General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If Chavez is dead, we need to be in solidarity with the people of Venezuela. [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Overthrowing a regime isn't a revolution...it's simply an overthrow...you can only legitimately use the term "revolution" if it leads to clear and nearly immediate gains for the people. There were NONE in Czechoslovakia(or the two countries that were created from it in the Western-orchestrated "Velvet Divorce".
It's not a revolution if the result is capitalism and austerity-those are always counter-revolutionary results, and can never liberate anyone. Basically, the only people who gained from the Velvet Revolution were Western hipsters who wanted someplace else to hang out in.
And free speech and "elections" in name, while nice, aren't revolutionary at all...they simply mean that a different system is in place. The term "revolution" can only be applied if that new regime actually makes life better for the people, and, in the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it didn't...it simply meant that the old police state was gone-which is nice, but really not that important when you're out of work and sleeping in the street.