A Socialist Project e-bulletin …. No. 86 …. March 4, 2008 ______________________________________________________ (Keep reading…)

March 04, 2008
Source: Rebelíon

Investigations by the Ecuadorian authorities have shone light on what really happened during the dawn of March 1, when the Colombian armed forces killed between 20 and 22 guerrillas in Ecuadorian territory. Raúl Reyes, number two in the FARC (Spanish acronym of the Colombian guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) command structure was killed in the ambush. (Keep reading…)

February 24th 2008 Venezuela Analysis http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3193

In recent weeks, external and internal pressure against Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution, has intensified dramatically. (Keep reading…)

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…)

Reuters News Agency February 9, 2008

CARACAS — Venezuela accused Exxon Mobil Corp. of legal “terrorism” yesterday after the giant U.S. oil company won court orders freezing $12-billion (U.S.) of the South American oil supplier’s assets in a dispute at the heart of a worldwide tussle for control of natural resources. Venezuela’s oil minister Rafael Ramirez played down the rulings, reassuring investors they had little impact on the supplies, operations or cash flow of the state oil company, PDVSA, which he said has about $100-billion in assets. (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 December 3, 2007

Venezuela’s constitutional reforms supporting President Chavez’s socialist project were defeated by the narrowest of margins: 1.4% of 9 million voters.  The result however was severely compromised by the fact that 45% of the electorate abstained, meaning that only 28% of the electorate voted against the progressive changes proposed by President Chavez.  While the vote was a blow to Venezuela’s attempt to extricate itself from oil dependence and capitalist control over strategic financial and productive sectors, it does no change the 80% majority in the legislature nor does it weaken the prerogatives of the Executive branch.  Nevertheless, the Right’s marginal win does provide a semblance of power, influence and momentum to their efforts to derail President Chavez’ socio-economic reforms and to oust his government and/or force him to reconcile with the old elite power brokers. <a href="http://canadiandimension.com/articles/2007/12/05/1463/#more-1463" class="more-link">(Keep reading...)</a>

Counterpunch December 3, 2007

Hugo Chavez’ narrow defeat in the referendum was the result of large-scale abstentions by his supporters. 44 percent of the electorate stayed at home. Why? First, because they did not either understand or accept that this was a necessary referendum. The measures related to the working week and some other proposed social reforms could be easily legislated by the existing parliament. The key issues were the removal of restrictions on the election of the head of government (as is the case in most of Europe) and moves towards ‘a socialist state.’ On the latter there was simply not enough debate and discussion on a grassroots level. (Keep reading…)