Abstract

Two Marxist traditions play themselves out in the internal debate in the movement headed by Hugo Chavez. The "realists" favor practical policies to increase production, while the "cultural optimists' are concerned with combating capitalist values. The discussions of wage differentials in worker-run plants and cooperatives recall the Marxist distinction between "to each according to their work" (favored by realists) and "to each according to necessity" (defended by cultural optimists). While Chavez urges cooperatives and community councils to discard the "profit motive" (cultural optimist approach), the realists emphasize effective state controls to avoid misuse of funds. The cultural optimist banner of social justice is best suited to ensure the active support of non-privileged sectors. The realists are most likely to face the hard fact that socialism does not have the whipping boy of poverty to stimulate worker productivity and thus requires alternative mechanisms. Although Trotskyists and others view the realists as defending the class interests of the privileged, a synthesis between the two positions is necessary and possible