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The "delicate balancing act" requiring the "grasp of Marxism and revolutionary history" shows that the support has to go to those organizations outside the government that can become nodes of class-wide organization. I've read Mariategui closely, several times. I find nothing in his writings that argues for support of a government like Morales, much less a state like Bolivia's. Sure we have to put Morales in context-- part of that context is his, and the MAS, history of lagging behind the movement in Bolivia. Part of the context with MAS in Bolivia as with the ANC in South Africa is that, to the bourgeoisie, the alternatives were not viable at that time, and they need to buy a lot of time, which MAS and ANC are selling them. Part of that context is the Morales' governments open embrace of state capitalism. As for Morales being the first indigenous president--well, yes and no-- Barrientos was of Quecheua and Spanish background, spoke Quechua, liked to appear in indigenous dress etc etc, appealed to and was quite popular with the indigenous peasantry of the Cochabamba. Didn't stop him from suppressing miners' strikes. And try this: Obama is the first African-American president in a country that has oppressed African-Americans for 400 years. The problem here, the issues here, are you cannot abstract, or separate the MAS government from the Bolivian state, despite the pledges of allegiance to socialism from the military generals. You cannot abstract that state from the economy of Bolivia. Speaking of the socialist generals-- are they all resigning their commissions, capping their salaries at no more than that of the highest paid sergeant, foregoing all privileges regarding housing, transportation, etc, reorganizing their branches along socialist principles, with the military seeking to dissolve itself through the organization of workers' militias? More than all that, can anyone point to the defeat of capitalism, the success of the "delicate balancing act" by supporting Morales-type governments in Latin America? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis Proyect" <l...@panix.com> ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
