Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts

Monday, January 26, 2015

Bella Ciao !

Yes!  Syriza sweeps into power in the Greek elections, a landslide win for Alexis Tsipras, heralding an end to austerity, a new era of "hope and the will to fight in the very birthplace of democracy."



 

Syriza obtained 149 of 300 seats in Parliament, only two seats short of a complete majority.

Greek voters jubilantly celebrated into the Athens night, the old anti-fascist song of partisan resistance, Bella Ciao, among other favorites, sung, danced to, and played about in halls, bars, and cafes - the mood described as "electric." 

Two tweets from just prior to this incredible win, the first time in modern Greek history a left government has taken power:



Victory tweets and some Bella Ciao song samples below (more posted on twitter @OldSaukRiver).   

Bella Ciao has been sung in many languages (an example of that, also below), originally an old folk tune, now triumphantly declared (see another tweet below) as the new international anthem of democracy and resistance, and against the economic ravages of a 1% precariously tipping the scales of global economic injustice to staggering heights of disparity never before seen in human history.  (At present, the world's 80 richest people possess the same wealth as the bottom 3.5 billion, Greeks suffering most keenly under the European union austerity package.)

























An English translation of the lyrics, below, from Antoinette Fawcett, performed in 2007 by 21 Love Hotel.  Here you can find the text in 30 languages, with commentary.   (English speakers see some translations reading "the invaders," which refers to the fascists during World War II.)

I woke this morning and all seemed peaceful
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
I woke this morning and all seemed peaceful
But oppression still exists.

Oh freedom fighter, I want to fight too
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Oh freedom fighter, I want to fight too
Against their living death.

And if I die, a freedom fighter,
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
And if I die, a freedom fighter,
Then you’ll have to bury me.

Let my body rest in the mountains
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Let my body rest in the mountains
In the shadow of my flower.

And all the people who will pass by there
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
And all the people who will pass by there
Will show that lovely flower.

This is the blossom of those that died here
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
This is the blossom of those that died here
For land and liberty.

And, in another English language version with Chumbawamba:
The world is waking outside my window
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
Drags my senses into the sunlight
For there are things that I must do

Wish me luck now, I have to leave you
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
With my friends now up to the city
We're going to shake the Gates of Hell

And I will tell them - we will tell them
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
That our sunlight is not for franchise
And wish the bastards drop down dead

Next time you see me I may be smiling
Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
I'll be in prison or on the TV
I'll say, "the sunlight dragged me here!"


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Sunday, August 25, 2013

A Star Is Born

The choice is clear in the Australian elections.

 
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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Mourning

Hundreds of thousands of people are reported in the streets of Caracas today (aerial footage here), and many across Latin America, mourning the death of President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday at age 58.  President Chavez had been fighting cancer.  

Statements were released by world leaders, some of whom - for example, Bolivian President Evo Morales - appeared in the street procession today with Vice President Nicolas Maduro, accompanying the casket.  

NBC carries a photostream here showing many Venezuelans weeping.
 
The vice president stated on Tuesday that Venezuelan authorities believe the late president was poisoned (i.e. cancer induced) by U.S. government operatives.  At the same time, two U.S. Embassy military attachés were expelled for allegedly attempting to destabilize the country by culling right-wing military support in a plot against the Venezuelan government.  

The late president who was in office for 14 years survived a 2002 coup attempt later linked to the Bush administration. 

Below, video of formal statements regarding Hugo Chavez' death.

 

 President Chavez decisively won reelection in October under an election system the Carter Center has identified as the best in the world, with the last election deemed by observers "a model of democracy."  Voter turn-out was massive.  

Vilified by the American mainstream press, Chavez was a more controversial figure in the United States, though he was wildly popular in Venezuela and throughout Latin America.

Widely known for redirecting Venezuela's oil wealth to the nation's impoverished majority, Chavez instituted programs that rapidly halved the national poverty rate, and decreased the extreme poverty rate by 2/3rds.  The late president implemented social missions aimed at eliminating illiteracy, and he brought high school and college educations within reach of large numbers of Venezuelans previously unserved - and without putting students under the staggering burdens of a student debtor system, as in the United States.  

Photo By: Franklin Reyes, MinCIChavez expanded social security for senior citizens, many of whom had no pensions, and no access to the system previously, providing a guaranteed income to older Venezuelans equivalent to the national minimum wage.

“This is the first time that senior citizens are receiving help, and in my case I need it, because I have always been self-employed and I don’t have a pension,” stated a Mr. Luis Araque from Caracas, back in January, 2011, and when the program was first made available to women over 55 and men over 60.

The Chavez government also instituted a universal health care system, while bringing thousands of doctors into the slums of Caracas to provide free, 24 hour per day medical care. His leadership is regarded as having "spawned a massive grassroots renaissance among millions of poor Venezuelans. They now participate in community groups that do everything from running soup kitchens to installing public water systems."
 
More discussion of the Chavez legacy here and here on Real News and Democracy Now! and here on Truthout, and here at theguardian.

Below, from arenamierda, David Rovic's Song For Hugo Chavez.


 
 

*Photo credit/top, courtesy of NBC/photographer: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters/Supporters gather outside the hospital in Caracas/bottom, courtesy of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela/photographer: Franklin Reyes, MinCI/Learning to read and write through social missions instituted under Chavez.
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Sunday, October 7, 2012

Venezuela

Venezuelans occupy their elections.

 
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