Now that all the uncritical supporters of the Venezuelan government have become full-blown Assadists, we can get back to basics, not to mention reality, in assessing the character of the Venezuelan government & the mass protests against it.

We’re so used to their vituperations against us on Assad that when they start in defending Maduro it will be like white noise. They’ve picked up that unfortunate intellectual habit of sucking up to power so de rigueur to Stalinist politics.

People think Stalinism died with the collapse of the Soviet Union. We can call it anything you like but the term signifies a political method that’s still alive & strong, particularly in assessments of Latin American neoliberal regimes & most certainly in Syria.