Their last-ditch support for a dying regime is not only leaving them tragically on the wrong side of history but, worse, exposing them and our great movement to ridicule.
Earlier today Colin Burgon argued that ‘It should be left to the Venezuelan people to decide if socialism has run its course’
Rob Marchant, a political commentator and former Labour Party manager who blogs at The Centre Left, replies…
With hundreds of thousands on the streets demonstrating against the government last weekend, ongoing economic crisis, shortages of practically everything and government thugs beating and killing opposition demonstrators, it seems odd that we even have to ask the question.
But on the British left, we sometimes exhibit a pathological support for figures on the anti-establishment side of the argument, as long as they (a) make some kind of vague claim to be ‘socialist’ and (b) stand vocally against The Great Evil, namely the government of the United States. The Maduro regime in Venezuela ticks both boxes.
Last year we looked at Hugo Chávez’ threadbare legacy. In the year since his death, his chosen successor, Nicolás Maduro, has proved himself to be a rather extraordinary president. Extraordinary in the sense that, if you thought Chávez had managed his country poorly, Maduro’s skill has been consistently to do it worse.
He has first managed to produce shortages of a large number of basic goods. In a state which sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, this in itself is a considerable achievement. State-abetted corruption, which is everywhere, helps to waste those assets, although that is perhaps no unusual statement in South America.
Second, the streets, always dangerous no matter what your politics, are now killing zones. In the fifteen years to 2013, more or less exactly the period of Chavez/Maduro leadership, the murder rate has quadrupled (although the same report notes that the government now suppresses statistics).
In recent weeks there has been unprecedented brutality at the hands of the unpleasant “colectivos”, the regime’s paid-for vigilantes. Emiliana Duarte, a local blogger, notes that they “carry out their savage attacks with steel rods, billy clubs, and using their motorcycle helmets as bludgeons”.
Third, there is Maduro’s own strange and erratic behaviour. A man fundamentally lacking the charisma of his predecessor, he has attempted to live off the legend of Chávez; to turn him into a quasi-religious figure, an Evita or a Che for his generation. He claims he has appeared to him as a “very small bird”, and that he advised God to choose a Latin American Pope (I kid you not). Maduro is not just an incompetent leader, but a public embarrassment to the country.
Fourth, freedom within the country has declined further, where Freedom House already rated it only 5 out of a possible 7 (‘Partly Free’), only half a point higher than Russia (“Not Free”):
“Venezuela received a downward trend arrow due to an increase in the selective enforcement of laws and regulations against the opposition in order to minimize its role as a check on government power.”
More media outlets have closed for being anti-regime. CNN has been thrown out of the country. Venezuela formally withdrew from the American Convention on Human Rights in September 2013 – a telling sign of the country’s direction.
I could go on. But challenge the narrative of the pro-Chavistas, and you are told – as I was on Twitter the other day – that it is all a conspiracy of the ‘MSM’ (mainstream media). We would be better off getting all our reports from ‘independent’ blogs (I was referred to this one, utterly bereft of any kind of criticism of the Maduro regime).
No, the violence is all blamed on ‘extreme right-wing groups’, naturally all funded by the US. Hard evidence for this, however, is eerily scant.
For an example of echo-chamber thinking which continues to support Maduro against all evidence to the contrary, look no further than last year’s Labour Party conference, where supporters and Venezuela and of Cuba held a joint event. That’s right, a supposed democracy alongside a bona-fide dictatorship.
In an Olympic feat of intellectual contortionism, the supporters of both saw no inconsistency in supporting the two regimes side by side.
And that is because (a) Venezuela is no longer, if it ever was, a free democracy in any meaningful sense of the word and (b) its supporters are clearly willing to compromise on democracy “for the greater good”; for them democracy is not a sine qua non.
Well, it is for me. It should be for all of us. As we have seen from the murderous anti-democrats of the last century as well as the current one, any other way lies madness.
It is high time that key figures in the labour movement, such as the current leader of the TUC and those of most of the major trade unions, woke up and smelt the coffee.
Their last-ditch support for a dying regime is not only leaving them tragically on the wrong side of history but, worse, exposing them and our great movement to ridicule.
44 Responses to “The labour movement should drop any illusions it has about Venezuelan socialism”
leftythinker
any priise, up to adn includign teh lifes of teh poepel, ar werth payign to reduse soshel inequalness adn unfairness.
that is fair.
The_Average_Joe_UK
Hey presto an ideologue appears. In Venezuela rent controls have been introduced. The result is no investment in housing stock, people living in filthy conditions and nobody prepared to do repairs. Supermarket shelves are empty, people are dying. This is one of the most oil rich countries in the world. Marchant calls for pragmatism and the left want ideology.
Feel free to use all the big words you like, but “geo-political reality” is also known as “Bo11ox”
Comparing V to Guatemala, or Honduras serves no purpose other than to highlight the pathetic politcal war the left are always fighting.
What Venezuela needs is an honest political class that can rebuild the disaster that was Socialism and Chav.
STKT1
I think it’s time for a new keyboard
keith
do you really believe that nonsense you wrote or are you just trying to wind people up, i find it hard to believe you actually know what’s going on over there, you really do make the point of this article
oonarichard squince
One only has to look at the violence of the opposition, the history of their leaders (Capriles supported the failed coup in 2002), their link with previous failed regimes for decades in Venezuela, their funding and close working with big business and malicious private press proprietors , their inability to mobilise- in literally dozens of elections- the majority of ordinary Venezuelans, and their desperate attempts to try to get international support for their cynical calls…to see what side progressives should be on. The present attempt to forment violent uprising and change international opinion is yet one more further nasty attempt to overturn what the Carter Centre and many others recognise as one of the most democratic countries in the world (whether number of elections, electoral processes or the ability of citizens to recall their President). I do not know what great movement Marchant is quoting his allegiance to and simultaneously attacking. He could have a bit more humility , and ask why the Venezuelan Government is still so popular after 14 years in power and do what any democrat should do, never mind socialist, and respect the right of the Venezuelan people to chose their own Government -which purses radical polices with nothing like the austerity agenda of so many in this stagnant region of the world. The labour movement here, quite rightly, is inspired by Venezuela. Any porper study of its achievements i believe to date which confirm it provides a model of 21st Socialism, with all the inevitable limitations due to history, geographical location, size and economic effects of relying on oil.