Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Venezuela

The PCMLV was founded in 2009 by activists who had broken with the orthodox communist tradition represented in Venezuela by the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV), which they consider to have moved toward reformism.^[1] It traces its theoretical lineage to the Enver Hoxha-influence current that broke with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union after the 20th Congress and later opposed the line of Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party as well.^{[citation needed]}

The organization operates largely outside the official electoral system and is described by its own members as working partially underground.^{[citation needed]} Many of its activists are linked to the trade-union struggle within the pro-government Bolivarian Socialist Central of Workers (CBST) and to mass-based fronts active in selected regions of the country, particularly the states of Lara, Carabobo, Bolívar and the Capital District of Caracas.^{[citation needed]}

The PCMLV identifies itself as a Marxist–Leninist party that claims the legacy of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Enver Hoxha. According to its statutes, the party advocates a "popular democratic revolution" leading to socialism and, ultimately, communism. It defends the use of all forms of struggle available to the working class and oppressed peoples, ranging from struggles for partial reforms to armed popular insurrection, and explicitly rejects electoral activity within what it calls the "bourgeois parliament" as the party's sole avenue of action.^[2]

The party does not share the political line of the more established Communist Party of Venezuela, which it considers reformist and contrary to the interests of the proletariat. It is also openly critical of Chavismo, the political current associated with the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which it characterizes as "revisionist" and reformist. Despite these criticisms, the PCMLV has supported the Venezuelan government in what it describes as a common struggle against imperialism, and one of its short-term aims is the building of a broad anti-imperialist popular front including left-wing organizations regardless of their differences.^[2]

Unlike many other parties of the Venezuelan left, the PCMLV is also critical of the contemporary governments of China and Russia, which it characterizes as "imperialist".^[2]

The party has promoted a number of mass-front organizations, including "Los Gayones" and "Gayones del Campo"; the Revolutionary Socialist University Front (FURS); the "Ana Soto" Women's Front; and broader fronts such as Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Popular Unity (UPRA) and the Anti-fascist and Anti-imperialist Youth Current (CJAA). The CJAA is the organizer of the Anti-fascist and Anti-imperialist Youth Camps.^{[citation needed]}

The PCMLV is a member of the International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) (ICMLPO), an international grouping of Enver Hoxha-influenced parties.^{[citation needed]}

• Communist Party of Venezuela
• List of political parties in Venezuela