Let's Toast to Ten Good Things About 2006
By Medea Benjamin
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
Friday 29 December 2006
As we close this year on the low of a devastating conflict in Iraq and a president
contemplating sending yet more troops to fight and die in an unwinnable war,
let us not forget that it was a year of many positive gains for the progressive
movement.
Here are just ten:
1. First, of course, is the November elections, when voters gave Republicans
an "electoral thumpin'." From California's Jerry McNerney to Ohio's
Sherrod Brown to Minnesota's Keith Ellison, Democrats all over the country won
elections by slamming Bush's war. The collapse of one-party rule in Washington
reflected a spectacular repudiation of George Bush and handed Congress a mandate
to get out of Iraq.
2. Latino communities throughout the United States took center stage in the
spring of 2006, putting May Day back on the map as a day of grassroots mobilizing.
From high-school students to union members to community organizers, the spirit
and energy of millions of immigrants demanding to be treated with dignity and
respect took the nation by surprise. Immigrants not only carved out new political
space, but in the age of e-activism, they breathed new life into the importance
of "street heat."
3. After decades of dictating the rules of the global economy, World Trade
Organization talks fell flat on their face in 2006. Activists the world over
celebrated its collapse after years of work to sink this titanic tool of empire.
The work to derail corporate-dominated trade policies is far from over, with
bilateral free-trade agreements taking the place of the WTO. But the WTO and
its model of globalization have been exposed as a dismal failure, and opposition
continues to grow worldwide.
4. Bush opened 2006 with a State of the Union Address bemoaning our "addiction
to oil"; 86 prominent evangelicals called global warming a moral issue;
Al Gore educated millions with his film, "An Inconvenient Truth";
and Time magazine declared that earth is at a tipping point with melting ice,
drought, wind, disease, and fires raging out of control. Historians may one
day look back on 2006 as the "tipping-point" year when human societies
- including the United States as the major superpower and the major polluter
- woke up to the precarious state of our world and decided it was time to find
solutions.
5. As a clear indicator of the shift from debating global warming to doing
something about it, this year, California passed the nation's toughest legislation
to curb greenhouse gases. The groundbreaking bill would require the state to
cut back its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020: a reduction of
approximately 25 percent. A smart politico, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,
saw the green writing on the wall and joined the state's Democrats in setting
a new environmental standard for the rest of the nation to follow.
6. In a year when Enron executives were found guilty of cooking the books,
Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for proving that poor people
can be more reliable money managers than rich ones. Yunus's "microcredit
movement" started out giving small loans to poor Bangladeshis, mostly women,
and mushroomed into a worldwide movement that has extended small loans to millions
of the world's poor. By awarding Yunus the Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel
Committee not only recognized the credit-worthiness of the poor, but acknowledged
that poverty is a threat to peace. As Yunus said in his acceptance speech, "I
believe that putting resources into improving the lives of the poor people is
a better strategy [for combating terrorism] than spending it on guns."
7. While the fighting between Israel and Lebanon left more than 1,000 dead,
mostly Lebanese, a cease-fire was achieved after only 34 days. When the violence
threatened to spiral out of control, the United Nations, the Arab League, and
individual governments stepped forward to insist on negotiations, to hammer
out a cease-fire agreement and to provide international peacekeeping forces
to serve as monitors. What could have been a prolonged conflict with devastating
consequences for the entire region was halted. The lessons that SHOULD have
been learned when the powerful Israeli military was unable to "win"
the conflict through force are that military aggression will not solve the deep-seated
problems in the region, and that negotiations and peace processes can work.
8. Speaking of dialogue, Jimmy Carter, with his new book, "Palestine:
Peace Not Apartheid," took on the greatest taboo in US politics: the gross
violation of Palestinian rights and the unqualified US government support for
the Israeli government. Likening Israel's policies in the Palestinian territories
to the racist white rule in South Africa, Carter has raised a firestorm of controversy.
But finally, FINALLY, someone with the credentials of a statesman, a peacemaker
and a friend of Israel is crying out against Israel's hellish treatment of Palestinians.
The public is embracing his views: his book quickly became a best seller, and
he has been greeted by enthusiastic crowds at appearances around the country.
Hopefully, our elected officials will start listening as well.
9. In 2006, we managed to stop the next war from starting! With the US bogged
down in Iraq and the public sick of war, it has been impossible for the Bush
administration to launch an attack against another country, such as Iran or
North Korea. The army doesn't have enough recruits to fight a new war, and politicians
know it would be political suicide to reinstate the draft. Two major warmongers
- Donald Rumsfeld and John Bolton - were forced out of power. And with Bush
obligated to appoint a new ambassador to the United Nations, perhaps diplomacy
will come back into fashion.
10. Across Latin America, elections have continued to bring a wave of progressive
leadership to power. With the victories of Daniel Ortega and Rafael Correa,
Nicaragua and Ecuador join Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil as governments
committed to improving the lives of the majority. As a sign of the radical changes
in the region, Bolivia's Evo Morales marked May 1 by nationalizing the country's
oil and gas resources. "After today," he declared, "the hydrocarbons
will belong to all Bolivians. Never again will they be in the hands of transnational
corporations. Today the country - la patria - stands up."
So here's a toast to nations standing up to greedy transnationals; to people
standing up to leaders who abuse their power, to humanity standing up to save
the planet we inhabit - and to bringing our troops home in 2007!
--------
Medea Benjamin is cofounder
of CODEPINK and Global Exchange.
Read and post comments |
Send to a friend
]]>
