Korean Comrades in Struggle
It was my honor to march and rally in solidarity with an incredibly powerful group of anti-globalization activists from Korea, New York, and Seattle last Friday. They have been camped out in Bozeman and BigSky Montana for ten days, facing agressive police harrassment, an inattentive media and sleeping for two nights in zero degree temperatures in the cordoned off corner of a parking lot designated a "free speech zone". In the plush resort conference center trade representatives were hammering out differences in the fifth round of talks in what is called the Kor-US FTA. We all (those who read here generally) know the destructive aspects of these NAFTA clone deals, especially to small farmers, peasants, and workers so I won't go into detail. What I did want to express was my admiration for the fighting spirit, demonstrated in so many ways by these fearless people. This was demonstrated through the sacred aspect of resistance, through laughter, song, dance and sharing of food and drink. Lots of drink.
I also had the pleasure of celebrating the struggle through testimonies, toasts, roasts and a generally hilarious good time. These are definately my kind of warriors, activists who had been to Seattle, Hong Kong, Miami, Cancun and wherever else these ministers try to meet in secrecy. I had a great discussion through a translator with JeonSung-Do, deputy general secretariat of the KoreanPeasants League, and not only learned a great deal about a nation and society with which Americans share a great deal of painful history, but also learned just how much I don't know but need to learn. It was heartening once again to see so many determined and powerful women actively leading a movement for social justice and to see that so many around the globe have made the same analysis as I concerning the predatory nature of capitalism and the need for deep , radically democratic change.
posted by troutsky @ 10:32 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Intrepid indeed, 0°, two nights in a parking lot during a ten day camp out. So, with the exception of this post, does the gathering effect anything other than the campers' increased solidarity? If there were no media coverage, and they stayed in the parking lot, who knew that gave a shit except the already aware? Don't get me wrong, the renewed solidarity may have been enough and I'm glad for you, but from here it seems in vain. And in my preferrence for weather, torturous. Sorry, Bro.
Wait, maybe I do understand the logic: They had the meeting where the weather would solve the problem of pesky protesters, Montana in the winter, and this fearless band were there to remind them they are always being watched so long as they don't go underground. Where next time, Yucca Mountain?
It all seems so futile to appeal to or protest the arrogant indifferent. Taking their fangs out of our necks and living without the dubious necessity of their goods and services seems much more viable for the people in both the immediate satisfaction of independent, responsible living and the eventual collapse of corporate capitalism without the blood of our paychecks to drink.
One small skirmish in a very large and long battle, my friend,and effects are not always readily apparent.
Removing myself from the "grid" will do little to help the hundreds of millions moving weekly into the global mega slums because capitalist trade regimes kicked them off their land.Stopping ecological destruction will take coordinated political action or we will have nothing pristine to return to.Ill let you know where the next action is!
nice work guys. I see time and time again that people get along fine. It is the leaders of countries that want us not to get along.
Next time I'm sure, they'll mobilize more people.
nice work guys. I see time and time again that people get along fine. It is the leaders of countries that want us not to get along.
But it is the people of the world who go along with what their leaders say. You can blame the evil of the Nazis, say, on Hitler, but ultimately the people were culpable in the atrocities. If men are so good, why do we follow such bad leaders?
I agree to some extent wiser, but people are conditioned. Whether it is a despotic regime or a democracy, the leaders main goal is to control public opinion (or as Alexander Hamilton called us, the "great beast.") Manufacturing consent. Walter Lippmann's Platonic elitist society has come about.
although as I said, I do agree the public has to shoulder some of the blame. Especially here, where if you look hard enough, the information is out there.
I believe you hit on a good point Wiser, those that believe the "great leader" version of history ( I know graem has a more nuanced understanding) do us a dis-service. Sadaam could only be a "tyrant" with a certain degree of co-operation, which is why the "liberation" was not what the idealists thought it would be.Same for Stalin, Franco, PolPot, Pinochet etc.Not everyone is terrorized into going along, there are more subtle methods of coercion, as graem points out.we are all guilty to some degree of this "going along", knowing about the forced starvation of so many but burying the moral outrage in layers of denial.Bush is the classic true believer in both this simple version of history and in the philosophy that "you can do good and do well".
Trout,
It would seem that cutting off corporate money supply, our paychecks, would stop the "capitalist trade regimes" being able to buy toilet paper much less pay an army to defend their total uselessness without slavish believers. Trying to feed and clothe the dispossessed through government cooperation is only requiring more of a government to go first and lead as if we still believe their agenda is the same as the people as we procrastinate real outrage with erudite, properly footnoted discussion of the latest atrocity noted.
As far as very large and long battles go, isn't that the way Bush described Iraq? Why do I get the feeling that opposing evil only makes it feel more doggedly and dogmatically justified? Living a good life independent of them is not only the best revenge for any exploitation suffered, but the best example one could set for the new society to replace follow the elite leader system. Maybe.
I hear you, gregrandgar,and am hyper-aware of the totalitarian possibilities inherant in any "movement",epecially in the concept of a "vanguard". Maybe we shouldn't be thinking in terms of either or (particular OR univeral, personal OR political)but in uniting the two.Lifestyle can be both an example and something to organize around. To simply have a "demonstration project" and expect the free and willing participation of others to gain enough momentum for deep change is to underestimate the forces by which production reproduces itself and protects itself.Millions have died in the struggle for change. And we are running short on time.This possibility of "living without the dubious necessity of their goods and services" has existed for some time yet one sober look at consumer society shows the power of "countervailing" forces.Just as the "dictatorship of the proletariat" did not spring forth from historical processes as automatically as predicted ,a sustainable society will not just "happen" through example.
"a sustainable society will not just "happen" through example."
Agreed, but, as you said, it doesn't have to be an either or thing. So long as the revolution doesn't want to drive the same old car, it doesn't have to ask for the keys, or represent everyone if it is disruptive except to let the same old car run out of gas money. As tribal sized cooperatives form, seperate from those still dependent on leaders, it need be no more than a philososphical difference with seperate financial arrangements accounted by internet linkup.
No one even need move to form the tribe any more than they do to form a team blog. So that as the example of several tribes in your home town begin to thrive off the grid by investing in sustainable power sources whose surplus is income, and having farmers markets with their surplus organic food, etc. the example will be far more influential than I think you were speaking of. Maybe
Sure, we'll all still be getting an income until such time that the infrastructure and perhaps locations either in established neighborhoods or the wilderness could be occupied if necessary for the cohesion of the tribe. The ultimate goal is to starve the elite as sustainably as possible. Part of the long hair of the hippies was the desire not to be sheared as sheep
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