We are in the throes of a velvet revolution and once again most are oblivious. #msg-10515954
These are not normal immigration demonstrations. I have put in bold some interesting connections in the three following excerpts.
Leslie Cagan is connected to Castro who is connected to Chavez who is connected to Iran and China. Most everyone is connected to the World Social Forum.
All of this is somehow linked to our show of military force in the neighborhood of Venezuela and Cuba. #msg-10586704
When today’s massive immigration rally gets underway in Holy Week Washington, look for Fidel Castro.
While Castro may be there only in spirit, pro-Castro activist Leslie Cagan is part of the nuts and bolts behind the burgeoning rallies.
Leslie Cagan Co-chair of United For Peace and Justice Member of the Communist left since the 1960s Founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group of the Communist Party USA Ran a think tank promoting Castro's dictatorship Set up Iraqi Occupation Watch to encourage U.S. troops to defect and undermine the US effort
Leslie Cagan is the co-chair of the large anti-war coalition United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), which consists of more than 650 local and national groups joined together "to oppose our government's policy of permanent warfare and empire-building." She was an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group rooted in the Communist Party USA. A strong supporter of Fidel Castro, Cagan is a committed socialist and longtime activist who proudly aligns her politics with those of Communist Cuba. Over the past three decades, she has mobilized millions of demonstrators in rallies denouncing America's foreign policies; its military-related spending; and its purportedly virulent racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Cagan has often praised Castro's Cuba, which she considers a far better place than the United States. During her seven years as director of the Cuba Information Project, she led numerous demonstrations demanding that the U.S. end its economic embargo of, and travel ban to, Cuba. "In the winter of 1969-70," Cagan fondly recalls, "I spent over two months with the First Venceremos Brigade in Cuba. Just ten years into their revolution, the Cubans had taken control of their history. . . . While we were in Cuba, Fred Hampton and other Chicago Black Panthers were murdered. It was a shocking reminder of the brutality and power of the U.S. government, and there we were in Cuba, a whole nation under attack from the U.S. As Brigadistas we were taking a risk traveling in defiance of Washington's travel ban, but we knew the risk was small compared to what Cubans and so many others around the world faced every day." The Venceremos Brigades were organized by Castro's Cuban intelligence agency, which trained some "brigadistas" in guerrilla warfare techniques, including the use of arms and explosives. Among the supporters of the many pro-Castro rallies that Cagan has attended or helped organize are such socialist entities as Casa de las Americas, the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Workers World Party, and the Young Socialists.
Cagan condemns what she calls America's "daily assaults and attacks on poor and working people, on women, people of color, lesbians/gays and other sexual minorities, the disabled and so many others." She strongly opposed the U.S. 2003 military strike against Iraq, which she characterized as nothing more than a thinly veiled oil grab. "Oil is not worth war!" read Cagan's UFPJ Website. "How much is the Bush administration's push for war with Iraq motivated by its desire to gain control of Iraq's oil fields?"
Cagan was a signatory to the Not In Our Name (NION) statement denouncing America's declared war against terror, which began in Afghanistan. "Let it not be said," reads the NION document, "that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. The signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world."
The following is dated but it shows Cagan's UFPJ is aligned with the World Social Forum and has used them in the past. Given the connection between our present disturbances that are in large part the product of Cagan and the World Social Forum it is obvious they are still working together.
This year, activists with the nationwide U.S. peace coalition United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) say they will urge the World Social Forum to again help bring the world’s “second superpower” – masses of people – into the streets against the Bush administration’s unilateral war and occupation policies.
• UFPJ is mobilizing for demonstrations around the U.S. on March 20, the first anniversary of the U.S. war on Iraq, and UFPJ activists will urge the World Social Forum to support March 20 as a day to “say no to war” around the world.
World Social Forum gathers in India Search WWW Search pww.org
Archive Recent Editions 2004 Editions Jan 17, 2004 Author: Special to the World People's Weekly World Newspaper, 01/15/04 13:17
Prospect of split parliament looms over Italy Apr 10, 2006, 20:20 GMT
Rome - The risk of a split parliament loomed over Italy on Monday after provisional results showed that Romano Prodi looked set to gain control of the Chamber of Deputies and Silvio Berlusconi prevailing in the Senate.
Prodi's centre-left Union coalition and Berlusconi's House of Freedoms appeared to be neck-to-neck according to projections.
But while the centre-left enjoyed a bigger chance of prevailing in the lower branch of parliament, the centre-right could yet gain a majority of seats in the upper branch.
This is because two different systems of allocating seats are in place in the two Houses.
In the 630-strong Chamber of Deputies, the winning coalition is assured a workable majority of 340, regardless of what size its victory is, thanks to a 'seats bonus'.
There is also a 'seats bonus' in the Senate, but here it is decided on a region-by-region basis. The outcome in this vote would depend on a number of swing regions, including Lazio and Campania.
A split parliament would force opposing forces to form a German-style grand coalition or call for fresh elections. A third alternative would be to create a technocratic government similar to those that ruled over Italy in the early 1990s.
Initial exit polls had predicted a clear advantage for Prodi in the Chamber of Deputies.
Preliminary results, confirmed by the vote count still underway, nevertheless showed a sharp drop in support for Berlusconi's Forza Italia party and a strong showing by Prodi's two-party Ulivo formation.
Political analysts blamed Forza Italia's poor showing on Berlusconi's failure to deliver on the promises of prosperity he had made in 2001.
Italy's gross domestic product has grown at an annual average of just 0.8 per cent since 2001 while the budget deficit is set to exceed the eurozone's limit of 3 per cent of GDP for the fourth year in a row.
'Berlusconi simply failed to deliver on the well-being that he had promised,' said James Walston, a political science professor at Rome's American University.
Berlusconi had led the country's longest-serving government and the largest parliamentary majority in post-war Italy.
The Interior Ministry put turnout at just under 84 per cent - compared to 81.4 per cent in 2001 - a high figure that showed voters had turned out in mass at polling stations.
The vote followed a bitter election campaign that saw Berlusconi attempt to lure voters with the promise of more tax cuts while warning Italians against voting for Prodi and his communist allies.
His strategy appeared to have failed, with the strongest showing within his coalition coming from the moderate Union of Christian Democrats Party (UDC), which had sought to distance itself from the outspoken premier throughout the election campaign.
Italian expatriates were for the first time allowed to vote, electing 12 MPs and 6 senators to the new legislature. Their votes were being counted separately.
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