Having lived in Venezuela for the past four and a half years, I’ve had many opportunities as an American to observe its president, Hugo Chávez Frias, as he and his party, PSUV (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela) carry out the unimaginably difficult task of building a mutually cooperative socialist society in the midst of a world which is totally dominated by ruthlessly cut-throat capitalism.
Living here, I've come increasingly to believe, partly thanks to the creative thinking and organizing of Linda Stout, her Spirit in Action/ group and her book, Collective Visioning: How Groups can Work Together for a Just and Sustainable World, Berrett Koehler (2011) that we in the United States need to look at Venezuelan as a possible inspiration to envisioning the type of society we want to live in. First we need the ideas, the shared visions, and then plans of action to bring them about. (And, as Stout emphasizes, we must do it in the positive spirit of joy and celebration, rather than solely focus on what is currently unacceptable.)
Chávez and his supporters started by convening a group of visionaries to imagine a new society. Their vision is incorporated in the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999. It was arrived at through the election of individuals to a constitutional drafting assembly that was elected individually, not by party identification. Their assignment was to envision a new world.
The elected Constitutional drafting assembly produced a shared vision for a very new society, one that promised its citizens the right to a life of dignity, "with all the material, social and intellectual necessities" (Const. Ve, Chap V, Art. 91), and the government of Venezuela was assigned the responsibility to guarantee the creation and distribution of wealth in such a way as to make those rights a reality. (Const.Ve, Chap. VII, Art. 112).
How Did Such a Vision Come About?
Hugo Chávez Frías, a former military officer from a poor family of elementary school teachers and fruit sellers with indigenous roots, was democratically elected in 1998, in a popular reaction to decades of corrupt pseudo-democracy in which the two largest parties and one small, quasi-left one, by means of a formal written agreement in 1958 signed at Punto Fijo, Venezuela, exchanged and/or shared control of the government every four years.
Chávez, a former military officer from a poor family of elementary school teachers and fruit sellers with indigenous roots, was democratically elected in 1998 in a reaction to decades of corrupt pseudo-democracy in which the two largest parties and one small, quasi-left one, by means of a formal written agreement in 1958 signed at Punto Fijo, Venezuela, exchanged and/or shared control of the government every four years.
This “Punto Fijo Pact” effectively sustained the rule of the small number of wealthy, capitalist elite well connected to the oil industry over the lives of the majority – the millions of poor Venezuelans who constituted the bulk of the population.
While these millions of Venezuelans had no access at all to healthcare, adequate housing or sufficient food, with Hugo Chávez’s family among them, a few thousand rich Venezuelans built their second or third homes in Florida, where they got their health care and their latest American toys, all while insuring that their chosen and controlled politicians passed and enforced laws to protect and continue their wealthy lifestyles
The “Punto fijo” ruling class had not hesitated to shoot dead in the streets those impoverished Venezuelans who objected to their IMF (International Monetary Fund) imposed decisions to make the poor bear even higher costs in sustaining the lifestyles of the rich, when an economic downturn hit oil prices in the 1980’s.
In accord with their “Shock-doctrine” methods, in return for loans, the IMF lenders demanded that severe austerity measures be implemented on the masses of Venezuelans in 1988-1989. (Think Greece, 2011). The ruling “Punto Fijo”class responded to the massive protests by shooting the protesters in what became known as the Caracazo massacre of 1989.
It was in the context of this Caracazo massacre that Hugo Chavez and other progressive members of the military conducted a failed uprising on behalf of the people in 1992. It was defeated, but only “For now” ("Por Ahora") as Chavez told the masses via national TV in 1992, which became the impulse for his post-prison election as President in 1998. (See End Note No. 1)
While running for President Chávez had campaigned on the promise to end the Punto Fijo corruption and bring equal justice to Venezuela, it was not clear exactly what his administration proposed to actually do until the drafting of a new Constitution was initiated.
First the Chavez government held a referendum of the population to determine whether they wanted a new Constitution and whether they wanted an election to chose representatives to write that Constitution. A new Constitution and election for its drafters was popularly approved, and thereafter the drafters were elected.
The democratically elected members of the constitutional drafting assembly collectively produced a proposed Constitution that, for the first time in Venezuela’s history, posited access to health care, education, housing, food, a living wage, the right to unionization, and, perhaps most significantly, the right to live a life with dignity, “with all the material, social and intellectual necessities”, free from discrimination because of race, religion, gender and ethnic or tribal affiliation, as the basic tenets of Venezuelan political, social and economic life. (Const. VE 1999).
(See End Note No. 2)
The draft Constitution was distributed massively throughout the country, even to the point of publishing sections of it on the paper bags distributed in hundreds of thousands of markets. The proposed Constitution was discussed and debated in millions of community meetings and on television and radio.
In 1999, the population of Venezuela voted over-whelmingly (by 72% in favor) to adopt the vision of a society which provided its citizens with “all the material, social and intellectual necessities” for a life of dignity
But how could that be done within the controlling context of a ruthless, cut-throat capitalist economy which had its roots in the colonial structures of 15th and 16th century Spanish imperialism
In the second part of this diary, I will discuss some of the practical problems I’ve observed and the efforts being made to over-come them.
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End Note No. 1: For excellent insights into Hugo Chávez’s personal and political development, see Chávez Nuestro (in English: Our Chavez) by Rosa Miriam Elizalde and Luis Baez, Casa Editora Abril, Havana, (2004) which contains interviews with those who knew Chavez well during his childhood and career, and includes an extensive interview with Chávez himself. (Available – very cheaply-- via Amazon.com). This is also a wonderfully human read.
End Note No. 2: For a thorough and informative discussion of the history and policies of the Chávez government, see "Changing Venezuela By Taking Power" by Gregory Wilpert, Verso Publishers, London & New York (2007)