CHAVEZ VERSUS THE FREE TRADE ZOMBIES OF THE AMERICAS

[2pac Shakur]

Every nation but one: Venezuela, the single and solitary nation to say
"no thanks" at Miami's treaty of the living dead economies. Today, I
met up with Venezuela's chief FTAA negotiator. Victor Alvarez was
saved from zombification by his sense of humor. He noted that while
the Bush Administration was preaching free trade to their dark-skinned
compatriots south of the border, the USA itself was facing one of the
largest penalties in World Trade Organization history for raising
tariffs on steel products. He would have laughed out loud in Miami if
it didn't hurt so much: the illegal US trade barriers have closed two
steel plants in Venezuela.

Venezuela's 'negociador jefe' Alvarez went through the well-known data:
in ten years of free market free-for-all, industrialization in
Venezuela dropped from 18% of GNP to 13%. And Venezuela fared best.
Elsewhere in Latin America, economies simply imploded. And NAFTA
created employment only in a fetid trench along the Rio Grande, the
'maquiladora' sweatshops which suck down wages on both sides of the
Mexico-US border.

We finished our conversation as the President walked in. Hugo Chavez
is not one for subtleties. "FTAA is the PATH TO HELL," said Chavez.

He meant this in the deepest theological sense. What is at stake for
Chavez is Latin America's mortal soul. "I have seen children shot to
death," said the president, "not by an invading Army but by our own
nation's soldiers."

Chavez was referring to February 27, 1989. While the Northern
Hemisphere was celebrating the impending fall of the Berlin Wall,
"another wall was going up," he explained, "the wall of globalization."
That day, the army massacred Venezuelans, young and old, during a
demonstration against diktats of the International Monetary Fund
imposed on that nation.

The President raced through a dozen more examples, from Bolivia to
Chiapas, Mexico, where the miracle of the marketplace came out of the
barrel of a gun.

FTAA is far more than a trade document. It's not just about fruit and
cars that we sell across borders. FTAA is an entire new multi-state
government in the making, with courts and executives, unelected, with
the power to bless or damn any one nation's laws which impede foreign
investment, foreign sales or even foreign pollution.

FTAA is revolutionary in the sense that governments are overthrown.
And the easiest way to do that, of course, is to convince governments
to overthrow themselves. Hence, the zombification process.

Chavez offers an alternative to FTAA. Following a numbing one-hour
discourse on the philosophy of the nineteenth century founding fathers
of South America (I could sympathize with this former history
professor's students), he dropped the Big One. Instead of ALCA [the
Spanish acronym for FTAA], he proposes ALBA, standing for the
Bolivarian Alternative for America. Named after his hero Simon
Bolivar, Chavez would create a "compensation" fund, in which the
wealthier nations of North and South America would fund development in
the poorer states.

If that sounds like an Andean pipe dream, he reminds us that the
European Union created just such a redistribution fund to jump-start
the economies of its poorest nations. (To the anger of the English, I
should add, who saw Ireland use the funds to zoom past their former
lords to a higher standard of living today.) If Chavez' proposal
appears at first to have a snow ball's chance in NAFTA hell, I remember
when, in fact, it was accepted gospel: John Kennedy's Alliance for
Progress.

In those years when JFK's Alliance was promising northern capital for
southern development, a strange group of well-heeled and well-armed
revolutionaries in Chicago under Milton Friedman were plotting to
overthrow Kennedy's vision. They succeeded.

Over three decades, the Chicago Boys and their neo-liberal cohort have
ridden history's pendulum to the top, announcing that history itself
has come to an end in a free market consensus.

But when the pendulum swings back, the history professor in Caracas
will be waiting with his Bolivarian elixir to make the economic dead
rise again.

*****
Greg Palast is on assignment in Caracas for Rolling Stone Magazine.
For photos and more on Venezuela, go to www.GregPalast.com. Palast is
the author of, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (Penguin 2003).

[Michael Davlin]

A classic example of someone who doesn't know his subject matter spinning history. I had many good laughs. Thanks, 2Pac.

[Tim><]

[NoName]

Let's all listen to Chavez' economic views!

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...ss/7320108.htm

Venezuela's economy shrank again in the third quarter [of 2003] as the crucial oil industry struggled to recover from a crippling strike, the Central Bank reported.

The economy contracted 7.1 percent in the July-September quarter, compared with a year earlier, the Central Bank reported late Thursday.[...]

Chavez sacked 18,000 employees - almost half the work force - from state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. for participating in the strike. Critics say the firings cost the company crucial manpower and expertise.[...]

The last time the economy grew was 4th quarter of 2001, with 0.9 percent growth compared to year previous period.

Venezuela's economy contracted 27 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2002 and 9 percent in the second quarter, according to the central bank.

Ricardo Sanguino, a ruling party lawmaker and member of the congressional finance committee, said the gradual reduced economic contractions "are a signal that the economy is recovering." [ --NoName]

"This is evidence that the government policies are functioning," said Sanguino.

(edited to add: I realize it is theoretically possible the economy is recovering, but a 7% drop is still hard to spin as "evidence the government policies are functioning.)

[2pac Shakur]

Originally Posted by NoName

Let's all listen to Chavez' economic views!

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...ss/7320108.htm

(edited to add: I realize it is theoretically possible the economy is recovering, but a 7% drop is still hard to spin as "evidence the government policies are functioning.)

Kind of like when Bush says his "surplus reducing" tax breaks suddenly become "recession busting" tax breaks?

[NoName]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/ar...539704,00.html

Venezuela’s stock market tumbled almost 19 per cent and its currency lost a third of its value in unofficial trading as investors took fright at President Chávez’s plans to nationalise utilities as part of his “Socialist revolution”.

The benchmark IBC index of the Caracas stock exchange plunged 11,574 to 50,439, dragged down by the shares of the power and telephone companies of which the Government intends to seize control.

American depositary receipts of CANTV, the telecoms carrier that is the only Venezuelan company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, fell by as much as 43 per cent. In Caracas, the company closed down 30.3 per cent and shares were suspended until Friday.

Although officially pegged at 2,150 to the US dollar, the Venezuelan bolivar fell from 3,000 to 4,000 on the black market.

Well done, Comrade.

[General Apathy]

Say Che,

How did that work out for Cuba?

[Harry]

Originally Posted by NoName

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/ar...539704,00.html

Well done, Comrade.

You think he didn't know that would happen?

[Ronald Reagan]

I'm with (liberal?) Tom Friedman!

He basically says: "I didn't even know what was in the deal, but I heard "Free Trade" and was a supporter."

On second thought, I can be bothered with details, and he's an a$$.

[The African Queen]

Originally Posted by 2pac Shakur

Kind of like when Bush says his "surplus reducing" tax breaks suddenly become "recession busting" tax breaks?

Last I checked our economy is doing very well. Or are you living on a different planet? As long as we're doing pretty well, he can call it whatever he wants to.