Community | March 06, 2011 | 19 comments

Power Of Global Protest

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C1IKJYX-HQ

Vierotchka
Jonathan Schell: Global protest movements challenge global elite

Jonathan Schell is the author of twelve books, including The Fate of the Earth, The Time of Illusion, The Unconquerable World: Power Nonviolence and the Will of the People, and, his most recent book, The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger. The Fate of the Earth, which first appeared in The New Yorker, was hailed by The New York Times as "an event of profound historical moment." It received the Los Angeles Times book prize, among other awards, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Critics Award. In 1966-7, Schell was a reporter in Vietnam for The New Yorker, where he remained as a staff writer until 1987. In the 1987, he was a fellow at The Institute of Politics, at the Kennedy School of government, and, in 2003, a fellow at Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy also at the Kennedy School, From 1990 to 1996, he was a columnist at New York Newsday. He has taught at many universities, including Wesleyan, Emory, Princeton, The New School, and the Yale Law School. He is currently The Harold Willens Peace Fellow at the Nation Institute, Peace and Disarmament Editor for The Nation magazine, and Visiting Lecturer at Yale College.
  1. groups:
    Community,   Human Rights,   The Reform Revolution
  2. tags:
    World News,  International News,  The Real News,  Revolution,  2 more
  3. recommended by:
    Vierotchka,
    WakeUpPeople
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19 comments // Power Of Global Protest // Video

  • SIBob
    • +1
      SIBob  
    • Image

    • The argument that protest should not depend on permits from government is a good one. It is the spontaneous mass movements that bring oppression to its knees. That is what has happened around the world. Having been corralled behind barriers in NYC a week ago while moving traffic took precedence I can see the limits of effectiveness. Most of us could not even see the speakers.
      A number of years back the police tactic at the sites of political conventions where protesters were sequestered in out-of-the-way places, (stockades), kind of defeated the whole point. The point is to be seen and heard.
      Only recently, mostly through the efforts of the Wisconsin protesters, have the major domestic news organizations been paying serious attention to dissent in our own country.
      Because the Fairness Doctrine is not enforced in broadcasting many find it necessary to take to the streets to be heard, (although the internet goes a long way to getting the message across).
      http://sibob.org/wordpress/

    • 1 year ago
  • Nick19
  • gatormouth
    • +1
      gatormouth  

    • The people ruining America are not stupid. Don't try to give them cover! They are very rational people who are ruled by their own interests and sheer greed. To call those who de-industrialized and outsourced our jobs, manufacturing, and industrial capital "stupid" is a mis-direction. They knew and know what they did. The decades in which they slowly eroded and re-wrote OUR laws to give Multinational (or better, Post National) corporations power over the destiny of our nation was not stupidity in action. It was deceit and subversion, but it was not stupid. And although the Republican party was the champion for the Post Nationals in this, allowing the lobbyists to buy their votes in a "Pay for Play" model resembling that of a brothel, BOTH major parties were involved. Neo Cons and Neo Liberals are opposite faces of the same bogus currency and the "Centrists" are a redux of 19th century Italian Transformists, attempting to limit both "far" Left AND Right from politics for ease of rule. And becoming anti-democratic in the process.

    • 1 year ago
  • sffsmessiah
  • EmileZ
  • RaceBannon
    • +1
      RaceBannon  
    • EmileZ:

      I figure ssffs' point is to say by going through the channels of dissent allowed by the state you benignly make any type of struggle ineffective from the moment you apply for a permit from the local government.
      The middle east is teetering on insurrection by the people; thats how things change by a mass movement making noise however and wherever it sees fit. We have a lot to learn indeed...

    • 1 year ago
  • gatormouth
    • 0
      gatormouth  
    • Image
    • EmileZ:

      Our two major parties compete on hot button social "Wedge" issues, the contest is of Middle class vs. the wealthy and corporate interests, the poor and working class is never mentioned in their debate. Our politicians respond to corporate money, neither party even questions the disastrous "Free Trade" and de-industrialization politics of the past and present. Progressives are demonized as Far Left by the administration but the last president with significant Progressive policies was Richard Nixon, never mind Eisenhower and T.R. ! http://hubpages.com/hub/Richard-Nixon--The-Progressive-President

    • 1 year ago
  • EmileZ
  • EmileZ
  • sffsmessiah
    • 0
      sffsmessiah  
    • EmileZ:

      The state is a profoundly anti-worker institution, and defends private control of production at the expense of economic, social and political privilege, even when such defence denies its citizens the ability to enjoy material independence and the social autonomy. As the conflict is one of class, only action carried out by the workers themselves-- concentrated on attaining a goal directly, as opposed to indirect action, such as electing a representative to a government position – will allow workers to liberate themselves.

      The "revolution" is against capital itself, so reverting to the authority of the state whose sole aim is to protect that capital is to miss the point. It doesn't matter who is elected/appointed if the "elite" still control the means of production, firing workers for wage-slaves and taking record profits. They justify their exploitation with the lie they "create jobs," which arise from human necessity, regardless of whether those who own the property that is profited on (forests, oil, natural resources, technology) are there to begin with.

    • 1 year ago
  • sffsmessiah
  • 2damax
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • EmileZ
  • WakeUpPeople
  • Seauvan
    • 0
      Seauvan  

    • I agree that governments around the world will not necessarily "bow to American pressure" as they did during the Cold War. Those wielding THE REAL POWER IN AMERICA (corporations, oligarchs, etc.) will use economic pressure to get the cooperation they want. Most people don't want "America", just the same level of prosperity. That's a very tempting apple for most people.

    • 1 year ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Seauvan:

      Most people aren't even aware of the level of prosperity of the USA, but most people aspire to freedom and to have a decent home, enough food for their family, and the possibility of having all their children educated.

    • 1 year ago
  • Seauvan
    • 0
      Seauvan  
    • Vierotchka:

      Are you saying if you asked everyone in the world "Name the richest country." MOST PEOPLE would not answer "The United States"? If so, okay then.

      I entirely agree with the rest of your comment.

    • 1 year ago
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