Hugo Chavez's rule in Venezuela has taken new (if not unexpected) turns in recent weeks. What's happening in Venezuela is undeniably interesting, but we at NE are trying to temper our excitement with an awareness that Chavez, while making great strides towards a socialist ideal, is at the same time consolidating a cult of personality around himself and his office--an almost Stalinist fetishization of power/presidential office (though we'd like to assume that Chavez has no sympathy for Stalinism). The effects of the move Chavez has made are thoroughly unpredictable; his opposition calls it a textbook coup d'etat, but even the New York Times has deemed it an extraordinary socialist experiment. We should consider a nation-wide group of players in judging Chavez's latest move to consolidate the functions of the Venezuelan government, from the army (composed of both Chavistas and pro-Western loyalists) to Venezuelan farmers, who have have lost the impetus to mass-produce crops due to Chavez's initiative to drive down the price of food to accommodate the Venezuelan poor. What is happening in Venezuela is undoubtedly among the most interesting and exciting of political developments in recent years, and things seem to be moving quite rapidly--even some of those who called themselves Chavistas as recently as one week ago have changed camps--so we'll be sure to keep you posted.
We refer you to this piece by Federico Fuentes, which highlights the threats still looming for Chavez from the Venezuelan right, as well as an article from Gabriel Hetland, which draws attention to the contradictions which have been inherent in Chavez's Bolivarian revolution from the outset.
Among Venezuela, Pakistan, and Iran, we've got our fucking hands full.
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I wonder if from a political economic standpoint, "oil socialism" can amount to anything in lieu of a parallel development of infrastructures which diffuse ownership over the means of production. Redistributing, or "welfarizing," the accumulated capital afforded by a monopolized oil extraction apparatus is something that has happened many times before in the history of monopoly capitalism (it happened in the U.S. in the 1930s through 60s). Yes, this process tends to entail reduction of poverty levels and the socioeconomic gap, as well as improvements in healthcare and literacy. And yes, these are all good things. But, historically, whenever these forms of social progress have emerged from centralized (at either the state or corporate centers of society) accumulations of resources, their existence has depended not upon some new political economic logic contrary to monopoly capitalism, but rather upon the demands of capital at a particular time and place within the uneven development of capitalist cycles.
In other words, Venezuela seems (and I say this without total knowledge of the situation, but I think it's a fair guess) to be sewing the seeds for a middle class "peak" resembling the one which happened in the US during the 1950s, or in the USSR during the 1970s, to be followed by a restructuring period, as the US experienced in the 1970s and the USSR experienced in the 1980s and 90s. I don't see this as sewing the seeds for "socialism" at all. I see it as particular elites figuring out how to get in on the global capitalist game -- first by tapping into (and modestly rewarding) their local populations, then by cashing in their chips, liquefying local investments, rolling back local economies and keeping their assets in perpetual global circulation, via the multinational corporations.
Collectivization of oil production is obviously a good thing from a leftist standpoint. But unless it goes hand in hand with a general diffusion of ownership over the means of production (ie, individual people and communities owning, controlling and planning out their own means to produce, develop and innovate commodities), it is not really collectivization at all; it is merely centralization -- indistinguishable from the historical situation under monopoly capitalism.
This is not to dismiss the extraordinary upheavals in Venezuela -- there is so much that (presently unimaginative) Americans in particular can learn from what's happening there. But, really, Venezuela seems to be impressive in the sense that China has been impressive -- as a gigantic historical leap, albeit not in a new direction.
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