12) VENEZUELA TODAY - GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS, GRAVE THREATS

Carolus Wimmer is a Communist Party of Venezuela deputy in the Latin American Parliament, the editor of a discussion journal called Debate Abierto (Open Debate), and the CPV's secretary for international relations. He recently completed a tour of Australia, where has interviewed by Bob Briton from The Guardian, weekly paper of the Communist Party of Australia. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Bob Briton: Could you tell us about developments within the Bolivarian Revolution and its achievements? Is there still a situation of dual authority in the country - the old ministries existing alongside new structures?

Carolus Wimmer: Despite the attempts by imperialism, especially US imperialism... we have managed to continue this Bolivarian Revolution. We can say that now a lot of things are more mature, for example the necessity for a Marxist‑Leninist Party is now clear.

     There was a great discussion in 2007 about whether there should be a single party of the Revolution. The Communist Party conducted a special discussion and we are open to discussing this question in the future. At this moment we have decided - and we think our decision is correct - to maintain a Marxist‑Leninist, Communist Party which carries out its work among the working class, which builds class‑oriented trade unions, which organises the workers for the revolutionary process.

     As a Party we cannot understand the idea of building a revolution without the leadership of the working class. This is one of the discussions we are having in Venezuela and to have this discussion it is necessary to have a class‑oriented, Marxist‑Leninist Party.

     We can say during these years, the people and the workers have really received a lot of benefits. We can say that in every family someone has received some important results from the revolution. Maybe there are still a lot of difficulties, people who from the individual point of view still have a lot of problems and needs. But when we look at it not from the point of view of capitalism, not as a number of individuals but as families or as a class we can see a lot of results that would have been impossible without the Bolivarian Revolution.

     This year a new labour law was approved... It was discussed by the workers and with the workers and you can say that with this law we have recovered a lot of rights lost during the terrible time of the 1980s and '90s when the different governing parties pushed forward neo‑liberal policies of privatisation in all sectors, when workers lost permanent employment and a lot of social rights. Very important in this new law is recognition of a new type of workers' organisation parallel to the trade unions.

     This labour law makes possible the creation of Socialist Worker Councils. The idea is that the benefits are not only material. Of course, there have been a lot of advances in the fields of education, healthcare, housing, culture and labour rights but there are also benefits in the political conditions. As the Communist Party of Venezuela we see it as necessary at this time, after 13 years of the Bolivarian Revolution, that we take a step forward in the direction that the working class must control production on the one hand and must have the political control of the Bolivarian Revolution.

     In these Socialist Worker Councils the concept is for workers to control the planning or take part in the planning of production, the administration of the company with total transparency. For example, we hear often from the bosses, the owners of the company, that there must be a reduction in the personnel, the number of workers because the company is in trouble. We say in Venezuela that in that case the workers have the right to see the books to see if that it is the reality or a lie on the part of the capitalist owners. On the other hand, if there are troubles in the company we know that the fault usually lies with the management and not the workers. In this situation the workers have to find solutions with the owners that exclude the loss of workers' jobs.

     These are examples of some of the benefits of the Bolivarian Revolution to this point. Of course, it's a transition in the capitalist structure of the state to a non‑capitalist structure. We are going forward in this but the dominant model is still the capitalist structure of the state of Venezuela.

     For that reason it is necessary that, alongside the ministries as you called them, alongside the government structure that we continue with the social missions, as we call them in Venezuela. They are continuing. Nowadays they have a higher quality. For example in healthcare there were first small units for treatment of patients distributed in the suburbs. Now you can say that we have a third level of high‑technology treatment in popular hospitals in this health care mission.

     Also, when we met in 2006 the mission began with reading and writing with the "Yes I Can" program. Now we have a mission in education with the great solidarity of the Cuban government to reach the university level. We have new universities. So we have great advances in the education profession. We are also advancing in political and ideological education.

BB: What are the next likely steps towards socialism and which forces are leading the way?

Wimmer: Regarding socialism - for the Communist Party we don't consider that we are building socialism in a direct form. In the Communist Party we describe this moment as the anti‑imperialist struggle and in that struggle we are working to build the anti-imperialist front. We say we have to go forward very cautiously; we have to maintain a majority in the different struggles including in the election. It is very important to know what the historic moment is and with which allies we can go forward.

     Of course, it's very important in this anti‑imperialist work we are carrying out now that there is an anti‑capitalist and pro‑socialist orientation and concept. The Communist Party views its work with great responsibility. It concentrates its efforts on the workers, to organise them in class‑oriented trade unions to provide them with a political and ideological education. We do this to show that we favour the working class and to maintain our independence to criticise and to propose solutions when we think decisions have been made by the government that don't favour the working class or the people in general.

     We have an extremely good relationship with President Chavez. It's well known that ours was the first party to select him as candidate for the election to take place on October 7. The decision was made at our last Party Congress. We see with President Chavez our strategic allies and we maintain fraternal relations with the Socialist Party [PSUV]. At the moment you can say that we are the two parties moving forward with the work of the election campaign, in the leadership of the election campaign there are the Socialist Party and the Communist Party.

     There is another important political work to build up the Great Patriotic Pole (Gran Polo Patriotico), which should be a strategic alliance of political parties, mass movements, the women's movement, the youth, the farmers, workers in the field of culture. In this area of the building up of the Great Patriotic Pole, the Communist Party also has a lot of responsibilities in the frontline and, with the Socialist Party, has the responsibility to build the Patriotic Council of Political Parties, which has seven political parties in it. We are sure that President Chavez, who has recovered well from a very bad illness, should win the presidential election of October 7. But as revolutionaries, we know the enemy - especially US imperialism and the national bourgeoisie - will do anything legal or illegal to make this victory impossible.

     There have been the expressions of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, that unforeseen events will take place. It's a threat to undermine the democratic right for elections... We fear there is a possibility that the opposition will not recognise the victory of President Chavez. That plan would get the immediate support of the imperialist mass media. It could get support of international imperialist institutions, organisations and of governments.

     We can say there are very few options available to the opposition to win. All the polls give a lead of 10 to 20 percent to Chavez. Most are conducted by the opposition but there are such great differences that it's impossible to hide. For that reason it's been very difficult to promote the opposition candidate.

     [Henrique] Capriles comes directly from the high bourgeoisie of Venezuela. They present him as a young man, as a new man, but we must point out that in his youth he was a member of the international fascist movement Tradicion, Familia y Propriedad [Tradition, Family and Property]. He was then a member of the Christian Democratic Party, a conservative party. In the 1990s he was president of the Venezuelan parliament. In that role he has guilt for all the privatisations carried out in those days and it is an indication that he is not new.

     He is older than Chavez. He was in power before Chavez, and represented the interests of the bourgeoisie and imperialism. It appears to our Party that those forces will not accept defeat. For example, President Chavez signed an official commitment in the National Electoral Council to accept the result of the election, to accept the will of the people. The candidate of the right refused to sign it. It's a message. So what is the plan?

BB: Are there others dangers facing the Bolivarian Revolution? Does it have support internationally?

Wimmer: The dangers for the Bolivarian Revolution continue inside and outside. Of course, for the US on the one hand will continue with its efforts to recover its "backyard" in Latin America. They have lost influence in the region but they will do everything possible to regain that influence. There's an economic blockade against Venezuela, especially in the scientific and technology sector. Countries and companies are forbidden from selling high technologies to Venezuela.

     They can create more military bases. At the moment we can count 47 U.S. bases in the region. In Colombia it is well known they are building seven military bases. Now the US is building 11 military bases in Panama - six on the Pacific side and five on the Caribbean side. There are NATO bases in front of Venezuela in Aruba and Curacao controlled by The Netherlands. For those reasons there continue great dangers for the revolution but there exists a high political consciousness among the Venezuelan working class, among the people to continue fighting for national independence and sovereignty, for more and more integration of Latin America.

     The proof of the dangers posed to Latin America can be seen in what happened in Honduras and Paraguay. Against great illusions in Latin America that President Obama would represent change we now know that he is carrying on with the same imperialist policies that the US used to carry on in our countries. They don't accept the results of democratic elections if they are against the interests of the US.

     They intervene militarily or with military support as in Honduras. They interfered directly through the US embassy in Paraguay against elected President Lugo and we have to be very cautious that what has happened in some countries in Europe they now do in Latin America. There you see presidents who are not elected by the people in Greece and Italy, and now in Honduras and Paraguay we have two presidents who came to office without elections.

     We have to underscore this because normally the US government is very vigilant about democracy in other countries. But we can see they don't respect it if the presidents or the government don't express the politics of the US - they are not willing to accept the democratic will of the people.

     There are the highest relations between Cuba and Venezuela. We say that in general in Latin America we are dealing with a new concept of international relationships not based on competition but on solidarity and cooperation. A very good example is Cuba and Venezuela. Another example is the ALBA countries [Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas] where there is a great relationship of solidarity and cooperation. In Venezuela we support socialist Cuba and its great solidarity, especially in the areas of education and healthcare that we receive from Cuba...

     Of course, one of the responsibilities of the Communist Party is to work for the integration of Latin America. We must underline that the struggles and experiences of the different Communist parties are very important; that all the parties of the different governments, such as in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia receive the solidarity of the Communist parties. In Venezuela, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party work together. In Bolivia, MAS [the Movement Towards Socialism] and the Communist Party work together. In Ecuador, Allianza PAIS [Proud and Sovereign Fatherland Alliance] and the Communist Party of Ecuador work together. It is a wonderful step forward that the Communist parties support progressive governments but at the same time maintain their independence as parties of the working class. In this way the Communist Parties in general participate in the deepening of this process.

     Our Party, the PCV, sees the great dangers globally. There's more and more confrontation by the imperialist countries against the independent countries. We in Latin America remember that there are many peoples who are not independent. We remember Puerto Rico and that part of Cuba - Guantanamo - are under the imperialist control of the US. Martinique, Guadalupe and French Guyana are still colonies of France. Britain still controls some islands in the Caribbean and the Malvinas Argentinas [the Falkland Islands]. The Netherlands control some Caribbean islands, for example Aruba and Curacao...

     Of course, we have a very optimistic view of this struggle for the future. We are sure the international working class will win this struggle but we also recognise they could be very hard struggles because imperialism and worldwide capitalism will not surrender without this hard class struggle as in the examples of Syria, Afghanistan, the Middle East - Iraq, Iran and Libya. The imperialist, criminal actions could also take place against Latin America, not only because they don't agree with the politics of some government or other.

     Normally they say that the national interests of the US are threatened, that their national interests are in danger when there is a progressive government in Argentina or in Uruguay or in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua or in Venezuela or when there's success in building socialism as in Cuba.

     Because of this great crisis of capitalism in the northern countries they need to gain control quickly of natural resources - energy resources, mineral resources, water resources. If you look at a map of the world you will notice that these resources are mostly to be found in the south. For that reason we are thinking not only about integration of the Latin American countries. We are working towards the integration of the south which includes southern Africa and also the southern part of Asia.

(The above article is from the September 16-30, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)