April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

parents rather than their own. This also explains why so many gender
selective abortions are made, despite this being illegal, with the resultant
skewed gender balance: for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are
born. This growing imbalance means that forced prostitution and human
trafficking has become "rampant" in some parts of the country, according
to a recent report.
China also has the highest female suicide rate in the world - 25% higher
than for men. Again, rural women are the main victims: "Half of the
suicides are of women in rural areas, who commonly drink pesticide to end
their lives," reports China Daily. Poverty, financial pressure, and unhappy,
forced or violent marriages are the main reasons.
www.socialistworld.ne
Venezuela and Libya
It is not an April 11 coup, it is a February 27 Caracazo
Jorge Martín 4 March 2011
There has been a lot of discussion in Latin America about the events
unfolding in Libya. This article explains the position of the IMT, which is
one of support for the uprising of the Libyan people, while at the same
time condemns any imperialist intervention. We also critically examine the
position adopted by Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.
Zawiyah. Photo: bandolero69The governments of Venezuela and Cuba have
correctly stood up in international institutions to oppose any imperialist
intervention in Libya. They have criticised the hypocrisy of those countries
who raise a hue and cry over human rights violations in Libya while at the
same time having participated in murderous imperialist wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan and supported the brutal repression of the Palestinian people
by the state of Israel.
The Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Jorge Valero, explained it this way:
“Who pays for the more than one million dead in Iraq? Who pays for the
permanent massacre against the Palestinian people? Why is it that those
responsible for these crimes of war, genocide and against humanity – who
are known to all and publicly recognise their deed – are not taken to the
International Court of Justice? What does the Security Council do faced
with these horrible massacres that take place?”
Quite correctly, the Venezuelan representatives denounced the real aims
of the intervention of imperialism in the region:
“Those who promote the use of military force against Libya, do not seek
to defend human rights, but to establish a protectorate in order to violate
them, as is always the case, in a country which is one of the most
important sources of oil and energy in the Middle East”.
The people of Iraq are a testimony to this fact. Washington made up an
excuse (so-called “weapons of mass destruction”) in order to attack Iraq so
that they could reassert their power and regain direct control over crucial
oil resources. The aim of the invasion was not to “establish democracy”
and certainly there is very little democracy in Iraq now under the Maliki
government. Thousands of Iraqis marched last month demanding
electricity, water, jobs and bread and they were met with the brutal