Why Chavez defeated the oligarchs

[Fred Feldman <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

August 16, 2004

Why He Crushed the Oligarchs
The Importance of Hugo Chávez
By TARIQ ALI

The turn-out in Venezuela last Sunday was huge. 94.9 percent of the
electorate voted in the recall referendum. Venezuela, under its new
Constitution, permitted the right of the citizens to recall a President
before s/he had completed their term of office. No Western democracy
enshrines this right in a written or unwritten constitution. Chavez'
victory will have repercussions beyond the borders of Venezuela. It is a
triumph of the poor against the rich and it is a lesson that Lula in
Brazil and Kirchner in Argentina should study closely. It was Fidel
Castro, not Carter, whose advice to go ahead with the referendum was
crucial. Chavez put his trust in the people by empowering them and they
responded generously. The opposition will only discredit itself further
by challenging the results.

The Venezuelan oligarchs and their parties, who had opposed this
Constitution in a referendum (having earlier failed to topple Chavez via
a US-backed coup and an oil-strike led by a corrupt union bureaucracy)
now utilised it to try and get rid of the man who had enhanced
Venezuelan democracy. They failed. However loud their cries (and those
of their media apologists at home and abroad) of anguish, in reality the
whole country knows what happened. Chavez defeated his opponents
democratically and for the fourth time in a row. Democracy in Venezuela,
under the banner of the Bolivarian revolutionaries, has broken through
the corrupt two-party system favoured by the oligarchy and its friends
in the West. And this has happened despite the total hostility of the
privately owned media: the two daily newspapers, Universal and Nacional
as well as Gustavo Cisneros' TV channels and CNN made no attempt to mask
their crude support for the opposition.

Some foreign correspondents in Caracas have convinced themselves that
Chavez is an oppressive caudillo and they are desperate to translate
their own fantasies into reality.. They provide no evidence of political
prisoners, leave alone Guantanamo-style detentions or the removal of TV
executives and newspaper editors (which happened without too much of a
fuss in Blair's Britain).

A few weeks ago in Caracas I had a lengthy discussion with Chavez
ranging from Iraq to the most detailed minutiae of Venezuelan history
and politics and the Bolivarian programme. It became clear to me that
what Chavez is attempting is nothing more or less than the creation of a
radical, social-democracy in Venezuela that seeks to empower the lowest
strata of society. In these times of deregulation, privatisation and the
Anglo-Saxon model of wealth subsuming politics, Chavez' aims are
regarded as revolutionary, even though the measures proposed are no
different to those of the post-war Attlee government in Britain. Some of
the oil-wealth is being spent to educate and heal the poor. 

Just under a million children from the shanty-towns and the poorest
villages now obtain a free education; 1.2 million illiterate adults have
been taught to read and write; secondary education has been made
available to 250,000 children whose social status excluded them from
this privilege during the ancien regime; three new university campuses
were functioning by 2003 and six more are due to be completed by 2006.

As far as healthcare is concerned, the 10,000 Cuban doctors, who were
sent to help the country, have transformed the situation in the poor
districts, where 11,000 neighbourhood clinics have been established and
the health budget has tripled. Add to this the financial support
provided to small businesses, the new homes being built for the poor, an
Agrarian Reform Law that was enacted and pushed through despite the
resistance, legal and violent, by the landlords. By the end of last year
2,262,467 hectares has been distributed to 116,899 families. The reasons
for Chavez' popularity become obvious. No previous regime had even
noticed the plight of the poor.

And one can't help but notice that it is not simply a division between
the wealthy and the poor, but also one of skin-colour. The Chavistas
tend to be dark-skinned, reflecting their slave and native ancestry. The
opposition is light-skinned and some of its more disgusting supporters
denounce Chavez as a black monkey. A puppet show to this effect with a
monkey playing Chavez was even organised at the US Embassy in Caracas.
But Colin Powell was not amused and the Ambassador was compelled to
issue an apology.
The bizarre argument advanced in a hostile editorial in The Economist
this week that all this was done to win votes is extraordinary. The
opposite is the case. The coverage of Venezuela in The Economist and
Financial Times has consisted of pro-oligarchy apologetics. Rarely have
reporters in the field responded so uncritically to the needs of their
proprietors. 

The Bolivarians wanted power so that real reforms could be implemented.
All the oligarchs have to offer is more of the past and the removal of
Chavez. 
It is ridiculous to suggest that Venezuela is on the brink of a
totalitarian tragedy. It is the opposition that has attempted to take
the country in that direction. The Bolivarians have been incredibly
restrained. When I asked Chavez to explain his own philosophy, he
replied:

'I don't believe in the dogmatic postulates of Marxist revolution. I
don't accept that we are living in a period of proletarian revolutions.
All that must be revised. Reality is telling us that every day. Are we
aiming in Venezuela today for the abolition of private property or a
classless society? I don't think so. But if I'm told that because of
that reality you can't do anything to help the poor, the people who have
made this country rich through their labour and never forget that some
of it was slave labour, then I say 'We part company'. I will never
accept that there can be no redistribution of wealth in society. Our
upper classes don't even like paying taxes. That's one reason they hate
me. We said 'You must pay your taxes'. I believe it's better to die in
battle, rather than hold aloft a very revolutionary and very pure
banner, and do nothing ... That position often strikes me as very
convenient, a good excuse ... Try and make your revolution, go into
combat, advance a little, even if it's only a millimetre, in the right
direction, instead of dreaming about utopias.'

And that's why he won.

Tariq Ali's latest book, Bush in Babylon: The Re-colonisation of Iraq,
is published by Verso. He can be reached at: tariq.ali3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx