Venezuela: More than 1000 people participate in Alan Woods meetings in Barinas

Alan Woods spoke at several meetings in the State of Barinas, where many university students and workers, as well as PSUV leaders and activists participated. Alan insisted on the main theme of his speaking tour: that the revolution must move forward and prepare to smash the power of the oligarchy once and for all, otherwise the danger of a reactionary backlash will be ever present.

The mood was one of great enthusiasm as the speaking tour of Alan Woods, a leading figure of the International Marxist Tendency, got underway in Barinas. The governor of the region, Adán Chavez, brother of the president of the Republic was present in one of the meetings. The first meeting took place in the Tricolor meeting hall of the Barinas governorship with the participation of students and members of the PSUV youth from the Unefa, Unellez, UBV universities, as well as members of the communal councils, social misiones, and members of the PSUV in general.

The meeting was opened by comrade Giovanny Peña, member of the National Assembly for Barinas, where he stressed the need for political education in the PSUV and the need for confrontation of ideas. Comrade Alan Woods started speaking about the crisis the capitalist system is going through and the lies of the bourgeois economists who talk about a so-called recovery of the system. He added that the most dangerous enemies of the Bolivarian revolution are not the military bases in Colombia, but the capitalists, which in the event of an aggression against Venezuela would join forces with the Colombian ruling class to smash the revolution. He said that revolutions respect no borders and hence the need for US imperialism to install military bases in Colombia. However, he said, “it is important that the revolution should be armed, as should the workers in the factories and industries.” He added that: “in case of an aggression from Colombia, they would not only be facing armed men and women, but it would also be an ideological battle”.

On the same day, Monday 16, in the afternoon, Alan Woods spoke to a meeting of peasants and workers from the socialist dairy plant in Socopó. The meeting was attended by the mayor of Socopó, Salvador Guerrero. After the event in Socopó, Adan Chávez organised a discussion with the leadership of the PSUV in Barinas in the residence of the governor.

On Tuesday 17, there was a meeting presided by Adán Chávez at the Tricolor hall, with the presence of local mayors, delegates to the PSUV congress and the regional leadership of the party. The meeting was opened by the governor who referred to Alan’s most recent book Reformism or Revolution: Marxism and socialism of the 21^st Century. Alan centred his speech on the fact that this is a year of many anniversaries, including that of the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, as well as that of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and used the opportunity to defend the validity of the ideas of revolutionary socialism and the struggle against capitalism.

In the afternoon of the same day there was a meeting with the workers of the Ezequiel Zamora Sugar Mill (CAEZ), where Alan stressed the need for workers to organise. Finally, Adán Chávez invited Alan Woods to participate in his weekly TV programme Aló Maestro, to speak about the importance of political education.

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