Confronting Empire
Freedom Next Time
The great liberal thinker
Walter Lippmann once described the public as a bewildered
herd. This contempt is shared today by those who claim his
elite legacy, in politics and the media. Why? Because they
fear that the so-called herd will suddenly change direction.
Posted 06/30/07
http://www.ichblog.eu/index.php?option=com_seyret&task=videodirectlink&id=56016
Click
on "comments" below to
read or post comments
Comment
Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and
relevant to the story.
We
encourage engaging, diverse and
meaningful commentary. Do not
include personal information such
as names, addresses, phone
numbers and emails. Comments
falling outside our guidelines
those including personal
attacks and profanity are
not permitted.
See our complete
Comment
Policy and
use
this link to notify us if you
have concerns about a comment.
Well promptly review and
remove any inappropriate
postings.
Excerpts -
John Pilger Speech at Socialism 2007 -
IT’S ALMOST exactly 102 years since the Industrial Workers of
the World was born here in Chicago. I learned about the IWW from
my father, Claude, who was a founding member of the Wobblies in
Sydney, Australia. The Wobblies, he would say, spoke the minds
of ordinary people and were prepared to stand up and fight--and
standing up and fighting was what mattered.
So it’s fitting that my own political education should achieve
graduation here on the streets of Chicago, during the four days
of August in 1968, when the antiwar movement marched on the
Democratic Party’s infamous convention from that year.
I was on those marches as a foreign correspondent. Although I
was tear-gassed during the battle of Michigan Avenue, I was
delighted to learn I could outrun a posse of Chicago cops,
wishing to break my head with their nightsticks.
That year and the years that followed, millions of young
Americans reclaimed much of this country from the warmakers. The
atmosphere was electric, inspiring--at times, almost
revolutionary. People from all backgrounds were proud to belong
to a movement that fought for civil rights in America and peace
in Vietnam.
What did that movement achieve? It finally ended slavery in the
South, and it stopped an all-out military mobilization that
would have set alight Asia well beyond Indochina.
Today, the same critical public intelligence is stirring again.
Generations immersed in Cold War and post-Cold War propaganda
are waking up--thanks to Bush, Cheney and Blair and the rest of
the gang. A great many people in the West no longer see humanity
merely through the eyes of their rulers and the media--as useful
or expendable, as worthy or unworthy.
I believe that fundamental changes in public attitudes are
underway, especially toward governments, patriotism and war.
It’s an awakening expressed both directly and indirectly.
Witness the millions of people who took to the streets in cities
all over the world in those two days in February 2003--the first
time in history an invasion was so widely condemned before it
began.
Witness the response of people in the West to the tsunami in
2004. While Bush and Blair offered stricken countries aid worth
less than the cost of Bush’s inauguration party, ordinary
humanity reached out. More than charity, their generosity was, I
believe, a spontaneous attempt to reclaim the politics of
community, morality and internationalism. It was a statement to
the warmongers and the neoliberal fanatics that we, the people,
are different from them.
In Britain today, the majority of opinion polls leave no doubt
that most people revile Blair as a liar. In the years I’ve lived
in Britain, I’ve never known such contempt for a prime minister.
In the last two British general elections, barely a fifth of the
eligible adult population voted for the Blair government--the
lowest turnout since the vote was won a century ago.
That wasn’t apathy, as the media like to tell us. It was, and it
is a general strike.
The great liberal thinker Walter Lippmann once described the
public as a bewildered herd. This contempt is shared today by
those who claim his elite legacy, in politics and the media.
Why? Because they fear that the so-called herd will suddenly
change direction.
They fear this because they know their power is not invincible.
That’s why they expend so much energy and wealth trying to
distract and deceive us. That’s why the New York Times on
Thursday of this week carried a full-page decrying the campaign
for sanctions against Israel. There was a sense of panic about
that ad. Why? Because the boycott campaign is growing, and
growing fast--and Tel Aviv and Washington fear its power.
Of course, there are those who argue that ordinary people have
been successfully distracted. Well, if they have, the anesthetic
is wearing off.
Who would have predicted--including, perhaps, some of you here
tonight--those recent huge demonstrations of anger by Latino
immigrants? Here were the lowest-paid, the most brutalized,
suddenly demonstrating their power. I must admit, I looked at
the pictures of that great militant spectacle on the streets of
America, and felt both admiration and a sense of longing.
Today, two-thirds of Americans want their country out of Iraq,
according to the polls. To achieve that, they voted for the
Democratic Party last November. And what did they get? They got
the usual bipartisan bullshit, and Bush got another $124 billion
to extend the war.
There have been some great demonstrations against the war, but
the so-called liberal Democrats have been allowed to confuse and
divide the forces of dissent, and not for the first time.
This was the same party in government that attacked Vietnam,
then produced a carpet-bagger, Robert Kennedy, and a false
prophet, Jimmy Carter, and clever, head-wagging Bill Clinton,
who rained bombs on Iraq and destroyed its children, while
ending the last decencies of the New Deal.
It’s surely time to abandon wishful thinking, the lesser of two
evils, and the Democrats completely--just as Britons are
abandoning Blair’s corrupted Labour Party.
And it’s surely time for the antiwar movement to address the
alienation of ordinary Americans, and express their dissent and
anger and frustration. It’s simply not good enough for certain
groups to claim their own territory. This week, in Los Angeles,
the theme of the gay pride celebration was being who you are.
That’s fine. But was there anything said about the 655,000
Iraqis who have no choice ever again to be who they are?
I believe people are never still, and that human renewal is not
a phenomenon. Yes, the continuation of a struggle at times
appears frozen. But there’s always a sea beneath the snow.
Look at countries where it seemed hopeless--where people had
nothing except their will and courage, like South Africa, East
Timor and many others. Look at Latin America today. The sheer
ferocity of the propaganda coming from the American media tells
us that something good and exciting and hopeful must be
happening down there, and it is.
Witness the triumph of indigenous people in Bolivia--the poorest
of the poor. Remember Sánchez de Lozada running for his plane to
Miami. Look at Venezuela, and the tens of thousands of people
who came down from the barrios to rescue their president.
Witness the Venezuelan children who no longer die from
preventable disease.
Look even at the Middle East, where every day, Palestinian
families get their children to school against odds that we can’t
imagine. Look at the ordinary people, who, unarmed, marched
toward the Israeli army in southern Lebanon last year, and saw
them off.
And of all the headlines about Iraq, the one we never read is
that a popular Iraqi national resistance is defeating the most
powerful invader in history.
I believe, in conclusion, that our task is straightforward. It
is to reject outright the notion that collusive liberalism sets
the limits of free debate. It is to end indulgence of
parliaments and congresses and governments that commit and
sanction crimes in our name. It is to persuade people that their
precious freedoms were not handed to them, but won by the
struggle of people just like them.
As activists, never believe that ordinary people are as
conservative as you might think they are. Remember always, how
isolated people often are. And as activists, be brave. Always
speak your mind in the face of the most casual bigotry, bullying
and hypocrisy.
For we are potentially the greatest popular movement the world
has seen. And those who regard humanity merely as useful or
expendable should be warned. People all over the world are
rising. Indeed, I would say that their resistance never
stopped--and is unbeatable
This item was first published by http://www.socialistworker.org
Send Page To a Friend
In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational
purposes. Information Clearing House has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of
this article nor is Information ClearingHouse
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
|