by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
September 21, 2009
The rage of the disposed is fracturing the country, dividing it into camps that are unmoored from the political mainstream. Movements are building on the ends of the political spectrum that have lost faith in the mechanisms of democratic change. You can’t blame them. But unless we on the left move quickly, this rage will be captured by a virulent and racist right wing, one that seeks a disturbing proto-fascism.
Every day counts. Every deferral of protest hurts. We should, if we have the time and the ability, make our way to Pittsburgh for the meeting of the G-20 this week rather than do what the power elite is hoping we will do—stay home. Complacency comes at a horrible price.
“The leaders of the G-20 are meeting to try and salvage their power and money after everything that has gone wrong,” said Benedicto Martinez Orozco, co-president of the Mexican Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), who is in Pittsburgh for the protests. “This is what this meeting is about.”
[…]
via Truthdig
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig
Chris Hedges is the author of the new book “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.”
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Larry Holmes Closes the Bail Out the People March
ClevelandFIST
April 03, 2009
Larry Holmes of the Bail Out the People Movement, and Workers World Party closes out a march on Wall Street, in Foley Square.
see
Go to Pittsburgh, Young Man, and Defy Your Empire by Chris Hedges
from the archives:
What will YOU do about the worst capitalist crisis since the 1930s? + video
Dandelion Salad 
Both Chris Hedges and Larry Holmes are correct in their analysis. There is an example in history where the fascists came to power because of the complacence of the left. Germany in the 1930s was facing a depression similar to the Great Depression in the United States and our depression presently, and it had at least two spineless Chancellors by the names of Schleicher and Von Papen. They had no answers to the crisis(just as Obama has no clue, except to make the rich, richer), but Hitler did and that was hatred of anyone non-Aryan, building up the military and war. He preached populism, but was financed by some of the richest men in Germany. Fascism means love of corporate power and making the rich even richer, but they mask that agenda by teaching hatred of Jews, communists, immigrants,etc. It is so much easier to believe your neighbor is the cause of all your problems, rather than Rockefeller, Dupont, Morgan, Mellon or the other richest families that rule this country, who are distant and hardly ever mentioned in the corporate media. Besides most people are too lazy or brainwashed to read Karl Marx and find out what is really going on in the world.
Fuck you and your distress signal about two polar opposites attracting the disgruntled voters in enmity. You described “your side” as the “left, warning about “a virulent and racist right wing, one that seeks a disturbing proto-fascism.” YOU ARE SO FULL OF SHIT! THE ONLY FASCISTS ARE THOSE WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM ENSLAVING (all of) US. Many unwitting Americans, by JUST going-along, in compliance, empower those evil bastards. So why do you conjure-up a fear of a boogeyman that doesn’t exist? THERE IS NO ‘LEFT’ AND ‘RIGHT’. Your delusion is your handicap.
What does it mean to say that the ‘middle class’ is the ‘very basis of democracy’? If you mean the affluent (but not super-rich) minority, I would find that insulting. ‘Working-class’ and ‘lower-middle class’ people — to continue with your terminology — are perfectly capable of comprehending and fighting for democracy, perhaps more so than the well-heeled who can more easily buy what they want. A genuine socialism must be democratic, a genuine democracy, socialist (to paraphrase Rosa Luxemburg).