zaterdag 28 december 2013

Indringende beelden van de Palestijnse volkerenmoord






Photo: Abid Katib/Getty Images


Beelden beklijven. Beelden zeggen meer dan tekst. Bovenstaande foto maakt deel uit van de Fuertes imágenes del Genocidio Palestino van de Argentijnse historica Laura Lezcano.

Aan de hand van een reeks foto’s tekent de historica een analyse op van de systematische genocide van het Palestijnse volk door Israel. De slachtoffers van het nazisme zijn de volkerenmoordenaars van vandaag, aldus een kernachtige uitspraak van Lezcano.

     

zaterdag 14 december 2013

Trans-Pacific trade talks fail to meet Obama’s deadline


by Mike Head
China Rising (Tianjin, China)
Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons, author Shubert Ciencia

Despite bullying and cajoling by the US, closed-door talks in Singapore this week on its Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact broke up without a final agreement, failing to meet the Obama administration’s deadline for a deal by the end of 2013.

It was a visible blow to the White House, which was intent on finally pushing through the agreement pact as a key part of its “pivot” to Asia to combat China’s rising influence. The TPP seeks to open the region’s markets and financial systems to unfettered exploitation by US banks and corporations, at the expense of China—which is not a TPP member—and America’s European rivals.

Negotiations will resume in January, but there is no guarantee of completion by April, when Obama is scheduled to tour the Asia-Pacific to reinforce his government’s “rebalancing” to the region.

The TPP, first conceived in 2003 by Singapore, New Zealand and Chile, was literally taken over by the Obama administration in 2009. The treaty’s 29 chapters now go far beyond traditional trade issues.

As a US Congressional Research Service report in August 21 stated: “[I]t is the leading trade policy initiative of the Obama Administration, and is a manifestation of the Administration’s ‘pivot’ to Asia. If concluded, it may serve to shape the economic architecture of the Asia-Pacific region by harmonizing existing agreements with US.”

Reshaping the “economic architecture” includes abolishing all tariffs that limit US exports and any curbs that affect American investment, particularly in financial services. The TPP also radically extends copyright and patent protections, especially for medicines, music, films and IT, thus boosting the profits of the pharmaceutical, media and technology giants. It aims to break up state-owned monopolies and gives US firms the power to sue governments whose decisions cut across their profit-making.

President Barack Obama, backed by Wall Street, has identified himself closely with the TPP, describing it as the economic centrepiece of renewed US engagement in Asia. But this is the second year in a row that his proposed end-of-the-year deadline has not been met.

Apart from the US and the original three members of the TPP, the other eight countries involved in the negotiations are Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Brunei and Australia.

Leaked documents obtained by WikiLeaks, and published on the eve of the Singapore talks, show that the US adopted heavy-handed tactics in an effort to meet the 2013 deadline, while refusing to budge on its key demands. Two documents outlined the state of negotiations after earlier talks in Salt Lake City during November.

“The US is exerting great pressure to close as many issues as possible this week,” one memo stated. “One country remarked that up until now there had been no perceivable, substantial movement on the part of the US, and that is the reason for this situation.” The pressure would “increase with each passing day.”

The document also revealed that “600 ‘trade advisers’—lobbyists guarding the interests of large US corporations such as Chevron, Halliburton, Monsanto and Walmart—are granted privileged access to crucial sections of the treaty text.” These are just some of the corporate interests seeking to draw massive profits from the TPP. The US Trade Representative estimates that the agreement would boost US exports by $123.5 billion a year by 2025.

Because the contents of the TPP talks are highly-secretive—shielded from any scrutiny by ordinary working people—few details have emerged of the disagreements that led to the breakdown. An official statement claimed that “substantial progress” was made. Media reports suggest, however, that sharp rifts emerged with Japan, which had previously been working closely with US, as well as with Vietnam and Malaysia.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has closely aligned himself with Obama’s “pivot” and used the rising tensions with China to push for Japan’s re-militarisation, has been anxious to back the US on the TPP. Publicly, he insisted that “it is important for Japan to cooperate with the United States.” However, any agreement to scrap agricultural tariffs would shatter the rural base of his Liberal Democratic Party. During last year’s elections, the LDP pledged to retain existing high tariffs on rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products and sugar.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a “US-Japan impasse” dogged the Singapore talks. It noted that Japan initially made a series of concessions, including easing restrictions on US beef imports and allowing the US more time to phase out its tariffs on Japanese auto shipments. Yet, the US was “putting pressure on Japan to expand market access for US firms in as many industries as possible.” Vice President Joe Biden visited Tokyo this month, the newspaper reported, in part to press Abe to “open up sensitive markets, including rice and other farm products.”

Japan’s vice economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said negotiators in Singapore agreed on about 65 percent of the outstanding points. He pointedly asked the US for more “flexibility” on “certain sensitive issues” where “their stance hasn’t changed.”

Japan was not alone in voicing concern. In a media interview, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak threatened to walk out of the talks, rather than bow to US demands for the dismantling of state-owned enterprises (SEOs), which represent half of Malaysia’s stock market capitalisation. “That is the worst situation,” but “if people can’t accept it, we have no choice,” he said. Vietnam, where SEOs account for 40 percent of output, raised similar objections.

There are also fears in Asian capitals that Obama, whose standing was dented by not attending key Asian summits in October because of the US government shutdown, lacks the political authority to overcome opposition to the TPP from protectionist elements within the US Congress. Congress has so far not given Obama “fast track” authority to finalise the TPP, so any deal could be overturned by Congress.

According to the WikiLeaks documents, Australia—Washington’s staunch ally in the “pivot”—has stood almost alone with the US on some crucial TPP clauses, including to make people pay more for movies and software.

Together with Japan, Australia has also backed the US on extending pharmaceutical patents. Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb insists that the Abbott government will not compromise the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme that subsidises many medicines. But Australia has worked behind the scenes with the US and Japan to reintroduce rejected clauses that would give the drug companies greater power.

The TPP’s membership does not include some major Indo-Pacific economies, notably India, South Korea and Indonesia. But even among the 12 countries that have signed up to the process, major differences remain, underscoring the tensions created by the Obama administration’s aggressive drive to reassert the domination of US imperialism in Asia.

This article first appeared on World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) on 14 December 2013, and was republished with permission.

woensdag 27 november 2013

Ukraine abandons plans for closer ties to the European Union

by Clara Weiss and Peter Schwarz
 

 Tymoshenko and Chancellor Angela Merkel at a March 2011 European People's Party summit in Brussels; General Prosecutor of Ukraine’s Office lifted the travel ban imposed on Tymoshenko after being officially invited to this event by U.S. Senator John McCain and European People’s Party President Wilfried Martens
(photo: Wikipedia)

Last Thursday, Ukraine suddenly abandoned the association agreement with the EU which was to have been signed at the November 28 Eastern Partnership conference in Vilnius. The 1,200-page wide-ranging agreement had been in preparation for seven years and ready for signing for a year.

The agreement was to have closely linked the Ukraine to the European Union (EU) politically and economically, undermining Russian influence. Its temporary failure is a serious setback for the drive of the EU, led by German imperialism, to expand its influence further east and isolate Russia.

The abandonment of the agreement calls into question the entire Eastern partnership, under which the EU intends to bring five additional former Soviet states under its influence: Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova and Belarus. Ukraine, the second largest state in Europe by area, with a population of 46 million, was by far the most important of these countries.

In opposition to the EU, Russia is encouraging these countries to join a customs union, from which a Kremlin-led Eurasian Union is to emerge. Until now, the customs union only consisted of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Armenia has decided against the eastern partnership, while Moldova and Georgia intend to sign agreements with the EU.

The failure of the EU agreement with Ukraine occurred after the Ukrainian parliament rejected a law freeing Julia Timoshenko Thursday morning. The EU had made the release of the imprisoned opposition leader a condition for the signing of the agreement.

Later in the afternoon, the Ukrainian cabinet released a decree cancelling the association agreement and advocating closer economic cooperation with the states of the former USSR and of the customs union. In addition, the decree suggested three-party discussions between Russia, Ukraine and the EU over Ukraine’s economic relations. Although Russian President Putin supports such talks, it is unclear whether Brussels will take part.

Ukraine formally has the option to accept the association agreement until November 28, but this now seems highly unlikely. The government in Kiev justified its retreat due to “the current economic situation” and “threats to national security.”

Comments in the western press have interpreted this as a capitulation under pressure from Moscow, which had imposed a temporary ban on Ukrainian goods and threatened a deterioration in economic relations if Ukraine signed the agreement.

In fact, it seems to have been the conditions demanded by the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) which made the government of Viktor Yanukovich retreat.

The IMF has only paid out 20 percent of a loan of $15 billion agreed with the Ukraine. It has linked the rest of the loan with drastic social austerity measures. Among other measures, the government is to increase gas and heating prices by 40 percent, cut state spending, and freeze the minimum and average wage at their current levels.

The EU supports the IMF’s conditions and has demanded major structural reforms, which will drive up unemployment in the extremely poor country.

By contrast, President Putin allegedly offered his Ukrainian colleague the prospect of cheap loans and a reduction in gas prices.

According to Vienna-based economist Peter Havlik, the EU and IMF conditions were the basic cause of Kiev’s rejection of the agreement: the government feared an uncontrollable social explosion that could have endangered Yanukovich’s reelection in 2015. Social tensions have visibly increased over recent months. Many of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed and social welfare claimants have received no money since June due to the budget crisis.

The Ukrainian opposition responded to the abandoning of the association agreement with large demonstrations. On Sunday, tens of thousands protested in Kiev and other cities in support of the agreement and demanded the resignation of the government. This was the largest pro-Western demonstration since the so-called Orange Revolution of 2004, which was politically backed and financed to a significant extent by the EU and US.

The demonstrations were led by three right-wing parties closely tied to Germany. They represent a section of the Ukrainian business elite and middle classes, who saw chances for social advancement through closer links with the EU.

The Fatherland Party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Julia Timoshenko has close ties to Germany’s Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union and is supported by the CDU/CSU’s Konrad Adenauer institute. Since 2008, the party has enjoyed observer status at the European Peoples’ Party, the federation that brings together conservative parties from across the continent. The President of the German Federation for displaced people, CDU politician Erika Steinbach, has taken on the sponsorship of Timoshenko.

The Ukrainian Democratic Reform Alliance, led by boxing world champion Vitali Klitschko, is also supported by the Konrad Adenauer institute. Klitschko finished his professional boxing career in a German ring and was given the national service cross in recognition of his services for Ukrainian-German relations.

The party “Freedom” (Svoboda) has openly far-right positions. They cooperate with the British National Party and Hungary’s Jobbik party. They also have contact with Germany’s Neo-Nazi NPD. The party’s representatives have repeatedly launched anti-Semitic tirades. Svoboda’s support comes above all from the west of the country, where Ukrainian nationalism is particularly strong. In the Lviv region, they received 38 percent of the vote in the 2012 parliamentary elections.

The EU’s aggressive attempts to bring the Ukraine under its influence and the leading role in this of Germany raise ominous historical parallels. Germany twice tried to bring Ukraine under its control. At the end of World War I, it forced the newly-formed USSR to give up control of the Ukraine under the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk, installing a puppet regime led by Pavel Skoropatsky. In World War II, the Nazi armies overran the Ukraine and committed horrific war crimes against the population, including mass murder of Ukrainian Jews.

Ukraine is of immense strategic significance to Russia. From the end of the 18th century it was a key part of the Tsarist empire and later the Soviet Union. Both countries are closely connected economically. Russia is Ukraine’s largest trading partner, supplying around 90 percent of its gas needs. Ukraine is the most important transit for Russian gas to Europe and controls large deposits of raw materials.

Due to its geographical location on the Black Sea, Ukraine is a key country for gaining access to the Middle East and the Caucasus. In the Ukrainian city Sevastopol, Russia has its Black Sea fleet, providing Moscow with access to the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Earlier this year, Russia deployed forces from its Black Sea fleet to the eastern Mediterranean to defend the Russian-aligned regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a possible US attack.

After the EU and NATO drew closer to the countries in Eastern Europe, which had been part of the Soviet sphere of influence since World War II, a further push by the EU to the east would degrade Russia to a regional power. As a result, the tug of war over the Ukraine has extremely explosive potential.

This makes even more noteworthy the arrogance with which German media outlets are supporting the imperialist strivings of the German government.

The foreign affairs editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung accused the Russian President of conducting a divisive operation. “He wants confrontation, because only firm boundaries protect his regime,” wrote Stefan Cornelius. Cornelius compared Putin’s suggestion to hold three-party discussions over the future of Ukraine, which was supported by the Ukrainian government, with the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939.

Cornelius entirely ignores the fact that the EU and the German government are cooperating with extreme right-wing forces in Ukraine, and that Julia Timoshenko, who made millions in the oil industry in the 1990s, is anything but a democrat. She is supported in the media because she proved herself to be a reliable partner of the imperialist powers against the Ukrainian working class in the aftermath of the Orange revolution.

A glance at Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and other Eastern European countries shows where incorporation into the EU leads. In these countries, extreme poverty, cultural and social disintegration, and corruption are rampant, while far right forces are growing. Only the ruling elite and a tiny section of the middle class profit from EU membership.

This article first appeared on World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) on 27 November 2013, and was republished with permission.