East Timor. James Dunn reviews the situation

5.2Mb. mono 64kbps 11:13 mins.

Jim Dunn, about to travel to Timor Leste as a consultant to the President of Timor Leste, Jose Ramos Horta, clears up some of the confusion there bout recent events.

Latest GLW coverage on Latin America

VENEZUELA: On August 15 — the third anniversary of President Hugo Chavez’s victory in the recall referendum of 2004 and the 202nd anniversary of Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar’s famous oath not to rest “until the chains of oppression are lifted from my people” — tens of thousands of people turned out to an extraordinary session of Venezuela’s National Assembly (AN) to hear the president’s proposed constitutional reforms. »

Venezuela moves ahead


7.74Mb. mono 64kbps 17 mins August 19 2007

Stuart Munckton of the Greenleft Weekly comments on the sweeping reforms proposed for Venezuela's social system, announced last week by President Hugo Chavez. While the reforms will establish Venezuela as one of the most visionary nations of the 21st Century, with power devolving away from the Central state to grass roots organisations, the capitalist establishment has reacted with shock and horror, as reflected in the mainstream media's view of President Chavez.
Direct download: stuMonkton19_Aug07.mp3






East Timor Update: Helen Hill

Latin Radical - East Timor Update: Helen Hill



4.4Mb mono 128kbps 13mins
Helen Hill analyses the payout against Fretilin in East Timor's post election crisis. It's not as simple as the Australian media makes it appear. Academic Helen steps back from the more turgid debates and takes a considered and well informed opinion about what's going on.

Mp3

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Latin Radical - East Timor 's Constitutional Crisis

Latin Radical - East Timor 's Constitutional Crisis
5.65 Mb. mono 64kbps 12:20 mins.

Interview with two Australian academics who have very different views on Timor Leste's constitutional crisis. Professor Damien Kingsbury has been very critical of the role of the Fretilin party and its General Secretary Mari Alkatiri. But Bob Boughton of the University of New England spent six months there observing the Presidential elections, and he has a different view. Meanwhile, interviews with Jim Dunn (who has just been asked to return as an advisor to President Jose Ramos Horta) and East Timorese leaders, are pending. Watch this space. Did Jose Ramos Horta make a wise decision in appointing Xanana Gusmao the Prime Minister? Australian mainstream media has its knickers in a knot over this one, but it is no joke for the Timorese people.

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Latin American & Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum

Melbourne, October 11-14, 2007


“Fighting and organising globally against neoliberalism”

Trade unionists, social movement activists, academics, students, progressive political parties and all interested members of the community are invited to come along to the Latin American & Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum. The four-day forum aims to strengthen international coordination and solidarity with those fighting neoliberalism.

The major forum themes include:

· workers’ rights and the global labour movement,

· campaigning and organising strategies,

· ecological sustainability,

· Indigenous peoples’ struggles,

· histories of movements of resistance,

· anti-capitalist theory and practice,

· alternatives to neo-liberalism and cultural action.

More than 30 representatives from progressive organisations and campaigns in 22 countries will address the forum.

Submissions for workshop presentations are welcome

For more information about the forum, to register for it, or to submit a workshop proposal, visit www.solidarityforum2007.org, email info@solidarityforum2007.org, or write to LAAPISF, PO Box 813, North Melbourne 3051.

Don’t miss it!

Venezuela Analysis Radio

Mp3

Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com

Thursday, August 9, 2006

MP3 format. 8 min, 55 sec, 8.2 MB

Join the next solidarity brigade to Venezuela

Lisa Macdonald 3 August 2007


Planning is well underway for the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network’s sixth brigade to Venezuela, to be held from November 23 to December 3, and registrations are open to everyone interested in this unique opportunity to witness firsthand a revolution in the making.

The Venezuelan people, led by George Bush’s arch-enemy, President Hugo Chavez, have this year taken over more workplaces, set up more cooperatives, established hundreds of free public education and health programs, organised their neighbourhoods and taken big steps towards exercising “popular power” at every level of their society. Brigade participants will visit occupied factories and public educational and health institutions, see participatory democracy at work in the communal councils and people’s banks, and speak to government and grassroots organisations about their struggle to create “socialism for the 21st century”.

This brigade will also include a special focus on indigenous issues. Indigenous activists from Australia, Aotearoa (NZ) and possibly North America will be joining the brigade, and the itinerary will include visits to indigenous communities, and meetings with indigenous people’s organisations.

Accommodation, transport and English translation in Venezuela will be organised for participants. For more information, including accounts and photos of previous brigades, visit , or email . Registrations close on August 31.

If you’d love to join a brigade to Venezuela but can’t afford the cost right now, you could enter the AVSN’s guessing competition. For $10 per ticket, you could win a place on the brigade with your airfares and accommodation in Venezuela fully paid. Tickets can be bought on the website, or send your name and address and how many tickets you want to .

GLW On Latin America [August 3, 2007]

Latest GLW coverage on Latin America

  • Union official assassinated in El Salvador...
  • Venezuela's pro-people transformation...
  • Venezuela: Co-management in a sea o.f capitalism..
  • Venezuela: Station not closed, but attemprting to dodge law...
  • East Timor and Australian media bias


    10.784Mb. 128kbps mono 10:04 mins.

    Jose Texeira, Parliamentarian for the East Timorese Fretilin party recently issued a press release claiming Australian media bias, after an anti-Howard demonstration in Timor Leste. Australian newspaper reports described the demonstrators as a 'Fretilin mob'. Jose talks with community radio 2NimFM about a long history of anti-Fretilin bias by the Australian media, calling on his own experiences as long ago as 2005.
    Phone interview from Dili.

    Mp3 download

    East Timor's election crisis

    3.85Mb. mono 128kbps 4:12 mins
    NimFM talks with Fretilin representative Paolo Malik about the constitutional standoff in East Timor's post election environment. Fretilin has received the largest vote of any party, but all the other parties have combined to ensure that is does not have a parliamentary majority. East Timor's constitution (like that of European countries, like Portugal) allows that the party with the highest number of votes can chose the Prime Minister with the endorsement of the President, but the anti-Fretilin Alliance claims that they should chose the next PM. Meanwhile President Jose Ramos Horta refuses to commit, although it is well known that he favours the Alliance candidate.
    NimFM then gets the views of expert East Timor observer Jim Dunn, who knows the actors in this drama.
    [Note:Since these interviews, the Alliance has threatened to block the budget, if PM Ramos Horta approves the appointment of the Fretilin Prime Ministerial candidate.]

    Mp3 download




    Jim Dunn; Timor Leste's flawed "Truth and Friendship Commission"

    3.8 Mb 128 kbps 4:07 mins

    Jim Dunn, human rights observer and columnist, talks to 2NimFM about the UN's decision to boycott the "Truth and Friendship Commission", set up to 'investigate' the responsibility of high ranking Indonesian military personnel for the mayhem that followed the 1999 East Timorese vote for independence from Indonesia, at the hands of Indonesian controlled 'militias'. Unfortunately, the condition that those called before it be granted impunity from prosecution has made it appear in the eyes of many - including the UN - as a mockery of natural justice.

    Mp3 download