From Exile to Radicalization in Venezuela

[Judi Lynn]

From Exile to Radicalization in Venezuela
Friday, 11 April 2014 11:26
By Paul Jay, The Real News Network | Video Interview

TRANSCRIPT:

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. And welcome to a new series of interviews on Reality Asserts Itself.

We're going to be talking about Venezuela. And for us that's a somewhat complicated topic, because it's a revolution with failures and achievements. But when you place it in the American media environment, it looks like it's authoritarian, it's a dictatorship. In fact, over the last few years before Chávez died, President Chávez died, it was almost impossible in mainstream American media to see Chávez's name without the word dictator in front of it. It didn't matter how many elections were won; it was still dictator Chávez. Now, this is the same media and the same country that can treat Saudi Arabia as an ally and not say a single word about the fact that it's not just an absolutist monarchy; it's a monarchy that spreads the ideas of medievalism and a monarchy that's even been involved in terrorism, according to the joint congressional report into 9/11. So how is it Venezuela becomes the evil empire here and Saudi Arabia is somehow an ally of democracy in the United States and the Middle East? So the amount of hypocrisy is almost too much to believe.

On the other hand, we don't want to do puff pieces about Venezuela. We want to talk about honestly the achievements and failures, as I said, of the Bolivarian Revolution, of the leadership of Chávez and now Maduro. And that means we will be making critique and talking to people who make critique.

So, all that being said, our guest now joins us in the studio. Edgardo Lander is a sociologist and professor at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. He was one of the main organizers of the World Social Forum in 2006, which took place in Caracas, and has been involved in labor unions and social movements. He's a well-known supporter and critic of the Venezuelan Revolution under former president Hugo Chávez. He holds a degree in sociology from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and an MA and a PhD in sociology from Harvard University. His publications include modernity and universalism (Modernidad y Universalismo, 1991); neoliberalism, civil society and democracy (Neoliberalismo, sociedad civil y democracia, 1995). He's a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam and part of the Permanent Working Group on Alternatives to Development, funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Quito.

Thanks for joining us.

PROF. EDGARDO LANDER, UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA IN CARACAS: Thanks for inviting me, Paul.

JAY: So, off-camera you told me that you were a political exile from the age of six. So you're either a very sophisticated six-year-old or your parents were activists.

LANDER: My father was an activist from his student days. After the long dictatorship in Venezuela in the first decades of the Gómez dictatorship, there was a transition period. And then by 1945 there was a so-called October Revolution, in which Acción Democrática, which was a sort of quite left-leaning social democratic party, took power and there was a huge transformation in the Venezuelan political system. There was a new constitution. There were voting rights for the whole population for the first time in Venezuelan history, women were allowed to vote, etc., etc., and there was [incompr.] reform, like, high level of union organizing, and quite a bit of confrontation with the United States government in terms of the control of the oil industry and prices.

That ended with a coup in 1948 backed by the United States, a military coup that overthrew the government of Rómulo Gallegos, the first democratically elected government in Venezuelan history. And my father's put in prison for ten months. And afterwards--.

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23041-from-exile-to-radicalization-in-venezuela