Support Venezuela, support socialism, end imperialism

OK this another anti-war, anti capitialism, anti-bush thread!

Only I would rather try to draw attention to the most pressing current
issue the world is facing... Venezuela and it's revolution and the
offensive American threats that are being made. Iraq is a side issue
that is going nowhere until the troops are all withdrawn, but maybe
thats why they're still there, an issue to draw attention away from
more pressing matters? I don't know, do you?

Whilst the Media is conerned with the attention seeking middle east
problems, Venezuela in contrast is a far more postive issue for the
world at large and requires the support of everyone.

The means for true progress towards a socialist world 'a world where
there is no room for the likes of George Bush' has it's most important
fight in Venezuela where a socialist revolution is taking place. If
you really want to see an end to George Bush and Imperialism then you
must read on and do whatever you can to support Venezuela,
even if that is just alerting other people to what is happening.

Bush and Americas right-wing have had and continues to have endless
Nazi style propaganda pumped out to the American public in order create
hatred and distrust, America has all the desire to attack Venezuela if
it continues down it's current road (just coincidentally (of course)
Venezuela is also one of the top oil rich countires, 60% of which is
sold to America)

Revolutions are to be fought and won, but the revolution must start
within your mind, don't be afraid of change, knowledge is power to help,
knowledge is understanding, knowledge brings wisdom and love, love
brings mutual respect, love brings people together, love is the answer.
True socialism is love and respect for one another, to think as a mass and
to hear every voice, to give consideration for yourself and others without
greed.
Beware of the counter revolutionists (a very large percentage of
our own media(e.g. The Daily Mail/London evening standard, The Washington post etc), they will say anything to hold onto 'their' power (they are sick, they need to be healed).

Please read the following report, I haven't placed this as an advert for the
book, just it is I feel a very relevant report. However I will myself be
reading the book as soon as I can aquire a copy.



New book by Alan Woods
The Venezuelan Revolution

Introduction by Rob Sewell

Order the book from Wellred

This book by Alan Woods is being published at a decisive moment. Events
within Venezuela are unfolding with lightening speed. The coming to
power of Hugo Chavez in 1998 opened the floodgates for social change. It
marked the beginning of the Venezuelan Revolution as the masses poured
onto the stage of history determined to put an end to the rule of the
oligarchy (the rich, who act for their own advantage and not the people)

Over the past five years, the demands of the Bolivarian Revolution – in
essence the demands of the national-democratic revolution – of national
independence, land reform and increased democracy, have repeatedly come
up against the constraints of capitalism.

The Venezuelan revolution now stands at the crossroads. To succeed it
cannot stand still. It has aroused the burning hatred of world
imperialism and its home-grown agents, the corrupt oligarchy, who are hell bent
on its destruction. They can never be reconciled to the existence of
the revolution, which acts alongside Cuba as a beacon to the masses
throughout Latin America. That explains their continued attempts to
overthrow the regime of Hugo Chavez. They must do to Venezuela as they did with
Chile more than 30 years ago, where the flower of the Chilean
proletariat was drowned in blood. It is a dire warning to the masses of
Venezuela if they fail to carry through the revolution to a conclusion!

The recent sharp turn to the left within Venezuela, represented by the
nationalisation of Venepal and Hugo Chavez’s speeches in favour of
socialism, expresses the forward march of the revolution. “I am convinced,
and I think that this conviction will be for the rest of my life, that
the path to a new, better and possible world, is not capitalism, the
path is socialism, that is the path: socialism, socialism”, stated Chavez
recently. This represents a decisive change in Chavez, who in the past
tried to work within the confines of capitalism. Of course, the task
now is to translate these words into deeds.

Chavez’s references to Trotsky’s “permanent revolution” are also
extremely relevant, namely, the tasks of the national-democratic revolution
can only be achieved by the working class and oppressed masses coming to
power and immediately proceeding to the socialist tasks. The revolution
begins in one country but to succeed has to spread beyond its borders.
In essence, this is the idea of Simon Bolivar in the context of the
21st century, of the creation of a democratic Socialist Federation of
Latin America, as a stepping-stone to a World Federation of Socialist
States.

Chavez’s speeches and actions have served to further radicalise the
masses, who instinctively want to go much further and finish the job.
However, the reformists in the Bolivarian movement, mainly confined to the
tops, are resisting this development and act as a brake on the
revolution, attempting to frighten the masses with the spectre of imperialist
intervention. This is a completely foolish argument. The imperialists
will never be “neutralised” in their efforts to overthrow Chavez, no
matter how cautiously the revolution proceeds. It is such prevarication
that precisely serves to play into the hands of the counterrevolution and
endangers the revolution. This has been the painful lesson of all
revolutions – written in blood – that attempted to stop halfway, hoping in
vain to placate the counterrevolution. On the contrary, the way forward
requires a bold approach to break the back of capitalism. The
Bolivarian leaders could do well to adopt the motto of the great French
revolutionary Danton. When asked what makes a revolution he answered: audacity!
Audacity! And more audacity!

“Right from the beginning we have pointed out that the Venezuelan
revolution has begun, but it is not finished, and it cannot be finished
until the power of the Venezuelan oligarchy is broken”, states Alan Woods.
“This means the expropriation of the land, banks and big industry under
workers’ control and management. It means the arming of the people. It
means the setting up of action committees linked up on a local,
regional and national basis. It means that the working class must organise
independently and strive to place itself at the head of the nation. And it
means that the Marxist tendency must strive to win over the majority of
the revolutionary movement.”

In the convulsive period of the 1930s, Leon Trotsky pinpointed single
countries which for him represented “a key” to the international
situation. At first it was Germany, then Spain, which became the focus for the
world revolution. Today, one could say there are several “keys”, given
the social, political, economic and military crisis unfolding on a
world scale.

However, without doubt Latin America is currently in the vanguard of
world revolution, and within the Latin American continent, Venezuela
stands out sharply as the country most affected by this process. It would
be no exaggeration to say that Venezuela is now the key to the
international situation and the developing world revolution. It therefore
follows that the class-conscious workers and youth in Britain and elsewhere
must follow the events in Venezuela very closely and assist the
revolution with every means possible.

This book by Alan Woods is essential reading for all those who want to
understand what is happening in Venezuela today. But this is no mere
description of events. It is a powerful Marxist analysis of the
Venezuelan Revolution, its weaknesses and strengths, its contradictions and
unique characteristics. The book was not written with hindsight. Every
chapter, beginning with the coup of April 2002, was written as the events
were unfolding at the time, and traces the winding course of the
revolution. They reflect the immediacy and lightening speed of events
happening before our very eyes. These articles, which were posted on our
Spanish language website, had a big effect within Venezuela itself. They
rapidly connected with those revolutionary Bolivarians keen to read and
study them.

They were immediately downloaded from the internet and printed out,
then circulated by hand amongst the Bolivarian circles and pinned to
notice boards in political meetings and elsewhere. This reflected the
colossal power of ideas in concert with the unfolding revolution and the
living experience of the masses. It was thorough the impact of Alan Woods’
articles that we came into contact with the most advanced and
class-conscious elements within the Bolivarian movement, all of whom had been
attracted by the bold perspectives, as well as the theoretical method of
Marxism which underpinned the whole analysis. Soon afterwards a Marxist
tendency was formed in Venezuela, based upon the perspective of turning
the national-democratic Bolivarian Revolution into a socialist
revolution. The tendency then fused with a group of revolutionary militants who
had a long revolutionary history in Venezuela to constitute the
Revolutionary Marxist Current, the Venezuelan section of the International
Marxist Tendency. This represented an historic breakthrough. The coming
period will provide many opportunities for revolutionary Marxism, testing
its ideas and mettle as it connects with the mass movement, not only in
Venezuela, but throughout the whole of Latin America.

There is no middle road for the Venezuelan Revolution: either the
greatest of victories or the greatest of defeats. The stakes are high, but
we can be very optimistic for the future. The counterrevolution has been
defeated on several occasions by the revolutionary audacity of the
masses. Power is within the grasp of the working class and the oppressed.
To kill a lion you need a gun, explained Trotsky, but to kill a flea you
only need your fingernails. However, time is of the essence. The
counterrevolution is not finished and over time will revive. By mobilising
the revolutionary will of the masses, it would be a simple matter for
Chavez to eliminate the power of the oligarchy. More and more the question
of power – who rules? – is posed point blank. The Marxist tendency
within the Bolivarian movement has a crucial role to play. Alan Woods’
articles will greatly assist in this endeavour, as they not only deal with
the broad perspective, but the urgent concrete tasks needed to take the
revolution forward. His “Theses on revolution and counterrevolution in
Venezuela” skilfully outlines a transitional programme, which acts as a
bridge from the immediate day-to-day tasks to those of the socialist
revolution.

Alan Woods has been a consistent champion of the Venezuelan Revolution
since its inception. He helped initiate the Hands Off Venezuela
Campaign. He has held personal discussions with President Chavez, which are
recounted in this book. After more than a decade since the collapse of
Stalinism and the bourgeois ideological offensive against Marxism and
Socialism, the author boldly holds up the perspective of a victorious
socialist revolution in Venezuela. Such an event would constitute a
political earthquake that would shake the capitalist world to its very
foundations. A victory in Venezuela would spread like wild fire throughout the
Latin American continent, where there is not a single stable bourgeois
regime from the Rio Grande to Tierra Del Fuego. The Revolution would
also light a flame within the United States itself, starting with the
substantial Latino population, which would serve to paralyse any attempt
at counterrevolutionary intervention. A victorious socialist revolution
in Venezuela would change the world. We must do everything in our power
to ensure that it does. In the words of Marx and Engels:

“... it is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent,
until all more or less possessing classes have been forced out of their
position of dominance, until the proletariat has conquered state power,
and the association of proletarians, not only in one country but in all
the dominant countries of the world, has advanced so far that
competition among the proletarians of these countries has ceased and that at
least the decisive productive forces are concentrated in the hands of the
proletarians. For us the issue cannot be the alteration of private
property but only its annihilation, not the smoothing over of class
antagonisms but the abolition of classes, not the improvement of existing
society but the foundation of a new one.” (Address to the Central Committee
to the Communist League, March 1850).

Rob Sewell, 3rd March 2005


See also: http://www.marxist.com
Venezuela: The agrarian revolution By Alan Woods (February 16, 2005)
Chavez: “Capitalism must be transcended” By Alan Woods (February 1,
2005)
The Nationalisation of Venepal: What does it signify? by Alan Woods
(January 21, 2005)
The recall referendum in Venezuela: A crushing blow to the
counterrevolution By Alan Woods (August 16, 2004)
As August 15 approaches: Why Marxists are fighting for a “No” next
Sunday By Alan Woods (August 11, 2004)
The targets are Venezuela and Cuba - New Intrigues of US imperialism By
Alan Woods in Mexico City, (May 21, 2004)
Encounters with Hugo Chavez By Alan Woods (April 29, 2004)
Venezuela between revolution and counterrevolution By Alan Woods
(December 10, 2002)
The Venezuelan Revolution in Danger by Alan Woods (December 6, 2002)
Venezuela: The revolution at the point of no return By Alan Woods
(September 4, 2002)

For more information, please visit us at www.handsoffvenezuela.org.

 

That was rather a long starting post... I am expecting no responses because it's such a big fucker to read! .. hahahahahaa

But any general comments on this Issue is what this thread is about, debate.. don't think I really said what the real point was... just rambled on!!! haha ...

I am wanting peoples opinions on the Venezuela issue to help me develope a balanced view on this topic. I am quite happy with my perspective at the moment, but that's because it hasn't been challenged in any way!

I neeeeed input! cheers

 

Are you in socialist appeal mate cos id be very interested to talk to you about them. a good bunch of people. Ive got a mate with them but I aint so sure so if you are feel free to PM.