Americas

Almost one year has passed since Lucio Gutierrez was ousted from power, overthrown by the rising of big sectors of the Ecuadorian population. His replacement, the former vice-president Alfredo Palacio, has not managed to solve any of the fundamental problems that led to the April 2005 rising. Great contradictions are accumulating and will sooner or later explode in new revolutionary events.

The heroic mobilisation of the petrol workers of Las Heras (Argentina) lasted for two weeks and has unleashed the fury of the ruling class and its agents in the government, the judiciary, the media and the police. Here we launch a petition for the support committee of these workers in order to collect signatures and solidarity messages in support of their demands. We have also issued a financial appeal for the workers’ strike fund, to help them in their struggle.

Now that the Havana Book Fair is over we can give a general overview of the event. Over half a million people attended, and for the second year running we, the Spanish Frederick Engels Foundation, were there with our publications. Again there was keen interest in Trotsky’s works. The Cuban edition of Reason in Revolt is selling very well, and there are plans for a Cuban edition of Alan Woods’ book on Venezuela.

The last leg of Alan Woods’ speaking tour of Cuba was in Santiago de Cuba. He spoke at two meetings at the Universidad de Oriente. There was keen interest and people noted the difference between genuine Marxism and the stale old Soviet manuals. A large part of the discussion was dedicated to the situation in Venezuela. Alan insisted that the revolution in Venezuela “will not be completed until a radical expropriation of the capitalist class takes place”.

In the face of mass demonstrations against the fraud in Haiti’s elections the Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti has been forced to declare René Préval the winner and the next president of Haiti. The masses have come out onto the streets in celebration, justifiably jubilant and euphoric at their victory. However, these elections have solved none of the problems the Haitian masses face, and the reactionary opposition has not been completely defeated. What is needed now is determination and vigilance against the forces of counter-revolution.

Mass demonstrations have erupted in Haiti over the manipulation of the results of last week's election. René Préval, the front runner, and the choice of the overwhelming majority of the Haitian people, has seen his percentage of the votes fall from as high as 65% to 48%, just under the 50% needed to avoid a run off. The vote tallies are clearly being manipulated and the Haitian people have had enough.

More than 65 people gathered on Monday, February 13th at the Casa Don Fernando Ortiz of the Havana University for the second launch of Reason in Revolt in Havana. The launch had been jointly organised by the Spanish Marxist publishing house F. Engels Foundation and the Cuban Ciencias Sociales, which have jointly printed the first Cuban edition of the book.

On February 9th, Alan Woods was invited to speak at the Centre of European Studies (CEE) in Havana. The meeting was attended by researchers from the CEE, journalists and members of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos, ICAP). The main theme of the discussion was the state of the class struggle in Europe.

Alan Woods’ visit to Cuba has had an important echo, in particular in the official news agencies of Cuba and Venezuela, such as Prensa Latina and the Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN) and Cuban TV. They refer to the book Reason in Revolt written by Alan together with Ted Grant. Significantly, they also quote key elements of Alan’s speech in which he highlights the fact that to guarantee the victory of the revolution in Venezuela it is necessary to expropriate the capitalists and landlords. To view the texts and photos that have been published by these agencies we are providing the links.

Yesterday the Cuban edition of Reason in Revolt was launched at the Havana Book Fair with Alan Woods and Adan Chavez speaking. A common thread in the discussion was that there was an urgent need for such a book, which demonstrates the validity of dialectical materialism and how it can be applied to all spheres of life, in particular scientific study. The publication of the book in Cuba is a tremendous achievement and hopefully more such publications will be forthcoming in the near future.

In every country on earth, working people face the same conditions: attacks on wages and benefits, speedups, layoffs, broken contracts, sell-outs, and an all around lack of respect by the bosses.  The Soldiers of Solidarity, initiated by rank and file members of the United Auto Workers, are saying: "Enough is Enough!"  Their struggle to organize against these attacks has inspired working people internationally.  We call on all workers in the U.S. and around the world, organized and unorganized, as well as the youth - the workers of tomorrow - to support their efforts 100 percent. Click ...

The Spanish Frederick Engels Foundation, after last year’s successful intervention, is once more at the Havana Book Fair, which opened over the weekend. Last year there was great interest in Trotsky’s works. This year the intervention will have an even higher profile with Alan Woods speaking at the fair, launching the Cuban edition of Reason In Revolt. He will also speak at several other meetings.