Open Democracy is featuring a blog updated by four writers who are attending the WSF.
According to their reports, Lula supporters have so far outnumbered his detractors:
The 100-strong contingent of renegage PSOL – expelled from Lula’s PT party last year – held pictures they considered most damning: their hero shaking hands with You Know Who. The mostly Brazillian, mostly pro-Lula crowd responded with volleys of boos and rolled-up paper directed towards the dissenter’s section. The protestors parleyed with chants to the effect that Lula was a Comrade in Blair’s clothing: he promised much, delivered little; he said he would do one thing; he did they other. The Lula-istas fought-back with ever-louder chants of “oh-ay, oh-ay, oh-aay! Looolaaa! Loooola!”, and more rolled-up paper. And, from the stage, their President answered the chants: “I was a young radical once” he said, “just as they are. But i have grown. And although they feel now that they cannot be part of what we try to achieve, we would welcome them back with open arms”. The crowd – who didn’t seem much interested in the preceding talk about “the quiet tsunami of global poverty” – finally came to their feet. Personality cults don’t get much more fun than this.
IPS reports Lula saying this in his address:
“I’m here because I believe that you are taking an important step, an historic step for the Forum. You are growing from being a mere group of people, each one with their own demands, towards resolving an issue like hunger, which is a social problem and a political problem,” he said.
“Those of you who aren’t from here, don’t be afraid. The ones who don’t want to listen are the offspring of the governing Workers Party. The rebellious ones. It’s typical of youth, and one day they will mature and we will be here with open arms to welcome them back,” said Lula, in reference to the jeers of the PSTU protesters.
According to OD’s James Crabtree, who seems to regard the protestors with as much seriousness as Lula, despite the wide-range of political issues represented at the opening march, all of those who were asked (by a friend of Crabtree’s), “What is the most pressing concern in the world today?”, replied with one word.
“Booosh“
It appears one of the issues was Lula’s sending 1,100 troops to Haiti “to lead and provide the core units for MINUSTAH, the UN’s international peacekeeping force in Haiti,” relieving 2,500 multilateral troops led by the U.S., an action perceived to be self-serving on Lula’s part as opposed to one intended to help the Haitians.
Saturday, 04 December 2004
Fundamentally, the case against Lula is that the Brazilian army is not in Haiti simply to support a peaceful resolution, but rather to help inculcate a post-Aristide society where Aristide’s Lavalas political party could be disqualified from participating in next year’s presidential balloting.
The rationale behind this is that if Lavalas is allowed to run, it will almost certainly win by a landslide victory, something the U.S. is entirely against.
In fact, human rights and Haitian interest groups repeatedly have accused MINUSTAH for idly standing by as peaceful pro-Aristide demonstrators are shot by Haitian police (which also includes many members of the corrupt, disbanded Haitian military), or worse, by the intercession of MINUSTAH forces themselves on the side of the police.
Aiding Oppression in Haiti: Kofi Annan and General Heleno’s Complicity in Latortue’s Jackal Regime
Currently the UN force, led by General Augusto Heleno of Brazil, is highly prejudiced in the use of its power. Far from abiding by the impartial language of the mandate “to support the constitutional and political processes under way in Haiti . . . and foster principles and democratic governance and institutional development,” MINUSTAH continually sides with the inherently lawless Haitian police during the latter’s repeated raids on Aristide supporters, and with a Justice Minister who has no regard for due process. As described by Chief of Mission of the Haiti embassy in Washington, Raymond A. Joseph, to COHA, “a situation of war exists in Haiti. In war a lot of things are not quite legal, but you have to take measures to protect yourself.”
Measures including censoring journalists by death?