On Marta Harnecker (1937-2019)

Published in Science & Society, July 2020

by Steve Ellner

On June 14 last year, Marta Harnecker died after a lengthy bout with cancer. She was survived by her husband, the economist and writer Michael A. Lebowitz, and her daughter, Cuban professor and writer Camila Piñeiro Harnecker.  Marta Harnecker played a major role in the formulation and, to a certain extent, the execution of strategies employed by the Latin American left since the 1970s. What is impressive about Harnecker’s trajectory was her willingness to critically examine her own thinking and that of much of the Latin American left and adapt to changing conditions in the continent and the world. During the time she lived in Venezuela, I personally observed her receptivity to new ideas and the interest and utmost care she displayed in evaluating them.

Harnecker’s initial political involvement was in the Christian movement in high school and then the Universidad Católica in her native Chile. She then undertook graduate study in the mid-1960s in Paris. There she developed an intimate intellectual relationship with Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, who she revered throughout her life. During her stay, Harnecker translated into Spanish two major works of Althusser (For Marx and Reading Capital [which he co-authored]), both published in Mexico by Siglo XXI. Years later Harnecker recalled that Althusser taught her that “the theoretical potential of [Marx’s] works had been underutilized” in contrast to “dogmatic interpretations” which considered them a “finished” product (Harnecker, 2018). Harnecker’s first book, the famous Los conceptos elementales del materialismo histórico, which included quotes from Mao, Stalin and Althusser, was influenced by the structuralism of Althusser, the May 1968 protests in Paris and the guerrilla movements in Latin America. The “Manual,” as it was widely referred to, became essential reading for Latin American leftists and students and subsequently went through numerous editions, which contained revisions reflecting the evolution in Harnecker’s thinking.  

Returning to Chile, Harnecker joined the Socialist Party and under the Allende government headed its commission of political formation. Although developing close relations with leaders of factions on the left end of the governing alliance, she supported Allende’s thesis that for the electoral road to socialism to be feasible “the majority of the population,” in her words “had to be on your side, and I’m not sure that the left [as a whole] understood this” (Harnecker, 2018).  

During this period, Harnecker met famed Cuban security chief Manuel Piñeiro and after the 1973 coup moved to Cuba where they got married. Piñeiro headed the Cuban Communist Party’s “Americas Department,” facilitating Harneckers close contact with leftist leaders throughout the continent. Harnecker published Cuba: dictadura o democracia in which she defended Cuba’s democratic qualities but called for a deepening process. Specifically, she advocated decentralization as a corrective to tasks proposed by the national leadership that are “not always within its reach,” such as the goal of the 10 million-ton sugar harvest in 1970 (Harnecker, 1979, 208).

Harnecker reacted to the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the unfriendly environment created by neoliberalism, by questioning the ability of the Latin American left to reach power during the current “ultraconservative” stage. Instead, she advocated prioritizing the local arena and pointed to leftist electoral inroads at that level in Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica and El Salvador. She criticized the opposing view of “the most radical sectors” on the left for writing off these efforts to, in their words, “‘administer capitalism’” (Harnecker, 1999, 291-92; 2005a, 150). In assuming these positions, Harnecker undertook a careful reading of subjective and objective conditions (Ellner, 2004, 21-23, 28-31) – what many on the left often stop short of doing. Ironically, it was Hugo Chávez – the standard bearer of “twenty-first century socialism” which was to heavily influence Harnecker’s thinking – who followed a bolder, alternative approach. Not only did he organize a military coup just weeks after the fall of the Soviet Union, but he adamantly opposed the local-based strategy advocated by Harnecker (Chávez, 1998, 309).

Several years after the tragic death of Piñeiro, Harnecker traveled to Venezuela with Lebowitz, where they lived for seven years. During this time, she frequently met with Chávez and provided advice to the Venezuelan president, whose ideas were constantly evolving. Her book-length interview with Chávez, conducted shortly after the abortive coup of April 2002, was released by Monthly Review Press, which also published her A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism and her co-authored Planning from Below (Harnecker, 2005b; 2015; Harnecker and Bartolomé, 2019). In her works during these years, she emphasized the participatory aspects of “twenty-first century socialism,” which in her opinion was “far removed from the Soviet model” (Harnecker, 2012; 2015, 186), but not that of Cuba (her original enthusiasm for perestroika soured – Harnecker, 1987, 15-19; 1992, 64; 1999, 68-70). She argued that the essence of socialism was “human development,” consisting of the cultural enrichment of individuals, and in doing so made references to the works of Lebowitz on the subject (2010). Along these lines, she called “collectivism,” as defined by “that which suppresses the differences among each member of society in the name of the collective,” contrary to democratic socialism and a “flagrant deformation of Marxism” (Harnecker, 2010, 41; 2015, 57). Her Planning from Below is a practical guide for local planning in which, as in the case of Venezuela, the “more positive impacts have come…from people developing their own plan at the community level” (Harnecker and Bartolomé, 2019, 38).

Some on the left may criticize Harnecker for having abandoned a specific strategy to which they adhere. The real issue at stake is to what extent do revolutionaries – and Marxists in particular – stick to immutable principles and laws and to what extent do they make adjustments based on their reading of the times. The essential component of Marxism that cannot be subject to adjustment is support for ongoing struggle on the path to achieving revolutionary socialism – in contrast to social democratic thinking which minimizes the importance of class confrontation. In this sense, Marta Harnecker was a true Marxist whose theorizing emerged from her contact with, and immersion in, class and revolutionary struggles. Harnecker’s changes were in tandem with changes in the region and the world, but throughout her adult life she was consistent in her basic convictions and behavior and unwavering in her commitment.

REFERENCES

Chávez, Hugo. 1998. Habla el comandante. Caracas: UCV.

Ellner, Steve. 2004. “Leftist Goals and the Debate over Anti-Neoliberal Strategy in Latin America.” Science & Society, 68: 1 (Spring), 10-32.

Harnecker, Marta. 1979 [1975]. Cuba: Dictadura o democracia? Havana: n.p.

_________. 1987 Perestroika: La revolución de las esperanzas. http://www.rebelion.org/docs/90189.pdf

_________. 1992. “Democracy and Revolutionary Movement.” Social Justice, 19: 4 (Winter), 60-73.

_________. 1999. Haciendo Posible lo Imposible. La Izquierda en el Umbral del Siglo XX.  Mexico: Siglo XXI.

________. 2005a. “On Leftist Strategy.” Science & Society, 65: 2 (April), 142-152.

________. 2005b Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution: Hugo Chávez Talks of Marta Harnecker. New York: Monthly Review Press.

________. 2010. América Latina y el socialismo del siglo XXI. Santiago, Chile: Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos para el Desarrollo Humano. https://inedhdotcl.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/al-y-el-socialismo-del-siglo-xxi_marta-harnecker.pdf

_________. 2012. “Conquering a New Popular Hegemony.” Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal. http://links.org.au/node/3038

_________. 2015. A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism. New York: Monthly Review Press.  

_________. 2018 [interviewed by Rodrigo Ruiz]. “Marta Harnecker: Marxism, revolución y la izquierda.” Rebelión.org (November 28). http://www.rebelion.org/docs/249537.pdf

Harnecker, Marta and José Bartolomé. 2019. Planning from Below: A Decentralized Participatory Planning Proposal. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Lebowitz, Michael. 2010. The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development. New York: Monthly Review Press.