Stuart Munckton
US multinational corporation IBM was recently fined and had its Caracas offices forcibly closed down for 48 hours by the Venezuelan government for attempting to avoid paying its taxes, according to an October 6 Canadian Press report.
The article reported that a number of other multinationals were about to face similar treatment for tax avoidance, including Microsoft, Honda, Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens and Bosch Rexroth. This "zero tolerance" of corporate tax evasion by the government has already led to the fining and forcible closure of such powerful multinationals as the Dutch oil giant Shell and US corporate giants McDonald's and Coca-Cola.
This crackdown led to a 50% increase in tax revenue last year, which the government used to fund a significant increase in the minimum wage, directly redistributing wealth from the mega-rich to the most vulnerable. It is this willingness of the government of President Hugo Chavez to stand up to seemingly all-powerful corporations in order to implement policies that benefit the poor majority of Venezuelans that has captured the imagination of ordinary people the world over. It has also earned Chavez's government the animosity of the US government and the big corporations that dominate the global economy.
In July and August, more than a dozen Resistance activists from around the country joined nearly 50 other Australians in the first Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade. I was one of these participants and we saw firsthand the changes underway in Venezuela, including a massive expansion of free education and health care to those who have never had access to them before.
However, we also saw a lot more than just a decent government willing to introduce some good policies. What we saw was that ordinary people had woken up, were incredibly politicised and active in a huge struggle to win more and more power through participatory democracy, in order to fundamentally transform society. We saw how workers were struggling not just for better wages and conditions, but also for democratic control over their workplaces — through a process of worker-state "co-management". Through state-owned industries being democratically run by its workers, the economy was beginning to be organised according to the needs of society, rather than for generating profits for corporate bosses.
What we saw was a popular and democratic revolution — the first revolution of the 21st century.
This process, known as the Bolivarian revolution, aims not merely to make a few small changes to the status quo, but to overturn the capitalist system and create a "new socialism of the 21st century".
Socialism — the idea that the economy should not be left in the hands of a tiny elite to further enrich itself, but should be run democratically according to human need — was declared dead and buried after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Capitalism was hailed as triumphant. And yet, just over a decade later, the socialist banner has been raised again.
The Bolivarian revolution did not start out with the aim of building socialism. Chavez was elected in 1998, but it was only in January this year, speaking at the World Social Forum in Brazil, that Chavez for the first time argued for socialism. He made it clear he didn't mean the so-called "socialism" that existed in the Soviet Union, but "true socialism", a democratic and humanist socialism. Chavez called for a debate inside Venezuela on the topic and on May Day, more than a million workers marched through the capital, Caracas, under the banner of constructing "Bolivarian socialism", proving that large numbers of Venezuelan people had embraced the socialist ideal.
When Chavez was first elected, he admits he believed it was possible to "humanise" capitalism through a series of reforms. However, both Chavez and the Venezuelan people have since discovered that the goals of the Bolivarian revolution — to tackle poverty, introduce participatory democracy and create a society based on social justice — are incompatible with capitalism.
At every turn, the owners of industry, both foreign and Venezuelan, have attempted to undermine and defeat the revolution, even though the initial reforms were relatively minor. There was a military coup that overthrew Chavez and put in power the head of the country's chamber of commerce in 2002. When that failed, due to a popular uprising, the bosses shut their companies down to sabotage the economy. When workers began taking over industries and running them themselves, the bosses' attempts failed again. But they haven't stopped trying and the mainstream media outlets owned by the rich continue to campaign ceaselessly against the government. It is this resistance to even mild measures aiming to improve the lot of the majority that has convinced Chavez and millions of Venezuelans that to really tackle the problems facing the country, they need to break with capitalism and begin to build a new system based on the principles of solidarity and human need.
There is still a lot of discussion and debate in Venezuela about what socialism means and how to construct it. However, Venezuela's pro-people policies have already led to a significant reduction in poverty, with the percentage of the population living in poverty expected to drop during 2005 by 12%, or 3 million people. As Chavez explained at the May Day march, the process of change has "only just begun".
And the process is not viewed as being limited to Venezuela either. Chavez has repeatedly insisted that the world is faced with a choice between "socialism or barbarism", and in a speech to an international conference of revolutionary youth in Caracas during the brigade, he urged a global offensive against imperialism.
Venezuela is trying to put this internationalism into practice by offering cheap heating oil to the poor of the Americas, including the poor inside the United States, as well as uniting with socialist Cuba to spread health care and literacy missions across the continent. One of the most inspiring programs is the joint Venezuela-Cuba program that aims to fly hundreds of thousands of people with eyesight problems, including from inside the US, to Cuba for operations to restore their sight — all completely free of charge.
Unsurprisingly, the US government, which has backed previous attempts to overthrow Chavez, is continuing to threaten Venezuela. At the Resistance national conference in early October, we adopted a resolution on the Venezuelan revolution that welcomes the revolution and commits Resistance to helping build the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN). For the text of the resolution, visit:.
Solidarity groups are being launched across the country, and actions are being planned against US aggression and in support of Venezuelan sovereignty to coincide with the December 4 National Assembly elections in Venezuela. To get involved in the campaign, or to view the resolution, check out the AVSN's website, .
[Stuart Munckton is a member of the Resistance national executive and was a participant in the first Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, November 2, 2005.
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