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The first revolution of the 21st century
by Stuart Munckton
Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez sent waves of shock through the US elite, and the corporate media, by using his speech before the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 2006 to attack US imperialism’s attempt to dominate the world and to call for a global struggle against it. Referring to the speech the previous day by US President George Bush, Chavez said: “Yesterday the Devil was here … This table from where I speak still smells like sulfur ... the president of the United States came here talking as if he owned the world.”
Chavez said that, while the US people wanted peace, their government didn’t. He criticised the UN for being ineffective at best and a tool of imperialist interests at worse, and raised concrete proposals to reform it. Chavez spoke directly to the US people, as well as people around the world, and urged them to read
Hegemony or Survival by renowned US intellectual Noam Chomsky, which details the way imperialism operates. The book shot to number one on Amazon’s list of bestsellers.
Asked about his “undiplomatic” comments at the UN during an interview with US TV station PBS, Chavez replied “how diplomatic is it to bombard cities? Is it diplomatic to command the killing of thousands of innocent people?”
Chavez spoke to packed community meetings during his trip to New York. He announced that his government would double the amount of discounted heating oil it distributes to poor families in the US for the coming winter. Venezuela’s willingness to assist the US poor, abandoned by their own government, showed the absurdity of the corporate media’s labelling of Chavez as “anti-American”.
In response to the speech, US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said: “We’re not going to address that kind of comic strip approach to international affairs.” Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer jumped in on the act to parrot the US government. In an interview with the Fox Network, he called Chavez’s speech “undignified” and “classless”, and repeated unsubstantiated allegations of a supposed lack of free speech inside Venezuela.
What truly terrifies the rich and powerful is that Hugo Chavez was speaking at the head of a powerful and growing revolutionary movement in Venezuela, that is itself at the head of a continent-wide rebellion of the poor against US-enforced neoliberal policies in Latin America.
Chavez told the UN General Assembly that “beyond the threats, wars, and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning … In barely a decade it has been demonstrated that the ‘end of history’ theory was totally false. The establishment of the American Empire, the American peace, the establishment of the capitalist, neoliberal model that generates misery and poverty — all totally false.”
In the 1980s and ’90s, the US enforced harsh neoliberal policies on Latin America. In the 1990s, across Latin America, some 4000 banks and industries shifted from state ownership into corporate hands. Poverty rose dramatically and in Venezuela the number of people in poverty doubled.
By the turn of the century, this had sparked mass movements opposing neoliberalism across Latin America that were able to overthrow a number of pro-US neoliberal governments, and see the election of politicians on anti-neoliberal platforms in a growing number of countries. In Venezuela, opposition to neoliberalism deepened from protest into a revolution aiming to use Venezuela’s significant oil wealth to eradicate poverty and transform the country.
The seeds of this revolution were sown in a spontaneous uprising against price rises implemented by the Venezuelan government at the behest of the International Monetary Fund in 1989. Known as the
Caracazo, the poor took over Venezuela’s capital and other major cities, until the military brutally “restored order”, killing thousands. This angered a section of the military who identified with the poor, and in 1992 a new uprising of thousands of soldiers was led by an officer in the parachuters division — Hugo Chavez. The revolt failed and Chavez was jailed, but it turned him into a popular hero.
Chavez came from next to nowhere to win the 1998 presidential elections on a pro-poor platform with nearly 60% of the vote. This election began a process that has led to a dramatic class struggle in Venezuela, as the poor majority, encouraged by Chavez’s election, have waged a struggle to win power from the hands of the rich elite. Venezuela has been the scene of the first revolution of the 21st century.
This struggle has inspired people the world over that it is possible to struggle and win. The people have defeated a US-backed military coup, a bosses’ lockout that sabotaged the economy, and other attempts to stop the Chavez government. Through these struggles the level of organisation and radicalisation of the poor majority has grown. This has enabled the government to increasingly implement policies that begin to redistribute oil wealth, resulting in a reduction of poverty and the provision of essential services such as education and health care to millions who have never had access to them before.
The Chavez government has argued that Latin America needs to unite economically and politically in order to challenge US domination. Venezuela has promoted trade across the region, based on the principle of solidarity rather than competition, that have sought economic integration.
The process has been profoundly democratic. Not only had pro-Chavez forces won nine national elections by the end of 2005, but the process is based on the concept of “participatory democracy”. Chavez has insisted that to eradicate poverty, you need to give power to the poor. A number of new structures have been created aiming to draw the poor into governing themselves.
The Venezuelan revolution has raised the flag of socialism once more. Although the process didn’t start out as explicitly socialist, through attempting to transform Venezuela, both Chavez and increasingly large numbers of Venezuelan people have drawn the conclusion that to solve the world’s problems, you had to construct a “new socialism of the 21st century”.
The revolution is a work in progress. Despite the gains, Venezuela remains plagued by many problems. Corruption continues to be a big problem, and bureaucratic practices have hindered the attempts to build popular power. The rich continue to control a large amount of the economy, while many poor people still struggle to get by. The revolution is very much an ongoing process, a struggle waged by the working people against enormous odds. The Venezuelan people have already achieved a huge amount, and the government and the people continue to struggle to “deepen the revolution”, to take further steps on the road to build a “new Venezuela”.
This pamphlet is about this struggle. It serves as an introduction to the first revolution of the 21st century. Amongst other things, it covers the gains of the poor via the social missions; the struggle of women; the struggle of workers for economic justice and democracy in the workplace; of peasants for land; the struggle of the gay liberation movement; the struggle for popular power; how the revolution, contrary to slander from the likes of Alexander Downer, is extending free speech; and how the revolution is challenging imperialism not just in Venezuela, but globally. It also features a speech by Chavez to the World Social Forum in January 2006, where he spells out the nature of the global struggle against imperialism and for socialism.
This pamphlet has been produced by the socialist youth organisation Resistance. The articles are mostly written by Resistance members, often adapted from
Green Left Weekly, Australia’s leading alternative newspaper, which Resistance helps produce and distribute. Since the first solidarity brigade to Venezuela from Australia in July 2005, dozens of Resistance activists have visited Venezuela and experienced the revolution firsthand. A number of these articles are drawn in part from eyewitness accounts.
The pamphlet includes a Resistance resolution that spells out our understanding of the revolution, and also our commitment to build solidarity against US hostility. Resistance is part of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network and we work to build the solidarity movement here. However, we are also involved in a wide range of struggles for justice in this country. As the resolution explains, ultimately the best way to build solidarity with Venezuela is to work to achieve social change here. If you are inspired by the gains of the revolution in Venezuela, then you should join Resistance and work to make our own revolution to build the new “socialism of the 21st century”.
