Venezuela

The article in Solidarity 3/54, 'Socialist Appeal woos Hugo Chavez' has made me wonder what Workers' Liberty is actually about. Your article makes Alan Woods sound like a cross between Uriah Heap and Tony Blair. Fortunately for the Marxist movement he is neither of these things. Alan Woods' perspective on this issue is well thought-out and sensible to those of us living in the real world. To build on what you have available is a sound revolutionary tactic. With the absence of a mass Marxist movement, it makes sense for the Marxists to form cadres in the workers' parties and movements. This is...

The Battle of Venezuela , Michael McCaughan, Latin America Bureau, 166 pages, £7.99 (2004). Since Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998, Venezuela has experienced enormous upheaval, including a military coup and two-month long bosses' lockout and insurgency. In August Chávez faces a referendum on his presidency, after the opposition collected enough signatures to force the vote. This was a provision Chávez introduced in his new constitution five years ago and if successful, it may mean another presidential election and possibly his departure from power. This book by journalist Michael...

What is the role of Marxists in politics? To tell the truth to the working class, to instill a sense of what Gramsci called 'the pessimism of the intellect'. It is to map out a path for independent working class politics, so that the working class can emancipate itself, take power and bring about a socialist society. That is so far from the political method of the tendency associated with Ted Grant - known as 'In Defence of Marxism' (IDM) and publishing Socialist Appeal in Britain. So far that it has become enamoured with the 'Bolivarian revolution' in Venezuela to the extent that it provides...

Moving on up? Massive BAE bungs Feudal blues Siberian blues Viva, left of centre politicians! Moving on up? Residents of Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest have been promised that should London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics goes ahead, their boroughs will benefit from 'the most significant urban and environmental regeneration ever seen in London'. However, many of them won't be around to see it. That's because Ken Livingstone's London Development Agency (LDA) are threatening residents of the proposed Olympic site with Compulsory Purchase Orders if they don't agree to sell...

French strikes over: we'll be back 50th anniversary of East German uprising Strike wave in South Korea tests the new president Zimbabwe extends strike bans Demonstration against Lula's government Cambodian police kill demonstrators No jobs for sacked Venezuelan oil workers Celebrate 100 years of the car industry? ICFTU figures for deaths of trade unionists French strikes over: we'll be back The inspiring fight of French workers against the Chirac-Raffarin government's plans to cut their pensions is over. The legislation is going through parliament where the government has a massive majority...

by Richard Gott (Verso) Richard Gott is one of those upper class Stalinists whose hatred of imperialism has led them to embrace all kinds of reactionary and populist forces. Gott’s affection for Third World despots is notorious — and finds expression in this book in some sycophancy towards “world statesmen of the calibre of Saddam Hussein, Gadafy and Khatami”. Chairman Mao, Fidel Castro and a host of other tyrants all get a nod and a wink — and of the working class we hear virtually nothing. So it’s no surprise to find that this book is an uncritical, simpering eulogy of the beleagured...

By Oona Swann Venezuela is still in the grip of a general strike/lockout - a strike organised by the bosses. The oil industry is most affected, whose management are the promoters of the "strike", along with CTV (union federation). It was the President, Chavez' attempts to replace these managers which led to a first coup attempt against him in April this year. Then, the shooting at an anti-Chavez demonstration led to bosses' leader Carmona seizing power, at the head of a section of the armed forces. Within hours pro-Chavez supporters had taken to the streets and forced Carmona to step down. In...

Over the weekend of 12-14 April, Venezuela witnessed its elected president Hugo Chavez deposed by a coup, and then promptly reinstated when the coup collapsed. The immediate cause of the coup was Chavez's appointment of political allies to top posts in the state oil monopoly, PDVSA. A protest general strike was organised by the right wing unions of the Centre of Venezuelan Workers (CTV) federation, backed by the employers' federation, on Tuesday 9 April. By Thursday this opposition had organised a 100,000-200,000-strong demonstration, with private TV stations airing adverts supporting the...

This analysis is taken from a contribution by Rafael Bernabe to a discussion in the US socialist group Solidarity. Chavez is a mixed bag. A nationalist and populist of military origin, he rose as a leader of a radicalized sector in the military, opposed to the neoliberal corrupt regimes of the 80s and 90s. He and his close sector model themselves on Torrijos from Panama and others like him. His political movement was strongly shaped by left wing advisors, such as Rangel (minister of defense), Miquilena and others coming from the CP and points left. His performance has been contradictory. Some...