[Marxism] Venezuela: Victory advances process of change

[Stuart Munckton <stuartmunckton@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/784/40365

Venezuela: Referendum victory advances process of change
Chris Kerr, Caracas
20 February 2009


*"Today we opened wide the gates of the future … Truth against lies [and]
the dignity of the homeland has triumphed", Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
insisted to tens of thousands of celebrating supporters after Venezuelans
voted to amend the constitution to end term limits on all elected
politicians — allowing Chavez to stand for re-election in 2012.*

 "Venezuela will not return to its past of indignity", Chavez stated,
referring to the four decades of alternating rule by two corrupt parties
that followed the overthrow of a military dictatorship in 1958.

During this period, known as the Fourth Republic, billions of dollars of oil
wealth was squandered by a corrupt elite that increasingly opened the
country to plundering by foreign corporate interests while the poverty rate
sky-rocketed. Chavez was first elected in 1998 on a platform of transforming
Venezuela (creating a "Fifth Republic").

The turn-out of voters in the referendum was the largest ever, with 54.85%
(or more than 6.3 million) voting in favour of the amendment. Around 5.2
million voted "no". The result was declared free and fair by independent
international observers.

The victory has provided a major rejuvenation to the Bolivarian revolution,
with the Chavez government receiving a strong mandate to continue its
socialist orientation.

The referendum followed an intense campaign carried out through the media,
street mobilisations and by political organisations.

The "no" campaign — led by the private media, US-backed opposition parties
and student movements — organised a strong campaign of destablisation and
disinformation, proclaiming a "yes" victory would entrench a "Chavez
dictatorship".

On January 9, the leaders of the campaign, including Julio Borges, of the
opposition Justice First Party, and Alberto Federico Ravell, director of a
major private television station Globovision, travelled to Puerto Rico and
held meetings with the US State Department to devise the strategy of the
"no" campaign.

The "no" campaign was led by the opposition-aligned private media that,
echoed by the corporate media the world over, portrayed the amendment one
that would make Chavez "president for life".

The campaign also featured a series of violent right-wing student
demonstrations, the discovery of two right-wing Colombian paramilitary units
in Caracas and the robbery and desecration of the largest Jewish synagogue
in Caracas.

The latter was portrayed in the corporate media in Venezuela, and
internationally, as unleashed by Chavez's condemnation of Israel's war on
Gaza, which included the expulsion Israel's ambassador in protest.

This was despite no evidence linking the government or the revolutionary
movement that supports it to the attack. In fact, the government not only
condemned the attack, but authorities moved swiftly to make a number of
arrests. The Venezuelan Israeli Association expressing "profound gratitude"
to the government for its response to the attack, in a statement recognising
the government's commitment to fighting anti-Semitism.

Opposition parties also invited conservative politicians from other nations
to participate in agitation against the government and the National
Electoral Council. The "no" campaign culminated in a mass demonstration of
tens of thousands.

On the other hand, the "yes" campaign — led by the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV) — was successfully able to neutralise its counterpart
through the organisation of 100,000 "electoral battalions" that organised in
the poor neighbourhoods, workplaces and campuses to campaign for the reform
and mobilise maximum participation on election day.

Despite the intense campaigning of both sides, the election day transpired
without any major incidents and with the vast majority of voting centres
experiencing short fast lines.

According to a February 17 Venezuelanalysis.com report, Nicanor Moscoso, the
president of the Latin American Council of Electoral Experts, proclaimed:
"The referendum complied with international standards and national
legislation, especially with regard to communication and the transparency of
the electoral administration."

In the end, the "yes" campaign triumphed in 19 out of 24 states and 268 out
of 316 municipalities.

Significantly, the "yes" vote won in states that the opposition had
triumphed in gubernatorial elections last year, including the capital city
Caracas and industrial heartland Carabobo.

The support for the amendment to remove term limits, largely seen as a
referendum on the leadership of Chavez and the socialist orientation he
advocates, drew a sharp increase in support from the 2007 referendum on
nearly 70 constitutional reforms that aimed to significantly radicalise the
Venezuelan revolution (with only 4.4 million voting in favour).

It is also an increase in the pro-revolution vote from the 5.5 million votes
cast for PSUV and other pro-Chavez candidates from last November's regional
elections.

It is still, however, around a million short of the votes Chavez received in
the December 2006 presidential election, when, arguing that the vote was a
virtual referendum on socialism, he received more than 7.3 million votes —
the highest in Venezuelan history.

However, the counter-revolutionary opposition also received its highest
number of votes since Chavez came to power, up from the 2006 presidential
race (nearly 4.3 million), the 2007 referendum (4.5 million) and November's
regional elections (4.7 million).

This trend has led opposition leader Ismael Garcia to warn Chavez to "manage
(his) victory", while the president of the opposition party A New Time
called on supporters to "continue the struggle against the totalitarian
project". Opposition-aligned pollster Luis Vincent Leon declared, "the game
is about to begin".

However, despite the increased support, the result has been a major blow for
the forces opposing the revolutionary process.

The Chavez government has received a fresh mandate to accelerate its
socialist reforms, and the organisational capacity of the revolutionary
movement — in particular, in relation to the PSUV — has emerged
significantly stronger than at any other time in the ten years since
Chavez's initial election as president.

Also, while the opposition may be able to muster a certain level of votes in
opposition to Chavez, if it wishes to pose a serious challenge in future
presidential elections, it will also need to present its own alternative
program, as well as unite behind a single candidate to promote it — both
things that have so far proven beyond the capability of the US-funded
opposition groups.

While the opposition has increased in votes, the margin of the loss and the
partial electoral fatigue of Venezuelan society ensures that it is unlikely
to attempt a recall referendum halfway through the current term of Chavez
that comes about next year.

Recall referendums are a progressive feature, almost never mentioned in the
corporate media, of the Venezuelan constitution adopted after Chavez came to
power. It allows any elected official to be subjected to a referendum on
their rule from halfway through their term if 20% of electors sign a
petition requestioning it.

In 2004, the opposition called such a vote on Chavez, which he easily won.

The likely absence of such an electoral challenge should ensure a period of
relative stability in national governance.

It will also provide the government with more space to solve daily problems
(such as crime, trash collection, inflation, corruption and poor
infrastructure), deal with the fallout of the world economic crisis and
develop its anti-poverty, pro-worker social reforms.

The lack of an urgent electoral campaign will also provide various social
movements, labour unions, political organisations and communal councils the
space for internal reorganisation to reorientate themselves towards tackling
the various social problems of their respective communities — with both the
PSUV and National Union of Workers (UNT) scheduled for congresses in 2009.

The result of the referendum is also likely to have an impact
internationally. Venezuela is helping lead a radical bloc of
anti-imperialist nations in Latin America that includes Cuba, Bolivia,
Ecuador, Nicaragua and possibly Paraguay (where the right-wing lost
elections for the first time in six decades) and El Salvador (if the leftist
FMLN win the March presidential vote, as polls indicate).

The fresh mandate of the Chavez government also reinforces the leftward
shift of Latin America in general. Former Cuban president Fidel Castro wrote
in his weekly column that Cuba's "future is inseparable from what happens"
in Venezuela's referendum.

Castro stated: "The fate of the peoples of 'New America' will depend heavily
on this."

Bolivia's left-wing president, Evo Morales, commented: "Sometimes, we are
accused of being dictators by the empire. There is no dictatorship in Latin
America. Rather, we are going through processes of profound transformation
with the participation of the people."

The victory will also strengthen the hand of the Chavez government when
dealing with the new US administration of President Barack Obama, which has
largely maintained the same stance as the Bush administration in relation to
Venezuela and Latin America. Obama has spoken, however, of possible
conditional concessions in future relations.

The first meeting between Chavez and Obama will occur at a Summit of the
Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in early April.

[Chris Kerr is a *Green Left Weekly* journalist living Caracas.]

From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue
#784<http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2009/784>25 February 2009.

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