Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 238 April/May 2014
Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution – for a more humane world
A very warm greeting from Venezuela Bolivariana! I have been receiving, following and reading carefully all documents and notes of solidarity that you have sent us since the beginning of this continued coup attempt, which has already lasted more than two months and has caused more than 30 deaths in our country and indeed has unleashed the fury of the ultra right-wing sector of the Venezuelan opposition. 15 universities have been vandalised, several food markets burned, dolls that simulate revolutionaries hung on bridges, etc, etc. All this demonstrates the fascist character of a sector of the opposition, and shows that there are psychological warfare laboratories behind these operations.
The vast majority of people reject these actions and some sectors of the opposition people begin to wonder or reject such practices of the more radical wing of the opposition. We continue to battle and triumph and our people benefit greatly from the very important international solidarity given, from people like yourselves, who do not expect anything in return. We indeed are grateful to you.
We reaffirm our desire to build a more humane and just world!
Xoan Noya
Coordinator of International Relations
Youth Wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (JPSUV)
Northern Connecticut supermax prison’s hall of horrors
I write to you from the bowels of the American penal colony to express my gratitude for your very existence.
While that may sound a little hyperbolic I assure you the sentiment is genuine, prompted by what probably seemed a small, and maybe even insignificant gesture – the holiday card enclosed with the FRFI December/January edition.
I wish that I had the ability to put into words how profoundly touched I was that brothers and sisters an ocean away would take the time to send a card to some lifer you’ve never met. This type of solidarity is simply unheard of.
I think it is, however, imperative for the brothers and sisters in Europe to look to the US prison industrial complex as a living, breathing, foreboding testament to just how bad things can get in a ‘modern western democracy’.
I read the letter of Kevan Thakrar at HMP Manchester [FRFI 236] and was so happy to hear of the people’s protest outside his window! Though I’ve never met this brother, the thought of how good it must’ve felt to witness that kind of support manifest itself before his eyes delivered the energy to continue my struggle clear across the Atlantic.
Of course here in the Northern Supermax such a beautiful scenario is simply not possible – we are in the middle of the wood. Nobody gets near the facility and I haven’t felt fresh air through a window in 20 years.
Here it is a true hall of horrors – screaming, banging, people regularly sprayed with mace, beatings, suicides, prisoners ‘playing’ in their own faeces, ‘recreation’ in small cages we call kennels (about 8’ x 8’) and so on.
So thank you for the card, and thank you for the subscription and most of all thank you for continuing to fight for and on behalf of the people ‘society’ views as disposable.
With unyielding solidarity
D J TAYLOR #179983
Northern Supermax, 287 Bilton Road, PO Box 665, Somers, Connecticut 06071, USA
In support of Focus E15 mothers
I saw the article in FRFI 237 about the young mothers in Newham, and it’s good to see how well organised and committed they are – this issue of social housing in London really does need to be highlighted especially when so many properties in London are being kept empty by property speculators motivated just by profit as opposed to social need.
JOHN BOWDEN
HMP Shotts
‘Universal mismatch’
I welcome the news that the government plans to scrap Universal Jobmatch, its shambolic mandatory job search website and spy device. The site has long been the subject of ridicule. The attempt to spy on a claimant by making him or her tick a box to allow Jobcentre staff access is not lawful. Claimants are within their rights to untick it. Jobcentre staff cannot make people use the site outside of the Jobcentre. Anyway, it is utterly hopeless.
The website cost around £20m to create. Despite this, it won the worst jobsite award by the industry award body which termed it a ‘mongrel of a website’. It is littered with pyramid schemes, bogus jobs, duplicates and jobs that do not pay the minimum wage. Many jobs do not meet the website’s terms and conditions and some are unlawful. The site even hosts illegal scams attempting to con people out of money or steal their identity. It did not change even after a Channel 4 report on this.
There are times when I have typed ‘Newcastle’ into the search box and found the latest jobs were posted a week ago, I’ve typed in ‘retail’ and it’s given me sales jobs, I’ve typed in ‘waiter’ and it’s given me sales jobs. The system thinks a job as a Swedish-speaking Trainee Recruitment Consultant fits my criteria. It does not.
CAL
Newcastle
Lambeth Council puts market before people’s needs
It’s criminal that only 40% of the new proposed housing development in Somerleyton Road, Brixton will be available at council rents, whilst the rest will be private and unaffordable. A private two bedroom will set you back £335 per week.
Lambeth has a waiting list of 20,000 households and still are failing to put ordinary people first and build 100% public housing to help this problem.
According to official figures from the Valuation Office Agency, which monitors rental prices, rents in London will soar by 20% in the next two years – twice the rate of average earnings.
Once again Labour is unable to put the working class before its precious so-called ‘market’ and take the side of the people. Labour proves itself to be just as spineless, and useless as the Tories.
Anthony
South London
Errata
A number of errors crept into the article ‘The collapse of CAR and South Sudan’, FRFI 238, p12 at the editing stage.
1. ‘In 1991 Machar formed the SPLM, an SPLA splinter, to collaborate with the Khartoum government, which frequently used southern proxies to weaken the SPLA.’
This should have read ‘A split in 1991, when Machar left to form an SPLA splinter, led Machar to collaborate with the Khartoum government, which used southern proxies to weaken the SPLA.’
2. ‘Oil regions quickly became strategic areas of control between government and Machar’s group, the rebels occupied two of three oil states before they were driven out.’
‘Oil regions quickly became strategic areas of control between government and Machar’s group, the rebels, who occupied two of three oil states before they were driven out.’
A corrected version of the article appears on our website.
