Now Venezuela is running out of toilet paper

[Catherina]

28. Same old script, from Allende to Aristide

Venezuela has a monthly consumption of 125 million rolls but now suddenly registers a mysterious "demand", out of nowhere, for an additional 40 million after the opposition media starts hyping a toilet paper shortage and everyone rushes out to "stock up" like the person in the picture in the Guardian article, and I'm sure that person wasn't the worst. Imagine what people with SUVs were carting off. It's reminiscent of the artificial bottled water and other shortages in Silicon Valley for the hyped up Y2K panic.

Like you said, the campaign continues.

This was written in response to President Nixon's “feeling” that the socialist government of President Salvador Allende in Chile “won’t last long.”

Inside Chile
March 9, 1972
Nina Serrano, Haskell Wexler, Paul Jacobs, Saul Landau, and Elizabeth Farnsworth


In fact, Chile’s food shortages and economic difficulties have been exploited by President Allende’s opposition and misunderstood by the US press. In its first year of power, the Allende government has stimulated economic growth and begun to redistribute income through higher wages for workers, which in turn created a significant rise in the demand for consumer goods (including food) and services.

Moreover, Allende inherited Chile’s food shortages, caused by an inefficient and unequitable agricultural system. Shortages of such items as meat, milk, and coffee became marked during the Christian Democratic Administration of Eduardo Frei (1964-70). By early 1970, months before Allende’s victory, Chilean markets sold meat only a few days of each month, and the milk supply was sporadic. After Allende’s inauguration (November, 1970), new obstacles were thrown in the way of food production: 1) indiscriminate slaughtering of herds and refusal to plant by landowners whose properties faced expropriation; 2) the earthquake and resulting dam age in July, 1971; and 3) the heavy snows, which killed crops and poultry.

The upper class (which these 5,000 women represented) never experienced hunger pangs, as Chile’s poor have for decades. Only when meat became difficult to obtain under Allende did these privileged women march in the streets with empty pots which had previously been used only by their servants.

...

The recent disruptions demonstrate the right’s determination to overthrow Allende’s government and stop programs designed for the welfare of the Chilean poor. Herbert Klein’s statement may express US policy rather than his “feeling.” As individuals who believe the US government should keep its hands off Chile’s internal political affairs, we are alarmed and angered by Klein’s statement, and we reaffirm our support for the Popular Unity government as it struggles to meet the needs of the Chilean people.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1972/mar/09/inside-chile/?pagination=false