Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2004 13:37:31 -0500
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Tariq Ali: change the world by taking power


Thiago Oppermann wrote:

>On 8/12/2004 2:58 PM, "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood-AT-panix.com> wrote:
>
>>  [a poke in the eye of autonomists -
>>  <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1223>]
>>
>>  [...]
>>
>>  Do you see the US Empire absorbing this energy by trying to propose a
>>  softer version of neoliberalism?
>>
>>  I don't think they are, at the moment, prepared to do that. They will
>>
>
>More like a poke in his own eye. It's such a stupid take: if you don't like
>the latest pathetic caudillo, you're a moralising timewaster; unless you
>support X statist insurrection, you've got no alternative; if you criticise
>state power, you will have none. It's hard not to hear "and we will make
>sure of that." There is no alternative! This guy bores me to a fury.
>
>He really has his head stuck in the sand: look, all over Latin America, the
>glorious effect of grabbing state power!

My friend Joel Schalit said the other week that anarchists are the 
new Leninists - doctrinally and organizationally purist and snotty 
about everyone else. I think there's a bit of that in this response.

Chavez isn't another pathetic caudillo. He's won elections, and a 
heavily funded recall campaign sponsored by the Venezuelan elite in 
partnership with Washington. He enjoys broad popular support, and 
there's little repressive about his government.

We're now coming on the 11th anniversary of the emergence of the 
Zapatistas. What have they really accomplished, aside from making a 
nice media splash? They haven't taken power, but they haven't really 
changed the world very much either. They've barely changed Mexico, in 
fact. I wish it weren't true, but I doubt you can change the world 
without taking power.

Doug


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