Impressions from the World Festival of Students and Youth

The great thing about the Festival of Students and Youth is the opportunity to meet young people on the left from all over the world. From the perspective of the Hands off Venezuela campaign, the most interesting aspect is listening to the delegates' view of the process in Venezuela. Some, particularly from Europe, came to Venezuela with limited knowledge of the Bolivarian revolution, or worse, misinformation from the mainstream media. It is gratifying to see how impressed they are, not only with the obvious achievements such as the missions, but with the level of political consciousness amongst workers and the poor, as well and the democratic and revolutionary nature of the new UNT union, and the contrast with unions in their own countries. People I have spoken to were also incredibly impressed by how involved people are in the political process, and how much control they have of their own lives - what real democracy means, of course.

What this means, we as a campaign would hope, is that the delegates (and I cannot offhand think of any countries not represented here) will not only provide more solidarity with Venezuela in future but will also take what they have learned from the revolutionary process here back to their own countries and, inspired by what they have experienced, build similar democractic, revolutionary movements of their own.

From workshops on the Miami 5 to talks on the uprisings in Bolivia, the one constant theme is how the Bolivarian Revolution is a shining light for Latin America and the rest of the world. The opportuntity for Bolivar's dream of a united Latin America to be realised has never been greater.