The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) issued a letter to President Maduro underlining the pitfalls of the Bolivarian Revolution and the proposals of PCV.
ICP, 30 December 2017
The letter, signed by General secretary Oscar Figuera and Secretary of International Relations Carolus Wimmer, from the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of PCV, addressed Nicolas Maduro as President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
In the letter, it was acknowledged that during the political changes in Venezuela since 1999, the working class and the PCV could not ‘assume the vanguard of the broad class alliance’ and that the proprietor classes had played a determining role. The process did not carry ‘the character of a socialist revolution, but of a process of progressive reforms ... in the face of neo-colonialist ambitions of US and European imperialism’.
The letter stated that the broad anti-imperialist alliance, unifying the forces ‘in defense of national sovereignty’ under the Simon Bolivar Great Patriotic Pole (GPP-SB) has not worked.The letter clarified that the PCV was ‘not requesting to be part of the Government’, but requested the PSUV to comply to the agreements between the two parties. The PCV criticised the arbitrary attitude of PSUV in relation to its revolutionary allies which weakens the Bolivarian Revolution.
The letter reminded that PCV, with its class committment within GPP-SB, had played a crucial role in defeating the pro-imperialist bloc during the October 15 elections. A commission had been formed by the Political Bureau of the PCV and the delegation designated by President Maduro on behalf of the PSUV's top leadership, and started working meetings in which, at the proposal of PCV, ‘a series of agreements on electoral politics and socio-political matters were established’.
The letter said that such agreements would support the Bolivarian process ‘with decisive worker, peasant, communal and popular leadership and with the intense and extensive activism of the PCV, the JCV (Juventud Comunista de Venequela, Young Communists of Venezuela) and our mass political fronts in the different battles necessary to take up for the defense of the country nationally and internationally’.
The PCV had complied with the registration of PSUV candidates to the Governorships in 22 states, with the sole exception of Apure ‘where the governor’s open anti-communism and his political practice at odds with the interests of the people of Apure’ was an obstacle. However, PSUV had not complied to the agreements on discussing socio-political issues.
The Political Bureau of the PCV expressed its concern about the perpetuation of ‘the liberal bourgeois state and the capitalist relations of production’ that allow ‘private and public employers to violate labor rights and to destroy or force to yield the defensive instruments of the working class’. Forces at the service of imperialism develop as previously nationalized public companies are reprivatized, accompanied by workers’ dismissals.
While economic conditions of the working class detoriate, ‘the kind of restrictions that private and public banks impose by illegally limiting the people in the use of their savings, made even worse with the reduced circulation of cash’. Meanwhile, it is necessary for the government to take measures against police cases of ‘blackmail, criminalization and labor prosecution’ some of whom become candidates for the government and are finally elected. According to the letter, these were taken up by the spokesman of the PSUV and the government, but were eventually not solved.
The letter said, ‘That is why, compatriot President, we come to you and, in addition to reiterating the request for a meeting with our Political Bureau, we call upon you to guide the full and concrete compliance with the recent electoral politics and socio-political agreements established between the PCV and the PSUV, for the good of the trust and mutual respect that must exist between allied forces and in order to strengthen the struggle for the defense of national sovereignty and for the interests of the working people of Venezuela.’
The PCV reiterated the set of proposals given to the National Constituent Assembly;
- to dismantle the power of private monopolies,
- to expropriate and imprison the speculative capitalists,
- to nationalize the banking sector,
- to develop production with national sovereignty and the leading role of the working class,
- to establish worker-peasant and common-popular control over the most important economic and social processes.
It was stated in the letter that the proposals had not received any response. The PCV finally outlined its call ‘to abandon the paths of class collaboration’ and to produce a revolutionary solution to the crisis ‘with a leading role of the working class and the working people of the cities and the countryside’.