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Venezuela cannot wake up from its socialist nightmare.

The Venezuelan opposition just staged a massive protest against the government, which the government repressed with military force, leading to at least three deaths, The New York Times reports. Detained opposition activists say the authorities tortured them, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, across the country, people are starving.

Venezuela, a beautiful, oil-rich country, once one of the wealthiest nations in the Southern Hemisphere, is only sinking further into economic devastation and chaotic, corrupt authoritarianism. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro increasingly looks like a "Bolivarian" version of Vladimir Putin, holding power through corrupt patronage, fear, and the smothering of alternative voices and power centers. The protests were triggered by further moves by the executive to consolidate power. Maduro has banned a main opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, from holding political office.

Meanwhile, the economy keeps rotting. Venezuela has topped Bloomberg's Economic Misery Index, a benchmark whose title is self-explanatory, for three years running. The economy shrank by 18 percent last year, with unemployment at 25 percent, and inflation slated to be 750 percent this year and 2,000 percent the next, according to the International Monetary Fund (Venezuelan government statistics are, of course, made up, so third-party figures are more reliable).

But it's other statistics that show the real extent of the misery, and make one's stomach truly churn. Over the past year, 74 percent of Venezuelans lost an average of nearly 20 pounds each, reports The Economist. The military controls the country's food supply, and the result is widespread malnourishment and, of course, corruption. Venezuela's hospitals have more in common with those in Aleppo than with those of an oil-rich, emerging economy. As the Guardian reported last year, children are suffering from malnourishment for the first time in the country's modern history; there are outbreaks of scabies, a disease easily prevented with basic hygienic practices; hospitals are running out of even basic drugs. Caracas is the murder capital of the world. Corruption has infected the country wholesale even as it has created a new class of kleptocratic oligarchs linked to the security services.

Put all of this together, and it's not just that the economy is doing terribly. The whole of Venezuelan society is breaking down at a fundamental level. We are witnessing the collapse of a once-proud, beautiful country with a rich culture and countless assets. It is truly heartbreaking.

This was wholly preventable. And I blame socialism.

Venezuela's previous president, Hugo Chavez, set the stage for the country's destruction by spending Venezuela's oil money on social programs designed to boost his popularity even as he set about wrecking the country's assets, expropriating most valuable private companies, sometimes to turn them into bureaucracies and sometimes to give them to friends, implementing price and retail controls that ensured people wouldn't have access to basic necessities and capital controls that caused inflation to rise, shutting down alternative voices in the media, Putin- and Erdogan-style, and winking at top-to-bottom corruption.

When global oil prices declined, the house of cards fell.

Of course, rich-world socialists will quibble over semantics and say that Chavez's policies of nationalization, price controls, capital controls, and authoritarianism are not socialism. This is debatable. What isn't is that the collapse was wholly self-inflicted, and it was obvious from the start to anyone who was paying attention and was grounded in reality that this would be the outcome; you didn't have to be a conservative to know this would end badly (although, in fact, conservatives saw it first and were louder about it). And now it's Venezuelans, especially the poorest and more marginal among them, who are paying the price for this madness.

Let us now hope that they, and the rest of the world, will remember for a long time.

Continue reading here:
Venezuela's socialist hell - The Week Magazine

Campaigning for economic and social justice, they are winning municipal races in states like Illinois and Georgia.

Dylan Parker, a 28-year-old diesel mechanic and DSA member who was recently elected to the city council of Rock Island, Illinois. (Neighbors for Dylan Parker)

Democratic socialists have advised presidents and cabinet members; they have been elected as members of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, and as as state legislators, judges, sheriffs and school board members. But their primary service has been at the municipal level, as mayors and city council membersleading not just big cities such as Milwaukee but mid-sized cities like Reading, Pennsylvania, and small towns like Girard, Kansas.

So it is worth noting that, at a moment when democratic socialism is experiencing a surge of interest and enthusiasm nationwide, some of the first electoral victories are coming in small and medium-sized cities. The 2016 presidential campaign mounted by Bernie Sanderswho first came to prominence in the early 1980s as the democratic socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermontopened up the constrained American discourse and got millions of Americans thinking anew about an ideology that was deeply rooted in American history. Sanders struck a chord, especially with young working class activists, when he declared: Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy. Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system in America today which is not only grossly unfair but, in many respects, corrupt.

Since the 2016 race finished, Democratic Socialists of Americathe group forged over many decades by Michael Harrington, Barbara Ehrenreich, Dolores Huerta, Frances Fox Piven, Gloria Steinem, Cornel West and others to give voice to American democratic socialist visionhas experienced rapid growth in states across the country. And now DSA members are campaigning for and winning local races in states like Georgia and Illinois.

Democratic Socialists of Americas Maria Svart hails a shot across the bow for politics as usual nationwide.

More than a dozen DSA members now serve in local posts across the country, and their numbers are growing.

Early this month, Quad Cities Democratic Socialists of America member Dylan Parker was elected to the city council in Rock Island, Illinois. A 28-year-old diesel mechanic who was a Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Parker came home and mounted a city council campaign in the city of 39,000. He focused on open government, citizen engagement and economic justice issues and he got specific. Steering attention to the role that an equitable approach to economic development could play in strengthening the whole community, he talked about providing universal high speed broadband internet access for residences and businesses and about expanding Rock Islands publicly-owned hydroelectric power plant. The campaign resonated with voters. Parker won 68 percent of the vote on April 4.

Two weeks later, in South Fulton, Georgia, another DSA member, khalid kamau, won an equally striking victory. A #BlackLivesMatter and #FightFor15 organizer who was also one of the many young Sanders delegates to last years Democratic National Convention, kamau (who lower cases his name in the Yoruba African tradition that emphasizes the community over the individual), outlined an economic and social justice vision that proposed to make the newly incorporated community of South Fulton the largest Progressive city in the South. On April 18, we won 67 percent on the vote.

THE STAKES ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER. GET THE NATION IN YOUR INBOX.

Declaring that another world is possible, DSA celebrated kamaus victory, with DSA national director Maria Svart describing kamaus win as a tremendous victory for his community and a shot across the bow for politics as usual nationwide.

America elected thousands of local officials, and it is easy to neglect election results from small towns and small cities. But American democratic socialists have always recognized that big things can begin far from the economic and political power centers of New York and Washington. When a democratic socialist named Bernie Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, 36 years ago last month, that victory was viewed as an anomaly. In fact, the ripples from that 1981 municipal election in Burlington is still shaking up American politics.

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The Next Generation of Democratic Socialists Has Started Winning ... - The Nation.

If they continue with their guarimbas, we will take over their factories, said Jesus Diaz, spokesperson for the Pio Tamayo Commune in Lara.

Several private companies in Venezuela connected to the countrys right-wing opposition are asking workers not to come in for their shifts next week.

RELATED: Bolivia's Evo Says US Wants to Overthrow Venezuela to Steal Oil

Claiming to defend their workers safety amid ongoing protests, the companies are backing opposition calls for a national strike against President Nicolas Maduro.

But for workers supportive of Maduro and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) the strike is merely a trap intended to sabotage Venezuelas economy.

These actions planned against our revolutionary people are a desperate attempt by the empire to overturn our Bolivarian Revolution, Jesus Diaz, a member of the Popular Movement of Lara, told Resumen Latinoamericano.

The Popular Movement of Lara is a coalition of communes and workers organizations in the northwestern state.

We are organized and we will defend our revolution as always.

Diaz, who also serves as a spokesperson for the Pio Tamayo Commune in Venezuelas western state, assured Resumen Latinoamericano that workers in the region will continue work as usual. The Popular Movement of Laras boycott of the right-wing strike is supported by dozens of other communes and workers councils across the country.

Workers supportive of the Bolivarian Revolution have also vowed to take over and manage factories abandoned by right-wing bosses.

RELATED: Latin America's Campesino Movement Denounces 'International Conspiracy' Against Venezuela

One of the opposition-aligned institutions supporting the opposition strike is the Catholic University of Andres Bello, one of Venezuelas largest private universities.

On Friday, the institution announced that all classes and campus activities will be suspended due to the situation of uncertainty and insecurity affecting the country. The Catholic University of Andres Bello wont reopen until April 25, when a session of university officials will be held to reassess the issue," El Universal reports.

Other opposition-aligned institutions backing the right-wing strike include privately-run supermarkets and transportation companies.

If they continue with their guarimbas, we will take over their factories, Diaz told Resumen Latinoamericano.

Guarimbas are street blockades organized by right-wing protesters who use Molotov cocktails, burningtires and rocks to attack police and civilians.

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Defending Socialism, Venezuela Workers Resist Right-Wing Strike - teleSUR English

Congratulations To Bolivarian Socialism - GM Quits Venezuela Over Plant Seizure Forbes General Motors has had enough and is entirely suspending its operations in that cradle of Bolivarian socialism, Venezuela. You know the one, the country where Hugo Chavez and then Nicolas Maduro promised to make things better for the industrial ... and more »

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Congratulations To Bolivarian Socialism - GM Quits Venezuela Over Plant Seizure - Forbes

SEP (Australia) and IYSSE public meetings 22 April 2017

Events of recent weeks constitute a warning that the reckless actions of the major imperialist powers, led by the United States, are taking humanity to the brink of nuclear conflict. The Trump administration in the UScomposed of billionaires, fascistic demagogues and military generalshas made clear that its program of America first means war everywhere.

On April 7, the US bombed a Syrian army airbase, in a flagrant act of war against Russias closest ally in the Middle East, based on lies about a chemical weapons attack. A week later, the US military signaled its preparedness to use every weapon in its arsenal by dropping the largest bomb since World War Two on Afghan villagers. In the Asia-Pacific region, the Trump administration is threatening pre-emptive strikes and an all-out war against North Korea, as part of its broader strategy of pressuring China to accept American global hegemony and subordinating it to the dictates of the Wall Street banks.

Tensions are steadily rising between the US and nuclear-armed Russia and China, while other imperialist powers such as Germany and Japan are undertaking feverish efforts to build up their own military machines.

The Australian ruling elite has supported all of Washingtons military provocations. The Coalition government, with the full backing of the Labor Party, has lined up the entire population behind the plans for war in Asia without any discussion or debate. US bases in Australia, such as Pine Gap and airfields in the north of the country, are crucial elements in the ongoing preparations for a potential attack on North Korea.

The SEP/IYSSE meetings will outline the revolutionary socialist and internationalist perspective required to prevent the descent of the global capitalist system into a catastrophic third world war. Speakers will place the current crisis in its historical context, and draw out the critical strategic lessons that must be learnt by workers and young people from the seminal historical experience of the 1917 Russian Revolutionthe first and only time, so far, that the working class has overthrown capitalism and taken political power in the fight for peace, social equality and world socialism.

Details:

Sydney:

Sunday, May 7, 3.00 p.m. Duchess Room, Coronation Club 86 Burwood Road Burwood $7/$5 concession

Melbourne:

Sunday, May 14, 2.00 p.m. Arts House Meat Market 5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne $7/$5 concession

Brisbane:

Sunday May 14, 3.00 p.m. Woolloongabba Senior Citizens Centre 22 Qualtrough Street Woolloongabba $7/$5 concession

See original here:
SEP (Australia) and IYSSE public meetings Stop the drive to world war! For peace, equality and socialism! - World Socialist Web Site