On Nov 29, 2007, at 11:50 AM, Louis Proyect wrote:
Unlike miserable ultraleft sectarians like Bandera Roja, the Marxists who have helped to elect Hugo Chávez do not see themselves on any such “holy mission.” Indeed, it is the absence of such self- aggrandizement that has so disoriented much of the left outside of Venezuela, at least those sectors of the left that still clutch to “vanguardist” illusions. While most of them are not nearly as bad as Bandera Roja, they still see Hugo Chávez as an impediment to the True Revolution that is gathering momentum at the grass roots level. In this scenario, the only thing that can save Venezuela is some kind of latter-day version of the Soviets in 1917 and a working-class revolutionary party to lead them toward a seizure of power. While Chávez’s government is a decent social democratic alternative to the neoliberal solution that the US would prefer, it falls short of their ideals–the operative word being ideal.
Yeah. It's as if these sectarians have no idea how hard it is to do something radical that has a prayer of surviving. A while back I had a chat with a senior guy in the ISO about Castro and Chavez. Both are caudillos, of course. What struck me about the conversation was how little sense he had of the challenges coming from domestic and foreign opposition, not to mention the practical difficulties of making sure the electricity keeps running. But of course someone that won the ISO seal of approval could never take power anywhere - even in the little activist groups they try to dominate.
Doug
