“THE WAY IS CLEAR”

Junge Welt Travel Group Impressed by the Social Reform Process under Hugo Chavez

By Harald Neuber

[This article published in: Junge Welt, 4/23/2005 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.jungewelt.de/2005/04-23/008.php.]




For six years the government of Hugo Chavez was doing everything to bring slum-dwellers out of political and social isolation. The poverty and stigmatization that grew over decades cannot be reversed in a few years.

The contradictions of the “Bolivarian revolution,” above all the social contradictions, were manifest during the Junge Welt journey from April 8 to April 22. “Poverty meets one at the airport in Venezuela,” Andreas Rieger said. He took part in the journey “because Venezuela is one of the few states whose government is making new inroads against the global trend to political stagnation.” After two weeks the politization of the slum-dwellers was still in the Berlin antiquarian’s memory. “The people in Venezuela are very proud of being supporters of this political process.” A redistribution policy in the petroleum state is the core of this process.

The organizers of the second readers’ trip see the project as a contribution to political education. In the sixth year after Hugo Chavez’ assumption of office, manipulated information in Europe dominates reporting about the South American country. However the Junge Welt journey members make their own assessment of the advances and problems of the “Bolivarian revolution.” The idea that direct exchange could oppose the political propaganda is championed by more and more people. In the US, non-governmental organizations like Global Exchange react to the distorted reporting about the disagreeable head of state in the South with “reality tours.” Similar to the German offer, the Global Exchange travelers learn about the different social programs of the Chavez government by visiting cooperatives and base groups.

No uniform picture of the process arises. Rieger is critical of the “national mobilization”: “I don’t believe that everyone participates voluntarily in this military program. A certain social pressure exists.” Sandra Stern focused on youth work with an Austrian union had a different impression. “I was amazed at how much the military was generally accepted,” she said and pointed to the inclusion of soldiers in the social programs. “I thought hierarchy would be automatic when the army was involved.”

Stern will also be part of the Austrian delegation to the world festival in August in Caracas. “Wherever we were,” she said, “the information and criticism was often very concrete.” In Venezuela today, no one has the illusion that people and the political system can change from one day to the next “but the way is clear.” Since then, building a socialism of the 21st century is discussed in the South American country. “Socialism,” Stern says, “doesn’t look the same in every country.” Socialism must be prepared step by step. The members of the JW readers’ trip experienced this in the last weeks.