Trotskyists
and Class-Struggle Trade Unionists Are For the “Yes” Vote in
by Stalin Pérez Bórges, editor of MAREA Clasista y Socialista (The Class-Struggle and Socialist Floodtide)
[The following article was
posted Dec. 1, 2007, on the Venezuelan web site Aporrea.org under the title “Trotskistas
y sindicalistas clasistas estamos por el SI, y rechazamos las generalizaciones calumniosas de
James Petras.” The English translation is by
[A comment is in order about
two of the organizations mentioned by the author as being present at the Nov.
28 Acto Internacional, or
public meeting to declare international support for the “Yes” vote. One is the
PSOL of
The well-known U.S. intellectual James Petras published an article on the web site www.rebelion.org, which was subsequently reproduced on the Aporrea web site and elsewhere.
[Translator’s Note: This was the Spanish-language version of
the Petras article posted in English on the CounterPunch
web site on Nov. 28, 2007. See my article
about it on the Labor Standard web site.—
Petras begins his article by denouncing the CIA’s plan to counter the constitutional reform measures of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and as far as that goes, there would be no problem with Petras’s article, if it were not for the false accusations, expressing bad intentions, that appear later on, including lies and unfounded comparisons.
Petras wrote: “The Embassy is especially praiseworthy [sic] of the ex-Maoist ‘Red Flag’ group for its violent street fighting activity. Ironically, small Trotskyist sects and their trade unionists join the ex-Maoists in opposing the constitutional amendments. The Embassy, while discarding their ‘Marxist rhetoric,’ perceives their opposition as fitting in with their overall strategy.”
What Petras says there is far removed from reality and ridden with bad intentions.
In the first place, it is public
knowledge that the great majority of the Trotskyist
movement, both in
Among other things, [Incluso] a report may be read right now on the Aporrea web site (www.aporrea.org)
about a public event declaring international support for the “Yes” vote, an
event held on Wed., Nov.28, and organized by the publication “MAREA Clasista y Socialista”
(Class-Struggle and Socialist Floodtide). Participating in
this public meeting were Celia Hart from
It is a reality, which can be verified with plenty of evidence, that those of us who consider ourselves Trotskyists and who publish the journal “MAREA Clasista y Socialista” here in Venezuela are active members of the “battalions” of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) and are part of the people’s movement here and of the class-struggle trade union movement.
In the second place, as is true of a huge number of leaders and activists in the revolutionary trade union movement in our country, we have been and are campaigning in favor of the “Yes” vote in this new struggle against imperialism, against the [local bourgeois] opposition, and against the privately-owned mass media.
It is clear to us that the only thing the above-named sectors seek is to hold back the revolutionary process.
In September of this year, class-struggle [union] leaders from more than ten states of our country jointly submitted a document to the National Assembly and to President Chavez (posted on the Aporrea web site and reproduced by the thousands for distribution in workplaces) in which we expressed our agreement and our support, and at the same time noted some disagreements [or reservations] within the framework of calling for a “Yes” vote.
This is how we understand the revolution — that is to say, we mobilize to defend everything that helps and deepens the revolution, while at the same time stating where we disagree, because we do not believe in revolutions that allow no dissent.
Petras has access to the above-named document [from September], as well as to innumerable public declarations by class-struggle leaders in Venezuela in favor of the “Yes” vote and to periodicals and web sites that circulate and promote this position. Without a doubt [Petras has made use of] a lamentable method and one that is alien to any serious debate among socialists. He launched [his accusation] against Trotskyism and against class-struggle trade unionists without anything that might indicate some qualifications. It is a deplorable method and has already been repeated.
[The fact is that] Petras, in his criticism of Trotskyism in general, is actually referring to a very small political grouping but one with some widely recognized trade union leaders calling for an abstention (votar NULO) and to an even smaller grouping that calls for a “No” vote. These are totally mistaken positions, which are rejected by the majority of the class-struggle union movement and the workers in general. But the existence of a small group of comrades who hold this position does not give Petras the right to include them in a denunciation of the whole Trotskyist movement and the class-struggle union movement of Venezuela, which—as we have explained above—will be voting together with the majority of our country’s workers for the “Yes” vote this coming Sunday [Dec. 2, 2007].
Using a method that we state once again must be repudiated, Petras makes generalizations and constructs an amalgam, lumping the CIA and Bandera Roja together with what he calls “small Trotskyist sects and their trade unionists” as part of a single plan [to destabilize Venezuela]. This [as we have said] is lamentable and alien to a democratic debate on a high level. Political differences should be discussed precisely as political difference, and there should not be attacks and campaigns based on falsehoods. The small element of the Trotskyist movement nationally and internationally that is not voting “Yes” is profoundly mistaken, but it has nothing to do with the CIA. Petras knows this, but he uses a method that must be repudiated to try to assert the opposite [of this truth].
Despite all these twisted and
badly intended assertions by Petras — which we
consider a gravely serious matter that must be repudiated — we are an integral
part of the majority of the class-struggle sector that will vote “Yes” on
Sunday, and we are part of an important sector of the Trotskyist
movement nationally and internationally that is also calling for a “Yes” vote.
In this way we ratify our commitment to the deepening of the Bolivarian
Revolution, with the objective of socialism and against any imperialist
conspiracy in