Chavez Restyles Venezuela With '21st-Century Socialism'

"I'm not afraid of socialism and never have been," said Rivas Silvino, who works in a diaper factory run by workers and managers under a state co-management plan. "The world is afraid. I say, don't be afraid."

From an article by Juan Forero:

CARACAS, Venezuela - Firmly in power and his revolution now in overdrive, President Hugo Chavez is moving fast to transform Venezuela's economy by bucking free-market planning with what he calls 21st-century socialism: founding state companies, seizing abandoned private factories and establishing thousands of cooperatives and worker-run businesses.

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Many of the president's grandest plans are put into practice at the year-old Ministry for the Popular Economy. Planners there have already created 6,840 cooperatives that employ 210,000 people nationwide, many producing for the state.

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The new measures - which include the seizure of factories, mines and fields the government says are unproductive - are playing well domestically. Mr. Chavez has an approval rating topping 70 percent.

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After 200 years of exploitation under colonialism and capitalism, Venezuela is moving in a new direction. Bravo to Chavez and the Bolivarans for striking out in a new direction and leading the way towards global emancipation.