[lbo-talk] NYT: Chavez loses, 51% to 49%; Chavez does concede on TV

[Charles Brown]

Although I DO NOT AGREE with the badmouthing of Chavez, I think Doug is
mistaken.  Going back to the American Revolution, there was no single
paramount leader of the  relative stature we saw in revolutionary Cuba
or China.  Even in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Stalin inspired Lenin
cult notwithstanding, there was a real collective leadership in the
party that went beyond Lenin or even Trotsky.  (Democratic Centralism
and all that it implied, for good or ill). SR

^^^^^^^
CB: There's nothing special about it just being _one_. Better to have a
collective of leaders, so that it is not dependent on one life.  
Chavez, Castro, Ho Che Minh are/were part of collectives.  There are
central committees and national boards. It's not _one_ leader, but
leaders are a practical necessity.  The Bolivarians have a whole
legislative/executive group of leaders, and are no doubt as collective
as the Bolsheviks or Cubans.  Chavez is probably in a party
club/collective.