In December last year, President Hugo Chavez called for the setting up
of a new united socialist party and urged all Venezuelan
revolutionaries to join. The Communist Party of Venezuela has since
been engaged in an internal debate about whether to dissolve and join,
or continue as an independent party. In the statement below, 14
members of their Central Committee argue that not to join the united
socialist party would be to abandon the existing revolution for the
sake of a hypothetical future revolution.
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In transition to Socialism, the national liberation revolution demands
the urgent unity of the revolutionary forces against a powerful Yankee
imperialism and its Venezuelan servants.
This has been the strategic aim of the Communist Party of Venezuela
(PCV) since its foundation in 1931, ratified at its 13th Extraordinary
Congress that took place on the 3rd and 4th of March this year under
the following premise:
"The advance towards socialism demands the simultaneous
construction of a revolutionary party that will group together those
parties that have expressed the most consistent stance towards both
the social classes and the sectors historically engaged in the
revolution and socialism"
"To this end, the Communist Party and the
Young Communist League have stated their firm decision and intention
to pave the way for the joint and organic unity of the revolutionary
peoples, to be used as an instrument of collective political
management for the construction of socialism".
The formation of a socialist party requires a very serious effort in
order to imbue it with an ideological, political and organisational
structure that will accord with the socialist objective. Therefore it
is paramount that the party represents the exploited classes, and
first and foremost the working class. In 1936 and the years that
followed, this was the hot topic of discussion. Acción Democrática [a
now largely defunct social democratic party], which was defined as a
multiclass party, is an example of how disastrous this concept proved
for the Venezuelan people. This is not to say that we should shut out
people from other social strata, but in order to participate they must
comply with the ideology and the policies of the exploited classes, as
well as their organisational structure. In addition, we Marxists have
always recognised the revolutionary values of original Christianity,
as President Chavez does in our times.
The united revolutionary party is the culmination of a 76 year-long
struggle by the Venezuelan communists for national liberation and
socialism. The revolution that we have advocated is on the march and
we can not avoid making this commitment.
Our responsibility is to strive, alongside the popular masses, for the
formation a party that represents the exploited classes, one capable
of achieving proletarian internationalism; that will promote the
independent development of our country; one that will strive for full
socialism and the liberation of oppressed people, and that will fight
corruption and bureaucracy.
If we do not go down this path, we would be abandoning the current
revolution for the sake of a hypothetical future revolution.
It's now or never!
The rallying cry that gathers us all here today is:
Fatherland, Socialism or Death!
Caracas, 17th April, 2007
The statement is signed by the following members of the PCV Central
Committee:
Roberto Hernández Wohnsiedler, Jesús Germán Faría, Carlos Del Vecchio,
Tatiana Delgado, Johnny Niño, Omar Marcano, Euro Faría, José Laguna,
Iván Delgado, Freddy González, Leopoldo Niño, Enrique Franco, Juana
García, Getulio Fonseca.
Article translated from Spanish by James Walsh and Rafael Lafuente for
http://21stcenturysocialism. com/
