Venezuela's poor don't need the media to tell them what they already know
www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 12:05:21 AM By: VHeadline.com Reporters
In an article entitled "Inside the Revolutions in South America" Eco Solidarity's Marcel Idels writes in favor of participatory economics and agrarian-based localization saying that in words and deeds, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias has been the strongest proponent of measures to counter corporate globalization.
"He supports import substitution, regional integration and an end to the militarized US drug war, Plan Colombia and Bush's Andean Initiative ... at the World Social Forum in Brazil he spoke in favor of (Brazilian President) Ignacio Lula da Silva's program and called for a Latin American Monetary Fund to replace the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its failed policies ... he also announced that Venezuela would be the first country to adopt the Tobin tax on international financial transactions."
Idels continues "emboldened by the electoral victories in Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador and the heroic triumph of Chavez over the US-backed coup and sabotage in Venezuela, people all over the world have moved to the radical perspective ... the debt bomb, which the rich countries created in Latin America in order to extract profits has turned into a powerful device for forcing the rich to accede to the demands of the poor."
"The US knows that a unified leftist block of nations in Latin America could easily pursue a generalized default on public and private debt ... this requires the US to behave and to work hard to avoid a multi-nation default that would threaten the global banking system and takedown many large US corporations ... debt negotiations will test the vulnerability of the US and create a spectacularly suspenseful drama."
If orderly defaults are not possible due to US pressure, then Brazil and other countries should form a debt cartel and negotiate a general and full default. The negotiating position would be: Support this general default and behave or we will nationalize all your assets.
Banks would be nationalized with strict currency controls ... reserves and deposit withdrawals would be prioritized for key imports, the poor and the lower middle class ... and not for the wealthy ... the mistakes of Argentina are instructive. Commercial debt and foreign ownership deals would be abrogated in the name of social debt relief.
Writing about lessons from Venezuela, Idels says that in Venezuela, the word "democracy" has come to mean the overthrow of the elected President. "Bosses organize the strikes and corrupt union leaders complain about the government defending workers' legal rights. And the military, armed with cement mixers and bricks, invade the shantytowns to build houses, not to destroy them. In the midst of this struggle for the future of Venezuela, is an increasingly confident Hugo Chavez, who, having seen off a US-backed coup attempt last April, is now busy banging the last nails into the coffin of a collapsing two month old strike of managers in the state owned oil company, the PDVSA.
The strike is a showdown between the right wing opposition and the government over the control of the country's vast oil reserves, which provide Venezuela with two thirds of its export earnings.
Wresting control of the PDVSA from the old pro-American management, who had run it as a personal fiefdom and who favored privatization, is seen as pivotal to Chavez's ability to deliver on his promises of homes, health and education for the poor ... the slow defeat of the strike in the PDVSA, has provided Chavez with the opportunity to dismiss 5,000 anti-government executives and saboteurs, and press ahead with the long overdue reform of the company.
After his landslide election in 1999, Chavez had the luxury of a mandate to purge and restructure the judicial, military and administrative branches of the government. Even the right wing in the US applauded some of these efforts. Cleaning up the vastly larger bureaucracy of Brazil could take time or many resources (money, personnel, political favors). Brazil's President Lula da Silva also needs to cut back the military budget and direct these public monies to social investments, but this is a large problem to tackle as well. He may follow Chavez' path of reorienting the military to social and ecological restoration programs as he eases some of the older and reactionary military leaders out of the armed forces.
Chavez has shown remarkable ingenuity and patience in his confrontations with the US-backed upper classes. Rather than confront them directly, he allows them to throw temper tantrums and expose themselves as the spoiled brats they are.
Hoping to wear down the downtrodden, the US plays the game of grinding attrition that it used against the people of Chile, Jamaica and the Sandinistas of Nicaragua in the 1980s.
A strange alliance of anti-Castro Cubans, Media-billionaires and the US White House prod the Venezuelan business class to extend the bosses-strike indefinitely. The US hopes to scare the people and wear down their resolve until they give up sovereignty. With the armed forces on their side the people of Venezuela have successfully weathered these terrorist tactics of the US.
Because the right wing opposition political parties are so detested and weak in Venezuela, the rich, the corrupt labor unions and the broadcast media have had to fill the vacuum and coordinate the strike. Chavez has allowed them to play out their hand and to break many laws so that now, he has every right to seize some of these seditious media organizations and other companies that they own.
One example is the Coca Cola bottling plant, Panamco ... part-owned by the billionaire coup plotter, Gustavo Cisneros, Panamco was shut down just before the strike and its output hoarded in warehouses to help add to shortages and the people's fears. After initially supporting the strike, the thirty-something billionaire, Lorenzo Mendoza, has kept his Polar beer factories humming ... he controls 75% of the beer produced in Venezuela! Cisneros controls most of the rest of the market for beer with his Regional Beer Co.
Like beer a few billionaires control most of the media in Venezuela. Unlike beer, information and news are a public good that benefit all people, just like clean water, clean air and schools. The airwaves are a limited resource and the right to complete information in a democracy is crucial. If broadcasts are to be private, then a large collective editorial board that is held responsible to present the unbiased news should run them. A diversity of programming and slots on all channels for unedited commentary and video presentations from all sectors of society is a common sense addition.
Miraculously, the poor of Venezuela don't need the media to tell them what they already know: "Never be fooled again by the old political parties ... only support the parties of the poor people." The main effect of the Venezuelan strike -- besides hurting the economy -- has been to mobilize poor neighborhoods and support for Chavez. Excitement over Chavez speaking at the World Social Forum threatened to overfill the auditorium and upstage the whole event. The strike has also forced Chavez to intervene more directly in the economy than he desired while in Brazil, Lula worries that the business class will soon challenge his economic program too.
The problems at the Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, suggest actions that Lula must take at Brazil's state-owned mega-corporation, Petrobas -- the largest corporation in Latin America. He should split the company up into smaller management units, sell off foreign assets, fire right-wing and redundant managers and train loyal replacements to run the company ... his appointment of Senator and environmentalist, Marina Silva, to Petrobas? council of directors is a good first step.
Chavez and Lula should take advantage of the public's mood and the disasters caused by the right wing to institute credit controls, the takeover of financial institutions and to seize the properties of business criminals and the many businessmen who are organizing illegal activities against the government.
- Popular referendums would demand the asset seizure of the coup plotters, the financial backers of the illegal strikers and the companies (broadcast media especially) who participated.
Careful analysis of the taxes paid by most Latin American businesses and multinational corporations will reveal major fraud and many land titles can also be challenged. Workers should be encouraged to investigate and reports abuses. Preparation should be made for the inevitable worker management of many factories.
Marcel Idels Ecosolidarity@yahoo.com