From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@STANFORD.EDU)
Date: Sat May 22 2004 - 11:50:34 EDT
> In his Kronstadt/Bolshevism note, Rakesh says: >1. 'Chavez called on the National Guard to shoot >at the strikers.' >2.'Gindin hoped that Chavez would express support for workers short of > >>nationalization. Chavez seems only to have had them shot at.' >> >3. 'So Chavez had them shot at to make the union stronger?' > > 3 times. Must be true. Does Rakesh have any evidence that >Chavez called in the National Guard (and called on them to shoot at >the workers!)? I don't have any evidence that Rumsfeld ordered the torture at Abu Graib either. But he is responsible. I don't have reason to believe that Chavez is not responsible for what the--nay, his--NATIONAL guard does, do you? If so, why aren't you sharing it? Are you saying that Chavez only ordered the National Guard to protect the facilities, that he is not responsible for what they did later? And that we should consider Chavez a working class champion because he did not declare the strike illegal as he could have? But has Chavez even attempted to punish those who--you are intimiting--are truly responsible for the National Guard being used as violent strike breaking thugs and thus weakening the workers' resolve? Moreover, the government owns 40 percent of the steel works while the other sixty percent is owned by a consortium; the govt surely could have done more to constrain the savage neo liberal restructuring of the steel works in the last several years. This is why the ultra left or whatever we want to call it (how about the infantile left) has said that Chavez is really a neo liberal, no? rakesh > michael > >Michael A. Lebowitz >Professor Emeritus >Economics Department >Simon Fraser University >Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6 > >Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at > >Residencias Anauco Suites >Departamento 601 >Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1 >Caracas, Venezuela >(58-212) 573-4111 >fax: (58-212) 573-7724
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