On 10/6/06, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Yoshie wrote:
>The choice Sader recommends is to vote for Lula, which makes
>sense, since voting for Lula doesn't stop you from fighting any of
>Lula's policies if he gets reelected.*
I guess this makes the same kind of sense as SDS's
"Part of the Way with LBJ".
You miss the crucial difference: Brazil is not the USA. It's among
the more economically powerful countries outside the West, but it
doesn't play the same role in Latin American or international affairs
that the USA does, though it sometimes does play roles similar to,
say, Spain.
A Democratic President of the USA would never support the Bolivarian
government of Venezuela for in its bid for a seat on the UN Security
Council or anything else for that matter, but Lula does.
In any case, till the runoff is over, you have no realistic
alternative to supporting Lula except supporting Alckmin or
encouraging a boycott. The latter two, imho, are not viable options.
On 10/6/06, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
What's important is
the creation of an extra-parliamentary movement (like what Lula
started with or SDS). If the movement grows and sticks to its
principles, it can push the state toward slightly more humane
policies.
It all depends on what kind of movement. A segment of those who
organized a pretty strong movement against Thaksin were students and
workers who hated corruptions and opposed privatization, free trade
agreements, etc., but a bigger part, it now appears, were richer Thais
who hated Thaksin's economic policy in rural areas and the military
brass who were concerned about his hard-line approach to Muslim rebels
in the South. The movement simply weakened the Thaksin government,
created enough disorder without presenting a better alternative, and
ended up prompting the coup that just happened.
Now, that's a really worse choice than what Brazilians confront:
support Thaksin, many of whose policies were indeed indefensible, or
help create conditions for a coup by protests that prompt the ruling
class to dispose of Thaksin without being capable of overthrowing them
or even contemplating any such aim at all. If many Thais couldn't
make up their mind, who can blame them?
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
