[News] Venezuela takes new steps against capitalism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

In Defense of Marxism - Oct 6, 2005
http://www.marxist.com/bolivarian-revolution-expropriating.htm

The Bolivarian Revolution takes new steps against capitalism
expropriating factories and landed states

By the Revolutionary Marxist Current (Venezuela)
http://venezuela.elmiltante.org

In the last few weeks in Venezuela there has been a renewed offensive in the
"war against the latifundia" and a number of factory expropriations. This
has had the effect of polarising the country, with the private bourgeois
media launching a "crusade" in defence of private property.

The expropriations have involved the Heinz tomato processing plant in
Monagas, the Fribarasa slaughterhouse in Barinas, the Promabasa (the
Alimentos Polar owned silos) in Barinas, the Comanacoa Sugar Mill and the
Sidororca pipe factory. In the countryside the La Marquesena estate has been
taken over and there have been similar such interventions in a number of
other latifundia up and down the country.

The oligarchy is now up in arms trying to mobilise the weak forces of the
opposition. They have organised an intense media campaign, whipping up the
fear of the petty bourgeoisie that their property is going to be taken over
(something which is not at all contemplated by revolutionary Marxists when
we talk about expropriating the means of production). In this manner, the
ruling class is trying to recover a certain social base of support.

We should remember that the Land Reform law was one of the elements that
sparked off the coup in 2002 and it touches on a key aspect of Venezuelan
capitalism. If we add to this the expropriation of a number of companies and
the announcement of a reform of the very concept of private property in the
Bolivarian Constitution once this gets a two-thirds majority in the National
Assembly, we can see why the ruling class and imperialism are accelerating
their plans to counter what they see as a "socialist threat".

On Sunday 25, the news bulletins of the main media interrupted their normal
broadcasts to bring live coverage from the streets where, according to them,
"the Venezuelan people were protesting against this assault on private
property on the part of President Chavez". These were in fact small rallies
in the upper-middle class neighbourhoods in the main cities in the north of
the country (Caracas, Valencia, Maracaibo, etc). On all of them there were
slogans against the expropriations and against Chavez, who at that time same
moment was talking on his weekly Alo President programme, broadcast from the
expropriated estate of La Marquesena, so as not to leave any doubts about
the fact that it had been taken over and that part of it was already being
handed over to 80 peasant families.

The Church, as a loyal servant of the ruling class, has also stepped in to
the campaign to attack these recent measures which are hitting Venezuelan
capitalism. Among those making statements was the president of the Active
Consciousness Foundation, the rabbi and highest representative of the Jewish
faith in the country, Pynchas Brenner. According to El Nacional, Brenner
declared from Maracaibo that respect for private property has existed since
ancient times, otherwise the sacred scriptures would not have mentioned
respect for this right in one of the main commandments: "you shall not
steal". And he added: "this is a commandment of God which implicitly
recognises the right of private property as a basic human right which cannot
be taken away". As always, this is part of the strategy of the ruling class
to try and present this system of oppression we live under, as one that has
always existed and that shall exist forever, like a kind of law of God.

The media campaign has also had support from their masters in the north, as
was to be expected. The US ambassador Brownfield stated on Globovision that
the expropriations are an "internal and sovereign" affair of the country "if
they are in accordance with international law", and added that what is
happening in the country will "undoubtedly have an impact on private
companies, not only in the US but in all countries of the world".

The businessman and president of [the business federation] Conindustria,
Eduardo Gomez Sigala, as a representative of the "national" bourgeoisie,
also joined in this reactionary chorus, warning that the expropriations are
going to "bring confrontation and will affect the investment climate. We
call on industrialists to defend their property vehemently, as the case
requires. There is no doubt that we cannot act with halfway measures in this
matter. The Venezuelans who have built up this country, created industries,
companies and houses must defend them for the well being of future
generations".

With extreme cynicism, these employers (the same who squeeze every last drop
out of us in order to fill their bank accounts with the proceeds of our
labour) have expressed their "deepest worries" for the workers of the
expropriated companies and landed estates, and for the future of their
families. As if they had ever cared for the well being of our class when
they destroy jobs to maximise their profits!

The Government expropriates La Marquesena and other latifundia

The government has organised a census of nearly 2157 landed estates covering
7 million hectares of land, and has determined that 3,658,123 hectares can
be classified as latifundia. This means that INTI [National Land Institute]
plans to intervene in 317 estates. As Genaro Mendez, president of FEDENAGA,
the association of cattle ranchers and latifundia owners said, "the problem
is not just La Marquesena, the land that is threatened is those of the whole
of Venezuela, and we will assume the defence of all producers".

The Minister of Agriculture and Land, Antonio Albarran, explained that the
time scale for the taking over of land this year includes a further seven
landed estates. These are those of Jovito (Apure), Los Cocos (Apure), San
Pablo Paeño (Apure), La Bendición, Ramera, La Marqueseña (Barinas), La Vaca
(Guárico) and Barrera in Carabobo. They add up to a total of 1,740,000
hectares. The will be followed by estates in Bolivar and Carabobo. The La
Vergarena ranch, with more than 180,000 hectares will be the next one to be
taken over. It is forecast that a total of half a million hectares will be
taken over by the end of 2005.

In response to these advances in the struggle against latifundia in
Venezuela, the hired thugs of the landowners attacked the house of Minister
Albarran in Sabaneta (Barinas) in the early hours of last Wednesday in a
shooting spree. The bullets hit the room of his daughter who fortunately
escaped unharmed. "I am not going to retreat in the face of this or any
other kind of pressure. I will continue the war against the latifundia",
said the Minister.

More than 180 peasant activists have been killed in the last seven years of
revolution by the hired thugs of the landowners in an attempt to prevent
them from taking over the land that is rightfully theirs. Now they want to
apply the same methods to the Minister of Agriculture and Land.

A few days ago, on September 13, the president of FEDECAMARAS, Jose Luis
Betancourt, read a document of this, the most important business
organisation in the country, which demands, "an immediate stop to arbitrary
and illegal actions against private property, the return of the affected
properties to their legitimate owners, and the respect to the right to work
for workers and employees of the companies affected". "A Venezuela without
private property is a Venezuela without freedom, without democracy, without
dignity and without a private sector. A Venezuela without a private sector
is doomed to hunger and poverty", ended the statement. The problem is that
it is precisely the chains of the nation state and private property of the
means of production which condemn millions of human beings all over the
world to hunger, misery, scourges which could be easily eradicated on the
basis of a nationalised and democratically planned economy.

The statements from Betancourt did not seem to cow the president of INTI
[National Land Institute], Richard Antonio Vivas, who reaffirmed that the
process of land distribution will continue, "the aim of INTI is to eradicate
latifundia from the country". According to the national government what is
taking place right now is the taking back of the country's land, since in
most instances it is not a case of "confiscation, expropriation or
intervention, but of taking back".

The National Government’s legal base for the expropriation of these estates
is that in the majority of cases the landowners have no property titles, or
deeds, for the land they occupy. Most of them increased the size of their
estates arbitrarily, illegally appropriating land that belonged to the State
or to the poor peasants. A large proportion of the country's latifundia
falls into this category.

On Wednesday 21, during the ceremony where the State paid its debts to 1049
aerospace technicians, which took place in the Miraflores Palace, Chavez
stated that, "we will not expropriate more than what is necessary
 the land
owners think they own everything, but they are not the owners of anything,
because the owners are the Venezuelans as a whole." At the same time he
explained that according to his information, "99% of land owners have no
current property titles, so that when they are required by the authorities
to produce property titles they cannot provide a document that corresponds
to the land they occupy".

Referring to corruption he said that there were "remains of the old state
infiltrated within the new State that is being born. We must get rid of the
arbitrary and elite police state that sequestrated the rights of the
peoples". Immediately after that he recommended that the authorities keep an
eye on the bankers since "it seems that a group of them are acting against
the people".

VENEPAL was to be an exception, but expropriations continue in Venezuela

On July 17, President Chavez reported that in the country there are 700
non-productive companies and 1149 which operate at 50% capacity and that the
government was going to expropriate those that did not work. Since then
there had been no concrete measures to implement this promise. However in
the last few weeks it would seem that things have started to move in the
direction announced by the president two months ago.

On Thursday 22, the Legislative Council of Barinas State asked the governor
Hugo de los Reyes Chavez to declare that the Empresas Polar plant in this
State was “of public interest” (a prior requirement before expropriation).
The regional governor declared that "my hand will not tremble when it comes
to signing a decree or any other measure to the benefit of the people". The
following Monday the Regional Government expropriated the silos property of
Remavenca, a subsidiary of Empresas Polar, and thus put an end to all
speculation. In fact, the agreement that had been reached the previous
Friday with the executives of Polar (which included no expropriation of the
company) was broken and the State took over the plant. The Polar board of
directors issued a statement declaring these actions to be a violation of
private property and an abuse.

Along the same lines, on Monday September 26, the National Assembly, in an
ordinary session, declared as companies of “public and social interest” the
Cumanacoa Sugar Mill and Sidororca (a company that produces pipes for the
oil industry), as a step prior to expropriation and that they be handed over
to the workers under co-management [cogestion]. Both companies had been left
idle for a number of years and the workers were demanding their reopening.
The expropriation was announced by deputy Jose Khan, who, together with
Assembly president Nicolas Maduro, had previously met with the workers at
the end of a demonstration.

On the same day, a group of workers at OXIDOR [a private oil refinery], on
the Valencia industrial estate, took over the plant to protest against the
paralysis of the refinery and to demand a fair collective bargaining
agreement. Jose Romer, the union president, stated, "We have been six months
without work, so we decided to take the president up on his word and occupy
the factory to demand our rights". This group of workers demanded the
expropriation of the company and its reopening under "workers and peoples'
control".

A few days earlier the workers of a glove factory in the Amazonas state were
threatened with arrest after a few weeks of occupying the Mi Guante
installations, which had been closed and abandoned by the bosses. We should
also remember the battle of the workers of Snack's America Latina,
particularly in Lara and the Aragua plants, in which once again the
Venezuelan justice system has shown it is at the service of the capitalist
class. What we are witnessing is a recovery of the workers' struggles all
over the country. And although so far these have been isolated cases, they
highlight the role of the working class in this revolutionary process.

Contradictions of capitalism become more acute

Recently president Chavez warned CANTV, Venezuela's leading telephone
company that, "CANTV must recognise the debts to its workers... because if
it does not, regardless of how powerful its bosses think they are, we will
have to apply the sword and the acid of the law". He made this statement
during a ceremony where the state was paying up its back debts to the former
workers of the Maiquetia airport. This was a measure similar to what the
Supreme Court of Justice was asking of CANTV. After the news of this
statement, CANTV shares in the Caracas stock exchange fell dramatically by
12%. Chavez said that the company owes 279 million dollars to its pensioned
workers and that the decision of the high tribunal was aimed at giving back
the right to a "decent pension" to the CANTV workers.

On Wednesday 21, president Chavez announced the revocation of all
concessions to foreign companies operating in national mines. "I want to
tell the country that on the road of recovering Venezuela's economic
sovereignty we will continue to advance in a firmer and more precise way.
Recently, for instance, we took the decision, after looking carefully into
it, to cancel all mining concessions. We will not give the multinationals
any more concessions. No, no, no. They are fooling us", said Chavez. The
share prices of Cystallex International fell by 44% on the Canadian market,
to 1.2 dollars, its lowest level since June 2003, while shares of other
mining companies with a presence in the country such as Gold Reserve and
Bolivar Gold, fell by 28% and 13% the following day.

Price controls, particularly in the food sector, have not stopped inflation;
on the contrary, it has been the regulated products that have suffered the
highest price increases. This is despite the concessions made by the
government in relation to beef and other products that the employers had
been hoarding or for which they had imposed higher prices without any
government reaction, with the exception of some complaints by the president
on one of his Sunday TV programmes. The expropriation of the Promabasa
silos, which were being dismantled by Empresas Polar, was used as an excuse
to provoke an artificial scarcity of maize products (flower for arepas,
etc).

The only road to Socialism of the XXI century

We are witnessing an offensive of the National Government against the
landowners and capitalists, although so far this has only been partial, and
this is obviously met with sympathy and support on the part of workers and
peasants. The oligarchy is conducting a hysterical campaign in the bourgeois
media about the sacred right of private property, that according to them is
being violated by the National Government. These parasites and speculators
who "defend" national wealth by taking their money out of the country or by
keeping their factories and land idle, now complain because the Bolivarian
government is taking from them what does not belong to them, but belongs to
the workers and the people, and that they are incapable of putting to use.
The capitalists cannot take the country forward. It is only the working
class and the peasants that can do this, and this is being demonstrated by
the workers of Invepal, Alcasa and thousands of peasant cooperatives up and
down the country.

All these are enormous steps forward, but the government must not stop here.
Venezuela cannot advance while the land, factories and banks are in the
hands of the capitalists. The solution to the problems of the Venezuelan
people can only be found on the basis of state ownership of the means of
production and the democratic planning of the economy instead of the chaos
and anarchy generated by capitalism. This is the only possible way of having
real economic development in the face of economic sabotage on the part of
the landowners and capitalists. This is also the only way to build
"Socialism of the XXI century."

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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