Communists Push Sovietisation of Venezuela
It is quite horrifying to watch while Venezuela, one of the freest and most prosperous nations in Latin America descends into socialism and tyranny.
We are watching a socialist revolution unfold in Venezuela. The establishment of a nationwide network of community and workers councils are the next step in the revolutionary process.
All Power to the Soviets!
Worker's councils are the backbone of Marxist-Leninist socialism. The Russians called them Soviets, the Cubans call them "People's Councils".
What they are in effect are a hierarchial system of councils whereby information can be passed from the lower to the higher levels and directives passed from the higher levels to the lower.
They serve as a nationwide espionage and indoctrination network, with eyes and ears in every shop, factory and apartment block. Once these councils are in place, it will be almost impossible to organise resistance against the Chavez regime.
From the Communist Party USA's Peoples Weekly World
The Communist Party of Venezuela is about to introduce a proposal that the National Assembly establish workers councils and include them under the new “Organic Law for Citizen Participation and People’s Power.” At a Caracas news conference on Jan. 15, Pedro Eusse, the party’s labor secretary, declared the purpose of the initiative to be the insertion of “working-class power” into the process of building socialism.
The proposal coincides with a major national campaign under way to launch a network of 50,000 community councils....
The development of workers councils fits within Venezuela’s current campaign to expand “participatory democracy,” the prime element of that project being the movement for community councils. Under the leadership of Assembly delegate David Velasquez, the National Assembly passed an enabling law for community councils on April 9, 2006. Velasquez, a CPV leader, is now shepherding the community councils into existence as head of the Ministry for People’s Participation and Social Development.
Eusse described for reporters the necessity for creating means by which the working class “can achieve progressively higher levels of consciousness that, as protagonists of people’s power, they are the class that leads the revolutionary process.”
The new councils will “assume political and economic functions for carrying out peoples’ power in workplaces and in industrial areas,” he said. Although they will not duplicate the work of labor unions, “they will share responsibilities, engage in mutual support, and above all shape class consciousness. They will promote workers’ unity, of both men and women, and protect social, economic, cultural and political rights.”
The workers councils will take on important responsibilities, including:
• “Managing information on the administration, finances and production output of private, public and worker-operated companies, also those already or about to be expropriated.”
• Organization of labor collectives that operate all such enterprises, private companies excepted.
• Formation of worker groups focusing on technical, cultural, political and ideological matters.
• Development of leadership skills essential for processes of production and oversight.
• Promotion of working-class involvement in the politics of the revolution, particularly issues “relating to defense of the homeland and the people’s democratic victories.”
• Coordination and cooperation with community councils and other “instruments of people’s power.”
• Monitoring, with labor unions, to assure that worker and union rights are respected.
In a recent interview, David Velasquez discussed the role community councils will assume in Venezuela, a description that applies equally to workers councils. “We must transform the old apparatus of the state,” he said, adding, “This office will begin to study how we transfer functions, resources and components to community power.” He distinguished between traditional “constitutional” power and a new “constituent power” that will enable Venezuelans, via “participation as protagonists,” to build “people’s power.”
We are watching a socialist revolution unfold in Venezuela. The establishment of a nationwide network of community and workers councils are the next step in the revolutionary process.
All Power to the Soviets!
Worker's councils are the backbone of Marxist-Leninist socialism. The Russians called them Soviets, the Cubans call them "People's Councils".
What they are in effect are a hierarchial system of councils whereby information can be passed from the lower to the higher levels and directives passed from the higher levels to the lower.
They serve as a nationwide espionage and indoctrination network, with eyes and ears in every shop, factory and apartment block. Once these councils are in place, it will be almost impossible to organise resistance against the Chavez regime.
From the Communist Party USA's Peoples Weekly World
The Communist Party of Venezuela is about to introduce a proposal that the National Assembly establish workers councils and include them under the new “Organic Law for Citizen Participation and People’s Power.” At a Caracas news conference on Jan. 15, Pedro Eusse, the party’s labor secretary, declared the purpose of the initiative to be the insertion of “working-class power” into the process of building socialism.
The proposal coincides with a major national campaign under way to launch a network of 50,000 community councils....
The development of workers councils fits within Venezuela’s current campaign to expand “participatory democracy,” the prime element of that project being the movement for community councils. Under the leadership of Assembly delegate David Velasquez, the National Assembly passed an enabling law for community councils on April 9, 2006. Velasquez, a CPV leader, is now shepherding the community councils into existence as head of the Ministry for People’s Participation and Social Development.
Eusse described for reporters the necessity for creating means by which the working class “can achieve progressively higher levels of consciousness that, as protagonists of people’s power, they are the class that leads the revolutionary process.”
The new councils will “assume political and economic functions for carrying out peoples’ power in workplaces and in industrial areas,” he said. Although they will not duplicate the work of labor unions, “they will share responsibilities, engage in mutual support, and above all shape class consciousness. They will promote workers’ unity, of both men and women, and protect social, economic, cultural and political rights.”
The workers councils will take on important responsibilities, including:
• “Managing information on the administration, finances and production output of private, public and worker-operated companies, also those already or about to be expropriated.”
• Organization of labor collectives that operate all such enterprises, private companies excepted.
• Formation of worker groups focusing on technical, cultural, political and ideological matters.
• Development of leadership skills essential for processes of production and oversight.
• Promotion of working-class involvement in the politics of the revolution, particularly issues “relating to defense of the homeland and the people’s democratic victories.”
• Coordination and cooperation with community councils and other “instruments of people’s power.”
• Monitoring, with labor unions, to assure that worker and union rights are respected.
In a recent interview, David Velasquez discussed the role community councils will assume in Venezuela, a description that applies equally to workers councils. “We must transform the old apparatus of the state,” he said, adding, “This office will begin to study how we transfer functions, resources and components to community power.” He distinguished between traditional “constitutional” power and a new “constituent power” that will enable Venezuelans, via “participation as protagonists,” to build “people’s power.”
posted by Trevor Loudon at
2/02/2007 12:36:00 PM
4 Comments:
This February, Solidarity Union launches a major campaign to organise workers in two industrial clusters in East Tamaki. Most of South Auckland's vast army of factory workers are employed in small-to-medium sites which haven't seen a union for at least 20 years. These small-to-medium factories are usually run like feudal baronies of old. Solidarity Union aims to kickstart a mass movement for workers' democracy and justice in New Zealand's industrial heartland. And we want you to help.
The old ways of union organising cannot hope to succeed in these small-to-medium factories. That, after all, is why they remain unorganised. We believe that the only way to win is through a new geo-political strategy based on whole-of-street organising (rather than site or industry organising) and regional workers councils (rather than geographically isolated job delegate networks). This "cluster" organising is the only way to overcome the inherent working class disunity that flows "naturally" from New Zealand's mostly small-scale industry.
Our overall strategy has been confirmed by Solidarity Union's detailed practical lessons, both positive and negative, over the last few months of 2006. These lessons allow the union to fine-tune our strategy in order to increase our success ratio. If the factory bosses are feudal barons, then our union is going to put their tiny castles under siege. Factory February will see a large team of Solidarity organisers surround two East Tamaki industrial clusters in an offensive with a difference.
We have a 35-seater bus, a grunty sound system, sleepover facilities with union film screenings, and displays for union stalls outside local lunchbars or key factories. We will be printing lots of leaflets and posters for the offensive. The idea is to mass leaflet key sites many times over the course of February with different leaflets on pay, social inequality, workplace rights, bullying, racism, how to organise, what a collective is, how to win a strike, etc etc. Solidarity organisers will talk with factory workers outside their job sites, gather information on the problems they face inside, their pay rates. Through this protracted siege, we will strike up a relationship with key contacts inside the factories who will liase with the union before we even request a formal on-site meeting with all workers.
The only way social justice activists in Aotearoa can learn how to rebuild the union movement is by getting our hands dirty doing it. An essential ingredient in rebuilding a truly strong union movement is activising grassroots workers, delegates and organisers, rather than power being held by remote bureaucracies. Solidarity Union is not interested in just signing up thousands of members who pay dues in return for servicing, but who lack democratic control of their union and any self-emancipating workers' mission. That would do little to change today's unjust power relations, which in turn would mean a permanently weakened union movement.
We are going to build a movement that revolves around regional workers councils - organic, authoritative and representative bodies able to organise and empower the army of workers who are presently disorganised and disempowered in a mass of small-to-medium factories.
This is a vision of union organisation that goes back to New Zealand's first militant union movement, the Red Feds. Factory February will give us all further invaluable experience of what works and what doesn't, and help lay the foundations for a fightback against exploitation that could change the balance of forces in NZ society.
Typical of someone like Hugo Chavez who is openly becoming the "Robert Mugabe" of Venezuela.
"These small-to-medium factories are usually run like feudal baronies of old"
What a crock of shit Anon. What proof do you have of this?
Do you have a job?, do you know anyone who owns a business?, Do you know anything at all about the 'working class' that you pretend to champion?
EXOCET
Please anonymous, until you can prove to me that Venezuela is freer than the United States or even freer than Hong Kong, wake me. Otherwise you are praising another socialist hellhole thanks to someone like Hugo Chavez.
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