Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has made a series of radical announcements following his re-election in December, which require the attention of socialists everywhere. He announced plans to nationalise companies in telecom and electricity privatised by previous administrations. Chávez says he wants to form a new Bolivarian socialist party. And he has announced the extension of communal councils and even “workers’ councils” as a means of recasting the state.
These measures and others such as co-management in workplaces deserve to be assessed on their own terms, something the AWL will continue to do. However Chávez’s plans are not without precedent and much can be learned from the attitude earlier Marxists took to comparable developments.
The closest analogy is probably with the regime of Lazaro Cárdenas, who was president of Mexico between 1934-40. Like Chávez, Cárdenas undertook radical nationalisations, turned over industries to workers’ administration and redistributed land. Like Chávez, Cárdenas formed a new ruling political party after he had taken power and sought to incorporate trade unions within it. We also have the testimony of Leon Trotsky, who lived in Mexico and observed first-hand the Cárdenas’ government and its relationship to Mexican workers.
It would be a mistake to make a mechanical analogy between Mexico in the late 1930s and the situation under Chávez now. Venezuela is much more industrially developed than Mexico was seventy years ago. Today it does not have state controlled unions, nor does it have a vociferous Stalinist party. However, with all the necessary qualifications, looking at Trotsky’s attitude can at least help anchor our own analysis of Venezuela today.
What follows is an attempt to describe Mexico under Cárdenas, followed by Trotsky’s assessments and political conclusions, and then a brief look at Mexican Trotskyism during that period.
Paul
