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Venezuela behind the smokescreen

Lorenzo Vidal-Folch | 03.10.2007 19:46 | Analysis | Globalisation | Workers' Movements

A critical review of the current political and social situation in Venezuela.


Demonised on the one side by Western governments and corporate media, uncritically acclaimed on the other by certain left-wing organizations, an adequate account of Chavez and Venezuela’s current political situation is difficult to find. Accusations alleging a “Communist dictatorship” should simply be dismissed as misinformed, sensationalist and ideological devices. However, Chavez’s claims of leading a democratic and progressive transition towards an egalitarian society are deceptive. Using a few examples, I will try to illustrate the intricate Venezuelan map, a combination of some positive social reforms and worrying tendencies of centralization of power, cult to personality and corruption.

Social reforms and the economy

Venezuela has historically been an extremely unequal society and the social programmes initiated by the “Bolivarian Revolution” (named after the anti-Spanish liberator Simon Bolivar) have been better news for the poor. The alphabetisation of millions of children and adults, the creation of thousands of primary medical units in the poorest neighbourhoods, subsidies for basic foodstuffs, programmes of substituting slum huts for houses, the widespread availability of micro-credits... As a result of these and many others, between 1999 and 2005 severe poverty was reduced from 42,8% to 33,9%*.

These programmes are largely financed through oil money, which has finally started to slowly trickle down to the poor especially after the “nationalization” of the oil industry. I say “nationalization” but in reality I am talking about mixed business ventures with multinationals, of which the government has a slightly larger cut. Both parties are satisfied with the deal. The multinationals are guaranteed profits, albeit smaller than before, whilst Chavez can claim that now the oil belongs to “the people”. These manoeuvres are just one example illustrating the centrality of “populism” above real results. After all, as Business Week points out, Chavez is “not so bad for business.*”

Redistributing the profits from Venezuela’s vast natural resources and taking advantage of the latest boom in oil prices has a great potential. However, under Chavez, despite all the grandiloquent speeches, this potential is not being fully realized. Why? Mismanagement and corruption are rampant at all levels. Venezuela is one of the poorest performers in Latin America in all corruption indices and is way down at #138 in the 2006 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index together with Niger, one point under Ethiopia and one point above Sierra Leone. I find it hard to believe that corruption is “revolutionary”. With 500 billion dollars of petrol income, general public hospitals are in a precarious state whilst military spending has skyrocketed. Even though Chavez has displaced the traditional crooked elites from power, a new “class” is starting to settle in at the top, what some people are already starting to call the “Boli-bourgeoisie”.

The issue of democracy

Despite leading a failed coup in 1992, Chavez has won a succession of democratic elections since 1998. Attempting to close the divide between the rich and the poor is also a democratic plus (a notion that is unfortunately being forgotten in the West). In spite of the international media distortions, no TV channel has been closed. RCTV, a TV station linked to the 2002 coup, has not had its license renewed to broadcast through the limited number of public wavelengths, it is however fully functional through cable TV (the complexity of the issue deserves a separate article). Much of Venezuela´s media; newspapers, radios and TV channels (only 1 channel on free, public wavelengths though) continue to have a critical stance against Chavez.

The government has also embarked on various projects to increase citizen’s participation in state decisions. For example, the “Communal Councils”, which are democratic neighbourhood community organizations that can administer public funds to improve services, infrastructure and cultural spaces in their local areas. Also, by collecting the signatures of 20% of the number of people who voted in the last election you can trigger a referendum on whether or not to recall the president.

However, these policies are often contradicted by contravening policy tendencies. The increased strength and importance of the presidency undermines the idea of the participatory policies. For example, the “Communal Councils” funds are handed out from government institutions whose directors are handpicked by Chavez. Consequently, these Councils, which are meant to be part of civil society, become dependent on a paternal state. Chavez often uses the ideas of the iconic Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci to explain his policies. However, Gramsci’s ideas about civil society absorbing the state seem to have been inverted by Chavez to be about civil society being absorbed by the state! The idea of the recall referendum has also suffered a blow. It so happens that one of Chavez’s ministers got a hold of the list of people that had signed for the recall referendum that took place in 2004. What are the now the famous “Tascón Lists”, where placed on a website for all to see, violating the right of secrecy. Moreover, the list has been used, amongst other things, to obstruct the signatories from accessing jobs as civil servants.

The lack of pluralism on the left

The “you are either with me or against me” paradigm has been imposed. What started as a coalition of progressive military men and left-wing parties is now being united in a single party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, under the nascent personality cult of Chavez. Dissidence and criticism from other sectors of the left has been discredited and dismissed as treason or sell-out to the oligarchs. For example, the Anarchist and Libertarian Socialist groups in Venezuela have been accused of complicity with the C.I.A! Consequently, healthy debate and the circulation of different ideas and opinions has been severely damaged. This phenomenon is largely a result of the polarization in the Venezuelan political scene. It is a reaction to the intense criticism and attack by the Venezuelan elites and multinational companies that culminated in economic sabotage and an attempted coup in 2002. However, there is no justification for this persistent, closed and authoritarian stance.

Although most of Chavez’s supporters come from the poor, by no means is he the “leader” of the working classes. The purpose of the state in the last instance is to protect a status-quo accorded in the upper echelons of the political pyramid. It will always be a step behind grassroots social and working-class movements, no matter what its representatives claim. For example, sticking to the available statistics, from the 1st of July to the 30th of November of 2006, 26 demonstrations were obstructed and repressed. 71 cases of injuries from beatings, asphyxiation, rubber bullets or live ammunition were consequently reported. These included demonstrations of miners of El Callao against the Chinese multinational company Jin Yan, citizens protesting because of the lack of drinkable water in a neighbourhood of the city of Barinas, the eviction of a hundred poor peasant families that had squatted land in a new neighbourhood called “Bolivarian Paradise” in Guanare*, etc. In the words of the anarchist thinker Mikhail Bakunin, “when the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called “the People’s Stick.” ”

What then?

Despite the issues raised above, current events in Venezuela should not be dismissed or ignored. For the first time, Venezuelan peasants and working-classes are becoming actively involved in the public and political life they were traditionally apathetic towards and marginalized from. Consciousness about the illegitimacy of capitalism’s unequal property relations and class system is growing and being acted upon. However, going around shouting “Viva La Revolución!” in a lousy English accent, without knowing the facts, is a mistake. History has taught us that when politicians claim to be in favour of socialism it does not mean they are necessarily pursuing socialist policies. Instead, we should stay informed and keep a critical outlook. We should be against US imperialist involvement and the Venezuelan elites undemocratic tendencies. We should applaud positive social reforms and support those that are attempting to democratise the participatory mechanisms that have been put in place. We should also show solidarity to left wing and democratic dissidents that are challenging the revolution’s greatest enemy within. That is no-more than the bureaucratic and autocratic instincts of the “Bolivarian” political class and Chavez himself.

For a decent alternative coverage of Venezuela (in English):

www.nodo50.org/ellibertario/
El Libertario – a local newsletter presenting a libertarian critique of Venezuela’s current events. Mostly in Spanish but has an English section.

www.venezuelanalysis.com
A website giving a favourable view of the “Bolivarian” process, albeit not blinded by ideological rhetoric.

*Poverty Rates in Venezuela. Getting the Numbers Right, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington DC, May 2006.
*Dossier “Chavez, not so bad for business”, Business Week, New York, 21/06/2007
*Uzcátegui, Rafael,“Repression against popular protests increases in 2006”,El Libertario #49, February-March 07.

Lorenzo Vidal-Folch

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Why ????

03.10.2007 21:55

do most anarchist critiques of poverty stricken latino countries always seem to me , to be snidey , middle of the road , unrealistic , pompous shite.
What with most of the capitalist world already snapping at them at every turn, you make a formidable little team.
Keep it up. Gramsci would be proud.

daggle


Not all black and white

04.10.2007 01:04

I found this article very original, balanced and convincing.

paco


daggle loves dictators

04.10.2007 07:03

Why dont you trot off to Cuba or Venezuela daggle and stop talking complete shite about something you know little about or stick to your stall selling your crap papers and bowing to your leaders.

@narchist


excellent

04.10.2007 08:22

One of the first thoughtful, informative pieces I've read about what's going on in Venezuela.
One correction of the otherwise excellent translation: "The alphabetisation of millions of children and adults" should be "Literacy [programmes] for millions of children and adults".
Muchas gracias!

emigre


patronising leftists

04.10.2007 14:53

"poor stricken latino countries"? Daggle, I find it extremely patronising that you can't even call a continent by its name, yet you spite venom against revolutionaries of that "latino country" because they don't worship your idols. For your information, it's latin america we are talking about, or south america, not "latino country" or " banana republic", and the country in question is Venezuela.

Otherwise, a very interesting article, staying away from the traditional "with us or with the CIA" rethoric that chavistas try to use on any discussion. I'm hoping that it will give rise to an exchange of comments that will take us somewhere, instead of the usual derogatory remarks that have already open the trend. We'll see.

we've been here before.


please quote me correctly

04.10.2007 20:19

I said "poverty" not poor.
I said "latino" , in reference to the latin based based languages of South America , Central America and parts of the Carribean , because as Mr numero uno @narchist has so kindly pointed out, I often comment on posts regarding Cuba. Which I think you'll find is not in South bleedin America.
I look forward to the next anarchist critique of civilised western countries where literacy levels are falling and children die because they can't afford to go to the dentist.
I won't hold my breath.
@narchist , ffs relax man you'll give yourself a hernia..and we don't what that do we???

daggle


You're doing it again.

05.10.2007 08:36

"South bleedin America"? Here we go again. By the way, you might be interested to know that both South America and Central America are part of Latin America, and this comprises Cuba, and that there are many languages spoken in that continent which don't derive from spanish or portuguese (I guess this is what you mean when you refer to latin), like quechua, guarani, aymara, the mayan languages, and all other indigenous languages. Not to mention english and french spoken in many places. Talking about literacy levels falling.....

Anyway, that's off the point. Of course anarchists are going to criticise a system of exploitation that allows anyone (not only kids) to die for lack of medical care. But even if that wasn't the case and medical care was perfect, we'd still be against the capitalist system, because it is based on allienation and exploitation. Even if the standards of living were quite high, which would be impossible to offer to everyone at the same time under a capitalist system, it would still mean that we have to surrender a huge part of our lives to the market system, through waged work, in order to have access to those services and commodities. A lot more that would be necessary under a free society. You seem to put the stress on inequalities, but even when these are eased to some extent, the system remains intrinsically assimetrical.
So even when teams of cuban doctors descend on the shanty towns of Caracas and improved the quality of the health service that its inhabitants can afford, which is of course a welcome development, that doesn't mean that everything is good and fine. A revolutionary process can not be one of reform, but of radical transformation, and trickling oil revenue to the worst off in venezuelan society can not be seen as revolutionary as such. I can only hope that this will lead to demands for deeper changes that will bring about a real revolution, but I've got the impression that this will be have to be done against Chavez and his entourage.





We've been here before.