I linked to Vcrisis not because I agree with everything it says but because it provided an account of the MIT gathering. (If anyone knows that account to be incorrect, and has more accurate information, please contact me.) If you want to believe that means Mr. Boyd is my “bedfellow,” I can’t do much about that.

And I’m going to close down the comments here before they get any further out of hand. Please feel free to continue the dialogue among yourselves via email.

Re advocating for violence yes I have mentioned in many occasions that in my view that is the only solution left for dealing with Chavez (who under no circumstance can be defined as a democrat), pretty much like he did in 1992 and for the same reasons I must add. Oh nearly forgot that only leftists have the right to rebel, stupid me…

Keep trying with the Home Office Tucker, you may get lucky one of these days!!

Brazil’s Lula da Silva pointed the way. Neither he nor Chavez will do enough to provoke an invasion or blatantly American-backed putsch, which Condi could hardly get away with anyhow after the bad karma accumulated in Iraq. In Mexico, whose illegal immigrants are quietly flooding SW America, the neoliberal reforms of Bush’s lame-duck buddy Pres. Fox have failed. Polls show that the more anti-American PRI enjoys over twice the support of Fox’s PAN party, with a presidential election in July ‘06.

Latin America is another reason, besides the looming standoff with China, why US forces should scram pronto from the desert quagmire and redeploy where they’re truly needed.

On 7th December 04, Boyd wrote on his website: “My ‘terrorist’ status derives from opinions of mine posted in this site with respect to what I consider to be the solution to deal with criminals such as Hugo Chavez, i.e. violence.”

Boyd is also an avowed racist. Last year, on the opposition website, Caracas Cronicles, he refered to Tariq Ali as “that Paki journalist”. When asked to withdraw this remark, Boyd refused, saying that it was perfectly acceptable to refer to “Pakis” in this way.

At least one formal complaint has been made to the Home Office requesting the deportation of Boyd from Britain, on the grounds of his support for terrorism and for breaking the terms of the Race Relatations Act which specifically outlaws “incitement to racial hatred”.

Gene certainly has some strange bedfellows.

Chavez has been elected (and won a recall) and his allies have got a majority in Parliament. If you sing the praises of elections in Iraq [as in the purple finger posts] then why not in Venezuala? Is it because you only support elections when they elect pro-American govts? There has been (in 2002) a coup against Chavez in which the US as well as the domestic elite tried to get rid of him. The US looks like taking the same approach to Venezuala that it took to Arbenez in Guatamala and Allende in Chile [i.e. allying with elements of the local elite to get rid of elected leaders].

Those who say they are on the left should be supporting efforts to tackle inequality, illiteracy and poor health among the venezualan poor; as the Chavez govt is doing even as they criticise the tendency to caudillismo in his leadership. To criticise the latter but not praise the former suggests you have no interest in the quality of life of the Venezualan poor and are buying into the US attempts and the attempts of the local right to undermine his regime.

What, pray, is wrong with going on the knock? Let’s start from first principles: a job is a job and the key to all jobs is to get as much brass out of them for as little effort as possible. Now, if a Cuban girl wants to earn a bob or two on her back, who am I to argue that she is daft?

It wasn’t that way in Cuba until the end of Comecon. Under that system folk did their hours as a kind of social duty – did their hours and got cheap housing, subsidised food and lots of holidays. (To me this is what socialism is mainly about.)

Now, thanks to to Russian stupidity, the country is on its own and has had to allow some capitalism in again. This being the case the basic rule of work as outlined in my first paragraph applies.

Harry, guess what? That’s not a Spanish word and so your point is lost – this isn’t the first time that your little sallies have missed, either. Try harder, eh?

Don’t happen to have one with Jose Mourinho on too by any chance?