Category: History

Review of Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP

“Morality only consists in making the relationship between the smallest action and the greatest good…”

Antonio Gramsci
Cocaine
Published in Sotto la Mole, 1916-1920

***

Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia by James J. Brittain provides a comprehensive account of the conflict between the FARC and the Colombian government from the perspective of the now demobilized quasi Marxist-Leninst narco-insurgents. Based on five years of field research and extensive archival analysis of primary and secondary documents – the strength of the work is sapped by numerous inclusions of half-baked opinions and poorly informed analysis. Brittain, for instance, is fundamentally cynical about U.S. military aid to Colombia – as if the profound effects wrought by incredibly violent and ruthless transnational drug trafficking networks on society and governance in the Americas did not even exist!

An external example of such ideological prejudice can be seen in a review of the book was posted shortly after publication on Fight Back News – a Freedom Road Socialist Organization front masquerading as an authentic media organization. On their website, the book is described as such:

“For Colombia solidarity activists, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia is a tool. In the battle of ideas against all of the U.S. ruling class justifications for continuing to give billions of dollars to the Uribe regime through Plan Colombia, or in opposition to the U.S. escalation in Colombia through its seven newly acquired military bases, this book is a weapon. For anyone doing anti-intervention organizing, whether around Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, the Philippines or any place where the U.S. is oppressing the people of the world and where the people are resisting by any means necessary, this book provides a valuable case-study.”

While the author’s clear biases mean that some of the arguments and analysis by Brittain is intellectually facile or, at times, absurd, it is in fact because of this that it is an important work for those seeking to understand the concepts and terms of how the FARC and those who sympathize with it think. Because the author uses Marxist philosophy to present the FARC as an innovative and “more democratic” alternative to globalization than neoliberalism rather than a narco-terrorist organization was, in fact, why I wanted to read it.

Neoliberalism and it’s Discontents: FARC’s Rise

Like other books I’ve read covering conflict in Colombia – such as The FARC: The Longest Insurgency by Gary Leech; The Para-State: An Ethnography of Colombia’s Death Squads by Alvo Civico; and Law in a Lawless Land: Diary of a Limpieza in Colombia by Michael Taussig – this books starts with La Violencia as the founding moment for the FARC.

Birthed in the Tolima region, which is the department immediately to the south of where I now write this (Antioquia) a number of self-defense groups were formed in order to protect land that was seized from large-property owners or areas administered by the Colombian state. They became enclaves for those wishing to escape the violence elsewhere and farm. While not first conceived of as an “alternative” form of socio-economic development defining itself in contrast to globalization – coca production and illegal commodity extraction soon became their economic basis of what was, essentially, a colonial project.

By mid-1964 the PCC/guerrilla leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez (Tiro Fijo) had accumulated such a significant amount of dual-power that Operation Marquetalia was launched to retake occupied areas. 20,000 Colombian troops, as well as U.S. advisors and U.S. Iroquois attack helicopters.

While the operation as a whole was successful this lead to the spreading of the number of fronts of those connected to the FARC. This put the organization into more conflict with Colombia’s large-land owners, who were extorted, had their lands forcibly broken up and were kidnapped or killed for money or to send a message.

The South and West Blocks specifically became areas that were associated with coca production and provided the organization with funds to fight the intensifying violent backlash by the political and economic elites.

Given that the publisher of this book (PM Press) is committed to disseminating Anarchists and Marxist literature it’s not surprising that the author’s singular focus on the origin and activities of the FARC  doesn’t give a broader contextualization of events.

As a result of this myopia that I mentioned in the introduction, there are a number of endorsements of the FARC political/historical line without a broader view of how events transpiring outside of Colombia affected the country.

Recounting the rapid rise of membership in the 1970’s, for instance, the author claims that rising inflation, declining capital for small agricultural operations and the dispossession of subsistence farmers leading are solely the U.S.’s fault. Brittain conflates the national Colombian economic elite with that of the US, as if the former were mere pawns/proxies of U.S. power, and gives no mention to the the global restructuring of supply chains and capital investment portfolios wrought by the rise Europe and Asia as well as other nations intensifying their agricultural export industries – all trends described in Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded Factories for Finance in the 1970s.

Movement of Movements and the Composition of the FARC

No organization is ever an island unto itself, and the FARC is no exception. Brittain explicates how there are numerous Colombian organizations, such as the PPC and the MNBC, that assist and amplify the effects of their war of position as well as international organizations – be they transnational criminal enterprises involved in the distribution of cocaine and even Special Committees of the United Nations.

A term emerging from the Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci, war of position refers to the specific manner in which the FARC conceives of their historical mission. Their relationships to outside organizations are based on the intention to create a dual power system within Colombia they become an instrument of state power. Even though these organizations may not be fully committed guerrillas like the FARC, because they view socialism revolution as “a continuous process of formation and superseding of unstable equilibria” their actions are conceived of as aligned with their goals.

Quoting several SouthCom and Colombian government reports Brittain states that in the early 1990s it was thought possible – given the FARC’s embeddedness within urban collectives in Bogota – for them to have taken over Bogota. Rather than pursuing this policy and thus, to use a Game of Thrones metaphor, ruling over a “city of ashes” they did not engage in direct confrontation in the urban center in order to reinforce their support-bases in the periphery, the coca-growing regions. It was believed that by the building of class consciousness (really their own particular vision of ideological orthodoxy) a social revolution could be achieved rather than a merely political one. This view, as the recent history of the peace accords shows, was incorrect. Because of Brittain’s sympathies, it’s worth pointing out another consideration less likely to be voiced by the FARC Secretariat – the problems created by actually administering a large and complex economy connected to multi-national corporations rather than merely interacting with coca-producing farmers, and small-scale illegal loggers and miners.

While such an admission would likely never leave the lips of someone whose committed their lives to guerilla combat, surely because of this the urban center, which inevitably complicates the Bolivarian-Marxian vision they’ve been acculturated into, doesn’t allow for simple solutions. Reading Marx, after all, doesn’t prepare one to appropriately understand modern national macro-economic policies.

FARC as Narco-Settler-Colonialism

Given that the campesinos that the FARC acts as a government for those that are involved in the narco-trafficking industry and that they are setting up their operations in a colonial manner – i.e. setting up operations in areas without infrastructure (roads, sewage, medical or educational facilities) – there’s an deep irony in the author’s frequent endorsement of the settlers claims that it is the lack of the farmers ability to obtain credit from banks or services from the government as a justifying cause for their operations.

Juntas de Acción Comunal

Brittain presents the Colombian-government sponsored Juntas de Acción Comunal, for instance, as being started to helping to serve up national sovereignty to American capital rather than helping develop new business relationships for the export of legal agricultural goods and other commodities. This is, after all, what the FARC’s help facilitate – though of illicit materials.

Organized along military lines, the FARC uses military tactics to gain recruits and expands it’s operation not though a greater division of labor but by geographical expansion. More illicit farms mean more money and arms for their operation. Because of this it highly ironic – Orwellian Irony even – that Brittain describes this dual-power organization as the target of “fascist” attacks when the actual government seeks to halt their recruitment efforts on college campuses in Colombia – something that Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia describes.  This Manichean worldview means government-sponsored informer networks are, to Brittain, quadi-totalitarian while the FARC’s are expression of “organic” identification with the organization – even after describing punishments for breaking the FARC’s laws.

FARC, Social Change & Kultural Marxism


The author, giving a first person account of the

 

“Upon visiting areas controlled by the FARC-EP I observed educational facilities in both public spaces and guerrilla camps that loosely resembled small makeshift schoolhouses. The encampment schools were plastered with pictures of Che Guevara and past comandantes of the FARC-EP, and were referred to as “cultural centers.” They were heavily used and resembled a jungle-like revolutionary museum; filled with pamphlets, books, music, and information related to Marxism, Colombia’s political economy, and Latin American society.”

Venezuela, TeleSUR & Kultural Marxism

Well not discussed within the book it’s interesting to note that Hugo Chavez, the former president of TeleSUR, has long cited the FARC-EP as a historical and ideological inspiration.

No surprise then that the entrance to TeleSUR’s offices in Quito, Ecuador is akin to the cultural centers described by the James J. Brittain – filled with the portrait art of Latin America’s many revolutionaries.

The relationship between Sergio Marin, the head of the propaganda office for the FARC, however, would certainly approve of their operations. They, like Nicolas Maduro Moros, use Gramsci as a framework to inform their model of social and political change.

Though describing a Colombian context, the connection to The Resistance in America (as conceived by those connected to the Left Forum) is obviously apparent.

Thus, despite the books many weaknesses, it is an important work for those trying to understand the perspective of the FARC and their allies in Venezuela, Ecuador and elsewhere.

Presentation on Colombia by James J Brittain

Occupy Unmasked: Steve Bannon, Andrew Breitbart & Evidence of CastroChavismo

I decided to start watching the films produced by Citizen United Films and the first one that I decided to watch, given the connection to my research on CastroChavismo, was Occupy Unmasked.

A project of Steve Bannon and Andrew Breitbart’s – I found the film to be compelling in its depiction of the covert goals of the Occupiers; the disingenuous methods used to try to obtain positive media coverage and the generally intellectually bankrupt character of the personalities involved despite whatever “good intentions” they claimed. This was, in fact, why I paid so little attention to what was going on after the first encampment was created in Zuccotti Park.

While I was living in Barcelona, Spain at the time that the occupation started, the supposedly “spontaneous” event was being planned when I was living in New York City and attending New York University. In fact in my Contemporary Marxist Theory class, taught by Vivek Chibber, there were several students from the New School for Social Research – the educational institution associated with the Frankfurt School that sought people to become involved in this “spontaneous” uprising against the 1%.

Before that, even, at an academic conference at SUNY Binghamton, I debated with Micah White (one of the “founders” of the movements) over the merits of the actions to come. My experience at this conference of self-proclaimed radicals was so cringy I even wrote a poem about it.

Occupy Unmasked: A Critical Appraisal

My one criticism of the film, which is half-heartedly given the closeness of the film’s release to the events described, is that it doesn’t delve deep enough into the details on the personalities driving occupy.

The section on Brandon Darby and Common Grounds Collective, for instance, covers a very significant point – the infiltration by communists and anarchists into “solidarity” and assistance organizations in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina for the purpose of base-building for the purpose of creating Dual Power.

The various organizations and their connections to international organizations, international political parties, and the intelligence services operations of foreign states – however – are not explored in the film. Furthermore the connection of various domestic educational institutions – such as NYU’s Hemispheric Institute and the New School for Social Research, who in their own literature describes themselves as the heirs of the Frankfurt School – is not covered.

Given that the focus of the film is on showing the anti-Consitutional, anti-capitalist, illegalist, and insurrectionary nature of OWS political activists as well as it’s connections to unions – this is just additional erudition related to points made in the film.

Occupy Wall Street, Rape and “Alternative Justice” 

One of the most compelling moments of Occupy Unmasked is when Andrew Breitbart yells repeatedly into the Zuccoti Park encampment: “Stop raping people.” after rapes were reported to the police and news media. While this film focuses on New York, it’s important to note that there were a number of other sexual assaults at Occupy Wall Street camps – including that of minors.

Breitbart, immediately thereafter records someone on film stating that they have their own set of “means” for dealing with such crimes.

As someone that has read the accounts of sexual assaults by now-former members of various American Socialist Parties, it’s worth noting that there are a number of instances described by members criminal charges are not brought against anyone (as it would damage the prestige of the organization and thus the likelihood of revolution) and instead, like the practices of the Catholic Church and pedophile priests, organizers are instead sent to other cities and those that bring it up publicly are ostracized.

Occupy Unmasked and CastroChavismo

Watching Steve Bannon’s film I noticed a number of indicators that are connected to my own documentary/data science project.

The below photo collection further provides further evidence to my own Movement of Movements Thesis, as well as reinforces the claims made by Bannon and Breitbart in Occupy Unmasked.

Review of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century

One of the suggested texts for my Geopolitics of Innovation class at UPB was Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. I found it to be a very valuable book in simply describing how it is that the world economy has changed over the past 30 years as a result of digital communications hardware and software. These technologies along with a number of changes in legislation that facilitated increased the ability of US companies to invest and develop workforces in foreign have radically altered the way in which globalization has manifested itself. The flatness to which Friedman refers has, of course, nothing to do with the peculiar Flat Earth movement but with the lowering of barriers that previously prevented innovative collaborations occurring across borders. Friedman intersperses his own analysis with that of a number of subject area experts within the business, academic and governmental sphere to support his “brief history”.

The book uses two dates 11/9, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11, the date of the hijacked plane attacks on America that launched the War on Terror as bookends by which to frame the flattening of the world and, in the final chapter, as examples of potential directions that the new global economy can head. Either there will be increased openness, collaboration, innovation and free trade or there will be a closure of borders, ideas and exchange of goods, services and capital such that the pace of the economy slows and growth shrinks.

Friedman sees this responsibility to adapt to new conditions as being primarily borne by the individual and their family, with the government facilitating to a limited extent the development of new skill sets and abilities. While not blind that a number of people can get left behind in such situations, as a technological determinist and a student of history he states that there is little that can be done other than adapt – personally, culturally, and economically – to the “flattening of the world”.

The ten historic flatteners Friedman cites are as follows:

#1: 11/9/89, When the Walls Came Down and Windows Hit the Tornado
#2: 8/9/95, When Netscape Went Public
#3: Work Flow Software
#4: Open-Sourcing & Self-Organizing Collaborative Communities
#5: Outsourcing & Y2K
#6: Offshoring
#7: Supply-Chaining
#8: Insourcing
#9: In-forming
#10: The Steroids, Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual”

Each of the ten flatteners show how it was that information and communications technologies radically altered the business landscape in ways that goes far beyond railroads and electrification. While embracing technological determinism, Friedman shows through a number of examples that the sort of retail economic reforms needed to exploit these flatteners are insufficient as indicators unless connected to wider changes in social norms. I found the  comparative analysis of different countries business environments and cultural norms to be especially informative. Put simply, societies must rapidly adapt to these new environments or they will rapidly see their GDPs start to slow, stop or decline. Because of this the capacity to learn – be it via market vigilance, improvement of customer relations and business processes, etc.  – is the most important quality to be able to demonstrate in the workplace.

 

With the caveat that the book is not intended to be included within the general rubric of business strategy literature, Friedman also shares a number of the insights he’s gained from analyzing the flatting of competition. I won’t include them all, but Friedman’s analysis on the rules seeks to allay fears that all is lost for the average American worker.

“Rule #6: The best companies outsource to win, not to shrink. They outsource to innovate faster and more cheaply in order to grow larger, gain market share, and hire more and different specialists-not to save money by firing more people.”

These rules and their analysis show how globalization – done ideally – leads to a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom. While citing a number of examples within business history that provides the rationales for these new rules to this effect, the book did leave me wanting for a more detailed analysis of the American economy. While increased economic exchanges between the BRIC countries and the US certainly have a number of positives, I think to better make this case as more comprehensive overview of globalizations impact is necessary. While certainly allowing higher-skilled workers and the companies that employ them to do more for their money – there are a number of social and economic ills connected the transition away from an economy with large portions of the work force in manufacturing to those engaged in the service economy that Friedman doesn’t cover.

One of the sections that I found rather interesting given my academic background and that I participated in several anti-globalization demonstrations – such as the FTAA protests in Miami– is a brief engagement with the writings of of Karl Marx. It’s happens via a professor interlocutor that praised his thought as reflective of the realities of capitalism. I cite these passage below at length in order to close the review with a reflection.


I bring this up as Friedman describes class conflict without calling it such and as it relates to the crux of the book’s unspoken argument – “globalization is good for everyone”. While certainly not as naïve as the political pronouncements made by Fukuyama in his book The End of History and the Last Man, there is a growing body of critical voices from the right on shareholder value being the goal of businesses as opposed to stakeholder value. Many contemporary political commentators have mentioned this, with some citing it as one of the reasons that Donald Trump was elected. While I think that Friedman’s optimism is for the most part deserved, I also feel that the destabilizing effects of it make the work at certain points hallucinatory in its choices of coverage.

For example, Friedman cites the antiglobalization movement, which emerged in 1999 at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, to highlight this conflict. According to Friedman:

“From its origins, the movement that emerged in Seattle was a primarily Western-driven phenomenon, which was why you saw so few people of color in the crowds. It was driven by five disparate forces.

One was upper-middle-class American liberal guilt at the incredible wealth and power that America had amassed in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dot-com boom. At the peak of the stock market boom, lots of pampered American college kids, wearing their branded clothing, began to get interested in sweatshops as a way of expiating their guilt.

The second force driving it was a rear-guard push by the Old Left-socialists, anarchists, and Trotskyites-in alliance with protectionist trade unions.

The third force was a more amorphous group. It was made up of many people who gave passive support to the antiglobalization movement from many countries, because they saw in it some kind of protest against the speed at which the old world was disappearing and becoming flat.

The fourth force driving the movement, which was particularly strong in Europe and in the Islamic world, was anti-Americanism. The disparity between American economic and political power and everybody else’s had grown so wide after the fall of the Soviet Empire that America began to-or was perceived to-touch people’s lives around the planet, directly or indirectly, more than their own governments did.

Finally, the fifth force in this movement was a coalition of very serious, well-meaning, and constructive groups-from environmentalists to trade activists to NGOs concerned with governance-who became part of the populist antiglobalization movement in the 1990s in the hopes that they could catalyze a global discussion about how we globalize. I had a lot of respect and sympathy for this latter group. But in the end, they got drowned out by the whether-we-globalize crowd, which began to turn the movement more violent…”

While this aligns with my own readings and experience – a growing body of literature connects the business practices described in the book to the opioid epidemic, increased rates of depression, alcoholism and other nasty ills. Management of the economy and the workplace according to the new rules of globalization have certainly allowed corporations to extract more value and thereby be in a better position to compete globally, but with so many struggling to adapt and with the new social intelligence capacities created by information and communication technologies that there is a growing distrust and animosity to existent leadership such that populism is increasing – I think it’s worth examining not just “how we got here” but also “how can we make this work in a way that’s managed even better.”

Interview Data from “Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street”

Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street by Mark Bray is a first person account of the author’s experiences at the Zuccotti Park iteration Occupy Wall Street. In addition to description of events that he himself witnessed, he also includes selections from interviews he did with many of the people there.

Below is the List of OWS Organizers Interviewed

Aaron Black
Aaron Bornstein
Alexander Penley
Alexandre Carvalho
Amelia
Amelia Dunbar
Amin Husain
Amy
Andrew
Anthony!
Anthony Robledo
Ari Cowan
Ashley
Atiq Zabinski
Audrea Lim
Austin Guest
Axle
Bear Wisdom
Becky
Beka Economopoulos
Ben Reynoso
Beth Bogart
Betsy Catlin
Bill Dobbs
Bill Livsey
Bootz
Bre
Brendan Burke
Brett G.
Brittany Robinson
Camille Raneem
Cara
Cari Machet
Caroline Lewis
Cecily McMillan
Chris
Chris Longenecker
Christhian Diaz
Christine Crowther
Christopher Brown
CJ Holm
Colby Hopkins
Cory Thompson
Dana Balicki
Dave Haack
David Graeber
David Korn
Debra Thimmesch
Dennis Flores
Diego Ibañez
Doug Ferrari
Drew Hornbein
Dylan
Ed Mortimer
Edward Needham
Elizabeth Arce
Eric
Eric Carter
Ethan
Evan Wagner
Fanshen
Felix Riveria-Pitre
George Machado
Georgia
Goldi
Greg Horwitch
Guy Steward
Harrison ‘Tesoura’ Schultz,
Henry Harris (“Hambone”),
Ingrid Burrington
Isham Christie
Jack Boyle
Jackie Disalvo
Jake DeGroot
Jason Ahmadi
Jay
Jeff Smith
Jen Waller
Jerry Goralnick
Jez
Jillian Buckley
Jo Robin
Jonathan G.
Jonathan Smucker
José Martín (“Chepe”)
José Whelan
Josh Ehrenberg
Josh Lucy
Julien Harrison
Julieta Salgado
Justin Stone-Diaz
Justin Strekal
Justin Wedes
Justine Tunney
Kanene
Karanja Wa Gaçuça
Katie Davidson
Kira Annika
Kobi
Laura Durkay
Laura Gottesdiener
Lauren Digioia
Leina Bocar
Liesbeth Rapp
Linnea M. Palmer Paton
Lisa Fithian
Lorenzo Serna
Louis Jargow
Luke Richardson
Madeline Nelson
Malcolm Nokizaru
Malory Butler
Manissa Maharawal
Maria Porto “Sarge”
Mariano Muñoz-Elias
Marina Sitrin
Marisa Holmes
Mark Adams
Matt Presto
Max Berger
Megan Hayes
Michael Fix
Michael Levitin
Michael Premo
Mike Andrews
Moira Meltzer-Cohen
Moses
Nastaran Mohit
Negesti
Nelini Stamp
Nicholas “OWS Tea”
Nick Mirzoeff
Nicole Carty
Nina Mehta
Olivia
Pablo Benson
Pam Brown
Patricia González-Ramirez
Patrick Bruner
Pete Dutro
Priscilla Grim
Rami Shamir
Ravi Ahmad
Ray
Rebecca Manski
Richard Machado
Ronny Nuñez
Rose Bookbinder
Rowland Miller
S.
Sam Corbin
Sam Wood (“Captain”)
Sandra Nurse
Sara Zainab Bokhari
Sean McAlpin
Senia Barragan
Sergio Jimenez
Shane Gill
Shawn Carrié
Sofía Gallisa
Sonny Singh
Sparro Kennedy
Sparrow Ingersoll
Stacey Hessler
Stan
Stefan Fink
Stina Soderling
Sully Ross
Sumumba Sobukwe
Suzahn Ebrahimian
Tashy Endres
Terry
Tess Cohen
Thorin Caristo
Tim Fitzgerald
Timothy Eastman
Tom Hintze
Vanessa Zettler
Victoria Sobel
Will Gusakov
William Haywood Carey
William Jesse
William Scott
Winnie Wong
Winter
Yates McKee
Yoni Miller
Yotam Marom
Zak
Zak Soloman
Zoltán Glück
Zu Solanas

Review of A World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology

“Under Crushing Opposition, Love Requires Revolutionary Action”
Father Camilo Torres

Having recently read Padre Guatalupe’s autobiography, my interest was piqued in learning more about the particulars of liberation theology. This curiosity was amplified as I am now attending a Catholic University with a Bolivarian mission in Medellin – the location of conference of bishops in 1968 that would result in the drafting of a number of significant statements that would justify numerous Catholic initiative of a liberationist theme throughout Latin America. As such, I was happy to learn of the recent publication of A World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology by Lillian Calles Barger. This book, along with conversations with my fellow students and a group of seminarians that I’ve befriended, have greatly helped me to comprehend the Catholic culture in which I now live.

Barger divides her book into four sections: Origins elaborates the social, political and economic factors which lead to the conditions within ecumenical circles that caused people to elaborate novel interpretations of Christian religious doctrines. Reconstructions provides an intellectual history of the philosophical currents that fed into the new method of Biblical exegesis. Elaborations provides deeper analysis of the particularities of the various liberation theology strands and provides a historical accounting of the interactions between those propounding such doctrines and the communities from which they emerged. Reverberations illustrates that while Liberation Theology as an intellectual current within the Christianity may have seen its adherents decline in numbers, nevertheless a variety of the novel perspectives that it sought to disseminate about how to interpret the world have been adopted within various religious and social justice movements. Liberation Theology, it can be rightly said, still speaks to a social, political and environmental concerns that have emerged as a result of various changed that have profoundly impacted the human world.

For those writing within this strain, the true theological task is “orthopraxis” which is “an encounter with the world, rather than tradition or revelation…” Instead of engaging just with a text disconnected from the concerns of the here and now, promising only salvation in the afterlife, Liberation Theology is concerned with bringing the divine order to earth. In Barges’ words: “Fundamentally, the idea of liberation was of a communal process rather than based on the individual, for only in solidarity with others was freedom possible. Awakening the political potential of solidarity among oppressed people called for the advocacy of the committed placing themselves at the nexus of prophetic denunciation and revolutionary change.” Biblical and sociological analysis identified the oppressed with the campesinos of Latin America – fighting the inheritors of colonial titles; with the African-American’s in the United States – fighting the descendants of slave-holders; with women across the world – still under the yoke of a sexist, misogynistic patriarchy.

James Cone’s influence is still profound within the African-American church.

The variances in how the church is viewed; what the goal of liberation is; and how to get there; how this changes given different world-historical shifts and more by different social groups – blacks, whites, Latins, men and women – is masterfully handled by Barger. By delving into the biographical details about the authors of those in this new cannon, historicizing and then unpacking the arguments in their writing one can almost feel as if a part of the intellectual debates that were motivating their religious/academic work. Barger provides a veritable lexicon for concepts that evolve due to new technological and social changes and how despite the fact that Protestants in North America and the Catholics in South America came from very distinct intellectual and historical backgrounds, they still came to similar conclusions about what it means to be a True Christian in a sinful world.

This is especially well done in the chapter entitled Vitalism of Religion. Here Barger depicts how a number of Enlightenment related arguments were related to religion, and later how the prophetic writings of Marx were adapted to a modern understanding of the bible.Towards this end a virtual pantheon of social theorists are described – from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ludwig Fuererbach, G.W.F. Hegel, Jose Mariategui, Georges Sorel, W.E.B. Du Bois, William James, and more – and their evidence within various key Liberation Theology texts are describe. Starting with their respective views related to religion, she shows how they are pieced together to form a unique Christian Socialist identity. More than just this, Barges shows their impact in the brief blossoming of a number of schools and political movements. From this and analysis in subsequent sections we see how “Marxist thought provided Latin American liberationists with a significant framework for analyzing inequality and responding to the charges against religion. The goal of social justice based on a structural understanding of society, rather than individual choice, appeared congruent with the prophetic tradition and served as an opening for Marxist-Christian dialogue throughout the twentieth century” (108).

Barges intellectual history also tells the often tragic stories of those that sought to operationalize this conception of Christian solidarity. In the section entitled A Salvic Social Order, chapter we learn the story of Richard Shaull – a missionary like Padre Guadalupe that came to help and then became so disillusioned with the church that he started advocating revolution. Him, like Padre Guadalupe and others such as the now sainted Oscar Romero, often met tragic ends due to the incredibly politically polarized atmosphere of the Cold War. During this time addressing the sins of empire and the sufferings of people was seen as subversive, giving shelter to the enemy of Soviet Power. With the Social Gospel viewed as an ideology aligned with the interests of a predatory foreign power, it’s little wonder that those with a more personalistic view of salvation – the traditional religious establishment – were wary of those that sought to “recover Eden” through a scientific socio-economic practice wedded with a theology of collective, social liberation. The point of division for those who sought to create Utopia versus those that were conservative and sought to maintain relations as is was their understanding of what the implications and duties connected to humanity Original Sin.

Sergio Torres’ writing presented a dialogue between Christianity and Marxism.

As Barger brings the book to a close she shows how that while there were clergy-members in the field involved with pastoral work with a Liberation Theologist orientation, a main failing of the movement was its inability to produce and thus enact specific policy applications. The 1970 conference in Detroit that included black, Latin American and women leaders is depicted in almost tragic proportion. After highlighting how this became a moment for qualitatively altering the level of collaboration and cooperation that this transnational group of religious community organizers, activists and intellectuals – they are shown instead engage in what was, essentially, and intellectual pissing contest. Rather than building a collective platform by which their struggles could synergize their efforts for liberation, they instead devolved to arguing over who faced institutional repression worse and broke.

For all of its political aspirations, the Liberation Theology movement never formed the same sort of sustainable political institutions that those within the Christian Democratic tradition were able to. This is so because of the numerous inherent limits within Liberation Theology as an eclectic philosophy.

Pope John Paul II scolding Nicaraguan liberation theologist Ernesto Cardenal.

The thinkers associated with it may have been able to inspire debate, but nothing much stuck beyond that – proposing no singular national or international program for change that could be acted up with effectiveness, founding no institution and establishing no school. Thus while Liberation Theologians never attained the key features of a recognized movement, the sensibility related to the core tenants it put forward as necessary to positively change the world continues to inspire multiple social movements and political initiatives throughout the world.

 

President Donald Trump, Civic Responsibility and Espionage: A Case Study in Fake News and Political Polarization Promoted by Venezuela

“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution…”

– James Madison 

*****

While it’s all the rage in many news outlets these days to criticize President Trump – this article will provide ample evidence for his praise. 

It will do this by using exclusive research to provide a series of contrapoints that illustrate how he has displayed a high degree of personal and Presidential civility in his handling of three current events:

  1. The Transgender Military Ban
  2. Chelsea Manning’s incarceration for refusing to speak with Grand Jury investigators
  3. Nicolas Maduro’s impending departure from power

In addition to demonstrating how Donald Trump has embodied professionalism and the type of nationalistic paternalism appropriate to the Office of the President, it will also illustrate how these three examples are connected to ongoing intelligence operations by the government of Nicolas Maduro to spread misinformation and disinformation, to encourage espionage and civil unrest, and even to facilitate it.

In short, this will show the claim of Laura Durso, Vice President of the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, that this ban “undermines military readiness and perpetuates the fear across the transgender and allied communities that this government will not protect them, not even those who would sacrifice everything to protect our nation” – along with similar claims made by others are motivated not by a desire to speak the truth but to spread an uninformed, hateful view of President Trump.  

Trans-Soldier Ban & Trump’s Presidential Civility

Other commentators hint that the real reason for the ban is not because of financial costs but due to discrimination, prejudice or hate.

They are right the official government line is not true, but not because of those reasons.

Instead, the real reason for the Trans military ban stems from President Donald Trump’s genuine sense of love for the Americans that serve in the United States military.

Why is that?

By not sharing with the public that the real reason for the ban was due to a long-term espionage operation targetting Trans military personnel by Venezuelan Intelligence, President Trump absolves himself of divisive accusations that he questions troop loyalty or that he is any way giving cause for yet another mentally unbalanced person to baselessly attribute violent crimes to him.

Venezuela’s Counterintelligence Campaigns: Control Public Perception

 

This TeleSUR employee has written nearly an encyclopedia’s worth of content about politicians aligned with Rafael Correa, Hugo Chavez, and Nicolas Maduro.

During the Cold War the Soviet Union sound to disrupt U.S. international relations and undermine U.S. power in the world and undermine the appeal of U.S. democracy to other countries. Since 2002, Venezuela has sought to do the same through a variety of methods. Having state media employees at TeleSUR work full time to monitor certain Wikipedia entries is just one minor example. They have their own state media company as well, and it has numerous partners -such as Russia’s RT, Ruptly, Redfish and Sputnik, as well as Nicaragua, Cuba and Iran’s iterations of the same. And they are also connected to numerous “private” outlets in the U.S. as well – such as The Real News Network, WSWS, Teen Vogue, MintPress News, Democracy Now, etc. And there are also numerous independent journalists that have also gotten in on the act. I write about some of these journalists here, but in this article, will focus on Facebook as it’s quicker to illustrate my points as it relates to President Donald Trump’s civility.

Venezuela’s Honey Traps

Anarcha-Transfeminism is one of at least 300 Pages on Facebook that is moderated and operated by accounts promoting Venezuela’s anti-American worldview. While the above shares of official Venezuelan government websites and accounts make this easy to see, other content includes generalized incitement to violence, anti-voting messaging, disinformation and misinformation, and other forms of content designed to increase polarization.

The Great Sh!tpost Army

In addition to “Occupied” Facebook pages and numerous social media action centers in Venezuela that monitor and operate on Twitter and Facebook groups there is also an auxiliary force of voluntary shi!tposters, sock puppets operators, link-spammers, and others. Their goal is similar, to agitate online – Terms of Service be damned.

In the new world of digital media activism, one’s courage is determined by how many Facebook bans that you’ve come back from. 

Appeals to Abstract Notion of Solidarity 

How do they do this? For one by structuring images that help create a sense of belonging where there was once none and a sense of security where there was once none. This combined through the promotion of “solidarity” in a manner that simplifies the history and politics of Venezuela allows for deep-personal identifications to be made.

Considering how my other reports based on observation of official and  non-official public groups and pages related to Venezuela’s intelligence operations show that sexism, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism are still quite alive despite their implications that it’s not – this is ironic, but that is really besides the point.

By collapsing the myriad complexities involved in any discussion of Venezuelan-U.S. relationships in this manner is a form of distortion, but one with potentially powerful emotional resonance.

Recruiting Trans People Online & In Real Life

Venezuelan accounts and Socialists sympathetic to them aren’t just engaged in trivial online behavior.

The International Socialist Organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and The Workers World Party – which has long been considered connected to foreign political interests – also have their members working in outreach and service organizations, or front groups to recruit.

The connection between this and military operations is yet unceratin, but the above images certainly indicate that espionage and the leaking of classified information to the benefit of military opponents is the goal.

Presumably, part of the investigation now being done in private by the U.S. Military related to the trans ban is not just about medical costs, but is about  having American intelligence operatives pose as trans military personnel to determin the extent of active count-intelligence recruitment schemes going on.

Mainstreaming Revolution

Increasingly, this sort of radicalism isn’t just on the fringes either. Lucy Diavolo, the editor for Teen Vogue, frequently curates the writings of Venezuela associated writers like Keeanga Yamahtta and George Ciccariello-Maher.

Divalo, whose first written article for Teen Vogue was in praise of Chelsea Manning and who recently wrote an op-ed against her imprisonment for not cooperating with a grand jury investigation, hints at the extent to which the media has been influenced by Venezuela.

If this seems alarmist, consider the below evidence which indicates it might already have happened.

Celebrating Discharge and Promoting Espionage

After photos of Spenser Rapone stating that “Communism will win” were circulated through Venezuela’s coordinated inauthentic behavior network, they eventually made its way onto the desk of Florida Senator Marco Rubio. This and other veteran’s outcries of lead to Spenser’s other-than-honorable discharge.

Shortly after this, he presented at the Socialism conference in Chicago. The slogan for this event is “Another World is Necessary,” a variation of the World Social Form slogan – an organization founded in part to develop Socialism in America. One of their founders, Chico Whiataker, is currently on the WikiLeaks advisory board.

He also appeared on a new podcast called “unauthorized disclosure,” an obvious allusion to leaking information to the public. Mike Prysner, a former soldier himself, is also the finance of Venezuela spokesperson Abby Martin and a long time co-Producer for Empire Files, a program funded by the Venezuelan government.

While this could all be coincidence and affinities at work, it’s intereting to note that as of Thursday March 21st, Spenser Rapone is friends on Twitter with Ernesto Villegas, who previously had shared his photo on Instagram and Twitter and who is also the Minister of Venezuela’s Department of Popular Power and Culture – the Venezuelan equivalent of the CIA and the government body which also advises the president on how to operate TeleSUR.

Antifa and Nicolas Maduro

Military influence operations are just the tip of a much larger iceberg of Venezuelan intelligence projects in American. Since before 2007, Venezuela has been actively seeking to influence the American political scene.

Since 2010 Nicolas Maduro has been indoctrinating adolescents in Venezuelan collectivos to adopt “antifascism,” funded the development of eco-socialist and antifascism clubs throughout Latin America and in Spain. Though the motivating cause for collective action are different, as do the organizations backing them, there is nevertheless an underlying logic behind it all.

That’s why so many of the people that now make up Antifa are the same people that were previously involved in Occupy Wall Street and before that were in the Global Justice Movement.

The Smash Racism DC organizer, revolutionary communist and Antifa leader Jose Martin – who protested in front of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house, berated Sen. Ted Cruz at a restaurant until he and his wife were forced to leave, and was later involved in a fight wherein he yelled racist comments at U.S. troops – is just one of many examples of people radicalized in part by the Venezuelan intelligence operations whose goal is to help develop multiple dual-power, 21st Century Socialist movements in America.

President Trump’s Civic Responsibility in the Face of Fake News

Considering that so many non-governmental organizations, like Laura Durso’s LGBT Research and Communications Project, as well as numerous news and opinion, like the New York Times, CNN, VOX, and Teen Vogue, hire columnists and editorialists that don’t consider research as part of their professional process and that because of this President Trump is vilified, it’s understandable why he would have such disdain for the press. 

He is, in this instance, like Batman – absorbing the hate of many people out of his love for the people. Were they informed of the Truth, Donald Trump would be praised for how he has handled Wikileaks/the World Social Forums/Venezuela’s attempts at getting U.S. military personnel – trans or otherwise – to commit acts of espionage.

It’s for these reasons that American’s should give the President due credit for his professional behavior in the face of calumny, and give him support in however he chooses to deal with Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

Algorith​m​s, Authenticity, and Coordinated, Inauthentic Behavior: A Case Study in Caitlin Johnstone

For social media to operate as designed, users engagement must be authentic.

A lot of conversations are going on online about the nature of censorship, social media, democracy and technology and yet not one of the commentaries made by people who’ve claimed victimization or decried others that I’ve read thus far has demonstrated adequate subject area knowledge about what’s been going on.

This article will review three concepts important to discussions about social media in relationship to algorithms, authenticity, and coordinated, inauthentic behavior; using Caitlin Johnstone’s Medium and Facebook account as a brief case study.

Many factors feed into the algorithm so that users get an enjoyable experience and so that bad actors are inhibited from falsifying their engagement number

As of March 5th 2019, there are 394 million responses to the Google Query of “Facebook Algorithm”. And yet Abby Martin, Jimmy Dore, Lee Camp, Aaron Mate, Branko Marcetic, Chris Hedges – anyone that’s been contracted to work for Venezuelan and Russian state media outlets really – have a real hard time understanding what it is.

In the simplest terms as it applies to this case, algorithms a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations; they quantify lots of data according to specific terms for use of some sort. PCTR, or Interest, Post, Creator, Type, and Recency are just five of the myriad factors which fit into such problem-solving processes for social media platform. One of the most important of these qualities is Authenticity. Authenticity means that what data is being recorded and used in the algorithm stems from normal use. Coordinated inauthentic behavior is when groups of people seek to boost algorithmic ranking through planned actions – such as liking, sharing, commenting, watching, creating regional group pages, etc.

Given her claim that she is just a “rogue journalist” without any kind of institutional affiliation or disclosure of support from states such as Russia and Venezuela, it’s surprising that Caitlin Johnstone also has trouble understanding this.

Caitlin Johnstone and her Collection of Venezuelan/Russian Sock Puppet Followers.
Notice that Ajamu Baraka and Jimmy Dore are categorized as related pages.

Caitlin Johnstone’s journalism has lead to controversies in Arc Digital, Counterpoint, Mint Press News, Daily Kos, and other outlets. Sometimes described as a Cassandra Fairbanks-like content creator, a former TeleSUR contractor, I honestly haven’t read much Caitlin Johnstone. Like a TeleSUR contractor and Jacobin author Branko Marcetic, she is an Australian without demonstrable specialized subject area knowledge in the subjects she writes about – I’ll give her that the wacky-tacky Doomsday Prepper poetess schtick does provide some decent turns of phrase in what I did read, but as numerous others have stated the editorial standards are very low. .

While I haven’t read anything since last she popped up on my radar in connection to Orwellian Irony, an alert I have for a certain set of search terms came to my inbox and so I again found myself on her Medium page. One there I saw echoed the commentary framed in almost exactly the same way that I encountered in my research on TeleSUR, slightly different opinions but similarly based on significant omissions and distortions.

Darrel Koerner’s may be a real person, but on Medium he only exists to boost the engagement numbers for Caitlin Johnstone.

Shortly before my Medium account was taken down due to the coordinated activity of a group of Trans activists known as ACTUP, I posted a comment on this article that Caitlin Johnstone had published about Venezuela just a few minutes before. As she’d responded to the person who wrote two minutes before, I asked her a question.

Not only did I not get a response from the author, but I then watched in real time as a stream of comments that started to fill the response board and that lots of claps were being given to low-quality comments. My thoughtful request comment was literally drowned out by comments that looked suspicious. I decided to take a peak, and sure enough – they were! After looking at several of the accounts that had posted comments – it was clear that there were a number of sock puppet accounts heaping praise in the form of claps and engagement in the form of low-quality comments on the blog.

joe blow too only seems to exist to comment on Caitlin Johnstone’s page, but he also seems to have another connection.

Like Darrel, the entirety of Joe Blow’s comments exist solely on the comments section of Caitlin Johnstone’s Medium page.

Like Darrel, these comments are small quotes, trite praises for “telling the truth” or comments only tangentially connected to the topic. It’s filler.

Unlike Darrel, Jow Blow has a profile image – however, it’s likely that this is not of him.

Unlike Darrel, Joe Blow may have a verifiable connection to a known disinformation account.

joeblowman: Alien master-race controlling the world; anti-semitic; unscientific biohacking; 9/11 Conspiracy Theories; anti-semitic & Nazi propaganda all orbiting one another.

Why I decided to include two accounts that only commented on Caitlin Johnstone was to hint at it’s prevalence – there are a number of other such Medium accounts that seem to exist only to fluff Caitlin or one or two other authors, and as in doing research for another article I found another Joe Blow. In that other article, I show the behavioral connections between joeblowman and a larger network of right-wing fringe content sharers connected to Venezuela’s Kultural Marxism network. It’s hard to make the hard connections, but birds of a feather do flock together.

To be clear, I’m not saying that these Jow Blows are the same people – I’m just saying that given the lack of creativity of Venezuelan and Russian coordinated inauthentic networks it’s very, very likely that they are.

When Social Media platforms and Google respond to such coordinated inauthentic behaviors by penalizing those that have brazenly broken their terms and conditions, as it would seem that Caitlin Johnstone has done in this instance, it is not to silence speech – but to make the marketplace of ideas more democratic by having one’s numbers being honest and authentic.

Clarifying Concepts: Cultural Marxism vs. CastroChavismo

Cultural Marxism, left. CastroChavismo, right.

 

Out, Imperialism! – Only the People (uncertain) the People. Note the use of People here, similar to People’s Forum, People’s Movement, etc.

 

Differences between #CulturalMarxism and #CastroChavismo:

1. Names of people within the narrative.

2. Places the events occurred.

3. The organizations and agencies involved.

4. The fact that the time period is different.

5. The fact that CastroChavismo has testimonials of involvement and activity.

6. The fact that CastroChavismo has material evidence.

7. The fact that CastroChavismo uses Data Science.

8. The fact that CastroChavismo analyzes Primary Documents.

9. The fact that CastroChavismo can be live updated, commented upon, and responded to via Knowledge Management practices.

10. The fact that the CastroChavismo elicits a significantly different conversation about Democracy than the other one given the role of social media

“Cultural Marxism” art was here repurposed to illustrate CastroChavismo. 

Avowal of the National Council of Public Historians Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

The NCPH Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct were adopted in 2007 to replace a version from 1986, this code sets forth guidelines of professional conduct expected of all members of the NCPH.

This Code of Ethics sets forth guidelines of professional conduct expected of all members of the National Council on Public History. Recognizing that public historians practice in a variety of specialized professional fields, this code incorporates reference to other codes and guidelines as appropriate. The purpose of this code is to articulate expectations of conscientious practice, not to set thresholds for certification, investigation, or adjudication. The National Council on Public History promotes ongoing discussion of ethics and professional conduct in classrooms, conferences, workshops, and professional literature as a best practice of the profession as a whole.

The Public Historians’ Responsibility to the Public

This code recognizes that the public may be defined in multiple and sometimes competing ways and that public interest is a fluid concept often formulated within the context of particular situations and subject to continuous debate. Nonetheless, ethical practice implies a responsibility to serve the public interest, as conscientiously determined in any given situation, and requires certain basic principles of professional conduct.

1. Public historians should serve as advocates for the preservation, care, and accessibility of historical records and resources of all kinds, including intangible cultural resources.
2. Public historians should carry out historical research and present historical evidence with integrity.
3. Public historians should strive to be culturally inclusive in the practice of history and in the presentation of history.
4. Public historians should be fully cognizant of the purpose or purposes for which their work is intended, recognizing that research-based decisions and actions may have long-term consequences.
5. Public historians should maintain a conscious regard for the interpersonal dynamics inherent in historical practice.

THE PUBLIC HISTORIANS’ RESPONSIBILITY TO CLIENTS AND EMPLOYERS

Public historians have a responsibility to perform work competently, diligently, creatively, and independently in pursuit of a client’s or employer’s interest, and a corollary responsibility to assure that such performance is consistent with their service to the public interest.

1. A public historian should respect the decisions of a client or employer concerning the objectives and nature of the professional services to be performed unless such performance involves conduct which is illegal, immoral, or unethical.
2. A public historian should maintain exclusive supervision over historical research studies and investigations.
3. A public historian should exercise independent professional judgment on behalf of a client and employer.
4. A public historian should not solicit prospective clients or employment through the use of false or misleading claims, harassment, or duress.
5. A public historian should not offer professional services by stating or implying an ability to influence decisions by improper means.
6. A public historian should not accept or continue to perform work that is beyond his or her professional competence.
7. A public historian should not perform work if there is an actual, apparent, or reasonably foreseeable conflict of interest, or an appearance of impropriety, without full written disclosure to the affected client/s or employer/s.
8. A public historian is obligated not to disclose information gained in a professional relationship when the client or employer has requested such information to be held confidential. Exceptions to the principle of non-disclosure must be made when required by process of law. Exceptions may be made when disclosure would prevent a violation of law or prevent a substantial injustice to the public interest. In such instances, a public historian must verify the facts and issues of the circumstance and, when practicable, make every reasonable effort to obtain separate opinions from other qualified professionals employed by the client or employer and every reasonable effort to obtain reconsideration from the client or employer.
9. A public historian should not use the power of any office or professional relationship to seek or obtain a special advantage that is not in the public interest.

THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE PROFESSION AND TO COLLEAGUES

Public historians should contribute to the development of the historical profession by advancing knowledge and improving methods, systems, procedures, and technical applications. More broadly, public historians should respect the professional views of their colleagues and peers in all professional fields. Public historians should strive to increase the diversity of the profession to reflect more closely the demographics of society. Equally important, public historians should strive to increase public understanding of the practice of public history.

1. A public historian should accurately represent the qualifications, views, and findings of colleagues.
2. A public historian should have a working knowledge of the methods, principles, and standards pertinent to specialized practice fields as appropriate to projects undertaken for clients or employers.  A public historian also should be familiar with the broadly applicable Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct adopted by the American Historical Association.
3. A public historian should approach each research problem as unique, examine the applicability of research theories and methods to the facts and analysis of each particular situation, and use methods appropriate for each situation.
4. A public historian also should analyze each research problem within an appropriate body of scholarship drawn from all pertinent disciplines.
5. A public historian should share the results of experience and research that contribute to the body of public historical knowledge.
6. A public historian who reviews the work of other professionals should do so in a fair, considerate, and respectful manner.
7. A public historian should contribute time and information to the professional development of students, interns, beginning professionals, and other colleagues.
8. A public historian should welcome opportunities to represent cultural diversity in his or her work and to enfold members of underrepresented groups into the profession.

THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN’S SELF-RESPONSIBILITY

High standards of professional integrity, knowledge, and proficiency are the hallmarks of excellence in public history.

1. A public historian should represent professional qualifications and education accurately and fully.
2. A public historian should incorporate continuing education into his or her professional development.
3. A public historian should respect the rights of others.
4. A public historian should not discriminate against others.
5. A public historian should not deliberately commit a wrongful act which adversely affects his or her professional fitness.
6. A public historian should critically examine personal issues of social conscience as distinct from issues of ethical practice.

The Movement of Movements Thesis, Invisibility Mapping and the Connection Between Venezuela and Antifa

This article will introduce the American Public to some of the finer points of Left-Wing Social theory and will introduce the American Public to a political party that’s worked inside America without any fanfare for over a decade, the United Socialist Party of America, or PSUA for short.

The Movements of Movements thesis attests to its likely existence; while Invisibility Mapping helps proves it. Using Antifa, a group that the United States Congress has sought to unmask, as a case study in invisibility mapping I will illustrate the connection between them, the PSUA and Venezuela.

Building the Base, with a Regional Focus

The Multitude, the Movement of Movements, the Grassroots; the People; Mi Gente – archival research and data science proves these are not just random solidarity alliances converging. There are many traces over many places & troves of data showing a guiding order to American Socialism – Venezuela.

In future publications, which you can learn about by following me here, I will show how the PSUA developed in large part due to the material and symbolic assistance of Venezuela via Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro; the media company of which they are the President on Record – TeleSUR; TeleSURs state partners in Nicaragua, Cuba, Iran, and Russia; TeleSURs political party partners across the world; Venezuela’s official political and cultural attaches in the United States and elsewhere; media colectivos and encuentros organized via Bolivarian Circulo members abroad and Bolivarian Collectivos in Venezuela; Academic colectivos organized through the Cuba-based Red de Intellectuals; identity-based activism groups targeted by Bolivarian-supported Communist Entryists; the development of novel software and digital services; and more.

Five Fingers, One Fist: The Movement of Movement Thesis

To develop political action networks in the United States that would spread political unrest to use for its benefit, a variety of actors working on behalf Venezuelan Intelligence Services infiltrated a variety of U.S. and international organizations and institutions. Their goal? Set the conditions for Revolution.

Hugo Chavez never hid his intentions to help export revolution across the American continent. Proof of this is evident in the new name adopted by Venezuela, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; his interest in founding a new Socialist International; the behavior of TeleSUR – the face of Venezuela’s Intelligence Apparatus; as well as myriad Bolivarian Government documents.

Using Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci’s writing as a guide and the oil-income from the PSVSA (the state oil company of Venezuela) – which has now moved their offices to Russia – Hugo and later his successor Nicolas Maduro Moros flattered political and cultural actors while also paying for participation in their world-altering quest to gain control of Latin America. While unable to ever economically develop their own country in the manner  promised by PSUV (the United Socialist Party of Venezuela – Nicolas Maduro’s party); the net effect of this concerted political influence effort in North America was the creation of a counter-hegemonic political force that operated within North America, but at the behest of Venezuela. The name for this movement of movements is called the PSUA, or United Socialist Party of America.

Invisibility Mapping: An Algorithmic-based Rationale for Evidence

Does Red Scare 3.0 mean Venezuela 6.0? Only time will tell…

Having learned from the Soviet Union’s attempt to influence American politics, the directors of Project PSUA – the name that I’ve given to Venezuela Intelligence’s influence campaign in America – decided not to limit their support to one or two parties, but instead gave material or symbolic support to many parties, movements and individuals. Akin to Chairman Mao’s Hundred Flowers Campaign, they drew together a motley-crew of grassroots activists to help form and direct the new movement for socialism in America.

Proving this is difficult, especially so as many of the people involved refuse to talk about it, but it’s not impossible. There are a variety of ways of doing this, which the University of Washington has done and that I have demonstrated elsewhere. One method, however, the is likely to be novel to many people is called Invisibility Mapping.

Invisibility Mapping is the term of an algorithmic concept that I picked up from one of my favorite TV series, Star Trek: Discovery. When facing an invisible enemy, the crew decides to activate the ships spore drive hundreds of times around its enemy in order to gather small bits of information so that it may calculate a means of circumventing these “security culture” defenses. By getting small bits of information from a large sample size – new data emerges. Let’s see how this works in action.

Invisibility Mapping, Antifa and Venezuela

Refuse Fascism is one of many front groups for the Revolutionary Communist Party. They are aligned with Venezuela through ideological affinities as well as via institutional connections such as the Alliance for Global Justice Alliance – the new iteration of the Nicaragua Network, as well as Hands Off Venezuela. While they are open about their desire to help bring about violent socialist revolution in the United States, they are quiet about the nature of their relationship to other groups such as Redneck Revolt; John Brown Gun Club and the Hampton Insitute and The Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Communist Party and the Workers World Party. All defend and justify the acts of Antifa, and yet none of the claim open membership.

I state this not to claim that Bob Avakian is mastermind and bank for all their activity. He’s not. Nicolas Maduro is. He is, to quote Killer Mike, “the man behind the man behind the man behind the throne.”

Invisibility Mapping: The Antifa Case Study

Venezuela’s Imperialist Designs for Latin America; Nicolas Maduro speaking at the first International Antifascist Meetings Ever, held in Caracas in 2013; the Software which PSUC activists aligned with the PCV use to ensure political compliance by the Venezuelan populace.

How to test this hypothesis? Well I decided to write Rose City Antifa in order to try to verify it.

I sent them an email stating who I am and what my interest was, but they were did not respond. Understandable. Answering my surveys it would quickly validate the movement of movements thesis – something that those involved don’t want.

Nevertheless, the communique and projected survey outlined below shows how it is that one is able to map the invisible.

I share it here now so that the concept is better understood by my readers.

The Below is a copy of an email that I sent the leader of Rose City Antifa.

RCA,

You’re welcome to state that this line of questioning is silly and dismissing this investigation as a conspiracy-minded, though to be honest I can’t locate the humor.
Also, I feel compelled to point out that not only is it counter-intuitive that people/groups with similar political affinities would AVOID working together, history is ripe with historical examples of international leftist organizations working together (a portion of my master’s thesis from NYU on American political economic development charted the fates of American leftist parties based on their international alliances/domestic orientation) and the data related to the matter at hand I’ve organized thus far from publicly available sources is crystal clear in it’s implications.
That said, I hope you won’t mind providing me with clarification on a point as it relates to your decision-making process to decline my request.
I understand that Antifa tries to operate according to a consensus model:
Did you convey my request to other members of the organization for discussion and a collective decision, or are you claiming to speak on their behalf without having consulted them? And if not, why?
I understand security is a concern of yours but I’m interested in pursuing the truth, not political points.
I would not be including questions about specific demos or activities as this is not some ruse to entrap anyone – hence my personal introduction from the beginning – and participants would be free to skip whatever questions they didn’t want to answer. I’m just interested in being able to visualize the relationships between movements and parties so if, as you say, there is no relation then data would show that.
If anything, I think that were your and your comrades to agree to my request the results would show that the people involved in Antifa have a variety of humanitarian concerns beyond just de-platforming Nazis.
I hope this gives you room to reconsider my request.
Regards,
Ariel Sheen

 

On Feb 18, 2019, at 2:09 AM, Rose City Antifa <fight_them_back@riseup.net> wrote:

Hi,
No that is not feasible. This is a very silly line of questioning. I am
not going to waste of both of our time to go through and counter these
weird points and flimsy “evidence”. The right-wing loves a conspiracy
theory and this tendency is largely impervious to reason.
///
RCA

On 2019-02-15 18:25, Ariel Sheen wrote:

RCA,

Thanks for your prompt and informative response!

Based on it, I think that I did a poor job of communicating what I was
looking to learn by contacting you. My bad.

First, let me clarify that I haven’t encountered any evidence that
would lead me to believe that you or your particular Antifa group is
receiving money or instructions from Venezuela and that I believe you
when you describe your fundraising and volunteer efforts.

The same can’t be said, however, for Latin American Antifacists; nor
for PODEMOS in Spain; nor anarchist groups in Pais Vasco; nor for
Philly Antifa; nor for a number of other American groups.

I’m glad I could make you laugh about being part of an
“international communist conspiracy” but considering the above;
the previous information I shared; that Maduro now claims that the
Trump administration is the KKK and the Lima group are Nazis; and how
in Mark Bray’s book Antifa he claims:

“The only long-term solution to the fascist menace is to undermine
its pillars of strength in society grounded not only in white
supremacy but also in ableism, heteronormativity, patriarchy,
nationalism, transphobia, class rule, and many others. This long-term
goal points to the tensions that exist in defining anti-fascism,
because at a certain point destroying fascism is really about
promoting a revolutionary socialist alternative (in my opinion one
that is antiauthoritarian and nonhierarchical) to a world of crisis,
poverty, famine, and war that breeds fascist reaction.”

I think it’s rational to make the connection between the Bolivarian
Revolution’s goals for a new world order and an American group that
wants a revolutionary socialist alternative which aligns with those
goals. Right?

To repeat – I have no basis to make any claim that you or your group
is anything other than an organic expression of activism emerging from
your interpretation of the present – which is why I’m reaching out
to you and not Philly Antifa.

That said, let me clarify what I’d really like to know:

I’d be interested to know, as a percent of total, which of your
“members” are also members of?
The Revolutionary Communist Party
The Party for Socialism and Liberation
Workers World Party
Democratic Socialists of America
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
And other Leftist Factions, like Revolutionary Abolutionism Movement

I’d be interested to know, as a percent of total, which of your
“members” have gone to:
United States Social Forums
Regional Social Forums
World Social Forums
People’s Movement Assemblies
Left Forum
Academic Marxist Conferences
Etc.

I’d be interested to know, as a percent of total, which of your
“members” are or were involved with:
Bolivarian Circles
Hands Off Venezuela
Refuse Fascism
The Poor People’s Campaign
Occupy Wall Street (or regional iteration)
Project South

South to South
The Praxis Project
Alliance for Global Justice
Union Del Barrio
Grassroots Global Justice
Jobs with Justice
Derechos para Todos
The People’s Freedom Caravan
Crimethinc
Critical Resistance (There is a Portland Chapter)
All of Us or None
Rural Organizing
Jobs with Justice
Nicaragua Network
Code Pink
Black Lives Matters
Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee
And a few more along those lines I could throw it into a Google
Survery, which allows for anonymous responses,  provided you agreed to
share such a line of questioning.

Is this something that seems more feasible?

The PSUA & Antifa: Venezuela’s Rear-Guard

As you can tell by the survey, which is based on research into Venezuela’s interaction with American political movements, parties, political actors and sympathizers – they’ve been able to help create and direct a vast network of American activists.

The evidence that they do this is in their literature – however those that participate refuse to share about their behavior as to do so would be to admit this networks’ existance as well as the existance of a political party – the PSUA – that they would rather keep secret.