In a massive sign of popular support, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced last Monday the enrollment of more than 4,000 grassroots social movements, organizations and activists throughout the national territory into a new progressive coalition formed to prepare the grounds for next year’s presidential elections.

The Great Patriotic Pole, formally launched last Friday, is open to any and all organizations that wish to support the current President and assist in consolidating the country’s progressive and democratic revolution led by Chavez.

Although it is widely understood that the 7 million-strong United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) will play a key leadership role in the new coalition, participation in the umbrella organization does not depend on party membership.

“I see the Great Patriotic Pole as a network of networks where social movements maintain complete freedom and their own internal methods as well as their own identity, but they also have the consciousness to link themselves to the great network of movements that transcends the local”, Chavez said.

Referring to the registry carried out in the capital of Caracas and the central states of Miranda and Vargas as a “flood of people’s power”, the head of state gave the official count of affiliated members.

“I was looking over the numbers and we have 4,158 organizations enlisted”, he informed. While the Great Patriotic Pole will play a major role in organizing support for President Chavez’s re-election bid in 2012, it is also envisioned as a forum to stimulate debate, criticism and reflection with respect to Venezuela’s revolutionary process.

According to Lorena Freites, youth activist from the cultural group Tiuna El Fuerte in Caracas, the coalition represents “a space where the Revolution can discuss itself”.

“New spaces are being opened in order to diversify participation… It’s giving space to youth and people who felt there was no place for them. It has authentic potential because it’s arising from critical revision”, Freites said during an interview earlier this week. The activist also placed emphasis on how the Great Patriotic Pole has the capability of bringing a new participatory and revolutionary ethic to the everyday lives of residents.

“The false division between the social and the political, the ideological and the day-to-day is being transcended. By beginning to understand that there is no such division and that politics transcends everything – this is going to open the possibility that many more people feel engaged”, she asserted.

Thus far, the coalition has been joined by a wide diversity of activist groups and social movements including student, women, LGBT, indigenous, farmer and worker organizations. In terms of political parties

the Patriotic Pole has received, in addition to the backing of the PSUV, the support of both the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and a division of Patria Para Todos (PPT).

“This is part of the process that needs to continue to mature, a process that will continue to develop through debate and discussions with different sectors, social organizations, political parties and individuals so that we can advance in the consolidation of the Revolution”,