[Marxism] Chávez Plans One Big Venezuela Leftist Party, Led by Him (NYT)

[Walter Lippmann]

("Mr. Chávez’s critics on the left and right regularly say he is
carrying out a “fake revolution” exemplified by a boom in consumer
spending on imported goods and the distribution of economic favors
and government contracts to those who support his oil-financed
administration.")

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COMMENTS: The urgency and necessity of a united political party for
the Bolivarian revolutionary process couldn't be more obvious and is
one of the most important lessons of the Cuban Revolution in addition. 
Calling for the formation of such a party, and actually creating one
are far from the same thing. While it couldn't be more obvious that
there is no other central leader to the Bolivarian process than its
main leader, President Hugo Chavez Frias (as Fidel Castro was leader
of the Cuban Revolution), it's worth remembering that the formation
of the Cuban Communist Party which we know of today was neither easy
or quick. The 1959 revolution was led by a broad coalition led by the
July 26th movement in coalition with such other forces as the March 13
Revolutionary Directorate (DR) and the Popular Socialist Party (PSP,
the first Communist Party. The party went through several stages of
organization and re-organization, from its founding in 1965 to its
first congress in 1975, sixteen YEARS after the Revolution's triumph.

The New York Times article is essentially a red-baiting attack on the
Bolivarian process by a newspaper which opposed the Chavez presidency
and campaign, and quotes ex-Communist Teodoro Petkoff, who happens to
be a failed former opposition presidential candidate who pulled out
in favor of the dominant opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales.

And a country like Venezuela today, where both private property and
capitalist relations continue relatively intact, those who do not 
wish to join the party Chavez advocates don't have to. Those who 
choose to join, can still publish newspapers, books and magazines
in which they can express their particular takes on what should be
done - or not done - in Venezuela, or anywhere else.

The idea that someone has a lock on the the legitimacy of, or is the
sole font of the "correct program" for Venezuela, or anywhere else 
for that matter, is one which has been tried and has been exhausted.
the Venezuelan people elected Hugo Chavez Frias its president by a
commanding majority. Others supported him, but Chavez provided the
leadership for the struggle. It is normal and appropriate for Chavez
to point the ways forward. It won't be done quickly, simply or with
no difficulties and contradictions. Look again at the New York Times'
snarky headline: "One Big Venezuela Leftist Party, Led by Him". What
would they prefer? "One Little Leftist Party, Led by Nobody"???

This also is relevant to the question of calling for socialism which
was asked by Sayan at an earlier stage here on Marxmail. Naturally
there will be plenty of dicussion of the exact meaning of such terms
as "twenty-first century socialim", but there's no question here that
socialism is certainly on the agenda in Venezuela.


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
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THE NEW YORK TIMES
January 4, 2007
Chávez Plans One Big Venezuela Leftist Party, Led by Him
By SIMON ROMERO

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/world/americas/04venez.html

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan. 3 — President Hugo Chávez has begun forging
a single Socialist party among his varied supporters, one of his
recent efforts to create momentum for far-reaching changes to
Venezuela’s political system that analysts say will effectively
concentrate greater political power in his hands.

Mr. Chávez formally announced the plan for the single party, called
the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, in a speech last month to
supporters here. He reminded them of his 23-percentage-point margin
of victory when he was re-elected last month to a six-year term.

“Those votes don’t belong to any party.” Mr. Chávez said. “They
belong to Chávez and the people.”

Since then the swiftness and boldness of Mr. Chávez’s attempt to
create such a large party tied so closely to his personal leadership
have created concern, even among sympathetic political analysts, that
the step would effectively turn Venezuela into a one-party state.

In an essay published on Aporrea, an influential pro-Chávez blog,
Edgardo Lander, a sociologist at the Central University of Venezuela,
questioned the reasoning behind forming a single political party
described as Socialist when the definition of the “21st-century
Socialism” that Mr. Chávez aspires to build remained extremely vague.

“Isn’t the cart being placed in front of the ox?” Mr. Lander wrote.
“What future, from the point of view of pluralism and democracy, lies
ahead for a political organization decreed in this fashion?”

Analysts more critical of Mr. Chávez have drawn a parallel with Fidel
Castro’s successful effort to create a single ruling party in Cuba in
the early 1960s.

Mr. Chávez has tried to assuage concerns that his project would lead
to authoritarianism by saying party leaders would largely be chosen
by his rank-and-file supporters, an idea lambasted by critics here.
“His tireless finger won’t stop singling out those who are going to
be the bosses,” said Teodoro Petkoff, the editor of the
opposition-aligned newspaper Tal Cual.

Some of Mr. Chávez’s supporters say the creation of a single party
would strengthen the government’s hand in combating excessive
bureaucracy and corruption stemming from the need to distribute
political spoils to an array of different parties. Others view the
new party as a way to remain ahead of a fractious opposition.

The move has already revealed tensions within the coalition of more
than 20 political parties that currently supports the president.
Critics of the plan say it could marginalize relatively small
pro-Chávez parties that support an open economy, existing government
institutions and a pluralistic political system.

By contrast, much of the support comes from more hard-line members of
Mr. Chávez’s own party, the Fifth Republic Movement, which was
dissolved last month to make way for its larger successor.

Some of those supporters want to strengthen parallel political
institutions created by Mr. Chávez, like a system of health clinics
and universities closely tied to the president and his Socialist
project for the nation.

For instance, he has announced a plan to build as many as 50 new
universities, expected to be modeled on the three-year-old Bolivarian
University of Venezuela, which provides Socialist-inspired,
tuition-free classes to more than 170,000 students.

“We’re witnessing a struggle between two ideological currents within
the Chavista movement,” said Steve Ellner, a political scientist at
University of the East in Venezuela.

Some of the strongest resistance comes from Mr. Chávez’s allies on
the far left. The Communist Party, in particular, stands to lose
considerable stature if it folds into the new party, though it is
expected to do so.

The Communists have weathered decades of persecution and the collapse
of the Soviet Union. “The Communist Party was created to defend the
workers and should continue this struggle,” Jerónimo Carrera, a
senior party official, told the newspaper El Nacional.

Mr. Chávez’s critics on the left and right regularly say he is
carrying out a “fake revolution” exemplified by a boom in consumer
spending on imported goods and the distribution of economic favors
and government contracts to those who support his oil-financed
administration.

But Mr. Chávez has also created thousands of agricultural and
industrial cooperatives. And he has expanded the influence of
“communal councils,” groups of 20 or so people in poor areas who make
routine planning decisions and are financed by small communal banks.
He said recently that he would put $2 billion at the disposal of
these councils in 2007.

He still runs the risk, however remote, of losing one or two smaller
but important parties in his coalition. These parties, which include
Podemos and Fatherland for All, are expected to decide this month
whether to join the new party.

As Mr. Chávez presses forward with that party, he seems eager to
imbue senior officials with a greater understanding of Socialist
ideology, as well as closer allegiance to his own wishes.

Late last year, legislators in the National Assembly, controlled by
supporters of Mr. Chávez, were enrolled in classes on Marxist
analysis and socialist thinking taught by professors from the
National Armed Forces Experimental University.

Signaling a desire for even his highest-ranking allies to fall into
step with what he calls his Bolivarian Revolution, Mr. Chávez
publicly dressed down Vice President José Vicente Rangel and Interior
Minister Jesse Chacón last month.

The reason? They let an orchestra omit the Panamanian anthem from an
act honoring Simón Bolívar, the South American independence leader,
who died 176 years ago.

“We have to struggle against such inefficiency,” Mr. Chávez said in
comments broadcast on the state television. “What a shame to have
such disorganization for such a sublime event,” he added, as a small
crowd in attendance applauded.