Orwellian US “Democracy Building” Programs (live-blogging)

USSF

Orwellian US “Democracy Building” Programs
US Social Forum
Downtown Atlanta
Trinity United Methodist Church
1:00 PM

(Note: The internet connection was down, so I'm posting this late.

Both Paul and I found the workshop to be a bit scattered. We agree the workshop didn’t seem to primarily cover bogus US democracy building in Venezuela, as the title suggests. But, the workshop was so disjointed that we disagree on its true meaning. Paul feels it was mostly about CIA infiltration of the trade unions. I have a somewhat subtly different take that it was about neo-liberal political agenda that has infiltrated trade unions.)

1:12 PM James Jordan from Tucson, AZ introduces himself. Employed by Venezuela Solidarity Network (VSN), he works to oppose the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and democracy manipulation efforts in general.

1:12 PM A form was circulated for people to add their contact info to create an emergency response network. The network will alert people of US invasive actions against Venezuela and suggest action. On the sign up sheet is a website address for VSN, www.vensolidarity.org

1:20 PM Tom Burke introduces himself. He’ll talk about US trade unions and their tie-in with the CIA, etc.

1:21 PM Jesus Rodriguez from the Venezuelan Consulate in Chicago (VCC) introduces himself.

1:22 PM Jordan says the manipulation of other countries’ election processes are perpetrated through the NED (initiated by Reagan, 95% funded by US Congress, yet identifies itself as a NGO). The remainder is funded by corporations, such as Exxon-Mobil. According to Jordan, actions of the NED used to be performed covertly by the CIA.

1:27 PM Neo-liberal vs. participatory democracy is discussed. At the heart of the matter is defining democracy: Should communities/people distribute natural resources (participatory democracy) or corporations (neo-liberalism)?

1:29 PM Jordan states that the person with the most dollars is the candidate that wins a primary and becomes a candidate. As a result, we do not participatory democracy because our candidates do not come from our churches, our community organizations, etc. Candidates come from corporations with deep pockets.

1:34 PM Jordan states that Choicepoint was paid $60+ million dollars by John Ashcroft to research Venezuelans, Brazilians, Mexicans. He continues to say that the International Republican Institute (IRI) discredits elections through election monitoring. They conduct exit polls. One such poll stated that 60% of those polled in Iraq elections thought Iraq was now on the right track.

1:42 PM Jordan explains that democracy assistance programs are tied in to US military strategy and the War on Terror. Jordan quotes Condoleeza Rice to substantiate this claim. Democracy assistance includes funding coup plotters, etc. in countries misaligned with neo-liberalism. Countries aligned with neo-liberalism are given military assistance.

1:47 PM Jesus Rodriguez from the VCC begins speaking. He apologizes for his English speaking skills. He mentions how the Freedom of Information Act helps uncover activities of NGOs in Venezuela. Politically active organizations against Chavez received $200,000 in funding from the US government in 2004. This may be only a portion of the funding since other funding could be undocumented. In 2004, a list of political leaders were funded. Also, $5 million from the US government was given to anti-Chavez people in Venezuela between 2003-2004. During the same time period, the US gave $1,136,000 to NGOs in Venezuela for “democracy assistance”.

Journalists were invited to the US for workshops tied in with the NED.

$200,000 was given by NED to finance workshops about leadership and democracy in Universities in Venezuela. Rodriguez believes these are the same students protesting Chavez.

2:02 PM Erik Gjertsen from the men’s Payday network speaks about opposing money used by the State Department to interfere in Venezuela. He speaks about fighting at the grassroots level. He mentions that every workshop at the 2006 World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuelan participants mentioned NED and interfering funding from the US. Yet, Americans remain pretty ignorant about Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution.

A booklet entitled The Unions, The State Department, and Venezuela was produced in response to concerns brought up at the 2006 WSF. It is an open letter from the Global Women’s Strike to John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. It can be ordered for $3 here.

After the workshop, he informed me of a video, Journey with the Revolution, that is a Global Women’s Strike documentary on the revolution in Venezuela. Get more information here.

2:12 PM Tom Burke speaks. He works with Columbia Action Network, the organization that brought the Coca-Cola boycott to the United States. He states the Unions historically have been supportive of US foreign policy. He points out how the unionists often end up in the CIA and vice versa.

He says trade unionists that want to fight against neo-liberalism find themselves at odds with union leaders.

Burke talked about the importance of organizing union members to transform them into class struggle unions by informing them of what is going on in Venezuela and elsewhere.

2:35 PM Q & A and a comment session begins.