Fight imperialism! Defend the Venezuelan and Cuban Revolutions!

The following resolution on the Venezuelan and Cuban revolutions was put before a meeting of almost 300 Marxists from 24 countries, which was held in Spain in the first week of August:

This international meeting of revolutionary Marxists expresses its firm commitment to defend the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions against imperialist and capitalist counter-revolution.

The fall of the Soviet Union has transformed the international balance of forces concentrating colossal and unprecedented power into the hands of US imperialism. With colossal power comes colossal arrogance. Washington is trying to impose its will onto the whole world. The barbarous invasion and occupation of Iraq is a monstrous manifestation of this.

However, the capitalist crisis on a world scale manifests itself as a revolutionary crisis everywhere. This is clearly evident in Latin America where there is not a single stable bourgeois regime from the Tierra del Fuego to the Rio Grande. The aggressive campaigns of US imperialism directed against Cuba and Venezuela are a reflection of this fact. The Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions are beacons for the oppressed workers and peasants of Latin America. That is why Washington is striving by all means to defeat and destroy them.

The Cuban revolution, which provided hope for millions of people, is threatened by external and internal enemies. The forces of capitalist restoration inside Cuba constitute the greatest threat to the revolution. They are backed by world imperialism, in particular by the USA and the European Union. It is necessary to fight against capitalist restoration in Cuba and defend the elements of the nationalized planned economy. However in the last analysis the only hope for the Cuban revolution is the victory of the socialist revolution in Latin America and on a world scale.

The fate of the Cuban revolution above all depends on the fate of the Venezuelan revolution. The two things are inextricably linked. The Bolivarian revolution has begun as a national democratic revolution but it is meeting with the ferocious opposition of the Venezuelan oligarchy and US imperialism.

The latest attempt to defeat the Venezuelan revolution is the referendum campaign. All the forces of counter-revolution are united to defeat and depose the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The victory of the bourgeois opposition in the referendum would represent a deadly blow not only to the Venezuelan revolution but to revolution throughout Latin America.

We call upon all workers and youth and popular forces in Venezuela and internationally to unite to defeat the counter-revolution in the referendum on August 15. Our first task is to defeat the counter-revolution on August 15, but this will only be the beginning of a new and decisive chapter of the Venezuelan revolution.

The gains of the revolution will never be safe as long as the key levers of economic power remain in the hands of the oligarchy. It is necessary to consolidate the gains of the Bolivarian revolution through the nationalisation of the banks, the land and the big industries under the democratic control and administration of the working class.

We stand for the full implementation of the programme of Simon Bolivar, that is to say the revolutionary unification of Latin America and the Caribbean. However under modern conditions this goal can never be achieved by the bourgeoisie. Only the victory of the proletarian revolution can guarantee the gains of national democratic revolution and unification of Latin America.

The Latin American revolution can only be carried out by the proletariat in alliance with the poor peasants and the other exploited layers under the banner of socialism. It is the duty of the revolutionary Marxists to support with all of our energy and enthusiasm the anti-imperialist struggles of the people of Latin America, to arm it with the ideology, programme and policies of Marxism-Leninism and to transform it into and all-Latin American proletarian revolution.

The Latin American revolution will triumph as a proletarian revolution or it will not triumph at all. Our banner is the banner of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky - the real continuation of the revolutionary inheritance of Bolivar and Martí.

This resolution was adopted by the international Marxist tendency on the 6th August, 2004. More details about this important meeting will be published on Marxist.com later on this month.