Is 21st Century Socialism Marxist?

Is 21st Century Socialism Marxist? / 14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenechea
Posted on November 6, 2015

Carlos Marx theorizes a society that surpasses capitalism, but without
putting aside its unquestionable achievements.

14ymedio, Jose Gabriel Barrenechea, Santa Clara, 30 October 2015 – What
do the socialism of Karl Marx and that of Nocolas Maduro have in common?
Just like between the two men: nothing, or very little, perhaps the
mutual membership in the human race and not much more. The difference
between them, on the other hand, is comparable to that which existed
between the dissatisfied Socrates and the satisfied pig of Platonic dialog.

In the Marxist vision, socialism will be the product of a very specific,
contained social class – industrial workers – which Marx, in a not very
happy semantic selection, called the proletariat. In turn, the
distinction is made of a lumpen-proletariat, reactionary by nature,
explicit in the clear vision of the people. He is in no way a believer
in the supposed ethical or any other type of superiority of the most
disadvantaged. In much of the analysis he left us about the events of
his era, he clearly shows us a fear of this amorphous classless mass,
not at all given to the values on which progress is based, which the
demagogues and populists have interestingly joined together under the
exotic word, "people."

Marx believes in the superiority of industrial workers derived from
their special position in the productive process of modern western
society. Their concentration into great productive units, where complex
forms of cooperation and socialization are created, from the level of
the company to the planet, and where science and technology completely
replace the natural landscape, allows them, unlike the lumpen and the
farmer, to have the ability to construct a sophisticated society capable
of overcoming the deficiencies of capitalism without, at the same time,
renouncing its achievements. Having, in short, the progressive values
necessary to arm a post-capitalist society, still based on the science
and technology that overcame capitalism.

It is this supremacy based on constructive circumstances – not on a race
or on a position in the income pyramid – that supports the industrial
worker in building the society that Marx prefers to call socialist. And
he is absolutely certain that this is something that those natural
reactionary elements, opposed to progress – the lumpen and the peasant –
could never achieve.

If we look at current Venezuelan society, we immediately notice the main
difference between this socialism and the Marxist model: the support
base of 21st century socialism is more than ever the lumpen, not the
proletariat. In fact, it in "Madurism" (support of president Nicolas
Maduro) it has gone so far that, to a large extent, its supporters are
found today in the most openly criminal, in the underworld in the hills.

We ask ourselves: Why Maduro, or this gavel-wielding caveman, who,
reluctantly from the presidency of the National Assembly, cannot manage
to reduce the incredible Venezuelan crime rates? Quite simply because
this criminal element is one of the most important bases of support for
21st century socialism.

More than a few thugs from the collectives dedicate their free time to
smuggling, robbery and even assault, which should not surprise anyone:
at the end of the day, if one inhabits the hills, one is subjected daily
to the continuous and interminable nonsense that Nicolas Maduro launches
on national television, which only ideological obsessives like Atilio
Boron or Luis Britto could classify as political speeches, and so one
couldn't help but find it fair and morally justifiable to "redistribute"
the wealth at the barrel of a gun, á la Robin Hood. Isn't the Caracazo –
the 1989 Caracas riots – one of the most memorable events of
Chavez-Maduroism? During those disturbances it wasn't just food that was
looted, but home appliances and even luxury items.

I invite anyone who can bear it to listen to hours of Manichean phrases,
barrio bluster, puerile lack of respect for the other, obvious
contradictions, the worst chants, ridiculous gestures of fidelity and
greetings to former comrades in the struggle discovered in the crowd,
and you will soon discover this terrifying truth: Maduro's rants are
nothing more than incitements to hatred. Hatred of the rich by the poor,
but also of the brilliant and creative by the mediocre, of the
intelligent individual by the deficient intellect.

Madurism is by no means an experiment leading to a post-capitalist
society. In essence, it is nothing but populism That is, today's
Venezuela is nothing more than a capitalist society in which all the
progressive classes and sectors in the country have been stripped of
power by a horde of lumpen-proletariat who are dedicated to consuming,
or rather destroying, all the wealth previously created, without
bringing anything new or making any kind of effort. Venezuela today is,
therefore, something like a new Rome occupied by barbarians.

Hopefully the resulting Middle Ages will not be very long and soon
Venezuela can rejoin the legitimate world seekers of a society that will
truly surpass capitalism, and so prevent the return to pre-capitalist
ways, a barbarism greatly feared by Marx in his later years.

Source: Is 21st Century Socialism Marxist? / 14ymedio, Jose Gabriel
Barrenechea | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/is-21st-century-socialism-marxist-14ymedio-jose-gabriel-barrenechea/