Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Don't Pray for Venezuela: The Struggle Against Contemporary Fascism

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Don't Pray for Venezuela: The Struggle Against Contemporary Fascism

Click here to access article by Chris Gilbert from MRZine.

The author provides an excellent attack on the Popular Front strategy that still lingers in Venezuela because of, what Gilbert argues is, an exaggerated fear of US intervention. The Popular Front strategy did have some (although, I think mistaken) rational basis its promotion by Stalin in the lead-up to WWII: to provide additional time for the Soviet Union to prepare for the inevitable attack from Nazi Germany. However, this strategy is now well past its for-sale-by-date, but yet it still is pursued by many would-be revolutionary leaders or leftists as we have seen in Venezuela.