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Actually, there was -- and is -- much more to the Chavista revolution. There are still 5 million Venezuelans who voted for what they thought that revolution represented. That includes the "people's power" promoted by Chávez and his successors, as in the communal councils and communes which are more widespread than is commonly thought outside of Venezuela. Crucial to the next stage in Venezuela will be the capacity of the grassroots Chavistas to mount resistance to their opposition now ensconced in the new parliamentary majority, and to find ways to constitute and advance that dual power from below that was always promoted by Chávez, with very uneven results as we know. If the new opposition parliament fails to come up with some immediate economic relief in face of a failed macro-economic strategy (hydrocarbons dependency), and simply sets its sights on overturning President Maduro, their key institutional obstacle, the Rightist advance may lose some of its momentum and Chavismo could regain much of its previous, currrently disaffected, support. It's too soon to say Good-bye to the Bolivarian Revolution. It has just received a sharp kick in the behind from the Right. But the Chavistas have shown their capacity to overcome setbacks in the past. In the longer run, of course, they have to come up with some much more innovative and realizeable economic measures and strategies to begin to go "beyond capitalism." Meanwhile, I would urge comrades to follow on-the-spot sources like Telesur and Venezuelanalysis for updates and analysis. The next few months are crucially important. Richard -----Original Message----- From: Louis Proyect [mailto:l...@panix.com] Sent: Monday, January 04, 2016 1:08 PM To: Richard Fidler; Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition Subject: Re: [Marxism] FW: The Future of Latin American Post-Neoliberalism On 1/4/16 12:41 PM, Richard Fidler via Marxism wrote: > The new or modern capitalism (post-neoliberal) accepts the fight against > poverty, because it creates more consumption, which at medium and long time > favors the market. It is in favor of formal employment and social welfare, > because it stabilizes the labor force. It does not mind paying more taxes if > the state ensures a sufficient degree of political stability, which enables > a safe process of profits. These are reasonable expenses to ensure the > reproduction of the system of capital accumulation. In addition, modern > capitalism distances itself from the traditional oligarchic capitalism and > some of its protagonists are part of the new political systems. Others are > part of the opposition, when they think that the post-neoliberal project > does not ensure a sufficient rate of profit. Much also depends on the links > with foreign monopoly capital. However, in a crisis of accumulation, social > achievements are the first victims (Brazil). A 90 year old Marxist Catholic priest saying essentially the same thing as a 61 year old Trotskyist economist in Argentina. The Chavista revolution was actually--objectively speaking--a way to make capitalism more palatable. As soon as Maduro is unseated, the floodgates open... _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
