"This is a victory of love, peace and hope"

Below is a very quick rundown on the excellent solidarity brigade that we participated in here in Venezuela over the last few weeks. We'd recommend to any person interested in learning about, and building solidarity with, the revolution in Venezuela to get in touch with the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network to register for the next brigade. Check out www.venezuelasolidarity.org for more information.

The brigade included 38 people. Most participants were from Australia but there was also a big contingent of New Zealanders along with 2 Germans and a Scot.

Before the official brigade even began we were lucky enough to be able accompany workers from the national oil company PDVSA on a visit to a public school in the poor suburb of Petare in eastern Caracas. All PDVSA workers are encouraged to help out with the various social programs tht PDVSA finances. In this case every school child is being given a free lunch along with a backpack filled with books, pens and other school necessities. Every school in Venezuela will be visited by PDVSA workers with these supplies.

Free and accessible education and health care are one of the most important gains of the revolution thus far. During the brigade we managed to visit the amazing Bolivarian university located in the plush former executive offices of the old PDVSA. Since Chavez's election in 1999 illiteracy has been eradicated (benefiting over 1 million people), a million adults have completed high school and further 600,000 have either completed tertiary education or have been education in a trade.

Other highlights of the brigade included:
1) a visit to the 'Catia Endogenous Zone' in eastern Caracas where the local economy has been transformed through the setting up of various cooperatives with the support of the Chavez goverment.
2) meeting with the head of the Civil-Military Bolivarian Front - an organisation devoted to organising collaboration and solidrity between civilian and military sectors in order to strengthen the revolution and ward off the kind of US inspired military coups that have been used in other Latin American countries throughout the 20th century.
3) meeting with the INAMUJER - one of the primary organisations in Venezuela fighting for the rights of Women.
4) visiting the workers occupied and managed factories of Invepal and Inveval. both factories have been nationalised by the government and are now run under the control of the employees.
5) having the opportunity to speak with activisits organised in the newly formed community councils - a terrific example of grassroots democracy in action.

On top of all this the two most inspiring events would have to be our particiapation in the 2.5 million person Chavista march on Nov 26 and the Dec election victory of Chavez. Some of us (including Ruth and Simon) managed to see Chavez give his electrifying acceptance speech from the 'peoples balcony' of the presidential palace. The pouring rain and late hour couldnt deter thousands and thousands of people dancing and celebrating in the street into the night.