Venezuela-based US activist Charlie Hardy to Speak in Oakland, California - Nov. 10

[Peace Patriot]

Charlie Hardy, a US-born activist living in Venezuela, will be
speaking on Wednesday, Nov. 10, Noon to 2 p.m. in the City Council
chambers of the Oakland City Hall.

He will talk about the democratic revolutionary process that is now
unfolding in Venezuela, the recent elections, grassroots activism and
community organization in contemporary Venezuela, and the challenges
ahead in this dynamic South American country.

Charlie Hardy is a former Catholic priest from Wyoming who works with
the poor of the barrios of Caracas Venezuela .

He has been writing and speaking about the political and social
reality of Latin America for over 40 years. He has visited almost
every Central and South American country.

Charlie is the author of the book "A Cowboy in Caracas: A North
American's Memoir of Venezuela's Democratic Revolution."

Saul Landau described Charlie’s book as “an antidote to the poisonous
US government mantra against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Ironically, Cowboy isn't about Chávez, but about the exciting
processes he has helped initiate and about the awakening of Venezuela
's poor whom the US media neglects.”

See his website at http://www.cowboyincaracas.com/

(SNIP)

"As a former Catholic priest who has lived in Venezuela for the past 25
(years) and spent eight of those years in a cardboard-and-tin shack in one of
Caracas' barrios, Charles Hardy is in a unique position to explain
what is taking place. Cowboy in Caracas: A North American's Memoir of
Venezuela's Democratic Revolution gives the reader insight into the
Venezuelan reality, using an anecdotal presentation drawn from the
writer's personal experiences."

http://venezuelanalysis.com/event/5753
(Fair Use License)
(my emphases)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

"Insight into the Venezuelan reality..."!!! Wow! That's something we NEVER get from our corpo-fascist press which utterly ignores the people of Venezuela--the grass roots activists, the community organizations, the social movements, the poor majority--who put the Chavez government in power and kept them in power despite a U.S. supported coup d'etat attempt and non-stop propaganda and plotting--as well as ignoring the democratic processes in Venezuela by which the people of Venezuela accomplished this amazing feat. It's about the PEOPLE, people! Get it? We, the people. They, the people. Not phony, Koch Industries-funded, Mad Hatter 'Tea Partiers,' nor their USAID-funded counterparts in Venezuela and Miami. Real people, real grass roots movements, real representation of the poor majority in government, real democracy!

What has happened AMONG THE PEOPLE? Who are they? How did they do it? How did they get themselves an FDR-type "New Deal? What can we learn from them? Those are the things that our corpo-fascist press NEVER reports on--NEVER! And those are the things that Charles Hardy will be speaking about in Oakland and wrote a book about. Attend if you can. Buy his book if you cannot. And if you can't do either, visit his web site: http://www.cowboyincaracas.com

He has speaking engagements this November elsewhere in California, and in Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia and Indiana.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thanks for these links. Really appreciate them. Rec.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Agony]

2. Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots by Martinez/Fox/Farrell

is a good read on this same subject.

Edited by three Venezuela specialists, the book is made up of in-depth interviews with 29 radicals and activists – from women’s groups, the indigenous movement, student groups, community media and trade unions. By working in communal councils and cooperatives, building education centres, taking over factories and conducting land occupations these people have forced the profound changes that have occurred on Chavez‘s watch. Their impressive gains include cutting extreme poverty in half, reducing the infant mortality rate by 40 percent, recognising the economic value of housework, a literacy drive that taught 1.5 million people to read and write and the introduction of free higher education.

http://venezuelaspeaks.com/

[Peace Patriot]

3. Thanks for the rec of "Venezuela Speaks"! That book is a great introduction to...

the kind of information that is COMPLETELY LACKING in the corpo-fascist press--the direct views of Venezuelan citizens, the real makers of the revolution. I should also say--for those who are still trying to shed the corpo-fascist propaganda about Chavez--that it is by no means a Chavez-worshiping book. It contains many criticisms of Chavez and his government in content that is mostly about the struggles from "below" of ordinary people and social movements who are trying to significantly change and improve Venezuelan society and whose successes have been amazing. Their struggles remind me of the civil rights movement and other social justice movements here in the 1960s and 1970s. Both are very complex, very important stories NOT of political leaders and governments but of the PEOPLE who struggle and sacrifice and join together to MOVE political leaders and governments.

The story here, now, is that our people have been demoralized, disempowered and profoundly disheartened, as to social justice (not to mention peace). We have been quite deliberately and systematically demoralized--by inexplicable election losses via Diebold/ES&S, for instance. And our consciousness of our human and civil rights, and of our ability to achieve those rights with democratic action, is very dim, compared to what it once was. In the Venezuelan people, and what they have achieved, and what they aspire to, we have a present-day example of the peaceful revolutionary change that was possible here, once--and, indeed, in many periods of U.S. history--and that can happen here again. I am sure that that is why we NEVER hear about the real makers of Venezuela's revolution in our corpo-fascist press. Well, we have to STOP absorbing that 'black hole' of disinformation into our minds and seek out alternative sources of information. "Venezuela Speaks" is a good place to start. Read about these activists in their own words.

It is important to be able to elect leaders who believe in the will of the people and have the courage to DO the will of the people. That is one lesson of Venezuela. (We need to get rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines. Truly.) The other important lesson is GRASS ROOTS ORGANIZATION--another fundamental condition of democracy that has been severely damaged here, by corporate "divide and conquer" tactics, and that is alive and well in Venezuela. The third lesson is "think big"--but we can't get there without the first two. Venezuela has proven that people can create a "New Deal" for themselves IF the fundamentals of democracy are in place, and if those fundamentals are not in place, that's where you have to start.

[Agony]

5. "--that it is by no means a Chavez-worshiping book."

I agree that there is criticism of Chavez running throughout the accounts. I don't have the book in front of me for direct quotes but much is made about the revolution not being a "Chavez" revolution but a revolution of the people.

this from the Monthly Review review speaks to the point... (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/cassel260110.html)

---8<--
Through the oral accounts of activists, Venezuela Speaks! also offers insiders' views of the Bolivarian Revolution and the struggle towards participatory democracy. The activists interviewed have engaged in occupations of factories and land, the development of popular education, and the creation of an alternative culture and media.

However, readers on the left seeking a rosy account of the "Bolivarian revolution" are likely to be disappointed. Most of the book consists of interviews with an impressive variety of individuals who refuse to hold back their criticisms. Their stories bring to life the true struggle for revolutionary change, one that faces two main challenges defined in the first chapter by housing activist Iraida Morocoima.

"It is important for people to understand that we are fighting on two fronts: the struggle against the opposition so that they don't alter our goals, and the struggle against the government bureaucrats that support large financial capital who continue to give these lands to the large construction companies. That's why we say this is a process of revolution within the revolution."

The Bolibourgeoisie (a name given to bureaucrats within Chavez's administration), she argues, serve as a fence between the people and Chavez that often stops the effective implementation of the constitution.
---8<--

Cheers
Agony

[Judi Lynn]

4. Someone felt driven to de-rec the thread. Odd! n/t

[subsuelo]

6. I guess not everyone is interested in democracy, grassroots activism and community organization. nt

[social_critic]

7. Propaganda

I'd like to see him explain why the government party, the PSUV, didn't get the majority vote in the last elections.