Venezuela - vamos con todo

Filmed by Roberto Jorquera during November 2008. A preview to a documentary on Venezuela's socialism that will be released in February 2009 by Direct Action Films

Venezuelan election report Part 2/2

Report on Venezuelan elections by Roberto Jorquera. Roberto is Direct Action (www.directaction.org.au) correspondent in Venezuela and co-organiser of the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network (www.venezuelasolidarity.org)Brigade

Venezuelan election report Part 1/2

Venezuela Election Rally

On November 15 thousands marched into the centre of caracas to support the PSUV candidates Jorge Rodriguez and Aristóbulo Izturiz. Rodriguez is the candidate for the Municipality of Libertador whilst Izturiz is the candidate for greater Carcas.

Filmed by Roberto Jorquera from Direct Action www.directaction.org.au and one of the Organisers of the Australia -Venezuela Solidarity Network (www.venezuelasolidarity.org) Brigade currently visiting Venezuela for the Governor and Municipal elections

Ex Coca Cola workers demonstrate - November 11,2008

Venezuelan elections campaign diary

By Roberto Jorquera
Caracas, Nov 12,2008

PCV calls for nationalisation of financial sector
During its weekly press conference the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) called on the government to immediately nationalise the financial sector. Oscar Figuera, General Secretary of the PCV said that the executive of the government ``should immediately nationalise the Venezuelan financial sector and not wait until the banks collapse''. Figuera argued that these measures must be taken understanding that the ``financial sector is the most reactionary arm of capitalism and central to the problems that the world is facing''.

However, Figuera also argued that this measure should be taken with the involvement of workers in the sector. ``This measure can not just be a change in management but one in which the working class assumes a protagonist role in the administration of the financial sector'', Figuera said.

In conclusion Figuera argued, ``the current crisis of the dominant capitalist system demands a profound transformation in the production system allowing for an advance in the construction of socialism''.

Chavez calls on opposition to accept the results
On November 10, speaking at a gathering of United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidates for Governors in Miraflores, Chavez said, ``it is still possible that we can win every Governors position''. With only 12 days to go to the elections for mayors and governors throughout Venezuela campaigning is well under way. PSUV posters and banners cover the walls throughout Venezuela. Street corners are occupied by PSUV election campaign stalls filled with information and campaign materials. VTV, the national Venezuelan television station, is broadcasting almost 24 hours a day information about the elections including interviews with candidates and explaining in detail what it would mean if the opposition where to win any of the governors positions.

Whilst addressing a meeting of PSUV candidates in the city of Ojeda in the state of Zulia, Chavez denounced the plan by the opposition in Zulia to not accept the election results if they where to loose the governorship of that state. ``The opposition is saying arguing that the elections will be filled with fraud''. If the opposition is to win anywhere in the country I will be the first to accept those results, said Chavez and added``On the other hand I call on the opposition to do the same''.

The President of the Bolivarian Students Federation, Carlos Sierra also spoke out against antidemocratic forces that are planning a coup. ``Anti-democratic sectors of the opposition are planning to not recognise the electoral results of November 23 and call for a destabilisation plot'', said Sierra. ``I have received a number of threats via phone, text and email''.

The movement by the name Tupamaros held a press conference on November 11 and also spoke out against the destabilisations plots that are floating around. A spokesperson for the Tupamaros, Hipolito Abreu said, ``we call on the revolutionary forces to be vigilant so that and destabilisation plots organised by the opposition and directed by North American imperialism can be confronted collectively''.

Workers demand justice
Ex workers of Coca Cola gathered outside the Presidential Palace Miraflores on November 11 demanding that Chavez meet with them. The ex Coca Cola workers have been demanding a better retirement payout for a number of years however management has refused to come to the table and negotiate with the ex workers. Hundreds blocked the main avenue leading up to Miraflores for the entire day. The workers where demanding that the national government enforce its one laws that have been passed forcing companies to contribute to workers retirement funds.

Similarly the Ministry of People's Power for Labour headed by Roberto Hernandez has also received a group of workers who work for commercial sectors that used to belong to PDVSA. Jose Bodas, a union representative said that they where arguing for these companies to pay up the increase in wages that was adopted on May 1 under the Presidential decree 982. The decree outlined that workers would receive a 15% pay rise if their wages was below BsF 500 and 10% for those workers that received no more then BsF 700. The union representative said that it is affecting some 40 thousand workers. Minister Hernandez said that he would respond as soon as possible.

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Revolutionary Venezuela and the capitalist crisis

By Roberto Jorquera
While capitalist governments around the world have responded to the freezing up of the capitalist financial system by turning trillions of dollars of public funds over to bankrupt bankers, the revolutionary government of Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez has continued to take steps to redistribute wealth to Venezuela’s working people.

Since being restored to Venezuela’s presidency by a mass revolutionary uprising against a US-backed military coup in April 2002, Chavez has the way towards an ever-increasing state share and control over the natural resources of the country and major industries. In recent years there has been nationalisations in telecommunications, steel, cement, electricity and the banking sector. The Venezuelan government is taking ever increasing control of the main pillars of the economy and increasing price regulations on food. These measures, together with increasing spending on social services and infrastructure, has put Venezuela in position to protect ordinary people from the capitalist world’s economic chaos. At a press conference on October 27 held jointly with the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Chavez said: “The consequences of the world's financial crisis are unpredictable, but in Venezuela we had a constituent process where it was developed a new economic system.”

Martin Saatdjian, third secretary at the Venezuelan foreign affairs ministry, stated in an article on October 1 in response to the way in which capitalist governments where responding to the crisis (nationalising or partially nationalising bankrupt financial corporations): “On the other hand, the socialist state intervention prioritises the most basic needs of people. This is the type of controlled and planned intervention that has been carried out by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, while at the same time maximising democracy, political consciousness, and the participation of the people in managing their own affairs. The enterprises that have been nationalised in Venezuela, such as the main communications company (CANTV), the iron and steel industry (Sidor), and one of the principal banks of Venezuela (Bank of Venezuela), are highly profitable enterprises.

“In the case of CANTV, its nationalisation cost the Venezuelan state roughly $1.6 billion; however, after a full year of operations this company earned nearly $400 million in net profits. At this pace, the Venezuelan state will recover its initial investment is just three years of operations. The resources that previously went into the pockets of rich people or became capital flight, are now being used by the government of Hugo Chavez to finance public heath care projects that are highly beneficial to the neediest people.”

The Chavez government-funded VIO News blog reported on October 16 that a “Miami Herald opinion piece claims that economists ‘agree’ that Venezuela will be harder hit by the global financial crisis than any other country. This is, however, untrue; analysts quoted recently in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters have all said that Venezuela is well insulated. Reuters reported that Venezuela ‘will likely emerge unscathed from the current global financial contagion even if tumbling crude prices force the oil-dependent OPEC nation to scale back spending’. AFP reports that Venezuela's stock market has seen a drop in value of less than one percent, while percentage losses are in the teens for Brazil and Argentina, which are among Latin America's largest economies.”

While many US newspapers have claimed that the Chavez government will be hard hit by the fall in oil prices as a result of the global recession – from its speculation-driven peak of US$147 a barrel in July back down to around their 2007 average of $64 – on October 22 Chavez dismissed such claims. Reviewing the evolution of international oil prices since he was elected Venezuela’s president in 1998, Chavez said: “I say, to keep pace with the great campaign that already started trying to foment fear and uncertainty among Venezuelans, even if the price of oil were to fall back to 2006 levels, when it finished at $55 per barrel, you can be totally sure of it, Venezuela would continue growing socially and economically.”

Chavez pointed out that the Venezuelan economy grew by 15% in 2004, when the average price of oil was $32.8 per barrel, and has grown for five consecutive years, during four of which the average price of oil was lower than it is today. “For 10 years [the US capitalists] have been saying that the Venezuelan economy is sinking, and now they are the ones who sank”, Chavez said.

On October 30, the Venezuelan ABN news agency reported that Chavez had called for “a new, fairer, more balanced, and supportive economic and political international system has to be created before capitalism’s meltdown”. In a speech that day, Chavez “made reference to a recent letter written by [retired Cuban president] Fidel Castro, who, among other issues, talked to him about the world financial crisis and North American empire's usage of economic power, `he gives me an explanation about why that model is unsustainable and it is sinking like the Titanic’.

Chavez warned that Venezuela is still alert about this world crisis, ‘because it is like a financial economic earthquake; for that reason I insist on creating a new international economic institutionality and, in this sense, the Southern countries have to fight for it and do not let impose again dollar's dictatorship, its hegemony, the hegemony of a system managed by the International Monetary Fund and the Empire of United States, which is the main cause for this disaster’.”

Chavez stressed that “Venezuelans must know that Venezuela will keep working, as well as Cuba. Social programs are not in danger, nor our missions, social equity, social justice, social inclusion, nor the social development of our people.”

James Suggett, writing for the web-based news service Venezuelanalysis.com, reported on October 24 that “Venezuela’s Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez presented a national budget proposal for 2009 that will increase social spending and is based on predictions of 6% economic growth, a stable national currency, and oil exports at a price of $60 per barrel”. Suggett also reported: “A swift assessment of 2007 figures reveals that Venezuela tops most nations in the world and the entire American Hemisphere (including the United States and Canada) with the biggest international reserves (IR) per capita. According to figures from 2007, for each single person that lives in Venezuela there are nearly $1,300 worth of IR at the end of 2007 ($34 billion total). This per capita amount surpasses the main economies of Latin America, such as: Argentina ($1,141); Brazil ($919), Chile ($1,023) and Mexico ($799). According to these figures, Venezuela's IR surpasses the second Latin American country with most IR per capita, that of Uruguay, by $113. This amount, if multiplied by the entire Venezuelan population (26.4 million), would total nearly $3 billion. Such an amount could be used to tackle the negative impacts of the financial crisis and Venezuela would still be at the top of the Latin American list in IR per capita.”.

Though no country will be immune from the effects of the current capitalist world economic meltdown, the example of Venezuela clearly shows what is possible with an ever increasing socially owned economy directed by a government that serves the interests of working people rather than profits of capitalist corporations.

[Roberto Jorquera is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and is one of the organizers of this month’s eighth Australian-Venezuela Solidarity Network brigade to Venezuela.]

www.directaction.org.au

Che: an extraordinary revolutionary

By Roberto Jorquera & Jorge Jorquera

On October 9, millions throughout the world will commemorate the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Che was central to the victory of the Cuban revolution of January 1, 1959. Since then his role and contribution to socialism in Cuba and to socialist understanding have been reflected upon and admired by millions of revolutionaries around the world.

On October 18, 1967, more than 200,000 people gathered in the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana to hear Fidel Castro read an obituary for Che, who had been assassinated in Bolivia by the CIA-backed army. Fidel spoke of the significance of Che’s life and death: “Che died defending the interests of the exploited and oppressed of this continent. Che died defending the interests of the poor and the humble of the earth ... Before history men who act as he did, men who give everything for the poor, grow in stature with each passing day and find a deeper place in the heart of the people.”

In his 800-page 1997 biography of Che, Jon Lee Anderson wrote of Che’s early years that, although he was not very clear politically, he hated the upper classes and always felt close to the poor and disadvantaged. Che was a brilliant medical student and always wanted to use his skills to help others. Anderson traces Che’s politicisation to his four-month journey through the leprosariums of the Andes. But it was not until his visit to Guatemala that Che announced his revolutionary convictions, stating in a letter to a friend:

“My life has been a sea of found resolutions until I bravely abandoned my baggage and, backpack on my shoulder, set out with companero Garcia on the sinuous trail that has brought us here. Along the way, I had the opportunity to pass through the dominions of United Fruit [company], convincing me once again of just how terrible these capitalist octopuses are ... I won’t rest until I see these capitalist octopuses annihilated. In Guatemala I will perfect myself and achieve what I need to be an authentic revolutionary.”

Che’s experiences in Guatemala opened his eyes to the role of US imperialism in Latin America. Most importantly, he realised the role of international solidarity with people fighting for socialism. Che compared the situation in Guatemala in 1954 with that of Spain in 1936.
Contact with poverty

Che arrived at his political convictions by confronting the realities of ordinary people. During his travels through Latin America in the early 1950s while still a medical student, he saw first hand the poverty afflicting the common people. In a 1960 speech “On revolutionary medicine”, he spoke of this time: “I came into close contact with poverty, with hunger, with disease, with the inability to cure a child because of lack of resources, with the numbness that hunger and continued punishment cause until a point is reached where a parent losing a child is an unimportant accident”. Helping those people became his life’s work.

Che realised, though, that this could not be done from a distance. He chose to throw in his lot with the struggles people were waging for their national liberation. In 1954 in Guatemala, he became politically active and witnessed the CIA-organised army coup that toppled the elected government of Jacobo Arbenz, which had initiated social reforms potentially threatening to US corporate interests. Che fled to Mexico and soon made contact with leaders of the Cuban revolutionary movement, including Fidel Castro. “Then I realised a fundamental thing ... the isolated effort, the individual effort, the purity of ideals, the desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals goes for naught if that effort is made alone, solitary.”

In 1956, convinced to join the struggle of the Cuban working people against US imperialist domination and the US-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Che left with 81 others on a boat called Granma. They were confident that they could add a new spark to the struggle of the Cuban peasants and workers. On arrival they were met by Batista’s army — only 15 revolutionaries survived.

The victory of the revolution in 1959 opened a new era for the international socialist movement, in which Che played a central role. Anderson explores the many events that unfolded in the first few years of the revolution, particularly the establishment of close relations with the Soviet Union. Anderson outlines the many criticisms Che had of the post-Lenin Soviet system. From the start, Che made it clear he was fighting for a socialist society true to the ideas of Marx and Lenin, and he staunchly opposed the bureaucratic “socialism” of the Soviet Union. Che, Anderson noted, criticised the “elite lifestyles and bourgeois luxuries he saw among Kremlin and party officials”. At a dinner in Moscow, Che said bluntly, “So, the proletariat here eats off of French porcelain, eh?”

Despite his directness, Che was to be central in establishing Soviet-Cuban relations while being one of the most outspoken critics of the Kremlin bureaucracy’s policy of “peaceful coexistence” between the superpowers. For Che, “peaceful coexistence” was impossible. He delivered a message to US President John Kennedy four months after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion: “Thank you for Playa Giron [Bay of Pigs]. Before the invasion, the revolution was shaky. Now it is stronger than ever.”

As Anderson’s research reveals, Che, from the very start, planned to continue developing a continent-wide revolution, using his experience in Cuba as a training ground for future revolutions. He played a vital role in shaping and defending Cuban socialism. Most important, he argued, was the need for Cuba to break its isolation by aiding revolutionaries throughout the world to defeat imperialism and capitalism. This dedication to revolutionary internationalism has been a consistent hallmark of the Cuban Revolution.

Che knew that the struggle for social liberation was an international one. Acting on that conviction, in April 1965 he left Cuba to throw in his lot once again with others in struggle. In 1967, in a message to the Organisation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Che urged people at “every small point on the map of the world [to] fulfil our duty and place at the disposal of the struggle whatever little we are able to give”. Che died at the hands of the Bolivian army on October 9, 1967. Since then, his example of steadfast resistance to oppression, and the lessons he drew out of the struggle for socialism, have inspired revolutionary activists struggling for freedom across the world.
Misunderstanding the revolution

Che’s political life and the example of the Cuban Revolution, many of whose features have been influenced by Che’s thinking and principles, should be an inspiration to socialists. However, some on the left, such as John Minns from Socialist Alternative, see it differently. In a January 2003 article, Minns claimed that the “commandantes of the [Cuban] Communist Party run things in their own elite interests’’ and that “[a]t least part of the explanation for this is to be found in the ideas of the leaders of the Cuban revolution”. These leaders allegedly held to an “elitist strategy where the revolution is, first and foremost, the product of the vanguard” not the working masses.

Minns misunderstands the entire history of the Cuban Revolution, starting from the attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953. The July 26 Movement, which developed from this failed attack and which later was joined by Che, always noted the essential role that the Cuban working class would need to play in any revolutionary struggle. Minns simply ignores the fact that the J26M created an extensive urban underground movement that organised a general strike in Santiago de Cuba in April 1958 and in Havana on January 1959. In 1959-60 Cuban workers were organised by the Castro government to take over the running of the country’s nationalised plantations and factories.

Che’s foquista (focal point) perspective was a shift that developed later as a tactical attempt to break the isolation of the Cuban Revolution. It was based upon the mistaken assumption that the Bolivian Communist Party would play a similar role in Bolivia’s urban centres as the J26M mass resistance movement had played in Cuba’s cities. In Che’s own diary captured after his death, he bristled with complaints about the Bolivian CP, which he characterised as “distrustful, disloyal and stupid”.

Minns claimed that Che and the Cuban revolutionaries’ “elitist notions must have a huge impact on the kind of society which is created from such a revolution. If the mass of people do not themselves make the revolution ‘from below’ — neither will they control the society which issues from it.” Furthermore, “both a lack of democracy in Cuba and its inability to develop economically have provoked great opposition and cynicism from much of its population”.

Minns’ view contradicts the real experience of the Cuban Revolution. Its survival after almost 50 years under a criminal imperialist blockade has been due to the masses’ active support of the revolution and their democratic participation in the running of the society born out of the revolution. The counter-revolutionary opposition in Cuba is tiny, not “great”.

The continual mass mobilisations led and organised by the Communist Party, the trade unions and other mass organisations have kept the leadership accountable and led it to be continuously renewed. There is a wide and vigorous debate on the future of socialism in Cuba within the Communist Party, academic circles and the mass social organisations.

Now, after decades of capitalist neoliberalism ripping through the world, we desperately need more people like Che. He represents the hope that emerges when people take their beliefs seriously and seize every chance they get to make a difference. He lived until his final breath with the same attitude he asked of his children in his farewell letter to them: “Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.”

First published in www.directaction.org.au

The US Ambassador to Venezuela has 72 hours to leave the country

By Roberto Jorquera

It has been a tumultuous past 48 hours in Bolivia and Venezuela with both governments asking the U.S Ambassadors to leave. The Morales government in Bolivia is facing increasing protest and destabilisation plans backed by the United States. In Venezuela a plot for a coup and the potential assassination of President Hugo Chavez was discovered with 8 currently serving and retired military officials being formally investigated and another 6 under suspicion.

At a mass rally in Carabobo on September 11, the President of the Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chavez gave instructions to the Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro to organise for the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Álvare, to return to the country immediately so as not to allow the US government the opportunity to expel him as was done with the Bolivian Ambassador. Chavez expressed solidarity with the government of Evo Morales , who on the previous day had formalised the expulsion of Philip Goldberg from Bolivian soil.
``From this moment the Ambassador of the US (Patrick Duddy) has 72 hours to leave Venezuela, in solidarity with the government and the people of Bolivia'', affirmed President Hugo Chavez during a mass rally in the State of Carabobo in support of PSUV candidate, Mario Silva.

``When there is a new government in the United States which respects the people of Latin America we will send an Ambassador'', expressed the Chief of State. ``We are determined to be free and I hold the government of the United States responsible for all the conspiracies against our people'', said Chavez. Furthermore Chavez. made it clear that if there is any aggression against Venezuela, there will be no oil sent to the United States.

In a show of support reminiscent of when people rallied outside of Miraflores on April 11-13, 2002 in support of President Chavez after his forced removal from office yet again thousands rallied outside the Presidential Palace on September 11. Chanting the people united will never be defeated the crowd condemned the coup plot.
At the rally Venezolana de Television (VTV) spoke to Aristobulo Isturiz, PSUV candidate for Major of Caracas, `` What is happening in Venezuela is part of a larger plan by imperialism. The aggression in Bolivia is the same aggression against Venezuela''.

Jorge Rodriquez candidate for the municipality Libertador in Caracas said, ``We defend democracy, the constitution of Venezuela. We will win at the ballot box but we will also take to the streets to defend our democracy.''. They should not try to destabilise Venezuelan democracy or the constitution''.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuelan Foreign Minister, made it clear that the government will ask that the destabalising plans be ``investigated to the full so that the rest of the world is made aware of what the opposition together with the US government are planning for Venezuela''.

VTV also reported that the Venezuelan National Assembly will meet to investigate the coup plot and the plot to assassinate the President of the Republic Hugo Chavez. The President of the National Assembly Cilia Flores said, ``that the private media was also involved in the plots''.

Jose Vicente Rangel said that the plots where ``part of a larger plan to destabilise Venezuela in the lead up to he November 23 elections.

102 youth delegates will represent Anzoátegui in the PSUV Congress

Barcelona, 25 Jul. ABN.- A total of 102 delegates will represent the state Anzoátegui in the Founding Congress of the Youth of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), to be celebrated from the 11th to the 13th of September in the state of Miranda.

Thus it was brought to light this Friday by an integral member of the PSUV leadership in Anzoátegui and coordinator of the Francisco of Miranda Front, Jonathan Tabares, who indicated that with this decision from July 30 to August 10 they will carry out assemblies in the battalions.

He explained that in these meetings the youths belonging to each battalion will conform the youth front and they will elect its official representative, who from August 10 to 30 will participate in the youth assemblies by socialist district.

Tabares commented that, ``continuing the method utilized for the election of the delegates of the PSUV, the youth representatives will meet and they will select a spokesperson for each one of the 102 active constituents''.

He emphasized that "the regional team (of the PSUV) will incorporate a group of promoters in the different municipalities to be the guarantors to ensure that the assemblies be called and is a democratic process, where a large quantity of youths shall be linked".

He pointed out that from August 30 they will initiate a process of discussion in the different battalions to centralize the proposals and contributions that they will present in the Founding Congress of the Youth.

"We anticipate that it be a massive event where the ideas, the own defiance of the youth be manifested, and from there springs forth the construction of this youth (of the PSUV) that is being called to the construction of the future that already is present".

On his part, the president of the Bolivarian Federation of Students, Gilberto Verde, announced that this Monday July 28 they will carry out the first meeting of municipal youth promoters, specifically at 9:00 in the morning, in the Assembly Room in Anzoátegui of Barcelona.

Precisely in this meeting they will discuss the methods of work for the assemblies, the creation of the youth fronts and the election of the representatives and delegates, on top of the aspects linked with the contributions that they will do in the different areas.

The director of the National Institute of the Youth (INJ) in Anzoátegui, Ronnie Figuera, declared that the intention is that all the youths, with ages understood to be between 15 and 28 years, be incorporated in the day to day discussion.

He indicated that at present they shall work in the conformation of the municipal electoral rooms and they shall support the National Electoral Council (CNE) with motivating the youths so that they be recorded in the Electoral Roll (RE).

Translated from Bolivarian News Agency by Ricardo Jorquera

PSUV conformed 14 thousand youth teams in all the country.

Caracas, 24 Jul. ABN. - To fortify the conformation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Psuv), this Thursday, the youths that are inside the organization constituted the J-PSUV organization that will be comprising 14 thousand youth teams and that will work directly with the socialist battalions.

Thus said Jorge Amorín, delegate of the PSUV in the state of Miranda and promoter of the conformation of the J-PSUV, during the informative assembly that was carried out this Thursday in the Hotel Anauco in the town square, which was attended by youth delegates from all the states of the country.

Amorín explained that in the mentioned assembly, it was reported all the discussions that were given in the Founding Congress, and in which also participated organizations like the National Institute of the Youth, the Francisco of Miranda Front, among others.

"The proposal that today (Thursday) we are presenting is framed in three phases, the first one consists of the conformation of the youth teams inside the battalions, that will be conformed by a minimum of 10 youths between the ages of 15 and 28; from 18 to 28 they are militants of the party and those from 15 to 17 although they cannot be militants, because thus states the Law of political parties, they will begin a direct relation with the PSUV to begin developing themselves as the political cadre of the revolution", explained Amorín. In the beginning, they will work in the discussion and proposal of ideas along with the battalions", he mentioned.

The youth teams will elect a spokesperson in order then to begin discussion on the different roles of work on how should the J-PSUV be conformed. Then for the first and second week of August the spokesperson of each one of these teams will meet in district assemblies with the ones that already make up the PSUV.

"These assemblies will collect the ideas of all the youth teams, and for the days of the 11th, 12th and 13th of September will be established the founding congress of the J-PSUV that perhaps will be able to have a space in the state of Miranda", said Amorín.

Among the fundamental tasks that the J-PSUV will have is voluntary work, the schools of political formation for the new cadre of the revolution and the support for the inscription of militant voters of the PSUV inside the Permanent Electoral Roll on the eve of the regional assemblies predicted for this 23rd of November.

Hector Rodriguez also a youth militant of the socialist party, indicated that the 14 thousand youth teams shall debate in August, on 5 founding documents that have to do with, energy and petroleum, integral defense of the nation, the food and agricultural system and the programmatic statutes and lines, in order then to elect 1,600 delegates to the Founding Congress.

In the assembly of this Thursday there attended delegates of the PSUV from all the regions of the country, who also presented their proposals on the conformation of the J-PSUV.

Translated from Bolivarian News Service by Ricardo Jorquera

Eva Golinger : Venezuela 101

Eva Golinger speaking at the Venezuela Solidarity Network national symposium on Venezuela that took place at Howard University in Washington DC on April 20, 2008.

To view Part 2,3 and 4 please visit www.handsoffvenezuela.org

Street battle in Merida

Tamara Pearson - Merida

At 5pm I got a text from my friend saying he couldn’t make it because “there are protests in the centre and they are shooting, I even had to run when I was at the bus stop.”

I went home, but passed street 26, where a large crowd was gathered, and decided to have a look.


A block down there were about 4 police, and a block down from there it looked like about 30 opposition students with their tshirts off and over their heads like balaclavas, firing and throwing rocks at the police, and the police firing back. Amongst them, scattered garbage bags (Friday night is one of the garbage pick up nights).
The police had shields, the youth had one of the Carlos Leon (mayor of Merida, chavista) billboards. The youth would throw something or fire something and the police would respond or duck, and the crowd edged close and closer to watch (still a good block away), and the police near the crowd made a half attempt to keep us back.


I walked a block over, and then down to where the fighting was. Stupidly, it wasn’t until I was right amongst the opposition that I realised I had a red tshirt on and my camera was very obvious (they don’t like being photographed). Oh well, I got out a pen and took some notes. There were a good 100 or so opposition people there- all men, young, and most of them covering their faces with balaclavas or improvised t-shirts. They had empty glass bottles, rocks, broken bricks and guns.
They also had 2 old blue ULA (Los Andes University) buses, which they drove around recklessly, frequently driving up to where the crowds were, skidding over corners, turning around, and heading back to their crowd.


The battle between the police and opposition/movement 13 went for ages. Soon it started to get dark and cold and a lot of the crowd went home. The police were getting a bit over it I think (they were not armed, they only had guns which fired these plastic gas canister things), and one cop walked back up to the crowd looking sad, “I was hit here, and here and here” he said, pointing to various parts of his leg. Most of the crowd was sympathetic and moved into listen to him describe what was happening. I think it was about then that people started thinking they should back the police up.
The police started pulling out and the opposition was turning on the crowd, throwing rocks. People started chanting “Alerta, alerta, alerta que camina, la espada de Bolivar por America Latina” (Warning, those who walk, the sword of Bolivar goes about Latin America), and picking up bricks, breaking them on the ground to make throw-able rocks, and going back after the opposition. It had become a Chavista/opposition battle now.


The opposition would retreat, collect their rocks, glass bottles or bits of glass and I think Molotov cocktails (it looked like they were throwing fire at us), then suddenly line up and attack, we would run back a bit, then people found rocks and would chace them and throw stuff back. The ‘line of battle’ would move up and down the street, and at one point when the Chavistas were running back, I turned down a side street instead, but found the opposition following and suddenly I was caught amongst them. I guess being female, they decided to completely ignore me, so I sat huddled against a wall as they kicked at shop doors, threw rocks at just one guy who’d done the same thing as me, and yelled out “hijo de puta” at him and the chavistas (son of a bitch). Rocks were flying everywhere, another chavista woman with her boyfriend yelled out ‘family’ to the opposition, signalled to me to come with her, and we ducked out back to where everyone else was.
By now it was pretty dark, too dark for photos. The shooting was constant. The police had completely gone- down a few blocks away, sitting down with their truck. Amongst the Chavistas it was almost only men left (and people I knew kept coming up to me (as a women I guess) and saying ‘be careful’ so I told them to be careful too). The police waited for people to disperse more, then they made a line behind their shields and started walking towards the opposition, with us behind them. There were almost no opposition ‘fighters’ left, they retreated behind a tall fence, and the Chavistas started chanting ‘alerta…’ again. There was a sense that we had almost won, we had made them leave ( I should add that by now there were probably about 100-150 Chavistas).
The police line continued down the road, advancing a block at a time. At one point I went up to the police line and looked around the corner where I think a small opposition still was, it was full of tear gas- from which side or why, I’m not sure. I put my notebook over my face (not that that helped) and walked back again and felt the tears coming, my eyes and face stinging, my throat hurting.
The line of police walked down another block and everyone yelled out ‘lets go’. We were now walking over where the opposition had been. Large street lights and poles were knocked right over on the road and smashed. The road was covered in broken glass, rocks, half bottles, toilet paper for some reason, burnt out tires and other unrecognizable burnt things. We arrived at the uni campus/student centre where the two opposition buses that they had been driving crazily around, were parked. Some people went in and started taking the air out of the tires and doing something to the engines. One guy threw a rock and broke a glass window and everyone got angry at him and told him not to do that.
There was little media. Before there were a few people filming and one guy from a newspaper, now there were just the TAM (Andean Television of Merida) media. No doubt Globalvision (very openly pro opposition TV channel) will say some crap about violent police attacking students, but they weren’t even there.
It was over. The Chavistas chanted “The people united will never be defeated” and one guy gave a speech, “…Today we defended the city and the people…the movement 13 don’t respect human life but we will defend it…Fascists don’t rest and neither will we…we are chavista!” and more chants of “We are the Chavistas of the university!”
Then there was “Venceremos!” (We will overcome) and everyone left.
-
Yesterday, Saturday, the Chavists mobilised in Plaza Bolivar ‘in defence of the Revolution’ – basically a show of numbers to prevent any further violence.
We used the opportunity to chat and catch up and exchange opinions about the previous days events…and then as it started to rain a few hours later, people went home and to meetings and the day finished off peacefully.
I noted down a few people’s opinions, although I really should have got more. One friend, a Tupamaru, said the Chavists shouldn’t have fallen into doing what M13 does- that is, throw rocks back etc, and that “The governor had a role in it all, he didn’t send enough police on purpose…and anyway the police don’t want to go out in the street because they are angry with Chavez because their wage is still very low.”
When I suggested to a different friend, from the CMR, that the slashing of the tires of the M13 buses was a bit over the top, he argued that strategically it was useful, to prevent them taking those buses out again and causing havoc and destruction like they did yesterday.
Another friend, from the Fuerzas Socialists argued that, “the opposition have done this under the inefficiency of the authorities, which has opposition members among them.”

Most of the people at this mobilisation were also young men. It was a ‘student battle’ so on one level it makes sense, but I’m also starting to sense a sort of age delineation, with the communal councils and the more theoretical and debate type meetings mostly attended by middle aged people and up, and protests like the anti-Uribe one- which didn’t have Chavez’s support, is mostly youth.

The M13 left their mark though, literally, all over the bridge from the centre and down Avenue Las Americas (one of the main roads on Merida), with painted outlines of bodies meant to represent bodies- deaths by crime.

Posted on http://gringadiary.blogspot.com/

For background and an indepth explanation of events, see James Suggets article at http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3640

For more of my photos, check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/16992000@N03/?saved=1

A world to win

A world to be won
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Chávez announced the great battle for unity and socialism

ABN 25/06/2008
Valencia, Carabobo

Valencia, June 24. ABN.- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, said at the end of the civic-military parade to mark the 187th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo (key battle for the independence of Venezuela) and the Army's Day, “let's take this opportunity to vindicate and seal for good the great battle for national unity, socialism, and independence.”

President Chávez reminded that, when he was a cadet, some people talked to him about socialism “but as a wrong thing. They said it was a threat; that it was the path to peoples' destruction. Every single instructor from United States came to say the same thing. They scared us. They indoctrinated us against socialism.”

“Nowadays, things are getting their right place, the capitalism is the true peoples' threat. Through capitalism, peoples are destroyed, the imperialism finishes off their nations, independence, and sovereignty”, Chávez held.

In this regard, President Chávez stated that unity has to be strengthened, adversaries “try to divide us, weaken us, and sometimes they damage us.”

Moreover, he mentioned some examples: “precisely, on June 24, some years ago, at this right same place, an Army's Commander cried when, in front of the whole country, I announced his promotion to General-in-Chief, because I considered he deserved it; however, I was wrong. He did not. He became a traitor and he is around making everybody feel sorry for him.”

“As Christ said once, let the dead bury their dead. We go for life, for motherland, everybody has to choose its path. Those choosing treason and a moral political dead, just go for it (...) that is an example of the constant work of the enemy”, he added.

Furthermore, he also talked about the Governor of Carabobo State, Luis Felipe Acosta Carlez: “the enemy will not rest in its attempt to weaken us. Another example of it is the Governor of this State (Carabobo), this is sad, but it is another sorrowful example. This responsibility was too much
for him, I say it with too much pain. It hurts but has to be said.”

Regarding a casino that was operating illegally in this state, President Chávez addressed to one of the generals of Venezuelan Army, “you have suffered attacks from the City Hall, General Alcalá. I remember a day when Alcalá looked at me and told me: President, look what I have found. A casino. I told him close it down. He then told me, Ok I will close it, but some people is going to protest from the City Hall because they control it.”

“A casino? Did you come here for that? Well you are going to go out by the back door because, sadly, you chose it that way. I say this like a soldier and it hurts me, most of all in some cases like this one. It hurts a lot but it is the truth”, Chávez added.

In this regard, Chávez held that Acosta Carlez is “a governor that lost the path. I told him dozens of times, hundreds of times i talked to him, trying to make him reflect, but he lost his whole capability of reflection and rectification and I can say that the (Bolivarian) revolution lost him.”

“But it does not matter. What we can not lose is Carabobo: these people, this state, this region that is so important for the country and for the revolution.”

Translated by Ernesto Aguilera

Chávez: “We are achieving our second independence in Latin America“

ABN 01/07/2008

Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, stated that a new freedom phase glimpses in South America and the exclusion mechanisms that have historically characterized the life development of the peoples of the region come off.

After arriving in the international airport Teniente Benjamin Matienzo in San Miguel de Tucumán, the Venezuelan head of State sent regards to the Argentinean people and expressed that “the second independence in Latin America” is in motion and the political scene shows it.

He mentioned the new dynamic after the arrival of progressive governments like Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia and Venezuela.

“We won’t be really independent if we don’t break the exclusion mechanisms completely,” he pointed out.

Though he warned that, in the political aspect, “we have a lot to do to be completely free,” President Chávez stated that the South American countries are now more independent than 10 years ago, when the capitalist vision ruled in the Argentinean government.

The Venezuelan president arrived in the capital of the Tucumán province together with the ministries of People’s Power for Energy and Oil, Rafael Ramírez, Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro; Food, Félix Osorio; as well as the Ambassador of Venezuela to Argentina, Arévalo Méndez and the Argentinean diplomatic representative in Caracas, Alicia Castro.

Presidential Press Office / July 01, 2008

Chávez calls Europe’s immigrant deportation law outrageous

TUCUMÁN, Argentina, June 30.–– President Hugo Chávez of Venezuelan said the so-called Returns Directive law passed recently by the European Union is “outrageous,” in comments after arriving in the northern Argentine province of Tucumán to attend the Mercosur Summit, the AFP reported.

“It is outrageous,” Chávez stated. “It is the law of shame, of ignominy,” he told journalists who met him at the airport, commenting that the law “is a reflection of the great hypocrisy of the European elite, as Fidel said recently.”

The Venezuelan president praised the angry opposition to the law that has been expressed in South America, and which Mercosur was to set down explicitly in a document at the end of its summit.

“I think it is very good how we Latin American governments have unanimously and firmly stood up to Europe’s ignominy and called on them to reflect,” he said.

A law providing for the deportation of undocumented immigrants was passed on June 17 by the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It stipulates that those accused of being in Europe illegally may be held for up to 18 months in jail and banned from Europe for five years.

Translated by Granma International

Why Venezuela’s revolution needs our solidarity

By Roberto Jorquera

Since the defeat of the constitutional reform referendum last December 3 there has been much discussion surrounding the future of the Venezuelan revolution. Commentators and activists inside Venezuela and internationally have expressed their views on this topic. Some have started to ring alarm bells claiming the revolution has been halted and some have even argued that a counter-revolution is being carried out by the “endogenous right” of President Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian movement. Others have commentated that what is happening is a temporary retreat by the left of the Bolivarian movement.

Rather than view the current process in Venezuela in such a black and white fashion, it is better to view the Bolivarian process as what it is — an unfolding process of revolutionary socialist transformation of Venezuela’s social order. The Bolivarian revolution has its official starting point with the election of Hugo Chavez as Venezuela’s president in 1998, though the roots of the process go back to the 1970s.

The election of Chavez in 1998 opened the door to a process of democratic and anti-neoliberal reforms. The implementation of the 49 enabling laws in 2000 took this process in a more radical direction by shifting the focus of struggle between the Chavistas and Venezuela’s imperialist-backed capitalist oligarchy onto who would have control over the country’s oil industry, and therefore over its national economy.

April 2002 insurrection

The response by the oligarchy and Washington headed by the US government was the military coup in April 2002. The coup, however, split the military and led within 48 hours to a mass military-civilian insurrection that led to the restoration of Chavez as president. The popular insurrection altered the relationship of social forces within Venezuela to the advantage of the working people and the poor, radically transforming the class character of the government and the armed forces it rested on. In early 2003, the working people’s government born of the April 13 revolutionary insurrection inflicted a major blow against the capitalist oligarchy by mobilising soldiers and oil production workers to enable the government to take over PDVSA, Venezuela’s formally state-owned oil company and the largest company in Latin America.

PDVSA was reoriented from a corporation serving to enrich the capitalist oligarchy to a source of funds for the carrying out of extensive social programs benefiting the country’s impoverished majority. In August 2004, the capitalist oligarchy tried again to remove Chavez from the presidency. But having lost control over the armed forces, the capitalists had to wage a battle for public opinion through a recall referendum only made possible by the democratic changes Chavez had introduced in the period before 2002. Once again though, the Chavistas triumphed.

This led the oligarchy’s political leaders into a retreat, which after much debate led to a boycott of the National Assembly elections in December 2005. Only days before, the vote took place resulting in the pro-Chavez parties winning all the seats in the National Assembly. The right-wing opposition attempted to discredit the results, but the overwhelming majority of international observers declared the elections free and fair.

As a result, the opposition parties began to mobilise and talk unity among themselves, resulting in a single candidate to contest the presidential election of December 2006. This was a major step forward for the opposition, which had been plagued by infighting and differences over how to respond to the advance of the revolutionary forces. The united front presented by the opposition under presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, governor of the state of Zulia, was a turning point for the opposition, restoring some of the political legitimacy that it had lost inside Venezuela and internationally.

However, Chavez’s election victory allowed a renewed radicalisation of what Chavez himself had increasingly identified as a socialist revolution. Within a month of the presidential victory, the National Assembly passed another set of 11 enabling laws allowing Chavez to make further changes in the economy, increasingly encroaching on the economic power and control of the capitalists.

In the year following the presidential election, the revolution began a new political and economic offensive against the non-military components of the old state machinery. There was a renewed push in the decentralisation of government through grassroots political organisation, particularly through the promotion of the “communal councils” and other local community political organisations. The revolutionary government then turned its sights on the 1999 Bolivarian constitution. Chavez argued that a number of changes had to be made to the constitution to advance the socialist revolution. In December 2007, the changes were put to a vote and, for the first time since 1998, the Bolivarian forces lost an electoral battle.

United Socialist Party

The setback reflected a confusion among the masses supporting the revolution. In the constitutional referendum, 4.3 million voted in favour, while 7.3 million had voted for Chavez for president in December 2006. But while the pro-Chavista vote dropped some 3 million votes, the opposition gained only a few hundred thousand extra votes over the presidential election. The result indicated that the masses had not turned against Chavez and the revolution but were confused about the next steps in the revolutionary process, and so many did not vote.

In response, Chavez give political priority to the formation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), in order to begin to construct a revolutionary cadre force to help lead the revolution. The PSUV would also work towards combating the middle-class careerist forces that exist within the Chavista camp, which have sought to bureaucratise it. The call for the formation of the PSUV was initiated by Chavez in December 2006, only weeks after the victory in the presidential elections. Chavez argued that it was time for the revolutionary forces to come together and take the revolutionary process to a new level. In a period of just a few months of 2007, more than 5.7 million Venezuelans applied to join the new PSUV, which was officially formed in March 2008. Its founding congress was attended by over 1600 delegates, who had been elected by some 100,000 militants of the party. These militants were the spokespeople of 14,363 grassroots “battalions”, plus the heads of the five internal commissions of the party.

All this points to a continuing political battle for the Venezuelan socialist revolution, a battle that has had twists and turns, setbacks and advances. The key to the battle will be the political response of the Venezuelan working class and the leadership of the revolution, organised in the working people’s government and the PSUV. The defeat of the constitutional reforms in December was a serious political setback that has forced the revolution to slow down. However, the formation of the PSUV and the decision in April to nationalise the SIDOR steel company have laid the bases for a new advance of the revolution.

Leading against US imperialism

The Venezuelan revolution has been in the vanguard of Latin America’s battle against US imperialism. It has been the most important revolutionary development for the world working class since the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Its ability to sustain its gains since the mass insurrection of 2002 and to advance on a socialist trajectory will impact on developments throughout the continent.

The left and socialist movements throughout the world will also be judged by their relationship to the revolutionary struggle in Venezuela. For the working-class movement everywhere, it should be a priority to relate to the political developments in Venezuela and to work towards a broad solidarity movement with the Venezuelan revolution and other progressive struggles throughout Latin America. Venezuela is at the centre of global discussion on the tasks of the revolutionary forces that are combating US imperialism. Solidarity and collaboration with Venezuela will play a very important role in a strategy for combating the control of the world by international capital.

As has been the case for the revolutionary left historically, its orientation to new revolutionary victories will determine its future. The founding perspectives resolution of Australia’s Revolutionary Socialist Party states: “The Venezuela-Cuba axis of solidarity and socialist renewal is inspiring millions of people around the world as the real story gets out and more people are able to experience these revolutions first-hand. This socialist renewal is political gold, a `gift’ that must not be squandered. There’s nothing like a living revolution in all its concrete richness, contradiction and emotional appeal to inspire...”

The RSP resolution also stresses that “Venezuela-Cuba solidarity is our number one, ongoing campaign priority. We do not view this solidarity work as simply a means to recruit to our party. We are serious about building up a broadly based solidarity movement together with all other organisations and individuals who share this goal. A key task of our Venezuela solidarity work is to seek to establish the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network as a democratically functioning national network of affiliated solidarity groups and individual solidarity activists”.

The international and Australian solidarity movement with the Venezuelan revolution must be based on a genuine attempt to include all those who support the revolution. It must be built through mutual respect of all of the participants’ initiatives and proposals and work towards joint activities. However, the solidarity movement with the Venezuelan revolution cannot be promoted through a forced unity under one umbrella in any particular country. All initiatives in support of the revolution must be encouraged and promoted.

A key task for left and progressive forces in Australia is to create the basis for renewed initiatives by building the AVSN into a much broader network of political and community organisations and individuals in support of the Venezuelan revolution.


First published in www.directaction.org.au

[Roberto Jorquera is on the management committee of the Melbourne-based Centre for Latin America Solidarity and Studies and a national co-convener of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. He is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.]

2.5 Million Venezuelans Participate in Candidate Selection of the United Socialist Party

by Kiraz Janicke
June 2nd 2008

In a massive show of support for the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), on Sunday, some 2.5 million party members participated in an historic process of electing candidates for the upcoming regional elections in November. Polling was extended to 9 pm in the majority of states as thousands of PSUV members queued to exercise their right to vote in the elections which were monitored by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

“It doubled our initial expectations, the participation has been massive, much more than what we had hoped for,” PSUV national executive member Vanessa Davies announced to a press conference at 11:30 pm Sunday night.

“We are happy and proud of our members. We have complied with the requirements of elections by the grassroots. We have followed through with the people and the Constitution,” she added.

The Bolivarian Constitution adopted through popular referendum in 1999 requires all political parties to hold democratic elections for leadership positions and candidates. So far the PSUV is the only political party in Venezuela to meet this requirement.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who cast his vote at the Manuel Antonio Fajardo Technical School in Barrio 23 de Enero, classified the PSUV elections as “truly historic” and “without precedent in the political history of Venezuela.”

“This internal process has impacted on the entire country and the collective morale… It is a grand example of how to construct true democracy, with debates and discussion, with some problems, but a great capacity to overcome these,” Chavez said.

He called on “all political parties, in the revolutionary camp as well as in the opposition and any other political movement,” to follow the example of the PSUV. “Follow the example, in order to comply with the constitution and with what the people want,” he said.

However, the president argued, a revolutionary party cannot have winning elections as its only objective, “The objective is to ensure the permanence and advance of the revolution.”

In this sense Chavez called for a “war to death” against corruption, against cronyism, bureaucratism and inefficiency and for the re-launch of the Socialist Plan, which he initiated at the beginning of 2007.

“We need mayors and governors who will undertake the task, together with the people, to work for the construction of socialism from below…on every street corner, every municipality, in every state,” he emphasized

Those pre-candidates who obtained at least 50 percent plus one votes, or 15 percent more votes than the second highest pre-candidate, passed over to automatically be the official PSUV candidates in the regional elections.

The results released by the CNE showed those candidates automatically elected include, Aristobulo Istúriz in the Capital District of Greater Caracas, with 94.47% of the votes, Tarek William Saab in Anzoátegui, (48.79%), Rafael Isea in Aragua, (64.51%), Adán Chávez (the President’s brother) in Barinas, (90.88%), Francisco Rangel Gómez in Bolívar, (47.3% - above Manuel Arciniega, who obtained 19.29%), Mario Silva García in Carabobo, (61.15%), Estela Mariña in Falcón, (48.51% - above Melvin López Hidalgo with 28.41%)

Henry Falcón with 73% also defeated Julio Chavez (21%) in Lara, Marcos Díaz Orellana won in Mérida, (60.67%), Diosdado Cabello in Miranda, (81.97%), Giancarlo Di Martino in Zulia, (58.58%), Jorge Luis García Carneiro in Vargas, (40,26% - above Freddy Bernal with 20.61%), José Gregorio Briceño in Monagas (62.87%), and Lizeta Hernández in Delta Amacuro with (49.87- above Amado Heredia with 21.96%).

With less than 60 percent of the votes scrutinized, Wilmar Castro Soteldo appears to have won in Portuguesa, (52.21%), Jorge Rodríguez in the municipality of Libertador, (74.2%) and Jesse Chacón in the municipality of Sucre, (82.64%).

In line with a decision by a national assembly of PSUV delegates on May 9, in those eight states where no pre-candidate achieved a majority or the required winning margin, the national leadership of the PSUV will select a candidate from the top three based on a range of criteria, including “revolutionary commitment” and “ethics.” The results of these deliberations are expected to be released before Thursday.

In Nueva Esparta the top three pre-candidates were Alexis Navarro, William Fariñas and Arnaldo Cogorno; in Tachira - Leonardo Salcedo, José Gregorio Vielma Mora and Francisco Arias Cardenas;Yaracuy - Julio César León, Braulio Alvarez and José León Gutiérrez; Trujillo - Octaviano Mejía, Hugo Cabezas and William Martorelly; Apure -
Jesus Alberto Aguilarte, Cristóbal Jiménez and Wilfredo González; Cojedes - José Gonzalo Mujica, Teodoro Bolívar and Ramón Peralta; Guarico - Willian Lara, Lenny Manuitt and Juan Montenegro and in Sucre - Enrique José Maestre, Felix Rodríguez, and Yonny Patiño.

As thousands of PSUV members celebrated Sunday night in Cuartel San Carlos in Caracas, Jorge Rodríguez warned the opposition and “the lackeys of imperialism here in Venezuela” that they had better get ready for the November elections because, “We’re going all out to win the local and regional spaces.”

Poll: Chavez Supported by 57% of Venezuelans

According to the results of a recent survey by private opposition-oriented polling firm, Keller & Associates, the pro-Chavez movement counts on 57% support nationally. The same poll showed 28% support for a united opposition.

The results were announced by journalist José Vicente Rangel on Sunday during his weekly program “José Vicente Today” on private television station Televen.

Keller & Associates is a firm with a “known anti-Chavez position,” Rangel said.
Other surveys carried out by the same firm over the past week indicate that support for “Chavismo” is growing throughout the whole country, while support for opposition is declining he added.

Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
Printed: June 5th 2008
License: Published under a Creative Commons license (by-nc-nd). See creativecommons.org for more information.

President Chávez makes a call to dismantle empire's plan to split the country

ABN 30/05/2008

The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, made a call to Venezuelans to dismantle North American empire's plan to split the country in order to create a similar situation to the one lived in Bolivia.

“North American empire is trying, in different ways, to create a situation like Bolivia's. They want to split the country into pieces. I am sure they would try it, declaring the autonomy at the east of the country, disregarding the Government of Chávez”, said the President of Venezuela during an event carried out in Anzoátegui State in order to close the stage of spreading ideas by the pre-candidates of the Socialist United Party of Venezuela (PSUV) for next mayors and governors elections in November.

Chávez stated that “Venezuelan oligarchy and those who sell our country, as well as United States, will support that idea in joint with other countries of Europe and America. World television channels would support them as well”.

Furthermore, Chávez stressed that Venezuelan opposition, in joint with North American empire, would try to declare the autonomy of the states of Zulia and Táchira supported by the Colombian paramilitarism and the drug trafficking.

“They would look for guns, use regional police departments, and ask for alliances with military sectors or they would try to bring paramilitaries, mercenaries, place bombs, and make the country ungovernable”, President Chávez denounced.

Translated by Ernesto Aguilera

El pueblo tomará la decisión en elecciones históricas

Chávez says "Studying makes us free" talking with people

Revolutionizing Education and the Face of Venezuelan Society

May 22nd 2008, by Carlos Ruiz - Ven Central

U.S. foreign policy talks of democracy to mean subversion to Western capital, although this interpretation arises via dubious logic from the unwavering principle of economic freedom for all. Obviously, all policy (including economic) should follow from democratic choice, but the inherent problem for capitalists is that their ideology can only be seen to benefit a majority when viewed from the perspective of an increasingly privileged minority.

The position of Western countries, having plundered the third world for time immemorial, is clearly better than that of their victims, whose claims to successful Westernization are evident only in the centers and well-kept suburbs of major cities and resorts. Venezuela is a country that has broken free of the preferred form of imposed capitalism; that which places particular emphasis on the ability of U.S. multinationals to operate abroad as they see fit, embedding themselves with political establishments.

Capitalism is maintained primarily through the media system, which is operated entirely by the capitalists themselves, and the school system, which is so important in terms of avoiding masses of truly critical thinkers that it must be centralized in the hands of the capitalist state. With the public education and media optimised to keep obedient, unquestioning workers enclosed in a mass capitalist reality, there will only be a minority of dissenters. These will go largely unheard, and can thus be prevented from assuming political power.

Venezuela was once like modern-day Colombia, where President Uribe was “conclusively” voted in with a mere 7.3 million votes in a country of 43 million. Mass abstention happens to be a conclusive demonstration of how the system alienates the poor, because political candidates only pretend to speak for majority interests.

Many things have changed in Venezuela since Chavez came to power in 1999, following an unusual, fortuitous and tragic set of circumstances. He was comprehensively re-elected in 2006 as 75% of the electorate turned out to vote. Venezuela probably has the most politicized population on the planet, and the most fair and trustworthy democratic process.

EXPOSING A VULNERABLE SYSTEM

The opposition’s problem is that all this democracy is taking the country in a direction that has stripped them of their political power, and threatens to empower the working class beyond all recognition. In order to do this, the capitalist media is being marginalized in an entirely legal fashion, maintaining the freedom of the opposition to say practically anything they wish. Meanwhile, the schooling system is a principal target for outright revolution.

Traditional schooling in Venezuela follows the Western format, which in normal circumstances guarantees most students enter the workplace without even the slightest knowledge of politics. Why would the elites want to politicise anybody when the status quo is already working for them? All they require are institutionalized workers who follow orders, accept reality, and spend the rest of their lives slaving to enrich the capitalist class (and a relatively small section of themselves).

A true revolution in Venezuelan public schooling would not require the teaching of any particular ideology, or even values. The difference would simply be a liberation from a one-way, teacher-student monologue, and all the incessant memorization and testing that implies. In the traditional system, students are essentially receptacles for a state curriculum which of course narrates the elitist Western perspective of history. A revolutionary curriculum would tell a rather different story, since input into its content would come from society as a whole and not just the corridors of government.

Aside from a more realistic ‘people’s history’ of the world, the emphasis would undoubtedly be on usable skills, a classical education, and important issues concerning the planet. But the eventual outcome has little to do with any designated curriculum, because the priority is that students play a role in adapting their education to their own interests, and that the teacher is more of a catalyst or moderator, who inspires debate and questions, and permits the maximum degree of personal freedom.

RESHAPING REALITY

The idea is simply to fit education into the structure of society at large, rapidly reshaping to accommodate popular power and ideas which happen to conflict with capitalist principles. The media environment in Venezuela is now far removed from the previous arrangement of a lame duck state TV channel that stooped so low as to broadcast commercials, while all other stations and print media were operated by rich private interests. State media now actively combats the Westernization of culture and exposes the very foundations upon which capitalism is maintained.

Nowadays, the state media has expanded to prioritise culture and education, while an explosion in grassroots media has resulted in thousands of local radio stations and community publications. The government has reined in the private media’s penchant of throwing insults at the new government, and denied the renewal of a free-to-air broadcast license to a TV network that conspired to overthrow it in 2002, while habitually perpetuating distortions and morally questionable soap operas.

Venezuela’s new TV spectrum has become more protective of children, and is now far more racially representative. Unfortunately, the private stations continue to present the white European faces in abundance, together with mind-numbing commercials and Western influences, and utilizing their freedoms to brazenly oppose all government policy, thereby twisting the truth for a large section of a society.

The way the opposition frame the process of revolutionary change is interesting. Traditional media and schooling are perceived to be a natural order, and therefore correct and harmless. Children have always been fed Christian ideas in school, so that is undoubtedly the best way to raise them. I was taught this way, so why not my children? They raise the question of the freedom to have one’s child schooled in any given fashion, but misunderstand the entire nature of what the revolution wants to achieve.

For a start, the key choices provided within traditional education are between religious and secular, with the option of an elite school if you have the money to pay for it. Any choice between traditional and “liberational” education would be a valid one, though it is worth noting that no such choice existed when elites were in government. What Chavez seeks to impose on all schools is a democratic curriculum, while the mode and method of teaching itself will adapt over time. It is likely that there will remain the option to teach in the traditional fashion, though over time people would recognise any superior method and its popularity would spread.

Clearly the opposition do not desire any change in any part of the curriculum or protocol, and so their tactic is to sow fear that parents will lose their children to the state. Distortion and ignorance are widely evident. A Globovision reporter, sent to a school in a nice part of Caracas where parents were waiting to collect their children, asked one: “Do you believe that the ideals of socialism should be taught in school?”. The answer was: “Of course not. I don’t know anything about socialism, and it doesn’t interest me. I am 44 years old, was raised in democracy, and want my son to be a democrat also.”

Another parent, when asked whether religion should be taken out of schools, replied: “Never! We’ve had it for 200 years and it has produced excellent results.” He goes on to say “They just want to indoctrinate our children”, which is the common refrain, along with allegations of “Cubanization” and the idea that the government wants citizens to become “instruments of the state”.

Anyone who has read Paolo Friere, the Brazilian Marxist pedagogist, knows that teaching Marxist ideas is not advocated in any of his books. In materials produced by the Venezuelan Ministry of Education, they appear to rely heavily on his studies and writings, which do not concern the actual content of education, only the “liberational” method. Quite simply, this produces inquisitive beings capable of comprehending and critiquing the society around them. This, he said, was the basis of a just society and true democracy.

Another famous quote in the Ministry’s materials is that of Simon Rodriguez, the philosopher and educator, and tutor to Simon Bolivar:

To teach is to teach to think. To assign things to be recited from memory is to train parrots… Teach the children to ask questions, so that, asking the Why behind what you tell them to do, they become accustomed to obeying Reason: not authority, like the limited, nor custom, like the foolish.

When people in the Venezuelan opposition claim the natural order of education is democratic, free or correct, it shows that they are accustomed to obeying authority and custom. In next year’s display of democracy, which will center on “revolutionizing” education, the opposition will be invited to give democratic input into a new curriculum, and will refuse. The reality they construct for themselves is based on being ignorant about proposed changes, and resistant to change based on this ignorance.


http://vencentral.com/2008/05/22/revolutionizing-education-and-society/

Chávez warned Bush that the only thing being sped up by God is the end of the North American empire

ABN 21/05/2008
Caracas, Distrito Capital

Caracas, May 21. ABN.- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, emphasized that if there was something being sped up by God was the end of the North American empire, which is speeding up history, time, and awakening the countries.

The statements were made by Chávez this Wednesday as an answer to recent declarations offered by the President of United States, George W. Bush, who asked God to speed up the end of “Cubans' suffering”, which was emphatically condemned by the President Hugo Chávez Frías.

“Fidel Castro told me once that he was convinced that God helps Chávez and his friends. Therefore, Mister Bush, I want to tell you that, if there is anything being sped up by God is the end of the empire”, Chávez said during an event to welcome the II Promotion of students of the Latin
American School of Medicine (Elam).

Furthermore, he stressed: “Thanks God. The God of the people, of the oppressed people, exploited ones, poors'. Thanks to the dynamic of the time for awakening people. Thanks to many other factors the North American empire is still declining and will keep declining, and before the empire falls, the government of mister Bush will finish, which has filled the
world with terrorism, misery, death, and hunger”.

Chávez showed his satisfaction about the event because 445 students will start their studies at the Elam: 208 from Bolivia, 13 from Chile, 22 from Ecuador, 12 from El Salvador, 64 from Gambia, 13 from Mexico, 74 from Nicaragua, 12 from Paraguay, 11 from Peru, 2 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 14 from Panama.

Furthermore, he stressed this is the result of a set of actions that show the way (to the socialism) while empire attacks against Venezuela are getting worse, using lackeys, institutions, and countries, with the only goal of isolating Venezuela, stopping the Bolivarian Revolution, which is humanist and deep.

“While those attacks are getting worse, against the revolutionary Cuba as well, we are complying with our commitment of Sandino, our people, our revolution, our conscience”, he held.

Elam idea was born from the so-called Commitment of Sandino, which was a political cooperation agreement undersigned between the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Republic of Cuba in Sandino City, Cuba, on August 2005.

“The world thanks God because Bush will finish soon its government and after you (Bush), knight of death and terror, progressively, the ill-fated North American empire will go out by the same door. Nobody can stop it. That is happening and is going to happen. We have been chose to speed up the end of the empire”, he insisted.

President Chávez : Unasur represents an important step for South American unity

ABN 23/05/2008

Brasilia, May 23. ABN (Julio Pereira – special correspondent).- The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, stressed that the signing of the Treaty of the South American Union of Nations (Unasur, Spanish acronym), which is taking place this Friday in Brasilia, Brazil, represents a real step towards the union.

“We are talking about union and not integration because the latter is a concept that was born from the neoliberal and hegemonic globalization project. Therefore, we come up with an unitarian and original project based on the Great South American Motherland”, he pointed out.

President Chávez stated that Unasur definitely represents the new approach needed for Latin American countries and the world.

“Nowadays, South America shelters a new project of change, which is an impressive dynamic that has been unleashed in recent times and could perfectly become into the foundation stone of world's changes”, he stressed.

Regarding the bilateral relations with Brazil, Chávez reiterated the dynamism lived by the exchange, as well as the diverse joint cooperation and development projects that are being carried out, between both countries.

“I approved yesterday 50 million dollars for projects that are already taking place; for instance, massive breeding of poultry and ecologic sustainable agriculture; machinery assembling, food processing, industrial projects on steel to give an added value to raw materials, etc”, he emphasized.

In this sense, Chávez reminded that Brazil and Venezuela have the 2 more important iron reserves of the continent, and plenty of workforce for the area who are going to be needed in order to develop in joint projects.

Venezuelan President arrived early in the morning of this Friday to the Air Base of Brasilia and he was welcomed by the Chief of Protocol of the the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Ruy Casares, and the Ambassador of Venezuela to Brazil, Julio García Montoya.

Translated by Ernesto Aguilera

Venezuela has denounced the violation of its territorial and air space by Colombia and the

During a press conference, the Minister of People’s Power for Defense, Gustavo Rangel Briceño, denounced on Monday, May 19, that a U.S. fighter violated the Venezuelan air space on Saturday night, one day after Caracas complained about a Colombian army’s incursion
into Venezuelan territory.

According to Rangel, who read loud an excerpt of the conversation between the Venezuelan control tower and a U.S. pilot, explained that the latter was not aware he was in Venezuelan territory and that his course was set to the Caribbean Curaçao island during a flight exercise. At the same press conference, the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister, Nicolás Maduro, announced he talked with his Colombian counterpart, Fernando Araujo, about the incursion of the Colombian military into Venezuelan territory. He said they both agreed on activating diplomatic mechanisms in order to settle cross-border conflicts via diplomatic means. Regarding the U.S. fighter, Maduro said he will arrange a meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to
Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, in order to demand an explanation.

On Saturday, Venezuela protested the Colombian military incursion; however, on Sunday, the Colombian Defense Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, denied it was an “act of provocation” as the Venezuelan government described it.

On March 1, Colombian troops illegally entered Ecuadorian territory in order to bombard a temporary FARC camp. During the attack, the Colombian army slaughtered over 24 people (guerrilla members and civilians), including the FARC second-in-command, Raul Reyes, four Mexican students and an Ecuadorian citizen.

The violation to Ecuador’s sovereignty led this country to break diplomatic relations with Colombian, whose government defended the attack and justified it as part of its war against “terrorism.”

TeleSUR / May 19. 2008

Taking back dignity

Report by Tamara Pearson http://gringadiary.blogspot.com/


Seen: On the train, two women with two tiny kids- a boy and a girl, and the girl was playing with a doll that was white with the blondest blond hair. There are a few white people here, but most people are all beautiful shades of brown. Yet a lot of the advertising and products originate from overseas or buy into the whole blond (north American) is beautiful cultural imperialism garbage.

Brigade moments: Coral translating ‘hugs’ as ‘cuddles’ – which is so much more sexual and affectionate! Jammo, who owns 80 musical instruments, doing charades of them and we had to guess…whilst a bit drunk... Me at the Bolivar Museum- I thought a glass showcase with Bolivar’s boots and writing table and stuff in it, had a top- and put my book on it, of course there was no glass there and it dropped into the display. So the Venezuelan Lonely planet was added to the display cos the glass walls were too high for me to reach over and get it. Bolivar might have used it in his time if it had existed J. Well, embarrassed, I asked a museum worker to help me, who had to pull the case half apart…
…Me again going psycho on the bus to Ciudad Bolivar. Don’t know what happened there, but I seemed to need to throw things at people, then on Sinndy’s advice, started a rumour that there were rats on the bus with the intention of tickling people’s feet while they were asleep and freaking them out, but never got around to it.
..Coral talking English to the Venezuelans then Spanish to us. People have no idea how HARD translating is. It’s one thing to listen to what people are saying in Spanish and understand, its another thing to remember what they said, say it in English, and listen to what they are saying in Spanish as they interrupt you because they are so keen to say what they have to say..
…certain unmentionable romances that did and didn’t happen..
...some brigadistas finally letting go and standing under the sprinklers to conquer the heat
…waiting for our friendly Venezuelan hosts to pick us up…they said they’d be there at 1, so we waited in the stuffy hallway of the hotel at five to 1, like good little gringos… and they turned up at 215. By then people were sleeping in the hallway, sitting down, trying different walls to see which one was cooler, playing silly word games. Turns out the bus driver decided he’d have lunch, while most of us went without so we could be there on time
…big lizards, Margaret happier cuddling a kitten than she was at Mayday (just kidding..although…), and rescuing tiny abandoned kittens…big men trying to feed them with caps of water, and ‘dipping’ their heads in the water to make them drink (ok maybe I had a part in that too).
… countless shared pizzas in an effort to deal with the really expensive prices…and many more, some of which I’ll mention specifically below…

May Day… [photos: people in red] speaking of Jammo- he was on the moon and dancing around at the May Day protest. It was pretty awesome. From about 9 till about 12 or 1 people met at Las Banderas train station and marched down to the centre. There was like a continuous stream of red on the road. I got my wallet stolen on the train, and it was hot and humid and a long march, but that didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.
At the stage end there were speeches and music and some dancing, a few drunks, a few friendly people. We were pretty popular-interviewed for a few TV channels along the march and Coral and John even got up and spoke. The footage was played through the next day- I think we were probably the only country specific contingent there.
People were touched by the solidarity I think- both the people we met and spoke with- and just random people we met. One woman on a train had a pamphlet of one of Fidel’s speeches, and she wrote ‘revolutionary greetings to Australia’ on it, and gave it to me, saying she’d seen us on TV.

Radio Ali Primera in El Valle, Caracas: we went and checked out and chatted with people from this community radio station which was made for people who don’t have degrees (a requirement to work in radio) or the resources to have a voice. They have all sorts of programs, including one by a 12 year old who’s been involved since the beginning, various countering mass media misinformation and deep news analysis, culture- poets from the community reading their poems for example, women’s shows, etc. People from the community run the shows and the radio workers are directly involved in the community- and this relationship meant that, for example in 2004 when the radio was threatened with being attacked by the opposition, they made a broadcast about it, and within minutes hundreds of members of the community were outside the radio station, and the opposition ran away :)

Ciudad Bolivar/Puerto Ordaz – we had a chat with union leaders from ALCASA- a nationalised aluminium plant, at their centre of formation- which supports the formation of the workers of ALCASA and the surrounding community- which means fostering values of cooperation, solidarity, honesty, discovery, and learning about different economic systems, the new forms of social participation etc
We also visited an internet centre built by the government, now used by indigenous and non indigenous students. It also has phones. Before people only had mobiles but no fixed lines.. the woman working there said it had opened up their life to the world, as they are able to read about the world on the internet. Made me think about how easy it is to be completely isolated when you are poor…

Las Amazonas- I think this would unanimously be voted the most inspiring experience of the brigade. Driving into this suburb we could see people with flags occupying unused land on the edge of it. (Something economically and legally encouraged by the government). We could also see the shacks of found corrugated iron etc that people had built only a few days and weeks ago. This would be a start.
3 and a half years ago the people of Las Amazonas did the same, and 80% of them now have good, complete concrete houses- with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, floor, toilet etc. All of them financed by the government, and the same model, but painted a rainbow of colours, making the village a delight to see (I would have taken more photos but it was getting dark). However, they are still waiting for asphalt to put on the roads (which are dirt at the moment).
They were so proud. Most of these people were homeless before. Now they are organised in this new community, sorting out their own business- streets, lighting, sewage etc. We met with the spokespeople of the community council and after a welcoming rain dance [see photo] and various speeches demonstrating how proud they were of their revolution, they took us on a walk around the town. We saw the ‘nutrition house’ which receives for example, 90 kilos of chicken a week, and feeds about 150 children a day, we saw a market with regulated prices, and our hosts knocked on one of their neighbours door, “there are some visitors!”, and this poor woman who’d obviously just been asleep came to her door to see 14 camera wielding Aussies and a bunch of Venezuelans we’d picked up a long the way. They just wanted us to see the inside of her house, to see how good it was. Indeed it was nice, and the woman welcomed us in. What was clearest was the dignity these people now have- both from watching them, and from their own words.

Sidor – [photo: workers with AMWU- Aussie Metal Workers Union- flag] and finally we got to visit the recently nationalised (largest) steel factory of Venezuela. Our bus pulled into the area where all the buses drop off workers at the shift changes. We got out, met a few union leaders but were quickly surrounded by heaps of other workers. Poor Coral was stuck in the middle of all these tall men in blue uniforms who all interrupted eachother as they told us the history of the plant, their struggle, how they were attacked by police, their 3 strikes… and “Chavez has liberated us from slavery”. They insisted that we “Come back in a year to see how the changes have taken affect”. Then there was exchanging of union flags and tshirts and hugs of solidarity all round.
(For more information about this struggle see http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/)

That was roughly the end of the brigade..I got on my bus back to Merida and was genuinely sad to say goodbye- all the brigadistas had been very nice, and interesting and different. It’s meant to be 22 hours from Puerto Ordaz to Merida… after about 12 hours, at 10 in the morning, they suddenly decided to take us off one (comfortable) bus and put us on another one- no air conditioning, toilet, space for feet or bags etc (I was cooking because I had thermal underwear on because of the really cold bus I’d just been on). Which after another 12 hours then terminated at El Vigia, so me and a few others had to pay for a taxi to finish the trip- 1 hour- to Merida. Where it was raining, and I had to get another bus to my place, then walk. So the

Unions, collectives, wage increases, colourful wool and blackouts

Report by Tamara Pearson http://gringadiary.blogspot.com/

I write this while I’m watching Chavez on TV in my friends’ apartment in Caracas. He’s giving the May Day speech (the night before May day) where he usually announces the new increase in the minium wage.
It’s amazingly relevant to the brigade that we have on at the moment and the discussions that we had today (I’m here in Caracas helping out with an AVSN brigade, 12 Aussie trade unionists here to learn about the revolution, with a focus on the trade union aspect).
We finished today off by talking to the vice president of the Latin American Parliament, Carolus Wimmer. He argued that in a way, Chavez is blocking the development of movements, because he keeps handing down change- that for example, the trade unions have little reason to struggle, because he keeps just giving them pay increases.

Everyone is coming down from their rooms because he’s about to announce the wage increase and people are debating how much it will be. The atmosphere reminds me a bit of the final announcement of Australian Idol. Chavez has a graph out, asking the cameras to focus on it, using a book as a ruler to draw lines on it. Such a funny guy, drawing lines and explaining the way wages are worked out, how you have to include the ‘basket tickets’ – food vouchers. Not to mention all the free services and subsidies etc.
A lot of people share his excitement. Often throughout the brigade people have gotten so into what they were saying that we had to interrupt them so we could translate.
Haha. Chavez announces that the raise is 2%, Everyone looks at eachother then suddenly laughs, including him “This is what a capitalist government would say.”
It’s a 30% increase. Higher than the rate of inflation. “it is justice, nothing more”
And now Venezuela has the highest minimum salary in Latin America. If you include the food voucher almost 3 times the average of Latin America.

Wimmer also said that “If we can say that Chavez is a military leader, he can’t fight without any army- on his own.” And he named “3 enemies of the revolution: corruption, bureaucracy and inefficiency.”

Before him we met with the president of BANMUJER- the ‘different’ bank for women- which gives micro credit to majority women collectives at very low interest rates and with a long time to pay it off, and with the objective of helping women achieve self sufficiency, and not of profit.
Nora Castenada is her name, she is NOT against abortion, and she spoke very generally. I asked her how she felt about the creation recently, announced by Chavez, of a minister for women, “The women’s movement demanded INAMUJER, BANMUJER (etc), and so we demanded a minister, and we demand a ministery… since it was created by the movement, it is good for women, and whatever is good for women is good for BANMUJER”. They are also campaigning for a compulsory 50/50% representation of women in any elected representation.

And this morning we met with Eduardo Pinata, National director of the FSBT, of one of the Teachers Unions, and also of Foundation of the Formation of Socialist Workers. At the moment teachers are working- teaching- 54 hours a week, with an average of 38 students in each classroom (bad but other South American countries are worse). They want to decrease both these numbers, to 36 hours of teaching face to face, with 6 hours of research and 4 hours of community work each week.
He was great, very nice, and interesting. He joked that half of Cubans are in Venezuela and vice versa (Venezuelan teachers went to Cuba for 15 days to observe their education system).

On Tuesday in the morning we visited NUDE- a nucleus of all sorts of missions and collectives. Walking past car repairers and factories, you suddenly arrive at a street with colourful murals on each side (painted by participants in the missions).
We saw a textile collective, It was great, the women (for they were mostly women working there) seemed quite relaxed. They have assemblies of all the workers once a year where they choose their new division of labour: who will sew, work in administration, run the factory etc. It changes every year and the people who do the ‘real’ work- the sewing, get paid more. They made some t-shirts for the members of our brigade right there, in under an hour :). Their wage is 30% of earnings, and sometimes they might need to work weekends or nights, when they have extra work- but it’s a choice each person makes.
We also saw a barrio adentro (dentist, 2 gyanacolegists, a farmacy, etc, all completely free), a Mercal- which sells food at a solidarity price- ie very cheap, and PDVAL- which sells it at cost price- but with per person limits to prevent businesses buying it to use for profit. All of these function under the rules of collectives.

After that we talked to some of the leaders of the Electricity Union. Boy was that an adventure! They talked about some of the difficulties of combining what was once private and public companies into one public company- the different regulations, pay scales, etc. They are currently working towards a law which will see the company have 50% state representation and 50% workers. Before it was nationalised like this, the 10 years in private hands meant that no infrastructure was built, there was no development. Now under Chavez, with all the wage increases and free services, consumption has gone up a lot and people have money to buy electrical goods like blenders, TVs etc. There’s also quite low environmental consciousness here, so the amount of electric consumption has gone up massively. So finally I understand all the blackouts! And the problems are worse in places like Merida because it is further away and further back in the ‘queue’.
Then, as we said our goodbyes, there was a blackout! Haha. Outside it was chaotic, as the traffic lights weren’t working, the trains had stopped and motor taxis quickly caught on and started charging 40Bs ($20). The buses were packed, with people hanging out, and the streets were full with people waiting for buses. Finally they just started walking, and it looked like May day had come early :). After 4 hours, we eventually decided we’d walk too (the centre was about 14km away), but just as we did the trains started again. They were PACKED and there were little shouts each time it stopped and more people tried to squeeze in.

There’s a lot to say :) I haven’t even got to the bureaucratic mess of ONIDEX which is where passports and visas are processed. And the cold bus ride down here where I was freezing despite wearing thermal underwear, shirt, jumper, pants and 2 skirts J and to top it off they played loud cheesy music from about 7 in the morning (it’s a 12-14 hour trip).
And the other world that is Caracas- it hits you in the face as you walk out of the bus terminal, especially as it is so different to Merida- the stall holders yelling out at you, all the concrete and towers and rubbish and humidity….(and stories of my friends who live here of being robbed and people being shot in gang fights during a party they were at)..
And the surreal experience of walking to one of these humid stations (god they are uncomfortable but at least the trains come like every 2 minutes…and are extremely cheap) and the stairs were covered in different coloured wool that went out into the street where people were playing with it and making music and doing acrobatic things- it seemed to coincide with Chavez’s announcement that day of a national circus and reminded me of that ad where people drag big balls of wool through the street- it was just like that.