[Marxism] Socialist Voice: Venezuela, Cuba strenthen ties

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*********************************************************** S O C I A L
I S T   V O I C E Debate and dialogue on issues before the workers
movement 

Number 26, December 31, 2004         www.socialistvoice.com 
*********************************************************** 

VENEZUELA, CUBA STRENGTHEN TIES 
Leadership Offered to World Anti-Imperialist Forces 

By Roger Annis and John Riddell 

On December 14, Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez Frias signed an agreement strengthening cooperation between
the peoples of their two countries with the goal of "integration and
economic union." 

Venezuela agreed to transfer technology and to finance development
projects in Cuba, and it guarantees that Cuba will continue to receive
53,000 barrels of oil per day, the majority of its import requirement.
Cuba will continue to provide more than 15,000 medical professionals to
take part in Barrio Adentro. This program brings medical care to the
poor of Venezuela and trains Venezuelan doctors and specialists. Cuba
will also grant 2,000 annual scholarships to Venezuelan students. The
two countries will work together with other Latin American countries in
large-scale efforts to fight illiteracy. 

Cuba also subscribed to the Bolivarian Agreement for the Americas
(ALBA), the Venezuelan government's proposal to unite the peoples of
Latin America around "the egalitarian principles of justice and equality
that are innate in human beings, the well-being of the most dispossessed
sectors of society, and a reinvigorated sense of solidarity toward the
underdeveloped countries of the western hemisphere," advanced as an
alternative to the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas. 
(http://www.kominf.pp.fi/L5extra.html) 

"The Cuban revolution and the Bolivarian revolution have demonstrated
that a better world is not only possible but also is perfectly
attainable," Chavez said during a celebration of the agreement in Havana
December 14. "Bolivarian" is the name taken by the popular movement in
Venezuela headed by Chávez. "A different world is essential in order to
save life and the planet," Chávez said. 

Visibly moved by the occasion, Castro paid homage to the vision of the
Venezuelan leader, who has visited Cuba 11 times in the past 10 years.
"When a crisis comes, leaders arise.... So arose Chávez when the
dreadful social and human situation in Venezuela and Latin America
determined that the time to fight for a second, real independence had
come." 

The world crisis "affects everyone," Castro added. The "imperial system
and the economic order it has imposed on the world cannot be sustained.
Peoples which have decided to fight ... for their very survival can
never be defeated." (http://resist.ca/story/2004/12/17/12434/986) 

Caracas Declaration 

The impact of Cuban-Venezuelan political collaboration was evident at
the December 1-5, 2004 World Forum of Intellectuals and Artists, held in
Caracas. Sizable delegations from the two countries acted as an informal
leadership in this conference, securing the adoption of a declaration
that called for "a wall of resistance to confront the attempt to impose
worldwide domination." The conference, attended by 350 delegates from 52
countries, called for the creation of a "network of networks" of social
organizations and institutions around the world to help build "an
international movement in defense of humanity." (For an English
translation of the text, see www.socialistvoice.com/caracas.html.)
President Chávez promised that resources would be provided to establish
an office in Venezuela for such a movement. 

This Venezuelan initiative is reminiscent of efforts by the Cuban
revolution over the past 45 years, and by the Soviet Union in Lenin's
time, to lend support to and join forces with revolutionary processes in
other countries. For Cuba, Venezuela represents the strongest
anti-imperialist ally it has ever had, and the first such ally since the
defeat of the Nicaraguan revolution in the 1980s. The Cuba-Venezuela
alignment offers working people worldwide a pole of leadership for
anti-imperialist struggle. 

Character of the Venezuelan Process 

The Venezuela-Cuba agreement noted the "political, social, economic and
legal asymmetries" between the two countries. Venezuela has not
experienced a social revolution of the Cuban type, where the capitalist
rulers are dispossessed and driven from their seats of power and working
people take command of the state and economy. In Venezuela, a pro-
imperialist bourgeoisie still controls the economy and media and most of
the state apparatus, and retains influence in the army. 

The Bolivarian movement, which Chávez led into government in 1998, aims
for far-reaching social reforms. Following the movement?s victory in the
1998 presidential elections, to the horror of Venezuelan capitalists, it
began to implement the radical-democratic program approved by the
electorate. This act broke the rules of capitalist "democracy,"
according to which electoral promises are discarded the day after the
vote. 

Moreover, confronted by the resistance of governmental ministries, the
Chavistas set up new agencies, the "Misiones," to implement literacy,
public health, and other programs. They invited the Venezuelan working
people to organize to carry out and defend these measures--with the help
of thousands of revolutionary volunteers from Cuba. And when the
Venezuelan capitalists and their imperialist backers rose in fury to put
an end to this defiance, the Chavistas organized the masses in militant
resistance. 

The Bolivarian program does not challenge capitalist property relations.
Yet all experience proves that so long as the capitalist ruling class
retains control of decisive sectors of the state and economy, they will
use this power to frustrate, undermine, destabilize, and ultimately
overthrow any government committed to serious reform. Where necessary,
the local capitalists, in alliance with their imperialist backers,
resort to murderous force and war. 

And indeed, there have been three offensives mounted by the Venezuelan
capitalists--a bosses' strike, aimed at devastating the economy; a
military coup, organized with the connivance of the CIA (see
www.venezuelafoia.org); and a recall referendum. All three met decisive
defeat. Never before, excepting Cuba, has imperialism been so humiliated
in Latin America. The people's successful overturn of the 
2002 military coup in two days is unprecedented. 

Rightists in disarray 

These events fully deserve the description given them by the
Bolivarians: a revolutionary process, in which the masses of working
people forcibly intervene in political life to challenge the power of
the ruling class. These victories have disorganized and demobilized the
rightist opposition and forced Washington to postpone plans to overthrow
the Venezuelan government. 

Following the referendum in the summer of 2004, the pro- Bolivarian
parties won majorities in 20 of 22 states in regional elections October
31, 2004. The economy is expanding, with a balanced government budget.
Yet the counter-revolution is sure to attack again, more fiercely and
more murderously. In an ominous portent of things to come, Danilo
Anderson, the government prosecutor investigating the 2002 military
coup, was assassinated on November 18. 

Venezuela's working people can defend their gains and carry through the
Bolivarian program only by driving the capitalists out of their seats of
power in the state and the economy, following the example of the Cuban
revolution after 1959 and the Russian revolution after October 1917.
Such an overturn cannot be carried out by governmental decree. Only
working people themselves can make such a revolution, when they are
convinced through struggle there is no other road that can preserve
their gains and save them from devastating defeat. 

Leaders of the Venezuelan process are not unaware of this challenge.
Chávez has spoken since the referendum of the need for a "revolution
within the revolution." In his address to the December Caracas
conference, for example, he "noted the need to study the original
principles of socialism as well as its errors. The President ...
referred to the importance of early twentieth century Russian
revolutionary Leon Trotsky's ideas, embodied in 'The Permanent
Revolution' and how it explains that there are no national solutions to
global problems." (Robin Nieto, venezuelanalysis.com, December 6) 

New sources of stregth 

Many socialist groups that look to the Russian revolution as a model
have found the Venezuelan process puzzling. Few of these groups
supported the popular forces in the August referendum struggle. Many
have hesitated, or reacted negatively. Indeed, the Venezuelan process
does not correspond to the received blueprint. There is no revolutionary
party, no Stalinist party, and nothing that much resembles Social
Democracy. The main trade unions lined up with the bosses. Chávez came
from the officer corps, and his program is not socialist. 

But the Venezuelan process has found new and powerful sources of
strength. And the weakness of procapitalist workers' leaderships, who
have betrayed so many revolutionary uprisings, is an immense plus. As
Fidel Castro noted on December 14, referring to the Bolivarians'
struggle for power, "It was a good lesson for revolutionaries. There are
no dogmas, nor [is there] only one way of doing things. The Cuban
Revolution itself was also proof of that." 

In responding to a revolutionary advance, the first rule is to get
engaged. Today, that means telling the worlds' peoples the truth about
Venezuela, including the international initiatives of Venezuelan and
Cuban revolutionists. It means defending Venezuela and Cuba against the
inevitable imperialist assaults. 


SOME ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WEB SOURCES ON VENEZUELA:
www.rethinkvenezuela.com/index.html--Venezuela Information Office
www.venezuelanalysis.com--Comprehensive information and comment
www.venezuelafoia.info/--"A website devoted to U.S. meddling in
Venezuela" www.vheadline.com/main.asp--"Venezuela's electronic news"
www.handsoffvenezuela.org/--Hands Off Venezuela Campaign
www.zmag.org/venezuela_watch.cfm--Venezuela page of Znet
www.granma.cu/ingles/ouramerica-i.html--Cuba's leading daily

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm


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