Recollections of the Bolivarian Revolution

Wellred Books is excited to announce the publication of a new and improved edition of Alan Woods’ The Venezuelan Revolution: A Marxist Perspective. Why should you read this book? Important though they are, this book is about more than the events in Venezuela in the early 2000s. Rather, it is an exemplar of how to apply the Marxist method to new phenomena, phenomena that defy simple categorisation. Reading this book is an education in itself in the Marxist method.

We publish a few testimonials here that we hope will whet your appetite.

[Get your copy of the new and improved edition of The Venezuelan Revolution: A Marxist Perspective here]

The Venezuelan Revolution that began with the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998 never conformed to a simple schema. Chávez the man had an impact on those events that was decisive and quite unique. Alan Woods developed a friendship with Chávez, and was able to study the man up close. The book is full of profound lessons on the role of the individual in history.

To get a sense of this unique individual, our first testimonial is by Rob Lyon, a member of the RCI who was active in London in the Hands off Venezuela! campaign at the time. He gives us a first person account of a very unusual meeting indeed when, back in 2007, Chávez met the leaders of the British TUC. As you read it, remind yourself, this is an elected president speaking to the conservative leaders of the British trade union movement!

Next we publish a testimonial by Ben Curry, who back in 2005 was a brand new comrade of the RCI’s predecessor organisation and today is editor of marxist.com. For him, this book was one of the foundational texts in his education as a Marxist.

Finally, there are those who always denied that what happened in Venezuela was a revolution, finding in the Bolivarian Revolution none of the features of a revolution that they had tucked away in their schema of what a revolution ‘should’ look like. But the decisive feature of any revolution is the participation of the masses in the historical process, as they attempt to take their destiny into their own hands.

We publish an account of the Venezuelan Revolution by Darrall Cozens, a member of the RCI who was also active in the Hands off Venezuela! campaign at that time, who had the chance to visit Venezuela at the height of the movement and to breathe the atmosphere of the revolution.

An unlikely encounter between Chávez and the British trade union leaders

By Rob Lyon

I have fond memories of Chávez’s visit to London in May 2006. The Hands off Venezuela! campaign had been very active in support of the Bolivarian Revolution and attended the meetings Chávez had scheduled while in London.

One of Chávez’s meetings was with the TUC leadership. The TUC leadership initially denied the younger Hands off Venezuela! members from attending the meeting or even entering the building. When Chávez entered the meeting room he saw that it was mostly an older crowd, and that many of the seats were empty.

Chávez in London / Image: Flying Pig, Flickr

At a certain point, Chávez learned that a group of Hands off Venezuela! youth were outside the building and had been denied entry. He insisted that we be allowed to attend the meeting and shamed the TUC leadership for not being able to fill the room and for forcing the radical youth to remain outside.

When Chávez was introduced to the room, the chair spoke of the TUC’s support for the “struggle for social justice” that Chávez was leading in Venezuela. When Chávez took the floor he opened his speech by correcting the TUC chair. He clarified that the struggle in Venezuela was not merely “a struggle for social justice” but that it was in fact a struggle for socialist revolution!

Chávez spoke for several hours, detailing the history of the Bolivarian Revolution and explaining that the only way forward was the overthrow of capitalism. He also thanked the TUC for its solidarity and support, but urged the British trade unions leaders to join in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow capitalism.

Chávez then proceeded to explain in detail the history of revolutionary struggle in Britain. He spoke of the heroic struggle of the Chartists, the magnificent history of struggle of the British trade unions, and the historic General Strike of 1926. Chávez also went into considerable detail discussing the time that Marx and Engels had spent in Britain, highlighting the importance of the country in the historical development of communist ideas.

In this way, Chávez spent most of his speech subtly, yet very directly, admonishing the TUC leadership for failing to live up to Britain’s revolutionary traditions! At the end of the meeting, the TUC leadership was visibly unsettled. One had the impression that they couldn’t wait for the whole thing to end and for everyone to leave.

But revolutionary enthusiasm is infectious – the younger workers and activists were over the moon! What Chávez had done was remarkable. Not only had he put on a masterclass in the art of revolutionary polemic, but he had laid out a detailed path of the struggle for the TUC to overthrow capitalism in Britain! If only some of them had truly listened to what Chávez was saying…

Reading Alan Woods’ book was formative for a young communist like myself

By Ben Curry

I joined the Revolutionary Communist International – or rather its predecessor – back in 2005, in capitalism’s pre-crisis days. The kind of events that radicalised me were 9/11, the Iraq War, the War on Terror. These were big events to be sure – events that boiled the blood of a young person and made me a revolutionary – but class struggle and revolution simply weren’t on the agenda at that time, at least in most countries.

Capitalism was still booming. There were foreshocks of what was to come, but these were largely anticipations.

I remember my university days. Clever people talked seriously about how ‘we are all middle class now’. I remember the faces of postmodern ‘left’ professors and PhD students, scoffing with smug arrogance at those of us who talked earnestly about class struggle. The Blairite Labour Party had been in power for eight years, engaging in two imperialist wars, without a peep from the trade union leaders. It was dismal.

The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela shone brightly in that period. The personality of Hugo Chávez stood out in particular: he was the first person since the collapse of the Berlin Wall with a global profile, an elected president, speaking in fiery terms about revolution and socialism.

But the Venezuelan Revolution was also unlike anything else you’d seen. No preconceived schema could unlock the secret of the Venezuelan Revolution. It did not fit the caricature of a revolution. There were no hammer and sickles, no barricades, and in the early days, no talk about socialism either – this was the Bolivarian revolution, a revolution that took as its point of departure the assertion of democratic rights and national sovereignty of the Venezuelan people.

"Some of Alan Woods’ articles on Venezuela from that time I earnestly believe deserve to be regarded as classics of Marxist analysis" / Image: Hands Off Venezuela

Furthermore, Chávez was the president at the head of a bourgeois state. No one could deny that. Notwithstanding Chávez’s election as president, the Venezuelan state remained as much a capitalist state as it ever was. And he came from a military background. In fact, he had tried to carry out a coup in 1992! And yet, this was a powerful revolution.

None of the rest of the left could understand it!

The revolution in Venezuela posed in a novel way all of the cardinal questions that Marxists must deal with.

It posed the question of method, of philosophy. It posed the role of the state, the armed forces, and bourgeois elections. It gave a marvelous and colourful demonstration of the role of the individual in the historical process. It showed all the different classes in action: the industrial proletariat, the plebeian layers of urban poor, the peasants, the officer caste, state bureaucrats and managers, the oligarchy, and the machinations of imperialism. We studied that process from its start to its finish.

Comrades of the RCI who joined at that time, many of whom play a leading role in the International today, cut their teeth theoretically on the Venezuelan Revolution. This book was a mandatory part of the education of comrades at that time, and the new generation coming into the organisation can gain an enormous amount from studying it.

Some of Alan Woods’ articles on Venezuela from that time I earnestly believe deserve to be regarded as classics of Marxist analysis. There are two articles in that book in particular that comrades should read carefully: Marxists and the Venezuelan Revolution, and Foxes and Grapes – Sectarian Stupidity and the Venezuelan Revolution.

The Bolivarian Revolution is no more. A reactionary bureaucracy undermined the revolution from within after the death of Chávez, and finally the 3 January intervention by the US marked the end of that process. But the lessons of that revolution are very much alive in our own organisation. The Bolivarian Revolution occupies a special place in our own history.

A lot has happened since then. We’ve had the 2008 crisis; the Arab Spring; the rise and fall of Corbyn, Sanders, Syriza, Podemos; the rise of Trump and the populist right; the pandemic; the cost of living crises; the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and now Iran; the Gen Z revolutions; the Epstein revelations.

When I joined, being a communist made you an oddity. Today, upward of a third of under-35s in Britain regard communism as the best system. We have before us the best opportunity to grow the forces of communism in a generation at least. To grow a powerful organisation, the young comrades joining us must equip themselves politically and train themselves. This book can serve you well in that task.

My experience of Venezuela in the throes of revolution

By Darrall Cozens

“The weapon of criticism cannot, of course, replace criticism of the weapon, material force must be overthrown by material force; but theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses.” Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (1843).

It is axiomatic that all communists must study the process of revolutions, with all their successes and failures, so that when revolutionary conditions arise, communists are able to intervene to try and ensure that the revolution is successful in overturning capitalism and creating a new society for the benefit of those who create wealth, the working class.

At times, however, the study of revolutions can appear abstract, unrelated to the material conditions in which communists live. That is why, if the opportunity arises, communists should participate in a revolutionary process in order to apply the theories that have been studied and absorbed.

"The masses had entered the stage of history and sought to put their stamp on the unfolding process" / Image: Darrall Cozens

In the words of Lenin: “Theory without practice is sterile and practice without theory is blind”.

In November 2007, I had the opportunity to spend a month in Venezuela, which was in the throes of the developing Bolivarian Revolution. The visit was not accidental.

In May 2006, Hugo Chávez spoke at a packed meeting in London and in part of his speech he invited comrades to come to Venezuela to participate in the revolutionary process – to learn but also to contribute.

I am glad that I was able to take up the invitation for there is nothing like the heat of the revolution. It enthuses the masses to go forward to try and change society.

Two things stood out above all else as the process unfolded: the élan and the thirst for ideas.

Wherever you went in Caracas, the streets were filled with marches, demonstrations, meetings and above all else, political discussions about the way forward to complete the process, for you cannot make half a revolution. It either goes forward to success or it stalls, goes backwards and fails.

The atmosphere was febrile, electric, as ideas circulated, were discussed and taken up or discarded. The enthusiasm was palpable.

The masses had entered the stage of history and sought to put their stamp on the unfolding process.

What applied to the streets also applied to the workplaces and the countryside, as ordinary people strove to ensure the revolutionary process resulted in a material improvement in their lives.

The person of Chávez too played an important part in this process. He seemed to have a symbiotic relationship with the masses. He began his political development by believing there was a third way between capitalism and socialism. Yet each time he proposed a way forward to escape from the impasses of capitalism, his ideas were enthusiastically embraced by the masses who took the ideas forward, transcending the boundaries of the original proposals. In turn, Chávez for a time lingered behind the masses, but he soon caught up. It was a process of leapfrogging.

A combination of absorbing ideas and practical experience taught Chávez that the future was either socialism or death, as capitalism offered no solution to the problems faced by the masses in Venezuela and beyond.

His untimely death from cancer on 5 March 2013 at the age of 58 marked a turning point in the Bolivarian Revolution, which subsequently began going in reverse. Chávez alone had the stature and the authority in, and the trust of, the masses in the country.

"The process of the Bolivarian Revolution is a must for all communists who wish to liberate our class" / Image: Darrall Cozens 

This new edition includes an obituary and tribute to Chávez written by Alan Woods at the time of his passing. Marxists have never denied the role of the individual in history, and Chávez played an enormous role in the Bolivarian revolution.

And Chávez’s death precisely exposed a key weakness that led to the failure of the revolution: the absence of a mass revolutionary party embedded in the masses in Venezuela that could continue the revolution after Chávez’s death, and which could carry the revolution to completion. Such a party has to be built before the revolutionary process begins.

There was a mass socialist party, the PSUV, which at one time numbered eight million members, almost 25 percent of the total population, but without revolutionary cadres and ideas, it wasn’t capable of finding a way out of the blind alley of capitalism.

For some, the PSUV became a vehicle for self-advancement, for securing positions in the state apparatus, a state which existed to protect the power and privileges of the capitalists and landlords.

That is why a study of the process of the Bolivarian Revolution is a must for all communists who wish to liberate our class, the working class, from the chains of capitalism.