Written by Stamatis Karagiannopoulos
Monday, 06 June 2011

YESTERDAY A MILESTONE WAS PASSED in the social and political situation in Greece and throughout Europe. Impressive mobilizations rolled across the country: half a million in Athens and rallies  of thousands of people gathered in Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, Volos, Heraklion, etc. This places Greece on the threshold of a revolutionary situation. It means that, for the first time in decades the developed capitalist countries of Europe are faced with the prospect of a revolution with continental dimensions.

Half a million protesters in Athens – Uprising across the country

Yesterday’s gathering in Athens, apart from its impressive size, had many new elements. The awkwardness and blind rage that characterized the first days of the movement have given way to enthusiasm. The masses have acquired a sense of confidence through the collective show of strength. While the early days were focused on the idea of a silent angry people, yesterday the mood had changed. The people shouted ingenious slogans against the government and the “Troika”, and everywhere groups of people were spontaneously formed in which everyone wanted to express an opinion on the movement and on the next steps to be taken.

At the same time, in the most advanced part of the protesters, especially in the youth, an interest to seek a political solution for the “next day” was evident. This explains the enormous interest in participating in the People’s Assembly of Syntagma Square, which was attended by 10,000 people, patiently waiting to participate, although very few were able to speak.

From 9.30 pm onwards, the density of the protest made it impossible even to approach the site of the assembly. The predominant element in the meeting was the spontaneous opinions voiced by ordinary workers, unemployed and young people expressing the need to continue the struggle.

Many proposals were made: “to besiege the parliament on the day the austerity measures are put to the vote”; “to fight to set up popular meetings in every neighborhood”; “to put into practice the decision of the People’s Assembly for an indefinite general political strike”; “to fight the media propaganda with an organized campaign in the neighborhoods and squares”. On one point all were agreed:  “next Sunday there will be a million people in the streets of Athens!”

The situation becomes revolutionary

The masses are erupting onto the scene very dramatically and are consistently to the forefront. The climate in the neighborhoods this week highlights the potential for mass assemblies. The enthusiasm from the protests is being carried into every workplace, thereby putting tremendous pressure on the leadership of the unions to take action. Already the GSEE leadership has been forced to call a 24 hour strike of all those companies that are soon to be privatized on Thursday 9th June. For the first time these workers will be engaged in coordinated action, while another 24 hour general strike was announced for 15th June.

It is certain that this general strike will be different to those we saw last year. Coming as part of the general escalation of the mass movement that has developed in the squares, it will have a much greater participation than before in the private sector. And it will be combined with the most widespread popular protests in decades. This strike will not mobilize only a part of the working class, but will tend to embrace the vast majority of the working class and trade unions. It will put the proletariat at the head of a struggle that is not a struggle for economic demands alone, but a political struggle of the masses in the streets. This strike therefore will have an inner tendency to become a lasting general strike, regardless of the intentions of the bureaucracy.

What is [a] revolutionary situation?

In the writings of Lenin and Trotsky, we can find the definition of what is a revolutionary situation. In his book “The failure of the Second International” (1916) Lenin explained:

“What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? We shall certainly not be mistaken if we indicate the following three major symptoms: (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is a crisis, in one form or another, among the “upper classes”, a crisis in the policy of the ruling class, leading to a fissure through which the discontent and indignation of the oppressed classes burst forth. For a revolution to take place, it is usually insufficient for “the lower classes not to want” to live in the old   way; it is also necessary that “the upper classes should be unable” to live in the old way; (2) when the suffering and want of the oppressed classes have grown more acute than usual; (3) when, as a consequence of the above causes, there is a considerable increase in the activity of the masses, who uncomplainingly allow themselves to be robbed in “peace time”, but, in turbulent times, are drawn both by all the circumstances of the crisis and by the “upper classes” themselves into independent historical action.

“…..The totality of all these objective changes is called a revolutionary situation. Such a situation existed in 1905 in Russia, and in all revolutionary periods in the West;…”

Trotsky in 1940, in the Emergency Manifesto explained the necessary conditions for the victory of the proletariat:

“The basic conditions for the victory of the proletarian revolution have been established by historical experience and clarified theoretically: (1) the bourgeois impasse and the resulting confusion of the ruling class; (2) the sharp dissatisfaction and the striving towards decisive changes in the ranks of the petty bourgeoisie, without whose support the big bourgeoisie cannot maintain itself; (3) the consciousness of the intolerable situation and readiness for revolutionary actions in the ranks of the proletariat; (4) a clear program and a firm leadership of the proletarian vanguard—these are the four conditions for the victory of the proletarian revolution.” (Manifesto of the Fourth International on Imperialist War and the Imperialist War).

All these elements have developed in Greece today. The ruling class begins to understand that they cannot govern as before; to lie and deceive the masses, i.e. with the old, gentle, “democratic” means. The suffering and indignation of the masses have been growing over a long period. The masses have already begun to move independently of the ruling class.

The ruling class finds itself in a state of unprecedented confusion because of the impasse. They are absolutely unable to reach to a unified strategy. Some say:  “we must completely capitulate to the foreign lenders and see where we can go from there”. Others suggest that Greece should “renegotiate with the troika”, while still others say we must “get out of the euro now in order to strengthen the country’s competitiveness.” Some say: “let’s form a national government”, while others urge Papandreou to continue carrying out the dirty work until he gets the boot. Some, are even secretly studying the possibility of a coup, in an attempt to put the brake on the movement of the masses. This scenario was outlined in a leaked report by the CIA in the bourgeois press last week.

The desertion of 16 PASOK MPs from the government over the issue of new cuts and taxes, shows that the pressure of the movement has destabilized the government’s parliamentary group for good. New Democracy and LAOS, fearing that they will go down together with Papandreou’s sinking ship, are now keeping their distance from the government, trying to speculate on the result of a future election.

The traditional mainstay of the bourgeoisie, the middle classes have been radicalized and are now in the streets. The proletariat again and again shows its readiness to act. All the basic elements for a revolutionary situation have matured. The only thing that is lacking is a clear programme and firm leadership of the proletarian vanguard. That is all that is needed quickly to convert the revolutionary situation into a victorious revolution which will expropriate the exploiters and eliminate capitalism, setting in motion a movement that can lead to the victory of socialism in Greece, the Mediterranean and throughout Europe.

The leadership of the Left is acting criminally

Ever since the beginning of mass movement on the streets, the Left leaders have adopted an unacceptable attitude. The leadership of the Communist Party sends ultimatums to the people located in squares, urging them to “finally make the right policy proposals!” (See main article in Rizospastis on 3 / 6). The task of a Communist Party leadership is not to ask the movement to “make the right policy proposals”, but to participate actively in the movement, to try to raise the of consciousness and help the masses to formulate the correct demands.

Last Friday, the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party made complete fools of themselves in front of the eyes of thousands gathered in the Syntagma Square. That afternoon a demonstration of PAME, the trade union faction of the Communist Party, ended up in the Square. There they delivered a 15-minute speech, during which the Communist Party called on the people assembled on the squares ex cathedra “not to trust anybody else except PAME”.

When the speech was over, in order to avoid mixing up the protesters in the square with the Communist workers, the organizers of the PAME demo immediately ordered members of the Communist Youth to form “chains” and immediately, the “Communist” left the square. In this way, the Stalinist leadership of the Communist Party has proved eloquently their organic inability to connect with the real mass movement. They have shown that they regard it simply as a means of strengthening the Party’s position in the parliamentary elections.

On the other hand, the leadership of SYRIZA refuses to enter the movement openly and boldly. It is a very serious mistake just to ask for elections, without making any proposal on how to further develop the movement, when people are on the streets, getting self-organized, ready to get rid of the government and the “troika” altogether. It is also an incorrect attitude of the CC of Synaspismos (decision 29 / 5) to ask Party members to participate in the movement, while pretending to be “non-partisan”; ” … In this movement we participate as citizens, trying to listen and learn, we take part in uniting our voice with thousands of angry in  each square of the country …. “.

The rank and file of the Left parties should respond to this damaging attitude. The position of comrade Alexis Tsipras (President of Synaspismos) and comrade Aleka Papariga (Secretary of the Communist Party) must not be confined to party offices and television panels. The place of the leaders of the Left in these moments is in Syntigma and the other squares. If the Left fails to participate openly and boldly in the movement, with appropriate ideas and suggestions that will help lead to victory and the final overthrow of the capitalist system of slavery, the core of the movement will be occupied by all sorts of petty-bourgeois and professional “patriots” who are trying to obscure the social content of the movement, replacing the class struggle with nationalist confusion.

The working class must lead the struggle!

The outbreak of this mass movement in the squares, found the labour movement in a state of fatigue and frustration, mainly because of the devastating role of the union bureaucracy, which up to now imagined they could defuse the militant mood of hundreds of thousands of workers with an occasional 24-hour general strike. So naturally, the initiative in the fight against the government and the “Troika”, passed from the unions to broader sections of people, who had not been involved in mobilizations in the last few years.

Unemployed university graduates, skilled and unskilled unemployed, young people without work experience, middle class people devastated by taxes and robbing banks and the collapse of the market, workers without any union or political affiliation, students who are just beginning to be politicized, pensioners and housewives: people from all layers of the working society form the main basis of this mass movement in the squares.

These layers have a fresh and combative mood. They don’t have bureaucratic leaders above them to put the brake on the mobilization and so far, they have created a movement that has proved to be persistent and long lasting. On the other hand, as is perfectly natural, these layers’ together with explosive anger and militancy, display inexperience of mass protests and are desperately seeking appropriate political slogans, appropriate fighting methods and specific political demands.

In these circumstances, therefore, the need for a distinct contribution of the working class and the labour movement in the struggle is decisive. The decisions of the People’s Assembly of Syntagma Square calling for a general strike clearly recognize this need. Without paralyzing the economic centers of the system, there cannot be any fundamental change in society. But very little has been done until now to realize the general political strike demand.

Most of the leading layer in the Popular Assembly in Syntagma Square are under the false impression that the general strike is a merely a militant auxiliary to the demonstrations in the squares. In reality, it represents a decisive escalation of struggle and reflects a new, higher stage of this struggle. We must understand that the general strike cannot be organized by shouting slogans outside the union offices and workplaces, but must flow from the demands of the workers themselves through the trade unions and workplaces.

In working-class neighborhoods and workplaces, we must create action committees and elect strike committees to prepare for the strike. That is the only way to guarantee its success. Finally, it is vital to make clear that a general political strike will lead to the downfall of the government. It must not bring to power a government of bourgeois political careerists, but rather one of elected representatives of the people coming out of the movement itself.

Therefore, the democratic organization of the movement is a crucial issue, not only for the growth but also for the solution of the question of power in order to serve the interests and aspirations of the indignant working people. The views put forward by different groups of intellectuals within the movement on “direct procedures” and “democracy through sms and e-mails”, which are portrayed as “direct democracy”, have nothing to do either with the immediate issues or democracy.

What we need now

What we need now is:

Popular Assemblies in every neighborhood, with assemblies in the workplaces to elect recallable action committees everywhere.
Popular Assemblies in the central squares of all major cities that are composed of elected and recallable representatives at neighborhood workplaces meetings and.
The creation of a Pan-Hellenic Central Committee elected by the recallable representatives of the Popular Assemblies of the different cities.
Finally, at the heart of the struggle should be the following two demands:

A complete write-off of the debt created by Greek and foreign exploiters and thieves!
To abolish forever the nightmare of debt, poverty and unemployment we need to place the  control of the financial centers and the concentrated wealth of the country (banks, insurance companies, infrastructure, transport and big firms in every industry) under social ownership, through the  democratic control of the working people, as a step forward the victory of the revolution throughout Europe and the world!
Athens, 6 June, 2011.

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By SAUL LANDAU and NELSON VALDÉS

President Obama and his advisers share with most of the mass media the same visual weakness when it comes to Cuba: they don’t see the obvious, the crucial facts and context that stare them in the face.

As Cuba begins to undergo basic changes to its economy and governmental structure, the reporting from western media follows predictably context-free and thus irrelevant standards.

For more than a half-century, most writers and radio and TV producers have had a conscious or unacknowledged stake in the failure of the Cuban revolution. To think otherwise, reporters and advisers have learned, would be a bad career move. In order to invalidate Cuba’s attempt to change the social relation of its society and spread its word to the rest of the third world the western media has consistently failed to place a context around the events that led up to the revolution. Instead, Washington and the stenographers called “the press” judge Cuba’s revolution by U.S. standards and in the U.S. context. Cuba must always perform according to what the media assume are standards of democratic perfection. This criteria for judging, beyond its vagueness, leads one to wonder about values and priorities.

For example, on May 24, typical Earthlink headlines contained the following back-to-back leads:

“NATO hits Tripoli; US says rebels can open office.”

“Alley has lost 38 inches since ‘Dancing’ debut.”

Kristie Alley – for those “outsiders” – has become featured as an actress with weight  problems. “When Kirstie Alley performs on the “Dancing With the Stars” season finale,” the AP story begins, “she’ll do it in a much smaller dress.”

That this item gets featured as a news headline – and would not appear in the Cuban media – epitomizes the U.S. free press, which argues that it must serve its readers’ interests. But the media has helped create vicarious living (“I identify with Kirstie,” say thousands of overweight women), just as the media has encouraged shopping and watching sports on TV as the essence of spiritual life (along with the rising porn industry and experiencing vicarious thrills from reading about the sinful sexuality of the rich and famous). “Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death,” wrote Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves To Death).

When journalists judge Cuba they inevitably apply different standards than they do to the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America where “the veneration of crap” (Postman) continues to dominate.

Cuba has threatened Washington and its servile media not by being the model for education and health (many European countries are far better), but by being disobedient and cultivating different values. The vast majority of media makers have gone to report on Cuba with a conscious or unacknowledged stake in the failure of the Cuban revolution. They place no context around the events that led up to the revolution, and barely acknowledge Uncle Sam’s large boot on Cuba’s throat for 50 years. Then, they judge it by those vague standards of democratic perfection that they don’t apply to the Dominican Republic or the other neighbors.

Cuba has begun its changes, but neither President Obama nor the mass media have acknowledged them. U.S. policy demands, of Cuba, a “civil society,” while refusing to acknowledge the wide implication of the government’s initiatives with the Catholic Church. Add up the steps taken, Cuba’s cooperation with the Church carries wide implications for religious freedom and the broadening of traditional civil society.

Few U.S. media reports listed the vast increases of religious visits to and from abroad. Havana now permits public religious processions and religious blogs. The state has made scarce resources available to refurbish churches and in the last two years permitted the building of new churches and seminaries. Cuban leaders regularly show up at religious activities and allow churches to provide services to people in prison.

The Catholic Church now has radio time and its high officials have become interlocutors on matters involving prisoners, dissidents and even in foreign policy. The number of Protestant churches opening in Cuba has dramatically increased. The State no longer promotes Atheism. But these facts remain unreported as “significant change.” Indeed, every religious institution has called for an end to the U.S. embargo and the normalization of relations. The U.S. government appears to have grown deaf to the needs of religious people of the island.

Cuba is changing. U.S. policy remains stuck in its half century obsession to remove the only government Cuba has ever had that insists on retaining independence and sovereignty.

Saul Landau’s new film WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP is distributed by cinemalibrestudio.com. CounterPunch published his BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD

Nelson P. Valdes is Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico

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Antiwar.com |   May 27, 2008

David R. Henderson

The media, including the pseudoleft media, like the HuffPo, not to mention Obama, all pay obeisance to the "nation's heroes" on dates like Memorial Day, without ever mentioning the fact that most wars are waged to protect and expand the interests of a puny minority. Mystic Chords of Memory,” by contributing editor Mackubin Thomas Owens. “Mac” Owens, as he is known to friends and colleagues, is an associate dean of academics and professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Before I get to my criticism, I want to note that I spent a weekend at a conference with him about two years ago, and I like and respect him. He’s a serious academic with an important viewpoint that he articulates well. It’s exactly that fact, though, that makes his article disturbing. But Owens wants to make it more. He wants to impose meaning on the sacrifice of those who died in Vietnam and other wars. He actually starts out fine. In discussing individual acts of heroism by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, Owens quotes a statement from a book, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, by Glenn Gray: He does try, though. In the very next paragraph, Owens writes: In his last paragraph, Owens makes one last try to link the deaths of U.S. soldiers to larger principles. Earlier, he had introduced John Bobo and Paul Ray Smith, two U.S. soldiers who died in Vietnam and Iraq, respectively, and whom he regards as heroes: How did they and men like them make our weekend possible? Is Mackubin Thomas Owens, a serious scholar, claiming that if the United States government had not attacked Vietnam and had not attacked Iraq, Memorial Day weekend would have been impossible? Yes, his statement means that. http://antiwar.com/henderson/?articleid=12901 _____________________________________________________________ If you liked this article, make sure they keep on coming… (By donating to TGP without pain!) Help this cutting edge no-holds barred site by showing your support. We have T-shirts, ladies & men long sleeves, mugs, buttons, mousepads, and more! Everything top quality and reasonably priced. In a huge assortment of colors, sizes. M-F-Kids. Orders filled in 24 hours. Be sure to visit our Zazzle store and get one today!     Vermont Enacts Conditional Universal Healthcare Coverage By Stephen Lendman Numerous previous articles discussed Obamacare, described accurately as a rationing scheme to enrich insurers, drug companies and large hospital chains in lieu of universal single payer coverage. Obama hailed its March 2010 passage as answering “the call of history.” In fact, Ralph Nader was right calling it a “pay-or-die system that is the disgrace of the Western world,” costing double what other Western countries spend and delivering less, rationing care to enrich corporate providers while making a dysfunctional system worse. Under it, junk insurance policies leave millions underinsured. Costs remain out-of-control. Insurers can still deny care by delaying, contesting, preventing or over-charging people from accessing it. Yet everyone must be covered or penalized if opt out, a provision many states are contesting as a lawless unconstitutional infringement. Moreover, company-provided policies will be taxed as ordinary income, harming working households most of all. After passage, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) denounced it, saying the new law “enrich(es) and further entrenches private insurers, forcing millions of Americans to buy” defective coverage leaving most worse off than before at a cost of hundreds of billions of tax dollars given predators to game the system for profit, the public losing out. Moreover, 23 million Americans will remain uninsured, “translate(d) into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of suffering.” In fact, Obama’s centerpiece domestic policy scammed the public with a package of expensive mandates, new taxes, and sweetheart deals, creating a fragmented, dysfunctional, unsustainable system, denying Americans what they urgently need – universal coverage, an expanded, improved Medicare for all. Everyone in, no one out, what neither party or Obama delivered. Vermont Perhaps Heading for Affordable Universal Coverage After Vermont lawmakers passed the Universal and Unified Health System Act (H. 202), Governor Peter Shumlim, on May 26, signed America’s first universal system, a measure heading state residents for full coverage with lots of hurdles to overcome to make it fair, equitable and affordable. Nonetheless, Shumlin relished the moment, saying we’re: “here today to launch the first single payer system in America, to do in Vermont what has taken too long – to have health care that is the best in the world that treats (it) as a right and not a privilege, where health care follows the individual not the employer.” “This law recognizes an economic and fiscal imperative. We must control the growth in health care costs that are putting families at economic risk and making it harder for small employers to do business.” On May 26, Physicians for a National Health Program’s (PNHP) National Coordinator, Dr. Quentin D. Young said: “We salute the single-payer activists in Vermont and applaud their efforts. Although this is not a (true) single-payer bill, we will continue to support the struggle to achieve health care justice in Vermont and across the nation.” A PNHP press release said H. 202 “is much more modest in its actual reach than a (true) single-payer plan,” providing universal affordable coverage as a human right, no strings attached. “As of now, the federal Affordable Care Act prohibits states like Vermont from adopting their own models of reform until 2017.” Shumlin and other Vermonters want it earlier in 2014. Other states, including California, are considering variations of single-payer. Vermont’s bill, in fact, falls short of universal, high-quality, affordable coverage by permitting multiple private insurers, able to game the system through “multi-tiered care, rising costs and needless waste.” Moreover, enormous administrative costs remain instead of eliminating them altogether under a single-payer system, removing the middleman so state officials can negotiate reduced prices for drugs and other health services. Among other limitations, Vermont’s bill establishes a state healthcare exchange called Green Mountain Care, managed by a five-member board. It interfaces with providers on reimbursement rates under a system leaving them largely in control, a serious flaw needing correcting. Otherwise they’ll game the system to their advantage. According to PNHP co-founder Dr. David Himmelstein: Vermont’s law “leave(s) the door open for burdensome co-pays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses that deter people from seeking timely care. (Moreover), to the extent the law permits, large for-profit institutional providers (may) allocate their profits as they see fit, (denying) the system (of) the ability to do effective health planning.” As a result, much more work needs to be done to make universal coverage a reality. On Democracy Now, Dr. Deb Richter, president of Vermont Health Care for All and past PNHP president, explained the bill’s shortcomings and need to change federal law. The goal, she stressed, is true universal coverage. Everyone in, no one out in a system excluding private insurers except for those choosing that option. In fact, Vermont for Single Payer: Everybody In, Nobody Out’s Statement of Principles is as follows: “We support a universal health care system for the State of Vermont, one that includes all Vermonters, offers free choice of providers, is progressively financed, decoupled from employment, affordable for all, and pays for all necessary care out of public funds; a system which retains the private delivery of health care and has a publicly accountable budget process to ensure adequate capacity to meet the health care needs of all Vermonters.” Access VSP’s site through the following link:   http://www.vermontforsinglepayer.org/ On May 26, Vermont took an important first step toward universal coverage. It’s for Vermonters and other state residents to follow through for true affordable universality, establishing affordable health care as an inalienable human right no corporate predators or politicians can deny. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/. [donation-can goal_id=’support-tgp-before-were-gone’ show_progress=true show_description=true show_donations=false show_title=true title=”] Check out the best progressive political site on this galactic point! If information is power, The Greanville Post is your self-defense weapon of choice Read The Greanville Post by RSS Syndication (updates delivered every 4 days to your emailbox) and fortify your ability to understand the world as it really is and fight back! Just click anywhere on Lady Liberty below and enter your email address. See what the system doesn’t want you to know. The West is Trapped in its Own Propaganda May 12, 2011 Hillary Clinton Needs a Mirror The West is Trapped in its Own Propaganda By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Paul Craig Roberts One of the wishes that readers often express to me came true on May 11.  I was on the mainstream media.  It was a program with a worldwide reach–the BBC World Service.  There were others on the program as well, and the topic was Hillary Clinton’s remarks (May 10) about the lack of democracy and human rights in China. I startled the program’s host when I compared Hillary’s remarks to the pot calling the kettle black.  I was somewhat taken aback myself by the British BBC program host’s rush to America’s defense and wondered about it as the program continued.  Surely, he had heard about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo detainees, CIA secret torture prisons sprinkled around the world, invasion and destruction of Iraq on the basis of lies and deceptions, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya.  Surely, he was aware of Hillary’s hypocrisy as she demonized China but turned a blind eye to Israel, Mubarak, Bahrain and the Saudis.  China’s record is not perfect, but is it this bad?  Why wasn’t the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs criticizing America’s human rights abuses and rigged elections?  How come China minds its own business and we don’t? These questions didn’t go down well. None of the other interviewees or guests thought that Hilary had made a good decision, but even the Chinese guests were not free of the common mindset that frames every issue from the standpoint that the West is the standard by which the rest of the world is judged. By pointing out our own shortcomings, I was challenging that standard. The host and other guests could not escape from the restraints imposed on thought by the role of the West as world standard. What has happened to the West is that it can see itself and others only through the eyes of its own propaganda. There was a great deal of talk about China’s lack of democracy. As the BBC program was being broadcast, the news intruded that Greeks had again taken to the streets to protest the costs of the bailout of the banks and Wall Street–the rich–being imposed on ordinary people at the expense of their lives and aspirations. The Irish government announced that it was going to confiscate with a tax part of the Irish people’s pension accumulations.  It simply did not occur to the host and other guests that these are not democratic outcomes. It is a strange form of democracy that produces political outcomes that reward the few and punish the many, despite the energetic protests of the many. Political scientists understand that US electoral outcomes are determined by powerful moneyed interests that finance the political campaigns and that the bills Congress passes and the President signs are written by these interest groups to serve their narrow interests. Such conclusions are dismissed as cynicism and do not alter the mindset. While the program’s host and guests were indulging in the West’s democratic and human rights superiority, the American Civil Liberties Union was sending out a bulletin urging its members to oppose legislation now before Congress that would give the current and future Presidents of the United States expanded war authority to use, on their own initiative, military force anywhere in the world independently of the restraints imposed by the US Constitution and international law. In other words, in the great American “democracy,” the president is to become a Caesar. Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.  His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com [donation-can goal_id=’support-tgp-before-were-gone’ show_progress=true show_description=true show_donations=false show_title=true title=”] Check out the best progressive political site on this galactic point! If information is power, The Greanville Post is your self-defense weapon of choice Read The Greanville Post by RSS Syndication (updates delivered every 4 days to your emailbox) and fortify your ability to understand the world as it really is and fight back! Just click anywhere on Lady Liberty below and enter your email address. See what the system doesn’t want you to know.