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About this event

Twenty five years ago the Bolivarian revolution, one of the most monumental events of the century, brought the working class to power in Venezuela. Since its inception, the US empire has used all of the weaponry in its imperialist toolbox in attempting to overthrow the popular revolution. From strict sanction regimes to the kidnapping of the revolution’s leader, Hugo Chávez, the Chavistas have been able to sustain power in the hands of the people, fighting off the encroaching interests of the transnational imperialist bourgeoisie and its anti-patriotic bourgeois friends within Venezuela. Today we convene with a group of scholars and organizers, both within and outside of the Chavista process, to discuss the achievements and future of the Bolivarian revolution. This event is co-sponsored by the International Manifesto Group, Venezuela Analysis, Orinoco Tribune, the Midwestern Marx Institute, and the Critical Theory Workshop.

Speakers

Moderator: Carlos L. Garrido is a Cuban American philosophy instructor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is the director of the Midwestern Marx Institute and the author of The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism (2023), Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview (2022), and the forthcoming Hegel, Marxism, and Dialectics (2024). He has written for dozens of scholarly and popular publications around the world and runs various live-broadcast shows for the Midwestern Marx Institute YouTube. You can subscribe to his Philosophy in Crisis Substack HERE.

Cira Pascual Marquina is a Political Science professor at the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela in Caracas, a teacher and organizer at the Pluriversidad Patria Grande, El Panal Commune’s educational initiative, and part of the Venezuelanalysis editorial team. She is also co‐producer and co‐host of the Marxist education program Escuela de Cuadros. Pascual Marquina, a member of the International Communal Democracy Network, is co-author of Venezuela, the Present as Struggle: Voices from the Bolivarian Revolution (Monthly Review Press) and co‐compiler of two books: Para qué sirve El Capital: un balance contemporáneo de la obra principal de Karl Marx and ¿Por qué socialismo? Reactivando un debate (both Editorial Trinchera).

Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza is an expert in international relations, Venezuelan politics, and communication. He served for several years as Consul General of Venezuela in Chicago (United States); before that, he was part of the foundational editorial team of Aporrea.org. He is the founder and editor of the Venezuelan anti-imperialist news outlet Orinoco Tribune.

Alan Freeman is a former principal economist with the Greater London Authority and is now a research affiliate of the University of Manitoba. With Radhika Desai, he is co-director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group. He is also co-editor of the Future of World Capitalism book series with Pluto Books, and the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press He is a committee member of the Association for Heterodox Economics (www.hetecon.net) and a vice-chair of the World Association for Political Economy. He is a board member of Video Pool Winnipeg and the Christopher Freeman Trust, and a former board member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Edward Liger Smith is an American Political Scientist and Director at the Midwestern Marx Institute. He is a historian of anti-imperialist and socialist projects, and also writes on the American healthcare system and on the role southern slavery played in the development of American and European capitalism. In his weight class, he is amongst the best wrestlers in the country, a sport which he coaches for full time at Loras College.

Danny Shaw teaches Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the City University of New York. He works as a Director and professor at the Midwestern Marx Institute’s International Department and as an international affairs analyst for TeleSUR, RT, Press TV and other international news networks. He is the author of six books: including the forthcoming poetry book called 48 Poems for Gaza: 75 Questions for Israel.

Saheli Chowdhury is a co-editor and contributor of Orinoco Tribune. She is a Bengali socialist interested in anti-imperialist struggles throughout the world and especially in the Global South.