[Marxistindia] Central Committee communique

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
May 30, 2008

Press Communique

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met in New Delhi on 29 and 30 May, 2008. It has issued the following statement:

On Price Rise and Hike in

Petroleum Product Prices

The Central Committee noted with deep concern the steady rise in prices and inflation. The wholesale price index has risen by 8.1 per cent. This figure does not really capture the actual rate of inflation. The price rise of essential commodities, particularly of food items, is becoming unbearable for the common people.

It is in this context that the proposed hike in petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices have to be viewed. Such a hike will have a cascading effect on price rise and heap further burdens on the people.

The CPI(M) and the Left parties have been suggesting a package of measures which would help to meet the steep increase in the international oil prices. These measures consist of: a) cut in import duty from five to zero per cent, b) reduction in excise duties and on petrol and diesel, c) setting up of a price stabilisation fund with the oil cess contribution, d) taxing the windfall profits being made by private oil companies and refineries, and e) an end to the import parity pricing system. It is unfortunate that the UPA government has not taken seriously these measures.

Alongwith the Central government's reduction of duties, the state governments should also institute cuts in sales tax and duties on petroleum products to relieve the burden on the people.

The UPA government cannot pamper the private oil companies while the public sector oil marketing companies are suffering.

The Central Committee expressed its strong opposition to any hike in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas. The Central Committee authorized the Polit Bureau to call for a countrywide protest movement in concert with the Left and secular opposition parties, if the government announces a price increase.

Steps to Curb Price Rise

The Central Committee expressed its strong dissatisfaction at the manner in which the UPA government has ignored the measures suggested by the Left parties to curb the price rise of essential commodities. The five steps suggested were: universalisation of the public distribution system and restoration of the cut in foodgrain allocation to the states under the PDS; curb on procurement of foodgrains from farmers by private companies and traders; ban on futures trading in essential commodities; cut in import duties and excise duties on oil and stringent action against hoarding.

The Central Committee call upon all its Party units to step up the anti-price rise agitation by taking up the specific local issues connected with the price rise and launching continuous struggles on such issues.

Farm Loan Waiver

The Central Committee considers the additional steps announced for farmers' debt waiver inadequate and will not help to provide substantial debt relief. The steps taken to write off 25 per cent of the dues or Rs. 20,000 whichever is higher for farmers having above two hectors in drought-prone districts is totally insufficient. Neither has the cutoff date of March 2007 being extended for claiming debt relief. The Central Committee demanded that full debt relief to be given to the farmers of dry land areas and raise the land holding limit to cover all small and medium farmers. The cut-off limit for the debt relief should be extended to February 2008.

Karnataka Election Results

The BJP achieved majority by winning 110 of the 224 seats. It has been able to form a government on its own in the state for the first time. This is a serious development when viewed in the background of the growth of the Hindutva communal forces over the last two decades in Karnataka. This growth was marked by continuous communal incidents and the targeting of the minorities. The secular forces must draw proper lessons from this development.

The immediate advantage gained by the BJP was solely due to the opportunist and unprincipled role of the Janata Dal (S). The formation of the coalition government with the JD(S) helped the BJP to come into government for the first time getting key portfolios. It utilised this effectively. The JD(S) has been marginalized in these elections due to its unprincipled compromise. The BJP utilised the JD(S) withdrawal of support as an act of "betrayal". The Congress party got progressively weakened. It had a divided leadership. The impact of the UPA government's policies has been negative with price rise and the agrarian crisis. A discredited Congress could not cash in on the collapse of the BJP-JD(S) coalition.

Rajasthan: Brutal Repression

The Central Committee strongly condemned the brutal and inhuman repression unleashed on the Gujjar agitation in the state. This agitation was sparked off by the Chief Minister's assurance to provide Scheduled Caste status to the community during the Assembly elections. Last year too, the agitation was sought to be suppressed with more than a score of people killed. This time, it is shocking that two days of police firings have led to the death of 41 persons. The BJP government has failed to tackle the issue by negotiations and a political settlement.

The Vasundhara Raje government has the notorious record of having conducted more than 50 police firings in which around 80 people have been killed in its four and a half year rule. After the latest massacres, the Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje should own up the responsibility and resign from the post of Chief Ministership.

Situation in Assam

The Central Committee noted with concern the continuing activities of extremist forces in Karbi Anglong and the North Cachar Hill districts which has led to violence and loss of lives. Extremist activities are occurring in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District too. The Assam state government is failing to maintain peace and tranquillity. These are areas which have suffered from long years of neglect. It is essential that immediate attention is paid for the development of these areas while taking steps to check the violence and maintain peace.

Women's Reservation Bill

The Central Committee welcomed the introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha. All efforts should be made to arrive at a common understanding so that the Bill can be enacted into law.

Closure of Vaccine Institutes

The CPI(M) strongly opposes the suspension of licenses of the three main vaccine producing units in the public sector, viz., BCG unit in Chennai, Pastuer Institute, Coonoor and Central Research Institute, Kasauli. Between them, these PSUs produce and supply the bulk of the vaccines for the important universal immunization programme. Their closure is a blow to self-reliance and paves the way for big private pharma companies. The Health Ministry must restore their licences with immediate effect and upgrade facilities.

West Bengal Panchayat Elections

The Central Committee greeted the people of West Bengal for supporting the Left Front in the three-tier panchayat elections. The Left Front has won 13 of the 17 zilla parishads and a majority of the panchayat samitis and gram panchayats. A noteable fact is that the Left Front has polled 54 per cent of the votes in the three-tier elections in the face of a complete gang-up of all the anti-CPI(M) forces. The Trinamul Congress- Congress- BJP-SUCI and other communal organisations came together particularly in the panchayat samiti and gram panchayat levels to fight the CPI(M) and the Left Front.

There have been some setbacks for the CPI(M) and the Left Front in certain districts and areas. The West Bengal state committee will be undertaking a detailed examination of the results and making a review. The apprehensions about land acquisition which has led to loss of support in some areas must be removed. The plan for industrialization must take this into account. Proper lessons must be drawn from the reversal suffered in certain areas. The disunity in the Left Front should be overcome and Left unity strengthened. The Central Committee is confident that remedial policy steps and organisational measures will be undertaken.

20th August Strike

The Central Committee extended its full support to the call given by the Central Trade Unions for a one-day general strike on the demands of the workers and employees.

Organisational Steps

The Central Committee finalized the work division of the Polit Bureau members and Central Committee members and the constitution of sub-committees.

The Central Committee elected a seven-member secretariat headed by the General Secretary. The other members are: Hari Singh Kang, Hannan Mollah, V. Srinivasa Rao, Nilotpal Basu, A. Vijayaraghavan and Jogendra Sharma. The last two are new members.

The Central Committee co-opted Amra Ram, member of the Rajasthan state secretariat and MLA to the Central Committee in the vacant seat in the Central Committee.

The Central Committee decided to have the Secretary of the Chattisgarh state committee, M. K. Nandi and the Secretary of the Uttarakhand state committee, Vijai Rawat, as invitees to the Central Committee.
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[Marxistindia] On Dealing with Rising World Oil Prices

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
28 May 2008

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

On Dealing With Rising World Oil Prices

The profits enjoyed by private oil companies in the country have increased along with increase in oil prices. Due to the selective policy of the Government, private sector companies both in upstream and downstream are enjoying windfall profits arising not due to extra business acumen or competitive business approach but due to the high global crude price.

With crude oil prices now exceeding $ 100 per barrel, it is necessary that windfall gains be recovered from all the private and joint venture oil producing companies like M/s Cairns, Reliance, Essar etc extracting oil and gas in India. When these contractors participated in the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), none of them could have envisaged crude oil prices beyond $ 30 per barrel. It would be a failure on Government's part to allow upstream contractors additional gain of $ 70 per barrel - $ 80 per barrel without any extra work. Many other countries have gone ahead and re-negotiated their contracts with a threat of imposing windfall taxes on such profits.

It is time that Government of India takes charge and recovers unintended gains from upstream contractors.

Similarly, private sector refineries have been allowed to keep margins for refining cost exceeding $ 15 per barrel while public sector companies struggle to meet their financial requirements. For example, for a private refinery like Reliance, which exports a major portion of its products, the profit has increased by 26 per cent during the quarter October-December 2007 and 35 per cent during January-March, 2008 as compared to the same period during the last financial year. By design the Government has dragged down the public sector companies while private sector companies have been allowed to flourish. It is necessary that the Government impose a windfall tax on private refineries, who do not contribute to meet the oil subsidy bill.

Why No Windfall Profits Tax?

A windfall profits tax is a tax on profits that ensues from a sudden windfall to a particular company or industry. In 1980, in the United States, federal legislation was passed that levied such a tax on oil companies because of the profits they earned as a result of the sharp increase in oil prices brought about by the Arab oil embargo. Since then, the tax has not been re-enacted. However with oil prices once again reaching record levels there is renewed pressure on the U.S. government to bring back the tax. Amid low oil prices, the tax was ended in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. Recently, on May 7, 2008, a Democratic Senator introduced a Bill "The Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008", which would create a tax on "windfall profits" on the major oil companies.

The government should impose a "windfall" profits tax on private/joint venture oil producing companies and private stand alone refineries earning huge profits through import parity policy of pricing.

In no case can the UPA government pamper the private oil companies to make windfall profits and at the same time increase the price of petrol and diesel and burden the people further when they are suffering from steep price rise of essential commodities.

Reduce Customs and Excise Duties

This alongwith the reduction of customs duty on crude oil and reduction in excise duty of petroleum products without any ad valorem content should help to meet the situation arising out of the steep rise in world oil prices and providing relief to the oil marketing companies.

· Reduction of customs duty on crude oil from 5 per cent to nil. The duty collected on this account is likely to be more than Rs. 15000 crore this year, which if nullified would give considerable relief to the OMCs.

· Creation of a Price Stabilisation Fund by using the money collected through cess by the government on crude oil produced by ONGC and Oil India, the two oil producing PSUs (Rs. 2,500/MT) for supporting OMCs. This cess amounts to more than Rs. 7,500 crore approximately per annum.

· Reduction in excise duty of products. The duty should be specific without having any ad valorem content.

end
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[Marxistindia] THE IMMORTAL IDEAS OF MARTÍ -- Fidel Castro

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

THE IMMORTAL IDEAS OF MARTÍ

Just a few days ago a friend sent me the text of a statement made by Gallup, the famous U.S. pollster. I started to leaf through the material with the natural suspicion about the untrue and hypocritical information that is usually used against our homeland.

It was a poll about education and it included Cuba which tends to be ignored. The situation was being analyzed in four regions of the world: Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. In some aspects, several countries in the Caribbean were included.

First question: Are the children in your country treated with dignity and respect, or not? Positive response: Asia 73%; Europe 67%; Africa 60%; Latin America 41%. If the Caribbean countries are included, Gallup states that in Haiti only 13% of people responded affirmatively to this question.

Second question: Do most children in your country have the opportunity to learn and grow every day, or not? In Asia, 75% answered yes; in Europe, 74%; in Africa, 60%; in Latin America, 56%. Many of the countries in the region remained below 50%.

Third question: Is education in this country accessible to anybody who wants to study, regardless of their economic situation, or not? The answers reveal a painful situation in many of the nations of Latin America, and the best answers are in the English-speaking Caribbean.

I mean no offense to any of the countries I have mentioned, but it would be pointless to write these lines without indicating the place occupied in the poll by Cuba -a country so slandered. It was in first place among all the countries of the world. To the first question, 93% of those polled answered yes; to the second, 96%, and to the third, 98%. As it is well known, Cubans usually answer any question with absolute honesty.

Another particularly striking point is that in Venezuela, the answer to the first and second questions was yes, 70% and 80% respectively. This is a country that is carrying forward a great education program eradicating illiteracy and promoting education at all levels; their process began a few short years ago. For this reason, it took the second place in the region.

To the third question, 82% answered yes, and this corresponded to the third place in Latin America and the Caribbean, bested by Trinidad and Tobago which held the second place with 86%.

In major nations of Latin America such as Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Chile, the answers were yes to the question by 57%, 56%, 52% and 43% of the polled, respectively. Better results than these were held by the Dominican Republic, Panama, Uruguay, Belize and Bolivia with 76%, 73%, 70%, 66% and 65%. Paraguay and Haiti were among the lowest, at 17%.

Cuba is cooperating free of charge with these two and many other sister countries in the hemisphere, both in education and healthcare, placing special emphasis on the training of medical personnel. Thus, Cuba modestly carries out its Marti-inspired duty: "Homeland is humanity!" as our National Hero proclaimed.

On May 19 we commemorated the 113rd anniversary of his death which took place in Dos Rios in the year 1895. As everyone knows, the military intervention of the United States thwarted the independence of our homeland. Countless patriots had perished in the struggle during almost 30 years.

The power to the north had always been hostile to our struggle, since a long time before it had targeted our country with the 'Manifest Destiny' to make it part of its territory in its quest for expansion.

At a given point, the decline of the Spanish Empire, over which the sun never set, facilitated the blow to smash Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam given by the new imperial power. It sought excuses, it used deceit and lies, and recognized that to all intents and purposes the Cuban people were free and independent, and with this it sought the backing of its valiant combatants to support the interventionist war.

In that final struggle, the Spanish displayed the customary bravery of their soldiers and the stupidity of their government. Cervera's squadron was annihilated, ship by ship, by the American warships in the mouth of the Bay of Santiago de Cuba, as we have explained on other occasions, practically without being able to fire one shot. The great hoax occurred later when once the people were unarmed, they forced the Platt Amendment on Cuba accompanied with one-sided economic contracts; the country, destroyed and blood-drained, inexorably became property of the United States.

That is the real story.

What has been happening in recent years? They are going mad in the face of the staunch resistance of our people and its modest advance towards a fairer world despite the demise of the socialist bloc and the USSR.

Radio Marti, Television Marti and other sophisticated and aggressive media insult the name of our Apostle of Independence. They are trying with these to humiliate the Cuban people and destroy its resistance.

A flood of speeches and lies are being waged against Cuba. McCain, Bush's candidate to the presidency of the empire, speaks; Bush himself speaks. Against whom? Against Marti. On whose behalf? Marti's.

They refer to atrocious tortures, something that has never happened in our country, and even the least informed Cuban knows that. And who is speaking about torture? McCain, the candidate, and George W. Bush, the President.

What is the declaration of the candidate?

"I would like to thank my two dear friends in Congress, Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, who are great defenders of the Cuban people's liberty. They are men of honor and integrity. I respect and admire them a lot. They are the best congressmen with whom I have been able to work and whom I have known."

"[ My friends,] today, on Cuba's Independence Day, we have occasion to celebrate the rich cultural heritage and deep-rooted traditions of the Cuban people.."

"Those inspired freedom fighters who secured Cuba's independence over 100 years ago could hardly know that their descendants would be engaged in a struggle for freedom and democracy a century later..."

"One day, Cuba will be an important ally in advancing democracy throughout our hemisphere."

"Yet tyranny will not forever endure, and as President, I will not passively await the day when the Cuban people enjoy the blessings of freedom and democracy. I will not wait."

"My administration will press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners unconditionally and to schedule internationally monitored elections."

"The embargo must stay in place until these basic elements of democratic society are met."

"We will work to prevent Venezuela and Bolivia from taking the same road to failure Castro has paved for Cuba."

McCain, in his book, Faith of My Fathers, confessed that he was among the five worst students in his West Point studies. He is just proving this. At the end of his imprisonment he showed weakness, and he also admits this. He dropped countless bombs on the Vietnamese people. How many lives and how much money did that adventure cost? The value of gold then was at 35 dollars and that war squandered 500 billion. The consequences are still being paid. Today an ounce of gold costs a thousand dollars and once again wars are squandering billions each year. New and complex problems are added to this. Where are the solutions?

What did President George W. Bush say?

"One hundred and 13 years ago this week, Cuba lost its great poet and patriot, José Martí. And 106 years ago this week, Cuba achieved the independence for which Martí gave his life..."

"Martí's warning proved truer than anyone could have imagined..."

"The regime has not attempted even cosmetic changes. For example, political dissidents continue to be harassed, detained, and beaten."

"The world is watching the Cuban regime. If it follows its recent public gestures by opening up access to information, respecting political freedom and human rights, then it can credibly say it has delivered the beginnings of change.."

"America refuses to be deceived, and so do the Cuban people.

While the regime . isolates itself, the Cuban people will continue to act with dignity and honor and ourage."

"This is the first Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People -- and the United States must keep observing such days until Cuba's freedom."

"We'll continue to support the Cubans who work to make their nation democratic and prosperous and just... "

".the United States has dramatically stepped up our efforts to promote freedom and democracy in Cuba. This includes our increased efforts to get uncensored information to the Cuban people, primarily through Radio . Marti..."

". I also repeat my offer to license U.S. NGOs and faith-based groups to provide computers and Internet to the Cuban people.."

"Through these measures, the United States is reaching out to the Cuban people. Yet we know that life will not fundamentally change for Cubans until their form of government changes. For those who've suffered for decades, such change may seem impossible. But the truth is it is inevitable."

"The day will come when all political prisoners are offered unconditional release. And these developments will bring another great day -- the day when Cubans choose their own leaders by voting in free and fair elections."

".113 years after José Martí left us, a new poet-patriot expresses the hopes of the Cuban people. Willy Chirino will perform a song that is on the Cuban people's lips and in their hearts: Nuestro día ya viene llegando."

Not a word about the cordon of hunger and blockade set around us for decades.

Martí was a profound thinker and a straightforward anti-imperialist. In his times, no one knew so precisely about the dire consequences of the monetary agreements that the United States was trying to force on the Latin American countries, the prototype of a free trade which today has been reborn in conditions that are more unfair than ever.

"Whoever says economic union says political union. The nation that buys, commands. The nation that sells, serves. Trade must be balanced to assure freedom.Let the country desiring freedom be free in business affairs." These are principles proclaimed by Marti.

At that time, payments were made in silver or in gold. Today paper is used.

In the unfinished letter to his friend Manuel Mercado, on the eve of his death, he pointed out:

"I am in daily danger of giving my life for my country and duty, for I understand that duty and have the courage to carry it out - the duty of preventing the United States from spreading through the Antilles as Cuba gains its independence, and from overpowering with that additional strength our lands of America. All I have done so far, and all I will do, is for this purpose.It had to be in silence and sort of indirectly since the achievement of certain goals demands concealment for, if proclaimed for what they really are, obstacles so formidable would rise as to prevent their attainment."

It is not important how many times we repeat these intimate and revealing words, so marvelously put forth.

With these categorical sentences in his mind, a few hours later he took off to charge, alone, on a Spanish column. Nobody could have held him back. On the front line, on horseback, he was hit by three deadly bullets, detaining his impetuous advance.

On July 26, 2004, when Bush had already spent almost three years bombing, torturing and murdering in his absurd anti-terrorist war, with the Iraq invasion already underway, I analyzed his strange personality coming through from a study in the interesting book by Dr. Justin A. Frank, Bush on the Couch, which contains one of the most revealing and fundamental studies of George W. Bush's personality:

"Confabulation is a common phenomenon among drinkers, as is perseveration, which is evident in Bush's tendency to repeat key words and phrases, as if the repetition helps him remain calm and stay on track."

".Even if we assume, moreover, that George W. Bush's drinking days are behind him, the question remains how much lasting damage may have been done before he stopped -beyond the considerable impact on his personality that we can trace to his untreated abstinence. Any comprehensive psychological or psychoanalytical study of President Bush would have to explore how much the brain and its functions are changed by more than twenty years of heavy drinking."

Neither of the two speakers on the 20th and 21st of May even mentioned the Cuban Five anti-terrorist heroes, whose information allowed to discover Posada Carriles' plans and to prevent the blowing up of planes in mid-air, with foreign visitors on board, including Americans, aimed at striking a blow at tourism. They pressured and bribed the president of Panama thus helping to free him. Santiago Alvarez moved him to Florida. I publicly denounced this almost immediately. Everything has been confirmed. Later, an enormous cache of weapons was confiscated from Santiago Alvarez himself.

They want impunity for terrorists and mercenaries. Little do they know Cuba and its people!

McCain's and Bush's crass lies are the only path that will obtain absolutely nothing from the heroic people which have resisted the power of the empire for almost half a century.

We want to bring this before history: the immortal ideas which Marti nurtured with his own blood shall never be betrayed!

Fidel Castro Ruz

May 22, 2008

11:12 p.m.

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[Marxistindia] THE EMPIRE'S HYPOCRITICAL POLITICS -- Fidel Castro

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REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

THE EMPIRE'S HYPOCRITICAL POLITICS

It would be dishonest of me to remain silent after hearing the speech Obama delivered on the afternoon of May 23 at the Cuban American National Foundation created by Ronald Reagan. I listened to his speech, as I did McCain's and Bush's. I feel no resentment towards him, for he is not responsible for the crimes perpetrated against Cuba and humanity. Were I to defend him, I would do his adversaries an enormous favor. I have therefore no reservations about criticizing him and about expressing my points of view on his words frankly.

What were Obama's statements?

"Throughout my entire life, there has been injustice and repression in Cuba. Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy. (.) This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century - of elections that are anything but free or fair (.) I won't stand for this injustice, you won't stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba," he told annexationists, adding: "It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime. (.) I will maintain the embargo."

The content of these declarations by this strong candidate to the U.S. presidency spares me the work of having to explain the reason for this reflection.

José Hernandez, one of the Cuban American National Foundation directives who Obama praises in his speech, was none other than the owner of the 50-calibre automatic rifle, equipped with telescopic and infrared sights, which was confiscated, by chance, along with other deadly weapons while being transported by sea to Venezuela, where the Foundation had planned to assassinate the writer of these lines at an international meeting held in Margarita, in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta.

Pepe Hernández' group wanted to renegotiate a former pact with Clinton, betrayed by Mas Canosa's clan, who secured Bush's electoral victory in 2000 through fraud, because the latter had promised to assassinate Castro, something they all happily embraced. These are the kinds of political tricks inherent to the United States' decadent and contradictory system.

Presidential candidate Obama's speech may be formulated as follows: hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable hand-outs and visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it.

How does he plan to address the extremely serious problem of the food crisis? The world's grains must be distributed among human beings, pets and fish, which become smaller every year and more scarce in the seas that have been over-exploited by the large trawlers which no international organization could get in the way of. Producing meat from gas and oil is no easy feat. Even Obama overestimates technology's potential in the fight against climate change, though he is more conscious of the risks and the limited margin of time than Bush. He could seek the advice of Gore, who is also a democrat and is no longer a candidate, as he is aware of the accelerated pace at which global warming is advancing. His close political rival Bill Clinton, who is not running for the presidency, an expert on extra-territorial laws like the Helms-Burton and Torricelli Acts, can advice him on an issue like the blockade, which he promised to lift and never did.

What did he say in his speech in Miami, this man who is doubtless, from the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency? "For two hundred years," he said, "the United States has made it clear that we won't stand for foreign intervention in our hemisphere. But every day, all across the Americas, there is a different kind of struggle --not against foreign armies, but against the deadly threat of hunger and thirst, disease and despair. That is not a future that we have to accept --not for the child in Port au Prince or the family in the highlands of Peru. We can do better. We must do better. (.) We cannot ignore suffering to our south, nor stand for the globalization of the empty stomach." A magnificent description of imperialist globalization: the globalization of empty stomachs! We ought to thank him for it. But, 200 years ago, Bolivar fought for Latin American unity and, more than 100 years ago, Martí gave his life in the struggle against the annexation of Cuba by the United States. What is the difference between what Monroe proclaimed and what Obama proclaims and resuscitates in his speech two centuries later?

"I will reinstate a Special Envoy for the Americas in my White House who will work with my full support. But we'll also expand the Foreign Service, and open more consulates in the neglected regions of the Americas. We'll expand the Peace Corps, and ask more young Americans to go abroad to deepen the trust and the ties among our people," he said near the end, adding: "Together, we can choose the future over the past." A beautiful phrase, for it attests to the idea, or at least the fear, that history makes figures what they are and not all the way around.

Today, the United States have nothing of the spirit behind the Philadelphia declaration of principles formulated by the 13 colonies that rebelled against English colonialism. Today, they are a gigantic empire undreamed of by the country's founders at the time. Nothing, however, was to change for the natives and the slaves. The former were exterminated as the nation expanded; the latter continued to be auctioned at the marketplace -men, women and children-for nearly a century, despite the fact that "all men are born free and equal", as the Declaration of Independence affirms. The world's objective conditions favored the development of that system.

In his speech, Obama portrays the Cuban revolution as anti-democratic and lacking in respect for freedom and human rights. It is the exact same argument which, almost without exception, U.S. administrations have used again and again to justify their crimes against our country. The blockade, in and of itself, is an act of genocide. I don't want to see U.S. children inculcated with those shameful values.

An armed revolution in our country might not have been needed without the military interventions, Platt Amendment and economic colonialism visited upon Cuba.

The revolution was the result of imperial domination. We cannot be accused of having imposed it upon the country. The true changes could have and ought to have been brought about in the United States. Its own workers, more than a century ago, voiced the demand for an eight-hour work shift, which stemmed from the development of productive forces.

The first thing the leaders of the Cuban revolution learned from Martí was to believe in and act on behalf of an organization founded for the purposes of bringing about a revolution. We were always bound by previous forms of power and, following the institutionalization of this organization, we were elected by more than 90 percent of voters, as has become customary in Cuba, a process which does not in the least resemble the ridiculous levels of electoral participation which, many a time, as in the case of the United States, stay short of 50 percent of the voters. No small and blockaded country like ours would have been able to hold its ground for so long on the basis of ambition, vanity, deceit or the abuse of power, the kind of power its neighbor has. To state otherwise is an insult to the intelligence of our heroic people.

I am not questioning Obama's great intelligence, his debate skills or his work ethic. He is a talented orator and is ahead of his rivals in the electoral race. I feel sympathy for his wife and little girls, who accompany him and give him encouragement every Tuesday. It is indeed a touching human spectacle. Nevertheless, I am obliged to raise a number of delicate questions. I do not expect answers; I wish only to raise them for the record.

1. Is it right for the president of the United States to order the assassination of any one person in the world, whatever the pretext may be?

2. Is it ethical for the president of the United States to order the torture of other human beings?

3. Should state terrorism be used by a country as powerful as the United States as an instrument to bring about peace on the planet?

4. Is an Adjustment Act, applied as punishment on only one country, Cuba, in order to destabilize it, good and honorable, even when it costs innocent children and mothers their lives? If it is good, why is this right not automatically granted to Haitians, Dominicans, and other peoples of the Caribbean, and why isn't the same Act applied to Mexicans and people from Central and South America, who die like flies against the Mexican border wall or in the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific?

5. Can the United States do without immigrants, who grow vegetables, fruits, almonds and other delicacies for U.S. citizens? Who would sweep their streets, work as servants in their homes or do the worst and lowest-paid jobs?

6. Are crackdowns on illegal residents fair, even as they affect children born in the United States?

7. Are the brain-drain and the continuous theft of the best scientific and intellectual minds in poor countries moral and justifiable?

8. You state, as I pointed out at the beginning of this reflection, that your country had long ago warned European powers that it would not tolerate any intervention in the hemisphere, reiterating that this right be respected while demanding the right to intervene anywhere in the world with the aid of hundreds of military bases and naval, aerial and spatial forces distributed across the planet. I ask: is that the way in which the United States expresses its respect for freedom, democracy and human rights?

9. Is it fair to stage pre-emptive attacks on sixty or more dark corners of the world, as Bush calls them, whatever the pretext may be?

10. Is it honorable and sound to invest millions and millions of dollars in the military industrial complex, to produce weapons that can destroy life on earth several times over?

Before judging our country, you should know that Cuba, with its education, health, sports, culture and sciences programs, implemented not only in its own territory but also in other poor countries around the world, and the blood that has been shed in acts of solidarity towards other peoples, in spite of the economic and financial blockade and the aggression of your powerful country, is proof that much can be done with very little. Not even our closest ally, the Soviet Union, was able to achieve what we have.

The only form of cooperation the United States can offer other nations consist in the sending of military professionals to those countries. It cannot offer anything else, for it lacks a sufficient number of people willing to sacrifice themselves for others and offer substantial aid to a country in need (though Cuba has known and relied on the cooperation of excellent U.S. doctors). They are not to blame for this, for society does not inculcate such values in them on a massive scale.

We have never subordinated cooperation with other countries to ideological requirements. We offered the United States our help when hurricane Katrina lashed the city of New Orleans. Our internationalist medical brigade bears the glorious name of Henry Reeve, a young man, born in the United States, who fought and died for Cuba's sovereignty in our first war of independence.

Our revolution can mobilize tens of thousands of doctors and health technicians. It can mobilize an equally vast number of teachers and citizens, who are willing to travel to any corner of the world to fulfill any noble purpose, not to usurp people's rights or take possession of raw materials.

The good will and determination of people constitute limitless resources that cannot be kept and would not fit in a bank's vault. They cannot spring from the hypocritical politics of an empire.

Fidel Castro Ruz

May 25, 2008

10:35 p.m.

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[Marxistindia] Rajasthan Police Firings Condemned

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)

May 25, 2008

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the brutal police firings on May 23 and 24, killing 35 people and injuring more than a hundred, in Rajasthan. The Vasundhara Raje government which has earned notoriety in police firings is solely responsible for the present killings. The BJP government has not learnt any lesson from last year's incidents and completely bungled in tackling the agitation.

The Polit Bureau urges upon the Vasundhara Raje government to immediately stop police repression and talk to the leaders of the agitation for arriving at an amicable settlement.

end

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[Marxistindia] Left parties statement on shortage of uranium fuel

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
23 May 2008

Left Parties Statement:

On Shortage of Uranium Fuel

The Government is currently conveying a picture that the Indian Nuclear Energy program is short of fuel and only the India US Nuclear Deal can bail India out of this shortage. Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Convenor of the UPA-Left Committee on the nuclear deal, made such remarks while stating the case for seeking the IAEA Board's approval for the India-specific safeguards agreement.

There is no doubt that India is currently experiencing a shortage of uranium compared to what its requirements are for running its PWR's. The question is, is this shortage due to actually running out of nuclear fuel as it is being projected or due to a temporary shortage, created either through a lack of proper planning or deliberately in order to push a high cost import based nuclear energy sector?

Since the days of Homi Bhabha , it is a well-known fact that India has limited resources of natural uranium. India has 61,000 tonnes of uranium ores in its soil, which can sustain a total PHWR capacity of 10,000-15,000 MW, against our current installed capacity of only 4,100 MW. We quote below the statement of Shri B.Bhattacharjee, the then Director, BARC (November, 2003, Issue No.238 of BARC Newsletter)

"Our present generation of PHWR utilizes only 0.5% of total uranium fuel and our modest uranium reserves may not support more than 15,000 MWe installed capacity through the existing PHWR route. That is why our committed nuclear power of about 20,000 MWe by the year 2020 calls for induction of Fast Breeder Reactors(FBRs) to contribute about 2000 MWe and Advanced Heavy Water Reactors to contribute about 3000 Mwe."

Neither the DAE nor the Government has given the nation any explanation of how this current shortage has come about, when we have known reserves in the country to sustain a nuclear energy programme of at least 10,000 MW. Knowledgeable experts feel that the current uranium shortage has been created through allocation of insufficient funds to the uranium mining sector by the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry since about 1990. Added to this was the lacklustre management of the Uranium Corporation in the past, working uranium mines having been closed down and actions taken to overcome environmental opposition to uranium mining being weak and ineffective.

It is pertinent to note that according to DAE, India's plan was to raise the nuclear energy to 20,000 MW by 2020 and to 25% share of the country's needs by 2050 and all this was planned with indigenous fuel resources. Suddenly, we have a plan for changing the route of nuclear energy away from the one developed earlier, which calls for large-scale import of Light Water Reactors and import of uranium. It needs to made clear that such a plan that depends on imported fuel has neither been discussed nor been placed before the people. Even the Integrated Energy Plan produced by the Planning Commission envisages -- as a most optimistic scenario -- nuclear energy to reach 29,000 MW by adding a limited number of Light Water Reactors to the 20,000 MW envisaged earlier by DAE. For none of this, a serious shortage of nuclear fuel has been projected either by DAE or the Planning Commission.

While the shortage of uranium is a serious issue for which the Government owes the country an explanation, what is disturbing is to paint the temporary shortage as a permanent scarcity in order to push the India US Nuclear Deal. That this shortage is a temporary one can be seen from the attached Press Release dated 20/08/07 of the Nuclear Power Corporation itself. We understand that with opening of new mines and the new ore processing facility at Jaduguda, re-opening of the open cast mine there, this shortage is expected to be overcome by 2008. In case this is not true, the country would like to know what has gone wrong from the earlier estimates of the Nuclear Power Corporation as stated in its above Press Release?

Government may clarify what it is doing to address the gap between demand for uranium and supply. Has the government fixed the responsibility for this serious deficiency in government operations? How long will it take before the plant capacity factors of current PHWRs start coming up and reaching close to 90% once again?

Government should also explain why the plan expenditure of the Department of Atomic Energy has been reduced by Rs. 188 crores between Budget Estimate 2007-08 and 2008-09?

The current shortage of uranium is certainly NOT because the India-US deal has not come through, since the 10,000 MW plan was finalised purely on the basis of proven Indian uranium reserves, long before any deal with the US was in the horizon! A temporary mismatch between the national uranium supply and demand cannot be the basis to plunge the country into an India-US deal with far reaching adverse implications.
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[Marxistindia] Left Parties Statement on UPA govt completing four years

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
May 23, 2008

Left Parties Statement

The Left parties - Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party - met in New Delhi. They took stock of the situation in the light of the UPA government completing four years in office. They have issued the following statement:

Price Rise

The UPA government has failed to check the rise in the prices of essential commodities, particularly food and fuel prices. The government pleads helplessness on account of global inflationary trends. This cuts no ice since insulating the domestic economy from adverse global trends is a major responsibility of the government.

The UPA government has largely ignored the steps suggested by the Left parties to curb price rise. The Left parties put forth five demands in this respect.

· The government has not taken steps to strengthen the Public Distribution System. The Targeted Public Distribution system has proved to be a complete failure. It is essential to universalize the PDS.

· The wheat procurement has been above the target in the current season. This is welcome. But it begs the question why procurement fell short of the target over the past two years necessitating the high-cost wheat import? The private traders were given free rein to buy foodgrains from farmers and restraints put on the FCI. While ensuring a fair MSP to farmers, curbs should be placed on the procurement of foodgrains by private companies and traders.

· With the increased procurement, the cut in the allocations of foodgrains to the states must be immediately restored.

· The government has not prohibited futures trading in 25 agricultural commodities as recommended by the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. Only four more commodities have been included in the list of prohibited items.

· The UPA government has ignored the demands to restructure the excise and customs duty regime on crude oil and petro-products. This is the only durable solution in an era of high international oil prices.

· The government is reduced to making pleas to the steel and cement cartels to reduce prices. The government has not strengthened the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, so that hoarding can be more effectively combated.

The Central government clings to its neo-liberal prescriptions. It is so addicted to free market reforms that in spite of people suffering due to price rise, it refuses to impose controls and regulations.

The Left parties will continue the agitation to curb price rise.

Agrarian Crisis

· The Left parties noted that only half-hearted attempts have been made by the UPA government to address the agrarian crisis and revive agriculture. Several major recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers have not been implemented such as the setting up of a price stabilisation fund to protect farmers from falling prices, reducing the rate of interest on farm loans to 4 per cent, universalisation of crop insurance and expansion of MSP to cover all crops.

· The loan waiver scheme announced in the budget has excluded bulk of the debt-driven farmers from dry land area.

· The thrust of the agricultural strategy of the government continues to be on expanding the role of private corporates in procurement, warehousing, marketing and contract farming.

· After four years of the completion of the UPA government, the Left parties will oppose: 1) any efforts to push the anti-farmer Seed Bill 2) moves to allow FDI in warehousing and retail trade, and 3) efforts to amend the Forward Contract Act in order to allow FDI and FIIs into the commodity futures market.

"Super Cabinet"

· Under the guidance of the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, this body is behaving like a "super cabinet". The UPA had given a firm commitment to the Left parties that the 35 non-metro airports would be modernized by the Airports Authority of India when the government decided to go ahead with the privatization of the Delhi and Mumbai airports. Now, the Planning Commission is seeking to subvert this decision by pushing for private participation in the commercial operations and maintenance of the terminal buildings of the 35 non-metro airports. In the case of the Kolkata and Chennai metro airports also, the Commission has delayed the modernization by the Airports Authority of India, a fact attested to by the Minister for Civil Aviation himself.

· The Planning Commission is pushing, in the name of public private participation (PPP), private aggrandizement of public resources. It has insisted on the involvement of the private sector in the railway freight corridor.

· As per the recommendations of a high level committee set-up by the Planning Commission, the UPA government has initiated steps to further liberalise and privatize the mining sector and promote indiscriminate exports of iron ore and other minerals. This should not be done as it is plundering precious natural resources by the MNCs and big corporates. The mining is being promoted by destroying forests and violating environmental laws.

Stop Retrograde Policies

· The Left parties are opposed to the Foreign Education Providers Bill which will lead to private foreign universities opening teaching shops in India.

· The SEZ Act and Rules need to be drastically changed, so that large-scale acquisition of agricultural land, real estate promotion and indiscriminate tax sops are stopped.

· The UPA government is trying to introduce MNCs like Walmart into the retail trade through the backdoor by allowing joint ventures with Indian companies.

Defence Links With Israel

The deepening military and security collaboration with Israel is detrimental to India's vital interests. Israel has become the second biggest supplier of weapons to India and making huge profits out of it which in turn is used to finance its aggression against the Palestinian people. India should stop launching Israeli spy satellites and cease military collaboration.

WTO - Doha Round

· In the ongoing WTO negotiations on the Doha Round, the recently released draft texts on agriculture and NAMA reflect attempts to subvert the development mandate of the Doha Round and divide the developing countries. India must reject the NAMA text, which seeks to force disproportionately large tariff reduction commitments on developing countries. Efforts to dilute the provisions of the Special Safeguard Mechanism in agriculture for the developing countries and restrict it for a very narrow range of agricultural commodities should also be opposed. The government should stand firm that such terms are not acceptable to India and no deal will be possible under such terms.

Implement These Measures

· The Women's Reservation Bill has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha. This is a welcome step. The UPA government should ensure the passage of the Bill after the Standing Committee submits its report.

· The government should rework the Bill on social security for unorganised workers on the basis of the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Labour and get it passed in Parliament to benefit the crores of workers who are the most exploited.

· A Central legislation to empower the states to regulate fees and admissions and salaries of teachers in the private higher educational institutions should be adopted.

The UPA government should realize that it will have to face the wrath of the people suffering due to price rise and the deterioration in their living standards. In this last year of the UPA government, the Left parties express their firm resolve to resist the neo-liberal policies and to continue the mobilization of the people to force the government for bring in immediate measures to provide relief to the people from price rise, agrarian crisis, unemployment and loss of existing livelihood.
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[Marxistindia] Jaipur Blasts Condemned

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
May 14, 2008

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

Jaipur Blasts Condemned

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the horrific bomb blasts in Jaipur city which has led to the loss of sixty lives and 200 injured. This terrorist attack was designed to inflict the maximum casualties in the crowded areas of the city.

The modus operandi of the explosions reveal a common pattern with earlier attacks in other cities. The security agencies have to take all necessary steps to uncover the network of groups behind these outrages.

The design behind this attack is also to disrupt communal peace and harmony. We appeal to the people of Jaipur to remain calm and united. The CPI(M) extends its heartfelt condolences to all the families who have suffered a grievous loss. No effort should be spared for medical treatment of the injured. The state government should take steps to provide relief and compensation to those who have lost their family members.

end
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[Marxistindia] REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL -- II

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

PEACE AND PROSPERITY

Pope Benedict XVI outsmarted Brown, the British Prime Minister, who replaced Blair, whom I met and spoke with for a few minutes during a recess at the WTO Second Conference in Geneva 10 years ago; it was following his speech and I was expressing my disagreement on the matter of an incorrect sentence he used about the social situation of British children. Brown's voice, positions and tone at his press conference in the presence of Bush, gave me the impression that he is self-assuming as his predecessor in the leadership of the Labor Party. The activities of the new British Prime Minister, coinciding with the Pope's visit, were just like those of a leader of the government of a banana republic.

Benedict XVI paid special attention to April 13th when, 65 years ago, over one thousand prisoners were incinerated in the town of Gardelegen; this became a day remembered in the martyrology suffered by the Jewish people in Nazi Germany, a human tragedy that lasted years.

Bush welcomed him at Andrews Air Force Base in the U.S., an unusual gesture. Benedict XVI, as a German bishop was a conservative who disliked changes in social policies and in the internal norms governing his Church. Initially, the U.S. mainstream press was relentless, due to the irregularities committed contrary to the norms guiding the faithful. They even described the Roman Catholic Church as a decadent religion.

His visit also coincided with his 81st birthday. Bush, thoughtful and indulgent, sang Happy Birthday to him, right on the 16th.

The Pope was, undoubtedly, smart as he started to counterattack from the beginning of his visit. In spite of his 81 years that he would be celebrating a few hours later, he descended from the plane, barely touching the handrails of the steep steps, and by the time he reached the last treads, he was not even doing that. He is a short man who appears to weigh about half of what Bush weighs. He has a light step. He never, for one single minute, abandoned his smile and the sparkle in his eyes, and he immediately set out to follow a schedule that would have exhausted any 18 year-old visitor. Television coverage went wild.

The Pope visited universities, a Catholic cultural centre built just for the occasion; he met with representatives from hundreds of Catholic schools and universities across the huge country. The leader of the empire did not dare ask the Vatican State for "a new constitution and free elections" like he has dreamed up for Cuba.

As the leader of a Church, at a time when a war has been unleashed by the United States against the Muslims, his message was ecumenical and favorable to peace.

He met with representatives of religions whose churches hold influence over billions of people. Jewish leaders received him warmly. Of course, they idealized the capitalist system of the United States. One of the rabbis from Miami said that 90 percent of Jews in Cuba had moved to that city; he should have made it clear that it didn't happen because we were persecuting them or because they were granted U.S. visas, but because they opted for the right to travel legally as offered by the Revolution and, just like many Cubans from other ethnic groups, they were in search of material advantages which they had not been able to attain in colonial Cuba.

Jewish synagogues remained opened and respected here, and their representatives, together with the rest of the churches, have meetings with leaders of the Party and the Revolutionary Government, even at the highest levels.

In the United States, the Pope's visit to a synagogue was greatly praised. It is the third time that a Pope visits those Jewish religious centers. The first time was when John Paul II visited a synagogue in Poland; then, Benedict XVI visited another in Germany; and this one, in New York City, was the first time in this country.

It is particularly important to claim for the right to life in the name of freedom of creed. Benedict XVI addressed the United Nations Organization in his capacity as the religious leader of a powerful church deeply rooted among many peoples of the world:

".the desire for peace, the quest for justice, respect for the dignity of the person, humanitarian cooperation and assistance - express the just aspirations of the human spirit..."

".development goals, reduction of local and global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet."

"Here our thoughts turn also to the way the results of scientific research and technological advances have sometimes been applied."

"[these rights] are based on the natural law inscribed on human hearts and present in different cultures and civilizations."

".the saying: Do not do to others what you would not want done to you 'cannot in any way vary according to the different understandings that have arisen in the world'."

"My presence at this Assembly is a sign of esteem for the United Nations, and it is intended to express the hope that the Organization will increasingly serve as a sign of unity between States and an instrument of service to the entire human family."

When he concluded, he exclaimed in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian: "Peace and prosperity with God's help!"

Even though it is not easy to decipher the Vatican's thinking on the thorny issues that are being dealt with in a world where the President of the United States and his rich and developed allies have imposed a bloody war against the culture and religion of more than a billion persons in the name of the fight against terrorism, and where torture, pillage and conquest by force of hydrocarbons and raw materials reigns supreme, what the Pope stated is the antithesis of the policy of brutality and force applied by the singer of Happy Birthday.

In the next few days, the peoples of Latin America shall be on the verge of confronting two tragedies: that of Paraguay and that of Bolivia. One of them, through the elections that are being held today, on Sunday April 20, where a former Catholic bishop carries an overwhelming majority of popular support, according to serious surveys, and the rejection of electoral fraud is certain; the other, through the threat of real disintegration of its territory which shall lead to fratricidal struggles in the long-suffering country.

Today, Benedict XIV returns to Rome. The lovely, impressive hymns have ceased in the temples. Now we shall continue to hear the odious and never-ending explosions of weapons.

Fidel Castro Ruz

April 20, 2008

7:42 p.m.
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[Marxistindia] REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL CASTRO

marxistindia
news from the cpi(m)
REFLECTIONS BY COMRADE FIDEL

OUR SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE AND THE EMPIRE'S BLACKMAIL

The first news on the case I read reached us through the Italian news agency ANSA, on April 22.

According to the article (dated April 22, La Paz), a Commission of Deputies was to investigate the case of a female Bolivian boarder student who died in Cuba, whose body was repatriated with several vital organs, including the brain, missing.

The President of the Parliament's Commission on Social Policy Guillermo Mendoza announced that he would ask the Chancery for all the case records, according to the Catholic news agency Fides.

According to the same report, the relatives of Beatriz Porco Calle, who resided in Cuba as a boarding student, filed charges claiming Cuban embassy officials had delivered her body without eyes, the tongue, teeth and other vital organs, including the brain, without offering any explanation whatsoever.

Deputy Mendoza, the article adds, said he would exhaustively review Cuban legislation on organ transplants and the commitments Bolivian boarders assume in writing before travelling to Cuba.

Spain's EFE reports similar news, adding that the family of the young woman had requested compensation from the Cuban embassy in Bolivia and, when this was denied, had threatened to go to the press.

The Bolivian foreign minister, the article concluded, opined that her parents had gone too far in demanding compensation, affirming that the government had acted in a humanitarian fashion in this case.

Anyone who observes what goes on around the world needs little else. Everything surrounding what occurred could be deduced.

Nevertheless, I inquired about the case's formalities, requested details and precise information to be able to respond to these claims of an alleged and inhuman divesting of a body. In addition to this, I requested precise reports, with exact figures, on our medical cooperation efforts in Bolivia, a country in our continent that the empire seeks to destroy.

Since Evo Morales, a native through and through, was elected President of long-suffering Bolivia, we offered him support in the areas of healthcare and education. I recall that afternoon vividly. We were convinced that, each year, we could save many thousands of lives and give back an incalculable number of people their sight and full health at no cost for the nation. An intensive and proven comprehensive literacy program was to be implemented immediately, in several languages, including the most widely-spoken: Spanish.

In Bolivia, 119 Cuban educators work to apply their experience and knowledge, with the aim of declaring the nation, in only two and a half years, an illiteracy-free country. From the very beginning, our country provided Bolivia with the teaching materials needed to take on this challenge: 30,000 21-inch television sets imported from China, the same number of VCRs, with 16,459 transformers and 2,000 photovoltaic systems (which make up an entire network used for follow-up courses taught during the day), 1,359,000 primers in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, reading pamphlets and other materials I shall not mention so as to not make the list interminable. A part of our war reserve of solar panels was sent to Bolivia. During Evo's visit to our country a few weeks after his electoral victory, Cuba officially offered him the free transportation of these materials to Bolivia.

Venezuela, a country which had just been declared illiteracy-free following the implementation of the "Yes I Can" method, joined the program.

A total of 23,727 teaching locales were created in Bolivia. Since then, 76.6 percent of the country's illiterate population has joined the program and 62 percent of those who did not learn to read or write in primary school have already done so, and not one person has paid a cent.

It is in the field of healthcare, however, where the most intense cooperative efforts have been undertaken in the country; there where Che and his Cuban and Latin American comrades and a young German internationalist perished. In this field, no country in the world today, and perhaps this will be true for a long time, can compete with Cuba. It is a form of free cooperation engaging the poorest nations which is, at the same time, a means of exporting services to countries around the world that have many more resources available. In Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly, we have offered these free cooperative services to the neediest countries.

A total of 1,852 Cubans arduously work in Bolivia. Of them, 1,226 are doctors, 250 specialized nurses, 119 healthcare technicians, 9 dentists, 86 professionals and technicians working in other fields and 102 selected individuals committed to offering vital services of different sorts, required by the Cuban brigades and their hospitalized patients there.

Cuba's medical brigade is working in 215 municipalities of Bolivia's 9 departments, treating people of modest means and anyone who request their services. They have the best equipment, donated by our country, at their disposal. In 18 ophthalmologic surgery positions, 186,508 patients have been operated on. Well over 130,000 patients can be operated on a year.

Our doctors have treated in their outpatient cabinets nearly 12,000,000 patients since the first arrived in Bolivia. The number of lives saved can only be determined through calculations for, as a rule, these patients did not receive any kind of attention prior to their arrival.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of our medical cooperation efforts is the training of 5,291 young Bolivians who currently study medicine in Cuba, 621 of them at the Latin American School of Medicine, which has seen three graduations with excellent results, and 4,670 in the new program. I am not exaggerating when I say that the relatives of the young people who study this specialty in our country are the firmest and most combative friends of Cuba in Latin America, including, of course, Bolivia.

The 22-year-old student Beatriz Porco Calle the cable refers to held passport number 5968246. She was from the department of Oruro, Samara province, in the Curahuara de Carangas municipality, a rural community in Toypicollana. She was a native and an Adventist Christian. She was faring satisfactorily in her second year of medical studies, at the Miguel Sandarán Corzo School of Medicine in Matanzas.

On March 6, she suddenly lost consciousness in her dorm's bathroom. The doctors and teachers decided to take her immediately to the provincial hospital. The physical examination did not reveal anything that could explain the causes of this, nor did the laboratory and other tests, including a computerized axial tomography. She had a good recovery and was discharged. She experienced headaches and bouts of dizziness a short time later. New medical exams were conducted. She felt stressed. She was administered the medication used for such conditions. On March 23, at 7:30 p.m., she again lost consciousness. She was once again taken to the emergency ward by a professor, then to intensive care, where, prior to her death, she was diagnosed with what is known as brain death.

Bolivia's Foreign Ministry and ambassador were contacted. They prepared the documentation needed to transport the body, which travelled nearly one week later, on the 28th.

The body was taken to the National Legal Medicine Institute, which is bound by law to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The relevant formalities were rigorously observed. The student's boyfriend and other classmates collected her belongings and sealed her suitcases. At the school, a mass was held on March 31. The Institute's diagnosis and I quote, was the following: "Death due to endocranial hypertension, hemorrhagic brain-vascular disease caused by a congenital cerebellous meningeal vascular malformation". In this case, the extraction of the visceral block and the taking of pertinent samples proved unavoidable.

A teacher from the medical school accompanied the body to Bolivia and delivered it to her relatives. Cuba's medical mission assumed the costs of transportation to her place of origin and funeral expenses.

It is hard for me to write about this, but it is even harder to read cables, carrying around the world the image of a body divested of its organs, cables which oblige Cuba to offer this kind of explanation.

What has is occurred is crystal clear. The empire needs to besmirch the truths about Cuba it cannot tolerate. It instigates and encourages relatives to demand compensation. They foster such action, as we can see in one of the cables, and disseminate across the world the repugnant lie through a member of parliament and the Fides news agency. Then, it sets its devastating media machinery in motion.

In our country -I do not hesitate to say this- there are insensitive people, knowing very little about what goes on around them, who quickly and mindlessly say that "we should not help Bolivia". They will never understand that, both in politics and in the revolution, the alternative to a mistaken or misguided strategy is defeat.

Fidel Castro Ruz

April 24, 2008

7:15 p.m.

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[Marxistindia] STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA

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STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA

On April 22 last, the Government of the United States issued a press release which was distributed by its Interest Section in Havana in which it "deplores" the immediate and spontaneous reaction by our people against the gross and shameless provocation that a handful of counterrevolutionary individuals attempted to orchestrate the day before at the Revolution Square.

In that press release, an irrefutable evidence of the complicity of the US government, which encourages subversion in our country, the Government of Cuba is accused of "forcefully removing" a group of women known as the "Ladies in White". It further reiterates the US government solidarity towards the mercenaries who are in the payroll of the imperial superpower.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accuses the US government of fabricating and promoting these and other counterrevolutionary provocations as well as the subsequent media campaigns launched against Cuba.

The empire, rendered helpless by the unstoppable advance of our Revolution, has decided to strengthen its subversive plans, by virtue of which only from 1996 to 2006 it was able to supply the local counterrevolutionaries with 385 000 pounds of medicines, foodstuffs and clothing; more than 23 000 short-wave radio sets, as well as millions of books, booklets, and other information material, as was recognized in the report published by the US government's General Accounting Office (GAO). Only in the course of the present year, 2008, the US government has allocated 45.7 million dollars to pay to its mercenary groups in Cuba and put up provocations like the one orchestrated yesterday. This amount of money is part of a total invoice of 116 millions earmarked during the Bush administration to support an industry of domestic subversion and counterrevolution in Cuba at the expenses of American taxpayers.

The US Interest Section in Havana (SINA) has become a pillar of the US government subversive policy, and has strengthened its role as the General Headquarters of the domestic counterrevolution. According to the aforementioned report issued by GAO, between the years 2000 and 2005 the imports by the US Interest Section increased almost by 200 per cent. Fifty to seventy per cent of this big total was material that the US Interest Section delivered among its mercenary groups in Cuba.

>From January to March, 2008 the SINA has facilitated access to Internet services for this groups; it has taught "courses on computing" and on "independent journalism" to its sepoys in Cuba; it has never ceased to supply them with all sorts of goods, including electronic equipment, stickers, pullovers, and subversive literature. It has organized for them several video-conferences with top officials of the Bush administration, anti-Cuban Congress members and representatives of the Cuban-American mob based in the United States.

The US Interest Section is constantly guiding those counterrevolutionaries, whom it systematically contact and give instructions to. Only in the course of the present year, it has organized tens such meetings with its mercenaries in Cuba.

The US Interest Section has enhanced the profile of its provocations. As was seen in the images aired by the Cuban television, the US Interest Section offers its official sites and the residences of some of its officials to hold receptions, videoconferences, and exhibition of subversive material. It even offers its diplomatic means of transport to carry the counterrevolutionaries to these activities. Just one example: the house of the US Interest Section official Gregory Adams, located at Calle 24 No. 521, Miramar, has become a true "conference center" for the mercenary groups financed and controlled by the US government.

Our government has every proof that shows the direct involvement of the US Interest Section in the subversive actions against Cuba as well as in the most recent provocation orchestrated at the Revolution Square.

One of the groupings that have been particularly sponsored, backed, and financed by the US Interest Section has been precisely the so called "Ladies in White", which has currently been chosen by president George W. Bush and his special services as a spearhead against Cuba.

Its members are customary visitors of the Internet centers of the US Interest Section, and receive logistic support for their counterrevolutionary work. They frequently meet with the officials of that Interest Section, and their most notorious ringleaders have earned the "privilege" of receiving direct attention from Michael Parmly, the chief of that office.

One of them has even received a letter of recognition from President George W. Bush himself, as well as financing and support to publish a book about the counterrevolutionary experience of her husband, one of the mercenaries who were sanctioned for serving the interests of the government that is attacking us. The "launching" of this book was attended by the Yankee Interest Section official in Havana Thomas Hamn.

On January 24 last, Bush himself welcomed a member of this group, the wife of another notorious mercenary who was also convicted. The US president not only offered his support; he asked the world to "support" the cause for counterrevolution in Cuba.

Likewise, in its most recent diatribe against our people on March 7, Bush openly recognized, once again, the role of this grouping as the favorite instrument of its policy against Cuba.

It wasn't by mere chance that, days before its provocation, the so called "Ladies in White" received the encouraging words and the instructions given by the anti-Cuban Congress member Ileana Ross Lehtinen, who became notorious for supporting the worst actions against our country, including the kidnapping of the child Elián.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces the all-out responsibility of the US government in these incidents. Cuba reaffirms its right to prevent, neutralize, and respond to these provocative actions conceived, financed, and promoted by the US government and its Interest Section in Havana.

The Cuban Revolution will never give up its right to defend itself; it will never cease in its struggle.

Now that we are coming near to celebrate the first half a century of our victorious Revolution, not even the most powerful empire ever known to humankind should have any doubt about our people's capacity to thwart any attempt to deprive us from the future that we have conquered with so much effort, dignity and sacrifice.

Havana, April 23, 2008.

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