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Venezuela's war on poverty

by Stuart Munckton Venezuelanalysis.com reported on August 12, 2006 that “the latest advances of the Venezuelan social programs, known as ‘missions’ were on show this week”. Mission Madres del Barrio (Mothers of the Neighbourhood — which provides women who work at home bringing up children with a basic income for their labour) was expanded to include 40,000 new participants, while the literacy mission, Mission Robinson II, celebrated 327,000 new graduates. These are just two examples of the successful social missions launched by the government of President Hugo Chavez that have re-diverted the countries sizable oil wealth into a struggle against poverty. By the end of 2005, 210,000 people were expected to have graduated from Mission Ribas, which provides free secondary schooling to older Venezuelans who, due to poverty, never completed it before. The vast majority of Mission Ribas graduates go on to enrol in Mission Sucre, which provides free university education. By mid-2005, Mission Barrio Adentro (Into the Neighbourhood) — which brings free health care to poor areas that have never had access to the health-care system before — was estimated to have involved more than 185 million consultations and saved more than 25,000 lives. Originally limited to establishing clinics in poor areas, the mission is now in its third phase — revamping Venezuela’s run-down public hospitals. Venezuelan polling company Datanalisis found in February 2005 that 73% of the population had benefited from the growing number of social missions. Venezuelanalysis.com journalist Gregory Wilpert noted on June 15, 2005 that people who live in the poor neighbourhoods “consistently report that their sense of hope and of being noticed by the government has increased tremendously”. He argued “a large part of this hope stems from the urban land reform program”. This program, administered by elected committees in the poor communities, is granting the poor titles to the land that they have lived on for years, often building homes from scratch. Wilpert says this program could ultimately benefit nearly half of the population. Since 1984 the number of very poor Venezuelans has increased from 40% to 58%, while the number of middle- and upper-class Venezuelans has decreased from 28% to 4%, according to a study by market research company Datos Information Resources. One direct cause was that government spending decreased almost 50% between 1987 and 1997. That Venezuela is beginning to turn this around is all the more remarkable given the actions by the capitalist class aiming to sabotage the economy as part of their campaign to drive the Chavez government from office. In December 2002, the capitalist class organised a two-month-long lockout of workers across the country, demanding that Chavez resign. Workers in the oil industry were locked out by management, causing oil production to drop from over 3 million barrels per day to just 25,000 by the end of December. Nearly US$10 billion was lost in economic activity during the lock-out. This crisis prompted the formation of a crucial mission: Mission Mercal, a chain of government-run supermarkets that sell food up to 50% cheaper than the capitalist-owned chains. During the lockout, with privately owned transport and distribution centres shut down by their owners, Venezuelans faced severe shortages of food and other basic necessities. Most small producers didn’t support the shut-down, so there was plenty of produce. The government created Mercal to resolve the problem, and it has since grown to have over 25,000 outlets, capturing 60% of the market. In June 2005, Chavez announced another $295 million in funding for Mercal, which will be used to expand the outlets and create another 1000 food houses to provide free food to the very poor. Because it sources food from government-owned cooperatives, Mission Mercal is tied to the struggle for food sovereignty in Venezuela, which imports up to 70% of its food. After the bosses’ lockout was defeated, the government gained genuine control over the oil industry and began to redistribute the oil wealth to the previously abandoned poor majority. Government figures point to a significant drop in poverty from 2003 onwards, with more than 2 million people being lifted out of the category of living in poverty in 2005 alone. Venezuelanalysis.com reported on June 3, 2006 that a World Bank study found that the number of households living in poverty had decreased between 1995-2005 from 40% to 30%. The study explicitly cited the social missions as one of the key reasons for this drop.

Social missions: backbone of the revolution

The best known, and in many ways most successful, aspect of the Bolivarian revolution, are the social missions. The number of missions grows constantly, with new government initiatives. Below is a limited guide to some of the missions. Mission Barrio Adentro, meaning “Into the Neighbourhood”, brings free health care to the poor communities who have never had access to it before. Barrio Adentro is staffed by more than 15,000 volunteer doctors from Cuba who work for a basic stipend. Venezuela is training thousands of doctors to replace the Cubans. According to the Venezuelan government, by April 2006, some 9000 health-care clinics had been constructed. Venezuelanalysis.com reported on August 5, 2004 that the government claimed that within a year, Barrio Adentro had saved 6000 lives and treated up to 18 million people (or around 70% of the population). Mission Robinson, Ribas and Sucre are interrelated education programs that bring free education to Venezuela’s poor. Mission Robinson teaches basic reading and writing skills. Within two years, by mobilising more than a hundred-thousand volunteers, 1.5 million people learned to read and write, making Venezuela an “illiteracy-free territory” according to UN standards. Mission Ribas is a free high-school program for poor Venezuelans who have never completed high school, which includes graduates from Mission Robinson. Mission Ribas graduates can enrol in Mission Sucre, providing free university-level education aimed at the poor. The Chavez government has created a new free university, the Bolivarian University. A Venezuelan government report on September 19, 2006 stated that 3 million Venezuelans were enrolled in the education missions. Mission Mercal is a government-run supermarket chain that provides food at prices up to 50% less than in the private supermarkets. By June 2005 there were 14,000 Mercal stores serving at least 10 million people. A May 2006 report by Datanalisis found that Mercal represented 47.3% share of total sales in the food distribution market in March 2006, compared to 34.7% in October 2005. By prioritising cooperatives for its produce, the Mercal supermarket chain is helping Venezuela achieve its goal of producing enough food to feed itself, as well as providing the cooperatives a guaranteed market. The government has also established over 5000 completely free food houses for the very poor to be provided with healthy meals. Mission Negra Hipolita was established in January 2006 as a primary health-care mission aimed at the extremely poor in Venezuela. It features diagnostic centres and “social prevention committees” aimed at the homeless, drug addicts and others who are critically poor. Mission Madres del Barrio (Mothers of the Neighbourhood) was formed in March 2006, with the main aim of providing financial assistance to poor mothers for their role in raising children. The women receive 80% of the minimum wage, with almost 200,000 women having benefited by August 2006. The mission is run by grassroots neighbourhood committees. Mission Vuelvan Caras is a mission, meaning literally “about face”, which trains participants to form cooperatives that aim to produce for social need in order to develop the Venezuelan economy away from its reliance on the oil industry. The cooperatives receive government assistance with equipment and cheap credit. More than 300,000 people are being trained via the mission. Mission Guaicaipuro, named after Chief Guaicaipuro, who led indigenous resistance to Spanish conquest in Venezuela, was established in 2003 and aims to protect the rights of Venezuela’s indigenous population. The mission works to incorporate indigenous people into the other missions, ensure that cultural rights are respected, and oversee the handing out of land titles to indigenous communities. It aims to be run by the indigenous communities themselves, in partnership with the government. Mission Science was launched in March 2006 with an investment of over US$400 million to create 50 new research networks via Venezuela’s universities. Part of the aim of the mission is to “democratise” science, so that it is both accessible to, and put to the service of, the people. Mission Culture was created in July 2005 to help promote cultural initiatives built from the local community up. Nearly 30,000 people have been trained to organise the mission in local neighbourhoods to create opportunities for a range of cultural events.