Venezuela: translating the revolution

Opposition’s little man 'the candidate of imperialism'

2012-02-28T18:40:00.001+11:00

I wrote the following article for the current issue of Green Left Weekly newspaper:

Venezuela: Opposition’s little man 'the candidate of imperialism'

The International Consulting Services poll revealed that if the presidential elections were held tomorrow in Venezuela, 58.2% would vote for Hugo Chavez. Image from VTV.

“The confrontation here isn’t between Chavez and this little man, it’s the bourgeoisie against the people, the empire against the country”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on February 16.

Chavez was referring to his newly-nominated presidential opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski. He was pointing to the class battle that lies behind the looming presidential elections scheduled for October 7.

Radonski, a 39-year-old lawyer and governor of Miranda state, won the endorsement of the right-wing Democratic Unity Forum (MUD) bloc on February 12. He won with 62% of 1.8 million votes in a primary process marked by allegations of irregularities.

Henrique Capriles Radonski

The MUD used the National Electoral Commission (CNE) to run its primaries despite for years claiming the CNE is a fraudulent, corrupt tool of the Chavez government. The MUD's publicised participation figures were revealed to be mathematically improbable.

The MUD’s electoral council also burned all the cast ballots almost immediately after the conclusion of the day’s voting, despite the fact that several candidates wished to appeal vote counts.

However irregular the process, the selection of Radonski to go head-to-head with Chavez for the presidential sash opens the election campaign proper. The selection of a candidate must come as some relief to the perennially-divided right-wing bloc.

But who is Radonski, and what does he stand for?

In the MUD he is considered a moderate with a view to turn Venezuela down the road to a Brazil-style social-democratic capitalism. He calls himself a “progressive” of neither the left nor the right.

In deference to the overwhelming popular enthusiasm for the revolution’s social missions that have benefited millions of Venezuela's poor, he feigns support. But Radonski opposes their being funded through oil revenues.

His campaign slogan, “there is a way” mimics vacuous political slogans from capitalist elections everywhere -- it provides little indication of his actual political stance.

Contrary his moderate credentials, Radonski is infamous for his role in leading a violent siege of the Cuban embassy during the April 2002 US-backed military coup. During the coup, Chavez -- the elected president -- was kidnapped before being returned to the presidency by a mass uprising of workers and soldiers.

Radonski is from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families.

In response to Radonski’s nomination as the opposition’s candidate, Chavez welcomed him to the electoral race. But Chavez challenged him to come up with more than a slogan, and to “confront me with ideas”.

Chavez characterised Radonski as “the candidate of imperialism, of the bourgeoisie's pro-coup sector”.

He also attacked Radonski’s claimed support for the social missions while opposing their state funding through the state-owned oil company, PDVSA. He said Radonski would return the company to “the capitalists, the transnationals”.

The National Assembly's first vice-president Aristobulo Isturiz said Radonski “is toying with a retrogression. This candidate is the past, because he wants to take us back to neoliberalism”.

Isturiz said such moves would put Venezuela in the same situation as the European nations of today. He said Venezuela’s “indignados” (the name for members of the Spanish anti-neoliberal mass movement) fought and defeated neoliberalism.

Early indications are that the pro-revolution forces organised under the Chavez-led Great Patriotic Pole electoral alliance will comfortably return Chavez to the presidency.

A study carried out by the International Consulting Services (ICS) indicated that if a poll were held now, 58.2% of Venezuela’s population would vote for Hugo Chavez against 35.4% for Radonski.

The ICS also found in a January study that 53% of Venezuelans support Chavez’s socialist vision for the nation, with only 21% saying they believed capitalism was the best system to develop Venezuela.

The Group of Social Investigation XXI (GIS XXI) found Chavez to have a popularity rating of 61.2%.

As the presidential battle continues to heat up, Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the biggest force in the electoral alliance, stepped up its activity.

Chavez has dubbed the campaign the Carabobo campaign. This refers to the 1821 Battle of Carabobo that was decisive in winning Venezuelan independence from Spain.

A huge rally of PSUV grassroots “patrollers” was held on February 17 to bring together and organise PSUV members for the political battle ahead.

A mass campaign of door-knocking has already begun. By February 16, PSUV patrollers had visited a total of 417,000 homes in a first phase of house-to-house deployment. More than just soliciting support for Chavez, the patrollers discuss socialism and encourage participation in the revolution’s programs.

[Owen Richards maintains the blog Venezuela: Translating the Revolution.]

New call to voluntary labour

2011-12-20T15:26:00.002+11:00

www.revolucionomuerte.org

Translated by Owen Richards

Comandante Chavez, in a meeting with the promotions committee of the Great Patriotic Pole [pro-revolution electoral alliance], held on Thursday at the Alba Hotel Caracas, reflected on the construction of socialism and its pillars. He referred to the importance of volunteer work for the creation of the spiritual and material bases of Socialism, and gave the example of one of its most genuine adherents – Che Guevara.

“There’s something that really contributes to the spiritual basis, the material basis of Socialism: voluntary labour.

“I encourage you to undertake volunteer work in the countryside, in the cities, that we may all - the Great Patriotic Pole, the collectives – get working.

“Have you seen Che Guevara, the photos and films of Che cutting cane, brick making, working…? What else… Carrying bags… Voluntary labour, let’s do it, help our people do various things, and it needs to be planned, it must be planned. The workers, the communities, the collectives.”

A budget for socialist development

2011-12-14T11:26:00.004+11:00

Minister Faria: 2012 budget corresponds to the development of a socialist project

Caracas, 13 December, AVN

Translation by Owen Richards

The vice-president of the Permanent Commission of Finance and Development in the National Assembly, Jesus Faria, said that the budget for 2012 corresponds to a socialist development project for Venezuela.

China-Venezuela financed housing in Nueva Esparta

He mentioned this on Tuesday after the session that approved the national budget, which will provide 40% for social investment, which was voted against by the opposition bloc.

“It’s going to raise the level of health and education services, of housing, and of the overall quality of life of Venezuelans”, he explained.

He said that the Budgetary Law for 2012 that reaches 297.8 billion Bolivares [US$69.34 billion] is aimed at meeting the people’s needs.

Faria ratified, furthermore, how important social and productive financing had been for the country, through such instruments as National Development Fund (Fonden) and the China-Venezuela Joint Fund.

“Without these funds it would have been impossible for us (as the government) to meet the needs of the population and to have a growing economy for 2011 and 2012”.

He pointed out that resources for social investment obtained through the Joint Fund with China benefit the nation because they come with interest rates at least 50% lower than those imposed by the rest of the international financial system.

Chavez: 2012 will be the October revolution

2011-12-08T15:02:00.000+11:00

Ciudadccs.info

7 December 2011

At the beginning of a Miraflores press conference, president Hugo Chavez recalled his victory of the December 6 1998, a victory which took place 13 years ago yesterday. He also referred to the coming election day for October 2012, declaring, “We’re going to win the elections. There will be an October revolution, and the projected difference (in votes) shouldn’t be less than four million”.

“We’re heading to the victory of the ten million. We have to get 70% of votes”, he said.

He pointed out that in its 13 years, the revolution had “put the icing on the cake” with the birth of the Community of Latin American and Carribean States (CELAC). He indicated that the creation of the regional bloc was a historic milestone, in the same way as Venezuelans’ participation in the various electoral activities that have taken place since his arrival in power in 1998 had been.

“I don’t think there’s been a more important political event on this continent in the last 100 years”. Chavez emphasized that the impact of the CELAC summit “had been extraordinarily positive”. “It has surpassed our greatest expectations. There are various opinions (…) it’s unity in diversity”, he said, referring a Spanish journalist’s question about Ecuador’s proposal to approve decisions by consensus within the organization.

Chavez said CELAC had to be a defense against imperialist madness. Furthermore, he pointed out that it was born with major geopolitical weight. “CELAC will not be like the ineffable OAS [Organization of American States]”, he said.

He said that there was a proposal for a meeting of the troika to be held early next year, but clarified that it was a decision that belonged to Chile as president of the summit. He criticized the media, saying “they invert reality, presenting the villains as the heroes”.

Translated by Owen Richards

Socialist youth support indignados

2011-11-04T11:01:00.001+11:00

JPSUV supports indignados of the world

Translated by Owen Richards

Aporrea – This Thursday, members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth (JPSUV) expressed their solidarity with the movements of indignados of the world that are protesting capitalism.

The head of the PSUV’s electoral work, Heryck Rangel, said that the capitalist system imposed on the European countries generated unemployment and few opportunities for the world’s youth, a situation that has compelled thousands of indignados to march to reclaim their rights.

“Capitalism is in a terrible crisis that mainly effects the youth, and therefore us young Venezuelans, who live in a totally different reality, we’re taking to the streets of Caracas and all of Venezuela today in solidarity with the struggle of the indignados”, he said.

Rangel pointed out that the mass media tries to silence the struggle of the world’s millions, and for this reason he called on all Venezuelan youth to show solidarity with the indignados and “to show the world that only with socialism can we have a future and a good life”.

He argued that the struggle that the world’s peoples have now undertaken against capitalism is the same struggle that liberated Venezuela in the last few years of the twentieth century. “Let’s recall the Caracazo, [and] the banking crisis of ’94”, he added.

He said that today in Venezuela it could be said “we live in a different reality, in a country where the youth have access to free, quality education, while the rest of the world’s youth are losing their homes, their jobs, and are mortgaging their future”.

Indignados unite!

2011-11-02T11:41:00.002+11:00

By Ana Elisa Osorio

Translated by Owen Richards

The crisis of the capitalist system has provoked the “indignados” movement that has arisen in one country after another across the globe. Revolutionaries cannot be dismissive of this “anti-systemic” manifestation that raises its voice against injustice, against war, against the barbarism that puts our very life on Earth in danger.

Ana Elisa Osorio

It’s true that the “indignados” movement is heterogeneous, and is considered by many to be incapable of overthrowing imperialism. Certainly imperialism has been able to recuperate after each of the crises it has survived. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t overlook the enormous setback it has suffered, perhaps the worst in the history of capitalism.

I’m reminded of a song that goes, “I only ask of God that I be not indifferent to suffering … to war … to injustice”.

There’s much to be indignant about. The predatory capitalism that threatens Mother Earth and all her children; the gendarme imperialism that flaunts international treaties and all morality, that invades Afghanistan, Irak, and Libya, and assassinates Gadaffi. Ought we not be moved to indignation?

The anti-imperialist struggle can become the guiding thread of a global revolt that shakes the common enemy. We cannot leave this flag in the hands of the majunches [the dull, i.e. the Venezuelan opposition] who think they see an opportunity to organize an indignados movement in our country. They’re wrong, the flag is ours – it’s for justice, solidarity, peace. It’s against everything they stand for.

On the other hand, internationalism is characteristic of revolutions, and this is an opportunity to exercise it. Our Bolivarian revolution is called upon to articulate anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-system struggles. This struggle is ours as well.

Onward indignados! Unite!

[Ana Elisa Osorio is a national directorate member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).]

Hugo Chavez applauds OWS protesters, condemns police violence

2011-10-18T10:22:00.000+11:00

[This article originally appeared in Green Left Weekly]

Sunday, October 16, 2011

By Owen Richards

Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez has likened the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States to Venezuela’s February 1989 Caracazo riots against neoliberal policies that are widely seen as the start of Venezuela's revolutionary process.

Chavez made the comments by phone on the television program Dando y Dando on October 5.

Chavez also expressed solidarity with the protesters and condemned police repression of peaceful protest. “This movement of popular outrage is expanding ... and the repression is horrible, I don’t know how many are in prison now,” he said.

Discussing the roots of the popular explosion, he said: “Poverty’s growing. The misery is getting worse”.

The Caracazo broke out across Venezuela after a “shock package” of neoliberal reforms was introduced by then-president Carlos Andres Perez involving drastic price hikes in fuel and transport costs.

It was a popular explosion of anger by Venezuela’s working people and destitute masses. It marked the beginning of the end of the rule of Venezuela’s capitalist oligarchy.

Three years later, Chavez lead a failed military rebellion aimed at toppling the Andres Perez regime and establishing a popular revolutionary government. The attempt failed, but it earned Chavez and his military comrades immense respect among Venezuela’s poor majority. On the back of this mass support, Chavez was elected president in December 1998.

In his comments, Chavez characterized the Caracazo as “a forerunner to what we are seeing in Europe, and in North America, huge protests” against neoliberalism. In the Caracazo, “the Venezuelan people struck out against neoliberalism, against the Washington consensus, and here a revolution broke out”.

Venezuela has provided an example of an alternative approach to neoliberialism. The Chavez government has continued to nationalise more and more of Venezuela’s productive forces, starting with the biggest monopoly corporations in areas such as steel, electricity and telecommunications, to benefit Venezuela as a whole, not just the rich.

Venezuelanalysis.com said on October 11 that Chavez announced that houses built illegally on the Los Roques islands would be nationalised and turned into holiday resorts for workers and the poor. Until now, the archepelago has been frequented by Venezuela’s rich and international tourists.

Commenting on the nationalisation, Chavez said: “The upper class bourgeoisie privatised all of that, and that’s what we are going to expropriate.”

He also announced that yachts appropriated from fugitive bankers would be used for sight-seeing tours in the region.

[Owen Richards is the author of the Venezuela: translating the revolution blog.]

Venezuela: Chavez sets date for crucial presidential poll

2011-09-24T20:49:00.000+10:00

The following is an article I wrote that has just been published in Green Left Weekly:

Venezuela: Chavez sets date for crucial presidential poll

CNE president Tibisay Lucena

Saturday, September 24, 2011
By Owen Richards

Voters should expect to see “a new Chavez, a rejuvenated Chavez, touring the country as a candidate, touring the streets at a rhythm set by the circumstances”, said Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez after the date for Venezuela’s presidential elections was announced as October 7, 2012.

The Venezuelan Electoral Commission’s (CNE) president Tibisay Lucena also announced that judicial, regional and local elections would take place on separate dates.

The right-wing, US-funded Venezuelan opposition hopes Chavez’s battle with cancer will keep him from his fourth straight victory in a presidential election.

But Chavez was upbeat and referred to the coming electoral campaign as the “October 7 mission”. Chavez said the campaign should aim to win 10 million votes. In 2006, Chavez won more than 7.3 million votes (63%).

Chavez said he would kick-start the re-election campaign on February 4: “We’ve set that date as the start of our official march towards the October 7 victory.”

February 4 is the date in 1992 when Chavez led a failed military rebellion against the corrupt, neoliberal government of President Carlos Andres Perez. Although the rising failed, it turned Chavez into a hero among the poor majority.

Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) will again lead the campaign as part of the left-wing Patriotic Pole electoral coalition with smaller left-wing groups, which has already endorsed Chavez as its candidate.

Since Chavez’s first election in 1998, his government has sought to redistribute the nation’s oil wealth through pro-poor social missions and other measures, such as nationalising key industries. These measures have halved poverty and millions of people have access to free education and health care for the first time.

Chavez said that if he was to win a fourth term, he might call on the National Assembly to pass an enabling law granting him special powers to enact reforms.

Chavez has previously used such constitutional powers to deepen the socialist revolution in Venezuela.

The PSUV has been holding sign-on sessions across the country to the new “vanguard patrols”. These grassroots bodies that will, among other things, campaign for his re-election.

The patrols have already enlisted more than 2 million members across seven weekends of recruiting.

Starting from October 1, the PSUV will begin the process of organising the members into local patrols of 10 to 20 members. Patrol bases, which will act as command centres, will be formed out of the patrols.

The divided opposition will again try to unite under the banner of the Democratic Unity Forum (MUD), which will hold primaries on February 12 to choose a presidential candidate to challenge Chavez.

There are 18 hopefuls so far vying for MUD endorsement. These include the governor of Miranda state (and participant in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez) Henrique Capriles Radonski; 2006 presidential candidate and now fugitive from corruption charges Manuel Rosales; and Maria Corina Machado, current member of the National Assembly and former president of US-funded opposition group Sumate.

MUD has now been joined by the Progressive Front for Change (FPC), a grouping of mostly former Chavista parties, such as Homeland for All (PPT), Radical Cause (La Causa R) and We Can (Podemos).

Venezuelan journalist Eleazar Diaz Rangel has warned that the period leading up to the presidential election will be like “passing through a minefield, full of uncertainty and danger”. Rangel said this was due to the improbability of a MUD victory in 2012, making the opposition unpredictable.

Those in the opposition who consider the defeat of Chavez to be “mission impossible”, Rangel said, might be tempted to engage in destabilising actions, such as trying to discredit the electoral process.

“You don’t have to have a crystal ball to realize that surely in governing circles of the United States are also divided, according to the information they receive from Caracas, and they will align themselves with either hawks or doves.”

[Owen Richards is the author of the Venezuela: translating the revolution blog.]

Huge involvement of youth in PSUV vanguard patrols

2011-09-20T10:02:00.002+10:00

AVN/JPSUV, 19/9/11

Youth make up more than 60% of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)’s Vanguard Patrols, according to Juan Carlos Aleman, a PSUV member of the National Asembly (AN).

“They’re in the vanguard and they have a consciousness of where we’ve come from and where we’re going”, said Aleman referring to the socialist model that drives the Bolivarian revolution, lead by president Hugo Chavez.

Aleman made these points in a PSUV patrol sign-up day, which took place in the Maracao de Caracas area.

PSUV patrol sign-up station

He pointed out that the enlistment process for the patrols had been characterized by the participation of the organized population in a massive attendance at the Sign-up Points.

The PSUV patrols will have the responsibility of forming Patrol Bases that will be nothing other than a big mechanism involving the people and the government to work towards the presidential elections on October 7, 2012 and also to strengthen the building of Venezuelan socialism.

Translated by Owen Richards

Communes in Caracas

2011-09-15T13:05:00.001+10:00

Communal organization includes the city

CCS - 07/09/11

Among the aims of community organization is that of building the communal State, where power is exercised directly by the people, through self-government, with an economic model of social property and endogenous development.

Based on this premise, 236 communes and more than 9,000 communal councils have been established, according to information from the Ministry of Popular Power for the Communes.

Through this process the city of Caracas has turned into a space full of examples of self-government.

Socioeconomic model

In the Capital District around 44 sectors exist that are in the process of building communes in order to lay the foundations for Venezuelan socialism.

In the Antimano ward, 18 communal councils of the Carapita sector and part of Santa Ana organised to establish the Victoria Socialist Commune.

Concrete block production by the Ezequiel Zamora Commune, Antimano, Caracas

Edgar Astudillo, the commune’s spokesperson, reports that the developing socioeconomic model now has four collective work units for the production of goods and services, working under the criteria of reinvesting profits back into the community.

Blacksmithing, concrete block making, carpentry, textiles and baking are the businesses established with an investment of 924,000 BsF that was authorized by president Hugo Chavez through the Micro-financing Development Fund (Fondemi), in June 2010.

More power and consciousness

The experience of the communes is based on self-government under the Organic Law of Popular Power, as the “set of actions through which the organized communities directly assume the management of projects, the carrying out of works and services in order to improve the quality of life in its geographical area”.

Blanca Araujo, spokesperson for the commune-in-construction, El Paraiso de Maisanta, of Cota 905, Santa Rosalia ward, defines the commune building process, from her experience, as an “organization of the people to solve their problems”. She adds that “with the commune we have more power and more consciousness of the problems we face”.

This commune, a year in the making, has a route that covers the Guzman Blanco sector on Cota 905 towards Quinta Crespo. The resources it receives are used for community projects.

La Pastora is another example that is adopting the communal model. “Firstly, we met as a promotional team for social and political activities in the area. When the President put out the call to form communes, we decided that this was a way to make a reality of the goals of the revolutionary process”, recalls Milagros Hernandez, spokesperson of the Los Mecedores commune in construction, in La Pastora ward.

They have just established a communal house acquired with 650,000 BsF granted by the Government of Capital District. In that space they will install an Infocentre and a textile company as socioeconomic projects.

Extending the geographic axis

In 2008, locals from the El Observatorio sector in 23 de Enero [neighbourhood] and part of the San Juan ward, which has12 communal councils, formed the Juan 23 Commune, made up of 11,526 inhabitants who share the same territory and history.

Nelson Solorzano, one of the promotors of this organization, said that they are now expanding their axis of activity. They meet with nine communes in west Caracas and make economic exchanges to break with the capitalist market which causes most of the problems the communes are struggling against.

Socialist spaces

The Organic Law of the Communes stipulates that these social organizations are “a socialist space that, as local entities, are defined by the integration of neighbourhood communities with a shared memory and history, cultural features, traits and customs that are recognized in the territory that they occupy and in the productive activities that are the basis of their livelihood”. Among its aims is to promote mechanisms for education and training in the communities and promote the popular defence of human rights.

Translated by Owen Richards

The ideological map of the revolution

2011-08-25T18:47:00.005+10:00

By Neftali Reyes

Translated by Owen Richards

These last twelve years have been in preparation for the “critical point” that inevitably approaches. It is a time that defines society’s direction. Everything done up to this point has been building towards this historic moment.

The Revolution, thanks to the guiding and unifying thread of its comandante, has continued to advance successfully through these turbulent years of ferocious struggle against the empire and its lackeys, and also of violent internal struggles amongst the currents that fight to lead the Revolution. The battle has raged endlessly on both fronts.

That’s how revolutions go – moments of euphoric advance along with tough, dispiriting and confusing moments. That’s why a leader is indispensable to a revolution, to give it the coherence it needs to avoid falling off the rails. And that task is complete. To have arrived at this stage is a feat in itself.

We now approach a decisive battle that will be decided by three basic factors: firstly, ideology, secondly, an active mass imbued with this ideology, [and thirdly, the masses] following the leader’s directives. This trilogy: ideology, mass and leader will decide the contest.

The situation is at once both dangerous and promising. We’ve got a leader; we have the potentials of an active mass that has been tested in previous battles, such as April [2002] and the oil sabotage [of 2002-3]. The 27 of February [i.e. the Caracazo of 1989] taught us the need for organization, for leadership, and that only this way can we win such battles. We’ve learned the need for clear political objectives and we have both good and bad experiences in battle.

We have failed to internalize the ideological struggle, to understand its logic and to use that understanding to place ourselves in the historic moment and assume the role it sets for us.

Victory is impossible without a strong and clear ideological delineation. The battlefronts are defined by ideology, which overflows the boundaries of political militancy and imposes its logic. This explains how parties and former leaders of the Revolution are today sitting at the same table where the assassination of leaders and militants was planned, sitting with Adecos [members of Democratic Action] and Copeyanos [members of COPEI], sitting with the capitalists. Ideology erases shame.

It’s not possible to understand the historic moment without having an ideological map, which supersedes the political map. That means ideological militancy will be more important than political militancy.

The battlefields are being outlined more and more. Chavez rallies the Revolutionary side with the slogan, “those that want a homeland come with me”. That means those that want genuine Socialism – which is the only way to have homeland, to have humanity.

Hence, it is mandatory to define socialist ideology. We can put forward some aspects here:

· The human being at the center of all endeavours.

· Life as the motive of all effort.

· Nature as the basis of everything.

· The Consciousness of Social Duty linked with Social Property in the means of production administered by the National State.

· Internationalism.

· To be always on the side of the weak, of the fighters, of the Revolutionaries.

Only an ideological map allows us to take successful positions in the war to build Socialism and defend humanity. History – that unequaled revolutionary teacher – is very clear in her lessons, we must always go back to them, keeping them under our pillows.

The battle of 2012 – The revolution, the people and the armed forces

2011-08-17T09:50:00.001+10:00

The following is an article I have translated from the Frente Francisco de Miranda youth organisation’s weekly magazine Semenario Signos:

The battle of 2012 – The revolution, the people and the armed forces

The counter-revolution, with its inability to win via electoral means, has a plan, with international backing, to generate violence, destabilisation and intervention before the 2012 elections. Such is shown by the attacks of the right wing’s spokespersons and their media that ranged from calling for Chavez’s resignation, to making attacks against the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), to attacking the National Electoral Commission.

In the face of these threats, our Comandante advises us: “We must prepare ourselves for the scenario that they call plan B, the Yankee embassy, the Yankee empire, the CIA is preparing, before this disaster for them, which I previously referred to as an organic, structural impossibility for them, of defeating us in the electoral sphere. The continuity and the future of the Bolivarian Revolution are in the unity, organisation and consciousness of the civic and military People”.

The ultra-right argues that the FANB is preparing a coup in the case an unfavourable vote for Chavez. Their strategy is to spread in the world press that Chavez is a coup-plotter and that the FANB cannot be guarantors of the process because they are ideologically committed [to Chavez].

The defence minister, General Carlos Mata Figueroa, accuses the Venezuelan counter-revolutionaries of fomenting subversive acts against the Armed Forces, while emphasising the extremely high level of soldiers’ consciousness.

The Venezuelan Armed Forces has shown itself to be a guarantor of the Constitution and to be more dignified than ever, not like in the Fourth Republic when they encouraged all kinds of abuse against the people like the destruction of electoral results that favoured revolutionary parties, and more recently with the participation of the entire bourgeois high command in the coup de etat against comandante Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution.

Other elements of this conspiracy are the so-called Coalition for Democratic Unity (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática - MUD) agitating against the supposed increase in crime in Caracas and in the country’s interior and against the minister of the prison system, Iris Varela, for giving inmates soft treatment, because for the MUD, the solution to crime is to repress the People.

In this regard, the interior and Justice minister, Tareck El Aissami, pointed out that the MUD has a clear agenda of destabilisation. He claimed that groups linked to the Unity Table intend to carry out a guarimba [road blockades], threatening to cut off Los Valles del Tuy and Valencia and participating in the name of the transport workers, of the main routes of the states of Miranda, Carabobo, Tachira, Lara and Zulia, attempting to promote an agenda of violence and fear in every state of the country.

At the same time as president Chavez’s popularity has reached 58%, they seek through the oppositionist MUD to put out a call for Chavez to resign. Presidential pre-candidate Oswaldo Alvarez Paz formulated the request, which is nothing other than yet another media attack to enhance their discredited leaders at the same time that at the international level there is the false perception that in Venezuela there is widespread discontent with the leadership of Comandante Chavez.

So far, the PSUV has signed up more than 400,000 at 10,450 recruitment posts set up around the country. It seeks to guarantee that the party’s rank and file win the battle of 2012 in the name of the Bolivarian Revolution and Comandante Chavez. And that is the correct strategy to win the elections and consolidate Bolivarian socialism.

Chavez's use of Twitter - "a milestone in the history of our ideas"

2011-08-10T18:50:00.005+10:00

Chavez, the revolution and Twitter a year later

May 1, 2011

Eliades Acosta Matos¹

Revolucion o Muerte

President Chavez’s Twitter account, @Chavezcandanga, debuted on April 27, 2010, at 9:43pm. After one year, the balance sheet is impressive: using this social network, the Bolivarian president has published 933 tweets – short messages of up to 140 characters - has 1 432 740 followers and has been included on 39 461 lists. Its runaway success has necessitated the creation of a mission specifically to attend to the thousands of messages that are received every day and gave rise to a “Union of Socialist Twitterers”.

The most important thing about this phenomenon, initiated by the theoretical and practical prime mover of this promising current called ‘Socialism of the 21^st century’, is that it shows that the new information technologies can and should be utilized without fear or reservation, in the difficult task of changing the world and placing it on more just and humane foundations. They do not have to play a fatal, demobilizing or alienating role, or be a means of diffusing frivolity and nonsense, nor must they be docile instruments in the hands of the programs of world counterrevolution, especially those that fight 24/7 on the frontline of the culture wars.

It is not going out on a limb to claim that Chavez’s decision to set up a Twitter account and make it serve the purpose of making his government leadership transparent and open new channels of contact with the people, can be considered one of the most important strategic actions taken by revolutionary forces on the world scale in the struggle to overthrow their own limits, taboos and myths, and advance toward the transformation of a reality that has little similarity to that which Karl Marx or Lenin faced in their time. Injustice cannot be revolutionized without knowing the keys of each age, or refusing to take advantage of its transformational tools – including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs.

Can anyone doubt that if Marx lived in our time he would have a web page, and Lenin a Twitter account? Would Marti have spurned the enormous information and communication possibilities the internet offers us today?

But if backward approaches and fear of change is harmful, neither is it enough to formally agree with these propositions, after all, they’re so obvious they cannot be denied. To use these social networks to make revolution implies a deep change in the verticalist and centralist mentality - sadly inherited by the left from previous historical experiences – and placing themselves on an equal footing, without a centre or periphery, alongside the people who use these technologies, including our enemies that use them heavily. And this means, in itself, an enormous strategic step in the march of development, democratization and the renewal of socialist forces. Their future and its success in the struggle depends upon it.

Eliades Acosta Matos

As such, that discrete, telegraphic first tweet Chavez made one year ago will go down as a milestone in the history of our ideas. As with all transcendental things, it happened naturally, without pretense. Its brilliance was not visible to the naked eye; it lies within, in its subaltern significance, and in what it means for the future, and the challenge to emulate, but not imitate it.

What is known as the “Twitter Revolution” or the “Cyber Revolution” merits a more detailed analysis. For now, it’s enough to say that the front line of the secular struggle for progress and social justice also passes through here. The confrontation that begins in the political or economic sphere is decided in the symbolic and ideological sphere.

“Twitter is the best way to find out what’s new in your world”, says one of the slogans of the promoters of that social network. A sly Dr Marx of our epoch would no doubt add, ironically, “ … but the point is to change it”.

With patience and constancy, amidst his enormous tasks and responsibilities, Chavez is doing just that.

And it is going out to millions.

^1. Eliades Acosta Matos is the former director of Cuba’s Jose Marti National Library (1997–2007) and currently head of the Committee on Culture of the Cuban Communist party's Central Committee. He is the author of The Apocalypse according to Saint George.

Chavez : “The idea of a new International is catching on”

2011-07-27T20:07:00.003+10:00

Hugo Chavez first raised the idea for establishing a new International association of socialist parties in 2007. In November 2009 he again raised the idea at a meeting of left-wing political parties that was held in Caracas.

Chavez at the International Meeting of Left Parties

Since then, the idea seemed to have been forgotten. However, in this short excerpt from his speech to the executive cabinet, assembled governors and the Political Bureau of the Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) on 16 July, Chavez revived the idea of a new International:

“Well, in truth I feel really strengthened by the way you and our Party shaped this modest document, these five lines, and now they return to me with a sixth line, which really was missing: the international line, a formation of some networks of Bolivarian circles, and different links, a network, a mesh of Latin American and Caribean organizations, of solidarity and political action, heading towards the creation of international structures, respecting the ones that already exist.

“Now, we raised an idea, just one idea for the world. But we need to develop it, to explain it well, because it tended to be rejected initially by sectors of the international Left, the idea of a new International, not the fifth, a new socialist International for the 21^st century. This is a debate that started in Europe, and I think that with the world hotting up in these recent days and months of this feverish year, with big battles in Europe and North Africa, and in Latin America as always, the idea seems to be catching on. But we need to make links, argue and explain to movements and parties that are worried about it being a throwback.”

Excerpted from debatesocialistadigital.com

Translated by Owen Richards

For more information on Chavez' 2009 call for a new International, read:

http://directaction.org.au

http://links.org.au

Socialism and voluntary labour

2011-07-20T18:05:00.001+10:00

The following is an article from the Socialist Debate website about the role of voluntary labour in Venezuela's housing construction program, Mision Vivienda, launched in April this year to address the shortage of housing in Venezuela. It discusses the significance of voluntary labour in the transition to socialism.

Welcome socialism

By Neftali Reyes, Debate socialista

Translated by Owen Richards

Practice has had the last word: this process is headed for socialism. The facts have already appeared on the social horizon. Reality has outstripped the Byzantine discussions of the philosophical pretenders who deny our socialism. They have their refutation from within the bowels of life itself.

An historic event has occurred in Venezuela: the oil workers were summoned to Voluntary Collective Labour in Mision Vivienda and arrived en masse. And the number exceeded fifteen thousand.

Voluntary Labour, where the worker goes off to work motivated by altruism, and committed to the society to which they belong and in which they feel wanted, is giving labour a new meaning: it is liberating it, experimenting with it, and prefiguring free labour. It is now done without the compulsion of survival.

Voluntary Labour is the “sharp tool” that must be used to build Socialism. It radiates to all of society the new ethics of the loving relations, and through it the working class leads the revolutionary process.

The massive surge of oil workers to Voluntary Labour means that the conditions for the flourishing of socialism exist in Venezuela. It’s indicative of the class struggle that socialism unleashes on the old world, against capitalism, a system that hangs on in a thousand ways. It unequivocally indicates that the Socialist battle takes place here in our midst, even though we sometimes misunderstand it.

Without a doubt, the Bolivarian Revolution has created conditions to build socialism as never before in our history. Socialism can arise in Venezuela because it expands and reinforces the state-administered Social Property. This form of property enables the fruits of labour to be the property of society as a whole, constituting itself thus as the basis of the Consciousness of Social Duty.

The workers become more and more aware of their power and their historical role, a role that goes beyond merely making demands; they’re committed to showing the way to the new world. This is the material basis for the advance of the process.

Furthermore, the government, political power, is in the hands of the Revolution, embodied in president Chavez. The call to socialism, to anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism that came down from the high command, unleashed the contradictions that generate movement and make the way toward socialism possible.

After years of struggle, favorable factors converge: Social Property administered by the state; a working class that is conscious of it historical role; Popular Power lead by Chavez – the most important Venezuelan revolutionary of the last hundred years in loving harmony with the masses; the Housing Mission as the auspicious setting for demonstrating the power of voluntary labour.

Centuries of hope, hope in the possibility of greatness, hope that we can defeat the deadening mediocrity, finds its concretion here. We are privileged: socialism is almost within our reach.

There’s no excuse to get lost in shortcuts or to use blunt instruments. We must have faith, break with custom, and follow the example set by the oil workers.

This is Socialism. Now we must pass beyond adversities, deepening socialism, nurturing it and extending it.

The country needed its best sons, and more than fifteen thousand patriots from within the heart of the oil industry stepped forward. The march to Socialism, which is the attempt to build a viable society, needed real action to demonstrate that humanity is able to surpass egoistic behaviour and to wholeheartedly build that other world that the Liberator dreamed of. The oil workers stepped forward and said, “present”.

Now they are the example and the promise, showing the way, they are the evidence that Socialism is more than a utopia; it’s a reality that’s taking shape before our very eyes.

They were called to Voluntary Collective Labour, invited to give of themselves to the Mision Vivienda, they gave themselves to society, to its Revolutionary Government, generously offering their most valuable possession: their labour power. And they came, without asking for explanations, and without hesitating, more than fifteen thousand good souls with a will to commit themselves to the future.

This act, which not by chance passes almost unnoticed, is one of the most important things that have taken place in the Bolivarian Revolution, placing it in a new dimension on the path.

Labour, always appropriated by the ruling classes, acquires with the gesture of these oil workers the condition of being an instrument of liberation, it’s the harbinger of a new world where exploitation - which is nothing but the appropriation of social labour on behalf of a minority - is overcome through the establishment of loving relations for the benefit of all.

What took place in Mision Vivienda with the Voluntary Collective Labour foreshadows the emancipation of labour, when labour will belong to society, to everyone.

The material and social foundations upon which to build a society where “to each according to his ability, to each according to his need” are established. In that world, exploitation, the appropriation of labour, robbery, will no longer be possible. It will no longer make sense. That is True Socialism.

Beyond the will of its protagonists, Mision Vivienda exposes the Revolution’s basic contradiction: the confrontation between capitalism and Socialism.

The capitalists, the anti-social, put a high price on their “collaboration”, they expect payment in cash, and, most harmfully, they do so with an egoistic consciousness.

Voluntary Labour is a socialist tool. It approaches the problem of housing with moral and spiritual vigour. By the end, we will have housing, but more importantly, we will have a conscious mass, a mass able to understand and confront the challenges along the road to Socialism. They will be a symbol of that which we struggle for. And an active, conscious vanguard will have formed, that has proved its effectiveness, its loyalty to Comandante Chavez, willing to step forward when called upon.

The challenge of the oil workers is great: now they have the responsibility to show the way, to guide the rest of society in the building of Socialism.

Let the gesture that these pioneers made be known throughout the country and around the world. Let their selflessness and their understanding of the historic moment be known.

The spirit of our nation’s heroes, of the Paso de Los Andes, of Carabobo, is embodied in this gesture of the workers. They are a prelude, a good omen of the successes we will have in the coming battles.

May society reward them, returning love for the love that they gave to all of humanity.

[For more information on Mision Vivienda, see: Venezuelanalysis.com]

Chavez's return: what is to be done?

2011-07-06T19:05:00.003+10:00

From the thrill of the return

This Grain is written with emotion, which is the first element of the new picture. It is from passion that the great works of the people are built. That love, that passion for Bolivar, was the hurricane that made Independence possible. That human warmth that alone awakens great deeds and the men that embody them has appeared again with the return of Chavez.

Chavez’s return changes the political landscape that the right tried to establish: the plans for restoration have been frustrated; por ahora. The revolution and Chavez’s leadership deepens its roots in the passion of the humble, this is very important, and creates magnificent conditions for the much needed great leap towards complete consolidation.

Amidst the euphoria arises a question that the triumph [of Chavez’s return] cannot gloss over: What is to be done?

We must not fall into triumphalism. In the midst of the euphoria, the side that reflects most, the camp that plans for the future, will ultimately be victorious. We must not forget that the empire’s greed never sleeps.

We must refine theory – this is essential and fundamental. We must never forget that a Revolution cannot stray far from theory, from the ideology that sustains it. Theory, ideology, is the source of every victory and defeat.

Ideological distractions have done such damage to the revolutionary march and have already shown their impotence. With them it’s not possible to shape society, to give sentiment strategic consistency.

It is necessary to consolidate a social and political organization that underpins the building of socialism, an organization that forms a national fabric starting from the finest capillaries and going all the way up to the government and its leader.

Thus, we enter into a stage of reorganization in all fields. We are happy, and there are reasons for our happiness. Chavez has demonstrated great fortitude and deep reflections in his “fruitful repose”.

Army reaffirms loyalty to Chavez

2011-07-04T21:20:00.004+10:00

Translated by Owen Richards

The defense minister, Carlos Mata Figueroa sent a message of strength and solidarity to the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, assuring that the National Armed Forces remains loyal to president Chavez and the Revolutionary Government.

“To you, whose heart fills with pride when you speak of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, now, this Armed Forces expresses its pride in having you as our Commander in Chief. You have inculcated values and principles in us, and for this, we, as soldiers of the Homeland want to express our deepest sentiments of loyalty to the Commander in Chief and the Revolutionary Government”, said the defense minister.

General Mata Figueroa wished the quick recovery of president Chavez, who underwent the removal of a cancerous tumour in Cuba.

“I take this opportunity to send a message of strength and solidarity to our commander, Hugo Chavez. For you, my commander, all our firepower, all our battle strength turned to blessings for your prompt recovery”.

He pointed out that it was a good moment for reflection, and reiterated that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces is “more united and more inspired than ever”.

He said, “this revolutionary process wants its leader back, recovered, healthy and strong, you who are the mainstay of this Revolution. You represent and constitute the best example of the unity of the people with its National Armed Forces”.

Mata Figueroa’s speech was presented at the Honour Courtyard of the Military Academy in Caracas in a ceremony to mark the Official Promotion of Generals and Admirals of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) regarding the inauguration of activities to celebrate the Bicentennial Year.

http://www.chavez.org.ve/temas/noticias/fuerza-armada-bolivariana-ratifica-lealtad-al-presidente-chavez/

We will be with Chavez

2011-07-01T16:41:00.004+10:00

Un Grano de Maiz

In the Peaceful Revolution, which is a war, there are primary and secondary battles.

The primary battle is the one in which the confrontation with the enemy is direct, decisive, and defines the strategic aim. It determines the scenario and the theatre of operations. At one time, the primary battle was against oil sabotage, at another it was against shortages, on several occasions it was elections.

Today the main battle is in Chavez. The oligarcho-bourgeoisie, defeated every time it has reared its head, now sets upon the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution. Its aim is to fracture the loving Chavez-People connection, knowing that this is the fundamental pillar of the Revolution.

Thus, the empire, studying the situations that threaten its rule, knows that the social rebellion is embodied in a leader. This leader sums up the revolutionary masses.

When this occurs, when the mass-leader bond is established, the process becomes invincible. Simon Bolivar symbolizes independence, Zamora, the jolt of Federation, Allende represents the attempt to storm heaven, Torrijos is the concretion of Panamanian aspirations, Lumumba is the symbol of a whole continent’s rebellion… all those assassinated by the empire severing the leader-mass bond and frustrating their redemptive strivings

Now they try to break this same bond that makes the Bolivarian Revolution possible. Its direct object is Chavez; against him they take aim. They try to discredit him, spreading lies and rumours, sowing the seeds of division, spreading discontent amongst the humble, promising love with a Judas kiss and encouraging disloyalty.

The various hacks and sophists invent theories to weaken the bond, comparing Chavez to Hitler, of all leaders, not to Bolivar, Torrijos, Zamorra or Lumumba. They speak of “hyperleadership”, and they rummage in the trash looking for evidence linking him to the counter-revolution, or to reformism.

The main battle takes place around Chavez. Unsurprisingly, the proximity of 2012 requires the opposition to ramp up its push to fracture the loving bond. And now they see an opportunity in Chavez’s infirmity.

The question that arises is this: how to confront this offensive?

Firstly, it is to understand that the defense of Chavez is the defense of the hope that was once frustrated in Santa Marta but was reborn on the 4^th of February.

Secondly, is the heartfelt committment that today, they will not be allowed to repeat Golgotha, the Moneda Palace, the magnicide of San Carlos, San Pedro Alejadrino! We will stand with Chavez in the face of all the manipulations the opposition can muster. In the midst of all doubts, we will be with Chavez.

Thirdly, it is indispensable to organize the people’s love for Chavez. The Comités de Resteaos are an excellent initiate.

Fourthly, is to internalise the fact that the unity of Chavez and Socialism are sacred.

Finally, if they mess with Chavez, a volcano of rage - of the like never before seen on this continent - will be unleashed, and they will repent.

Che Guevara - the fourth fool

2011-06-23T13:15:00.006+10:00

The following is my translation of a recent article posted on the Un Grano de Maiz blogsite. Un Grano de Maiz articles are also published daily in a very popular column in Diario Vea, a mass, pro-revolution newspaper. The column's frequent reiteration of ethical themes aims at eroding the “egoism” that is both deep and widespread in Venezuelan mass consciousness, primarily owing to Venezuela’s century-long economic dependency on oil exports and the ideological reflection of that dependency in a “rentier consciousness”.

Readers might be interested to find that there is now an English language version of Un Grano de Maiz, where many, but not all of its recent posts are available (Un Grano de Maiz).

The fourth fool

Bolivar once said, “Christ, Quixote and I – history’s three fools”. Che Guevara, in the cold Bolivian jungle, could be considered the fourth.

The truth is, the highest rung of the human species, that of the revolutionary, the fool, is reserved for those stubborn about the goal of building worlds for love, for those who in doing so stake their lives.

To be a fool is the highest honour a human being can aspire, reserved for those who reach the highest peaks of revolutionary zeal, it’s a level created by that self same Liberator.

We know not if Che considered himself a member of this select group…. It doesn’t matter. Without a doubt, he is the fourth fool.

Che was an exalted revolutionary. He wanted to change the whole world; his goal was humanity, a goal that outstripped the tiny earth. Asia, Africa, America, Europe, was the theater of operations for his theory and practice. He criticised and struggled throughout humanity, developing theory to change the world.

Great minds think great thoughts. They have the ability to answer the fundamental problems of human existence. They are not limited; their purview is the whole planet.

Courageous Che questioned the ways of “actually existing socialism”, both Soviet and Chinese, but not as an excuse to go back to the shameful refuge of capitalism, but to venture forth into the future. He devised a theoretical compass to guide humanity in this necessary voyage.

His life is an example, his theory an obligatory azimuth. A revolution not deeply steeped in Che’s ideas is unthinkable.

There is no socialism that does not comply with Che’s commandments, which are the same commandments as all the fools:

Love one another. This command of Christ, that comes to us through two thousand years of history and remains just as vital, has guided revolutionaries, fools.

The spiritual over the material. Che based all his theory on the idea that Socialism isn’t a material thing. It’s above all a spiritual act.

Friendship over hate. Che, guided by the teachings of [Cuban independence leader Jose] Marti, emphasized that it is only love that builds. Let’s remember his idea that the true revolutionary is guided by deep feelings of love.

Offering one’s life, loyal to the cause of the poor. Loyalty is an indispensable condition in the revolutionary undertaking - loyalty to principles, and the people who embody them.

A big dose of craziness. Leaping into the void without a safety net. The revolutionary act, essentially unscripted, requires a craziness to dare it, to cut adrift from one’s moorings in habit, and to plunge into the dizzying whirl of high altitude flight.

To aspire more to service than to glory. The revolutionary plays God, while at the same time retaining the humility to recognize they are a part of the whole.

The PSUV's socialist patrols

2011-06-20T14:35:00.012+10:00

The following post continues my translation of the Socialist Party of Venezuela’s ‘Libro Rojo’, or Red Book, the party’s program which was adopted at last year’s congress. The following two articles concern the party’s branches, or “patrols”.

Article 19: On the socialist patrols

The socialist patrols are the primary and basic cellular components of the party. They are linked to the organizational forms of Popular Power, and constitute the basis of the network of socio-political articulation and of the PSUV's system of ideological education.

Article 20: On the typology of the socialist patrols.

The socialist patrols can be:

a) Territorial, as the sphere of the party’s primary discussion is in the communities, and its radius of action is in the streets, blocks, villages and communes. Every party militant must be a member of one of these.

b) Sectoral, in agreement with the activities developed by the militants in specific areas.

c) Any other that the National Political Directorate establishes.

Militants may simultaneously belong to a territorial and a sectoral patrol, in which case the procedure for determining preferences voting in internal elections will be established by the norms to that effect issued by the National Political Directorate.

On the party youth

2011-06-12T21:01:00.003+10:00

Here are the next two articles in my ongoing translation of the PSUV's program. Please refer to the blog archive on the left hand side for previous installments.

"I love socialism" - PSUV Youth

Article 17: On the social fronts

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela must, as an instance of sectoral organisation, lead the social fronts, movements, missions and organisations as expressions of organised Popular power that guarantee the militancy of disabled persons, in equality of conditions and opportunities.

Article 18: On the party youth

The youth [organisation] of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela constitutes the sphere of initial activation of the youth in militant activity under the party’s guidelines.

To belong to the party’s youth a person is required to be between the ages of fifteen (15) and thirty (30).

Party youth will be governed by the same rights, duties and principles established within these statutes. The functional organisation and structure will be established in accord with the Youth Congress of the party.

Party organisation

2011-06-07T21:58:00.003+10:00

The following continues section 2 of my translation of the PSUV’s Red Book.

Coordinator of the Socialist Education System, Jorge Arreaza

Chapter 3: Party organisation

Article 14: The territorial distribution of party bodies

The party is territorially organised in socialist patrols, communal, municipal, and state socialist political teams, socialist regions and the National Political Directorate.

Article 15: Functional organisation

The party is functionally organised through the following bodies: The Socialist Congress, the Party Presidency, the First Vice-presidency, the regional and sectoral Vice-presidencies, the National Political Directorate, the Commissions Coordination, the Education System of the party, the sectoral patrols, as well as any other bodies decided by the National Political Directorate.

Article 16: The system of socialist education

The PSUV’s Socialist Education System is established as an organ assigned to the National Directorate of the party, which is entrusted with the political and ideological education of every militant. It is organised in state, municipal and communal collectives. The modes of education shall be: self-education, education in patrols and the Cadre School.

Permanent vigilance against corruption

2011-06-06T11:35:00.002+10:00

Article 13: The commitment to fight corruption

The socialist militants of Venezuela, who by the will of the Bolivarian people hold positions of elected office or state administration, uphold an ethic of service to the people (not being served by the people) and maintain permanent vigilance and struggle against corruption; any other behaviour will be considered a counter-revolutionary act.

The commitment to fight bureaucracy

2011-05-23T10:49:00.003+10:00

The following is a continuation of my translation of 'Section 2' of the PSUV's party program, the Red Book. This section deals with the rights and responsibilities of party members. Previous instalments can be found elsewhere on this blog.

Article 11: Education for holding leadership positions

Militants of the party who hold, or aspire to hold positions in the leadership of the party's public administration, or internally in the PSUV, will need to achieve the level of education within the System of Socialist Education corresponding to the level of their position. The National Directorate shall ensure compliance with the above.

Article 12: The commitment to fight bureaucracy

The party will eradicate practices that promote bureaucratism by considering it as one of the main scourges inherited from the liberal bourgeoisie, a scourge which spreads inefficiency, laziness, abuse, individualism and corruption. In this regard, it will deepen the revolutionary transformation of state structures based on the exercise of good governance, the return of power to the people, the social comptroller, social ownership of the means of production and the elevation of political consciousness and social duty, guaranteeing that all cadres in public roles are at the people's service.

Communal councils and the whip of the counter-revolution

2011-04-06T20:43:00.004+10:00

Un Grano de Maiz

Translated by Owen Richards

Reality, history tells us that the Empire turns all areas of social life into politics, that is, into the defence of its capitalist system.

No corner of social activity escapes being used to perpetuate, to reproduce the system. So it is with art, film, theatre, the economy, social organisation - the capitalist Empire penetrates everything and puts everything at its service, or rather, all of society is the scene of a fierce battle between capitalism and socialism.

The following news recently appeared on a front page in the esqualido press:

“Communal Councils form a front to combat exclusion

“A thousand Communal Councils that failed to gain Fundacomunal registration created an organisation yesterday. In an assembly that took place at the Brion de Chacaito Plaza, representatives of these associations explained their reasons: without this procedure, they would not be able to receive funding for their projects. Therefore, signatures were collected to support the legal integration of the National Front of Excluded Communal Councils.”

One of this front’s promoters is William Ojeda, if there was any doubt about its intentions. As Che [Guevara] thought, the Empire has a good nose for sniffing out what should be used and what eliminated. The enemy understood before we did that the Communal Councils are above all political, and to be most effective they need to be integrated, and so they integrated in this anti-government, anti-socialist front, using the guise of community work.

The revolution, spurred on by the counter-revolution’s whip, must take a step forward and organise the Communal Councils into a national fabric, the only way to make them into strong fortresses in defence of Socialism - which is the real defence of their immediate problems.

The Communal Councils must understand - and it’s the party and the government’s job to make it understood – that the solution of their problems is only possible with socialism, and that if the opportunity is lost the country will fall once more into the capitalists’ hands. Then, inevitably, the days of spiritual and material misery will return multiplied a thousandfold.

So, the struggle against neighbourhood problems must be the battle for Socialism. Capitalism cannot resolve problems of its own making.

The job of creating this web of Communal Councils is vital and urgent. Capitalism attacks us on this front. The answer is to advance. Only this web will be a barrier against the egoism that grows in the isolated Councils. And only this web can absorb the teachings, ideology, and solidarity that is the foundation of Socialism.

Never before in history have we been so close to giving concrete form to Socialism, to the new society, to the new man. A national, social web of Communal Councils and Communes is a really important step on this path.

Isolated Communal Councils are weak before capitalist seduction.

Commitment to practical and theoretical study

2011-03-28T19:55:00.001+11:00

The following continues my translation of the PSUV's 'Libro Rojo':

Article 10: Militants’ commitment to practical and theoretical study

Translated by Owen Richards

The party declares socialist education and self-education to be of fundamental importance and as such will establish a political and ideological System of Education, which is to be one of the national bodies within the functional structure and organisational method, according to the party’s principle of territorial and sectoral organisation. As such, it will encourage the education of all party militants in its Doctrine, Statutes, Principles, Program and Official Documents. Prioritising the deep study of Bolivarianism, our own history, universal critical thought and Marxism as the basis for the dialectical analysis of human experience, all of which, combined with volunteer work, shall guarantee the theoretical and practical education of each and every militant.

Apologies

2011-03-17T17:51:00.000+11:00

I'd like to apologise to all readers and subscribers of Translating the revolution for the long delays between recent posts. My three-week-old child is the culprit ;-). I'll try to return to a more regular and frequent schedule ASAP. Thanks for your support.

Owen Richards.

Responsibilities of militants

2011-03-04T17:46:00.001+11:00

The following post is a continuation of my translation of the PSUV's 'Statutes' from the Red Book:

Article 9: Responsibilities of militants

Translated by Owen Richards

Every militatnt is obliged to comply with the following duties:

1. To defend the Homeland, the Revolution and its leader, and the PSUV.

2. To comply with ethical-moral values, education, self-education, discipline, solidarity and revolutionary love.

3. To contribute to the party's financing, in accord with progressive and proportional rules.

4. To comply with and abide by the [political] lines and instructions put out by the various leadership bodies of the party.

5. To be available to the Party Leadership in order to participate in any activity required.

6. To undertake permanent efforts in voluntary work under the Party's direction.

7. To tirelessly struggle against the scourge of corruption.

8. To confront bureaucratism in any of its manifestations.

9. To educate oneself within the Party's System of Education.

Socialist militants and party membership

2011-02-23T11:43:00.004+11:00

The following is a continuation of my translation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's 'Statutes'. See previous posts for the rest of the PSUV's Red Book to date.

Chapter 2. On militants

Translated by Owen Richards

Article 6: Characteristics of militants

Every militant of the United Socialist Party Of Venezuela (PSUV) is a socialist, Bolivarian, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, internationalist, humanist, environmentalist and feminist; and should accept and practice the principles, programme and statutes of the party, and is therefore a militant of the hopes and dreams of the great majority, and guides his or her conduct by the following values:

• Socialist ethics and morality.

• Socialist education and self-education.

• Conscious discipline based on criticism and self-criticism.

• The practice of solidarity and love.

• The consciousness of social duty.

• The struggle against corruption and bureaucratism.

Article 7: A militant of the United Socialist Party Of Venezuela:

Is any person above 15 years of age who voluntarily joins the PSUV and is admitted by the appropriate body, and who accepts and defends the statutes, declaration of principles, and the program of the party.

Article 8: The rights of militants

Every militant has the right to:

1. Participate in the Socialist Patrols and any other party-defined base unit of organisation with full speaking and voting rights.

2. Nominate and be nominated to the various leadership bodies of the party and to positions of popular election.

3. Raise ideas, projects and programmes with the various leadership bodies of the party.

4. Make reasonable criticisms only within party bodies.

5. Activate and participate with communities in the strengthening of popular power and in social movements or fronts.

6. To take—alongside the people—social control of the various organs of popular power and the revolutionary government.

How much socialism?

2011-02-19T13:31:00.005+11:00

A good rebuttal of those who argue Venezuela's socialist revolution hasn't moved fast enough in nationalising all sectors of big capital.

How much socialism?

Translated by Owen Richards

The question orbits every revolution. Processes are defined in the amount and speed of changes.

The reformists, the social democrats, often appear to be close to Socialism. At least, they don't combat it openly. They have their Socialist International and don't hesitate to call themselves socialists - take the MAS for example. They accept that capitalism is malignant, they admit the need to change it, but, when the time comes for action, they start slinking off.

They say: "Changes must be made bit by bit so as not to disrupt the economy", "the changes should not be extended too far, certain areas are sufficient", "private enterprises have a right to subsist, society needs them". With such parsimony, the Consciousness of Social Duty is not formed, and the changes get absorbed by the capitalist system. They thus derail the possibility of building socialism.

The revolutionary position is clear: as much and as rapid a socialism as the Consciousness of Social Duty requires, and at the speed necessary to prevent capitalist restoration. This is the formula for building and defending Socialism. There is no other.

The changes can be material ones: those related to Social Ownership administered by the National State, the only form of ownership that is entwined with the Consciousness of Social Duty.

Regarding social organisation: those who make up the national fabric, from the capillary units up to the national level, from the base to the national leadership bodies. This scheme applies to all forms of social and political organisation.

Changes of consciousness: here the message of our means of communication is fundamental - the example of leaders, and the signals they send to the population. These messages should translate the steps of the Revolution, in ideology, in consciousness, in ethical and moral values. It's important to emphasise that these changes in consciousness and culture are the main aims of socialist construction and the Revolution's measure of success.

The level of consciousness is measured by mobilisation: a defenseless, sedentary mass is an unconscious mass. A combative mass - organised and mobilised, defending the revolution and the Commander [Hugo Chavez] on any terrain - is a conscious mass.

Isolated advances get diluted; they should be achieved in unity, and at the different speeds imposed by circumstance, but always with the same tendency, the same spirit.

Socialism is not built by proposals for advance in one area, while simultaneously taking actions of retreat in another; or, as Che [Guevara] would say, by using socialist tools in one area and blunt tools in another. The masses will end up confused, the lines that separate us from the oligarchs blurred, and the life will be sucked out of the socialist idea.

Capitalism will never be good: be it small, medium or big, it will always exploit and damage the planet. There is no possible third way - the third way ends up sooner or later in capitalism. The dilemma is Socialism or capitalism.

Spanish original: 'Un Grano de Maiz'

Organisational principles and internal democracy

2011-02-18T16:20:00.001+11:00

The following continues my translation of the PSUV Red Book’s ‘Statutes’ (i.e. constitution). Here are articles 3, 4 and 5 from chapter 1:

Fundamental positions (continued)

Translated by Owen Richards

Article 3: values and principles

The party builds itself as a socialist party and affirms the socialist society as the only alternative to supersede the capitalist system. It takes the thoery and practice of Simon Bolivar, Simon Rodriguez and Ezequiel Zamora as its creative source. Likewise, it adopts the principles of scientific socialism, of Christianity, of liberation theology, of all critical, universal and humanist thought, gender equity and equality and the ethical obligation to build a model that respects life and mother Earth and guarantees the survival of humanity.

Simon Bolivar

As a diverse and multi-ethnic party, it nourishes its roots in the Afro-Indian legacy of Guaicaipuro and Jose Leonardo Chirino, everthing inspired in the fundamental leadership and revolutionary ideas of Commander Hugo Chavez, directed towards creating a new man and woman in the crucible of hopes and dreams that makes our new socialism a racially-mixed socialism, loaded with African identity, with the identity of our indigenous peoples, and with the international vision whose chief exponent has been Francisco de Miranda.

We assume civic-military unity as the principle to guarantee national and popular defence and sovereignty.

Article 4: On organisational principles

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), as a revolutionary party representing the interests of the urban and rural proletariat, of the campesinos and the other exploited social sectors, must be organized and work according to the principles of socialist democracy. That is to say:

• Political-ideological cohesion.

• Democratic centralism—understood as the subordination of the whole organisation to the leadership; the subordination of all militants to their organisations; the subordination of all lesser bodies to superior bodies; the subordination of the minority to the majority; top down and bottom up control of the implementation of party decisions; that all leadership bodies be elected, and the principle of collective leadership (collective and individual responsibilities) —all of which is based on the conscious discipline arising from the political line, programme and statutes governing the life of the party.

• Collective leadership of all bodies.

• Accountability before leadership bodies and before the people.

• Recallability, based upon a democratic evaluation of management.

• Constant exercise of criticism and self-criticism regarding one's own errors and those of others, in the correct way with the aim of overcoming areas.

• The exercise of socialist emulation—understood as the recognition of the political practice and revolutionary integrity of party militants.

Article 5: Methods of internal democracy

The party may use various methods when making decisions and conducting internal elections, which will be decided by the various leadership bodies according to the political conditions: direct,universal and secret election; cooptation; first, second or third grade elections; discussion and consensus.

PSUV Red Book—Statutes

2011-02-15T17:08:00.001+11:00

The following is the second section from the PSUV's Libro Rojo, or Red Book, the statutes or constitution of the party. My translation of Section One was serialised in previous posts.

PSUV Red Book—Statutes

Translated by Owen Richards

We, delegates to the First Extraordinary Congress Of The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela (PSUV), militants all, under the leadership of President Commander Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, having studied and considered the events and political dynamics of recent years, in which new and varied forms of organization, political foundations and elements of action arose, agree with the definitive approval of the statutes of the United Socialist Party Of Venezuela in the following terms:

Chapter 1 Fundamental dispositions

Article 1: Name

The name of the United Socialist Party Of Venezuela is adopted and allows the use of the initials PSUV as well as the flag, anthem and slogans that are set out in the respective regulations. The party arises as an expression of the struggles and the revolutionary will of the people; it will be the political tool to unite revolutionary and socialist action and to carry out strategic tasks in order to achieve social happiness.

The party advocates unity and ethics in its policy and in the permanent activity that characterises revolutionary anti-imperialist and socialist action.

Article 2: Aims or objectives

The fundamental aims of the United Socialist Party Of Venezuela (PSUV) are the construction of Bolivarian socialism, the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist struggle, and the consolidation of Bolivarian, participatory and activist democracy, through the recognition and strengthening of Popular Power. In its anti-imperialist essence, it has an internationalist vocation and therefore the unity and alliance of the exploited peoples of the world and their popular and progressive movements, with the aim of putting an end to capitalism. The party takes up the task of strengthening south-south relations with the peoples of Our America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

As a party of the masses and of cadres, it has the responsibility to educate itself in history and in human experiences in order to take up the task of permanently creating and inventing socialism, using its own criteria.

Differences between February 4, 1992 and February 27, 1989

2011-02-14T20:27:00.004+11:00

The following is an excerpt from Hugo Chavez’s February 4, 2011 speech commemorating “4F” – the February 4 military rebellion he led in 1992. It touches on the “Un Grano de Maiz¹” column I translated in the previous post.

Differences between February 4, 1992 and February 27, 1989

Translated by Owen Richards

“Those that die for life cannot be said to be dead”. The army and I would like to emphasize this quote, 19 years after that patriotic day, a day which we should call the revolution of the 4th of February, it was within the national army where that force was nurtured ...

Yesterday I was reading, as I do almost every day, the "A grain of corn" column that an old comrade,Toby Valderrama, publishes in the Diario Vea [newspaper], and he makes a very interesting point there, as far as I understand it. He clearly establishes the differences that there was and are in history, for the lessons that history offers us, between that tremendous jolt, that tremendous rebellion of the 27th of February, that of the 28th of February, the Caracazo, and the revolution of the 4th of February.

Nobody planned the Caracazo. The Caracazo exploded in a spontaneous way, but it had no leadership, it had no political project, the people did not go towards the centre of power, no, they dispersed, they were massacred.

The 4th of February on the other hand obeyed a thought-out project, planned for several years. Right here in Valencia there were many meetings, near the hippodrome, this hippodrome that I know so well. There we frequently met with young officers—I'm talking about 1978. The first cells existed of what later would become the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement 200.

[...]

Chavez (standing, left) and his MBR-200 comrades

It was the end of the seventies and the eighties passed by in the same way. And within the National Army a force was amassing, growing in the Army. Meanwhile, nearly all the revolutionary political forces dispersed, dissolved, extinguished. And I remembered last night one of Simon Bolivar's phrases, in some document that Bolivar wrote: “the Army is the people that can”. That's how it happened here. This expression of Bolivar has its context, but I think that it was perfectly applicable to the context of Venezuela in the seventies, in the eighties and in the nineties – “the people that couldn't”, “the people that had no way”. That was shown perfectly by the Caracazo, the people couldn't, they didn't have power to influence the situation neither via the fixed, faked, manipulated elections, nor via other ways. The people could not through guerrilla war, the people could not in the factories, the working class could not, the campesinos could not, the students could not, in spite of their immense sacrifice.

The people could not. They kept bashing themselves against the wall, falling, picking themselves up and bashing against the wall again. And then the Bolivarian phrase - “the army is the people that can” - became a reality, and that was shown on the 4th of February, 1992.

But today the phrase has been transformed. We're no longer in 1992. It was the army, “the people that could”, because we are the children of the people that were in the army and we constitute a vanguard movement. It was a vanguard that set out at midnight on that 3rd of February, and that is another of the ideas that Toby Valderrama yesterday touched on in his "A Grain of Corn" column, and I think it’s really timely for the debate that we are having on the Strategic Lines of Political Action, because a vanguard is always needed.

There are those that proclaim anarchist ideas, that deny the need for organization, that deny the role of the vanguard. But in reality, Venezuelan history shows that the people without a vanguard is manipulated. A people without a conscious and committed vanguard tends to get lost in the spaces of the struggle.

The vanguard must be maintained, it must be strengthened. Today the vanguard is the party, it has to be a coherent organisation, with an ideological, political project. The Socialist Party must become a great vanguard. And, I’m going to say as well, the Army. The Army. And when I say the Army, I’m of course also referring to the Navy, the Air Force, the National Guard, and the Militia. The Army has to continue to be a revolutionary vanguard of the people.

Sourced from : Debate Socialista

____________________________________

¹The “Un Grano de Maiz”("A grain of corn") blogsite by Toby Valderrama (Antonio Aponte) takes its name from a quote by 19^th century Cuban independence hero, Jose Marti. Warning revolutionaries against striving for personal glory, Marti wrote: “All the glory in the world fits into a grain of corn”.

The 4th is not the child of the 27th

2011-02-12T18:39:00.002+11:00

This article from the 'Grano de Maiz' blogsite discusses the relationship between the spontaneous mass uprising of February 27, 1989 - known as the Caracazo - and the Chavez-led military rebellion of February 4, 1992.

President Chavez discussed the issues raised by this blog post in his recent speech commemorating the February 4 rebellion. I will translate some excerpts of his speech in subsequent posts.

The 4th is not the child of the 27th, on the contrary, it refutes it

Un grano de maiz, Wednesday January 2, 2011

Translated by Owen Richards

Continuing to comment on the first of the Five Strategic Lines in the document proposed by the PSUV leadership for discussion, it's timely to refer to a paragraph that without doubt influences the rest of the document, determines its vision.

The document says: "after the civic-military rebellions of the 4th of February and the 27th of November 1992, daughters of the popular rebellion of the 27th of February of 1989…"

Consideration of this point is of vital importance for the progress of the revolution, because the positions we take, the ideologies we have, will determine the function of the party – as either a vanguard or a mere electoral machine.

Let's analyse what happened.

The Caracazo, Feb 27, 1989

February 27 was a "popular revolt", without any political aim or organisation. It revealed the failure of a left wing leadership that was defeated, exhausted, and had succumbed to the comfort of the oligarchy's table, or taken refuge in anarchistic positions denying the role of leadership, the role of political and social organization, leaving the masses without a compass, without a vanguard. That formidable explosion did not go beyond being a "jacquerie", a riot, when it could and should have been the seizure of government, the start of the revolutionary road.

By contrast, the 4th of February was an eminently political action, an action of the vanguard aimed at raising the awareness of the people, at leading them. It was a return to being, and leading, a defeat of the renunciation of leadership, a victory over the anarchistic ideology that failed on the 27th of February.

The tank smashing through the doors of Miraflores is symbolic, a clearly political action, seizing power, and its defence.

Tank smashing through the doors of Miraflores Palace, Feb 4 , 1992

So to say, as the document does, that today we analyse the 4th of February as the child of the 27th, is to agree with the anarchistic current - that it's not necessary to organise and politicise the masses, and worse still, that a vanguard is not necessary. On the contrary they combat it because it could become a "church".

It is to endorse this anarchistic petit-bourgeois current, and add obstacles to the further strengthening of the party. If the 27th is the way to go... then what good is the party? It will be at best a "transmission belt". This position obscures the strong need for a vanguard party to lead the people in combat.

It's revolutionary to think that the 4th of February surpasses the 27th's dispersion and lack of leadership. It demonsatrates the need for a vanguard.

A crucial issue thus emerges in the discussion: Is a vanguard necessary? What is the party for?

We think it is [necessary]. Without a vanguard party leading the battle the people won't be able to advance. It is possible to build it without privileges, without it being turned into a church - that is the challenge. To strengthen it we need to defeat the anarchistic ideology that impedes its concretion. Our flaws are firstly ideological; and then organisational.

Hugo Chavez - letter from prison

2011-02-11T16:19:00.014+11:00

Here is a letter from Hugo Chavez just ten days after leading his failed military rebellion against Venezuela's then-president Carlos Andres Perez on February 4, 1992.

According to Richard Gott's book, 'Hugo - The Hugo Chavez Story', Chavez and some other rebel leaders were first detained in the basement of military intelligence headquarters for 17 days before they were transfered to San Carlos military stockade. That would indicate this letter was sent from military HQ, according to its date of February 14.

The letter is sourced from the collection, 'Oculto en mi pecho bravo - cartas de amor y de combate', ('Hidden in my brave heart - letters of love and combat'), 2005.

To his daughter Maria Gabriela, from prison

Translated by Owen Richards

Caracas, February 14, 1992

Maria Gabriela

My love:

Hello, my heart!

I want you to know that day and night I carry you in my heart and in my mind.

I'm so happy that you are well. As always, I am proud to have a daughter like you, pretty, intelligent and brave.

Maria, I'm in good physical health and above all have a tranquil conscience. I did what I had to do, with the hope that things would change, with the Bolivarian hope that there will be a better world for you in the future, a world where there is not so much injustice and such corruption, were children have food, shelter, medicine, toys, schools. All of Venezuela's children.

You are already a young lady so I'm sure you understand me.

The only thing, my baby girl, is that now I will not be very close to you [...] as before. But my heart and my spirit are always there in the "Maisantera"¹ and wherever they [the family] go.

Remember to apply yourself to your studies and to your reading, as well as to art and music. It will cultivate a noble and libertarian spirit that you will carry within.

Likewise with sport, to have "a healthy mind in a healthy body". Keep going to the pool (be very careful).

I entrust the boy² to you. Encourage him to learn to play the cuatro³, to write stories and to draw, and to keep going to swimming and to baseball. But please take care of him.

I must go now, my Maria, with the hope of seeing you soon and with the greatest love from,

Papa

¹ The Chavez family home from 1989-1992.
²Presumably Chavez's son, Huguito.
³ The Venezuelan four-string guitar.

Fundamental and general principles

2011-02-07T16:46:00.003+11:00

Here is the final installment of the 'Declaration of Principles' from the PSUV's Red Book:

Fundamental principles

Translated by Owen Richards

The party holds to the Bolivarian ideal, the contributions of Ezekiel Zamora and Simon Rodriguez, as well as the contributions of struggle and organisation of the Indo-African-American peoples; it takes inspiration from the origins of Christianity, from the theory of liberation; it draws nourishment from scientific socialism and the experiences of its men and women who have fought for the revolution and the construction of socialism.

General principles

The party declares itself as:

* Anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist

* Anti-corruption

* Socialist

* Marxist

* Bolivarian

* Committed to the interests of the working class and the people

* Humanist

* Internationalist

* Patriotic

* Centralist

* Ethical and with revolutionary morality

* Defender of the rights of mother earth

* Defender of gender equality and equity

* Defender of the rights of the disabled

* Defender of participatory and protagonist democracy in society

* Political vanguard of the revolutionary process

* Original and creative

* Defender, driver and promoter of Popular Power

* Promoter of endogenous development

* Defender of equality in the heart of the organisation

* Critical and self-critical

* Based on the principles of democratic centralism and collective leadership

* Disciplined

* Practitioner of internal democracy in the party

The militants of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) must validate, with daily practice, all these principles, holding to Che Guevara's maxim when he said "the revolution is held in the heart to die for, not on the lips to live for", in this way, it will be completely honest and sincere when we say:

Socialist Homeland or death... We will triumph

Building Bolivarian socialism – the only way out

2011-02-06T18:55:00.002+11:00

More from the PSUV’s Libro Rojo - the party’s 2010 party program:

9. Building Bolivarian socialism – the only way out

Translated by Owen Richards

In any society, the private ownership of the means of production determines the relations of work, human relations and all aspects of life. It denies the aims of a humanist, solidarity-based and socialist society. But it's no less certain that the transition at the current stage of humanity demands the careful evaluation of each step, to guarantee at every stage the conscious participation of the majority and the necessary efficiency.

The exploitation of man by man contradicts the sentiments of solidarity and mutilates the links of fraternity. Capitalism wages war on the human condition and on the preservation of the species. The irrational imperative of growth and accumulation provokes the global destruction of ecosystems and threatens to extinguish the sources of life. This catastrophic dynamic is caused by a socio-economic system that dispenses with human needs and acts according to its own logic, compelled towards constant growth in pursuit of profit. In such a frantic race, periodic crises are provoked that the system "resolves" with the massive destruction of human life, material goods and natural resources. Socialism is the only way out that ensures the existence of humanity.

Since the division of society into classes, there has been resistance to oppression and exploitation. Beginning with the victory of capitalism over feudalism and the predominance of the capitalist mode of production at the global level, the social struggles of the nascent industrial workers movement fused with the most advanced thought of its epoch and gave rise to the struggle for socialism based on science and on the deepest sentiments of human beings.

On our continent, Simon Bolivar established the bases of national and social liberation with his libertarian example and his humanist and revolutionary vision, which are now fundamental to the union of our peoples and to social transformation in our time.

Before the crisis of the system and the grave threats that are entailed therein, the contemporary challenge consists in directing action in a way so that the exploited and oppressed masses of Venezuela absorb as much knowledge of history, economics and political theory as possible, so as to ground them in the immense task of responding in an original way, grounded in concrete reality, in the roots of Venezuelan identity, in the cultural particulars, including those of each region and social group, faced with each daily requirement, and each difficulty raised in the transition from capitalism to socialism.

This context opens up the perspective of promoting an international anti-imperialist bloc on a large scale, with the participation of national, provincial and local governments, social movements of different kinds, and political forces of a broad ideological spectrum. It is about uniting in action hundreds of millions of people around the world against imperialism and its wars.

The possibility likewise arises of making a qualitative transformationin the politico-organisational reality of the tens of millions of exploited and oppressed in our America. The party therefore assumes the need to forge tools that both recover and bring together universal revolutionary thought, as the vanguard in an era of immense challenges and great victories. Capitalism is international; the revolution is international; theory and the action it inspires must too be international.

Activity based on the idea of a worldwide anti-imperialist bloc and the revolutionary and socialist convergence of the people of our American will guide the steps of the party, in the certainty that the concretion of these aims will change the balance of forces on the international scale and inaugurate a new historical era.

Finally, we reclaim the building of socialism as the only way out of imperialist capitalism and to achieve the redemption of our people. Venezuela has begun to build socialism. The crisis of imperialism is clearly evident. The party is born to defend the homeland, to take forward the revolution towards its emancipatory goal, as the instrument to take the people and exploited to power, to put itself at the service of the transition from capitalism to socialism, progressively transforming the relations of production, of exchange, and of ownership into a means of production for the liberation of the working class, ending the bourgeoisise's control and monopolization of the means of production, transferring them to the power of the workers, to the communities, and to unite with all the other peoples of the world in the task of burying capitalism and building a new world, in accordance with a free and full humanity. This implies the socialisation of the means of production, the rational distribution of the land and wealth, combating corruption and bureaucratism. It means changing the rentier, single commodity export, and consumerist economic model for a productive and diversified model, aimed at the full satisfaction of human needs.

Socialism is the true way of reclaiming the deeper meaning of democracy, with the maximum development of popular power, as the most developed form of participatory and protagonist democracy, of the participation of the popular masses in the building of a new society, where the power of the organised people legitimates and empowers actions towards a united human society, in loving coexistence and in peace, in the search for and continuance of a world in which justice and social equality prevail as the basic principles for the distribution of wealth and the benefits of society, of ethics and socialist morality as the fundamental axes motivating the self-sacrificing behaviour of the members of society, for the total happiness of being.

Bolivarian Socialism - original and creative

2011-02-04T13:20:00.004+11:00

Part 8 of the PSUV Red Book's 'Declaration of Principles', on the party's particular brand of socialism:

8. Original and creative

Translated by Owen Richards

Following Simon Rodriguez's maxim, "we invent or we err", the Bolivarian socialism for which the party struggles will be original, homegrown, creative and have a deeply collectivist approach to the exercise of power. It will aim to build a superstructure that serves to support the socialist economic model, orienting and directing suitable policies corresponding to our people's sense of identity and history in order to preserve of our unique nature.

The party will strive to educate its militants in the Tree Of Three Roots—the theory and practice of Simon Bolivar, Simon Rodriguez and Ezequiel Zamora—and will critically rescue the historic experiences of socialism, adopting as a guide the theory and practice of revolutionaries and socialists of Latin America and the world, such as Jose Marti, Ernesto Che Guevara, Jose Carlos Mariategui, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Gramsci, Mao Tse-Tung and others who have contributed to the struggle for social transformation, for a world of equity and social justice, in a human experience that has ancient forebears, such as the Amerindian and African American cosmologies, Christianity and liberation theology. It will base itself on the contributions of scientific socialism, of Marxism, which is a philosophy of praxis, a tool for the critical analysis of reality and a guide to revolutionary action.

Simon Bolivar

Bolivarian socialism will respond to creative practice, to the free exercise of the will and yearnings of the Venezuelan people. It will not be a "copy or a tracing", to use the expression of Jose Carlos Mariategui, but a "heroic creation".

Our socialism recognizes the diversity of our origins, and values the Indigenous, European and African roots that gave rise to our great South American nation. It incorporates the doctrine of Simon Bolivar - particularly its anti-imperialist vision and its explanation of the need to unify the nations of Our America; the doctrine of Simon Rodriguez and his struggle for a popular education of liberation; and the doctrine of Ezequiel Zamora and his struggle for social ownership of the land, his confrontation with the oligarchic powers and his programme of social protections. Likewise, it holds civic-military union as one of its fundamental characteristics.

Unity

2011-02-02T13:10:00.003+11:00

Section 7 of the PSUV Red Book's 'Declaration of Principles':

7. Unity

Translated by Owen Richards

The party emerges as an expression of the people's revolutionary will and represents a higher synthesis of all the revolutionary struggles and forces in Venezuela, and of all the aspects of revolutionary and socialist thought. It proclaims its oneness with with the exploited and oppressed working class, and likewise with all the men and women who embrace the Bolivarian and socialist ideal. It is a product of the revolutionary unity of the multifaceted majority, including those of diverse ethnic, ideological and political origins. The party will popularise organic, political, ideological and programmatic unity as the fundamental forms of revolutionary unity.

Oscar Figuera, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV)

The party conceives of unity as a cohesion around collectively-accepted values and principles, which are reflected in the party's program, its statutes, its ideological foundations and its political activity, and which is destined to eradicate the fracturing dynamic of particular interests and anarchy, and to replace them with the common interest and social wellbeing.

The party considers that the most basic unity is the unity of the people. Nevertheless, it will try to form alliances with all the social movements and political organizations of the revolution, within the established limits of our revolutionary principles: the need for a party engine in the battle against injustice and class inequality; a party that respects ideological, ethnic and cultural diversity; a party that permanently and democratically debates ideas about how to make a revolution and build a socialist society; a party that vigilantly attends to the ethical and moral values of its militants.

The defence of the revolution

2011-02-01T18:59:00.001+11:00

6. The defence of the revolution

Translated by Owen Richards

The defence of the Bolivarian revolution implies the defence of national sovereignty, a task that is the fundamental responsibility of the party and the people combining all forms of struggle in preventing imperialism and its allies from carrying out their bellicose, annexationist, devisive, subjugationist and environmentally destructive dynamics.

Internationalism

2011-01-30T21:26:00.002+11:00

From the PSUV program's 'Declaration of Principles':

5. Internationalism

Translated by Owen Richards

The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela (PSUV) must frame its internationalist practice by contributing to the unification of the peoples struggling to establish projects of emancipation and liberation in Latin America, the Caribbean and other continents of the world; in seeking to provide the greatest sum of sovereignty, independence, self determination, well being and happiness possible to its citizens.

The Bolivarian revolution, given its anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist character, will create mechanisms to consolidate alliances with similar social and political movements on the global level, with the aim of achieving a new multi-polar international order.

The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela (PSUV) will promote broadcasting and ideological training spaces for the interchange of socialist experiences with the peoples of the world. The revolutionary Bolivarian government has deepened the humanist interchange of resources with other countries in strategic alliances in the economic, political, social, cultural spheres, etc., - for example: ALBA, Petrosur, Petro-Caribe, Telesur, Banco del Sur, UNASUR, and the project of creating the Organisation Of Latin American And Caribbean Nations - in order to combat and defeat imperialism.

From the bourgeois capitalist state to the socialist state

2011-01-28T17:00:00.002+11:00

The following is a continuation of my translation of the PSUV's "Red Book" (i.e. party program). Here is section 4 from the 'Declaration of Principles'.

4. From the bourgeois capitalist state to the socialist state

Restore power to the people: building popular power

Translated by Owen Richards

The conclusion is clear: "to end to end poverty, it is necessary to give power to the poor" and to build socialism. This power is born in the participation and activism of the people.

The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela must be the motor of the direct participation of the people and its instrument in the construction of socialism. This participation—of workers, campesinos, youth, intellectuals, professionals, artists, housewives, small producers, city and country traders, indigenous people and afro-decendientes [those of African heritage]—must be full and democratic, in the make up and functioning of all of the organs of power, in the elaboration, discussion and resolution of programmes and strategies and in the promotion and election of its leaderships, in conditions of equality, to achieve the collective leadership of the revolutionary process.

To that end, the fundamental task of the party is to raise the revolutionary consciousness of the masses, to organize and educate them in in the struggle for the conquest of power, to raise their level of philosophical, political, ideological, moral and organisational consciousness, in order to achieve their transformation from patrons of representative democracy into patrons of participatory democracy. It means training the people for the exercise of power in such functions as planning and the drawing up of budgets, making decisions, execution and control, guided by socialist values. It also represents, ideologically, upholding Bolivarian socialism as our chief ideal of society, as the political model of the state. Within this framework, the party should be an instrument of struggle for emancipation, a unifying political tool and an organ of political, economic, financial and social control of the whole structure of the government, based on the foundation of a socialist conception of the party.

The party frames its strategic approach towards the construction of popular power in the elaboration, formulation, and the pre- and post- inspection of the implementation of government programmes, with a sense of equity, equality, humanism and following socialist principles, in the process of generating the new hegemony

In building Popular Power, the focus is on territorial organisation according to the New Geometry Of Popular Power. With this focus, the social movements will be strengthened from the grass roots.

The party must aim to give power to the organized and conscious masses, socialising political power through the direct exercise of the power of the people in the search for ethical, social, scientific, artistic and cultural development.

The party, as the instrument of struggle of millions of free men and women, likewise points out the need for centralised action in the great battles already outlined: the battle against poverty, exploitation, corruption, against the degradation of the human being, and against the internal reactionaries and their imperial overlords.

It must be the unifying political mechanism of the great majority, based on the conviction that the people face a constant military threat by the internal and external enemies of the revolution, and in doing so the party in all of its plans assumes the responsibility for defending the homeland, for confronting and defeating imperialism.

To advance towards the socialist society that we want, we must replace the bourgeois capitalist state with a socialist state. The newly outlined state advances toward the planned and organic communal state whose concretion takes place through the dialectical interaction between the old passive and obsolete organising cells, and the new forms of superior organisation like the communes, communal councils, workers' revolutionary councils, students' revolutionary councils, among others.

The party, together with the people, must strengthen the fight against corruption, creating the conditions and mechanisms to combat this cancerous vice in the structures of the bourgeois state, a vice that spreads moral and ethical degradation in institutions and human beings and generates practices that conflict with ethical principles; as a consequence, the party must motivate a constant striving for the revolutionary transformation in the consciousness of social duty, along with the application of legal measures to liquidate impunity, and resolutely punish acts committed against public ethics and morality. As every act of corruption is a counterrevolutionary act, the party will work on the strengthening of revolutionary ethics, which is the nexus between what is said and what is done, between words and deeds.

End capitalism and build socialism

2011-01-26T11:55:00.004+11:00

The following is part 3 of the PSUV Red Book's 'Declaration of Principles'.

3. End capitalism and build socialism to end poverty and establish social justice

From social inclusion to the construction of Bolivarian socialism

Translated by Owen Richards

To fight and end poverty and misery in all its manifestations - abandonment, marginalisation and exclusion - is another priority inseparable from the aforementioned: without ending exploitation, the polarisation or concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the growth of poverty beyond anything ever known before in history, war will be inevitable.

World history, and especially the Venezuelan experience, show that capitalism, in the era of imperialist crisis, in its irrational metamorphoses, in its daily growth, far from ending poverty, demonstrates to the world that to stop imperialism and build socialism - the people taking power and transforming the capitalist mode of production- is the only way out, the only rational, necessary and possible goal at this crossroads of humanity.

The socialist party should be the true guide and unifier of the class and exploited sectors in the battle to definitively liberate the Homeland from extreme poverty, backwardness, and dependence; it should be the driver of social consciousness and of the historic changes, the promoter of social, moral and economic justice. Education in socialist ideological consciousness for all the population will enable the defeat poverty.

The party should commit itself to struggling against injustice and exclusion, to promoting new forms of organization and social policies that improve the standard of living and guarantee the greatest sum of happiness possible. To promote a sense of belonging, respect, equality and dignity, criticism and self criticism, to combat all the threats that confront the revolution by the fourth generation war (developed by the capitalist means of communication), bearing in mind the revolutionary socialist and anti-imperialist character of the process, avoiding cultural imitation, supporting everything that unites exercising social control over governors and public functionaries, especially those who are members of the party.

Mission Robinson adult literacy program

At the moment, we can affirm that during the years of the revolutionary Bolivarian government, the priority has been given to social inclusion, which has required massive, rapid responses; resulting in the birth of the missions as a strategy to flout the bureaucratic and slothful structure of the inherited bourgeois state, using oil profits as a source of financing. we can demonstarte the advances in social inclusion, the social indicators are there in education, health, nutrition and access to fundamental human rights. The eradication of illiteracy, generalisation of the right to education, having the highest level of growth in higher education graduates in Latin America, the increase in the percentage of the population with access to clean water, in the recycling of waste water; the growth in the percentage of the population with access to medical attention and medicine, the reduction of malnutrition and infant mortality, are some of the achievements that have allowed us to reach some of the millennium goals before the set time (2015). Also, we have leapt above the mean level on the Human Development Index (IDH) to a high IDH, and according to a report by CEPAL [the Economic Commission For Latin America And The Caribbean], Venezuela is today the country with the least inequality in Latin America. All this, thanks to the enormous efforts in social inclusion made by the revolutionary Bolivarian government, led by our Comandante Hugo Chavez.

Recognizing the Bolivarian revolution's advances and achievements in social inclusion, it becomes necessary to leap to a new stage of the process: to build Bolivarian socialism. This requires deepening the structural and strategic changes. We need to build as an alternative to the model of capital accumulation - that generator of poverty and social exclusion - a sustainable model. Our Comandante Hugo Chavez has called it Bolivarian socialism, based on the grand outlines and principles of socialism applied to the concrete historical and cultural reality of today's Venezuela, a socialism that must, above all, be built with the participation and active leadership of the people.

The Bolivarian revolution recognizes the historic role that women have played throughout our history in general, and in particular in the revolutionary process, and for that reason promotes public policies that guarantee gender equity. The party rejects any kind of discrimination towards women and does not permit their use as sexual objects or commodities.

Hugo Chavez - Letter from Yare prison, 1993

2011-01-25T15:41:00.005+11:00

Here is one of Hugo Chavez' letters from Yare Prison, published in Casa Editora Abril's 'Oculto en mi pecho bravo - cartas de amor y de combate', ('Hidden in my brave heart - letters of love and combat'), 2005.

I will return to translating the PSUV Red Book soon.

To his daughter Rosa Virginia, from prison

Translated by Owen Richards

Yare prison, 14 November, 1993.

Rosa Virginia, dear daughter:

Once again they have prevented me from seeing you, my love. But just as I carry you in every beat of my heart, I sense you even in my dreams. And at the same time, I am certain that I am in your breast and in each beat of your heart, in your every tender springtime step.

Here in these small spaces that I now know, I sense the sweetness of your vision and I hear your crystalline laughter penetrating my interior worlds, strengthening me in this tireless advance, in this struggle that has always had the tinge of children without toys and without schools.

Do not dismay, dear Rosa. I need you strong and I know that you are.

Exercise your will and dedicate yourself with great care to your education, to your preparation for the intense life that you will lead.

Know that I feel very proud of you and that each day I love you more, as I love my people and my struggle.

An enormous hug, my love, from Papa.

Hugo

P.s. Read, Rosa, read…

Crisis of global capitalism

2011-01-23T23:09:00.001+11:00

[Section 2 of the PSUV's 'Declaration of Principles', from the Libro Rojo.]

Translated by Owen Richards

2. Crisis of global capitalism

Capitalist imperialism is formed, developed and realized through its contradictions, of which the most basic are between the social relations of production (legal forms of property) and the development of the material forces of labour (science and technology); the increasingly social forms of production and the individual private capitalist appropriation; the workers and the other exploited and oppressed social sectors and the bourgeoisie, the oligarchy and imperialism; imperialism and its super transnational monopoly corporations and the nation states and their independence and sovereignty; the extreme rationalisation of the units of production (reengineering and quality control) with the growing anarchy of production and society.

Most recently, during the hegemonic neoliberal phase of imperialist capitalism, these contradictions have sharpened to an extreme level.

This situation occurs, paradoxically, at a time in which we witness the greatest scientific and technological revolution that humanity has known and that no previous society could have imagined in such things as the discovery of the human genome, developments in artificial intelligence, information and communication technologies and the achievements in biotechnologies, to mention just some of the most important scientific and technological advances today, which have created a material basis to ascend to a superior social order but which, on the contrary, has only served to increase inequality and injustice. The consequence is an exceptional level of poverty that affects all the peoples of the world.

The system has had to become everyday more parasitic and pillaging and this is expressed in the growing contradiction between the preponderance of money and the market (exchange value) and the production of goods and services to meet real needs (use value), which increasingly means less possibility of satisfying these needs. This contradiction explains the tendency towards financial crises such as that which caused the latest crisis of capitalist imperialism, which just like all the crises of capitalism always ends up with a deeper exploitation of labour power, deterioration of working conditions and greater suffering for the the world's exploited peoples.

The voracious appetite of imperialism does not just affect humanity. It also affects nature. The irrational exploitation of nature by the big monopoly corporations has taken the planet and all its life forms to the brink of collapse. The reduction of the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, climate change and global warming, the contamination of waters and oceans, deforestation, are all symptoms of the approaching danger and the acceleration towards disaster.

This obviously unsustainable, dire situation has led to the establishment of mechanisms of absolute bourgeois ideological control, those which Marx so strongly denounced, as instruments to obscure the degradation of life and to try to legitimise capitalist imperialism, by debasing social consciousness through the use and exploitation of the communication networks based on the information and communications technologies, which have imposed a crazy level of alienation of social consciousness across the globe.

We witness the growing control of the dictatorship of the owners of the massive means of ideological diffusion that have greatly contributed to the debasement of social consciousness and the individualist paralysis of society, through their identification of human rationality with commercial rationality and the exacerbation of egoistic and possessive individualism in the context of an exaggerated commodity consumerism. The consequence is a social subject that constantly loses its spirituality, sensitivity, life purpose and sense of social belonging and that sinks in its deep instability.

The consequence of these processes is an extreme sharpening of the polarising character of capitalism: accumulation of wealth, property, production and privileges at one pole, and the concentration of misery, arduous labour, slavery, ignorance, brutalization and the moral degradation of the workers and the peoples of the world at the other. Behind this process develops the tendency that strives toward the elimination of the peripheral nation state and its sovereignty and the superiority of the hegemonic nation state, with the United States and its transnational organisations planning to re-colonise the planet under their control, with the strategy of the struggle against terrorism and narco-trafficking, within a process of a reordering in the struggle for world hegemony.

These are some of the current characteristics of capitalism's functioning that demonstrate the the sharpening of its contradictions and raise the urgent need for socialist revolution as the condition for the salvation of human life and the planet.

The imperialist threat

2011-01-22T14:45:00.002+11:00

[The following is Section 1 of the 'Declaration of Principles' from the PSUV's 'Libro Rojo' - Red Book]

Translated by Owen Richards

1. The imperialist threat

At the beginning of the 21st century humanity entered into the most dangerous crossroads of its history. Capitalism in the imperialist phase had reached its limits and has shown itself—with its policies of neoliberal development and its model of media influence—as the main enemy of humanity. After successive paliative postponements of a structural crisis that corrodes the foundations of the system from decades ago, the planet's dominant socio economic mechanism is fettered and threatens to explode.

The crisis of this irrational mode of production is, with its uncontrolled generation of refuse and waste, exploitation of nations, peoples, classes, and individuals and the destruction of nature, is based on the competition between the imperialist centres of the world economy in a cruel struggle for markets, and the ecological crisis that threatens not only humanity, but in truth all life on the planet. Driven by the logic of competition, and also by the need to find profitable ways of investing immense masses of excess capital (especially in advanced technologies and the war industries); and also by the imperative to destroy surplus commodities in order to restructure the system and restart the economic cycle, imperialism drags the world toward war and planetary destruction.

However, with the current level of scientific and technological development, the war— in contrast to the two global conflagrations that occurred during the 20th century—would not be limited to the destruction of human life, culture and goods so as to permit them to be produced once more and sold: it would destroy all forms of life on earth.

The atrocities committed by the United States and the lesser powers, as in the invasion of Iraq, are only the ominous prologue to what the awaits humanity if it is not able to stop its deadly dynamic. To stop imperialism, to impede the technological and media wars, are the most transcendental priorities of the peoples.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the nineties of the 20th century, the floodgates holding back capital from mitigating its crisis burst open, pouring out on the dependent nations and its workers, campesinos and other social sectors. The price of the capitalist crisis in the central countries is the dizzying growth of misery in the countries of the periphery. An unprecedented concentration of wealth in the hands of a few results in degradation, suffering, hunger and death for the immense majority of humanity, including, increasingly, the peoples of the imperialist countries.

This flood of poverty is the other aspect of the crisis that threatens life on earth. In the face of a growing inability to rule through the alliances and institutions with which it maintained it's power during the 20th century, imperialism now appeals to the desperate needs of millions of human beings in order to throw them once more against each other in fratricidal wars and with no other possible outcome than destruction, degradation and death on a scale never seen before.

The US Navy's 'Fourth Fleet'

With the emergence of the Bolivarian revolution under the leadership of Comandante Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, an awakening of the social movements begins coinciding with the advance of the processes of emancipation in Latin America and the Caribbean. The peoples rise up and unfurl the flags of sovereignty and deepen the anti-imperialist struggle; progressive governments continue emerging like that of Lula in Brazil, Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, the Frente Amplio takes power and consolidates in Uruguay with the triumph of Pepe Mujica, the Lugo government arises in Paraguay, the Sandinistas, with Daniel Ortega up front, retake and hold power in Nicaragua, the government of Honduras with President Zelaya joins ALBA, the Frente Farabundo Marti wins in El Salvador, and ALBA arrives in the Carribean with the incorporation of Dominica, San Vicente and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda; these advances, with the presence of Fidel's Cuba and the leadership of Chavez provoke a change in the correlation of forces in the continent giving hope to the poor of Latin America and the world.

Today, with the advance of the emancipatory forces of the continent, the empire reacts, unleashing a counter-offensive with the aim of reinforcing its strategy of domination, expansionism, division and destruction, provoking violence, kidnapping, narco-trafficking, paramilitarism and violation of the principle of the people's sovereignty and self determination. Thus we witness the overthrow of democracy in Honduras and the toppling of president Zelaya; the presence of the Fourth Fleet of the U.S. navy in Latin American waters, the threat of incursion into the interior of the continent via its rivers; and the expansion of the military bases in Colombia, Panama and the Antilles. While the people go forward building Latin American and Caribbean unity, the empire tries to stop their advance, using its military presence in Colombia. The violation of sovereignty of the sister Republic of Ecuador is registered there; the constant provocations from Colombia towards Venezuela with the aim of justifying armed intervention in our country, such as the presence of paramilitaries active in Venezuela, assassination of national guards on the border, the incursions into Venezuelan Territory by members of the Colombian political police (DAS) and the violation of air space by US planes coming from military bases in the Antilles.

Antecedents of Bolivarian Socialism

2011-01-20T14:47:00.002+11:00

[This is the second and final section of the 'Introduction' to the PSUV's 'Libro Rojo']

Antecedents of Bolivarian Socialism

Translated by Owen Richards

The Caracazo (1989) and the military rebellion of the 4th of February, 1992

The collapse of the Washington consensus and the failure of neo-liberalism brings to light and obliges a revision of its true political face: the old liberal bourgeois democratic model based on representative and fundamentally political democracy, where the right to elect, to be elected and to vote are sufficient. In the name of these "freedoms", in the name of this formal democracy, the process of capital accumulation was assured, favouring the few amidst growing poverty, social exclusion and an enormous cost on account of the destruction of nature.

Capitalist expansion demands the imposition of a free-market and in consequence the dismantling of the National State, obliging our countries to pay the so called external debt, condemning our people to exploitation, to hunger and to misery. Seeking this objective they imposed on us the recipe book of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Our people were to suffer the impact of the privatisations of state enterprises, labour deregularisation, the elimination of subsidies, the liberation of prices and interest rates, substantial increases in the cost of public services, the loss of social security gains, the reduction of social investment, among others. The application of these measures affected the conditions of life of the great majority, generalising the discontent and provoking the reaction of the people. The people lost their confidence in governments, in parties, and in all institutions; the despairing people took it upon themselves to exercise justice by their own hands.

In Venezuela this phenomenon was definitively expressed on the 27th of February, 1989; the historic event known as the Caracazo. The uprising of the people began in the city of Guarenas (Miranda State) and from there spread to Caracas and to the rest of the cities of the nation. The popular masses, without any direction, without identified leaders, poured out on to the streets. The people in the streets sought justice.

The Caracazo

The government reacted by protecting the interests of the oligarchy and the elites and ordered the National Armed Forces and police to crack down on the indignant people. This produced one of the most bloody acts known in our history, the people were massacred; no one knew the number of victims; it was necessary to bury many of the dead without identification in mass graves sadly known as "The Stench".

The Caracazo, as an historic event, was a crack in the consciousness of all sectors of Venezuelan society, including the National Armed Forces with the consequent reaction of the young officers, who refused to participate in this crime against the people. This accelerated the process of discontent that already existed within the FAN [National Armed Forces] that was expressed through the organisation of a movement of the patriotic sectors. This movement, led by Comandante Hugo Chavez, took up arms in favour of the people in the insurrection of the 4th of February, 1992.

The people immediately and fully identified with Comandante Chavez who, imprisoned and not having reached "for now" the planned objectives, as he himself revealed to the nation, kept hope alive with the prediction that there would come new moments to advance towards the Homeland.

Hugo Chavez on national television after his failed coup attempt of 1992.

Comandante Hugo Chavez and a group of officials and patriotic soldiers revealed to the people their identity, their pride, their hope and the people stayed in the streets tirelessly pressing to achieve the release of their Comandante from the "prison of dignity" and from there to the 1998 electoral victory that took him to the presidency of the Republic and the summoning of a National Constituent Assembly that resulted in the Constitution of 1999. There is contained the project of change and the consciousness of the people that has irreversibly ensured that the revolution that we live through today, led by Comandante Chavez, advances towards Bolivarian socialism. The United Socialist Party Of Venezuela (PSUV), in the framework of the bicentennial era that has begun, assumes as vanguard the commitment of leading the struggles to come, towards definitive liberty, independence, sovereignty and social justice for our people, under the following principles:

[...]

Red book—Fundamental documents

2011-01-19T22:48:00.006+11:00

[A reader has alerted me to a problem with submitting comments. If you are having this problem please email your comment to me so I can add it myself. I will try to sort out the issue in the meantime. The following is from the introduction to the PSUV's Libro Rojo (i.e., 'Red Book'). It was issued last year and is available on the PSUV website (http://www.psuv.org.ve/temas/biblioteca/libro-rojo/). I will translate more of this in subsequent posts.]

Red Book - Fundamental Documents

Translated by Owen Richards

The First Extraordinary Congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) approves the Declaration of Principles, the Statutes [constitution] and the Programmatic Foundations of the Party, in the framework of the bicentennial era.

The First Extraordinary Congress of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), completes this important phase with the approval of the documents that formally give birth to the socialist party: the Declaration of Principles, the Statutes and the Programmatic Foundations of the Party. This historic event takes place in the context of the development of a revolutionary process whose protagonist is the people, with Comandante President Hugo Chavez at its head, and that has as its aim of providing continuity to the emancipatory heritage initiated 200 years ago by our Liberators. Today as yesterday, all socialist militants, all Venezuelans who love this homeland, have the obligation to fight for liberty, for sovereignty, for independence and social justice for the wellbeing of our peoples.

Two-hundred years after the start of the process of a still-unfinished emancipation, we are obliged to reclaim the struggles developed by our Liberators, for such men and women of our peoples as shed their blood and gave their lives and for the Homeland. Yesterday our peoples confronted the Spanish empire, today we are confronting the U.S. empire with the same aims: liberty, independence, sovereignty and social justice.

2010 to 2013: Bicentennial era

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), as the expression of the people's unity, must assume the role of vanguard in the coming struggles, in the framework of the bicentennial era that has begun, until the definitive independence of our peoples has been achieved, in terms that, in agreement with history, were raised by the leader of the revolution, Commandant Hugo Chavez Frias: 2010 to 2013. On the bicentenary of the death of the Liberator Simon Bolivar, our Homeland should not just be definitively free, independent and sovereign, but also must have consolidated Bolivarian socialism with the construction of a society where social justice and equality, solidarity and love reign. Liberty cannot walk alone, she is obliged to guarantee justice, as both are inseparable sisters. As Grand Marshall Jose Antonio de Sucre said:

"When America was at war to achieve liberty, it understood that it would also have to achieve justice… Liberty and justice are inseparable sisters (and), and if we don't achieve justice, the war of independence will not have made sense."

Government, consciousness, and practice

2011-01-18T17:13:00.002+11:00

By Antonio Aponte

Translated by Owen Richards

Arriving in government is indispensable for a revolution, because only from there can it socialise the revolutionary spirituality, radiate it across society, place it in the centre of the struggle for hegemony, for leadership.

The revolutionary government is the command centre in the battle for the substitution of consciousness. As such, the spirituality that radiates from the government, will guide, will determine the meaning of partial actions. In other words, the way, the speed, the the rhythm of the central battle of the revolution, which is the replacement of the capitalist egoistic consciousness, will be determined by the spirituality that the government reflects on society.

Nevertheless, in the government, a ferocious ideological and class struggle takes place in the heart of the revolution, and this ideological struggle reveals itself in the practice of the government: it is its reflection and is itself reflected in it. The dominant ideology in the government will be the dominant ideology in the practice of the government.

This phenomenon was clearly seen in the Revolution of Independence: [Simon] Bolivar was in power, but the ideas that he embodied were not dominant, and so he was unable to impose the liberation of the slaves, that was a demand that would have marked the character of that revolution. Despite such effort and such battle by the dispossessed and their leaders, in the end the ideology and practice of the oligarchy was dominant, and the Liberator ended his days in Santa Marta thinking that he had ploughed the sea.

Our revolution lives intensely through this situation of confrontation, taking place at all levels, from the individual level within ourselves, all the way up to the highest levels of leadership.

In this situation, the question arises: What should revolutionaries do, what should be their practice?

Revolutionary practice will be that which underpins and is itself underpinned by revolutionary theory, that which contributes to strengthening the revolutionary option. This is, that practice which accompanies the rhythm, the speed, the limits proposed by Comandante Chavez, and within these limits strengthens the Consciousness Of Social Duty, the integration of society as the essence of socialism, and the social property of the means of production administered by the state as a cornerstone of this consciousness.

Revolutionary practice should contribute to making ideology, the revolutionary spirituality hegemonic, entwining itself with, mutually influencing, enriching and being enriched by theory. It must demonstrate through results, in the first place, that it results in support for the revolution, forms revolutionary militants, new men, new human relations, and that this militant support is based on the understanding of belonging to a sublime cause: the defence of Humanity, of the Homeland. With this sentiment rooted in the soul we will be invincible.

Our revolution has reached a point where one can measure the effectiveness of the different ideological proposals by their results.

http://ungranodemaiz.blogspot.com/

Socialist industrialisation

2011-01-17T18:18:00.000+11:00

By Victor Alvarez Rodriguez

Translated by Owen Richards

Socialist industrialisation is a planned process of rapid growth and development of productive capacities and dedicated technologies towards transforming raw materials into basic inputs, intermediate goods and products of final consumption, with the aim of satisfying the growing demands and needs of the national productive apparatus and of the population.

It is the engine driving the transformation of the rentier economy—in which almost everything is imported and little is produced—toward an independent and sovereign new economy. It's the only possible strategy to change the primary export model that the major industrialised powers imposed on us, condemning us to be exporters of oil and raw materials, into a new model of production able to efficiently replace imports, diversify exports and, in this way, to save and generate new sources of foreign exchange that makes us less dependent on oil revenues.

Socialist industrialization is a fundamental component of an economic policy designed to advance towards the achievement of the goals of food and productive security and sovereignty. It's the best way of creating genuinely useful jobs, whose remuneration has as its counterpart the production of an abundant supply of goods and services destined to meet the basic and essential needs of the working people, without upsetting the balance that should prevail between supply and demand and which helps stabilise prices. Furthermore, to meet domestic demand with domestic production will avoid exchange rate settings—which push up the import components and rebound on cost structure—exceeding inflationary pressures. This therefore requires the intelligent management of macroeconomic and microeconomic policy; i.e., setting the exchange rate to express the true productivity of the non-oil economy; a tax and tariff policy that discourages imports and encourages domestic production; and monetary and financial incentives for productive investment.

And, most importantly, socialist industrialisation is based on new forms of social property that liberate the worker from the exploitation of capital.

http://www.aporrea.org/ideologia/a115803.html

The challenges of 2011

2011-01-15T22:25:00.000+11:00

By Rodolfo Sanz, Saturday, 15th of January, 2011

Translation by Owen Richards

The year just begun is one of the most difficult of the process of change initiated in 1999. The year before a huge election, it will put the political consciousness of the majority of Venezuelans to the test. Some challenges will appear on the horizon over the next few months that will be dialectically connected to the most important events of 2012. Here are some of them:

Economically, the main challenges are: One, to recover the path of economic growth. The indicators allow for optimism. Another, to reduce and control inflation—which is the worst tax the poor can pay and reduces their capacity of consumption—turning all efforts toward combating poverty. To reach greater levels of economic efficiency and effectiveness in state activities is also crucial this year—the superiority of the socialist state over the capitalist private sector must be demonstrated in all spheres of the economic process.

In the social sphere, to continue the process of poverty reduction, which means strengthening the social missions, starting with the production of a poverty map that will enable us to attack poverty directly in its most obvious hiding places. At the same time, it is necessary to complete the work of social inclusion begun in the education missions, providing permanent employment to all new graduates in their professions.

Reaching the proposed goals in the area of housing appears as an unavoidable challenge, above all as this problem has been taken on directly by President Hugo Chavez. Great determination, courage, and a sense of urgency will be required to reach these goals.

Politically, there are several challenges. The first is turning the PSUV into a political tool for building socialism. The PSUV should not just be an electoral machine, but the political vanguard of society, able to focus the people's social action towards the big goals of the revolution. The second has to do with the construction of a large, inclusive Patriotic Pole, in which elements and sectors can converge, including those that don't identify with socialism, but with a clear national identity, those with an unquestionable democratic profile and all lovers of progress and social peace. The third challenge in this field involves defeating the destabilising strategy led by the opposition forces from within the National Assembly, supported by their external allies. Popular power plays a decisive role in this task, providing critical support for the parliamentary politics of the Bolivarian revolution.

The forces for change have built up enough power to tackle these challenges, some of which will continue to be around for the next few years. This year it becomes necessary to unleash all this power, understood as the capacity for self-transformation of the revolutionary protagonists and the transformation of the multiple determinations of reality.

In 2011 and 2012 we will witness the end of a cycle of the Bolivarian revolution. Hence, events of these two years will be united by a dialectical, causal link. Hence the importance of understanding—without falling into determinism—that to a certain extent what happens in 2012 will depend on what we are able to do in 2011. There is no time to lose.

http://diarioveaonline.com/

PSUV: Six strategic lines

2011-01-14T15:54:00.001+11:00

Translation by Owen Richards

The following is an abridgement of an article from http://www.inass.gob.ve/ providing an outline of the six "strategic lines" discussed this month by the national leadership of the Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) for 2011 to 2012.

Prensa YVKE—Commander Hugo Chavez, president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), held a meeting last Saturday with the National Directorate of the party at Miraflores Palace to debate the strategic lines of political action for 2011 to 2012.

[...]

He said the document contains ideas for tackling the tasks of 2011 and 2012, in regard to the political continuity of the Bolivarian revolution.

"The next two years will be crucial for the Bolivarian revolution. So it must be taken up by the militants and the leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)", Chavez said, convoking the great socialist meeting for January 3 and 4, where six great strategic "lines of political action" will be discussed.

[…]

1. On capitalist culture and socialist militancy

The leader of the Bolivarian revolution said that the first, and the most central of the document, is the transition from the capitalist political culture to a socialist militancy.

"This first line is the essence of the battle. Changing customs and culture. It's the greatest of all the challenges to a revolution. It must be developed starting with conscience and values. Here we must make a really big effort. This capitalist culture of egoism, of individualism. This must be combated and removed from our values", he said.

2. Convert the PSUV machinery into a movement-party, that is to say, to the daily service of the people. To satisfy human needs.

The second line will be to convert the machinery of the PSUV into a movement-party, at the service of the popular struggles to satisfy human needs, and not only to contest elections.

"This is very important becausethe MVR (Fifth Republican Movement) ended up an electoral machine. It is a dangerous diversion, because the MVR estranged itself from the daily struggles of the people. We cannot allow this to happen with the PSUV. We must attack this right away", he emphasized.

3. Convert the party into a powerful and permanent medium of propaganda and communication

Chavez emphasized that the third line is to convert the party into a powerful means of propaganda and communication, which includes the use of non-traditional means of dissemination.

As such, he raised the distribution of flyers with accurate information, communicating by word of mouth in public places and, for example, that the Official Gazette be turned into a free nationally-distributed newspaper. He pointed out that this official document contains information on the national interest that is not read daily by the people.

"This is fundamental. Sometimes I authorise some housing resources and nobody knows. Sometimes things come out in the Official Gazette and nobody knows. We should turn this Official Gazette into a newspaper. When they recover lands in Apure, the party has to publicise it", he said.

He explained that it is necessary for the party, together with the national government, to prepare the population—through propaganda and communication— "before something's going to happen. This is to prepare opinion. Because sometimes we leave this field of battle all alone. And the enemy attacks it and we don't respond. As if it's not important."

4. Pass from the inertia of the machinery to lead the people's struggle

The fourth line, according to Chavez, deals with passing from the inertia of the machinery to deal with the struggle of the people, an aspect closely linked to the second strategic point.

"It's the same self-critical wave which combines a series of proposals that will see soon", he said.

5. Building the great Patriotic Pole, an audacious policy of reunification

The fifth line is the building of the great Patriotic Pole, as an audacious policy of reunification and repolarisation.

On this topic, Chavez put out a call to the patriotic and nationalist currents and movements to join together in a great patriotic poll.

"I'm calling on all currents and movements. The more critical the better. The call goes out to all sectors of the national life. Without sectarianism. We shall cover ourselves with humility. I say this to all party militants. The party cannot adopt an authoritarian posture. This party is an open system of unification and empowerment. Here there are two paths: this one that we're going down (socialism), or to turn back, which would be a catastrophe that takes us back to the past", he warned.

6. The PSUV to hit the streets, go on the charge, to victory

The sixth and final line of the document of political action calls on the PSUV to hit the streets, "which is like a call to battle".

Chavez said that it's possible that during the debate other positions will surface, because the document is a first draft, prepared with a deep revolutionary self-criticism.

[…]

Another document will be added to these lines of action to consolidate the official launch of the second strategic map of the Bolivarian revolution.

"We're working on it, it has a lot to do with these (political action lines). But it includes the strategic field more broadly , both national and international, and covers the short, medium and long term. Strategic map; tactical window", he said.

[...]

Rentier Consciousness

2011-01-13T14:57:00.001+11:00

By Antonio Aponte

Translation by Owen Richards

In Venezuela, an oil rent nation, the revolution has many very unique characteristics. Here, exploitation acquires a quality more of plunder than the appropriation of others' labour. That is to say, the bourgeoisie, the privileged class, arises and sustains itself by thriving on rent, more than it does by sucking workers' blood. So the dispute is more about rent than liberation from the exploitation of work.

Nevertheless, the capitalist system leaves its mark of alienation on society. We are an alienated society, or more to the point, a society deformed by alienation. Che [Guevara] described our countries like this:

"A dwarf with an enormous head and a bloated chest is undeveloped. Insofar as his weak legs and his short arms don't match the rest of his anatomy, he's the product of an abnormality that has distorted his development."

It is true economically as well as spiritually.

It explains our deformations: crumbling neighbourhoods with DirecTV antenors; or beggars with mobile phones; workers that seek dividends in bankrupt companies. We're able to give our lives to save a president, but not to suffer half an hour without electricity. And what's enough to abandon any cause… abundant dollars and abundant consumption.

Our people, difficult to organise and difficult to tame, knows as much about baseball as the traitorous smell of a political opportunist. It can elect an angel, and likewise support the devil. It can liberate a continent and yet expel its Liberator. A society fit for heroism, as in April [2002], and also for the foolish egoism that puts a stop to the revolutionary enterprise.

Thus, perfect conditions for revolution exist in this country. It's social disorder, it's irreverence, has impeded dominion from fully establishing itself, from creating the climate of obedience and self submission of the developed countries. Here the system of domination has always been imperfect.

These special conditions require special political study, a high level of creativity, but also a high level of learning from universal experience, which is the only way to combat the natural tendency to theoretical and practical improvisation, tentativeness, unconscious experimentation and a waste of physical and mental energy.

A strong bond with the leader and a strong vanguard are indispensible. A vanguard, like disciples, who by their example and activity struggle against the selfish behaviour of oil capitalism and provide the spiritual sense of social integration and the economic reforms that the revolution undertakes.

The exemple of social integration, of Consciousness of Social Duty, is essential. To impress upon the rent-minded masses the need to integrate into society. And this is only possible with a socialism that firmly and convincingly shows us a new vision of an integrated society, where the fate of one depends upon the fate of all.

PSUV: National Directorate discusses strategic lines for 2011 and 2012

2011-01-13T06:30:00.000+11:00

Translation by Owen Richards

Prensa PSUV, 10 January, 11/1/2011 — The National Directorate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) will meet Tuesday with President Hugo Chavez to finalise the details of a document containing the strategic and tactical lines that will set the activity of the party for 2011 and 2012.

It will be the third meeting with the party’s president to discuss the document. The document will generate debate in the great socialist assembly that groups the best cadres of the organisation during a day of discussions in late January.

“Of course there are important objectives like the socialist democracy and of course the issue looming on the horizon - the 2012 presidential elections to ratify President Chavez as president reelect", said Rodrigo Cabezas, member of the National Directorate of the PSUV.

Rodrigo Cabezas

The document includes the position that no minister of the national executive is to occupy any of the vice presidencies of the organisation. It also contains positions on the regional and local spheres.

“We hope that after these discussions and with the document finalised, to convoke the Socialist Assembly with the leading party cadres, an event that will be held in Caracas but does not yet have a date", stated Cabezas, also Latin American [Parliament] president.