[A-List] Michael A. Lebowitz: Why Aren't _You_ in a Hurry, Comrade?

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/lebowitz010207.html>
Why Aren't _You_ in a Hurry, Comrade?
by Michael A. Lebowitz

"What's the rationale for allowing Chavez to govern by decree?"  Why
such a "precipitous approach"?  As the apparent resident apologist
(or, let's just say, on-site interpreter) for the Bolivarian
Revolution, I get questions like this regularly from friends who don't
know much about Venezuela but do know what they don't like (from
reading the always unbiased and objective capitalist press).  Of
course, I'm not alone in this respect: others here get the same
questions from outside: How can Chavez do this?  How can you justify
this?  The implicit question, of course, always is -- how can I (the
enquirer) continue to say (and think) nice things about the Bolivarian
Revolution when HE does this?  How can I (the enquirer) justify the
process to my friends (colleagues)?  A single party, rule by decree --
isn't this the road to Stalinism and to the gulag?

As some of the dismay over the idea of a unified party of the
revolution dissipates with Chavez's stress upon the need to build it
from below and to make it the most democratic party in Venezuela's
history, attention now has focused upon his request to the National
Assembly for an Enabling Law that would allow him to introduce laws in
specific areas directly rather than taking these through the National
Assembly.  Reminded that designation of such time-limited special
powers is nothing new in Venezuelan history, predating Chavez and also
essential in his own introduction of 49 Laws in 2001 (laws on
cooperatives, fisheries, hydrocarbon tax, etc), friends ask -- but why
_now_?  After all, given the opposition's brilliant manoeuvre in
boycotting the National Assembly elections (once it was apparent they
would be overwhelmed), there is no opposition present to delay matters
in that body. So, what's the hurry?

It's a question not only posed by progressive observers outside but
also by their counterparts among some Venezuelan intellectuals.  Can
this be democratic, they ask?  Doesn't this reflect the verticalism of
the military rather than democracy, authoritarianism and personalism
in place of the deliberations of the National Assembly?  It is the
point posed recently by a well-known Venezuelan academic, Margarita
Lopez Maya, when she noted that the tempo for democratic procedures is
not at all the same as that for military operations.  "It's not
clear," she indicated (and, not surprisingly, this was the headline in
the opposition newspaper, _El Nacional_, to which she gave the
interview), "if chavista socialism will be democratic."

This concern about the tempo is an entirely legitimate question from
the vantage point of a traditional intellectual.  There is no question
that tempo can be the enemy of democratic processes.  But, this is not
the only vantage point worth noting.

I had dinner last night with two friends (one a first-time visitor),
who had spent a full day talking with people active in communal
councils in two Caracas neighbourhoods (one extremely poor).  And,
they were telling me about the frustration and anger of so many with
local and ministry officials who were holding back change -- and about
their identification with the impatience of Chavez, whom they trusted.
Not surprisingly, this led us to a discussion of the Enabling Law and
of Lopez Maya's interview.  No, they said, the people they saw weren't
worried about that _at all_ -- they _agree_ with the need for speed.
You mean, I asked, that the people are in a hurry?  Yes, they readily
assented (to my surprise), and one commented that they are less
interested in democracy as process than in democracy in practice.

There should be no surprises there.  After all, in a country with an
enormous social debt, where people have basic needs for sewers,
electricity, water, jobs, housing, etc. and where they are being
encouraged to take things into their hands through communal councils,
cooperatives, and other forms of collective self-activity -- and where
everywhere they come up against the long-standing patterns of
bureaucracy, corruption, and clientelism -- should we be surprised
that the people are impatient?  Should we be surprised at how few
people answered the Opposition's call to demonstrate against the
Enabling Law?  Should we be surprised that the people are in a hurry?

The real question that needs to be posed is one to traditional
Venezuelan intellectuals and their counterparts abroad: why aren't
_you_ in a hurry, comrade?

--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>