Owen Richards

“It would be easier for 100 camels to pass through the eye of a needle than for [the capitalist class] to win the election”, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaking at the Caracas Municipal Theatre on August 15. It is just six weeks until Venezuela’s October 7 presidential election pits incumbent Chavez and his pro-revolution Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) electoral alliance against his main rival Henrique Capriles. Capriles heads the right-wing opposition bloc, the Democratic Unity Forum (MUD).

Dedicated to “the workers and peasants of Colombia”, Cocaine, Death Squads and the War on Terror is a serious and rigorous study of Colombian society.

“April 13, the great day of victory 10 years ago, opened the way to the independence and unity of our Latin America and the Caribbean,” Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez said on April 13. He was speaking during a commemoration of the uprising that toppled a short-lived military coup that aimed to crush the Chavez presidency . “We showed that a people united will never be defeated.”

“The confrontation here isn’t between Chavez and this little man, it’s the bourgeoisie against the people, the empire against the country”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on February 16. Chavez was referring to his newly-nominated presidential opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski. He was pointing to the class battle that lies behind the looming presidential elections scheduled for October 7.

Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez has likened the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States to Venezuela’s February 1989 Caracazo riots against neoliberal policies that are widely seen as the start of Venezuela's revolutionary process. Chavez made the comments by phone on the television program Dando y Dando on October 5.

Voters should expect to see “a new Chavez, a rejuvenated Chavez, touring the country as a candidate, touring the streets at a rhythm set by the circumstances”, said Venezuela’s socialist president Hugo Chavez after the date for Venezuela’s presidential elections was announced as October 7, 2012. The Venezuelan Electoral Commission’s (CNE) president Tibisay Lucena also announced that judicial, regional and local elections would take place on separate dates.

SYDNEY — "Kill a dog — go to jail. Kill a worker — pay a fine", read a placard at an October 27 rally of building workers angered by the death of yet another young worker on a dangerous work site. The placard's slogan sums up

BY NOREEN NAVIN& OWEN RICHARDS SYDNEY — Thousands of NSW teachers will stop work for two hours on July 29 to discuss the NSW Teacher Federation's negotiations with Premier Bob Carr's Labor government over teachers' salaries. NSW teachers have

BY LISA MACDONALD & OWEN RICHARDS Osama Yousif, 35, arrived in Australia as a political refugee from Sudan in June 2000. Today, he is an upper house candidate for the Socialist Alliance in the March 22 NSW election. Yousif first

SYDNEY — A dynamic and colourful gathering of around 1000 activists at Town Hall on November 13 kicked off three days of protest against the mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with a march demanding

These are the photos of Jenin:There are housesin ruinsready-made mausoleumsfor the bodies within.There are facesof familiesfamilies in ruinsa son half in a pita body in a pool, human reda daughter unrecognisedthe open-mouthed faces of newly widowed

BY OWEN RICHARDS & ANDREA MYLES SYDNEY — In a protest unlike any before in this western Sydney suburb, 300 people marched defiantly through the streets of Auburn on October 20 under the banners "Stop the war!" and "Refugees are welcome!". The