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We have to be clear from the start about the leading rightwing opposition force the MUD (Democratic Unity Roundtable) – a cabal headed by Venezuela’s old ruling families like the Capriles that are currently lynching Chavistas in the streets and making veiled appeals for a military coup. But it is not enough to oppose these reactionaries; we have to figure out the best way to defeat them. Therefore, this is a preliminary attempt to define what a more successful socialist political movement requires in Latin America. Elected in 1998, Chavez was a left populist figure. For instance, his first major social program – the Plan Bolivar <https://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/hugo-chavez.jpg> *The immense popularity of Chavez was due to his redistribution of the oil wealth through programs such as this government subsidized food store (photo: 2005). A reported 9 million turned out for Chavez’s funeral.* 2000 – mobilized the military to provide food aid, vaccinations, and basic upgrades in sanitation in many working-class neighborhoods. Chavez’s policies answered some of the material needs of a population that at that time had a poverty rate of over 55%, but he did not directly challenge capitalism as a political economy, nor did he completely cashier them out of government, despite crafting a new Constitution. However, his programs and he, himself, were hugely popular, and for good reason. *Oil Nationalized*In 2001, Chavez began to nationalize the oil industry to fund everything from public housing to adult literacy programs. It was then that a concerted effort began on the part of Venezuela’s oil and mining families, as well as the U.S. state department, to oust him from power. They failed to remove him in a botched coup in 2002, and open economic sabotage. It was these events that pushed Chavez to the left. In 2006 formed a new party, the PSUV to help build what he called “21st century socialism”. By this time, he had already reduced poverty in the country by at least 25%, and increased the number of doctors in Venezuela to 20,000, up from just 1600 in 1999. But the PSUV has not overthrown capitalism. While they have nationalized the oil industry, and intermittently supported workers co-ops, they have never moved toward a planned economy and the prerequisite public control of the commanding heights of the economy and public control of investment. In effect, the PSUV has been engaged in an 18-year New Deal. They are the stewards of a messy, ad-hoc subsidization of the Venezuelan working-class rather than a working-class party in-itself running the economy. The oil dependency could only have been eliminated through a systematic plan for the economy, one that was democratically managed and controlled by the working class itself. But this would have required the complete overthrow of the “free” market, meaning of capitalism itself. Nothing less, no half-measures would do. Failing to do this, the regime’s social measures were dependent on high oil prices. *Oil Dependency*Chavismo has in fact been entirely dependent on oil revenue to provide welfare, and here we come to the crux of the current economic and political crisis. The PSUV is entirely dependent on a healthy global oil market, including American consumption. Thus, while they present themselves as a socialist bulwark against American imperialism, the Chavistas actually pushed Venezuela toward even greater dependence on global capital. Since world oil prices collapsed in 2013 – and have yet to recover – the government has had to slash social spending and layoff thousands of public employees, and reopen the country to greater foreign investment through Special Economic Zones and prioritizing the repayment of foreign debt. It is a powerful example of the impossibility of socialism in a single country. There is also the question of whether, because of climate change, workers themselves won’t be paying back what oil revenues gave them. There is a related failure of Chavista economic policy that proves, to quote a recent article <https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/venezuela-elections-chavez-maduro-bolivarianism> in Jacobin, “the situation that prevails is not the result of too much socialism, but too little.” For years the PSUV has maintained a complex currency exchange system, that in effect allows people to purchase U.S. dollars from the government below market value. The basic hope was that through this exchange rate the government could indirectly control prices. In fact, however, just the opposite has happened: the exchange rate has allowed massive black markets to develop for nearly every conceivable good, including food and medicine. In other words, by simply trying to subsidize workers’ buying power rather than directly overthrow capital, the Chavistas have actually enlarged the scale and depravity of the free market in the country. *Economic Crisis*Venezuela is now dealing with 700% inflation. 90% of the population is not receiving enough to eat every day. https://oaklandsocialist.com/2017/08/11/crisis-in-venezuela/ -- "No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them." Asata Shakur Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com and // www.facebook.com/WorkersIntlNetwork?ref=stream _________________________________________________________ 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