Andrea Pacheco is a student of the School of Political Studies at the Central University of Venezuela. At 22, she is also member of Youth United Socialist Party of Venezuela (JPSUV) and the youth movement of Marea Socialista, a group of radical leftists in the PSUV. We met last May at the first national meeting of young people of Marea Socialista in Caracas. ( Photo: Fernando Esteban )
What assessment do you do with the election of 10 young militants of the PSUV in primaries for parliamentary elections in September?
First, we read of these primaries that 44% of applicants are under 30 years. This means that he really is a sense of renewal that spoke from the base of the PSUV. This means that people no longer wanted the same and it also reflects the need to renew the party cadres. Finally I think it's very positive for the youth that these comrades are involved as owners, to a lesser extent, and in a greater percentage as alternates.
I also think that this need for renewal is likely to strengthen during the elections of 26 September. Despite the fact that these young people are already known, however, they have never held important positions either in government departments, or elsewhere. They need to discuss actually with the base of youth and they strengthen the JPSUV through their applications. Because they are members of the JPSUV, they were not, however candidates from a debate within the JPSUV. This means they are actually candidates of JPSUV convene only when the basis of youth to build a program, an alternative, and thus strengthen the organization of the youth.
What is your opinion regarding the political dynamics within the JPSUV?
Youth Marea Socialista attended the founding convention two years ago. But since there were many organizational problems. The JPSUV does not organize its basic cells as such. There are very few that work at the national level and very little lead active work in political, community or culture. In reality, there are many more cultural or community initiatives from small isolated group of students organized as a youth at the national level with channels of communication that would ensure a real democratic centralism type operation. The dynamics of JPSUV has so far been relatively sparse.
Explaining that in recent years this is the right which is the most successful in attracting young ?
In Venezuela the number of students has increased (by almost 300%) to the extent that the revolutionary government has created mechanisms to integrate population education in middle and upper. But the student movement which is taken as reference by the media and in terms of mobilization, usually comes autonomous universities. It is a movement that once was part of the most radical left the country, against the governments of the Fourth Republic, but today we see that the revolution has not won in its ranks this sector middle class, which is that these universities but also schools.
There has been a process of élitisation autonomous universities in the early 90 (strengthening of admission, decreased free services to students such as scholarships, transportation, etc.). Today's middle and upper classes are those that dominate these institutions. All this has intensified in recent years when the leftists (mainly professors and student leaders) began to assume positions of government. There was also an expulsion of many executives revolutionary students of the Central University of Venezuela in 2001, which has strongly influenced the student movement. The current situation is a consequence of the fact that we have abandoned the university and that this gradual élitisation, combined with a speech very unattractive for the youth, prevented us to have mass influence. JPSUV basically has no specific policy in relation to this area. The only action that took place were sectarian and helped expel the university students, to polarize them, refer them over to the right instead of trying to win the event, to interact with them.
"Youth do not may feel excited by the speech of young people who call to defend the government, which called to defend the law, to defend the police "
Another point is that the positions espoused by Chavez student leaders tend to be conservative. Today those who throw stones are students right! Unlike the 1980s, today it is the left who asked not to go demonstrate, to remain in class, not to strike. Instead, we Marea Socialista young people think we're in a transition period of the transformation of the bourgeois state. And it is precisely because we are in a transition phase it is necessary to throw stones, it is necessary to claim, to organize. We do not need to defend the vices of the bourgeois state!
This speech defending the state alienates youth earned a more radical discourse. Youth, especially youth and students of universities, has historically been the trigger for many revolts and revolutions. As was the case during the May 68 in France, Cordobazo in Argentina, or the fall of the dictatorship of General Pérez Jiménez in Venezuela here. Youth can feel enthusiastic about the speech of young people who invite to defend the government, which called to defend the law, to defend the police.
What is the position of Youth of Marea Socialista, in order not to fall in claims from the right but not play the game of the bureaucracy?
Youth of Marea Socialista is born precisely from this characterization: the various student movements in the process decreased significantly. Many organizations were born with the revolution that limit youth, they prevent the continued participation of their members, they impose the political line. And finally what are organizations that are negotiating positions and privileges for students and executives who do not help to further the process.
This allowed Marea Socialista to the debate on the table and make a proposal: to organize an autonomous youth that does not depend, in terms of its political line, of any State institution, which includes a young internationalist that socialism is not possible in a single country, it is necessary to extend it, to stand together and especially to bet on the organization of revolutionary sectors in other countries. We want to build a youth class that understands its role as a student movement that attempts to amplify articulation with the labor movement.
How was constructed Youth Marea Socialista internally, how did it evolve? Marea Socialista
is essentially a stream of workers born with the creation of the PSUV. Marea Socialista has developed its youth movement since last year. The fact that we try to build a national youth is an important step. Initially we were active on Caracas today we are trying to make contacts in other states and national campaigns. We want to create a Youth that actually exists, is active in the struggles and is not just a list.
interview published in the journal Inprecor August / September 2010
0 comments:
Post a Comment