Beer Hall Putsch Leftism: Ukraine & the ISO

First, an admission: After three years of writing Return to the Source sporadically, I’m getting tired of roasting the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and tearing apart their positions. The criticisms of their social chauvinist lines on Libya, Syria, China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and other countries targeted by imperialism seem to be popular with readers, evidenced by the hundreds of hits this blog still gets despite a long period of inactivity.

At the same time, all signs point towards the ISO discrediting itself and losing ground with leftists around the country. For instance, it’s hard for me to believe that anyone, except the most die-hard cruise missile ISO member, reads Gilbert Achcar’s recent article, What remains of the Arab Spring? and thinks anything besides, “This is a sad, irrelevant man who can’t recognize reality.” The ISO’s bizarre brand of social imperialism is still dangerous, but it’s discredited itself, most notably with regards to Syria.

I preface with that admission before rounding up all of the evidence necessary to totally dismantle the ISO’s closet support for fascism in Ukraine because I don’t want readers to think I’ll be doing this a lot more. At times, though, the US Trotskyites take a position so egregious that it begs for engagement, if for no other reason than to provide a resource to those actual Marxists around the world committed to battling social imperialists in the people’s movement.

Rest in Power, Comandante Hugo Chavez

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the greatest revolutionary leader of our time.

On Tuesday, March 5, the people of Venezuela and workers all over the world lost the greatest revolutionary leader of our time, President Hugo Chavez. Chavez’s death was sudden, but it came after nearly two years of battling cancer that included four very invasive surgeries in Cuba. Chavez won re-election as President of Venezuela handily in 2012, defeating right-wing opponent Henrique Capriles at the polls.

Since he was elected President in 1999, Chavez dedicated himself to building socialism and an anti-imperialist mass resistance in Latin America and across the world. Chavez’s legacy was unabashedly revolutionary and pro-worker, cutting unemployment and poverty in half over the course of his 14 years in office. Working with other progressive and anti-imperialist countries around the world – from Bolivia to Cuba, from Syria to China – Chavez oversaw the creation of a new alliance of nations to curb the influence and expansion of the imperialist empire. The revolutionary accomplishments of Chavez’s government are impossible to list outright, although Venezuela Analysis has done an incredible job compiling articles about the Bolivarian revolution.

Return to the Source wants to publicly extend our condolences to the people of Venezuela on the death of Comandante Hugo Chavez. We also want to extend our best wishes and solidarity to Vice President Nicholas Maduro, a bus driver, trade unionist, and revolutionary socialist who will run for President as Chavez’s successor.

However, we want to take this time to emphasize the very real danger that the Bolivarian Revolution faces from the imperialist countries in the North, as well as corrosive elements on the Left that seek to divide the people. The following article was written by Professor Toad for The prison gates are open about the disgraceful left-opportunism by Trotskyite forces on the Venezuelan Left. It’s an important comment on the internal politics of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and revolutionaries should read it to better understand the need for solidarity with Vice President Maduro and the leadership of the PSUV against divisive, factionalist politics.