From Mao’s China to Stalin’s Russia, socialism has caused the poor immense suffering throughout history.
The case of Venezuela is no exception – but arch-Marxist Jeremy Corbyn has continuously praised the regime and its former president Hugo Chavez.
At a pro-Chavez rally in London, the Labour leader said: ‘Chavez showed us that there is a different, and a better way of doing things. It’s called socialism’.
In an article on his website, now deleted, he wrote: ‘Venezuela is seriously conquering poverty by emphatically rejecting the Neo Liberal policies of the world’s financial institutions.’
He added: ‘The threat to the USA by Venezuela is not military or economic. It is far more insidious, a threat by example of what social justice can achieve.’
As the Venezuelan socialist government crushed protesters this summer, Corbyn only condemned violence ‘on both sides’ and then said ‘we also have to recognise that there have been effective and serious attempts at reducing poverty, improving literacy and improving the lives of the poorest people’.
According to the IMF, the country’s economy shrank last year by 8 per cent, inflation hit 481 per cent, and unemployment reached 17 per cent.