www.granma.cu

PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL (PL).— This Wednesday Orlando Lugo Fontes, president of the Cuban National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) called for the retention in this city of the World Social Forum before the World Campesino Assembly.

In his message of thanks to the event, organized by the Via Campesina, which groups together agricultural and indigenous farmers from all over the world, Lugo Fontes spoke of the extreme poverty, hunger and disease suffered by a large percentage of the planet’s population.

He affirmed that the links should not be broken in the series of Social Forums held to date in this city, capital of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, and called for the meetings to retain their venue in this country, or at least in Latin America.

The Cuban agrarian leader stated that the continent is experiencing a complex and difficult period and the Social Forum is an important scenario for continuing discussions on problems negatively affecting our independence and development.

Lugo criticized the presence of the United States within the so-called Group of Friends of Venezuela, given that it is precisely the country where the fascist coup d’état against Hugo Chávez, the constitutional president, was cooked up.

indymedia.ie by Andre Ferrari - Socialismo Revolucionario (CWI Brazil) Thu, Jan 23 2003, 10:54am

The World Social Forum is a meeting place for all kinds of organisations that fight against neo-liberalism, including environmentalists, trade unionists, and others who wants to go further and seek an alternative.

This is the third and last time the WSF will be held in Porto Alegre. Next time, the gigantic event will move to India.

In the beginning, at the first forum, there was a debate as to whether the event should involve protests and demonstrations as well as discussions, André explains. But we have always argued that it is impossible to separate the discussions from the need for concrete struggle and mobilisation.

The advantage with the Forum is that it gathers activists from around the world that are seeking an alternative. But the event also has some big limitations. Several of the organisations involved in the running of the WSF do not have a perspective for a clear alternative to capitalism. There are illusions that you can create a "human" capitalism, free from neo-liberalism, through reforms. One of the tasks for the Left is to intervene in the Forum discussions and to show that the whole system must be abolished, not just the worst features - it is all connected.

WSF grows enormously The first WSF was in 2001. There were 15,000 participants and 3,000 in the youth camp, which ran in the city at the same time. Last year, there were 60,000 at the Forum and 15,000 at the camp. WSF has grown together with the struggle and this year it is estimated that 100,000 will participate and up to 30,000 will attend the youth camp. Many were worried that the movement against capitalist globalisation would diminish after September 11 2001 but the resistance has instead grown as a response to the offensive from US imperialism, such as the war against Afghanistan and the threat of war against Iraq.

The world situation makes the discussions in the Forum extremely interesting. Across the whole of Latin America there is political, social and economic ferment: Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela are just some of the most striking examples. The election victory of Gutierrez, a Left populist, in Bolivia, and not least, the victory of Lula of the PT (Workers' Party) in Brazil will pose new issues that will be reflected at the Forum. For the Left it is important to see that the struggle must continue after these elections.

There is a debate about the fact that Lula is participating in both the WSF and World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. The holding of the WSF event in 2001 was actually in protest against the WEF. Despite this, a part of the Left within PT does not think Lula's actions are a problem, as Lula will deliver the same speech in both places, they argue. Lula says he is going to "take the message from Porto Alegre to Davos". But we think that the task is not to convince the elite, but to defeat it and bring it down. This entails the Left adopting an independent class position.

At the first WSF there was a debate by satellite link between participants at the WSF and WEF. It was then clear that Porto Alegre was an alternative to Davos. "You are responsible for the oppression", said Hebe de Bonafine from the 'Mothers of Plaza del Mayo'.

Today the idea of 'building a bridge' between the two Forums has been raised in some quarters. At the WSF last year there was representatives from Jospin's government in France, which was 'socialist' in name but pro-capitalist in practice, and even the right wing French president, Chirac, attended. The task of socialists is to show that such a "bridge" is impossible. There cannot be any compromise between the exploiters and the exploited.

The way forward for the anti-capitalist movement Another important task for socialists during the forthcoming WSF is to join in the discussions on the political situation and the way forward for the anti-capitalist movement. We call for a socialist programme that can build unity in struggle between workers and youth throughout the world. Amongst the 100,000 that will participate at the Forum there will be a chance to strengthen a class conscious Left, and to build a pole of attraction for the Left.

We have also concrete proposals for the struggle. Together with MSE (Movement for those without Education, International Socialist Resistance's (ISR) section in Brazil) we want to discuss how to build the anti-war movement, using examples like the strikes in schools and universities that have been organised in a number of countries for 'Day X' (the first day of a war on Iraq).

A specific problem facing young people in Brazil is that of access to higher education. We will therefore propose a special Forum for those who want to fight against privatisations and for democratic access to the universities. Last year, we succeeded in spreading the call through the WSF for the ISR's international day of action on 15 March.

There is an educational apartheid in this country. The universities are only accessible for an small elite. The majority of higher education is now private, with high fees and doubtful educational quality. We are campaigning for occupations to protest against this situation once the universities open in March. In São Paulo we are fighting for a new campus of USP (São Paulos university) to be built in Zona Leste, a working class area.

In Campinas we have already succeeded in getting organized activities started, along with several student organisations and the local MST (the national landless movement in Brazil). They are preparing an occupation. The MST have used occupations very successfully to get widespread publicity and to further the land struggle. In November 2002, the MST held its first meeting for "youth in town and countryside" and was able to attract 1,500. The meeting endorsed the idea of occupations of the universities.

We expect a huge attendance at the WSF over the next few days. By adopting a socialist programme and concrete steps to resist war and capitalism, the WSF can become a vital launch pad for international struggles.

related link: www.worldsocialism-cwi.org

www.nationnews.com Thursday 23, January-2003 by PETER MORGAN

When canvassing house-to-house one occasionally meets a citizen who declares forthrightly: “I en votin’.” He asserts that all political parties are the same and goes onto express some very uncomplimentary remarks about politicians in general.

Well, that’s the price of free speech! In general terms there can be no argument – all the candidates are men and women of good intent offering services to their fellow citizens even though, being human, some live up to their promises and some don’t. Where the comparison is not so true is in the comparative policies and programmes offered by each party most of which, unfortunately, have to wait for the publication of manifestoes which are usually held back until a couple of weeks before polling for fear of back-raising – the present Government has been very adept at pinching some of the progressive ideas of the NDP, for example: Team For The Times was Richie’s slogan!

But there are some very apparent differences in policy which don’t have to be held back. One is in tourism. The reasons for opposition to present ineffective policies are legion and have been aired but more instances keep popping up.

The Prime Minister and Minister of Finance is adamant about continuing the GEMS project and quite determined to throw good money after bad. He was recently quoted in the Press as declaring:”We cannot afford to have lands at Dover, Eastry House, Needham’s Point and Paradise Beach idle.”

That is a contention with which we all agree – the difference is whether those developments are going to be undertaken by private enterprise or Government since the first three listed are Government-owned properties. Prime Minister, Government has no business in business – not any government in any country – not any type of business. The whole ethos of people working for a government-owned enterprise and that of a private business is the difference between chalk and cheese.

One example should suffice. Which privately run business approximately the same size as GEMS and with the same financial problems would have paid $75 000 per annum for a box at Kensington? One would have thought that if anyone understood this it would be Mr Arthur, not only because of his academic qualifications but because of his Jamaican experience.

In Mr Michael Manley’s early term in office a number of Jamaican hotels were in financial trouble. The government took them over to keep people employed. They were not expected to make a profit – just try and break even.

Consequently, they chopped prices to get customers and so undermined neighbouring hotels which had mortgages and other financial obligations to meet. So they, too, collapsed. In fairness, perhaps that was before Mr Arthur’s time.

The other policy difference would be in the organisation of the administration of tourism. There is no difference today from that of the first Tourist Board in 1958 except for some big titles and Lotto salaries. The top management has no more qualifications or experience in the business of tourism than the first manager had at the time and, consequently, is given no more authority.

We need to organise for the 21st century. It is hoped, for instance, that the new marketing committee will bring some logical planning to that subject.

Another example. In addition to the major markets of the United States, Canada and Britain, there are secondary markets which offer good prospects from time to time dependent upon air services, the state of their economy and other factors. One such is Venezuela which, at one time, was a very important summer season market.

Quite obviously, it would be a waste of time and money to promote in that country under present circumstances. Another is Continental Europe offering various options. However, there is no scheduled airline service from the continent to Barbados – just occasional charters or a change of planes in London.

The sick man of Europe at this time is Germany with high unemployment and a seriously ailing economy. Yet the chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA), has stated that the BTA “is looking forward to a recovery in 2003 in arrivals from Germany”. That must mean substantial promotional expenditure.

This will likely bring some additional visitors but the question arises as to whether that investment might not bring far better returns in many another market. Again, the difference in thinking between a government representative and that of a businessman in weighing options.

So, while the selection of candidates is the present focus of attention, a thoughtful person would want to take the proposed policies and programmes into account when the time comes.

www.washingtonpost.com Thursday, January 23, 2003; Page A18

THE AMERICAS High Court Suspends Chavez Referendum CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's Supreme Court yesterday suspended a nonbinding referendum planned for February on the rule of President Hugo Chavez, dealing a blow to opposition hopes to inflict a symbolic political defeat on the populist leader.

The decision inflamed tensions between Chavez and his foes in the eighth week of an opposition strike that has slashed oil output in the world's No. 5 oil exporter and pushed the faltering economy deeper into recession. Chavez's government suspended foreign exchange trading in a desperate bid to stem capital flight and a slide in the currency as the government struggled to counter the effects of the 52-day-old protest.

Electoral authorities had set the referendum for Feb. 2 after the opposition collected more than 2 million signatures to request it. It would have asked voters whether Chavez should resign, although the result would not have been legally binding.

Reuters

ASIA 4 Pakistani Officials Expelled From India NEW DELHI -- India ordered the expulsion of four Pakistani Embassy officials, another indication that despite pulling back from war footing, neither of the nuclear-armed rivals is ready for improved relations.

The officials were told to depart within 48 hours, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna. Sarna implied the four were spying, saying they "were found indulging in activities incompatible with their official status."

A spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, Kamran Niaz, called India's move "unfortunate" but would not say whether Pakistan would make a reciprocal move.

The officials asked to leave the Pakistani Embassy were diplomats Mansoor Saeed Sheikh and Mian Muhammad Asif and staff members Muhammad Tasneem Khan and Sher Muhammad.

Associated Press

EUROPE American Briefly Flees Prison in Monaco MONACO -- An American imprisoned in Monaco for the arson death of billionaire banker Edmond Safra escaped from his cell but was recaptured hours later at a French Riviera hotel.

Ted Maher, a former Green Beret who had been Safra's nurse, and an Italian inmate sawed six bars from their cell window late Tuesday or early yesterday. They removed two steel grills before climbing down a 26-foot wall on a sash made of plastic bags.

Maher, 44, and Luigi Ciardecci stuffed their beds to fool guards, who noticed their absence at breakfast, prosecutor Daniel Ferdet said. Police caught Maher at a hotel in the southern French city of Nice, acting on "a clue from a Monaco witness," the prosecutor said without elaborating. Ciardecci was still at large.

Maher began serving a 10-year sentence last year after he admitted setting a fire on Dec. 3, 1999, that killed Safra, 67, the founder and principal stock owner of the Republic National Bank of New York.

The fire also killed one of Safra's other nurses, Vivian Torrente.

Associated Press

www.themoscowtimes.com Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003. Page 11 By Alex Nicholson Staff Writer

A linchpin of economic development, the legal profession, like most industries, has undergone a fundamental shift since that fateful summer of 1998, when the economy's legs were sawed off.

Unlike most industries, however, commercial law in Russia continues to be exclusively the dominion of foreign firms. Their ranks may have thinned since the August collapse and those that remain may be relying more and more on a new breed of domestically trained natives, but their importance to the economy has not waned.

In fact, if anything, their influence is growing along with the economy -- and knowing how they got here, how they survived and what they learned along the way sheds some light on what the future holds for Russia's peculiar brand of business.

A New Country It was the efforts of a few pioneering enthusiasts working out of ramshackle offices in the early 1990s that paved the way for the roughly 40 international firms now working in Moscow, about half the number that were here in 1998.

"As with all emerging markets, you start in an apartment and you get a call on a poorly connected telephone and the client asks you whether its safe to invest in the country," said Baker & McKenzie's Max Gutbrod, a German expatriate who has been here for the better part of a decade.

"You say, 'Well I don't really know,' and the client says, 'Well I need a memo for my board of directors.' And you answer, 'Excellent. I'll write it for you in three weeks,' for which you charge 10,000 bucks. You charge 10,000 bucks not because the information is very detailed but because the information is very difficult to get."

White & Case, a U.S.-based firm active in more than two dozen countries, wasted no time moving into the new Russia.

In 1990, Alex Papachristou, a lawyer from Washington, offered to set up an office for White & Case, and within a year the firm had a few rooms in the Central Telegraph building on Tverskaya Ulitsa.

"We had a contractor who helped expand the premises," White & Case partner Eric Michailov said. "There were four of us lawyers, and we were taking out the garbage and helping the builders."

Dominic Sanders told a similar story. In 1992, Sanders, then in his mid-twenties and fresh out of law school, was sent here to open British-based Linklaters' representative office and set up shop in a couple of rooms in the Academy of the National Economy.

In those heady days, Sanders says, legal databases were non-existent and getting copies of new legislation was virtually impossible, so he had to resort to snipping the text of laws out of newspapers.

Salans, on the other hand, is something of an oddity among the top firms, having been advising multinationals on doing business in Moscow for nearly three decades.

Working out of Paris in the early 1970s, founding partner Jeff Hertzfeld was one of only a handful of people advising multinationals on transactions with the Soviet Union. Now Salans' business in Russia accounts for a quarter of its global revenues.

A Maturing Market

The collapse of the economy in 1998 and the emergence of President Vladimir Putin's regime has had a profound effect on the commercial law industry.

For those that were here before the summer of 1998, the difference between the two eras is night and day.

"There has been a radical change in the climate from virtually the moment president Putin came into power," White & Case managing partner Hugh Verrier said.

"Since Mr. Putin came to power, the level of political stability and corresponding economic stability has allowed our clients and therefore ourselves to function with greater scope and efficiency."

That stability, combined with four consecutive years of economic growth and a raft of new legislation, has been a boon for the legal community.

A wave of restructuring work flowed out of the wounded economy, and the emergence of leaner, meaner domestic companies in 2000 kept the ball rolling.

With mergers and acquisitions among domestic companies picking up pace and foreign companies clamoring to enter the market, the leading law firms are getting as much work as they can handle and are on the lookout for new help.

"There's been a vast shift," said Michael Cuthbert, senior partner at Clifford Chance Punder.

"We're seeing more of the big Russian companies coming to us as they begin to expand internationally or begin to access international capital markets."

And the companies themselves are easier to work with, mainly because many of them, especially banks, have hired in-house lawyers who have cut their teeth working for major international law firms.

"The Russian commercial environment has matured a lot," Sanders of Linklaters said. "And it's often to the credit of the very young people in the bigger Russian companies who are very proactive and very pragmatic and sensible about how to run things."

Like Sanders, most expatriate lawyers who have been here for several years say it is now easier to work with some Russian companies than Western companies -- a situation that would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago.

"If you go to a Russian company and you have won its respect, then they know you know what you're talking about and they take your advice," Baker & McKenzie's Gutbrod said.

Gone too are the days when Russian businesses hire Western firms just to improve their image and, for the most part, the danger associated with taking on new clients.

Normally associated with long working hours, fat compensation packages and fine dining, expatriate lawyers have also experienced their share of the physical danger that was once synonymous with doing business here.

Tales abound of lawyers being locked into meeting rooms by frustrated and aggressive clients or learning from the media that their lives are in danger because of a murder plot against one of their clients. But those days, for the most part, are gone, Gutbrod says.

"If you compare us to our poor colleagues in Venezuela or Brazil, then in terms of day-to-day safety, we're much better off."

Adapting to the Times

As the economy continues its ascent, firms are expanding disciplines and looking forward to new types of work.

One developing area concerns production-sharing agreements, which provide political risk insurance for natural resource companies that want to invest heavily in a project but may not see that investment pay off for years.

Foreign oil majors say they are willing to invest billions of dollars here if the government puts a proper PSA regime in place, and Russia's new energy partnership with the United States has put the issue, opposed by domestic oil companies, once again on the front burner.

Law firms are also diversifying into areas that have recently taken off, such as retail, telecommunications and real estate.

As the economy matures, so do the markets, and Russian companies are increasingly looking to borrow money and float their shares both at home and abroad.

Freshfields, Bruckhaus Derringer, for example, helped Internet media company RosBusinessConsulting place its shares on the domestic stock market last year, which was Russia's first initial public offering, and is helping drugstore chain 36.6 do the same Thursday in the country's second IPO.

"I could almost say I've done more IPOs than Frankfurt has," managing partner Tobias Mßller-Deku said.

The trend is likely to accelerate, lawyers say, because the pace and quality of change is putting more distance between Russia and other emerging markets.

"Those emerging market funds -- where do they want to go?" Mßller-Deku says. They're not likely to buy Venezuelan or Argentinean bonds or do Argentinean or Brazilian IPOs at the moment. So if you do need emerging markets, and quite a few do need emerging markets, then where should they turn other than Russia?"

Clifford Chance this week, together with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Russian Trading System, the country's benchmark stock market, created an consultation center for domestic corporations thinking about listing their shares here or overseas.

Linklaters also sees the opportunities and is transferring some lawyers from London to Moscow to beef up its capital markets and project finance divisions.

One area that vanished overnight when the crisis hit is also giving lawyers the kind of work they would expect in the West -- real estate, Sanders of Linklaters said.

"There are true possibilities in real estate," he said. "There's a possible watershed because you've got international institutional money coming in as opposed to just acting for the developers. Now the developers are starting to get their funding from real estate funds. That's the sort of client our practice in mature markets is based upon."

A New Breed

Junior Russian lawyers have come of age, the role of the expatriate lawyer is dwindling and the firms here are thinking carefully about who to bring in from other offices.

"The importance and the number of expats will go down, and it has to go down because these guys [Russians] are getting better by the minute," Mßller-Deku says.

"Most of my Russian colleagues studied at Moscow State University or the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and almost all of them have also studied in Britain or America," said David Marshall of the firm Cameron McKenna.

"These are without doubt some of the most impressive lawyers that I have worked with."

The quality of Russian lawyers, who now outnumber expats at most foreign firms, has been a driving force in the development of commercial law here since the crisis.

"Before the crisis, I think the work people were doing was uneven at all the firms," Verrier of White & Case said.

"At the time, the market was immature, and the lawyers were learning alongside their clients in those crazy, bonanza days," he said. "I think real business is happening now."

"It was like having a hospital where the doctors have only practiced for two years," said a lawyer at a major foreign firm.

"What kind of hospital is that? You can imagine the malpractice, right?"

"In money terms, we can achieve better results with two-thirds the staff than we could before the crisis, which is a real testament to the quality of the people," said Sanders.