Venezuela Resisting
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I am writing this article on the return leg from a visit to Venezuela, having attended a conference of Latin American and Caribbean intellectuals, artistes and activists, committed to combating the ongoing neo-liberal counter-revolution in the region. Also in attendance was Barbadian, David Comissiong.
The Venezuelan encounter offered the opportunity for observing the response by the ruling Nicolas Maduro Presidency, to the loss of its party’s parliamentary majority, in December 2015. I was particularly curious to discover how the Maduro administration was responding to its parliamentary defeat and to the ongoing Latin-American counter-revolution and what was the popular mood given ongoing challenges arising from the drop in oil prices which partially accounts for severe basic-item shortages, including hydro-electric power due to an El Nino drought.
Gratifyingly, Maduro’s government, has under-taken deep reflection on its electoral defeat. According to one official, the party erred in fighting the December election on “bourgeois electoral” terms, when indeed the country had been at “war”. A major response by the government has therefore been to mobilize the party-base, and to strengthen grass-roots socialist institutions, to strengthen party-people linkages.
I, along with Comissiong, was fortunate to have been invited by President Maduro, to observe one such program of mobilization and institution-building – the Popular Council for education. This council, (existing alongside similarly organized councils in other areas of government activity such as production and health) compromised all stakeholders in education – teachers, students, ancillary staff, parents, ministry officials - openly discussing and debating issues confronting the education sector, and proposing policies to the government.
After witnessing a joint declaration by a teacher, worker and a fourteen year-old student, followed by a dialogue between the President and the popular council, I was struck by the under-developed nature of English-Caribbean democracy. Not only has there been a paucity of instances of creative institution building at the grass-roots level, but Caribbean leaders have no culture of direct engagement with the ordinary people on matters of the matter of policy. They have no tradition of mass mobilization outside of election periods.
The level of discussion, as well as the response by the people, left me with full confidence that once replicated in other sectors, the Socialist government of Venezuela will succeed in its response.
However, there was clear evidence of the manufacturing class engaging in production decisions deliberately aimed at frustrating the poor and middle-class. The government has however declared its intention to respond by facilitating the production of 50 basic items, to break the rentier stranglehold of the traditional oligarchs.
As the “Panama Papers” scandal scuttles the legitimacy of the Latin American right-wing, and with the correct political and economic response by the Venezuelan government, there is hope that the Bolivarian revolution will have greater longevity than is now being prayed for by those who cannot envisage an alternative to capitalism.
CNIDOH/AO
