It seemed for a long time that radical movements of the Left and Arab nationalists oppose each other. Nevertheless, alliances were formed by them that have fundamentally reshaped the political field in Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt.

Ali Shariati was one of the major intellectual forerunners of the Islam revolution in Iran who as mastering both Islam and Western philosophy has almost single handedly crossed the line between political Islam and the (secular) Left. His intellectual heritage begs for the question: may a credible Islam Left be formed/revived or political Islam becomes the servant of reactionary and imperialism supporting forces for good.

In a world of lost hope the political-intellectual search of Hugo Chavez and the development – or maybe the sheer existence – of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is a peculiar challenge for social analysis. The article reviews the political history of Venezuela in the past 20 years "from fact to fact" centred on the social, domestic and foreign policy achievements of the decade long presidency of Chavez full of vicissitudes.

According to the author, political Islam is an invaluable ally for imperialism while eliminates the real social confrontations between the popular classes and the globalized capitalist system that oppresses and exploits them, it is not the spontaneous result of the assertion of authentic religious convictions by the peoples concerned. It is fundamentally reactionary and therefore obviously cannot participate in the progress of peoples' liberation.

The possibility of a just and globally sustainable society and the vital necessity for totally eradicating capital from the social metabolic reproduction are uniquely combined in a dialectical unity in our present day. The power of capital in the midst of its deepening structural crisis now only able to increase social tension, further damage to the nature and risky new war projects. Recently, as the basis of the quasi-colonial control over Latin-America is melting permanently, peoples of this hemisphere can realise the Bolivarian vision of a solidarity-based social-political unity giving a pioneering model for mankind to be followed.