The Stalin Circle in Alberta

It was the New Left that created the term PC or Politically Correct to diferentiate itself from movements of Stalinism and Maoism which took the line that it was the Great Leaders way or the highway, to Siberia. Or in Alberta's case Fort McMurray.

In Alberta to be politically correct is to be PC, full caps.

Our PC's are the Party of Calgary, the Progressive Conservatives, under the Great Leader Ralph Klein.

The Party dominance is everywhere outside of Redmonton, which is the equivalent of revolutionary St. Petersburg (Leningrad).

The current power struggle in the party metaphorically is Stalinism rather than that of the earlier "Great Man" politicks; Bonapartism.

The dictator may pay a hypocritical homage to the tradition of popular consent by means of occasional plebiscites in which the people are asked to endorse some proposal desired by the government. But this purely formal consultation is usually carried out in an atmosphere of intimidation wherein the propagandists of the ruling clique predict the direst consequences unless the proposition is confirmed. What Are The Characteristics Of Bonapartism?

Why Stalin? Because the conflict in the Bolsheviks was a PARTY conflict. The same cannot be said of Fascist states of the time, which were Bonapartist, based solely on the Great Man; Hitler, Mussolini, Franco. Such Bonapartist regimes would become the model for post war Latin American nationalist movements such as Peronism.

Between 1928 and 1933, Stalin inaugurated the First and Second Five-Year Plans to achieve his goal of rapid industrialization. In many respects he was successful - by 1939 the USSR was behind only the United States and Germany in industrial output. The human costs, however, were enormous. Modern History Sourcebook: Josef Stalin (1879-1953 )

And Stalin oversaw the industrialization of Russia, while Ralph did the same in Alberta fulfilling Lougheeds original vision. Which makes Lougheed our Lenin.

But Bloshevism was all about the PARTY and internal faction fights. No different from the PARTY in Alberta. In Russia they sent you to work camps in Siberia, and in Alberta we too are now building work camps in our Siberia; Fort McMurray.

So in keeping with our metaphor, which is endorsed by no less an expert than Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, here are the players in the game of the Bolshevik Power Struggle in Alberta as the Great Leader flounders and weakens.

Let's play pin the cult of personality on the Leadership contenders and the Great Leader, ala the politicks of the One Party State. Which are unique to the old Soviet Union and to Alberta politicks.

Think of it as a card game, for a pack of cards. Just in time for the Convention next weekend.

Seeking Klein's crown are: former provincial treasurer Jim Dinning, former economic development minister Mark Norris, backbench Tory MLA Ted Morton, Infrastructure Minister Lyle Oberg, Intergovernmental Relations Minister Ed Stelmach and Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock

.





Ralph Klein Stalin

"He is an unprincipled intriguer who subordinates everything to his appetite for power. At any given moment he will change his theories in order to get rid of someone"

Lenin became increasing concerned about Stalin's character and wrote a testament in which he suggested that he be removed. "Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated enormous power in his hands: and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution. I therefore propose to our comrades to consider a means of removing Stalin from this post and appointing someone else who differs from Stalin in one weighty respect: being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, more considerate of his comrades."

While Vladimir Lenin was immobilized, Joseph Stalin made full use of his powers as General Secretary. At the Party Congress he had been granted permission to expel "unsatisfactory" party members. This enabled Stalin to remove thousands of supporters of Trotsky, his main rival for the leadership of the party. As General Secretary, Stalin also had the power to appoint and sack people from important positions in the government. The new holders of these posts were fully aware that they owed their promotion to Stalin. They also knew that if their behaviour did not please Stalin they would be replaced.

Ralph Stalin Purges Alberta Cabinet

Kliein: A man whose time has come?

The Social Credit Party, which ruled for 34 years, was seen as tired and out of fresh ideas when a newcomer on the scene, Peter Lougheed, swept them from power in an unthinkable rout in 1971. Klein himself has only been in power for 12 years, but the Tories have held onto Alberta for 35 years, since Lougheed’s first win. We don’t change governments very often, but for such a right-wing province, we do think collectively every three decades or so.)

EDITORIAL: Ralph has to go. Now.
Edmonton Sun, Canada -
It's time to go, Ralph. Next Friday, at your party's convention, you should do the honourable thing and resign as leader of the




Colleen Klein Nadezhda Krupskaya

Yep the brains in the outfit. Relegated by Stalin to the backstage, much like Ralph does with Colleen. She has attempted to ameliorate the Ralph Revolution with philanthropy.

Klein Outta Control

Ralph Klein Abuser

Krupskaya had opposed Lenin's calls for an early revolution but after its success she hid her political differences with her husband. Trotsky's main hope of gaining power was for Lenin's last testament to be published. In May, 1924, Lenin's widow, Nadezhda Krupskaya, demanded that the Central Committee announce its contents to the rest of the party. Gregory Zinoviev argued strongly against its publication. He finished his speech with the words: "You have all witnessed our harmonious cooperation in the last few months, and, like myself, you will be happy to say that Lenin's fears have proved baseless. The new members of the Central Committee, who had been sponsored by Stalin, guaranteed that the vote went against Lenin's testament being made public.

Jim Dinning Bukharin

Alberta's next CEO, Mr. P3, and leader in this pack of cards. Sitting on the outside looking in, and allowing the night of the longknives at the Convention to wreak havoc amongst the social conservatives in cabinet, causcus and the backbenches.

Bukharin's theory was that the small farmers only produced enough food to feed themselves. The large farmers, on the other hand, were able to provide a surplus that could be used to feed the factory workers in the towns. To motivate the kulaks to do this, they had to be given incentives, or what Bukharin called, "the ability to enrich" themselves.

Lyle Oberg Trotsky

Trotsky accused Stalin of being dictatorial and called for the introduction of more democracy into the party.

Calgary — Alberta Tory Premier Ralph Klein's long goodbye from politics is hurting the province and should be reassessed by party faithful, says a leadership hopeful who was turfed this week from cabinet for making “inappropriate comments” about the Premier.

Lyle Oberg, who was Alberta's infrastructure and transportation minister until he was stripped of the position for six months after a Thursday night caucus meeting, apologized yesterday for suggesting he would reveal government “skeletons.”

But he did not back away from his suggestion that delegates at next week's annual meeting of the Progressive Conservative Party should rethink Mr. Klein's plan to stay in the premier's chair effectively until the spring of 2008.

"Given the urgency of the challenges that face the province, and the amazing opportunities that lie before us, the impact of a two-year leadership race must seriously be considered," Oberg said Friday.

Deposed cabinet minister Lyle Oberg says he will spend the weekend considering his political future and whether he will remain in the race to replace Premier Ralph Klein as leader.

Appearing sombre and subdued, Oberg told reporters today the past couple days have been “a difficult time within caucus” but he gave no indication he plans to quit the race.

But he also appeared to criticize Klein’s decision to stick around for two more years and hinted that fellow Conservatives should send a message at a March 31 leadership review that they want a leadership contest before then.

“The vote is not a referendum on the premier’s leadership,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. “The premier has already said he is not running again. The vote is a vote on when the leadership should occur.”

Riding rallying for Oberg

Wendell Rommens, past president and treasurer of the Strathmore-Brooks riding association, said Oberg's call for delegates to vote their conscience was met with applause and reflects what has become a commonly-held view. "I think it's time for (Klein) to move on and I would say the sooner the better," Rommens said.

Gregory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev united behind Stalin and accused Trotsky of creating divisions in the party. In April, 1937, Trotsky appeared before a commission of inquiry in New York headed by John Dewey. Trotsky was found not guilty of the charges of treason being made by Stalin.

Stelmach Zinoviev

After the death of Lenin 1924, Zinoviev joined forces with Lev Kamenev and Joseph Stalin to keep Leon Trotsky from power. In 1925 Stalin was able to arrange for Trotsky to be dismissed as commissar of war and the following year the Politburo.With the decline of Trotsky, Joseph Stalin felt strong enough to stop sharing power with Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev

Ed Stelmach, Klein's intergovernmental relations minister, resigned a week after the premier ordered ministers who want to run for the Tory leadership to step down by June 1 - even though the premier himself doesn't plan to step down for two years. Premier Ralph Klein said he was somewhat surprised that Stelmach decided to resign from cabinet so quickly. "I set June 1 as a deadline and I didn't expect it to happen this fast," the premier told his daily news conference.

Stelmach's move may bolster a sense of urgency among those looking for change.

It's all very confusing for most Albertans watching Conservative politics from a distance. Stelmach's public comments are very reassuring. He's a team player, he supports Klein and all party policies. "Officially, there is no race," said Stelmach, until Klein steps down.

At the same time, he told reporters his resignation means: "Look, there's no doubt about it. We're here, we mean business and we're in the race."

Yes, and there's a new urgency about that business.

Ted Morton Kamanev

On his return to Russia he was elected Chairman of the Moscow Soviet and became a member of the party's five-man ruling Politburo. He reached the peak of his power in 1923 when with Joseph Stalin and Gregory Zinoviev he became one of the Triumvirate that planned to take over from Vladimir Lenin when he died.

When Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev eventually began attacking his policies, Joseph Stalin argued they were creating disunity in the party and managed to have them expelled from the Central Committee. The belief that the party would split into two opposing factions was a strong fear amongst active communists in the Soviet Union.

Alberta cabinet ministers who want to take a run at Ralph Klein’s job in two years will have to resign their portfolios by June 1, the premier said Wednesday. Ted Morton, another leadership contender, called Klein’s action “a good idea for obvious reasons.”

Until now, the many Albertans who want their next premier to be ready to at least threaten separation with Ottawa in order to get the kind of respect and deference Quebec has received over the past 40 years -- and there are many of them -- thought their best choice was political scientist and Calgary MLA Ted Morton.

Morton is one of the fellas who developed the idea of building the Alberta firewall -- an idea that basically advocates the province taking full advantage of its jurisdictional rights -- such as establishing its own pension plan, having its own provincial police force, controlling its immigration etc. -- Morton was the closest they could get to threatening Ottawa to keep its paws off of our valuable oil and gas resources.

Not anymore.

This, in effect, means Morton's leadership hopes are severely dampened, since Norris has already raised about $1.4 million from some heavy hitters with more surely to come as the race heats up.

Mark Norris Sergy Kirov,

As usual, that summer Kirov and Joseph Stalin went on holiday together. Stalin, who treated Kirov like a son, used this opportunity to try to persuade him to remain loyal to his leadership. Stalin asked him to leave Leningrad to join him in Moscow. Stalin wanted Kirov in a place where he could keep a close eye on him. When Kirov refused, Stalin knew he had lost control over his protégé.

Budget not bold enough, says Norris

Norris suggested this week that sitting ministers would have an unfair advantage if they remained in cabinet.

Mark Norris, a former cabinet minister who lost his seat in the 2004 election, said he's glad to see Stelmach stepping away from cabinet to focus on the leadership.

"I was a little surprised that it happened this early, but I'm very happy about it," Norris said in an interview. "It's going to be good to get this race going."

Norris said he's been paying all of his own leadership expenses and he'll be glad to see more of the candidates doing the same, especially cabinet ministers.

"It'll not only put interest into the race, but interest back into the party."

Norris, the 43-year-old Edmonton businessman and former Alberta economic development minister who is chock-a-block with fresh, concrete ideas delivered with a folksy, Ralphy kind of charm.

Norris wants to better care for Alberta's seniors and disabled, believes in strategic investing at all levels of education, would institute a two-term limit for a premier and set election dates for the province.

But it's Norris' willingness to play hardball with the feds and even lead this province down the road of separation if necessary that will set him apart from the others running in this race.

Dave Hancock Genrikh Yagoda

Yagoda was a close friend of Joseph Stalin and in 1934 he was put in charge of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD). In 1936 Yagoda arrested Lev Kamenev, Gregory Zinoviev, and fourteen others and accused them of being involved with Leon Trotsky in a plot to murder Joseph Stalin and other party leaders. All of these men were found guilty and were executed on 25th August, 1936.

Klein's rebate musings anger many in party
Short-term view slammed by leadership hopefuls

Advanced Education Minister and leadership hopeful Dave Hancock also indicated he's not too keen on the idea of more cheques. Rather, the dollars should be invested in endowment funds and savings accounts, he said.

"My priority is that non-renewable resource revenue should be saved for the future in a manner which can expand our economy, expand our society and pay dividends long-term into the future," Hancock said Tuesday.

11. This could change everything for Dave Hancock's leadership bid. Over the past week, I was beginning to be convinced that Advanced Education Minister Dave Hancock would drop out of the race in the face of Klein's June 1st deadline, but I now think he may stick around the racetrack. Though I don't think he stands much of a chance at winning the leadership, I think he could probably top the list of "best Tory Premiers Alberta never had." Daveberta

Iris Evans Alexandra Kollanti

Evans gives Klein healthy boost

Alberta Health Minister Iris Evans says she's squarely behind Premier Ralph Klein and his leadership.

When Joseph Stalin gained power he sent Kollantai abroad as a diplomat. This included periods in Norway (1923-25), Mexico (1925-27), Norway (1927-30) and Sweden (1930-45). Kollantai retired in 1945 and lived in Moscow until her death on 9th March, 1952. She was the only major critic of the Soviet government that Joseph Stalin did not exterminate.

Hey I Said That

Brian Mason leader of the Alberta NDP comes to the same conclusion I did about the purge of Lyle Oberg...........

"They're now resorting to extreme measures to shut up people who dare to criticize Ralph Klein," said NDP Leader Brian Mason. "This is Stalinesque, and I think that it is the beginning of a reign of terror in the Conservative party.

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Capitalism's Denial of Climate Catastrophe

Ok this is serious. So why aren't governments taking it seriously. Because they are the excutive of the capitalist state.

As such they must deny the contradiction which is the fact there is no such thing as infinite resources. Hence Hubbards theory of Peak Oil.

But capitalism as a machine ,out of control of its creators, must consume those resources transforming them into products for our consumption. In doing so capitalism as an ideology cannot declare that it is Finite. It must constantly expand. But such expansion is anti-human and anti-environmental and anti-nature.

Which is why politicians are ill equiped to deal with such momentous crisises. They can only "be here now", living in the ever present which is why capitalism is a-hisotrical, it is always coming into being.

It is always in the now, we can see nothing beyond it and its technological solutions to the crisises it manifests. That technological solution is based on once again subjecting us to the ideology that says there is something else, other than ourselves, that we can rely on to solve problems of our own creation.

Latest studies set timetable for catastrophic flooding

Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service

Published: Thursday, March 23, 2006

Half of Florida ends up underwater. So does much of Bangladesh and the Netherlands. Low-lying parts of British Columbia, the Maritimes and Canadian North would also be inundated, say scientists who warn in the journal Science today that the world appears headed for a catastrophic rise in sea level.They say temperatures are rising so fast and polar ice fields are melting so quickly, the planet is on track for inundation and flooding unlike anything seen on Earth for 130,000 years.

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He's Baaaack

Our old pal Werner Patels, the man with the multiblog personality is back with a new blog incarnation. Same old politics same old nattering just a new blog interface with no noticeable connections to his other blogs, except that the issues he discusses are the same. Gotcha again Werner.



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Ralph Stalin Purges Alberta Cabinet

Lyle, Trotsky, Oberg dared to say the unspeakable against the Great Leader Joseph Klein err Ralph Stalin.

That maybe all was not well in mudville and the Volk should not give the Great Leader carte blanche come the Peoples Show Convention next month.

In a move straight out of the autarchs play book;The Great Leader got his Molotov, Deputy Premier; Shirley McClellan, to call an emergency cabinet meeting of Zinovev's and Bukharins to purge Oberg-Trotsky from cabinet.

My gosh what fun we have in the one party state. The Great Leader was absent of course to make the purge look like it wasn't his idea.

Looking forward to show trials soon.

Alberta is one big flashback to the Thirties. First it's Ralph Bucks which was an idea from the old Socred days and now we have purges like in the old country.

S. P. Kolosov whose final fate is unknown expressed it in an anything but timid letter in 1937: "I am afraid to open my mouth. Whatever you say, if you say the wrong thing, you're an enemy of the people. Cowardice has become the norm."

What was that saying in French; Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Of course the difference between Uncle Joe and King Ralph is....the moustache.

But with comments like this Lyle better beware of Trotsky's fate.

"If I were the premier, I wouldn't want me as a backbencher,'' Oberg told the meeting, which was covered by the Brooks & County Chronicle newspaper. ``I know where the skeletons are.''



Oberg dumped
Calgary Sun, Canada -
EDMONTON -- Transportation Minister Lyle Oberg has been thrown out of the Tory caucus for six months for "inappropriate comments" which included threatening ...
Oberg stripped of cabinet post over Klein remarks CTV.ca
Oberg booted from cabinet for anti-Klein comments CBC.ca
Alberta Tories oust leadership contender Globe and Mail



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Water in your Scotch

So much for ice in your scotch you will have to take it straight up or with water in the future. Of course you won't be able to enjoy it from your porch in New Orleans or Key West.

New Studies Warn of Effects of Melting Polar Ice

Within the next 100 years, the growing human influence on earth's climate could lead to a long and irreversible rise in sea levels by eroding Earth's vast polar ice sheets, according to new observations and analysis by several teams of scientists.

One team, using computer models of climate and ice, found that by about 2100, average temperatures could be 4 degrees warmer than today and that over the coming centuries, the world's oceans could rise 13 to 20 feet — conditions last seen 129,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages.

The findings, being reported today in the journal Science, are consistent with other recent studies of melting and erosion at the poles. Many experts say there are still uncertainties about timing, extent and causes.

But Jonathan T. Overpeck of the University of Arizona, a lead author of one of the studies, said the new findings made a strong case for the danger of failing to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

"If we don't like the idea of flooding out New Orleans, major portions of South Florida, and many other valued parts of the coastal U.S., we will have to commit soon to a major effort to stop most emissions of carbon to the atmosphere," he said.

Also see Climate Change

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Don't Forget About This Guy

In all the sturm and drang in the Canadian blogosphere over the Afghanistan mullahs Sharia law that will see a man put to death because he dared to convert to Christianity, this little item keeps getting overlooked:

AFGHANISTAN: Editor goes on trial for blasphemy

New York, October 11, 2005—The editor of a monthly magazine about women's rights went on trial today in Kabul's provincial court on blasphemy charges for publishing articles purported to offend Islam.

Editor Ali Mohaqiq Nasab gets two years in prison for blasphemy

Reporters Without Borders today called on President Hamid Karzai to intercede after a Kabul court sentenced Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor of the monthly publication Haqoq-e-Zan (Women’s Rights), to two years in prison at the end of a summary trial on blasphemy charges on 22 October.

“A journalist has been given a stiff prison sentence for a press offence in violation of international treaties signed by Afghanistan,” the press freedom organisation said. “It is extremely disturbing to see a man sentenced to prison simply for reprinting articles condemning such archaic practices as stoning and corporal punishments.”

Reporters Without Borders added : “President Karzai must intercede to obtain Nasab’s release and have this miscarriage of justice corrected.”

Nasab was prosecuted for reprinting articles by an Iranian scholar criticising the stoning of Muslims who convert to another religion and the use of corporal punishment for persons accused of such offences as adultery.

And what was that some Pro-War bloggers were saying about our Troops being in Afghanistan to protect women's rights? What rights? Afghanistan is ruled by Islamic Sharia law you idiots. Its a Theocratic state, with or without the Taliban.

AND DON'T FORGET ABOUT THIS GUY EITHER.

Here is a report on another pending death sentence in Kabul, that centre of democracy in Afghanistan, American style. In Canada we do not have capital punishment, but our troops are defending that 'democratic right' of the state to murder people over in Afghanistan. Courtesy of Blogistan, a great compilation of news from and about Afghanistan.

Fate of ex-intelligence chief
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The former intelligence chief and deputy prime minister of the communist government, Asadullah Sarwary, was sentenced to death by a court in Kabul 11 days ago. Asadullah Sarwary was arrested in 1992 and spent nearly 14 years in prison without trial and the punishment that was given by the Kabul court was a completely unjust judgment because the court was not able to provide any strong document that shows the involvement of Asadullah Sarwary in killings of people. Only 16 people who missed their relatives during the communist government attended the court and gave testimony that their relatives or family members went missing during the communist government in 1979. In my opinion this was not a good judgment by the Kabul court and they took this decision so quick with out any investigation to prove if claims were true and the court was running like the courts during the Taliban regime where they were making decisions by their own choice. According to the news reports, no defense lawyers were ready to fight Mr Sarwary's case. But these reports were wrong because the defense lawyers were receiving threats from high Jihadi officials in the current government, so therefore Mr Sarwary was defending himself.

It's so sad when the many criminals in high government posts are not being prosecuted - people who destroyed 70% of the capital Kabul and killed more than 70 thousand people just in Kabul from 1992-1996. Every single one of these Jihadi commanders were acting as a king in their area. Looting and killing was done on a daily basis. But now some of them are in the current government and parliament and they are not being prosecuted. People are scared to appeal against them but if the government put these criminals in jail and bring them to justice of course thousands of people will be eyewitnesses of their inhuman crimes. It is clear to everyone that all governments have their opponent. Like the Mujahideen were against the communist government which ran the country from 1979-1992. During this time people killed from both sides and its wrong to stand a former intelligence chief responsible for crimes carried out by others. Mr Sarwary was the intelligence chief for only 6 months and the job of intelligence chief is to investigate not to kill and after investigation if the person was found to be guilty, the intelligence department introduces the case to the ministry of interior and then the ministry of interior takes action against them. Or if any prisoners die in prison that is the responsibility of the Interior Minster and prison commander, not the intelligence chief.

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Canada's Dirty Secret: Haiti

The war in Haiti, the invasion of that country by Canadian troops with UN sanction, was never about democracy or human rights but an attempt to put in power a state which would sanction privatization and protect foreign companies, such as Quebec based Gildan, and their cheap labour exploitation of the islands people.

War is the lifeblood of Imperialism. Capitalism that moves beyond its national borders, globalization, is Imperialism. Canada and Quebec are imperialist powers in Haiti.

The Liberals sent a clear message last year with the appointment of Canada's new Governor General; Michaëlle Jean, who was born in Haiti. That appointment sent a political message to Haiti, that we rule. Canada and Quebec (which has the largest Haitian exile population in North America), are the new Imperial governors of Haiti.

That is Canada's dirty little secret.

Justin Podur on Michael Deibert, Notes from the Last Testament. Untenable defence of Aristide’s overthrow, as Haiti’s poor come under siege from militias tacitly sanctioned by UN forces.

In the vast corrugated-iron shanty town of Cité Soleil, home to quarter of a million people, all the schools are shut down and the one hospital closed. White armoured un personnel carriers patrol the perimeter, half a dozen blue-helmeted heads poking out of the turret, automatic weapons trained on the streets. It is the masked units of the Police Nationale d’Haïti, bolstered by heavily armed irregulars from the officially disbanded Haitian army, who take the lead in the brutal raids into working-class neighbourhoods, but the Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haïti—minustah—who back them up, blocking off exits as the pnh spread out through the area and the gunfire begins. In the poor districts of Port-au-Prince—La Saline, Bel Air—a 2004 human-rights investigation reported, such raids leave ‘dead bodies in the streets almost daily, including innocent bystanders, women and children, with the un forces visibly acting as support for, rather than a check on, the official violence’. One Québécois police officer attached to the un force complained that all he had done since getting to the island was ‘engage in daily guerrilla warfare’.

Welcome to Kofi Annan’s Haiti. It is two years since the un-backed Multinational Interim Force headed by the us, France and Canada toppled the constitutionally elected Lavalas government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The case for military intervention was based on claims of a possible ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in the making, and the mandate hurriedly bestowed by the un, as Marines and Légionnaires clomped into the National Palace, was to ‘promote the protection of human rights’. France, Haiti’s former colonial master, had been the moving force behind the invasion. The Bush Administration, bogged down in Iraq, burnt by the failed coup against Chávez in 2002, and counting down to the 2004 election, was chary of another military engagement. Chirac and Villepin, keen to ingratiate themselves after the contretemps over Operation Iraqi Freedom, offered a bespoke package: unsc backing for a multilateral invasion force with guaranteed withdrawal in three months, to be replaced by a broader un mission. Chirac’s advisers, searching for a formula with which to discount Aristide’s claim that Paris should repay the millions it had once extorted from Haiti, had suggested that the bicentenary of the demi-island’s 1804 independence offered France the opportunity to ‘shed the weight which servitude imposes on the master’. It was a burden eagerly shouldered by Lula’s Brazil, Lagos’s Chile, Kirchner’s Argentina and others as, from June 2004, they replaced the initial France–us–Canada force in order to assist the ‘peaceful and constitutional political process’.

The privatizations and, especially, the agricultural tariff cuts of the sap, unwillingly implemented, devastated the Haitian economy and alienated key sectors of Lavalas support. As agreed, Aristide stepped down in 1995. His successor as Lavalas presidential candidate, René Préval, won an easy victory in the 1995 election. But political tensions grew as living conditions worsened. In 1994 Aristide had disbanded but, disastrously, not disarmed the brutal fadh, who immediately began to regroup against him, provoking a counter-militarization by some of Aristide’s supporters. Disputes over the economic programme split the Lavalas coalition, with Préval’s prime minister Rosny Smarth, a strong proponent of the sap, and others forming the Organisation du Peuple en Lutte, and Aristide setting up Fanmi Lavalas, a personalized grouping with a strong pro-poor rhetoric. The Assembly was deadlocked. The opl disputed fl’s gains in the 1997 legislative elections; in the slums, the rivalries were played out at gang level. Punishment killings continued, though at a far lower level than during the dictatorship years. Among the senseless victims was Jean Dominique, seemingly killed for his sympathies with peasants protesting Lavalas policies, whose leaders had linked up with the opl.

Officially, the turning-point for the campaign against Aristide was supposed to come with the May 2000 legislative elections: minor irregularities were alleged in the tallying of votes for the lower-order parties, which might have averted some second-round run-offs, though these would have had scant impact on the overall outcome. But Deibert’s narrative, broadly chronological from 2000 on, inadvertently lets a cat out of the bag: Convergence Démocratique, the alliance of rich businessmen, Duvalierists, opl and ex-Lavalas supporters that would henceforth coordinate the campaign for us intervention against Aristide, had denounced the election results even before the count began. It was not vote-tallying anomalies, but the clear prospect that Aristide and his supporters would legitimately sweep both the legislative and the presidential elections that year, and thus be in a position to implement even the minute redistribution of wealth implied in Aristide’s meek promise to ‘lift people out of absolute misery into poverty with dignity’, that was the motivating factor.

Peter Hallward: Option Zero in Haiti

A very multilateral coup. Franco-American harmony and unanimous blessings from the Security Council for the overthrow of a constitutional government and crushing of popular hope, in the Western hemisphere's poorest nation-state.

Globalization comes to Haiti

Predictably, the imf cure for Haiti’s desperate poverty involved further reductions in wages that had already sunk to starvation levels, privatization of the state sector, reorientation of domestic production in favour of cash crops popular in North American supermarkets and the elimination of import tariffs. It was the last of these, easiest to implement, that had the most immediate impact. With the tariff on rice cut from 50 per cent to the imf-decreed 3 per cent, Haiti—previously self-sufficient in the crop—was flooded with subsidized American grain, and rice imports rose from just 7,000 tonnes in 1985 to 220,000 tonnes in 2002. Domestic rice production has all but disappeared. A similar sequence eliminated Haiti’s poultry sector, at the cost of around 10,000 jobs. Haitian farmers tend to associate these developments with the most bitterly resented of all the international community’s many aggressive interventions in their domestic economy—the 1982 extermination, to allay the fears of American importers concerned by an outbreak of swine fever, of Haiti’s entire native pig population, and their subsequent replacement with animals from Iowa that required living conditions rather better than those enjoyed by most of the island’s human population.

As a result of these and related economic ‘reforms’, agricultural production fell from around 50 per cent of gdp in the late 1970s to just 25 per cent in the late 1990s. Structural adjustment was supposed to compensate for agrarian collapse with an expansion of the light manufacturing and assembly sector. The lowest wages in the hemisphere, backed by a virtual ban on trade unions, had encouraged mainly American companies or contractors to employ around 60,000 people in this sector in the late 1970s, and through to the mid-90s companies like Kmart and Walt Disney continued to pay Haitians around 11 cents an hour to make pyjamas and T-shirts. The companies benefit from tax exemptions lasting for up to 15 years, are free to repatriate all profits and obliged to make only minimal investments in equipment and infrastructure. By 1999, Haitians fortunate enough to work in the country’s small manufacturing and assembly sector were earning wages estimated at less than 20 per cent of 1981 levels. Nevertheless, still more dramatic rates of exploitation encouraged many of these companies to relocate to places like China and Bangladesh, and only around 20,000 people were still employed in the Port-au-Prince sweatshops by the end of the millennium. Real gdp per capita in 1999–2000 was estimated to be ‘substantially below’ the 1990 level.

It would be wrong to think that these reforms were implemented with anything approaching Third Way zeal. On the contrary, the Lavalas government was continually criticized for its ‘lack of vigour’ by international financial institutions: ‘Policies imposed as conditions by international lenders have been at best half-heartedly supported by the domestic authorities, and at worst violently rejected by the public’ With its back to the wall, Lavalas resorted to what James Scott has famously dubbed the ‘weapons of the weak’: a mixture of prevarication and evasive non-cooperation. This proved partially successful as a way of deflecting at least one of the main blows of structural adjustment, the privatization of Haiti’s few remaining public assets. Lavalas had good reason to drag its feet. When the state-run sugar mill was privatized in 1987, for example, it was bought by a single family who promptly closed it, laid off its staff and began importing cheaper sugar from the us so as to sell it on at prices that undercut the domestic market. Once the world’s most profitable sugar exporter, by 1995 Haiti was importing 25,000 tons of American sugar and most peasants could no longer afford to buy it. By contrast, in September 1995 Aristide dismissed his prime minister for preparing to sell the state-owned flour and cement mills without insisting on any of the progressive terms the imf had promised to honour—opening the sale to middle-class and diaspora participation, and ensuring that some of the money it earned was to go towards literacy, education and compensation for victims of the 1991 coup. Aristide could only delay the process for two years, however. In 1997 the flour mill was duly sold for just $9 million, at a time when its yearly profits were estimated at around $25 million per year.

The Lavalas government never yielded, however, to us pressure to privatize Haiti’s public utilities. At the same time, and with drastically limited resources, it oversaw the creation of more schools than in all the previous 190 years. It printed millions of literacy booklets and established hundreds of literacy centres, offering classes to more than 300,000 people; between 1990 and 2002 illiteracy fell from 61 to 48 per cent. With Cuban assistance, a new medical school was built and the rate of hiv infection—a legacy from the sex tourism industry of the 1970s and 80s—was frozen, with clinics and training programmes opened as part of a growing public campaign against aids. Significant steps were taken to limit the widespread exploitation of children. Aristide’s government increased tax contributions from the elite, and in 2003 it announced the doubling of a desperately inadequate minimum wage.

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Some Blogs Are More Equal Than Others

"All blogs are equal, but some blogs are more equal than others."

It appears that the Tories and Liberals are leaking information to their favorite blogs, a case in point;

I received the following just a while ago from one of my contacts in the government. It's the transcript of Stephen Harper's comments that preceded his speech on accountibility. The original speech on accountibility (prepared before the hostages were released)... Stephen Taylor - Conservative Party of Canada Pundit

This puts the Blogging Tories in the same catagory as those conservative bloggers who publish Wal-Mart PR on their blogs.

Also see:

Blogging Capitalism

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Canadian Troops In Iraq

So says the CBC. A tip o the blog to Vive Le Canada for pointing this out.

Members of Canada's top secret commando unit, Joint Task Force 2, had been in Iraq working in tandem with British troops, said officials. It's not clear how many were in Iraq, but they have been in the country for some time.

RCMP, Canadian military involved?

Straw said the military operation that led to the release of the hostages occurred after "weeks and weeks" of careful preparation and involved military and civilian personnel, including the RCMP.

"The operation included representatives from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, other agencies from Canada – and they did a terrific job – as well as the Americans and British staff and those from Iraq," said Straw.

DID HARPER SEND CANADIAN SOLDIERS TO IRAQ? asks My Blahg. Probably not since the super secret commando unit JTF2 has been working with the US Special forces since 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Which makes this a continuation of Liberal Government policy. And another reason for full disclosure of all military operations to Parliament. So can we debate the issue NOW!

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