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.

Chavez has admitted that the reforms have been lost "for now", after his 33 proposed changes lost 49.3% to 50.7%, with 45% abstention, and the other 66 changes lost 49% to 51%.

Minimum program for getting out of this situation should include:

1) Expropriation of all media outlets which in violation of electoral law encouraged people to stay at home because the outcome was obvious.

2) Expropriation of all media outlets which published blatant falsehoods about the reforms, including things like the state will own your children, and the reforms will turn the country into Cuba.

3) To make the country truly democratic, the ability of a handful of individuals to influence so many people by way of such nonsense claims must be stopped; the media must be taken out of the hands of the few and placed into the hands of the many.

4) Modify reform proposals; reduce presidential terms from the proposed 7 years to 5 years, etc.

5) Try again in 3 months time.

Maximum program:

1) End the class war by liquidating the capitalist class immediately by way of declaring private ownership of the means of production illegal, something that should of happened in 2002.

When people like this, who make up 80% of the population can be defeated there are questions to ask about how democratic a society is.

Defeated by this lot, the people who own the media, the people who have got rich at the expense of everybody else for decades. The people who wear suits that cost as much as a workers' wages for a year! How can a minority win an election?

Of course Chavez is playing it softly softly as usual. The class war has to be won Chavez, do it or go home, the tiny minority of bourgeois lackies cannot be allowed power.

Our comrades in Venezuela are today going to the polls, the media in the west are of course going on about how Chavez is an evil dictator and so on and so forth, and this move is only to centralise power in his hands because it abolishes term limits (well guess what we don't have term limits here yet and the media don't complain about that).

So let's actually look at what is contained within these reforms.

The question posed in the polls is: "Are you in agreement with the approval of the constitutional reform project, passed by the National Assembly, with the participation of the people, and based in the initiative of President Hugo Chavez, with its respective titles, chapters, and transitional, derogative, and final dispositions, distributed in the following blocks?"

Let's go to Section 3 which I believe is the most progressive for the people of Venezuela.

Art. 64 - Lowers the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years.

We see an increase in democracy thanks to the lowering of the voting age.

Art. 67 - Requires candidates for elected office to be set up in accordance with gender parity, reverses the prohibition against state financing of campaigns and parties, and prohibits foreign funding of political activity.

Good stops allowing external influences like the CIA to fund political parties within Venezuela. Increases democracy.

Art. 70 - Establishes that councils of popular power (of communities, workers, students, farmers, fishers, youth, women, etc.) are one of the main means for citizen participation in the government.

Good, gets people active in politics, so power will eventually rest within these workers' councils.

Art. 87 - Creates a social security fund for the self-employed, in order to guarantee them a pension, vacation pay, sick pay, etc.

Good, helps self-employed people.

Art. 90 - Reduction of the workweek from 44 hours to 36.

Good, lets people enjoy life.

Art. 98 - Guarantees freedom for cultural creations, but without guaranteeing intellectual property.

Good, intellectual property rights are insanely over the top these days.

Art. 100 - Recognition of Venezuelans of African descent, as part of Venezuelan culture to protect and promote (in addition to indigenous and European culture).

Good, it is important that this is in the constitution.

Art. 103 - Right to a free education expanded from high school to university.

Funny, if Venezuela can afford free university education for everybody, why can't we?

Art. 112 - The state will promote a diversified and independent economic model, in which the interests of the community prevail over individual interests and that guarantee the social and material needs of the people. The state is no longer obliged to promote private enterprise.

Good.

Art. 113 - Monopolies are prohibited instead of merely being "not allowed." The state has the right to "reserve" the exploitation of natural resources or provision of services that are considered by the constitution or by a separate law to be strategic to the nation. Concessions granted to private parties must provide adequate benefits to the public.

Good.

Art. 115 - Introduces new forms of property, in addition to private property. The new forms are (1) public property, belonging to state bodies, (2) direct and indirect social property, belonging to the society in general, where indirect social property is administered by the state and direct is administered by particular communities, (3) collective property, which belongs to particular groups, (4) mixed property, which can be a combination of ownership of any of the previous five forms.

Good, more over here. There are some I don't agree with and some that don't go far enough, but by enlarge this is an extremely progressive step forward. The bias of the media has been noted, and their opposition to a better life for the workers will be remembered. But well, we all knew that anyway.

LABOUR MP John McDonnell demanded that the Brown government make "a choice between democracy or oligarchy" at the weekend.

At Saturday's Hands Off Venezuela national conference in London, he condemned new Labour's ongoing hostility towards Venezuela and pledged to make solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution an issue that "no MP would be allowed to dodge."

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack roused the 200 activists present when he attacked the hypocrisy of the British government in accusing Venezuela of corruption last week.

He recalled the recent privatisation of Ministry of Defence research division QinetiQ, which saw senior managers pocketing some 20,000 per cent profit.

Conference approved five motions, including one on the forthcoming constitutional reform, which condemned international media smear campaigns and "economic sabotage" by capitalist states.

Delegates also blasted the recent "biased and misleading" This World programme on BBC2, presented by journalist John Sweeney, which quoted claims by pressure group Transparency International that Venezuela is the second most corrupt country in the Americas.

More here...

Chavez gave a speech last week, and I have to say what I've read of it so far is the most refreshing yet.

"...workers councils will come into being in the factories, in the workplaces, but they should reach out to the communities and be fused into other councils of popular power: community councils, students councils, etc... What for? To shout slogans? To go around shouting long live Chavez? No!... To change the relationships in the workplace, to plan production, to take over piece by piece the functions of the government and to finish up by destroying the bourgeois state."

"We are going to destroy the bourgeoisie".

Not using the word oligarchy as he normally does, referring to the worst of the capitalists, now he uses the term bourgeoisie, referring to all capitalists. He also suggests the reading of Marx, Engels and Lenin and Trotsky on how the workers themselves should organise and run society from the bottom up.

Like Castro, Chavez came to power on a platform not of revolution but social reform to ease the burden of the most down-trodden within society. But like Castro he is reaching the same conclusion the capitalists just won't let him carry out such a program without economic sabotage and attempted coup d'états, why? Because they're unwilling to let their profits be "wasted" on helping the workers, despite the obvious fact that its the workers who make those profits in the first place.

It only took a few healthcare reforms, like opening free clinics for the capitalists of Venezuela to want the guy out. Now he sees the only way to safeguard the gains that have been made is to empower the working class themselves to build their own state to replace the bourgeois and bureaucratic state that Chavez inherited, so they can start to learn how to run society themselves and close the door on the power of big business.

From Venezuelanalysis.com:

The Venezuelan government made the agreement with London Mayor Ken Livingstone last February after Venezuelan President Chavez suggested the idea during a visit to London in 2006. The deal will provide London buses with a 20% discount on fuel from Venezuela. At the same time, London will open an office in Caracas to provide Venezuela with advice and technical expertise on tourism, public transport, urban-planning, and the protection of the environment, fields in which London is a world leader.

The discount will reduce the city's annual fuel bill of about £65 million ($138.4 million) by up to £14 million ($29.8 million), said a spokesman for the mayor. Those to benefit from the lower bus-fares will be single parents, long-term sick, disabled and others on income support.

"We want to target the very poorest Londoners," said Livingston to reporters. "From today, all Londoners on Income Support are eligible for half price travel on London buses. This will make it cheaper and easier for people to go about their lives and get the most out of London."

The mayor said that the reduced fares would offer savings of as much as £280 ($596) a year per person. And Livingston assured that Venezuela will benefit from the deal as well.

This is of course great news; Venezuela is the leading example of the people taking power into their own hands in the world today. Building connections with the workers throughout the rest of the world is essential.

In an ongoing discussion I've had with Mr Anthony, I used Venezuela as concrete examples of nationalisation of international companies, and reducing the working week without impacting production or pay.

5. I wonder about your Venezuela example. It is true they nationalized the petrolium industry. But Citgo functions worldwide. And even though it makes up 80% of the governments revenue has it really changed the country.

I was actually referring to Venezuela taking majority ownership of Chevron, Exxon Mobil and BP property within Venezuela.

but when you read their statistics you are left lacking:
Infant Mortality 21.54 to every 1000. Child malnutrition is 17%. In the Amacuro Delta it is 30%. 32% without addequet sanitation. 5,000,000 without drinking water. 37% poverty rate. It ranks poorest of all South American Nations. (And its Socialist). The list goes on and on.

Well let's clarify the socialist thing first Venezuela is not a socialist country, the vast majority of the economy is a market, with capitalists, capitalism and the usual. Some members of the Venezuelan government are socialists, and have been carrying out fairly progressive reforms and social-programmes to aid the people of Venezuela. The capitalists are however the ruling class in Venezuela and still own the vast majority of productive property and the wealth in the society. I would only begin to consider calling it a socialist country when the working class have taken political power, when capitalist property has become the public property under the control of the workers and when the revolution is spreading across the globe. I think most people would agree with that definition.

Well let's get onto the statistics. Statistics are good, I like statistics, but on their own they don't really tell you a lot.

"Infant Mortality 21.54 to every 1000".
"37% poverty rate".
"Child malnutrition is 17%".

Well two of those are actually true. I dispute the last one and have data that contradicts it. I can't find sources for Anthony's remaining figures.

OK so infant (defined as under 5) mortality sure that's bad. So let's now bring in more statistics so we can actually compare it to something.

The current government in Venezuela was elected into power in 1998. So perhaps comparing before and after figures would be a good way to judge if things have improved or not, figures from UNICEF.

Under-5 mortality rate in 1990: 33 per 1000.
Under-5 mortality rate in 2005: 21 per 1000.

So under the present government we've likely seen most of the 33% improvement.

Let's compare that to some of Venezuela's neighbouring countries, countries that do not have governments implementing such progressive social-programmes.

Mexico under-5 mortality rate in 2005: 27 per 1000.
Brazil under-5 mortality rate in 2005: 31 per 1000.
Guyana under-5 mortality rate in 2005: 63 per 1000.

Venezuela, thanks to its social-programmes is leading the way.

Anthony's 37% poverty refers to the number of households in poverty. So let's compare these figures with some pre-Chavez figures from UNICEF.

Households in poverty, first half of 1997: 55.6%.
Households in poverty, second half of 2005: 37.9%.

Under the Chavez government things have improved again about a third.

The figures I've found for child malnutrition are quite different than those Anthony provided, I can't find any figures over a period of several years so instead I'll compare Venezuela with the Latin American average. Figures from the INE.

Child malnutrition: 4.7% (of which 0.7% is severe).
Latin American average: 8% (of which 1% is severe).

Again Venezuela is above average.

So the figures that are thrown out there by the imperialists to try and discredit the Venezuelan government and its social-programmes, to assist them in their quest to overthrow the government and its social-programmes so they can increase "profitability", are nonsense. When you compare the figures to Venezuela's neighbouring countries, and to Venezuela before the current government came to power things have quite dramatically improved for the people of Venezuela.

Statistics in a vacuum are fairly useless, without having a point of reference; something to compare them against you can't make any judgements.

Thank you Anthony for putting these numbers out there to help me prove my point that capitalism doesn't work, and the market doesn't solve anybody's problems, only social-programmes, like a higher minimum wage, free health care stand a chance, and only the socialist revolution can secure those gains.