The Wake

Barack Obama’s victory last week spread lots of optimism throughout the world, including the socialist countries of South and Latin America. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a leader widely hated by the U.S. government, released a statement after the victory:

“We are convinced that the time has come to establish new relations between our two countries and in our region, based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, equality and true co-operation. The historic election of an African descendant to the head of the most powerful nation in the world is a symptom of a change in the epoch, which has emanated from South America, and could now be touching the gates of the U.S. itself.”

Chavez expressed hope for future the U.S.’s future relationship with Venezuela:

“From the homeland of Simón Bolívar, we are convinced the time has come to establish new relations between our countries and in our region, based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, equality and true cooperation.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales, one of Chavez’s biggest allies, praised the historic nature of the election.

“Mr. Obama’s triumph is really historic. We congratulate him on that triumph and we await the improvement in our (bilateral) relations in the future.”

Morales also called on Obama to withdraw U.S. troops in foreign countries and stop the embargo on Cuba, the latter of which Obama said he’d continue.

Closer to home, the more socialist Cuba had generous but bittersweet comments on Obama. In
May, former President Fidel Castro called Obama “doubtless, from the social and human points of view, the most progressive candidate to the U.S. presidency.” Castro characterized one of Obama’s speeches that’s critical of U.S. globalization as “magnificent” and said “we ought to thank him for it.”

But after analyzing Obama’s comments portraying Cuba as a country that “hasn’t seen independence in a long time,” Castro wrote, “I feel no resentment towards him, for he is not responsible for the crimes perpetrated against Cuba and humanity,” but went on to criticize Obama’s decision to uphold the embargo.

Socialist parties also expressed general cheerfulness.

Socialist International warmly welcomed the Obama victory and wrote that it “sees in it the hope for a world community based more on cooperation, mutual understanding and respect rather than antagonism and discord.”

It continued:

“Today the entire worldwide social democratic movement looks forward to working with all those in the United States who represent this renewed spirit of multilateral cooperation, progressive thinking and concerted action, the only way the challenges we face can be overcome.”

Socialist Appeal, the newspaper of the Trotskyist Worker’s International League, had a more Castro-like analysis of the situation that’s again bittersweet:

“Illusions in Obama are high at the moment, but it’s no accident that he raised far more corporate money than John McCain or that world stock markets have risen on news of his victory. He is Big Businesses’ choice to get them through the tough times ahead. Nonetheless, within the confines of the current U.S. electoral setup, his decisive victory represents a significant and healthy shift to the left.”

This flies in the face of less hard-lined socialist groups, like the Democratic Socialists of America, who endorsed Obama in the general election, despite the other three socialist (Calero, La Riva and Moore) and two pseudo-socialist (McKinney and Nader) candidates.

But all-in-all, last Tuesday the international socialist movement made a step — a small step, mind you, but a relieving step — forward.

Tags: Barack Obama, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, International socialism