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Thursday, February 08, 2007

Impeachment by the People

Howard Zinn takes the spineless, corporate Democrats to task for failing to act as an opposition party despite being given a clear mandate against the Iraq war in November. The author of “A People’s History” encourages average Americans to push both parties into compliance with the national will. He reminds us that real change comes from “we the people”.

February 2007 Issue http://www.progressive.org
By Howard Zinn

Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation’s capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about “unity” and “bipartisanship,” in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course.

These are the Democrats who were brought to power in November by an electorate fed up with the war, furious at the Bush Administration, and counting on the new majority in Congress to represent the voters. But if sanity is to be restored in our national policies, it can only come about by a great popular upheaval, pushing both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will.

The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document but ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and community radio stations throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for over two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early excited days of the American Revolution: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.”

The “ends” referred to in the Declaration are the equal right of all to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” True, no government in the history of the nation has been faithful to those ends. Favors for the rich, neglect of the poor, massive violence in the interest of continental and world expansion—that is the persistent record of our government.

Still, there seems to be a special viciousness that accompanies the current assault on human rights, in this country and in the world. We have had repressive governments before, but none has legislated the end of habeas corpus, nor openly supported torture, nor declared the possibility of war without end. No government has so casually ignored the will of the people, affirmed the right of the President to ignore the Constitution, even to set aside laws passed by Congress.

The time is right, then, for a national campaign calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Representative John Conyers, who held extensive hearings and introduced an impeachment resolution when the Republicans controlled Congress, is now head of the House Judiciary Committee and in a position to fight for such a resolution. He has apparently been silenced by his Democratic colleagues who throw out as nuggets of wisdom the usual political palaver about “realism” (while ignoring the realities staring them in the face) and politics being “the art of the possible” (while setting limits on what is possible).

I know I’m not the first to talk about impeachment. Indeed, judging by the public opinion polls, there are millions of Americans, indeed a majority of those polled, who declare themselves in favor if it is shown that the President lied us into war (a fact that is not debatable). There are at least a half-dozen books out on impeachment, and it’s been argued for eloquently by some of our finest journalists, John Nichols and Lewis Lapham among them. Indeed, an actual “indictment” has been drawn up by a former federal prosecutor, Elizabeth de la Vega, in a new book called United States v. George W. Bush et al, making a case, in devastating detail, to a fictional grand jury.

There is a logical next step in this development of an impeachment movement: the convening of “people’s impeachment hearings” all over the country. This is especially important given the timidity of the Democratic Party. Such hearings would bypass Congress, which is not representing the will of the people, and would constitute an inspiring example of grassroots democracy.

These hearings would be the contemporary equivalents of the unofficial gatherings that marked the resistance to the British Crown in the years leading up to the American Revolution. The story of the American Revolution is usually built around Lexington and Concord, around the battles and the Founding Fathers. What is forgotten is that the American colonists, unable to count on redress of their grievances from the official bodies of government, took matters into their own hands, even before the first battles of the Revolutionary War.

In 1772, town meetings in Massachusetts began setting up Committees of Correspondence, and the following year, such a committee was set up in Virginia. The first Continental Congress, beginning to meet in 1774, was a recognition that an extralegal body was necessary to represent the interests of the people. In 1774 and 1775, all through the colonies, parallel institutions were set up outside the official governmental bodies.

Throughout the nation’s history, the failure of government to deliver justice has led to the establishment of grassroots organizations, often ad hoc, dissolving after their purpose was fulfilled. For instance, after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, knowing that the national government could not be counted on to repeal the act, black and white anti-slavery groups organized to nullify the law by acts of civil disobedience. They held meetings, made plans, and set about rescuing escaped slaves who were in danger of being returned to their masters.

In the desperate economic conditions of 1933 and 1934, before the Roosevelt Administration was doing anything to help people in distress, local groups were formed all over the country to demand government action. Unemployed Councils came into being, tenants’ groups fought evictions, and hundreds of thousands of people in the country formed self-help organizations to exchange goods and services and enable people to survive.

More recently, we recall the peace groups of the 1980s, which sprang up in hundreds of communities all over the country, and provoked city councils and state legislatures to pass resolutions in favor of a freeze on nuclear weapons. And local organizations have succeeded in getting more than 400 city councils to take a stand against the Patriot Act.

Impeachment hearings all over the country could excite and energize the peace movement. They would make headlines, and could push reluctant members of Congress in both parties to do what the Constitution provides for and what the present circumstances demand: the impeachment and removal from office of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Simply raising the issue in hundreds of communities and Congressional districts would have a healthy effect, and would be a sign that democracy, despite all attempts to destroy it in this era of war, is still alive.

Howard Zinn is the author, most recently, of “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.” For information on how to get involved in the impeachment effort, go to http://www.afterdowningstreet.org.

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The Nubian Oracle says:
08 Feb 2007 at 01:49 pm | #

Please give the impeachment ride a rest. Nancy can count the votes and look at the Senate. No one in power in Washington wants to fight an impeachment battle within 100 weeks of Bush leaving office. Having said that we, Cincinnati Change, think that everyone of those who broke the law in this war should be prosecuted.

Did the President lie to the American public ? Maybe, but before we get there we would need to have a special investigation (beyond Congress finally starting to do its job) in the middle of a WAR for Survival. Is it an impeachable offense - we obviously know it if we look at what Clinton was impeached for.

So we support your proposal of community councils and as a matter of fact will host them at our headquarters at 2439 Auburn Avenue whenever you want to start. Email us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we will get right back to you.

During such an impeachment we would still have to govern our way out of losing a battle in Iraq and avoiding a war with IRAN. Yes I said a battle. We are in a WAR. If you don’t think so then none of this makes any sense to you. We will be at WAR for a decade of more even if we are wining the peoples hearts and minds through positive and concrete actions like we have done in the past.

We a prelude to action this May we propose a second war on domestic poverty as a prelude for a Global War on Living Standards that is based on the UN The Millennium Development Goals as adopted in Cincinnati by 1 March 2007.

We propose a program that create by 1,000 businesses including a program for 300 youth based businesses for people age 17 to 22. We would support 300 established Cincinnati businesses that support the arts, computer services, communications service providers and those businesses dealing with the Creative Class and or Third Frontier. We would propose creating a global multimedia content production infrastructure tied to set locations around the world and creating 9,000 jobs.

Sixty per cent of these jobs will come from residents of the low income Empowerment Zone of Cincinnati. Each household would receive a cafeteria of human, financial, entertainment, professional, legal, social and health services based on our development of a patent application through The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) based on the principles behind The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guideline 26000 by June 19th 2007.

The ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (WG SR) laid the foundations of ISO 26000 at its second meeting, 26-30 September 2005, in Bangkok, Thailand. ISO 26000 will give organizations harmonized, internationally agreed guidance for social responsibility, drawing on best practice and consistent with relevant declarations and conventions by the United Nations and its constituents, notably the International Labour Office (ILO). The standard will not contain requirements allowing ISO 26000 to be used for certification.

By August 1 2007 we would be set to bridge the digital divide in Cincinnati whereas 10,000 clients (HH in Hamilton County) would represent the marketplace and buy new homes in the Empowerment Zone over the next three years and an additional 2,000 in southwestern Ohio.

Cincinnati Change as agent for the patent holders (established and future) would provide services in a public private partnership based on already established city operations and the Municipal Code to create a competitive electronic connectivity network with a fiber star tied to regional loops.

This includes the creation of a private police force to bring peace to community councils who request such a force that will operate under the Municipal Code, laws of the state of Ohio and under federal law in obedience to the UN Human Rights Charter. These members will volunteer to support foreign peace operations in Africa.

Through Cincinnati Change and partners we would provide the aforementioned set of services to the 50,000 residents of the Cincinnati Empowerment Zone on a means tested basis through Community Councils that we would propose to be first established in Mt Auburn. From here we then can go wherever those who want to participate in discussion of how do we want our government ran.

We look forward to working with a global network of people who want to beat swords into the modern equivalent of plow shares. I just want to do it under our constitution with an active citizenry who will take care of their brothers and sisters, and do unto others as they would have others do to them and follow the UN Human Rights Charter.

Cincinnati Change believes that no matter how we got here we have been in a WAR since the early eighties. The so called War on Terrorism is now real and coming to a neighborhood near you unless we get this right. So we support community councils who are modeled on the Deacons for Defense, who after all just wanted peace.

Having lived in north Africa and many people who I know say we have made it more dangerous. Now is not the time to quit the fight because our foes wont reconize that we have quit the field of battle and bring more of the WAR here.

I don’t want to energize the peace movement if it is not talking about how we create a world in which the target is not my country (the United States of America). Yes we have squandered good will like we had a barrel full since 9/11, yet we have to be prepared to defend the country from the Wars we are in - Global Trade and Terror.

In War on Terror we fight an enemy whose operational motto can be summed up as “God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.”

In general this enemy advocates the creation of Islamic government, believing that God has set out a perfect way of life and social organization in the Quran. It expresses its interpretation of Islam through a strict religious approach to social issues such as the role of women, but also believes that Islam enjoins man to strive for social justice, the eradication of poverty and corruption, and political freedoms as defined by the Islamic state.

It strongly opposes westernization and supported Hitler during WWII. Among its founders goals as stated by the founder of the modern Muslim Brotherhood Hassan al-Banna was the doctrine of reclaiming Islams manifest destiny; an empire, founded in the seventh century, that stretched from Spain to Indonesia.

Only now they want the United States, they can wait.