BY STUART MUNCKTON
Reading the mainstream press over the last month, one could be forgiven for believing that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has become so unpopular that his government is facing a revolt by the country's workers.
However, at the centre of recent events in Venezuela is the battle for control of the largest oil fields outside the Middle East. On one side is the wealthy capitalist elite, which has enriched itself with oil profits for decades; on the other is the Chavez government and its working-class supporters, who hope to use oil revenue to eradicate the poverty that afflicts 80% of the population. This is the axis around which an even broader battle is being waged — the battle over which class will rule the country.
The oil industry provides some 50% of government revenue and accounts for a third of Venezuela's gross national product. Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil producing country and is the third largest supplier of petroleum to the United States.
Oil production was nationalised in 1974, but the new state oil company — Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) — was run by the same managers who ran the company when it was privately owned. Although nominally nationalised, PDVSA has been run like a private company outside the control of the government, leaving oil profits in the hands of an unaccountable clique of executives.
The theft of oil revenues by this clique has dramatically increased over the last 30 years. In 1974, 80% of PDVSA revenues went to the government while the company kept 20% for operating costs. By the time of Chavez's election as Venezuela's president in 1998 only 20% of PDVSA's revenues were being handed over to the government, with the rest being retained for "operating costs" — in reality, channelled into the secret bank accounts and private investments of the families of the company's senior managers.
The Chavez government put a halt to PDVSA management's plans for full privatisation of the company, and introduced legislation requiring all of PDVSA's revenues to come under government control.
This helps explains why Venezuela's big capitalist families have been so desperate to get rid of Chavez. These families are also being supported by the US government, which is acting to defend the profits of US oil corporations.
In many ways, though, what has frightened Venezuelan capitalists and their US backers most of all is the mass radicalisation of the workers and peasants that has been encouraged by the Chavez government. The working majority, overwhelmingly of black or indigenous descent, are no longer willing to be ruled by a wealthy elite that, in different forms, has dominated the country's political life since the Spanish conquest.
Despite controlling the private media, the elite's support among the population has narrowed since the failed April military coup, while the workers and peasants have become further radicalised and organised.
One problem for the elite is that they revealed their anti-democratic political agenda during the coup attempt, abolishing the constitution, the supreme court and congress. Once a wolf throws off its sheep's clothing and bares its fangs, it is hard to re-establish the illusion that it is still a sheep.
Plotters fail again
On December 2, the wealthy elite attempted to organise their fourth "general strike" — in reality a bosses' lock-out — in less than 12 months. However, most workers' organisations announced in advance they would not be taking part. Even the capitalist class was not united, with two regional Â鶹´«Ã½ of the main business federation, Fedecamaras, publicly opposing the "strike".
Companies participating in this attempt to sabotage Venezuela's economy have included Western corporations like McDonald's, Wendy's, Pepsi-Cola and British Petroleum. Workers at one Pepsi factory responded to management's attempt to lock them out by occupying the factory to keep it running under the slogan "Shut down the factories? We'll take them over!"
The demands of the bosses' "strike" were for Chavez's immediate resignation and for early elections. Government supporters maintain that the real aim was to create a crisis that would lay the basis for a new coup attempt.
In a violent re-run of events in April, a sniper opened fire on opposition supporters on December 6, killing three and wounding 20. Opposition leaders promptly blamed the government. A Portuguese national was arrested for the shootings and was reported to have confessed to being paid more than US$30,000 by a central figure in the opposition.
With their "strike" failing and no section of the military willing to openly align itself with the opposition, the big capitalists moved to play their most decisive card. The 10,000 managers, administrative personnel and privileged technicians at PDVSA joined the strike, shutting down the oil industry.
The PDVSA manager-technician revolt was joined by a number of oil tanker captains, who refused to move their ships. While most of the 30,000 blue-collar oil workers have defied the shut down, the oil industry is highly computerised.
The decision to expand the sabotage to the oil industry is a drastic one and reveals the weakness of the opposition. But the effect has been drastic and threatens to bankrupt the government. The government has warned it may have to default on debts and has announced potential budget cuts. Unable to win the battle of popular opinion, the elite is resorting to economic blackmail.
If the elites lose this battle and the government regains control of the industry, which is unlikely to happen quickly or easily, then the government will be justified in purging the industry to bring the oil industry, once and for all, under state control. Chavez has declared that anyone who fails to show up for work will be sacked and publicly announced the firing of a number of top managers.
International support
The government has begun slowly, with the aid of the military and working-class volunteers, to claw back control. Venezuela's output, normally more than 3 million barrels of crude oil per day, initially fell by up to 90%, sparking fears of a shortage inside Venezuela and causing world prices to rise. In December, only 14 million barrels have been produced. Energy minister Rafael Ramirez claimed on January 6 that oil output had risen to 800,000 barrels per day, enough to cover domestic production.
International support is also aiding the government. Brazil has sent a shipment of 520,000 barrels of gasoline to ease shortages, in return for future shipments of crude oil. Venezuela is making similar arrangements with other countries.
Brazil will also send a number of skilled technicians to replace those on strike. In an act of solidarity, unions representing oil workers in Colombia and Equador have offered to help the Venezuelan government break the lock-out. The 15,000-strong Colombian National Workers Union (USO) stated: "There is a lot of support and sympathy in Colombia for the Bolivarian revolution."
The most inspiring outcome of the general lock-out has been the sight of millions of Venezuela's workers and peasants taking to the streets to support Chavez. On December 7, 2 million supporters of the government converged on Caracas in a show of strength. In response to the constant lies of the private media, the poor mobilised on December 10 to surround the TV stations. The poor also surrounded the airports to prevent opposition leaders from fleeing.
As it became clearer that the battle of the streets was being won by the workers, the middle- and upper-class supporters of the opposition retreated to their homes.
Reports from those on the ground indicate that the sentiment of the masses is profoundly revolutionary. They are no longer willing to accept the old ways and are putting more and more radical demands on a government they see as their own. Al Giordano, who runs the Narco News Bulletin, reported that popular organisations wrote letters to the government demanding that they shut the private media down. When the government did not act, they took to the streets.
Chavez, while encouraging, and in many cases helping to organise, the mobilisation of his supporters, is resisting the pressure to take such measures. Marta Harnecker, a left-wing Chilean writer who recently interviewed Chavez, declared that if he wanted, Chavez could "lead an insurrection". She said however that he has consciously decided to not yet break with constitutional rule. In doing so, Chavez is forcing his opponents to break the constitutional rules and making it as difficult as possible for the US government to openly intervene.
However, the time for decisive blows against the opposition cannot be put off indefinitely. Every day the question of who will win political power — the poor or the rich — is posed more sharply.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, January 15, 2003.
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