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<dd><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>ZNet | Venezuela<br>
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<a href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=13687" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=13687<br>
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<dd><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=5>Venezuela's Revolution<br>
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<dd><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2>by Federico Fuentes; Green Left
Weekly; September 02, 2007</b> <br><br>
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<dd>"The internal situation will intensify over the next months,
more contradictions will emerge, simply because we have no plans to hold
back the march of the revolution", said Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez on March 24, speaking to more than 2000 promoters of the new
socialist party being constructed in Venezuela. "These
contradictions", he said, would "intensify, because we are
dealing with the economic issue, and there is nothing that hurts a
capitalist more than his pocket, but we have to enter into this issue, we
cannot avoid it". <br><br>
<dd>On July 28, while attending a meeting of his local battalion of the
provisionally named United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Chavez
reiterated this point: "We are in the presence of one of the most
important moments [in this revolution], like during the coup [in April
2002]." Chavez explained that this was because, as well as open
enemies of the revolution, there were also "snakes" who worked
to undermine the revolution from within, which the new party aimed to
combat. <br><br>
<dd>Since Chavez was re-elected on an explicitly socialist platform on
December 3, the Bolivarian revolution - as the process of transforming
Venezuela in the interests of the poor majority is known - has gone on
the offensive. The first half of this year has seen the revolutionary
government advance its plan to nationalise strategic industries and
promote the "explosion" of popular power - primarily through
the communal councils, as well as calling for the creation of worker,
student and campesino (peasant) councils. The most recent initiative is
Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms aimed at enshrining popular
power and creating a legal framework for the creation of a "new
socialism of the 21st century". <br><br>
<dd>These moves have intensified the class struggle, and Chavez has
called for the construction of the PSUV to enable revolutionary militants
to unify their efforts. In response, almost 5.7 million people have
registered to become members. <br><br>
<dd>Unity from below <br><br>
<dd>Although Chavez's public announcement of plans for the new party came
on December 15 during a speech to activists who worked on his election
campaign, he made numerous references to the need for a new party during
the campaign. Several months earlier, Chavez had called a closed meeting
to bring together the leaders of the various pro-Chavez parties and key
individuals to explain his proposal for a new party to be formed
post-election. <br><br>
<dd>Chavez, in his December 15 speech, proposed all left currents unite
to form "a political instrument that puts itself at the service of
the people ... at the service of socialism". As part of this
process, Chavez has continuously called on the other pro-Chavez parties
to dissolve, following the example of his own party, the Movement for the
Fifth Republic (MVR), to help facilitate building a new united party,
arguing the revolution does not need "an alphabet soup ... We need a
political instrument that unites wills and is not worn down in intestinal
fights." <br><br>
<dd>While most of the smaller parties have followed the MVR, the Homeland
for All Party (PPT), Podemos, and the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) -
which, after the MVR, receive the most electoral support in the
pro-Chavez camp - have so far declined to dissolve, although many members
from these parties have left to participate in the PSUV. <br><br>
<dd>Chavez argued the new party should build on the existing organisation
of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in grassroots groups that
carried out the immense mobilisation that saw Chavez re-elected the
highest number of votes in Venezuela's history. "In this new party
the bases will elect the leaders. This will allow for the emergence of
real leaders." <br><br>
<dd>He added that "A new party needs new faces". He insisted
that the new party cannot simply be a "coming together of what
already exists", as "that would be fooling the people".
<br><br>
<dd>In a speech on April 19, Chavez explained the relationship that
should exist between the party and the "multitudes". The party
had the role of developing consciousness among the broadest layers, while
at the same time "out of the multitudes emerge the cadre, the
leaders". <br><br>
<dd>Reformism and dogmatism <br><br>
<dd>Chavez argued that it was necessary to combat two currents within the
revolution that would undermine the creation of a mass revolutionary
party. One was reformism, which he dubbed in his March 28 speech
"the silent assassin", that aims to put a brake on the process.
Chavez has repeatedly pointed to Podemos, which defines itself as social
democratic, as representing this current. Leaders of Podemos have argued
increasingly right-wing positions, echoing some of the views of the
US-backed opposition. <br><br>
<dd>The second current is dogmatism. Chavez argued that the PSUV was not
"a Marxist-Leninist project". He claimed that "If Karl
Marx and Vladimir Ilich Lenin were alive today" and studied the
modern world, "I am sure that they would not come up with a
radically different thesis, but with a number of differences to the
thesis they developed ..." Chavez pointed to what he argued were
dogmatic errors committed by Latin American communist parties, including
by the PCV both through its history and in the current period. <br><br>
<dd>In his December 15 speech, Chavez emphasised the new party would not
be Stalinist, pointing out that after the premature death of Lenin, the
Bolshevik party, which had led the Russian Revolution in 1917, fell prey
to a "Stalinist deviation", creating an elitist regime that
could never create socialism. <br><br>
<dd>However, Chavez also argued: "We know that one of Karl Marx's
proposals was precisely that of the dictatorship of the proletariat; but
that is not viable for Venezuela in these times." <br><br>
<dd>Instead, Chavez stated, "We, here, are going to construct a
Venezuelan socialism, the original Venezuela socialist model and a
political instrument that helps us conquer that objective!"
<br><br>
<dd>Bolivarian socialism <br><br>
<dd>According to the document being distributed by the national promoters
team to the battalions formed to construct the PSUV, the "point of
unity" for the different strands of "revolutionary and
socialist thoughts" within the PSUV would be the ideology of
Bolivarianism - which takes its name from Simon Bolivar, who liberated
much of South America from Spanish rule in the 19th century. This
ideology is described as the sum of "the most famous effort for
national and social emancipation of our past, the most genuine Latin
American internationalism", and as being "the motor of the
socialist revolution unfolding in Venezuela". <br><br>
<dd>The document argues that the declaration of principles for the new
party, which will be the product of widespread discussion, would
represent "the synthesis and surpassing of all the revolutionary
forces of Venezuela", embracing those that belong to "the
exploited and oppressed classes, along with all the men and women that
embrace the Bolivarian ideal". <br><br>
<dd>The document argues that "capitalism in its imperialist phase
has reached its limits" and claims that capitalism can only continue
to expand the gap between rich and poor - within and between countries -
and threatens the planet with extinction. <br><br>
<dd>"The conclusion is clear", the document says, "to end
poverty, it is necessary to give power to the poor and construct
socialism; to end war, it is necessary to put an end to
imperialism". This is the task that the Venezuelan revolution has
set itself, "placing itself in the vanguard of this struggle"
around the world. <br><br>
<dd>The second document for discussion deals with the question of what
program the new party should have. It notes that while there is no single
political program "for all times and all places", the PSUV
should have as its clear objective the construction of "a government
based on councils of popular power, where the workers, campesinos,
students and popular masses are the direct protagonists of political
power". <br><br>
<dd>It proposes moving towards "a democratically planned and
centralised economy, capable of ending the alienation of labour and
satisfying all the necessities of the people", which should
"plan production and the satisfaction of collective necessities in
harmony with the requirements of the ecosystem". <br><br>
<dd>The document of principles states that "just as it is
indisputable that private ownership over the means of production, in any
society, determines labour relations, human relations and all aspects of
life", in the transition beyond capitalism, it is necessary to
"guarantee the conscious participation of the majorities, and the
necessary efficiency to comply with all the requirements of national life
..." <br><br>
<dd>The document argues that central to the party's revolutionary
strategy should be "the alliance of the people with the Armed
Forces, just like that of the workers with the middle classes of the
countryside and city (small and medium campesinos, small industrial
bourgeois and urban and rural commerce)". <br><br>
<dd>Its method of struggle should be based on "the largest possible
number of men and women [involving] themselves in the resolution of all
the problems" through the communal councils, the military reserves,
and "in the specific area of industrial workers ... through workers'
control and self-management". <br><br>
<dd>Internationalist <br><br>
<dd>According to the document, the current world situation creates, and
makes necessary, the formation of "an international anti-imperialist
bloc on a grand scale" made up of governments, social movements and
parties "to unite in action hundreds of millions of people in all
the world against imperialism and its wars". <br><br>
<dd>Moreover, the current wave of rebellion in Latin America opens up the
possibilities of "qualitative transformation", in the struggle
for liberation being waged by "tens of millions of exploited and
oppressed". Therefore, the document states that internationally the
PSUV should work to construct "a world anti-imperialist bloc"
and "socialist and revolutionary convergence of the people of Latin
America and the Caribbean", conscious of its role as "a
vanguard in an era of immense challenges and great victories: capitalism
is international; the revolution is international; international must be
the thought and actions we carry out". <br><br>
<dd>Speaking on August 26, Chavez stressed the internationalist character
of the PSUV and called for a new "international" of left-wing
parties, saying "2008 could be a good time to convoke a meeting of
left parties in Latin America to organise a new international, an
organisation of parties and movements of the left in Latin America and
the Caribbean". <br><br>
<dd>Chavez concluded: "There is a resurgence of consciousness of the
people and we must continue building the movements and leaders of a new
left, of a new project." <br><br>
<dd>From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #723 5 September
2007.<br><br>
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