Skip to main content
Does Venezuela’s crisis prove that socialism doesn’t work?
Despite significant success in wealth redistribution, continued dependency on declining oil revenues has limited Venezuela government’s economic options. JOE GILL is of the opinion that the ‘Norway model’ of a sovereign wealth fund could have provided a solution

THERE is a vast amount of crowing on social media about Venezuela’s hyperinflation crisis — not because of the genuine suffering of millions of Venezuelans but as a handy stick to beat the British left with.

Nothing pleases these quippers more than to find a quote from Diane Abbott or Len McCluskey from a few years back hailing Venezuela as an alternative to neoliberalism.

I lived in Venezuela in 1995-96, two years before Hugo Chavez took power. At the time inflation was 100 per cent and people rushed to the shops with their wages each month to beat the monthly price rises, clearing the shelves of essential goods. Venezuela is not new to economic crisis.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
People sit along the edge of an abandoned swimming pool across from a tanker terminal along the port of Matanzas, Cuba, March 30, 2026
Features / 4 April 2026
4 April 2026

CLAUDIA WEBBE says the US is tightening the noose to destroy Cuban socialism — the need for immediate, international solidarity is urgent

Shops are closed during protests in Tehran's centuries-old main bazaar, Iran, January 6, 2026
Features / 19 January 2026
19 January 2026

Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN

THE RESOLVE UNALTERED: Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, center, makes a statement flanked by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, and National Assembly President, Jorge Rodriguez, at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela on Wednesday
Features / 16 January 2026
16 January 2026

International solidarity can ensure that Trump and his machine cannot prevail without a level of political and economic cost that he will not want to pay, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE

Demonstrators protest outside of the White House in Washington, November 15, 2025
Latin America / 18 November 2025
18 November 2025

The global left must be unwavering in it is support for Venezuela as Washington increases its aggression, and clear-eyed about the West’s cynical motives for targeting it, says CLAUDIA WEBBE