Serious address to climate change: Internationalist, Socialist program —O’Connor

Climate Change
Catastrophe 

Beyond theater of distraction
Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Lower carbon emissions; restructure energy generation, industrial and agricultural production and urban and international transport. Raise world population’s living standards [Patrick O’Connor]

“The climate change crisis stands as a damning indictment of the capitalist system,” Patrick O’Connor writes in an article published today at World Socialist Web Site.

Distraction sans solutions

“Climate scientists have long warned about the severe dangers of global warming, yet successive international summits of world leaders—including Bali, Indonesia in 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009, and Cancun, Mexico in 2010—have ended in farce. No binding agreement on reducing emissions has proven possible, with every government competing against the other to gain geo-strategic advantage and boost the profits of its own major corporations.

“At the same time,” O’Connor continues, “private ownership of the means of production stands as an insurmountable obstacle to the rational utilization of available technologies to address global warming.

“The major transnational oil conglomerates and other corporate polluters actively sabotage the adoption of any environmentally beneficial measures regarded as a threat to their profits.”

Climate Change and
Poverty

Catastrophe demanding

Bold action

“The only realistic perspective for addressing the climate change crisis,” O’Connor says, “is one based on an internationalist and socialist program.

“Within a democratically planned world economy—oriented toward satisfying social need, rather than maximizing profit and the accumulation of private wealth—the world’s scientific and technological resources can be harnessed in a rational manner.

“To adequately lower carbon emissions, a sweeping restructuring of energy generation, industrial and agricultural production, and urban and international transport is required, while at the same time ensuring a substantial increase in the world population’s living standards.”

Sources and notes

“The Labor-Greens carbon tax hoax” (Patrick O’Connor), July 6, 2012, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/carb-j06.shtml

Patrick O’Connor is Socialist Equality Party candidate for the state seat of Melbourne (Australia) and a regular contributor to WSWS, writing extensively on international and Australian politics, including Canberra’s neo-colonial operations in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2010, O’Connor headed the SEP’s senate slate in Victoria; in October 2007, he was an SEP candidate in the federal seat of Grayndler and in the same year in March an SEP candidate in the New South Wales state seat of Marrickville. O’Connor, age 32, is a member of the SEP national committee. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/occo-j19.shtml

Images
http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/infobank/climate_change
http://lakeeconomy.blogspot.com/2009/11/report-climate-change-crisis.html

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Waging war to raise capital

 "The official U.S. goal of sanctions —
stated publicly in May 1991,
but never authorized by the UN —
was to
overthrow the Iraqi government"
Poets against the War  

West’s attack on the Iran’s people

Editing by Carolyn Bennett

Making ordinary people suffer and struggle for jobs and for food so that one can protect one’s political capital is not the most evil thing in the world —but it’s pretty high up on the list. [John Glaser, January 25, 2012]

July 2, 2012—Reuters

“This week alone,” Reuters reported the Iranian Labour News Agency saying “tens of thousands of Iranian workers in household appliance factories were in danger of losing their jobs and contracts for workers in automotive units had been reduced from one year to three months.”

Having joined the United States in its claim “to force Tehran to curb nuclear activities that Western powers say pose a military threat” (Iran denies this assertion), the European Union’s tightened embargo on Iranian crude oil took full effect on Sunday.”

These acts of warfare are reportedly bringing “social and financial hardship to millions of Iranians.”

They are deepening the economic impact of the early 2012 phase of sanctions and measures imposed on Iran’s central bank (as in the Bush/Clinton/Albright sanction war on Iraqi children) on people already suffering rising prices and falling jobs.

“Outside the government cushion,” Reuters reported, “inflation hit 21.5 percent for the year to March; firms have found import and running costs soaring as has unemployment”; and the official statistics do not capture “the full impact of rising prices for Iranian businesses and households.” Businesses of all types have come under threat resulting in loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

1993-2001

1989-1993

Unconscionable governance

“There was a long list of sanctions already imposed on Iran before this latest round,” Glaser noted in January, and “what is notable,” he said, “is that the Obama administration knows that sanctions are hurting the population and are unlikely to effect the policies of Tehran (which, to recap, are to develop nuclear power, as is their right, and to signal to their antagonistic adversaries that they’re technologically capable of getting nuclear weapons without actually developing them).

2001-2009

2009-

“So why impose sanctions,” he asks.

Congressional supporters of sanctions seem to suggest that the sole reason is a sadistic urge to harm innocent Iranians; but, Glaser says, “The administration’s view, at least as reported, is more nuanced.… They are always doing it … to satisfy pressures from Israel, AIPAC (the lobby, American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the U.S. Congress; and to avoid being painted …. This is after all an election year.”

But forcing “ordinary people to suffer and struggle for jobs and food to protect political capital,” Glaser says, is an act that rates high on a list of “most evil things in the world.”

Sources and notes

“Obama is Making Ordinary Iranians Suffer So He Can Get Reelected” (John Glaser), January 25, 2012, http://antiwar.com/blog/2012/01/25/obama-is-making-ordinary-iranians-suffer-so-he-can-get-reelected/

John Glaser

Assistant editor at Antiwar.com John Glaser discusses a variety of international affairs issues including “how the United States’ Middle East policy is geared toward maintaining a regional foothold and containing Iran, not exporting democracy” http://antiwar.com/radio/2012/05/14/john-glaser-26/

“Iranians feel the pain as West tightens sanctions” (Marcus George and Yeganeh Torbati,

DUBAI ), July 2, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/us-iran-sanctions-economy-idUSBRE8610Y020120702

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC, /ˈeɪpæk/ ay-pak) is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the United States Congress and Executive Branch. AIPAC’s current president, Michael Kassen of Fairfield, Connecticut, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Israel_Public_Affairs_Committee

Image: "The official U.S. goal of sanctions — stated publicly in May 1991, but never authorized by the UN — was to overthrow the Iraqi government," http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/category/tag/sanctions



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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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AI commits shockingly blind pro-war-anti-woman gaffe

Stop the War Coalition image

Inauthentic “progressives” support U.S./NATO war on Afghan people

Excerpt, editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

Stop the War Coalition posts Maine Codepinker Lisa Savage

“When Amnesty International held its ‘shadow summit’ in May 2012, calling for the continuation of the war in Afghanistan to protect human rights, one of the keynote speakers was former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, known infamously for having said half a million children’s deaths under sanctions in Iraq were ‘worth it.’”

At an Amnesty International film showing in London, a woman asks, ‘How can we help Afghanistan and its women?’

Amnesty International’s Afghanistan researcher Horia Mosadiq answers: ‘By putting pressure on your government to keep the troops in Afghanistan and not to withdraw them after 2014.’

[THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! That’s my response]

“Why is Amnesty International calling for more U.S./NATO war and occupation in Afghanistan?” Lisa Savage asks in an article posted today at the website of Stop the War Coalition.

Another Afghan woman leader
speaks out

“What women all over Afghanistan really need is an end to war, real security, respect for the law; food, clean water, and access to education.

“That would be authentic progress.”

Lisa Savage continues her report.

Afghan Women’s Fund leader Fahima Vorgetts is among a chorus of voices making what should be an obvious point: that more military or even policing does not represent more security for women.

“Afghan women are the victims of violence from three directions,” Fahima Vorgetts says:

NATO bombing, insurgents, and their own government, which protects religious groups and warlords in positions of authority, some of whom have private militias.

Those who commit crimes against women are not punished—laws protecting women’s rights are not implemented.

Eleven years of war has not changed the situation for women very much, “especially for women in rural areas; violence against women has escalated over the past few years.

Sources and notes

“Why is Amnesty International calling for more US/NATO war and occupation in Afghanistan?” (Lisa Savage), July 4, 2012, http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/afghanistan-and-pakistan/1652-why-is-amnesty-international-calling-for-more-war-in-afghanistan

Published on Tuesday, “At Afghanistan Summit This Week, Will Afghan Women Be at the Table?” July 3, 2012 by Common Dreams, by Lisa Savage,

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/03-7

Lisa Savage is a CODEPINK Local Coordinator in Maine and blogs about the war in Afghanistan at went2thebridge.blogspot.com.

Fahima Vorgetts had shared her view in a June 27, 2012, international conference call organized by CODEPINK

Contact Stop the War    Address: 1B Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ United Kingdom     E-Mail: office@stopwar.org.uk    Telephone: 0207 561 9311

Image

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/action-a-events/national-events/1579-july-4-independence-from-america-demonstration-us-base-menwith-hill

_____________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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We hold these truths

Declaration of Sentiments
Women's Rights Convention
Seneca Falls, New York
July 1848

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; 

that all men and women are created equal; 

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; 

that among these are life, liberty, 

and the pursuit of happiness; 

that to secure these rights governments are instituted, d

eriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, 

it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, 

and to insist upon the institution of a new government, 

laying its foundation on such principles, 

and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem 

most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” [excerpt]

We hold these truths to be self-evident

Compiled and edited 

by Carolyn Bennett

In Congress

July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Rights of Colonies
Paine, 1765

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

Original 13 British Colonies

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

The Equal Rights Amendment
1923

Written by suffragist leader Alice Paul 

Section 1: Equality of rights under the law 

shall not be denied or abridged 

by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce,
by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3: This amendment shall take effect 

two years after the date of ratification.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

1948

All human beings are born free and equal 

in dignity and rights. 

They are endowed 

with reason and conscience 

and should act towards one another 

in a spirit of brotherhood. [excerpt]

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the [1776] Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1

Georgia:

   Button Gwinnett

   Lyman Hall

   George Walton

Column 2

North Carolina:

   William Hooper

   Joseph Hewes

   John Penn

South Carolina:

   Edward Rutledge

   Thomas Heyward, Jr.

   Thomas Lynch, Jr.

   Arthur Middleton

Column 3

Massachusetts:

John Hancock

Maryland:

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Column 4

Pennsylvania:

   Robert Morris

   Benjamin Rush

   Benjamin Franklin

   John Morton

   George Clymer

   James Smith

   George Taylor

   James Wilson

   George Ross

Delaware:

   Caesar Rodney

   George Read

   Thomas McKean

Column 5

New York:

   William Floyd

   Philip Livingston

   Francis Lewis

   Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

   Richard Stockton

   John Witherspoon

   Francis Hopkinson

   John Hart

   Abraham Clark

Column 6

New Hampshire:

   Josiah Bartlett

   William Whipple

Massachusetts:

   Samuel Adams

   John Adams

   Robert Treat Paine

   Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

   Stephen Hopkins

   William Ellery

Connecticut:

   Roger Sherman

   Samuel Huntington

   William Williams

   Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire:

   Matthew Thornton

Sources and notes

"The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription," U.S. National Archives & Records Administration 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001, • 1-86-NARA-NARA • 1-866-272-6272

Page URL:  http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

Transcript unchanged from National Archives copy wordings, spellings, fonts, style, etc.

Accessed www.archives.gov July 4, 2012 

Images
Princeton library brings Revolutionary-era texts alive online
Posted July 2, 2012; 12:00 p.m.http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S34/08/93G96/index.xml?section=featured

Original 13 British colonies, http://www.westfield.ma.edu/personalpages/draker/edcom/final/webprojects/fa05/sectiona/colonies/index.html_______________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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REDD carbon trading belies its claims

An eco-cidally false solution to climate change, says Indigenous Environmental Network

From an IEN report edited with end comment by Carolyn Bennett

Corporations and their governmental and organization allies in the “carbon trading” enterprise decode REDD as “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation.” But Indigenous environmentalists define it differently because its centerpiece devastates huge numbers of people and every aspect of the environment, but especially indigenous peoples.

A bloody and mendacious record

REDD champions carbon markets engaged in buying and selling “allowances” or “carbon credits” to permit polluters to continue polluting. Carbon markets have two parts: emissions trading (also called “cap and trade”) and offsets (e.g., promise not to cut down forests and plantations or build a dam or plant a tree plantation under the “Clean Development Mechanism”). This scheme allows polluters buy their way out of reducing their emissions.

This is a multi-billion dollar trading scheme which privatizes and commodifies the earth’s ability to keep its atmosphere balanced.  Seen in one light, REDD opposes itself. It belies its claims.

REDD is, according to the Indigenous Environmental Network, “eco-cidal and a false solution to climate change that has helped push the Arctic, Amazon and Antarctic closer to the Tipping Point” and has helped “quicken the disappearance of 14 countries in the Pacific whose population is 90 percent Indigenous.” 

This is cultural genocide on an unprecedented scale. It has violated human rights through “killings, servitude, regimes of terror, forced relocation, arbitrary detention, loss of land and territory, loss of income, livelihood and food, destruction of homes and crops, and threats to cultural survival.”

Under carbon trading programs, “companies that release greenhouse gases can either agree to reduce their emissions or buy the right to keep on polluting.”

Polluters snatch, grab, plunder, destroy

Most of the world’s forests are on Indigenous Peoples’ land. Estimated in 2008, “1.6 billion people rely on forests, including 60 million Indigenous people, who are entirely dependent upon forests for their livelihoods, food, medicines and/or building materials.” And making forest carbon a commodity is inherently inequitable as it discriminates especially against women “who previously had free access to the forest resources they need to raise and care for their families, but who cannot afford to buy forest products or alternatives.”

The International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) has noted that “for generations indigenous peoples have managed to utilize forests’ resources in a sustainable manner.  

“Indigenous peoples have always regarded forests not simply as resources to be exploited but as the source of life and an integral part of [their] lives and lifestyles. Forests not only provide shelter and food to indigenous peoples but also form the basis of many cultures, having various spiritual and cultural values that cannot be expressed in monetary values. Many indigenous peoples derive their distinct identities from their relationship with the forests.”

So indigenous peoples see REDD differently from governments, the United Nations and their allies and corporate partners. To indigenous peoples

REDD means

Reaping profits from

Evictions, land grabs

Deforestation and

Destruction of biodiversity

Further, it means loss of land, scams, threats to cultural survival, militarization, gangsters, corruption of sacred spaces, plantations, GMO trees, clear cutting, and more deforestation

But it does not have to be this way, the Indigenous Environmental Network says.  Reducing deforestation requires

Demarcating and issuing title to Indigenous Peoples’ lands and territories where most forests and 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity are found because Indigenous Peoples have sustainably managed them for millennia!

Declaring and enforcing bans on deforestation

Addressing underlying causes of deforestation

Stopping large-scale monoculture tree plantations and agro-fuels production

Reducing demand for pulp and paper and restructuring the logging industry

Declaring moratoria on new fossil fuel exploitation, mega-hydro dams and metal and mineral extraction on Indigenous Peoples’ traditional lands and territories

Supporting non-market financial mechanisms for the full phase-out of fossil fuels development within and near traditional lands and territories of Indigenous Peoples (without nuclear power and with a just transition to sustainable jobs, energy and environment)

If this is too far out for some, it is certainly a good starting place in a shared global land.

Sources and notes

From the archives of http://www.ienearth.org/REDD/index.html

Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous Environmental Network was formed in the United States in 1990 by grassroots Indigenous peoples and others to address environmental and economic justice issues (EJ).

Its activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect Indigenous peoples’ sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, health of people and all living things; and to build economically sustainable communities.

The Indigenous Environmental Network maintains an informational clearinghouse, organizes campaigns, direct actions and public awareness; builds capacity in community and tribes to address economic justice (EJ) issues and develop initiatives to affect policy; and builds alliances among Indigenous communities, tribes, inter-tribal and Indigenous organizations, people-of-color/ethnic organizations, faith-based and women groups, youth, labor, environmental organizations and others.

IEN convenes local, regional and national meetings on environmental and economic justice issues, and provides support, resources and referral to Indigenous communities and youth throughout primarily North America but also worldwide. http://www.ienearth.org/about.html

_____________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Agreed internationally … revoked internationally: PRC’s Nasim Ahmed

UNSPEAKABLE CRUELTY
Editing, re-reporting by Carolyn Bennett

Palestinian Return Centre senior researcher Nasim Ahmed told Press TV there is a campaign afoot to further devastate displaced Palestinian

U.S., UK decide fate of uprooted Palestinians

 The U.S. State Department deciding in 2013 the number of Palestinian refugees from 1948 and those who are the descendents of the original refugees is, Nasim Ahmed said, “another ploy to dissolve the rights of Palestinian refugees; and Britain is jumping on this bandwagon.”

But he says this flies in the face of international law. It is “contrary to everything that is understood under international law as to who is a refugee and who is not a refugee.” The definition of refugee promulgated by the primary refugee body of the United Nations, the UNHCR, “is that any refugee —from Afghanistan or Senegal or Liberia— if they are refugees, their descendents will continue to be refugees until their situation is resolved by their return or some kind of resolution of their situation in agreement with the refugees.”

This is the agreed definition under international law but the United States is somehow trying to go against that. This is an unspeakable cruelty that leaves thousands of people wandering homeless, stateless.

 Humanity discarded

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides assistance, protection and advocacy for some five million registered Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory, pending a solution to their plight. But, Nasim Ahmed said

Palestinian refugees are simply not covered by UNRWA and there are also other classifications of refugees: those from 1967 and those who are continually being made refugees; there are 230,000 Palestinian homes that were demolished since 1967, which means an additional 150-200 thousand Palestinians who are not covered by UNRWA. 

Palestinians flee West Bank
The reason Palestinians are leaving the West Bank is that conditions under occupation are “intolerable.” Among the fleeing, this land’s brain drain, are people who are “highly educated, graduates, young people” seeing endlessly intolerable conditions under occupation in the next 10, 15, 20 years; and wanting something out of their lives. So they are fleeing.

Stateless in Norway, South America 

Refugees from Gaza flee settler violence in the occupied territory and find themselves in limbo in Norway. They cannot move freely, Nasim Ahmed said: “one of the points of being stateless is that when you’re seeking asylum, you’re not being allowed to leave the country until your status is somehow resolved.”

Stateless people can be forced out of Norway by the Norwegian government; but those who are stateless are prohibited from leaving “by their own accord. It would be extremely difficult for them,” he said. 

This situation was evident in images and reports emerging from the Arab Spring. Palestinians from Libya and Palestinians from Syria who are refugees from 1948 and living in exile are now being forced to neighboring countries. But they have nowhere to go. Some have fled to Brazil and some as far away as Argentina.

Being stateless means no country recognizes you.

“What is agreed internationally,” Nasim Ahmed concludes, “can only be revoked internationally: the rights of refugees, the rights of return.”



Sources and notes

“U.S., UK seek to dissolve Palestinian refugee rights,” July 2, 2012, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/02/249034/us-uk-seek-to-dissolve-palestinian-refugee-rights/

Nasim Ahmed is a senior researcher at the Palestine Returns Center. He says the United States and Britain “have attempted to rewrite the definition of a Palestinian refugee, going against the definition established by the United Nations.”

The Palestinian Return Centre specializes in the research, analysis, and monitoring of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their internationally recognized legal right to return. It is an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees. The organization offers expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Palestinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba: The catastrophe following the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948. The PRC also serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. http://www.prc.org.uk/newsite/en/about-prc/prc-mission.html

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=47

http://www.prc.org.uk/newsite/en/media/features-stories/2190-Educators-can’t-stay-silent-about-Israeli-apartheid.html
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Political wing of the wealthy governs says UK writer Owen Jones

More than a Grain of Truth

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

English writer and commentator Owen Jones is author of the 2011 widely promoted and acclaimed book Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. Before becoming an author, Jones worked as a trade union and parliamentary researcher. He took his undergraduate and graduate credentials in history at University College, Oxford.

I heard him for the first time on BBC’s “Broadcasting House.” These are some of Jones’s recent thoughts published in the UK Independent.

Conservatives and Co.

Reflecting also U.S. barely differentiable D/R parties

Since their founding “as a modern political force in 1834, Conservatives have acted as the parliamentary wing of the wealthy elite,” Jones writes.

Jones says when he was at university, he was “at an off-the-record gathering” where he heard a very senior Tory figure say, “‘the Conservative Party … was a

[c]oalition] of privileged interests its main purpose to defend that privilege; and the way it wins elections is by giving just enough to just enough other people.

“At the turn of the 20th century, many on the left thought that extending the franchise to working-class voters would inevitably lead to the victory of parliamentary socialism.” It didn't happen.

Britain’s General Union (GMB) founded in 1889 and comprised of  more than 617,000 members has revealed, Jones reports, “that almost a quarter of the top 1,000 wealthiest people in Britain have donated to the Tories” as “3.6 million children grow up in poverty” and in response the Tories “redefine child poverty.”

Party Politics Left and Right

In an earlier article “We’re now governed by the political wing of the wealthy,” Jones writes that the idea that the political wing of the wealthy governs is main-stream public opinion emblematic “of a divide between working people and rich elites.…

“The political power of the rich, often disguised and subtle,” he says, “has become more overt as the economic crisis has worn on.”

There clearly is a great difference between trade unions “bankrolling the Labour [think U.S. Democratic] Party”— millions of working people giving a small contribution from their pay packet in the hope of securing a political voice— and “multi-millionaires handing over huge donations and enjoying private dinners with the Prime Minister” [think U.S. Republican  or Democratic head of state]: “The political power of a supermarket checkout worker paying in to her trade union political fund is incomparably smaller than the influence of Michael Spencer, John Nash or Adrian Beecroft.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-born Michael Alan Spencer is a British businessman with an estimated fortune of £510 million, the chief executive of the world’s leading interdealer broker and owner of the spread betting firm City Index.

John Alfred Stoddard Nash is a British businessman and co-founder of private equity firm Sovereign Capital; and former chair of the British Venture Capital Association

Paul Adrian Barlow Beecroft is a British venture capitalist based in London; for many years Chief Investment Officer of the private equity group Apax; now Chairman of Dawn Capital.

However, Jones writes, “The real scandal of the link between unions and Labour [U.S. Democratic] is how little rank-and-file members have gotten in return.” [Emphasis added]

 

“We are governed by the political wing of the wealthy.”

As an keen observer of news and public affairs west of the North Atlantic who sees a state of affairs comparable to Owen Jones’s observations east of the North Atlantic, I’d say he’s hit on more than a grain of truth that, sadly, reflects British and U.S. politics and public affairs.

Sources and notes

“Working-class Toryism is dying and it’s taking the party with it —Thatcherism’s trashing of communities created a culture of anti-Toryism in swathes of the country” (Owen Jones), June 15, 2012, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-workingclass-toryism-is-dying-and-its-taking-the-party-with-it-7851880.html

“We’re now governed by the political wing of the wealthy — Cruddas’s pledge to donors gives an insight into how power works in Cameron’s Britain” (Owen Jones), March 30, 2012, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/owen-jones-were-now-governed-by-the-political-wing-of-the-wealthy-7601024.html

Dr Jonathan Cruddas (born April 7, 1962) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2001, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Cruddas

Owen Jones cont:

Born August 8, 1984, in Sheffield, England, now living in London, writer and commentator Owen Jones is categorized as being associated with the political left. His Chavs “addresses the British working class; the ‘chav’ stereotype was popular when the book was published.”

Owen Jones bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones_(writer)

Broadcasting House

After the segment in which Jones participated, reviewing the papers in this July 1, 2012, edition of “Broadcasting House” were: forensic scientist Sohom Das, comedian and actress Wendy Wason, and former BBC correspondent Nick Jones. BH is a Sunday morning magazine program with news and conversation about the big stories of the week, presented by Paddy O’Connell, http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01k9n7x/Broadcasting_House_01_07_2012/

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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