Democracy

Research: Rise Of The Global Imperial Plutocracy

January 26, 2016 Sean Mcelwee, www.salon.com Educate! Capitalism, Democracy, Plutocracy, Ruling Class

By Sean Mcelwee for Salon - Since the beginnings of democracy, debate has raged as to how responsive politicians are to their constituents. Though such debates stretch back centuries, only recently have academics gotten the ability to use data to test how well legislatures represent the people they ostensibly serve. So far, the evidence hasn’t been kind, with two leading academics arguing recently that, “the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”

Don’t Count On Elections: Organize Or Die

January 24, 2016 Jean Allen and Frank Castro, www.medium.com Strategize! Anarchism, Democracy, Elections, Organize, Resist, Voting

By Jean Allen and Frank Castro for Medium. Voting is a limited expression of popular will, choosing which parties or candidates come into political office. In strict terms, it is nothing more or less than the choice of which politician you want to delegate your power to at a specific point in time. Oligarchy and Plutocracy. Voting is not only limited as an act, it is limited in its influence and powers. Though there have been major and recent concerns about the capture of the state by a small portion of the people, this is a feature, not a bug. The very system of representative government is designed to limit popular engagement. This fear of truly popular government can be seen in the desperate fretting our esteemed Founding Fathers had as they designed the Constitution.

Newsletter – Democracy, Not Corporatocracy

January 23, 2016 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Bernie Sanders, Climate Change, Corporatocracy, Davos, Democracy, Elections, Gas, Global Redisgn Initiative, oligarchy, Open Debates, Plutocracy, TPP, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese forPopular Resistance. What does a corporatocracy look like? Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, says, “the sovereign state is obsolete.” Instead, WEF’s goal is to give a greater role for corporations in global governance through “40 Global Agenda Councils and industry-sector bodies.” In essence, the Global Redesign Initiative of the World Economic Forum seeks to privatize government. The next battle to stop corporate government on a global scale will be the TPP. Stopping the TPP will be a tremendous victory of popular power over corporate power. We can stop the World Economic Forum's vision of a global governance redesigned into a corporatocracy and create a world of popular democracy for a livable future for everyone.

Ralph Nader: The Devastating Cost Of Monetized Elections

January 23, 2016 Ralph Nader, www..nader.org Educate! Corporatization, Corporatocracy, Democracy, Media, oligarchy, Open Debates

Ralph Nader for the Nader Page. Corporatized and commercialized elections reach a point where they stand outside and erode our democracy. Every four years the presidential and Congressional elections become more of a marketplace where the wealthy paymasters turn a civic process into a spectacle of vacuous rhetorical contests, distraction and stupefaction. The civic minds of the people are sidelined by the monetized minds of a corrupted commercial media, political consultants, pundits and the purveyors of an ever-more dictatorial corporate state. The dominance of influence money by the plutocracy and now big business PACs, such as that of the super-rich Koch brothers is just the beginning. The monetized minds don’t just rely on their “quid pro quo” checkbooks. They foster gerrymandering electoral districts so that politicians indentured to them pick the voters instead of a legitimate congressional district’s voters picking a candidate. And the debates now are more ratings inventory for Big Media than a discussion of major issues which remain off the table.

DiEM And Movements: Varoufakis Replies To Open Letter By John Malamatinas

January 21, 2016 Yanis Varoufakis, www.yanisvaroufakis.eu Educate! Democracy, DiEM25, Europe

By Yanis Varoufakis for Yanis Varoufakis - Your letter is a remarkable source of inspiration and hope for me. It also constitutes a wonderful opportunity to clarify, even within my own thinking, what our new movement, DiEM, is about. The Athens Spring, and the ruthlessness with which ‘official’ Europe crushed it, shook millions of Europeans out of their complacency. Suddenly, it was impossible for decent folks to carry on pretending that all is well in the best of all feasible Europes. Suddenly, good people who had been lulled into a false sense of TINA (“there is no alternative”) began to realise that the present power structures in Europe are not an option

The Tug-Of-War Between Negative & Positive Populism

January 19, 2016 Bill Moyer, www.backbonecampaign.org Strategize! Democracy, Essay Review, Politics, Populism

By Bill Moyer Campaign - Disdain for the status quo in the US is nearly universal - AND - given the complexity and chaos of our times, change is inevitable. But who will define what "change" looks like? This dissatisfaction and inevitability represent our greatest opportunity and greatest challenge of our time. We must dislodge this Deep State and channel the energy of inevitable change toward a just and sustainable society. But our opponents are consolidating their power through treaties such as the TPP, institutionalizing their rule with the Deep State Mike Lofgren describes, and feeding a violent faux-populist arm of racists thugs to draw energy away from a populism that could actually deliver a future worth living for.

TPP The Great Grandchild Of The Worst Of US Constitution

January 17, 2016 Staff, www.poclad.org Educate! Democracy, oligarchy, TPP, US Constitution

By Staff for POCLAD, It’s not only whether the TPP is akin to NAFTA and previous corporate governance agreements but also how much it can be likened to a “child,” even a “great, great grandchild” of our own U.S. Constitution. This may rub people the wrong way, believing as many do that the Constitution is a most democratic document. While there are elements of the Constitution worth keeping, it has disturbingly similar anti-democratic features as the TPP that favor giant business interests and serve those of extreme wealth and privilege. The Constitution has been covered in a blanket of reverence and the myth of a democratic republic that offers freedom and justice for all. We have failed to examine our Constitution objectively, unemotionally and in comparison with the models of other nations. This is our collective challenge. If we fail to meet it we’ll continue to face brand new, same old stories.

Ecuador’s Citizens’ Revolution: Retaking Power From Old Elites

January 17, 2016 Staff, www.telesurtv.net Create! Democracy, Ecuador, Education, Equality, Healthcare, Human Rights, Inequality, Media, oligarchy, Rafael Correa, Revolution, Wages

By Staff for Telesur. President Rafael Correa marks nine years in office Jan. 15, 2016, having overseen the transformation of Ecuador. It will be his last full year in power after his recent decision not to stand again. Correa will go down in history as one of the most successful Ecuadorean presidents. Ecuador before Correa was defined by its political and economic instability, with seven presidents forced out of office in a decade. Neoliberal measures applied by previous administrations left the country one of the poorest and least-developed in the region, but the government of Rafael Correa has undertaken a series of deep reforms, which have delivered remarkable changes for Ecuador's long-excluded majority. President Rafael Correa said in 2014, “People must prevail over capital,” adding that politics is about whose interest governments serve: “Elites or the majority? Capital or humankind? The market or society? Policies and programs depend on who holds the balance of power."

Newsletter: Why Protests Will Continue To Grow

January 16, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, #FightFor15, Black Lives Matter (BLM), China, Climate Change, COP21, Corporatism, Democracy, Economic inequality, Empire, Environment, FERC, Finance and the Economy, Guantanamo, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Iraq, Jobs, militarism, Necessity defense, oligarchy, Poverty, Russia, Solar Energy, Stratfor, Syria, TPP, Trade, Wealth Ineqaulity

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. This week the reason that there are a growing protest movement and growing disenchantment with government was put on display. The divergence between government and reality was thrust in our faces. The entire government came together, Members of Congress, the Cabinet, military leaders, the Supreme Court, Vice President and President (minus the 'selected survivor' in case the Capitol was attacked, the head of Homeland Security) to hear the State of the Union. The choreographed self-praise of people who will spend $5 billion this year of mostly big business money to get re-elected was evident from the moment the door was opened. Hugs and kisses, backslapping all around, required applause as the President approached the podium, more staged applause when he was introduced and then, as if they were trained, dozens of standing ovations on cue – 89 times in a 58-minute speech the President was applauded.

A New Era Of Global Protest Begins

January 15, 2016 Rajesh Makwana, www.sharing.org Resist! Austerity, Climate Change, Democracy, Environment, Global Protests, Human Rights, Inequality, Protests, Racism, Students, Wages

By Rajesh Makwana for STWR - It’s reasonable to conclude from a simple analysis of these trends that a revolutionary change is taking place in the global political landscape. As policymaking becomes increasingly subverted by powerful vested interests, the resulting democratic deficit is being filled by concerned citizens who are demanding that governments take heed of their collective demands. This signifies a fundamental shift in the relationship between citizens and the State, and heralds a new expression of democracy that is still in its infancy but already capable of shaping public opinion, influencing policy discussions and even toppling governments.

Thoughts On Rojava: Admiration And Critique

January 15, 2016 Janet Biehl and Zanyar Omrani, www.roarmag.org Educate! Democracy, Kurds, New Economy, Rojava

By Janet Biehl and Zanyar Omrani for ROAR Magazine - In this interview, independent filmmaker and journalist Zanyar Omrani talks to Janet Biehl about her late companion Murray Bookchin, her trips to Rojava and the important question of how to build bottom-up power structures without risking the reversal of the process over time. Janet Biehl has traveled to Rojava twice in the past year and has written extensively about her experiences and observations while visiting the autonomous cantons in northern Syria. She is the author of the book Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin.

Prophecy Delivered! Martin Luther King Jr. & The Death of Democracy

January 15, 2016 Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, www.truth-out.org Educate! Democracy, MLK, Poverty, Racism, Wars and Militarism

By Rev. Osagyefo Sekou for Truthout. Democracy is dead. It has always been an afflicted creature - hobbling about - wounded at its very being. An enslaving disposition corrupted the United States before it matured. Its spiritual death was foretold, but the nation refused to hear the black voices crying out in the wilderness. A year before the racist, materialist and militaristic ax cut King down, he warned the nation of its demise. The now infamous "A Time to Break the Silence" speech at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, was a stern warning against the maladies of the American spirit - materialism, racism and militarism. The year between the Riverside speech and his assassination proved to be a radical one. As though he was racing against death's chariot, King accelerated his critique of the United States and took up more radical tactics.

Supreme Court Appears Ready To Bankrupt Public-Employee Unions

January 13, 2016 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Educate! Democracy, Unions, Worker's Rights

By Dave Johnson for Campaign for America's Future - After a decades-long effort to place ideologically committed “movement” members in the judicial branch of government, funded by extremely wealthy individuals and their corporations, it looks like the resulting corporate/conservative wing of the Supreme Court is ready to make a ruling that would bankrupt public-employee unions. And clearly already-decimated private-sector unions will be the next target. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. In this case the Court is asked to overturn a unanimous 1977 case that said public-employee unions can charge nonmembers a fee to cover the cost of the services the unions are required by law to provide those nonmembers.

TPP & SOTU: The Facts vs. Obama

January 12, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.FlushTheTPP.org Educate! Banking, China, Climate Change, Democracy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food Safety, Globalization, Human Rights, Internet Freedom, NAFTA, TPP, Trade Deficit, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Flush The TPP. President Obama will make his push for the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a major part of the State of the Union as this is a major goal of his final year in office. This is an opportunity for a widespread discussion of the TPP and what impacts it will have on the economy, workers, the environment and more. Just yesterday the World Bank published a comprehensive analysis of the TPP and concluded that by 2030 the TPP will have a miniscule 0.4% impact on US trade. The economic impact for the United States is minimal but the impact on workers, the environment, food safety, traditional energy and the overall balance between corporate power and government is dramatic. The president’s claims about the TPP should be examined closely and measured against the facts of what the TPP will actually do and the impact similar trade agreements have had. We know from past comments by the president and the US Trade Representative that their sales pitch for the TPP is not always consistent with the facts.

Newsletter: After The Crash…

January 9, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter #BlackLivesMatter, Banks, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Capitalism, carbon free nuclear free, Climate Change, Community Banks, Credit Unions, Debt, Debt-Free Money, Democracy, Economic Democracy, Education, Eric Holder, Federal Reserve, Finance and the Economy, Foreclosures, Guaranteed basic income, Income, Income inequality, Infrastructure, Living Wage, Medicare, Medicare for all, Minimum Wage, Occupy Movement, Plutocracy, Poverty, Public Banking, Student Debt, TPP, Tuition, Unemployment

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The economic agenda described here would create a radical transformation of the economy from a top-down system designed for the wealthiest, to a botton-up system that creates a foundation for an economy that benefits all. Putting in place this economy would move us from a plutocratic economy to a democratized economy where people have economic control over their lives. It is a radical shift – how can it happen? There is only one path – the people must be educated, organized and mobilized to demand it. We need to change the political culture to one where the necessities of the people and protection of the planet are the priorities of the economy. If predictions are correct, the next economic collapse will deeper and more damaging than the 2008 collapse. It will be a tremendous opportunity to demand radical economic change. It is one the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice should be preparing for now.

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