[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ufpj-activist] Fw: Pro-democracy? What the hell are you talking about?

[Morton K. Brussel]

More than interesting…

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ellie Ommani <ellieomm at optonline.net>
> Date: March 19, 2011 9:56:14 PM CDT
> To: wespac_mid-east at yahoogroups.com, ufpj-activist at lists.mayfirst.org
> Cc: nickmottern at earthlink.net, Frank Brodhead <fbrodhead at aol.com>
> Subject: [ufpj-activist] Fw: Pro-democracy? What the hell are you talking about?
> 
> Dear Friends,  I swear before all that is progressive, I had no idea this article was coming into my mailbox exactly after I sent Frank my long-winded response.  At the risk of some of you just deleting this email into the garbage, I am forwarding it to the group.  It explains what I was trying to discuss, but in a much more direct, and succinct manner.  The person who wrote it has traveled around the world quite a bit.  He is very humble.  He almost never raises his voice.  But he has hit the nail on the head, as they say....I removed his name because I don't know if I have his permission to give it to others....
>  
> Enjoy!  Peace through justice, ellie o.
>  
> ---- Original Message -----
> From: 
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2011 10:12 PM
> Subject: Pro-democracy? What the hell are you talking about?
> 
> In my experience of politics, the worse thing people can do is use slogans and "new speak" without reflecting on the meaning of what is being advocated. In the most general sense, anything that comes out as a new political idea and which is widely adopted as a new movement msut be put to the test as a potential manipulation and suspect to be  manufactured spin. No one wants to be played and yet most people will be.
>  
> In this vein, we need to look at what is being proposed as individual rights and democracy. We are sold to the eternal truth that what people want most is personal freedoms and that the movements afoot against the regimes the US does not like (but not the ones it likes, like the kings and despots we support just about everywhere) are "pro-democracy", as if US democracy was anything else but sheer damned hypocrisy. "American interests" and "democratic values" American style means neo-colonial and neo-liberal takeover, period.
>  
> Countless elected socialist leaders around the world have been removed and killed or exiled in the name of "democracy" because somehow the foolish American left and the liberal bourgeoisie tells us that the US is the ultimate expert in "democratic values" and its most ardent promoter around the world. But the truth is otherwise and consider the following:
>  
> Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Viet Minh resistance to the French colonial rule, would have been elected by a plurality of close to 90% of the vietnamese people had the scheduled elections happened but the US stopped that.
>  
> Hamas did win a free and fair election and was not allowed to lead the Palestinian state. Instead, an unelected and corrupt bourgeois government, betraying the interests of the people, the Palestinian Authority was kept in power by the US and its zionist client.
>  
> President Sukarno, a socialist, the elected leader of Indonesia was overthrown by a bloody coup agenced by the CIA in 1965, over a million were massacred.
>  
> President Mosadegh, a socialist, elected by the people of Iran, was overthrown by British Petroleum (of Gulf gooey memory) and the CIA and murdered. He was replaced by the Shah, a vile reactionary who declared himself king of kings and proceeded to torture and murder everyone who disagreed.
>  
> President Allende from Chile, a socialist, elected by his people, was overthrown by a coup sponsored by ITT and the CIA, murdered and replaced by the brutal general Pinochet who proceeded to murder a whole generation of leftists and sell out to US capitalist looters.
>  
> The list goes on and on.
>  
> What I'd like to say to all these "pro-democracy" folks who conveniently forget about history is that freedom does not start with the ability to make speeches and vote for people you do not choose. Freedom does not start as an individual right. Freedom is the ability of a people to have NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY and SELF DETERMINATION. Individual freedoms are meaningless outside of this context. They only reflect the desire of the petit bourgeois to speak for others when his stomach is full and to continue to live off the crumbs of the capitalist devastation.
> 
> Someone who says that the people rebel because they want democracy and proceeds to adopt the false dichotomy of tyranny versus pro-democracy forces as a basis to undertand geopolitics is either a hypocrit or a fool who refuses to learn from the lessons of history.
> Democracy does not bring socialism. Democracy is the invention of the elite class of Greece and the American States, a class composed of male-only slave owners and land owners/hoggers, the proto capitalist and neo-feudal classes. Democracy or liberal parliamentary democracy as it is now known is controlled by the capitalist elite and will NEVER empower the people or any nation, because the wealthy ALWAYS pay the piper.
> Obama is the best example. He is a marionette.
>  
> The pro-democracy that is being sold to us is a way to stop socialism, actually eco-socialist transformation, which is the only way we can start to deal with the destruction of life on this planet and the establishment of a just and sustainable society.
>  
> The following article is about Cuba and the sentencing of Alan Gross, a "pro-democracy" agent, who was sentenced by a cuban judge to 15 years for subverting the state.
> Pro-democracy means subverting a nation to establish capitalism and neo-liberal devastation.
>  
> Enough said! Read on this article by Saul Landau in defense of Cuba.
>  
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Salvador Tio <salvadorelias at yahoo.com>
> Date: 2011/3/18
> Subject: Gross Stupidity: US / Cuba Policy for 50-Plus Years
> US / Cuba Policy for 50-Plus Years
> 
> Gross Stupidity
> 
> By SAUL LANDAU and NELSON P. VALDES
> U.S. foreign assistance empowers those in Cuba who are working towards positive change to advocate for fundamental freedoms and free market-oriented solutions to meet the needs of Cuban citizens. – U.S. AID web page, March 2011
> On March 12, after a two day trial, a Cuban court sentenced Alan Gross to 15 years in prison for "acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the state" referring to his role in a "subversive project" designed by Washington "to undermine" Cuba's government. The prosecutors had asked for a 20-year sentence. He can appeal this decision to Cuba's high court.
> Gross lied on his immigration forms (five times he called himself a tourist to cover his work to distribute clandestine communications technology for the U.S. government). Gross worked for DAI, a company that won a contract from AID (State Department). Gross' job, according to AID'S Cuba program, was to "increase the free flow of uncensored information to, from, and within the island through the provision of informational materials and internet access, as well as building the capacity of Cuban independent media."
> It's hardly surprising that AID's charter does not authorize U.S. aid to independent Cubans who critique the results of U.S. policy in Cuba. For example, if some independent blogger wanted satellite phones to organize a march outside the U.S. Interest Section (embassy without formal ambassadorial relations, broken by Eisenhower on Jan 3, 1961) and maintain a vigil there to confront each U.S. diplomat with the thousands of violent crimes committed by U.S. agents against Cuba, AID would not finance such a project. Imagine a civil society-building movement that attacked the Cuban government for doing too little against a country that murdered its citizens!
> Indeed, Cubans demanding justice from the United States would have facts, thousands of declassified documents authorizing assassinations and sabotage of Cuban property -- and a CIA-backed invasion of the island. Former CIA officials testified to Congress about these programs.
> What baffles Cubans is the nature of its northern neighbor: "self-righteousness" under the rubric of "American democracy." Note: do not call it U.S. democracy because Washington applies the concept to all the territory God ordained as a U.S. (unofficial) protectorate (See Monroe Doctrine and discussion of Manifest Destiny in the 19th Century).
> Since God selected a few English of Puritan bent to cross the ocean to Massachusetts to preach His revealed word to savages and make proper (capitalistic) use of the rich land they were to conquer, the chosen had a serious obligation to fulfill. Those conquered or subdued from Patagonia to Mexico should be coaxed or forced to adopt as their political norms the perfect system elaborated for them by the U.S. Founding Fathers.
> By the 20th Century, most of Latin America understood the basic precepts of living under the guidelines set forth by the U.S. "democracy." Elections had to result in obedient (to Washington) governments. Disobedient winners repeatedly got removed and new elections eventually provided compliant ones. (In the 1960s, when Juan Bosch prevailed in the Dominican Republic, the United States helped un-prevail him; more recently Haitian voters chose Jean Bertrand Aristide and Washington officials conspired to kidnap and exile him – and insure he would not return.)
> In addition, Americans insist on legislatures, courts, and a privately owned "free press" with paid advertisements. Underlying U.S. rules rests the supreme assumption: protection of God's most sacred entity, private property, especially American property.
> If one understands U.S. democracy in this way, and there's plenty of history to illustrate it, then one can also grasp what much of the world views as Washington's obsession with Cuba since 1959: Cuba nationalized U.S. property.
> This fixation sometimes leads U.S. officials into embarrassing situations. For example, Secretary of State Clinton routinely criticizes Cuba for having "political prisoners" – U.S.-paid dissidents. Cuba released almost all of those prisoners, but the United States holds some 200 prisoners – without formal charges at Guantanamo base. But that's different. Those held at Guantanamo might threaten "American" security whereas Cuba's political prisoners only threatened Cuban security; therefore, Cuba had no right to imprison them. The American government has rights; Cuba has responsibilities.
> As everyone has witnessed, the lack of certain freedoms in Cuba paled in comparison to repression in other states Washington maintains friendly relations with. In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt rolled out the red carpet for Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. "He might be a son-of-a-bitch, but he's our son-of-a-bitch," said FDR. More recent SOBs like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, for example, got massive amounts of U.S. money in aid.
> AID in Cuba, however, indirectly employed Alan Gross as a contract agent to "aid" the Cuban people. Gross' job was to get Cubans to use better communications for a made-in-the-USA "civil society." This U.S.-designed perfect model of democracy remains as one of the few commodities still manufactured in the United States for export only.
> Alan Gross actually acted his part in the Washington play designed 50-plus years ago. In March 1960, the CIA scripted "… a means for mass communication to the Cuban people so that a powerful propaganda offensive can be initiated in the name of the declared opposition." The Agency claimed "a CIA controlled action group is producing and distributing anti-Castro and anti-Communist publications regularly." (CIA, A Program of Covert Action Against the Castro Regime, March 1960)
> Satellite phones and laptops have replaced printed matter, but the U.S. goal remains. Gross claims no government official warned him the Cuban government had decades of experience in duping U.S. agents – even "experts" in sophisticated technology. Perhaps a history lesson would have taught Gross, and Secretary Clinton, more than they pick up from their tweets.
> Saul Landau's new film, WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP, is distributed by Cinema Libre Studio.
> Nelson Valdes is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Vicente "Panama' Alba
> panama.alba at gmail.com
> Tel # 917 626 5847
> 
> "Lets Be Realistic
> Lets Do The Impossible"
> Ernesto "Che" Guevara
> 
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