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Title: Venezuelan Anarchism Author: Mike Hargis Date: 2020, Winter Language: en Topics: Venezuela, anarchist movement, book review Source: Scanned from Anarcho-Syndicalist Review #78, Winter, 2020, page 34
a review of
Rodolfo Montes De Oca, translated by Chaz Bufe, Venezuelan Anarchism:
The History of a Movement 1811-1998. See Sharp Press, 2019. 211 pages,
$16.95 paper.
This is not an academic treatise but a more popular introduction. If you
want to get some background on Venezuelan society and anarchism's place
in it, read this book. It's a good place to start.
Montes de Oca attempts to trace the origins of anarchism in Venezuela to
the very beginnings of the republic, following independence, citing a
speech by a representative of the Sociedad Patriotica, Francisco Antonio
"Coto" Paul, calling on the spirit of "anarchy" to save the fledgling
republic from the dangers of centralization. He also cites cattle
rustlers and rural bandits of the 1850s as possible precursors. A bit of
a stretch if you ask me.
The anarchist movement developed pretty much along the same lines as the
other movements in Latin America, only without the same success as, say,
in Argentina or Uruguay or Mexico.
A few Proudhonist intellectuals and the formation of guilds and mutual
aid societies by artisans in the 1850s and '60s developed socialist
ideas in the country, followed by the development of a labor movement
that emerged in tandem with the economic development of the country at
the turn of the 20th Century. A Proudhonist-leaning section of the First
International was established in 1871 in Caracas by French, German and
Swiss refugees that functioned until 1893. In 1896 a Workers' Congress
was held in Caracas that included Spanish anarchist immigrants of the
Workers' Alliance. But the Workers' Congress was definitely reformist in
orientation and briefly formed a labor party.
During and after World War I anarcho-syndicalism began to penetrate the
labor movement but was hampered by the authoritarian regime of Juan
Vincente Gomez. Many of the workers drawn to capital construction
projects like the railroads and the oil and gas industry were brought
from Spain and Italy and many of them had experience of
anarcho-syndicalist organization. Wobbly maritime workers also brought
the ideas of revolutionary industrial unionism to the area.
Anarcho-syndicalists were among the leadership of the first industrial
strike in Venezuela. The strike on the English-owned Bolivar Railway
Company Limited in July 1918 disrupted not only rail traffic but also
maritime traffic. It resulted in a pay raise for the workers and
imprisonment for several strike leaders.
In the oil fields of Zulia state, anarcho-syndicalists and Wobblies
began to build a labor movement that eschewed politics and promoted
direct action as the method of struggle. They helped to form the
Petroleum Workers Mutual Aid Society (SAMOP) that grew to 5,000 members.
But when this organization was smashed by the dictatorship many of the
anarcho-syndicalist workers dispersed to other parts of the Caribbean.
Anarchists also promoted cultural centers along the lines of the ateneos
characteristic of the Spanish movement. The centers put on concerts,
lectures, held meetings to discuss neighborhood issues, held literacy
classes and housed libraries.
Anarcho-syndicalists were at the foundation of the Venezuelan
Confederation of Labor (CTV) and spread the word through the pages of
the magazine El Obrero (The Worker), which published daily in 1919 and
1920. The CTV brought together unions of streetcar, railroad, electric
utility, telephone, construction and shoe workers. But while
anarcho-syndicalists were active in the foundation and development of
the CTV, the organization contained other tendencies as well, including
social democrats and Communists. When the dictator Juan Vincente Gomez
died in 1935 there was a brief opening and political parties of various
stripes formed and the labor movement came under party domination. The
anarcho-syndicalists were not organized enough to counter this tendency.
During the 1940s and '50s many of the leading anarcho-syndicalists threw
in their lot with the social democrats/populists of the Accion
Democratica Party. Particularly Francisco Olivo and Salom Mesa, both
important militants in the labor movement, who became active party
members and even held various government offices from time to time.
The defeat of anarchism in the Spanish Revolution and Civil War brought
Spanish exiles to Venezuela in the 1940s. A branch of the CNT in Exile
was established and the Casa Espana became the epicenter of anarchist
activity in the '40s and '50s. Anarchist involvement in AD is credited
with that party's allowing the Spanish Libertarian Movement in Exile to
set up shop in the country.
A military coup in 1948 sent the AD and PCV underground. Francisco Olivo
was expelled from the country and Salom Mesa and some Spanish anarchists
joined plots to assassinate the military junta. The failure of the plot
landed Mesa in the torture cells of the National Security.
Following the final overthrow of the military junta in January 1958 the
CTV was reconstituted under the tutelage of the AD and included some
Spanish CNT exiles in leadership positions. However, collaboration with
the AD didn't sit well with some cenetistas who set up a dissident
anarchist Grupo Malatesta that published the periodical Simiente
Libetaria. Another anti-collaborationist group was the Grupo
Buenaventura Durutti in the city of Maracay. Another group came together
to begin publishing El Libertario and anarchist youth associated with
Casa Espana began publishing Crisol Juvenil as the voice of the Iberian
Federation of Libertarian Youth and Juventud Libre. In addition, the CNT
sponsored a Culture and Social Studies Center in Caracas where they held
forums, concerts, plays and other cultural events.
Anarcho-syndicalists were among the delegates at the Third Congress of
Venezuelan Workers in November 1959. When the PCV split to set up the
Central Unitaria de Trabaj adores Venezolana the anarchists didn't
follow.
An attempt to re-unify the CNT in Venezuela in 1961 failed. Although a
formal unity agreement was adopted, two factions confronted each other,
the collaborationist (with the AD government) Nueva Fuerza and the
anti-collaborationist Local Federation of Caracas-CNT. Despite this,
however, the CNT in Venezuela were able to give support to their Cuban
comrades who fell afoul of the Castro Communists. They also managed to
establish a Council of Anti-Franco Resistance in 1962. In that same year
the FIJL started publishing Ruta as its organ.
During the 1960s "National Liberation" and "Armed Struggle" became the
go-to position of the authoritarian left in Venezuela, inspired by the
Cuban Revolution. Groups like the PCV, MIR and FALN carried out
assassinations, kidnappings and other armed actions. Venezuelan
anarchists were not impressed. Still the press had a field day
denouncing the armed struggle as "anarchy."
In 1964 some Spanish- and Argentine-exiled anarchists set up the Grupo
de Amigos del AIT (Friends of the IWA), later changing their name to
Federacion Obrera Regional Venezolana (FORVe). They published a
bi-monthly paper entitled AIT that appeared until 1978.
The world-wide rebellion among youth that was 1968 had its echo in
Venezuela and gave anarchism a boost. A University Renovation Movement
developed in 1969. Some of the student groups, like Poder Joven (Youth
Power), were anarchist oriented. This movement was smashed by the state
with the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas campus occupied by
troops and shut down for two years. An attempt to establish a Partido
Acrata De Venezuela (Anarchist Party of Venezuela) in 1970s failed to
get off the ground. Also, in the 1970s exiled anarchists began to arrive
in Venezuela from other South American countries, including Argentina,
Uruguay and Chile, where movements were being savagely repressed. The
Venezuelan CNT faded away. Under the control of the collaborationists
the organization became inactive.
In the 1980s anarchism got a boost from the developing counter-cultural
milieu of punk rock and student movements.
Anarchist collectives, social centers, coops and projects had been
developing within the student, youth and counter-cultural movements of
the 1970s and '80s. One group that developed at the Universidad Central
de Venezuela was the Libertarian Self-Management Collective
(CAL—Colectivo de Autogestion Libertaria). Made up of immigrants from
Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, the group published a short-lived
tabloid called El Libertario and made a real effort to reach out to
workers, distributing the paper at factory gates in Caracas. They also
held forums jointly with the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), a
union that split off from the social-Christian union CODESA. It was not
an anarcho-syndicalist union but did hold some libertarian positions
such as autonomy from political parties and self-management.
In 1989 came the so-called Caracazo, a popular rebellion against
neo-liberalism and the structural re-adjustment required by the IMF,
that was drowned in blood by the state. The anarchist zine Correo A
analyzed the uprising as basically anarchist in character due to its
spontaneity and leaderlessness. Despite the bloody repression, the
rebellion announced a rejection not only of the neoliberal project but
of the old leftist parties and groups as well. Anarchists sensed an
opening of a path for the development of the idea in Venezuelan society.
In 1992 there was an abortive soldiers' revolt led by, among others,
Hugo Chavez. The anarchist magazine Correa A sympathized with the
popular anger at the policies of the government of Carlos Perez that led
to widespread popular support for the rebellion but warned that a
military coup was not the answer. Instead the anarchists championed a
"movement for self-management in all areas of life" as the way forward.
In 1995 the Committee of Anarchist Relations was formed at the UCV by
some Spanish CNT exiles and young Venezuelan anarchists attached to the
counter-culture. They revived El Libertario and became a Friends of the
AIT group. This is the Venezuelan anarchist group most widely known in
North America and most critical of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution.
This History of Venezuelan Anarchism is a bit disappointing in that it
only takes the story up to 1998—the year that Hugo Chavez was elected to
the presidency and opened up the so-called Bolivarian Process. I had
hoped that we would get a bit more about anarchists' perspectives and
actions regarding the so-called Bolivarian Revolution, but, alas, no
such luck. I've had to return to Raphael Uzcatequi's Venezuela:
Revolution as Spectacle to get that perspective, but that book is
already 10 years old. We need something more up to date.
Still, Montes de Oca's book is informative. The author gives a good
description of the socio-political environment that anarchists in
Venezuela were faced with: a long string of authoritarian regimes,
followed by a corrupt "representative democracy" reigning over an
oil-dependent economy with a labor movement dominated by political
parties, leaving little room for the development of anarchist ideas
within it. A difficult row to hoe.
One quibble, though: there's no index, which makes it a bit difficult to
look things up. One can't have everything.