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

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Salvador Allende: Revolutionary Democrat

Click here to access a book review by Adam Tomes from CounterFire (Britain). 

The author of this article reviews a new book by Victor Figueroa Clark entitled Salvador Allende: Revolutionary Democrat
Salvador Allende remains an icon and as such is ‘stripped of context’. Victor Figueroa Clark provides that context and helps us understand why the events of 11 September 1973 are so critical to understanding the world today. In doing so, he brings to life the personality of Allende and argues passionately that he was a revolutionary and not just a reformist as many on the left have argued.
There is an excellent chapter in a well-documented book that sheds much light on the other side of Allende's brief revolutionary attempt: Chapter 11 of The Sovereign State of ITT [1973] by Anthony Sampson. In this chapter Sampson uses the Chilean episode, with ITT as a major player, as another illustration of his thesis that major transnational corporations and conglomerates were starting to function like sovereign states. 

Sampson's book should become a classic study in the rise of neoliberal capitalism: the dominance of transnational corporations in today's world and their ideology called neoliberalism. After reading this book, you will understand that neoliberalism is essentially an updated transnational form of fascism (rule by and for corporations, with financial institutions functioning as its nerve center). 

This new form of rule has found its fullest expression in the US led Empire which in this era of TV and other visual media, differs from its fascist predecessors mainly by more reliance on the control of information and images. Meanwhile, in case their propaganda machinery should fail, they keep highly militarized police forces and sophisticated surveillance systems in operation to check on their people.