[A-List] What's new at Links: French new party; Venezuela referendum; COSATU; Thailand; Philippines; Darwin; Aust. bushfires; WSF;

[glparramatta]

What's new at Links: French new party; Venezuela referendum; COSATU; 
Thailand; Philippines; Darwin; Aust. bushfires; WSF;

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* * *


    France: New Anti-Capitalist Party launched; Responses to French
    Socialist Party's shift to the right <http://links.org.au/node/907>

By Sam Wainwright
Paris, February 14, 2009 -- On the weekend of February 7-8, more than 
600 delegates and as many observers attended the founding conference of 
France's New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA), held at la Plaine-Saint-Denis 
in the working class suburbs to the north of Paris.
Less than a week before, on January 29, around 2.5 million people took 
to the streets across the country in a nationwide strike against the 
efforts of the President Nicolas Sarkozy's government to foist the 
burden of the capitalist economic crisis onto working people.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/907>


    Venezuela: Democracy, revolution and the `president for life' lie
    <http://links.org.au/node/906>

By Chris Kerr
Caracas, February 6, 2009 --

According to Black, "We have been educating the public about why you 
should vote 'no'. The point at issue is to explain to ordinary people 
and the whole country that indefinite reelection is anti-democratic and 
a mere personal desire ..." Thus goes the constant and repetitive theme 
of the corporate media's coverage of the referendum campaign, hammering 
the same line as the US-funded right-wing opposition. It misleadingly 
characterises the proposed reform as "indefinite re-election", implying 
that the vote is about whether or not to make "Chavez president for 
life". All the amendment would do is remove existing restrictions on 
standing for election, Chavez, or any other incumbent, would still be 
required to actually win the popular vote.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/906>


    Sydney, April 10-12 (Easter), 2009: World at a Crossroads - Fighting
    for Socialism in the 21st Century <http://links.org.au/node/756>

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/756>


    Venezuela: Luis Bilbao -- Reasons to be on alert after the
    referendum victory <http://links.org.au/node/908>

By Luis Bilbao, translated by Federico Fuentes

Luis Bilbao is a central participant in the construction of the mass 
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and in the formation of the 
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). He will be a featured guest at 
the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, 
on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, 
Resistance and Green Left Weekly. To book your tickets for the 
conference go to http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/register.

February 14, 2009 -- A string of provocations in the days leading up to 
the constitutional amendment referendum points to the employment of a 
disturbance plan that could well be followed up with destabilisations 
attempts after the poll.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/908>


    COSATU: Actions against Israel's barbarism and in support of
    Palestinian resistance an unprecedented success
    <http://links.org.au/node/905>

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is humbled by the 
inspirational messages from all over the world for our boycott, 
sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel.
By Bongani Masuku, COSATU international relations officer
February 12, 2009 -- The South African week of action against Israeli 
barbarism and in support of Palestinian heroism and resistance has been 
an unprecedented success. COSATU, its affiliates, particularly the South 
African Transport and Allied Workers' Union (SATAWU) and the rest of 
Palestinian solidarity movement in South Africa are humbled by the large 
number of letters of support we have received from trade unions, 
solidarity groups, workers, activists and people of conscience from all 
over the world for our stance in solidarity with the people of 
Palestine. In particular, letters congratulated SATAWU dock workers in 
Durban for their determined refusal to off-load goods from Israel 
carried on the Johanna Russ.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/905>


    Philippines: Urban poor strongly represented in new socialist party
    <http://links.org.au/node/904>

[Reihana Mohideen, a representative of the Power of the Masses Party 
(Partido Lakas ng Masa), will be a featured guest at the World at a 
Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, Australia, on April 10-12, 
2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, Resistance and 
Green Left Weekly. Visit http://www.worldATACrossroads.org 
<http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/> for full agenda and to book your 
tickets.]

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/904>


    Charles Darwin and materialist science; Darwin the reluctant
    revolutionary <http://links.org.au/node/903>

Two articles by Canadian Marxist Ian Angus discuss the important legacy 
of Charles Darwin in the 200th year since his birth and the 150th 
anniversary year of the publication of On the Origin of Species. This 
first article appeared in Canada's Socialist Voice, and the second in 
the Britain's Socialist Resistance. Ian Angus will be a featured guest 
at the World at a Crossroads conference, to be held in Sydney, 
Australia, on April 10-12, 2009, organised by the Democratic Socialist 
Perspective, Resistance and Green Left Weekly. Visit 
http://www.worldATACrossroads.org <http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/> 
for full agenda and to book your tickets.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/903>


    Australia: Fire tragedy highlights scale of global warming emergency
    and need for real action <http://links.org.au/node/902>

Socialist Alliance statement
Melbourne, February 11, 2009 -- Like all people across Australia 
Socialist Alliance members have been devastated by the Victorian 
bushfire tragedy, the greatest disaster in peace-time Australian 
history. We express our condolences to and solidarity with all who have 
lost family, friends and homes in this shocking holocaust, made worse by 
the possibility that some of these fires were deliberately lit.
We salute the efforts of Victorian Country Fire Authority workers and 
all volunteers who have sacrificed time, effort and security and done 
everything in their power to halt the ravages of the fires. Emergency 
service workers battled for up to 30 hours without sleep trying to 
control the infernos, help the injured, and attend to the thousands left 
homeless.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/902>


    Economic and social advances during the Chávez decade in Venezuela
    <http://links.org.au/node/901>

Washington, DC - February 5, 2009 -- The Center for Economic and Policy 
Research (CEPR) released a report today on the Venezuelan economy on the 
tenth anniversary of President Hugo Chávez's tenure, which began in 
February 1999.
"Looking at the economic data and social indicators, it's not difficult 
to see why Chávez remains popular and has won so many elections, despite 
overwhelmingly hostile media coverage", said Mark Weisbrot, co-director 
of CEPR and lead author of the report, The Chávez Administration at 10 
Years: The Economy and Social Indicators.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/901>


    World Social Forum returns to Brazil, marks Latin America's `swing
    to the left' <http://links.org.au/node/900>

By Marc Becker

February 5, 2009 -- After an absence of four years, the World Social 
Forum (WSF) returned to Brazil during the last week of January 2009. 
More than 100,000 people descended on the city of Belem at the mouth of 
the mighty Amazon River to debate proposals and plan strategies for 
making a new and better world.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/900>


    Thailand: `Red Siam' manifesto <http://links.org.au/node/899>

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
February 9, 2009 -- The enemies of the Thai people and democracy may 
have their army, courts and prisons. They may have seized and rigged 
parliament and established the government through crimes like the 
blockading of the airports and other undemocratic actions by the PAD 
[Peoples Alliance for Democracy]. Yet those who love democracy, the 
Redshirts, have strength in numbers and are waking up to political 
realities. Disorganised and scattered, this movement of ours will be 
weak, but a party that is organised and self-led can create a democratic 
fist to smash the dictatorship.
While world leaders such as US President Obama struggle to solve the 
serious economic crisis, the Democrat Party government in Thailand is 
allowing thousands of workers to lose their jobs. The government sees 
its priority only in cracking down on the opposition using les majeste, 
it has even created a website where citizens can inform on each other. 
Troops have been sent into communities and villages to stifle dissent.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/899>

* * *

Links seeks to promote the international exchange of information, 
experience of struggle, theoretical analysis and views of political 
strategy and tactics within the international left. It is a forum for 
open and constructive dialogue between active socialists coming from 
different political traditions. It seeks to bring together those in the 
international left who are opposed to neoliberal economic and social 
policies. It aims to promote the renewal of the socialist movement in 
the wake of the collapse of the bureaucratic model of "actually existing 
socialism" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

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