Americas

Recent events in Venezuela prove that the revolution is far from over. Venezuelan society is extremely unstable, and all kinds of tensions between the classes manifest themselves in peculiar ways. Inside the Bolivarian movement, different tendencies are beginning to crystallize, revealing that not everyone is fighting for the same aims and ideas.

The expropriation of two golf courses in Venezuela was met with enthusiasm by wide layers of the Bolivarian movement and a hysterical campaign on the part of the bourgeois. In order for the revolution to move forward these expropriations must continue and must be extended.

There is another 9/11 to remember today, the Pinochet coup that overthrew the Allende government in Chile. In 1979 Alan Woods posed the question of who was behind Pinochet's coup. What interests was he defending? What were the policies of the Allende government and why despite all warnings was he unable to prevent the coup? Alan Woods had previously written an article in September 1971, two years before Pinochet's military coup, in which he warned against the threat of a military coup if the Popular Unity government failed to mobilise the masses and carry out a genuine socialist programme.
Lessons of Chile 1973...

Five years on from the attack on the Twin Towers we can see how it was used to justify a war for oil and a general clampdown on civil liberties all around the world. We have also seen revolutionary movements, particularly in Latin America which will inevitably cut through the fog of confusion the capitalist have attempted to throw up.

The revolutionary mass movement that has been brought into being in Mexico by the electoral fraud perpetrated in the Presidential elections has reached a point where clearly the power is there for the taking. If there were a genuine revolutionary party at the head of the masses we would be on the eve of socialist revolution.

In spite of the revolutionary movement of the Mexican masses, the ruling class has decided to go ahead with its manoeuvres to impose its man on the Mexican workers and peasants. The masses cannot tolerate another period of right-wing government. They must prepare for power.

The bourgeois internationally are hoping that when Castro dies their plans to reintroduce capitalism on the island can be concretised. The imperialists have different opinions about how this is to be achieved, but the real threat to the Cuban Revolution comes from within.

The following resolution in support of the Miami 5 was passed unanimously at the recent World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency.

We publish an article from Morning Star by Ron Ridenour, in which he examines the kind of books being published in today's Cuba and comments on the changing intellectual climate in which the ideas of Trotsky are more and more discussed.

Fidel Castro’s illness has posed what will come once he departs this world. The capitalist are looking at different ways of restoring capitalism. Within the state and party in Cuba there are clearly pro-capitalist elements. It is the duty of the workers and youth of the world to defend the Cuban revolution.

On Monday, August 28, a public screening of a new documentary about workers' control in Venezuela was held at the Teressa Carreño in central Caracas, with the support of the Ministry of Culture. More than 250 people turned up to see "5 Factories - Workers' Control in Venezuela", a film produced by two Italian filmmakers, Dario Azellini and Oliver Ressler.

The December presidential elections are an important turning point in the development of the Venezuelan Revolution. They reflect the struggle between the Venezuelan workers and peasants and the oligarchy and imperialism. Our attitude towards these elections is therefore a key question.