September 21, 2008
Human Rights Watch, a NYC-based international "non-governmental" organization that conducts research and advocacy on bourgeois democracy, produces propaganda that glorifies or apologizes for atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by US imperialism and Human Rights Watch defames foes of US imperialism often with false reports of violations of democratic principles.
**The key instance of Human Rights Watch (HWR) producing propaganda that glorifies or apologizes for US imperialism is HRW's complete indifference to the US imperialist policy and massive program of genocide against the Iraqi people that has already occasioned the deaths of over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens. When US imperialists are not the monsters committing genocide, HRW treats genocide as a violation of human rights, for HRW has published extensively on the Rwandan Genocide.
Even when US genocidal policy and program grew transparent or, more correctly, conspicuous during the "surge" of genocide, HRW remained largely silent, participating in the cover-up of this systematic Hitlerian-type holocaust in Iraq. For more information on the HRW-neglected holocaust in Iraq, see "Bloodbath and the US Presidential Campaign," published here at Axis of Logic. HRW deceitfully turns the US imperialist genocide in Iraq into something that is merely episodic and sporadic, contrary, HRW falsely claims, to US policy.
The chief instance, of late, of the HWR producing propaganda that defames foes of US imperialism is the big pile of trash and garbage, stuffed with lies and other filth, titled "A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela."
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HRW divides its bag of garbage which it calls its report on human rights in Venezuela into six sections -- political discrimination, the courts, media, organized labor, civil society, and the future of Venezuelan democracy.
In the first section on political discrimination, HRW makes three main charges [all lies].
In this section, HRW says the Venezuelan state:
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Fired and blacklisted political opponents from some state agencies and from the national oil company;
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Denied some citizens access to social programs based on their political opinions; and
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Discriminated against media outlets, labor unions, and civil society in response to legitimate criticism or political activity.
Logically, #2 obviously deals with with citizens who are not government employees, and #3, deals with non-governmental organizations. Both are in essence, political and ideological derivatives or, at least, the parallels of #1, which deals with government employees or government job applicants.
So, we can examine (1) and not tediously rehash the same kind of arguments, again and again, for (2) and (3).
POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION
In (1) above, HRW says the Venezuelan state "fired and blacklisted political opponents from some state agencies and from the national oil company."
"Some State Agencies"
Note the term "some state agencies. HRW gives no idea of the number of state agencies that allegedly fired and blacklisted political opponents. But even the lying HRW admits only "some" do it, not "all" state agencies; so, the allegedly fired or blacklisted opponents still have a shot at a job at another state agency.
Why didn't HRW holler and make a lot of noise when HRW heard that George W. Bush and US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales were firing US attorneys either because Bush/Gonzales judged "some US attorneys" weren't reactionary enough or, worse, they were mildly liberal.
HRW kept its big mouth shut. This shows HRW is two-faced, bias, and full of lies; therefore, we shouldn't believe HRW about anything, including Venezuela.
"National Oil Company"
HRW says the Venezuelan state "fired and blacklisted ... from the national oil company."
In late 2002, the Venezuelan bourgeoisie and US imperialists locked-out Venezuelan workers from almost all economic production and distribution, including the national oil company. Both pro-government and pro-opposition workers at the national oil company were locked-out.
In 2002, the national oil company was government-owned, but the company was infested and controlled by the reactionary sector of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie and a swarm of US imperialists.
After the bourgeois lockout began, the state promptly took over the national oil company, ordered the perfidious sector of the bourgeoisie and imperialists off the premises, and called ALL of the workers ...both pro-government and pro-opposition ... back to their jobs. Most of the pro-government workers, a minority in 2002 of the company's labor force, returned to their jobs. And a significant minority of pro-opposition workers also returned to their jobs, both showing the "finger" to the reactionary Venezuelan bourgeoisie and US imperialists.
The state then fired ALL of the workers who refused to worked, the workers showing servility to the reactionary bourgeoisie and imperialists whether the workers were pro-government or pro-opposition.
About 18,000 renegade workers were notified not to come back or "blacklisted," after they repeatedly ignored calls from the state to return to their jobs.
Obviously, this is not political discrimination in any way or to any degree because the firing and blacklisting of renegades applied to all workers who refused to work, political supporters as well as opponents of the state.
[Editor's Note: At this juncture, we remember Ronald Reagan when he fired 11,345 Air Traffic Controllers under the pretext of national security after they went on strike on August 3, 1981. Reagan barred them from returning to government service for 3 years. - LMB]
Once Again, HRW's Defamation Tale About Political Discrimination In Venezuela
Let's revisit globally HRW's above-quoted accusation, namely, the Venezuelan state "fired and blacklisted political opponents from some state agencies and from the national oil company. "
So, HRW hints if any agency of the Venezuelan state fires an employee who happens to be a political opponent, HRW assumes the reason for the firing is the employee's political opposition to the state, not the employee's corruption or incompetence or insubordination or larceny or sexual degeneracy on the job or absenteeism or drunkenness on the job or etc. or etc.
HRW claims it conducted "extensive interviews" for the piece of trash it calls its "report."
HRW's extensive interviews must have gone something like this:
HRW: When you worked for the state, were you a corrupt employee?
FORMER STATE EMPLOYEE: No madam, not at all. I swear.
HRW: Were you drunk or a sexually degenerate on the job?
FORMER EMPLOYEE: Why you ask me about that?
HRW: Again, were you drunk or a sexually degenerate on the job?
FORMER EMPLOYEE: What you mean by " a sexual degenerate on the job?"
HRW: Never mind. Based on your answers to my inquiries, I, on behalf of the HRW, find you're a victim of political discrimination.
POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION IN USA DOESN'T GET A HRW REPORT
Since HRW originates from the USA, the HRW should be at least concerned to some degree about allegations of political discrimination in the USA, including Alaska.
In Alaska, the "gop" VP nominee Sarah Palin fired the state director of public safety reportedly because the director refused the fire Palin's former brother-in-law. HRW will likely argue that this case doesn't amount to political discrimination because the former brother-in-law and fired public safety director are both "gops" like Palin.
When Palin was mayor of the City of Wassila, Alaska before she was governor, Palin fired the chief of police because he insisted on closing the saloons at 1 AM instead 4 AM after several serious DWI accidents early in the morning. The local bar owners were big financial contributors of Palin. The fired chief of police was a political opponent of Palin; he supported her unsuccessful mayoral opponent.
The slimy HRW didn't say a thing about this instance of political discrimination by Palin because HRW was too busy down in Venezuela digging up lies and defamations about the exercise of power by the Venezuela workers of a state that increasingly belongs to them.
These instances in Alaska show the two-faced nature of HRW.
Against the US bourgeoisie or a US bourgeois wannabe, HRW is nothing if not apologetic or, more often, a party to a cover-up of wrong-doing.
But against a foe of US imperialism, like the revolutionary workers of Venezuela, HRW is a gushing fountain of defamation.
VIVANCO, NOTORIOUS HRW TRAMP THROWN OUT OF VENEZUELA
"Vivanco has murky records and collaborated with the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Our country cannot accept anyone that comes to attack the people and the institutions. In Venezuela we are building a democracy that has the people’s power as the main protagonist, and we respect the Constitution approved by the majority."
- Carlos Escarra, Parliamentarian
Venezuela National Assembly
José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director for HRW, was expelled from Venezuela Thursday night, Sept. 18, after presenting to the vicious bourgeois media in Caracas an offensive report packed with lies and defamations about what is in fact a growing Venezuela democracy and the increasingly proletarian content of Venezuelan democracy.
Vivanco, a truculent imperialist tramp, refused to accompany the Venezuelan law enforcement officers who delivered the persona non grata order of expulsion to him at his hotel and Vivanco, a notorious foreign national working for the Bush regime, wrestled on the floor of his hotel with Venezuelan law enforcement officers who told him in a civil tone that he had to catch the next plane out of the democracy he defamed and hoped to defame even more.
Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolás Maduro explained that the Bolivarian state in Venezuela declared Vivanco persona non grata because his lies and defamations about the state were unusually huge. Since persona non grata is a term mostly used in diplomacy, the expulsion implies the Venezuelan state considers Vivanco a US government agent, notwithstanding the ridiculous pretensions of HRW as a "non-governmental" organization.
''This is the first time this has ever happened to Human Rights Watch in this hemisphere,'' Vivanco said after his expulsion.
Well, it's about time it happened.
HRW has been producing glorifying and apologetic propaganda about US imperialism and defamatory stories about the foes of the US imperialism for 20 years. So, an expulsion is overdue.
By contrast, the bourgeois US regime doesn't even issue entry visas into the USA to most prominent critics of the US regime from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia. A couple of years ago the bourgeois regime in Washington threw a delegation of Cuban petroleum executives out of a US privately-owned hotel in Mexico City, Mexico and ... what's more ... the US regime kept $7000 the Cubans had paid the hotel in advance.
Naturally, the imperialist running dogs at HRW said not a word of criticism although the Cubans who were kicked out of the US-owned hotel in Mexico City solely because they were Cuban. Apparently, the HRW didn't believe the incident was a human rights violation or the HRW believes the bourgeois regime in Washington has the right to violate human rights.
At least, Venezuela workers let this imperialist tramp, José Miguel Vivanco, in before they threw him out.
The bourgeois US regime and US capitalist press exploded with rage upon hearing that the state of the Venezuelan workers threw Vivanco, the imperialist tramp, out. The Miami Herald, on Sept. 19, wrote "In a 230-page report, Human Rights Watch concluded, among other things, that the government of President Hugo Chávez had engaged in systematic political discrimination and shown 'open disregard' for the principle of separation of powers."
We have already examined the poor quality of report's lies and defamations about political discrimination. Perhaps, in the future, we should examine the report's lies and defamation on the separation of powers in Venezuela.
CONCLUSION
Two key transformations are underway within the Venezuelan state -- a move toward a more democratic government and a move toward a proletarian government. HRW falsely denies the reality of the first process, a matter of form, and fights the second process, a matter of content.
At the moment the middle and senior people in the Venezuelan state come from everywhere politically and ideologically. There are elements of the patriotic bourgeoisie at the top, working beside elements of proletarian revolutionaries. In the middle of the state hierarchy, we find the huge suffocating presence of a lazy and incompetent middle class, a class that is the long, greasy and hairy tail firmly attached to stinking rear of the bourgeoisie and often very hostile to the revolutionary policies of the increasingly proletarian state that employs slimy middle class parasites.
It is a error to attribute the laziness and incompetence of the middle class to the increasingly proletarian content of the Venezuelan state, for the middle class was present in the previous bourgeois regimes prior to the 1998 revolution and the middle class was just as lazy and incompetent in those bourgeois regimes.
The form of the state -- that is, the move toward more democracy -- rests chiefly on the rules for the exercise of power set forth in the Constitution of the state and whether the state in fact complies with the constitutional rules in the exercise of its power. The content of the state -- the move toward a proletarian state from a bourgeois state -- rests on the social class -- the lumpen, the proletariat, the middle class, or the bourgeoisie -- that chiefly occupies the policy-making and regulatory apparatus of state that exercises the power. Generally, the policy-making and regulatory apparatus of the state is far above and way outside of the civil service employment system that often ignores the political, ideological, and organizational qualities of the job applicants.
The transition from a bourgeois to a proletarian state is Venezuela consists of a flow of proletarian revolutionaries and other workers ... who at this point, have limited executive experience ... into policy-making and regulatory apparatus and the flow of workers into positions in a part of the regulatory apparatus once exclusively monopolized by the lazy and incompetent middle class which commonly used its position in the apparatus to practice corruption.
HRW, one of many mouthpieces or microphones of US imperialism, calls this transition in the content of the Venezuelan state from bourgeois to proletarian ... which happens to be too gradual due to the shortage of qualified revolutionaries ... "political discrimination."
**Related: Read Gabriele Zamparini's damning report on HRW and their "Senior Military Analyst", Marc Garlasco.
"Watching Human Rights Watch"
The following excerpt from Garlasco's biography provides a taste of Zamparini's report:
"Before coming to HRW, Marc spent seven years in the Pentagon as a senior intelligence analyst covering Iraq. His last position there was chief of high-value targeting during the Iraq War in 2003. Marc was on the Operation Desert Fox (Iraq) Battle Damage Assessment team in 1998, led a Pentagon Battle Damage Assessment team to Kosovo in 1999, and recommended thousands of aimpoints on hundreds of targets during operations in Iraq and Serbia. He also participated in over 50 interrogations as a subject matter expert".
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