Venezuela is not trying to fight world capitalism. It is attempting to improve the conditions of people who live in Venezuela, which in the eyes of the Chavez people requires autonomy from the US, which in turn requires a counterweight to the US. It's all quite logical and intuitive. ;)
--- On Tue, 6/9/09, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Stratfor on Obama, Yahoo and Natural Growth
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 3:58 PM
> > Maybe all these foreign claims
> on the U.S. are a sign of decay. And maybe
> > it's a bunch of sharpies taking advantage of naifs. I
> don't really know. But
> > I can't share your certainty, Dennis, that it's game
> over for the USA.
>
> I was reminded of Dennis's view of the world last night
> when I was
> reading an interview with some members of El Libertario on
> Chavez and
> Chavismo:
>
> We must understand that in Venezuela we are today living
> through a
> rerun of the old Cold War left schema based on
> confrontation between
> capitalism and the socialist countries. Thanks to its oil
> resources
> and the importance of oil to the world economy, the Chavez
> government
> today positions itself as one of the leading forces in this
> conflict.
> Much as this confrontation existed before the coming of
> Chavismo,
> after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern Bloc, the
> forms of
> imperialist domination are not the same. It is as if
> reality has
> changed but the Chavistas haven’t realised! The regime is
> trying to
> answer new problems with old schemas. Both the Chavistas
> and the
> opposition still have Cold War theoretical stances. To put
> it another
> way: given the lack of critical thinking and theorising,
> new practice
> or fresh reflection, they fall back on old ideas and old
> strategies.
>
> So Chavez has created the ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative
> for Latin
> America and the Caribbean, a new institution intended to
> build new
> relationships between Latin American countries and become
> a
> counterweight to US hegemony. To achieve this it seeks
> alliance with
> the Russian Federation, Iran and China... countries which
> in our eyes
> are part of world capitalism. But there is all sorts of
> propaganda
> about Chavista Venezuela’s leading role in a so-called
> new movement
> for anti-imperialist “liberation”. As if this country
> is in the
> vanguard of some global upheaval! Always following the old
> model of
> the Cold War, bloc against bloc...
>
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