Page 710 – Toward Freedom

Honduras: U.S. Criticised for Recognising Post-Coup Poll

Matthew Berger December 1, 2009 Matthew Berger

(IPS) – On a sunny Sunday afternoon in Washington, DC’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, about 50 protestors lined up outside a polling station where voting was taking place to help select the next leader of a country almost 3,000 kilometres away.

Monday, in Foggy Bottom, the controversial U.S. policy of recognising the results of the Honduran elections remained unchanged.

"We recognise that there are results in Honduras for this election…We recognise those results," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela told reporters Monday. read more

New Study Asserts Climate Change Will Increase Conflicts in Africa

Cyril Mychalejko December 1, 2009 Cyril Mychalejko

African Union Troops

Darfur just may be the tip of the melting iceberg. A new study suggests that if world leaders fail to reach a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen to curb climate change Africa will be ravaged by more wars and corpses in the coming decades.

Report From Honduras: Elections As Coup Laundering

Jesse Freeston and Tamar Sharabi November 30, 2009 Jesse Freeston and Tamar Sharabi

The Honduran Coup regime rode police state repression into the November 29 elections hoping for clean slate. Only the governments of Taiwan and the United States sent international observers, and the delegation funded by the US State Department arrived at the Electoral Tribunal at the same time the leaders of all six independent human rights monitors in Honduras were delivering their request that the elections be suspended.

Supporter of Coup Wins Election in Honduras

Democracy Now! November 30, 2009 Democracy Now!

Source: Democracy Now!

In Honduras, a prominent supporter of the coup has won the nation’s presidential election. Porfirio Lobo, a rich landowner, received 55 percent of the vote. The election comes five months after the Honduran military ousted the democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya. The leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and other Latin American countries say Sunday’s presidential election is invalid because it was backed by the coup leaders and could end any hope of Zelaya returning to power and completing his term, which is due to end in January.But the United States has vowed to recognize the results. No pro-Zelaya candidate ran Sunday due to a boycott of the elections called by Zelaya. Human rights groups reported widespread abuses by the Honduran military and police ahead of Sunday’s vote. In the city of San Pedro Sula, soldiers used water cannons and tear gas to break up a march by 500 unarmed protesters. On Saturday, 50 masked soldiers and police raided a collective of farmers and small scale agricultural producers known as Red Comal. read more

Purpose in the Struggle: A Woman’s Journey Underground and Back

Dana Barnett November 25, 2009 Dana Barnett

Diana Block's memoir, Arm the Spirit: A Woman's Journey Underground and Back, is an example of a leftist making sense of the world around her, attempting to act with integrity, and searching for political strategy and home. In prose as engaging as a good novel Block depicts her childhood, her politicization, her coming out, her search for the right political program, her experiences with partnering and parenting, and the day to day details of life underground. At the same time the book offers a wealth of history lessons.

Unpredictable Futures: Stories From Worker-Run Factories in Argentina

Benjamin Dangl November 24, 2009 Benjamin Dangl

Following the social upheaval in Argentina in 2001-2002 a book was published in Spanish that a lot of activists and independent journalists in the country began trying to get their hands on. It wasn't in all of the bookstores, but news about it traveled like wildfire. Now the legendary book, Sin Patron: Stories From Argentina's Worker-Run Factories, is translated and available to the English-speaking world.