Showing posts with label PSUV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PSUV. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 October 2010

Venezuela's Choice


Venezuelan election commentary is still in flux - reactions are still trickling in. Still, so far available analyses are mostly failing to address the election's most important implications. 
 
Yes, the Bolivarian Revolution is still in the saddle. 
 
Yes, Chavez is vastly more popular - despite being in office ten years - than Obama, now in office for two years. 
 
Yes the PSUV has retained more support and influence than, for example, the Democrats in the U.S.
 
One could continue in that vein, but viewing the election as if it is a one off experience that is lost or won depending on the ballot count from electoral district to electoral district measuring assembly seats won by Chavistas and the opposition, so that the Chavistas can say - hooray, we won - or viewing it in comparison to what goes on in the U.S. or other typically top down and politically bankrupt societies, so again the Chavistas can say, hooray, we are doing better, is highly simplistic. 

Thursday, 7 October 2010

Venezuela: Left wins, but right makes gains

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by Federico Fuentes
from Green Left Weekly
2 October 2010

Venezuela’s September 26 National Assembly elections gave an interesting insight into the state of class struggle in a country sharply polarised by the revolutionary changes led by the government of President Hugo Chavez.

The significance lies in the vote occurring after 11 years of the Chavez-led Bolivarian revolution, which has resulted in big improvements in the living standards of the poor majority.

This process has divided Venezuelan society along class lines. This has been reflected in the right-wing opposition’s repeated attempts to overthrow the elected Chavez government by any means necessary — and the poor taking to the streets to defeat these US-backed attempts.

The opposition boycotted the 2005 National Assembly elections, but this time waged a ferocious campaign, with US funding, that included media lies and economic sabotage. The opposition aimed to break the powerful relationship between Chavez and the people.

Monday, 1 June 2009

Venezuela: ‘When the working class roars, capitalists tremble’

by Federico Fuentes from Green Left Weekly 30 May 2009 Addressing the 400-strong May 21 workshop with workers from the industrial heartland of Guayana, dedicated to the “socialist transformation of basic industry”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez noted with satisfaction the outcomes of discussions: “I can see, sense and feel the roar of the working class.”

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Venezuela: Mass organisation, unity increases as revolution deepens

by Federico Fuentes from Green Left Weekly 21 March 2009 “This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich”, proclaimed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on February 28, as he ordered soldiers to take over two rice-processing plants owned by Venezuelan food and drink giant Empresas Polar. The move was made in order to ensure that the company was producing products subjected to the government-imposed price controls that aim to protect the poor from the affects of global price rises and inflation. See also Venezuela Confronts Capitalism's Crisis with More Revolution

Sunday, 25 January 2009

Six million signatures for constitutional reform

by Federico Fuentes 17 January 2009 from Green Left Weekly Around 6 million signatures, in support of a referendum to amend Venezuela’s constitution and allow all elected public officials to stand for re-election after two terms, were handed over to the National Assembly on January 16. Such an amendment would allow current president, Hugo Chavez, to stand for re-election in 2012. Under the constitution adopted in 1999, officials may only be re-elected once — as Chavez was in 2006.

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Venezuela: Mass organisation, unity increases as revolution deepens

by Federico Fuentes from Green Left Weekly 21 March 2009 “This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich”, proclaimed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on February 28, as he ordered soldiers to take over two rice-processing plants owned by Venezuelan food and drink giant Empresas Polar. The move was made in order to ensure that the company was producing products subjected to the government-imposed price controls that aim to protect the poor from the affects of global price rises and inflation. Under Venezuelan law, companies that can produce basic goods regulated by price controls must guarantee that 70-95% of their products are of the regulated type. “They’ve refused 100 times to process the typical rice that Venezuelans eat”, said Chavez. “If they don’t take me seriously, I’ll expropriate the plants and turn them into social property.” Four days later, Chavez announced the expropriation of a rice-processing plant owned by US food giant Cargill after it was revealed the company was attempting to subvert the price controls. Moving against capital In the following period, “Venezuela’s National Institute of Lands (INTI) [took] public ownership of more than 5000 hectares of land claimed by wealthy families and multi-national corporations and is reviewing tens of thousands more hectares across the nation”, Venezuelanalysis.com reported on March 11. This includes the March 5 expropriation of 1500 hectares of a tree farm owned by Ireland’s Smurfit Kappa. The government has pledged to move away from eucalyptus trees, which were drying up the land, and turn the land over to cooperatives for sustainable agriculture. On March 14, Chavez decreed a new fishing law, banning industrial trawl-fishing within Venezuela’s territorial waters. “Trawling fishing destroys the sea, destroys marine species and benefits a minority. This is destructive capitalism”, explained Chavez on his weekly TV show, Alo Presidente the following day. Venezuelanalysis.com reported on March 17 that the government will invest US$32 million to convert or decommission trawling boats, as well as to development fish-processing plants. “Thirty trawling ships will be expropriated, Chavez said, due to the refusal of their owners to cooperate with the plans to adapt the boats to uses compliant with the new fishing regulations.” Small-scale fisherpeople will have access to the converted boats. Anti-crisis measures This latest wave of radical measures by the Chavez government should be seen in the context of the ongoing process of nationalisations since early 2006, the onset of the global economic and food crises and the February 15 referendum victory. The government has re-nationalised privatised industries such as electricity, telecommunications and steel. Cement companies, milk producing factories and one of Venezuela’s major banks have either been, ore are in negotiations to be, nationalised. Unlike the state interventions currently being undertaken in the imperialist centres, the aim of these moves is not to bail out bankrupt capitalists, but to help shift production towards meeting people’s needs — in service provisions (phone lines, electricity, banking) and production of essential goods (concrete, steel for housing and factories, and food). Last July, the government made strong signals that its next targets would be two strategic sectors previously barely touched — food and finance. The day after announcing the planned government buyout of Banco de Venezuela (which, once completed, will give the government control over close to 20% of the banking sector), Chavez issued 26 decrees, a number of which increase government and community control over food storage and distribution — and allow the state to jail company owners for hoarding. Moves aimed at increasing government control over food production come amid soaring world food prices and 30% inflation within Venezuela — which is still dependent on imports for 70% of its food supply. The government also faces an ongoing campaign of food speculation and hoarding carried out by the capitalist food producers and distributors in order to destabilise the anti-capitalist government. With oil prices plummeting by almost $100 per barrel from a high of more than US$140 last year, the government is tightening the screws. Oil accounts for 93% of the government’s export revenue and around half of its national budget. The government has already announced the restructuring of its ministries, merging a number of them in order to cut down on bureaucracy. The Chavez government is making it very clear that it will be the capitalists, not the people, who will pay for the mess that the capitalist system has created. “I have entrusted myself with putting the foot down on the accelerator of the revolution, of the social and economic transformation of Venezuela”, Chavez explained on March 8. Mandate for socialism These latest moves follow the government’s victory in the February 15 referendum. Officially, the referendum concerned whether to amend the constitution and remove limits on the number of times elected officials could stand for re-election. At stake was the possibility of Chavez standing for re-election in 2012. In the context of the intense class struggle, it became a referendum on the socialist project pushed by Chavez. Addressing tens of thousands of supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace after the victory, Chavez noted that those that had voted “yes” had “voted for socialism, voted for the revolution”. The referendum was proposed by Chavez as a “counter-offensive” against the opposition following the November 23 regional elections. Candidates from Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the overwhelming majority of governorships and mayoralties. However, opposition victories in key states on the Colombian border (where there is growing right-wing paramilitary activity) and the Greater Caracas mayoralty were viewed as important gains for the counter-revolution. Opposition governors and mayors began to use their new positions to attack community organisations and the pro-poor social missions. The rapid mobilisation to defeat these attacks by the poor and working people was converted into the formation of 100,000 “Yes committees” to campaign in the referendum, in poor communities, workplaces and universities across the country. These committees were the backbone of the successful referendum campaign. Organising for revolution The latest measures will undoubtedly intensify the class conflict in Venezuela. An example of this conflict has resulted from the government’s program of land reform, aimed at ending the domination over agriculture by a small minority of large landowners. Previous attempts by the government to redistribute land have resulted in a violent counter-offensive by large landowners that has resulted in the murder of more than 200 peasants since the land reform law of 2001. On March 9, land reform activist Mauricio Sanchez was murdered in Zulia, two weeks after campesino activist Nelson Lopez was shot dead in Yaracuy. Increasingly, trade unionists have also been the target of violent repression when struggling for their rights. On January 29, two workers at Mitsubishi plant were killed by police during an industrial dispute — sparking protests and the arrest of a number of police. Several peasant organisations are seeking to unite their forces in support of government measures and against repression. The PSUV leadership has also called for a restructuring of the party to better organise the masses for the coming battles. Launched after Chavez’s 2006 re-election to help accelerate the revolutionary process, the PSUV brought together a range of revolutionary forces as well as opportunist and corrupt layers. On March 6, the national leadership of the PSUV made public a series of decisions aimed at deepening participation and democracy in the party. This includes a recruitment drive to sign up new militants, a clean out of the current membership lists, the reactivation of the grassroots socialist battalions and the organisation of an extraordinary congress for August to deepen discussion over the party’s program and principles. Building on the success of the “yes” campaign, the PSUV will move to consolidate national mass fronts of workers, peasants, women and students — along with converting the “yes committees” into ongoing “socialist committees”.

Venezuela: ‘When the working class roars, capitalists tremble’

by Federico Fuentes from Green Left Weekly 30 May 2009 Addressing the 400-strong May 21 workshop with workers from the industrial heartland of Guayana, dedicated to the “socialist transformation of basic industry”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez noted with satisfaction the outcomes of discussions: “I can see, sense and feel the roar of the working class.” “When the working class roars, the capitalists tremble”, he said. Chavez announced plans to implement a series of radical measures, largely drawn from proposals coming from the workers’ discussion that day. The workers greeted each of Chavez’s announcements with roars of approval, chanting “This is how you govern!” Chavez said: “The proposals made have emerged from the depths of the working class. I did not come here to tell you what to do! It is you who are proposing this.” Nationalisation and workers’ control To the cheers of the workers, Chavez announced the nationalisation of six iron briquette, ceramics and steel companies, one after the other. He said this started “a process of nationalisations” aimed at creating an integrated basic industry complex as part of building socialism. Chavez also said it was necessary for there to be workers’ control along “the entire productive chain”. Plans for the industrial complex had to be “nourished with the ideas of the working class”. Throughout the day, workers from local steel, aluminum and iron companies raised demands for greater worker participation in managing production, more nationalisations, and the need to sack corrupt and counterrevolutionary managers. The workers were affiliated to the Socialist Workers’ Force (FST), which organises unionists in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV — the mass revolutionary party led by Chavez). Saying this new phase would have to be “assumed with responsibility”, Chavez called on the workers to wage an all-out struggle against the “mafias” rife in the management of state companies. Chavez said he would approve a new law to allow workers to elect state company managers. “Every factory should be a school, in order, as Che said, to create not only briquettes and sheets and steel and aluminium, but also, above all, new men and women, a new society, a socialist society”, he said. Chavez also called for workers to organise an armed militia. Worker battalions in each factory should be equipped with weapons “in case anyone makes the mistake of messing with us”. Post-referendum offensive These moves are part of a push to deepen the Venezuelan revolution after the February 15 referendum that voted to remove restrictions on the number of terms public officials could stand for election. At stake was the future of the revolution. Its central leader, Chavez, was unable to stand for re-election in 2012 under pre-existing regulation limiting a president to two terms. The referendum initiative followed the November regional elections, in which the PSUV won a majority of governorships and mayoralties, yet lost some key states to the right-wing opposition. The opposition used newly won offices to launch an assault on grassroots organisations and the government’s pro-poor social programs. The referendum was part of a counter-offensive to strengthen the organisation of the revolutionary forces and win another mandate for the revolution’s radical program. As part of the campaign, around 100,000 “Yes committees” were organised in factories and communities across the country. The “Yes” campaign, which won nearly 55% or 6.3 million votes, was a decisive mandate to deepen the revolution. The campaign raised the level of organisation among the revolution’s base — workers, students, peasants, the urban poor and other sectors. After the referendum, Chavez called for the restructuring of the PSUV. The Yes committees were to be converted into “socialist committees” as grassroots units of the party. Special emphasis was put on strengthening the social fronts. In early May, Chavez reshuffled the PSUV regional vice-presidents, appointing those seen as his closest collaborators. Attacks on capital With this momentum, the government gave clear signals of how it intended to fight the global economic crisis and falling oil prices. Rather than a pact with the capitalist class, as some within the revolutionary movement had called for, Chavez launched an offensive —with state intervention into, and in some cases expropriation of, capitalist firms. This followed previous nationalisations in oil, steel, telecommunications, electricity, and other industries. This is part of ensuring state ownership over strategic sectors of the economy, to direct such sectors towards social needs. Rice-producing factories owned by Polar, Venezuela’s largest company, were temporarily taken over by the military in February after it was found the company was deliberately evading government-imposed price controls. Under Venezuelan law, food companies are obliged to direct 70% of production towards selected products at a set price. This is to ensure enough affordable food is available to the poor. Venezuelanalysis.com said on March 11: “During a recent surge in land reform measures, Venezuela’s National Institute of Lands (INTI) [took] public ownership of more than 5000 hectares of land claimed by wealthy families and multi-national corporations.” INTI said it would review tens of thousands more hectares as part of its drive to ensure fertile land is directed towards food production for social needs, rather than corporate profits. On May 7, the National Assembly passed a law ensuring state control over a range of activities connected to the oil industry, previously run by multinationals. The next day, “the government expropriated 300 boats, 30 barges, 39 terminals and docks, 5 dams and 13 workshops on Lake Maracaibo, where there are large crude oil reserves”, a May 9 Venezuelanalysis.com article said. On May 20, it nationalised a gas compression plant in the eastern state of Monagas under the same law. Five days before, the government took over a pasta processing plant owned by US multinational Cargill after government inspectors found it was not producing price-regulated pasta as required. Food vice minister Rafael Coronado said that after the 90-day intervention period, inspectors “together with the workers, the communal councils” would decide what to do with the company. Revitalised working class On April 30, announcing plans to expropriate the La Gaviota sardine processing plant, Chavez told a gathering of workers that “wherever you see a private company, a capitalist company that is exploiting the workers and is not complying with the laws, that is hoarding, denounce it, because the government is willing to intervene”. La Gaviota had been shut for two and a half months by workers’ protests demanding the boss comply with the collective contract. The same day, the government and workers took over the Cariaco sugar processing plant, the scene of similar protests. Some of the companies Chavez said would be nationalised on May 21 have also faced industrial disputes. Chavez had previously threatened to nationalise Ceramicas Carabobo if the bosses refused to come to an agreement with the workforce. Workers at Matesi had called for the company be nationalised due to the unwillingness of management to sign a fair collective contract. Matesi and Tavsa were part of the previously state-owned steel production complex, Sidor, before being sold off separately in the 1990s to Techint, an Argentine company. After a 15-month dispute over the signing of a collective contract, the government nationalised Sidor, which was majority owned by Techint, decrying the “colonialist mentality” of the bosses overseeing super-exploitative conditions. However, in Matesi and Tavsa, negotiations over collective contracts continued. Inspired by the Sidor example, where a collective contract was signed after nationalisation, Matesi workers demanded their factory also be nationalised. This increase in industrial militancy has resulted in a number of factory occupations. This includes the Tachira-based coffee processing plant Cafea, which was closed by its bosses. Its workforce, together with unions and the local community, have occupied the plant and are demanding it be nationalised.

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Venezuela’s 2008 regional elections: Another vote for the revolution and Chavez

Statement from the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network 25 November 2008 The results of the elections for local mayors and state governors held in Venezuela on November 23 underlined the continuing mass support for the Bolivarian revolution led by President Hugo Chavez. In a clear vote of confidence in the project to build socialism of the 21st century in Venezuela, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) - formed just six months ago with Chavez as its president - won 17 of the 22 states in which governors were elected. The United States-backed right-wing opposition won five states with a total of about 4 million votes, compared to the 5.5 million votes for the PSUV candidates.

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

A crucial test for Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution

ImageMeeting of PSUV delegates in the state of Anzoategui (Aporrea). The PSUV is mobilising for Venezuela's regional elections on 23 November.
from LINKS – International Journal of Socialist Renewal 10 November 2008 While on the surface it may appear to be a simple electoral battle, something much different is at stake on November 23. On that day, Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect 22 governors, 328 mayors, 233 legislators to the state legislative councils, and 13 councillors to district committees – including indigenous representation – making a total of 603 positions.

Thursday, 21 August 2008

Venezuela's young militants: An antidote to the weaknesses of the revolution

by Tamara Pearson from LINKS - International Journal of Socialist Renewal 30 July 2008 We stayed up until 2 am two nights in a row - students from a range of faculties, and young people from various movements and revolutionary organisations. In the campsite of La Mucuy in the Andean city of Merida, we discussed and debated the role of youth in Venezuelan’s revolution and the construction of a youth wing of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), while around us clouds hugged the buildings and mountain slopes, horses slept in the foreground and mosquitos made meals of our legs and faces.

Friday, 8 August 2008

Federico Fuentes on the regional elections in Venezuela

Hear Federico Fuentes, Green Left Weekly correspondent in Caracas, speaking on community radio about the lead up to the regional elections this November in Venezuela, and the prospects of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Go to http://links.org.au/node/561

Saturday, 14 June 2008

Venezuela: Massive turnout for PSUV primaries

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by Kiraz Janicke, Caracas
11 June 2008

In a massive show of support for the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) - established to unite the mass movement that supports the Bolivarian revolution led by President Hugo Chavez - on June 1 some 2.5 million PSUV members participated in an historic process of electing candidates for the upcoming regional elections in November.

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Venezuela: Big stakes in November elections

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by Kiraz Janicke & Federico Fuentes
4 June 2008

Following the December 2 constitutional reform referendum defeat — the first for the forces of the Bolivarian revolution since the election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 1998 — and facing popular discontent at the problems holding back the advance of the process of change, the pro-revolution forces face a big challenge in securing an overwhelming victory in the November regional elections in order not to lose ground to the US-backed opposition.

Sunday, 1 June 2008

Venezuela: Struggle in the PSUV - 'If the people don't stand firm, the right will screw it up!'

Image Elected delegates to the PSUV's founding congress earlier this year

by Stuart Munckton
from LINKS - International Journal of Socialist Renewal
27 May, 2008

The two Venezuelanalysis.com articles below, by Kiraz Janicke (a member of the Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau and Venezuelanalysis.com journalist), give a feel for the increasingly intense struggle that is taking place within the Chavista camp.

"Venezuela gets ready to choose candidates for regional elections" http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3487

"Controversy erupts over nominations for PSUV candidacies in Venezuela"
http://www.venezuelanalysis. com/news/3494

In fact, as articles from the GLW Caracas bureau among a fair few others have pointed out in recent times, the key struggles in Venezuela are occurring within the Chavista camp — and the outcome of this struggle will play a major role in determining the fate of the Venezuelan revolution.

Continue

Sunday, 30 March 2008

Venezuela: Revolution, party and a new international

by Luis Bilbao Translated by Federico Fuentes from LINKS 26 March 2008 Venezuela has entered a decisive phase of its revolutionary process, which has advanced rapidly, and without pause, since 1999. The failed attempt to reform the constitution in the December 2, 2007, referendum opened up a conjuncture of sharp contradictions in the short and medium term and modified the institutional framework in which this period will develop; but it does not modify the content of the confrontation underway. The forces of the revolution will be unleashed, along with those of the counterrevolution. Expressed in 69 articles, the reform had four objectives as its central aim: to transfer political power to the councils of popular power (workers¹ councils, peasant councils, student councils, etc); to promote and institutionalise the existence of popular militias; reorder the national design of the state (new geometry of power); and provoke a new and more dramatic transference of wealth in favour of the working class and the people as a whole. In summary: the dismantling of the bourgeois state and the beginning of the construction of a state of the workers, peasants and the whole of the people. The electoral defeat will change the form and perhaps the rhythm of this march, nevertheless, the transition towards socialism will elevate itself to a qualitatively superior level in relation to what we have lived through during the last eight years. [1] Never so starkly has the dialectic of reform-revolution been evident. Never before has the contradiction between means and ends been so strident. Starting from the certainty that [Venezuela¹s President Hugo] Chavez will maintain a line of intransigent confrontation in the face of the opposition bloc, behind which operates the White House, two unknown factors will become clearer: the importance of the level of abstention (that is, the percentage of the population who remain apathetic and have not joined the ranks of the revolution) and whether the opposition will hold off or not from resorting to the only recourse they have left: violence. Inversely to all other previous examples, the revolution in Venezuela began via the institutional road. Chavez won the December 1998 elections, since which he has advanced, step by step, in the partial solution of social problems, raising the consciousness of society, recuperating national sovereignty and finally, clashing against the foundations of the capitalist system. That was the path taken in order to accumulate forces, with methods and with individuals buried within bourgeois state apparatus, barely offset in some cases by the will of the revolutionary cadres in government functions. With the eruption of the new government, this power entrenched itself in the state as it was composed ­ or, better said, decomposed. Throughout this period the inherent contradictions were expressed through the figure of the head of state and government, Hugo Chavez, in a never before seen situation in the history of social struggles. The reforms as a whole -- often made through pragmatic paths that led in a direction contrary to that sought after ­ were only foundations on which to raise this revolutionary project. In different latitudes, individuals prone to developing concepts elaborated and stated by others for different circumstances, but incapable of taking as their starting point living phenomena, understanding them and responding to them, saw this situation as a repetition of ``dual power¹¹. A repetition sui generis of the situation that Russia lived through between February and October 1917, with the government of the bourgeois state on one side and the workers¹ and social movement on the other. Chavez was only ``infiltrated¹¹ in there, an ally who could be counted on, whilst the workers¹ movement and the popular masses were organised into a revolutionary party. This jovial expression was transformed into a category, a pseudo-theoretical interpretation that inverted reality: it placed tiny groups and charlatans in the role of the vanguard and Chavez as a prisoner of the bourgeois state. It might seem like the tiniest of differences on the theoretical level, but this crucial error (that takes the appearance of a theoretical elaboration, but in almost all cases had as its foundations an unfortunate combination of myopia and cowardice), created a sectarian dynamic that rapidly transformed itself into counterrevolutionary positions, manifested in calls to vote against the constitutional reform, or the height of inconsistency entering as secret fractions, gnashing their teeth, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party organised under the impulse and initiative of Chavez. In the least grave cases of this mortal deviation, vanguard groups and cadres stood firmly in the rearguard, playing the role of a deadweight, acting against the revolutionary impulse. No matter how you look at it, the fact is, that the political phenomenon underway in Venezuela is a revolution, without a doubt, whose social roots lie in the Caracazo of 1989, but which, due to the combination of the actual social formation of the country and the historic international moment in which it is situated, has developed within the bourgeois institutional system; with a powerful but atomised social movement, where the workers¹ movement is not present in an organic manner; without a party in a strict sense of the word and with the unusual gravitation around an individual figure to provide definition of sense and rhythm with which the class struggle advances. It is no coincidence that those groups and individuals who, with irresponsible superficiality, condemn a supposed cult of personality on the part of Chavez, are the same ones who refuse to commit themselves to constructing a revolutionary force in the given circumstances, facilitating the intervention of groups and individuals with social and/or political interests contrary to a revolution ... within official political militancy, as well as in the government itself. Considering all differences, an analogy can be made with the conduct of infantile leftists in Argentina who, when the possibility existed to construct a political instrument of the masses out of the Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA, Argentine Workers Centre), refused to commit themselves to this process, only to afterwards condemn the outcome of that attempt, where the absence of those who call themselves revolutionaries contributed to tipping the balance of forces in favour of the reformist and conciliatory individuals and structures. But the same did not occur in Venezuela: due to the gravitational pull of Hugo Chavez, the forces of revolution have imposed themselves and now the world is witness to the transition of this country towards socialism, via unprecedented paths. Revolution and violence Although there has not been a lack of violent episodes over the last eight years ­ including regular assassinations of peasants, a coup, sabotage of the petroleum industry and innumerable failed attempts against the life of Chavez ­ the transformations that have occurred in the political landscape, the relation of forces between classes, and the state apparatus, have occurred in peace and within the framework of democratic institutions. This prolonged phase, during which profound transformations have occurred, has led to a belief that a revolution can be concluded without clashing frontally with the class enemy that exists within and outside the country¹s borders. But such a similar illusion was not part of the plans of Chavez and his closest team, who from the first moment took up the task of winning ground within the armed forces, renewing armaments, enlisting defence plans in the face of possible invasions and other forms of territorial aggression, and above all, the formation of revolutionary popular militias, known as the reserves, which today organise some one million armed men and women. It is not only legitimate, but absolutely correct, to make the biggest feasible effort to postpone for the maximum time possible a frontal clash with the enemy. Of course, this can only be said if at the same time not a single moment is wasted to raise the political consciousness of society in regards to the constant threat of imperialism and its local partners, at the same time as organising a revolutionary armed force capable of confronting and defeating this inexorable challenge. In this sense, by winning more time, two key factors can be achieved: one, the conquest of more and more popular contingents ­ workers, peasants, students, professionals, small producers and urban and rural traders ­ to the ranks of the revolution or, which in essence is the same thing, diminish to the maximum extent possible the social ranks of the enemy; two, pose the confrontation in the sphere of the Latin American territorial and political terrain, that is, if on the one hand a different relationship of forces against imperialism is created, then on the other there is posed the necessity of making all the necessary tactical steps forward to synchronise the unequal march of the processes that are unfolding in the region. The position adopted by ex-general and former minister of defence Raul Baduel accelerated suddenly the march towards a bellicose confrontation. It is obvious that Baduel¹s identification of the constitutional reform as a coup, along with his call for a No vote, imply a formal alignment with imperialism and its war plans against the socialist Bolivarian Revolution.[2] Even all the effort in the world will not be sufficient to postpone this confrontation. In Venezuela, it is necessary to complete the organisation of the PSUV and with this political instrument undertake with the maximum of energy the tasks put forward by the reform of the constitution. In Latin America, it is necessary to push with a similar will the construction of mass revolutionary parties and advance with an affirmative response towards an international organisation capable of taking up on all terrains a conclusion forgotten by many: that the socialist revolution -- the abolition of capitalism, the construction of a society of free men and women -- supposes a confrontation with imperialism that, due to the logic of its will and necessity, will be necessarily violent. The old debate between ``armed struggle¹¹ or ``peaceful road¹¹ has now been surpassed by this restating in a new international and regional context, summarised in the pressing urgency to organise the masses into revolutionary parties and to prepare ourselves in all spheres so that, due to the massive nature and military capacity of the peoples, the violence is postponed and minimised as much as possible. For reasons everyone should be able to comprehend, Critica has a debt with developing this essential debate at a theoretical level. However, this is not true regarding the political application of this strategy. It should not be necessary to underscore that the historic challenge facing us requires, now more than ever, to put the charlatans, reformists and infantile leftists in their places, through arduous theoretical work, as part of spearheading and being able to guarantee overcoming the formidable tasks ahead. The United Socialist Party of Venezuela Since the beginning of 2007, Chavez has affirmed without evasion the necessity of all revolutionary organisations to dissolve in order to pave the way towards a united party, of the masses, for the socialist revolution. As is known, the three largest organisations that have accompanied Chavez and his Movimiento Quinta República (MVR, Movement for the Fifth Republic) throughout these years, refused to accept the call. One of them (PODEMOS), decimated by the exodus of its ranks to the PSUV, aligned itself, without even worrying about keeping up appearances, with the most reactionary and bellicose opposition. The other two (Partido Comunista y Patria para Todos), who were also reduced to their minimum expression as their militants signed up to the PSUV, nevertheless decided to support, with some disgruntlement, the constitutional reform. [3] The fact is that 5,770,000 citizens signed up as aspirant militants to the PSUV, beginning the process of organising the party over this base. As the November edition of America XXI reads: "The process of election of delegates to the Founding Congress was completed in OctoberŠ [with] 1674 delegates elected from the Socialist Circumscriptions (CS), made up of between 8 and 12 Socialist Battalions, which in turn elected seven members (spokesperson, alternative spokesperson and five heads of commissions) to the CSŠAlthough the realisation [of the congress] will be difficult, the objective is that these three instances act simultaneously, in a never before seen process of exchange between the grassroots and the delegates in order to debate and vote on the essential documents put to the consideration of the Congress: the Declaration of Principles, Program and Statutes. [4] "Through a suitable combination of congress plenaries, meetings in different regions, and report backs from delegates with debates in their corresponding circumscription, plus the simultaneous functioning of the Socialist Battalions, there will be an attempt to reach the maximum possible level of democratic participation of the whole membership. The most modern technologies of communication will contribute to the objective of putting information at the disposition of everyone and channel the debates in both directions: from the grassroots to the delegates and vice versa, who will have at their disposition the use of a web page, email and mobile telephones. "No technical resource will be able to overcome the impact of the absence of the workers¹ movement as an organised force, influencing and imposing its mark as a class in the functioning of this massive organisation. At the same time, no one can dodge the absence of a tradition of revolutionary mass organising, to which has to be added a opposing tradition: that of Accion Democratica (AD, Democratic Action), which for decades was sowed in consciousness through a methodology at the service of capital and an established political structure. The crucial fact that the impulse for the construction of the PSUV came from Chavez, and afterwards was articulated through functionaries from different spheres of government, will also weigh in an ambivalent manner on this historic birth. Nevertheless, until now, the dialectic established firstly between Chavez and the thousands of promoters, then the millions of aspirants and finally the whole of the grassroots and middle cadres has prevailed. All of this will reach a boiling point with the realisation of the congress. Regardless of whatever faults there are in the results that emerge [out of the congress], the workers, the people as whole ­ especially the youth ­ that is, the whole of the country, will have taken an immense leap forward. The championing in word and deed of the notion of the party, at the beginning of the 21st century and following the traumatic collapse of the political apparatuses that at one stage were parties only to be later metamorphosed in order to adapt to the global capitalist system, is probably the most transendental contribution that the Bolivarian Revolution has produced up until now.² In effect, the championing of the notion of the revolutionary party is an immense leap forward, and not only, nor principally, for Venezuelan revolutionaries and the Venezuelan masses. Now, more so than at the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution, in this conjuncture the full, absolutely transparent participation of all genuine revolutionary militants from any country is vital. Given the conditions in which it is born, the PSUV will immediately face innumerable risks of all types. We are dealing with, no more and no less, the same risks that have beset all and every true revolution. Confronted with this, there is no room for doubt regarding the decision that any Marxist revolutionary should take: confront these risks, armed with their theoretical arsenal, their practical experience and their resolve to relentlessly struggle against capitalism. Therefore, in Latin America, the falseness of the capricious and ridiculous stereotype of the Leninist theory of the party and its defence of the professional revolutionary remains exposed for all to see. This last notion was equally distorted and perverted in order to be utilised as theoretical loincloths by ignorant and inefficient bureaucrats, whose wisdom only served to repeat verses and guarantee their own survival. The true conception expounded by Lenin in all his works and symbolised in What is to be done, is reappearing in the new Latin American scenario. Tens of thousands of militant cadre will comprehend the necessity to join in action with the masses, in organisations where the ideas of scientific socialism needs to win space as a force capable of interpreting, intervening, relating to masses in motion, organising, elaborating, divulging and defending their strategy and tactics through revolutionary praxis. The constant resorting to petitio principii will be of no use, that is, the evocation of some god of revolutionary action in whose name actions are carried out, with the same legitimacy that the pope assumes in acting as the representative of the Holy Spirit. That is why the first condition for coming aboard the Latin American revolutionary torrent from revolutionary Marxist positions is to break all and any nexus with the pseudo-theoretical arguments and sectarian practises of the infantile leftist tendencies. A Latin American international organisation Critica has for a long time set out and defended its ideas regarding a mass revolutionary party.[5] Nevertheless, with the birth of the PSUV, and the revolutionary resolve represented by Chavez, the task of raising the consciousness and organisation of the masses to another level is now posed. In his August 25 intervention, in front of the promoters of the PSUV, President Hugo Chavez said that 2008 would be the moment to ``convoke a meeting of left parties of Latin America and organise a type of International, an organisation of parties and movements of the left in Latin American and the Caribbean¹¹. Chavez explained: "There is a resurgence of the consciousness of the peoples; the movements, leaders and leaderships of this new left, of this new project, need to continue to grow." The last experience of this type was the Foro de Sao Paulo (FSP, Sao Paulo Forum), originally convoked in this Brazilian city, in 1990, by the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, Workers Party, Brazil) and the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC, Communist Party of Cuba), as an ``Encounter of Parties and Organisations of the Left in Latin America and the Caribbean¹¹. From the beginning, a strong ideological debate existed within this organisation. At the first encounter a condemnation of capitalism and a correct characterisation regarding the structural crisis won out. The following year, in Mexico, held in the midst of the collapse of the Soviet Union, a shift towards adaptation began, with the FSP taken to the verge of splitting. Two principal blocs formed: those that, faced with this new situation, looked towards finding their place in what at the time was called the ``new world order¹¹, and those who held revolutionary socialist positions. The principal forces of the more than 100 organisations that made up the FSP were the PT, PCC, Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN,Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, El Salvador), Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN, Sandinista National Liberation Front, Nicaragua), Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD, Party of the Democratic Revolution, Mexico), Frente Amplio (FA, Broad Front, Uruguay) and the Partido Socialista de Chile (PSCh, Socialist Party of Chile). Despite the fact that a split did not occur in Mexico, and that the resolution of the second encounter did not adopt the position proposed by the rightwing, ever since then the FSP has been systematically pushed towards reformism. The ideological battle was fought out basically between four currents: a) PCC b) social democracy c) social christianism d) diverse organisations who called themselves Trotskyists, each of them very different in regards to each other. As is known, at that time Cuba entered into the ``Special periodŒ¹. The PT had come out of a defeat in the 1989 elections. The FSLN had already incorporated itself into the [social democratic] Socialist International. The FMLN had confirmed that it had reached a strategic military deadlock and began peace negotiations. Meanwhile, the world, and in particular Latin America, entered into the ``neoliberal¹¹ decade. In the ensuing encounters of the FSP, beyond the speeches made and declarations approved, it became clear that the position of two of the four currents had converged: social democracy and social christianism. The Trotskyist tendencies withdrew from the FSP (and became debilitated to the point of extinction). The revolutionary current headed by the PCC (made up of a big majority of the organisations of the whole hemisphere) did not cohere itself, with its role diluted to the point of being limited to a few good speeches at each encounter, without generating any consequences. Today, the FSP is an empty shell in the hands of those most opposed to any revolutionary ideas, and specifically to the Bolivarian Revolution. Beyond individual positions, within the leadership structures of the PT, PRD, FA and PSCh, Chavez is a synonym for Lucifer. It should be specifically pointed out that in November 2001, in the encounter in La Habana, it was not possible to reach an agreement to send a delegation in solidarity with Chavez in the face of the evidence of an escalating coup plot. Recently, the PRD delegate who habitually represents this party in the FSP participated in the congress of the Venezuelan Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS, Movement Towards Socialism) [which is part of the opposition]. This drift of the FSP contributed in a significant manner to the destruction and/or neutralisation of tens of thousands of cadres and middle cadres in Latin America. Conjuncture The dispersal of forces who define themselves as favouring a revolutionary solution ­ and are willing to fight for it ­ is today the principal point that imperialism and the national bourgeoisies count in their favour. Out of those militant sectors dragged towards reformism by their leaderships, we can presume that a percentage is willing to join an alternative that once again proposes what it was that convinced them to enter into political activity. Another contingent coming from that period is dispersed in innumerable organisations, a good part of which should also be in a position to incorporate themselves into an international movement that contributes to the creation, orientation and development of national organisations of important political weight. But it is highly probable that the most important contingent of militants for a new Latin American revolutionary alternative will be unorganised youth who today are politically active, but whose forces are dispersed in social organisations, small newspapers, community radio stations and other expressions of militancy without a strategy to struggle for power. If it is left solely up to the existing political-organisational relations and definitions at the national level, we cannot expect to see, at least for a long time, the recomposition of these militant contingents. The permanence of tens of thousands of cadres and activists in this current state, despite the fact that this immense force today sees itself compelled towards the perspective of Latin American revolution, will assure, in a relative short timeframe, the destruction in high proportions of this revolutionary force. On the contrary, the existence of a general political orientation, of a recognised leadership, could put into action a powerful revolutionary human force that is today inert, saving from degradation and subsequent destruction, hundreds of thousands of militants across Latin America. This capacity for orientation and leadership can only be based on revolutionary leaderships with deep roots, prestige and sufficient energy in front of this collection of revolutionary militants. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, as symbols and representatives of the revolutions in Cuba and Venezuela, are today the only possible centre that could play this role. Moreover, the long-term attack already put in train by imperialism, with the resolute collaboration of social democracy and social christianism, urgently requires defining positions, marking out a general strategic line of action and organising grand human contingents to impede the counterrevolutionary pincer advancing forward, drowning in blood the growing revolutionary process in Latin America. At the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, this alignment became graphically clear: the social democratic [president of Spain] Jose Rodriguez Zapatero defended the neoliberal strategy and ``social cohesion¹¹ under capitalism. He even tried to impose this on the meeting, with a blatant manoeuvre in this closing speech, violating the methodology of the summit. Faced with the response by Chavez, the Spanish president Zapatero did not hesitate to come out in defence of the fascist Jose Maria Aznar, ex-president of Spain. The social democracy-social christianism-fascism convergence was clear for millions to see during this episode, topped off by the sharp remarks of the king and his later abandonment of the meeting during the denunciation made by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. At the trade union level, this convergence has already taken an organic form over the last few years, with the coming together of the union confederations of the Vatican and social democracy in the International Trade Union Confederation, that is now beginning to articulate itself in Latin America, where in Argentina it counts on the support of some wings of the CTA.[6] The first step in advancing towards the organisation of a Latin American-Caribbean political structure that, despite the fact that it depends on the decision of Chavez and Fidel to undertake the task, will from the beginning have an international projection. Conceptual bases Throughout history there have been, conceptually and in practice, four anti-capitalist international organisations. The First, in which Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were key figures in its foundation, brought together different anti-capitalist revolutionary currents. It emerged directly out of the impulse of the workers themselves in struggle against the system in Europe; the two principal currents were those who would shortly become known as Marxists and the anarchists. The Second, defined as social democratic (with the meaning that this word had at that time, the inverse of what it is today) was based on the grand mass socialist workers¹ parties which, at the time, had been formed in all of Europe, in the United States and in various Latin American countries. The Third, founded by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, defined itself as communist, counterposing itself to the social democrats, who by then were identified by the position of subordinating the interests of the workers to those of the bourgeoisie of each country; the mass social democratic parties all split paving the way for the emergence of communist parties, which founded the Third International with this name. The Fourth, in reality, never became a truly international organisation deeply rooted in the working class. It was born as a result of the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union and the extension of this collapse to the organisation, program and policies of the Third International from its Fifth Congress onwards. Its base of support was the Left Opposition in the Soviet Union and its expression in the different communist parties across the world. It later took the name of its principal promoter, Leon Trotsky, who was assassinated in 1940, with the organisation in turn degenerating, giving rise to innumerable organisations, almost always sectarian and minuscule. Today, due to objective and subjective reasons ­ laid out over the years in these pages and which will not be developed in this article ­ an international organisation cannot pretend to have the ideological homogeneity that the Second, Third and Fourth internationals had. On the contrary, its heterogeneous nature will far surpass that of the First International, apart from the fact that it will not result from the conscious and organised impulse of a workers¹ vanguard with backing from the masses. The point of support for such a heterogeneous organisation will be the explicit decision to struggle against imperialism and for socialism of the 21st century, assuming as its starting point the unknown elements and ambiguities that this definition implies. To this ideological heterogeneity will correspond an organisational criterion that, although obliging in terms of general strategy of each member party or organisation, will allow the participation of different organisations in the same country and will not enforce unanimous criteria for political activity. Nevertheless, the international could not be assimilated into the concept of a united front. It is closer to the criteria of a mass party, with ideological heterogeneity and political homogeneity on central questions regarding hemispheric strategy, and with all the flexibility that this requires given differences of participation in each country. This contradiction will be resolved in favour of cohesion, political homogeneity and international coherence through the organ of the international leadership, which could only be made up of representatives of parties from those countries where no more than one recognised organisation exists. The organisation of a revolutionary international with these characteristics, far from being a distant perspective is an immediate necessity. Defence of the revolutionary processes underway in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador cannot be postponed, nor can effort towards the recomposition of revolutionary social forces in the rest of the countries in the region. Both tasks are beyond the possibilities of the dispersed and confused militants in Argentina, the country that most needs this Latin American anchor in order to lift, rise up and recuperate its powerful revolutionary force. [This is an updated version of an article first written for the November 2007 edition of Crítica de Nuestro Tiempo N° 36 http://www.geocities.com/nuestrotiempo/ultima/home.htm, just prior to the December 2 referendum. The author updated it at the end of February 2008. Critica de Nuestro Tiempo, International Journal of Theory and Practice, was founded in 1991, since which it has regularly defended the cause of socialism. This article was translated exclusively for Links ­ International Journal of Socialist Renewal (http://www.links.org.au) by Federico Fuentes. Luis Bilbao is a journalist, founder and director of Critica de Nuestro Tiempo, and member of the Union of Militants for Socialism (Argentina). Since the end of 2006 Bilbao has temporarily resided in Venezuela, as director of the Latin America-wide magazine America XXI, where he has collaborated in the creation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and the process of building UNASUR, the Union of South American Nations. Among numerous books, he has published two long interviews with President Hugo Chavez through Le Monde Diplomatique.] Notes [1] See reports and analyses about the content of the reforms in America XXI, Issues No 30, 31 and 32, corresponding to the months of September, October and November. www.americaxxi.com.ve [2] It is worth noting in passing that this episode revealed the real role of certain opportunists and pseudo-theoreticians, such as Heinz Dieterich, who without an intermediary period passed over from Stalinism to bourgeois-reformist gibberish, marinated with appropriate resources in order to dazzle a certain disorientated intellectual layer. With a pseudo-revolutionary verbosity, this author cooked up a formula for a supposed new socialism, which is nothing more than a road to take in order to avoid the abolition of capitalism. His alignment with Baduel (worse still disguised under a call to Chavez for reconciliation with Baduel, arguing that the Yes and No vote in the constitutional reform where not antagonistic), revealed the course that this type of itinerant intellectual inexorable takes when the decisive hour of the revolution arrives. [3] On this debate, information can be found principally in issue 24 and 25 of America XXI, in March and April 2007, as well as in the following issues of this magazine. [4] View the draft Declaration of Principles and Program at Links http://www.links.org.au/node/261 [5] The last contribution in this sense was ``Theory and Practice of the Revolutionary Party¹¹ Critica No 34, October 2006, http://www.geocities.com/nuestrotiempo/34/34teoriaypractica.htm [6] See the balance sheet of the Ibero-American Summit in ``Argentina no callara¹¹, El Espejo 171, p. 8.

Thursday, 13 March 2008

National speaking tour by Venezuela's top diplomat

NATIONAL SPEAKING TOUR NELSON DAVILA Venezuela's top diplomat in our region Nelson Davila, Venezuela's Canberra-based charge d'affaires for Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, is not your traditional diplomat. He started out as a student activist during a period of mass mobilisations in Venezuela. He then became an indigenous rights activist, and later was a founding member of Hugo Chavez's revolutionary group Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement inside the Venezuelan armed forces. Nelson will speak at meetings in Wellington, Christchurch, Ruatoki, Rotorua, Hamilton & Auckland about where the Venezuelan revolutionary process is heading, including:
  • The recent formation of the 5 million strong United Socialist Party of Venezuela in response to president Chavez's call for "socialism of the 21st century".
  • The Chavez government's strong support for indigenous rights in Venezuela.
  • The explosive growth of Communal Councils which have the power to decide on local and regional priorities, along with a huge chunk of state funding to implement their own grassroots plans.

NATIONAL ITINERARY

SATURDAY MARCH 15 - WELLINGTON 5pm shared dinner with invited friends of Venezuela at Fidels Cafe, Cuba St. Limited seating, if interested, contact Julie [email protected] or 021 0262 5456. 8.30-10.30pm public meeting at Newtown Community Centre hosted by Latin American Committee.

SUNDAY MARCH 16 - CHRISTCHURCH 2-4pm public meeting at Workers Educational Association, 59 Gloucester St (opposite Art Gallery). 5pm shared dinner with invited friends of Venezuela at Tulsi Cafe, corner of Gloucester & Manchester Sts. Limited seating, if interested, contact Dave [email protected] or 021 046 2011.

MONDAY MARCH 17 - CHRISTCHURCH & ROTORUA 12 noon-2pm public meeting in the International Room at Canterbury University, If you need directions, contact Dave [email protected] or 021 046 2011. 8pm shared dinner with invited friends of Venezuela at Kwang Chow Restaurant in Te Ngae, Rotorua. Limited seating, if interested, contact Bernie [email protected] or (07) 3459 853.

TUESDAY MARCH 18 - RUATOKI & ROTORUA 10am-2pm meet Tuhoe people at Tauarau Marae, Ruatoki. 7pm open meeting at Bernie's home, 61 Isles Rd, Rotorua. If you need directions, contact Bernie [email protected] or (07) 3459 853.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 - HAMILTON & AUCKLAND 1-2pm public meeting at student union building at Waikato University, hosted by Waikato Students Union. 6pm public meeting at Auckland University co-hosted by three student clubs. Venue: lecture theatre LibB28, in the basement of the University Library, Albert St. If you need directions, contact Oliver [email protected] or 021 072 4647.

THURSDAY MARCH 20 - AUCKLAND 10-11.30am meeting with academics at Auckland University. Limited seating, if interested, contact Kathryn [email protected] or 021 0613 406. 6pm till late, pot-luck dinner at Unite Workers Union, 6A Western Springs Rd, Kingsland, all friends of Venezuela welcome. If you need directions, contact Mike 027 5254 744.

FRIDAY MARCH 21 - AUCKLAND 12 noon-2pm Question & Answer session with social justice activists over shared pizzas, hosted by RAM. Limited seating, with preference given to RAM members, if interested contact Oliver [email protected] or 021 072 4647. Meet at main entrance of Auckland University Library, Albert St, to be guided to adjacent venue. 7.30pm till late, public meeting at Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn, co-hosted by VAST (Venezuela Aotearoa Solidarity Team) and GPJA (Global Peace & Justice Auckland). Followed by live music & social. Bring your guitar!

SATURDAY MARCH 22 - AUCKLAND Evening gathering of Latin American friends of Hugo Chavez. If interested, email Esteban at [email protected]. NZ supporters of Venezuela can convey suggestions about building a Venezuela solidarity network to Nelson's tour organiser Grant Morgan, [email protected] or 021 2544 515.

Sunday, 10 February 2008

Analysis of the PSUV's role in Venezuelan revolution

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Venezuela: The PSUV congress – what is at stake?

By Patrick Larsen in Caracas, Venezuela
Tuesday, 05 February 2008


The Venezuelan revolution has been going on for almost ten years now. It has been an enormous source of inspiration for workers and youth all over the world. For the first time since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the idea of socialism has been discussed seriously on an international scale. Many have seen a concrete alternative to imperialism in the Venezuelan revolution, which has given hope and confidence that a socialist world is possible.

It is in this context that all socialists should be watching Venezuela with great interest, where the new socialist party, the PSUV (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela - United Socialist Party of Venezuela), has entered a two month congress period.

The idea of forming the PSUV was originally put forward by president Hugo Chávez in a speech on December 15, 2006, barely two weeks after the overwhelming victory in the presidential elections, where 63% voted in favour of Chávez' political project. In the speech at the December 15 meeting, Chávez suggested that the PSUV should be formed to unite all revolutionary forces into one party and that the pace of the revolution towards the building of Socialism be accelerated.

The party should not be a mere continuation of the old corrupt political parties, but a party with genuine discussions and rank-and-file-democracy. At the same time he made it clear that what he wanted was not a copy of the old Stalinist party scheme, because it had led to an "unnatural deviation" of Lenin's original Bolshevik party.

As we have explained in other articles recent events in Venezuela have confirmed that the revolution - after 10 years of struggle - has not been finished. There are serious problems with economic sabotage against the revolution, which has led to shortages of basic food products. This has been combined with the beginnings of tiredness amongst some layers of the masses who are frustrated with the long speeches about socialism and revolution without any clear action or concrete measures for the implementation of socialism being adopted.

All this was the main reason why Chávez and the Bolivarian movement lost the Constitutional referendum on December 2, 2007. The result did not show any big advance for the opposition (they only managed to increase their vote by 200,000 after a huge campaign). However, nearly 3 million who had voted for Chávez in December 2006 abstained in the Constitutional referendum. These 3 million did not go over to the opposition, but to abstention. They have obviously not become counter-revolutionaries, but are tired of words and slogans about socialism and want clear, decisive action.

The PSUV and the masses

It is against this background that we must understand the building of the PSUV. After the victory of December 2006 and throughout the year 2007, the masses have been striving to radicalise the revolution and materialise what Chávez has called revolución dentro de la revolución ("Revolution within the revolution").

By this, they understand an internal struggle inside the movement, that is to say an end to corruption and bureaucracy. Many of the politicians in the movement are not revolutionaries at all, but reformists who argue that the revolution must "slow down" its pace or make some kind of pact with the opposition. The masses have - correctly - seen this as a capitulation to the oligarchy and imperialism and thus as a betrayal of the revolution.

When Chávez first proposed the founding of the PSUV more than one year ago, he appealed to the masses by explaining, "you know the people in the communities, we must not allow thieves, corrupt people, drunkards in". "This party", he said, "will be the most democratic party in the history of Venezuela, there will be discussions, and the genuine leaders will rise from the rank and file" and he added "enough appointments from above".

As Marxists we understand that the masses in Venezuela see the big lines in Chávez' speeches, take what they perceive as the main message and try to transform it into action. In this case, it was the idea of the PSUV as a tool to complete the revolution and destroy the bureaucracy that gripped the minds of the masses - and this idea corresponded very well to the aspirations of the masses and the reality that they see every day.

This - and this alone - can explain why the masses received the call for the PSUV with such a level of enthusiasm; in the course of 8 weeks from April-May of last year, 5.6 million registered themselves to apply for membership of the PSUV.

There are 1.4 million unskilled workers, 500,000 skilled workers, 750,000 service sector workers, 180,000 administrative and office workers, adding up to a total of 3 million workers who have registered for the PSUV. Also registered are 1.2 million housewives, which makes the PSUV the largest women's organisation in Venezuela and probably the largest in the world. This is unprecedented.

In some areas, such as the Alto Apure, a peasant region organised by the FNCEZ (Ezequiel Zamora National Peasants Front), more people registered to join the party than had actually voted for Chávez in December! The reason for this was a conscious campaign on the part of the FNCEZ appealing to every man, woman and child in the area to join the PSUV. The leaders of the FNCEZ commented: "in 1998 we also joined the MVR, but we were not organised and the bureaucracy took control, now we are joining the PSUV and we are organised to prevent that".

The founding congress of the PSUV

On Saturday, January 12, the founding congress of the PSUV was opened. Approximately 1600 delegates were present from all over the country. The congress had previously been planned for September last year, but was postponed for January due to the constitutional referendum in December.

The congress is set to last two months and culminate at the beginning of March. The themes which are up for discussion are all of crucial importance for the future of the Venezuelan revolution: The PSUV "Declaration of Principles", the programme, the ideological foundation of the party, its statutes and its electoral strategy. All this will be debated and voted upon in the congress.

The almost 1600 delegates have been elected from below; in each of the over 20,000 battalions, a vocero (spokesman) was elected. These have then joined with 10 other voceros to elect one delegate per 10 battalions. All in all, 1.4 million people showed up for the elections of voceros in the 20,000 battalions.

By now, the congress has already had two plenary sessions. One in Charallave, south of Caracas and the other in the capital of the Lara region, Barquisimieto. Between the meetings, the delegates are supposed to go home to their home regions and discuss and meet with the delegates from the other battalions, in order to transmit the discussions of the congress and debate them with the rank and file.

If we look on the one hand at Chávez' opening speech and on the other hand at the statements that some delegates have expressed in the firsts days of the congress, it is obvious that the fight for socialism and the struggle against bureaucracy are widely recognized problems; Thus, one could read the following in Ultimas Noticias on January 20:

"Nelson Becerra, a delegate for Táchira, said that they would make a proposal to the plenary to include the struggle against corruption in the Declaration of Principles. It is fundamental that mechanisms are created so that the party can exercise control", he said. Jose Ezequiel Ortega, from Portuguesa, expressed similar concerns. "We want the party to be really socialist, and to contribute to putting an end to the corruption that still exists within the revolution".

The issue was raised by a series of delegates. Miguel Montes, from Vargas, pointed out that the struggle against corruption must be amongst the priorities for the organisation, but also the internal purge of the party that is being created.

He said that "a real change in the method of building the party" is needed. "The rank and file must be listened to and we must kick out those who conspired against socialism, and made us lose the reform referendum".

Roberto Gonzalez from Zula, indicated that they will propose a review of the track record of the delegates "because the rightwing is also present here".

Planned economy or market-economy?

The draft of the "Declaration of principles" and the draft programme that has been circulated for discussion by the promoting committee, led by ex-vice president, Jorge Rodríguez, have both been translated into English and can be read here.

Both texts reflect accurately some of the contradictions that we have seen up to now, both in the speeches of Chávez and in the policies of the Venezuelan government as a whole. In the first paragraphs of the programme, it clearly states that the goal is socialism and that this can only come about as an international revolution:

"The Latin American and Caribbean people obtain unity and national and social emancipation, and together with the people of all the world we have buried capitalism in order to open the door to a new era in the history of humanity."

In part 4 of the programme, which deals with property forms, it states that that PSUV suggests a transitional process towards the building of a "democratically planned and controlled economy" which is "capable of ending alienated labour and satisfying all the necessities of the masses." In order to accomplish this, the programme proposes two concrete measures: the prohibition of monopolies and the monopolists of the means of labour and prohibition of the latifundio, that is to say the dominance of the big landowners in the countryside. All these are very good measures that Marxists will support whole-heartedly.

However, there are also some formulations that are ambiguous and open for interpretation. Thus, in the same chapter about property, we read that the PSUV fights for:

"A society with property models that privileges public, indirect and direct social, communal, citizens' and collective property, as well as mixed systems, respecting private property that is of public utility or general interest and which is subjected to contributions, charges, restrictions and obligations."

What kind of private property is "of public utility or general interest", is a bit unclear. What is within this criteria and who decides it? Obviously, Marxists do not advocate the expropriation of ALL private property. We would never take away the small possessions of individuals, as for example individuals who own two refrigerators or two cars. This was part of the anti-communist campaign based scare tactics and fear that the opposition launched for the constitutional referendum on December 2.

What Marxists fight for is the expropriation of the oligarchy, that is, of the capitalists that own the big factories, the banks, the food distribution chains, plus a radical land reform that destroys the rule of the big landowners in the countryside.

The draft programme is open for various interpretations. Its content can be interpreted in two ways; either a "mixed economy", where most industries are under private ownership which are accompanied by some elements of common ownership (this is what led to a disaster in Nicaragua) or it can be interpreted as a justification for a fundamental break with the capitalist mode of production.

It will be exciting to follow the proceedings of the discussions of the PSUV programme in the coming weeks. However, it is important to emphasise that the concrete implementation of the programme will be far more important than its formulation. Many times Chávez has said this or that thing, but his words have not been put into practice. The point is that it is the class struggle and the very development of the revolution in Venezuela that will decide the destiny of PSUV.

A rebel against bureaucracy?

In relation to the PSUV, the question of struggling against bureaucracy is also of vital importance. This struggle cannot be seen as something isolated from the general political battle between reformist and revolutionary ideas in the PSUV. Most of those workers and youth who have joined the PSUV have done so with very clear objectives in mind: to stop the economic sabotage, the shortage of basic food products, stop all corruption in the state apparatus, abolish unemployment, poverty, homelessness, etc.

A serious end to bureaucracy can therefore not come about if a clear political alternative is being put forward and which shows in practice how a socialist democracy can be build from below.

In a statement on January 28, Jorge Rodríguez, as part of the promoting committee of the PSUV, declared that the electoral strategy would also be discussed during the congress period of the party. In his weekly TV-programme, Aló Presidente, on January 20, Chávez said that the members of the PSUV in the different regions of the country should investigate whether the different Bolivarian mayors and governors had started their electoral campaign prematurely, and that these candidates ought to be elected by the PSUV rank and file.

This can be one of the central fields of battle between reformists and revolutionaries in the next couple of months. The regional and local elections are scheduled for August. It is a public secret in Venezuela that a big amount of those governors and mayors, who in words swear loyalty to the revolution and socialism, in practice are carrying out a pro-capitalist policies, making local agreements with the opposition and opposing all attempts on the part of the workers, peasants and youth to change society.

This is not only true of the most well-known examples, such as the governor of the Aragua-region, Didalco Bolivar from PODEMOS, who originally was elected as a supporter of the revolution, but who sent in the police against the workers of Sanitarios Maracay and advocated a NO in the recent recall-referendum. It is also true of other, lesser known examples throughout the country. Such is the case in the eastern city, Ciudad Bolivar, where mayor, Lenín Figueroa has betrayed the struggle of the poor neighbourhoods for an end to price rises for the public transport.

These examples are only the tip of the iceberg. The chavista masses will see the PSUV congress - and the coming months up to the elections in August - as a good opportunity to demand candidates who genuinely represent the interests of the masses and who are loyal to the revolution and socialism.

Sectarianism and Marxism

On the left, internationally and in Venezuela, there has been a lot of debate about the attitude of socialists towards the PSUV (and to the revolutionary process in general). A number of groups and organizations have advocated an extremely sectarian approach and denounced the PSUV as a "multi-class" and even "authoritarian" project and have refused to join, simply because Chávez was the founder and because the party is linked to the Bolivarian movement of which he is the leader.

This attitude has been supported by a group inside the UNT, around Orlando Chirino, a Venezuelan trade-union leader, who calls himself a Trotskyist. Orlando Chirino even went so far as to recommend "a spoilt vote" in the constitutional referendum of December 2 and thus assisted the right-wing in winning a small victory. He has also chosen to go out in the bourgeois press and denounce the Chávez government in very hostile terms, such as for example in the semi-fascist right-wing paper Tal-Cual, which is led by the coup-supporter Teodor Petkoff. His record also includes speaking on the same platform as Froilán Barrios of the CTV (the right-wing opposition trade union that was part of the coup against Chávez in 2002).

This happened in April. But just a few months afterwards - in July 2007 - Chirino appeared as a speaker at a meeting of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. This is an organization named after Ebert, who was a right-wing social-democrat, Chancellor of the Weimar-republic, and who used the army to suppress the Spartakist uprising of 1919. Thus, he was directly responsible for the assassinations of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and the slaughtering of the German revolution. One should think that this says everything about the unctioning and aims of this organization. But at the same time, it is a fact that they work under the influence of the German Social Democratic Party and has links with the CIA (see here and here).

All these actions on the part of the Chirino-tendency of the UNT, and those sectarian groups in Europe that support him, are a disgrace. These people have become so blinded by their hatred for Chávez, that they are no longer capable of distinguishing between revolution and counter-revolution. Their actions do not serve the cause of revolution and socialism, but discredit the name of Marxism and Trotskyism. These people are not Trotskyists - on the contrary, by their actions, they are helping the counter-revolution and the rightwing.

All this has also led these sectarians to call for the forming of "a new workers' party", as a direct rival to the PSUV. These policies will only cut them completely off from the hundreds of thousands of workers and youth who are trying to use the PSUV as a vehicle for radicalising the revolution.

Genuine Marxists are never afraid of working within a broad mass movement. As Ted Grant, a Marxist theoretician, used to say; "outside the organised workers' movement there is nothing". This is even truer for Venezuela. If Marxists stay outside the PSUV, we will give the bureaucrats and reformists a blank cheque to destroy the PSUV from within and prevent it from becoming a real vehicle of revolution.

That is also why the CMR - Corriente Marxista Revolucionaria - the Venezuelan section of the IMT (International Marxist Tendency) choose to join PSUV from the beginning and work for the party to adopt a Marxist programme. In the internal struggles inside PSUV we will join forces with the tens of thousands of revolutionary workers, youth, poor peasants and small shop-keepers who are seeking for a final struggle against bureaucracy and for socialism to be materialized.

The tasks of the working class

The most important thing for the PSUV will not be the congress in and of itself, although this can be the scene of a battle between reformists and revolutionaries. More important will be how the PSUV, as a party, intervenes in the coming events and what policies it will adopt in practice.

How will the party tackle the widespread economic sabotage of the bosses? Will it propose expropriations of the food industry? Or will it try to make some kind of agreement with the opposition? How will the PSUV respond to the coming aggressions of imperialism and the oligarchy against the revolution? How will the PSUV rank and file, organised in the Socialist battalions, react to the appeal for a direct election of the candidates for communal and regional elections in August?

All these questions are remain to be answered. This is a unique opportunity that should be seized with both hands.

The decisive factor will be if the working class intervenes in the PSUV with a clear socialist programme. The Venezuelan workers have shown time and again that they are the only ones who can save the revolution from disaster, as they did during the bosses' lockout of 2002/2003, where they stopped the economic sabotage by means of factory occupations and workers' management in the oil industry. The working class is thus the only class that can lead the revolution to victory and fight effectively against bureaucracy and corruption.

Unfortunately, the internal bureaucratic fights inside the UNT trade union confederation has led to the complete paralysis of that organisation. In this, both wings - the Marcela Máspero wing and that of Orlando Chirino - played a miserable role. Instead of focusing on the central task of extending the factory occupation movement and the building of a clear socialist programme, a sectarian power-struggle about elections in the union emerged and the second congress of the UNT in May 2006 was effectively dissolved. In reality, the UNT has been paralysed ever since. It hasn't played the role it should have, although it is still a point of reference for many workers throughout Venezuela.

Meanwhile, a number of workers in different factories have united in FRETECO (The Revolutionary Front of Workers in Occupied Factories), which is a front of occupied and worker-managed factories. This front was started in February 2006 by workers of Inveval (a factory under workers' control) and now counts more than 15 associated plants as members. FRETECO had its biggest gathering on Saturday, 20 January when 80 workers and guests gathered to discuss how the movement of factory occupations and workers' control should proceed.

This is precisely what is necessary in the PSUV - that the working class intervenes with a revolutionary socialist programme with concrete slogans; for workers' control in industry, expropriation and nationalisation of the biggest companies and the banks, for a radical land reform, abolition of the latifundio, etc.

A new offensive on part of the working class would seriously put the question of nationalisations on the agenda in the PSUV. All the conditions for this are ripe. In fact, a new wave of factory occupations could pave the way for the liquidation of capitalism in Venezuela. This is what the Marxists organised in the Corriente Marxista Revolucionaria are fighting for.

Friday, 1 February 2008

A crucial test for Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution

from LINKS – International Journal of Socialist Renewal 10 November 2008 Original from the November issue of América XXI, translated by Federico Fuentes for Green Left Weekly, where it appeared first in English. While on the surface it may appear to be a simple electoral battle, something much different is at stake on November 23. On that day, Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect 22 governors, 328 mayors, 233 legislators to the state legislative councils, and 13 councillors to district committees – including indigenous representation – making a total of 603 positions. Once again, the intricate process of the Bolivarian Revolution will put its strengths and weaknesses in play in the form of an electoral contest. Deepening the revolution What is at stake is the dynamic of an economic, social and political revolution that, since 2006, has unequivocally declared its will to leave capitalism behind and build 21st century socialism. To continue down this path implies a very rapid and energetic deepening of measures to adapt the state apparatus to the necessities of radical transformation. Will the Venezuelan people express, with sufficient participation and a majority weight, their will to accelerate the revolution? There is no historic precedent of a struggle of this type ever being resolved through elections – much less in the era of corporate monopoly over information and the shameless manipulation of opinion by the media. But, as has been the case since the beginning, this process demonstrates features dictated less by Venezuelan particularities than by the never before seen historic context within which it is occurring. And the fact is that, in the middle of October, opinion polls done by opposition companies, as well as those sympathetic to the government, augur a new and clear electoral victory for the revolution. If this happens, it will be a real feat of perseverance in defence of a strategic program. Since December 12, 1998 – when President Hugo Chavez was first elected – up until the referendum on reforming the constitution last December, Chavez won countless elections of all types, each time with more voter participation and by a greater margin. On December 2, the constitutional reform proposal that would have allowed Chavez to take indispensable steps towards deepening the program of changes in the direction of socialism, was put to the vote. The massive abstention by the revolution's support base produced something more grave than simply the first electoral defeat (by the tiniest of margins) for Chavez. It called into question the sustained viability of a genuine revolution via the ballot box and with universal participation with full democracy for all – including those staunch enemies that, backed by the US government, did not hold back from using Colombian paramilitaries to sow anxiety and spent millions of dollars to confuse the citizens. Balance sheet By mid-2008, the opposition had lost their post-December 2 triumphalism. Immediately after their narrow victory, an avalanche of propaganda attempted to transform this event in order to destroy Chavez. The propagandists of the right explained that it was the beginning of the end of Chavez and announced the certainty of an overwhelming victory for their candidates in at least 12 of the 24 states in the November poll. This self-interested prophecy even penetrated into the ranks of "chavismo-lite" – provoking something close to a state of panic in certain sectors. But the counteroffensive immediately launched by Chavez began to bear fruit by April. Halfway through the year, the more sensible spokespeople of the opposition reduced their expectations for victories to half a dozen governorships. By October, that figure dropped by half. The shift was due to three principal factors: the surprisingly organic and massive rise of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in the electoral campaign; the solutions to – or frontal and efficient attacks on – pressing problems that had contributed to the December 2 defeat (food shortages, crime); the decision by Chavez to take the campaign into his own hands and, with the PSUV in full stride, stage events across the country to personally and emphatically back his candidates. This reversed the climate that, for a moment, had become predominant in the ranks of the revolution – at the same time reviving differences within the opposition and disarming their campaign, reducing them to little more than a media spectacle. Such was the demoralisation by the middle of October that one polling company at their service, Hinterlace, with a tone of desperation, advised: "The implementation of the social missions, housing construction in the poorest zones in the country, and the fomenting of cooperatives to promote endogenous development are initiatives that generate a perception that the government is really doing something in favor of the most needy. "It seems advisable to not attack these government policies, but instead formulate superior initiatives within the framework created by the missions and social programs, without displacing them completely." How to formulate superior initiatives? This the polling company did not clarify, instead warning that "it can be perceived that the President has fomented a greater consciousness within the population around social and political issues. Determined action has to be followed and talked up by the candidates of the opposition." Such an indication is backed by the most eloquent data in the Hinterlace report: Chavez enjoys "levels of support that oscillates between 45% and 55% of the Venezuelan electorate". Other, more reliable, polls point out that since the middle of the year this level has oscillated between 60-70%. PCV-PPT The two parties that did not go over to the opposition but also did not integrate themselves into the PSUV – the Homeland for All party (PPT) and the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) – ended up breaking the alliance with the PSUV in six states, putting forward their own candidates against the PSUV. The rupture that this signifies will bring with it consequences. It is clear that both formations, though often armed with valid arguments, do not understand the significance of this electoral confrontation, which is not over candidates but rather something qualitatively different: the possibility – or not – of taking a decisive step towards a rupture with the capitalist system through democratic elections. The PPT and PCV also do not seem to understand the magnitude of the world crisis, which puts them on a divergent path from the socialist character of the transformation underway.