The Venezuelan Workers Solidarity article, while briefly mentioning US sanctions and rejecting "the interference of US governments in Venezuela", does not put enough emphasis on the US role in creating the current situation of extreme hardship in Venezuela.
The US is imposing an economic blockade on Venezuela. It not only bans US companies from dealing with the Venezuelan government. It forces other countries and non-US companies to comply with US sanctions or face sanctions themselves. The sanctions began under Obama and were intensified under Trump. They affect both the export of Venezuelan oil and the import of a range of products, including food, medicine, medical equipment, spare parts for the oil industry, and ingredients needed for converting crude oil into petrol for motor vehicles. The US has also threatened to invade Venezuela, and has supported coup attempts and armed attacks by groups based in Colombia. The economic blockade has reduced the country to extreme poverty. This creates favourable conditions for the growth of corruption. Bureaucratic tendencies have long been a problem in Venezuela, as in every revolution that remains isolated in a capitalist world. The intensification of the US blockade in recent years has also led the government to make increasing concessions to private capital. This creates an environment conducive to the growth of corruption and cronyism. Trotsky explained that the degeneration of the Russian revolution was not solely due to the ill-will of individuals, but was to a large extent the result of material conditions. In "The Revolution Betrayed", Trotsky writes: "Generalized Want” and the Gendarme Two years before the Communist Manifesto, young Marx wrote: “A development of the productive forces is the absolutely necessary practical premise [of Communism], because without it want is generalized, and with want the struggle for necessities begins again, and that means that all the old crap must revive.” This thought Marx never directly developed, and for no accidental reason: he never foresaw a proletarian revolution in a backward country. Lenin also never dwelt upon it, and this too was not accidental. He did not foresee so prolonged an isolation of the Soviet state. Nevertheless, the citation, merely an abstract construction with Marx, an inference from the opposite, provides an indispensable theoretical key to the wholly concrete difficulties and sicknesses of the Soviet regime. On the historic basis of destitution, aggravated by the destructions of the imperialist and civil wars, the “struggle for individual existence” not only did not disappear the day after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and not only did not abate in the succeeding years, but, on the contrary, assumed at times an unheard-of ferocity. Need we recall that certain regions of the country have twice gone to the point of cannibalism? https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/ch03.htm#ch03-4 (This passage appears at page 56 of the print edition) On page 112 Trotsky writes: The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there is enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there is little goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy. It “knows” who is to get something and who has to wait. https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/revbet/ch05.htm#ch05-3 Trotsky's analysis of the reasons for the degeneration of the Russian revolution is applicable to other countries, such as Venezuela. For socialists in the US and its allies such as Australia, it is essential to campaign against the blockade. However, the VWS does not seem to put much emphasis on opposing the blockade. Instead it seems to focus on denouncing Maduro. I am not saying they should refrain from criticising Maduro. But in addressing a US audience, the need to end the blockade should be central. I hope that the DSA's trip to Venezuela indicates a willingness to campaign strongly against the blockade. I would like to see protests in the US against the blockade, with the participation of both the DSA and VWS. Chris Slee ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of John Reimann <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, 5 June 2021 10:46 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [marxmail] Critique of DSA International Committee's planned visit to Venezuela "OPEN LETTER BY VENEZUELAN WORKERS SOLIDARITY DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC) and International Committee (IC) recently announced that they will send a delegation to participate in an official event in Venezuela..... "The Bicentennial Congress of the Peoples is not an autonomous body, but rather an assemblage of national and foreign supporters of the Venezuelan government that was launched by President Nicolás Maduro himself, in yet another transparent attempt to coat itself with a veneer of international support . ..." What follows is both complete opposition to US intervention plus a thorough documentation of the misogynist, anti-working class and repressive policies of the Maduro government. The statement urges the DSA IC to meet with the families of political prisoners as well as other socialist oppositionists. https://venezuelanvoices.org/2021/06/04/dsa-solidarity-with-the-venezuelan-people-or-with-the-regime/?fbclid=IwAR0_FcZO1uMzIG4ulWHzFauVYifofskhsc4dhHwlLIglJ2PSpnVt3l5uOwE -- “Science and socialism go hand-in-hand.” Felicity Dowling Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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