A global movement...

...which will undoubtedly eventually spread to the United States when the ultra-right have finished with turning us into a banana grapefruit republic.

Gary Payne writes about Bolivia's revolution last fall...

The protests and rebellion that led to that outcome should not be viewed in isolation. Something unforeseen is happening in the Americas, and perhaps across the world. A new, unofficial coalition of exploited peoples and exploited nations is becoming self aware. Despite cultural and geographical differences, they are aware of each other's problems, and they are aware of the common threads in the economic and political tapestry that they feel is smothering them. It appears to be the beginning of a global insurgency for change. This unofficial community of insurgents was born of several historical factors: Its reach has been helped by internet and satellite media, but its driving motivation is a rapid increase of poverty and economic inequality, a well documented trend. The people within this community are uniting through fear and disdain of the unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in the “First World,” represented most egregiously by the George W. Bush administration. Meanwhile, it should come as no great surprise that Bolivia's fragile political cart tipped over. Bolivia is among the most impoverished of Latin American countries. The seeds of Bolivia’s rebellion have been identified in the press as the dual insults of U.S.-dictated coca eradication policies along with the proposed sale and transfer of its natural gas to the United States. To pour salt in the wound, the proposed gas pipeline was to go through the ocean port of Chile, which annexed Bolivia’s ocean access years ago. ...But it was also the termination of free school breakfasts, a lack of drinkable water, the absence of basic medical care and child immunizations. It was the impossible requirements imposed on Bolivia by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. ... It was the general certainty of future injustice in nearly all aspects of their lives that was intolerable for Bolivians at that march. Old women, gentle but firm in their resolve, held hands as they blocked traffic. Oblivious to the swarm of heavily armed police around them, their calm demeanor was not a display of radicalism, it was the emotional clarity of sheer desperation. To them, any system that allows so many of their grandchildren to suffer so severely has no legitimacy. Most Bolivians see their massive gas reserves (second in size only to Venezuela's) as their one hope to rise from misery into modernity. Although they are eager for the reserves to be developed, they suspect that now-former President Lozada's privately negotiated deal would give most of the profit to multinational energy-service corporations, along with a complicated network of secretive international players. The protesters feared the majority of Bolivians would not share in the wealth, and that their perpetual fiefdom would continue if not worsen.

And they had good reason to think so.

A wave of self-determination is washing across the entire landscape of the Americas. It was evident when Peruvians rejected corrupt President Fujimori three years ago. It was and still is evident in the resolve of Venezuelans to maintain democratically elected President Chávez, who was almost overthrown last year in a short-lived coup. Note that the coup effort was praised by the U.S. when it happened. The wave of self-determination is evident in grassroots support of President Lula in Brazil. And most recently it’s been on display in Argentina, where a newly elected president has stood his ground with the IMF. Last month in Cancún, Mexico, the World Trade Organization met with an unprecedented and unexpected rebellion by representatives of developing nations. Pushed to the wall together, they discovered their collective arms and pushed back. Meanwhile, these nations have been watching each other, learning from each other. Now, they are beginning to help each other. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, in today's news, Argentina is in negotiations regarding a possible default on IMF loans. Argentina says they need new terms because they cannot pay the loan as scheduled without sacrificing health and education for the people. IMF G-7 investors (including the United States) say, we really don't give a shit. You owe us money.

Read Greg Palast's account of the deals the IMF and World Bank force on poor countries. And his article, Who Shot Argentina? And then you will understand why Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is trying to organize Latin America against these deals.