Guest Article/Democratic Movement From Below

By Christian Hofmann The conflict of capitalism and communism is dead now since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the decline of the Soviet Union in 1989/91. The system of capitalism has won this battle – and is now creating new world-problems. But does it not also export freedom and democracy to the world? Certainly capitalists want a "free market", therefore they do not like stately intervention but an autonomous class of independent merchants.So, capitalists have an economic interest to establish more societies in the world which respect freedom of the economy. Freedom of the economy might probably lead to political freedom, but there is no guarantee that this would automatically happen . The capitalists like to be seen as the supporters of freedom in the world (according to G.W. Bush: his only aim as a president seems to be fighting for the propagation of freedom against "the enemies of freedom"..). And maybe one should take this rhetoric speech seriously and measure the capitalists´ actions by their demands. On the other hand there is the US ignorance towards the injury of human rights as long as it does not touch their own interests. The history of Latin America is full of examples of US-politics supporting bloody dictators against democratic movements and the will of the people (just look at their policies towards Chile and Nicaragua). But capitalism did also produce new communicational technologies and a variety of media (newspapers, TV channels, the Internet). For example,in the time between the Gulf wars of 1991 and 2003, there is the rise of Al-Dschasira. You can criticise both CNN and Al-Dschasira as not being objective, but the progress in the medial situation of 2003 is that you now have an alternative, that you can choose between two perspectives of reporting. The totalitarian US point of view is supplemented by an Arab perspective. These new possibilities for getting information can be used as a weapon against the rule of the market, because they give chances for the people to organize their protest and to let their voices be heard in the world (I know that there is certainly also the danger of disinformation and confusion as a result of the mass-media´s style of "reporting" – but there is the possibility for the people to get informed if they really want). These social movements in every part of the world are the true democratic outcome of this whole process of "globalisation". Democracy is coming from the people below, not from their representatives, the professional politicians who are institutionally led into a compromise position between the economy and the voters. The state and the government should be seen as an instrument for the people. And elections and social movements should be regarded as the power of the political will to change wrong economical and political structures. This kind of political action is certainly not a communist revolution.But maybe it can establish a democratic consciousness and a direct expression of the people, which is able to change a capitalist world-society into a democratic world-society. #The writer lives in Bohn,Germany and can be contacted at christiansitar@gmail.com