Venezuela: defending the majority, not punishing the poorest

National conference on how Venezuela is developing social inclusion and public services for all

Saturday 16 April, 10.00–5.00pm
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square
London, WC1R 4RL

REGISTER TODAY! Online here or by post.
The cost is £9 (£5 concessions). Mark cheques ‘April Conference’ and make payable to ‘Venezuela Solidarity Campaign’, and send to:
VSC, PO Box 56210, London, N4 4XH.

With special guests:
• Juana Garcia, Venezuelan Women’s Ministry and representative of INAMUJER (National Women’s Movement)
• Jacobo Torres, Trade union leader, Bolivarian Workers’ Force
• Samuel Moncada, Venezuelan Ambassador, former Minister of Higher Education in President Chávez’s government
• Henry Suarez, Venezuelan historian, author of US Interventions in Latin America
• Further Venezuelan speakers including student, El Sistema and government representatives

Other participants in Q&As, seminars and workshops to include:
• Lowkey, rapper, musician, poet, playwright & political activist
• Colin Burgon, Labour Friends of Venezuela
• Seumas Milne, Guardian columnist
• Richard Gott, Author, Hugo Chávez & the Bolivarian Revolution
• Hugo O’Shaughnessy, writer and journalist
• Rod Stoneman, Executive Producer, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
• Billy Hayes, CWU General Secretary
• Jody Macintyre, journalist and student activist
• Jeni Vine, Filmmaker, Venezuela – Land of Many Missions and Bolivia: Defending Mother Earth
• Jenny Jones, Green Party London Assembly Member
• Pablo Navarette, journalist & filmmaker, Inside the Revolution
• Doreen Massey, Emeritus Professor of Geography at Open University
• Cat Goss, British exchange student at the Bolivarian University in Caracas
• Gail Cartmail, TUC International Development Spokesperson
• Jennie Bremner, Unite & observer to Venezuelan National Assembly elections
• Michael Derham, Author, Politics in Venezuela – Explaining Hugo Chávez
• Francisco Dominguez, Centre for Latin American Studies, Middlesex University
• Barry Cannon, Author, Hugo Chávez & the Bolivarian Revolution: Populism & Democracy in a Globalised Age
• Shadia Edwards-Dashti, Student Stop the War
• Diana Raby, Author, Democracy & Revolution
• Enrico Tortolano, Tribune contributor and PCS researcher
• Sara Motta, Co-Editor, Social Movements in the Global South – Dispossession, Development and Resistance
• Lee Salter, Journalism Policy and Practice Research Group, UWE; author of research into the bias of BBC reporting on Venezuela
• Linda Perks, Regional Secretary, UNISON Greater London Region
• Ken Cole, writer, The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas: the last putting themselves first (forthcoming)
• Mike Cole, Director of the Centre for Education for Social Justice, Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln
• Steve Hart, Regional Secretary, Unite the Union London & Eastern Region
• Michael Wayne and Deirdre O’Neill, Filmmakers, Listen to Venezuela
• Matthew Brown, Editor, Simon Bolivar: the Bolivarian Revolution, Director, Centre for the Study of Colonial and Postcolonial Societies, Bristol University
• Maria Beatriz Souviron, Bolivian Ambassdor
• Guisell Morales-Echaverry, Chargée d’Affaires, Nicaraguan Embassy

Topics to include:

• Building a national health service, not cuts and privatisation
• Venezuela shows that free education for all is possible
• Venezuela’s economy – protecting living standards during recession and future challenges
• Culture and change in Venezuela
• Social inclusion through music – the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
• Women leading progressive change in Venezuela
• Latin America and the Caribbean: ALBA and the advance of the Left
• Telling the truth about Venezuela – Challenging media hostility
• Who is the Venezuelan Opposition?
• Venezuela, Latin America and the challenge of climate change
• Venezuela and the struggle for global justice
• The challenges ahead in the run-up to the 2012 Presidential Election
• Plus film showings and eyewitness accounts of Venezuela’s revolutionary social programmes

In Venezuela today, Hugo Chávez leads one of the most progressive governments in the world. It is showing the tremendous difference to lives that governments can make when they put people first. By doing this, Venezuela is also exposing the lie that there is no alternative. It has chosen to protect public services and social inclusion despite being hit hard by the global recession.

The inspiring result of these policies can’t be overstated.

In just over a decade, free health care has been extended to 20 million people, saving tens of thousands of lives.

Infant mortality is down and life expectancy up. Government policies have seen extreme poverty and malnutrition both halved.

By creating free education for all, millions have learnt to read and write for the first time and record numbers of students are now attending university.

These progressive policies have been endorsed by the people in free and fair elections time and time again.

But they face huge opposition from a tiny but powerful minority, who ran the oil-rich country into the ground in the decades they held power, as well as their allies in Washington.

Come and hear in-depth and first-hand accounts of this inspiring social progress and what we can do to offer support.

This event is directly followed by a celebration of Venezuela with a Latin dinner and dessert, music, special guests and cocktails at Bolivar Hall, Grafton Way, London, W1T 5DL.

Conference attendees are entitled to buy a discounted ticket to this event – please add £15 to your payment. The cost is £20 if only attending the evening event and you can buy single and combined event tickets from the VSC website.