Venezuela

From the beginning the privately owned media and the leaders of the right wing opposition have tried to minimise and ridicule the discovery and arrest of foreign paramilitaries in Venezuela, as did the US government. But the truth is that there are clear links between these groups of "irregulars" and the Venezuelan and Colombian oligarchies, with the helping hand of the US.

The "Hands off Venezuela" Italy campaign, after a very good start in Milan, on Friday, April 30, went to Pavia. There we had a meeting with 20 people organised by the Marxist magazine FalceMartello.

The developing revolution in Venezuela has brought into sharp relief what the correct Marxist approach should be to this phenomenon. Unfortunately many who claim to be Marxists have revealed that they really have no understanding of the reall essence of Marxism. Alan Woods looks at the traditions of the movement going right back to Marx himself.

Last week Alan Woods visited Caracas to attend the Second International Gathering in Solidarity with the Venezuelan Revolution. He spoke at several meetings, putting the Marxist case, mainly to audiences of workers and poor people – activists of the Bolivarian Movement and the main protagonists of the Venezuelan Revolution. "I also had the opportunity to meet and talk with the President of the Bolivarian Republic, Hugo Chavez. As a writer and Marxist historian I am used to writing about men and women who have made history. But it is not every day that one has the opportunity to observe a protagonist of the historical process at close quarters, to ask questions and to form an

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Two years after the brief April 2002 coup, Venezuela is still living through an unfinished revolutionary process. The masses of the people and the workers have defeated the counterrevolutionary conspiracies of the local oligarchy and imperialism twice, but the revolution has not been completed and thus the danger of a new reactionary coup is still ever present.

This article was first published in the Pakistani daily, Dawn Metropolitan (Friday, April 23, 2004) under the title “Pakistan can learn from Venezuelan experience: MNA”. It is a report of a press conference held by Pakistani Marxist MP Manzoor Ahmed on his recent visit to Venezuela for the Second International Conference in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution. We are publishing it to make it available to a wider international readership. (April 23, 2004)

The traditional Easter Marches of the peace movement took place over the past week in Germany. Demonstrators met and called for the withdrawal of German troops from Afghanistan, for Germany’s exit from NATO, and against the Agenda 2010. There were 12 speakers at the demonstration in Wiesbaden, one of which was Hans-Gerd Öffinger, vice regional Chairman of the trade union Ver.di, and editor of the Marxist journal Der Funke who spoke on the situation in Venezuela.

The opposition in Venezuala has mobilised armed gangs of provocateurs on the streets, with the aim of destabilisng the country. This article is based on material published in Venezuela, which we are making available to our readers in Spanish (See below). We ask all our readers and supporters to step up the campaign we launched last week in defence of the Venezuelan revolution. Keep collecting the solidarity signatures, organise meetings, raise money, spread the word about what is happening in Venezuela.

This is a statement of the editorial board of In Defence of Marxism signed also by other Marxist currents and magazines all over the world. We express our opposition to the campaign of US imperialism and the Venezuelan oligarchy against the revolutionary process in Venezuela and put forward the perspective of socialism as the only way to defend it. Also in Spanish, Danish, Italian, and German.

veHaving been defeated twice by the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses after their coup in April 2002 and the during their sabotage of the oil industry in December 2002, the reactionary forces in Venezuela are now trying to reorganise their forces in a renewed attempt to overthrow democratically elected president Chavez.

We publish here the statement of the founding of the Revolutionary Marxist Current in Venezuela. This country has been living through a revolutionary process for the last five years, the roots of which can be traced back to the semi-insurrection of 1989, popularly known as "Caracazo". The programme of moderate reforms and national sovereignty of president Chavez (land reform, literacy programmes, no privatisation of state companies, and above all no privatisation of the oil company) has clashed with the interests of the local oligarchy and imperialism. In this period of capitalist crisis and intensification of imperialist exploitation they cannot allow any country to apply even the

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There have been increasing rumours in the last few days of a fresh coup attempt in Venezuela. According to pro-government members of parliament, there is strong evidence that the CIA and the leaders of the counterrevolutionary opposition are preparing plans to try and overthrow President Chavez once again. In response, the government has put the army on full alert, however, in our opinion, the best way to counter any further coup attempts is by mobilising the workers and masses of Venezuela, the very people who defeated the first coup attempt back in April 2002.

Chanting this as one of the main slogans, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans flooded the streets of Caracas on August 23, to once again demonstrate their support for the government of President Hugo Chávez and his movement known as the "Bolivarian Revolution". It was an important reply to the latest parody that Venezuelan reaction had been trying to build up in the days prior to the demonstration. They had just handed their fraudulent list of signatures, with which they are trying to get a referendum called against Chávez, to the National Elections Council (CNE).