Hands Off Venezuela brings a message of revolution to anti-war protest

Following the “Bring the Troops Home” march in central London on September 24, over 60 people crammed into the function room of the Carpenters Arms pub, near Hyde Park, for a public meeting called by the Hands Off Venezuela campaign. The march had been heavily leafleted by HOV campaigners, and people from all walks of life and political backgrounds had arrived, eager to hear about the exciting process taking place in Venezuela. The meeting was chaired by HOV's Espe Espigares, who began by explaining that the campaign was founded in a response to the right-wing coup in April 2002, and whose main role was to combat disinformation spread by the mass media and to forge links with trade unions and other groups within Venezuela.

The main speaker was Jorge Martín, international secretary of the campaign. He began with the exciting news that the TUC had just passed a motion expressing solidarity with the process in Venezuela, even though the motion had been watered down, with the word “revolution” removed. Still, this is great news for the campaign, and a credit to the hard work of campaigners, as the TUC represents some 6.7 million workers, and is the first European trade union confederation to pass such a resolution.

Jorge then talked about President Hugo Chávez's recent explosive appearance at the UN. Chávez did not beat around the bush, so to speak – he began by saying that the UN had been in terminal decline for 60 years, i.e. since its founding! He also argued that it cannot be reformed, and needs a revolution within it. Extremely radical ideas, especially for the UN, where meaningless diplomatic statements are the norm. Chávez also called for the veto power to be scrapped, for countries of the South to be incorporated, and for the organisation not be based in the country which has violated far more UN resolutions than any other – the United States. Jorge pointed out how the speech shows the way in which Venezuela has become a point of reference in the anti-imperialist struggle.

Chávez also visited poor communities in the South Bronx, where he gave a speech saying that capitalism is not working and that we must fight for socialism – not the kind of thing we in the West are used to hearing from our 'leaders'! The Venezuelan president stressed once again that the conflict is not with the US people, but with the Bush administration. Jorge then spoke of the “revolution within the revolution”- the Zamora decrees speeding up land reform, the increased rate of expropriation, as well as the nationalisation under worker control of companies such as Venepal, and the recent seizure of the Heinz tomato processing plant.

Another important topic raised was the threat to the revolution from within – the reformist bureaucrats on one side against the revolutionaries on the other. Chávez himself is clearly with the revolutionaries, having stated time and time again that the problems of capitalism cannot be solved within capitalism.

There then followed a series of questions and comments from the audience, on topics such as the misiones, co-operatives and armed forces, demonstrating once more how taken people are with the process in Venezuela and how keen they are to spread the message and to get involved. There were many new faces in the audience, and almost all expressed a desire to learn more about Venezuela and to work with the campaign. Jorge wrapped up the meeting by reiterating the importance of spreading information and forging links, as this struggle is not just within Venezuela – the struggle taking place across the continent of Latin America, and across the entire world.