Since Venezuela in 2007 does not seem following the same path as Russia
in 1917, it is understandable that some socialists might feel a certain
kind of frustration. They accept that a revolutionary process is taking
place, but only at the grass roots level. Operating on a kind of
parallel track to Hugo Chávez, the poor and the working classes are used
as a kind of wedge by the president to drive forward his programs,
laudable as they are. However laudable, they are at best a substitute
for the real thing: revolution.
The International Socialist Tendency (IST), led by the British SWP,
subscribes to this guarded support of Chávez as do many other socialist
groups still in touch with reality. For an example of a group unmoored
from reality, we can turn to the Morenoite Trotskyist Fraction/Fourth
International which describes the new constitution in these terms:
"It is important to emphasize that the constitutional reform has as one
of its priorities, increasing the concentration of power in the figure
of Chávez. If Venezuela has a system of government centered on the
President, with the present reform it will reach a greater degree of
Bonapartism."
For the latest thinking in the IST, it is worth watching a talk by Mike
Gonzalez that can be seen on Lenin’s Tomb. It is an extraordinary
exercise in tightrope walking. While Gonzalez takes great care not to
use Morenoite formulations, one cannot help but conclude from his
remarks that Hugo Chávez represents a kind of plaque in the arteries of
the revolutionary process.
full:
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/mike-gonzalez-on-hugo-chavez/
