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/2 INTERNET <wspus.org> ¡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 : <http://www.one 3 The waters of the Gulf of California maintain an are poor and 33 percent extremely poor. impossible turquoise. The scurrying of the marine iguana on the Such figures made lies of the Inter-American Convention on Galápagos Islands, and so many other sights, sounds and smells, Indian Life’s claims in the 1940s that economic development remind us of our place in the extraordinarily rich weaving of life, would reduce poverty, falsities upon which developmental theory which for timeless eons provided for our material needs rather and policy of the last sixty years were based. abundantly, as long as humans were able to cooperate together in sharing the fruits of this abundance with each other, and Causes of child labor and poverty 1 with the other creatures that adorned the planet. Many humans Most traditional capitalist analyses of these conditions decried came for sure to this breathtakingly stunning land southward the absence of any earning power of a majority of rural dwellers from the Bering Land Bridge and possibly directly from Africa and so recommended rural development programs.4 And yet (if C.S. Gladwin’s facts are correct in .)2 The Gladwin Thesis the rural poor are the direct result of the commodification of Welcome home, we city dwellers might think as we first cast production, an historical process that has turned peasants and our eyes upon its beauty. One would think that it would go tribal people into workers around the globe since the 1700s, on providing for us for another few million years, and that it effectively robbing them of land and of the means to secure would always feel like home. With our eyes and ears we have a livelihood without employment, itself scarce in these parts been able to witness what appears a heavenly place. And yet, compared with population size. “No profit, no production” is sadly, sights are deceiving. For the Amazon’s rainforest is being the golden rule of the era of employment and capital accumula- destroyed at the rate of 9,000 square miles a year, and the Gulf tion, and clearly this rule disproportionately affects the Southern of California, home of seriously depleted schools of sardines and Hemisphere’s poor.