Meet the Food Radicals by F. Bailey Norwood

Author:F. Bailey Norwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Welcome to Venezuela

Like Oakland, California and Chiapas, Mexico, Venezuela also has persons who feel abandoned by capitalism. Instead of being the minority, they are the majority. They too sought a different food system, but because they had a powerful ally in the person of Hugo Chávez, they sought to transform not just a neighborhood, but the whole country.

Venezuela shrugged off its dictatorship and established a democracy in 1958. By then it was exporting large amounts of oil, importing much of its food, and borrowing money from other countries. When oil prices plummeted in the 1980s, the nation earned less money from oil exports but still had debts to repay. To avoid bankruptcy, it sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The bailout wouldn’t be free, though. In return for the money, Venezuela would have to undergo a number of “structural adjustments.” These included wage cuts to its employees, reduced spending on public programs, selling some of its natural resources, privatization of services formerly provided by government, and other actions that forced many Venezuelans into further poverty.

These “structural adjustments” are common concessions countries accept for bailouts. They are changes the IMF deems necessary for loan payback. The expansion of the private sector and retreat of social programs is referred to as “capitalism” by many, and “neoliberalism” by most of its critics. As the United States, United Kingdom, and other developed nations who controlled the IMF embraced neoliberalism during the 1980s, they thought nations like Venezuela should also adopt it if they wanted to pay back their loans. If Venezuela did not adopt neoliberalism voluntarily, the bailout would be denied until it did adopt it. Sure, Venezuela would resent the coercion, but Venezuelans would thank the developed nations, it was thought, once they experienced the bounty that neoliberalism had to offer.45

To Venezuelans, this forced neoliberalism seemed like a new form of colonization. Developed nations and their multinational corporations exerted more control over their government than their own politicians. Venezuelans saw their wages cut and their social programs end, so that money could flow to the richer countries. When the country’s resources were privatized, the new owners were foreigners.

Though they still voted, and the country was still technically a democracy, it didn’t feel like a democracy. There was no one in power to appeal to for help as the nation slid into greater poverty. If Venezuelans appealed to their elected officials to end the cuts in government funding, those officials would remark that it was the IMF that demanded the cuts. Venezuela imported most of its food, and if it wanted that flow of food to continue, it must oblige the demands of the richer countries.

Presidential candidate Carlos Andrés Pérez rode this resentment against the IMF to victory in 1989, referring to the IMF as a bomb that kills people. Yet, upon taking office, he complied with more neoliberal reforms in exchange for more IMF loans. Disappointed in Andrés Pérez and realizing they were unable to retake their government through votes, the people sought to do so with action.

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