Hands Off Venezuela launched in Victoria, British Colombia

Tuesday, May 8^th marked the birth of Hands Off Venezuela in Victoria, British Colombia. Jorge Martin came to the University of Victoria during the evening to a crowd of some twenty people to educate about the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, including its achievements and its obstacles. The event was well received and many of the questions from the audience were in-depth and displayed a high interest in both Venezuela and socialism. Jorge began the evening by marking the tremendous gains that the Chavez government has accomplished in education, health care, political involvement of the masses, and more.

Both socialism and Canadian attempts to stifle the revolution in Venezuela were the hot topics of the evening. Jorge detailed Chavez' transformation from first attempting to find a "third way" between capitalism and socialism and later realizing that the only way to fundamentally change society for the better is to implement socialism - which would mean a democratically planned economy, the nationalization of key sectors of the economy, doing away with the old and outdated state structures which only represent the interests of the elites, and uniting the country around a solid program for change, all of which are on their way to being accomplished in Venezuela. He also spoke about the lies in the Canadian and American media which try to portray Hugo Chavez as a deranged dictator. Nothing could be further from the truth, considering that he has been freely and fairly elected on eleven different occasions, including elections and referendums!

Jorge also mentioned that the Canadian government has both donated tens of thousands of dollars to anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela, and also - like the United States government - had prior knowledge of the 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez from power for forty-eight hours. This sparked great interest in the audience and was a key topic of the evening, as many members of the crowd desired to know more in order to hold their elected representatives in Ottawa accountable for such backhanded and secretive action.

Jorge Martin concluded his speech by proclaiming that a fundamental change in society is taking place in Venezuela and it is one that the Canadian people can take many lessons and examples from. After all, if a South American country can give its people free and universal health care and education (including post-secondary) as well as directly extend the political arena to every individual, then why can't Canada? Working people in Victoria and Canada should struggle here at home for these things as well.

Debate and discussion lasted for quite some time after the event. The Bolivarian Revolution clearly has plenty of support in the Victoria area and many people were very informed about the struggle for socialism in Latin America.

Hands Off Venezuela in Victoria would like to thank the Victoria in Solidarity with Venezuela group for supporting the event.