Chapotraphouse

I've read 1000 headlines by the time you've read 4 articles. I've made 200 posts by the time you've typed out one. I've advanced the dialectic with discourse before you've even comprehended the contradictions.

I notice they didn't even bother posting a link to the article. It's almost like they know the article just states that this isn't actually the big scary thing the headline makes it out to be and is just part of the "agreements" forced onto them by the US in April.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-rodriguez-pledges-to-return-nationalized-assets-to-former-owners/

And even then the headline is just "Politician says words." Not "Politician signs action into law" or anything like that. It was just a random soundbite from a speech she gave. And the actual quote:

“I have ordered the evaluation of non-essential state assets to be offered to the private sector or returned to their previous owners,”

So this isn't even a thing that is happening, it's an "evaluation" of which non-essential state assets might get returned to some complaining American gusano to shut the yanks up for a bit. Shitty situation? Sure, but every time these people act like she's some grand backstabbing mustache twirling evil villain, but don't actually bother to investigate, just read an inflammatory headline. And every time it turns out less that she's some evil villain doing pointlessly evil things (that the people of the country don't oppose for some reason) and more that Venezuela has a gun to their head and is trying to do the bare minimum to keep the yanks happy and bide their time.

If the people of the country support (or tolerate) what is happening, then that's what we should be looking towards. That's what matters here. Not this Great ~~Man~~ Woman theory bullshit where she is personally tearing down everything good because she's an evil villain and the people of Venezuela aren't as alert and aware as ME, the superior western armchair leftist and so they just don't notice.

Venezuela has a gun to their head and they're complying to minimize damage rather than have the country devastated by an American war. It's hard for me to imagine many of their industries doing well after their country has been bombed like Vietnam or Korea. Selling some industry to the Americans and surviving seems like the less bad of two awful options.

In another article of theirs I found this about the commission that re-evaluates state assets: https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-installs-commission-to-evaluate-state-assets-mulls-possible-sell-offs/

The acting president announced that Venezuelan state assets would be divided into four categories: strategic ones to remain under state control, “strategic alliances” where the state retains ownership but management is turned over to the private sector in concession-type deals, “non-strategic” assets to be fully privatized; and assets to be liquidated or reincorporated elsewhere.

The question then becomes where the line is for a "strategic" asset. In the article a consultant suggests steel and cement as sectors that can see (partial) privatisation, perhaps the "derelict factories" you refer to.

From what I understand there has already been an unstable mix of state and private control in various primary sectors, a tug-of-war that the PSUV wasn't able to overcome before a 10+ year string of crises and sanctions put the "Venezualan path to socialism" on shaky ground (sometimes literally). So this would be more like a shittier version of the status quo rather than a full 180, in my view.

My overall impression of Rodriguez' government is of one backed into a corner and determining itself too weak for maintaining the status quo and gambling with concessions to build up better conditions and morale. Hence viewing themselves as Lenin with Brest-Litovsk or Deng with Reform and Opening Up. The fate of that gamble is uncertain and will also determine if Chavismo failed in its bet on bending the bourgeois state rather than overthrowing it, as that rendered it vulnerable when the crises hit.

He can have nukes once he purges the military and police of all the fascists

I'm a Brazilian who voted for Lula (and one who recently was introduced to revolutionary literature). Lula is at most a milquetoast socdem, one who is willing to betray the people who gave him immense support during these elections just to adopt a neoliberal agenda to appease the capitalists, so he can get their approval to govern. So no, don't expect anything from Lula.

The only way to make Lula adopt a more radical stance is by making pressure from bottom up. But I doubt we could do anything toforce upon him a nuclear program. He isn't brave enough to do an industrialization program, let alone a military program that includes nukes, missiles, drones and other deterrence measures.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-rodriguez-pledges-to-return-nationalized-assets-to-former-owners/ it's right there?

it is very simple to read a headline and make an assumption, but very hard to seek truth from facts.

Either betrayal or capitulation. Either backstabbing or cowardice. But the effect is the same.

Remaining forces that aren't in on it could in theory still launch the nukes after such a coup attempt.

this is just not true at all. Venezuelans died in that raid and there is not a shred of evidence that there was any inside help. it has been almost 11 months since the raid and the masses and PSUV have remained unified. are you suggesting that the entire Venezuelan left was in on this?

It was getting downright embarrassing around here how one would get pounced on, told to shut up (literally) and showered with abuse for having the gall to suggest that maybe Delcy Rodriguez didn't have the best interests for the revolution in mind when she was opening up Venezuela to foreign capital (US imperialism) and giving warm compliments to the US president responsible for her predecessors illegal kidnapping and torture. It wasn't possible to have any conversation rooted in dialectics without being told you were an instigator (a word no doubt used to get around the no fed-jacketing rule) non-dialectical anti-materialist, among other worse insults. I would hope those holdouts, are now off sulking in a corner where they belong rather than filling up these threads with their bile and flecks of spittle, maybe even doing some very needed self-crit and learning how to look beyond their own egos and personal desires, but I doubt it.

Though as others have mentioned here, sometimes it still does suck to be right. For all their disgusting abusive behavior, I wish the cope clique had been right, and that Delcy was akshually just hiding her power level and building up the revolution behind the scenes while only putting on an elaborate show for Western imperialism by... readily acceding to all their demands. But no, real materialist analysis predicted this was the most likely trajectory even months ago, and sure enough, here we are.

I'm not sure the distinction really matters once you're a puppet state of the USA - there is no socialist transition anymore. This isn't a controlled use of free markets as in Deng, nor simply conceding land and money, this is post-coup submitting to USAian masters.

I'm less interested in saying whose to blame than I am in wondering what possible salvation they have now. Neither resistance nor acquiescence will save them at this stage, only a massive fuck-up or decline on the side of the US empire, which is not beyond possibility at least.

And honestly, this situation seems a lot more clear cut and obvious now than those did at the time. Venezuela after decades of sanctions can not handle what Iran has been taking, especially since they have virtually no anti-air capabilities that can really do much to stop US planes.

They are already dealing for years with their electrical grid, water treatment, sewage, and entire extractive industries all working at a fraction of their capacity due to sanctions. Then they are going to be having their schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings firebombed every day?

What could they possibly do to resist such a thing aside from negotiate and accept some humiliating extortion.

Being a victim of US imperialism doesn't make you a traitor or a coward, and inviting your own people to be bombed doesn't make you brave.

It is clear 11 months later that there have been no internal rifts and that the entire PSUV and mass movement are still unified, what else could explain this reality but the fact that they are indeed unified? Why do we need to assume we know better than the people actively involved in their own revolution?

In order to maintain the dictatorship of the proletariat one must first have a dictatorship of the proletariat. What is the point of a national bourgeois reformist party continuing to hold power if they no longer further the interests of the nation?

They deserved critical support insofar as the national bourgeois PSUV continued to resist imperialism, but if they flip and instead aid imperialism then what is their utility to us? Why should we critically support them any longer?