Stuart Munckton
Broadcasting his weekly Hello President television show live from a newly worker-run cacao processing plant, on July 15 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced plans to expropriate privately owned companies that have been closed down by their owners, in order for the government to reopen them under workers' management.
On July 18, BBC news reported that Chavez had said that there were 136 companies currently being evaluated for expropriation, and in total there were more than 700 closed companies.
According to the BBC, Chavez said the move was needed to fight poverty and end Venezuela's dependence on "the perverse model of capitalism". Chavez pointed out that having idle factories was "against our constitution. Just as we cannot permit good land to lie uncultivated, so we cannot allow perfectly productive factories to stay closed."
The cacao processing factory that hosted the Hello President program had been closed by its owners, before being reopened again as a workers' co-operative. Chavez explained that it would be one of the "social production enterprises" (EPSs), which aim to create a new "socialism of the 21st century".
According to Chavez, all state-owned enterprises need to be turned into EPSs, of three types: communal production, communal service and communal distribution. All EPSs should be based on solidarity and cooperation, not capitalist competition. The government plans to help fund 100,000 cooperatives by the end of the year.
Chavez explained that, with the sole exception of the state-run oil industry PDVSA (which he said had been transformed from a capitalist enterprise into one run for social production), Venezuela's state-run industries still operated along capitalist lines. He singled out the state-run electricity, water, public transport and airline industries as industries that should be turned into EPSs.
Chavez also reiterated that his government would provide any private company with loans to help it realise its potential, if the company agreed to implement some worker participation in managing the enterprise.
There is a growing movement in Venezuela, led by the National Union of Workers (UNT), to introduce joint worker-state management of nationalised companies and worker-control over privately owned enterprises. The government's promotion of this campaign is part of its strategy to prevent the capitalist sabotage that has become increasingly common, and the wealthy attempt to derail the government-led Bolivarian revolution that is reclaiming the country's wealth for the poor.
The plans are also part of the government's "endogenous development" plans aimed at strengthening the self-reliance of the Venezuelan economy, and reducing the country's dependence on oil revenue for income.
Speaking on his program Chavez declared: "Either capitalism, which is the road to hell, or socialism, for those who want to build the kingdom of god here on Earth."
From Green Left Weekly, July 27, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.