Notes from the Editors, May 2013

Abstract

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Millions of people throughout the world mourned the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on March 5, 2013. Monthly Review responded at the time with numerous pieces posted on MRzine. We would like, however, to record here briefly something of MR's own special relationship to the late president, and what we think constitutes his indelible legacy to socialism in the twenty-first century. MR's unique connection to Chávez was largely through the influence of István Mészáros—whose relationship to Chávez stretched back for over twenty years, and whom Chávez called "the pathfinder of 21st century socialism"—and through Marta Harnecker and Michael Lebowitz, who both served as consultants to Chávez.… More than a decade followed in which the socialist revolution under Chávez moved forward, creating huge material, social, and cultural improvements for the Venezuelan population, and vastly increased the power of the people over their own lives through new socialist institutions…. The most vital revolutionary achievement in these years was the introduction of the famous "communal councils"—the general idea for which, as Chávez himself stressed on numerous occasions, was taken from Mészáros's Beyond Capital.

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