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resistance in Mexico, or in the past. The Oaxacans know what their advantage is: NUMBERS. This is true also of the leftist (majorityist) movements that have successfully won political power and control of the government all over Latin America--in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay, Bolivia and soon in Ecuador (and, next election cycle in Peru), and also in Nicaragua (where Daniel Ortega--leader of the Sandinistas--is about to be elected president). The majority wins by persistence, patience, attention to the levers of democratic power--such as transparent elections--and strong grass roots organization. The OAS, the Carter Center and EU election monitoring groups have helped with transparent elections in Latin America*, and ordinary citizens and NGOs have done the rest. Armed resistance and violence--understandable in the face of horrendously brutal US-backed dictators--has not been effective, and has wisely been abandoned. (It was effective only in Cuba, where a relatively benign government was set up, when compared to fascist dictatorships like those of Batista or Pinochet.)
"Simply because the people push until they win." Certainly true in Latin America. Not so sure of that phenomenon re the Soviet Union.
Anyway, I want to argue with your U.S. political analysis:
"The easiest way would be a strike or slowdown.... And since it is NOT planned or in the works or even in the tepid imagination of populist advocacy groups, it would happen rather spontaneously and spread organically- hopefully not toward the traditionally hopeless and destructive violent scenarios. And it would be strange because the history of large popular 'uprisings' in this country is pretty spotty and untraditional, and our politics a mild sport sparking less passion than a football game for the general public."
Not "in the tepid imagination of populist advocacy groups." Remember Seattle 1999. Organized by a vast array of populist advocacy groups, dead on effective as to shutting down the WTO (I have never seen a more effective civil disobedience action), but of course universally slandered by the corporate news monopolies and even by some so-called leftist publications. 50,000 people participated--labor unions, workers, every environmental group in the country, human rights groups, religious groups and many ordinary citizens. No wonder it had to be assaulted by Darth Vader police forces (a police riot--as later documented by city of Seattle hearings--the police chief was forced to resign), and vilified by the Corporate Rulers as some sort of riotous protest. I would never call our public advocacy groups "tepid." But I do think they were shocked by, a) the level of police violence (--and under a Democratic president!), and b) the level of corruption in our corporate news monopoly press. And now, of course, the magnitude of the fascists' power is much greater. So I think a lot of re-thinking and re-grouping has gone on. This bore fruit in Kerry's victory over Bush in 2004--but the fascists were way ahead of us, with their Diebold/ES&S coup. Kicked the breath out of that movement. Now we're seeing another, to take back Congress--and at least get back to square one on Constitutional government.
"...the history of large popular 'uprisings' in this country is pretty spotty and untraditional." On the contrary, our history is packed with well-organized, effective revolutionary uprisings, all of which were largely successful, starting with the first, the American Revolution itself, and including the anti-slavery movement, the labor movement, the women's rights movement, FDR's "New Deal," and the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s. This is a "spotty" history only if you buy into the Corporate Rulers' version of it. We are a revolutionary country. And it's only a matter of time before that revolutionary tradition finds new expression in the present circumstances. The People are trying the electoral route one more time. We'll see what happens.
I think these Bushite electronic voting corporations that now control election results with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--a coup that occurred during the 2002-2004 period--are going to back off a bit, in order to preserve their election theft capability for future purposes, and permit a Democratic majority in the House, but one that is greatly hampered by Bushite Democrats in its own ranks (hand-picked by the fascists in the primaries--the sort of Democrats who recently voted for torture and suspension of habeas corpus). And the main struggle is going to be within the Democratic Party itself, and possibly extended into a period of control of the White House by the Corporate Democrats (--an attempted return to "mere" Corporate Rule, a la Clinton), but this will not solve the problems created by the Bush Junta: a $10 TRILLION deficit, continued bleeding of jobs out of the country, an unbelievably bloated military budget, loss of civil rights, loss of voting rights, lawlessness in the executive branch, a new generation of crippled war veterans, ever dwindling middle class net income (ravaged by skyrocketing medical and education costs, and other costs of living, and credit card usury--with even their last asset, their homes, now dwindling in value), increasing desperation of the poor, and an incredibly ruinous and destabilizing gap between the rich and the poor.
We'll see if the fascists succeed in preserving their direct election theft capability. There is quite a movement against these voting machines. Half the voters in many places are now voting by Absentee Ballot--refusing to vote on the machines--in many places. Fascist power is also bolstered by other methods of election theft, and by the filth in the campaign contribution system, the corporate news monopoly lock on that money--the TV ads--and the filth of corporate lobbying in government, which has turned into direct corporate control of lawmaking. Restoring TRANSPARENT elections is just one step back toward democracy. Then we have to work on CLEAN elections, to start getting honest representatives of the majority in government.
I think that the Corporate Democrats--if they think they are going to benefit from the Bush Junta, in enhanced powers to enforce Corporate Rule, and in the gratitude of the nation as to pulling us back from outright fascism--are playing a devious game that is going to backfire. To repair the damage that the Bush Junta has inflicted, strong measures are needed, beyond impeachment of these criminals. Impeachment--gratifying as it would be--is even somewhat irrelevant. How do we get our money back? That is the main issue. The robbery of the public treasury, added to the robbery of the incomes of ordinary people (in so many ways), has been nation-destroying. Some measures I can think of are dismantling the oil giants, and a few other bad actor corporations, and seizing their assets for the common good; cutback of the military budget by, say, 90%, to a true defensive posture; large increases in Social Security payments and the minimum wage; and a huge government investment in alternative energy. Repeal of a few tax cuts for the super-rich is not going to do it. To recover from what this Junta has done, we need a "New Deal" of some kind, and leaders who are not afraid of the "robber barons." This tepid, so-called "centrist" Democratic Party line is one of the reasons that our country is in so much trouble. (Talk about TEPID--it's not the NGO's who are tepid--it's the Dem Party leadership!)
Anyway, we are headed for big trouble, especially economically--the kind of trouble they had in Argentina as a consequence of World Bank/IMF policy; in other words, the consequences of Corporate looting of government budgets, resources and the poor and middle class. WE are the "Banana Republic" now. And we need LEFTISTS--not "centrists"--in order to recover from it. But we are also the big, fat "golden goose" of the global corporate predators, so they have lavished our citizens with 24/7 brainwashing and stolen elections, by master illusionists. I think the American people are struggling mightily against the propaganda--and are trying desperately to think for themselves--but we are a unique country in many ways, unique from both the perspectives of how to gain fascist control over us, and how to organize resistance and revolution against it.
In Argentina, a coalition of the poor and middle class went round with tiny hammers and broke every bank ATM display window in the country--in protest against the banks and the corrupt rightwing government. Three governments later--in quick succession--they finally got a leftist government committed to throwing the World Bank/IMF out. With Venezuela's help, they got out from under World Bank debt, and are on the road to recovery, and to a healthy, growing, SELF-DETERMINED economy and society.
I don't know what it will take here. I just know that it isn't going to be easy. We are at the vortex of Corporate Rule, and are now among the victims of the Dark Powers of greed and violence that seek domination of all countries, all resources, all wealth, and all the peoples of the world. This is why it is so important that we take back our country, and why it is so difficult--why, for instance, an awesome protest like that in Seattle in 1999 was universally misrepresented and torpedoed out of public memory. But those forces, those ideas, those people, and their MAJORITY view of democratic process, good government, and protection of the environment and of human rights have not gone away, and were certainly not "tepid."
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*(--although they notably failed in Mexico's recent election.)
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