British and Italian student organisations support Bolivarian revolution

We have received the following statements passed by student organisations in Britain and Italy in solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution and against the current reactionary mobilisations in Venezuela.

As student militants we are carefully following the recent events in Venezuela.

We recognize the conquests achieved in the last years by Venezuelan students and workers in the field of education.

They are even more relevant if compared with the situation in Italy, a so-called “advanced” country.

- In Venezuela university enrolment has increased from 670,000 in 1998 to almost 2.5 million today; in Italy it has fallen by 78,000 in the last 10 years.

- While in Italy we are seeing an alarming return of illiteracy, this has been eradicated in Venezuela through Misiòn Robinson, while combined gross enrolment in education has increased from 67% in 2000 to 89% in 2011 (source: Unesco).

These results were achieved through the revolutionary struggle of the masses. Today a tiny minority of students – the wealthiest – is demonstrating in a violent way in order to remove the democratically elected president and the government. Thire real aim is not to obtain more democracy, but to open the way for reaction.

We are against this reactionary opposition and express our solidarity with the Venezuelan workers and youth. We believe that the only way to defend the conquests of the revolutionary process is to complete it, nationalizing the means of production and putting them under workers control, to defeat the economic sabotage moved by the bourgeoisie and the Us imperialism.

Workers and youth participation is needed, both to defeat the armed gangs and to defeat the economic sabotage. Only the working class and youth, organized in democratic committees, can win this battle.

We are waging a campaign to inform Italian students about what is really happening in Venezuela and we commit ourselves to work with the Hands off Venezuela campaign to organize solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution.

Sempre in Lotta – Student Coordination (Italy)

The motion below was passed by the Marxist Student Federation conference on 15th February 2014 attended by representatives from Marxist Societies in 20 different universities across Britain. Marxist Students stand in solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution and the people of Venezuela. We express solidarity with those fighting against the economic war and the violence of the counter-revolutionary opposition. 

The MSF conference recognises the important advances of the Bolivarian revolution in the field of education, achieving such things as:

• eradication of illiteracy through Misión Robinson, teaching how to read and write to 1.5 million people
• the expansion of university education (free of charge) to those social layers which were previously excluded – university enrolment has increased from 670,000 in 1998 to almost 2.5 million today.
• increase of education spending from 3.9% of GDP in 1999 to over 7% now.

The Bolivarian revolution has the support of the majority of Venezuelans and has won every single election and referendum since 1998 with the exception of one. Despite this the ruling class and imperialism have not ceased in their efforts to remove the government of Hugo Chavez first and now of Nicolás Maduro by a concerted campaign of economic sabotage, rioting in the streets, bosses lock outs, diplomatic pressure and attempted coups. They have been defeated once and again by the revolutionary mobilisation of the Venezuelan working masses.

The latest instance of this undemocratic plotting is the current wave of violent protests by opposition students and youth with the stated aim of removing the democratically elected government. On February 12, at the end of one such demonstration, small groups of violent opposition youth attacked official buildings, set burning barricades and clashed with the police.

The MSF completely rejects this new wave of counter-revolutionary plotting on the part of the reactionary opposition and expresses its solidarity with the Venezuelan workers and youth and their democratically elected government.

We call on the Venezuelan people to remain firm in their defence of their revolutionary gains and to move decisively forward to complete the revolution by expropriating the oligarchic minority which uses its control over the means of production to sabotage the democratic will of the majority.

We commit ourselves to work with the Hands Off Venezuela campaign to organise solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution and inform students in Britain about its gains, which are an inspiration for all of us.