New call to voluntary labour

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

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.

Communes in Caracas

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

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.

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

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

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]

We will be with Chavez

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.

How much socialism?

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'

Building Bolivarian socialism – the only way out

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

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.

End capitalism and build socialism

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.

Socialist industrialisation

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