Wednesday, November 7, 2012

On the recent elections in Venezuala



‘A strategic defeat was delivered to imperialism. We need to continue to gain strength

We Need a Critical Reading of the Election Results

Analysis by the Communist Party of Venezuela 

The Venezuelan people and international forces for peace and progress have been celebrating, first of all, because the presidential election process played out peacefully and in an orderly fashion, which shows a strengthening over almost 14 years of peaceful mechanisms of conflict resolution.

Secondly, they welcomed the margin by which decisive victory was gained.

It left no room for doubts regarding the political option sought by the immense majority of the people in turning back tiny ultra-right groups that for months had gambled on creating destabilizing conditions.

The third cause for celebration is the clear fact that the road for preparing socialism continues to open up, and even the content and scope of socialism are being clarified.

Venezuela has a population of 29,718,357 inhabitants, of whom 18,903,143 were registered to vote, and in excess of 15 million actually did so. There were six candidates but it was clear from the beginning that there were two distinct groupings in contention for the electorate – one represented by Hugo Chavez, and the other by the figure of Henrique Capriles Radonski.

The remaining options added up to no more than 0.6 percent of the vote

Chavez in his usual style articulated the necessity of continuing with the Bolivarian Revolution and construction of Bolivarian Socialism of the 21st Century, while Capriles, determinedly utilizing abstract talk of “progress” to cover things up, outlined a laughable kind of capitalism, one in which private enterprise and the bourgeoisie love the people and is so good as to generate employment.

Evaluating the electoral event of October 7, the political bureau of the central committee of the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) underscored that, with the decisive people’s victory led by President Chavez, now re-elected, people and revolutionary forces administered a strategic defeat to imperialism and Zionism.

Oscar Figueroa, secretary general of the PCV, pointed out that, “As we have said many times, not only was the presidency of Hugo Chavez at stake on October 7, but also the destiny of the Venezuelan, Latin American homeland was being decided. Also at stake was whether or not advance of national and international forces in the interest of peoples of our continent would continue.”

Speaking for the PCV, the Communist leader sent greetings to all the Venezuelan people, all men and women who showed up to cast their vote, whatever political position they took.

“We want to send a greeting to all Venezuelan people without exception who took part massively as protagonists in an exercise that was practical and of the people. The process by which they exercised their right in order to decide who has to lead the national executive helped build their protagonist role,” emphasized Figueroa.

The greeting and acknowledgement that the PCV offered goes out to the peoples of the world who expressed their solidarity with the Bolivarian process. Within that context, “We can affirm that we have obtained a decisive people’s victory and that, at the same time, we have achieved a strategic defeat to forces of imperialism allied with international Zionism. They tried to turn back the wheel of history,” he declared.


A Critical Reading of the Results

The PCV declared itself satisfied with the victory gained in President Chavez’ re-election for the next presidential period, but added further, “All is not OK.”

The leader added: “It’s a popular victory with an edge, because from our perspective these results while conveying a message of support and commitment for the process, demonstrate a critical message stemming from the way votes by the anti-imperialist alliance were distributed.”

Figueroa called upon political and social forces within the process to undertake a profoundly critical evaluation allowing us not only to determine where our successes are so we can harness and expand on them – they are many and large – but also to identify where errors are.

On being identified, these errors “merit” being corrected with the active participation of workers, of communities and indigenous people, along with popular Christian currents identified with the change process. This means correcting them through proposals emanating from the working class and the general workers’ movement.  They feature a demand that talking about proposals to construct a socialist society correspond with forms, ways, and styles not only of producing but also of directing centers of production,” the Communist leader stated.

One more message that these election results saddle us with is the oft-spoken necessity to proceed in constructing a collective leadership of the Bolivarian process that, together with President Chavez, will guide the advanced stage that has to come. “That’s another message that the presidential election left for us,” Figueroa said.

He added that not only must there be collective leadership in order to determine the basic guidelines of the process, but that also that must be the case in ministries, in state-run companies, etc. “We have to break with the concept of unilateral leadership, of vertical command that is a method of leadership imposed by capitalism and imperialism. The purpose is to advance in the direction of new social relations of production.  Qualitatively, we will be inserting something new in the Venezuelan political process, Figueroa emphasized.

PCV Committed to the Venezuelan Revolution

The PCV reaffirmed its historic commitment with the Venezuelan, continental, and world revolution, one consistent with anti-imperialist struggle and through socialism. “And, at the same time being a revolutionary political organization, Marxist – Leninist and Bolivarian, we are obliged to maintain a relevant, critical, and totally autonomous profile,” Figueroa stressed.

“We have been and we’ll keep on being a force committed to revolutionary changes in Venezuela, on the continent, and in the World, in solidarity and as Communists. And we are inclined to deliver everything within our power in order to advance the revolution. This requires of us the obligation to maintain collective, far-reaching construction of our political line and its expression, in a sovereign, autonomous, and purposeful way,” he declared.

This political line is part of a politics of the broadest possible anti-imperialist unity that presently finds its expression in the Grand Patriotic Pole (GPP) and in construction of a more advanced Popular Revolutionary Bloc that allows struggle for the construction of socialism to move ahead.

Red Rooster: Qualitatively Superior Voting

The PCV evaluated the electoral leap forward obtained in voting for Chavez on the Party’s electoral card that registered a 37 percent increase over the year 2006.

As evaluated by the Communist leader: “We recognize, value, and thank workers, the working class, small farmers, revolutionary intellectuals, rebel youth, progressive religious sectors associated with liberation theology, and, in general, organized communities that acted on their decision to support President Chavez with a vote on the Red Rooster Card, qualitative in nature.

The Communist Party of Venezuela obtained 486,503 votes from throughout the country, almost half a million. That represents 3.3 percent of the total. That result [comes] from our correct policy of an alliance, of broad, anti-imperialist people’s unity which must continue moving us toward strengthening the Party of the working class,” he indicated.

Assessing votes “through the Communist Party,” the PCV recognizes that that voting attained in these elections, apart from votes for the Party itself, is the result of varying currents within the workers’ movement and the people’s movement that in this election have been expressed qualitatively. “We want recognize that and we want to say that this was not just about the October 7 elections, but is part of the project of a political line that has to keep on building, a project of revolutionary unity,” Figueroa asserted.

In an analysis the PCV undertook of previous presidential elections, in the year 2000 the PCV contributed toward Chavez’ candidacy one of every 67 votes the alliance gained and in 2012, through the PCV card, contributed one of every 17 votes.

“It’s recognition by broad sectors that see the PCV epitomizing a direction of revolutionary consistency, of revolutionary loyalty in struggle. That’s a reliability that says where things have to be corrected and where errors are, because revolutionary loyalty is not saying yes to everything unconditionally. Whoever is loyal is critical and self-critical in a revolutionary way,” he concluded.

Caracas, October 11, 2012

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