Pro-Democracy
Means Anti-Fascism
By Cindy Sheehan
29 September, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Watching
the pro-democracy marches in Burma both inspires and sickens me. I am
inspired by seeing thousands of red-robed monks leading the demonstrations
and sickened by the violence they are being met with by the military.
Seeing the images of the
monks and others being beaten reminds me of the Democratic Convention
in 1968 where Chicago police beat the living daylights out of demonstrators
who were there to try and force the party to come closer to the budding
anti-war movement. It didn’t work. Instead of wonderful-pro-peace
candidate, George McGovern, the party nominated Johnson’s VP,
Hubert Humphrey. We know what happened next: Nixon. After last night’s
Democratic “debate” I am terrified and assured that the
Democrats will have another pro-war nominee.
The other event in my memory
that the pro-democracy movement in Burma reminds me of is Kent State,
Ohio in May, 1970. Four students were killed and nine were wounded marching
against escalation of the Vietnam debacle.. I have heard from many people
who were of age to protest the Vietnam war at that time that the killings
had the affect of frightening them into not protesting, or scaling their
protests back.
Of course the present state
of our nation is not as overtly oppressive as the government of Myanmar
(Burma), presently where a Nobel Peace Laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi has
been under house arrest there for years, but we who have been paying
attention to events can see that America is on the precipice of serious
fascism and only the brave actions of Americans committed to freedom,
democracy and peace will help stem the tide of this rising neo-fascism
that doesn’t march through our streets in goose-step and swastikas,
but is creeping into our lives like cat’s paws.
According to Chris Rowthorn,
in his brilliant article, When America Went Fascist, we went fascist
on December 11, 2000 when the Supreme Court appointed George as our
unelected, un-democratic and illegal President. Although it is easy
and tempting to blame everything on BushCo, this is about the only assertion
that I disagree with in his article.
What about during the Clinton
regime? Does anyone remember Elian Gonzales or The Branch Davidians
in Waco? Let’s go back further. What about when Truman dropped
to WMD on hundreds of thousands of innocent victims in Japan? What about
Korea? Eisenhower and the Military Industrial Complex? What about the
Gulf of Tonkin? What about Watergate? What about Panama? Kosovo? Nicaragua?
Free trade agreements that hurt workers in all countries that are involved
in them and what about the abuse of language in this country: Patriot
Act; Homeland Security; Clear Water and Clean Skies—and the No
Child Left Behind Act that leaves every child behind and is just a funnel
to the recruiter’s office?
There are just a few measures
that we can use to stop this slide and Rowthorn articulates what has
become an important part of my platform. Only vote for candidates that
promise the following things…for president, or any other federal
elective offices:
* Repeal the Patriot Act
* Repeal No Child Left Behind
* Scale down the Department of Homeland Security and rename it so it
loses its Nazi
tone and is brought under civilian control.
* Restore habeas corpus and close all torture camps by repealing the
Military Commissions’ Act.
* Repeal all contracts with paid mercenary killer companies.
* Restore the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
* Repeal all BushCo-Presidential directives (especially Directive 51)
and review all laws that contain signing statements.
* Restore the 4th Amendment by enforcing warrants for spying on Americans.
* Impeach Bush and Cheney-post presidency so they can’t receive
federal benefits.
* Bring all troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and review military
needs for other bases around the world.
* Repeal all free trade agreements.
* Kick AIPAC and other lobbyists out of the halls of Congress where
they have no business.
One of the most profound
ways we can stop this descent into fascism is by impeaching, removing
from office and incarcerating George Bush and Dick Cheney, et al. I
am very skeptical of a complicit Congress, Inc doing anything about
them in this term. I am also very skeptical of a “professional”
and fascist military leadership taking their oath of service seriously
and above their corporate-military allegiance to the Executive Branch
recently and so tellingly revealed by General Betray-Us, so a military
coup is out of the question and has the tricky element of becoming a
military dictatorship.
I was supposed to be in court
today in Washington, DC for my last arrest. I didn’t go because
I am not under allegiance and repudiate the fascists that run our government
and the enforcers who are doing their best Nazi-job of “following
orders” in oppressing our rights as Americans.
Why are they beating up a
Reverend who served in the Air Force, and honorably left after the illegal
and immoral invasion of Iraq, for wanting to attend a hearing in Congress?
Why are they arresting a
Gold Star Mother for exercising the very freedoms for which George Bush
freakishly says her son died?
Why are my daughter and assistant
under indictment for Contempt of Congress when BushCo have steadily
refused to testify before committees under oath, or any other way? As
a matter of fact, Betray-Us wasn’t even put under oath that day
in the House.
Why are college students
being tasered for asking the same questions that we all want answered
from John Kerry who threw our Representative Republic in the garbage
along with the 2004 election?
Why are nooses being hung
in the South?
Why do any of us pay our
Federal Taxes to a government that we abhor and which we adamantly disagree
with? Why do we allow our hard earned money to be used for murder and
oppression?
Why is Congress giving BushCo
more authority to begin a New World War?
Where are religious leaders
to lead us in pro-democracy demonstrations? Most of our mainstream religions
suffer from the same neo-fascism that our governmental leaders suffer
from.
Why do we march in DC on
Saturdays and get arrested just to get arrested? It’s time to
descend on DC on a weekday and make commitments to our world and our
posterity to over throw this fascism right now?
When can we have a country-wide
massive general strike?
Recent reports show that
Saddam made overtures to America through the UAE and Spain to go into
exile weeks before the March, 2003 invasion of Iraq. Of course, the
overtures were rejected because George’s small mind was already
made up to invade Iraq before he became president in some sick way to
either show up or gain approval from a dysfunctional family. What if
Spain’s former President Aznar had spoken up then? What if Colin
Powell, George Tenet, or any of the criminal neocons had spoken up to
prevent this horrible loss of life and pain before it even started?
I wouldn’t be under
a bench warrant right now. Rev wouldn’t be recovering from a badly
sprained ankle. Casey would be alive and hundreds of thousands of others
would be alive.
We can’t count on anyone
but ourselves. It’s now up to we the people to follow the example
of our brothers and sisters in Burma to courageously confront the anti-democracy/pro-fascist
elements of our society.
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