On December 15th 2006, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced his desire to create a single, consolidated left wing party entitled the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Chavez encouraged all left-wing parties, representing the mass majority of the National Assembly, to dissolve into the PSUV and abandon their current leadership. Chavez has framed the formulation of the PSUV as an essential step toward creating 21st Century Socialism and furthering the revolutionary goals of the Bolivarian process. Chavez stressed that the PSUV shall be governed primarily from the bottom up, focusing on mass-participation and democratic principles, and claimed that “[the PSUV] should be the most democratic party in Venezuelan history”. Chavez proposed the creation of a party-wide congress to establish an official party agenda and nominate candidates, through referendum, to replace current officials representing the various left wing parties. Voting on the agenda and candidates was held on March 8, 2008, national elections for state governors and mayors took place on November 23, 2008.
The idea of a single party representing such a wide spectrum of political viewpoints and wielding unprecedented power has created a division amongst major political parties, with some refusing participation in the PSUV, and others eager to promote the new united party. The major issues surrounding the formation of the PSUV center around political autonomy, the degree of popular participation, and how to replace existing bureaucratic hierarchies within former and current PSUV factions.
Despite the controversy and inherent skepticism, there are currently around 7 million members registered in the PSUV. Regardless of its successes and failures, it is destined to wield major influence over the future of Venezuela.
Political Background
Venezuelan political parties have a long history of infighting, fracture and restructuring based along ideological and political lines. However from 1958 until the election of 1993, mainstream politics were governed by the three parties of the Punto Fijo Pact. Signers included Accion Democratica (AD, Democratic Action), COPEI (Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente, Political Electoral Independent Organization Committee), and Union Republica Democratica (UPV, Democratic Republic Union). The Punto Fijo parties were de-legitimized for overt corruption which was highlighted during the furious Caracazo riots, which consumed Caracas for three days. The 1993 re- election of former COPEI leader Rafael Caldera, campaigning for a new party, ended Punto Fijo control of Venezuelan politics. The shortcomings of Caldera’s second presidency, which included taking IMF loans and structural adjustment programs, would give way to Chavez’s presidency, which unified a coalition of leftist groups who, though marginalized, had remained active during the Punto Fijo reign.
The PSUV Party Program
In early 2008 the Presidential Commission to Organize the PSUV drafted an outline for the party which included a political-ideological doctrine, a critical analysis of the past and present, and a program which described goals and methods of action necessary to achieve an ideal future. The draft was then sent to 1,676 elected congressional delegates to further discuss and refine the program. Since then, the delegates have been back and forth to their local constituents debating the program.
The outline highlights seven strategic guidelines that serve to summarize the party’s agenda and define the goals of 21st Century Socialism (it is important to note that at this point, the program promotes party ideals but does not provide specifics on how to achieve them)
Party Organization
The structure of the PSUV attempts to fulfill the program’s promise of popular power by establishing a bottom-up, democratic method of electing party officials and establishing party policy. To start, some 11,000 party “promoters” traveled the nation registering members into the party and taking a census. After registration, groups of around 200 party members, organized by region and locality, formed “socialist battalions”. A socialist battalion is the basic building block of the party; a political/community group meeting weekly to debate the party program and address concerns of the community, having the ability to influence decision making on a regional and national level. Each socialist battalion elected a recallable spokesperson. These spokespeople went on to form “socialist conscriptions” that then elected delegates, roughly one per seven to twelve socialist battalions, to the national PSUV congress. Delegates would remain in constant contact with their respective socialist conscription in order to be aware of the demands of their socialist battalions.
The congressional delegates attended two conventions on January 12 and March 2, 2008. During the convention delegates selected candidates for party leadership and created more concrete ideological and political goals for the party program. On March 9th, 2008, party candidates were officially elected. On November 23, 2008, elections for mayoral and gubernatorial positions were held. An official party program is to be created by an “Ideological Congress” some time in the near future. Despite this democratic process, Chavez remains the de-facto president of the PSUV, and has exercised power in appointing some preliminary party officials.
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I need help. I'm on a rapidly declining spiral down into a place that people just don't recover from. But I don't even know how anyone could help anyway. Money? Yeah, sure, no. Not unless some rich, oxymoronic leftist can pay for inpatient psychiatric care for a few months minimum. Would that we all could benefit from a millionaire benefactor. Friendship, then? I'd love to have friends again. How I miss having friends. But I don't know how that even works anymore, I'm too lost, I'm too fucking broken and too solipsistic from years of solitude to know how to have a friend or to be a friend. I'm on a bad trajectory and I see some really bad realities rushing up toward me that I can't dodge or avoid. I need help. I really need help. But I can't even specify what that help would look like. And really, who am I to even ask for help when so many people are so much more deserving of it and in need of it? I should be helping other people. I should be helping myself BY helping other people. But I don't know where to start and I'm afraid I'm so fucked up, so beyond repair, so far gone that I couldn't help anyone else anyway.
Can you foresee any better trajectories or realities? What can you do to see and realise such?
Fuck helping others, get you good enough first, the rest can wait til your head's above water at least. Dont hold that over yourself in lieu of looking after yourself
I can see them, yeah, but I can't plot out a path to them. Like a dream you know can never happen for real. I can imagine it, but I can't even begin to find some avenue towards realizing it. Pipe dream. How to get from here to there... it doesn't happen without some divine intervention (which is of course just fictional bullshit).
I don't know. I honestly feel like the only way I'm going to get my head above water is if I can find a way to help my fellow drowning comrades. I don't hold it over myself, I really feel like the only way I can ever hope to tread water is if I can be there for other people that need someone to hold onto. Maybe that's savior complex brainworm shit. Could be. I don't think so though. I'll just never be worth anything to myself, if I can't do something that helps other people.
no, but I can see a path from there to unhealthy codependency for sure. Living a good life is a worthwhile endeavour and sometimes you just gotta keep doing things until they start to come together.
What can you do to help people in similar situations? Do you work? Have you thought about community/social work?
There's no codependency when one has been on their own for more than a decade. But I hear you, the potential to fall into codependency is still there for someone desperate to not be alone anymore. I feel like I've kept chugging along for the sake of chugging along for too long, running out of steam all the while. Some chunks of time are slightly better than others, it's ultimately just been slow but clear downward trend, and it feels like I'm approaching a point of no return, if I haven't already.
I'm trying to get myself to start doing some kind of community work. Volunteer somewhere, somehow. I have no money, but I'm not homeless due to luck, and I'd do well to use that privilege to help people who don't have the same luck. Every day I tell myself I'm going to write some emails to orgs. Even if I don't have the vehicle (let alone gas $) to get to where they are, maybe I can still help. But I'm starting out from deep within this pit of despair and shame. I can't even keep my own immediate environment livably clean, I can't even make eye contact with the mailperson, or checkout clerk. But maybe if I can help someone, I won't be so ashamed or in such despair. Selfish altruism?
Do what you've got to do hey. I dont suppose there's public transport available? If you can help out at an org and that can help you in kind, go for it.
I hope you can send that email or make that call hey, good luck
There's some minimal public transport, yes. But I'm out of the way and have to get transport to where there's public transport.
Thank you comrade. I'm just... "venting." Screaming into the void. Thank you for the response and for engaging with me. I really am floundering to put it lightly. But then who isn't. All the best to you as well.
over the hump but still on the edge seems to be my vibe lately, I'm working on it o7