[News] Galeano: Where the People Voted Against Fear

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Where the People Voted Against Fear
by Eduardo Galeano

 >From the January 2005 issue of The Progressive . . .

http://www.progressive.org/jan05/gal0105.html
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1113-20.htm

A few days before the election of the President of the
planet in North America, in South America elections and
a plebiscite were held in a little-known, almost secret
country called Uruguay. In these elections, for the
first time in the country's history, the left won. And
in the plebiscite, for the first time in world history,
the privatization of water was rejected by popular
vote, asserting that water is the right of all people.

* * *

The movement headed by President-elect Tabare Vazquez
ended the monopoly of the two traditional parties--the
Blanco and the Colorado parties--which governed Uruguay
since the creation of the universe.

And after each election you would hear this
exclamation: ''I thought that we Blancos won but it
turns out we Colorados did"--or the other way around.
Out of opportunism, yes, but also because after so many
years of ruling together, the two parties had fused
into one, disguised as two.

Tired of being cheated, this time the people made use
of that little-used instrument, common sense. The
people asked, Why do they promise change yet ask us to
chose between the same and the same? Why didn't they
make any of these changes in the eternity they have
been in power?

Never had the abyss between the real country and
electioneering rhetoric been so evident. In the real
country, badly wounded, where the only growth is in the
number of emigrants and beggars, the majority chose to
cover their ears to block out the oratory of these
Martians competing for the government of Jupiter with
highfalutin words imported from the moon.

* * *

About thirty or so years ago, the Broad Front (Frente
Amplio) sprouted on these southern plains. ''Brother,
don't leave,'' the new movement implored. ''There is
hope.'' But crisis moved faster than hope, and the
hemorrhaging of the country's youth accelerated. The
dream of a Switzerland of the Americas ended, and the
nightmare of violence and poverty began, culminating in
a military dictatorship that converted Uruguay into a
vast torture chamber.

Afterward, when democracy was restored, the dominant
politicians destroyed the little that remained of the
system of production and converted Uruguay into a giant
bank. And as is often the case when it is assaulted by
bankers, the bank went bust and Uruguay found itself
emptied of people and filled with debt.

In all these years of disaster after disaster, we lost
a multitude. And as if in a bad joke, not content to
just force its youth from the country, this sclerotic
system also prohibits them from voting-one of a small
number of countries that do so. It seems inexplicable,
but there is an explanation: Who would these emigrants
vote for? The owners of the country suspect the worst,
and with good reason.

In the final act of his campaign, the vice presidential
candidate for the Colorado Party announced that if the
left won the elections, all Uruguayans would have to
dress identically, like the Chinese under Mao.

He was one of the many involuntary publicity agents of
the victorious left. Not even the most tireless
electoral workers did as much for this victory as the
tribunes of the homeland who alerted the population to
the imminent danger if democracy were to fall to the
tyrannical enemies of freedom and the terrorists,
kidnappers, and assassins who oppose democracy. Their
attacks were extremely efficient: The more they
denounced the devils, the more people voted for hell.

Largely thanks to these heralds of the apocalypse, the
left won by an absolute majority, without a runoff. The
people voted against fear.

* * *

The plebiscite on water was also a victory against
fear. Uruguayans were bombarded with extortion,
threats, and lies: A vote against privatizing water
will condemn you to a future of sewage-filled wells and
putrid ponds.

As in the elections, in the plebiscite common sense
triumphed. In their vote, the people asserted that
water, a scarce and finite natural resource, must be a
right of all people and not a privilege for those who
can pay for it. The people also showed they know that
sooner rather than later, in a thirsty world, the
reserves of fresh water will be as, or more, coveted
than oil reserves. Countries that are poor but rich in
water must learn to defend themselves. More than five
centuries have passed since Columbus. How long can we
go on trading gold for glass beads?

Wouldn't it be worthwhile for other countries to put
the issue of water to a popular vote? In a democracy, a
true democracy, who should decide? The World Bank, or
the citizens of each country? Do democratic rights
exist for real, or are they just the icing on a
poisoned cake?

In 1992, Uruguay was the only country in the world to
put the privatization of public companies to a popular
vote: 72 percent opposed. Wouldn't it be democratic to
do the same in every country?

* * *

For centuries, Latin Americans have been trained in
impotence. A pedagogy passed down from the colonial
times, taught by violent soldiers, timorous teachers,
and frail fatalists, has rooted in our souls the belief
that reality is untouchable and that all we can do is
swallow in silence the woes each day brings.

The Uruguay of other days was the exception. That
Uruguay instituted free public education before
England, women's suffrage before France, the eight-hour
workday before the United States, and divorce before
Spain-seventy years before Spain, to be exact.

Now we are trying to revive this creative energy and
would do well to recall that the Uruguay of that sunny
period was the child of audacity, and not fear.

* * *

It will not be easy. Implacable reality will promptly
remind us of the inevitable distance between the
desired and the possible. The left is coming to power
in a shattered country, which, in the distant past, was
at the vanguard of universal progress but today is one
of the furthest behind, in debt up to its ears and
subjected to the international financial dictatorship,
which doesn't vote but simply vetoes.

Today, we have very little maneuvering room. But what
is usually difficult, even impossible, can be imagined
and even achieved if we join together with neighboring
countries, just as we have joined together with our
neighbors.

* * *

In the Broad Front's very first demonstration, which
flooded the streets with people, someone shouted,
half-joyous, half-scared, ''Let's dare to win.''

Thirty or so years later, it came true.

The country is unrecognizable. Uruguayans, so
unbelieving that even nihilism was beyond them, have
started to believe, and with fervor. And today this
melancholic and subdued people, who at first glance
might be Argentineans on valium, are dancing on air.

The winners have a tremendous burden of responsibility.
This rebirth of faith and revival of happiness must be
watched over carefully. We should recall every day how
right Carlos Quijano was when he said that sins against
hope are the only sins beyond forgiveness and
redemption.


Eduardo Galeano, a Uruguayan writer and novelist, is
the author of "The Open Veins of Latin America,"
"Memory of Fire," and "Soccer in Sun and Shadow." This
article is published with permission of the IPS
Columnist Service.


(c) 2004 The Progressive



The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20041116/058ffd49/attachment.htm>