This is a reply by Venezuelan Workers Solidarity to a piece written by Clifton Ross, published by Caracas Chronicles on July 14th, 2021.
By Caracas Chronicles
Aug 9, 2021
The trip by members of the DSA International Committee (DSA-IC) to Venezuela in June stirred up important controversy. Prior to the trip itself, Venezuelan Workers Solidarity (VWS), a group of leftist opposition activists in the diaspora, issued an open letter warning about the implications of endorsing the Maduro regime. Our forecasts were amply confirmed. However, some sectors within DSA also echoed our positions and concerns.
The repercussions of our campaign weren’t limited to the Left. Our position also irritated self-proclaimed liberals like Clifton Ross, who weighed in on the debate, albeit by distorting our position. In an article for Caracas Chronicles, Ross argues that the confrontation between VWS and DSA-IC is about supporting the socialist government or the people it oppresses – ultimately settling the matter in favor of DSA-IC: if both VWS and DSA are anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist, the logical conclusion is that they should support Maduro.
Leaving aside Ross’s cynicism, for us, the government of the Bolibourgeoisie doesn’t represent the interests of the Venezuelan working class. Put simply, it isn’t a socialist government, but a capitalist, repressive, kleptocratic one, therefore undeserving of any support from the international left. We believe its duty is to denounce the crimes of the chavista regime and stand in solidarity with the workers, popular sectors, and the Left that resists its myriad policies of exploitation and plunder. Obviously, it’s also our priority to oppose the criminal policies of the U.S. government towards Venezuela, such as economic sanctions that don’t harm the government leadership but common people, or the Venezuelan State’s blatant theft and spending on such miserable enterprises as the construction of a border wall with México.
A sector of DSA supports Maduro. Some have fallen for neo-Stalinist and “campist” conceptions; others, due to their post-modern or reformist inclinations, believe they have found a “new type of socialism” of “communes” in Venezuela that’s compatible with capitalist property. Ross doesn’t only ignore the existence of diverse tendencies within DSA, but also describes the organization as “Leninist”. To equate the Bolibourgeoisie and all of DSA, with Leninism, is laughable at best.
Let’s get to the heart of the matter. The aim of Ross’s efforts is to deny the legitimacy of the leftist opposition as a sector that, by its own right, occupies a space among the workers and popular struggle against the chavista government. It has occupied it long before Ross exchanged chavismo for a more blunt pro-capitalist ideology. This opposition organized the only general regional strikes against the Chávez government in 2007 and 2008, through the Aragua section of the National Union of Workers. Because of their roles in these strikes, leaders like Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández, Carlos Requena and Jerry Díaz were assassinated. This opposition also made its way into the United Federation of Oil Workers of Venezuela, where a Trotskyist, José Bodas, is secretary general. One of the political organizations, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL), achieved national election credentials in 2012, later snatched away by the government as part of its post-2015 anti-democratic reaction. In 2017, they participated in the popular rebellion that was criminally repressed by Maduro’s government. There are also left-leaning feminists and environmental activists confronting the government’s policies.
Though Ross may claim otherwise, this leftist opposition has also been consistent in solidarity with imprisoned workers – not only those with leftist ideas like Rodney Álvarez, but also those like Rubén González, whose freedom we defended when he was imprisoned as a critical chavista and later when he was jailed as a member of a center-right party. We have also paid our share of persecutions, dismissals, and arbitrary detentions in this struggle.
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Read More: Caracas Chronicles – Reply to ‘The Leftist Backlash against the Democratic Socialists’ Fun Trip to Venezuela’
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