Public Meeting: WSF, Venezuela & the fight for socialism

dublin | anti-capitalism | event notice Tuesday February 14, 2006 21:51 by SP Online - Socialist Party info at socialistparty dot net

An eyewitness account from the World Social Forum 2006 in Caracas

Public Meeting: The World Social Forum 2006, Venezuela & the fight for socialism - An eyewitness account.

Public Meeting

One and a half million people took to the streets of Caracas on 5 February in a massive show of support for President Hugo Chavez. This comes only two weeks after the right wing opposition could only muster 40,000.

This is the same opposition whose parties abandoned the parliamentary elections late last year knowing full well that they would receive a thrashing by Chavez’s Movement for a Fifth Republic coalition.

These events coincided with the sixth World Social Forum (WSF) which took place simultaneously in Caracas and Bamako, Mali. The WSF is a gathering of activists from various campaigns and organisations concerned with issues ranging from workers’ rights, indigenous rights, the environment, debt and development and war. It is posed as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where finance ministers from around the world gather.

There were some 60,000 participants in Caracas, with large delegations from other Latin American countries. However it was an event which largely passed the locals by with only 15,000 taking place in the event’s open demonstration. The Committee for a Workers’ International, the international organisation to which the Socialist Party in Ireland belongs, participated in the WSF event. But we found that once in Caracas there were plenty of struggles involving Venezuelan workers well away from the event itself.

While the Chavez government does not drive neo liberal counter reforms like practically every other government in the world, the class struggle between working people and employers goes on with a vengeance.

Come to this public meeting to find out more. All welcome, free entry.