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D
- Dalton, Roque - Salvadoran revolutionary, and poet.
- D-Day - June 6, 1944 the day of the invasion of Western Europe by Allied Forces in WWII to take France back from Nazi control.
- Death Squads - Bans of killers hired to murder political opponents, used especially in Latin America by right wing dictatorships.
- Decade of the Hispanic - The name given to the 1980s by the U.S. federal government in an effort to promote the census and deploy the use of the identity "hispanic".
- Declaration of Independence - The public act by which the second Continental Congress, on July 4, 1776, declared the colonies to be independent of England.
- Democracy - A type of government where everyone participates; comes from a Greek word that means “government by the people”.
- Democratic Centralism - A form of organization that focuses on internal discipline, and a balance of democratic discussion as well as centralized leadership.
- Democratic Party - This is one of the two main political parties in the United States, and it follows a "liberal" political platform. In the past this party has mostly tried to represent the interests of people with less money. More recently this party has become conservative, and shares many ideals with the Republican Party.
- Democratic Rights - These are rights of citizens in relation to the nation-state to which they are a part of, such as voting, legal protection, and political representation. These are generally not universal rights, and can be denied to other people. These rights are usually described in some form of constitution that limits the power of the state, and what it can or can't do in relation to individual citizens.
- Demoralization - In political struggle, becoming demoralized is a mental state that has a person change from at one time being politically active to become discouraged and frustrated with the struggle for whatever reason. Usually this happens to people who expect quick solutions to the problems in our communities. When these solutions do not materialize, or the struggle passes through a difficult time, they become disappointed and give up struggle. At other times people become demoralized when the depend on "caudillas/os" and these individuals fail to live up to their expectations. Demoralization can be best avoided through political experience, maturity, and constant ideological growth.
- Dependency - To be a dependent person means to survive and grow based on support and effort from something or someone outside the person. Without this outside support, the person would not survive, much less grow. This example works for social groups, as well as nations.
- Dependency Theory - Developed in Latin America, this was an important political theory in throughout the 1970s.
- Deportation - Forced expulsion from a country.
- Dessalines, Jean-Jacques - An important revolutionary from Haiti.
- Détente - The lessening of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.
- Dialectical Materialism - This is a theoretical tool to help us look at the world without metaphysical or subjective limitations. The concept refers to "dialectics", which is the study, understanding, and response to the many elements and conditions in the universe that constantly effect and impact each other. Sometimes these contradictory elements combine to form new a element. This new element at times has characteristics of the old elements, but in itself is different and new. With dialectics we can better understand social, economic, and political questions as part of a dynamic, flexible, ever changing universe. Looking at our struggle for liberation in this way, we can better understand how all things constantly contradict, and evolve into new forms. Dialectical materialism combines dialectics and materialism, and this is an overall science that combines, defines, and provides an order to other sciences - biology, chemistry, social sciences, etc. See also Historical Materialism.
- Dialogue - An exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue with a goal of reaching an amicable agreement. This often refers to times when people speak their minds about an issue, and others will respect them for it, and share their ideas as well.
- Díaz, Angel - One of the three Chicanos killed during the police attack against the August 29, 1970 Chicano Moratorium March in East LA.
- Díaz, Porfirio - The Mexican dictator that remained in power for 34 years and whose policies and violence against the poor in Mexico created the conditions for the Revolution of 1910.
- Dictatorship - When political power in a country is concentrated in the hands of one person or a small group of people, and impose violence and the threat of violence as the principle method of staying in power. A government under the rule of someone having absolute authority.
- Dignity - To have, or want respect, and to be treated like a free human being. Today, the UdB is fighting for the dignity of la raza.
- Disarmament - Limitation, reduction, or elimination of armed forces or weapons.
- Disequilibrium - Out of balance.
- Divide and Conquer - Tactic used to take power from a large group or nation. First you divide the group/nation by playing up the internal problems, contradictions, or divisions that already exist within, enough so that the group or nation becomes incapable of uniting to defend itself, and then going after the divided smaller groups one-by-one until conquering the entire larger group/nation.
- Divided Germany - After WWll Germany was divided in to two different parts, West Germany (the capitalist side dominated by the United States) and East Germany (the communist side dominated by the Soviet Union).
- Divine Right of Kings - The doctrine that holds that monarchs derive their power directly from god and are accountable only to god. King James came up with this idea, and he used to say that even god called him a "god".
- Division of Labor - A very important form of organization that makes whatever we do together many times more productive than if we were to do it alone. In a factory it represents a manufacturing system in which each person performs a specialized task on a product as it moves by on a conveyor belt. This way, for example, with a division of labor 5 people can make 200 bicycles in a day, but they each were working alone, could only make a total of 15 bicycles in the same day. In political struggle, we divide our labor through organization (Bases) so that we can be much more effective than if we were working individually or on many different struggles at the same time.
- Doctrine - A belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as having authority by some group or school, and guides/limits what can and can't be done.
- Dogmatism - A point of view (also could be a theory or political line) that claims to be the truth, and the only truth. In struggle, dogmatism is the practice of dogma; usually those who are dogmatic are stubborn, elitist, or arrogant individuals (or organizations) that do not accept anything else, other that what they say and think.
- Domestic System - A labor in which entire families work to produce goods in their homes.
- Dominican Republic - A Caribbean country.
- Domination - Social, political, and/or economic control imposed (sometimes by force).
- Domino Theory - The political idea developed by the United States that stated if one nation becomes communist, nearby nations will also become communist.
- Los Dorados - Villa's Army of the North.
- Dynamic - To refer to something political as being dynamic refers to it as permanently changing, always evolving, consistently finding ways to overcome obstacles and limitations. One of the main reasons our liberation struggles have yet to overturn capitalism and imperialism is because they are dynamic. To survive and grow in our struggle, our organization and our movement in general must be equally as dynamic.
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