From New York City and Colombia to Burkina Faso and Palestine, nationalists claiming to challenge U.S. imperialism are once again having their moment in the sun—just as the U.S. renews threats to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela (see editorial on page 2). U.S. imperialism, shaken by the rise of rival Russian and Chinese imperialism, is lashing out like a wounded animal. And yet everything these nationalists present as “new” for the working class is just the same old capitalism dressed up in modern clothes. In the 21st century, no one sold that package with more charisma than Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chávez.

Today’s Latin American “Pink Tide” invokes the imagery of the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the 1970 election of Salvador Allende in Chile. But beneath their red banners, most of these projects have been rooted in the same 19th-century bourgeois liberal romanticism of José Martí and Simón Bolívar—and in the tradition of populist, developmentalist rulers like Juan Perón in Argentina and Rómulo Betancourt in Venezuela. All insisted they were on the side of the poor; all defended national forms of capitalism. None represented workers’ power.

After the communist-led defeat of fascism in World War II, the world’s colonial empires began to crumble. Millions of workers across Africa and Asia—often inspired by the Soviet Union and revolutionary China—rose up against centuries of European domination. But because the international communist movement failed to push these struggles toward genuine revolution (a process PLP analyzes in Road to Revolution III), post-colonial capitalism filled the vacuum. Wrapped in militant language, this new school of “developmentalism” disguised itself as socialism while keeping capitalist property relations intact.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s India became the model. Under the banner of “socialism,” Nehru promoted Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI), using high tariffs and state planning to strengthen domestic capitalism and reduce dependency on imported goods. Limited welfare reforms lifted living conditions for millions who had suffered under British rule. But capitalism with welfare is still capitalism. That is why national liberation leaders across Africa, Asia, and Latin America—from the Non-Aligned Movement to later Pink Tide governments—won support from domestic capitalists and, eventually, became pawns in imperialist rivalries. In every case, without an international communist movement leading the working class, these projects were misled, co-opted, or crushed.

21st Century Socialism: Big Promises, Big Betrayal

For generations, Venezuela’s land and wealth were concentrated in the hands of families rooted in the old post-independence oligarchy. With some of the world’s largest oil reserves and rich agricultural potential, Venezuela was always a battleground between factions tied to U.S. interests and those seeking a more independent national path. By the 1980s, IMF-backed austerity set the country on fire.
Then came 1989: the Caracazo. A spontaneous uprising against fare hikes and budget cuts was met with police and military massacres that killed hundreds—possibly thousands—of workers. The Caracazo shattered the legitimacy of pro-U.S. political parties and became the gravitational center of all modern Venezuelan politics.

In 1992, a failed military coup led by Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez and fellow officers captured the imagination of millions. After prison, Chávez won the presidency in 1998, promising a “Bolivarian Revolution” funded by oil wealth and supported by alliances with Russia, China, and others. Ultimately, Chávez’s legacy was built on the illusion that a “multipolar world” could let Venezuela’s “21st Century Socialism” survive by maneuvering rival imperialisms against each other.

Mass mobilizations defeated the U.S.-backed coup attempt in 2002, and the simultaneous rise of allies in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil accelerated the Pink Tide. Millions gained access to subsidized food, healthcare, electrification, and clean water. Internationally, Chávez’s fiery anti-imperialist speeches electrified youth disgusted by the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. For many, Venezuela looked like a genuine alternative.
But—as everywhere else—the content of this “socialism” left capitalism intact. Venezuela remained dependent on oil exports. When global prices crashed in the 2010s, the government could no longer finance its reforms. After Chávez’s death, Maduro inherited a collapsing economy, deepening shortages, and intensifying U.S. sanctions. His efforts to salvage the Bolivarian project have withered, leaving Venezuelan workers exposed once again to imperialist competition—with the threat of war growing by the day.

Progressive Labor Party’s task is to expose the false promises of nationalists and liberal reformers—from NYC’s Mamdani to Maduro to Colombia’s Petro—and fight for the only force capable of ending imperialism once and for all: communism.