Joanna
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Not exactly. Only boddhi was assuming that. Every other remark quoted
> in this post assumes a great deal of diversity.
>
> Doug
>
> joanna wrote:
>
>> This discussion assumes that there's no such thing as the Military,
>> but many different kinds of militiaries, as shaped by specific
>> historic and social forces.
>>
>> Joanna
>>
>> boddi satva wrote:
>>
>>> Yes the military is a well-known champion of democracy.
>>>
>>> Oh, wait, I guess that can't really be true, can it?
>>>
>>>
>>> boddi
>>>
>>> On 12/3/05, Yoshie Furuhashi
>>> <mailto:furuhashi.1 at osu.edu><furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Michael wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>> dhenwood at panix.com 12/02/05 10:38 AM >>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>> joanna wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I was asking a knowledgeable friend about how to account for the
>>>>>> Venezuelan army's swing to the left, when the military of so many
>>>>>> other Latin American countries swung in the other direction, and he
>>>>>> guessed that it had something to do with the fact that the officer
>>>>>> corps in Venezuela is not drawn from the elites but from the
>>>>>> aspiring lower classes of the countryside and the cities.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Richard Gott has some good stuff on this in his book on Chavez. He
>>>>> points out that the militaries in LatAm do have strong left, as
>>>>> well as right, traditions. In a stunning phrase, Gott describes a
>>>>> Venezuelan officer as being Harvard-trained and of Trotskyist
>>>>> leanings.
>>>>> Doug
>>>>> <<<<<>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> recall peruvian military of late 1960s, junior officers from
>>>>> 'lesser' social strata revolted against their role as agents of
>>>>> landed-elite used to repress rural indian insurgencies, they
>>>>> carried out successful revolt against gov't of balaunde terry
>>>>> (stereotypical liberal pol who made campaign promises he either
>>>>> could not nor intended to fulfill)...
>>>>>
>>>>> under leadership of velasco alvarado, military gov't initiated
>>>>> significant reforms, beginning with expropriation of land *and*
>>>>> establishment of worker cooperatives on large estates, velasco
>>>>> gov't also began nationalizing 'commanding heights' of the economy
>>>>> (including u.s. oil. copper, sugar interests)...
>>>>>
>>>>> gov't did not carry out comprehensive nationalization of private-
>>>>> owned industrial production, however, it required 'profit-sharing'
>>>>> and transfer of stock to workers until they controlled 50%, goal
>>>>> was to create worker/management 'co-determination'...
>>>>>
>>>>> cultural changes occurred as well with recognition of indian
>>>>> peoples, adoption of bilingualism with declaration of quechua as
>>>>> official language alongside spanish, and selection of tupac amaru
>>>>> as national symbol...
>>>>>
>>>>> above happened quite 'peacefully' until internal conflict among the
>>>>> officers resulted in ouster of velasco,
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Left-republican movements in the military existed in the Middle East
>>>> also: Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, etc.
>>>>
>>>> Yoshie Furuhashi
>>>> <http://montages.blogspot.com><http://montages.blogspot.com>
>>>> <http://monthlyreview.org><http://monthlyreview.org>
>>>> <http://mrzine.org><http://mrzine.org>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
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