Key Takeaways
- Secessionist and socialist parties in the United States view control over school curriculum as a strategy to help them achieve political revolution.
- Revolutionary political parties advocating black nationalism, indigenous revanchism, and socialism that are affiliated with Venezuela and Cuba have formed a United Front to subvert American institutions.
- Elected officials and citizen groups in the U.S. must exercise greater vigilance and diligence over state employment.
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Curriculum and teaching styles recently being promoted in many American K-12 classrooms and colleges is remarkably similar to those implemented in Venezuela after socialist dictator Hugo Chávez came to power.
Controversies about adoption of critical race theory (CRT), liberated ethnic studies (LES) and social justice education (SJE) have overlooked the affiliations of advocates for and practitioners of CRT, LES, and SJE with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the Cuban Communist Party.
In what follows, we show how Cuba and Venezuela’s goal of colonizing Latin America has led them not only to ally militarily and economically with Russia, China, and Iran, but also politically with Socialist Affiliated Transnational Advocacy Networks with members employed in the American education field.
The “Matrix of Afro-Indigenous-Socialism” and the Subversion of High School Curriculum
Evidence of Venezuelan influence in America’s education system can be seen in the recent controversy surrounding California’s ethnic studies program.
In the minutes of an August 24, 2021 Orange County Board of Education Special Meeting Elina Kaplan of the Alliance for Constructive Ethnics Studies describes how the curriculum proposed by the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC) and advocated for by the Association of Raza Educators(ARE) includes teaching about “154 role models of color of whom the preponderance are neo-Marxist and/or violent figures.” One such role model proposed student curriculum includes Oscar Lopez Rivera, “the leader of the Marxist-Leninist organization that carried out over 130 bombings in the U.S.”.
What Mrs. Kaplan, the plaintiffs of a recent lawsuit against the passage of this curriculum in California, the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, as well as other critics and commentators on Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and American schools have not addressed is that one of the principal advocates for the passage of such curriculum is affiliated with the Venezuelan government.
ARE is repeatedly described by Union del Barrio (UdB) – a self-avowed revolutionary organization whose first plank of their political program is “…to advance the liberation and reunification of Mexico under a revolutionary government, immediately accountable to the people.” – as the teachers wing of their organization. Extensive overlaps in membership and activities, confirms this claim.
Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, the group which proposed LESMC to California, was founded by Lupe Carrasco Cardona, a UdB member and Praxis chair of ARE’s Los Angeles Chapter and advisor Theresa Montano is a Board Member of ARE.
CastroChavistas in the Classroom
UdB describes Ernesto Bustillos, their former General Secretary, traveling to Havana and Caracas to discuss strategy and collaboration and describes his work as a middle school teacher as follows: “Between teaching periods, compa Neto could often be found in his classroom talking politics… [he was] constantly pivoting back and forth between revolutionary teacher and teacher of revolution.” and describes.
A presentation at the 2003 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies conference raises the possibly that an Aztlán state – consisting of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California –could be achieved through a functional political alliance with Venezuela and Cuba. In a 2008 speech Bustillos upon receipt of an award from ARE, he stated that “You can’t call yourself an educator if you are not part of some kind of revolutionary struggle!”
In July of 2010 Union Del Barrio, as well as the American Federation of Teachers local 3267, American Federation of Teachers local 1936, Union California Faculty Association sent representatives to Caracas, Venezuela to attend the third conference of Encuentro Sindical Nuestra América (ESNA) – a transnational union network founded by Hugo Chavez to coordinate political activities. Since at least 2012 Union Del Barrio has been a member of the Coordinating Group of ESNA.
On August 27, 2016, Secretario General of Union Del Barrio, Rommel Díaz declared in a speechcommemorating UdB’s “35th year of continuous struggle for raza liberation” that:
“The emancipatory project of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Trade Treaty of the Peoples (ALBA-TCP), created in 2005, by Presidents Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela… represents one aspect of the future liberation of our peoples.”
On January 24, 2017 Union Del Barrio signed an “eternal commitment to the legacy of the undefeated Commanders Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez.” and in June of 2022 UdB declared their commitment to – amongst other action items – advocating for leftists convicted of money laundering, terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and murder to be released from prison.
CastroChavismo and American College Professors
UdB is not the only group with a revolutionary nationalist orientation that is affiliated with the Cuban Communist Party and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela working within the professional ranks of the American education system.
Several months before Hugo Chávez launched ESNA, the Bolivarian government hosted the International Meeting of Left Parties in Caracas on November 19th-21st, 2009. This event brought together socialists from all over the world to develop strategic plans to be implemented in the countries in which they live.
Dr. Ann Robertson, a former professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University, and member of Workers Action – a Revolutionary Socialist Organization – and current member of the Democratic Socialist of America – San Francisco Education Organizing Circle published an article in December of 2009 on the website Venezuela Analysis titled Hugo Chavez’s Call for a Fifth Socialist International. In Dr. Robertson’s commentary she states that by: “joining such an international, socialist parties [in the United States] will be able to translate their aspirations for a better world into a framework that can realistically hope to achieve revolutionary change. It has the potential to forge the indispensable link between theory and practice.”
The theory and practice to which she refers to, per her writings advocating for an “undistorted” Revolutionary Marxist Party, includes the development of curriculum that seeks to indoctrinate youth with anti-capitalist and anti-Constitutional values – as critical race theory (CRT), liberated ethnic studies (LES) and social justice education (SJE) do. The DSA is open about their goals, stating on their website that “There is a growing national network of educators in DSA working to transform our schools, our unions, and our society. Being a member of DSA means there is a pre-existing network of fellow socialists you can tap for support as you undertake this work.”
Rounding out the political groups linked to a matrix of “black indigenous socialism” we can turn to New Afrikan People’s Organization (NAPO)and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) – two groups that both define themselves as being a Nation engaged in struggle against the “occupation” of the U.S. government – they seek independence over a region including parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkanasa and Tennessee – and that has participated extensively in the Black Lives Matter protests and related organizing activities.
One of the MXGM’s founders, Nehanda Abiodu, fled to Cuba to avoid being charged with conspiracy and racketeering for her role in helping Assata Shakur escape from prison in 1979, and her role in a 1981 Brink’s armored truck robbery – which involved the murder of three people. Another of the groups co-founders is Dr. Akinyele Umoja, a professor of Africana studies at Georgia State University.
Dr. Umoja has travelled to Venezuela several times to speak with Nicolás Maduro and invited Venezuelan Jesus “Chucho” Garcia to speak on a 2020 MXGM panel discussion on International Solidarity: Connecting Struggles for Self-Determination, an academic conference at Georgia State University, and the 2015 memorial service for the former legal representation of the Black Liberation Army, Chokwe Lumumba.
“Chucho” – notably – has also networked with pro-secessionist activists at the 2016 Southern Human Rights Organizing Conference, spoken on a 2016 panel hosted by Black Alliance for Justice Immigration -– a network which assists immigrants that entered the U.S. illegally – that was moderated by Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi and former senior advisor for Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, Phillip Agnew; given presentations in 2018 on the National Council of Black Studies: International Committee, on how Venezuela is “providing leadership for the organization of Black Left networks across the Americas, [and] linking and organizing Black radicals in the U.S. and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean”. Chucho is even an advisory board member of the Walter Rodney Foundation – one of over a dozen school-related programs which promotes education directed at developing revolutionaries amongst college and K-12 students.
MXGM members operate daycares, schools, youth programs, and give presentations at professional teachers conferences.
The International Context of Critical Race Theory
Parents and politicians are increasingly aware that something is rotten in the state of American education.
What is currently at stake, however, is not merely a conflict over ideas, but a geopolitical struggle lead in the U.S. by socialist affiliated transnational networks working in the education system.
The recent rise in advocacy for new critical race theory (CRT), liberated ethnic studies (LES) and social justice education (SJE) curriculum is evidence of the success of the “matrix of afro-indigenous socialism” in the United States.
While this particular coalition is new, the practice is, notably, just a modern iteration of the historic United Front policies of the U.S. Communist party when being directed by the Soviet Union and reflects what Hugo Chávez proposed at his meeting to form a Fifth International: a “united front that would include the supporters of the struggle against imperialism, from radical nationalism to revolutionary socialist currents”.
The cases described above, which represent a small fraction of such activities, shows how organized cadres have sought to use the educational system to undermine the rule of law, the U.S. constitutional order, and America’s national security, sovereignty, and economic prosperity in order to further their agendas – agendas that are, notably, linked to the geopolitical goals of a designated state-sponsor of terrorism (Cuba) and a state whose officials assist narcotics trafficking groups to maintain control over that state (Venezuela).
Paths for Corrective Action
While American’s right to believe in and preach the benefits of adopting policies is sacrosanct even if they are anti-Constitutional, it is folly for state and local governments to give those with subversive intentions employment and administrative authority over a captive audience.
The boldness with which political activists have used public institutions to forward their goals is testament to the poor oversight of school administrators and citizens organizations.
Many States have Educator Certification Requirements which mandate that educators not use their position as a public servant to indoctrinate youth in a manner that is subversive.
In Chapter 1012.56 of Florida Statues , for example, it describes how each prospective teachers must: “File an affidavit that the applicant subscribes to and will uphold the principles incorporated in the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida and that the information provided in the application is true, accurate, and complete.”
Participating in organized secessionist and revolutionary political groups affiliated with a foreign state does, in our non-legal expert opinion, meets that criteria and thus justifies the firing of educational professional and that use their position for political proselytization.
While the constitutionality of firing teachers for their political affiliations is open for debate, parents are not prohibited from to submit appeals to their State Department of Education for the decertification or disqualification of such employees and to submit appeals to the U.S. Department of Education to stop providing grants to academic institutions that employ professors affiliated with foreign governments.