{"id":705896,"date":"2022-06-18T07:41:33","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T07:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=130680"},"modified":"2022-06-18T07:41:33","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T07:41:33","slug":"a-tale-of-two-summits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/06\/18\/a-tale-of-two-summits\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Summits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week (June 8-10) there were two summits in Los Angeles, California:\u00a0 the Summit of the Americas<\/a> hosted by the US State Department and the Peoples Summit<\/a> hosted by US and international activist organizations. The two summits were held in the same city at the same time but could not be otherwise more different.<\/p>\n

Summit of SOME of the Americas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Begun in 1994, in the heyday of US international dominance, the Summit of the Americas is officially a function of the Organization of American States. It is meant to coordinate and consolidate US economic, political and cultural interests.\u00a0 The first summit, held in Miami, served this goal well. The Soviet Union had broken up, severely hurting allies such as Cuba. Neo-liberalism was on the march, even in countries such as Nicaragua where the Sandinistas had been voted out of power. The US had recently invaded Panama, making a murderous example of\u00a0 any country or leader that defied US dictates.<\/p>\n

Since 1994, there have been Summits of the Americas every three or four years. The summits in Canada (2001) and Argentina (2005) had large anti-summit protests against capitalist globalization.\u00a0 In Panama in 2015, Cuba was invited to the summit for the first time after a group of countries threatened to boycott the summit if Cuba was again excluded.\u00a0 President Obama met and shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro. There was widespread agreement and pleasure at the US\u00a0 beginning to normalize relations with Cuba.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the US hostility to Cuba resumed under President Trump. The White House administration referred to Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as a \u201ctroika of tyranny\u201d.<\/p>\n

The policy of exclusion continues under the Biden administration and this became a major feature of the just concluded Summit of the Americas.\u00a0 Despite threats to boycott the gathering by many Latin American and Caribbean presidents, the US chose to exclude Cuban, Nicaragua and Venezuela. This resulted in seven country presidents choosing not to attend: Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, St Vincent, Antigua, Guatemala, El Salvador.\u00a0 Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) said simply, \u201cThere cannot be a summit of the Americas if all the countries of the American continent do not participate. Or there can be, but \u2026. it is just a continuation of the old policy of interventionism, or disrespect of nations and their peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the absence of three excluded and seven allied leaders became a predominant feature of the Summit. The ghost of the ten hung over all events. The summit accomplished little with the lack of preparation being compared to a \u201cprivileged but lazy student\u201d who does not prepare\u00a0 for a test.\u00a0 The Atlantic<\/em> analyzed<\/a> the situation: \u201cThe Summit of the Americas, hosted this year by Joe Biden, offers a measure of how far the U.S. has fallen.\u201d The attendance was small and resolutions filled with platitudes with little substance.\u00a0 Criticisms of the US exclusion of countries were openly aired.<\/p>\n

The NY Times described <\/a>\u00a0the Summit by quoting a former Mexican ambassador who said many countries are \u201cchallenging U.S. influence, because U.S. influence has been diminishing in the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Summit of the Americas, Secretary of State\u00a0 Antony Blinken and OAS leader Luis Almagro spoke at a panel about “ Journalistic Freedom<\/a>“.\u00a0 Journalist Walter Smolarek exposed the farce as he boldly confronted<\/a> Almagro because of his complicity in the 2019 Bolivian coup and more.<\/p>\n

There was a plea\u00a0 from many countries to get beyond conflict and cold war, to genuinely work together to address the\u00a0 looming and already dangerous results of climate change.<\/p>\n

The Summit of the Americas was expensive. Just the LA police security cost over $15 million.<\/p>\n

Peoples Summit 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two miles away from the Summit of the Americas, the Peoples Summit was held at the Los Angeles Technical Trade College.\u00a0 The Peoples Summit included art and poster pavilion, a huge hall for panel discussions and speeches, and an outdoor pavilion featuring dozens of activist organizations and craftspeople. There was live music and dancing later at night.\u00a0 Over a thousand people attended and spirits were high.<\/p>\n

The complex affair was organized by over ten convening organizations. These included the Answer Coalition, International Peoples Assembly, CodePink and unions SEIU 721 and AFT 1521.\u00a0 There were over a hundred individuals providing support and organization for the event. Many activists flew\u00a0 or drove to Los Angeles from across the US.\u00a0 In contrast with the Summit of the Americas, the Peoples Summit operated on a shoestring based on volunteers.<\/p>\n

A wide array of domestic and international issues were addressed at the Peoples Summit.\u00a0 They included Health as a Human Right, Gender Violence, Food Sovereignty and Climate Justice, Cultural Resistance, Youth Organizing Strategies, Justice for TPS and Undocumented Community, Lessons from Below and Organizing Unhoused Communities.\u00a0 Plus many more.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Los Angeles counted over 66,000 homeless people in the city. The latest survey, from January this year,\u00a0 is going to be released\u00a0June 22<\/a>.\u00a0 These and other issues were explored by activists at the Peoples Summit.<\/p>\n

A major component of the Peoples Summit was international affairs and the connection to struggles at home. While the US spends well over $800 billion annually on the military, there are virtually no homes being built by the US government. The\u00a0US Department of Housing and Urban Development<\/a>\u00a0 offers rental assistance and advice. In contrast, Venezuela has constructed 4 million homes<\/a> for Venezuelan families.<\/p>\n

US censorship and attacks on media critics were further revealed at the Peoples Summit where Julian Assange\u2019s father and brother talked about the world\u2019s most famous imprisoned journalist and publisher. The Wikileaks founder has been imprisoned for ten years, with over three years at Belmarsh maximum security prison.\u00a0 He is now threatened with extradition to the US, a kangaroo court and life imprisonment.\u00a0 His only \u201ccrime\u201d has been to reveal the real crimes of the US military and government.<\/p>\n

There was an outstanding lineup of speakers each of the three days of the Peoples Summit. These included local activists and indigenous leaders and noted international leaders such as Honduran Bertha Zuniga and Puerto Rican Oscar Lopez Rivera.<\/p>\n

The presidents of Cuba and Venezuela, plus Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia, sent eloquent messages of support to the Peoples Summit.<\/p>\n

On Friday June 10 there was a mass march and rally from the Peoples Summit at the community college to the street in front of the Summit of the Americas. The streets of downtown Los Angeles echoed with calls, chats and songs as the march proceeded.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is growing criticism of US presumptions of supremacy and US foreign policy promoting division and conflict. This was expressed by leaders who stayed away from the Summit of Americas and also many leaders who attended. The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, said<\/a> frankly,<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s wrong that Cuba and Venezuela and Nicaragua are not here, because as you heard from Bahamas, we need to speak with those with whom we disagree\u2026.There\u2019s too much narrow-casting instead of broadcasting. There\u2019s too much talking at, instead of talking with\u2026. And the simple priority must be people, not ideology.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

US exceptionalism and the exclusion of countries is increasingly being challenged. This matches the global criticisms of US unilateral sanctions. At the last UN General Assembly, the vote was 184-2 in denouncing US embargo on Cuba<\/a>.\u00a0 Seventy percent of world nations believes US sanctions violate international law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Summit of the Americas showed the US attempting and failing to impose its will on the hemisphere. \u00a0The Peoples Summit showed a different vision which is in accord with the wishes of most countries and people.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Photos by Rick Sterling<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>March 1<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>March 2<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>President Maduro<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Panel 2<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Evo Morales<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>President Miguel Mario D\u00edaz-Canel Berm\u00fadez<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>March 4<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Vendors and Activist Groups<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>March 7<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Closing panel<\/p>\n

The post A Tale of Two Summits<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week (June 8-10) there were two summits in Los Angeles, California:\u00a0 the Summit of the Americas hosted by the US State Department and the Peoples Summit hosted by US and international activist organizations. The two summits were held in the same city at the same time but could not be otherwise more different. Summit [\u2026]<\/p>\n

The post A Tale of Two Summits<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1010,1016,51,1019,8076,38354,1020,48622,1,59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705956,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705896\/revisions\/705956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}