On July 29, 2024, following Nicolás Maduro's disputed re-election with 51.2% of the vote, compared with 44.2% for his centrist opponent, who united the entire opposition behind him (from the far left to the far right), spontaneous demonstrations broke out in Venezuela's main cities, both in the wealthier districts - usually in favor of the opposition and the driving force behind the protests since 2014 - and in the poorest neighborhoods and shantytowns.

These demonstrations against electoral "fraud" are taking place against a chaotic political and economic backdrop: an 80% fall in GDP since 2013⁽¹⁾, an exponential rise in poverty and extreme poverty, a dilapidated health and education system, shortages of basic necessities, malnutrition, hyperinflation, mass unemployment, coup attempts (Operation Libertad in 2019 ⁽²⁾), a migratory crisis, etc.

The economic crisis is the direct consequence of both the economic sanctions imposed by the United States, responsible for 40,000 deaths between 2017 and 2018⁽³⁾, and the economic policy implemented by Hugo Chávez and continued by Maduro: the so-called "Bolivarian Revolution", which was supposed to embody the new "socialism of the 21st century". This essentially consisted of redistributing the gigantic oil windfall to the most disadvantaged inhabitants through the financing of misiones, i.e. large-scale social programs ⁽⁴⁾. While these have lifted millions of Venezuelans out of poverty between 1998 and 2013, they have perpetuated the non-diversified, oil-dependent rent capitalism that has characterized modern Venezuela for decades. With the fall in oil prices from 2014, widespread corruption, the (partial ⁽⁵⁾) nationalization of the economy under military control, and the multiplication of economic sanctions, the economy is rapidly collapsing, and the living conditions of the proletariat with it.

From 2018 onwards, Nicolás Maduro, who until then had claimed to be safeguarding the "gains of the Revolution"⁽⁶⁾, has been implementing a neoliberal, austerity policy aimed at reassuring foreign investors by dollarizing the economy, and privatizing public enterprises⁽⁷⁾. In the end, while the "boli-bourgeoisie" may have been extremely satisfied with Chavism's record over almost 25 years ⁽⁸⁾, the Venezuelan proletariat cannot say the same, forced to barter, black-market or flee. While hunger riots have been breaking out regularly for several years, particularly in the poorer districts of Caracas, proletarians have been trying to defend their class interests against the Chavist state, notably by fighting for better wages through strikes⁽⁹⁾, But these struggles are systematically repressed by the police and the colectivos, armed supporters of chavism in working-class neighborhoods who play the same historic role as the lazzaroni and the "décembriseurs", i.e. the lumpenproletariat, now Maduro's ally against the working class ⁽¹⁰⁾.

It is against this backdrop that the presidential election took place, to decide on Nicolás Maduro's possible second re-election. For the first time, all bourgeois analysts agreed that the opposition had a real chance of winning, embodied by María Corina Machado, the main leader of the ultraliberal and ultraconservative opposition, and Edmundo González Urrutia. A former deputy foreign minister in Rafael Caldera's second government, then ambassador under Chávez in the early 2000s, this diplomat and supporter of conciliation with the government promised to lead the country out of crisis through a vast plan of neoliberal reforms. For the first time, the working classes voted for him against the candidate embodying Chavism, a sign of growing disaffection.

But nothing went according to plan. Nicolás Maduro won the election, and those who naively hoped for change were forced to demand it in the streets.

These demonstrations, characterized by violent clashes with the police, the destruction of Chávez statues, the erection of barricades and the use of casserolades, bear witness to Chavism's loss of control over the working classes, which had traditionally supported it⁽¹¹⁾. In fact, unlike previous demonstrations, which were framed by the opposition and sociologically petty-bourgeois, these protests emerged spontaneously, primarily in working-class neighborhoods, reflecting an awareness of antagonism towards the state and chavism. Nevertheless, these demonstrations are based on slogans of support for the bourgeois opposition, defense of "democracy" and "freedom", denunciation of electoral "fraud" - in other words, all the deadly trappings of democratism, interclassism and citizenism. Under these conditions, they cannot represent any kind of support for proletarians in the struggle for their living and working conditions, contrary to the claims of the Venezuelan Communist Party or the Trotskyist groups, symbols of capital's extreme left, who support these demonstrations ⁽¹²⁾. Neither Maduro nor Machado are an alternative to the capitalist rent model that has collapsed in Venezuela. On the contrary, they are worthy representatives of the bourgeoisie, which is solely responsible for the crisis, and whose program can be summed up as follows: war to the death against the proletariat until its last breath!

As it did heroically in 1989, during the Caracazo⁽¹³⁾ , the Venezuelan proletariat will have to organize itself tomorrow, against Chavism and the opposition, without believing in "a brighter tomorrow" through elections. It will have to fight against the anti-worker attacks imposed by the bourgeoisie, and for a genuine socialist revolution, light years away from the so-called "Bolivarian revolution", a bourgeois pseudo-revolution responsible for the misery of the toiling masses. The building of the world party of the proletariat, to guide the working masses towards an awareness of antagonism with capital ("left" as well as "right") and towards insurrection, is today more than ever a necessity to put a definitive end to the macabre reign of capitalism, which can only engender misery and desolation behind it, as shown by the edifying example of "21st century [bourgeois!] socialism".

Notes:

Image Source: « Protestas en Caracas contra la reelección de Nicolás Maduro, 2024 », By Confidencial, CC BY 3.0, fr.m.wikipedia.org

(1) latribune.fr

(2) Operation Liberty refers to the US-backed coup attempt to install Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's leader in April 2019.

(3) cepr.net

(4) Daguerre, Anne. « Les programmes de lutte contre la pauvreté au Venezuela », Critique internationale, vol. 46, no. 1, 2010, pp. 147-167.

(5) mediapart.fr

(6) In reality, these so-called "gains" were rapidly eroded by the crisis (minimum wage and social minimums were worthless due to hyperinflation), and in 2016, Nicolás Maduro announced the end of near-free gasoline: liberation.fr. Added to this is a policy of wage flexibilization and casualization of workers, which began in 2013 at least: contretemps.eu

(7) lepoint.fr and radiofrance.fr

(8) For a more in-depth critique of "Bolivarian capitalism", see: leftcom.org and leftcom.org

(9) Posado, Thomas. « L'État régional du Bolívar au Venezuela. Reflet du désalignement entre le gouvernement chaviste et le mouvement ouvrier », Mouvements, vol. 76, no. 4, 2013, pp. 105-116.

(10) infobae.com

(11) liberation.fr

(12) elpais.com and izquierdasocialista.org.ar

(13) The Caracazo refers to the spontaneous riots that broke out in Caracas in 1989 against the structural adjustment plan of social-democrat President Carlos Andres Perez.