[Marxism] San Fran./Bay Area Hands Off Venezuela Campaign: short report

[David Walters <dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hands Off Venezuela Campaign- http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org

San Francisco Bay Hands Off Venezuela Formed

By Hands Off Venezuela
Monday, 30 May 2005

San Francisco Bay Hands Off Venezuela held its first meeting in the Bay
Area on
May 19 at the New College of California. Twenty-seven activists from
around the
Bay discussed the need to mobilize against the U.S. government's
attempts to
destabilize and topple the popular democratic government in Venezuela.
This
meeting was organized as a broad-based, democratically structured,
united front
coalition on the basis of defending Venezuela's right to
self-determination.
However, in the process of mobilizing people around this principle, we
want to
take every opportunity to educate the American public about the
revolutionary
process unfolding in Venezuela. Those attending this meeting were
individuals
who came from a wide range of socialist groups in the Bay Area,
including
Socialist Action, International Socialist Organization, the Workers
International League, Socialist Viewpoint, Socialist Organizer, Labor's
Militant
Voice, and Workers Action, as well as individuals who were not
affiliated with any organization. John Peterson from the National HOV
campaign
was also present. We hope to reach out to many more groups and
independents for
our future meetings.

One of the more significant recent developments in Venezuela has been
the
creation of a massive new labor movement, the National Workers Union
(UNT), that
has replaced the former U.S. funded, pro-employer union federation. The
initial
project of SF Bay HOV, unanimously adopted at this meeting,, will be to
bring a
prominent leader of the UNT to the San Francisco Bay Area so that
people here
can begin to learn about the exciting developments in Venezuela. This
will mark
an tremendous step forward for the U.S. HOV campaign as a whole. We'll
have more
details on this important visit soon. We also discussed organizing
smaller
events such as video showings and lectures that would serve to lead up
to the
tour of the UNT representative.

The next general meeting of SF Bay HOV will be 7:00 PM, Thursday, June
9, in the
Centro del Pueblo auditorium, 474 Valencia Street (at 16th Street). For
more
information call Adam Richmond, 415-864-3537 or email
sf_adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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