Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

The social fabric of Chavismo

Venezuela

Venezuela's crazy economics I wonder though what is this "international community" that is holding a solution to the disaster in a world dominated by a hegemon, international capital, and a continuing rise of far-right regimes.  Is the author speaking about the same "international community" that should have done something about the slaughter in Syria, the genocide in Myanmar, the detsruction in Libya, or the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, one of the worst in moder history?

Venezuela Maduro is supported by authoritarian China and Russia. The opposition is supported by the "democratic" U.S., Canada, a "democratically-elected" neofascist in Brazil, and the like. A coup should be OK then. Then they could claim it was a "humanitarian intervention" by "the free world" in the interest of "the Venezuelan people", i.e. the oligarchs and the "middle class". I wonder though how the American imperialists support a coup without having the army on their side. The 2002-US-supported coup almost escalated to a civil war.

"When Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, there was hope. He was a man who championed the poor in what has always been a deeply divided society. He was a vibrant and controversial figure who wanted to lead a socialist revolution in Venezuela.  But Chavez was helped by strong commodity prices that funded his ambitious social programmes. With a fall in oil prices, President Maduro has had no such luck - and little of the charisma his predecessor had. During his leadership, the country has fallen into economic decline." ( The BBC ) Yes, strong commodities benefited Venezuela and other countries for a while, but a new socio-economic project cannot be built on a temporary boom or in one country or some "islands". That is impossible in a global capitalist system. The experience of Venezurla has proved that any faltering in the boom affects not only state revenues but also any deepening of popular democracy. And if the new leadership, whatever ideas and ideals it

On Michael Roberts' blog

The tragedy of Venezuela

Louis Proyect: "All me cynical but my take on the middle-class protests in Venezuela is that it is less interested in democracy than it is in ratcheting the Gini coefficient back towards one. I remain a committed Marxist but when it comes to Maduro versus Leopoldo Lopez, the opposition leader who was a key figure in the 2002 coup attempt, I’ll stick with Maduro—warts and all. Or I should say Boligarchs and all."  Yes, but also have to be very critical of Maduro.

What is to be done in Venezuela?

" A careful assessment of the  Bolivarian Revolution  reveals that Chávez’s socialism only ever manifested itself rhetorically: real gains like income redistribution proved compatible with the global capitalist order." Why Twenty-First Century Socialism Failed

Venezuela: Near the End?