engaging in abortion. To me, that is not very much. When you look at the number 40,000,000 by itself, it seems like an inconceivable number. But when you actually put it in to perspective, that's not very much. That's less than the percentage of condoms that break (2%). That's less than the failure rate of the pill (5%), it's around the same as the failure of the sterilization method (0.5 for women and 0.2 for men). Look at it another way: In 2007, 4,315,000 babies WERE born in the USA ALONE! THE USA ALONE!

With the number of people that exist in the world, and the fact that not all have access to or knowledge about birth control, that number is not as high as it could be, frankly. I find it to be lower than I would have thought.

I don't *want* women to have to go through abortion. I would rather women who did not want babies never got pregnant, but there is no fail-safe way to achieve that at this time, and as long as rape, violence, ignorance and poverty abound, this is what it is. I don't find it abhorrent that less than one percent of the worlds population has found themselves in a situation requiring an abortion. Shit happens. Condoms break, the pill fails, violence against women abounds, accidents will happen.

How many women do you know who use abortion as a method of birth control? Seriously, I want to know. I hear that shit all the time, I can not imagine the woman who runs around having unprotected sex thinking "I'll just have an abortion, whopeee!". It's far more invasive and costly than a box of condoms or a script for pills, and the whole concept is just ridiculous to me. Whatever, people say it, I disbelieve it. (Edited to add I read that story in the related post... that is an extreme case, the exception that proves the rule so to speak.)

What I find more abhorrent than the number of abortions is the number of people who live in situations that will never allow them the education, the freedom, the means or the safety to engage in their lives as they would like, to have or not have children, to be safe and healthy and free and happy. That is a far greater ill. And it goes hand in hand with the issue of abortion. Until people are educated, safe and cared for, abortion rates will never decline. And to act as though people here are in love with abortion and think it's great, that's disingenuous. People think it's great that women HAVE THE OPTION, that they CAN have an abortion, that they were not forced to go through with the pregnancy, or forced to use some scary back-ally coat hanger man. I rejoice in the number of abortions for that reason and that reason alone. And if it is documented, at least it has the probability of being safe, clean and one can hope with dignity. That doesn't mean I think women should run out and get knocked up so they can visit the abortion clinic. It means I am happy that they have that option, that it hasn't been taken from them. And hopefully, as we progress, it will become less necessary.

Ion is 11, Priti is just over a year old. (Pritika is an Indian name meaning Beloved One) Ion is super sweet, docile and incredibly loyal (to me at least). Priti still has a bit of the kitten about her, but she's a total doll, affectionate and friendly. She is in *LOVE* with Ion, she worships him like a god, imitates his every move and bows to his holiness daily. Surprisingly, they get along amazingly well together. I say surprisingly, because Ion was *my* baby for so long, he had me all to himself and was very possessive of my time and attention. But, they love each other, and both follow me everywhere, or even just with their eyes while cuddling each other. Priti loves to sleep under the covers with me, mostly totally under, but sometimes during the night she'll creep up so her head is out and on the pillow next to mine.

The pictures of the two of them together are so cute it'll make you squirm.

Here is the album of Priti & Ion: BFF http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1208... It's truly worth a look, they're so sweet.
And here are some single pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3884... including pics of the now-deceased Flash, and Annie both 'family' cats, and some cats I have fostered through the humane society. Priti was a foster, and as a tiny kitten she would climb a 6 foot high barrier just to get in the other rooms away from her family to be with Ion and I. She became so attached so fast, I couldn't let her go. She actually looked at me as more of her mother than her birth mother who was in my care at the same time.

Ion is the B&W boy. Shortly after I moved to this new place just a few days ago, he began sneezing. He's been sneezing very violently and more often as time progresses. However, he is eating just fine, drinking plenty, his personality energy and mood are great, there is no discharge from the sneeze. the first day, he had a very runny eye that he rubbed a lot but that cleared up in about an hour. Starting last night, I've been 'steaming' him in the bathroom, and after I do that he is better for a little while.

I'm *thinking* it's the herpes virus. I have some l-lysine for his food, and I'm giving him 500mg. Has anyone here ever tried that for herpes/URI's in their cats? What was your experience with it?

I'm hesitant to take him to the vet unless anything becomes seriously worse or obviously more wrong. I really really can not afford to (If he HAS to go, I will take him and not let him suffer). My financial situation is as such that I wouldn't be able to eat for the rest of the month if I did. And, if it is what it seems to be and what I think it is, there is nothing they can do for him anyway.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

And more pictures of my cats found here, because they are the cutest ever.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1208...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3884...

http://producten.hema.nl /

Just click that link, watch and wait.

I have this cousin who is beyond a doubt fucking scarily psychotic. From childhood, this guy has been a scary scary person. At age five, he chased my grandmothers cat with a knife trying to kill her, he set fire to his school, in elementary he tried to stab a girl in the playground, he sexually assaulted another family member, tried to harm other animals, stole, lied, etc. I remember one Christmas, he was probably 9 or 10, he was in my parents kitchen and someone wouldn't give him something he wanted to he grabbed a big knife and held it a hairs breadth from his eye, threatening to poke his own eye out if he didn't get what he wanted. I could go on forEVER about how insane this guy has been.... but I won't.

Now, my grandmother used to live with him (she lived with my aunt when her boys were young) and though this kid always scared her a bit, she loved him as grandmothers do, and had a sort of bond with him. Like many grandmothers (and mothers especially) she always wants to believe the best of people, which is admirable though often misguided and even troublesome.

3 or 4 years ago now, this asshole was staying with her because his mother refused to put up with him anymore, so he sponged off my grandmother. He stole her chequebook and forged a bunch of cheques and stole money from her. I can't remember how much, it was under a grand but more than 500. Grandma decided not to press charges because he was her grandson, blah blah.

So, he's been living across the country for a while, and very recently moved back because, you'll never guess... HES AN ASSHOLE. He burnt all of his bridges and no one in that part of the god damn COUNTRY will have anything to do with him. His parents, siblings, friends, uncles, aunts, etc etc etc. So, he shows up in the city and my grandma lets him move in with her, "just for a week or so" until he gets on his feet. Of course, we're all screaming "NO NO NO NO NO". But, grandma keeps saying that he's changed, he's so nice to her, helping her, cooking for her, running errands, he's really a dear sweet boy who deserves another chance, etc. And, as skeptical and worried as we all are, there's this tiny voice saying "wellllll.... anything is possible".

So, gets a job, but he's still just hanging around on her couch. Finally, after a couple of months, my grandma says he has to get out. My aunt offers to take him in because she has a huge house and rents out rooms. So, he'd be paying rent but not a whole lot, and it would get him out of the SENIORS HOME. Yeesh. So, he goes there for just over a month, refuses to pay rent, threatens my aunt, and when she finally kicked him out he laughed maniacally and explained all the horrible things he could do to her. What a charmer.

So, he ends up back and my grandmothers place. THEN, he gets fired. He tells her some sob story about how another co worker told his boss he (my cousin) was thinking of moving back across the country, so his boss fired him. Don't believe it? You shouldn't! What really happened is that after work one evening he and some co-workers went out for drinks. While out, one of the cooks started talking to a girl my cousin liked, my cousin then by all accounts "went ballistic" (or "Went nuts") on the guy, screaming at him and acting like a lunatic. After, he left and smashed the cooks car window(s). The cook then went to the boss and said "I can't work with this psycho". So, he got fired. No one pressed any charges because he promised to pay for the damages (YEAH FUCKING RIGHT).

So, then, somehow, he manages to sweet talk my grandmother, who is 85 fucking years old, to give him THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS to start a new life. He really really worked her good. He would tell her she's the only person in the world who loves him, his last hope, if it wasn't for her he'd kill himself, he's trying but no one will be there for him, etc. He talked about suicide a lot to her. My grandma found him someone (counselor, psychologist, not sure, someone like that) and was going to PAY for him to go, MADE HIM THE APPOINTMENT, he didn't go of course. So, he said he needed all this money to get furniture, pay rent on a place he had lined up, just get himself going. I don't know WHY she did it. She is on pension, she has no money. Seriously, NO money. She lives cheque to cheque.

So, she gives him the money, and then he gets sick. Apparently, pneumonia. I diagnose laziness. THEN, after the pneumonia, he claims he has to have a root canal and some teeth pulled, and it's going to cost $1,400. He tried to get my grandmother to pay for this. She said hell no, I can't afford that, take it out of the THREE FUCKING GRAND i just gave you (that is not a direct quote ). So, then he lay on her couch for another week with an icepack on his face. He never had a root canal. He even made an appointment, just in case she called BEFORE the operation, but he never went to it.

Then she asked him why he wasn't moving, hadn't gone shopping for furniture or anything. He told her, he had no money left. It had been like, three weeks. At that point, she told him he'd have to leave. She was starting to see through this crap. So, he left, screaming about how he was suicidal, took all his pictures from her apartment, scribbled his phone number out of her address book, etc.

Two weeks later, he showed up in the morning before her exercise class saying he was hungry and had no money and nowhere to go. So, she let him in and gave him something to eat. She went down to her class while he was eating. When she came back up, she was going out with a friend to get some coffee next door, so they left the apartment together. My grandma went in her purse to get her bank card to pay for coffee, it was gone. She immediately called and had the card canceled, and her friend took her down to the bank 10 mins later to get a new card. He'd already withdrawn $500, the max he could get on her OVERDRAFT. My grandma literally can't afford a carton of milk right now.

Last night, I sat with her till 1 am. The cops came and took her statement. She's getting a restraining order (so is my Aunt). They can't do anything about the three grand because she did give it to him. They may be able to do something about the bank card. He DID have her PIN though. Long before the theft, he went to the store to pick up some things for her (I've done it many times, she isn't very mobile, she uses a cane and a walker, used to be in a wheelchair). He kept the number. So, its a mess, but above and beyond the money, she's afraid. He's violent, unpredictable, and really scary. As a kid I hated him. Though I couldn't articulate it then, I remember feeling like he enjoyed causing pain and hurting others physically and emotionally. He seemed to have no shame, no conscience, just cold sadistic self interest.

Let me just say, while this was happening we had no idea what was going on. We ALL tried to talk to grandma, to get her to get rid of him. We didn't trust him. But, she's an adult and we couldn't do much. We did call the building manager of the seniors block she lives in because technically she can't have anyone else live in her suite, but we couldn't really get anywhere with that.

She's had her locks changed, all her bank information has been secured. But my poor grandma is scared and it breaks my heart. And she's really beating herself up over this. She was so upset last night she had trouble talking. She was shaking. And, while I think she probably should have known better, I GET it. I get that she wanted to help him. He's her grandson, she had a bond with him from childhood. She WANTED him to be changed so he could have a life and do well for himself and move past all the insanity. I get that. I've been fucked over by people myself because I wanted to believe the best, I wanted to believe I could help them and that they could change. And he is a MASTER manipulator. One thing that haunts me is that he has changed. He's changed from this sort of random wanton insanity to someone who is very charming, charismatic and likable. But the rest of him is still inside there. He still operates with no conscience, no morals, he's still a sadistic narcissistic lunatic. But it's hidden, and he's very good at playing people.

I'm so fucking furious. How could you do that to your GRANDMOTHER?! (well, anybody really). But your own GRANDMOTHER. The woman who would take you in when you were hungry and alone, the person who cared about you when your own mother wouldn't talk to you. The woman who drove you to school, took you to the movies and the park and loved you. The woman who changed your diapers, bought you toys. Most of all, the woman who opened her heart and her home to you, believed in you, stood up for you and protected you. How could you do that? It makes me fucking sick. I want to set him on fire.

And, all I could do was tell my grandma I loved her, give her hugs and kisses, and sit with her. What I really wanted to be doing was finding him and ripping his balls off with a pitchfork, then setting them on fire and shoving them down his gasoline soaked throat.

What is WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!??!!"?!??!?!?!

Oh, she's looking in to getting a mental health order that would basically force him to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

On top of everything else.... I have BEDBUGS.

eych! Ugh!!!

A few days ago, my sisters boyfriend brought me his memory foam mattress pad. They don't use it anymore, and it's been in their old apartment where a friend has been staying. The past few days I've had these itchy things mostly on my legs, and they sort of looked like big mosquito bites. I couldn't figure what they were at all.

Today, I fell asleep reading in bed. My dad called, and I turned my head to look for the phone, and UGH there was this ugly gross blood red bug trying to crawl in to my pillowcase!!!! I smushed it, and blood spurted like, everywhere. When I looked for the little bug carcass, it was practically non-existent it was so small. I couldn't figure what it was.

I have NEVER had beg bugs. I've never seen one before. I've never even known anyone who had them or anything. I've never even read about them. I just sort of knew they were some kinda bug that bit you when you slept and liked to hang out in beds.

So, I hit the internet and did some research. I found lots of gross uggy pictures and tons of info, including the fact that apparently bed bug infestations are way on the rise after falling off for something like 40 years. Not comforting. But I couldn't tell if my bug was a bedbug or not, I figured I was over-reacting.

I decided to spray around the bed with Raid anyway, just to feel better about it. I lifted up my pillow and THERE WAS A BED BUG!!!!

I sprayed it, and took a close look. Bed bug for SURE.

I am so so so creeped and grossed out. I can't sleep in there!!! It's not like I can take my bed and everything apart to spray it all down, even if I have enough spray. From what I read, I'd have to spray EVERYTHING, wash ALL my clothes that are on the floor (sadly, a lot right now, I've been in too much pain to drag my stuff to the laundry, I've just been wearing my old (clean) stuff I don't usually wear and hand washing what I really need), all my bedding, pull everything out from the walls, spray the baseboards, light sockets, nooks, crannies etc

I can't even do that. I'm physically incapable of doing that. And I can't go anywhere. And, I have no money because I have to be on stupid welfare because I can't stupid work, and after rent and bills, I only have like $130/month to feed myself and pay for my taxis to the Drs and stuff, so an exterminator is way out of the question. I can barely afford to feed myself most of the time. I don't even have a couch, just a loveseat, and that=big no no for my damaged spine. Plus, what if they made it across the apartment and got in there too?????

I'm SO SO SO grossed out. At least I learned that bed bugs have nothing to do with cleanliness, it's just about whether or not they end up in your house.

I feel like my skin is trying to jump away from my body. No sleeps for me tonight. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick

http://members.shaw.ca/webwhore/Doctors.do...

So, there it is, my story from start to finish, as much as I remember, as it stands. If you feel like reading seven pages of complete and total incompetence, click on that link! If you want to learn about the sort of doctors who should be thrown off of bridges, click that link!

Seriously, I'm keeping a record because this is so out of control. and I'm about a day away from totally snapping and losing my fucking mind, literally, I have no idea how I've gone this god damn long without completely flipping my lid. Sure, I've broken down and become hysterical,but I haven't yet REALLY gone TOTALLY over the edge. And I will. I just wish that fucking asshole doctor could be around for it. PEOPLE CANNOT GO THIS LONG WITHOUT SLEEP IN THIS MUCH FUCKING PAIN. THEY CAN NOT.

I am SO FURIOUS and ANGRY and MAD and HURT and UPSET and DESPERATE and A MILLION OTHER THINGS.

And.
I.
HATE.
My.
Life.

And I'm really fucking scared.

This has taken me a long time to write, this post. I can't sit down here you see. So, I may or may not reply to you, and who knows when it will be. Please don't take it personally. My life is a fucking nightmare right now.

I just don't want there to be any concern, I don't know how long I will be in, and I will be incommunicado.

I've spent the last day and a half in bed. I cannot sleep, I cannot feed myself, bathe myself, or even really walk. I can't sit. I am no longer able to cope, so this is the only option left to me. Hopefully, with round the clock care, they will be able to find out what is wrong, as no one has yet been able to do.

I won't be checking back on this for who knows how long. Could be a day, or a week. I just thought some of you should know so that you wouldn't worry when I didn't respond or wasn't around in my various forms.

Thanks.

If Clinton is demanding the VP slot and will not support him without it, it is she who is dividing the party. Obama has the right, and the OBLIGATION TO HIS VOTERS, to choose a VP that he is comfortable with and that he believes will do the best possible job with him. Period. If he is coerced in to a choice, he is breaking faith. If he chooses her of his own volition, fine. But if she refuses to fully back him and encourage support, that is HER fault.

I have no dog in this race, but it's just silly to blame someone for being divisive and not uniting the party because he doesn't cave to blackmail, if that should be the case.


Unless what you're suggesting is that people who support Hillary will not support the Democratic Candidate, the one she backs and supports. In which case, it seems lose-lose.

And, lesson in math for you: There is no such thing as a bigger half.

http://funhouse.bubble.ro/1647/Best_Dance_... /

Seriously. I think those shows are mostly dumb, but that was amazing. If you find the first part boring, wait till about 0:40

I just wish they showed more dance and less screeching teenagers.

This thread will be of little interest to most of you. I don't say that to guilt or shame people in to responding, I don't expect or want that. I just honestly know it won't be. Very few people here are close enough to me that this will have any meaning. And that's ok. I just felt compelled to write this out, and doing it publicly will allow those who do care to read it without my constant repetition.

I feel like a completely different person, which probably goes to show I'm very much the same. My leg/knee is still a constant source of agony to me, and I have no answers. For the last four months, I have been childish. I kept refusing to accept my physical limitations, and somehow I also excused my laziness and defeat because of those limitations. I've never felt so depressed or alone in my life. I lashed out at people. I didn't trust myself, my feelings, my reactions. I didn't believe I could do anything.

That is not to say I can heal myself. The constant pain won't go away because of any choice I make. But, my self pity and defeat can. I've spent a lot of time reading, and sleeping, and being alone. Something in me broke, finally. I've tried to step outside of myself, and go on with my life as the person I am now, and the things I can do now. It sounds really stupid when I read over it. But, I was destroying myself over something that wasn't worthy of it. Not through any intentional act or choice, but my lack of action. My lack of choices.

So, I'm trying to move on. And I needed to be very much alone. I've missed my friends, but if they had been in contact with me at certain times, they wouldn't have missed me. I regret my selfishness and my lost time. But, better regret than continuing blindly.

I still hope to figure out what is wrong with me. To go back to my life without cane or crutches, without being heavily medicated. But I don't want pity, I'm tired of talking about how I am doing, as if all that affects my life is this part of my health. I'm tired of being asked, and constantly explaining. So I wont. I'll go on with life as I am able. I'll stop making myself miserable by comparisons to those who're better off, and stop making myself ashamed by comparisons to those with worse troubles.

It feels good to return to the land of the living.

Love ya, jerkface.

We've had em before, but now I actually have some. So let's do it again.








& more here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4323...

Let's see yours!

and Batista himself, befriended the Mafia and corporations. This wealth flowed in to their pockets. His opponents, people who organized, were gunned down in the streets (see Antonio Guiteras). This is not a situation for Unions. He suspended the Constitution, and rights to strike. He completely reorganized the government to ensure that he and his cronies received the wealth flowing in from gangsters and the US. When rebellions happened, he ordered his soldiers to kill ten rebels for every lost solider. He sold contracts to the highest bidder with no regard to fairness, he pocketed 30% of profits, above and beyond what he siphoned off through the
government that should have been going to things like health and education for his people. His police force and military beat down students and shut down universities when they protested. The military police would patrol the streets at night and pick up people that could possibly be organizing anything that the government didn't like. They were arrested and tortured. José A. Echeverría was killed for making a radio broadcast. Frank País was killed for organizing for change.

This is not a situation for unions. You can not just introduce the idea of unions in that kind of political system. It doesn't work. You'd get shot, or disappeared.

Now, lets look at unions in other Latin American countries:

The AFL-CIO and AIFLD work actively to take the teeth out of South American unions. George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO and also of AIFLD, boasted support from the "largest corporations in the United States . . . Rockefeller, ITT, Kennecott, Standard Oil, Shell Petroleum . . . Anaconda, even Readers Digest. . . and although some of these companies have no connection whatsoever to US trade unions, they are all agreed that it was really in the US interest to help develop free trade unions in Latin America, and that's why they contributed so much money".

J. Peter Grace, Chairman of the Board of AIFLD and also Chairman of the Board of the W.R. Grace Corporation, one of the ninety five transnational companies that back the Institute, applies the doctrine in tactical terms. Grace says AIFLD urges "cooperation between labour and management and an end to class struggle" and "teaches workers to increase their company's business". He says the goal of AIFLD is to "prevent communist infiltration, and where it exists . . . get rid of it".

And thus to an outline of their practise: AIFLD played an important role in the destruction of the Cheddi Jagan government in Guyana. They worked with massive funds, up to $800,000 in a country with less than a million people, funnelled through the Public Service International and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. At least eleven graduates of AIFLD's Front Royal, Virginia Centre were maintained on a payroll to organise the riots and company union opposition to the leftist head of government.

In the Dominican Republic, where AIFLD worked to unseat the government of Juan Bosch and tried to organise labour support backing the 1965 US invasion, they have continued to play a role towards stabilising the repressive status quo. One AIFLD plan in the Dominican Republic gives some insight into AIFLD "training". It called for "a stepped up propaganda and education campaign in addition to motorised brigades (vigilantes) . . . a specially trained mobile group of 'educator organisers' . . . used to confront and battle . . . the extreme left." In a specific reply to this charge, Director Doherty's Washington office says "AIFLD is glad to take credit for giving fraternal and material support".

http://www.counterpunch.org/scipes03292004...
Massive mobilizations, strikes, street conflict, hysterical mass media, social and economic disruption: Chile in 1972-73 Venezuela in 2002-04.

The AFL-CIO is once again on the scene, this time in Venezuela, just as it was in Chile in 1973. Once again, its operations in that country are being funded by the U.S. government. This time, the money is being laundered through the quasi-governmental National Endowment for Democracy, hidden from AFL-CIO members and the American public.

Once again, it is being used to support the efforts of reactionary labor and business leaders, helping to destabilize a democratically-elected government that has made major efforts to alleviate poverty, carried out significant land reform in both urban and rural areas, and striven to change political institutions that have long worked to marginalize those at the lowest rungs in society. And also like Allende's Chile, Venezuela's government under president Hugo Chavez has opposed a number of actions by the U.S. Government, this time by the Bush Administration.

ACILS-also known as the Solidarity Center-has overseen all of the AFL-CIO's foreign labor operations since 1997, centralizing a previously decentralized set of regional bodies that had long worked in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. These organizations, which played a key role in the Cold War, had a terrible affect in the developing regions of the world.

There is a consensus that ACILS' work under President John Sweeney has been considerably better than foreign operations carried out under previous AFL-CIO presidents George Meany and Lane Kirkland. But the continuing lack of transparency, accountability and even simple reporting to AFL-CIO members about ACILS has generated concerns among activists about what the organization actually does in the many countries in which it operates. Solidarity Center Director Harry Kamberis' background is not a typical labor background and looks suspiciously like CIA, which also adds to activists' unease. (See my report in Labor Notes, February 2004.).

Most of ACILS' funding comes from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), not the AFL-CIO. The NED was created by the Reagan Administration in 1983. One of the authors of the enabling legislation has said that NED was to do at least some of the work previously done by the CIA, albeit publicly: its talk appears progressive, but its actions are reactionary. One of the NED's initial directors was that well-known democrat, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon's point man in the campaign against Chile's elected president, Salvador Allende.

http://www.selvesandothers.org/article1040...
he UNT seeks to displace the Confederation of Venezuelan Labor (CTV), historically the dominant union body in the country. It aims to undo decades of decline by organized labor: Gil estimated that real wages in his plant haven’t risen in 18 years.
There is a history of union corruption in Venezuela-overwhelmingly within the CTV. In her book The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela, the British academic Julia Buxton describes it as one of the “richest and most powerful union confederations in the world” in its heyday. <9> The CTV’s intimate ties with the political establishment allowed “for the illicit enrichment of union leaders, who acquired a personal interest for maintaining the model of party control,” she wrote. In fact, the Venezuelan state provided 90 percent of the funding for the CTV in the 1960s and 1970s. <10> The AFL-CIO’s ties to the CTV, moreover, have been among its closest with any foreign labor federation. This relationship has continued despite the CTV’s alliance with the forces that mounted the April 2002 coup-of which the CIA had foreknowledge-that was embraced by the Bush administration. <11> The AFL-CIO’s support for the CTV continued through the devastating oil industry lockout, and the strike that followed.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Labor/AF...

http://www.workertoworker.net/afl_cio_fore...
Although not generally known by union members as it has been consciously hidden by its leaders, the AFL-CIO actually has a long-time foreign policy program that goes back to the days of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) during the 19-teens under then-president, Samuel Gompers. And, in fact, much of this foreign policy program--during Gompers' time but also since 1962--has been carried out in Latin America
This foreign policy program has been initiated and carried out behind the backs of American workers, although "in our name." The AFL-CIO has long been known to carry out a reactionary labor program around the world. It has been unequivocally established that they have worked to overthrow democratically-elected governments, have collaborated with dictators against progressive labor movements, and have supported reactionary labor movements against progressive governments (Scipes, 2000: 12; Shorrock, 2002, 2003; see, among others, Snow, 1964; Morris, 1967; Radosh, 1969; Scott, 1978; Spaulding, 1984; Barry and Preusch, 1986; Cantor and Schor, 1987; Weinrub and Bollinger, 1987; Armstrong, et. al., 1988; Sims, 1992; Scipes, 1996; Carew, 1998; Nack, 1998; and Buhle, 1999).

And while the AFL-CIO's regional organization, AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), was especially known for its involvement in events leading to the 1973 coup in Chile (Hirsch, 1974, n.d.; Scipes, 2000; Shorrock, 2003), what is less well known is it's long-standing ties with the Venezuelan CTV. In fact, according to labor journalist Lee Sustar,

Venezuela--a key focus of U.S. foreign policy since the oil boom of the 1920s--became Washington's counterweight to the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The headquarters of the AFL-CIO-initiated Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) was moved to Caracas. In 1962, Venezuela was the linchpin of the AFL-CIO's newly launched American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD); the AIFLD board included both the AD leader Betancourt and his COPEI counterpart, Rafael Caldera. Next, in the mid-1960s, the AFL-CIO even provided funding for a CTV-owned bank. AIFLD chief Serafino Romualdi, later alleged to have been a CIA agent, called his relationship with Betancourt "the most fruitful political collaboration of my life." Romualdi helped engineer the expulsion of the Communist Party and other leftists from the CTV; elsewhere, AIFLD collaborated with the CIA and the State Department to undermine or overthrow Latin American governments opposed to the U.S. (Sustar, 2005; 3 see also Hirsch, 2005).

In other words, not only has the AFL-CIO had a long-standing foreign policy program, it long has been active in Latin America, and especially in Venezuela.

http://labornotes.org/node/230

http://labornotes.org/node/1307

In mid-March, Valmore Locarno Rodriguez and Victor Hugo Orcasita were riding the company bus from their jobs at the Loma coal mine in northern Colombia. Locarno and Orcasita were chairman and vice-chairman of the union at the mine.

The bus was stopped by 15 gunmen, some in military uniforms. They began checking the workers' identification, and when they found the two union leaders, pulled them off the bus.

One of the gunmen shot Locarno in the face, as his fellow workers watched in horror. Orcasita was taken off into the woods at the side of the road. There he was tortured. When his body was later found, his fingernails had been torn off.

Protesting the deaths, 1,200 miners at Loma stopped work. In Colombia, labor activism is often punished with death. By mid-May, 44 union leaders had been violently murdered this year alone. Last year assassinations cost the lives of 129 others. The National Labor School reports that 1,500 have been killed in the past decade. Out of every five unionists killed in the world, three are Colombian, according to a recent U.S. union report.

Last year the AFL-CIO called for ending military assistance to Colombia. Labor's strong reaction to the Colombian murders stands in contrast to its relative silence during the Reagan administration-sponsored wars in Central America in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

During that era, AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland tried to suppress criticism of U.S. foreign policy in union ranks and to stop local efforts to organize support for Salvadoran unionists.

During the cold war, Kirkland and other labor conservatives accused most Colombian unions of being too left-wing. In turn the Colombians, like many third world labor federations, accused the AFL-CIO of supporting only anti-communist unions which defended U.S. foreign policy.

http://www.venezuelafoia.info/ned-english....

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cf...

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cf...
For some time, there has been a lot of confusion outside Venezuela about what exactly has been happening there. How could progressives and trade unionists support the Venezuelan government despite its support of the poor through land reform and income redistribution and its attack on neo-liberalism and the FTAA---- given the dedicated opposition of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV)? How, when there was a general strike, could we side with the government rather than workers? For trade union organisations, the problem has been even more difficult--- given the support for the CTV by international labour organisations (including the ILO). Nevertheless, as the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) noted in the statement issued by Ken Georgetti on 18 April last year after the defeated coup, the role of the CTV in that coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez raised serious questions about the character of the CTV and its place in the crony capitalism and sham democracy that had left 80 % of the population in poverty in an oil-rich nation.

Today, though, there should be no confusion. Because the CTV has been exposed as just an arm of the Fedecamaras, the Employers Association with which it has been allied-- in the coup and in the so-called general strike. A strange general strike, indeed. One in which workers in the oil industry (blue collar), electricity, transport, public sector, basic industries and the subway, among others, kept working. One in which workers were laid off by the conglomerates (the monopolies) and transnationals and told that they would get full pay for the period of the lock-outs--- only now to discover that this promissory note was dependent on the c! ompanies defeating the Chavez government. (They are being offered half-pay, loss of vacations, etc... and those that protest? They're in the queues at the Ministry of Labour filing complaints over their dismissals.)


How's that for a start? You could always learn about it for yourself. Do a little research. I find it tiresome to have to educate people who're too lazy to learn about a thing for themselves. Maybe you should bother to learn about this stuff before you decide what the solution is. I know this makes me an arrogant bitch, but it would be just as fair to call you an arrogant asshole for expecting people to educate you about your own opinions, and believing that the American solution is the worlds solution. So I guess we're even.

I know I shared a few pictures before, but I just got the CD from the photographers. If you're interested, I'd love to share it with you.
http://s259.photobucket.com/albums/hh290/g... /
There were around a thousand pictures. This is around 50.

Looking at these brought tears to my eyes. The way my sister and her husband looked at eachother, the joy on their faces, it's incredible. Nothing could have kept those two apart. Not cultural differences, family problems, religion issues, age difference, money, anything. They are so in love. It's amazing to see.

But, this means little to you as you don't know these people. However, the wedding was gorgeous. So much colour. The dance floor was PACKED the whole night. There were traditional dances, and then just partying. The ceremony was breathtaking. If nothing else, it's interesting for that.

Maybe it's just cause I'm a white girl and it's so new. But it was amazing, and I'm glad to share it, because it was the best wedding I've ever been to, the most beautiful, and the most... true?


And, here is a crappy picture of me in a sari looking like a whale in that giant thing, as requested:


Oh, just in case i run out of bandwidth on photobucket, the same pictures are on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23928619@N03/...