You may be right. I may be crazy.

[vostoklake]

This post coming to you from the very shiny Ubuntu Dapper. After I stayed up to 2 am doing the installation and making the broadband work properly. And now I have to go to work. This should be an interesting exploration of whether "anti-sleep" is as much of a drug as the Book of the SubGenius claims.

In other news, next Wednesday I get to be "dominatrix of ceremonies" [sic!] at a potluck for the Venezuelan ambassador. Anyone want any messages passed on to Hugo Chavez?

Comments

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Didn't know the Venezuelan ambassador was that way inclined! :)

Anyway, I'm confused, is Chavez a hero or a villian?

He seems to have both the left and the right against him, but it also seems he is still trying to make conditions better for ordinary people, run good policies on sustainability and the environment, work against globalization, and push economic policies that are significantly more people-friendly than most other governments.

And given Robert Shapiro was the US ambassadors to Venezuela during the 2002 coup, with John Negroponte in tow, the guy who organized the El Salvadoran death squads, Chavez' clams that the US organized the coups against him is quite likely to be true. Both Americans are well known for such activities in other countries.

Negroponte for example, after taking over Iraq and instituting the program of torture at Abu Grahib, is now in charge of the cross service intelligence commission in Washington, having got his rep suprressing socialist governments throughout South America

On the other hand it is workers and unionists who are acting against Chavez in many cases, and general strikes are relatively common.

So should we be saying to Chavez "Keep up the good work and keep sticking your finger up the nose of Bush!" or should we be saying "Let go of power you bloody dictator!" ?

Congrats on getting Ubuntu up, BTW!

[laputain.livejournal.com]

He seems to have both the left and the right against him...it is workers and unionists who are acting against Chavez in many cases

To some extent, you're repeating propaganda and disinformation here. The union movement, as well as disorganised workers and the urban poor, are overwhelmingly Chavista or at least critical supporters of him. In the Western media, the bosses' lockout of late 2002 was called a "general strike" for pure propaganda reasons. The totally corrupt leaders of the "official" trade union federation, the CTV, are opposed to Chavez and supported the coup against him, but they have zero credibility among workers - except those in the nationalised oil company (PdVSA), which is where the only "workers action against Chavez" has happened. A new union federation (the UNT) have sprung up to fill the void - they give critical support to Chavez from the left

So in answer to your question:

So should we be saying to Chavez "Keep up the good work and keep sticking your finger up the nose of Bush!" or should we be saying "Let go of power you bloody dictator!" ?

The first option is the best - but we should always remember that it's the workers and the urban poor who make the revolution, not some guy in a snazzy beret. Chavez is a left-wing reformist politician who is carrying out very good social policies (and trying to leverage more independence for Latin America). However, that's not the real story in Venezuela. The real story is that Chavez's initiatives are opening up space on the left for a real, bottom-up workers' and peasant's movement which might well soon be in a position to *really* change things in Venezuela. Chavez is only a politician, and seems to want to reach an accomodation with Venezuelan capitalism rather than smash it. The real story is the social forces that the "Bolivarian Revolution" is unleashing.

The other factor is that to some degree Chavez is a prisoner in the Presidential Palace. He can make all the decrees he likes, but he's at the mercy of the corrupt bureaucracy of the Venezuelan state. (For example, 20% of PdVSA revenues just "go missing", even after eight years of Chavez in charge.) So in the final analysis it's the workers and urban poor organising in the workplaces and in the slums that are the real hope for the revolution. Chavez is to be supported to the extent that he helps these people's struggles, and criticised whenever he tries to cut deals with the bosses or with dodgy foreign leaders like Lula or Kirchner.

[mundens.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarifications.

I didn't realize the "official trade union federation" was not supported by the workers.

It did seem a lot of "real people" supported him, and that he was trying to do good stuff, but at the same time he led a military coup and was doing things like firing people in the military who weren't his supporters, and other things which are the hallmark of dictatorships, so not having been close to it I wasn't quite sure.

So, given the clarification, feel free to pass on my best wishes and support. Though what good that will do him I dont know! :)

[laputain.livejournal.com]

firing people in the military who weren't his supporters, and other things which are the hallmark of dictatorships

As I mentioned, a lot of Chavez's social agenda is frustrated by the state apparatus, including the high generals (the lower officers and rank-and-file are generally pro-Chavez). The idea that the bureaucracy or the military are neutral parties whose independence has to be respected is questionable even in the most "democratic" state, and completely laughable in a revolutionary situation. Chavez really should fire more of the people who're siphoning off the oil wealth and busting up landless peasant movements - but he's determined to play it by the book, which I suppose is admirable, if perhaps naive.

[darthsappho.livejournal.com]

Firing people in the military who took part in a coup against him seems entirely reasonable. Whatever he may have done in the past, he's currently in office because of free and fair elections (much more democratic than the situation in the US).

[jessikast]

I was very impressed that you got out of bed on time this morning - I slept until nearly midday!

(Also! Livejournal working for me again! Whoohoo!)