[Marxism] A Venezuelan explains: Just what is 21st-Century socialism?

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PROGRESO WEEKLY
January 18, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2rh8qw


Just what is 21st-Century socialism?

By Mary Pili Hernández 
mphelnacional@xxxxxxxxx

Taken from Aporrea

As a result of President Chávez's resounding triumph in the recent
election, many people have become seriously interested in the
proposal he made in his speech of Feb. 25, 2005, at the inauguration
of the Fourth Summit of Social Indebtedness.

In it, Chávez expressed his belief that the revolution should be
socialist, otherwise it would not be a revolution. Later, when
discussing that speech, he explained that it should be a 21st-Century
type of socialism, giving a name to a new concept. But exactly what
is 21st-Century socialism?


A concept in the making

The first thing that needs to be said is that the definition of
21st-Century socialism is not yet completed. When the president first
broached the subject, he invited the Venezuelan people to participate
in a discussion on the subject. Many of us have participated in
forums and have written articles that permit an in-depth analysis.
Nevertheless, it is vital to read Chávez's speeches to understand
with greater clarity where this process leads, all the more so when
the president was backed by almost 63 percent of the voters in the
recent election.


Socialism was born in Latin America

Lamentably, people who make simplistic analyses of events always
confuse the concept of socialism with that of Marxism, whereas
Marxist socialism is only one of the models of socialism that have
been applied worldwide, although it certainly is the most famous.

When Marx spoke about his vision of socialism, he went back to an
older concept that arose in the early 16th Century from the mind of
Sir Thomas Moore (a saint, not a politician) in his famous work
?Utopia.? Moore was fascinated by Vespuccio's descriptions of the
Archipelago of Fernando de Oroña in Brazil and in his work imagined a
perfect society, which he called socialist.

Of course, the first people who applied this model dreamed up by
Moore were not the Russians but the Jesuits, in their ?reducciones?
(communes) of Guaraní Indians in Paraguay. This fact is interesting,
because it is not coincidental that the concept of socialism
apparently emerged in some Brazilian islands and was later applied in
Paraguay. In other words, the first socialists were not the Europeans
but the Latin Americans.


21st-Century socialism is not Marxist

I don't know how many times Chávez has had to repeat it. He has been
saying it since 2003. He has said it clearly in several remarks,
speeches and television programs: ?This is not a Marxist project. I
have many Marxist friends, but this is not a Marxist project.?
(?Hello President? radio program, Oct. 2, 2005.) He even has told it
to journalists in interviews and press conferences.

?I am not a communist. If I were, I would say so without hesitation.
Had I had a Marxist project for Venezuela, I would have said so from
the first day I stepped into the political arena. So, I am not a
Marxist. I feel close to socialist and progressive thinking, but I am
not a Marxist.? (Interview with CNN correspondent Lucía Newman, Aug.
18, 2004.)

Just in case, he repeated that statement at the press conference in
Miraflores Palace on the day he was confirmed as President-elect. But
this was not made public by the media because much of the press
operates as agents of the dirty campaign of anti-Chavismo and they
need to instill fear in the people. Therefore, anything that may
reduce or dissipate that fear is censored or simply omitted.


Bolivarian socialism

Bearing in mind that socialism is not synonymous with Marxism and
that Chávez has clarified until exhaustion that he is not a Marxist
and has no Marxist project for Venezuela, we should remember that the
first time that the president described the Venezuelan revolution as
socialist (Feb. 25, 2005) he was delivering an extraordinary speech
(one of the best I've ever heard him deliver), where, documents in
hand, he interpreted -- in his capacity as professor of Venezuelan
history -- the thoughts of Liberator Simón Bolívar on social
subjects.

Chávez took the decrees on education, land ownership, health, and the
use of common goods that Bolívar issued after independence and, as he
read them, he explained what the Founding Father bequeathed to us as
the framework for a nation. Clearly, as Chávez concluded at that
time, Bolívar was a socialist.

Therefore, to define 21st-Century socialism one doesn't have to look
into European thinking, but into Latin American thinking, more
specifically, into Bolivarian thinking.


Christian socialism

For several years now, a process of personal conversion has taken
place in Chávez's heart. Now he defines himself as profoundly
Christian, speaks of Jesus as his savior, and invokes him as ?the
Commander in Chief of this revolution.?

In this sense, he has posited that 21st-Century socialism must be
inspired in Christianity.

It should be said that this is not something he invented. Christian
socialism is a political current that has been very important in the
world, particularly in Latin America, notwithstanding the fact that
some political organizations that have defined themselves as such
paid no heed to the ideas of Jesus.

It is important to make clear that, when we say 21st-Century
socialism has a Christian inspiration, we don't say that it must be
confessional but that it is based on the social thinking found in the
Gospels and the New Testament as a whole. It is the socialism
practiced by the early Christian communities after Pentecost.


Obviously from the 21st Century

This definition must include the fact that 21st-Century socialism
looks to the future. In other words, it is not anchored to the
socialist models that ruled much of the world in the past.

Nor is it a socialism that emerged from -- or was framed by -- the
Cold War in the mid-20th Century. It is a new socialism, inspired on
the values the world accepts as fair in this new century: democracy,
respect for human rights -- not just civil and political rights but
also economic, social and cultural rights.


?Capitalism cannot contain democracy?

This was a statement made by Chávez in a recent press conference. And
it is a clear statement. If democracy is the power of the people and
for the people, it has no place in a system where individual
interests are above the collective interest, and where capital is
more important than people.

Socialism is nothing more than placing collective interests above
individual interests, as a priority. Only thus can we live in
democracy. If an individual and his money are above a community, that
relationship will never be a democracy. It will be a dictatorship or,
worse yet, a plutocracy. Like the one that exists in the United
States, a nation with 45 million poor people.


Venezuelans voted for this project

Ever since democracy began, no president has received a support at
the polls as big as Chávez received this time. I think that clears
all doubts. Venezuela wants socialism and it wants it to be the
21st-Century version.


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