"What is the future of Latin America?" Well thats a good question...! It is hard to tell the exact outcome, but I think that at this stage the situation in the continent as a whole depends very much on the revolutionary situations in Bolivia and Venezuela, exactly because they are the places where the revolutionary process has gone furthest and because they work as a beacon to all the opressed masses in the rest of the continent.
It is quite amazing that the revolution in Venezuela so far has developed more or less as was predicted in the articles on marxist.com. Everyone who thought that the ideas of socialism could never become a dominant theme in the revolutionary process, have now been proved completely wrong. Time and time again the masses have moved in the most marvellous way to smash the attempts of the counter-revolution to halt the process, and in turn this have radicalised the dominant ideas in the movement. There is a dialectical relationship between the masses and the leaders of the movement (including Chavez), and both are affected by one-another. Chavez is now talking about socialism and are making some nationalizations (though so far not of the commanding heigths of the economy). The working class has entered the scene in a decisive way, both in the TU-field with the spreading of the new UNT-tradeunion and with the movement for workers control and the discussions about nationalizations, etc...
But will this progress last eternally? I think that there will be further clashes on a major scale between the masses and the oligarchy (who no doubt will try to defeat the revolution again) and in one way or the other the question will ultimately be settled. The decisive factor is the ownership of the main means of production and the finance-capital (the banks). As long as these remain in the hands of the counter-revolution they will use them as tools to sabotage and ultimately to destroy the revolutionary process. In this context it is decisive that we also look at the lessons of Nicaragua, wich exactly waqs wrecked "from within" with the ongoing sabotage wich flkowed from the maintainance of the "mixed" economy.
The revolution must therefore advance by expropriating the oligarchy and lay the foundations for a planned, socialist economy - it is not enough to speak about socialism, it must be carried out in action. Already we see large sections of the w-class going in this direction by independently trying to take control over factories, demanding nationalizations, etc. This is the embryo of a new society, but what is needed is the collective centralisation and counscious organisation of this movement. In that context it is crucial that a Marxist current is build as a tool to speed up the process and carry it to the end.
So in short, the question is extremely open. As Lenin so correctly noted, "History knows all sorts of transformations". It is a living process between living forces, and the outcome has not been finally decided yet. We must stress that we, as marxists, can actually play a role and if we work with urgency and skill we have the opportunity to become a mass force that in the end CAN BE THE DECISIVE FACTOR that enables the opressed masses to take power and thus changing world history.
I therefore strongly appeal to you, and all other comrades, to closely follow - not just the articles and analysis (important as they are) - but also the reports from the Venezuelean marxists who are fighting to build such a force. The latwest news are on the interventions of the marxists in the world youth festival, and they are very promissing:
http://www.marxist.com/wyfs-alan-woods-militarism110805.htmhttp://www.marxist.com/wfys-letter-caracas110805.htm
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