Poco antes de suicidarse en 1961, el escritor estadounidense Ernest Hemingway escribió sobre su terapia de electroshock: “Y bien, ¿qué sentido tiene que destruyan mi mente y borren mi memoria, que es mi patrimonio, y quedarme fuera de juego? Ha sido una remedio brillante pero hemos perdido al paciente”. Estas líneas las citaba Naomi Klein en [...]

La declaraciones de un miembro del consejo del instituto griego de estadística, ELSTAT, han puesto de manifiesto que la Comisión Europea a través del Eurostat presionó a esa institución para que inflase las cifras de déficit público del país heleno. Nuevo escándalo de maquillaje contable en Grecia. En esta ocasión, el protagonista es el Eurostat -el [...]

The inspiring overthrow of Hosni Mubarak is only the first stage of the Egyptian struggle for full liberation. As earlier pro-democracy movements have learned the hard way, much can be lost in the key months and years of transition from one regime to another. In The Shock Doctrine, I investigated how, [...]

“We’re for seeds that have never been touched by multinationals. In our advocacy, we say that seeds are the patrimony of humanity. No one can control them,” said Doudou Pierre, national coordinating committee member of the National Haitian Network for Food Sovereignty and Food Security (RENHASSA), in a recent interview. “We reject Monsanto and their GMOs. GMOs would be the extermination of our people.” A march is being held in Haiti today for World Environment Day, called by at least four major national peasant organizations and one international one. The march’s purpose is to protest the new arrival of Monsanto seeds.

The heresy of Greece is that the uprising of its ordinary people provides an authentic hope unlike that lavished upon the warlord in the White House. The crisis that has led to the “rescue” of Greece by the European banks and the International Monetary Fund is the product of a grotesque financial system which itself is in crisis. Greece is a microcosm of a modern class war that is rarely reported as such and is waged with all the urgency of panic among the imperial rich. In Greece, as in America and Britain, the ordinary people have been told they must repay the debts of the rich and powerful who incurred the debts. Jobs, pensions and public services are to be slashed and burned, with privateers in charge. What makes Greece different is that within its living memory is invasion, foreign occupation, betrayal by the West, military dictatorship and popular resistance. Ordinary people are not cowed by the corrupt corporatism that dominates the European Union.

El terremoto del 12 de enero provocó la muerte de 300 mil personas y dejó sin techo a más de un millón de haitianos. Sus consecuencias fueron devastadoras. Pero, a pesar de haber alcanzado siete grados en la escala Richter, es poco probable que el terremoto haya quebrantado las estructuras de funcionamiento de una empresa transnacional como la Monsanto. La donación de las 475 toneladas de semillas híbridas puede ser promocionada como una acción de generosidad de la transnacional con el pueblo haitiano. Sin embargo, si se analizan las condiciones en las que esta donación ha sido efectuada, la generosidad se convierte en mera táctica empresarial para incrementar divisas. Lo que no ha sido dicho ni por la Monsanto, ni por el Ministerio de la Agricultura haitiano, es que esas semillas híbridas de maíz sólo podrán cumplir sus promesas de productividad y adaptación al clima tropical haitiano si son tratadas con herbicidas, fertilizantes y productos químicos específicos, que no por casualidad son producidos por la propia Monsanto. Eso significa que los agricultores haitianos que reciban las semillas híbridas sólo conseguirán volverlas productivas si adquieran los herbicidas y fertilizantes de la Monsanto.

“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day. In an open letter sent of May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the Executive Director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds…, and on what is left our environment in Haiti.” Haitian social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author by Beverly Bell Patrick Elie has long been a democracy activist.  Moreover, during President Aristide’s administration-in-exile during the 91-94 coup d’etat, Patrick was coordinator of the anti-drug unit of the National Intelligence Service, where he was key to exposing the collusion between the U.S. government and the military [...]

Article published in Amauta with permission from the author by Beverly Bell and Tory Field “A sweeping exercise in nation-building on a scale and scope not seen in generations,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the international donors conference on March 31 in New York, where foreign nations and other international institutions pledged $5.3 billion toward Haiti [...]

Artículo publicado en Amauta con permiso del autor Entrevista con Luis Mesina, dirigente de los trabajadores de la banca en Chile por Andrés Figueroa Cornejo El Secretario General de la Confederación de Trabajadores Bancarios, Luis Mesina, es uno de los líderes sindicales más reconocidos del país. En esta entrevista se refiere los efectos del terremoto y al arribo [...]