Froilán Barrios’ 2021 book Industria petrolera y cooperativas en el socialismo del siglo XXI en Venezuela is a methodical analysis of the state-led rise of worker cooperatives in the Venezuelan petroleum industry. Barrios mentions larger problems: that 70% of the 300,000 Chavez-era worker cooperatives were phantom entities that never operated, and that many that did launch were fraudulent pseudo-cooperatives. But his real focus is on evaluating whether the experiences of actual worker co-ops in the petroleum sector – including divers, taxi drivers, and others that contracted with the state oil company PDVSA – were positive.
While outcomes varied, generally he shows that the “twentieth century socialism” label obscured familiar neoliberal trends. The preferential contracts offered to cooperatives functioned as a form of outsourcing that evaded labor laws, reduced union protections, reduced pay, reduced safety training, and blocked access to social security. “…los resultados significaron una oportunidad perdida para el cooperativismo en nuestro país, ya que derivó en flexibilización y precarización laboral en lugar de trabajo digno.”
Find the book on Amazon
Read a version as Barrios’ doctoral thesis on Academia
