[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Protecting the global poor

[aaron doncaster]

Feel ree to post widley and where ever. I do ask that if you want to
forward it somewhere like an online magazine or newspaper and you feel
it needs to be edited, please do not destroy the content of the work.
thanks

                               Aaron

A Semblance of democracy

    Have you ever asked yourself what democracy means? Some dictionary
meaning of democracy states that a democracy is:
the political orientation of those who favour government by the people
or by their elected representatives

a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of
citizens who can elect people to represent them.

majority rule: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an
organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group

Even though democracy actually means, rule by the people, today's use
of the term democracy, usually refers to our western style of
representative democracy. This is the type of democracy which I will
be speaking of here in this article.

    In order to have a functioning representative democracy, their
needs to be institutions such as a free press and functioning courts,
to name a couple, through which people can exercise their right to
challenge the status quo. Their also needs to be a means and ability
whereby the citizenry can engage in recall referendums, direct action,
civil disobedience and economic sabotage in order to keep the
representatives on the straight and narrow. Too often we find that
during election campaigns, candidates will offer the citizenry the sun
and the moon only to renege on the promises once elected. The above
mentioned means are essential to have in any democracy in order that
elected officials keep the promises they make to the citizenry during
election campaigns. If we did not have any of the above mentioned
means available to us, we would surely have a full fledged
dictatorship; as opposed to the mixture of democratic institutions and
dictatorial rule we have today in Canada.

   Now the question we have to ask is, do we have a free press and
functioning courts? Do we have the means to engage in recall
referendum, direct action, civil disobedience or economic sabotage?
With respect to the recall referendum, aside from one province and
maybe some municipalities, we do not have recall referendums here in
Canada. I could be mistaken here but I believe the only country in the
western hemisphere to have recall referendum at all levels of
government is Venezuela.

   What about the means to engage in direct action, civil disobedience
and economic sabotage? Well anyone can take to the streets and anyone
can engage in economic sabotage but the ability to take to the streets
or engage in economic sabotage has been severely limited as a result
of a tactic the authorities use known as the criminalization of
dissent. There are still unions that partake in economic sabotage as a
tactic to cripple a companies ability to make profit or use scab
labour. These tactics are usually only used by unions during strike
action. I am from Cape Breton and while I was living with my parents,
I remember hearing about acts of sabotage during the aliant strike.
Vehicles were destroyed, cables were cut, etc. With the rate of
unionization falling around the country, we are seeing this tactic
being used less and less by unions. With that being said, we see the
tactic now being used by non-unionized anti-capitalists and
anti-authoritarians who are being criminalized for their use of it.
The only reason why economic sabotage is an acceptable tactic used by
unions and not acceptable when used non-unionized anti-capitalists is
because unions use the tactic in an effort to get a better deal within
the existing capitalist system whereas non-unionized anti-capitalists
and anti-authoritarians use economic sabotage as a means to bring down
our current socio-economic system. As long as direct action and civil
disobedience does not threaten the continuation of capitalism, it is
alright, but if those tactic threaten that system then it cannot be
allowed.  With direct action, and here I am using that to mean the
simple tactic of taking to the streets, we are also seeing street
protests being criminalized by the authorities. They want to scare and
intimidate  people in an attempt to continue the status quo, which is
a slightly slower version of what is happening in the United States:
the using of so-called democratic institutions to transition a state
from a representative democracy to a fascist dictatorship. If anyone
disagrees with this last statement, I encourage them to read Naomi
Wolfe's book "End of America".

   I recently received another disclosure package as a result of my
arrest last year at the atlantica protest. I was surprised by the
amount of pictures of the "peaceful march". there were even a few
pictures of a toddler on a tricycle. I guess he is a threat, a future
revolutionary………no wait…….it was the tricycle he was driving that was
the threat. We can't have bikes and trikes taking over the streets!!!
How is big oil suppose to make their profits if that happens. The
package also came with 7 DVD's of surveillance video of the week of
actions against the conference and companies who will benefit from
this trade agreement, now called "The Atlantic Gateway". the amount of
surveillance made me wonder if we actually live in a police state

   Last but not least, do we have a free press and a functioning
court. The answers are no and no. I think it is very obvious that
there is no such thing as a free press. When we turn on CBC and here
the ultra-nationalist call to continue supporting our troops who
massacre and murder innocent women, children and men in Afghanistan or
when we see the pro Israeli slant of  global's coverage of the
genocidal occupation of Palestine by Israel, their can be no doubt in
peoples minds. One of the many reasons we do not have a free press
here is because economic power is political power

   When talking about the courts, some people may say we have
functioning courts, which is true, they do function. But do they
fulfill their original purpose? Do they uphold our constitution? Do
they facilitate or impede the bringing forth of a just society ? As a
result of my arrest last year during the atlantica demonstration, I
had unconstitutional pre-trial conditions placed on me, a tactic
authorities use against activists right across this county. I recently
decided  to go through the process to get them varied. Another man who
was arrested at the same demo, already went through the process and
got his changed, so I figured it should not be a problem. I must say,
the process is tedious, cumbersome, full of bureaucracy and requires
you to either have money to hire a lawyer or have some knowledge of a
legal system that uses a strange language called legalese. It makes me
think that the old cliché, "it's all creek to me", should actually
read, "it's all legalese to me". The language and terminology that our
courts use make the court inaccessible to a large section of the
populace. Many people don't understand the legalese, don't have time
to understand it and don't have money to hire a lawyer. Most Canadians
are living pay check to pay check, trying to provide for their
families. I must say that I am privileged to know my rights, to have
access to the internet where I can study about the criminal code, the
Canadian constitution and the general workings of the judicial system.
Unfortunately many people to not have this same privilege.

   In conclusion, if the avenues availably to engage in your
democracy, in an attempt to preserve what justice we have or enhance
it, are tedious, complex, time consuming, bureaucratic or not
accessible, then one has to ask weather the democratic system they
live under is actually working to bring about justice and fairness.
One thing about western democracies, they are set up in such a way
that most of  the so-called democratic institutions within the
democratic society are only accessible to a small group of people.
Such a system is not at all democratic, it is just a semblance of
democracy. It is a system that does not produce justice, it only
reproduces itself!!! It is not too late, we still have time. If enough
of us realise that  western democracy is just a sham, then we can
organize and revolt against it. Our constitution demands that we
revolt against our current government!!! The UN declaration of human
right demands that we revolt against our current government, but most
importantly, our conscience should demand that we revolt against our
current government. Many activists within Canada are sending out
anti-Olympics propaganda with the slogan, "riot 2010", my answer to
that is "why wait"? There is no better time then the present.
                 Reverend Aaron Doncaster