Capitalism or socialism?

Someone thought that the financial crisis that has begun in the United States in the years 2007-2008 would not have serious consequences on the international level nor concerning the real economy. They were wrong.

Two years have passed from the crash of the American banks and the international capitalistic economy remains entangled in a recession. Even if the emerging powers like China or India are performing better, they are inextricably involved in the crisis as their markets have contracted.

We do not think the massive measures taken by the Western governments will be decisive. The transformation of huge private debt into public debt, in addition to cause a long period of austerity for the masses and an augmentation of social inequality, will bring several countries close to the risk of default, including the US. For the first time after the Sixties and the Seventies, the imperialist countries, which were occupied in very expensive militarist plans of world supremacy, could enter a period of serious internal social tension.

If the anti-recession policies should be met with failure, the international tensions could be added to the internal ones, with the risk of new inter-imperialistic tensions taking the place of the present “pan-imperialistic” harmony.

We are witnessing not only the crisis of the neo-liberalist model, but also a historical-systemic crisis of capitalism, which is bound to deeply change international relations, the internal balance of the single states, the way of life of billions of people.

To understand the reasons and the consequences of this crisis, what distinguishes it from the previous ones, is absolutely decisive for every anti-imperialist movement wishing to pass from resistance to offensive, and no offensive could be successful without being able to show the strategic perspective of the exit from capitalism.

In this frameset the Venezuelan revolutionary attempt takes on a particular relevance. The 20th Century has taught us how hard it is to build an authentic socialist society. All various attempts have failed. The lessons taken from those failures are leading Venezuela on a road that is original and full of uncertainties. To be by the side of a marching revolution means to also to question ourselves on the way to follow.

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