------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 3, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
PACKED NEW YORK MEETING SAYS: 'WE'RE WITH VENEZUELA'
By Leslie Feinberg
Just days before U.S. bombs exploded in the streets of Baghdad, Rodrigo Ch�ves told a community meeting in upper Man hattan that Venezuela may be the next target.
Ch�ves, national coordinator of Vene zuela's Bolivarian Circles, spoke to a packed, grassroots meeting in Wash ington Heights on March 16 about how Wash_ington and the elite of his country are waging class war against the workers and peasants of Venezuela.
The Bolivarian Circles are neighborhood groups that defend and implement the goals of social and economic transformation President Hugo Ch�vez has been trying to set in motion since he was elected by a popular mandate in 1998.
Latinos from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Colombia crowded into the standing-room-only event. The Venezuela Solidarity Com mittee of New York called the meeting to help dispel propaganda against Vene zuela, build support in New York for the struggle there, and demand that the U.S. not violate that country's sovereignty.
As revolutionary efforts in Venezuela have deepened, Washington has backed the Venezuelan elite in efforts to destabilize the country and oust President Ch�vez through reactionary coups. A two-month-long attempt to sabotage the country's economy collapsed in early February.
The March 16 meeting was electric. The audience sang along to revolutionary songs and cheered political poetry. They greeted militant statements with standing ovations and chanted, "[Hugo] Ch�vez isn't leaving; Ch�vez isn't going. We're with Venezuela!"
Speaking in Spanish, Rodrigo Ch�ves said forcefully that his government does not support U.S. military aggression against Iraq, which he characterized as military and economic imperialist domination.
He described how his government has organized a committee that, in conjunction with the Iraqi, Palestinian and Libyan embassies, travels across his country educating the population about what is really going on in the Middle East.
With the Bolivarian Revolution Venezuela has stood up and demanded respect; has gotten off its knees.
Venezuela is a rich country, yet the reality is poverty, he explained. This results from the fact that 80 percent of everything is owned by .001 percent of the population. He said the ruling elite have destroyed the economy in their drive for cheap labor and their callous disregard for the rights of workers. "We don't want them," he said.
Today, Ch�ves noted, the peasants, or campesinos, are becoming owners of the land and getting aid from the government to sow their crops. The fishers' harvest is being protected. The neighborhood Circles are organizing better schools, providing health care, and building roads and subways in their neighborhoods.
Yet Washington and the Venezuelan big business media characterize these moves towards genuine workers' and peasants' democracy as a violent denial of freedom.
Ch�ves responded that it was the wealthy bosses who tried to shut down the Venezuelan economy through a national "lockout" that resulted in sick people dying because ambulances had no gasoline. If that isn't terrorism, he asked, what is? He added that the big-business media has openly called for the assassination of the elected president.
The United States has shown no respect for Venezuela's right to self- determination. Referring to CIA-directed coups in Chile and Colombia that resulted in murders of their popularly elected leaders, Ch�ves emphasized to the U.S. movement, "This is your chance to support Venezuela now and not look back, like perhaps you may have when Allende or Gaitan were assassinated."
He concluded that Venezuela is fighting the same conditions that the people of Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and all of Latin America have to endure.
Teresa Gutierrez, co-director of the International Action Center, wrapped up the meeting, stressing the vital importance of support for the struggling people in Latin America who have demonstrated their solidarity with so many struggles around the world. n
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
