‘Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet’ – 6 leaders of American countries April 17
ALBA summit vetos declaration of Summit of Americas
www.chinaview.cn
2009-04-18
by Alejandra del Palacio
CARACAS, April 17 (Xinhua) — The 7th Presidential Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) concluded on Friday with rejection of the declaration of the Summit of the Americas.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez read a 15-point statement, blaming capitalism for creating the current global economic crisis and criticizing U.S. imperialist policy on Latin America.
Before the Summit of the Americas, scheduled for April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago, leaders from Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras, Venezuela and Dominican Republic formed a common position towards the summit during their meeting in Cumana, capital of Venezuela’s Sucre state. –more–
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When I read the following I thought it was some kind of radical student group – making a stance for reason and sense.
No it was the leaders of six countries:
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24 April, 2009
‘Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet’
Viva Chavez, say I!
‘Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet’ — ALBA on the 5th Summit of the Americas
Translated by Federico Fuentes
Cumaná, April 17, 2009
The heads of state and governments of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela — member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) — consider that the proposed Declaration of the 5th Summit of the Americas is insufficient and unacceptable for the following reasons:
•It offers no answers to the issue of the global economic crisis, despite the fact that this constitutes the largest challenge faced by humanity in decades and the most serious threat in the current epoch to the wellbeing of our peoples.
•Unjustifiably excludes Cuba in a criminal manner, without mentioning the general consensus that exists in the region in favour of condemning the blockade and the isolation attempts, which its people and government have incessantly objected to.
For these reasons, the member countries of ALBA consider that consensus does not exist in favour of adopting this proposed declaration and in light of the above; we propose to have a thoroughgoing debate over the following issues:1) Capitalism is putting an end to humanity and the planet. What we are living through is a global economic crisis of a systemic and structural character and not just one more cyclical crisis. Those who think that this crisis will be resolved with an injection of fiscal money and with some regulatory measures are very mistaken.
The financial system is in crisis because it is quoting the value of papers at six times the real value of goods and services being produced in the world. This is not a “failure of the regulation of the system” but rather a constitutive part of the capitalist system that speculates with all goods and values in the pursuit of obtaining the maximum amount of profit possible. Until now, the economic crisis has created 100 million more starving people and more than 50 million new unemployed people, and these figures are tending to increasing.
2) Capitalism has provoked an ecological crisis by subordinating the necessary conditions for life on this planet to the dominance of the market and profit. Each year, the world consumes a third more than what the planet is capable of regenerating. At this rate of wastage by the capitalist system, we are going to need two planets by the year 2030. –more–
HatTip: http://dispatches.vastleftwingconspiracy.net/?page=2
