venezuela

A letter to intellectuals who deride revolutions in the name of purity

Revolutions do not happen suddenly, nor do they immediately transform a society. A revolution is a process, which moves at different speeds whose tempo can change rapidly if the motor of history is accelerated by intensified class conflict. But, most of the time, the building of the revolutionary momentum is glacial, and the attempt to transform a state and society can be even more slow. Leon Trotsky, sitting in his Turkish exile in 1930, wrote the most remarkable study of the Russian Revolutio[...]

The Venezuelan Dilemma: Progressives and the “Plague on both your Houses” Position

In recent weeks, a number of Venezuelan specialists on the left side of the political spectrum have published and posted pieces that place them in an anti-Chavista, “ni-ni” position that consists of “a plague on both your houses” with regard to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan opposition. I consider myself a ‘critical Chavista.' It’s not an easy position to be in, particularly because the last thing I would want to do is to act in any way that would favor the r[...]