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$12.95

Left out of Power Gini

Pink Tide in Power Coefficient
Bolvar prophesied shrewdly that the United
States seemed fated by Providence to plague
America with woes in the name of liberty.
General Motors or ibm will not step graciously
into our shoes and raise the old banners of unity
and emancipation which fell in battle; nor can
heroes betrayed yesterday be redeemed by
the traitors of today. It is a big load of rotten-
ness that has to be sent to the bottom of the
sea on the march to Latin Americas recon-
struction. The task lies in the hands of the
dispossessed, the humiliated, the accursed.
The Latin American cause is about all a social
cause: the rebirth of Latin America must start
with the overthrow of its masters, country by
country. We are entering times of rebellion
and change. There are those who believe that
destiny rests on the knees of the gods; but the
truth is that it confronts the conscience of man
with a burning challenge.

Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin

America (1971)
Features ISSUE 25 SPRING 2017

ripple

pg. 26 pg. 35 pg. 54

THE LONG THE EMPIRE'S DOWN, BUT

STRUGGLE AGAINST AMNESIA NOT OUT
DEPENDENCY GREG GRANDIN JEFFERY R. WEBBER

KYLA SANKEY

Crest

pg. 84
pg. 78 pg. 89
ASSESSING
THE LEFT THE BRAZILIAN UNFINISHED
IN POWER WORKERS PARTY BUSINESS
LINDA FARTHING SABRINA FERNANDES DANIEL FINN

Break

pg. 110 pg. 115

STAY TRUE INTEGRATION WONT

TO YOUR BASE pg. 109 COME EASY
KRISTIN CIUPA
SEAN PURDY LESSONS EARNED
pg. 113
pg. 119
THE PATRIOTIC
BOURGEOISIE IS DIVERSIFY. DIVERSIFY.
A MYTH DIVERSIFY.
MIKE GONZALEZ BENJAMIN FOGEL

2 25 / SPRING 2017
Departments

FRONT MATTERS

8 10 12 22
party lines the soapBox struggle friends and
session foes
How to Change Letters +
the World Debating Not Going
The Internet
the Bolivarian Back
Speaks Revolution

MEANS OF DEDUCTION READING

MATERIEL

61 62 66 74
misery index the vulgar uneven and field notes
empiriCist ComBined
Fairly Red Is the New
Arbitrary The Spoils of We Have Been Red, White,
Class War Naught and Blue

CULTURAL CAPITAL THE TUMBREL LEFTOVERS

97 100 103 105 125 128

red Channels Beyond a girondins thermidor the Cookshop means and ends
Boundary
The South Is Moral Outrage Gospel Build It Now Doom and
Our North El Diego in the Service Crusade, Inc. Gloom
of Empire and Friends

BY TAKING POWER 3
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Home is the rst thing we experience as human beings
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However, through these poems, these stories, we
reclaim that home and the humanity that is lost with
what comes with being labeled a refugee. Writing this
is not only a way for the world to know us, but a way
that we may know ourselves, once again.JJ Bola
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This engaging, hugely readable bookshould be
compulsory reading for anyone interested in the
state of the world.Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music
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4 Distributed by the University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu
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Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Translated by Samuel Moore
With an Introduction by Jodi Dean and an Afterword by
David Harvey
Workers of the world, Unite!
So begins the book that changed the world. Published
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Contributors
Nicole Aschoff is the managing
editor at Jacobin and the author
of The New Prophets of Capital.
Kristin Ciupa is a phd candidate in
politics and international relations
at Queen Mary, University of
London.
Linda Farthing is a journalist
and independent scholar who mostly
works in Bolivia. She has written
for the Guardian, Ms. Magazine,
Al Jazeera, and the Nation.
Her latest book is Evos Bolivia:
Continuity and Change.
Sabrina Fernandes is a phd
candidate in sociology at Carleton
University, Canada. She is an
activist in the Brazilian radical left
and a contributing editor at Jacobin.
Daniel Finn is the deputy editor of
New Left Review.
Benjamin Fogel is a contributing
editor to Africa is a Country and is
earning his phd in Latin American
history at New York University.
Peter Frase is on the editorial
board of Jacobin and is the author
of Four Futures.
Mike Gonzalez is a former professor
of Latin American Studies at
the University of Glasgow. He is
the recent author of Hugo Chvez:
Socialist for the 21st Century,
published by Pluto Press.
Hilary Goodfriend is a researcher
based in San Salvador, El Salvador.
She writes about the impacts of
US policy in the region.
Greg Grandin is a professor of
history at New York University
and the author of many books,
including Kissinger's Shadow: The
Long Reach of America's Most
Controversial Statesman.
Gabriel Hetland teaches at
the University at Albany and has
written about Venezuelan
politics for the Nation, nacla,
Qualitative Sociology, and
Latin American Perspectives.
Patrick Iber is a writer and historian.
He is the author of Neither Peace
nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold
War in Latin America, which
was awarded the 2017 Luciano
Tomassini book prize.
Eva Mara is a Venezuelan-
born member of the International
Socialist Organization and
a frequent contributor on Latin
American politics to Jacobin
and Socialist Worker.
Adrienne Pine is an associate
professor in the department of
anthropology at American
University and the author of
Working Hard, Drinking
Hard: On Violence and Survival
in Honduras.
BY TAKING POWER
Sean Purdy teaches the history
of workers and social movements
at the University of So Paulo
and is an activist in the Party of
Socialism and Freedom (psol).
Kyla Sankey is a Toronto-based
activist and political commentator.
Naomi Schiller is an assistant
professor of anthropology at
Brooklyn College and author of the
forthcoming book Channeling
the State: Community Media and
Popular Politics in Venezuela.
Jonah Walters is a researcher at
Jacobin and a graduate student in
geography at Rutgers University.
Jeffery R. Webber teaches politics
and international relations at
Queen Mary, University of London.
He is on the editorial board
of Historical Materialism and is
the author of Red October:
Left-Indigenous Struggles in
Modern Bolivia.
Gregory Wilpert is the author of
Changing Venezuela by Taking
Power: The History and Policies of
the Chvez Government and the
founder of VenezuelaAnalysis.com
Mike Meehall Wood writes about
sports, politics, and the points
where they meet.
5
Citoyens
Jacobin is a leading voice
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6 25 / SPRING 2017
 FRONT
FRONT
MATTERS
MATTERS

A HEALTHY
START TO A NUTRITIOUS
A HEALTHY
STARTMAGAZINE
TO A NUTRITIOUS
MAGAZINE
 FRONT MATTERS
PARTY LINES
How to Change
the World
Latin America is in many respects the birthplace
of neoliberalism, so its itting that it fought back irst
and hardest. After a decade of false promises, anger
over rising joblessness, poverty, and insecurity in the
1990s coalesced into powerful social movements
that demanded something better.
By the turn of the century it was clear something
was happening in the region. Bolivians went to war
over water, Argentines took to the streets and took
over their workplaces, and Hugo Chvez beat back a
coup in Venezuela. Observers from the North
didnt know what to make of this wave of rebellion.
They began talking about a Pink Tide washing
over Latin America.
"Pink Tide" is a somewhat peculiar term that referred
to the fact that the progressive governments popping
up in one country after another werent necessarily
socialist at least not in any traditional sense
yet they spoke loudly and directly about the problems
of capitalism. Latin American leaders talked about
a new kind of radicalism one built on improving
peoples lives in the everyday without worrying
about a long-term vision of overthrowing capitalism.
8 25
BY NICOLE ASCHOFF
For more than a decade these countries, buttressed
by social movements, did just that. They brought down
poverty; improved health, education, and political
engagement; and embarked on ambitious infrastruc-
ture projects. For a moment, another world
seemed possible.
But global capitalism is not an easy beast to tame; its
a ickle creature friend one day, foe the next.
World markets went from buttressing the Pink Tide
projects through robust primary commodity
prices to undermining them. When the bottom fell
out of the commodity markets following the
2008 global inancial crisis, and then again beginning
in 2011, Pink Tide governments found themselves
scrambling to sustain their vision without booming
commodity exports.
Strong cash inlows meant Pink Tide governments
could pay for social programs without fundamentally
changing the for-proit system or demanding that
elites make sacriices. For a while the rising tide really
did lift all boats, including the yachts. But this
didnt mean Latin American elites forgot what their
interests were when crisis hit. As the case of Brazil
/ SPRING 2017
shows so starkly, when global markets soured, capital
demanded austerity.
This about-face highlights mistakes made by Pink Tide
governments. They took the easier route, relying
on commodities instead of confronting elites. And when
it came time to either ight or surrender, they found
themselves standing atop a diminished social base. It
was all too obvious that once robust, autonomous
movements had been defanged during years of Pink
Tide government.
Yet the present crisis cant just be chalked up
to bad choices. Pink Tide governments faced a bigger
challenge than traitorous elites; they faced the con-
straints of global capitalism. And ighting capitalism
without being anticapitalist is impossible.
History shows the diiculty of sustaining a strong
welfare state when the material conditions underpin-
ning progressive governments change. As Latin
American governments were bufeted by the shifting
winds of global capitalism, they found themselves
ill-equipped to meet the challenge; they hadnt built
the forces or institutions nationally or regionally
to withstand the onslaught. The result is a profound
period of crisis for Pink Tide governments.
By Taking Power examines this crisis and the
broader arc of the Pink Tide in Latin America. We
explore the roots of the leftward shift in the social
movement-based struggle against the Washington
Consensus and US imperialism. Following the
Pink Tide governments into power, we look at both
the accomplishments and the shortcomings of
administrations in Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela.
And looking to the future, we draw lessons
from the last ifteen years of progressive rule in
Latin America.
This issue isnt a post-mortem on the Pink Tide. The
US left was fascinated by the dynamism and energy of
the regional ightback against neoliberal capitalism
and remains so today. But we also recognize the need,
in the face of deep crisis, to understand what went
wrong so we can move from taming the capitalist beast
to slaying it. We ofer solidarity, and remain hopeful
that Latin Americas social movements will forge a path
forward against formidable odds.
9
 FRONT MATTERS
THE SOAPBOX

Letters

On Daniel Gearys Truth to Power

I actually agree with the criticism, and have lived my life accordingly.
Most of life has been as an activist. That includes the Vietnam War.
My own active engagement began as soon as JFK escalated the war in
196162, with many talks and organizing antiwar meetings (long
before the teach-in movement). In 1965, I had the major role in initiating
a national tax resistance movement. My article in the NY Review,
The Responsibility of Intellectuals, actually appeared in a Harvard
student journal in 1966 (believe it or not, the journal of the Hillel
Foundation, based on a talk I had given there, one of many).

By then I was closely involved in the eforts to create a national resistance

organization, resist, which became public in 1967 (and was the
target of the government trials of the resistance, in which I personally
was a prime target). The arrest at the Pentagon, which received
publicity, was one of many.

The article in the nyrb was followed right away by others in the same
journal on resistance. Meanwhile I was teaching undergrad courses (on
my own time) at mit on a wide range of social/political issues, giving
talks as well, not focused on intellectuals but rather on capitalist institutions,
imperialism, etc. (as I happen to be doing right now at U of Arizona),
also extending to many other areas (like Israel-Palestine, which had been
a focus of my activist life since the forties, also many other areas of the
world, including participation on the ground). Thats actually been the bulk
of my activities and writings since the forties (with a hiatus of a few
years in the mid-ifties, during a period of remarkable quiescence here).

Intellectuals tend to focus attention, understandably, on critical

analysis of intellectuals. But for me personally its been a rather
peripheral concern.

Noam Chomsky, Cambridge, MA

10 25 / SPRING 2017
 The MIT Press

The
Internet
Speaks

Because communication
is at the heart of any good
relationship

In Defense of Mario Chalmers

An article on the injustice of being a mediocre nba
talent? Is this what 21st century socialism looks like?
Communism for Kids On Hitlers Mein Kampf
Claire Rockwell, Edison, NJ Bini Adamczak The Poetics of
translated by Jacob Blumenfeld National Socialism
and Sophie Lewis
#TheResistance Albrecht Koschorke
Communism for Kids is in fact translated by Erik Butler
We cant imagine Bob Dole leading the tea party for everyone, an inspired and Koschorke shows the contem-
necessary book. . .
resistance but maybe we can imagine Jeb Bush leading porality of Hitlers fanatic strategy
Rachel Kushner, author of to gain power. His creative read-
black bloc groups during the upcoming months. The Flamethrowers ing of Mein Kampf can help
us to understand how political
Mika Brandini, New York, NY bodies are damaged by ideas,
which are invented only to
Neither Kettlebell nor Crossit, perpetuate this damage. Such
an interpretation is needed in
but International Netlix times like ours.
Yes, it is good a thing people ind fulillment Peter Trawny, author of
Heidegger and the Myth of a
outside of work. Yes, it is bad that the capitalist
Jewish World Conspiracy
paradigm infects and afects that fulillment.
Untimely Meditations series
Also, Russian Kettlebell programs are superior to
crossit. Solidarity, comrades.

Tyler Nord, Duluth, MN

We Dont Have That Many Readers

Isnt Jacobin basically the Breibart of the left?

Chris McAndrew, United Kingdom

The Case Against Socialism

Part of me wants to vote for Bernie and part of
me doesnt want to see Count Chocula replaced with
non-gmo State Flakes.

Caleb Lee, Minneapolis, MN

mitpress.mit.edu
11
 FRONT MATTERS
STRUGGLE SESSION
Debating
the Bolivarian
Revolution
On Hugo Chvez
Who was that iery head of state?
A committed radical or
something more ambiguous?
EVA MARA
I was eleven or twelve years old
when Chvez was elected. He was
my main inspiration for thinking
about the possibility of a diferent
kind of society.
In Venezuela, the wealth disparity
is very obvious you have big
mansions and, right behind them,
the hills are full of slums. Then
Chvez came to power with this
progressive rhetoric, this
commitment to the poor. I mean,
he himself was the poor son of a
single mother from Barinas. Part
of my family is from that same
rural town. Some people in my
family actually knew him, or
knew his brother or his grandma.
12
A CONVERSATION WITH
EVA MARA
GREGORY WILPERT
NAOMI SCHILLER
It all just seemed amazing, that
someone like him could become
the president of a country.
GREGORY WILPERT
Chvez put socialism back on the
international agenda. He showed
that socialism could represent a
direct challenge to neoliberalism,
which was the dominant paradigm
when he came into oice in 1999.
NAOMI SCHILLER
Chvezs movement also renewed
the struggle against imperialism
and updated it, in a very important
historical moment. Plus, for
many ordinary Venezuelans, the
movement called into question
the common-sense understanding
of how an economy should be run.
EVA MARA
Really, what Chvez represented
was the irst big fuck you to
neoliberalism in the region. Chvez
25 / SPRING 2017
kicked the International Monetary
Fund out entirely like
youre gone, out of the country
and later he went to the United
Nations and called George W. Bush
a devil. I mean, wow. That was
amazing probably the best day
of my life.
GREGORY WILPERT
Of course, those are all accom-
plishments on the ideological
level. We should also look at
concrete accomplishments, like
lower unemployment and
poverty rates, higher health and
education rates, and the
implementation of all kinds of
social programs.
There were political improvements,
too. For example, deepening parti-
cipatory democracy by reforming
the Constitution which
improved representative democracy
greatly. But also advancing direct
democracy through the creation of
communal councils, communes,
all kinds of diferent mechanisms.
NAOMI SCHILLER
Obviously, Chvez had an enormous
inluence on the Bolivarian
process in Venezuela. We cant
discount that. But this was
not his movement alone he was
building on a long tradition of
 STRUGGLE SESSION
struggle in Venezuela and
that tradition continues now, even
after his death.
EVA MARA
Right. And certainly at this point,
with four years of distance from
Chvezs death, we can think quite
critically about him. In a lot of
ways, Chvez was actually pushed
toward socialism by a militant
popular movement. He didnt
start out there.
I mean, irst, in 1989, there was
the Caracazo a spontaneous
rebellion in the Venezuelan capital
of Caracas, caused by frustration
with structural adjustment. Ten
years later, Chvez was elected, and
then in 2002, when the Right
tried to take power in a coup, the
country rose up again to protect
Chvez. That was a signiicant trans-
formation in and of itself just
fortifying and galvanizing that
popular movement.
A similar movement also came to
the fore during the bosses strike
of 2002 and 2003, when the intran-
sigent conservatives in the oil
company tried to shut down all
production. It was a disaster
for the state. But then the workers
started taking over, restarting
production on their own terms to
ensure their government wouldnt
fail. Again in 2004, with the recall
referendum: the opposition
called for a recall, and then Chvez
beat them with his largest, most
radical majority yet.
Only after all that did Chvez start
talking about socialism. Before,
he was trying to igure out a Tony
Blairstyle Third Way pened with the coup attempt
14
What didnt change
was Chvezs hyper-
leadership role.
It remained a one-man
show in Venezuela.
trying to reform capitalism into against him, because up until that
something gentler. He thought he point he really thought that some
could ix the system, like by using kind of compromise with the
the states immense oil wealth to capitalist class and the Venezuelan
make sure Venezuela didnt have a opposition was possible. The
completely devastated population. attempted coup radicalized him
But then he started talking about just as it radicalized his
socialism in 2005, at the World supporters.
Social Forum in Brazil, in the middle
The opposition just wouldnt let
of the Pink Tide.
go, even though Chvezs program
GREGORY WILPERT was ratiied in elections over
and over again. Each moment of
Its true that Chvez was pushed
resistance by the opposition
in that direction. But the thing is,
pushed Chvez more to the left,
he laid the seeds for that push
so that in 2005 he inally whole-
himself. His original vision his
heartedly embraced socialism
original blueprint actually
and Marxism as well.
included many of the things that
would later come to the fore- EVA MARA
front of his program. The irst draft
Okay, Latin America was turning
of his political program already
left, so Chvezs ideology adapted.
included the idea of creating a
But, unfortunately, what didnt
protagonist participatory democ-
change was his hyper-leadership
racy. That was embedded in
role. It remained a one-man show
the 1999 Constitution, even before
in Venezuela.
his broader turn to socialism.
That was a problem for the Left,
The real shift for Chvez hap-
because if you looked at various
speeches, various statements, you
25 / SPRING 2017

could ind very diferent versions
of Chvez. On the one hand, you
could ind a very radical socialist.
And then, on the other hand, there
was another Chvez a guy
who said things like, Okay, the
bourgeoisie is bad and all,
but theres still a local layer of
capitalists who are for the
revolution, and were going to
cooperate with them.
Im sure his own thinking was
changing a lot during this time
he was being inluenced by
the masses. But thats where the
question of the Left comes in.
The masses could inluence Chvez
through spontaneous, explosive
actions. But there wasnt a coherent
enough counterforce on the Left
that could really push him forward
in any sustained way. So, as a
result, Chvez was able to move
his ideology here and there and
here again, depending on whatever
suited the moment.
On Chavismo
Just how socialist was
Venezuelas twenty-irst century
socialism?
NAOMI SCHILLER
The Bolivarian project was
contradictory in many ways. It
redistributed wealth and
reorganized state control over the
economy, but without estab-
lishing workers power and in some
cases continuing to work closely
with business interests. At the begin-
ning, it was hard to know if those
were just temporary contradictions
or if they were actually central to
the way the Bolivarian movement
Debating the Bolivarian Revolution
was going to implement socialism. met the guy. I was inspired by his
government. So theres nothing
GREGORY WILPERT moralistic about my criticism here.
Well, I think Chvezs socialism I just dont think... well, I just
was based on at least four diferent dont think thats socialism, or at
pillars. The irst is the idea of least a version of socialism that
participatory democracy. The core can win.
notion was there from the
Chvez used to talk about the
beginning: to create a participatory
ive motors of socialism. These
democracy, you irst need to
were reform programs, imple-
compensate for the problems of
mented through the state, that he
representative democracy. I
imagined could drive a gradual
think that remains a very valid and
socialist transition. The main one,
forceful critique of business
the most important one, was
as usual and the fact that it is
about building communal power.
embedded in the 1999 Constitu-
tion is remarkable. Basically, the idea was that people
would start acting diferently
The second pillar is basically a
start making decisions democra-
program of social justice. One of
tically and taking things into
the irst lines of the Constitution
their own hands in small pockets.
says that Venezuela is a state of law
That would eventually reveal
and of justice. So you have a
a better way to organize society,
higher principle than the law. Plus,
which would make the state
this principle is expansive enough
irrelevant. People would just see
to include not just formal justice but
that socialism was better.
also social justice, so it can be
The challenge was to make sure
invoked to support things like
the state didnt squander that
leveling wealth through land
project but actually funded it and
reform, through the reform of the
encouraged it with the end goal
oil industry, through social
of doing away with state leader-
programs of all kinds to beneit
ship entirely.
the poor.
Chvezs thinking was that he
The third pillar has to do with the
could take over a capitalist state
whole idea of national sovereignty.
through an electoral process.
Actually, I would lump three
Then, he could help foster the social
concepts together here national
revolution by using the position
sovereignty, anti-imperialism,
he held in the state. But I think that
and regional integration. The fourth
presupposes a lot of things that
pillar is international solidarity
are unstable and untrue.
more generally. These four pillars
encapsulate the main points of GREGORY WILPERT
Chvezs vision.
I disagree. The fact is, historically,
EVA MARA the government is oftentimes the
main obstacle to revolution, right?
I dont want to debate Chvezs
But in Venezuela, suddenly you
intentions. I mean, I wish I had
BY TAKING POWER 15
 STRUGGLE SESSION
had a diferent kind of government,
one that said, Hey, you can
create these communes, you can
organize yourselves, and so on.
Isnt that the government giving
the tools to the people to parti-
cipate in that revolution? To make
their own revolution, in fact?
I think thats what the government
was doing. And of course, to
a certain extent, that means trying
to propose a program from
above. But not entirely! The idea
was always about giving the
people the tools they needed to
participate in the process and
shape that project for themselves.
NAOMI SCHILLER
One thing that people
misunderstand about the Boli-
varian process is the nature of the
state. We cant just reuse a concept
of the state that suggests it
represents one thing
all the time in every moment. We
have to pay attention to speci-
icity, to historicity, to what was
possible in terms of how
people participated in and
actually broadened state
formation under Chvez.
In many ways, the Bolivarian
project was a successful peoples
movement. People from very
poor communities entered state
institutions in large numbers.
Throughout this whole process, it
was very diicult to separate
what was a community project
and what was an oicial state
project. People who talk about
whether this was a top-down
or a bottom-up process really miss
the fact that, in many ways, people
were moving between those realms.
EVA MARA
My criticism is that, in Venezuela,
were talking about an inherently
capitalist state. Even Chvez
eventually agreed with that criticism!
In 2012 he announced, Okay,
were still under capitalism. We
still have all the same structures.
We need a more dramatic change.
NAOMI SCHILLER
But a state is not a cohesive,
coherent object. There are plenty

of Marxist analyses that see the
state as internally contradictory,
with many interests at work
within it. And yes, at a foundational
level, capitalist interests con-
tinued to sit at the root of many
Venezuelan state institutions.
But there was also ierce competi-
tion over what the future of
those interests should be, just as
there was ierce competition
over the class character and leader-
ship of those institutions.
We need to understand
the Venezuelan state during the
Bolivarian process as a proces-
sual state not a clear-cut entity
with an obvious and unitary
interest, but a terrain of struggle.
EVA MARA
But all that was only possible
because the state was Chvez!
Especially after 2005, when
he was the undisputed leader. He
illed a hyper-leadership role;
there was no real opposition at the
top of the hierarchy.
GREGORY WILPERT
True. But still, in many ways, I
think the Chvez example is better
than the idea that we can
somehow accomplish a revolution
without dual power.
EVA MARA
Marxs main idea was that, in order
to transcend capitalism and
create a highly democratic society,
you need the self-emancipation
of the working class. A revolutionary
process isnt just working-class
people going on the defensive to
defend a government that likes
them. A revolutionary process takes
a far more ofensive approach.
I think there were moments when
something like that could have
happened in Venezuela. There were
moments when the possibility of
workers power was clear.
Take the steelworkers, for
example. In 2008, after a contract
negotiation broke down, they
demanded the nationalization of
Ternium-Sidor, the biggest steel
company in Venezuela. And Chvez
said, Okay, well nationalize
it! The problem was the irm was
controlled by Argentine capital,
and so when Argentine president
and Chvez ally Nestor Kirchner
called him and said, Hey, its our
company; this isnt going to go
well for you, Chvez just backed of.
Or take the oil strike. In 2002
when the national oil company,
controlled by the pro-business
Right, tried to choke out the
Chvez government by halting
production, workers were
able to essentially run the company
without their bosses and
were talking about an industry
as central and impactful as oil
in Venezuela.
The socialist left needs to foster
that kind of thing. We can work with
a friendly state for a while, but we
cant just use the capitalist state to
fund socialism. The main thing,
really and it seems simpliied, but
we shouldnt think of it as simple
at all is the self-emancipation of
the working class. Thats some-
thing we need to recover as
socialists and as Marxists,
especially in Latin America.
BY TAKING POWER
Debating the Bolivarian Revolution
NAOMI SCHILLER
Im skeptical that theres any
version of working-class
self-emancipation that isnt always
already interlaced with cross-
class dynamics. People forget that
there was a real struggle over
the class character of Bolivarianism
and its leadership throughout
this whole process. Painting the
issue as a matter of top-down state
implementation versus bottom-up
local self-determination doesnt
actually capture that struggle inside
state institutions at all.
As poor people, often with no
formal education, increasingly
entered state institutions
which were traditionally run by a
managerial middle-class popula-
tion even deep allies of the project
struggled over what the role of
the middle class might be. And its
true, unfortunately, that in
many cases I observed, middle-class
people were not willing to step
aside, or even work together with
barrio organizations, if that
meant vacating a leadership role.
Plus, at the same time, there
were class inequalities emerging
within poor communities
precisely because some elements
of the Bolivarian project were
so successful. Some people were
well positioned to gain access
to education and insert themselves
into new networks and so on,
while others were less well posi-
tioned to do that. So there was
real class conlict within the
revolution and this ultimately
eroded the movements ability to
confront crises when they emerged.
17
 STRUGGLE SESSION

GREGORY WILPERT
I see that as one of the key
problems with this whole process.
Its a problem of consciousness,
really the lack of a shared under-
standing among the population
We can work with a
about how these projects should
function. And I suppose that
friendly state for a while,
could be attributed to the lack of a
larger overarching vision about
but we cant just use
how to get to socialism. the capitalist state to
On the Current Crisis fund socialism.
After Chvez, where does
Venezuela go?

NAOMI SCHILLER
I think any analysis of the current
crisis has to be connected to
an analysis of global capitalism.
It seems sort of ridiculous to
me when people talk about the
failure of socialism in Venezuela.
I mean there were failures,
of course, but the crisis is really a
consequence of how diicult it
is to correct economic dependency.
Thats a really long-term
project. It cant be resolved in
one or two decades.
EVA MARA
One thing we have to keep in
mind is that Chvez was able to do
all the things he did because he
was in power during the Golden
Decade a period of high
demand for oil, during which oil
sold for a very high price.
During this period, the state wasnt
lacking in funds, so it was able
to mask some of the problems that
could emerge from the contradic-
tions of Chavismo. Then, when
[Nicols] Maduro came to power,
there was the coincidence of
Chvez dying and the economy
just collapsing, all at once.
Suddenly there was global crisis
everywhere. Thats how capitalism
economy twice as efective.
works. Crises are going to
happen. Theres one happening
now. And that means Maduro
has to confront the main contra-
dictions of Chavismo and of the
Bolivarian project head-on. Theres
no masking them anymore.
GREGORY WILPERT
But the main problem is that
the opposition took advantage of
the situation by launching a
full-on assault on the economy!
And, really, this assault was
further enabled by a problem
whose seeds were sown as early
as 2003, after the oil-industry
shutdown. Im talking about the
policy of ixing the exchange rate.
That policy only worked at a time
when the price of oil was relatively
high. As soon as the price of oil
went down, it created a massive
problem. Maduro hung on
to this ixed exchange rate in a
situation in which it was no longer
feasible to do so, and that made
the oppositions assault on the
As long as the government
maintains this tiered exchange-
rate system, theyre leaving a
huge opening for the opposition
to economically attack and
undermine the government. In
efect, what the government
is doing through the exchange-
rate policy is subsidizing products
across the board. They have to
recognize that Venezuela is not an
island. If youre massively
subsidizing products, those
products are going to go across
the border and youre going to
have scarcity, especially in the
context of price controls.
Instead, what the government
should be doing is subsi-
dizing peoples incomes. That
added income is not going to

18 25 / SPRING 2017

be siphoned of to border
countries, the way products will be.
But the government still hasnt
moved away from that policy, for
some reason.
EVA MARA
The way I see it, Maduro and the
United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (psuv) had two options
after the crisis began: They could
try to solve the crisis by doing what
capitalist governments (both
reformist and right-wing) do all
the time hammering through
an austerity package in the hopes
of restoring proits. Or they could
choose to radicalize the revolution.
Thats what Chvez was calling
for at the end of his life reactivate
the base, democratize the party,
turn to the commune.
But obviously, that radicali-
zation to the left hasnt
happened under Maduro.
NAOMI SCHILLER
We also need to recognize the
Maduro governments slide
toward a very deep concentration
of formal control. In a lot of
ways, the Maduro government is
challenging the continued
operation of both procedural
liberal democracy and participa-
tory democracy in Venezuela.
People completely miss the point
when they criticize Maduro
by saying that democracy is under
attack in Venezuela without
thinking about what kind of
democracy the opposition would
impose. Defending a narrow
procedural democracy without
considering economic or
social rights is an arid, irrespon-
sible conversation. But still,
even those allied with the
government fear the rise of an
authoritarian-style concentration
of power right now.
There has also been a slow
slide toward a return to neoliberal
policies under Maduro. I think
people in Venezuela who are allied
with Chavismo are cognizant of
that fact, and so feel themselves in
a really diicult position.
GREGORY WILPERT
I dont see neoliberal tools being
implemented. As a matter of
fact, Maduro did try to intensify
the revolution by introducing the
claps, or Committees for Local
Production and Distribution. That
was a way of involving the popu-
lation in everyday economic
processes to compensate for the
economic problems.
EVA MARA
But look at Maduro establi-
shing free-trade zones thats
clearly not left!
NAOMI SCHILLER
To be honest, with the lawed
economic policy and the various
mistakes this government has
made, its hard for me to read
which way theyre going. I think
its hard for anybody to read.
EVA MARA
Maduros government has run
its course. Its showing its limits.
I dont think the Left should be
a part of that government. I dont
think the Left should think of it
as our ally or the ally of the Venezu-
elan people. Its sticking to the
same old response to capitalist crisis,
BY TAKING POWER
Debating the Bolivarian Revolution
even though that response has
been harmful for working people,
for the poor.
NAOMI SCHILLER
Still, as suspicious as people are of
Maduro as much as people
are really sufering many leftists
in Venezuela feel that defending
Maduro is the only way to stop the
right wing.
EVA MARA
Im not saying the whole Bolivarian
process was a mistake obviously
it wasnt a mistake. But we need
to go toward something new. The
process has obviously died.
The model itself failed. At this point
thats clear. Now I think we
need to move on to a much
different model a much more
democratic one.
On Left Renewal
What steps should be taken?
NAOMI SCHILLER
Recently, a friend in Venezuela
said something that really
stuck with me: The global left is
incredibly cruel. They want a
perfect revolution that is impos-
sible to make.
I think people feel abandoned
in Venezuela. For a while there
was incredible solidarity, all
this excitement about Venezuela
around the world. And they felt
it! There was an inlux of energy
into the country all kinds of
people went to Venezuela wanting
to contribute, to participate, to learn.
That has completely fallen of for
a lot of reasons. But now all
19
 STRUGGLE SESSION
Venezuelans see from the interna-
tional left is deep criticism.
And Venezuelans are critical, too!
Theyre deeply critical of
Maduro, even while some advocate
unity. They recognize his
authoritarian leanings. Theyre
not naive about the potential
threats on the horizon. But theyre
not naive about who they see as
the enemy, either. In their rush to
criticize Maduro, many folks have
also written of Venezuelans
who continue to struggle for social
justice in a very complicated
and messy context. We see a kind
of fair-weather solidarity.
EVA MARA
The thing is okay, how did
the Caracazo happen? When it
occurred, it was the most
explosive reaction to neoliberal
structural adjustment the
region had seen. But it didnt
transform into any form of higher
political organization, whether a
party or some other form.
Instead, ten years later, we got
Chvez someone coming from
the military who organized
within a conspiratorial group of
left-wing military elites. He
came from a very poor background
and he really wanted to change
things. But for him, that didnt
mean forming a party with masses
of people; it meant doing
everything for the people because
he had the means.
For the most part, the organized
left went into the psuv
when Chvez formed it in 2007.
Its hard to characterize that as a
mistake, because ive million
20
people joined all at once the
masses were moving. But
now its hard to know where to
go from there.
GREGORY WILPERT
Considering that it seems
relatively unlikely that the psuv
will renovate itself from within,
I think there might be a role for an
outside force to play. An orga-
nized left-wing force, in coalition
with the party or in a mode of
critical support, could push the
psuv to renovate itself.
In fact, I think there have already
been some promising develop-
ments in that direction. Maduro
even gave a speech recently in
which he recognized that the psuv
needs to be reorganized. I think
that recognition comes precisely
from the push from outside,
from the Left.
EVA MARA
The revolutionary organization
Im most in contact with Marea
Socialista irst joined the psuv
with the condition that they would
keep organizing as an independent
organization outside the party.
They split from the party recently,
and its still unclear how much
weight they carry now.
But I think thats precisely what
needs to happen breaking from
Chavismo and the psuv. Its
time to take some actual lessons
and rearticulate what a left
solution could be. We need people
to look to the Left as a place
where there are solutions on ofer.
Chavismo isnt doing that. Its
basically acting defensively.
25 / SPRING 2017
NAOMI SCHILLER
People I work with are pretty
adamant that maintaining unity
with Maduro, despite their
criticisms of his government, is the
only way forward. And I think
theyve come to this conclusion
based on how they measure the
power of the right wing, how they
assess that threat.
So people will say, We have to
advance the revolution and renew
a socialist horizon, but in the
meantime we have to defend
Maduro. And theyre not happy
about that. Its a very reluctant
commitment to unity.
On Lessons Learned
What should we tell our
children? What should we tell
ourselves?
NAOMI SCHILLER
In 2007, I was sitting in a crowded
mall in downtown Caracas and a
friend said to me, You know, this
revolution is just too easy. He
was talking about the projects
supericiality, so to speak
the easy availability of commodi-
ties at that moment, the fact that
it seemed unnecessary even to
challenge the oil economy. And, of
course, there was the fact that
peoples aspirations for upward
class mobility were being realized,
in some ways, by Bolivarianism.
He felt that in some respects
the process had been very superi-
cial, in that it didnt force people
to go through the necessary process
of analyzing the system, creating
solidarities, becoming militant. Of
course, thats not the whole

The most successful Chvez
years were when he was
most radical.
story many people were
creating solidarities, many people
were becoming militant. But
its still something to keep in mind.
I think the example of the
Bolivarian process forces us to revisit
our assumptions about social
movements and the state. We cant
just think of poor people as
always necessarily up against state
power and the state as always
necessarily an enemy of the people.
We need to be much more careful
and pay much more attention to
place and time.
EVA MARA
I think the most important thing
to recognize is that people actually
want a left-wing alternative. The
most successful Chvez years were
when he was most radical. I had
some comrades who were there at
the World Social Forum in 2005
and, apparently, when Chvez said
the word socialism there was a
ive-minute round of applause. He
couldnt keep speaking! To me,
that shows what people are actually
looking for not some mediocre
half-left, but a real, ighting
left-wing vision.
GREGORY WILPERT
Another lesson is something [lvaro]
Garca Linera, the vice president
of Bolivia, has mentioned a number
of times, and I think he means to
implicitly criticize Venezuela
you cant neglect the economy.
Sure, the goal domestically is to
try to achieve a socialist economy
and so on, but the fact is that
were still living in a capitalist world
market. You cant completely close
your eyes to the reality in which your
country inds itself. Unfortunately,
that seems to be what some
powerful people within Chavismo
chose to do, and I think that has
led to the economic problems
Venezuela is currently facing.
EVA MARA
I think adopting a critical analysis
of Chavismo is important. That
BY TAKING POWER
Debating the Bolivarian Revolution
critical analysis can help us remain
skeptical of the push from some
corners of the Left to constantly
redeine what socialism can
look like in this supposedly
new period.
Its true the Left has been
completely demoralized over the
past forty years. Neoliberalism
has smashed unions, it has smashed
mass working-class parties. But
now people, even some socialists,
mistake the complete demora-
lization of the Left for the working
classs inability to be on the
ofensive and demand things. So
they turn toward state-led solutions.
The Chvez experience tells us to
stop looking for shortcuts,
because they are obviously just
setting us back and allowing
the Right to gain traction in its old,
familiar ways through populism
and nationalism and all those things.
We need to recover the essence
of socialism by thinking about how
we can actually get there.
21