Re: [A-List] "Civil Society" in Venezuela

["Anne Williamson" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

Luis and Greg W.,

Regarding civil society and ngos:

A couple of years ago when I was contemplating
putting Contagion out as an e-book, I employed a copy writer
from Random House to review my manuscript.  When the
work was done, I took him to lunch.  Over our meal he told
me all the niceties; how much he enjoyed the book, how much
he learned, etc.  But he said something else that proved telling.

He said the manuscript was particularly helpful to him just
then because he was thinking of enrolling in the New School's
training program for NGO managers.  It seems he was tired
of his work, and wanted to do "some good."  And the New
School was offering such attractive financial incentives for
degree candidates in this new "NGO field" that they practically
paid the student to complete the course.  And so the copy editor
was thinking of changing his life......until he read Contagion.

I have long been a critic of the NGO network as it seems pretty
clear to me that the elite are employing naive do-gooders and
NGOs not to develop civil society, but to undermine it - esp.
through the auspices of the UN.  George Soros and Harvard's
former, now Columbia's, poster boy for foreign aid, Jeff
Sachs-(of-sh*t), are shameless pioneers in this new field of
deception/negation.  Imagine my bemusement to learn that Fedgov is
financing the education of its future stooges through one of the
premiere US institutions hawking "liberation philosophy." -A.

----- Original Message -----
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<psn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <wsn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <Wilpert@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 3:47 PM
Subject: [A-List] "Civil Society" in Venezuela


> Greg Wilpert:
> >First of all, the military is saying that the main reason for the coup is
> >what happened today, April 11. 'Civil society,' as the opposition here
> >refers to itself, organized a massive demonstration of perhaps 100,000 to
> >200,000 people to march to the headquarters of Venezuela's oil company,
> >PDVSA, in defense of its fired management.
>
> A word or two has to be said about this phenomenon. This nebulous term
> "civil society" has too often provided a fig-leaf for extremely
reactionary
> movements.
>
> For example, pressure has been put on the Colombian guerrillas in the name
> of "civil society" NGO's. One of the main battering rams in Yugoslavia was
> "civil society" NGO's funded by George Soros. They all seem to be
> well-versed in left-liberal and feminist discourse, but concealed within
> that veneer is a middle-class hostility to any state that promotes the
> interests of those at the bottom.
>
> In May of 2000, "civil society" groups spearheaded a drive against Hugo
> Chavez, who supposedly was rigging the elections. The Inter-American
> Development Bank, which is a typical neoliberal funding institution, has a
> designated liaison with "civil society" groups. The World Bank lists Latin
> American and Caribbean "civil society" experts for nearly every country in
> the region. Go to http://www.icaworld.org/ (Institute of Cultural Affairs)
> or places like Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies and
> you will find extensive training programs for "civil society"
> professionals. Upon their boards you will find World Bank officials and
all
> the usual suspects. Fidel Castro had the good sense to throw these kinds
of
> scoundrels out long ago, with their connections to US philanthropies and
> Ivy League schools.
>
> ===
>
> Znet, January 09, 2002
> http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-01/09choudry.cfm
>
> All This "civil Society" Talk Takes Us Nowhere
>
> By Aziz Choudry
>
> If there's one phrase I could do with hearing less of during 2002, it's
> "civil society". I'm not alone. Many of my friends, community activists
and
> organisers in a number of countries also cringe at the ritualized,
> ubiquitous usage of the phrase. We shudder at the thought that we might be
> mistaken for being part of it. John Grimond, in The Economist's "The World
> In 2002" says of the phrase: "It is universally talked about in tones that
> suggest it is a Great Good, but for some people it presents a problem:
what
> on earth is it? Unless you know, how can you tell if you would want to
join
> it?" I couldn't agree more. And if you found out, would you want to? I
> still don't know what the hell "civil society" is supposed to mean, let
> alone "international civil society". Is it the name given to a group of
> representatives from various NGOs deliberating the latest sign-on
statement
> or declaration at a meeting? It certainly seems to have become a kind of
> grandiose shorthand to describe groupings of NGOs which may or may not be
> connected with communities and broader peoples' movements in the countries
> in which they are based. Or is it something else? Who gets to be in civil
> society and how? Are the people taking direct action on the streets
against
> the authorities and being teargassed, pepper-sprayed, beaten and arrested
> part of civil society? Who gets to represent civil society and decide
what,
> for whom, and on whose behalf? There is no shortage of definitions of
civil
> society, Gramsci, de Tocqueville, Putnam, Hegel, Marx, and many others
have
> written volumes on the subject. But other than general agreement that it
> spans all forms of organisations between the household and the state, the
> notion seems to mean all things to all people. I cannot see how uncritical
> adoption and use of this term advances peoples' struggles for basic
rights,
> for self-determination, liberation, and decolonisation, and against
> imperialism and the neoliberal agenda in all their various guises.
>
>
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
>
>
>
>