It's social democracy in Latin America, not leftist

this article makes an excellent point... if you only get your news from the u.s. media, the propaganda spin is that latin america has made a significant "left turn..." i've fallen into that trap a number of times myself in posts i've made on this blog and in conversations i've had with friends... "left" doesn't really describe what's happening...

what the people of these countries are demanding, and rightfully so, is that their governments need to pay attention to THEM, and not exist only to serve the elites, the world financial establishment (the world bank and the international monetary fund), the global corporations, and the fat-cat, mostly foreign capitalists who essentially run the world these days...

"Today's new left is not called ‘leftist', but social democracy," said Marta Lagos, executive director of Latinobarómetro, a Chilean non-governmental organisation that carries out annual polls in 18 Latin American countries.

These governments put an emphasis on "the construction of social safety nets to provide support for the most vulnerable," but without breaking with the past, said Lagos, who pointed out that most of them have followed conservative economic policies.

"The ‘leftist' label confuses the public, because it's a concept that comes from the Cold War, from the 1960s, and is associated with revolutionary movements like those of Che Guevara, the government of Salvador Allende in Chile, and the Cuban revolution itself," she told IPS.

In her view, the governments of presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay are all social democratic.

"The only government that is ‘more' leftist is the Bolivian administration of Evo Morales, because its objective is the ‘refounding' of the nation," although "within the democratic system," which differentiates it sharply from the left of the 1960s, she said.

"I wouldn't say Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is either of the extreme left or a social democrat, because he's a populist," said Lagos. Populism is "the dominant characteristic" of his leadership style and policies, she underlined.

of course, in spite of all the best intentions, it's hard to create a vibrant national economy without those same global organizations insinuating themselves into damn near every aspect of your life... during the time i've spent in six different countries - argentina, bulgaria, greece, macedonia, mexico, and serbia - i make it a point, whenever i pick something up at the supermarket or pharmacy, to look at the fine print to determine the ownership behind the often unfamiliar label... nine times out of ten, it's one of the following - proctor and gamble, unilever, nestle, kraft, helene curtis, biersdorf, or one of the other global "bigs..."

i believe social democracy and even populism to be worthy governmental objectives... i'm hoping we can see a re-establishment of the social contract here in the u.s., after the r's have spent so much time destroying it...

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