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What Asian American Activists Can Learn from Venezuelan Revolution
by Mike Liu
8/29/07
As a part of an informal Asian American activist group visiting Venezuela, I went this summer to see some of the rural and working class areas affected most by the Bolivarian revolution. In the northwest of this beautiful country, we visited unguided farmers, co-ops, social mission projects and spoke to taxi drivers, Chinese store owners, youth and appeared on a community TV show. We saw things as opportunities arose.
Here are some impressions of what lessons we drew in terms of how we as Asian American activists should build movement.
Human Development, Empowerment and Inclusion
First was
a holistic emphasis on human development. Human development is at the center
of Venezuela's "21st century socialism."
Developing peoples' abilities is approached in systemic way. Thus the poor, long neglected in Venezuela, are not only given economic opportunities but educational, medical, and political support. Venezuela has one of the most extensive literacy networks in the work, newly introduced health services for the into poor and rural areas and a widespread housing building program. It has also created vehicles for local political participation. Consequently, the majority of Venezuela, the poor, are raising noticeably themselves up, and they know it.
A related issue is the empowerment of the grassroots. There is an optimistic, hope-filled spirit in Venezuela that doesn't exist in United States. That spirit engages communities in civic life. The empowerment is supported by state institutions.
We attended a community council in a small town, Monte Carmelo, that proposed and made decisions about community projects. The meeting was open to all, democratically run where most participants, including men and women, actively spoke and arrived at decisions by consensus. There's decentralization of decision making to the grassroots level, an ideal that many U.S. community organizers seek. Such devolution of power may prevent abuses of centralized power that has been problematic in the U.S. and in past socialist projects. The engagement of the grassroots, participants told us, guaranteed the changes in Venezuela, regardless of Hugo Chavez's future role.
Finally our impression is that Venezuela has integrated all ethnic groups in the country in "el proceso," the phrase Venezuelans use for its revolution. Arabs, Chinese, and other Latin Americans all have extensive communities, but we found that Venezuelans have little but respect for them, as our taxi driver testified. Another indication was the community TV program – another effort supported by the state – that we appeared on. It was called "The Immigrant Bolivarian," hosted by a well-dressed Syrian immigrant.
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