President Nicolás Maduro led with the Venezuelan Proletariat the massive march for International Worker's Day, May 1st, in Caracas, Venezuela, the country's capital.

(Photo: Zara De Luque)

The government of President Nicolás Maduro has been consolidating a robust and independent economic system that — despite the illegal coercive measures of the decadent North American hegemony — has allowed for the gradual recovery of income to the Bolivarian Republic, today reflected in social investment.

In the framework of Workers' Day, the Venezuelan Head of State announced in a televised event the increase of the integral minimum income to 130 USD per month indexed, which has implied an 86% increase in the indicator between January and May if the previous announcement of adjustment from 70 to 100 dollars made in January is considered. Taking into account the socialist communal reality built in Venezuela, we foresee socialism meaning a daily collective income in public education, food, medicine, health, housing, safety, transportation, culture, and the greater proletarian project.

This increase in income is part of a comprehensive recovery strategy that has been applied since last year and has managed to reverse the negative impact on workers, who saw their wages degrade by up to $4 during the worst moments of the sanctions in 2020 as a result of the fall in oil production revenues. In response to this situation, the government continued to invest in social assistance through the CLAP (Local Production & Distribution Committees) — which reached 97% Venezuelan Endogenous Production.

"A year ago I told them that I was going to apply a formula called indexation and I indexed the minimum income at $30 to optimize how little income comes in. It went well," President Nicolás Maduro noted.

With a view to involving all sectors in the efforts promoted by the government to improve the salary conditions of workers, a bill was announced that establishes a monthly contribution from employers, calculated according to their net income, with the aim of strengthening the salary of pensioners. This proposal is contemplated in a special bill that will be presented to the National Assembly by the Executive Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez. The initiative is part of tax and social justice, and has the support of the business sectors, which previously discussed this intention with the national government.

Other announcements made by President Nicolás Maduro during the event were:

• Through the Great Venezuela Mujer Mission, 50,000 new loans will be delivered for enterprises that generate thousands of jobs.

• Another 40,000 credits are authorized to be given to young people through the Great Venezuela Joven Mission to promote their enterprises.

• President Maduro reformed the Law on the Housing and Habitat Benefit Regime for the working class. This reform was requested by unions and workers' bases and brings with it new rights that guarantee more direct access to the worker for the allocation and financing of housing.

• The goal of building and allocating an additional 2 million homes for the working class was announced, bringing the total to 7,000,000 homes. As part of this mission, the 4,900,000th home has already been delivered.

Outstanding Achievements & Great Economic Recovery

The Head of State took stock of the measures implemented to resume economic and social stability in the country, in which he highlighted three fundamental aspects: the implementation of a new exchange rate system model to protect the national currency against the dollar, the growth of oil production, and the increase in revenue from tax collection.

Thanks to the first aspect, a slowdown in inflation has been achieved, with an index below 30% between January and May, the lowest in fourteen years, and with an annual projection of 60%. On the other hand, the growth of oil production has been key in the recovery of national income, with an increase in crude oil exports in March to almost 900,000 barrels per day, and an expectation of reaching 1.2 million barrels per day.

President Maduro reported that 20 collaboration agreements have been finalized with new international investors that will venture into oil and gas production in Venezuela during the month of April.

In relation to the third element, in the first quarter of 2024, the collection of national taxes has experienced an increase of 78%, exceeding 3.1 billion US dollars. This achievement puts Venezuela on track to meet the goal of doubling the collection established by the government.

What impact do these achievements, such as the strengthening of the Bolivar, the slowdown in inflation, and the growth of the real economy, have beyond the oil sector? In addition to progressively improving the comprehensive minimum income, the government has channeled these achievements towards strengthening other aspects, promoting stimulus policies to guarantee the supply of the domestic market, which has allowed domestic food production to reach 97%.

97% of the food distributed by the CLAP is being produced in Venezuela. The number of beneficiaries of this program has reached 7,600,0000 families.

"In the midst of this battle, we are guaranteeing national production, the recovery of eco-socialist agribusiness, industry (...) the recovery of national trade and financial and credit activity," exclaimed the Bolivarian head of state.

Defying The Lockdown While Rebuilding the Welfare State

Seven years ago, during a commemorative event on May 1, 2017, President Maduro convened a National Constituent Assembly (ANC) to defuse the growing violent actions in the country that sought regime change by force. The government appealed to constitutional mechanisms to restore order, security, and internal peace. Months later, the ANC was voted for and approved, which defeated those destabilization plans.

The Head of State recalled those events — guarimbas — in which fascist sectors of the opposition participated that currently pretend to want to repeat to sabotage the institutional process but continue to use alternative strategies — conspiracies and calls for imperial occupation and illegal coercive measures — to attack the country and seize power by force.

In this sense, the nation is currently fighting two battles, as Maduro has pointed out. One of them is against the US blockade and against the Venezuelan oligarchy that supports this strategy. This sector — led by fascist crooks such as María Corina Machado, Leopoldo López, Capriles Radonski, Julio Borges, etc. — has been the main promoter of “sanctions” against Venezuela, and openly supports the colonialist model that Washington intends to impose to subordinate the production and import of Venezuelan oil to the issuance of US licenses.

On April 18, new measures were announced aimed at harming the Venezuelan state-owned company PDVSA. According to President Maduro, that announcement alone caused partial losses exceeding $2 billion. "These sanctions were aimed at preventing Venezuela from making progress in recovering workers' incomes," he said.

Therefore, the second battle facing the country is the recovery of the social welfare state, in order to gradually consolidate a diversified economic model that guarantees its socialist growth 📈💹 regardless of external attacks that try to divert its path. The results, as we have analyzed at the beginning of this text, are already visible and can be measured in terms of success and effectiveness.

📈💪🏽⚒️🏭🏥🧮📚💴⛴️⚖️🇻🇪🌎🌍🌏🚩⭐ Viviremos y Venceremos!