The Spartacists, of course, are opposed to Hugo Chavez, describing his political movement as a typical "popular front" formation. (Their criticisms are not wholly off base, but seem to me to miss the poiint of what we in the U.S. can do for reasons I have described in other posts. In some ways their positons seem to conform to our favorite anarchist's positions, as much as I can determine his positions.) The Sparts describe Chavez as a danger to the popular organizations that support him in the same way that Allende was a danger because it can only lead to "class colaboration" and the ultimate violent defeat of popular movements.
That is ironic, because Chavez doesn't need US leftists' support now:
> his national and Latin American support is rock-solid, and Washington
> is too busy with the Middle East, what with campaigns for dual regime
> changes in Iran and Palestine -- to make a major move against
> Venezuela at this moment.
>
> Most US leftists seem to me to be always a couple of years behind the
> revolutionary solidarity schedule:
>
Good point.
The important question seems to me "Why is this so?" Partially, it is because most of us do not have direct connections to people in other places in the world. There are no direct institutional or personal connections. Simply discussing political events with a member of a neighborhood organization in the slums of Caracas, or with a union organizer in Central America, or a doctor working with the poor in Rio de Janeiro tends to open the mind to what is going on outside of our own lives, our own society. Of course, I am not even writing about what it would look like to have truly international institutions, unions, parties, solidarity organizations, educational organizations, even clinics and libraries, that maintain grass root connections throughout the world.
In New York, and especially in Queens, we have more opportunities to expand our horizons than most people in the U.S. have. I made my first contacts with people from Central America here way back in 1982, and I met my first friends from Rio in Astoria, Queens.
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