The deepening of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution: why most people don’t get it

[killbotfactory]

The deepening of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution: why most people don’t get it
Julia Buxton
4 - 5 - 2007
The radical project led by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela can’t be understood through the distorting lens of its inveterate opponents, says Julia Buxton. This is a politics for the future with emancipation, participation – and popular support - at its heart.

It is hard for an outsider to get a grip on Venezuela, or the country's President Hugo Chávez. Pick up a copy of the Financial Times , the Economist, the Independent, Wall Street Journal or the New York Times and you will be presented with a frightening vision of a "ranting populist demagogue" (In the words of a British former foreign-office minister, Denis MacShane), an anti-semite who has captured the hearts and purchased the support of hoards of irrational poor people while destroying the country's economy.

In the United States, the rise of "authoritarianism" in Venezuela has led to progressive increases in funding allocated to the country's "democracy promotion" agency the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), while the "security threat" posed by the country prompted the Bush administration to set up a special intelligence committee on Venezuela.

A cursory glance at the reports of the Inter American Press Association or NED-funded Reporters Without Borders reflects a country where freedom of speech is under threat and human rights under daily assault. The misiones, the Venezuelan government's extensive package of social policy programmes are also subject to blistering criticism. Variously described by critics as a clientilist tool, indication of fiscal profligacy and / or an unsustainable welfare initiative generating a culture of dependency, this $6 billion programme has no redeeming features.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-protest/deepening_revolution_4592.jsp

[Steepler0t]

1. Good post

The disinformation and spin is getting old about Chavez.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Excellent article! More simply put, the Bush Junta view of Chavez as "authoritarian"

is laughable, in addition to being 100% wrong. You want democracy? You want a country in which the president truly owes his power to the people, and knows it--and has reciprocated by INCREASING ordinary citizen participation in government? You want a country where people are HAPPY with their government, and feel EMPOWERED by it, and feel that it is THEIRS? Venezuela is that country. And for the Bushite shredders of the US Constitution, and election thieves, and bloody-minded warmongers and fascists--and their echo chamber, the US war profiteering corporate news monopolies--to say otherwise is typical. On almost every issue, whatever the Bush Junta says, the opposite is true. You really can't go far wrong with that formula. And Venezuela is an excellent example of it. It is the Bushitlers who are "authoritarian," not Hugo Chavez and his government.

The same thing was said by the Reichwing about FDR--that he was a "dictator." But was there ever a US government during which ordinary people felt more empowered and represented? Was there ever a period in US history when ordinary people--the vast majority--felt that their government was THEIRS? The tiny rich elite, the fatcats, the robber barons felt dictated to--by the majority!

Same with Chavez. It is not Chavez who is "authoritarian." It is the PEOPLE OF VENEZUELA. And guess what? In a democracy, that's as it should be. The people are sovereign. The people "dictate" the laws. The people rule. You can't call the PEOPLE "authoritarian" (unless they are Nazis--which the Venezuelans are decidedly not--and misuse majority rule to oppress minorities--which the Venezuelans do not do). In a democracy, the People ARE the Authority. It is upside down and backwards to call a president who is RESPONSIVE to the will and authority of his people "authoritarian." It is Orwellian. It is BushWorld speak.

As this article lays out so well, everything that Hugo Chavez has done has been in response to the grass roots, to community organizations, to the People. THEY don't call him a "dictator." They love the Chavez government--way up there in the 60% to 70% approval range. And this disconnect between what the people of Venezuela want and approve of, and what the Bush Junta and its lapdog corporate press wants and approves of, is very telling. What a joke--that George Bush, or Dick Cheney, or Condoleeza Rice would be "concerned" about democracy in Venezuela. What they are concerned about is ungodly profit for the super-rich, and they don't care who they kill, torture and oppress in the pursuit of it. Nor what lies they tell. And their lie about Chavez is a whopper.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Excellent article. It's tremendous when we get to see something NOT cranked out by corporate media

You can tell the difference a mile away! Whereas corporate media relies on the same repetitions of all the old slurs, name-callings, accusations, with NO statistics, NO actual news about anything REALLY going on there, with any significant details, this article has TONS of things to mull over long after the article has been finished.

Loved this information:

As for the misiones, nearly three-quarters of Venezuelans receive some form of state-sponsored health, education, housing assistance or food provision. Poverty and critical poverty are on a downward trend and the World Bank has acknowledged that: "Venezuela has achieved substantial improvements in the fight against poverty".
(snip)

Put simply, many Venezuelans think they are getting more and better democracy through "21st-century socialism", not less.
(snip)

That's not the representation the corporate media hand us, day in, day out. It's worth waiting for good articles. Wading through the corporate crap makes the legitimate ones all that much more enjoyable when you find them.

[Prophet 451]

4. Jury's still out on Chavez

I'm still not sure what to make of him. He's saying the right things and I have to love anyone who's so obviously made it their personal hobby to mess with Bush's mind but I have some questions about some of the things he's done or doing and I have some doubts about whether he can fulfill his intentions.

That said, pre-judging his success would be a mistake so let's see what he can actually accomplish.

[Vidar]

5. K&R.