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Pope Francis celebrates five openly Marxist organizations: ‘You are…a veritable invisible army’'You are, as I said in the letter I sent you last year, a veritable invisible army; you are a fundamental part of that humanity that fights for life against a system of death,' Pope Francis told a number of openly professed Marxist groups in a video published on the Vatican News YouTube Channel. The text below is the script for the video report.(Lepanto Institute) A few weeks ago, the Lepanto Institute produced a report showing the direct connections the Vatican has with an international Communist organization called the...

Development and Peace, the Catholic development organization founded by Canada’s bishops, has drawn fire for being a “proud sponsor and co-organizer” of World Social Forum 2016, a six-day gathering of some 1,200 assorted left-wing grassroots organizations which convened August 9 in Montreal. “By partnering with the World Social Forum, Development and Peace makes clear that its allegiance is with the Culture of Death and not with Christ, whom it is obliged to serve and obey,” pointed out Michael Hichborn, founder of the Virginia-based Lepanto Institute. The WSF, an annual event since 2001, was “created by several communist entities” and has...

Palestinian Gays Want World Boycotts against Israel By Julio Severo Gay activists will be in the forefront of the World Social Forum: Free Palestine, an international event to be held in Porto Alegre, Brazil from November 28 to December 1, 2012, which will bring together Marxist activists from around the world to demand a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and boycotts against Israel. Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, Pinkwatching Israel wants to mobilize Brazilian and international activists and social movements around queer visions, boycott, divestment, sanctions, and pinkwatching against Israel. Marxists and gay activists are not...

A rather unexpected voice just joined the chorus of the liberal media outcry over sex scandals among some Catholic clergymen: none other than Evo Morales, Bolivia’s socialist and neopagan president. A Neopagan Socialist... Indeed, Mr. Morales, leader of the Movement to Socialism, figured he should teach the Pope how things in the Church ought to be run. For those who may not know, he was inaugurated President of Bolivia in 2006 using indigenous pagan rituals.1 The Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos, of Cochabamba (6/20/2006), described the ceremony: “Evo Morales assumed political power with a spectacular display of religious rituals alluding to...

DAKAR (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people marched through Dakar on Sunday at the start of the annual World Social Forum, an annual leftist gathering taking place as anti-government protests sweep the Arab world. The 11th edition of the forum, an alternative to the elite World Economic Forum held in the posh Swiss ski resort of Davos last week, brings together anti-globalisation activists opposed to capitalism. This year participants are focusing on the popular revolt spreading across northern Africa with demands for democracy and criticism of dire social conditions reflecting the crisis of capitalism. Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales...

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil – Leftist activists protesting capitalism at the World Social Forum claimed Wednesday that multinational corporations in cahoots with governments are trying to take control of a new multibillion-dollar market for reducing emissions that cause global warming. They made the accusation on the third day of the gathering of leftists that serves as an annual counterweight to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "The companies that caused the problems are saying, 'Trust us, we'll get you out of this problem,'" said Pat Mooney, a Canadian expert on biotechnology and biodiversity. "They're saying, 'Don't worry, because we have...

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday urged U.S. President Barack Obama to return the military base of Guantanamo to Cuba after applauding his decision to close the prison for terrorism suspects there. The anti-U.S. Cuba ally has tense relations with the United States and was been one of the most outspoken critics of former President George W. Bush, though he has kept open the possibility of improving ties with Obama. "Now he should return Guantanamo and Guantanamo Bay to the Cubans because that is Cuban territory," he said in a speech at the World Social Forum...

BELEM, Brazil — South American's most adamantly leftist leaders joined 100,000 activists Thursday in this steamy Amazon city, receiving a hero's welcome as they demanded what they called a long-needed overhaul of capitalism. The presidents of Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela mingled with activists of all stripes at the World Social Forum, an annual protest against the World Economic Forum held for the planet's rich and powerful at the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Arriving Thursday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the forum should be transformed from an event that traditionally debates global problems into one that proposes solutions. "We...

With a disparate cast ranging from Roman Catholic nuns to anarchists, there is one thing the 100,000 leftist activists at the World Social Forum in Brazil can agree on -- it's hard to hate Barack Obama. Former President George W. Bush was a favorite target of vitriolic anti-U.S. protests at previous editions of one of the world's biggest gathering of grassroots groups, whose inaugural meeting coincided with the start of Bush's first term in January 2001. A week after Democrat Obama's inauguration as U.S. president, the sentiment against Washington at this year's forum in the sweltering Amazon city of Belem...

NAIROBI, Kenya - More than 80,000 people gathered for an annual anti-capitalist conference in Kenya's capital on Saturday, marching on Nairobi's largest slum to protest global policies they say hurt the poor. The World Social Forum will be a chance to showcase "Africa and her unbroken history of struggle against foreign domination, colonialism and neocolonialism," according to a statement on the event Web site. To begin the forum, thousands of protesters marched from Kenya's sprawling Kibera slum to downtown Nairobi. About a third of Nairobi's total population, at least 700,000 people, is crammed into a single square mile in Kibera,...

Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela — Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who just announced that she is weighing a run for Senate, plans to protest again outside President Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said today with Sheehan by his side. Hugo Chavez, his arm around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that Sheehan had told him that during Holy Week, in April, "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch." "She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from activists invited to...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called the U.S. government an "immoral empire" and repeated accusations of spying Friday, threatening to arrest any American officials caught gathering intelligence on his military. Chavez's warning came hours after his vice president, Jose Vicente Rangel, accused officials at the U.S. Embassy of involvement in a spying case involving several Venezuelan naval officers who allegedly passed sensitive information to the Pentagon. Chavez focused his speech to thousands of activists on summoning a global "battle" to resist what he termed U.S. imperialism. The frequent and vocal critic of U.S. global policy used especially harsh...

Cindy Sheehan went to Caracas, Venezuela to put her thumb in the eye of the Bush administration. She was leading the World Social Forum, a far-left “alternative” to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, to cavort with fellow leftists. Less well known was that her trip was sponsored by the Venezuelan foreign ministry. The price of that was obligatory praise of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who’s rapidly plunging in the opinion polls for his incompetence and corruption. “I admire President Chavez for his strength to resist the United States,” she said. Sheehan, who knows nothing of Venezuela, was easy to...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - To the beat of drums and trilling whistles, thousands of activists from around the world showed their opposition to globalization and the Iraq war at the opening Tuesday of the World Social Forum backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The six-day conference got under way in Caracas amid a light drizzle as activists paraded along wide avenues chanting "Socialism, yes! Imperialism, no!" About 80,000 people signed up to attend the forum, including tens of thousands from outside Venezuela, organizers said. Cindy Sheehan, an American peace activist whose son was killed in Iraq, addressed a sea of...

CARACAS (AFP) - Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, joined more than 10,000 anti-globalization activists in Caracas, where she hailed Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez. "I admire him for his resolve against my government and its meddling," said Sheehan, who gained notoriety when she camped outside US President George W. Bush's ranch last year to protest the Iraq war. She said she hoped to meet Chavez later in the week.

Hugo Chavez, Cindy Sheehan Highlight Socialist Forum: The Bush-bashing "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan will join leading third-world America-hater Hugo Chavez on Tuesday, when the two team up to address the 6th World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. Sheehan and Chavez will headline a list of yet-to-be-announced speakers from places like Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Colombia, according to the web site VHeadline.com. The Forum will officially commence after a 2-day street festival, which began on Sunday, Vheadline says. "Tens of thousands" of Chavez and Sheehan's fans helped kick off the event by staging a march under the slogan "Contra la Guerra...

U.S. antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan will open the World Social Forum in Caracas on Tuesday together with other political and cultural leaders from diverse nations with a mass action, organizers for the event said Sunday. Sheehan, mother of a dead soldier in Iraq who achieved notoriety from heading various antiwar actions against the government of George W. Bush, will give a speech at a march that will kick off the World Social Forum en the Venezuelan capital, said dará Edgardo Lander, a member of the organizing committee of the event. In the action for which the activist will assist, "she...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez proclaimed to activists at the World Social Forum Sunday in Brazil, that "socialism is not dead" and announced an "agrarian revolution" in his country with the seizure of 20 million hectares (49.3 million acres). Mr. Chavez visited Lagoa dos Juncos, a ranch belonging to the MST Brazilian Landless Movement in Tapes, some 110 miles from Porto Alegre where the World Social Forum is being held. Lagoa dos Juncos is a farm which is considered a model cooperative by the MST. "For those who say that socialism is dead, here we have people proving that it did...

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- Sporting a red shirt embossed with a picture of the revolutionary Che Guevera, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez received a hero's welcome Sunday at the World Social Forum, where activists greeted him with hugs and cries of "Here comes the boss!" Tens of thousands of people attending the six-day gathering held to protest the simultaneous World Economic Forum in Switzerland consider Chavez their strongest voice against the U.S.-sponsored spread of liberalized trade in Latin America, a move they say benefits multinational companies while enslaving workers. "Now the imperialist forces are starting to strike against the people of...