My name is Michael O'Callaghan, and I'm a UK citizen. I live in Northern Ireland and recently voted on the parliamentary elections (I voted for the SDLP and would have voted Labour if you ran candidates here). I believe, passionately, about many of the proposals in your party's manifesto and believe that social justice and a dignified standard of living can be achieved for all without killing the economy.
I guess those things make me, on some level, a socialist.
I was born and raised in Caracas (my father is from Belfast, my mother from Venezuela). For a long time, I couldn't stomach the word socialism. For me and for many Venezuelans that word had been hijacked by Chavismo. It was synonymous not only with the idea of social justice but also with populism, cronyism, corruption and authoritarianism.
It was only in recent days that the world as a whole has woken up to that; after the shocking and blatant fraud of the Constituent Assembly. But for many of us watching and living it more closely a more subtle authoritarianism has been going on for years. When Chávez used to mock, insult and bully his critics rather than answer direct questions about rising crime rates and how his policies, while perhaps well intentioned, were creating huge distortions in the economy and huge inflation, even before the drop in oil price; when he used to expropriate private companies on a whim and then run them to the ground or demand that farmers keep prices low while offering no subsidies for their costs, and so killing all of the country's productive capacity for anything except oil, then turning PDVSA into an employment agency for government loyalists; When he used a list of signatures of people who wanted to recall him in a witch hunt that saw many of those people lose their jobs and be persecuted; or when he blatantly broke electoral rules using tons of state money for campaigns and turning government ministries into branches of his party; or when he armed pro-government community groups and turned them into paramilitaries that would try to scare people away from voting booths in opposition areas and force people to vote in pro-government ones.
For all his alleged charm, Chávez was a bully to those who opposed him. He did his best to discredit media that disagreed with him and drown the news he didn't like with his own propaganda-filled speeches, frequently interrupting live TV with no warning. Trump's cries of fake news and conspiracies against him are worrisome warning markers for those of us who lived through Chávez.
It was people like you and Bernie Sanders that made me believe, as you did with many young people, that socialism didn't need to look like that. That the options are not just hard capitalism and hard communism. I have since spent a fair bit of energy arguing that point with many Venezuelans who would turn to the far Right out of disgust for their experience with the far Left.
The world's rational Left needs strong leaders guided by principles who have respect for democratic institutions. Leaders who can discredit claims that socialism must lead to dictatorship or to communism.
I have felt, in recent months, that you could be a leader like that. But to do that you must make clear not only what you are, but also what you are not.
It should not be difficult to condemn Nicolas Maduro. You can know a democrat by how he behaves when he loses. You can know an aspiring dictator not by his economic policy but by how he tackles his opponents. You cannot put a few frustrated and sometimes violent youthful demonstrators (amongst millions of peaceful ones) on the same level with members of the National Guard turning weapons on unarmed civilians. Of course we all condemn violence on all sides, but the sides are not equal. You are asking those who are being brutalized by security forces to share in the blame; and that is simply not right.
I was born and raised in Caracas (my father is from Belfast, my mother from Venezuela). For a long time, I couldn't stomach the word socialism. For me and for many Venezuelans that word had been hijacked by Chavismo. It was synonymous not only with the idea of social justice but also with populism, cronyism, corruption and authoritarianism.
It was only in recent days that the world as a whole has woken up to that; after the shocking and blatant fraud of the Constituent Assembly. But for many of us watching and living it more closely a more subtle authoritarianism has been going on for years. When Chávez used to mock, insult and bully his critics rather than answer direct questions about rising crime rates and how his policies, while perhaps well intentioned, were creating huge distortions in the economy and huge inflation, even before the drop in oil price; when he used to expropriate private companies on a whim and then run them to the ground or demand that farmers keep prices low while offering no subsidies for their costs, and so killing all of the country's productive capacity for anything except oil, then turning PDVSA into an employment agency for government loyalists; When he used a list of signatures of people who wanted to recall him in a witch hunt that saw many of those people lose their jobs and be persecuted; or when he blatantly broke electoral rules using tons of state money for campaigns and turning government ministries into branches of his party; or when he armed pro-government community groups and turned them into paramilitaries that would try to scare people away from voting booths in opposition areas and force people to vote in pro-government ones.
For all his alleged charm, Chávez was a bully to those who opposed him. He did his best to discredit media that disagreed with him and drown the news he didn't like with his own propaganda-filled speeches, frequently interrupting live TV with no warning. Trump's cries of fake news and conspiracies against him are worrisome warning markers for those of us who lived through Chávez.
It was people like you and Bernie Sanders that made me believe, as you did with many young people, that socialism didn't need to look like that. That the options are not just hard capitalism and hard communism. I have since spent a fair bit of energy arguing that point with many Venezuelans who would turn to the far Right out of disgust for their experience with the far Left.
The world's rational Left needs strong leaders guided by principles who have respect for democratic institutions. Leaders who can discredit claims that socialism must lead to dictatorship or to communism.
I have felt, in recent months, that you could be a leader like that. But to do that you must make clear not only what you are, but also what you are not.
It should not be difficult to condemn Nicolas Maduro. You can know a democrat by how he behaves when he loses. You can know an aspiring dictator not by his economic policy but by how he tackles his opponents. You cannot put a few frustrated and sometimes violent youthful demonstrators (amongst millions of peaceful ones) on the same level with members of the National Guard turning weapons on unarmed civilians. Of course we all condemn violence on all sides, but the sides are not equal. You are asking those who are being brutalized by security forces to share in the blame; and that is simply not right.
You also say that you support an independent judiciary and respect for constitutional law, but seem to turn a blind eye to the Maduro government's blatant disregard for these principles, which have been widely condemned not only in Venezuela but by respected organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as regional groupings including the OAS and Mercosur.
You are seen by many as a man above traditional politics who is willing to give clear answers rather than always deflect. I'm telling you, as someone who feels invested in your program for the future, it would be better simply to say that while you may have supported Maduro in the past, believing that Chavismo would do good, it has now become clear that power is their primary goal. Admitting that you were fooled by them is only admitting to something that millions fell prey to but are now waking up from. But to shy away from condemnation now is to put your commitment to human rights and democracy in doubt.
I implore you to do the right thing, and put out a new, stronger statement on the Labour party's stance on the situation in Venezuela.
As a great man once said, we are responsible not only for what we say, but for what we do not say.
Thank you for your time.
Michael O'Callaghan.
I implore you to do the right thing, and put out a new, stronger statement on the Labour party's stance on the situation in Venezuela.
As a great man once said, we are responsible not only for what we say, but for what we do not say.
Thank you for your time.
Michael O'Callaghan.
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