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Scottish_Militant
7th June 2004, 10:00
A public meeting is to be held in Fife by the Hands Off Venezuela campaign

http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/

The meeting will take place on Sunday 13th June at 1pm, in Betty Nicols pub, Kirkcaldy high street

Don't worry if you are under 18, it's in the lounge area through the back so people of all ages are allowed in.

Tea, coffee and food will also be available.

Please come along, and feel free to bring any friends who might be interested too.


What is happening in Venezuela?

President Chavez was elected by a popular majority on a programme of tackling poverty and improving the living conditions of the Venezuelan people. His election also showed how disappointed the people were with the traditional political parties

His government's programme of reforms has included the establishment of indigenous people's rights to land and bilingual education; the introduction of food subsidies and vouchers for pregnant women and new mothers as well as a massive expansion of health care to working-class families.

The massive social plans undertaken by the government in the last year have strengthened the social basis of support for the Bolivarian revolutionary process amongst the masses. An additional 1.5 million children in school are getting three free meals a day, over one million adults are obtaining literacy; 1.5 million more people gaining access to drinking water. Hundreds of thousands have had access to primary health care for the first time; and 3 million hectares of land have been distributed to landless peasants organised in peasant co-ops.

The response of the US has been to support a reactionary right-wing opposition in a series of attempts to destabilise and remove the Chavez government from office. They cannot stand the poor people and the working class getting organized and gaining control over their lives
First, in April 2002, they tried a straightforward coup. This involved the kidnapping of the President and seizure of power by a US-backed puppet regime.

Within days, the mass popular street protests of the people ensured the return of Chavez and the toppling of the US-backed junta.

Having been defeated twice by the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses, after their coup in April 2002, and during their sabotage of the oil industry in December 2002, the reactionary forces in Venezuela tried to reorganise their forces in a renewed attempt to overthrow democratically elected president Chavez. This time they played the card of the referendum. The Bolivarian Constitution allows the call of a referendum to recall the president. After they failed abysmally to achieve the 2,400,000 minimum signatures needed to call the referendum, the reaction hired fascist gangs to terrorise the workers, students, trade unionists and all those who support the revolutionary process.

The campaign to destabilise the country is being organised within Venezuela and internationally. Small but very fanatical groups have been carrying out the attacks against the supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution. Faced with the counter-attacks of the workers and youth, these gangs have fired on ordinary civilians.

At the moment the workers and the youth have managed to defeat the reaction three times but this threat will not go away. The opposition will not stop until it has achieved its aim to crush the Venezuelan masses.

We, the working class youth of the rest of the world must be vigilant.

Our brothers and sisters in Venezuela need our support!

The Venezuelan revolution must advance towards socialism as the only way of guaranteeing its own defence.

We are against imperialist war; we are against low pay and unemployment. We are against privatisation. But this is not enough . We must fight for a new society.

Today, more and more youth are becoming radicalised. The youth have been able to show their force in demonstrations up and down the country.

What does the future hold for us? Everything. We can sit and praise our earlier fighters but this is all in vain if we do not learn from them, pick up the pieces and move forward.

Capitalism is highly organised, with the state and many years of tradition behind it. Nevertheless it is not invincible, far from it. But it can only be challenged by the conscious organization of the working class and the youth, fighting against those things we all oppose, and for a new, socialist society.
In Britain, YFIS has been launched to win youth to the ideas of Socialism. We appeal to young people to join with us in this struggle.


“Philosophers have interpreted the world, the point however is to change it"
Karl Marx

http://www.marxist.com/

http://www.socialist.net/

http://uk.newyouth.com/

http://discussion.newyouth.com/

Scottish_Militant
20th June 2004, 14:04
a short report for our journal, just thought i'd share it with our international comrades

Adam Smith, the father of bourgeois economics, would have been turning in his grave on Sunday 13th as around 20 activists and socialists from various organisations met in his hometown of Kirkcaldy to discuss and debate the Bolivarian revolution currently taking place in Venezuela.

A handful of comrades from the Scottish Socialist Party made the long trip through from Glasgow to attend, among them were two Venezuelan citizens themselves who gave detailed accounts of life in the country and the current struggles taking place.

A short, but well made video was shown by the SSP comrades featuring MSP Tommy Sheridan making the trip to Venezuela, meeting people from the country and giving his opinions on the processes taking place.

Comrade Ramon then lead off the discussion with some background information followed by a detailed Marxist analysis on the revolution. The discussion was then opened up and many good contributions and questions were put forward from a wide range of comrades. The discussion flowed freely, the tone was comradely and the mood positive.

An excellent collection of over £30 was raised as the discussion moved on to the possible formation of Bolivarian Circles being formed in Fife and Glasgow to work alongside the newly founded Venezuela solidarity group in Edinburgh by a local young activists group.

In all it was a very good day for the campaign and work is now underway to build on it’s success to make sure that the message is loud and clear in Fife, in Scotland, and the rest of the World – “Hands Off Venezuela, Victory to the Bolivarian revolution and forward to socialism!”

Louis Pio
21st June 2004, 16:49
Good work :)
We are trying to get some more meetings planned here in Denmark, and we have started gaining union support for the campaign. So hopefully we will be able to spread the campaign out.

Kez
21st June 2004, 17:29
Imjust finishing my notes for my talk at my Labour Party branch, god damn printer fucked up so i had to hand write my notes...fucks sake.

anyway, wish me luck.