Venezuela: Revolutionary vignettes. Part 3: Chirino and Chomsky, ultraleft and bourgeois critics of the Bolivarian revolution While I was in Venezuela a number of comrades asked me about some manifesto against “Chavez's attacks on trade union rights” and also about the controversy over a letter Noam Chomsky had signed which the bourgeois media had used in their campaign in defence of “human rights” in Venezuela.
Venezuela: Revolutionary vignettes. Part 2: Workers' councils sabotaged by the bureaucracy As part of my recent trip to Venezuela I was invited to speak about the world crisis of capitalism and the class struggle in Europe at two meetings of PDVSA oil workers in Monagas, in the east of the country. One of the meetings took place in Maturín, the capital of the state and where the PDVSA management for the Eastern Region is based, and the other one in the PDVSA installations in Punta de Mata, a city built around a massive oil field.
USA: What Does the Bi-Partisan Debt-Ceiling "Compromise" Mean for Workers? A deal to raise the debt ceiling has now been reached, after weeks of incredible fear-mongering on the part of both bosses’ parties and Wall Street, and will reach the President’s desk by the deadline on August 2nd. The contents of the final agreement remain rather vague, but the broad outline is enough to make clear what it means for workers in the U.S.