Wall Street is now occupied and global indignation against plutocratic rule has reached its climax.  It has come face to face with its source. Where things will go from here nobody can predict.  That is the wonderful thing about civil disobedience — once its praxis enters the realm of actuality, it takes up a position in the social space, and it brings to life a dormant public domain, in which a multiplicity of voices dialogically determine collective creative actions to undertake.

It is the resurfacing of this dormant public domain, which makes for the headline – which makes what is happening in Wall Street worthwhile reporting on. Not the mundane details of whether there are 200, 2,000, or 20,000 protestors. Or whether they have media centres set up with the latest technologies and expensive computers. Not even the fact that Noam Chomsky, Cornell West, Chris Hedges, Michael Moore, Susanne Sarandon and Alec Baldwin have shown public support for the movement. Although these elements together add much-needed strength, the important thing to acknowledge is that after ten years of slumber some courageous Americans have grabbed the bull by the horns and are determined not to let go. That a genuinely democratic space has been nonviolently pried open in the heart of the empire is the real news. That is the space of hope.

A space which is open to anyone and everyone; a space of dialogue where ideas about this world, about the workings of our societies, about possible futures, about the meanings of democracy, about the workings of capitalism, about imperialism and war etc. are exchanged by people of all social classes, all races, all nationalities, all genders. An exchange, which understands as its source of power, the fact that there can be unity without uniformity (unity through plurality) – perhaps a true representation of what Gandhi defined as enlightened anarchism when referring to the kind of society we should be striving towards.

This public domain which in its present embodiment opened up first through an ‘Arab Spring’, and quickly mutated into a ‘European Summer’, is now living its ‘American Fall’, and despite understandable and wonderful differences, it clearly offers a glimpse into the specter of a global people’s revolt. In its current phase, in the Arab world and Europe it has dispersed, the squares are no longer occupied there. In America, it began with New York and it has quickly spread to over fifty cities. It will most likely disperse at some point, but there lies its power. People momentarily occupy the social space, announcing their autonomy, and then disperse in order to ignore any structure which can stabilize them. In the meantime, through the process, the power of the people has been reaffirmed, and an array of innovative tactics has been presented, which are then available to all of us.

From Egypt, social movements across the globe have learned of the power of camping together in city squares; from Spain the movements have learned to make decisions in large assemblies of thousands of people, by agreeing or disagreeing with specific proposals made by speakers via the use of sign language; from America, the most striking tactic has been the use of the ‘people’s microphone’. After a ban on using megaphones, the people at Occupywallstreet have taken to using this tactic in order to allow everyone in the crowd to hear the speaker. It simply involves the crowd repeating all the words of the speaker in order to collectively magnify his or her voice. It seems like a minor issue to focus on, but the reality is that it unites by getting people to relay information to others while also saying something to themselves, and, in addition, it shows the limitless power of creative civil disobedience.

The ‘Indignados’ are fully aware of the fact that their government does not represent them, whenever they congregate they shout that loud and clear. They know that only popular unity will salvage them from the train wreck, which complicit speculators and politicians have created, and as they read the financial news, they know things can only get worse. When the EU announced today that the economic crisis is no longer restricted to the Euro-zone periphery countries, people in the movement understood that this could only mean bad news for them. The same was clear when the New York Times began to speculate about a double-dip recession in the United States after reporting 60,000 job cuts in July. Or when Scott Minerd, CIO of Guggenheim Partners, said that Europe was on the brink of a major financial collapse. The ‘indignados’ understand that in the game of global speculation they are always the losers. So as financial ‘experts’ in Spain speak of the impossibility of an economic recovery, the media speculates about a possible bailout, the country’s borrowing costs surge, and Moody’s speaks of Spain as being on the verge of ‘shock’, the ‘indignados’ understand that mobilizing is their only defense.

The indignation on Spanish streets has not risen out of ignorance, when newspapers announced last week that the airport of Ciudad Real had joined the growing list of airports in Spain closing because of lack of flights, the ‘indignados’ understood that it had only been constructed during the building boom so that speculators could receive huge sums of public subsidies which will never be returned to the Spanish people. That is why they were not surprised a few days ago when the IMF recommended that the country cut salaries of public servants and raise VAT, or when Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado suggested that the nation might need to endure even deeper spending cuts than those approved by Parliament. Nor was there a sense of surprise when the Catalan Government announced yesterday that it would sell-off 37 of its government buildings at a loss of 42,4 million Euros. Nothing shocks the ‘indignados,’ they just hope that one day they will have enough critical mass to stop these incessant attacks from the financial and political elite, on the country’s citizenry.

A few weeks ago, Norman Birnbaum, Emeritus professor of the Law Faculty at Georgetown University, said that on both shores of the Atlantic the only thing that is clear is that something bad is going to happen; the ‘indignados’ have been witnessing this for a while. At around the same time, Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European Studies at Oxford University published an article in which he concluded that the United States and Europe are in an all out struggle towards decadence, and that Western politicians are like drunks dancing on the edge of the abyss of bankruptcy. The ‘indignados’ understand that politicians will pay for this bankruptcy by mortgaging the people’s future; the problem is that through the current political structures they have no hope of avoiding this. The governing socialist party, PSOE, has demonstrated that it responds only to the banking cartel, and although the prime minister has called for early elections in October, if the right-wing Partido Popular comes into office, things can only get worse. This was made clear in a recent Reuters interview in which senior advisers and members of the party acknowledged that presidential candidate Mariano Rajoy, will implement a “shock plan” if he wins the general elections.

Since May 15th, when ‘indignados’ camped in city squares across the country inspired by the so called ‘Arab revolts’, they have engaged in a parallel strategy consisting of nonviolent civil disobedience aimed at denouncing the injustice of the political and economic system, together with a constructive program aimed at reaching out, educating and organizing the Spanish public in an attempt to gain critical mass. Throughout this process, the ‘indignados’ have attempted to present the government with proposals for change, which the government has done everything possible to ignore. Even as recently as July 6th, the then First Deputy Prime Minister, and now socialist candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, refused to receive a document from the ‘indignados’ highlighting their demands.

These past months, ‘indignados’ in every major city of Spain have endured police charges, evictions from city squares, beatings and arrests; yet, the movement has remained persistent, creative and engaged. Across the country, ‘indignados’ have organized and made decisions collectively through popular assemblies organized in city squares, they have stopped families from being evicted from repossessed homes, they have stopped the police from arresting ‘illegal’ immigrants in poor neighbourhoods, they have attempted to stop the closing of public hospitals following drastic public spending cuts, and they have organized neighborhood committees aimed at rebuilding the social fabric destroyed by the last two decades of rampant neo-liberal economics.

A recent survey conducted by the Instituto de Investigación de Mercados IPSOS, highlighted that between 6 and 8.5 million people have participated in the movement, and that 76% percent of those surveyed think that the demands made by the ‘indignados’ are reasonable and that they have a legitimate and democratic right to protest. In addition, The Economist magazine has suggested that the ‘indignados’ with their nonviolent practices are the most serious demonstrators in Europe. Yet, the Spanish government is bent on beating them instead of listening to their legitimate demands for a just economic and political system.

Last night’s beatings in Madrid represent a low point in Spain’s young representative democracy, the actions of the police are a tragic reminder of how little progress has been made institutionally, since the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. Yet, the perseverance and commitment apparent in the nonviolent actions of the ‘indignados’, demonstrates to what extent Spanish social movements have interiorized the true meaning of democracy and are spearheading the West’s move from a stage of low-intensity democracy to one of highly intensified democratization.

In a truly Gandhian manner, a group of Spanish ‘indignados’ is currently walking from Madrid to Brussels in order to make their voices heard by the bureaucrats of the European Union. They aim to get there before the global protest they have called for to be staged on October 15th. Perhaps by the time they get to Brussels, their indignation will have rubbed-off on those in other European nations who have understood the farce of our imperialist representative democracies, and the Spanish ‘indignados’ will not find themselves camping alone in front of the buildings of the European Union.

It has been one month since the country’s Indignados (Indignant Ones) movement claimed nonviolently sixty city-squares in cities across the country, calling for economic democracy, political justice and peace. Since then, much has happened within Spanish borders, and what is happening there is clearly spreading across Europe, where we have already witnessed social movements making similar demands. We have seen the Bastille in Paris, taken nonviolently by French Indignados only to be quickly reclaimed by the country’s police force. We have observed the rise of a parallel movement in Portugal where most city squares have also been camped on by Indignados, and where only hours before the country’s general elections protestors in Lisbon were attacked and beaten by police. We have witnessed how on that same night, in Athens, Greece, 80,000 protestors congregated in the city’s main square in opposition to the country’s ‘austerity measures’, waving banners in solidarity with the Indignados of Spain and of other European countries.

Wherever you focus in Europe you hear the same cries of indignation, in some countries with more intensity than others, but the cry is becoming louder everywhere, and what seemed like a slow-motion financial collapse, is rapidly becoming an accelerated social catastrophe. Specifically in Spain, despite the political elite presenting a country recovering from the financial collapse, every day things are getting worse economically, politically, and socially, and protest, although nonviolent for the most part, could be on the verge of becoming violent unless political and economic elites begin to make some concessions.

On the economic front, Spain began June with comments from the European Commission about the potential of the country missing its economic growth and budget-deficit targets for the year; its recommendation was further economic reform. Then a report from the ratings agency, Moody’s, pointed out that the high Catalan deficit was affecting the solvency of the whole of Spain. A few days later, in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, the incoming administration of the right wing Popular Party (PP), before even taking office, had already proclaimed that the region was “totally bankrupt”. Then, the National Statistics Institute revealed that Spain’s property sales in April had been the lowest since the institute began reporting in 2007. Obviously, this stream of negative news, coupled with discussions taking place in Europe regarding a potential debt default by Greece, affected Spain’s bond sales and moved the country one step closer to a bailout, or a default followed by its subsequent debt restructuring.

On the political front, June has been equally intense.  The government has approved by decree reforms against collective bargaining agreements, despite failed negotiations with the two major trade unions in the country. It has approved the extension, indefinitely, of the country’s Spanish military mission in Libya, and has announced the creation of a new NATO operations centre, which will control Spanish airspace and will help in missions coordinated from Southern Europe.

In regards to the social front, as of the first of June, the government warned that the Indignados could not remain camped on city squares for much longer. Then, using a visit from Tony Blair, in which Blair said, “demonstrators should be heard but not allowed to govern”, Spain’s prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, addressed the request for electoral reform by the Indignados, by telling them this could only be possible through consensus from all political parties – a cowardly way of responding without complying.

In response to these numerous events, commissions of the Indignados from squares across the country met in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square, to discuss the future of the movement. Through a long process of popular assembly, they agreed to three important actions: First, to boycott the country’s Town Halls as the new governments were sworn in following the recent regional and local elections; second, to abandon city squares, and move their social action into city neighbourhoods – in an attempt to broaden the movement’s involvement with the rest of the citizenry; and third, to continue organizing protests on specific dates focused on particular issues – including a firm commitment to a global protest of Indignados on October 15th.

The movement’s first nationwide coordinated initiative since the spontaneous movement mushroomed on May 15th, the boycott of Town Halls, was well represented over the weekend by Indignados across Spain. Demonstrators across the country blocked entrances to Town Halls, climbed onto the balconies, blocked official cars from exiting car parks, disturbed investiture sessions with incriminating speeches, and followed politicians across cities as they celebrated their victories, shouting to them, “shame on you!”

Sadly, the police force was equally mobilized. In Valencia, where the new government has ten of its members including its president facing corruption charges, police charged at demonstrators injuring twelve and arresting five. The vice president of Spain, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, was forced to cancel a planned trip to the city in order to avoid further protests. In the city of Santiago de Compostela police also attacked the protestors. In the city of Madrid, police batons hit them. In the city of Salamanca five Indignados were injured. In the city of Burgos two were arrested. In the city of Castellón, they were violently dispersed. In the city of Vigo, they were also dispersed; and, in the city of Palma de Mallorca, three were arrested. Following the numerous arrests across the country, spontaneous demonstrations followed in front of police headquarters demanding the prompt release of those detained. Most protestors where released on bail.

As things stand in Spain right now, according to a survey published by newspaper El Pais, there exists wide support (81%) amidst the Spanish population for the movement. In fact, in addition to public intellectuals such as Vicent Navarro, Arcadi Oliveras, or Eduardo Galeano giving them support, political figures such as Santiago Carrillo, who was the secretary general of the Spanish Communist Party during the country’s transition to democracy – a key voice throughout the transition – and Cayo Lara, the coordinator for the third largest political party in Spain, Izquierda Unida, have both aligned with the movement’s views. Even Rosalía Mera, who is Spain’s richest woman according to Forbes Magazine, has expressed public support for the Indignados.

It seems clear, when one has an in-depth look into current events unfolding in Spain, that these protests have hit a nerve throughout Spanish society, and although the movement is practicing a form of nonviolent direct democracy which is not familiar to most Spaniards (indeed to the majority of citizens in Western style democracies), the present Spanish political, social, and economic climate is beginning to be shaped, at least partially, by its cries of indignation. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight, that unless economic and political elites begin to listen and engage in some serious dialogue with the Indignados instead of sending out the police force to hit them on the head, the nonviolent stance of the majority of protestors could quickly turn into a violent response to sustained police brutality. After all, it is important to remember that this is a one-month-old spontaneous and heterogeneous movement, which is only now beginning to organize and present specific demands.

The nonviolent protestors on Spanish streets are not Gandhi’s exemplary well-trained and disciplined nonviolent peacemakers. These protestors have not made pledges of nonviolence or have endured months of rigorous nonviolence training in Gandhian Ashrams. Whether the Indignados can refrain from violence as the police continue to beat them, we will only learn as events unfold. However, if the country’s elites have any dignity left, they will not continue testing their endurance and will instead begin a credible process of reform which examines and addresses all of their demands. At the time of writing, Artur Mas, the President of the Generalitat (the government of the Catalan autonomous region) was forced to arrive to parliament in a police helicopter, as thousands of Indignados blocked the entrance in an attempt to boycott the region’s budget approval. They were shouting: “You do not represent us!” The parliamentary session began with only half of the representatives able to enter the building.

Just twenty-four hours after Spain’s largest telecom company, Telefonica, announced a new round of layoffs affecting 8500 people, 25% of the work force, and as the G8 is meeting in Deauville, France, to discuss amongst other things the discontent sweeping across Europe, the Catalan police force – the Mossos d’Esquadra – following orders from the Town Hall’s new Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU) government, surrounded the nonviolent citizens camped at the Plaza Cataluña in Barcelona’s city centre. Armed with full riot gear, batons and machine-guns with rubber bullets, the police kettled in the protestors, making it impossible for them to leave or others to enter.

With the excuse of cleaning up the square for safety reasons, in preparation for tomorrow’s Champions League soccer final between Barcelona and Manchester United, the city government called for the dispersal of the crowds in order to allow for clean up teams to enter. Although this was the official stance, it soon became apparent that cleaning garbage from the square was not the true intent, and that the real aim of the operation was to seize computers, printers and documents from the movement’s steering committees, and to put an end to this popular uprising which is posing a threat to the country’s political and economic elites.

As soon as the police surrounded the crowds and the news aired on local television stations and radios, citizens from across the city began to leave their work places and made their way to the square in order to show their solidarity with those being harassed by the police. The scene they encountered resembled one of Gandhi’s legendary acts of civil disobedience – the demonstrators sitting on the floor, in silence, with their legs crossed and hands up in the air; symbolizing their defiance to the oppressive and brutal nature of this unannounced police action.

Unlike during pre-election campaigning time, eleven days ago, when the 15M Movement began to congregate in city squares across the country with shouts of indignation, this time the police did not hesitate, the orders where clear. The police began to point their guns at those outside the square that were shouting “This is our democracy”, and one by one they began to pull those sitting down inside the square – beating them with their batons. I have just heard that economics professor Arcadi Oliveras (Spain’s Noam Chomsky), was amongst those on the receiving end of the police’s indiscriminate use of batons.

At the time of writing, thousands of citizens are making their way to the square in Barcelona, and following two arrests and 99 injured, around 5000 protestors have already reclaimed the city square. In Madrid Esperanza Aguirre, who presides over the autonomous region and who also heads Madrid’s Partido Popular, has asked the ministry of the Interior to evict the protestors at the Puerta del Sol. On their part, the protestors at Madrid’s plaza have sent messages of solidarity to those being attacked in Barcelona. The police force in the city of Lerida has also evicted the crowds camped in the city square using water canons, and two protesters have been arrested. While in the city of Granada, the town hall is in negotiations with the central government about how to empty the city’s square.

The ambiance in Barcelona’s plaza is now jovial, once the city showed its support to the protestors, the police was forced to leave, and despite the fact that they have confiscated many laptops and pamphlets, and have destroyed tents and equipment, which the protestors have been using for their popular assemblies, people intend to stay. A large banner in the middle of the square reads in Spanish: “You have cleaned up our exhaustion and now we are back”

Despite the fact that the political elites in Spain, in this new era of right-wing dominance are showing their mass use of force, they have encountered a well-organized nonviolent movement. If the movement holds to its principles, and other European countries join in the struggle, it will be the European Union which will be forced to restrain this police brutality, and which will eventually have to make concessions to this democratic citizens fighting non-violently for change. If the movement spreads, as many signs already seem to indicate, European political and economic elites will have to decide between reform and revolution.

In Spain, the elections have come and gone, with the squares full of thousands of people continuing with their shouts of indignation, but so far they have not been heard. The political party PSOE of Zapatero’s ruling socialist government has taken a beating, but the formal democracy in which we live has not changed, and the centre-right Partido Popular has taken control of much of the country. What this means, according to most market analysts, is that as the new administrations take control of regional and local governments, previously undeclared debt will surface making Spain’s economic reality much more dire than what has been estimated to date.

The post-election week has already begun as a sober reminder of the economic tsunami engulfing the country. The bond market has already punished Spain for the ‘indignados’ movement and for the election defeat of the ruling party. The stock market has also reflected doubts about the country’s austerity measures, and the privatization of National corporations has continued with the announcement of the privatizing of the National lottery and a couple of the country’s airports. In addition, the Popular Party (PP) has made repeated calls for an early general election in which they are poised to win. Therefore, it is not naïve to state that so far the popular uprising has helped consolidate the centre-right as the people’s choice for spearheading the country’s return to economic growth – an economic growth which according to the PP’s political program will be achieved by cutting corporate taxes, reducing public spending, easing the firing of workers, bailing out failing banks, making it harder for immigrants to stay in the country, and augmenting the securitization of Spain in order to create a stable investment environment.

In essence, the choice made by those who opted to vote, reflects the opposite solution to what is being discussed by people in the squares. This is the unpleasant reality that those in city squares must reflect upon, if their demands are to be heard by the rest of the population. The ‘indignados’ want to be heard; now it is time for them to listen to the rest of the country in order to propose a truly constructive program with which the majority of the population can identify – we must move from this moment of indignation to a post-indignation space in which ‘responsibility’ becomes the mantra citizens embrace.

I have personally camped in the city squares and listened to the proposals made by those committee’s that have already hijacked the movement. What started as a call for electoral reform and the punishing of political and economic corruption – call that indeed attracted thousands of people to the city squares – has quickly metamorphosed into some kind of Bolshevik-like political project led by the country’s squatter movement. Although to those observing from the outside the calls for nonviolence and participatory democracy coming from the microphones of the committees seem to point to a truly revolutionary change, a close look from within the squares, reveals that those calls are as empty as the calls for change we are used to hearing from the country’s politicians.

It is my opinion, that this hijacking of a truly democratic uprising – inspired by a general indignation and glued together through solidarity – has already caused great damage to this spontaneous call for change. Of course it is difficult to put forth clear proposals when thousands of people find themselves on the streets, it is obvious, that in such situations groups with organizing capacity are going to take charge in the steering of the movement, but just because a group has the ability to organize meals, public toilets, and speaking engagements in a public square, it does not mean it has the ability to lead over the discontent of a mass of people. Sadly, those who called for the squares to be filled, do not seem to understand this, and their mistake, I think has already begun to demobilize those whose indignation is not only aimed at the actions of politicians and bankers, but is also aimed at the actions of the committees taking control of the squares. Hopefully, these committees will realize that the best option for the movement today, is for them to turn the microphones away from themselves, and hand them down, to those filling the squares asking for some form of real democracy.

Unless one thinks that the calls of indignation are going to be met by a centre-right government, it seems apparent that indignation is not salvaging Spain. Therefore, if we – the people in the squares – are to gain true democracy while avoiding the International Monetary Fund from ‘salvaging’ our country through a Greek style bailout and its subsequent debt restructuring, we must act responsibly and acknowledge that we need the majority of the country to rally behind our calls for change. This only seems possible, once we critique our own actions, correct our mistakes, and stop proposing utopian ideals through undemocratic means, and instead offer real solutions through truly participatory democracy.

Amidst local and regional election campaigns, with the banners of the different political parties plastered across the country’s streets, people are saying ‘enough!’ Disillusioned youth, unemployed, pensioners, students, immigrants and other disenfranchised groups have emulated their brothers in the Arab world and are now demanding a voice – demanding an opportunity to live with dignity.

As the country continues to explode economically, with unemployment growing incessantly – one in two young people unemployed across many of the country’s regions. With many in the crumbling middle class on the verge of losing their homes while bankers profit from their loss and the government uses citizen taxes to expand the military industrial complex by going off to war; the people have grasped that they only have each other if they are to rise from the debris of the militarized political and economic nightmare in which they have found themselves.

Spain is finally re-embracing its radical past, its popular movements, its anarcho-syndicalist traditions and its republican dreams. Crushed by Generalissimo Francisco Franco seventy years ago, it seemed that Spanish popular culture would never recover from the void left by a rightwing dictatorship, which exterminated anyone with a dissenting voice; but the 15th of May 2011, is the reminder to those in power that Spanish direct democracy is still alive and has finally awaken.

In the 1970’s a transition through pact, transformed Spain’s totalitarian structures into a representative democracy in which all the economic structures remained intact. For the highly illiterate generations of the time, marred in the reality of a poverty-stricken country, the concessions made by the country’s elite seemed something worth celebrating. Nevertheless, as the decades passed, the state-owned corporations were privatized robbing the nation of its collective wealth, and the political scene crystallized into a pseudo-democracy in which two large parties PP and PSOE marginalized truly democratic alternatives. As this neoliberal political project materialized, the discontent begun to resurface, but the fear mongers, Spain’s baby-boomers who had once fought for democracy, were quick to remind the youth of the dangers of rebellion. For many decades in Spain, the mantra was, ‘it is better to live as we are than to go back to the totalitarianism of the past, and if you shake the system too much, it will take away our hard-earned rights’. So the youth remained silent, fearful of what could happen if they spoke, and the baby-boomers in their content blamed the youth for their indifference. According to them, it was the youth unwilling to work, which were bringing the country to its knees. But the youth have stopped this blame game, and aware of the true risks to their future are finally enticing the whole country to mobilize.

A failed European project, with its borders quickly being reinstated, a collapsing Euro currency, and the examples of Greece, Portugal and Ireland are the reminders to those on the streets of what it is they are fighting to disassociate themselves from, and of the freedoms they are working towards. The economic and political project of the country’s elite has destroyed the economic dreams of whole generations of naïve and apathetic Spaniards; it has left the country in the hands of bond speculators and central bankers, and Spaniards will have to pay that price. Nevertheless, the debt accumulated by the Spanish family, has also earned it the education with which it can understand what is going on, and through it Spanish people will liberate themselves from the tyranny of their government.

What has begun in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol and has been echoed in fifty-two cities across the country is the crystallization of a popular movement for freedom, which has no intention of fading away. The people have no choice, either they take city squares as symbols of their struggle, or their message is never heard. The government knows this and that is why it has quickly responded by trying to disperse the crowds with its repressive police force, but following some arrests, the people are back with more strength.

A silent revolution has begun in Spain, a nonviolent revolution which seeks democracy through democratic means, justice through just means, and peace through peaceful means has finally captivated the imagination of the Spanish people, and now there is no turning back. The challenge ahead will be in keeping the collective spirit nonviolent as the police force does everything in its power to disintegrate the movement into a violent chaos that can justify its repression. The popular movement will also have to be alert as the bond speculators threaten the country with economic sanctions in order to scare the population into submission, and a constructive program will have to be articulated so that the movement can continue to function whilst providing sustainable alternatives for a different Spain.

Hopefully an articulate steering committee will flourish soon from amongst the crowds, which is capable of making clear and viable demands that grab the imagination of the country and force the political elite to comply. These are delicate times in Spain, if this spontaneous nonviolent movement succeeds, Spain may welcome a brighter future, if it fails, I fear violence will become the only option for those in pain. What those outside of the country can do for Spain is to echo the shouts of indignation coming from the country’s streets. So far both mainstream and progressive international media channels have opted for silence. Let us hope this silence breaks.

What would the world do without ‘our’ greatness, without ‘our’ kindness, without ‘our’ Altruism? It is in asking ourselves these kinds of moronic questions, that we carry forth the full force of our dogma – our collective delusion, the lie, which once again has facilitated the dropping of ‘our’ bombs on the citizens of another part of the planet. This time it is happening in Libya, and just as with all other wars of aggression initiated through the barrel of Western guns, the submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and missiles of all kinds, are only engaged in a ‘humanitarian’ mission.

The late Howard Zinn would often remind his audiences around the world of the definition of modern warfare – “war is the indiscriminate killing of civilians” he would say. Perhaps it would serve us well to ponder on this thought as we embark as citizens on some kind of collective response to this new and illegitimate war, this crime against humanity, which once again is being perpetrated in our name.

We can choose to be distracted by the narrow-mindedly articulated debate on the illegitimate repression inflicted by Gaddafi on his people, on his despotic ways, his criminal behaviour, and flamboyant mannerisms. This is the sure way to guarantee a sleeping mass of ignorant and manipulated Western citizens, supportive of the criminal acts Western governments are in the midst of carrying out. Alternatively, we can say enough is enough, and we can begin to arm ourselves with the powerful nonviolent weapons of non-cooperation and civil disobedience, in order to mount a joint, citizen-led, coordinated and extensive campaign for peace and against war.

Yes, it is true Kaddafi is a criminal who oppresses the people of Libya and steals the country’s wealth. I sure hope he is brought down, but this toppling of corrupt leaders must spread across the region and throughout the globe in the form on non-violent popular uprisings – revolutions. Through Israel, Syria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Spain, the UK, and US. Through these countries and others, hopefully, ‘we’ the people, will learn to say stop to the perpetual militarization of our societies and to the stealing of our collective wealth.

If we do not say stop, then we can continue listening to the propaganda, minding our own business as we wait for a new war, a new financial collapse, or another nuclear disaster, as those who can afford to, continue to eat away at the planet’s natural resources. But lest not forget that as Western bombs pound on Tripoli and Libya’s civil war becomes another US-led Western imperial invasion, the people of Libya are no safer, and are certainly not gaining the kind of democracy they had in mind when their uprising began.

So with Afghanistan flattened, with Iraq completely destroyed, with Pakistan being hit by drones, and with the people of Gaza forced to live in their open-air prison as millions of refugees from these war torn countries suffer the consequences of previous Western humanitarian missions, it would serve the western critical thinker well to oppose any kind of military intervention, and to show serious skepticism towards the humanitarian and caring words stemming from the mouth of current Western government representatives.  Listening to the benevolent messages from people like Obama and Sarkozy would seem ironically comical if it were not for the dangerous quagmire in which we find ourselves. Yet, since while they continue to blurt out mighty words, which often invoke God, innocents die.

This is no time for comedy. The time has come to break our silence and judge them and their allies for crimes against humanity. Only when we have wiped clean the blood spilled in the name of our false morality by confronting the crimes committed in our name might we find ourselves in a position from which to ethically judge the crimes of the foreign petty dictators our leaders often called friends.

What a meaningless term democracy has become when uttered under the context of our 21st century Western reality. Do we really think the democracy we live embodies the dream our ancestors thought they were fighting for? I do not think it does. I think instead that Western democracy, the democracy of imperial expansion, embodies the violence and misery it claims to diffuse. The tragic thing is that many Western citizens one speaks to make similar observations; yet, the wheel continues to turn and its movement destroys many innocents. How can the wheel stop, when the citizenry goes along for the ride? When there is little will to change direction?

Let us take for example the self-proclaimed left-wing progressives of the United States. Imbued by arrogance and complacency, two years ago, they went along with the message of hope communicated by the now president of the United States. Their strategic plan was to vote Mr. Obama into office, and then convince him to act on their wishes for a better world. Their argument being that he represented the lesser of the two evils. In retrospect, one can see that he was not the lesser of the two evils; he was a different evil representing the same class interests, with different rhetoric and face. Nevertheless, the progressive embrace of yet another criminal into the office of the United States has served to fuel and legitimize once again, the Nation’s expansionary venture of military violence and legalized capitalist crime.

With the year coming to a close, one can only assume that either these so called progressives made a strategic blunder, or they had no will for real change. I am inclined to believe that the choice was made to continue with the charade because there is no will for a paradigmatic change. But these are big words, and for this reason, many will discard what I have to say. So in order to at least begin the process of describing the kinds of actions, which I think are needed for a paradigm change to take place, below I will present a few suggestions a wilful citizenry can undertake in the coming year in order to stop the inhumanity that today has become the norm.

Global General Strike

If there was indeed a true sense of solidarity and responsibility, those around the world who claim to fight for the betterment of the human experience on earth, could begin 2011, with an attempt to coordinate a Global General strike. A strike for peace and equality, in which workers refuse to work until everyone on earth is guaranteed equal social rights to shelter, food, and medicine. In the century of globalized capital, only a globalized citizens movement can effectively ward-off the ruthless attacks coming from the capitalist class. One does not need to be a Marxist in order to understand this. Reading the day’s headlines of any mainstream newspaper clearly reveals the ruthless game being played by those running our capitalist economies.

Removing Our Money from the Banks

Another action that could prove useful in 2011 would be for those interested in real change to undergo a coordinated action of removing their money from banks. During the current global financial crisis it has become blatantly clear to what extent our money in the bank is serving to finance our own material and moral impoverishment. Why would we be interested in continuing to finance our own demise?

Refusal to Pay Taxes

The next action which I would suggest would be a globally coordinated effort to encourage citizens to stop paying the proportion of their taxes used for financing military ventures. Contrary to what we are led to believe, there is no such thing as a benevolent army.  Soldiers are trained to kill, and that is what they are doing around the world on a daily basis. Let us stop it if we really want change.

Hunger strike

Staging a hunger strike for peace with the collaboration of millions of concerned citizens from around the world would certainly force governments to revise their continued militarization. A Gandhian inspired strike of this type in which those who refuse war are willing to suffer in themselves in order for things to change could have a great impact. Imagine students, workers and retirees from around the world, together succumbing to such a painful ordeal in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in conflict zones, where our governments are destroying people’s existence.

Blank Vote

If you do not agree with the candidates presenting themselves to the next election, please do not vote for the lesser of the two evils.  It is the surest way to avoid any meaningful change. If you have doubts about this, look at what Obama’s message of hope and change has amounted to.

I did not invent any of these tactics, so I claim no originality, I am just one more concerned Western citizen, using the internet while we still have it available for this kind of dialogue, in order to ask publicly the question I often ask myself: What must we do if we hope for change? I understand that many will disagree with my suggestions, and indeed might be offended by the tactics I propose, but if you really want change and you are not seeing it, tell me what we can do. As far as I am concerned, our current collective path is the path of No-Hope and No-Change, and I refuse to be a part of the charade. Let us hope next year is a little more humane.

These events took place in International waters, 100 kilometers off the coast of Gaza. The nonviolent peace advocates were on a life-saving mission to liberate the people of Gaza, from the open-aired prison imposed on them by Israel under the consent of its ally, the United States. After being surrounded by Israeli military vessels and with helicopters hovering over their heads, these courageous nonviolent peace advocates watched with amazement and terrorized, as Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara shooting randomly and killing and wounding many of the advocates on board. Following the massacre, the ship was taken to Ashdod port where those who survived have either been arrested awaiting deportation, or are being treated in hospitals across Israel.

As these events have unfolded, popular furor has grown across continents, and demonstrations have been witnessed in front of Israeli embassies around the globe. The UN Security Council has had an emergency meeting to discuss the issue, spokespeople of different states have expressed deep concern about the events, and as Israeli ambassadors stationed in different nations jitter at the possibility of being expelled, the group of elders – the eminent leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela – has condemned the attack as “completely inexcusable.”

It was only a few weeks ago that the Israeli authorities denied entry to professor Noam Chomsky at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan to Jericho, in the Palestinian West Bank. Professor Chomsky was on his why to speak at Bir Zeit University. To many of us here in the West, at the time, it seemed bizarre that the Israeli government would commit such a foolish act, by barring academic freedom and freedom of speech in such an open and hostile manner. Professor Chomsky is after all, one of the world’s most renowned academics, and without a doubt, a source of inspiration to many who are advocating nonviolently for peace. What was hard to imagine at the time of this incident, was that professor Chomsky’s refusal of entry into the Palestinian Occupied Territories, although in one sense a continuity of Israeli policy against the Palestinian people and all who befriend them, also marked an intensification of Israel’s open assault on the values and rights of the citizens of the broader international community.

As Western citizens, we have become accustomed by now to the brutal treatment of Palestinian people by Israeli security forces through their daily acts of orchestrated state-terrorism. It comes as no surprise to us, when we hear of the continued extermination of the population of Gaza, and its non-stop humiliation and degradation. A crime which is beyond comprehension and which has already tragically led to the 22-day onslaught on Gaza in late 2008 early 2009 – a destruction of such magnitude, that it is now referred to by many around the world as the Gaza Massacre. An event during which, according to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission’s Goldstone Report, Israeli Defense Forces committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

As Western citizens, we are also used to the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza, whose physical, psychological, and spiritual hardship is tested on a daily basis as they endure the reality of living in an open-air prison, which their jailers are free to bomb and destroy whenever they please. A situation against which, although condemnation has been strong, international pressure has not succeeded. What we are not accustomed to in the West, however, is to witnessing the Israeli government blatantly attacking hundreds of nonviolent peace advocates from around the globe, congregated on ships navigating in international waters. Peace advocates, whose aid campaign to Gaza has been widely publicized, and who have clearly informed their respective governments of their initiative.

In the West, we have become accustomed to the propaganda machine of the Israeli government filling the global airwaves with fabrications, defamations and outright lies following each crime committed, each violation of international law. Like the Israeli military, the Israeli propaganda apparatus is highly sophisticated. Nevertheless, this latest act seems like a challenge to the world, and I am not sure whether propaganda can bury it. Perhaps in the West, we have become immune to the daily deaths of Palestinians, or to the tragic death of a Western nonviolent peace advocate being shot by the Israeli defense forces while in Palestinian territory. I do not think however, that populations from around the globe can tolerate Israel’s interception of a peaceful convoy in international waters, with its subsequent shootings and killings of citizens from many different nationalities. Parliamentarians, Nobel laureates, spiritual leaders, humanitarian aid workers, and journalists amongst others, forced to endure the terror inflicted upon them by lethal Israeli military commandos.

Clearly, the attack on the Mavi Marmara is a premeditated act, and one for which the Israeli propaganda machine has been preparing for a while. Professor Norman Finkelstein has described Israel as a lunatic state, and has warned of the risk of such a state having hundreds of nuclear weapons. Watching through the Internet live-feed, Israel’s attack – in international waters – on global citizens brought together by a call to civic duty, all one can hope for as a member of the global nonviolent peace advocacy community, is that the pressure we exert on our governments forces an end to Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity. If Israel is not stopped following this tragedy, it will become clear to us, that just like the Palestinians we have all become targets for the Israeli military, and thus, are no longer protected from Israel’s lunacy.

The world has failed to defend the Palestinians for years, but yesterday Israel made a geopolitical turn by declaring war on the citizens of the world. It made all of us Palestinian, and now it is the responsibility of our governments to respond. Will the nations of the international community defend the rights of their citizens as well as the rights of the Palestinians? Will the siege on Gaza end, and those who have repeatedly broken international law, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity be tried and punished? Or has Israel just declared war on the citizens of the world with the implicit consent of its international allies? One cannot predict the outcome of this massacre; nevertheless, there are clear signs pointing to the potential beginning of a new epoch, for Israel, for Palestine, for the Middle East, and for the citizens of the world. Defining this epoch will revolve around determining whether Israel’s latest act, is an act of war against numerous members of the International community.

Introduction

Antonio Gramsci differentiated organic intellectuals from traditional intellectuals, by emphasizing the role of the former in cultivating roots within their communities to help develop a self-inspired organic consciousness. Accepting their position within the dominant ideology, according to Gramsci, organic intellectuals will ultimately support the working-class in developing an alternative hegemony within civil society.

For many decades, society has been indoctrinated with the belief that liberal democratic capitalism was the benevolent solution to all world problems. Through this model of society, hunger was going to be eradicated, wars would come to an end, the environment would be saved, and justice would be distributed equally amongst all members of the human species. Entering the new century, western society celebrated the new millennium with the euphoria of success, once and for all; we had entered the final face of existence, the one, which would bring upon the earth the mythical wonders of the Kingdom of Heaven. However, without having witnessed the passing of the first decade of the 21st century, this dogma has been broken and as many across the globe struggle for survival and society is marred by the continuous threat of revolving crisis, the time for the revolutionary transformation of the western ideal is upon us. Yet, the fundamental questions remain to be answered, how can we act? What can we do?

It is the role of the organic intellectual to answer these questions. If there are any left who have not yet awaken from their slumber, the time has come for them to abandon the petit bourgeois existence of the petty professor attending wine tasting events, the government bureaucrat justifying the wonders of his mind while working on the golf swing at the local country club, or the 1960s hippie, that after a stint in the Berkeley student movements went on to become a prosperous businessman. In today’s holistic global crisis, one which threatens every single aspect of our existence – from the food we eat, to the air we breath, and to the way we interact between each other – those who in their youth considered themselves conscious individuals fighting towards change, can no longer hide behind the mask of the liberal democratic ideal of a capitalist society striving towards justice, peace and prosperity. All of these having remained ideals, while a reality of extreme misery for the majority, coexists today with the growing prosperity of a shrinking minority capitalizing on the growing pains of humanity.

In today’s crisis, we will all perish together or we will overcome it together, and as professor Chomsky often states, “so much depends on will and choice”. Yet, the choice at this point is between prolonged misery, constant crisis, environmental deterioration and continual war, or the possibility of working together in unison to overcome the hurdles, which we are facing. If we are to honestly look at what is happening in society, on any given day we can observe that the interests of the majority are not being respected and instead, the elites benefiting themselves, pitch to society the benefits of their choices by attributing everything to the trickledown effect – a warped inversion of reality which supports investing on those at the top in order to protect people at the bottom. I often wonder when I hear such discourse bombarded by government officials and experts through the traditional channels of propaganda, whether the rest of society is awake and paying attention, or simply asleep and indifferent. I can never be quite sure, because if indeed society is awake and paying attention, then we live in a world of fools, yet, if the indifference is attributable to being asleep, the task of waking up is a daunting one. One, which can only be carried out by the organic intellectual committed to revolutionary social transformation.

Decay of Western Hegemony

As western society struggles with rising tensions, both within and outside of its borders, as those being colonized begin to throw their shoes in despair, and those who thought they belonged to the empire begin to realize that their dream is no longer sustainable, the organic intellectual is able to grasp the severity of the global crisis. As bankers announce their losses, the banking cartel slowly collapses. First, the major investment banks and hedge funds, then their traditional counterparts, all showing loses which only a year ago had been presented as ground breaking profits, as slowly the deck of cards unfolds and everything crumbles. Soon the job cuts begin, across continents furious workers revel against their enslaving owners, demonstrations, walkouts, sit-ins, failed negotiations between trade unions and shareholders. The sky is falling and the capitalist always strives to win. For a while, dormant workers watch their colleagues being laid-off, at first it seems an unavoidable aspect of capitalism, the dirty side of a casino culture, which rewards some at the expense of others. But then, neighbourhoods begin to witness empty houses, people evicted, squatters moving in, the law can do little to prevent it, the numbers are too big to contain. The lobbyists in Washington are eagerly fighting for pieces of the bailout money prepared by a government, which faced with complete anarchy must regain a foothold in the corridors of power. Confidence must never be lost. Hence, a new face in the White House, a new man, a new dream, perpetuated by the chanting of hope. But things will never be the same in America, as young bankers spend their holidays in despair not knowing if their job awaits them in the coming year, the dark thoughts of unemployment begin to creep in. Obama proposes solutions, three million jobs to be created by rebuilding the fallen infrastructures of the great American empire. An empire, which in its boom forgot to cement its foundations and now collapsing, will offer its unemployed bankers the opportunity to go and fix roads.

As America crumbles, its allies must wait and hope. they too must hold tight to the idea of a rebirth, they too must put their expectations and dreams in the hands of Obama. For the allies, there is not much more that can be done. They accepted the American way of life, they indulged in the great American credit card culture and now, millions of people around the globe are tied to the demise of Wall Street, thus the saying, “when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold.” So, as frantic politicians of the axis of good scramble for some sense of stability for their countries, industries collapse, unemployment raises, and currencies begin to witness the prospects of inflation, deflation, stagflation, stagdeflation, and ultimately, what few dare to mention – depression and eventual collapse.

At this point, relations which in the good times presented themselves as strong and unbreakable begin to shake, governments of the allied countries, the client states, are trapped between their commitments to the emperor and the demands of their people – their people need to eat and the emperor demands that his people eat first. So, the economies of the allied countries begin to fall one by one. As they do, chaos breaks within their borders and internal factions begin to fight for power, possibilities of revolution or civil war are no longer too far fetched as American influence retreats and the ruling parties are left in a vacuum, like sitting ducks, waiting for factions to fight for the reigns. First, the riots break out in the weaker allied countries such as Greece, where corruption has been so blatant that the disillusioned youth go out to the streets. At first, it looks like a minor incident, but soon it is apparent that youth everywhere are inspired by such actions. As the months go by, riots spark up in numerous countries, those that no longer feel a part of the empire are now eager to burn it.

The majority of people no longer see the governments as representing their interests, rather they are understood to be puppets of the ruling elites, the capitalist class, and this makes them the enemy. It didn’t have to be this way, but politicians have become so complacent that they flaunt the wealth accumulated through legalized corruption, something, which although accepted by the courts, is no longer accepted by the angry mobs. So politicians begin to flee into exile – first, they fly to the ally countries, but soon they realise that they are not welcomed there. Their presence can destabilize already fragile situations, so they hop from country to country, finding eventual refuge in some far away land, in the same way that Nazi war criminals ended up in the jungles of Latin America.

In the meantime, the military might of America and its allies keeps getting stretched, and the wars that were begun can no longer be effectively fought. With the unpopularity at home and the increased resistance of those being attacked, it seems like a retreat is in sight, however, the military commanders and the corporations involved in the creation of weapons of mass destruction, refuse to let go of this opportunity to continue their expansion. So the war continues, with every shell fired helping to discredit an act, which was presented as a necessary evil to liberate humanity from tyranny. Now the war is seen for what it is, an unjust act of aggression designed to conquer whole populations and generate profit for the small ruling elites. The United Nations, once believed to be a fair moderator of conflict, is now showing its face as the mechanism for justification of the mega-powers – it is no longer sustainable, it is now viewed as an aggressor. The International Monetary Fund is running out of funds and must call on the rising empires to support its transactions. As for The World Bank, it just passes from corruption scandal to corruption scandal, until soon it too will become obsolete. So, as the international institutions crumble and the allied countries collapse, America is left in debt with an internal discomfort brewing and external wars being lost. What was once a colonial project based on the strategy of sticks and carrots, has run out of carrots and all that is left, is the stick to continue the expansion. It is at this point that the American empire must decide between an all out war against the rising empires, or the acknowledgment of defeat. All empires rise and fall, what America can do, is to choose between a graceful fall and the third world war. For those in power the choice is clear, it is now essential for the people to speak loud and promptly. Will there be war, or will there be revolution? It is the role of the organic intellectual to promote revolution rather than war, but how? And what kind of revolution?

The Rise of the Organic Intellectual Movement

Mahatma Gandhi knew that soldiers had weapons when he chose to promote the path of non-violence. He also knew that only through this method India had a chance of transitioning from colonialism to a self-ruling nation, without descending into civil war. He understood the sacrifice people would have to make when they stood in front of guns with only their faces of indignation to protect them from their oppressors. The sacrifice proved worthwhile. Similarly, as liberal democratic capitalism comes to an end, the only option for western society to liberate itself from the chains of its ruling elites is to confront them through organized non-violent actions. It must be the role of the organic intellectual, to promote this path and educate the oppressed about its benefits, while proposing effective methods of direct communal action.

As the situation deteriorates in the west, there is no doubt that violence is going to increase. As the population begins to react to what is happening, governments will increase their police forces and will redeploy their militaries to monitor civilian streets – events, which are already apparent in certain areas of the United States. Yet, violence breeds violence, and we can no longer afford to take this route. So, as governments take bold steps to increase the controls of the civilian population and the clampdown on dissent becomes apparent, those who are currently ruled, need to understand the tools they have at their disposal in order to invert the pyramid of power. However, this reversal of the power structure in society requires sacrifices, and the sooner we all understand this, the faster we will be able to obtain true democracy based on peace, equality in front of the justice system, and sustainable prosperity for all.

Helping people understand this reality is the role of the organic intellectual. Of course, this is not an easy task, and it requires many people working together, using the tools at their disposal to build effectively coordinated information networks designed to empower the population. Many networks already exist at present, actively educating and organizing communities through grassroots efforts aimed at direct action, yet, the kinds of coalitions, which can reshape society in a revolutionary way are currently lacking friction. In America, the last time anything like this was actually lived was in the 1960s. Since then, groups have been fighting for their rights isolated from each other, which has allowed liberal democratic capitalism to contain them and appease them, without jeopardising the continual and coordinated expansion of the colonial project.

It is therefore the need to organize and unite outside of the elite power structures, which must be prioritized if there is going to be any kind of revolutionary transformation of western society. Once this step is acknowledged by the organic intellectual, and dealt with in a coordinated manner, efforts can then be directed to the numerous direct action initiatives, which are urgently needed: Putting an end to home evictions and making sure that everyone has a home. Organizing global trade unions, which can counteract capital strikes by paralyzing the capitalist economy and lobbying the demands of the workforce. Initiating consistent global demonstrations, requesting the halt of military investments and the dismantling of the war industrial complex. The start up of cooperatives focused on the development of new forms of sustainable technologies and alternative methods of production. The creation of community based and owned banking institutions. Coordinating the development of collectively owned community farming initiatives. The structuring of worker managed goodwill delegations, travelling around the world encouraging substitute forms of collaboration between countries.

Of course, these are only a few options out of the many which can be proposed and acted upon by an organized population, so these can only serve as suggestions, as organic intellectuals strive to unite existing grassroots efforts in coalitions designed to radically transform society. Sympathizing with the reality of the majority of workers – whose workday is committed without much choice to staying afloat within the strenuous capitalist economy – it is understandable that a critical mass is only achieved after many have been forced into poverty. However, it is the role of the organic intellectual, to educate the population about the consequences of not acting boldly and committing to the revolutionary project while still in the workforce, rather than having to do so later, when exposed to the charitable mercy of the ruling elite after being laid-off.

As things continue to deteriorate in the western world, these words will make much more sense. I do hope however, that a majority grasps this view before it is too late to avoid the third world war. Although, judging by the reflexes of society in predicting the current financial crisis, it might take a declaration of war before people understand where we are heading. The truth is, that unless the population is empowered and revolutionary, this event seems unavoidable at this point in time, when the ruling elites are amassing more power, the working class is clasping to its wages, and the industrial military complex is expanding at the fastest pace in the history of mankind.

The new era of voting for the lesser of the two evils has penetrated the core of America’s critical intellectual community, and some of the biggest voices for change have endorsed Obama. In effect, what has taken place is the union between those opposed to imperial ideology and those endorsing it. Although this serious event has gone largely unnoticed, American intellectuals will need to reflect on its consequences seriously if they are to contribute to the building of a stable future for humanity as a whole, and in particular to mending the tarnished corrupt fabric of American society.

One American intellectual, James Petras, has been able to identify the direct social consequences of such a paradigm shift and prior to the elections has publicly expressed his views in an article titled “The Elections and the Responsibility of the Intellectual to Speak Truth to Power: Twelve Reasons to Reject Obama and Support Nader/McKinney.”

As the title of the article clearly states, Petras voices the reasons why intellectuals have the responsibility of voting against Obama just like they should vote against McCain. In regards to those intellectuals who have endorsed Obama he says:

They are what C. Wright Mills called ‘crackpot realists’, abdicating their responsibility as critical intellectuals. In purporting to support the ‘lesser evil’ they are promoting the ‘greater evil’: The continuation of four more years of deepening recession, colonial wars and popular alienation.

After listening last night to Obama’s first speech after his victory, a victory he said was of the people, what Petras is saying seems disturbingly accurate when looked at through the prism of critical discourse analysis. One can look back now to the presidency of George W. Bush and listen to his rhetoric. What has been his message throughout the last 8 years? When Obama’s core messages are compared to Bush’s, it becomes apparent that the coming presidential plans are not too different to current presidential policies.

Even more disturbing, is the fact that when Bush spoke throughout his presidency there was always a slight cynical reaction by the majority of the public, as most of the surveys have shown time and time again. However, last night the cynicism seemed to have vanished and the hope of a new American century was reborn with full force, to the clapping thunder and joyous splendour of the reborn American people. With every word uttered by Obama one could see how the empire was not gone, Bush almost killed it, now Obama the symbol of hope, together with all the American people in unity, are going to reconstruct their country and the world, restabilising America’s faltering hegemony.

For those in the struggle against imperial expansion, the task ahead is going to prove daunting. Perhaps the echoed endorsement of the new presidency by some of the world’s most public intellectuals is going to set back the struggle for true justice, in the sense that although voting without ‘illusions’, a landslide victory has been handed out to Obama by millions of delusional Americans. Expect more bailouts of the economic elite, expect the war drums to continue, expect more people to lose their homes and jobs. Keep organizing at the grassroots level because millions of Americans are going to need help, like the billions of people around the world who year after year ravaged by the smiling face of capitalist imperialism, have been shouting out and had their voices ignored.

The essence of capitalism in the twenty-first century is one of popular misery, thunderous war, and smiling politicians, as the global elites struggle to save pieces of their crumbling cake. In the middle of this chaos there is room for ‘hope’, there is certainly no ‘illusion’, and respect must go to Ralph Nader for fighting on and James Petras for speaking truth to power. As for the paradigm shift faced by America’s intellectual community, strong choices must be made and a new generation of intellectuals must begin to drive critical thinking into a more serious and coherent direction, if humanity as a whole, is to overcome the obstacles it faces.

All I have heard on the streets over the last few days are words about the financial crisis. Everyone all of a sudden is concerned about their mortgage, their savings, their retirement, their stocks or more importantly, their jobs. Dismal economic data keeps propping up on every major newspaper and news channel and talk shows are packed with voices talking about the dire straits of this economic Armageddon. Yet, I can’t help ask myself if we are all simply asleep or we are too scared to face the truth.

Almost everyone whom over the last decade of economic arrogance and pedantic borrowing preached about the power of the western world and its economic might, has all of a sudden turned around and become a spoke person for panic itself. Yet for the layperson it doesn’t seem to matter. If it did, grassroots movements would be picking up traction and the global elites would be held accountable for their crimes. Too early for that, society is still not ready to come to terms with the fact that leaders are a reflection of the people they lead. I am inclined to believe that it will take a lot more pain, many more lies, and much larger panic before citizens stand up and react to this catastrophic social tsunami.

Yes, it is true that those at the top are enjoying the ride, or we could say were enjoying the ride — it now seems to be a little more bumpy. Yet the very fact that they haven’t been held accountable by the rest of us is a reflection of collective guilt, and all who cry today are doing so because of our past general indifference. So what can one do?

Perhaps the first thing we must all do is acknowledge that the financial panic we are facing is a lot deeper than what is presented through the media, and understand that the problem is systemic. The sooner we come to terms with this, the sooner we will be able to find real solutions. Developed countries are living way over their means and no matter how we try to prop it up, sooner or later the deck of cards is going to collapse. From my humble opinion, the sooner that happens the better, because with everyday that passes, the eventual landing gets much more painful.

The second point we are going to have to grapple with is the fact that the great majority of society has been too laissez-faire to predict what was heading our way and is today an apparent reality; the fact that our casino culture of gambling the world away was always a finite proposition which politicians and economists perpetuated to eternal existence, while the thirsty masses accepted it without question.

Thirdly, it will be incredibly important for those members of society who see themselves as belonging to the middle class and who have acquired that perceived status through debt, to accept their rank in the working class and unite again with their peers. This point is of particular importance because it has been the sole illusion of an imaginary middle class which has kept the bubble rising and when it bursts, millions of hypnotized believers will fall hard and will need to be picked up by the very group they left behind when they abandoned the class struggle.

Fourthly, we are all going to have to get used to the situation we have collectively generated, we are hostages to our own creation. The governments are there because we elected them and the banks are there because we trusted them without asking questions.

Despite all this, it remains crucial that we have a collective wakeup and begin to understand that as we strategize about our own personal situation, those who laid the foundations for this ugly mess we are faced with are still the global elite and they still hold the reigns of power. So, as we do our own accounting and plan for our own personal security, it will do us no harm and possibly a lot of good, to start looking at the world from a political economy perspective. We must understand that politics, economy and war are all intertwined variables of our current state of affairs. We must understand, that geopolitical events are all in some way linked to these three variables. I say this, because although we are no longer able to stop the deterioration of our financial systems and economies, we might be able through joint and organized collective action, to avoid worse events from unraveling.

The warning signs of economic deterioration begun a longtime ago, the majority chose to ignore them, and because of that we are all here today. Now the alarm bells of increased military confrontation are sounding loud and clear, I only hope we are all able to hear them and that our words speak louder than guns. One thing is certain, as President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia said today, the U.S. crisis shows that “the times when one economy and one country dominated are gone for good,” as he concluded, the world no longer needs a “”megaregulator”. Although I believe this statement to be true, I fear that the U.S. elites, together with the elites of allied countries, will not let go of their perceived upper hand, and might be warming up to more war.

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British ambassador in Kabul already believes the war in Afghanistan is as good as lost, and the war in Iraq seems to be on the same destructive path. Yet, as Russia prepares to fly its supersonic Tu-160 nuclear bombers as part of its largest air force exercises since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole concept of war that westerners are used to could be escalating towards a more vivid reality. I hope the citizens of the west can understand this, and for once before it is too late, we can unplug our brains from the corporate propaganda system, which our elites have so carefully instituted, and we can do something about it. As for the Russians, Afghans, Iraqis, North Koreans, Chinese and others, let them stand up to their own governments, and once we are all doing that, let us neutralize their actions by holding hands and shouting “Stop!”

Sooner rather than later, we must all take a deep look into ourselves, evaluate those values which were indoctrinated into us from very early age, through our faiths, religions, education and social interaction. Then, we must confront our social reality and evaluate individually if our beliefs are parallel to our reality. One cannot in any way pretend to be an old fashion moralist, for that would be counter productive to collective objectives. The only thing one can do is to write as a human being concerned about our present and our future, in an attempt to find those out there who share similar concerns and are willing to do something about it.

I am perplexed at the direction which we have unanimously accepted as the only way forward. As we debate in our streets the need for peace, and a healthy environment, we see daily our governments and corporations pushing forth a rhetoric of “justified” aggression, and we watch with arms crossed, our corporations dilapidating the remains of our environmental heritage without a strong enough collective of concerned citizens saying stop. Are we too cowardly? Are our arms tied? Are we so adamant in our belief of capitalism as a safe model of coexistence, that we do not feel we have a right to claim the preservation of our environment and everyone’s human rights?

These are just a few questions which one can raise when simply observing human interaction, the list could fill a whole book. However, what matters here is not so much the issues which are streamed into our lives through the effective communicative work of the mass media in all forms and with varied of objectives, what truly matters is the stance which we take individually and hopefully united, against the adversity which an accumulation of destructive policies and actions are brewing in our environment. Of course, that is a hard position to take when as a collective of people we have lost all interest in the major issues creating destruction in our planet. Political systems with corrupt foundations, outrageous disparity between the wealthy and the poor, and a military establishment which everyday gains more power to destroy and kill.

Looking at the events unravelling around us; world economies coming to a standstill with millions expected to lose their homes across continents, the clear misery of millions of people finding themselves involved in current “theatre wars”, the cries of millions of people going hungry as speculators recover the losses of the last financial bubble by speculating on food, and the increased monitoring and surveillance which we are enduring in order to feel safe. It seems like a good time to sit, reflect and question the direction humanity is taking, and more importantly ask ourselves whose interests it all serves.

If we ask ourselves that question, and we opt to unite with our neighbours to do something about this, then our world can look very different. Let us stand together, let us reject political systems in which only those with corporate and media support are able to become presidents, let us force our militaries to disarm and make their bases into museums of the folly which humanity until the early stages of the 21st century was unable to eliminate. Let us work together to make sure that we do not lose our homes, and our neighbours don’t lose their homes. Let us not accept the idea that saving banks is the way to save our standards of living, let us use tax payer dollars to save individuals with names and histories, not corporations whose only history is one of accumulation of wealth while others were and are starving.

We can accept capitalism and political corruption as the established way forward, and through it try and solve the issues confronting society, in hope that the next elect president will put aside his respect towards his corporate backers and will work for the benefit of the whole of humanity. Or we can outright denounce the very structure of the political system. We can continue supporting the militarization of the whole world, with the obvious increase in conflicts which this path entails, or we can collectively demand disarmament. Something Einstein was conscious enough to suggest four days before his death.

At the end of the day, everyone is free to reject what I am saying or to classify it in their brain as something utopian or naïve, but one must be honest with oneself and at least acknowledge that as a collective we do not seem to be on the path to world peace, a healthy environment, and democratic freedom. In fact, for those who felt democracy was the norm, dictatorships and police states can be observed in the horizon, our environment is more critical everyday, and wars are increasing in number and in destruction capacity. Granted Bush should be tried for crimes against humanity, but please let us stop dwelling on his responsibility, and let us begin to at least question whether we might also individually be morally guilty of crimes against humanity; for our silence, our indifference and our acceptance of the current state of the world.

Four years later, this transitioned and fully-fledged western democracy, which is yet to declare Franco’s regime as illegal, presented itself in front of the ballot box. Mr. Zapatero fell seven seats short in the 350-member lower house of parliament from winning the absolute majority. He now has to build a governing coalition either with the Catalan nationalist coalition Convergence and Union, which won 11 seats, the Basque Nationalist Party, which won six seats, or to rally for support from several smaller left-leaning regional parties and the United Left. His job during this second term will be to keep the country united, save it from economic disaster, and aligning Spain’s Foreign Policy with the wishes of the people who voted him into power. All of these will indeed be hard to fulfil.

Over the past decade Spain’s economy has been one of the strongest in Europe, with 14 years of straight growth, and a booming property market. Now the housing market is on the brink of collapse, inflation is running at a 12 year high of 4.4%, and unemployment is soaring. Spain, like the United States, is going through the end of a housing boom and the start of a credit crunch, however, the weight of the housing sector in Spain is three times that of the housing sector in the United States and Spain does not have a competitive enough industry to substitute construction.

According to Eurostat, in January Spain experienced an 8% reduction in construction, the most drastic in the Euro zone. Much of Spain’s “economic miracle” has been driven by consumption and construction. Construction has come to represent 20% of the Gross Domestic Product and 20% of the labour market. In the last quarter of 2007, Spain’s construction giants were badly hit with combined losses totalling more than 200 million euros. While the German Commerzbank believes a recession is reaching the country, the Association of Spanish Savings Banks, FUNCAS, has said that the slowdown in the economy will be greater in Spain than in the rest of Europe.

In the last few years, Spain has seen the construction of 800,000 new homes per year and there is no doubt that housing has become unaffordable for most Spaniards entering the market, just as there is no doubt that there are over three million unoccupied dwellings held by speculators. According to the Bank of Spain, properties are 40% over priced. To add to this, a USB bank study says Barcelona is not far behind New York when it comes to being one of the most expensive cities in the world. Sadly Barcelona’s salaries do not align with the city’s cost of living.

In the last eight months, Spain’s six largest banks, Santander, BBVA, Popular, Sabadell, Bankinter and Banesto have watched a fifth of their stock market value (EUR 36.7 billion) being wiped off. Some 60% of bank loans are property-related and a spokesman for the banking industry association AEB says: “The number of people not repaying loans is increasing in line with the direction of the economy.” Delinquency on credit given by Savings Banks to individuals and companies rose in January to 1.08%, the highest since October 2000. Delinquency on mortgages grew 46.5% in 2007, and in January it grew unexpectedly to the highest since 1994. The volume of delinquencies in Euros increased 60% since the beginning of 2007. The Bank of Spain has advised the Savings Banks to try and reduce their exposure to the housing market.

Unemployment, which never fell below 8 per cent, even in the good times, has risen for the past five months in a row. It is rising fast specially amongst immigrants working in the construction sector where it has increased by 92% in a year. The increase in agriculture is even higher, at 139%. In the past eight years, the Spanish population has risen from 39m to more than 45m. Mr Zapatero legalised 700,000 illegal immigrants in his first term in office. Many have already lost their jobs, and the cooling economy has Spaniards turning against them, especially now that 750,000 jobs are expected to be lost in the construction sector alone, over the next couple of years.

Although Spain’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, yesterday said that Spain’s economy is no cause for alarm. Faced with a global economy, which western investors are comparing to the “commodity shock” experienced during the 1970s oil crisis, Spain is going to have to face reality and acknowledge that the country is living well over its means. People in the country will soon understand that in the Government Bonds market, global investors are already dumping Spanish securities, because Spain mirrors most closely what is happening in the United States.

As for Spain’s foreign policy, indifferent of what is promoted through the mainstream media, Spain is behaving like a good “client state.” Militarizing and investing in the war against terror during Mr. Zapatero’s first term in office, Spain’s military has been busy on international missions just as it was during the times of José María Aznar. Today as Mr. Aznar celebrates the five years of war in Iraq, proclaiming on the BBC that he would do it all over again, the Fundación Alternativas — of which Mr. Zapatero is member of the board of governors — is advising the government to reconsider the Spanish Military’s 3000 troop limits on foreign participation.

Spain already has 258 effectives in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 778 troops in Afghanistan and 1100 soldiers in Lebanon stationed at the ironically named military base “Miguel de Cervantes”. More important however, is Spain’s military presence in Kosovo where Spain currently has 585 soldiers and 14 Civil Guards. These servicemen and women were stationed under a peace mission led by NATO. After the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, which broke all the accepted rules of International Law and which the Spanish government did not recognize, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bernardino León, justified Spain’s continued military presence by saying: “If the troops had been removed, Spain could not help as it is helping now.” However, with the Spanish Security Services, confirming that ETA is “planning a violent summer campaign in Spain’s popular tourist destinations,” for Spain, with regional conflicts yet to be resolved, actively collaborating with the international community to protect by military means the territorial segregation of another sovereign State, could be potential suicide.

The fact remains that George Bush has just authorized weapons to be sent to Kosovo because its independence “favours the security of the United States and global peace.” It is also a fact that under Mr Zapatero, Spain’s fight against terrorism has followed a similar trajectory to that which is currently being denounced in the United States. On January 19th, Indian Roshan Jamal Khan, along with 14 other people, was detained in Spain and charged with plotting a terrorist attack. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs says it still has no word from Spain on the charges that have been pressed against Khan. Also, in a chapter dedicated to Spain, the UN’s Manfred Nowak, confirms that various NGO sources within the country, have informed him of the fact that the Spanish security forces systematically ex-communicate suspected ETA terrorists, and that just in the first ten months of 2007, restricted the rights of 65 arrested in the Basque Country. Of these 65 ex-communicated detainees, at least 24 have denounced torture during their stay at Police Stations.

During the times of Aznar, we often heard the famous phrase España va bien (Spain is going well), it has been a while since we last heard it, and it is not surprising, for Spain is not going well at all. Spain is in a lot of trouble because of the dream of a richer and better society modelled on that of the United States. All Spanish people can do now, apart from staging a run on the banks, is to brace themselves and hope that Spain’s guarantor, the United States, will stay afloat and remember to save us, even though we democratically requested to pull our troops out of Iraq. Otherwise, Spain might as well say “adios”.

I remember the time when General Motors Corp. was considered a pillar of the American dream, a fundamental of the economic miracle. Now, after reporting a quarterly loss of $722 million, compared with a profit of $950 million a year earlier, and offering buyouts to all of its 74,000 United Auto Workers employees, GM is clearly not a part of the sound fundamentals which President Bush likes to describe. The same seems apparent with MGIC Investment Corp., the largest U.S. mortgage insurer, which posted a record quarterly loss of $1.47 billion and is also being kept out of the ‘presidential fundamentals equation’.

Things are so bad in the United States that during the Senate Banking Committee hearing, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson resorted to aliens from outer space to describe how things are looking; “If someone came down – a man came down from Mars – and you were trying to explain the regulatory structure… it’s a patchwork quilt, in many ways.” I don’t blame him for looking for such far fetched metaphors when many economists and banking industry experts according to Time magazine, “believe the subprime crisis could metamorphose into the biggest debacle to hit the sector since the Savings & Loan catastrophe of the 1980s, which caused some $500 billion in losses to the banking industry.” As Merrill Lynch economist Kathy Bostjancic elaborates “the impact here could be far larger (than the S&L crisis) in terms of the dollar amount and the spillover effects into other parts of the economy, particularly the consumer.”

Doug Duncan, chief economist with the Mortgage Bankers Association, in his updated 2008 forecast says “the principal concern of the current credit crisis lies in the possibility that banks will eventually run out of capital,” as Dean Baker, co-director of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington think tank, adds, “the amount of debt that’s likely to go bad is virtually certain to be in the high hundreds of billions of dollars, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it ends up crossing a trillion.”

In short, what we have here is the worst housing slump in a quarter century, an economy which in January alone lost 17,000 jobs, and The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index which has fallen three consecutive months, the longest losing streak since 2003. We also have Americans whose December monthly expenditure on debt service, housing, medical costs, and food and energy bills has risen to an unprecedented 66.9 percent of their total spending, the highest since records began in 1980. According to Ron Blackwell, chief economist at the AFL-CIO, “American workers are suffering a generation-long decline in living standards and rising economic insecurity.” To add to this, the four-week moving average of new claims for state unemployment is at the highest level since October 2005, and the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index is marking its lowest point since February 1992 when the economy was emerging from a recession.

I would like to know what the president’s fundamentals are. The White House seems to be isolated from reality. Data provided by the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America trade group clearly states that U.S. foreclosure rates have risen to their highest since at least World War II, and defaults on privately insured U.S. mortgages have risen 37 percent in December from the same month a year earlier. RealtyTrac Inc. is reporting that foreclosure rates have risen 75 percent in 2007, and the number of homes that have been repossessed, or taken back by the bank, have jumped 50% nationwide last year. According to The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index, pending sales of previously owned homes have fallen a steeper-than-expected 1.5 percent in December, and prices of existing U.S. single-family homes have slumped 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter versus a year earlier, the largest decline in the 20-year history of a national home price index. The National Association of Realtors has also reported that sales by homeowners have fallen in January to their lowest reading since the group began reporting annual sales pace in 1999, something which Northern Trust chief economist, Paul Kasriel describes as “more doom and gloom.”

To add to this, home prices continued their plunge during the last three months of 2007, setting a real estate trade group’s record for the biggest-ever quarterly drop, the steepest ever recorded by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which has been compiling the report since 1979. A Merrill Lynch report in January forecasted price declines of 15% in 2008 and another 10% in 2009 before markets begin to recover. On top of this, mortgage applications volume tumbled 22.6 percent during the week ending Feb. 15 according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly application survey, while

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said its rating outlook on US homebuilders remains emphatically negative and it believes a recovery is not yet in sight, as six of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders have temporarily stopped foreclosure proceedings, in a joint effort to cool the raging foreclosure crisis through a project known as Project Lifeline.

Things are so bad in the housing sector, a sector which one would deem as part of the fundamentals of a sound economy, that in a conference call with analysts, Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America, pointed out that more borrowers appear to be giving up on their homes as prices fall, noting a “change in social attitudes toward default.” Not surprising considering that CIBC World Markets forecast U.S. house prices will end up sliding 20% before the market stabilizes, and estimates 50% of U.S. homeowners who took out below-prime mortgages in 2006 will end up owing more than their house is worth. As Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics put it, “there seems to be a sense of a very deep-seated collapse in the economy.”

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s index of manufacturing activity in the U.S. Northeast also indicated the same disparity between Bush’s sound fundamentals statement and reality, showing the manufacturing sector in the key heartland of the US is suffering its lowest output for seven years. “As far as this indicator is concerned, a recession, and a severe one at that, is already underway,” said Paul Ash-worth, of Capital Economics. For Merrill Lynch, the collapse in the outlook for activity six months out was even more worrisome since it posted the steepest decline in the 40-year history of this report.

America’s “new business cycle” which begun in the 1980’s has created as Thomas Palley ex Chief Economist with the US-China Economic Security Review Commission puts it, large trade deficits, manufacturing job loss, asset price inflation, rising debt-to-income ratios, and detachment of wages from productivity growth. It has used financial booms to support debt-financed spending, an easing of credit standards to support borrowing, and cheap imports to ameliorate the effects of wage stagnation. As Palley puts it, with “debt burdens elevated and housing prices significantly above levels warranted by their historical relation to income, the business cycle of the last two decades appears exhausted.”

According to the New York Times, the sound fundamentals Bush likes to refer to, are alarmingly parallel to the “Japan’s lost decade”, when the Japanese economy after a long boom in the 1990’s, was stopped by a sharp fall in the real estate market causing a stretch of stagnation which ended only a few years ago. Clyde V. Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington, says “the American economy is very fragile now,” a sentiment which is echoed by Nouriel Roubini, an economics professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University, who warns that “the roughly $100 billion in bad loans reported by banks to date could increase nearly tenfold, as the defaults spread beyond the subprime mortgage loans to consumer loans, credit cards and corporate lending.”

European Central Bank council member Guy Quaden points out that “it is clear that the slowdown in the U.S. will be more pronounced than previously foreseen.” According to Bank of Italy governor, Mario Draghi, in the meeting held in Tokyo by the finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the Group of Seven industrialized nations, “Bernanke said that while house prices are falling, they can’t say how long and deep the crisis will be.” But as lawmakers, politicians and bankers continue to debate about the current state of the American economy, what is clear is that the latest consumer price index (CPI), the government’s main inflation indicator shows that for the year ending in January, all prices were up 4.3 percent. Excluding the temporary surges after Katrina, inflation hasn’t been higher since July 1991. As for the producer price index, year over year the PPI is up 7.4% the fastest pace since 1981. As Robert Brusca, chief economist at FAO Economics says, with this data at hand, “it will be hard for Mr. Bernanke to testify…and hold to the fiction of inflation as under control and the Fed as master of tamed inflation expectations.”

Yet Bernanke is telling lawmakers that `”inflation expectations appear to have remained reasonably well anchored,” and George Bush is convinced that fundamentals are in place.

As for now, while talk of subprime exposure has diminished, Ted Wieseman, an economist at Morgan Stanley, warns that “investor worries about potential further writedowns are shifting in a big way from subprime residential mortgages to commercial real estate lending.” Also as major retailers reported chilly January same-store sales, Wal-Mart with a meager 0.5% increase, Target with a 1.1% drop, Macy’s with a worse-than-expected 7.1% decline, Kohl’s with an 8.3% plunge and Nordstrom with a 6.6% drop in comps, the National Federation of Independent Business said its index of small business optimism slipped to the lowest reading since January 1991, when the U.S. was mired in recession.

To add to this economic and social carnage, Macy’s Inc. has reported that it plans to cut 2,300 jobs across the country, Hasbro Inc the second-largest U.S. toy company, expects a 14 percent to 15 percent increase this year in the costs of made-in-China products, Time Warner has reported a 41 percent decline in fourth-quarter profits, Office Depot a 85% plunge in profit, and Jeffrey Garten, professor of international trade and finance at Yale School of Management has said that the United States “is beginning to look like a bargain-basement.”

Of course, if the world’s economic engine looking like a bargain-basement is a reflection of sound fundamentals, then I must accept my misreading of today’s economic reality and subscribe to George Bush’s sound fundamentals equation.

With this statement began the formal relationship between Spain’s present king and the country’s fascist dictator.

In November 2007, at the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, pointed his finger at Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and asked him, “Why don’t you shut up?” This was after Chávez had called José María Aznar, Spain’s former Prime Minister, a fascist and while José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the current Spanish Prime Minister, was trying to defend Aznar.

This scene from the Ibero-American Summit has now travelled the globe through every mainstream news media channel; however, it has been used once again as an opportunity to attack Hugo Chavez for his rudeness and out-of-line commentary, when in fact, not only is it a fairly accurate statement, but it also should be used as an opportunity by political analysts worldwide to bring out the extent to which fascist factions are still very much alive in Spain’s political reality.

It is important to note that this incident at the Ibero-American Summit is not an isolated one. Already earlier this year, Chavez called Aznar “a fascist who supported the coup (of April 2002) and who is of the same kind as Adolf Hitler, a disgusting and despicable person who you feel sorry for, a true servant of George W. Bush”. This statement was made shortly after Aznar called “on the United States, Europe and the Latin American democracies, to close ranks and defeat Hugo Chavez’s 21st century socialism.”

Even Spain’s Minister for External Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, on November 2004 during an interview in the TVE program 59 segundos, acknowledged Aznar’s support for the coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002: “During the previous government, something unheard of in Spanish diplomacy took place, the Spanish Ambassador received instructions to support the coup, something which is not going to be repeated in the future. This is not going to be repeated because we respect the wish of the people.”

The fact remains that Chavez during the Ibero-American Summit was verbally attacking a man who had supported a coup against him, a fact which should have been made clear during the mainstream media’s coverage of the incident. Instead, the reporting of the incident between the Spanish King and Hugo Chavez has clearly managed to ignore this and the historical facts which made the King of Spain react with so much anger upon hearing the word ‘fascist’. In order for the whole incident to be put into perspective, it is also important to understand, first, Aznar’s background as a supporter of fascism and, second, the fact that the King only has his crown thanks to the father of fascism in Spain, Francisco Franco.

In regards to Aznar, it is important to highlight his membership in the Frente de Estudiantes Sindicalistas (FES), a student branch of the Falange Española Independiente (FEI), and part of the official party charged with developing the ideology for Franco’s regime once the war had ended. It is also important to emphasize the fact that throughout his career, Aznar has never denounced the Franco regime and, when democracy was reintroduced in Spain in 1978, he opposed the new constitution. Aznar’s loyalty to Franco was further made clear when he denounced the municipal government of Guernika — best known as the scene of one of the first aerial bombings by Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe — for wanting to change the name of their main street from “Avenida del General Franco” to “Avenida de la Libertad”.

In regards to the King of Spain, it is important to note that his grandfather King Alfonso XIII left Spain on April 14th, 1931, when the dictatorship of the aristocrat and military official Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, whom he had supported, came to an end and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Then in 1936, the civil war broke out, and it was not until years later, after millions of Spanish people had suffered through the war and a brutal dictatorship, that in 1969, General Franco officially designated a heir and gave the title of Prince of Spain to Juan Carlos, the current king of Spain. Thereby, he reintroduced the monarchy through a young prince he had personally groomed, who in his investiture in the Cortes kneeling at Franco’s left swore his loyalty “to his Excellency the Chief of State and fidelity to the principles of the National Movement, and the fundamental laws of the Kingdom.”

According to a Time magazine article titled ‘A Crown for Juan Carlos?’ dated August 23, 1971, it was clear for Franco that the only way to bring back the monarchy was if he brought it back himself.

Franco, a lifelong monarchist, knows that in Spain there is no great affection for the crown… If Franco does not put a king back upon the throne, no one else will.” So just before his death on the 30 October 1975, he gave full control to Juan Carlos and on the 22 November, following Franco’s death, the Cortes Generales proclaimed Juan Carlos as the King of Spain. Only a few days after Franco’s death, Juan Carlos said of the brutal dictator; “An exceptional figure has entered history… Remembering Franco will constitute for me a demand for good behaviour and loyalty.

So, although under the leadership of King Juan Carlos, Spain did formally complete its transition from dictatorship to democracy with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, leaving in place a constitutional monarchy, it would be hard to believe that someone who swore loyalty to a brutal fascist would have no animosity to such ideals. For this reason, as a Spaniard, it is disappointing for me to see how people around the world receive the media sound bites regarding the heated exchange between a King and a president, without being granted the opportunity to understand the historical events which lead to such a situation. Both Aznar and the King of Spain have embraced fascism at some point in their lives and have built their power upon its foundations, so although one today would struggle to openly proof the statement that they are currently fascists, it can at least be said of them, that at one point both of them certainly were.

For this reason, I choose to do two things, one is to correct the statement by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo — “The King has put Chavez in his place in the name of all Spaniards” — by saying that he has certainly not done so in my name, and secondly, I wish to address all those moralists discussing Chavez’s manners, by asking them whether they think it was good manners for Aznar to support a coup against Hugo Chavez, and whether they think it was good manners and a show of love to the Spanish people, when the King swore loyalty to the brutal dictator who killed so many of our kin.