Report from Venezuela
Masses support Chávez's 'Bolivarian revolution'
By Gloria La
Riva
Caracas, Venezuela
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was thronged by
thousands of people July 24 as he led a mass march through the
streets of this capital city to commemorate the birth 218 years
ago of Latin American liberator Simón Bolívar.
The marchers clamored to see and touch him, to hand him
petitions and requests for help.
Chanting "Chávez, Chávez" the masses awakened
by the "Bolivarian revolution" headed by the former military
officer made the march unforgettable. It was obvious they
desperately want real change in their daily lives.
Venezuela is one of the world's largest oil producers. Yet
80 percent of the population lives in poverty. There is
overwhelming support among the people for a radical
transformation. The word "revolution" is on the lips of
many.
As this reporter weaved through the crowds with a video
camera to record the event, women and men said, "Tell the truth
about Chávez, that we love him ... say what is really
happening here, that the people are with Chávez and he
is with us."
They were expressing their well-founded frustration with the
capitalist media inside and outside the country that is
spreading lies and myths against the Venezuelan leader. The
media attacks are part of a destabilization campaign,
undoubtedly encouraged by the CIA, to sow confusion and to
mobilize reactionary opposition to Chávez's
government.
In the march this reporter was part of a contingent of Latin
American trade unionists who had just concluded a two-day
"First Continent-wide Meeting of Workers Against Globalization
and the FTAA" in the capital city. The conference was held to
organize against the U.S.-crafted economic accord called Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, or ALCA in Spanish).
Although still in the planning stage, the FTAA has raised
alarm among progressive activists throughout the continent, who
understand it as a serious threat to Latin America's economic
survival and a blow to the working class. Seeing this danger to
millions of workers and poor, thousands of people were spurred
into action against the FTAA Summit in Quebec in April.
Participating in the Caracas conference were union activists
from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba,
Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Basque country and
the United States, along with many delegates from
Venezuela.
New workers' movement
in Venezuela
The meeting was organized by the Fuerza Bolivariana de
Trabajadores (FBT), the newly formed Venezuelan workers'
movement that is playing a key role in the political
reorganizing of society.
Initiated in September 2000, the FBT, led by progressive
worker activists, has the responsibility to reorganize and
unify all the workers' movements in Venezuela. This includes
bringing together the workers of all four union federations to
enable them to fight effectively for the workers'
interests.
In addition, progressive candidates put forth by the FBT are
challenging notoriously corrupt leaders in the old unions who
frequently collaborated with the bourgeois parties and
corporate bosses.
At the conference, Cuban economist Oswaldo Martínez
Martínez characterized the "economic integration" sought
by the U.S. as resembling the encounter between a shark and a
sardine. The shark is U.S. imperialist power against the
national economies of the lesser-developed countries of the
continent. Without their protective trade barriers, these
countries will be unable to compete.
As an example, Martínez gave a sobering analysis of
the devastation wrought by the North American Free Trade
Agreement on Mexico's economy since it took effect Jan. 1,
1994. He said that in the seven years of NAFTA, Mexico has been
converted from an exporter of corn, beans, rice and other
foodstuffs to an importer.
Plenary speakers included Pedro Ross Leal, general secretary
of the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC); Nicholas Mad uro,
member of Venezuela's new Constit u ent National Assembly and
president of the Fuerza Bolivariana de Trabajadores; and Heinz
Dieterich Steffen, economist and political analyst on Latin
American issues.
A spirit of Latin American and Carib bean unity against U.S.
imperialist hegemony prevailed in the sessions and roundtables
that led to a final document and resolutions.
Crisis in Latin America
The Latin American and Caribbean countries are in the midst
of great turmoil brought on by growing capitalist crisis. A
vanguard of activists throughout the continent is making
alliances to fight back. This was also shown at a conference
against Plan Colombia held a week earlier in El Salvador.
From Argentinian general strikes to the Colombian guerrilla
struggle, from an Indigenous-led insurrection in Ecuador to
Cuba's socialist revolution, from the heroic resistance in
Vieques, Puerto Rico, to Venezuela's anti-imperialist
"Bolivarian" struggle, the Latin-Caribbean peoples are saying
no to the old Monroe Doctrine and the new Monroe Doctrine
embodied in the FTAA.
First expressed in 1823, this infamous policy of President
James Monroe proclaimed that all of the Americas were within
the U.S. sphere of influence. It was a warning to the European
capitalist countries that the Western Hemisphere belonged to
the United States.
To block their European competitors, today as then, the U.S.
is desperate to see the FTAA signed so U.S. investors can grab
the lion's share in the hemisphere's profits.
The evening of Bolívar's anniversary, Chávez
spoke to economists of the Economic Systems of Latin America
institution (SELA). Also present were the anti-FTAA delegates
and various foreign ambassadors.
Chávez opposes FTAA
Chávez made clear his opposition to FTAA, as well as
attempts against his Bolivarian process. Whereas days before he
had denounced the media for its lies, this time he
distinguished the owners from the workers, welcoming "my
friends--the journalists, videographers and photographers.
"I say that FTAA is an option, nothing more. It is not our
destiny. ...
"This decision is so serious that we cannot come together to
meet again as in Quebec, or in three years, in Caracas or who
knows where, to meet closed off behind a wall, protected by
thousands of police and helicopter gun ships, to make a
decision for hundreds of millions of human beings.
"We are not talking of democracy then. I am very glad that
you are here [referring to the anti-FTAA delegates], workers of
the entire continent, including the United States. And you
chose Caracas as the site to debate FTAA and the interests of
the workers of the continent.
"And the students should do the same, and the Indigenous
people have to do it, and the peasants have to do the same.
They are the true owners, not us. It is the people who are the
true and sovereign owners of the whole dimension of Latin
America and the Caribbean.
"That neo-liberal thesis that arrived in the continent and
dug its claws in the jugular of our peoples produced the decade
of the 90s, worse than the 80s. Poverty, inequality, injustice,
terrible death, malnutrition, millions of human beings
unemployed and underemployed, they're in the streets."
Each week Venezuelans are seeing profound social changes,
legislation favoring workers' rights and housing development.
One of the biggest challenges to bourgeois rule and private
property is an upcoming land reform, to be discussed and
brought before the Venezuelan people for referendum.
Chávez has taken courageous anti-imperialist
positions, including standing up to U.S. pressures on the
domestic and international arenas. He holds tremendous
authority among the people. He and the progressive forces
allied with him push for the development of a movement that
will have the power to make a real social transformation.
Within Venuzuela the class struggle is sharpening, with U.S.
imperialism backing the bosses and the rich. The "Bolivarian
Revolution" merits the support of progressive and revolutionary
forces as it defends itself against U.S. imperialism. It's time
to demand that Washington cease the hostilities against
Venezuela.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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