NATIONAL LIBERATION, INTERNAL STRIFE AND INTERNATIONAL MACHINERY Essay

NATIONAL LIBERATION, INTERNAL STRIFE AND INTERNATIONAL MACHINERY - Essay Example The oil industry went ahead to create an industrial proletariat, but the numbers remained quite low in the capital-intensive industry. When oil workers made demands on their flushed proprietor, they did not earn any redress. The foreign management recycled prejudices that did not respond to the workers aspirations. W. T. Wallace, who was the vice president of Venezuela Gulf at that time, felt that taking care of these workers did not matter much, and there was no need for listening to their demands. In the 1950s, the country’s oil production doubled. Between 1948 and 1957, the oil industry managed to earn the government $7 billion in terms of revenues (Prashad 177). This amount was the highest compared to the previous public revenues ever since the country became colonized by Spain. This money gained from revenues and the enormous capital from foreign investment flooded the country. It was used in the construction boom at the Caracas city. Freeways circled the valley, enclosing European-style apartment buildings and enormous shopping arcades which included the world’s most profitable branch of Roebuck and Sears (Prashad 178). Between 1952 to1958, Venezuela’s dictator Marcos Perez used the revenues gained from the oil industry for reconstructing urban Venezuela. The rich created a paradise Caracas valley while an enormous migration began to settle on the hillsides. These were not oil workers, which in most cases lived in company housing near the oil field to the west of the country. The migrants came in response to the great social upheaval in Venezuela, caused in large part by the rapid economic growth which resulted from the steady growth in oil profits. The country experienced an enormous increase in its gross national product that hit 95 percent, and this was a great boost for the construction trade and the service industry for the wealthy (Prashad 178). From 1950 to 1965, the country experienced an