BY CHRISTIANO KERRILA
"Organise yourselves and we will give you the political and economic support" was Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's advice to the revolutionary movement in his country. Workers and peasants in Venezuela are heeding it.
The government in 2001 introduced an ambitious land reform program, named "Plan Zamora" (after a 19th century peasant leader who struggled for land reform and social justice). When complete, some 40% of the population (around 10 million people) will receive redistributed land.
Plan Zamora is not land reform by decree, but is directly linked to the creation of organs of participatory democracy and a "self-transformation" movement in the countryside. Popular community councils have been formed in order to counter opposition from local landlords and capitalists, and their police and paramilitaries. In the last year, around 80 land-reform leaders have been assassinated — all cases remain unsolved.
Alex Contreras Baspineiro, writing on the Narco News web site on September 6 (<http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article862.html>), reported that Plan Zamora has already redistributed more than 1 million hectares of land and more than 31,000 land deeds to 40,000 families, together with 120 farm machines and US$20 million in credit. The government plans to redistribute another 2 million hectares by the end of this year.
As a result of capital flight from Venezuela, a continent-wide economic crisis and the effects of the shutdown of the vital oil industry during a strike by bosses and managers at the beginning of the year, the Venezuelan economy is going through a serious crisis. For example, in the first quarter of 2003, more than 2000 firms were forced to close.
While the economy has begun to recover following the collapse of the bosses' strike, as well as increased government investments and the movement of unemployed people into workers' cooperatives, many workers still face large reductions in wages, the loss of their jobs and closure of the factories in which they work.
In response, according to the August 27 Vheadline.com, several companies have been taken over by their workers, including a paper producing firm, a Pepsi bottling factory and a garbage collection firm. In the case of the paper firm, the workers have defended the factory by force.
While Venezuela's national leaders have come out in support of these workers, many governments at the city and regional levels are still controlled by the right-wing opposition. This has usually meant workers are evicted by heavily armed local or provincial police.
Most of the worker takeovers are occurring in the Aragua state, where the newly formed revolutionary National Union or Workers (UNT) has a very strong presence. One of the UNT's demands is that the national government nationalise and put under workers' control companies that attempt to shutdown.
Meanwhile, the opposition's campaign to force the holding of a referendum to recall President Chavez suffered a major setback when the newly appointed National Electoral College (CNE) ruled on September 12 that signatures collected to force the poll were inadmissible.
Venezuela's constitution states that once a president has served half of their term, they must face an a referendum if 20% of voters demands one. The CNE ruled that the signatures submitted by the right-wing opposition had been collected before Chavez's mid-term date of August 19.
From Green Left Weekly, September 24, 2003.
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