Re: [Marxism] Che Guevara - Myth and reality

[Nikolai Beltov <beltov1895@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Seriously interested in 2 way discussions?  I doubt it.  You
> provide nothing but jingoism.  Not a shred of concrete analysis.

Our comrades in Venezuela have produced a wealth of analysis on Chavez, and 
have been doing so for over 30 years. Here are a few:

The bourgeois state of Chavez attacks the steel workers
http://en.internationalism.org/icconline/2008/apr/steel-struggles

Re-election of Chavez: Worsening poverty in the name of socialism
http://en.internationalism.org/wr/303/chavez

Chavez defends capitalism, not socialism
http://en.internationalism.org/wr/295_chavez

The last article - a summary of the discussions on a Spanish internet forum ( 
www.alasbarricadas.org ) - challenges the following myths about Chavez:

1) His 'anti-imperialism' is a disguise for Venezuelan imperialism, which 
stirred tensions between Ecuador and Colombia last year and threatens to drag 
the region into a war that will be a disaster for the working class. 

2) The so-called 'socialist conquests of the people' involve the Venezuelan 
state attacking the steel workers earlier this year. 

3) The lie of âdemocratic participationâ. "The Venezuelan state has given 
the âparticipatoryâ instruments the mission to control the workers and the 
population, to subject them to an iron vigilance, to blackmail them (âif you 
do not participate in the revolution you have no right to social supportâ), 
to repress workersâ strikes and demonstrations. What is the real difference 
between these organisms of state imprisonment and the âpopular militiasâ of 
the Stalinist regimes or the Nazi SA? The only difference is the ideological 
justification."

Apologies for not swooning at the mere mention of Chavez' name, but surely I'm 
not alone in being critical of the whole 'Bolivarian Revolution'? 

Waving the red flag of internationalism is not jingoism. Far from it IMHO.

B.



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