Bolivarian Anti-imperialist Camp

21. October 2005

Original planning and motivation

Meanwhile important changes have been made: for the concrete programme see:

The following remains of interest to understand our approach:

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Between January 27 and February 2 of 2006 the Bolivarian Anti-imperialist Camp (CBA) will take place in parallel to the Social Forum of the Americas in Caracas, Venezuela. It is a gathering jointly organised by the revolutionary forces of the Bolivarian process in Venezuela as well as anti-imperialist resistance forces from around the world.

Reasons and goals of the Bolivarian Anti-imperialist Camp

The CBA intends to be a moment of dialogue and co-ordination of the anti-imperialist movement. It stands in continuity of numerous meetings and forums with the same aim having taken place in the recent years. By means of exchange between the vanguard forces of the focuses of the resistance against the Yankee empire the way towards their increasing co-ordination should be paved. Organising the political debate and the practical co-operation the fundament of a future international Anti-imperialist Front should be lied.

Alongside Iraq Venezuela is today the key point of resistance against US domination. But it is more than that. It is the place their the transformation of society towards a new form of socialism has been put on the agenda as a concrete and immediate task assumed by the popular classes.

It is not only a question to unify and strengthen the resistance of the peoples by building an international co-ordination but also to contribute to the necessary strive for a new revolutionary concept for a radical change of the political and economic structures of society i.e. for a re-elaboration of socialism.

Why in parallel to the Social Forum?

In difference to other Social Forums the one in Caracas sponsored by the Bolivarian government of Hugo Chávez will be largely marked by the anti-imperialist dynamics of Venezuela. Thus it is being welcomed by the anti-imperialist movement.

The structures of the World Social Forum (WSF) remain, however, substantially unchanged. While popular organisations form part of it, its institutions are controlled by reformist parties and humanitarianist NGOs. In their charter of principles they exclude combating revolutionary forces.

The CBA, in opposition to that, by basing itself on the anti-imperialist resistance refuses any form of equidistance between imperialist terrorism and the legitimate resistance of the peoples including all forms of struggle.

We have to overcome the spectacle-type events where no serious political elaboration is possible, let alone strategic re-orientation. Therefore the CBA clearly states its prime working goal: an international Anti-imperialist Front.

Regarding the Bolivarian government of Venezuela, the CBA expresses is full solidarity to the efforts of president Chávez for a leap forward towards popular power and socialism. We believe that such steps not only need the organised intervention of the people but also the unity of the revolutionary forces against reformism which is creeping into the new administration. The inherited traditional institutions of the bureaucratic state try to impede the actual exercising of the popular power and the organisation of the anti-imperialist self-defence.

Regarding anti-imperialism as the guiding line of Bolivarianism the popular forces are able to go ahead in a way not allowed to the government. As Che Guevara once wrote to Fidel Castro explaining his political path: “to do what is negated to you for your responsibility on the Cuban front”. Even an anti-imperialist state has to move itself within the “international community” of states today under the hegemony if Yankee imperialism. As long as the imperial system cannot be broken up and a counter pole of revolutionary states established, official anti-imperialism including the one exercised by Bolivarian Venezuela will consist in a difficult equilibrium of tactical diplomatic compromises and bold initiatives in order to weaken Washington. We set ourselves the task to fulfil the part of revolutionary anti-imperialism which today cannot be fulfilled by a state: systematically support and strengthen the centres of resistance and especially of revolutionary rupture, bring together the most combative political and popular organisations in the prospect of the construction of an international Anti-imperialist Front like intended already by Che Guevara.

Who organises the Bolivarian Anti-imperialist Camp?

As far as Venezuela is concerned the CBA is jointly organised by the vanguard of the Bolivarian movement. Among its promoters there is the “Movimiento de Bases Populares” (Popular Base Movement, MBP), the “Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora” (National Peasant Front Ezequiel Zamora, FNCEZ), the “Coordinadora Simà³n Bolàvar” (CSB), Utopàa, the student movement “Unià³n de Fuerzas Independientes” (Union of Independent Forces, UFI) as well as the youth organisation “Patria Joven” (Young Fatherland). On the international scale there is the Anti-imperialist Camp which decided to support the CBA offering its experience of years of anti-imperialist gatherings in Assisi, Italy. Among the endorsers there are forces of the Arab resistance as well as anti-imperialist organisations from Latin America and Asia.

Thanks to the active support of the popular quarter “January 23” and the mayor of Guasdualito, two hotspots of the Bolivarian revolution, the CBA is scheduled for those two places representing the urban as well as its rural face.

Axis of the Bolivarian Anti-imperialist Camp

The CBA will be inaugurated on January 27 in the popular quarter “January 23”. On the 30th the participants will move to Guasdualito where the second part of the programme is going to be held.

The general topic of the gathering are the analysis of the Empire being built by US imperialism and our response revolving around the keywords participative democracy, popular power and socialism of the 21st century. The debate should be followed by steps towards concrete co-ordination.

Forums on following points are in preparation: