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Medea Benjamin Looks Back on 2005
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, gives her perspective on what she believes were positive things that happened in a very bad year, and why we must resolve to keep fighting in 2006.
10 Good Things about Another Bad Year
By Medea Benjamin
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 29 December 2005
As we close this year, a year in which we were pummeled by the Iraq war, attacks on our civil rights, and Mother Nature's fury of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there is no shortage of reasons to feel bruised and beaten. But to start the New Year with a healthy determination to keep on fighting, we need to reflect on the good things that happened. And there are plenty.
One continent alone - South America - could provide more than ten examples of wonderful progressive victories, but I'll just list some of the highlights.
1. Hugo Chavez has shown how an oil-rich nation can use the country's wealth to provide education, healthcare and small business opportunities for its people - and we here in the US have discovered an oil company we can feel good about buying gas from: Venezuela's CITGO.
2. Bolivians have, for the first time in their history, elected an indigenous president, Evo Morales. The former llama farmer and coca grower has fought against "free trade" and the privatization of his nation's resources, and has brought new hope to indigenous people throughout the continent.
3. Anti-war activists - who once represented a much-maligned minority - now represent the majority of Americans who agree that the war in Iraq was a mistake and the troops should come home as soon as possible. And with Cindy Sheehan and Cong. Jack Murtha, we finally had spokespeople the mainstream media listened to!
4. In an historic blow to the Bush administration's five-year attempt to destroy the Kyoto Protocol, the climate summit in Montreal ended with even stronger measures to combat global warming. At home, nearly 200 cities are taking their own Kyoto-type actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
5. The Senate ended the year with a spurt of defiance, refusing to permanently extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, blocking the Republican maneuver to attach Arctic oil drilling to a defense spending bill, and passing John McCain's anti-torture amendment.
6. Despite a concerted offensive to lift the president's sagging public support, George Bush's approval ratings are still below 50 percent, his economic agenda (from the privatization of social security to the repeal of the estate tax) has unraveled, key cronies from Lewis Libby to Tom DeLay have fallen from grace, and 2006 might just put impeachment back into the congressional lexicon.
7. Labor, community activists and women's groups have mounted a spirited campaign against the behemoth of behemoths, Wal-Mart. And a California jury awarded $172 million to thousands of employees at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., who were denied such basic rights as lunch breaks, with 40 similar lawsuits pending in other states.
8. With the wild swings in gas prices, SUV sales have plummeted (Ford Explorer down 52%, Chevrolet Suburban down 46%), the sale of hybrids has doubled, and the US House of Representatives actually held a forum on the "peak oil theory."
9. In a great win for farm workers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers forced the fast food giant Taco Bell to raise the price for picking tomatoes (nearly doubling many workers' salaries), and now they're ready to take on an even bigger bully: McDonald's.
10. The global movement for peace and justice proved it was alive and kicking: witness Argentina during the Free Trade Agreement meetings, Hong Kong around the World Trade Organization ministerial, and the ongoing rallies against the war. The steady growth of the fair-trade movement also shows that we are not just protesting, but we're also building a more sustainable economy.
Let's make 2006 the year we broke the right-wing tide, refused to give pro-war, free-trade Democrats a free ride, and built a "people's movement" with some muscle to it. We might just get some lessons from our southern neighbors. If Mexico City's progressive mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes Mexico's next president, Latin America's revolutionary fervor will be smack up against the Texas border. Que viva el poder popular en 2006!
By Medea Benjamin
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 29 December 2005
As we close this year, a year in which we were pummeled by the Iraq war, attacks on our civil rights, and Mother Nature's fury of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there is no shortage of reasons to feel bruised and beaten. But to start the New Year with a healthy determination to keep on fighting, we need to reflect on the good things that happened. And there are plenty.
One continent alone - South America - could provide more than ten examples of wonderful progressive victories, but I'll just list some of the highlights.
1. Hugo Chavez has shown how an oil-rich nation can use the country's wealth to provide education, healthcare and small business opportunities for its people - and we here in the US have discovered an oil company we can feel good about buying gas from: Venezuela's CITGO.
2. Bolivians have, for the first time in their history, elected an indigenous president, Evo Morales. The former llama farmer and coca grower has fought against "free trade" and the privatization of his nation's resources, and has brought new hope to indigenous people throughout the continent.
3. Anti-war activists - who once represented a much-maligned minority - now represent the majority of Americans who agree that the war in Iraq was a mistake and the troops should come home as soon as possible. And with Cindy Sheehan and Cong. Jack Murtha, we finally had spokespeople the mainstream media listened to!
4. In an historic blow to the Bush administration's five-year attempt to destroy the Kyoto Protocol, the climate summit in Montreal ended with even stronger measures to combat global warming. At home, nearly 200 cities are taking their own Kyoto-type actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
5. The Senate ended the year with a spurt of defiance, refusing to permanently extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, blocking the Republican maneuver to attach Arctic oil drilling to a defense spending bill, and passing John McCain's anti-torture amendment.
6. Despite a concerted offensive to lift the president's sagging public support, George Bush's approval ratings are still below 50 percent, his economic agenda (from the privatization of social security to the repeal of the estate tax) has unraveled, key cronies from Lewis Libby to Tom DeLay have fallen from grace, and 2006 might just put impeachment back into the congressional lexicon.
7. Labor, community activists and women's groups have mounted a spirited campaign against the behemoth of behemoths, Wal-Mart. And a California jury awarded $172 million to thousands of employees at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., who were denied such basic rights as lunch breaks, with 40 similar lawsuits pending in other states.
8. With the wild swings in gas prices, SUV sales have plummeted (Ford Explorer down 52%, Chevrolet Suburban down 46%), the sale of hybrids has doubled, and the US House of Representatives actually held a forum on the "peak oil theory."
9. In a great win for farm workers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers forced the fast food giant Taco Bell to raise the price for picking tomatoes (nearly doubling many workers' salaries), and now they're ready to take on an even bigger bully: McDonald's.
10. The global movement for peace and justice proved it was alive and kicking: witness Argentina during the Free Trade Agreement meetings, Hong Kong around the World Trade Organization ministerial, and the ongoing rallies against the war. The steady growth of the fair-trade movement also shows that we are not just protesting, but we're also building a more sustainable economy.
Let's make 2006 the year we broke the right-wing tide, refused to give pro-war, free-trade Democrats a free ride, and built a "people's movement" with some muscle to it. We might just get some lessons from our southern neighbors. If Mexico City's progressive mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes Mexico's next president, Latin America's revolutionary fervor will be smack up against the Texas border. Que viva el poder popular en 2006!
For more information:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/123005Z....
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I think her view on '05 was a bit overly cheerful, but let's definitly make '06 the year of the "rebirth" of the anti-imperialist movement, the likes of which haven't been seen since before 9/11/01. I want to see a huge rise in militant (yet still non-violent) direct action.
It's absolutely imperative that our resistance be strengthened in the coming months and years, meaning, our radicalizm has to extend deeper than it has for a few years. In '05 Cindy Sheehan was the most radical activist which is awesome, but sad considering that she was a "beginner". We need to get the ball rolling again and it just didn't happen in '05.
Jeff "Free" Luers said it very well in his most recent article. Our militance is sorely lacking and that desperately needs to change.
It's absolutely imperative that our resistance be strengthened in the coming months and years, meaning, our radicalizm has to extend deeper than it has for a few years. In '05 Cindy Sheehan was the most radical activist which is awesome, but sad considering that she was a "beginner". We need to get the ball rolling again and it just didn't happen in '05.
Jeff "Free" Luers said it very well in his most recent article. Our militance is sorely lacking and that desperately needs to change.
Medea Benjamin has all the credibility of a rat as she campaigned for warmonger Democrat John Kerry for president. She should have been kicked out of the Green Party for that. The Green Party's credibility is also diminished when it promotes Democrats.
As to this list, it leaves out the highlight of the past year which must be encouraged: The New York City Transit Strike. For 3 glorious days, labor stood up and shut down the finance capital of world imperialism, New York City. Now that everyone has finally learned that the labor union bureaucrats and their rotten Democratic Party will not promote a general strike, the workers themselves next time, and there will be a next time, must organize a general strike and demand amnesty for all fines.
The news of the NYC labor strike immediately shut off the endless barrage of trash from Washington D.C. as the class struggle finally was front and center. All of the war and fascism being promoted by the Democart-Republicans is a sign of labor's weakness. When labor fights back, we can and must put an end to this stinking rotten private profit system that is the reason for war and fascism if we want peace and democracy. Contrary to Benjamin, the Iraq War was not a mistake; it was part of the endless drive for maximization of profits of the oil companies and munitions makers, the profit motive being the primary goal of capitalism, a bankrupt social order. And contrary to Benjamin, Bush's support is not anywhere near 50%, or 37% as some polls state, among the workingclass, those of us who sell our labor for less than $70,000 a year, and usually much less; it is ZERO PERCENT.
As to this list, it leaves out the highlight of the past year which must be encouraged: The New York City Transit Strike. For 3 glorious days, labor stood up and shut down the finance capital of world imperialism, New York City. Now that everyone has finally learned that the labor union bureaucrats and their rotten Democratic Party will not promote a general strike, the workers themselves next time, and there will be a next time, must organize a general strike and demand amnesty for all fines.
The news of the NYC labor strike immediately shut off the endless barrage of trash from Washington D.C. as the class struggle finally was front and center. All of the war and fascism being promoted by the Democart-Republicans is a sign of labor's weakness. When labor fights back, we can and must put an end to this stinking rotten private profit system that is the reason for war and fascism if we want peace and democracy. Contrary to Benjamin, the Iraq War was not a mistake; it was part of the endless drive for maximization of profits of the oil companies and munitions makers, the profit motive being the primary goal of capitalism, a bankrupt social order. And contrary to Benjamin, Bush's support is not anywhere near 50%, or 37% as some polls state, among the workingclass, those of us who sell our labor for less than $70,000 a year, and usually much less; it is ZERO PERCENT.
Do you actually believe what you write?
Just because you wish that bush had no support doesn't make it so.
As far as prospects for a general strike, I don't think more than six people in the whole world *ever* thought the democraps would support a general strike.
Get some fresh air, guy.
Just because you wish that bush had no support doesn't make it so.
As far as prospects for a general strike, I don't think more than six people in the whole world *ever* thought the democraps would support a general strike.
Get some fresh air, guy.
Right wing Democrat ,Jack Murtha , retired Marine Corp officer , who dutifully supported Vietnam , Lebanon, the Central American wars, Grenada, Panama, The Gulf war etc. etc. decides that the Iraqi front of this war is a tactical mistake and therefore the troops should be ''redeployed ' is no anti war ''spokesperson "' ! Give me a break ! Aside from all of the above he's all for continuing the Afghan front of this war . Sure i like to see them fighting among themselves . I was especially amused to see the Republicans label this old imperialist hitman a ''coward ''. Exploit their divisions fine . But never embrace them as one of ''us '' !
. . . there is no indication that there is anything other than cosmetic, public relations driven, opposition to the President in the Congress
all you need to do is investigate how many congressional Democrats have demanded that the NSA stop its illegal domestic surveillance of Americans
I don't know any (maybe, Kucinich did), all I have heard is that there should be "hearings"
WOW! that's a real impediment to the continuation of this activity
or, you can look over at the ongoing Alito hearings, where, again, there is cosmetic opposition that will not prevent his confirmation
looking forward to 8 or 10 Democrats taking turns filibustering a nominee that clearly believes in the creation of imperial president, a monarch?
there's a better chance of winning $1,000,000 in the lottery
the bottom line is that Bush is proceeding without any restraint upon his goal of permanently establishing an unaccountable, imperial executive as being within the mainstream of American political thought
just wait until the Democrats roll over for the next war, in Iran, Syria or Venezuela, expressing their support for it
I guess Medea has to write nonsense like this to appeal to some of the more important liberal contributors to Global Exchange, but that doesn't make it any less absurd
--Richard
all you need to do is investigate how many congressional Democrats have demanded that the NSA stop its illegal domestic surveillance of Americans
I don't know any (maybe, Kucinich did), all I have heard is that there should be "hearings"
WOW! that's a real impediment to the continuation of this activity
or, you can look over at the ongoing Alito hearings, where, again, there is cosmetic opposition that will not prevent his confirmation
looking forward to 8 or 10 Democrats taking turns filibustering a nominee that clearly believes in the creation of imperial president, a monarch?
there's a better chance of winning $1,000,000 in the lottery
the bottom line is that Bush is proceeding without any restraint upon his goal of permanently establishing an unaccountable, imperial executive as being within the mainstream of American political thought
just wait until the Democrats roll over for the next war, in Iran, Syria or Venezuela, expressing their support for it
I guess Medea has to write nonsense like this to appeal to some of the more important liberal contributors to Global Exchange, but that doesn't make it any less absurd
--Richard
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