jueves, 7 de febrero de 2019
Either Washington or Venezuela, Savage Capitalism or Socialism: A Conversation with Luis Britto Garcia
Luis Britto Garcia is perhaps Venezuela’s most highly regarded
public intellectual. A firm supporter of the Bolivarian Process, he
has written numerous plays, novels, historical investigations and
film scripts and is also an incisive commentator on politics in the
region.
Many people on the left are critical of President Nicolás Maduro’s
government, but that criticism has nothing to do with a desire to
join the ranks of the right-wing opposition or its foreign allies. In
the face of the current imperialist attack on Venezuela, we need to
defend the country and stand up against interference. Do you agree?
I have repeatedly claimed that, when both internal and external
forces of reaction make a double attack on our country – and use
all legal and even illegal resources they have at hand – we must
all come together in Venezuela’s defense and in the defense its
authorities and the political coalition that maintains them legally
in power.
There may be differences and internal debates, but we can’t
hesitate when faced with these alternatives: it’s either Washington
or Venezuela, invasion or sovereignty, savage capitalism or
socialism.
You have written about Simon Bolivar and have pointed out how his
example remains relevant today. What would Bolivar do in our time? As
Bolivarians, what should we do in the present?
That’s right. I did a meticulous examination of both Bolivar’s
ideas and his actions in relation to society and the economy in my
book The Thought of the Liberator: Economy and Society [2010], and in
numerous articles and other works. If Bolivar were here among us
today, he would do the same as he did when he was alive: first of
all, he would make every effort to defend (with arms if necessary)
Venezuela’s sovereignty: the right of his people to choose its own
government.
He would the attempt to organize and unite Latin American and
Caribbean peoples against imperialist domination. Also, in the
economic sphere, Bolivar did not hesitate to carry out the largest
confiscations of goods in Venezuelan history. He siezed all the
royalists’ property, in the form of either land or other goods, and
distributed it among patriotic soldiers, in accordance with the
services they had rendered
Bolivar said that the nation has property rights to its underground
minerals, which is a principle that still holds today and must be
defended at all costs. In 1814, long before his trip to Haiti,
Bolivar began to eradicate slavery. He also fought against racial
discrimination, with his ”Angostura Speech” [2010] proclaiming
that in contemporary Venezuela “nobody should be mistreated for the
color of his skin.” If we say that the slave is someone who just
ekes out an existence – making just enough to survive – then
Simon Bolivar signed the “War to the Death” decree on june 15,
1813. The document stated that all Spanish would die if they didn’t
join the independence struggle, whereas those born in the colonies
would be pardoned even if they had sided with the colonia
Simon Bolivar signed the “War to the Death” decree on june 15,
1813. The document stated that all Spanish would die if they didn’t
join the independence struggle, whereas those born in the colonies
would be pardoned even if they had sided with the colonial powers.
To carry out these measures, Bolivar did not hesitate to take radical
and extreme steps (nor should a Bolivarian hesitate to do so today).
Let us remember his declaring a “War to the Death.” Bolivar today
would continue with the project of Latin American and Caribbean
integration, as he did with his Amphictyonic Congress in Panama,
where the United States only got to participate thanks to Francisco
de Paula Santander’s influence. Anyone who calls himself a
Bolivarian today must follow and if possible extend the practice and
thought of Bolivar. If we don’t do so, we’ll become a colony
again.
How do you evaluate the global response to the imperialist onslaught
we are experiencing these days? Can we see ruptures in the United
States’ hegemony and evidence of a new, multipolar world?
For me, there is an evident break in the US’s hegemony. The United
States has moved its industries abroad to take advantage of cheap
sweatshop labor. In so doing, it has deindustrialized the country and
plunged its own workers into misery. China is today the world's
leading economic power; Russia has reemerged as a great power after
the decline that came with the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Europe
is trying to become independent, despite being occupied since the
mid-century by a network of NATO bases. The Middle East eludes US
control; after decades of interference, the US has only managed to
make chaos.
I have pointed out that, historically, revolutions have always
emerged in the fissures created by the clash of the hegemonic powers
at the time. The United States emerged taking advantage of the
struggle between England, France and Spain. The Soviet Union took
advantage of the clash of European powers during the First World War.
The same goes for the People's Republic of China, which benefited
from the fighting of the Second World War. Later, Cuba used the
confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Today,
the hegemonic struggle between the United States, Russia and China
offers us an opportunity to consolidate Venezuelan sovereignty.
After dealing with this imperialist attack and coup d’etat attempt,
which is our most immediate problem, what should the Maduro
government do in the medium and long run?
I think that there is no way to get out of our immediate crisis
without advancing in the Revolution, and that is also the key to
going forward once we have recovered. That’s to say, we can only
face down imperialism after we have dominated the local oligopoly
formed by a dozen companies that monopolize the import and
distribution of basic goods [in our country]. And we have to
subjugate the handful of actors that run the oil smuggling business
and are involved in paramilitary infiltration.
We will be able to face external threats once we have cleaned up the
internal theatre with a control of the whole administration – at
all stages of its operation – and have installed an integral
computerized control in real time of prices and costs of economic
operations. We must sanction the many acts of corruption and clean up
the companies and institutions where this kind of activity is rife.
With these measures, popular support for the socialist project will
become unbreakable. On the other hand, if such measures are not
taken, it’s to be feared that the economic war will erode this
support, which maintains itself now only through great sacrifices.
