latin america

LINKS: The world has radically changed and in many countries we've seen profound crisis and obstacles for the left and a decline In Its political activity. In this context, LINKS aims to encourage genuine discussion and debate around the Ideas of socialist renewal. We asked for this Interview because we have an enormous Interest In the developments In Nicaragua and the role of the FSLN. We will start by asking your opinion of the Sao Paulo Forum

By Renfrey Clarke

Renfrey Clarke is a longtime member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in the Australian Socialist Alliance.

Contents

Import substitution and its exhaustion

The Chicago boys

Shock without therapy: the economic record of Pinochetismo

Social Outcomes: Health and Education

The flourishing of neo-liberalism

The limits of neo-liberal growth

By Stuart Munckton

Stuart Munckton is the national coordinator of the Australian socialist youth organisation Resistance. This the text of a talk presented to a Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) educational conference in January 2005.

Contents

From anti-imperialism to anti-capitalism

Anti-capitalist trajectory

Is the leadership revolutionary?

The struggle for state power

Cuba

By Cleto A. Sojo

This article was first published at Venezuelanalysis.com.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was warmly received at the 2005 edition of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where he held several meetings with local leaders, intellectuals and activists, and gave the closing speech in Gigantinho Stadium. Chávez generated great interest among forum participants, many of whom see him and his project of political transformations being implemented in Venezuela as an inspiration in the struggle for a better world.

The Venezuelan president visited the Lagoa do Junco agrarian settlement in Tapes set up by Brazil's Landless Movement (MST) and later held a press conference with more than 120 media organisations, where he criticised the US government for claiming to lead a fight against terrorism while undermining democracy in Venezuela.

In December, Caracas was the setting for two significant gatherings. It is no surprise that the capital of Venezuela was the location for these two meetings. Venezuela today is not only witnessing a deepening class polarisation but is also the scene of a powerful movement of the poor fighting to reclaim their dignity and sovereignty. It was here, the birthplace of the Bolivarian revolution, that the World Forum of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity and the Second Bolivarian Congress of the Peoples (CBP) took place, each in its own way a reflection of the process unfolding today in Venezuela.

By Celia Hart

Celia Hart is the daughter of two veterans of the Cuban revolution: Haydée Santamaría, who participated in the July 26,1953, assault on the Moncada Barracks, and Armando Hart, the former minister of culture. Reprinted from Tricontinental Magazine.

CONTENTS

Why Trotsky?

The Cuban Revolution, paradigm of a socialist revolution

Internationalism in the development of the Cuban revolution

By Coral Wynter

Role of the army

Democratic reorganisation of government

Social programs

Bosses' strike

Workers and peasants state

Opposition forces

Left parties

The referendum

US invasion?

In February 27, 1989, in the poor hillside barrios that surround Caracas, Monday morning began like any other. As they made their way down the precipitous paths and stairways to the main roads, they found that bus fares had doubled and student discount fares were no longer valid. An elderly President Carlos Andrés Pérez had been elected three months previously to the presidency for the second time in twenty years. Obeying the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank, Pérez had increased the price of petrol overnight.

By Jorge Jorquera

The following article is based on the author's pamphlet, Venezuela—The Revolution Unfolding in Latin America, Resistance Books, 2003. Jorge Jorquera is a long-term Chilean solidarity activist and at the time of writing a member of the National Executive of the Democratic Socialist Party.

CONTENTS

By Ben Reid

CONTENTS

Resolution adopted by the nineteenth Congress of the Australian Democratic Socialist Party, January 2001