The founding congress of that new party, provisionally named the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), convened on January 12, 2008. For the next two months, the 1,676 congress delegates (elected from almost 15,000 local units) will discuss and debate the draft program, principles and statutes of the new party. Between congress sessions, they will return to their local regions and battalions to ensure the widest possible discussion of those documents among the ranks of the new party.
The document is a fascinating look at the ideology and political analysis of the leadership of the party. It's of great historical interest because it emerges not from a small, inchoate leftist grouplet, as so many of these kinds of manifestos do, but from a large socialist movement that has mass popular support and actually has its hands on the levers of the state apparatus in Venezuela. As a result, this is not long-term, pie-in-the-sky theorizing and daydreaming, but an actual, practical plan for the transformation of a capitalist society in the near future.
The entire document is not huge, and it is worth reading in full. Here are a few excerpts as a teaser:
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Basing itself on the Bolivarian tradition, the program of the PSUV champions internationalism and takes as its starting point the belief that the grand objectives of the revolution will have only been obtained when the Latin American and Caribbean people obtain unity and national and social emancipation, and together with the people of all the world we have buried capitalism in order to open the door to a new era in the history of humanity.But the concept of internationalism that the Party holds is not one of simple “international fraternisation between peoples”, nor one of simply exhortations for “tolerance”. The Party fights to create a truly international united front of the peoples that is anti-imperialist and confronts the aberrations that imperialism pretends to universalise where they appear.
The PSUV will work tiresomely to:
* Favour all activities that favour the unity of the people based, more than just on a simple exchange, but on the principle of “doing things together”, so that the people get to know each other and feel a commitment to each other.
* Diversify international relations and create new alliances in order to construct new axes, different to those favoured by the interests of the international market, transnationals and neoliberalism.
* Favour a solidarity-based exchange of resources with other countries, particularly with Latin America and the Caribbean, where the solidarity-based and humanist dimension prevails over merely commercial interests.
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The PSUV will carry out a constant struggle to:
* Promote democracy and a assembly-based culture within the Party, and in all spheres where it is present (communities, work fronts, areas of study, activity etc.)
* Struggle to make self-government a reality, with cities, communal councils and communes as the basic political units.
* Promote, where necessary, the creation of new territories and/or municipalities in areas of human settlements, that, for historic, geo-political, cultural, productive or strategic reasons require the overcoming of fragmentation, along with the creation of their respective self-governments.
* Struggle for the transference of the largest amount possible of the planning, execution and control over public policies to these city governments, communes and community councils by the constituent powers and its institutions.
* Promote direct and constant participation. That the largest amount of men and women possible be involved in the resolution of all the problems posed by the struggle in its different phases and levels: from the socialist cities to the commune and the communal councils in different areas (popular power, social missions, water committees, sports committees, cultural committees, housing committees etc) up to the military reserves. In regards to the specific area of industrial workers, two fundamental axes for the implementation of this task should be the concepts of popular control and self-management.
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The PSUV fights for:
* The non-proliferation of highly contaminating industries that are not of a highly strategic interests for all the nation.
* The development of technologies in accordance with the socialist and humanist model of society.
* Respecting for popular, traditional and millenarian technologies which produce in harmony with human beings and nature.
* The preservation of water basins and sources of water.
* Raising consciousness about the preservation of nature and against the consumerist model of society that leads to the production of useless objects at the cost of exhausting natural resources.
* The promotion of consumption of ecological products.
* The promotion of collective and public transport use.
* The promotion of developing alternative sources of energy.
* Raising consciousness about saving energy usage.
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Capitalism contradicts the human condition and goes against the survival of the species. The planet is being destroyed. The irrational imperative for growth is provoking the destruction of ecosystems and threats to extinguish the sources of life on Earth. This catastrophic dynamic is caused by the irrationality of a socioeconomic system that omits the necessities of humanity and acts under the obligation of its own logic, compelled towards constant growth in the pursuit of profit. In this crazy race, capitalism provokes periodic moments of crisis where, again in the pursuit of profit, it is necessary to destroy massive amounts of human lives and material goods.
Ever since human society was divided into classes, there has been resistance and struggle against oppression and exploitation. But with the victory of capitalism over feudalism and the dominance of the capitalist mode of production at the world scale, the social struggles of the industrial workers' movement fused with the most advanced thought of its time and gave rise to the struggle for a socialism based on science and the most deeply felt sentiments of human beings.
Simultaneously, in our continent, Simon Bolivar was laying the foundations for national and social emancipation with his liberatory struggle and his humanist and revolutionary vision, affirming words that today are fundamental for the union of our peoples and the social transformation of our time.