but its an interesting interview... my apologies if it has already been posted.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1224“The Main Obstacle Is the Administrative Structure of the Venezuelan State”
GW: The opposition has been saying recently that the expenditures for social programs that PDVSA is supporting are not sustainable because right now there is a lot of income, but who knows what will happen a year from now, which could require cutting back all of these programs. What is your response to this, that this is unsustainable?
AR: These people are discovering lukewarm water. For countries that have such a high dependency on oil, not only for social spending, but for spending in general, are very conditioned on the fluctuations of the prices and of the oil income. This is nothing new. It does not require any genius to reach this conclusion. But as long as there are resources, it is normal that these should contribute to the extremely important problem of poverty in Venezuela. This would be more sustainable to the extent that the resources are oriented towards increasing our productive capacity and that they diversify these.
<snip>
GW: Recently there have been efforts to create “steering committees” (comités de guía) within PDVSA, which would contribute to the self-management of the company. How do you perceive such efforts, efforts of workers to participate in the management of PDVSA?
AR: The main obstacle for advancing towards the objectives that are proposed in the Bolivarian constitution of Venezuela is the administrative structure of the state. This structure is of no use for any project, neither for a revolutionary project nor for a conservative project – for many years already. I recall a book by a neo-liberal, Pedro Tinoco, who wrote about “the efficient state.” Twenty years ago he criticized the structure of the state. There are embryonic structures that are emerging, of a new institutionality. What is the CTV<2> today, if not an empty drum? There is a search for new forms of organization, for a new institutionality and within this are also the oil workers.
The steering committees for a part of this search. Here in the board of directors there are two workers, among the eleven members. In some areas of the country there have been some first experiences of co-management, but these are still very new experiences, embryonic. They still are not fixed into an institutional form. Within these are the steering committees that have emerged as a new experience.
and of course a lot lot more in the full article...