Hugo Chavez's Call for a Fifth Socialist International

Recently
a conference was held in Caracas, Venezuela that included
representatives from socialist and left parties from around the world
and that culminated in an official statement, referred to as The
Commitment of Caracas. As reported by Venezuela Analysis, one of the
points included in this statement was reference to a call by Hugo
Chavez, President of Venezuela, for the formation of a Fifth
International in order to promote the defeat of capitalism and the
creation of “Socialism of the 21st Century.”

This conference and the official statement hold tremendous
significance for socialists in particular and the working class in
general around the world. It contains several points we wish to
highlight.

First, the statement calls for the replacement of capitalism by
socialism, pointing out that capitalism threatens the survival of
humanity as well as the survival of all life, because capitalism
combines “the economic crisis, with an ecological crisis, a food crisis
and an energy crisis.”

Second, some parties that have signed the statement, for example,
from Venezuela and Bolivia, are large, mass political organizations,
which means that powerful resources may be available for the creation
of a world socialist movement.

Third, it calls for an “ideological debate on the fundamental aspects of the process of construction of socialism.”

Fourth, it recognizes that the Third International degenerated under
Stalinism, which betrayed struggles for socialism around the world.

Finally, and most importantly, as already mentioned, the statement
of the conference notes that it “received” the call by Hugo Chavez for
the creation of a Fifth International and voted to “create a WORKING
GROUP comprised of those socialist parties, currents and social
movements who endorse the initiative, to prepare an agenda which
defines the objectives, contents and mechanisms of this global
revolutionary body.” The conference also called for a “constitutive
event” in Caracas in April 2010 that would aim at organizing this new
international.

This call for the creation of a Fifth International can serve as a
lightning rod for uniting socialist parties and social movements around
the world in order to magnify by many times the power of the movement
for socialism. The new totality, achieved on an international basis,
will be far greater than the sum of its constituent parts. Moreover, in
countries where socialist parties currently do not exist or are small
and lack any substantial power, the Fifth International has the
potential to serve as a pole of attraction, thereby overcoming the
isolation and accompanying sense of hopelessness and demoralization of
those fighting for a better world. It can therefore serve as an
indispensable tool in helping working people around the world organize
themselves in order to fight against the routine daily assaults of
capitalism that are throwing increasing numbers of humanity into abject
poverty and completely destroying the environment while at the same
time making a tiny minority obscenely rich.

By joining such an international, socialist parties will be able to
translate their aspirations for a better world into a framework that
can realistically hope to achieve revolutionary change. It has the
potential to forge the indispensable link between theory and practice.

This Fifth International can promote the strategical approach
embodied in united front structures that can unite working people
around the world in opposition to the capitalist class that oppresses
them. The united front brings together working people, although they
might adhere to different political points of view or persuasions, in
order to unite workers as workers rather than as members of a single
political party. In other words, it unites working people as a class
and in this respect promotes the development of class consciousness.
Therefore, it encourages working people to act independently of the
capitalist class in defense of their own interests, as opposed to their
feeling compelled to support one capitalist candidate or another in
exchange for a few crumbs.

Moreover, the united front approach is an attempt to win the
majority of the working class to a revolutionary perspective by
organizing workers, first and foremost, to put up a fight in defense of
their interests. It begins with those issues that workers themselves
want to win and are prepared to fight for, no matter how modest these
issues might be from a revolutionary perspective. In this respect, the
united front approach is distinguished from the approach of social
democrats, who are fundamentally reformists and do not want to put up a
fight. The social democrats look to the capitalists to give workers
some gains and are prepared to accept anything that comes their way, or
nothing. The united front approach is also distinguished from the
approach of the ultra leftists or sectarians who are only prepared to
support a struggle if it exhibits a sufficiently revolutionary content.
For example, the united front approach is prepared to take up a
struggle for higher wages, if that is what workers want and if that is
all they are prepared to fight for. The ultra leftists or sectarians
insist on injecting more revolutionary demands into the struggle, even
at the expense of alienating all, or almost all, the workers in the
process. The united front approach, by encouraging workers to put up a
fight, establishes a link between the day-to-day struggles of workers
on the one hand and the struggle for socialism on the other hand,
because the act of standing up and organizing a fight has the potential
to fundamentally alter the consciousness of all those involved and
raise it in a revolutionary direction. When this is achieved, the
relation of forces between workers and capitalists is changed to the
advantage of the working class.

Although the call for the Fifth International deserves enthusiastic
support, those who respond must be vigilant, since the road ahead can
contain many pitfalls. One must not allow this international
unwittingly to degenerate into another social democratic formation,
where instead of fighting for socialism, members are content to reform
capitalism. In fact, some of the formulations in the Commitment of
Caracas leave open the possibility of being interpreted as endorsing
such a deviation. For example, the statement declared: “One of the
epicenters of the capitalist crisis is in the economic domain; this
highlights the limitations of unbridled free markets ruled by private
monopolies.” This might be read by some to imply that what is needed
are government regulated free markets that are ruled by multiple
private businesses that compete against one another.

The fight for socialism, like everything really worthwhile, will be
a long, arduous struggle. Using the classical Marxist framework as a
point of departure, the essential ingredients of socialism include the
following:

1. The fundamental pillars of the economy are nationalized and
operates according to a plan that has been determined democratically by
the entire population. Hence, it will serve the needs of the people,
not the profit margins of a rich minority at everyone else’s expense.

2. The people democratically control the government. The government does not control the people.

3. Quality education (through college) and health care are
considered basic human rights and are free. Quality housing is
available to all at affordable prices.

4. Everyone is guaranteed a well-paying job. People are rewarded
first and foremost according to how much work they perform. By
guaranteeing work for everyone, as opposed to the capitalist system of
condemning large numbers of working people to the ranks of the
unemployed, the workweek can be reduced.

5. The environment is cleaned up and pollution is eliminated.

6. Government administrators can be recalled at any time and may not be paid more than working people.