Can Chavez rely on existing state structures to carry through his reforms?
In the end, no. There is a vast civil service and local government bureaucracy – 800,000 in a country of 25 million (not counting their dependents) – that has been an obstacle to pushing through his measures and has already shown that it is a base for counter-revolution. Up to now Chavez has partially circumvented this institution by using PDVSA to fund his programmes and the army to implement them. But in order to root out obstructionism and corruption, the government bureaucracy, including in PDVSA, will need to be replaced by democratically elected local and regional committees in the neighbourhoods and workplaces, with representatives on an average worker’s wage and subject to recall at any time, who will monitor the delivery of services. As Venezuelan Marxists have argued, this is not an abstract demand. There are already the beginnings of mass self-organisation in the shape of the local committees which have been involved in organising the delivery of healthcare, housing, educati
