Caiman del Barrio's blog

A personal perspective on workfare and the benefits lottery - something which has caused me no end of stress of late.

A critical - if somewhat rough - evaluation of the events of 2011 and the anti-cuts movement's relevance to them. The ideas here are ones which I've been mulling for a while, but I've found difficult to articulate, so please be fair in your responses!

In times of global austerity and reduced means, the concept of ‘revolution’ is once again in popular discourse, with recent events in North Africa being feted throughout the West. However, Rafael Uzcátegui’s engaging new book – packed, as it is, full of assertion supported by meticulously-sourced fact - stands as a stark reminder of the semantic vacuity of the term, in one Latin American country at least, and the similarities between the self-professed ‘revolutionary government’ of Venezuela and the capitalist economic model.

As his party loses unilateral control of parliament for the first time since his election, President Hugo Chávez looks to assimilate the working class via military service.

Last Thursday, the world was briefly enthralled by events in Quito, Ecuador, where left-leaning President Rafael Correa called his followers out onto the streets via a hospital telephone, claiming that a police and military coup d’etat was in motion against his regime. However, upon closer examination, a different picture - one of popular anger with austerity measures and mass reduncancy - emerges...

In another inversion of leftist determinism, an attempt by Chávez' embattled administration to expropriate Venezuela's largest remaining private company was thwarted earlier this month, in part due to organised opposition by employees looking to protect both their jobs and their hard-won working conditions.

A recent exchange with a particularly unpleasant member of the international prochavista left resulted in me meditating on the rhetoric and arguments behind the leftist cheerleading of distant regimes.

Faced with multiple crises and headed for a round defeat in the polls, the Venezuelan state's response is all too familiar.

It may seem quite modest to us, but some historical events have taken place in the "socialist paradise" of Cuba, demonstrating positive moves towards the ressucitation of independent, base-level social and workers' movements. Having hosted a long weekend of discussions and workshops, companeros in Havana are expected to open a library in the next couple of days - and they need your help!

A currency devaluation, military expropriations, demonstrations, resignations, TV channel closures, more demonstrations – it’s been an eventful start to 2010 in Venezuela.

It may seem like an age ago now in the midst of all the subsequent economic tumult over here, but I wanted to write about Chávez’ recent rhetorical excursion at the emergency Climate Change summit in Copenhagen last month.

Libertarians and Independent activists in the cultural sphere in Cuba are bracing themselves for state repression following an attack on an independent arts festival in Havana.

From 16-22 November, Caracas-based anarchist newspaper El Libertario hosted the first ever Libertarian Bookfair of its kind in Venezuela. Below is something of an evaluation of the week, plus some analysis of the political spectrum inside the country.

As President Hugo Chávez beats the war drum with Colombia over the presence of US military bases near the Venezuelan border, violent crime and scarcity in the República Bolivariana continue to soar to almost bewildering levels.

A combination of climate change and an incompetent, inefficient state bureaucracy has left basic services such as water and electricity as something of a luxury for many caraqueños, and contrary to the rhetoric of the chavista propaganda machine, it's a situation that is worsening.