[Marxism] Venezuela debate email re-formatted (hopefully)

[Andrew Splane <andrew_splane@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry about the formatting last time, hope this is better:

It is pure hair-splitting for Joaquin, Michael and Andy to make such a fuss 
("Arrogance!" "Pomposity!" Ignorance!") about the title of the Socialist Worker 
article on the growing unity of Venezuela's revolutionary socialist Left. The 
article makes crystal clear that the Venezuelan Left goes far beyond the 
militants represented at the July 9 conference. If you want to have a debate 
with the ISO about Venezuela, state capitalism, or whatever other subject, 
please give your rhetorical fire-and-brimstone a rest and try to focus on 
actually debating on the merits. Apparently Joaquin wants to close down this 
debate even taking place, as he's decided he opposes socialists in the US 
"taking all sorts of positions about strategies and tactics in other countries 
and most of all in third world countries". Yet... he sees no contradiction in 
clearly staking out his own position: that fighting openly for workers' power 
in Venezuela, as do Orlando Chiniro and his comrades in the UNT, is
 counter-revolutionary! Joaquin writes:
Calling on "the Venezuelan working class to take state power" is just an 
algebraic and abstract way --a shamefaced way-- of saying "Down with Chavez!"

This kind of nonsense reeks of exactly the kind of dogmatic Stalinist method of 
the past that Chavez himself has made clear must be avoided at all costs in 
fighting for the socialism of a new century. The thing to understand about 
Venezuela today is that events are not static. Precisely because of what David 
correctly called the "wonderful heterogeneity" of struggle, debates have opened 
up about what the new socialism should look like and how it should be organized 
for and fought for. Everybody understands the very important role Chavez has 
personally played in this, not least by daring to call for a socialist 
alternative!  And of course socialists in the US should be very modest about 
the role we can play in solidarity with the struggle in Venezuela-- although we 
need to do everything we can, beginning with exposing our own rulers' plots 
against the government.

At the same time, the revolutionary Marxist tradition has a contribution to 
make to the debate about what socialism is. Among Lenin's most important 
arguments was that instead of lending every national awakening "communist 
coloring," socialists should fight to build mass revolutionary workers' parties 
that could help guide the fight for a society based on workers' power. If 
Joaquin believes that one man, Hugo Chavez, has eradicated the need for such a 
mass revolutionary socialist party in Venezuela, he should argue that position 
instead of slandering and distorting the position of the ISO. I am personally 
very enthusiastic to read about the growing unity of key union militants in the 
UNT who believe that building a new revolutionary party based on workers' power 
is on the agenda in Venezuela. I think they may have something to teach us.

Andrew


                
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