From: Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM
Date: Wed Dec 08 2004 - 09:07:03 EST
> Chavez was quite explicit on these points (the second time in a
> week that he has raised the question of socialism); as usual, he has been
> attacking capitalism and praising Cuba, but he also is regularly talking
> now about the need to change the relations of production.
Mike L,
It seems like the events themselves might be pushing Chavez towards
the direction of becoming a revolutionary socialist. What he
actually said could be interpreted as a recognition of the need for
revolutionary internationalism. Yet, it might very well mean more. To
quote Trotsky approvingly on the subject of permanent revolution
might mean that he accepts the proposition that during the epoch of
imperialism:
"With regard to countries with a belated bourgeois development,
especially the colonial and semi-colonial countries, the theory of
the permanent revolution signifies the complete and genuine solution
of their tasks of achieving *democracy and national emancipation* is
conceivable only through the dictatorship of the proletariat as the
leader of the subjugated nation, above all of its peasant masses."
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1931-tpv/pr10.htm
Putting aside for the moment the question of the validity of Trotsky's
perspective, *if* Chavez has come to believe the above then that has
enormous implications for how he perceives the current situation and
what needs to be done next.
Contrary to the insinuations of Petras, Chavez is no FDR or LBJ.
Neither, of course, is he Trotsky (most notably, he's not a
Leninist). Yet, he appears to be a person in political flux who is
moving rapidly and more explicitly towards Marxism.
In solidarity, Jerry
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