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This week on Uprising:

* Satisfied with Their Leaders, Venezuelans and Brazilians Go to the Polls
* Gaza Mom Breaks Down Israel/Palestine Talks
* Jamie Court on The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell – Part 1

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Satisfied with Their Leaders, Venezuelans and Brazilians Go to the Polls

Venezuelans went to the polls last weekend to vote in National Assembly elections that were largely peaceful and uneventful. At stake was the ruling party’s two thirds majority which had enabled President Hugo Chavez to quickly pass laws. According to the results, that super-majority was lost, although Chavez’s party still won a majority of seats – at least 96 out of 165. The opposition coalition, which boycotted the last election, now controls at least 61 seats, which is more than a third. However, Chavez remains popular throughout the country, especially in rural areas. He himself faces re-election in two years. Venezuela’s southern neighbor, Brazil, is gearing up for its own elections. On Sunday October 2nd, two days after this program is recorded, voters in the fifth largest country in the world will choose their new President. Brazil has a two-term limit for Presidents, forcing the highly popular Ignacio Lula Da Silva to step down. His handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff, who served as his cabinet chief, is leading by a wide margin in the polls and may even win in the first round of elections. Her main rival is Jose Serra, head of the conservative Brazilian Social Democracy Party who lost to Lula in earlier elections, and has only about half the electorate’s support. Lula has been credited with lifting 28 million Brazilians out of poverty and cutting in half the number of people who regularly go hungry, during his nearly 8 years in office.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, what some are calling an attempted coup, has taken place. Left-leaning president Rafael Correa was held hostage in a hospital in the capital Quito for 12 hours before being rescued by the military. The Center for Economic and Policy Research immediately released a statement calling on the Obama administration to denounce any coup attempt. As of Friday morning there is still chaos being reported in Ecuador but any possible coup attempt has been thwarted.

GUEST: Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, he is a columnist for the Guardian Newspaper in London, and for Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, and Board president of Just Foreign Policy

Find out more about Mark Weisbrot’s work at www.cepr.net.

Gaza Mom Breaks Down Israel/Palestine Talks

Violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces have become increasingly frequent, providing a tense backdrop to Israeli/ Palestinian negotiations in the US. While addressing the United Nations President Obama last week made a public plea for both sides to remain at the table, while encouraging, though not demanding, that Israel extend its moratorium on settlement building. A 10 month freeze ended last Sunday, although the AP reported that under the moratorium, settlement building only declined by 10%. Just eight hours after the freeze ended, building resumed in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. In a statement released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office the PM said “I hope that President Abbas will remain in the talks and continue with me on the path of peace which we started three weeks ago, after many in the world have now realized that my intentions of reaching peace are serious and sincere and that I honor my commitments.” In related news the UN Human Rights Council released its report on the actions of the Israeli military this past May when it stormed an aid flotilla bound for Gaza, killing nine activists. The strongly worded report found that Israel broke international law, and described the IDF’s actions as “not only disproportionate to the occasion but [demonstrating] levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence.” The report added that “[t]he circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extralegal, arbitrary, and summary execution.” Meanwhile, Israel recently seized another aid ship bound for Gaza carrying 8 Jewish activists and 2 journalists. The activists report being treated violently, tasered, and almost strip searched. However, no one was killed. The ship was diverted to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

GUEST: Laila El-Haddad, A Palestinian freelance journalist currenlty based in Maryland, author of the blog Gaza Mom, and author of the book being released next month, Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything In Between.

Read Laila El Haddad’s blog at www.gazamom.com.

Jamie Court on The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell – Part 1

Progressives and liberals are gathering en masse at the nation’s capital this weekend for what is being called the One Nation march for jobs, justice, and quality education. The march is ostensibly a response to Glenn Beck’s August rally in Washington DC but has not garnered nearly as much main stream media interest. Nearly two years into the Presidency of Barack Obama, collective American anger at unemployment, bank bailouts, and the generally poor state of the economy, has translated into populist organizing – but most visibly on the right. The Tea Party movement, for a variety of reasons, has captured enough power from establishment partisan politics, that it has managed to win nominations for Congressional seats. But whither the left? Are most progressive organizations so eager to have a seat at the table of a president they helped elect that they are willing to be complicit in his compromises rather than hold him accountable? Long time organizer and President of Consumer Watchdog, Jamie Court, has a simple message for progressives: it’s time to start raising hell. His new book is called The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell: How to Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws, and Get the Change We Voted For. Calling it a “Direct Democracy Toolkit,” Court shares stories of many successful campaigns he has been involved in to illustrate winning strategies for progressives. The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell includes Ten Rules of Populist Power, how to be an effective online activist, and a Guide to using Ballot measures to make gains. Film maker Robert Greenwald calls the book “Tough, smart, strategic. Read it and take action. NOW.” Today we present to you Part 1 of our interview with Jamie Court. Next week, we’ll feature the second part.

GUEST: Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog, and author of The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell: How to Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws, and Get the Change We Voted For.

Find out more at www.raisinghellguide.com.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal.” — Richard Stallman