After the election victory of Hugo Chávez in the December 3rd presidential election the Bolivarian Revolution has taken another turn to the left. The passing of an Enabling Law to allow for the nationalisation of key industries, the setting up of the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Chávez’s remark about Trotsky and the permanent revolution, the occupation of Sanitarios Maracay... all these are signs of a growing radicalisation.
At the same time, there is an enormous thirst for ideas, a ferment for discussion everywhere, but particularly amongst the revolutionary rank and file. Last weekend the Inveval workers (running their factory under workers’ control) inaugurated their “Jesús Rivero” Bolivarian Workers’ University.
But it is also at this time that the reformists and the right wingers within the revolutionary movement are trying to sow confusion, to water down the content of socialism of the 21st century, to oppose any form of genuine workers’ control, to block the revolutionary initiative of the masses.
The Revolutionary Marxist Current (CMR), the Venezuelan organisation of the International Marxist Tendency, is active in the workers’ movement, amongst the Bolivarian masses, putting forward a clear Marxist perspective for workers’ democracy and socialist planning of the economy. The CMR has limited forces but it has already played a key role in the setting up of the Revolutionary Front of Occupied Factories (FRETECO) and in the occupation of Sanitarios Maracay under workers’ control. Their ideas are getting an echo well beyond their numbers.
It is the duty of internationalists and revolutionaries all over the world to help and support the comrades of the CMR in Venezuela. For this reason we are launching a financial appeal to help the comrades get their own printing press. A revolutionary organisation must strive to have its own apparatus, and this is even more the case in Venezuela where most printers are extremely unreliable. We want to assist the comrades in being able to produce a more regular edition of their newspaper El Militante, and leaflets and pamphlets that can answer the most urgent needs of the revolutionary movement.
Please donate generously and help build the forces of Marxism in the Venezuelan Revolution.
How to make donations
You can support this project by sending cheques, payable to "Socialist Appeal" and marked "for CMR press", to:
Socialist Appeal,
PO Box 50525,
London, E14 6WG
In the US you can send payments made out to Wellred / CMR Press to:
CMR Press c/o Wellred
PO Box 4244
St. Paul, MN 55104
Or you can pay online here.