Exclusive: Venezuela – In Great Danger from US Imperialism by Gary Sudborough

by Gary Sudborough
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
26 July 2009

Venezuela may be the world’s best hope for a brighter future. Do you know they have a children’s orchestra formed by taking poor children from the slums and teaching them music? They are so excellent at playing their instruments that this orchestra is world famous. They are taking unused farmland, owned by the rich landlords, and distributing it among the peasants to farm. They have built schools and educated the poor, provided them with health care, built them better homes, built sewage treatment plants and done things for the poor that only one other country in Latin America has done (although a few others are trying) and that is Cuba. They have nationalized factories and increased wages. Venezuela has brought in many Cuban doctors and poor people in rural areas who never had medical care before are now getting it. They certainly don’t deserve to be invaded by the United States under some pretext like running drugs, supporting the FARC or some other filthy excuse to rid us of our only hope in this world and that is socialism. The United States is evidently preparing for an invasion by getting their patsies in Colombia to provide 5 new military bases for US forces.

Venezuela: Class struggle heats up over battle for workers’ control by Federico Fuentes

Dandelion Salad

Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly

by Federico Fuentes
Green Left Weekly
Caracas
25 July 2009

On July 22, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez again declared his complete support for the proposal by industrial workers for a new model of production based on workers’ control.

This push from Chavez, part of the socialist revolution, aims at transforming Venezuela’s basic industry. However, it faces resistance from within the state bureaucracy and the revolutionary movement.

Presenting his government’s “Plan Socialist Guayana 2009-2019”, Chavez said the state-owned companies in basic industry have to be transformed into “socialist companies”.

The plan was the result of several weeks of intense discussion among revolutionary workers from the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG). The CVG includes 15 state-owned companies in the industrial Guayana region involved in steel, iron ore, mineral and aluminium production.

The workers’ roundtables were established after a May 21 workshop, where industrial workers raised radical proposals for the socialist transformation of basic industry.

Chavez addressed the workshop in support of many of the proposals.

Afghan War: NATO Trains Finland, Sweden For Conflict With Russia by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/40911
July 26, 2009

A Swedish newspaper reported on July 24 that approximately 50 troops from the country serving under NATO in the so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had engaged in a fierce firefight in Northern Afghanistan and had killed three and wounded two attackers.

The report detailed that the Swedish troops were traveling in armored vehicles and “later received reinforcements from several soldiers in a Combat Vehicle 90.” [1]

The world has become so inured to war around the world and seemingly without end that Swedish soldiers engaging in deadly combat as part of a belligerent force for the first time since the early 1800s – and that in another continent thousands of kilometers from their homeland – has passed virtually without notice.

A Finnish news story of the preceding day, possibly about the same incident but not necessarily, reported that “A Finnish-Swedish patrol, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), came under fire in northern Afghanistan” on July 23rd. [2]

Chavez: US plans to invade Venezuela through Colombia

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
30 June 2009

US military presence in the Americas (2009) by David Vine

1) Venezuela Prepares Defense Against Potential U.S. Aggression from Colombia (24 July 2009)

2) Venezuela Reviews Relations with Colombia as More US Bases Established (21 July 2009)

3) U.S.: Honduras Coup a “Lesson” for Zelaya Not to Follow Venezuela’s Path (23 July 2009)

__________________

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4657

excerpts from: Venezuela Prepares Defense Against Potential U.S. Aggression from Colombia

by James Suggett, Venezuela Analysis, 24 July 2009

In response to Colombia’s “unfriendly” decision to expand the U.S. military presence on Colombian bases, Venezuela will strengthen its fleet of armored vehicles and increase its military presence along its border with Colombia, President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday.

“You are opening your house to an enemy of your neighbor… and the neighbor has the right to say that it is an unfriendly act,” Chavez said to the Colombian government. […]

[…] Chavez warned a group of Venezuelan military officers during a ceremony at Fort Tiuna in Caracas that the U.S. military buildup in Colombia would likely bring more “mercenaries, spy planes, the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], and paramilitaries” to South America. […] He asserted that the U.S. “has plans to invade Venezuela,” and “wants to convert Colombia into the Israel of Latin America.”

The president also raised questions about why Venezuelan opposition leaders, including the mayor of Metropolitan Caracas and the governors of two states on the border with Colombia, Zulia and Tachira, had met with White House officials in Washington D.C. earlier in the week, shortly after the Honduran elite had carried out a military coup and the U.S. was increasing its military presence in Colombia.

“The extreme right sectors continue to conspire,” said Chávez. “They were there in the White House and the OAS [Organization of American States] practically asking for Venezuela to be intervened in, that’s what they want.”

Zelaya Follower Tortured & Assassinated By Coup Regime In Honduras

Dandelion Salad

by Eva Golinger
Postcards from the Revolution
Saturday, July 25, 2009

During the protests yesterday against the coup regime in Honduras, a curfew was imposed at noon that remains in place throughout the day and night today, Saturday. A large group of hundreds of protesters was detained in the El Paraiso region by armed forces under orders of the coup regime and prevented from reaching the border with Nicaragua, where President Manuel Zelaya was attempting his second entry into the country since his ouster one month ago.

The police and army repressing the people in El Paraiso fired tear gas, bullets and detained dozens of protesters. Violence erupted during the protests in reaction to the brutal force imposed by the coup regime. There are reports from the protesters in El Paraíso that the coup forces are preparing a nearby stadium to use for large-scale detentions. This would be reminiscent of the dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay in the 1970s that used stadiums to detain, disappear, torture and execute tens of thousands of leftists.

[…]

via Postcards from the Revolution: ZELAYA FOLLOWER TORTURED & ASSASSINATED BY COUP REGIME IN HONDURAS

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see also

Postcards from the Revolution: UPDATE, SATURDAY 3PM: ZELAYA AT HONDURAN BORDER AGAIN; CLINTON SAYS HE’S “RECKLESS”

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Warning

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

Zelaya supporters claim second protester killed – 26 Jul 09

Dahr Jamail: What Really Happened In Iraq!

Dandelion Salad

July 26, 2009

Dahr Jamail, one of the few unembedded journalists to report extensively from Iraq during the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation. Jamail is the recipient of the 2008 The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism.

Max Keiser: Should Goldman Sachs be prosecuted for crimes against humanity?

Dandelion Salad

MaxKeiserTV
July 24, 2009

http://maxkeiser.com

Eric Margolis: Biden pushes Bush NATO policy

Dandelion Salad

http://www.therealnews.com

Pt 1

Kucinich: Extracting The Wealth Of Our Nation & Appropriating It To A Few At The Expense Of The Many!

Dandelion Salad

setokaiba22
July 27, 2009

July 24, 2009 C-SPAN

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Kucinich: Extracting The Wealth Of Ou…“, posted with vodpod

see

Health Care Hypocrisy by Ralph Nader

Bill Maher: New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

Bill Moyers Journal: Health Care Reform + Rage on the Airwaves

Kucinich and Weiner on Single Payer

single payer healthcare HR 676 S 703