Venezuela: Communique of the Popular Bases Movement
There remains no doubt that those who oppose the process of change led by President Chávez are not prepared to accept the defeat that our people will again give them. On the contrary, they attempt to disavow and change the will of the majority to their convenience.
The Movement of Popular Bases (MBP), the organic expression of the Bolivarian nation and composed of: workers, students, farmers, young people, women, professionals, and expert technicians, is a political instrument that has appeared throughout almost all of the country in recent years to articulate the spirit of the struggle to defend and deepen the revolution; their central objective is the creation of POPULAR POWER, from below, from bases in the population.
At this political and historical juncture, we have repeatedly established our position, fundamentally by way of mobilization in the streets; and due to this we want to issue an alert today, to the Venezuelan people and the different international organizations, to the people, institutions and notable persons that are present in Venezuela as observers of the political process, about the plans and maneuvers of the counter-revolution.
There remains no doubt that those who oppose the process of change led by President Chávez are not prepared to accept the defeat that our people will again give them. On the contrary, they attempt to disavow and change the will of the majority to their convenience. We alert and denounce the possibility that CANTV will carry out electoral fraud in Venezuela, as this company is responsible for transmitting all of the electoral information from the August 15th referendum; we know that the directors of that company are on the conspiratorial side, and especially its president Gustavo Rossen (ex-minister of the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez). It is not pure chance that the opposition is announcing that it doesn't respect the CNE electoral rules, for example the rule against announcing results before the electoral body does so; they are certain of fraud, or in the case of a lack thereof, they won't recognize electoral results that may be unfavorable for them, and they prepare to advance their other plan: Instability and chaos, to create the political conditions that according to their plan justify North American intervention; because the people are also aware that this anti-democratic opposition, which seeks a coup, has the financial and technological support of North American imperialism, which is definitively the greatest conspirator toward the removal from power of President Hugo Chávez.
On the other hand, it is of additional worry, and we alert you to and denounce with the same force, those elements of the government and the elites from the official parties, who with their reformist, bureaucratic, and opportunist ideas, have displaced and usurped the spaces for popular participation and moreover have promoted a Chavism without Chávez, as they would facilitate the objectives of the counter-revolution through their postures and behavior, not only in the concrete alteration or ignoring of the electoral results, but also in the stagnation of the deepening of the process [i.e. of popular control] which plays a part of the conspiratorial plans, in a scenario of a victory without problems.
Bear in mind that whatever action which intends to alter or obscure the results of the August 15th referendum, which we are certain will favor the Bolivarian Revolution, constitutes a vital injury to the Venezuelan people, which should and will be met with the highest degree of popular force, equal to or more than that of April 13th, 2002. In such a situation, the path must be one of POPULAR UPRISING, intended as the strategy of mass popular struggle for the defense and deepening of the revolution; it is the mobilized people, in the streets, plazas, avenues, and neighborhoods, exercising their right to participate and make decisions, effectively constructing Popular Power. We should vote on August 15th, and of course vote NO, and remain mobilized in concentration points in the streets, awaiting the results and oppositional attempts, to provide an answer to whatever destabilizing and counter-revolutionary action as may appear. If nothing abnormal occurs, that is to say, victory is ours, and like Zamora at the Battle of Santa Inés we go on the offensive, without any truce, into a new phase for which the people must act as protagonist: The Deepening of the Revoluton. This should be oriented in two strategic directions: firstly, the construction of Popular Power, as that political model in which the organized and conscious people assume the exercise of power, and as such, make political, economic, military, etc decisions through the mechanisms of direct democracy which will need to be established, and which have as their axis the Popular Conventions or Assemblies and collective decision-making. The second direction refers to the concretization or materialization of changes in the economic and social spheres. In order to achieve this it is necessary to immerse oneself in the ideological definitions of the process, as it is also essential to construct a revolutionary steering body, that is strategic in nature, which will direct the Bolivarian Revolution alongside Comandante Chávez.
Finally, we call on the people to convert August 15th into a double victory: against the empire and against the reformist currents which, from a position of infiltration within the government, are diverting the process to favor a new bourgeoisie and a new political elite. This means not falling into electoral triumphalism, but on the contrary maintaining and deepening the struggle on the streets.
There remains no doubt that those who oppose the process of change led by President Chávez are not prepared to accept the defeat that our people will again give them. On the contrary, they attempt to disavow and change the will of the majority to their convenience.
The Movement of Popular Bases (MBP), the organic expression of the Bolivarian nation and composed of: workers, students, farmers, young people, women, professionals, and expert technicians, is a political instrument that has appeared throughout almost all of the country in recent years to articulate the spirit of the struggle to defend and deepen the revolution; their central objective is the creation of POPULAR POWER, from below, from bases in the population.
At this political and historical juncture, we have repeatedly established our position, fundamentally by way of mobilization in the streets; and due to this we want to issue an alert today, to the Venezuelan people and the different international organizations, to the people, institutions and notable persons that are present in Venezuela as observers of the political process, about the plans and maneuvers of the counter-revolution.
There remains no doubt that those who oppose the process of change led by President Chávez are not prepared to accept the defeat that our people will again give them. On the contrary, they attempt to disavow and change the will of the majority to their convenience. We alert and denounce the possibility that CANTV will carry out electoral fraud in Venezuela, as this company is responsible for transmitting all of the electoral information from the August 15th referendum; we know that the directors of that company are on the conspiratorial side, and especially its president Gustavo Rossen (ex-minister of the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez). It is not pure chance that the opposition is announcing that it doesn't respect the CNE electoral rules, for example the rule against announcing results before the electoral body does so; they are certain of fraud, or in the case of a lack thereof, they won't recognize electoral results that may be unfavorable for them, and they prepare to advance their other plan: Instability and chaos, to create the political conditions that according to their plan justify North American intervention; because the people are also aware that this anti-democratic opposition, which seeks a coup, has the financial and technological support of North American imperialism, which is definitively the greatest conspirator toward the removal from power of President Hugo Chávez.
On the other hand, it is of additional worry, and we alert you to and denounce with the same force, those elements of the government and the elites from the official parties, who with their reformist, bureaucratic, and opportunist ideas, have displaced and usurped the spaces for popular participation and moreover have promoted a Chavism without Chávez, as they would facilitate the objectives of the counter-revolution through their postures and behavior, not only in the concrete alteration or ignoring of the electoral results, but also in the stagnation of the deepening of the process [i.e. of popular control] which plays a part of the conspiratorial plans, in a scenario of a victory without problems.
Bear in mind that whatever action which intends to alter or obscure the results of the August 15th referendum, which we are certain will favor the Bolivarian Revolution, constitutes a vital injury to the Venezuelan people, which should and will be met with the highest degree of popular force, equal to or more than that of April 13th, 2002. In such a situation, the path must be one of POPULAR UPRISING, intended as the strategy of mass popular struggle for the defense and deepening of the revolution; it is the mobilized people, in the streets, plazas, avenues, and neighborhoods, exercising their right to participate and make decisions, effectively constructing Popular Power. We should vote on August 15th, and of course vote NO, and remain mobilized in concentration points in the streets, awaiting the results and oppositional attempts, to provide an answer to whatever destabilizing and counter-revolutionary action as may appear. If nothing abnormal occurs, that is to say, victory is ours, and like Zamora at the Battle of Santa Inés we go on the offensive, without any truce, into a new phase for which the people must act as protagonist: The Deepening of the Revoluton. This should be oriented in two strategic directions: firstly, the construction of Popular Power, as that political model in which the organized and conscious people assume the exercise of power, and as such, make political, economic, military, etc decisions through the mechanisms of direct democracy which will need to be established, and which have as their axis the Popular Conventions or Assemblies and collective decision-making. The second direction refers to the concretization or materialization of changes in the economic and social spheres. In order to achieve this it is necessary to immerse oneself in the ideological definitions of the process, as it is also essential to construct a revolutionary steering body, that is strategic in nature, which will direct the Bolivarian Revolution alongside Comandante Chávez.
Finally, we call on the people to convert August 15th into a double victory: against the empire and against the reformist currents which, from a position of infiltration within the government, are diverting the process to favor a new bourgeoisie and a new political elite. This means not falling into electoral triumphalism, but on the contrary maintaining and deepening the struggle on the streets.
