Although things look pretty gloomy - at least for the New Labourites, in Venezuela we continue to make progress.

This May Day the minimum wage was increased 30% in Venezuela, and not only that but public sector wages were also increased 30%. Taking into account the food subsidies, this will mean the minimum wage in Venezuela will be twice that of the average wage in Latin America.

It also seems that the six hour working day is back on the agenda (which was packaged with last years' defeated constitutional reforms). This is a critical step that must be taken if the workers are going to manage production themselves.

I'm also pleased to see the reactionaries only managed to bring out about 1000 people on their demonstration against the increases to the minimum wage, pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of workers out on the streets that day.