politics for the 99%

Published on ZNet (Source: ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento), by Simón Andrés Zúñiga, March 15, 2014 (Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop).

The internal and international harassment of the Bolivarian and Chavist process has taken the form of a ferocious attack by right-wing economists. The final objective of this campaign is to eliminate from the face of the earth the historical experience of the last fifteen years of an anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist political process. For the powers of world capitalism, Venezuela is not only a geography to reconquer, for its natural resources, but a threat because of its example of sovereignty, independence and daring to move towards socialism as a promise, for the poor of the Earth, for a life informed by justice.  

Wiping out historical memory is a prerequisite for domesticating the revolution. Creating a sensation of chaos and terror is a necessary step in order to discredit the Government and return the conduct of the State to the capitalists.

It is important to note the following: before the guarimbas, the attack of the counterrevolution and the paramilitary action, manifestos were distributed from a number of economists writing in defence of capitalism and the dominant sectors. During the guarimbas the diffusion of articles – by Venezuelans and foreigners – proliferated, all with the more immediate objective of creating a perception of chaos, of confusion and economic collapse. This short-term objective involves what economist Julio Escalona has rightly called the imperial strategy of permanent ungovernability. (1)

We are experiencing a phase of the “Shock Doctrine” described by Naomi Klein, in which out of chaos the saviours appear: neoliberal economists (2).

This can open the way to a number of possible scenarios: from overthrowing the government in different ways, to forcing it to negotiate (to sell out) the political model through the negotiation of the economic model.

They have in their favour the situation of scarcity and inflation that they themselves have managed to create since 2003. Through attacks on the Bolivar, speculation, sabotage and programmed hoarding of basic goods needed for the daily life of the population. They can also count on errors and omissions on the part of the government.

In this asymmetric Fourth Generation war, both the mass media (national and international) and the neoclassical economists form the most destructive battalions.  For this reason, we who form the Society of Radical Political Economy have put together a guide to deconstruct the dominant economic discourse employed by neoclassical economists. This is something like a first decalogue to identify visible and hidden vampires.

The private sector is innocent, one more actor in the game:

• 1. The Market is sacred and the State is quintessentially obscene. Public spending is bad by definition; the public deficit is a demon to be overcome.
• 2. Organized labour distorts the market. Trade unions or other workers’ organizations are like monopoly capitalists that impose prices (wages) that interfere with the mechanism of the “invisible hand” of the market.
• 3. Freedom is the freedom of markets, and economic freedom trumps political freedom.
• 4. The principal cause of inflation is, in any time and place, the quantity of money.
• 5. People are not the people: people are “the population.” There are no social classes, but simply “productive factors.”
• 6. The Patria (Motherland) does not exist, nor does the nation. We are not a Patria, we are “markets”. In the language of the World Bank, the IMF and the recent graduates in economics of the UCV, UCAB, ULA and the UC and “the Metro”, we are “emerging markets. The word “Patria” is simply a joke for most of these young people who are formatted and drugged by neoclassical ideology.
• 7. The military forces are not the People; they must be instruments that should stay in their barracks or, in case of emergency, defend the interests of capitalists and large landowners by repressing the working people, as they did in the Fourth Republic
• .8. The economists are the ones who know about economics, especially those who have graduated in “recognized” universities of the capitalist North; and,
• 9. Economics is an exact science and reality, according to them, is a mathematical model that politicians destroy when they attempt to interfere.

… The asymmetric war and pure economists: … //

… Giordani and I? The denunciation of Felipe Pérez:

According to his sources of information, Felipe Pérez has revealed to the world: he says that Simón Andrés Zúñiga is Jorge Giordani. I hate to disappoint him. I am NOT Jorge Giordani, I am a Venezuelan economist, researcher; I am a collective, hence a great part of the content of the articles are the result of consultation and discussions.

In response to a recent article by a US economist, in defence of the Government, Felipe, in his group ¿Qué hacer? cites Zúñiga negatively to argue against this economist (6). He attempts to disqualify the comrades of Marea Socialista, through a harmless threat, and because of this notes that he knows that they are advised by the other I of Dr. Giordani. In the final version of the document “¿Qué hacer?” Felipe Pérez adds his reply to Zúñiga (where Felipe does not reply to the vital characteristics that we provided). Why such rage?

One supposes that the economist Felipe Pérez is having nightmares, since 2003, with Jorge Giordani and now the spectre of Zúñiga appears. The solution for the mind of this neoliberal was a superposition of oneiric images.

I am aware that Felipe has had a traumatic experience with Giordani, since after having replaced him in 2002, appointed by President Chávez, the same Comandante reappointed Giordani in February of 2003. Chávez brought in the former pitcher (Jorge Giordani) because the relief pitcher (Felipe Pérez) had let the exchange rate fall to dangerous levels and had to leave the pitcher’s mound.

We do not understand the need to get involved in this controversy: this is something between Pérez and Giordani, and above all, between Filipe Pérez and Chávez, who let him go with the sharp edge of a saber ….

Excuse me, dear reader, but I want to take advantage of this unfortunate and false accusation of Professor Felipe Pérez (which the information services of the CIA in the country were quick to take up and spread) to inform the brief former Minister of the advice of a friend, former militant of the PRV, known as “el iluminado.”

This old comrade knows that you – Felipe – believe in things of the great beyond, in metaphysical beliefs, and we are not talking about the religion and the metaphysics that you learned in that monastery called the University of Chicago, we are talking of your spiritual beliefs, which of course we profoundly respect. Based on this presumption, El Iluminado told me, “say to Dr. Pérez Martí that he is making an enemy of someone with a very powerful karma”. According to El Iluminado “the monk Giordani represents three powerful reincarnations: he is the reincarnation of Nicolás Maquiavelo (1469-1572), later resuscitated in Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), then in Antonio Gramsci (1891-1932).”

Don’t worry, Dr. Felipe. My karmas are not as lethal. I suspect that personally and collectively, I am the reincarnation of the Negro Primero.

(full text).

(Simón Andrés Zúñiga, Venezuelan economist, member of the Society for Radical Political Economy).

Links:

The Case of Mortgage Fraud, on Zcommentaries, by Danny Schechter, March 15, 2014;

China widens yuan daily trading band, targeting long-term dividends, on english.Xinhuanet, March 15, 2014;

Germany: heute show 14.03.14 – Folge 142, 34.01 min, von heute show am 14. März 2014 hochgeladen;

Egypt: In the dock on human rights, on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Dina Ezzat, March 13, 2014: Egypt is facing accusations of increasing human rights abuses from the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council …;

Egypt: Assessing the fallout, on Al-Ahram weekly online, by Ahmed Eleiba, March 13, 2014: on the implications of the recent court ruling banning Hamas activities in Egypt …;

US Special Forces counterinsurgency manual analysis, on wikileaks.org, by Julian Assange, June 16, 2008/updated Oct 8, 2008.