Following his recent re-election, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced his intentions to continue down the path to socialism by nationalizing Venezuela's electrical and telecommunications industries, according to CNN.
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"We're moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution," Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his Cabinet. "We are in an existential moment of Venezuelan life. We're heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it."
Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs through 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to eliminate the autonomy of the Central Bank and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to give him greater powers to legislate by presidential decree.
I think what is happening in Venezuela is worth watching closely as a case study in the difficulties of bringing a capitalist economy under democratic control so that it can serve the needs of the still poor majority of humanity.
Critics of Chavez will undoubtedly be quick to attack these moves as evidence of his dictatorial ambitions, and the reference to expanded powers to rule by decree is troubling (though I think it prudent to reserve judgement until we know the specifics, which we probably won't get from CNN). We can rehash those arguments here if we wish. But what I'm really interested in is a discussion of what it means to try to carry out a transition to a socialist society by democratic means in the context of powerful hostile international forces, in this case the United States, seeking every opportunity to sabotage such a dangerous example to the rest of the world.
Leaving aside, if we can, the merits of a socialist economy as an objective, the Venezuelan people have democratically elected (several times now) a government explicitly committed to such an objective. My question is what does Venezuela tell us about how this can be carried out while
- maintaining democratic rights
AND
- defending the process against the powerful anti-democratic forces (U.S. imperialism, the Venezuelan oligarchy and its anxious middle-class "allies," that are determined to sabotage it.
(Note: I won't be able to respond to comments for a while.)