Anything Prose

Threat Haiti to be Invaded -- Popular Groups Will Resist

Position platform of 30 organisations from the popular democratic sector in response to the talk of foreign intervention forces deploying in Haiti
- 28 January 2004

(originally: Danje pandye sou dwa grandèt majè peyi a ! Pozisyon 30 oganizasyon ak platfòm nan sektè demokratik popilè a sou pawòl entèvansyon fòs etranje an Ayiti)

Between 1789 and 1804 our ancestors made all kinds of sacrifices to beak the chains of exploitation that the white colonialists had put on them and the country. The First of January 1804 was a sacred day marking the liberation of the whole of Haiti. Unfortunately, on two occasions during the last century (1915-34) and again in 1994, compromised leaders encouraged foreigners to come and trample on the dignity of our people.

Today, 200 years later, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and dirty rat politicians have decided to lead the people into the mud once more. We say 'No', a thousand times 'No'. The Haitian people are not accepting a third foreign occupation in any form.

We, the Popular Democratic Group, say Haitian people are drawing a line in the sand: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, for the second time in less than ten years, is readying for a foreign occupation to protect his personal power. In the name of our ancestors, our Group says no country can make another occupation at the time of the 200th anniversary of independence.

We, the Popular Democratic Group, say 'No' to another foreign occupation because during 1915-34 the country was looted, and then in 1994 we got insecurity and armed bands. We must be clear, if foreign occupation benefits some people, that is not how we in Haiti have found it on two occasions in less than one century.

We, the Popular Democratic Group, say 'No' because it is we Haitians who know
the problems, and it is we Haitians who can resolve them. What we need is for
Aristide to stand down, so that the country can make a new start.

If Caricom and other foreign countries what to help us properly then they must start by putting Aristide in 'quarantine', suspend all invitations to him, withdraw their diplomatic missions, cut off all collaboration, and begin the process of summoning him to appear before the Caribbean Court of Justice, the court for the Caribbean region. The Organisation of American States should arrange to get together with reliable lawyers in Haiti to draw up charges to be put before the Interamerican Court of Human Rights.

All the international community is saying it is for Aristide to solve the problems in Haiti. We, the Popular Democratic Group, on the contrary, say they should realise that it is the valiant men and women of Haiti who are on the road
of resistance to dispense with Aristide, without an occupation, so that Haiti
can be like all other countries on the planet run by responsible people.

Down with Aristide and the whole bloody Lavalas regime.

Down with any form of occupation.

Long live a free people in a grown-up Haiti!

Port-au-Prince, 27 January 2004

For authentication:
Antonal Mortime, RERKA

Carole P.Jacob, KONAP

Organisations and institutions signing:
Antèn Ouvriye (workers' organisation)

Kay Fanm (women's organisation)

Tèt Kole Ti peyizan Ayisyen (national peasant movement) Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (SOFA) (women's organisation) CHANDEL (popular organisation for public education)

UNNOH (national teachers' union)

KANPAN (Anti-debt and anti-structural adjustment campaign for a national alternative)

Regwoupman òganizasyon popilè granmoun yo (popular organisation) GRAEP (Gwoup Refleksyon ak Animasyon Edikasyon Popilè) (popular organisation for public education)

Enfo Fanm (women's organisation)

MUPAC (Mouvman Inite Pèp Okay) (popular organisation)

Fwon Rezistans pou Refòm Inivèsite leta a (student organisation) BRESTEK (popular organisation)

RAJES (Rasanbleman Jèn pou Avansman Savanèt) (youth organisation)

RERKA (Haitian community radio network)

KONAP (National Coordination of Women's Organisations)

ACO (Catholic Workers' Action)

Fanm Yo La (women's organisation)

RAPL (Rasanbleman Plantè Laskawobas) (peasant organisation)

KPN (Konbit Peyizan Nip) (peasant organisation)

KODENA (Komite Defans Enterè Nasyonal) (popular organisation)

GERDDH (Gwoupman Etidyan pou Respè Demokrasi ak Dwa Moun) (student
organisation)

KORENIP (Kòdinasyon Rejyon Nip) (popular organisation)

FOPOD (Fòs Popilè Delma) (popular organisation)

PAPDA (Platfòm k ap Plede pou yon Devlopman Altènatif) (representing non-governmental organisations (NGOs), unions, and peasant organisations)

KOREGA (Kòdinasyon Rezistans Grandans) (popular organisation)

SAKS (Sosyete Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal) (popular communications NGO)

KFPN (Konbit Fannm Peyizan Nip) (peasant organisation)

FGPB (Federassyon Gwoupman Peyizan Bèlfontèn) (peasant organisation)

N.G. (Nasyon Ginen)

Translated from Creole by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group.
Source: AlterPresse

(Please note, this post is not written by the Haiti Support Group - it is
forwarded by the Haiti Support Group. It is written by the Regwoupman Demokratik Popilè.)
______________________________________________

____________________________________________

Canadian Medicine -- Socialized Yet so Similar to the U.S. Model

Ivan, in a POST on E-Group earlier today, wrote:

"It is inevitable that anytime a 'US vs Canada' debate arises, the conch of our universal healthcare system is held up as a shining example of what it is we do better then the US."

In the remarks linked to above, Ivan admirably sets the stage for issues that are bound to arise in the upcoming federal election campaigns running up to a general election we all expect to occur this spring. But if you follow the links in Ivan's POST, you may come away with the view that Canada's healthcare practises differ greatly from what is the daily fare south of the border. That would be a false impression.

It is true that for some Canadians we call things differently: paediatrics versus pediatrics, is one of the rarer examples. That, however, is about as far as it goes and today such spellings are considered archaic even here.

Canada does not have a research network as big as the National Institutes of Health, our equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration is underfunded, and we should build our own Cent(er)res for Disease Control. In the upcoming electoral campaign, some parties may call for just such forward-looking investments. But the mere fact that we can even consider modelling our health system on such centrally important and logical institutions, proves that we share the same healthcare culture as our southern cousins. How could this be under socialized medicine?

The corrolary important point is that our doctors, especially in Canadian medical specialisations, follow the same training and apply the same diagnostic and treatment protocols as U.S. physicians. Given the fact that our medical system has evolved for more than half century following a socialized-medicine approach to the financing of primary and tertiary care, anyone would be justified in asking why we have not at the same time developped a more aggressively preventive approach to disease. In a socialized medicine setting it is, after all, the State that picks up the greater part of the tab using tax dollars that could otherwise be invested in another sector or be better devoted to reforms that bear on quality of life, education and social welfare.

All this constitutes a HUGE question and grab-bag of issues. Without decrying here the influence of the American Medical Association on our smaller Canadian Medical Association or the influence of big pharmacy on government everywhere and in every manner, I would rather turn to one principal root of how and why Canadian medical practises followed the American model of aggressive treatment of disease, dependence on pharmaceuticals and a training and certification process that limits the number of practioners and stamps them with a profound collective loyalty to the economic interests of their own people who graduate from a highly conformist system not unlike their US colleagues (who our doctors resemble).

My apologies to any sensitive souls who are offended at the use of US phenomena to draw lessons for our Canadian epi-phenomena. But in medicine, historically, the Canadian and US experiences are intimately related. After all, one of the great Canadian complaints is that we lose some our most promising physicians to American medical centres where they end up doing the same work but for bigger bucks.

Below I have pasted random references to a key, early and formative intervention (and subsequent private investments) in the direction Canadian med schools took at the turn of the last century. This is just a 'teaser' to start to look at the formative process that molded our medical education system . I have been obliged to liberally add a few of my own parenthetical "and Canada's" because it apparently slipped the minds of the editors of these web pages that Canada exists and that the title of the report referred to is the 1910 Medical Education in the United States and Canada, by Abraham Flexner.

LINK

1910: The Flexner Report

In the early 1900s medical training in America (and Canada) was generally unpredictable. There were 155 'medical schools' each with widely varying curricula and standards. Abraham Flexner visited each of these schools, and in his 1910 report entitled "Medical Education in the United States and Canada," made broad recommendations for medical education based primarily on the (Johns) Hopkins model (i.e., the curriculum as taught at the Baltimore, Md. medical school). As a result, the number of medical schools declined precipitously. Medical schools were located primarily in urban centers, were university-affiliated and focused on specialized care. Not coincidentally, the percentage of American (and Canadian) physicians in general practice declined from over 80% in the early 1900s to fewer than 50% by 1960.

+ + + +

On another (random) website, we find:

LINK

Flexner had the ideas, Rockefeller and Carnegie had the money, and their marriage was spectacular. The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and the General Education Board showered money on tolerably respectable schools and on professors who expressed an interest in research.(4)

Since 1910, the foundations have "invested" over a billion dollars in the medical schools of America (and Canada). Nearly half of the faculty members now receive a portion of their income from foundation "research" grants, and over sixteen percent of them are entirely funded this way. Rockefeller and Carnegie have not been the only source of these funds. Substantial influence also has been exerted by the Ford Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund (a Rockefeller interlock created by Edward Harkness of Standard Oil), the Sloan Foundation, and the Macy Foundation (Macy is perhaps less an investor in Canadian teaching and research).

+ + +
A further note:

With the entry of the U.S. in the Second World War well after Canada mobilised, a wholly unique process of military investment in researching and developping biological and chemical agents created the impetus for new waves of collaboration between Canadian universities and US partners.

Subsequent to WWII, there followed a privatization of wartime pharmaceutical discoveries and advances as well as an appropriation of German discoveries (Bayer etc.) by US giants like Merck.

The dependence of researchers and the interdependence of Canadian medical schools and private chemical and pharmaceutical companies was further accellerated to the point that you can confidently state that in specialised medical care and advanced research we constitute one unified, North American culture.

Haiti Newsletter # 4

Click HERE to open a local file in translated from Créole to English. Cliquez en haut sur 'HERE' pour voire le dépêche d'Haïti.

Several Groups Call for the Overthrow of Jean Bertrand Aristide -- Now

One document translated from Créole to English.

Introduction to English translation:

This "call" to oust the government is one of several intransigent polemics in an effort to mobilise for the ouster of strong>Aristide.

Two similar emails arrived this week from serious, well organized coalitions of groups present both in and outside Haiti. The creole names of those signing the translated document presented here are included at the bottom of the file.

It appears that the World Economic Forum gave a shot in the arm to the Haitian delegates in attendance. Many civilian leaders appear ready to break completely with the regional and international players (including Canada) who counsel patience and long-suffering confidence as the pre-electoral process prepares the ground for a more pacific confrontation down the road three years hence. These people won't wait.

Note the warning to the US against another military intervention. The conclusion Haitians have drawn is that the invasion of 1994 did nothing to resolve that crisis and strengthened the alliance between former supporters of the Duvalier dictators and Aristide. The author-organizers believe another invasion threatens merely to bolster Aristide and Lavalas once again.

I will not insult your intelligence by noting that the intransigence expressed in Haiti Newsletter # 4 presages more violence in the streets and countryside. The violence erupts daily wherever and whenever the people express their solidarity in demanding an end to repression and government corruption.

New Blog on Canadian Politics

This is a new group I will be actively participating in. Some of the POSTS you will see on Anything Prose will be cross-posted to and from there.

This is an opportunity to boast about how successful the E-Blog has already been in its first week. And that is exactly what the quote below does. Click on E-Blog to see the site and witness a broad scope of Canadian political opinion . . .
BlogsCanada : E-Blog

January 26, 2004
BlogsCanada's Group Blog

Site traffic statistics junkies, like me, know that weekends are typically the slowest days on the internet. A combination of reasons comes to mind:

+ People have more interesting things to do on weekends.

+ High school students don't have access.

And, probably the biggest reason...

+ People aren't surfing from work.

This weekend was a major exception to the rule. We launched the BlogsCanada group blog and blew away all previous traffic records here at BlogsCanada.

As Jay points out, one measure of Canadian success is being noticed in the US. Sad but true. Some of our increased traffic can be chalked up to being linked by high-profile US blogs: Buzz Machine and The Command Post. We certainly appreciate the mention and I hope our newly formed political group blog will be as informative to our American readers as it is to Canadians.

No War for Oil (from Kate)

Contribution from a Neo-Neo Conservative

Paul Desmarais is the founder of Bombardier. There isn't enough space on this server to list the federal government grants and contracts that have benefited Bombardier, under the guise of throwing money at nationalists in Quebec.

No War, For Oil
Glenn Reynolds remarks this morning (Jan. 24, 2004) on a National Post piece that wonders out loud why the Canadian media seems so disinterested in the connections between former PM Chretien's family and that of the Desmarais.

This 1997 article summarizes the connections then between the Desmarais clan and powerful European interests.

His sons, André and Paul Desmarais Jr. are the current co-CEO's of Power Corporation of Canada, the majority shareholder in France's TotalfinaElf. André is married to Chretien's daughter, France.

This link outlines the long list of Canadian politicians who cut their teeth with Power Corp.

Power Corp owns 67.7% of Power Financial Corp. Power Financial Corp. controls Canada's largest mutual funds company, Investors Group, and Great-West Lifeco, Canada's largest life insurance company. Power Corp also extensive media holdings - through Pargesa their influence extends into the European media.

In May, Financial Post writer Diane Francis wrote of a deal between Saddam Hussein and TotalFinaElf that would have allowed Elf to earn back it's $4 billion investment in 11 months.

Stockwell Day of the conservative opposition Alliance Party poked a stick at the prime minister during Question Period:

"I do not fault the Prime Minister's family ties with his nephew, our Ambassador to France," said Day "or with Paul Desmarais Sr. who is the largest individual shareholder of France's largest corporation, TotalFinaElf, which has billions of dollars of contracts with Saddam's former regime. With this valuable source of information and experience at his fingertips, has the Prime Minister ever discussed Iraq or France with his family or friends in the Desmarais empire?"

Just after Chretien stepped down last fall, his long time chief political advisor was a guest on local talk radio. A caller asked about the Chretien-Desmarais family connections. His voice changed, and he interrupted her mid sentence, threatening that such talk could result in legal action against her and the station.

The host cut her off.

Halliburton should have it so good.

Will Belinda's Horse Show, Place or Win ?

Magna and Belinda and Frank
are more than Auto Parts or Seat Cushions.
They are a Global Vision of (Costly)
Entertainment for the Whole Family
(that is, if you like to start bad habits young)

+ Earlier today (see above) I posted an article and translated it from Montreal's La Presse newspaper. The news is that the politically unknown, new face in the even newer Conservative Party of Canada, Belinda Stronach, has pulled out all the stops in her bid to become party leader. The French-language printed version of the article claimed that she is cornering the PC* organizers already in place in Quebec. Her method: liberally throwing around her cash.

However they were recruited, these former *Progressive Conservative party loyalists could be key to Stronach or to whoever is ultimately chosen to take on Liberal Party candidates under Paul Martin's leadership. Let us not forget the New Democratic Party hopefuls led by Jack Layton, nor the more embedded and organized Bloc Québécois nominees under Gilles Duceppe.

The federal elections probably will occur in May. We are on a stiff learning curve here, so I have decided to cut some corners. My take on Belinda Stronach is that she is very much a businesswoman, a serious leader in the empire her father built and that as the CEO for the past few years, we should hold her to her performance in the company she headed, i.e. Magna International. But 99.9% of the electorate does not have a handle on what that company is nor what they do. And the bare numbers are not enough to get you up to speed.

Magna is huge. It is not an auto parts supplier in the same sense as a Québec local like Spectra Premium in Boucherville or a handful of others. Three-quarters of the company's business is with GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler or Volkswagen. There are plants in 20 countries that actually assemble cars, as in entire BMWs, etc. When an executive moves to a leadership position in Magna to head a division of Fiat, that's called a lateral move.

If a Magna plant in Ontario is shut down for just one hour and doesn't deliver to a Detroit partner Stateside, the nonfulfillment penalty would run to about $1,000,000 US. That's big. That's critical to the old Auto Pact, NAFTA or Canada's balance of payments (internal to or external to the multinationals).

We will have lots to say about all this later. Here I would like to add that the patriarch Frank Stronach likes horses and that he likes parimutuel betting and that he would like you and me to be in a comfortable position to sit on our couches at home and bet on his horses through his tracks and borrow money from him to do it -- all this using a couple buttons on our TV remote. (I said this was a stiff learning curve.) Better yet, clog the highways around one of his tracks in a car he helped build in one of the communities that gets a miniscule take from the millions bet on every week-end.

It is my opinion that Belinda Stronach shares the vision of her father regarding offtrack betting (OTB) and that she worked (maybe tirelessly, I don't know) to help implement this global gambling vision. It is a vision that would have Inuit trappers with satellite dishes wagering on horse races in California when they return from walking their traplines late at night. I will be posting on that vision (which I certainly do not share) in the upcoming weeks. I am not saying this because one of the other candidates has much of a counter-vision that has been properly articulated either.

Below find a brief description of a wholly-controlled subsidiary (or spinoff) of Magna International, TO WIT: Magna Entertainment and it's related embodiment M I Developments Inc. (MID). This will be LONG for a POST, so be patient. Stiff learning curve, remember? We'll get to the Canadian politicians who served to create such a behemoth later as well.

Form 10-Q for MAGNA ENTERTAINMENT CORP

See entire web page for details. Click on blue/red link above.

OVERVIEW

Magna Entertainment Corp. ("MEC", "we" or the "Company") is North America's number one owner and operator of horse racetracks and one of the world's leading suppliers, via simulcasting, of live racing content to the growing inter-track, off-track and account wagering markets. On April 16, 2003, having received all necessary regulatory approvals, MEC completed the acquisition of Flamboro Downs, a harness racetrack located in Hamilton, Ontario, 45 miles west of Toronto, Ontario. We currently operate or manage eleven thoroughbred racetracks, two standardbred racetracks, one racetrack that runs both thoroughbred and standardbred meets and one greyhound track, as well as the simulcast wagering venues at these tracks. In addition, we operate off-track betting ("OTB") facilities and a national account wagering business known as XpressBet(TM), which permits customers to place wagers by telephone and over the Internet on horse races run at up to 70 racetracks in North America. MEC also owns and operates HorseRacing TV(TM), a television network focused exclusively on horse racing that we initially launched on the Racetrack Television Network ("RTN") in 2002. HorseRacing TV(TM) is currently carried on cable systems in eight states, with over one million subscribers to date. We are in ongoing discussions with cable and satellite operators with the goal of achieving broader distribution for HorseRacing TV(TM). RTN, in which we have a one-third interest, was formed to telecast races from our racetracks and other racetracks, via private direct to home satellite, to paying subscribers. To support certain of our thoroughbred racetracks, we also own thoroughbred training centers situated near San Diego, California, in Palm Beach County, Florida and in the Baltimore, Maryland area. We have commenced development of a horse racetrack and gaming facility near Vienna, Austria.

This is the house that Frank built and that Belinda helped nurture and grow so that it could spread from sea to sea and even to Austria.

Oh, I almost forgot . . . and with a vision spread to that northern bay too, and the Gulf of Mexico and to the Beaufort Sea -- Damn, I'm thinking like an American -- of that US variety -- but then I'm not an Austrian ambassador like Frank Stronach nor an Arnold Schwarzenegger with such world vision.

Quebec Conservative Organizers Back Belinda Stronach - Bilingual Post

See below for English POST et plus de détail

Des accusations que l'appui a été payé en tranche de dixaines de milliers . . .

Cliquez ICI pour voire L'ARTICLE

Le vendredi 23 janvier 2004 Page A7
PARTI CONSERVATEUR

Belinda Stronach a l'appui des principaux organisateurs au Québec

Cyberpresse et Joël-Denis Bellavance (La Presse)

Ottawa
À peine trois jours après avoir lancé sa campagne, la jeune candidate à la direction du Parti conservateur, Belinda Stronach, a réussi à obtenir l'appui des principaux organisateurs du parti au Québec même si elle ne parle pas français.

Les organisateurs du Québec, qui devaient appuyer la candidature du député Peter MacKay ou celle de l'homme d'affaires de Calgary Jim Prentice, qui se sont tous les deux désistés au cours des dernières semaines, ont en effet jeté leur dévolu sur l'ex-présidente de Magna International pour les mener au pouvoir.

Le sénateur conservateur Pierre Claude Nolin a aussi annoncé qu'il appuiera Mme Stronach dans cette course qui l'oppose à l'ancien chef allianciste Stephen Harper et à l'ancien ministre de la Santé de l'Ontario, Tony Clement.

«Presque tous les conservateurs au Québec sont derrière Belinda Stronach», a affirmé hier Dany Renauld, codirecteur de la campagne au Québec de la riche femme d'affaires et codirecteur des communications à l'échelle nationale.

Note: (Le reste de l'article est juteux mais n'est pas intégré dans la version éléctronique. Refèrez-vous au résumé en anglais çi-dessous et/ou achetez un exemplaire imprimé.) rjp

+ /\ + /\ + English Translation and More Detail

Conservative Party: Stronach has the support of the principal organizers in Quebec

Accusations fly that support in Quebec was paid for in cash.

Cyberpresse and Joel-Denis Bellavance (La Press)

(Ottawa) Hardly three days after having launched her national campaign for the party leadership and candidacy, the young (38) Belinda Stronach succeeded in obtaining the support of the principal organizers of the party in Quebec -- even if she does not speak French.

Organizers in Quebec previously split in lending support to leadership candidate Peter MacKay or to Calgary businessman Jim Prentice. Both dropped out over the last weeks. Now these Quebec conservatives have thrown their unreserved backing to the ex-president of Magna International (in hopes she will) lead them to electoral victory in the upcoming federal elections.

The Conservative senator Pierre Claude Nolin has announced he will support Mrs. Stronach in the party's race, which opposes former Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper against the former Minister for Health of Ontario, Tony Clement. "Almost all the conservatives (sic - party organizers) in Quebec are behind Belinda Stronach", Dany Renauld, co-director of the campaign in Quebec affirmed yesterday, speaking of the rich businesswoman and her bid for party leadership.

Note: La Presse gives the meat of the story in the print edition but not on line. Here we have given a quick translation of the printed article, where we read--

Stephen Harper's chief Quebec organizer, Richard Décarie, admits that the Stronach machine has swept its influence across the entire province. But to explain how and why the former Progressive-Conservative loyalists went over to Belinda Stronach, rich daughter of wealthy autoframe maker Frank Stronach, Décarie says "According to our information, they were bought-off, in bundles of tens of thousands of dollars. Lots and lots of money is flowing right now toward recruiting supporters."

"The boys are dying of laughter, so much money is passing hands", stated M. Décarie.

Dany Renaud of the Stronach camp dismisses the accusations with a shrug. He says he gets no salary at all. "It is normal that people working at the grassroots will get paid."

The Conservative Party, born through the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive-Conservative Party last December, held their first caucus yesterday in Ottawa.

The story and translation above were taken as printed in La Press. We have not corroborated this story independently and make no other claims for the authenticity of the remarks noted by the La Presse writer.

Investigation of 9-11 and Beyond

Investigation of 9-11 and Beyond - BlackState.com: Loved & Feared
by Ross Peterson

I wrote an article after getting really pumped-up. It was after watching two or three Oliver Stone movies (Nixon, JFK, whatever) all in a row. So the piece got published by my buddies in D.C. who edit BlackState . . a great site to find links to news on current affairs. rjp

Click on link in blue above. The local file will be available on-site here after a decent delay -- an opportunity for you to log onto www.blackstate.com and also to purchase there all your T-Shirts, caps, and personal coffee mugs. They are editorial friends who need and deserve your support.

. . . . . . + /\ + /\ + . . . . . .

The lead-up to 9-11, when two and a half thousand lives went dramatically up in flames in the Pentagon building and NYC's World Trade Center, still requires continuing investigation before the book is closed. -- It looks very, very bad to see the White House recommend that Henry Kissinger be the one in charge. That is like putting Dean Acheson in charge of investigating the JFK assassination. (The sort of thing you expected. JFK's assassination is still not a closed book--largely because of a botched investigation.)

Another investigation that may have involved some cover-up was examination of Dr. David Kelley, the British scientist-arms-investigator who 'was suicided' after someone leaked info (to BBC) on how Downing Street tried to "sex up" the dossier on why Iraq presented a clear danger to civilization.

Dennis Kucinich: Horsetrading for Dummies

Afterthoughts Burn after Iowa Caucus Vote

Why would Dennis Kucinich, who has staked positions significantly to the left of most of the other Democratic candidates, instruct his Iowa supporters to vote in caucuses for John Edwards in precincts where Kucinich would fail to reach the minimum 15% figure? Everyone seems to be stumped.

Kucinich has to buck very long odds to win the nomination, but the most likely scenario in which he is a political force in July—probably as a kingmaker, not a king—requires that no candidate have a majority of delegates when the Democratic National Convention opens. And in order for no one to have a majority, Kucinich wants, or rather needs, no one to run away with the nomination.

Let's say that Kucinich would have garnered 5% of the votes in a mythical Iowa primary. In the actual caucuses, (having only) 5% of the voters in any precinct would prevent his votes from (even) being counted. But they mean an extra 5% for another candidate, if those votes all go to one candidate. if Kucinich read the polls accurately, he knew that Kerry didn't need any help in Iowa and that Gephardt needed more help than he could give. He (also) had to know that Dean has enough cash and volunteers to keep his campaign going. And he had to know that Edwards needed a strong showing in Iowa to show his viability outside the South.

Kucinich is still running a quixotic campaign, but if but if he wins enough delegates and the rest of (an) impossible dream comes true, then he will have traded Rocinante* for Seabiscuit**.

*refers to Don Quixote's lame horse ** a race-horse winner
Thank you, Tim F-W, for reminding us of English Lit 101. . .
Posted by Tim Francis-Wright at 1/21/2004 01:22:57 AM on K Marx The Spot

Haiti Newsletter #2 Jan. 20, 2004

Pressure from International Agency to Recognise Right to Bargain in Free Trade Zone

The first Haiti Newsletter installment discussed the general situation in Haiti on January 10. Find it posted yesterday. Each number will explore the issues further.

Today's newsletter is a sort of victory announcement for the campaign to defend the rights of a group of Haitian workers to organize into a bargaining unit affiliated with an international labour union.

The Haiti Support Group's campaign in favour of workers' right to unionise in a new free-trade zone bore fruit at last. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has finally approved a loan of US$20 million to Grupo M (the employer) with an explicit condition that the company recognise its employees' freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.

Organizing efforts in a massive new free trade zone development in Ouanaminthe, Haiti (on the Dominican Republic border), led by the International Textile Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, were frustrated by anti-union actions by Grupo M, including threats, discrimination and violence against workers seeking to organise.

To read more, CLICK HERE and a local text file will open.

For more details on this story and the Haiti Support Group campaign see: http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/zonefranche.htm