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Dictator Watch is part of a family of websites, the objective of which is to promote positive social change. By way of introduction, the prerequisites for accomplishing such change include that the steps taken to bring it about must be (1) consistent with human nature, not based on an unrealistically positive appraisal; (2) voluntary; (3) grounded in education; and (4) ethical. The importance of education derives in part from the fact that enduring and widespread change, global change, will require a mass opting-out of the present social system. Only education, about a better alternative, will motivate a critical mass of the population to break free of our current oppressive structure.

Lessons in Democracy is an in-depth description of our goal, a truly democratic society, including with an analysis of the many pitfalls that exist to establishing and maintaining such a society.

Lessons in Democracy also includes a short book about the worldwide economic recession - What Really Happened: The Financial Crisis Guide.

Activism 101 gives an education about the tools of dissent, which is the essential expression of popular power by which we both throw off authoritarian rule and preserve the vitality of our democracy once we are free.

Dictator Watch advances the theory of global social change, which is grounded in the field of mathematics known as chaos theory. But, while this might sound daunting, the basic ideas and their application to human societies can be understood by anyone. Dictator Watch also works as a front line activist group, on those cases where the need for change is most pressing.

Boycott China!
Refuse to buy anything "Made in China"!

The opportunity to pressure China using the Olympics has passed. On the plus side, the world clearly witnessed, in many different ways, the totalitarian nature of the Beijing regime. We applaud the activists from Students for a Free Tibet, who conducted many daring protests. The negatives, though, were manifold, including that George Bush and other so-called "Leaders of the Free World" attended, ignoring the ongoing repression in Tibet, and China, and also the regime's crimes in Sudan, Burma, North Korea, Zimbabwe and elsewhere; and that none of the businesspeople who participated (the athletes), not a single one, made a podium protest or other significant action. Most importantly, the dictators of China have been emboldened. The spectacle accomplished its primary objectives: to distract ordinary Chinese from their terrible circumstances; to serve as a rallying point for Chinese ultra-nationalists; and through this and other effects to enhance the internal legitimacy and strength of what the dictators view as a new Chinese Empire.

Activists, both inside and outside China, therefore must keep pushing for human rights and democracy, and for this reason we will continue our call for a boycott of products Made in China, and tourism to the country, and also our links list of the organizations that are the key participants in the struggle.

Map showing Burma Army atrocities

Map of recent Burma Army attacks in Northern Karen State;
and the Irrawaddy Delta area where the SPDC refused aid for cyclone survivors

The mission of Dictator Watch is to keep track of the dictators of the world, and to see that they pay for their crimes. We seek the end of dictatorship, in all its manifestations, including in all our social institutions.

The boy in the above photo, who is a member of the Karen ethnic group from Eastern Burma, has had to flee for his life four times, including from a refugee camp that was attacked and burned. He found refuge with his people’s rebel army, and was on his way to becoming a child soldier, when he was discovered by representatives of a foreign non-governmental organization who were able to get him placed in a school. The dictator in his life is the Burmese military junta. For the tiger, of which only some five thousand survive in the wild, most of its habitat has been occupied by humans, which also actively hunt it. The dictators in its life are the individuals who have taken its land and who seek to kill it, and this actually extends to all of us, through our aggression towards, and disregard for the value and rights of, all other forms of life.

Dictator Watch stands against this. We will serve as a means of activism against the dictators in the modern world. Of course, the fight to eliminate dictatorship will be extremely difficult. The forces which support it have great resources at their disposal, and they are highly protective of their power over us. However, we are nothing if not ambitious. We have many approaches to try and ideas to implement. But we need your assistance in this fight - your personal activism - if we are to have any chance of success.