[Marxism] Pro-imperialist opposition claims gains in fight for recall vote against Chavez

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

President Hugo Chavez insists that the revolutionary struggle he leads
can defeat any referendum vote against him.  I trust his judgment on
this, and I think if he thought there was a real danger of defeat in
this situation, he would say so.

But I think it is always important to remember that capitalist
elections, whatever stance we may take toward them in a given
instance, are an institution that exists because it serves the
interests of the capitalist and allied ruling classes.  This is just
as true in Venezuela as it is in the United States (that's why the
opposition has  been insisting on one bourgeois election after
another -- they force the revolutionaries to expend big resources and
time on things that are really irrelevant to the basic interests of
the oppressed classes. The process is structured on a basis that makes
it reasonable to assume that if you keep holding them, sooner or later
the money will win one.

Even when we have managed to capture government power, or a large part
of it (as I believe is true in Venezuela), bourgeois elections are
basically a DEFENSIVE battle for the workers and peasants, not an
offensive one.  That is certainly true in Venezuela today, even though
it will be good if a lot of bourgeois parliamentarians are recalled.
This is why the imperialists were always outraged that Fidel went
ahead with the popular revolution without heeding the constant
US-based demand for capitalist elections, although I don't think that
this option is necessarily available to Chavez today or that the
revolution would benefit by following it.)
Fred Feldman

Two Articles on Venezuela

1. Venezuelans Push for Chavez Recall Vote

By ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writer

November 28, 2003, Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=535&u=/ap/20031128/ap_on_re
_la_am_ca/venezuela_recall_1&printer=1

CARACAS, Venezuela - Thousands of Venezuelans lined up for blocks
Friday to sign
petitions demanding a recall vote against President Hugo Chavez.

Motorists drove through Caracas' streets waving Venezuelan flags,
honking horns
and urging residents to sign petitions during the four-day drive. The
opposition
hopes to collect 2.4 million signatures to force a recall vote, which
would be
held next year.

Chavez already has survived a general strike this year and a brief
coup last
year.

Organizers predicted success, even as Chavez vowed to crush them.

"There will be a referendum, and the president will be ousted,"
opposition
leader Timoteo Zambrano said.

Venezuela's constitution allows recall votes halfway through a
president's six-
year term. Chavez reached that point in August.

Results of the drive will not be known for weeks and Chavez has vowed
to
challenge every signature. The next presidential elections are in
2006.

Opponents accuse Chavez of gradually imposing a leftist dictatorship
in this
major oil-producing nation. Unemployment is at 20 percent.

"I want to vote him out because he didn't complete his promises to us.
What he's
done is divide us, impoverish us," said Carlos Alberto Soto, a
46-year-old bus
driver, signing a petition in Caracas' Petare slum.

But supporters consider Chavez the only hope for change after decades
of
corruption and neglect of Venezuela's majority poor.

The Organization of American States and the U.S.-based Carter Center
were
observing the drive, which ends Monday.

Venezuela deployed 60,000 troops to keep the peace at almost 3,000
sign-up
centers.

- - - - -

2. Pro-Chavez Petition Drive Claims Strides

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer

November 25, 2003, Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=535&u=/ap/20031125/ap_on_re
_la_am_ca/venezuela_recall_3&printer=1


CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's vice president claimed that a
petition drive to
oust lawmakers opposed to President Hugo Chavez amassed nearly 8
million
signatures, far more than needed for a recall to proceed.

The government's four day petition drive, which ended Monday, had
initially
targeting 38 lawmakers, but one was later dropped. It came a week
before
Venezuela's opposition was to hold its own four-day petition drive to
demand a
recall vote against Chavez himself.

Official results won't be ready for weeks, but Vice President Jose
Vicente
Rangel claimed the government drive got 7.9 million signatures, well
beyond its
target of 2.8 million.

"The petition forms are practically all used up," Rangel said.

Both the petition drive that ended Monday and next week were being
monitored by
international observers and were seen as a possible way out of a
sometimes
violent political crisis that threatens the stability of one of the
world's top
oil-producing nations.

Venezuela's political crisis has included a short-lived 2002 coup and
a two-
month strike earlier this year.

Opponents accuse Chavez of trying to establish a dictatorial regime
inspired by
Cuba's Fidel Castro (news - web sites), mismanaging the economy and
dividing
this mostly poor country of 24 million along class lines.

Chavez denies the allegations. Elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000,
he
accuses adversaries of trying to grab power to regain lost privileges
rather
than to improve living conditions for the poor majority.

Opposition lawmaker Alberto Jordan, a former Chavez ally targeted for
recall,
rejected Rangel's claims of success.

"This has been a failure for the government. Everyone has seen the
sluggish
movement at the collection centers," Jordan said. "They don't have
enough
signatures to recall us."

Chavez's government wants to increase its slim majority in congress.

Cesar Gaviria, secretary-general of the Organization of American
States,
described the drive as peaceful. He said international observers
expected the
same conduct during next weekend's petition drive for a recall vote on
Chavez's
rule.

"We trust the next event will happen in the same organized manner and
with the
same behavior from the government and the opposition," Gaviria told a
press
conference while the petition drive was coming to an end.

Chavez foes must gather more than 2.4 million signatures to trigger
the vote.
Any vote on the leftist president's rule, or the mandates of
opposition
lawmakers, would take place next year.

Venezuela's Constitution allows for recalls halfway through an elected
official's term - that was August for Chavez.



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