[PEN-L:4277] Open letter to Marc Chernick

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Marc, I am the moderator of a Marxism mailing-list which has been
discussing Colombian politics for the past few days in the aftermath of the
killings of 3 indigenous activists. You are the author of an article in the
most recent newsletter of the Colombia Support Network that I have urged
people to download and read. You are also the author of an article in the
April '98 NACLA which, describing the guerrillas as "losers," urged them to
seek peace, presumably not unlike the kind that exists in El Salvador
today. I want to comment on a couple of paragraphs in your article and look
forward to hearing your response.

You write:
"In Colombia, although there is overwhelming and well-documented evidence
of official human rights violations by the military and other state actors,
the chief source of terror now comes from groups with roots in Colombia's
fractured and deeply-conflicted civil society."

My response:
Isn't it time that we placed this nebulous term "civil society" on the
shelf until we define what it means more clearly? Jorge Castenada
notwithstanding, expecting "civil society" to develop where class
differentiation is so extreme is utopian. There is more "civil society" in
New York than you can shake a stick at. It practically smacks you in the
face when you walk down the street, from Camille Paglia lectures on
tattooing at the YMCA to the Neo-Whig Horticulturists Society. New Yorkers
love to argue and won't shoot each other unless they become really
agitated. Now in Colombia, very few such talk-oriented institutions exist.
I take it that the reason for this is that Colombian society is in a state
of permanent agitation and people shoot first and argue later. The reason
for this agitation, as I understand it, is that it is divided between
extremely rich and extremely destitute sectors, with the latter far
outnumbering the former. Unless you could go down there with a very
persuasive NGO and get the rich people to spread the wealth around, I'm
afraid tensions will remain high and civil society will remain on the
dwarfish side. The alternative to this is nationalize the means of
production and utilize a planned economy to benefit working people and
peasants. Of course, the super-rich will have to agree to become just
plain-vanilla rich. I know I sound like a Marxist brontosaurus, but I know
of no other way for underdeveloped countries to reduce extremes of poverty
and wealth.

You write:
"No longer able to receive logistical, financial or military support from
the outside, the guerrillas have vastly increased their involvement in
criminal and terrorist activities, such as kidnapping, murder and extortion
of productive and commercial activity in the coca/cocaine, petroleum,
cattle and other agrarian sectors."

My response:
Even though you have a nice Jewish name, I mustn't assume you were born in
the United States. I have a landsman named Nestor Gorojovsky on my Marxism
mailing-list who has the chutzpah to be a citizen of Argentina, whose
primary language is Spanish. I raise this because I am wondering if it is
possible that you wrote your article in Spanish, but it was a victim of a
poor translation. That is the only reason I can possibly see for
characterizing the cocaine, cattle and petroleum business as "productive."
Why, I would go out on a limb and say that if my son or daughter, if I had
one, announced that they intended to go to work for Occidental or Armour,
I'd disown them. Either that, or urge them take up a more productive line
of work such as cocaine-selling or prostitution. It's fair to say that oil
and cattle-ranching have been productive only for foreign capitalists, not
the poor people whose land and water have been stolen to make profits on
such environmentally ruinous commodities.

You write:
"If the past fifteen years of peace negotiations are any indication,
Colombia cannot reach a viable peace agreement without international
mediation. The conflict is too widespread and encompasses too many actors
and interests to be managed by the Colombian government, or the government
and guerrillas alone. Now is the time for international involvement, from
the NGOs to foreign governments and international organizations."

My response:
Self-determination is what's needed. What you are proposing is not only
paternalistic, it is delusional.


Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)