Big Mistake Hugo

So Hugo Chavez has come out against attacks on Libya's independence, seeing the hand of imperialism in the current uprising. This is not quite the same as giving wholehearted support to Gaddafi and does not go as far as the increasingly erratic, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, but it is disappointing to say the least and goes against the interests that he has fought for over the years, namely those of struggling against economic and political oppression.

Chavez has never been without his flaws. Although he has flirted with elements of Trotskyist thinking at times and has presided over a democratic revolution in his own country, he is not without an authoritarian streak and his closeness to Castro has helped form a politics that gives undue weight to the role of political elites. Realpolitik and the dangerous principle of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend,' has led him towards some poor choices of friend.

To be accurate, Venezuela has said that it repudiates the violence and goes on to say that "Conditions are being created to justify an invasion of Libya, and the central objective of that invasion... is to take away Libya's oil."

It may be true that Western governments are keen to see the removal of an irksome regime and its replacement by a friendly client in the region. The privatisation of Libya's oil wealth will be on the agenda of many and some on the left are disturbed that the rebels are using Libya's old monarchist flag. Too much is being read into the latter, I think and the fundamental point is surely, no socialist can support a regime that oppresses and slaughters its own people in the way that Gadaffi and his thugs have been doing in recent days (and have been doing for more than 40 years).

The international left can have (and largely doesn't) have any truck with a quasi-Stalinist model that places the interests of the state above the people. Socialism is democratic or it is nothing.

Chavez, a man that knows what it is likely to face the undemocratic forces of a state machine, backed by a vicious power elite, should know this more than many. And to his credit he has extended power to working people in Bolivia and instituted programmes that have massively improved living standards and educational achievement. But the short-sighted embrace of a tyrant is a significant blot on a good record. Let's hope Hugo thinks again.