RE: [Marxism] Venezuela rightists falter

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The capitalist class really hates democracy, doesn't it?
Turds of a feather flock together, many of them having
established residence in places like Florida recently.

They're doing what they can in there, but having trouble
even in the heartland of counter-revolution as they try
to set up their excuses for their prospective defeat,
though they will claim the election was stolen anyway.
>From what Forero says, it looks like the NY Times can
tell that the opposition has already failed, though 
he isn't enthusiastic about that, as Richard Gott is.

It should also be amusing, as a tenth-rate sidelight,
to see how those various ultralefts who attack Chavez
as a Bonapartist, analyze the defeat of their analyses,
when the votes are finally counted. Some examples:

THE MILITANT (March 2004)
The bourgeois nationalist government has left the 
country?s capitalist social relations virtually intact. 
The capitalist class in Venezuela, one of Latin America?s 
most industrialized and wealthiest countries, continues 
to hold state power, and is using its economic power to 
try to cripple the government. 
http://www.themilitant.com/2004/6811/681101.html 

INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW
Chávez?s hesitations and compromises threaten to 
undermine the struggle against the right. The key 
to defeating a new coup isn?t a deal between Chávez 
and the opposition, but a mobilization of the poor 
and the organized working class against the right 
wing and its wealthy backers.
http://www.socialistworker.org/2003-1/434/434_05_Venezuela.shtml 

SOCIALIST ACTION (July 2004)
the pro-capitalist Chavez regime, while undertaking 
several important social reforms, has shown no 
inclination to challenge the fundamental class 
relations that insure capitalist rule in that country.
http://www.geocities.com/mnsocialist/cuba-trotsky.html 

SPARTACIST (September 2002)
Upon coming to power, Chávez tried to bring Venezuela?s
powerful oil workers union to heel. He assumed office
declaring that the CTV ?must be demolished.? But a
three-day strike by oil workers in October 2000 won a pay
raise that Chávez had previously sworn never to accept. 

Two months later, a union-busting referendum was called by
Chávez to place the CTV under his thumb. But the CTV called
for a boycott and only 25 percent of eligible voters
participated. When chavista thugs in some localities sought
to take over union locals, they were driven out by CTV
members.

The role of populists like Chávez is to protect the 
capitalist order by deflecting the just rage of the 
oppressed masses. While spouting empty rhetoric against 
the rich, Chávez has deregulated the banking system, 
privatized the Caracas electrical system and scrupulously 
respected the agreements with the IMF negotiated by his 
predecessor.
http://www.spartacist.org/ENGLISH/Ven787.htm 


Walter Lippmann
===============================

MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Sun, Aug. 08, 2004 

VENEZUELAN REFERENDUM
New rules could restrict some expatriate voters

Some South Florida Venezuelans may be prevented from voting 
in a recall referendum on President Hugo Chávez.

BY RICHARD BRAND
rbrand@xxxxxxxxxx

Thousands of Venezuelans living in South Florida are
expected to vote Aug. 15 in a recall referendum on
President Hugo Chávez's tenure, but an unknown number may
be blocked from casting their ballots with the Miami
consulate because of new restrictions written by electoral
authorities who support the leftist leader.

The National Electoral Council, three of whose five members
are considered pro-Chávez, announced the restrictions last
month amid cries from opposition leaders that the president
is rigging the vote in his favor.

The most significant of the new rules requires expatriate
voters to be legal residents of the country where they are
voting. Venezuelans in South Florida without proper U.S.
visas will be barred from the polls.

It is a requirement that is unique to Venezuela and
unprecedented in that nation's history. Other countries
that have expatriate voting, such as Colombia, Brazil and
Honduras, have no such requirement to vote at consulates,
which are considered sovereign territory.

It is unclear how many voters the change will affect. In
2002, the U.S. Census counted 41,000 Venezuelans in
Florida, including 21,600 in Miami-Dade and 8,800 in
Broward. There are 91,500 Venezuelans in the United States.

But most in the community believe the number of residents
is significantly higher, taking into account undocumented
immigrants.

The consul-general would not say how many Venezuelans are
registered to vote in Miami.

MANIPULATING RULES

Opposition leaders say the new regulations are another
example of how the government is manipulating the rules of
the vote to their advantage. Venezuelan expatriate
communities -- including South Florida's -- are considered
overwhelmingly anti-Chávez.

''This is a rule to help the government. It is absurd,''
Enrique Naime, a prominent opposition activist in Caracas,
said in a phone interview. ``The only document that you
should need to vote is a passport or a cedula [identity
card]. If the person is registered to vote abroad, then
they should vote abroad.''

But Venezuelan officials say the rule is fair because it
affects all expatriates.

''This is a rule that affects all the Venezuelans around
the world, not just those who support or don't support the
president,'' said Miami Consul-General Jose Antonio
Hernández-Borgo.

FULL
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/9346924.htm?


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism