The B u l l e t
Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 94 March 30, 2008

It is now thirty years since the People’s Republic of China announced its market reform policy at the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in December 1978, under the then new leadership of Deng Xiaoping. The policy followed the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and the purging of ‘leftists’ in the Party and the state, symbolically represented by the trial of the ‘Gang of Four.’ The policy was the declaration of the end of ‘Maoism’ as the economic and political framework for the Chinese revolution, although Maoism has continued to endure as a source of ideological legitimacy for the CCP. (Keep reading…)

http://www.links.org.au/node/317 March 21,2008

Venezuela has entered a decisive phase of its revolutionary process, which has advanced rapidly, and without pause, since 1999. The failed attempt to reform the constitution in the December 2, 2007, referendum opened up a conjuncture of sharp contradictions in the short and medium term and modified the institutional framework in which this period will develop; but it does not modify the content of the confrontation underway. The forces of the revolution will be unleashed, along with those of the counterrevolution. (Keep reading…)

MRZINE March 17, 2008

The world appears to be on the verge of an economic crisis and, if it turns out to be as serious as some think, one that could rival or exceed the great panics of the late nineteenth century and the decade-long Great Depression. The crisis began with unscrupulous mortgage lending on an enormous scale, leading to mass housing foreclosures, then to a collapse of the securities backed by sub-prime mortgages, and finally became a crisis of the banks that held those securities. Over the past weekend government and banking officials worked out J.P. Morgan’s buyout of Bear Sterns, one of the most important U.S. banks which stood on the verge of collapse, a development that threatened to unleash an international financial crisis. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension
November 2007

In contrast to North America and Europe, in Latin America political regimes, social movements and ideologies are in constant flux.  Within a period of a few years, the political pendulum can swing from a seemingly radical leftist wave, to center-left and even rightwing ascendancy .  Likewise major social movements emerge, expand from local or regional power bases to significant actors on the national political scene, play a major role in dispatching right-wing regimes, support and even enter governmental coalitions and then decline, especially if they fail to achieve any of the minimum demands of their supporters.  <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2008/03/12/1670/#more-1670" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

25 January 2008 Green Left Weekly http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/737/38166

On January 12, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez opened the founding congress of the provisionally-named United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Chavez argued it was necessary to go on the offensive with the PSUV “as the spearhead and vanguard” of the revolution his government is leading. “We have arrived here to make a real revolution or die trying.” (Keep reading…)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/736/38128 19 January 2008

Caracas. A collective discussion is occurring throughout the revolutionary movement led by President Hugo Chavez following the defeat of the proposed constitutional reforms — that were intended to deepen the revolution to help open the way towards socialism — in the December 2 referendum. (Keep reading…)

Links magazine, June 14, 2007.

Haiman El Troudi has occupied many positions in Venezuela’s revolutionary government and has just been designated Minister of Planning. He was the director of the Office of President (2005–2006) under Hugo Chavez and secretary of the Maisanta National Command during the presidential recall referendum in August 2004. He is currently part of a team of investigators in the Caracas-based Miranda International Center, where he heads the program, “Socialism in the 21st Century’’. Troudi spoke with Sam King for Links magazine on June 14. (Keep reading…)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/732/37924 16 November 2007

Local battalions of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) have been meeting every weekend since August, aiming to organise the 5.7 million aspiring members who enrolled between April and June to join the party-in-formation. Spokespeople and heads of commissions elected by the more than 14,000 battalions have gone on to form socialist circumscriptions, grouping 10 battalions in a given local area, to elect delegates to the party’s founding congress. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension, October 10, 2007

The October Revolution of 1917 was the most influential political event of the twentieth century. But since history is written by the victors, it is not well known that October was the opening shot of a vast and powerful challenge to capitalism that swept the industrial world and had echoes in the colonial countries. Between 1918 and 1921 union membership and days lost in strikes everywhere reached new heights, while the ranks of the revolutionary wing of the socialist movement swelled. (Keep reading…)

October 05, 2007

Gallup corroborates what we have known all along given Hugo Chavez’s popularity: most Venezuelans love socialism, because it serves them better than capitalism. (Keep reading…)