Some interesting thoughts from Wednesday's talk

[bcholmes]

We had a Latin American solidarity activist on hand to talk a bit about the Honduran coup, and the demonstrations. Some interesting things came out of his talk. I was fascinated by how carefully he framed the issue: they were not, he said, Zelaya-istas. It's not that they thought Zelaya was a great president. But to be quiet about any coup undermines Latin American democracy, and Latin America has a long history of having its democracy undermined. He also talked about how protests and demonstrations have been on-going for the last three months, and these are huge protests of thousands of people.

One other point he made: because of our mining interest in Honduras, Canada has the most ambiguous position on the coup of any Western country, and more importantly, Hondurans know that.

There's a Honduras teach-in on Saturday that I wish I could attend, but my class is in the way.

Yves Engler talked about the three big things that he feels he gained awareness about while being involved in Haiti solidarity word. I don't remember the third point[*], but the first was the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, and the second was the idea of the UN peacekeeping missions being used as a tool of class warfare. I don't think I have heard this idea articulated before, and it definitely caused a light to go off in my head.

[*] - Edit: I do remember the third point. It was about the complicity of non-governmental organizations in the coup.

Comments

[stonebender]

Oh that last point is good! It's never been in my head like that but absolutely.