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Chávez Won't Go

"Those who die for life, can't be called dead," said Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan vice-president. This makes Chávez live forever among the people.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez has passed away "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years". A number of persons celebrated the news by honking their car horns. Reaction of his class enemies tell the cause Chávez stood for. Identity of his class enemies tell the class position Chávez chose. The cause and the class position make Chávez part of people, part of people's history, part of class struggle toilers carry forward.

It was not his personal cause. It was a cause an old republic created with its failures, a cause determined by the society's history. It was a cause the multitude demanded. It was a cause to which exploitation and inequality, injustice and lies, all practiced by the elites, provided the rationale. The cause was not driven by personal vendetta.

So, Chávez stood for the excluded, for the poor, for the prisoners of poverty, for the captives of starvation. So, Chávez stood for the shackled, for those compelled to live with indignity and dishonor. So, Chávez stood for labor tied to the yoke of capital, to the yoke of capital's dictatorship and tyranny. So, began the historic political journey by Comandante Chávez.

Thus, a "sin" was committed in the court of the rich, the propertied classes, the appropriators, the land speculators, the oil wealth thieves, the world capitalist system. Hence Chávez turned a sworn-in class enemy of the powerful, of the key keepers of property, of the custodians of undue privileges.

Chávez united workers, peasants, small and medium business people, women, indigenous communities, youths and students, professionals, members of the military, and activists and almost the entire leadership in the camp striving to make a forward journey, a new political practice for exercising national sovereignty and the independence free from all external influences and interferences. He forged the largest progressive social-political force in Venezuela. Over the years, he led a struggle so that power belongs to the people, not to the rich.

He engaged the armed forces en masse into activities aimed at social protection and national development. An archaic state machine was pressed to gear a transformation process, frustrating at times, yet a challenging task.

Chávez made unique effort by cementing a Bolivarian civic-military political force relying on the people's yearning for freedom and dignity. The aim was to reconstruct state institutions, a transformation process, and claim people's sovereignty with the goal of transforming the social, political and state structures.

He mobilized the poor and the most excluded parts of the society. This was his constituency and strength. In response, the rich tried to flood mass psyche with lie stuffed media, and employed Guarimba, violent mobilizations using firearms to provoke the government to resort to repressive measures.

Despite conspiracies the people of Venezuela achieved victories over the years. The latest victories include the people's patience and unity in the face of propaganda on the health condition of Chávez and electoral victory by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela in 20 of 23 states.

Chávez initiated unique experiments. With the existing reality these are difficult indeed. These provide people spaces for learning, getting mobilized, taking leadership role, initiating plans, increasing awareness.
It is people, their steadfastness, awareness, organization, unity that will determine the future path. The voice of the people is saying to the Comandante, Alo Presidente (Hello President), ‘‘Nobody is Surrendering Here’’. ooo
[contributed]

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 36, Mar 17-23, 2013

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