HUGO CHAVEZ AND HISTORY OF THE 21ST C- by Abiodun Olamosu

Hugo Chavez is a clear manifestatiaon of the role an individual can play in revolutionary change of society. As a matter of fact Marxists place premium and emphasis on the working class as the motive force of social change but in the course of practice it has been realised that the subjective factor that include organisation, classes and class relations, ideology, leadership, individuals etc are equally important to achieve social change as revolution. 

Trotsky was known to have put this position in perspective when he decleared that without Lenin there would not have been Russian revolution. This position must be situated within the context of an individual being part and product of the objective condition that produced him/er. It is within this context that Engels posited that without Marx and himself and his generation of Marxists laying the foundation for Marxism that he believed that this would have been done by some other people if not in the immediate but certainly in the future period.

 The way Marx and Engels separately arrived at the same conclusion on varied issues before they later came to know each other and collaborated for the rest of their lives; go a long way to justify this assertion by Engels. The point is that Chavez was thrown by history to provide the required leadership for the world oppressed working people (note, beyond the geographical region of Venezuela and Latin America) at a time imperialism thought an end has been put to socialism with the demise of Stalinism nicknamed socialism in former Soviet Union. 

With Chavez, it became clearer that so far capitalism exists causing untold hardship on the marginalised and working people across the world, the capitalists shall have no rest in the face of being challenged by the forces of socialism personified by Chavez in the 21st century and thereafter until socialism is in place across the world

ABIODUN OLAMOSU ,wrote in from Ibadan