Thoughts on reform, revolution, social change and elections in light of SYRIZA's win

Mike Treen writes about his Thoughts on reform, revolution, social change and elections in light of SYRIZA's win.

Tens of thousands of working people in the barrios of Caracas and Laz Pas and other modern urban cities are actually small business people by definition but have been enthusiastic supporters of the revolutionary process. Industrial workers in large factories and farms are only a small percentage of the working population and while they can play a leading role through their unions and communities, they need allies among the “petty-bourgois” layers, especially among the small farmers. The desire of the revolutionary governments to minimise economic disruption and protect the jobs and living standards of their supporters is a smart tactic. It is also necessary to train a whole new layer of revolutionary minded professionals to provide some of the technical expertise needed.

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A modern state needs the petite-bourgeoise and labour aristocracy. In order for a state to make the transition to Socialism. these layers need to be radicalised, and drawn into the revolutionary process.

The officer corps in Venezuela had been somewhat unique in that it hadn't sent its people to the US military schools but instead to local universities where many were affected by the deep-seated radicalisation of youth that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. Chavez himself was an instructor at the national military academy. This allowed revolutionary-minded young officers to get significant influence early in the revolutionary process and use that to defend the government and people.

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The revolutionary orientation of the Venezuelan Military Forces has been a vital feature of the survival of the Bolivarian Revolution.

As Maurice Bishop, the assassinated leader of revolutionary Grenada, commented, it is wrong to think that “a revolution is like instant coffee; you just throw it in a cup and it comes out presto”. Bishop himself was overthrown by a secret faction strongly influenced by Stalinist administrative and bureaucratic methods. This faction claimed to want to push the revolution forward but had no understanding of the need to patiently organise and educate working people to take on tasks that matched the level of consciousness and the objective class relations and material conditions and level of development. The end result of their seizure of power was to disarm and demoralise the workers and farmers of Grenada and open the door to invasion by the US under President Reagan in 1983.

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A revolutionary movement can not advance too far ahead of the workers. It must not despise the workers for their ignorance and lack of vision. These things take time. The movement must work with the people in order to gain their respect and trust.

Often it is true that organs of popular power have emerged in revolutionary situations and were not able to develop because the parties of the parliamentary left were opposed to that happening. That was certainly true for Spain from 1936-39 and at least partly true for Chile in 1970-73. But it could have been radically different if the party that had a parliamentary majority supported the growth of organs of popular power while pursuing a program of social measures that was able to win majority support in the country.

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It is foolish to expect soviets to appear out of thin air. The process of developing direct democracy is fraught with danger from subversion by the careerist and the secret policeman. Yet, we must continually seek opportunities to develop and nuture such flowerings of direct democracy.