Venezuela - The End of Chavism

Every day new images come from Venezuela, of hungry, angry masses protesting in their hundreds, and fleeing by the thousands. The deep crisis in Venezuela has revealed in most glaring manner, the failure of the alternative proposed by so-called Bolivarianism. What was touted as 'Socialism for the 21st century' . It was a system that did not expropriate capitalism, did not enforced nationalization of land, did not nationalize the commanding heights of the economy, and cooperated fully and freely with international capital, and the national bourgeoisie.

All of this was managed under a very distorted democracy which retained every character of bonapartism. A combination of state capitalism, populism and militarism constituted what was called 'Chavism' . There was nothing unique about it, save for the illusion of it being a version of Socialism 'achievable' under the conditions of the 21st century. The idea itself is borne out of defeatism and rejection of the only viable solution to the ills of capitalism, of revolutionary socialism.

The roots of the crisis

Venezuela was among the richest countries in the Americas till the 1960s, oil was the source of its wealth and prosperity. That very commodity ultimately doomed it. The nations of South America were born from a violent revolutionary struggle against Spanish colonialism. When they found freedom, they were impoverished and ruined by the wars of independence. Spain with its feudal baggage and distorted capitalist development could not lay the foundations of the growth of an enterprising bourgeois class, unlike the United States in the North. The economies of most South American countries remained trapped within agrarian or mining industries without much diversity.

As a result, the countries were doomed to remain stuck within adverse , vulnerable relations within the global capitalist system. Latin American economies till date center around either mining or agriculture, or other forms of commodity trade, for Venezuela it was oil. Till the second world war, Venezuela was the third largest producer of oil in the world, far outpacing its nearest competition in the then Dutch east Indies. However, it never had much else, aside from oil. The incompetence and incapability of the bourgeoisie would doom its economy in the coming decades as new richer sources of oil were discovered in the middle east and the onset of the oil blockade enforced by OPEC.

The Venezuelan economy began its precipitous decline. Aided further by the interference of the USA and Chicago boys economics, the country faced a deep economic crisis with hyper inflation and indebtedness by 1998. It was the crisis which pushed the populace into revolutionary mobilization. Hugo Chavez, a military officer, would take advantage of this crisis to take power and initiate a series of welfare measures aimed at alleviating the situation that was faced by the poorest of Venezuela's populace.

The oil revenues funded a far reaching welfare state, social welfare programmes, and land reforms, all of which benefited the poorest of Venezuela's population and entrenched Chavez' popularity. Attempts to overthrow his regime by the USA only ended in failure. While the world economy expanded, and the US economy expanded, there was always a market for Venezuelan oil, and the revenues could sponsor an extensive welfare state and power a national bourgeois to expand. Once the financial crisis hit, the situation changed.

Venezuela benefited from both export of cheap oil to the US and expanding trade with China. The Chinese also became the largest lender to Venezuela and one of the chief investors to the country, undercutting American influence. Such a development would have been hailed as some kind of revolutionary action, especially so by the pro-Chavez and neo-Stalinist left. Since for them, any alternative to the US, even if its a capitalist one, somehow constitutes something revolutionary.

Yet this very development would come to doom Venezuela in time. First, came the crash of commodity prices. The Venezuelan economy, being backward and almost entirely dependent on export revenue from oil and related products, could not deal with the shock and the crisis began.

The collapse

Every bonapartist regime is cursed with the inability to find an able successor. For Chavez, after his death, power went to a man who represents more than anyone else the true incompetence of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, Hector Maduro. Under his rule, Venezuela began the repayment of Chinese debt, this in turn required printing more currency notes, and that in turn weakening its currency, further straininig its already precarious export position. The economic crisis affected the masses directly, The prices of food and essentials have skyrocketed, the value of the currency has hit rock bottom and starvation is rife.

The Venezuelan right wing has been quick to capitalize on this crisis and channelize this discontent into empowering its forces. for those opposed to the Chavist system, the international situation could not be better. Both of Venezuela's neighbours, Colombia and Brazil have fallen under a right wing pro military political parties, and both would be willing to aid reactionary forces within Venezuela. They talk of democracy and solving the crisis but in truth, they only care for the continued enrichment of a section of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, who are resolute in their opposition to the welfarist policies of the Chavists. Maduro himself, relies primarily on the military and the Chinese for his political survival. The contention came to a head in the last elections in Venezuela which saw the opposition gain the support of the popular assembly while Maduro retained the presidency. A situation akin to two popes.

Between these two forces the Venezuelan masses are stuck, sandwiched in a conflict that makes every day life worse. To add fuel to fire, the Trump administration has trained its guns against Venezuela, and akin to kicking a crippled man, the administration has levied sanctions against Venezuela worsening an already dire crisis there. Maduro has entrenched himself with the army and is resolved to staying put, while his opponent, the self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaido, has sought foreign imperialist intervention to aid his cause, whose legitimacy is dubious at best.

Most of the leading imperialist powers in the world have recognized Guaido as a 'legitimate leader' of Venezuela. Importantly, most South American countries have recognized the same, towing the line of US imperialism. Trump and his team continue to toy with the idea of a military intervention in Venezuela, as hard as that may be. For now, it has focused its efforts in economic and diplomatic intervention, adding untold hardships on Venezuela's people and creating an unprecedented refugee situation in the Northern part of South America.

Despite it all, Defend Venezuela !

Maduro by all accounts is an authoritarian ruler who has been nothing but a disastrous failure to his country. Yet, we must acknowledge, that he is also the product of a welfare state which has benefited the working class of Venezuela. The poor remember the neo-liberal era, and know exactly what kind of depredations US imperialism can bring to their country. It is not without reason that maduro still has support from among the poorest sections of Venezuela's population.

Despite this, revolutionary forces around the world must denounce the US and for the economic and diplomatic war that has been initiated by it. The working class across South America in particular must mobilize to denounce the right wing government's and their adventurism against Venezuela. The internal petty nationalist divisions within South America have left it vulnerable to imperialism, the incompetent comprador bourgeoisie have done nothing but fill in their own pockets at the expense of the people and acted as willing pawns for imperialist powers.

We must equally denounce the fake left and neo-Stalinist apologists of the Chavists who must take blame for the failure of this illusion of '21st century socuialism' . China and Russia acting as rival powers against US imperialism is not a revolutionary nullification of capitalism, it is simply part and parcel of the world capitalist order. China is exceptional in that it remains a Deformed Worker's State and thus able to withstand against capitalist crises. Quite unlike Venezuela which remained trapped within the machinations of the law of value, the Chinese economy can fall back on the socialist state sector, in particular its socialist financial sector, to stave off the worst effects of a capitalist crisis. Even with the trade war and the global slowdown China's economy continues to grow, even if not as fast as before, it is adding far more value than its 'rapidly developing' capitalist counterpart, India.

Yet, despite having a non-capitalist economic base, China has acted no different than an imperialist nation against those countries which are indebted to it. Sri Lanka fell victim to Chinese debt enforcement earlier, and now it is Venezuela's turn.

Venezuela is going through a very capitalist crisis, which resulted from a through a through capitalist system. The mishandling of the economy, its vulnerability to imperialist pressure and its present collapsing situatoin stand as a final verdict on Chavism. It is a telling sign that there IS NO ALTERNATIVE TO REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALISM!