In previous Periscope editions, we focused on the escalation in the Mexican presidential election race opposing the candidate of the Party of the National Action (PAN), Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Andrés Manoel Lopez Obrador, who, according to some Mexican polling agencies, alternated the lead in the preference of the electorate, although Obrador had held the first place for most of the time.


Election in Mexico
Constituent Assembly in Bolivia
Nicaraguan elections
Venezuela’s accession to the Mercosur
A brief assessment of the Latin-American political process this farG-8 Meeting in Saint Petersburg
The United States and the Axis of Evil
The debate over the immigration issue
China’s growth
The UN Human Rights Council
War in Palestine and Lebanon
New government in East Timor
ILO and decent work
WTO gridlocks

Election in Mexico

In previous Periscope editions, we focused on the escalation in the Mexican presidential election race opposing the candidate of the Party of the National Action (PAN), Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Andrés Manoel Lopez Obrador, who, according to some Mexican polling agencies, alternated the lead in the preference of the electorate, although Obrador had held the first place for most of the time.

Lopez Obrador had to face, from the right, an anti-communist smear campaign, as well as the economic power and the governmental machine. From the left, represented by the EZLN and other groups, he was challenged to fight a campaign that called for void ballots based on the affirmation that the candidates were all birds of a feather (or as the Spanish saying goes, flour from the same sack), which in practical terms only damaged his image, for he was the only candidate seeking the votes of the left. Further to that, the PRD candidate is now struggling to ensure a vote by vote recounting in light of evidence of fraud in several electoral districts.

There is strong evidence of ballot manipulation in favor of Calderón in states governed by the PAN, combined with a sophisticated attempt, at a national level, to cover up any wrongdoing through the vote tabulation, which is done by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) by adding up the results shown on each voting box’s record which, since there is no centralized vote counting, is prepared by each district.

So the day after the election there was an informal announcement that Calderón had won by a difference of approximately 1%, a result quickly accepted by the three other presidential candidates, Madrazo of the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) and two others from small parties. Yet, in face of the PRD’s complaints, nearly 11,000 ballot boxes’ records – representing about 3.4 million votes –, which had not been included in the counting “by mistake”, suddenly appeared. The tabulation of these votes took yet another day, a procedure which in the end still favored the PAN candidate though by a difference of a mere 0.58% of the votes, or 243,934 votes for a total of 41.1 million votes, with Calderón finishing with 35.89% against Lopez Obrador’s 35.31%.

In other words, a mistake – reportedly “human and in good faith”, which is swiftly rectified without altering the final result – was used to disguise the actual fraud in the ballot boxes’ tabulation. To the media, Mexico’s entrepreneurial sector, and President Bush the rectification was enough a justification to recognize Calderón as having won the election. For that reason the PRD appealed to the TRIFE (the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary Branch of the Federation) requesting a centralized recounting of the votes, the only way that would still make it possible to determine the actual result. The PRD’s complaints refer to irregularities in approximately 50,000 ballot boxes, nearly half of the 132,000 that were used for the poll.

The decision is to be handed down by the seven judges that compose the TRIFE, who have until early September to pass their ruling. The PRD’s petition is being backed by huge mass demonstrations, as the one held on July 16, when a great many people answered the PRD’s call to join the “civil resistance” in a march through Mexico City that ended in a concentration of more than one million people at the Zócalo, the city’s central square. (Read more).

Regardless of the outcome of these actions, the election confirmed a profound alteration in Mexico’s political and partisan life.

The PRI originated from the political process triggered by the Mexican revolution between 1910 and 1918. It implemented a strong national development policy and was responsible for the introduction of the import-substitution model. Its concept of State, however, interconnected institutions like trade unions, political parties, and peasant organizations to the government, limiting their autonomy yet enabling the PRI to rule the country for nearly 80 consecutive years. The party was undergoing an ideological mutation in relation to its past, which became plain to see throughout the 1980s with their implementation of the neoliberal project in the country. In 2000, the PRI lost the presidential election to PAN’s Vicente Fox, and now their candidate arrived in third.

The PAN – which has always comprised Mexico’s most conservative social forces – originated in the 1920s cristero movement as a reaction headed by the Catholic Church to oppose the PRI’s intention of using their lands for the purposes of the agrarian reform. In 2000 the PAN, capitalizing on the PRI’s weakening and the Mexican people’s desire for change, elected Vicente Fox, an ex-Coca Cola executive, who did nothing else but speed up the application of neoliberal policies.

The PRD, in turn, is a dissidence of the PRI motivated by the authoritarianism, corruption, and centralism adopted by that party, as well as a reaction to the ideological changes manifested from the 1980s on. The PRI chose its candidates through the dedazo (big finger), a method by which the party leadership (ap)pointed the candidate to the succession. For the 1988 election the appointed one was Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Yet, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the son of ex-president Lázaro Cárdenas, an advocate of ideological positions in line with the nationalist traditions of the PRI, and who had been passed over in the internal dedazo nomination, decided to run for a small party. He lost the election owing to a scandalous fraud, but soon afterwards the PRD was founded.

On the wake of the PRI’s decline, the PRD became a real alternative to reach power and a left-wing alternative to the PAN/PRI polarization. In this election, in coalition with the Labor Party and the Convergence Party, the PRI increased its number of seats in the chamber of deputies from 19.4% to 28.99%, while the PRI fell from 39.8% to 28.21%. The PAN, in turn, grew from 29.6% to 33.39%. The remaining smaller parties got 9.41% of the seats. In the senate, the PAN obtained 33.54%; the PRD, 29.69%; and the PRI, 28.07%.

Follow the complete coverage of newspaper La Jornada of the 2006 Mexican elections.

Constituent Assembly in Bolivia

On July 2 took place the election to compose the National Constituent Assembly of Bolivia, as well as a referendum on the country’s departments’ autonomy. Of a total 255 seats, President Evo Morales’s Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) obtained 139, corresponding to 50.7% of the votes. The Podemos (We can) obtained 15.3% or 62 seats; the Unión Nacional, 7.2% and seven seats; and the remaining parties, 26.8% and 47 constituent representatives.

Even though the MAS did not win the two thirds of the votes which would enable it to pass constitutional changes alone, it came out of the ballots as Bolivia’s most important political force. The Assembly is to open its sessions in Sucre, the country’s administrative capital, on August 6, with an agenda conducive to the passing of new laws that will render possible, among other urgent matters, to “decolonize” the State, ensure property over natural resources, promote social inclusion, combat poverty, and strengthen national sovereignty.

Apparently the MAS would already have the support of three other smaller parties, an addition of 19 constituent assembly seats, but even so it will have to negotiate with the right. It won’t be an easy process since in addition to this negotiation it will face the opposition of the Bolivian Labor Confederation (COB) and of other ethnic groups who consider Evo Morales not to have been radical enough in his initiatives so far.

Departmental autonomy is still unsettled. At a national level, the “no” vote obtained 57.6%, while the “yes” supporters totaled 42.4%. However, in four departments (Beni, Santa Cruz, Pando, and Tarija), out of a total of nine departments, the “yes” vote won. Compounding the problem, the wording of the question was rather confusing, which opened room for the right to advertise in favor of the “yes” as a means to promoting full department autonomy rather than a proposal for administrative and power decentralization, as exists, for example, in Brazil.

But, as they are saying there: “Ahora nos queda trabajar y escuchar el pueblo” (“now we have to work and listen to the people”). More information.

Nicaraguan elections

According to recent polls, Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) still holds the first place in the popular preference, followed by the right-wing’s candidate, Eduardo Montealegre, of the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance.

The unexpected event was the death of the dissident Sandinista candidate and former mayor of Managua, Herty Lewites, on July 2, who ranked fourth in the latest poll, with 11.5% of the votes.

Elections are due in November.

Venezuela’s accession to the Mercosur

This was the highlight of the 30th Ordinary Session of the Mercosur and Associated Countries Summit, held on July 21 in the city of Cordoba, Argentina, with the participation of Venezuela already holding the status of full member. To confirm such status, though, Venezuela will have a time limit to adjust its foreign tariffs in accordance with the Common External Tariff (TEC) already in place in the four original member countries.

The remaining decisions basically aimed at boosting the region’s energy integration by means of the Gas Pipeline of the South, to which have also adhered Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay; scaling up the definition of a Mercosur customs code; carrying out commercial transactions in local currencies rather than the American dollar; defining the rules for the functioning of the Structural Convergence Fund (FOCEM); launching a program for the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease in the region; signing an economic complementarities agreement with Cuba involving some 3,000 tariff lines; and the signing of a protocol in anticipation of a negotiation toward a free trade agreement with Pakistan.

The pro tempore chairmanship over the next semester will be exercised by Brazil, and the resolutions adopted, in theory, provide a variety of themes to be addressed during the Brazilian tenure. Yet some crucial Mercosur problems have not been debated, the lack of institutional representation among them. In practice this means that the Brazilian technical staff will discuss the proposals in connection with the above mentioned resolutions over the next six months and only then will submit them to the approval of the presidents at the 31st Meeting instead of institutions simply being charged with implementing whatever has been decided upon.

The problem is that these institutions do not exist – as in the case of the Mercosur Parliament or the Consultative Forum of States and Municipalities which have not left the paper­–, and if the Mercosur is to move forward, they must be created. Another problem is the absence of dispute-settling mechanisms to tackle issues such as the pulp and paper plants to be set up on the Uruguayan bank of the Uruguay River. The Court of Justice in The Hague has not accepted the Argentineans’ arguments, but these persist in their original position of trying to stop the construction of the facilities, which are important for the Uruguayan economy.

A third issue is the economic asymmetry between member countries. The creation of the FOCEM is the first attempt to deal with the problem, yet more measures are called for.

Nonetheless and in spite of all the difficulties posed by addressing national and regional interests, the perception is that there is a growing understanding of the importance of the integration as a means to benefiting all parties. (Read more in Reforzar el Mercosur).

A brief assessment of the Latin-American political process this far

Unless Lopez Obrador and the PRD manage to reverse Mexico’s electoral result in court, this year’s only presidential elections whose winners might add up to the wave of progressive governments in Latin America are Nicaragua and Ecuador. Additionally, this year the task ahead is to ensure the continuity of the current administrations in Brazil and Venezuela, and in 2007 in Argentina.

To the continent’s progressive forces the balance of the electoral results is quite positive. In addition to the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina, presidents of the progressive camp and/or the left were elected in Bolivia, Panama, and Uruguay, while the same status was maintained in Chile with the election of Michelle Bachelet. The right won in Colombia, but the Alternative Democratic Pole became that country’s second largest political force, as Mexico’s PRD, the latter party still awaiting the official result of the presidential election.

The traditional leftist forces fared poorly in Peru, not being able to elect a single parliamentarian. However, the candidate qualified by the media as a leftist was Ollanta Humala, who arrived in second, while his coalition, the Union for Peru, occupied the majority of the seats in the Peruvian parliament.

Nowadays in Latin America, being a nationalist, at least in the opinion of the media, is enough to be classified as a “leftist”, since it entails opposing the neoliberal globalization and the transnationalization of national economies. Nevertheless and in spite of the importance of defending national economies as a means toward development and the interruption of the dependency on central countries, nationalist is not synonymous with leftist. It suffices to see the positions adopted by Israel, the US, or Russia. We could say that being a leftist requires a certain amount of nationalism, but being a nationalist does not necessarily imply the adoption of leftist positions.

At any rate, Humala might be an ally in the political process now unfolding in our continent. We reaffirm that we should wait for the inauguration of the new Peruvian president to better identify the positions adopted by both the APRA administration and the UPP opposition.

Right-wing parties, the media, and the economic forces in our region will try to depict the situation in a totally different way, as a victory of market forces who barred “leftist populism in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico”. Incidentally, in the five elections that were held this year, the right won in the three most important countries and will now seek to put things back on track in Brazil, Venezuela, and Argentina.

As a matter of fact, calling our governments populist is a way to try to stigmatize our politics. When Lula or Chávez visit poor neighborhoods or implement social programs, it is populism, but when FHC rides a donkey, wears a northeasterner’s cangaceiro hat, and eats typical regional food, as he did in 1994, it is simply part of the electoral campaign, just like with Alckmin now venturing some forró music dancing steps.

Another stratagem, this one conceived by the former foreign relations minister of the Vicente Fox administration, Jorge Castañeda, is to categorize progressive governments as modern left and old-fashioned left. In the first group would be Kirchner, Tabaré Vázquez, Lula, and Bachellet and in the second Fidel Castro, Chávez, and Evo Morales. The problem is that this corroborates the different Manichean views that exist in our camp because, quite often, one fails to consider each country’s reality and historical processes and wishes that everything would transform in the same way and at the same pace, which is a rather unrealistic approach.

At this moment of the electoral race in Brazil, these variables will be present in the discussions. Even back in 1989, Collor de Mello used the argument of the defeat of the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan elections and the fall of the Berlin Wall against Lula’s Popular Brazil Front, and the right will now try to associate Chávez with Lula, exploit the nationalization of the Bolivian gas, and the victory of right wing parties in the countries mentioned earlier, against us.

G-8 Meeting in Saint Petersburg

The G-8 annual meeting was held this year in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from the 15th to the 17th of July, and as usual included the presence of some guest countries as Brazil, India, Congo, among others.

Its agenda and formal resolutions lacked any new item, regardless of the fact that the meeting took place in the aftermath of the WTO’s failure to conclude the Doha Round and at the outset of Israel’s attacks against the Lebanese territory.

Themes officially tackled were: a program on “Education for Innovative Societies in the 21st Century”, an update on the commitments to Africa, combat to AIDS and other infectious diseases, combat to corruption (although only three of the G-8 countries have ratified the UN convention on the matter), and a global energy safety program. The final text also contains an orientation for the WTO to conclude its work within a “one month time limit”, as well as a statement addressed to the parties in conflict in the Middle East, urging them to cease violence and that diplomatic means be used to broker a deal.

Actually the theme under discussion, and which will most likely produce consequences, is the one concerning energy safety. There begins to emerge a minimum of awareness with regard to the world’s limited oil reserves and the negative effects for the world economy of the ongoing speculative process, which has for excuse the conflicts in the Middle East, a process that has elevated oil prices to USD 78 a barrel.

In the great powers’ view, however, the alternatives do not include renewable sources of energy, such as alcohol and biodiesel, proposed by Brazil, but rather a scaling up of the use of nuclear energy as defended by the British government’s project mentioned in a previous edition of Periscope. This last project involves important industrial sectors as well as enriched uranium suppliers, which also helps to explain in part the interests behind the current conflict with Iran.

The United States and the Axis of Evil

With polls showing falling approval ratings by the American population with regard to a war that has already lasted four years, it is not rare to hear statements expressing the difficulties entailed in recruiting new soldiers willing to defend US principles on the battlefield. The consequence is the adoption of more lenient recruiting norms, thus allowing the infiltration of neo-Nazi militants in the army, as illustrated by the appearance of graffiti with symbols of the Arian Nation in Baghdad.

The data can be found in a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a pro-tolerance group which tracks the activities of neo-Nazi and paramilitary groups in the US. (For the full document, read Racist extremists active in U.S. military).

This might help to explain recent reports of abuses and massacres committed by US military personnel in Iraqi villages –which add to the Abu-Ghraib prison tortures and the recent suicides in the Guantanamo detainee camp–, which in a vicious circle further undermine the confidence of the American public opinion with regard to the war and its motivations. (Read more).

With respect to the Guantanamo detainees, the US Supreme Court has just passed a ruling determining that they must be submitted to trial. On another front, confirmation has come that there occurred secret CIA flights transporting prisoners to several countries with no legal restrictions on the use of torture in interrogatories, though several of the European countries mentioned deny the charges.

Disapproval with the way the process is being conducted in Iraq was further deepened by the news that undercover intelligence programs were undertaken by the White House without the knowledge of Congress and, hence, without its approval as dictated by the Constitution (Read more in White House kept “major program” secret from Congress).

Another blow to Bush’s foreign policy was struck on the US’s very same Independence Day, the Fourth of July, with the nuclear tests carried out by North Korea. The US’s reaction, however, was surprisingly multilateralist, in that the White House called on the other countries of the region to endorse a petition to end Kim Jong-il’s nuclear program.

Bush’s attitude reflects a calculated attempt by the Republican Party to soften his image before November’s upcoming elections, when his cowboy diplomacy and unsustainable preemptive war doctrine will be under the spotlights. Besides, North Korea holds China as a traditional ally and may possess nuclear weapons.

(For more, read Noam Chomsky’s article Solution in Sight and An American Foreign Policy That Both Realists and Idealists Should Fall in Love With).

The debate over the immigration issue

While in the United States heated debates over the construction of a wall separating its border with Mexico continue, in the post-riots France new and tougher legislation against immigrants was passed in June, already under charges of racist by French human rights advocacy groups.

The new bill was drafted by minister of the interior Nicolas Sarkozy, pointed out as a strong right-wing presidential candidate in 2007, and establishes new criteria for obtaining a residence permit, making it harder for non-skilled immigrants to settle in the country and abolishing the right for illegal immigrants to apply for a resident’s permit after having lived in France for 10 years. The majority of the French immigrants are originally from former French colonies and the passing of the new bill is being heavily criticized by African governments like Senegal.

In the Netherlands, the immigration issue has caused a serious political and social crisis that culminated in the weakening of the center-right minority coalition that rules the country. The withdrawal of Party D66 from the power base supporting the government forced prime minister Peter Balkenende to submit his resignation to Queen Beatrix.

Yet, after consultations with all the parties, Balkenende’s government was allowed to proceed but the elections, originally due in May 2007, were set for next November 22, in an attempt to strengthen the Dutch state, rattled by a crisis that has, since 2002, changed three cabinets.

(For more, read Dutch election now set for this year and New – minority – government for the Netherlands).

Against the right-wing tide that permeates the debate in Europe, the II World Social Forum on Migration was held in June in Spain. (Read more on the subject).

China’s growth

China outranked the United Kingdom in 2005, occupying now the position of fourth largest economy in the world, according to World Bank figures. The United States, Japan, and Germany, respectively, hold the three first places in the ranking.

According to observers, the growth of the Chinese economy has also had great impact on the African continent, with a rise in investments driven by the quest for sources of energy and raw materials to support Beijing’s development policies.

As part of a strategy to secure the supply of energy and mineral resources, under today’s favorable conditions, China has begun a process of technical and economic aid to African governments, in addition to extending preferred credit and rate-free loans. Today, Chinese investments are funding approximately 900 African projects.

Analysts have been signaling to a gradual shift in the axis of Chinese relations from global powers to the construction of political capital with under-developed countries, a trend ever more apparent since Hu Jintao became president in 2002. His predecessor, Jiang Zemin, was a supporter of closer relations with the United States as a propeller for the Chinese economic growth.

However, Beijing’s consideration that the African oil is a feasible alternative in relation to the Middle Eastern product has granted the African continent a privileged status with regard to China. Today, 25% of the oil imported by China comes from Africa, in addition to great part of the aluminum and copper, critical to support China’s growing production.

The UN Human Rights Council

The opening session of the UN Human Rights Council in its first formal act approved the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In addition to Brazil, 29 other countries1 voted in favor of approving the document, which had been discussed and amended for 20 years. Lobbies from countries with large indigenous populations, such as Canada and the US, introduced many provisos in the discussions regarding the theme, so much so that Canada and the Russian Federation were the only two countries voting against the declaration.

Concerns over territorial integrity and autonomy prompted Morocco, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Ukraine, and Argentina to abstain from voting.

The text of the Declaration reinforces already existing guarantees in the Brazilian legislation with regard to the rights of indigenous peoples.

(Read the full text of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as recommended by the Council to be adopted by the General Assembly).

War in Palestine and Lebanon

First there was the massive Israeli strike against the Gaza Strip under the justification of retaliating for an action carried out by a Palestinian group who attacked an Israeli army checkpoint, killing two soldiers and arresting a third one. The retaliation caused the deaths of tens of Palestinian civilians; hundreds of people, including Palestinian Authority ministers, were arrested and several public utilities were destroyed, interrupting the supply of energy and water and making the population’s living conditions even more precarious than they normally are.

Then came the blockade and indiscriminate bombardment of Lebanon under the pretext that there had been an incursion in northern Israel by a group of Hezbollah militants who had arrested two soldiers and launched missiles over the area.

Israel occupies a territory which it does not own; so one would expect there should be armed resistance against such occupation, just as there was resistance in many European countries against the Nazi occupation and in many colonies against the colonizers. Yet, even though the attacks aimed at targets inside Israeli territory, Israel’s right to self-defense has nothing to do with the scope of the operations set in course.

Lebanon was striving to recover from the previous conflict which had lasted several years and is once again under indiscriminate bombing and suffering an air and sea blockade. Whole neighborhoods were razed to the ground simply because most of its dwellers are Shiite Muslims and, thus, potential Hezbollah members. To date, there are approximately 350 fatal casualties and more than a thousand wounded, plus 500 thousand refugees for a total population of just four million. The number of Israeli fatal casualties is ten times smaller. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, qualified Israel’s attacks in Lebanon as war crimes. (Read more in the New York Times edition of July 20, 2006).

Of the five roads connecting Beirut to the center of the country, four cannot be used, 55 bridges were destroyed, as well as the city’s airport, energy substations, a dairy factory in the Bekaa Valley, scores of fuel deposits and gas stations. Losses are estimated at more than USD 4 billion. (Read more).

And it won’t stop at that. The UN appealed for a ceasefire and the presence of a peace force in the region, an initiative which was not only completely ignored but also criticized by the US government. The US is backing Israel’s military incursions in Lebanese territory because it sees this as the opportunity Bush was seeking to attack the Hezbollah – which his administration had included on a list of terrorist organizations–, and because the invasion of Lebanese territory might provoke a reaction from Syria, another convenient outcome since Syria was also one of the American targets at the time Bush decided to invade Iraq. Now Israel may find a motive to carry out that project. (Read more in Crisis May Put Syria Back in Political Mix, G8 calls for UN forces in Lebanon, US blocks ceasefire, and Blair and Annan lead call for new UN force).

It will be very hard for local actors alone to find a solution. One might imagine the feelings of the Palestinian population, even those more moderate, after years of aggressions and deprivations, not to mention Israel’s public opinion, poisoned by years of war and propaganda. A poll conducted in 2003 by university professor Asher Arian revealed that among the Israelis:
– 59% approved the evacuation of the settlements in exchange for peace;
– 56% approved a unilateral separation;
– 50% believed Arafat’s objective was to destroy Israel;
– 57% supported the transfer of the Arab population from Israel;
– 64% supported the transfer of the Arab population from the
territories.

This frame of mind explains why, to the surprise of many, Labour leader Amir Peretz demanded the post of minister of defense in the composition with Olmert’s Kadima instead of a function in the economic or social areas, more coherent with his electoral campaign rhetoric. Even though a majority of the Israeli population supports the negotiation of a peace accord, most also favors the adoption of unilateral initiatives and the separation between both peoples. Peretz’s positions at the head of the ministry, betraying his labor movement principles, seem to aim at higher positions in the future, even if the price entails death and the destruction of Lebanon and Gaza.

The key to peace lies with the international community –especially the US –, since its unconditional support to the Israeli initiatives further stimulates the occupation of the Palestinian territory, the intolerance of the groups the Americans labeled terrorists, and aggressions against neighboring countries.

Nonetheless, we should not expect any major moves by the Bush administration in favor of peace, at least for now, because this is an electoral year in the US and nobody needs a problem with the Jewish-American lobby. So much so that a motion submitted to the US Congress in support of the Israeli strikes in Lebanon received only six votes against.

Thus, the UN’s and the remaining countries’ responsibility grows considerably. We must call for strong international pressure and solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine to halt hostilities immediately.

For those interested in daily updates on the events in Lebanon, we recommend the following sites:
– www.dailystar.com.lb (English)
– www.naharnet.com (English)
– www.lorient-lejour.com.lb (French)
– www.futuretvnetwork.com (Pictures of a local TV station)

New government in East Timor

In Timor Lorosae (East Timor) José Ramos Horta, former foreign relations minister and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was chosen to succeed the prime minister after the latter’s resignation. Horta will also be in charge of the defense portfolio.

For now the crisis appears to have been reined in. It seems, however, that the unrest will resurface if there are no changes in the neoliberal economic policy introduced during the UN’s tutelage and if the Australian government does not respect Timor’s sovereignty to decide the best policy for tapping into the country’s abundant off-shore oil reserves.

For now we will have to wait to see what Ramos Horta, known for his prudent position with regard to the country’s oil, will do.

(Read more in New East Timor cabinet unveiled and in Australia – Peacekeeper or Petroleum Predator?).

ILO and decent work

This new concept –decent work– was introduced in the ILO some years ago by then director general Juan Somavia. It focuses on work from a broader, more subjective and objective view in comparison with traditional views, in that it incorporates the respect for fundamental labour norms2 and calls for adequate remuneration, health and safety at the workplace, and labour-ensured household safety among other principles.

The assessment to be made by each ILO member country today regards their decent labor deficits, as discussed in the ILO’s Latin-American Regional Conference held in Brasília late last June, which among other items, concluded that Brazil had shown significant progress in combating child and slave labor.

(Read more information on the ILO’s concept of decent work).

WTO gridlocks

The WTO’s General Council meeting held in late June was unable to overcome the trade negotiations’ deadlock in accordance with the mandate approved at Doha 2001 and the orientations set forth by the VI WTO Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong in late 2005.

Developing countries call for a substantial reduction of the domestic and export subsidies to farming products granted by developed countries, which the latter refuse to do and pressure the developing countries to open their services sectors and to reduce the non agricultural products’ tariffs more significantly.

Failing to broker an agreement, the General Council delegated to Director General Pascal Lamy the task of building a consensus proposal which would lead to a reduction of the US’s domestic subsidies to a level below USD 20 billion a year while at the same time convincing the G-20 to reduce tariffs on non agricultural products in accordance with the so-called “Swiss formula with a coefficient of 20”, which in the case of Brazil would imply in a 60% reduction in the country’s tariffs, jeopardizing various industrial sectors and the jobs they generate.

Lamy took the discussion to the G-8 meeting in Saint Petersburg, where members decided to resume WTO negotiation meetings in Geneva, even though limited to this smaller group of countries, with the purpose of attempting to reach an agreement by August 15. Another fracas led to a sine die suspension of the negotiations.

(For more information, read SUMA UN NUEVO FRACASO LA OMC,
U.S. joins fray at WTO talks and World Trade Organization Has Not Kept Promise To Poor Nations).