MAIN THEMES IN MY ACADEMIC WRITING OVER THE YEARS

Since my first academic article titled "Venezuelan Political Parties in the Era of the Popular Front, l936-l945," published in the Journal of Latin American Studies in l979, I have explored and defended various key themes and theses in my scholarly writing. One has to do with factionalism on the left and indeed across the political spectrum. I find that issues of substance lie beneath the surface, even when personality differences and the struggle for power appear to be the sole explanations.  

Another thesis that appears in my more recent writings on Venezuela is that one of the main explanations for so-called “deviations” of the left in power (going back to the French Revolution) is that they are reactions and overreactions to the legal, semi-legal and illegal actions of a disloyal opposition with connections to external enemies. Indeed, the Jacobins in the 1790s faced hostile armies on their eastern border, mainly the Hapsburgs who were edged on by French aristocratic émigrés, who demanded a firm reaction to the revolutionaries in power (an expression of international solidarity?). Napoleon began his rise by crushing a subversive movement within France and then fighting foreign armies. In short the Reign of Terror and militarization that spelled the doom of the French Revolution were largely responses to the enemy at home and abroad. A similar pattern can be noted in revolutionary struggles in the twentieth century and the Venezuelan case in the twenty-first.

This recently updated Wikipedia entry summarizes the main themes in my writings over a period of four decades.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Ellner

The Popularity Ratings of President Nicolás Maduro’s International Critics

With corporate media’s barrage of attacks on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, you’d never know that the leaders who are getting quoted the most in the denunciations of Venezuela have abysmal popularity ratings, in some cases lower than that of Maduro: Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto approval is 15%; Brazil’s Michel Temer approval is 3%; Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos’ approval is 16%; Peru’s Pedro Pablo Kuzzynski was at 22% a few months ago before improving by a few notches; and Spain's Rajoy’s is 29% (as of August).

ISN’T THERE A TIE-IN BETWEEN MASS SHOOTINGS AND THE MILITARIZATION OF THE U.S., BOTH HOME AND ABROAD?

ISN’T IT TIME FOR A NATIONAL DEBATAE ON VIOLENCE?

After the Sutherland Springs, Texas incident (and many more before it) a national debate is very much needed. But the corporate media, true to form, fails to facilitate it. After reading or listening to reports on the incident, most people simply conclude that this was just a nut case. And it was, but the question is, why is a rash of these incidents occurring now in the U.S. and not at other times and places. There is a terrible incongruity in the right wing reaction and that of Trump in particular, as well as media reporting and the pro-establishment narrative. When the assassin is a Muslim, the right immediately calls for policy measures in the form of immigration restrictions. When the assassin is white, then they call for prayers, while any discussion of policy is considered “premature.”  

Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” has opened a necessary discussion about domestic violence. In many cases, such as that of Devin Patrick Kelley, there is a tie in between mass shooting and domestic violence. 

But I believe there is another key issue that needs unpacking, and that is the militarization of the United States with manifestations all over the place. The starting point of the discussion has to be U.S. military presence throughout the world. We have military bases everyplace, we deploy soldiers in hot spots all over the world and the Pentagon tells us that this is a war that is going to take half a century to win. To begin with it’s an undeclared war, since at no point did the Pentagon or the White House, get consent from the U.S. people or even from Congress. It’s not a coincidence that many of the assassins, from Timothy McVeigh to Devin Patrick Kelley, had experience in the U.S. military. The media never underlines or sheds light on this fact. But militarization is the real issue and it has to be dealt with. It’s not going to go away.