SolidarityEconomy.net

by Jerry Harris, SolidarityEconomy.net

. Income up for Venezuelan poor

A marketing research group, Datos, reports that the real income of the poorest Venezuelans, 58 percent of the country, have risen 130 percent under President Hugo Chavez. Although inflation is running at 19.3 percent that is lower than the 52 percent average in the early 1990s before Chavez took office.

. What they say

Neoliberal economist Adam Posen recently attacked Germany’s Mittelstand economic sector. These are the middle and small size business’ that employ 70 percent of the German people. Writing for the Peterson Institute for International (more…)

by Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Philippines

There will be massive cheating by the Arroyo administration in the upcoming May elections. The elements of this unfolding crime of monumental proportions are all present. The fact that there is still no hue and cry is a testament to how crime does pay in this country, most especially when the brains as well as the perpetrators, are cloaked with authority and wield the powers of high office.

First of all, there is the motive. Despite the fact that the forthcoming elections is not about choosing a new president, everybody knows that the fate of the incumbent, de facto Chief Executive, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, hinges on its outcome. The gelling of a (more…)

by Cliff DuRand, Center for Global Justice

It is now generally recognized that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is an unmitigated disaster –some say the biggest foreign policy mistake in U.S. history, meaning it even surpasses the U.S. war on Vietnam. At the same time it has helped to lay bare the reality of U.S. imperialism. But lest we think of that as an aberration peculiar to the Neo-cons running the Bush presidency, I want to argue that there are basic continuities between the Non-con view of the role of the U.S. in the world and the Liberal view that has characterized the foreign policy establishment since at least WWII and certainly for the last quarter century. Let me begin by characterizing the Neo-con and Liberal views in the (more…)

by Jerry Harris

.Viet-Nam’s stock markets grows

Viet-Nam’s six year old stock market is undergoing massive growth. Daily trading has gone from half-a-million in 2005 to $50 million a day in December 2006. Listed companies have risen from 30 to 107 and larger state enterprises, including commercial banks, are expected to be listed this year. Market capitalization has reached $14B. However Viet-Nam restricts daily share price movement for any stock to just five percent to protect the market from wild fluctuations and manipulation.

.India’s Muslims lack economic and social equality

India’s Muslim population faces similar social conditions as minorities in the US. They are unable to rent or buy property in many areas and their children are rejected from the better public schools. Literacy rates average 59 percent for Muslims compared to the national average of 65 percent. Average years in school for Muslim boys run only three years compared to the national average of four, and for Muslim girls the average is (more…)

by Gabriel Ash

Venezuela is changing. Fast. No other word captures the speed and magnitude of change as well as that weighty word–‘revolution.’ This is indeed the word used by many of the Venezuelans I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing during ten days in March. Venezuela is undergoing a ‘Bolivarian’ revolution. But what does ‘Bolivarianism’ entail? . . .

Contrary to the image often portrayed in the foreign media, Chavez has gone overboard in seeking to include as many as possible in the Bolivarian state. He has time and again extended an olive branch to his enemies. (more…)

by Jerry Harris, SolidarityEconomy.net

. IMF admits workers income is shrinking

The IMF has stated globalization is driving down the share of national income going to workers. The world labor force increased 400% over the past 20 years with China, India and eastern Europe integrating into the global economy. This has rapidly increased the number of educated workers which the IMF says has the biggest impact in the industrial countries, negatively effecting skilled workers. The IMF contends technology has a bigger impact on the unskilled and is responsible for the growing lack of income among workers in this sector. The IMF’s blame on technology sidesteps the question of who controls technology. Blaming “technology,” rather than how the capitalist class organizes its use, makes lower wages and more unemployment seem like a force of nature or the market. The IMF still defends globalization as increasing the overall pie, stating workers are doing better, they just have less of more. (more…)

by Lori Mcleod- Financial Post

Thursday, March 29, 2007–Gold Reserve Inc. stunned a skeptical market yesterday after winning a key permit to mine a significant gold-and-copper reserve in Venezuela, sending its stock up nearly 49% in heavy trading.

The news killed fears the foreign miner might never get the green light for the mine from socialist President Hugo Chavez, which it won after making rigorous commitments to invest in the area and its residents that will extend long after the mine is exhausted and Gold Reserve has packed up and gone home.

“I grew up in Canada and lived in small mining towns, and you always have to ask the question ‘What happens when the mine is gone?’ ” said Gold Reserve president Doug Belanger. (more…)

by Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Philippines

The truth has a sure, if painfully slow, way of coming out in the open. In the past couple of weeks, two highly significant events in the international arena, taking place one after the other, have put the de facto government of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the spot, with regard to the continuing problem of extrajudicial killings.

The earlier one is the verdict of the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT), Second Session on the Philippines, held in the world’s capital on international law, The Hague, The Netherlands, last 25 March. The second is the interim report of the UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings in the Philippines delivered to the UN Human Rights Council, on 27 March, in Geneva, Switzerland. (more…)