Maduro Announces Proposals to Renew the Revolution
Dec. 12, 2015
Reprinted from TeleSUR
The Venezuelan president and chief representative of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Nicolas Maduro, announced on Thursday the findings of his party’s third Socialist Congress to protect the Bolivarian ideas and national sovereignty. The meeting followed the December 6 elections, in which the right won a parliamentary majority.
Miguel Jaimes, an oil geopolitics expert, told teleSUR that the Bolivarian Revolution is ready to face this new stage, overcoming obstacles and deepening its work with the Venezuelan people. He noted that in 16 years, the government has implemented policies that can sustain any offensive against the nation, especially the economic war of the past several years.
He also said that, “There is a resurgence of the right in South America, and the most important loot to dole out is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. It is important to remember that the country has partnerships with a core group of states in South America and the Caribbean. Many countries around the world are nobly saluting the offensive policy led by the Bolivarian Revolution.”
Some excerpts from the conclusions of the meeting:
1. Hold a meeting with the Presidential Councils of Popular Power
Maduro announced a Saturday meeting to develop a methodological and strategic framework and map out strengths and weaknesses.
The presidential councils were created for the people to articulate public policies and projects, with the support of the national executive, and boost the transformation and defense of the country.
2. Set up the Economic Congress of Socialist Thought
“Economics is not a speech,” said Maduro, “I felt alone in this battle against imperialism, in this economic war.” He proposed to convene a triumvirate meeting on Wednesday and establish the Economic Congress of Socialist Thought. The project will aim to address the crisis provoked by the economic war.
The Venezuelan president noted that in 2015, Venezuela suffered a 68 percent drop in oil revenues, despite no cuts in social investment. “This year, we paid US$14 million of external debt,” he said. He added that the financial blockade, part of the economic war, made debt refinance especially difficult.
3. Invoke a permanent working session for the revolutionary counteroffensive
The counteroffensive must go beyond politics and transcend the human, “popular, spiritual, territorial, economic, military,” said Maduro. “A national revolutionary counteroffensive (must be) comprehensive because we are facing a counter-revolutionary crisis.”
He commended the efforts of the PSUV in the elections last Sunday.
“They battled like soldiers of Bolivar, you are heroes of the people,” he said, emphasizing that, “the people are not demoralized or beaten.”
4. Update the Government Efficiency in the Streets program
He said he requested support to begin a new model in January of government efficiency in the streets, to be deployed in the next four years. The program was launched to work on security and peace, revolutionary economics, social work, people’s power, electricity access and efficiency in government institutions.
He suggested that each state’s proposal must be concrete and establish new methodologies to boost economic and social sectors.
5. Renew revolutionary communication
“We have to renew our discourse, form, content and media,” the president proposed.
He urged members of the PSUV’s Commission of Propaganda, Agitation and Communication to review discursive strategies and practices currently implemented.
He further proposed establishing communication channels in favor of the Bolivarian Revolution.
6. Reinvigorate reform at all levels
Maduro called to propel reconstruction of the majority through repolarization, repoliticization and reunification.
He also denounced the media onslaught launched by the national and international extreme right that has sought to undermine the revolutionary morale of the people. Their media, he said, works in the service of the imperialist and oligarchical elite.
Renewal of the PSUV
The leader called for an immediate renewal and strengthening of all national, regional and municipal management of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. In light of the declared restructuring, he called on the Great Patriotic Pole to help propose names for the renewal process of the Bolivarian Government.
Economic coup continues
The Venezuelan leader repeated that Venezuela is suffering from an international financial blockade that impedes both the progress of the country’s economic system and the fight against the economic war waged by the Venezuelan right, backed by foreign powers.
“It’s indirect blockade, an internal boycott of distribution, commercialization and pricing,” he said.
He added that imperial powers “have decided to destroy the inclusive and egalitarian model of the Revolution. It’s a class struggle between the parasitic bourgeois elite and the people.”
Who participated in the Congress?
The plenary gathered 842 PSUV delegates representing all territorial regions of the party, the national leadership, 43 militants from the Francisco de Miranda Front and socialist deputies from the current National Assembly.
What was discussed?
The meeting looked at the report of the 2015 parliamentary elections, which set up 11 working groups “to discuss and analyze the political situation, the views and actions of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela facing the new horizon of the Bolivarian Revolution.”
Why did they meet?
The special meeting was part of a series convened by President Nicolas Maduro to strengthen the unity of the movement and develop strategies to invigorate the Bolivarian Revolution after the parliamentary elections on Sunday.
The Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), that joins the main right-wing parties in Venezuela, won the majority of seats in the National Assembly (109), against the 55 of the Great Patriotic Pole and the 3 indigenous representatives.