Brazil's Lula Calls For UN Reform At Socialist Congress

[Say_What]

<clips>

SAO PAULO (AP)--President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Monday for reforming the U.N. and giving it a new mission of eliminating hunger and poverty, as he opened a three-day meeting of socialists and social democrats from around the world.

"The only war we should be waging is against hunger and inequality," said Lula, South America's first elected leftist leader. "That's a war worth fighting."

Lula, a former labor union leader, also said countries must eliminate trade barriers, such as agricultural subsidies in Europe and the U.S.

Those subsidies, he said, hurt developing countries like Brazil that want to raise domestic living standards by increasing agricultural exports.

<http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2003102717000029&Take=1>

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Brazilian (news - web sites) President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, receives a birthday cake from the former Prime Minister of Portugal and current President of the Socialist International, Antonio Guterres, left, during the opening of the XXII Socialist International Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday Oct. 27, 2003. At far right is Jose Genoino, President of the Brazilian Worker's Party and second from right is Luis Ayala, Secretary-General of the International Socialist. Second from left is Marta Suplicy, Mayor of Sao Paulo.(AP Photo/Helvio Romero-AE) BRAZIL OUT

[mutus_frutex]

1. These reporters have a knack for forgetting history..

"South America's first elected leftist leader"?

What about Salvador Allende??

Thankfully these are different times, otherwise Brazil would be another Chile.

And just wait a couple years more. Bush has completely forgotten South America and that is going to cost him a lot..

Cheers..

[Say_What]

2. and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez

Tactics against democratically elected Hugo Chavez in Venezuela are exactly like the ones Uncle Sam used against Allende.

Peace!!

[mutus_frutex]

3. I didn't include him because

I'm not totally aware of the situation in Venezuela, and the little I know seems to indicate that Chavez is a bit different from examples like Lula and Allende. Let's say that I think he is more similar to Peron. :-)

Cheers..

[Aidoneus]

4. I wouldn't call Allende "leftist"

besides being partly responsible for the horrible atrocities that the US-backed fascist dictator Pinochet would terrorize Chile with, he's at best a "Social Democrat" on the European model, and not him or them are what I would refer to as "leftist" historically or contemporarily (though that mistake can be and is made).

Hugo Chavez Frias, the legitimately elected President of Venezuela, is what I would consider a leftist, and one of the few leaders in the world that shouldn't be run out on a rail IMO.

[mutus_frutex]

5. Some extracts from the Encyclopædia Britannica:

"Allende, born into an upper-middle-class family, received his medical degree in 1932 from the University of Chile, where he was a Marxist activist. He participated in the founding (1933) of Chile's Socialist Party. After election to the Chamber of Deputies in 1937, he served (1939–42) as minister of health in the liberal leftist coalition of President Pedro Aguirre Cerda."

"Allende ran for the presidency for the first time in 1952 but was temporarily expelled from the Socialist Party for accepting the support of the outlawed Communists; he placed last in a four-man race. He ran again in 1958—with Socialist backing, as well as the support of the then-legal Communists—and was a close second to the Conservative-Liberal candidate, Jorge Alessandri. Again with the same support he was decisively defeated (1964) by the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei. For his successful 1970 campaign Allende ran as the candidate of Popular Unity, a bloc of Socialists, Communists, Radicals, and some dissident Christian Democrats, leading in a three-sided race with 36.3 percent of the vote."

"Inaugurated on November 3, 1970, Allende began to restructure Chilean society along socialist lines while retaining the democratic form of government and respecting civil liberties and the due process of law."

I think he fits the description of "leftist" :-), but, hell, everybody is entitled to its own opinions..

With regards to "being partly responsible for the horrible atrocities" commited by Pinochet, well, I think that is taking away too much guilt from that son of a bitch.

Cheers..

[newyawker99]

7. Hi mutus_frutex!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Dirk39]

6. He's 100% right...

make the UN a more legitimated organisation. Make it more democratic. Stop this formal dictatorship of about 400-600 multinational corporations from Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA about the rest of the world. Stop this fucking WTO, IMF and worldbank producing 1000 times the destruction that the humanitarian organisations of the UN desperately try to repair.
There might be even a better chance to do it now, after the uniliteral actions of the USA towards Iraq.
Let's get this hijacked world back.
Hello from Germany,
Dirk