[Marxism] The Challenges of 21st Century Socialism in Venezuela
processes, may be coming up against the limits of redistributive reform within the logic of global capitalism, especially given the crisis of global capitalism. Anti-neo-liberalism that does not challenge more fundamentally the very logic of capitalism runs up against limitations that may now have been reached. It may be that the best or the only defense of the revolution is to radicalize and deepen the revolutionary process, to push forward structural transformations that go beyond redistribution. The fact is that the Venezuelan bourgeoisie may have been displaced in part from political power but it is still very much in economic control. Breaking that economic control implies a more significant change in property and class relations. This in turn means breaking the domination of capital, of global capital and its local agents. Naturally this is a Herculian task. There is no clear way forward and each step generates complex new contradictions and Gordian knots. Of course these are matters the whole Global Left must contemplate. Let us recall the lessons of the Nicaraguan and other revolutions. Multiclass alliances generate contradictions once the honeymoon stage of easy redistributive reform and social programs reach their limit. Then multiclass alliances begin to collapse because there are fundamental contradictions between distinct class projects and interests. At that point a revolution must more clearly define its class project; not just in discourse or in politics but in actual structural transformation. At a more technical level, we could say that the contradictions generated by trying to break the domination of global capital are not the fault of the revolution. Venezuela is still a capitalist country in which the law of value, of capital accumulation, is operative. Efforts to establish a contrary logic - a logic of social need and social distribution - run up against the law of value. But in a capitalist society violating the law of value throws everything into haywire, generating many problems and new disequilibria that the counterrevolution is able to take advantage of. This is the challenge for any socialist-oriented revolution within global capitalism. From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives URL:http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/23797 Print -- Noah S. Zweig n...@umail.ucsb.edu Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Chavez asks Venezuela TV to make 'socialist soap operas'
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jCZS9tvS2NVoYK0FGWtIUx-Ff1yw Chavez asks Venezuela TV to make 'socialist soap operas' (AFP) ? 3 hours ago CARACAS ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday he has asked film producers to make socialist soap operas, with government help if needed, because there's too much capitalism on television. A while ago, I was in Cuba and they broadcast soap operas there, not capitalist soap operas but with a social content, socialist soap operas, Chavez told a group of filmmakers and scriptwriters guested on his weekly radio and television show, Alo Presidente. I'm going to ask that we make socialist soap operas (in Venezuela), instead of capitalist ones. The firebrand leftist leader offered government help to producers following his advice. We can also make good movies, he added. Not capitalist movies that are poison and incite our children to take drugs and even push them into crime. In 2006, Chavez opened Villa del Cine, a filmmaking center outside Caracas that produces full-length and short films and documentaries. Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More » -- Noah S. Zweig n...@umail.ucsb.edu Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] POLITICS-US: Activists, Big Business Converge on G20 Meet
lake on the outskirts of the city, as well as forming huge coal piles that sit idle leaking mercury into the Monogahela River. There are dozens of large coal-fired electric power generators, and one nuclear power plant, all along the Ohio River stretching down to West Virginia, supplying electricity to much of the east coast. David Meieran, an organiser with the Three Rivers Climate Convergence, a Pittsburgh-based environmental group, says It is absurd that Pittsburgh's chamber of commerce and corporations like the PNC-bank are saying they are green companies now just because they are constructing these environmentally-friendly buildings. He adds, They still maintain sizable holdings in coal companies that do mountaintop removal and longwall mining, profiting off deaths and environmental devastation. In 2008, according to the American Lung Association, Pittsburgh ranked above all other U.S. cities in short-term levels of particle pollution, a deadly cocktail of ash, soot, diesel exhaust, chemicals, metals and aerosols that can spike dangerously for hours to weeks on end. The defence industry has a presence in Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon University has a robotics institute working closely with the U.S. Department of Defence. Local universities are involved in healthcare research and development tied to the private sector. To defend the summit, Pittsburgh's mayor and city council have amassed a force of four thousand police, including many auxiliaries from the rural countryside. Two thousand National Guard and an untold number of secret service agents with hi-tech surveillance will be present. Diane Richard, public information officer for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, explains There are facilities in place to afford us leeway in how many arrests we have to make. She acknowledged other agencies would have horseback units present. Much of the discussion within Pittsburgh's advertiser-radio and newspapers has focused on financial costs of hosting the summit and the inconvenience to downtown dwellers. One downtown resident told IPS that a big part of the population in the city is as old and conservative as Miami, Florida, and they don't want to see any spray paint or flag burning. He expects that the Pittsburgh police will use harsh tactics against protesters. It is believed tens of thousands of protesters from Pittsburgh and around the country will gather. A mass march will start on Sep. 25, at 12:00 P.M., on the corner of 5th and Craft near Pittsburgh's college. Reverend Thomas E. Smith, of the local Monumental Church, has offered his lawn and parking lots to protestors. He explains, We are hosting a tent city that is symbolic of the need for a fair and living wage, and for a national and international workers' movement similar to the poor peoples' campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King was in the process of organising prior to being assassinated. The G20 protesters face hurdles in getting their message out to a wider audience. With official politics in the United States channeled through a corporate media and a powerful two-party monopoly, peace and justice organisers say, the biggest challenge is just for their message to be heard. (END/2009) -- Noah S. Zweig n...@umail.ucsb.edu YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Mike Davis on the California budget crisis
http://againstthegrain.org/program/210/id/321436/tues-8-04-09-sold-out-rising -- Noah S. Zweig n...@umail.ucsb.edu YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
