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Jgreen has responded to me by once again misunderstanding what I wrote.
Rather than jump into an extensive exchange of 'he said, I said'
quotations--- of interest, I assume. to a small set of site readers,
let's go directly to the central issues.
1. I believe that the Bolivarian Revolution (and what remains of it
at this critical stage) must be defended against US imperialism, its
allies and the Venezuelan oligarchy. Do you? If not, what is your
proposal for revolutionaries?
2. I believe that the Bolivarian Revolution has been deformed by a
combination of capitalist and statist elements within the Chavist
coalition (and that its disastrous economic policies reflect not simply
mistakes but vested interests) but that it retains the (very) critical
support of commune activists and the organised working classes, and I
identify with their position. Do you not?
As far as your unique reading of what I wrote, let two examples
suffice:
So let's read what you wrote in 2016, that is, during Maduro's
presidency, in thearticle titled "What Is Socialism for the
Twenty-First Century?"
Consider the subsection labelled "The Key Link". It begins:
"So, let us explain what socialism for the twenty-first century is.
There are lessons
to be learned from the experiences of the twentieth century, and the
Bolivarian
Constitution of Venezuela adopted in 1999, reflects many of those
lessons.
Are there lessons to be learned from the experiences of the twentieth
century?
And do you reject the idea that they might be reflect in the Bolivarian
Constitution?
(Incidentally, I should point out that the article in question was first
published as a booklet in Cuba [as part of our programme there on
socialism for the 21st century], and you would understand its meaning
especially by reading it in that context.)
.
And in 2012, you wrote that:
"...The society we want to build is one that recognizes that 'the free
development
of each is the condition for the free development of all.' How can we
ensure,
though, that our communal, social productivity is directed to the free
development
of *all* rather than used to satisfy the private goals of caitalists,
groups of
indiiduals, or state bureaucrats? A second side of what President
Chavez of
Venezuela called on his 'Alo Presidente' program in January 2007 the
'elementary triangle of socialism' concerns the distribution of the
means of
production. 'Social ownership of the means of production' is that
second side. Of
course, it is essential to understand that social ownership is not the
same as state
ownership. Social ownership implies a profound democracy -- one in which
people function as subjects, both as producers and as members of
society, in
determining the use of the results of our social labor."
This is from the introduction, entitled "New Wings for Socialism", of
your book
"Contradictions of Real of Real Socialism: The Conductor and the
Conducted", p.
19. Now, isn't the term "new wings" another way of referring to models?
As indicated in the poem from Brecht ['songs for children, Ulm 1592]
with which that introduction begins, the reference to 'wings' is to the
tailor who tries to fly 'with things that looked like wings' and is
crushed. At the end of that introduction. I indicate that the book ['The
Contradictions of "Real Socialism"] is 'about that attempt in the
twentieth century to build an alternative to capitalism, an alternative
that relied upon things that looked like wings and crashed.'
Both of of these examples relate to lessons we need to learn from
the experience of 'real socialism'.
michael
--
---------------------
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Home: Phone 604-689-9510
Cell: 604-789-4803
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