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The Michigan Socialist | News |
World News
After the August 15
referendum...
Next steps in the Bolivarian Revolution
By MARTIN SCHREADER
Editor, the Michigan Socialist
 |
| ¡No
volveran!: Hundreds of thousands of supporters of the
Bolivarian Revolution and President Hugo Chávez after the
failure of the August 15 recall referendum. |
THEY STOOD IN line for hours in the hot mid-summer
sun.
They came from the barrios, small villages and
industrial centers.
They were the “forgotten” — landless peasants, the
unemployed, poor workers.
They were patient. They were disciplined. And they
came together to raise one slogan: “¡Chávez no se va!”
On August 15, millions of Venezuelans turned out
to vote on whether to recall the country’s president, Hugo Chávez.
Over 94 percent of the country’s eligible voters
went to the polls in what was the first recall vote against a
national head of state in world history.
Chávez, twice elected president with large
majorities, has for the last five years been the scourge of the
imperialist Great Power states in Europe and North America, and
their business agents in Venezuela.
His Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR) has been
at the head of an ongoing democratic revolution that has
successfully fought off everything from domestic sabotage and
attempted coups to threats of outside intervention.
This democratic revolution, called the Bolivarian
Revolution (named for Simón Bolívar, the left-nationalist
revolutionary of the 18th century), has sought to take advantage of
the country’s vast natural resources to improve the position of the
country’s poor.
Since the beginning of the Revolution, and
especially since the passage of the Constitution that established
the Fifth Republic in 1999, the capitalist opposition has tried both
legal and extralegal means to stop the Bolivarians.
Two attempted coups in 2002 and a management-led
“strike” failed miserably, both collapsing within hours of starting.
Provocations including attempted assassinations
and threats of civil war have become a regular part of the political
life of the country.
It is in this context that the opposition
organized the recall referendum (ironically enough, based on a
provision they explicitly rejected when it was proposed to the
National Constituent Assembly by Chávez in 1999).
People started lining up to vote at 4 a.m., in
order to avoid delays. However, because so many people came out to
vote, and because many voting machines in poor, working class areas
had been sabotaged, the time was extended for another seven hours.
International observers from the Carter Center and
Organization of American States, both there at the request of the
opposition (and their benefactor, the White House), declared the
result legitimate and “unprecedented.”
Nevertheless, the opposition automatically
rejected the results of the referendum, charging “fraud” without
presenting evidence. Meanwhile, more provocations took place in the
waning hours of the vote, meant to cast a shadow over the outcome.
After the preliminary results were announced,
hundreds of thousands of supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution
rallied in front of the presidential palace, Miraflores.
Chávez spoke to supporters and made a symbolic
gesture to the opposition to meet; as all expected, the leaders of
the opposition declined.
 |
| Hopeful:
Millions of poor and working-class Venezuelans look to Chávez as
the embodiment of the democratic Bolivarian Revolution. His
reforms have brought hope to the barrios and workers’
neighborhoods, as well as a newly-found sense of what they can
achieve. |
THE VICTORY OF Chávez represents yet another
damaging blow to the attempts to re-establish a neocolonial state in
Venezuela.
Just as in the case of the April and December 2002
coups, the defeat of this attempt by the capitalist opposition to
overthrow the democratic revolution has severely weakened and
staggered them.
In spite of the bluster coming from the stately
homes in the wealthy Altamira district of the country’s capital,
Caracas, the opposition is weaker than it has ever been.
It is clear that the only recourse they have left
themselves is armed conflict and civil war — with or without the aid
of their American patrons.
In the meantime, the tactics of the Great Power
states, especially the United States, has begun to shift from a
posture of imminent assault to protracted siege.
The financial and political rulers in New York and
Washington know that their agents in Venezuela do not have the means
to carry out a stable “transition” (read: dictatorship) without
American help.
And, at the moment, the U.S. is too mired down in
Iraq and Afghanistan to commit to another military occupation where
they are likely to face masses of armed and organized militia, under
the leadership of significant sections of a military trained by the
Americans themselves.
Washington is urging the opposition to be patient,
continue to organize and wait for when the alignment of forces is in
their favor (which could be as soon as the Pentagon is able to
finish refitting some of those divisions coming back from Germany
and South Korea).
Thus, what exists in Venezuela today is perhaps
the best opportunity to advance the Bolivarian Revolution.
The question is: Will Chávez and the MVR take
advantage of the situation, or will they again waste an opportunity
in deference to the “diplomacy” of the Great Power states?
The answer to that question is what will determine
the course of the Bolivarian Republic ... or, more to the point, if
there even is to be a Bolivarian Republic.
Without question, the masses of the poor and
working people (with the notable exception of the labor aristocracy,
which has traditionally benefited alongside the capitalists) are
ready the advance the Revolution to its next logical phase — the
extension of the democratic revolution into the economy, and the
beginning of the social revolution.
The establishment of the Bolivarian Circles in
2000 has now led to the formation of Bolivarian Houses, which bring
together Circles in various neighborhoods to carry out political
education and community improvements.
As well, these Houses have been responsible for
the development of workers’ and people’s militias, under the name of
Comandos Maisanta, for the defense of the Revolution and
Constitution.
At many of these meetings, rousing discussions
about the course of the Revolution have often led to calls for the
administration of major industrial enterprises to be turned over to
the workers.
This cannot be overstated: the poor and working
people of Venezuela are demanding democratic workers’ control of
production, the cornerstone of democratic socialism.
How Chávez and the MVR respond is yet to be seen.
IT IS IMPORTANT to begin to talk concretely about
what can be done over the next period to both advance the Bolivarian
Revolution and neutralize the opposition (and, by extension, the
Great Power states).
Certainly, the last five years of the Revolution
has created a basic infrastructure that can be utilized to make
these advances.
The network of Bolivarian Circles and Houses, and
the Comandos Maisanta, compose what can only be described as
a proto-state, which could quite easily and peacefully take over the
functioning of the Republic (that is, if the opposition is willing
to let go of their privileges and power — unlikely!).
All that would appear to be necessary is for the
Bolivarian Circles and Houses in various districts to begin to come
together as “Bolivarian Councils” or “Bolivarian Assemblies,” in
order to take on the basic functioning of municipal administration.
Large sections of the military and national guard
are already on the side of the Bolivarians, and can be counted on to
come to the aid of the Bolivarians if any armed conflicts were to
break out between them and the police forces, many of which are
loyal to the opposition.
The chief question, and key to the Revolution,
however, is economic. That is, what measures are necessary to
advance the Revolution in the economic arena?
Nearly everything that can be done strictly in the
political arena has been done.
Working people in Venezuela are acting as a class
for themselves, fighting in their own interests, which at the moment
coincide with those of the MVR and broader Bolivarian movement.
For the next political steps to be taken, however,
it is necessary to begin to take steps in the economic arena.
First and foremost, it is clear that, for those
industries owned by the government (e.g., PDVSA, the oil industry),
democratic workers’ control of production is essential.
For too long, these industries have been like
capitalist ventures, for the benefit of wealthy managers and
capitalists.
Even Chávez’s hand-picked managers of the oil
industry operate like capitalists. For the Bolivarian Revolution to
advance, workers’ control of state-owned industry must be an
immediate demand.
Another key element necessary for the advance of
the Revolution would be breaking the grip of debt slavery.
Like many “Third World” countries, Venezuela is
saddled with a massive foreign debt managed by the International
Monetary Fund, runaway inflation and a currency limping from
devaluation.
Austerity and “debt restructuring” programs are
little more than attacks on the poor. Ending the debt slavery of
Venezuela means a wholesale, across-the-board repudiation of IMF
programs and the foreign debt.
But foreign debt repudiation is only a small
subset of a larger program necessary to break the financial power of
the Great Power states over Venezuela.
The most important part of this overall plan would
be placing all banking institutions in state hands, and the central
coordination of the banking system.
By “statifying” the banks, the ability of the
capitalists (and the Great Powers) to move their capital out of the
country will be spiked, and those capitalists who do flee will know
they have generously contributed their fortunes to the people of the
Bolivarian Republic.
These basic measures are essential for the
continuance and advance of the Bolivarian Revolution. Without them,
the Revolution will inevitably stagnate and collapse.
 |
| Power:
Workers at the state-run oil company, PDVSA, are the key to the
success — and the advance — of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Democratic workers’ control of production at PDVSA would be the
cornerstone of a Bolivarian workers’ republic. |
IN A PREVIOUS article on the subject (“Revolution
or counterrevolution?”, Michigan Socialist, Vol. 2, No.
4, July-August 2004), this author raised the tactic of calling on
Chávez to convene a National Constituent Assembly to codify the
revolutionary changes advocated in that article — to “bang the
gavel” on capitalism, so to speak.
As expected, raising this tactic, based on an
understanding of the level of respect Venezuelans have for the
Bolivarian Constitution (which they consider their own), resulted in
a number of concerns being raised among comrades.
It was thought that calling on Chávez to convene
the Assembly was somehow “tailing” the Bolivarian leadership, even
though many of these same comrades seem to have no problem raising
similarly phrased demands for the U.S. government (i.e., the Bush
regime) to invest “money for jobs, not war.”
Some other comrades were concerned about the very
idea of calling for a Constituent Assembly, preferring instead that
something akin to a “workers’ parliament” be organized for the
purposes of shepherding the transition.
These comrades are certainly right to point out
the inherent limitations of the classical model of a Constituent
Assembly. But no one ever said it had to be a “classical” Assembly.
The Bolivarian Constitution has several provisions
for calling a Constituent Assembly (Articles 347-350), including the
right of 15 percent of the population to demand one (Article 348).
Based on a review of the Constitution, it appears
that the specific organization of such an Assembly — i.e., how
delegates are elected and seated, etc. — is to be left up to those
making the call, since no procedure is written into the document
itself.
Certainly, it should go without saying that
Socialists would want a Constituent Assembly to be organized on the
basis of workplace and neighborhood assemblies, with delegates
elected by and accountable to them.
Would Chávez call such an Assembly? That remains
to be seen. One thing is for certain, though; he would not do it on
his own.
A likely scenario may be that Chávez, if
confronted by the call for this kind of Assembly, would counterpose
the “classical” model — both as a “compromise” to the opposition and
as a way to retain the support of the middle and rearguard elements
of the working class.
Under such a situation, it would be right for
Socialists to help rally the poor and working people of Venezuela to
organize under Article 348 and call their own Constituent Assembly,
organized as they see fit, for the purposes of deciding the next
steps of the Bolivarian Revolution.
The Revolution comes first. And if Chávez wishes
to stand in the way of the Revolution he started, then he is well
aware of what he is facing and will be expected to not be shocked at
what happens next.
IN THE AFTERMATH of the defeat of the
counterrevolutionary opposition, it is now clear to all that the
Bolivarian Revolution stands at the crossroads. It must move forward
or stagnate and perish.
The opportunity presented by the democratic
victory must not be wasted.
There are few who would deny that, given half a
chance, the opposition would drown the Bolivarian Revolution in
blood.
That kind of brutal alternative should be enough
to give even the most wavering elements sufficient cause to consider
more decisive action.
It is time that Venezuelans begin to assimilate
the lessons of the last five years and decide which direction they
wish their country to go.
As Socialists, we believe that it is not possible
to make half a revolution. It must either advance until final
victory, or face the revival of all the “old crap” of reaction and
counterrevolution.
If democracy really means “majority rule” and
“participatory democracy” means direct majority rule, then in order
for the Bolivarian Republic to live up to its stated goals, the old
forms of capitalist rule (and capitalist “democracy”) must give way
to real majority rule and control.
Concretely, that means that the Bolivarian
Republic would need to become a democratic workers’ republic, with
elected assemblies based on the Bolivarian Houses and Circles — in
workplaces and neighborhoods — administering all aspects of society.
August 15 was the third great defeat of
counterrevolution and a victory for all working people.
But, for that day to mean more than it already
does to the working people of Venezuela and the world, it must also
be the day that the Revolution began to take its next great steps. |
