[R-G] Chavez threatens to destroy the bourgeoisi

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.marxist.com/chavez-threat-destroy-bourgeoisie261107.htm

Chavez threatens to destroy the bourgeoisie

By Euler Calzadilla , Wanderci Silva Bueno and Darrall Cozens in Caracas
Monday, 26 November 2007

If Wednesday, November 21st belonged to the students and the teaching  
unions, Thursday, 22nd belonged to the workers from the factories and  
the government departments.

Chavez threatens to destroy the bourgeoisie >From 9 in the morning  
they had begun to gather outside the Teatro Teresa Carreno, numbering  
about 1500. These were representatives from workplaces who had come  
to plan their actions to ensure a "Yes" vote in the referendum on  
December 2nd.

Unfortunately, like many things here in Venezuela, the theatre wasn't  
open, so workers stood in small groups discussing while we wandered  
amongst them joining in the discussions and selling the paper El  
Militante. Workers were interested in discussing and we sold quite a  
few.

Many of these workers were already committed to one trade union  
organization or another - UBT (Union Bolivariana de Trabajadores -  
mainly in the building industry), FBT (Fuerza Bolivariana de  
Trabajadores - mainly in government ministries), Fuerza Socialista  
(concentrated in health and electricity) and others. The atmosphere  
was friendly however and when the price of the paper was asked many  
turned it down.

What I had not realized was the sacrifice that many workers make to  
buy a paper when many papers are distributed free by the government.  
Take the workers at LaFarge, a pre-mix cement company owned and  
controlled by a French multinational. A week ago 34 of them had been  
sacked and the workers were angry. We went with them over 2 days to  
the Ministry of Labour and to Miraflores. They earn 26,000 Bolivars  
per day, 4,000 above the minimum wage. The paper El Militante costs  
1,500 or 2,000 as a solidarity price. If we take the average daily  
wage in the UK to be about 100 pounds, the equivalent cost of a  
socialist paper would be between 5 and 8 pounds! So workers buy a  
paper between them and share it.

The morning outside the Theatre dragged on in the heat. Groups of  
workers drifted off for coffee and food. Then the rumour began to  
circulate that Chavez himself would arrive at some time in the  
afternoon. The rumour took on substance when workers arrived with  
steel fencing to control entrances and exits, followed by detachments  
of the palace guard and military police.

By about 3pm groups of workers had begun to drift back to the  
Theatre. From just after 5pm they were allowed in. Remember that many  
of these workers had been up since 6am or before to get to the  
Theatre by 9am and only now were things beginning to happen. It was  
going to be a long day.

The place began to fill up until there were about 1,500 inside. Each  
trade union grouping began to shout slogans to challenge other  
groupings. The atmosphere was getting heated as each group tried to  
out-shout the other. Then came the slogan from someone in the  
audience "El Socialismo para acabar con el imperialismo." (Socialism  
to put an end to imperialism). All the groups stopped shouting their  
own individual slogans to take up the common one. This reflected the  
desire for unity amongst trade unionists to ensure a massive "Yes"  
vote for Chavez in the referendum and reveals the potential for unity  
amongst organized workers. In this context it is unfortunate that one  
or two of the leaders of the UNT have called for a "No" vote in the  
referendum, going against the feelings of unity and the wishes of  
large sections of the working class.

After the common chant, the different groups resorted once again to  
trying to out-shout the others and the atmosphere was becoming  
antagonistic and aggressive. The organisers realized this and put on  
music and songs to try and calm things down.

Just before 6pm the place was full. At about 6.30pm Chavez entered to  
cries of exhaltation - Chavez! Chavez! Chavez! Amongst the trade  
unionists there was a very large group of taxi drivers who would  
benefit directly from the proposed changes to the constitution. Under  
Article 87 they would receive pensions through the establishment of a  
social fund.
Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias
  Photo: Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias

Each section was greeted in turn by Chavez. Each section responded in  
turn with cheers. He recounted how he liked to be with workers as  
when he was younger he too had been a worker before entering the  
military. Wolf whistles and "knowing" chants also erupted when he  
revealed that he had received a present from the model Naomi  
Campbell. Only after much provoking did he reply that it was a watch!

Then the serious message began. He had returned from France the day  
before to a mass rally of real students. They support the "Yes" vote.  
The universities will be changed to serve the majority, not the  
minority. The esqualidos (reactionaries) have stated that they will  
march on Miraflores, the Presidential palace, but they will not be  
allowed to.

Chavez was responding to threats by John Goicochea, the chief student  
voice of all the reactionary groups, who studies at the Catholic  
University, the most expensive university, where fees alone are 5  
million Bs a month! Lafarge cement workers earn 26,000 Bs per day or  
about 0.75 million a month. Goicochea has been threatening a march of  
"No Return" for November 26th, tomorrow.

Chavez proclaimed that such a threatening march will be dissolved.  
The workers responded with cries of "Asi, Asi, Asi se  
gobierna" (That's the way to govern). The workers want firm action to  
be taken against the reactionaries and their paymasters.

Chavez then made a historical comparison between 1979 and 1999. In  
1979 the Shah was overthrown in Iran and the Mullahs took over. The  
USA supported Saddam Hussein against Iran. In 1999 the Venezuelan  
Revolution began and there is no chance of a US invasion. "We have a  
million people in arms and if necessary we will arm the whole people."

The history lesson went further. In Russia the revolution was  
attacked and isolated. The best workers went to the front to fight  
off the invading imperialist armies. The revolution was isolated and  
the bureaucracy took power. "In Venezuela the working class has to be  
the vanguard of the revolutionary process for socialist power."

He continued. The Cuban revolution has lasted a long time due to a  
deep relationship with the masses. In Nicaragua the road of reformism  
led to tragic results. You cannot adapt to capitalism. It doesn't  
work. No to reformism, No to Bureaucracy!

He emphasized again and again that the working class is the vanguard  
but he also castigated many trade unions for not being able to rise  
above the arena of purely trade union demands. If this does not  
happen then the political level of the working class won't rise to  
the level needed to carry out the task of being the motor force of  
the revolution. This process will determine the timing and direction  
of the revolution. We should pass onto the offensive as under  
capitalism we use defensive actions to protect conditions. The only  
way to guarantee Popular Power is if the working class plays the  
leading role.

Under the constitutional changes, he continues, the workers councils  
in the factories will establish relations with peasant, student and  
community councils [in effect setting up embryonic soviets - DC]. If  
this happens then what happened in the Soviet Union and Nicaragua  
won't happen. The aim of all of this is to establish Socialism in the  
country of Bolivar and - in response to a cry from the audience - in  
all of the Americas.

These consejos (councils) will receive money from the state to carry  
out specific projects, such as distributing gas bottles for cooking  
from the state oil company PdVSA. The budget for next year had been  
set and 46% will be devoted to social projects and infrastructure.  
"What other country does this?" he cries.

Yet the devil is in the detail. On the one hand Chavez sees the  
councils in different areas as alternative organs of power more  
closely related to the people and therefore theoretically more  
responsive. This is also a way to bypass the cumbersome and  
obstructive State bureaucracy. As he stated, "...workers councils  
will come into being in the factories, in the workplaces, but they  
should reach out to the communities and be fused into other councils  
of popular power: community councils, students councils, etc... What  
for? To shout slogans? To go around shouting long live Chavez? No!...  
To change the relationships in the workplace, to plan production, to  
take over piece by piece the functions of the government and to  
finish up by destroying the bourgeois state." So the aim is clear and  
Chavez is quite aware of this. To begin with, 5% of the budget will  
be passed to the councils. This should only be the beginning, as  
alternative centres of power cannot function unless they have  
sufficient funds to do so.

It is obvious that the newly formed councils that are emerging and  
will emerge after the success of the referendum will decide  
themselves to a large extent what their remit will be. For example  
under Art.70 workers councils will enable workers to democratically  
manage any enterprise that is direct or indirect social property, yet  
Art.184 talks about the participation of workers in the running of  
public enterprises.

Marxists realize that constitutions or agreements are pieces of paper  
that reflect the balance of forces between two or more parties at any  
given moment in time. The reality of the power of the councils will  
be fought out in the workplaces, the universities and the  
neighbourhoods, the communities.

The bosses will fiercely resist any attempt to take away their right  
to manage. Workers councils will not be set up to decide what colour  
paint should be on the walls! The workers, the state bureaucracy and  
the bosses will all have different conceptions of the role of workers  
councils. For workers it will be to defend and enhance conditions and  
to assume an ever-increasing role in the management of the company -  
a step towards workers' control and management.

Chavez is now beginning to come to his conclusions and as he does a  
new vocabulary now emerges. "We are going to destroy the  
bourgeoisie". Up to now he has always referred to the oligarchy. His  
final words are that we need to learn from the works of Marx, Engels,  
Lenin and Trotsky on how people can run society as well as from  
Gramsci on the role of workers' councils. As workers leave, they feel  
certain of their role in history and in the unfolding revolutionary  
process.

Chavez's words demonstrate that in the run up to the referendum  
political positions are hardening on both sides of the class divide.  
Subsequent to the meeting Chavez has even said that if he does not  
win the referendum, he will be off looking for a substitute to take  
over. Such words reflect the anxiety in the Chavez camp.

The likelihood is that Chavez will win the "Yes" vote. There is  
tremendous loyalty towards him from all those who had previously been  
excluded from wealth and power. The reforms of the past nine years  
have lifted people out of misery and degradation and given them real  
hope for the future. Disposable incomes have risen by 50% but there  
is inflation and shortages of essentials like milk. There is  
obviously sabotage by the bosses from stockpiling or cutting  
production in an attempt to discredit Chavez. The bosses have stopped  
investing and many factories are running at only 50% of capacity, so  
the bosses can sell all that they produce in this expanding market,  
they don't invest and therefore make super profits.

So a majority for Chavez is likely but the fear is abstention with  
only a 50% turnout. In the presidential elections of December 2006  
the turnout was 75% and Chavez took 63% of the vote, a real mandate  
in bourgeois terms. The bureaucrats in charge of the "Yes" campaign  
have plenty of colour (red), plenty of music and songs, but very  
little explanation of what the reforms actually mean. The opposition  
has been producing full-page adverts in the press with a detailed  
analysis from their perspective. There have been outright lies such  
as each newborn child will belong not to the family but to the state,  
and freedom of religion will not be allowed. They seek to frighten  
people into voting "No".

 >From a Marxist perspective the best result on December 2nd will be  
a resounding "Yes". This will embolden people even further and take  
the revolution forward. Whatever the result however there will be a  
period of sharpening class struggle as workers, students and people  
in the barrios pursue their demands for better living standards and  
far more control over their lives, places of work and study. In the  
Bolivarian revolution people have awoken to political life and won't  
be easily put back into the cupboard. As Engels said, "The appetite  
increases with the eating."

The same process will also spew out those in the movement who have  
been consciously or unconsciously holding it back, who have no  
stomach for the fight to end capitalism and establish socialism in  
Venezuela.

November 25 2007