Max wrote: > I hope somebody tells him to shut up. The last thing we need now is > somebody with a foreign bad guy persona to attack McCain and give him a > platform > for his inane bluster, which would sell like hotcakes. I expect Osama to > intervene to this end any time now.
Last guy who tried to shut him up, Juan Carlos de Borbón King of Spain, had to invite him later to his private mansion in Mallorca to make peace. So, good luck. IMO, we cannot demand that Chávez (or any other popular leader in the South) adjust their rhetoric for our tactical gain here. I'd think differently if Chávez were an intellectual in Venezuela with no or little connection to actual social movements. But Chávez represents in very direct and concrete ways the insurrection of a large portion of the human race -- and not only in Venezuela or Latin America -- against imperialist oppression. The overwhelming majority of humans are under similar conditions. So, their liberation -- conducted by them, in their terms, in fierce opposition to their imperialist oppressors -- is bound to make the greatest contribution to human liberation overall. It's their prerogative. And it's ultimately to our benefit. We don't have to agree with Chávez or any other leader, on this or any other thing, but we have to understand that our tactical needs cannot top everything else in the big scheme of things. The Soviet Union used to impose its tactical needs on the old CPs and, in the long run, that didn't help them or the CPs. Basically the same rule needs to be applied domestically, to our support for Obama. We deal differently with small leftist propaganda grouplets or individual "radicals" (of the superficial kind), compared to -- say -- Cindy Sheehan or Cynthia McKinney. In my view, Cindy and Cynthia represent the radicalization of actual masses of people: people directly affected by the war and poor Blacks in the South, respectively, struggling with the political means at hand. I'm for Obama, but I would oppose any attempt to gag Cindy or Cynthia for tactical gains for Obama, regardless of consequences. They have their constituencies and to them they owe who they are as leaders. Note to Jim: I'm not trying to use radical-sounding terms, it's just that these seem like the right terms to me. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
