Venezuela Solidarity International Days of Action

Dear friends,

The last few weeks have been full of events related to Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution. It seems that the United States have stepped up their campaign of pressure against Venezuela with a number of statements by Condolezza Rice and other high officials in Washington, including Director of National Security John Negroponte.

In Britain this was followed by comments by Prime Minister Tony Blair questioning the democratic credentials of the Venezuelan government. There was a swift response in Parliament with Colin Burgon MP tabling an Early Day Motion which has been signed by 107 MPs. Hands Off Venezuela together with the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign organised a solidarity picket of the Venezuelan embassy, of which there is an excellent video produced by VSC, and we also issued a protest letter to Tony Blair. Following on from that the British Parliament, for the first time, held a debate on Venezuela and the relationship between Britain and the Venezuelan Revolution. Also London Mayor Ken Livingstone published a full page article in the Morning Star openly supporting Venezuela.

Hands Off Venezuela also organised a successful speaking tour in the US West Coast of Luis Primo, from the National Coordination of the new trade union centre UNT (see reports in the US Hands Off Venezuela site), participated in the anti-war demonstrations on March 18 and managed to get the National Union of Journalists to, once again, back the Bolivarian revolution and greet the new media outlets created.

Unfortunately, this endorsement did not prevent a dreadful piece from being broadcasted by Channel 4. But while this documentary presented Chavez as being a "threat" to the US and the "stability of the region", it was the US Navy which started a major military exercise in the Caribbean with the clear aim of threatening Venezuela.

Venezuela Solidarity International Days of Action

For all these reasons and more, the solidarity movement internationally is organising a number of activities in the week around April 13th (anniversary of the defeat of the 2002 coup against Chavez). This stretches up to April 19th which is the anniversary of the beginning of the struggle for the independence of Venezuela from Spanish Colonial rule back in 1810. We are appealing all Hands Off Venezuela supporters to organise local activities, video screenings, social gatherings and discussions, etc. We must use these dates to highlight what is really happening in Venezuela in order to counter the half-truths and open lies being spread in the corporate media. You could organise a screening of some of the documentary films on the revolution (from the classic The Revolution Will not Be Televised, to the more recent Venezuela Bolivariana), in your school, community, university, etc. Contact us if you do not know how to get a copy of these films. We can also send you leaflets and other material from the campaign that you can use. Any activities you organise, between April 8th and April 19, please let us know by writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so that we can post them to the website as part of the global week of solidarity.