Since today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (please see my previous post, “Democracy, East Germany and the Berlin Wall” by Stephen Gowans), lets take a closer look at bourgeois democracy, since it is supposedly so fabulous according to the self-congratulatory imperialist media:
That would all be funny if this farce weren’t backed by force:
“Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for the poor.” – V. I. Lenin, Bourgeois and Proletarian Democracy
This video is from the 9/12/09 “Tea Party” in DC, against basic reforms (particularly health care reform) and for basically everything reactionary and backwards imaginable.
“Fascism will never come to America as fascism. It will come as 100 percent Americanism.” – Huey Long
Dangerous hatred in the US?
By Rob Reynolds, senior Washington correspondent
Michelle Bachmann, the US Republican Representative for Minnesota, tells a radio interviewer she believes Barack Obama, the US president, plans to set up mandatory “re-education camps” to indoctrinate young Americans.
Glenn Beck, a television personality working at the Fox news network, says on the air that Obama is a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people”.
Comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler, an Iowa man named Tom Eisenhower speaks up at a town hall meeting held by Republican Senator Charles Grassley, and says “The president of the United States, that’s who you should be concerned about.”
“I’d take a gun to Washington if enough of you would go with me.”
Retired FBI agent Ted Gunderson, a prolific writer and speaker about conspiracy theories involving devilish sex cults and the Illuminati, tells a gathering of right-wing “Patriots” in Florida that the federal government has set up 10,000 internment camps across the country and is storing thousands of guillotines for mass executions.
Mel Sanger, a self-described “political researcher”, offers visitors to his website a $24.97-report full of “cutting edge evidence” that Obama is the biblical Antichrist.
Tens of thousands of right-wing demonstrators march on the US Capitol waving signs reading “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy” and calling Obama a “bloodsucking Muslim alien”.
Steven Anderson, the pastor of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona, preached a sermon last month entitled “Why I hate Barack Obama”, in which he declared, “I’m going to pray he dies and goes to hell”.
El Salvador's new Vice President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, with former CISPES Executive Director Cherrene Horazuk and solidarity activist and Fight Back! reporter, Brad Sigal
FMLN Takes Power in El Salvador
By Brad Sigal
San Salvador, El Salvador – In an historic day here, June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of El Salvador. Funes and Sanchez Ceren are members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a leftist political party which was formerly a guerrilla movement that fought against the U.S.-backed right wing dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980s. Funes and Sanchez Ceren won election on March 15, marking the first time there will be a leftist government in El Salvador’s history.
Hugo Chavez wins, Venezuelan people chalk up victory
By Erik Sperling
Venezuelan socialists netted another electoral victory, Feb. 15, winning a popular referendum on constitutional changes. The changes will remove the two-term limit on elected office.
Minnesota People’s Bailout Act introduced in legislature
By staff
St. Paul, MN – The Minnesota People’s Bailout legislation was introduced in the Minnesota State Senate and House, Feb. 9. Authored by Senator David J. Tomassoni (D-Chisholm), and Representative David Bly (D-Northfield) the Minnesota People’s Bailout Act is a legislative attempt to protect the interests of low-income and working Minnesotans from the worst effects of the deepening economic crisis in Minnesota and the nation.
The following two statements by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization sum up the protest in St. Paul, Minnesota of the Republican National Convention in 2008.
Anti-war protests at the RNC send message to the world
The tens of thousands of RNC protesters who hit the streets of Saint Paul Sept. 1 – 4 did something that was truly great. The demonstrations sent a powerful message that was heard around the world: The people of the United States reject the war on Iraq and the Republican agenda. We insist on peace, justice and equality. This message was heard by the rich and powerful, who responded with repression. And it was heard by hundreds of millions of people. Reports of the protests were carried by thousands of media outlets ranging from network TV in the U.S. to Al Jazeera to the New China News Agency. The Sept. 1 rally against the war was carried live on C-SPAN.
The demonstrations that took place on the first and last days of the RNC were of particular importance. The size, scope, militancy and the political clarity – crystallized in the slogan “U.S. out of Iraq now” – helped to create the political context for the entire week of actions against the RNC.
Lessons From the RNC: Mass Mobilization and Militant Actions Advance the Struggle
The Republican National Convention brought many of the biggest war-makers to Minnesota. The people’s movements from across the U.S. responded by organizing four days of demonstrations against the RNC. Freedom Road Socialist Organization prioritized organizing against the RNC and helped build multiple days of protest including the mass anti-war march of 30-35,000 people on September 1st and the “No Peace for the Warmakers” militant march turned civil disobedience on September 4th.
We saw the RNC as a chance to unite the anti war movement under the slogan “U.S. out of Iraq Now” and to build a broad united front against the Republican agenda. By any standard the powerful protests that rocked St. Paul were a blow against the rulers of this county.
For progressive and revolutionary organizations the RNC served as a sort of test. Many, from a variety of political trends – ranging from Marxist-Leninists to anarchists – passed this test with banners raised and flying colors. They stepped up to the plate, organizing a historic response to the Republican agenda of war, racism, and reaction.
Alert: 10 days Until First Round of Salvadoran Elections – Take Action to Oppose Dirty Campaign!
Thursday, 08 January 2009
US State Department must respond to false statements threatening immigrants
On the eve of the first round of El Salvador’s most contested elections since the 1992 Peace Accords, a right-wing campaign of dirty propaganda, media misinformation, provocation and violence continues to escalate. Beginning in late October and continuing to this day, Fuerza Solidaria—a right-wing organization founded in Venezuela—has flooded the Salvadoran airwaves and streets with a series of advertisements attempting to frighten Salvadoran voters with threats of U.S. retaliation. The ads state that an FMLN victory would mean the end to good relations with the U.S. government and thus the end to remittances sent home from Salvadorans living in the U.S. They also claim that an FMLN victory would threaten the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) which allows over 200,000 Salvadorans to remain in the U.S. These absurd threats are similar to the ones made back in 2004 by members of the U.S. Congress, together with the governing ARENA party; such threats turned a close election into a decisive victory for the right-wing party. In the face of Fuerza Solidaria’s blatant misrepresentation of the ramifications of an FMLN victory, the U.S. State Department—which has privately pledged neutrality in El Salvador’s electoral process—has remained silent rather than refute these claims.
Here are some interesting maps that show a fascinating correlation between the historically constituted territory that makes up the African American Nation and the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States. I would like to look at these maps, and based on this data, and on a dialectical and historical materialist look at the U.S. in general and the African American people in particular, try to draw some conclusions about the African American national question.
Lessons From the RNC:
Mass Mobilization and Militant Actions Advance the Struggle
by Freedom Road Socialist Organization
The Republican National Convention brought many of the biggest war-makers to Minnesota. The people’s movements from across the U.S. responded by organizing four days of demonstrations against the RNC. Freedom Road Socialist Organization prioritized organizing against the RNC and helped build multiple days of protest including the mass anti-war march of 30-35,000 people on September 1st and the “No Peace for the Warmakers” militant march turned civil disobedience on September 4th.
The following statement is from the Stop the War! Stop McCain! working group of Students for a Democratic Society:
An historic victory has been won through struggle. Millions of people, from all sectors of society, organized and mobilized to defeat McCain and elect Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States. The message from the masses is clear: a rejection of the war on Iraq, a repudiation of Bush’s domestic and foreign policy, and a resounding ‘no’ to the Republican agenda and the right wing. The result is a powerful blow to racism and white supremacy, and an inspiration to oppressed nationalities and youth in this country.
Fil-Ams celebrate historic Obama victory, hope for the undoing of 8 years of the Bush regime
Contact: Berna Ellorin
Secretary-General, BAYAN USA
secgen@bayanusa.org
The US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, an alliance of 12 Filipino organizations across the US, joins the rest of the American people and beyond in celebrating the historical significance of having the first Black president elected into the executive office of the White House. It is overwhelming and appropriate that many in major cities across the US, people, especially African-Americans, took to the streets last night, many with pots and pans for noisemakers, upon the confirmation that Illinois Senator Barack Obama would become the 44th President of the United States, and had defeated his opponent, Arizona Senator John McCain. It is also appropriate at this time to celebrate the deep potential the new administration has for undoing 8 years of failed and flawed foreign and domestic policies under the Bush administration. BAYAN USA joins the billions around the world in urging the President-elect in heeding the voices of the people in the types of change we need in the USA and around the world, particularly in the Philippines.
Who won the election? Among radicals and especially Marxists, the punch line of the joke has always been, “the bourgeoisie”. And that’s true. But we also won this one. We defeated McCain/Palin and the ultra-right and we are on the way to moving forward with the people’s struggles under new conditions. We also elected the first African American president in the history of this white-supremacist country. This is something to celebrate.
(Will I. Am’s song, “Yes We Can”)
The ultra-right has amazingly made socialism an issue this time around. Now we all know that Obama will be the Commander and Chief of the Empire. He’s an imperialist, not a socialist. We know that the struggle for socialism will be a struggle against the Democratic Party as much the Republicans. But tonight I want to celebrate the victory. Let the fight begin anew tomorrow, under new, and I would say more favorable, conditions.
If my estimates should be erroneous, all kinds of racism prevail and the Republican candidate obtains the presidency, the danger of war would grow and the opportunities of the peoples to advance would be reduced.
So here’s a wrap up of my most significant posts here on the election:
Americans are celebrating the defeat of warmonger and angry rich guy John McCain. The voters wanted change – an end to war, lies and corruption. Many correctly saw McCain as the continuation of Bush’s failed policies, so they punished him in the voting booths. To be sure, McCain’s pathetic response to the economic crisis and defense of tax breaks for the rich sealed his defeat. Working and middle class voters are angry about the economy, opposed to the $700 billion bailout and looking for a leader who will “spread the wealth.”
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