September 4, 2000


Features

Never Mind the Bollocks
BY BILL BOISVERT

Here's the new Republican Party

The Battle of Philadelphia
BY DAVE LINDORFF

Working It
BY DAVID MOBERG
Will unions go all out for Gore?

Black Radicals Regroup
BY SALIM MUWAKKIL
Detroit hosts the Black Radical Congress.

Mad Sheep Scare
BY TERRY J. ALLEN
Farmers, scientists and the USDA square off in Vermont.


News

Cleaning Up
BY HANS JOHNSON
Missouri, Oregon consider campaign finance initiatives.

Star Strike
BY BEN WINTERS
Actors demand a better deal.

Renegade or Redeemer?
BY STEVE ELLNER

Hugo Chavez leads Venezuela into a new era.

The New Front
BY KARI LYDERSEN

American anti-abortion groups crusade in Ireland.

Profile
BY TED KLEINE

Johnny Lira is in their corner.


Views

Editorial
BY DAVID MOBERG
Big money problems.

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

A Terry Laban Cartoon

Dialogue: The Balkans
More Conspiracy Theories?
BY EDWARD S. HERMAN

A Humanitarian Crusade
BY DIANA JOHNSTONE


Culture

A Man for All Seasons
BY HOWARD ZINN
Francis Wheen's Marx: A Life.

Interstate Rambler
BY PHILIP CONNORS
On the road with Larry McMurty.

England's Dreaming
BY JOHN GHAZVINIAN
History falls off the back of a lorry.

Under the Influence
BY JASON SHOLL
Sadie Plant writes on drugs.

Vanishing Act
BY
JOSHUA ROTHKOPF
Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man.

Presidential Dance Parties
BY GREG SMITHSIMON

 

Renegade or Redeemer?
By Steve Ellner

Caracas

Following his re-election, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez evoked the words of Pablo Neruda, saying: "Simon Bolivar awakes every hundred years. You, the Venezuelan people, have awoken as a result of this process of revolutionary change."
Hugo Chavez champions the poor and snubs U.S. interests. Credit: Rodrigo Arangua/AFP.

The elections on July 30 put Chavez's popularity with the Venezuelan people, especially the poor, to a test. The economy plunged into a recession during his first year as president, and unemployment has reached 18 percent. In spite of these difficulties, Chavez received 59 percent of the vote, 3 percent more than in his initial election in 1998. In addition, his "Patriotic Pole" coalition won about 100 seats in the 165-member Congress.

The "revolution" that Chavez advocates is aimed at improving the lives of the "marginal class," Venezuelans lacking steady work. After two decades of economic downturn, this group now constitutes 70 percent of the working population.

Chavez has lashed out at neoliberalism, although he stops short of calling for a state-run economy. Venezuela's new constitution, which was ratified through a national referendum last December, allows private investments for the state pension system, but mandates government oversight. In addition, the new constitution opens the social security system to those working in the informal economy.

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Vol. 24, No. 20