Posted on 09/02/2002 5:59:09 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
There is a growing consensus here among observers that the Earth Summit has "fallen dramatically short" of achieving any meaningful results. Also, President Bush is named as part of an "unholy trinity Behind Global Warming and Forest Destruction."
The World Wildlife Fund declared over the weekend "Leadership is needed to save Johannesburg Earth Summit."
The Fund accused the summit of reaching agreements on only two issues, marine ecology and the management of industrial chemicals. The group said the "economic interests of the rich [were] being put before poor people and the environment."
Dr. Claude Martin, the director general of the international Fund stated, "So far, negotiations have fallen dramatically short of the kinds of commitments that would ensure a sustainable future for our planet and the people who live on it."
Friends of the Earth (FOE) also are frustrated about what they see as the corporate influence on the summit. On Sunday, FOE placed 6000 biodegradable statues representing "diverse voices of people struggling to defend their lives, their communities and their environment..."
The exhibit features the slogan "Don't Let Big Business Rule the World."
Joining in the pessimism about the summit is South African Sunday Times columnist Naomi Klein, who wrote yesterday, "Nobody is claiming that the [Earth Summit] can save the world - the question is whether the summit can even save itself."
Klein believes that the summit has "pushed citizens to the sidelines-and ruled out any chance for real action."
Klein observed that "In the gourmet restaurants of super rich Sandton, delegates are literally dining out on their concern for the poor. Meanwhile, outside the gates, poor people are being hidden away, assaulted and imprisoned for what has become the iconic act of resistance in an unsustainable world: refusing to disappear."
Bush Part of 'Unholy Trinity'
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) unveiled new full-page ads declaring President Bush, World Bank President James Wolfensohn and Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill an "Unholy Trinity Behind Global Warming and Forest Destruction."
The ad blames the three for supporting "destructive fossil fuel projects around the world" and stated Bush's "environmental policies are ridiculed around the world."
"As the world gathers in Johannesburg to focus on critical ecological issues... it is imperative that they recognize financial institutions as part of the equation," stated Ilyse Hogue, the global finance campaigner for RAN.
The group said Bush was attempting to "roll back of environmental laws to increase corporate profits."
'Capitalism Continues to Destroy People'
A march made up of the poverty stricken residents of Johannesburg's shanty townships opposing "neo liberal capitalism," economic "privatization," anti-corporatism and anti-globalization, marched on the Earth Summit here on Saturday.
The marchers were joined by a separate march featuring international environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, and the Sierra Club.
Others joining the marchers included socialists, Palestinians, and Native Americans.
Capitalism was in the cross hairs of the poverty stricken marches calling themselves the Global People's Forum and The Landless People Movement. The movement, formed last year, is modeled after Brazil's militant Landless Worker's Movement.
They distributed pamphlets at the march explaining: "The leaders of the world tell us over and over they are solving our problems, saving our earth, providing us with a better life."
The pamphlet added, "But the system they represent, neo liberal capitalism, continues to destroy people and the planet."
The landless march began in the poverty stricken Alexandria Township, outside of Sandton. Police estimated the crowd at 4,000 and there were no incidents of violence.
The marchers used extreme rhetoric to make their points. "Osama Bin Laden Bomb Sandton" read one placard, a reference to the Sandton Convention Center where the summit is being held.
'Land is Not Given, It is Conquered'
Egiolio Brunetto, a Brazilian peasant leader, told a crowd at the headquarters of the landless people outside the Soweto Township, "Land is not given, it is conquered."
Brunetto also told his supporters in the landless movement that "without occupation there is no land reform," a reference to neighboring Zimbabwe's land seizure. The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has initiated a policy of using his military to forcibly confiscate white owned farms and redistribute them to black residents, as a means of redressing the nations colonial past.
One poster at the landless headquarters read "Viva Viva anti-capitalist. Mugabe."
A day earlier, supporters of Mugabe gathered outside his hotel here and carried banners proclaiming: "Mugabe, The People's Choice." However, earlier this week opponents of Mugabe took to the streets in opposition of his presidency.
T-shirts and slogans at the landless rally included "Land! Food! Jobs!" "Africa for Sale" to corporations, "factory gases and waste are killing," "Hands off Iraq," "Bush, You Belong in the Bush," "Globalise the Intifada," Ariel Sharon: The War Criminal," and "Palestine: Let My Children Return."
South African President Thabo Mbeki told the landless marchers it was time to roll back what he termed "global apartheid."
"It is very important that those who sit in powerful positions must never forget their first responsibility to the masses," Mbeki added.
The landless protesters called for the removal of the constitution's property rights clause, a halt to market-driven reforms and, a ban on "absentee landlordism" and progressive taxes on large landowners.
The international green groups supported the landless marchers and featured posters reading: "You Can't save the world with talking, you have to act" and "Mother Nature is tired of all that talking."
One Sierra Club sign read: "President Bush: Protect the Environment, Not Corporate Polluters."
And for some reason, their ideas aren't selling. Pity.
Good news is always welcome. Thanks [i]Also, President Bush is named as part of an "unholy trinity Behind Global Warming and Forest Destruction." [/i]
More evidence Bush is doing something right.
Presently, there is not one anti-capitalist society that provides a decent living and a decent government for its citizens. The real claim for socialism and communism is that once they are ensconsed in power, it is almost impossible to remove them regardless of how mistaken their policies are. A good example would be Fidel Castro.
Short of an armed rebellion, only an economic catastrophe such as that happened in the Soviet Union can provide for even a few changes which might benefit the consumer. While they change the name of their government the same people run things -- principally for their own benefit without much control excerted by the citizens or businesses.
They could care less about the poor, the forests, the oceans, the air, all they care about is power given to them via tax dollars. Hey!! D.C. dump the scum that not only work against American taxpayers, but humanity word wide.
I would like to know what their answer to third world poverty is, they don't want them to have electricity, toilettes, basic sanitation, they don't want them to become industrialized, they hate manufacturing, they don't want them to eat corn. They don't know what they do want, they only know what they don't want. And they sure are quick to fix blame for their sorry self inflicted state, D.C. should stop helping contribute to their ability to inflict themselves on us.
Good question. I suppose if we just give them all of our money everything will be magically solved.
At least this liberal can see the hypocrisy. This is so sad. The environs are becoming more and more aligned with this global intifada notion. Thank God for the 2nd Amendment. I need to buy some more rifles.
Tuna! Itzhak Perlman! Houseshoes!
Sorry, I thought we were free associating... ;-)
What part of this isn't Marxist in it's style or dogma?
LOL! I've been reading FR long enough to know that there is NO difference btween the two, except that Bush is maybe a little more liberal. (sarcasm off)
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