FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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Capitalist crisis and inter-imperialist rivalry are attacking Venezuelan workers with a vengeance. Workers are suffering the effects of the bosses’ fight for control of oil. While the capitalist bosses fight among each other over who will rule Venezuela, the worldwide crisis of overproduction and drop in oil prices have made it impossible for workers to live in the old way. The drop in oil prices was engineered by the US imperialists and their Saudi allies to attack their rivals in Russia, Venezuela and Iran.
The group of bosses and investors allied with the US-supported opposition to President Maduro are refusing to import products for the market basket of consumer goods. They are creating food shortages and instigating food riots throughout the country. Inflation is approaching 1000%. (So the products cost 10 times more than before.) This is carried out with the plan that the masses blame the current government and not capitalism.
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013, declared that Venezuela was building “21st Century Socialism.” After being elected President, Chavez declared himself a socialist, saying “our socialism accepts private property.” This means private ownership of the means of production to make profits for the bosses. That is the cornerstone of capitalism. It means leaving workers to continue living under the bosses’ growing exploitation, as well as the attacks of the imperialists and their local allies.
No matter what the label, socialism has been state capitalism everywhere that it has been implemented. In Russia and China, honest, committed revolutionaries mistakenly thought they needed to implement socialism before they could have communism, a system that means the complete elimination of classes, money, and exploitation.
When oil prices were high (they reached a peak of $109 a barrel in 2012), Chavez used part of the oil revenues to finance social programs that improved the living conditions of the impoverished masses. This calmed their anger and hatred of the oppression and inequality they face. At the same time, Chavez and his oil-boss cronies made billions in profits, sending $406 billion to tax havens.
Today, oil is selling at less than $50 a barrel. The Chinese imperialists, who invested $60 billion in Venezuela, are being paid in oil. But they are still owed $19 billion. Recently the Chinese bosses made a new loan for $2.2 billion to improve the oil infrastructure. Earlier this year, they met with opposition leaders to make it clear that they must honor the debts negotiated by Chavez and Maduro.
Under both Chavez and Maduro, 96% of exports from Venezuela are oil exports. So the drop in oil prices has drastically affected the Venezuelan working class.
All the reforms which made Chavez look like a friend of the workers have been abolished. “21st Century Socialism” is exposed as what it always was: a capitalist ploy to try to keep workers away from the only solution to the bosses’ exploitation: that solution is communist revolution.
Communism will have no market. It will have no money. Nothing will be bought or sold. Everything will be produced, distributed, and used to meet the needs of the masses of workers, not to make a profit by buying or selling it on the capitalist market. Chavez’ 21st Century Socialism could never escape the market.
The masses of workers in Venezuela and throughout South America who are suffering from the capitalist crisis need communism. They need to join and build a mass ICWP, and fight for a world where we collectively plan, produce and distribute to meet the needs of the international working class. No election can defeat the profit system. For that, we need an armed revolution in in which the masses of people understand clearly that we must fight for communism and a mass ICWP to mobilize the masses for it. Join us!