[lbo-talk] VZ Election Results

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Nov 8 08:09:05 PST 2004


Liza Featherstone lfeather at panix.com, Thu Nov 4 15:00:47 PST 2004:
>Cheering, and quite different election results...
>
>----------
>From: Venezuela News & Action <newsandaction at veninfo.org>
>Reply-To: Venezuela News & Action
><reply.13586.12415456.1618827031574122857-lfeather_panix.com at
>en.groundspring .org>
>Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 13:30:22 -0800 (PST)
>To: <lfeather at panix.com>
>Subject: VZ Election Results, Activist Tool Kit
>
>
>Dear Friends,
>
>With most of the votes counted in Venezuela's regional elections
>last weekend, pro-Chavez candidates have won an astounding victory.
>
>CHAVEZ ALLIES SWEEP REGIONAL ELECTIONS
>Chavez supporters won governorships in at least 18 of 22 states,
>while two races undergo a recount. Additionally, mayoral candidates
>allied with the administration led in more than 80% of the races, as
>270 of the 335 municipalities went to pro-Chavez candidates.
>
>The sweep builds on the momentum created by President Chavez's
>victory in the August 15th referendum, where the strength of the
>administration's social missions led to a decisive 18-point victory.
>The regional election results will allow the country's popular
>education, health and land reform programs to expand in the year
>ahead.

Good news indeed!

Venezuelans who voted for Chavez and pro-Chavez candidates did so because they loved their left-wing political program of truly nationalizing PDVSA, using oil revenues to improve the conditions of the poor, such as expanding education, offering health care, and implementing land reforms. That's the lesson US leftist need to learn here. The majority of working-class Americans will never get motivated by an empty pitch that they have to vote for Democrats because Democrats are not Republicans. US leftists need to get organized (through the Green Party or a new political party on the left), present a pro-working-class program (featuring an end to the Iraq War, universal health care, living wages for all, public works jobs for the unemployed, shorter work weeks, etc.) through social movements and electoral campaigns, win a third of the voting-age-population to it, and challenge progressive Democratic politicians like Barbara Lee to leave the Democratic Party and join us. -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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