Hands Off Venezuela

This Easter Young Left had its 44^th congress in Arboga, Sweden. At the Congress activists from the Hands off Venezuela campaign were present arguing support for a motion that included a call for Young Left to support the campaign and sign an appeal to the Swedish labour movement. This appeal had earlier got support at district level in Young Left and the Young Socialists. The motion was passed against the will of the National Committee (NC). They had no political arguments against the motion instead they argued from a purely formalistic point of view that there was no tradition of supporting appeals at congress.

At the congress several speakers, many of whom hadn't been involved in the Campaign before, spoke in favour of the motion. In the debate a speaker from the NC said that this was not about whether we supported the revolution or not. Some speakers said that the Young Left should have its own analysis.

But the revolution is now 10 years old, Young Left have had time to develop an analysis and so far the activities of the Hands off Venezuela campaign had been a large part of the solidarity work for the revolution in Sweden.

For many of the delegates this was a vote for the revolution. If you support the resolution why not support the most important solidarity campaign in favour of the revolution? A campaign that has got the support of President Chavez himself. The success of the Hands off Venezuela campaign is clearly not that we have a strong organisation it is because it is an international campaign that understands the development of the revolution, has an orientation to the labour movement and does serious solidarity work.

This was a great success for the campaign. We will now use this decision to continue our work to get support, and to involve the Labour movement in Sweden in solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution. Here is the appeal that got support at the congress.

Hands off Venezuela

A revolution against the horrors of neo-liberalism is spreading through Latin-America. The centre for this development is Venezuela. What is happening there is totally different compared to the politics of cuts in the welfare state that politicians, economist and "experts" have said for decades is necessary. In this poor country a redistribution of wealth and power is taking place. Good housing is provided for ordinary people, poor people are getting access to free healthcare and land is handed out to farmers cooperatives.

A discussion about how to construct a socialist society is taking place. The people have begun to build new structures that they control, that can replace the old state. The power of capital is threatened through nationalisation and workers control.

A privileged layer - the owners of the big companies and the highly paid civil servants in the state - are violently against the changes. In 2002, with the support of the USA, there was an attempted military coup which was followed by a lockout. This is a part of a campaign against the revolution that includes slander in the media, violence and economic sabotage.

The development in Venezuela is connected to the future of the international labour movement. The revolution in Venezuela spreads hope - it shows that another world is possible. It is necessary for the defence of the revolution to get solidarity from the international labour movement. With this appeal we want:

• To show our solidarity with the revolution in Venezuela
• Say no to USA and other international forces attacking the people of Venezuela
• Give our support to the Venezuelan trade union federation UNT
• Support the call for a solidarity conference to discuss how to develop the solidarity movement with Venezuela

Martin Lööf
Hands off Venezuela Sweden

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