Socialism Outside of a Textbook: Our Obligation to Support the Venezuelan Socialist Project
By Candy Herrera
In Miami, Venezuela is a topic of discussion wrought with misplaced anger, confusion, and, more often than not, a passionate hatred for socialist movements. Yet in the Pacific Northwest, where we struggle to hold on to the little diversity we have, conversations about Venezuela are virtually nonexistent. Local history notwithstanding, it is of importance to anyone who considers themselves a leftist to have a basic understanding of the Venezuelan socialist project and the significance of the monumental achievement the Bolivarian Revolution has been for socialists, communists, and anarchists around the world.
While the narrative concerning the global south makes us reflexively refer to states like Venezuela as “poor countries,” Venezuela’s immense wealth, now in the hands of those seeking a radical program of wealth distribution and social justice, is part of what’s allowed the Bolivarian Revolution to make tremendous gains in the past 20 years. Under Presidents Chavez and Maduro, Mission Barrio Adentro, in partnership with Cuba, provides free medical service, including dental care and medicines, to poor Venezuelans. The educational mission programs range from literacy classes (Mission Robinson) to high school education (Mission Ribas) and university education (Mission Sucre), meaning education in Venezuela is now free from daycare to college. Gran Misión de la Vivienda (Great Housing Mission) has built over 2.5 million homes for low-income Venezuelans at below-market cost since 2011.
As noted in Truthout’s excellent article by Greg Palast entitled “In Venezuela, White Supremacy Is a Key Driver of the Coup,” even the CIA factbook can attest to the Revolution’s successes — even if they’re intentionally muted: “Social investment in Venezuela during the Chavez administration reduced poverty from nearly 50% in 1999 to about 27% in 2011, increased school enrollment, substantially decreased infant and child mortality, and improved access to potable water and sanitation through social investment.”
Yet the response to these gains has ranged from silence to criticism of Venezuela’s political process from textbook socialists (see Jacobin’s dismally uninformed 2017 article “Being Honest About Venezuela”). I use the phrase “textbook socialists” to denounce those who embrace Marxism as philosophy but not as practice. Because radical democracy is at the heart of our movement, it is downright foolish to assume such a project would unfold in perfect lockstep with any type of planning. As a labor unionist for years, I can personally attest to the messiness of democracy. And I assure everyone that after the revolution we will still have freaks and weirdos, people who thrive in chaos, emasculated capitalists, imperialists, racists and TERFs attempting to undermine our project at every turn. That is exactly why we as socialists have a political and moral obligation to support the Venezuelan people, especially since the Bolivarian Revolution is a movement driven by the Black and Mestiza/o community. To ascribe to a theory of a workers’ democracy defined by perfection and present only in one’s head is not just naïve, it is also counter to the prospect of both Marxist praxis and proletarian internationalism.
My question to fellow socialists is, if we are actively anti-racist and attempting to build a multiracial socialist movement, why would we not look to Venezuela?
In the words of Workers World Party secretary Larry Holmes, speaking at the one-month anniversary of the U.S.’s failed coup in Caracas: “Every time an oppressed people try to take control of their destiny it is akin to a slave revolt. And those who think they are the rulers of this world forever cannot allow that and they will do anything to stop it.”
