Americas

With a resounding victory over his rival, Rafael Correa was elected president of the Republic of Ecuador in the elections on November 26, 2006. The Ecuadorian people have obtained an important victory over the groups which hold economic and political power. However this is just a first step. The masses must be ready against any attempts of the counter-revolution.

Hundreds of thousands gathered once again in the Zocalo Square in Mexico City on November 20 to celebrate the swearing in of the real winner of the presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The movement in Mexico is revealing a resilience and determination to go on. All the conditions for revolution exist, if only the leaders would take advantage of these.

Pickets in solidarity with the struggle in Oaxaca took place in several countries yesterday. Today we provide reports on pickets in London, Moscow and Athens with more to follow soon.

After occupying Sanitarios Maracay, the workers have created new organisational forms for the running of the factory. The Assembly of workers is the highest decision making body, and has elected a 21-member Factory Committee, who are subject to the right of recall at any time by the Assembly, to organise production at the plant. The workers have also held meetings with workers from occupied factories in Brazil and Venezuela in order to learn from the experiences of other workers in the occupied factory movement.

The central thesis of this book from beginning to end is the following: that the Bolivarian Revolution can only succeed if it goes beyond the boundaries of capitalist private property, expropriating the oligarchy and transforming itself into a socialist revolution. The Revolution has begun, but it is not finished.The old state apparatus is still largely intact and a number of key economic levers (including the banks and the land) remain in the hands of the Venezuelan oligarchy.

On the morning of Wednesday, November 8, some 50 Twin Cities residents rallied outside the Mexican Consulate in St. Paul, MN.  The protestors demanded that Ulises Ruiz be removed and that all power be transferred to the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO).

With the occupation of Iraq spiraling out of control and growing increasingly unpopular among the majority of Americans, military recruiting would seem to be as winning an endeavor as selling tickets to get on board a sinking ship. It therefore comes as no surprise that military recruiters have been falling well short of fulfilling their quotas.

This year's mid-term elections mark yet another change in the consciousness of the U.S. working class. Workers' consciousness is not fixed in stone. We can't have a one-sided approach to what is an infinitely complex process, especially in a country as rife with contradictions as the U.S. This brief, initial analysis will be followed by a series of articles in the coming days and weeks, which will examine various aspects of the elections and their aftermath.

After 16 years the Sandinistas have made a comeback. The vote for Ortega represents a desire for fundamental change on the part of the masses. But Ortega has bent over backwards to reassure the capitalists that he can be trusted. No long-lasting reforms are possible in Nicaragua under the domination of US imperialism and as long as capitalism survives in the country.

Although they may differ with the Republicans on this or that secondary issue, on all fundamental questions, the Democrats consistently defend the interests of big business against the interests of working people. How could it be any other way? They are directly funded by the employing class and most of them are extraordinarily wealthy themselves.