The excavation of fossil fuels was a one-time bonanza: it provided cheap energy that temporarily quadrupled the earth’s carrying capacity in terms of human population. Instead of an ever tightening immiseration of the working class and overthrow of the capitalist system, as expected by Marx, the one-time gift of fossil fuels led to a standoff […]
Geography Archives: Venezuela
From Marx to Morales: Indigenous Socialism and the Latin Americanization of Marxism
Over the past decade, a new rise of mass struggles in Latin America has sparked an encounter between revolutionists of that region and many of those based in the imperialist countries. In many of these struggles, as in Bolivia under the presidency of Evo Morales, Indigenous peoples are in the lead. Latin American revolutionists are […]
Che Guevara’s Final Verdict on the Soviet Economy
One of the most important developments in Cuban Marxism in recent years has been increased attention to the writings of Ernesto Che Guevara on the economics and politics of the transition to socialism. A milestone in this process was the publication in 2006 by Ocean Press and Cuba’s Centro de Estudios Che Guevara of Apuntes […]
Gap Between Latin America and Washington Still Growing
Washington’s foreign policy establishment — and much of the U.S. media — was taken by surprise this week when President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, stated that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) should lay down their arms and unconditionally release all of their hostages. The FARC is a guerrilla group that has been fighting […]
Big Stakes in Venezuela’s November Regional Elections
Coming out of the December 2 referendum defeat — the first for the Bolivarian movement since the election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 1998 — and facing discontent amongst popular sectors at the lack of advance in the Bolivarian process, the pro-revolution forces face a big challenge in securing an overwhelming victory in the […]
An Open Letter on US Policy for Cuba
Every May 21st President George W. Bush declares a day of “solidarity” with Cuba and repeats the lies of nearly half a century trying to de-legitimize Latin America’s most successful social revolution in history. This year, the leading US presidential candidates chimed in, but a potentially explosive scandal involving an axis of US-based terrorist groups, […]
The Delusion of the “Clash of Civilizations” and the “War on Islam”
The rhetoric about a “clash of civilizations” and a “war on Islam” has found its way easily into Arab intellectual discourse, where it has taken solid root, along with other similar “concepts” (or what I’d rather call “non-concepts” — like the term “terrorism” — since they are extremely vague and yet ideologically loaded) that were […]
Santa Cruz Autonomy Campaign Is Lynchpin to Destroy Latin American Progress
On Sunday, May 4, 2008, I joined two dozen progressive activists marching in a circle in front of the Bolivian embassy. Thanks to our spirited presence, 150 or so right-wing Bolivians from the province of Santa Cruz were unable to get in front of the embassy to demonstrate in favor of the autonomy referendum […]
Evo’s Dilemmas
The Right respects legality only when legality favors it. The history of our America has shown that a thousand times. The confrontation that is convulsing Bolivia today is no exception. The Santa Cruz autonomy referendum is just the tip of the iceberg. To limit the debate to a question of legal pettifoggery would be a […]
Liberalizing Food Trade to Death
Introduction People across the world, from Mexico to Mozambique, have once again been taking to the streets in protest. The reason is to demand that their most basic need be met: access to food. With food prices skyrocketing over the last few months, billions of people around the globe have been relentlessly driven towards starvation. […]
Right-wing Revolt Threatens Bolivia
“Bolivia is on the verge of exploding,” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on April 21. Speaking on the eve of an extraordinary summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA — the alliance made of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Dominica) that was partly called to discuss the situation in Bolivia, Chavez stated the […]
The Capitalist Workday, the Socialist Workday
As May Day approaches, there are four things that are worth remembering: For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday. The struggle for the shorter workday is […]
Oil Windfall Sparks Rights Fight in Iran
From a distance, partisan politics in Iran may appear to turn on international challenges or internal discriminations only. But a third contentious split that reaches the highest levels is about the size of the government financed largely by oil exports. At its core, the dispute over whether public sector payroll, subsidies, and social programs deserve […]
Embedded with the “Tupamaros”
Parroquía 23 de Enero, Caracas. It is a Friday night in Caracas, Venezuela. We are standing in the back of a pickup truck surrounded by dozens of motorcycles, tearing through the streets of Catia, the massive slum area that makes up nearly half the population of the city. On the motorcycles, revolutionaries young and old, […]
Radical Chavismo Bares Its Teeth
23 de Enero, Caracas. On Thursday, April 3rd, a group of approximately 500 armed combatants representing the most vociferously revolutionary sectors of the Venezuelan Revolution engaged in a display of force in the historically-revolutionary parroquia of 23 de Enero (January 23rd) in western Caracas, making painfully evident the deep and volatile divisions that threaten the […]
Dissecting the Politics of Paraguay’s Next President
Fernando Lugo, a bearded, left-leaning bishop, is expected to win Paraguay’s historic presidential election on April 20th, upsetting a 60-year rule by the right-wing Colorado Party. While escaping the heat of the Paraguayan sun by sitting in the shade of an orange tree, farmer union leader Tomas Zayas explains, “If Lugo is elected, it will […]
The Maoist Electoral Victory in Nepal: Interview with Shyam Shrestha, Former Chief Editor of Mulyankan Monthly Magazine
The elections in Nepal on Thursday, April 10th, resulted in a victory for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), stunning the mainstream international press. Mulyankan monthly magazine is almost 18 years old. It is the largest leftist monthly magazine of Nepal, with a circulation of 30 000 copies per month. Shyam Shrestha has been actively […]
Remembering a May Day March
On May Day 2005, I marched with workers in Caracas. And the slogan workers were chanting at that time was “Without Comanagement, There Is No Revolution.” Indeed, the main slogans for that May Day march, organized by the UNT, were “Comanagement Is Revolution” and “Venezuelan Workers Are Building Bolivarian Socialism.” We don’t hear much of […]
Nicaragua: A Sharp Left Turn
MRZine must be commended for its recent publication of Mike Friedman’s interview with Nicaragua’s Comandante Mónica Baltodano. It is especially welcome because there has been a dearth of information and analysis about Nicaragua in the English-language world ever since the 1990 electoral defeat of the revolution. That in some ways is puzzling because the actions […]
Obama, Clinton, and McCain Won’t Save the American Economy
The US media and party election machines have once again transformed the run-up to the US elections into a melodrama. Across the country, party candidates have been swaggering across stages, surrounded by stars and stripes and CNN logos, to spew out the latest piece of propaganda that the spin doctors have managed to conjure up. […]
