Americas

The assassination of Raúl Reyes and 18 other FARC guerrillas exposes the real intentions of the Colombian state and the US government. With this massacre, the Uribe government and American imperialism aim to derail the negotiations over the release of hostages and thus deny any peace in Colombia, and at the same time prepare for more acts of aggression against the unfolding revolution in Venezuela and Ecuador.

A very successful first public meeting of El Militante Bolivia was held on February 28 in Potosí with 35 people taking part, some of whom expressed an interest in joining El Militante. All this while the city was erupting in mass rioting in protest against economic sabotage being carried out by the oligarchy.

This was the fourth time that the F. Engels Foundation was present on the Havana International Book Fair. The results could not have been better, with a marked increase in the sale of books and documents from last year.

At the beginning of February the Esquerda Marxista (Marxist Left) group in Brazil held its congress, where they unanimously voted in favour of their affiliation to the International Marxist Tendency. The addition of this important grouping, which gathers within its ranks leaders of the occupied factories, of the Black Socialist Movement, important trade unionists and many revolutionary youth, marks a major milestone in the building of a genuine Marxist International in Latin America and the world.

Obama may well end up being the official Democratic candidate in the US Presidential elections. But what kind of an alternative is he? Luiz Bicalho, a leading member of Esquerda Marxista in Brazil, explains that Obama promises many things but remains a defender of capitalism. The answer is not Obama. The answer is an independent party of the US working class fighting to change society.

This year, for the first time one of Trotsky's key works, the Revolution Betrayed, was presented by the Frederick Engels Foundation at the Havana Book Fair, stimulating big interest. A special edition of a theoretical magazine on China, including the analysis of the International Marxist Tendency on this subject was also being sold. It is clear that a layer of the most conscious workers and youth in Cuba are looking far a Marxist alternative to the prospect of "market economics" being reintroduced to the

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As the news came out about Castro not standing again for president, the comrades manning the Frederick Engels Foundation at the Havana Book Fair sent us their impressions of how people are reacting and what situation is opening up in Cuba.

On Tuesday, February 19, Fidel Castro announced he was no longer going to stand for the position as President of Cuba. All the talk in the bourgeois is of the need to remove the regime, but there is no mention of the real social gains of the Cuban Revolution. We do not stand with these vultures. We defend the Cuban Revolution by working for an all-Latin American and international revolution.

In January we interviewed Luis Enrique Barrios, a leading member of the Mexican Marxist Tendency Militante. He explains how the struggle against electoral fraud has led to heightened working class militancy, such as the struggle of the miners, and it is merely a question of time before this erupts in a new wave of mass mobilisations.

For those following US electoral politics right now, it is clear that the big business candidates are presenting their respective religiosities as credentials of a sort to prospective voters. The open pandering to the "faith vote" displays the cynical depths the representatives of the ruling class are willing to go to win votes. This is not simply a harmless phenomenon but a noxious indication of the rottenness of the system.

The vast majority of the 300 million people in the USA are workers and their families. Just as they have learned that if we band together at work into a union, where our strength is united into a single force, we can more effectively fight the boss, if we band together into a political party, created by and under the democratic control of the labor movement, we can better fight the government of the employers.

The U.S. election cycle is in full swing a full nine months before voters actually go to the polls on November 4th. On "Super Tuesday" registered voters in 24 states came out to vote in caucuses and primary elections.

More than 13,000 tonnes of food have been seized in the last two weeks in Venezuela as part of the Food Sovereignty Plan launched in order to fight speculation, hoarding and sabotage in the food distribution chain. In announcing the measures in his radio programme Allo Presidente on January 22, president Chávez said that "among the responsibilities of the government one of them is to attack the capitalist model, the monopolies and rackets, so that the people, the workers, together with the revolutionary government can take the country forward".

Our attention has been drawn to an article published in the Mexican newspaper El Financiero on August 27, 2007. What is significant about this article is that it makes a specific reference to the Revolutionary Marxist Current (CMR) in Venezuela and the Marxist Tendency Militante in Mexico. The Venezuelan CMR is mentioned as one of the "tools for ideological propaganda" with the aim of spreading the "socialist revolution in the 21st century".

The Sandinistas carried out many progressive reforms after they came to power, but they never seriously tackled the question of ownership of the means of production. By leaving the bulk of the economy in private hands they gave the local oligarchy and imperialism the instruments by which these were able to undermine the revolution and eventually defeat it.

At the end of the 1970s, the people of Nicaragua rose up and overthrew one of the most hated tyrants in the world, Anastacio Somoza. It was an inspiring revolution that raised the hopes of many workers and youth around the world. Today Venezuela raises similar hopes. But the Nicaraguan revolution was defeated. What lessons can we draw from this today?

Editorial for US Socialist Appeal 36: The campaign to elect the next President of the United States is in full swing. The Democratic and Republican primaries and caucuses have begun, accompanied by a media frenzy intended to make it seem as though there truly are significant differences between the candidates, and to distract working people from the pressing problems we face. As we go to press, the race to nominate the next presidential candidates of big business is still wide open. But the real question is, who will represent the working class majority of American society?

The Venezuelan revolution has inspired the workers, peasants and youth of all Latin America and on a world scale. Over the past decade the revolutionary masses have achieved miracles. But the Venezuelan revolution is not completed. It cannot be completed until it expropriates the oligarchy and nationalizes the land, the banks and the key industries that remain in private hands. After almost a decade this task has not been accomplished and this represents a threat to the future of the revolution.