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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