In the words of George Bush . . . In the words of

George Bush . . .

• “Democratic capitalism is the best system ever devised. It has unleashed the talents and productivity of our citizens. “

• “Democratic capitalism is the best system ever devised. It has unleashed the talents and productivity of our citizens. “

Some people say,

• Barack Obama can make the withering American Democracy bloom again.

What is Democracyanyway?

What is Democracyanyway?

Dictionary definition:

• “In a democracy supreme political authority rests with the people. The people hold the sovereign power, and government is only conducted by and with the consent of the people. “ Magruder

• “In a democracy supreme political authority rests with the people. The people hold the sovereign power, and government is only conducted by and with the consent of the people. “ Magruder

Demos = peopleKratia = rule

Demos = peopleKratia = rule

That’s the textbook definition. But does reality contradict that?

That’s the textbook definition. But does reality contradict that?

Lyndon Johnson president from 1963 to 1968.

• In 1964 people voted for this man who promised to keep U.S. troops out of Viet Nam.

A few years later 100’s of thousands of U.S. soldiers were fighting in Vietnam.

10’s of millions marched against an Iraq war here and around the world.

Then Democratic promises to end the war won them victories in 2006.

2008, the war goes on . . . 2008, the war goes on . . .

And demands that Bush be impeached for lying about the war?

The people are still waiting.

And demands that Bush be impeached for lying about the war?

The people are still waiting.

Who gave their consent to this?

• Who gave their consentTo this?

• Or this?

Or this …?2 million people in prison in the U.S.

Or this . . .

Or This

Shawn Bell – Shot 19 times on his wedding day in New York by NY Police.

Republican National Convention, St. Paul, 2008

$700 billion to the big banks . . .

while ordinary people lose their homes.

The consent of the governed?

Still many believe that the will of the people

can be expressed

through elections

Or mass pressure. Or mass pressure.

Mass movements have brought some changes

• It helped end the war in Vietnam.• Brought an end to Jim Crow

segregation.• Won women the right to choose. • Undermined efforts to give the war in

Iraq the appearance of popular approval.

But oppressive relationships continue to reassert themselves here . . .

And internationally -- U.S. invasions – Korea, 1952: Dominican Republic , 1965: Panama,

1989: Afghanistan, 2002, etc.

Some attribute these failures to the

unfulfilled promise of Jeffersonian Democracy.

Why Jeffersonian Democracy?• Thomas Jefferson wrote

the Declaration of Independence.

• Jefferson was a slave owner but he wrote statements against slavery and the slave trade.

• Many people believe his vision of Democracy is the best model for society.

Others argue that U.S. Democracy by its nature is an oppressive system, not a

liberating one.

In the spirit of critical questioning -- what is JeffersonianDemocracy?

• A disguised dictatorship of capitalism?

• Imperfect order but one worth striving for?

A sharp critic of (bourgeois) Democracy, Bob Avakian wrote a book called

And a more recent book . . .

We’ll take a look at a few of the provocative ideas from this book.

And a more recent book . . .

We’ll take a look at a few of the provocative ideas from this book.

Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence wrote --

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights”.

• Jefferson, a slave owner– a Virginia tobacco planter was part of the slave owning class.

Yet . . .

He was a signer of the U.S. Constitution which allowed slave owners to count their

slaves as “3/5 human”.

He was a signer of the U.S. Constitution which allowed slave owners to count their

slaves as “3/5 human”.

“The 3/5 provision gave disproportionate power to . . . Southern slave owners.”

Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

“…slave grown products constituted a major factor in the development of the U.S.

economy.” Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

“…slave grown products constituted a major factor in the development of the U.S.

economy.” Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

Cotton Plantation

Textile factory

This was a time of conquest of land from the native people.

Europeans were coming to settle here.

Many Europeans had been oppressed as serfs or workers ...

or members of persecuted religions in their own countries.

In America they found their status was above Blacks, Indians and mulattoes.

“ . . . Racial slavery enabled Virginia’s slave owning planter

class to co-opt the poorer whites and thus perpetuate a highly

exploitative and unequal society under the banner of republican

liberty”. Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

“. . . Notions of freedom that have characterized the way the U.S. has been conceived . . .

Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

• included, as fundamental elements, racism and the oppression of Black people and other ‘people of color’ . . .”

There were “inalienable” (undeniable) rights: And first and foremost of these rights was There were “inalienable” (undeniable) rights: And first and foremost of these rights was

The right to

TO EXPLOIT LABOR.

And the right

Jefferson criticized slavery. But his opposition was to the international slave trade which undermined the value of the slaves held by Virginia

tobacco planters.

Jefferson praised the small (yeoman) farmer “as the emblem. . . for the best form of government and of a virtuous society”.

Jefferson praised the small (yeoman) farmer “as the emblem. . . for the best form of government and of a virtuous society”.

But as President, with the Louisiana Purchase, “he acted primarily in the interest of the slave owners . . . not small farmers.” Avakian

“Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

Bob Avakian points out a great irony:

• “There would be no U.S. as we now know it without slavery”.

• “. . . Slavery has been an indispensable part of the foundation for the ‘freedom and prosperity’ of the U.S.A.”

• “Jefferson’s agrarian society turned out to be a society based on slavery and ruled by slave owners”.

The push for War in 1848 to grab Mexican territories came, in part, from the slave owners

need to expand to new lands.

“. . . many of the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo were slave traders and slave chasers. Forget all that stuff about Davy Crocketts

as great heroes, which many of us were fed as kids .”

The Texas Alamo site of a battle to “free” Texas from Mexico.

Fess Parker played the ‘Hero of the Alamo’, Davy Crockett.

Following the Civil War the U.S. became an expanding world power.

Invasions of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Phillippines after the War of 1898.

“…wealth and power of the U.S. rests on a world wide system of imperialist exploitation that ensnares hundreds of

millions, and ultimately billions of people”

“. . . the U.S. that did evolve could not have evolved, and would not have reached the position it has, if it were not for the existence and role of slavery in all this. So whenever you hear talk about ‘freedom in this country, keep that in mind.” Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy” p. 18

Democracy grew up as the outward form of a rule that was, and is, a

dictatorship of the propertied classes.

Enforced by this . . .

“But all this does not mean that the ruling class of imperialists has everything all sewed up. There are profound contradictions in their system, which in these days are posing themselves in rather acute terms. ”

In speaking to alternatives, Bob Avakian addresses the question of free speech in the chapter . . .

• “Freedom of Conscience as Private Property . . . and a Radically Different and Far More Unfettered Search for the Truth.”

“For Jefferson the notion of individual conscience and the expression of ideas is bound up with the concepts

of market principles, private ownership of commodities . . .”

“This , of course, Is bound up with the whole idea . . . we hear so often: ‘the free market place of ideas”.

“. . . that contrasts with the communist view of pursuing the truth and the contention of opposing ideas as an essential part of the

pursuit of the truth.”

• “From our point of view, the communist point of view, it is crucial to actually understand reality, in its motion and development, in order to be able to transform it increasingly in the interests of the broad masses of people and ultimately of humanity as a whole.”

• Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

In thinking about a different kind of society, Avakian advocates

In thinking about a different kind of society, Avakian advocates

• “Understanding the importance of the ‘battle of ideas’, of not suppressing unpopular or unconventional thinking, in order to have the richest process in seeking an understanding of reality, and in order for the people in society to feel that they have air to breathe and room to be ‘different’ and to express different ideas: this is a crucial dimension of the kind of society that we want to live in and that the masses of people would really thrive in . . . “Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

But we can’t get there via this process . . .

“If we must use military force (in Iran) we are more likely to succeed, and will have far greater support at home and abroad, if we have exhausted our diplomatic efforts.”

“Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” --

Vs.

“The role of both these parties is one of seeking to enforce the interests of the ruling class of capitalists-

imperialists against the interests of the masses of

people”. Avakian, “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy”

It can only come about from a massive revolutionary uprising of the people --

• “This overthrow of the old, oppressive system must lead immediately to the establishment of a new state power that serves the revolutionary interests of the proletariat in emancipating all of humanity.” Revolution newspaper #144

• “Socialist democracy, with the dictatorship of the proletariat, not only enables political power to be exercised by the masses of people, increasingly involving the great majority of society in meaningful decision-making . . . but also provides the basis for a flourishing of individuality and of individual rights on an unprecedented scale . . .”

• Avakian “Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy” p 56

“. . . the revolution must address and heal the many scars of the past, it must aim higher than “the first shall be last and

the last shall be first,” or higher even than “equality”—it must aim to get past the conditions where there is a “first”

and a “last” and where people measure their situation against that of other people.

This revolution’s aim must be a truly communist society in which a guiding principle would be “from each according to

their abilities, to each according to their needs”—a society in which, as our Party’s Constitution puts it:

Revolution newspaper #144

“[P]eople would still have to work together to produce the necessities of life and deal with nature and our obligations to each other.

But it would mean that people will be free to do that in a way that does NOT divide us into hostile competing forces… Revolution newspaper #144

… and free, finally, to continually develop a true world society of human beings who increasingly flourish, not only as individuals but most fundamentally in their mutual relations and interactions with each other.”Revolution newspaper #144

This will truly be a global human community, without borders and national divisions but full of human diversity and greatly unleashed creativity and initiative, within an overall cooperative framework.

“The socialist revolutions in the Soviet Union (1917-56) and China (1949-76) accomplished great and unprecedented things. They opened

liberating vistas that humanity can build on.” Raymond Lotta

19491949

• “. . .this first wave of revolution marked a beginning…an historic beginning. There were great accomplishments. But we have to accomplish more. We have to go further and do better.” Raymond Lotta “Socialism

Is Much Better Than Capitalism, and Communism Will Be a Far Better World Conclusion—Bob Avakian Reenvisions Socialism