- By James Jordan

Remember the song, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love”?  In this new millennium we might sing, “What the world needs now is hope, real hope.”  We need the kind of hope that puts food on the table today and protects the planet from extinction tomorrow. 

Participatory democracy is bringing hope to many people in places like Venezuela, where the public has majority ownership of, benefits from, and ultimately manages national resources.  Participatory democracy then has resulted in a growing economy, millions getting free health care and education, and the establishment of hundreds of new cooperative farms, industries, and other ventures.  However, the US government is trying to destroy participatory democracy so that resources will be reopened to corporate control and exorbitant profits. 

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a particularly pernicious, so-called “democracy promotion” organization.  It funded the coup in Haiti in 2004 and the unsuccessful coup in Venezuela in 2002.  Created by Congress in 1983, the NED is 95% funded by our taxes.  Because it is called a “private” organization, the NED carries out shadow foreign policy free of meaningful public oversight or transparency.

The Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) and the Alliance for Global Justice have initiated the Respect for Democracy Campaign with the goals listed below in the petition now circulating:

We, the undersigned, demand that the US government show respect for democracy and:

• Stop all interference in the elections of other countries;
• Close the mis-named and secretive National Endowment for Democracy;
• Give the people what they want and end the occupation of Iraq;
• Promote real democracy at home by making our votes verifiable and prioritizing the interests of working people over the corrupting influence or corporations.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spends our taxes to interfere in foreign elections yet has no congressional oversight and no open books. The NED is mainly funded by the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).  The NED and USAID helped overthrow the elected government of Haiti in 2004 and have repeatedly tried to change the elected government of Venezuela, including support for a failed coup in 2002.  They have spent millions interfering in elections around the world.  The NED spends half its budget supporting the US occupation of Iraq in an effort to manipulate the Iraqi government into passing laws that benefit US oil companies over the Iraqi people.

The urgent need is to build real, participatory democracy here in the US, not destroy democracy in other countries.

[The author lives in Tucson and is with the Alliance for Global Justice.]