Using the old and tested mechanism of organising economic sabotage from within, the Venezuelan oligarchy is consciously manoeuvring to organise “food shortages”. The government has imposed price controls and is attempting to set up publicly owned food industries, but in order to successfully combat this sabotage it must go all the way and expropriate the oligarchy as a whole.

On the fifth anniversary of the defeat of the 2002 coup against Chavez, we invite everyone to read the article we published immediately after, Revolution and counter-revolution in Venezuela by Alan Woods and Ted Grant (April 14, 2002), together with all the other articles in our section on Venezuela.

The bourgeois media have made a lot of noise about the Enabling Law recently passed in Venezuela’s National Assembly. Unfortunately, some on the left have joined in the chorus of attacks against Chavez. The Enabling Law must be viewed in its proper context, must be understood from a class point of view, and must be seen as the Venezuelan masses see it – as a welcome and necessary measure the revolution must take if it is to succeed.

Fernando Buen Abad Domínguez in Argentina raises the issue of creating a socialist, a people’s media network at the service of the working class to counter the lies and distortions of the bourgeois media in Venezuela and internationally. From the Hands Off Venezuela site.

At the swearing in of his new government, Hugo Chavez announced radical new measures, including an enabling law that would allow for the nationalisation of key sectors of the economy. He also explained that it is necessary to “dismantle the bourgeois state”. All this confirms what the Marxists said after the elections in December. The balance of class forces has tilted enormously in favour of the masses.

After the massive electoral victory on December 3, Chavez has put a big emphasis on the need to turn towards socialism. As part of this he is proposing a new party, built from the bottom up, to bypass the bureaucracy.

One thousand people marched yesterday through the main streets of Caracas, in what was the largest demonstration in favour of the expropriation of an occupied factory that has ever taken place in Venezuela. This was truly an historic march. It was the real and genuine spirit of the working class taking over the streets of Caracas and pointing the way the revolution must advance.

An inspiring 13 minute film about the Bolivarian revolution and the activities of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign.

The workers of Sanitarios Maracay took to the streets in support of the 10 million votes for Chavez campaign and to call for the nationalisation of the company under workers' control.

After occupying Sanitarios Maracay, the workers have created new organisational forms for the running of the factory. The Assembly of workers is the highest decision making body, and has elected a 21-member Factory Committee, who are subject to the right of recall at any time by the Assembly, to organise production at the plant. The workers have also held meetings with workers from occupied factories in Brazil and Venezuela in order to learn from the experiences of other workers in the occupied factory movement.

The Venezuelan edition of Reason in Revolt has just come out. Here we publish the Introduction where emphasis is placed on the need for Marxist theory, the catalyst that can speed up and complete the Venezuelan Revolution.

The central thesis of this book from beginning to end is the following: that the Bolivarian Revolution can only succeed if it goes beyond the boundaries of capitalist private property, expropriating the oligarchy and transforming itself into a socialist revolution. The Revolution has begun, but it is not finished.The old state apparatus is still largely intact and a number of key economic levers (including the banks and the land) remain in the hands of the Venezuelan oligarchy.

The campaign for Venezuela's presidential election on December 3rd is already well under way. But this is far from a normal election. On December 3rd what is really at stake is the future of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Recent events in Venezuela prove that the revolution is far from over. Venezuelan society is extremely unstable, and all kinds of tensions between the classes manifest themselves in peculiar ways. Inside the Bolivarian movement, different tendencies are beginning to crystallize, revealing that not everyone is fighting for the same aims and ideas.

The expropriation of two golf courses in Venezuela was met with enthusiasm by wide layers of the Bolivarian movement and a hysterical campaign on the part of the bourgeois. In order for the revolution to move forward these expropriations must continue and must be extended.