On 5/17/07, michael a. lebowitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At 22:13 17/05/2007, you wrote:
>This is an aspect of Venezuela seldom discussed by the
>English-speaking Left. -- Yoshie
>
><http://www.rnv.gov.ve/noticias/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=46788>
>En Caracas
>Creada Confederación de Empresarios Socialistas de Venezuela
Patience and a sense of irony are essential virtues for a Bolshevik.
I was looking into historical stats of commodity prices and found
this: "The Recent Rise in Commodity Prices: A Long-run Perspective,"
Reserve Bank Bulletin, April 2007,
<http://www.rba.gov.au/PublicationsAndResearch/Bulletin/bu_apr07/rec_rise_com_prices_long_run_pers.html>.
Low interest rates in the USA, dramatic economic growth in China,
political instability in the Middle East, etc. have combined to
produce commodity booms, especially oil boom, in recent years. That
has allowed not only Venezuela but also other countries whose economic
circumstances are relatively similar to it to pursue policies that, to
various degrees, break with the Washington Consensus, while also
making it possible for the bourgeoisie of their countries to make good
profits (discontent as hard-line capitalists still are). But I don't
think that we have as much time as the Reserve Bank of Australia
suggests we might: "There are good reasons to believe that strong
demand from emerging economies in particular may continue for several
decades."
That said, as long as the bourgeoisie exist in your nation, it's
better to subordinate them to the state than vice versa. The Chairman
of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Russia is Yevgeny Primakov
now, which is a good sign, and in Iran, "One interesting fact about
the Iranian economy is that the only institution representing the
private sector has been the publicly run Chamber of Commerce, Industry
and Mines. This entity, which understands itself as the representative
of the private sector, is overshadowed by the state sector -- to the
extent that the president of the chamber is proposed by the Minister
of Commerce" (Bijan Khajehpour, "Domestic Political Reforms and
Private Sector Activity in Iran," Social Research, Summer 2000,
<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_2_67/ai_63787344/print>).
I love Iran as you know, and I also regard the development of Russia
under Putin favorably overall, but neither says it is or will be
socialist, so I judge them by capitalist standards. In contrast, the
Venezuelan government has set itself up as the standard bearer of 21st
Century Socialism, a new model that is even better than Cuban
socialism (which is my favorite model of state socialism), so it has
raised expectations, including mine!
--
Yoshie
