Michael Lebowitz, author of Build it Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century and professor emeritus of the economics department at Canadas Simon Fraser University, is a director of the Centro Internacional Miranda. The CIM is a Caracas-based foundation for analysis and discussion of Venezuelas Bolivarian revolution the radical process of social change led by the countrys socialist president, Hugo Chavez. Lebowitz spoke to Green Left Weekly about the challenges facing the revolution (the first part of this interview appeared in GLW #690).
Jim McIlroy
As the Venezuelan presidential elections on December 3 draw closer, and the tensions grow as the revolutionary forces led by President Hugo Chavez face off against the US-backed opposition fronted by Manuel Rosales, the world is watching with huge interest. The stakes in this election are immense: the future of the Bolivarian revolution and the struggle to construct socialism of the 21st century are on the line.
Eva Golinger is a Venezuelan-American lawyer and author of The Chavez Code, which exposed US government involvement in the April 2002 military coup that briefly ousted left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, before he was reinstated by a popular uprising. Golinger is a determined campaigner against Washingtons attacks on revolutionary Venezuela. She has just published a new book, Bush vs Chavez: Washingtons War on Venezuela, detailing the current US threats to Venezuela. She spoke to Green Left Weekly in late October.
As the campaign for the Venezuelan presidential elections on December 3 entered its final month, the popular mobilisations in support of left-wing President Hugo Chavez increased in size and intensity. On October 30, thousands of residents of one of the largest communities in Caracas, Barrio 23 de Enero (Barrio January 23) braved intermittent rain to surround the truck carrying Chavez through the neighbourhoods hilly streets.
Venezuelas socialist President Hugo Chavez began a November 8 press conference, the first with the international media for many weeks, with a passionate statement against Israels war on Palestinians, which had killed four children and two women that morning.
Michael Lebowitz is a director of the Centro Internacional Miranda (CIM), a Caracas-based foundation for analysis and discussion of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution; professor emeritus of the department of economics at Simon Fraser University, Canada; and author of several books on Marxism and socialism, including his newly published Build it Now: Socialism for the Twenty-first Century. He spoke to Green Left Weekly’s Coral Wynter and Jim McIlroy about the unfolding revolution in Venezuela.
Six miners were killed by the Special Operations Unit of the Venezuelan Armed Forces (TO5) on September 22 in the remote jungle area of La Paragua, 200km south-east of Ciudud Bolivar in the eastern state of Bolivar. Fourteen soldiers landed their helicopter at the El Papelon de Turumban mine, destroyed the miners heavy machinery and shot them in the back, according to a report in the October 8 Ultimas Noticias.
Thousands of people flocked to the La Rinconada area, south of Caracas, on October 15, to hear socialist President Hugo Chavez inaugurate the new Ezequiel Zamora train line from Caracas to Cua, in the Valles del Tuy the first new above-ground train line constructed in Venezuela for more than 70 years.
We guarantee that all Venezuelans will receive free education, to the highest level, as a promise of the revolutionary government. This [event] demonstrates the importance that the [Bolivarian] revolution gives to education, Hugo Chavez declared on October 8. The Venezuelan president was officially re-opening the Andres Bello high school, situated in the metropolitan centre of the Caracas. The high school has been extensively renovated and upgraded to provide for a student population of 1700, the October 9 Ultimas Noticias reported.
October 12 was marked in Venezuela as the Day of Indigenous Resistance to the arrival of Spanish colonisers. On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus first landed in South America, beginning more than 500 years of genocide and oppression of the continents indigenous inhabitants. The day is a national public holiday in Venezuela and was previously designated Christopher Columbus Day.
On September 12 Venezuelas left-wing President Hugo Chavez announced the expansion of the Development Bank for Women Banmujer during a meeting in the Teresa Carreno Theatre to celebrate five years since the banks founding. Chavez offered another 100 billion bolivares (A$65 million) in resources to the bank.
Jim McIlroy &Coral Wynter, Caracas On February 2, the Latin American TV channel Telesur and the Arabic channel Al Jazeera signed an agreement to exchange information and technology, formalising a growing link that was initiated when Telesur began
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