Reinaldo Iturriza
When you’re forty-five with a revolution on your back, it is really difficult to prevent words from being sprinkled with a certain instructive tone. Without wanting to, without even realizing it, I suppose that on more occasions than desirable, I speak or write with an air of sufficiency that must not be very pleasant for the interlocutor.
It becomes complicated when one believes in the obligation to tell the story of the Bolivarian revolution, its antecedents, its greatness and misery, its possible paths. Several times I have referred to the fact that this was precisely what motivated me to write regularly: to tell my part of a story that seemed scarce or poorly told to me. There were too many loose ends, details that were overlooked, extraordinary episodes that risked being forgotten.
Besides, it is my part of a history that is my own story. Having the opportunity to tell it, I simply did not intend to miss the occasion to offer my version of the facts.
Now that I think about it, beyond any pretense of truth, I also write with the purpose of accompanying and being accompanied. However, I try not to forget Horacio Quiroga’s recommendation: “Don’t think about your friends when writing, nor about the impression your story will make. Otherwise, one can discover oneself writing what others want to read, which is not always what needs to be told. Pleasing the audience can be a form of deception, especially with oneself.
I said that in my circumstances it is difficult to avoid the sobering tone and to speak or write with an air of sufficiency. But you have to work hard, do your best.
Because the truth is that there is much to learn from those who preceded us and also, although it may not seem so, from those who will follow us.
With all this in mind, I dare to suggest some guidelines for the thinking and action of younger militants:
- Do not be ashamed of your popular class origin. If they are going to declassify, it is because they come from the middle or upper class and decided to renounce their class privileges. That doesn’t mean conforming or living badly at all. It means fighting for the whole of society to live better, and not just a small part of it. You did not become militants to solve your own material problems and those of your small group, family or friends and acquaintances.
- Be wary of those who talk about revolution and amass privileges. Do not sell yourself to the highest bidder. Do not become anyone’s client. Do not get close to the powerful, do not believe that it is only possible to survive under the protective mantle of those who occupy management positions. You are not to be a victim of anything or anyone. Do not be dazzled by the power of those who snap fingers and solve a problem. Do not be carried away by siren calls or snake charmers.
- Think with your own head. Do not underestimate yourself. You have a minimal notion of what is right and wrong, of what is correct and incorrect. You made a political decision for a reason. Read, study. Suspect those who are lax with values and principles.
- If you occupy a position of responsibility, do not settle there. Often, the best way to know if you are doing the right thing is if you win the animosity of the negative leaderships, of the most corrupted elements. In the face of power, and when exercising it, always be subversive. Notice who applauds you and who vilifies you. You are not militating to crown positions, to occupy them indefinitely.
- Power is transitory. Life goes round and round. Be people!
- When doubts assail you, which will be many times, listen to the ordinary people. Be able to learn from them. Do not distance yourself from the reality of the street, because it is the great teacher of politics.
- Do not become repeaters of slogans. Your task is to create, to invent. Revolution is virgin land and a thousand problems. Problems are not solved with hollow, empty, repetitive discourses, without imagination. These, on the contrary, do a disservice to the revolution and a very great service to the state of things we want to change.
- You are not here to play the role of a mass movement or a captive public in actions and rallies. Do not feel compelled to fill in someone else’s mise en scène. Be wary of platforms and lecterns.
- Do not be timorous, but audacious. Don’t play the role of those sad characters who call themselves revolutionaries, but the facts betray them as hardened conservatives.
- Respect the diversity of thought, the difference of opinions. Be receptive to criticism. Do not entrench yourself in indefensible positions simply because it is the opinion of your small group. If they are going to be intransigent, let it be for a worthwhile cause.
- Show reverential respect for people who fight. Don’t underestimate them. Do not belittle them, do not point them out, do not censor them. If you are going to make a mistake, let it be with the people who fight, and not by siding with those who turn their backs on them, for convenience, for cowardice, because their interests are being affected.
- Do not be afraid to say what you feel and think you ought to say, because you will be despised, singled out or censored. A politically honest militant is uncomfortable by nature. With time one learns to have a sense of opportunity, to proceed intelligently. But keep in mind that the best option will never be to remain silent, to look the other way, to pretend not to understand.
- Believe in the Commune as the horizon of realization of the Bolivarian, Robinsoniano, Zamorista, Chavista, Socialist ideology.
Know how to excuse the historical detour or if these guides seem to you to be very impertinent or controversial. These are some of the things one has learned, and believe me when I tell you that I have no other intention than to accompany you, to open the way for you. You are not alone.
