By Paul Hampton
Hugo Chávez was re-elected president of Venezuela on 3 December, but the
prospects for socialism in Venezuela depend on a conscious break with the
so-called Bolivarian revolution.
Chávez got around 61% of the vote, compared with the right-wing opposition
candidate Manuel Rosales, who got 38% - a convincing victory but not the 10
million votes he and his supporters were aiming for. The opposition did
better than expected, and although he conceded defeat, the opposition has
revived as an organised political force.
What are the prospects for Venezuela and the Venezuelan working class?
During his campaign for re-election, Chávez announced the launch of the
"National Simon Bolivar Project," which he described as "a phase of 14 years of work for the consolidation of the new period" in Venezuelan history. This phase would end in 2021, when Chávez says the "Bolivarian revolution" would be complete. It implies that Chávez will seek re-election in 2013, though he will need to change the constitution to do so.
Chávez said his victory was "another defeat for the devil [i.e. Bush], who
tries to dominate the world" and sent a "brotherly" salute to Cuban leader
Fidel Castro. Apparently he appeared on the balcony shouting "Long live the
Socialist Revolution!" and said "The main central idea is the deepening,
widening and extending of the socialist revolution. More than 60% of the
people have not voted for Chávez but for a project that has a name:
Venezuelan Socialism."
Chávez said people should not be scared of socialism because it is
"fundamentally human, it is love, it is solidarity, and our Socialism is
original, indigenous, Christian and Bolivarian." He said that the moment had come to build a socialist economy, a socialist state and morals, without defining the concrete measures he will carry out. Chávez promised a "battle against bureaucratic counter-revolution and against corruption" and that this would be "a battle for a new state that is capable of defeating this bureaucratisation".
During the campaign, Chávez called for the creation of a "great party of the Bolivarian revolution" to unite the groups that support the revolutionary process in Venezuela - though judging by his past behaviour, he has little use for a political party.
Chavista apologists and hand raisers such as Socialist Appeal in Britain
have argued that workers have voted for revolution and for socialism in
Venezuela. However much they wax lyrically about the prospects of the
peaceful introduction of socialism in Venezuela and disregard the need for a Marxist party, the reality is much more mundane.
Just before the vote Chávez announced more welfare Misiones, more
infrastructure projects such as tube lines and opened a factory producing
the first Venezuelan-Iranian automobile under the joint venture, Venirauto.
This - and his rhetoric, sums up Chavista politics: opposition to
neo-liberalism, but on the basis of national capitalist development (funded
by oil money), with a garnish of populist "socialism".
For sure during his next six years in power there will be more populist
rhetoric - as long the oil price is high and the funds keep flowing. But it
is precisely for this reason that Chávez is highly unlikely to nationalise
large sectors of private capital - especially foreign capital. The
functioning of the oil industry, on which his expansive state relies,
depends upon both foreign investment and overseas sales.
Although there may be more state ownership, worker participation schemes and even the odd experiment in "syndicalist capitalism" i.e. worker controlled firms operating under market imperatives, none of this amounts to socialism.
There are currently around 1,200 abandoned businesses and factories that
have been taken over by their workers. But most of these are cooperatives.
Chávez has nationalised around 20 companies, but only a few firms operate
under congestion (co-management), which itself hardly amounts to workers'
control. The real relation of forces was summed up by the FRETECO occupied
factories movement, which held a conference during the election and managed
only 60 delegates from 15 firms.
What is needed, first and foremost from the international left is clarity
about Chávez. He's a Bonaparte figure governing a stable bourgeois state and presiding over a capitalist economy. Workers in Venezuela are exploited by state and private capital. From this reality flows the fight for working
class independence - the fight for the UNT union federation to operate
independently from the government (and hold elections for its own leaders)
and for a workers' party to represent the interests of workers - including
in elections. The tragedy in this vote was the absence of a workers'
candidate.
No one knows exactly what Chávez will do next. What is foreseeable is class
struggle, with workers confronting both the employers and the state. Above
everything else we are with the workers in struggle, fighting for the own
liberation. That is the only road to socialism in Venezuela.