Venezuela Exposes More White Supremacy Among the White Left

Recent events in Venezuela have exposed quite a bit.  Forces within Venezuela opposed to the revolutionary socialist government that was democratically elected most recently in 2018 (by 67% of the Venezuelan people) is being challenged by elements backed primarily by the U.S.  So-called opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president, dismissing the fact that socialist president Nicolas Maduro is the legitimate president of Venezuela.  The U.S. immediately moved to recognize Guaido as president and a nefarious effort to take control of the country through military force was organized by Guaido.  That military effort was swiftly and completely put down by the Maduro government.  

These recent events in Venezuela are telling on many levels.  There is an old African proverb that says when you boil dirty water, the scum always rises to the top.  This proverb is indicative of many on the so-called white left of all stripes who could not wait to jump on the side of the illegal Guaido effort.  And by jumping on the side I mean all those who claim objectivity, yet they repeat all of the same talking points as the reactionary pro-capitalist elements.  Those white left talking points are the focus of this piece.  Much of what they are saying is that the Maduro government has jailed opposition leaders and taken steps to undermine the country's decision making processes in order to maintain power.  This is an old and overused tactical argument by imperialism in evaluating the behaviors of new socialist societies.  Its the social equivalent of someone forcing you and another person into a tank that is slowly filling up with water.  You decide you are going to fight for your life so you do everything you can to break the glass in the tank to stop the water from filling, etc.  Meanwhile, the other person in the tank with you believes your actions are making the situation worse so they do everything they can to stop you.  As a result, you end up taking action to eliminate the other person so that you can figure out how to get free.  The person watching, who created the problem in the first place, messages the situation as you being a violent maniac who caused the conflict because you took the other person's life.  If you miss the point of the analogy, its that the person watching can create any scenario they want because they are the entity in power.  This is the reality for the masses of Venezuelan people and all oppressed people.  We are routinely subjected to the narrative provided by our enemies.  The ones keeping us in the oppressive state in the first place.  And, often, more often than not, the white left - supposedly the friend to oppressed humanity - comes to side with the oppressor instead of the oppressed.

Revolution 101.  Revolutions are never fought for the privileged in society.  This is true because the privileged are privileged because they benefit from the oppression of the masses of people.  The purpose of revolutions is to create a process that will remove the oppression to create a society where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.  Obviously, apparatuses like white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, all appendages of capitalism and imperialism, are the vessels that feed the obstacles that keep oppressed people oppressed.  Venezuela is no different.  Approximately 56% of the country's population are brown people.  People who historically have a long history of being on the downtrodden end of the societies they live in.  About 43% of Venezuela are descendants of Europe.  Just those numbers alone demonstrate there are going to be some very different perceptions of what is taking place, who it benefits, and whether it is in Venezuela's best interest.  We would argue that the masses of those brown people, the people the revolutionary process is designed to lift up, see the revolution as a positive.  And the clear indications that those elements of the country are out in the street fighting to protect their revolution is unquestionable proof of that.  By the same token, the fact that the overwhelming majority of voices condemning Venezuela's government are those of the privileged class of European descendants makes a clear statement also.  In other words, 98% of the so-called Cuban "exile" community in South Florida is European people.  This means it has never been the African masses of Cuba who are coming over in mass in those rafts.  Its always been the Europeans who resent the fact the Cuban revolution is righting the wrongs of centuries of racist caste structure (despite the ridiculous claims of the so-called American Descendants of Slaves - ADOS) characters who ignorantly claim only Africans in the U.S. had legalized racial segregation).  The same reality applies for Venezuela.  Leopoldo Lopez is being talked about as the mastermind of the coup attempt in Venezuela, but no one discusses who he is and where he came from.  He and his wife are descendants of Venezuelan elite classes.  His wife is actually the daughter of the Agricultural Secretary under the Romulo Betancourt presidency of the mid to late 40s in Venezuela.  Bourgeoisie historical accounts attempt to paint Betancourt's regime as a reformist government, but the reality is that they consistently sided with the interests of U.S. companies and policy in Central and South America, including being a strong U.S. subordinate regime for anti-Cuba activities in the region after Bettancourt was re-elected in 1958, immediately before the conquest of the Cuban revolution that next year.

Being a product of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, Lopez rose to attend college in the U.S., attending the prestigious HUN School at Princeton University.  There he was a leading member of the student organizations that supported bourgeoisie government in so-called "Latin" America.  Once he returned to Venezuela, he eventually founded the political organization Primero Justifica or Justice First.  Although this organization's stated claim was to be a bastion for all political thought, since 1999, it has been universally committed to overthrowing the Bolivarian revolution led initially by Hugo Chavez and now Nicolas Maduro.  Their reasons, despite their claim of neutrality politically, are the same reasons any bourgeoisie group provides for opposing revolution.  They want more "economic freedoms" which all poor people know means they want the right to make as much money as they want without any efforts to dismantle the racist class structures that created the need for revolutionary change in the first place.

For us, the poor people of the planet have every right to seize control of the forces of production to use them to eliminate inequality.  And, since the bourgeoisie forces acquired those forces of production, not through any hard work or democratic processes as they would have everyone believe, but through force of violence and the imposition of the most oppressive slavery and exploitation systems known to human civilization, the masses are justified in doing whatever they need to do to those bourgeoisie in order to protect their revolution.  What that means is we have to stop this bourgeoisie argument that because a government imprisons someone's relatives that you know, that automatically means that government is corrupt.  A few years ago, I posted a happy birthday post on Facebook to the leader of Vietnam's resistance against U.S. imperialism -,Nguyen Al Thoc, or Ho Chi Minh as he is better known.  Some idiot who has apparently been found out to be an abuser since then, wrote a comment complaining about my post because - I quote - his family was imprisoned in Vietnam.  What I'm saying here is pure emotion isn't enough for me to stop there solely because of what happened to your family.  I would need more information.  What was your family doing in Vietnam?  In China?  In North Korea"  In Cuba?  In Venezuela?  It could very well be that the government had every right to stop your family from sabotaging the revolution. Or, it could be the government made an error, but they didn't make an error with everyone's family.   Based on the behaviors of many of those family descendants today, that's not at all a far fetched thought.  Especially since most of the people complaining about that have absolutely no problem believing people that look like me should be incarcerated, regardless of the political circumstances that drive mass incarceration in this country.  And the so-called white left is very quick to take up this subjective family argument to justify that a country like Venezuela is locking up opposition without any type of analysis and discussion about who that opposition is.  

Any true revolt in any society has to evolve from the masses of that society. Not some bourgeoisie Princeton graduate with blood ties to the elite of the country.  We cannot ignore the reality that those on the white left choose to side with the narrative of other Europeans above that of the objective conditions of the masses of brown people on earth.  Even if those Europeans are the same elite class that white left in the U.S. claim to want to overthrow.  Well, now you know why no Africans and other brown people are joining your political circles.  

Probably the most racist statement of all is how the white left doesn't have enough faith in the humanity and abilities of dominantly brown countries to work through their stuff to figure out their revolutions.  Obviously, the 20 short years of the Bolivarian revolution is not anywhere near enough time for that process to play itself out.  The 60 years since the Cuban revolution isn't enough time.  I'm almost that old myself and I'm still trying to figure out my own self so how the hell can an entire country be expected to do that in that short time period.  All of that is ill refutable besides the point that the U.S., and anyone inside it, is in absolutely no position to pass judgment on any people.  This country is going on 250 years old and its getting worse, not better.  The Venezuelan people are the only people who can decide their future.  That means most of that 56% brown population and the 20% of Europeans there who are on the side of justice.  They can do that and they will.  I believe it because I have confidence in them, in us.  If you don't believe that, and any narrative saying anything else means you don't, then we just wish to thank you for helping us get more and more people to see what we have been saying forever, for the most part, left or right, still white.