Democracy

André Arauz Wins First Round Of Ecuadorian Presidential Election

February 8, 2021 People's Dispatch. Educate! Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, US Regime Change

Andrés Arauz of the progressive Union for Hope alliance (UNES) won the first round in the Ecuadorian presidential elections that were held on Sunday, February 7. He obtained 31.74% of the votes, as per the results of the quick count by the national electoral council. It is not fully clear who is in the second place as the results showed a technical tie between Guillermo Lasso of the right-wing Creating Opportunities (CREO) party and Social Christian Party (PSC), and Yaku Pérez of the Indigenous Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement party. Lasso obtained 20.05% of the votes, while Pérez secured 19.85% of the votes.

India’s Farmers’ Protests: ‘This Is History In The Making’

February 6, 2021 Sarang Narasimhaiah and Mukesk Kulriya, ROAR Magazine. Resist! Corporatization, Democracy, Farmers, India

On January 26, 2021, India observed its 71st Republic Day under historically unprecedented circumstances. On an occasion meant to commemorate the adoption of the Indian Constitution, two fiercely antagonistic visions of the country locked horns with each other in the capital of Delhi. On the Rajpath ceremonial boulevard in the heart of Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s homegrown Hindu nationalist proto-fascism was on full display. It was no coincidence, for example, that the winner of the Republic Day Parade’s tableaux competition was the state of Uttar Pradesh, whose float celebrated the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992 and its impending replacement by a Hindu temple...

Are We Not All In Search Of Tomorrow

February 6, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, Money in Politics

In 2019, 613 million Indians voted to appoint their representatives to the Indian parliament (Lok Sabha). During the election campaign, the political parties spent Rs. 60,000 crores (around US $8 billion), 45% of which was spent by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the governing party; the BJP won 37% of the vote, which translated into 303 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha. A year later, a massive $14 billion was spent on the US presidential and congressional elections, with the winning Democrat Party dominating the spending. These are massive amounts of money, whose grip on the democratic process is quite clear by now.

Haitians Intensify Struggle Against President Jovenel Moïse

February 6, 2021 Tanya Wadhwa, Orinoco Tribune. Resist! Democracy, Elections, Haiti, Jovenel Moise

Haiti has been experiencing a new wave of protests against US-backed President Jovenel Moïse. Since January 10, thousands of citizens, students, workers, members of various social movements and opposition political parties have been mobilizing across the country in rejection of Moïse’s decision to hold presidential and legislative elections on September 19 and a referendum to replace the current constitution, which is the main achievement of the democratic movement of 1986, on April 25. Haitian citizens and the opposition denounced Moïse’s decision as an attempt to extend his term of office until February 2022, which according to the constitution ends on February 7, 2021.

Bolivarian Missions: Mision Nevado

February 2, 2021 Dakotah Lilly, Popular Resistance. Create! Animal Rights, Democracy, Ecosocialism, Venezuela

While it could be compared to a social program, or as our oligarchs call them here in the United States “entitlement programs,” it is clearly defined as much more than that. Not only is the direct participation of the masses in the administration of these programs enshrined in law to avoid clientelism and promote popular participation, but the law defines missions as part of the battle to eradicate poverty and towards a full actualization of the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic. This is what sets apart these programs from traditional welfare programs in the capitalist world; they are aimed at popular empowerment and participation, the eradication of poverty, and are aimed at something enshrined in the constitution of the republic; social rights.

The ‘Insurrection’ And Its Discontents: ‘American Exceptionalism’ Revisited

January 28, 2021 Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch. Educate! American Exceptionalism, Capitol, Democracy, Trump

History is being written in the United States today. Even the most pessimistic about the prospects of American democracy have rarely ventured out this far while offering a bleak analysis of America’s future, whether in terms of political polarization at home or global standing abroad. As shocking and, certainly, telling as the images of thousands of American protesters taking over the symbols of America’s federal, representative democracy in Washington DC on January 6, it was only a facet in a far more complex and devastating political trajectory that has been in the making for years. While mainstream US media has conveniently attributed all of America’s ills to the unruly character of outgoing President Donald Trump, the truth is not quite so convenient.

Opening The Door To A More Democratic UAW

January 26, 2021 Nelson Lichtenstein, Labor Notes. Create! Democracy, Labor Unions, UAW, Workers

In December the leadership of the United Auto Workers reached a settlement with the Justice Department that opens the door to election of top union officers by referendum vote of the membership. That might well end more than 70 years of one-party control and help democratize a union once known for animated internal debate and competitive leadership contests. The settlement provides for six years of oversight by a court-appointed monitor with extensive powers, including the authority to veto new UAW staff hires and block candidates for office who do not meet an anti-corruption standard. More important, the agreement calls for a vote of all 400,000 members to decide whether they want direct election of...

Disenfranchisement: An American Tradition

January 17, 2021 Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, Dissent Magazine. Educate! Democracy, Disenfranchisement, Elections, Voter Rights

During the 2020 election, liberal pundits and politicians repeatedly warned that democracy was “on the line,” “at stake,” “in peril,” and facing “an existential threat.” There was occasion for the hyperbolic language: Donald Trump and his Republican allies orchestrated an unprecedented assault on the integrity of U.S. elections by, to list just a few examples, promulgating ludicrous lies about voter fraud, obstructing early mail-in voting, encouraging vigilante voter intimidation, and constricting access to polls. But critics risk succumbing to a liberal version of “Make America Great Again” nostalgia if they assume Trump’s departure from office will solve our democratic crisis.

Our Democratic Prospects: What The Ming Dynasty Can Tell Us

January 14, 2021 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. Educate! Democracy, Equality, Governance, Public Good

How best to understand the assault on the Capitol this week? Might some historical perspective help us better comprehend how endangered our democracy has become? Could that perspective point us to a more promising post-Trump path? A global team of anthropologists from the United States and Mexico may be offering up just the sort of historical perspective we need. The team’s newly published research — on premodern societies — might at first glance seem more than a bit irrelevant. Wednesday’s mob violence has Americans by the millions, after all, worried about “democratic backsliding.” But we had no democratic nation states in premodern times.

Sara Nelson, The Labor Movement Leader We Needed Most

January 1, 2021 Esther Wang, Portside. Organize! Democracy, Labor Unions, Pandemic, Worker Rights and Jobs

In January of 2019, weeks into Donald Trump’s government shutdown, Sara Nelson accepted the labor federations’ MLK Drum Major for Justice Award with a soaring, and startling, speech. The annual award doesn’t typically lead to national news headlines, but that year Nelson, the charismatic head of the 50,000-strong Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union, used the opportunity to boldly call for a general strike. “Almost a million workers are locked out or being forced to work without pay,” she told the audience. “Others are going to work when our workspace is increasingly unsafe. What is the labor movement waiting for?”

The Death Of Democracy In Brazil

December 31, 2020 Michael Fox, Alborada.net. Educate! Bolsonaro, Brazil, Democracy, Lula

The dismantling of Brazil’s democracy, which culminated in the jailing of former president Lula Da Silva as he looked certain to be reelected, is the subject of a new English-language investigative podcast. Cícero Ezequiel Filho lay beneath the sweltering sun of Brazil’s capital, Brasilia. He wore khaki shorts, John Lennon glasses and a long white beard, which stretched far below his chin and over a red long-sleeved shirt with the face of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the front. When I met him in August 2018, Cícero had been outside Brazil’s Supreme Court for two weeks. He refused to eat until former president Lula was free.

The Revolutionaries, When They Rise, Care For Nothing But Love

December 18, 2020 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Arab Spring, Democracy, Revolution, wealth inequality

A decade has now slipped by since a man named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid on 17 December 2010. Bouazizi, a street vendor, took this extreme step after policemen harassed him for trying to survive. Not long after, thousands of people in this small Tunisian town gathered in the street to express their anger. Their outburst spread to the capital city, Tunis, where trade unions, social organisations, political parties, and civic groups marched into the avenues to overthrow the government of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Demonstrations in Tunisia inspired similar outbreaks around the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt to Spain, the chant of Cairo’s Tahrir Square – ash-sha’b yurid isqat an-nizam ‘(the people want to overthrow the regime’) – redolent with the emotion of hundreds of millions.

Gas Company Sues To Destroy Small Town’s Rights Of Nature Law

December 17, 2020 Jessica Corbett, Commondreams. Educate! Democracy, Legal System, Oil and Gas, Rights of Nature

In a clear signal of how the fossil fuel industry feels about efforts to enact Rights of Nature protections that safeguard communities and the environment from the impacts of coal, gas, and oil development, an energy company has—yet again—filed a federal lawsuit challenging a local law in Grant Township, Pennsylvania. This is the second time that Pennsylvania General Energy Company (PGE) has sued over the 2015 law, which aims to keep fracking waste injection wells out of the community of about 700 people. Though the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) also previously sued the township, earlier this year—in what Rolling Stone described as a "stunning reversal"—the department cited the law when rescinding PGE a waste injection permit.

‘We Will Defend Democracy In Ecuador’

November 30, 2020 Progressive International. Educate! Authoritarianism, Democracy, Ecuador, Elections

In countries like Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Chile, popular movements have risen to express their discontent and demand a new economic model — only to be met with street violence, government repression, and coup d’etats. In Ecuador, the rise of authoritarianism can be seen in the actions against the electoral opposition. In August — less than 24 hours after the National Electoral Council (CNE) officially called elections — the governing forces attempted illegally and unconstitutionally to eliminate the Movimiento Fuerza Compromiso Social, list 5 that had sheltered the political force of the Citizen Revolution.

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