Today's Topics:
1. ainfos.ca: Greece, Winter farm lies, but preparing the
spring social revolution (gr) [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. France, Alternative Libertaire AL Decembre - Work: Job shit
(fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. US, WSA ideas and action: Anarcho-syndicalism: A Past
Phenomenon, A Vision for the Future By Geoff R
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. gesta libertaria: DECLARATION DECEMBER 23. (ca) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. US, Black Rose fed: POLITICAL SITUATION IN VENEZUELA:
CRISIS, TRENDS, AND THE CHALLENGE OF CLASS
INDEPENDENCE (ca)
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
In November and on the occasion of privatization, the new bill on labor relations coming,
but first-time auctions, 3 anarchic city collectives (anarchist pyranthos group anarchist
collective over throsko, collective anarchists from the east) are taking campaign
counter-actions across Thessaloniki. - Posters, gluing stratson and hanging banners made
in the areas of Kalamaria, Harilaou, the upper and lower mound, Olga, the Triumvirate, the
Army of Delphi, 40 churches, universities, Upper town, Ambelokipi, the Xirokrini,
Stavropol, Lagada, the Sykeon of Naples, the Polichnis, Evosmos, Kordelio of Heliopolis,
center. --- Share the same time are in homes, workers and workers in shops, in parks and
squares in queues at ticket OASTH in Annexes OAED of EYATh, PPC, the ADS, hospitals, tax
offices, in public transport, the train station and many local markets.
These actions will continue, hoping to contribute to the extent of our ability, to set up
a strong social and class roadblock towards further economic, social and spiritual our
enslavement and overall counteroffensive against the state and capital.
The text was printed and divided into 10,000 copies:
For heavy winter coming for the exploited and the exploited:
In the last six years we are experiencing the effects of the attack of the bosses, which
has intensified with the outbreak of the capitalist crisis. State capital, through the
enactment of understanding and a range of other measures, intensify plunder of "bottom" in
order to maintain and increase profits and their sovereignty. Thus the oppression and
exploitation, phenomena that are directly connected to a system based on the collection
and accumulation of profit by the few, squeezed through the other and nature, experienced
more and more strongly, by more and more people.
But what does the crisis for all of us who belong to the lower strata of the class-the
social pyramid? Continuous devaluation of our workforce through reductions in wages and
pensions, increased unemployment, introduction of flexible and uninsured labor and a
simultaneous increase in the cost of living. So more and more of us find it hard to make
ends meet, are forced to live in poverty and misery. While marginalization and repression
in the extermination limits sometimes intensified for those "left over" (eg immigrants) or
for those who dare to raise his head against pillage of their lives. The slump we are
experiencing is not going to stop the bills that have already passed. This winter is
expected to be voted on new measures or implemented already voted, which will contribute
to the further devaluation of our living conditions.
What does the new bill on labor relations?
To speak more specifically, in relation to the reduction of our labor costs for the
bosses, expected to be adopted in the coming months the new bill. Through this law will
bring about the effective abolition of the minimum wage (since the collective agreements
and individual contracts awarded without a minimum restrictions only to the 'agreement'
boss and employee) can be bypassed, facilitate mass layoffs abolished in practice
13th-14th salary, allowances, bonuses and various trade union rights. Among other things,
the state attempts to remove one of the strongest within the workers' struggle against the
offensive of the bosses, the strike. This way hampered its terms was declared while
institutionalized the employer's right to lock out. We also call to enrich our vocabulary
with terms such as mini jobs, labor franchising, teleworking, zero or few hours contracts
with phone contracts, which in simple words translated as the legalization of precarious
and illegal employment. And finally, prepare and a full benefits cut order and social
benefits to the unemployed and vulnerable groups.
For us, the passing of this law ratifies the requirements of capital, which aims to
drained more profit on our backs, to break us and complicate our collective resistance.
What are the effects of privatization?
If the continuous reduction of our salary is one aspect of the problems we experience,
another is the increasing cost of living. He wants many examples: move into a city that
OASTH ticket has increased over 100% in recent years, the tax revaluations have turned
many foods to luxury goods, the water and electricity bills are inflated and the more
times something unpaid which implies, at any time, their cut. And in all this, came the
notorious Superfund to continue privatization and make the economy competitive: a nominal
fee, ports, airports, electricity, EYATh, OSE, whole mountains and beaches will be sold to
individuals, while simultaneously initiated and auctions primary residence to prevent
banks have loss.
It is assumed that the interests of the state and capitalists aligned. The capitalists are
the only way to earn profit commercializing any human need: food, health, housing, water
and electricity, entertainment, transportation, communication. Pooling this expression
-through the idiotikopoiiseon- chapter consolidates the terms devaluation of our lives and
the results of each privatization is nothing: the deterioration of working conditions, the
gates and blockades, bringing down the quality of service, to increase their value, while
the state as an institution, acts as guarantor of the capital interests.
Human activities now not translated as a commodity is scarce. State capital is not going
to stop on their own. That is why we need to redefine how we understand all this, and
whether and how we are willing to defend.
The assimilation of social resistance from Syriza
The anti-memorandum rhetoric of Syriza, the election of opposition to austerity policies,
without however calling exit policies of the EU and evrozoni-, that had not been damaged
by the taking up and exercise of power, were resulting in assimilation and caging social
dynamic resistance, despite the widespread social discontent and discomfort. But no
government can not work as a servant of capitalist interests. The section is assumed that
can manage and benefit from any state administrator, regardless of political-ideological
sign. Therefore, the Syriza-Elevators government, denied the expectations of the voters
and fully adopted the neo-liberal policies and the requirements of capital.
To break the macho state and bosses
if you do not want to deepen our economic enslavement and our social mortification, we
must strive for. And if the idea of our struggle must involve the class solidarity and
unity, the practice is not specific, but complementary. In a first time necessary to put
back the front cover our own needs against the profits of the bosses and to break
defeatism and fatalism building solidarity networks and mass breaking of laws.
Towards privatization which will increase our cost of living and hand in worked capital
coverage and our last necessity, but also against the new laws adopted by the State, but
come on demand local and foreign bosses to become increasingly inexpensive workers, and we
ultimately owe, to establish grassroots unions, neighborhood assemblies, direct action
groups and create self-organized service supply structures. Unwritten, antiierarchika away
from the union bureaucracy must be struck, to go out on the road, colliding with the
state, the bosses and their servants, cops and fascists.
Against the continued growth of housing and food costs we can do squats roof and massive
self-reduction of rents, expropriation of goods, and collective kitchens in our
neighborhoods, with motif relationship of solidarity and mutual help among the oppressed.
We can put blockade on evictions in our neighborhoods, to be present to prevent their
houses people auctions that have no other means of housing, but also to stop the evictions
due to rent default.
Against the tax increase we can not deny collectively pay and pay in state funds
malliokefala you ask us.
Opposite the ticket increases in OASTH can not hit or misrepresent tickets charged to
sabotage the machinery, to turn away their auditors or if for some reason hit to give to
the next passenger. The same we can do with the privatized for peanuts, UCI. Against cuts
water and power, we can reconnect and make clear to bullies who come and cut that is
undesirable, in homes, in apartment buildings, in our neighborhoods.
Across the private exploitation of open spaces and the lack of space and leisure time does
not require francs, can we break the fences, not to pay fee and create a live
anti-commercial culture within the neighborhoods, in parks, in squares, in school yards.
Against the exclusions are immigrants and uninsured and cuts in health, we can fight
together with their employees, along with immigrants, for free access for all to health care.
To fight for a world without oppression, exploitation, inequality.
We, being part of the exploited, naturally and deliberately, we consider it necessary to
fight against the invasion state and the bosses and the devaluation of our lives. So I
will oppose any attempt to undermine social achievements. However, we must not forget
that, while there is state and capitalism, any gains will remain partial, temporary and
precarious. So one way for our liberation is their destruction.
To move towards a world of freedom, equality and solidarity.
For a akratiki, classless, anexousia society.
For Anarchy
Anarchist Group Pyranthos
Anarchist collectivity Upper Throsko
Collegiality anarchists from east
http://ainfos.ca/gr/ainfos02776.html
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Message: 2
What is a "crap job"? How to define it in itself and for itself, for the community? What
is the meaning of work today? This survey Brygo Julien and Olivier Cyran - known for their
work for critical and independent journalism - shows the expression of job bullshit,
popularized by David Graeber to reformulate the question of utility and social nuisance
trades, "the Shoe To the trader ". ---- A book that does it directly, frankly, choosing to
give first and foremost the word to the workers by a gallery of a dozen varied portraits
and by testimonies partly taken from their previous investigations for Pikes or radio,
which recall the realities lived without being burdened with pompous conceptualization and
without euphemisms. ---- Lean management and toyotisation, préquantification working time,
ubérisation, self-entrepreneurship, civic courses and services, precariat but also
boredom, shits jobs of the words are the evils of those who suffer, when in symmetrical,
the The urgent question of the social inutility of "men of money" is confronted with moral
justifications masked by skilful evasions.
While the trades are deteriorating and becoming precarious under the blows of the
capitalists and the reforms they sponsor, this book emphasizes that it is not the only
economic question that can trace prospects capable of reversing the steam: "It is the
collective struggle that gives meaning to our work, against those who turn it to us. " A
call to resistance Serge factor in Marseille that resonates with the slogan" It's better
than that, "which launched the movement against labor law and its world in spring 2016.
Alternative libertarian Grenoble
Julien Brygo, Olivier Cyran, Batons shit! Shoe of the trader, investigates the usefulness
and social nuisance trades, Discovery, 240 pages, 18.50 euros.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Travail-Boulots-de-merde
------------------------------
Message: 3
It’s common for many folks familiar with anarcho-syndicalism to look at it as both a set
of ideas and a phenomenon which occurred at a certain period (in the early 1900s) as a
result of certain conditions of capitalism at the time and a particular response to them.
The experiment in libertarian Spain is the most famous and perhaps the most successful,
although anarcho-syndicalist movements of note have also occurred in South America,
Africa, and Asia. These historical movements had their own problems and successes which
are important for modern socialists to learn from. Modern anarcho-syndicalists in large
part reject the idea that anarcho-syndicalism is bound by the problems and failures of
previous experiments. Instead, they see anarcho-syndicalism as a framework for powerful
tactics that have the potential to abolish capitalism and replace it with a positive
alternative; libertarian socialism. To this end, we seek to put together what a modern
anarcho-syndicalist vision might look like, and this essay attempts a start in this regard.
A Focus on Modern Capitalism
The capitalism of today is different from that which anarcho-syndicalists in the early
1900s faced. In the U.S., while there is still a sizeable amount of local production, many
industries have moved their factories to other countries due to capitalists shifting
costs. In the U.S. a large service sector has emerged, membership in the business unions
is in rapid decline and worker compensation in general is largely either stagnant or has
decreased while profits for capitalists and employers is skyrocketing. This means that the
divide in political/economic power here is widening at an alarming rate. In other
countries in which the working class find themselves with these new factories, call
centers, etc. they now have these new employers to struggle with as well as their domestic
employers. Foreign capital pressures create cost problems for less dominant nation states
due to imperialism, and these costs always get shifted onto the local working class
population.
A New Unionism
The steady decline in business union membership, cost-shifting and various other factors
present the need to build new networks and/or coalitions of directly combative working
class organizations such as unions and solidarity networks to create powerful working
class power from below to fight the bosses, win immediate demands and push forward to
eventually fire the bosses and replace capitalism with socialism. These organizations may
look to the past – for example the more radical and combative unionism of the late 1800s
and early 1900s. But they also must focus around present issues for working class people,
and be focused on the future goal of replacing capitalism with a positive alternative.
An International, Non-Eurocentric Movement
There is a need for the new organizations to not only be built but also to be networked
internationally in a manner that is both democratic and not centric to any one country or
continent. Eurocentrism has long been an issue with socialism in part because socialist
thought largely came out of Europe. It’s important that an international federation of
radical working class organizations be able to balance needs from various countries and
continents and not be too heavily weighted to any one in particular. This is a delicate
balance but it’s important since a successful international socialist movement isn’t
likely to come from thoughts and ideas dominant within a particular country or continent.
This is because the specific nature struggles against capitalism have varies greatly from
country to country and only people struggling locally will be likely to understand their
situations best. In addition toppling capitalism (a global system) and replacing it with
libertarian socialism will take global coordination and organization of the working class
majority throughout the world. This is important because workers in the U.S. for example
whose companies may have outsourced particular departments can effectively coordinate
actions more powerfully with their fellow workers abroad against their common bosses.
An Intersectional Focus on Class Struggle
The IWW slogan “An Injury to One is an Injury to all” is an excellent expression of
intersectional working class solidarity. This means that we do not pick and choose which
class injuries require solidarity, but rather we understand that all class injuries
require solidarity. This means that we see the struggles against racism, ableism,
homophobia, gender essentialism, patriarchy, ecological destruction, etc. as directly part
of the class struggle against capitalism. This is because they are used by those with
power to disempower the rest, ensure class divisions persist and divide the working class
for the benefit of the bosses and capitalists. These injuries must be combatted as a focus
of new libertarian organizations as well as within them.
A Replacement of Sub-cultural Politics with Popular Politics
Much of radical left politics, at least in the U.S., exist in a largely subcultural
fashion, are not popular, and tend to prioritize a cliquey culture instead of a broad
intersectional working class inclusion and outreach. This is a problem because it harms
the ability to extend solidarity to working class people who need it, and harms the
ability of making our ideas and actions popular and well-received. If our politics do not
become popular, they will not be successful. So we need to focus on building local
organizations that are inclusive of working class folks in a broad and intersectional
fashion, and prioritize this, rather than small groups or cliques of friends who happen to
share common political interests.
New Revolutionary Theory and Social Science
There’s also a strong need for modern anarcho-syndicalists to do new theoretical and
social science work. While Proudhon, Marx, Bakunin and many others have done excellent
work in theory and social science, we aren’t bound by their shortcomings and there’s a
strong need for contemporary work in this area. This includes work in understanding modern
advanced capitalism as well economic theory and developing ideas on how the positive
alternative to capitalism might look and function. We will need to develop contemporary
concrete proposals for libertarian socialism that may draw from folks who have done strong
work in this area in the past like Cole, Kropotkin, Castoriadis and others.
Conclusion
While there’s much to be learned from anarcho-syndicalism historically, the ideas and
focus of revolutionary libertarian unionism are still very much relevant to the
possibility of creating new powerful anti-capitalist movements today. However, it’s
important that activists and organizers not only learn from the past but also focus on
understanding how capitalism has changed and build new combative working class
organizations focused around immediate local struggles against capital. In addition it’s
important that these organizations be organized internationally, have an intersectional
class struggle focus and be able to make their politics popular instead of sub-cultural
and cliquey. Finally, it’s important for folks to engage in new theoretical and social
science work, to understand advanced capitalism and create new economic proposals among
other important theoretical work.
http://ideasandaction.info/2016/12/anarcho-syndicalism-phenomenon-vision-future/
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Message: 4
This week on the eve of the classic celebrations of the end of the year, we are presented
with various milestones on which to reflect and plan our daily efforts. Every December 21,
we remember the great mobilization of the pampino workers, who in 1907, 109 years ago,
drew us a path of rebellion, cementing with their struggle the revolutionary paths for
which we now carry our flags. The date is marked by tragedy, thousands faced death in its
most vile and treacherous form, the foreign bourgeoisie in complicity with the national,
with the State and the Army, decided to annihilate the historic strike by force, which
would become A historical custom. At present, there are those who pretend to remember
December 23, 2016 as the date of Forgiveness, Forgiveness to the murderers and torturers
of the Pinochet dictatorship, which materialized the purge of working class militants and
their different expressions and Organizations.
The pardon of the foreign bourgeoisie in complicity with the national, with the State and
the Army, who decided in 1973, once again to annihilate by force those who embodied the
struggle. We are asked for a pardon on December 23, in which a 17-year-old Mapuche youth,
Brandon Hernández Huentelcol, is battling for his life in a hospital after receiving 140
pellets in his abdomen, in an identity control, which is no longer That an arbitrary
procedure of legal repression, in a zone militarized for the defense of the interests of
the bourgeois landowner. We could draw a historical line in which our class resists the
bloody clutches of capital, with daily chapters and weekly summaries, is our history, but
it will not be forever. We revolutionaries have a duty to raise our flags and catch our
breath, our actions will be focused and will strike to the extent that we have clarity of
who and how is the enemy: a retrograde class that defends its selfishness to the last
consequences.
As Libertarian Gestate we believe that in addition, today we have the duty to confront
each other in a fraternal debate that involves a historical revision of our experience as
a class, we reproach those who today are in favor of a pardon for human rights violators,
bloody torturers , To exterminators of our class. We discuss those who today from the
right, but unfortunately from the left also seek to build a pardon of legal fictions and
judicial labyrinths for the sole purpose of giving penitentiary benefits and crowning
impunity enjoyed by all collaborators of the dictatorship. The complicity of pardon
translates into an upward repression of students and striking workers, the militarization
of the wallmapu, and more graphically in the unjust scene of an unarmed adolescent in
front of a state agent, which ends with 140 pellets in a body Innocent, while the agent
enjoys his freedom, nourished by impunity, fulfilling his functions. Without going any
further, Fernando Montes, a former rector of the Universidad Alberto Hurtado, pleads with
respect to human rights violators, but the Company of Jesus, owner and administrator of
the University, where he is a member, repressed and expelled without Hundreds of students,
in the context of a peaceful student mobilization. Today we are asked to respond promptly
to the milestones that are presented to us, many will say that the Mass that will take
place on Friday has no centrality, but they are wrong, the consequences of a late
positioning will continue to translate into pellets in the body of our class In the
Araucanía and throughout the country. We fight those who give up the Forgiveness, because
they build oblivion. Only on the basis of a practice consistent with our history can we
achieve victory.
Libertarian gestation
December 23, 2016.
https://gestalibertaria.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/declaracion-diciembre-23/
------------------------------
Message: 5
From the translator: The translation of this article proved difficult due to the
denseness of ideas and because the political analysis and terms are mostly used and
understood in Spanish. This article is meant for individuals who have an understanding of
the history of Venezuela and the region. ---- From the writers: This article is a humble
attempt to contribute to a critical balance sheet on the process of change and the present
political situation in Venezuela. It does not pretend to be an exhaustive document, and we
recognize it presents theoretical limitations. Our analysis is constituted from the gaze
of an open-minded revolutionary militant rooted in libertarian communism. An essential
source of these reflections arises from a series of interviews with militants and social
organizations in the city of Caracas and the state of Lara during February of this year
(2016).
In the last 17 years, Venezuela has experimented with a process of advanced social
transformation both from an international and local context. Alongside the re-positioning
of socialism as a horizon to conquer, this process has permitted the politicization and
development of an extensive popular movement with profound and historic roots beyond the
1992 rise of Chavez. Venezuela's growing influence in Latin America mainly took place
between states and governments, projecting -in the discursive level- a Latin American
revolutionary pole that necessitated a break from the hegemony of the United States.
However, like all processes, Venezuela has developed multiple contradictions. The
Bolivarian government managed to impose a redistributive politic that permitted the
allocation of a significant part of the oil income toward improving the living conditions
of large sections of the population during the past 17 years. Yet, there have been no
clear steps towards overcoming the oil rentier model under a socialist
perspective.[1]Government executives have remained trapped between an appointed state
capitalism politics and built-in alliances with sectors of the "productivist"
bourgeoisie.[2]These strategies have failed in their objective of diversifying the
productive matrix of the country, which has placed a toll on the popular movement in terms
of the loss of its autonomy against the business sector and the State.
The character of the State in Venezuela has not been modified substantially. Initially,
Chavismo managed to move from the center of political power, but not the economic power of
the old tributary oligarchy of the Punto Fijo (Fixed Point) Pact.[3]In addition, the
institutionalization of participatory spaces became open to popular protagonist, which in
a context of a mobilized people, allowed a glimpse into the possibility of surpassing the
logic of traditional representative democracy. However, given that the popular camp ceded
ground as a mobilized and self-organized force, it ended up consolidating a clientelist
and bureaucratic state structure.[4]Permeable to the rise of sectors aligned with Chavismo
and bound by opportunism, these institutions usurped the collective wealth and festered in
positions of power towards the defense of their own class interests.[5]
However, Chavez's death brought to light other problems that impeded the Venezuelan
process. The loss of strategic clarity and political initiative reflects the absence of
collective direction: a prospect drowned by the initial moves of an exhaustive leadership
appointed by Chavez and reinforced by a caudillista politic that is rooted in the history
of the Caribbean country.[6]
1.1. The Economic Situation
As previously mentioned, petroleum profits are one of the main features of the Venezuelan
economy. That is, Venezuela captures from the international market a huge quantity of
wealth not produced in its own country. The sale of petroleum surpasses 90% of the
national exports, constituting the main inflow of foreign exchange in dollars. This
mono-exporting condition had been in place long before Chavismo, determining the parasitic
character of its bourgeoisie that has depended directly on oil revenue in the form of
subsidies for import and production.[7]
The Bolivarian government's main domestic income comes from the nationalization of
petroleum production and the redistribution of its surplus to large sectors of the working
class previously excluded. This led to the implementation of social policies that raised
the standard of living and the dignity of the working class.[8]However, this did not imply
displacing the hegemonic condition of the bourgeoisie within the economy, since the
private sector remained practically intact.[9]In fact, the same Bolivarian project
assigned to the "nationalist and productive" entrepreneurship played an important role in
the changes brought by the Bolivarian process.[10]
High oil prices in the 2000s allowed a rise in capital accumulation for a sector of the
Venezuelan bourgeoisie at the same time that social spending increased. This income
distribution for both the bourgeoisie and the working class - called distributive balance
between classes by Uruguayan economist Rodrigo Alonso - has become unsustainable since the
decline of the international price of oil, especially from 2012 onwards.[11]The rise of
internal demand dependent on imports and, therefore, on the foreign exchange rate and
decreasing dollar revenues caused by the country's low international oil prices are the
material basis of the inflationary cycle of the country. Meanwhile, the ‘bachaqueo'
(hoarding and smuggling) - a secondary phenomena that was aggravated by inflation -
developed from unmet internal demands and likely to grow.[12]
The current economic crisis is a reflection of the limits of Venezuelan rentier capitalism
to sustain the processes of popular inclusion and elevate the standard of living of the
working class. In parallel, the bourgeoisie maintains high rates of profit that are not
treated as a failure of the socialist experience.[13]In fact, discussions about the
possible outcomes point to the need to cut this distributive balance between classes,
either by making the working class or the bourgeoisie to pay the cost of crisis. On the
one hand, there are those who expect the typical neoliberal adjustment measures (reducing
social spending, price liberalization, job insecurity, etc.). On the other, proposals for
expropriation (control of foreign trade, nationalization of banks and strategic
enterprises, increased tax burden on the bourgeoisie and especially an end to its
subsidies) arise. Even with more or less emphasis on popular control of such measures, the
government and other state powers remain the arbiters of these interventions.
There is awareness of the catastrophic political cost that would arise from the
implementation of adjustment (austerity) measures. In addition, if the costs of the crisis
are placed on either the working class or the bourgeoisie, it is assumed that the level of
conflict between classes will increase. In recent years, rising public debt and the issue
of sovereign bonds have supplied the lack of foreign currency exchange, but this has only
allowed them to buy time: time which is also running out.[14]
1.2. The Political Situation
The defeat of Chavismo during the National Assembly elections on December 6[2015]was
overwhelming and unexpected. Even though the complex economic situation anticipated that
the result would not be favorable for the PSUV, the Right did not expect to win the
majority of the National Assembly. In reviewing the results, electoral support for the
ruling PSUV has declined, resulting in the significant growth of the opposition. If the
election of December 6, 2015 is compared with the 2013 presidential election, Chavismo
lost about 2 million votes (26.2%), but the Right only grew by 343,434, i.e. 4.6%. If we
add to this the high percentage of invalid votes (4.77%, almost triple null votes in the
previous parliamentary election), the thesis of "punishment vote" as an expression of
Chavista sectors unhappy with the conduct of government makes sense.[15,16]
This discontent with the government displayed in the polls cannot be explained solely by
the shortages of commodities or inflation. Venezuela lived a comparable economic crisis in
the period between the coup of April 2002 and the oil strike at the end of that year,
which lasted until early 2003. While the situation was shorter, at that time the
devaluation of the currency and the contraction of the economy were enormous and, yet, the
population maintained strong support for the government, represented by the slogan "hungry
and unemployed with Chavez I stand."[17]In fact, it was during this time that popular
mobilizations responded to the coup, evolving the radicalization of the process to take
control of strategic enterprises and gain influence in different institutions. The
opposite has now occurred, when a new strategy by the Right expressed in the "guarimbas"
of 2014 - a series of roundtable discussions - that urged the government to give
Venezuelan businesses resources in dollars and greater ease in their imports and exports
to strengthen national production.[18]This trend has deepened as seen in the creation of
the National Council of Productive Economy, composed mainly of businessmen and the
nomination of Miguel Perez Abad (former president of business association Fedeindustrias),
who will head the Ministry of Productive Economy.[19]
The electoral defeat of the ruling elite opened the possibility for the Right to dismantle
the redistributive policies of the Bolivarian government, but also allowed them to openly
plan Maduro's exit before his term ends.[20]If we consider Maduro's loss of influence
within the PSUV and the ineffectiveness of the measures promoted by his government to
overcome the economic crisis, a scenario is set in which Maduro will lose the executive in
the short term. In this context, a considerable part of the PSUV and the government are
promoting a policy of rapprochement and negotiation with sectors of ‘productive'
businessmen, seeking to deepen a partnership with this sector as a tool to overcome the
economic crisis and stabilize the political situation. This attempt will sharpen the
alleged contradictions between this "productivist" bourgeoisie and its "parasitic" sector.
At the same time, the most prolific sector of the Right questions the possibility of a
peaceful, negotiated transition, allowing them to recover the executive while avoiding
higher levels of unrest and deepening class contradictions. They are hoping that the first
measures of neoliberal economic adjustment begin during the government of Maduro. This is
due to the inability by the Rightist opposition to overcome its own internal divisions to
regain the political leadership that they once held. As Professor Roberto Lopez Sanchez
notes: "A possible rise of the pro-imperialist Right would produce scenarios of
ungovernability that would far outweigh any that Chavismo would have faced in these past
years."[21]
The prioritization of the alliance with the bourgeoisie unsettles the balance of forces
within the popular masses. This is expressed in the sharpening of contradictions between
advanced sectors of the working class and the Bolivarian government. As an example, we
note that the conflict affected workers in the Empresa de Propiedad Social Directa Comunal
(EPSDC) "Proletarios Unidos" and in conjunction with the commune Pío Tamayo in the city of
Barquisimeto, in the state of Lara.
The EPSDC "Proletarios Unidos" arose from an initiative by Brazilian workers in the
Brahama brewery, who from unjustified abandonment by the company decided not to accept the
settlement offered to them and chose to occupy the factory under the perspective of making
it self-managed. From that moment, workers were forced to resist and confront the former
owners of the factory and the right-wing Lara government. Government officials attempted
to undermine and hamper the consolidation of the "Proletarios Unidos" project. In the
process, workers began to dialogue with the "Pío Tamayo" communards, who have been
involved in an interesting experience building popular power in both territorial and
productive areas.
However, despite the enormous effort by former Brahama workers and the Pío Tamayo commune,
the government has considered the possibility of transferring the factory to the Cisneros
Group, owned by an influential Venezuela entrepreneur and member of the Barrick Gold
Corporation.[22]This assumes that an alliance with this economic group that is an epitome
of bourgeois "industry" would allow the government to undermine the economic power of
Lorenzo Mendoza, president of Polar businesses, a group that currently controls the beer
and food market in Venezuela. This situation is comparable to that experienced by other
companies trying to be self-managed by the workers in alliance with grassroots
organizations situated in the communes. In the city of Barquisimeto, companies under
direct social communal property, such as Beneagro and Potters of Grez, have been hampered
by business boycotts, as well as state bureaucracy and a policy of alliance between the
government sectors and the bourgeoisie.
1.3. The ‘People Factor': The Working Class as an Engine for any Transformation[23]
There is no doubt that the Bolivarian process, including its contradictions, has
politicized broad layers of the population and created direct experiences in building
popular power. Within the latter we refer to communes, companies under workers' control,
and autogestión (self-managed) neighborhoods-both urban and rural.[24,25]Unfortunately,
these genuine organizations of the working class are far from being hegemonic. These
organizations have to circumvent and overcome the clientelistic relationships that has
deepened due to the government's enormous economic resources. Over the years, these
relationships have appeased the political initiative made by the popular classes.
We believe that the working class stands as a decisive force to construct a revolutionary
answer to the current crisis; a factor that has been sidelined due to superficial
(institutional) changes that understands the process as being exclusively managed by
government and state institutions. López Sánchez has stated that since the mid-twentieth
century the Venezuelan Left has suffered from the inability to engage with the proper
stages of working class development.[26]Instead, they have focused on building
institutional relationships relegating the working class to either electoral support or
monitoring vanguardist excursions of a foquista character.[27]
In reviewing recent Venezuelan history, what is noticeable is the more or less spontaneous
response by working people that has altered the correlation of forces. This includes their
role in halting the April 2002 coup, thereby opening deep changes for both Venezuela and
the continent. In this case, neither the coup organizers nor the Bolivarian government
considered that the working class would tip the balance towards deepening the process of
change. It was the participation by the same people and the operational capacity of PDVSA
workers that resumed oil production during the 2002-2003 oil coup, despite the disbelief
by putschist managers.[28]By that time, Chavistas had planned an organized response to the
coup that could rely on popular support, which was the role taken by Bolivarian circles.
Just after the 2002-2003 conjuncture, self-organization of the working class was
strengthened in multiple forms of a mass character where youth and women took new
prominence.[29]In 2006-2007 this process reached its peak followed by a decline. From the
massive networks of community media groups in ANMCLA, the union renewal that involved the
creation of the National Union of Workers (UNT) against the broken CVT (Confederation of
Venezuelan Workers) or the creation of Community Councils as forms of territorial
self-administration, all had to face the problem of independence from the
government.[30]The breakdowns of some of these organizations (as ANMCLA) eventually
transpired, as well as the disappearance and virtual replacement of others (such as the
UNT by the Bolivarian Confederation Socialist Workers, CBST) and the clientelistic type
acceptance of others (most community councils that today mainly receive income). The
non-resolution to this problem from a perspective of class independence is at the root at
what some identify as the decline of this self-organizational (autogestión) process.
Today the working class of Venezuela still has many organizations with significant
fighting capacity. The most interesting articulation of that capacity is between community
organizations with effective control of the territory, which represent authentic
expressions of popular power. However, it is clear that these and other organizations are
on the defensive. Most worrisome is the possibility that in the future they will find
themselves even more beleaguered.[31]
1.4. Actual Tendencies
At the moment, it is clear that measures by the Maduro government have failed to open a
path to overcoming the current economic crisis, which affects millions of members of the
Venezuelan working class, including their more affluent layers.[32]They are the ones who
suffer daily devaluation of wages, shortages of medicines, and difficulty in getting food
and other necessities. For its part, the opposition bloc pushes a strategy marked by a
delicate balance between a position of strength on the streets - with fascist undertones -
requiring Maduro to leave the executive and a late bid for a recall referendum under the
Bolivarian constitution.[33]This eventual referendum will be run during 2016 so that the
Right can regain political power through the newly convened elections.
Internationally, this strategy is articulated by the role of the United States and nearby
right-wing nations. The constant infiltration by Colombian paramilitaries with the goal of
increasing levels of violence and creating a situation of chaos is one of the most
dangerous developments, if we also consider the constant calls to implement a democratic
charter of the OAS (Organization of Latin American States).[34]Both elements heighten the
possibility of foreign military intervention. This does not mean that intervention will
occur, but the threat is an element of pressure.
Maduro's government has deepened its alliance with the entrepreneurial ‘industry' sector,
while becoming increasingly authoritarian by strengthening ties with the army leadership
with the intent to delay the recall referendum.[35,36]Meanwhile, it is well-known that
secret negotiations continue between the government and the political opposition to
discuss a peaceful transition.
This situation has led to the government's loss of popular support. An important sector of
their militants (committed members) gravitated toward the more critical sectors that were
capitalizing from this growing discontent. Organizations such as Marea Socialista - part
of de facto expulsions from the PSUV - have participated in this
discontent.[37]Programmatically, the critiques do not differ from internal PSUV critiques,
yet they highlight more the need for audits, tackling corruption, etc. In our view, they
do not point to the structural dimensions of the current crisis. Given their scope and
level of integration within the organizations of the working class, they do not constitute
a real alternative to the political situation.
The majority of the Left - PSUV base groups that are outside of the party's inner circle -
remain unresponsive regarding these dangerous developments. An important aspect of this
passivity is that an entire generation of young people cannot fathom losing the government
after 17 years, while a minority is aware of these possibilities. But their main focus has
become the upcoming electoral victory of Maduro that overstates the democratic safeguards
of bourgeois institutions and the continuation of a PSUV electoral apparatus following a
defeat that will not be solely in the ballot box. This will directly affect the combative
organizations in the economic and social arena. As a final point, there remains a minority
tendency that recognizes the consequences of a scenario that will reverse social gains and
place the working class on the defensive. Unfortunately, more emphasis is given to a
military strategy rather than a social response, in which its implications can be as
disastrous as the as experiences of the ‘60s and ‘70s. There persists a disturbing inertia
by sincere revolutionary sectors that await a new leader or leadership, rather than
organize and renew a strategic and programmatic discussion in their base.
1.5. Final Reflections
In the last few years, Leftist organizations in Chile have organized a series of
discussions about building a strategic road towards usurping capitalism and its neoliberal
components, with socialism as its horizon. References to the progressive or Leftist
governments in Latin America have been inevitable. Unfortunately, these experiences are
evaluated from a superficial and uncritical eye. From a Latin American framework, these
processes are marked by stagnation, retreat, or crisis. The various governments, with
noticeable differences, came to power in opposition to the dominant neoliberal policies of
the ‘90's. We must thoroughly review these experiences, so as to clarify our own problems
that arise when embarking on a path of profound transformation.
In this regard, in watching the Venezuelan experience, there are several elements that
seem relevant to mention. First, the policy of multi-class alliances promoted by the
government, where relevant sectors of the ‘industrial' bourgeoisie are assigned a role,
seems a mistake if what is sought is a post-capitalist project. Remember that this sector
is almost insignificant in a rentier economy with a character such as Venezuela's.
Moreover, it is clear that this alliance, along with those established with other
countries with industrial power and their respective bourgeoisies, has not allowed
Venezuela to diversify its productive matrix, based on its own industrial component that
does not allow its economy to exceed its oil-rentier character. On the contrary, the
alliance has weakened the Venezuelan working classes and their experiences of direct
self-management of production, even giving rise to objective contradictions between the
Venezuelan popular movement and the Bolivarian government.
These contradictions exist not only in the economic and productive plane. One aspect that
draws attention is the gap between a state apparatus at the institutional level that opens
enormous possibilities for the popular role in the management of public affairs. But, in
practice, a new faction of the ruling class (the "Bolibourgeois") was born, as well as a
highly corrupt bureaucracy.[38]It also stifles and perverts experiences of building
advanced people's power that end up yielding to the weight of the bureaucracy or subsiding
under the patronage of government logic.
In that same vein, the absence of a collective leadership that can overcome the dominant
political vision represented by Hugo Chavez, seems a central element which partly explains
the disorientation and loss of strategic clarity of the Venezuelan popular movement and
revolutionary Left. A discussion on the political tools that channel collective leadership
becomes increasingly important under these circumstances. Yet, valuable comrades, both
inside and outside the PSUV, have been raising these issues in recent years, but such
efforts have not crystallized.
Finally, while we insist that the Left must maintain a critical perspective towards this
and other processes, we cannot deny that over these 17 years, the Venezuelan working
classes have offered to the people of Latin America and the world numerous lessons of
courage, conviction, and creativity. Even with the current difficulties being faced by our
brothers and sisters in Venezuela, we cannot lose sight of the need to build and
strengthen bridges of concrete and effective solidarity among peoples who struggle.
Víctor Vallejos, Juan Williams
(Translation by Romina Akemi)
Militants of Solidaridad - Federación Comunista Libertaria (Chile)
May-June 2016
[1]There are many researchers who state that the capitalist sector, especially the ‘renter
capitalist' of the Venezuelan economy has remained intact over the years. We recommend the
arguments presented by Cira Pascual, professor of Political Studies at the Bolivarian
University of Venezuela. http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=206456 y
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=208627 .
[2]As an example, we highlight the SIDOR case. In 2008, in response to mobilized workers,
the Bolivarian government purchased the Argentine companies from Argentinian employers,
mainly in the steel industry. Initially, a "workers' control" model was presented that
sought communal participation in running the factory. In the end, the government decided
to run the company in a bureaucratic manner, placing military men as managers and pushing
back workers' participation. The results were disastrous, progressively slowing down
production because of the economic crisis. See "Control Obrero y Autogestión, el ejemplo
del complejo industrial SIDOR en Venezuela", Sébastien Brulez, in edited volume América
Latina, Emancipaciones en Construcción by Franck Gaudichaud.
[3]The COPEI political pact (Christian Democrat faction) and Democratic Action ("renewed"
Social Democrats) who shared power from 1958 to 1998. Currently are part of the MUD
opposition bloc (Mesa de Unidad Democrática).
[4]This is principally in the arena of working class self-organizing, but also in the
realm of institutionalized policies. At one point, the political order meant an inherited
institutional "siege," but was also a reflection in running of the new state institutions
(as an examples, las Misiones). See 1.3 section of this article.
[5]The emergence of the so-called "boliburguesía" is an inaccurate but rather widespread
term, referring to mainly financial groups that have been enriched by access to certain
businesses. They receive subsidies thanks to their proximity and participation with the
Chavez government.
[6]Caudillismo as an element rooted in the Venezuelan political culture is clearly evident
in the excessive worship of Chavez's image and an uncritical view of his leadership that
prevails in broad sectors of the Venezuelan political and social spectrum. Nevertheless,
this element predates Chavez's arrival and is traceable throughout Venezuelan
post-independence history: "As in 1814, the death of the leader who led the revolutionary
movement of the masses, Ezequiel Zamora, left unfinished aspirations within the
peasantry.[...]Again, the absence of a solid collective leadership that continued the
struggle severed the chances of triumph of the dispossessed." Roberto López, El
Protagonismo Popular en la Historia de Venezuela (Caracas: Editorial Trinchera, 2015).
[7]This parasitic character is expressed in the fact that for the Venezuelan bourgeoisie,
it has historically been more profitable to appropriate oil income by importing consumer
goods, avoiding the risks of investing within the country in the pursuit of the
diversification of the productive matrix. For much of the 20th and 21st century, social
conflicts in the country can be analyzed in the dispute over the appropriation of oil
revenues.
[8]This includes the so-called "excess working class population," those excluded from the
processes of capitalist production.
[9]State participation in the economy has only increased by 0.37% between 1999 and 2014.
http://www.aporrea.org/trabajadores/a213256.html
[10]Among others, in the development of the productive forces of the country.
[11]http://rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=194106
[12]According to a researcher in the Research and Training Worker Center (CIFO) recently
dismissed from the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, Manuel Sutherland: The increasingly
cheaper import (with an overvalued exchange rate) was mutating by the misleading foreign
exchange rate for imported goods. In order to use volatile capital currencies or resell
them in the parallel market with profits at present reach 15,773%. In:
https://alemcifo.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/2016-la- peor-de- las-crisis-economicas-causas-
medidas-y- cronica-de- una-ruina- anunciada/
[13]As stated by Rodrigo Alonso: http://brecha.com.uy/crisis-del-socialismo-del- siglo-xxi/
[14]Pascual, Cira. Ibíd.
[15]The high percentage of null votes during this election also resulted problems related
to the same emission of the vote. The Right has increased its vote steadily since 2007, at
the same time as it was minimized its gap with Chavismo.
[16]https://alemcifo.wordpress.com/2015/12/16/elecciones-a- la-asamblea- nacional-crisis-
economica-o-la- falaz-guerra- economica-derrota- historica-y- grises-perspectivas/
[17]Sánchez, G. 2012. La Nube Negra. Vadell Hermanos, Editores.
[18]According to some news sources, these resources would have cost billions of dollars.
http://www.bbc.com/mundo/ultimas_noticias/2014/04/140423_venezuela_economia_anuncios_maduro_msd
[19]http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2016/02/160215_venezuela_ministro_economia_salas_destitucion_az
[20]The bill that opens the possibility of real estate speculation with the Great Housing
Mission is an example.
[21]López, R. 2015. El Protagonismo Popular en la Historia de Venezuela. Editorial Trinchera.
[22]Coincides with mega-projects in Chile such as Pascua Lama.
[23]Roberto López Sánchez. Ibídem.
[24]Those that actually exist and have a popular role, not the communes that only exist on
"paper" that are meant to inflate statistics.
[25]It is worth mentioning that according to interviews conducted and the limited
experiences that we were able to observe, many popular organizations that existed prior to
the first government of Hugo Chávez took particular advantage of the process to strengthen
their organizing.
[26]Ibíd.
[27]Foquismo is Ernesto "Che" Guevara's Guerilla Warfare theory; Piñate, E. 2013. El
Partido Socialista Unificado de Venezuela y su Relación con el Movimiento de Masas.
Editorial Trinchera.
[28]Sánchez, G. 2012. La Nube Negra. Vadell Hermanos, Editores.
[29]Conjuncture is a reference to "análisis de coyuntura" or "analysis of our time."
[30]National Association of Communitarian, Free and Alternative Media: Founded in 2004.
According to Modesto Guerrero, in 2006 it had 324 traditional media, web, weekly,
bi-weekly, radio, television and film; in control of cinemas. Membership: 3 to 5 thousand.
http://www.herramienta.com.ar/revista-herramienta- n-33/constitucion- dinamica-y-desafios-
de-las- vanguardias-en- la-revolucion- boliva
[31]Factories recovered resisting eviction attempts. Communes focused on solving their
problems at the local level, etc.
[32]Aggravated by an energy crisis caused by one of the worst droughts experienced by the
country.
[33]Remember the "guarimbas" from February 2014 as a destabilizing strategy promoted by
the Venezuelan Right, which were violent demonstrations that acquired the character of
civil war trial, leaving dozens dead (mostly people associated with the process of
Bolivarian change) and buildings destroyed. See "Una Revuelta de Ricos, Crisis y destino
del Chavismo", by the journalist Modesto Emilio Guerrero. The fascist expressions of these
revolts are also described by the author.
[34]http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2016/05/19/estados_unidos/1463688722_510990.html
[35]If the recall referendum is held in 2017 in which Maduro loses and no new elections
are called, the vice president assumes the executive until the end of the period.
[36]"A donde nos conducen Maduro-Cabello", Roberto López Sánchez. Disponible en
http://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a228327.html
[37]Lo que en Chile se llamaría ‘dar un paso al costado'; abandonar la militancia, o
asumir pasividad dentro de ella, resignándose al desarrollo predominante dentro del partido.
[38]Bolibourgeois: Bolivarian bourgeoisie
Artículo original en castellano fue publicado en Anarkismo.net aquí
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29387
http://www.blackrosefed.org/political-situation-venezuela-crisis-trends-challenge-class-independence/
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