Must reading on Venezuela: 3 articles from Militant

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I strongly recommend reading these 'Militant' articles and I hope that
Walter Lippmann's introduction, which is very useful and entirely
accurate, will not convince people that you don't need to read it if
you have read Walter's correct critique.  Venezuela is not one of the
cases where all you need to know about a 'Militant' article is what's
wrong with it.

As Walter notes, the Militant now characterizes Chavez's government as
"nationalist" whereas before the paper characterized him quite firmly
as a "Bonapartist demagogue." This shift in characterization has not
been explained although its accuracy, as far as it goes, is
unchallengeable. In Militant-ese, however, nationalism of the
oppressed is basically a BAD thing -- although forgivable in the
absence of communist leadership of the type offered by the Socialist
Workers Party in the United States.

But read these articles, as Walter also urges you to do.  You will
find out things that you will not learn from any other source in
English, as far as I know.  The following introductory comments, as I
indicated before, are by Walter Lippmann.
Fred Feldman


The Militant continues its coverage of struggles
by workers and peasants in Venezuela which
have won important social gains. The Militant
describes the government of President Chavez
as "nationalist" whereas the peasant leader
interviewed in the first of three articles here
describes Chavez' government as "good".

NONE of the workers cited by The Militant in
these articles support President Chavez.
They do say they don't want to see his
administration overthrown by the rightist
opposition, however.

Each of these articles is worth reading since
they take up struggles, issues, personalities
and organizations not discussed in the main-
stream media coverage of Venezuela today.

In the second article, a new political party was
formed recently in Venezuela. The Militant does
not give any indication of what this new party's
relationship or attitude is toward the government
of Venezuela or to the political parties which now
lead that government. It's unclear from this what
politically differentiates this new left party from
the others which are to the left of the governing
coalition in Venezuela.

The third article, like the others, describes various
working class struggle against the capitalist employers
of Venezuela. The articles don't give readers any idea
of what attitude the government of President Chavez
had toward the struggles described in this article.

They also don't indicate whether or not there are
any of the Bolivarian Circles, the mass organizations
among the working class and poor communities of
the country among these particular areas. It would
be interesting to know if there were any of these
Circles, and what role, if any, they might play.

There's no indication in these articles if the Cuban
doctors, nurses, literacy teachers or others are
working in these new communities and what impact
they are having in these areas, if they are present.

Fascinating material, worth reading carefully.
==============================

60,000 Venezuelan peasants get land titles
The Militant interviews a peasant leader here who
describes struggles going back many years, long
before the Chavez administration came into office.
There's no indication here if conditions for struggle
by these peasants have changed in any way since
the advent of the Chavez presidency.
http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6737/673702.html
===================================

Workers Party of Venezuela holds first national assembly
http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6737/673759.html
===================================

How Venezuela steelworkers helped defeat boss ???strike???
"The large majority of workers interviewed attributed
the deteriorating economic situation to the capitalists,
not the Chavez government.

???I am not a Chamita,??? said Ramirez. ???But if they get
rid of Chavez, we will lose. The opposition doesn't???t
propose any improvement for the workers. And they
proved it during all those years they were in power.???
http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6737/673758.html




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