Democracy From Below
By Rana Bose
04/12/06 "Counter
Currents" -- -- Something is happening in this
post-Cold War era of struggles for social justice. There is a spectre once again haunting the world, when it comes to popular
movements. It is the spectre of movements rooted in pragmatic
thinking (as opposed to hidebound theory), enjoying significant
popular support and more importantly aligned internationally
with a global enthusiasm to counter the will and strong arm
tactics of a failing empire known as the United States. These
movements are firmly rooted in their people and at the same time
they have an astounding maturity that combines the local and
indigenous element with the global condition. They have a plan
for the immediate and a plan for the future. They want to
achieve what is achievable, today, taking the people along with
them, make the necessary compromises and they have in certain
cases the resources to fight the onslaught of finance and
military muscle arranged against them, with their own resources.
The depression in the left-wing camp after the demise of the
erstwhile Soviet Union has been put aside. It is a period of
recovery. Whereas the media-savvy Chiapas-style movement
combined a certain contemporariness with indigenous mass
involvement in an era of combating “globalization”, the current
condition is best described by two developments of a different
nature. Nepal and Venezuela represent this new development and
have basically drawn a “line in the terrain of the whole world”
so as to speak.
The Maoists in Nepal have proven repeatedly that while they can
operate with impunity in the jungles and mountains and have
virtually surrounded all the major centers (and can even knock
out military helicopters from the skies) they can also come out
of their hideouts and give interviews to the BBC and many other
mainstream media and eloquently present themselves as having
consistently asked for a constituent assembly and a multi-party
system. Their demand for Nepal to come out of an archaic
monarchist-feudal era run by palace buffoons and military thugs,
rings true. They have also successfully aligned themselves with
mainstream opposition parties to form a classic United Front
against backward elements and toadies.
Theirs is a genuine armed struggle whose end goal is to end the
armed struggle. They have clearly advanced in forming a parallel
society in the countryside and are already running it and
defending it. The fabled Royal Nepalese Army can do very little
except to confine themselves to city centers and launch
occasional forays and cause civilian casualties. The Maoists
also admit to their mistakes openly, do not have illusions of
marching into Katmandu at the head of a column of tanks and also
do not expect a communist regime to emerge out of such a feudal
developmental stage that Nepal is in.
The Maoists in Nepal also know that the Indian government (and
its so-called Left wing allies) would not like to see a
successful Maoist movement in Nepal and its impact on Indian
Maoists. They also know what the nearly hysterical rants of the
US Ambassador to Nepal amount to and they also know what the
totally misguided policies of the government of China amount to.
They see their struggle for basic democracy as defending the
rights of the poorest sections of the Nepalese people who form
the majority of Nepal’s poverty–ridden population, while walking
a very tight corridor of international intrigue and intrusion.
They know how to negotiate. They know how to call a cease-fire
and also go on the offensive. They know how to stick to their
promises and they also expose the buffoon king every day,
without much effort. Their maturity should be a lesson for those
who in India have thumped their chests for nearly forty years
announcing that liberation was imminent for the Indian
peasantry. Their call for a democratic constitution born out of
a constituent assembly-- no one should doubt.
Several continents away another story is emerging. Out of Latin
America a spate of alliances and changes have started happening
with Venezuela leading the foray with their Bolivarian
revolution asserting the right of nations to develop their
economies independent of the diktat of the policies of the
US-led IMF and World Bank. Latin American nations are forming
their own alliances regionally and no amount of demonizing and
Hugo-bashing can detract from the fact that Venezuela is
significantly more democratic and an open society, then the
Latin America that the United States would like to see. In
Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, and even in Uruguay, Brazil and
Chile one can see a growing assertion of people and indigenous
movements to come out of the centuries old stranglehold of US
policies operating through tin-pot dictatorships and fascistic
military putschists of the old era. The Monroe doctrine has been
pitched and cannot be revived. Even the Sandinistas may soon be
back in power. In Latin America, there is one important element
to be recognized. For once, oil wealth is being turned into a
resource to provide health, education, housing and food for the
poor. In fact Venezuela even controls one of the largest oil
companies operating in the US (Citgo) and has effectively
offered discount gasoline to the poorer sections of the US
population and it is actually a functional operation in many
southern states, even though the United States hates to admit
it.
The dilemma with pre-democratic (feudal Nepal) and
“post-democratic”( post-feudal Venezuela and Latin America) is
that both palace thugs and modern capitalists require the
trappings of “democracy” to go about palace intrigue and capital
accumulation. A subservient social class that can maintain this
set-up for the kings and the Pinochets of the world have now
been virtually made to run in both Nepal and Venezuela.
Methods of popular self-government (village people’s committees)
and barrio assemblies have been developed to run civic society
more and more. What has radicalized both Nepalese society and
Venezuelan society is the “decommissioning” of these
“middle-forces” (the petit-bourgeoisie representatives) and
their “democratic” institutions. These institutions relied on
the legacy of “aid” “loans” and the attendant dependence and
corruption to completely paralyze these economies. This has all
come to a head. In Nepal, by the assertion of the Maoists
through their ten-year consistent armed self-defense and
widespread popularization of their struggles and in Venezuela by
the brash but thoughtful assertion of Hugo Chavez to tear up old
arrangements where Venezuela’s oil billions went to a handful of
wealthy families and instead use that wealth to fight poverty.
Democracy from below is replacing democracy from above. The
world is witnessing, in Nepal and Venezuela, a phenomena that is
rare. Two different types of popular and pragmatic uprisings in
a post-doctrinal era.
Rana Bose is a novelist, performance artist and engineer
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