PM champions free trade at Americas summit

Source: Globe and Mail

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he's not at odds with most leaders at the Summit of the Americas, arguing that the vast majority of the 34 leaders here are free-traders, barring a small block of leftists who are still fighting the Cold War.

While U.S. President Barack Obama has proffered “equal partnership” with Latin America and the Caribbean, and promised to help alleviate poverty during an economic crisis, Mr. Harper has championed free trade and emphasized the need to avoid protectionism.

“There are some countries that want to keep fighting the Cold War and frankly wars that go a lot farther back than that,” Mr. Harper said at a brief press conference. He added: “I thought President Obama really demonstrated how in this business, less is often more.”

Despite friendly handshakes between Mr. Obama and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's leftist leader, there has been an evident clash of ideologies at the summit.


Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090418.wharper0418/BNStory/International/home

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Guess that he needs to hire some agents to get him on the right wing media.

Really needs to kill CO2 taxes and keep his oil flowing.

Besides. Must be really teed off at not receiving a gift from some members.

Projecting much, Harper you asshole?

In order of their leaders' "blueness":

Venezuela - LEFT
Bolivia - LEFT
Ecuador - LEFT
Argentina - LEFT
Uruguay - LEFT
Paraguay - LEFT
Nicaragua - LEFT
El Salvador - LEFT
Brazil - CENTER-LEFT (allied w the Leftists on most issues)
Chile - CENTER-LEFT (allied w the Leftists on certain critical issues)
Guatemala - - CENTER-LEFT (allied w the Leftists on most issues)
Honduras - leaning left.

That leaves:

Costa Rica - center-right, gov't betrayed the labor unions and others for "free trade"
Mexico - leftist population, rightwing gov't, probable stolen election in '05
Cuba - lefist, but not exactly democratic, more like a benevolent monarchy (really).
Peru - run by very corrupt 'free tradists' (very unpopular gov't; Bush-level low approval ratings)
Panama - dominated by the US military
Colombia - run by fascist narco-thugs (most favored by the Bush White House).

The U.S. - what can I say? Run by war profiteers, international banksters and global corporate predators, with the most non-transparent voting system in the "free world" (--I do believe that Obama was elected, tho neither I nor anyone else can prove it); hostilely occupying two countries, slaughterer of hundreds of thousands of people to get their oil; zero accountability for government master criminals; a once great democracy, looted and plundered and raped by the Bush Junta, its people struggling to come back.

Canada - unpopular minority rightwing gov't somehow retaining power; corporate interests dominate, as here; the majority of people struggling, as here, with the Bushwhacks' financial 9/11, and with lack of representation of their interests.

So, who has the "small block"--the left or the right? That's probably an unmeaningful way to put things. Probably more meaningful would be the trend, with a leftist tide having swept South America over the last half decade (Peru will be next), and increasingly popular in Central America/the Caribbean (Mexico will be next). This rather amazing, historic trend--an unstoppable tide of history--is going to sweep rightwing assholes like Harper out of power, and it is probably why our corpo/fascist rulers permitted Obama to be elected (or, one of the reasons). Those of us who have been following it have been trying to tell people for some time that it is happening and it is big--a powerful, peaceful, democratic, leftist tsunami coming from the south. Our corpo/fascist rulers have been frantic to prevent our people from learning about this tremendous political movement--that's why they relentlessly lie about leaders like Hugo Chavez (...ahem, he is NOT a "dictator").

As for "free trade," Harper has a point, but he distorts the point in a highly self-serving, rightwing (corpo/fascist) way. Consider a leader like Lula da Silva, president of Brazil. While he made a few deals with the Bushwhacks--in what he considered Brazil's interests--he has remained absolutely loyal to his friend and ally (someone he meets with monthly), Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. Nothing the Bushwhacks said or did, or offered, could dissuade him from this loyalty. He knows the truth about Chavez (that he is a democrat with a small d), has said so, and could not be strongarmed or bribed to do otherwise. Chile, whose leftist leaders perhaps bend most toward "free trade" and neoliberal policy, proved themselves to be staunch defenders of the sovereignty of Latin American countries and peoples in the recent (this last September) Bushwhack-sponsored fascist coup attempt against Bolivia's leftist government. Afterward, Chile's president, Michele Batchelet, told the following joke to a group of US investors: "Why has there never been a coup in the United States?" Her answer: "Because there is no US embassy in the United States." (She got laughs.)

These leaders know what's what. They know, for instance, that Chavez's strong leftist leadership--and that of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and others--has given them all more power in dealing with the U.S. and its corporate exploiters. Lulu could set the terms of his deals with the Bushwhacks because of Chavez, Morales and others. They can't be bullied and trod upon any more. That is the new reality. And they are working closely together to exert this unified front, in the interests of the people of Latin America. Harper is on the outs, and he knows it. Obama is trying to trod a middle course, out of necessity, as well as out of inclination. The Bushwhacks tried their damnedest to be dictators to Latin America, and failed--utterly--because the people of Latin America, and the leaders whom they have elected, after about a decade of hard work on their democratic institutions (such as transparent elections), won't take it any more. And it's quite possible that the people of the U.S. and the people of Canada will join with the people of the south, in the common interest of the majority of people, once we get our democratic institutions back in order, as they have done. So Harper is 'whistling in the dark,' is what he is doing. He is wrongfully construing an item like Lulu's biofuels deal with the Bushwhacks as Lulu not being closely allied with the Leftists. And that is simply not true. He is speaking to his global corporate predator backers, trying to keep their support, and is thus more than distorting things--he is lying.