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Ten Good Things About 2003As we greet the new year, let's celebrate some of our hard-fought victories in a time of adversity.
1. We organized the most massive, global protests against war the world has ever seen. On February 15 alone, over 12 million people came out on the streets in over 700 cities in 60 countries and on every continent. The New York Times claimed there were now two superpowers: the U.S. and global public opinion. 2. Over the last few months, mainstream Americans have been buying progressive books by the millions. Authors such as Michael Moore, Al Franken, Molly Ivins, Paul Krugman and David Corn have seen their books soar to The New York Times best-sellers list. With humor and biting exposes of the Bush administration, these authors helped our movement gain legions of new converts. 3. When the World Trade Organization met in Cancun in September to give even greater power to transnational corporations, they were met by well-coordinated opposition from countries in the global South, hundreds of non-governmental organizations, and thousands of activists, who forced the talks to collapse. 4. The poorest country in South America, Bolivia, proved that people power is alive and well. Sparked by the Bolivian president's plan to privatize and export the nation's natural gas, an astounding grassroots movement of peasants, miners, workers and indigenous people forced the resignation of President Sanchez de Lozada. 5. The silver lining in the budget crisis affecting the states throughout this nation is that state governments are cutting prison budgets by releasing non-violent drug offenders. The year has been marked by a steady move toward treatment instead of incarceration. 6. This year witnessed a "coming out" of all types of celebrities on progressive issues. Jay-Z and Mariah Carey railed against the racist Rockefeller drug laws; Bono and Beyonce Knowles called for the world to fight AIDS; and a host of celebs courageously took a stand against the invasion of Iraq. 7. E-activism through venues such as MoveOn.org, Working Assets and Meetup.com has allowed ordinary people to challenge big money and powerful institutions. We've raised millions of dollars to run ads; confronted corporate-dominated institutions; and allowed an antiwar candidate, Howard Dean, to become a frontrunner in the 2004 elections. 8. In unprecedented opposition to the assault on our civil liberties, over 200 cities, towns, counties, and states have passed resolutions against the Patriot Act. The outcry has been so profound that plans for Patriot Act II have been scaled back. 9. While eclipsed by the war in Iraq, the Enron, WorldCom and accounting scandals produced some positive legislation against corporate crime. And anti-corporate crusaders joined with peace activists to expose the obscene war profiteering of Halliburton and Bechtel--with more exposes to come in 2004! 10. Despite the conservative takeover of the courts, the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action and struck down sodomy laws criminalizing gay sex. The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that gays should be able to marry. The U.S. Appeals Court ruled that the U.S. military could not detain American citizen Jose Padilla as an "enemy combatant," and found that all 600 detainees at Guantanamo Bay should be granted access to lawyers. Even in the gloomiest days of 2003, we kept slugging away--and sometimes even winning. Now let's move on to score the BIG victory in 2004 by sending George Bush back to Crawford. Medea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CodePink: Women for Peace. |
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