Socialist Resistance

An archive of socialistresistance.org, 2002–2022

They,

Socialist Resistance no41  |  page 19

This is scanned newsprint, not web text. The original PDFs carried no text layer at all, so every word here was read off the page by OCR. Expect dropped opening letters, run-together words and wrong characters. There was no contents page to cut the paper up by, so the articles were found from the size of their headlines: a headline may carry its kicker, and where an article ran beside a boxed panel a few lines of the neighbour can appear. The scanned issue is the authority; this text is here so the words can be found at all.

see the right

mobilising.

Some of these contradictions can be seen over the battle for ownership of the Huanuni mines. Morales had appointed a free market minister of mines who had a history with the private sector and some MAS delegates to the Constituent Assembly are putting forward legislation to make all mines co-owned both publicly and privately.

When Huanuni miners occupied their mine to defend it from privatisation Morales bowed to pressure and appointed a new minister - one who had been a rank and file trade unionist and has announced that all mines will be renationalised.

Morales is still in his honeymoon period and most people in the ranks of the social movements forgive the delays in fulfilling their demands because they, understandably, see the right mobilising.

They also understand the difficulties MAS is having pushing a radical agenda through the Constituent Assembly and the courts.

Rumours abound about the prospects of coups that never arrive, about weapons stolen from Navy barracks by right wing organisations and the possibility of a unilateral declaration of autonomy by the right in the richest areas.

Certainly it is possible for the social movements to engage with the Morales government in a way that was never possible under the neo-liberals that WETE before.

So while it is essential that the rank and file keep organising and fighting for their demands it is also right that they use the Morales government as a shield against the neo-liberals who are desperate for revenge on a people that dared to oppose them. live socialism!' The task now, he said was to deepen the socialist revolution in Venezuela: Nobody should be afraid of socialism. Socialism is humane, socialism is love... Venezuela is red, red right through.'

A fortnight later, he spelt A new ally: Chavez (left) greets the newly-elected Ecuador president Rafael Correa "everything was already decided", and to negotiations behind closed doors between the main political machines on how to carve up the new party.

Stalin Perez said that trade union and other social movement activists, political cur-