Re: Latin America's Left-wing trend

[Jonathan Lassen <jonathan.lassen@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Speaking of CAS, does anyone on this list know why the September issue
still hasn't been posted online?

Jonathan


> My response at the roundtable discussion published on CAS was meant to be
> provocative and a bit cynical, but probably not interpreted as such by some.
>
> Mobo
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: worker-zhongguo@openflows.org [mailto:worker-zhongguo@openflows.org]
> On Behalf Of Brian Turner
> Sent: Sunday, 18 December 2005 11:50 PM
> To: zhongguo@openflows.org
> Subject: Latin America's Left-wing trend
>
> Many countries in Latin America are trending left or
> center-left.  Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador have
> center-left governments.  Mexico seems next up (the
> left-populist mayor of Mexico City is leading polls
> for next year's elections).  Venezuela has and Bolivia
> soon will have (if Evo Morales is not upset in
> Sunday's election) outright socialist governments.
> Cuba is still Cuba, shameful in some respects, but a
> shining example in its farmer-run organic agricultural
> collectives.
>
> Venezuela is implementing what I'd call authentic
> socialist (in a 19th century sense) policies:  land
> reform, democratic collective farms, worker-managed
> factories, empowered local citizen councils,
> nationalization of key resources, Maoist style welfare
> programs, etc.  Bolivia seems ready to follow the same
> model.  The Sandinistas keep drifting right, and keep
> losing, one figures they'll cease going down the "me
> too" WC road soon enough for the next elections.
>
> My question for the group is, will this have any
> effect on China? With Venezuela being so attention
> grabbing internationally, will it become harder for
> China to refer to itself as a "socialist" country?
> Will the example of this model seep into discussions
> about labor and agricultural policies?  Chavez is
> calling the Washington Consenus the road to hell.
> Given China's sweatshop of the world reputation, is
> this going to be the least bit embarassing?  I'm
> guessing they could care less, right? (China seems
> rather isolated from the discussions stimulated by the
> world social movements).
>
> Can China still justify its rightist policies on the
> grounds that it is the world trend, and TINA if the
> Latin American examples are successful and spillover
> to other regions?
>
> -Brian
>
>
>
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