Review: "Venezuela Speaks!"

[Peace Patriot]

Bolivarian blasts

Reviewed by IAN SINCLAIR.

JoJo Farrell, Michael Fox and Carlos Martinez eds., Venezuela Speaks! Voices From The Grassroots PM Press, 2010; ISBN 978-1-604-861-08-2; 320pp; £16.99).

Venezuela Speaks! attempts to counter the one-dimensional focus of the Western media on president Hugo Chavez by highlighting the central role that grassroots social movements have played in pushing the Bolivarian Revolution forward.

As one activist explains: “With Chavez or without Chavez, it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”

Edited by three Venezuela specialists, Venezuela Speaks! is made up of in-depth interviews with 29 radicals and activists – from women’s groups, the indigenous movement, student groups, community media and trade unions.

By working in communal councils and cooperatives, building education centres, taking over factories and conducting land occupations, these people have forced the profound changes that have occurred on Chavez’s watch.

Their impressive gains include cutting extreme poverty in half, reducing the infant mortality rate by 40%, recognising the economic value of housework, a literacy drive that taught 1.5m people to read and write and the introduction of free higher education.

The dominant thread running through all the testimonies is the critical relationship between grassroots movements and a sympathetic government.

Interviewees continuously refer to the problem of what they call “the bureaucracy”, that is, conservative forces still in the government who are either deliberately or inadvertently slowing down the country’s transformation from a representative democracy to something approaching a participatory democracy.

Encyclopaedic in scope, with a superb introductory history, extensive footnotes, a helpful list of abbreviations, explanatory maps and photos, Venezuela Speaks! caters equally to newcomers and those with a pre-existing knowledge of the subject.

Activists working for change in the developed world will no doubt be inspired by the personal accounts of struggle. There is certainly much to learn, especially the realisation that the social movements that propelled Chavez into power were decades in the making.

However, the book also raises an uncomfortable question: if often poor and uneducated activists in Venezuela can make such radical changes in the face of such powerful and repressive forces, why can’t we do the same in the relative freedom of Britain?

An astonishing achievement, Venezuela Speaks! deserves to become a landmark study of contemporary Venezuela.

http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2520/25202314.html

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I bought the book and am about three-quarters of the way through it, and I agree with the reviewer on these three observations in particular:

"By working in communal councils and cooperatives, building education centres, taking over factories and conducting land occupations, these people have forced the profound changes that have occurred on Chavez’s watch.

Their impressive gains include cutting extreme poverty in half, reducing the infant mortality rate by 40%, recognising the economic value of housework, a literacy drive that taught 1.5m people to read and write and the introduction of free higher education. --from the review

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I think it is singularly important to understand that the Bolivarian Revolution is a peoples' movement. They elected the Chavez government--and came to its aid in the U.S. supported rightwing coup attempt of 2002--and they are insisting that it represent THEIR interests--the interests of the majority of the people, not the interests of the rich and powerful few in Venezuela and here. Our corpo-fascist media maliciously ignores the people of Venezuela and their astonishing achievements, and focuses on Chavez, as if he were a marionette that they can play with and decapitate. They fear and loathe the people--the poor majority--and almost never mention them. They fear and loathe democracy itself.

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"The dominant thread running through all the testimonies is the critical relationship between grassroots movements and a sympathetic government." --from the review

The book is very interesting on the topic of the grassroots vs the government. It is not all roses. The grass roots activists need to fight special interests, entrenched bureaucrats, top-down thinkers, corrupt officials and many other problems even with a government that basically desires to empower workers and the poor and to maximize citizen participation--even with a government that has gone out of its way to do so. The lesson is that democracy is never finished. And also the ravages of the past--especially past egregious exploitation by the "have's"--are not so easy to repair. Look what WE have to repair! It boggles the mind. It will take decades, probably many decades. It is edifying to read of the struggles of people who are in the midst of a vast political sea change for the better, comparable to the "New Deal" era here. Our system is stagnant by comparison. There, people have achieved the notion that their ideas, leadership, lives and futures, and their dignity and importance, should be respected by government officials. That is half the battle--creating a mindset of empowerment throughout the citizenry. They expect to be listened to. Do we?

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"...the realisation that the social movements that propelled Chavez into power were decades in the making." --from the review

This is very, very, VERY important for us to understand--we who are trapped within an Empire in which war profiteers, banksters and multinmational corporations are robbing us blind and actively, pointedly trying to destroy our democracy and smash the great American progressive majority forevermore. It takes TIME to undo these anti-democratic forces--especially here, where they are so powerful. Do not despair! Take one step at a time.

I'd say, getting rid of the 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY, PRIVATE, CORPORATE-RUN vote counting systems that have been spread like a cancer all over the U.S. is the first essential step to restoring democracy here. But it probably cannot happen overnight. The entrenchment of corpo-fascist forces everywhere, including the most important one of all--in the vote counting system--have been deliberately designed to disempower us, as a people, and are--and will be--very difficult to dislodge. Take heart from these Venezuelan voices. It CAN be done. Here are the essential lessons:

1) TRANSPARENT vote counting. 2) Grass roots organization. 3) Think big.

As to No. 3, think "universal free medical care." Not just a "public option"--but a total cleansing of the system of all illness profiteers. Think: TOTALLY transparent vote counting and publicly funded elections, with NO corporate involvement. Not just "optical scans with paper ballots" run on 'TRADE SECRET' code with virtually no audit/recount controls. Not just limits on corporate campaign donations and vote counting. Restoration of DEMOCRACY. Restoration of the equality of every citizen. TOTAL restoration of the PUBLIC INTEREST.

The public interest has been compromised out of existence, by our compromising Democratic Party leaders. We cannot change this overnight, but we MUST NOT FORGET IT. Think big. Strategize for the BEST outcome--not just what seems possible under corporate rule, but what is the highest goal that will benefit the most people, and enhance our democracy and make it real again?

If the Latin Americans can do it--who have suffered so much over the last half century--so can we. The leftist democracy movement, of which these voices from Venezuela are excellent activist examples, goes way beyond Venezuela, and has won elections also in Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay (of all places!), Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador--and, until the sneakily U.S. supported rightwing coup, in Honduras. It also came within a hairsbreadth of winning the presidency of Mexico. It suffered a setback in Chile recently, but overall the trend is overwhelming. Latin Americans have really gotten organized, at long last, and are making sweeping changes in every sphere, including rejection of U.S. domination, bullying and militarization of the region. It is quite awesome to behold, and it gives us hope. It CAN be done. These and other activists in Venezuela, and throughout Latin America, have proven it.