By Herbert Jauch
The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit Namibia in September and the possibility of co-operation in the area of oil exploration will be one of the issues to be discussed. It would, however, be a missed opportunity if Chavez’ visit to Namibia would only focus on oil.
There is a lot more that we could be learnt from the Venezuelan revolution that has taken place during the past few years but was completely ignored (at best) or distorted by global media corporations.
The attempted coup
Chavez made global headlines when he (as a democratically elected president) was overthrown in in April 2002 during a military coup by sections of Venezuela’s elite who had co-opted some right wing unions and enjoyed the full backing of the US government and corporations.
The coup installed the president of Venezuela’s Chamber of Commerce, Pedro Carmona, as the country’s interim president. However, Mr Carmona’s presidency lasted for only two days as thousands of poor Venezuelans gathered around the presidential palace and demanded the re-instatement of Chavez. Faced with this huge wave of popular resistance, the coup plotters had to surrender and Chavez made a triumphant return.
In Venezuela, Latin America’s tragic history of right wing, US-backed coups against progressive and democratically elected governments did not repeat itself. Instead, a popular government defied the pressure and interference by the US and in the process became a source of inspiration for oppressed and exploited people around the world. It is in this context that the distorted news coverage of Venezuela by global news cororations has to be understood.
Right-wing religious and business leaders in the US went as far as calling for the assassination of Chavez as he became a symbol of anti-imperialism in the 21st Century.
This article will sketch some of the brave and encouraging steps that Venezuela has taken to gain control over its own resources, to distribute wealth more equally and to build new forms of participatory grassroots democracy. I am drawing extensively from publications by Ronald Wesso, a researcher with the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG) in South Africa.
Tackling mass poverty
When Chavez was elected president in 1998, Venezuela was characterised by mass poverty, huge levels of income inequality and political corruption. By that time, the country had followed the typical neo-liberal market policies as promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
These included privatisation, financial liberalisation, lax environmental and labour laws, trade liberalisation, etc. Venezuela’s indigenous people and women were worst affected by the deepening poverty that resulted from these policies while a small elite reaped the benefits of Venezuela’s resources, including oil. The Chavez government came to power with the promise of bringing about changes to benefit the impoverished majority and introduced a series of reforms.
The aim was to ensure Venezuelan political and economic sovereignty; grassroots political participation through popular votes and referenda; equitable distribution of the country’s oil revenues; eliminating corruption and instilling a national ethic of “patriotic service”.
These aims were not necessarily revolutionary or socialist but significantly different from those pursued by previous regimes in Venezuela. They raised concern among Venezuela’s elite and their allies in the US. The Chavez government was well aware that poverty and oppression could only be reduced if Venezuela took a stand against the interests of US imperialism.
Several measures were taken: A clause was introduced into Venezuela’s constitution that obliges the government to seek the approval of citizens before entering into trade agreements. This ensures government accountability to its citizens and protection against trade agreements that might disadvantage Venezuelans’ social and economic interests. It is certainly an example of broadening democracy and encouraging popular participation in decision-making.
Contrary to some media reports, the Chavez government did not pursue policies of expropriation of private companies when it came to power. By the time Chavez was elected president, the national oil company, several large manufacturing companies and much of Venezuela’s farmland already belonged to the state.
This provided the Chavez government with resources that it could direct towards the poor. The policies to uplift their living standards were similar to those implemented in the welfare states of Europe after the Second World War. The Chavez government diverted a proportion of the revenue from state-owned enterprises (such as the national oil company) towards social welfare projects for the poor. This included improved healthcare, education, nutrition and general welfare.
Secondly, the Chavez government made areas of state land available to poor indigenous farmers. Rich Venezuelans had previously seized this land illegally and the Chavez government’s land redistribution resulted in improved food production and food security for millions of Venezuelans.
Participatory
democracy
Perhaps the most revolutionary step taken by the Chavez government was the adoption of a programme of participatory democracy. It encouraged and empowered a mass movement of social actors independent of government. This strategy led to the establishment of new movements outside the state structures. The new movements were equipped to take control of important aspects of social life such as welfare missions.
Government provided support and resources for the poor to develop their own organisational capacities and thus to help themselves instead of waiting for handouts from the state. Concrete examples in this regard are the networks of community organisations that directly represented their specific constituencies. They received funding from the municipalities and allocated them in line with the wishes of their communities.
The overall result of these developments was that communities were able to take autonomous decisions and gained access to healthcare, childcare and education. This in turn, politicised and encouraged many Venezuelans and laid the foundation for a profound, long-term transformation, based on direct forms of participatory democracy.
The empowerment of poor communities at grassroots level also created a mechanism of accountability and control through which Venezuelans could shape (and shift) government policies.
“Recovered
companies”
The initially moderate economic programme of the Chavez government started changing in 2005 due to pressure “from below”. Former workers at a paper mill that had been declared bankrupt and closed by its owners decided to occupy the mill and re-opened it with the support of the local community.
The company owners asked the Venezuelan government to intervene and the National Assembly discussed the matter. Instead of accepting the company closure and the accompanying retrenchments, Venezuela’s parliamentarians decided to expropriate the former owners and to let the mill operate under democratic workers management.
This case opened the floodgates as workers started seizing other companies that had closed down. A worker and community-led movement for the “recovery” of companies was born and by the end of 2005 had targeted about 800 companies. The Chavez government then adopted a policy of expropriating and re-opening abandoned companies.
Social production
Besides re-opening closed companies, Venezuelan workers also started to discuss the shortcoming of previous worker self-management initiatives. They identified the dangers of “market socialism” where worker-controlled companies compete with each other. Workers thus decided to initiate “companies for social production” where the goals of production are decide democratically by workers and the community for whom they produce.
This initiative has also become government policy and Venezuela has shown that it is possible to break the stranglehold of “free market” policies that place the interest of capital above those of workers and their communities.
Providing an alternative
The importance of the achievements of the Venezuelan people and the Chavez government for social movements and progressive organisations worldwide is enormous. At a time, when almost all countries surrendered to the neo-liberal dogma and accepted the “dictates of the market” without questioning the widespread poverty and exploitation it produced, Venezuela has shown that things can be done differently and that another world is really possible.
Undoubtedly, Venezuela still faces many challenges (including a very hostile US administration) and not all of its policies will succeed. Its revolution has taken place despite a hostile global environment that opposes any form of substantive redistribution.
Venezuela thus started building strategic alliances internationally and there is already growing support for the Chavez government in many parts of Latin America. Mutually beneficial ties were already established with Cuba, Bolivia and other Latin American countries and Venezuela played a critical role in developing an alternative to the US-backed free trade agreement for the Americas.
The “Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas” (ALBA) was proposed by Chavez in December 2001 and found increasing support as an alternative to further trade liberalisation and neo-liberal policies that ravaged Latin America for the past 30 years.
The Bank of the South
Another key achievement of the Chavez government was to break the stranglehold that the US-dominated IMF and World Bank had over Latin America. In return for loans, these institutions had forced lending countries to adopt neo-liberal, “market-friendly” policies for the past 30 years. In 2005, the Venezuelan government started providing loans to its neighbours that had no such conditions attached and thus allowed lending countries to set their own developmental priorities.
In 2006, Chavez went a step further and proposed the establishment of a new lending institution, the “Bank of the South” which Latin American countries could use as an alternative to the IMF and World Bank. Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Brazil agreed to establish this Bank by the end of 2007. Each country will provide 10 percent of its foreign currency reserves as start-up capital for the new bank. This will certainly diminish the power of the IMF and World Bank and provide a concrete alternative for many countries in their stranglehold.
Inspirations and lessons
The developments initiated by Venezuela over the past eight years are certainly an inspiration to millions of Africans who still experience the effects of exploitation and oppression. Venezuela’s achievements in terms of improving healthcare, education, food security and participatory democracy are impressive – despite the pre-occupation of western media corporations with the leadership style of Chavez, which they describe as autocratic.
While Chavez is certainly a powerful and charismatic leader, Venezuela’s revolution was safeguarded and driven to a significant extent “from below”. Without this grassroots support, Chavez’ presidency would have ended in the coup of 2002.
History has shown that individuals are always fallible and can be corrupted or even assassinated.
Chavez and the people of Venezuela deserve credit for showing the world that poverty, oppression and imperial domination can be tackled – if there is the political will to do so. Like Patrice Lumumba (Congo), Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso), Salvador Allende (Chile), Che Guevara and others before him, Hugo Chavez symbolises the spirit of self-determination and social justice.
Welcome to Namibia, President Chavez!