Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Eva Bartlett Challenges the Corrupt Western Media’s Vision of Syria [followed by a genuine revolutionary idea]

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, August 28, 2016

Eva Bartlett Challenges the Corrupt Western Media’s Vision of Syria [followed by a genuine revolutionary idea]

Click here if you wish to access this 15:16m RT produced video interview with the Canadian activist, Eva Bartlett, directly from her website In Gaza. In the interview she reports on her observations while recently visiting Syria. Also from her website we learn that she is a...

Canadian activist/freelance journalist. I've lived cumulative ~3 years in Gaza, spent time in Lebanon and visited Syria 4 times since April 2014. Anti-zionist, anti-imperialist, pro-justice.

This article written by an independent observer on the ground in Syria got me thinking. It seems to me that many people are rather desperately looking for some progressive alternative to politics as is usually practiced in our nation and Canada. A new media organization with revolutionary potential could very well inspire and motivate these people. The next great idea that could satisfy this demand could be a radically organized independent media organization. It seems to me that many disaffected people in our two countries are ready to support such a venture.

This could be accomplished by people setting up their own media organization supported with low cost subscriptions that are gathered from millions of Americans and Canadians who want reports from independent on-the-ground observers of events instead of propaganda pieces from corporate media that justify Empire policies and actions. It seems to me that this project could be initiated by staff from the many alternative media websites coming together to pool their resources and technical abilities in support of a new North American independent media organization instead of using a Russian media network as this interview does.

The makeup of this new media organization would incorporate a new radical revolutionary perspective that would be oriented around a bottom-up authority structure. It seems to me that local groups of subscribers could be formed across the US and Canada, and they in turn would elect representatives that would have the authority to hire and fire staff. The organization could make considerable use of the internet to mediate decisions instead of face-to-face meetings.

Organizers would no doubt experience terrific opposition from corporate media and the ruling class, but this could be used to further raise the political consciousness of the brainwashed American and Canadian people.