Trinicenter.com - World energy crisis: The Venezuelan context

by Franz J. T. Lee

Do we really have a "World Energy Crisis"? Is there a global, historical connection between this "crisis" and the dramatic social events in Venezuela? And why is Latin America a revolutionary time-bomb?

Already on June 12, 2000, in an article: "The Unnecessary Energy Crisis: How to Solve It Quickly", T. E. Bearden, LTC, U.S. Army (Retired) CEO, CTEC Inc., the Director of the Association of Distinguished American Scientists (ADAS) and a Fellow Emeritus of the Alpha Foundation's Institute for Advanced Study (AIAS), explained the energetic quintessence of the current world recession, depression and crisis.

In the last analysis, within this "crisis," the current problems of Venezuela, the war on Afghanistan and Iraq, the imperialist policies of Russia vis-a-vis the Balkan peoples, the counter-revolutionary roles of Israel in the Middle East and of South Africa on the African continent, have to be seen.

Firstly, a very careful historical politico-economic study of the revolutionary processes of the accumulation of world capital, of the various modes of production on the planet, will reveal that all the well-known, dramatic, dialectical, intra-systemic changes that have occurred, basically concern the radical transformations of energy and technological sources and resources.

This applies to all productive processes, from the stone-axe to the computer, from the use of man-power to horse-power, to Pentagon "Aliens", to United States "Flying Saucers", leaving Los Alamos, driven on by Tesla energy and technology, already discovered and partially probably used since the end of the 19th Century.

Historically, as intrinsic part of the even, uneven and combined development, slave labor clashed with agricultural manual labor, the latter survived, then, later, as a result of the "Emancipation of the Slaves" and the "Industrial Revolution", both were superseded predominantly by industrial production, by modern factory labor.

The British textile industry necessitated wool, thus sheep drove the peasants off their ancestral lands, food production diminished, vagrant laws eliminated the unemployed serfs, that is, progressively destroyed the obsolete agricultural energetic resources.

Nowadays, as a result of a "Global Revolution," six billion already obsolete manual industrial and agricultural laborers, as forces of production, as energetic forces, are continually being eliminated from the global market. So-called "intellectual labor," "intellectual property," "human capital" or "global social and natural resources of mankind" ... for example, Amazonia ... not only usher in the current fascist stage of a mode of global destruction, but also of a still possible post-productive mode of creativity and creation, thus, also nurturing already existent, alternative, energetic sources and resources, that could give birth to trans-revolutionary possibilities and emancipatory realities.

This is the trans-historic background in which the current Bolivarian Revolution has to be placed, be seen, as part of the tip of the emancipatory, creative iceberg -- for it, for the impoverished millions of Latin America, to be anything else, surely would mean, regression, stagnation, vegetation, reform, self-annihilation.

Venezuela, as one of the main suppliers of the "long term" already obsolete energetic resources of oil and gas, is directly affected by current "new wars" by the EURO-US "world mode of destruction"; hence, let us summarize what an expert in this matter, Thomas Bearden warned about ... that is, in how far the global "energy crisis" affects Venezuela and Latin America, and why the permanent, ferocious, global, globalized attacks against the Bolivarian Revolution.

Already in 2000, what did Bearden tell us with reference to the current "world energy crisis"?

"The world energy crisis is now driving the economies of the world nations. Presently there is an escalating worldwide demand for electrical power and transportation, much of which depends on fossil fuels and particularly oil or oil products. The resulting demand for oil is expected to increase year by year. Recent sharp rises in some U.S. metropolitan areas included gasoline at more than $2.50 per gallon already.

*At the same time, it appears that world availability of oil may have peaked in early 2000, if one factors in the suspected Arab inflation of reported oil reserves. From now on it appears that oil availability will steadily decline, slowly at first but then at an increasing pace."

Concerning the "some 150 nations," mainly of South America, Africa and Asia, who live outside the big metropolitan countries, he explained their immediate future:

"The transfer of manufacturing and production to many of these nations is a transfer to essentially "slave labor" nations where workers have few if any benefits, are paid extremely low wages, work long hours, and have no unions or bargaining rights. The local politicians can usually be "bought" very cheaply so that there are also no effective government controls. This has set up a de facto return to the feudalistic capitalism of an earlier era when enormous profits could be and were extracted from the backs of impoverished workers, and government checks and balances were nil."

Very accurately he foresaw the current collapse of the global economy:

"Bluntly, we foresee these factors and others { } not covered converging to a catastrophic collapse of the world economy in about eight years. As the collapse of the Western economies nears, one may expect catastrophic stress on the 160 developing nations as the developed nations are forced to dramatically curtail orders."

Thus, how do the desperate actions of blowing up "Twin Towers" and declaring "new wars" on Afghanistan and Iraq, including oil sabotage in Venezuela, fit into this gruesome picture?

And, who all are more desperate?

Surely, less North Korea or Iran, but in the first place, certainly, the United States Administration, with its fascist Janus-face, Bush-Kerry, Corporate America, but also the "opposition" in Venezuela, Carter, Gaviria and Gustavo Cisneros.

"History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions. Prior to the final economic collapse, the stress on nations will have increased the intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain to be released. As an example, suppose a starving North Korea { } launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South Korea, including US forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response."

Below, he explained the capitalist, corporate, energetic reasons for the establishment of the current "Fourth Empire" and why the issues at stake are so urgent for the survival of the current "world order" for "world peace." In other words, he indicated why Iraq and Afghanistan need "regime change," why Iran and Venezuela are next on the list, and why President Chavez' "understanding of democracy" is "out-dated."

"The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the biosphere, at least for many decades.

My personal estimate is that ... beginning about 2007 ... on our present energy course we will have reached an 80% probability of this 'final destruction of civilization itself' scenario occurring at any time, with the probability slowly increasing as time passes. One may argue about the timing, slide the dates a year or two, etc., but the basic premise and general time frame holds. We face not only a world economic crisis, but also a world destruction crisis."

Well, we have passed the critical year, 2003, the following await us:

"The 2003 date appears to be the critical "point of no return" for the survival of civilization as we have known it. Reaching that point, say, in 2005 will not solve the crisis in time, and the collapse of the world economy as well as the destruction of civilization and the biosphere will still almost certainly occur, even with the solutions in hand. ... Eerily, this very threat now looms in our not too distant future, due in large part to the increasing and unbearable stresses that escalating oil prices will elicit. So about seven years or so from now, we will enter the period of the threat of the Final Armageddon, unless we do something very, very quickly now, to totally and permanently solve the present "electrical energy from oil crisis."

Of course, Thomas Bearden is not a socialist, he wants the best for Corporate America. Thus, according to him, what is required to solve the problem? Venezuela, listen very carefully to what he said.

"To avoid the impending collapse of the world economy and/or the destruction of civilization and the biosphere, we must quickly replace much of the "electrical energy from oil" heart of the crisis at great speed, and simultaneously replace a significant part of the "transportation using oil products" factor also. ... In the name of all humanity, let us begin! Else by the time this first decade of the new millennium ends, much of humanity may not remain to see the second decade."

Other solutions that he has suggested, could be read in the document referred to above, however, according to him, it is now already too late. No real measure was taken to avoid a global catastrophe.

In any event, la lutta continua, but it is important to see the real, true, historic context of the current Bolivarian Revolution; surely, the solution of problems is to be found neither in "away with Chávez" nor in "away with the Opposition."

Precisely this global situation has produced the Bolivarian Revolution, it is its alma mater, its emancipatory matrix. We have to solve our immediate short term problems, but even they are dictated by trans-historic long term processes and developments. We have to arm ourselves, practically, militarily, theoretically, philosophically, and creatively, that is, in toto, we have to enter the horizons of invisible, invincible, invulnerable, emancipatory spheres.

Till now, definitely, the Bolivarian revolution is an excellent, remarkable, emancipatory paradigm: Hasta la Victoria Siempre! A Paso de Vencedores!

Franz John Tennyson Lee, Ph. D (University of Frankfurt), Author, Professor Titular & Chairholder of Philosophy and Political Science, University of The Andes, Merida (Venezuela) -- www.franzjutta.com ; www.franz-lee.org ;