Monday 4 February 2008

Two important new articles from Fred Fuentes

The Struggle for a Mass Revolutionary Party in Venezuela
Despite the best attempts by the emerging power elites to kidnap the PSUV in order to advance their interests, many agree that grassroots leaders and left currents are well represented at the founding congress, or at least well enough to make their presence felt. The thoroughly revolutionary content of the draft program and statement of principles are another positive sign. Of course, these are simply words on paper, but these documents can provide a basis to fight for a genuinely revolutionary party — in practice.
Combatting Food Shortages in Venezuela (with Tamara Pearson)
The capitalists have fuelled the food shortages by holding goods back from the legal market where price controls lower profit margins, then selling them illegally at exorbitant prices on the black market. Another way around the price controls has been to smuggle food out of Venezuela to be sold in neighbouring Colombia. In this way, as well as maximising profits, capitalists also hope to destablise the government. That this would be an outcome of price controls over an economy still predominantly capitalist should come as no surprise. Yet it appeared it did for the government, which was completely unprepared for such problems. Even worse, sections of the corrupt state bureaucracy helped exacerbate the problem while attempting to deny it existed.

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