Re: [OPE] Special TV report on Venezuela

Dear Michael,

I gues one has not just to posses the intellectual ability to write and analyse texts but also one has to have a bit of class instinct to grasp subtile suggestions BBC is making there. The report begins with projects that are aimed at and changes that have taken place over last ten years. Then it sort of presents the opposition's unability to seize the power back. And finally there comes the concluding sentence I quoted below. It says a lot more than "the opposition will need a strong and substantive candidate to defeat the incumbent". It says: "the opposition are still going to need a lot more than a candidate with a pretty face to defeat him." I emphises: "a lot more than a candidate". The report says that after it referred to some changes in the economic and political constitution of Venezuela. So I think that I am and any other reader is entitled to ask what the report is suggesting with this concluding remark. As pointed out in the report one of the major changes that have taken place over the last ten years is that the participation of subordinated people in political decision has increased by more than 10 percent. This shows that political consciousness among subordinated people must have increased. If you put this in relation to the concluding remark I can think of many scenarios that may be drawn from it. I think for example of the general Kenan Evren who seized the power in 1980 in Turkey by a military junta. He justified this by saying "we had to take po
wer because peoples's consciousness went well beyond the system". I am not saying that BBC report is suggesting this. But it is one of the possible conclusions one can draw from it.

If the report was realy a bit friendly to Chavez it would have perhaps concluded by an assertion how to stablise and improve people's power in Venezuela.
 
To make sure I do not blame BBC for being partial. We all have to be partial in this struggle despite all our critique. As the report says there is no middle ground in Venezuela. You are either for people's power as presented by Chavez or for the opposition. I criticise BBC for presenting itself as impartial though it is very well partial.
 
I suggst we give up the naive approach that we can be impartial in class struggles - an attitude so common among intellectuals throughout the world.

DG

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Williams <michael.williams.j@googlemail.com>
To: 'Outline on Political Economy mailing list' <ope@lists.csuchico.edu>
Sent: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 23:18
Subject: RE: [OPE] Special TV report on Venezuela

Well, this sentence just says that the opposition will need a strong and substantive candidate to defeat the incumbent, even though that incumbent has been in office for a long time (which under elective democracy is often accompanied by a falling off of popular support).

Whatever the sketchiness of the rest of the short report, this statement is mildly positive about Chavez.

I hold no special brief for the BB
C, but let’s not misinterpret what they say to reinforce our pre-existing political entrenched positions about either Chavez or the biases of the bourgeois media.

michael W

From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu [mailto:ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu] On Behalf Of dogangoecmen@aol.com
Sent: 06 December 2008 21:17
To: ope@lists.csuchico.edu
Subject: Re: [OPE] Special TV report on Venezuela

"But what is clear is that after 10 years in office, the opposition are still going to need a lot more than a candidate with a pretty face to defeat him."
 
This is how the report ends. What is the BBC trying to say? There is very little about the major changes that have taken place over last 10 years. So it is a seeming impartial report with a more or less clear partiality in favour of the so called USA paid, CIA supported opposition.

Dogan

-----Original Message-----
From: Alejandro Agafonow <alejandro_agafonow@yahoo.es>
To: OPE List <OPE@lists.csuchico.edu>
Sent: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 21:23
Subject: [OPE] Special TV report on Venezuela

In the link below you can see on-line the short special TV report on Venezuela, which BBC screened yesterday:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7767417.stm

I’ll wait for your comments.

Sincerely yours,

A. Agafonow

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Received on Sun Dec 7 10:20:12 2008