 The Venezuelan people, led by President Hugo Chavez, are making significant social and economic gains. Photo: Reuters/Daniel Aguilar |
Popular upsurge is sweeping Latin America. The people of numerous countries in Latin America have forcefully rejected the neoliberal economic project that is part of U.S. imperialism’s agenda for dominating the region.
The people’s movement in Ecuador has expelled three presidents in nine years. In the last two years, two have been forced to resign because of vigorous protests led by Indigenous people, peasants, students and workers.
In Bolivia, a movement led by workers and Indigenous people ousted President Gonzalo Sánchez de Losada two years ago. Sánchez pushed for privatizing Bolivia’s plentiful oil and natural gas resources. The movement then forced his successor, Carlos Mesa, from office in May 2005 for pursuing the same criminal policies.
Countries like Peru, El Salvador and Colombia have seen large, militant protests against the neoliberal policies implemented by Latin American regimes at the behest of the World Bank and IMF.
Even bourgeois pundits recognize that U.S. imperialism faces a crisis brought on by its aggressive imposition of neoliberal policies. In an article entitled “Will Latin America’s ‘pink tide’ spill over into Mexico?” journalist Diane Lindquist writes, “In the past six years, leftist presidents have come to power in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil. … Such leaders now preside over three-quarters of South America’s 355 million people. … Their rise has been propelled by the public’s questioning of 20 years of free-market and privatization policies of more conservative predecessors.” (ParamusPost.com, June 24, 2005)
Although these presidents have come into office in response to the demands of powerful people’s movements, few of them have been able to deliver what they promised. With the exception of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the social-democratic leaders chosen by the mass movements have done little for the people. They are not oriented toward the revolutionary overturn of capitalist property relations, but rather pursue a policy of reform within the existing social order.
Electoral victories can offer some hope to the mass movement, but they can also be used to channel the movement’s energy into avenues considered safe by the ruling class and U.S. imperialism. The real determining factor in the struggle against neoliberalism, and imperialism in general, isn’t the political stance of a social-democratic politician, but the strength and organization of the movement and the realization of its long-term goals by revolutionary action.
The movement in Bolivia, for example, has been strong enough to oust president after president who did not respond to the people’s demands. Although there has been disagreement among the different forces leading the movement about which tactics to employ, the Bolivian people have been clear about their central demand—they want Bolivia’s natural resources to be nationalized.
The question of state power
 The FARC-EP is fighting a guerrilla war against the reactionary Colombian government. Photo: Jose Miguel Gomez/Reuters |
The situation in Bolivia and other countries, however, poses a question larger than how to struggle against privatization of an industry or for the nationalization of a particular natural resource. The question looming in all of these struggles is how to resolve, once and for all, the deepening crisis brought on by free market reforms.
At bottom, the question is about taking state power—how the working and oppressed people can take power from the ruling elite and put it in their own hands.
The question of state power raises the issues of what a state is and its role in society. Revolutionary Marxists understand that the state came into being along with class society. It is an instrument for maintaining the rule of the oppressor class—slave owners, feudal lords, capitalists—to keep down the oppressed classes by force.
To hold state power is to create a new people’s armed forces, police, courts, prisons and the state’s political institutions. The Marxist aim is to elevate the working class to the position of ruling class, through the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist class and its state.
The working and poor people of Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba are addressing the issue of state power in various ways, all of which revolve around the strength and organization of the masses and their ability to take power.
Venezuela: mounting victories for the people
Hugo Chávez’s presidential victory in 1998, and subsequent electoral successes, came not from promises and a well-oiled electoral machine, but the huge popularity he gained in 1992 after attempting to overthrow the hated president Carlos Andrés Pérez.
Since the 1970s, Chávez had been preparing a progressive civil-military formation against the government. With the massive 1989 popular rebellion that broke out in Caracas due to unbearable poverty, he was inspired to wage the short-lived armed struggle in 1992. The fruits of that struggle were borne out in Chávez’s 1998 election.
Chávez’s relentless drive to improve the lives of impoverished Venezuelans, and their fervent support for him, have carried the Bolivarian revolution through victory after victory, despite fierce rightwing opposition.
His administration immediately began to change the Venezuelan political landscape by forming a constituent assembly. This brought together many activists and representatives from women’s organizations, Indigenous communities and other forces to create one of the most progressive constitutions in the hemisphere. Laws were passed to redistribute land and protect small fisheries, among other things.
But it wasn’t until April 2002 that the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela made a qualitative shift. When Chávez was kidnapped by members of the Venezuelan military and elite, with the backing of the U.S. government, nearly one million working and poor Venezuelans flooded the streets and forced his return.
The defeat of the anti-Chávez coup made clear that the Venezuelan working class, and especially its poorest sectors, was committed to the Bolivarian revolution and were willing to sacrifice their lives and well-being to defend it. Since then, the Bolivarian revolution has continued to strengthen and expand in numerous ways.
The Chávez government and the people of Venezuela, with essential assistance from Cuba, have established programs for free health care and education, housing, jobs and other social services.
The Venezuelan people have defended these gains and the revolutionary process from repeated attacks by the Venezuelan elite and their U.S. backers. They have become stronger and more experienced in the face of the April 2002 coup, the two debilitating lockouts by the captains of industry, a referendum on Chávez and increased U.S. threats and warnings.
The question of state power is an important factor in consolidating and defending these gains. To hold state power, the Venezuelan working class must actually control the political and state apparatus and all of its institutions like the military and police. Private property must be abolished in the commanding centers of the economy in favor of public ownership and management. This has not happened yet, but there have been significant advances made recently. The leadership of Chávez and his administration are pushing the country in this direction.
Following the April 2002 coup, there was some reorganization of the Venezuelan military. The officers that participated in the coup were expelled. Pro-Chávez officers now head the military, but elements within the military who oppose the Bolivarian revolution remain.
On May 16, 2004, Chávez announced the “Bolivarian Agenda 2006” and enumerated three lines of national defense: strengthening the military, deepening the civic-military union and promoting the active participation of citizens in national defense. (Venezuelanalysis.com, May 20, 2004)
In another step toward arming the people, Chávez announced the creation of popular armed units of self-defense in neighborhoods and workplaces on Feb. 4, 2005.
The Bolivarian revolution is beginning to challenge the Venezuelan capitalist class’s ownership of the means of production—factories, farms and other private property. Two plants, a paper mill and a valve production facility, have been nationalized in response to the struggle of the workers in those industries. PDVSA, the state oil corporation, has been revitalized and placed back into the hands of the state. And Chávez announced the creation of a state-owned petrochemical company on June 27, 2005. (Venezuelanalysis.com)
Chávez has increasingly indicated that his ultimate goal, and the goal of the Venezuelan people, is to work for socialism. On June 23, 2005, at a demonstration in Paraguay, Chavez said, “Capitalism has been, for decades, in a crisis that grows deeper every day.” He called on the countries of South America to follow “the road of socialism, which is the road of salvation for our people.” (utpba.com.ar)
Colombian people on the move
State power is also a prominent issue within Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia.
In Colombia, revolutionary forces have engaged in a mass-based struggle against the U.S.-backed Colombian government for more than four decades. The most advanced elements in the struggle are attempting to resolve the issue of state power by overthrowing the bourgeois government in favor of building socialism. This movement is not only a rejection of neoliberal reforms but of capitalism itself.
The United States has spent over 3 billion dollars training and arming Colombia’s military in an attempt to quell the insurgency. Colombia’s role in the region has increasingly become like Israel’s in the Middle East—a garrison state for the U.S. ruling class.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People’s Army—known by the Spanish acronym FARC-EP—are an important part of the movement for social change in Colombia. The FARC-EP is a revolutionary Marxist organization that seeks to put the working class and peasantry in power through revolutionary struggle. They have employed a variety of tactics to that end, including armed struggle and mass worker and peasant mobilizations.
The movement in Colombia continues to advance its demands, despite suffering extreme repression from the government and government-backed paramilitary death squads. Along with organizations like the FARC-EP, trade unions are active and there is a popular, progressive mass movement against free market reforms. The growing movement, comprised of students, Indigenous people, unionists, campesinos and others, is not only opposing neoliberal reforms in education, telecommunications and other industries, it is also speaking out against U.S. imperialist intervention in Colombia and throughout the world.
Cuba’s example, the alternative
 Cuba’s working class holds state power. Photo: Ahmed Velázquez |
Cuba offers a genuine alternative to the crisis of neoliberalism: socialist ownership and planning. It is the only Latin American country that has escaped the ravages of neoliberal economics, although it has suffered greatly through the stringent economic blockade and sanctions imposed by the United States during the past four decades.
The working class in Cuba holds state power. It took power when a revolutionary movement led by Fidel Castro and others deposed the U.S.-puppet regime in Cuba of military dictator Fulgencio Batista after a hard-fought guerrilla war.
Since the victory of the revolution in January 1959, the Cuban people have made great social and economic gains. Cubans now enjoy free health care, education, housing and adequate food. They enjoy jobs, union rights and freedom from exploitation.
Transnational corporations are not allowed to steal money from Cuban workers. Cuba, through its revolutionary socialist leadership, has organized society to meet human needs, not to protect private property and profits.
Cuba also has assisted people and liberation movements throughout the world. In the mid-1970s, it sent 300,000 volunteers to fight and, ultimately, defeat the South African apartheid army in Angola. Cuba had the economic support of the USSR as it undertook this heroic act of international solidarity with the people of southern Africa. Thousands of Cubans died in a struggle that eventually resulted in the end of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa.
And Cuba has sent tens of thousands of doctors and dentists all over the world. More than 13,000 currently are working in service of the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela.
A special trade partnership has developed between Venezuela and Cuba. The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) accords and other bilateral agreements have brought doctors and other professionals to Venezuela and helped reinvigorate the Cuban economy—which was badly hurt by the overthrow of the Soviet Union.
The Cuban leadership’s refusal to compromise the country’s sovereignty, and its consistent efforts to pose an economic and social alternative to neocolonialism, has elevated its stature for poor and working people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The efforts by the United States to impose diplomatic and economic isolation on Cuba continue to unravel as governments throughout the continent are establishing relations with the Cuban government. For Latin America’s destitute, Cuba’s socialist road offers the only authentic alternative to a life of poverty and suffering.
Revolutionary and progressive movements can look to Cuba, Venezuela and the many movements in Latin America that are resisting imperialism and struggling for social change, for inspiration in the struggles ahead.
