The Zapatistas – the first revolutionaries of the new age
Mike Gonzalez looks at how events in Chiapas have unfolded since 1994 and assesses the latest developments as Mexico elects a woman president for the first time.
A small earthquake in Chile, 1970-73
Mike Gonzalez writes about the 1973 coup in Chile and the lessons it offers for the struggle for socialism today.
Bolivia after Evo
Mike Gonzalez analyses the presidency of Evo Morales, who became President of Bolivia in 2005 at the head of a powerful mass movement, and was ultimately ousted in a right-wing coup last year.
Coronavirus in Latin America
The experience of the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America exposes the brutality of a global capitalist system in its most naked forms.
Venezuela on the brink
Mike Gonzalez looks at the crisis unfolding in Venezuela and its roots in the political and economic developments of the last two decades
Nicaragua: the epilogue
The violent suppression of anti-austerity protests in Nicaragua marks another nadir in the long decline of Sandinismo
Being honest about Venezuela
Mike Gonzalez writes on the crisis in Venezuela and the implosion of the Bolivarian project. This article was first published by Jacobin Magazine. Venezuela descends deeper into a political and economic crisis every day. The death toll rises relentlessly, and the vicious street battles show no signs of abating. On June 27, looters trashed the city of Maracay; […]
Fidel Castro (1926-2016)
Following Fidel Castro’s death, Mike Gonzalez assesses his legacy He was, by any standards, a giant of a man. In his frail late years his presence still resonated across Latin America, even among the generations that did not experience the exhilarating shock of the Cuban revolution of 1959. But that event is the source of […]
revolutionary reflections | Venezuela: for sale to the highest bidder?
The theory of state capitalism has played a critical role in the International Socialist tradition’s critique of regimes claiming to be socialist. In the first of the new Revolutionary Reflections articles, Mike Gonzalez presents an account of the latest developments in Venezuela which draw on that tradition to make sense of changes that are taking […]
A flawed revolutionary icon – a review of The Politics of Che Guevara
Mike Gonzalez reviews Samuel Farber’s recent book, The politics of Che Guevara, published by Haymarket Books. For two generations of activists, Ernesto Che Guevara has symbolized a kind of selfless heroism. His relative youth at his death in 1967 (he was 38) conserved his air of rebelliousness and the image of a man interested only in the […]
The right to water: an interview with Mike Gonzalez
Mike Gonzalez and Marienella Yanes are the authors of The Last Drop: The Politics of Water (Pluto: 2015). Mike talked to Nick Evans about the fight to put the world’s water back under democratic control, and the wider connections between climate change and class struggle. Water Protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia in 2000 How does looking at […]
A tribute to the anonymous and unsanctioned creativity of the slums
Mike Gonzalez explains how Empty Lot, an installation at Tate Modern by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, reflects the social realities of Latin American megacities. It begins at night; silent figures crouching in an empty lot. It will usually be on a hillside, on an abandoned piece of building land in a public space – fenced but […]
Cuba: coming in from the cold?
After 17 Cuban prisoners were freed by the US in December, Mike Gonzalez charts the recent deal between Washington and Havana and asks if this really is the end of an era with the lifting of the embargo As an internationally recognized artist, you would expect Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Cuba’s outstanding contemporary writer, to be aware […]
Gabriel García Márquez: magic and memory
Mike Gonzalez writes Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, who has died aged 87, was a globally recognised name even before he won his Nobel Prize in literature on 8 December 1982. His greatest work One Hundred Years of Solitude was translated into 20 languages within a couple of years of its 1967 publication. His journalism, stories and novels captivated an international audience. Yet […]
Mike Gonzalez: Second letter from Caracas
The mass movements have saved the revolution over and over again – in their mobilisations, in their defence of production, in their massive electoral support, and in their solidarity.
Is Venezuela burning? A letter from Caracas
Caracas is seeing an uprising of the middle classes and the rich. The working class neighbourhoods remain loyal to the government, but also deeply cynical about the extraordinary corruption of the heirs of Chavez.
Who will teach the teachers?
There is a revolutionary method – one part of which acknowledges that the teachers must themselves be taught by those they set out to instruct.