Venezuela: The referendum defeat - What does it me

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By Alan Woods
Monday, 03 December 2007


At about 1am, after a long delay, the Venezuelan National Electoral
Commission announced the results of the referendum on constitutional
reform. The proposals for constitutional change were defeated by the
narrowest of margins, with 4,504,354 votes against, (50.70%) and
4,379,392, (49.29%) for the YES. Soon afterwards, president Chávez was
on the television accepting the results. He said that the proposed
reforms had not been approved "for now", but that he would continue to
struggle to build socialism.

The result, as could be expected, was greeted with jubilation by the
right wing opposition and all the reactionary forces. For the first time
in almost a decade they have secured a victory. There were scenes of
jubilation in the well-off middle class areas of Caracas. "At last we
have shown that Chavez can be defeated! At last the slide towards
communism has been stopped! At last we have given the rabble a lesson!"

The joy of the reactionaries is both premature and exaggerated. A glance
at the results shows that the voting strength of the opposition has
barely increased. If you compare these results (after 88% of the votes
had been counted) with the 2006 presidential elections, the opposition
has only increased about 100,000 votes, but Chávez lost 2.8 million.
These votes did not go to the opposition but rather to abstention. This
means that support for the counter-revolution has not significantly
increased from its highest point one year ago.

Full:
www.marxist.com/venezuela-referendum-defeat031207.htm

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Thi hits the nail on th ehead i think!


The problem is not that the Revolution has limited the democratic rights of the opposition and trampled on "press freedom". The problem is that the Revolution has been far too generous with its opponents, far too tolerant, far too patient, far too gentlemanly. It has left too much power in the hands of the oligarchy and its agents. It has placed a weapon in their hands which they are using very effectively to sabotage the revolution, halt it in its tracks and ultimately destroy it.

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www.counterpunch.org/tariq12032007.html