Greetings Cde Maviyo The questions you are posing are indeed important. In fact the appreciation of their importance are fundamental to ones understanding of the kind of socialist society we would like to forge. I like your definition, but I think it trends towards a definition of a bourgeois democracy. Any definition which does not seek to characterize the participants in the democratic process, by clearly stipulating that there are no barriers to their participation and exercising their said right falls short of the democracy we want. Mediocre tools in trained hands are more potent than advanced tools in untrained hands. It is no use that we have the "best" constitution in the world. Yet only a few, the rich, educated and urban elite can be able to male full use of it.
We take it for granted that in democracy, people can choose and partake. Yet this is not the case. In a bourgeois democracy the vast majority are excluded from meaning participation through class, gender, and educational divides. Poor, rural, uneducated, women in South Africa are worst off. In colloquial language one would call them "voting cows". In the words of VI Lenin, one can never claim a democracy until "every cook can govern" I do think however for us to build a stable democratic society (which can only be the dictatorship of the proletariat) we must start focusing on education and meaning full economic transformation. Your in struggle Sandile Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you! -----Original Message----- From: Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:59:49 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [YCLSA Discussion] DEMOCRACY Thank you, comrade! VC On 27 January 2011 07:33, Ndinisa Maviyo <[email protected]> wrote: > DOES DEMOCRACY EXIST? > > Democracy is defined as a system which consists of four key pillars: > > 1 CHOOSES AND REPLACES THE GOVERNMENT THROUGH FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS > > 2 ACTIVE PARTICIPATION OF THE CITIZEN IN POLITICS AND CIVIL LIFE > > 3 PROTECTIONS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE ENTIRE CITIZEN > > 4 A RULE OF LAW, IN WHICH THE LAWS AND PROCEDURES APPLY TO THE ENTIRE > CITIZEN > > People choose their leaders through voting, and the majority win. The > protection of the minority is always guaranteed in the democratic society. > Democracy is a system of rule by law, not by individuals. The majority > usually do not contribute much in the campaigns of the political parties > competing or the individuals contesting, but the minority support the > campaigns through monetary resources and their vital arsenal which is the > mass media. Is democracy for whom? Is for the poor (majority) or the owners > of the means of production (minority)? > > Free campaigning and access to the mass media, which is so influential are > key elements for free and fair elections, which is the pillar of democracy. > As the minority are owners of the monetary resources and media therefore who > chooses are leaders? Is the poor masses or the bourgeoisie class? Remember > the influence of the mass media in the formation of COPE and its election > campaign, the massive spending of the ANC election campaign as it was > reaching to its masses proves that access to the mass media and the monetary > resources can determine the outcome of the elections. > > In the world politics, we have the powerful nations (first world) which are > representing the minority in terms of the world population and the third > world which represents the majority f the world population but the first > world controls all the world institution of power, the UN; IMF; SECURITY > COUNCIL; WORLD BANK etc which through their monetary and mass media support > for an individual candidate they are secretly choosing leaders for the > people of the third world. In the 2000 US presidential election the bush vs. > gore the Us Supreme Court which represent the ruling decided on the outcome > of the election by declaring bush the president, the whole world accepted > the outcome as part of democracy: pillar no 4 the rule of law. The election > were declared free and fair despite the dispute on regularities from Gore, > bush was declared a winner despite that the night before the people went to > sleep knowing Gore has won the election. In November 2010 the people of > Ivory Coast went to the polls, the French media, the UN official, and the > chairperson of the IEC declared Quattara a winner while the constitutional > council declared Gbagbo the victor. The world institutions supported > Ouattarra without considering the constitution of the country which gives > the constitutional council powers to declare the winner, and this is the > rule of law in a democratic society. > > We need to appreciate the ANC processes of choosing local councillors, > which promote democracy but is being threatened the minority who are using > financial resource and organisational machinery to undermine the will of the > entire membership and the community. We must applaud the poor working class > of Tunisia in their fight for democracy; unfortunately democracy in a > capitalist society only works for the ruling class and the bourgeoisie. The > Tunis masses fought but are not asked to forward their representative to the > interim government. The people of Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela are defending > their popular democracy and their economical system against capitalisation > of democracy. We vote for democracy but capitalism is imposed on us. > > Maviyo Ndinisa (MPUMALANGA PROVINCE 072 7481677) > > > -- > You are subscribed. This footer can help you. > Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to > this message. > You can visit the group WEB SITE at > http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery > options, pages, files and membership. > To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected]. > You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to > put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to > this address (repeat): [email protected] . > -- Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/ Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ Subscribe for free e-mail updates at: http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/ [email protected] -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
