Planning the Next Six Years of
by Tamara
Pearson
Planning
the detail of the transition and revolution toward a socialist and more just
society, from community and worker organization, to consciousness building, to
production and distribution systems, to combating state and judicial corruption
and bureaucracy, to agriculture, mining, petroleum, infrastructure, and
relationships with other countries, is no small task. The truth is, it has been
a hard task writing this analysis. It has required a certain level of restraint
to force myself to be selective and pick out only the most salient points of
Chavez's 39 page proposed plan for the 2013-2019 period of the Bolivarian
revolution. All of the objectives and strategic points and sub points seemed
important, and that in of itself reflects something wonderful, I think. For the
millions of us heavily involved in this revolution, we are so drawn in that we
care what the agricultural goals are, we're concerned about methods for
reforming the utterly rotten judicial system, we're watching closely to see how
food distribution progresses – even if we aren't ourselves directly involved.
We're reading the plan (according to the national news agency of Venezuela
(AVN) one million copies have already been distributed) and realizing just how
much we have to do, because we feel like this is our responsibility too, not
just the state's (or Chavez's). It's our project.
This
plan, like its predecessor, the First Socialist Plan 2007-2013, will be taken
very seriously as a guide, or reference point for where we should be heading and
what needs to be done. It will be quoted at meetings, it will be a permanent
fixture on office desks, it will be browsed at night. And importantly, first it
will be debated. Over the next six months, various fronts, councils,
organizations, and movements, will discuss the plan and send in suggestions, as
the Great Patriotic Pole
(GPP) – Women's Council has already done. If Chavez wins the presidential
elections, the final version of the plan should be passed by the National
Assembly in January next year.
Of
course, opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles
has, as a requirement at the time of registering for the presidential
elections, had to submit a plan as well, and I'll briefly review his at the end
of the article. However, to compare the two plans is like comparing a Lego town
with a real city, or Harlequin ‘romance’ novels to Eduardo Galeano, or
origami tigers with the real animal. Capriles’ ‘plan’ is in fact a pretentious
collection of advertizing slogans. Even a non Spanish speaker, taking a quick
glimpse at the two can see who
seriously intends to win the October presidential elections, and who has
lethargically hired a public relations team to put together a few of the
standard election key words used in every single country by those vacant
politicians who pretend to care about their electorate, such as ‘progress,’
‘quality’ and ‘future’ into a rather childish looking power point presentation.
Chavez's
plan, double the length in pages and with about forty times the content, is
much more sophisticated and articulate in wording and structure, opens with an
introduction and a chapter on the historical context framing the plan, whereas
Capriles’ has no kind of introduction at all, and simply leaves out a lot of
vital issues such as Venezuela's relationship with other countries, with Latin
America, and the United States. Nor does it mention in any way culture,
agriculture, the environment, indigenous rights, racism, sexual diversity, or
in fact, laughably, most aspects of the economy.
It's
an honest, realistic, yet ambitious proposal. I don't think Chavez has tried to
make any false or empty promises. He also talks about socialism, imperialism,
and capitalism freely, where as Capriles’ plan is dishonest, and does not refer
to any sort of economic system or ideology. Chavez's plan is also believable
because of the extent to which it is based on projects, initiatives, and ideas
which are already being implemented, if not universally.
There
is no question that the proposal seriously aims to eradicate the old capitalist
institutions and market, and replace them with grassroots control and
organization and ‘alternative’ production and distribution methods. The plan
also provides a lot of detail into development of the petroleum industry, both
in infrastructure terms and political terms (making it more participatory and
democratic), and reflects the government's (sadly) keen interest in mining. I
feel however that it under-emphasises some issues (such as women, and LGBT
rights) although the fact that such issues are mentioned (they weren't in the
first plan) is an important reflection of the growth of those movements.
Likewise, this plan, unlike the current one, has an environmental section. This
sort of new content is suggestive of the slow and gradual deepening of the
people's own consciousness, as basic issues like health and education have
become second nature, and the (active) people and the government are starting
to look at other more ideologically difficult issues (or less urgent from the
perspective of poverty) such as gender, sexuality, institutionalism, land use,
confronting the old culture, habits, and discourse, and the environment.
The plan also has a very strong focus on independence – not a new notion to the revolution which names itself after Bolivar of course, but the heavy focus is somewhat new. Independence is the context given in the introduction, and it is understood to be more than a political concept, but rather something that penetrates most aspects of this revolution, such as independent food production, not depending on U.S. or other imperialist countries’ investment, training or technology so that Venezuela can more and more produce, build, and provide services on its own, and in its own way, purely for the benefit of its people.n't believe the revolution's biggest enemies – the failure of the
“This
is a program of transition to socialism and of radicalization of participative
and protagonistic democracy,” reads the introduction. That transition depends
on the “restitution of power to the people.” Chavez here recognises that “the
socio-economic formation that prevails in
“This
is a program that aims to go past the point of no return,” Chavez writes. The
significance then, of the 7 October presidential election can't be understated.
The
plan is divided into five main sections or objectives, which I've summarized
and briefly analysed below.
1. Consolidate National
Specifically,
the plan argues that petroleum policy must be national, so that it can benefit
the whole nation, yet also be “popular” (involving the people), and
revolutionary. Revolutionary, meaning how petroleum income is obtained, by who,
and how it's distributed. The government will continue to distribute it and the
people will manage the income through its destination to projects run by
communal councils and other grassroots organizations. Likewise with mining.
The
plan also stresses the importance of the China-Venezuela fund and energy
cooperation agreements, including PetroCaribe – exchanging petroleum for
financing or for goods and services necessary for the development of the
country such as agricultural machinery, electricity plants, doctors, etc. ALBA should be
strengthened, and the plan also proposes designing “new and effective”
mechanisms for the people's participation in petroleum income such as through
investment and saving.
Agriculture
and food sovereignty is seen as a vital part of real independence. A key aim is
to “definitely eliminate the latifundio (large landholders).” The plan says
that 2% of the land should be used for agriculture without many limits, 4% for
a wide range of agricultural use, 14% for a limited number of foods or forest
growth, 30% for the most resistant cultivations, and the rest of the territory
for natural cover such as forests, water production and biodiversity. It
concludes that there is “sufficient land to cover our food production needs and
environmental services when used rationally.” Land zoning will be carried out
according to land use, and surface allocated to short cycle vegetables (with an
aim of 50% overall increase). The government wants to increase low irrigation
agriculture by 200%, and the plan then details a range of other similar aims.
The rational and sustainable use of agricultural resources (water, seeds, land)
will be promoted. There's an aim to provide 110,000 collectively owned
tractors, the creation of various production and agricultural projects in
specific regions, creation and consolidation of distribution networks, creation
of export companies with countries like
An aim
of 50% of agricultural production should be based on alternative production
models such as family, urban, semi urban agriculture, indigenous agriculture,
sustainable models of production. Also, increasing grassroots organization and
involvement in agricultural decisions and education.
In
terms of defence, the plan outlines an increase of military activity on the
borders, an increase in the people's participation in national defence,
consolidation of civic-military union, and strengthening of the National
Bolivarian Militia.
In
some instances, this section of the plan leans toward reformism, where it fails
to see the problems of the old structures and believes that imposing some
values will be enough to improve them. Regarding education, for example, the
plan mentions increasing enrolment, building new schools, introducing or
improving certain curriculum content – such as the people's and indigenous
history of
Similar
structural change, or the elimination of the old and construction of the new
right from the start is also needed in the hospitals, police, and army – which
is happening to a limited extent with the health missions and the new national
police. Likewise, the plan refers to a “deep and definitive revolution” for the
ridiculously inefficient, corrupt, and anti-poor justice system, but its
proposals involve building more infrastructure, more courts, and workshops for
the lawyers. Unfortunately, few lawyers who have been corrupt and selfish for
the last twenty years will change that easily.
Lastly,
it's worth pointing out an interesting and quite large emphasis on sports,
recreation, and nutrition, with recreation seen as key to preventing the
“culture of excess and destruction generated by capitalism” and community
sports seen as both ways of combating alienation as well as improving the
health of what has become a fairly overweight population.
“The
development of social property of basic and strategic means of production that
allows Venezuelan families and citizens to have full enjoyment of their
economic, social, political, and cultural rights” is argued for.
The
government will promote new ways of organizing production so that the means of
production is at the service of society, the plan says. It will democratize the
means of production, strengthen centralised planning, create a system of
industrial parks to strengthen productive chains, create a work culture that
opposes the old and current rentier culture through education, aims to involve
workers as “active subjects” and for democratic work place participation, new
management models in the productive units, stimulation of social responsibility
in small and medium sized business, and strengthen the direct distribution
system to attack capitalist speculation.
In
terms of social justice, the plan is to advance so far in human rights and
conditions that it “makes it impossible to return to poverty.” “This new phase
– continuing the construction of a just and egalitarian society – requires the
development of a system of prevention, protection, and social security...with a
new political quality.” This involves the construction of socialist work
relations, continuing to promote “new relationships between the people with
nature, the state, society, the work place and thought,” guaranteeing physical,
cognitive, and moral development at work and healthy work conditions
(liberating work), increasing production and distribution of books and
magazines by 200%, increasing cultural infrastructure, including one “reading
room” per municipality (336 in total), increasing cultural community
organizations, social security for cultural workers such as artists and
musicians, improve housing and infrastructure for indigenous peoples and
accelerate the demarcation of their spaces through handing over of property
titles, increase presence of social missions in their spaces while respecting
their culture and traditions.
Deepen
gender equality and women's participation, involve youth in recreation programs
which promote socialist values and strengthen the organization of youth through
the construction of 3,000 youth councils, incorporate organizations in the
social transformation of prisoners, improve prison infrastructure and fight
impunity in the legal system, mass involvement in community and environmentally
friendly sport including an aim of reducing “sedentary-ness” by 50%,
consolidate the 4,500 free food houses as centres of education and nutritional
attention as well, consolidate the network of grassroots pharmacies, develop
the Communal Economic System with various social-productive organization forms
such as social propriety, family units, groups of solidarity exchange etc,
develop coordination between the communal councils and the workers’ councils.
In
terms of grassroots organization and participation, the plan is to accelerate
the promotion of the people's participation in and formation of the communal
councils, social battle rooms, socialist communes, commune cities, commune
federations and confederations, including the aim of creating 3,000 socialist
communes to group 39,000 communal councils. The plan refers to a transference
of competency and management from the institutions to such organizations and
consolidating a system of articulation between the grassroots organizations so
that they transcend local action, promoting new committees in the communal
councils such as for older people and for vulnerable people, sport committees,
and creating community based learning spaces.
“Promote
and consolidate a productive, redistributive, post-rentier, post-capitalist
economy based on broad public, social, collective support of ownership of the
means of production. The possibility of social planning in authentic synchrony
with centralised planning and development of diverse forms of socio-productive
organization sustained in a variety of property types...including social
property, indirect property, family property, and groups of solidarity based
exchange.” The plan promotes the creation of socially owned companies, with an
aim of 30,000, and another aim of establishing 3,000 commune banks to
“consolidate the new financial architecture of popular power.”
Further,
in terms of crime, combating corruption and bureaucracy, and more on
participation, the plan aims to reform the penitentiary system with a focus on
rehabilitation, continue promoting social auditing, establish a permanent
system of communication to “listen to the organized people and the depoliticised
people for the...collective construction of the socialist state, according to
the principle of “order by obeying,” establish procedures in which the people
can intervene in the management by public servants. Plan and transfer
responsibilities over to the communes, communal councils, technical committees,
movements, workers’ councils etc, enforce a “revolutionary culture” in the
public service, enforce the idea that public servants are there to serve the
people, create an education (formation, consciousness) cadre school for state
institution workers, streamline the bureaucratic process and all the paperwork
and proceedings required in state institutions through unifying of criteria and
technology, and getting rid of all unnecessary requirements.
To
address the “racist and classist character... and impunity” in the justice
system – increase number of courts, improve current infrastructure and develop
new “physical spaces for new courts,” promote cohesion of all judicial
instruments (such as laws) in the justice system, training and consciousness
education for judges and public lawyers to develop a “culture of responsibility
in the administration of justice,” consolidate community based “integral
prevention plans” especially targeted at youth in vulnerable sectors, national
level activation of communal police service, develop a working plan to achieve
arms and disarmament control, finish off the process of re-founding the
investigation body, the CICPC, strengthen public security bodies with better
equipment and communication technology, promote alternative mechanisms of
conflict resolution through the installation of Houses of Penal Justice in
prioritised municipalities, and communal centres of conflict resolution, expand
the new police university to seven more states. Strengthen the use of media to
increase knowledge and as “an instrument for consciousness training in the
transition to socialism” and as spaces for grassroots articulation.
3. Make
As in
the last section, a deeper transformation of the military is needed than just
training and increased resources. Possibly one of the most significant changes
that is already taking place is the way the military is now, often, at the
service of the people rather than repressing them, with the military in my
community coming to our communal council meetings and helping us with whatever
we ask for. It's surprising that strengthening such relationships isn't
mentioned in the plan.
The
plan frames the following by stating that it's important to understand that
political power derives from making participative democracy real, and such
economic power is perceived as the national wealth being at the service of the
people.
Energy
and mining: develop hydrocarbon capacity through “rational exploitation” and a
policy of conservation of a natural exhaustible and non-renewable resource with
an aim of 6 million barrels per day by 2019 (roughly double what it is now).
Infrastructure construction such as refineries, increased storage capacity on
the Orinoco Oil Belt. Build 5 more thermoelectric plants, develop the potential
of
The government
wants to expand the forestry industry at all levels of the productive chain,
especially for furniture, housing, paper and other industrial supplies.
Industrialize the construction sector. Modernize and increase capacity for
production of packaging. Focus on technological development and transfer, and
also constructing productivity plans and networks based on resource location
and their rational and efficient usage. Continue to change how such large
industries work with worker training to adopt techniques and technologies that
are most efficient and humanizing. Generate mechanisms of capital circulation
such as financing sources, that “confront the logic of capital.” Maintain and
increase public buying systems such as conglomerates, small and medium
companies, communal companies. The plan lists specific projects to be
strengthened, financed, modernized, or created, such as projects for processing
of steel, aluminium, auto sector, white goods, construction materials,
plastics, personal hygiene, agro-industry, mobile phones, machinery, forestry,
and textiles and shoes, with the aim that in all these industries Venezuela is
or will be “sovereign.” Strengthen tourism and
Military
defence: “Our country promotes peaceful cooperation between nations, pushes for
Latin American and
New
national geopolitical structure: deepen national integration and social equity
across the different zones of Venezuela, road development to better integrate
regions of the country and also productive areas and improve rural roads,
improve oil belt infrastructure for populations living there, incorporate the
recognition of people's culture into processes of planning, continue building
aqueducts and other infrastructure in order to guarantee water supply. Create
motor districts of development with priorities varying according to the region:
Aragua and Carabobo states for example will focus on vehicle assembly, and a
structural solution to the growth of
The
section is however less concrete than other sections because implementation of
many of these aims depends on multiple countries, and therefore the details can
not to be decided by
Chavez
hopes to strengthen ALBA as a “vital space of political relations for the
Bolivarian revolution” and promote its vanguard role in the process of changes
in
Promote social movement and organized peoples’ participation in international forums, continue to promote the transformation of human rights systems such as the IACHR which is “highly politicised by
However,
while
Specifically,
that means promoting a new social-productive ethic and promoting alternative
productive models and schemes of economic cooperation for fair world trade
under principles of solidarity and cooperation. Also, promote actions to
protect water reserves, biodiversity, and sustainable management of lakes,
seas, and forests. Maintain leadership in international and regional
organizations regarding the issue, fighting international schemes that promote
the commercialization of nature. Continue the struggle for preservation,
respect, and strengthening of the climate regime as laid out in the Kyoto Protocol.
Dismantle the carbon schemes in the international market which legitimise the
buying of the right to contaminate. Design a national plan which covers the
productive sectors that emit green house gases and promote their
transformation.
Like
advertizing, the plan tries to appeal to the lowest common denominator by
saying as little as possible, meaning it has almost no concrete proposals at
all. “There is a way,” Capriles’ campaign slogan is none too clear on what that
way is, where it is going, or how to get there, and his plan is the same.
In
content, it reflects the contradiction between trying to garner the levels of
support that Chavez has by imitating him, pretending to care about the poor
majority and supporting many of the current government's initiatives, and at
the same time trying to present Capriles as an alternative to Chavez. It is a
hodgepodge of sprinklings of Bolivarian revolutionary discourse like “integral”
and “inclusion,” and “with the support of private companies” tacked on to the
end of many statements. Its content reveals the dilemma bourgeois politicians
always face between actually representing the wealthy business class, but
pretending to represent “all” of the country in order to get votes. There are
no references at all – as it would be politically inconvenient – to the origins
of poverty and exclusion, but rather the plan promotes “business” as something
that should be “accessible” to everyone.
Hence
the plan is basically, an 18 page sham. It is to be taken about as seriously as
Monsanto starting on its homepage that “If there were one word to explain what Monsanto is about,
it would have to be farmers. It is our purpose to help them meet the needs of a
growing population...,” or the
Nevertheless,
it's worth quickly going over some of the plan's content, in order to get a
sense of what angle the opposition is taking in its campaign to win the
upcoming presidential elections.
The
plan has 9 themes: maternal-infant care, housing and its environment, training
and development, employment and entrepreneurship, health and social security,
citizenry, tranquillity, justice, and social protection.
For
maternity care, the two strategic lines are basically the same thing rephrased:
“Guarantee optimal conditions of development in the first stage of life...” and
“access to high quality maternal-infant care.” Objectives include: decrease
mortality rates, increase quality coverage of maternal care during women's
pregnancy, detect pregnancy earlier, guarantee that the whole population has
access to a balanced diet, recognise the bonds associated with breastfeeding,
assure that all pregnant woman have the tools to care for the child and access
to a network of assistance, and adequate family and social environment. As with
the rest of the plan, it's not stated how such things could or should be
achieved, apart from increasing funds assigned to the area and “agreements with
the private sector and with education institutions.”
The
housing section is fairly predictable, with aims to improve access to housing,
improve public transport and strengthen risk management, and the training
section refers to things like “inclusion” and “solidarity” with the word
“quality” especially repeated over and over, but of course not defined.
Likewise, under health, Capriles supposedly plans to “improve” public
hospitals, but he doesn't say what he'll do with the Barrio Adentro program.
And
again, under “tranquillity,” or crime, he talks about emphasising prevention
and attacking causes, without specifying what those causes might be, though in
terms of prevention he does talk about the recovery of public spaces and
“social programs” to prevent family based and gender violence, teenage
pregnancy, and drug consumption.
For
the economy, Capriles argues that “trust” is the “fundamental tool to
consolidate a creative economy of wealth and social equity.” He supports a
strong public and strong private sector, where the public sector “promotes and
orients private initiative,” “immediately ending expropriations and negotiating
with those who have been affected,” and he concludes this section with the
objective of transitioning “from a model of sharing out the wealth to one of
creating wealth,” presumably referring to going from an economy based on
sharing out petrol income to sectors and areas where it's needed, to one based
on a lot of big, medium, and small businesses.
The no
content strategy behind Capriles’ plan and his electoral campaign will only
work on a minority of
What
Capriles’ plan does do, is provide a dodgy type of documental backing for
Venezuela's private and opposition supporting media to be able to publish
headlines like these: “Capriles
will dramatically increase the number of high schools and primary schools,”
“Capriles
will provide quality housing” and “Capriles’
program includes popular welfare.”
At the
same time, this media has gone around distorting Chavez's plan and making
things up that simply aren't in it, claiming for example that it “contemplates
the implantation of the militias across the country in order to basically
militarize the members of the PSUV and give them arms, to then plant fear in
the citizenry.” It goes to show that debating the Second Socialist
Plan 2013-2019 has a second purpose; apart from grassroots participation in its
final version, such debate will hopefully help raise awareness of its content
and help Chavez to secure a victory in October. •
Tamara Pearson is a writer and activist living in
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)