BY STUART MUNCKTON
Political tensions in Venezuela continue to rise. On October 10, there was a mass mobilisation of middle- and upper-class opponents of President Hugo Chavez in the capital Caracas. This was followed three days later by an even larger mobilisation of pro-Chavez demonstrators.
Chavez's right-wing opponents claimed one million people turned out for the October 10 demonstration, which was built by the virulently anti-Chavez private media. The protesters demanded that Chavez resign or call an early election. Chavez, the twice-elected president, ends his term in office in 2007, although the democratic constitution introduced during his presidency allows for a referendum on his rule in August 2003 (if 10% of the voting population sign a petition demanding his recall).
Big business-backed opposition forces are continuing the campaign to destabilise the government. They insist that Chavez's reforms, aimed at improving the situation for the 80% of Venezuelans who live in poverty, are part of a plan to implement "Cuban-style communism". They hold him responsible for the deteriorating economy.
The opposition, which includes the right-wing leadership of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers as well as the business federation, backed away from its earlier threat to call a general strike, re-scheduling the strike for October 21. The oil and steel workers from the state sector are not planning to take part.
The demonstration and planned general strike have been denounced by the Chavez government as being cover for the right to launch a second coup, following the one which failed in April. Days before the October 10 demonstration, security forces raided the home of the right-wing former foreign minister Enrique Tejera Paris and uncovered plans for a coup.
On October 13, an estimated two million Chavez supporters, on only two days' notice, marched through Caracas under the slogan "No to the extortion of the coup-makers". The march marked the April mass mobilisations that restored Chavez to power six months ago. While questioning the turn-out, the opposition was forced to concede that the pro-Chavez demonstration, which stretched 16 kilometres, was larger than the anti-Chavez protest.
Addressing the demonstrators, Chavez urged people to be vigilant and declared: "Each day the people should have more power, that is the true sense of this revolution."
Chavez mocked the opposition's ultimatum that he resign saying, "I've only got three days left, gosh I'm scared!" In response to the planned general strike, Chavez taunted: "I challenge the opposition to shut down the country... go on, do it!".
Multinational companies, organised in the Venezuela-American Chamber of Commerce, have given implicit backing to the right-wing opposition, taking the unusual step of allowing their workers to take part in the October 21 general strike in order to defend "democratic values and freedoms".
The pro-Chavez mobilisation followed a conference of popular organisations from across Venezuela on September 30 in Caracas, which met to discuss how to defeat moves by the right to overthrow the government. The 1500 delegates declared their support for the elected government and adopted a number of radical motions, including calls for the jailing of those involved in the April coup and sanctions against the private media for its role in supporting the attempted coup.
The conference also declared Venezuela's foreign debt "illegitimate" and called for the repayments to be spent instead on meeting the needs of the people. Chavez addressed the conference and called for the participants to work to create a "movement of movements" to give power to the people.
On October 7, Chavez made a public attack on the International Monetary Fund, declaring its policies "the road to hell". Addressing textile workers, Chavez insisted Venezuela would not implement the policies demanded by the IMF.
From Green Left Weekly, October 23, 2002.
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