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| Tuesday, March 20 | | · | Finally, Some Good News |
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| Wednesday, December 13 | | · | The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was |
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Latin America: Venezuela: Are we really losing the revolution?
Tuesday, December 07 @ 22:59:21 UTC
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 Venezuela: Are we really losing the revolution?
By Franz J. T. Lee
December 07, 2010
The Twilight of the 'Wretched of the Earth'
Across the globe, over the last decade, the 'wretched of the
earth' have set their hopeful, tearful, proletarian eyes on the
Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America, in particular, on Venezuela, on
President Hugo Chavez Frias, on the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
(PSUV). What is
happening here in Venezuela doubtlessly has global, transhistoric
relevance. Internally and
externally, from all over, sincere, solidaric comrades are confused
about the character of the Bolivarian Revolution, are concerned about
its immediate future, some voice their constructive and some their
desperate critique of
the current situation, and some are being misled by the ongoing
international media war against the Venezuelan government. The
following reflections are of a general, theoretical nature which will
be followed by more detailed analysis later. The topic is delicate,
hence it is imperative to place it in its emancipatory global context.
Surely, it is our historic responsibility to defend all the gains which
the Bolivarian Revolution has brought to the impoverished workers. We
need not categorize all these gains here; President Hugo Chavez Frias
himself repeats them daily in
all his national and international programs and interviews. Who wants
to verify his statistics and facts should come to Venezuela to
investigate the reality of the Bolivarian Revolution here and now.
However, we should recall that bourgeois capitalist history has
demonstrated that one of the most
complicated things to make is a global revolution. The current mode of
production which today is annihilating itself systematically, was born
in Miletus nearly three millennia ago: only now it is full grown, or
using the words of Immanuel Kant, has transformed itself to full
recognizability.
Who cannot see it
now, will not have much time left to learn to see it in the near
future. The capitalist revolution has been the formidable weapon of
revolutionary capitalism. By careful study we would note, that not
socialism but its negation, capitalism, is revolutionary.
Now, concerning the current political moment that the Bolivarian
Revolution, its leader Hugo Chávez Frias and the United
Socialist Party of Venezuela are experiencing, what is
going on? What is going wrong? For now and to start with, we can only
deal with the concept of revolution, by trying to place it under a
macroscopic critique.
Why is it only now, that many a concerned observer would suddenly note
that something is going wrong with our Bolivarian Revolution? Why does
it go unnoticed that something was going wrong with
all the past and current revolutions undertaken in the name of the
'wretched of the earth'?
In whose interest have revolutions really materialized? Who benefited
or benefits, as the Latin question 'cui
bono' asks? In whose class interest is it to 'radicalize' the
Bolivarian Revolution and which class would rather be interested in
getting rid of president Chavez and the PSUV? Then, whose interests is
the PSUV defending? Why has there been an avalanche of warnings and
calls for self-critique and rectification? Who really cares about
socialism in Venezuela?
Well, most certainly I do care, many of us do!
Ever since three decades, I have been living, teaching and fighting for
emancipation
in this beautiful country among its warm and friendly working
population! Over the
last decade, I have been completely free to voice my political opinion,
always trying to contribute in a scholarly, scientific and philosophic
manner without attacking anybody ad
hominem, because problems never boil down to the actions of a
single individual but rather have to be placed in their historical
context.
Now, let us ask some guiding questions.
In history, in the course of the class struggle, which of the
revolutions succeeded to definitely defend and globalize itself after
its political and military
victory? Which revolution definitely materialized its class
interests and attained its social, political, economic and cultural
goals?
In the answer lies the very quintessence of a revolution and the very
clue to detect whether
anywhere in our world today a
revolution
is
actually taking
place, expressing itself in
practice and ideology.
Taking as an example some authentic, great revolutions like the
American, French and
Industrial Revolutions, we should ask ourselves: What class interests
did they have in common? In which way were these Revolutions connected?
What was their respective historical tasks? In which point did they all
converge? Who really celebrated these revolutions? Did the serfs,
slaves, peasants and workers celebrate them? Why, after eons, has the
dawn of the 'wretched of the earth' not set on as yet?
What then was and still is, the social function of a revolution?
Venezuela, let us scrutinize the following:
* Revolution - 'rivoluzzione' or 'rivoltura' - was born in a specific,
historical era to bring capitalism into power as the dominant mode of
global destruction;
* Revolution had the historical task to destroy the feudal mode of
production, its class structure, its theological superstructure and
absolutist State;
* Revolution had the historical task to industrialize the metropolitan
states and to convert the 'Third World' into a huge concentration camp
of cheap labor and a paradise for the exploitation of natural resources.
* Revolution had the historical task to dialectically establish and
reinforce 'unequal exchange' (Samir Amin), the two sides of the world
market, the splitting of the world into capitalist and colonial
countries. For example, as a producer of agricultural products and
later as an oil-producing extractive economy, with no original
accumulation of capital and no corresponding class structure, Venezuela
got underdeveloped at the same rate as Europe or the United States were
'developing' themselves.
* The last country which would enter the realm of metropolitan
industrial countries in the 20th century, was Japan. Till
globalization, the rest of the 'United Nations' were not allowed to
participate in the sonorous process of global revolution and
revolutionary globalization.
* Hence, one thing is to make the bourgeois democratic capitalist
revolution in the metropolitan countries and another thing is to be a
victim state (what nowadays is cynically being called a 'failed
society' or 'rogue state') ransacked by revolutionary globalization or
global revolution. The latter is the case of contemporary Venezuela.
Not any country of the world can make a revolution, not even one 'sui
generis', competing against the 'Empire'. To have a minimum of possible
success, we need to be very precise with our thoughts and acts.
*The revolution, as historically proven, is capitalist in nature.
Capitalism has been the first and only, truly revolutionary mode of
production in history, as stated by the very Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party. Now, concerning
emancipation and its theoretical and political 'vehicle' so as to pull
the emergency brake and put a stop to the exploitation of man by man,
as well as the exploitation of nature by society - we need a new
philosophy, much more powerful than all of bourgeois Illustration at
its time, one that even 'transcends' dialectical materialism. We cannot
fall back and try to make a revolution that's already been made and
globalized and of which we have been the historical victims, ever since
the onset of the transatlantic slave trade; much less can we continue
to remain immersed in ideological confusion and religious, messianic
illusions. Let us leave the incorporation into revolutionizing
corporate capitalism to other possible candidates, who aspire to be the
new partners in this imperialist 'Holy Alliance', like Russia, India,
China, Brazil and who knows, South Africa. This is not, should not be,
our endeavor.
What stands on the order of the day in Venezuela and the world is the
emancipation of the wage slaves in the factories, in the oil
industries, in agriculture, in the laboratories, in the offices, in the
educational sector, in the armies, in the state apparatuses. In this
field and with regard to the destruction of surplus value and the
annihilation of private property of the major means of production, very
little has been done. Nationalization is not socialism, much less
emancipation, in reality, it is capitalist quid pro quo, business as usual.
Anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, socialism must reflect itself in
words and deeds, words alone don't suffice. We can find the finest
jewels in the speeches of President Chavez, in the broadcasts of
alternative community radios and TV's, even in the state-run media, and
more so even in the political program of the PSUV itself. There we find
all the emancipatory expectations, anticipations, heart-felt wishes and
desires of the workers and peasants, of the exploited classes. However,
if reality does not reflect any of these manifold, anti-capitalist
expressions, apart from one or the other, barely perceptible tendency,
our speeches, broadcasts and programs become ideology.
Do
we
perhaps
have
a problem with the '11th Thesis of Marx on Feuerbach'?
Thus, are we just interpreting Venezuelan reality in various ways, but
not
changing the capitalist conditions, not really and concretely creating
a better
world for the millions of poor workers, as Bertolt Brecht so eloquently
demanded?
Is this why many perceive and fear that the revolution is in danger,
that we might lose the revolution? Is this the reason for the declining
support by the grassroots base for the Bolivarian Revolution? Is this
the reason why we once again will be seeing the faces of the past in
the new Venezuelan parliament from next year on?
One thing's for sure, something is going wrong and has to be corrected
urgently. To begin with, the glaring difference between the political
program of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the reality on
the ground, the ideological wedge of what politicians say or write and
what they actually do, has to be eliminated. Only when this is done,
only when the dialectics between praxis and theory has been
established, can we hope to once again grasp the imagination, fantasy
and unconditional enthusiasm of the Venezuelan workers, just like in
the years 2002/2003 when for a brief time-span our emancipatory ideas
transformed themselves into a material, liberatory force. The absence
of theory and praxis and the nefarious presence of ideology and
practice, where one thing is said and another thing is done, is the
major reason why the Bolivarian ship of state is getting stuck in the
Caribbean doldrums.
But
rather
than
asking: Are we losing the revolution?, we should ask
ourselves: are we gaining human
emancipation? Are we on the way to transcend corporate, global
capitalism, globalized revolution and revolutionary globalization? Are
we on the way to eliminate exploitation of man by man and of nature by
society, or are we in a Cancún-style game of bargaining and
brokering and dealing with business as usual, nevermind the
catastrophic consequences for humanity?
franz@franzlee.org.ve
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