Alan Woods and William Izarra stress need to leave reformism behind and build Socialism of 21C

"We will never complete the revolution as long as private property is upheld"

From the Venezuelan Bolivarian University Press

Caracas, April 12, 2005. "If we continue to work under the thesis of reformism, it will be very difficult to create the revolutionary consciousness needed for the period of change we are living through, and we would be wasting all the effort carried out by our President Hugo Chavez Frias". This is what William Izarra, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asia and the Pacific, said during an event under the title "Socialism of the 21st Century". He was accompanied by Alan Woods, a British intellectual of the Revolutionary Marxist Current, Dr Orietta Caponi, Rector of the Venezuelan Bolivarian University, and the Secretary General Elizabeth Alves. The meeting was held in the Simon Bolivar hall of our studies house.

Izarra explained that we have entered a new stage of the process. This situation implies ideological definitions in order to take the right path between the two possibilities: reform or revolution. Reform implies the continuity of the political model of representative democracy and to continue to exercise a command model based on the fascination of power.

On the other hand there is revolution, a political model based on direct democracy, which means above all, to transform power into a tool of the people. It means transferring decision making to organised communities. "It is to rule on the basis of the right of the people to participate, to give constitutional consistency to the sovereign acts of the national collective" said Comandante Izarra.

Alan Woods, strengthening what had been said by Izarra, pointed out that the reformist behaviour is simply the expression of counter-revolution. "This is why I say, and I insist on this, that many times a victory can be turned into a defeat if there isn't a leadership which is consistent and coherent with this period".

The British intellectual recounted the epic intervention of the Venezuelan people during the coup d'etat on April 11, 2002, explaining how that popular uprising had no parallels anywhere in the world, and was unprecedented in any country of Latin America.

Woods explained that Venezuela is living through a revolution which has only gone half way, because as long as the oligarchy exists with its economic power intact we cannot speak of a revolution as such, "unfortunately, as long as private property is upheld, we will never have a complete revolution".

The Marxist leader ended by saying that Venezuela is at the crossroads: either we achieve the most important political and social victory in our contemporary history or we will suffer the most crushing of defeats, "either we defeat the counter-revolution, or it will defeat us".

"We will never complete the revolution as long as private property is upheld"

From the Venezuelan Bolivarian University Press

Caracas, April 12, 2005. "If we continue to work under the thesis of reformism, it will be very difficult to create the revolutionary consciousness needed for the period of change we are living through, and we would be wasting all the effort carried out by our President Hugo Chavez Frias". This is what William Izarra, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asia and the Pacific, said during an event under the title "Socialism of the 21st Century". He was accompanied by Alan Woods, a British intellectual of the Revolutionary Marxist Current, Dr Orietta Caponi, Rector of the Venezuelan Bolivarian University, and the Secretary General Elizabeth Alves. The meeting was held in the Simon Bolivar hall of our studies house.

Izarra explained that we have entered a new stage of the process. This situation implies ideological definitions in order to take the right path between the two possibilities: reform or revolution. Reform implies the continuity of the political model of representative democracy and to continue to exercise a command model based on the fascination of power.

On the other hand there is revolution, a political model based on direct democracy, which means above all, to transform power into a tool of the people. It means transferring decision making to organised communities. "It is to rule on the basis of the right of the people to participate, to give constitutional consistency to the sovereign acts of the national collective" said Comandante Izarra.

Alan Woods, strengthening what had been said by Izarra, pointed out that the reformist behaviour is simply the expression of counter-revolution. "This is why I say, and I insist on this, that many times a victory can be turned into a defeat if there isn't a leadership which is consistent and coherent with this period".

The British intellectual recounted the epic intervention of the Venezuelan people during the coup d'etat on April 11, 2002, explaining how that popular uprising had no parallels anywhere in the world, and was unprecedented in any country of Latin America.

Woods explained that Venezuela is living through a revolution which has only gone half way, because as long as the oligarchy exists with its economic power intact we cannot speak of a revolution as such, "unfortunately, as long as private property is upheld, we will never have a complete revolution".

The Marxist leader ended by saying that Venezuela is at the crossroads: either we achieve the most important political and social victory in our contemporary history or we will suffer the most crushing of defeats, "either we defeat the counter-revolution, or it will defeat us".