The PSUV congress has now been called and the Marxists will fight shoulder to shoulder with the left-wing delegates for a genuine socialist programme in the struggle against bureaucracy and against the right-wing in the party.
On Thursday, October 15, Jorge Rodríguez, one of the national PSUV coordinators, stated in a press conference that the National Leadership had agreed upon a set of rules for the PSUV National Congress. This means that the Party Congress will begin on November 21 and go on untill December 13.
In August Chávez called for a re-organization of the party structures with the launching of the ”Socialist patrols”, a new type of branches, which would allow greater participation of the rank and file. At the present moment, the PSUV has an official membership of 7 millions. 2.5 millions signed up to be active in the patrols.
Apart from this, there has been a very significant development with the setting up of workers' patrols, i.e. PSUV branches in the factories. As we have explained in other articles, working class activists in many plants have taken up this call with great enthusiasm. Only in the factory of SIDOR, 40 patrols have been set up with 502 workers participating actively. According to the PSUV National Leadership, 16.000 of suchs workers' patrols have been formed throughout the country, organizing a total of 250.000 workers. The number of normal party branches based on locality, has reached the impressive figure of 104.000.
The process of electing delegates for the congress has already begun. In the moment of writing, the PSUV branches are selecting two candidates per branch who will then be part of the delegate elections scheduled for November 15th. In those elections, all of the 2.5 million active PSUV members who are inscribed in a patrol will be able to vote.
However, before this vote is cast, the vice-presidents of each PSUV region will make a seletion of the candidates in each region, taking the nominations as their starting point. This method has raised some concerns in the minds of the more left-wing sectors of the party, who are afraid that this will give less representation to the rank and file.
The nomination of candidates will finish on Saturday, October 24th and the selection process by the regional vice-presidents will take place the next day. The PSUV National Leadership is thus suppossed to publish the list of candidates for the delegate elections on Monday, October 26. From that date untill the elections of November 15th, there will be an electoral race for the 780 delegate-seats.
PSUV at the crossroads
The congress is taking place in the middle of a revolution in a country that is being hard hit by the world Capitalist crisis. It will therefore be a focal point for revolutionaries everywhere. As we analyzed at that time, the founding congress of the party in 2008 was a heated struggle between revolutionaries and reformists over all the main political aspects: programme, declaration of principles, party democracy and day-to-day politics. While the left-wing surely made a remarkable impact, the right-wing bureaucracy was nevertheless well-organized and therefore managed to take control of the main positions in the leadership.
The mobilisations and eventual victory of the referendum in February was a step forward but also provided warning signs. Photo by Immigrante a Media Jornada. The party then had to stand in its first electoral contest, the elections for mayors and governors in November 2008, where it managed to win a clear victory with 58% of the votes. However, this victory was obtained with the loss of strategic governorships suchs as Alcaldía Mayor de Caracas, Miranda and Carabobo. This was a clear warning sign, which showed that the Bolivarian masses are tired of elections after elections with no clear action being taken to finish the counter-revolution, solve the urgent problems of the country and satisfy the needs of the masses. The alarm bells where ringing once again in February 2009, when the vote in favour of the revolution shrank to 54% in the referendum on the constitutional amendment.
The discussions in the congress
The main theme of discussion at this congress should therefore be how to revert this trend. It is not enough to talk about Socialism – it must be built in action. If Socialism remains in words, the masses will be tired of all the parades, speeches and elections. None of these things solve the problems. During 10 years of revolution, the Bolivarian masses have defended the revolution again and again, not only in elections, but also against coup'd'etats, economic sabotage and violence on part of the counter-revolution.
The signs of lower participation in recent electoral contests such therefore in no way be attributed to the supposedly ”low level of counsciousness” of the masses. On the contrary, the masses have displayed a high level of class counsciousness and courage by saving the revolution on various opportunities. The problem is, that the masses can only sacrifice their today for their tommorrow up to a certain point. If the revolution does not advance decisively – and if it is incapable of offering a solution to problems such as housing, food scarcity, inflation and unemployment – a mood of apathy can set in among the Bolivarian masses, which will pave the way for the counter-revolution. The congress should discuss how to put a halt to such a development. In our opinion this can only be done by expropriating the industry, the banks and the land and thereby creating the basis for a genuine Socialist planned economy.
Freddy Bernal, another national PSUV organizer, has stated that the agenda of the congress will contain points on the party statutes, ethics of the party, the definite structure of the national leadership and the values and conceptions of a Socialist society. Other sources indicate that a point on the agenda is called ”Elements in the transition towards Socialism”.
Marxists are intervening
The Marxists of the CMR – Venezuelan section of the IMT – are standing candidates for the delegate elections in a number of regions. Our comrades have worked to build the local PSUV branches and especially the workers' branches. In the factories Mitsubitshi (MMC), SIDOR, INVEVAL, INAF and Gotcha, workers belonging to the CMR have played a leading role in the setting up of the PSUV branches.
The CMR has produced a short document, entitled ”For a PSUV as the instrument of the workes and the people, that can take power in the factories, the communities and the rural areas”. This document will be printed in 5,000 copies as a special feature of the next issue of El Militante, the Venezuelan Marxist paper. The document will be distributed massively and discussed in the PSUV branches and around it we will group a number of left-wing delegates who support its basic principles. In the month that remains up to the November 15th delegate election, we will run a campaign in favour of revolutionary candidates who support the document. Our website and paper will be carrying regular comments on and analysis of the proceedings of the PSUV congress.
As part of our campaign, during the PSUV congress, the CMR will also organize a speaking tour of Alan Woods, the well-known British Marxist theoretician and leader of the IMT. Alan Woods is the author of books such as Bolshevism – The Road to Revolution and the recent Reformism or Revolution – Reply to Heinz Dietrich. Both books have been recommended on several occations by President Chávez. He will be visiting Venezuela between the 13th and the 30th of November and will be speaking in regions throughout Venezuela and in meetings of the PSUV.
Another aspect of our intervention will be to connect the ongoing struggle of the workers at Mitsubishi (MMC) in Barcelona, Anzoátegui state with the wider struggle of the PSUV rank and file for a Socialist programme. At MMC, 153 workers are to be sacked by the multinational in a prolonged labour dispute which cost the lifes of 2 workers back in January 2009. Among the 153 workers are 11 trade-union leaders, all of them members of the PSUV. In the congress, the CMR will collect signatures in solidarity with the struggle at MMC.
Fight against bureaucracy
A very deep-felt theme in Venezuela is the debate on how to counter the growth of the bureaucracy within the Bolivarian movement and in the PSUV in particular. While the Party won the majority of governorships and mayorships back in November 2008, ther is a widespread discontent with the work of these elected representatives.
A recent example is Carabobo, where the PSUV won a number of mayorships, including the capital Valencia. Many rank and file members and local leaders of the party have complained that these mayors elected on a PSUV-ticket havn't changed anything since their inauguration and are in fact carrying out policies contrary to the party's principles. Marío Silva, member of the National Leadership and host of the famous TV-programme ”La Hojilla”, has given a voice to this anger and suggested that the National Leadership intervenes in that region.
Many similar cases could be mentioned. The main problem is that the Venezuelan revolution is clashing with the bourgeois concept of democracy, where elections are held every 4 or 5 years and then the elected politicians can do whatever they want in the meantime. As pointed out in the CMR document for the National Congress, the only alternative is to crush the bougois state and build a new workers' state:
"In this regard, Marxism can offer a practical guide about how to build a revolutionary state and complete the socialist revolution in Venezuela. In other revolutions where there was an attempt to overthrow the bourgeois state, the revolutionary states created had a series of common characteristics. As Russian revolutionary Lenin pointed out in his book "State and revolution", this new state, or rather a semi-state, as it would not be separate from the people but composed of the workers themselves organised together with the rest of the oppressed (peasants, communities, students, fishermen, indigenous communities, …), would have the following characteristics:
1. Election and right of recall at any time of all officials,
2. No state official of the workers' state to receive a wage higher than the average wage of a skilled worker
3. Rotation of all positions. If we are all bureaucrats, no-one is a bureaucrat.
4. The people in arms. General arming of the workers and the people. No standing army. "
In the PSUV congress, the Marxists will fight shoulder to shoulder with the left-wing delegates in the struggle against bureaucracy and against the right-wing in the party. Our main aim will be to provide a genuine Socialist programme for the delegates who are seeking for a way to complete the revolution and build Socialism in practice. We are convinced that this is what the majority of the PSUV rank and file are fighting for.