After the great victory of December 3, Revolution within the Revolution yes, Conciliation No!

The victory in the Venezuelan elections has shifted the balance of forces massively in favour of the workers and poor. The counter-revolution has had to change tactic and formally “accept defeat”. To believe they have now become “democratic” is the most dangerous thing for the revolution. They are only playing for time before they strike again. Now is the time to complete the revolution by expropriating the capitalists.

Let us build socialism by expropriating the capitalists and creating a genuinely revolutionary state

Statement of the Revolutionary Marxist Current

The victory of President Chavez on December 3 was the biggest and clearest in the revolutionary process and in the whole history of Venezuela. Never has a revolution that proposes to advance towards socialism obtained so much support on the electoral front. As the President himself said tonight from the "People' Balcony", it was a vote for him but it was also a vote to speed up the pace of the revolution and to urgently tackle in a decisive manner the main problems that the workers and poor continue to face. It was a conscious vote for socialism.

A conscious vote against capitalism and for socialism

This overwhelming victory is the best reply that could be given to the counter-revolution and to imperialism, who despise the people and believed that by exploiting the internal contradictions that still exist within our revolution and by promising a few peanuts in the form of the Mi Negra credit card (an empty, fraudulent promise) they could fool the people. It is also a reply to all those who say that the people is still not sufficiently mature and conscious, that we are not ready, that socialism, the expropriations and the radicalisation of the revolution would make us lose votes. It is precisely the opposite: only by showing the whole of the people that we are prepared to take the revolution to the end and solve their problems, can we keep and continue to expand this enormous support that the Venezuelan people has given to President Chavez's proposal that the Bolivarian revolution should move forward towards socialism.

But this movement forward, we can only achieve by breaking the control that the capitalists still have over the Venezuelan economy, which they use to sabotage all the revolutionary and progressive policies that the President tries to carry out. Together with this it is absolutely necessary to put an immediate end - as the President stated on the "People' Balcony" - to the "bureaucratic counter-revolution", that fifth column which every day tries to slow down and divert the revolution, stopping us workers and the people from having real power, and that corruption that is a political, social and moral cancer for any revolution.

Faced with the reformist sectors who praise the supposed maturity and democratic will of Rosales and who call for negotiations to be opened with him, we must be clear: If the counter-revolution and imperialism did not come out with all guns blazing on December 3, this is not because they have accepted the revolution, or that their intentions have changed, or because suddenly they have decided to respect the constitution, to "enter into "dialogue" and to abide by democratic procedures. It was the decisive and massive mobilisation of the people, and only this - first on Sunday, November 26, in reply to the counter-revolutionary march of the previous day on November 25, and then throughout the whole following week and on the day of the elections itself - that forced the counter-revolution to put its plans on the back burner (for now!).

Once again, it was the people from below, with its revolutionary instinct and mobilisations, that left it absolutely clear that if they dared move, the revolutionary hurricane would sweep them away. It was only the fear that an open confrontation could lead to a radicalisation of the revolution, that could threaten their control over the economy, that lead the decisive sectors of the bourgeoisie and of imperialism to force their candidate Rosales to adopt a different counter-revolutionary strategy.

The counter-revolution put on the velvet glove

To congratulate Rosales he has accepted (or at least he seems to have) the defeat and even more so to actually negotiate with him, means to "clean up" the image of these counter-revolutionaries, who would not hesitate to crush and oppress us if they had the strength. Rosales was the first to come out with statement about the famous blank voting papers, sowing doubt and attempting to introduce elements of destabilisation. Only once he and his imperialist masters realised that this tactic could actually work against their own class interests did they decide to change strategy.

Their strategy continues to be the same, but they have had to change its form and the tempo. Their aim is to continue deceiving a section of their social base and keep it mobilised so as to launch a counter-revolutionary offensive in the medium term. They will try to combine a policy of negotiation with the right wing sectors of the Bolivarian movement in order to put a brake on the revolution together with economic sabotage and slanders, with the aim of sowing doubt about the revolution both in Venezuela and internationally, and to stop it being a point of reference for the exploited of the world. Their aim, so long as they do not have sufficient strength to defeat the revolution openly, is to put a brake on it and to divert it away from its anti-capitalist objectives. Their aim is to demoralise a section of the masses which would then allow them to go back onto the offensive. But the balance of forces is so favourable [to the revolution] at the moment that they would only be able to achieve this if we allow them to by lowering our guard and if we don't take advantage of this new opportunity to complete the revolution by expropriating the capitalists.

No pacts and no concessions to the right wing!

Only through the expropriation of the capitalists can Venezuela be free, sovereign and socialist!

The only possible road for the Bolivarian revolution is to declare war on corruption and the bureaucratic counterrevolution, to declare war on capitalism and poverty, as proclaimed by President Chavez. The way forward is to continue doing what we have been doing over the last few days: to act quickly, with decision and forcefulness. The way forward was shown by the 20,000 peasants who took to the streets of Caracas two weeks ago, called out by the "Ezequiel Zamora" National Peasant Front in support of Chavez and in favour of a "Zamora agenda", which would see the launching of a war on the landlords and the expropriation of the landowners in order to give the land to the peasants. The road forward is the road followed by the workers of Sanitarios Maracay, who, faced with the decision of the boss, the pro-coup Pocaterra, to close the factory, decided to occupy it and run it under workers' control, managed by a Factory Council composed of representatives, elected and recallable by the workers' assembly. The factory is now selling its goods at solidarity prices to the communities of Maracay. The way forward is that proposed by the Revolution Front of Occupied Factories (FRETECO): to advance revolutionary co-management towards workers' control. Expropriations like those of Invepal and Inveval should be carried out throughout the rest of the economy. The banks must be nationalised, and the large companies and the land must be placed under the control of the workers and the people.

One man alone cannot take the revolution down this road. The organisation and mobilisation, and the unity of action of the revolutionary masses is required from below to carry out the tasks of the revolution and to defeat the resistance of the bureaucracy and the capitalists. The Revolutionary Marxist Current participated in united action with other revolutionary organisations and social movements in the Popular Contingency Plan "Oligarchs Tremble". This united action must continue in order to advance the revolution to the expropriation of the capitalists and in order to establish a revolutionary state.

The main threat to the revolution at this time is the conciliation that a sector of the leadership of the movement, who do not believe in socialism nor the people, want to impose on us. These leaders view with panic the victories of the revolution - like the one we just achieved in the elections - because they create such enthusiasm among the masses and a desire to push the revolution to the end, which puts the privileges and power of these leaders into question. These leaders argue that the support for Rosales shows that a high percentage of the population are opposed to the revolution and are opposed to socialism. They argue that we must continue putting the brakes on the revolution. Lies! The support for socialism is higher than the 56% received in 1998 for the end of the IV Republic. With these arguments the Bolivarian revolution would never have begun. Only by showing the world, including the middle class, that socialism is not an abstraction but the only concrete solution to the problems of the people, can we win.

The main companies of the country must be placed in the hands of the state. And the state cannot remain in the hands of the bureaucracy, but must be placed in the hands of the working class and organised working people as a whole. In this way the economy can be democratically planned and the problems of poverty, unemployment, lack of housing can be solved. We must finish our work and take the revolution to the end. This means we must concretise the strategic proposals of President Chavez, which have the massive support of the people, in a transitional socialist programme which can solve the fundamental problems of the country. The CMR believes that some of the central points of this programme must be:

- Decent jobs, health, housing, and education for all. All capitalist laws must be replaced with socialist laws which will guarantee the rights of the workers and the people.

- For the expropriation and nationalisation of all closed and idle factories and companies in crisis under the control of the workers. The banks, the large national and international monopolies, as well as the land, must also be nationalised under workers' control.

- For a national democratic economic plan to be drawn up by the elected and recallable representatives of each neighbourhood and workplace, to solve all pressing social problems.

- For the expropriation of the construction companies and the necessary infrastructure to carry out Misión Vivienda (affordable housing project) under the control of the workers and the people.

- For the introduction of workers' control in private enterprises to struggle against sabotage, speculation, etc.

- Against corruption and bureaucracy: for the election and right of recall of all public positions, for the rotation of all bureaucratic tasks, and no public official to receive a wage higher than that of a skilled worker.

- Social control of the Misiones exercised by elected and recallable representatives. For the establishment of a state monopoly of foreign trade to guarantee the sovereignty of the country.

December 5, 2006