Caracas, Venezuela – The delegation from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) had the honor May 2 of meeting with Blanca Eekhout, Minister of Communes and Social Movements and a member of the National Directorate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Despite having lost her voice during the massive May Day demonstration, she spoke with the FRSO members for nearly two hours about the experiences of the Bolivarian Revolution and the struggles in the United States.
Minister Eekhout talked with the delegation about President Maduro’s call for a rectification process during his May Day speech. “Now is an important moment to deepen and radicalize popular power, to build the bodies of self-government,” she said. “We have been resisting, but not advancing. Yesterday President Maduro said ‘enough!’ – we must advance despite all of the forces against us.”
As the Minister of Communes, it is Eekhout’s responsibility to deepen the role of the communes, bodies of popular power consisting of communal councils and social property enterprises (EPS). She added, “Maduro has also called for us to transform the state,” and that since the election of the Constituent National Assembly in 2017, “two states have been in a struggle with each other, and what has to die must die.”
When asked by Tracy Molm from the FRSO delegation about what message she wishes to share with the people of the United States, Eekhout did not hesitate to say, “Make revolution happen, for the benefit of the entire humanity. The words of Rosa Luxemburg, ‘socialism or barbarism,’ are more true now than ever. Barbarism cannot be allowed to continue.”
