How it began--First message from the FT

[Sunday, June 6, 2004]

"Either the revolution is socialist, or it is not a revolution"

Basic questions and Marxist answers about Venezuela

Dear Yosef: From our point of view, we who are active in the Fracción Trotskista - Cuarta Internacional do not consider that any "Bolivarian revoution" exists. At least, not a revolution as we Marxists understand it. Either the revolution is socialist, or it is not a revolution. That is, one cannot say that there is a revolution underway when the bourgeoisie has not been expropriated, and the pillar of the state continues to be the bourgeois armed forces, that especially defend the right to private property, as is established in the Bolivarian Constitution, proposed by Chavez. Undoubtedly, Chavez has done some things for the Venezuelan masses, but in reality he has only spread the poverty. In Venezuela there continues to be an 80% poverty rate, the enterprises continue under bourgeois ownership, like the mass communications media, that outdo each other in making pro-coup and anti-government propaganda. Soldiers and members of the opposition that together with the US planned the coup d'état two years ago and the oil shutdown last year are all at large thanks to the laws of chavismo.

Now I will answer your questions:

(1) If the bourgeoisie still possesses state power, can we say that there was a revolution or not?

There was no revolution, since the main bases of the regime's institutions (the courts, the armed forces, Congress and the government) continue in the hands of the bourgeoisie or with a bourgeois program. That is, in Venezuela, there was NOT nor is there a revolution (at least not from the Marxist point of view).

(2) To what class does the Venezuelan party "Patria Para Todos," that supports Hugo Chavez, belong?

The PPT party, like Chavez' MBR 200 (movimiento bolivariano revolucionario) and the MVR (movimiento quinta república), are all bourgeois parties. Beyond the fact that some of these parties have a big majority of the workers and campesinos of Venezuela among their voters and members, their program is openly bourgeois, and none of them raises the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, nor a real break with imperialism (beyond the populist discourse of President Chavez).

(3) On the other hand, if the party "Patria Para Todos" is bourgeois, can we say that the chavista movement constitutes a popular front (impoverished masses linked to bourgeois politicians)?

The party in the government is not a popular front; it was not formed from the beginning as a front among parties of the bourgeoisie and workers' organizations or of the left; rather, from the beginning Chavez' party was formed by a mixture of soldiers, office holders from the old regime reconverted to populists, old parties of the center-left that supported Chavez' candidacy, and some professionals that advised it. None of the workers' or campesinos' mass organizations ever formed an organic part of the present party in government. Therefore, it is not a popular front, but a government with populist hues, but unfit to give the masses big victories through its program, since in the last analysis, it is bourgeois.

(4) Can we conclude that Hugo Chavez is a bourgeois politicians because he is the President of a bourgeois republic?

Yes, he is a bourgoeis politician, not only because he is at the head of a bourgeois republic, but because his program is one of defending private property in the hands of the bourgeoisie; this led him to confront the workers that, during the bosses' shutdown last year had occupied the factories so that they would not shut their doors. Faced with the protest of the workers, who asked him to expropriate these factoriess and give them to their workers, he answered them that(bourgeois) "justice" had to decide that, that ended up returning the factories to their (coup-plotting) owners.

(5) Is it necessary to organize a Leninist party in Venezuela, or can we expect that the Bolivarian movement (headed by Hugo Chavez) will be able to lead a socialist revolution in Venezuela?

It is more necessary than ever to build a revolutionary Marxist party in Venezuela. The Bolivarian movement does not want, nor is it its aim to fight for, a socialist revolution; rather, its aim is to "democratize" Venezuelan society and "make it more egalitarian," but in no way does it fight to expropriate the bourgeoisie and move forward to the break with imperialism and on the road of socialism. All the measures that the Bolivarian forces and President Chavez raise, go no further than slogans of the bourgeois nationalist type. A Leninist party in Venezuela that consistently fights for socialist revolution, that resolutely struggles against reaction, that organizes the workers and brings together their revolutionary and internationalist vanguard, is needed. A party that prepares to intervene at the decisive moment to take power in Venezuela, expropriate the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat on the road to socialism.

August 12 leaflet

Workers, Youth, People of Color:
Don’t be fooled by Barack Obama!
Break with the Democratic Party
of Perpetual War and Grinding Poverty!

Since the beginning of his campaign, Barack Obama has been the "candidate for change" and has awakened the sympathy and enthusiasm not just of the African-American community, but also of thousands of young people between 18 and 29, whom the press calls "Generation O," in their great majority activists of the antiwar movement or for the defense of the democratic liberties attacked by the Bush administration.

Obama will try to spread expectations of "change" to other groups that have not traditionally constituted his demographic base of African-Americans, young people and the educated, prosperous middle class. With Richardson's support, he will fight for the vote of Hispanics by awakening illusions that a Democratic administration will curb the brutal measures and deportations against immigrants. For the broad "progressive" arc that presents itself as the heir of the social movements – like the civil rights movement of the 1960s or the movement against the war in Vietnam – the campaign for votes for Obama is the continuity of those struggles on the electoral terrain.

However, sooner or later, these illusions will lead to a crisis. Not only does Obama not define himself as "progressive," he is also a part of the Democratic Party machine; as the time for the campaign to fight for the presidency draws closer, he increasingly tends to abandon "center-left" rhetoric and turn more to the center of the political spectrum, in order to attract votes from more conservative sectors that have no confidence that he will be able to be chief of the US empire. The incident with his Pastor, the Reverend Mr. Wright, whose only "harsh remark" was condemning the racism of US society and the cost of US imperialist policies, may serve as a sign. In spite of the expectations awakened by the fact that for the first time an African-American has the real possibility of being the US President, the reality is that Obama does not represent the interests of workers, impoverished blacks or the young people who aspire to end the occupation of Iraq. On the contrary, he represents the interests of a sector of capitalists who consider that this time the Democrats will better defend the interests of US imperialism.

The strategy of the "lesser evil" is what has allowed the Democratic Party to act to contain the progressive tendencies of the workers and maintain the two-party regime that creates illusions of "change" through the two parties' taking turns in power.

But, in the context of hardships from the economic crisis, frustrated expectations could also lead to the development of new political and social processes. Under those circumstances, the need arises for US workers to break with the parties of those who exploit them, conquer their own political independence and be capable of building a powerful alliance of the oppressed – the unemployed, Latinos and blacks – and the young people who are able to confront the bourgeoisie and their imperialist state.

Contact the Liga de Trabajadores por el Socialismo (LTS)
www.ltscc.org.mx for more information: ltsmex@prodigy.net.mx
or call 401 919 4301

August 6 leaflet

US Troops Out of Iraq! No Attack on Iran!

From the Liga de Trabajadores por el Socialismo – Contracorriente of Mexico, section of the Fracción Trotskista por la Cuarta Internacional, we greet the mobilizations that are being carried out in different US cities against any attack on Iran.

With the excuse of the “war on terror,” Bush has sought to reaffirm his domination over the peoples of the world, as we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the plans of the Republican administration have gotten bogged down. For socialists, beyond the profound strategic differences we have with the reactionary, bourgeois Iranian government, any attack against Iran, whether ordered by the Republicans or by an eventual Democratic administration, is a part of this offensive that attempts to provide more secure bases for imperialist domination in the world. And we must not forget that this is the same US government under which harsh measures are applied against US workers, against health care and education, the same government that persecutes millions of our brothers and sisters from Mexico and Central America, who cross the border in search of work.

Faced with this, anti-war mobilizations in the US are an essential ally for the struggle of the oppressed peoples. We must not lower our guard; indeed, we must increase our efforts to set up real anti-war movements to raise the perspective of defeating the imperialist occupation in Iraq and curbing any eventual attack against Iran. Manos a la obra -- Let’s get to work!

US troops out of Iraq! No attack on Iran!

For the unity of the workers and youth that are mobilizing in the US with the peoples oppressed by imperialism

For the unity of Mexican and US workers, on both sides of the border, who suffer from the anti-worker plans of the imperialist bourgeoisie

Liga de Trabajadores por el socialismo – Contracorriente, of Mexico www.ltscc.org.mx

Section of the Fracción Trotskista Estrategia Internacional www.ft-ci.org