A lunch with Venezuela’s “socialist businessmen"

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, who refers to himself a “Bolivarian socialist”, has called for alliances with the national bourgeoisie. He has even called on nationalist businessmen to participate in the “Venezuelan revolution”. But have these businessmen answered the call?

It’s clear that the majority of Venezuela´s capitalists are fiercely opposed to the Chávez government, as they’ve shown in two attempted coups. But there is also an important sector of the bourgeoisie that supports the government, expecting high profits from its policies of reducing dependence on imperialism by developing national industries. Who are these capitalists? What do they think about the situation in Venezuela?

To answer these questions, I visited a “technical round table” hosted by the “Association of Businessmen for Venezuela”, better known by the informal name “Association of Socialist Businessmen”. At the meeting, which took place in a chic bar in Caracas’ most expensive shopping mall, businessmen and the press could exchange their experiences doing business under the “socialist government”. No expense had been spared to woo visitors: there was fresh-pressed melon juice, filet mignon on toothpicks, little cakes brought around by waiters – and at night, as one of the young assistants told me, this bar was the best disco in the city.

This businessmen’s association was founded during the bosses’ lock-out (sometimes referred to as a “strike”) in December 2003. This adventurist attempt to topple the Chávez government failed, but not without doing great damage to the national economy. A group of middle-sized businessmen, including a few directors of large corporations, made the call: “No to the strike! Yes to work!” and the association was born. At the beginning it had 3,000 members; today more than 300,000 mostly small and middle-sized businesses have signed up.

I spoke for a while with Dr. Uzcátegui, president of the association, and my first question was of course: “Socialist businessmen? Isn’t that a bit contradictory?”, but he was used to the question: “We need to be more precise. The government is talking about socialism of the 21st century, which is neither dogmatic nor reformist. It’s a nationalist socialism, a Venezuelan socialism, which is being built with all social sectors, including businessmen.”

I mentioned that Chávez is often attacked in the international press for restricting the free market, and Uzcátegui replied: “The state needs to regulate, to control the economy. The traditional businessmen have a mentality which is neoliberal and speculative, not productive. This mentality can’t run free, it needs to be controlled. We support the economic model of the government, which has been successful. Traditional businessmen are losing influence, which is why the want to destabilize the government. But we aim for an integration of the private sector with the Bolivarian government.”

Our talk was interrupted by a round of presentations. A representative of a chemical manufacturer explained how he was going to a business conference in Shanghai with the help of the Venezuelan labor ministry. Then I had to present myself from the stage as well: “We have a friend, a journalist from Germany, here.” I’m not much of a public speaker: “Yes, uh, thanks, uh, for the food…”

When we continued, I asked about the strategic vision of the “patriotic capitalists”, and Uzcátegui presented a vision very similar to that of Chávez himself: transforming the economic model of the country, towards more distribution of wealth, less exploitation, more production and less monopolies. He referred to this goal repeatedly as “socialist production”. “Economic power is still very important in Venezuela, and it’s the old oligarchy that has this power and is running a media campaign to mis-interpret the policies of the government.” Breaking the oligarchy’s economic power was his goal, even if it was “the most difficult sector of the revolution”.

About the government’s policies of nationalizations, Uzcátegui said they were supported by the businessmen’s association, for example the recent announcement of the nationalization of the steel works SIDOR. “These businesses have all been strategic, and the nationalizations have benefited thousands of other businesses.” At the same time, he said the word “nationalization” wasn’t quite right, since the businesses have been bought at a market price by the government. “The government and the multinational corporation sit down at a table and work out a deal that’s acceptable to both sides. In the case of [the Caracas phone company] CANTV, for example, there wasn’t one complaint by the shareholders. The government was excessively fair, paying 480 million for the company.”

Finally, I asked if the “socialist businessmen” were concerned about a radicalization of the Chavista movement – after all, there are some sectors behind the president who call for the complete nationalization of the economy. But Uzcátegui isn’t worried at all: the country has a “common leader who’s strong” in the person of Chávez (who meets with the “socialist businessmen” at least once a month) who will assure that the government’s policies don’t hurt business interests. Chávez’ main accomplishment was, in the words of the business leader, “reforming nationalism”, with policies which have strengthened the “productive business sector” (i.e. the small and middle-sized bourgeoisie).

The “Association of Businessmen for Venezuela” (in Spanish: EMPREVEN) is growing rapidly, at the expense of the traditional and virulently anti-Chávez association, FEDECAMERAS. The name means simply the “Federation of Local Chambers of Commerce”, and more and more of these chambers which make up FEDECAMERAS are switching over to EMPREVEN.

The Chávez government’s policies of national development, reversing earlier privatizations with profits from the oil industry and giving credits to small and not-so-small businesses, are creating a new bourgeoisie which is loyal to the regime. The Chávez project – and here I, as a Marxist, agree with a representative of the capitalists – is a project of developing a strong, independent economy in Venezuela which is based on private property.

Dr. Uzcátegui summarized our talk: “It’s a great time to do business in Venezuela. Fantastic, even.” The motto on the fliers of the association says it all: “To transform Venezuela into a world power.”

Wladek Flakin, Caracas

Tue 15, April 2008 @ 20:11