Dear Friend,
Evo angered the Empire as the former guerrilla fighter was moving ahead with his project to improve lives of the poor, a move exploiters hate, and the Empire is the empire of the exploited. Therefore, the ill-famed OAS – the Organization of American States – stepped-in in the internal affairs of Bolivia. Without any factual evidence it expressed its hunch – there’s irregularity in the recently concluded presidential election. Its conspiracy was half-complete. Only days ago, the Washington DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research published a statistical analysis of the vote count of Bolivian presidential election. The analysis shows no signs of fraud or irregularities. But, the OAS is the judge in Bolivia. Theirs is the “final verdict”.
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Evo’s “crime”: Bretton Woods bosses were kicked out of Bolivia
by Farooque Chowdhury
Evo angered the Empire as the former guerrilla fighter was moving ahead with his project to improve lives of the poor, a move exploiters hate, and the Empire is the empire of the exploited. Therefore, the ill-famed OAS – the Organization of American States – stepped-in in the internal affairs of Bolivia. Without any factual evidence it expressed its hunch – there’s irregularity in the recently concluded presidential election. Its conspiracy was half-complete. Only days ago, the Washington DC-based Center for Economic and Policy
Research published a statistical analysis of the vote count of Bolivian presidential election. The analysis shows no signs of fraud or irregularities. But, the OAS is the judge in Bolivia. Theirs is the “final verdict”.
While Empire-blessed dirty dictators, notorious for murdering and looting, survive, Evo Morales, the socialist leader forced out of presidency by an Empire-engineered coup in Bolivia, had to take political asylum as his physical security was threatened in Bolivia. The Empire-fed bloodhounds are after Evo. Even, he was denied airspace for his safe air transit to Mexico, his place of political asylum.
This people’s fighter, rare today as he was virtually stranded on an aeroplane, is a “hurdle” to the Empire’s “democracy”-design. Why? Evo explained the reasons.
Evo was speaking from Mexico on Wednesday. The exiled President said: Bolivian economy freed itself from the International Monetary Fund, one of the Bretton Woods bosses.
Since the Bolivian economy freed itself from those bosses, the economy was doing better.
He informed: We had big plans for exports.
The Empire likes exports from other lands if the “participation” in the world market helps its interest; and the Empire dislikes an export from other lands if the stride hurts its interest. With Evo’s leadership, Bolivia was striding tenaciously to reap from exports for its people, the commoners, the ignored.
Evo angered the Empire as the former guerrilla fighter was moving ahead with his project to improve lives of the poor, a move exploiters hate, and the Empire is the empire of the exploited.
Therefore, the ill-famed OAS – the Organization of American States – stepped-in in the internal affairs of Bolivia. Without any factual evidence it expressed its hunch – there’s irregularity in the recently concluded presidential election. Its conspiracy was half-complete.
However, the OAS and the empire-paid persons failed to question the elections to the legislative assemblies.
The legislative assemble now questions legality of the coup. It’s a thorn now on the path of the coup-roaders.
The OAS has loved to forget the ballot-paper controversy in the US – the presidential election result decided by judges in the state machine after holes in ballot papers were examined. The holes were named depending on type of hole that included “dimple”. The result was denied to Al Gore, and handed over to a member of the Bush family. Voters’ voice denied, “justice” upheld!
Evo, based on history, has rightly said in Mexico: The OAS is “in the service of the North American empire. The OAS is not at the service of the Latin American peoples and less of its social movements. It is at the service of the US Empire.” He categorically said that the OAS has contributed to this political crisis.
Maduro, the President of Venezuela, on another occasion, identified the OAS as the “US Ministry of Colonies”. The OAS is actually that instrument.
The OAS is nothing but one of many tools to implement the archaic, centuries-old, imperialist doctrine concerning the hemisphere – the Monroe Doctrine – and its corollary. While modifying the doctrine, US president Polk unilaterally announced in 1845: “The people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own fate.” Which continent, Mr. president? There’re two continents; Latin America is not in the continent the US sits on; and opposing European empires doesn’t give any country in the North to claim representation of the people of the two continents – the Americas. In 1904, Theodore Roosevelt, another US President, rightly admitted: the USA was “an international police power” for the American continent. He made the same mistake – considering the two continents as single. However, he said the fact: Police power. In 1912, US Senator Lodge’s resolution in the US Congress extended the said doctrine to non-European powers.
Countries and people paid for the doctrine designed in the face of imperialist rivalry; and now, Bolivia is bleeding with the imperialist right.
Evo said that the OAS position is a political decision as there was no factual evidence of irregularity.
Only days ago, the Washington DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research published a statistical analysis of the vote count of Bolivian presidential election. The analysis shows no signs of fraud or irregularities.
But, the OAS is the judge in Bolivia. Theirs is the “final verdict”.
Evo told about Ms. Jeanine Anez, the rightist-lady usurping the Bolivian presidency. She is a rightist lady, not the symbol of women empowerment. Evo presented his argument: The move for the presidency only confirmed that he was pushed out of office in a coup.
Evo’s position is clear. He is not for violence. The Bolivian leader has called for national dialogue.
Shall the NED and IRI, the now-well-identified imperialist tools for organizing and carrying on low-intensity conflict (LIC) although these orgs identify them as “democracy-development” organizations, issue their sermon on these current “democratic” practices in Bolivia? [Anyone in any country including Bangladesh can and should check funding of these “democracy”-development organizations.]
Evo has identified his “crime”: “It’s a class problem”, he said.
The democracy Evo and the people in Bolivia were struggling for was not for the rich, the aristocracy, the exploiters. That democracy was widening avenues for people’s participation in areas related to their life. That was against the desire and liking of the rich. It’s a class question; not the question of number of businessmen in any parliament as non-businessmen in any parliament tied to exploiting capital also uphold exploiting capital’s interests. Interest doesn’t depend on number of persons or members in any parliament, which is wrongly identified by some quarters in the left camp in countries including Bangladesh.
Evo’s was the way of transparency, an essential element to make democracy work. The exploiters don’t like transparency as transparency exposes their appropriation-loot-theft; transparency helps question those “noble” acts. Transparency is one of many ways to install democracy for the people.
The Bolivian leader said in his Mexico press conference: The coup plotters “do not accept the nationalization of natural resources.”
The coup plotters’ job is to occupy and loot the natural resources. It’s the universal practice of exploiters in all lands. Evo stood against these looters. So, there’s his “crime”. So, overthrow Evo. That’s imperialist argument.
Conspiracies against Evo are not new. There was one helicopter incident – having mechanical fault in the tail rotor – in early-November, which Evo identified as “not accidental”. Latin America is “well-experienced” with such “accidents”. Leaders trying to move away from the Empire’s sphere or opposing the Empire encountered similar “accidents”, and some of them lost life – a lesson for all in all countries in all regions including South Asia angering the Empire.
Evo Morales has expressed his confident hope: We’ll return, with more energy.
The reality supports Evo’s hope: There’s political crisis in Bolivia, there’s political vacuum in Bolivia. The exploiting camp, the Guaido and Bolsonaro of Bolivia, have no clear political program and clearly charted political path. The parliament failed to meet. The person usurping the presidency – Ms. Anez – had to declare herself president as there was no quorum in the parliament. The parliament failed to process legal measures with Evo’s and his comrades’ resignations. These developments still make Evo the President of Bolivia.
Legal hurdles the conspirators are and will be facing are high and hard, thus. Those hurdles are not easy to throw aside. If the exploiting camp smashes those hurdles with gun-power, they will delegitimize them, and expose their master’s – the Empire – and their cohorts’ – the NED and IRI, the LIC organizations, the NGOs funded by the LIC-organizations, and the “great and always correct” MSM. The MSM don’t report these facts and developments – a show of “trust-worthy and dignified” character of the MSM. A quarter have unquestioned trust and respect on the MSM.
The coup-plotters met in a La Paz building, which was once of a bank! Wasn’t that a proper place for them? They were all right wingers. The elected Senators from Evo’s camp were not allowed to enter the building. The Senators had to face police brutality.
Even, Adriana Salvatierra, Senator and First President of the Senate, who under the Constitution is next in presidential succession line, was not allowed to enter the meeting. Rather police assaulted her. Salvatierra said she is willing to install the parliamentary session and assume the presidency of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. But, she was denied.
This shows the coup organizers’ limit of power – conspiratorial, hidden, behind the public eye. Democracy is not developed behind public eye, is not developed with police power. In today’s world, right-wingers are not co-travelers in democracy journey, in no country. Rather, right-wingers in all colors and forms are to be discarded in endeavors for democracy. Countries experiencing the right’s rise support this claim. The right is destroying democracy.
And, there are the people in Bolivia; a major part of the people is now politically mobilized. Coca leaf farmers have declared themselves in mobilization until Evo returns. There are the unions standing for Evo. Peasants, labor and social organizations are demanding cessation of further violation of constitution. They are demanding not to initiate legislative process for approving the unconstitutional move – the coup. The rightists have already violated the constitution.
Argentina’s President-elect Alberto Fernandez has rightly questioned the move as he said: “There was an Army chief who asked for the resignation of a President and a Police that mutinied.” He said that this fact is “called a coup d’état anywhere in the world.”
The NED, the IRI, the OAS don’t see these constitutional violations. These democracy-sepoys don’t hear demands from the grassroots. This is their democracy-design. They can ignore these now. But, the more these information reach audience the more these master-organizations will lose credibility and acceptability.
People’s mobilization makes political conflict direct. The more people mobilized for their cause the more people proceed with their political struggle. Moreover conspiracies by the LIC organizations, mobilization of thugs by these organizations, coercion, force, dynamite used by these thugs, as in the case of Venezuelan embassy in La Paz, have no power to resolve conflict with a politically mobilized people.
This people in Bolivia have already gained experience of being empowered. Many of them have got out of the clutch of poverty by Evo’s economic measures. This people have already gained the sense of dignity.
Therefore, this people’s next move will be bolder than ever. Already, La Paz, the Bolivian capital city, is witnessing protest marches with thousands of people joining the demonstrations. “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” the Bolivian farmers and workers shouted as Bolivian Air Force planes were circling threateningly over the peasants’ and workers’ massive demonstration in La Paz. It’s today’s Bolivia, not the 1967’s-Bolivia, the year the Empire paid-murderers hounded Che’s blood.
Farooque Chowdhury writes from Dhaka.
Bolivians protest self-declared “interim president” and police tear gas thousands of Evo Morales supporters
by Countercurrents Collective
Thousands of supporters of deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales gathered in La Paz, the Bolivian capital city, to demand the resignation of self-declared “interim” leader Jeanine Anez. Riot police squared off the protesters during street clashes. Thousands of Bolivians are demonstrating against the coup, which was orchestrated by opposition leaders Luis Fernando Camacho and Carlos Mesa and supported by the country’s armed forces and police.
Thousands of supporters of deposed Bolivian President Evo Morales gathered in La Paz, the Bolivian capital city, to demand the resignation of self-declared “interim” leader Jeanine Anez.
Riot police squared off the protesters during street clashes.
Thousands of Bolivians are demonstrating against the coup, which was orchestrated by opposition leaders Luis Fernando Camacho and Carlos Mesa and supported by the country’s armed forces and police.
The new Military High Command, the commander in chief, Carlos Orellana Centellas; Pablo Arturo Guerra; Ivan Inchauste; Orlando Álvarez and Moisés Mejía Heredia, swear in the new position Wednesday, at Palacio Quemado, in La Paz. Photo: EFE
Flying national and indigenous flags and chanting pro-Morales slogans, the protest marchers met a forceful police response in Bolivia’s administrative capital on Wednesday, facing down volleys of tear gas from armored security forces.
The demonstrators, led by indigenous militia group Ponchos Rojos, were heading toward the presidential palace in downtown La Paz before the clashes broke out.
The protesters responded the police tear gas shells with rocks and other improvised projectiles.
The mainstream media (MSM) have not reported the street protests and clashes on the La Paz streets.
Following Evo Morales’ forced resignation and flight from Bolivia for political asylum in Mexico earlier this week, opposition Senator Jeanine Anez declared herself “interim president”.
While right wing opposition lawmakers argued Anez’s declaration was valid under the Bolivian constitution, the ousted president’s Movement for Socialism Party, in Spanish, Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) slammed the move as illegal and boycotted the legislature.
Evo Morales resigned under pressure from top military officials after weeks of opposition protests over the result of October’s presidential election, in which the opposition, and U.S.-based Organization for American States (OAS), alleged “irregularities”, the claim not supported by any fact.
Washington and its partners in the OAS have hailed the socialist leader’s ouster as a triumph for democracy, though it did little to quell the unrest in Bolivia.
A Reuters report headlined “Morales’ shadow looms large in Bolivia as clashes test new leader”, from La Paz, said:
Bolivian security forces clashed on the streets of La Paz with supporters of unseated president Evo Morales on Wednesday, firing tear gas to clear the protesters.
Supporters of Evo Morales carrying colorful flags and banners marched in the capital while his party’s lawmakers looked to unseat Jeanine Anez.
Anez, 52, said she wanted elections as soon as possible and denied a coup had taken place against leftist leader and newly-exiled Morales, who hinted he could return to Bolivia.
Anez, who has already overhauled some of Morales’ policies, faces a challenge from lawmakers of Morales’ MAS, who have a majority in parliament and have threatened a rival session to nullify her presidency.
Police also fired tear gas in the city center to break up crowds after thousands of Morales supporters marched into La Paz from nearby El Alto, many carrying the colorful “Wiphala” flags of regional indigenous groups.
Many previously marginalized indigenous groups saw their power and affluence rise significantly under Morales, a former coca grower who was Bolivia’s first indigenous president.
Bolivia’s Attorney General says there have been at least seven fatalities in the 23 days of conflict, including in the cities of La Paz, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba.
People in La Paz were split on Anez. “She does not represent the people, but the big elites, the society that has money but does not represent the poor,” said bread seller Ruth Moscoso.
At the government palace, where Anez later unveiled her core team of ministers, she said she planned to call elections “in the shortest possible time.”
Britain Brazil Colombia congratulate Anez
Conservative-led Brazil, Colombia and Britain congratulated Anez.
A U.S. official said Washington would “look forward to working with her and Bolivia’s other civilian authorities as they arrange free and fair elections as soon as possible.”
Anez recognizes Guaido
The Reuters report said:
The religious conservative arrived to take on her new role carrying a bible in a symbolic break from indigenous leader Morales. She has already recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido over Morales ally President Nicolas Maduro.
Morales’ loyalists say the move by Anez to declare herself president was illegal because Congress did not formally accept Morales’ resignation, and tried to hold a counter meeting on Wednesday.
Workers Council’s deadline
The deadline given by the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) to restore democracy has expired on Wednesday, amidst a illegal presidential succession that cannot be easily consolidated because it was carried out by breaking several legal procedures.
For instance, with the intention of legitimizing an act of succession that occurred without the legally required quorum, Anez cited article 170 of the Bolivian Constitution according to which the President can be dismissed from his duties in case of death, resignation, absence or definitive impediment.
If this politically driven interpretation of the constitutional text does not achieve greater support among citizens, however, the COB could initiate an indefinite strike.
Police attacks Senate’s President
Adriana Salvatierra, the legitimate President of the Senate, was violently assaulted by the police as she was trying to enter the Senate on Wednesday in order to comply with the constitutional rule that automatically proclaims the head of the upper chamber the Interim President when the President steps down, after Evo Morales was forced to resign on Sunday.
In a press conference that followed the attack, Salvatierra told reporters that she was ready to open the parliament session and assume the presidency of the Plurinational State of Bolivia as mandated by law.
“After the attack, we can observe that we have no guarantee for us to fulfill our legislative mandate,” she said from her office at the Legislative Assembly in La Paz, as she suffers from minor injuries from the attack.
She recalled that ousted President Evo Morales’s instructions were very clear about avoiding violence and clashes between supporters and opponents of the socialist party.
She lamented the violence of the attack by security forces and condemned the radicalization growing across the country, after Morales’ resignation left a political vacuum that the conservative opposition was quick to fill.
On Tuesday, opposition Senator Jeanine Anez declared herself president of Bolivia.
However, she made the move without meeting with the constitutional requirements, as the Parliament did not reach the legal quorum since the lawmakers of the MAS, who represent the majority in Congress, could not attend the session due to a lack of guarantees for their security.
The Reuters report said:
Large numbers of police around the central Plaza Murillo in La Paz appeared to block MAS lawmakers, including former Senate head Adriana Salvatierra, from entering the government building.
Salvatierra had resigned publicly but said on Wednesday that her resignation letter had not been formally accepted. “I’m still a senator,” Salvatierra told journalists.
Legitimize coup: 4,000 twitter accounts created
With hashtags such as #EvoAsesino, #EvoDictador or #EvoEsFraude, the messages of these accounts denounced that the first indigenous president is a corrupt and accused him of having “stolen” the October elections, as well as celebrating the presidency of Jeanine Anez and declaring that the coup finally led to “democracy and freedom” to the Bolivian people. Photo: Pagina 12
It’s becoming more and more clear the role of social media as yet another political party able to legitimize or remove any Government, especially through social networks.
A few days after the consummated coup against Bolivian President Evo Morales, there have been more than 4500 new Twitter accounts created, without almost any followers, with the hashtag #BoliviaNoHayGolpe installed. The exact number, up to preparing this report, was 4,492.
Luciano Galup, director of the Menta Communication consultancy, was the one who announced that there were thousands of messages against the figure of Evo Morales from accounts almost without followers.
He acknowledged that as a result of an effervescent society, which in the face of a crisis may want to participate in the debate, some of these accounts could, in fact, be genuine.
Galup expressed that the majority had been created to install a sense of democratic disruption in Bolivia worldwide.
“These types of coordinated actions do not have much impact on domestic politics. A Trending Topic has no effectiveness on people who live those experiences and occupy those territories. But worldwide they can function as propaganda,” Galup explained to Argentinean media outlet Pagina 12.
For the analyst, the campaign in networks against Evo aims to legitimize the coup and wash the face of the incoming illegitimate government. “Dictatorships and coups need to legitimize themselves against the concert of nations because there may be sanctions. It works like a foreign policy, not a domestic one,” he said.
Since Sunday the images illustrating the coup in Bolivia have flooded the Internet: Evo announcing his resignation to avoid an escalation of violence, Fernando Camacho entering Palacio Quemado with a bible and a rosary, fires and looting of the houses belonging to the leaders of the MAS, mobilizations in the streets for and against of the coup, senator Jeanine Anez demanding the Armed Forces to intervene to “prevent a bloodshed”, Peru preventing the plane that took Evo to Mexico from flying over its territory, prisoners rioted in the most important prison in La Paz.
“When countries acquire relevance from their conflicts, their meaning is disputed at the global level. The Bolivian case is particular because it has the characteristics of a traditional coup d’etat, with the Armed Forces asking a president to resign, so it has a lack of legitimacy of origin that forces it to have to defend what is happening internationally,” Galup explained.
With hashtags such as #EvoAsesino, #EvoDictador or #EvoEsFraude, the messages of these accounts denounced that the first indigenous president is a corrupt and accused him of having “stolen” the October elections, as well as celebrating the presidency of Jeanine Anez and declaring that the coup finally led to “democracy and freedom” to the Bolivian people.
Argentina’s Congress to discuss text rejecting coup in Bolivia
Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies and Senate was scheduled to hold sessions in which lawmakers will urge President Mauricio Macri to reject the coup against Evo Morales, demand the restitution of the constitutional order, condemn human rights violations and provide asylum to deposed officials.
“As Argentineans who have a deep tradition of peace and respect for the people’s will, we urge the executive power to speak out against the civic-military coup which has interrupted the democratic and constitutional order,” says the draft text that will be discussed.
On Tuesday, lawmakers from Victory Front (FPV), Renovator Front (FR), Network for Argentina, Evita Movement, We Are (Somos), Left and Workers Front (FIT), and Republican Proposal (PRO) presented five draft texts related to the political situation in Bolivia.
Among these are pronouncements to halt the coup and the interference of the army, appeal to the restoration of democracy, and reject systematic human rights violations.
The calls in both houses of the Parliament were motivated by the silence that the Macri administration has maintained so far with regard to the Bolivian events, which Argentinean lawmakers have described as “intolerable facts which cannot be accepted under any circumstances or with any excuse.”
Business as Usual: Evo
Morales and the Coup Condition
by Dr Binoy Kampmark
There is an inherent bestiality in the politics of the Americas that signals coup, assassination and disruption. No state is ever allowed to go through what is weakly called a transition, except over corpses, tortures and morgues. When a social experiment is conducted, rulers must ensure their wills are well inked ahead of time. Opponents, often funded and sponsored by external powers with an umbilical chord to Washington, lie in wait, hoping for an unequal status quo.
There is an inherent bestiality in the politics of the Americas that signals coup, assassination and disruption. No state is ever allowed to go through what is weakly called a transition, except over corpses, tortures and morgues. When a social experiment is conducted, rulers must ensure their wills are well inked ahead of time. Opponents, often funded and sponsored by external powers with an umbilical chord to Washington, lie in wait, hoping for an unequal status quo.
Evo Morales is no winged angel and much can be said about him getting drunk with power over the course of 14 years. He lost a February 2016 referendum on the subject of indefinite presidential re-elections by a slight majority. It took the October 20 election result, dismissed by his opponents as fraudulent, to galvanise the movement against him. The Organization of American States (OAS) decided to weigh in on the subject, claiming in its audit that the result could not be deemed accurate.
During his time in office, he did a certain bit of enlightening that cannot go past the economists and demographers. Even Time magazine had to concede that, as the country’s first indigenous head-of-state, “he oversaw an economic boom, a massive reduction in poverty and strides in social equality, earning him high approval ratings and three consecutive election wins.” But the social changers are always bound for the chop, their heads placed upon some platform for removal by those with deep pockets, corporate sponsorship and the tutored thugs from the School of the Americas.
The Morales exit would be described as a coup in most languages. Generals appearing on television demanding the removal of a civilian head of state would suggest as much. On Sunday, the calls were becoming particularly loud. In a short time, Morales was on a plane to Cochabamba, adding his name to the chocked bibliography of coups that South America is renown for. (The last was the military ousting in 2009 of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.)
But he who manufactures the press releases and opinion columns manufactures reality. As Alan Macleod in Jacobin points out, various US outlets had little interest, nor stomach, for the term. Morales had “resigned” according to the ABC. The New York Times drew attention to an “infuriated population” incensed by his efforts at “undermining democracy” while also noting the term resignation. Both Morales and his vice president, Álvaro García Linera “admitted no wrongdoing and instead insisted that they were victims of a coup.”
Any legitimacy on the part of Morales’s position in office was dismissed by the acceptance on the part of such networks as CNN that there were “accusations of election fraud”. CBS News accepted it as a point of record. This particular tendency repeats instances of coverage in other elections – take the re-election of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro in 2018 as a case in point. Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez expressed little doubt about the credibility of that result as did dozens of foreign electoral observers. “It is an advanced automatic voting system.” But why bother about international observers when removing an irritating leftist leader is so much more fun?
Other states also showed various shades of enthusiasm for the removal. Brazil’s government, despite taking heart at the forced departure of the Bolivian leader, played the no coup card. Given that Brazil was to host the governments of Russia, India, China and South Africa, it paid to be a bit cautious. The foreign minister Ernesto Araújo wanted to get his opinions out of the way prior to the arrival of any Evo enthusiasts, suggesting that Morales had engaged in “massive electoral fraud”. It followed that, “There was no coup in Bolivia.”
Corporate America, soundly and boisterously perched at the Wall Street Journal, suggested a “democratic breakout in Bolivia”, a truly risible proposition given that corporations are distinctly anti-democratic by nature. But there was concern: “Eva Morales resigns but he’ll use the Cuba-Chávez playbook to return.” The key to ensure the country’s “immediate future” depended, in no small part, “on its ability to hold new elections and reinstate a legitimate government.”
US policy wonks and officials were merry. “These events,” went a statement from the White House, “send strong signals to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail.” Even, it would seem, at the end of a gun barrel sported by the officer class. As ever, the concept of “the people” lacks meaning in such pronouncements, given the innumerable attempts on the part of Washington to destroy that very will throughout Latin America.
A dark note is struck in the linking of both people and the military, with the uniformed gatekeepers praised for their calm in protecting that fetish long revered in US circles. “The United States applauds the Bolivian people for demanding freedom and the Bolivian military for abiding by its oath to protect not just a single person, but Bolivia’s constitution.” All efforts at social reform, improving literacy and uplifting programs become the stuff of a deluded maniac who, for 14 years, ignored the “will of the people” and usurped legal strictures.
The Bolivian order was always going to be vulnerable. But as with other states strangled by the policies of austerity imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the savage dogma of privatisation, the mania with the balanced budget at the expense of poverty eradication, and a distinct lack of interest in social improvement, Bolivia found, for a time, efforts to improve its lot. Across the Americas, a trend of reversal is in evidence, and the departure of Morales is its testament.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
Extrapolating 11,000 Scientists’ Climate Emergency Warning To 2030 Catastrophe
by Dr Gideon Polya
Over 11,000 scientists have signed up to a World scientists’ warning of a Climate Emergency that sets out trends in 24 climate-related areas over the last
40 years. Scientists became aware of the climate change threat from greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in the 1980s, but in 23 of these 24 areas the trends are (a) huge, (b) in the wrong direction, and (c) linear or quasi-linear functions of time , with this allowing extrapolation from the present climate emergency to a climate catastrophe in 2030.
A Lesson for the Palestinian Leadership: Real Reasons behind Israel’s Arrest and Release of Labadi, Mi’ri
by Dr Ramzy Baroud
The release on November 6 of two Jordanian nationals, Heba al-Labadi and Abdul Rahman Mi’ri from Israeli prisons was a bittersweet moment. The pair were finally reunited with their families after harrowing experiences in Israel. Sadly, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are still denied their freedom, still subjected to all sorts of hardships at the hands of their Israeli
jailers.
Abandoning Jakarta, Moving Capital To Borneo – Cynicism, Corruption, Murder
by Andre Vltchek
It is wrong, totally wrong to abandon Jakarta and try to build some Potemkin village in the middle of Borneo, an island known in Indonesia as Kalimantan. There are many reasons why, and we will be addressing at least some of them here.
Winning The Land, Losing The Country
by Satya Sagar
The pseudo-Ram Bhakts, who are celebrating the Supreme Court judgment in their favour, should realize that while they have gained their petty 2.7 acres in the heart of Uttar Pradesh–this also the time they may well have lost the rest of India forever.
The Verdict for A Common Future
by K P Sasi
For the future evolution of a civilised
society which functions with peace, justice and harmony, it is crucial that we look into the above argument very seriously. For the total statistical number’ of the marginalised identities in India is certainly much higher than the non-marginalised identities.
Congress And BJP Have Triumphed Over Ayodhya
by Haider Abbas
Congress party devious complicity in the demolition of Babri Masjid, on Dec 6, 1992, under PM Narsimha Rao, who had promised remaking of Babri Masjid, and spurned it, in Jan 1993, when he brought an Act in parliament for Ram Mandir, will remain firmly etched on the Muslim mind forever. Now, it is only a matter of time when Muslim Kristallnacht will finally begin with no one even caring to pay a lip-service to. There is already a rise of fascism in Europe and US, the same way India has become so by the sleight of democracy and not theocracy.
The Ayodhya Verdict: Majoritarianism
At Play?
by Rakesh Shukla
Newspapers report that there are 24 mentions of ‘secular’ in the verdict portraying it as proof of the judgment underlining its importance. Invoking secularism seems to take on the quality of a mantra which is repeatedly chanted. Secularism is what secularism does! A number of temples are today run by Government trusts pursuant to laws passed by the legislature. The legal position elucidated by numerous judgments has been that the government can regulate the secular parts of the activities.
Does The Appeal For Peace And Harmony Apply To Hindutva Brigade As Well For Future?
Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey, Yugal Kishore Shashtri and Lubna Sarwath
In a TV channel discussion on Indian Ahead on 23 Ocotber, 2019, in anticipation of the Ayodhya judgement, in
which the third author was also invited, Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesperson Vinod Bansal has admitted that they have a list of 30,000 sites in addition to Kashi and Mathura, where Hindu temples were demolished to build some Islamic structures. The working President of VHP Alok Kumar has said that SC judgement on Ayodhya is not the end of the story, it is the beginning, in the context of Kashi and Mathura. Will the BJP/RSS top brass counsel VHP leadership and make it clear to the country that observance of peace and harmony is meant for them as well?
Ayodhya Judgement and Justice
by T Navin
The Ayodhya Judgement to hand over the disputed land for construction of Ram temple and providing alternative land to Muslims for construction of Mosque is being welcomed not only by the Sangh Parivar but also the parties which claim to be secular. This includes Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya
Janata Dal and Telugu Desam Party. This is being portrayed as an issue which has finally been addressed.
Ayodhya Judgement Unjust: An Assault on the Secular Fabric of the Constitution
by National Alliance of People’s Movements
The National Alliance of People’s Movements condemns the ‘unanimous’ verdict by the 5-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya matter. The judgement, instead of holding accountable before law all those who criminally demolished the 450 year old Babri Masjid has rewarded the violators. The judgement legitimizes majoritarianism and mobocracy and strikes at the very secular fabric of our Constitution. Full of contradictions, the verdict only pays sermons to the values of equality and fraternity, but ends up violating these very principles in its relief.
We Will Take Our Forest Rights
by Press Release
National Adivasi Alliance (NAA), a collective of people’s organizations espousing the cause of the tribals’ on Forest Rights Act (FRA) drawn from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Delhi assembled at Rangapadar in Kalahandi district of Odisha. In its National Review and planning meeting held on 12th and 13th October 2019, the NAA registered its unequivocal protest against Supreme Court ruling that came in February 13th 2019 which posed a danger of destruction of immediate eviction of tribes and other traditional Forest dwellers complete annulment of the Forest Rights Act
Bystander
by Rituparna Sengupta
And yet, and yet, I stand by and watch
as a nation plunges into darkness those it claims its own.
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