Indian farmers discuss
and decide their course of action to defend
their rights
at
mass meetings, this one in Muzaffarnagar,
September 5, 2021.
At Biden's Democracy Summit and since then,
over and over
again, the claim is made that the U.S. is the
bastion of democracy.
While no doubt many immediately recognized the
fraud of the U.S. claim,
the fraud concerning democracy itself may have
been missed. Biden
recognized that there is great dissatisfaction
among peoples worldwide
with "democratic governments that they feel are
failing to deliver for
their needs." Battles for democracy are raging
in the U.S. and
worldwide, such as those demanding health care
for all and everything
needed for all to combat COVID-19, justice and
accountability, peace
and an end to aggressive wars and sanctions, the
affirmation of rights
of women, Indigenous peoples, refugees, workers,
youth, farmers and
others. Peoples around the world are indeed
dissatisfied with existing
governments and their failure and dysfunction.
The peoples'
battles are also going beyond those to defend
rights within the
existing liberal democracies. They are
addressing the quality and
character of democracy itself which is what
comprises the
battle of democracy. That battle has
entered a new phase as a
result of the growing organized resistance and
consciousness of the
peoples that they need to directly exercise
control over the decisions
which are made in their name. There is a
consciousness that they could
do a far better job of governing. Biden's drive
and initiative is to
put different forms and rules in place to block
this striving of the
people to themselves exercise control over the
decisions which affect
their lives.
A main problem he faces is that in
striving to perpetuate the old and exhausted
U.S.-style democracy and
its constitution, he is attempting to defraud
history, the forward
march of history, which is demanding modern
definitions of democracy
and forms and structures consistent with modern
times. He is ignoring
the existing clash between conditions of life
for the majority and
authority by and for the rich. Conditions are
demanding an end to the
existing authority of the rulers and a democracy
of the peoples' own
making, where the people decide. The fraud being perpetuated is not only that the U.S. or India,
or Britain, France, Canada and other countries do not and cannot
deliver on human rights, but that they are trying to uphold a system
whose aim is to keep in check the striving of humanity to bring into
being governing authorities which are consistent with the conditions
today -- with humanity's great advance in terms
of all its human
productive powers and ability to humanize the
natural and social
environment and bring into being societies which
are fit for human
existence.
The battle of democracy has
entered a new phase in that the existing
democracy of the rulers is not
only unsustainable, it is rapidly driving the
world in a backward and
dark direction of greater wars and destruction
of the human and natural
environment.
The Old has no future. This is
something which terrifies the rulers who are
doing everything in their
power to escape history. The battle of
democracy recognizes
that it is time to make way for the New, like
drafting modern
constitutions which bring into being
arrangements and societies
constituted in the interests of the people. Part
of making way for the
New is settling scores with the Old,
particularly the old forms and
concepts of democracy enshrined in existing
institutions and
constitutions.
It is not an accident that Biden
chose to call his plans a Presidential
Initiative for
Democratic Renewal. He is hitting not only
at existing
authorities and striving to put in place
different organizational
forms. He is also targeting the thinking and
outlook of the peoples to
affirm their right to be; their growing demands
that their rights be
met and that governments that refuse to do so
should be removed. He is
trying to undermine the work done by the
fighting forces which
represent the interests of the people all over
the United States as
well as abroad whose claims on what belongs to
them by right are
bringing forward modern conceptions of democracy
and equality, modern
definitions of rights by virtue of being human
which humanize the
natural and social environment and open the path
to progress.
For example, the U.S. commonly promotes
concepts like "we the
people," and that U.S. democracy is government
"of, by and for the
people." This phrasing is promoted on a world
scale and often taken up
by those fighting for democracy. Indeed, the
pressure is such that "of,
by and for the people" is put forward as the
goal of the battle
of democracy. A problem is that the
phrasing provides a
reference point to the existing U.S.-style
democracy. It comes from a
civil war speech by Lincoln, at Gettysburg. As a
reference point, it
serves to reinforce that it is this U.S.-style
democracy that must not
"perish from the earth," as Lincoln put it. It
seeks to divide people
into deciding what and who are legitimately
democratic using the
U.S.-style democracy as the model and goalpost.
Part
of the problem is that "the people," and "rule
by the people" are not
defined. An impression is given that "we the
people," refers to the
majority. But both in form and content, in the
existing liberal
democracies, it does not. Biden, for example,
has repeatedly said that
"we the people is the government." The rule is
by the government, and
the people are the ones governed. Vice President
Kamala Harris at the
Summit spoke in a similar manner. She said,
"Democracy is the people.
And democracy is our best hope. So, as we go
forward, let us do the
work that democracy requires. Let us go to work,
let us deliver
together for the people."
Both make clear that
there is a separation between the people, those
governed, and those
governing. Those governing, the "we" and "let
us" referred to are the
government: "Let us deliver together for the
people." In this manner,
the modern striving of the peoples for democracy
to be a people's
democracy is blocked. It is a given that a
people's democracy must
empower the people themselves to govern and
decide -- not
representatives of the rich.
The notion promoted is
that this separation between those governing and
those governed over,
cannot be overcome. Government is seen as
something ruling over the
vast majority, not something controlled by them
and accountable to them.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 1 - January 9, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/Articles/M5200110.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
