Amy Goodman: Uprisings: From the Middle East to the Midwest

from truthdig:



Uprisings: From the Middle East to the Midwest

Posted on Feb 22, 2011
By Amy Goodman


As many as 80,000 people marched to the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison on Saturday as part of an ongoing protest against newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to not just badger the state’s public employee unions, but to break them. The Madison uprising follows on the heels of those in the Middle East. A sign held by one university student, an Iraq War vet, read, “I went to Iraq and came home to Egypt?” Another read, “Walker: Mubarak of the Midwest.” Likewise, a photo has circulated in Madison of a young man at a rally in Cairo, with a sign reading, “Egypt supports Wisconsin workers: One world, one pain.” Meanwhile, Libyans continue to defy a violent government crackdown against masses seeking to oust longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and more than 10,000 marched Tuesday in Ohio to oppose Republican Gov. John Kasich’s attempted anti-union legislative putsch.

Just a few weeks ago, solidarity between Egyptian youth and Wisconsin police officers, or between Libyan workers and Ohio public employees, might have elicited a raised eyebrow.

The uprising in Tunisia was sparked by the suicide of a young man named Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old university graduate who could not find professional work. Selling fruits and vegetables in the market, he was repeatedly harassed by Tunisian authorities who eventually confiscated his scale. Unbearably frustrated, he set himself on fire, a spark that ignited the protests that became the wave of revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. For decades in the region, people have lived under dictatorships—many that receive U.S. military aid—suffering human-rights abuses along with low income, high unemployment and almost no freedom of speech. All this, while the elites amassed fortunes.

Similar grievances underlie the conflicts in Wisconsin and Ohio. The “Great Recession” of 2008, according to economist Dean Baker, is now in its 37th month, with no sign of relenting. In a recent paper, Baker says that, due to the financial crisis, “many political figures have argued the need to drastically reduce the generosity of public sector pensions, and possibly to default on pension obligations already incurred. Most of the pension shortfall ... is attributable to the plunge in the stock market in the years 2007-2009.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/uprisings_from_the_middle_east_to_the_midwest_20110222/

The divide isn't Democrat/Republican, Liberal/Conservative, Left/Right, or any other horizontal Us/Them scenario. That's all smoke and mirrors to keep the masses fighting each other so they don't recognize the real and very vertical divide: Bottom/Top, Haves/Have-Nots, Few/Many.

This is class war, and it's global. Neofeudalism. The serfs are losing because most have been brainwashed into believing other peasants are the enemy.

(and I do mean the left--not Any Democrat) is who's looking out for them

But I know a lot of folks here that I would call politically to the right who are very concerned about the poor. One that one moral axis, I'd call them more liberal than many who claim the title "liberal."

Institutionally, both the left and the right have sold out to power. I know college professors who talk lefty, but they have six figure salaries and big houses and nice cars and their actions reflect no concern about the Have-Nots.

In theory, it is the left who looks after the poor. But this nation isn't there anymore. Chris Hedges has decribed this very well in "Death of the Liberal Class," as did Noam Chomsky in many of his works. Perhaps this is why I now define "true left" as those liberals still willing to embrace Chomsky.

I'd define concern for the poor as a liberal value, regardless of the label claimed by the person holding that value.

It's top vs bottom. The other categories are superimposed willy-nilly, often intentionally to deceive.

:thumbsup:

nt.