In Cuba and Venezuela the people are building socialism. This is the democracy of the masses in action, not the spectacle and deceit of an election in Britain that masquerades as democracy. A century of British general elections has left the levers of power as far as ever they were from the reach of the working class. The Cuban and Venezuelan people have taken hold of these levers to demonstrate another world is possible: socialism.
On May Day over one million workers marched through the streets of Caracas in defence of national sovereignty, workers’ control and for socialism. President Chavez, just returned from Cuba after signing another 49 joint agreements between the two countries, stated his vision of a socialist future for Venezuela. He outlined the tasks ahead for the revolutionary process and to prepare the mass of workers for the struggles to be faced, stressing that more work had to be done to unite the revolutionary forces..
Sending revolutionary greetings to the people of the US, he declared that Venezuela was at the beginning of the process. ‘We are just beginning to construct a new state, institutions and a new society…we are just taking the first few steps in the new economy, in production, in property relations and so we must not have any illusions and we must not yet shout that we have won.’
The new UNT (National Union of Workers) organised the celebration, having supplanted the (CTV) Central Union of Workers, an actively pro-imperialist, anti-Chavez organisation. Francisco Torrealba a National Co-ordinator of the UNT said: ‘It is clear from today’s protest that the UNT firmly represents unity, workers’ participation in management (‘co-management’) and socialism while the CTV is a bad memory of the past that has stained the union movement for the past 40 years’.
The UNT presented Chavez with a proposal, ‘Project for the law of participation of workers in the management of public and private enterprises’, which is to be discussed in the National Assembly. Elias Jaua, Minister for the Popular Economy said that the cooperative method is a democratic and participatory method that aims to construct a socialism of the 21st century. ‘We are aiming for equal distribution so that workers are part of deciding what, how and who should be producing products…we aim to democratise production and consumption of products in society.’
Noting the steps that had been taken to develop ABLA (Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America), Chavez spoke about Cuba. ‘Our models of integration include liberty and equality…and they are incompatible with the laws of capitalism.’ Developing an argument he began publicly at the end of last year, he stated that: ‘The capitalist system does not allow us to implement our constitution or the political, economic or social project that we want.’ He made it clear that there is no third road. ‘We need to march for a new socialism of the 21st century… so that we can build a new political and social socialist system.’ ‘We are in a transitional situation which has taken effect since 1998 and needs to be continuously planned…To construct socialism we need to break capitalist economic laws…the traditional economic orthodoxy is not compatible with a revolutionary economy.’ Chavez noted that Cuba has now approved scholarships for up to 10,000 Venezuelan doctors to study in Cuba.
Discussing the building a new society, Chavez argued for open self-criticism. He stated that Venezuelans ‘must work towards what Che defined as the building of a new human being in society’. ‘Che was more than just a martyr, more than just a heroic guerrilla fighter, he was also a Minister in the Cuban government and developed many ideas on how to build the new socialist society…we must study and learn from his thoughts.’
Alvaro Michaels
FRFI 185 June / July 2005
