Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

"Democracies" Deny the Popular Will While Suppressing Protest and Dissent
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
14 Feb 2024
Netherlands PM Mark Rutte and Benjamin Netanyahu
Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte meets Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo - Mark Rutte, @MinPres/ X Platform)

The nations that brag the most about "democracy" routinely ignore the will of their people. Support for Israel's war crimes in Gaza is but one example of this phenomenon.

What is democracy? Dictionaries provide a variety of meanings but in general, they define it as “rule by the people,” which includes the election of representatives in a legislature or a parliament. This simple definition is easily understood but when one takes a closer look at the nations which call themselves democracies, it is clear that the word is now little more than a “get out of jail” free card to cover for what is, in fact, oligarchic rule. No one has to look very far to see the discrepancies between democracy as advertised and how states really function. 

Most people here in the United States, 61% according to one poll, want a ceasefire in Gaza. That number is significant but it shows no correlation whatsoever with how the state acts. Only 69 members of the House of Representatives and 5 members of the Senate have publicly called for a ceasefire. Even worse than the sparse number willing to speak up for what the people want, those who say they want a ceasefire are duplicitous in making their own case. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has visited the Rafah border crossing and was incensed that Israel is preventing aid from getting through to Gaza. In a speech on the senate floor he called Israeli officials war criminals but when push came to shove, he was pushed and he voted to send $14 billion in aid to Israel. It seems that elected representatives see no need to actually represent their constituents.

The same is true in the rest of the “democratic” nations known as the Collective West. A leaked letter from a cabinet level ministry in the Netherlands read in part, “What can we say so that it appears that Israel is not committing war crimes?” The outgoing prime minister is angling for the NATO General Secretary's job and wants to stay on the good side of the U.S., hence the need to give the appearance that Israel isn’t committing crimes that the whole world can see. Meanwhile, Dutch civil servants protested against their own government’s support for Israel and yes, they were ignored. That nation has been ordered by its Supreme Court to stop selling F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel but the elected government has chosen to appeal their court’s decision.

Not to be outdone, France is forcing any organizations receiving governmental aid to repeat debunked allegations that Hamas committed atrocities on October 7. Aurore Bergé, the French Minister for the Fight against Discriminations, said, “what happened on October 7th is that thousands of women were exterminated, murdered, burned, or raped." She added, “On behalf of the government, I have requested a meticulous review of all statements from all feminist organizations related to October 7th and its aftermath, because I refuse to allow the state to financially support associations that cannot clearly define what happened [...] I have asked for all financially supported organizations to be thoroughly scrutinized - hundreds and hundreds of associations - because being feminist means speaking out, it means supporting the women who were mutilated on October 7th. If there is any ambiguity about statements that have been made, it would not be right for these associations to continue receiving government subsidies, it's as simple as that.” In other words, French organizations are being forced to lie if they want to continue functioning.

The U.S. and European nations are not alone. Canada, neighbor to the north with an undeserved reputation for being more humane, actively pursues a campaign of suppressing protest and dissent. El Jones and other members of a delegation were scheduled to speak to members of the Canadian Supreme Court about anti-Black racism in that country. Just one hour before they were scheduled to meet, they were informed that unnamed social media posts made court clerks feel “unsafe” and that some delegation members such as Ms. Jones would no longer be allowed to speak. She was never told what the offending post was, but she has concluded that pointing out Israel’s genocidal policies was the cause of the rescinded invitation.

This same Canadian government paid homage to a Ukrainian Nazi in the parliament elected by its citizens. Fallout from the scandal made clear that Nazi worship is not what the people there want to see at all.

Protest itself is criminalized in the world’s so-called democracies. The United Kingdom has forbidden the wearing of masks at protests: “No protester should be able to evade justice by wearing a face covering. That’s why we’re banning them. Offenders could receive up to a £1,000 fine and a month in prison.”

The liberal democracies are not so liberal after all. Their elected representatives are bought off and cowardly. They may, like the Netherlands prime minister, want a plumb position, or members of congress want to avoid being targeted by well funded lobbyists in Washington. The U.S. treats every nation as an enemy, and even friends may be threatened and punished if they don’t toe Uncle Sam’s line.

This missive is an examination of responses to the U.S./Israeli/NATO war crimes being committed against the popular will. But the same questions can be asked about the lack of a public health care system or a shredded welfare state or increases in homelessness. None of these issues are addressed by electoral politics. The F word, fascism, comes to mind. Neo-liberal corporate power, including corporate media power, is combined with militarism to disappear the disaffected and to intimidate others into being silent. 

In the U.S. we are told that this presidential election is a fight for democracy against the evil and undemocratic Donald Trump. But Trump did nothing as president that his predecessors didn’t, and in any case he can’t get rid of a democracy that doesn’t even exist. The word should be stricken from discussion about the U.S. and its puppets who are decidedly undemocratic and authoritarian when they want to act against what their people want. 

Democracies are few and far between. The countries that use the word so readily do so because they know they are nothing of the sort. The rest of us must know it too and stop using this word to describe an increasingly dystopian world.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at [email protected].

Democracy
Netanyahu
Israel
Liberal imperialists
Palestine
Genocide

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles. Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Towards Lasting Peace, Shirley Graham DuBois, 1970
21 May 2025
Shirley Graham Du Bois on the liberation of Palestine.<
The Cradle News Desk
Israel Kills Five Journalists, Over 100 Civilians in One Night as ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ Begins in Gaza
21 May 2025
The Israeli army has intensified attacks on hospitals as part of the new operation, which aims to displace the entire population of Gaza.<
Hanna Eid
Whole Process People's Democracy: The Path Forward
14 May 2025
Growing socialist and people's democratic projects, as in China and Bolivia, must be seen as examples of how revolutionary forces in the United
The Cradle News Desk
US Abandons 'Hamas Disarmament' Demands in Gaza Truce Talks: Report
14 May 2025
A reported rift between Trump and Netanyahu continues to widen ahead of the US president's first visit to West Asia since regaining power. 
North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights , Black Alliance For Peace
The Black Alliance for Peace Calls for International Popular Mobilizations to Stop Israel’s Genocidal Campaign to Starve Palestinians to Death!
30 April 2025
The Israeli state’s starvation campaign in Gaza—backed by the U.S. and Europe—is a livestreamed genocide.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
U.S. and Israel Gangsterism Has Created a Hobbesian International State of Nature
23 April 2025
Gaza has exposed the West’s ‘human rights’ as a colonial farce.
Nora Barrows-Friedman
Rafah “obliterated” by Israel’s attacks
16 April 2025
Israel is intensifying its genocidal assault on Gaza—starving civilians, bombing hospitals, and burning journalists alive.
Palestine Chronicle Staff
Sole Survivor of ‘Paramedics Massacre’ in Rafah Exposes Israeli War Crime
09 April 2025
Monther Abed, the sole survivor of the Israeli attack on paramedics in Rafah, reveals the details of the crime in which 15 humanitarian workers
Jehad Abusalim
"It Is Neither Death, Nor Suicide"
09 April 2025
For 76 years, Gaza has been has been the defiant heart of Palestinian resistance.
Palestine Chronicle Staff
ICRC, PRCS Condemn Israel’s Killing of Eight Medics, Five Rescuers in Gaza
02 April 2025
The medics who were killed were identified as Mustafa Khafaja, Ezzedine Sha’at, Saleh Moammar, Rifaat Radwan, Mohammad Behloul, Ashraf Abu Labd

More Stories


  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio May 23, 2025
    23 May 2025
    In this week’s segment, we discuss the legacy of Malcolm X and the state of the political party that many Black people feel trapped in. We are joined by a guest in Libya who explains the lasting…
  • Richard Medhurst
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Independent Jourmalist Richard Medhurst Targeted by Western Governments Acting on Israel's Behalf
    23 May 2025
    Our guest is Richard Medhurst. He is an independent journalist whose work has been severely impacted by state repression in the UK and Austria. He was arrested and detained in the UK in August 2024…
  • Malcolm X
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Malcolm X Legacy and Politics Today
    23 May 2025
    Anthony Rogers-Wright is a Black Agenda Report contributor and host of the WPFW program Full Spectrum, where Margaret Kimberley was recently a guest. They discussed the legacy of Malcolm X on the…
  • Libya
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    How the Libyan People Are Still Impacted By the U.S./NATO Destruction of Their State
    23 May 2025
    Our guest is Dr. Abdelkarim Kashkar. He is a physician and author who writes about politics in Libyan newspapers. He joins us from Benghazi, Libya, to discuss how the United States impacts the people…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Biden's Fate and Israel's Sadistic Revenge
    21 May 2025
    Israel is starving Gazans to death and continuing its bombing attacks on civilians. Israel also specializes in personal revenge, targeting men, women, and children who might be the subject of…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us