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Socialism

The (In)Visible Hand, Scarcity, Venezuela, And The PlayStation 5

As Christmas approaches around the world, lines get longer, prices fluctuate, and everyone wants to get their hands on the seasons hottest gift or toy for their loved ones. This holiday seasons most sought after gift appears to be either a Sony PlayStation 5 or a Microsoft Xbox Series S/X, with price ranges from $299-$499 depending on the model. However, as of this writing in December 2020, it is almost impossible to acquire any of the models for anything less than several hundred more than the suggested retail price, with some scalpers and speculators selling them for thousands of dollars on online marketplaces. It is estimated by some that these speculators have made almost 30 million dollars on a reported 60,000 resold consoles.

Marx Didn’t Invent Socialism, Nor Did He Discover It

There’s no debate that Marx didn’t invent socialism. As co-editor of a French-German radical newspaper by 1843, a young Marx would have read the term “socialism” used by French author Pierre Leroux (1797–1871)–generally credited with coining the term–or the German Lorenz von Stein (1815–1890). England’s Robert Owen (1771–1858) had bandied the word about as early as 1835. French philosopher Victor d’Hupay (1746–1818) called himself a communist author around 1785, thirty-three years before Marx’s birth, and his colleague Nicolas-Edme Rétif (1734–1806) even used the term to describe a form of government.

Elections And The Path To Socialism In Venezuela

On December 6, Venezuelans elected a new National Assembly with a left political majority. This election, which was well-run and legitimate despite what the imperialist media and countries say, reconstitutes the Venezuelan parliamentary body with participation from both the ruling and opposition parties. It marks the end of an era during which the National Assembly was a tool of the right wing agenda and US regime change efforts. To facilitate understanding of the current election and political climate in Venezuela, Vijay Prashad of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and Paul Dobson of Venezulanalysis provide their insight and analysis.

US Media, Politicians Rage After Venezuela Defies US Empire

President Nicolas Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are celebrating today, after a clear victory in yesterday’s National Assembly elections. The elections, boycotted by many major right-wing opposition groups, but still participated in by over 100 political parties, ended with the PSUV and its allies receiving an estimated 67.6% of the votes cast, meaning they will control a two-thirds supermajority of the 277-seat National Assembly, the only major body that was controlled by anti-government forces.

Socialist Alliance Victory In Venezuela’s National Assembly Is A Failure Of US Regime Change Policy

The victory of Maduro’s political alliance in Sunday’s parliamentary election means that despite the Covid pandemic, economic hardships and sanctions by the US, Venezuelans voted for the continuation of the Chavista Revolution. A little over a year ago, we were told by the US government and the always-compliant OAS (Organization of American States) that Evo Morales’ re-election in Bolivia was the product of election fraud. No proof was ever given, and eventually, even the New York Times, which had initially been happy to spread the fraud claims, was forced to admit that there appeared to be no evidence that the election was somehow improper. 

US Congress And Corporate Media Claim Venezuela’s Government Threatened To Starve Non-Voters

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US corporate media declared Venezuela’s legislative elections a “sham” before results were even announced, opening a new front in the propaganda war on the besieged country and its leftist government. Among the most blatant distortions deployed against President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) was a claim first advanced by Leopoldo López, the far-right, US-backed opposition leader who recently fled to Spain. On Twitter, López tweeted a deceptively edited clip of Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello addressing an election rally, and accused Cabello of “blackmailing the hungry people with food to force them” to vote for his governing party.

Venezuela; 6D Elections, What’s At Stake And Who Will Win?

Venezuelans once again headed to the polls on December 6 in what seems to be the mother of all battles for the National Assembly of Venezuela. Since 2015, this institution has been taken over by anti-Chavismo in what was not an anti-Chavismo vote, but instead of a vote of discontent with the economic situation Venezuela was at the time facing. Hugo Chavez said on March 26 of 2006, that “every revolution needs the whip of the counter-revolution, so strike with the whip, we can take it! To each whiplash we will respond with more revolution!”.

Maradona: The Bolivarian Soccer Genius

The fighting peoples of the world lost a humble legend yesterday. Diego Armando Maradona was 60 years old. Arguably the greatest soccer player to ever grace the pitches, the spirited striker combined unparalleled skills in his sport and an unflinching outspokenness before oppression. No other sports figure’s public statements and transformation has equally captured the changing momentum across Latin America. The hundreds of thousands of tributes being paid throughout the world portray a particular image: Maradona in close solidarity with the biggest progressive leaders of the social reformist wave embraced by the peoples of Latin America, the so called Pink Tide.

Nigerian Government Revealing Its True Character In Response To Youth Protests

Youth protests against police violence in Nigeria, the #EndSARS movement, gained international attention with solidarity protests around the world. To

Peru’s Youth Have Mobilized In Indignation

Mass protests broke out after Peru’s parliament voted to impeach former president Martin Vizcarra on November 9th, installing Manuel Merino of the Accion Popular party, as head of state for the 5 months left till the country’s general elections.  The Peruvian left are not supporters of former neoliberal president Vizcarra, but have condemned the impeachment that has been carried out by forces even further to his right, “The new government has named Ántero Flores Aráoz as president of the Council of Ministers, he is the best representative of the old politics: conservative, far-right, racist, sexist, a few years ago...

Brazil: Municipal Elections Promise Gains For Left

On Sunday, November 15, residents of Brazil’s 5570 municipalities will vote for mayors and city councilors in what promises to be a day of moderate gains by left wing political parties and embarrassing loses for candidates aligned with Brazil’s far right President Jair Bolsonaro. In 2012, the Brazilian Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores/PT) elected 638 mayors, including 19 in Brazil’s largest 95 cities (those with population above 200,000). In 2016, after 3 years of a relentless national and international media smear campaign based on false corruption allegations...

Unemployment Crisis Continues Unabated

More than 1 million people filed for unemployment assistance last week according to new figures released today. 709,000 workers requested filled out applications for traditional benefits, and slightly under 300,000 applied for the specially-created Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. The Department of Labor’s reporting deceptively separates those who apply for standard unemployment benefits from those who apply for PUA. Similarly, official unemployment statistics only count people who have actively looked for work in the last four weeks.

Bolivia: Parliament’s Committee Seeks To Prosecute Jeanine Añez

Bolivia - The ministers of foreign affairs, defense, interior, and justice could also be subject to criminal proceedings. A special committee of the Bolivian Parliament on Monday recommended starting trials against the leader of the coup-born regime Jeanine Añez and some ministers for the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata that took place in 2019. The final report of this committee was referred to the National Congress, where it must be approved by two-thirds of its members for it to enter into force.

Talk Of Another Pink Tide

The election of Luis Arce in Bolivia last month has been much celebrated in circles where people of humane good will gather. This is as it should be: Arce was economics and finance minister in the socialist government of Evo Morales and was the violently deposed president’s chosen successor to lead his Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS. Arce’s victory, by a thumping 52-percent to 31-percent, reversed one of the bolder and nastier of the many right-wing coups in Latin America the U.S. has led, cultivated, fomented, instigated, what-have-you since the early decades of the last century.

Sanctions, Elections And Tactical Opportunities

First, the very existence of the Venezuelan nation-state is at stake in the upcoming elections. Of course, all countries on the periphery struggle for their existence in the unequal power relationship that exists between the Global North and the Global South. This is a global class struggle, where the aggressor is the imperialist pole, represented by NATO. They aim to recolonize our continent. As such, the struggle in the upcoming elections is not with the Venezuelan opposition, which merely reflects the White House’s interests.