The question of setting up factory committees has been posed in Venezuela. Because some of those putting forward this idea belong to the reformist wing of the Bolivarian movement, the leadership of the UNT unions instead of promoting them have come out against them. Marxists on the other hand view this as an opportunity to promote genuine workers' control from below.

Six years after the coup against the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez was defeated by the magnificent mobilization of the masses, the contradictions within the Venezuelan revolution are as sharp as ever.

After the announcement that SIDOR has been nationalised, the owners have been manoeuvring, with the clear intention of sabotaging the steel plant. The workers have responded immediately by going on the offensive and taking control of the situation.

The two-month long series of congressional assemblies of the PSUV in Venezuela recently came to an end. The debates in the congress clearly indicate that a left-right polarisation is taking place within the party, with the rank and file seeking a revolutionary way out and a right-wing bureaucracy that is trying to mould the party to its own outlook.

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".

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.

The proposals for constitutional change have been defeated by 50.7% to 49.3%. The opposition hardly increased its absolute vote, but there was a high level of abstention. This is a warning. The masses are demanding decisive action not words! It may be that this defeat will have the opposite effect. It can rouse the masses to new levels of revolutionary struggle.

Economic sabotage is an underexposed and underreported tool of the counterrevolution in Venezuela. It is part and parcel of a general plan of destabilisation of the revolution in the run-up to the referendum. The limits of reformism in combating food scarcity stress the need for bold measures, like nationalisation of the food industry and the mobilisation of the masses. No time can be lost!

No sooner had I finished my article,Venezuela: counterrevolution raises its head - Heinz Dieterich and General Baduel (parts One and Two)when I was sent yet another of Dieterich's articles, which the Professor seems to produce with the same ease as a machine churning out sausages. This time it was a reply to my Cuban friend and comrade Celia Hart, who has clearly incurred the Professor's wrath by her negative comments on the very same article I have dealt with here.

The Marxists have long argued that the only way forward for the Venezuelan revolution is to strike blows against the counterrevolutionary bourgeoisie, by expropriating the bankers, landlords and capitalists, etc. However, there are other voices saying rather different things. One of the most persistent of these voices is that of Heinz Dieterich, who has been waging a noisy campaign in favour of what he calls “Socialism of the XXI Century” - a strange kind of socialism indeed in that it differs very little from capitalism.

In the build up to the forthcoming December referendum on constitutional reform some of the reformist elements within the Bolivarian movement are coming out with their true colours. General Baduel, recently resigned Minister of Defence, has openly joined the Opposition, as has "Podemos" a party that was part of the government coalition. Open appeals to the military officer caste to rebel are also appearing in the media. This highlights the dangers to the revolution and the urgent need to complete it.

The overwhelming victory of Chávez in the presidential elections last December marked a new shift to the left in the Venezuelan revolution, followed by the setting up of the PSUV, nationalisations, workers' control, enabling power. In a speech at the summer school of the International Marxist Tendency, Jorge Martin analysed the stage the revolution is at, the dangers it faces and outlined the way forward.

Megan Hise reports from Maracay on the latest attempt to destroy the struggle of the workers at Sanitarios Maracay for expropriation under workers' control.

The non-renewal of the broadcasting licence to private TV station RCTV in Venezuela has been used by the oligarchy and imperialism to unleash the coup-plotting campaign they were unable to launch at the time of the December 3rd elections. Despite all the hue and cry over “freedom of expression” the real aim of the oligarchy in Venezuela is to create a situation of chaos, violence and confusion.

Chavez has announced sweeping measures of nationalisation. This represents a big step forward for the Venezuelan revolution and would be a serious blow against capitalism and imperialism. Big enemies are lining up to stop this process, the most dangerous being inside the Bolivarian movement itself. It is now time to go all the way and put an end to capitalism in Venezuela and spread the revolution to the rest of Latin America.