[lbo-talk] Street-fighting Days

[Gar Lipow]

On 5/22/06, Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> But Chavez doesn't need much defense at this moment in history, let
> alone defense from Chuck's outburst or a lone ISO man's dismissive
> remark about him.  I doubt Chavez asks us to be vigilant against
> occasional statements like those by leftists.  Besides, as Chuck
> suggests, folks in Venezuela will eventually have to think about who
> will succeed him, just as Cubans will have to think about who will
> succeed Fidel (hopefully, they won't postpone that till Fidel's
> death).  Otherwise, their revolutions may die with them.
>
> I'd be happier if folks took interest in Chavez' foreign policy.  He's
> always busy trying to find allies and trade partners, because he
> realizes the dangers of Caracas getting diplomatically isolated (you
> may not have noticed, but both Iran and Venezuela failed to get
> elected to the UN's new Human Rights Council
> <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=axq3WSCRtQ_c&refer=latin_america>)
> and of the Venezuelan economy being too dependent on trade with the
> US; and his relation to Iran, which predates Ahmadinejad's presidency,
> is one of his efforts to ensure the Bolivarian Revolution's survival.
> If Washington succeeds in regime change in Iran, it's not likely that
> the resulting government will be very favorably disposed to the Chavez
> government (though the process of regime change will push up oil
> prices yet higher, so there will be ironic short-term gains from it).
>
> --
> Yoshie
> <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
> <http://mrzine.org>
> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
>

The only thing is I don't think  Chavez's foreign  policy tells people

 outside of Venezuela much. He has the worlds  sole super-power out to
destroy his country and kill him  personally.  He needs to take his
allies where he can get them.  That does not make those allies friends
of  the U.S. left. They may be; but it does not follow from their
alliance with Venezuela.  If  Venezuela can get an alliance with Iran
or China  or anyone else that give it some long term protection from
U.S. destablization campaigns or direct economic or military warfare -
more power  to it. That does not make either Iran or  China countries
we need to admire. Will we oppose U.S. imperial attacks, including
economic attacks against them? Certainly.    But  that does not make
them models.

Incidentally I'm pretty sure large number of leftists supported Chavez
before the coup.  Just about everyone was initially suspicious; lots
of leaders are elected on a populist platform and  then govern as
neoliberals. Do you honestly think that no-one who supported Chavez
inside Venezuela feared that?   But I can give examples form Znet of
support for  Chavez  in the time leading up to the coup. Since  Znet
is essentially a content aggregator not an opinion former, I'd
consider that a good indicator. Examples:

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=1606 (2000)
http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/2000-08/02weisbrot.htm (Aug 2000 )
http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/hallinanchavez.cfm (Dec 2001)
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=1607 (Feb 2002)
http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2002-03/13pilger.cfm (March 2002)