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Vol. 82/No. 22 June 4, 2018
(front page)
Venezuela toilers face deepening capitalist crisis, US rulers’ anger
BY SETH GALINSKY
Middle-class professionals and workers have been abandoning Venezuela in droves
— seeing no way forward in the face of the deepening political and capitalist
economic crisis there. As many as 250,000 Venezuelans have crossed the border
into Colombia since last August.
The crisis is exacerbated by the punishing economic and political measures
taken by the U.S. rulers in their ongoing efforts to isolate and undermine the
government of Nicolás Maduro.
Against this backdrop, early presidential elections called by the Maduro
government had the lowest voter turnout in decades — just 46 percent. Maduro
was re-elected, getting 68 percent of the vote.
The U.S. rulers hope the economic hardships will open up rifts in Venezuela’s
armed forces, leading to a coup and a government more to their liking. But they
have no intention of invading, and are not likely to impose a ban on U.S.
imports of Venezuelan oil. They fear these steps would throw the country into
complete chaos. Instead, they have banned U.S. capitalists from buying new
Venezuelan bonds and freezing the assets and bank accounts, if any, in the U.S.
of members of the government.
Washington, which has never masked its hostility to Maduro or his predecessor
Hugo Chávez and their relations with revolutionary Cuba, called the vote “sham
elections.” Fourteen Latin American governments, including Brazil, Mexico and
Colombia, announced they will not recognize the government and pledged to back
Washington’s stepped-up pressure campaign.
Maduro, like Chávez before him, has attempted to “manage” capitalist social and
political relations. They funded “welfare” programs that foster a corrupting
dependence on government largesse. These steps were consciously counterposed to
leading a working-class revolution, giving workers and farmers greater
confidence in what they can accomplish in struggle, as was done by the July 26
Movement in Cuba.
After the collapse of oil prices and production, the government just printed
money to make up for the drop in hard currency and inflation has soared.
But these policies only exacerbated the capitalist crisis and its impact on
workers. Inflation is an estimated 50 percent per month. A quarter of
working-class families eat two meals or less a day and shortages of basic
medicines are widespread. Electricity and water outages are frequent.
Oil production in free fall
The Venezuelan government was hard hit by the steep drop in the price of oil —
its main source of hard currency — to $50 a barrel last year. Even though oil
is back up to $80, it has done little to refill the government’s coffers.
Production has plummeted at the state-owned oil company, because of breakdowns
in production facilities, corruption and bureaucratic mismanagement. Thousands
of oil workers have quit and creditors have begun seizing company assets in
other countries.
Many workers are taking action to try and combat the effect of the crisis.
According to VPI-TV there were 927 protests against bosses or the government in
April, 25 percent more than in the same period last year.
Thirty-five office workers at the Social Security Institute in Táchira, near
the Colombian border, walked off the job May 2. “This is our first time ever on
strike,” one worker told the press. “Our wages aren’t enough to take the bus to
work.” Some 35 of the 70 workers have quit and left the country, she said. “If
we can’t get a raise, I might leave too, even though I don’t want to.”
Workers at Masisa, a Chilean-based company in Anzoátegui that makes wood
products for export, held a two-week strike in April to demand higher wages and
investment to increase production. “What we earn is not even enough to feed our
children,” union Secretary General Oniel Mendoza told VPI. Some 400 workers
have quit.
Leading up to the election, Maduro appealed to the bosses to help him. “To the
business class, who want to work together,” he said, “I am ready.”
Crumbling infrastructure
“We’re not protesting against that disgraceful Maduro,” a resident of a
working-class area of east Caracas told the representative of the water company
there during an April 27 demonstration. “We just want water.”
The official apologized, blaming the shut-off on a broken main and power
outages. He said that they hoped to fix the problem soon and the water supply
should go back to “normal” — three and a half days with water on, then three
and a half without.
The May 20 elections did nothing to solve the crisis. The pro-imperialist
opposition, discredited and with little support from working people, is divided
and demoralized, with many of its leaders out of the country. The main group,
the Democratic Unity Roundtable, urged a boycott. Its two most prominent
figures, Leopoldo López and Henrique Capriles, were barred from the ballot.
Months earlier they had organized a series of provocative and violent
anti-Maduro actions, but virtually nothing leading up to the vote.
Two candidates did challenge Maduro, Henri Falcón and Javier Bertucci. Falcón,
a former Maduro ally, launched his candidacy over the objections of the
opposition. His program to solve the economic crisis centered on replacing the
country’s currency with the U.S. dollar to try to stem runaway inflation,
halting subsidized shipments of oil to Cuba and other Caribbean and Latin
American nations to “save money,” and asking for international food aid.
Bertucci, a Pentecostal minister, said the answer was a return to Christian
values. He attracted workers to his rallies by giving away free bowls of soup,
but won few adherents or votes.
Maduro government officials set up what they called “red spots” right next to
the polling places, where voters were told to bring the ID cards that entitle
them to monthly government-subsidized food baskets — which most workers depend
on to try and squeeze by each month — to prove they had voted. Many feared they
would lose access to the cheaper food if they didn’t.
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