by Alan MacLeod
Socialism—whatever that means—is in vogue right now. A recent Gallup poll (8/13/18) found that a majority of millennials view socialism favorably, preferring it to capitalism. Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in the United States, while new leftist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) policies of higher taxes on the wealthy, free healthcare and public college tuition are highly popular—even among Republican voters (FAIR.org, 1/23/19).
Alarmed by the growing threat of progressive policies at home, the establishment has found a one-word weapon to deploy against the rising tide: Venezuela. The trick is to attack any political figure or movement even remotely on the left by claiming they wish to turn the country into a “socialist wasteland” (Fox News, 2/2/19) run by a corrupt dictatorship, leaving its people hungry and devastated.
Leading the charge have been Fox News and other conservative outlets. One Fox opinion piece (1/25/19) claimed that Americans should be “absolutely disgusted” by the “fraud” of Bernie Sanders and Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, as they “continue to promote a system that is causing mass starvation and the collapse of a country,” warning that is exactly what their failed socialist policies would bring to the US. (Back in the real world, while Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez identify as socialists, Warren is a self-described capitalist, and Booker is noted for his ties to Wall Street, whose support for his presidential bid he has reportedly been soliciting.) A second Fox News article (1/27/19) continues in the same vein, warning that, “At the heart of Venezuela’s collapse is a laundry list of socialist policies that have decimated its economy.”
The Wall Street Journal (1/28/19) describes calls for negotiations in Venezuela as “siding with the dictator.”
In an article entitled “Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and the Starving Children of Venezuela,” the Washington Examiner (6/15/17) warned its readers to “beware the socialist utopia,” describing it as a dystopia where children go hungry thanks to socialism. The Wall Street Journal (1/28/19) recently condemned Sanders for his support of a “dictator,” despite the fact Bernie has strongly criticized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and dismissed Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, as a “dead Communist dictator” (Reuters, 6/1/16).
More supposedly centrist publications have continued this line of attack. The New York Times’ Bret Stephens (1/25/19) argued: “Venezuela is a socialist catastrophe. In the age of AOC, the lesson must be learned again”—namely, that “socialism never works,” as “20 years of socialism” has led to “the ruin of a nation.” The Miami Herald (2/1/19) cast shame on Sanders and AOC for arguing for socialism in the face of such overwhelming evidence against it, describing the left’s refusal to back self-appointed president Juan Guaidó, someone whom less than 20 percent of Venezuelans had even heard of, let alone voted for, as “morally repugnant.”
This useful weapon to be used against the left can only be sustained by withholding a great number of key facts—chief among them, the US role in Venezuela’s devastation. US sanctions, according to the Venezuelan opposition’s economics czar, are responsible for a halving of the country’s oil output (FAIR.org, 12/17/18). The UN Human Rights Council has formally condemned the US and discussed reparations to be paid, with one UN special rapporteur describing Trump’s sanctions as a possible “crime against humanity” (London Independent, 1/26/19). This has not been reported by any the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN or any other national US “resistance” news outlet, which have been only too quick to support Trump’s regime change plans (FAIR.org, 1/25/19).
Likewise, the local US-backed opposition’s role in the economic crisis is barely mentioned. The opposition, which controls much of the country’s food supply, has officially accepted responsibility for conducting an “economic war” by withholding food and other key goods.
For example, the monolithic Empresas Polar controls the majority of the flour production and distribution crucial for making arepa cornbread, Venezuela’s staple food. Polar’s chair is Leopoldo Lopez, national coordinator of Juan Guaidó’s Popular Will party, while its president is Lorenzo Mendoza, who considered running for president against Maduro in the 2018 elections that caused pandemonium in the media (FAIR.org, 5/23/18).
Conspicuously, it’s the products that Polar has a near-monopoly in that are often in shortest supply. This is hardly a secret, but never mentioned in the copious stories (CNN, 5/14/14, Bloomberg, 3/16/17, Washington Post, 5/22/17, NPR, 4/7/17) focusing on bread lines in the country.
Also rarely commented on was the fact that multiple international election observer missions declared the 2018 elections free and fair, and that Venezuelan government spending as a proportion of GDP (often considered a barometer of socialism) is actually lower than the US’s, and far lower than most of Europe’s, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The London Daily Express (2/3/19) demonstrates that redbaiting works equally well on either side of the Atlantic.
Regardless of these bothersome facts, the media has continued to present Venezuela’s supposedly socialist dictatorship as solely responsible for its crisis as a warning to any progressives who get the wrong idea. So useful is this tool that it is being used to attack progressive movements around the world. The Daily Express (2/3/19) and Daily Mail (2/3/19) condemned UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for his “defense” of a “dictator,” while the Daily Telegraph (2/3/19) warned that the catastrophe of Venezuela is Labour’s blueprint for Britain. Meanwhile, the Greek leftist party Syriza’s support for Maduro (the official position of three-quarters of UN member states) was condemned as “shameful” (London Independent, 1/29/19).
“Venezuela” is also used as a one-word response to shut down debate and counter any progressive idea or thought. While the panel on ABC’s The View (7/23/18) discussed progressive legislation like Medicare for All and immigration reform, conservative regular Meghan McCain responding by invoking Venezuela: “They’re starving to death” she explained, leaving the other panelists bemused.
President Trump has also used it. In response to criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren over his “Pocahontas” jibe, he replied that she would “make our country into Venezuela” (Reuters, 10/15/18).
The weapon’s effectiveness can only be sustained through a media in lockstep with the government’s regime-change goals. That the media is fixated on the travails of a relatively small and unimportant country in America’s “backyard,” and that the picture of Venezuela is so shallow, is not a mistake. Rather, the simplistic narrative of a socialist dictatorship starving its own people provides great utility as a weapon for the establishment to beat back the domestic “threat” of socialism, by associating movements and figures such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeremy Corbyn with an evil caricature they have carefully crafted.
The irony in all this is that no one mentioned in this piece could accurately be called a socialist – including Maduro – if by “socialism” one means an socioeconomic system organized around cooperation for the common good, with no place for corporate profit, no matter how well “regulated” and “equitably” taxed they may be.
Which is why the smart money is on our inevitable extinction, as we piddle around with “Green New Deals” and cling to cults of “progressive” personality, while our handbasket to hell awaits our barmy bums.
I really wish there was an up vote provision.
Good point Doug.. However, notwithstanding humans do a really good job at building or destroying, which depending on the circumstances tend to come with the various degrees of intensity, I’ll have to disagree with, “our inevitable extinction… The underlining question is how does technology fit into the equation…
Socialism is not the problem, nor the solution.
The problem is people initiating violence upon other people to achieve economic or political goals.
In fact, socialism might actually *be* the solution if everyone participating in it did so of their own free will, which means they are also free to withdraw their participation at any time unilaterally.
Since this is far outside human nature, the *REAL* problem (*AND* the solution), is WAR.
Reality sux.
The problem with labels like socialism is that they get used to mean different things. Some see socialism as a form of economy with capitalism being its opposite. However, democratic socialism better describes a form of government. It is about the people meeting some of their needs under the Constitution’s mandate to “promote the General Welfare” and Congress’ powers to tax and spend and to regulate commerce. Part of the government function is to regulate, not replace, capitalism. It is not about government controlling or providing everything. Furthermore, despite use of the term to describe Venezuela, it’s not democratic socialism. It is more akin to the old form of dictatorship as in communist USSR and in fascist states like Russia today and Italy, Germany and Spain in the past.
Venezuela — A one-word rebuttal to American interventionism. Greedy for Venezuelan oil, American again has brought down a South-American democracy, flawed as it was.
I find the label “socialist” does not withstand thorough analysis when applied to Venezuela.
Its not a democracy and america doesn’t care about its oil. Shale? America has just now stopped being Venezuela’s most profitable trading partner, so let’s see. Basically before these sanctions imposed this month, the US was the only saving grace of the Venezuelan economy (a capitalist disaster with 99.9% population who arent top PSUV members locked out of accessing, falsely claimed to be socialist)
Also, to anyone pretending sanctions have done any damage at all: there were no sanctions until this month. Sanctions on the personal wealth of regime officials yes, the actual country? Only on new debt (bonds) being issued – as the old bonds were already in default, that made no difference. There was no blockade and still isn’t.
So really these regime officials were importing anf providing the whole nations food and medicine needs using their own personal accounts? Of course not.
In addition to sanctions, another significant contribution to economic collapse was the drastic fall in oil prices starting in 2014. Chavez and Maduro may both be blamed for continuing Venezuela’s over-reliance on oil exports, yet it was Obama that got Saudi Arabia to pump more oil when demand was falling. As well as Venezuela’s, the economies of Russia and Iran were hit hard — no accident, I think.
BTW, Sanders’ red-baiting of Hugo Chavez (as a “dead Communist dictator”) was disgraceful and unseemly (as well as untrue).
Except the writing was on the wall already before Chavez died: he had forgot to carry out any maintenance on any sector of any kind of government run service or industry since he came to power, preferring short termist populism designed purely to win votes on an election by eelection basis
If Venezuela is collapsing under its own policies, as the corporate media claim, why is it necessary for its opponents in the U.S. to “make the economy scream” by imposing sanctions that hurt only the Venezuelan people? Why don’t they just wait for socialism to bring down the government in Venezuela? (Hint: because they know Venezuela would be a prosperous and happy country if they did not sabotage the democratically elected Bolivarian government).
They didn’t need to impose sanctions. The only thing that achieved was a propaganda victory when gullible and naive individuals with no real knowledge of Venezuela can be convinced its the fault of sanctions. This is another on a very long list of incredible lies by one of the world’s most repugnant collections of people. The Venezuelan economy died before the first sanction was born: there can be no possible relation. The economy was on life support in october 2013 when I was first there, it was dead by February 2015. Targeted sanctions against regime members personal accounts started later in 2015. Actual sanctions against the nation state started Feb 2019. (Hint: whatever you have been reading was paid propaganda funded by the PSUV.
The reason AOC is so dangerous to the establishment is her putting things into words that everyone sort of knows, but can’t talk about in fear of offending someone. She has a unique gift and it is good to see so many dedicate their time to supporting the message she is seeking to shape. And… everyone knows we can’t get this wrong. So let her keep talking, but let’s make sure she is rock solid in what she says.
This is why socialism must be an international venture. As long as neocolonialism remains in place, there will be no sustainable model for socialism. The economies are too interconnected, and without a clear advantage in resources, socialist countries can simply be sanctioned out of the competition. Left to rely upon exports to rich countries, poor countries only hold power as long as rich countries are willing to buy. Too much power in the hands of the people means not enough profits and projects for the rich. Therefore socialism becomes a problem, and socialist governments will be punished. As a result, socialist countries will become poor and rich countries will proclaim: socialism doesn’t work! When in reality, capitalism is what made the people hungry, socialism is what made the people dangerous. But there is sadly an inevitable shelf life to socialism as long as the world powers remain capitalist, the rich remain powerful, and the poor remain dependent. For socialism to succeed in the long term, there must be a global revolution.
Every socialist attempt so far has failed not due to sanctions, but due to rotting from the inside out. Too many of those involved from the inception are corrupt or become corrupt and ever greedier. Human nature is the barrier to socialism. Only when we transition from flawed fleshy humans to a world run by machines for machines, where those most base human and animal traits of greed and hunger for power have been programmed out of us, will socialism be a possibity.
I was looking for a sound rebuttal to the uninformed use of Venezuela as representative of socialism. Your article is not in-depth enough, nor well-written enough to provide that rebuttal. You merely blame it on the US and Empresas Polar. That is not helpful. Perhaps you could have focused on the corruption within this socialist regime or the mismanagement and dissipation of the oil production or a host of other factors. If you want to make a difference in how Venezuela’s crisis is viewed, you’re going to have to work harder.
Thank you for your excellent concern trolling, examples like yours are invaluable to those who don’t know for sure that they, too, have been exposed to planted comments.
Careful. He’s right, your sounding stupid. Try to only make comments you know to be correct.
okay so socialism is not bad, Maduro is bad. IS this what you are suggesting here? Do you personally think this, or are you just giving out journalistic advice?
It sounds like they are just pointing out that this piece is overly simplistic. That’s fair. The job of the author is not to offer a complete picture of what’s going on in VZ. The author is pointing out what was missed by biased corporate media types by offering their own biased account. I’m sure books and theses will be written about what’s going on for decades to come that are more comprehensive.
An overall very good and informative article until it arrived at this conclusion: Macleod wrote, “That the media is fixated on the travails of a relatively small and unimportant country in America’s “backyard,” and that the picture of Venezuela is so shallow, is not a mistake.”
Actually Venezuela is quite important. With the largest known oil reserves in the world and significant investment from China, Russia and the EU countries, Venezuela becomes a linchpin in the Republican and Democratic drive to restore America’s world hegemony in general and control of the western hemisphere.
One might consider supplementing their reading with this:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/01/31/vene-j31.html
In a series of Narrated Setups: First, Star Chamber interests decide what directions and actions are needed to fulfill what has been chosen for implementation. Next (after successful steps), many months (or even years) beforehand, they dispense Talking Points to concerted operatives, pliable/collusive publications, and Fronted or “reliable” “news” sources. Then, the people are (sold) “informed” incrementally as to what is inevitably upcoming. Thus, under the guise of Facts simply being reported, it works (exceedingly) as a well-timed machine.
https://seaclearly.com/2017/11/06/networked-narratives-world-be-damned/
“Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” George Orwell
When the Washington Examiner (6/15/17) warned its readers to “beware the socialist utopia,” describing it as a dystopia where children go hungry thanks to socialism, how is it they aren’t describing capitalism? If you substitute the word capitalism for socialism, the sentence is just as true.
It’s been very interesting that no media outlet has sought to ask why the overwhelming majority of refugees in the Mexico border “caravan” are Hondurans and Guatemalans…but almost no Venezuelans?
Once the coup succeeds, any subsequent economic collapse or descent into a police narco state like Colombia or Honduras will go down the memory hole. They’ll be our despots then.
You never heard of the darien gap Andrew Nichols? Very interesting, beautiful, natural but at the same time very challenging geography and some very dangerous groups hiding therein this lawless space between north and south. This is why Venezuelans are travelling south by land as far as Argentina, not north by land.
I have a one-word rebottle to all the anti-socialism citing countries that aren’t really socialist but dictatorships like Venezuela. Norway!
Yes, much (most?) of Scandinavia has been an example of apparently quite successful socialism.
It may be the ideal form of governance of any group of people with nearly identical values.
Note that as many of these places have begun to import people of quite different values, their success has been faltering.
Voluntarism is everything.
Voluntarism == Consent
I have a one rebuttal as well… It’s CHINA. for the last 30 years China and openly totalitarian communistic state which in fact has the government in total control of it’s food etc. has had 10% GDP growth for the LAST 30 YEARS!!!! that is 3 times better than america from the most important reason for this is that america has NOT been trying to attack it economically, but instead using the cheap labor to undermine unions here in america and ever since then our own wages have been stagnant.
However, now we have a totalitarian communistic success story that won’t be bullied like Venezuela.
there was a time when we had 10% GDP growth here in america. The New Deal Democrats and FDR carefully negotiated a controlled economic system in which the businesses and the workers and the customers all worked out the details of the wages, profit and price of the eventual product. this is what it’s like to have a controlled economy by all parties involved. what we are experiencing right now is a controlled economy by the top 0.01% they are not growing the economy nearly as fast because they are redirecting almost all newly created wealth into their own pockets.
Yes lack of democracy and capitalism go well together.
A two-word reply that should be on the lips of every person who has lived in fear of being impoverished by capitalism: Social Security.
Social Security is the most popular program in USA government history and far surpasses the popularity of our current political monopoly (DNC/RNC) two-word solutions … regime change AKA endless war.
Thank you very much indeed dear Alan for this work, I have translated it in french here: https://wp.me/p2ahp2-4ue
“Maduro recognizes Venezuela is still a capitalist-based economy…”, (Popular Resistance newsletter, 27 May, 2018)
Juan Guaidó is part of Voluntad Popular which is a member of “Socialist International.” Don’t (or do) tell Trump. He’ll likely pull support.
http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticlePageID=931
All those observer missions are totally discredited and not associated with having observed any elections. One was even set up by the left wing governments as a sort of self affirmation of the elections. Also, polar products are easy to find in Curacao, Panama, Columbia, Bristol and other UK cities, even in tiny Malta you will have no problem finding harina PAN. Obviously Alan MacLeod is a bit of a hopelessly incompetent undergrad whos been too busy smoking bongs to do any research, let me enlighten him: In Venezuela they have a system called “price controls” where the government set prices for certain goods deemed essential. This is so that everyone including ultra rich like Maduro, Padrino Lopez, the rodriguizes diosdado cabello and other top ranking so called socialists can get their shampoo and harina at prices less than quarter of the cost of production. If the harina pan costs 100bolivars to produce and the government force it to be sold for 25, guess what? There it becomes impossible to produce and sell sustainably (How anyone can get into a university without understanding something so fundamentally obvious raises some very serious questions about Glasgow university). Thankfully we can buy it abroad and pay a fair price to keep this business alive.
Its easier to develop if your not developed already, US, Venezuela, Canada, etc are (or were) developed countries. China wasn’t. Its like why children grow a lot more than adults. Gregg, for some interesting reading I suggest you google “medc’s and ledc’s”. Enjoy reading more about the fascinating subject human geography.
You know socialism means the ownership of the means of production by the majority, right?! This has never come close to happening anywhere ever. Those countries are capitalist economies with a comprehensive cradle to grave welfare state. This is the most effective system as it balances human nature with the real needs of the people. That is why these countries have the best quality of life consistently. I won’t note your point as you offer no evidence or justification.
Hasn’t amyone pointed out that Haiti’s economy is free-wheeling, unregulated capitalism? It even has the requisite levels of corruption.