Latin America 2011 - Saturday 3rd December 2011

This year’s Latin America Conference will be held at Congress House in London on Saturday 3rd December 2011.

The annual Latin America Conferences provide a fascinating insight into the reality of the region and effective ways for people in the UK to find out more and support these struggles and movements by getting involved in

solidarity work.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Families of the Miami Five from Cuba
• Alberto Juantorena – Olympic Gold medal winner and former Cuban Vice-Minister for Sport
• Egle Sanchez – Venezuelan trade union leader
• Samuel Moncada – Venezuelan Ambassador to UK
• Guissell Morales-Echaverry - Nicaraguan Embassy
• Frances O'Grady - TUC Deputy General Secretary
• Sally Hunt - UCU General Secretary
• Billy Hayes - CWU General Secretary
• Bob Crow - RMT General Secretary
• Richard Gott - Academic
• Victoria Brittain - Writer
• Jeremy Corbyn MP
• Colin Burgon – Former Labour MP and Vice-Chair of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign.
• Plus speakers and eyewitness reports from Colombia, Honduras, Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico and across the continent.

Tickets cost £10 waged and £6 unwaged and are available from the Cuba Solidarity Campaign via telephone (020 8800 0155) or online closer to the time.

Please join the Facebook Event to stay up-to-date with speakers. Full details can also be found here.

Suggested Twitter hashtag: #LatinAmerica2011

Latin America 2011 Noam Chomsky Lecture - Saturday 8th October 2011

We are very sorry but tickets for this event are sold out. Reports and videos will be available online soon after the event.

Suggested Twitter hashtag: #Chomsky2011

United in solidarity

Len McCluskey is General Secretary of Unite the Union 

Len McCluskey

The continent of Latin America is changing rapidly and the good news is that it is the people of Latin America themselves that are driving this progressive agenda. For the first time the people of the continent are taking control of their own resources and their own destinies, and this model of continental self-determination is one we should all applaud and support.

For too many years the vast majority of the Latin America population has been subjugated by a wealthy elite empowered by the multinational corporations predominantly based in the United States. Illiteracy, ill health and overriding poverty was the norm for most people, with any wealth generated quickly being exported northwards to bolster the profit margins of US based corporations.

This social progress and resistance to the global advance of neo-liberalism has been lead by the countries of ALBA, (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) and includes Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Some of the advances won by the people of these countries are truly remarkable on any scale:

• Better life expectancy and infant mortality in Cuba than parts of the US
• The expansion of adult literacy in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua at a rate seen nowhere else in the world
• International health programmes such as Mission Milagro (Mission Miracle), where nearly 2 million people have had their eyesight improved or restored more
• More than 2,000 doctors graduated through the Latin American School of Medicine and 6,000 students part of this new medical training program that emphasises internationalism and humanism.
• The creation of the ALBA Bank with a capital of $1 billion and a stated aim ‘to boost industrial and agricultural production among its members, support social projects as well as multilateral cooperation agreements among its members’

So why are the advances of the people in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela not more widely publicised throughout the world? The answer is of course the fear of the good example.

If socialism can be seen to be delivering for the peoples of Cuba and Venezuela, where does this leave the trickle down theories of neo-liberalism that encourages extremes of wealth and argues that if the rich get even richer, some of the excess will trickle down to us?

This is the reason that even the soft centre Obama government has not yet been able to reverse the policies of containment and aggression towards progressive Latin America.

First and foremost among this aggressive policy is the nearly 50 year old illegal blockade of Cuba which has been condemned by almost every country of the world at the United Nations. How disgraceful – so much for the rule of law!

Initially just a trade embargo, the system has been extended to include third countries so that if a British company does business with Cuba it may find its US subsidiary interests sequestered by the US, even when it’s perfectly legal for an EU firm to do business with Cuba.

Secondly, there is the outrageous case of the Miami 5. Working purely at uncovering terrorist activities against Cuba emanating from Miami – these five brave Cubans went to the US and reported back to the Cuban Government who passed on the details to the FBI. Instead of arresting the terrorists the FBI arrested the five men. Then in a completely unjust trial which has been condemned by Amnesty International, they were imprisoned for long sentences including one receiving double life. So much for the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Now, to add to the terrible injustice and against the normal rights given to the families of prisoners, the US government has refused two of the men’s wives the chance to visit their husbands for over 10 years.

My union Unite can feel proud of its work in the campaign to Free the Five. We have been pre-eminent in organising major fringe meetings at the TUC Congress and Labour Party Conference to open up the case of the Five to a wider audience. At the same time we have arranged for the families of the Five to meet the most senior Government ministers to make the case for UK support for their claim to the humanitarian right to visit their loved ones in jail.

And what of Venezuela?  At the moment it seems doubly blessed - it has socialism and it also has oil. For 12 years, Hugo Chávez has led revolutionary change in Venezuela and has proved inspirational to others in Latin America.

Millions of working people are now enrolled in literacy programmes, Cuban medical teams are taking health care into the barrios for the first time, and basic food stuffs are widely available at subsidised prices. Without doubt socialism in Venezuela is making a material difference to working people in all aspects of their lives.

The success of Chávez has been an inspiration to other socialist leaders in Latin America, most notably Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, who are forging ahead with their own socialist visions.

Using Venezuela’s oil wealth, Chávez has been at the forefront of the creation of the new economic bloc in the region, ALBA, not based on neo-liberalism as is the US led Free Trade Area of the Americas, but offering support for Latin America, for the Latin American people, based on the principles of social justice. Little wonder that in 2002, the US was implicated in the short lived coup against Chávez.

Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and all the ALBA countries, are dangerous for the US because they show an alternative. They show how society can be structured differently, shifting wealth and power away from the rich and powerful and towards working people and their families.

Here in Britain I am proud of the support that Unite and the British trade Union movement has been able to give to support social progress in the region. We work in partnership with Latin American solidarity campaigns for Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua and Colombia.

Their work has been exemplary. This magazine Adelante, and the hugely successful annual Latin American conferences, are a real testament to the collective workings of these campaigns and I am proud to be part of that long history of international solidarity.

The power of international solidarity is immense. When workers join hands across nations and oceans, justice will prevail. I hope you will join us. Venceremos!

ALBA – The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas

ALBA Emblem

The Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America, known as ALBA from its abbreviation in Spanish, was launched in Havana in 2005 by Cuba and Venezuela.

In 2006, this alternative trade alliance was joined by Bolivia, and today it boasts a full eight  members: Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda; plus four countries with observer status: Grenada, Haiti, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Although the alliance seeks to reduce or eliminate tariffs between member countries it is very unlike conventional trade agreements.

ALBA is a deliberate counterweight by countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA /ALCA in Spanish) proposed by the United States. ALCA advocates the liberalisation and privatisation of public services, which would inevitably mean millions of people in the continent would be deprived of the basic services needed for human survival. However, in contrast to ALCA which focuses on an unregulated market, free trade and economic liberalisation to generate growth and prosperity in the region, ALBA advocates social, political, and economic integration and social reforms which place the fight against poverty and exclusion at its centre.

In order to help overcome trade disadvantages, ALBA pushes for solidarity with the economically weakest countries, with the aim of achieving a free trade area in which all of its members benefit (a win-win alliance).

The first agreement between Cuba and Venezuela focused on the exchange of medical and educational resources and petroleum between both.

The second round of agreements between Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela in 2006 saw Cuba promise to help Bolivia provide free eye treatment to those Bolivians who otherwise would not be able to afford it, while Venezuela agreed to provide Bolivia with oil at preferential rates.

A joint declaration between Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro following this meeting stated: “...we fully agree that the ALBA will not become a reality with mercantilist ideas or the selfish interests of business profitability or national benefit to the detriment of other peoples.”

Other examples of cooperation through ALBA have included free medical scholarships for students at Cuba’s Latin America School of Medicine, and Cuban medical brigades providing primary health care in many countries. Cuba and Venezuela have a joint agreement to work on the design of a continental project to eliminate illiteracy in Latin America. Venezuela has also provided petroleum and mining industry expertise and oil at preferential rates to many countries.

From January 2010, member nations also agreed use a new currency dubbed the "sucre" for trade among themselves. Although no sucres will be printed or coined, the virtual currency will be used as a common currency for electronic transactions to manage debts between governments while reducing reliance on the US dollar and on Washington in general.

Cuba - the threat of a good example

Operation Miracle

April 2011, marked the 50th anniversary of Cuba’s victory over CIA backed forces at the Bay of Pigs, or Playa Girón as it is known throughout the island.

This violent and unprovoked attack is the most overt and widely known of all the US government’s attempts to destroy the Cuban Revolution. Less commonly known are the subsequent 50 years of US blockade, covert interference, aggression and propaganda.

Since Robert Kennedy declared that removing the Cuban government ranked as “top priority of the United States” in 1961, twelve successive US administrations have funded or turned a blind eye to aggression launched from their shores including chemical warfare, bombing campaigns, assassination plots, and attempting to fund and stir up internal dissent. Attacks which have seen 3,478 Cubans slaughtered since 1959.
 

Most brutal of all of these acts remains the blockade which has been tightened and intensified every decade since its introduction in 1962 to strangle the economy and wear down the Cuban people.

The blockade and associated legislation has been expanded to include not just US companies but other country’s ability to trade with Cuba. US-initiated restrictions on banks, business and shipping mean that it is impossible for many companies to trade, whilst those that do can face penalties from the US.

In 2009, Amnesty International Secretary General, Irene Khan, wrote: "The US embargo against Cuba is immoral and should be lifted…it's preventing millions of Cubans from benefiting from vital medicines and medical equipment essential for their health."

Why are US governments obsessed with causing such suffering in Cuba? What danger can Cuba possibly pose to them to justify such inhumanity?

Nothing but the threat of a good example. Since 1960, when Cuba first dispatched thousands of volunteer teachers to help eradicate illiteracy in remote parts of the island, the US has feared that other Latin America citizens might look across the water and aspire to the social gains that the Cuban revolution had delivered to its people.

According to a CIA in the 1960s:“If Cuba succeeds we can expect most of Latin America to fall.” Brutal US backed repression throughout Latin America during the 70s and 80s and the imposition of neo-liberal economic policies in the 90s gave the US confidence that their nightmare scenario of a continent following Cuba’s example could not come true. But today, the failure of these policies sees a new Latin America breaking free from US economic and political control. Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua are following the beacon that Cuba first lit by championing policies of health, education, social justice and internationalism, and many other countries in the region are benefiting from the new alliances.

Just as with its own literacy brigades in 1961, Cuba’s ‘Yo, Si Puedo’ literacy method has helped to teach more than 4 million people in 30 countries to read and write in since 2004. Three countries have gone on to declare themselves illiteracy free.

Cuban doctor in Haiti

In Haiti, Cuban health workers have saved more than 250,000 lives since they started working in the country in 1998, and were the first on the ground setting up field hospitals and treating patients in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2010. This year, Cuba signed a tripartite agreement with Brazil, whose resources will fund Cuban doctors and materials to rebuild and train Haiti’s health service and workers benefiting 75% of the Haitian population.

Cuba has never sought to gain or exploit in its international commitments. Speaking in a solidarity conference in 1995, Nelson Mandela said: “Cubans came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers, agricultural experts, but never as colonizers. They have shared the same trenches with us in the struggle against colonialism, underdevelopment, and apartheid. Hundreds of Cubans have given their lives, literally, in a struggle that was, first and foremost, not theirs but ours. As Southern Africans we salute them. We vow never to forget this unparalleled example of selfless internationalism.”

And what of the US government response to such selfless internationalist efforts to provide health, education and social care for worlds poor? Wikileaks cables released this year show their policy is to trawl for stories which might dispel Cuba’s “myth of medical prowess”, and try to lure away Cuban doctors volunteering on international missions by offering preferential treatment and entry visas to the US.

Like most other countries, Cuba is not immune to the world economic crisis. Unlike others, it suffers twofold as the crisis falls on top of an economy already struggling under 50 years of blockade and still recovering from the effects two hurricanes in 2008 which decimated the economy. Despite this, Cuba continues to prioritise health and education, and maintain internationalist commitments. While students march against cuts on streets of UK, Cuba still provides its young people with free lifelong education including at higher and university levels.

It is a testament to the determination of the Cuban people that they have defended their independence and the achievements won by their revolution despite relentless attacks from world’s greatest superpower for more than 50 years. And it is testament to the international solidarity movement that the country can count on so many friends around the world to speak out against the illegal blockade and for Cuba’s right to self determination free from foreign interference.

You can show your support Cuba by joining the Cuba Solidarity Campaign today.

Natasha Hickman, Communications Manager at the Cuba Solidarity Campaign. Please email for more information.

Venezuela: countering right-wing propaganda

Telling the truth about Venezuela will be more important than ever over the coming months as we enter the countdown to Venezuela’s Presidential elections in December next year.

Against the backdrop of the world recession effecting Venezuela in recent years, increased representation for the right-wing opposition in the Venezuelan parliament, and a strengthened US republican right - seeking to “confront Hugo Chavez directly” in the words of US Congressman Connie Mack – we are already seeing a stepped up campaign of disinformation seeking to undermine support internationally for progress in Venezuela, including in the British media. The distortions we have seen already almost certainly reflect the tip of the iceberg regarding distorted media coverage about developments in Venezuela in the months ahead.

An example of media distortion: response to the floods

Venezuela has been one of the victims of the spate of floods at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011. Over 35 died and others are still missing following the heaviest rains in 40 years at the end of 2010. Over 100,000 were left homeless, with infrastructure badly damaged and agriculture hugely affected. The human costs of this tragedy continue.

The response of Venezuela’s government has been swift, deep and ongoing, with the Presidential palace even opened to flood victims with many now living there until houses are built. Other key aspects have included the setting up of over 900 refuges to house the 133,000 people left homeless and ensuring that 1000s of empty hotel rooms have also been used to temporarily house those made homeless, Additionally, and crucially, an impressive new national housing programme is to be accelerated, with $1 billion to be invested in new housing this year.

In the British media, there has been relatively little coverage of this disaster, which is understandable given the much greater human causalities elsewhere. However what is less explicable is why the little coverage there was, has been politicised in such a way to focus not on the human tragedy but into another distorted tale of President Chavez undermining democracy, with little or no mention of the government’s pro-active response to the crisis.

Specifically, a number of stories repeated claims from Venezuela’s right-wing opposition that enabling powers granted to Chavez in response to the disasters were a step towards dictatorship. In reality, these enabling powers have been granted specifically because of the enormous humanitarian disaster of the floods, which requires the fast-tracking of legislation.

Furthermore, the temporary granting of enabling powers is a constitutional power commonly enacted by former presidents. Far from allowing President Chavez to govern the country by decree, the powers exist to allow passing laws in specified areas. The Supreme Court must approve any decrees that have a constitutional implication, and the National Assembly may also modify or rescind any law passed in this way!

  

Yet, despite these facts and the context of natural disasters and human tragedy, still a narrative was build up with stories in papers such as the Independent and Guardian declaring that “'Dictator' Chavez to Rule by Decree” or quoting the opposition about a "coup against the constitution."

When Chavez then made clear shortly afterwards that the powers were likely to be applied for only six months, there was a near total silence in the Western media.

When it comes to Venezuela, the truth appears less important than the story!

The positive truth about Venezuela today

Sadly this example of one-sided media coverage of Venezuela is not an exception, but rather the norm. How many British people would know that in Venezuela today a new national health service is being built for the first time in the country’s history? Or that prior to 1998, there were only 14 national elections in 50 years, and under Chavez since then there have already been more than that, verified free and fair by electoral observers?

There is an exciting story that could be told about Venezuela of how a new society is being built, where people’s living standards and public services are being protected despite the deep global recession. Omission and distortion of this tale is frequent. Major ’good news stories’ in 2010 and the early months of 2011 that you may not have heard include:

• Venezuelans show the highest support for democracy in the region in 2010 according to the respected Latinobarometro report.
• Inequality decreased at a rate five times higher than many other countries in Latin America between 1998 to 2008, and a report issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in October 2010 found that poverty in Venezuela dropped by 44%, the single biggest decrease in the region.
• Currently, over 2 million Venezuelans are in higher education, compared to 600,000 in 1998, making Venezuela the country with the second largest percentage of students in HE in the region, with 83% enrolment rate in higher education institutions - the fifth highest worldwide. 
• Despite regular media reports to the contrary, the Venezuelan government has moved aggressively to make access to the Internet free and universal. In recent years, 668 local Infocenters – community-based Internet access points – have been founded, and were awarded a UNESCO prize in 2010.
• During the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit Venezuela announced that it had achieved a number of development targets ahead of schedule and would meet the remaining ones by the 2015 deadline.

Your solidarity needed!

Indeed, as many countries throughout the world face savage cuts and dislocation, the reality is that a far more positive story can be told about Venezuela - that despite tumbling oil revenues and global economic downturn, the social programmes budget has been defended and, in some areas, even expanded. In 2010, almost 46% of the government's budget was allotted to social spending such as health and education, and this is increasing further in 2011.

Supporters of Venezuela therefore need to redouble efforts to both communicate the great things that are being done in Venezuela to protect and expand public services such as health and education and counter the misinformation campaign coming from the Venezuelan oligarchy.

The social advances in Venezuela are under threat from powerful, international, political and economic interests that benefit from the neo-liberal status quo. It is this status quo that the Chavez administration challenges – and why this media offensive exists and will continue.

Venezuela shows that another world is possible. It needs our solidarity. Please join the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign today.

Matt Willgress, Coordinator of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. Please email for more information. 

Nicaragua and ALBA

Since the Sandinista government returned to power in 2007 trade and other forms of ALBA solidarity have played a significant role in keeping Nicaragua afloat economically, and resulted in export growth and the beginning of diversification of the economy away from a high dependence on the IMF, US and Europe. Trade between the two countries has increased nearly 6,000% from $2 million in 2006 to $248m in 2010.  Funding for ALBA social programmes has come through PetroCaribe. According to Paul Oquist Kelley, Nicaraguan government representative at the September 2010 UN Summit to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals:

Nicaragua has benefited from the most ingenious innovation in development financing of the 21st Century. This consists in Venezuelan solidarity channelled via the PetroCaribe agreements which converts half of the petrol costs of poor countries into low interest, long term credit for poverty reduction.

ALBA social programmes in Nicaragua

Housing: Nicaragua needs 400,000 new houses and half a million existing houses are not fit to live in. To address this problem the ‘Roof Plan’ programme will provide 250,000 families with ten sheets of corrugated iron and nails to improve the roofs of their houses. In addition ‘Houses for the people’ offers low interest loans to 5,000 public sector workers. This programme has also generated over 5,000 construction jobs.   

Zero Hunger:  Channelled through women farmers with the aim of  improving the nutrition of rural families through the production of diary products, meat, and cereals. The longer term goal is to increase production to supplement household income through selling surplus locally. A package worth $2,000 is given to participating families including a cow, a pig, poultry, a biodigester, seeds and materials for building pens. This is backed up with training and technical support. This programme will benefit 75,000 families over five years.

Zero Usury: Micro credit scheme that has provided 80,000 women with low interest credit of up to US$200 to establish or improve small businesses.  The women also receive support in drafting business plans and training in business development.

A voice for everyone:  In 2009/10 the first ever Nicaragua disability census was carried out by a Cuban-Nicaraguan medical brigade. The brigade recorded 126,308 people with disabilities, about 2.2 percent of the population. The results of this survey will form the basis of government programmes to support those with disabilities.

Operation Miracle: Over a million people with sight problems have been treated by Cuba medical teams and local medical staff as part of Operation Miracle in Latin America, Asia and Africa including 65,000 Nicaraguans living in poverty. 

Energy supply: Within 12 months of coming to power, the FSLN government had eliminated 12 hours per day power cuts largely thanks to Venezuelan support in the form of generating plants.

Bonuses for low paid workers: In May 2009, President Ortega announced a US$25 per month bonus, to be paid from ALBA funds, for 120,000 public sector workers earning less than $300 per month. This amount is very significant for low paid workers, particularly women.

South – South fair trade and food security:  Rural development programmes to support small and medium farmers are central to government programmes to guarantee local food supplies and to develop a new form of fair trade with Venezuela based on ALBA principles. Small scale farmers and the cooperatives receive advance payment for guaranteed quantities of produce. A longer term commitment is being developed to build processing plants so that value can be added in Nicaragua.  Small farmers will receive $10m financing for programmes in 2011 from ALBA and other sources. 

ALBA infrastructure projects include power plants generating electricity, a road construction programme and a huge oil refinery named “The supreme dream of Bolivar’ which will give Nicaragua the capacity to supply refined oil to Central America and the Caribbean.

Helen Yuill, Campaigns Organiser at the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign. Please email for more information.