THE G-20 IN PITTSBURGH
by Tom Over 9-23-09
<br><br>
On Tuesday, Sept 22, activists from Philadelphia, New York City, Pittsburgh and other cities held a mock funeral procession to demand better policies for addressing the AIDS pandemic, a day ahead of the arrival of delegates for the G-20.
<br><br>
The approximately 50 participants in the New Orleans-style funeral march drew a mix of interest, irritation, and amusement from onlookers in the business district of downtown Pittsburgh.
<br><br>
At the head of the funeral march where pallbearers carried a cardboard coffin, a man shouted into a microphone while someone else carried a portable amplifier, “when people with AIDS are under attack, what do we do ?” and marchers shouted in unison, “fight back!”
<br><br>
Amidst the early afternoon bustle of an weekday, the demonstrators repeated this call-and-answer and similar chants as the funeral march made its way around the perimeter of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the site of the G-20 Summit later this week.
<br><br>
Erica Goldberg works with ACT UP Philadelphia. She said global health is not on the agenda of the G-20 Summit.
“One of the things that some of the G-20 nations have promised us is funding for the global fund to fight, TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. This is all really important, especially if we want to meet the United Nations’ Millennium goal of eradicating these diseases by 2015. As of right now, this won’t be met. We have to hold our leaders accountable. They are the ones making decisions for the poorer countries,” Goldberg said.
<br><br>
She commented on the timing of the demonstration. “We wanted this to be the first thing they (the G-20 delegates) see. They’re coming here tomorrow. We’re holding them accountable. This needs to be on the agenda.”
<br><br>
She said AIDS activists chose Sept 22, two days before the official start of the G-20 Summit, and one day before the arrival of the delegates, so as to not have to compete with other protests. Also, she said the AIDS activists figured there would be less of a chance of conflict with police if they staged their protest earlier in the week.
<br><br>
“We hope that this will hit the papers tomorrow, that it’s the first thing they see when they walk in, that they have this on their conscience and know we’re not going away,” Goldberg said. She urges people to contact legislators about supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
“President Obama, as much as I love him, went back on his promise to fulfill the funding,” Goldberg said.
<br><br>
She commented on how drug companies factor into all of this. “ Medication does not need to be this expensive. They can definitely lower their prices. We have big drug interests lobbying to prevent AIDS medication from getting” to developing nations.
<br><br>
Goldberg said debt cancellation for developing nations is a factor that comes into play.
“When you don’t cancel debts of nations and they have to pay back loans to the IMF and the World Bank, they won’t have the funds necessary for getting AIDS medication, or they might get the medication but can’t pay the health professional because of their debt.
<br><br>
She said vested interested motivated by huge profits stand in the way of doing a better job of addressing tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. “We have the power, the ability, and the medication.”
World News
Todo el tiempo estamos en lucha.
-- Mateo Antonio Rendón, manager of FESACORA, the
Salvadoran organization of agrarian reform
cooperatives
Where does your morning cup of coffee come from? If you can answer that question, you probably already know more about the politics of that beverage than most North Americans who drink it.
El Salvador since the '80s
I traveled to El Salvador in early February with a group of eight other Ohio residents and three Equal Exchange employees to learn how the harvesting and production process worked. Equal Exchange is a 40-employee worker-owned fair trade coffee company in the Boston area that buys directly from democratically-run farmer cooperatives in Latin America and other coffee-producing regions.
Where does your morning cup of coffee come from? If you can answer that question, you probably already know more about the politics of that beverage than most North Americans who drink it.
El Salvador since the '80s
I traveled to El Salvador in early February with a group of eight other Ohio residents and three Equal Exchange employees to learn how the harvesting and production process worked. Equal Exchange is a 40-employee worker-owned fair trade coffee company in the Boston area that buys directly from democratically-run farmer cooperatives in Latin America and other coffee-producing regions.
What a sad day. I just wanted everyone to know that we are all fine. Many things happened this week. Earlier in the week we helped a Palestinian farmer harvest olives. His land is close to a settlement. (Peni Haifer) When we got there, the IDF came and said we had to leave. We told them that the farmer had gotten permission to harvest his olives from the cilvil adm, so after a while they decided we could stay. As they were leaving, settlers shot 10 rounds of amunition at us (over our heads to scare us) so the IDF came back and said they would stay until we were done. That was a good thing. We worked like a pack of horses!! The farmer said that most of his trees had been cut down by the IDF (500-1000 fruit and olive trees) two years ago. It seems the public is tired of hearing about the Palestinian farmers getting shot at, so sometimes IDF helps to protect them, but had we not been there, he would not have been able to get in his field.
News media editorials frequently call for an end to the violence in the Middle East
and a return to the peace process by the Palestinians and Israelis. (The
Palestinians call it the “piece” process—While the negotiators talk, the Israelis grab a piece of land here, a piece of land there, etc.)
I think it is time the third player in this violent conflict, the U.S. Government, started acting responsibly. And, I believe that is not going to happen until individual American taxpayers begin to periodically—once every three months—write or call their elected officials in Washington. Anything less is a passive endorsement of the status quo.
Following is my sample letter to the President, representative, and both senators:
Dear......
I think it is time the third player in this violent conflict, the U.S. Government, started acting responsibly. And, I believe that is not going to happen until individual American taxpayers begin to periodically—once every three months—write or call their elected officials in Washington. Anything less is a passive endorsement of the status quo.
Following is my sample letter to the President, representative, and both senators:
Dear......
The current political-economic crisis in Argentina, at first
glance, appears to be the resultant snafu of a corrupt
government that is itself the legacy of an even more corrupt government which itself arose from the ashes of a military junta that was more preoccupied with killing off any perceived political enemies than in actually running a country. Upon closer inspection, however, the grave state of the Argentinean economy can be blamed almost entirely on self-serving, foreign meddling which, through the powerful vehicle of the International Monetary Fund, prevented Argentina’s leaders from enacting sound economic reforms that may have obviated the debt default, which is now unavoidable.
I arrived back from Colombia tired but very, very happy with
the trip. I have nothing but the highest praise for Witness for
Peace volunteers Jess and Julia who organized our delegation to travel and learn about the realities of life for ordinary people — our brothers and sisters — in Colombia. Following are a few observations from Colombia, a country with more School of the Americas (aka Assassins) graduates than any other country:
Agbiotech and corporate special interests in reaction to stubborn
global resistance have stepped-up their propaganda and bullying. This
aggression is evident in the media, the marketplace, the trade and
diplomatic fronts, the legislatures, courts, patent offices, and the
streets of the cities where anti-globalization protests have taken
place. Recognizing that a critical mass of youth, consumers, farmers,
environmentalists, and public interest nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) all over the world are rejecting, not only the biotech and
industrial agriculture model, but also the entire "Free Trade"
globalization agenda itself, the Gene Giants and their allies know
they are losing ground. Reacting to massive demonstrations in
Seattle, Washington, Quebec, Sweden, and Genoa--with anti-Frankenfoods
concerns often in the forefront-governing elites have clamped down and
repressed youthful protestors, and have begun shifting their meetings
to inaccessible locations such as the oil sheikdom of Qatar, where the
142 nation members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are scheduled
to hold a ministerial meeting November 9-13.
HARARE -- A showdown is looming between Zimbabwe
and the European Union (EU) over the African nation's refusal to
allow the European Union to monitor next year's presidential
elections.
Zimbabwe's foreign affairs minister, Stan Mudenge, has described as "thoughtless and futile" a demand by the European Union to be allowed to send its election monitors for the elections.
"That is how exactly we feel when people... come to us, even before we ourselves know the date of our elections to urge, insist and demand that they should be allowed to come by such and such a date and start assessing and observing," he said.
"It breeds suspicions and tempts others to ascribe sinister motives," said Mudenge, warning that Zimbabwe is a sovereign and independent state that can never take orders from any country.
Zimbabwe's foreign affairs minister, Stan Mudenge, has described as "thoughtless and futile" a demand by the European Union to be allowed to send its election monitors for the elections.
"That is how exactly we feel when people... come to us, even before we ourselves know the date of our elections to urge, insist and demand that they should be allowed to come by such and such a date and start assessing and observing," he said.
"It breeds suspicions and tempts others to ascribe sinister motives," said Mudenge, warning that Zimbabwe is a sovereign and independent state that can never take orders from any country.
The investigation into the assassination of Digna Ochoa is in the hands of
Mexico City’s Attorney General, not the Federal Attorney General, according
to President Vicente Fox. In a political dig at Mexico City Mayor Lopez
Obrador and an effort to distance his own administration from the
high-profile case, President Fox characterized the murder as “one more
incident that happened in Mexico City.” Fox went on to ‘offer Mexico City’s
Attorney General broad collaboration with information, with investigation,
but the responsibility is theirs.” Lopez Obrador said that the
assassination must be understood in the “context of paramilitaries and
caciques throughout the nation.”
Stubborn opposition by labor, public interest, and environmental
groups over the past several years stopped Clinton, and now Bush, from
gaining "expedited" "Fast Track" negotiation powers. Fast Track
legislation, if approved by Congress, would enable the White House to
circumvent public opposition and expand legally binding trade treaties
such as the WTO (a treaty which up until now has not been yet been
fully applied to agriculture). Fast Track would also help Bush
implement new corporate-instigated trade regimes such as the so-called
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Under Fast Track procedures,
Congress can only vote yes or no on new treaties proposed by the White
House, giving up for five years the power to modify or change trade
rules, even when these regulations supercede or nullify local, state,
or national laws in force in the US or other nations.
Fast Track lobbying and diplomatic arm-twisting is just the tip of the
iceberg. Other recent moves by government and industry on the biotech
front include the following: