Quote for 2008-05-12

progressive

(Mon, 12 May 2008 21:00:01 -0500 (CDT)) --- Chomsky, on the "free" Nicaraguan elections of 1990:
[...] The most interesting point, however, is the third. Suppose that
the USSR were to follow the U.S. model as the Baltic states declare
independence, organizing a proxy army to attack them from foreign
bases, training its terrorist forces to hit "soft targets" (health
centers, schools, etc.) so that the governments cannot provide social
services, reducing the economies to ruin through embargo and other
sanctions, and so on, in the familiar routine. Suppose further that
when elections come, the Kremlin informs the population, loud and
clear, that they can vote for the CP or starve. Perhaps some
unreconstructed Stalinist might call this a "free and fair election."
Surely no one else would.

[...]

T h e D e c l i n e o f t h e
D e m o c r a t i c I d e a l

By Noam Chomsky, Z magazine, 3/90

[For more about Z, email harelb@math.cornell.edu]

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