Mass Uprising Defeats CIA Coup in Venezuela
MASS UPRISING DEFEATS CIA COUP IN VENEZUELA
By Andy McInerney
The revolutionary process underway in Venezuela passed a decisive test over the weekend of April 13-14. Hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants across the country rose up to defeat a U.S.-backed coup attempt organized by the Venezuelan capitalist class against President Hugo Chávez.
It was a genuine victory of people's power in the first open clash of social classes in the oil-rich South American country. But the victory also lays bare the fundamental question of the Venezuelan Revolution: how to organize the popular classes--the workers, peasants, soldiers and students--to defend the revolution against further assaults by the propertied oligarchy and the weight of U.S. imperialism.
The Venezuelan Revolution, a process that opened with Chávez's election in 1998, is at a decisive crossroads. Its progress will require the international solidarity of all progressive people, especially in the United States.
CHÁVEZ AND THE "BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION"
Venezuela is a mineral-rich South American country bordering the Caribbean Sea. It is the third-largest exporter of oil to the United States--down from the largest when Chávez was elected in 1998.
But the tremendous wealth that the oil industry generates has never impacted the lives of Venezuela's working class. More than 80 percent live in poverty. One percent of the population owns 60 percent of the arable land.
The tremendous social inequities have caused tremendous explosions of popular outrage. In 1989, the ruling class unleashed a military assault on tens of thousands of people demanding lower food prices; more than 3,000 were massacred.
In 1992, junior military officers led by Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez staged a coup attempt in solidarity with huge demonstrations against International Monetary Fund-dictated austerity measures.
After spending two years in prison, Chávez toured the country, advocating what he described as a "Bolivarian
By Andy McInerney
The revolutionary process underway in Venezuela passed a decisive test over the weekend of April 13-14. Hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants across the country rose up to defeat a U.S.-backed coup attempt organized by the Venezuelan capitalist class against President Hugo Chávez.
It was a genuine victory of people's power in the first open clash of social classes in the oil-rich South American country. But the victory also lays bare the fundamental question of the Venezuelan Revolution: how to organize the popular classes--the workers, peasants, soldiers and students--to defend the revolution against further assaults by the propertied oligarchy and the weight of U.S. imperialism.
The Venezuelan Revolution, a process that opened with Chávez's election in 1998, is at a decisive crossroads. Its progress will require the international solidarity of all progressive people, especially in the United States.
CHÁVEZ AND THE "BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION"
Venezuela is a mineral-rich South American country bordering the Caribbean Sea. It is the third-largest exporter of oil to the United States--down from the largest when Chávez was elected in 1998.
But the tremendous wealth that the oil industry generates has never impacted the lives of Venezuela's working class. More than 80 percent live in poverty. One percent of the population owns 60 percent of the arable land.
The tremendous social inequities have caused tremendous explosions of popular outrage. In 1989, the ruling class unleashed a military assault on tens of thousands of people demanding lower food prices; more than 3,000 were massacred.
In 1992, junior military officers led by Lt. Col. Hugo Chávez staged a coup attempt in solidarity with huge demonstrations against International Monetary Fund-dictated austerity measures.
After spending two years in prison, Chávez toured the country, advocating what he described as a "Bolivarian