On November 21 the congress of the PSUV is scheduled to begin. While the reformist bureaucracy is hoping to have a congress that passes without too much opposition, around the country the left is standing candidates for delegates, among these the Marxists. The congress offers an opportunity to take the ideas of revolutionary socialism to a wider layer of the party ranks. What the PSUV needs to do is adopt a genuinely revolutionary programme to put an end to capitalism, landlordism and imperialism in Venezuela.
Since the publication of our last article (Venezuela: PSUV congress to be held in November), announcing the holding of the PSUV National Congress which is due to begin on November 21, several important events have taken place in the party. At the moment of writing, the candidates in each municipality are campaigning to win the support of the 2.5 million “patrulleros”, i.e. active PSUV members who are entitled to vote in the delegate elections next Sunday.
The PSUV congress is taking place in the context of the ongoing Venezuelan revolution and will therefore provide a new opportunity for the Bolivarian masses to express their deep-felt desire for radical change and the adoption of tough measures against the local bourgeoisie and imperialism.
Rank and file struggle for internal democracy
As we mentioned in our previous article, the method of electing the delegates for the congress, where each regional vice-president of the party chose the candidates, had given rise to serious concerns among the left-wing layers of the party. These concerns were confirmed when the list of candidates was announced. In some regions, branches complained that the candidates they had put forward were not on the list. In Bolívar State, this was the case with well-known left-wingers such as Yasmin Chaurán from the Venalum factory and José Meléndez from the SIDOR steelworks. Both had the support of more than 10 branches each, but were nonetheless excluded from the electoral list.
In Caracas the elected branch secretaries of the party branches met on October 23 to revise what they regarded as “undemocratic” norms in the electoral process. After a long and somewhat heated debate they voted to remove the Electoral Commission designated by the regional vice-president in charge of supervising the elections. The problem was that this Electoral Commission had been nominated from the top and included candidates for the elections that were themselves supposed to supervise them! The assembly elected five new representatives from the rank and file and the regional PSUV organizer Freddy Bernal was forced to accept this decision and restructure the commission accordingly.
According to a report on Venezuelanalysis (Venezuela: Disputes in Process of Delegate Nominations to PSUV Congress), other similar incidents occurred throughout Venezuela:
“In Carabobo state, reports surfaced of problems with the nominations process via the PSUV’s website, such as the ‘cloning’ of patrols, which involved the usurpation of identity card numbers of those responsible for registering the nominations and making false nominations, thereby disabling the card number of the patrol representative.
“Also some of the patrols were not registered on the website, despite going through the proper process of submitting the paperwork to the regional leadership bodies in order to register, and were therefore unable to nominate their candidates.
“During his speech Chavez criticised the ‘irregularities’ that occurred in some states as well as what he described as ‘communicational problems’ within the party. ‘It’s necessary to make sure that the information arrives to everybody,’ he said.”
Chávez: Tendencies are a natural phenomena
President Chávez said in his weekly talk show Aló Presidente on Sunday, October 25th, that 8000 members of the PSUV had been selected as candidates for the forthcoming elections.
On the question of tendencies within the party, Chavez stated, “they are natural and it is necessary to allow their expression within the party and to discuss ideas and then, with much discipline, accept the resulting strategic decisions.”
“It is valid that there should be different points of view, but within the framework of the socialist project. What we seek is that such disputes do not turn into a knife fight or a confrontation, this is what I am asking of everyone and I think the party is maturing in that sense,” he added.
This is an extremely important statement which should be seized with both hands by the left-wing sections of the PSUV. The fact that Chávez opens up for a wide-ranging discussion is crucial because it gives the revolutionaries an opportunity to put forward their views inside the party and fight for the majority.
In the words of Lenin, our task is to “patiently explain” the ideas of revolutionary Marxism in a language that can connect with the advanced layers in the vanguard of the party who are seeking a way out of the present impasse.
The PSUV left wing needs to get organized
The CMR – Venezuelan section of the International Marxist Tendency – is intervening with a modest but nevertheless important force in the party. Throughout the country CMR comrades are standing as candidates in Sunday's delegate elections. Here are just a few examples. In Bolívar State, in the municipality of Caroní, Puerto Ordaz, two workers from SIDOR, José López and Augusto Monasterios, are campaigning on a Marxist programme. In Táchira State, we have Freddy Acevedo, a well-known regional leader of the party, who is standing as candidate in the municipality of Independencia. In Guaicaipuro, Miranda State, Euler Calzadilla who is an activist of the PSUV Youth, is standing.
In some areas there have been significant moves to form broader alliances of the left wing. This is for example the case in Caroní, Guayana, where fourteen left-wing delegates have formed a joint slate and are presenting a programme with points of common agreement. This shows the way forward. The main reason why the right-wing bureaucracy has been able to largely dominate the party is that they are well-organized whereas the left is unorganized.
The CMR document, Por un PSUV de la clase obrera y el pueblo: Fortalecer el PSUV, reimpulsarlo con el Marxismo. Tomar el poder en fábricas, comunidades y el campo para construir el Estado obrero y comunal is a very useful tool in this respect. It is a proposal that can be discussed in wider circles among the left-wing members of the PSUV who are seeking an alternative to the right wing. Already the document has found an important echo among candidates who are using it as their political platform in the elections.
On Sunday the elections will take place all over the country. The bureaucracy has carried out painstaking work to promote their candidates, many of them connected with the governors and mayors. But the left wing will also have a possibility to win at least a part of the 772 delegates. However, it is important to stress that the struggle does not end on Sunday. The left-wing alliances on a regional level should be continued and extended. They should be formed with a permanent and democratic structure which allows a joint struggle on an agreed programme of demands. This should then be extended to a national level.
Acording to Aristóbulo Istúriz, Vice-president for the PSUV North-Eastern region, the congress will take place “in the whole country simultaneously”. He added that the
"Delegates must take up the proposals of the Patrols then travel to Caracas on Thursday and Friday and Sunday, and when participating in the plenary sessions, and in the workshops on each subject, each delegate will be able to state the proposals and the position of the Patrol in their municipality.”
Again, the rank and file should seize this with both hands. The branches must assure that this is put into practice and demand that assemblies are held to prepare every plenary session and thus guarantee that the rank and file will have a real say in the issues being discussed.
In spite of the bureaucratic manoeuvres and “irregularities” in the electoral process, the deep discontent with the lack of decisive action on the part of the revolution, will find its reflection in the congress. The masses will push for a programme of action that can complete the Socialist Revolution in Venezuela. They have had enough of endless speeches, parades and elections without any decisive action being taken to defeat the counter-revolution and move towards Socialism. This remains the main contradiction of the Venezuelan revolution and of the PSUV itself.