United Socialist Party of Venezuela Prepares for National Conference

The process of constructing the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has entered a new chapter with the participation on Saturday of over one million aspiring members in the elections of spokespeople for each "socialist battalion."
Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez announcing the results of the weekend's PSUV elections (Wiston Bravo, ABN)

Caracas, October 1, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The process of constructing the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), initiated by President Hugo Chavez in December last year to give collective political direction to the process of social change unfolding in Venezuela, has entered a new chapter with the participation on Saturday of over one million aspiring members in the elections of spokespeople for each "socialist battalion."

Thanking the national technical commission, the promoters, and all the aspiring members that have been participating in the formation of the new party, Chavez announced on his weekly program Hello President on Sunday that a total of 11,333 spokespeople from the socialist battalions had been elected through direct, secret ballot. In addition, each socialist battalion also elected representatives for five committees consisting of a Political and Ideological committee, Communications, Organisation and Logistics, Social Work, and a Territorial Defence committee. Chavez also announced that approximately 56,000 committee representatives were elected.

Throughout the process of forming the new party Chavez has repeatedly emphasized the importance of popular participation and building the PSUV from the "bottom up." The new party, Chavez says, is necessary to carry out the socialist transformation of Venezuela.

"With the creation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) a powerful political and moral instrument is being built that leads to the dignification [sic] of politics, a new proposal of popular participation", said Chávez when he announced in May his aspiring membership of the PSUV.

In an open letter published Saturday, Venezuelan Vice-president Jorge Rodriguez, also the co-ordinator of the technical commission of the PSUV, which was created to over see the formation of the new party, said "the chosen spokespeople should know to represent the sentiment of the battalions."

Rodriguez continued, "Today completes a new phase in this beautiful road of the construction of our revolutionary process, of the construction of a socialist homeland… With the election of the spokespeople we will have conquered a new obstacle in this all-out war to make Venezuela a country for everyone."

Rodríguez added that between the July 21 and September 15 89,667 meetings of the socialist battalions had been carried out through out the entire country, with the participation of millions of aspiring members of the PSUV.

In order to be elected spokespeople were required to have attended at least fifty percent of the meetings of their respective socialist battalion and in order to vote in the elections aspiring members were required to have participated in at least two meetings of their battalion.

The technical commission of the PSUV renounced, along with Chavez and many other parliamentarians and other elected officials, any aspirations to stand for election as spokespeople in their respective battalions, in order to allow for the spokespeople to be elected from the grassroots.

For various reasons, a number of socialist battalions were unable to elect their spokespeople on Saturday and have resolved to hold elections this coming week.

The elected spokespeople and committee representatives of every ten socialist battalions, grouped geographically, will now form "socialist circumscriptions" to discuss and debate proposals over the political program and structure of the PSUV. On October 13 each circumscription will then elect one delegate to the founding congress of the PSUV, which is scheduled to start on October 20. Only the elected spokespeople from each battalion will be able to stand as delegates to the founding congress. The founding congress, which does not yet have a closing date, will debate and decide the structure, statutes, and political program of the PSUV as well as electing the leadership of the new party.

According to Guillermo García Ponce, a member of the technical commission of the PSUV, of the 5.7 million initial inscriptions to join the new party, between 1.2-1.3 million people are participating regularly in the meetings of the socialist battalions. However, he said, the technical committee is aiming to increase participation and also considering opening up a new round of inscriptions as many people who did not join up in the first round of inscriptions in May have expressed interest in becoming members of the new party.