ALBA: Social Debt and Human Rights

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ALBA: Social Debt and Human Rights
By James Petras
May 15, 2006, 22:36

Forum 2

Proposals for the New Social, Economic and Cultural Order

Introduction

Under the leadership of President Chavez and with the backing of the great majority of the Venezuelan people, a process of social transformation is underway which challenges the old neo-liberal, imperial-centered, political-economic order. Equally important President Chavez has proposed a new project for Latin America integration, ALBA, which challenges the imperial project, ALCA, designed to consolidate neo-colonial empire. This paper will begin by analyzing two dimensions of ALBA, its critical diagnosis of Latin American problems and its current status,, prospects and obstacles. We will follow with an analysis of the “social debt” in Latin America in the context of the imperial-centered model of capitalist accumulation (what is called “neo-liberalism”).

In part two, proposals for a new social, economic, cultural and ecological order we will examine the basic principles, institutions and proposals for achieving the new order. Here we will consider the inter-relationship between popular representation, administrative changes, as well as key changes in social relations of production and the development of the forces of production.

In the concluding sections we will focus on the necessary security measures and cultural transformations to ensure that the social transformations are sustainable and irreversible.

ALBA: A Contemporary Perspective

ALBA provides several clearly stated objectives:

The advantages of ALBA are obvious and numerous -from a rational political and economic calculus, especially for the great majority of the people of Latin America and its local small and medium size producers. However the realization of the ALBA vision faces serious opposition from US and EU imperialism, as well as from within Latin America among the ruling classes and political elites with long-standing links to foreign capital, overseas banks and the imperial state.

The Status of ALBA Today

Despite the political obstacles, both external and internal, to the advance of ALBA, several positive steps are evident today. ALBA is an alternative conception to ALCA backed by a powerful state sponsor. It destroys the propaganda promoted by imperial ideologues and Latin American collaborators that there is no “realistic” or “practical” alternative to imperial-centered models of integration. ALBA takes an idea imagined by intellectuals and makes it common currency among the masses or at least militants throughout Latin America. Moreover ALBA provides a concrete critique and alternative program to ALCA which erodes the uni-polar imagery projected by the mass media.

ALBA is a process not a single dramatic event. As such, several first steps toward regional integration have already taken place which demonstrates the positive virtues of ALBA style integration. The implementation of Petro-Caribe and the Cuban-Venezuelan trade, investment and aid agreements are ‘models’ for deepening Latin American integration. Proposals to link public-energy enterprises also move in the same direction. Most important of all, ALBA has played an important role in raising Latin American consciousness, both in unifying and strengthening mass anti-imperialist consciousness and creating the basis for affirming a common set of regional agendas. Today regional or Latin American consciousness has challenged US hegemony among the masses, and in large part has replaced it.

ALBA has been an important aspect of the rise of Latin American consciousness, which co-exists with national and class consciousness in a synergetic relationship, each reinforcing the other.

An important institutional advance (in line with ALBA) in creating Latin American consciousness is the emergence of TELESUR as a counter-hegemonic mass media outlet. Along with the emergence of hundreds of Bolivarian and other anti-imperialist organizations in Latin America, the social bases for ALBA are growing throughout the region.

Social Debt: The Role of Imperialism

The term “social debt” refers to the large-scale, long-term social regression suffered by the vast majority of the Latin American people. “Social debt” implies that “some one” owes compensation to those who have lost out in the process of global capitalist expansion. It is the language of the international, United Nations bureaucracy like CEPAL. As such it provides useful data on a series of social problems in Latin America but fails to provide a situational link between the international power configurations and their policies, and the regressive social consequences. Statistical surveys, demonstrate the social regression of most Latin Americans over the past quarter of a century.

Let it be noted also that the indices and measures, for example, used by CEPAL and the World Bank are inadequate and profoundly underestimate poverty levels, standards of living, inequalities and other dimensions of social conditions.

Mass poverty has greatly increased throughout Latin America; substantial increases are evident from Mexico to Argentina, especially in Nicaragua, Haiti and Colombia which have seen a major US military and paramilitary presence.

Standards of living for the great majority (including health and educational services) have declined as a result of privatizations, foreign debt payments and free trade policies. Declining living standards and mass poverty are a cause and consequence of the concentration and centralization of wealth and capital in a small number of national and foreign banks. Inequalities have reached unprecedented levels as foreign capital and goods dominate local economies and markets and as political economic decisions are concentrated in the hands of client political regimes. Health and educational budget cuts and the spread of elite private clinics and schools have reinforced the inequalities while opening new “service sectors” for foreign investment. The “specialization” in raw materials and agro-mineral export sectors serving the imperial countries has increased the number of under and unemployed and polarized the class structure in extreme.

The cause of social regression (which is never mentioned by CEPAL or the World Bank in any of their writing about poverty or “extreme poverty”) is imperialism and the neo-liberal policies advocated by the international agencies.

Imperialism plays a major role in creating, extending, deepening and reproducing social regression via several mechanisms and policies. The most important mechanism of imperialist exploitation and the cause of social regression is the take-over of strategic political positions and economic sectors. Imperial-trained Latin American collaborators, linked to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Wall Street, formulate “macro-economic”, monetary and income policies via their positions in the Finance and Economy Ministries and the Central Banks. Their policies facilitate the take-over by US and European Union multinational banks of the principal banks and financial institutions, telecommunications, agro-mineral sectors, gas and petrol industries, commerce and services. Through their political and economic control of the strategic sectors they facilitate the massive outflow of billions of dollars in interest (and principle) payments, royalty and profit remittances which de-capitalize the economy. These pro-imperial power elites sign “conditionality” agreements with the IMF and World Bank which deepen privatizations and private monopolies. The result is economic stagnation, growing unemployment, declining living standards, and an increase in poverty --- in a word, the “social debt” is a result of deep structural relations which are reproduced by the contemporary regimes whether they are called “center-left” or “center-right”. More important, while these structural relations exist it is difficult to imagine any government to government agreements to further ALBA.

This is particularly the case where Latin American regimes support the US occupation of Haiti and the military bases in their countries (Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador and Dominican Republic). If the “social debt” is the product of imperial political penetration and economic take-overs, and the local Latin American regimes collaborate in defending this power bloc, then it is difficult for ALBA to advance via government to government agreements. ALBA must rely on the mass movements changing the existing ruling blocs in Latin America. If imperialism is the strategic enemy and major determinant of social regression, the immediate obstacle to reversing the social debt are the local ruling classes who apply neo-liberal policies.

President Chavez’ 21st Century Socialism: Proposals for Advancing and Consolidating the New Order

When we write of a “new” social, economic, cultural and ecological order we do not mean reforms grafted on to an old order of capitalist banking and latifundio property ownership. The new order does not mean simply additional social spending for the poor without changing the concentration of income and property. The new order means inverting the social pyramid - where the majority receives most of the wealth and controls the major means of production, finance and trade, while the elite receives the least and owns minority shares of property. Fundamental to inverting the social pyramid is property redistribution from big property holding to national public enterprises, co-operative and worker-engineer self-management within a national plan. It means the highest budgetary priority is social spending and public investment, not tax exonerations and subsidies for private capital. It means eliminating sales and regressive taxes in favor of increased direct taxes on wealth, especially foreign owned banks and energy firms as well as big property interests, including media monopolies.

The new order can only advance if it is accompanied by the creation of a new political power bloc. New representative institutions cannot operate effectively if they are superimposed on existing corrupt bodies. Four socio-political proposals form the core of a systemic transformation:

These proposals are eminently practical, feasible and within the financial resources of the government - given the high earnings from petroleum exports. They are essential to consolidating and deepening the social base of the Bolivarian revolution, diversifying production and increasing domestic consumption. To finance these ambitious programs will require re-allocation of resources from overseas programs to domestic priorities.

Restructuring Macro-Economic Policy: Domestic Growth and National Security

National security priorities coincide very well with the accomplishment of socio-economic goals. Several priorities are evident in a time of rising conflict and possible rupture in relations with US imperialism:

There can be no serious discussions of socio-economic changes, and national independence without a comprehensive national security policy. Above all, it is necessary for the national security forces to be politically compatible with the socio-economic transformations. International solidarity and independent foreign relations are directly dependent on strong domestic socio-economic and security foundations. Strong national foundations are built on objective (material) and subjective (consciousness) advances.

Cultural Revolution within the Revolution

There are two essential inter-related subjective developments necessary to sustain a revolution against external aggression and internal subversion: the deepening and extension, simultaneously, of national and class consciousness. In pursuit of these goals there is a multiplicity of sites at which integral national-class consciousness can take place. Constructing an anti-imperialist consciousness takes place via a multiplicity of activities which cumulatively converge and create the “New Patriot”. State intervention is crucial in constructing and facilitating the national culture:

Cultural revolutions are necessary, especially in a revolutionary process to avoid stagnation, regression, corruption and bureaucratization. A revolution must be constantly renewed to avoid reproducing a new elite class structure. Creating a vibrant cultural transformation is both a cause and consequence of national integration: cultural advances depend on a strong nation-state independent of imperialist hegemony; a strong national culture contributes to greater national cohesion.

National Integration

Throughout past and recent history, imperialist powers have followed “divide and conquer” tactics to take control of countries, as the European colonial powers demonstrated in India (Muslims against Hindus), the French in Africa and the US today in Iraq (Shia against Sunni) and in Iran (Persians against Arabs and Kurds). In Venezuela today, Washington pursues the same tactic, fomenting a separatist movement in the state of Zulia on the basis of a specious set of pseudo-regional identity. The prime condition for the effective survival and development of a modern national state is a strong territorial unity, complementary economic sectors and a powerful internal market. To achieve national integration, most nation states have taken the following steps.

Firm and decisive action, early on, to eliminate the secessionist elites acting as surrogates of imperial strategies.

Above all national integration involves public control of the strategic economic sectors of the economy: banking to provide credit, trade to optimize the allocation of foreign exchange and energy, mining and petroleum to create new industries. National integration has been the fundamental premise for a strong unitary state which in turn has been the historical foundation for dynamic development in the US, Germany and Japan in the 19th century and China in the 20th century.

International Integration

The fundamental basis of international integration has been political compatibility, economic complementarity and mutual benefits. It is impossible for neo-liberal, nationalist or socialist regimes to “integrate” their economies as their trade, investment and income policies are diametrically opposed. This is the case today in Latin America, where extra-regional trade and investment policies supersede ‘regional agreements.”

What can take place is greater integration between Cuba and Venezuela on the basis of political compatibility between nationalism and socialism, complementary economies (energy for social services) and reciprocal benefits.

International integration is more a goal for the future which can, perhaps, be approached via piecemeal changes: an association and interchange between public enterprises, commodity producer agreements, a debtors union, the development of a common anti-imperialist or non-intervention front based on a rejection of US military bases and doctrines. International integration as a goal and as the basis for creating international popular solidarity and anti-imperialist consciousness is much more feasible and important in the present conjuncture than attempting to spend large amount of financial resources in “buying” (temporary) friendships with alien neo-liberal regimes.

The New Economic Order

Nationalist, collectivist and neo-liberal regimes have in greater or less extent been guilty of pillaging the economy in the name of rapid growth of the GDP. Fortunately in recent years a powerful new ecological consciousness has emerged which impacts on everyday existence. Contaminated air, water and food reduce standards of living. Ecological deterioration converts natural disasters in human catastrophes. Quantitative indicators of economic growth are being rejected in favor of qualitative indicators of the quality of life. Ecologically progressive policies cannot be simply deduced from socially or economically equitable policies. As we have seen from past experiences, regimes which provide universal free health care can also produce high pollutant economic policies which increase respiratory diseases - as in the former USSR.

Conclusion: Making the New Order Irreversible

A revolutionary process is as solid and sustainable as the active mass base which supports it. This requires expanding the avenues for popular participation and closing the channels for imperialist financed agents of subversion. Several proposals can strengthen the relative irreversibility of the revolution.

The Politics of Irreversibility

There are many negative and positive lessons to be learned from previous revolutionary processes, where revolutions were reversed and in cases where revolutions were consolidated. We can cite as examples of revolutionary reversals, the USSR, Nicaragua and Chile.

Chile: In the case of Chile, the principal reason for the reversal was the government’s total neglect of security, namely the failure to move from regime change toward a transformation of the state to make it compatible with the socio-economic transformation. The failure to appreciate the level of penetration of the CIA and Pentagon of civil society was fatal. The lesson is clear: The need to close all channels for imperialist penetration of civil society; the need to co-coordinate socio-economic changes with transformations of the security apparatus.

Nicaragua: The Sandanistas’ strategic mistake was allowing an internal counter-revolution to function in close coordination with imperialist backed and armed contra-paramilitary forces. The lesson is clear: Elections cannot take place in the midst of a war, which destroys the economy and impoverishes the country. Domestic collaborators with imperialist armed aggression should be subject to preventative detention till the war is finished, as was the case with the allies during the Second World War.

USSR: State property and central planning are not sufficient conditions for sustaining a revolution if a bureaucratic elite seizes the state and marginalizes mass popular participation. The dangers to a revolution are as much internal as external: namely the rise to power of a new educated class with dollar signs in their eyes and privileged backgrounds and ambitions. The important lesson is that democratizing the social relations of production, direct participation in policy and the subordination of leaders to popular assemblies reduces inequalities and activates the masses to defend the revolution against the ‘new class’.

Cuba: The Positive Lesson

Cuba’s revolution which has so far been irreversible provides several positive lessons for sustaining a revolution. No single feature of the Cuban revolution is sufficient to explain its sustainability. Rather a series of inter-related factors are essential. Public ownership eliminated potential counter-revolutionary financing, economic sabotage and imperialist collaboration. An efficient military and security system backed by a one-million person militia and neighborhood watch committees has eliminated imperial-backed terrorists, assassins and saboteurs. A highly professional, disciplined, battle-hardened veteran army serves as an important deterrent to an armed US invasion. Equally important, a vast socio-economic reform program especially in health, education and employment has created a popular stake in the revolution. Popular assemblies in the workplace and communities provide some channels for legislative debates, proposals, criticism and expression of voter preferences. Mass popular mobilization, extensive cultural and educational programs have created a powerful anti-imperialist consciousness.

Emerging contradictions nevertheless have appeared and deepened in Cuba during in the past two decades. Inequalities, tourism, family remittances, the formerly dollarized economy, theft of public property has created a new rich class which threatens the revolution from within. Recognizing the danger, Fidel Castro and Felipe Perez Roque have called for a ‘revolution within the revolution’. Culture Minister Abel Prieto has encouraged the ‘battle of ideas’ to counter the objective and subjective basis of the counter-revolution. From above and below, combining important large-scale investments in social reforms and comprehensive cultural and educational programs the revolution continues despite the emerging contradictions. The process continues to be irreversible under the current correlation of forces. The adaptation of the lessons of Cuba to the conditions of Venezuela points to the transformation of the state, economic diversification, deepening and extending class/national consciousness and, above all, the organization of a revolutionary party. These measures would make the revolutionary process in Venezuela irreversible.

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James Petras has written numerous books and articles, and teaches sociology at SUNY, Binghamton. He is a frequent contributor to Axis of Logic. Contact James Petras.