https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/43293/Blame+capitalism+not+socialism+for+Venezuelas+crisis
Blame capitalism not socialism for Venezuela's crisis
by Dave Sewell
President Nicolas Maduro is turning to desperate authoritarian measures
President Nicolas Maduro is turning to desperate authoritarian measures
(Pic: Flickr/Global Panorama)
The right argue that if we vote for a socialist such as Jeremy Corbyn
then Britain will end up like Venezuela. But Venezuela’s problem isn’t
too much socialism—it’s not enough.
The country, whose former president Hugo Chavez proclaimed “21st century
socialism”, is deep in crisis. It has the world’s highest inflation
rate—720 percent and rising. Its currency has plummeted to less than 1
percent of its official value, making it hard to import food.
Hunger is endemic. Buying food at subsidised shops where price controls
operate involves queuing for four hours, only on certain days, and
sometimes still getting nothing.
Medicines and sanitary products are scarce. Chronic power blackouts have
seen factories close and public sector workers move to a two-day week.
Growing numbers are emigrating, or depend on products sent by relatives
abroad.
What’s caused this disaster?
The right say that market forces ran the economy smoothly until Chavez
and his successor Nicolas Maduro interfered with them. In reality, this
is a crisis of the capitalist system that they didn’t confront.
The biggest problem is the collapsing price of oil, Venezuela’s main
export.When the oil price was high Chavez could fund anti-poverty
programmes without confronting the rich. Maduro can no longer do this.
Meanwhile severe drought has rendered the hydroelectric dams that power
Venezuela useless. Neither of these problems are former bus worker
Maduro’s doing.
Of course, a decade of relying on oil revenue didn’t help. But
Venezuela’s rulers were simply following the absurd capitalist logic
about what a resource-rich country should do in a time of high prices.
The only thing the Venezuelan right and its US and European imperialist
backers would have changed was letting the poor get a share.
Today’s crisis would be far worse in a Venezuela with no food subsidies
or price controls.
According to some surveys, around half the population now supports
neither Maduro nor the right wing opposition.
The right represents the forces that tried to topple Chavez in 2002 and
led a violent street movement against Maduro in 2014. It showed its
contempt for ordinary people and democracy.
Desperate
But Maduro himself is resorting to increasingly desperate authoritarian
measures. Troops have been deployed to keep order. Widely used
motorcycles were briefly banned from the streets of the city of Cumana
to address “looting”. One decree even allows workers to be drafted into
60 days forced agricultural work.
This is like trying to put a sticking plaster on a gaping wound—or to
hold back the tide at gunpoint.
Socialism would mean making human need, not profit, the basis for
organising society.
We saw the possibility for this after 2002-3, when poor Venezuelans
mobilised in their millions to defeat a coup and a bosses’ strike.
Self-organisation flourished, representing not just hopes for change,
but a force that could realise them.
The left government did all it could to co-opt or contain this
self-organisation.
It decided early on to adapt to capitalism—and some figures grew very rich.
Big industries stayed mostly in private hands. Key sectors were
nationalised, only for officials to follow the market’s priorities at an
international level.
Other firms were rightly taken over after workers campaigned to save
their jobs. But without a deeper socialist transformation of the economy
these could not succeed.
But now people are starting to chant in the food queues. In 1989 an oil
slump, economic disaster and neoliberal attacks triggered the “Caracazo”
riots that marked the beginning of the end for the old political elite.
If that happens again we’ll get a glimpse of what socialism is really
about—workers fighting capitalist priorities to assert their own interests.
The challenge will be to take that further than Chavez did.
Article information
Comment
Tue 30 Aug 2016, 16:44 BST
Issue No. 2519
Share this article
Share on Google+
Related
Venezuela election shakes left government
Damnificados: a magical realist manifesto for the poor
Brazil: Workers Party crisis shows limit of left’s strategy
Tags
Venezuela
Paper
Front cover for issue 2519
Click here to download this weeks paper in PDF format, plain text
format, and browse previous issues.
Subscribe to socialist worker
Get In Touch
Socialist Worker is your paper. If you're involved in activity, send us
a report. If you've got something to say, send us a letter.
email updates
Enter your email address below to receive new article updates
Make A Donation
Bookmarks Bookshop
Join The SWP
Other SWP sites
Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Review
International Socialism journal
Social Media Links
@socialistworker on Twitter Follow us
Socialist Worker's Facebook page Become a fan
Socialist Worker RSS feed RSS Feed
Mobile users! Don't forget to add Socialist Worker to your home screen.
Payments © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may
republish if you include an active link to the original.
Published by Larkham Printers & Publishers Ltd, company registered in
England & Wales, number: 1335756, registered address: 71-75 Shelton
Street London WC2H 9JQ. Correspondence address: PO Box 71327, London
SE11 9BW
