Re: (OPE-L) Re: Paresh Chattopadhyay 'Capital, The Progenitor of Socialism'

From: Paul Bullock (paulbullock@EBMS-LTD.CO.UK)
Date: Sun Dec 28 2003 - 15:43:09 EST


Dear Rakesh,

It is very important that exchanges are based on facts as you are aware. I
attach 3 articles on Venezuela, 1 written a week after the defeated coup
attempt against the Chavez Government, and anothers following the subsequent
at the 'economic' coup attempt - the lock out - . Since you often send us
useful articles I hope you'll enjoy these. They are in Corel Word Perfect.

Paul Bullock

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rakesh Bhandari" <rakeshb@STANFORD.EDU>
To: <OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 9:56 PM
Subject: Re: (OPE-L) Re: Paresh Chattopadhyay 'Capital, The Progenitor of
Socialism'


> >
> >P.S. I'd love to know your sources. Eg., the 'fired' workers were the
> >managers and white collar workers (i.e., highly trained technicians) of
the
> >state-owned oil company, PDVSA,  who went out at the beginning of last
> >December in a political strike in conjunction with the Business
> >Federation's attempt to bring down the government.
>
> ok, michael,  so all these 18,000 workers--nay the white collar labor
> aristocracy--were all the stooges of foreign investors?  Yet we find
> that under Chavez whom you claim is renationalizing the oil industry
> the percentage of oil exported by the PDVSA is declining
> dramatically? I am wondering whether the land reform is just as
> revolutionary.
>
>
>
> >  The coup having failed,
> >this was the next try--- an attempt to cut off all government revenue and
> >to bring the government down (something assumed to take a few weeks, ie a
> >Christmas present for the capitalist opposition); blue collar workers
kept
> >working, and now have representatives on the board of directors and are
> >organising workers councils throughout PDVSA operations. As for Chavez's
> >'defacto privatization of the oil industry', every bit of information
I've
> >seen is that PDVSA was effectively privatised (see, eg. Bernard Mommer's
> >chapter, 'Subversive Oil' in Steve Ellner's book on Venezuelan Politics
and
> >Juan Carlos Boue's Oxford thesis from 1997), and that it is now under
> >Chavez in the process of renationalisation (with the criticisms from a
few
> >people on the left-- who are friends-- being that it is not happening
fast
> >enough). But you obviously have different sources of information.
> >
>
> well you did not say that NYT article was incorrect that foreign
> investors have been handed the refining and transport business with
> incentives to boot?
>
> But I am not one to fetishize the Absolute General Secretary whether
> he be Stalin, Castro or Chavez. Bettelheim makes sense to me here.
> And by the way I should say-- having read only the first couple
> hundred pages of three volume An Introduction to Marx's Capital by
> Ranganayakamma it is the most meticulous and penetrating analysis of
> the value form that I have ever read. We know that Sweezy ignored it
> in Theory of Capitalist Development though Blake spend a few
> excellent chapters on it. Ranganayakamma's careful analysis is even
> better. Her analysis is bound to be undervalued by those who have
> found the holy grail in simultaneous equations or who forget that
> Marx aimed above all else to make his analysis comprehensible to the
> working class.
>
> Yours, Rakesh
>










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