The host country for the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students has seen amazing changes over the past few years. Recently, the US has started to indirectly threaten intervention with Venezuela’s internal affairs, claiming that the state ‘supports terrorism.’ Omar Sierra, a founding member of the Bolivarian Circles, talks to Dynamic about people power at work in Venezuela:
Dynamic: Tell us about the work of the Bolivarian Circles.
OS: The Bolivarian Circles are one of the types of grassroots organizations most active in Venezuela. They are community-based groups working in popular education and community issues. In October 2001, President Chavez called for the creation of the Bolivarian Circles. At that time, the people of Venezuela were not as organized as we are today. Now we have many different levels of organization: women's committees, cooperatives in the countryside, indigenous movements, and more.
The Circles are also mass action organizations. During the attempted coup in 2002, the Bolivarian Circles were in the streets protecting the neighborhoods and mobilizing people to demonstrate in defense of the constitution. The economic elite in my country lie about the Bolivarian Circles, calling us armed guerrilla groups. But people inside Venezuela know the truth.
Dynamic: What is the Bolivarian process? How has Venezuela been changing?
OS: The Bolivarian Revolution is a process for social justice that aims to involve all levels of Venezuelan society. Before President Chavez was elected, Venezuela was in a critical situation. Nearly 80 percent of the country was living under the poverty line, even though Venezuela is a country very rich in resources, especially oil.
Since President Chavez came to power, the goal of the government and the people’s movements has been to redistribute the wealth of the country to the poor, the excluded, like the working class, peasants and the indigenous peoples. In this sense, multiple social programs have been implemented to empower the people and help them start building their own future. In 1999, Chavez called for a constitutional assembly, elected by the whole country, to reform the constitution. The rewritten constitution was then approved by popular referendum.The new constitution states that the ‘Latifundio’ - the big concentration of land in just a few hands – is against the social interests of the majority of the population, and endangers the country’s food security.The constitution also guarantees full rights for the indigenous peoples of Venezuela.
A major achievement of the women's movement in Venezuela was the incorporation of an article in the new constitution stating that household work is like any other work, and entitles household workers to social security with retirement and pension.
The constitution also protects our natural resources, such as the natural gas and the oil, by forbidding privatization and ensuring the state’s majority stake in joint ventures. It is important to emphasize that the oil industry was in the hands of the elite until the Bolivarian government and nationalist workers took over total control after the oil-lock out sponsored by executives and managers during December 2002 - February 2003. Now, the revenues of the oil industry are being used to finance social missions and development programs. Of course, you can have a beautiful constitution, but if you don't put it to work, it is just words on a piece of paper!
Dynamic: So how is the constitution put into effect? For instance, what changes have happened in health and education?
OS: The government is investing a huge amount of resources in human capital. Under the old government, poor people were dying from preventable diseases because of lack of access to health care. A new program called ‘Barrio Adentro’ (Inside the Barrio) has placed doctors in the most impoverished communities.
Now there are around 20,000 Cuban doctors, as well as nurses and sport trainers, who are providing absolutely free health care in the poor neighborhoods throughout the country. Many Venezuelan doctors are now being trained in Cuba. They are being educated in a system that sees medicine as a social issue, not a profit-making venture.
The government’s investment in education has been huge. The new Bolivarian schools provide free lunch, breakfast, snack and after school programs. Also, poor and working people are receiving economic incentives to stay in school and to finish school, so they won’t leave for economic reasons.
The Bolivarian University is another new institution that has opened up access to education: the main requirement for getting in is coming from a working class or low-income family.
Around 1.3 million people have gained reading and writing skills through a national literacy campaign. New neighborhood-based ‘missions,’ which began with the literacy campaign, are helping people to finish school and to enter the Bolivarian University with financial aid.
I want to give you one more recent example: The land law. In many cases in Venezuela the landowner has obtained the land illegally or has a fake property title. Several governors in my country, as well as President Chavez himself, have put a huge amount of land under government investigation, to check out its status. The ultimate goal is to end the Latifundio completely.
Many landowners stand against any challenge to the Latifundio, and they have a huge influence in the media. But the fact is that the land should belong to the people who are working in it, and the landowners will receive fair compensation for the land.
Dynamic: How do ordinary citizens take part in these reform efforts?
OS: Participatory democracy - Venezuelans organizing themselves to advocate for and fulfill their own needs - is the backbone of the Bolivarian process.
One example is the local councils of public planning, which are elected directly by the community. Mayors are now required under law to get the approval of the local council for any kind of development program, because politicians should not be the only ones who decide what to do with the community’s resources.
In the shantytowns around the cities, which usually lack plumbing and sewers, new urban land committees are working on planning and infrastructure in the neighborhood. The government is regularizing the possession of land, giving people titles to public land where they have lived for years, so they can get access to low-interest loans for development projects.
Also, in order for a neighborhood to get a doctor through the Barrio Adentro program, the community has to organize a health committee. Of course this is all a process of learning and deepening democracy. These programs are about community participation, but with the government’s help. I think the attempted coup against Chavez energized the people even more to form organizations in every kind of community and around every kind of issue that affects them.
The farmworkers are also creating cooperatives to put to produce the land collectively and workers are also taking part of the Bolivarian process. Recently, after a long struggle, one of the biggest paper factories in Venezuela -Venepal- has been nationalized under workers’ control.
Dynamic: What’s the current political situation?
OS: After President Chavez won the referendum, it was a huge setback for the opposition. They really believed that they had the majority of the population with them.
The opposition again faced a setback in the regional elections a few months later. Pro-Chavez governors won 20 out of 22 provinces! Part of the opposition has been rethinking their ideas and trying to regroup. They are realizing that trying to overthrow Chavez only made him more popular!
However, that is not a reason for the people to let down our guard. The opposition is made up of the country’s elites, and they still have huge economic power. They control the media and they have international connections, and sooner or later they will regroup.
Dynamic: Venezuela is making a major contribution to friendship and solidarity between young people by hosting the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students this year.
OS: I'm very excited about the Festival!
Festival participants will have the chance to see how Venezuelans are looking for our own model of development; the cooperatives, the local councils, the Barrio Adentro program, the missions, the indigenous development groups, the factories under workers’ control… In short, it will be a chance to learn about how we are struggling to carry on the Bolivarian Revolution.
Also, we cannot ignore the power of the media and how it has been brain washing people in the US. Young people coming for the Festival will see for themselves what’s happening in our country, and compare that with what the media says. Definitely, it will be a wonderful experience that will disappoint no one.
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On a Saturday afternoon in La Vega, classrooms are packed with women of all ages returning to school, seeking higher degrees thanks to Mission Ribas. Photo: Noah Friedsky
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The backbone of the "Bolivarian Revolution" are the "missions," social programs filling a vacuum in the Barrios. They succeed thanks to a virtual army of unpaid workers--cooking, teaching, organizing, mapping neighborhoods, treating patients. They live off of free food, free health care, neighbors and family. Photo: Noah Friedsky.
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The "Bolivarian Revolution" thrives in the Barrios. The sign proclaims "They will not return (a reference to previous regimes), Chavez isn't leaving." Photo: Noah Friedsky
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Spotlight: Women in La Vega hand out free meals to children, seniors, handicapped people, and indigent men and women. Hundreds of new government-sponsored community kitchens provide 3 meals a day in the Barrios, and state food markets sell staples at below market prices. Photo: Noah Friedsky
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In streets known for their violence--there are supposedly 50 to 60 murders per weekend here--something else is at work. The barrios bustle with activity and organizing. Almost everyone works solely as a volunteer, like these young men from La Vega rebuilding their neighborhood's sidewalks with government-donated supplies. Photo: Noah Friedsky
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Omar Sierra, right
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