Translations 677
Cuban Journalists Elect New UPEC President
New President for UPEC
Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, deputy editorial director of our newspaper, was elected on Saturday as the new president of the Union of Cuban Journalists.
Published: Sunday 15 July 2018 | 01:32:49 AM
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, deputy editorial director of our newspaper, was elected on Saturday as the new president of the Union of Cuban Journalists.
In this responsibility, and by decision of the delegates to the meeting, he will be accompanied, as first vice-president, by Rosa Miriam Elizalde Zorrilla, member of the presidency of the trade union organization during the previous period, as well as Ariel Terrero Escalante, director of the International Institute of Journalism José Martí, and Jorge Legañoa Alonso, deputy director of the Cuban News Agency, as vice-presidents.
Raúl Garcés Corra, dean of the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana; Arleen Rodríguez Derivet, journalist for the television program Mesa Redonda; and Ana Teresa Badía, Angélica Paredes López and Minoska Cadalso Navarro, all from Radio Rebelde, were also elected as non-professional members.
World Trade War Has Begun
World Trade War Has Begun
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
With a strong response from Beijing to the offensive actions of the United States in the field of markets, the most colossal world trade war in history has been unleashed.
“By imposing tariffs of 25% on hundreds of products imported from China worth US$34 billion a year on Friday, July 6, the United States has violated the rules of the World Trade Organization and launched the largest trade war in the world’s economic history,” a statement by China’s Commerce Ministry declarae.
Beijing claims that it was committed to not firing the first shot, but has been forced to take action in response to the situation created by the United States and has notified the World Trade Organization.
“U.S. actions affect global supply and value chains, but they are also opening fire on everyone, including themselves,” said a spokesman for the Asian nation’s trade ministry.
The Chinese agency has denounced the mercantile “bullying” with which Washington is putting pressure on its trading partners by means of tariff threats that go against the conduct demanded today.
China called on all countries of the world to join forces against trade protectionism and to support multilateralism. The Asian giant claims to have wanted to avoid the trade war that the United States has provoked, but has been forced to fight this war as much as necessary to protect the interests of the nation and its people.
In retaliation, Beijing announced the introduction of an identical tariff rate for the same monetary value for several U.S. goods, some of which would begin to be taxed as of the date set by Washington.
A trade war between the US and China, the two largest economies in the world, could affect not only both nations, but the world economy as a whole, according to a projection by economists at Pictet Asset Management in London, one of Europe’s leading independent asset and wealth managers.
Some of the most immediate effects that are predicted in the war that is just beginning for U.S. consumers are the 25% increase in the price of products imported from China. These include technological products such as semiconductors and chips that are assembled in China, needed for the manufacture of consumer products such as televisions, computers, cell phones and vehicles, not to mention a wide variety of other products, from plastics to nuclear reactors.
Obviously, the US and Chinese economies will be the hardest hit, but they won’t be the only ones.
More than 90% of the products that will be damaged by US tariffs are intermediate productions or capital goods: that is, they are products that are needed to obtain other types of production.
U.S. tariffs will likely impact other goods not necessarily traded exclusively in the United States. In turn, China gets components from many other countries that end up in its finished products so any change in China’s export flow would inevitably disrupt these countries. About 91% of the 545 U.S. products that China, in retaliation, is taxing belong to the agricultural industry sector affect U.S. farmers, President Trump’s stronghold.
Companies such as Tesla and Chrysler, which manufacture in the United States and ship their products to China, will be hit in the automotive industry.
Among the economies that could be most vulnerable to a trade war are those that are most closely integrated into global value chains. This is how the process by which a product, for its manufactur, goes not only along the production line in a nation, but is added in more than one country until it reaches its final result is identified.
Many experts believe that Trump’s punitive measures against China, based on the unfounded allegation that the Asian nation is stealing U.S. technology, will somehow affect the impressive progress of the Chinese economy but will have an even greater negative effect on the lives and finances of U.S. citizens.
It will be necessary to know what are the calculations of profits and losses that can be derived from the trade war against China carried out by Wall Street’s corporate system. The survival of Donald Trump’s regime, with its constant outbursts and upheavals, will probably depend on these calculations.
July 12, 2018.
The Evil of the “Four Cats”
The Evil of the “Four Cats”
Explaining the reason why things happened, their meaning and importance, with solid arguments, were reasons that were countlessly laid out during the 9th Congress of the organization at the Technological University of Havana José Antonio Echeverría (Cujae).
By Yuniel Labacena Romero
Posted: Thursday 14 June 2018 | 10:57:52 PM
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
We must banish apathy and increase participation. Author: Juventud Rebelde Published: 14/06/2018 | 10:36 pm
It is necessary to explain to the students the reason for things, their meaning and importance, and to do it with solid arguments, so that they know why they should attend the activities or be part of the processes or movements that the University Student Federation (FEU) has.
This was reiterated countless times during the 9th Congress of the organization at the Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana José Antonio Echeverría (Cujae).
As Felipe Alejandro Pérez, a student at the School of Automatics and Biomedicine, explained, apathy must be banished, increasing participation. And that can only be achieved by “infecting young people with the desire to do, with perseverance and personal example, having brigade leaders who motivate, convince, take on any sacrifice and strip themselves of inertia and formalism,” he said.
There were not a few participants who, like this young man, alluded to the fact that many times in the brigade, in the department and even in the university, activities are organized or certain tasks are called for and only three or four cats go, as they say in good Cuban. Faced with this reality, the student said, we have to better organize our processes.
In the same vein, Danhiz Díaz Pereira, president of the FEU in Cujae, stressed that the brigade is the essential cell of the organization and “in all our actions it has to be the most effective”. She added that the commitment of the members of the Federation is to make it more like them, through conscious and real participation in all processes.
Another topic of analysis was the Educating for Love initiative. It has been involving university students in alleviating teacher shortages in a number of provinces for several years. Yeslaisy Grandales Ferrales, a student at the Department of Mechanics, referred to this task as the most humane, far-reaching and socially-influential one in which she has participated, which means educating the new generations.
Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, a member of the Secretariat of the Party Central Committee, said that this task of impact, like others carried out by the FEU, demonstrates her concrete contribution to the economic and social development of the country. “Every day, she stressed, we have to think about how to become more useful, how to continue training a competent professional, who carries feelings, values and principles in keeping with the Revolution.
Not a few agreements emerged from the discussion: to promote university-industry relations that make it possible to train students in their skills. To propose to the departments that they hold a workshop on job placement, to analyze the need for the years in which the student is an assistant to be counted as seniority in the teaching category process and to strengthen other aspects of political-ideological work with new communication codes.
At the end of the meeting, Raúl Alejandro Palmero, president of the FEU, called on the students to act with the example and commitment of José Antonio Echeverría, and above all, to participate, because where it is not possible for the young person to get involved, share and motivate himself, the FEU loses its meaning, while if the opposite is achieved, the organisation becomes green.
“These are times to have a living Federation, which will continue to represent its members and do for the country,” he said.
TRANSLATION NOTE:
“Four cats” is a Cuban slang expression used when only a few people or none show up for an organized event. I’ve no idea what significance, if any, the number “four” has in this context.
Nicaragua Will Not Renounce Peace
Sandinista leader says Nicaragua will not renounce peace
The International Relations Secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) reaffirmed the government’s will to maintain peace of mind and citizens’ rights.
Author: | internet@granma.cu
July 11, 2018 10:07:14
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Photo: Prensa Latina
The International Relations Secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), Jacinto Suárez, reaffirmed today in Havana the invariable will of the Nicaraguan government to preserve peace in that nation.
According to Prensa Latina, Suárez rejected the wave of violence unleashed in the Central American country last April and insisted on an end to crime, encouraged, he said, by political manipulation by the right.
The Nicaraguan leader, who will participate as a delegate to the 24th Sao Paulo Forum in this capital city, ratified the call for dialogue as a way to restore peace to the nation’s citizens, and deplored the vandalism of groups described as terrorists whose aim is to spread chaos and terror in the country.
“The destruction they have caused is not easily replaced and the loss of human life is irreparable. It is necessary to resort to peaceful means,” he said after recalling the achievements of the past 10 years in areas such as the economy, health, education and the fight against poverty.
Also president of the International Relations and Integration Commission of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, Suarez warned that the destabilizing actions of the last three months respond to a soft coup orchestrated from abroad, similar to that applied in Venezuela, which seeks the resignation of the president, Daniel Ortega, and foreign intervention.
In addition, he explained that the students who participated in the first riots were manipulated by the right-wing, and assured that the promoters of such actions are not political activists, but criminals.
Suárez, who joined the FSLN in its struggle as a teenager, also referred to what happened on Monday in the department of Carazo, where residents denounced the complicity between the Catholic Church and criminal groups during a visit by the Episcopal Conference to the Basilica Menor de San Sebastián in the municipality of Diriamba.
In this regard, he said that the citizens repudiated the alleged use of the temples as a den for criminals, torture centers and weapons storage.
He also criticised the Conference’s bias in the national dialogue between the representative of the Executive and opposition sectors.
The escalation of violence erupted on April 18 against government social security reforms, which although later repealed did not stop the protests, to which other political demands were added.
These reforms, in line with allegations, served as a pretext to implement a plan aimed at destabilizing the nation and overthrowing the Sandinista government, which reiterates its commitment to the defense of peace, security and the right to life of all citizens.
South Korea Has Been the Most Favored
South Korea Has Been the Most Favored
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The recent easing of tensions between North and South Korea, two countries that are still technically at war, has given new life to the debate on the unification of the two countries, which have been divided and confronted since the 1950s.
In my opinion, the most favored part of the development of the events that led to the meeting of the leaders of the two Koreas was South Korea!
The extensive and intense military presence of the United States in the south of the Korean peninsula has always been the main obstacle to the reunification efforts of the Korean nation.
Thus, the only net loser at the end of these events has been Washington, which has seen its absolute empire on the southern part of the Korean peninsula threatened.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has never given in to Washington’s demands. The South has always lacked sufficient autonomy to assert its interests and rights as a formally independent nation, due to the control exercised by the United States over its defenses and war resources.
This is understood by many observers who believe that Seoul derives the greatest benefits from the events that are taking place because they contribute to the collapse of the pretexts for maintaining the semi-colonial status of South Korea. These are invariably based on the supposed danger that North Korea, a socialist country, will absorb the entire peninsula and, with its independence, benefit the left in the world balance of power.
The North Korean authorities’ demonstration of absolute autonomy and total dominance of sovereignty over their territory, before and during the negotiations with Seoul and the United States, refutes the repeated and absurd accusations by the United States in the Western media that the Pyongyang government is a puppet of Moscow or Beijing.
On the other hand, what the most objective observers wondered was the extent to which the Seoul government could act with the minimum degree of autonomy necessary to take decisions that would make viable, or at least accompany, the profound changes that would result from the rapprochement with Pyongyang in its external relations, which had been so subordinate to those of the United States.
Although the hope of lasting peace is a win-win situation for all parties involved, the most significant change in regional policy so far seems to be the one that affects the characteristics of South Korea’s submission to the US strategy of maintaining the status of two countries at war, betting on an eventual reunification forced by the weapons it leaves to the united Korea, but within Washington’s sphere of control.
When the North Korean Communist leader, Kim Jong Un, and the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, made a commitment to work for the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula on April 27 at the House of Peace in Panmunjom, inside the demilitarized zone that separates the two countries, they were smiling and shaking hands. At that moment, the brains of the State Department and the Pentagon were plotting how to restructure the imperialist strategy for the region, to make it compatible with the style of its unpredictable President Trump and his team of hawks, almost all as ignorant as its chief in international politics and diplomacy.
Both Koreas announced that they will work with the US and China to reach an agreement soon for a “permanent” and “strong” peace that will officially end the Korean War, which has lasted from the 1950s to the present with only a single ceasefire in 1953.
They promised to work for an agreement for the progressive reduction of military weapons, to cease hostile acts, to transform their fortified border into a zone of peace and to seek multilateral talks with other countries, in an obvious but omitted reference to the United States, whose military forces are still widely deployed in South Korea.
Kim was the first North Korean leader since the 1950-1953 war to visit South Korea. The scenes of Moon and Kim walking together smilingly contrasted sharply with the tensions generated the previous year by the joint South Korean-U.S. military games and, in response, North Korea’s missile tests and its largest nuclear test, which led to the usual U.S. sanctions and increased fears of a new war on the Peninsula.
Humanity expected a lot from the handshake between the two Korean leaders on the concrete strip that marks the border between the two countries in the demilitarized zone. Unfortunately, the most recent visit by Vice President Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang indicates that Washington plans to make mischief.
July 9, 2018.
She says: I’m a “Babe”
She Says, I’m a “Babe”
Posted on June 28, 2018 – 12:44 by Yoel Almaguer de Armas
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Don’t miss the translation note at the end. Thanks.
The World Health Organization predicts that smoking will cause 450 million deaths in the next 50 years. Photo: Taken from the newspaper Peridico 26
“Unlike my sister, who looks like a train puffing smoke, I have never swallowed it or talked about it while I have a cigarette in my mouth, and after smoking, I drink a glass of water so that the nicotine doesn’t hurt my airways.”
The gentleman who accompanied her told her that the cigar was not good in any of its forms and that the glass of water was an invention of hers. He told her that his grandfather was a country man, that he had a huge meadow in Pinar del Río and loved to chew tobacco.
“And she died of lung cancer?” she asked, half doubtful, suspicious.
“No, he got tired of living and died of something else.”
There was a time of silence between the two of us. I expected a reaction from her, because I knew she would comment on something, anything, to justify her vision as a smoker.
“Doctors always say that smoking causes lung cancer, but there are a lot of people with lung cancer who have never put one in their mouths.”
To corroborate the lady’s idea a little, the Cuban Journal of Hygiene and Epidemiology wrote in one of its issues that tobacco is associated with cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, bladder, blood system and, especially, lung.
Studies published in issue 44 of this magazine show that women who smoke tend to have an earlier menopause and have a double risk of developing lung cancer than men, while men, when they smoke one pack a day, increase their risk of suffering from erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation by 40%.
The lady, who was waiting for a test result in the lobby of the hospital in Havana, is one of the many people who wake up with a little coffee and a cigarette in their mouth, and when they don’t have them, they have a headache and the day is pure sorrow.
From the moment I heard it, I thought of an alternative that would help her reduce her addiction, until she quit smoking. She didn’t know I was a journalist because I didn’t tell her, either. You may read this paper and know that it is intended for her and everyone who has ever tried to quit smoking and has not been able to.
The World Health Organization, WHO, explains that tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year. Of these, more than 6 million are consumers of the product, and around 890,000 are non-smokers exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke.
WHO also states that in adults, smoke from other serious cardiovascular and respiratory disorders, particularly coronary heart disease and lung cancer, causes sudden death in infants and low birth weight in pregnant women.
The same Organization states that tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world, and tobacco use is expected to cause 450 million deaths in the next 50 years.
The one who is a “titi” is one of the many people who recognize the negative effect that smoking cigarettes has on their health, and often have the obligation to quit when it causes them to say between life and the addiction to smoke.
========================
TRANSLATION NOTE: The Spanish headline is “Yo soy una “titi”. It’s a Cuban slang expression referring to a still-attractive, but no longer as young, female. Because it’s slang, I asked two Cuban translators. The first, a female in her seventies wrote:
A titi is slang for a very young person. In that context she means she looks and feels very young despite her 50’s.
The second, male in his fifties, wrote:
As to “titi”, very common too. It’s just slang (although not offensive) to refer to someone who looks really good, young and/or healthy (especially in cases of middle-aged people), and it can be used for men and women alike. Now, you would only call a woman “estas hecha un titi” when you’re close to her. Behind a woman’s back, it’s as common a sex-related remark as any other, like “Look at that temba (a woman in her 40s or 50s, remember that one? Like in discotemba?), she’s kind of old and yet see how tasty she looks”. But even if my grandmother complains about how weak or sick she feels because of her old age, I could very well use that expression and tell her, “Don’t say that, you look really great!” (…estas echa un titi). Hope you get the picture.
Obesity is a Health Problem in Cuba
Obesity is a Health Problem In Cuba
July 6, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Obesity is a health problem in Cuba.
Dr. Lilian Valdivia García, head of the nutritional support group at the National Minimum Access Surgery Center in the Cuban capital, where she works as an intensivist, told Radio Rebelde that obesity is currently a health problem in the country.
Also a specialist in General Comprehensive and Internal Medicine, Dr. Vadivia explained that a national survey on cardiovascular risk factors reported that 42 percent of the Cuban population was overweight, of these, 47 percent were female and 37.6 percent were male; the most worrying thing was that 13 percent of the total are children, and as a result they are exposed to serious diseases.
The above, he said, has an impact on health, because if not taken up in time, these infants will become obese in adolescence and later as adults with risk factors for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercolestoremia, ie, increased fat and incidence of diseases such as heart attacks, cerebrovascular diseases and increased incidence of high blood pressure, among others.
“Many patients who come to our consultations with these diseases respond favorably to a diet plan that makes them lose weight, thus compensating for their diabetes or stop being so, and others eliminate hypertension.
Dr. Valdivia Garcia also said: “As for the types of obesity, we classify the weight of the patients according to their body mass index; we calculate the size squared and divide it by the kilos of weight they weigh.
He explained that a person’s normal body mass index should be between 18.5 and 24.9; when it is above 25 and 29.9 it is said that the patient is overweight, and after 30 is considered obese, according to the different degrees that has this condition that indicates that when the body mass index is 40 corresponds to super obesity.
He categorically affirmed that this evil is preventable from childhood. A person becomes obese, among other causes, because he or she begins to have bad eating habits from a very early age. “It’s not that they don’t eat jams,” he says, “but that’s one day, without being the essence of the infant’s diet; parents usually offer them empty calories, such as soft drinks, sweets or candy.”
For Dr. Valdivia, good nutrition is provided by a balanced diet: “It is considered that in the first place are cereals and fruits, then vegetables, followed by proteins as a contribution of essential amino acids, then dairy products for the body that is not capable of producing them and then what I say to patients are the “whims” or jams, known as empty proteins that should be eaten one day as something exceptional.
The population has the false concept that only meat is protein,” he said, “but so is a dish of rice and beans because legumes are legumes; eggs are also a protein with the highest biological value that exists. Sometimes they go to the agricultural market and instead of buying fruits and vegetables, they choose empty calories and other products that do not provide the body with vitamins or other necessary nutrients.
Dr. Valdivia also pointed out the importance of becoming aware of the harmfulness of inadequate dietary habits to human health; each person has the power to stop the growth of overweight and obesity – she said categorically.
(Taken from Radio Rebelde)
Mexico Returns to Its Place in the Vanguard
Mexico Returns to Its Place in the Vanguard
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
Mexico and Latin America are partying! Mexico elected a President who can rise to the nation’s role in history!
A broad, overwhelming and unquestionable electoral victory made Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) the next President of the United States of Mexico. His candidacy was put forth by the Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional (Morena), a party he founded and whose most recent national registration, forming the Together We Will Make History alliance, together with the Labor and Social Encounter parties.
His prestige rests mainly on his honesty and his election theme, la esperanze de Mexico (Mexico’s Hope) which has now become a reality.
The popular victory of AMLO in the homeland of the priest Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa and Lázaro Cárdenas constitutes a political history of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is is a milestone in the political history of Latin America and the Caribbean. It significantly shifts the balance of power in favor of popular struggles, Latin American unity and the support for progressive governments against neoliberalism.
The rise of a popular government whose foreign policy heralds a constant struggle in defense of sovereignty, independence, non-intervention and peaceful resolution of conflicts. These were given in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace agreed by the the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in its Second Havana Summit, a vital instrument for the defense of peace in the region.
Insecurity and violence; social inequalities and poverty, all linked to rampant corruption and a tense relationship with the United States, are some of the most urgent and arduous challenges that AMLO will have to face. He will take the presidency of Mexico on December 1, after a five-month transition. In addition, the US president has threatened to build a wall on the Mexican border to isolate himself from the world and to have it paid for by the Mexican treasury
With regard to Mexico’s and Latin America’s relations in with their neighbor to the north, this proverb always resonates: “Mexico, so far away from God and so close to the United States,” Today we recall the prophetic study published by AMLO in April 2017 in Le Monde Diplomatique, on the strategy that would lead to Donald Trump to the US presidency and the situation that would be created for Mexico under Trump’s presidency:
“About two years ago, the future president (Trump) and his advisers began to systematically study the mood of the American people. Among the most frequent feelings they cited were: disappointment, irritation, anger, sadness and despair. It was enough to take advantage of this general mood, to articulate it and to push this interpretation forward in the hope that it would permeate the whole society.
“Long before Trump’s inauguration, it was clear that his campaign, the anti-Mexican approach, did not originate in an economic analysis of his country, but rather in an economic one. that was (and still is) in the political interest of taking advantage of nationalist sentiment in the U.S..”
Mexico’s new president-elect promises to cut the “top of its head” off privileges”, ending the “power mafia”, ending the the corruption by example and giving priority to the poor.
This son of merchants, born on November 13, 1953 in Tepetitán, Tabasco, and known by his initials as AMLO, embodies for many Mexicans the desire for change.
He is a mass leader who conveys confidence and trust in his speech. With a single call from him, tens of thousands of fill up the public squares.
From an ideological point of view, he is not easy to pigeonhole, but the media and the people generally think of him as a politician of the left or as an honest politician.
In economic terms, he is committed to the internal market, to set prices guarantees for the countryside and to review the opening of the oil sector to private capital.
In the social area, AMLO seeks to reduce inequalities but steers clear of issues that would fall within a traditional agenda of the left, such as abortion and same-sex marriages.
After having lost in the 2006 and 2012 elections, in the current campaign, he moderated his tone to attract sectors that previously distrusted his progressive preaching but never got past it. of his identification with the humble.
In fact, he proposes a change comparable to the big transformations in history such as the Mexican Revolution of 1910, as part of the political system.
He has declared that he is inspired by the fathers of the homeland, who left lessons on the fight for justice, for democracy, and for national sovereignty.
July 5, 2018.
The US Left Has a Past and a Future
- English
- Español
THE US LEFT HAS A PAST AND A FUTURE
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The United States is an atypical case among the most advanced industrialized societies because it does not have a large, national-level socialist party. The culture of that great North American nation emphasizes individualism and anti-statism. The role of government in society is much smaller than that of government in other parts of the world, for example in Europe.
During the period of the Great Depression and the economic crisis of the 1930s, many American socialists were hopeful that the time might have come to found a workers’ party in their country. But with the rise to power of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and his New Deal coalition, the working class became a prominent force within the Democratic Party itself and the union leaders saw no benefit in trying to pursue their ideas independently.
The unions were actively working to promote voter participation within the bipartisan U.S. context. After the Great Depression, the trade union movement channeled its support mainly to the Democratic Party, which, in turn, developed a policy of broad acceptance of people on the left side of the U.S. political spectrum.
In recent history, in addition to the well-known Democratic and Republican parties, the Reform Party (far right), the Green Party (left), and the Libertarian Party, have been registered for elections in the United States. In the 1992 and 1996 elections, the Reform Party gained notoriety with Ross Perot as its presidential candidate, who was accused by the moderate right wing of having damaged George Bush senior’s re-election with his participation.
In 2000 and 2004, the participation of Ralph Nader of the Green Party, who was blamed by the moderate left for taking votes away from Democratic candidates, was seen to have benefited the Republican George W. Bush Jr.
FDR is credited with this policy of blocking the creation of a great socialist party in the United States by opening the doors of the Democratic Party to trade unions and many progressive people during the Great Depression. That’s why Roosevelt is considered the closest president to socialism America has ever had. Before World War II, Roosevelt had to confront the forces of the right within his own party to advance his transformative purpose in the United States.
Anti-Roosevelt Democrats even formed the American Liberty League in the 1936 presidential election. The then governor of New York and prominent Democratic leader Al Smith urged her to oppose Roosevelt by proclaiming that “America can have only one capital, Washington or Moscow,” meaning that the Roosevelt supporters’ movement had too many communists and socialists in its ranks.
Roosevelt died in 1945 but, at the end of the war, the left-wing political army of trade unionists, intellectuals and black community leaders that had been structured to support Roosevelt still retained great influence within the Democratic Party. Within the Democratic Party, unions such as the United Auto Workers, the International Longshore Warehouse Union, the National Maritime Union, and the United Steelworkers of America had large pro-Communist factions and leaders of that political orientation, including several members of the National Negro Workers Congress and other civil rights groups directly linked to the Communist Party of the United States.
Many Roosevelt Democrats had a very positive appreciation of the Soviet Union and the role it played in the defeat of fascism. They had no objection to aligning themselves with the Communist Party and its political environment on local issues.
In this way, the balance of left and right forces was maintained until, in 1946, the anti-communist Cold War repressive operation under Harry S. Truman, FDR’s replacement, began.
During this period of fascist terror against the left, the first targets of the witch hunt were Democrats who belonged to the populist and pro-Soviet left faction entrenched within the party itself.
Alger Hiss, a State Department official who had played a key role in founding the United Nations, was one of the first to be demonized. He was accused of being a Soviet agent and ended up in prison for perjury. Both Democrats and Republicans were harshly repressed by their own parties during this period.
Now, with the advent of Trumpism, everything seems to indicate that new difficult times are approaching for the workers, professionals and progressive members of the American middle class. July 2, 2018.
This article may be reproduced by quoting the newspaper POR ESTO
LA IZQUIERDA TIENE HISTORIA Y FUTURO EN EEUU
By Manuel E. Yepe
Por Manuel E. Yepe Exclusivo para el diario POR ESTO! de Mérida, México. http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Estados Unidos es un caso atípico entre las más avanzadas sociedades industrializadas, porque no tiene un partido socialista grande de nivel nacional. La cultura en esa gran nación del norte de América enfatiza el individualismo y el anti-estatismo. El papel del gobierno en la sociedad es mucho menor que el que éstos tienen en otros países del mundo, por ejemplo en los europeos.
Durante el período de la Gran Depresión y la crisis económica de los años 1930 germinó en muchos socialistas estadounidenses la esperanza de que pudiera haber llegado el momento de fundar un partido de los trabajadores en su país. Pero con la llegada al poder de Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) y su coalición del New Deal, la clase obrera se convirtió en una fuerza prominente dentro del propio Partido Demócrata y los líderes sindicales no percibían beneficio alguno en tratar de llevar adelante su ideario de manera independiente.
Los sindicatos trabajaban activamente en la promoción de la participación de votantes dentro del contexto bipartidista de Estados Unidos. A partir de la Gran Depresión, el movimiento sindicalista canalizó su apoyo mayoritariamente hacia el Partido Demócrata que, por su parte, desarrolló una política de amplia acogida de gente situada en la izquierda del espectro político estadounidense.
En la historia reciente se han registrado para las elecciones en Estados Unidos, además de los consabidos partidos Demócrata y Republicano, el Partido de la Reforma (ultraderecha), el Partido Verde (izquierda), y el Partido Libertario. En los comicios de 1992 y 1996, cobró notoriedad el Partido de la Reforma con Ross Perot como candidato presidencial, a quien la derecha moderada acusaba de haber perjudicado con su participación la reelección de George Bush padre.
En 2000 y 2004, fue visible la participación de Ralph Nader, del Partido Verde, a quien la izquierda moderada culpó de restar votos a candidatos demócratas, en beneficio del republicano George W. Bush hijo.
A FDR se le atribuye esa política de haber bloqueado la creación de un gran partido socialista en Estados Unidos, al abrir las puertas del Partido Demócrata a los sindicatos y a mucha gente progresista durante la Gran Depresión. Es por esa razón que se considera a Roosevelt el presidente más cercano al socialismo que haya tenido Estados Unidos. Antes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, ya Roosevelt tuvo que enfrentar las fuerzas de la derecha dentro de su propio partido para hacer avanzar su propósito transformador en Estados Unidos.
Los demócratas que se le oponían llegaron a constituir la “American Liberty League” en las elecciones presidenciales de 1936. El entonces gobernador de Nueva York y prominente líder demócrata Al Smith, instó a la oponerse a Roosevelt proclamando que “¡Estados Unidos sólo puede tener una capital, Washington o Moscú!”, significando que el movimiento de los partidarios de Roosevelt tenía en sus filas demasiados comunistas y socialistas.
Roosevelt murió en 1945 pero, al término de la guerra, el ejército político de la izquierda constituido por sindicalistas, intelectuales y líderes comunitarios negros que se había estructurado para apoyar a Roosevelt aun conservaba gran influencia dentro del Partido Demócrata. Los sindicatos afines al Partido Demócrata como el United Auto Workers, el International Longshore Warehouse Union, el National Maritime Union, y el United Steelworkers of America, tenían grandes facciones procomunistas y líderes de esa orientación política, entre los cuales se incluían varios asociados al Congreso Nacional de Trabadores Negros y otros grupos de derechos civiles vinculados directamente con el Partido Comunista de Estados Unidos.
Muchos demócratas de Roosevelt tenían una apreciación muy positiva de la Unión Soviética y del papel que ésta desempeñó en la derrota del fascismo. No tenían objeción alguna a alinearse con el Partido Comunista y su entorno político en asuntos locales.
Así se mantuvo el balance de fuerzas de izquierda y derecha hasta que, en 1946, comenzó la operación represiva anticomunista de la Guerra Fría bajo Harry S. Truman, reemplazante de FDR.
Durante ese período de terror fascista contra la izquierda los primeros blancos de la caza de brujas fueron demócratas que pertenecían a la facción de izquierda populista y pro-soviética afianzada dentro del propio partido.
Alger Hiss, funcionario del Departamento de Estado que había desempeñado un papel clave en la fundación de las Naciones Unidas, fue uno de los primeros en ser objeto de demonización y acusación de ser agente soviético para terminar encarcelado por perjurio. Tanto demócratas como republicanos, fueron duramente reprimidos por sus propios partidos durante este período.
Ahora, con la llegada del trumpismo, todo parece indicar que se avecinan nuevos tiempos difíciles para los obreros, profesionales e integrantes progresistas de la clase media estadounidense. Julio 2 de 2018.
Este artículo se puede reproducir citando al periódico POR ESTO como fuente.
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Trump Administration’s Child Abuse
The Trump Administration’s Child Abuse in the US
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The Trump administration is holding 1,500 teens and pre-teens between the ages of 10 and 17 in captivity. Some were captured and separated from their parents along the Mexican border.
This was reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, stating that they were being held in an old abandoned Walmart that was renovated with classrooms, recreation centers and medical examination rooms to house children in federal custody. Children are allowed two hours of free time each day, including one hour of physical exercise and one hour of free time. There are two separate learning shifts due to the high number of children in the institution.
In the old 250,000 square foot supermarket (just over 23,000 square meters) 313 bedrooms were adapted, with no interior ceilings or doors, where children are forced to lie on their beds all the time. Although according to reports from the newspaper, they are being well fed, many of the young people consulted by the media testified that “the food was terrible and everyone was complaining about it”.
It is assumed that most of the teenage children entered the United States alone, but it can be ensured that the younger children were forcibly separated from their parents at the border under the new Trump zero tolerance policy for immigration. It requires a referral to criminal justice of anyone caught illegally crossing the border for, a decision that has resulted in the separation of a large number of children from their families.
“If you cross the border illegally, even if you do it for the first time, we’re going to prosecute you,” Jeff Sessions told the Association of State Criminal Investigation Agencies in May.
“If you are dealing with a child, we will prosecute you, and that child will probably be separated from you, as required by law. If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t take him or her illegally to the other side of the border.
“We’re trying to do the best we can to take care of these children. Our ultimate goal is to reunite the children with their families,” he said. “We are not a detention center. … What we operate are childcare shelters. There’s an extremely big difference.
According to federal officials, in the two weeks following U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement of the separation policy, 638 adults accompanied by 658 children were prosecuted.
It has not been explained whether other centers like these are operating in other parts of the country to imprison children in detention camps> It is known that Jeff Sessions ordered all federal prosecutors to bring criminal charges against all women detained for crossing the border illegally.
According to the Associated Press, which analyzed the Department of Homeland Security’s records, 1,995 children were separated between April 19 and May 31 of the year in question because of the new strong immigration policies.
Politically cornered by the widespread outrage that caused the forced removal of thousands of parents and children, Trump signed an executive order on June 21 to put an end to this course of action, which he had previously described as inevitable.
But as those comparisons continued, other signals to the Trump government from international organizations also emerged.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed deep concern about the “cruel practice” of separating children from their parents by force.
“The idea that any state should try to deter parents from migrating by inflicting such abuse on children is inconceivable,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, ZeidRa’ad Al Hussein, said at a session of the Council he heads.
Amnesty International’s director for the Americas, Erika Guevara-Rosas, said that “these acts meet the definitions of torture under U.S. and international law” because of the mental harm they cause to families for coercive purposes.
Trump responded to the allegations with a peculiar defense of his government’s policy, suggesting that adult migrants arrested at the border could be murderers and thieves. He also accused the Democratic opposition of being obstructionist and being primarily responsible for the separation of families in the United States.
June 28, 2018.
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