Pg. g 6 | Politics
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Some in the US are hoping for their own How the killing of Osama Bin Laden Bolivarian Revolution, in Washington resolves nothing – War breeds more warr
FRIDAY _ May 6th, 2011 _ No. 62 _ Bs 1 _ C ARACAS
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
Workers unite, advance in Venezuela
Wind farm in Venezuela
Venezuelan workers celebrated joyfully this May Day, praising their advances and the support they’ve received from the Chavez government
Mission Housing for all
Increases in salaries, wages and benefits are pleasing Venezuela’s workers this year, as efforts to create worker-run companies move forward and the Chavez administration has pledged to implement regulations to further protect their rights and ensure both private and public employers comply with national laws. A new program to create thousands of jobs over the next few years was launched by President Chavez during the International Workers Day rallies on Sunday. | pages 2-3
An ambitious plan to build two million new homes for Venezuelans over the next several years and increase jobs in the construction sector was launched this week by President Chavez will the goal of solving an inherited housing crisis that has worsened since he took office. The socially-oriented plan, which will be executed through an alliance of private and public companies, seeks to ensure that all Venezuelans have access to affordable, dignified housing. | page 4
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Politics
No threats to free speech Journalist groups say freedom of expression is alive and well in Venezuela. | page 5
Politics
The demonization of Chavez Some critics find it impossible to praise the important achievements in Venezuela. | page 5
Social Justice
Venezuelan NBA star Greivis Vasquez helped his team get to the NBA playoffs during his first year as pro. | page 7
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Venezuela: “You cannot fight terror with more terror”
he government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that “you cannot fight terror with more terror”, a reference to the US raid that killed alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden early Monday. In a statement that was issued late Monday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry denounced that the raid against bin Laden was conducted in Pakistan “without informing the authorities of that country”. “That dark character, trained and armed by US intelligence agencies during the 1980s, turned
his terrorist practices against the United States in later years, and went on to become the best pretext to unleash the war that is being carried out to this day against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan”, the statement read. President Chavez has long been an outspoken critic of the United States. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry demanded the immediate end of “the occupation and the violence unleashed by the United States in Central Asia, with the alleged intention of neutralizing” bin Laden.
“In the face of the barbarity and the illegality of the methods used by the United States, the Venezuelan government remains convinced, as it warned in the year 2001, that you cannot fight terror with more terror, or violence with more violence”, the statement read. The text insists, however, on Venezuela’s solidarity with the people of the United States, “especially the families of the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001”. T/ Agencies
etroleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) recently completed the installation of the first three wind turbines of the Paraguana wind farm in Falcon state (northwestern Venezuela). According to a press release from the Venezuelan state oil company, the three will be part of a 76-turbine farm that will produce 100 megawatts of clean energy that will be fed into the national grid. Project manager Hector Gonzalez expressed his satisfaction with the results as well as the implementation of security measures established for the large structures. “The goal is to assemble all the components of wind turbines on time and with the security measures that characterize the new Pdvsa projects”, said Gonzalez. The Paraguana wind farm is an initiative of the Venezuelan government to provide clean energy to the national system by using a natural resource such as the wind.black cultural presence from view.
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2 | Impact
NoÊÈÓÊUÊFriday, May 6th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Venezuelan Workers Celebrate Advances President Chavez announced a new major social program to increase jobs and production nationwide during a mass march on May 1st
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eaffirming his commitment to the Venezuelan working class’ struggle for greater employment opportunities and better living conditions, President Hugo Chavez joined thousand of workers last Sunday for the country’s annual May Day march and celebration. The march began in the Caracas neighborhood of Catia and wound its way to the downtown area where the President of the Republic announced the creation of yet another massive social program, called Mission Work, designed to provide jobs to more than three million Venezuelans. The announcement of the new mission follows on the heels of a similar program launched the day before aimed at making affordable housing available to all citizens of the OPEC member nation. “In Venezuela there are reasons for us to celebrate this most important date because here we have been able to recover the true significance of the 1st of May, the real meaning of Workers’ Day”, Chavez said at the rally.
JOBS WITH DIGNITY Venezuela’s active workforce is approximately 13.1 million. The new employment mission will set upon the task of providing dignified jobs for the more than one million currently unemployed and the 260 thousand projected to join their ranks annually for 8 years. On Sunday, Chavez suggested that many unemployed could find readily available work in the Venezuelan countryside where the government has embarked on a farranging agrarian reform designed to increase agricultural production and ensure food sovereignty. Through a land redistribution program, the government has already provided some 2.5 million hectares (6.1 million acres) of land to otherwise landless farmers. Another main source of employment will be the recently created housing program, announced last Saturday, which envisions the creation of two million homes in the Caribbean country by 2017. According to officials, Mission Housing Venezuela will provide more than 300 thousand jobs to Venezuelan workers. “Let’s get prepared and plan this well. We can convene a census where all those that are currently unemployed and want to work on housing construction can show up and get registered”, he said. Registered workers can then be trained and join community bri-
gades to build the homes planned by the housing mission, the socialist leader explained to the crowd. TWELVE YEARS OF EMPOWERMENT During his speech, Chavez reviewed some of the major advancements that his government has made over the past 12 years with respect to workers’ rights. “With each day that has passed, Venezuelan workers have been playing a protagonistic role in pushing forward the socialist revolution”, he exclaimed. Among the gains won by the working class, the head of state cited, has been a yearly increase in the minimum wage. Just last week, as has become customary for International Workers’ Day, Chavez announced a 25 percent boost in the minimum wage and a 40 percent wage hike for those working in public administration. University workers will also see a raise of 40 percent. Although the minimum wage has been increased yet again this year, Chavez also noted that the number of those earning the lowest wage permitted by law has decreased to 21 percent of the workforce – down from 65 percent in 1998. Unemployment has also been reduced drastically since Chavez came to power in 1999, falling to 8.6 percent in 2011 – a 40 percent reduction over the past twelve years.
The Venezuelan head of state compared his country’s employment statistics with those of industrially developed nations, pointing out that the South American nation enjoys lower unemployment than the United States and many countries in Europe. “Spain has gone over 20 percent [unemployment] and there are similar numbers in Europe”, he recalled. Union membership has also increased substantially in the years that Chavez has been president. Six thousand new unions have been formed since he was elected, a 50 percent increase when compared to those that existed during previous governments. FIGHTING SPECULATION During his address, the Venezuelan head of state also announced new measures to be taken to protect consumers from speculative price hikes on the part of private businesses. The Law on Costs, Prices and Salary Protection, the President informed, will soon be discussed by the Venezuelan National Assembly in order to “defeat the speculation, the hoarding and the greed of the market and the bourgeoisie”. For years, many Venezuelans have been held hostage by fabricated price hikes in private grocery stores and supply outlets.
Last week, the private hardware supply chain EPA was temporarily sanctioned by the Venezuelan government for a range of improprieties including overcharging customers and withholding building materials. Chavez made a call for greater regulation of the private sector through the government’s consumer protection agency Indepabis and threatened expropriation of companies that violate the law. “We have to be firmer with the bourgeoisie and on speculation because its bald-faced robbery and this is one of the problems with capitalism”, Chavez told the crowd last Sunday. In all, the President affirmed, the push to eliminate speculation, increase worker benefits and solidify full employment represent part of the government’s efforts “to accelerate [Venezuela’s] transition between the old rentier [economic] model and the new socialist model”. “We can’t continue to depend on oil production. We have to raise national production”, he declared, adding that “work must be liberating and productive… not a punishment” and that such a situation is only possible in socialism”. T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
NoÊÈÓÊUÊFriday, May 6th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Economy
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Venezuelan President increases university and public sector wages by over 40% Following last Monday’s decision to raise the country’s minimum wage by 25%, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez this week also announced increases of 40% and 45% for university-based and public administration workers, respectively
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ffective on May 1, 2011, President Chavez called on working people throughout Venezuela to use their increased incomes responsibly, in the “fight against speculation, since every time we raise wages the capitalists raise prices,” and asked people to stay away from “the very consumerism that capitalism itself promotes.”
40% INCREASE FOR UNIVERSITY WORKERS Speaking live on national television during the 12-year anniversary celebrations of the rebirth of Venezuela’s National Polytechnic Experimental University of the Bolivarian Armed Forces (UNEFA), Chavez explained the specific wage increases for the higher education community nationwide. “For the university-based professionals; the workers, employees, and professors, those who have gone three years without a wage increase. Well, we’re going to raise their salaries 40%, starting on May 1st, which is a significant amount”, explained Chavez. “A full-time professor will soon earn 7,232 BsF per month [1,682 USD], while a professorinstructor will earn 3,335 BsF [776 USD]. And that’s just in salary, since to that figure one must add the food ticket benefits, the bonuses. All this combined means that a full-time professor could be making some 10,000 BsF [2,326USD]”, he said. To cover the upcoming wage increases, Chavez allotted 4.1 billion BsF [954 million USD], while at the same time authorizing the use of nearly 2.8 billion BsF [651 million USD] to pay debts accrued with university-based workers in 2008 and 2009.
In addition, the President designated 595.2 million BsF [138 million USD] to cover 2011 budget shortfalls in the following areas: Dining Halls (309 million BsF), transportation (191 million BsF), libraries and educational materials (54.5 million BsF), intensive courses (30 million BsF), and finally, medical services (10.7 million BsF). Chavez also authorized the use of 271 million BsF [63 million USD] to double (from 200 to 400 BsF) [47 to 93 USD] the monthly scholarship amount received by some 87,500 students nationwide, as well as an additional 60 million BsF [14 million USD] to incorporate an additional 12,500 students into the pool of Venezuelans who will receive the monthly subsidy. “In the United States and Europe they are cutting salaries, cutting loans and credits, extending the retirement age, firing workers, outsourcing jobs, cutting budgets allotted for health, for education – that’s how the capitalist world works”, said Chavez in an effort
to contrast the global economic situation with Venezuela’s own economic conditions. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION UP 45% With last Wednesday’s release of Gaceta Oficial (Official Record) Number 39.660, Venezuelan workers in the field of public administration also benefited from the Chavez government’s decision to increase workers’ wages. On average, all public sector workers – including those who work in the public healthcare system – have seen a 45% increase in wages as of May 1, 2011. According to the pay-scale tables published in Gaceta Oficial, Type 1 Public Sector Professionals – a category which includes newly-trained nurses – will have their integral wage increase from the current monthly 3,598 BsF to 4,779 BsF [837 to 1,111 USD], plus food ticket benefits. Type 2 and Type 3 Public Sector Professionals will see their integral wage increase from 3,763 to 5,011 BsF
[875 to 1,165 USD] per month, and from 3,819 to 5,017 BsF [888 to 1,166 USD], respectively. All public sector employees are granted food ticket benefits that vary depending on the number of days they work in a given month. For months with 31 days, workers obtain 27 tickets [1,026 BsF worth (239 USD)] while for months with 30 days or less they obtain 26 tickets [988 BsF worth (230 USD)]. Food ticket benefits – commonly referred to as Cesta Tickets – can be spent in any of the government’s many publicly-owned food distribution outlets, as well as numerous private vendors who accept them. As a result of the overall wage increase, a group of nurses on hunger strike since late last month brought their protest to an end. Though their original demand of a minimum 5,000 BsF [1,163 USD] monthly salary was not met directly, protest leader Ana María Velasquez celebrated the wage increase and insisted that their “objective has been reached”.
BASIC FOOD BASKET During a television interview, Elias Eljuri, president of Venezuela’s National Statistics Institute (INE), put the wage increases into the context of basic food purchases for the average Venezuelan family: “The basic food basket [needed to feed a Venezuelan family] is currently estimated to cost 1,589 BsF (370 USD). The minimum wage is scheduled to reach 1,548 BsF (360 USD), but add to this the legal minimum of benefits [food tickets, bonuses, etc.], and the actual minimum amount one earns is set to reach 2,523 BsF (587 USD) – sufficient to cover basic food needs and other costs”, said Eljuri. Eljuri explained that, according to the INE, a “normal” Venezuelan family earns at least two minimum wages, or roughly 5,000 BsF (1,163 USD) after the wage increases scheduled for this year, more than enough to meet their basic food needs. Eljuri went on to express his concerns as they relate to price speculation. “We need policies to confront the business community, those who are often unsatisfied with earnings of 10 to 15% – no, instead, they seek 40% profit margins…we have to win the struggle against price speculation”, he concluded. PROTECTING WAGES In line with Eljuri’s comments, Chavez called for “a powerful campaign against speculation, so that the increase in salaries doesn’t end up in the hands of speculators”. On Thursday, Augusto Montiel, President of Venezuela’s Institute for the Defense of People’s Access to Goods and Services (INDEPABIS), warned the private sector against raising prices as a result of wage increases. Speaking to Union Radio, Montiel explained that INEPABIS currently has 280 inspection agents distributed nationwide, and that ‘committees against speculation’ have been established to detect speculators involved in “the criminal act” of illegally raising prices. T/ Juan Reardon www.venezuelanalysis.com
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4 | Politics
NoÊÈÓÊUÊFriday, May 6th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Venezuela launches major housing program In response to a national housing crisis, the Chavez administration has been actively developing projects to ensure all Venezuelans have access to affordable, dignified housing
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midst an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Teresa Carreño Theater in the capital city of Caracas last Saturday, President Hugo Chavez officially launched his government’s latest social program, Mission Housing Venezuela, with the stated goal of building 2 million new homes for residents of the South American nation by 2017. The inauguration of the new program has been in the works for weeks and marks the government’s definitive answer to Venezuela’s housing shortage, currently estimated at 1.5 million. More than 30 billion bolivars ($6.97 billion) from public and private sources have already been made available for the massive project this year alone as 74 construction firms have committed to working alongside the government to carry out the housing plans. The mission will also count on technical and material assistance from international allies such as China, Russia, Brazil, Belarus, Portugal and Argentina. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE INVOLVED During the inauguration ceremony on Saturday, public officials and private businessmen signed agreements outlining their collaboration with respect to building materials and finance. Among those signing was Aristides Maza, president of the Venezuelan Banking Association. “The banks came today to make a commitment with the national government for the construction of housing solutions which the country desperately needs and, God willing, we’ll be able to get the job done”, Maza said. According to Chavez, if the new program is to be successful, it is going to require an unparalleled national effort. “Mission Housing Venezuela is great public commitment. Here, everyone has to commit them-
wreaked havoc on coastal areas in late 2010, displacing more than 100 thousand, will be the first to benefit from the mission which will provide subsidized housing of up to 100 percent depending on an applicant’s economic status.
selves to the constitution, the laws and the people”, the Venezuelan head of state affirmed. In throwing down the gauntlet of two million homes in 6 years, President Chavez also implored residents to oversee the mission’s implementation, calling on all of Venezuelan society to pitch in to ensure affordable housing. “In order to achieve our goal, we have to work, even if it’s double shifts. We have to be on top of the governors, the generals, and
everyone. If not, it won’t be possible”, he declared. The first phase of the program entails a housing census to begin on Saturday which will provide residents in possession of state-issued identification cards with the opportunity to register for the mission. After determining current living conditions, priorities based on need will be set for those soliciting new homes. Those who have been most affected by the torrential rains that
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION Involving community members in the realization of the program is another stated goal of the new mission. This, Chavez reminded his audience on Saturday, will be carried out through the incorporation of grass roots neighborhood organizations such as community councils and urban land committees. “The greatest builder of homes is the people”, the President said, noting that resources for a full 35 percent of the overall target for housing will be destined to newly conceived Popular Construction Brigades. “As the construction brigades get organized, we’ll have the capacity to increase this percentage”, Chavez informed. Ines Marrinque, spokesperson for a community council in the Caracas neighborhood of Caricuao was one of the many government supporters on hand for the launching on Saturday. “The people are very excited because they are going to have their own home… Now with the government of President Chavez the people are opening their eyes to a new vision of education and work that has increased their ability to obtain housing”, the activist told the Venezuelan News Agency.
Caracas resident Miguel Martinez, also present for the event, echoed Marrinque’s enthusiasm and hope as he witnessed the inauguration of the new program. “My wife and I have tried different things in order to acquire a home but we haven’t been able to solidify anything. We’re living cooped up in the house of my sister-in-law but we have are eyes on the Housing Mission because we believe that our dream [to own a home] will be possible”, he said. In terms of its goals for this year, the government aims to build 153 thousand new residences, gradually increasing that number to 300 thousand yearly until 2017. Thus far, seven thousand hectares (17.2 thousand acres) of state land have been made available for construction in 2011 on seventeen different sites around the country. “These lands will not be sold. We’re going to destroy the exchange-value and put the use-value of land as our priority”, the Venezuelan President affirmed in reference to Karl Marx’s famous analysis of commodity exchange in the first volume of the book Capital. In total, nearly 35 thousand hectares (86.4 thousand acres) will be necessary to accommodate the overall goal of two million homes. Aside from the more than 150 thousand planned for this year, Chavez also approved on Saturday an additional 1.3 billion bolivars ($302 million) for the construction of 15 thousand additional housing units around the country. SOCIAL JUSTICE All of these integrated efforts, the President said last weekend, are part of the government’s efforts to move Venezuela away from a capitalist, oil-rent economy to a socialist one based on human needs. “We are working hard on the topic of this great mission and I’ve put myself in front of this problem inherited by capitalism”, Chavez said. “The problem of housing has no solution with capitalism. Here, we’re going to solve it with socialism. Only with you, the people, the working class, the laborers, will we solve the housing issue”, he declared. T/ COI P/ Presidential Press
NoÊÈÓÊUÊFriday, May 6th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Politics
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Hugo Chavez’s reverse-halo effect Some leaders can become so demonized that it’s impossible to assess their achievements and failures in a balanced way
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t happened again in Madrid a few weeks ago. I was at a meeting of development officials and researchers and Venezuela came up in conversation. Cue mayhem. Is it possible to mention Hugo Chavez without becoming embroiled in name-calling, exaggerations and, not infrequently, brazen lies? While it is fairly normal that politics can become partisan very quickly, the point of being a development professional is meant to be that you step outside the partisan for a minute to examine, wait for it, the evidence. I don’t claim that this is easy, because evidence can be skewed by its provider (often, in international development, the government of the country in question). But that is the objective. So I am constantly surprised how many development professionals find it hard to do this when Venezuela gets mentioned, or Cuba, or Bolivia. It is as if evidence and balanced analysis are appropriate for some governments but not for others. If you say, “inequality appears to have gone down considerably in Venezuela”, you risk being accused of being a Chavista. But if you say, “inequality appears to have gone down in Ethiopia”, no one would start accusing you of being a zeal-
ous supporter of Meles Zenawi. I would call this the “pitchfork effect” (technically known as the “e-halo effect”), whereby a leader can become so demonized in certain countries or populations that it is no longer possible to assess their achievements and failures in a balanced way. The more a leader is demonized, the more his or her supporters will exaggerate how wonderful they are. It is the converse of the more well-known “halo effect”, whose most famous beneficiary in recent times was Nelson Mandela, a politician to his fingertips, embroiled in many of the things politicians get
embroiled in, and responsible for as many bad decisions as good ones on economic policy in South Africa. But criticize him and you are criticizing the freedom that he personifies. It is a handy effect to have. There are some leaders who are so vile that applying a balanced assessment to them seems tasteless. The murderous juntas of Argentina and Chile in the 70s and 80s spring to mind. But even Augusto Pinochet, a man who oversaw barbaric murders and torture, appears to be granted by many a balanced assessment of the time he was in power. And that is probably right. It is not
condoning his actions to assess how his period in power affected Chile’s economic conditions. So why not Chavez? One word often used to describe him is “dangerous”, and this may be the key to understanding the rage he engenders. It is hard to consider him a military threat. No, it is the danger he poses to normality that people who oppose his policies find so worrying. His rhetorical attack on modern capitalism is so strong, that were he to demonstrate any improvements in Venezuela with his “21st-century socialism”, the conventional wisdom
favoring free markets and a limited state would be challenged. It is the same reason that the US is so obsessed with Cuba – the danger to capitalism is allowing another model to succeed. I am saying all this because the first step we need to take when analyzing the achievements and failures of the new left in Latin America is to do our best to be balanced, taking the evidence as we find it, and trying to incorporate new evidence into our analysis, even if it does not fit our assumptions. T/ Jonathan Glennie
Freedom of speech in Venezuela thriving Refuting claims that Venezuela has been saddled by a clamp down on freedom of expression in recent years, Vice President for the NGO Journalists for the Truth, Jose Gregorio Nieves, challenged corporate media outlets to report the reality of the country during an appearance on the program All Venezuela, broadcast by Venezolana de Television. “More than 80 percent of Venezuelans know what kind of Venezuela they want, what they need from a news media committed to our sovereignty and committed to the history of our people”, Nieves
said during an interview held on International Press Freedom day last Tuesday. According to the media activist, Venezuela is currently living “an explosion of freedom of speech” that is evidenced by the accelerated growth of small and alternative media outlets around the country. Nieves pointed to the fact that the South American country’s telecommunication industry has been growing by 20 percent annually and that more than 60 community television stations as well as 250 grassroots radio and print operations have been
founded since Hugo Chavez became President in 1999. This reality contrasts starkly with the version of events being offered by the corporate-run media organizations, many of which where directly involved in the attempted violent overthrow of Chavez in 2002. “The majority of Venezuelans are not content with just receiving a message”, Nieves commented, “but rather in analyzing it and verifying it, especially after April 2002 when the rightwing in alliance with the private media and foreign interests exe-
cuted a coup d’etat against President Hugo Chavez”. During a conversation with other journalists on Tuesday, Freddy Fernandez, director of the staterun Venezuelan News Agency (AVN), also questioned the mainstream media’s version of events in the Caribbean nation and a recent report criticizing the country’s performance with respect to press freedoms. “One should analyze the situation in fellow countries such as Honduras where there have been more than 20 journalists killed over the past year and a half after
the coup d’etat carried out against the president of that nation, Manuel Zelaya. Or one should look to Mexico and Colombia where many journalists have had to flee in exile”, Fernandez said. The director of AVN suggested that the Venezuelan National Assembly pass a law that requires the identification of the owners of media outlets to be public knowledge. “That way we can protect ourselves against manipulations carried out by business sectors”, he said. T/ COI
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6 | Politics
NoÊÈÓÊUÊFriday, May 6th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Bolivarian Revolution in Washington Despite constant attacks from politicians in Washington and an ongoing demonization campaign, some in the US are looking to Venezuela and President Chavez for inspiration to help change the decaying model of US capitalism
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n Washington, the rhetoric most heard about Venezuela and its socialist President, Hugo Chavez Frias, is overwhelmingly negative. “Chavez is making himself the Osama Bin Laden and the Ahmadinejad of the Western Hemisphere”, far right-wing reactionary congressman Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) told Republicans during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington in February 2011. “Chavez himself could develop a nuclear weapon”, said Roger Noriega, Former Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, during the “Danger in the Andes” conference held at the US Congress on November 17, 2010. “We need a systematic policy to change the regime in Venezuela and that is serious issue”, added John P. Waters, former director, White House Office of Drug Control Policy, on November 17, 2010.
But just a few miles from the US Congress, Venezuela isn’t seen as the enemy. Activist and community organizers like Reverend Graylan Hagler are seizing on the spirit of the Bolivarian Revolution. “I think we need a kind of Bolivarian Revolution that really addresses the kind of ills that need to be taken care of within a society”, Hagler said. Hagler has made
multiple trips to Venezuela and Cuba, and said he views poverty as a systemic issue, much like Chavez. Here in Washington, Hagler fought to keep DC’s only public hospital open and stopped land across the street from his church from being converted into an Exxon gas station—instead turning it into affordable housing for seniors. Activist and Howard
University student Benjamin Woods said he stands in solidarity with Venezuela’s President. Woods said he is working to bring the principles of Chavez’s Bolivarian Circles to the community organization in his own working-class DC neighborhood. “If you take a neighborhood association that exists in Columbia Heights or Park U that are up the road, in Venezu-
ela they would have much more power and say so in the government instead of people feeling alienated”, Woods said. Under Chavez, Venezuela was the only country on track to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty in 12 years. “One of the things we can learn from Venezuela is that everything is not built on how much you can make and how much you can keep for yourself”, Hagler said. “Right now, politicians only want to talk about the middle class, and don’t want to talk about those who are poor, those who are marginalized”. The US announced $13.9 billion in cuts to food stamp programs this year, as Venezuela fed 15 million people through its Mercal program, Hagler remarked. President Barack Obama also announced cuts to maternal and child healthcare benefits, while 17 million out of 26 million Venezuelans now receive free healthcare. Congress proposed $5 billion in cuts to education, while Chavez’s education programs have included 4 million previously marginalized Venezuelans, a quarter of whom receive educational scholarships. Despite the anti-Venezuela rhetoric on Capitol Hill, Hagler said the US has much to learn from a country that focuses on social spending. T/ RT P/ Agencies
Venezuela says China could invest $40 billion in energy sector C
hina could further increase its investments in Venezuela’s energy sector in oil production, refineries, natural gas projects, terminals and in the exportation and industrialization of coke and sulfur, a source with Venezuela’s Energy and Oil Ministry said Monday. “It is anticipated that the joint investments between PDVSA and Chinese companies might reach $40 billion in the next 10 years”, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. This comes after a Chinese delagation visited Venezuela during the last two weeks of April to discuss possibly participating in state oil company Pdvsa’s projects underway to improve refineries in Puerto La Cruz and El Palito. Del-
egates included representatives from the China Development Bank, China International Engineering Consulting, and China Petroleum and Petrochemical Engineering. Venezuela and China had signed a general agreement in December to provide a framework for such investments. Pdvsa has so far already signed three specific agreements with Chinese companies: with China National Petroleum Corporation to form a joint venture in the Junin 4 block of the Orinoco Belt, with Sinopec to develop the Junin 1 block and with CNOOC to develop the massive Mariscal Sucre offshore LNG project. T/ Mery Mogollon - Platts
NoÊÈÓUÊFriday, May 6th, 2011
The artillery of ideas
Social Justice | 7 |
Venezuela: Socialist party seeks shake-up S
ince January, tens of thousands of United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) militants, together with activists from other left parties and social movements, have been debating the future of Venezuela’s revolution. Their sights are set on the crucial 2012 presidential elections. This years’ pro-revolution May Day march was the platform to officially launch Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s re-election bid. The US-funded right-wing opposition is yet to decide its candidate, but the election will be critical to the future of a country undergoing a profound process of change. A clear victory for Chavez —like the 64% he won in the 2006 elections— would give a powerful mandate to deepen the revolution. However, the revolutionary forces face two key obstacles. The first is US imperialism and its local allies in the opposition, who are desperate to get rid of Chavez. Addressing a mass assembly of workers on April 26, Chavez warned that sections of the opposition dreamed of trying another coup or creating a scenario for a foreign intervention. “We not only have to win the elections, we also have to impede them from upsetting national peace”, Chavez said. The second challenge comes from within the revolution. It is the danger represented by the bureaucrat-
ism and corruption undermining the self-organization and motivation of the poor and working people that make up the revolution’s base. These weaknesses help explain the declining Chavista vote since 2006. In this context, Chavez, who is also PSUV president, released a document titled “Strategic Lines of Political Action” on January 21. The document has been distributed across the country and published in pro-revolution newspapers. It aims to “open up a great debate within our own ranks, in the ranks of our allies and in the hearts
of the people” and build “a plan of action for the next two years”. The document says it is necessary to “recuperate and regroup those forces that are dispersed, demobilized, demoralized or confused due to our adversary or our own errors”. Key proposals include the need to convert the PSUV from an electoral machine into a “party-movement” at the service of the struggles of the people that can help develop and strengthen popular power. It also proposes the formation a “Great Patriotic Pole” to strengthen unity with other pro-
Greivis Vasquez gets to NBA playoffs in first year as pro T
hough he’s only playing in his first year as the third ever Venezuelan on an NBA team, Greivis Vasquez has already made it to the playoffs along with his team, the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies recently defeated the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. In the final game of that series, Vasquez, who was born in Caracas and played basketball for the University of Maryland, played 23 minutes and scored 11 points, a personal best in his first season as a professional. The Grizzlies face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the NBA playoffs.
Vasquez was picked by the Grizzlies in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft, joining only two other Venezuelans who have played professional basketball in the US – Carl Herrera, who was picked 30th in the 1990 draft and played for the Houston Rockets during their championship seasons (1993-1994 and 1994-1995), and Oscar Torres, who played in the US from 2001 to 2003. While at the University of Maryland, Vasquez became a stand-out player, known for his instinctive feel for the game and ability to make plays happen. His final year at Maryland was also his best, winning the Bob
Cousy Award, which recognizes the best collegiate point guard in the country, and becoming the second-highest all-time scorer for the University of Maryland with 2,171 points. In 2009, Vasquez played on the Venezuelan national basketball team during the FIBA World Championships, and during the 2009-2010 season he was one of only three Venezuelans playing for NCAA Division 1 teams. T/ Press OfficeVenezuelan Embassy
revolution groups, while internal working within the PSUV to eradicate what it calls “capitalist culture” among its ranks. The results of discussions on the document will be presented to Chavez on May 7 at a PSUV assembly. During a mass assembly called by PSUV leaders in late March, Chavez harshly criticized the vices plaguing the party, warning, “The old way of doing politics is devouring us, the corruption of politics is devouring us … those old capitalist values that have infiltrated us from all sides”. The Soviet Union failed, Chavez said, because its leaders “forgot their principles, they were corrupted”. The party needed to return to its principles to “recharge and refresh”. Chavez called on those present to re-read the PSUV’s declaration of principles, program and statutes approved at the November 2009-April 2010 extraordinary party congress. The Venezuelan head of state said those documents “came from the grassroots, from an open discussion, from a splendid participation”, adding, “we held an extraordinary congress … because the party was going badly”. He also recalled that it was necessary to govern “not by ordering, but obeying the people”. It is the people that must “order, challenge,
scold, orientate and criticize us”. After the assembly, President Chavez left to visit Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia. The tour came days after US President Barack Obama visited Brazil and Chile. In the face of growing imperialist intervention internationally, notably in Libya, Chavez used the tour to push the need for regional integration. He delivered the message not just to heads of states, but social movements. Speaking alongside Bolivian President Evo Morales at mass assembly of peasants and workers in Cochabamba, Chavez exclaimed, “The working class, miners, peasants, students, young people, soldiers, agricultural producers, intellectuals, social movements, indigenous people must always assume the vanguard of this struggle”. “This is the issue that I am insisting on with passion because I am conscious that time is passing and the danger lies in delaying. We cannot, must not hold back on [needed] strategic actions”. The Venezuelan President stressed the importance of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), an antiimperialist regional integration organization headed by Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, as “the path for unity, for peace and the liberation of our peoples”. T/ Green Left Weekly
FRIDAY M ay 6th, 2011 N o. 62 B s 1 C aracas
ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas
A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco • Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura
T
he plane I was on landed in Washington, D.C., Sunday night, and the pilot came on the intercom to tell everyone to celebrate: our government had killed Osama bin Laden. This was better than winning the Super Bowl, he said. Set aside for a moment the morality of cheering for the killing of a human being -- which despite the pilot’s prompting nobody on the plane did. In purely Realpolitik terms, killing foreign leaders whom we’ve previously supported has been an ongoing disaster. Our killing of Saddam Hussein has been followed by years of war and hundreds of thousands of pointless deaths. Our attempts to kill Muammar Gadaffi have killed his children and grandchildren and will end no war if they eventually succeed. Our attempts to kill Osama bin Laden, including wars justified by that mission, have involved nearly a decade of senseless slaughter in Afghanistan and the rest of the ongoing global “generational” war that is consuming our nation. The Taliban was willing to turn bin Laden over for trial both before and after September 11, 2001. Instead our government opted for years of bloody warfare. And in the end, it was police action (investigation, a raid, and a summary execution) and not the warfare, that reportedly tracked bin Laden down in Pakistan. After capturing him, our government’s representatives did not hold him for trial. They killed him and carried away his dead body. Killing will lead only to more killing. There will be no review of bin Laden’s alleged crimes, as a trial would have provided. There will be no review of earlier US support for bin Laden. There will be no review of US failures to prevent the September 11th attacks. Instead, there will be bitterness, hatred, and more violence, with the message being communicated to all sides that might makes right and murder is the way in which someone is, in President Obama’s words, brought to justice.
OPINION
Piles and piles of corpses
Killing Osama, resolving nothing Nothing is actually resolved, nothing concluded, and nothing to be celebrated in taking away life. If we want something to celebrate here, we should celebrate the end of one of the pieces of war propaganda that has driven the past decade of brutality and death. But I’m not going to celebrate that
until appropriate actions follow. Nothing makes for peace like ceasing to wage war. Now would be an ideal time to give that a try. Our senseless wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Libya must be ended. Keeping bin Laden alive and threatening, assisted in keeping the war machine churning its bloody way through cities and flesh for years. No wonder President
Bush was, as he said, not interested in tracking bin Laden down. Ending the wars was our moral duty last week exactly as this week. But if the symbolism to be found in the removal of a key propaganda piece can be combined with the recent overwhelming US support for ending the wars, to actually end the wars, then I’ll be ready --with clean hands and with no nasty gleam of
revenge in my eye-- to pop open the champagne. But let’s return to the morality of cheering for the killing of a human being. A decade ago that would not have seemed as natural to a US airline pilot. The automatic assumption would not have been that there could be no dissenters to that celebration. A decade ago torture was considered irredeemably evil. A decade ago we believed people should have fair trials before they are declared guilty or killed. A decade ago, if a president had announced his new power to assassinate Americans, at least a few people would have asked where in the world he got the power to assassinate non-Americans. Is it too late to go back 10 years in time in some particular ways? As we put bin Laden behind us, can we put the degredation of our civil liberties and our representative government, and our honesty, accountability, and the rule of law behind us too? Can we recover the basic moral deceny that we used to at the very least pretend and aspire to? Not while we’re dancing in the street to celebrate death. Imagine the propaganda that the US media could make of video footage of a foreign country where the primitive brutes are dancing in the streets to celebrate the murder of a tribal enemy. That is the propaganda we’ve just handed those who will view bin Laden as a martyr. When their revenge comes, we will know exactly what we are supposed to do: exact more revenge in turn to keep the cycle going. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, but the blind people think that they still see. The world looks to them like a Hollywood adventure movie. In those stories, killing somone generally causes a happy ending. That misconception is responsible for piles and piles of corpses to which more will now be added. - David Swanson David Swanson is a writer in Charlottesville, Virgina, USA.