Re: [Marxism] Chavez embraces socialism (but not the old kind)

["Edward Crawford" <tcrawford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 It is interesting to see how the split in the
> Militant tendency in Great Britain has led to two different takes on
> Venezuela, with Grant-Woods identifying with Chavez and Taaffe adopting a
> stance reminiscent of Gerry Healy.
>

Thank you Louis, I was unaware of the political affiliations of Yosef but it
makes sense. Though I come from a different political tradition it has
always struck me that in the split the Woods-Grant tendency had the brains
if not the numbers in the UK. There has to be a balance of course, you must
not ever go overboard for *any* leader however "Bolshevik-Leninist" he/she
may be but against the American imperialism of Bush you have to stand in
Chavez's corner backing every progressive move he makes etc etc building
support but trying to keep some kind of independence. I hope that is what
they have done but I am too ignorant of Venezuela to know. Anyway I wish
them luck if they have tried to do that.

Has anyone any idea of the relative strength of these two tendencies in
Venezuela? I understand the Woods-Grant grouping may be quite important. Or
the strength any other Marxist political tendencies whether they call
themselves Trotskyist or not? And what any membership might mean in real
terms of influence in the class/urban masses etc.
Ted Crawford


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