THIS month marks 25 years since Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias became president of Venezuela.

Chavez died just over 15 years later on March 5 2013, but his legacy lives on in the burgeoning anti-imperialist — and, in many places, anti-capitalist — movements that receive increasing support not only in Latin America, but across the global South.

In this sense, he stands with other giants of national liberation and socialist movements of past decades such as Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba and, of course, Che Guevara.

Why then does Chavez still matter so much and why must we continue defend his legacy — and raise awareness of what he stood for — today?

As many of both friends and foes have noted, his election in Venezuela 25 years ago sparked the first so-called “pink tide” and led to a new discussion on socialism in the 21st century across the international left.

And as his presidency developed, he undertook to make the changes needed to genuinely make Venezuela independent of the US empire. That meant, above all, taking control of natural resources, ensuring the process of change was led by the mass of people — as illustrated by the way people defended him on the streets against the temporarily successful US-backed coup in 2002 — and that people were freed from illiteracy in order to enable them to drive this change. 

As others have gone into in detail in important works such as The Real Venezuela by Iain Bruce, he led the progressive transformation of Venezuela by lifting millions out of poverty — standing against social exclusion, marginalisation and institutional repression.

As already mentioned, Chavez also played a leading role in the transformation of Latin America as a continent. 

This permanent process in the 21st century is collectively affirming the right to self-determination of the nations that make it up, and sees, in different ways, diverse movements attempting to build a better world. As we are seeing in the second wave of the “pink tide,” this process has ebbs and flows, but is continuing, and has achieved so much for millions.

In terms of what Chavez can teach our global movements, one key lesson we can take is that you can’t be a socialist without internationalism and without anti-imperialism. 

This isn’t just a sloganising point; it is because of the nature of the global capitalist economic system we live in.

As Che Guevara put it, “We must bear in mind that imperialism is a world system, the last stage of capitalism — and it must be defeated in a world confrontation. The strategic end of this struggle should be the destruction of imperialism. Our share, the responsibility of the exploited and underdeveloped of the world is to eliminate the foundations of imperialism: our oppressed nations, from where they extract capital, raw materials, technicians and cheap labour, and to which they export new capital — instruments of domination — arms and all kinds of articles; thus submerging us in an absolute dependence.”

Like Che, in a different time and context, Chavez advanced this anti-imperialism both in practice and in theory.

As millions of young people around the world refuse to any longer consider socialism a “dirty word” and look for ideas of socialist democracy, it’s important to also note that Chavez centrally believed that just as you couldn’t have real socialist change without internationalism, you also couldn’t without democracy, and real democracy at that.

As Chavez said, “The way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy,” which is also why in a famous interview with with Al Jazeera he explained that in his view, what had fallen in the Soviet Union “was not socialism, what was there had moved away a lot from the original aim of Lenin and of Trotsky, particularly after Stalin.”

On this point, he also believed that as well as being profoundly democratic, socialist change had to be uninterrupted and international, saying, controversially to some of his followers and to some readers no doubt, “Trotsky said that the revolution was permanent, it never finishes. Let’s go with Trotsky.”

These points explain the work he did in advancing the importance of the concept of communal power, increasing workers’ control in industry, and in many other areas — and of course his explicit support for other socialist and anti-imperialist causes around the world.

Linked to this, Chavez also took on a very important theme from Che’s and others’ writings in saying that to progress real change, to really break from the domination of empire, and to really start building a new society — you can’t outsource stages or elements of that struggle — the mass of the people have to make that change ourselves, and ultimately that has to be an anti-capitalist, international change.

And with current developments in Palestine showing the importance of anti-war internationalism more than ever, a piece like this celebrating Chavez would not be complete without mentioning his steadfast solidarity in deeds and words with the Palestinian people.

This led to him posthumously being awarded the “Star of Palestine,” and at the time of his death, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine evoked similarities between the struggle for freedom in Palestine and Latin America, saying that Chavez’s “heroic stand against the aggression and tyranny of the occupation” would never be forgotten by the Palestinian people.

On these and other topics, a decent volume of his most important speeches and writings in English is much overdue. And as we meet in London this weekend for the Latin America 2024 Conference, his legacy, achievements and learning from his fusion of revolutionary ideas and practice, can also help in motivating and energising ourselves in our solidarity with all forces in Latin America and beyond fighting against US domination and our failed economic system. 

With epic battles to come in Argentina, for example, Chavez’s life teaches us that we can not only fight, but fight, win and transform lives.

Let us honour Hugo Chavez by building a better, socialist world. Viva Chavez!

This article is based on a speech given by Matt Willgress at this weekend’s Latin America Conference. Matt is a long-term Latin America solidarity activist and national organiser for Arise: a Festival of Left Ideas.