Socialism or death! We will prevail!
Speech by Hugo Chavez [This an abridged version of the speech delivered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to thousands of people attending World Social Forum meeting held in Caracas in January 2006. The full version of this talk can be found at <www.venezuelasolidarity.org>.]
I want to greet all the social organisations at this forum;
organisations that fight for a different world, which is not only
possible, but is necessary. A world that we are obligated to build right
now! Not tomorrow...
And welcome to Caracas. Caracas has been the scene in recent centuries
of often resounding and horrifying events that have helped to mark the
peoples’ struggles for liberation. Here Simon Bolivar [who led the
struggle to liberate South America from Spanish colonialism in the early
19th century] was born. And here Francisco de Miranda was born. Miranda
was an unparalleled individual. Miranda went to battle, sword in hand,
in the three great revolutions of his time. First he fought in the US
War of Independence. A few years later he appeared on horseback, sword
in hand, commander of the northern army of the French Revolution, crying
out: “Liberty, equality, fraternity! And exactly 200 years ago,
nearly 60 years old, Miranda came crossing the seas, with three boats, a
tricolour flag, and a project: the liberation of Latin America and the
Caribbean, and their integration into a singular grand southern
republic...
Here we are once again, a new offensive has been unleashed by the
peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, against global
imperialism. Think of how the liberation processes in recent centuries
have been attempted. They were launched in a staggered manner, at
different times and in different places, isolated from one another.
Anti-imperialist struggles
Two-hundred years ago in these lands, a popular offensive was launched.
Bolivar was a great visionary, because even as early as 1826, Bolivar
sensed the threat of North America against us, and tried to convince his
companeros to form a Southern union, a great political body in South
America and in the Caribbean. 200 years ago, the grandparents of our
grandparents defeated the Spanish empire that had been here for 300
years, but Bolivar warned in that prophetic phrase that says it all:
“The United States of America appears to be destined by providence to
plague America with misery in the name of liberty...
At the beginning of the 19th century, strong liberating currents were
unleashed in Latin America and the Caribbean. But those movements had no
connection to any movement in Africa, much less in Asia. The movements
failed, and today we are living the consequences of that failure.
Then a century passed. There were struggles in Latin America during the
20th century. Revolutionary struggles right from the start [such as
those led by Mexican revolutionaries] Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.
And then the revolutionary movements of the 60s swept the continent,
from North America to the Southern Cone. Symbolic heroes of those times
were Ernesto Che Guevara, who today still lives on with us, and
Fidel Castro. And Schafik Handal.
I am going to ask you all to stand and lift your voices for a minute of
shouts and vivas for Schafik Handal. [Handal was a veteran
revolutionary from El Salvador and a leader of the mass-based Farabundo
Marti Liberation Front (FMLN). Handal led the armed struggle in the
1970s and 80s against the US-backed dictatorship, and remained a
leader of the FMLN right up until his death just days before this
speech.] Viva Schafik Handal! [Audience cries viva! followed by
cheering and an ovation.]
Viva Schafik! Brother! You are with us in this battle!
Schafik was always in solidarity [with the Venezuelan revolution].
During the coup he came here and told me: Chavez, if you lack a
soldier I am here, give me a rifle if you are lacking ...
And later I saw him in La Paz [Bolivia, celebrating the victory in the
presidential elections in December 2005 of indigenous leader Evo Morales
from the Movement Towards Socialism]. He was happy, like all of us. I
had to stay there the next day to sign with Evo a group of cooperation
agreements to help Bolivia.
One of the conventions we signed related to the fuel Bolivia imports.
This is one of the realities of our colonial economies: Bolivia, which
has so much energy, has to import fuel, just like Ecuador. Ecuador
exports crude petroleum and imports fuel. See, colonialism! So, I insist
that what has been reinitiated in Latin America is the same process
that Bolivar left pending. Independence...
We are going to supply all the fuel that [Bolivia] needs. They are not
going to pay us with currency, because they don't have any. Bolivia
has been robbed for centuries. So they are going to pay the equivalent,
in soy. In chicken, beef, and all they produce there. Another convention
we signed was the plan that we will carry out with Cuba. And we have
offered between Cuba and Venezuela 10,000 grants for Bolivian youth to
study in universities and technical schools...
In the 60s, independence movements were unleashed with force.
Revolutionary movements in Africa and Asia had a very strong impact.
[But a number of these movements were] scattered and the people fell
back into despair. Many movements lowered their flags. Others remained
with a flag raised high, like the Cuban people. We must keep in mind how
they isolate Cuba, and how all the governments of this continent turned
their backs on Cuba, fearing the empire. Now the 21st century has
arrived ... This century we must unite the movements of all the world
into one struggle. Then we will change the course of history.
A defeat for the empire
Just think, here in Latin America, in November [2005], Mr. Danger
[Chavez's term for US President George Bush], in person, went to Mar
del Plata [Argentina, where the Summit of the Americas was held and the
US attempted to force its proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) on the continent that would have opened Latin America up to even
greater exploitation by US corporations]. [He was] pressuring,
blackmailing, and using all the dirty war tactics typical of this empire
... This empire that we face is the most perverse, murderous,
genocidal, and immoral that this planet has known in 100 centuries...
This is a cynical empire! The Roman Empire admitted to being an empire,
but Mr. Danger talks of democracy. The Roman Empire didn't talk about
human rights. Ah, but no! This one, talks of human rights, and now we
have just been informed that they want to include Venezuela on their
annual list of countries that support terrorism.
Mister Danger talks about human rights while imprisoning our five Cuban
compatriot heroes [jailed in the US for gathering information on
anti-Castro terrorist groups operating in Miami]. Mister Danger talks of
human rights while in Guantanamo people are tortured, and people
disappear in secret CIA jails across the world. Look at how the cynical
government says that it fights against terrorism while protecting two of
the worst terrorists in the history of the world, Posada Carriles and
Orlando Bosch [responsible for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban plane that
killed 76 civilians].
Mr. Danger went to Mar del Plata with everything sewn up, or so he
thought, but it all fell apart despite all the pressure they exerted.
Whoever wants to know where the Free Trade Area of the Americas is, go
and find it in Mar del Plata. Thats where its buried! [Audience
gives an ovation.] Take a shovel...
Look how much we have advanced. I remember that at the [2001 Summit of
the Americas summit] in Quebec, Venezuela was alone against the FTAA,
because Cuba was excluded. Very democratically they excluded Cuba. The
day will come when the governments of Latin America have reached such a
level of unity that we will not accept such an imposition by the empire.
In Mar del Plata we presented a united front and they could not,
despite seven hours of debate, of face-to-face battle, they could not
bring to their knees five presidents: [Argentinean President Nestor]
Kirchner, [Brazilian President Luis Inacio 'Lula' da Silva],
[Uruguayan President] Tabare [Vazquez], [Paraguayan President] Nicanor
Duarte and this servant: We aligned ourselves and said no to the attempt
to impose the document's the imperialist and colonialist proposal of
the US government.
Instead, we are firmly moving forward toward a new level of integration
in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Bolivarian Alternative for the
Americas [ALBA, Venezuela's proposal for pro-people Latin American
economic integration that already consists of agreements that develop
significant cooperation between Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia] is already a
reality. [The empire] wants our oil and our gas. They've had it for
100 years, now we have recovered it and this oil is for the development
of our people and of the poorest countries of the continent. Venezuela
will never again be a colony of the United States of America...
There are reasons that we are optimistic. Things are happening that five
years ago could not have happened, including a movement on the rise
within the US that every day gains strength. Remember Cindy [Sheenan, US
anti-war activist who was in the audience], who began alone in a tent
there in Texas. In front of the ranch of Mister Danger she pitched her
tent, a tent of hope, of morality. I think that finally distinct
movements are rising in the U.S. We have to remember the tragedy of
[Hurricane] Katrina and the indignation that emerged upon seeing
millions of citizens abandoned by their government, left to their own
luck especially the poor, the Black, the Latinos.
Viva the people of the US! [Audience cries 'viva'] We count on you,
companeros. This must be clear, the people can save this world, but
essential to saving the world are the people of the US, united with the
people of the Caribbean, the people of Latin America, the people of
Asia, Africa and Europe.
"˜We are on the offensive"
We must come to the conclusion "we, who fight for a different and
better world, we who have lifted the flags of revolution; we are on
the offensive. Those who defend injustice and inequality, they are in
retreat. [Audience gives an ovation.] It is our turn to design a formula
of unity, of offence, of victory. It will be a long road but there are
sufficient elements with which to devise the union of our people's of
all the tendencies of indigenous peoples, workers, campesinos,
intellectuals, professionals, women, students, all the ecological
movements, all those who fight for real human rights, those who fight
for justice, equality and dignity. All of us must unite; join together
in a victorious offensive against the empire.
Here in Venezuela we are carrying forth a unique experience that has
modestly contributed to the cause of transforming the world: the
Bolivarian revolution. This afternoon we held a graduation ceremony for a
group of compatriots. Just think, through the pilot project of Mission
Robinson II [an education program aimed at providing literacy and
schooling to the poor who were previously excluded] we handed out
primary education diplomas to a group of Venezuelans who just two years
ago couldn't read or write. Thanks to the aid of the Cuban Revolution,
to their experience, to their people, to their methods, these people
learned to read and write and afterward began primary education, which
they completed in two years, and now they are beginning secondary
school...
I tell this story to share just one of the innumerable experiences
resulting from the Bolivarian revolution's advancements in education,
in health, in the fight against misery, against poverty, in the
transformation of the economic model of the 20th Century. [We are
promoting] a new political model: revolutionary democracy... where the
people are the essence and the fundamental actor in the political
battle, instead of an elite that represents the people.
Representative democracy always ends up being democracy of the elites.
The only democracy that we believe in is the people's democracy...
Imperialist aggression
For this, we have had to resist the aggression of the empire.
Imperialism, and the oligarchy linked to the empire, starts out by
offering its hand. That's what happened to me [when first elected].
The first year of my mandate [was full of] splendid dinners, the empire
courting me.
Later, when they realised [that I did not intend] to add myself to the
long list of traitors then the offensive against us began,
culminating in the coup of April 11, 2002. You all know through
documents that have been made public that the coup was part of the
strategy of the US. [First ensure control over] Venezuelan oil, then go
for Iraq's oil, which turned out to be the next year.
The empire is very powerful, but it is not invincible... in this century
we will bury the US empire. Remember that the empire, with all its
power, clashed against reality here [with the coup defeated by a popular
uprising]. It is not that they are failing in Iraq, it is that they
have already failed in Iraq. And despite that, blindly, not recognising
defeat, they continue sacrificing thousands of US youth, and in addition
continue massacring thousands of innocent Iraqi boys, girls, women and
men. From here, from this anti-imperialist forum, we demand that the US
government cease aggression against the people of Iraq. Withdraw the
troops...
How different is the face of a US soldier pulling a child out of
floodwaters to save her life. That is what the US troops should be
dedicated to! To attacking the poverty and misery growing in that
country. Every day there are more poor people in the US's 40 million
poor, increasing every day. Just think how much they could achieve.
Imagine, a government in the US that would declare world peace! Imagine a
US government that would recall all its troops and submarines and
atomic weapons dispersed around the planet. Imagine it! Imagine the
[US$400 billion] they invest every year in military spending used
instead for education, health care, producing medicines, producing
food...
If Cuba and Venezuela, with all our limitations, were able in a
year-and-a-half to teach 1.5 million people in Venezuela to read and
write and declare our country an "illiteracy-free territory," just
imagine what we could do if the governments of the most powerful
countries on earth joined together in a universal campaign, with all the
scientific advances and technologies they have, to fight against the
terrible phenomenon of poverty, illness and hunger.
The World Social Forum is extremely important in the worldwide
offensive, and it would be a tragedy to allow the World Social Forum to
become a simple festival, to become a yearly folkloric encounter...
[Applause.] We would just be wasting time. I continue encouraging the
leaders of all the movements represented here to agree to a united plan
of action, to impel these battles in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia,
Africa.
˜Socialism or death!"
Karl Marx coined the phrase: Socialism or death... Fidel Castro
said it and continues to say it, Che Guevara said it. For more than a
century this phrase has travelled the world. They have tried to stamp it
out, to bury the socialist project. But we would have to reply those
you have killed, enjoy good health.
But when Marx coined that phrase he had the luxury of thinking about
future centuries. When Fidel began to talk about socialism or death, in
the 60s, surely he too was talking about the coming century. I
believe that our margin for action has narrowed, that we havent much
time. I believe that we are in the defining century, where it will be
decided whether the human species will survive.
I repeat comrades: I think that time is short. Capitalism is destroying
the planet. The poles are melting, the seas are heating up, the
continents are sinking, forests and jungles are being destroyed, rivers
and lakes are drying up it's now or never.
From this forum we must push very hard for the formation of a grand
worldwide anti-imperialist movement, that will engage the entire world
and that has the capacity to connect, grow, and fight. From here we have
once again raised the banner of socialism... I believe that socialism
must have a strong indigenous component. We are not talking about
copying models, I believe that copying models was one of the great
errors of the socialist attempts of the 20th century...
Thank you in the name of the Bolivarian people of Venezuela for the
invitation [to speak]. Socialism or death! Homeland... [Audience cries "or death!"] We will prevail! [Audience cries "We will
prevail!"] A Bolivarian and revolutionary hug to my sisters and
brothers of Venezuela and the world.
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