In the July-August International Socialist Review, the theoretical
journal of the state-capitalist International Socialist Organization,
there’s an article by Lee Sustar titled “What does Chávez have in store
for Venezuela?” He asks rhetorically if Chávez is “correct in his recent
statements that the ideas of Marx and Lenin are outdated, and that
private property has to be preserved in a socialist Venezuela?” He also
writes “Chávez himself, quoting the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg
out of context, declared that trade unions should be subordinated to the
socialist party–i.e., the PSUV.”
When I asked Sustar to provide references for these assertions, he
replied with respect to the first: “It was on Alo Presidente, which you
can hear online.” I have not been successful in tracking this down. He
also provided a link to an article on aporrea.org by Miguel Angel
Hernández that began with this quote from Chavéz:
El Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) no tomará las
banderas del marxismo-leninismo porque es una tesis dogmática que ya
pasó y no está acorde con la realidad de hoy”…“tesis como la de la clase
obrera como el motor del socialismo y de la revolución están obsoletas”…
“El trabajo hoy es otra cosa, es distinto, está la informática y la
telemática, y Carlos Marx ni siquiera podía soñar con estas cosas.
Roughly translated, this says:
The PSUV doesn’t call itself “marxist-leninist” because it is a
dogmatic thesis that has passed and doesn’t accord with the reality of
today…the thesis of the working class as the motor of socialism and the
revolution is obsolete…the worker of today is another thing, is
distinct, is involved with information and telecommunications technology
and Karl Marx could not have dreamed of these things.
Maybe curiosity killed the cat, but I am dying to know what was between
the ellipses in Chavéz’s quoted remarks. It also might be possible to
make a distinction between Sustar’s characterization of Chavéz saying
that Marx and Lenin were obsolete and his actual words, namely that “The
PSUV doesn’t call itself “marxist-leninist” because it is a dogmatic
thesis that has passed and doesn’t accord with the reality of today.”
Calling oneself “Marxist-Leninist” is pretty stupid in fact.
The other problem is in trying to find a smoking gun that proves that
Chavéz is some kind of phony socialist based on what he says about Marx
or Lenin. If he can be judged on this litmus test, then all the glowing
references to Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg et al in his speeches should get
him an early parole for good behavior. Now, I don’t want to try to
convince the ISO comrades that they are taking the wrong approach–a
daunting task to say the least–but you simply can’t judge Hugo Chavéz on
this basis. It is a talmudic approach to politics. When you sit around
poring over texts in order to establish the sanctity of a political
figure, you are bordering on the theological.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/08/27/how-not-to-write-about-venezuela/
