C-SPAN 2 - Tariq Ali dispels lies about Chavez. now

[chimpymustgo]

Very enlightening talk about global media, fear of Chavez and truthtellers, social movements spreading, globalization hollowing democratic processes.

[Peace Patriot]

1. Glad to hear there is some sanity on the tube about this. Do we not

recognize our own democratic principles and best humanitarian and progressive avowals when we see them, elsewhere? But I guess the problem is we don't see them--they are hidden from us.

It mystifies me why so many people--even people here at DU--join with Bush's State Department in despising democracy in Latin America, and so easily fall for the concerted propaganda of our war profiteering corporate news monopolies, even when their bias, and their lockstep pro-war, pro-corporate viewpoint, has been so blatantly displayed, time and again. But I guess a lot of people still don't get the subtler brainwashing methods--such as the constant repetition of "friend and ally of Cuba's communist dictator Fidel Castro" in connection with Chavez (no matter that Chavez has lots of other friends and allies--the president of Brazil, the president of Argentina...).

But the thing that is REALLY hidden, and REALLY not gotten by a lot of people, is that what we are witnessing in South America is a huge, peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution, across that vast continent, that has already occurred--past tense; it is the new political reality--and is beginning to occur in Central America as well, with the election of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and the Lopez Obrador and Oaxaca movements in Mexico.

These are expressions of the PEOPLE, not just of the leaders they have elected to office. The PEOPLES' long hard work on transparent elections and grass roots community organization. And the PEOPLES' ideas of Latin American self-determination, regional economic and political cooperation and social justice. These great movements have found the leaders to express their will--the will of the vast majority of poor people in Latin America and their leftist allies in the middle and upper classes. This is not "strong men" coming to power and "buying" the loyalty of the poor (as so many of our corporate news monopoly articles so crudely and stupidly suggest about Chavez). This is the poor COMING TO POWER at last and realizing their potential as a political force. And the results in economic recovery and cooperation among Latin countries are so far spectacular. Argentina has been transformed from a basketcase--ravaged by the World Bank/IMF--into a healthy, growing economy that recently started talks with Brazil on a common currency. This rise of Argentina started with the rebellion of the poor and middle class against IMF policy (which extracts reduction in social programs like education and health care, and control of government policy, in exchange for onerous World Bank loans, that the rich elite then rip off, leaving the poor with the debt). With the election of a responsible leftist government, committed to getting out from under World Bank debt and helping the poor, Venezuela entered the picture and bought out some of the debt on easy terms, in exchange for Argentine beef, I believe. (Venezuela is not yet food self-sufficient.)

Latin American countries helping each other, to free themselves from exploitation! This is the work not just of the leaders but also of the many grass roots organizations that support them, and that got them elected. Our corporate press focuses on personalities. But the real story in Latin America is THE PEOPLE. How did they do it? How have they managed to overcome decades, and centuries, of brutal oppression often by US-backed dictators? How have they created stable democracies? How have they resisted US/Bush/global corporate predator interference? How are they now in a bargaining position with world powers, able at times to set their own terms (as with oil contracts in Venezuela and Ecuador)? And how can we help them?

The stories coming out of South America now are very heartening to those of us who dream of restoration of democracy in the US, and the end of Corporate Rule. I suggest www.venezuelanalysis.com as an antidote to corporate propaganda. Otherwise (or in addition) learn to read between the lines of our corporate press. If they say someone is a "leftist" or "socialist," translate as: freely and fairly elected, into good government and the will of the people. If they say "friend of Fidel Castro," explain to yourself what they are trying to imply, that Chavez or Morales or whomever is a communist, when that is far from the truth. (Both are heads of mixed capitalist/socialist economies, that respect private property and only seek justice and fairness for the excluded majority, through education, medical care, small business loans and other healthy and progressive programs that develop the whole society).

And when Tariq Ali and his book are on CNN, CBS, ABC et al, and in corporate newsprint--and not just on C-Span--then we will know that WE are making progress, too--and are not the backwards "banana republic" that Bush & Co. have tried to make us into.

[Cha]

2. There's no way the

bushites could have anything positive to say about Chavez or the other South American Progressive leaders..they are the polar opposite of themselves.

The way South America is going they will be the center of the Universe and not so much bubblebrat.

[pberq]

3. Great post, Peace Patriot!