No. 21 • LATIN AMERICA ISSUE• $2OO H EMPLOY LIS M O EN B T world A socialist review Journal of the World Socialist Movement in the United States

Latin America: Muddy Road Ahead INSIDE a pre-socialist left? ¡viva la revolución! looking for socialism (in all the wrong places) brazil repeats history is cuba socialist? changing geopolitics review of build it now Latin America’s pre-socialist Left

he hot issues in Latin America today are the self-deter- balization, they do not understand that concept either, because mination of nations and anti-imperialism. Both concepts globalization is only the wide spread of the capitalist mode of Tare false, because they drag the working class into the production, which is creating the proper conditions for a new trap of nationalism. Class struggle is not mentioned by any of society. They think that the spread of poverty, hunger and the political leaders, and the Left is not mentioning it either, unemployment is caused by globalization only, but they do not despite the fact that there is not any kind of homogeneity of say that it is a by-product of the capitalist system itself, and interests within any nation; every nation has antagonistic inter- that all those consequences are very normal for capitalism. As ests between the rulers and the working class. for [neo]liberalism, that concept is totally incorrect, because On a practical level, there is a lot confusion going around liberalism does not exist anymore; today the state is participat- in Latin America regarding leaders like Chávez, Castro and ing more in the economy than in prior years. Morales. The so-called socialism of the 21st century is a new Meet the new boss… state-capitalist variation invented by the Venezuelan leaders and probably suggested by the Cuban leadership: just another way The struggles (leftists say) are now being concentrated between for the national bourgeoisies of some Latin American countries imperialist countries and anti-imperialist countries, but the to get mass support for their interests. They are anti-Yanqui class struggle they place on a secondary level. Given, again, for now, but in reality, like Saddam Hussein, Hitler, or Stalin, that there is not an equality of interests between the rulers and they are not against capitalism — only against the the workers of any nation, this is a false argument. privatization of the means of production. I t The workers continue being exploited by the same ruling class that is trying to promote One thing the Latin American Left is not has been said itself as their liberator. That is one of the able to see (probably because they do not big dangers of Lenin’s concept of anti- have the proper principles to under- that, in places like imperialism: if the enemy is the United stand it) is that some of those so-called Latin America, the ideas States, not only does this mean they do socialist leaders, such as the President not differentiate between U.S. workers of Chile and the President of Brazil, of Marx never actually were and the U.S. ruling class, but they also are ambiguous. One moment they spread; what most leftists make alliances with the rulers of other are against domination by the U.S.’s countries such as China and Russia, rulers and the next they send troops know now is Leninism, or with the likes of Hamas and the to Haiti in order to collaborate with Stalinism and Trotskyism, Lebanese religious leaders. the invasions of that country; and at A third issue, finally, is another idea we the same time as the Brazilian capitalist which are all in essence have inherited from the Bolsheviks and the class is placing pressure on the President of the same ideas. Leninists — the concept of leadership. It has Bolivia against the nationalization of natural been said that, in places like Latin America, the resources, he is compromising with U.S. interests ideas of Marx never actually were spread; what most in Bolivia. The President of Paraguay, formerly a member leftists know now is Leninism, Stalinism and Trotskyism, which of the Tupac Amaru guerrilleros, promised a lot of changes and are in essence all the same ideas. Marxist-Leninists, former and benefits for the working class, and now he is collaborating with current, have in general done great damage to the ideas of social- the USA, doing the opposite of everything he said and moving ism and the Marxian vision of a new society without class, money more toward the right than the left. or state. They have been a great help to the ruling class. Fidel Castro, for his part, has been lauded as an immortal If Latin America’s leftists placed all their emphasis on the class leader, together with Che Guevara, since his last visit to Argentina struggle and were able to recognize that capitalism is the root of to promote the Mercosur [a trade agreement between Argentina, all the problems in the world, they would be forced to see that Brazil and Paraguay]. Even the Catholic Church is praying for Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile are all capitalist countries him, now that he went through an emergency surgery! He is and that there are not common interests between the rulers of becoming the Messiah of Latin America, and if for any reason those countries and the working class. They would be forced he dies, probably Hugo Chávez will continue his ideological to negate themselves and their past, and to reject whatever work through the region. they are supporting now. Like Leon Trotsky in his struggles On a more theoretical level, while some leftist groups may with Stalin, Latin America’s Left stands behind the ruling class: look like they are against capitalism, they too are not against Trotsky never wanted to accept that the Soviet Union was a state capitalism or the capitalist system as a whole, which can state-capitalist economy, either. only be replaced by a new society. When they talk about glo- — Marcos Colomé world socialist review/ INTERNET ¡Viva la revolución! pen your eyes and you won’t believe humans and other creatures along the shore the beauty of the world. Wit- there only a decade ago (according to Oness the world’s smallest worldwildlife.org). deer, the endangered pudu, As for humans themselves, hopping gracefully across they too have been torn the Valdivia. Listen to the from their natural realm, rhythmic and loud tap- from a life of abundant pings of the magellanic gathering and hunting woodpecker. Watch to a life of stupendous the blue whales, the enslavement and world’s largest mam- immiseration. mals, emerge just a Painful as it is to stone’s throw from do, tear your eyes the beach. Else- away from this old where, observe the home, and set them giant river otters at upon the way of life play in the Amazon, of humans here in or the stealthy leap of a jaguar chasing Latin America today. its prey. The Amazon The Commission of itself courses seemingly Economics for Latin forever through the planet’s America informed the largest and most luxurious world in 1999 and again in 2002 that of the 420 million rainforest. Birds of the richest “C ar 2> people living in this continent, colors weave a tapestry above, their to 1 n d= er _i 40 percent are poor, and 16 percent sounds descending below like a per- os ge .” pa Sou a/? extremely poor. In rural areas, 55 percent petual orchestra of melody and cacophony. rce day.c : .

[email protected] world socialist review/ in the age of capitalism without sufficient of welfare reform in response to protests of its population. In such a system, people money simply go hungry and starve. The about working and living conditions and are pitted against each other to make a National Catholic Reporter (according to calls for revolution among the working living. Either they own property or capi- NCRonline.org) reported a statistic com- class there. tal with which to hire the dispossessed piled by the International Labor Organi- These are the conditions that underlie to generate a profit from agriculture or zation (ILO), that 27.4 million children the desperate popular support for left-wing manufacture or a service, or they do not, under the age of 14 in Latin America are governments in Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, in which case they may have to find a job, working. In Venezuela, 32 percent of the Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezu- beg, or send their children out into the population lives on less than two dollars ela (and almost in Mexico, Peru and Costa streets to hustle. a day; 41 percent in Peru; 44 percent in Rica), as well as for left-wing guerrilla move- Most citizens of the United States suffer Honduras; 45 percent in El Salvador; 52.3 ments fighting right-wing paramilitary states from a noxious short-sightedness, failing percent in Ecuador. Between 20 percent backed by the U.S., such as Colombia. Cer- to understand their social and economic and 50 percent of the region’s children tainly, such populist governments have made system as a global order that evolved at have mothers who have not completed headway in, for example, reducing abject a different pace in different parts of the primary school. poverty for eight million (out world, wreaking havoc every- The ILO coordinator for South Amer- of 36) in Argentina or T h e where, but in even greater ica is quoted as saying that millions of improving health proportions in the children are working in agriculture, con- care, education mass of workers Southern Hemi- struction, fireworks manufacturing, min- and subsidized sphere. They fail ing, brick making, processing coca leaves, food for the in Latin America, like their to comprehend harvesting coffee, collecting garbage, poor in Ven- how the evo- domestic labor and the sex trade. Children ezuela. counterparts in the United States, lution of the may be seen in all Latin American cities H o w - take the illogic of capitalism for modern eco- selling candy, washing car windows and ever, the nomic system at times attempting to pick up clients lessons for granted. They do not sufficiently was paved over to turn tricks. A poignant psychological the worker in the bodies of question is, why do humans continue to Latin America query the existence of millions of indig- support a global social system that has are those that still enous peoples who so failed their children? Poverty not only have not been learned employment. died of a dozen western sends children to work, but also seriously in North America — capital- diseases when East met West, lowers their chances of thriving. In Latin ist reforms are limited in scope because over the bodies of slaves, and over the America, 28 out of 1,000 children die of the basic law of capitalism: no profit, bodies of exploited men, women and before the age of one; 34 out of 1,000 no production. children in places so remote that they before they turn five. These rates are nine may feign ignorance about them. Yet the Beyond the historical traumatic influ- times those found in Sweden, and four reality and the truth are that every time ence of colonialism, beyond the politi- times those of the United States. American workers (and European work- cal shade of government in power, the ers and workers from all lands) vote for problems in Latin America derive from Landlords in charge another few years of capitalism at elec- the same global economic system that The role of colonialism in the rise of tion time, they are personally promoting affects workers in Asia, Africa and yes, Latin American capitalism was greatly the continued existence of a society that even North America and Europe. responsible for the degree of abject poverty condemns fellow workers in the Third found there. It left landlords in charge of This system requires the private (and World to untold misery. large amounts of land and raw materials. at times state) ownership of the means of They gained enormous political and eco- producing wealth and the buying of the Opposing capitalism nomic power and were not concerned with labor-power (employment) of members Behind the existence of our social the hugely disparate distribution of income of the non-owning masses. Production system lies the political support of its and property between their class and that is only carried out if it will be profitable people, often including that of its most of the peasants, workers and dispossessed to do so, that is, if values in excess of the oppressed. The mass of workers in Latin indigenous people. In contradistinction, costs of production (thus, in excess of America, like the mass of their coun- the bourgeoisie in the northern countries the values being paid to workers) may be terparts in the United States, take the that were the first to industrialize wisely (in extracted from the productive process. It illogic of capitalism for granted. They their long-term interest) promoted waves is a fundamentally cold economic system, do not sufficiently query the existence  Who Gains From Free Trade: Export-Led Growth, one without regard for meeting the needs of employment, of buying and selling, Inequality and Poverty in Latin America, Vos and Ganuza,  After Spanish Rule: Postcolonial Predicaments of the of food being produced for sale, of land Oxford: Routledge Studies in Development Economics, Americas, Mark Thurner and Andres Guerrero, Durham, being appropriated by landowners. At 2006. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2003. world socialist review/ INTERNET least, any such querying has not yet been difference that they are hoping to be of a delicate ecosystem that operates expressed in a mass movement to oppose accorded ancestral rights that the capi- effectively and self-sufficiently as a holistic it. Capitalism is by nature undemocratic. talist class is unwilling to acknowledge, entity, but even from the perspective of a It relies on minority ownership, and on at least not without a legal and at times loss to human science — what medicines states to protect the legal rights (backed armed fight. The class struggle is fought may have been lost every day? by force) of property owners. on both sides. Beyond such a development that the Many of the indigenous peoples of The United States has frequently loss of plants and animal species repre- Latin America are quite aware of this reneged on promises made to the Ameri- sents, tens of millions of humans in Latin tide of bourgeois culture encroaching can Indians or to a paradigm of world America live in sickening squalor. For how into every corner of the globe, includ- justice that indigenous rights activists long must an economic system persist ing their homelands. It is not new to and anti-globalists have insisted upon. that fails to provide children with shoes them, and many bravely fought against For example, the U.S. has refused to sign and food, that sends them sometimes to it in the past. For example, the Brazilian up for the International Criminal Court, prostitute for money to feed themselves Diaguita resisted the advances of Incas the Kyoto protocol, the Anti-Biological and their families? For how long must and refused to adhere to the latter’s Weapons Convention, the international humans support a mode of production caste system. Similarly the Argentinian ban on land mines, and countless other based on the drive for profits that sends Calchaqui successfully thwarted the inva- UN initiatives aimed at fostering global humans off their land, depriving them sion of Spanish colonists from Chile into peace and harmony. of livelihood even when they do become their immediate homelands. Today, that Protecting the interests of U.S. capital wage workers? struggle continues. investment and development abroad has The future is community The indigenous movement in Latin always come first. This historical reality What is required in Latin America is a America has had no choice but to demand has again and again come brutally face to permanent solution to these terrible prob- rights from a position of weakness rather face with native and human rights activ- lems, a grassroots movement organized than of strength. According to the “Indig- ism that continues to advocate that such without leaders, having a single goal in enous People’s Letter to the Presidents of rights be accorded by major capitalist mind — the institution of a society in Latin America and the Caribbean” sub- governmental players. which the means of producing wealth mitted in 2005, the Chilean indigenous Socialists, however, take from this his- — the land, the factories, the offices, the peoples, such as the Aymara, Quechuas torical lesson that what must be achieved infrastructure, and so on — are owned and Likanantay, have urged governments first is a global order of common owner- by the entire community (not the state) to adhere more seriously to their declared ship of the means of production, which and democratically controlled by that commitment to overcome poverty. The will by definition accord all humans the community. letter further urged them to improve the democratic control of their land. Con- Those reading this journal in the North- “acknowledgment and enjoyment of our tinuing to support rights in a society ern Hemisphere are not off the hook, either. rights to superficial and subterranean water based supremely upon private property We all live in a global capitalist economy. sources, the acknowledgment of our rights and minority ownership of the means of Those voting for the continuation of a over mining fields existing in our ancestral production will do nothing to remove system based on employment of the many land and the right to have a share in profits from the ruling class its power to play god by the few and on producing only what is resulting from their exploitation. And also with humans and nature. However, sup- profitable to sell are personally providing the right and safety to move from one place porting a worldwide socialist revolution to their political consent during each election to another within our ancestral territory, immediately end the rule of nation-states for the continuation of a global system that without the fear of death and injury to and commodity production will put all drastically fails to meet our needs, with our physical integrity, which implies the humans, including indigenous peoples, in Latin America a prime example of how dire demilitarization of the border and the a position of power, no longer having to that failure may get in the Third World. But deactivation of mines currently seeded on urge those who presently hold the reins helping to build a movement for common our ancestral territory.” of power to accord them “rights.” ownership and democratic control in the In a larger, more global sense, Latin Indigenous class struggle more advanced industrial countries will America presently faces a most serious ensure that political consent for the con- Latin American indigenous peoples’ ecological disaster with possibly planetary tinuation of that system is removed, and struggles for rights to land and its subter- implications. The permanent loss of doz- that effective and permanent solutions to ranean resources have thus faced the same ens of plant species a day (most found in the problems of world poverty, wherever it problems as those of Native Americans in the Latin American rainforests) is a crime may raise its ugly head, are implemented the Northern Hemisphere. Such problems of inexpressible proportions — not only once and for all. suggest that they too have entered into from the perspective of the loss of life ¡Viva la Revolución! the same class struggle with the ruling that took ages to evolve, not only from — Dr. Who class as have workers, albeit with the the perspective of the slow dismantling

[email protected] world socialist review/ ripple this time in Venezuela. All of which makes this left turn a little different. The Economist seems to have pulled down the Iron Lady from her ped- estal and traded her in for an Old Maid: its writers fan themselves furiously at the mention of Hugo Chávez; their ideas on populism, their politely venomous words to the wise in Bolivia and their heavy- handed lampooning of Lula in Brazil all Of Neocons, Neoliberals & Neocapitalists smack of catty remarks rather than cagey analysis. Perhaps they miss their reliable old generals and their neoliberal econom- ics (reduction of trade barriers, privatiza- tion of state companies, encouragement of foreign as well as domestic private Source: . investment and lessening of regulation generally). The Economist thinks we are Looking for socialism in all witnessing another “populist experiment” at the end of which real wages will again be the wrong places “lower than they were at the beginning.” But the magazine’s little box, in which “countries develop through a mixture of hatever happened to those The same bankers who had opened the the right policies and the right institu- military dudes with flashy sun- spigots so freely for two decades then had tions,” affords readers no glimpse of the glasses who, when it came to the gall to turn around and lecture Latin W social movements that want to turn capi- economics, seemed to have hat sizes that American capitalists on the virtues of talism to good account and eliminate the were far too big for their brains? The abstemiousness and belt-tightening. The extreme “income inequality” and poverty general effect of the military dictatorships resulting “Washington Consensus” was a historically suffered by Latin American installed during the 70s and 80s was to virtual festival of economic Puritanism. It workers and peasants. deflect the economies of Latin America is hardly any wonder that popular opinion from their efforts to industrialize by in Latin America should have turned so From The Economist’s standpoint, the exiting from the trap of being “natural” vehemently against the World Bank and real action will happen when “high-pro- exporters of agricultural commodities (a the International Monetary Fund, and file” investors (usually multinationals) strategy known as Import Substitution now there is even a “leftward drift” to see the truant states in court — notably, Industrialization). The generals, on the pay for it. Although a UN Development the ICSID (International Centre for the advice of Washington, reverted to a “free Program survey reported in 2002 that Settlement of Investment Disputes), “the trade” régime and in the process became support for democracy had fallen four arbitral arm of the World Bank”: “Thanks profligate borrowers. Their good friends points from 61 per cent in 1996, this in part to a wave of left-leaning govern- in the international banking “commu- cannot reflect any predilection on the ment policies in South America, Latin nity” used “often aggressive tactics in part of either workers or capitalists, since American arbitration is experiencing a pressuring Latin American governments neither class has had any trouble identify- boom-let … Of the 105 pending cases to borrow,” so that the region’s “total ing military madness as a principal source in ICSID, 57 involve Latin American foreign debt increased from 1970 to 1980 of its headaches. nations, and the majority of those involve Argentina, whose economy collapsed in by more than 1,000 per cent.” The fall Latin America’s left turn thus does not 2001.” in commodity prices that resulted from a appear to be temporary, for in setting up world recession in the 1980s meant that the generals, the U.S. itself killed the Mon- Argentine makeover the democratically elected governments roe Doctrine. When the régime of U.S. From the standpoint of almost anyone that replaced the military dictatorships Supreme Court-appointed strongman else, however, quite a different reality is found themselves in the position of hav- George W. Bush sought to oust the Chávez  “Latin America, history of,” EB. ing less money with which to pay back government in 2002, it was surprised to  “The return of populism; Latin America. (Peering  swollen debt loads . discover that the attempted “kissingeriza- behind Latin America’s leftward drift),” The Economist tion” procedure which had worked so well (US) 379.8473 (April 15, 2006): 40US.  “Latin America, history of,” Encyclopædia Britannica.  Carlyn Kolker, “Arbitration boom: the rise of left- Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Deluxe Edition. Chicago: in Chile 29 years before caused barely a leaning governments in Latin America has corporate Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007. (All references to the EB  “Year in Review 2005 A Leftist Surge in Latin clients heading to ADR forums,” American Lawyer 28.10 are to this edition.) America,” EB. (Oct 2006): 111(2). world socialist review/ INTERNET unfolding. The upshot of it all is that But perhaps more interesting is the under the control of 5,000 workers and 60 “most of South America now has left or direction events have taken in Argentina more in the process of being “recovered.” center-left governments,” according to since the meltdown of 2001: the rise of Workers representing more than 263 self- Weekly News Update on the Americas. The what one writer calls “the new resistance,” managing firms in eight countries met most hopeful interpreters of this trend the “recovered factory” movement, which in Caracas in October 2005 to cement a are naturally to be found on the Left, only a couple of years ago included more working alliance, and the government of which congenitally wants history to finally than 200 businesses whose employees had Venezuela has promised to grant credits become a morality play and end happily. successfully taken control of workplaces to recovered Argentine factories.10 One of the most hopeful — an article abandoned by their owners (who were only If the point of “recovering” enterprises, about “people’s power” in Argentina, in obeying the logic of the axiom, “No profit, however, is to prove that capitalism could Green Left Weekly, 2/2/02 — is worth no production”). The Empire (capitalism) is work if only investors and entrepreneurs excerpting for the broad conclusions it now striking back, with “threats of eviction, would put people ahead of profits (which draws from sparse data: kidnapings, police violence, terror by hired of course self-managing workers presum- The political crisis in Argentina has meant gangs, direct opposition from local politi- ably would), it will only be a matter of that people have formed their own organs cians and apathy on the part of Argentina’s time before the logic of the marketplace of democracy and have created, potentially, current president, Nestor Kirchner.” reasserts itself. The Left has never grasped a new type of rule for Argentina — the rule The author, Yeidy Rosa, applauds that the institutions of capitalism are of the exploited instead of the the way in which the working impervious to morally-based thinking: it IMF stooges. W h i l e class of Argentina has risen is not possible to moralize capitalism. The Popular assemblies r e c o v e r e d to what it might have needs of profit necessarily come before have been formed in all major cities, enterprises present a fatalistically regarded the needs of human beings (capitalists more than 50 fascinating historical study, as an insurmount- included); everyone simply has to learn in the Greater able challenge: how to cope with that, and if they cannot, Buenos Aires their very closeness to the As workers struggle they will be scrapped. area alone, guts of capitalist production to gain legal status While recovered enterprises thus pres- and accounts for their cooperatives ent a fascinating historical study, their very indicate that gives them an unstable and and full expropriation they have been of the factories within closeness to the guts of capitalist produc- growing. probably not very hopeful a court system designed tion gives them an unstable and probably to protect private property, a The assemblies have prognosis. not very hopeful prognosis. In three other network of solidarity has formed begun adopting anti-government cases — Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela strong links despite the state’s repressive — the working class has for the most part demands. An example is the Assembly for apparatus. A laboratory of democracy San Cristol and Boedo, whose demands within the factories and their surrounding not followed the Argentinian example and include: punish the police murderers who communities has emerged, where a con- challenged any of capitalism’s structural killed demonstrators last month; the release crete alternative to corporate capitalism assumptions. In a fourth case, that of of political prisoners; abolition of VAT on has redefined success as the creation of the Zapatistas in Mexico, a movement basic goods; taxation of the rich; and ben- work and social inclusion, rather than a does not exist whose actual institutions efits for the unemployed. It also demands: measurement of profits. can mount such a challenge — but they work for all, with sharing of work between She regards these recovered factories have managed nonetheless to construct a the employed and the unemployed without as a challenge to “norms of legitimate working model of revolution grounded in any reduction in wages; dissolution of the ownership and private property” made supreme court; nationalisation of the banks a flawless explanation of capitalism and possible through the workers’ “refusal to and the privatised firms, to be controlled by what makes it a bad system. allow their workplace to be taken from the workers; no payment of foreign debt; Let us consider each of these four cases, and a popular constituent assembly. them.” As of 2005, about 15,000 Argen- in reverse order of their importance to The broadness of the participants in the tine workers were running 185 recovered  the media. assemblies — workers, unemployed people, factories; six other countries — Brazil, professionals, shopkeepers — and the anti- Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Mexico in search of the Left government, anti-capitalist demands many Venezuela, plus the Caribbean — added If the Zapatistas prove nothing else, they are adopting indicates that they have a another 100 factories to this number, show that Marxism is eminently translat- potentially revolutionary implication, as with a solid core of 100 recovered firms an alternative form of power based on the able into the (Mexican) vernacular, as operating in the province of Buenos Aires working class and its allies. we find it in their “Sixth Declaration  “The New Resistance in Argentina,” Yeidy Rosa, 11  “South America: Summit Process Stalls,” Weekly News Nonviolent Activist (magazine of the War Resisters of the Selva Lacondona.” Nor is it the Update on the Americas, 1 January 2007; retrieved 27 April League), June 2005; retrieved 27 April 2007 from 10 “Venezuela otorgará créditos a fábricas recuperadas 2007 from . . argentinas,” Diario Hoy, 21 April 2007; retrieved 21 April  “Argentina: People’s Power v. the IMF,” Rohan Pearce;  “Workers’ self-management,” retrieved 20 April 2007 from . au/2002/481/28791>. self-management>. 11 Originally published in Spanish by the Zapatista [email protected] world socialist review/ sort of corrupted Leninist sophistry we tions of the left, and those persons who lay redistributing wealth are merely paying typically find in statements by liberation claim to the left and who do not belong to into the pot of class struggle, which is why movements. The problem is rather that registered political parties” to join forces they can never be socialist: they serve only their Declaration is the good old-fash- with them. to perpetuate the struggle. ioned social-democratic kind. Having Anselmo Martínez Tola, an organizer established that the nature and causes People’s power in Bolivia of indigenous groups in Potosí, speaking of the underlying social and economic In the end, ironically, it is probably the for the social movements, put the case for problems faced by the “autonomous rebel very success of the Mexican establishment nationalizing natural gas and redistribut- zapatista municipalities” can be found in in containing it that has allowed Zapatismo ing land in the following terms: “We are the system of production for profit that the space to define its principles so clearly; a majority and through the [upcoming pervades human social life at all levels, the elsewhere in Latin America, class conflict has constituent] assembly we hope to rescue Declaration goes on to lay down minimum stirred up huge clouds of theoretical mud. what belongs to us.”13 Resources produced demands: For example, a “key leader” of one of Bolivia’s and sold in the marketplace for a profit We are also going to go about raising a social movements, Oscar Olivera, explained are inevitably the property of an élite, struggle in order to demand that we make to Uruguayan political scientist Raúl Zibechi and an élite that accumulates capital a new Constitution, new laws which take that “we are creating a movement, — whether it adopts the fiction into account the demands of the Mexican a nonpartisan social-politi- people, which are: housing, land, work, Nationalizing that those resources belong food, health, education, information, culture, cal front that addresses to the people or not independence, democracy, justice, liberty the most vital needs of natural gas would only — is a capitalist class. and peace. The EZLN [Ejército Zapatista de the people through bring the Bolivian working Nationalizing natural Liberación Nacional] will establish a policy a profound change gas would only bring of alliances with non-electoral organizations class up against the real question: and movements which define themselves, in in power relations, the Bolivian work- theory and practice, as being of the left… social relations, and the urgent need to abolish capital ing class up against The way to actualizing their model the management of and wages through transfer of the real question: the will thus lead them into the smothering water, electricity, and urgent need to abolish 12 all productive assets to embrace of the Left, where they will end up garbage.” capital and wages alto- like every other effort to put a human face “Addressing the most the community. gether, at a stroke, through on a system that doesn’t even have a place vital needs of the people” transfer of all productive assets where a face ought to be. And while they do is not a way of independently defining to the community — communalization lay down some fairly strict criteria for mak- people’s needs but only of redressing their of the means of life, rather than their mere ing these alliances, one must also remember grievances. These vital needs are a hostage “socialization,” so popular on the Left. Robert Michels’s dictum that organization to the one trump card held by the MAS, or The same may be said for the proposed breeds oligarchy, and good intentions do “Movement Toward Socialism,” on behalf constituent assembly Morales was elected not last. The EZLN promises: of Bolivia’s social movements: physical to convoke (and which his neoliberal Not to make agreements from above to be control of highly marketable natural gas opponents in Santa Cruz have attempted imposed below, but to make accords to go reserves. Unlike the Chavistas of Venezu- to stave off), which will serve only to together to listen and to organize outrage. ela, who inherited a fully integrated oil sharpen class antagonisms, no matter Not to raise movements which are later industry, the Bolivian state lacks control whom the new constitution assigns to negotiated behind the backs of those who over the industry that extracts the gas dispense the profits. made them, but to always take into account the opinions of those participating. Not to reserves; nor are they strong enough to seek gifts, positions, advantages, public force the hand of their neoliberal oppo- Brazil: Wave of the past positions, from the Power or those who nents. So although Evo Morales has his The future appears at once less exciting aspire to it, but to go beyond the election mandate, he can only deliver on it outma- and more dismal for the social movements calendar. Not to try to resolve from above neuvering the capitalist globetrotters who of Brazil (including organized labor), the problems of our Nation, but to build from below and for below an alternative to supply the money and above all expertise to who while they have achieved a high neoliberal destruction, an alternative of the get the natural gas out of the ground. This, degree of organization since the gener- left for Mexico. unfortunately, limits the social movements als were booted out, have demonstrated To their credit, they have already drawn to a goal of redistributing profits more a propensity for repeating the mistakes the conclusion that the Left in power is a equitably — achieving which would bring made by others. Since the Workers’ Party bunch of square tires: they invite only the tears of moral joy to every leftist’s face, it formed a minority government in 2002 “unregistered political and social organiza- is true. But “revolutions” that stop with with Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (“Lula”) as Army of National Liberation, June 2005, trans. “irlan- 12 “The Progressive Mandate in Latin America: President, it has compiled a record that is desa”; retrieved 30 April 2007 from , and . com/node/1902>. 13 Ibid. world socialist review/ INTERNET both times likewise in the minority); then, rapidly expanding petrochemical industry less than 26 per cent preferring the latter. too, and for very similar reasons, Ramsay amount at present to no more than one These results, Chávez’s rhetoric and the MacDonald’s Labor Party had left office per cent of all employment in Venezuela. above-mentioned initiatives notwithstanding, Venezuela’s constitution still protects private choking on its own promises. Huge numbers of displaced rural workers property rights, the government still courts The problem is that, despite a sharp and farmers just had to pull up stakes and international investors, and capitalism is alive antagonism toward the neoliberal model, look for “other work.”16 Idle real estate tied and well throughout Venezuela.18 neither Brazil’s social movements nor orga- up in large properties (latifundios) could What is more, as Dangl and Engler in nized labor and its political parties have not provide it. Capitalists saw no profit Z Magazine point out, “Several observers shed their naïve belief that the working in acting on the textbook mantra of ulti- have noted that the redistributionist pro- class can collaborate with the capital- mately providing viable substitute forms of grams that are the hallmark of [Chávez’s] ist class to achieve mutually beneficial employment, and so they left their hapless social policy owe more to the New Deal goals. While neoliberals around the globe victims to fend for themselves. than to Cuban state socialism … Chavez’s chuckle all the way to the bank, delighted By 1998 over half of all Venezuelans were decidedly un-neoliberal economic policy that Lula has turned out to be such a good classified below the poverty line, many has created the most robust growth in the boy, the workers, the unemployed, the living in sprawling ranchos (shantytowns) hemisphere, with the country’s GDP surg- landless, the indigenous peasants console orbiting the relatively small number of ing 18 per cent in 2004 and approximately themselves that having Lula’s administra- large cities, with prices rising at more 9 per cent in 2005.19 These things, taken tion in office at least allows them some than 30 per cent annually. Rural areas lost together, suggest that Chávez does indeed scope for organizing, even though many population through migration to urban view “socialism for the 21st century” of them have already written off Lula as areas, which had neither the vision nor the through a social-democratic lens, cannily politically incompetent.14 Brazil’s working budget to accommodate the imbalance. aiming to have the capitalist class pay for class shares with Venezuela’s a history of The politicians, visibly in bed with their the Bolivarian revolution yet keeping the rural depopulation and rampant growth of capitalist benefactors, were perceived as meddling neoliberals at arm’s length.20 shanty towns,15 though it was historically having utterly mismanaged the economy. Marta Harnecker, the Chilean Marxist better organized. But until it begins to With the stage set for a populist hero, a who has worked closely with the Venezu- cultivate the habit of thinking originally, charismatic demagogue, or even a virtuous elan government to launch the “communal it will be condemned to repeat coping democrat, Hugo Chávez Frías was elected council” system, remarked in a recent strategies that have notoriously failed President on a promise to set things right. interview with Green Left Weekly: elsewhere. Going on the offensive against According to Greg Palast, “to most of the In Venezuela, up to now, we don’t have the interests of capital does not mean win- 80 per cent of Venezuelans who are brown, unity of the workers within the [revolution]. ning the class war but ending it, and that Hugo Chávez is their Nelson Mandela, the The union movement is not strong enough can only happen as a result of abolishing man who will smash the economic and at this stage … We should think of the com- munal councils as a central community of capital and wages — and with them, the social apartheid that has kept the dark- workers [as well as of neighbours]. To me, working class itself. skinned millions stacked in cardboard it is very important to … bring in economic houses in the hills above Caracas while organisations so that they can be democra- Venezuela the whites live in high-rise splendor in tised, in the direction of solidarity and not This brings us to the strange case of Ven- the city center.”17 of corporatism. There should be a close link between the organisation of work and the ezuela. Understanding Chávez’s “socialism Despite all the hubbub, however, even community.21 for the 21st century” requires a little back- a cursory glance shows that common There are now upwards of 16,000 com- ground. From a working-class standpoint, ownership of the means of production munal councils, with many more on the the launching of the oil-export economy in in Venezuela is not imminent — which way, and no one really knows yet how the 1950s was an unfolding horror story does not make it easy to predict where they will work out as an institution, or in a country where agriculture, fishing the radical Bolivarian reforms are taking and forestry accounted for more than capitalism: “Neocapitalism” concluded on p 13 half the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). While [Chávez] may not have figured out Over the next three decades, job and exactly what the socialism of the 21st century 18 The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions farming opportunities in the countryside is yet, he has some ideas under way, such — 100 Answers, Chesa Boudin, Gabriel González and shrank by 50 per cent, while jobs in the as endogenous development, participatory Wilmer Rumbos (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, democracy, land reform and co-manage- 2006), 10. 14 “The State and Economy in Brazil: An Introduc- ment. A nationwide poll carried out … in 19 “Progressive Mandate in Latin America.” tion,” Rosa María Marques and Paulo Nakatani, Brazil late May and early June 2005 showed that 20 “Hugo Chávez’s Social Democratic Agenda” Ste- Under Lula: An MR Survey — Politics and Economy; about 48 per cent of respondents preferred phen Lendman, 22 February 2007; retrieved from . a socialist over a capitalist system, with 15 “The WTO … will meet somewhere, sometime. And 21 “Venezuela’s Experiment in Popular Power,” we will be there!” Annette Aurélie Desmarais, VOICES: 16 “Venezuela,” EB. Interview with Marta Harnecker by Coral Wynter and The Rise of Nongovernmental Voices in Multilateral 17 “Hugo Chávez is Crazy!” Greg Palast, AlterNet, Jim McIlroy (Green Left Weekly), 9 December 2006; re- Organizations, a project of The North-South Institute, 25 June 2003; retrieved 15 April 2007 from . com/print.pht?artno=1909>. [email protected] world socialist review/ Capitalism’s Weak Link The Left is too busy being “practical” to have any time for ditching capitalism; but no matter whom you listen to, they will one and all have you chasing endlessly round and round on a nightmarish treadmill of short- term issues. Get the Socialist perspective on today’s problems, and see for yourself why eliminating the employment system FIRST remains the only option that makes any real sense. 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Books Books $10.70 unless otherwise noted ush delivery add Are We Prisoners of Our Genes? R — $2.50 Ecology and Socialism Yes — Utopia! we have the technology Ron C ook How the Gods were Made (John Keracher) Socialism or Your Money Back: Articles S ocialis t Party From Capitalism to Socialism: from the Socialist Standard, 1904-20 04 o f Great Britain How We Live and How We Could Live The Socialist Party of Great Britain: David A. William Morris’s “How We Live & How Politics, Economics and Britain’s Per rin We Might Live,” with a modern assessment Oldest Socialist Party $22.0 0 The Market System Must Go! Marxian Theories of Economic Crisis World Without Wages S amuel Leight Marxian Economics [FREE] (Money, Poverty and War!) ¿Qué se ha de Hacer? [Leaflet — FREE] The Futility of Reformism: A Case for S amuel Leight Racism Peaceful, Democratic Social Revolution Socialism and Religion The Socialism of Bernard Shaw Har ry Mor rison Socialism as a Practical Alternative Stop Supporting Capitalism! Stan Par ker Socialist Principles Explained Start Building Socialism! world socialist review/10 INTERNET the world socialist party the world socialist movement of the united states t t t Ot Dt P OBJECT: WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, Box 1266, N Richmond 3121, Victoria • The establishment of a system of society based [email protected] SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADA/PARTI SOCIALISTE DU CANADA, Box 4280, Station A,Victoria, on the common ownership and democratic BC V8X 3X8 • [email protected]; http://www.worldsocialism.org/spc. Journal: Imagine ($1) control of the means and instruments for SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN, 52 Clapham High Street, Lon- producing and distributing wealth by and in don SW4 7UN. Journal: Socialist Standard ($1.50). [Tel. 020 7622 3811; Fax the interest of society as a whole. 020 7622 3665] • [email protected]; http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY (NEW ZEALAND), Box 1929, Auckland, NI • wspnz@worldsocialism. DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES org; http://www.worldsocialism.org/nz The Companion Parties of Socialism hold that: international contacts 1. Society as at present constituted is based upon the ownership CANADA [email protected] (Simon) • DENMARK Graham Taylor, Spo- of the means of living (i.e., land, factories, railways, etc.) by the bjervej 173, DK-8220 Brabrand [[email protected]] • GAMBIA World of Free Access, capitalist or master class, and consequent enslavement of the c/o 21 Dobson St., Benjul • GERMANY Norbert [[email protected]] • INDIA working class, by whose labor alone wealth is produced. World Socialist Group, Vill Gobardhanpur, PO Amral Dist., Bankura, 722122 • JAPAN 2. In society, therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, man­­ Michael [[email protected]] • KENYA Patrick Ndege, Box festing itself as a class struggle between those who possess but do 56428, Nairobi • NORWAY Robert Stafford [[email protected]] • SWAZILAND not produce, and those who produce but do not possess. Mandla Ntshakala, Box 981, Manzini • UGANDA Socialist Club, Box 217, Kabale [[email protected]] • ZAMBIA Marxian Education Group, Box 22265, Kitwe 3. This antagonism can be abolished only by the emancipation of the working class from the domination of the master class, by regional U.S. contacts the conversion into the common property of society of the means CALIFORNIA & OREGON Local Portland [503 616 3977; [email protected]] • of production and distribution, and their de­mcratic control by the whole people. ILLINOIS Daniel (Chicago) [[email protected]] • INDIANA Contact [email protected] • MICHIGAN: [email protected] (Detroit area); Mardon Cooper, 4. As in the order of social evolution the working class is the last 377 Cherry Rd., Troy, MI 48083 [[email protected]] • NEW ENGLAND Aaron class to achieve its freedom, the emancipation of the working class Tester-Hall, PO Box 75, Rollinsford, NH 03869; Karla Ellenbogen & Ron Elbert, 23 will involve the emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex. Pleasant Ave., Somerville, MA 02143 [[email protected]]; wbrucher@midmaine. com • NEW YORK Elizabeth Pagnani, 200 Middle Road, Hudson, NY 12534 [518 5. This emancipation must be the work of the working class 828 9202] • OHIO Tony Pink, Box 6934, Toledo, OH 43612 [argentum@accesstoledo. itself. com] • PENNSYLVANIA Thomas Jackson, 521 Greystone Rd., Merion Station, PA 6. As the machinery of government, including the armed forces of 19066 [[email protected]] • VIRGINIA Contact [email protected] • INTERNET the nation, exists only to conserve the monopoly by the capitalist . class of the wealth taken from the workers, the working class must organize consciously and politically for the conquest of the powers All party meetings are open to the public. of government, in order that this machinery, including these forces, may be converted from an instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation and overthrow of plutocratic privilege. 7. As political parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the interest of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interest of all sections of the master class, the party seeking working World Socialist Review class emancipation must be hostile to every other party. journal of the world socialist movement in the united states 8. The companion parties of Socialism, therefore, enter the field of political action determined to stand against all other polit­ ical parties, whether alleged labor or avowedly capitalist, and call upon all members of the working class of these countries to support This issue printed at Boston, MA by the World Socialist Party of the United these principles to the end that a termination may be brought to States. Send correspondence to WSP(US), Box 440247, Boston, MA 02144 the system which deprives them of the fruits of their labor, and (email: [email protected]) or to one of the regional addresses listed that poverty may give place to comfort, privilege to equality, and above. Address submissions to the Editorial Committee. You can also visit slavery to freedom. us on the Web at http://wspus.org.

[email protected] world socialist review/11 We are committed to one overriding goal: the Since our fundamental goal is quite firmly wage‑labor and capital. Better that workers .abolition of capitalism and the establishment ­defined as the attainment of socialism it is strive to abolish employment altogether of a truly democratic, socialist form of society. ­important that members understand and Accordingly, membership in the World Socialist ­accept our principles. To dilute the principles • Leadership Party requires a general understanding with reformist tendencies or advocacy of the The World Socialist Party rejects the po- ”,of the basic principles of scientific undemocratic idea of “leadership ­socialism and agreement with for example, would be to subvert litical theory of leadership. Neither “great” the Declaration of Principles. It the Party’s reason for being. individuals nor self‑appointed “vanguards” is our view that a worldwide Are That said, we recognize can bring the world one day closer to so‑ system of production for there is room for differences cialism. The emancipation of the working the satisfaction of human of opinion in a socialist class must be the work of the working class needs, individual and YOU a party. In contrast to ­social, rather than for principles, relatively few itself. Educators to explain socialism, yes! private profit requires a in number, there are a Administration to carry out the will of the­ ­majority that is socialist in multiplicity of matters majority of the membership, yes! But leaders attitude and commitment. socialist? upon which socialists may Events since the beginning of have all kinds of conflicting or “vanguards,” never! the World Socialist Movement views. If you agree with the have demonstrated the validity of following statements, you are a • Historical Materialism this judgment. socialist and you belong with us. The socialist point of view rests solidly on the • Control of State Power achievement of World Socialism. We can materialist conception of history, a way of only stand against those parties that one To establish socialism, the working class looking at things that focuses on how human way or another support the present system. throughout the world must gain control of communities meet their actual survival needs Our main purpose is to make socialists, not the powers of government through political by producing what they need to live (their to advocate the use of the ballot for anything organization. It is by virtue of its control of economic systems, in other words). Out of short of socialism. state power that the capitalist class is able to this process the human brain weaves its ideas, which eventually exert their own influence perpetuate its system. In a modern, highly • State Capitalism developed capitalist society, the only way on the cycle, causing it to become more and to oust the capitalist class from ownership The various forms of so-called “communist” more complex as society evolves. and control of the means of production is government (such as the old Soviet Union, This approach, known as historical mate‑ to first strip it of its control over the state, China, Cuba, etc.) were not and are not rialism, is a scientific method for helping us as a precondition for converting it from a socialism or communism. “Socialist govern‑ understand how and why capitalism does coercive power to an administrative arm of ment” is an oxymoron of the first order. All what it does. Armed with this understanding, the community. The World Socialist Party, states past and present calling themselves socialists realize that capitalism can never therefore, advocates the ballot as the means socialist are nothing more than systems in deliver the goods for the vast majority of of abolishing capitalism and establishing which the state holds varying degrees of people. Other approaches, lacking this focus socialism, since socialism can only be es‑ control over the means of production. They and overlooking the basis of capitalist soci‑ tablished democratically; means cannot be justify their existence with the misguided no‑ ety, can easily miss this point, so that their separated from ends. tion that the state is somehow an extension advocates get bogged down in vain efforts to of working-class power. In those countries, make capitalism work for the majority. • Reforms and Reformism as in the United States, goods and services The present, capitalist, society, even with “re- were and are not primarily produced for use. • Supernatural Explanations pair” and reform, by its very nature cannot In addition, nationalization and government Socialists hold that materialist explanations function in the interests of the working class, “ownership” of industry in no way alter of human society and the rest of nature who make up the majority of the population the basic relationship of wage labor and supersede supernatural ones. A religious in most of the world today. Reforms can capital. The bureaucratic class that controls perspective won’t necessarily prevent anyone never alter the basic exploitative relationship this form of the state remains a parasitical, from striving to abolish capitalism and its of wage‑labor and capital, or production surplus‑value‑eating class. for proft. Capitalism could never get by evils, and the ethical elements of religious teachings may even be what first make many without them. Whatever the intentions of • Organized Labor ­reformers, socialists recognize the futility of people aware of the injustices of a class-di‑ their attempts and direct their efforts only Trade unionism is the institution by which vided society. But they don’t in themselves to the complete abolishment of capitalism. wage and salary workers attempt by various lead to an understanding of the causes of such The World Socialist Party does not advocate means to sell their working abilities at the best injustices. (More often than not, religious reforms of capitalism — only socialism. possible price and to improve their working institutions themselves justify and commit conditions. It is not a satisfactory tool to end them.) The world socialist perspective is in class conflict. Unions must work within the any case essentially post-religious, because • The Parties of Reform framework of capitalism and therefore are the case for socialism hinges on the scientific The World Socialist Party opposes all par- useful only to a limited extent. They cannot use of evidence. Socialists therefore look on ties or organizations that do not desire the alter the fundamental relationship between supernatural explanations as obsolete. Ø world socialist review/12 INTERNET sounds more like His The scientists whose investi- So if the world we humans Majesty talking down gations this refers to have been have programmed into our own You to the little folk, not showering an excited public skulls thus far in the course of too concerned with with such revelations in recent civilization is as perfect as many Said whether they will even years. How could such infor- people tell us it is, changing get it as he smirks on mation be dangerous? Well, ourselves so recklessly would be his way to the count- just think what would hap- a great evil. It must be stopped. It! We have had it relentlessly ing house: now that pen if some socialist nutcases dunned into our heads that we it’s the 1990s, you see, succeeded in reprogramming we don’t ever want to are the “most successful spe- We don’t want enough of their fellow hu- cies.” From a capitalist perspec- see that damned socialist stuff man beings’ brains using the tive, this is truly the best of all THAT! again. procedure described above. A possible worlds. And why mess Found on page 54 of the When the ice caps have large enough socialist major- with Mr. In Between? Global February 2007 Monthly Re- melted, maybe we will all go ity would actually be a step warming (if it exists) is nothing view: a little secret of success up and ask The Royals for some forward in human evolution, if not a fine opportunity to turn shared with the unemployed Whoppers. a biologically new thing. a profit! Ø by capitalist guru and former CEO of Chrysler Corporation We DO want that! Pass this copy Lee lacocca at a 1993 press It has probably not occurred on to a friend! conference in Buenos Aires. Sir to anyone that the following Lee’s solution is, shall we say, innocuous-sounding scientific tough love: summation, taken from a bro- Neocapitalism – Cont. from pg 9 The problem of unemployment is chure published by the Dana a tough one. Today we can make Alliance for Brain Initiatives, even if they will ultimately succeed.22 At the same time, no twice as many cars with the same 2004, titled “Answering Your massive redistribution of oil wealth has yet occurred, land number of people. When they reform has progressed slowly, and only a minority of workers talk about improving people’s Questions About Brain Re- educational levels as a solution search: Can our experiences have stable employment in the legal economy. Complementing to the problem of unemploy- change our brain?” should be this, organized labor is submerged in factional conflicts and ment, I’m always bothered by considered dangerous radical is largely unresponsive to the government’s efforts to expand the memory of what happened workers’ control.23 in Germany. Education was thinking: put forward as the solution to Scientists now know that the On a final note, while it would be a mistake to take Chávez unemployment, and the result brain is remarkably “plastic”: or Morales literally when they use the word “socialism” in their was hundreds of thousands of it continues to change through- speeches, Morales did tell two Spiegel interviewers not long ago frustrated professionals who out life in accordance with our that “there was no private property in the past. Everything was then turned to socialism and experiences. It is also clear that communal property. In the Indian community where I was rebellion. It’s not easy for me to our surroundings influence our admit, but I wonder if it wouldn’t experiences, to a large degree born, everything belonged to the community. This way of life be better for the unemployed driving our behavior and think- is more equitable.”24 This is more than just a variation on the to smarten up and go straight ing, as we adapt to our environ- leftist cop-out that socialism is a goal for the distant future; to McDonald’s to find a job. ment. Our brain, in turn, reflects it is, on some level, an acceptance of it as a real alternative to (Quoted in Eduardo Galeano, our behavior, since behaviors capitalism. This fleeting glimpse into indigenous thought pro- Upside Down [New York: Henry are the sum total of patterns of Holt, 1998], 169). neural activation. In essence, cesses also hints at a deep, strong and irreducible human urge Oh, to return to that imper- then, brain, behavior and to community. It is this need for community that will kick in environment are all intricately when the working class of the world drops the scales from its eyes fect (so perfect) world where linked in an interactive loop: the capitalist class granted itself and finally “gets” the obsolescence of the arrogant tyrants who changes in the environment lead now employ us. There are actually plenty of socialists around: limitless freedom and where to changes in behavior, which they just keep betting on the wrong horse. unions and socialists dared not lead to changes in the brain. tread! Or was it the reverse? Or …New nerve cells are even born — Ron Elbert 22 “Communal Councils in Venezuela: Can 200 Families Revolutionize De- … uhm … so what actually did in certain brain areas, and with the right environmental influences, the mocracy?” Josh Lerner (Z Magazine), 6 March 2007; retrieved from . Iacocca’s psychotically bad form synapses with other cells, a 23 “Venezuela: Chávez Calls for United Socialist Party: Rank-and-File Committees to be Building Blocks for New Organization,” John Riddell, Socialist Voice, issue #108, process known as “neurogenesis.” history apart (on a par, it would 11 January 2007; retrieved 3 May 2007 from . Scientists have linked neurogenesis seem, with Ronald Reagan’s), 24 “Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America,” Spiegel Interview with Bolivia’s to learning and have shown that one wonders how anybody Evo Morales (Jens Glüsing and Hans Hoyng, tr. Christopher Sultan), retrieved 16 April stimulating environments increase 2007 from could see his advice as smart. It the rate of neurogenesis. [email protected] world socialist review/13 Brazil in 2003 to 23 per cent last year, which was BBC News 6/7/06 “Landless Storm Brazilian comparable to the improvement brought Congress: The protesters say land reform is too slow.” Source: . early 1990s … Lula has done too little to spark higher growth.” It is safe to say that the WP’s good intentions proved good only for getting results that were practically indistinguishable from the autonomous workings of the marketplace anyway.

BBC News 3/31/04 “More Money for Brazil’s The disdain Lula’s government elicits Landless: Landless Brazilians are impatient from capitalism’s global hierarchy is some- with the rate of change.” Source: . what akin to what an ex-con getting elected President in this country might confront. It is easy to understand the panic that Romancing the working class gripped investors on hearing that such a firebrand labor leader as Lula during the razil is only slightly smaller than before taking office in 2002 to honor the dictatorship should have led a rapidly the United States (3.3 v. the U.S.’s debt repayment commitments of outgoing growing opposition labor party into office 3.6 million square miles, counting President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. B in 2002. Once they realized their nemesis Alaska and overseas), with a population (Cardoso himself, interestingly enough, was actually a cowering giant, however, the density that is almost a third less: 21.86 rejects the label of “neoliberal.”) kid gloves came off and a catty, patronizing persons per sq. mi. for an estimated popu- The outcome only serves to demonstrate tolerance began to replace them. lation of 186 million v. the U.S.’s 30.71 yet once again that those who would reform The backwardness of organized labor persons for a population of 292 million. a bad system are stuck with bad options: Thus, while Brazil’s population is almost in Brazil can be measured by the WP’s The prospect of Lula’s election had frightened infatuation with the same quaint old two-thirds that of the U.S., its GDP the people, in Brazil and abroad, who lend (Gross Domestic Product) is only a fifth the government the money it needs to pay Fabianism that now demurely lives out its (8k:40k). Brazil also has a much younger its bills. So the outgoing government of Fer- days in a British nursing home managed and faster growing population. After four nando Henrique Cardoso got Lula da Silva by Gordon Brown’s Labour Party Inc. Its and the other candidates in the Presidential belief that socialism is really just a prop- centuries of one-product export boom- election to sign a commitment approved by and-bust cycles, Brazil attempted in the the International Monetary Fund. Reassured erly — and fairly — run capitalism can mid-20th century to stabilize its economic by this agreement, the Fund supplied a $30 lead only to painful bouts of humiliating development by cultivating home-grown billion cushion to prevent panic. Thanks to submission and endless, grinding poverty. industries based on a policy of import this agreement, Brazil avoided the kind of To be fair, however, seeing through this crash Argentina had just gone through. substitution, only to be stymied in 1964 power broker’s shell game is a lesson that by the regressive policies of a military So it happened that a chastened Work- the working class majority in most places dictatorship that squandered precious ers’ Party, desperate to put the stamp seems still not to have learned. of organized labor on Brazilian politics, growth opportunities and pitched Brazil- All the more reason, then, for socialists found it had to dump its very principles ian capitalism into a debilitating spiral in Brazil to take their cue from the landless just to get in office. The WP now sees it of long-term indebtedness and currency workers’ movement: to look upon the pres- as its mission to validate openly anti-work- inflation. This has produced a certain ent sour fortunes of the Brazilian working ing-class economic policies while trumpet- anxiety among Brazil’s capitalist class to class as an opportunity to take advantage ing a string of marginalized social reforms square itself in the eyes of the world. of a relatively wide political opening and that it touts as cost-effective (i.e., harmless Although the Lula Administration launch a movement for the immediate to profits). It has to live with the verdict of provides a long-overdue acknowledgment abolition of capital and wages, through the capitalists that, although “the poverty rate that Brazil really does have a working class establishment of common ownership and … fell from 28 per cent of the population — one with political muscle — the gov- democratic control of wealth production. ernment’s abject submission to the diktat  “Globalization and Democracy: An Interview with This will be the working class’s last histori- of neoliberal capitalism does not speak well Fernando Henrique Cardoso,” Heinz R. Sonntag, held cal act on the stage of history; everything for the working class’s political instincts. at Brown University, Providence, RI, October 19, 2003 else pales in urgency beside it. Retrieved on 16 April 2007 from http://crab.rutgers. Lula’s Workers’ Party (WP) learned in the edu/%7Egoertzel/FHCHRSInterview.htm>. Let us rise! course of fielding his candidacy in the 90s  “Betrayal of a Flawed Vision: Corruption in Brazil’s — ROEL that it could not expect to run the govern- PT Government…,” Ted Goertzel, week of July 16–22,  “Love Lula if you’re poor,worry if you’re not ment unless it talked the neoliberals’ talk 2005, retrieved 16 April 2007 from . world socialist review/14 INTERNET Is Cuba socialist?

n October 2004 I spent a week wan- dering the streets of Havana, against Ithe advice of my country and friends, my family and colleagues, and yet what I learned was more than anything I could have gleaned from the political analyses that have attempted to forecast the final Cuba: Harvest time. downfall of the “socialist” empire. I was in in cigars, and while smoking them with revenue each year; however, the economic Cuba to discuss the educational system of new comrades along the Malecón, I was deprivations of the Cuban state have not Cuba with the World Congress of Com- the object of crime. Every time I thought a created a serious internal threat to Fidel. parative and International Education; monolithic Cuba was emerging, that same Some conservative theorists claim this has however, given the events shortly before moment would reveal the paradoxical and unwittingly allowed Fidel to continue his we arrived, Castro falling on stage and the plurality of life on the island. régime, placing the United States as the breaking his leg, what was on everyone’s So what is Cuba? Since the revolution, enemy. Noam Chomsky takes a different mind was how long Fidel would last and Cuba’s social infrastructure has shown stance, claiming the embargo is yet another what would happen in Cuba upon his the world what is possible in the market example of the United States resisting death. If that wasn’t enough, it was the economy when a state dedicates itself to world opinion to interfere with leftist week that the world would vote on the the care of its citizens. Maintaining one leaning governments throughout Central U.S. embargo of Cuba; my visit taught of the lowest infant mortality rates in the and South America. me much about the nature of Cuba, its world, free education, and a foreign policy The embargo, however, has done some- pretensions to socialism, and the future that has sent doctors and money around thing more. By limiting the wealth that of the island that has plagued neoliberal the world to assist needy countries (an may enter the country, the embargo has capitalism for half a century. offer was even made to the United States limited the ability of the Cuban state to I had no illusions that Cuba was the in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina but develop the wealth needed to form state socialist nation that it or other nations still was refused by President Bush), Cuba has capitalism, like the system China con- claim it to be. It was clear to me that Cuba repeatedly provided for the poor within structed, and instead, has fostered the was a totalitarian state. I had read many and outside its borders. At the same development of a social state infrastructure histories of the nation and the revolution time however, it is clear that the level of to counterbalance the eradication of indi- before I arrived and knew about its social inhumane treatment of those who differ vidual concerns. Outside the food rations, programs that put the United States social ideologically with the state has been swift the exchange economy within Cuba is just infrastructure to shame, but while I had and severe, dating as far back as the tri- as prominent as in the United States and heard about the impoverished state of the als of Batista loyalists. That was just the other capitalist nations. The income of people before I took my flight from Miami beginning of the incarcerations, torture all Cubans is limited, and employment is

(yes, the United States has regular flights and executions. regulated. Economic leveling within Cuba for those having business on the island), logic helps support the capitalist critique of I did not understand what life was like The embargo and its socialism: universal economic deprivation. there before I arrived. Walking through The economic state of Cuba is just as Access to goods and services is limited to Havana, shopping in local grocery stores, complex and paradoxical. One might those who can afford it, not those who and eating dinner with new Cuban friends claim the embargo is to blame for the need it, and with the reintroduction of the over conversations about their “social- poverty of the Cuban people and wouldn’t tourist industry, many millions of dollars ism,” I began to understand the extent of be completely misguided. The embargo have been reintroduced into the Cuban poverty Cubans faced. On the first and limits the ability of anyone connected to economy; however, the economic well- last night of my visit, I had run-ins with the United States, both companies and being of its citizens has increased little. jineterismos (prostitutes), both male and individuals, to have an economic relation- What then can we learn from an exami- female, and heard them glorify Fidel in ship with anyone within Cuba, causing, nation of Cuba, even a superficial one such the same breath they offered their body for according to the Cuban government, a loss as this? I believe two lessons are clear. First, money. I supported the black-market trade of more than 70 billion dollars in trade Concluded next page

[email protected] world socialist review/15 and most encouraging, we see that even in has allowed the social infrastructure to will happen when Fidel dies? There are the absence of real socialism, huge strides crumble, forcing on the Cuban people the probable outcomes. First the Cuban in social care and infrastructure can be need to struggle, even the most educated, state will continue as it has, relying on made in a short period of time due to and ironically, a reliance on the “creation” those in power to continue a system of the merits and ethical superiority of a of wealth through international trade. state capitalism, either impoverished or state-managed system when compared to This differs greatly from the concept of wealthy (whether or not the U.S. lifts neoliberal capitalism. (Cuba’s increase in socialism as a system of free access and the embargo), or second, it opens up literacy in two years after the initiation of purely voluntary labor, both in its reliance completely and the flood of U.S. capital the revolution is the largest ever recorded.) on systems of monetary exchange (which invades the island, the monuments of the The “communist” government reveals the reconstitute poverty) and its arbitrary revolution falling like the statues of Sad- power of a system that, even in the most pessimistic interpretation, uses social limitation of people’s access to goods and dam. Either way the Cuban people will programs to create a hegemonic control services. Most importantly, the Cuban continue to feel the effects of poverty. The of its populace that in turn legitimizes state has relied on a totalitarian régime only hope of Cuba, and those around the the notion of mutual aid within Cuban to maintain centralized power through world, is to stand up and demand social- society. In other words, even in its most violence and poverty. ism in its true form, a system that provides prosaic interpretations, Cuba’s Marxist for all individuals through universal access rhetoric has produced results that are the Democratic ethics dependent upon universal responsibility. envy of most nations around the world. Socialism, at its core, centers on demo- In Cuba as everywhere else in the world, The second lesson we can learn about cratic ethics, where the social, political, we must stand and demand a system of Cuba is that while it has mobilized and economic conditions of everyone equality, a system that the World Socialist “socialism” rhetorically, it has yet to be are liberated from the constraints and Party advocates, for, as Marx stated, all true to its socialist claims. It relies on an oppressions generated by class ownership we have to lose are the chains that bind exchange economy structured around of the means of production. Humans are us and the illusions that blind us to the the Cuban dollar and peso, where profit political animals, and without democ- world that is possible. is centrally located within the state. This racy, socialism is inconceivable. So what — Tommy Williford

ast October 26th, the World Socialist to abolishing capital and wages, can harbor Party lost one of its most energetic and Len Fenton (1917-2006) members of the capitalist class in its ranks. Lcommitted spokesmen — a “stalwart” in But just a little reflection will show that a the old sense — Comrade Len Fenton. Surviving from 1939 until its last issue in 1980. socialist revolution aims to abolish the function the death of his wife Ann Rab by four years, Although Fenton’s forté was as a speaker of capital and the necessity of working for a he retired gradually from party functions till his and debater rather than as a writer, he was living; the capitalists themselves only personify last remaining activity was keeping a monthly very active on the Circulation Committee of the their capital. log of postal mail received. WS, and in 1955 he initiated a campaign to His business allowed him the opportunity to Fenton’s first contact with the organization get the journal into libraries, which succeeded travel abroad, and from 1965 on he and Ann was in 1936, during a lunch break on Boston in boosting its circulation significantly over made several trips to England, where they Common, where the party speakers frequently the next few years (a period in which many were hosted by comrades in the SPGB. Often and forcefully argued the case for socialism. radical journals were losing readership). He they reciprocated the hospitality when some He was soon deeply impressed; he joined the was also active on the National Administrative of these comrades would cross the Atlantic and party in December 1936 and became an official Committee, occasionally serving as National stop in Boston. They formed lifelong friendships speaker himself in 1938, joining Comrades Rab Secretary or Treasurer. with SPGBers like Gilbert McClatchie (Gilmac), and Gloss on the stand at outdoor meetings. Cyril May, Jim D’Arcy and many others. In that Len combined a lucky gene with financial Developing his talent for public speaking bigger, less connected world, mutual contacts acumen to rise to the status of “cockroach of all kinds, Fenton was Boston Local’s most among socialists scattered widely across the capitalist,” a term applied to members who effective speaker over a long span of years. globe had an intensity borne of a common went into business and did well. This phenom- From 1947 through the 1970s, he frequently sense of purpose. enon has sometimes caused critics to wonder represented the WSP at debates with other Len Fenton never lost sight of the big picture. how a party of the working class, committed organizations and at various colleges and All through his long involvement in the world universities in the Boston/Cambridge area.  In 1939 the Socialist Party of Canada, dodging socialist movement, he maintained a contagious He recruited several other members of his the wartime censors, asked the WSP to take over upbeat philosophy. Any success the party has family into the movement. He served on the its publication for the time being as a joint venture in organizing for socialism will rest partly on Editorial Committee of The Western Socialist — a relationship that ended after 1968, when the the foundations he laid. In that sense, he is (the predecessor of the World Socialist Review) SPC launched an independent journal. with us still. Ø world socialist review/16 INTERNET or close on 200 years the main geopo- at the demand of Noriega’s predecessor, litical fact about Latin America has Omar Torrijos. Noriega refused to accede The changing Fbeen the overwhelming economic to a request from the Reagan administra- and political domination of the United tion to allow the school to return. geopolitical States — or, more precisely, of its ruling Noriega committed an even graver capitalist class. The wide range of instru- offense in U.S. eyes by entering into nego- context ments used to enforce this domination tiations with a Japanese consortium that round, learning from experience, they has included frequent direct and indi- the businessman Shigeo Nagano had put press the Japanese government — no rect military interventions. One source together (with his government’s approval) longer, perhaps, shackled by the “peace lists 55 such interventions since 1890. for the purpose of financing the construc- constitution” — to extend Panama mili- Another important instrument has been tion of a new and better sea-level canal tary aid and a security guarantee.  the foreign policy known as the Monroe between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Of course, no other state is likely to Doctrine, first proclaimed by the U.S. The old Panama Canal, opened in 1914, replace the U.S. as the clear hegemon in president of that name in 1823. has inadequate capacity for the current the region. Like Africa and Central Asia The gist of the Monroe Doctrine is volume of traffic and cannot accommo- today, Latin America will be an arena in that the U.S. regards Latin America as date the largest of today’s seagoing vessels. which a number of outside powers com- its own exclusive sphere of influence and It was, above all, the Japanese threat to pete for influence. As a declining global will not tolerate the interference of “out- its control of a strategic transportation power, the U.S. will have to reconcile itself side” powers in its affairs. The doctrine route in its “backyard” that prompted to the new situation and finally bury the was initially directed against the colonial the United States to intervene. Monroe Doctrine. claims of Spain and France. For most of China’s economic penetration of Latin the 20th Century it was directed first America has been even more striking Workers cannot benefit against Germany and then against Rus- than that of Japan. As recently as 1995, For Latin American governments sia (the USSR). But does it still have any for instance, China’s trade with Brazil the new geopolitical context will have relevance now that Russia’s ambitions are was a mere six per cent of U.S. trade certain advantages. They will have more confined to regions nearer home? with Brazil; by 2005–6 it had reached room for maneuver and be able to play In fact, as the Russian threat to U.S. 39 per cent. In the case of Argentina the off one outside power against another. hegemony in the Americas receded the corresponding rise was from 15 per cent Latin American workers, however, will doctrine was directed (albeit not publicly) to 70 per cent. China is still some way discover that their basic position remains against another challenger — Japan. On behind but catching up fast. Chinese firms unchanged despite the new mix of nation- December 20, 1989, the U.S. bombed are also investing on a large scale in some alities among their employers. and invaded Panama, ostensibly in order countries. Their Brazilian investments Workers in some African countries have to arrest the country’s president, Manuel include metals, consumer electronics, already learnt this lesson. In Zambia, Noriega, on drug trafficking charges. telecommunications equipment, and copper mines bought up by Chinese com- The real reason was that Noriega, who space technology. China and Brazil are panies provided even lower pay and even had earlier been willing to serve as an jointly developing two satellites. more hazardous working conditions than agent of the CIA, had begun to act in Judging by the whole history of capi- mines owned by other foreign companies. ways that the U.S. considered contrary talist great power rivalry, we can expect Following an explosion in which 49 min- to its interests. that sooner or later the shifting pattern ers died, five protestors were shot dead of economic relationships will change the by police. The government temporarily The Japanese connection military power equation, with a progres- closed down one mine after men were One example concerns the School of the sive dilution of U.S. domination over forced to work underground without Americas, where the U.S. army trains mili- Latin America. Suppose that at some boots or safety gear. tary officers from all over Latin America point in the future Japanese capitalists Social protest in Latin America has as torturers and assassins. The school had and a new Panamanian government revive traditionally targeted “Yanqui imperial- been based in Panama from 1946 to 1984, the scheme for a new canal. But this time ism,” just as social protest in Eastern when it was withdrawn from the country  In 2001 the school now at Fort Benning, Georgia, Europe used to be aimed against “Soviet was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Secu- imperialism.” Both are understandable  http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/resources/in- rity Cooperation. Torrijos died in a plane crash under terventions.html. The most recent instances were the suspicious circumstances. responses to real oppression — but also sponsorship of a (failed) military coup to overthrow  Or, alternatively, a new land-based inter-oceanic parochial and superficial responses. The President Chávez in Venezuela in 2002 and an occupa- transportation system. See Noriega’s remarks to the source of the oppression is capitalism tion of Haiti to remove President Aristide in 2004. Both Japan-Panama Friendship Association (a front for the itself, not the various national flags under presidents had been democratically elected. consortium) in Tokyo on December 12, 1986 (Noriega  On the background to the U.S. invasion, see and Eisner, pp. 271-5). which it operates. Manuel Noriega and Peter Eisner, The Memoirs of  Comparing total value of imports and exports in — Stefan Manuel Noriega, America’s Prisoner (New York: Random 1995 and in 2005 and the first nine months (Brazil) or  Guardian Weekly, February 9–15, 2007, p. 9. House, 1997). eight months (Argentina) of 2006. [email protected] world socialist review/17 Lebowitz – Cont. from back cover One must ask, can a government “pre- “Socialism” with a qualifier pared to break ideologically and politically I want to take a moment here to talk All of these characteristics and relations with capital” exist in the present world? coexist simultaneously and support one about words. When Lebowitz speaks of another in the world we want to build. Can a socialist nation exist, surrounded “Socialism for the Twenty-first Century,” Democratic decision making within the by capitalist nations on all sides? does he mean the same thing by “socialism” workplace (instead of capitalist direction Certainly, it must be pointed out, con- that Hugo Chávez does? Does either of and supervision). Democratic direction by temporary Venezuela is not an example of the community of the goals of activity (in them mean the same thing that we do? socialist society. Although Lebowitz may place of direction by capitalists), production Over time, words change their mean- have asserted, “We see that… our unity for the purpose of satisfying needs (rather ings. When I was a child, for example, all than for the purpose of exchange), com- and the common ownership of the means mon ownership of the means of production of production make us all the beneficia- wristwatches had faces, and when you said (rather than private or group ownership), a ries of our common efforts,” “watch” the concept called up democratic, participatory, and protagonistic there is really not, at was a circle of numbers form of governance (rather than a state over ne with 12 at the top and above society)… (p. 66-67) this moment, com- and 6 at the bot- So, how can we build this world? mon ownership must ask, can a tom. Since the He suggests (in Chapter 2 and elsewhere) of the means overnment prepared advent of digi- that this world can be built in Venezuela of production to break ideoloically and tal technol- with the support of Chávez’s government. anywhere. (If ogy, “watch” Lebowitz asserts (pp. 98 –99) that if the there were, politically with capital exist in no longer has Venezuelan government under Hugo there would the present world an a socialist that meaning. Chávez encourages “radical endogenous also be com- development,” e.g., “preparing people for mon ownership nation exist, surrounded by Now, if you of the goods and want to refer new productive relations through courses capitalist nations on all in cooperation and self-management,” services produced, to that kind of (which would be possible only for a gov- which would imply sides watch, you have to ernment “prepared to break ideologically free right of access to add a qualifier: “analog and politically with capital”), that can be these things — but, as of this watch.” seen as a step towards socialism. writing in 2007, Venezuelan citizens do In order to call up the concept of not enjoy free access. It remains a goal to Socialists have sometimes called gov- “socialism” as Marx used it in the 19th be achieved.) ernment “the executive committee of the Century, it is also now necessary to add capitalist class.” For that reason, the World On the other hand, this is not to say a qualifier. The qualifier is “non-mar- Socialist Movement does not envision any that they have not taken a step in that ket.” Without that qualifier, the word role in socialist society for government direction. “Radical endogenous develop- “socialism” means many different things per se, but anticipates that the men and ment” could include building a socialist to different speakers. Because I want to women living in socialism will devise majority. Chávez has stated that as his be crystal clear about what I mean by some method of managing affairs, with intention. If that should happen, then a “socialism” in this writing, I will make a the necessary administrative authority but global Socialist Revolution would have a distinction between “non-market social- no coercive power. real chance of beginning in Venezuela. ism” and “market socialism” (although I am aware that most people do not add Capitalism & “market” any more than people who wear Other Kids Stuff a digital wristwatch add “digital”). Socialism is not a market economy. It A video that takes on the clichés is (as developed in Engels’s Socialism, we have all been taught to take Utopian & Scientific) a society where for granted regarding human money has become superfluous because nature and human needs the means of production are completely A thought-provoking challenge to under social control. All labor is voluntary, rethink our world which argues that reality is an act of creation… everyone has free access to whatever goods and services are available. Available on DVD $11.00 including postage Without importing goods from other nations, the people of Venezuela could never SEND CEC OR MONE ORDER TO Written & Presented by World Socialist Party (US) maintain an acceptable standard of living. Paddy Joe Shannon P.O. Box 440247 No country in the world has all the raw Boston, MA 02144 materials necessary to do that, within its world socialist review/18 INTERNET own national boundaries. Therefore, even Or, freed from the logic of capital, will as well as workers — is threatened. Not if a socialist majority were to be created in they take the next step and demand free just the working class, but all of human- Venezuela under Chávez, as long as there access to what they produce? ity, need to stop the engine of capital, if is a global capitalist economy, it could not we are to survive. Hope for a real alternative establish non-market socialism. It could not The revolution has to start somewhere, become either moneyless or classless. I think there is reason for optimism, and the indigenous Venezuelans who Perhaps Lebowitz has lost sight of this and I applaud Lebowitz for his careful and elected Chávez may yet set an example — or perhaps he believes that this aspect insightful development of the situation in for the rest of the planet. Venezuela. Certainly, there is hope for a of Marxian socialism is not to be present — Karla Rab in the Twenty-first Century version. He real alternative to global capitalism emphasizes, “I am convinced that worker resulting from the circumstances management is the only real ultimate described in Build It Now. alternative to capitalism,” (p. 74), which Hugo Chávez himself, shortly after implies he has forgotten that when the his election last year, called on his means of production are under social followers to dissolve their existing control, there is no more class of workers, parties and to form a new “United and no more class of capitalists either. Socialist Party of Venezuela,” which There are just people, all equal members would provide a forum for discuss- of society. ing how to “construct socialism from  Venezuela needs a money economy below.” now to trade even with neighboring Latin The material conditions in the American countries, let alone with giant world are ripe today for a global imperialist states like the US; so, when one Socialist Revolution, except for the refers to “socialism” in Venezuela under lack of a majority of people who Chávez — or in Cuba under Castro — understand that non-market social- what is really meant is “market socialism,” ism represents a viable alternative to in which money is still used to regulate the capitalism and are willing to commit exchange of goods and there is no common themselves to making it work. Capi- right of access. Moreover, the government talism has wrought so much havoc on of a “market socialist” economy (think: the ecology of Earth that the welfare Cuba) is forced to exert coercive authority of all human beings — capitalists over people from time to time.  “Chavez Calls for United Socialist Party of Will a conscious, political socialist Venezuela,” by Gregory Wilpert; retrieved from Venezuela: Oil pipeline. majority in Venezuela put up with this? Dec 18, 2006.

omrade H (the name she liked to use an emotional appeal to the heart of anyone on line) was born Harriett Bradlin in Harriett Machado (1931-2007) who listened to her. CDetroit, Michigan, and died Harriett Although she drift- Over the course of a long and produc- Machado, on September 20, 2007. All of us who ed away from the tive life in the World Socialist Movement, she knew her mourn her passing, and have felt her socialist movement developed and articulated a perspective on loss to this organization during the past few during the 1960s and how human nature may finally be given full years as her final illness overtook her. 70s, she returned to expression in socialism, and how the capitalist system warps family relationships. She was At the age of 16, Harriett became one of the become one of the most influential mem- interested in the plight of women, especially comrades in the revitalized Detroit Local that bers of the WSP in the bemoaning how modern life keeps parents resulted from I. Rab’s organizing visit there years following Rab’s from the physical proximity with infants and in 1947. There, she worked side by side with death, when the or- young children which she saw as essential to Irving Canter, Mardon Coffin, George Lynch, ganization was most in need of comrades who successful attachment. She loved to discuss Gordon Coffin and “Chubi” Rebo Kligman, as could inspire socialist fervor. She served on the tribal relationships in primitive communities. well as other members of the Local. During National Administrative Committee from 1999 Harriett also had an ongoing interest in the the period (1949 - 1954) when the National - 2003, and hosted the annual WSP Conference arts, especially the theater. In the words of our Office of the WSP(US) was located in Detroit, at her home in Pasadena in 2001. comrade Dr. Who, “Whatever we discussed, she Harriett served briefly as Foreign Secretary of When Harriett spoke, she had a way of exuded a wonderful curiosity and a powerful the organization. combining rigorous Marxian scholarship with hope for human freedom.” Ø [email protected] world socialist review/19 Book Review arx wrote: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it Mas they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by them- selves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.” The circumstances encountered by those of us striving to build a socialist majority in the North today include a population made up almost entirely of people who have never known any form of society except for capitalism. Arguably, this is the greatest obstacle to building a socialist majority here in the United States, and has been so for many Venezuela: Rural settlement. generations. But in Venezuela, this obstacle does not loom quite so large. In a speech made on Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Dec. 15, 2006, Hugo Chávez claimed Century that the indigenous peoples in Venezuela Michael A. Lebowitz had “lived in socialism for centuries,” and called them “the bearers of socialist seed in Lebowitz is a Marxist writer based in against all. We know, too, that any country our land.” (According to the Encyclopedia Caracas, and in Build It Now he makes that would challenge neoliberalism faces the many worthwhile points. One is that, assorted weapons of international capital Britannica, about two-thirds of Venezu- — foremost among them the IMF, the World elans have some Indian ancestry.) In other once you understand the nature of capi- Bank, and imperialist power… words, the constituency who voted over- talism, “you can no longer look at capital We need to recognize the possibility of a whelmingly for Hugo Chávez in 2006 is as this wondrous god providing us with world in which the products of the social made up, in part, of people who can still sustenance in return for our periodic sac- brain and the social hand are common remember another way of life. rifices. Rather, you understand capital as property… For this reason, the battle of ideas is essential. A case can certainly be made that the the product of working people, our own It is easy to find inspiration in the fol- “circumstances directly encountered” by power turned against us.” He makes the lowing words, that Lebowitz addressed, in people striving to build a socialist major- case that we must “go beyond capitalism” 2005, to a National Conference of Revo- ity in Venezuela are more propitious than if we want to end the exploitation of the lutionary Students for the Construction what we Americans are used to. working class; and states (p. 30): of Socialism in the Twenty-first Century, Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty- The society to which Marx looked as an alternative to capitalism was one in which in Mérida, Venezuela: First Century gives us a fascinating look the relation of production would be that of We need to remember the goal. If you don’t at contemporary Venezuela. Its author an association of free producers. Freely know where you want to go, then no road paints a picture of “a country which at the associated individuals would treat ‘their will take you there. The world that socialists time of this writing embodies the hopes of communal, social productivity as their social have always wanted to build is one in which many for a real alternative to capitalism.” wealth,’ producing for the needs of all. people relate to each other as members of (Introduction, p 10). The chapter entitled “The Knowledge of a human family, a society in which we rec- a Better World” contains some of the key ognize that the welfare of others concerns Since most readers of this journal us; it is a world of human solidarity and understand that the only two possible points in the book. Lebowitz tells us: love where, in place of classes and class “real alternatives” to capitalism are social- Knowing where we want to go is a neces- antagonisms, we have “an association, in sity if we want to build an alternative. But, which the free development of each is the ism or barbarism, in this review I would it is not the same as being there. We live condition for the free development of all.” like to address the question: “Is Venezuela in a world dominated by global capital, a (pp. 64-65) under Hugo Chávez actually on the road world in which capital divides us, setting the …We see that our productivity is the result of to socialism?” people of each country against each other combining our different capabilities and that to see who can produce more cheaply by our unity and the common ownership of the  The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, I. driving wages, working conditions, and means of production make us all the benefi-  “Chávez Calls for United Socialist Party of Venezu- environmental standards down to the lowest ciaries of our common efforts… (p. 66) level in order to survive in the war of all ela” by John Riddle, Socialist Voice, December 2006. Continued on p 18 world socialist review/ INTERNET