Chavez helps screw up socialism for everyone… Posted by Marek Vermin on November 8th, 2007
The end of Chavez is nascent. He had such a promising start. I remember him in the UN, holding up a Chomsky book and denouncing US imperialism. I also remember his cheap gas to transit companies for America’s poor. He has progressive property laws too, but then again, so did the Mexican government at one point before the revolution became nothing more than just a catch phrase.
Too bad Chavez is going the way of every socialist leader since Lenin, excusing his internal tyranny on external forces until there’s nothing left in his country to protect from capitalism or imperialism. At that point, people are too weary, cynical, and demoralized and couldn’t give a shit anymore. They gladly accept an end to their faux-socialism for a promise of something else. Way to go Chavez. You have been part of the massive project of fucking up of socialism and making it obsolete. I hope people can learn from past mistakes and huck you out before it’s too late.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B754F6D4-77B9-45DC-B471-F2BE5429004F.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3yRyp5qj68
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7084262.stm
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/NEWS07/711080442/1009
Now, it should also be mentioned that there’s another take on this scenario, but it is just as faulty and ass-kissing as the corporate media it accuses of distorting reality. While Hands Off Venezuela rightly pressures the US to back the fuck off of Venezuela, and criticizes the corporate media for biased coverage of the Chavez Bolivarian regime, the group nonetheless is a little too uncritical of Chavez’ actions and just comes across as a patsy of the regime. If the NY Times too often parrots the US government line, so do too many socialists who are willing to play make-believe in their hopes for Venezuelan socialism. This is nothing new. When Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman announced their findings on the Russian Revolution and its deterioration, they were denounced by socialists and even anarchists as being sellouts, but the reality is that they were the only ones telling the truth; the Bolsheviks and their supporters were lying, as were the free presses of the west, who were ignoring the meddling nature of their own countries in the Russian Revolution.
Opposition violence at Venezuelan university – What really happened at the UCV
Of course, the links to “what really happened” are all Venezuelan government sites. Credible source? Yeah right. And not to mention that this constitutional reform has been anticipated for years now, since Chavez first replaced the court of justices.
However, before this gets taken completely out of perspective, it is important to keep in mind that the police DID stay off campus, which is something that wouldn’t have happened in Canada or the US, AND in the US, it was the actual national guard that shot students at Kent State – actual representatives of the government.
When it comes down to it, what is most disconcerting is that it seems as though Chavez is just as disinterested in momentous protests against his policies (and 80,000 students is nothing to sneeze at) as Bush is about his. Chavez is already inclining his government away from civic participation and, like Bush, is tearing at the core of his country’s civil society. They can criticize each other all they like, but they both use fear to tighten the grip of their governments. The difference here, of course, is that Bush will be gone soon, to be replaced by some other moron, but Chavez probably won’t.
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Finally, here’s an article that Hands Off Venezuela wants you to write letters to the editor about. Make up your own mind, but I’m inclined to believe that this is pretty reasonable journalism despite its horrendous by-line.
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P.S. further reading…
What is at Stake in Venezuela’s Reform Referendum? by Sujatha Fernandes
