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The recent replacement of the labor minister and the nationalization of Sidor have once again brought to the fore the question of the role of workers in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, whose participation as an organized class has been sporadic at best, in this process aimed at constructing ‘Socialism of the 21st Century.’

In recent weeks, external and internal pressure against Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution, has intensified dramatically.

When the recent accusations of government-sponsored anti-Semitism are thoroughly investigated, it is revealed that in the majority of cases, the strongly anti-imperialist political sentiments of Venezuelan social movements are erroneously conflated with anti-Semitism.

A collective discussion is occurring throughout the revolutionary movement led by President Hugo Chavez following the defeat of the proposed constitutional reform proposals — that were intended to deepen the revolution to help open the way towards socialism — in the December 2 referendum.

The failed reform was the first defeat for the Bolivarian movement, after 12 national electoral contests, since Hugo Chávez was elected in 1998, and the first time that he and his movement had been forced to examine which way the process must go if it is to advance.

While we reflect on errors made, we should not lose sight of the unique opportunities posed by this turn of events. Sunday's referendum defeat marks a critical juncture in the Bolivarian Revolution: with the most direct, state-led path to socialism effectively blocked, Chávez will have no other alternative than to rely on the mobilization of the popular revolutionary masses.

As the struggle to deepen Venezuela's revolution through the framework of the pending constitutional reforms intensifies, so too does the battle to create the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). The simultaneous campaign for constitutional reforms and the formation of the PSUV means the two are intricately connected.

The following is an article-by-article summary of the changes being proposed to Venezuela's 1999 constitution. Venezuelans will vote on the reform on December 2^nd and will do so in two blocks. Block "A" includes President Chavez's original proposal and 13 articles introduced by the National Assembly. Block "B" includes another 26 reform articles proposed by the National Assembly. Voters may vote "Yes" or "No" on each block.

On Nov. 6, Democratic Congressman José Serrano (New York) lambasted the U.S. House of Representatives for having passed a voice-vote resolution that connects Iran's growing ties to Latin America with terrorism.

From the beginning of his presidency, Chávez has advocated a "multipolar world" as a corrective to the "unipolar world," a euphemism for U.S. hegemony. By "multipolar world," the Venezuelan president envisions the transformation of nations of the South into blocs, bound together geographically or economically, with political and economic clout.