Democracy

WaPo’s All-White Editorial Board Decides DC Can’t Have Democracy

March 10, 2023 Julie Hollar, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Joe Biden, Washington D.C.

President Joe Biden surprised fellow Democrats when he reversed course and announced he would support a Republican resolution to nullify an overhaul of crime laws passed by the Washington, DC, Council. While Congress has the authority to override DC legislation, it hasn’t done so in more than 30 years, making this move a dangerous new precedent at a time when Republicans are eager to use state power to swat down any progressive advances. Some observers (Slate, 3/3/23; Popular Information, 3/7/23) called out Biden’s hypocrisy. The president’s move comes after he had both endorsed DC statehood and publicly opposed the resolution (2/6/23), arguing that it was a “clear [example] of how the District of Columbia continues to be denied true self-governance and why it deserves statehood.”

AMLO Says Mexico Is More Democratic Than Oligarch-Run USA

March 9, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report AMLO, Democracy, Elections, Mexico

Mexico’s leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) gave a fiery speech condemning the US State Department’s “bad habit” of “meddling” in other country’s “internal affairs”. “There is more democracy today in Mexico than in the United States”, López Obrador said, “because here the people govern, and there the oligarchy govern”. AMLO lamented that politicians in Washington “still will not abandon the two-century-old policy, the Monroe Doctrine, of thinking of themselves as the world’s government”, calling it a “centuries-old habit of the US government and US elites”.

Auto Workers Region 9 Winner On Rebuilding A Fighting Union

March 9, 2023 Luis Feliz Leon, Labor Notes. Organize! Democracy, Elections, Labor Movement, UAW

Reform challenger Shawn Fain appears poised to win the presidency of the United Auto Workers, defeating incumbent Ray Curry for the union’s top leadership spot. With more than 137,000 votes counted, Fain has a lead of 645 votes; the counting of the remaining challenged ballots will resume March 16. If Fain wins, challengers to the ruling caucus will hold not only the presidency but also a majority on the union’s international executive board. UAW Members United ran on a platform of no corruption, no tiers, and no concessions. It’s a watershed after nearly 80 years of the Administration Caucus’s stranglehold on power—defined by corruption scandals, diminished bargaining power, and a multi-tier wage system that wrecked worker solidarity.

Nigeria’s Opposition Candidates To Challenge Presidential Poll Results

March 6, 2023 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. Resist! Democracy, Elections, Nigeria, Voter Suppression

On Friday, March 3, the Court of Appeal in Nigeria’s capital Abuja ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow the presidential candidate of the Labor Party (LP), Peter Obi, access to all poll materials for inspection. Bola Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the presidential election that was held on February 25. The order was passed in response to an appeal filed by Obi on Thursday. Access was also granted to Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had also filed a separate appeal earlier on Wednesday.

Building, Here And Now, The World We Yearn For

February 19, 2023 Cecosesola, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Democracy, Transformation, Venezuela

Cecosesola was established in Barquisimeto, capital of the State of Lara, in the central western region of Venezuela, as a cooperative integration organization on December 17, 1967. It is a meeting place where more than 50 community organizations are active, integrated in a network of production of goods and services that brings together more than 23,000 members from the popular sectors. Through this network, we develop a wide variety of activities such as: agricultural production, small-scale agro-industrial production, funeral services, transportation, health services, financial services, mutual aid funds, distribution of foods and household items.

To Change The World, Our Unions Must Change

February 11, 2023 David Story, Labor Notes. Strategize! Democracy, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Unionism has seen a resurgence in popularity the past few years. The problem is, it’s very difficult to get our members organizing in their communities when they hate the way our leadership (I use that word loosely) is operating. Our unions shouldn’t be, and I’d argue weren’t meant to be, transactional—yet by and large that is what they have grown to be. By transactional I mean: I pay dues, you provide a service, and my duty ends with my dues. Instead, our unions should be conduits for radically changing society and the economy as we know it. Even as conservative as my own union, the Machinists, is, the preamble to our union constitution begins, “Believing that the right of those who toil to enjoy to the full extent the wealth created by their labor is a natural right…” and goes on to say that worker organizations should use “the natural resources, means of production and distribution for the benefit of all the people.”

Co-Creating A Seafood System Vision In The Galápagos Islands

January 30, 2023 Emma D. Paine, Resilience. Organize! Democracy, Fishing, Food and Agriculture, Galápagos Islands

The Galapagos island territory sits off the coast of Ecuador, encompassing the island archipelago, the surrounding waters, a national park and a marine reserve. The area is known for high biodiversity and among the highest levels of endemism on the planet (species that are found nowhere else). The islands and coast are home to a wide array of communities of people involved in the seafood system for decades, a web of social connections either directly or indirectly embedded in the reality of the sea. Facing the shifting and challenging environmental, social, and economic conditions, the community, local organizations, and the Galapagos Governing Council saw the need to understand the sea food system jointly with the community with the aim of later building public policies on food security for this special regime.

It Was The Workers Who Brought Us Democracy

January 27, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Democracy, History, Labor Movement, Working Class

Democracy has a dream-like character. It sweeps into the world, carried forward by an immense desire by humans to overcome the barriers of indignity and social suffering. When confronted by hunger or the death of their children, earlier communities might have reflexively blamed nature or divinity, and indeed those explanations remain with us today. But the ability of human beings to generate massive surpluses through social production, alongside the cruelty of the capitalist class to deny the vast majority of humankind access to that surplus, generates new kinds of ideas and new frustrations. This frustration, spurred by the awareness of plenty amidst a reality of deprivation, is the source of many movements for democracy. Habits of colonial thought mislead many to assume that democracy originated in Europe, either in ancient Greece (which gives us the word ‘democracy’ from demos, ‘the people’, and kratos, ‘rule’) or through the emergence of a rights tradition, from the English Petition of Right in 1628 to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789.

Tens Of Thousands On The Streets Of Peru In National Strike

January 20, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! Democracy, Mass Action, Peru, Solidarity

Tens of thousands of Peruvians from across the country arrived in the capital Lima to take part in a national strike called for today, January 19, to reject the legislative coup against former president Pedro Castillo and demand the immediate resignation of the de-facto president Dina Boluarte. Peasant and Indigenous communities together with members of numerous social organizations and trade unions from all regions of Peru traveled in caravans to reach Lima. The caravans were organized as a part of the second ‘Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos’ or ‘March from the Four Corners’ to bring the voices of the excluded masses of deep Peru to the seat of power. The organizations have called to hold marches from different parts of Lima to the center of the city against the Boluarte government under the banner of ‘Toma de Lima’ or ‘Taking of Lima.’

Learn About The Struggle Of The Last Colony In Africa

January 18, 2023 Michele De Mello, People's Dispatch. Organize! Africa, colonization, Democracy, Western Sahara

In the middle of the Sahara desert, half a million people resist and fight for their liberation. Under the slogan “intensify the armed struggle to expel the invader and build sovereignty,” the Polisario Front, the political organization that leads the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), is holding its 16th Congress in Dajla – one of five Sahrawi refugee camps in the town of Tindouf, Algeria. After 30 years of ceasefire, this is the first Congress to be held again in the context of armed confrontation with Morocco. “All the human, financial, and material resources are sent to support the combat on the armed front. Before they were directed to other areas that will continue, but we must focus on the battlefield,” SADR’s Prime Minister Bucharaya Beyun declared. The Sahrawi Republic was founded in 1975, after gaining its independence from Spain.

Washington’s ‘Democracy Promotion’ Spectacularly Fails In Venezuela

January 8, 2023 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Democracy, Juan Guaido, US Intervention, Venezuela

The Los Angeles Times reports that “the audacious gamble by the U.S. government to…restore democracy” suffered a “spectacular failure” in Venezuela. What this State Department stenographer masquerading as a newspaper considers a “democratic” setback consisted of failing to impose unknown US security asset Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president. This man just got the boot from his own fractious opposition group, which voted 72-29 to disband his “interim government.” The Hill reports that the pretend president still claims the post and retains a “powerful network of support,” although not in his home country. Guaidó’s support comes from outside of Venezuela consisting of the likes of Democratic US Senators Dick Durbin and Bob Menendez along with the Biden State Department plus fellow neo-cons on the other side of the aisle.

How Cities Use Participatory Budgeting To Build Place

December 20, 2022 Nancy Kwak, Next City. Create! Budgets, Cities, Democracy, Participatory budgeting

Cities around the world today are beset with problems of unequal development and spatial inequality. While the details of American suburban sprawl and urban decline might be unique to this country, the broader struggle over deeply unequal, segregated cities and regions is, unfortunately, one experienced around the world. Whether in the spreading rustbelts across shrinking industrial cities or in the mega cities and informal communities of the Global South, inequality is played out at the level of neighborhood and street — and it is visible everywhere. At the root of these struggles over physical spaces and the right to the city are questions of governance that are local yet also global: How should governments, residents, business interests, nonprofit organizations, and others work together in ways that produce more meaningful, just, and prosperous connections between people and places?

Next On The US Supreme Court Chopping Block: Democracy

December 10, 2022 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Educate! Democracy, Elections, Supreme Court, Voting

On December 7, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the case Moore v. Harper, a case which could effectively eliminate the influence of the popular vote in presidential elections. In Moore, a case which the Court, now dominated by a far-right majority, will likely decide before July 2023, it is possible that justices will rule in favor of allowing state legislatures the authority to decide the outcome of presidential elections, regardless of the popular vote. Peoples Dispatch spoke to Brian Becker, founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and part of the PSL’s central committee, about a pamphlet he authored, titled “The Supreme Court vs. Democracy.” In our conversation, Becker outlined what is at stake regarding the future of democracy in the United States.

US Youth Observe Cuba’s Elections And Learn About Real Democracy

December 5, 2022 Calla Walsh, Multipolarista. Educate! Cuba, Democracy, Elections, Youth

Cuba held elections for its organs of local government, the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power, on November 27. A delegation of youth from the United States observed the vote first-hand as part of the US-Cuba Youth Friendship Meeting. Coming from the fundamentally undemocratic US Empire, it was the first time that many participants saw a functional electoral system in which the masses actually participate, and in which the majority truly rules. We observed voting in La Corbata, a neighborhood in La Habana currently undergoing transformation. The polling site was inside a newly constructed cultural-technological center, which also houses arts programs, classes, a computer lab, school graduations, and community events. At first arrival, we were surprised by how efficiently the voting process moved.

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