A CONSISTENT REPLY TO REPEATED QUESTIONS
(From El Libertario #34, Sept.-Oct. 2003)
A while ago we received an email from Germany from comrade Wayne, an activist
with the FAU, a German anarchosyndicalist organization. He said: "As you know
there are many people of the left in Europe who support Chavez and his government. I know that Venezuelan anarchists have been recently attacked by the right wing opposition but I want to know if the Chavists have also attacked or threatened the anarchists.
(From El Libertario #34, Sept.-Oct. 2003)
A while ago we received an email from Germany from comrade Wayne, an activist
with the FAU, a German anarchosyndicalist organization. He said: "As you know
there are many people of the left in Europe who support Chavez and his government. I know that Venezuelan anarchists have been recently attacked by the right wing opposition but I want to know if the Chavists have also attacked or threatened the anarchists.
I need some concrete examples of Chavez's actions, both good and bad. I am familiar with the theorical reasons why the anarchists oppose him, but theory is not enough. Health and anarchy".
In the name of the Comision de Relaciones Anarquistas (CRA) of Venezuela and of
the newspaper El Libertario, we send this reply which we wish to publicize for
the many people who in many ocassions, within and without Venezuela, have posed
similar questions to us:
"As a starting point, let us inform you that we have published many documents
analyzing Chavez and what he represents in Venezuelan politics. Although we publish pamphlets and propaganda flyers on the subject, our opinions about Chavism and the nation's political situation have been expressed in more detail in our newspaper El Libertario, whose 33 issues have come out regularly since November 1996. In addition, from issue #10 to #28 we have put on the "Samizdata" website the main texts of each issue, and
starting with #29 in our own El Libertario website
which contains in several of its sections abundant information on this theme, including a large section of documents translated to English.
Our position of uncompromising opposition to Chavism is not simply the result of
a mechanical application of anarchist theory but is merely the consequence of
our experiences in the social reality of Venezuela these past years that enabled
us to verify with total clarity that chavism has an authoritarian, militarist, corrupt and demagogic praxis of submission to transnational powers that completely invalidates the apparently leftist and anti-globalization discourse that it sometimes presents, particularly with a view to obtaining international political support. Concrete evidence of these false practices by the so-called "Bolivarian Revolution" has been timely exposed in many articles published in El Libertario, which you can find in the above mentioned web sites.
Since we have exposed the pseudo-progressive Chavist game, government lackeys
hurl the classical accusations that the authoritarian left reserves for Anarchism in these cases, saying for example that we are helping and abetting an opposition that is presented as a whole as "right wing and fascist". In that respect, it's enough to review our public pronouncements, collected in our editions of El Libertario, to verify that we have clearly differentiated ourselves both from the coup-prone right and from the socialdemocrats, the two wings of the authoritarian opposition to Chavez. On the other hand, our experience here in Venezuela tells us that the confrontations between the
authoritarians in power and those of the opposition have very little to do with the struggle among socio-political projects and a lot with the accumulation of power for personal and class benefit, therefore the only ways that we consider
and promote as positive are those that stand apart from those two gangs engaged
in a disgusting bureaucratic argument, working to empower autonomous collective
initiatives for building liberty and equality in solidarity.
Regarding the verbal threats we have suffered, they have come equally from both
sides. To illustrate recent examples that ocurred within only a few days, a councilmember from a right wing party (Primero Justicia) barks stupidly in a Caracas daily, while anonimous chavist cybernauts systematically put in circulation shameless lies and libels against us in Indymedia and other alternative circles in the web.
In the media and among the voices of either, anarchism continues to be presented
as destructive irrationality and anarchists as potential terrorists, thus creating the ambience for future repressive assaults. It must be said that up to date this atmosphere has not progressed to direct aggressions (physical violence, imprisonment, censorship, prohibition of publications and such) but it would not surprise us if the growing spiral of verbal belligerance would lead to
such acts.
We hope this has been of help in answering your questions which no doubt express
the sentiment of many anarchist comrades in Europe, where many people ignore
what Venezuelan anarchists have been exposing and doing. Against such ignorance
and against the deceit created by the Chavist propaganda and its allies (which
range from exquisite opportunists such as Attac or monsieur Ramonet to ridiculous throwbacks of marxism-leninism) we trust that the libertarian people of Europe will denounce the mess of opportunist infighting for state power that hides behind the revolutionary farce that is on scene today in Venezuela. Health, happiness and (A)!"
[Translation: Luis]
In the name of the Comision de Relaciones Anarquistas (CRA) of Venezuela and of
the newspaper El Libertario, we send this reply which we wish to publicize for
the many people who in many ocassions, within and without Venezuela, have posed
similar questions to us:
"As a starting point, let us inform you that we have published many documents
analyzing Chavez and what he represents in Venezuelan politics. Although we publish pamphlets and propaganda flyers on the subject, our opinions about Chavism and the nation's political situation have been expressed in more detail in our newspaper El Libertario, whose 33 issues have come out regularly since November 1996. In addition, from issue #10 to #28 we have put on the "Samizdata" website the main texts of each issue, and
starting with #29 in our own El Libertario website
which contains in several of its sections abundant information on this theme, including a large section of documents translated to English.
Our position of uncompromising opposition to Chavism is not simply the result of
a mechanical application of anarchist theory but is merely the consequence of
our experiences in the social reality of Venezuela these past years that enabled
us to verify with total clarity that chavism has an authoritarian, militarist, corrupt and demagogic praxis of submission to transnational powers that completely invalidates the apparently leftist and anti-globalization discourse that it sometimes presents, particularly with a view to obtaining international political support. Concrete evidence of these false practices by the so-called "Bolivarian Revolution" has been timely exposed in many articles published in El Libertario, which you can find in the above mentioned web sites.
Since we have exposed the pseudo-progressive Chavist game, government lackeys
hurl the classical accusations that the authoritarian left reserves for Anarchism in these cases, saying for example that we are helping and abetting an opposition that is presented as a whole as "right wing and fascist". In that respect, it's enough to review our public pronouncements, collected in our editions of El Libertario, to verify that we have clearly differentiated ourselves both from the coup-prone right and from the socialdemocrats, the two wings of the authoritarian opposition to Chavez. On the other hand, our experience here in Venezuela tells us that the confrontations between the
authoritarians in power and those of the opposition have very little to do with the struggle among socio-political projects and a lot with the accumulation of power for personal and class benefit, therefore the only ways that we consider
and promote as positive are those that stand apart from those two gangs engaged
in a disgusting bureaucratic argument, working to empower autonomous collective
initiatives for building liberty and equality in solidarity.
Regarding the verbal threats we have suffered, they have come equally from both
sides. To illustrate recent examples that ocurred within only a few days, a councilmember from a right wing party (Primero Justicia) barks stupidly in a Caracas daily, while anonimous chavist cybernauts systematically put in circulation shameless lies and libels against us in Indymedia and other alternative circles in the web.
In the media and among the voices of either, anarchism continues to be presented
as destructive irrationality and anarchists as potential terrorists, thus creating the ambience for future repressive assaults. It must be said that up to date this atmosphere has not progressed to direct aggressions (physical violence, imprisonment, censorship, prohibition of publications and such) but it would not surprise us if the growing spiral of verbal belligerance would lead to
such acts.
We hope this has been of help in answering your questions which no doubt express
the sentiment of many anarchist comrades in Europe, where many people ignore
what Venezuelan anarchists have been exposing and doing. Against such ignorance
and against the deceit created by the Chavist propaganda and its allies (which
range from exquisite opportunists such as Attac or monsieur Ramonet to ridiculous throwbacks of marxism-leninism) we trust that the libertarian people of Europe will denounce the mess of opportunist infighting for state power that hides behind the revolutionary farce that is on scene today in Venezuela. Health, happiness and (A)!"
[Translation: Luis]
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