Victory for Venezuela’s Socialists in Crucial Elections

[GliderGuider]

Victory for Venezuela’s Socialists in Crucial Elections

November 27, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" --- The pro-Chavez United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 72% of the governorships in the November 23, 2008 elections and 58% of the popular vote, dumbfounding the predictions of most of the pro-capitalist pollsters and the vast majority of the mass media who favored the opposition.

PSUV candidates defeated incumbent opposition governors in three states (Guaro, Sucre, Aragua) and lost two states (Miranda and Tachira). The opposition retained the governorship in a tourist center (Nueva Esparta) and won in Tachira, a state bordering Colombia, Carabobo and the oil state of Zulia, as well as scoring an upset victory in the populous state of Miranda and taking the mayoralty district of the capital, Caracas. The socialist victory was especially significant because the voter turnout of 65% exceeded all previous non-presidential elections. The prediction by the propaganda pollsters that a high turnout would favor the opposition also reflected wishful thinking. The significance of the socialist victory is clear if we put it in a comparative historical context:

1. Few if any government parties in Europe, North or South American have retained such high levels of popular support in free and open elections.

2. The PSUV retained its high level of support in the context of several radical economic measures, including the nationalization of major cement, steel, financial and other private capitalist monopolies.

3. The Socialists won despite the 70% decline in oil prices (from $140 to $52 dollars a barrel), Venezuela’s principle source of export earnings, and largely because the government maintained most of its funding for its social programs.

4. The electorate was more selective in its voting decisions regarding Chavista candidates – rewarding candidates who performed adequately in providing government services and punishing those who ignored or were unresponsive to popular demands. While President Chavez campaigned for all the Socialist candidates, voters did not uniformly follow his lead where they had strong grievances against local Chavista incumbents, as was the case with outgoing Governor Disdado Cabello of Miranda and the Mayor of the Capital District of Caracas. Socialist victories were mostly the result of a deliberate, class interest based vote and not simply a reflex identification with President Chavez.

5. The decisive victory of the PSUV provides the basis for confronting the deepening collapse of world capitalism with socialist measures, instead of pouring state funds to rescue bankrupt capitalist banks, commercial and manufacturing enterprises. The collapse of capitalism facilitates the socialization of most of the key economic sectors. Most Venezuelan firms are heavily indebted to the state and local banks. The Chavez government can ask the firms to repay their debts or handover the keys – in effect bringing about a painless and eminently legal transition to socialism.

Who says an electorate can't have the courage of its convictions?

[Peace Patriot]

1. It's good to know what's really happening in the world, thanks to

alternative news sources like www.informationclearinghouse.info ("News you won't find on CNN or FoxNews"). Here's another excellent analysis: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_28850.shtml. This one explains both the overwhelming Chavista victory (17 out of 23 state governorships), providing final numbers from the national electoral council (which show that most Chavistas won by large margins), and also analyzes the opposition wins (for instance, pointing out the danger to Chavez of having a hostile mayor in central Caracas). Our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies are treating these by-elections at best as a mixed result--when it clearly is not--and fail to point out that the opposition's violent or obstructive tactics over the last decade have included a boycott of Venezuela's more recent elections--despite unanimous endorsement of Venezuelan elections as fair and aboveboard by all international monitoring groups--which means that the opposition was bound to win some races in these by-elections, since they didn't boycott the vote.

The fascist opposition in Venezuela veers between violence and petulance. Millions of USAID money (our tax dollars) have gone into 'training' the opposition on how to win elections--that is, how to lie like Bushwhacks and use the overwhelmingly corpo/fascist media in Venezuela to better advantage--and to funding their tactics. This makes this Chavez/socialist victory in Venezuela all the more remarkable--yet another fact that our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies conveniently leaves out. Chavez & party won big despite the Bushwhack and corpo/fascist 'news' monopoly aid of the opposition.

One more evidence of why TRANSPARENT vote counting is so important!