VENEZUELA REPORT-BACK
OIL WORKERS, the
GRASSROOTS and the HISTORIC REFERENDUM
International Election
Observers
Selma James
and
Nina Lَopez
(with video clips)
and
Documentary Premiere:
The Bolivarian Revolution:
ENTER THE OIL WORKERS!
Contribution
from Identidad Bolivariana, The
Netherlands
Saturday 18 September 3-6 pm
Trinity
United Reform Church, Buck St, London NW1
Camden
Town Tube
Level entrance, accessible toilet nearby
Entrance: £3 waged; £1.50 unwaged
Followed
by celebration of the referendum victory with music and refreshments.
While British MPs resort to
medieval legislation to try to impeach the prime minister for misleading
the country into war, the people of Venezuela have an updated tool:
their 1999 constitution uniquely gives the electorate the power to
recall any elected official halfway through their term. Venezuelans
used it on 15 August to reaffirm Hugo Chavez as president by 59% to
41%.
Selma James and Nina Lَopez
were among over 100 international observers who visited polling stations
and confirmed the election result. They will report on this unique
event: the 10 million voters who queued peacefully for up to 14 hours
despite fears of violence; the system that was adopted to prevent fraud;
the extraordinary grassroots movement that ensured Chavez’s landslide
result, and his extraordinary leadership now intent on
“deepening the revolution”,
strengthening our movement wherever we are.
The Bolivarian Revolution
ENTER THE OIL WORKERS!
Venezuela is the fifth largest oil exporter, yet 80% of its population
(mainly people of African and Indigenous descent) live in poverty.
Since Hugo Chavez was elected to use the oil revenue to eliminate
poverty, there have been many attempts by the white elite and their
Washington friends to overthrow his government.
In these unique interviews,
oil workers – women and men – tell how and why they saved their industry
from a CIA-backed coup, how they see their struggle in relation to other
working class people in the world, and how they are organising with the
community and the military to “put the oil industry at the service of
humanity”.
Available for sale at £5
each: The Bolivarian Revolution:
Enter the Oil Workers! (34 mins) and
Venezuela: A 21st
Century Revolution
(57 mins) by the Global Women’s Strike Bolivarian Circle
September 2004