Progressive Good Tidings of 2007
Understanding what is wrong in our society; speaking out against injustice; denouncing abuses by the powerful. All of these are crucial tasks. Many of us devote a large part of the year to them, and they are certainly necessary if we are to create a better world.
At the same time, it is highly doubtful that these acts are sufficient. Creating positive social change takes more. It takes the knowledge that people can organize to win justice and an awareness that, even in inhospitable times, some things can go right. The holiday season provides an important moment to reflect on a few of those advances that offered hope in 2007-many of which came about just in the past few weeks.
In early December the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the NSA, released a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. The document may have single-handedly undermined the White House’s push to start yet another war in the Middle East. The report declared that Iran dropped its clandestine nuclear weapons program in 2003 and has not renewed it since. The NIE has greatly strengthened the hand of those in Washington-including many high-ranking military officials-who believe that a preemptive attack on Iran would be both unnecessary and disastrous. The NIE also solidified public opinion against military escalation and spawned a wide range of commentary denouncing the most recent round of Bush-Cheney war-mongering. The Washington Post, for one, editorialized that the report “strengthens the view, which we have previously endorsed, that this administration should not have to resort to military action to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities.”
Of course, efforts to stop a new war must continue. The NIE notwithstanding, U.S. relations with Iran remain tense, and the neoconservatives have recently been trying to regroup and articulate reasons why an attack would still be warranted. But their opponents can proceed from a much better position than before. So distraught are the far-right militarists that some have resorted to conspiracy theory: Neocon godfather and Giuliani advisor Norman Podhoretz recently voiced “dark suspicions” that the intelligence community was “leaking information calculated to undermine” President Bush.
Beyond Iran, 2007 witnessed a number of other critical shifts in policy debate. Whereas just a few years ago many public officials denied that global warming was even taking place, climate change is now almost universally regarded as one of humanity’s gravest challenges. The Nobel Committee trained a spotlight on this idea by awarding the Peace Prize to Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Upon formally receiving the award on December 10, Gore passionately decried global warming as a “threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential.” Just a week later, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, he went further by explicitly charging that “My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress” on climate policy–an unusually blunt acknowledgement which the conference attendees applauded energetically.
In their most serious drive in at least a decade to address this crisis and end U.S. dependency on foreign oil, Democrats have pushed a promising energy bill in Congress. The bill, which passed through the House on December 6, included what the New York Times calls “the first meaningful increase in fuel efficiency standards in three decades,” mandating that auto makers move from a standard of 25 miles per gallon (mpg) to 35 mpg by 2020. Due to a shameful filibuster by Senate Republicans and a threatened veto from the White House, two provisions from the original bill were removed from later versions: one would have required that at least 15 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewable alternative energy sources by 2020, while the other would have paid for this initiative by eliminating tax subsidies for oil companies. Despite these changes, the legislation marks a significant defeat for the big oil corporations and for the auto lobby. The rising public demand for action on clean energy suggests that this may be the first of many.
In another overdue but nevertheless important move, Congress passed a bill in May mandating a graduated increase in the federal minimum wage, raising it from $5.15 to $7.25–the first increase in 10 years. There were also some victories for working people on the grassroots level this year. In April, building on their 2005 victory against Taco Bell, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers won a campaign calling for McDonalds to demand that tomato growers it buys from increase wages for their farm workers. This increase will almost double wages for the workers, raising their pay from 40 cents to 72 cents per bucket of tomatoes picked. The agreement will also create a new code of conduct for labor relations and safeguard workers’ rights in future disputes. With their series of wins the Coalition of Immokalee Workers - made up of immigrant laborers who are traditionally among the most exploited in America - have provided some brilliant examples of the power of collective action.
There has also been a notable shift this year in the debate over the death penalty. On the national level, the movement to restrict capital punishment has been reinforced by actions at the Supreme Court. The Court has implemented a de facto moratorium since late September, ordering the halt of five scheduled executions while it deliberates on a case that will determine whether lethal injection constitutes a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Subsequently, on December 13, the New Jersey State legislature passed a bill outlawing capital punishment in the state, which Governor Jon Corzine signed into law the following week. New Jersey thus became the first state to abolish the death penalty since Iowa and West Virginia did so in 1965. David Fathi of Human Rights Watch argued that the move is “a very significant event for a state that has had the death penalty on its books for decades. It’s one more indication that the death penalty is on its way out in the United States.”
Advances in the global South also bode well. The rebellion in Latin America against the economics of corporate globalization continued in 2007, with governments in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela leading the march toward more progressive policies. In what ended up being a very positive development, Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez lost a public referendum on December 3 in a narrow 51-to-49 percent vote. Among other things, the constitutional amendments at issue would have abolished presidential term limits and centralized state power. Chávez graciously admitted defeat. Contrary to the hysterical voices in the mainstream press asserting that Venezuela had become a dictatorship, the referendum showed that the country’s democracy is robust and its public debate vigorous. From a progressive perspective, the referendum’s failure will encourage Chávez to broaden the leadership of his “Bolivarian revolution” and potentially pave the way for a new generation of activists to succeed him.
For Latin America as a whole, one of the most significant gains of the year was the creation of the Bank of the South. On December 6 representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela met in Buenos Aires to inaugurate the new bank, which will compete directly with Washington-controlled institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In the past, these institutions were leaders in enforcing a fundamentalist brand of “free trade” neoliberalism-an economic model that has had terrible results in the region. Not only will the Bank of the South represent a critical step in the battle for regional self-determination, it will be free to support approaches to development that can effectively combat inequality and address the needs of the poor.
For those who have grown disheartened living under the reign of George W. Bush, such victories abroad are genuine markers of hope. We can cheer them just as heartily as we celebrate the signs of progress within the United States-and resolve to work for even greater gains in the New Year.
Mark Engler, an analyst with Foreign Policy In Focus, is author of How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy (Nation Books, April 2008). He can be reached via the web site http://www.DemocracyUprising.com. Research assistance provided by Sean Nortz.
We live in an ascending age. It moves a a glacial pace and the old, primitive times are hanging on - - but altogether if we look behind the scenes or deep enough we see signs of hope.
Please don’t accuse me of being naive and please don’t start telling me about all the horrors in our country and elsewhere - I read all the same news as everybody else. I just have a different perspective (on good days).
Merry Christmas and/or any other celebration you prefer.
Indeed Koro… When you think about it, Americans should really take heart considering global opinion against their government. Remember, the movement for democracy in modern times was nothing but a glimmer in the eyes of a select few intellectuals before our country was formed. In less than 300 years, that movement has spread so far around the world, that when we stray off the path for even a few years, it’s immediately recognized for what it is. That we are probably the most frightening force in the world right now, and our destructiveness and complete disregard for the rest of the world is still far more tempered than any other malevolent world power in history - imagine the Hun people, chatting on common dreams about how bad Attila was…. the mongols pleading with Ghengis for restraint. Together with our friends our fathers bought the world so far that we can now turn and rely on it to help see us back to our way. We should be very grateful to live in this time.
Mark Engler paints a pretty rosy and optomistic picture of the world situation, even though our nation is considered to be the new terrorists, as if it will all right itself eventually. That is a very nice thought for this season of peace and love for mankind, but there are no doubt some in this country that do not intend for that to happen, as they are doing quite well with the present condition. We can all hope that after the next election,(if we are allowed to have one), all of the worlds problems will magically disappear with a new set of leaders that will work together for everyone`s good by reversing practically all that has been done by the present set of greedy lawbreakers, but that may take a generation or two. Anyone can break and tear things up, but fixing them again takes knowledge, effort, and patience.
Make nice, or the Americans may bring Democracy to YOUR country! Funding for the rebuilding after the initial enthusiasic bombing campaign will likely be no more forthcoming than has been usual, unfortunately.
Veteran ‘66-68
What a FUCKING joke this article is especially the last two paragraphs sorta ! After all the capitulating DC “Progressives” have done to Bush GOP, I see no FUCKING progress but instead MASSIVE FAILURES !
Victories?
More like scraps thrown to the poor. For example that energy bill is ridiculous. It means that the auto companies don’t even have to THINK about improving gas efficiency for the next 12 or 15 years. Look what the U.S. governement created in just a couple of years during WW2 in terms of military hardware. Don’t you think the U.S. is capable of putting every citizen in a Smart car in three years thereby completely eliminating our dependency on foreign oil? And for a lot less than what the taxpayers are currently paying to sustain an over-bloated, ineffective and ill-prepared military!
I believe hope exists on the horizon too, but the so-called victories of late are marginal. Until Americans learn to indentify their candidates as either being a corporate sycophant or a representative of the people, we won’t gain much ground.
Nevertheless, I still enjoy my freedom to write such opinions and I wish everyone a very, Merry Christmas!
knick-knack paddywhack throw a dog a bone
this is all Con-gress has shown
We don’t need change, we need transformation.
Those are all positive changes, albeit smaller and slower-coming than what the world needs, especially considering global warming. However, we should be glad for them, and keep on pushing for more. And there will be more, because there has to be more, and the powers-that-be know this. Just because they’re greedy doesn’t mean they’re stupid.
The last thing we should do is get fatalistic and think there’s no way we can win.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”
Lao-Tze
I was a realist when the dems took congress in 06. I knew that we would get nothing. My only hope was a slowdown in the march to a totalitarian corporate-fascist state. And I do mean a slowdown, not a stop. With the latest FISA debacle and the recent FCC ruling, we are still on a right-wing march to hell. But we must admit that it was slowed by dem victories in 06 than it otherwise would have. The trick now is to increase as much as possible dem representation in Washington. Assuming that they maintain the same ratio of corporate dems to progressive dems, we will get more progressives as more dems are elected. And that means probably 70 democratic senate seats to overcome the combined filibuster power of the republicans and the corporate democrats. You would need 75 senate seats to overcome a veto, since, again, you have to account for the corporate dems joining the GOP. So electing Dems is like winning the presidential election. You need at least a 10% vote advantage to beat the GOP for the presidency as to account for election fraud, electronic voting machines, etc. Its not Dem vs Republican. Its Progressive Dem VS the combined team of Republicans and Corporate Democrats.
So donate five bucks to Dennis and vote for him in the primarys. Then maby we can continue to move two steps forward and one step back.
JOVE 4015: Loved your post! Yep, sometimes we have to rise above the paradigm, “get away from earth awhile” (a la Robert Frost) to recognize the LIGHT that holds the big picture together, even when we on this mundane plane, realize we’ve come into the tunnel of another Dark Age. As the wheel of time turns…
I do believe that we are moving fast in two different directions at the same time. As the Washington Consensus model seems stronger than ever, so to is the opposition against it. The Lakotas declared sovereignty! This is the beginning of something huge (whether the media make it out to be or not — I mean really, screw them. American journalists have lost all credibility as a profession.) The internet enables us to know everything going on in real time — they can no longer keep us in the dark for long. For those who care about what is happening, it is now possible to know and organize to throw a wrench in their machinery before the deed is done. We see that with Iran.
At the same time, things have never been worse in this country. It is very difficult to find any evidence of our government looking out for the people — our rights, our freedoms, our well being. We live in a corporate (fascist) police state and we all have to decide what that means for us. I am afraid many will choose to keep their head down in denial and go along.
funeocons: enjoy the internet in its current form while you can. The right wing seeths at the fact that they cannont control this medium like the others, so they are chomping at the bit to put things in place like “internet deregulation”, which would allow the Comcasts, the Verizons, the ATTs to control content. Already we are seeing attempts to exclude websites in the name of “national security”. Also the internet providers would like nothing more than to put progressive websits in the “slow lane”. “Net Neutrality” will be the next great media battleground in the coming years. And the Corporations are gearing up for that battle as we blog. Currently the internet is the great equalizer that lets us all have a real piece of democracy. And that is an intolerable situation to the corporate fascists.
“I am afraid many will choose to keep their head down in denial and go along.”
No Way, funeocons!
The progressive enlightenment is too strong to stop! The neo-thugli-con-chimp-inator-classists cannot stop a people who care! Or at least a people who take the time to support their local co-op and free trade coffee shop….
OK, folks, here’s the solution you’re looking for: Financially support and vote for Dennis Kucinich for President in ‘08. Get out there and actively campaign for him. Get his name out there. Give copies of his book, “A Prayer for America” to each and every person that you know. Tell people the good news, that Yes, Virginia, there IS a REAL PROGRESSIVE candidate out there who will fight against the corporate elite and will fight FOR for the ordinary person. A candidate who will bring lasting peace to the world and will create a cabinet level Department of Peace to explore ways to avoid conflicts among nations. A candidate who will ensure that we all get universal health care free of co-pays, deductibles and other costs, and is available to EVERYBODY regardless of pre-existing conditions or status of employment. A candidate who will END the war in Iraq and who will bring our men and women currently in the line of fire home to their loved ones.
KUCINICH ‘08! http://www.dennis4president.com/
Sally,
You go girl. I think that it would be easy and appropriate to work an article about Kucinich into each and every blog that we come across on CommonDreams. The best candidate is right under our noses and by this time next year we could be well on our way to recovery. I know it would be a good thing for me - this anger and depression is really bringing me down. I am cancelling my monthly donation to the NRDC to www.dennis4president.com. RFK Jr really screwed up his endorsement.