Buzzflash Interview: Nikolas Kozloff Looks at Oil, Democracy, Chávez, and U.S. 'Interests'

[demobabe]

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to aid opposition groups, and maybe even destabilize the country. But I basically think that the outlook looks very positive for Chávez.

-- Nikolas Kozloff, author, Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics and the Challenge to the U.S.

* * *

To a lot of progressives, Hugo Chávez is a delight because he is such a thorn in the side of Bush and is willing to basically tell the Busheviks to do what Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor a couple of years ago: "Go F**k Yourself!"

Although Chávez has never been that vulgar.

Chávez has also drawn the admiration of progressives because he is a very creative populist. His efforts to provide heating oil to poor New Englanders, for example -- while Bush let the oil companies get away with scandalous and gross profiteering -- was an ingenious act of benevolence that also was a punch in the snout to the oil industry White House.

However, Chávez is a complex person (not without his flaws), a flamboyant international figure who is very much a product of Venezuela's complex politics and class conflict.

It can't be emphasized enough that Chávez's charismatic streak of hemispheric defiance aimed at the Busheviks is not the main reason that the White House tried to overthrow him in a coup attempt a few years back. Keep your eye on the oil, because Venezuela has plenty of it. What's more, as Greg Palast explained in a BuzzFlash interview a while back, Venezuela is believed to have one of the largest undeveloped offshore reserves of crude oil, a bit heavier than the Saudi Arabian oil, but nonetheless usable.

As with Bushevik politics in the Middle East, when it comes to Hugo Chávez, you can never forget the oil when it comes to White House policy.


Interview here: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/interviews/073

[demobabe]

1. kickeroonie!

:kick:

[Peace Patriot]

2. It's a good interview (and sounds like a good book) on the oil issue and Venezuela

but I disagree with Kozloff on his emphasis on the oil as the main reason for Bushite (and also collusive Democrats'), and the war profiteering corporate news monopolies' irrational hatred of Hugo Chavez, and their bald-facing lying about him, calling him a "dictator," when he is far, far, FAR more elected than Bush and Cheney are, or than members of the U.S. Congress are, and far, far, FAR more democratic in his beliefs and actions than they are.

Yes, the oil is a very important issue, for sure. But the ideas that have coalesced around Chavez, and that he has espoused--collectively known as the Bolivarian Revolution--contain a number of serious challenges to the U.S. domination of Latin America, and to U.S. corporate predator power there. These include

"Free trade" (global corporate predation)

The World Bank/IMF (the loan sharks for the global corporate predators)

The murderous and phony U.S. "war on drugs" (war profiteer boondoggle, drug cartel boondoggle, military oppression)

Sharing the wealth with the poor (narrowing the gap between rich and poor)

Constitutional government and the rule of law (as opposed to U.S.-asslicking fascist juntas)

Democracy (widespread citizen participation; accountability; transparent elections).

Latin American self-determination and regional cooperation.

Mercosur and ALBA (Bolivarian economic alternatives), and the Bank of the South, and plans (at the talking stage) for a South American "Common Market" and common currency.

The oil, gas, minerals and other rich resources in Bolivia and Ecuador, not just Venezuela, and the election of leftist, pro-Chavez leaders in those countries, for a common front on the above issues.

Venezuela's rescue of Argentina from ruinous World Bank debt--with easy term loans that promote (rather than destroy) social justice programs--PREVENTING first world financiers and loan sharks from bleeding these countries dry, and extracting a draconian price (--ripping the country open to predatory "free trade," U.S. ag dumping, sweatshop labor and resource exploitation, with no benefit to the people; the rich elite rips off the loan money, the poor are left to pay the debt).

---------------------

Together, the above list of issues represents billions and billions of dollars in ungodly profit to all sorts of corporations, not just oil corporations. Latin America has been one of the playgrounds of the corporate vampires and ghouls that are destroying country after country, and impoverishing billions of people, worldwide, with the phenomenon known as globalization. They are also destroying the planet. Polluting air and water. Cutting down the last forests. Killing off biodiversity. Endangering the food supply with GMOs, pesticides and monoculture.

Chavez, as president of Venezuela, is one of the strongest voices against this corporate predation, and has done more than talk about it. He has been the spur to action, such as formation of the Bank of the South. The Bolivarian Revolution has spread to Bolivia and Ecuador, where two more Bolivarians were elected president--and Paraguay will likely be next (followed by Peru). Argentina is also in the Bolivarian camp, as is Nicaragua. And the Bolivarians are allied with other leftist governments, such as Brazil and Uruguay (and to some extent with Chile). Also with Cuba. And another country that may go left is Mexico (--where the left came within a hairsbreadth--0.05%--of winning the presidency last year, and where a social revolution is in progress); also, Guatemala.

All this OTHER support adds to the Bushite/Corporate Ruler frustration and anger. They could not shove a fascist coup down the Venezuelans' throats--as they were able to, here, and have always been able to, in the past, in Latin America. And they are stymied now, because the other leftist countries have made it very clear that they will not permit that kind of interference any more, and even the rightwing governments of Colombia and Mexico feel compelled to give lip service to concepts like Latin American sovereignty. Another interesting twist, the rightwing government of Paraguay joined the Bank of the South, for its obvious advantages to a Latin American country.

Kozloff grasps the culture aspects of this remarkable revolution only in a very limited way, and I think he very much misses the impact of these OTHER economic and political ideas and developments on the Bush Junta and collusive Democrats, for whom democracy, rule by the poor majority, social justice, the use of a country's resources to benefit the people who live there, free medical care, free university educations, help for small businesses and worker coops, a truly free press (one that the poor can access), etc., and NOT pouring all the country's riches into the military budget, war and the pockets of the rich, are ANATHEMA.

And not only is the Bolivarian Revolution a threat to the ungodly profit by the few, it ALSO poses the threat of its ideas spreading north, to the United States.

Kozloff seems to me to be a bit of an elitist, or maybe it's an academic orientation--but he seems to be speaking to typical Democrats and privileged liberals, and not to the working class and the poor. He is trying to "explain" Chavez to the elite, and, as a consequence, doesn't quite understand (or doesn't seem to) WHY Bolivarian ideas are so popular with the poor, are spreading like wildfire, and winning elections, and the TOTAL PICTURE this presents to fascists forces here. It's not so much that they can't control Venezuela's oil; it's that what is stopping them is DEMOCRACY, and real democracy threatens ALL global corporate predator interests, which go far beyond their oil supply.

THIS is why they have a deliberate, concerted campaign in the corporate media to tag Chavez as a "dictator." Because he is anything but. He is believer in democracy, and so are the millions of people who support him. IF he was a "dictator" (read: Saddam Hussein), he would be easy to topple, or at least to work up a lot of hatred for. Their target isn't just the oil; their target is DEMOCRACY. Because it is by means of democracy that business corporations are properly controlled, regulated, taxed and curtailed.

Yes, of course, oil is the focus of oilmen Bush and Cheney. Oil is clearly their chief motive for the Iraq War. But they have another goal in the Middle East, which is to foil the legitimate aspirations of the poor. Look who they support! Saudi Arabia! Kuwait! The UAE. Fatcat sultans and despots. They want a few super-rich people they can deal with, and to hell with everybody else. "Everybody else" is a threat to their profits and their power. The same in Latin America.

POWER. The power to elect our own true representatives (and not have rigged voting machines, on top of the filthy campaign contribution system, determining who rules). The POWER to use a resource, and the right to use it, are as important as the resource itself. Political power determines the right to the resource, the profit to be had from it, and continuity of supply.

They hate Chavez, and want to topple him, because of his power, and the power of the people in a democracy. The power of Venezuelans to elect their leader, and to keep him in office in the face of a Bushite coup attempt. Chavez OWES the people. That's not how Bushites like things. They don't just want the oil. They want the power to dictate terms, to take what they want, to disregard the people who live there. And they want much more than the oil. They want other resources, they want slave labor, they want to force open markets, they want to loan out money on usurious terms, and they want to turn the Amazon into one vast biofuel production zone. They also want the "war on drugs" excuse to bilk U.S. taxpayers of billions of dollars in military equipment, U.S. chem pesticides and other horrors. (The Bolivarians oppose the U.S. "war on drugs.")

Kozloff may have not had enough time to cover this subject comprehensively, in an interview, and I don't at all think we should judge his grasp of this subject from one interview. I just wanted to point out what I think is an over-emphasis on oil in this interview, as the motive for Bushite hatred of Chavez. Oil is the reason they are interested. It is not the reason that they hate him. His supporters, in Venezuela and throughout Latin America, and the threat this poses to Corporate Rule, are the reason that they hate him.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks for your comments. Any President who doesn't defer to a right-wing American President,

and put his wishes before those of his own country is in for a TON of problems from the U.S. which will never lessen until he leaves, one way or another.

Only a utterly corrupt Latin American President would seek the support of US administrations before that of his own country, and that's what we've been seeing for so very long. That's how we were so lucky to become hosts to such a collection of human wreckage as all the Latin American and Caribbean right-wing officials, their military officers, and death squad operators, all living cheek to cheek in South Florida, home of right-wing Latin American little emperors and their Igors.

A President who acts on behalf of his people will have a fight from the first day of office until the last, due to a constant attention to heavy pressure of every kind from Washington, seeping like poison through his administration, and the military, seeking out anyone who can be turned toward a coup, or worse.

As more and more Latin American countries join the movement toward real solidarity, the US corporate media is going to have a hard time trying to claim every move toward freedom for Latin America is Chavez' fault.

[Peace Patriot]

5. I really like your last point. "As more and more Latin American countries join

the movement toward real solidarity, the US corporate media is going to have a hard time trying to claim every move toward freedom for Latin America is Chavez's fault."

Well-said! I think this is a really, really important thing to understand--no matter who you are, no matter what your views on Chavez or socialism, whether you live in the north or the south, whether you have ties to Latin countries or not. The peaceful, democratic, lefist (majorityist) revolution that is occurring throughout Latin America is HUGE and unstoppable. It is a tidal wave. Chavez is merely ONE leader of this movement. He is not the "dictator" of it. It is a vast and momentous uprising of the millions and millions of mostly poor people who have been systematically excluded from rightful, democratic power, and deprived of any benefit from their countries resources and from their own work, by decades and centuries of corrupt rightwing rule, backed by U.S. corporate interests.

As Evo Morales has said: "The time of the people has come." It is movement of historic proportions that now covers MOST of the western hemisphere.

Chavez is no more the "dictator" of the Bolivarian Revolution than Martin Luther King was the "dictator" of the civil rights movement. And it is a profound insult to the tens of thousands of community organizers, union leaders, environmental and human rights activists, peasant farmer groups, election reform activists, and all kinds of ordinary poor and middle class citizens, activists and voters, all over South America, to presume that they could be "dictated to" or led anywhere they didn't want to go.

Chavez has EMERGED from this movement. He did not create it. And his personal fate will not determine its future.

The REAL story of Hugo Chavez is not about Chavez. It is about the tens of thousands of ordinary Venezuelans who poured into the streets, surrounding Miraflores Palace (the seat of government), back in 2002, and STOPPED a violent military coup against their democratic government. That was a pivotal moment in Latin American history. They IGNORED the foaming-at-the-mouth fascist media, stood up to guns, tanks and dangerous rightwing mobs, and DEFENDED their Constitution and the rule of law, by their sheer numbers and their unity.

So, too, the SPREAD of the Bolivarian Revolution is a PEOPLES' phenomenon. It is not something that Chavez is imposing on anyone. It is a convergence of ideas and actions from the grass roots. For instance, in Bolivia, there were popular uprisings against Bechtel and other U.S. corporations, that LED TO Evo Morales getting elected president. In Argentina, similarly, peoples' revolts against the ruinous policies of the World Bank/IMF resulted in Nestor Kirchner's rise to power.

It is just plain stupid--and stupid-making--to focus on one personality, on Chavez, as somehow mesmerizing these millions of people, in different countries, and creating this amazing movement as his personal ladder to power. But, of course, it won't be the first time that the Bush State Dept. and its lapdog corporate press created stupid--and stupid-making--"talking points."

[demobabe]

3. kick

:kick:

[Raksha]

6. Sounds good to me...let's join the Bolivarian revolution!

No reason why it can't come a little bit further north, and we'd only be re-importing the American revolution anyway. That's what they're MOST afraid of, after all...