So, it appears there's something being called a "truce" in Ukraine. It's doubtful this will be anything like an end to the troubles there, anymore than was Mykola Azarov's resignation earlier this month.
This is a struggle for popular self-determination that will, if history is guide, take many more months to succeed. If it does.
The tired chant we hear in every march---"The people united can never be defeated"--is more than an easily-metered cadence, but reflects an oft-demonstrated reality of political life. But demonstrating its veracity is seldom an easy or brief affair.
But it can be proved, and was, definitively, in a revolution now forgotten by many, but one which showed the way for millions.
Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino was a remarkable young man. Son of the Speaker of Philippine House and grandson of the revolutionary general, Ninoy seemed destined for political success. At age 22, he was elected mayor of the city of Concepcion, at 27, the vice-governor of Tarlac province and two years later, it's governor. At 34, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Philippine Senate.
As Senator, he led the opposition against then-president Ferdinand Marcos, whose rule was becoming increasingly autocratic. Most believed Aquino would be the next president, as the country tended to swing back and forth between parties.
But on September 21, 1972, Marcos declared martial law, suspending elections and ordering Aquino arrested. Ninoy spent over seven years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. Eventually, he went on hunger strike and suffered a heart attack, after which he was allowed to go to the US for a bypass operation.
During his exile in the US, Aquino helped organize opposition to the Marcos regime both here and in the Philippines. Finally, determined to see the return of democracy, he decided, against the advice of supporters, to return to his homeland. He was shot dead by the military before he even made it down the ladder to the tarmac.
His funeral lit the spark for popular revolution. Family and supporters had expected perhaps thousands to view his body. Instead, millions lined up to look into his glass-topped coffin, to see the bullet wounds the family insisted on leaving unconcealed by makeup.
Following Aquino's assassination, opposition to Marcos grew, despite the efforts of his security forces to repress it. Aquino's widow, Corazon, became the movement's figurehead, as citizens of varied, often disparate, political beliefs staged ongoing protests against the Marcos regime, marching, noisemaking, postering, pampleting, often just standing and refusing to be moved.
With crucial support from the United States becoming shaky, in November 1985, Marcos, in an effort to prove his democratic bona fides, announced that his government would hold elections three months hence. Despite a deep reluctance, Corazon Aquino was persuaded by supporters (more than a million signed a petition in support), announced she would run for the presidency.
The campaign was brutal--literally. On election day in February 1986, one of Aquino's staunchest allies was murdered by Marcos loyalists. Election monitors walked off en masse to protest massive electoral fraud. It was an election so nakedly stolen it was denounced by the country's archbishops and even Ronald Reagan's State Department.
And Marcos, of course, was declared the winner.
But the people would not give up. The kept protesting, filling the streets. And soon, Marcos' own allies began to join them. His defense minister and leading general announced their support for Aquino and, at the urging of Cardinal Jamie Sin, millions marched to the base where they were headquartered to support their stand. Aquino herself returned to Manila, confident in the belief that Marcos would have to resign.
And, to the shock of the world, he did. Twenty-seven years ago this month, Marcos and his wife Imelda fled the country and Corazon Aquino was duly sworn in as the president of the Philippines, the culmination of a popular movement of years' duration.
The "People Power" revolution of the Philippines was something new in the world. It was not a fight against a foreign colonial power. Nor was it, as Marcos accused, part of the international struggle between the Communist bloc and the West. It was an intranational movement, a popular, nationalist, non-violent revolution which proved the verity of that cliched marching chant.
It proved the model for many nationalist popular revolutions since, from Solidarity to the Arab Spring. And, whether many in the streets of Kiev are aware of it, in Ukraine today.
There's no guarantee. The people, united, can indeed be defeated. Some national popular revolutions do fail. From Tienamen to Tehran. Others, like that we're seeing in Kiev (and the one we saw in Zucotti Park), have to be tossed in the "too soon to tell" column.
But the People Power revolution left one lesson that is key to any successful nationalist revolution: don't give up. Stand there. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year. Don't go home, back to your sliver of security, your few, granted privileges.
Don't just do something. Stand there. And keep standing.
I'm very afraid for the protesters in Ukraine today. The government, backed by a very powerful and ruthless ally, are not going to give up just because Joe Biden's upset.
But they stand, and keep standing, and there is a chance that the will of the people, well, won't be defeated.
с божьей помощью.