Democracy

Democratic Unions Get the Goods

June 2, 2021 Alex N. Press, Jacobin Magazine. Create! Democracy, Labor Unions, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

A new report coauthored by labor analyst Jane McAlevey presents overwhelming evidence that democratic unionism that puts workers at the center of collective bargaining wins strong contracts. Just as important, such unionism also has a transformational effect on workers’ consciousness.

Why One State in India Is Showing Promising Signs of Democracy

May 22, 2021 Vijay Prashad and Subin Dennis, Toward Freedom Create! Class Struggle, Democracy, India

The right wing in Kerala has typically claimed that the Left is not equipped to build the state’s infrastructure. But this time, the right wing had no grounds to make its typical complaints. Since 2016, the state government has not only improved the basic transportation infrastructure but has also built up other kinds of infrastructure needed by the working class and the peasantry.

Alliance Of Democracies Summit

May 18, 2021 Alan Macleod, MintPress News. Educate! Capitalism, Democracy, Global elites, Media

Copenhagen, Denmark — The United States is the nation that most threatens democracy worldwide, far more than Russia or even China. That is the headline finding from a new worldwide poll of 53 countries commissioned by the Alliance of Democracies (AoD). The poll also found that the global public considers rising inequality and the increased power of the super rich to be the greatest threat to liberty and democracy. This was likely not the response the Alliance of Democracies wished to hear as it opened its third annual Democracy Summit in Copenhagen this week — precisely because the organization represents the U.S. government and the wealthy elite more generally. Featuring an all-star panel of American officials, Western heads of state and military leaders, this year’s summit was somber in tone and focused on the “urgent need” for Western nations to unite and come up with a “transatlantic response” to counter both Russia and China.

How The United States Stole Democracy In Ecuador

April 27, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, US Regime Change

The second and final round of the presidential election took place in Ecuador on April 11. Clearing the FOG speaks with Leonardo Flores, the Latin American campaign coordinator for CODEPINK who served as an official election observer, about that election and the many ways the United States and the corporate media worked to prevent the election of the popular leftist candidate, Andres Arauz. The election of a banker, Guillermo Lasso, means the neoliberal assault on the people will continue. Flores speaks about the resistance in Ecuador and the general state of the Pink Tide in South America.

Vietnam Veterans Descended On The Capitol 50 Years Ago This Week

April 21, 2021 Chris Lombardi, Waging Nonviolence. Educate! Capitol, Democracy, Veterans, Vietnam

On Sunday, CBS News’ “60 Minutes” profiled the Oath Keepers, a white-supremacist veterans’ group founded when President Barack Obama assumed office. The program traced the group’s history from its 2009 formation to its armed support of Cliven Bundy in 2014 to its open plotting of sedition in December 2020. Then CBS showed some cell-phone footage of the 40 members of the group on Jan. 6, 2021, as they breached the U.S. Capitol in perfect military formation. That insurrection’s aftereffects are still being felt, with 400 participants having been arrested by the Justice Department. Now, as indictments loom, at least one Oath Keeper is openly cooperating with the Department of Justice, and the country’s two political parties are broadcasting dueling narratives about Jan. 6.

On Contact: Securing Democracy With Glenn Greenwald

April 18, 2021 Chris Hedges, RT. Resistance Report Brazil, Chris Hedges, Corruption, Democracy

On the show this week, Chris Hedges talks to the US journalist Glenn Greenwald about how his reporting exposed the corruption that is rife among Brazil’s political, judicial, and economic elite. Greenwald was able to show, through a trove of documents, how President Jair Bolsonaro and his crypto-fascist party manipulated the legal system with the connivance of federal anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, and were able to discredit and eliminate Bolsonaro’s political rival, former two-term president Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva, the leader of the Workers’ Party. These revelations, dubbed the Secret Brazil Archive, which were published just after Bolsonaro’s inauguration in 2019, have led to repeated death threats against Greenwald and his family, and the prospect of criminal investigation and prosecution. His new book is ‘Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro’s Brazil’.

Financial Press Fears Brazilians Will Elect President Of Their Choice

March 20, 2021 Alan Macleod, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Educate! Brazil, Democracy, Elections, Lula da Silva, US Imperialism

The Brazilian Supreme Court this month dismissed all charges against former President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva. A towering figure in national politics, Lula was the country’s president for eight years between 2003 and 2011. He was later convicted on highly dubious corruption charges and spent 18 months in prison, where his plight drew worldwide attention, making him, in the estimation of Noam Chomsky, the “world’s most prominent political prisoner.” Lula’s incarceration directly led to far-right authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro coming to power, as Lula, the overwhelming favorite in the polls, was barred from running against him. Sergio Moro, the judge who imprisoned Lula—and secretly worked with the prosecution to convict him—became President Bolsonaro’s justice minister.

H.R. 1 Has Poison Pill To Kill Minor Party Competition

March 11, 2021 Mike Feinstein, Maryland Matters. Educate! Congress, Democracy, Elections, Third Party Politics

With much fanfare among voting rights, electoral reform and good government advocates, H.R. 1 — the For the People Act — has passed the House and is now on the way to the Senate. Authored by Maryland’s own John Sarbanes (D-3rd), H.R. 1 is an omnibus electoral reform bill allegedly intended to strengthen voting rights, enhance campaign finance reform, and address government ethics and corruption in politics. Together with H.R. 4 — the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — H.R. 1 is a pillar of the Democrats’ response to our country’s democracy crisis. But democracy for whom? H.R. 1 contains a poison pill designed to reduce political competition and voter choice by weakening minor parties, at exactly a time where, according to a recent Gallup poll, support for a third party is at an all-time high.

National Weekend Of Action: US Out Of Haiti

March 9, 2021 Popular Resistance. Resist! Democracy, Haiti, Joe Bide, US Imperialism

March 29 is the anniversary of the 1987 Haitian Constitution written after the 1986 overthrow of the brutal Jean-Claude Duvalier dictatorship. The 1987 Constitution was designed to create "a socially just, economically free, and politically independent Haitian nation." Those ideals are again in crisis. The US-backed de facto president of Haiti Jovenel Moïse is refusing to leave office even though his term ended on February 7. Moïse and his Western allies - the US, Canada, Brazil, France, Spain and the European Union - are trying to push through a new constitution that takes power away from the people The Haitian people have been bravely holding mass demonstrations, especially on Sundays, for months calling for Moïse to step down so they can appoint an interim leader and hold an election. The state response to their demonstrations has been violent repression.

Coup Leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi Betrayed Democracy In Burma

March 3, 2021 Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch. Educate! Burma, coup, Democracy, Western imperialism

What is taking place in Burma right now is a military coup. There can be no other description for such an unwarranted action as the dismissal of the government by military decree and the imposition of Min Aung Hlaing, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, as an unelected ruler. However, despite the endless talk about democratization, Burma was, in the years leading up to the coup, far from being a true democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the country’s erstwhile ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has done very little to bring about meaningful change since she was designated State Counselor. Since her return to Rangoon in 1989 and placement under house arrest for many years, Suu Kyi was transformed from an activist making the case for democracy in her country, into a ‘democracy icon’ and, eventually, into an untouchable cult personality.

How The Third Way Turned Its Back On Democracy

March 3, 2021 Stephanie Mudge, Tribune Magazine. Educate! Democracy, Democrats, Neoliberalism, Third Way

The problem of democratic representation has always turned on the question of the ‘have-nots’ — that is, not only those without wealth and property, but also those marginalised on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, origin, religion, and education. Even in a world of fully-fledged democratic rights, the democratic game tends to break in favour of the ‘haves’. They enjoy an easy affinity with political elites who are not so different from them, and they experience democratic politics as a hospitable and responsive place. When in doubt, they can back-channel, mobilise proxies and networks, and exchange cultural influence and economic power for political voice, cloaked in the comfort that what’s in their interest is in everyone’s interest. None of this means the powerful always get their way. But it means they operate on the assumption that their way is likely to prevail.

Red Lines: Vijay Prashad Explains Myanmar Coup

February 23, 2021 Anya Parampil, The Grayzone. Resistance Report Democracy, Military coup, Myanmar, US Imperialism

Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Vijay Prashad, historian and Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter, about the military's recent takeover in Myanmar. "The first thing that people should know is that Aung San was the state councilor based on an agreement made between the military in Myanmar, the opposition movements that had been built after the Great Saffron Revolution, the protest movement of people who were young at that time - now 13, 14 years ago. It was an agreement also which included western capitals, including the United States of America, the Obama administration played a role in it later, but it was there, which enabled Aung San to become the state councilor based on a constitution which the military the military had written, the 2008 Constitution. That constitution is an odd one."

Ecuador Elections: Arauz And Lasso Advance To Second Round

February 20, 2021 Telesur English. Educate! Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, US Regime Change

Ecuador's National Electoral Council (CNE) confirmed on Friday that Creating Opportunities' (CREO) candidate Guillermo Lasso would face the first-round winner Andres Arauz on the second round of the presidential elections on April 11. With 100 percent of the ballot records processed, the electoral body reported that the Union for Hope (UNES) Andres Arauz won with 32.72 percent of the votes while Lasso received 19.74 percent. This after the preliminary results were challenged by Pachacutik candidate Yaku Pérez, alleging fraud. Pérez ended third. However, the CNE authorities said that some packages from abroad with assembly members' votes still have to be counted. Hence, the ultimate announcement will take place over the weekend.

Will Andrés Arauz Be The Next President Of Ecuador?

February 18, 2021 Vijay Prashad and Pilar Troya Fernández, Peoples Dispatch. Educate! Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, Regime Change

In Ecuador’s presidential election held on February 7, 2021, Andrés Arauz won the largest number of votes but could not prevail in the first round against 15 other candidates; he won 32.71 percent of the vote, short of the 40 percent needed to win the election outright (a winner also requires a 10 percent lead over the second-place candidate, which Arauz did achieve). More than a week after that first round, it remains unclear which of the two candidates who most closely trailed Arauz will go head-to-head against him in the second round on April 11. Both of these candidates—Guillermo Lasso and Yaku Pérez—each won around 19 percent of the vote and await a recount to verify who will face Arauz.

Understanding The Complicated Politics And Geopolitics Of The Coup In Myanmar

February 11, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Pressenza. Educate! China, coup, Democracy, Myanmar

On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military—known as the Tatmadaw—invoked Article 417 of the 2008 constitution, dismissed State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, and arrested her and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Condemnation of the coup was swift, although there would be reason for hesitancy in the reaction: Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been the face of the democracy movement until her release from house arrest in 2010, ruined her reputation when she came to the International Court of Justice in 2019 to defend her country’s genocide against the Rohingya people. No longer is Aung San Suu Kyi the unalloyed symbol of democracy and human rights.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources