Caracas, Venezuela – En su primer día en Venezuela, el 28 de abril, la delegación de la Organización Socialista del Camino a la Libertad (FRSO) sostuvo una reunión de dos horas con miembros del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Venezuela (PCV) y líderes de la Juventud Comunista de Venezuela.

La delegación de FRSO está encabezada por el secretario de organización Tom Burke.

Los grupos compartieron sus puntos de vista sobre la lucha revolucionaria en ambos países y la importancia de la solidaridad internacional.

Pedro Eusse, un miembro del Politburó de PCV y líder sindical, dijo que “si hay algo positivo acerca de la agresión de los Estados Unidos que enfrentamos hoy, es que ha habido una explosión de solidaridad de parte de Estados Unidos y de todo el mundo”.

Ambos grupos acordaron avanzar hacia una relación de trabajo más cercana en el futuro.

#CaracasVenezuela #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #TomBurke #Socialism #DonaldTrump #CommunistPartyOfVenezuela

Caracas, Venezuela – On their first day in Venezuela, April 28, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) delegation held a two-hour meeting with members of Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) Central Committee and leaders of the Communist Youth of Venezuela.

The FRSO delegation is headed by Organizational Secretary Tom Burke.

The groups shared their views on the revolutionary struggle in both of their countries, and the importance of international solidarity.

Pedro Eusse, a PCV Politburo member and trade union leader, said “If there is anything positive about the U.S. aggression we face today, it is that there has been an explosion of solidarity from the United States and around the world.”

Both groups agreed to move towards a closer working relationship in the future.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #AntiwarMovement #OppressedNationalities #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #TomBurke #Socialism #DonaldTrump #CommunistPartyOfVenezuela

Fajardo was the dynamic leader of the campesino movement in Sur del Lago, an area in the state of Mérida where the rural class struggle is sharp. The reactionary right wing has deep roots in rural western Venezuela, and since the 2001 land reforms hundreds of campesino activists have been killed in the region.

In their statement condemning the assassination of Fajardo, the PCV stated, “For the murder of our comrade, we hold responsible the big landowners of Sur del Lago, and the corrupt members of the National Guard and local politicians that publicly threatened him.” These right-wing politicians and landowners are backed by the Trump administration, which declares that all options – including war – are on the table to overthrow the Maduro government and end the Bolivarian Revolution.

We condemn the killing of Fajardo and call on the United States to end all support for the violent far-right opposition of Venezuela. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the revolutionary masses of Venezuela and their government led by Nicolás Maduro. Hasta la victoria, comrades!

Luis Fajardo – ¡Presente!

U.S. Hands Off Venezuela!

#Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism #CommunistPartyOfVenezuela #LuisFajardo #Americas

Milwaukee, WI – For several days, tens of thousands of campesinos have marched into Caracas from every corner of Venezuela – some having traveled for weeks – calling for a revolutionary struggle to resolve the land crisis. Called the “Admirable Campesino March,” the demonstration was organized and led by a number of revolutionary groups, including the Communist Party.

Since the start of the Bolivarian Revolution there has been a vicious struggle over ownership of the land. Like the rest of South America, the clear majority of Venezuela's farmland belongs to a handful of wealthy families, many of whom trace their ancestry back to the Spanish colonizers.

Land reform began during the Chávez government, and significant portions of land were distributed to poor rural families. Yet to this day, much of the farmland is still the domain of the old Creole aristocracy. They refuse to give up their power. In the years since the land reform, hundreds of campesino activists have been assassinated by far-right Colombian paramilitaries, hired by the wealthy landlords to terrorize their revolutionary-minded workforce. Local politicians, paid off by the landlords, look the other way and many of these murders remain unresolved.

The question of the land is all the more pertinent today. Venezuela is wracked by economic crisis, spurred on by capitalist sabotage and an economic blockade enforced by the United States. Most of the country's food has to be imported, and the fear over food security could be resolved if the land belonged to those willing to produce on it. The Venezuelan masses desire national sovereignty, and this includes the ability to feed themselves.

It is in this context that the Admirable Campesino March has been undertaken. Along with their demand for revolutionary land redistribution, the campesinos demand a distribution of seeds to small farmers, justice for the families of slain campesino activists, and a national plan to achieve food sovereignty.

On August 2, President Nicolás Maduro spoke to a crowd of the marchers and gave support to their demands. At this weekend's 4th Congress of the United Socialist Party (PSUV), Maduro had called on the Venezuelan people to take actions just like the marchers, for all revolutionary forces and classes to work to develop the productive forces in order to create an independent national economy.

Maduro united with the campesinos, declaring, “the laws must be changed in order to have a revolutionary agrarian system of the 21st century, in the hands of the people.” The march leaders agreed with Maduro to hold a Great National Campesino Congress in late September with the goal of implementing the demands of the country's campesinos.

Every day millions of Venezuelans – imbued with a revolutionary consciousness only possible after decades of major social advances via the class struggle – are working to build a new society that operates in their interests. The workers and campesinos have taken it on themselves to solve the crisis they face, while the wealthy in their country and ours sneer at them, blaming their desire for freedom and socialism as the cause of their suffering. But we know the truth, and the revolutionary Venezuelan people – like their campesino comrades – march on.

#MilwaukeeWI #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #Maduro #CommunistPartyOfVenezuela

On behalf of the party, PCV Politburo member Carlos Aquino declared solidarity with the Brazilian former president and with the revolutionary and popular organizations of their neighboring country facing a right-wing onslaught.

“We should learn from this experience and reflect over what can happen in our country if the right-wing wins the [May presidential] election. Their organizations will begin an assault to dismantle the people’s achievements and persecute the social and political movements, like what is happening in Brazil and Argentina,” expressed Aquino.

However, the lesson is not unconditional support for the Venezuelan government, but rather “demonstrates that the Venezuelan popular movement must strengthen its capacity for combative mobilization so that the government resolves the grave economic and social problems hurting the working people.”

For the PCV, the only way to avoid the right retaking power in our country is the application of revolutionary means in order to leave behind the crisis of rentier-dependent capitalism.

Time of Popular Encounters in Perú

Aquino also spoke on the Latin American Gathering of Communist Parties, currently underway in Lima, which will enable the necessary articulation and coordination of the efforts of communist parties to confront the imperialist onslaught in the region.

Finally, the communist leader indicated that a PCV and Communist Youth delegation will participate in the discussions taking place this week at the Summit of the Americas, as a space for continental integration and anti-imperialist mobilization.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #Venezuela #Brazil #CommunistPartyOfVenezuela #Peru #Americas

Meeting in Caracas Feb. 26, the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) and the governing United Socialist Party (PSUV) reached a historic agreement after days of negotiation. As a result of the “PSUV-PCV Unitary Accord,” the first of its kind in the country’s revolutionary struggle, the two parties agree to work together to solve the challenges facing Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution. The PCV also agreed to endorse Nicolás Maduro for president in the upcoming April 22 election. The Unitary Accord was presented at the PCV’s Fourteenth National Conference, during which President Maduro and several top PSUV members and government ministers addressed the delegates and signed the Accord. The entire proceedings were broadcasted live by Venezuelan TV. Below is the PSUV-PCV Unitary Accord in its entirety, translated by Fight Back! staff. PSUV-PCV Unitary Accord

1. The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) — as inheritors of Simón Bolívar’s legacy and the Venezuelan people’s struggles in their desire for independence, sovereign development and Latin American integration — submit the present Unitary Programmatic Accord Framework with a common commitment to apply it in all manners, understanding that the growing immoral, illegal and criminal interventionist aggression of U.S. imperialism and its European allies against the Venezuelan Bolivarian process puts at risk the national liberation process initiated by the people’s victory and led by comandante President Hugo Chávez in the 1998 presidential elections; and endangers our national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

2. The PSUV and the PCV denounce before the world that imperialism — by means of the U.S. government and with the complicity of Latin American governments and the Venezuelan far right — wants to create a false expedient in multilateral organisms against our country to justify international intervention, with the real possibility of the right-wing governments of Colombia, Brazil and Guyana causing a provocation on our borders.

3. The PCV and the PSUV point out that the crisis of Venezuelan rentier-dependent capitalism has grave consequences on the quality of life of our people, especially in their purchasing power and ability to access goods and services. This situation has been aggravated by the actions of imperialism and its national agents, and exacerbated by public and private corruption, bureaucratism and the outflow of foreign currency, in the context of severe reduction of oil exports, against which the national government must maintain and deepen the front line struggle such as that occurring in the PDVSA [the government owned oil and gas company] and other state-owned entities.*

4. The PSUV and the PCV agree that the exit from the current capitalist crisis must not be in the interests of the bourgeoisie and the transnationals, but rather in the interests of the people, and in search of a new post-rentier productive model, of sovereign development, and of spreading protagonist participation for workers, campesinos, the communes and the people. This conforms to a great anti-imperialist front and will advance the construction of an organic instance of collective leadership of political, social, patriotic and revolutionary organizations for the analysis, construction and coordination of political actions and the running of the government.

5. The magnitude and gravity of the current situation, and the deepening class struggle on the national and international levels, merits immediate action in the political, social and economic realms, among which urgent methods must be prioritized to attend to popular needs in food and health, and in order to consolidate the victories of the patriotic forces in the upcoming presidential elections.

The Rights of the Working Class and Working People

6. The PSUV and the PCV recognizes the importance of strengthening class struggle unionism and the diverse expressions of the revolutionary workers movement, such as the productive workers’ movements, the socialist workers’ councils, approving the Special Law established by the LOTTT** and all other revolutionary worker organizational forms, respecting their autonomy, and developing effective channels so that public and private sector workers can play the leading role in developing the social process of work.

7. Taking account of the deepening capitalist crisis which impacts broad sectors of the working class, it is important to strengthen and reinforce labor rights, employment protection and broaden new employment policies.

8. The PSUV and the PCV will work in unison according to the reach of each organization, from the government and socio-political spaces, to identify and channel the restitution of workers’ rights that are infringed upon in already-occurring cases or that present themselves in public and private entities.

9. To review denunciations made by revolutionary organizations against the actions of public officials and immediately apply the necessary correctives.

10. To decisively advance the proper productive chain of nationalized companies, which must be revitalized to reverse the processes of dismantlement and deterioration that could lead to the harmful paralysis of national productive development, as well as protecting and institutionally supporting campesino collectives that have reactivated state-owned funds.

11. The PSUV and the PCV will evaluate the experiences of workers’ control, such as the Socialist Guayana Plan, in order to establish a new model of state-owned company leadership, under worker and popular control for the processes of production, administration and distribution of goods and services, based in collective leadership, to definitively banish the scourge of corruption, inefficiency and anti-democratic methods within their management.

12. To promote and implement decisive actions on the part of the National Supervision in Defense of Socio-Economic Rights (SUNDDE) and the Supervision of Institutions of the Banking Sector (SUDEBAN), in unison with the popular organizations, with the goal of protecting the millions of users of banking services, particularly salaried employees, pensioners and small business owners.

13. We consider it pertinent and urgent to adopt and deepen measures aimed at dismantling the power of private monopolies, and define and carry out policies to achieve sovereign and productive development, punishing the corrupt, speculators and mafia types; to promote the deepening and carrying out of policies for national, sovereign and productive development.

14. To recognize formal work with rights as an activity that provides dignity for human beings, as well as to strengthen wages and restore them as the principle and majority component of the earnings of workers.

Methods to Analyze with Great Profundity

15. The PSUV and the PCV, in bilateral and periodic meetings, will analyze the strategic proposals currently being outlined by the PCV to assist in the good development of government plans and policies in order to benefit the people and achieve national liberation, among them:

15.1 Themes around the banking and financial system, imports, public financing, and the tax system.

Strengthening of political organizational action

16. The PSUV and the PCV will identify areas of common action that must be strengthened politically and organizationally.