Progressive Calendar 02.12.06
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu)
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 03:54:52 -0800 (PST)
           P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     02.12.06

1. Immigrant rights  2.12 2pm
2. GLBT love rally   2.12 Duluth MN
3. Amazon books sale 2.12

4. Leg session brief 2.13 12noon
5. Spiritual progs   2.13 7pm

6. Manuel Valenzuela - Winds of change/the Bolivarian Revolution
7. ed                - Jackel-mean snake-sly (poem)

--------1 of 7---------

From: David Strand <mncivil [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Immigrant rights 2.12 2pm

Please join the Green Party and other community organizations for the
March for Immigrant Rights on Sunday February 12. The March begins at 2pm
at Lake Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, turns north at Lake
Street and Bloomington Avenue, and finishes at the American Indian Center
(AIC), 1530 East Franklin Avenue.

All are welcome to march with the principles of Legalization, Family
reunification, Worker's rights, Civil liberties and Civic participation in
mind. An Educational Forum designed to transplant new ideas about
immigrants into your mind will be held at the AIC after the March.

- Also note: An all-day event to celebrate immigrant culture and value
will be held on Tuesday, February 14, from 9am to 5pm at El Nuevo Rodeo at
Lake Street and 27th Avenue South, Minneapolis. Come freely and hear
Minneapolis Green Party Councilmember Cam Gordon speak at a press
conference outlining the truth about immigrants and immigration in
Minnesota at noon.

If you cannot take off work to attend this event, please wear a brown
armband and make your purchases at immigrant-owned businesses to show your
support. Everyone is invited to join in this celebration.

--
GP of MN Urges Minnesotans to Reject Pawlenty's Anti-Immigrant Proposals

Green Party Says America Needs Humane and Sustainable Immigration Policy,
Urges Minnesotans To Reject Pawlenty's Anti-Immigrant Proposals

America's current immigration policies are not working because they are
based on enforcement and patrolling rather than recognizing the needs of
people seeking gainful employment.

Nationwide statistics show that the pro-enforcement immigration policies
do not prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the United States border.
Also, current U.S. policy encourages exploitation of undocumented workers
by unethical employers and criminals engaged in human contraband
(coyotes).

The Green Party calls for permanent pan-American border passes for all
citizens of North America whose identity can be traced and verified. This
action would help eliminate worker exploitation and help ensure that the
appropriate taxes will be paid correctly in each nation per its laws.
These measures will also help temporary residents in all North American
countries secure driving privileges and liability insurance.

Therefore, the Green Party urges Minnesota representatives to seek a
humane and sustainable solution to immigration that balances the need for
documentation while de-criminalizing non-citizens seeking gainful
employment.

Immigrants deserve equal protections and rights under labor and civil
rights laws, including legal protections for acts of hate or
discrimination, the right to due process, the nondiscriminatory
application of immigration laws, the right to a social security number,
the right to organize and unionize to improve wages and unsafe working
conditions, and the right to change employers.

The Green Party supports immigration policies that reflect our
constitutional guarantees of free speech, freedom of association, and
travel. We ask Minnesotans to reject the new anti-immigrant laws proposed
by Governor Pawlenty and the United States Congress.

Further information can be found on the Green Party website:
http://5cd.mngreens.org/

Contact: Dave Berger 5th Congressional District Green Party 612-338-3630
DaveBerger [at] MNGreens.org


--------2 of 7--------

From: David Strand <mncivil [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: GLBT love rally 2.12 Duluth MN

Following is an event of the Faith, Family, Fairness Alliance working to
unite people and communities of faith in opposing the anti-glbt family
consitutional amendment commonly called the "marriage amendment".

This organiziation's rapid growth is a welcome development in the struggle
to oppose a ban on any form of legal recognition of same sex/gender
couples and their families in the Minnesota state constitution.

If you are a member of a faith community that you believe would be
interested in being part of the efforts or are interested as an
individual, please check out these upcoming events.

David Strand Marriage Equality Minnesota
http://www.faithfamilyfairness.org/FFFA/Faith.htm

Sunday, February 12, 5-7:30pm. Standing on the Side of Love Rally, with
potluck and training event, to support LGBT people in the struggle for
equal rights. This is a special effort sponsored by members of faith
communities in the Duluth area. Peace Church, 1111 North 11th Avenue East,
Duluth, MN. FFI contact Julie.


--------3 of 7--------

From: Jennifer <jennifer_nemo [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Amazon books sale 2.12

Sunday, February 12
Susan B Anthony Birthday and our Thirty-sixth Anniversary Sale! At Amazon
Bookstore Cooperative, located at 4755 Chicago Ave. Minneapolis.
612-821-9630.


--------4 of 7--------

From: Bonnie [at] mnwomen.org
Subject: Leg session brief 2.13 12noon

Monday, February 13, Noon to 1PM, at the Women's Building, 550 Rice St
StPaul, Bharti will host a Brown Bag Discussion to prepare us all for the
2006 state legislative session, which officially begins on March 1.
Experts from our member groups will review vital issues and goals.


--------5 of 7--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Spiritual progs 2.13 7pm

Community Activists:

Please consider coming to the next meeting of the Network of Spiritual
Progressives, which will occur this Monday, February 13 from 7-9pm at
Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. Demi Miller will be leading
the discussion/exercises which will focus on good listening skills and how
they promote cultural healing.

The Network of Spiritual Progressives is and outgrowth of efforts by the
community of Tikkun Magazine and Rabbi Michael Lerner, its founder - to
form a broad ecumenical organization to raise the moral flag and challenge
the unholy alliance of the "financial bottom-line" Corporate advocates and
the right wing Christian fundamentalists. Their primary emphasis is on
reminding the world that all the prophets of all the worlds great
religions have been united in rejecting greed and self-serving behaviors
and that the policies central to the current ruling elite are clearly
anti-faith based - regardless of the "moral" language they choose to wrap
their misdeeds in.

This local chapter of the Network has been meeting for a few months now
and our numbers are growing. We've had some exciting discussions and hope
to see those discussions continue to deepen - even as our numbers grow.
Please consider coming to our next meeting and perhaps getting involved.
Plymouth Church is located at 1900 Nicollet Ave (at Franklin) in
Minneapolis (near the Lyndale/Hennepin exits of I94). There is a big lot
for parking on the Franklin side of the church and we will be downstairs
in the Jackman room. Consider coming a little early to socialize and to
introduce yourself to the ideas that we have been discussing in previous
months. (Literature will be available and some posters with ideas as
well.)


--------6 of 7--------

Winds of Change The Bolivarian Revolution: A Movement of Hope and Threat
By Manuel Valenzuela

[BushCo and the ruling class and their corporate tools are racing to
impose the old Latin American filthy rich vs dirty poor division on us
here in the good old USA. As you read how intentionally bad it has been in
Latin America, visualize how it would be if it were here, imposed on you
and your family and friends. The rich here and in Latin America did it to
the Latin poor; the rich in the US South did it to the slaves; and the
rich here have been working for several decades to do it to us here at
home. It includes a police state, the end of: the Constitution and the
Bill of Rights, democracy, fair voting, justice, and a decent life for 99%
of us.

Latin America has its new democratic freedcm primarily because the big
bully to the north is tied up in Iraq. Perhaps if BushCo declared martial
law he could draft an army big enough to invade Latin America at the same
time as he's invading more of the Middle East; short of that, perhaps
LatAm will have enough time to grow strong enough to fend off a weakening
US. It would be nice if our "opposition party" were to help by providing
actual opposition; but since it's bought and paid for, it doesn't and
won't.

Are American rich that calculating, that mean, that selfish? Well,
everybody else's rich for at least 5000 years of history have been; 99+%
of humanity has lived under their oppressive thumbs and boots. Once we get
over the American exceptionalism we're brainwashed with, it becomes
possible to see what other nations have seen for centuries. -ed]


Winds of Change The Bolivarian Revolution: A Movement of Hope and Threat
By Manuel Valenzuela
Information Clearing House - Feb. 9, 2006
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11843.htm

1. Introduction
2. The Sorrows of the Americas
3. The Seed of Revolution

                         1. Introduction

02/09/06 "ICH"--His warming winds of true democracy have been spreading
from the tip of Patagonia to the shores of the Rio Grande, traversing all
lands in between, with the will of the People trumping the wishes of the
Empire. These winds carry within them elections of hope and fury, marked
by loud voices and uncompromised ballots, devoid of charades and mirages,
lacking Diebold electronic voting machines and corporate media
manipulation. In many nations the masses have spoken in symphony, their
united desires echoing long suffering frustrations and near-extinct
opportunities, their once-silent calls for justice and equality finally
given resonance.

The Bolivarian Revolution these warming winds are called, becoming the
last vestiges of People Power in the Americas.  Rising in hope and
hovering above the homes and lives of hundreds of millions of Latin
Americans, the warming winds are giving comfort to a new day, making warm
once cold societies, their speed gaining momentum, their power altering
governments and economic policies, becoming, in the minds of millions in
Latin America and billions worldwide, the inspiration for a new world, a
new direction for human civilization, an opportunity to escape that which
is destroying both planet and human societies.

Inside its borders exists the hope of positive change, of escaping the
omnipotent and corrosive claws of American imperialism, with its
devastating, unfettered capitalism, destroyer of Earth's environments,
exploiter of human flesh and energy, and corrupter of our minds,
transforming us into selfish, consumerist, materialist, unthinking,
psychologically fragile and unhappy greed mongers bred to pray to our new
god, the Almighty Dollar.

Inside the lands where the Revolution is spreading hope transcends past
transgressions, becoming a movement to benefit all people, regardless of
wealth, social class or skin color, using the resources of the land and
the talents of the people to empower the nation and the communal
aspirations of the citizenry. Inside jungles and forests a movement of
justice and equality has begun to replace the exploitation, corruption and
abandonment inherent in American capitalism. Slowly eroding from the
nations of the Revolution are the inherent injustices and pervasive
inequality that befell the vast majority of the citizenry.

Free of economic warfare hindering its growth and evolution, not chained
by embargoes or sanctions, allowed to become a shining example to observe
and follow, nations inside the Revolution have begun to showcase the
benefits of 21st century social democracies, where priorities are given
not to the profiteering of the military industrial complex or to the Swiss
bank accounts of the white elite but rather to the empowerment of the
lives of the masses through equality in education, healthcare,
opportunity, infrastructure and resources, thereby eliminating the
inequality and injustice that is branded on a child at birth, forever to
scar him or her, robbing them of opportunity, eroding their talents and
eviscerating fates and futures.

A new paradigm shift is occurring in Latin America with the resentment
accumulated over decades of government rape, pillage and apathy of the
citizenry creating a wave of desired change; the pilferage of their lands
and resources, along with the exploitation and enslavement by American
corporations has resulted in Revolution peaceful and evolved, with
hundreds of millions strong using the ballot over the bayonet, their
voices over violence. From the lands of South America a new movement
grows, a new Revolution has risen, sweeping across the continent,
embracing justice and equality, exterminating exploitation and
enslavement.

A transformation of the Americas is upon us, beautiful to behold and
admire, its winds of change flowing uninterrupted and powerful, its winds
of change flowing from right to left, from American sponsored right-wing
puppets to progressive, social democracy, gaining momentum, grasping
peoples hopes and dreams, their lives and futures. The voices of the
unheard, unwanted and undesirable have been listened to; their will
finally allowed to be counted, their votes finally trumping the corruption
of the elites and the clandestine manipulations of the Empire.

Like a domino effect each election result in distinct lands inhabited with
diverse peoples has sent a resounding thunderbolt of rejection to the
imperialistic bully named America, a clear message that its near
enslavement and exploitation of both lands of peoples of the south has
gone on for far too long. Election after election has demolished colonial
proctors and puppets, so-called leaders catering only to their own
wallets, that of the nation's white elite and the market colonialist
desires of the Empire. Like powerful blows to the midsection, each clear
electoral victory has weakened the interests of America in the region,
softening up its legions of exploiters and criminals and puppets now
impotent to ruin millions of lives.

The power of the People has spoken, its triumph having become a victory
for humanity and a strike against market colonialism, now seen as an
inspiration for billions and a threat to America. Contrary to the
interests of George W. Bush and his corporatist cabal, the region's
peoples have shown that, when given a real opportunity for true democracy,
they will vote according to their own indigenous interests and not those
of neoliberal principles and of market colonialist America. They have
shown that it is not the evils of neoliberal and American imposed
capitalism which they seek, but rather policies that will make their lives
better, giving them meaning, happiness and an opportunity to push forward,
past insurmountable barriers purposefully erected to hinder upper mobility
and into futures full of promise.

The last few years have demonstrated that if allowed to escape the grip of
American manipulation and meddling, democracy in Latin American nations
results in the interests of the masses quashing those of the elite few, in
elections clean and uncompromised, not those fixed and corrupt, altering
the balance of power and giving hope to those tens of millions for decades
subjugated by the rich few to the margins of society, relegated to live in
shanty towns and shacks, making anywhere from two to eight dollars a day,
their lives devoid of futures and opportunity, their existence
marginalized and ignored, their children destined to never escape and
always live in perpetual purgatory. Now, thanks to democracy true and
honorable, there exists the hope, the possibility of a better life to
millions upon million of Latin Americans, giving birth to new energy and
vitality, new chances at escape from hell on Earth, becoming an
opportunity for a better and more fruitful tomorrow.

Today there exist the winds of change, flowing freely from Caracas to
Santiago to La Paz, from Argentina to Uruguay to Mexico, traversing
mountains and canyons, forests and jungles, toppling puppets and
criminals, becoming a power threatening to liberate an entire continent,
eviscerating the shackles of labor exploitation and incessant poverty with
the hammer of justice and equality, becoming the fire burning inside the
hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of Latin Americans whose lives
have forever been made destitute of life, energy and wallet both by the
corrosive grip of American imperialism and the enslavement and
marginalization by the minority white elite.

It has been through the ballot box, through the principle of one person,
one vote - that great invention of times past - that today's Bolivarian
Revolution can be seen and felt, with little blood spilled on the streets,
with little violence impregnating our humanity and with the human
condition contained, its many insidious demons refrained from possessing
the human animal. The Bolivarian Revolution is an enlightened revolution,
an evolved form of human change, growing out of frustration and resentment
Information Clearing House - Feb. 9, 2006
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11843.htm
and anger, yet achieved peacefully and in solidarity, using the power of
the vote over that of armed resistance, toppling puppets and Empire's
proctors not by violence but through the united voice of the People. In
nations where democracy is not yet a charade or a hollow mirage hiding
inside the corruption of electronic voting, revolutions of this kind are
still possible.

At the dawn of the 21st century the Bolivarian Revolution has been born,
altering the landscape of Latin America's tomorrow, growing out of
economic deficiency, natural resource pillage, government inefficiency,
human exploitation and near enslavement, the reality of life for hundreds
of millions of human beings and from American imperialism, slowly but
surely eroding the devastating scorched earth and people policy of
American capitalism along with the neoliberal mechanisms that act only to
institute market colonialism on the nations of the south, replacing it
with a system designed to make better the lives of countless millions
through policies paid for by the profits of the nation and the resources
of the land, creating a society based on sustainable development and human
prosperity, both of happiness and fate.

Having morphed from modern day socialist thought, from the reality of
failed neoliberalism, from lessons learned and mistakes recorded, from
untarnished democracy, from today's communalism and yesteryear's
capitalism, the Bolivarian Revolution has become a beacon of hope to
hundreds of millions whose lives and futures have never been allowed to
prosper, perhaps replacing America's ever-dimming light as the new oasis
of optimism, becoming the new system of governance for the 21st century,
one for the People, not the Powerful, for Humans, not Corporations.

This new beacon on a hill will in the next few years and decades change
societies and the lives of millions, taking national profits and the
wealth of resources and giving them, not to the elite, but to everyone,
offering hope to the indigent, opportunity to the talented, a future to
the innocent, health to the sick, education to the ignorant, food for the
hungry, homes for the homeless, justice to the marginalized, equality to
all and increased prosperity to the nation as a whole. Its evolution might
one day take humanity on a voyage we never thought possible.  This is the
Bolivarian Revolution.

                   2. The Sorrows of the Americas

For five-hundred years Latin America has been the stomping ground of the
region's elite, the vast majority descendants of Europeans, white in skin
color yet dark in empathy, lacking the will to care for tens of millions
of fellow human beings living in destitute surroundings and insufferable
consequences. For centuries this elite has been a slave driver, using and
abusing the masses for its continued control and power, using the energy
and labor of peasants to increase its wealth. For centuries the oppression
has been relentless, only changing in its mechanisms and in its evolution.
This is the story of Latin America since 1492, a region whose peoples and
lands have for centuries been exploited for their energy and pillaged of
their wealth for the benefit of the elite and northern colonial
governments and businesses.

>From the very beginning white elites, tracing their lineage to Europe,
were granted the keys to prosperity, their ethnicity granting them
preferences to wealth and power, access to business and governance, over
the years passing down their wealth and power to new generations. Thus,
white Latin Americans never saw poverty, never suffered hunger or thirst,
never toiled in miserable work and never earned their wealth.

>From the beginning of their ascendancy, their wealth was born in sin, in
the dispossession of land and the exploitation of human energy, in the
destruction of land, in the abuse of human beings and the exportation of
slave products. Given huge tracts of land, possessing enormous resources,
owning all aspects of government and business, white Latin Americans
became owners of the Americas and masters to its inhabitants, destined to
forever expand wealth, exploit humanity, control government and have
possession of all aspects of Latin American society. Since Conquest,
nothing has changed.

Meanwhile those born with indigenous traces, in skin color or facial
features, were condemned to become the slaves of the wealthy, toiling,
bleeding, sweating and crying for the fortunes of the few, miserably
surviving day to day, fed the crumbs and the bones left behind by the
elite, chained to castes created to serve the interests of the rich,
forever passing onto their descendants the burden of perpetual indigence
and the fatalism that their kind would never leave the destiny placed at
their door by governments whose sole function was enriching the white
elite that controlled the nation.

Hundreds of millions of human beings have purposefully been kept indigent,
both in mind and resources, the control over their lives as pervasive as
the level of poverty they must endure, from cradle to grave. Like tranquil
cattle they are corralled into shantytowns and cesspools of poverty,
unable to escape thanks to enormous yet invisible walls of segregation
designed to separate the elite few from the poor masses. Hundreds of
millions in the region are kept in perpetual squalor through the inability
to escape their allotted caste, whether through anemic education,
brainwash Catholicism and incessant employment discrimination.

The system has always been and is still designed to maintain the delicate
balance between a very small minority of elite and a giant wave of poor
peasants. This balance is protected by government itself, created,
controlled and operated by an elite that has never relinquished power and
control. As such, the elite keep getting richer, with wealth coming from
the sweat, blood and tears of the masses, while the poor keep getting
poorer. In fact, the vast majority of Latin Americans live on an average
of less than six dollars per day, with tens of millions living on less
than two dollars per day.

Latin American societies are designed to give the masses as little
education as possible, thereby enabling the elite complete control of the
people of a nation. Education budgets are purposefully made anemic thanks
to the pillaging of government money by corrupt officials, mismanagement
of funds and misallocation of resources.  The emphasis on educating the
children of the masses is nonexistent, for they are to remain the indigent
slaves to the elite, forever ignorant, servile and obedient. Thus,
millions of people are from birth condemned to schools lacking adequate
books, well trained and motivated teachers, and acceptable infrastructure,
their short lived educations ending anywhere from the third to the sixth
grade, in the end becoming but one more citizen abandoned by their
government, forgotten by society, dependent on private television owned by
the elite for information.

Granted a minute fraction of money compared to American per capita
investment in education, schools and teachers naturally start off at the
depths of learning, condemned to remain bottom dwellers in education and
knowledge, seriously lacking the resources of the much richer north, doing
as best they can to enlighten children, yet knowing that undereducated
most students will leave, forever captured by indigence, slave labor and
slave wages.  By age ten millions upon millions of children stop attending
school, forced by the circumstances of their lives to begin working in
order to feed, shelter and clothe their families. Sadly, most will never
again pick up a book or return to school, instead remaining loyal members
of the lowest castes, living in shacks and inside shantytowns, becoming
susceptible to the propaganda of the wealthy, maturing into the ignorance
minds bred through under education.

Through immovable castes of indigence and the under funding of education
the elite are able to contain the masses, making millions of poor
dependent on the crumbs, morsels and bones thrown them by the rich.
Imprisoned in the dungeons of rotting existence, millions of
poverty-stricken Latin Americans will never escape their predetermined
fates, becoming babies born unequal, living entire lives following the
footsteps of parents, grandparents and great grandparents, repeating a
cycle of indigence designed to exploit and subjugate their entire lives.
This vicious circle is perpetual, creating an insurmountable barrier of
escape, breeding ignorance with poverty and malnourishment, leading to the
brainwashing by religion that condemns the poor to eternal fatalism and
constant hardship, inevitably trapping tens of millions to lives of
squalor and lost futures.

Through religion hundreds of millions are told to be fruitful and to
multiply, for that is what God desires, not realizing that by having many
babies women become servile and dependent creatures to their husbands,
forced to rear and raise, remaining trapped housewives robbed of
opportunity and enlightenment.  Brainwashed by religion and lacking the
reason, logic and knowledge that comes with education, both parents will
invariably condemn both themselves and their children, forever remaining
trapped in poverty, with more mouths to feed, more bodies to clothe, more
resources needed to survive. Forced to subsist, they will pull their
children out of school at any early age, sending them to work for long
hours and meager wages. With little money to be spread to many family
members, malnourishment increases, education is eroded, healthcare
disappears, slave labor increases, misery is spawned and perpetual poverty
triumphs. It is Catholicism, that enabler of primitive and conservative
thought, that condemns the use of contraception and abortion among its
followers while espousing the procreation of multiple children, thereby
becoming a culprit in the ever-increasing numbers of human beings living
in perpetual poverty, assisting in ruining lives, exacerbating hardship
and tarnishing fates.

For those few that succeed in graduating from a state college, the
discrimination inherent in the business world is omnipresent. Top business
and government jobs are reserved for the children, relatives and close
acquaintances of those already in power, with the elite controlling all
levers of who is allowed entry and who is to be relegated to the lower
echelons of employment.  With employment and salary determined by nepotism
and not merit, going to those of white skin and not brown, those of upper
class and not lower, a large segment of barrier-escaping jobs that would
otherwise be available to anyone become the sole possession of the elite.

It is this world of white collar employment that does not welcome
brown-skinned individuals, extending not a welcome floor mat but a
"Closed" sign, becoming an exclusive club for the elite and their progeny,
a place not welcoming to the sub-human classes engineered to become the
maids and gardeners and cooks and nannies of the rich. The mestizo masses
are forced through discrimination and segregation to remain inside their
allotted place, offered great opportunity not in money-making positions
but in the world of blue-collar slave labor, forced to toil under extreme
stresses, working unbearable hours in bottom-dwelling environs making the
wages that offer only the most basic level of subsistence.

For the mestizo, this is a barrier that talent, ability, drive and mental
strength cannot defeat. Even if able to escape the myriad of barriers to
entry, driving a stake through indigence, under education, the
imprisonment of slave labor, lack of resources, discrimination and
ingrained racism, there exists the ultimate and most subjective barrier to
entry: the elite themselves, possessing the keys to unlocking the gates of
escape. They are the gatekeepers of society, always closing the door to
the always long line of brown-skinned unwanteds and undesirables seeking a
better future, yet always eager to allow easy access to the always short
line of white-skinned elites and wealthy patrons seeking to maintain their
past into the present.

For centuries this has been the reality in Latin America, a region of two
different worlds, of two different groups, one born into privilege, the
other into exploitation. Ten percent of the population owns or controls
ninety percent of the region's wealth, while ninety percent of the
population lives in poverty, forced to live in shacks or tiny bee-hive
looking homes, chained into shantytowns oftentimes lacking basic
infrastructure and services, forced to share a small patch of land with an
ever-increasing population, packed like sardines, competing for few jobs
and low salaries.

Meanwhile, living like modern day feudal masters the elite few bask in
enormous mansions of comfort, protected by twelve foot high walls and
armies of security guards, living in exclusive and posh neighborhoods,
possessing all the wealth in the world, able to afford maids, gardeners,
cooks and nannies, seeing in their relationship to the mestizo the shadows
of slavery, not the conviction of equality, the entitlement of
exploitation, not the obligation of providing opportunity. To the elite,
the mestizo has always been and will always remain a being to be
considered below them, a person whose destiny is to serve the interests of
the rich. The mestizo is to be forever restrained and shackled, unable to
rebel or resist, his progeny engineered and molded to follow the dictates
of wealth. He is, in short, to be the slave of the elite, remaining what
he has been for 500 years.

For centuries both the fruits of the labors of the mestizo and the Indian,
along with the resources the lands provided were owned and controlled by
the white elites, to be shipped directly to the colonizing mother country
and to markets abroad. Revenues and profits seldom, if ever, returned to
the masses. Instead, they filled the pockets of the already rich, used by
the elite to build feudal estates and personal empires, the wealth
acquired exacerbating an ever-widening vicious cycle of social class and
income disparity.

Using the mechanisms of governance and the acquired wealth of exploitation
mestizo and Indian lands were expropriated and granted to the white elite.
Lands seen promising or rich in natural resources were taken away from
peasants, towns or Indians, used to further enrich the growing white
aristocracy as well as make more comfortable the lives of European elites.
Whether unpaid slave or seldom paid worker, the masses were impoverished
and oppressed while their masters enjoyed the fruits of both free labor
and resources.  Over centuries the vast wealth of the Americas was
pillaged, making certain European nations incredibly wealthy, transforming
some into Empires, others into powers whose vast wealth would disappear
with the arrival of Latin American independence in the first half of the
19th century.

Since Discovery and Conquest Latin America has been exploited and
subjugated, its peoples of darker skin perpetually castigated and abused,
enslaved, exploited and kept at the lowest margins of society, its
beautiful lands torn and destroyed, its air polluted, its rivers made
toxic, its resources stolen, their revenues and profits given to northern
corporations and governments, its environmental regulations relaxed,
enabling foreign corporations to pollute without hindrances.

>From the very beginning Latin America has been, like most nations of the
south, the supplier of natural resources and raw materials for the rich
north, its people both the slave labor and the consumer for northern
corporations, toiling under bottom dwelling working conditions for meager
wages. The people, it must be told, work slave hours for slave wages, and
are charged exorbitant prices to sustain their already anemic standard of
living. They make third world wages and must pay first world prices. In
truth, the great majority of Latin Americans see very little capital or
wealth in return for their natural resources, the majority of it
transferred by elites to bank accounts outside the nation or kept by
multinational corporations under unfair and one-sided contracts signed by
American controlled puppets.

While the nations and peoples of the north enjoy the benefits, and cheap
prices, engendered from stolen resources, unfair trade agreements, market
colonialism and slave labor of the south in order to sustain lives made
excessive, gluttonous and greed infested, most citizens of Latin America
subsist on what Americans would consider the crumbs, bones and morsels of
a normal life. Millions are from birth destined to remain entrapped in the
social caste social engineering has placed at their door, living from
cradle to grave unable to penetrate the insurmountable barriers to escape.
To the people of the north who have never seen, touched or lived in such
poverty, empathizing with Latin Americans can become a very difficult
endeavor.

This is the tragedy of Latin America's past. Sadly, this is also its
present. If left unchanged, it will also be its future. In this region,
the more things change the more things stay the same.

                     3. The Seed of Revolution

In Venezuela a leader of vision and promise has risen from the shantytowns
and the misery, born to poverty and to the masses, over the years rising
through the ranks, reading and learning, gaining knowledge and philosophy,
slowly yet surely engendering justice and equality, becoming a man of, by
and for the People, not of the elite.

Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, has become the seed giving rise to
the Bolivarian Revolution, a social democratic philosophy evolved into
21st century conditions, sweeping across Latin America, molding the
interests of the people with those of the state, creating a new beacon on
a hill for hundreds of millions of human beings for too long abandoned and
forgotten.

Mr. Chavez, full of energy and optimism, has become a beloved man at home
and an inspiration abroad, able, in the span of a few years, to introduce
into the collective consciousness of humankind an entirely different
political philosophy than what at present exists.  He has lifted Venezuela
out of the malignant mold for centuries infecting it, creating an example
for the world to see and follow. His governance has inspired Latin America
to shift away from neoliberalism and the unfettered capitalism of the
American Empire and toward the balance of helping the masses, so many of
whom live in perpetual levels of indigence.

A new paradigm shift is occurring in Venezuela, a nation rich in oil yet
troubled by centuries of injustice, inequality and oppression by the few
of the many. With a sudden shift of political tectonic plates, the voices
of the poor and unwanted have become heard, their cries for justice and
equality answered. In a few short years, Chavez has transformed Venezuela
into a nation helping itself by helping its people, using the profits from
its large oil fields, which once went into the pockets of the elite, to
remake a society for too long familiar with Latin America.

Suddenly, profits and resources once thought extinct, or fatalistically
thought of as stolen by elite officials, are making their way into
Venezuela's poorest districts, allocated to help the vast majority of
Venezuelan citizens, most of whom are poor. Money flows once reserved for
the elite are now making their way into the lives of the masses, giving
hope and raising enthusiasm, constructing the bridges of optimism all
nations need to thrive. Using benign forms of capitalism to his advantage,
though embedded in principles of modern socialism, Chavez has - instead of
pillaging money or misappropriating funds - shifted much needed capital
into projects designed to help the masses. For the first time in the
nation's history, the majority of Venezuelan's are reaping the rewards of
the oil that lies below.

In a few short years education, once anemic and abandoned, left to rot by
the elite, has been revamped, with investments being made to strengthen
and improve the instruments of learning and the mechanisms of knowledge.
High school and university educations are being offered free of charge to
]whomever wants to further their education, all the while all other grade
levels are beginning to see vast improvements in infrastructure and
attendance. Where once millions of children slipped through the cracks due
to indifference, leaving school in order to work or simply to become
troublemakers, now emphasis is being made to keep children in school,
creating an intelligent populace that will help make Venezuela a better
country. Slowly, ignorance is being replaced by enlightenment, and
millions of citizens are freeing their minds for the first time, able to
think for themselves, able to make wise decisions, able to escape the
traps of society and humanity.

Venezuela is making great improvements in healthcare and in
infrastructure, as well as in justice and equality.  More and more people
are receiving better medicines and are being examined by better trained
doctors. Roads, sewage, electricity, potable water and buildings are being
improved, as are government institutions and the malignant levels of
corruption that affect every Latin American nation. People eager to work
are able to find work, their chores not relegated to the slave labor that
once permeated throughout the nation. Inefficient or run down private
businesses are being nationalized by the government, with investments
being made and expertise being introduced to reclaim these businesses with
the hope that their profits can add to the growing economic viability of
Venezuela, their revenues used to benefit all the people, not just a few.
Land that has been mismanaged, abandoned or claimed illegally is being
expropriated from businesses and incompetent landowners and being
repartitioned to those with the skills to work soil and desire to own a
small parcel of land. Huge tracts of property, once stolen or claimed by
elites or corporations decades and centuries ago, having once belonged to
indigenous peoples, are being given back to their rightful owners, making
them stewards of the land.

All around Venezuela the Bolivarian Revolution is improving the lives of
millions, creating what was once thought impossible in Latin America:
prosperity for the masses. Through revenues acquired from oil sales - most
of it coming from America - Chavez is transforming his nation's economy,
increasing its annual growth rate while improving the lives of ordinary
citizens.  By fighting the endemic corruption once prevalent in Venezuela,
by taking power away from the white elite, by sharing the wealth of the
nation's resources and profits with all citizens, by improving healthcare,
education, social services and infrastructure, by making more equal
Venezuelan society, by fighting neoliberal policies of the north and by
raising the standards of living of the masses Chavez is remaking the face
of Venezuelan society, lifting it to new horizons through the emancipation
of the masses.

Yet it is this very success that has become a most ominous threat to Latin
America's elite and to the Evil Empire itself.  The very accomplishments
of the Bolivarian Revolution, with its abundance of positive changes, have
sent shockwaves of fright throughout the mansions and estates of the elite
and the hallowed halls of power in Washington.  For both Latin American
elites and American corporatist officials, social democracy has always
been a most ominous concept, for in their successful hold on power lies
the exploitation and subjugation of the masses through American imposed
capitalism, market colonization and neoliberal strangulation. It is
through these mechanisms that the elite maintain control and increase
their wealth.  It is through these instruments that America pillages
resources and exploits slave labor with reckless abandon.

The entire concept of control over Latin America rests on the premise that
the masses must never be allowed to free themselves of the chains of
bondage placed at their feet. They must always be made to remain in
perpetual poverty and ignorance, impotent to exert any power over the
elite and against American interests.  The profits and revenues from the
state must never be used for their benefit. Their wages must be exploited
to pay the high prices of privatized utilities and of northern goods and
services. The resources of their nation must be exported to the north,
their profits stolen, never to be used for the common good.

The elite, along with American corporations, have for decades and even
centuries placed insurmountable barriers to entry on the masses. Both
entities have lived in symbiotic relationship with each other for many
years, and have fought together for their shared interests as well. For
years throughout Latin America, the elite few, in conjunction with
America, have sponsored, protected and financed right-wing dictatorships
whose sole purpose was the destruction of any power belonging to the
masses and working classes. Their duty was always to enforce American
imperialism and market colonialism, making sure the nation they governed
and the people they ruled over obeyed the dictates of authoritarianism and
of clandestine colonization. No left-wing dictator or leader was ever
selected, for this went in direct contradiction to the interests of the
elite and American corporatists.

In unison, both groups have for decades done a masterful job repressing
the masses while enriching themselves at the expense of the state. The
elite give comfort and support to American corporations, writing laws and
rules favorable to the ceaseless pillage of resources and goods. In
exchange, America helps to enrich the elite through neoliberal policies
and capitalistic corruptions, using its power and influence to maintain
the elite in power. To both groups, American imposed capitalism and
neoliberalism, otherwise known as market colonialism, are the instruments
used toward the attainment of wealth.

These corrosive systems are designed to further the interests of those
enabling them, never those of the masses.  Exploitation of the masses and
the perpetual poverty of their lives is the mechanism used to maintain
power and control. The policies that have for decades made miserable the
lives of hundreds of millions of Latin Americans are designed to suppress,
exploit, impoverish and oppress.  They are not altruistic mechanisms
designed to alleviate the problems of the majority. On the contrary, the
masses are but pawns, easily expendable sub-humans replaced with ease by
the assembly line called human procreation.

What Hugo Chavez is attempting to do is break away from the policies of
the elite and of Washington, trying to free his country and his people
from the bondage of the Evil Empire, finally escaping the exploitation of
both man and land that has gone on for the last 500 years. Chavez is
attempting to help the people through the same profits sought by the elite
and by Washington, and herein lies the reason for conflict. While Chavez
wants to empower the masses, the elite and Washington want to retain it.
While Chavez wants to redistribute wealth through principles of equality,
the elite and Washington want to keep it for themselves. While Chavez
wants to improve his nation by maintaining revenues and profits inside
Venezuela, the elite and Washington want the pillaging to continue. While
Chavez seeks to distance his country away from the raping policies imposed
by America, the elite and Washington want undying obedience to them only.
While Chavez seeks to purge government institutions of the rampant elitist
cronyism, incompetence and corruption that only favors the wealthy,
Washington wants to destroy his mandate and return it to the elite.

The example of Venezuela is a grave and gathering threat to American
corporatists, for if it is allowed to succeed a great, shining beacon will
be created, and hundreds of millions of human beings will want to recreate
in their own nations what they have seen in Venezuela. The danger to the
Evil Empire is the threat the Bolivarian Revolution is having on American
imposed capitalism and market colonialism.  If Venezuela is able to
successfully escape the claws of American imperialism other nations will
want to follow suit, using Venezuela's mold to free themselves of
continued pillaging and exploitation by America.  Bolivia is already one
such example of this, yet it will not be the last. Venezuela is at present
the exception and not the rule, yet the possibility exists that if it is
allowed to continue on its successful journey, more and more nations will
want to emulate it, thereby dealing severe blows both to American
imperialism and the continued perceived wonders of capitalism.

Already other Latin American nations have jumped the Bolivarian Revolution
bandwagon, with more sure to follow. Today South America, tomorrow Mexico,
can Africa and Asia be far behind? Only time will tell but everyday that
the Revolution continues is one more day social democracy thrives,
spitting in the face of American imperialism and capitalism, proving that
a nation can prosper by bringing prosperity to the masses. Every day
Chavez is seen on the world stage extolling the virtues and successes of
his Revolution is another blow to the Evil Empire's dominion over peoples
of the south.

With Venezuela prospering as it is, using social democracy as a model,
eroding neoliberal policies and unfettered capitalism from its backbone,
empowering its people through principles of justice and equality, there
exists the possibility that like a domino effect nation after nation will
want to replicate the Bolivarian Revolution inside their own borders.
Slowly but surely the poor, the unwanted, the masses of the world are
becoming aware of what is transpiring in Venezuela, opening their eyes to
the possibility of the impossible, dreaming of the same opportunity now
present in Hugo Chavez's country, of replicating its growing prosperity,
justice and equality, awakening to the wonderment of a nation actually
empowering the majority of its people through the profits of its
businesses and resources. In the movement and awakening of the masses,
however, the elite and Washington see a tremendous threat.

For years both the elite and Washington have combined forces to try and
eliminate Chavez from power. They have orchestrated a coup, only to have
failed. They have used the vast resources of the elite controlled media to
trash and tarnish Chavez. They have conducted acts of sabotage on vital
infrastructure. They have waged a campaign of destabilization,
orchestrating a massive strike inside the national oil company. They have
sought for and received referendums on Chavez's policies and leadership,
only to be outvoted and outmaneuvered. They have conducted extensive
spying operations inside the country, using America's embassy as a CIA
operations center, trying to recruit Venezuelan military personnel for
important national security information. They have orchestrated a public
and media smear and disinformation campaign designed to brainwash
Americans and citizens of other nations, trying to stop Chavez's
popularity from spreading. They have plotted assassination attempts, only
to be discovered. They have escalated the rhetoric and war of words,
leaving Venezuela no choice but to purchase defensive weapons in case of
an American invasion. Chavez is decried as a dictator yet he is the one
democratically elected multiple times. He is accused of subverting and
altering democratic institutions, yet he is doing nothing more than what
George W. Bush has been doing in America.

The popularity levels in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez have never been higher.
He is beloved by the masses - though hated by the elite and their lackeys
- and has become a national hero, a man changing history and opening
trenches. His movement has spread to various South American nations; his
ideas are resonating with untold millions. He is defying the Evil Empire,
unflinching in his desire to improve the lives of his people. Showing us
that a better system is possible, he is bringing prosperity to Venezuela,
proving that socialism and capitalism can function side by side, showing
us that an evolved form of governance is the wave of the future.

Mr. Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution is a monumental attempt to introduce a
new approach to humanity, proving that in the 21st century new ways of
thinking are needed if we are to survive as a civilization.  Venezuela is
a shining example of what is possible if the desire exists to help all the
citizens of a nation, not just those already made wealthy. The triumph
currently taking place in Venezuela, in the wake of tremendous odds, is a
triumph of the human spirit, a story of one man and an entire population
seeking to rid themselves both of market colonialism that has for years
robbed them of an opportunity at better lives and of a corrosive system of
castes that gives wealth and privilege to one group while subjugating and
oppressing another.

Never in Latin America has democracy tasted so sweet, its nectar helping
to give birth to an enthusiasm and an optimism seldom, if ever, seen. The
Bolivarian Revolution spawned by Hugo Chavez has given hope to countless
millions, granting millions more the bravery to confront America and its
vast tentacles of market colonialism that has devastated the entire
region. No longer scared of America's might, no longer afraid to challenge
the status quo, many leaders adopting Chavez's Revolution are changing the
rules of the game, pursuing the interests of the nation, not the
multinational conglomerate, thwarting the rules of trade imposed by
America, establishing laws to protect the indigenous population,
nationalizing what was once threatened to be privatized, rewriting
contracts that were once one-sided and vastly exploitative, resulting in
the complete pillage of natural resources and their revenues.

Chavez has stood up to the bully from the north, standing upright and
never relenting, unafraid of Bush and his corporatist friends, becoming a
pariah to millions and a hero to billions. He continues his Revolution
under constant threat from America, sacrificing his energy and possibly
his life for a movement he strongly believes in, furthering the cause of
justice, fairness, solidarity and equality. It is those leaders that
selflessly confront dangers and threats to both life and limb that are
true heroes, becoming the torches chosen by destiny to carry the light
that guides our way, becoming the messenger of a change in the human
condition that must inevitably come. Chavez is one such leader.

Into history's navel has Hugo Chavez been born, becoming a breath of fresh
air in an otherwise stale and dank environment. Hated by the wealthy for
being a brown-skinned mestizo and not a member of the European elite,
hated by America for eroding its market colonialism, born into poverty and
hardship, the democratically elected president of Venezuela has altered
the landscape not only of Latin America, but of the world as well. His
vision and movement continues to gain traction, becoming the domino effect
always feared by America. He is pushing into new horizons, changing the
landscape of social class and hierarchy, granting opportunity and
education and health and escape to hundreds of millions of people.

Finally in Latin America a personality has emerged willing to alter the
status quo, fighting for the rights of the majority, equalizing a field
that for 500 years has been anything but equal. Into history has his
Bolivarian Revolution entered, gaining traction, extending its existence,
becoming a thorn in the side of America. Will it survive the attacks from
the Evil Empire that will surely and inevitably come? Will it establish
itself as a new philosophy for a new millennium or will it quietly
disappear with the passage of time? Will Hugo Chavez live to see what
becomes of his wonderful Revolution?

The answers to these questions are sure to come in what appears to be a
grand moment of tectonic rumbling between two diametrically opposed plates
of belief rapidly headed on a collision course that will in the next few
years show us what we are and where, if anyplace, we are headed. In this
coming clash of philosophies, either the one that has ruined the lives of
billions will declare victory, or the one that offers hope and a future
for all will triumph.  Either the Revolution will continue to evolve, or
it will cease to be televised.

We can only hope the will and the voices of the People prevail. After all,
freedom and democracy are, according to George W. Bush, inherent rights
guaranteed to every nation and every citizenry, even to those that do not
obey and bow down to the decrees of Empire.

[Manuel Valenzuela is a social critic and commentator, international
affairs analyst and Internet columnist.  His articles as well as his
archive can be found at his blog,
http://www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com and at
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info as well as at other alternative
news websites from around the globe. Mr. Valenzuela is also author of
Echoes in the Wind, a novel. Mr. Valenzuela welcomes comments and can be
reached at manuel [at] valenzuelas.net]


--------7 of 7---------

 BushCo, jackel-mean,
 snake-sly, vulture-soul-ugly,
 is the face of death.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
                     over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02
              please send all messages in plain text no attachments



  • (no other messages in thread)

Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.