Peasants organize for people’s power
By
Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published Jul 28, 2005 2:24 AM
On July 11, thousands of poor peasants
from 10 Venezuelan states arrived in the capital, Caracas, for an event they
called “Zamora toma Caracas” (Zamora takes Caracas). They were armed
only with their dignity, the knowledge of their rights under the Bolivarian
Constitution, the 2001 Land Laws and the newly acquired awareness of their own
power.
The event was called by the Ezequiel Zamora Peasant National Front
(FNCEZ), named after a 19th-century Venezuelan general who fought for the rights
of
peasants and the poor, under the slogans “free land and men”
and “respect for the peasantry.”
They went directly to
Miraflores, the presidential residence, carrying concrete demands addressing
their long-standing suffering and exclusion, among them an end to impunity in
the murders of peasants and the inclusion of the peasant masses into the legal
framework of the National Land Institute (INTI). The INTI was created in January
2002 to put into practice the land reform laws decreed by President Hugo
Chávez. Many peasant leaders complain that counter-revolutionary elements
from past administrations still hold some of the institute’s
posts.
The Land Laws, a first step by President Chávez to empower
peasants and develop agriculture to avoid reliance on imported food—which
at the moment supplies 70 percent of Venezuela’s consumption—have
put the interests of the oligarchy and transnational corporations on a collision
course with the interests of the peasantry, bringing to the surface the
contradictions inherent in a revolution that is developing where the capitalist
state is still in existence and where the oligarchy has much power and
property.
One of the consequences has been the assassination of at least
138 peasants by hired guns at the service of big landowners. Just last month, on
June 23, MVR (Movement for a Fifth Republic) representative Braulio
Álvarez, a well-known peasant leader from the FNCEZ and member of the
Yaracuy State Legislature, was wounded, narrowly escaping death when he was shot
twice while on his way to a meeting with peasants.
The “Zamora
takes Caracas” event, therefore, was a crucial step in the deepening of
the revolution. Workers World spoke with Roberto Viera, an FNCEZ representative
from Sur del Lago, about the outcome of the July 11 action.
Viera was
pleased with some of the results, although he cautioned that they still have
much work to do. He explained that they were able to gain access to nomination
of candidates to the INTI. “The agreement,” he said, “is that
the rank and file of the FNCEZ from now on will be able to determine who will
lead the INTI, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land, and FONDAFA, the fund for
agriculture investment.” He explained that the problem until now has been
that “many in the agrarian administration are reformists, who have put
into place an anarchic and bureaucratic system inaccessible to the small
farmers, who cannot then get information nor services.”
In regard to
peasants being murdered with impunity, Viera told WW that the National Office of
the Prosecution will nominate 34 prosecutors to investigate those crimes and
pledged to pay retribution to the victims’ families, adding that “If
they do not respond as promised, we will act, since we have decided to be in
permanent mobilization.”
He made the point that they are determined
to succeed, giving as an example a recent event where 7,000 peasants went to
Caracas without help from the government. “This was subsidized by
ourselves, we brought food from the countryside, and we are ready for a larger
action if they do not honor the commitment.”
Viera highlighted the
support received by several organizations and institutions, among them many
working-class neighborhoods of Caracas; the National Association of Community,
Free and Alternative Media (ANMCLA); and the Bolivarian University of
Venezuela.
He stated that the “Zamora takes Caracas” action
was “a demonstration that we are taking responsibility to defend our
government by all means. We protest against any interference with our
sovereignty. ... Our revolution is unique in the world, we are transforming
society in a peaceful way. In contrast Bush’s policy is to dominate
through the help of weapons, to conquer the planet to bring more poverty, more
misery.”
WW asked Viera what he thought of President
Chávez’s recent statements about socialism. He said, “I think
that socialism is the most exact formula for humanity,” adding that
political awareness cannot be developed overnight. “We do not agree with
the neoliberal, capitalist system that has endangered countries, particularly
Third World countries.”
Lending insight to the internal organizing
in Bolivarian Venezuela, Viera told WW that FNCEZ holds popular assemblies in
communities. “We talk with the people about the need to create a new
society, of building a new country. These are our workshops, this is how we get
cadres. We have to go to the countryside, to the mountains, where our
compatriots live. Pop ular assemblies where we explain about the system, about
the new state policies toward the agrarian system—we talk about building
the new society, the new political consciousness. We don’t have a school;
we talk touching their hearts. We do not ask to get paid nor to be fed,
sometimes we go without eating and return with out eating. We do not even ask
for coffee.
“We are creating political consciousness, forming the
basis to construct a real people’s power where the power is held by the
people; that is what we are fighting for.”
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