On 5/11/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Protagonistic democracy -- cf. Mike Lebowitz's BUILD IT NOW -- refers to grassroots and participative democracy such as the Bolivarian circles. It really isn't the opposite of "antagonistic" democracy (i.e., democracy within a class system). It also doesn't automatically abolish antagonistic democracy, but can form the basis for doing so in the future.
It's true that protagonistic democracy is not necessarily opposite of antagonistic one, but how many strikes, etc. that are of, by, and for workers (i.e., those that are unrelated to oligarchy's sabotage) have happened in Venezuela since the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution?
"North-South" refers to a relationship within the structure and dynamics of imperialism. "Protagonistic-antagonistic" has nothing to do with that. "Protagonistic" doesn't link to ideas about the exceptionalism of struggles in the "third world" as much as the current exceptionalism of the struggle in Venezuela. It's also been seen in other places and times, including in the U.S.
As far as I can see, protagonism hasn't caught on even in the rest of Latin America. Today's imperialism, as well as directions of many post-colonial states, especially after the fall of the "second world," has caused increased divergences among "third world" nations. -- Yoshie
