Condemning the Military Coup and Respecting Democracy in Bolivia

Unifor strongly condemns the military coup in Bolivia that saw the recent ousting of democratically elected President Evo Morales.

We are dismayed that the Canadian Federal government has chosen to support the interim leadership of Jeanine Áñez Chávez – a representative from a party that received only 4% of the vote in the latest October elections, and whose support is derived largely from the backing of the Bolivian police and military. We are also troubled given Áñez’s hostile and discriminatory antiIndigenous remarks, especially in a country where more than half the population is Indigenous.

As Bolivia’s first Indigenous President, Morales made significant progressive economic and social policy changes that have resulted in strong economic growth, drastic reduction in rates of poverty and overall improvements of human rights. However, we have seen how actions of independent states with socialist policies often provoke the ire of corporate interests and Western countries such as the United States, which has a long history of Latin and South American government intervention and ousting democratically elected leaders by way of violent military coups.

We are now once again witnessing waves of violence and atrocities rock Bolivia, along with deaths of protesters who are resisting the usurpation of their democratic process. With Áñez recently making changes to allow security forces to be protected from prosecution in order to quell protests, we will only see a further escalation of state violence and repression. By not condemning these actions as a coup – actions contrary to the fundamental principles of democracy – Canada is complicit in these human rights violations.   (more...)

Condemning the Military Coup and Respecting Democracy in Bolivia

Related:

Bolivia’s Political Crisis Must be Settled at the Ballot Box

IndustriALL condemns the coup in Bolivia

UE Condemns Coup in Bolivia

Klaus Barbie and the 1980 Bolivian Coup

H/T to Arnold August

Hitler's Silent Partners: Swiss Banks, Nazi Gold, And The Pursuit Of Justice

A journalist for Toronto's Globe and Mail details the continuing, wretched story of Swiss collusion, as financiers and dealers in stolen goods, with Nazi Germany. The story isn't simple, and the culpability extends far beyond Swiss bankers. For instance, Vincent notes that a US intelligence report from 1945 suggested that even the International Committee of the Red Cross, with headquarters in Switzerland, smuggled ``Nazi assets and valuables across Europe in diplomatic pouches.'' A number of Swiss firms may also have worked closely (and profitably) with the Nazis. While it was known in official circles that Switzerland flagrantly abused its neutrality, its complicity was only lightly considered by the Allied victors, largely because of pragmatic realpolitik. Although Swiss banks, throughout the war, paid Germany needed foreign currency for gold bullion usurped from the central banks of conquered countries and for bars refined from the gold gathered from the ring fingers and teeth of millions of slaughtered Jews, they were not pursued by any international courts. Secret accounts established by beleaguered Jews before they disappeared were ignored, too. An amount approaching $6 billion (in current dollars) may have been involved. Only under intense international pressure, generated at first by the World Jewish Congress, have the Swiss begun, reluctantly, truculently, to open their bank records for review. Vincent provides a thorough summary of what is known about Swiss actions during and since the war, and to humanize the issue, draws on a number of interviews with individuals attempting to find out about family accounts, and especially on the efforts of the surviving descendants of Abraham Hammersmith, a Viennese textile exporter, to reclaim their past. The history of the Hammersmith family, many of whom died in the Holocaust, is a kind of record in miniature of Jewish suffering and Swiss mendacity.

Architects of Deception

The world we live in may seem frightening and confusing. The politicians and mass media claim that there is no pattern for the turn of events. The idea that there is a hidden connection between various destructive phenomena is usually ridiculed as a "conspiracy theory", which does not fit in with the official world-view. To create order out of this apparent chaos, a key is necessary. You are holding such a key in your hands. Jüri Lina's revealing book provides an insight into the concealed network behind past and present events. This political system has been built up by forces working behind the scenes - an all encompassing deception by the Knights Templar, the Illuminati and today the Freemasons, clearly evident in our present lives. Jüri Lina has collected information and rare documents from many sources to create a record of the devastating activities of the secret societies. He reveals the connections between the concealed organizations and shows how these have affected history with the aid of puppets like Napoleon, Lenin, Trotsky, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Roosevelt and Truman (all high-ranking freemasons). He examines the magic rites of freemasonry and traces their origins. The reader is shown the real reasons behind several major wars and revolutions, from the French Revolution in 1789 through the Gulf War in 1990 and the bombing of Serbia in 1999. Finally the author reveals how these evil forces manifest themselves today and what plans they have for the future of mankind. This book exposes many dangerous myths and paints a different picture of the world, a picture, which may be less fair to behold, but which undoubtedly describes the real conditions we are faced with.

The Ukrainian Pivot Point in History and Current Affairs

Full appreciation and analysis of the historical and political depth of Ukraine as a “pivot point”–a nexus vital to control of the Earth Island and, consequently, the world – can be gleaned from examination of the extent of networking between Ukrainian fascists, other Central and Eastern European fascists and Third Reich intelligence. Note the massive presence of a Ukrainian/Nazi Fifth Column in the US, linked to and directed by Third Reich intelligence.

The Ukrainian nationalist alliance with Nazi Germany had as its foundation the understanding that Hitler would invade the Soviet Union and enlist the Ukrainians as allies.  (more....)

The Intermarium Continuity, Part 3–Further Reflections on The Pivot Point

Ukraine, again

Right Wing Conspiracies: From John Birch to QAnon

Shall we acknowledge the enormous contributions John Birchers have made to the pro-life movement?

'It's overwhelming': Survivors create public list of Catholic clerics accused of sexual abuse

Starting at the age of 10, Miriam MacCormack says she was sexually abused by a Catholic priest for two years.

After five decades of struggle — including suicide attempts — MacCormack will see her abuser's name made public. But not by the southwestern Ontario diocese of London, where the abuse occurred.

MacCormack's abuser, Father Ron Reeves, now dead, is among the names of 36 accused clergy compiled and published by a group of sexual abuse survivors.

MacCormack said the list is important as validation of what happened to her.

"If you sit down and you look at the list, it's hard to deny that this has happened."

The list includes names of priests in the London diocese who were charged, convicted or linked to victims that made allegations and successfully sued or settled with the church for amounts of more than $50,000 — and only those who preyed on minors.

Most of the priests named on the list are dead.  (more...)

'It's overwhelming': Survivors create public list of Catholic clerics accused of sexual abuse

This was the diocese I grew up in.  That it borders on Detroit is no help. The usual crime endemic in border municipalities is quite evident. The Church's problems in the region are an inevitable function of that unfortunate geography.

God bless America

Land that I love

Stand beside her and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above

From the mountains, to the prairies

To the oceans white with foam

God bless America

My home, sweet home

God bless America

My home, sweet home

Philip Agee On Perennial Nazis And The Never-Ending Reich

Philip Agee was a long-time CIA officer in Central and South America. He became disaffected with the methods and goals of the CIA, and blew the whistle in a book about the CIA called 'Inside the Company'.