Defending the people & principles
Across Venezuela working class people are getting organised and armed not only with guns but with an ideal, socialism.
The National Bolivarian Militia of Venezuela is a volunteer defence organisation set up as part of the continual revolutionary process the country has been undergoing. Since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1999 Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution has brought about huge changes in mass social housing, tackling poverty and nationalisation of resources. Working class empowerment has also been a cornerstone of the revolution. One strand of this empowerment was the establishment of what is commonly referred to as the Bolivarian militia or the people’s militia.
Founded in 2008 the militia has recently been recognised as part of the country’s armed forces. By late 2018 the militia's membership stood at 1.6 million, that’s almost 1 in every 20 Venezuelan citizens. Throughout 2019 50,000 new units each consisting of 30 volunteers were set up across the country. The militia often train and drill on Saturdays in the courtyards of social housing projects and school yards in the very communities they are from. For me there is something immensely powerful about the images of ordinary people organising and training in the courtyards below the social housing apartments they live in. In all these weekend training sessions you see a diverse unit of young and old, men and women united by their belief in socialism and working-class power.
The militia practice what they preach. While being interviewed by ‘France 24’ Lieutenant Jose Rafel Marrero who heads up the 300 strong ‘Jose Felix Ribas’ battalion took the reporters to a training session. While inspecting the volunteers the Lieutenant stops to assess the ability of a partially sighted volunteer. After this the Lieutenant says to the reporters “No one is left out here. We are inclusive, these are the armed masses.”
The militia also receive training at army bases around weapons and safety. However, the bulk of the training is done at these Saturday sessions with dummy guns in their own communities.
In May the militia was put to the test. A group of right-wing coup plotters including two ex-US Green Beret were traveling by boat off the coast of a fishing village called Chuao. The fishermen who were also militia members noticed the suspicious boat and alerted the army. All 8 coup plotters were captured despite being heavily armed. One of the militia volunteers in Chuao put it best when he said. “They never thought a fisherman could also be part of the militia, Farmworkers are part of the militia, so are teachers, policemen. They are all militants”. The coup plotters failed because they viewed the fishermen and their working-class community as ignorant and could be easily bypassed. They now realise from their prison cells that the Venezuelan people are class conscious and proud of their revolution.
When analysing revolutionary movements in Latin America its almost impossible not to mention the history of US sponsored coup d’états. Venezuela is no stranger to these coup attempts. The events back in May prove the effectiveness of the militia in a defensive role. This in turn raises an important question:
Does the popularity and effectiveness of the militia mean all revolutionary movements should have a working class, respectable and organised defence structure?
le Matthew McLaughin