http://web.onetel.com/~vheadlinenews/017-vhnh.mp3

Februart 5, 2007

Excerpts of interview about corruption in Venezuela

Corruption is a transhistoric labor product of master-servant relationships in all class societies around the globe. Even Jahweh, on Mount Sinai, had to beg his religious sheep by commandment not to thieve.

Corruption is not a Chavez exception to the golden rule of democracy, in fact, Venezuela is the eating, is the proof of the corrupt pudding of global capitalism.

In reality, it has been estimated that during the 40 years reign of "democratic" puntofijista governments in Venezuela, the equivalent of about three "Marshall Plans" were thieved by the Adecos and Copeyanos, by the current opposition. In fact, they should be very silent about corruption, and not become green with envy, seeng the billions of Venezuelan petro-euros flowing safely to Switzerland.

Now, firstly, what is political corruption in Venezuela and elsewhere?

It is a lack of political integrity or honesty. of being susceptible to bribery, to the use of a position of trust for personal gains.

This includes moral perversion; impairment of scientific human behavior, that is, of revolutionary praxis, and of philosophic moral principles, that is, of emancipatory theory.

For example, United States upper class corruption is causing progressive moral decay which is being followed by intellectual degeneration; the production of brothels, of torture chambers, opium parlors. of falling into moral putrefaction.

Until now all forms of capitalist government, including their "socialist" caricatures, in practice are susceptible to political corruption.

They range from minor uses of influence and patronage to do and return favors, to clientalism, to institutionalised bribery and beyond. In fact, over the last centuries, we did not have capitalist democracies, on the contrary imperialist kleptocracies, that is, the rule by thieves, in the United States case of the corrupt energy enterprise Enron, even the external pretence of honesty was abandoned.

But, logically we also have social corruption, the disintegration of revolutionary fire, of corrupting workers ideals and struggles, of joining in the eternal "communist witch-hunt", of disfiguring socialism and Marxism, of slandering Marxists as terrorists. In this way, socialist praxis and theory are being converted into capitalist practice and ideology.

This corruption of the best, of the fiery Bolivarians of yesteryear is the worst form of corruption. There is nothing more dangerous than an erstwhile fake Marxist or revolutionary, who now has joined the terrorist death squads against real, true, incorruptible emancipators. A typical example in Venezuela is Bandera Roja or even the ex-guerilla Petkoff himself. We are lucky to have dedicated, wise and principled revolutionaries in Miraflores, who for the first time in Venezuelan history really try to represent the class interests of the lower social classes, of the unemployed, informal and formal workers and peasants. The popular government is fully aware of the corrupt inherited cancerous outgrowth in Venezuela and elsewhere, and is doing everything possible to eradicate this pestilence.

*********

Entrevista radial con el Profesor Franz J. T. Lee en American Voice Radio

Tema: ¿Qué es el socialismo científico filosófico en Venezuela hoy en día?

16 de enero de 2007 (En Inglés)

VHeadline.com Venezuela http://web.onetel.com/~vheadline edición de emergencia con Noticias y Enfoques sobre Venezuela

APOYANDO LA DEMOCRACIA LEGITIMA, LA CONSTITUCIONALIDAD Y EL ESTADO DE DERECHO EN VENEZUELA

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Franz Lee, profesor de la Escuela de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela, en donde explica que el único socialismo que existe es la negación del capitalismo, el marxismo científico y filosófico. Él declara que las tres variedades principales de las connotaciones contemporáneas del socialismo son:

1. Al azar, todo lo comunal, humanitario o cristiano es llamado socialismo;

2. Ideológicamente, todos los “socialismos” falsos o caricaturas del marxismo se denominan socialismo real, existente, por sus creadores, así como también sus protagonistas imperialistas, que van desde la “ujamaa” hasta el socialismo africano, o aun peor, desde la patria al Nacional Socialismo;

3. El socialismo científico y filosófico, el marxismo, como la negación dialéctica del capitalismo, que sólo puede desvanecerse en el olvido con la desaparición del propio capitalismo.

Dentro de este contexto, el profesor Lee explicó la Revolución Bolivariana en Venezuela, y su tendencia hacia el socialismo mundial. Él subrayó que al socialismo nunca se le dio una oportunidad real para materializarse; en todas partes el capitalismo y sus lacayos locales, nacionales y globales siempre arrancaron cualquier experimento real y verdadero de raíz. Asimismo resaltó que aquél que piense que el capitalismo es el principio y el fin de la felicidad humana, que con sus arsenales de armas de destrucción masiva ha resuelto los principales problemas de la humanidad, que está triunfando, especialmente en este momento histórico, realmente necesita un exorcismo psicológico urgente aplicado por Frantz Fanon y Wilhelm Reich.

PARA ESCUCHAR ESTA ENTREVISTA HAGA CLIC EN EL SIGUIENTE ENLACE:

http://web.onetel.com/~vheadlinenews/007-vhnh.mp3

__________________

Radio Interview with Prof. Dr. Franz J. T. Lee on the American Voice Radio Network

Topic; What is Scientific Philosophic Socialism in Venezuela Today?

January 16, 2007.

VHeadline.com Venezuela http://web.onetel.com/~vheadline

emergency edition with News & Views of Venezuela

SUPPORTING VENEZUELA'S LEGITIMATE DEMOCRACY, CONSTITUTIONALITY AND THE RULE OF LAW

Join us for the VHeadline Venezuela Newshour each weekday at 2.00-3.00 p.m. Caracas time (12 midday Central USA), Monday-Friday

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Franz Lee, University of The Andes, Mérida, Venezuela explained that the only socialism that exists is the negation of capitalism, is scientific and philosophic Marxism. He stated that the three major varieties of contemporary connotations of socialism are:

1. At random anything that is communal, humanitarian or Christian is called socialism;

2. Ideologically all fake "socialisms" or caricatures of Marxism are denominated real, existent socialism, by their originators as well as their imperialist protagonists, ranging from "ujamaa" to African socialism, or worse even, from the fatherland or homeland to National Socialism;

3. Scientific and Philosophical Socialism, Marxism, as the dialectical Negation of Capitalism, which can only fade into oblivion with the demise of capitalism itself.

Within this context he explained the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, and its tendency towards world socialism. He underlined that socialism was never given a real chance to materialize itself; everywhere capitalism and its local, national and global lackeys forever nipped any real, true experiment in the bud. He underlined that who thinks that capitalism is the alpha and omega of human happiness, that with its arsenals of arms of mass destruction it has resolved the main problems of humanity, that it is victorious, especially at this historical moment, really needs urgent psychological exorcism applied by Frantz Fanon and Wilhelm Reich.

TO LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://web.onetel.com/~vheadlinenews/007-vhnh.mp3

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Outstanding success of Alan Woods meeting in Mérida, Venezuela

800 people attend meeting on the Bolivarian R

evolution and Socialism

By Eduardo Molina and Yonie Moreno

Friday, 10 November 2006

On Wednesday, November 8, Alan Woods addressed a packed meeting on the Bolivarian Revolution and Socialism in Mérida, Venezuela, at the invitation of the Front of Socialist Forces (Frente de Fuerzas Socialistas), the Ince, the Mérida Printing House and the Centro de Estudios Marx y Engels.

On his arrival in Mérida the organizers of the event had the opportunity to discuss with Alan over a pre-meeting lunch. Around the table, among other prominent leaders of the revolutionary and left forces were Umberto Martinez, President of the "IMECA" Printshop (which has recently printed extracts from Alan's book on the Venezuelan revolution), a member of the leadership of the Bolivarian Movement (MVR), Pedro Alvarez , director of the INCE, José Sant Roz, a well-known political writer, as well as councillors belonging to 800 people attend meeting on the Bolivarian Revolution and Socialism the left wing of the MVR, and other comrades who are historical leaders of the revolutionary movement in Mérida.

Also present was the well-known left-wing intellectual, prolific writer and veteran of the Marxist movement Franz J. T. Lee. Of South African origin, Franz is now professor at the University of The Andes, Mérida, where, together with his comrade and partner Jutta Schmitt, he has organized a Marxist circle. Franz offered his condolences for the death of Ted Grant and expressed regret that they had never met. He invited Alan to speak to interested students the next day. One of Franz's postgraduate students, and organizers of the public meeting, the Spanish Marxist and member of the CMR, Eduardo Molinas, has just produced a book on the Bolivarian Revolution and socialism (due out this month) with an introduction by Alan Woods.

At half past six, around 800 revolutionaries packed the Centro Cultural Tulio Febres Cordero, the biggest hall in Mérida, an attractive town in the picturesque setting of the Andes, under the shadow of the Pico Bolivar, the highest mountain in Venezuela. A few weeks ago the Frente de Fuerzas Socialistas called a demonstration of 12,000 people under the slogan: "With Chávez to socialism!" and "With Chávez, against the bureaucracy!" This indicates a profound ferment in this city and a rapid growth of the revolutionary trend. A growing number of activists are dissatisfied with the slow pace of change and the paralysing influence of the bureaucracy and the reformists.

The event was also attended by older comrades, workers, trade unionists and peasants. Here, gathered under one roof, were all the most advanced elements of the Bolivarian movement in Mérida, such as the activists of the misión Vuelvan Caras, comrades from the Frente Francisco Miranda and representatives from different groups that make up the Frente de Fuerzas Socialistas. A group of peasant activists, members of the Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora travelled for more than three hours in order to attend the meeting.

800 people attend meeting on the Bolivarian Revolution and SocialismThe big majority of the meeting were youths, many of them wearing the red shirt of the Movimiento Bolivariano. They listened to the speech with great attention and evident enthusiasm. When Alan Woods made a devastating criticism of bureaucracy, this was greeted with wild applause and shouts of approval. They were completely in agreement with the analysis and perspectives for the Bolivarian Revolution put forward by the speaker.

Alan began his speech with a masterly explanation of the world context in which the revolution was unfolding. Unlike so many other speakers he explained the ideas of Marxism in a clear and simple manner, using concrete examples to illustrate his central thesis: the organic crisis of the capitalist system on a world scale and the beginnings of a reawakening of the workers' movement internationally, and the need to fight for a fundamental transformation of society.

Having explained and exposed the reactionary lies of the bourgeois alleging the death of socialism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the leader of the International Marxist Tendency proceeded to analyse the Bolivarian Revolution, pointing out the gains but also emphasising the weaknesses and deficiencies.

Alan Woods in VenezuelaThe speaker stressed that the fundamental motor-force of the revolution was the working class and the masses, who have saved the revolution at every decisive stage and pushed it forward. Comrade Alan urged the necessity of creating a Marxist current within the Bolivarian movement as the necessary vehicle to concentrate the colossal power of the masses and direct it to conquer the strategic objective: the expropriation of the oligarchy. This can only be achieved by the working class placing itself at the head of the nation and taking power into its own hands, he said.

The central problem, Alan said, was the absence of a revolutionary party. This is the reason why the workers and peasants failed to take power in countries like Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico, where the masses had power in their hands and let it slip through their fingers. In Venezuela, he continued, it was necessary to organize the vanguard in a revolutionary Marxist tendency as an indispensable prerequisite to advance towards the socialist revolution.

While urging maximum support for Chavez in the December elections, Alan warned that unless the revolution expropriates the capitalists, nationalizing the banks, the land and the key points of the economy in private hands, the counterrevolution at a certain point will go over to the offensive, posing a grave threat to the revolution.

Turning his fire against the reformists and revisionists like Heinz Dieterich, who he publicly challenged to a debate after December 3, he explained that there is no bigger danger to the revolution than the pernicious influence of these ex-Marxists, ex-Communists and ex-Maoists and ex-Trotskyists, who spread the poison of scepticism, pessimism and cynicism in the vanguard and the youth and strive to keep the movement within the confines of capitalism. He quoted the French proverb: "until the age of thirty, revolutionary. After that, a swine."

Alan Woods in VenezuelaAlan sharply criticised the reformist intellectuals who maintain that the masses do not have the necessary political consciousness to achieve socialism as an argument against taking power. He pointed out that in every decisive moment of the revolution - the coup of April 11, the bosses' lockout, the recall referendum - it was the movement of the masses that defeated the reaction, demonstrating a very high level of revolutionary consciousness. "What more do you want from the working class?" Alan demanded. The workers have done everything possible to change society. If they have not yet succeeded, it is not their fault but that of the reformists and bureaucrats who refuse to give a lead and constantly hold the movement back.

The speaker then went on to explain that the only way to deal with bureaucracy was from below. He advocated the adoption of anti-bureaucratic measures on the lines of the programme advocated by Lenin in 1917: Election and recall of all officials in the soviet state, the establishment of a popular militia, no official to receive a higher wage than a skilled worker (this point was met with wild applause), and finally, gradually, as the productive forces increase, and the living standards and cultural level of the population raised, all the tasks of administration of the state should be performed by everybody in turn. This part of Alan's speech really connected with the audience who expressed their most emphatic agreement.

800 people attend meeting on the Bolivarian Revolution and SocialismIn conclusion, the author of Reason in Revolt made an appeal to the activists present to get organized, to participate in the construction of a genuine Marxist current within the mass movement with the aim of transforming it into a fighting revolutionary organisation able and willing to lead the masses to the only possible road to victory: the revolutionary conquest of power and the expropriation of the capitalists and the commencement of a genuine socialist revolution.

The meeting ended with the audience on its feet, with raised clenched fists, singing the Internationale - something practically unheard-of these days in Venezuela. This small detail shows with striking clarity the growing impact of the ideas of Marxism in the Bolivarian Movement and the rapid rise of the authority of the CMR among the vanguard of the Revolution. An even more palpable demonstration of this was the excellent sale of Marxist literature at the end: more than 800,000 bolivars worth of papers, books and pamphlets were sold. This shows the thirst for Marxist ideas that exists among the advanced guard of the Revolution. It gives us every reason for optimism in the final victory.

Merida, 9 November, 2006.

http://www.marxist.com/merida-bolivarian

Por: Eduardo Molina and Yonie Moreno

Viernes, 10 November 2006

Alan Woods, estuvo el día miércoles 8 de noviembre en Mérida, Venezuela, para dar un Foro sobre la Revolución Bolivariana y el Socialismo, invitado por el Frente de Fuerzas Socialistas, el Ince, la Imprenta de Mérida y el Centro de Estudios Marx y Engels.

Los anfitriones del evento agasajaron a Alan a su llegada a Mérida con un almuerzo previo al Foro. Al mismo asistieron entre otros Umberto Martinez , Presidente de la imprenta de la gobernación "IMECA" y miembro de la direccion del MVR, Pedro Alvarez , gerente del INCE, José Sanroque conocido escritor político, así como Concejales de la izquierda del MVR, y otros camaradas dirigentes históricos del movimiento revolucionario en Mérida. Cabe resaltar también la presencia del conocido intelectual de izquierda y veterano del movimiento marxista Franz J. T. Lee y de su compañera Jutta Schmitt.

800 people attend meeting on the Bolivarian Revolution and SocialismAlrededor de 800 revolucionarios abarrotaron el Centro Cultural Tulio Febres Cordero en la ciudad de Mérida a la sombra del Pico Bolivar, la montaña más alta de Venezuela. Hace poco el Frente de Fuerzas Socialistas convocó una manifestación de masas de 12,000 personas bajo la lema "Con Chávez al socialismo!" y "Con Chávez contra la burocracia!" que muestra la profundidad del movimiento revolucionario en esta ciudad andina.

Los asistentes, muchos con la camisa roja del movimiento Bolivariano, y en su mayoría jóvenes, escucharon con entusiasmo la intervención de Alan Woods. El evento congregó multitud de trabajadores y jóvenes, los factores más avanzados del movimiento bolivariano de la ciudad de Mérida, como los lanceros de la misión Vuelva

n Caras, compañeros del Frente Francisco Miranda y los camaradas de los diferentes grupos que integran el Frente de Fuerzas Socialistas.

Un grupo de activistas campesinos del Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora tuvieron que desplazarse más de tres horas para llegar al Foro. Todos recibieron con entusiasmo el análisis sobre las perspectivas y las tareas para la Revolución Bolivariana que hiciera el fundador de la Campaña Internacional Manos Fuera de Venezuela.

Alan inició el acto explicando de una forma magistral, con ejemplos claros y con un lenguaje sencillo, el contexto mundial donde se inserta la Revolución Bolivariana; la crisis aguda del sistema capitalista mundial y el movimiento de masas internacional en lucha por transformar la sociedad.

Una vez explicadas y demostradas las mentiras reaccionarias de la burguesía mundial lanzadas tras la caída de la Unión Soviética contra las ideas del socialismo científico, contra el marxismo, el dirigente de la Corriente Marxista Internacional, procedió al análisis de la Revolución Bolivariana, explicando tanto los logros como las deficiencias.

Dejando bien claro quiénes han sido los propulsores tanto de los cambios habidos como de las sucesivas victorias en defensa de la revolución, a saber, la clase obrera y las masas, el camarada Alan puso de manAlan Woods in Venezuelaifiesto la necesidad de crear la corriente marxista dentro del movimiento bolivariano que sea el vehículo que sepa concentrar todo el poder de esta base social y dirigirlo al objetivo estratégico: la toma del poder por los trabajadores y las masas a través de la única forma posible, expropiando a la oligarquía capitalista.

La falta de un partido revolucionario es el causante de que todavía los trabajadores de países como Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia, México, etc.. no hayan tomado el poder en unos momentos en los cuales las masas ya lo tenían en sus manos, y podían haber iniciado así la Revolución Socialista.

Dicha dirección o vanguardia revolucionaria dijo Alan, está todavía por organizar en Venezuela y este es un requisito indispensable para hacer avanzar la revolución al socialismo. Como afirmó Alan si no se expropia a los capitalistas, se nacionaliza la banca, la tierra, la contrarrevolución pasará a la ofensiva de un momento otro e iniciará sus planes golpistas para tumbar la revolución y al gobierno del Presidente Chávez.

Alan Woods in Venezuela

Aludiendo a los reformistas del proceso, como Heinz Dieterich, al cual lo retó a un debate público a partir del 3 de diciembre, explicó que no hay nada más peligroso que esos renegados del marxismo que siguen defendiendo la absurda idea de que no existen condiciones objetivas para iniciar una revolución socialista, contribuyendo directamente con ello a la derrota de la revolución.

Al mismo tiempo criticó a aquellos sectores reformistas que mantienen que las masas carecen de conciencia política, como un argumento para negarse a tomar el poder. Señaló que en los momentos decisivos de la revolución

bolivariana, el golpe del 11 de abril, el paro petrolero, el referéndum revocatorio, habían sido las masas las que habían derrotado a la reacción, demostrando un elevado nivel de conciencia.

Proponiendo al gran público asistente llevar a cabo en Venezuela, una vez expropiado a la oligarquía, las medidas anti-burocráticas que Lenin defendiera al principio de la Revolución Rusa, e800 people attend meeting on the Bolivarian Revolution and Socialisms decir: revocabilidad y elegibilidad de todos los cargos, la creación de la milicia popular, sueldo medio de un obrero calificado para todos los funcionarios y rotación paulatina de todos los cargos de la administración, los sectores revolucionarios conectaron automáticamente con el orador y mostraron con efervescencia el total acuerdo con aquellas ideas.

Para finalizar, el autor de Razón y Revolución, hizo un llamado a la organización de los elementos más avanzados del movimiento bolivariano, para construir una verdadera y auténtica corriente marxista en el seno del movimiento de masas con el objeto de impulsar la creación de una dirección revolucionaria que sepa encauzar el poder de las masas hacia la única opción posible de triunfo, la expropiación de los capitalistas y el inicio de una genuina revolución socialista.

El acto termino con la gente de pie, levantando el puño, y cantando la Internacional - algo prácticamente insólito hoy por hoy en Venezuela. Esto demuestra el creciente impacto de las ideas marxistas y de la CMR en la vanguardia de la Revolución Bolivariana. El ejemplo palpable de ello fue la venta de material marxista que superó los 800.000 bolívares y que muestra la avidez de las ideas del marxismo en el seno de la revolución.Mérida, 9 noviembre, 2006.

http://www.marxist.com/revolucion-bolivariana-socialismo-woods.htm

SPEARHEAD OF CORPORATISM?

By Jutta Schmitt

June 17, 2003

Friends, picture seven million square kilometers of densely woven, deep, breathing, living jungle, pulsating with myriads of manifestations of life, an enchanting wonderland streaked with sparkling, silver blue veins - the king and queen of all rivers, the Amazonas and Orinoco, almost infinite in length and immensely abundant in the amounts of water they carry! Picture self-sustaining Amazonia, the land of the rushing waters, the green lungs of the blue planet earth, the eternal, overflowing cycle of life, nature�s very crown jewel!

Enter the economic interests of nine Latin American countries, each of which encloses part of Amazonia within its borders, and also enter corporatism, the highest stage of capitalism, and the beauties, wonders and vital function of the "earth�s lungs" translate into a somewhat cruder language, into oil, gas, minerals, precious stones, wood, water, biogenetic resources - in one word, profits. Given this potentially threatening panorama to one of the earth�s remaining, more or less intact natural reservoirs, you may sigh with relief when thinking of the existence of international organizations that advocate environmental protection and that promote the noble case of preservation of life and nature in all its forms. You may think it�s an outright brilliant idea to promote the "internationalization" of a region as vital to planetary life as Amazonia and declare it natural heritage of the whole of humanity. - Think again.

Environmental protection has become a cynical pretext for the envisaged "internationalization" of Amazonia, a region covering a third of the entire territory of South America and home to 20 million inhabitants, internationalization which would be equivalent to the non-acknowledgement of the national sovereignty of nine Latin American countries that share its vast territory (Brasil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guayana).

In yesterday�s "Al� Presidente", transmitted from Manaus / Brazil, Venezuelan president Hugo Ch�vez Fr�as sounded the alarm bell for all "Amazonians" when pointing out to foreign interests, which, far from being concerned about environmental preservation for the sake of human survival, seem hellbent to take advantage of the immense natural resources the region has to offer. Ch�vez referred to remarks of ex US vicepresident Al Gore, made in 1989, who stated that contrary to what Brazilians thought, Amazonia was not theirs, but belonged to "all of us". Ch�vez went on to warn that, in the same year, a smiliar observation was made by then French president Francois Mitterand, who said it would be adequate if Brazil accepted a "relative sovereignty" concerning Amazonia. Likewise, in 1992, ex Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev expressed he wished to see Brazil delegate part of its rights over Amazonia to "competent international organizations", whereas in the same year, then British prime minister John Major stated quite openly that the developed nations should extend their legal dominion over what is regarded "common good" to the whole world. Major said, the international ecological campaigns which suggested there should be limitations with regard to the respective national sovereignties over the Amazonia region, were gradually being left behind as the propagandistic phase of what would take on the shape of an operational phase which could definitely come to include military interventions in that region.

With regard to the proposed "internationalization" of Amazonia under a false ecological concern, Venezuelan president Ch�vez counterproposed the true internationalization of the world�s big financial corporations, of Manhattan Island, of the "eternal city of Rome", of the reserves of the biosphere in other parts of the planet, and the proclamation as "heritage of humanity" of the world�s poor, undernourished, sick and dying children.

What nobody has explained so far, however, is, that in the end, it�s Hobson�s choice: whether committed in the name of national sovereignty and endogenous development or in the name of transnational corporatism and neoliberal rapaciousness, the devastation will be just the same in a region of utmost ecological and climatological vulnerability. And this is, where the true alarm bell should start ringing.

In the name of labour, they said nature they tame

Yet whatever they touched, a corpse became

The open secret and what they never would know

Their own body received the deadliest blow.

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OF SUNRAYS AND SHADOWS

By Jutta Schmitt

6th May, 2003

It was one of those brief ad hoc journeys we sometimes make to Chiguar�, a hidden, picturesque mountain village an hour�s drive from town. The usual Panamericana ride along the Sun Route leads through miles of a hot, desert like landscape with keenly shaped sandstone formations and forests of cacti and acacias on dark red soil. Where the Sun Route fades away and melts into a somewhat cooler climate, a narrow road branches off into the mountains and takes the voyager to the charming heights of what we like to call the �Independent Republic of Chiguar� for some of its remarkable, insubordinate inhabitants.

This small peasant village, once it has uncovered itself at the end of a fifteen minutes� climb, clings onto a steep part of the mountainous region and opens up its very heart, the wide and friendly Plaza Bol�var, just a few corners after the entrance. Across the Plaza, facing the cathedral and inserted in a colourful line of neat houses, lies �El Momoi�, a friend�s house that carries the name of a legendary Andean dwarf and hosts one of Chiguar�s two modest restaurants.

As we stepped into the tiny, cave-like restaurant on the ground floor of El Momoi that day, a bunch of roses caught my eyes, held in a clay vase on a stool and caressed by a ray of sunlight that crossed the room through one of the small, open windows. Something struck me about the flowers, their petals seemed denser than those of other roses I had seen, absorbing and kind of retaining the light, making the filigree heads radiate in their own colours. From the kitchen, which can be looked into for being just an open extension of the main restaurant room, emerged Marina the waitress and greeted us warmly while the old, wooden staircase in the back of the room announced our friend Rafaela coming down, the stairs creaking noisily with each of her steps. She welcomed everyone with a long, firm embrace. We sat down at one of the tables with Marina whirling around us, serving black coffee and oven-baked, flat wheat cake, still warm and filled with grated cheese.

Hardly had we finished eating when the bearded face of Carlos Manuel, Rafaela�s husband, turned up at our table, his brown eyes sparkling in defiance. �How much time do we still have left?�, he asked, taking a seat. �We do not have to talk about the ifs, the only question here is when�, he said, reaching deep down into his pocket. To light came a wrinkled packet of cigarettes which he laid onto the table to share a smoke. The packet went round and so did a match. For a few moments we all sat quiet and meditative, observing the smoke from our cigarettes rise above our heads in dancing blue circles, forming a dense layer beneath the ceiling.

�So tell me, when will the bastards come for us, for our oil, for our water, for our country�s rich fauna and flora? When will they patent our indigenous peoples� ancient knowledge, when will they claim royalty fees on the growing of herbs our ancestors have used already for medical treatment? When will we finally be strangers on our own soil, in our own forests, on our own shores? When will we stand under this deep blue sky and see it turn red, see our hearts� and hands� daily efforts be bombed to pieces, see the American flag insult our view? All we have been dreaming of, all we patiently have begun to construct since president Ch�vez came to power, is being obstructed and overshadowed by the big boot that threatens to crush us any time! My question is, when will that time come?� Carlos� dark, persistent eyes searched for an answer in each of our faces.

The ray of sunlight that had painted the roses when we had entered the restaurant earlier, had meanwhile made its way through the open backyard door from where it reached our table, immersing Carlos Manuel into a bright aura that contrasted eerily with his sinister mood. Serenity and darkness uniquely touched each other and materialized in his person for a brief moment. �He seems a perfect reflection of our times�, I thought to myself as I watched him become contradiction. - Spring has woken up this country from decades of hibernation; here are its people, blooming and blossoming, acting and thinking and inventing their Bolivarian Revolution, gladly taking the risks of erring. They have simply had enough of five hundred years of foreign imposition of economic and political realities detrimental to their hopes, aspirations and very lives, of importing the �wisdom� of societal models alien to their spontaneity and humanity or at least to what is left of these after the catastrophic encounter with an all-devouring, essentially self-destructive economic system, that has lived up to its deadly consequences throughout the past centuries. Here are a country�s people who have stood up to face and challenge their destiny, determined to change it of, by and for themselves. And now, in front of this newly rising sun, emerges a cloud and casts its dreadful shadow upon these creative efforts, the shadow of empire, the shadow of fascism, the shadow of corporatism expanding itself all over the globe in a last, desperate act before its inevitable, cataclysmic implosion. - Such were my contemplations while Carlos continued speaking.

�We know where they will come from; they will encircle us from the outside, from Colombia, Aruba, Cura�ao, maybe even from Guyana, and they will suffocate us from within, employing terrorism within our borders. They lay the noose around our neck and soon they will be pulling it tight. All this because we have had the courage to take our destiny into our hands, with president Ch�vez at the steering wheel, navigating on oceans of black gold that lie beneath our soil. They, who keep trampling upon each and every authentic effort of our Latin American peoples to pursue the right to self-determination and happiness, they, who are spitting upon their own constitution, still dare give us lessons about democracy and human rights! Who in the world wants their kind of democracy? Who in the world wants their kind of human rights? No one in their sane mind, except our former ruling elite turned opposition, of course, would volunteer for such a farce!�

These were words coming from an eminently empirical man, who had constructed many of Chiguar�'s newer houses while maintaining the traditional art and craftsmanship and paying respect to the ancient style and architecture of the time-honoured buildings. A man of laborious practice and an inventive spirit, who formed part of a communal experiment, Mistaj� Cooperative, launched under a new law for cooperative associations giving people the chance to voluntarily unite their work force in small groups of producers so as to organize their own production and distribution of goods and income. The democratization process of the Bolivarian Revolution was not at all limited to the political realm, but an active, economically and socially protagonist engagement had been encouraged in the form of autonomous cooperatives, open and flexible organizations under the control of both, their associated workers and the consumers of their products.

And here he was, an actively and enthusiastically engaged worker, co-manager and co-owner of Mistaj� Cooperative, a craftsman, architect and agronomist, one of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who had committed the whole of their energy to the unique effort of creating not only a new political system, but a different kind of socio-economic fabric that would have a human face and touch. As he lit another cigarette, he rose from his seat as defiant as he had taken it. �Are you prepared? I am prepared�, he said. �So let them come. Other than that I am afraid there is not much to say these days. Everything is fine, and yes - not everything is fine at all!� He bid farewell to us, stepped though the backyard door and disappeared in the bright sunlight.

I doubted he or anyone here was prepared. - How do you prepare to face and counteract an arsenal of conventional, nuclear, chemical, biological and even geophysical weapons in a combination of low, medium and, in the end, high intensity warfare? -, I asked myself. I thought of the biological warfare disguised as a 'war on drugs' the Americans were conducting in neigbouring Colombia, this tragic country converted into a macabre test ground for chemical and biological agents, threatening its immense biodiversity and its inhabitants� health and lives. I remembered December 15th, 1999, the fateful day of the decisive popular referendum in Venezuela, when the new constitution was submitted to the people for approbation. That day, the federal State of Vargas had literally been swept into the ocean by devastating torrential rains, product of a climatic constellation never before experienced over Venezuela�s coastal region in what could well have been a test case for remote control of atmospheric phenomena.

A fresh and strong breeze from the Plaza came through the entrance door of El Momoi, and as I felt the cool wind in my hair, the ultimate logic and apex of a hostile, dying, globalized mode of production imposed itself onto my mind in a mighty picture. Nature itself - man�s natural environment and habitat, his very lifeline, had been converted into a lethal weapon of war as the logical result of a process, that had started out as the �liberation of man from the yoke of nature� and that had progressively converted tools and means of production into weapons and means of destruction.

Time had come to leave. When we got up from the table, Rafaela reached for the stool where the roses stood in their clay vase. Carefully, she picked one of the beautiful flowers from the bunch and gave it to me in a warm, spontaneous gesture. �Where do you get these incredible roses from?�, I asked her. �From the most special rose gardener in the region�, she replied. �Who would that be?�, I inquired. �Mistaj� Cooperative�, she said with a smile. As I marvelled at the silently glowing rose in my hand, a true piece of natural art and artistic nature, it flashed through my mind: �They can trample upon and crush all the flowers, but they cannot stop the coming of spring!�

However and uncomfortably, I couldn�t help thinking that his may well not be true anymore.

< --- >< --->

CORRESPONDENCE: Jutta Schmitt & Hern�n L�pez-Garay

April 3, 2003.

IRAQ: "The whole world is watching us die"

To: Hern�n L�pez-Garay

Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 4:33 PM

Subject: Re: CALL TO A GENERAL STRIKE

(SEE ORIGINAL LETTER BELOW)

Dear Hern�n,

I have been following the international news on the "war" in Iraq - both from the official, international war propaganda machinery CNN, as well as from the broad range of alternative news media on the internet -, with utter indignation and rage! Every move the Bush Junta takes in order to follow and secure its "national security interests" is so disgustingly predictable that, if it wasn't a matter of deadly, horrific consequences, it would even be laughable, outright ridiculous.

All of us who are still able to connect and put to work our remaining neurones, and who have not fallen into the "war against terrorism trap" (or shall I say crap), have known or at least strongly suspected from the very outset of this catastrophy on - the fraudulent US presidential elections, which ended with the US Supreme Court imposed "coup d'etat" of the Bush Junta, and September 11th -, what was going to come, how it was going to be "justified" and who were the real terrorists for that matter. However, it seems to be outright impossible for most analysts to fully grasp and recognize the horrific 21st Century "Pearl Harbour Incident" that took place in front of the world's noses (or rather TV screens) on September 11th 2001, and that would serve as the "historical justification" of all future atrocities to be committed by the Bush Junta in the name of the "war against terrorism", with Afghanistan and now Iraq only being the "opening chapters" of a sinister drama to unfold.

In order to go through with their "Project for the new American Century", the Bush Junta is fighting on two fronts: on the international front, where they are trashing the United Nations System (which, in any case, was more of a prolonged arm of US interests in the world than anything else) via the new, aggressive hit-and-assault "defence" strategy; and likewise on the domestic front, where they have been trashing the American constitution, civil liberties and any serious dissent for that matter via the gradual establishment of an authoritarian police state that George Orwell could not have described any better in his famous dystopia, "1984". Within their envisioned Full Spectrum Dominance, each and everything that stands in the way of both, the Bush Junta's disclosed and undisclosed interests in the world, will necessarily become a military target, including governments (or "regimes" as they call them), entire nations ("Rogue States"), and also and inevitably civilians, many of which happen to prefer to take up arms instead of being gunned down in the US killing sprees anyway. (Note, that each and every story the ineffable CNN has come up with concerning Iraqi militarymen or combatants who are "cheating" by supposedly fighting "disguised as civilians", or the recently published "warning" that "Al Quaeda & Affiliates" may be training and using women in their operations or even suicide missions, is carefully, cleverly and intentionally being launched unto the world public so as to psychologically prepare them in advance for the horrible pictures of slaughtered civilians that will inevitably reach the world audience, and to serve as a perfect justification for the merciless massacring of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq!!)

This cynically called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" is, as you correctly observed, not about any "liberation of the Iraqi People", all the contrary. It is about the freedom of Corporate America to destroy Iraq and to not care about civilian casualties. Inmidst of an economic recession and unprecedented balance of payment and budget deficits, the American Corporate Sector is convinced that the benefits from the destruction unleashed upon Iraq (and probably soon upon Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia, too) will be extraordinarily rewarding and worth the military "pain". The prospect not only of cheap oil, but of receiving the contracts to rebuild the infrastructure of entire nations, from replacing the European-dominated Cellular Phone Systems to reconstructing the cluster-bombed underground infrastructure of entire cities as well as their surfaces, is certainly enticing for Corporate America and worth the extinction of millions of lives, if necessary. (Preventing the monetary standard for oil transactions to shift from the US Dollar to the Euro in the region and thus to secure the Dollar's "supremacy" against its European competitor, the Euro, is also a heavy-weight factor!)

The question certainly is, what can be done to stop this madness?! Corporate America, politically embodied and represented by the Bush Junta, has to be counteracted both US-domestically as well as internationally. The general strike you have been suggesting would be most effective on the US-domestic front, and would thus have to be called for in the first place by all those decent and brave US citizens who, despite the overwhelming domestic war propaganda machine and an overall imposed "patriotic consensus" in the US, keep marching and protesting against the Iraqi genocide on the streets of the major US cities. On the international front, other nations could and should do their part, by imposing economic sanctions (including an oil embargo) on and employing diplomatic & juridical actions against the US, like closing US embassies and denying the use of their territorial, air and maritime spaces to US military forces (see US anarchist and physicist George Salzman's proposals on the following site: http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strategy/Discussion/2002-09-30CallToStopUS.html )

What is truly tragic and disturbing is the fact, that the vast majority of those, who today carry an awfully immense, historic responsibility on their shoulders - precisely the American people - is totally unaware of this responsibility and doesn't have a remote idea of what is really, historically, for the sake of humanity, at stake here! (And even if they did, and if public opinion actually did turn against the current, genocidal Bush administration, take it for granted that the Bush Junta, in the name of the continuity and security of Corporate America�s most sacred interests, would find its way to either call off the next 2004 presidential elections in the middle of yet another self-orchestrated catastrophy, or completely dispose of and control the necessary electronical voting machine hard- and software, so as to guarantee the desired outcome of the next presidential elections.)

Let me close these reflections, esteemed Hern�n, by stating that I don't make myself any illusions about the cataclysmic situation this world finds itself in, but perhaps this is exactly what it takes to finally surpass it: a completely disillusioned world, where the true, naked, brutal face of this essentially life-denying system stares openly into everybody's eyes.

Yours sincerely,

Jutta.

Dear Jutta,

Thanks again for your comprehensive remarks. I have read them most carefully and must confess find them as illuminating as usual to understand the world�s current crisis. In regard to my call to a general strike I do agree the call is mainly relevant to USA citizens and British. As for the rest of decent citizens of this world we must keep doing every single civilized action we can possibly imagine to stop these madmen (who now have made the clear resolution of spreading their madness to other countries such as Syria, Iran, VENEZUELA, Cuba�). Among possible actions we can be undertaken are: marches, boycott to American products (movies, cars, MacDonald�s and other junk food "retailers", credit cards, travel to USA, etc.), pressing the American embassies with our protests, pressing our ambassadors in the UN to get a resolution calling an immediate stop to the aggression, boycott to ALCA, pressing in the International Court to open a trial for war crimes against Bush, Blair, Aznar......

Best regards

Hernan

-----oOo-----

----- Original Message -----

From: Hern�n L�pez-Garay

To: Jutta Schmitt

Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 9:38 AM

Subject: CALL TO A GENERAL STRIKE

CALL TO A GENERAL STRIKE!!!!!!!!!

Dear Jutta,

As the following report from ANSWER reveals, these bastards now openly admit they are not in a war for liberation of the Iraqi people but in a war AGAINST the Iraqi people. They say that from now on every civilian is considered a military target!!!!!! The empire has gone completely mad! Are we citizens of this world just going to watch not only the Iraqis being massacred but the ENTIRE world brought to the fringe of destruction and do nothing about it??? I feel our last hope lies mainly in the hands of the decent citizens of USA, UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal (and other so called coalition countries) to CALL TO A GENERAL STRIKE and stop completely the life of their nations until the genocidal aggression stops and their military and war machinery go back home.

Best regards

Hernan Lopez-Garay

"The whole world is watching us die"

APRIL 12:

The World Stands Together Against War

In the face of Iraqi resistance to the invasion, the U.S.military strategy has abruptly shifted in the last fewdays. Instead of posing as liberators, the U.S. high command has called for open warfare against the Iraqi civilian population. In the last 48 hours, hundreds of civilians have been shot down on the roadways, in their homes, on their farms. The aerial bombings are becoming more indiscriminate as missiles land in markets and residential neighborhoods.

The Iraq war has suddenly taken on the worst features of the U.S. war in Vietnam. Facing a defiant and resisting population, U.S. troops, under the direction of their

officers, treat all members of the population as suspect and decide to shoot first and ask questions later. The U.S. soldiers have been lied to about their mission. They

have been sent to kill and be killed in a war for empire and conquest, not liberation. U.S. casualties are mounting in this war that need not have happened.

On March 31, there was a massacre of civilians, mainly women and their children, whose crime was that they were driving on a roadway in their own country. As their van approached a checkpoint, U.S. soldiers destroyed their vehicle with a barrage of 25mm cannon fire from one or more of their M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles. The Washington Post quoted Capt. Ronny Johnson of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in his series of orders to the troops present:

- "Fire a warning shot"

- "Stop [messing] around!"

- "Stop him, Red 1, stop him!"

- "Cease fire!"

- "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!"

The "shoot first � ask questions later" strategy is not the result of spontaneous actions by scared and edgy troops. These are orders given the troops from the Pentagon high command.

"Everyone is now seen as a combatant until proven otherwise," a Pentagon official is quoted in the Washington Post of April 1, 2003. The Pentagon recognizes that the shift in tactics will be understood as a brutal escalation of force against the civilian population and that their earlier posture as "liberators" will be exposed. "You'll see acts of kindness, medical care and the like, but the large scale aid effort will have to

wait," a Pentagon official told the Washington Post. In fact the new U.S. strategy now is deliberately preventing Iraqi civilians in Nassiriya and other towns from receiving food and water unless they cooperate with the occupation forces.

U.S. Marine Operations Commander Lt. Colonel Paul Roche told reporters on March 31 that the U.S. strategy towards the people of the city of Nassiriya included the use of

food and water as a weapon to terrorize and break the will of the civilian population.

In the April 1 front page of the Washington Post, the Pentagon's new strategy is euphemistically referred to in the headline "U.S. troops instructed to use tougher

tactics."

Hern�n L�pez-Garay

Profesor Titular

Centro de Investigaciones in Sistemolog�a Interpretativa

CSI

Facultad de Ingenier�a

Universidad de Los Andes

M�rida, VENEZUELA.

-----oOo-----

WAR, THE FATHER OF ALL THINGS

By Jutta Schmitt & Franz J. T. Lee

01/04/03.

If Corporate America and its criminal political elite is to be stopped (and the criminal political elites elsewhere on the planet for that matter), if the war, the slaughtering, the bribery, the atrocities, the trampling upon international law, the exploitation, oppression, profitmaking and the contempt for life, if this whole barbarism is to be stopped, you have to stop the entire system that brings it about.

In the words of Jo Wilding, reporting from Baghdad:

"This whole system has to go. If we can think of ways to kill, in their homes, people we can't even see, render non-existent whole buildings by remote control, we must be able to imagine and bring into being a better way to run our world, to conduct ourselves without these corporate controlled governments, without any governments. They've failed us, whatever their ideology: now it's time for the people." (28.03.03)

Jutta.

http://electroniciraq.net/news/467.shtml

In a brief news sequence on TV yesterday, the camera showed wounded Iraqi children in a hospital. A young boy, when aware of being filmed, made the victory sign with his small, fragile fingers.

The Iraqis are winning the battle for hearts and minds on a world wide scale. The question is: will human, humane hearts and minds worldwide win over the dehumanized invadors and their bullets and bombs?!

Jutta.

http://electronicIraq.net/news/452.shtml

ABOUT WAR AND THEORIES OF WAR

War, the Father of All Things

By Franz J. T. Lee

01/04/03

Everybody talks about war, some are in favour, some are against, others develop perfect war theories, some invent new theories of war. Yet, who reveals the very quintessence of war? Of the current war on Iraq?

Who tells us about the Belligerent, Bellicose Labour Non-Relations: Economic Exploitation - Political Domination - Social Discrimination - Global Militarization - Human Alienation? Let's briefly see what the labour world, the erudite patrian scholars, understand by their concept "War"!

Let us recall what we have been taught about war, in the cradle, in the kindergarten, at school, at university, and in society in general. Let's

look at some aspects concerning the official, political correctness

of war theories and theories of war.

We'll just give the following corner stones of patriotic, patrian, belligerent ideology a fleeting scientific-philosophic glance: the evolution of theories of war, the causes of war, biological, ethnological psychological, social, liberal, socialist, fascist and nationalistic war theories.

How do the common folk, the "man on the street", the mob, the workers, the majority, see war? How do, according to official "statistics", 70% of Americans see their "new war"? What definition of war has been popularized among them ideologically? Brain-washed by the mass media, millions see it as a skirmish, a vendetta, the fight against "terrorism", a conflict among national or international political parties and groups, whom they themselves generally have voted democratically into power. These involve, inter alia, hostilities, demonstrations, protest marches, suicide bombers, the mother of all bombs, shooting, killing, dying for the patria, conspiracy and bombing of a considerable duration and magnitude.

Now, very simplified, how do our venerated, venerable social scientists and sociologists academically see this bellicose issue? In nuce, to the aforesaid, to this belligerent potpourri, they add the following: recognizability, that is, bellicose legitimism or belligerent legitimacy, ordained, institutionalized, authorized by the United Nations, by international laws, by custom, tradition, culture, ethics and rules. For example, in medieval religious times, like in the case of modern Neo- or Anti-Darwinism, the "crusades" were designed by a Divine War Lord, by the Grand Designer.

Of course, not like in the cases of the current "New Wars", of the omnipotent Behemoth, the USA, versus the Elf Iraq or the Dwarf Afghanistan, in the past, in war, the fighting parties had to be sufficiently equal in power, in military power, to render the outcome uncertain for a while.

In other words, when "war" still had calibre and category, the above were usually classified as pacification campaigns, military expeditions against the natives, as exploration of the "New World", or even as interventions and reprisals. And, internally, when the "natives" resisted colonialism, they were called rebellions or insurrections, and, if they were strong enough and protracted, then only the "British Crown", the "Mother Countries", called them "colonial wars". Compared to all these, Bush's current corporate "pre-emptive" "war", his "full spectrum dominance", also Rumsfeld�s "right to assassinate" terrorists, they all just reflect a tragicomical caricature of the glory and nobility of previous metropolitan "great" wars.

Of course, here we cannot mention all the hundreds of theories of war; for every war in patrian history, from the point of view of natural and social sciences, there are dozens of conflicting, hostile theories, contradicting each other.

Surely, all these theories reflect definite, non-related, real, internal, universal changes in the international labour system. Each one expresses a particularity, a peculiarity of the same unitary, united, systemic World Order, of the Absolute Truth of Alienation, of Labour, of Man. They are different glimpses of the true fascist face of capitalism and imperialism.

Of course, all the "wars" on the planet, prior to discovery and civilization, were classified as tribal feuds or religious crusades. Only around the middle of the 17th century, at last, limited wars were fought in the interest of individual sovereigns. Ever since, the art of manoeuvre and belligerent strategy became decisive.

After the political victory of the bourgeoisie, after the French Revolution, the definite capitalist objectives of war were broadened; their revolutionary ideas began to appeal to the working masses; now, not divinities, but revolutionary subjects were making war; Great Men were waging Great Wars. Thus, in Post-Napoleonic Europe, Reason became belligerent, Wars became rational, capitalistic, imperialistic. In fact, Reason, Capital and War became synonymous.

In the fertile capitalistic womb of the Industrial Revolution, precisely this war approach was fecundated by the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz in his well-known classic On War (1832�37). At last, the Father Of All Modern Wars, the European World War I, ushered in expansionist, imperialist, bellicose mass destruction and genocide. And now, nearly a century later, the Father of massive belligerent production of Weapons of Mass Destruction, who sold arms to Iraq, the USA, claims that Hussein is a threat to the "free world".

Clausewitz, very cogently, very simply, defined war as a rational instrument of foreign policy: in his own words, as �an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfil our will.�

But, the totalitarian character of contemporary wars did not fit into Clausewitzian theory of limited conflict -- new theories had to account for this new belligerent phenomenon: war as not being mainly a rational instrument of state policy; as from now onwards, war should also serve broad ideologies, should globalize "infinite justice", should annihilate "absolute evil".

Across the first half of the 20th century, in all walks of life, the various conceptions of history, of making history, of salvation history, intermingled, they replaced each other; similarly, the corresponding theories on war were adapted to the ever-changing bourgeois society, to its production, religion and ideology.

This paved the road for the belligerent, systemic expansion of formal-logical war, directed against a double-bladed, Janus-headed Non-A: Communist and/or Fascist Modern Wars. Now, new eschatologies like the "rising of the proletariat" or the "coming into being of the master race" entered war ideology.

Euro-American-Asian World War II and the subsequent armament industry and the production of weapons of mass destruction, ushered in an avalanche of new theories of war. Inter alia, we have two main streams of current war theory and theory of war: the one attributing war to certain innate biological and psychological factors or drives, and the other attributing it to certain social relations (e.g., the class struggle) and institutions (e.g., NASA, Pentagon, Kremlin, NATO, the State).

Now, briefly, what is the ideological essence of Biological Theories? The ethnologists give Man innate drives, based on analogies drawn from animal behaviour, from "animal warfare", as the major cause of global wars. Essentially, the psychologist theory claims that the main cause can be found in homo homini lupus himself, in his wolfish, spiritual, human nature. The sociologists focus their explanations either on the internal organization of states or on the international system within which these operate.

Within the context of social theory, the approach of the early liberals is well-known, but after World War I, they began to accept the conclusion that an unregulated international society did not automatically tend toward peace and thus they advocated international organization, for example, the future United Nations, or even the NATO, as a corrective. How "correct" they were and are, we could witness in the current War On Iraq! Thus, the liberals concentrated on political structures, to determine the propensity of states to engage in war.

Socialist or Marxist theories on war went to the other extreme; they declared the socio-politico-economic system of capitalist states as the primary factor of war. Ironically, the liberal and socialists theories eventually converged, see John Hobson and Lenin. Marx simply stated that war is permanently generated by the class structure of society. Of course, Stalin and his successors "revised" the socialist theory on war; they even signed a devil's pact with Nazi Fascism.

Other theories imply that wars result ultimately from the allegiance of men to their respective nations and from the intimate connection between the nation and the State, e.g., racism, patriotism, We, We Americans. As we know, this type of ideology not only led to self-determination of the nations, to nationalism, but also straight to national socialism, Stalinism, Fascism, Zionism, Apartheid and Nazism. The current USA is already well on its way, with its Patriot Acts, its "Home Land" and its "New Wars".

Over the last decades, parallel, pacifist opponents of war came into being, some just want to "control" war. Basically, they claim that War remains possible as long as individual states seek to ensure their own self-preservation and to promote their own individual national interests. Of course, in the last analysis, they favour a global solution, a World State, Globalization, to control the military actions of individual "aggressive" states.

Precisely this is the current legitimation of America's New War, its "Infinite Justice" against "Absolute Evil" of belligerent States, such as Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, etc. And therewith we have entered the epoch of Full Spectrum Dominance, pre-emptive, aggressive wars.

Herewith I terminate my sojourn through the patrian theories on war, and their war theories.

-----oOo-----

WHAT IS WRONG WITH

VENEZUELA'S CONSTITUTION?

By Jutta Schmitt

if we reflect about why the Venezuelan constitution of 1999 poses such a threat for the established national and international economic interests, that the representatives and former political power-holders of the latter have not hesitated to do away with it in one stroke of a pen, when briefly and temporarily usurping political power in Venezuela via last year's April 11th coup d��tat, we certainly have to understand the wider picture within which the Venezuelan "crisis" is developing, framed by some kind of "master plan" for the Americas, which is part and parcel of the New American Security Strategy of the current Bush administration, intended to fully insert Middle and South America and the Caribbean into the infamous globalization process under terms clearly detrimental to the region and favourable to the interests of the USA. The name of this master plan is FTAA - Free Trade Area of the Americas (ALCA in Spanish), lately sold to the general public as a move to tackle the roots of terrorism and to "promote global security" by "igniting a new era of economic growth through free markets and free trade", with the USA "seizing the global initiative" and "pressing regional initiatives"! (see introduction and point VI in: http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html )

Under the FTAA project, 34 countries will have to subscribe to an international legal framework for at least 50 years, with obligatory modifications of the member countries' constitutions regarding critical issues like firstly, the privatization of remnants of collective property of land (especially in indigenous areas); secondly, the acceptance of multilateral investment agreements allowing transnational corporations to sue the host State in case the latter should hinder optimum profit making in the form of environmental or social responsibility laws denounced as "trade barriers"; thirdly, the privatization and appropriation of natural, genetic and biological resources under the flag of corporate "intellectual property rights"; and fourthly, the private appropriation of the existing fossil energy resources of the Andean/Amazonia Belt by declaring them "global, human patrimony" open to the highest bidder and not necessarily property of a particular State under the soil of which these resources happen to be located. All these issues come down to a rather crude expropriation strategy better known as "neoliberalism".

A look into the new, Venezuelan Constitution of 1999, approved by 80% of the Venezuelan population by a national referendum, especially into articles 12, 119, 124, 127 and 129, will make us understand what the problem with Ch�vez is all about, and why the national economic elite in combination with foreign interests consider it not enough that the president be forced to resign, but that the entire constitution be trashed and for that end the country be lit up and burnt to ashes on all fronts!

Regarding FTAA agenda point "privatization of collective land", Article 119 of the Venezuelan constitution would have to be done away with, as it states the following:

"The State fully acknowledges the existence of the indigenous peoples and communities, their social, political and economic forms of organization, their cultures, customs and traditions, languages and religions, as well as their habitat and original rights over the lands they and their ancestors have traditionally occupied and which are necessary to develop and guarantee their ways of life. It therefore is the responsibility of the national government, with the participation of the indigenous peoples, to delimit and guarantee the right to collective property of their lands, which will be inalienable, imprescriptible, not confiscatable and not transferable according to what is established in this constitution and the law." (my translation / my emphasis)

Regarding FTAA agenda points "optimum profit making" and "privatization of genetic and biological resources", Articles 124, 127 and 129 of the Venezuelan constitution would have to be shredded to pieces, which declare the following:

Article 124: "The intellectual, collective property of knowledge, technologies and innovations of indigenous peoples is guaranteed and protected. All activity related to genetic resources and associated knowledge will persue collective benefits. The registering of patents on these resources and ancestral knowledge is forbidden." (my translation / my emphasis)

Article 127: "It is the right and the duty of each generation to protect and maintain the environment for the benefit of itself and of the future world. Each person has the right to individually and collectively enjoy a sane, secure and ecologically balanced life and environment. The State will protect the environment, the biological and genetical diversity, the ecological processes, national parks and monuments and other areas of special ecological importance. The genome of living creatures cannot be patented and the corresponding law of bioethic principles will regulate this matter. It is a fundamental obligation of the State, together with the active participation of society, to guarantee that the population develops within an environment free of contamination, where the air, the water, the soils, the coasts, the climate, the ozone layer and the living species shall be protected in a special way according to the law."

Article 129, last paragraph: " ... In the treaties subscribed by the Republic with natural or juridical persons, national or international, or in permits granted which involve natural resources, the obligation to conserve the ecological equilibrium is considered to be an integral part of these, even if not expressly formulated, as well as to permit the access to technology and its transference in conditions of mutual agreement and to re-establish the environment to its natural condition in case of alteration, according to the law." (my translation /my emphasis).

Concerning FTAA agenda point "appropriation of existing fossil energy resources", Article 12 of the Venezuelan constitution is certainly a stumbling block and would have to be eliminated, as it declares all mine and hydrocarbon deposits under the national continental, insular and maritime territory exclusive property of the Republic and thus inalienable and imprescriptible goods of national, public dominion.

This is just a glimpse into the immediate problematic of what is "wrong" with Venezuela's Bolivarian Constitution in the eyes of the national and international economic, financial and energetic interest of the ruling elites and the big, transnational corporations. The magnitude of their combined and sustained attack on the democratically elected, legal and legitimate government presided by Hugo Ch�vez reveals the magnitude of the basically nationalistic yet not isolationist, humanistic project of the nation envisioned, outlined and enshrined in the 1999 constitution.

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By Franz J. T. Lee

Certainly, we are aware of the arsenal of armament, resources, weapons, power and capital at the disposal of those who want to force Venezuela onto her knees, to continue to exploit, dominate and rape her. We are aware of the infinitesimal chance that the Chav�z government has, confronted with an omnipotent wild bush fire. We know that this adversary is the very same one, born since ages, having its seat in the metropolitan countries, that pillaged, ransacked and plundered our continents for centuries already.

At no time in patrian history, we really had a true chance of shaking this blood-sucker, this bloodthirsty Behemoth off our backs; our billions of prayers were left unheard, no saviour on high, not even from below, wiped our tears away, that could fill oceans; our massacred fathers, mothers, kith and kin, the victims of European Christianity, Civilization and Culture, if they could hold hands, would go around the earth uncountable times, would reach the moon bases of corporate imperialism.

Of course, we know that the hearts of our oppressors, local, regional, national and international, are made of stone, their everlasting egoism, avarice, crimes and megalomania have no limits, in any language, there are no words to describe them.

We are born in violence and terrorism, we survive in a terrorist world, we will pass away in a mass grave of terror. This is, was and will be the earthly reality of billons of physical workers. All this is not caused specifically by cruel, great individuals, by the wrath of the gods, by having the wrong big ideas in our heads, by belonging to a cursed, inferior race; It does not even concern our sex, figure or colour.

It concerns that what is forbidden, the forbidden fruits, the classified knowledge, the secrets of exploitation and oppression, forbidden to think, forbidden to do, forbidden to know; those things that have been eradicated deliberately from our memory, from our brains, by universality, socialization, education, beliefs, religion, ideology, manipulation, indoctrination and alienation.

Progressively, systematically, we have been robbed of humanness, humaneness, humanity. Our natural and social relations have become formal-logical, ossified, petrified, putrefied, have become thing-relations, consumer-relations, cash-relations; we are being prostituted; our bodies, minds and souls can be cloned, be bought, can be sold; we have become zombies, wares, goods, even obsolete, valueless merchandise. We are being alienated, we are aliens, to ourselves, and to our natural habitat. We are tools that speak, working animals, pack animals, that have lost their "human rights" on Earth.

Over the millennia, over the centuries, over the decades, everywhere, anywhere, anyhow, within this labour system, we have protested, organized liberation movements, we fought, we were killed, tortured and terrorized, and like Phoenix, we again and again rose from our own ashes, and we continued the emancipatory struggle. We were and are die-hards, we have nine lives, and yet, the Leviathan inexorably continued, continues and certainly will continue its apocalyptic holocaust, reducing everything human, decent and sacred to dust, even production and labour themselves.

Hence, Venezuela, Iraq, Quo vadis?

The only thing that we can do is to perform our emancipatory uttermost best, more we can't do, less we should not do; we should not leave any stone unturned, not any graviton or photon unanalysed, not a revolutionary idea unstudied, not a stumbling block unsurpassed, we should not transpass, leaving a world behind in which we have not eternalized indelibly our very emancipatory star-dust. Only then, we are free, free of self-blame, free of opportunism, boot-licking, corruption and defeatism, only then, we, Venezuela and the Globe, are and will be free, emancipated.

Where there is human breath, there is militant optimism, where there are exploitation, domination, discrimination, militarism and alienation, exactly there the aurora, their very opposite also exists, and, even much, much more, that is, their very real, true transcendence, transhistoric, transvolutionary emancipation.

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