FW: [Marxism] Re: Venezuela Says Economy to Move Away From Capitalism

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tom O'Lincoln
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 11:27 PM
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Marxism] Re: Venezuela Says Economy to Move Away From
Capitalism

Tom:

...
Chavez only talks of applying more rigorously the country's EXISTING Land
Law which allows the government to confiscate UNUSED land, which he says is
a way of implementing the existing constitution.

Response:

Why is this an "only"? I think it's a big deal. You can bet the landowners
are going to scream.

"One estimate in the late 1980s, for example, held that the smallest 42.9
percent of all farms covered only 1 percent of the arable land, while the
largest 3 percent accounted for as much as 77 percent of arable land." This
is from the first return I got on googling for "Venezuelan land". We are
talking about a lot of land, potentially.

There are lots of us in the US right now who would be delighted with a
president who implemented the existing constitution, particularly the Bill
of Rights. To say in the political arena of the US today "I am for the
strict enforcement of the Bill of Rights" is practically revolutionary, as
proved by the fact that nary a Democrat or Republican would or has let those
words slip past his/her lips.

This is not even to mention that Chavez led the process of creating
Venezuela's new constitution, which is a pretty ferocious document if you
take it seriously and it is evident that Chavez and the Venezuelan people
do.

Tom:

He says: ?I call on private businessmen to work together with us to build
the new economy, transforming the capitalist economic model into a social,
humanist and equality economy,?

Private businessmen? This doesn?t exactly sound like the Spanish Popular
Front, I suppose: more like something a 1970s Eurocommunist might say. Same
general idea though.

Response:

I thought the Venezuelans HAD nationalized the commanding heights of the
economy when they took over PdVSA in response to the bosses' strike in
December 2002. Took it over under the gun, with the political survival of
the government on the line, by urging the loyal workers, the people, and the
army to step in and save the country. If they had no succeeded Pedro the
Brief would be running Venezuela today (well, maybe not him personally). It
looked like a nationalization to me, not done by the stroke of the pen but
with sinews and brains and heroic hard work.

That seemed like a big bite to chew. The Venezuelans are still chewing it.
Why are you in such a big hurry for them to take the next bite? I thought it
was GOOD when business put aside its parochial interests and jumped in there
to make a better Venezuela. It is good and correct to encourage them to
participate in the reconstruction of Venezuela. Some will be won over, some
not. It isn't a battle that has to be fought on one day, at least not as the
Venezuelans see it, evidently. Chavez, as mandated by the constitution of
his country, is trying to bring every Venezuelan along in the Bolivarian
process. Every particle of effort spent genuinely in this pursuit will come
back to the revolution ten-fold in the future. This is how the people gets
to know itself. This is patiently explaining, not exacting class vengeance.
Let the class enemy that reveals itself through the unfolding of events be
given two, three, many chances to join the Bolivarian process, get with the
program. We believe it's for them, too, don't we?

Incidentally, is it bad for them to borrow 6 or 7 billion dollars from
Texaco/Chevron to develop their oilfields? I think they're going to.

I would worry more about the Venezuelans' willingness to go all the way, as
Sandino said, were it not for the fact that the government fired the PdVSA
strikers and they stayed fired. They are gone from those jobs. That was a
moment when a reformist leadership would have taken the easy way out and
attempted to co-opt those thousands of skilled workers and programmers and w
hat-not back into the process. Or if someone could show major real errors of
judgement, generalized unwillingness to trust the people or demonstrable
tendencies in that direction that do not amount to simply carrying out their
revolution on their timetable, not yours. Also if Chavez did not continually
call out Bush correctly for the imperialist dog he is.

That being the case, YOU have to explain why and how the Venezuelans are
being foolish. It is not enough to to prove that such and such a step is
reformist, as is the case with these putative gigantic nationalizations of
unused latifundia, strictly because the Constitution is itself revolutionary
on this point. Rather, you must prove that it is wrong to be reformist at
this time on this question. That it is not enough.

David McDonald

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