My job is to criticize the Trotskyist movement from the Right. I'm tasked with keeping my remarks civil, serious and friendly, but critical it still should be.
Unfortunately the recent issue of The Militant makes that very difficult. It contains three articles that I mostly agree with--it's hard to criticize something agreeable. Still, I'll try.
The first, by Bob Carter, is entitled Protests hit Quebec festival move to shut musical revue. It concerns a theater production about slavery that was shut down by critics who accused it of "cultural appropriation."
The second, by Terry Evans, is headlined US, EU rulers clash over trade, spending for NATO. It centers attention on President Trump's recent meeting EU president Jean-Claude Juncker. I actually disagree with much of this article, but Mr. Evans gets one thing very right.
But many people--not just in government but also in the media, academia, the military-industrial complex, and think tanks--have built their careers around those old verities. They've learned to negotiate the halls of NATO, the catacombs of the EU, the byzantine rules of the WTO, along with the elaborate protocols of the United Nations. Seventy years of collective expertise are now threatened with irrelevance--whole PhD programs are about to go out of business.
Call it the Deep State if you will, but it's actually something much more mundane than that. It's a heartfelt plea for job security--a plea that will ultimately fail. As individuals I feel sorry for them, but for the rest of us the demise of this world is probably all for the best.
Mr. Evans appears to agree with me.
The third article is by Roger Calero--Venezuela: Workers, farmers face effects of capitalist crisis. The Militant never bought into the whole Chavez charade, for reasons explained by Mr. Calero.
Socialism has failed always and everywhere. And however much I agree with The Militant on any individual point--for that reason alone my job still needs to be done.
Further Reading:
On June 26, about 100 protesters organized by the self-named SLAV Resistance Collective protested in front of the theater doors on opening night. The protesters, both Black and Caucasian, shouted, chanted and waved placards accusing internationally renowned Quebecois producer Robert Lepage and lead singer Betty Bonifassi of being “racists” and of appropriating Black history because they are “white” and the show didn’t have a majority Black cast.
On July 4, Montreal Jazz Festival officials cancelled the production after only two of the scheduled 16 shows. More than 8,000 tickets had already been sold. Officials apologized to anyone who they said might have been offended by the performance.The Militant quotes producer Robert Lepage:
“Everything that led to this cancellation is a direct blow to artistic freedom,” Lepage said in a widely circulated statement. “When we are no longer allowed to step into someone else’s shoes, when it is forbidden to identify with someone else, theatre is denied its very nature … and is thus rendered meaningless.”Of course this is absolutely correct. Unfortunately many of my other Trotskyist friends (along with the entire academic Left) will side with the censors. The Militant is right to call them to task.
The second, by Terry Evans, is headlined US, EU rulers clash over trade, spending for NATO. It centers attention on President Trump's recent meeting EU president Jean-Claude Juncker. I actually disagree with much of this article, but Mr. Evans gets one thing very right.
Much of what is reported in the liberal media about the clashes between Washington and Berlin aims to hide this reality. It seeks to reinforce the notion that Trump’s actions are endangering Washington’s interests by threatening to tear up the decades-long “world order” through which the U.S. rulers have collaborated with their “traditional allies” that make up the EU.While it is likely true that Mr. Trump is needlessly undiplomatic in his dealings with the Europeans, The Militant is quite right when they suggest the media and critics are hyperventilating a bit. The fact is that the world has changed since 1991, and even more so since 2010, after which fracking came fully on line. Americans simply don't need that old alliance anymore.
But many people--not just in government but also in the media, academia, the military-industrial complex, and think tanks--have built their careers around those old verities. They've learned to negotiate the halls of NATO, the catacombs of the EU, the byzantine rules of the WTO, along with the elaborate protocols of the United Nations. Seventy years of collective expertise are now threatened with irrelevance--whole PhD programs are about to go out of business.
Call it the Deep State if you will, but it's actually something much more mundane than that. It's a heartfelt plea for job security--a plea that will ultimately fail. As individuals I feel sorry for them, but for the rest of us the demise of this world is probably all for the best.
Mr. Evans appears to agree with me.
Workers face a world today where a series of historic shifts are unfolding in the “order” the U.S. rulers imposed after the second imperialist world war — in Korea, the Mideast, Asia and in Europe. Trump is working within these developments to put together alliances and arrangements that favor the U.S. rulers. Many of those involve steps that can tamp down wars and conflicts that have existed for decades. These are good for working people. They open political space for us to act and learn how to fight for our class interests.As the above paragraph indicates, the article occasionally devolves into boilerplate Trotsky-talk. Ignore that, however, and most of what it says is very agreeable.
The third article is by Roger Calero--Venezuela: Workers, farmers face effects of capitalist crisis. The Militant never bought into the whole Chavez charade, for reasons explained by Mr. Calero.
The leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution never mobilized working people to take control of production and the land and replace the bourgeois government with a workers and farmers government on the road to expropriating the capitalist class. They rejected the revolutionary example set by workers and farmers in Cuba. That is the only road that offers working people the chance to confront the problems they face.I think this is pretty lame--especially since Mr. Calero admits elsewhere that Venezuela did expropriate foreign owners (boldface mine).
A U.S. federal court judge ruled Aug. 9 in favor of Canadian gold mining company Crystallex, saying it can collect $1.4 billion it claims to have lost when late President Hugo Chávez nationalized the gold-mining firm in 2009. This could result in the company taking control and selling U.S.-based oil refineries owned by Citgo, which is part of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA.Still, The Militant thinks it's off the hook and can now criticize the Venezuelan regime with "I told you so" impunity. And its criticisms are right on the money, e.g.,
“I am better off selling empanadas than working as a nurse,” said Ana Rosario Contreras, president of Caracas College of Nurses, during a July 6 protest demanding higher wages. “An empanada costs 500,000 bolivars and I get paid 600,000 every two weeks.”The problem with Venezuela is not that they didn't utter the correct magic words, nor that they failed to completely implement the exact policy prescribed Jack Barnes from his Manhattan penthouse. No--the problem with Venezuela is socialism.
Socialism has failed always and everywhere. And however much I agree with The Militant on any individual point--for that reason alone my job still needs to be done.
Further Reading:
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