BY CHRISTANO KERRILA
The radical government of President Hugo Chavez has faced many tests in its attempt to transform Venezuela. So far, the Venezuelan government has been able to rely on support from the country's poor and working people to win key battles against the corrupt capitalist elite.
This has included the adoption of a far more democratic constitution, the overturning of the US-backed military-big business coup in April 2002 and the defeat of a shutdown of the economy by big employers and the managers of the state oil industry.
Each victory has been won due to the mass organisation and mobilisation of the working class and poor. The effect has been to empower and embolden the Venezuelan revolutionary movement and radicalise the government. Simultaneously, these popular victories have demoralised the privileged classes who support the opposition and caused splits in its political leadership.
Referendum
However, the next battle is looming. This battle may take place not on the streets but in the voting booths: a referendum to recall Chavez. The right-wing opposition is attempting to gather enough signatures on a petition to constitutionally require the government to hold such a referendum. No date has been set, nor has the opposition been able to secure the signatures necessary for such a poll.
Such a poll would further polarise and radicalise Venezuelan society. A Chavez victory could cause the fragile unity of the opposition to totally disintegrate, while a defeat would bolster the opposition's fading hopes of unseating the government. A Chavez victory would prove the Bolivarian Revolution's popular and democratic nature, while a victory for the opposition would fuel claims that Chavez is an authoritarian dictator. This would give the US government justification to meddle in Venezuela's affairs.
A victory for the government would place the opposition in a similar situation as the right-wing forces in Chile in the early 1970s, when a left-wing government, led by Salvador Allende, was elected. The Venezuelan ruling class would most likely seek to destroy democracy through another military coup, perhaps triggering a civil war, to ensure its continued rule. The July 21 VHeadline.com reported that former president Carlos Peres is already openly calling for another big business-backed military coup as the only solution to the crisis.
The return to power of the right-wing opposition would see a neoliberal austerity program imposed, which would be resisted by the millions of poor and working people who have organised themselves in neighbourhood Bolivarian Circles, rejuvenated class-struggle trade unions, women's organisations and land reform councils. Such popular resistance could only be put down with brute force, something which the large radical and left-wing sections of the military would oppose. Again, such a scenario may also lead to a civil war.
Whatever the outcome, there will be no going back to the way things were before President Chavez came to power.
Sabotage
The focus of the opposition's strategy continues to be economic and political sabotage, in the hope that the consequent anarchy will "prove" that the government cannot govern.
The political polarisation has been reflected within the parliament. Opportunist elements of the government parliamentary alliance, who joined Chavez in order to benefit from his popularity, have switched to the opposition as the pro-poor president's political program has become increasingly radical.
Inside parliament, the opposition is using every bureaucratic measure available to paralyse parliament and nullify the Chavez government's majority. In June, the government attempted to reform the rules of parliament to prevent this. VHeadline.com reported on June 5 that scuffles broke out as opposition MPs prevented government MPs from taking their seats and occupied the speaker's chair. This forced the government to hold the next session of parliament in a park located in a radical working-class area. The opposition refused to attend, arguing that it was "enemy territory". However, the session was not ratified by parliament after more members of the Chavez camp refused to support the government.
In March and April, there were terrorist bombings of power stations, foreign embassies and the headquarters of the Group of Friends of Venezuela. On July 22, VHeadline.com reported that the head of the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Ali Rodriguez Araque, had announced that acts of sabotage had taken place in the east of Venezuela, which affected gas transmission valves and disrupted the region's electricity grid. Although the incidents were "minor", Araque described them as being part of "a campaign of more open and violent sabotage" against Venezuela's oil and energy infrastructure.
Other acts of sabotage are aimed at demoralising the poor. VHeadline.com reported on May 22 that Venezuelan Consumer Protection Agency (INDECU) officials had seized 40,000 tonnes of illegally hoarded frozen chickens in Apure State and 60,000 tonnes of hoarded foodstuffs in Aragua State. According to the VHeadline.com article, the raids "caused furor among wealthier members of Venezuela's opposition, who see the INDECU operations as repressive government action against what they claim to be free trade principles and private property". INDECU is investigating more than 1000 complaints of hoarding and speculation.
Working-class support
In order to combat such hoarding and limit price hikes by big business and speculators, VHeadline.com reported on April 7, the Chavez government announced that it would invest US$836 million to secure a stable food supply for the population. The program includes the establishment of government-subsidised supermarkets for the poor.
The government has also began the implementation of a land reform program, which promises to settle 100,000 people by the end of August. The Chavez government has also launched the Plan Barrio Adentro (Into the Neighbourhood program), an ambitious program to improve the quality of education and health care by sending tens of thousands of volunteer literacy workers and doctors into the poor barrios. The two projects are being assisted by experts and personnel from Cuba.
The Venezuelan media have called this a "Cuban invasion" and decried the "Cubanisation" of Venezuela. When confronted with this allegation, Cuba's President Fidel Castro wrote in a letter to Chavez, published in the June 20 Granma: "Those affirming that teaching reading and writing is to Cubanise Venezuelans are not offending Cuba; on the contrary, they are honouring it. As is the case with those who label as indoctrinators our selfless doctors battling to bring health care and life to many parts of the world, or our sports trainers. This is the equivalent of saying that to save a life or contribute to a young person obtaining a gold medal for his or her homeland is to Cubanise the Venezuelan people. We should thank those stupid people for such a great honour."
As a July 25 Reuters report notes, "the Cuban doctors are a big hit with local residents who say few Venezuelan doctors dare to venture into the teeming hilltop slums that ring this sprawling South American capital [Caracas]. 'Everybody is happy about it... We've never seen Venezuelan doctors climbing up here', said 63-year-old Liboria Espinosa."
Meanwhile, the class struggle continues in the streets and workplaces. The pro-Chavez, left-wing National Union of Workers (UNT) and pro-opposition Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV) continue to struggle for the support of workers, while the opposition parties hold provocative rallies in radical working-class neighbourhoods, often sparking violence.
In early July, Alfedo Pena, the right-wing, pro-coup mayor of Caracas, shut down Catia TV, a popular community television station that operated outside of the control of Venezuela's heavily monopolised mass media. The Bolivarian Circles continue to spread and land committees are hard at work redistributing land to the poor.
It is a race against time for both the government and opposition to mobilise enough support should the opposition succeed in forcing a referendum on Chavez's rule. The opposition would rather have it sooner than later, as the economy is still in deep recession as a result of its economic sabotage.
However, General Garcia Carneiro, the commander in chief of the armed forces and a Chavez ally, confirmed in a July 20 VHeadline.com article that a referendum cannot take place this year as the selection of the board of the National Electoral College (CNE), the body that oversees the country's electoral process, is being delayed by the opposition. The CNE board is responsible for updating the electoral roll, printing and distributing ballot papers, hiring and training electoral workers and ensuring that any referendum is free and fair.
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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