Excellent opening of the “Hands off Venezuela” campaign in Italy

Despite the torrential rain, some 200 people attended a meeting in solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution in Milán, on April 29th. The meeting had been organised by the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC), with the support of the Red Point Association and the “Hands Off Venezuela” Committee in Italy, and took place in the Milan Labour Chamber. (April 30, 2004)
See in Italian: Eccellente debutto della campagna "Giù le mani dal Venezuela" in Italia
See in Spanish: Excelente debut de la gira nacional de la Campaña “Manos Fuera de Venezuela” en Italia

Despite the torrential rain, some 200 people attended a meeting in solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution in Milán, on April 29th. The meeting had been organised by the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC), with the support of the Red Point Association and the “Hands Off Venezuela” Committee in Italy, and took place in the Milan Labour Chamber.

The meeting was chaired by Alessandro Giardello, member of the Central Committee of the PRC and member of the editorial board of FalceMartello. Jorge Martín, international secretary of the Hands off Venezuela Campaign, made an intervention explaining the reality of the revolutionary process in Venezuela and the need to organise international solidarity against the imperialist aggression on the part of the US. He also noted how the official position of the leadership of the Democratic Left party in Italy had been one of support for the reactionary opposition in Venezuela, even calling for a trade blockade against the country. The next speaker was Jose Luis Roio (of the international committee of the World Social Forum) who related the experience of his visit to Venezuela from which he drew the conclusion that there was a real revolution taking place, characterised by the direct intervention of the masses in the political process. Del Roio explained how he spoke at a meeting on Venezuela at the Congress of the Democratic Left, and how despite the reactionary position of the leadership of this party, all those present showed their support for the revolution. PRC Provincial Secretary Augusto Rocchi, who has also been in Venezuela a couple of times, spoke next. He stressed the need to organise the solidarity with the revolution in order to break through the media blockade, and proposed the organisation of a Young Communists international brigade to visit Venezuela to participate directly in the revolution.

Several comrades participated in the debate and also a Venezuelan opposition supporter spoke. She repeated the ridiculous argument that one could not accuse the opposition for having organised a coup, since Chavez had also organised one in 1992 (!!!). In his reply Jorge Martin explained how despite all the peculiar features of the Venezuelan revolution, the most important lesson was that it is impossible to build a “human face” capitalism. The attempt to do so in Venezuela had faced ferocious opposition on the part of the oligarchic capitalist class and imperialism, and now the Venezuelan workers were openly discussing the need to put the economy under workers’ control and management as the only way forward. Regarding the point about the “peaceful character of the revolution”, Jorge explained how already 120 peasant leaders have been assassinated by the hired killers of the oligarchy, and how even president Chavez had appeal to the people to learn how to use a rifle, in order to implement the concept of a people in arms as the only way to fight imperialism. Jorge Martín quoted the words of 19th century peasant war leader Ezequiel Zamora when he said that: “a wasps nest must be destroyed with fire and in one go, otherwise, if the wasps get disturbed they will sting you”.

The collection and the sale of El Topo Obrero raised some 450 euros, to which we must add a donation of 100 euros from the Milan Federation of the PRC, which had already paid for the hiring of the room.

The next day, there was an interview wirth some executive members of the Lombary region of the metal workers union (FIOM). They were very interested in knowing about the development of the UNT, since the idea that the media had given was that the workers were against Chavez’s government and had participated in the “general strike” against his government together with the bosses’ federation. They promised to allow a supporter of the Campaign to speak at their forthcoming regional congress so that the real situation can be explained to trade union delegates, to discuss the establishment of links with Venezuelan trade union leaders and made a donation of 250 euros.

See the report of the meeting in Spanish and Italian.