tactical moderate-in rheto ric and fact Morales is the strongest defender of Bolivian democracy, as presently configured.
Neither he nor MAS want to see the constitutional order unravel, as both have had their sights set on the 2007 elections since 2002, when Morales nearly won the presi dential race." (Counterpunch 2 June 2005).
It is here that the movement's central weakness is exposed. This struggle, like the 2003 battle over the gas and the same year's insurrectionary struggle of the privatisation of in Cochabamba, has an objective tendency to go beyond the framework of capitalist constitutional democracy Land towards creating a pre-revolutionary situation.
To avoid the question of power being posed Evo Morales and the MAS leadership are tacitly supporting Carlos Mesa. In some of the major rallies Evo Morales has solidarity steps up a gear
Alex Cowper Venezuela solldarity activists are organising a number of events in the bulld-up to the World Youth Congress b Caracas in August.
Chavez and the Bolivarian revolutionary process have become key points of reference for the anti-globalisaton move meat.
This month, there Is a picket of the US embassy (Grosvenor Sq W1, nearest tubes Marble Arch and Bond Street on been booed for not supporting the demand for nationalisation of the gas and oil. But there is no coherent revolutionary alternative with anything like a mass base.
The Bolivian situation exposes as completely hollow and absurd theories that the masses can change the world from below, without taking political power.
There are however important forces which realise the role played by Morales and the MAS. At a mass rally on 23 May, Jaime Solares, leader of the COB, stated: "We do not want Hormando, Mesa, we want a peoples' government".
This is the same position adopted with the resolutions of the Alto Regional Workers Union (COR), which calls for a "national united, militant and non-negotiable struggle so that the people take power, expelling the oil transnationals and their traiLOT government of Carlos Mesa and all the parliament Monday June 13 from 4pa to 6pm, to demand that the terrorIst Lals Posada Carriles Is extradited to Venezuela.
Then on Wednesday 15th June Orlando Chirino from the independent Venezuelan National Workers' Union (UNT) will be speaking at ULU (roOM 3C-D, University of London Union, Malet St WC1, nearest tube Goodge Street) from 7pm, along with Ruth Winters (President, FBU), Jeremy Dear (General Secretary, NU) and John McDonnell, MP.
Both events have been organised by Hands Off Venezuela, which has done much to spread the word about Venezuela in the trade union movement
On 25 May, 260 people attended the fast public meeting organised by the Venezuelan Information Centre also composed of lackeys of the transnationals, to organise the Peoples' Assemblies order to take power".
The statement, passed at the Enlarged-Plenary of the El Alto COR on May 17, finishes with the following demands, "Long live the nationalisation of hydrocarbons! Long live the courageous and militant people of El Alto! Down with the government and its parliament! Long live the Peoples, Workers' and Peasants' Government! El Alto in struggle, never on its knees!"
The demands for the nationalisation of the gas and for a government of the workers, peasants and indigenous people are central to forging a coherent revolutionary alternative.
On 2 June Carlos Mesa announced that the constitu tion would be re-written in October and that referenda would be held to grant more autonomy to the gas producing regions. The mass mobilisation nationwide continues. UK (VICUK), a new solidarity organisation which seems to have attracted broad initial backing but also bears the stamp of trade union officialdom.
Speakers at the meeting Included Jouralist Richard Gott, UNISON deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet and a couple of academics.
What we need to work towards is a united solidarity campaign which builds roots lo the labour movement, and acti as a source of information, bul which also develops practical solidarity links with grassroots organisations, identifies with the Bolivarian process and attracts young people who are excited about what Is happening In Venezuela.
For further info see: www. handsofivenezuela.org