[Peace-discuss] 10 Good Things about Another Bad Year

[Lisa Chason]

     10 Good Things about Another Bad Year
    By Medea Benjamin
     

    Friday 29 December 2005

    As we close this year, a year in which we were pummeled by the Iraq war,
attacks on our civil rights, and Mother Nature's fury of hurricanes,
earthquakes and tsunamis, there is no shortage of reasons to feel bruised
and beaten. But to start the New Year with a healthy determination to keep
on fighting, we need to reflect on the good things that happened. And there
are plenty.

    One continent alone - South America - could provide more than ten
examples of wonderful progressive victories, but I'll just list some of the
highlights.

    1. Hugo Chavez has shown how an oil-rich nation can use the country's
wealth to provide education, healthcare and small business opportunities for
its people - and we here in the US have discovered an oil company we can
feel good about buying gas from: Venezuela's CITGO.

    2. Bolivians have, for the first time in their history, elected an
indigenous president, Evo Morales. The former llama farmer and coca grower
has fought against "free trade" and the privatization of his nation's
resources, and has brought new hope to indigenous people throughout the
continent.

    3. Anti-war activists - who once represented a much-maligned minority -
now represent the majority of Americans who agree that the war in Iraq was a
mistake and the troops should come home as soon as possible. And with Cindy
Sheehan and Cong. Jack Murtha, we finally had spokespeople the mainstream
media listened to!

    4. In an historic blow to the Bush administration's five-year attempt to
destroy the Kyoto Protocol, the climate summit in Montreal ended with even
stronger measures to combat global warming. At home, nearly 200 cities are
taking their own Kyoto-type actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

    5. The Senate ended the year with a spurt of defiance, refusing to
permanently extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, blocking the
Republican maneuver to attach Arctic oil drilling to a defense spending
bill, and passing John McCain's anti-torture amendment.

    6. Despite a concerted offensive to lift the president's sagging public
support, George Bush's approval ratings are still below 50 percent, his
economic agenda (from the privatization of social security to the repeal of
the estate tax) has unraveled, key cronies from Lewis Libby to Tom DeLay
have fallen from grace, and 2006 might just put impeachment back into the
congressional lexicon.

    7. Labor, community activists and women's groups have mounted a spirited
campaign against the behemoth of behemoths, Wal-Mart. And a California jury
awarded $172 million to thousands of employees at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., who
were denied such basic rights as lunch breaks, with 40 similar lawsuits
pending in other states.

    8. With the wild swings in gas prices, SUV sales have plummeted (Ford
Explorer down 52%, Chevrolet Suburban down 46%), the sale of hybrids has
doubled, and the US House of Representatives actually held a forum on the
"peak oil theory."

    9. In a great win for farm workers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
forced the fast food giant Taco Bell to raise the price for picking tomatoes
(nearly doubling many workers' salaries), and now they're ready to take on
an even bigger bully: McDonald's.

    10. The global movement for peace and justice proved it was alive and
kicking: witness Argentina during the Free Trade Agreement meetings, Hong
Kong around the World Trade Organization ministerial, and the ongoing
rallies against the war. The steady growth of the fair-trade movement also
shows that we are not just protesting, but we're also building a more
sustainable economy.

    Let's make 2006 the year we broke the right-wing tide, refused to give
pro-war, free-trade Democrats a free ride, and built a "people's movement"
with some muscle to it. We might just get some lessons from our southern
neighbors. If Mexico City's progressive mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes
Mexico's next president, Latin America's revolutionary fervor will be smack
up against the Texas border. Que viva el poder popular en 2006!

===========================================================
Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never
stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No
matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for
cash, your picture in the paper nor money in the bank, neither. Just refuse
to bear them: William Faulkner
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