Don’t Side with Any Bosses – Workers and Soldiers Need Communism
January 30—Venezuela is living through its most tense days since the protests of 2017. The opposition, in an act of provocation, declared Juan Guaidó, president of the National Assembly, as the “President in Charge” of the country. Maduro’s government declared the National Assembly in contempt.
The failures of Venezuela’s “XXI Century Socialism” are plain to see. The need to mobilize the masses for Communism is increasingly urgent.
The opposition argues that Maduro’s election as president in 2018 was fraudulent and illegitimate. That’s why, at the end of his 2013-2019 term, the opposition carried out the present maneuver to pressure him to leave office and call new elections.
The Venezuelan conflict has reaffirmed the pieces in the deadly chess game of inter-imperialist rivalry. US Vice-President Mike Pence was the first to recognize Juan Guaidó as “President in Charge.” Then Canada, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica and other countries aligned with US interests did the same. A few days later, so did France, Germany and Spain.
Meanwhile, China, Russia, Bolivia and their allies continue to recognize Maduro as president of Venezuela. It appears that they have not lifted a finger to avoid the intervention maneuvers.
The likelihood of a direct confrontation between the major powers is small, but a confrontation between US-backed armed opposition groups and Maduro’s supporters is possible.
It is true that the US intervention has aggravated the crisis, but we cannot reduce our analysis only to this, as do the leftists of “the possible.” The Venezuelan experience shows once again that socialism – which keeps money, markets and capitalist social relations of production intact – inevitably leads to crisis.
The Hugo Chavez era achieved great macroeconomic, political and social success. It was not because of the political choices of his government. Chavez achieved temporary success because his government was able to take advantage of the second big rise in the price of crude oil in recent history. He used some of this wealth to benefit the masses. It was a wild oil inflation driven by elements external to Venezuela that financed fast-growing wages, massive housing solutions and spending for educational, medical and nutritional needs.
But Chavez bequeathed a time bomb to Maduro. The inevitable happened. The price of oil collapsed in 2014 and the country entered a crisis from which it finds no way out.
Learning from this process means understanding that communist revolution cannot depend on the ability to buy and sell resources under the control of the Party. The masses must not be seen as mere beneficiaries of economic reforms.
Build a Mass Base for Communism among Workers and Soldiers
The masses must be won to communist ideas and organized in the Party. ICWP is not just a party of leaders or the “enlightened.” The masses must be the main engine of the changes necessary for a new way of life. Immediately eliminating money and production for profit unleashes the ingenuity of the masses for the solution of their problems (food, water, housing, security).
We will fight for food production for all, industrial production for needs, communist education, and mass campaigns to eradicate health problems in the areas controlled by the Party. The success of these goals will be the participation of the masses and the organizational capacity of the Party.
The Venezuelan top army officers remain loyal to the official government, despite pressure and an offer of amnesty from the opposition. But the outcome of the immediate crisis depends on the positions taken not just by the high officers of the Bolivarian Army but also on the mid-level officers and the rank-and-file soldiers.
ICWP is mobilizing for Communism in South Africa, El Salvador, Mexico, Spain, India, Honduras, Canada and the US, but not yet in Venezuela. The Venezuelan crisis makes clear the need for a communist party independent of the ruling class, with a firm goal: communism, and nothing less.
A communist base among Venezuelan soldiers and workers would call on the masses not to defend and die for either one of the two factions of the bourgeoisie and instead to turn the crisis into a communist revolution. But this base doesn’t exist. There is a lot of work to be done.
For now, we ask our readers to discuss this article and the rest of the Red Flag, and to make an effort to spread the ideas of the ICWP including to reach our Venezuelan class brothers and sisters outside or inside Venezuela.
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