No amount of theory will prepare you for the cold, hard practice of living democracy. Always on the move, often evasive but at times brightly shining, discovering democracy can be like striking a streak of gold in a sandpit. It appears at unlikely moments in time, in unexpected places. We never simply "have" democracy, we must always struggle and speak out on its behalf, if it is to stand a chance of persisting and flourishing in the face of aggressive capitalist globalization. Yet still, such struggle, whether spontaneous or minutely organized, mostly attains mere moments of historical glory, if not inspired by socialist political theory. The dialectic of theory and practice remains both a valid methodological approach as well as practical political strategy for democratic change of unresponsive, authoritarian and unjust societies.
My own modest contributions to democratic debate here at the Suite101 and elsewhere
( i.e. at http://www.ebookad.com/eb.php3?ebookid=1... ) are mainly theory-inspired (as family life and job demands rather do limit the scope for direct political actions). Fortunately, I've been able to "watch form the sidelines" how some current political struggles for democracy are unfolding in practice. Nowhere else is the struggle more critical than in the USA, the land of by far the greatest contradictions of democracy in theory and practice. It is with respect and honour that I have obtained permission to post the following participants' account of the popular protests in New York ahead of the 2004 Republican convention. A direct account of how democracy in the self-proclaimed land of the free is being strangled and repressed, of how those who assert their democratic rights find themselves criminalized.
Just as this system is a mere facet of a thoroughly corroded and corrupted dominant ideology of the social classes that shape and control the political institutions of formal democracy, the protest movement against the Bush-regime may well foreshadow a radical departure from system conformity on a critical mass scale.
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EXCLUSIVE REPORT: "Guantanamo on the Hudson"
by Charles Shaw, Editor-in-Chief, Newtopia
Posted with kind permission, from:
http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/content/...
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The decision to engage in Civil Disobedience over an unjust law or policy is a solemn and profound commitment that is noble, but not to be taken lightly. To successfully pull off a direct action, certain conditions must be present: an identifiable and pressing cause for action, extensive organization and training by participants and their support staff, and legal and media support groups like Indymedia and the National Lawyer's Guild, and most importantly, the physical and mental preparedness to handle the extreme stress and emotional volatility produced by such actions. The War Resister's League has an 81-year history of organizing such actions as "die-ins", where demonstrators take over a street, way, or facility by lying down "dead" and obstructing access or blocking progress, in a symbolic act of resistance against the senseless slaughter of war. Their most recent action took place on Tuesday, August 31 in the largest day of direct actions in a generation, known to us in the Movement as "A31".
The copyright of the article Get up, stand up, get locked up - Democracy US-style in International Politics is owned by Glenn Brigaldino. Permission to republish Get up, stand up, get locked up - Democracy US-style in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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