Issue 26

This document was submitted by the US International Socialist Organization Steering Committee to the organisation's convention in Chicago, February 68, 2004. A report along these lines was presented by International Socialist Review editor Ahmed Shawki, and the perspectives were adopted by the convention.

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paths and stairways to the main roads, they found that bus fares had doubled and student discount fares were no longer valid.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.

This issue adds new material, viewpoints and discussion to a frequent theme in Links: the type or types of parties that can contribute to socialist revolution, and the methods by which it is possible to build them. It opens with a contribution from the Cuban magazine Tricontinental by Celia Hart. She examines the issue of "socialism in one country" in relation to the survival of the Cuban Revolution.