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

Friday, July 12, 2013

Why the Egyptian revolution is far from dead

Click here to access article by Philip Rizk from Reflections on a Revolution. (Note: I am posting the article from this website rather than the original source Jadaliyya because of the much more positive headline.)

The author explains why the Egyptian revolution is not dead simply because it is part of the global neoliberal rule which includes managed elections, co-opted protest movements, and a local power structure beholden to foreign elites.
In the context of the authoritarian Brotherhood regime, which was supported by their Western trading partners who had their own political and economic interests in mind, the everyday needs of the people are not a priority of the political decision-making process. This means that those who come to power in Egypt through the electoral process must first receive the approval of local elites like the military generals and their foreign backers. Then, a flawed electoral process allows their emergence to power. It is as simple as that.
These elements are shared in different proportions with current and recent protests against neoliberal regimes across the globe. Therefore, it seems logically to follow that such national resistance movements across the globe must cooperate and share resources in their common struggle to rid humanity of the scourge of capitalism and its current stage called neoliberalism. There can be no national liberation from the global rule of neoliberal elites without their system being eliminated from the entire globe.