Mendigando en Barcelona: Un pequeño acto de superación personal (Spanish Edition)

El Enigma Capitalista

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The rest of the world is a fiction, mere talk, because there is nothing that is not in some way part of our shared world. Fundamentally, this metaphor does no more than give graphic force to the Kantian notion that, on a round planet, we will all end up meeting each other. As with almost all important things, this configuration of the world is not the product of a conscious and concerted decision, but is instead the result of involuntary and complex social processes. The majority of the problems we face are attributable to this circumstance. We experience them as such because we cannot extricate ourselves from them or tame them, seeking to externalize them by constructing artificial boundaries: When alrededores did exist, there was a framework that allowed us to dispose of these marginal spaces.

There was room to flee, to wash one s hands of an affair, to ignore, to protect. And almost anything could be resolved by the simple act of externalizing the problem transferring it to an alrededor, out of sight, in a distant place, or toward another time An alrededor is precisely a place to quietly dispose of unsolved problems, waste. A alrededor is a garbage can. What do the expansion of individual rights which precludes consideration of individuals as mere passive subjects that obey others decisions and ecological awareness which makes it enormously difficulty to dump refuse anywhere and demands recycling have in common?

Both phenomena reflect how externalization has been problematized. Nothing and nobody should now be considered on the alrededores. For example, referring to waste generated by the space ships that circle the earth as space junk reveals that space is no longer considered a mere exterior where it is acceptable to leave refuse. When we begin to worry about waste, it is because we now see what we previously could not, or did not want to, see.

Awareness of the meaning of trash, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, means an expansion of our world, of the world we consider ours. Perhaps this idea of the suppression of the alrededores can highlight the more beneficial side of the civilizing process and the advancement in the construction of spaces in our shared world. Now, even without express condemnation, it is increasingly difficult to leave others to their death, whether in far regions, future generations, or other social sectors. This articulation of the self and of others evokes a scenario of responsibility that is nicely summed up in a joke by El Roto: It has been left untranslated so as to retain the richness of the concept.

The most radical transformation realized in a world that is eliminating its alrededores relates to the new difficulty of drawing boundaries and developing any strategy organizational, military, political, economic, etc. The interior and the exterior are continuously mixing.

One area in which this commingling has become acute is politics, which, by its own nature, has always been a governing of limits. It is now an indisputable truth that no important problem can be solved locally, that strictly speaking, there is no longer a domestic policy, nor are there foreign or external affairs. Everything has been converted into internal policy, calling into question even the traditional names of government agencies.

The line between domestic policy and foreign policy has become extremely blurred. External factors, like global risks, international norms, or international actors, have become internal variables. Our way of developing and implementing policies will not meet the challenges presented if it does not involve a critical analysis of the distinction between inside and outside and approach these notions as concepts that are inadequate for spaces without boundaries. Another difficulty posed by a world without alrededores is the management of security.

Delimiting the realms of decision-making and responsibility becomes elusive. Threats to security no longer emanate from a specific location or source but have become diffuse; thus, they keep us all in a state of latent insecurity. Instead of warfronts that separate areas of safety from threatening alrededores, we are faced with an insecurity that is also internal.

Continuing with our metaphor, we can say that our global space has taken on the character of a border zone, with all that this entails for the purpose of understanding and managing security. A major shift in our vocabulary relating to the social question shows us that globalization is not just a quantitative enlargement of space but a new understanding of the world. We have stopped considering alienation excessive internalization as the absolute social evil: Does this mean that, in a world without alrededores, exclusion no longer exists?

What a world without alrededores means is that the excluded are no longer on the outside but that, rather, exclusion is effected within, through other strategies and in a less perceptible way than before, when there were clear boundaries that separated us from the others, the insiders here and the outsiders there.

Now, the excluded can be in the center of the city, just as threats no longer spring from remote locations but from the very heart of civilization, as appears to be the case with the new terrorism. Now the margins are on the interior, in our inner alrededores. Just as it is necessary for the preservation of security to develop more intelligent strategies in a world that is no longer threatened from the alrededores, we must pay closer attention to our mechanisms of exclusion.

To keep pace with an enlarged world which could serve as a new reference for the idea of progress, thus substituting the criterion of time for that of space , we should ask ourselves constantly about exclusions that could be generating our social practices. The progressivism of yesterday that sought to follow the march of time has now become a spatialism that struggles to maintain the form of a world without alrededores. That is, without garbage cans, without pagans, without third parties, without absentees. Ribeiro de Oliveira The Problem of Ideology in Politics I d like to begin by inviting the reader to reflect for a moment on all the different contexts within which he or she has heard the word ideology.

I d bet that the word was used to denounce the reasoning behind the real purpose of a political act, in phases such as, All of this is of course ideological posturing; in reality what he wants is to I d also bet that the condemnation would refer to some intellectual ruse used by the opposing side, and that we ourselves would probably not refer to our own reasoning as ideological. It s always as if it were only oppressive or antidemocratic policies that needed to be concealed, while those we believe are right, democratic, or liberating are not ideological. Isn t this what really happens?

If the concept of ideology were only an intellectual weapon with which to discredit an opponent, then it would be better to avoid it. But this is not the case: For this reason, it should be studied from a sociological point of view, as a combination of explanatory theories and regulatory values that can move people, groups, and social movements to take political action or, instead, to passively accept the established order. Ideology, then, serves as the motivating force in a given social system.

Ideologies of Yesterday and Today It has now become fashionable to speak of the ideological era as something in the past, and maintain that we live in a post-ideological time as if ideologies only ever existed in the struggle between capitalism and socialism. According to this way of thinking, when Soviet socialism lost the Cold War, ideology disappeared along with it, and we are now living in real history: In order not to be naively taken in by this misleading interpretation of the world today, let us examine the question more carefully, using an example from the ancient world: The emperor Caesar Augustus took pride in having established the Pax Romana throughout his domain.

Both in Rome and the provinces, the rulers, landowners, and merchants lived in security and prosperity: For groups on the other end of the social ladder, however, this was not peace, but oppression. For that reason, slaves and free workers both men and women in the cities and countryside received the proclamation of peace in the sense of shalom a peace founded on justice and solidarity as good news indeed.

These concepts should be described as ideological, since both the Pax Romana and the Shalom-Peace were pivotal ideas that both referred to a specific historical reality or vision of society and constituted a value judgement on what it represented. In the eyes of the dominant elite, the Pax Romana was the best form of society that the ancient world could offer. But for the marginal and lower classes, who longed for a new social and economic order based on the justice of shalom, the Pax Romana was a sham.

Now let us view this example in the light of the present, when the dominant discourse is globalization. It asserts that humanity is finally on the verge of attaining its dream of unity, prosperity, and peace. This has been brought about through the unlimited expansion of markets and business, the development of a worldwide communications network, the provision of universal and inherently democratizing access to information via the internet, and other scientific and technological advances. As soon as emerging countries carry out the necessary reforms, they also will become part of this new world order.

This rosy globalization scenario, however, is rejected by those who view the world through the experience of economic solidarity, alternative networks, social movements, and World Social Forums. From their vantage point, globalization benefits those who enrich themselves from financial markets and multinational companies at the cost of impoverishing and excluding the majority of the world s population. These critics of globalization declare that another world is possible, and are consequently accused of being dinosaurs who refuse to admit that socialism is over and that equality is a nightmare rather than a dream.

If ideology is taken to mean the totality of driving ideas that justify a given political option, mobilizing people s will to make them into a historical reality, then both the discourse of globalization and that of another possible world are essentially ideological.

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Whereas globalization idealizes human conquests and technological advances ignoring the fact that they have principally benefitted the most privileged sectors of society , those who favour an alternate world proclaim that there is a better way to organize society if we can increase the alternative experience of economic solidarity among peoples and respect the Rights of the Earth. Both discourses speak of the same reality, but from opposing points of view.

Let us examine the question more closely. The driving idea behind globalization gives the current world order an aura of inevitability, as if someone said, This is the real world. Adapt to it and play according its rules, which are market competition. The driving idea of the alternative-worlders, however, is exactly the opposite: When we start to create other forms of human and economic relationships and respect life on the planet, we will have a better life.

The ideology of globalization appeals to pragmatism the acceptance of reality as it is , while that of an alternateworld looks toward a utopia we will have a better world when those who have been excluded finally believe in themselves. This example illustrates the ambiguity inherent in the two ideologies: The same applies to the ideology of an alternate possible world: Both ideologies combine, in their own way, reality and illusion, or reality and utopia.

The ideological debate unveils their ambiguities and reveals their illusory or utopian character. There is no need to fear ideologies. They are an indispensable part of politics, and the ideological debate is as important as electoral campaigns, public acts, marches, strikes, sit-ins, and other forms of social mobilization. It is a matter of entering into the debate with an awareness of one s own ideology in order to be able to firmly criticize the ideology of one s adversaries, destroy their arguments, and demoralize them politically.

People who remain unaware of the ideology that moves or immobilizes them end up naively adopting the point of view of those in power, who spread their influence through the media, universities, political parties, churches, and other institutions, transforming them into vehicles for their ideological domination and hegemony.

It s no accident that the media now take it for granted that ideologies are things of the past and that we can all trust in the wisdom of U. This is, in reality, an aggressive strategy to assure the intellectual orientation of world public opinion. It is thus of the greatest importance that we perceive and denounce the ideology transmitted through the news and communications media, however subtly it is expressed.

In conclusion, I would like to draw attention to the potential risk of transforming an ideology into a doctrine. Ideology is an intellectual construction that needs to be constantly reworked in order to take into account historical changes that take place within human societies. When an ideology is successful in transforming a society, it tends to crystallize. This is what happened with Marxist theory, which oriented the Russian Revolution in Once it became codified as the one valid theory for explaining all socialist revolutions, it lost its capacity to draw lessons from different peoples struggles, to explain the contradictions inherent in each form of capitalism, and to point out the historical conditions needed to overcome them.

This did great harm to left-wing movements that is, movements and parties that fight for social and economic equality , tying them down to a doctrine that had to be applicable to all times and places. Today we need to regain this intellectual tool, which can help us understand the workings of market capitalism. Despite its efforts to cloak itself in the more attractive name of globalization, this is still the same capitalism that has subjugated the peoples of Latin America since the sixteenth century and that now keeps them firmly on the periphery of the world economy, the better to exploit them.

For further reading, see The German Ideology, a classic work by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as well as the theoretical development of Antonio Gramsci s writings on hegemony. Politics is the exercise of power the expression comes from power in the polis which was the city-state in ancient Greece. Power, in whatever society, is always exercised by a group or class that uses the State, its laws, and the economy in order to impose its interests on others.

In our time, political power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of an ever-shrinking class. A class of the very rich uses power to further increase its economic wealth. Their patrimony is represented by more land, more factories, more businesses, more transportation companies, and more and more consumer goods. And as for the people, they have no power whatsoever. Those who command in politics are those that hold the economic power of big businesses and banks that control the production and circulation of wealth. They continue to accumulate still more wealth, although this affects the people s basic consumption possibilities.

Today, only a few businesspeople the super-rich who are in charge of banks and transnational corporations control production, wealth, and the production of goods. Almost all the sectors of production and commerce are oligopolies: In each country it is possible to make the list of these corporations.

This is the scale of their real political power. They impose their will on the entire society in order to continue increasing their wealth. The entire world is placed at their feet. This mechanism of world exploitation is made viable through the utilization of the US dollar as the global currency for trade, imposed via manu militari by the United States government since its victory in World War II and expanded in the s when the Nixon administration took the dollar off the gold standard.

Thanks to this, the U. Inside their country, the government issues billion dollars in order to cover the deficit in government expenditures on wars and subsidy transfers to the middle classes, such as to rural local producers. These expenditures are financed by all the international community. The Nation State has been transformed into a mere administrative overseer of the interests of these corporations. They finance and elect councilors, prefects, deputies, and presidents.

In exchange, they receive magnanimous laws geared towards their interests. Representative democracy has been converted into hypocrisy. The vote has been turned into a piece of merchandise. But the world devoted to the illusion of the propaganda, the owner of the vote the people believes that it decides. It only votes among those that capital has already selected. Economic power exploits and accumulates more and more wealth through two basic mechanisms. The first is through the interest rate. The center of accumulation in this phase of capitalism is in the financial system, the banks.

It is through interest that capital is reproduced. It is up to the States and its governments to guarantee high rates of interest. These rates collect wealth from the population through loans to the owners of industry, businesses, and services that afterwards are passed on to consumers. Or, they collect directly from the consumers that buy on time or use credit cards. On the other side, the States collects public money from all through taxes. Later, using fantastic formulas of primary surplus, they transfer these resources to the banks. The IMF came to require that the governments of each country of the southern hemisphere, the so-called dependent economies, annually transfer 4.

This is guaranteed by the necessity that the governments reserve this money hence the name of the surplus and guarantee the transfer to. This is the true measure of their political power, guaranteed by the State. By this mechanism of financial exploitation, Latin America transferred to the United States and Europe during the decade from to nothing less than a trillion dollars in liquid capital. The second magic formula for accumulation by the transnational corporations is to make the state guarantee high rates of payment for services on the part of the population.

High prices are demanded for services such as electricity, water, mass transit, telephones, and cellular service. Before, these services were public services, at the service of the people. Now they have been privatized by the governments and transformed into the property of the transnational corporations that charge for already existing services in order to exploit the whole population.

All the people need electricity, telephones, transportation, and water. Without realizing it, they are paying for infrastructure that they have already paid for. Similarly, the new economic powers control the energy that moves societies. They control oil, coal, nuclear power stations, hydroelectricity, water, and even praiseworthy wind energy. But they are not satisfied. They want to control renewable bio-energy, be it from oil or ethanol. To accomplish this, they have to control the governments and the States through political power in order to control lands, agriculture, and nature.

So they cause immense areas of fertile land to be taken out of the production of goods for the population, such as food and energy, and convert them to the production of only combustibles to supply the individual cars of a small percentage of the world s population. Additionally, they will pay for the new alliance of capitalists between oil interests, automobile manufacturers, and transnational agroindustry, all bent on exploiting agroenergy. This economic power that now is ever more concentrated in fewer hands, fewer banks, and fewer transnational corporations subordinates the middle classes of our countries and opposes their interests.

This creates at least two future contradictions for the future. The first contradiction of this stage of imperialist capitalism is that, as the center of accumulation is now in the service sector and in interest rates, the role of production of goods is secondary. It is necessary, but secondary. This produces the contradiction that the political manner of organizing production is not able to satisfy the basic necessities of all the population, but only of a restricted segment of the middleclass.

By not satisfying the majority of the population, they increase levels of poverty and lose the legitimacy needed to organize production. On the other side, the organization of production is not focused on the necessity of guaranteeing work for the whole population. They now exploit the population by means of the service sector and interest rates. By not organizing society around work and the production of goods, they generate an enormous number of the discontented and excluded, who, someday, will acquire a consciousness of their social marginality and will turn against them.

More than ever, the assertion of Marx has relevance now: It is precisely for this reason that the people, the workers, the majority, must reclaim politics as a place of power in society. The politics of the vote, the delegation of institutional power, has died for the people. But politics is the exercise of power. The majority can and should exercise power through the mobilization of the greatest possible number of people around the same objective. This common objective in this case, to fight against the concentration and exploitation by a minority will generate a force capable of producing changes.

This popular force, this political force, will only be developed through the capacity of the people to organize the greatest possible number of individuals around the same objective. The people have to retake politics; that is to say construct a power of the popular will, unified to change the government, the State, and the organization of the economy. We must be optimists: New winds blow and the history of human civilization will get back on course. Politics will be an instrument to better the living conditions of all the people and a space for popular power.

The political neoliberalism rules a political economy, conquered by the world market. It is the politics of distribution of the market world that exists to benefit the strongest, in other words, the transnational enterprises and the financial capital linked to them. The political process of market globalization is expressed in terms of the elimination of any obstacles to hinder the law of the strongest.

The political neoliberalism conceives the market benefits and services as a contour of liberty without frontiers nor obstacles, but not for the people. The economy is presented as if it were a realistic and unquestionable science. But under those appearances, money matters, and decisions of the elites and the transnationals are hidden to control the distribution of the existing wealth on their favor.

The whole life is subordinated to the market laws. Every social activity is being evaluated as functional or disfunctional upon the so called free market. One must be efficient and competent at work. Through consumerism, life itself is submitted to the market economy. Large Shopping Malls constitute the principal space to social life at the market of economy. The person unable to participate in this market of logic, feels excluded and is nobody to the others. Throughout this logic, the market, not only will be self-reproduced, but it also turns into a cultural thing.

This cultural idea of the free market can be defined as the old saying, safe yourself if you can at any cost. Resources of massive communication are in 40 charge of producing this culture, which attempts to human life. The functions and developments of the political endogenous, and the welfare of the state, which characterizes in some way the previous neoliberalism era, are being seen now as distortions to the policy of free market.

Whatever brings out profit to the private business often transnational , will be privatized, and operations performed by the State social security and public education , that do not produce benefits, the budget is reduced to the maximum if possible. The neoliberals sustain that an invisible hand would order such particular interests for the benefit of the collectivity. The same distribution of the richness, each time more unequal, cannot be something obeying the laws of nature, an invisible hand , but the result of a conscious political neoliberalism.

In conclusion, economic planning is in the hands of the transnational businesses, and the force of labor and nature are submitted to the dictatorship of the demolishing forces by the market as a punishment of exclusion and disenchantment. To the eyes of the political market, economical and social rights, and even human rights are being seen as distortions.

Market rights are the rights of the great capitalism, as the real subject of the market being more important than the human rights. Economical and social rights historically achieved by the citizens, constitute another distortion for the great capital. The transnationals do not compromise with the citizens: The political neoliberalism consciously chooses investments that lead to. Less income in less hands, and the loss of economical and social rights cannot be a non intentional effect, but a genocidal and political option.

The political neoliberalism has bet upon structural adjustments and a treaty of free commerce on account of the endogenous development over the Latin American nations and the citizens. In order to succeed on the imposition of such policies, they have availed on scandals, corruption, nepotism, and even by war. The battle upon worldwide distribution of the capital has spread up to the political level and it has become a warlike matter. To succeed on the imposition of other people s interests over our people, there has often been political parties where they alternate the power, always on the immediate benefit for themselves and for the market empire, without serving the citizens.

As a result, there is a great disappointment among the citizens, the politicians, and politics in general. It is not odd that the public has lost faith in democracy and the political parties. This progressive disappointment, has given birth to a consciousness over the fact that the market cannot be the supreme value and the indisputable controller of the human life. Life itself demands that the political aspect should be guided by values, and that the economy should be submitted to the society s interests and to the excluded ones particularly.

The social struggle for an alternative demands the possibility of disconnecting from this globalization process. Such disconnection reaches all levels: The disconnection demands from us to be more conscious of our political power, including the individual level as we are consumers. The key to this change relies on our own mental conversion along with a social practice.

The policy of disconnecting is presented at a national, regional, and even worldwide level. This policy at a national and regional level such as: ALBA , became as a result of the neoliberalism policy of annexation through many different treaties for free commerce.

The disconnection breaks through the political annexation and it is developed as a consequence of a hostile international environment created by the great world potentials. Countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia or Ecuador, cannot develop from the inside and yet they can throughout their surroundings and by the national oligarchy. Upon the struggling phase against imperialism, the unity of the people is in first place. Both aspects, the struggling over the social class and the struggling over the national liberation coexist.

The policy of disconnecting reveals that the economy of the market constitutes a surmountable horizon. Within the process of disconnection, the left wing is against neoliberalism, hegemony, and imperialism and at the same time the democratic movement. The twenty first century has given birth to a policy for the construction of the socialism movement. Actually, a great fight against neoliberalism has been led. What was said before demands a role relatively centered on the State, a role which at the same time contradicts the process a radical participative democracy.

This participative democracy cannot be decreed by what was mentioned above. In fact, if a participative democracy must be established, it is necessary that people would turn into the subject of power. It is necessary to fight for a new type of democracy, created from the bottom and for the people, by the local government and the community. When speaking of profession, satisfaction Vocation, from the Latin vocare, means called.

A is not found from actions but rather from the benefits vocation is a call of love from within: The human being love has emerged. Instead of just making a living, those following their vocation want to make love to the joy of making love. The professional does not love the driven by vocation is a lover. He makes love for the entire world. This is the psychology of the lover: He loves the money he receives from her. He lover does it although there is nothing to gain. Politics comes from polis, city. The city was, All vocations can be transformed into professions.

This explains the utter where human beings could devote themselves to the search for happiness. The politician was the one who disillusionment of people regarding politics. Whoever dwells in the desert dreams of an oasis. God did not create a city. He created The politician can barely think in terms of minu- future. If we were to ask a Hebrew prophet what tes. I am a writer and I think in terms of eternities. Whoever thinks in terms of minutes does not have The politician by vocation is passionate about the patience to plant trees. It takes many years for a the idea of a big garden for everyone.

Her love is tree to grow. It is more lucrative to cut them. It is could otherwise plant for herself. What is the purpose of having a small garden if everything around her is unfortunate that many who feel called to politics do desert? It is essential that the entire desert be transformed into a garden. Literature have to coexist with them. The writer has love, I write for you young people, in order to seduce but does not have power.

But the politician does. A you to the vocation of politics. Perhaps there are vocational politician is a strong poet. She has the gardeners asleep within you. Listening to the call is power to transform poems about gardens into real and difficult because it is disrupted by the clamor of the genuine gardens. The vocation of politics is to transform dreams into reality. It is such a fortunate calling engineering, computer science, law, and science.

All of more expected and normal choices such as medicine, that Plato suggested that politicians would not need these are acceptable choices if they are vocations. But to be owners of anything: They are going to would suffice.

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It would be wrong for the gardener to confine you to a small corner of the garden, far removed from the place where the destiny of the garden is have a privileged space, better and different than the space occupied by everyone else. I knew and I still decided. Wouldn t it be more fascinating to participate know many vocational politicians. Their lives were and in the destiny of the garden itself? When the explorers arrived here, they did not find Vocation is different from profession. When talking a garden. They found a jungle. A jungle is not a garden.

Jungles are cruel and insensitive, indifferent to about vocation, the individual finds happiness in the 42 Translated by Sylvie Hamel. A jungle is a part of nature which has not yet been touched by the hands of human beings. That jungle could have been transformed into a garden. But it was not to be. Those who acted upon it were not gardeners. They were woodcutters and lumberjacks. And so it was that the jungle which could have been transformed into a garden for the happiness of everyone was transformed into deserts dotted with luxurious private gardens where a few people find life and pleasure.

Discovering our origins is one thing. But discovering our destinies is something more beautiful. Perhaps, then, if vocational politicians take charge of our garden, we will be able to chart a new destiny. Then, instead of deserts and private gardens, we will have a garden for everyone.

It will be the work of human beings who have the love and patience to plant trees under whose shade they will never rest. He doesn t hear, he doesn t speak, He doesn t participate in political events. He doesn t know that the cost of daily life, the price of bread, of fish, of flour, of the rent, of shoes and medicine all depend on political decisions.

The political illiterate is so ignorant that he is proud and swelling his chest saying that he hates politics. He doesn t know, the imbecile, that from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst bandits of all, the bad politician, a corrupt servant of national and multinational corporations.

Bertold Brecht Who Makes History? Who built Thebes of the 7 gates? In the books you will read the names of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock? And Babylon, many times demolished, Who raised it up so many times? In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live?

Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go? Great Rome is full of triumphal arches. Over whom did the Caesars triumph? Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants? Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it, The drowning still cried out for their slaves. The young Alexander conquered India. Caesar defeated the Gauls. Did he not even have a cook with him? Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down. Was he the only one to weep?

Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War. Who else won it? Every page a victory. Who cooked the feast for the victors? Every 10 years a great man. We welcome and will make a space in these pages for those entities that want to officer their service to the Continent by sponsoring a prize or contest to stimulate any aspect of our continental consciousness. In this way, it will continue being a collective work, a community patrimony, an annual anthology of the memory and hope of our spiritual Continent. As long as it is not used to make a profit, you may freely print and distribute copies.

Local as well as on-line printers can produce professionally bound versions at a low cost. We also seek your help in the translation of this Agenda for future years. Please contact us at You need not have prior experience, only a good command of both Spanish and English and a willingness to translate a two page article. Please contact us by March 31, if you are interested.

Everything is political, although politics isn t everything. Outside of politics there is no salvation. The simple people in our regions of the interior of Brazil talk about politics, a priori and a posteriori, as an evil: So where are we? Politics yes or politics no? In this World Latin American Agenda for , after talking about democracy in the Agenda, we believe that it is more than appropriate to talk about politics. It is necessary to recognize the deception that politics causes in practically all countries. It creates an attitude of distrust, of scorn to the point of indignation towards politics.

What are the causes? Unfortunately, it is easy to name them: The collective experience, in almost all countries, but especially in the Third World, is a dance of centuries that masks the same pseudo-politics, based on power, profit, and privilege. Politics has been made into a business, the recourse of the elites who keep perpetuating themselves always the same people, openly right-wing, and consecrated to the status quo.

As the joke goes, Let s stop trying to accomplish political change with politics! Let s accept politics for what it s good for: This politics has to die. Worldwide it is already a dead politics for the society that wants to live humanely and construct an authentically democratic, participatory, and humanizing future, free of the inequalities that cry to the heavens.

The economy grows, but simultaneously so does inequality. Structural adjustment plans, forced upon poor countries by current politics, have failed, but still they demand much suffering, misery, and even blood. The current process of globalization, writes Stiglitz in his book Making Globalization Work, is provoking destabilizing results as much between countries as within countries.

It creates wealth, but there are too many countries and people that do not share its benefits It has been opportunely affirmed that this inequality assassinates. It is necessary to come together to engage in multiple processes in different places and in different ways that are at the service of equitable globalization, which shares increases in wellbeing and conquers misery. It is essential that engaging in politics becomes a basic exercise of citizenship. Citizenship is the political recognition of human rights.

Because we are humanity, we are society. The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben argues that [t]he separation between the human and the political that we are now experiencing is the extreme phase of the rift between the rights of the human being and the rights of the citizen. Our Agenda surveys the history of politics. It confronts the exercise of current politics with the demands of human rights, citizenship, cultures, the role of the laity, inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and communications media.

Current politics has in its hands the manipulation of public opinion and the colonization of subjectivities. For the majority of humanity, it is a politics that has to die, and that is already a dead politics. However, politics, the other politics, cannot die, precisely because humanity cannot live without it. Politics is the organization of human life, the process of society. Politics is more than a dimension it embraces all dimensions of social life. In our Agenda, by denouncing this iniquitous politics, we vindicate true politics: This politics renovates traditional institutions, many of them rotten and unjust, and supports new institutions.

It works for the political formation of citizens. It suggests attitudes, processes, and campaigns, and it seeks solutions. We all know that agenda means what we need to do. The goal of this Agenda, therefore, is to assist us in thinking about what we must do so that politics lives resurrected and distant from the whitewashed tombs and that it be a human and humanizing politics. Following Max Weber, we want to distinguish between politics as a profession and politics as a vocation.

Rubem Alves has written, in a memorable article entitled On Politics and Gardening: Of all vocations, politics is the most noble It is necessary to dream while moving forward. We want to and should be politicians, that is, practice politics. Totally committed and hopeful, we come together, men and women and at every moment more and more women are entering different spheres of politics to enter into this great mobilization of goals, forums, campaigns, and achievements.

We demand, loftily dreaming, that politics be an exercise of love, the daily celebration of a coming together that is truly human. We demand a brotherly and sisterly politics, a daily prayer to Humanity, and the best worship of the living God. We want to be politicians and to practice politics, without neutrality and without even-handed hypocrisy.

To be in favor of life or in favor of death. Every day I see with more clarity that this is the choice we have to make. No possible neutrality exists. We either serve life or we are complicit in the deaths of many human beings. Here our faith is revealed: Asesinado brutalmente frente a por lo menos 15 mil testigos.

Dirigente estudiantil de la AEU en Guatemala. Yamilet Sequiera Cuarte, catequista, Nicaragua. Estaban reunidos en Benjamin Constant, AM, Brasil, esperando la ayuda solicitada a la Funai ante las amenazas del maderero. Fueron baleados y sus cuerpos tirados a una zanja. Jorge Eduardo Serrano, jesuita, Colombia: Asesinado por los latifundistas.

El concurso queda convocado de nuevo. Se puede participar redactando un ensayo, estudio, proyecto Muchos Estados son consecuencia de guerras en las que los vencedores sometieron a los pueblos vencidos y en ocasiones se los repartieron. Enviar antes del 31 de marzo de a: Actualmente es responsable del Centro de Pastoral Mons. Colaborador y amigo de Mons. En estilo de ensayo. A, Managua, Nicaragua, tel.: Puede concursar toda persona que sintonice con las Causas de la Patria Grande.

Convocatoria oficial completa en: Se puede utilizar cualquier idioma de aquellos en los que es publicada la agenda: Some presidents advantage of globalization in order to overthrow the Nevertheless, there is a very clear signal. It means power of the State or to put it at the service of their something. It is unlikely that the voters will change. These economic forces created gigantic conglomerations that States were unable to resist. The Elites In the world, and above all in the Asian world, the The traditional social elites the heirs of the conquistadors who today are land owners and owners of State is being reborn and transformed into the great motor of the economy, controlling the economy instead the media and many other goods do not want true of turning it over to these large corporations.

On December 4, , the most important Chinese company, possible with the United States. Chile is the most rep- independence.

Their goal is the most intimate union Petrochina, surpassed Shell in the stock markets of resentative example of this. It is a symbol. The States are the future of their countries as being a colonial future, again beginning to dominate the energy sector, principally the petroleum and natural gas sectors. The ten that an alliance with the United States is the best way maintaining their traditional position. They believe nations that make up OPEC now control more than half to maintain their privileges. They want their countries of world production, and the old Anglo-Saxon corporations, which were the kings of petroleum Exxon, Shell, cultural products and minerals.

Le Monde Diplomatique, March , p. In Russia, In Chile, industry has nearly died, and the elites are the State regained control of oil and gas. They prefer to import This has also occurred in Latin America. The State complex industrial products. Known reserves are being depleted scientific research and technology is not prioritized. The consequence of this colonialist option is that and all producers are looking for new reserves in every This contrasts sharply with what Asian countries have country of the world.

The Asians are implementing a done. The Latin American elites do not seem to mind policy of exploration in the entire world. They keep public The success of the Asians in the Far East should education at the lowest level possible, since they know serve as a warning to other countries. Why are Asians that they will not need many well-educated people. There, the Technology will come from large foreign corporations.

State never permitted the economy to dominate politics, as occurred in Latin America. There, the State of independence, and they never have been national- The Latin American elites have never been in favor remained strong and did not allow corporations to ists. Their goal is their personal or family fortune, acquire power capable of neutralizing the power of the never the growth of their countries.

State, as occurred in Latin America. Today, more and This is a cultural problem. It deals with the culture more Latin Americans are looking towards Asians and of the elites, a controlling phenomenon since the sixteenth century. It was the Jesuits in the reducciones beginning to ask questions Because of this, the elites the owners of lands and of slaves succeeded in expelling them.

The indigenous peoples returned to their ancestral conditions, leaving them the defenseless victims of the landowners. Moreover, the poor education in public schools is a systematic policy of the elites, who want the poor to remain poor and not to develop. All of their speeches are deceitful because they do the opposite of what they say. If they wanted public education on the level of South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and India, they could do it easily.

But they do not want to spend money on this. In their speeches, they never forget to proclaim the priority of education, but in practice they impede the improvement of public education. How will it be possible to awaken in them patriotic sentiments and concern for the good of the nation? This is the great challenge. The great force of the elites is the supremacy of the United States, the entire power of the United States that dominates the world, politically, militarily, economically, and culturally. Although it is starting to show signs of weakness, it still holds impressive power.

Because of this, because of the barbarities of George Bush, the potency of the United States inspires fear and nobody wants to confront it directly. Only North Korea and Iran have risked challenging it, since they know that they have potentially powerful allies like China. The necessity of importing energy is one of the weaknesses of the United States. It tries to guarantee secure reserves, but it knows that its precarious position depends on its immense military power.

In all cases, Latin American elites have maintained a firm alliance with the United States up to the present day. The Resistance from Popular Movements In the past few years, the elites have encountered a growing resistance to their colonialist policies. This is because Lula opposed it. As compensation, several governments have accepted [individual] free trade agreements. Chile was the first, then the Central American countries, and now there is great pressure on the rest of the countries. The fact that the United States has avoided taking military action against Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador demonstrates that it does not feel so sure of itself.

It recognizes that limits to its power have appeared. Will this be sufficient to open the eyes of the elites? It has tried to involve Latin American countries in its antiterrorist campaign. It succeeded in convincing the president of Columbia because of the special circumstances there: It has been able to impose on Ecuador the military base in Manta, an object of many popular protests.

In any case, any reverse in the place of the United States in the world will debilitate Latin American elites and will open up a space for nationalist and popular movements in Latin America. The Organization of the Masses If the elites lose power, what will be the political future of Latin America?

Popular movements exist and there is feeling of rebellion in the popular masses, which has become evident in recent elections. However, the large popular masses are not organized. The political parties have no capacity to lead popular movements. The question is this: At the moment, we have at least two examples: At the least at the time of this writing, the situation is not clear. They are personalities compromised by previous governments which lost legitimacy in the eyes of the masses because they did not prove themselves capable of implementing the programs they announced in their speeches.

The defenders of the current system cry out: Will populism be reborn in Latin America? Without a doubt there will be some analogies to the classic populism of the twentieth century. And there is no doubt that this has some validity. But circumstances have changed. But, in the first place, charismatic leaders are going to concentrate more on the power of the State, which has the power to change structures, especially the redistribution of true powers in the nation.

They are not going to declare themselves populist. They are going to maintain the forms of what we currently call democracy. Currently, all of the countries of the world have to establish these structures, since they serve as a certificate of good conduct in the United Nations.

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But the new governments are going to take power away from inefficient structures. In the history of Latin America, the so-called democratic system elections, political parties, national congress, independent judiciary Only populist leaders have been able to change the social situation. When the system has been shown to be incapable of giving a response to a full and deep popular movement, the door opens for a popular leader to emerge who will be able to depend the support of the people in order to govern.

Politics Is Dead What is in crisis is the current political system. The regime of assemblies and congresses of representatives does not function. It does not bring about any results because there are two circumstances which limit the effectiveness of representatives.

In the first place, deputies and senators increasingly represent the large companies that finance them and their campaigns so that that the deputies or senators defend the interests of the companies. They are not representatives of the people, but representatives of a company. Today, companies do not want social reform. They only want more free markets. For this same reason, the assemblies are conservative, even if their deputies are called communists, socialists, or even revolutionaries. As soon as they enter the assembly, they are all conservative.

Recently the president of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, Mr. Aldo Rebelo, a member of the Communist Party of Brazil who emerged from the guerrillas in the time of the military dictatorships declared tranquilly that he did not see any problem in clearing the Amazon in order to plant soy A famous Communist defending the interests of capitalism with total generosity It is a 24 symbol of what happens in the assemblies.

In the second place, from the first day, new deputies cannot forget that, in just a few years, they will want to be reelected and that they will have to win votes. Everything they are going to do now will be part of their electoral campaign. They are not interested in the projects for which they will vote. They are interested in what the voters will think, and these voters look to short term projects.

To be a deputy or senator is similar to being a public official: It is necessary to avoid positions that may jeopardize reelection. Because of this, only short term projects that will show immediate effects are proposed. No long term project is possible because they do not guarantee anything for the next elections.

TV is influential in the measure in which it gives coverage to a candidate. The important thing is that a person appear. In order not to offend anybody, the deputy will say the worst trivialities in the world. Additionally, everyone is going to say the same thing. All social changes are unfavorable to the elites, who are the most powerful voters.

There are exceptions, but, as a general rule, the majority of representatives respond to this model. Some complain of the corruption in assemblies of congress It is not corruption. It is the norm, it is the part of the structure of the system. Because of this, each time we see a larger rejection of the congresses that paralyze all change. Any change in Latin America signifies a diminution the privileges of the elites. They always have a sufficient number of representatives to make any social change impossible. All political parties are equal. All have the same theoretical platform, and none put it into practice, because it is just words.

Parties are a necessary institution for those who want to enter into competition. Each candidate chooses the party which will provide the most possibilities. There is talk of reforming political parties and the political process The economic forces are not interested in this. Charismatic Leaders This system cannot give any response to the problems of education, health, public housing The door is open for a popular charismatic leader. The bureaucratic machine also impedes changes. Its inertia is great. If the functionaries do not want to act, the State does not have any power.

Because of this, a charismatic leader will introduce into the system strong personalities who will demolish traditional formulas. The same is true of the judiciary: It mercilessly punishes poor delinquents, but it always finds a way so that the rich can escape from the consequences of their crimes. Who can possibly intervene in the judiciary? Only a president with strong popular support. During the past decades, the popular masses put up with this inertia. They believed that, after the regimes of military dictatorship, a popular government would come.

What happened was exactly the opposite: The moment has arrived when the people are beginning to say: A popular leader cannot be improvised. The leader will have very different origins depending on the country. Sometimes a leader will not appear for many years. The Brazilian case is typical. In the elections, the masses in Brazil thought that Lula would be this leader and that he would make the hoped-for changes to give the bases a new social contract.

He could count on popular support in order to oppose the traditional elites. But he did not want this role. On the contrary, he reinforced the power of the great economic forces. The masses cannot oppose him. They continue hoping against all hope. The changes are postponed. From where can a leader capable of enjoying the same legitimacy among the people emerge? We do not know. What we know is that there is a world tendency that has different manifestations in each country.

There was a time of military governments. Later came another epoch, when power was handed over to large financial groups. In each country, this had different manifestations, but the general tendency was present in all countries. In Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, popular participation is a fundamental element. There is a strong renovation of politics with the participation of the large masses.

Something similar will happen in other countries. The people will feel that they are not useless and incapable and that they should not leave all power to the traditional elites. There is going to be a renovation of politics. The people are going to demonstrate that it is possible to control the activities of economic forces, that the States can form alliances to create a common economy much more independent of the great financial conglomerates.

The most urgent thing is the restoration of the power of the State. How do we avoid authoritarianism? Well, this will be the next the next challenge. Today the job is different: The elites, who have never respected the human rights or the equality of citizens proclaimed in their democratic constitutions, will raise a ruckus. They will declare themselves defenders of democracy, as has happened in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

Suddenly, they will discover their democratic vocation. But they will no longer be able to deceive us. The elites have never wanted to apply the norms of democracy. They have always ignored them in order to exercise a de facto authoritarianism. They accepted constitutions because of international pressure, because they wanted to be recognized by the Western world as democratic.

But they never had the intention of applying the norms of a democratic constitution. It is clear that a society directed by a government that has the support of the masses needs intellectuals and technicians in order to advance the mission of the State. Eventually, the children of the poor world will become these new intellectuals and technicians. But in this time of transitions, the assistance of those born into the bourgeoisie society will be needed.

They must desire to convert themselves and work for the formation of a new society. These people exist, but they do not yet do anything because they are awaiting an opportunity. They will take up this challenge when a leader emerges who is capable and therefore receives legitimacy because of his or her competency. Latin American society is entering into motion. It seems that the United States is on the decline.

The traditional elites are losing prestige because they are being revealed as totally inefficient. They are not capable of promoting development in the way that the Asians are. The rest depends on local circumstances. But one thing is clear: Although it is certain that this phenomenon, this attitude, is present across the continent, it varies in emphasis according to region. These emphases depend upon the history and institutional development of each country and the strength of each country s political system, but they also contain some universal characteristics.

Instead of dislike of politics, perhaps we had better speak of dissatisfaction with politics. Therefore there is a segment of the population that maintains an interest in politics. There is also a rotation that implies the arrival of new generations and the departure of older generations. From within this cycle, it is likely that politics will become more esteemed. Additionally, it is important to consider special moments in the life of each country, such as electoral processes that more forcefully link symbolic capital with political capital.

Latin America is the most unequal continent in the world, where poverty and indigence are very obvious. This scenario is what produces a good deal of the disenchantment: But this is not the only aspect. We could say that politics enjoys different levels of esteem and that its discredit also has to do with a crisis of representation. This has to do with the form in which flesh and blood politicians and parties carry out their work.

In any case, in the countries in which the political systems are more accepted, it is still true that there is a certain negative feeling about politics. The maturity and stability of party systems and democratic institutions are some of the elements that are present where politics are viewed more favorably. The problems of the exercise of political power are varied. Among them we find the functioning of these ghettoized systems, trapped by their own logic of the accumulation of power, losing sight of the ultimate end of constructing the common good.

When political systems are prisoners to this logic, they move away from an understanding of the issues of daily life that are the most important for the life of the population. Corruption is another phenomenon present in the scenario. Access to political power frequently generates opportunities for illicit enrichment or traffic in influence. This should worry the entire political system. All this is dangerous because the exercise of politics is essential for democracy.

The more weak, doubted, removed from the majority, and corrupt those who exercise power and their institutions become, the weaker and more banal democracy itself becomes. This provides fertile ground for authoritarianism and messianism. Three aspects of politics can help us understand this phenomenon its exercise, its efficacy, and its institutions. The report adds that, apart from a few ups and downs, this statistic did not change between and This casts doubt on the actual existence of dissatisfaction with politics.

If, over ten years, this percentage has remained the same, we do not see evidence of a decline in satisfaction related to politics. In a complex world, in which different aspects of social life are changing rapidly, it is necessary to look anew at representation, which cannot be seen in the same way as it was at the time of the birth of the liberal states. The reaction against politics that we are seeing in our societies and the lack of a feeling of connection to democratic institutions are visible signs of the necessity of reframing the political exercise.

The way in which public institutions carry out their mission creates a favorable or negative impression of politics. The perception of corruption is influenced by both the media and personal experience. Because of this, it is difficult to determine the exact situation in each country using the perception of the population. The low confidence in the process of reduction of corruption is part of the loss of confidence in politics, as well as the democratic system as a whole. This percentage is unchanged since This lack of change suggests that the weak point of the political system, of democratic politics, is representation.

Here is where we find one of the key points, which seems to be that the citizens do not feel properly represented by those that are called to politics precisely to represent them. A central point here is the exercise of representation. Some authors talk about the metamorphosis of Also the credibility of the democratic system depends on its ground rules and concrete practice. If the electoral systems are not believable, it is understandable that its products are neither believable nor interesting. If we study the credibility of the elections in general in the region during the decade from to , we see that we are confronted with a rather discouraging panorama.

Clean elections or fraudulent elections? Some data that come from the empirical investigation allow us to better understand the perception that we Latin Americans have of politics. The region is not homogenous and this can be easily appreciated. In any case, to a greater or lesser degree, the dissatisfaction with politics clearly appears in three different aspects: The greatest problem, however, is poor representation and the necessity of reframing forms of inclusive representation. This exercise must produce clear solutions to the situation of poverty in which much of the population of this region of the world lives.

There is much to do on the way to constructing a coexistence that uses politics as a tool and path. The website is in English and Spanish. El banquero, al proceder de esta guisa, efectivamente, ha creado dinero. Ha habido, pues, un notorio abuso de confianza por parte del banco. De momento, el sistema parece dar resultado. La euforia general disimula el robo que se ha cometido.

Los precios suben en vertical, mientras toda clase de productos se ofrecen a la venta 5. La normalidad ha vuelto. La ignorancia general en asuntos financieros, cuidadosamente cultivada por los testaferros al servicio de la misma. Y ahora, volvamos a los bancos, los creadores del Dinero. Un cheque es una orden dada al Banco para que transfiera dinero -en realidad, como ya hemos dicho, inscripciones de dinero- de una cuenta a otra. El dinero, en la forma de metal o papel, es muy poco usado en los bancos. En los Estados Unidos, el Los bancos utilizan los billetes y monedas depositados por sus impositores como fondos de reserva, que nunca es prestada.

Lo que prestan es una cifra que oscila sobre el por cien de tales fondos de reserva. Supongamos que el dinero, que vamos a llamar A, de una determinada comunidad, es un dinero sano, sin la tara de la Deuda. Bueno, en realidad hay un medio. Entonces se llega al final del ciclo: Hemos dicho que el Oro es una medida internacional de cambio, y vamos a ilustrarlo con un ejemplo sencillo y corriente de comercio internacional. Estos son los famosos recibos a que hemos aludido repetidas veces, los recibos prestados hasta nueve veces el valor que representan.

El peligro, para los bancos, estriba en su propia naturaleza, y, a la vez, en la naturaleza humana. Esto crea, claro es, situaciones desagradables. El Banco de Inglaterra -repetimos, una entidad privada- fabricaba, literalmente, dinero.

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No obstante, existe una diferencia entre ellas. Un banco privado posee, en un momento dado: Pero continuemos con el mecanismo del funcionamiento de los Bancos Centrales. Esa insuficiencia de dinero en el mercado interior debe fatalmente ocasionar una baja de precios, obligando, por consiguiente, a los patronos, a reducir los salarios para poder seguir siendo competitivos. Esta es la finalidad de la Finanza Internacional: Toda moneda es convertible en oro a cierto tipo de cambio, y el poseedor de oro puede comprar cualquier moneda a un tipo de cambio determinado9.

La baja en los precios de los productos es causa de bajas en los salarios y, de retrueque, en la capacidad adquisitiva. Un inciso muy importante: Lo primero, lo esencial, es la Agricultura. No cabe duda de que nada de lo anteriormente dicho pretende ser denigratorio para la Industria. No hay nada de malo en el lujo, siempre que sea honradamente ganado, claro es. Pero es irracional sacrificarse por el lujo. Sencillamente, por que con aquella pueden obtenerse mayores beneficios. Los industriales claman por rebajar, directa o indirectamente, los salarios, con objeto de ser competitivos en los mercados exteriores.

Como es natural, los obreros se enfadan con sus patronos. Los patronos, con sus obreros. Y cuando en fin una gran parte de la Sociedad -obreros y patronos, agricultores y jornaleros- se han arruinado, entonces el horrendo ciclo Prosperidad-Crisis-Prosperidad-Crisis, puede volver a empezar de nuevo. Nadie ve el verdadero enemigo. O no lo quiere ver. El mundo no es un milagrero. Y, como corolario de todo el edificio En una palabra, un poder total y absoluto: Sus promesas de pagar fueron causa de una salida de oro. El hundimiento de los precios trajo como consecuencia el hundimiento de los beneficios.

El hundimiento de los beneficios produjo una baja de salarios, y, en muchos casos, el paro obrero. La mentira de que los salarios elevados son un peligro para dicho mercado exterior. Produce los menguantes y crecientes del comercio, igual que la Luna gobierna las mareas. Y los seres vivos guerrean con sus propias armas. El Occidental, a cara descubierta. En Nimes y Beaucaire, el 50 por ciento ya veces el cien por cien 9. Jacques Coeur, misterioso personaje nacido en Burdeos a principios del siglo XVI, es el primer financiero de quien habla la historia de Francia.

Su gran fortuna, el hecho de gozar del favor real, sus influencias en la sociedad europea incitaron a las familias nobles y poderosas a buscar la alianza con sus ricos descendientes. Ya no se trataba de prestar dinero, sino de inventarlo, de crearlo de la nada. Menos se ha hablado, aunque su importancia fuera primordial, del financiero suizo Necker. Era el 11 de julio. El tercer componente es la Finanza Internacional.

El Sistema es el llamado Mundialismo, representado por la funesta O. Pero no nos adelantemos y volvamos a Paris, donde el dinero u la influencia de Perregaux, Le Couteulx y Marmont, hicieron elegir a Luciano Bonaparte como Presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, en abril de Como un medio de expurgar de abusos el sistema feudal, superado por la Vida misma. Le pide que le mande soldados, pero confiesa que no dispone del dinero necesario para pagarlos. Las guerras eran las cosechas de estos traficantes de dinero.

Inglaterra y Francia ayudaban a la Reina Regente y a sus liberales. Los Rothschild financiaron la compra de las acciones del Canal de Suez para Inglaterra. Y, cuando no aparecen los Rothschild, aparecen sus fideicomisarios. No era imprudente, como Metternich lo fuera con Salomon de Rothschild.

Citado por Wycliffe B. Jugar con dos barajas es un ardid frecuentemente usado por los tahures del Sistema. Pero si, por una parte la Finanza apoyaba a Lincoln, por otra le atacaba. Para conseguirlo, los bonos del Gobierno deben ser empleados como base, o soporte, del dinero. No obstante, lo cierto era que Lincoln era partidario de tratar a los vencidos de forma caballerosa y su muerte fue, para los confederados, un desastre casi tan grande como su derrota militar. Rothberg, el cerebro del plan, regresa a Ottawa:

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