Hugo Chávez didn’t die, he multiplied!

Ten years since his passing, the legacy of Commander Hugo Chávez lives on in the people of Venezuela and the world

Peoples Dispatch | March 07, 2023

On March 5, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas to pay homage to Commander Hugo Chávez on the tenth anniversary of his death. Photo: Zoe Alexandra

March 5 marked ten years since the passing of Commander Hugo Chávez, former president of Venezuela and the father of the Bolivarian Revolution. Chávez was Venezuela’s president from February 2, 1999, until his death on March 5, 2013.

Chávez inaugurated a new period in Venezuela’s history. Through his comprehensive and inclusive social and economic policies, he brought back dignity and pride to the Venezuelan people and transformed the social reality of the country. He forged important projects for Latin American unity and integration such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – Peoples’ Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). He died at the age of 58, following a two-year battle with cancer.

Joma Sison passes on but his legacy will Continue

Harsh Thakor

 Countercurrents Collective | December 18, 2022

Professor Joma Sison expired in the night of December 16th. Joma died peacefully after a period of confinement in a hospital in Utrecht, The Netherlands last night at around 8:40 p.m. (Philippine time). He was 83.An irreparable loss of one of the great Marxist intellectuals and leaders of our times. Sison has departed but he has planted seeds for many roses to bloom. He propelled the Filipino people to shape the country’s future and achieve their aspirations for national freedom and democracy.

He was responsible for re-establishing the Communist Party of Phillipines in December 1968 and igniting the spark of the armed struggle in 1969.Unfortunately the bourgeois media is hailing Sison’s death as a culmination of the armed insurrection of the CPP, and a victory of the fascist Duterte regime. Bourgeois intellectuals are labelling late Sison as a terrorist, responsible for bloodshed.

Jagdish Tirodkar: The departure of a gentle socialist

Dr Prem Singh

Countercurrents | November 28, 2022

As a consequence of my fledgling activism in my student life to my dedicated commitment towards socialism till now, I found umpteen occasions to meet and interact with many people active in this stream. I constantly learned and picked up something from verily everyone during my work and interactions with them. Of them some became the source of intellectual inspiration, a few helped me in grasping the situations better while others taught me to keep the struggle on even keel in adverse circumstances. As with all other movements, in the socialist fold as well, there were some committed few who selflessly played their part in enriching the movement.

On the occasion of Che Guevara’s death anniversary JoP remembers him with great reverence. Your revolutionary spirit continues to inspire us, Comrade Che!

Listen to this beautiful song:

Our Che: 50 years after his execution

Ike Nahem

MR Online | October 09, 2017

[Fifty five years ago today (October 09, 1967), Comrade Che was murdered by the CIA in Bolivia. A hero of the world proletariat, Che continues to live in our memory and through our struggles against imperialism and capitalism. JoP republishes this post from 2017 to commemorate the death anniversary of the great revolutionary Che Guevara.]

This is an updated, re-edited version of my 2007 essay written for a Celebration of Ernesto Che Guevara’s life held in New York City in commemoration of the 40^th anniversary of his execution, attended by 300 people. —Ike Nahem

Che Lives!

Che died defending no other interest, no other cause than the cause of the exploited and the oppressed of this continent. Che died defending no other cause than the cause of the poor and the humble of this earth.

—Fidel Castro, October 18, 1967

On October 9, 1967, the highest levels of the United States government transmitted orders to CIA-operative Felix Rodriguez who passed them on to Washington’s flunkies in the Bolivian military regime. The orders were to murder Ernesto Che Guevara—a wounded combatant captured in battle. They proceeded to display Che’s mutilated corpse to gawking journalists and selected spectator-voyeurs before burying his remains in what they planned on forever being a secret, unmarked grave.

Hugo Chávez, Leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Was Born 68 Years Ago

Orinoco Tribune | July 29, 2022

Comandante Hugo Chávez surrounded by people during a political rally. File photo.


It is said that on a rainy night, in Sabaneta de Barinas, the boy who would become one of the greatest political leaders of Venezuela, and of the Latin American and Caribbean region, was born. This was Commander Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, the great leader of the Bolivarian Revolution. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, peasant boy, baseball-playing teenager, young soldier, insurgent man, firm and loving leader, and leading light of peoples and revolutions.

The great revolutionary leader ventured into the military world in an attempt to reach the US major leagues of baseball, but the call of his homeland, and outrage at a world of inequalities, made him change course.

Remembering T.Nagi Reddy, his college days in BHU and MK Gandhi

MA Krishna

Countercurrents | July 28, 2022

   A memorial meeting, remembering Com DV and TN was held in Khammam town of Telangana State on July27, 2022.

Hundreds of people who are fighting for and supporting agrarian revolution attended, including a big number of adivasi and poor peasants, and large number of women. The meeting held  in the peak of rainy season went on from10.30 am to 5pm (with 30-minute lunch-break), speakers explaining the revolutionary politics, current politics and ongoing struggles. Far left are adivasi and poor pesant leaders, Muttayya and veteran fighter Padiga Yerraiah (President  of  Grameena  Pedala Sangham of rural poor). Far right is Dr. Jatin Kumar, OPDR leader from Telangana.  

Currently struggles of adivasi and poor and landless peasants for  podu (forest lands),who occupied and tilled thousands of acres and demanding pattas (legal rights) as per Forest Rights Act , 2006,are going on in various parts of Telangana.

Speakers  asked if the newly-elected  President Draupadi  Murmu, born and projected by Modi-led BJP as adivasi herself will stand by the rural poor fighting for their  land and democratic rights. 

T.Nagi Reddy died 46 years ago on July28,1976, and DV Rao died on July12, 1984. Every year in  July, meetings, small and big, are held across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by UCCRI-ML remembering the revolutionary mass line they founded, and reviewing struggles along  that line. The above is one such well-attended meeting (see photos below)  

countercurrents.org has a rich archive on the lives and work of Comrades TN and DV: see at the end of the article for more.  

***                         ***

To Remember Bhagat Singh in Terms of Terrorism is Grave Injustice to His Yearnings for Justice, Equality and Harmony

Bharat Dogra

Countercurrents | July 17, 2022

An avoidable controversy has arisen recently due to the unfortunate comments of a politician of Punjab who called Shahid Bhagat Singh a terrorist. That this politician is linked closely to the Khalistani ideology explains his narrow worldview, and his comments regarding Bhagat Singh were quickly dismissed by most people. However to counter false propaganda based on such comments, it will be helpful to record some more details.

Bhagat Singh and his close colleagues made it amply clear time and again that they did not believe in indiscriminate violence and greatly valued human life. Bhagat Singh wrote very clearly, ‘non-violence as a policy indispensable for all mass movements’ while force is justifiable only ‘when resorted to as a matter of terrible necessity.’ During their trial Bhagat Singh and B.K.Dutt said in a joint statement,‘ We hold human life sacred beyond words.’ When asked to define ‘revolution’, they said equally clearly that it did not mean the cult of ‘bomb and pistol’.  World level fraternity based on equality and justice was emphasized by Bhagat Singh.

Luxemburg’s life for Democracy and Socialism

Tomás Várnagy

Frontier | Vol 55, No. 1, Jul 3 – 9, 2022

Rosa Luxemburg (1871, Zamosc, Poland–1919, Berlin, Germany) is one of the most fascinating and imposing revolutionary figures in modern European history and, at the same time, one of the most discussed to date. Her friends and adversaries emphasize the penetrating acuity of her intelligence, her great willpower, her lively and impatient temperament, her strong combative nature, and her great moral rigour.

She was born in Poland in 1871, the year of the Paris Commune, the youngest of five children in a cultured and relatively wealthy Jewish family. Intelligent and brilliant in her studies, independent and rebellious in spirit, she was involved in socialist political activity from her early youth. When she was a little girl, as a typical cultured Central European, she spoke three languages: Russian, Polish, and German. She became an activist in the Proletariat Party, founded in 1882 (almost two decades before the founding of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks), in which she organised and led striking workers. In 1886, four of its leaders were executed, while others were locked up and exiled.

Georgi Dimitrov’s legendary speech in 1933 Leipzig trial

The 18th of June marked the 140th birth anniversary of the great Bulgarian communist, leader of the Communist International from 1935 to 1943, Georgi Dimitrov. As a tribute to his memory we publish his famous defense speech during the Reichstag fire trial in Leipzig, when he refused counsel and proudly defended himself against his Nazi accusers.

“I am defending my Communist ideology, my ideals”

In Defense of Communism | June 19, 2022

Leipzig, 16 December 1933.

Dimitrov: By virtue of Article 258 of the Criminal Procedure Code I am entitled to speak both as defender and as accused.

President: You have the right to the last word and you can make use of that right now.

Dimitrov: By virtue of the Criminal Procedure Code I have the right to argue with the prosecution and then to deliver my final speech.

My Lords Judges, Gentlemen for the Prosecution and the Defence. At the very beginning of this trial three months ago as an accused man I addressed a letter to the President of the Court. I wrote that I regretted that my attitude in Court should lead to collisions with the judges, but I categorically refuted the suggestion which was made against me that I had misused my right to put questions and my right to make statements in order to serve propagandist ends. Because I was wrongly accused before this Court I naturally used all the means at my disposal to defend myself against false charges.

‘I acknowledge, I wrote, that several of my questions had not been as apposite from the point of view of time and formulation as I could have wished. May I explain this by referring to the fact that I am not acquainted with German law and further that this is the first time in my life in which I have played a part in judicial proceedings of this character. If I had enjoyed the services of a lawyer of my own choice I should doubtless have known how to avoid these misunderstandings so harmful to my own defence.