Chavistas in the Halls of Power, Chavistas on the Street
Gindin, Jonah
WITH MEMBERS OF VENEZUELA'S political opposition trying to get rid of President Hugo Chavez by just about any means they can think of, Chavez's supporters have been in a near-constant state of...
...The formulation of highly political social movements and the participatory democracy they practice provide a new and promising response to global neoliberalism...
...In this political context, the first steps toward the development of participatory budgeting has meant the creation of "commuJonah Gindin is a Canadian journalist living and working in Venezuela...
...mobilization and concrete Chavismo's lack of auton- advances in key areas of omy from government is certainly problematic, education, health and and it is a contradic- housing, Chavismo is tion that will eventually be unsustainable...
...He writes regularly for <www.venezuelanal ysis.com...
...He writes regularly for <wwwvenezuelanal ysis.com...
...Its clear goal has been to lay the foundation upon which to build participatory power structures in poor communities, where organized political capacities have atrophied after decades of exclusion...
...groups that must practically invent a movement from scratch...
...But post-referendum Venezuela was going to be a new stage, with or without Chavez's blessings...
...5 Whatever the post-referendum strategy for the UBEs was at the time of their formation, their continued existence has since become an integral part of the as-yet largely unplanned future of the Bolivarian experiment...
...The implementation of projects aimed at improving the lives of poor Venezuelans has frequently taken a back seat to this defensive mobilization...
...With his charisma and masterful ability to engage in political dialogue with the estimated 80% of Venezuelans who live below the poverty line, Chavez has united most of the country's anti-neoliberal forces under his leadership...
...Chavez has declared the arrival of a new stage of el proceso, what he calls the "revolution within the revolution...
...But the mobilization itself has created a social momentum that may be carrying Chavismo the loose grouping of Chavez's supporters toward a deepening of his proclaimed "Bolivarian Revolution...
...The unique character of these organizations is that they act not only as organizing conduits, but also as informal centers of evaluation and criticism...
...The resulting siege mentality, particularly as a result of the coup, has meant that the organization of a huge swath of Venezuelan society has been specifically predicated on the basis of supporting the President...
...But its organic link to the state gives it a character and a revolutionary potential lacking in other movements of the region such as Brazil's Through conscious, Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) or the Argentine piqueteros...
...Chavez has declared the arrival of a new stage of el proceso, what he calls the "revolution within the revolution...
...And land committees oversee and participate in the application of urban and rural land reform...
...When land reform is not proceeding according to schedule, for example, or community health clinics are not receiving their funding, it is the committee members of the communities in question who bring the issue to the attention of the state by direct protest when necessary...
...there exists a new emerging leadership within el proceso," notes Pedro Infante, director of the National Coordinator of Popular Organizations...
...In this political context, the first steps toward the development of participatory budgeting has meant the creation of "commuJonah Gindin is a Canadian journalist living and working in Venezuela...
...The implementation of projects aimed at improving the lives of poor Venezuelans has frequently taken a back seat to this defensive mobilization...
...The 2001 coup and four ultimately unsuccessful, though destructive, general strikes and employer lockouts have inevitably put the government, and its supporters, on the defensive...
...But the manner in which this capacities as a traditional contradiction forces its social movement...
...The UBEs are in the process of redefining themselves as social battle units (UBSs), shifting their focus from electoral processes to community needs...
...As the backbone of the Bolivarian project, Chavismo already has the space necessary to exert intense pressure on the government to deepen the embryonic develop- ment of participatory power structures such as Local Planning Councils and the UBEs...
...2 Government mobilizing is in part responding to this reality...
...In the first speech of the campaign on June 5, Chavez announced the creation of "electoral battle units" (UBEs) and electoral "patrols" to be coordinated by a national committee...
...Local leadership exists, regional leadership exists...
...The Comando Maisanta, as the committee was called, oversaw UBEs in every state, municipality and neighborhood, and report- ed directly to the President...
...own resolution need not be negative...
...Its clear goal has been to lay the foundation upon which to build participatory power structures in poor communities, where organized political capacities have atrophied after decades of exclusion...
...Through conscious, planned community mobilization and concrete advances in key areas of education, health and housing, Chavismo is currently acting in many capacities as a traditional social movement...
...Another fundamentally important product of Chavismo's bridge between the grassroots and the government is its incorporation of rank and file elements of the armed forces...
...They have vigorously resisted the corporate-led economic globalization process that has been heralded as the panacea to underdevelopment and poverty...
...At most levels, time constraints made a democratic structure impossible...
...Another fundamentally important product of Chavismo's bridge between the grassroots and the government is its incorporation of rank and file elements of the armed forces...
...What distinguishes Chavismo from other political movements is the space Chavez's lead- ership has opened for mobilization from below...
...Yet, as veteran social activist and writer Roland Denis notes, "These are groups that move within a large wave of rebellion, but without an organic base, without a party, without history, without tradition...
...z NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS nity living organizations," each made up of roughly 15 to 30 people, one member of each family in a given neighborhood...
...Certainly, many who joined the UBEs were from land- and health-reform committees, and some were activists in community-living organizations and militants of the community-based social movements...
...WITH MEMBERS OF VENEZUELA'S political opposition trying to get rid of President Hugo Chavez by just about any means they can think of, Chavez's supporters have been in a near-constant state of anti-opposition mobilization...
...The first follows from the government's active creation of participatory community organizations, neighborhood asso- ciations and public-works projects.' Health committees, for example, work with Cuban doctors and provide a link between the community and the state in Barrio Adentro, a program offering free primary health care in poor neighborhoods...
...And land committees oversee and participate in the application of urban and rural land reform...
...Groups of patrols made up district UBEs, which together made up municipal UBEs and so on...
...Chavez appointed the members of the Commando Maisanta and the state-level UBEs, but from the level of the municipality to the community, positions were largely submitted to improvised elections...
...We are organized, but we are dispersed...
...3. Interview with author, Caracas, November 19, 2004...
...4 The development of a new kind of social movement in Venezuela is one of the Bolivarian Revolution's most important legacies...
...Certainly, many who joined the UBEs were from land- and health-reform committees, and some were activists in community-living organizations and militants of the community-based social movements...
...But now, community-based activism inevitably involves close coordination with government-formed community organizations, blurring the boundaries between the two...
...Further, these responses represent a substantial change from previous forms of political action, and they are transforming the conduct of politics in Brazil and Latin America...
...The need to defend Chavez has for the moment receded, providing an opportunity for proactive Chavismo to fill the vacuum...
...THE POWERFUL CULT OF PERSONALITY SURROUNDING Chavez gave him a resounding victory in last August's presidential recall referendum, and was largely responsible for the government's landslide vic- tory in the October regional elections...
...It can do this to such an extent that autonomy becomes irrelevant, or even undesirable: Chavismo as a social movement and as a government may eventually more solidly converge...
...In the process they are substantially strengthening participatory democratic practice...
...In a recent interview in Caracas, Pakistani social activist and writer Tariq Ali noted that Venezuela presents an important example of how political and social movements can work together...
...Such movements are using existing political space to maximum effect...
...E Chavistas in the Halls of Power, Chavistas on the Street by Jonah Gindin WITH MEMBERS OF VENEZUELA'S political opposition trying to get rid of President Hugo Chavez by just about any means they can think of, Chdvez's supporters have been in a near-constant state of anti-opposition mobilization...
...In a recent interview in Caracas, Pakistani social activist and writer Tariq Ali noted that Venezuela presents an important example of how political and social movements can work together...
...own resolution need not be negative...
...Almost overnight, an estimated 1.2 million militants had joined the campaign, creating patrols and UBEs in every neighborhood in the country...
...The first follows from the government's active creation of participatory community organizations, neighborhood associations and public-works projects...
...They are movements that are basically sustained by grassroots leaders, community leaders, student leaders, trade union leaders, peasant leaders-fundamentally popular leaders...
...We are organized, but we are dispersed...
...Every Venezuelan who did not want to see Chavez removed from office was encouraged to organize him or herself into a patrol of ten committed activists...
...The resulting siege mentality, particularly as a result of the coup, has meant that the organization of a huge swath of Venezuelan society has been specifically predicated on the basis of supporting the President...
...The Bolivarian movement," he commented, "is both a social movement that mobilizes the poor as nothing else has been able to do in this country, and a political movement, because it finds its reflection in the government, which it continues to reelect...
...But post-referendum Venezuela was going to be a new stage, with or without Chavez's blessings...
...Duly reinforced after the referendum and the regional elections, we may now see a nationally coherent Chavismo emerge, supportive of the process but capable of the difficult introspection necessary to identify its weaknesses, and ultimately, of the structural transformation that may eventually see the convergence of social movement and state...
...As Denis notes, "The popular movement does not consist of only social movements, there are also military movements...
...The need to defend Chavez has-for the momentreceded, providing an opportunity for proactive Chavismo to fill the vacuum...
...The student movement still exists, as do recently revitalized pro- Chivez gressive trade union holding pocket-size movements...
...At most levels, time constraints made a democratic structure impossible...
...They are movements that are basically sustained by grassroots leaders, community leaders, student leaders, trade union leaders, peasant leaders fundamentally popular leaders...
...Recently copy of created community Venezuela's organizations are com- Constitution...
...The second form of mobilization is a natural byproduct of representative democracy, but also a direct reaction to the legal and illegal campaign to overthrow 28 Chavez...
...The second form of mobilization is a natural byproduct of representative democracy, but also a direct reaction to the legal and illegal campaign to overthrow 28 Chavez...
...But now, community-based activism inevitably involves close coordination with government-formed community organizations, blurring the boundaries between the two...
...Every Venezuelan who did not want to see Chavez removed from office was encouraged to organize him or herself into a patrol of ten committed activists...
...Recently created community organizations are complimented by a slightly older variety of small, disparate community-based social movements...
...The pro-Chavez mobilization has taken two principal forms...
...Through conscious, planned commu- nity mobilization and concrete advances in key areas of education, health and housing, Chavismo is currently acting in many capacities as a traditional social movement...
...The student movement still exists, as do recently revitalized pro- gressive trade union movements...
...27 MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS siderable political space in which social movements like the MST can maneuver...
...But for a large majority of UBE members, this was their first experience in political activism...
...But the mobilization itself has created a social momentum that may be carrying Chavismo-the loose grouping of Chavez's supporters-toward a deepening of his proclaimed "Bolivarian Revolution...
...As they engage in grassroots organization and massive local and national mobilizations, the MST and social movements elsewhere have challenged the patterns of policymaking in Brazil and many other Latin American countries...
...there exists a new emerging leadership within el proceso," notes Pedro Infante, director of the National Coordinator of Popular Organizations...
...Yet, as veteran social activist and writer Roland Denis notes, "These are groups that move within a large wave of rebellion, but without an organic base, without a party, without history, without tradition...
...5 Whatever the post-referendum strategy for the UBEs was at the time of their formation, their continued existence has since become an integral part of the as-yet largely unplanned future of the Bolivarian experiment...
...Their growth and militancy have generated a whole new repertoire of actions that include national mobilizations so massive that they can topple governments-as in Bolivia-or force them to change their policies...
...Chavismo's linkage to a representative national g EL z zMARCH APRIL 2005 political body makes it a stunningly large and complex mobilizing force...
...Chavez appointed the members of the Commando Maisanta and the state-level UBEs, but from the level of the municipality to the community, positions were largely submitted to improvised elections...
...soldiers and young military officers who go to workshops and participate in the dynamic of the popular movements...
...However, an employment mission, "Vuelvan Caras," represents a significant first step, providing scholarships to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans while training them in specific trades and in forming cooperatives...
...The 2001 coup and four ultimately unsuccessful, though destructive, general strikes and employer lockouts have inevitably put the government, and its supporters, on the defensive...
...Almost overnight, an estimated 1.2 million militants had joined the campaign, creating patrols and UBEs in every neighborhood in the country...
...mobilization and concrete Chavismo's lack of autori- advances in key areas of omy from government is certainly problematic, education, health and and it is a contradic- housing, Chavismo is tion that will eventually currently acting in many be unsustainable...
...When land reform is not proceeding according to schedule, for example, or community health clinics are not receiving their funding, it is the committee members of the communities in question who bring the issue to the attention of the state-by direct protest when necessary...
...But currently acting in many the manner in which this capacities as a traditional contradiction forces its social movement...
...As the backbone of the Bolivarian project, Chavismo already has the space necessary to exert intense pressure on the government to deepen the embryonic development of participatory power structures such as Local Planning Councils and the UBEs...
...With his charisma and masterful ability to engage in political dialogue with the estimated 80% of Venezuelans who live below the poverty line, Chavez has united most of the country's anti-neoliberal forces under his leadership...
...What distinguishes Chavismo from other political movements is the space Chavez's leadership has opened for mobilization from below...
...Nearly 4% of Venezuela's population became active members of UBEs...
...In the two months between the announcement of the August 15 recall referendum and the referendum vote itself, the government organized its supporters into a nationwide social movement-cum-political party of a kind never before seen in the country, or the region, in either structure or scale...
...It can do this to such an extent that autonomy becomes irrelevant, or even undesirable: Chavismo as a social movement and as a government may eventually more solidly converge...
...The UBEs are in the process of redefining themselves as social battle units (UBSs), shifting their focus from electoral processes to community needs...
...1 Health committees, for example, work with Cuban doctors and provide a link between the community and the state in Barrio Adentro, a program offering free primary health care in poor neighborhoods...
...But this type of support inevitably discourages the development of an autonomous, popular movement capable of making independent decisions when the need arises...
...soldiers and young military officers who go to workshops and participate in the dynamic of the popular movements...
...As Denis notes, "The popular movement does not consist of only social movements, there are also military movements...
...3 The fragmented social movements that predate Chavez have not abandoned their existing structures...
...27REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS nity living organizations," each made up of roughly 15 to 30 people, one member of each family in a given neighborhood...
...Nearly 4% of Venezuela's population became active members of UBEs...
...Groups of patrols made up district UBEs, which together made up municipal UBEs and so on...
...The Comando Maisanta, as the committee was called, oversaw UBEs in every state, municipality and neighborhood, and reported directly to the President...
...The unique character of these organizations is that they act not only as organizing conduits, but also as informal centers of evaluation and criticism...
...or the region, in either structure or scale...
...The Bolivarian movement," he commented, "is both a social movement that mobilizes the poor as nothing else has been able to do in this country, and a political movement, because it finds its reflection in the government, which it continues to reelect...
...But this type of support inevitably discourages the development of an autonomous, popular movement capable of making independent decisions when the need arises...
...They have left the traditional parties far behind as they forge new political horizons and create a non-authoritarian, participatory political culture...
...But for a large majority of UBE members, this was their first experience in political activism...
...The pro-Chavez mobilization has taken two principal forms...
...In the first speech of the campaign on June 5, Chavez announced the creation of "electoral battle units" (UBEs) and electoral "patrols" to be coordinated by a national committee...
...4 The development of a new kind of social movement in Venezuela is one of the Bolivarian Revolution's most important legacies...
...Chavismo's linkage to a representative national Chavez holding a pocket-size copy of Venezuela's Constitution...
...plimented by a slightly older variety of small, disparate community-based social movements...
...2 Government mobilizing is in part responding to this reality It is a form of mobilization that is both intentional and unselfish in that it is usually separate from political campaigns or the direct promotion of Chavez...
...4. Interview with author, Caracas, December 6, 2004, 5. Interview with author, Caracas, November 9, 2004...
...2. Interview with author, Caracas, September 15, 2004...
...3 The fragmented social movements that predate Chavez have not abandoned their existing structures...
...groups that must practically invent a movement from scratch...
...But its organic link to the state gives it a character and a revolutionary potential lacking in other movements of REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS the region such as Brazil's Through conscious, Landless Rural Workers' planned community Movement (MST) or the Argentine piqueteros...
...Indeed, the economic realities that the masses of people all over Latin America are living, provide a potent empirical antidote to the universal prescription to globalize...
...It is a form of mobilization that is both intentional and unselfish in that it is usually separate from political campaigns or the direct promotion of Chavez...
...Duly reinforced after the referendum and the regional elections, we may now see a nationally coherent Chavismo emerge, supportive of the process but capable of the difficult introspection necessary to identify its weaknesses, and ultimately, of the structural transformation that may eventually see the convergence of social movement and state...
...In the two months between the announcement of the August 15 recall referendum and the referendum vote itself, the government organized its supporters into a nationwide social movement-cum-political party of a kind never before seen in the country...
...Local leadership exists, regional leadership exists...
...Chavistas in the Halls of Power 1. As sociologist and political analyst James Petras noted in a recent interview (Caracas, December 2, 2004), the Chavez government has not done enough to foster employment through public works...
...U 29 MARCH APRIL 2005 REPORT ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS political body makes it a stunningly large and complex mobilizing force...
...THE POWERFUL CULT OF PERSONALITY SURROUNDING Chavez gave him a resounding victory in last August's presidential recall referendum, and was largely responsible for the government's landslide victory in the October regional elections...
Vol. 38 • March 2005 • No. 5
