http://www.dsausa.org
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DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA
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March 20, 2007 |
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| News From DSA A Report from DSA's National Office |
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MIDWEST TOUR HIGHLIGHTS DSA/PRD CONNECTION
President Bush's much ballyhooed trip to Latin America amounted to nothing more than a grand photo opportunity, offering less concrete assistance to the people of Latin America than the people of Venezuela now offer to low income Americans in the form of low-cost heating oil.
The corporate-friendly president is justifiably fearful of the swing to the left in Latin America. The market-based free trade agreements trumpeted by our government for the last dozen years have failed as miserably in Latin America as they have here in the United States. The middle classes of Latin America have been devastated, poverty has increased and the gap between the richest and poorest has widened—just as in the United States, although obviously at a slower pace here.
It is no wonder that the voters of Latin America have turned to political parties opposed to the "Washington Consensus" and that even some moderate and conservative governments are looking to new forms of development. Americans are doing the same, again at a slower pace.
The message that the president delivered to Latin Americans on development was the same ineffective homily he delivered to U.S. citizens on Iraq: be patient and things will be better.
In the spirit of genuine truth telling and international cooperation, DSA's International Commission, along with DSA locals in the Midwest, are sponsoring an 11-day, four-city tour by Saul Escobar Toledo, secretary for international affairs and member of the executive committee of Mexico’s Partido de la Revolutión Democrática (PRD). Like DSA, the PRD is an affiliate of the Socialist International.
 During the tour Escobar Toledo will meet with union leaders and workers, students, teachers and other North Americans about Mexico's foreign relations and recent shifts in the Americas. Areas for discussion will include immigration and border relations, NAFTA and globalization, the presidential election challenge by popular Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador in July 2006, the turbulence in Oaxaca, and reactions to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia.
Escobar Toledo was trained as an economist at Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico City and was a founding member of the PRD in 1989. Since then he has served the party in various functions, including coordinator of political economy and fiscal reform, member of the national planning committee, and PRD representative to the Federal Electoral Institute. He has written on labor reform and the effects of globalization on Mexico and taught economics and political science at UNAM, Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Azcapotzalco, and Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Escobar Toledo speaks fluent English.
The tour will visit the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul.), Chicago, Detroit, and Madison, Wis. commencing on April 24th in the Twin Cities (contact Stephen Peter, info@twincitesdsa.org;) move to Detroit starting April 27th (contact David Green, dsagreen@aol.com;) then jump to Madison, Wis. on May 1st (contacts: Patrick Barrett at the Havens Center and Mark Silberman, mdsilber@wisc.edu;) and conclude in Chicago starting May4th (contact Raoul Ross Pineda at the PRD office or Bob Roman, chiildsa@chicagodsa.org.)
This tour is one of a series of events DSA is planning to educate Americans about developments in Latin America. Earlier this month Atlanta DSA co-hosted a forum on Mexico featuring "rebel journalist" John Ross who writes frequently on Mexican politics and is the author of three books, one of them the winner of an American Book Award, on the Zapatista movement. Co-sponsoring organizations included the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center.
On April 25th Boston DSA joins MIT YDS in co-hosting a panel discussion: The Pink Tide: Resistance and Regeneration in Latin America, featuring Maria Aguiar, Grassroots International*; Peter Winn, Tufts University*; Jose Antonio Lucero, Temple University*; and Kendra Fehrer, Martin Luther King, Jr. Bolivarian Circle*; (*Organizational affiliation given for identification, only.) The panel will be held Wednesday, April 25 at 7:00 pm (sharp) in Room 4-149, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Further information can be obtained from Boston DSA: P.O. Box 51356, Boston MA 02205 (617) 354-5078 http://dsaboston.org
Frank Llewellyn
National Director
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Paid for by Democratic Socialists of America PAC, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 505,
NY, NY 10038; not approved by any candidate or candidate's committee.
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