Brainshrub.com - United States Social Forum 2007

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

Althea — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:08:42 -0400

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.

Watching movie "Black Gold" (live-blogging)

Paul -V- — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:19:22 -0400

I'm watching the movie "Black Gold" at the 7 Stages theater. (Film started 15 minutes ago) Black Gold is a 2006 documentary film about the international coffee trade and its ramifications for the farmers who grow coffee.

As usual, I'll update this post throughout the event.

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16:20 EST: Difficult to blog. The theater has a good wi-fi connection, but the movie is so fascinating it's hard to write.

16:25 EST: The movie bounces between the growers who suffer deeply to produce coffee and how coffee culture is marketed in the US. For example, a scene where an Ethiopian complains how he breaks his back and is trapped in poverty... is then juxtaposed with a breif interview of a bubbly Starbucks manager. In a way - I feel like I'm watching two movies.

16:31 EST: Learning about the drug "Khat", and how farmers have to grow the drug to survive.

16:43 EST: Movie is now pointing out how the WTO is unfair to smaller countries because richer countries can send more delegates, and much of the deals are done behind closed doors. In effect, poor countries don't get to negotiate and are little more than observers.

16:50 EST: I've never seen a documentary that showed how closely the commodities market affects the lives of workers.

16:52 EST: Heartwarming scene where Tadesse Meskela, the General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethopia, suggests the money raised from fair traded coffee be used to built a school.

17:00 EST: Movie ends by pointing out that if Africa could get it's market share up by 1%, it would generate five times more money than all the foreign aid currently being sent to Africa.

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Venezuela, Not for Sale. (live-blogging)

Paul -V- — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 11:08:35 -0400

I am writing this from a session called "Venezuela, Not for Sale" in Prince Hall. It's being run by Natali Fani, who is the Associate Director of the Venezuela Information Office. (VIO)

As I understand it, the VIO is essentially a public relations firm on behalf of the Venezuelan government to help counter the media spin the American people have about what is going on. I'm pleased she's upfront about the nature of her organization.

It's a rather interesting discussion about the misperceptions about Chavez.

I will update this post several times this hour as the conversation develops.

11:10 EST: We are learning about how Chavez is demonized in the US media. Fani has introduced Marcia Campos, the president of the Women's International Democratic Federation. (WIDF). Campos says Venezuela is very friendly toward women's rights. As an example, Campos points out Venezuela has 5 branches of govt, and four of them are controlled by women.

11:15 EST: Fani is talking about ~~Jose Padilla~~, Luis Posada Carriles, the (alleged) terrorist who lives in the US who the American govt refuses to extradite. She points out that that he is wanted in Venezuela, but the US media does not pay attention to Chavez's work against terrorism and drug dealing.

11:20 EST: Here's a photo taken three minutes ago. (left)

Ms. Fani is telling the group that congress wishes to give 10 billion for the American propaganda vehicle "Voice of America".

She points out that VIO has to fight a lot of ignorance that is pumped out by the Voice of America in South America, and it's frustrating more Americans don't bother to get more educated about how their tax dollars are used.

11:30 EST: It's hot in this room. There is no A/C... the room is being cooled by two huge electric fans. There are about 15 - 20 people in this small room.

11:35: Fani has given the floor to Marcia Campos. She says that the media is very unfair to Chavez's government. As an example, she reminded us that once her organization have him a rose, and the anti-Chavez media gimped the image to make it look like a gun. (I didn't know this! I googled the issue, and the facts check out)

Guess which image the US media picked up?

11:45 EST: Fani continues giving examples about how the US media refuses to publish pro-Chavez information. She says the Venezuelan Ambassador to the White House, Bernando Alverez, will be in Texas on July 9th in an attempt to educate average Americans about Chavez.

11:55 EST: Fani says Venezuela and the United States are natural friends, but the media makes Chavez out to be some kind of dictator. She is open to any advice on how to reach out to US Indy media. Several people in the group have said she should go on speaking tours.

12:00 EST: I'm fretting out the punctuation and grammar for this post.

12:01 EST: Someone just walked into the meeting and started talking about oil and domination. Kinda off-topic, but that's fairly typical of when Liberals have meetings like this. ;)

12:05 EST: Topic has shifted back to media access for pro-Chavez views. Gregory Wilpurt of the website VenezuelaAnalysis.com has said a lot of people ask him for information about Venezuela and sometimes he can't get info fast enough.

12:10 EST: Fani says it's not that she wants to control the media, she just wants reporting to be fair. For example, she admits Venezuela is still struggling against corruption.

12:15 EST: Fani says her organization sends corrections with info when they find false reporting.

12:25 EST: Meeting is over. Good session.

I made it to USSF

Paul -V- — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:34:27 -0400

Okay. I'm here.

We parked the car in Doraville and took MARTA into Atlanta. It is the first time I've ever used a train for transit. Kinda cool... a lot quieter than a bus.

After getting of at Peachtree Station I checked into the hotel, registered at the Atlanta Civic Center and then walked to the Weston to attend a panel discussion entitled: "North & South united against FTAA." Essentially it's about how difference cultures have built social networks with each other to fight neo-liberalism.

I'm blogging from the back row of the room. :)

While the topic being discussed is interesting, I'm here because I needed a quiet spot to review the huge list of seminars going on this weekend. I've never seen such a vast convention topic list - literally HUNDREDS of classes and talks... and that's just for Friday. Tomorrow's in even larger.

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Brainshrub.com will be live-blogging from the 2007 US Social Forum

Paul -V- — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:09:49 -0400

I'm headed off to the United States Social Forum (USSF) this Friday. While there, I'll be live-blogging the activities.

A few friends have asked what the purpose of the Social Forum is, and why I'm going.

The USSF is a networking convention for social justice activists. I look forward to blogging about Atlanta's public transit system, commenting on the forums, and socializing with people who care more about democracy than American Idol.

I've never gone to an event like this, so I have no idea what to expect. Are other activists anything like me? Will I fit in, or will my clean-cut yuppie style of dress peg me as an undercover cop? (Don't laugh, it's happened before.)

I'm also looking forward to meeting Barb of the blog LuckyWhiteGirl.com. :)