Stolen from OPE-L
Chavez comments on Build it Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006) Chapter 7, .The Revolution of Radical Needs: Behind the Bolvarian Choice of a Socialist Path. Michael Lebowitz sent me a good work,[.]a chapter of a book about Venezuela, .The Revolution of Radical Needs.. A revolution has to satisfy people.s needs in a radical way -- that is at the root. and therefore this revolution has to become more and more radical because, as Karl Marx said, for human beings the root is human beings themselves. . I stress Michael Lebowitz. concept, .the revolution of radical needs,. satisfying our people.s needs. Who better than them to say what their radical needs are, their root needs? I am, in fact, I admit it, excited about the subject of the Communal Councils, because we are in a hurry, that is. Today we are beginning to receive your amazing creativity, you who come up with projects, put forward ideas.. .The revolution of those radical needs., that is the objective of the Revolution. Hugo Chávez, Aló President No. 252, 9 April 2006 Chapter 5, .Socialism Doesn.t Drop from the Sky. But let.s look at reality as well as discourse, because in this other book--which I recommend-- by Michael Lebowitz, .Socialism Doesn.t Fall from the Sky.; good title. Socialism isn.t going fall on us from the sky, we are going to have to understand it, work on it, plant it, sweat over it. Now in this part, he refers to and reminds us of one of Karl Marx.s theses, that socialism is built through practice, it has to be built through practice. Listen, I.ll read some: only one way, practice itself. But these people don.t fall from the sky. He.s talking about the new people. I am going to go back a bit. My good friend Michael, Marta Harnecker.s partner, says here: .No one articulated better in the twentieth century the importance of developing new, socialist human beings than Che Guevara. He understood that if you try to build socialism with the help of the .dull instruments left us by capitalism (the commodity as the economic cell, individual material interest as the lever, etc.)., the effect is to undermine the development of consciousness. To build the new society, he stressed, it is necessary, simultaneous with the new material foundations, to build the new man and the new woman.. It.s not enough to set up socialist companies, to take back companies and now coordinate them or encourage them under the new legal concepts of self-management or co-management, collectivism is not enough. No, comrade, the soul is the new human being, the new man, the new woman. Then, further on Michael says the following. .There is only one way: practice.. And he adds, .but these people don.t drop from the sky.. They won.t come wearing parachutes, here come the new people, the new human being is dropping from the sky. The stork won.t bring them. .There is only one way in which they are produced . through their own activity. Only by exercising both their mental and manual capabilities in every aspect of their lives do human beings develop those capabilities; they produce in themselves specific capacities that allow them to carry out new activities... Alright, I.ll continue here: .The simultaneous changing of circumstances, now pay attention to these two details, the simultaneous changing of circumstances and self-change, (what Marx called .revolutionary practice.) is how we build the new society and the new human beings... Well, I´ll leave it at that but I recommend this good book, booklet to go by its size, but the content is big, .Socialism doesn.t fall from the sky. Hugo Chávez, Aló President No.263, 21 January 2007 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
