Good a.m. Marv: I am caught in a few sudden 'deadlines' - despite my having rejected any need for these upon formal retirement! Hence, please allow me to defer much of an adequate reply until those are done.
That especially includes the relationship of Lenin's 'Chinese Wall' (It was that that I recall, a somewhat prescient description coined by Lenin and not 'iron wall'. Guess he must have used more than one) to Trotsky's varying descriptions. We have had this discussion in private emails. But neither of us have done the necessary - but tedious and laborious - quotation mongering that is necessary. I generally try to avoid that. But of course, it has its uses to establish historical veracity. So this quick note is confined to the final query you raise : "My question is: Do you think Chavez and Maduro should have allied with the Venezuelan national bourgeoisie in line with the Compass position, or should they have moved to fully expropriate it as your quote from Lenin and Michael Roberts’ blog post suggest?" The short answer is 'yes'. The longer answer is that in reality the point I was trying to make (perhaps I was too vague) is that Chavez and Maduro were/are the political representatives of a national capitalist class. I think they were never the representatives of the working class. I suspect I made that point more pointedly - in relation to another country- in the articles on Peru where I cited materials where Gen Juan Velasco Alvardo paints the 'reformers' dilemma: " "By 1968 reforms finally began in Juan Velasco Alvardo’s dictatorship. But they were to be reversed, ending in great land concentration for rural comprador capitalists. Velasco had no intent to expropriate imperialism, saying in 1969: “The government doesn’t have any money... The country needs capital for its development”. 13 “private investment, even if it creates economic modernization, serves as a mechanism for removing wealth from Latin America. But... Latin American development requires foreign capital.” 13 See p. 4 at: the pdf carried at https://mlcurrents.net/2021/11/09/elections-2021-and-peruvian-reformist-politicians-promises-promises/ In there I also reminded us of old lessons, applied to Peru. I say " reminded " - because none of this is new of course! Perhaps there has been insufficient attention to applications of it after say 1930, but it is not new! In any case: I pointed to the clarity the dichotomy of 'comprador' representatives and 'national representatives' and 'working class' - as discussed by Jose Carlo Mariategu. In another piece with my co-authors, I discuss Mariategu's penetrating analysis of Peruvian society far more, at the pdf https://mlcurrents.net/2021/10/08/on-the-death-of-abimael-guzman-a-k-a-chairman-gonzalo-1934-2021/ pages 7-11. For now I return to the mundanity, of at least my own, daily life. I will take up the deferred bookwormy aspect referred to above, anon. Please be well, H -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#31344): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/31344 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/107582765/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
