References Chapter 12¶
Core Argument¶
The chapter’s references serve as a polemical apparatus, grounding a Marxist critique of the “Socialism of the 21st Century” project in Venezuela and its theoretical architects, particularly Heinz Dieterich. The core argument, drawn from the 2007 Theses of the XIII Congress of the Communist Party of Venezuela [1], is that the conditions for constructing socialism in Venezuela have been created—a claim Dieterich echoes in his assertion that such conditions exist [2]. However, the chapter weaponises Dieterich’s own words against him. In an interview with Junge Welt, Dieterich states that the revolutionary process in Venezuela is “not a socialist revolution” and that “the state is not a workers’ state” [3, 4]. He further concedes that the revolution is “not anti-capitalist” [5]. The chapter seizes on these admissions to expose the theoretical bankruptcy of the “Socialism of the 21st Century” model, which it treats as a reformist substitute for genuine socialist revolution.
The historical and theoretical context is drawn directly from Lenin and Trotsky. Lenin’s On Slogans (1917) is cited to argue that the character of a state is determined by which class holds power, not by rhetorical declarations [10]. The chapter invokes Lenin’s insistence that the question of state power is the fundamental question of any revolution. Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution is deployed to reinforce this: the preface emphasises that the most indubitable feature of a revolution is the direct intervention of the masses in historical events [6, 7]. The chapter thus counterposes the classical Marxist-Leninist conception of revolution—based on workers’ power, soviets, and the smashing of the bourgeois state—against the Venezuelan process, which it implies remains trapped within the capitalist state form.
The polemic is directed squarely at Dieterich and the Chavista leadership, including Hugo Chávez, Raúl Baduel, and Raúl Castro [8]. The chapter argues that their project, despite its anti-imperialist rhetoric, does not break with capitalism. It cites Chávez’s own speech to the “Propulsores” of the United Socialist Party [9] to demonstrate the gap between revolutionary language and actual state practice. The references to Lenin’s Collected Works (Vol. 25 and 26) and Trotsky’s History (Vol. 2) are not decorative; they are the theoretical cudgels with which the chapter beats the “Socialism of the 21st Century” into submission, insisting that without the conquest of state power by the working class, there is no socialism—only a managed capitalism with a revolutionary mask.