COMMENTARY-Has the so-called 21st Century Socialism improved the lot of countries adopting it?

By Jolly Green

What exactly is 21st Century Socialism? Perhaps according to the people who are the new administrators of Socialism for the twenty-first century –

• it is not a society in which people sell their ability to work and are directed from above by others whose goal is profits rather than the satisfaction of human needs.

Ref: Protagonism and Productivity by Michael A. Lebowitz (Nov 01, 2017)

There is in real truth no difference between 21^st Century Socialism and 20^th Century Socialism, they want you to believe it is a new product, but only the packaging is new.

Socialism of the 21st century argues that both free-market industrial capitalism and 20th-century socialism have failed to solve urgent problems of humanity like poverty, hunger, exploitation, economic oppression, sexism, racism, the destruction of natural resources and the absence of genuinely participative democracy.

Ref: Heinz Dieterich: „Der Sozialismus des 21. Jahrhunderts –Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Demokratie nach dem globalen Kapitalismus“, Einleitung Socialism of the 21st Century – Economy, Society, and Democracy in the era of global Capitalism, Introduction.

But all these claims have always been made by communists and communist states, they are seen by them as the horse to ride for the ignorant people to accept them. They have always claimed their predecessors failed the people and they would do better, they never do. They never do because a nasty of humans are involved, and these humans have the greedy gene, humans who want to be dictaters. All the ALBA leaders worship socialism, a word used to cloak communism, socialism for the people, but do not live by the rules themselves. That is only for the people whilst they all get fat, live high on the hog and become obscenely wealthy.

When it was launched, ALBA had only two member states, Venezuela and Cuba. The idea was hatched by Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. The overall plan was to capture the Latin Americas and the Caribbean Islands governments and people without using Cuba’s usual route of training terrorists and causing guerrilla warfare to try and bring about revolution. Cuba is a known Marxist-Leninist style communist state, and that is what Chavez had by now introduced to Venezuela. Castro and Chavez went about forming the ALBA organization. Unlike the previous Marxist-Leninist style of communism, the economic model espoused by ALBA is based loosely on a Trotskyite version of communism outlined by the Mexican academic Heinz Dieterich (who literally wrote the book on 21st Century Socialism).

ALBA is an explicitly anti-capitalist group. Five “socialist” Latin American nations–Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Cuba, with Suriname admitted to ALBA as a guest, all eventually joining the ‘Pink Tide’ of the 21st Century Socialism movement. The supporting institution of this movement, the Bolivarian Alliance (Alianza Bolivariana para Los Pueblos de Nuestra América), or ALBA. But caught in this same net are some of the Caribbean countries who are also members of ALBA, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Nasty things are happening in the ALBA States, which are not really what one may describe as a pink tide, more like the old red tide of out and out communism at its very worst. Almost every one of the leaders of the ALBA membership has brought their countries to their knees, brought their countries to bankruptcy, or if not to the very verge of it.

Some countries are doing reasonably OK because those countries have accepted investment and technology from foreign firms and countries. Cuba has attracted foreign investment and international operators in the tourist industry. Saint Lucia has long had a healthy tourism industry and is not outwardly extreme socialist. Most tourists are from wealthy capitalist countries and not inclined to support countries that are socialist and more-so who are out and out communists. But Cuba has fared well regardless of this bias.

Other ALBA countries have destroyed their industrial and agricultural base, now looking to tourism and in some island states such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines [SVG] international scrounging from more affluent nations, and selling of the SVG votes at the UN, mainly countries who need to buy support for their dirty deeds. SVG under Gonsalves is a prostituted UN vote selling state.

Cuba has been pulled out of the 20th into the 21st century by misusing their relationship with the Venezuelan leadership. Taking oil from Cuba on beneficial terms, in return sending doctors to Venezuela, which has all but destroyed the Venezuelan indigenous doctor base. The Cubans charge out their doctors services at high rates and pay those doctors cents on the dollar. Cuba has a duel medical system, one deals with medical tourism with superb conditions, equipment, and doctors. The other for the people, dirty, dilapidated hospitals with old and broken equipment, lack of medication and dressings. This is the real 21st-century socialism at its best because it can even get worse as we see in Venezuela.

Venezuela has destroyed everything they ever had, farming and agriculture, the oil industry, light and heavy manufacturing, tourism, international relationships with major powers, just about anything and everything which in the past generated income and employment have been destroyed. They have confiscated farms and manufacturers, almost all have since stopped producing and trading. Chavez bought billions of US dollars worth of military equipment, war ships and craft, submarines, tanks missiles and bases, and so much arms and ammunition they are in the position to supply World War three. The silly deal done with Russia was the pledging  of their oil production, the arms purchases tied to oil at a set price, when it goes up in price the Russians take less oil, when it goes down the Russians take more. So with low prices the Russians have been able to plunder the Venezuelans main source of revenue, they have been taking the major part of oil production. Venezuelan oil is dirty heavy crude that requires mixing with light crude to make it workable in refineries, so the Russians perhaps may regret this deal in the long run. Then along comes China and President Maduro again pledges oil against loans. These deals have taken Venezuela’s cash revenue stream and because of the obvious shortage of cash the oil production infrastructure has gradually fallen apart and production is shrinking and coming to a standstill.

Venezuela’s leaders, first Hugo Chavez and then after his most fortunate death his appointed successor Nicolas Maduro have plundered the countries treasury and treasures. Chavez’s daughter is the richest woman in the hemisphere after coming from a home with a dirt floor. The Generals and top Venezuelan military have been paid obscene amounts of money to keep the regime in power. Countries like Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have been laundering money for the regime and military through their offshore banking system. The Venezuelan State has even laundered money through SVG to pay left wing, 21^st Century Socialist Catalan Party leader money to try and bring about a Catalan breakaway state from Spain. Evidence of that was previously written about at the time.

During this time millions in Venezuela are starving and dying from uncontrolled and untreated disease. Millions are walking the length and breadth of the country to reach borders where when crossed they are safe from the murderous Cuban Black Wasp Brigade who are murdering not just students and politicians but ordinary people.  No food, no medication and no help whatsoever from the Venezuelan government who took power though election fraud.

To keep the other countries on their side and in line with ALBA policies, the 21^st Century Socialist experimenters in nasty communism, Venezuela, has managed to pay countries and some of the leaders personally, amounts of money through PetroCaribe to support them and vote in their favour at the UN. So whilst the people starve the politicians throughout the region share in the jackpot, a reward for all their help and support of one of the dirtiest regimes along with Castro’s Cuba ever recorded in modern history. Now with Russia pulling the strings that control ALBA and all the 21st Century Socialists the US needs to start taking more active interest in their backyard.

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