| Venezuela's government and people are taking important measures to defend the country's sovereignty and dignity in the face of the assault of the reactionary forces which have staged a comeback in that country. To their merit, the achievements of the Venezuelan people and government under Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro are all the more noteworthy given the context of the period of retreat of revolution in which the world has been mired since the 1989-90 period. From 1998 to today they have taken serious measures to right historical wrongs so that the people would no longer suffer the abject poverty, deprivation and racism inflicted on them by one of the most brutal, racist and reactionary oligarchies any country has had the misfortune to be saddled with. Under the presidency of Hugo Chávez, extensive pro-social measures were taken to raise the standard of living of the people and now that the reactionary oligarchy has managed to make a comeback, President Nicolás Maduro is using his presidency to safeguard the achievements of the Venezuelan Bolivarian process to the best of his ability. Extreme poverty in Venezuela has been reduced from 21 per cent in 1998, the year Hugo Chávez was elected President, to 5.4 per cent in 2015. In December 2015 Venezuela's Great Housing Mission completed its initial goal set in 2011 of providing one million low-cost or free homes to Venezuelans. The importance of similar measures in the fields of health care, education and food sovereignty cannot be overstated. In the past whenever the country suffered under the rule of such an oligarchy during periods of global economic crises, it was not uncommon for Venezuelans to be massacred when they protested for their rights, as was the case during the Caracazo in 1989. Now, in the context of another crisis and brutal counter-revolutionary actions to disrupt the pro-social measures, such as hoarding of food and disruptions of all sorts, and despite the low prices for Venezuelan oil, the government of Nicolás Maduro is taking extraordinary measures to defend the people's rights. Now is the time to defend the Bolivarian nation-building project as never before. It is under great threat of being reversed by the reactionary forces which have put everything at their disposal to once again usurp power and put the country's human, material and natural resources back under their control. It is not a time to lose heart but to set a firm direction of how the New can prevail over the Old. In 1907 when Russia suffered a period of reaction following the crushing of the 1905 revolution, the Great Lenin pointed out: "Every zigzag turn in history is a compromise, a compromise between the old, which is no longer strong enough to completely negate the new, and the new, which is not yet strong enough to completely overthrow the old." In an effort to hold on to the Old, the Venezuelan and regional oligarchies as well as their U.S. backers are waging vicious campaigns that include the outright sabotage of the Venezuelan economy and people's well-being, the subversion of Venezuela's institutions and popular constitution and unceasing attempts to undermine the presidency. The vicious campaign being waged not only shows the necessity to settle historical scores but puts the lie to the claims of the international financial oligarchy, institutions and imperialist system of states that they stand for democracy, freedom and human rights. The offensive on the part of the forces of reaction and retrogression clearly shows the direction the forces which stand for the New must take. The need for the working class and people of Venezuela to defend themselves against the revanchism of the brutal oligarchy which has ruled the country in the past with no redeeming features is evident. TML Weekly calls on all who see the necessity to defeat the moribund forces which cause nothing but misery and leave nothing but destruction in their wake to step up their support for President Maduro and all those who are closing ranks so as to defend the gains of the Bolivarian process. With the participation of the working class and people of Venezuela, by continuing to build their consciousness and organization, the crisis can be resolved in their favour. The Venezuelan people will deprive the exploiters, oppressors, racists, and brutal revanchists of their power to deprive the people of their modern right to govern themselves and advance their Bolivarian Revolution. |