WORLD FEDERALIST MEETING
TOPIC:

THE NEXT WORLD WAR?

Author and Consultant Roy Woodbridge leads a discussion around the implications of growing inequity within and between nations and the accelerating erosion of global ecosystems for the human prospect.

Followed by discussion and refreshments.

TIME:

Thursday, March 17, 2005 at 7:30 pm
LOCATION:

Unitarian Church Centre, 949 W.49th Ave. at Oak St., Vancouver.

All welcome. Free Parking. No charge.

MORE INFORMATION:

Or to add your name to the meeting reminder e-mail list,
contact Larry Kazdan at (604) 874-9982,
or e-mail: lkazdan@shaw.ca.
The World Federalists of Canada -Vancouver Branch meets at this location the third Thursday of every month. The general public is cordially invited to attend.

World Federalists promote the development of democratic world institutions to make and enforce world law.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

World Federalists of Canada - Vancouver Branch
e-mail wfcvb@vcn.bc.ca
URL: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/wfcvb/meetings.htm

"It is not enough to say you would like more class diversity in whatever political group you affiliate with. The growth of the class chasm has gotten so precarious, that a reactive stance to classism is not enough. A proactive stance of class inclusion is required. Below are a few things that I think should always be done to try to include the widest range of economic classes, when it comes to organizing and participating in community events."

"After years of campaigning against Hezbollah, the radical Shiite Muslim party in Lebanon, as a terrorist pariah, the Bush administration is grudgingly going along with efforts by France and the United Nations to steer the party into the Lebanese political mainstream, administration officials say."

"And this is surely one of the reasons why we find it so hard to accept what the climatologists are now telling us. In our mythologies, an early spring is a reward for virtue. 'For, lo, the winter is past', Solomon, the beloved of God, exults. 'The rain is over and gone; / The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come'. <1> How can something which feels so good result from something so bad?

"The rich had a very good year.

The collective net worth of the 691 billionaires we could find is $2.2 trillion, up $300 billion from the combined worth of the 587 people listed last year. Every region saw gains. The world's richest moguls now hail from 47 countries, including, for the first time, Kazakhstan, Poland, Ukraine and even Iceland. The newcomers include 69 Americans and 38 Europeans."

If Cockburn, Tariq Ali, St. Claire, Chavez, MST Brazil/Bolivia, Felipe Quispe, James Petras, Walden Bello, Vandana Shiva, Arhundati Roy, Ken Livingston, Ward Churchill, German Greens/EU Nordic/Left Blocs, Uruguayan Leftists, Chilean Communist Party, Ruben Zamora, Cubans, radical ecologists, other activists and professors would come with all their power to support a clear plan for a new type of participatory socialist - or solidaristic - economy, many people, activists and movements would come together from around the world to promote this vision.

"In 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community. It is quite ironic that on Feb. 28 of this year, the State Department of the United States once again posed as the 'the world human rights police' and released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004. As in previous years, the reports pointed fingers at human rights situation in more than
190 countries and regions (including China) but kept silent on the US misdeeds in this field. Therefore, the world people have to probe the human rights record behind the Statue of Liberty in the United States," said the report.

"More than 70 environmental, consumer, farmer, human
rights groups and unions from six Central American and Caribbean countries held simultaneous press conferences today to denounce the presence of unauthorized genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food aid distributed by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and in commercial imports of food
originating mostly from the United States."

"The Bush administration was accused yesterday of trying to roll back efforts to improve the status of the world's women by demanding that the UN publicly
renounce abortion rights.

America's demand overshadowed the opening yesterday of a conference intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the Beijing conference on the status of women, an event seen as a landmark in efforts to promote global cooperation on women's equality."

"New evidence suggests that Henry Kissinger gave the Argentine military 'a green light' in its 1970s-80s campaign against leftists."

"U.S. President George W. Bush's mission to charm his allies paid off when all NATO nations, including Canada, committed troops and money to Iraq, a conflict that had divided the military alliance."

Petition: Defend Ward Churchill and Protect Academic Freedom

Dear All;

Please announce, sign and forward the following petition in support of Professor Ward Churchill to everyone in your addresss book and any and all appropriate lists and organizations - including programmers, staff, writers  and producers in all forms of alternative media.

You can view and sign the petition at

http://www.coloradoaim.org/wardpetition.htm

"Way back in 1968, U.S. ecologist Garrett Hardin sketched the dilemma that today besets the Kyoto Protocol, the UN's global warming pact which takes effect on Wednesday.

In a landmark essay, 'The Tragedy of the Commons,' Hardin evoked the case of common land where everyone has the right to graze their cattle."

"Of the $1.1 billion in boxed chocolates that Americans are expected to buy on Valentine's Day, very little will be untainted by the scourge of child labor. Although some who buy those bonbons will do so without knowing the sinister history of their purchases, others, like the chocolate makers, will have known for at least two years, if not longer that cocoa beans imported from the Ivory Coast -- used to make nearly half the chocolate consumed in this country -- are harvested in large part by children, some as young as 9, and many of whom are considered slaves, trafficked from desperately poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso."

"Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russian weapons sales to Venezuela 'do not go beyond any international norms and obligations.' Lavrov said this in response to U.S. 'concerns' that State Department spokesperson Adam Ereli reiterated yesterday about Venezuela's purchase of 100,000 Russian AK-47 assault rifles and several helicopters.

An article published by the Washington Times reported yesterday that the Bush administration had sent a secret letter of complaint to the Russian Embassy in Washington, about the arms deal. According to the U.S. State Department, the Bush administration fears that the assault rifles could fall into the hands of Colombian rebel forces, since they believe that the Chavez government enjoys close ties to these."