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This week on Uprising —

* Dissecting the “Peace Deal” on Darfur: a round-table discussion featuring a member of the Sudanese rebel group, JEM.
* The Forgotten Genocide in Uganda: we’ll speak with the former UN Under Secretary General, Olara A. Otunnu
* Activism Focus: Grupo Alavio – a direct action and video collective based in Buenos Aires, Argentina
* Plus the Black Commentator on Darfur and Bush, and Empire Notes on Energy, Democracy, and Dick Cheney.

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Dissecting the Darfur Peace Deal

GUESTS: Jen Marlowe, Co-Director and Co-Producer of the film, Darfur Diaries, Amna El Hag, Fellow at the Population Leadership Program at University of Washington and former UNICEF youth and adolescent coordinator in Sudan, Tajadeen Niam, representative of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)

After months of on-going negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria, the biggest faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, has signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government over the on-going government-led genocide in Darfur. A rival SLA faction, and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), refused to sign the deal. The US has played a key role in the peace deal and President Bush has promised to expedite food aid to the impoverished refugee camps where thousands of Darfur residents have languished. To date, at least 180,000 civilians have been killed in the conflict.

The peace deal calls for a cease-fire; disarmament of the government-backed Janjaweed militias; the integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan’s armed forces; and a protection force for civilians in the immediate aftermath of the war. Political provisions include guarantees that the rebel factions will have the majority in Darfur’s three state legislatures, but the rebel groups did not get the national vice presidency they wanted. The deal has opened the door for UN peace keepers to supplement the existing African Union peace keepers but the Sudan government has consistently refused the UN. Meanwhile demonstrators demanding international troops, killed a Sudanese interpreter working with African Union forces in Darfur on May 8th during a senior UN official’s visit to a refugee camp.

Black Commentator on Bush and Darfur

Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is about Bush on Darfur.

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

Uganda: The Forgotten Genocide

GUEST: Olara A. Otunnu, President of LBL Foundation for Children, former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is being sworn in as president for the third term after he scrapped presidential term limits. Museveni secured 59 percent of the vote on February 23. The Supreme Court legalised his victory on April 6 after ruling against a petition filed by Museveni’s main challenger, Dr Kizza Besigye – who had secured 37 percent of the votes. South African president Thabo Mbeki has called Museveni’s election “a true reflection of the democratic will of the people of Uganda.” Uganda’s presidential election this year was held against the background that multiparty politics was restored, with a referendum held last July, after it had been banned for more than 20 years in the east African country. Meanwhile, the World Bank has slashed Uganda’s external debt by almost 90 percent. It’s part of an initiative by the G-8 organisation of the world’s wealthiest nations to ease the financial burden faced by the world’s poorest nations. In the context of the political and economic events, the 20 year war in Uganda continues. It’s a war in which more than 30,000 children have been abducted, held in captivity and forced to fight in the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Empire Notes on Energy, Democracy, and Dick Cheney

GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is on Energy, Democracy, and Dick Cheney.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Activism Focus: Grupo Alavio, a Direct Action and Video Collective

GUEST: Marie Trigona, member of Grupo Alavio, a Direct Action and Video Collective, correspondent for Free Speech Radio News, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

We end the show with a look at a model for activism through the use of video. Grupo Alavio is a small collective of working class activists based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They engage in creating videos and taking direct action. The group has been producing audio-visual material since the early 90s – in their own words – “to create a new working class subjectivity.” Alavio uses the camera “as a political organ and as a tool, which the protagonists in the films appropriate and use to organize.” Their documentaries often premier in factories occupied by workers, or the spaces where workers are organizing a wild cat strike or land squat, or in barrios in the city. Marie Trigona is a member of Grupo Alavio, a “Direct Action and Video collective.” She is also a correspondent for Free Speech Radio News. Marie is currently visiting the United States. She began by describing her collective, Grupo Alavio.

Contact Grupo Alavio at alaviocine@yahoo.com.ar.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness—and our ability to tell our own stories.” — Arundhati Roy