Colón, Venezuela, "Día de la Raza"

12-09-04 University of Los Andes (ULA) professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: Do we really have a "World Energy Crisis"? Is there a global, historical connection between this "crisis" and the dramatic social events in Venezuela?
And why is Latin America a revolutionary time-bomb?

Already on June 12, 2000, in an article: "The Unnecessary Energy Crisis: How to Solve It Quickly", T.E. Bearden, LTC, US Army (Retired) CEO, CTEC, the Director of the Association of Distinguished American Scientists (ADAS) and a Fellow Emeritus of the Alpha Foundation's Institute for Advanced Study (AIAS), explained the energetic quintessence of the current world recession, depression and crisis.
In the last analysis, within this "crisis," the current problems of Venezuela, the war on Afghanistan and Iraq, the imperialist policies of Russia vis-a-vis the Balkan peoples, the counter-revolutionary roles of Israel in the Middle East and of South Africa on the African continent, have to be seen.

Firstly, avery careful historical politico-economic study of the revolutionary processes of the accumulation of world capital, of the various modes of production on the planet, will reveal that all the well-known, dramatic, dialectical, intra-systemic changes that have occurred, basically concern the radical transformations of energy and technological sources and resources.
This applies to all productive processes, from the stone-axe to the computer, from the use of man-power to horse-power, to Pentagon "Aliens", to United States "Flying Saucers", leaving Los Alamos, driven on by Tesla energy and technology, already discovered and partially probably used since the end of the 19th Century.

Historically, as intrinsic part of the even, uneven and combined development, slave labour clashed with agricultural manual labour, the latter survived, then, later, as a result of the "Emancipation of the Slaves" and the "Industrial Revolution", both were superseded predominantly by industrial production, by modern factory labour.
The British textile industry necessitated wool, thus sheep drove the peasants off their ancestral lands, food production diminished, vagrant laws eliminated the unemployed serfs, that is, progressively destroyed the obsolete agricultural energetic resources.

Nowadays, as a result of a "Global Revolution," 6 bn already obsolete manual industrial and agricultural labourers, as forces of production, as energetic forces, are continually being eliminated from the global market.
So-called "intellectual labour," "intellectual property," "human capital" or "global social and natural resources of mankind"... for example, Amazonia... not only usher in the current fascist stage of a mode of global destruction, but also of a still possible post-productive mode of creativity and creation, thus, also nurturing already existent, alternative, energetic sources and resources, that could give birth to trans-revolutionary possibilities and emancipatory realities.

This is the trans-historic background in which the current Bolivarian Revolution has to be placed, be seen, as part of the tip of the emancipatory, creative iceberg -- for it, for the impoverished millions of Latin America, to be anything else, surely would mean, regression, stagnation, vegetation, reform, self-annihilation.
Venezuela, as one of the main suppliers of the "long term" already obsolete energetic resources of oil and gas, is directly affected by current "new wars" by the EURO-US "world mode of destruction"; hence, let us summarize what an expert in this matter, Thomas Bearden warned about... that is, in how far the global "energy crisis" affects Venezuela and Latin America, and why the permanent, ferocious, global, globalised attacks against the Bolivarian Revolution.

Already in 2000, what did Bearden tell us with reference to the current "world energy crisis"?
"The world energy crisis is now driving the economies of the world nations. Presently there is an escalating worldwide demand for electrical power and transportation, much of which depends on fossil fuels and particularly oil or oil products. The resulting demand for oil is expected to increase year by year. Recent sharp rises in some US metropolitan areas included gasoline at more than $ 2.50 per gallon already.”
“At the same time, it appears that world availability of oil may have peaked in early 2000, if one factors in the suspected Arab inflation of reported oil reserves. From now on it appears that oil availability will steadily decline, slowly at first but then at an increasing pace."

Concerning the "some 150 nations," mainly of South America, Africa and Asia, who live outside the big metropolitan countries, he explained their immediate future:
"The transfer of manufacturing and production to many of these nations is a transfer to essentially "slave labour" nations where workers have few if any benefits, are paid extremely low wages, work long hours, and have no unions or bargaining rights. The local politicians can usually be "bought" very cheaply so thatthere are also no effective government controls. This has set up a de facto return to the feudalistic capitalism of an earlier era when enormous profits could be and were extracted from the backs of impoverished workers, and government checks and balances were nil."

Very accurately he foresaw the current collapse of the global economy:
"Bluntly, we foresee these factors - and others not covered - converging to a catastrophic collapse of the world economy in about eight years. As the collapse of the Western economies nears, one may expect catastrophic stress on the 160 developing nations as the developed nations are forced to dramatically curtail orders."
Thus, how do the desperate actions of blowing up "Twin Towers" and declaring "new wars" on Afghanistan and Iraq, including oil sabotage in Venezuela, fit into this gruesome picture?

And, who all are more desperate?
Surely, less North Korea or Iran, but in the first place, certainly, the United States Administration, Bush-Kerry, Corporate America, but also the "opposition" in Venezuela, Carter, Gaviria and Gustavo Cisneros.
"History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions. Prior to the final economic collapse, the stress on nations will have increased the intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain to be released. As an example, suppose a starving North Korea launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South Korea, including US forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response."

Below, he explained the capitalist, corporate, energetic reasons for the establishment of the current "Fourth Empire" and why the issues at stake are so urgent for the survival of the current "world order" for "world peace." In other words, he indicated why Iraq and Afghanistan need "regime change," why Iran and Venezuela are next on the list, and why President Chavez' "understanding of democracy" is "out-dated."
"The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the biosphere, at least for many decades. My personal estimate is that... beginning about 2007... on our present energy course we will have reached an 80 % probability of this 'final destruction of civilization itself' scenario occurring at any time, with the probability slowly increasing as time passes. One may argue about the timing, slide the dates a year or two, etc., but the basic premise and general time frame holds. We face not only a world economic crisis, but also a world destruction crisis."

Well, we have passed the critical year, 2003, the following await us:
"The 2003 date appears to be the critical ‘point of no return’ for the survival of civilization as we have known it. Reaching that point, say, in 2005 will not solve the crisis in time, and the collapse of the world economy as well as the destruction of civilization and the biosphere will still almost certainly occur, even with the solutions in hand.... Eerily, this very threat now looms in our not too distant future, due in large part to the increasing and unbearable stresses that escalating oil prices will elicit. So about seven years or so from now, we will enter the period of the threat of the Final Armageddon, unless we do something very, very quickly now, to totally and permanently solve the present ‘electrical energy from oil crisis.’"

Of course, Thomas Bearden is not a socialist, he wants the best for Corporate America. Thus, according to him, what is required to solve the problem? Venezuela, listen very carefully to what he said.
"To avoid the impending collapse of the world economy and/or the destruction of civilization and the biosphere, we must quickly replace much of the "electrical energy from oil" heart of the crisis at great speed, and simultaneously replace a significant part of the "transportation using oil products" factor also.... In the name of all humanity, let us begin! Else by the time this first decade of the new millennium ends, much of humanity may not remain to see the second decade."

Other solutions that he has suggested, could be read in the document referred to above, however, according to him, it is now already too late. No real measure was taken to avoid a global catastrophe. In any event it is important to see the real, true, historic context of the current Bolivarian Revolution; surely, the solution of problems is to be found neither in "away with Chavez" nor in "away with the Opposition."
Precisely this global situation has produced the Bolivarian Revolution, it is its alma mater, its emancipatory matrix. We have to solve our immediate short term problems, but even they are dictated by trans-historic long term processes and developments. We have to arm ourselves, practically, militarily, theoretically, philosophically, and creatively, that is, in toto, we have to enter the horizons of invisible, invincible, invulnerable, emancipatory spheres.

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Published: Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Bylined to: Franz J. T. Lee

Franz J. T. Lee: The big lie of Human Trafficking in Venezuela

University of Los Andes (ULA) professor Franz J. T. Lee writes: The latest terrorist, political gimmick of the USA against Venezuela ... even threatening to block access to international loans with a de facto veto in international lending institutions ... is to accuse Venezuela of participating in "human trafficking" ... in other words, that Venezuela is promoting modern global slavery ... more precisely, is nurturing "forced human labor."

In the 2nd US Annual Trafficking in Persons Report, the US Department of State itself had explained a while ago what Venezuela is being accused of.

According to the report:
Women and children make up the overwhelming majority of victims, typically being sold into the international sex trade for prostitution, sex tourism and other commercial sexual services, and into forced labor situations in sweatshops, construction sites and agricultural settings. In other forms of servitude, children are abducted and forced to fight for government military forces or rebel armies, and to act as domestic servants and street beggars.

Well, the Chavez Frias government has absolutely nothing to do with the above ... it is too much occupied with the integration of Latin America against the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (ALCA) and the CIA ... Chavez Frias is organizing popular "missions" to provide education, health, housing and food for the nation.

In spite of such "urgent preoccupations" of the White House, at least Secretary of State Colin Powell had the objective decency to report the following about the Euro-US Mafiosi which is very much occupied with global human trafficking:

"...that some 50,000 women and children are trafficked annually for sexual exploitation into the United States. "Here and abroad," said Powell, "the victims of trafficking toil under inhuman conditions -- in brothels, sweatshops, fields and even in private homes."

What does not bother the US administration in the least is that ... over the last decades, in Europe ... the trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation was (and still is today) a huge profitable industry. In Western Europe alone, the International Organization for Migration estimates that around 500,000 women per year are being trafficked from poorer regions in the world." That is, from Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Surely, sexual and labor exploitation are against the law in the United States? Also US Federal laws prohibit slavery, also in prisons. However, it seems, that under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act and other similar laws in Europe, that Bush, Schroeder and Chirac have no measures available to mete out punishment or sanctions against their very own slave masters.

For sure, according to the US Amendment XIII:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Yet, in reality, according to reports, in the USA, ten of thousands of prisoners ... especially Afro-Americans ... are being enslaved by forced labor. Very few people have read serious investigations about these forms of modern slavery, for example, the report, HIDDEN SLAVES, Forced Labor in the USA.

These documents show how Slave Labor is an easy source for US Corporate and Government profits. One article touches the very core of the issue:

What has changed over the last 400 years? Not much. Only the improved cleverness of the slave masters in latching on to ingenious rationales to cloak their crimes.

In conclusion, the truth of the matter is that, apart from the universal, politico-economic fact, the USA is itself exploiting billions of physical and mental labor forces en masse ... by prostituting them, buying their very bodies and souls cheaply, northern corporate imperialism still has the arrogant audacity. Especially after its lies about Pearl Harbor, the Twin Towers and its preventive Invasion of Iraq ... now by means of bare-faced international info-war, to disseminate more blatant hoaxes across the globe, lies about Venezuela and its revolutionary government.

Concerning human trafficking/modern slavery ... by secretly tolerating them or even organizing them; and by forcing young men into genocidal economic world wars, the very USA and Europe are in the front line of such heinous crimes against humanity. In reality, they should be at The Hague or in Nuremberg trials to be judged for heinous crimes against the very species homo sapiens, against all life on the planet.

However, as always ... if not Chavez Frias, the "bad guys" are the Arabs.

According to a 1993 US State Department estimate, about 90,000 blacks were supposedly owned as slaves by North African Arabs who, in a thriving slave trade, were selling them for as little as US$15 per human being.

Even worse, UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from West and Central Africa are being sold into slavery each year.

Another more serious report brings us nearer to the truth:

(Currently there are about) 27 million slaves in the world. At least ten thousand live in the United States. This is real slavery, in which people are forced to work for little or no pay and under the constant threat of violence.

Hence, Bush and Kerry, Hands off Venezuela!

Urgently attend your own trafficking of drugs and human beings at home, before your very own cocks will come home to roost!

In spite of your modern technology of malicious, massive, disinformation campaigns, Big Lies still have very short wings.

Franz J. T. Lee
franzjutta@cantv.net

Franz John Tennyson Lee, Ph. D (University of Frankfurt), Author, Professor Titular & Chairholder of Philosophy and Political Science, University of The Andes, Merida (Venezuela) -- http://www.franzjutta.com ; http://www.franz-lee.org ; http://www.geocities.com/juttafranz/publications00001.html

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by Professor Franz J.T. Lee

The Possible Faces of Venezuelan Democracy

Monday, Oct 11, 2004		Print format
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By: Jonah Gindin – Venezuelanalysis.com

In the eastside Caracas barrio of Petare, an elderly former guerrilla addresses his neighbours: “In the 1960s and 70s when we were fighting the government,” notes Renardo Tovar, “we had to create our own media of communication: clandestine newspapers, radio, barrio-newsletters. Now that we are part of the process and supported by the process, we have lost our creativity. We depend on existing media—Ultimas Noticias, Radio Nacional, Canal 8[1]—when the need is still great to create our own.”

Looking-in from the barrios that surround Venezuela’s capital.
Credit: Jonah Gindin

An infamous epicentre of rebellion and politicization, Petare residents played a leading role in the caracazo—the popular uprising against the neoliberal policies of then President Carlos Andres Perez in February 1989. On April 12th, 2002, hours after a coup had (temporarily) toppled Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’ government, Petare residents stormed the state television station, bringing it back on the air to inform the country of the coup, rallying Chávez’ supporters to successfully demand his return.

Renardo Tovar is participating in a ‘popular assembly’, bringing community activists and social movement militants together to debate the ‘deepening of the revolution.’ Since Chávez’ declaration that the referendum victory inaugurates a new stage in the Bolívarian project, communities across the country have begun debating what the “revolution within the revolution” actually means.

After a year and a half thaw, popular power is once again stimulating popular consciousness in Venezuela. Since the campaign for recalling Chávez got under-way after the failed oil lock-out of 2002-03 the opposition shifted strategy from extra-legal attacks on Chávez (the 2002 coup, the lockout) to legal ones (the referendum). But with their defeat last August, the immediate threat to the Bolivarian revolution has—temporarily—been averted. As a result, Venezuela’s revolution has entered a new stage. Chávez calls it ‘deepening the revolution,’ but it is more than just his initiatives for ‘deepening’ at the level of the state. This new stage is characterized by a dialectical shift from the defensive politics that subordinated everything else to the defence of the revolution, to a return to the creative dialogue that Chávez’ proceso initially represented.

At this moment, as the splintered collection of anti-chavists represented by the Democratic Coordinator (CD)—unable to come to grips with their defeat—continues their self-immolation, dialogue and dissent have returned to debates within chavismo. The collective imagination that has been largely stagnant since the 2002 attempted-coup is once again finding spaces for expression. It is a moment for ‘deepening’, but it is also a moment for reflection, and for self-criticism.

Between a Friend and a Principle

With the upcoming regional elections as a further catalyst, communities are once-again demanding national forums for the articulation of community interests, and community-based struggles. Thus, a series of popular assemblies held in communities across the country to frame their position with respect to the regional elections: local-selected candidates (primaries) or conditional support for candidates selected from above? And thus a lively debate that is slowly emerging on the future of the Electoral Battle Units (UBEs) initially created as part of the chavista referendum campaign.

Outside Miraflores Palace, a small group of Chavistas demand primaries to chose candidates for the upcoming regional elections.
Credit: Jonah Gindin

In response to increasing mobilization demanding primaries for regional candidates, Chávez’ position has been a surprise to many. Last month, he declared “We have already announced the candidates, and these are the candidates. Those who don’t want unity can join the escualidos (opposition).” Yet since these candidates were all appointed by a national committee dominated by the governing party, the 5th Republic Movement (MVR), the result has been fierce opposition in many communities who are demanding that the government act in accordance with its participatory rhetoric.

While many in the interior continue to press for primaries, Caracas seems to have come to a consensus. Recognizing the time constraints with the October 31st date of the regional elections looming, three of Caracas largest working-class districts have chosen conditions over primaries.

Yet the anger that this contradiction in the governments position has sparked remains. As the April 13th Movement, spawned during the mobilization on April 13th 2002 that resulted in the reversal of the coup against Chávez, argues: “We either make revolution, or we face destruction by the counterrevolution…this is the ethical dilemma cited by Chávez when he makes us chose between a friend and a principal.”

Rhetoric and Practice: Local Autonomy, Community-based Power

In a series of independently organized popular assemblies held in the Caracas barrios of El Valle, Petare, and Catia the focus was on declaring publicly and collectively the changes that they expect to see after chavista victory in their states and municipalities, no matter the candidate. To this end community members participating in the popular assemblies drew up manifestos that were subsequently sent to candidates at the municipal and state levels, and to Chávez.

In a manifesto published by various independent media outlets via internet, the Left Revolutionary Option (OIR) declared: whoever the candidates are, “the upcoming regional elections cannot be a new electoral event, nor a media-show without content or political perspectives…On the contrary, they must be a continuation of the struggle against imperialism and against the Venezuelan oligarchy. They must be an opportunity to debate ideas, suggestions, programs, and concrete plans of action that provide answers to the most urgent needs of the workers and the people.”

Manifestos drafted by these popular assemblies include provisions for the improvement of a diverse range of community rights and services. One focus for all three assemblies was the idea of local public planning councils. Last spring the organic law of Local Public Planning Councils was passed, yet these potentially key institutions of participatory democracy so close to the heart of the Bolivarian project have yet to be implemented.

Subordinated to facing the direct threat to the revolution that the referendum represented, the local public planning councils have returned to the forefront of the debate in many communities. They represent a Venezuelan version of the participatory budget experimented with in Porto Alegre, Brazil. According to Conexion-Social (Social-Connection), a nation-wide forum for community activists and social movements, the public planning council law is plagued by difficulties. Yet their implementation is the first step in addressing and eventually rectifying these potential problems.

As Pedro Infante, director of the National Coordination of Popular Organizations points out, the law was changed before being passed in the National Assembly. “Deputies to the National Assembly often do not consult their base on the laws they pass. But we as organized communities are not pressuring them sufficiently to do so. We are organized, but we are dispersed.”

Last weekend in 23 de Jenero[2], another vibrant center of revolutionary activity, neighbours and activists held a ‘popular assembly’ with the express aim of defining their community’s autonomy. Not content to wait for the national government to fix the existing legislation for local power structures, community-members took the initiative and explicitly stated the need for the creation of a self-sufficient local governing body inexorably rooted in, and directly accessible and accountable to, the community.

Small Steps: Internal Limits and Contradictions

Despite the continuing—and in fact increased—dynamism of Venezuela’s experiment in revolution, the process remains a gradual one, and it is one plagued by difficulties stemming from within as well as without. Whatever the external limitations imposed upon a third world Latin American country—even an oil country—internal limitations represent as much of a potential barrier to the development of the Bolivarian project.

Venezuela’s opposition succeeded in temporarily subverting the democratic project of the Bolivarian revolution by forcing the last one and a half years to be dominated by exercises in representative democracy. But the strength of the Bolivarian project has been its articulation of an alternative model of democracy. This has been one of the few areas in which Venezuela has been able to advance on its own. Lacking a regional movement dedicated to opposing neoliberalism it is difficult for Venezuela to do so alone, without isolating itself in an artificial, and likely short-lived socialist bubble.[3]

Depending as it does on oil wealth, Venezuela has the advantage of a certain autonomy from global capital in the sense that it does not depend as heavily on foreign lending institutions and can finance its development projects independently. Yet this autonomy is also the firmest guarantee of Venezuela’s continuing integration into the global economy. Oil wealth is of no use to the Bolivarian revolution if it cannot be sold on the world market. As a recent article in the Economist commented: “Chávez…has a grandiose scheme, called Petroamérica, for a Latin American energy conglomerate based on an alliance of state oil companies. Argentina's president, Néstor Kirchner, has shown interest. Brazil is less keen. But, for now, the Bolivarian revolution rests firmly on the shoulders of the foreign oil giants.” Even south-south trade relations pursued by Chávez have not effected significantly Venezuela’s dependence on the US market.

Compounding these difficulties, and intricately related to them, is the hesitancy of the V Republic to shed the vestiges of the IV Republic once and for all.[4] After 6 years of ‘revolution’ and a new constitution, the Venezuelan state has too much in common with the very un-revolutionary Venezuelan state that kept the country mired in the corrupt selective distribution of oil wealth from 1958-1998.

Politically the transition from representative to participatory democracy has proceeded at a painfully slow rate. Economically, the government has often proven reluctant to act in accordance with its own revolutionary rhetoric. The few currently-existing examples of co-management in Venezuelan factories have so far failed to concretely improve the lot of the workers in question, and examples of self-management do not yet exist. Culturally the revolution has seen some impressive advances, though largely limited to education.

Yet even the promise of the educational misiones, providing free and accessible education from basic literacy to university, raises questions of sustainability. Opposition critiques that Chávez is able to maintain the misiones solely due to record-breaking oil prices is probably exaggerated, but it represents a very real concern. Former Minister of Higher Education Hector Navarro has called for the ‘municipalization’ of higher education as a means of institutionalizing the universal right to higher education. Yet this would require a concurrent ‘municipalization’ of state resources and power structures, something that has yet to happen to a significant degree.

What has kept the revolutionary process going despite these barriers is the genuine cooperation between Chávez’ leadership and the Venezuelan people, represented by political mobilization. “Compared to Venezuela’s past,” notes Infante, “the Bolivarian project’s politicization of the people is clear. Whereas previously, social exclusion was a government policy, now social inclusion is a constitutional right.”

Practice and Ideology

Facing history: Chávez draws a lesson from the French Revolution. The paintaing “Raft of the Medusa,” by Theodore Géricault represented a critique of post-revolution French government, and bureaucratic mismanagement.
Credit: Jonah Gindin

In a recent press release Chávez referred to the philosophical responsibilities of the current juncture. “As Victor Hugo pointed out in Les Miserables,” he noted “we had abolished the ancién regime in effect, but we had not been able to abolish it in our ideas.” We must “transform the ancién regime not only in actions, but in ideas,” continued Chávez. “If we don’t, it will come back to haunt us, against our children tomorrow and will once again install the old ideas of egotism, individualism, the exploitation of some by others, the degeneration of man, as Víctor Hugo said, the degredation of women and the atrophy of children for want of knowledge.”

As the only community-based organizations that bring together chavista activists from all sectors of Bolivarian society, the UBEs have a unique potential to evolve into a national forum capable of providing a voice for community interests that act not only as a consultative body, but as an active partner in government. Currently Chávez has no adequate mechanism for consulting the nation on state decisions. The National Assembly is seen as inefficient and ineffective by many Venezuelans. Regular referendums on specific issues would be too impractical, and would run the risk of desensitizing the population to electoral politics. If a national forum existed with representatives from community UBEs, who were elected, and who were completely accountable to their base (perhaps through a system of constant reporting and dialogue, buttressed by short rotating terms) it would provide a body with which Chávez could be forced to consult regularly, and effectively.

Yet so far the UBEs have been a tool of the governing party, the MVR. They do not have any democratic structure, created as they were specifically to facilitate the ‘No’ (against the recall) campaign leading up to the referendum. The future of the UBEs will likely be decided by the communities across the country in which the UBEs are mobilizing and from which they draw their membership. And these communities have made their distaste for appointments from above abundantly clear.

As Chilean writer and activist Marta Harnecker notes in a preliminary version of a paper on the need for a wide political font, it “should not be a political organization decreed from above without taking into consideration the base. In many cases, the leaders of the Bolivarian forces are not the real leaders of their respective sectors, distancing the base and forcing them to find other forms of organization.”[5]

If the UBEs are to remain relevant, and especially if they are to be converted into Social Battle Units (UBSs), forming the base for a nation-wide participatory forum, it will be due to grassroots initiatives. As Harnecker notes, “It should be an organization in which exist mechanisms of control of its leaders by the base.” And the primary focus of this base after the regional elections will be concrete advances in participatory structures such as the local planning councils. Whether the government facilitates this project or tries to block it will be a crucial test of their willingness to put rhetoric into practice and to dilute their own power in the interests of further empowering the Venezuelan people.

Back in Petare, William Yaguaran, an army reservist who teaches history in Caracas’ poor barrios, refers to the importance of “peoples’ participation in constructing their own histories.” If the history of the Bolivarian revolution is to be written by the Venezuelan people, it must continue to be what ex-minister of Higher Education Hector Navarro describes as “a process of learning to do, and learning by doing—a process of building learning, by doing learning.”

[1] Ultimas Noticias is Venezuela’s largest circulating daily newspaper, and perhaps the only one that manages to maintain some semblance of political balance in its coverage; Radio Nacional is the official government radio station; Channel 8 (Venezolana de Television—VTV) is the state television channel.

[2] The neighbourhood is named after January 23rd, 1958—the date that Venezuelan dictator Peréz Jiménez was overthrown. Built during Jiménez’ dictatorship, its original name was Urbanizacion 2 de Deciembre.

[3] The importance of Venezuela as a source of oil for the US market is what would ensure such a socialist-bubbles short life.

[4] The Fourth Republic refers to the period between 1961 and 1999, before Chavez became president. The Fifth Republic, refers to the period after 1999, when the new constitution was approved.

[5] “Ideas para Frente Nacional,” August 26, 2004.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1291

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Organizaciones Bolivarianas en Chile
La Patria es América, el pueblo es uno solo, y también el enemigo

La transición del Día de Colón al Día de la Resistencia Indígena

Por Franz J.T. Lee

La “oposición” oligárquica y sus medios nacionales no tienen respeto en absoluto: actualmente, Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) y otros canales y radios privados están preparando cuñas para sus televidentes y oyentes adoctrinados para celebrar el “Día de la Raza” (Día de Colón) el próximo martes, 12 de octubre de 2004.

La gran mentira, el engaño sobre el “descubrimiento” de América por Cristóbal Colón aún tiene infectadas a las mentes de millones de Latinoamericanos y Caribeños.

A pesar del hecho de que el Gobierno Bolivariano cambió el nombre de esta fiesta nacional oficialmente al “Día de la Resistencia Indígena”, los medios masivos siguen con su control mental, con su adoctrinación y manipulación, a través de un Holocausto Mental Europeo trans-histórico de hace mucho tiempo, lanzado contra los pueblos de las Américas y de otras partes.

Ciertamente, Colón no estaba entre los primeros en saber que la tierra era redonda; los antiguos pueblos del mediterráneo ya poseían este conocimiento. No “descubrió” a América; ya siglos antes, los Africanos tenían balsas que atravesaron el Atlántico y existió un vívido y sano intercambio trans-cultural entre ellos y los pueblos indígenas americanos. Sus artefactos y huellas de sus antiguas culturas se encuentran en toda América Central. (Véase: http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:aK7VKOmi6NcJ:
members.aol.com/carltred/AfricanPresence.htm+Africans+in+
America,+before+Christopher+Columbus&hl=en)

Basándose en el conocimiento marítimo y los mapas astronómicos de ellos, Colón organizó sus propios viajes infames y sabía con precisión dónde estaba navegando. De hecho, en aquel entonces él mismo confirmó la presencia Africana en América (ibid.).

Lo que las clases dominantes oligárquicas de América Latina todavía están celebrando en esos días es el comienzo de la Conquista, del saqueo y genocidio, que sus antecesores habían diseminado en el “Nuevo Mundo”.

Colón mismo confirmó los fines capitalistas de sus viajes: “para acumular las grandes ganancias de este viaje, soy capaz de prometer, por una ligera recompensa de su Majestad, cualquier cantidad de oro, hierbas, algodón, almáciga, sábila y tantos esclavos para el servicio marítimo, que su Majestad pueda necesitar”.

De esta manera introdujo al “Triángulo de las Bermudas” del actual Mercado Mundial, la división internacional del trabajo, que finalmente desangraría el continente entero, especialmente América Central y del Sur.

En realidad, el Gobernador Colón no descubrió nada en absoluto, al contrario, era el primero en introducir un “gobierno” absolutista feudal Europeo en el hemisferio occidental, acompañado por brutales instituciones de esclavitud.

Fray Bartolomé de las Casas documentó los horrores testimoniados por él, por ejemplo, el apostar, quién tenía la habilidad notable de cortar a un esclavo en dos mitades iguales con un solo espadazo. Esto es el tipo de atrocidad, que la “oposición” venezolana aún está celebrando hoy día. De esta manera el gobierno de Colón era el primero en institucionalizar una carnicería activa de brutalidad contra los pueblos nativos.

Ahora, ¿qué es lo que los amos del mundo están celebrando realmente el Día de Colón, de hecho, el primer Día del Trabajo de las Américas?

A escala mundial ¿hay algo, por lo cual más de 5 billones de esclavos de trabajo manual obsoleto realmente se podrían alegrar?

¿Estamos celebrando nuestro “descubrimiento” por los Europeos y el hecho de ser masacrados después? ¿Que nos llaman despectivamente “razas” inferiores?

¿Estamos celebrando las victorias del trabajo y del capital alienado en las Américas?

Por lo menos aquí en Venezuela, los Bolivarianos celebrarán sus victorias sobre el golpismo, el sabotaje, el racismo y el fascismo, generados por el Hermano Mayor y sus lacayos locales a escala global.

Sin embargo, ¿de qué se trata con el trabajo de esclavos, la esclavitud asalariada y las fuerzas de trabajo explotadas? ¿Realmente son asuntos para celebrar?

Esto son precisamente las cosas que Colón trajo a América. Para aquellos, que han estudiado el capitalismo y el imperialismo en las Américas, no es ningún secreto en absoluto, que la fuente de la riqueza, del poder y del llamado progreso metropolitano, es simplemente la fuerza de trabajo físico y/o intelectual explotada. También es amplio conocimiento, que es la fuerza de trabajo y no el trabajo en sí, que genera capital, riqueza, poder y giga-ganancias, pero al mismo tiempo también armas de destrucción masiva y una miseria y pobreza más horrible y abominable.

Igual que en otras partes, desde los días del “Descubrimiento” aquí en las Américas, todos los problemas sociales giran en torno al fenómeno del trabajo, de la fuerza de trabajo explotada.

No tomar en consideración este hecho universal en Venezuela, América Latina, África y El Caribe equivale a no entender, que precisamente a través de la cruel explotación económica de las fuerzas de trabajo fundamentalmente físicas, millones de personas empobrecidas y deshumanizadas – también en la diáspora – ya desde siglos han sido terriblemente saqueados y asesinados por las crueles elites oligárquicas.

Y seguirán siendo saqueadas despiadadamente por muchas décadas más, es decir, si no cambiamos urgentemente este orden mundial actual. Muchos de nuestros pueblos indígenas ya se encuentran extinguidos; en África, sólo un puño de BaThwa o San – los llamados bosquimanos – sobrevivieron la conquista colonial y el Apartheid.

En Europa, desde el siglo 12 hasta hoy, el proceso del trabajo y de la producción se transformó progresivamente en trabajo industrial y finalmente en capital corporativo que domina y determina todos los eventos globales de la actualidad, incluyendo la actual Guerra Mundial Económica de Bush.

Hoy, como resultado de la profunda crisis del capitalismo corporativo, el asunto es aún más grave. En consecuencia, la única manera de aniquilar la quinta-esencia del actual trabajo productivo, es trascender su explotación económica, su dominación política, su discriminación social (racismo), su militarización fascista y su deshumanización terrorista (alienación). Esto sólo se puede lograr a través de la resistencia global, de la revolución mundial, que trasciende hacia la emancipación global, no de los esclavos, sino de la humanidad misma.

Lo que pasó el primer “Día de la Raza” en América, lo que ocurre en la tierra, en el universo y en las nubes de Magallanes, no tiene nada en absoluto que ver con ética burguesa, con normas religiosas, con lógica formal metafísica, con derechos humanos chimbos, con males absolutos racistas, con justicia infinita fascista, etc.

Con excepción de todas nuestras creencias y valores auténticas, sagradas e indígenas, todo lo demás son inventos fantásticos del hombre de la clase dominante megalómana, cleptocrática y “escuálida”, implantados a la fuerza en la propia tierra y alma de las Américas, para servir a los intereses coloniales e imperialistas Europeos y Norteamericanos.

Estamos en obligación de nutrir nuestra propia ciencia, de cultivar nuestra propia filosofía y de hacer nuestra propia Historia.

Sin embargo, si sólo vemos alrededor de nosotros, descubriremos un montón de relaciones históricas y emancipatorias. ¡El que busca encontrará!

En lo que se refiere a la transición actual, la transmutación hacia lo nunca visto a nivel galáctico, más allá de la Vía Láctea, en este mismo momento, sabiéndolo o no, la Revolución Bolivariana, objetiva, subjetiva y transjetivamente, se encuentra en el ALBA, en la Aurora de la emancipación revolucionaria.

¡El próximo martes, 12 de octubre, gracias al gobierno revolucionario de Chávez, los esfuerzos emancipatorios indígenas realmente valen la pena de celebrarse con todo corazón!

*** VENEZUELA: Diana versus HAARP

Por Franz J.T. Lee

*** The Possible Faces of Venezuelan Democracy.

*** The Columbus American History Never Knew.

World energy crisis... the Venezuelan context


volume 9, issue #19 - Tuesday, October 05, 2004

*** VENEZUELA: Diana versus HAARP Por Franz J.T. Lee

*** The Possible Faces of Venezuelan Democracy.

*** The Columbus American History Never Knew.

World energy crisis... the Venezuelan context

*** VENEZUELA: Diana versus HAARP

Por Franz J.T. Lee