CARACAS!!!!

We´ve only just begun our time here but already we are both so excited about the process that´s unfolding here. Our first night here we met a fabulous Venezuelan woman who´s been living in Australia for years but has returned here to help contribute to the process of change that´s happening here. She told us lots of stories about her family - her father who was protesting the government in the 1950s who kept his hope that a leader would emerge who could lead the Venezuelan people out of the poverty and violence which previous governments perpetuated. This man visited Chavez when he was jailed in the early 90s and when Chavez ran for election in 1998 was the only one in his middle class family who maintained that Chavez would win. Until that time politics in Venezuela had been totally dominated by two parties (right wing and more right wing - sound familiar?). Chavez travelled round and round the country, through the barrios and met with as many people as he could. People weren´t sure whether he would really be any different from the rest of the politicians but he had made the effort to come and talk to ordinary people and they thought it was worth a try. Talking to Eleanora, I realised what an absolute watershed it was even for Chavez to win that first election – no other party but Accion Demoratica or Coppei had won an election in the 50 years or so of official democracy. But not only did Chavez win the election since that time he´s initiated countless social missions across the country. A few years ago Mission Robinson achieved its goal of ensuring that every person in the country can read and write. Now Mission Ribas is established to allow adults who never finished high school to get a secondary education. The other day while having coffee, the waiter asked us whether we supported Chavez or Rosales (the US backed opposition candidate) when we said Chavez, he brought out his Mission Ribas text books and also gave us a booklet about the defence of popular power. There are countless other Missions including Mission Negra Hipolita, which addresses the needs of the critically poor – for example drug addicts and street kids; Mission Barrio Adentro which is now in its 4th stage of redeveloping the country´s health infrastructure – it started with community medical centres, has established a network of diagnostic centres and is now improving the public hospital system; Mission Casa Alimentación which provides free nutritious meals in the community. There´s even been a new mission launched recently to clean up the garbage from the streets of Caracas which is as grubby as any city in the the 3rd world. The main ethos of these missions is that change comes from the grass roots. These aren´t government programs run by bureaucrats from an air-conditioned office, these programs are run by the community, educate and empower the community.

We went to a BBQ the other night where we got to talk to lots of people about the revolutionary process. People are very ambitious about this process, its not going to stop with a slightly better form of capitalism “we might not get to see the revolution but we´re doing this for our children and our children´s children” they told us. “There´ve been more changes in the last 7 years than in the 30 years before but we still have a very long way to go”. People are very aware of the negative portrayal of the Venezuelan process in the international press and wanted us to let people know that in no way is this a violent process. That people are empowered to expect and have education and health as their rights, that people are politicised and are involved in the governing of this country.

We´ve also been on our first rally here, about 20 000 campesinos and their supporters marched in the tropical heat chanting “Zamora – vive vive! La lucha – sigue, sigue”. Zamora was a radical democratic leader of small farmers, the second section translates as the struggle goes on and on. And so did the march for about 4 hours – up hills and down hills, along freeways, past barrios, and it was fantastic. All along the way people waved from windows or came out to wave red flags, Chavez posters or flash 10 fingers the sign for the goal of the campaign to get 10 million votes for Chavez.

Today we went with PDVSA (the state petroleum company) workers to help distribute PDVSA donations to a primary school in one of the largest barrios in Caracas. Schools tell PDVSA what they need, PDVSA purchases the goods, often from cooperatives, and twice a year PDVSA workers go out to different schools and distribute the books, pencils, school bags, geometry sets and food. The kids were stoked as you´ll see when we can upload more pictures. Under previous governments PDVSA technically made these kind of donations but in reality these funds were often skimmed off by corrupt managers. Another factor of the new PDVSA is that the workers are involved in this community building work. Thereby making the links real for both the workers and the students that this really is a national company – that works for the well being of the Venezuelan community.

Big Chavez march tomorrow, will send more news soon.