Flaskô is the last surviving factory of the Occupied Factories Movement of Brazil, after the heavy police intervention put an end to the almost five-year occupation at Cipla and Interfibra. The workforce has been demanding that the Lula government nationalises the plant, but with no serious reply. But recently Lula took up the question in the press. Here is the reply of the Flaskô workers.

We have received the following message from Honduran activists of the National Front of Peoples' Resistance against the repression of the Porfirio Lobo government. His government was installed through fraudulent elections organised by the coup regime, despite massive abstention of the masses and harsh repression. The repressive attitude of the Lobo government uncovers its pretence of being democratic. The International Marxist Tendency declares its full solidarity with the Honduran workers and youth who continue to struggle and are suffering the repression, killings.

A highly influential – and right-wing Brazilian bourgeois commentator wrote an article for O Estado de Sao Paulo attacking Chavez from the right, tracing his evolution from his early days to his latest turn to the left. In doing so the author names the editor of Marxist.com, Alan Woods as one of the main influences responsible for Chavez’s move to the Left. Here we publish the original article and a reply from Alan Woods.

In this article, the conditions for socialist revolution to develop are analyzed. The experiences of the Socialist Party of America and other left groups are analyzed as well, for those that are interested in building a Marxist leadership need to learn from past left and labor movements to avoid making the same mistakes past socialists have made.

Peter Kent, a Canadian minister, recently expressed concerns over the supposed “shrinking democratic space” in Venezuela. He was referring to measures against several TV stations. On one of these, Noel Álavarez, president of the bosses’ union FEDECAMARAS, called for another “military solution” to the political situation in Venezuela. How would Kent like it if a Canadian boss suggested Canada’s military intervene to remove his government?

An opposition group recently won the election and will become the new leadership of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100. Even though the election was held last June, the ballots were not counted until December! This was one of the many tactics used by the incumbent Toussaint leadership, which was seeking to install its handpicked successors.