People’s Summit Backs Venezuela, Slams Mercosur

by RYAN MALLETT-OUTTRIM

Mercosur leaders are meeting this week in Argentina for the bloc’s latest summit. (Telam)

Puebla, Mexico, July 21, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Social movements from across South America condemned Thursday Merocsur’s suspension of Venezuela, amid speculation the regional bloc could take further action against Caracas.

Outside the bloc’s summit in Mendoza, Argentina, protesters demanded Mercosur retract Venezuela’s suspension.

“The People’s Summit categorically rejects the illegal and arbitrary suspension of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from Mercosur, because it constitutes a serious blow to the institutionality of the regional bloc,” activists said in a statement.

Greening the Venezuelan Constitution: Proposals from the Grassroots

by REBECCA MCMILLAN

venezuelanalysis.com | July 21, 2017

Activist Casimira Monasterio defends the territorial and cultural rights of Afro-Venezuelans during talks on July 11 at the Bolivarian University in Caracas. (Photo credit: Nicanor Cifuentes Gil)

The new Venezuelan constitution must be green. This was the rallying cry of over 100 activists, researchers, educators, and students who met this July 11 at the Bolivarian University in Caracas. The event, the Jornada Econstituyente, aimed to generate constitutional proposals for an emerging “communal, post-petroleum nation” driven by “ecosocialist values and principles.”

During a full day, participants debated ideas related to seven themes: water, biodiversity, habitat and housing, agroecology, territoriality, cities and alternative energy.

“It’s not enough”, scientists say of world’s GHG policies

The young generation face catastrophe if climate crisis is not solved

A Journal of People report

James Hansen, former NASA scientist as well as the “grandfather of global warming,” asserts in a recently published paper: Preventing catastrophic climate change requires far more drastic policy shifts than any government has taken so far.

His latest report, produced with a team of 14 co-authors whose expertise ranges from paleoclimatology to carbon cycles, was tested by three different peer reviewers before being published by the European Geosciences Union.

Nations must aim for negative emissions, said the study report published in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Facebook wants to secretly watch you

Patent for ’emotion-based technology’ granted to offer tailored content and advertising

A Journal of People report

Facebook filed a patent to use smartphone cameras and webcams as a way to monitor how its users are feeling, said media reports.

A report by James Billington in International Business Times said:

“Facebook wants to get up close and personal with its users after a patent was revealed detailing a desire to secretly watch users through their webcam or smartphone camera, spying on your mood in order to sell you tailored content or advertisements.

Evo Morales: “Now is the best time to unite”

by Sergio Alejandro Gómez

Granma | July 21, 2017

Photo: Sergio Alejandro Gómez

MANAGUA.— President Evo Morales arrived in Managua on July 19, to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution alongside the Nicaraguan people, and interact with participants to the 23rd meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, which brought together leftist parties and movements from the region, through July 18.

More than 20,000 polling stations established for upcoming elections

by Yudy Castro Morales

Granma | July 21, 2017

The determination of 24,361 polling stations in 12,515 constituencies across the country has been completed in accordance with the timeline established for upcoming general elections, which will again be “an example of a truly democratic exercise, based on broad popular participation, legality, and transparency,” as Army General Raúl Castro recently reiterated.

Timeline of the Great October Revolution

A Journal of People compilation

 

July 1

The 2nd Machine Gun Regiment demands: All power to the Soviets!

The 3rd Infantry Regiment refuses to send 14 replacement companies to the front.

The 1st Machine Gun Regiment marches from Oranienbaum to Petrograd.

The Soviet Executive Committee, now sharing power within the Provisional Government, tells them to go home, but the soldiers refuse.

The Bolsheviks organize for the machine-gunners to have food and quarters. According to the historian/observer Sukhanov, in these days Petrograd “felt itself to be upon the verge of some sort of explosion.”

There’s no good reason for your boss to make 347 times what you do

by STEVEN CLIFFORD

People’s World | July 11, 2017

Shutterstock

CEO pay at America’s 500 largest companies averaged $13.1 million in 2016. That’s 347 times what the average employee makes.

So CEOs make a lot of money. But, some say, so do athletes and movie stars. Why pick on corporate bosses, then?

In rural Florida, unions seek solidarity with immigrant workers

by DANIEL WINTERS

People’s World | July 21, 2017

In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump won some working class voters by appealing to the indignity and insecurity that these people face under capitalism. Though Trump’s rhetoric made a show of concern for working class issues, it was ridden with noxious themes that divide the working class – racism, misogyny and xenophobia. Instead of rallying behind demagogues like Trump, we should seek an alternative.

The AFL-CIO has sought this alternative in its support for immigrant workers. In March, the labor federation gave its support to AB450, a bill in the California legislature that would prevent law enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement from carrying out warrantless searches and demanding workers’ confidential documents without a subpoena. The AFL-CIO has also denounced Trump’s plans to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and supports a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented workers.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

by Lawrence Lifschultz

Frontier | Vol. 50, No.2, Jul 16 – 22, 2017

On more than one occasion since India’s Emergency began in June, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi has commented how, in her view, many people, particularly in the West, “seem to have different standards for India than for other countries.” In late September, however, when Franco’s fascist Government executed two Basque Nationalists and three Marxist-Leninist rebels, India joined in that common standard of international indignation and outrage over the killings. Demonstrations swept Europe and public fury compelled governments to review diplomatic relations with Madrid. Franco stood condemned and isolated.

But hardly two months after “El Caudillo’s” last act of vengeance ended with five riddled bodies lying dead in a Spanish field, Mrs Gandhi’s frequently repeated claim, about the hypocritical standards of international opinion was never more evident than on December 1 when the Indian Government hanged two middle-aged peasants named Bhoomaiah and Kista Gowd. After the executions, New Delhi calmly basked in the double standard Indian officialdom has been so quick to condemn. The world said not a word. In the international press there was not even a negative editorial comment. And no government was reported to have reviewed diplomatic relations.