One can hardly keep abreast of the momentous & historic rebellions going on around the world; those many academics & journalists writing jeremiads & obituaries for social transformation would be advised to take heed & show a little respect for revolution. This is a gay pride protest march in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday joined by tens of thousands of anti-government protestors marching toward Taksim Square. Riot cops attempted to stop them from entering the square & joining the thousands already there participating in the Standing Man protests.
Riot cops in Istanbul are working overtime these days. On Saturday an estimated 10,000 protestors moved on Taksim Square to protest recent violence against Kurds & to express solidarity with the Kurdish people in the Turkish government’s long-standing war against them.
The breadth of grievances (especially solidarity with national minorities & the persecuted) being expressed in Turkey & Brazil & Egypt bode not well for the political forces of reaction though they are a beacon of hope to all of suffering humanity. Working people in the better off countries look like lunkheads by comparison. But working people everywhere are a conservative lot, not given to whimsey or fashion in politics. Things percolate in their adrenalin, observations accrue, action is judicious & cautious. Until it explodes like a bomb as in Turkey, Brazil, & Egypt. Never give up hope in working people since they are the only force capable of social transformation. Their power is not just in numbers; nothing on this planet moves without their say-so.
(Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)
Nice summary. As a US citizen, I must agree that our society does not appear to understand its self-interest very well, blindly accepting something Egyptians and Brazilians and Turks have now clearly learned: the police have no natural moral right to prevent citizens of a democracy from expressing their opinions. When the attitude of the regime is immediately to suppress dissent and, indeed, to use violence to suppress peaceful dissent, then freedom is under attack - by the government.
ReplyDeleteBrazilians, Egyptians, Turks (and Greeks) have been fighting the fight that US citizens should, in the aftermath of the corruption-caused recession of 2008, be leading.
William deB. Mills--http://shadowedforest1000.wordpress.com/