PSUV
Richard Seymour: Venezuela in the 21st century
With the announcement of Hugo Chavez’s reelection as preside
Venezuela’s presidential elections: an imperfect victory
People celebrate the Hugo Chavez's victory outside the Miraflores Palace. Photo by Tamara Pearson/Venezuelanalysis.com.
By Tamara Pearson
October 8, 2012 – Venezuelanalysis.com -- Last night, we were squashed and pushed as the crowd surged into the Miraflores Palace to hear Hugo Chavez’s victory speech. People were so happy, they didn’t mind their feet being trodden on, the humidity of the air and the sweat of bodies and all the standing up, they were exuberant and they shouted and danced and jumped up and down and yelled out to strangers and threw beer up in the air, and even a few shoes.
Yet, among them, I felt a bit down, because the results were quite close, because more than 6 million people supported, by voting for the opposition led by Henrique Capriles, selfishness (he had focused his campaign on Venezuela ending its solidarity with other countries) and the destruction and sale of their country.
Revolutionary democracy in the economy? Venezuela’s workers' control movement
The workers at Grafitos del Orinico are proud of their collectively run factory. Photo by Ewan Robertson.
Venezuela: Planning the next six years of the Bolivarian revolution
President Chavez with the plan on the day he registered to stand again for presid
On the meaning of ‘popular front’
The Bolivarian movement led by Hugo Chávez contains bourgeois forces and has been th
Venezuela: Socialist party seeks shake up
Rally against bureaucratism and corruption, Caracas, November 2010.
By Federico Fuentes
May 1, 2011 -- Green Left Weekly -- Since January, tens of thousands of United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) militants, together with activists from other left parties and social movements, have been debating the future of Venezuela’s revolution.
Their sights are set on the crucial 2012 presidential elections.
This years’ pro-revolution May Day march will be the platform to officially launch Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s re-election bid.
The US-funded right-wing opposition is yet to decide its candidate, but the election will be critical to the future of a country undergoing a profound process of change.
A clear victory for Chavez — like the 63% he won in the 2006 elections — would give a powerful mandate to deepen the revolution.
However, the revolutionary forces face two key obstacles.
The first is US imperialism and its local allies in the opposition, who are desperate to get rid of Chavez.
Venezuela: United Socialist Party of Venezuela defines new strategies
By Tamara Pearson, Mérida
January 24, 2011 — Venezuelanalysis.com — On Janurary 21, 2011, over one thousand members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) met with President Chavez and decided on five key strategic lines for the next two years. The discussion included recognition of important weaknesses in the party and steps for activating the Patriotic Pole coalition.
Chavez, president of Venezuela and also of the governing PSUV, presented the document, Strategic Lines of Political Action of the PSUV for 2011-2012 to the “National Assembly of Socialists” in Vargas state, where around 1440 party leaders were present.
Chavez originally proposed the strategic lines in a draft document in December last year to a meeting of the national PSUV leadership.
PSUV legislator Jesus Farias, speaking to YVKE, said the idea of the “Socialist Assembly” was to “relaunch the project that the PSUV represents, in unity with other political organisations and social groups”. He said the “reflection and establishment of new lines of action for the PSUV is related to a need to strengthen the party as a great machine of agitation and propaganda”.
Women and revolutionary transformation in Venezuela
Yoly Fernandez (left) during her 2009 Australian tour, organised by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network.
By Coral Wynter
Yoly Fernandez lives in a barrio in the city of Valencia in Venezuela. She has been involved in community politics all her life and is a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), headed by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Fernandez works in Mission MERCAL, the government agency that sells subsidised food to the population. I interviewed her in May 2010.
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How has the life of women improved over the last 10 years of the Chavez government?
Our lives have improved enormously, mainly in the area of humane values; not so much at the level of work or even at the political level. I say humane because now the role of women is valued, not as an object but as a subject, as mother, wife, daughter and sister.
The state, social movements and revolution in Latin America
By Federico Fuentes
November 28, 2010 -- Green Left Weekly -- It should come as no surprise that Latin America, a region converted into a laboratory for ongoing experiments in social change, has increasingly become the topic of discussion and debate among the broader left.
Latin America has not only dealt blows to imperialism but also raised the banner of socialism on a global scale. It is of strategic importance for those fighting for a better world, especially at a time when capitalism is in systemic crisis.
Latin America’s landscape of powerful social movements, left governments of various shades, revolutionary insurrections, and growing expressions of indigenous resistance and worker control, provides a perfect scenario for leftists to learn about, and debate, revolutionary strategy and tactics.
This should not simply be an academic debate. It should look at how to best build solidarity with these movements for change and gain insight for struggles at home.
Of late, burning dispute has opened up, mostly among those writing from an anti-capitalist orientation: a debate over the complex relationship, or “dance” as Ben Dangl calls it, between social movements and states in Latin America.