Vienna: Successful Hands off Venezuela rally at Venezuelan embassy
- 05 December 2006
Yesterday, December 4,
about 40 people took part in a rally to express their solidarity with the
Bolivarian revolution in front of the Venezuelan embassy in the capital city of
Austria, Vienna. A broad alliance of the left, including Hands off Venezuela,
the Socialist Youth Vienna, Der Funke, AIK, KI, KSV and KJÖ, had called for the
meeting. The initiative for the rally came as the "Oligarchs Tremble" campaign
was launched in Venezuela, a united front campaign including, amongst others,
the revolutionary peasant organisation, Ezequiel Zamora (FNCEZ) and
organisations of the labour movement such as FRETECO and the CMR. This campaign
was greeted by Hands off Venezuela Austria as a first step to unite all
revolutionary organisations in their common struggle against the
counter-revolutionary activities of the Venezuelan opposition.
A banner carrying the slogan "Socialism of the 21st century: Nationalisation under workers' control" made it clear that the participants not only celebrated the positive outcome of the elections, but also expressed the necessity of deepening the revolution and move forward to socialism. One of the speakers mentioned the struggle of the workers of Sanitarios Maracay, who decided to keep production going under workers' control after the boss of the factory had announced its closure: "Only the nationalisation under workers' control can be the way forward, to maintain production and save jobs. Through this the factory could become an integral part of Chávez's "socialism of the 21st century".
A delegation of
participants handed over a resolution of the Hands off Venezuela campaign to
the ambassador of Venezuela, Miriam García de Pérez expressing their solidarity
with the Bolivarian cause and calling for a deepening of the revolutionary
process. The final speech of the rally was made by the ambassador herself. She
stressed that the revolutionary changes in Venezuela were only the beginnings
of a transformation of society worldwide.
Matthias Schnetzer
Hands off Venezuela, Austria
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