EDITORIAL

IN EARLY 2011, democracy movements in Tunisia and Egypt began to take shape. And soon, millions turned out, occupying streets and squares. In the end, they forced the government in both countries to step down. Two heads of government, Ben Ali and Mubarak, resigned. The first fled. The second is now facing charges brought against him, in court. The people in Tunisia and Egypt is no longer willing to accept fake elections, to endorse parties that did not represent them and to bow to the power of rulers who tried to sell a fake democracy as the real thing.

In May 2011, the Egyptian example inspired hundreds of thousands of mostly young people to occupy the streets and squares of dozens of Spanish cities. It is the beginning of a courageous democracy movement, not only in Spain, but in Greece as well. And it immediately kindled hope of change in France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland  and elsewhere.

There is so much awareness that things are unjust. The majority – those who are the people, common folks, not billionaires –  has long ceased to believe that things are fair: that the economic game is to the advantage of “all of us.” And they distrust politicians in power; they do not believe any of their promises. More and more people think that something is awfully wrong. Not only with the economy. Not only with the global climate. But with “our” democracy, as well. Which the “elites” have stolen and occupied: pushing us out, turning us into spectators who watch their political game. And into tax-payers. Yes, in a society that relies on money, taxes are the price of a civilized society. But why are we, the people, the common folk, paying the bulk of all indirect and direct taxes? Why is big busines paying so little even though the fortunes of the uppermost 1 percent are bigger than ever?

A LOT’S GOT TO CHANGE. We all feel this. Some know it for sure. Some are hesitant because they don’t know how. If we feel the need for change, clarity is necessary. To attain clarity, we need debate. With our neighbors, our work-mates, our colleagues. With our friends and the family at home. After all, in a dictatorship, someone up there may try to dictate the answer to problems. If we believe we have the right to be heard and the right to decide, in a republic, in a democracy, it’s up to us to find answers to the things that we feel are wrong. Together. That’s how Jeffersonian democracy was meant to work. That’s what Tom Paine would have said. THAT’S AT THE ROOT OF DEMOCRACY: the “res publica”, the public affairs are what we should decide. Not the experts. Not the billionaires. Or the lobbyists. Or a small crew of influential politicians.

In September 2011. a democracy movement took off in the United States. Perhaps it was heralded by the protests in Wisconsin. But it is not about a specific pay issue or a specific job issue. It is about the economy as such. About the big thing:  our socio-economic rights. The right to have a job. The right not to receive lousy pay you can’t exist on. The right not to be cheated by the super-rich and the big corporations, de-facto tax-dodgers because they used politicians to obtain a privilege: the privilege not to pay their fair share of taxes. We all know they got their banks and their fortunes protected from loss, by a government that used our tax dollars to shield them.

Obviously, the way politicians and big business and the super-rich interact is something most of us have been aware of for years. Is it true that we cannot do anything about it? O come on, folks, if this is a democracy, we can. And if the democratic system is deficient, we, the people, the true democratic sovereign, can change it. YES, WE CAN. Whether we are Democrats or Republicans or independents, Greens, or Leftists, Catholics or Protestants or Muslims, Buddhists, Confucians, or whatever. Yes, we can. We can come together, as civilized citizens, not so angry any more, but sane and determined to work out together how America’s got to change. If things are to be fair. So that our democracy will be our’s, again, and not a fiefdom and playing field of the few.
 

WE HAVE SEEN THE YOUNG, and a few middle-aged and older Americans take to the street in September. Isn’t their critique of the banks and hedgefunds justified? Isn’t their critique of the way the political game is played, justified?

This movement which is called OCCUPY WALL STREET reached a first, astonishing, though still modest climax in the U.S. in mid-October. A surprising number of people turned out in many American cities. According to independently verified sources, there were between 250 an 300 in Ashland, OR, about 50 in Billings MT,  200 in Bloomington, 500 in Boulder, 2,000 in Chicago,  5,000  in Los Angeles, 1,000 in Miami, 2,000 in Phoenix, 5,000 in Washington, D.C., the Guardian  reported.  And of course, New York was again in the headlines. Obviously what happened was a decentralized, spontaneous upsurge of people who longed to take action and who needed no leaders. 

Many similar protests took place around the world.  In Calgary, there were up to 400, in Montréal about 3,000,  in Sydney 2,000,  in Seoul 600,  in Tokyo 300. While in Lima, about 500 took to the streets, an astonishing number turned out in Santiago de Chile, about 200, 000, according to the Guardian. 

In Europe, the mobilization was considerable in Southern European countries which have a tradition of popular revolt as well as strong unions, and  which suffer enormously at present due to the economic downturn triggered by the U.S. subprime crisis. In Rome, 200,000 expressed their discontent with the bankers and demanded democratic change. In Barcelona, 350,000 turned out, in Madrid 500,000, in Valencia 100,000, in Zaragoza 40,000. The fact that the Democracia real, ya! movement had been so active since May 15 contributed a lot to this result. 

In Lisbon and Oporto, a combined 40,000 took to the streets - the same total was asserted for all the demonstrations in Germany where the biggest gatherings were in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Bochum and Cologne. In London, Paris and Lyon, in Brussels, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, just as in Budapest and Zagreb and Split, considerable numbers turned out as well. In Athens (Greece), the protest movement showed a strength on Oct. 15 that is comparable to that in Italy and Spain. And four days later, in the context of the general strike, more than 200,000 people took again to the streets. 

These facts and figures tell us one thing: People in many countries reject the unacceptable political influence and economic power of the banks, the financial markets, the multinational corporations. People reject the degree to which governments all over the world pander to them.

SEEING THE YOUNG ON BROOKLYN BRIDGE, many of us feel sadness and distress because the police is ceasing so apparently to be a servant of the people, a protector, a defender of democratic rights.
Are many of them distressed, too, because of what they were ordered to do? Or are they ready to become willing helpers of those who restrict democracy? In Nuremberg, Hitler’s willing helpers once were told that we must not obey unjust orders. That he who obeys them is just as guilty as his superior.

Let us all pay attention that America is not being turned into a police state. That the world is not being turned into a prison camp.

WE, THE PEOPLE, who have not started to move yet, as the Egyptians and the Tunisians had the courage to do, may well ask ourselves, “where do we stand?” “WHAT CAN WE DO?” “Which is the best way to act?”

Seeing the young protesters in New York, in Chicago, in Washington, the question arises, “Will they who profess to be, or to speak in the name of  the 99 per cent, manage to take the majority along?”

Will even working class and lower middle class Tea Partiers be able to go along?

For we all sense that many of their basic grievances are not so different from those felt by the young OCCUPY WALL STREET kids.

A possible suggestion to the brothers and sisters who occupy Wall Street is: be patient, even with Tea Partiers. Be kind. Accept, honestly, that people in the U.S. – and in the world – have many different values.

Concentrate on the essential:

- THE UNABILITY OF ALL OF US TO STILL TRUST MAINSTREAM POLITICIANS. 

- THE LACK OF REAL DEMOCRACY, in a system that let’s us vote but disregards our wishes, grievances, needs.

- THE SOCIAL DIVIDE that separates the politically and economically powerful from the rest of us.

Perhaps it will become clear to the fair, sober, average citizen that no movement of a few thousand or even a few hundred thousand young and enthusiastic folks can speak for all of us, and provide all the answers to the problems we face. They who are committed to change GIVE AN EXAMPLE. An example of what we should be doing. WE SHOULD GET INVOLVED: AND THERE ARE MORE WAYS THAN CAMPING IN A DOWNTOWN PARK AND CHANTING SLOGANS IN THE STREETS IF WE ARE GOING TO BE INVOLVED.

WE CAN SET UP NEIGHBORHOOD COMMITTEES for instance.
WE CAN PREPARE THE CONVOCATION OF TOWN MEETINGS.
WE HAVE MANY WAYS TO TAKE UP THE CLUE the youngsters have been giving us.

WHAT DO WE WANT TO CHANGE?

LET’S GET THIS CLEAR.

THE ENTIRE AMERICAN PEOPLE WILL DECIDE WHAT THEY WANT: AND IF THEY DEBATE IT, IF THEY FREE THEMSELVES OF THE UNDUE INFLUENCE OF THE PRIVILEGED FEW, well,
it seems that the people indeed can bring about change.

Our many ideas, the proposals of every one of us count.
Our grievances should be heard in our midst, and should be discussed.
And this with the honest intention of finding a fair solution, a rational remedy.

There is no perfect democracy perhaps.

But this one we experience today, which sees the billionaires and millionaires and those they finance run for office so often, deserves to be improved. 

So that common people will have a voice again that matters. Rather than being wooed as a voter but forgotten after the election is over.

A GOOD SOCIETY, a good world, a peaceful planet, a protected ecology, the right to live decently, instead of in poverty – these are no unattainable, utopian goals.

It’s really up to us to improve things.
TO BRING ABOUT A WORLD WHERE JUSTICE, FREEDOM,
SISTERHOOD, BROTHERHOOD ARE NO EMPTY WORDS.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Check...:http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/17/democracy_uprising_in_the_usa_noam
 

Check: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/17/democracy_uprising_in_the_usa_noam