By Marea Socialista
Recent events at the National Assembly (AN) have aggravated
the situation of widespread illegitimacy that the institutions and authorities
of the Venezuelan state suffer. We now have two parallel AN directives and a
questioned Constituent Assembly created by the constituted governmental power,
whose functions overlap each other.
The political groups of the traditional
bourgeoisie have fractured. In view of the fact that they have not been able to
bring the government down, sections of them have chosen to coexist with Maduro.
What occurs in the political superstructure seems to correlate with economic
movements. The new leaders of the “official” AN have been pointed out to have
allegedly operated in favor of sectors of the importing bourgeoisie tied to the
government, and there is talk of “buying consciences” to fix the new parliamentary
configuration.
On one hand, a more moderate or conciliatory
opposition leadership has been installed, though also right wing, but in
agreement with the government. On the other hand, there is the sector that
re-elected Guaidó and needs to maintain him at the head of parliament to
preserve his figure of (self-proclaimed) “President in charge”, under the
tutelage and with the support of Donald Trump.
Although the conflict between the two assemblies
cannot yet be considered over, there is no point in getting involved in the
discussion of procedures to validate one AN or the other.
We must recall that the AN as a whole had been
declared “in contempt” by the government controlled TSJ (Supreme Court), taking
advantage of a situation of fraud with four regional deputies. Behind that maneuver
came another one: the creation of a phony Constituent Assembly that is practically
hibernating and has recently, thanks to backroom political negotiations, seen
the reincorporation of the ruling party after more than a year of abandonment
and absence. The government itself revives the dead assembly to have a zombie
at its disposal, or to use at the negotiation table.
The
National Assembly is a Market
The AN is a mirror of the ambitions of power, of
the big business deals between national and foreign economic groups, of the
sale of votes and seats. It is a market of favors. Capitalism, especially in
its most decadent moments, commercializes everything and perverts everything.
The spectacle is embarrassing and, of course, under these conditions, the AN
loses all power of representation with respect to the people, who are the victims
of the ploys that political leaders impose on them.
The institutional parallelism reflects this
dispute and serves the interests of both the government and the opposition
sectors, because it allows them to justify their excesses and maneuvers in
detriment of the people´s rights and permanent mockery of the electors. In the
meantime, the government continues to deepen its anti-labor package with the
consent of this tailored circus opposition.
Wherever it is not known who holds institutional
representation, it is the bureaucratic government that ends up imposing its
whim. On the other hand, this situation serves the conspiratorial sectors of
the right and the pro-interventionists to justify external interference and
acts of plunder against the country.
Cheating is the Norm
Corruption is already the supra-constitutional
norm in Venezuela, as an expression of the political and integral crisis that
afflicts us and as a tool of bureaucratic authoritarianism, as well as of the pro-coup
and interventionist political instruments used by the bulk of the national
bourgeoisie and imperialism.
They all pretend to respect and apply the
Constitution and laws, but they all trample, in one way or another, the
constitutional order and democratic principles. They only serve as excuses. We
are in the crossfire of a war of ruffians who appeal to all kinds of maneuvers
and abuses for their own purposes and interests at the expense of the working
class and the people that have so far borne the brunt of the conflict.
Caught Between Bureaucracy and Capital, With a Criminal Mode of Accumulation
A corrupt bureaucratic caste in the PSUV and a new bourgeoisie that emerged from the State and from the FANB (Bolivarian Armed Forces) are taking possession of wealth and power in competition with the traditional national bourgeoisie.
Most parties are political expressions that respond in one way or another to these sectors. At the same time, the “red” bureaucracy struggles with US imperialism and relies on the emerging Chinese and Russian imperialism, while the old oligarchy remains preferentially aligned with the “gringos” in business and in world geopolitics. Both vie for the surplus value created by the working class, for the income and usufruct of national resources, for property and for the control of the state apparatus.
The bureaucracy and the neo bourgeoisie associated with it are gaining ground on the basis of the destruction of the rights achieved by the people during the period of the Bolivarian revolution, which have already been buried by this reactionary combination.
Maduro´s government has had a comparable and even superior effect for the working class than the most devastating neoliberal governments with their IMF austerity packages, but in a sui-generis way, with its own styles and methods.
The traditional bourgeoisie wants to retake power, administer its hacienda directly, and for that, from a class perspective, it already has its road paved, because this government has been applying on our people the same policies that cost them a Caracazo and the fall of the IV Republic.
The V Republic is “Shattered” and the Bolivarian Revolution was Liquidated
But now the V Republic is “shattered”, in the sense that it is broken and reproduces, in the worst way, the vices of the Fourth Republic against which the Venezuelan people rebelled. This, of course, raises the need for a new revolution that does not degenerate like this one that, after Chavez’s death, has reached its unfortunate end at the hands of his own leadership.
Historically, all are jointly responsible for the continued economic and political embezzlement of the nation, and the Venezuelan people will sooner or later have to get rid of these leaders that have turned the country’s democratic life into a field of operations for their business transactions.
Now they will try to call for new elections and to politically “normalize” the country to consolidate the destruction of the Bolivarian revolution and the new exploitation model of the working class that has been established.
We Need a Constituent Assembly of the People and Not of the Constituted Power
But, given all these conditions, no one here deserves the recognition of the people, because they all come in some way from the politics of imposition and corruption, so we would need to reshuffle the entire institutional structure of the country and the way to do this is with a new and real National Constituent Assembly, to leave all the political parasites that have been imposed without effect and to redesign everything, rethinking the way to exercise democracy and the national project .
Calling new AN and presidential elections to get to choose between bad and worse, is no solution. The very serious problem we have is that the working class and popular forces are in a situation of extreme organic weakness, confusion of conscience and depletion of their combative capacity for mobilization – for now! – with the loss of all autonomy of their organizations. These have been corrupted, co-opted or submitted by bureaucracies, bureaucratic and bourgeois parties, and by the apparatus of the bureaucratic-military state.
Recompose the Labor and Popular Movement
Thus, to achieve a favorable change for the people in the situation of the country, we have to first resuscitate our struggles. The recovery or re-foundation of our workers, peasants, communal and popular organizations is necessary.
We must focus on rescuing political consciousness and class independence. We must work on the construction of new alternative political references, in the face of the rotten political expressions of bureaucracy and capital.
Regroup Critical Militants
We have to manage to regroup those who have understood that the PSUV is an unrecoverable abomination, which has become one of the worst instruments of oppression and class domination, and those who are convinced of the nature of all the right-wing opposition that is always pro-imperialist and exploitative.
All of them respond today to mafias or clicks of embezzlers of the nation, to old or new economic groups, to transnational interests, be they the gringos or the emerging empires that today dispute their hegemony, but also subjugate their peoples.
Political Class Identity
Against all these faces of bureaucracy and capital we need to raise the political identity of the working class, of all oppressed and discriminated sectors, of women and the young, of native peoples, of those who really want to preserve the planet and not melt it with the ambition of gold and profits, of those who are tired of so much deception and manipulation, of those who want to establish conditions for a dignified life, of those who really aspire to exercise our rights to democratic participation and deciding our destiny instead of being subjected to an arbitrary system imposed by thugs.
The People Surprise
It may be a long road, we do not know, because the people sometimes take leaps born out of rage and weariness and impose a new speed on political events and the rhythm of social transformation. But we are certain that it is the only way for us to own our lives and not be livestock, or the object of repeated deceptions.
Build Up Strength and Keep Fighting
We must aim at the organic accumulation of forces in mobilization, based on the defense of our most elementary demands and the rights that are being taken away from us, not resigning to leaving the country and its leadership in the hands of those who annihilate democracy, knowing how to resist the various forms of repression that have been established, broadly discussing and understanding with the people the national situation and the causes of the disaster that scourges us, until achieving the reorganization and the necessary capacity to respond with strength, to be decisive political actors of our history. We have done so at key moments of Venezuelan history, but we have not been able to forge the true power of workers and the people. This is the great task that lies ahead and that we take up with conviction and hope.