People Power

[rogerashton]

From The Economist

'People power has actually been around for a while. The 20th century was so horribly bloody that it has been easy to overlook the potency of peaceful boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and public protests in many of the greatest upheavals of the past hundred years. In their book, “A Force More Powerful”, Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall chronicle some of those events .... That communism could be thus brought down, gloriously and bloodlessly, sent shivers of fear through the world's despots, and of exhilaration through their subjects. The implacable white South Africans who sustained fortress apartheid now realised that they could not hold out indefinitely: more than ever, the use of force, their traditional response to peaceful boycotts, rent strikes, demonstrations and the country's range of civil movements, made them look desperate, and robbed them of any claim to be respectable, still less democratic. By February 1990, Nelson Mandela was out of prison, and by 1994 the rascals had been thrown out in a democratic election. ... Elections are not necessarily free, of course, and even free elections, on their own, do not constitute a democratic system. “As a rule, 'electocracy' should not be confused with democracy,” rightly avers Richard Haass, head of policy planning in the State Department in 2001-03, in his book “The Opportunity”. ... Yet people power still worries the world's authoritarians. The Chinese sent 10,000 policemen to a southern town last week to crush a demonstration that involved barely half as many participants. Thousands of similar protests have erupted across China recently, and the country's chief press regulator, Shi Zongyuan, unblushingly admitted in November: “When I think of the colour revolutions, I feel afraid.” ... Plenty of other governments, from Belarus to Myanmar to Zimbabwe, are frightened. They are probably right to be. It may take years to develop, and it may not always turn out quite as is hoped, but people power is catching: the more often it works, the more often it will be used.'

Exercise: apply to the Republican totalitarian government in the USA.

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5408104

That's from last week's Economist -- I am running a bit late reading Bagehot's rag. Unfortunately it demands registration. Not sure whether you have to be a subscriber or not -- I am and registered years ago.

[fasttense]

1. Let's show them some people power 31 January and 4 February

Let's worry the hell out of them

http://www.worldcantwait.net/