It's very easy to lose one's historical perspective; to assume that the present state of the world is constantly at the End of History, to which no past experiences are relevant and from which any progression must be impossible due to "human nature" or the like.

It is perhaps this act of supreme arrogance that dooms us to repeat history so frequently down the generations, failing to learn from our mistakes.

But the patterns remain whether we like it not. Our actions define the future; it is impossible to escape the consequences of our behaviour in the present. This manifests itself in all aspects of human social life, from periodic uprisings against the oppressors in classism, to rebellion against illogical prejudisms when it comes to race and gender, and the coming of storms sewen by years of environmental negligence.

During the reigns of each of these tyrannies, for a time, it may appear that civilisation has reached it's final form and like it or lump it we're stuck with it's inevitable consequences.

However, as invisible as they might seem for a time, eventually enough people are drawn to reconciling our behaviour with the innate morality that binds our social relationships.

Periodically throughout history the exploitation of one demograph by another, be them discriminated by class, ethnicity, religion or political stance, is eventually met by the awesome power of revolution.

Decades may pass with little change in the philosophies of a population, but within years, a Reneissance, Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, Civil Rights movement, worker rights movement, can utterly batter down the levvies of moral bankruptcy that enforce the usurption of wealth of one group by another.

The movements are more often than not essentially based upon very simple principles, and highlight just how incredibly powerful an idea can be in the development of our species culture. More powerful than towering redouts, charging cavalry, the smell of gunfire or the sound of black helicopters overhead.

The reason is simple; ideas have the ability to transcend the demographs. If it can be convinced that an act or policy is contrary to the basic morality that across the globe allhumanity seems to share, systems of oppression can have the guts pulled out of them from the inside and out. Behind every gunner there is a human being, and if that mind can be made to empathise with the struggle of others than that gun can be made to stop firing, but it does not work in reverse, minds cannot be changed with weaponry, only silenced.

However one has to admit that at present, we do indeed appear to be in the lull of these historical cycles; in general, the middle class are as yet unwilling to leave the radius of "moderate" philosophy, a sure sign that the current state of the world is immature for revolution.

However, empathy in the middle class for the poor and oppressed is nevertheless stronger than at any point in history. This suggests that when the middle class finally do reject their wealth support systems in favour of political justice, the ensuing changes may be much larger than we have seen in the past.

So where might these movements come from? Where are the seeds of the new world today? Well, here's a few of the most promising projects around the world that may become tomorrow's post-modern revolutions and renaissances.

Brazil: The Landless Workers


Image by: Latuff2 [Pictured: Police massacre of the LW at Eldorado dos Carajas]

Described by Noam Chomsky as the most important popular movement in the world today, the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil fights privatisation for the economic justice of the people. It is the beating heart of their dedicated and passionate revolutionaries that the beating heart of Marxism and Anarcho-syndaclism lives.

Members of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) have occupied 12 farms to try to pressure the government to speed up land reform.
More than 5,000 families from the MST have moved on to the farms in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, one of Brazil's poorest.
The MST said the government had failed to live up to its election promises to have settled 400,000 families by 2007.

Brazil has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world. Nearly half of all farmland is owned by just 1% of the population. The Landless Workers gain in strength by the day and have dedicated themselves to leveling this gap and bringing equality to the nation of Brazil.

The Landless Workers can be found online here.

Bolivia: Morales


Image by: Snackt

The peasant that came to represent the nation of Bolivia is not content with mere anti-American rhetoric, but becoming the holy grail of Latin American political resistance; a force that will not conceed to the capitalist conventions of global economics and who will fight for the justice and equality of his people.

Morales is the leader of Bolivia's cocalero movement – a loose federation of coca leaf-growing campesinos who are resisting the efforts of the United States government to eradicate coca in the province of Chapare in southeastern Bolivia. Morales is also leader of the Movement for Socialism political party (Movimiento al Socialismo, with the Spanish acronym MAS, meaning "more"), which was involved in the recent Gas Wars, along with many other groups, commonly referred to as 'social movements'. Morales was finally elected president during the 2005 election, after several crises due to the gas industry issues.

It seems increasingly unlikely that Morales will revert to the populaist centralism that the European socialist parties suffered in the late 20th Century, saying that "The worst enemy of humanity is capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."

It is taking time for Morales' government to find it's feet with the ever complex and poverty stricken Bolivia, and it cannot be denied that certain radical tax policies haven't gone entirely according to plan, but the sincerity is there, and more important, the dedication of Morales to delivering what, and only what, the actual working population of the country needs and desires.

The Bolivian Government website can be found online here.

Nepal: The Communist Party of Nepal & The Pro-Democracy Movement


Image by: Prodigy84

The Nepalese movement for democracy's days looked numbered as protests against the absolute rule of King Gyanendra were brutally surpressed by riot police. Yet the strength of popular organisation shon through, and in the face of a violent monarchy the ranks of democracy supporters grew and grew until equality won it's first victory, forcing the King to reinstate parlaiment.

The Nepalese democratic movement is now stronger than ever, driven spirit of the nation's people. Led by the Communist Party of Nepal, the movement may see an end to arcaic feudalism in the shadow of the Himalaya, and has already won a ceasefire from the militant Maoist guerrillas.

A history of Communism in Nepal can be found online here.

Nicaragua: The Sandinistas


Image by: Mejia

After the revolution in 1979, the Sandinistas, armed revolutionaries who liberated Nicaragua from the brutal dictator Samoza, were brutally torn apart by US Army mining, US trade embargos and US-sponsored counter-revolutionary forces. Since, Nicaragua has become another Haiti, having seen the second largest presence of US forces in the hemisphere, and concordantly being the second poorest.

But the Sandinistas are back; moral amongst the population of Nicaragua is rising as success of resistance abroad raises their hopes for final freedom from American imperialism. The leftist are now campaigning for election into parlaiment, and promise ties with Venezuela and Bolivia whilst forging equal rights in a country that has been plagued by conflict and poverty for so long.

After years recuperating their losses, the FSLN was re-elected in 2006. Under President Ortega the government has begun a "Zero Hunger Policy" which aims to reduce poverty in the rural areas. Despite the relatively conservative state of Nicaragua as a catholic society, great progress is again being made.

The official webpage of the FSLN can be found online here.

International: The Environmental Movement


Image by: boywhodraws

The detrioration of the biosphere at the hands of pollution and waste is perhaps the most offensive attack on human life in all of history. The continuation of the use of fossil fuels as a mass energy source is nothing less than a form of tax on future generations, which may go so far as to rob a habitable environment from our species altogether in the future.

Everyone on earth has a responsibility to aid the transition to sustainable energy sources, but perhaps the most reluctant, and undeniably the most important players, are the corporations.

So long as fossil fuels remain a financially viable means of energy production and the global economy attains primarily to quarter-capitalist interests, oil, gas and coal will be burnt year after year, speeding our planet toward an apocalyptic burnout a century or less from now.

Not only that, but wars will continue to be fought by nations to whom corporate expansion and success hold the strongest grips on government.

That is why both the environmental and pro-democracy movements around the world have a united cause in establishing a future habitat for our species, and who day by day work to increase awareness and tackle environmental abuse on all fronts.

India: A Specter is Haunting the Sub-continent


Image by: hadjiisthefatindian

The Marxist Communist Party of India has seen unprecedented victiories against the ruling party in recent months, as both rural and urban constituencies turn against the influx of capitalism exploitation. For a country that so took the philosophies of Gandhi to heart, is it surprising that the population should resist economic exploitation and inequality?

Well, when you consider the untold of wealth that capitalism could bring to India (at the expense of it's poor and the poor abroad), what is shows is a nation home to some of the most compassionate communities in the world today.

"Previously what happened was that the communists had a very strong rural base so they used to keep winning in the villages," explains 25-year-old IT consultant Ruhin Chatterjee, one among millions of young middle-class voters who support the communists. "But in the cities they never won. This latest election has seen a change in that."

If Indian Communism can avoid being dragged into Maoist and Stalinist examples of state-capitalism, we may well see the beginnings of post-modern democratic economics in India before long.

Mexico: The Zapatistas


Image by: SarahBob

Following recent uprises in Mexican villages against state police enforcing neo-liberalism on local economics, the EZLN has sprung into action. Now, just weeks before the Mexican elections, the country is seeing a revitalisation of resistance to capitalist imperialism from the US and it's own government.

The Zapatistas have begun fighting for the release of political prisoners taken at the uprisings, and are championing the struggle against neo-liberalism for those that have lost faith in the three candidates standing for election.
Marcos voiced his support for peasant farmers who clashed with police last week in a riot that killed a teenager.

He said the current climate was like that in 1994, when the Zapatistas led a brief armed indigenous uprising in the southern state of Chiapas. Today the Zapatistas are more active than ever and had yet to suffer a major defeat at the hands of the Mexican army since their victory in 1994; many believe that the future may hold similar success, particularly given the failure of center-left candidate Lopez Obrador to prevent right wing victory in the national election that is sure to threaten brutal neo-liberal policies on the countries poor.

The official webpage of the EZLN can be found online here.

Burma/Myanmar: The Saffron Army


Image by: Winthan

The most current of this run down are the recent anti-Junta protests in Burma/Myanmar.

Burma/Myanmar is a nation down in south east asia, bordering on Thailand, Laos and China on the east, Bangladesh and India on the west. A former British colony, it obtained independence in 1948. It spent a brief amount of time as a typical southeast asian "democratic republic", but in the early 60's the government was overthrown in a coup by the now ruling military Junta dictatorship, who maintain strict censorship, brutally punish political dissent and employ reckless economic policies to leech wealth off of the countries poor for their ruling elite.

When the Junta upped the price of gas in August, it was the last straw for many. Since, the huge Bhuddist community has mobilised and monks have taken to the street in huge numbers, peacefully demanding radical changes to the nation's internal policies.

Up to ten thousand monks, dubbed The Saffron Army for the colour of their robes in the previous week marched through the streets of Rangoon, standing stoic against torrential rain, tear gas and the rifle buts of the riot police, as like-minded civilians joined them. Then, just three days ago, the Junta initiated a massive crackdown on the protesters, firing lives rounds into crowds and storming monasteries at night, whilst barring foreign press and shutting down internal net connections.

Official death toll stands at around 10 but world leaders and the Burmese public believe that the actual number of those killed is much, much higher.

The democracy movement in Burma is perhaps one of the most inspiring examples of resistance in the world today, as it employs complete non-violence on the part of the protesters. They sacrifice their bodies for the freedom and safety of the Burmese people, and also for the moral liberation of the tyrannical military Junta.

Their message is clear; inequality is a disease on human life, so long as it exists, nobody anywhere is truly free, not even those who commit it.