EC Meeting March 2017

Thus, the right wing, domestic capitalists, multinational companies and, crucially, the United States, are not only waging an opposition campaign against Maduro but against the Bolivarian Republic and all that it means to millions of Venezuelans and millions of workers, that is, against the new society the people of Venezuela are trying to create. This offensive, reminiscent of what was done to Allende in Chile in the 1970s, involves hoarding, black market speculation for goods in short supply, contraband, currency speculation, and large scale industrial sabotage by deliberately decreasing output, disinvestment and price speculation aimed at generating hyperinflation, all designed to hit the poorest so as to weaken and demoralise the political base of Chavismo. In January, February, March, April and part of May this year, Venezuela reached probably the lowest levels of economic activity, shortages, speculation, and we came very close to the tipping point. However, thanks to President Maduro’s leadership we have been recovering ever since. This has been done through the Agenda Economica Bolivarian (Bolivarian Economic Agenda) that has identified 15 engines of economic growth (with food production and distribution – including initiatives such as urban agriculture – and pharmaceuticals, as decisive priorities), which is the product of the discussions at the national level in National Council of the Productive Economy, made up of the government’s relevant ministers (including President Maduro himself), sections of the private sector who are willing to participate in joint ventures for productive activities in partnership with the government and the CSBT itself. Unfortunately, capitalist companies sabotage these efforts, thus for example, the monopoly Kimberley-Clark decreased output and disinvested to such scale that out of 11 products it ended producing only one, until it abandoned the enterprise altogether sacking all its workers. Thanks to the Labour Code and the support from President Maduro, the workers took over the company and are now running it so successfully than in about six months its plants in Venezuela are now manufacturing 7 of the 11 it used to produce. This action is not only legal but it is also the workers’ response to President Maduro’s appeal to the working class: ‘enterprise abandoned by the bosses, enterprise taken over by the workers’. A number of enterprises have been taken over by the workers after being abandoned by their owners. In order to address hoarding, President Maduro has launched the CLAPS (Local Committees for Supply and Production), grassroots bodies that not only combat hoarding, and bachaqueo (black market speculation of food and basic necessities in short supply) but which have been busy ensuring the distribution of a basket of foods and basic necessities directly to the consumer, literally to their door. A few months ago, the CLAPS were doing distribution once every three weeks but quickly began to do it every two weeks and now are doing it every week to 1,347 million families. This number is growing all the time, an indication of the success of the adopted strategy. The importance of the CLAPS has become so significant that they even have their own magazine with the telling title: Todo el Poder Para Los CLAP (All Power to the CLAPS).1 Thus, although Venezuela is not out of the doldrums completely yet, it is moving in that direction steadily and in the process is laying down the foundations of an alternative economic structure that will not be dependent on oil because we do not want ever again to depend on the export of oil. The transformation of Venezuela’s economy has led to the export of prawns, plastic, granite and a few other manufactured goods, showing promising levels of economic reactivation and economic diversification. More importantly, the government has just approved the budget for 2017, which is not only larger in absolute terms, but which has been financed through taxation to the tune of 85%, it has been calculated on a barrel of oil of US$30, and with 73% for social expenditure (health, education,

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