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16th WFSY - Chavez once again calls for socialism as the only way to destroy capitalism
Bolivarian Revolution
In Defence of Marxism- http://www.marxist.com
http://www.marxist.com/venezuela-wfsy090805.htm
16th World Festival of Students and Youth – Chavez once again calls for socialism as the only way to destroy capitalism
By Maarten Vanheuverswyn and Ramon Samblas in Caracas
Wednesday, 10 August 2005
Yesterday, August 8 saw the start of the 16th World Festival of Students and Youth, which is being held in Caracas this year. Under the slogan "For peace, solidarity and against imperialism", more than 15,000 young people from all over the globe gathered to discuss an entire range of issues, all of them anti-imperialist in nature.
Very much to its credit, the Venezuelan government is sponsoring this important event and opened up the Military Academy, Fuerte Tiuna to receive the delegates for the official opening rally. Delegates from an impressive 144 different countries from all continents lined up for the opening rally. The Cuban delegation was among the biggest with 1,800 youth present. There were 2,000 delegates from Colombia and the Venezuelan delegation was composed of more than 3,000 delegates. The attendants of the ceremony were surprised and glad that there were 720 delegates present from the United States.
The delegates were greeted by the slogan “Welcome to the Socialist Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”. After all the delegations had paraded in front of President Chavez there were performances of indigenous culture. Representatives of the Guaranis and other indigenous Venezuelan peoples presented Hugo Chavez with different items that represented their cultures.
Equally impressive was the team of volunteers who welcomed the visitors. Apart from the translation teams, the food catering teams and the National Guard, a sizeable section of the Bolivarian youth joined the march, singing songs, shouting revolutionary slogans and performing dances.
At the end of the parade, when all delegations had finally marched to the main square and after the performances, President Chavez officially opened the Festival. After a long wait, Chavez addressed the thousands of youth (as well as the not so young people who were also present) who listened eagerly to what he had to say. He started by looking back sixty years to when the atom bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. President Chavez paid tribute to the victims of this genocide and condemned these acts of terrorism. “Today,” he said, “there is an atomic bomb of youth in the valley of Caracas.” They had come to see Caracas, the place where Simon Bolivar was born and were very much welcome at this Festival. This has been a great challenge for Venezuela and more than two years of preparation were invested in this event, involving a lot of coordination, and requiring plenty of logistical and political support.
Chavez then recalled the main events of the last six decades. At the end of the 1940s there was the Chinese revolution, one of the greatest events in human history. This great event was followed by the Cuban Revolution a decade later. Chavez described it as a tremendous inspiration for all of Latin America. This great event marked the path for the future, the President affirmed.
In the 1960s American imperialism suffered a humiliating defeat in Vietnam, which proved that the Empire was not invincible. “A people that wants to be free cannot be defeated”, he said, praising the heroic Vietnamese resistance against imperialism.
The 1970s were a period of hope in Latin America, where we saw the Chile of Allende, which was unfortunately brutally crushed by US imperialism. The end of the 1980s in turn signified a universal earthquake with the fall of the Soviet Union. The old political equilibrium was destroyed and after the fall of the socialist camp, the capitalists declared the “end of history”. “Neo-liberal globalisation,” Chavez said, “is no more than another word for imperialism, and imperialism,” he continued, “is the highest stage of capitalism, as Lenin said”. In the 1990s the word capitalism had disappeared from dictionaries and a moral and ideological crisis set in, creating a period of intense doubt and confusion. However, like a phoenix rising from its ashes, the President explained that the fighters and revolutionaries would reappear and that they were in fact reappearing. “We are starting a new process, a new dawn where the ideas of justice, peace and equality will be central.”
Chavez claimed he was profoundly convinced that the last years had been very demanding and difficult. However, despite the great frustration, in the first decade of the 21st century, thousands of youth are gathering in Caracas. This, Chavez proclaimed, points to more than simply a new sense of hope. It is an opportunity to debate and to open the battle for ideas. For his part, Chavez does not believe in a struggle in one isolated country. As he said at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre at the end of last year, Chavez again stated that socialism was the only true path and the only way to build a new world. “It is our duty and our challenge to save our planet from the most powerful imperialism that has ever existed, i.e. US imperialism.” Significantly, Chavez did not see all American people as one reactionary mass. On the contrary, he firmly saluted and congratulated the American delegation present in Caracas and recognized the “great fighters of the American people”,
mentioning the name of Martin Luther King. In a bold but very true statement, he said, “The future of the world depends on the consciousness of the American people. When they unite, they can save the world from war and destruction.”
Chavez then went on to explain that this was in fact the best moment for the Festival to be held, in these terrible conditions under capitalism and despite the existence of most powerful and hypocritical form of imperialism in history. “The Roman Empire,” he said, “was at least not as hypocritical, since they called themselves an Empire. American imperialism, on the other hand, shamefully proclaims to ‘fight for democracy’”, after which he gave the examples of the role of the US in Chile, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Panama and Haiti to prove the opposite. “The whole of America has suffered the attacks of US imperialism. Bolivar was right when he said in 1826, ‘The United States of America seems destined by providence to plague America with misery in the name of Liberty.’”
Then he turned the audience’s attention to Venezuela, “where US imperialism has suffered some nasty surprises”. US imperialism is not invincible, a fact which has not only been proven in Venezuela, but also in Cuba, where the revolutionary people have struggled against US imperialism for 40 years. Chavez greeted Fidel Castro, who was watching his speech that was also broadcasted on all Venezuelan TV channels. “We came here to debate about peace. But to the hawks in the Pentagon we say, ‘If someday you get the crazy idea of coming to invade us, we'll make you bite the dust defending the freedom of our land,’” after which the crowd loudly started shouting “el pueblo armado, jamás será aplastado” (The armed people, will never be smashed). In plain language Chavez concluded by saying that “we would rather die on our knees”.
“The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of the people of the whole world”, proclaimed Chavez as he began to sum up his inspiring speech. He recalled the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, who in the 1960s on his visit to Cuba wrote, “Conditions and circumstances impose upon us a revolution.” He called for a moral revolution to save the world and for a “revolutionary humanism”. But he also added that this was not enough. A political revolution was needed – a political revolution through democracy. Not the false democracy but real people’s democracy, like in Venezuela. “Thus,” he said, “we need a moral, social, political and economical revolution in order to destroy the perverse mechanism of this capitalist system.”
By way of conclusion, repeating what he had said earlier in his speech, Chavez proclaimed: “I have said this earlier. I am convinced more than ever, and I will retain this belief until I die, that the only path to destroy capitalism is socialism. It is the only way to save the planet and the new generations.”
To this a pedantic would have only a few commas to add. Some references to Jesus Christ and “moral revolution” might be a bit confused, but one thing is clear: such a radical speech made by the President of a nation is quite extraordinary, and can only be welcomed by all progressive people of the world. It was, for that matter, a very inspiring start to an exciting week that will be spent with revolutionaries from all over the world
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Chavez definitely deserves credit 4 speaking out against US imperialism under the rule of the Bush administration. Several of Chavez's recent decisions are also admirable, example of growing indigenous yucca plants organically instead of Monsanto's GeneMOdified pesticide soaked Round-up Ready cotton..
However making a statement that socialism is the ONLY way to defeat capitalism is a mistake and factually incorrect. Socialism may be one possible way to defeat capitalism and imperialism, there is no evidence that it is the ONLY way. Pre civilization societies were self governing tribal entities that did not require any statist supervision..
Revolt against oppression always contained an anarchist element. Cuba's revolution against the plantation slavery tyranny of Batista would not have been possible without the commitment and support of a vibrant Cuban anarchist community. The Cuban anarchists rejected BOTH capitalism and socialism as inadequate statist government control methods that would not provide the people or the ecosystem with any real freedom and equality. For their troubles and help in overthrowing the Batista regime, they were rewarded with jail sentences after the communist state was established under Castro. This does not make what GW Bush says about Castro true, however it questions the wisdom of a socialist state being a real alternative to a capitalist state..
some info on Cuban anarchism;
http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/cuba.html
Cuba is also responding well to the embargo by growing their own food in organic gardens since the absence of imported pesticides. This response is mostly a bottom up (from the people) movement with late reaction from the government. If anything the Cuban government was dependent on the pesticides for industrial agriculture and didn't believe that the people could feed themselves if given the chance..
Another problem with socialsim in South America is that indigenous people are given two poor choices (rock and a hard place); neo-liberalism under capitalism or a state socialism. Really most indigenous people have their own system of self governance (more similar to anarchy than either of the above choices) and are struggling to survive despite interference from European colonialism, be they Anglo or Spanish. If indigenous people were given the chance to speak honestly, many would probaly ask the colonialists to kindly take their statist politics and return to the other side of the Atlantic..
For people who would like to live in harmony with one another it would be more realistic to adopt the methods of self-governance and autonomy as practiced by indigenous peoples of the Americas. We definitely don't need or want capitalism, neo-liberalism, imperialism and other forms of oppression. Socialism is a poor substitute for true autonomy and self-governance. Why stop at statism??
http://www.greenanarchy.org/
However making a statement that socialism is the ONLY way to defeat capitalism is a mistake and factually incorrect. Socialism may be one possible way to defeat capitalism and imperialism, there is no evidence that it is the ONLY way. Pre civilization societies were self governing tribal entities that did not require any statist supervision..
Revolt against oppression always contained an anarchist element. Cuba's revolution against the plantation slavery tyranny of Batista would not have been possible without the commitment and support of a vibrant Cuban anarchist community. The Cuban anarchists rejected BOTH capitalism and socialism as inadequate statist government control methods that would not provide the people or the ecosystem with any real freedom and equality. For their troubles and help in overthrowing the Batista regime, they were rewarded with jail sentences after the communist state was established under Castro. This does not make what GW Bush says about Castro true, however it questions the wisdom of a socialist state being a real alternative to a capitalist state..
some info on Cuban anarchism;
http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/cuba.html
Cuba is also responding well to the embargo by growing their own food in organic gardens since the absence of imported pesticides. This response is mostly a bottom up (from the people) movement with late reaction from the government. If anything the Cuban government was dependent on the pesticides for industrial agriculture and didn't believe that the people could feed themselves if given the chance..
Another problem with socialsim in South America is that indigenous people are given two poor choices (rock and a hard place); neo-liberalism under capitalism or a state socialism. Really most indigenous people have their own system of self governance (more similar to anarchy than either of the above choices) and are struggling to survive despite interference from European colonialism, be they Anglo or Spanish. If indigenous people were given the chance to speak honestly, many would probaly ask the colonialists to kindly take their statist politics and return to the other side of the Atlantic..
For people who would like to live in harmony with one another it would be more realistic to adopt the methods of self-governance and autonomy as practiced by indigenous peoples of the Americas. We definitely don't need or want capitalism, neo-liberalism, imperialism and other forms of oppression. Socialism is a poor substitute for true autonomy and self-governance. Why stop at statism??
http://www.greenanarchy.org/
CARACAS, VENEZUELA - While the Bush administration engages in a war of words with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the US government has been giving permits to American arms dealers to sell weapons, tear gas, and other riot-control equipment to Venezuela.
ADVERTISEMENT
At the same time, the US Congress has indirectly funded anti-Chávez pro-democracy groups.
"It's a bizarre working at cross- purposes," says Adam Isacson, who follows Venezuela for the left-leaning Center for International Policy in Washington. "You have bad relations with this government, and you're selling them the means to put down opposition protests."
Defense and Commerce department records show that in 2002, Washington issued licenses to export to Venezuela more than 7,000 pistols and rifles and 22 million rounds of ammunition, as well as riot-control equipment and interrogator sets. In 2003, it issued licenses for $43 million in military equipment sales, including a million cartridges, 1,000 pistols, and ammunition. Last year it issued $24.6 million in licenses, including $425,000 in tear gas. This year, the US has approved export licenses for police gear, restraint devices such as leg irons, stun gun-type arms and chemical agents.
During this time, the US has been critical of the Chávez government's support of leftist insurgencies and curbs on political opponents. In 2002, Washington welcomed the military-backed coup that unseated Chávez for two days. And last year, the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nongovernmental organization that receives most of its funding from the US Congress, helped finance an unsuccessful recall vote against Chávez.
In an e-mail response to questions about the weapons sales, the State Department said: "The United States reviews license applications for defense articles and services on a case-by-case basis. Given the increasingly undemocratic direction of the Venezuelan government, these licenses are being thoroughly reviewed."
Chávez kicks out DEA
For his part, Chávez, a charismatic populist, has warned that the US might invade Venezuela to seize its oil. On Sunday, Chávez said that he was ending cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, claiming it was spying on his government.
To prepare for a possible US invasion, Chávez has created a civilian reserve force that the government says will number two million people. Venezuela has also made a series of weapons deals, including planes from Brazil, ships from Spain, and helicopters and assault rifles from Russia. US officials have criticized Venezuela's democracy and its human rights record and suggested that Venezuela has aided guerrillas fighting Colombia's government, but offered no proof.
Alfredo Rangel, a military analyst with the Security and Democracy Foundation in Bogota, Colombia, says that Colombia is concerned about the 100,000 assault rifles Venezuela is buying from Russia, because of the quantity and compatibility with weapons used by Colombia's guerrillas. But he says that small arms - like the pistols, rifles, and ammunition sold by the US - also cause concern because they are easy to smuggle.
Others express concern about the Venezuelan government's use of US security equipment against its own people. The US government's 2004 human rights report on Venezuela included allegations that state security forces tortured detainees, including exposing people to tear gas inside of confined spaces.
5,000 tear-gas grenades
"There is strong evidence that the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, and batons was frequently indiscriminate," against February and March 2004 opposition protests, Amnesty International wrote in a report. Some of the tear gas canisters were US made, others were locally made. "We're concerned about [the US sales], particularly the antiriot transfers," said Eric Olson, an arms expert with Amnesty International USA.
US sales in 2002 included 5,000 tear-gas grenades, 2,000 tear-gas projectiles, and 25 tear-gas launchers to Cojedes, a poor, rural, state governed by a Chávez supporter. The shipment was criticized by Pedro Castillo, an anti-Chávez member of the National Assembly. "There's one tear gas canister for every resident of the state," Mr. Castillo remarked in 2003.
Mr. Isacson says the US is also selling crowd-control chemicals to Bolivia, and "the next time Bolivia blows up I think they'll be used quite a bit."
In a telephone interview, Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, called Venezuela's arms purchases routine. He called the US government's criticism of of Venezuela's democracy and human rights record "hypocritical."
"I think they don't want to know that we need to replace very old weapons, update our old aircraft. That's all we want to do," said Ambassador Alvarez.
To be sure, the US arms sold to Venezuela are dwarfed by sales by some other nations, and US sales have declined as relations have degenerated. In 1999, Chávez's first year in office, the US issued $132 million in licenses, but only $24 million last year. And most of the US licenses cover routine purchases such as equipment and spare parts for big-ticket items like Venezuela's US-made F-16 fighter jets.
Arms control advocates say the US's weapons-export controls are among the world's strictest. Those controls can include end-user checks to confirm that weapons are used as intended. But Isacson doubts that Venezuela would allow US officials to monitor Venezuela's weapons stock.
Concern about US arms exports to Venezuela extends to the late 1990s, when escalating firearms exports generated suspicions that guns were being smuggled to Colombia, where the US is backing the government in a civil war against leftist guerrillas. In 1999, the Clinton administration suspended gun sales to private Venezuelan companies. The State Department resumed the review of these exports in 2001, but clamped down again after the April 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, when some 17 people were killed by rifle shots.
The State Department now licenses firearms sales only to government buyers in Venezuela.
The US is not the only nation that appears to have a contradictory position with Venezuela. Spain's President Jose Maria Aznar, who governed from 1996 until 2004, once suggested that Chávez was taking Venezuela down the same road as communist, authoritarian Cuba. Nevertheless, Spain sold Venezuela light arms and riot control equipment. The Spanish Embassy in Caracas did not respond to a request for comment.
And
Israel, despite Chávez's warm relations with
Iran, Libya, and
Iraq under
Saddam Hussein, has escalated its arms sales to Venezuela. In 2002 Israel sold it 54 surface-to-air missiles and in 2004, 57 air-to-air missiles.
The Israeli Embassy did not respond to requests for comment for this article. But in a 2003 interview about a 2002 sale of 115 Uzi machine guns to the rural state of Cojedes, then-Ambassador Arie Tenne pointed out that the state is larger in area than Israel and that Israel and Venezuela had normal diplomatic relations, as they do today. "Weapons and materials can be misused and abused," he said. "But there's nothing that the original seller can do about it."
ADVERTISEMENT
At the same time, the US Congress has indirectly funded anti-Chávez pro-democracy groups.
"It's a bizarre working at cross- purposes," says Adam Isacson, who follows Venezuela for the left-leaning Center for International Policy in Washington. "You have bad relations with this government, and you're selling them the means to put down opposition protests."
Defense and Commerce department records show that in 2002, Washington issued licenses to export to Venezuela more than 7,000 pistols and rifles and 22 million rounds of ammunition, as well as riot-control equipment and interrogator sets. In 2003, it issued licenses for $43 million in military equipment sales, including a million cartridges, 1,000 pistols, and ammunition. Last year it issued $24.6 million in licenses, including $425,000 in tear gas. This year, the US has approved export licenses for police gear, restraint devices such as leg irons, stun gun-type arms and chemical agents.
During this time, the US has been critical of the Chávez government's support of leftist insurgencies and curbs on political opponents. In 2002, Washington welcomed the military-backed coup that unseated Chávez for two days. And last year, the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, nongovernmental organization that receives most of its funding from the US Congress, helped finance an unsuccessful recall vote against Chávez.
In an e-mail response to questions about the weapons sales, the State Department said: "The United States reviews license applications for defense articles and services on a case-by-case basis. Given the increasingly undemocratic direction of the Venezuelan government, these licenses are being thoroughly reviewed."
Chávez kicks out DEA
For his part, Chávez, a charismatic populist, has warned that the US might invade Venezuela to seize its oil. On Sunday, Chávez said that he was ending cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, claiming it was spying on his government.
To prepare for a possible US invasion, Chávez has created a civilian reserve force that the government says will number two million people. Venezuela has also made a series of weapons deals, including planes from Brazil, ships from Spain, and helicopters and assault rifles from Russia. US officials have criticized Venezuela's democracy and its human rights record and suggested that Venezuela has aided guerrillas fighting Colombia's government, but offered no proof.
Alfredo Rangel, a military analyst with the Security and Democracy Foundation in Bogota, Colombia, says that Colombia is concerned about the 100,000 assault rifles Venezuela is buying from Russia, because of the quantity and compatibility with weapons used by Colombia's guerrillas. But he says that small arms - like the pistols, rifles, and ammunition sold by the US - also cause concern because they are easy to smuggle.
Others express concern about the Venezuelan government's use of US security equipment against its own people. The US government's 2004 human rights report on Venezuela included allegations that state security forces tortured detainees, including exposing people to tear gas inside of confined spaces.
5,000 tear-gas grenades
"There is strong evidence that the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, and batons was frequently indiscriminate," against February and March 2004 opposition protests, Amnesty International wrote in a report. Some of the tear gas canisters were US made, others were locally made. "We're concerned about [the US sales], particularly the antiriot transfers," said Eric Olson, an arms expert with Amnesty International USA.
US sales in 2002 included 5,000 tear-gas grenades, 2,000 tear-gas projectiles, and 25 tear-gas launchers to Cojedes, a poor, rural, state governed by a Chávez supporter. The shipment was criticized by Pedro Castillo, an anti-Chávez member of the National Assembly. "There's one tear gas canister for every resident of the state," Mr. Castillo remarked in 2003.
Mr. Isacson says the US is also selling crowd-control chemicals to Bolivia, and "the next time Bolivia blows up I think they'll be used quite a bit."
In a telephone interview, Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, called Venezuela's arms purchases routine. He called the US government's criticism of of Venezuela's democracy and human rights record "hypocritical."
"I think they don't want to know that we need to replace very old weapons, update our old aircraft. That's all we want to do," said Ambassador Alvarez.
To be sure, the US arms sold to Venezuela are dwarfed by sales by some other nations, and US sales have declined as relations have degenerated. In 1999, Chávez's first year in office, the US issued $132 million in licenses, but only $24 million last year. And most of the US licenses cover routine purchases such as equipment and spare parts for big-ticket items like Venezuela's US-made F-16 fighter jets.
Arms control advocates say the US's weapons-export controls are among the world's strictest. Those controls can include end-user checks to confirm that weapons are used as intended. But Isacson doubts that Venezuela would allow US officials to monitor Venezuela's weapons stock.
Concern about US arms exports to Venezuela extends to the late 1990s, when escalating firearms exports generated suspicions that guns were being smuggled to Colombia, where the US is backing the government in a civil war against leftist guerrillas. In 1999, the Clinton administration suspended gun sales to private Venezuelan companies. The State Department resumed the review of these exports in 2001, but clamped down again after the April 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, when some 17 people were killed by rifle shots.
The State Department now licenses firearms sales only to government buyers in Venezuela.
The US is not the only nation that appears to have a contradictory position with Venezuela. Spain's President Jose Maria Aznar, who governed from 1996 until 2004, once suggested that Chávez was taking Venezuela down the same road as communist, authoritarian Cuba. Nevertheless, Spain sold Venezuela light arms and riot control equipment. The Spanish Embassy in Caracas did not respond to a request for comment.
And
Israel, despite Chávez's warm relations with
Iran, Libya, and
Iraq under
Saddam Hussein, has escalated its arms sales to Venezuela. In 2002 Israel sold it 54 surface-to-air missiles and in 2004, 57 air-to-air missiles.
The Israeli Embassy did not respond to requests for comment for this article. But in a 2003 interview about a 2002 sale of 115 Uzi machine guns to the rural state of Cojedes, then-Ambassador Arie Tenne pointed out that the state is larger in area than Israel and that Israel and Venezuela had normal diplomatic relations, as they do today. "Weapons and materials can be misused and abused," he said. "But there's nothing that the original seller can do about it."
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