What's new at Links: Obama; Marx: India and hunger; food crisis; liveable cities; Cuba; Bolivia; London election; NZ;
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Barack Obama, Reverend Wright and Black liberation theology
<>
By Malik Miah
The groundswell of broad support for Barack Obama (both among Blacks and
whites) is a phenomenon that deserves a serious analysis and
understanding. It cannot be downplayed by passing it through the lens of
pure-and-simple lesser-evilism.
Some radicals dismiss the mass phenomenon, because Obama is a candidate
of a ruling-class party. That simplistic rejection of Obama's campaign
and its mass support is sectarian: The issue isn't whether to vote for a
Democrat, but rather our response to a development that is having a
wide-scale impact. How many times, in state after state, have we ever
seen citizens of all races line up for hours to hear an African-American
man talk about "hope'', on a platform that is fundamentally no different
than his opponents?
* Read more <>
Adding insult to injury: Bush says starving India eats too much
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By Kavita Krishnan
May 7, 2008 -- Karl Marx, born on 5 May, 1818, nearly two centuries ago,
had in 1867 laid bare the ``intimate connection between the pangs of
hunger of the most industrious layers of the working class, and the
extravagant consumption, coarse or refined, of the rich, for which
capitalist accumulation is the basis'' (Capital
<>
Vol. 1, Ch. 25). In May 2008, nearly a century and a half later, as we
hear Emperor Bush hold forth on global hunger, we are reminded that
capitalism and global wealth remains just as intimately wedded to hunger.
* Read more <>
Are livable cities just a dream? <>
By Dave Holmes
When one sees a modern city from the air, especially at night, it is a
truly awe-inspiring spectacle. What always strikes me is the immensity
of the project, a testimony to the power and creativity of human beings.
However, on the ground and actually living and working in this wonder,
things are quite different and the social and ecological problems crowd
in and fill one's view. The truth is that our cities have always been
dominated by the rich and powerful and built and operated to serve their
needs -- not those of the mass of working people who live and toil in them.
* Read more <>
Videos: Cuba's green revolution <>
A clip from the BBC's Around the World in 80 Gardens (2008) introduces
the urban organic food gardening revolution in Havana, Cuba. Click HERE
<> for a three-part talk by Cuban
permaculturist Roberto Perez that delves deeper into Cuba's green
revolution, and an interview with the makers of The Power of Community:
How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, the film in which Perez featured.
* Read more <>
Bolivia: Fraud, violence and mass resistance marks right-wing push
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By Federico Fuentes
May 9, 2008 -- A day of violence, fraud and a "grand rebellion" against
the Santa Cruz oligarchy.
This is how Bolivian president, Evo Morales Ayma, described the result
of the unconstitutional May 4 "autonomy" referendum organised by the
authorities in Santa Cruz -- which many feared was aimed at dividing
Bolivia.
* Read more <>
Musical interlude: Post-911 Blues <>
Hear and watch Riz MC's classic ``Post-911 Blues'', click here
<>
Global food crisis: 'The greatest demonstration of the historical
failure of the capitalist model' <>
By Ian Angus
"If the government cannot lower the cost of living it simply has to
leave. If the police and UN troops want to shoot at us, that's OK,
because in the end, if we are not killed by bullets, we'll die of
hunger." -- A demonstrator in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
In Haiti, where most people get 22% fewer calories than the minimum
needed for good health, some are staving off their hunger pangs by
eating "mud biscuits" made by mixing clay and water with a bit of
vegetable oil and salt.[1]
Meanwhile, in Canada, the federal government is currently paying $225
for each pig killed in a mass cull of breeding swine, as part of a plan
to reduce hog production. Hog farmers, squeezed by low hog prices and
high feed costs, have responded so enthusiastically that the kill will
likely use up all the allocated funds before the program ends in
September. Some of the slaughtered hogs may be given to local Food
Banks, but most will be destroyed or made into pet food. None will go to
Haiti.
* Read more <>
Three books on the life and thought of the `red terror doctor'
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Reviews by Alex Miller
* Read more <>
Respect and the London election results
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By Nick Wrack and Alan Thornett, Socialist Resistance
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May 6, 2008 -- The New Labour project is falling apart at the seams. Its
local election results were the worst in 40 years, with only 24% of the
vote and coming third behind the Liberal Democrats. This is a disastrous
result for British Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In London, the
election of the Conservative Party's Boris Johnson as mayor and the
presence of a far-right British National Party (BNP) member on the
Greater London Assembly will disturb and depress all who value the
multi-cultural diversity of the city.
* Read more <>
`Tipping point' in New Zealand politics at the grassroots: the
Residents Action Movement <>
The Residents Action Movement (or RAM) is a left-wing local government
electoral ticket in the Auckland Regional Council of New Zealand's
largest city. RAM is in the process of becoming a national-level
political party to contest the 2008 elections. RAM can be characterised
as as broad left coalition, stretching from social liberals, community
activists and former National Party members to social democrats,
democratic socialists and left-wing radicals. Its chairperson is
currently Grant Morgan, who is also a leading member of Socialist Worker
(Aotearoa).
* Read more <>
* * *
Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information,
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
*
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