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Edited on Fri Jan-21-05 03:17 AM by sarahlee
Depressed About the Inauguration? There Are Better Models of Democracy Building from BelowBy Jennifer Whitney Special to The Narco News Bulletin January 20, 2005 “… democracy is much more than an electoral contest or putting the alternative party in power. But it is also an electoral contest if it is clean, fair, honest and plural…That’s why we say that electoral democracy doesn’t make a democracy, but is an important part of it… We think that the elections represent, for millions of people, a space for a dignified and respectable struggle… In the Zapatista idea, democracy is something that is constructed from below and with everyone, including those that think differently than us. Democracy is the exercise of power by the people all the time and in all places.”
– Subcomandante Marcos, Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico, June 2000
If the official results are correct, 56 million Americans mourn and 59 million celebrate today as George W. Bush is sworn in after another election marred by shocking and well-documented irregularities. Protests are taking place around the country, with people turning their backs on the motorcade in Washington, going on a shopping strike, and holding mock funerals for the death of democracy. Meanwhile, people in the rest of the world have long ceased scratching their collective heads over the (il)logic of our electoral college and our collective complacency regarding our criminal administration and are looking at other elections – future and recent past.
While the 2004 US elections provided all the drama of the OJ Simpson and Monica Lewinsky affairs combined, the end result is likely to be much the same: millions of television viewers professing outrage and talking of nothing else until the Next Big Thing comes along and sweeps away memories of the details and irregularities, particularly of global events which happened concurrently with the big overarching dramas. While Americans were busy retallying votes in Ohio and New Mexico (a process I certainly am not arguing against), the US military was wreaking havoc on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
2004 was notable for the diversity of elections held around the world, and a closer examination of them is warranted in order to make sense of how to move forward in a Bush-led Empire.
In Bolivia, a confusing referendum was held on the nation’s large natural gas reserves, the results of which are being contested – not just by turning their backs or refusing to spend money (a rare and privileged resource most Bolivians don’t possess) but by taking to the streets, plazas, and neighborhoods nationwide.
In Venezuela, one of two countries in the world to provide for such a thing (the other is Iceland, which has never exercised the right), a referendum was held on whether or not to recall President Hugo Chávez.
And in Iraq, a small and little-reported election was held to lay the groundwork for what is likely to be the Next Big Thing to flood American airwaves – the upcoming elections for the Iraqi National Assembly, scheduled for January 30th.
So while Republicans are gorging themselves at the most costly inauguration ever, let’s go on a quick tour of recent vote-casting to see what remnants of “democracy” are evident in national electoral politics around the world. Along the way, we’ll get some glimpses of what a real democracy might entail – not one that sits on the shelf and is occasionally dusted off and wielded at the enemy like a trophy.
Democracy is not a possession, not a thing to flaunt with pride or to regard with envy. It is a utopia, if one discards the notions of hippie communes and takes the true meaning of the word “utopia,” which is “no place.” It is something we can dream of, strive towards, and be inspired by, but it doesn’t really exist. It is more accurately a verb than a noun, an ongoing process rather than a final result. It is fluid and demanding, because it can never be attained and sustained. If you turn your back on it, it ossifies and crumbles; it cannot be forgotten, nor left to professionals to manage on our behalf. It is at its best when fought for, argued over, and challenged by the participation of those of us implicated in the very word, democracy, that is to say, the people who are meant to rule.
More.... long but worth the read...
http://www.narconews.com/Issue35/article1152.html
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