From: michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@SFU.CA)
Date: Tue Dec 14 2004 - 09:58:32 EST
Worldwide conference of intellectuals and artists "In Defense of the Humanity" (Caracas, 1-5/Ten/2004) New challenges of the Bolivarian Revolution By Miguel Urbano Rodrigues President Chávez was a constant presence in the conference. During the first week of December, Caracas was headquarters of an event with characteristics never before seen on the planet. Some 340 intellectuals and artists from more than 52 countries gathered in the Venezuelan capital to debate problems and threats tied inseparably to the survival of humanity itself. The Caracas Appeal clearly expresses the spirit of this World-wide Meeting of representatives of the intelligentsia in Defense of the Humanity. In it, men and women of very different cultures coincided in moving "to the necessity to construct to a wall of resistance to confront the attempt at this time to impose domination worldwide." More expressive of the significance of the event than the decisions taken was the atmosphere of permanent combativeness of the conference, marked by enthusiastic solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution. It is no exaggeration to affirm that the initiative is a sign of the radicalization of the process of deep transformations in the path making Venezuela the showcase for a class struggle that the world has not known since the Russian Revolution of 1917. "Tomorrow can be too late" This phrase of Fidel [Castro], repeated by Hugo Chávez in the closing speech of the Meeting, powered the two central ideas running through the President's speeches during the conference. When he repeatedly announced the radicalization of the Revolution, the leader of this Revolution left a clear impression that his people will face enormous challenges and that only by advancing and not withdrawing will they be able to defend and deepen the gains they already realized. Chávez is conscious that a confrontation with imperialism is inevitable. The rupture with the dominant system - he affirmed this conclusion with enormous clarity - will demand enormous sacrifices and great firmness from the people. In the dialog that he kept up with the foreign delegations in the Theater Tereza Carreńo - an amphitheater with 2,500 seats - he used the questions asked to illuminate his initial speech on the two-sided contradiction of revolution and coup, with answers that gradually gave color and form to another speech, complementary to the first, in which he inserted information, projects and the constant repetition of examples to produce a moving image of the Revolution. He transmitted everything spontaneously and directly. Chávez is an exceptional communicator. His torrential oratorical skills contrast, however, with those of the traditional populist leaders in whose harangues the rhetoric hides lack of content. The words the Venezuelan leader directed to the intellectuals present at the conference had been thought over carefully and were used to carry ideological messages. He evaluated the risks of his choice as he repeatedly insisted that the Bolivarian Revolution is more than a national revolution because, faced with imperialism's hostility, it will be able to survive only if it can break through its isolation and assume the shape of a revolution that all of progressive humanity is ready to defend. In other words, international solidarity has become not only vital, but a factor in its very survival. The complexity of the challenge launched by Chávez in the Caracas Meeting is apparent in some of the "suggestions" he formulated. When defending the creation of a Latin American Central bank and a Latin American Monetary Fund and insisting for the foundation of the Petrosul - an enterprise that would group together the Venezuelan PDVSA, the Mexican PEMEX, Brazilian Petrobras and the Argentine state petroleum company - Chávez did not limit himself to reaffirming his refusal to allow imperialist domination of his country. He went much further because his proposals make the decision to internationalize the Bolivarian Revolution transparent. Obviously the concretion of these proposals is not, for now, possible. Any of them would run up against insurmountable obstacles. But their importance should not be underestimated. El Nacional and El Universal, the oligarchy's two great daily newspapers, had not dedicated one line to the World-wide Meeting of Intellectuals - which is enlightening regarding their concept of democracy and the sharing of information - but the President's declarations were immediately interpreted in Washington as an intolerable gesture, whose content is subversive. Chávez did not mince words. He said he considers FTAA [Free Trade Association of the Americas] an imperialist project to recolonize Latin America. He defended a concept of Latin American integration that makes him appear to the eyes of the White House as a satanic revolutionary, as a second Fidel Castro. Unrestricted solidarity with Cuba would be enough to alarm Washington, but he assumes the deepening of the collaboration between the two countries in multiple areas with pride. Chávez does not hide that he walks shoulder to shoulder with "the sister republic." Writers and political scientists who visited Venezuela for the first time were impressed by the continual use of history in Chavez's speech. The quotations from [Simon] Bolivar, the references to the hero helped convey what it means today to be Bolivarian. The modernity of Bolivar as revolutionary was made apparent through appropriate parallels between situations of the past and the choices the Revolution faces today. When facing difficulties that at first appear insurmountable, Chávez is inspired by the Liberator. Contemplating the immediate future he warns: "what we have done is very little; the main work lies ahead." Often the living episodes of the revolutionary process served to illuminate the people's heroism. The audience was moved when, describing the days of the petroleum company lock out, with the country almost paralyzed, without gasoline and deprived of necessities, he told of his meeting with a very poor family in a deteriorated neighborhood. A woman, grabbing his arm, dragged him to the shanty where she lived. Chávez could sense they were cooking something in a pan. He took off the cover and he saw that it was a piece of wood. The woman commented: "we shall eat what remains of my bed". And added: "Stay calm, we'll make it. Resist, Chavez!" The contemporary history of Latin America, Europe, the Middle East under attack by imperialism, were ideological themes of his speech. It was not without surprise that many of the foreign participants had followed his vindication of the worker-peasant alliance in the country and Latin America. A bigger surprise still when, recalling the meeting he had with the leaders of Islamic countries, he exhorted the peoples of Latin America to rise up in solidarity with the Iranians and Syrians, if these peoples are the targets of new imperialist aggressions. In the following day, speaking in the closing of the conference, Chávez offered another speech, this one less elaborate and even more radical. Taking up again the idea of deepening the Revolution, he emphasized that it will be entering a new phase. It would be prolonged. He presented socialism as the only alternative to neoliberalism, the system of imperial domination that threatens humanity. The alternative socialism or barbarism that Rosa Luxemburg formulated a half-century ago, appears to be quite current, reactivated for the development of history today. But will the moment Chávez chose for the first time to make the socialist option transparent an adequate one? UNKNOWNS AND WEAKNESSES Throughout the last half century I followed revolutions and counterrevolutions that had marked the route of Latin America. With the exception of Cuba, I today remember no relation anywhere similar to that existing in Venezuela between a governor and the people who supports him. The confidence of the masses in the leader is total, limitless. The foreign intellectuals were tremendously impressed, both by the applause he received at the conference and by their contacts with poor inhabitants during visits to communities in the capital and the provinces. But dependence on the leader is also a weakness of the revolution. Because all revolution is a molecular process, that if develops in an atmosphere of class struggle, a process whose duration is unforeseen, it demands a revolutionary organization prepared for a prolonged struggle. Such organization, however, does not yet exist in Venezuela. The massive participation of the people, taking the role of subject of history, brought about at decisive moments the defeat of the united force of the domestic rightwing and imperialism. But, at a moment where in which he announces a new phase, in which the leader radicalizes his position and connects the survival of the revolutionary process with breaking out of isolation, admitting that the Bolivarian Revolution is assuming the dimension of a continental challenge to the imperialism - the absence of a revolutionary structured organization is impossible to hide. Neither the Movement V Republic, nor the Bolivarian Circles, nor the current Patrols had been able to play the role of mobilizer and constructor of the revolutionary organization demanded by the historical situation. The great unknown persists. Until what point will it be possible to radically transform Venezuelan society on an institutional level while important sectors of state power are not controlled for the Government? In this context the attitude of the Armed Forces takes on a fundamental importance. Chávez expresses a reality when he affirms that the Bolivarian Revolution, unlike the Chilean, is not an unarmed revolution. The great majority of the officer corps supports the process of change. This does not mean, however, that the Army corresponds to the ideal defined by Bolivar: "the armed people." A revolutionary officer, with high responsibilities, confided to me: "After the defeat of the coup [of April 2002], the parade to the Plaza of France (Altamira) [1] of opposition officers was a gift from heaven, because it allowed a purging of what remained of the rot inside the Army." The opinion indicates some lack of experience. History demonstrates that the seeds of the counterrevolution germinate within revolutions, driven by their own dynamics. More than a hundred of superior officers, including many generals and admirals, had been purged after the April 11 coup. But an uncountable number of officers who did not inspire confidence - in some way passive accomplices of the fascist conspiracy - remained in the ranks. Many had been transferred to garrisons far away from Caracas, above all near the explosive border with Colombia. It will not have been a happy choice. This border is real tinder box. Gathered there are reactionary dealers and landlords, drug dealers and foreign adventurers. The Colombian paramilitary death squads do everything, under the cover of the neofascist Alvaro Uribe government, to create an atmosphere of permanent tension in the region. Some of the incidents occurred there serve as a warning. It is undeniable that the virus transmitted by the human trash of that zone can contaminate others. This is one problem among many. But don't underestimate it. The new phase of the Revolution, announced by Chavez, demands that the people's participation be raised to a higher level. Their availability for struggle in crisis situations is inadequate for a permanent and clear revolutionary response to the ambitious and challenging transformation sketched by the President. Everything indicates that the radicalization of the Bolivarian process, announced by Hugo Chávez in the Worldwide Conference of Caracas, and reaffirmed in the Bolivarian Congress of the Peoples, will make 2005 a decisive year for the destination of the revolution now underway in the native land of Simón Bolivar. [1] Altamira, in Caracas, is the neighborhood where the ruling class for months organized gathering with military officers present, assemblies where the government was the target of constant provocations. This article can be found in <http://resistir.info/>http://resistir.info/. 10/Dec/04 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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