Venezuela: Workers, farmers face effects of capitalist crisis – The Militant

Venezuela: Workers, farmers face effects of capitalist crisis – The Militant


Excerpt:

....Venezuela is a capitalist country, where the government attempts to administer capitalist economic relations “for the benefit of all Venezuelans” with “a bent towards the poor.” That was the stated goal of the “Bolivarian Revolution” and what was sometimes called “21st Century Socialism” promoted by late President Hugo Chávez and the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). President Maduro has continued on this course.

While the government instituted price and currency controls and distributed part of the oil revenues in the form of welfare handouts that cut into the profits and restricted the prerogatives of some bosses and came into conflicts with Washington, it was still a bourgeois government.

The leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution never mobilized working people to take control of production and the land and replace the bourgeois government with a workers and farmers government on the road to expropriating the capitalist class. They rejected the revolutionary example set by workers and farmers in Cuba. That is the only road that offers working people the chance to confront the problems they face.

Peasants fight for land, rights

Despite the challenges and obstacles, many workers and peasants have not been pushed out of politics and are looking for ways to defend their class interests.

In July hundreds of small farmers and their supporters marched 270 miles in 20 days from Portuguesa state to Caracas. They demanded government action against big landowners who forced them off lands they won when Chávez was president. They also faced the complicity of government officials, National Guard, police, judges and prosecutors.

The peasants demanded the government take measures to ensure they can get the materials they need, from seeds to fertilizer to water pumps, to be able to grow food for the people of Venezuela.

This march was “the product of necessity,” said Arbonio Ortega, one of its leaders. “Why did we receive no support from the [PSUV] government of Portuguesa?”

The marchers demanded and won a meeting with President Maduro in Caracas Aug. 2. But hours after the meeting, three peasant leaders from Barinas state who had participated in the march were killed by masked goons. Since 2001 over 350 peasants have been killed by paramilitary thugs employed by capitalist landowners, Orlando Zambrano, a leader of the Ezequiel Zamora Peasant Front, told Radio Mundo Real May 15.

Protesting the preferential treatment given to big capitalist farmers, small farmers from the Maizal Commune, in Lara state, in June took over the premises of Agropatria, a state-run company that supplies farmers with seeds, fertilizers and loans. Their action was provoked by the arrest of small farmers for allegedly trying to buy seeds and fertilizers on the black market.

Washington seeks fall of Maduro

Meanwhile, Washington, Ottawa and governments in Europe and their allies in Latin America are pressing efforts to isolate the Maduro government and to make working people pay the price of the crisis.

“It’s time for Maduro to go,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley arrogantly said during an Aug. 8 visit to Colombia. She called on Latin American governments to step up the pressure. Washington’s goal is to replace the Maduro government with one more to U.S. imperialism’s liking, without having to intervene militarily or provoking a social explosion.

“We demand an end to Washington’s sanctions against Venezuela and its violations of Venezuelan sovereignty,” said Edwin Fruit, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Washington governor. “Hand’s off Venezuela!”