Democrats should support the expansion of Latin American democracy

[Ken Burch]

The true project of people like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Jose Manuel Zelaya has been to open up democracy in Latin America, to include the nonwhite, non-European majority in it and to transform it from an elite-based to grassroots "bottom-up" model. This is why the Latin American elite hates these leaders, this is why the corporate press here denounces them, and this is why we need to support them.

There's no reason to limit political power to an 18th Century "powdered wig" few. It needs to include everyone. That's what democracy is supposed to mean.

If Chavez, Morales and Zelaya are stopped, the poor will be kept powerless, management will regain total dominance over workers, and people of European descent in Latin America will complete their project of eliminating all vestiges of indigenous and African culture in Latin America. And when it's killed there, they'll finish killing it here.

Democrats are "the party of the people".

In this hemisphere, most people aren't white and aren't wealthy. We, therefore, have a duty to stand with the hemispheric majority and the global majority. Democrats should back the end of elite, fair-skinned power everywhere. Let's join the hemisphere. Let's join the world.

We have nothing at all to lose.

[anonymous171]

1. I don't care about color, I just hate the wealthy asswipes that want to keep everyone else down. nt

[Ken Burch]

2. Well, the oppression involves race and culture as well as class.

To defend working people, we also need to defend everyone's right to cultural survival. If you lose your culture, you lose your dignity and your ability to carry on the struggle.