Venezuela: a revolution in motion

August 9, 2008
Issue 

Changing Venezuela by Taking Power: The History and Politics of the Chavez Government

By Gregory Wilpert

Verso, 2007

352 pages, $49.95

There are two mass movements in Venezuela today, each striving against the other for supremacy and holding counterposed aims.

The first of these is composed overwhelmingly of millions of poor and working-class people determined to extend their Bolivarian revolution and achieve the goal of socialism in the 21st century. This revolutionary movement encompasses the clear majority of Venezuelans.

Gregory Wilpert's Changing Venezuela by Taking Power provides well researched insight into this immensely important struggle. Wilpert edits Venezuela Analysis, the leading English language source of information on the revolution.

However, the US-backed right-wing opposition has a mass influence too. Although greatly outnumbered by the left, a substantial minority have opposed the radical government led by President Hugo Chavez and have supported various attempts — from the ballot box to a violent military coup — to remove Chavez from office and reverse the gains of the revolution.

The opposition is led by figures drawn from the once powerful conservative political parties, the corporate boardrooms, the Catholic Church hierarchy and other die-hard pro-capitalist interests. The establishment media in Venezuela is notoriously biased in favour of the opposition and helps create the political climate for orchestrated campaigns of destabilisation.

The history of the Chavez government is at the same time a history of the gigantic and still developing class struggle between these two competing movements — a struggle that cuts into the pro-Chavez camp, itself divided between bureaucratic and reformist sectors and more militant forces that want to push forwards to socialism.

By their repeated actions, the Venezuelan capitalists have shown they will not share their power or their wealth with anyone else. The future triumph of the revolutionary movement will rely heavily on the calibre of its organisation, political ideas and leadership.

Wilpert's book explores the ways in which Venezuelans are trying to reshape their society and looks at the efforts of the Chavez government to fast-track this process. The picture that emerges is of a social revolution, which has taken terrific strides forward but is still beset with numerous contradictions, which, if not addressed, threaten to overwhelm it.

From 'the third way' to socialism

Chavez was first elected to the presidency in 1998 on a groundswell of support. His supporters were sick of the endemic corruption and nepotism that dominated Venezuelan politics but many weren't necessarily committed to radical social change. The poorest 60% of Venezuelans at this time were still largely disenfranchised from the political system and tended to abstain from electoral contests.

At first, Chavez only pledged to emulate then British PM Tony Blair's (quickly discarded) promise to forge a "third way" between free-market capitalism and socialism.

The first years of Chavez's term were marked by a relatively mild economic and social program of reform. But his attempts to initiate even the most basic democratic measures such as land redistribution and government control of the country's huge oil wealth led him and his supporters into conflict with the wealthy political elite who ruled Venezuela.

Wilpert explains how "every failed attempt of the opposition to depose Chavez ended up giving Chavez and his movement more power and thus more leeway to pursue more radical policies. The April 2002 coup attempt caused the opposition to lose its foothold in the military, the December 2002 oil shutdown caused it to lose its foothold in the oil industry, the August 2004 presidential recall referendum caused it to lose its foothold in the general population and the December 2005 boycott of the National Assembly elections caused it to lose its foothold in the legislature."

Over this period Chavez's political ideas underwent a decisive change and by January 2005 he had declared himself an uncompromising anti-capitalist and socialist. While this sharply leftward trajectory saw Chavez lose support from the middle class to the opposition, Venezuela's poor majority emerged as an increasingly confident and formidable force backing the government's policies.

The masterstroke of Chavista policy in the early years was the democratisation of the political process through the rewriting of the Venezuelan constitution. The new constitution was a product of a series of popular referendums and generated widespread political debate. The final product was one of the most democratic constitutions in the world, which enshrines social justice and participatory democracy as principles of the Venezuelan republic.

As a consequence, the old elite began to lose their positions of political influence to the popular movement. The 1999 constitution became more than a simple legal document and instead functioned as a kind of program around which the Venezuelan poor mobilised.

Wilpert's chapters on the social and economic policy of the Chavez government explore the degree to which the Venezuelan people and the Chavez leadership have combined to combat poverty, injustice and social exclusion. But he is also sensitive to the limits and unevenness of this relationship.

A serious concern is that the ossified Venezuelan state bureaucracy, inherited from the old regime, still exercises a distorting influence on how government policies are actually implemented.

The most successful of the social missions have had the least involvement from bureaucratic elements and the greatest grassroots control. New political institutions, based on the democratic participation of Venezuela's working people, are still in their early stages.

Despite these real dilemmas, Wilpert's detailed analysis of the inspiring economic and social policies of the Venezuelan government speaks against the criticisms of the Venezuelan revolution from the sectarian left who complain that Venezuela is an example of a false "socialism from above". This argument is far too simplistic and does not reflect the continual interaction between Chavez and the radical mass movement.

Changing Venezuela refutes the liberal-anarchist views of theorists such as John Holloway, who have argued that it is possible to fundamentally change society without winning state power away from the capitalist class. In many ways it is an indirect polemic against such ideas.

Socialism of the 21st century?

In the final chapters Wilpert shifts his analysis away from the history of the Chavez government and attempts to look at the direction it may take in the future. As part of this he outlines a series of internal and external obstacles to the achievement of socialism of the 21st century.

The external obstacles remain daunting and include the unwavering hostility of US imperialism (especially the ever present threat of a military invasion) along with the unrelenting attempts of Venezuela's capitalist class to regain political power.

However, Wilpert regards the internal obstacles to be equally, if not more, dangerous to the future of the Venezuelan revolution. These problems include the strength of the conservative bureaucracy inside the Chavista camp, the persistence of a political culture of patronage and corruption inherited from the past, and the distorting impact oil production has on the rest of the Venezuelan economy.

Another potential challenge to the revolution is posed by the immense political authority Chavez enjoys as an individual leader. Wilpert fears that the heavy reliance of the revolutionary movement on Chavez's leadership to date may inhibit the development of institutions of people's power necessary for the achievement of a genuine socialist society.
None of these problems indicate that the Venezuelan revolution is in desperate straits. But they do reflect that new measures need to be taken by Venezuelan revolutionaries to advance the process. Discussions on what to do next are quite advanced within Venezuela with the formation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its active membership numbers in the millions.

The principles and program of the new party call for the transfer of greater power to the people. The PSUV proposes "the socialising of political power; establishing the direct exercising of decision-making power by the masses in their organisations; their unrestricted right to scientific research and free artistic creation, and the democratisation of access to all cultural policies".

Although much depends on the outcome of the political struggle within Venezuela and particularly the fight against bureaucratic elements within the PSUV, whether the Venezuelan revolution will succeed in these goals is not solely a question for activists in Venezuela alone. The revolution also requires the greatest possible solidarity from progressive supporters the world over. The greatest value in Wilpert's book is that it will help promote this much needed international solidarity.

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