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central
leader (just as Venezuela does!), but also a cadre around that leader,
forged in the underground struggle and the guerrilla war, steeled in =
battle,
and that had full confidence in Fidel and the team of leaders =
immediately
around him. A confidence born of countless decisions and crossroads; a
confidence that had been earned. There is a song about Che, written at =
the
time when it was announced he had left Cuba, in 1965, that begins, "We
learned to love you, from the historic heights, when the sun of your
bravery, put death in check." It sounds poetic and all that but if you
follow the song, and know the history in detail, you'll see the first =
couple
of verses are really about the battle of Santa Clara in late December, =
1958,
which was the final straw that broke the Batista regime's back. And like
Che, there was Camilo and Ra=FAl and others to whom Fidel had proved his
mettle and who had in turn proved their mettle to rebel army officers,
soldiers and underground combatants and eventually to the Cuban people.

Venezuela was mostly spared the bitter civil war that cost Cuba 20,000 =
lives
--overwhelmingly young people-- in the late 1950s. It was spared the =
painful
duty of obeying the people's will following the overthrow of the
dictatorship and imposing revolutionary justice in front of a firing =
squad
on hundreds of the most savage assassins, torturers and snitches of the
dictatorship.

It has been spared --thus far-- being the target of a mercenary =
invasion,
and of having come within hours of a full imperialist military invasion =
as
was in the cards during the Caribbean Crisis of 1962, which would have =
led
to Cuba being wiped off the map, if there was enough of a civilization
following the conflagration to have a need for a map.

The ways the central core cadre of the Cuban revolution was forged, the =
half
dozen or dozen immediately around Fidel, and then the few dozen, and =
then
the few hundred ... and so on to the millions of revolutionary Cubans =
who
have kept the revolution alive for nearly half a century -- that's not =
been
Venezuela's path.=20

And if you look at the Soviet Union, and how their early leading cadre =
was
forged, that was also not the Venezuelan road. And if you look at other
experiences, Nicaragua, Vietnam, the Algerian FLN, I think you will see =
one
outstanding peculiarity of Venezuela.

This is a revolution with a hell of a leader and a hell of a mass base =
--
but without a cadre to link those two together in an organic way. And it =
is
that cadre and the living organism such a cadre can become that is vital =
to
counter this sort of campaign we just saw.=20

I don't know how many of the comrades on the list have had a chance to
actually READ the proposed constitutional changes. But if comrades do, I
think their reaction will not be dissimilar from mine, which was, "What =
the
hell do these folks think they're doing?" All kinds of detailed rules =
and
regulations for suspending certain constitutional guarantees, for =
placing on
the ballot  recalls and referenda, for intervening (placing under a
government receiver) or nationalizing properties, ultra-technical, =
highly
detailed, AS IF at a moment of crisis --imperialist invasion or
counterrevolutionary uprising-- the revolution would dispatch a squad of
lawyers to the Supreme Court to decide just where, when, how, and how =
much
the revolution was allowed to fight back, rather than a squad of armed
workers and youth to kick the ass of the ruling class into the dustbin =
of
history.

I guess it shows the complete devotion of the Bolivarian revolution to =
even
the strictest, narrowest interpretation of legality and transparency and =
so
on, as refracted through the lens of people who write laws for a living. =
But
even then, I think this is an example of when too much of what is in
principle a good thing turns into its opposite. A couple of years ago, =
or
maybe three, Venezuelans voted on whether or not Chavez should stay as
President, and they said yes, and a year ago or a bit more they had a =
choice
on who should be president and by a big majority they said Hugo, knowing
full well he was a revolutionary and was determined to lead a radical
transform the country. I think that was plenty of transparency and
democracy, insofar as it applies to this style of popular rule, voting =
every
once in a while, and they should have left well enough alone. But they
didn't, and larded on all sorts of other things into this (including a
6-hour workday, which I'm not entirely convinced the material conditions =
and
productivity of labor in Venezuela would permit, transforming this =
provision
from a serious proposal into demagogy), and got beat.

Yet it is out of THESE experiences and THESE battles that the cadre of =
the
Venezuelan revolution has to be forged. As President, Chavez can't very =
well
recruit a few dozen followers and head to the hills to start a guerrilla =
war
to overthrow the government because, among other things, he IS the
government, as far as most people are concerned.

But just as before, in Cuba, before the dawn of January 1, 1959, there =
were
the bitter defeats of July 26, 1953, and the disastrous Granma landing =
of
December 2, 1959, now we have the Dec. 2, 2007, vote in Venezuela. In =
the
Cuban cases, ,any were lost to the dictatorship's butchers, some others
abandoned the cause, but those that survived and stood fast, history
records, are the ones that made all the difference. In Venezuela, =
keeping
with the tenor of the revolution, it is all less dramatic, but it IS =
what
the comrades will have to build on.

Monday's pre-dawn hours brought unpleasant news, and I believe there is =
more
unpleasant news to come. The Revolution is weaker today than it was --or
appeared to be-- only a week ago, and weaker still because NOW everyone
knows it. But nothing fundamental has been lost, only the illusions of =
how
far we have come.=20

I don't know exactly how it will happen, but in the end, this defeat =
will be
transformed into a victory by taking two steps back to create a more =
solid
basis for the next step forward.

I think the single most important thing that I learned from the Cuban
Revolution decades ago, when I was still in the SWP, and something that =
the
SWP did not understand, is that within the revolutionary movement every
criticism is a self-criticism, and must be consciously assumed --taken =
on--
as such.=20

The mistakes of other comrades we might denounce are a condemnation of =
OUR
OWN failure to help them avoid those mistakes.=20

In his speech a couple of days ago, Hugo Chavez said something like, =
that
perhaps the people of Venezuela --the broad masses who are FOR the =
process--
are not yet ready for the socialism of the XXIst Century.=20

He said that in the context of discussing his own mistakes and =
misjudgments.
But I think that is the key here. Masses of people do not come to
revolutionary conclusions or socialist consciousness on the basis of
arguments and explanations, but rather on the basis of their own lived
experience. To go through those experiences with the masses and as part =
of
the masses, the revolution needs to cohere a political cadre.

As much as I rail against the idealism of "correct program" =
pseudo-Bolshevik
toy parties of a few dozen or a few hundred people, the essential task =
now
in Venezuela I think is the building of a real party that can serve as =
the
articulation, the link, between the masses and the revolutionary =
leadership,
and re-enforce that leadership through the cadre development that takes
place in a structured political movement.=20

Again, these are just observations from afar, and while I've followed =
the
process in Venezuela more closely than many comrades on this list just
because of my history and my "day job," I make no claim to tremendous
expertise or detailed knowledge.=20

The things I say that seem to be very categorical or self-assured, I say
with this proviso, I make no claim of infallibility or even substantial
authority, I'm just expressing my honest opinion. They're just the =
opinions
of this one comrade.=20

But I think the moment is one where, at least in this kind of forum, =
within
our family, so to speak, it is useful to speak out in this way (as =
opposed
to say a week or two ago when, for better or worse, we were at the peak =
of a
specific battle, which was being conducted in a certain way, and words =
had
to be judged not mostly for their abstract truth value but for their
practical impact). That is still a consideration --the practical impact =
of
what we might say-- but my opinion, and the lead we've gotten from =
Ch=E1vez,
is that this is a moment for re-examination and reflection and analysis, =
a
moment when even if I'm mostly or completely mistaken, my expression of =
this
honest opinion may serve as a stimulus to the overall process of =
analysis
and charting a course forward.

Joaquin