“Iraq has occupied the US so completely the last five years that the Latin American people have been free to express themselves democratically and politically.” Thus spoke Curt Cadorette, for 27 years a liberation theology priest in rural Peru, now a professor at the University of Rochester. In six nations the people have elected presidents who oppose neoliberalism/the Washington Consensus/corporate globalization.

Just in time! In Harper’s (3/08) Steven Stoll describes the approaching end of economic growth and what will happen as the world reaches a “stationary state” of economies, as more nations take control of their own natural resources, as “progress” will depend on efficiency – not more productivity, and as the US will turn full attention again to all those natural resources in “our own back yard.” Will we allow our neighbors to try their own ways to make progress despite being in a stationary state (e.g., as is being tried by Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba)?

Herman Daly (Beyond Growth, For the Common Good) is one of the authors Stoll reviews. INTERCONNECT has referred to economist Daly many times over the past 14 years. We interviewed him in our 4/03 issue where he stated that continuous economic growth is impossible when the world’s ecological makeup is finite, and when the people refuse to just starve. He said that corporate globalization already has failed, that we should close down the World Bank, IMF, “free” trade and, instead, organize “federated internationalization” as a basis for trade which respects national sovereignty.

As our Iraq and Afghan wars fail to bring us more oil, will US governments try again to dominate Latin America? In this issue are reports of newly increasing repression – and on efforts of the LASC and our allies to “organize, organize, organize.”

Join us! Let’s build this movement more rapidly! (www.interconn.org)