According to radical Latin American journalist MARTA HARNECKER, "the process of Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution" is little understood by much of the left. One of Harnecker's latest books is Hugo Chavez: One Man, One People, an interview with the radical pro-poor president of Venezuela. Green Left Weekly's FEDERICO FUENTES spoke to Harnecker at the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 23-28.
Harnecker was born in Chile. She fled to Cuba in 1974, a year after the bloody US-backed coup overthrew left-wing president Salvador Allende and installed the vicious dictator General Augusto Pinochet.
"If the classic idea of revolution is used, it is difficult to understand the process in Venezuela, because there has not been a rupture [with the capitalist system], the means of production have not been put under state control and the oligarchy has not been suppressed", Harnecker began.
However, she believes that a revolutionary process is under way in Venezuela. It is the "most important struggle against neoliberalism, not only in Latin America, but in the world", Harnecker told GLW. To understand what is happening, Harnecker said, it is necessary to look at the direction in which this process is moving and determine if it is coherent, rather than demand that it be able to solve all the problems immediately, which is "impossible".
"This is a government that emerged with an anti-neoliberal project, a government that, though taking the institutional road, has achieved broad support, winning elections with large majorities. Chavez initiated a constituent assembly in order to change the rules of the game and succeeded in enshrining a new constitution, as well as changing the balance of forces in Venezuela's National Assembly. Therefore, the Chavez government begins as a very important institutional force, has popular support and, more importantly, an army which in its majority is with him".
Harnecker pointed to the developing radical political consciousness among the Venezuelan people: "The best measure of whether it is a revolutionary process is to observe what occurs within the population of the country. There is not only a radicalisation of the lower classes, but also of the capitalist opposition. Between them, the middle class vacillates."
Harnecker explained that in December 2001, Chavez made it clear that his government would implement laws to hit the interests of Venezuela's capitalist oligarchy. The elite's reaction was "enormous because until that time it seems they believed that Chavez would be coopted like the previous politicians".
"When they realised he was going to make good his promises to the poor and landless peasants and the urban poor and workers, when Chavez declared that, unlike in other countries, the constitution will not just be words on a page but will be implemented, the oligarchy began to organise itself", Harnecker explained.
The elite, lacking a credible political party to represent it, turned to the business federation Fedecamaras, the Confederation of Venezuelans Workers — which for decades has been manipulated by the elite's political parties "and does not really represent the workers" — and above all the private media owners, "who are really the ones that organise the opposition".
"The oligarchy is a small minority but it has immense influence through the private media. The middle classes believe the propaganda of these TV stations and newspapers. This explains why there is a movement 'from below' — a minority but it is from below — against Chavez. In Caracas, the capital, there have been [anti-Chavez] mobilisations of 100,000 to 200,000 people in the streets", Harnecker pointed out. "I am Chilean and we lived through a similar campaign of disinformation by the private media. What we see today in Venezuela is much bigger than that."
Supported by Washington, the oligarchy launched a coup last April, which failed within days after millions of Venezuelans took to the streets to defend their president. In December, the right-wing opposition launched a economic shutdown to force Chavez to resign; it collapsed in early February.
Harnecker explained that these political confrontations have radicalised the Chavez government's supporters: "This process has produced a change in the political consciousness of the popular sectors. The masses were accustomed to asking the state for solutions to their problems; now they are organising, almost spontaneously, to defend Chavez and the laws and constitution his government is implementing. Each person who has mobilised in these events feels themselves to be a participant in solving their problems."
Some on the Latin American left have criticised the Chavez government for not moving fast enough to implement reforms and, in particular, not taking action against the opposition. Harnecker told GLW that the pace at which Chavez's "Bolivarian revolution" is unfolding has to be understood in relation to the negative global balance of forces the Chavez government finds itself.
"Chavez is doing what [Brazil's President Luis Inacio 'Lula' da Silva] said during his speech at the World Social Forum. He realises he is running a marathon and he can not rush. Those who waste all their energy in the first minutes of the marathon, don't get to the end. Chavez is trying to get to the end, going slowly but surely", Harnecker said.
"Chavez has a revolutionary project but has to continue accumulating forces, both on the international and domestic fronts. If after [the failure of the April coup], he had taken the measures he is now — such as intervening in the metropolitan police force, replacing anti-government managers in the state oil company and taking action against the private media owners — it would have not been understood around the world as being justified, and he would have been accused of being a dictator. Nowadays, no-one doubts that to defend democracy. Chavez has to take harsh measures."
Harnecker noted that popular participation is key to what is happening in Venezuela. "The president constantly calls on the people to organise themselves in the 'Bolivarian circles' and other organisations, and to join together to defend Venezuela's constitution, which is perhaps the most democratic in the world", she pointed out.
This popular participation in response to the big business-dominated opposition's sabotage "has permitted Chavez to plant the idea that it should be the workers, teachers, parents and students who take over the schools and oil companies because they are defending their constitutional right to education and work. If the anti-government forces do not respect those rights, then they should be made to respect them."
Harnecker concluded: "I think there is a popular movement in Venezuela that is becoming more politically conscious and more revolutionary all the time. I don't believe that an alternative society, a society led by the people, can be achieved by a passive population. There has not yet been massive economic reforms in Venezuela, but a popular movement is being constructed that will be fundamental if that transformation is to take place."
From Green Left Weekly, February 19, 2003.
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