Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was taken into custody at New York City's JFK international airport today, where he was seeking to board a flight back to Venezuela. He was released only after UN officials came to his aid. Venezuela promised to file a formal complaint with the UN about the incident.

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This is a partial transcript of the press conference Chavez gave after his speech at the UN. He spoke about the elections in Mexico, the role of women in the revolution, how peace in the Middle East can only come through justice, how the UN cannot be reformed, etc. (Video in English - real media) (Audio en español) (Texto en Español)

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Full transcript of the speech by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to the United Nations Assembly, on September 20, 2006. " [Bush ] you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism,[...] Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination."  (Video in Spanish and English in three parts: 1, 2, 3) (Texto en español) (Audio en español - mp3 25min 3.45Mb)

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This is a transcript of the intervention by Jeremy Dear (general secretary of the National Union of Journalists and co-president of Hands Off Venezuela) at the British Trade Union Congress 2006. He spoke on the need for solidarity with Venezuela and defended motion 73, advocating the setting up of a united campaign body sponsored by the TUC. This was known as the "unity motion", but there was opposition from other unions to this idea and the motion was remmitted to allow for further discussion. See also the text of motion 73.

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This is the text of the NUJ motion to the 2006 British Trade Union Congress. This was also known as the "unity motion" since it seeked to establish a TUC body to coordinate the work of the three existing solidarity campaigns in order to deliver more effective assistance to trade unions in Venezuela and further the solidarity work. The TUC General Council asked for the resolution to be remmitted.                                                                                                                     

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Hands Off Venezuela held a fringe meeting in Brighton for the TUC on the evening of Wednesday, September 13, which also included a screening of the documentary “Venezuela Today, the World Tomorrow?”

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A largescale protest last week by workers from the Sidor steelworks secured the release of five of their co-workers after they were arrested by the National Guard on charges of undue expropriation and seizure of plant machinery. The protest, supported by the unions at the plant, partially closed down the steelworks and brought the city of Puerto Ordaz, in Venezuela’s Bolívar state to a standstill.

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More than 120 people packed the Latin America fringe meeting at the TUC on Monday, September 11, where a lively debate took place on the Venezuelan revolution, including such questions as workers’ control in the factories.

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