12 March 2013 — HLLN

 

We shall sing a song to honor the life of Hugo Chavez – Yon Mapou Tonbe Written by Jean-Claude Martineau/Koralen, sung by Carole Demesmin http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/MapouTonbe.mp3

 

Notable Hugo Chazez quotes:

 

“It is impossible within the framework of the capitalist system to solve the grave problems of poverty of the majority of the world’s population.”

 

“We must transcend capitalism. But we cannot resort to state capitalism, which would be the same perversion as the Soviet Union.”

 

“We must reclaim socialism as a thesis, a project, and a path…a new type of socialism, a humanist one, that puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything.”

 

“Everyday I become more convinced, there is no doubt in my mind, as many intellectuals have said, that it is necessary to transcend capitalism.”

 

“But capitalism can not be transcended through capitalism itself.”

 

“It must be done through socialism, true socialism, with equality and justice.”

 

“I’m also convinced that it is possible to do it under democracy, but not in the type of democracy being imposed by Washington.

 

“We have to re-invent socialism. It can’t be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition.”

 

“Privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can’t be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services.” – Hugo Chavez

 

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– Notable Hugo Chazez quotes

 

– Guy S. Antoine On Hugo Chavez, my opinion

 

– ‘There is No Turning Back’ We salute a great freedom fighter – Comandante Hugo Chavez Frias By Gerald A. Perreira http://bit.ly/YQ12gM

 

– Hugo Chavez: New World Rising by BAR executive editor Glen Ford http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/hugo-chavez-new-world-rising

 

– Poeme pour Hugo Chavez. Source – email

 

– !Hasta Luego Hugo!

 

– Notable Hugo Chazez quotes

 

– Chavez: A Personal Tribute, By Stephen Lendman, March 7, 2013 http://www.dailycensored.com/chavez-a-personal-tribute/

 

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Guy S. Antoine On Hugo Chavez: Source:Facebook | March 11, 2012

 

Simon Bolivar was his model, but in my humble opinion, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias has surpassed him in stature. HRCF had greater odds to overcome, based on his humble origins and the spectacular might of his adversaries, Multi- National Capitalism (endless financial power) buttressed by American Imperialism (endless fire power). He defied them with a seemingly uncontrolled run of the mouth (which at times seemed quite regrettable, in that it ran counter to every norm of diplomacy), but with supreme confidence in and the intimate knowledge of the majority of his people. Which other head of state would have dared call George W. Bush an ass though, I am convinced, most of those leaders thought it just the same?

 

What most of my Haitian brothers and sisters do not know is that the great Simon Bolivar himself turned his back on Haiti (Ayiti) which had helped him immeasurably, in his darkest hours, to carry on the fight for Freedom and AGAINST the imperialism of the day. In that, Simon Bolivar FAILED Haiti, no matter the level of reverence Hugo Chavez and lifelong teacher Fidel Castro profess for the Libertador, in that Bolivar failed to recognize Haiti, in order to deflect the great displeasure of the United States of America. Though he never said it, to my knowledge, Hugo Chavez must have surely felt the weight of this betrayal and had the magnanimity of spirit to want to reverse it. To see the President of Venezuela run the streets of Port-au-Prince in communion with a nation that leaders of other nations have, singly and/or jointly, with the crushing force of their armed troops or their diplomates mal masqués, chosen to dump in at various times over the last two centuries, told us about the indomitable nature of his character and his ability to transcend all others in repaying an historical debt, which he most surprisingly made his own. Honor to his memory!

 

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‘There is No Turning Back’ We salute a great freedom fighter – Comandante Hugo Chavez Frias By Gerald A. Perreira

 

Revolutionaries throughout the Americas and the Caribbean owe a great debt to Hugo Chavez. His selfless struggle for the advancement of the masses of poor and oppressed in Venezuela, and throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, occupied him 24/7. Like so many before him, he was not given a breathing space. The Empire pursued him unrelentingly, in a constant attempt to undermine and destabilize his program for liberation. The US imperialists and their allies never missed an opportunity to demonize this great freedom fighter, and he lived with constant threats to his own life and to the sovereignty of Venezuela. The external pressure, combined with the huge undertaking of transforming a nation of almost 30 million people, meant that he was forced to put his personal life and health on the back burner. The terrible truth is that the vast majority of Venezuelans lacked all the basic necessities of life prior to his presidency, and to rebuild this country, which had been destroyed by more than two decades of neo-liberal policies, was an overwhelming task.

 

For those who are not familiar with Venezuela‘s ethnic mix, the country has a large African population. Before the Bolivarian revolution, the two institutionalized political parties, Democratic Action and COPEI, ensured that Africans remained marginalized – second class citizens in every way. Race is a very powerful dynamic in Venezuela and for that matter throughout the region. There is a racist dimension to the politics of the Castilian elites, who of course, vehemently opposed Chavez’s plan to empower the masses, and in particular Black Venezuelans. After 14 years of Hugo Chavez’s leadership I can assure you that Africans have come in from the cold. This is a new Venezuela and an amazing accomplishment in a country with such a rabid bourgeoisie, who were so used to their own position of white privilege that they could not imagine life any other way. So it was with sheer determination and a lifetime of struggle, that this great champion of the oppressed, Comandante Hugo Chavez, led a revolution that provides us with a working example of what he termed ’21st century socialism‘, where people of all ethnicities have a place under the sun.

 

Socialism Venezuelan Style Following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc or what was referred to at the time as ‘actually existing socialism‘, the World Mathaba hosted an international gathering in Tripoli. The aim being to examine the implications of this historical moment and the way forward. Revolutionaries from all over the world, including Venezuela attended this gathering. At that time, some of those in Europe and throughout the world, who had promoted Soviet style communism and described themselves as Marxist-Leninist, were disillusioned. They had lost direction, and as a result, some of them abandoned socialism altogether. However, many saw the collapse as something to be expected, since we had witnessed the limitations of Soviet style communism. We had seen firsthand, failed attempts to mechanically replicate Soviet style communism across the Global South. Furthermore, we rejected the idea that ‘socialism‘ was primarily a European product and somehow synonymous with European/Soviet expressions of socialism. We understood socialism as a universal principle, pre-dating Marxism, which found expression in all cultures.

 

During the gathering, Muammar Qaddafi addressed a meeting of revolutionary organizations at his Bab al-Aziziya barracks, where he shared his thoughts. This address was later published in a booklet entitled: Muammar Qaddafi’s Address to Revolutionaries of Latin America. According to Qaddafi, what had collapsed in the Eastern Bloc was not ‘socialism‘ as we understood it but a form of ‘bureaucratic collectivism’. He went on to say that, outside of the Jamahiriya, he believed that the struggle for and implementation of the ‘new socialism‘, which would truly lead to power, wealth and arms in the hands of the people, would occur in the coming years in South and Central America. That was in 1990, nine years before Chavez’s electoral victory and the path blazing journey he embarked on. It was a journey which laid the foundation for a regional movement of socialist oriented and anti-imperialist governments.

 

Like the socialism of the Jamahiriya, which was inspired by an Islamic theology of liberation, the socialism Chavez spoke of was grounded in the theology of liberation borne out of the extreme poverty and social deprivation in the barrios of South and Central America. Revolutionary theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez, Juan Segundo and Jose Miranda proclaimed that the message of Jesus Christ was incompatible with neo-liberal capitalism and was in fact revolutionary and socialistic to its core.

 

In the words of Chavez, ‘Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. If you really want to look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ — who I think was the first socialist — only socialism can really create a genuine society.’

 

This was an idea close to the hearts of the people of Venezuela, but which earned Chavez the wrath of the establishment’s clergy.

 

Like Qaddafi, Chavez rejected the left/right dichotomy. Both saw it as meaningless and obsolete, since it failed to encapsulate their realities. Chavez himself said he was ‘neither left nor right‘ and made it clear that the PSUV – the party of the Bolivarian revolution – was not Marxist-Leninist. He acknowledged the great contribution made to socialist theory and practice by Marx, Lenin, Trotsky and Mao Tse-tung, however, he knew that if socialism was to be successfully implemented in Venezuela, and throughout the Americas/ Caribbean, it had to be a socialism rooted in the experiences and traditions of the peoples of the Americas.

 

Homegrown Drawing on the example of Jesus Christ and the legacy of Venezuela‘s own revolutionary hero, Simon Bolivar, Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution resonated throughout the region, not least of all because it was homegrown. The indigenous character of all the programs and policies meant that they were implemented with tremendous success. Venezuela, under Chavez, became a shining example of a viable alternative to the failed neo-liberal model, which has brought nothing but despair and devastation. The communitarian socialism of Evo Morales of Bolivia is in the same tradition – indigenous and homegrown.

 

Hugo Chavez’s contributions to the region and the entire Global South are far too many to catalogue here. Perhaps one of the most important was his insistence that if socialism was to be built in the 21st century, it must be the people, the masses, organized at the base level in the ‘communal councils’, actively and consciously shaping their destiny, rather than being dictated to by a so-called revolutionary vanguard. This was the very cornerstone of the Libyan Jamahiriya. Revolutionary committee members were facilitators not a vanguard. Like the Libyan Jamahiriya, Chavez’s bottom up revolution gave the world an example of a rare and genuine transfer of power and wealth to the people. Chavez was a great orator and thinker, but most importantly, a man who walked the talk. Putting the idea of people’s empowerment into practice, in just 14 years, he took Venezuela from a neo- colony – a landscape of poverty stricken barrios – quite literally stretching as far as the eye could see. From a nation where the majority of the population lived in disgraceful conditions alongside a tiny minority of parasitical elites, who enjoyed all of the benefits of Venezuela‘s vast oil wealth – to an example of a ‘people’s revolution‘ and the real international community salutes you brother.

 

In the words of one Venezuelan woman, who was weeping in the street upon hearing the news of Chavez’s death: ‘Chavez is alive, we are all Chavez.’

 

The life and times of Hugo Chavez will continue to inspire all those who fight for a world free of racism and imperialism. Like his hero, Bolivar, Chavez will be forever etched into the world’s collective memory because he changed the world. Be assured that the great sacrifice he made has led to the kind of transformation from which, in his words, ‘there is no turning back’.

 

Gerald A. Perreira International Secretary Black Consciousness Movement Guyana (BCMG)

 

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Hugo Chavez: New World Rising by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

 

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/hugo-chavez-new-world-rising

 

“For 14 years, they have painted the Bolivarian Republic as illegitimate, dictatorial, primitive.”

 

The darker majorities of Latin America mourn the passing of the people’s champion, President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, the man whom the racist white Venezuelan elite called ese mono – “that monkey.” Since 1998 – with a 48-hour break during the 2002, U.S.-sponsored coup – the four-fifths of Venezuela that is some variety of Indigenous-mestizo-mullato-African – like Chavez – has known power for the first time since the conquistadors of Western Europe launched their 500-year war against the rest of planet Earth.

 

South America’s emergence as the most promising zone of resistance to U.S. imperial savagery is inseparable from the dark awakening in the barrios, favelas, rural villages and native highlands of the continent. Chavez’s triumph, and that of the Aymara-descended Bolivian president, Evo Morales, in 2005, are the most dramatic expressions of what has been called the “Latin Spring” – a reclamation of national patrimony that is, by historical necessity, socialist. As a result, a large majority of South Americans now live under relatively progressive governments.

 

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 was, of course, the great hemispheric breakaway from Yankee empire in the 20th century, the seminal event in the disintegration of what later came to be called the “Washington Consensus” in Latin America. Chavez’s victory, almost 40 years later, was the other shoe dropping, a phenomenon nearly as racially-weighted, in Latin American terms, as the Haitian Revolution that culminated in 1804. Fidel, the son of a Spanish soldier, declared that “the blood of Africa runs deep in our veins” and that Cuba is an “African Spanish” nation. However, that reality was hardly visible in the Cuban hierarchy. Not so, with Chavez, the pardo whose lineage was obvious and proudly worn. “My Indian roots are from my father’s side. He is mixed Indian and black, which makes me very proud,” said Chavez – a circumstance of birth and pride that made the whites of affluent east Caracas neighborhoods like Altamira spitting mad, hysterical in their hatred. The racial-political color line has long been plain to see in the complexions of pro- and anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela.

 

“The ‘Latin Spring’ is, by historical necessity, socialist.”

 

The purported “ambiguity” of race in South America is largely limited to those who belong to the innumerable subgroups of the Not-White, in all their flavors. However, for the fraction of the population that believe themselves to be purely European, there is no ambiguity; they know precisely who they are (or claim to be). Color lines may be fuzzy among the mixed race majorities of much of Latin America, but white elites quickly bring these boundaries into stark relief when fundamental questions of privilege and power arise. Popular power means the rule of people like “that monkey,” Chavez – illegitimate and bestial.

 

U.S. corporate media speak the language of the pale denizens of Altamira. For 14 years, they have painted the Bolivarian Republic as illegitimate, dictatorial, primitive. Chavez is delegitimized as a “strongman,” rather than a remarkably popular politician and icon who has won more elections than any other head of state in the western hemisphere during the same space of time. As former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said, last year: “As a matter of fact, of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.”

 

In assessing Chavez’s “legacy,” the global bourgeois media cite the “divisions” that plague Venezuelan society and, in the words of Business Week, an economy in “shambles.” But, Chavez and his comrades would have been abject failures – and been tossed from office – had they not drawn lines between the oppressed majority and the privileged exploiters. Division is good and necessary. Consequently, the economy has succeeded in reducing the proportion of households in poverty from 44 percent in 1998 to 27 percent in 2011. Chavez has served the people.

 

“The racial-political color line has long been plain to see in the complexions of pro- and anti-government demonstrations in Venezuela.”

 

Just before Chavez’s last electoral victory, former Brazilian president Lula da Silva, a product of the post-1998 wave of leftist triumphs at the polls, said: “A victory for Chávez is not just a victory for the people of Venezuela but also a victory for all the people of Latin America … this victory will strike another blow against imperialism.”

 

Last week, as Chavez was fading, the opposition leader, Henrique Capriles Radonski, traveled to New York, Miami and Washington – presumably, to get his marching orders. Washington hopes that Venezuelan socialism cannot survive without Chavez. In their state of desperate decay, the imperialists are willing to throw whole regions of the world into chaos rather than be eclipsed by new alignments of trade and international relations. Venezuelans have every reason to expect a renewed U.S. campaign of destabilization, in the wake of their leader’s passing.

 

Chavez tried to give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt. On election night, 2008, at a rally in Caracas, Chavez spoke this way of the president-elect:

 

“We are not asking him to be a revolutionary, to be a socialist – no. We just want the black man who is about to be the U.S. president to have enough stature for the times the world is living through.

 

“I send an overture to the black man, from us here, who are of Indigenous, black, Caribbean, South American race. I am ready to sit down and talk … I hope we can, and I hope we can enter a new stage.”

 

But the Black man in the White House is smelling like sulphur, just like his predecessor.

 

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Poeme pour Hugo Chavez. Source – email

 

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!Hasta Luego Hugo!

 

Le vent des Caraïbes a soufflé sur une boue. Et, d’un coup, Naquit celui qui, pour beaucoup, A l’impérialisme alla porter un terrible coup.

 

La mer des Caraïbes, en trente six pas De Joropo, fit don au Venézuela À Haiti, à la Bolivie, au Nicaragua Et même à Cuba D’un frère dont le trépas Nous met tous en émoi.

 

Ta mort physique, Hugo, place un sourire Sur le visage du Caïman étoilé Dont la lyre Annonça ta disparition_en route pour l’éternité.

 

Hugo, tu t’en vas. Mais ne s’en va pas L’esprit de combat.

 

L’huile qui agite les instincts lucratifs du Caïman Ne fera ni un pas kita, ni un pas nago Aujourd’hui, demain et après l’enterrement Du cher camarade Hugo.

 

Les océans grondent, Et les oiseaux te chantent: !Hasta luego Frère Hugo!

 

Le tamtam des laboureurs, Les pas des soldats révolutionaires Ainsi te saluent: !Hasta luego Comandante Hugo!

 

Les sueurs des paysans Qui arrosent les champs Te baignent en te disant: !Hasta luego Querido Hugo!

 

Les biceps exploités des travailleurs Mal remunérés malgré leur rude labeur T’embrassent et te crient: !Hasta luego Amigo Hugo!

 

Réginal Souffrant 5 mars 2013

 

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Chavez: A Personal Tribute by Stephen Lendman

 

http://www.dailycensored.com/chavez-a-personal-tribute/ Chavez: A Personal Tribute, By Stephen Lendman, March 7, 2013)

 

He’s gone. His two-year cancer struggle ended. It claimed him. He’s sorely missed.

 

He was one of Latin America’s most notable leaders. His charisma was special. It was real. His spirit lives.

 

An era ended with his passing. He was the world’s leading anti-imperialist hero. He spoke truth to power. He did so courageously. He risked his life doing it.

 

Obama may have ordered him killed. Very likely he did. Believe it. Chavez did. He had good reason to do so. He said it openly. Castro warned him. He explained how imperial Washington works.

 

Its rap sheet makes serial killers look saintly by comparison. State-sponsored murder is official policy. So is ravaging humanity ruthlessly.

 

Washington does it for wealth, power and dominance. It spurns rule of law principles, democratic values and popular needs.

 

Chavez was polar opposite. He championed democracy. He established the real thing. He defended civil and human rights.

 

He operated no secret prisons. He didn’t invade his neighbors. He engaged them cooperatively. He valued unity and world solidarity. He abhorred torture. He advocated peace, not war.

 

He abolished neoliberal harshness. He championed populism. Venezuelans loved him for doing so. They elected him overwhelmingly four times.

 

They rallied supportively for him publicly. They did so often. At times, millions turned out.

 

He established free, open and fair elections. Jimmy Carter calls them the world’s best. He said so for good reason. They shame America’s sham process.

 

He valued Venezuela‘s independence. He fought hard to keep it. He refused to surrender to Washington.

 

His used Venezuela‘s oil wealth responsibly. He lifted millions from poverty. He created economic growth and jobs. He provided essential social services. Major ones are institutionalized.

 

He’s loved and admired worldwide. He’s hated for his virtues. He made promises and kept them.

 

He cared about ordinary people. He showed it. His legacy won’t be forgotten.

 

Chavismo lives! Bolivarianism is real. It’s part of Venezuela‘s culture. It represents democratic equity and justice.

 

Venezuelans have the real thing. It reflects Simon Bolivar’s vision. He defeated the Spanish. He liberated half of South America. He advocated using national wealth responsibly, fairly and equitably.

 

He strove to overcome the imperial curse. It “plague(d) Latin America with misery in the name of liberty,” he said.

 

Chavez was his modern-day incarnation. Chavismo reflects Bolivarian principles. He established them. They’re hardwired. They won’t change. Venezuelans deplore their ugly past. They won’t go back.

 

Chavez was the rarest of political leaders. He was the exception proving the rule. He cared more about people than power. He had much more to do.

 

New leadership will advance his progressive agenda. Maduro’s up to the challenge. He’ll surprise people. So did Chavez.

 

Doing the right thing takes time. Great struggles aren’t won easily or quickly. Transforming generations of oligarch rule is a longterm project. United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) leaders prioritize it.

 

Dark forces oppose them. Profiteers want things their way. Washington’s openly hostile. People power challenges its menace. Chavez did so courageously.

 

James Petras said “(n)o President in the history of Venezuela (or the Americas did) more to create a sense of national identity.”

 

“He has defended the country with valor and integrity. He has preserved and advanced democratic institutions against US and client attempts to destabilize and destroy the constitutional order.”

 

He “created an extensive social welfare net which has raised millions from poverty, eliminated illiteracy and provided a universal free public health system.”

 

He “successfully engaged in consequential international economic aid programs, providing oil at reduced cost to poor countries in Central America and the Caribbean.”

 

New challenging struggles remain. Dark forces never rest. They plot new anti- populist schemes. Transitioning to equitable governance is treacherous. Doing so faces formidable obstacles.

 

Chavez tread carefully doing it. He accomplished wonders in 14 years. Petras urged him to do more. Control the commanding heights, he said. Above all he stressed banking and finance. Money power matters most.

 

Chavez did much already. Under Article 156(11) of Venezuela‘s Bolivarian Constitution, National Money Power controls:

 

“Regulation of central banking, the monetary system, foreign currency, the financial and capital market system and the issuance and mintage of currency.”

 

Under Section Three: National Monetary System, Article 318:

 

“The monetary competence of National Authority shall necessarily be exercised exclusively by the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV).”

 

Its “fundamental objective….is to achieve price stability and preserve the internal and foreign exchange value of the monetary unit.”

 

“The Venezuelan Central Bank is a public-law juridical person with autonomy to formulate and implement policies within its sphere of competence.”

 

Article 319 says it “shall be governed by the principle of public responsibility.”

 

“Failure to do so “shall result in removal of the Board of Directors.”

 

It “shall be subject to oversight by the Office of the General Comptroller of the Republic…”

 

Under Venezuela‘s 2010 Organic Law on the Domestic Financial System, banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, and other financial institutions “have the obligation of collaborating with sectors of the productive, popular communal economy through healthy financial intermediation, inspired by the spirit of productive transformation.”

 

In other words, their mandate includes funding traditional economic sectors. They’re also responsible for social and communal production entities and related organizations.

 

Advancing collective savings is required. So is promoting alternative communal investments.

 

Venezuelan law mandates its central bank to adapt its “legal, administrative and functional structure to the goals of the production model, and the Central Bank may not be detached from the actual needs of the economy.”

 

Its operations must “meet the objectives of a socialist state.” It’s the law of the land in a mostly private economy.

 

Millions of Venezuelans mourn Chavez’s passing. His body lies in state. It’s in Caracas’ Military School. It’s in a half-open casket.

 

A Friday state funeral is planned. Heads of state will attend. So will numerous other dignitaries. Expect many there. Venezuelans chant “Chavez lives. The struggle goes on.”

 

Venezuela declared seven days of mourning. Other countries declared three. They include Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Iran and Belarus. Perhaps others will join them.

 

At the request of Cuba’s UN ambassador, the Human Rights Council declared one minute of silence. It did so on March 6.

 

A Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) declaration expressed “profound solidarity with the people and government of the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and particularly with the family and friends of comandante Chavez.”

 

“It’s difficult to accept this painful event. His passing moves all of us. An exceptional, extraordinary, respected, and admired man at a world level has stopped physically existing.”

 

*************************** (Shared by Steve Lendman) Notable Hugo Chavez Quotes:

 

“When imperialism feels weak,” he said, “it resorts to brute force.”

 

“The attacks on Venezuela are a sign of weakness, ideological weakness.”

 

“Nowadays almost nobody defends neoliberalism.”

 

“We must reclaim socialism as a thesis, a project, and a path…a new type of socialism, a humanist one, that puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything.”

 

“Just look at the internal repression inside the United States, the Patriot Act, which is a repressive law against U.S. citizens.”

 

“They have put in jail a group of journalists for not revealing their sources. They won’t allow them to take pictures of the bodies of the dead soldiers, many of them Latinos, coming from Iraq. Those are signs of Goliath’s weaknesses.”

 

“The south also exists.”

 

“The future of the north depends on the south.”

 

“If we don’t make that better world possible, if we fail, and through the rifles of the US marines, and through Mr. Bush’s murderous bombs, if there is no coincidence and organization necessary in the south to resist the offensive of neo-imperialism, and the Bush doctrine is imposed upon the world, the world will be destroyed.”

 

“Everyday I become more convinced, there is no doubt in my mind, as many intellectuals have said, that it is necessary to transcend capitalism.”

 

“But capitalism can not be transcended through capitalism itself.”

 

“It must be done through socialism, true socialism, with equality and justice.”

 

“I’m also convinced that it is possible to do it under democracy, but not in the type of democracy being imposed by Washington.

 

“We have to re-invent socialism. It can’t be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition.”

 

“Privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can’t be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services.”

 

“They can’t be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights.”

 

“The grand destroyer of the world, and the greatest threat….is represented by US imperialism.”

 

“Let the dogs of the empire bark. That’s their job. Ours is to battle to achieve the true liberation of our people.”

 

In 2010, he told Hillary Clinton to resign. “It’s the least you can do. Resign, along with those other spies and delinquents working in the State Department.”

 

In 2011, he said Gaddafi “will be remembered as a great fighter, a revolutionary and martyr. They assassinated him. It is another outrage.”

 

(For more, go to http://www.dailycensored.com/chavez-a-personal-tribute/ Chavez: A Personal Tribute, By Stephen Lendman, March 7, 2013)

 

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Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network

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THE DECEMBER 12TH MOVEMENT INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT INVITES YOU TO A “PEOPLES TRIBUTE TO A REVOLUTIONARY – COMRADE PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ,” ON TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 7 PM AT SISTAS PLACE, 456 NOSTRAND AVENUE, BROOKLYN. WE JOIN WITH THE MILLIONS OF AFRICAN AND OTHER PEOPLES AROUND THE WORLD TO EXPRESS OUR APPRECIATION AND RESPECT FOR PRESIDENT CHAVEZ’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LIBERATION OF HIS COUNTRY, THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION IN SOUTH AMERICA, AFRICA, THE CARIBBEAN AND THROUGHOUT THE AFRICAN DIASPORA.

 

COMRADE CHAVEZ WILL ALWAYS HOLD A SPECIAL PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN THE US FOR HIS UNWAVERING SUPPORT FOR OUR HUMAN RIGHTS. THIS SUPPORT INCLUDED THE PROVISION OF FREE HEATING OIL FOR THE POOREST AMONG US IN 25 STATES . FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL (718) 398-1766