The Anti-Citizen State

Upon becoming a member of a society, John Locke tells us, the power that a person exercised in the state of nature must be given up to a certain extent so that the society as a whole can achieve its goals. Presumably, the power that people use against one another in the state of nature causes such discomfort and danger that forfeiting freedom and sovereignty to roost in the protective nest of a society seems like a fair trade.

However, as Locke describes in section 145, the commonwealth itself is a very different animal to the citizens that compose its body. Whereas those living within the commonwealth are discrete individuals accountable to the law, the unit that collectively represents them to the rest of humanity, the commonwealth, remains in the state of nature that the citizens existed in previous to joining the society.

This can easily be applied in a modern context where institutions have a different set of moral standards and legal prerogatives than those that they impose on people. States, like the pre-societal people that Locke describes, engage in ruthlessly self-interested activities that cause disorder and bloodshed. We created states that are different to us; citizens give up total sovereignty for the greater unity and prosperity of the state, states maintain total sovereignty at the expense of the greater unity and prosperity of the world. Citizens are the complicit and obedient organs that operate in an anti-citizen state.

Neither “world government” nor “global citizenship” seem to me like useful ideas. I think that participation in international political bodies and regional economic blocs should be increased, but existing favouritism and exceptionalism have to be overcome. But that’s beside the point. The point is that though Locke describes a noble humanity that unites under a set of laws based on reason, their collective political unit is one that is still in the state of nature, characterized by violence and disorder fueled by self-interest.

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Oaxaca, Mexico

It was the pungent smell of enclosed human activity sustained over a period of weeks, rather than the empirical details that I should have been taking note of, that I remember most clearly. The demographics of the demonstration, the strategy employed in blocking the roads, the intensification of police presence, unfortunately went unnoticed as I skirted around sleeping bags laid down on the flagstones, under the blue tarps strung from lamppost to balcony, which the smoke from makeshift kitchens caused to swell. Why I remained unfazed by this extraordinary obstruction between myself and the market was that from the toddlers on a mat draped over the sidewalk, to the men clustered around a radio, to a woman chopping vegetables in the back of a truck, was the atmosphere of sheer normality. The participants seemed to have been suddenly transported from their private homes into the public square and were continuing the tasks that they had previously been engaged in. Other than being out in the open it was not out of the ordinary.

This year, however, the strike of the Oaxacan teachers ended in calamity. In the early hours of June 14, teachers from the National Education Workers Union (SNTE) who had been camping in the historic centre of the city were violently awakened by over 1700 police. They were dragged from their tents and dozens of canisters of tear gas fell from the helicopters above. The strikers who participated in the urban warfare that ensued had only objects found in the street to use for defense; from the number of children and at-risk individuals caught in the melee, clearly nobody had expected violence. Four people were killed and at least 92 were injured, including a pregnant teacher who miscarried due to tear gas toxins.



For more than 25 years, the SNTE has struggled for higher wages, more scholarships, and greater funding for schools in impoverished regions. However, it is recently that these demands have come to include a call for the resignation of the Oaxacan governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. This political stance has generated a large amount of support and has put the teachers at the forefront of a social movement to resist government violence and corruption.

Andres also posted on this event in Oaxaca – I agree that if the system has not changed after your union has been protesting it for more than 25 years, it’s your methods of protest that have to change first. Events of brutality and loss can unite previously isolated groups and highlight the flaws in the existing system for public scrutiny. Perhaps these two factors will assist the teachers and their allies in making changes on a national level. Having spent a number of months in Oaxaca then seeing familiar locations violently transformed in footage from the presentation on Thursday, I can imagine the impact this event will have on the political will in Oaxaca and beyond in other Mexican states.

Sources:
http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=668
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/06/15/003n1pol.php

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Forfeited Rights?

While living in England this summer, I quickly noticed that the failure of the justice system to adequately deal with rape was a highly contentious issue. While the number of rapes reported annually is rising, the number of successful prosecutions is falling. It is estimated that 50 000 British women are raped each year but less than six percent of these cases result in a conviction.

One reason why the justice system falters in rape cases is for want of clear definition – is rape essentially concerned with the lack of consent or the use of force in a sexual act? Though it is clear that the use of force is criminal, a large number of rape victims do not sustain physical injuries (beyond the rape itself), which leaves the floor open for debate on the nature of consent and how to ascertain that it was given.

In England last year a case was closed wherein a young woman claimed to have been raped by a student security guard who had assisted her to outside her room in the university residences. She had been very drunk and remembered little about the night.
The judge came to the decision that “Drunken consent is still consent.”

When regrettable choices are made during drunken inhibition, those involved just have to come to terms with it in the cold light of day. But when persuasion is forceful, protests are ignored, and trust is breached, a rape has occurred. The judge’s decision was called “a green light for rapists” and essentially confirmed the popular sentiment that if a woman will get herself that drunk, whatever happens to her, she only has herself to blame.

Coming across an article, such as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, which states the right of everyone to “security of person”, I have to wonder what this phrase means. Does a woman who is drinking with a stranger, or working in the sex industry, or wearing revealing clothing forfeit this right?

While a fair trial is a right enshrined in the English Bill of Rights and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for the benefit of the accused, at times it is the accuser that faces undue stereotyping and presumption of guilt. Women who press rape charges face intense emotional strain by having the legitimacy of their experience questioned, their private lives openly displayed, and their actions and character scrutinized for flaws. A significant number of people, including those who will judge her case, tacitly accept rape as natural within circumstances that she helped to create, such as by drinking or her style of dress.

The justice system will continue to blunder its handling of this human rights violation until both those who work within it and the general public are corrected on the many stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding this issue.

Sources:
http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1889086,00.html
http://www.legalappeal.co.uk/pages/introduction/what_is_a_false_allegation.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4453820.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_47_mon_01.shtml

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Zulia, Venezuela

The state of Zulia, extremely rich in oil and coal, has generated a great deal of wealth for Venezuela during the last half century of intensive resource extraction. However, this has taken a heavy toll on the region’s ecosystems and infringed on the human rights of local communities, raising questions in some quarters about Chavez's commitment to indigenous peoples and the environment.

The Sierra de Perija, which forms the border between Colombia and Venezuela, is at the heart of debate over the usage of Zulia's resources. This mountain range, which half-encircles Lake Maracaibo, contains an estimated 400 million metric tonnes of coal, making it the principal reserve in Venezuela. However, ecologists and water authorities warn that increased coal mining could damage the area's biologically diverse ecosystem which houses the state's most vital water supply.

The state capital of Maracaibo, which is home to approximately two million people, depends on just two water reservoirs which are fed by rivers flowing from the Sierra de Perija. Though located on the coast of Lake Maracaibo, one of the largest fresh-water lakes in the world, the city no longer has potable water from this source, having been contaminated by decades of heedless oil shipping practices.

Despite the dependency of both city dwellers and indigenous communities on the water that springs from the Sierra de Perija, Corpozulia, the national government’s regional development corporation, has plans to expand coal mining operations three fold along the rivers that lead to the reservoirs. The water problem in Maracaibo, which already experiences shortages, is about to get worse.

Zulia has a history of resource extraction projects that have been given the go-ahead without regard of their impact on local communities. These communities face the continuous encroachment of various industries on their lands, forcing them to relocate, and suffer health problems due to poor working conditions and pollution. In the early nineties, for example, two huge open-pit coal mines were opened by Corpozulia working in conjunction with foreign private mining firms. Thousands of people were displaced who were living in the area, primarily because the mines released dust laden with heavy metals that can eventually cause pneumoconiosis, a respiratory lung disease.

Due to the degree of decentralization in Venezuela, it is difficult to say to what extent resource extraction projects in Zulia are the realization of Chavez’s own objectives or those of regional authorities working to the benefit of foreign oil and coal interests.

Sources:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1531
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press665.htm

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