Venezuela: Temporary Reversal of an Indispensable Reform

A deafening but dissonant chorus sung by rightists, centrists and false
leftists is celebrating the result rejecting the Venezuelan
constitutional reform by less than one percentage point. Proposed by
President Chavez, the reform had already been approved by the
Venezuelan parliament. The result was surprising, because – and this
nobody denies – the degree of popular support for the Bolivarian
Revolution remains high, as does the people's approval of the
government.

The new factor, which should not be underestimated, is
the effort the enemies of the Revolution were able to apply, their
capacity to divert, falsify and deceive, as well as their power to
express their ideas. After being defeated many times in ten previous
elections, practically decimated in the legislative elections in 2005
and defeated last year with a weak performance in the presidential
elections, the opposition caught its breath and reorganized its ranks,
recycled its speeches, renewed its message and showed itself once again
as an electoral alternative, with pretensions that it could regain
power in future elections.

Unfavorable results in the midst of a situation where the class
struggle is sharpening and complex political processes are unfolding
should neither surprise nor shake up revolutionaries. Nor they should
be taken as definitive. These results serve to identify and recognize
structural and conjunctural weaknesses of the Revolution, a point of
departure for a practical self-criticism wherever it is necessary. As
President Chávez has said wisely and with a democratic spirit both
things that can't be found in any bourgeois government when he
recognized the result of referendum and congratulated the opposition,
"for now" the constitutional reform cannot be made. But it does not
mean that the Revolution has been defeated or that the Bolivarian
government will give up its struggle for the desired aims. Events of
this type can serve to teach lessons; they can open new roads and
improve the path.

As Oscar Figueroa, the General-Secretary of the Communist Party of Venezuela has justifiably affirmed "one can learn more from a defeat than from a victory." The leading forces, starting
from Comandante Hugo Chávez, the communists, the anti-imperialist and
socialist currents that form the immense legion of members of the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), will know how to calmly
extract these lessons, to elaborate the program that fits the
challenges of this new phase that is now opening up and assign the
tasks that will overcome adversities.

Important in bringing about the unfavorable result on December 2 was
international pressure working through the internal opposition to the
Bolivarian Revolution. This opposition, in turn, despite its being made
up of diverse sectors and institutions – including the Catholic Church,
dissidents from government, right-wing parties and organizations, part
of the student and labor movements, and which have as their main
spokesperson the conservative media – nevertheless succeeded after much
time in unifying themselves around a single slogan: vote NO that for
one moment has summed up one single goal: defeat the Revolution. The
media bombardment spread falsehoods, succeeded in consolidating a
backward point of view in the middle-class and neutralized part of the
popular support of the Revolution, which, both from electoral fatigue
and because of a natural slippage of support for the government in the
midst of a delicate economical and social situation, chose to abstain.

The fact is that the Venezuelan government and the forces that support
it were unable to sufficiently clarify the issues for the people to
unify and mobilize its usual popular base to approve the constitutional
reform. This reform is indispensable to deepen and to expand the gains
reached up to now, to reinforce the anti-imperialist and popular
character of the Revolution and to move towards socialism.

In the face of this unfavorable temporary result, Brazilian communists
reinforce their feelings and gestures of solidarity with the fraternal
people of Venezuela, the Communist Party, the PSUV and Comandante
Chávez. We distance ourselves from the sectors in Brazil that although
they are part of the same alliance that supports the government of
President Lula, nevertheless dedicate themselves to an inglorious
campaign to destabilize the Venezuelan government, and we distance
ourselves from others who despite hiding behind a leftist image, in the
worst social-democratic style, question the sincerity of President
Chávez's democratic conduct.

–Jose Reinaldo Carvalho is secretary of the Communist Party of Brazil's (PCdoB) international relations committee.