'No Volveran' screened in Amsterdam

This was quite a challenge! The Bolivarian Circle of Holland and the Hands Off Venezuela campaign planned the screening of ‘No Volveran' for the same evening as the Dutch football team entered the stadium to beat France in the European Championship. Despite this very uneven competition, 26 people filled the venue at the University of Amsterdam, many Latino people, Chileans and Venezuelans, Dutch people, left-wing Turks and a few Belgians.

An experienced team of the Bolivarian Circle dealt smoothly with all the technical aspects of the evening. Rodrigo Rojas and Erik Demeester welcomed everybody and introduced the film. Both of them also stressed the importance of the collaboration between both groups.

The screening was followed by a lively debate in Dutch and Spanish. The first questions dealt with the occupied factories and under workers' control. What happened to the struggle of the workers of Sanitarios Maracay asked someone? At the beginning of 2007 the situation did not look very rosy. The battle for the nationalisation of the factory was lost as the Minister of Labour rejected the idea itself. Very different was the fate of the struggle of the workers of the Sidor steel plant who fought and succeeded in having it nationalised thanks to the direct intervention of Chavez.

A Venezuelan activist, however, brought some good news. He told us that a commission of workers of Sanitarios have met with the new Minister of Labour. He seemed to have agreed to nationalise the factory and to get the necessary finances to restart production. If this information is confirmed it would be a new turn in the situation.

Erik Demeester and Rodrigo Rojas

Other questions also dealt with the economic situation in the country and the way the revolution was dealing with the economic sabotage organised by the oligarchy. The state of food production was commented on. An example was given of how peasants resorted to barter to try to get around the control of the oligarchy over food production. On the other hand, the recent nationalisation of a big milk processing plant shows the importance of getting full public control of the complete food processing industry under the democratic control of the workers and the communities.

Later in the evening a Venezuelan comrade told us how much she liked the documentary. "Many films dealt essentially with the social conquests - ‘los logros' - of the revolution. What struck me in this documentary was how the movement from below was presented in images. The question of the consciousness and the level of organisation was featured, something which rarely happens in other films." A nice compliment!

Concluding the activity Rodrigo again stressed the importance of collaboration between the Bolivarian Circle and Hands Off Venezuela. This collaboration was made possible thanks to a young Dutch socialist activist, Zowi. This is a first step and surely not the last one. At the stall of HOV we sold almost 100 euros worth of DVDs, pamphlets and copies of Vonk.

More information on the Bolivarian circle of Holland here.