Postscript Venezuela: Heinz Dieterich the Prophet of Doom – Or how not to save the Bolivarian Revolution¶
Core Argument¶
In this postscript, Alan Woods delivers a polemical demolition of Heinz Dieterich, the German-Mexican academic associated with the concept of “Socialism of the 21st Century”. The core argument is that Dieterich, far from being a genuine revolutionary, has become a prophet of doom whose writings objectively serve the counterrevolutionary opposition and US imperialism. Woods frames Dieterich as a charlatan whose predictions of the Bolivarian government’s imminent collapse have been repeatedly falsified, citing his October 2013 forecast that Maduro would not survive beyond March-April 2014, and his March 2014 claim that Maduro would be replaced by a governing junta within eight weeks. Woods also recalls Dieterich’s earlier prediction of a coup in Bolivia on 11 October 2006, which never materialised. The chapter draws on the historical context of the Bolivarian Revolution under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, and the ongoing economic war waged by the Venezuelan bourgeoisie and Washington.
The key polemic is directed against Dieterich’s policy prescriptions. Woods notes that Dieterich proposes ending exchange controls and price controls, and advocates a “National Salvation Government” including Henrique Capriles, the main opposition leader. This, Woods argues, is indistinguishable from the programme of the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie. Dieterich’s hostility to the most radical elements of the Bolivarian movement—workers’ control, the Communes, and the Socialist Plan Guyana—is presented as evidence of his anti-socialist essence. Woods contrasts Dieterich’s call for a “centre-left” party modelled on Syriza and Podemos with his simultaneous advocacy of “painful economic measures”, pointing out the contradiction.
Woods argues that the solution to Venezuela’s crisis is not concessions to capital but the completion of the revolution: expropriation of the bankers, landlords, and capitalists, and the creation of a genuine socialist planned economy. He invokes Ezequiel Zamora’s dictum to “strip them down to their underpants”. The chapter concludes by insisting that the only reliable base for the revolution is the working class, and that time is running out: either the revolution destroys the economic power of the oligarchy, or the counterrevolution will destroy the revolution. The tone is combative, dismissive of Dieterich’s intellectual pretensions, and firmly rooted in a Marxist defence of revolutionary intransigence against reformist and class-collaborationist currents.