Americas

The US Marxists analyse the situation that is developing in the USA, dealing with the deepening economic crisis, the impact of the ongoing war in Iraq, the upcoming elections and the future that awaits the US workers and youth.

A public round-table discussion on the theory of Permanent Revolution and the ideas of Leon Trotsky, and how these ideas are now shaping the revolution in Venezuela, Cuba, and the rest of Latin America. Leading the discussion will be Celia Hartand Jorge Martin.

The question of setting up factory committees has been posed in Venezuela. Because some of those putting forward this idea belong to the reformist wing of the Bolivarian movement, the leadership of the UNT unions instead of promoting them have come out against them. Marxists on the other hand view this as an opportunity to promote genuine workers' control from below.

A group of 113 professors, teachers, lawyers, writers, artists and trade unionists, among them members of the Black Socialist Movement and the Esquerda Marxista tendency, have signed an open letter expressing their concern at the Federal Supreme Court's latest proposals on "racial quotas".

The Movement of the Occupied Factories in Brazil is a glorious chapter in the struggle of the working class. Last year the courts and the police intervened in an attempt to smash the movement. In spite of everything it still survives at the Flaskô plastics factory in Sumaré, Sao Paulo. Here we provide an account of the struggle of the Flaskô workers and background to the movement as a whole.

The mass media in the west continue to pump out lies about what is happening in Bolivia. They claim the oligarchy in Santa Cruz has won support from the people for "autonomy". We provide the facts that show the opposite is the case. Reaction is spurring on the masses to step up their revolutionary offensive.

The attempt of the Bolivian oligarchy to use the referendum on autonomy as a lever to push forward their reactionary agenda has failed. They failed to get the votes they required, and at the same time they have enraged the masses of workers and peasants, who have risen once more in huge mobilisations.

About 800 demonstrated in Montreal on May Day, facing a brutal intervention of the police, while on May 3rd the official union rally attracted around 50,000, significantly up on last year's numbers.

14 students at UofT, including Canadian Marxists active with Fightback, have been arrested on false charges for fighting for free education. The charges include assaulting a police officer and forcible confinement, which could lead to serious jail time. The University is trying to crush this movement under repression before it takes off. Solidarity action is needed now!

The oligarchy in Bolivia has launched a major challenge to the Evo Morales government in the form of a referendum on an "Autonomous Statute" in the Eastern Department of Santa Cruz. They are using this question to mobilise the forces of counter-revolution. Morales must stop dithering and take firm action.

Inflation in the USA is rising across the board. And it's not just housing, gasoline, heating, transportation, health care and education. The cost of that most basic of all necessities - food - is now also quickly rising for American workers and their families.

After the recent elections, Fernando Lugo, of the Patriotic Alliance for Change will become the President of Paraguay. He leads a contradictory coalition, but he is clearly the expression of the deep-seated desire of the masses for serious social change.

Six years after the coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez was defeated by the magnificent mobilization of the masses, the contradictions within the Venezuelan revolution are as sharp as ever.