At the opening session of the PSUV
congress Chavez made a very radical left-wing speech, calling for the
setting up of a new international, explaining that it was necessary to
destroy the bourgeois state and replace it with a revolutionary state,
but also referring to the bureaucracy within the Bolivarian movement
itself. It was clearly a speech that reflects the enormous pressure
from the masses below who are getting tired of talk about socialism,
while real progress towards genuine change appears to be frustratingly
slow. Alan Woods reports on the start of the PSUV congress in Venezuela.

We reproduce here a translation of an interview with Alan Woods published in a daily newspaper in Venezuela during his current visit to the country

The working masses and poor of South Africa overthrew the old hated
Apartheid regime as a means of improving their living and working
conditions. Instead what we have is a party in power, the ANC, which
was created by the working masses but which is presently carrying out
policies in the interests of the rich. This contradiction must be
resolved and the only way is for the working people to take back
control of the party they created.