get things back on track is to elect Capriles & Co. to privatize everything. (And if you think I’m joking, there’s another video of him here, taken in 1999, when he was still with the old conservative party COPEI — he’s now with Primero Justicia, the same party as Wilson Castro — in which he’s actually on record as saying that all Venezuelan state assets should be privatized. He also calls for the firing of half a million state employees, an idea which should go down like a load of bricks with the old AD/COPEI bureaucrats who occupy a lot of those jobs to this day!)

A few days ago, President Maduro ordered extra security precautions for the national electrical system. With the election now just one week away, things are getting tight, and anxieties are running high…and in Maduro’s case, there is good reason to fear for his life. He is, after all, Chavecito’s designated successor. If anything happened to him, the next in line, per the constitution, would be Diosdado Cabello, the National Assembly president, also of the PSUV. No doubt he too is watching his back…and the power grid…and the streets of all the major cities, very closely. Because the last thing Venezuela wants, at this juncture, is another snap election, another round of dirty State Dept. tricks…and another death of a popular leader.

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Posted in Huguito Chavecito, Isn't That Illegal?, Spooks, The Salvador Option(s), The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

Music for a Sunday: A tribute to Chavecito, in four times

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Sabina Becker

El Sistema, the Venezuelan national youth orchestra program, has put together a historic tribute to Chavecito’s life and times. Everything from the false democracy of the Punto Fijo pact (and its most disastrous outgrowth, the Caracazo), to the social missions and the sea of red that filled the streets during Chavecito’s last campaign, is in here. Enjoy!

And here is Roque Valero, the Venezuelan folk singer, performing on Friday in Maracay, on the Avenida Bolívar. The song is called “You can’t say goodbye to someone who hasn’t gone”:

Crank the volume for this one, the sound isn’t very loud.E

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Wankers of the Week: Kim Jong Uh-Oh

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! Oh, that Kim Jong-un…what a card. Ha, ha. Threatening Gringolandia with nuclear annihilation, dang. Guess Dennis Rodman didn’t get that “call me maybe” message to His Barackness fast enough. Pity. Anyway, if you think Kim Jong-un was the biggest buffoon this week, you’d be wrong, because there were plenty of others even bigger. MUCH bigger. And here they are, in no particular order:

1. Sue Fucking Everhart. Somehow, I can’t see many straight people taking advantage of same-sex marriage for tax and benefits reasons. If they wanted to do that, why not just fake-marry another straight person of the OPPOSITE sex, like so many people do already? Or…and this’ll blow your mind…how about a GAY person of the opposite sex? They marry “straight” like that all the time already. And none of you sex-obsessed right-wing wankhards ever seem to wonder how they fit THEIR genitals together…

2. John Fucking Baird. He’s embarrassed by some very good questions from a Jordanian reporter? That’s nothing. We’ve been embarrassed for quite some time already, as a nation, by his inept fuckeries on the international stage. And, trust me, my foreign friends…we can hardly wait to see his back lumber off into the sunset. Or a maximum-security prison. Preferably not on YOUR soil.

3. Paolo di Fucking Canio. When is a Nazi salute not a Nazi salute? When it’s done by an Italian fascist who’s not really an “ideological fascist”. Confused yet? I’m not. I say that if you’re not a fascist, you don’t go around giving fascist hand-snaps, unless you want your ass kicked by people who are NOT amused by your attempts to confuse. And if you ARE a fascist, you still don’t go around making that gesture…unless you want your fascist ass kicked by those to whom it is no better than a fuck-finger between the eyes.

4. Donald Fucking Wuerl. So, gays are supposed to “make room” for Catholic bigots who want to tell them how to live? And divorced Catholics on their second marriage, and people who can’t have kids, etc., etc.? Other way around, Pedophile Enabler. This is why you’re hemorrhaging members. It’s the intolerance, stupid!

5. Pat Fucking Robertson. Well, this is a new one on me. Patwa thinks God hands out miracles on the basis of education? Meaning, the stupider and less educated you are, the more miracles you get? Well, I suppose it looks that way. If you’re not terribly bright and don’t have much education, that is. And if you hand a lot of money to Patwa for “miracles” that never come.

6. Brian Fucking Cranford. While it pains me to wank-list a child, I think I’d better, just to show you what I meant in the entry above. This is what you REALLY get when you lack education, kiddies. Not miracles. Just homophobia, self-righteousness, and a Junior Fred Fucking Phelps who thinks God “called” him to be a professional bigot at an early age. And to tell gay people to die. On Easter Sunday. Yeah, God hands out miracles on the basis of an utter lack of a sense of irony, too.

7. Timothy Fucking Dolan. Back to #4 and pedophile enablers for a moment. Yeah, gay people are entitled to friendship; that’s why we fag-hags exist. We’re their friends. But we can’t marry them straight, and we don’t want to. We want to see them find their own perfect, lovely, GAY partners, and marry THEM. If they’re so inclined, that is. And if it’s legal…which, in any event, it SHOULD be.

8. Dave Fucking Agema, AGAIN. Woop woop woop woop! Sorry, that was my gaydar going off. It has a funny way of doing that around loud ‘n’ proud professional homophobes.

9. Kenneth Fucking Kurran. Yeah, that was a real brilliant move, using Craigslist to send clueless horny men to sexually harass your ex, instead of doing it yourself. I can’t imagine why she dumped you!

10. Matt Fucking Drudge. It doesn’t take much to April-Fool him, does it? No, it doesn’t! Ha, ha.

11. Patrick Fucking Brazeau. He tweeted that he’s resigning from the Senate…on April Fool’s Day. Ha, ha, very funny. Now make our day and do it for real, you fucking wanker.

12. Rand Fucking Paul. Quick…what are the tenets of libertarian foreign policy? Why, just the same old gringo imperialism as ever. Duh!

13. Paul Fucking Carr. Oh, the evils of social media…Teh Tweeter got the NYT to clean up its shitty lede! Horrors! A firestorm of…what? Oh, never mind. Yvonne Carr was a ROCKET SCIENTIST, and that is how the world should remember her. Her fabulous Beef Stroganoff may be what her family remember, but in the grand scheme of things, it is actually irrelevant. Kind of like Paul Fucking Carr, in other words. Yeah, it takes a brave man to adopt an oh-so-daring “post-feminist” stance and say that we’re now past all the bad stuff and it’s okay to go back to the good ol’ Feminine Mystique and celebrate women’s homemaking, maternity, etc., as their proudest achievements. And that this should go unchallenged by social media’s great unwashed. Kirche, Küche, Kinder über alles! And if you don’t see the sexism of that after fifty fucking years of Betty Friedan, try switching out the sexes. Of how many men is it trumpeted in their obituaries that they were great cooks, housekeepers, etc.? Unless they were Cordon Bleu chefs (like Julia Child!) or the concierges of grand hotels, the answer is NONE. Unless a man is being paid, and paid handsomely, to do those jobs, that’s all just women’s work. Not worthy of a man, in other words, but good for a posthumous pat on her head, to reassure the world that she did count for something after all. Just, you know, not what she was paid to do by those who value satellites holding their orbits.

14. Rick Fucking Santorum. Guess this was Icky Ricky Buttsploodge’s time to pull a Dan Quayle. Remember Murphy Brown and all the single mothers she allegedly spawned? Yeah, Will and Grace was what made same-sex marriage an issue. Meanwhile, my best friend and I were Will and Grace more than ten years before that show was even on the air. And my friend married his boyfriend in 1990…a full eight years before the show hit the airwaves, and 14 years before same-sex marriage became legal here in Canada, if you’re counting. OMG…that means my best friend and I were the REAL reason same-sex marriage became an issue! Oh gosh, I guess we opened a can of worms, didn’t we? Sorry, everybody!

15 and 16. Carl Fucking Ford and Harry Fucking Warren. What part of the First Amendment do teabaggers not understand? Oh, only ALL OF IT. And it seems they’re pretty shaky on the rest of the US constitution, too. And the Treaty of Tripoli, which clearly says that there is no state religion anywhere in the US of A. For that matter, they can’t even remember their own state’s laws and judicial rulings. Oops! Time to go back to school, guys, and learn some history and civics. If you really want to get out of the feds’ jurisdiction, why don’t you remember what you wingnuts were saying during the 1960s: “America, love it or leave it!”

17 and 18. Tuve Fucking Skånberg and Annelie Fucking Enochson. Got scary news for you, ladies: A third human sex already exists, and always has. And it has done so independent of all the physical gender transitions which medical science has made possible in the last century. It’s nothing new, it’s more common than most people realize, and it can’t be caused by leaving trans-people unsterilized. I just find it hilarious to hear this nonsense coming from Sweden, of all places, because that’s where the first fully transsexual women received their surgeries.

19. Ken Fucking Cuccinelli. Yes, the Cooch is back in the news. Yes, it’s another sex wank. And this time, he wants to make “gay” sex practices such as oral and anal sex illegal even for straight people to do. Even consensually. I can’t wait to hear how, as governor of Virginia (!), he plans to enforce that prohibition. Will there be HUAC-style witch-hunts in which Virginians are all mercilessly interrogated about how, when, where and with whom they’ve done what? Or will spy-eyes be planted outside every bedroom in the state? Details: the devil is in ’em.

20. Dudley Fucking Brown. There’s a time to utter death threats, and a time to shut the fuck up. You’ve done the former already. Now, do the latter. And hand over your gun, too, since you’re plainly not to be trusted with it.

21. Mike Fucking Pence. At a time when so many other states are legalizing pot, or getting ready to, Indiana is slipping back into the Dark Ages of Reefer Madness…and this goobernator is why. I’d ask what he’s smoking, but I think I already know.

22. Justin Fucking Bieber. Cruelty to animals? Yup. Taking a monkey away from its mother too soon is inexcusable. As is schlepping it around on tour. And as for what he named the poor little munk — the less said, the better.

23. Courtney Fucking Stodden. Shark: JUMPED. Also, EWWWWWWWW. PS: Are we absolutely certain that the gropey corpse in that picture isn’t in fact her husband?

24. Tyler Fucking Perry. For two reasons: Casting the world’s most wooden actress, Kim Fucking Kardashian (why? why?? why???), and for normalizing rape culture via the madonna/whore dichotomy. Sucky sexist clichés anyone? How many reasons do we need NOT to watch a movie?

25. Stephanie Fucking Starling. Somehow, it just seems strangely appropriate that someone grifting on a sugar-daddy site is a “proud Romney supporter”, too. Shit, why work when you can just extort some horny married bozo with more money than brains? And of course, being a proud Romney supporter, you just know she’s one of those hypocrites who turn around and tell other people to get jobs, other women not to be whores, etc., etc.

26. Reince Fucking Priebus. Nobody supports infanticide. Nobody said they supported it, either. Now, WHERE ARE THE FUCKING JOBS???

27. Jeremy Fucking Irons. Boring actor is a concern troll. Saying that gay marriage will suddenly make it okay for fathers to marry their own sons is like saying that straight marriage makes it already okay for fathers to marry their own daughters. Incest isn’t just illegal for heterosexuals, or because of breeding issues, or because of inheritance taxation; it’s illegal across the board, because it does real and lifelong psychological harm. And no, same sex marriage will NOT change that. PS: Ewwww. Well, then. I guess Mr. Irons won’t mind if I reach behind me and crack his nuts while he’s busy fondling my bum, eh?

28. Colin Fucking Craig. “Taxpayer” advocate is a racist prick masquerading as a crusader for the over-picked pocketbooks of poor, beleaguered rich whites. There is simply no other explanation for his bizarre antics and heckling of First Nations speakers.

29. Joe Fucking Oliver. Gotta hand it to Joe, he’s one helluva great recycler. Too bad that what he recycles is nothing more than figures pulled out of some bankster economist’s ass.

30. Michael Fucking Reagan. Blah blah blah GAY MARRIAGE blah blah POLYGAMY blah blah blah blah BESTIALITY blah blah blabbity blah blah MURDER blah blah blibbity-blabbity blah.

31. Keith Fucking Ablow. Again with the tired old polygamy trope! Listen, Ah-blow-me, we’ve had same sex marriage here in Canada for nearly a decade now, and I’m still single. That’s right: No harem of husbands. And no other Canadian woman has that, either. Know why? BECAUSE WE DIDN’T LEGALIZE POLYGAMY, YOU STUPID FUCK.

32. Sam Fucking Harris. Poor baby, wouldums like a hankie? Yes, dear, I know. It’s so harsh to be tripped up by your own stupid, bigoted words, isn’t it? Especially since they prove only one thing: that you militant atheists are just as dangerous, barbaric and disgusting as all the other militant religionists out there. You know, the ones you make a tidy cottage industry out of hatemongering and warmongering against?

33. Richard Fucking Allen. Oh dear, someone is STILL confused by the difference between Zionism and Judaism. And by the fact that Roger Waters isn’t an anti-Semite, he’s an anti-Zionist and an anti-apartheid rocker. And above all, by the fact that there are Jews out there who feel the same way about Israeli apartheid as Roger Waters does. LOTS of them.

34. Tony Fucking Merchant. Not only has he made unconscionable amounts of money off Native survivors of residential schools as their supposed legal advocate (spoiler: he’s in MAJOR trouble with the Law Society), he’s also been squirreling it away in the Crook — er, COOK — Islands. Sorry about that Freudian slip. (Ha, no, not really.)

35. Al Fucking Gerhart. Oklahoma was never very clean to begin with, and now it’s truly filthy, thanks to the local teabaggers and their smear tactics. But then again, feh — who cares about sustainability and the future? Not these guys. They’re all old farts fixin’ to die anyway. Shit, why should THEY worry?

36. Steven Fucking Ertelt. Actually, most women who’ve had abortions don’t regret them (they regret only becoming pregnant in the first place), and they also don’t come forward with sob stories about how much they regret “killing their babies”, as you so charmingly (and inaccurately) put it. They just quietly pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and get on with the business of life. Which, no doubt, is something you so-called pro-lifers would be only too happy to deny those uncorralled jezebels, if you only had your way. Which, thank Goddess, you never will.

37. Ronald Fucking Depellegrin. It’s bad enough that cops are busting hookers, and not the johns. But when the cops ARE the johns, that’s even worse. Worst of all is insisting on getting a BJ…before busting her. If that isn’t a slimeball tactic, I don’t know what is.

38. Barack Fucking Obama. Since when are attorneys-general hired on the basis of their looks? Since, oh, only NEVER. Would he have said this if Kamala Harris were a man? No…he’d be focused on the capabilities, which is as it should be in the case of any appointee, regardless of sex. PS: And for all those dudes who STILL don’t get it, here. READ.

39. Mark Fucking Zuckerberg. In an age of smartphones that can literally do just about everything but clean the kitchen sink, who’s going to shell out extra for one that only has one function — and such a lame one, at that? Facebook Phone FAIL.

40. Rick Fucking Ross. He wrote an ungrammatical song about drugging a woman’s champagne and then having sex with her, “and she [didn’t] even know it.” He perpetuated rape culture, and he didn’t even know it. Well, now he does know it. And his apology kinda-sorta sucks.

41. Robert Fucking Kirkman. Misogynist men generally have issues (read: PROBLEMS; read: SMALL DICKS) with strong women. That’s science.

42. Chris Fucking Matthews. Do women worry about domestic violence? Well, seeing as most of it happens to us and not dudes, I would have to go with a resounding DUH!!!

43 and 44. Brian Fucking Kilmeade and Steve Fucking Doocy. Why are these two brainless hacks being paid so much to tell people struggling on SUB-minimum wage pay (we’re talking RESTAURANTS here) to “get another job” when the one they work already has full-time hours and they’re dead on their feet? Tell ya what, guys, why don’t you do some real journalism for a change, and try living in waiters’ shoes. Take a full week off your regular cushy job and just wait tables in a restaurant, with hidden cameras tracking your efforts to work long hours, for shitty pay, on feet that are killing you, smiling and faking nice throughout. Better still, do what this young British journalist did and try living like a homeless person. You deserve that death more than he did.

45. Patti Fucking Burke. No, that is NOT a cross, nor is it a crown, much less a sign from God on your fucking goldfish cracker, lady. It is the impression of the head of a Phillips screw. And hard evidence, in case anyone needs it, of why I yell “Jesus H. Christ on a cracker!” when some idiot attaches superstitious meanings to snacks. (I’ll show myself out now.)

46. John Fucking Shearen. Florida’s current #1alleged distributor of kiddie porn looks…well, pretty much the way I expected him to. And since the police arrested him in flagrante, downloading more of the shit, he also BEHAVES pretty much the way I expected him to.

47. Roy Fucking Blunt. Why?

That’s why. Anywhere else in the world, that shit would be called by its right name: CORRUPTION. But in the US of Amnesia, it’s just Big Bidness, gettin’ its lobbying money’s worth.

48. John Fucking Boehner. Y’know, Boner, my mother always taught me to read things BEFORE throwing them out. Didn’t yours ever teach you anything? But look who I’m talking to. You’re a Repug! Manners are for the Little People. The ones who aren’t tanned and pickled in gin. Right?

49. Roxanne Fucking Jones. How nice it must be to live in a world where mindless casual sexism is a “compliment”, and if anyone doesn’t like it, that just means that bitches be jealous, and nothing more. Where do I find this bulletproof plastic bubble you speak of, and how do I get in?

50. Christopher Earl Fucking Strunk. Dude. Stop with the birther bullshit. You are wasting time and money on a bogus conspiracy with nothing at the bottom of it all. Pay your fine and go away. The long-form birth certificate has been released, and there is nothing more to see. You’re just making an even bigger ass of yourself than you already are.

And finally, to the crapaganda lamestream media. Why?

That’s why. You don’t report; you just make shit up and copy other made-up shit. And you wonder why nobody trusts you anymore? I think this might be a fucking clue. Here’s a hot story tip for you, not that you’re likely to use it: Go to the Cayman Islands. Or the Cook Islands. Or the British Virgin Islands, or the Channel Islands. Go to any little “offshore” country where there are lots of banks, no taxes, and governments who obligingly look the other way. There are literally billions of dollars’ worth of tax evasion still waiting to be reported there, and THAT is the real danger to global security. What capitalists do while the rest of the world sleeps will always be a bigger scandal than something some little commie dude in North Korea supposedly said (and actually, DID NOT say.)

Good night, and get fucked!

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Festive Left Friday Blogging: St. Chavecito?

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Sabina Becker

chavecito-rules

While I’m sure the above cartoon was meant to be satire, and not of a very kindly sort (edit: I now have confirmation that the artist is, in fact, an escualido), it still underscores one very true thing: Chavecito’s one of the good guys. And even in death, the people who love him are paying him the kind of homage usually reserved for churchly saints:

There’s a line of visitors coming from the Cuartel de la Montaña, the chants and prayers don’t stop until nightfall, and the recently erected chapel to “St. Hugo Chávez” now looks small next to the flood of offerings and flowers for the late Venezuelan president.

“Last night, at 1:30 a.m., we couldn’t close the chapel because there were still people praying,” explained Elisabeth Torres, who is in charge of tending this improvised cult site in the Caracas neighborhood of 23 de Enero, where Chávez’s body lies.

The precarious blue chapel, of wood and with a corrugated tin roof, is full of photographs of the president, who died on March 5, and bouquets of flowers, candles, and pictures of saints. “You were, are, and will be our giant in eternity. We love you always,” reads a bust of Chávez situated below a crucifix.

A few metres from the tomb of the “Supreme Comandante of the Bolivarian Revolution”, the devotion of his followers knows no limits.

“I’ve come to give thanks. Chávez didn’t give me anything material because I didn’t need it, but he filled me with hope. And now I feel such terrible pain and loss,” said Belkys Rivera, a Caracas lawyer, in tears.

“He was almost like a second Simón Bolívar and in time, Chávez could end up on altars, along with María Lionza, El Negro Primero, and the Indian, Guaicaipuro. Although I don’t believe that will be at all good,” admits Felipe Zamora, another visitor, citing the principal figures of Venezuelan santería.

But the mythification of Chávez is in progress. One of the latest examples is the video shown on Vive TV, a state-owned channel, which shows Chávez arriving in paradise, where he is received by Bolívar, Guaicaipuro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and the late Chilean president, Salvador Allende.

People come from far away to “see Chávez”. In the line which goes on and on just to see the tomb for a few seconds, there are Venezuelans from cities as far away as Maracaibo, Puerto La Cruz or Cumaná, as well as Chinese, Swiss, Colombian and Spanish visitors. “We decided to come see the tomb of this man who did so much for the people, above all for the most forgotten,” says Lesbia Torres, who came from Riohacha, in northern Colombia.

Since it became the final resting place for Chávez, the routine of this humble barrio, traditionally leftist and most recently Chavista, has changed, and so has its face. Its streets are cleaner and safer, the military presence has grown, and there are dozens of pictures of the late president.

In the 23 de Enero neighborhood, from which Chávez launched his attempted uprising in 1992 from the same barracks where he now lies, where he voted in every election and where he was received as a hero every time he went on walkabout, it’s hard to find a resident who openly claims not to support the revolution.

In the presidential elections of October 2012, Chávez got 63% of the votes in 23 de Enero, while his opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, got 32%.

“I’m not a Chavista. I don’t say that very loudly because these people wouldn’t understand,” admits Thomas Schmidt, a Swiss resident of Venezuela. “I’ve come here because this devotion of the people, to whom Chávez never died at all, is almost an object of study.”

The speeches of Chávez are faithfully reproduced for those who wait to visit his tomb. Words such as anti-imperialism, struggle against the bourgeoisie, independence or socialism are often repeated during the long wait.

“Chavecito is everything for me. He gave us independence, he gave us back what other governments took away, and made us understand that we all have the same rights,” said Marina Ferreira, a Spaniard living in Caracas, very emotionally.

A few metres away, they are celebrating an open-air mass in tribute to Chávez, as occurs almost every day. Without fail, the loudspeakers fill the air with revolutionary songs, some sung by Chávez himself.

From the doorway of his house, Armando Robles impassively contemplates the hustle and bustle. Born in 23 de Enero 71 years ago, he lives just metres from the most famous barracks in Venezuela and may be one of the few locals who haven’t yet visited the tomb of Chávez.

“I prefer to remember him like this,” he says, showing a framed photo of the late president, in which the latter appears smiling in the doorway of Robles’ house, on one of his visits to the Cuartel de la Montaña.

Translation mine.

I won’t bother to translate the pious stupidities from the comments section, which basically accuse these reverent visitors of “idolatry”. In any case, that charge is false, since idolatry is, by definition, the worship of a graven image, not a deity or saint or even an exceptional human being (which Chavecito most assuredly is). And who is silly enough to worship mere pictures? NOBODY. Not even the poorest and least educated Venezuelan. Not even the children. What they are revering, in the Cuartel de la Montaña and the little improvised shrine next door, amid the flowers and candles and saints’ pictures and other offerings, is not a statue or a portrait; it is a popular president who gave them his all, and who got the ball of irrevocable change rolling after decades of stagnation and despair and false “democracy”. In a land which suffered so much oppression for so long, a little saint-like reverence for a leader who actually brought democratic change, rather than merely promising it, is surely not idolatry.

And as a pagan myself, I find it more than appropriate, to be honest, since we pagans worship what is real: the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, Nature and all Her spirits…and occasionally, the odd worthy and memorable human being, too. Chavecito is surely one of those. And so are all his “sainted” friends in this other little cartoon of his imagined afterlife: