7 February, 7.30 pm, Branch Tavern If you would like to join in a discussion on how our group is organised and future events, eg Day School, just come along!
Global Women's Strike Tuesday 6. March 7.30 pm Branch Tavern
8 March marks International Women's Day. On Tuesday, 6 March, Brighton HOV will be holding a meeting with speaker from Global Women's Strike at the Branch Tavern. This will include extracts from their new DVD "Journey with the revolution". Come along and find out how women have been at the heart of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution - now making Socialism of the 21st century. (Free event, donations welcome).
Journey with the revolution
A journey into the heart of the Venezuelan revolution. Meet the midwives, nurses, doctors, housewives, teachers, gay and disability activists, who are transforming Venezuela. Visit health clinics, soup kitchens, land committees, education and micro-credit programmes. The excitement of the revolution is contagious. If you want to find out what a revolution is, this is the film for you.
Features: President Hugo Chavez, "the president of the poor"; Nora Castaneda, President of the Women's Development Bank; Sharmini Peries, Adviser to President Chavez on International Relations.
Directed by Finn Arden and Nina Lopez. A Global Women's Strike production.
61 mins. Spanish and English with subtitles
Global Women's Strike productions are not funded film-makers. Solidarity and institutions prices contribute towards making the films and the distribution of free DVDs to Venezuelan grassroots organizers.) If you would like to buy a copy, you can order it from their website:
http://www.allwomencount.net/Publications/VIDEOS.htm
Venezuela Beyond the Elections
Espe Espigares Wednesday 10. January 7.30 pm Branch Tavern
On 3. December, Hugo Chavez was re-elected president of Venezuela with 62.9% of votes. The record participation rate at the residential elections expresses what international studies have also found: Venezuelan democracy is among the healthiest in Latin America. Unlike last year, the legitimacy and democratic nature of the election were recognised by the opposition, who conceded defeat, and even the US government.
At his acceptance speech, Chavez declared: "Those who voted for me, didn't vote for me, they voted for a socialist project to construct a profoundly different Venezuela."
What will the implications of this election be for the Bolivarian Revolution? Is the way now clear to construct 21. century socialism?
To discuss these issues Brighton HOV is organising a public meeting about Venezuelan elections. Come to hear Espe Espigares, member of an international delegation to Venezuela to observe the elections.
Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler 81 min., 2006 Wednesday 8. November 7.30 pm Branch Tavern
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hire or fire your boss? That's what some Venezuelan workers have started doing.
In 2005 Chavez signed the decree of expropriation of Venepal, a paper company based in Moron, and announced that it was going to be run by the workers themselves. Later on that year, a valve making factory and a state-owned aluminium smelter came under workers control. These measures opened a very important debate within the Venezuelan workers' movement about workers' control and participation.
"5 Factories - Worker Control in Venezuela" is a new film by Dario Azzellini and Oliver Ressler, that documents the opinions of Venezuelan workers directly involved in this debate. Azzellini and Ressler do not pretend to give any answers - they simply relay the questions faced by the Venezuelan workers' movement.
Brighton Hands off Venezuela will be screening "5 Factories - Worker Control in Venezuela" on Wednesday 8. November at 7.30pm upstairs in the Branch Tavern (52, London Road, Brighton, BN1 4JD). The film will be followed by debate.
Lessons from Latin America Brighton activist networks welcome:
Oscar Olivera
Bolivian voice of dissent
Oscar Olivera is renowned for his role in overturning water privatisation in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He is now focussed on the rewrite of the Bolivian Constitution.
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street
14th July at 7.30pm
All Welcome: FREE
Chair: Julian Saurin, Sussex University
Including a film from the Bolivian Solidarity Campaign
Organised through an alliance of: Brighton Hands off Venezuela - Brighton & Hove World Development Movement - Sussex University Action Network - Brighton Against Sweatshops - Sussex Action for Peace - Brighton & Hove and Mid Sussex Friends of the Earth - BPEC - UNISON - University of Brighton Branch Committee - Sussex University Student Union - Frontline: Latin America
Further information about Oscar Olivera :
'With the Doctrine of "Propose and not Impose," He Wins Political Battles'(NarcoNews, Aug. 2004)
Brighton HOV showed the film "The Revolution Will Not be Televised" on Wednesday 14. June to a packed audience of 300 people at the Duke of York cinema.
The film was made by two independent Irish filmmakers who were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when Chavez was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably, he returned to power amid cheering aides. Their film records what was probably history's shortest-lived coup d'état. It's a unique document about political muscle and an extraordinary portrait of the man the Wall Street Journal credits with making Venezuela "Washington's biggest Latin American headache after the old standby, Cuba."
Following the screening, we held a public meeting with Jorge Martín, International Secretary of the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign. Jorge gave an update on how the situation in Venezuela has evolved since the 2002 coup.
About thirty people met at Community Base in Brighton on Wednesday night and decided to set up a local group to campaign in defence of the revolutionary process in Venezuela. After watching the inspirational Irish documentary, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, there was a wide-ranging discussion on what could be done.
Suggestions ranged from monitoring and challenging the media, demanding our local MPs distance themselves from Tony Blair's recent attacks on Venezuela, intervening in local Mayday events, arranging film shows and discussions around the area, including on the university campuses, to investigating the possibilities of twinning community organisations in both countries and organising our own day-school to develop our familiarity and understanding of the exciting developments in Venezuela.
People agreed to meet again next week to discuss how to prioritise and organise this work.
The meeting came out of an earlier talk on Venezuela given by Espe Espigares of the national HOV campaign to the Brighton Hands Off group, which organises discussions around Iraq and other anti-war issues.
Those present at the launch of Brighton HOVe came from a variety of campaign groups, trade unions, community and political organisations and NGOs, as well as just concerned individuals anxious to learn more and support the efforts of the Venezuelan people to develop their own alternatives to the market fundamentalism that has wreaked such havoc on the peoples of Latin America and many other parts of the world.
The meeting sold £40 worth of videos and Venezuela ABC pamphlets from the national HOV, and raised a further £55 to pay for the room and begin building up a local fund.
It is clear there is a huge appetite for work around Venezuela among important sections of the community here in Brighton. The challenge now is to bring that energy together into a dynamic and useful local campaign.
