state socialism
Articles about forms of statist socialism, such as social democracy, Trotskyism, Marxism Leninism, Maoism and Stalinism.
Inurgentes against Venezuela's constitutional reform
Statement of Venezuelan anarchists against Hugo Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms in 2007, seeing social reform being used as a thin veil for the regime's centralisation of power.
Various organizations and individuals within Venezuela, each with a history of social struggle and each bringing with them diverse proposals from the anti-authoritarian and critical left, have assembled in the space of INSURGENTES (INSURGENTS) to forge a position against the proposed constitutional “reform” offered by the republic’s President, Hugo Chavez Frias.
Venezuela behind the smokescreen
Critical article from a student at Warwick University on the Chavez regime, looking at the Venezuelan state's combination of social reform with ever-increasingly centralised power and political demagoguery.
Demonised on the one side by Western governments and corporate media, uncritically acclaimed on the other by certain left-wing organizations, an adequate account of Chavez and Venezuela’s current political situation is difficult to find. Accusations alleging a "Communist dictatorship" should simply be dismissed as misinformed, sensationalist and ideological devices.
Against (B)oligarchy, demagogy and corruption. Autonomous struggle from the ground up!
El Libertario issue #52 editorial reaffirming the commitment of this voice of Venezuelan anarchism to maintain a critical viewpoint on the country's realities, as well as our stand in solidarity with the struggle for liberty and equality and against the Bolivarian 'cult of personality'.
Venezuela: Against (B)oligarchy[1], demagogy and corruption. Autonomous struggle from the ground up!
Venezuela 2008: A libertarian proposal for the current situation
El Libertario expounds its vision of which path to follow in the current situation in Venezuela, summed up in the slogan, “Against the (B)oligarchy, demagoguery and corruption: Autonomous struggle of the underdogs!
Positive transformations in society are produced by the actions of popular movements and not by governments. As has been clearly illustrated in the case of Venezuela, as well in other parts of Latin America, the will for change of the majority has been channelled and co-opted by a new bureaucracy which tries, by all available means, to tighten its grip on power.
Venezuela: The case of RCTV and the fictional democratization of communication
El Libertario's position in the debate on the case of RCTV, where the current government overturns the capitalist private oligopoly of TV to the monopoly of a bureaucratic and authoritarian state.
Since two decades ago, by means of our publications, the Venezuelan anarchists have denounced and been against the vices and slants of the private media corporations as RCTV.
Talking about the Venezuelan situation: interview with the CRA
An interview with a member of the Venezuelan CRA (Comision de Relaciones Anarquistas) in January 2006.
Talking about the Venezuelan situation
Of Chavistas and anarquistas: brief sketch of a visit to Venezuela (November-December, 2004)
A report from two American anarchists of their time traveling around Venezuela, meeting anarchists and observing both Chavist and anarchist community programmes.
For almost a month, from mid-November until mid-December, 2004, we traveled in Venezuela, meeting an array of politically engaged activists from a variety of perspectives. Without a doubt, the foremost lesson we learned during our brief time there concerned the complexity of the social and political situation in the country, which has been consistently over-simplified in the United States.
Venezuela's anarchists and the three-way fight
A look at anarchism in Venezuela, and its position in conflict both to Chavism and its US-sponsored opposition.
When Venezuela is mentioned in North America these days, it is almost always in reference to President Hugo Chavez, who is vilified by the mainstream press and adored by much of what passes for the left.
Venezuela today: complexities and outright lies
A member of the El Libertario editorial collective prepared this article for the 6th edition of the Costa Rican anarchist journal La Libertad in response to an inconsistent effort to establish impossible affinities between Chavismo and anarchism.
1) One of the successes of the inter-bourgeois confrontation that has been happening in Venezuela for almost a decade is the moving of the media polarization into an international space. This biased and infantilized point of view could well confuse some less awakened libertarian spirits.
The myth of 'co-management' in Venezuela: Reflections on Alcasa and Invepal
An analysis of two of the most famous cases of Venezuelan 'co-management', Alcasa and Invepal.
With a lot of rhetoric and propaganda the Chavez administration has advanced different examples of co-management which, they claim, demonstrate their desire to transform Venezuela’s relations of production. A compañero from Europe visited us recently and got to know two of the most celebrated cases: Alcasa and Invepal.
