[Imc-zimbabwe] What's new at Links: Olympics; Venezuela; Obama; South Africa; Oceans; Hiroshima; Paraguay; Malaysia

[glparramatta]

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    The dissidents' guide to the Olympics: `War minus the shooting'
    <http://links.org.au/node/566>

As the world corporate media goes Olympics mad, Links International 
Journal of Socialist Renewal has assembled a range of alternative 
viewpoints on what the modern Olympic Games really represent. While -- 
when it suits their interests -- establishment media commentators and 
capitalist governments loudly proclaim that ``sport and politics don't 
mix'', it soon becomes apparent that the Olympics spectacle is drenched 
in politics and the promotion of the worst aspects of dog-eat-dog 
capitalism. But sometimes it is also a site of struggle, as this 
selection of articles, drawn from the Links and Green Left Weekly 
archives, as well as other progressive sources, reveals.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/566>


    Olympics 1968: Black Power Salute <http://links.org.au/node/565>

At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games the enduring image was Tommie 
Smith and John Carlos, African-American athletes, raising their gloved 
clenched fists in support of the Black Power movement during the ``Star 
Spangled Banner''. They were subsequently banned from the games for 
life. Black Power Salute looks at what inspired them to make their 
protest, and what happened to them after the Games. Featuring Tommie 
Smith, Lee Evans, Bob Beamon and Delroy Lindo.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/565>


    For a limited time only! Full screening of `Now the People Have
    Awoken: Exploring Venezuela's Revolution' <http://links.org.au/node/554>

Venezuela's new assertiveness has brought it to the centre of 
international controversy: to some it has been stolen by populist 
dictator, while for others, it is the centre of a continent-wide 
democratic revolution. There is much at stake. Venezuela sits atop huge 
oil reserves, which are being used to foment a new order. President Hugo 
Chávez, who survived a military coup in 2002, has supported a number of 
controversial social programs that have pushed Venezuela onto the United 
States government's and media's radar screens. What makes Venezuela 
tick? Who is behind the movement and what does it seek? Filmed through 
the 2006 presidential elections, this is a documentary about the people 
building a new Venezuela.

Watch at http://links.org.au/node/554


    The elephant in the room: Obama, the left and the race question
    <http://links.org.au/node/570>

By Malik Miah

August 10, 2008 -- Much of the world is fascinated by the current US 
presidential election. The main reason is because the United States is 
ready to do something that most developed countries would never consider 
doing: electing a representative from an oppressed minority as head of 
state.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/570>


    South Africa's activist social justice research centre under attack
    <http://links.org.au/node/569>

By Dennis Brutus and Patrick Bond

August 6, 2008 -- Durban's University of KwaZulu-Natal vice-chancellor 
Malegapuru Makgoba is expected to deliver an edict that the Centre for 
Civil Society will close on December 31. The reason given by dean Donal 
McCracken to a sceptical School of Development Studies (where the centre 
is housed) is that staff do not have "permanent" funding. But neither do 
most of the university's research units, and there is money in centre 
reserves for at least a couple of years, plus ongoing donor support for 
many of our projects. Hence this "execution" will be doggedly resisted 
because UKZN still has many staff and students who remember the struggle 
for non-racial democracy and don't mind speaking out to challenge 
misguided decisions.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/569>


    Capitalism and the oceanic crisis: Turning the seas into a watery
    grave <http://links.org.au/node/568>

By Brett Clark and Rebecca Clausen

The world ocean covers approximately 70 per cent of the Earth. It has 
been an integral part of human history, providing food and ecological 
services. Yet conservation efforts and concerns with environmental 
degradation have mostly focused on terrestrial issues. Marine scientists 
and oceanographers have recently made remarkable discoveries in regard 
to the intricacies of marine food webs and the richness of oceanic 
biodiversity. However, the excitement over these discoveries is dampened 
due to an awareness of the rapidly accelerating threat to the biological 
integrity of marine ecosystems.[1]

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/568>


    Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Worst terror attacks in history
    <http://links.org.au/node/567>

By Norm Dixon
August 6 and August 9 2008 mark the 63rd anniversaries of the US 
atomic-bomb attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 
Hiroshima, an estimated 80,000 people were killed in a split second. 
Some 13 square kilometres of the city were obliterated. By December, at 
least another 70,000 people had died from radiation and injuries. Three 
days after Hiroshima's destruction, the US dropped an A-bomb on 
Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of at least 70,000 people before the 
year was out.
A tiny group of US rulers met secretly in Washington and callously 
ordered this indiscriminate annihilation of civilian populations. They 
gave no explicit warnings. They rejected all alternatives, preferring to 
inflict the most extreme human carnage possible. They ordered and had 
carried out the two worst terror acts in human history.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/567>


    Paraguay: Fernando Lugo's victory and the new space for left
    struggle <http://links.org.au/node/564>

By Hugo Richer

August 5, 2008 -- The defeat of the Colorado Party in the 2008 
presidential election meant much more than a change of government in 
Paraguay. This defeat meant the fall of the last political party in 
Latin America that had been formed both politically and ideologically 
within the framework of the Cold War.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/564>


    Malaysia: Socialist assemblyperson for system overhaul; praises
    example of Venezuelan revolution <http://links.org.au/node/563>

 From ASAP, August 1, 2008 -- Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim, Socialist Party of 
Malaysia (PSM) president and state assemblyperson for Kota Damansara in 
Selangor, expressed his hopes to the Uncensored talk show host Francis 
Paul Siah on Malaysiakini.tv last week. "There's so much work to be 
done'', he exclaims, reiterating his common theme of ``working for the 
people'' in the 30-minute show. First on his to-do list: "Damage 
control" and assuaging the economic plight of the poor. However, while 
he's ``glad to meet with the ordinary people", Nasir also wants the 
people to know that he expects them to "jointly work on solutions" with 
him. "I don't want dependency on me or politics for every want", he 
said. "Maybe 50% with me, 50% somewhere else."

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/563>


    Venezuela: Prospects and challenges facing the PSUV
    <http://links.org.au/node/561>

August 2, 2008 -- Federico Fuentes, Links and Green Left Weekly 
commentator based in Venezuela, is back in Caracas after a quick 
speaking tour of Australia. He talks with community radio about the lead 
up to the regional elections this November, and discusses the prospects 
of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which is the core 
party of President Hugo Chavez' government. The Chavista project of 
building grassroots democracy in Venezuela from the bottom up continues, 
but there are challenges ahead.

    * Read more <http://links.org.au/node/561>

* * *

/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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