Great Patriotic Pole

The Simón Bolívar Great Patriotic Pole (Spanish: Gran Polo Patriótico Simón Bolívar, GPPSB[1]) is a left-wing socialist electoral alliance/popular front of Venezuelan political parties created in 2012 to support the re-election of Hugo Chávez in the 2012 presidential election.[2]

Simón Bolívar Great Patriotic Pole Gran Polo Patriótico Simón Bolívar
Leader	Nicolás Maduro
Founder	Hugo Chávez
Founded	7 October 2011 (2011-10-07)
Ideology	Bolivarianism Chavismo Left-wing nationalism Marxism–Leninism Left-wing populism Socialism of the 21st century Socialism
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
Colors	Orange, blue, red, yellow
Seats in the National Assembly	253 / 277
Governors of States	20 / 23
Mercosur	6 / 23
Mayors	306 / 337
Website
www.granpolopatriotico.org.ve
Politics of Venezuela Political parties Elections

The organisation, which "formally unites 35,000 Venezuelan movements and collectives",[3] is led by Nicolás Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV). Although the coalition shares a name with the "Sovereign Front" of the 1998 presidential election, the 1998 coalition was one of political parties, and did not include the wide range of social movements and community organisations involved in the GPP. For example, in Mérida state the GPP includes "[m]ovements such as the Tupamaros, the Educational Community Socialist Front, the Frebin (the Bolivarian Front of Researchers and Innovators), the student movement Community Integration, the comrades in the rural workers front- the Campesino Front Ezequiel Zamora, the popular educators network, the Women’s Bicentennial Front, and... Tatuy TV".[3]

A member of the regional promoter team of the GPP in Mérida state said in February 2012:

in order to form the GPP, there are a range of stages to go through. The first stage was the formation of the national promoter team, which was sworn in and approved by the president. It is made up of 153 comrades, spokespeople of different collectives at a national level. That stage ended with the national registration in October 2011. Next came the second stage of regrouping, which are the ongoing meetings of all the collectives registered in the GPP. After that, which is where we are at now, comes the stage of carrying out the popular assemblies of the GPP. These are where the planning, decision making, and debating of all those participating in the GPP takes place. Finally, there is a last stage, which consists of the national congress, or the national popular assembly, with President Chavez. That will be held on 13 April this year and it’s where the new proposals for the national organisation will be discussed and voted on.[3]