Looking back, Venceremos is
pleased with the event schedule and turnout for 2008.
Stay tuned for upcoming events after the new year.
Let's make 2009 more productive than ever!
(Seoul) The
Grand National Party independently held a meeting of the National
Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee and
submitted a ratification agreement bill Thursday for the South
Korea-United States free trade agreement. As a result, the FTA concluded
and signed by the governments of South Korea and the United States on
June 30, 2007, will enter the actual ratification procedure after one
year and five months. But a considerable amount of trouble is expected
before the ratification is settled in the plenary session, as the
Democratic Party is expressing stubborn opposition, including the
occupation of the assembly speaker’s office in protest.
Wall
Street’s financial meltdown marks the end of an era. What has ended is
the credibility of the Washington Consensus – open markets to foreign
investors and tight money austerity programs (high interest rates and
credit cutbacks) to “cure” balance-of-payments deficits, domestic budget
deficits and price inflation. On the negative side, this model has
failed to produce the prosperity it promises. Raising interest rates and
dismantling protective tariffs and subsidies worsen rather than help the
trade and payments balance, aggravate rather than reduce domestic budget
deficits, and raise prices. The reason? Interest is a cost of doing
business while foreign trade dependency and currency depreciation raise
import prices.
Having captured the imagination of progressives across the globe with
scenes of indigenous uprisings confronting right-wing governments and
multinationals, Bolivia has become a key focus point of discussion
within the left regarding strategies for change.
However, starry-eyed notions and schemas rather than reality have often
influenced the views of left commentators on the revolutionary process
unfolding in South America’s poorest nation.
At
the centre of this debate is the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), led
by indigenous President Evo Morales, and its strategy for refounding
Bolivia.
After three years of the Morales government it is possible to draw some
tentative conclusions about this social experiment.
But, you may ask, won’t the powers that be step into the breach again
and abort the crisis before it gets a chance to run its course? Yes,
certainly. That, by now, is standard operating procedure, and it cannot
be excluded that it will succeed in the same ambiguous sense that it did
after the 1987 stock market crash. If so, we will have the whole process
to go through again on a more elevated and more precarious level. But
sooner or later, next time or further down the road, it will not
succeed… We will then be in a new situation as unprecedented as the
conditions from which it will have emerged.
—Harry Magdoff and Paul Sweezy (1988)
Protests, riots and
clashes with police have overtaken Greece for the sixth straight day
since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy in Athens Saturday
night. One day after Wednesday’s massive general strike over pension
reform and privatization shut down the country, more than a hundred
schools and at least fifteen university campuses remain occupied by
student demonstrators. A major rally is expected Friday, and as
solidarity protests spread to neighboring Turkey, as well as Germany,
Spain, Italy, Russia, Denmark and the Netherlands, dozens of arrests
have been made across the continent. We speak to a student activist and
writer from Athens.
Guest: Nikos
Lountos, Greek activist and writer. He’s with the Socialist Workers
Party in Greece and a graduate student in political philosophy at
Panteion University in Athens.
Venezuela recently experienced gubernatorial elections to decide the
composition of state governorships and mayors throughout the country,
with the exception of the state Amazonas. The elections and their
aftermath demonstrated two contradictory dynamics of Venezuelan
politics: a maturing institutional democracy that allows for the
transfer of political power through the rule of law, and simultaneously,
a society marked by an acute class struggle over political and economic
power.
This report will be
broken into five sections: (I) the context in which the elections took
place; (II) an analysis of the campaigns of both blocs of power (III)
the electoral process (IV) the electoral results and their political
implications and finally; (V) a panorama of the latest phase of
development of the Bolivarian Revolution.
A
foreign guy living in Korea will get his fair share of stares. For the
most part, the stares will only be malicious for one of two reasons.
First, some Korean guys don’t like to see non-Koreans with a Korean
girlfriend. Second, far too many Westerners come to Korea and spend
lots of time on the streets in drunken stupors, acting foolishly. Both
reasons are valid, I suppose, and understandable, especially the
latter.
More often than not, though, the stares will be directed in a
kindhearted way. So many Korean people (men and women) will openly tell
a foreigner that they think he is handsome. I was the proud recipient
of this compliment many times, especially when I first arrived here. It
feels nice if it’s not overdone. Stares are the result of the fact that
we foreigners simply look different. Many Koreans desire Western
features including light hair, big, deep set (preferably blue) eyes,
noses with high bridges, low cheek bones, and small faces in general.
The list goes on. These superficial desires are not only the cause of
the cosmetic surgery phenomenon that has swept the land of the
morning calm in recent years, but also the tendency for the natives
to look at someone who’s not Korean just a little bit too long
sometimes.
First
and foremost, I’d like to congratulate my Venezuelan brothers and
sisters for their strong democratic turnout on November 23, 2008. Once
again, which is becoming a commonality within the decade-long Bolivarian
Revolution, the people of Venezuela, in record numbers (11 out of 16.8
million registered voters), voted freely and fairly in regional and
municipal elections all over the country.
President Hugo Chavez’ United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 17
of 22 state governorships. This is an increase of two from the amount of
governorships the PSUV previously held. The PSUV also won elections for
mayor in 81% of municipalities throughout Venezuela.
(Read more.)
In
an act of solidarity, Stic Man of the political rap duo Dead Prez agreed
to sit down and answer a few questions from Venceremos. Personally, I
have to say I’m a huge fan of these guys’ music and social projects, so
I’m really energized to be a soldier on their side of the battlefield in
the war of ideas. We especially appreciate Stic Man doing this
interview because he, as he readily admits, is the producer of the group
while his partner, M-1, is the natural people person. Good lookin’ out,
Stic.
If you aren’t familiar with
Dead Prez’s music, they are self-described revolutionaries with a
gangsta twist. Their aim is not only to educate the masses with their
music, but also to encourage us all to “take the next book from the
shelf and get hip to shit most [people] would skip through” (Food,
Clothes, and Shelter, Turn off the Radio Mixtape Vol.1). Venceremos
believes the same thing. Young people have to start reading more. The
masses need to form truly educated opinions about the world and how it
works. Get angry about it. Fight to change it. (Read
more.)
In
The Good Fight, written in 2004, Ralph Nader invites us to join
him on his justice-fighting campaign by outlining why we should, and how
we can, get involved. For anyone who has thought that their government
was not working for them; that the current system is leading to a
spiraling decline of our community, environment, and justice system;
that the priorities of our “elected”
leaders have been outrageously misguided; that they somehow would like
to get more involved and didn’t
know where or how to begin, I encourage you to give The Good Fight,
a very readable 275 pages, a solid look. (Read
more.)
As
a child born in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s, my life has been
shaped by the legacy of the U.Ks fist ever female Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher, the woman more commonly known as ‘The Iron Lady.’
I use
the word ‘legacy’ because what is even more significant than the intense
misery she inflicted on the British working class during the twelve
years she was in power, is the social consequences of her policies we
are now witnessing more than eighteen years later.
As Korea
confronts it's own Margaret Thatcher figure, Lee Myung bak, they should
listen to the testimony of a person who has seen this path walked before
and lived with the ugly consequences.(Read
more.)
The
other day, I was reading a debate on a political discussion board among
some people I know in America. They were going back and forth
passionately, one fighting for Obama, the other for McCain, as if their
lives depended on a victory for their candidate. No real issues are
discussed aside from who has the better tax plan, which has been on
everyone’s minds since Joe “the plumber” came into our lives. Even then,
it wasn’t really about the numbers. The main issue of concern was
whether or not Obama was a Socialist. Not only is he a black man. Not
only is his middle name Hussein. Now he is something far worse, a
Marxist who’s interested in, dare I say? Spreading the wealth!
(Read more.)
Latin America is experiencing
a profound era of change. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa summed it
up when he proclaimed that the geo-political titanium plates are
shifting and that what Latin America is experiencing isn’t merely an era
of change but also a change of eras.
It would be wrong to just
lump all of the different governments together as some media
commentators do when they refer to the “pink tide” – when there are
roughly three categories of government: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The good being the “Good Left” or the social democratic left that uses
progressive rhetoric but doesn’t challenge the system but merely
attempts to provide it with a human face. The bad being the “Bad Left”
or revolutionary governments that are taking on their domestic oligarchy
and the US imperialism and attempting to alter the institutional
framework of struggle which gives it an anti-capitalist dynamic. The
ugly being the governments that have made no attempt to break with the
past in enforcing neo-liberalism, poverty, exclusion and the loss of
national sovereignty with brute force. Despite these differences, there
is, nevertheless, a certain unity in pushing forward the integration and
independence of the continent. (Read
more)
I
live in a country that produces some of the world’s most cutting edge
technology. The students who live on this modest peninsula, which is
inconspicuously wedged between Japan and China, are among the world’s
most academically apt. The country’s literacy rate flirts with 100
percent, and the education system here quietly churns out some of the
world’s best standardized test scores. The city in which I dwell is a
growing hub of economic and political activity and culture in East Asia
and around the globe. One can walk the streets here to find delightful
museums and art galleries, or to eat at top class restaurants. Over 80
percent of residences here have broadband internet and South Korea was
the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access
from every primary, junior, and high school. The list goes on to
explain scores of other reasons why a modern traveler might want to
visit, or even live in South Korea.
All this
being said, there is one glaring problem that needs to be addressed
here. Without question, this society is on the right track as far as
becoming a global leader in many aspects. The social characteristics of
Korea, however, remain medieval in numerous ways. Today, I’d like to
inform you about some of the ways in which the past and the present are
mixing together to create a highly toxic situation in this small country
in East Asia. Further, I’ll evaluate the measures being taken to stifle
this situation, and explain what the final outcome could look like for
the Korean people in the future. (Read
more.)
In
the Latin American country Colombia, peasants and activists are
regularly threatened, arrested, and killed by the Colombian army and
pro-government “paramilitaries”. It has been revealed that South Korean
corporation Hyundai has contributed to this oppression.
Andres Gil and Miguel Gonzalez, of the Peasant-Farmer Association of the
Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC), are two of the most recent victims of the
Colombian government’s repression. The ACVC is a grassroots organization
that organizes cooperatives and community-based development projects,
defends human rights, and fights for the right of peasants to stay on
their land. (Read more)
Gerardo Hernandez,
Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez
are The Cuban Five. This nickname was given to these Cuban patriots who
were unjustly imprisoned, in 1998, by the United States government for
investigating terrorist organizations in South Florida. The acts of
violence The Five were trying to gather information on were conducted by
anti-Cuban terrorist and terror organizations residing in the U.S.
Atrocities committed by Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Alpha 66,
Comandos F4, Brothers to the Rescue, Omega 77, Movimiento Democratico,
CORU, Accion Cubana, Brigade 2506, the Cuban American National
Foundation, and more have led to the deaths of over 3,000 Cubans,
including many foreign tourists vacationing in Cuba throughout the past
40-plus years. Because these terrorists were organizing and operating
with complete impunity from the U.S. justice system, the Cuban
government needed to do something in order to protect its citizens from
being murdered. (Read more.)
George
Orwell’s masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four envisioned a world
constantly at war. This
concept of total war as Orwell envisioned it served several functions
within his dystopian society. Crucially though, it served to pacify a
potentially rebellious population by keeping them in a state of constant
fear of an intangible, but very real enemy, unifying the people behind
‘Big Brother’ in the process.
Consider
the major ‘enemies’ of the West since George Orwell’s death in 1950.
Having already crushed the ascendancy of nationalist based fascism with
the downfall of Mussolini and Hitler in World War II, the Western world
faced a new and slightly less tangible ‘evil’: communism. The icy
specter of the Cold War hung over the world for decades with massive
repercussions both on the political landscape domestically and across
the globe before the eventual terminal decline of the U.S.S.R and its
communist empire. Yet just as the end of the 20th century saw
the sun setting on the Soviet Union, the 21st century gave
birth to the next ideological evil: Islam.
(Read more.)
Most,
if not all, religions are present and instilled within individuals
starting at birth. Starting at a very early age, populations are taught
the ideas of their respective religion, to accept it as truth, and
ostracized if they do not. As people grow older within their societies,
they learn that not only is this belief predominant within their own
family, but also the common belief of the majority of their society. The
fill-in-the-blank religion is really just a question of region combined
with history. This strength in numbers, this status quo, leads people to
feel uncomfortable with, and often disgusted by, the presence of another
inferior system of beliefs.
Further, (the diversity of) religion has been the leading cause of death
and suffering throughout history. People have been laughed at, judged,
banished, ridiculed, persecuted, enslaved, and even burned at the stake
(or other murder le jour)… time and again… in the name of… religion.
(Read more.)
In
2004, at the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama titled his keynote
address, The Audacity to Hope, after a phrase taken from a sermon
by his good friend and pastor, Jeremiah Wright. In this sermon, Rev.
Wright stresses the audacity, the nerve, to continue to hope when living
in a world of greed and famine, of apartheid and apathy; essentially a
quiet hell. Obama so loved this phrase that he titled his 2006
campaign-igniting book by the same phrase. At the time, this was an
inspiring idea and an inspiring man to rally around.
Yet “audacity
to hope”
is a campaign slogan with an all too familiar bottom line and far too
much empty rhetoric. He talks of America, both past and present, as if
it were a beautiful beacon of participatory democracy that just needs a
change in leadership, and the “dream”
would be revived from its nightmare. (Read
more)
The
recently finalised prisoner/ body exchange between Israel and its
Lebanese and Palestinian neighbours is as good a case study as I can
remember of the mainstream media's tainted portrayal of the strife
ridden conflict zone.
It underlines why Israel is winning the 'public relations war', why it
continues to garner so much international support in spite of its
frequent disregard for human rights and international law.
(Read more)
The
newly elected neo-conservative regime of President Lee Myungbak has been
humbled by the spontaneous emergence of a mass movement, which was
sparked by female middle school and high school students, but which has
seen the largest and longest sustained demonstrations since the fall of
the military dictatorship. The mass protests are primarily against the
imposed resumption of the importation of US beef but have, in the course
of their development, tapped into latent anger of the Korean population
against the implementation of the government’s
neo-liberal agenda. (Read more)
Debates
on the future of Europe are all too often stripped down to the black and
white terms Europhile or Eurosceptic, suggesting that you are either
with or against Europe. Speaking as someone who falls into the
ludicrously simplified pigeon hole of pro-European, I would say the
debate is no longer about whether you are pro or anti-Europe, rather it
is about what kind of Europe you want.(Read
more.)
First
and foremost, I’d like to congratulate my Venezuelan brothers and
sisters for their strong democratic turnout on November 23, 2008. Once
again, which is becoming a commonality within the decade-long Bolivarian
Revolution, the people of Venezuela, in record numbers (11 out of 16.8
million registered voters), voted freely and fairly in regional and
municipal elections all over the country. 
In
an act of solidarity, Stic Man of the political rap duo Dead Prez agreed
to sit down and answer a few questions from Venceremos. Personally, I
have to say I’m a huge fan of these guys’ music and social projects, so
I’m really energized to be a soldier on their side of the battlefield in
the war of ideas. We especially appreciate Stic Man doing this
interview because he, as he readily admits, is the producer of the group
while his partner, M-1, is the natural people person. Good lookin’ out,
Stic.
As
a child born in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s, my life has been
shaped by the legacy of the U.Ks fist ever female Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher, the woman more commonly known as ‘The Iron Lady.’
The
other day, I was reading a debate on a political discussion board among
some people I know in America. They were going back and forth
passionately, one fighting for Obama, the other for McCain, as if their
lives depended on a victory for their candidate. No real issues are
discussed aside from who has the better tax plan, which has been on
everyone’s minds since Joe “the plumber” came into our lives. Even then,
it wasn’t really about the numbers. The main issue of concern was
whether or not Obama was a Socialist. Not only is he a black man. Not
only is his middle name Hussein. Now he is something far worse, a
Marxist who’s interested in, dare I say? Spreading the wealth!
I
live in a country that produces some of the world’s most cutting edge
technology. The students who live on this modest peninsula, which is
inconspicuously wedged between Japan and China, are among the world’s
most academically apt. The country’s literacy rate flirts with 100
percent, and the education system here quietly churns out some of the
world’s best standardized test scores. The city in which I dwell is a
growing hub of economic and political activity and culture in East Asia
and around the globe. One can walk the streets here to find delightful
museums and art galleries, or to eat at top class restaurants. Over 80
percent of residences here have broadband internet and South Korea was
the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access
from every primary, junior, and high school. The list goes on to
explain scores of other reasons why a modern traveler might want to
visit, or even live in South Korea.
In
the Latin American country Colombia, peasants and activists are
regularly threatened, arrested, and killed by the Colombian army and
pro-government “paramilitaries”. It has been revealed that South Korean
corporation Hyundai has contributed to this oppression.
George
Orwell’s masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four envisioned a world
constantly at war. This
concept of total war as Orwell envisioned it served several functions
within his dystopian society. Crucially though, it served to pacify a
potentially rebellious population by keeping them in a state of constant
fear of an intangible, but very real enemy, unifying the people behind
‘Big Brother’ in the process. 
Most,
if not all, religions are present and instilled within individuals
starting at birth. Starting at a very early age, populations are taught
the ideas of their respective religion, to accept it as truth, and
ostracized if they do not. As people grow older within their societies,
they learn that not only is this belief predominant within their own
family, but also the common belief of the majority of their society. The
fill-in-the-blank religion is really just a question of region combined
with history. This strength in numbers, this status quo, leads people to
feel uncomfortable with, and often disgusted by, the presence of another
inferior system of beliefs. 
In
2004, at the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama titled his keynote
address, The Audacity to Hope, after a phrase taken from a sermon
by his good friend and pastor, Jeremiah Wright. In this sermon, Rev.
Wright stresses the audacity, the nerve, to continue to hope when living
in a world of greed and famine, of apartheid and apathy; essentially a
quiet hell. Obama so loved this phrase that he titled his 2006
campaign-igniting book by the same phrase. At the time, this was an
inspiring idea and an inspiring man to rally around.
The
newly elected neo-conservative regime of President Lee Myungbak has been
humbled by the spontaneous emergence of a mass movement, which was
sparked by female middle school and high school students, but which has
seen the largest and longest sustained demonstrations since the fall of
the military dictatorship. The mass protests are primarily against the
imposed resumption of the importation of US beef but have, in the course
of their development, tapped into latent anger of the Korean population
against the implementation of the government
