“In capitalist society we have a democracy that is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority. The dictatorship of the proletariat, the period of transition to communism, will for the first time create democracy for the people, for the majority, along with the necessary suppression of the exploiters, of the minority.” PeopleFirstsDemocracyRichPeriodsFirst TimeMajorityCommunismMinoritiesTransitionCapitalistDictatorshipWretchedSuppressionProletariat Author:Vladimir Lenin
“Also, an area that interests me - and it will probably take years to state what I mean - is the period of the rise of democracy, with Tom Paine, which is around the turn of the 18th century into the 19th.” YearsMeanStatesTurnsInterestDemocracyCenturyPeriodsAreasToms18th CenturyPaineTom Paine Author:Fiona Shaw
“Democracy is about criticism. I didn't elect Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time. Period. The exceptionalism of a black U.S. President is not important to me. It's what he does. And who he has at the table. And what he does to change the world - that's what's important.” WorldPersonsDoeImportantBlackPresidentDemocracyPeriodsCriticismTablesChanging The WorldWhat's ImportantRight PersonTime PeriodsExceptionalism Author:Danny Glover
“Thus our democracy was from an early period the most aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most democratic.” DemocracyPeriodsDemocraticAristocracyAristocratic Author:Thomas B. Macaulay
“Democracy appears to me potentially a higher form of political organization than any kind of dictatorship. But if it turns out that in America, which could afford a decent living for everyone, the comfortable majority is willing to condone the misery and abuse of a minority for an indefinite period, the exploitation by the majority becomes as repugnant as exploitation by an oligarchy, and democracy loses half its supposed superiority.” IfsKindAmericaFormPoliticalTurnsLosesHalfDemocracyWillingHigherPeriodsComfortableOrganizationAbuseMajorityMiseryDecentMinoritiesDictatorshipExploitationSuperiorityOligarchy Author:Benjamin Spock
“My links with [Mahatma] Gandhi now are very political links because I do not believe there is any other politics available to us in the late twentieth century, a period of a totalitarianism linked with the market. There is really no other way you can do politics and create freedom for people without the kinds of instruments he revived. Civil disobedience is a way to create permanent democracy, perennial democracy, a direct democracy.” PeopleWayBelieveKindPoliticalCan DoDemocracyCenturyPeriodsLateDirectInstrumentsAvailablePermanentLinksLinkedTwentieth CenturyTotalitarianismDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceDirect Democracy Author:Vandana Shiva
“Vaclav Havel was the most amazing man in terms of being the combination of somebody with massive moral authority, great courage for having espoused the concepts of democracy, freedom throughout a very difficult communist period, a very modest man, and somebody with a fabulous sense of humor and the idea of being able to see the absurd in situations.” MenIdeasAbleDifficultTermSituationMoralDemocracyPeriodsAuthorityConceptsAbsurdCombinationMassiveSense Of HumorCommunistModestFabulousMost AmazingDemocracy FreedomMoral AuthorityAmazing Man Author:Judy Woodruff
“In the early period of Left struggles, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there were many different trajectories for the struggle, whether you call it 'syndicalism' or 'anarchism' or, at the time, 'social democracy', eventually 'Communism', these were different theories of struggle. But all of them shared a basic understanding that the people...experience exploitation, they experience oppression, but they're not prepared to rise up.” PeopleDifferentLeftSocialUnderstandingStruggleDemocracyCenturyTheoryPeriodsLatePreparedOppressionCommunismExploitationTwentieth CenturyAnarchismTrajectorySocial Democracy Author:Vijay Prashad
“The Bolshevik revolution was a counter-revolution. Its first moves were to destroy and eliminate every socialist tendency that had developed in the pre-revolutionary period. Their goal was as they said; it wasn't a big secret. They regarded the Soviet Union as sort a backwater. They were orthodox Marxists, expecting a revolution in Germany. They moved toward what they themselves called "state capitalism," then they moved on to Stalinism. They called it democracy and called it socialism. The one claim was as ludicrous as the other.” FirstsSaidStatesBigsMovingGoalSecretDemocracyRevolutionPeriodsCapitalismClaimsMovedUnionsSocialismTendenciesRevolutionaryGermanyOrthodoxSovietExpectingSocialistThey SaidSoviet UnionMarxistMoved OnStalinismBolsheviks Author:Noam Chomsky