Venezuela elections:

Now working class and poor must build real socialism

HUGO CHÁVEZ has won his eleventh election victory since becoming
president of Venezuela in 1998. In elections for the National Assembly
his MVR party won 68% of the vote giving it 114 out of 167 seats. This
was an increase of 28 and means it has the two-thirds majority needed to
make changes to the constitution.

Christine Thomas

Altogether pro-Chávez parties control
almost 100% of the National Assembly. A few days before the election all
the main right-wing opposition parties pulled out. They claimed it was
because the electoral system could not be trusted. In reality, it was an
‘electoral strike’ aimed at discrediting the elections and the Chávez regime.

CNE, the electoral commission, approved 11 out of 12 changes to the
electoral process that the opposition had demanded, including their main
call for the removal of scanners from voting machines. Observers from
the Organisation of American States declared the election process
completely safe and reliable but still the opposition refused to
participate.

It was obvious why. Opinion polls showed that they were going to be
hammered in the elections – just as they were in local elections in
August and elections for state governors in October 2004. This boycott
was a desperate attempt at destabilisation and disruption, fuelled by
weakness, division and demoralisation.

The opposition, backed by US imperialism, has tried to overthrow the
Chávez regime through a military coup, economic sabotage and a
referendum to remove Chávez as president. Every time they have been
resoundingly defeated by the mass mobilisation of Venezuelan workers and
poor.

It appears that overall turnout in this election was only 25%. While
few voted in middle-class and wealthy areas the BBC reported that voters
were queuing to vote in some of the poorest ‘pro-Chávez’ areas. Here
people have benefited from increased public spending on health,
education, subsidised food etc. paid for by booming oil revenues.

Nevertheless, many Chávez supporters will have not bothered to go to
the polls when it became obvious that parties supporting him were going
to sweep the board. But despite high levels of support for Chávez and
the electoral weakness of the opposition, they still pose a danger to
the regime and the working class and poor.

Campaign of sabotage

Having rejected the electoral road for now, some more extreme
opposition elements could embark on a campaign of disruption and
sabotage including terrorist attacks and assassinations.

On election day, an oil pipeline in the west of Venezuela was damaged
in an explosion and some oppositionists are already facing trial accused
of organising the assassination of the Venezuelan state prosecutor. CIA
agents have been identified as being involved in the assassination plot,
as well as in wider plans to assassinate Chávez.

However, another wing of the opposition is concerned that premature
and provocative actions could have the effect of mobilising and
radicalising the workers and poor pushing them in a more leftward
direction and threatening their economic interests and profits.

The bosses’ organisation, Fedecamaras, recently held a conference
which discussed the role of private capital in the ’21st century
socialism’ which Chávez says is being built in Venezuela! They are more
inclined to seek a temporary accommodation with the Chávez regime and
wait for more favourable circumstances in order to strike again.

A fall in the price of oil on the world market or a drop in demand
would devastate the Venezuelan economy. Even now, with the price of oil
at over $50 a barrel and increased spending on social reforms, nearly
half the population are living in poverty.

Unless the demands of working-class people for jobs, housing and
decent services are met, economic crisis and demoralisation could create
the conditions for a successful overthrow of the Chávez regime in the
future.

To prevent that from happening the working class and poor need to act
now, building on the current favourable situation, in order to complete
the revolution.

That means nationalisation of the major companies, banks and
financial institutions – not just those that are bankrupt and abandoned
as Chávez is suggesting – taking them out of the hands of those who have
tried to overthrow the regime and are determined to use their economic
control to do so again.

A socialist Venezuela, with a planned economy and democratic workers’
control and management, would be an inspiration to workers and poor who
have been fighting neo-liberal attacks through mass movements and
uprisings throughout Latin America and it would represent a step towards
real economic cooperation to meet their needs in a continental-wide
socialist federation.