Red Pepper's Venezuela Blog

Venezuela’s Co-Managed Inveval: Surviving in a Sea of Capitalism

[Venezuelanalysis.com's Kiraz Janicke visits Inveval, one of Venezuela's new worker co-managed factories, to talk to the workers and find out more about their struggle, their history, their experience of workers control, the challenges they face as well as the broader question of how they are strategising to transform Venezuelan society in the struggle for ‘Socialism in the 21st Century’.]

Venezuelan Labor Leaders Call for Union Federation Elections

[Venezuelanalysis.com's Chris Carlson reports on the call made by various leaders of Venezuela's primary pro-government labour union, the National Workers Union of Venezuela (UNT), for all sectors of the organisation to join together and hold elections later this year. --Ed]

Orlando Chirino, coordinator of Venezuela´s National Workers Union (UNT) at a march in the state of Carabobo in 2006. Credit: Aporrea.org

Chavez: Western Media Try To Demonise Iran and Other Muslim Countries

[In an interview earlier this month with Iran's newly launched Press TV, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez commented on a number of issues particularly the South American nation's foreign policy. The following is the text of the interview with the President]

Speech by Outgoing Defense Minister Gen. Raúl Isaias Baduel “Our Model of Socialism Must Be Profoundly Democratic”

[General Raúl Isaias Baduel held a widely reported speech on the occasion of his leaving the office of Defense Minister. The event was also one in which Chavez swore in the new defense minister and a new military high command. Baduel is a long-time friend of President Chavez, who co-founded the MBR-200 with Chavez, the clandestine movement that was later to organise the 1992 coup attempt against then-president Carlos Andrés Perez. More recently, Baduel was instrumental in bringing Chavez back into office during the April 2002 coup attempt. Baduel’s speech ruffled some feathers in Venezuela because some believed that he was issuing an indirect criticism of Chavez. A more charitable interpretation, though, is that he was merely telling the country in which direction he believes 21st socialism must go.]

New Study Says Venezuelan Economy to Continue to Boom

[A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research looks at the Venezuelan economy during the last eight years and finds that it does not fit the mold of an "oil boom headed for a bust," as is commonly believed. For a Spanish version of the CEPR paper click here.]

BBC Distorts Venezuela News

[For Calvin Tucker, co-editor of www.21stcenturysocialism.com, the BBC’s Caracas correspondent, James Ingham, has been at it again. 'It' being the use of clever journalistic tricks that leave the reader with the impression that the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, is a dictator-in-waiting. For a Spanish version of the article click here. --Ed]

The New Politics of Political Aid in Venezuela

[Tom Barry, senior analyst with the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy, argues that five years after U.S.-funded groups were associated with a failed coup against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, the U.S. government's political aid programs continue to meddle in Venezuelan domestic politics. A new focus of the "democracy builders" in Venezuela and around the world is support for nonviolent resistance by civil society organisations. --Ed]

Chávez: The Defence

[Colin Burgon MP, chair of the Labour Friends of Venezuela, responds to last week's New Statesman story by Alice O'Keeffe on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Click here to see a statement released by the Venezuela Information Centre in relation to O'Keeffe's article. Click here to see a statement released by Hands Off Venezuela in relation to O'Keeffe's article.--Ed]

Interview - Trade Unions and Socialism in Venezuela

[The following interview was conducted with Orlando Chirino, national organiser of Venezuela’s National Workers’ Union (UNT) federation and leader of C-CURA (the United Autonomous Revolutionary Class Current) within the UNT. --Ed]

Where Is Venezuela Going? Chávez and the Meaning of Twenty-First Century Socialism

[Below is an article by International Socialist Review's Lee Sustar that will (1) analyse the rise of Chávez within the context of Venezuelan history and politics; (2) examine the government’s economic, social, and political policies; (3) evaluate the Venezuelan revolutionary process from the standpoint of classical Marxist theory; and (4) outline a strategic approach towards the Chávez phenomenon for those committed to anti-imperialist and revolutionary socialist politics. --Ed]