-------------------------------------------------------- From: "Brian Hill" <•••@••.•••> Subject: FW: [toeslist] Is Venezuela Heading Towards Prout? Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:53:15 -0800 Organization: Institute for Cultural Ecology -----Original Message----- From: •••@••.••• [mailto:•••@••.•••] On Behalf Of Trent Schroyer Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 12:27 PM To: •••@••.••• Subject: [toeslist] Is Venezuela Heading Towards Prout? Web Pages: <http://www.ve.prout.org>www.ve.prout.org <http://www.prout.org>www.prout.org <http://www.proutworld.org>www.proutworld.org --~--~---------~--~----~- Is Venezuela Heading Towards Prout? 3 December 2006 Is Venezuela Heading Towards Prout? by Andy Malinalco Today there are countless movements and struggles which are fighting for the creation of a more just, sustainable, and human society, guaranteeing safety and individual freedom. Of all these, many progressive people around the world see the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela as the one with the greatest possibility to transform social reality. Prout (Progressive Utilization Theory) is a socio-economic theory with a holistic purpose which seeks to replace capitalism with the three-tier model. The three-tier model is one in which cooperatives are the main economic enterprise in the society, with large-scale key resources being run by local government enterprises and small-scale business matters being privately owned. However, cooperatives would be with pre-dominant type of enterprise and the more cooperatives the better. There may also be scope for aspects of key industries, as well as small business, to become cooperatized as well. PROUT was conceived in 1959 by the Indian philosopher and spiritual leader Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1921-1990). Prout is not a rigid economic doctrine, like the neoliberal regime, but a collection of principles which can be applied according to the requirements of any given situation. It's a model which - instead of economic growth as an end in itself - through economic democracy, decentralization, participatory management, regional autonomy and self-sufficiency has the well-being of all living being as the guiding principle of social and economic life. That is, there is a neo-humanistic welfare orientation. While the Bolivarian Revolution proceeds mostly through trial and errors, Prout is a theoretically sound and worked out coherent vision, which until now has only been put into practice by a few small local communities in various countries. In this article compares how the main goals of the Bolivarian Process point toward the vision of Prout. The path originates through various conflicts The Bolivarian Revolution which was started with the electoral victory of Hugo Chávez in 1998, is not working with a rigid doctrine, and like most of the current movements standing against the neoliberal world order (e.g. the Zapatistas, People's Global Action, Reclaim the Streets, etc.) is not really defined. Its shape is drawn by the constant clashes with its national and international opposition, and it is these very conflicts that in turn lead to formulation of cohesion in its outlooks (thesis - antithesis -> synthesis [thesis]), not some incohesive doctrine, which make it more and more radical. For example, during the first years Chávez - besides his determined anti-imperialism - spoke about some 'third way' and 'capitalism with a human face'. Now he has changed this for anti-capitalist rhetoric, and since the beginning of 2005 he is propagating 'Socialism of the 21st Century' as the direction for Venezuela - although he has not clearly defined what he means by this. According to Michael Lebowitz (1), the original blueprint of the Chávez government was a strong State rejecting neoliberalism and controlling the key industries; supporting the formation of cooperatives, with the informal sector becoming a part of the legal economy; while the backbone and driving force of the economy remains private capital and large capitalist corporations. This concept changed due to the impact of the coup, the illegal oil strike and the self-organization of the people in resistance to these two attempts to bring down the government. The focus shifted to an anti-capitalist direction, with the alternative of solidarity economy. Every attempt by the opposition to get rid of Chávez has instead strengthened his control and opened new gates for revolutionary change. The attempted coup in 2002 not only led to the cleanup of the military command, but it made it clear to the poor supporters of Chávez that if they want to keep their revolution, then their activity, participation and organized acts are very much needed. The coup attempt turned out to be the most efficient mobilization of the Chavistas. In the general strike it was realised that company owners were aligned with the opposition at the end of 2002, and at the beginning of 2003 what was made possible was examples of workers' management in practice, with more government control of the national oil company PDVSA (2). Since then PDVSA's profits are funding the government's popular 'missions', which were started in 2003. The food crisis experienced during the days of the strike created the realization that safeguarding the nation's food security was vital. Due to the food crisis, the military opened shops on the main roads of Caracas, selling basic foods under its market price. These turned out to be so popular, that after the crisis ended, a chain of such stores was broadened to the whole country, within the framework of Mission Mercal. Prout principles in the Bolivarian Revolution So while the Bolivarian Revolution doesn't have a coherent and detailed vision about the future society, its goals, which caused it to turn its back to capitalism, correspond to some of the goals of Prout: to minimize inequality, achieve national self-reliance, and create economic democracy, where everyone is able to satisfy their basic necessities. The Bolivarian Revolution has started to apply principles of Prout, for the most part unconsciously, in the following four areas: securing the basic necessities of people, economic independence and self-sufficiency (endogenous development), building an alternative economic model based on cooperatives as the mainstay, and creating participatory management in economic affairs. These are underlying neo-humanistic and universal ideals inherent in the ethical development of society for the good and happiness of all, and so naturally any progressive and welfare oriented movement would imbibe them. 1. Providing the basic needs According to Prout it should be guaranteed that everyone is able to afford their basic necessities. The five basic necessities are: food and drinking water, clothing, housing, education and health care. These are needed for a quality of life that is necessary in order to start the development of the real human personality, which has the capacity to make decisions regarding their economic future and social participatory role. As Dada Maheshvarananda wrote, paraphrasing P R Sarkar: "Providing the basic necessities should be the primary function and duty of any economy. Human beings require these in order to realize their individual potentialities, to develop culturally, to achieve inner fulfilment and self-realization, which many now consider as higher goals of life.. What a wonderful world it will be when no one on the planet will worry about getting enough money to buy the food, clothes, housing, education and medical care needed for his or her family!" (3) Of these five necessities, the following appear in the Bolivarian Constitution of 1999 as basic rights: * proper housing in Article 82: "Every person has the right to adequate, safe and comfortable, hygienic housing, with appropriate essential basic services, including a habitat such as to humanize family, neighbourhood and community relations. The progressive meeting of this requirement is the shared responsibility of citizens and the State in all areas." * education free of charge in Article 102: "Education is a human right and a fundamental social duty; it is democratic, free of charge and obligatory." * primary health care in Article 83: "Health is a fundamental social right and the responsibility of the State, which shall guarantee it as part of the right to life. The State shall promote and develop policies oriented toward improving the quality of life, common welfare and access to services." * universal access to health care in Article 84: "In order to guarantee the right to health, the State creates, exercises guidance over and administers a national public health system that crosses sector boundaries, and is decentralized and participatory in nature, integrated with the social security system and governed by the principles of gratuity, universality, completeness, fairness, social integration and solidarity." The State started the 'missions' with the goal of securing these constitutional basic rights and creating essential social security. For example, within the framework of Mission Habitat the government builds new residential buildings - primarily for families with children and without a home, and for communities that organized themselves into construction teams. Housing is a serious problem in Venezuela: a large part of the population lives in hardly lashed-together shanties or in badly constructed buildings without plaster. The Mission Barrio Adentro - which is maybe the most famous project in international terms - was started in the spring of 2003, and brings basic health care into the slums, to that huge part of society that were previously excluded from health care. Both consultations and medicines are given free of charge. The doctors and staff live in the slums to really serve the community. With this 'mission', which costs up to 5 billion dollars a year, presently 14,000 doctors and 3,000 dentists from Cuba and an increasing number of Venezuelan doctors provide health care to some 17 million Venezuelans. The educational 'missions' were started against exclusion and to foster participatory management in the education sector - illiteracy and the lack of learning possibilities were the main factors that sustained the enormous social differences. The goal of Mission Robinson was to end illiteracy. When it started in July 2003, one and a half million people, which means 6% of the population, were illiterate. On 28 October 2005 Venezuela was declared an illiteracy-free country. After Mission Robinson the government launched Mission Robinson II for those who didn't finish primary school - the program includes more than one and a half million adults. Until September 2006 some 418,253 adults who previously dropped out finished their high school studies within Mission Ribas. The State pays approximately 100 dollars each month (which in Venezuela is quite useful) to every participant of the educational programs so that they can attend these courses. Mission Mercal, the nutrition project of the government, sells basic foods in poor areas at 28-40% less than the market price. In the first wave in 2004, they established 4,052 such shops, and this number increased to 15,721 by September 2006. The Mercals sell nearly half of the total food sold in the country. In addition, free canteens appeared in the slums, named Comedores Bolivarianos, which provide hot meals to 600,000 people every day. This is people's economy in action and helps redefine and shape the market to meet the basic necessities of the population. People's economy is an aspect of Prout. P R Sarkar describes it as follows: "People's economy deals with the essential needs of the people in general - the production, distribution, marketing, shipping, storage, pricing, sales, freight charges, pro forma costing, and all related activities of such essential needs. Most importantly, it is directly concerned with the guaranteed provision of minimum requirements such as food, clothing, housing, medical treatment, education, transportation, energy and irrigation water. Continuous improvement in and ready availability of these requirements is the key factor in people's economy. The minimum requirements can be assured through guaranteed purchasing capacity which should be enshrined in the constitution as a fundamental or cardinal human right. This will give the citizens of the country legal power if their minimum requirements are not met, hence the necessity of purchasing capacity will be reinforced by constitutional law. As people's economy will deal with minimum requirements and people's subsistence problems, it must take precedence over other parts of the economy. People's economy should also be concerned with the development of both private and cooperative industries. Private industries would be limited in size and scope to prevent monopoly production and exploitation, and would be required to function as cooperatives once they grow too large. Cooperative industries are the best means of independently organizing people so that they take collective responsibility for their livelihood. People's economy also includes employment for all; the eradication of mass poverty; the development of rural economy; the phase-wise socialization of land into the hands of those who work physically or intellectually for proper production; practical training programmes to impart skills which enable people to find employment in their immediate urban or rural locality; work placement; and the transportation, transshipment, loading and unloading of any materials, even if they are not economically viable in the short-term. It is also concerned with the generation of cheap power and the supply of water, which are essential if people are to control their local economies. Finally, it includes economic decentralization, cooperative dynamo and block-level planning." From: QUADRI-DIMENSIONAL ECONOMY 5 June 1986, Calcutta 2. Endogenous development Prout proposes that the current centralized economy be decentralized into economically self-reliant regions. While forming socio-economic units, several factors should be considered. These include: same economic problems; uniform economic potentialities; ethnic similarities; the sentimental legacy of the people; and similar geographical features. These regions would also place importance on the inhabitants' cultural legacy and nurturing of local language to help solve social and economic problems and development social and economic interests. These regions would decide their economic future from below, with planning emerging from the communities. Such regions would be divided into blocks, which would provide the basic level of economic planning. As P R Sarkar wrote: "There are many benefits to block-level planning. The area of planning is small enough for the planners to understand all the problems of the area; local leadership will be able to solve the problems according to local priorities; planning will be more practical and effective and will give quick, positive results." From: BLOCK-LEVEL PLANNING 1981, Calcutta With the term "endogenous development", Chávez marks his endeavour to reject the neoliberal economic rules and the developed countries economic models. Instead he is trying to develop an economic model which suits Venezuela, is for Venezuela, and satisfies the needs of Venezuela. This model is not well-defined, as are so many other things in the Bolivarian Revolution - instead the revolution itself forms it with the process. The goal is to create the nation's economic sovereignty. According to Chávez, while in the time of Bolivar the fight was for political independence, this generation should achieve economic independence (4). In concrete terms this means to break the dependence on oil, to diversify the income sources of the national economy, and to rejuvenate agriculture which withered after the discovery of oil, and to achieve food security. (Venezuela imports the majority of the food it consumes, although they have succeeded to reduce this rate from 72% in 1998 to 64% in 2006.) Five fronts have been defined for endogenous development: agriculture, industry, infrastructure, tourism and services. Strengthening agriculture is a crucial factor in achieving economic independence. The goal of food security is in the constitution, as follows: * food supply in Article 305: "A secure food supply must be achieved by developing and prioritizing internal agricultural and livestock production." * support of rural development by the State in Article 306: "The State shall promote conditions for overall rural development, for the purpose of generating employment and ensuring the rural population an adequate level of well-being, as well as their inclusion in national development." Ultimately, the agricultural sector should be well industrialised and run on a cooperative basis. This will meet the needs of the local people. P R Sarkar defines 'local people' as: "Local people are defined as those who have merged individual socio-economic interests with the socio-economic interests of the socio-economic unit they live in. The primary consideration is whether or not people have merged their individual interests with their socio-economic unit, regardless of their colour, creed, race, mother tongue, birthplace, etc. From: SOCIO-ECONOMIC MOVEMENTS 31 December 1984, Calcutta 3. Cooperatives Prout proposes a dynamic economy of the people, by the people and for the people. Rejecting profit-making as the goal of the economy, Prout bases its economic policy on consumption; that is, on meeting the actual needs of people (5). Prout proposes a three-tiered economic system to realize this. To preserve the open, innovative spirit of entrepreneurial outlook, but to avoid the destructive and exploitative impact of capitalism (which overrides the local social and economic environment), Prout keeps the private enterprises on a small-scale size, and sets a ceiling for the maximum growth of a private business, which should then adopt cooperative principles. The largest part of the economy is formed by the cooperatives. This guarantees economic democracy, the decrease of alienation, the more just distribution of wealth, and it makes possible changing the logic of profit to satisfying the real necessities and achieving everyone's well-being. Those industries which have strategic importance and which are too big or too complex to be efficiently managed by a cooperative, for example primary energy sources are the key industries which are managed by local government enterprises. However, there may be many secondary cooperatives that may also be producers or suppliers in the processing area. The Bolivarian Revolution from its beginning committed itself to keeping the key industries state-owned - rejecting the neoliberal doctrine demanding privatization. Accordingly, the new constitution provides: * public interest element in Article 302: "The State reserves to itself, through the pertinent organic law, and for reasons of national expediency, the petroleum industry and other industries, operations and goods and services which are in the public interest and of a strategic nature." Prout proposes that key industries be run on the principle of "no-profit-no-loss". As these enterprises are not privately owned, surplus income will not be paid out as dividends to stockholders or private investors (5). Rather, everyone may benefit by way of a rebate in the cost of goods or services. Or by spending the state-owned enterprises' profits in social 'missions', the government realizes this principle of Prout by giving it to the most poor of the society. When Chávez took power in 1998 there were only 762 cooperatives in the country. One of the most important aims of the Bolivarian Revolution has been to make this barely existing sector an important part of the economy. The Bolivarian Constitution asserts that the State should promote and protect cooperatives as a popular economic alternative: * cooperatives in Article 118: "The right of workers and the community to develop associations of social and participative nature such as cooperatives, saving funds, mutual funds and other forms of association is recognized. The State shall promote and protect these associations destined to improve the popular economic alternative". * guarantee of training, technical assistance and financing in Article 308: "The State shall protect and promote small and medium-sized manufacturers, cooperatives, saving funds, family owned business, small business and any other form of community association for purposes of work, savings and consumption, under an arrangement of collective ownership, to strengthen the country's economic development, based on the initiative of the people. Training, technical assistance and appropriate financing shall be guaranteed." However no significant change took place until 2001, when the number of cooperatives was about one thousand. But with the impact of the passage of the Special Law on Cooperative Associations in that year and the bank loans provided by the Ministry of Popular Economy (MINEP) since 2003, their number has dramatically increased. More than 150,000 co-ops have been registered in Venezuela by 2006, the largest number in the world. To encourage and strengthen cooperatives and to create a base for endogenous development, in January 2004 the government launched Mission Vuelvan Caras, a one-year-long training program. The participants, who usually come from other educational missions, receive practical job training, and after finishing the majority form cooperatives. In regard to cooperatives P R Sarkar states: "Besides agricultural or farmers cooperatives, PROUT advocates the formation of other types of cooperatives, including producers and consumers cooperatives. Producers cooperatives include agro-industries, agrico-industries and non-agricultural industries. The total profit of such cooperatives should be distributed among the workers and members of the cooperative according to their individual capital investment in the cooperative and the service they render to the production and management of the cooperative. Similarly, consumers cooperatives should be formed by like-minded persons who will share the profits of the cooperative according to their individual labour and capital investment. Those who are engaged in the management of such cooperatives will also be entitled to draw salaries on the basis of the services they render to the cooperative. Consumers cooperatives will distribute consumer goods to members of society at reasonable rates." COOPERATIVES 18 February 1988, Calcutta 4. Participatory democracy One of the most important achievements of the Chávez regime has been the inclusion of people into the political decision-making process. It began with the writing of the new constitution based on broad consensus in 1999. A national referendum was held whether there should be a new constitution, then there was an election for the constitutional assembly. The writing of the constitution included wide-ranging consultation, and then the final text went to another national referendum for acceptance. Since then Chávez has constantly called on the people to take power - which sounds somehow funny when the Bolivarian Revolution is based on a charismatic leader. But heeding his call, local government and the people started closer collaboration. Citizens form committees, express their opinion about the budget, which tasks must be done, etc. Another part of the process is the formulation of new communal councils (based upon 200-400 families in cities and 20-50 in rural areas), which chip on the local affairs - and they flourish in both the slums of Caracas as well as in the high-class district Altamira. This model requires much grassroots activity from the citizens; although currently participation is surprisingly strong, sceptics warn that the same ardour could be seen in the first days of the Iranian, Cuban or Spanish Revolutions, only to have it later disappear. In contrast, Prout focuses more on making representational democracy more accountable, while the participation of the people in decision making, anticipating the ebbs and flows of enthusiasm, would happen primarily according to their economic interests through cooperatives and determining their community's economic future. The seeds of this transformation have also appeared in Venezuela. Workers encouraged by Chávez occupied approximately 1,200 factories and other businesses after the owners decided to close them. In the days of the general strike in 2002, workers locked out by their bosses in many places broke into their very workplace and were able to run it without the management. In certain state-owned enterprises, worker co-management also appeared, such as in the Alcasa aluminium company, where the workers are able to freely elect their own managers and can participate in the decision making. However these cases are still exceptions even in the state-owned sector, and more like experiments that generate great expectations, rather than part of a broad realignment. Perspectives What's taking place in Venezuela, in spite of the term 'revolution' used by the Chavistas, is a slow rearrangement of resources and the opening of new spaces for economic and political participation. At the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution, 42.8% of the households lived under the poverty line. By the second half of 2005 this rate decreased to 37.9%. This numbers were calculated by Venezuela's National Statistics Institute on cash incomes, therefore don't show the effect of the 'missions' which increased the general quality of life of the poor. But of all this the achievements the Venezuelan society is still marked by the presence of wide-spread poverty and shocking inequality. In spite of the cooperative boom, only 6% of the Venezuelan labour force works in cooperatives. Moreover some of the new cooperatives are not active, and some were established just to get the government's bank loan - their economic viability is still to be proven. This, and the shortage of cooperative experience in the country, indicates that cooperatives are still far from taking over the Venezuelan economy. Instead of watching the creation of a 'Socialism of the 21st Century' or the economic democracy of Prout, what we are seeing so far is more like an experimental laboratory of an alternative economic system. Furthermore the capitalist structures haven't been touched in Venezuela. Chávez, contrary to his Cuban friend Fidel Castro, has not taken anything away from the bourgeois, and Venezuela is still a capitalist country - although not neoliberal. Walking on the streets of Caracas you see the continuous presence of the same multinational corporations, the same US fast food restaurants, the same shopping malls like elsewhere. The country's economy is still run by private capital. While Prout thinks in terms of self-sufficient regions, Venezuela strives to reduce its economic dependency and make itself self-sufficient. On the whole Venezuela started the transformation from a very bad situation from the viewpoint of Prout: enormous inequality, dependence on the oil prices and on food imports, the concentration of 88% of the population in cities, lack of education, etc. From this state Venezuela slowly advances to an undefined goal, but the steps which have already been taken are surprisingly in harmony with an Indian thinker's vision made half century ago, a vision called Prout. Andy Malinalco is an activist with the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela <http://www.ve.prout.org>www.ve.prout.org Notes: 1 Michael A. Lebowitz: Venezuela: Going Beyond Survival, Making the Social Economy a Real Alternative. <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com>www.venezuelanalysis.com 19 August 2006. 2 Though the company had been nationalized in 1976, it had in reality been a state-within-a-state. After the coup failed, the directors and managers announced a strike until Chávez resigned, locking out the workers and effectively shutting down production to create panic and chaos as gasoline became unavailable throughout the country. Chávez then invited Ari Rodriguez, then head of OPEC, to take over the company. He talked to the workers and asked if they could run the company without the former bosses. When they assured him they could, he fired the striking directors, greatly reducing the hugely bloated managerial salaries, and within three months production was back to normal. 3 Dada Maheshvarananda: After Capitalism. Washington, Copenhagen, New Delhi, Belo Horizonte, Proutist Universal Publications, 2003. pp.69-70. 4 Hugo Chávez Frías: El Golpe Fascista Contra Venezuela. Ediciones Plaza, La Habana, 2003, p.16. 5 Dada Maheshvarananda: After Capitalism, pp.88-89. Web Pages: <http://www.ve.prout.org>www.ve.prout.org <http://www.prout.org>www.prout.org <http://www.proutworld.org>www.proutworld.org -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org Community Democracy Framework: http://cyberjournal.org/DemocracyFramework.html subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/
