By Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Bill Tarrant ( November 22, 2007), Reuters

“Epidemics may not be directly linked to temperature (change), but it is a consequence of migration, which creates chances for disease to spread.”

HALF THE WORLD AT RISK

Although the study cited only periods of temperature decline to social disruptions, the researchers said the same prediction could be made of global warming.

A report last week said climate change will put half the world’s countries at risk of conflict or serious political instability.

International Alert, a London-based conflict resolution group, identified 46 countries — home to 2.7 billion people — where it said the effects of climate change would create a high risk of violent conflict. It identified another 56 states where there was a risk of political instability.

“I would expect to see some pretty serious conflicts that are clearly linked to climate change on the international scene by 2020,” International Alert secretary general Dan Smith told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Near the top of the list are west and central Africa, with clashes already reported in northern Ghana between herders and farmers as agricultural patterns change.

Bangladesh could also see dangerous changes, while the visible decline in levels of the River Ganges in India, on which 400 million people depend, could spark new tensions there.

Water shortages would make solving tensions in the already volatile Middle East even harder, Smith said, while currently peaceful Latin American states could be destabilized by unrest following changes in the melting of glaciers affecting rivers.

Unless communities and governments begin discussing the issues in advance, he said, there is a risk climate shift could be the spark that relights wars such as those in Liberia and Sierra Leone in west Africa or the Caucasus on Russia’s borders. Current economic growth in developing states could also be hit.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Published  Friday, August 24, 2007 World Socialist Website

By Naomi Spencer

Hurricane Dean swept through the Caribbean and into Mexico this week, killing at least 25 and causing extensive damage to homes and infrastructure. In addition to Mexico, the countries of Belize, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, and other islands of the Lesser Antilles, were impacted by flooding and winds up to 256 kilometers per hour.

The storm passed through the Caribbean and made landfall in Mexico as a Category 5 storm. It was the most intense Atlantic hurricane to hit land since 1992, and the third-most intense Atlantic storm to hit land since the 1850s, when these figures were first recorded.

The storm weakened to Category 1 on August 21 as it moved over the Yucatan Peninsula and into the southern Gulf of Mexico, where it re-strengthened into a Category 2. After making a second landfall in central Mexico August 22, Dean weakened to a tropical storm and caused damage mainly in rural areas. The region remains vulnerable to flash flooding and mudslides from up to 20 inches of rain.

Most press reports have concentrated on the fate of Mexican oil installations and tourist hot spots throughout the region, which were spared all but the most minor damage as Dean skirted around major cities. As market analyst Donald Light put it to the Dow Jones MarketWatch on Tuesday, “That gentle breeze you feel this morning is the collective sigh of relief from the US insurance industry as it watches the current storm track of Hurricane Dean.”

Preliminary estimates put the economic cost at $750 million to $1.9 billion from the hurricane, figures that only account for insured property in the region.

However, insured property damage is only a fraction of the social cost of the storm. Details from some of the worst affected areas are scarce, but those that are available clearly illustrate the vulnerability of long-impoverished populations.

The Mexican government has yet to issue an official damage report for the Yucatan region, where thousands live in huts constructed of sticks and grass. However, an Associated Press report August 23 portrayed the mainly Mayan communities there in a state of ruin and virtual abandonment by the government two days after landfall.

“Thousands of Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan peninsula,” the AP reported, “but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and broken in the storm’s wake. Village after village is carpeted with fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be harvested.”

“If I just sit and wait until they help me, I’ll die waiting,” one resident told the AP. “If I wait, with my hand out, who’s going to give me food, and where am I going to cook it? I’d rather start working, first.”

“There isn’t even any corn to eat,” another survivor said, waiting in line for government trucks to arrive—which reportedly brought only bottled water and thick blankets.

In the state of Quintana Roo, where Dean first made landfall in Mexico, much of the impoverished Mayan population refused to evacuate out of distrust for the Mexican military. Cahetumal, the state’s low-lying capital and home to nearly 137,000, was flooded and left without electricity. Across the state, one million hectares (2.47 million acres) of crops were destroyed. The city of Carmen, situated between the coast and a lake, saw significant flooding that damaged hundreds of homes.

In the central Mexican states of Hidalgo and Veracruz, 50,000 people have been left isolated, two people were killed, and 250,000 hectares (617,750 acres) of crops were lost. Torrential rains in Mexico City continue to threaten parts of the city with flooding.

In Jamaica, where Dean was responsible for four deaths, entire neighborhoods have been blown apart and inundated with mud. Damage was particularly acute in poor neighborhoods, where houses are built of sheet metal, plywood scraps, and other makeshift materials. Many houses built after the island was devastated in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan were torn apart.

Despite the insecure housing construction, most Jamaicans remained in their homes rather than government emergency shelters, apparently out of fear of violence in the shelters—as happened in previous hurricanes. Three-quarters of the 1,000 shelters remained vacant throughout the storm.

Aid agency Oxfam estimates that as many as 300,000 Jamaicans have been displaced by Dean, and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency estimates that anywhere from 15,000 to 60,000 families in Jamaica require immediate assistance with home repair, water, food and shelter. For its part, the Jamaican government—which, by comparison, puts the number of damaged houses at only 1,600—promised to distribute housing materials, bedding, and food to the first 600 people who visited the prime minister’s office.

Electricity remains out across the entire island, according to British-based Christian Aid workers in Jamaica, and downed cell towers have made communication difficult.

Roads are blocked by trees and other debris in Jamaica’s capital of Kingston, and some roads were washed out by sea sand, including the one connecting Kingston to its major airport. According to the National Solid Waste Management Authority, the agency’s road clean-up efforts are crippled by a shortage of trucks; for the entire island, the government has only 20 trucks.

Water shortages are a mounting problem in Jamaica’s residential areas. Public water distribution has been damaged, and hospitals are receiving priority trucking of water.

Destruction of agricultureThe agricultural sector of Jamaica, as throughout the Caribbean, has been all but destroyed. Bananas are a key export for the Caribbean, and replanting or repair of damaged trees will take several years.

Agriculture minister Roger Clarke stated that Dean destroyed all of Jamaica’s major export crops, and the growing areas of the south have suffered “major dislocation.” Clarke pointed not only to the physical destruction of farmland and the financial ruin of farmers and venders, but also to the growing reluctance of international financiers to reinsure and do business with the Caribbean.

Although Jamaica, along with 18 other Caribbean nations, signed on to a catastrophic risk insurance program introduced by the World Bank in February, bank officials stated that damages from Dean were not significant enough to trigger a payout. Officials declined to disclose what the minimum damage would have to be.

Likewise, on the national level, a special “Catastrophe Fund” established by the agriculture ministry was deemed by minister Clarke as “too young” to compensate for the disaster. Clarke suggested farmers work through local organizations to cope, rather than expecting government help in the event of catastrophic crop loss.

Haiti lost major portions of its banana, bean, and yam crops to wind and salt water on its southern coast. Government officials have yet to survey the area or pledge aid. Christian Aid workers in Haiti report that drinking water and food—especially baby food—are badly needed, along with bedding, building materials, and agricultural supplies.

As one farmer explained in Monday’s Miami Herald, “They come, they take our names, but they never offer any help… Here we live on bananas; we have nothing else…. We are merely peasants.”

Nearly three-quarters of the Haitian population depends upon agriculture, which employs over two thirds of the nation’s labor force for extremely low wages. Largely as a result of US policy, the Haitian population is perpetually exposed to humanitarian crises.

Elsewhere, populations now face similarly disastrous situations. In Martinique, virtually all banana-growing operations and 70 percent of sugar cane plantations were destroyed, according to a French government assessment. The Martinique agriculture minister told the Associated Press that many farmers may decide not to replant, commenting, “They don’t know which saint to devote themselves to anymore.”

On nearby Guadeloupe Island, most banana plantations were also destroyed. Banana producers union president Eric de Lucy told France Info radio August 18, “There are considerable economic consequences for this sector because there is not a single banana plant left standing in Martinique and more than 80 percent of the banana plantations in Guadeloupe are affected.” De Lucy predicted production would not resume for seven months, and then only at half previous levels. An estimated 10,000 agricultural workers have been put out of work there.

St. Lucia prime minister Stephenson King described the agricultural devastation as permanent. “From what we have seen, farmers may have to start all over again as the last of the banana industry may have been wiped out.”

Published on Sunday, July 01, 2007 by VHeadline.com

By Franz J. T. Lee

University of Los Andes (ULA) professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: Venezuela is currently the most politicized country in the world … just about everybody talks and debates politics. However, in one thing all the workers agree, they do not know what precisely socialism is. So many simple people have contacted us; they would like to to know what really is socialism; well, let us introduce the debate: the Mission Socialism.

The starting point is the following; if one knows what is the quintessence of capitalism, is aware of its five bull-dozers, then the answer itself is a revelation, it is so very simple, so down to earth; it could scare the hell out of many infiltrated faked “Bolivarians,” capitalist wolves in socialist red clothing. Also in Venezuela, over the decades not only what is socialism but also what is capitalism have disappeared from the official educational agendas and curricula.

Thus, in Venezuela, like anywhere else, in the current epoch of globalization, of world imperialist military aggression and of corporate genocidal vandalism, more than ever before in order to understand what is socialism, … that is, logically, scientifically and philosophically, … the conditio sine qua non is simply to know with incisive precision exactly what is capitalism.

It is imperative to know what is this system in which so many millions live, toil and die like flies. For a worker, it could be so easy to sense, experience and understand what is capitalist reality; however, as a result of centuries of a psychological bombardment of formal logics, of merciless mind and thought control, of big lies, ideological indoctrination and religious manipulation very few of us are still able, can dialectically really negate this apocalyptic world order consequently and categorically.

What could any worker in any factory or industry in Venezuela observe or experience daily?

First, to survive he needs money, an exchange value, a commodity to sell; without money he and his family would eventually perish in utter misery and dire poverty. Long ago, at least his ancestors still had lands, some cattle or pigs, even forests and rivers, communal means of social production. Now he has nothing, only his skinny bones, meager face and ailing muscles, that is, his physical labor force.

In the “Third World,” in Venezuela, this is his product, his merchandise, his bodily energy which is landing on the labor market to be bought, to be exchanged for money and later for basic life necessities. As such he is being exploited economically, he earns a pittance, a minimum salary. This just about reproduces his labor power for tomorrow, it enables him to keep the bodies and souls of his pauperized family together. We should not forget that this is the electoral basis, the heart-beat of the Bolivarian revolution.

The worker notices that his boss is getting richer and richer every day and that he himself is getting poorer by the minute. Also he realizes that the fact of being a boss, of having factories, which employ thousands of workers and of paying meager salaries to his wage-slaves, are the concrete generators of the skyrocketing accumulation of perverse wealth, social privileges and political power of his master. The worker makes his calculations and discover that he is being robbed, that industrial labor is robbery, that the bosses are vampires that live on blood-sucking of their exploited workers.

If the Bolivarian Revolution does not touch these profound depths of human injustice, democracy will become an empty word. Hence, more and more the workers do not feel at home anywhere, neither in their cerros or favelas nor at their work places. In “Capital,” the “Grundrisse” and in the “Philosophic and Economic Manuscripts,” Karl Marx has explained this exploitative process in economic detail, in the very scientific tradition of Aristotle, Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus.

A “Mission Political Economy” would be very helpful to understand what socialism means in the epoch of globalization. In a nutshell, this is the “patrix” of capitalism in Venezuela, in fact, anywhere else. This is economic exploitation of man by man, of man and nature. This is the epicenter of the alternative: Socialism or Barbarism. Its bloody trail we can follow from pre-colonial societies that used slave labor to construct pyramids and “great walls,” to the minting of coins in Lydia, to the Oracle of Delphi which served as as ancient bank, to the discoveries and conquest of Carlomagno, of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, to Christianization, to militarization, to genocide of the indigenous peoples, to the bloody construction of the world market, to the Bermuda Triangle of unequal exchange, in brief, to global economic exploitation of the workers of the world.

This is the first thing that any modern revolutionary or socialist must know, must tell the workers and what must be negated unconditionally.

For centuries this was the quintessence of emancipatory education in the world, in Venezuela. The worker, the sovereign, must know that s/he is being exploited economically in capitalism. For too long the capitalist bosses of the world and their loyal Quislings were telling productive lies to billions of workers about the seven world wonders of capitalism, of heaven to come here and in the hereafter.

In reality they meant the coming of a possible atomic “hereafter.” The fact of the matter is that capitalism has failed, and is already bombing humanity towards the brink of the Moloch of self-annihilation, of total extinction. Second, capitalism as a mode of production dominates, domesticates and destroys nature, women, workers, children and slaves. Across the ages the diverse ruling classes were developed all the necessary mechanisms to dominate the world politically.

In his famous classic “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,” Friedrich Engels long ago has already explained the essential dominating political characteristics of the bourgeois, democratic, capitalist State. In his book “State and Revolution,” Lenin described the role of the State in the epoch of imperialism. In his book “1984″ George Orwell predicted the coming authoritarian, totalitarian, global fascist State, that is, the world military dictatorial hegemony of the USA already in total political control and domination of the United Nations.

In the “Caracazo,” in the violation of political freedom and expression, in the defense of private property of the means of survival, in double standards of justice, in allowing the big fish to jump overboard while the small fish perish in the cesspools of stinking dungeons, a politicized working class can easily identify the political domination by the capitalist State. The State produces the necessary social conditions for economic exploitation of the natural and social resources, it fabricates the appropriate “peaceful climate” for investments and super-profits, it guards and defends the interests of the national and international ruling classes. Individual national states may weaken, may even vanish, but there is no capitalist mode of productive destruction and of destructive production, no class society without political domination, without a State power.

In most previous social revolutions the ancien regime, the decaying State apparatus, brutally still defended itself. In some cases, like in Russia, it even succeeded in restoring the capitalist status quo ante rem . All over the State has smashed popular rebellions and lower class uprisings. As we know, by means of a “reign of terror,” aided by the guillotine, the new democratic, bourgeois, capitalist State was born. The best examples of capitalist political domination is all that which is currently happening in the Middle East under the Yankee-Israeli war boot.

Also here in Venezuela across the last decades we have experienced the political domination of capitalist, oligarchic master-slave relations. Third, along with the accumulation of capital progressively came religious prejudice, “race apathy” and racism, including its fascist vocabulary: a “chosen people,” camel drivers, pagans, natives, coolies, kaffirs, slit eyes, Aryans, a Herrenvolk, whites, white angels, Europeans, Christians, Westerners and Northern Civilized gods.

Out of master-slave labor relations logically social discrimination, that is, racism, developed. With the victory of the bourgeois capitalist revolution, the ideology of racism and its corresponding Apartheid and Zionist practices were born.

In fact, racism and capitalism form a Siamese twin, the one cannot exist without the other. Racism is the ideological reflection of the world market, of globalization. There is no capitalist mode of production without inherent racism, and vice versa. To eradicate racism, we have to annihilate capitalism and vice versa.

The regime of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki did not annihilate capitalism in South Africa, more that ever racism is rife. In fact, the ordeal of the millions of poor Africans is worse today than even under fascist Apartheid. His the revolutionary masses in Venezuela are beginning to understand, they try to liberate themselves as “tin collectors,” from their existence as “parasites” (Manuel Rosales). Hence racism, social discrimination, is a central element of capitalism in Venezuela and elsewhere.

Fourth, historically, the whole coming into being of capitalism, discoveries, Christianization and colonization, is one huge heinous military act, a brutal conquest, local, national and global terrorism, economic violence, political genocide, social holocaust, historical omnicide.

The birth, development and agony of capitalism have hundreds of millions of innocent victims. Also in Latin America, in Venezuela, capitalism has claimed millions of precious lives, all for the sake of establishing the world market, for profits, privileges and power.

In the capitalist mode of production, as Rosa Luxemburg already under-lined, militarism, war and genocide are big capitalist businesses and they are essentially anti-proletarian; currently the war industry and global wars generate big business for the current multinational giant corporations and they are central in the gigantic battle for future global hegemony. The workers of Venezuela sense the coming military intervention, and this is why more and more they become anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-reformist, they negate the current corporate world order.

Fifth, finally, all these motors of capitalism produce the destruction of human thought, reason and existence, the workers become totally alienated, they lose themselves. Obsolete religion, contagious ideology, big lies, ruling class education, socialization for barbarism, toxic privately owned means of communication, stereotypical customs and military behavior patterns are converting millions into lost Pavlov dogs, into Zombies pasted to mortal cellphones, and millions of drugs and pills destroy the very human fiber of the species. This process is alienation, the total destruction of the human species and therewith life on planet earth.

This is the most vicious and virulent crime of capitalism, not only in Venezuela but across the globe.

In pre-colonial times, among others, the ancient Arab and African materialists and the Chinese and Indian dialecticians have given us a method, a mode of thinking to identify with scientific precision what is what. They taught us what is dialectical identification and differentiation, that is, how to affirm and how to negate, how to be simple philosophic emancipators.

It is a matter of knowing what is capitalism. Capitalism is economic exploitation, political domination, social discrimination, universal militarization and total human alienation.

Any world system that contains these essential elements is capitalism.

Now, when we say NO to capitalism, when we negate its aggression, oppression, repression, depression and suppression, we have no interest in reproducing them on another level. According to dialectics, saying NO is to confront something with its direct opposite, with that what it is not.

WHAT IS NOT CAPITALISM?

It is its opposite, it is not socialism. There we have the definition of socialism.

Socialism is not capitalism, it is not economic exploitation, political domination, social discrimination, universal militarization and total human alienation.

Hence, as yet, socialism as a mode of creation and creativity has never existed anywhere on earth. Like in Vietnam and Cuba, we still have heroic experiments but in many cases, with the aid of the United Nations capitalism has either placed an economic boycott on the country or has corrupted its leadership or it even has nipped the revolution in the bud.

There is only one real, true, human socialism: the negation of this capitalist mode of production and destruction, of the hell of corporate globalization. It will take some time for the Bolivarian revolutionaries to understand this concept of revolution, of modern socialism, nonetheless, capitalism itself will teach us what precisely is its opposite, its arch-enemy.

Socialism does not give to Bush, to the State, what belongs to State, and to God, what belongs to him. Socialism does not give anything to obscure fantasy, it is emancipatory Man himself. Already capitalism, by separating Church and State, drove God out of the State and replaced him with Reason.

Venezuela: To know what is socialism is to know what is capitalism.

This is the only sensible, stringent concept of socialism with which we could construct scientifically and philosophically the new, that which has never existed before, the emancipatory home of the new (wo)man.

Franz J. T. Lee
franz@vheadline.com

http://www.vheadline.com/lee

by Michael Moore

Friends,

It’s a wrap! My new film, “Sicko,” is all done and will have its world premiere this Saturday night at the Cannes Film Festival. As with “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11,” we are honored to have been chosen by this prestigious festival to screen our work there. My intention was to keep “Sicko” under wraps and show it to virtually no one before its premiere in Cannes. That is what I have done and, as you may have noticed if you are a recipient of my infrequent Internet letters, I have been very silent about what I’ve been up to. In part, that’s because I was working very hard to complete the film. But my silence was also because I knew that the health care industry — an industry which makes up more than 15 percent of our GDP — was not going to like much of what they were going to see in this movie and I thought it best not to upset them any sooner than need be.

Well, going quietly to Cannes, I guess, was not to be. For some strange reason, on May 2nd the Bush administration initiated an action against me over how I obtained some of the content they believe is in my film. As none of them have actually seen the film (or so I hope!), they decided, unlike with “Fahrenheit 9/11,” not to wait until the film was out of the gate and too far down the road to begin their attack. Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, launched an investigation of a trip I took to Cuba to film scenes for the movie. These scenes involve a group of 9/11 rescue workers who are suffering from illnesses obtained from working down at Ground Zero. They have received little or no help with their health care from the government. I do not want to give away what actually happens in the movie because I don’t want to spoil it for you (although I’m sure you’ll hear much about it after it unspools Saturday). Plus, our lawyers have advised me to say little at this point, as the film goes somewhere far scarier than “Cuba.” Rest assured of one thing: no laws were broken. All I’ve done is violate the modern-day rule of journalism that says, “ask no questions of those in power or your luncheon privileges will be revoked.”

This preemptive action taken by the Bush administration on the eve of the “Sicko” premiere in Cannes led our attorneys to fear for the safety of our film, noting that Secretary Paulson may try to claim that the content of the movie was obtained through a violation of the trade embargo that our country has against Cuba and the travel laws that prohibit average citizens of our free country from traveling to Cuba. (The law does not prohibit anyone from exercising their first amendment right of a free press and documentaries are protected works of journalism.) I was floored when our lawyers told me this. “Are you saying they might actually confiscate our movie?” “Yes,” was the answer. “These days, anything is possible. Even if there is just a 20 percent chance the government would seize our movie before Cannes, does anyone want to take that risk?”

Certainly not. So there we were last week, spiriting a duplicate master negative out of the country just so no one from the government would take it from us. (Seriously, I can’t believe I just typed those words! Did I mention that I’m an American, and this is America and NO ONE should ever have to say they had to do such a thing?) I mean, folks, I have just about had it. Investigating ME because I’m trying to help some 9/11 rescue workers our government has abandoned? Once again, up is down and black is white. There are only two people in need of an investigation and a trial, and the desire for this across America is so widespread you don’t even need to see the one’s smirk or hear the other’s sneer to know who I am talking about.

But no, I’m the one who now has to hire lawyers and sneak my documentary out of the country just so people can see a friggin’ movie. I mean, it’s just a movie! What on earth could I have placed on celluloid that would require such a nonsensical action against me? Ok. Scratch that.

Well, I’m on my way to Cannes right now, a copy of the movie in my bag. Don’t feel too bad for me, I’ll be in the south of France for a week! But then it’s back to the U.S. for a number of premieres and benefits and then, finally, a chance for all of you to see this film that I have made. Circle June 29th on your calendar because that’s when it opens in theaters everywhere across the country and Canada (for the rest of the world, it opens in the fall). I can’t wait for you to see it.

Yours, Michael Moore

P.S. I will write more about what happens from Cannes. Stay tuned on my website, MichaelMoore.com.

Lloyd D. McCarthy, author of “In-Dependence from Bondage: Claude McKay and Michael Manley: Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations,” is being interviewed by Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor of Reader Views.

Juanita: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today Lloyd. We are very interested in hearing about your book “In-Dependence from Bondage: Claude McKay and Michael Manley: Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora Relations.” Would you start by telling us what your book is about?

Lloyd: “In-Dependence” From Bondage is a new book about the worldviews of the well-known Afro-Caribbean novelist, and poet, Claude McKay and that of another well-known Afro-Caribbean politician from Jamaica, Michael N. Manley. Claude McKay’s works are believed to have ignited what is called the Harlem Literary Renaissance. Michael Manley was the Caribbean politician whose ideas and domestic and international political activity lifted the political awareness of many people in Jamaica, while raising concerns among powerful state and non-state international actors having some form of business or political relations with Jamaica.

“In-Dependence” pulls together the vision and ideas of McKay and Manley as expressed in their art, politics and writings. It highlights their struggles and desire for the self-determination of people in the African Diaspora and globally. “In-Dependence” From Bondage also examines the development of what today is called globalization (capitalism), through the worldviews of McKay and Manley.

Juanita: This is a very interesting pairing of two legendary Afro-Caribbeans – a poet and a politician. Why did you choose Claude McKay and Michael Manley?

Lloyd: I realized that both McKay’s art and Michael Manley’s politics have had a tremendous influence on people worldwide—ordinary people and the international elites. First, McKay’s 1928 novel, Home to Harlem, is believed to be the first book by an African-American writer to look at the lives of ordinary working class people living in Harlem.

Second, I wanted to understand what influenced the passion that one observes in the reading of McKay’s poetry. For example his famous poem, “If We Must Die” which was quoted by Winston Churchill during the Second World War, was used to motivate British troupes to fight fascist Germany.

Third, in the case of Michael Manley, here was a privileged Jamaican politician. Yet, he showed a tremendous understanding and passion for uplifting downtrodden people in Jamaica and internationally. He was a firm believer in true democracy and equality for all people.

Fourth, in spite of strong and powerful international and parochial opposition, Manley provided spectacular and unwavering leadership and support for the movement to overthrow all apartheid regimes in Africa—South Africa.

Finally, both Claude McKay and Michael Manley expressed a vision and showed a grasp of political affairs that was global in dimension. This sharply contrasted with the parochialism and nationalism exhibited by their peers, the majority of artists and politicians of their time.

Juanita: What were the similar world views of McKay and Manley?

Lloyd: Claude McKay and Michael Manley through their art and politics demonstrated that they were true globalists—firm believers in the inter-connections of the world and equality and justice for all people irrespective of race, color, class or creed.

First, they viewed international politics or international relations from a historical perspective—particularly the continuous development of Capitalism.

Second, they shared a common vision of bringing ordinary people to the social, economic and political dining table—to assert their deep democratic rights for liberty, equality, and justice.

Third, they were concerned about how power was distributed in society and between societies. I guess they believed in a just, fair and level playing field.

Juanita: What specific issues are addressed in your book “In-Dependence from Bondage”?

Lloyd: In-Dependence from Bondage, through the lens of McKay and Manley, culminates in the examination of the impact of globalization on human development in the African Diaspora in the current period—primarily after the end of the Cold War and between 1989 and 2003. Of course, globalization is capitalism, as led by a number of international institutions, primarily the World Bank.

Juanita: What type of research did you do to prepare for writing your book? How far back do you go in your book?

Lloyd: From the perspective of Claude McKay and Michael Manley, the analysis of the historical development of capitalism or globalization begins with Columbus’ landing on the Caribbean shores. This early history is provided as an appropriate historical context for McKay’s and Manley’s views. Manley in some of his own books, referenced this historical period.

I have used most of the written works of Manley and McKay, including biographies. Additionally, I have used McKay’s fiction and non-fictions. Home to Harlem, Banjo and Banana Bottom, as well as seven of his poems. In the study, I have also used several US declassified documents to gain further insight into historical events and the attitude of the political elites toward those events.

Juanita: “In-Dependence from Bondage” focuses primarily in a Jamaican context. How does it relate to the collective African Diaspora?

Lloyd: In-Dependence from Bondage is about the entire African Diaspora and McKay and Manley’s ideas. The Jamaican context is provided only so far as it enables one to locate Manley and McKay in their biographical and historical context. Their worldviews are worldwide in dimension. Can you talk about Mohandas Gandhi’s ideas without mentioning India, or discuss Martin Luther King Jr, without speaking about the African-American experience?

McKay’s most important works were influenced by his life and relationship with working class African-Americans and other immigrants in America. Manley’s international politics took him all over Europe, to Africa, throughout the Caribbean and to many countries in the Americas.

Their ideas are global, universal. In-Dependence from Bondage is therefore a book about their ideas for the African Diaspora, the oppressed people of the south and the worldwide dispossessed.

Juanita: Lloyd, would you explain your use of the terms North and South?

Lloyd: The North-South divide refers to the economic and political relations existing between developed nations, located primarily in the North and poor developing, oppressed nations, located primarily in the southern hemisphere.

Juanita: How is globalization affecting the African Diaspora and the South? (

Lloyd: The United Nations Human Development Reports for the period 1990 to 2003 provide empirical data to analyze how globalization is affecting the African Diaspora. The data shows that poor countries in the African Diaspora are experiencing a decline in their human development standards overall. In contrast, the rich countries of the north are achieving higher levels of human development.

Juanita: Who really is benefiting from globalization?

Lloyd: Countries in the North. Primarily their propertied and professional classes. And especially the Forbes Magazine’s 950 richest billionaires. Clearly not the poor, not the working poor, not landless peasants, not teachers or nurses, not the majority of the people in the African Diaspora and the South. The majority of the world’s working people are not reaping the benefits of globalization. Neither Michael Manley nor Claude McKay would be surprised by these trends.

Juanita: What were McKay’s and Manley’s thoughts on the struggle against Imperialism and the Global Elites? (

Lloyd: McKay and Michael Manley supported and defended the right of self-determination and deep democracy for all people oppressed and exploited by corporations, imperialism and the global elites.

Michael Manley was opposed to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and its failed attempt to colonize that country. Claude McKay wrote about the brutal aspects of America’s invasion of Haiti in his book Home to Harlem.

Juanita: Where does the United States fit in this context?

Lloyd: As Samir Amin put it, “the strategic convergence of national imperialisms is under the hegemony of the United States.” The move to entrench capitalism in the African Diaspora since the demise of European colonialism and the demise of the USSR, is being led by the business and political elites of the United States.

Juanita: Lloyd, at this point, is this a race issue or a class issue?

Lloyd: I read an article somewhere recently arguing that the problem of the 21st Century is still the problem of the Color. WEB Du Bois had suggested that the problem of the 20th Century was the problem of the color line.

There is a great element of truth in this analysis. While the American elite is known to have great philanthropists included in its numbers, the net effect of their collective economic and social policies is racist. They use racism as a strategic weapon against black workers, Hispanic workers and other workers of color as it suits them.

However, the war against all workers by the owners of capital has never ceased. American corporations are waging a war against all American workers by closing down their operations here and relocating to poor countries where they can reap the benefits of cheap labor.

Absolutely, the issue is race as well as class.

Juanita: Where are the biggest gaps in the African Diaspora relations?

Lloyd: Throughout “In-Dependence” From Bondage, I am alluding to the Policy Gap.

I believe the term was used by Robert Pastor, former national security advisor on Latin America (1977-81) under the Carter Administration. He was referring to the huge difference between US Global Policies and the “special relationship” that Latin America has tried to develop with the USA. He called it a policy gap.

I am referring to this policy difference.

First, it is the un-democratic policies that strengthen corporate rights and weaken people and their governments—undermining the deepening of democracy.

Second, it is the global policies of countries such as the USA that ignore Africa and Latin America—leaving Africa and Latin America to conclude that their countries and peoples would be better off if they are ignored.

Finally, it is those policies that are wasting billions abroad, while continuing to ignore the victims of Katrina here at home.

The well-known Caribbean journalist, Rickey Singh alluded to a blatant expression of this policy gap with respect to the Caribbean. He calls it the USA contempt for the Caribbean. It is expressed in a number of US policies toward poor countries, Latin America and the Caribbean. It is seen in the US’s policy on terrorism, immigration, trade and other economic relations. Consequently, the Public Relation (PR) trips of US Presidents to Latin America, the Caribbean or Africa, are seen as just that, another PR trip—too little too late!

Juanita: Is it possible for the peoples of the African Diaspora to survive globalization?

Lloyd: Yes, they will. After enduring a long period when the working masses are once again reduced to slave-like conditions; when the natural environment is more ravaged; and when human rights again are severely subordinated to the rights of capital and corporations, change will come. But the working people in the African Diaspora will not be alone. We can expect these conditions to appear in the ranks of the working people in the rich countries of the North as well.

These conditions are already here. Professionals in the North are already being reduced to the ranks of blue collar workers. And blue collars are being displaced, as manufacturing and service jobs are being sent to India and China in search of cheaper and cheaper labor.

Soon, which workers will be able to afford the products of their labor? Those in the South already cannot afford the products of their labor. Eventually, the workers of the North will find themselves in the same situation. This shift is inevitable with the net beneficiary being multi-national corporations. What then?

I do not believe that globalization is an ascendant world system, but a declining one. In the interim, it appears to be propped-up by militarism, vast cultural and intellectual propaganda, and the wasting away of millions of working people all over the world.

Juanita: Lloyd, you were born in Jamaica, an island that has produced many political, social, spiritual and significantly influential people through recent history? Why is this happening in Jamaica?

Lloyd: I do not believe that it is unique to Jamaica. Wherever injustice, immorality and barbarism are present, people such as Harriet Tubman, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and prophets will emerge from the people. Like-wise the Jamaican people, having endured hundreds of years of oppression—from slavery to globalization—produce visionaries such as Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Claude McKay and Michael Manley.

Juanita: Do you think there is viable possibility for the African Diaspora to reach “independence from bondage”?

Lloyd: It is not only a viable possibility; it is the inevitable outcome for which we struggle: self-determination and deep democracy for the people of the African Diaspora and the global masses.

Juanita: Do you offer any solutions in your book?

Lloyd: I personally do not prescribe solutions. However, as a product of western slavery, colonialism and imperialism and other forms of tyranny, I join the people of the African Diaspora in their demands for self-determination and deep democracy.

Claude McKay and Michael Manley made some very specific and general recommendations about how to achieve self-determination and deep democracy:

One, they advocated social and economic justice and Power for the world’s people not more power to big corporations.

Two, in the South and in the African Diaspora, everywhere they advocated a movement toward socialist globalization not capitalist, multinational corporations, globalization.

Three, they believed that media, owned and controlled by big corporations, serves corporate interest. The world’s masses, people in the African Diaspora and the South, must develop and control their own media and use it to further their collective educational, economic and political interests.

Four, McKay believed that labor unions, such as the AFL-CIO, controlled by establishment political parties serve the interest of their big financial bankers. Working people must establish and control their own labor unions.

Five, Manley advocated the formation of stronger African Diaspora, South-South economic corporations to reduce dependence on the current global economic powers and to advance their collective interest.

Juanita: Lloyd, what is the underlying message of “In-Dependence from Bondage”?

Lloyd: I believe that we are at another crossroad in history, like the ripening of the Civil Rights Movement, when with just a little more effort—struggle, a qualitative change in world affairs toward self determination and deep democracy can be achieved.

Or, at this juncture, a further erosion of the progress already made will occur. Our elites and the multinational corporations are moving aggressively to advance a global agenda, globalization– that is not in the best interest of working people in the African Diaspora.

Amidst all of this, there seems to be a great deal of apathy on our part, even among the so called progressive people in the African Diaspora. So, “In-Dependence” from Bondage is a wake up call to continue the struggle towards self-determination and deeper democracy. This is the underlining message of “In-Dependence from Bondage.”

Juanita: Lloyd, on a personal note, how have the lives of these two men influenced your own life?

Lloyd: Claude McKay and Michael Manley shook my consciousness. Through their lives, art and politics, they made me aware that the injustices personally experienced and observed—the condition of the poor and oppressed, worldwide—was not created by the will of “God,” but by the designs of men and the development of society. And it will take the will and struggle of men and women to change it.

I was first introduced to some of McKay’s poetry by my primary school (middle school) principal—Clinton R. Muschette (dec’d). I was introduced to the more romantic, less political ones, with the exception of “If We Must Die.” Strangely, that was enough to arouse my interest in McKay’s life and works.

Michael Manley introduced policies, in Jamaica, that made it possible for thousands of children of the working poor, like me, to obtain High School and College Education in Jamaica. Manley’s education reform program of the 1970s was only one of the numerous programs that he introduced to address the inequalities in Jamaica created by the legacies of slavery, colonialism and the post-independence polices of the governments before Manley’s time.

Juanita: How can readers find out more about you and your endeavors?

Lloyd: Readers can go to my web site: www.in-dependence.com. There they will find some internationalist-type articles and sometimes my personal commentary on current events.

Juanita: Lloyd, thank you for the opportunity to interview you for “In-Dependence From Bondage.” You have provided fascinating discourse that will certainly educate and shed light on very relevant global issues. We encourage readers to look for your book at local and online bookstores. Before we depart, do you have any closing thoughts?

Lloyd: The current political leadership in the South is working on alternative strategies to the present kind of globalization that we are talking about. Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are the first members of a new political and economic initiative called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).
The main goal of the “Bolivarian Alternative” is to lift the countries of the South out of the immoral and devastating level of poverty that is ravaging their populations.
The ALBA is led by Venezuela. It is an alternative to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which has benefited primarily multinational corporations in the North.

The Bolivarian Alternative proposes:

One, a continental literacy plan;

Two, a Latin American plan for free health care;

Three, an education scholarship program for Latin America and the Caribbean;

Four, a Social Emergency Fund;

Five, a Development Bank for the South;

Six, a Regional Petroleum Company; and

Seven, a regional media, communication and transportation: including plans for highways, trains, shipping, airlines and telecommunications.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Honorable Portia Simpson may soon sign on to the agreement. The people of the region welcome the initiative. This was a vision of Michael Manley. The Bolivarian Alternative, if successful, could well be the kind of initiative that shows people in the African Diaspora and in the rest of the world, how to cooperate to achieve self-determination and deeper democracy.

By In-Dependence.com

March 18, 2007

We are “shocked and awed” by the horrible story of a “Seven-year-old Child (Gerard Mungo Jr.), arrested, cuffed and fingerprinted” by the Baltimore, MD, City Police. Gerard, merely seven, reported that he was traumatized and frightened by his arrest. To multiply the injustice, the child reportedly was later taken in “handcuffed, photographed for a mug shot and fingerprinted”.

Gerard’s sitting on his bike near or on a public road reservation, could well raise some public safety and wellbeing issue. Such a misbehavior however, does not rise to the level of a crime warranting the draconian act of arrest, handcuffing and physical abuse of a 7-year old child! In a “civilized” society, we would expect the “Peace Officers,” if Peace Officers these … can be called, to explain to little Gerard Mungo Jr. the dangers presented by an underage child riding on the road. Next, professionally, the Police Officers would escort the child home. Then notify his parent(s) of the problems and consequences of leaving their child unsupervised, sitting on his bike on the side of the road.

The barbaric act against a Black 7-year old, by public officials in a city with a black Mayor and a black Commissioner of Police may be pointing to a larger societal problem–a severe crisis in America.

Well thinking persons may conclude that if public officials believe that a child can be abused with impunity in a “civilized” state, then such a society must be wobbling into deeper and deeper calamity. Imbibed racist values and its siblings, our dominant, redundant social, economic and political principles are the best explanation for the City of Baltimore’s shameful conduct. It is a sign of social bankruptcy!

If our society is morally bankrupt, it is a condition created by the germ of our dominant bankrupt social, economic and political worldviews. Thus Baltimore’s shame cannot be blamed on the offending policemen, only. Instead it must be laid squarely on the shoulders of our elites, whose ideas and standard of social conduct created the injustice that Gerard Mungo Jr. experienced in Baltimore.

 Caribbean National Weekly

 Written by Garth A. Rose PhD   

Belafonte stirs anger with latest controversial remark:

“Bush is the greatest terrorist in the world”

Entertainer and political activist Harry Belafonte have stirred anger in all circles with his latest controversial comment that President Bush is the world’s greatest terrorist. Earlier this week while in Venezuela, Belafonte, 78, who is now a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) goodwill ambassador called President George Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world.”

This controversial remark follows others made by Belafonte in recent years. In 2002, he referred to then secretary of state Colin Powell as being “a house slave” for being in the Bush administration, and last August at a march in Atlanta he referred to prominent black Republicans in the Bush administration, as “black tyrants.”

Belafonte who was in Venezuela leading a delegation of Americans meeting with Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, also claimed that millions of Americans support Chavez’s socialist revolution. During Chavez’s national radio and television broadcast on Sunday, January 8, Belafonte said, “No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we’re here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of American people … support your revolution.”

UNICEF said that they in no way support the comments made by Belafonte and that he made them as private citizen and not as a representative of the organization. American Association of Retired People (AARP) also condemned the statements, calling them “reckless and irresponsible”

Belafonte, who was once denied an apartment in New York City because he was black, and who then later bought the whole apartment, was closely allied to Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement in the early 1960’s. His experience with racism has made him an eloquent speaker on the need for racial equality in the United States.

It is a common, but incorrect belief that Harry Belafonte was born in Jamaica. Actually, Harold George Belafonte, Jr. was born in New York City on March 1, 1927. His father was from Martinique and it was his mother was from Jamaica. At age eight, Harry was sent to school (Wolmer’s Boys) in Jamaica, where he remained until he returned to High school in New York.

After serving for two years in the U.S. Navy he turned to career in entertainment. Many people know Belafonte as the one who made the musical genre, calypso, popular in America, and the “Banana Boat Song” or “Day-O” is renowned internationally. But, he was also a gifted actor. Among his many movies was his role in “Carmen Jones”, the first all-black movie that appeared in 1954. In 1956 Belafonte sold the first million-dollar album ever. The album, entitled “Calypso” on the RCA label, promulgated his singing career winning him many awards including a Grammy in 2000 for Lifetime Achievement. He also received an Emmy Award for his TV show “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”

However, in the latter years of his life Belafonte became more involved in supporting the cause for the world’s underprivileged. In 1985 he produced and sang in the Grammy-award song “We are The World”. He used the proceeds of this song to assist people starving in Ethiopia, and traveled the world crusading on behalf of social rights. In 1987 he was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and in 1988 the U.S. Peace Corp presented him with its Leader for Peace Award.

In his comments made in Venezuela, Belafonte is also reported to have stated that he is concerned about the large number of US citizens who lack basic benefits despite the level of technology and economic power in this country.

In reference to the administration’s slow response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s effect on New Orleans and other Gulf states, Belafonte was quoted as saying, “The United States has become a leader of the free world and an official part of its policy is to talk about human rights, and this is ironic and unethical.”

Up to press time there has been no reports from the Bush administration regarding Belafonte’s comments.

Jamaica Invited to Join ALBA

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA, (PL).— Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez invited Jamaica to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) on Monday as a way out of the crippling poverty that affects the overwhelming majority the population.

“We have come to invite you to join us in going beyond the existing integration mechanisms to form and continue strengthening a new opportunity for union,” said Chavez at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding on natural gas.

After meeting with Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson, Chavez confirmed that Caracas will cooperate with Jamaica in all the areas suggested by its government.

Chavez ratified his country’s readiness to supply gas to Jamaica to expand its bauxite industry and offered “to make an extra effort” to help in the production of aluminum, aluminum oxide and several alloys.

“Whenever Jamaica decides on it, we would look within the ALBA for the resources and technology to develop that chain; as we are currently doing in Cuba with steel, for instance,” said Chavez.

During a press conference, Prime Minister Simpson said her country “absolutely backs these principles and that’s why we promise to consider this ALBA proposal and discuss it further in the future.”

During their talks at the Half Moon Hotel, Chavez insisted that “unity is the key to develop large national businesses, quite different from the concept of the transnational.”

Chavez said the project would take off when refineries are built in Nicaragua and Panama and other countries and linked to Venezuela’s Paraguana oil refinery complex.

“These enterprises can become part of a productive business group to process oil for the market and to supply our countries and others.

“Only by joining efforts will we be really free, sovereign and independent, with our own political, economic and social model of development.”

Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are the current member countries of ALBA.

Source:http://granma.co.cu/english/news/art100.html.