We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Strike Wave in Europe and the Decay of Bourgeois Democracy

by Barry Grey from World Socialist Web Site

This article provides an excellent survey of the fight-backs across the globe in the class war that is currently being waged against working people. The use of the term "bourgeois democracy" is a refreshingly accurate way of describing the capitalist version of democracy which, of course, is a fake democracy, a thin veneer of managed elections behind which rules the capitalist oligarchs.
Elections, parliamentary debates have no effect on policy. The state does the bidding of the financial aristocracy, tearing up the living standards of the masses in the interests of the bankers who are responsible for the economic crisis. The financiers and corporate executives are making more money than ever by exploiting mass unemployment and growing social distress to slash wages and increase the exploitation of the working class.
It also makes clear that many "left" parties and union leaders are like dogs who, having been domesticated from the original powerful and independent wolves they once were, are now loyal to the ruling classes .
The fight for workers’ power emerges organically and inevitably out of the struggles of the working class against the attacks by the bourgeoisie. It must be conducted consciously, in opposition to the trade unions, the official “left” parties and the various middle-class pseudo-left organizations, such as the New Anti-Capitalist Party in France, that seek to keep the working class tied to the existing political setup and prevent it from mounting an independent struggle for power.