General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, reported to a meeting of Hands Off Venezuela in London his impressions as part of a TUC delegation to Those of us who hadn't been to Venezuela were trepidatious as to what we might tind. We knew the statistics. UNESCO has declared Venezuela free of illiteracy. Huge advances have been made in infant mortality, in massively improving life
People have access to education. 1.2 million people who were excluded are being treated in health centres.
We all knew those statistics, but we didn't know how theybore out in reality.
What DOSL powerful when you visit countries in a revolutionary process are the human stories that confirm the statistics. What is particularly inspiring about the situation in Venezuela is the participation of people in this revolutionary process.
It is not just a process driven from the top by a small number of people. Millions are engaged right across the board. manv ditterent ways.
There are people who would describe themselves as liberals, people who would describe Catholics, people who would describe themselves as socialists, as Marxists. But it is a
revolutionary genuie process that is happening there.
One day driving through Caracas we saw this queue ot people lining up for HOIC than a kilometre. It was a registration day for people to sign up for ecucation There were people in their 70s, 80s, even 90s, talking about how for the first time in their lives they had LOIS opportunity.
We visited one of the new
centres in Caracas: 1,000 people being seen every week with specialist equipment that would put parts of our NHS to shame. Someone on the delegation was a health specialist, representing NHS workers and they were quite jealous of the up to date equipment.
We visited some workers' cooperatives that were set up to create jobs give people the Chavez: opposition in the unions have no forces amongst working people only amongst the elite. opportunities to learn skills particularly in poor neighborhoods.
We saw some real advances.
One remarkable initiative was a supermarket between different factories - a clothing factory and a cooperative making shoes. The prices were about half or two-thirds of what they were in other supermarkets because they had cut out the middleman. There was no company taking profit from it. It was reinThe visit firmed up in the minds of those who were not as involved before that there is a genuine revolutionary process, with mass participation. vested into buying produce.
On the front of every one of their brand products was a clause trom the new constitution, telling you your rights. This included the ones about the right of recall of the president and the referendum!
So here they are these great "dictators", Chavez and his government, sponsoring these workers' cooperatives and supermarkets, providing produce while reminding people that they have to right
Be to recall the president.
We saw not only the 95 per cent of the media that is still in private hands, but 200-odd alternative and community media projects that had been established to try and counter some of the anti-Chavez propaganda.
One of the most inspiring things was seeing the development in the trade union movement. Because it was a fact-finding mission and because the CTV remain the official ILO affiliate, we agreed to meet both with them and with the UNT.
We went to the CTV's headquarters. It's mostly empty, pretty much in darkness, yellowed posters on the wall. We met a group of men sat round a black reflective table that looked like a scene out of 'Reservoir Dogs".
We met with Manuel Cova, who was heavily involved in the coup against Chavez. We asked "Why were the CTV involved in the coup?" He looked affronted. He denied him sat in the palace and said "Ah, now I see the confusion. This wasn't a 'coup', it was a tially into reverse. popular uprising against President Chavez." UNT headquarters. We met with all the different factions on the executive round a popular vote. table. People were coming in all the time, most of them were on two mobile phones at
There Was activity everywhere. I know they were in the build up to the UNT congress, but it showed that the opposition in the unions have no forces amongst working people only amongst the elite.
The UNT is growing swiftly. We went to their Congress and they spent the first three hours reading out socialist and Bolivarian solidarity greetings from virtually every workplace in the whole of Venezuela! It was slightly laborious but quite inspiring.
You can't quite imagine the TUC congress saying "The people that work at Tescos in Hither Green would like to send socialist and Bolivarian greetings to the TUC."
People talked all the time about that slogan "Another world is possible" and putting it into practice.
There were all kinds of ideas, good and bad. There were different factions involved. Differences about the wal forward, about whether there should be elections now or whether they should get Chavez elected first and then have their own
What was clear was their absolute support for the revolutionary process.
It is absolutely vital that we build solidarity and offer support to those seeking to build this "Socialism of the 21st Century". We should also recognize, as they do, that there are issues to be addressed, that Venezuela is not a paradise.
For example millions still live in incredibly poor conditions and they know that there is a race against time to use the money to build new houses. There are signs all over the country of new houses being built.
We asked what they need in So we produced photos of terms of solidarity and they said the first thing is help "But that's you isn't it? And with winning the election. this was the coup". He replied Without winning the election the whole process goes potenWe already know what the scenario will be. In the run up We left and went to the to the election the opposition will scream foul because they know they cannot win the
One thing that came up time and again with people from the UNT is that they reallv have to address the question of workers' control. There are inspiring stories of the factories that have been taken over but they are small in number. There are many others who want this happen in their companies and links made between the various tactories which are under worker's control.
That seems a potential running sore between the most progressive trade unionists and the labour ministry. Hopefully that Will not develop as a dispute but they are only likely to give the government a certain period of time to deliver. If they don't it is quite clear that some trade unions will take action themselves to take over their workplaces.
We asked Chavez: "If you could get us to do one thing in
of solidarity, what would it be?" He said "Forget about go Bolivia, they need your help more than we do"
For them it is a wider battle of ideas between the socialism
that they envisage and the
neo-liberal agenda that has brought so much misery lo
The visit firmed up in the minds of those who were not as involved before that there is a genuine revolutionary process, with mass participation.
There are real concrete social advances in health, education etc there to see, not just in statistics, but in reality. This is a genuine attempt to build a form of socialism that deserves the support of the British trade union movement.
We have come back inspired and ready to do more and more to build the kind of solidarity that's needed. • This is an edited version of Jeremy's speech. The full speech can be found at www: socialistresistance.net/jeremydear.htm