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

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Remembering the Marikana massacre on the third anniversary

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder

The experience of South Africa, which the Marikana massacre highlights, offers another lesson: the vital requirement of any pretense to democracy is that the people must control their economy and the currency that flows like blood through a body. The people of South Africa, or at least the indigenous leadership, did not understand that or easily succumbed to the material rewards of holding government offices. Most Americans still do not understand this lesson despite a long history of worker massacres.