In a recent interview, Gerardo Cerdas of “City of the Excluded,” a Latin American and Caribbean-wide social movement, stated that activists need to expand their vision to a global perspective because around the world, we all face common problems and the solutions cannot be restricted to one or a few countries. We see evidence that global collaboration is growing and that people are taking bolder steps to stop abuses and create new systems.
The basis for the new systems is real democracy – meaning a participatory democracy in which people make decisions about all facets of society in a collective and egalitarian process. As Jerome Roos writes in his review of the new book by Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzelini They Can’t Represent Us: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy, today “hundreds of ‘laboratories for democracy’ are emerging around the world, creating space for ordinary citizens to experiment with alternative forms of social organization, democratic decision-making processes and non-hierarchical ways of relating.”
New Democratic Entities
In many places democratic movements are born from suffering in the hands of neoliberal economic policies. After the financial collapse in Argentina closed factories and destroyed towns, the residents took over the factories and ran them as worker-owned cooperatives. Their story is chronicled in the new documentary by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, The Take. In the United States, a new economy movement based in cooperatives is also taking off. Hundreds of people from across the nation met in Boston for CommonBound this month to share ideas of what the new economy will look like.
In Spain where there is increasing austerity and poverty, a new type of political party, Podemos, which is based in open participation, is rising quickly. And in the Americas, a new multinational coalition of trade unions representing 50 million workers in 23 countries recently released their platform to create democratized systems that put the commons back in public control for sustainable development. Their goal is a new economic system to replace the widespread neoliberal model.
Neoliberalists Keep Trying to Grab Control
No doubt, neoliberalists are watching democracy movements with concern. They are secretly negotiating a number of trade agreements that would give more control to multinational corporations, inhibit union organizing and promote greater privatization. We’ve written about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TAFTA). Just this week, and on the second anniversary of Julian Assange’s flight to the Ecuadorian Embassy for refuge, Wikileaks released the text of another agreement called the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex that involves 50 countries.
We can add TISA to the list of agreements to protest on the international day of action against TAFTA being held on July 12. This will be a fitting end to the week of action for the Rolling Rebellion for Real Democracy July 5 to 12. We’ll start that week early with an action at the FCC for real net neutrality called “Which Side Are You On, Tom?” on July 1. Join us if you are in the area or organize a solidarity action.
Exposing and Fighting the Neoliberal Agenda
There are many signs that people and communities are recognizing and rejecting neoliberalism. For example, the boycott of Staples is having an impact. Staples is taking on more functions of the postal service and this is seen as another step in dismantling the USPS. In Detroit where water is being shut off to an astounding 150,000 households by a private water company, the residents are taking their struggle to the United Nations.
A campaign against the Coca Cola Company called Stop Killer Coke which started in Colombia has gone global as abuses are discovered in more countries. The campaign states, “When people see Coca-Cola ads, they should think of crimes and misconduct on a worldwide scale so unthinkable that all of Coke’s products become undrinkable!”
A recent decision by the US Supreme Court requiring Argentina to prioritize paying its debts to vulture fund groups is meeting resistance. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner declared that she “will not submit to Wall Street’s “extortion” of their debt.” Economist Bill Black warns that the Court’s decision will cause immense damage to the people of indebted countries.
People understand that corporations and financial institutions have little regard for human life. Recently in Washington, DC, a community rejected efforts by CSX to buy their acceptance of oil bomb trains. Now that oil pipelines are unpopular, oil companies are forced to find other methods of transport and are turning to rails. Steve Horn revealed that the CEOs of rail companies have been working closely with the Obama administration in recent weeks to reduce regulations.
Recognizing the Police-Industrial Complex
As people reject neoliberalism and resist, those in power are responding with repression. They mistakenly believe that national security means more police, weapons and surveillance rather than addressing the causes of suffering that lead to unrest. True national security will result when people have homes, jobs, access to education and a healthy environment.
The Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned about has expanded to create a Police Industrial Complex as well. There is big money to be made in selling gear, vehicles, weapons and surveillance technology to local police and even corporations. One company was given $22 million to equip police in Brazil to suppress protests at the World Cup. A mining company bought drones that can shoot pepper spray and bullets.
Local sheriffs are stockpiling military equipment and calling America a ‘war zone.’ Police use technology to follow tweets and they use license plate readers and facial recognition to spy on people. The use of this technology, which does have an error rate, is leading to unwarranted police stops and trauma to those who are treated as criminals. It is important that we recognize these phenomena and demand that our human and constitutional rights are respected.
People have the Power
There is more that we could cover in this newsletter. This week we have also seen strong push back against further intervention in Iraq from groups like Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War. Kevin Zeese argues that intervention without Congressional and UN approval would be illegal. And there has been a recent series of victories in the Israeli divestment campaign.
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