Americas

Last November 6 in the evening, on the eve of another anniversary of the October Revolution, around five hundred young Cubans gathered to celebrate the occasion. Still, those who find this piece of news unlikely or perplexing, regardless of what side they’re on, should make an extra reading for good measure: that’s right, Cuban youths hailed the Revolution.

The two-month long series of congressional assemblies of the PSUV in Venezuela recently came to an end. The debates in the congress clearly indicate that a left-right polarisation is taking place within the party, with the rank and file seeking a revolutionary way out and a right-wing bureaucracy that is trying to mould the party to its own outlook.

The situation in the USA is one of increasing crises. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to trail on, costing nearly $275 million per day. The situation at home is one of increasing unemployment and continual crisis in the housing and credit markets. US workers will be called on to go to the polls to elect a party of big business, but this era of crises will only serve to cause more people to question the world in which they live. Editorial for Socialist Appeal Issue 37.

Alan Woods' introduction to the latest book from Wellred USA. The book includes four Marxist classics: the Communist Manifesto, Socialism: Scientific and Utopian, State and Revolution, and the Transitional Program.  It is intended to introduce readers in the USA to the most fundamental aspects of Marxist theory. Available from Wellred USA.

The assassination of Raúl Reyes and 18 other FARC guerrillas exposes the real intentions of the Colombian state and the US government. With this massacre, the Uribe government and American imperialism aim to derail the negotiations over the release of hostages and thus deny any peace in Colombia, and at the same time prepare for more acts of aggression against the unfolding revolution in Venezuela and Ecuador.

A very successful first public meeting of El Militante Bolivia was held on February 28 in Potosí with 35 people taking part, some of whom expressed an interest in joining El Militante. All this while the city was erupting in mass rioting in protest against economic sabotage being carried out by the oligarchy.

This was the fourth time that the F. Engels Foundation was present on the Havana International Book Fair. The results could not have been better, with a marked increase in the sale of books and documents from last year.

At the beginning of February the Esquerda Marxista (Marxist Left) group in Brazil held its congress, where they unanimously voted in favour of their affiliation to the International Marxist Tendency. The addition of this important grouping, which gathers within its ranks leaders of the occupied factories, of the Black Socialist Movement, important trade unionists and many revolutionary youth, marks a major milestone in the building of a genuine Marxist International in Latin America and the world.

Obama may well end up being the official Democratic candidate in the US Presidential elections. But what kind of an alternative is he? Luiz Bicalho, a leading member of Esquerda Marxista in Brazil, explains that Obama promises many things but remains a defender of capitalism. The answer is not Obama. The answer is an independent party of the US working class fighting to change society.

This year, for the first time one of Trotsky's key works, the Revolution Betrayed, was presented by the Frederick Engels Foundation at the Havana Book Fair, stimulating big interest. A special edition of a theoretical magazine on China, including the analysis of the International Marxist Tendency on this subject was also being sold. It is clear that a layer of the most conscious workers and youth in Cuba are looking far a Marxist alternative to the prospect of "market economics" being reintroduced to the

...

As the news came out about Castro not standing again for president, the comrades manning the Frederick Engels Foundation at the Havana Book Fair sent us their impressions of how people are reacting and what situation is opening up in Cuba.

On Tuesday, February 19, Fidel Castro announced he was no longer going to stand for the position as President of Cuba. All the talk in the bourgeois is of the need to remove the regime, but there is no mention of the real social gains of the Cuban Revolution. We do not stand with these vultures. We defend the Cuban Revolution by working for an all-Latin American and international revolution.

In January we interviewed Luis Enrique Barrios, a leading member of the Mexican Marxist Tendency Militante. He explains how the struggle against electoral fraud has led to heightened working class militancy, such as the struggle of the miners, and it is merely a question of time before this erupts in a new wave of mass mobilisations.

For those following US electoral politics right now, it is clear that the big business candidates are presenting their respective religiosities as credentials of a sort to prospective voters. The open pandering to the "faith vote" displays the cynical depths the representatives of the ruling class are willing to go to win votes. This is not simply a harmless phenomenon but a noxious indication of the rottenness of the system.