[VIDEO] Green Party speaker praises Venezuela

Green blasts biofuels plan for Latin America

(Morning Star Friday June 8 2007)

GREEN Party principal spokesman Derek Wall slammed the US-backed drive to produce biofuels in Latin America on Wednesday night, explaining that "it can take more energy to grow crops such as palm oil than you actually get out."

Speaking to solidarity activists from Hands Off Venezuela at a packed meeting in the NUJ headquarters in London, Mr Wall extolled the green credentials of President Hugo Chavez, who, along with Cuba's President Fidel Castro, has been a major critic of the biofuel plan.

The "eco-socialist" praised Venezuela's fight against genetically modified crops, its mass distribution of energy-efficient light bulbs and the ongoing project to plant millions of trees across the country.

"Some opencast coal mining projects have also been stopped, but there are still many contradictions, such as the giant regional gas pipeline project which is so important for Chavez's 'Bolivarian' dream of uniting south America," he added.
He described visiting Venezuela during last year's World Social Forum and being impressed by the radical ecology lessons that he witnessed at a newly built state school.

"Even worm bins are on the syllabus!" he exclaimed.

"The government's idea is that you teach the kids and, then, they teach their parents."