Post by RedFlag32 on Nov 6, 2007 20:33:18 GMT
www.marxist.com/venezuela-counterrevolutionary-provocations-constitutional-referendum06.htm
Venezuela: counter-revolutionary provocations in the
run up to the constitutional referendum
By Jorge Martin
Tuesday, 06 November 2007
On Monday, November 5th, the campaign for the
constitutional reform referendum in Venezuela was
stepped up with the call by retired general Baduel for
a NO vote. General Baduel was a close collaborator of
Chávez and remained loyal to him during the April 2002
military coup which briefly ousted him. In July of
this year he resigned from his position as Defence
Minister and retired from active military office. His
attacks on the constitutional reform are part of a
concerted campaign by the ruling class to prevent it
from being approved in a referendum which will take
place on December 2nd.
The amendments to the 1999 Venezuelan revolution were
announced by Chávez after his election victory in
December 2006 with the stated aim of bringing the
Constitution into line with "Socialism of the 21st
century". They were then formally proposed by Chávez
in July, discussed throughout the country and passed
with a whole series of modifications and additions by
the National Assembly on November 2nd.
Amongst the most significant of the amendments are
those dealing with the new power structure, in which
legal status is given to the Communal Powers in an
attempt to do away with the current structures of the
capitalist state. In the field of property of the
means of production there are a whole number of
articles which have been attacked by the opposition as
being an attack on private property rights while at
the same time enshrining new forms of collective and
social property.
Even though the proposed amendments are limited in
their character, in the context of the class struggle
taking place in Venezuela they have become the
rallying cry for a new clash between the classes, on
the one hand the oligarchy and imperialism, on the
other hand the overwhelming majority of workers and
peasants.
The ruling class is well aware that whatever the
actual text of the constitutional reform (and this is
certainly an advanced and very progressive proposal
which includes the 6-hour working day and a 36-hour
week), the proposals are seen by the masses as a step
forward towards socialism. And for this reason they
have, once again, tried to mobilise all their forces
to stop it.
In the last two weeks, a series of small
demonstrations by opposition students have been taking
place in Caracas and other cities which have often
been the scene of violent clashes with the police.
There are clearly organised fascist elements present
at these demonstrations intent on causing clashes
which can then be used as an excuse to paint Chavez's
government as dictatorial and repressive.
This has been accompanied by calls for a stoppage of
public transport, an incendiary call by the Episcopal
Conference to oppose the constitutional reform,
articles in the media calling for a military
intervention to prevent the referendum from taking
place, etc. This, incidentally, confirms what we said
after the presidential election in December 2006. At
that time some argued that we now had a "democratic
opposition" in Venezuela, since Rosales and his
supporters had accepted their defeat in the election.
We responded that this was just a question of
opportunity. At that time they did not have the
necessary forces and points of support inside the army
to launch a coup, so they were forced by the action of
the masses on the streets to accept the results.
Now the talk of a coup and the intervention of the
army is again on the agenda. So in his column in El
Nacional on November 2, Pablo Medina, one of the main
leaders of the opposition and participant in the 2002
coup, made an open appeal: "gentlemen of the National
Armed Forces, lets overthrow the reform".
In a move reminiscent of the coup in April 2002 and
the lock out in December of the same year, the leaders
of business organisations Fedecamaras and
Consecomercio have appeared on TV appealing to the
people to oppose the reform and the referendum.
At the same time, the opposition is not in a position
of strength. The student demonstrations of the last
few days have been violent but small. The balance of
forces remains enormously favourable to the revolution
as was graphically shown by the two demonstrations
last weekend. The first, on Saturday, called by the
opposition gathered just a few thousand people. The
second, on Sunday, called by Chávez, gathered hundreds
of thousands, marching through Caracas and filling,
yet again, the whole of Bolivar Avenue and the
adjacent streets.
At this rally Chávez delivered a very militant speech
in which he appealed for the referendum campaign to be
organised from the rank and file through the Socialist
Batallions, the basic units of the new United
Socialist Party. Talking to revolutionary activists
from "23 de Enero" and Vargas districts, they agreed
in emphasising the fact that the mobilisation for
Sunday's demo had been carried out by the rank and
file activists rather than the apparatuses of the
Bolivarian parties.
The radicalisation of the Bolivarian revolution after
the December 3rd presidential elections has also
pushed the more right-wing sections of the Bolivarian
leadership into the camp of the opposition. "Podemos",
the social-democratic party which until recently was
part of the government coalition, has now officially
joined the opposition. All this is to be welcomed,
since it helps to clarify where they really stand.
Baduel's statements have to be seen against this
background. As we have explained before on a number of
occasions, the situation inside the Army is far from
being under control. It remains a capitalist army and
if it is not smashed and replaced by the people in
arms, it will eventually be used against the
revolutionary masses. This is how we described the
situation a few months ago:
"It is clear that the most reactionary military
officers purged themselves out of the Army in 2002 by
participating in the coup in April and the attempted
coup in December (when they declared themselves "in
rebellion" at the Altamira Square). Of those who
remained the majority are probably loyal to Chavez in
one way or another, but the reasons why they are loyal
to Chavez are varied. Some of them are loyal simply
because Chavez represents the official government of
the day, others reflect the corrupt nature of the
bourgeois state and plead loyalty simply because they
are making a lot of money through legal and illegal
businesses they have access to by being in the Army,
and many of them probably feel uneasy about all this
talk about socialism. It is clear that if the
situation came to a decisive turning point of taking
over the means of production and destroying the
capitalist state most of them would be on the side of
reaction." (See: The challenges facing the Venezuelan
Revolution)
It was already clear from Baduel's parting speech when
he resigned as Minister of Defence in July that he was
very uneasy with the direction the movement was
taking. All the talk about socialism made him very
nervous. If what was meant was social democracy, then
that was OK, but any talk of nationalising the means
of production he could not accept. "The wholesale
abolition of private property and the brutal
socialisation of the means of production always have a
negative effect in the production of goods and
services and provoke general discontent amongst the
population", he declared.
These are the ideas of the reformists in Venezuela
within the Bolivarian movement. "Socialism of the 21st
century" yes, as long as what is meant is not genuine
socialism, but social democracy. It is significant to
note that Baduel wrote an introduction to Heinz
Dieterich's book on "socialism of the 21st century"
and was the main figure involved in the launch of that
book in Venezuela. Clearly the ideas of Dieterich
(basically advocating "socialism" without changes in
the property of the means of production) provide a
"theoretical" cover for the reformists in Venezuela,
who, as the revolution becomes more radical, reveal
themselves in their true nature as agents of the
counter-revolution.
Baduel's statement yesterday, delivered to a press
conference to which only opposition media were
invited, was only the next logical step. Using the
same terms as Pablo Medina and other opposition
leaders, he described the proposed constitutional
reform as a "coup d'Etat", amongst other reasons
because "with the excuse of distributing wealth
amongst the people, the Executive does away with
private property". He said that what was being
discussed were not minor reforms but a "transformation
of the state and a completely different model of
country".
In what sounded like an appeal for an uprising against
the Bolivarian revolution, he added that the
constitutional reform should be agreed through "a
social pact of broad consensus", otherwise "a wide
majority would not accept it, would always try to
change it, even if it has to resort to violent means
to do it"!
He ended with an appeal not to "underestimate the
capacity of Venezuelan military men to analyse and
think", in what was a clear appeal to the armed forces
to come out against the reform and the referendum. As
in previous occasions the ruling class and imperialism
are trying to gauge what forces they can count upon.
First they will try to discredit and prevent the
referendum from going ahead, though they might be
forced to participate in it in the end.
In any case, the reaction of the Bolivarian revolution
to these statements and counter-revolutionary
provocations can only be to go on the offensive. As
has been repeatedly demonstrated, the balance of
forces is extremely favourable to the revolution, but
this strength must be put into action in an organized
manner. The mobilisation for the December 2nd
constitutional reform referendum should not be seen as
merely an electoral issue. A widespread revolutionary
mobilisation must be mounted, not only to win the
referendum but also to implement the measures
contained in the proposed reform.
Any companies that participate in sabotage of the
economy, particularly transportation and the food
distribution chain, should be immediately occupied by
its workers and expropriated by the government using
the laws that already exist. A serious campaign of
political agitation should be launched inside the army
with the setting up of Socialist Battalions of the new
United Socialist Party composed of revolutionary
soldiers and trusted revolutionary officers. This
should be accompanied by the setting up of units of
the territorial guard in all factories and working
class neighbourhoods and for these to be given
military training and equipment.
These measures should be seen as the first steps
towards taking out of the hands of the ruling class
the levers of economic power it still has and is using
against the democratic will of the majority. These
should be put under workers' control and
democratically managed to the benefit of the majority.
On the other hand, the structures of the old
capitalist state must be smashed once and for all and
replaced by a network of Communal and Factory Councils
with spokespersons elected and recallable at any time
which should cover the whole of the country's
territory.
Win a massive "Yes" vote in the referendum, move
decisively towards socialism!
Venezuela: counter-revolutionary provocations in the
run up to the constitutional referendum
By Jorge Martin
Tuesday, 06 November 2007
On Monday, November 5th, the campaign for the
constitutional reform referendum in Venezuela was
stepped up with the call by retired general Baduel for
a NO vote. General Baduel was a close collaborator of
Chávez and remained loyal to him during the April 2002
military coup which briefly ousted him. In July of
this year he resigned from his position as Defence
Minister and retired from active military office. His
attacks on the constitutional reform are part of a
concerted campaign by the ruling class to prevent it
from being approved in a referendum which will take
place on December 2nd.
The amendments to the 1999 Venezuelan revolution were
announced by Chávez after his election victory in
December 2006 with the stated aim of bringing the
Constitution into line with "Socialism of the 21st
century". They were then formally proposed by Chávez
in July, discussed throughout the country and passed
with a whole series of modifications and additions by
the National Assembly on November 2nd.
Amongst the most significant of the amendments are
those dealing with the new power structure, in which
legal status is given to the Communal Powers in an
attempt to do away with the current structures of the
capitalist state. In the field of property of the
means of production there are a whole number of
articles which have been attacked by the opposition as
being an attack on private property rights while at
the same time enshrining new forms of collective and
social property.
Even though the proposed amendments are limited in
their character, in the context of the class struggle
taking place in Venezuela they have become the
rallying cry for a new clash between the classes, on
the one hand the oligarchy and imperialism, on the
other hand the overwhelming majority of workers and
peasants.
The ruling class is well aware that whatever the
actual text of the constitutional reform (and this is
certainly an advanced and very progressive proposal
which includes the 6-hour working day and a 36-hour
week), the proposals are seen by the masses as a step
forward towards socialism. And for this reason they
have, once again, tried to mobilise all their forces
to stop it.
In the last two weeks, a series of small
demonstrations by opposition students have been taking
place in Caracas and other cities which have often
been the scene of violent clashes with the police.
There are clearly organised fascist elements present
at these demonstrations intent on causing clashes
which can then be used as an excuse to paint Chavez's
government as dictatorial and repressive.
This has been accompanied by calls for a stoppage of
public transport, an incendiary call by the Episcopal
Conference to oppose the constitutional reform,
articles in the media calling for a military
intervention to prevent the referendum from taking
place, etc. This, incidentally, confirms what we said
after the presidential election in December 2006. At
that time some argued that we now had a "democratic
opposition" in Venezuela, since Rosales and his
supporters had accepted their defeat in the election.
We responded that this was just a question of
opportunity. At that time they did not have the
necessary forces and points of support inside the army
to launch a coup, so they were forced by the action of
the masses on the streets to accept the results.
Now the talk of a coup and the intervention of the
army is again on the agenda. So in his column in El
Nacional on November 2, Pablo Medina, one of the main
leaders of the opposition and participant in the 2002
coup, made an open appeal: "gentlemen of the National
Armed Forces, lets overthrow the reform".
In a move reminiscent of the coup in April 2002 and
the lock out in December of the same year, the leaders
of business organisations Fedecamaras and
Consecomercio have appeared on TV appealing to the
people to oppose the reform and the referendum.
At the same time, the opposition is not in a position
of strength. The student demonstrations of the last
few days have been violent but small. The balance of
forces remains enormously favourable to the revolution
as was graphically shown by the two demonstrations
last weekend. The first, on Saturday, called by the
opposition gathered just a few thousand people. The
second, on Sunday, called by Chávez, gathered hundreds
of thousands, marching through Caracas and filling,
yet again, the whole of Bolivar Avenue and the
adjacent streets.
At this rally Chávez delivered a very militant speech
in which he appealed for the referendum campaign to be
organised from the rank and file through the Socialist
Batallions, the basic units of the new United
Socialist Party. Talking to revolutionary activists
from "23 de Enero" and Vargas districts, they agreed
in emphasising the fact that the mobilisation for
Sunday's demo had been carried out by the rank and
file activists rather than the apparatuses of the
Bolivarian parties.
The radicalisation of the Bolivarian revolution after
the December 3rd presidential elections has also
pushed the more right-wing sections of the Bolivarian
leadership into the camp of the opposition. "Podemos",
the social-democratic party which until recently was
part of the government coalition, has now officially
joined the opposition. All this is to be welcomed,
since it helps to clarify where they really stand.
Baduel's statements have to be seen against this
background. As we have explained before on a number of
occasions, the situation inside the Army is far from
being under control. It remains a capitalist army and
if it is not smashed and replaced by the people in
arms, it will eventually be used against the
revolutionary masses. This is how we described the
situation a few months ago:
"It is clear that the most reactionary military
officers purged themselves out of the Army in 2002 by
participating in the coup in April and the attempted
coup in December (when they declared themselves "in
rebellion" at the Altamira Square). Of those who
remained the majority are probably loyal to Chavez in
one way or another, but the reasons why they are loyal
to Chavez are varied. Some of them are loyal simply
because Chavez represents the official government of
the day, others reflect the corrupt nature of the
bourgeois state and plead loyalty simply because they
are making a lot of money through legal and illegal
businesses they have access to by being in the Army,
and many of them probably feel uneasy about all this
talk about socialism. It is clear that if the
situation came to a decisive turning point of taking
over the means of production and destroying the
capitalist state most of them would be on the side of
reaction." (See: The challenges facing the Venezuelan
Revolution)
It was already clear from Baduel's parting speech when
he resigned as Minister of Defence in July that he was
very uneasy with the direction the movement was
taking. All the talk about socialism made him very
nervous. If what was meant was social democracy, then
that was OK, but any talk of nationalising the means
of production he could not accept. "The wholesale
abolition of private property and the brutal
socialisation of the means of production always have a
negative effect in the production of goods and
services and provoke general discontent amongst the
population", he declared.
These are the ideas of the reformists in Venezuela
within the Bolivarian movement. "Socialism of the 21st
century" yes, as long as what is meant is not genuine
socialism, but social democracy. It is significant to
note that Baduel wrote an introduction to Heinz
Dieterich's book on "socialism of the 21st century"
and was the main figure involved in the launch of that
book in Venezuela. Clearly the ideas of Dieterich
(basically advocating "socialism" without changes in
the property of the means of production) provide a
"theoretical" cover for the reformists in Venezuela,
who, as the revolution becomes more radical, reveal
themselves in their true nature as agents of the
counter-revolution.
Baduel's statement yesterday, delivered to a press
conference to which only opposition media were
invited, was only the next logical step. Using the
same terms as Pablo Medina and other opposition
leaders, he described the proposed constitutional
reform as a "coup d'Etat", amongst other reasons
because "with the excuse of distributing wealth
amongst the people, the Executive does away with
private property". He said that what was being
discussed were not minor reforms but a "transformation
of the state and a completely different model of
country".
In what sounded like an appeal for an uprising against
the Bolivarian revolution, he added that the
constitutional reform should be agreed through "a
social pact of broad consensus", otherwise "a wide
majority would not accept it, would always try to
change it, even if it has to resort to violent means
to do it"!
He ended with an appeal not to "underestimate the
capacity of Venezuelan military men to analyse and
think", in what was a clear appeal to the armed forces
to come out against the reform and the referendum. As
in previous occasions the ruling class and imperialism
are trying to gauge what forces they can count upon.
First they will try to discredit and prevent the
referendum from going ahead, though they might be
forced to participate in it in the end.
In any case, the reaction of the Bolivarian revolution
to these statements and counter-revolutionary
provocations can only be to go on the offensive. As
has been repeatedly demonstrated, the balance of
forces is extremely favourable to the revolution, but
this strength must be put into action in an organized
manner. The mobilisation for the December 2nd
constitutional reform referendum should not be seen as
merely an electoral issue. A widespread revolutionary
mobilisation must be mounted, not only to win the
referendum but also to implement the measures
contained in the proposed reform.
Any companies that participate in sabotage of the
economy, particularly transportation and the food
distribution chain, should be immediately occupied by
its workers and expropriated by the government using
the laws that already exist. A serious campaign of
political agitation should be launched inside the army
with the setting up of Socialist Battalions of the new
United Socialist Party composed of revolutionary
soldiers and trusted revolutionary officers. This
should be accompanied by the setting up of units of
the territorial guard in all factories and working
class neighbourhoods and for these to be given
military training and equipment.
These measures should be seen as the first steps
towards taking out of the hands of the ruling class
the levers of economic power it still has and is using
against the democratic will of the majority. These
should be put under workers' control and
democratically managed to the benefit of the majority.
On the other hand, the structures of the old
capitalist state must be smashed once and for all and
replaced by a network of Communal and Factory Councils
with spokespersons elected and recallable at any time
which should cover the whole of the country's
territory.
Win a massive "Yes" vote in the referendum, move
decisively towards socialism!