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In his second inaugural address, President GHW Bush pledged to "bring democracy to the world".
In a speech lasting 23 minutes, he mentioned the words 'democracy' and 'liberty' 21 times. Most of
the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear... Bush's speech was significant because
it finally emptied noble concepts like 'democracy' of their true meaning - government, of, by and for
the people. Never before have people in the west shown such disenchantment with the
democracy they vote for and the version they get. Never before has most of humanity registered
such alarm at the ambitions of a great power.
The War on Democracy demonstrates the brutal reality of the America's notion of 'spreading
democracy'; that, in fact, America is actually conducting a war on democracy, and that true popular
democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots
movements are often ignored in the west. Reporter John Pilger conducts an exclusive interview
with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Pilger also goes to the United States and in some remarkable interviews, speaks exclusively to
US government officials who ran the CIA's war in Latin America in the 1980s. This reveals more
about US policy than all the statements and postures of recent times; it also reveals how what's
happened in Latin America is a metaphor for how the rest of the world is being "ordered." The War
on Democracy, however, is a hopeful film, for it sees the world not through the eyes of the
powerful, but through the hopes and dreams and extraordinary actions of ordinary people.
Although set mostly in Latin America, it is a metaphor for all the world. The thrust of John Pilger's
latest film is a constant theme in all his work: that great, rapacious power is far from invincible and
that people power is enduring. Photaographed in high definition video, few films have been as
timely as The War on Democracy
In a speech lasting 23 minutes, he mentioned the words 'democracy' and 'liberty' 21 times. Most of
the world, it is fair to say, will have recoiled, many in fear... Bush's speech was significant because
it finally emptied noble concepts like 'democracy' of their true meaning - government, of, by and for
the people. Never before have people in the west shown such disenchantment with the
democracy they vote for and the version they get. Never before has most of humanity registered
such alarm at the ambitions of a great power.
The War on Democracy demonstrates the brutal reality of the America's notion of 'spreading
democracy'; that, in fact, America is actually conducting a war on democracy, and that true popular
democracy is now more likely to be found among the poorest of Latin America whose grassroots
movements are often ignored in the west. Reporter John Pilger conducts an exclusive interview
with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Pilger also goes to the United States and in some remarkable interviews, speaks exclusively to
US government officials who ran the CIA's war in Latin America in the 1980s. This reveals more
about US policy than all the statements and postures of recent times; it also reveals how what's
happened in Latin America is a metaphor for how the rest of the world is being "ordered." The War
on Democracy, however, is a hopeful film, for it sees the world not through the eyes of the
powerful, but through the hopes and dreams and extraordinary actions of ordinary people.
Although set mostly in Latin America, it is a metaphor for all the world. The thrust of John Pilger's
latest film is a constant theme in all his work: that great, rapacious power is far from invincible and
that people power is enduring. Photaographed in high definition video, few films have been as
timely as The War on Democracy
