English Edition Nº 56 by Correo del Orinoco

Pg. g 7 | Culture

Hip Hop Revolution in Venezuela promotes urban culture

FRIDAY | March 18, 2011 | No. 56 | Bs 1 | C ARACAS

Pg. g 8 | Opinion p

Some hard data on what’s changed in Venezuela during the past decade

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

Venezuela’s Chavez Suspends Nuclear Program

China to Aid Venezuela with Housing

President Chavez abruptly announced the suspension of Venezuela’s nuclear energy development program this week in reaction to the evolving crisis in Japan

A Revolution in Education

Students have become a main focus point of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, with growing movements on both sides of the spectrum. President Chavez recently announced the creation of a new Ministry for Youth and Students in an attempt to attend to the increasing demands from this important sector and to ensure venues for dialogue exist in the country for future generations.

To the suprise of many, the Venezuelan chief called for a stoppage of further development of the country’s nuclear energy projects due to concerns over the terrible tragedy occuring in Japan and for what he sees as the lack of safeguards for nuclear energy reactors worldwide. Just last year, Venezuela had entered into agreements with Russia to further the development of nuclear energy plants for peaceful means. The accord had caused concerns amongst some sectors in Washington who claimed Venezuela could use the technology for non-peaceful purposes. Now, Venezuela sets an example for other nations to follow in ceasing nuclear development in order to prevent further disasters to humanity. [More below]

Politics

Focus on Farmers and Agriculture Food security and sovereignty is advancing through agricultural investments.

Economy

Infrastructure Development Increases Several new investments in infrastructure were announced this week.

Social Justice

Celebrating Women in Revolution Venezuela hosted the Grassroots Women’s Conference and examined advances and set backs in women’s rights.

enezuela is suspending development of a nuclear power program following the catastrophe at a nuclear complex in Japan, President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. The South American country had hoped that a planned Russian-built nuclear power plant would provide 4,000 megawatts (MW) and be ready in about a decade. But Chavez said events in Japan after last Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that followed it showed the risks associated with nuclear power were too great. “For now, I have ordered the

No Nukes in Venezuela freezing of the plans we have been developing ... for a peaceful nuclear program”, he said during a televised meeting with Chinese investors. “I do not have the least doubt that this (the potential for a nuclear catastrophe in Japan) is going to alter in a very strong way the plans to develop nuclear energy in the world”. Japan is racing to avert a new disaster after a fire broke out at a nuclear plant and sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and triggering growing international alarm.

Venezuela signed a deal with Russia last October that moved Chavez’s socialist government a step closer to its longtime goal of developing nuclear power like Brazil and Argentina. But some experts were skeptical at the time about whether Venezuela would go through with the project, or even needed it given the OPEC member’s vast oil and gas reserves, plus solar, hydroelectric and wind energy possibilities. The US government went so far at one point as to suggest that Venezuela’s nuclear program could be a threat.

n efforts to make good on its promise to solve the current housing deficit, the Venezuelan government has turned to one of its major trading partners for financial assistance, signing an act of cooperation with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The accord, which lays the groundwork for a $4 billion loan to be used to accelerate housing construction, was announced by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the signing of a range of agreements with the Asian country last Tuesday at the Presidential Palace Miraflores. “A memorandum of understanding was signed between [the state oil company] Pdvsa and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China which has begun to work with Pdvsa on the financing of $4 billion. This is for projects, but the major part will be destined towards housing”, Chavez said. Venezuela’s current housing shortage stands at around 1.5 million homes. Earlier this year, the Venezuelan head of state committed his government to the goal of constructing 2 million housing units by 2017. “We’ve placed relations between Venezuela and China at the highest strategic level”, Chavez said last Tuesday.

2 | Integration

NoÊxÈÊUÊFriday, March 18, 2011

The artillery of ideas

This Revolution is all about education Students, youth and educational opportunities have become the priority of the Chavez administration and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, even in the face of opposition protests and attempts to further privatize universities

esponding to calls from a range of social sectors, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the creation of a new government ministry last Friday to deal specifically with issues relevant to the youth and student populations of the Opec member nation. The announcement was made during a visit by the head of state to the Bolivarian University in the capital city of Caracas, site of a bicentennial student summit being carried out in honor of the 200th anniversary of Venezuela’s independence from Spain. The new Youth and Student Ministry, Chavez informed, will function “to create a new institutional architecture” that will allow students to work together to propose solutions to common problems affecting university as well as secondary and primary education. Although not all the details of the new Youth and Student Ministry were made available at the time of the visit, the Venezuelan President referred to the ability of students to propose national laws to deal specifically with government educational policy. “I envision that you can present me with a law to solve the problems that many university students complain about. For example, a law to create, regulate and build student residences or another law to confront the problem of cafeterias”, he explained. REVOLUTION IS EDUCATION Improving access to formal education has been one of the most prominent achievements of the presidency of Hugo Chavez. Since the ex-Lieutenant Colonel came to power in 1999, more than 1.5 million Venezuelans have learned to read and write as a result of government literacy campaigns and the country now boasts one of the highest college

them”, Chavez said of earlier Venezuelan governments on Friday. “They hunted down their leaders like you hunt down deer”. “Thank God Venezuelan students don’t have to confront bullets anymore in order to get what they need”, he said.

matriculation rates in the world. Funding for educational initiatives has increased exponentially in the past ten years as various social programs, known as missions, have provided previously excluded populations greater opportunities to be in the classroom. As a constitutional mandate, education is free in the country and the government provides hundreds of thousands of scholarships through a variety of funding schemes for primary, secondary and university level students. Apart from being of no cost, higher education students also enjoy the benefits of free meals, reduced transportation fares, and many times free housing. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE OPPOSITION In theory, the universities are open to all. But in practice, the best public schools have been dominated by middle and upper class students who in recent years have become firmly allied to the country’s right-wing political opposition.

Threatened by the budgetary implications of more inclusive and alternative educational initiatives, the well funded and US-financed Venezuelan student movement has been at the forefront of organized resistance to the Chavez government. Portraying themselves as the victims of a repressive government, students have participated in various political protests utilizing a range of tactics including violent demonstrations and more media-friendly hunger strikes. Recently, students have been clamoring for the release of convicted criminals they have dubbed “political” prisoners and an increase in the university budget allocations. For their part, Chavez supporters scoff at the students’ allegations of persecution, reminding them of former governments that sent police and the National Guard into the streets to murder young activists. “We saw how they killed students, how they savagely repressed

REFUSAL TO ENGAGE Although the Venezuelan head of state has expressed his willingness to work with opposition students, the conservative movement has for the most part refused to dialogue. Earlier this year, Chavez went so far as to veto a new educational law passed by his own party as a response to student concerns over university “autonomy” – the right of higher education institutions to administer their own budgets and enact their own policies without government regulation. Despite these and other gestures, after Chavez announced the formation of the new ministry last week, opposition students rejected the measure out of hand, calling it bureaucratic and “an act put on by the government”. Refusing also an invitation to debate with progressive students on national television on Tuesday, opposition spokesman Antonio Ledezma ratified their unwillingness to participate through formal democratic channels. “Its another sham, another lie”, said opposition mayor of metropolitan Caracas of the new ministry. “This is going to do nothing to solve the students’ problems”. Pro-Revolution students await-

ed their opposition counterparts on a television program Tuesday on private station Televen, where only empty chairs were present to “debate”. Later in the day, the students went to the nation’s parliament to try and engage opposition youth protestors in a dialogue and discussion about issues facing their generation, but were met again with rejection and an aggressive discourse from antiChavez student leaders who refused to engage in debate. “We have offered spaces for dialogue, for debate, for discussion, but the opposition does not want that. They want to sabotage, destabilize and make noise to attract the international community”, said Assembly-member Robert Serra, 23. In contrast, President Chavez mentioned on Friday that his government would be willing to increase university budgets and scholarships on the condition that the autonomous universities, charged by many with internal corruption, make public their book keeping. “I’m in favor of a frank and sincere dialogue with the deans of all the universities and those in charge of budgets. I am willing to search for new resources to increase scholarships but the universities have to be up front about their finances”, Chavez said. “We cannot be giving guarantees to hidden and non-transparent endeavors where resources are lost and scholarships are paid out four times to the same person. Or people receive them who don’t need them and then end up spending them on nonessential items. These scholarships are needed to sustain educational efforts”, the head of state said. Jonathan Tabares, president of the National Youth Institute, expressed his support on Friday for the President’s declarations, receiving them as yet a further step on part of the government to advance educational reform in the country. “We want to achieve a truly democratic model inside the university that will permit greater access for youth in the autonomous universities”, Tabares said of the need for transparency. T/ COI P/ Agencies

NoÊxÈÊUÊFriday, March 18, 2011

The artillery of ideas

International

South American unity UNASUR Splits Two-year Secretary General Spot between Colombia and Venezuela

olombia’s former Deputy Foreign Secretary Emma Mejia will be occupying the charge as General Secretary for the next twelve months beginning April, while Venezuela’s Ali Rodriguez will hold the post during the following twelve months. Ms. Mejia thanked UNASUR members for naming her as the new Secretary General and highlighted the significance of succeeding an emblematic figure such as the former Argentine president Kirchner. “I am most thankful to the eleven

countries that unanimously have decided to re-establish through the organization’s Secretariat, the replacement for a man that has proved so emblematic as was the former Argentine leader Nestor Kirchner”, said Ms. Mejia in her first statements from Bogota. Following her naming for the job Ms. Mejia met with Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos in Casa de Nariño, Colombia’s Government House. Ms. Mejia, a former Foreign Affairs official and an expert in International Law and social inclusion, is scheduled to take office next April. The second half of the two-year mandate of the Secretary General will be completed by the other candidate for the job, Venezuela’s Ali Rodriguez. UNASUR was officially launched in Brasilia in

2008 but only managed to become effective a month ago when the Uruguayan parliament approved the constitution charter, the ninth member in doing so as requested by the original statutes. The decision to have the two candidates share the two-year mandate sends a strong unity message and avoids a painful political confrontation between two neighboring countries that until a year ago were undergoing a serious deterioration of bilateral relations. UNASUR member countries include: Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Paraguay, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia. Only Paraguay and Brazil still have to approve the founding charter. T/ MercoPress

Colombia slips Into the abyss as the FTA threatens further havoc W

hile little attention has been paid by the press, Colombia just reached an ignominious benchmark – it is now the country with the largest population of internally displaced persons in the world, surpassing The Sudan which had held this position for the past several years. Colombia, with a population of around 44 million, now has 5.2 million internally displaced persons, meaning that almost 12% of its population is displaced - most of them by violence, and a disproportionate number Afro-Colombians and indigenous. As a report by the Colombian human rights group CODHES notes, half of the 5.2 internally displaced were displaced during the presidential term of Alvaro Uribe, and as a direct consequence of his “counterinsurgency program” – a program funded in large measure by the U.S. As CODHES noted, in a significant proportion of the municipalities impacted by this program, there has been large-scale mining and cultivation of oil palm and biofuel. CODHES is clear that this production is directly responsible for the violent displacement of persons from their land Indeed, it appears that the “counterinsur-

gency program”, as many of us has said for years, was in fact largely intended to make Colombia safe for multi-national exploitation of the land at the very expense of the people the program was claimed to be helping. The proposed Colombia FTA is also intended to do the very same – to protect the rights of multinational corporations over the basic human rights of the Colombian people. For example, the Colombia FTA would privilege the very palm oil production, which is leading to the mass displacement of people. Even more frightening, as The Nation Magazine explained in a detailed article, entitled, “The Dark Side of Plan Colombia”, around half of the palm oil companies are actually owned and controlled by paramilitary groups, meaning that the FTA will directly aid these groups by incentivizing their crop. As the Washington Office on Latin America recently noted, the FTA’s agricultural provisions will also undermine the livelihood of Colombia’s rural inhabitants who will not be able to compete with the subsidized, cheap food stuffs which will be able to flood the Colombian markets duty-

free under the FTA. Indeed, we have seen this before, in Mexico where NAFTA led to the impoverishment and displacement of 1.3 million small farmers, and in Haiti which lost its ability to feed its own people with its rice production after Clinton’s free trade policies with that country. And indeed, Bill Clinton apologized to the Senate last year over these very free trade policies, saying: “It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake. I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else”. And yet, the current administration, with Bill Clinton himself cheering it on, is pushing the same failed free trade policies for Colombia. Meanwhile, the labor rights situation in Colombia remains dismal. Thus, according to the Escuela Nacional Sindical (ENS), fifty-one (51) trade unionists were killed in 2010, and 4 unionists (including 3 teachers) have already been killed this year. See, story. The 51 unionists killed in 2010 matches precisely the number

of unionists killed in 2008 when President Obama vowed to oppose the Colombia FTA based upon his concern that unionists face unprecedented violence in that country. The same concerns should motivate President Obama to oppose the FTA now. The continued violence against trade unionists in Colombia led the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to inform leaders of the EU, who are considering a similar free trade agreement, that the Colombian administration’s attempts to sell the agreement on the claim that

labor and human rights are improving in Colombia are in fact a sham. In the words of the ITUC, “intensive lobbying campaign at the European Parliament by the Colombian Government is an attempt to mislead the international community”. The ITUC urges the international community not to be fooled by the Colombian government’s campaign and to continue to reject a free trade agreement with that country. Hopefully, the Obama Administration will take heed of such warnings. T/ Dan Kovalik

4 | Politics

NoÊxÈÊUÊFriday, March 18, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Venezuela: focus on farmers and agriculture Strengthening the nation’s agricultural production and improving working conditions for small farmers in the country was the main focus of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s weekly television program, Alo Presidente, last Sunday

ransmitting from a recovered farming estate in the western state of Zulia, south of Lake Maracaibo, Chavez announced a plan to invest 450 million bolivars ($104 million) in the region and spelled out an eight point program to develop the zone’s economic and social potential. “At last, the revolution has arrived South of the Lake to liberate the land”, Chavez said during the 371st broadcast of his popular television show. Traditionally dominated by large landowners with little incentive to develop the land, the region south of Lake Maracaibo, popularly referred to as “South of the Lake”, is one of the most fertile agricultural zones in all of South America. After heavy rains displaced thousands of residents and devastated much of the nation’s agricultural production late last year, the government ordered the occupation of 47 mostly fallow estates in the region as part of its relief efforts. The move has also formed part of a larger reconstruction plan designed to advance the economic potential of some 24 thousand hectares (59 thousand acres) in the area while ensuring essential food production for the nation. As outlined on Sunday, Chavez’s eight point development program for the land will focus on increasing dual purpose livestock operations and milk processing plants, the advancement of low intensity fishing, and the increased sowing of plantains, the starchy banana which represents a key Venezuelan staple. A team headed up by the Agriculture and Land Ministry will also work on issues related to the administration of the initiatives as well as security, land democratization, and infrastructure.

IMPROVING CONDITIONS According to officials working on the region’s development projects, government land expropriations have led to major improvements in the working conditions of the farmers in the area who were forced to endure conditions of “near slavery”. Joel Morales, Vice President of the state-run Venezuelan Agricultural Corporation, reported that workers on some plantain estates, many of them immigrants from neighboring Colombia, had been paid below the minimum wage and were excluded from all social security benefits. Morales informed on Sunday that salaries for the agricultural workers, known in Spanish as campesinos, have increased by 124 percent since the Chavez administration ordered the takeover of the estates. “The job is providing more for [the campesinos] everyday. They’re being dignified and all of their rights are being recognized”, the official said. Jojana Muñoz, an agricultural worker from one of the haciendas recovered by the government explained how her situation has improved as a result of the takeover. “[The government] has provided us with a home. Now we live like decent people. Before, there was no privacy and we couldn’t express ourselves”, she affirmed. Muñoz also related how her previous living situation limited her chances to improve her opportunities through education. “When I began to study at the

university, the boss told me that I had to decide whether I wanted to study or to work because he couldn’t allow me to come home at night after the classes”, he recounted. Another worker, Juana Sanchez, also gave testimony on Sunday to how the working conditions have changed since the government’s intervention in the region. “Before, we used to earn only six bolivars ($1.39) for a basket of plantains. Now we have all the benefits that the law grants and a dignified salary”, she commented. OTHER ASSISTANCE The government has also assisted 276 other producers in the region by forgiving thousands of dollars worth of loans to those who had lost harvests as a result of the rains last year. Another 407 campesinos, Chavez explained on Sunday, will benefit from more than 32

million bolivars ($7.4 million) in grant money for agricultural production, provided through the nation’s Agrarian Bank. “These producers are going to sow plantains, passion fruit, Japanese potatoes, corn, and cacao”, he informed. Dispelling myths that he is attacking private property as Venezuela’s conservative opposition alleges of the government’s agricultural development initiatives, Chavez drew a distinction between small landholdings and massive estates. “The enemies of the revolution, the capitalists, say that Chavez came to put an end to you [campesinos], to put an end to property… There’s good property and bad property just like everything in life. The bad property, their property, is destructive while your property is good because it constructs. Long live small, family properties because they don’t exploit or have

slaves like the large estates”, Chavez said. According to Land and Agricultural Minister, Juan Carlos Loyo, the government has recovered more than 2.5 million hectares (6.1 million acres) of land that had been held illegally by estate owners. Seventy-two percent of these lands have been redistributed to campesinos and are now producing food for the nation, Loyo informed on Sunday. “In Venezuela, there are 450 thousand small, medium and large estates which add up to about 30 million hectares (74.1 million acres)” of fertile land, the Minister reported. VIOLENCE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE The struggle of the campesinos against the large estates has been particularly sharp South of Lake Maracaibo. Chavez pointed out that more than 60 small producers have been assassinated by mercenaries and paramilitaries in the region since Venezuela’s passage of the Land Law in 2001. In total, more than 200 farmers have been murdered since the nation began to undertake it’s agrarian reform program. Although wealthy landowners are widely understood to be behind the contracted killing of farmer activists, not one estate owner has been convicted for the murder of a campesino to date. T/ COI P/ Presidential Press

NoÊxÈÊUÊFriday, March 18, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Economy

Increasing electric energy generation capacity

ince President Chavez came to power, the Venezuelan government has increased the investment, generation and distribution of electric energy throughout the country by a factor of 10, in comparison to the last decade of previous governments, informed Minister of Electric Energy, Ali Rodriguez Araque. During a television interview this week, Rodriguez Araque explained that from 1989 to 1998, 373 thermal megawatts (MW) were incorporated into the national electric grid, while from 1999 to 2010, 3.229 megawatts were included to reach a total of 5,419 MW. “Compared to the 10 previous years, the installation of thermal generation capacity has been multiplied by ten”, he highlighted. Additionally, he said that indexes of electric energy generation and capacity in Venezuela are positive due to the optimum water level of the hydroelectric central Guri, a dam in southwestern Venezuela that supplies 70 percent of the country’s electricity, by which favorable results are expected regarding energy distribution. In case external irregularities show up -such as last year’s strong drought – all the contingency measures to prevent power cuts are set to be activated, thanks to the previsions taken by the government. The installation of new energy plants and a strong financial investment and improvement of the already created plants are some of the actions taken by the Venezuelan government to strengthen the energy sector. “We’ve been speeding up all the installation process of new generation capacity, we are working in rehabilitating units, we are improving the transmission and distribution systems as well”, he explained. Additionally, the Ministry of Electric Energy created an office to monitor in real time the country’s electric grid so any power cut can be solved immediately.

T/ AVN

Venezuela: government increases investment in infrastructure On Saturday and Sunday, the Venezuelan government announced new public investments in housing and infrastructure aimed at aiding ﬂood victims and stimulating the economy

n Saturday, President Hugo Chavez slowly drove a jeep in a caravan through low-income communities in the outskirts of Caracas, greeting excited local residents and the media. He announced the approval of 4.2 billion bolivars (US$977 million) for housing construction in Caracas, the central plains state of Barinas, and the coastal Aragua state. The houses cost 200,000 bolivars on average – a modest price by Venezuelan standards – and include sturdy walls, quality roofing, good plumbing, and a drinking water supply – a veritable improvement from the shacks and improvised homes on precarious hillsides in which many Venezuelans are crowded, according to Chavez. On his presidential talk show on Sunday, Chavez announced a 2.6

billion bolivar (US$605 million) investment in drinking water services for historically marginalized low-income communities in Miranda state. The president also announced a 450 million bolivar (US$105 million) public investment to rebuild the region south of Lake Maracaibo in western Venezuela. The fertile agricultural zone was devastated last December when rains, flooding, and landslides ruined crops, washed out roads, and destroyed homes. In addition, workers on the 24 farms that were nationalized following the storms received a 124% wage increase, and the government forgave the debt on state loans to 276 local farmers and 36 communal councils, which are neighborhood elected governing bodies. Much of the money for the investments will come from special funds the president created by law-decree last year using controversial fast-track legislating power granted to him by the socialistcontrolled National Assembly. China, Russia, and Belarus have also provided generous credit lines to the government. Nationwide, more than 130,000 Venezuelans were left homeless by last year’s storms. The people have been living in state-run

camps where they receive food and medical attention. The Venezuelan economy is slowly emerging from a sixquarter recession caused by an extended drought that nearly collapsed the national electric system in 2009, and a drop in the price of oil, Venezuela’s chief export, due to the world economic crisis. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT With a presidential election around the corner in 2012, public works projects are expected to be expanded. Chavez has pledged to build 2 million homes over the next six years, starting with a pledged investment of 30 billion bolivars (US$6.9 billion) for the construction of 150,000 homes in 2011. In recent years, housing construction was hampered by a shortage of cement both before and after the nationalization of the cement industry in 2008. The BCV reported that in 2010, the construction industry shrank because of a low supply of “basic inputs.” The government rushed an importation of nearly 7,000 metric tons of cement for emergency housing construction from Cuba and Colombia following last year’s storms.

The government’s plan to develop oil fields along the Orinoco River Belt in joint deals with multi-national corporations is projected to bring 667 billion bolivars (US$155 billion) of investments into the region in the coming years. State-run food production and distribution networks, which provide thousands of tons of food daily to people nation-wide, will also be expanded, according to Chavez. The National Annual Operational Plan for this year allocates 40.7 billion bolivars (US$9.5 billion) to a series of programs including education and health care, domestic gas and oil distribution infrastructure, alternative energy research, the construction of a major new hydroelectric facility, women’s services, and stimulus to small and medium-sized businesses. According to the Planning and Finance Ministry, public investments have nearly doubled as a percentage of the GDP under the 12-year Chavez government. In 2009 public investment reached 87.3 billion bolivars (US$20.3 billion), which was 12.5% of the GDP, an increase from 7% of the GDP in 1999. T/ VenezuelAnalysis P/ Presidential Press

6 | Social Justice

NoÊxÈÊUÊFriday, March 18, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Venezuela hosts Global Grassroots Women’s Conference A

long a noisy highway in Caracas, Venezuela stand a series of tall buildings that once belonged to Exxon-Mobile. Today, those buildings are home to the Bolivarian University, where poor and working class people can get a free higher education and specialize in careers that are focused on community development and political organization. The Bolivarian University is just one of the many innovative government supported projects underway in Venezuela, and for that reason it was selected to host the Global Grassroots Women’s Conference, which took place this past week. Marking the 100-year anniversary of International Women’s Day, hundreds of women from around the world joined together in Caracas to share experiences, debate different themes, draft proposals and show support for the democratic process underway in Venezuela. Women from the Conference, as well as Venezuelan organizations and parties, joined in a festive march through the center of Caracas. The delegation from the Confederation of Ecuadorian Women for Change (CONFEMEC) roused the crowds with chants saying “Bella, bella, bella, que cosa mas bonita, las mujeres organizadas luchando por la vida (Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, what a lovely sight, Organized women fighting for their lives)”. The delegation of women from Turkey held each other arm in arm and moved together in a beautiful circle dance. Chants and songs in dozens of languages, echoed through the sweaty streets, and women hugged, kissed, took pictures, and exchanged their contacts. Despite speaking different languages, there was a common language of struggle and solidarity and spirits on the streets were high. The conference opened with a tribute to Clara Zetkin, a young German socialist revolutionary who, in 1910, advocated for the need for a day dedicated to women’s struggle. The following year, millions of men and women took to the streets, demanding rights for women and workers and ad-

vancing the cause of suffrage. Indigenous Caribe women from Venezuela welcomed the women of the world and the program continued with various cultural and musical performances. From March 5-7, women participated in workshops and assemblies within the 12 themes outlined in the conference. The themes included: the double oppression of women, reproductive rights and sexuality, feminisms, women workers, rural women, hunger and malnourishment, racism and indigenous women, young women, achievements in women´s rights, wars of aggression and imperialism, the environment, and political participation. There was an overwhelming consensus from women at the conference that the largest problem facing women of the world is capitalism and the poverty that it creates. Women of the so-called Third World, as well as the third world from within the first world, additionally confront imperialism and continue to struggle for basic sovereignty as vital in being able to achieve any rights. There are many ways in which the current global economic crisis continues to disproportionately affect women. Gertrudes Ranjoli Ban represents the Gabrella net-

work, which is comprised of over 200 organizations and has a membership of over 150,000 women throughout the Philipines. “There is domestic violence whether there is poverty or not, but poverty exacerbates it”, she explained. She also spoke about the current campaign of her network, saying “we have a campaign against foreign interference in our economic and political lives. Particularly when we talk about neoliberal policies, because we have direct experiences of neoliberal policies negatively affecting women’s lives in the Phillipines and throughout the world”. In the workshop on rural issues, the women participating came to the conclusion that capitalism and imperialism are guilty of creating poverty, hunger, and malnourishment, and diminishing the earth’s capacity to feed everyone in a healthy way. Among the solutions presented were land redistribution, literacy, schools, political formation according to each country’s culture and conditions, access to essential services, fair wages for agricultural work, and everything that would constitute a dignified life for those in rural areas. Delegates from Germany, the United States, Bangladesh and throughout Latin America

shared a common experience of a persisting gender wage gap despite years of struggle, and in some cases legal gains that guarantee equity in pay. Ecuadorian women proposed the need for free or subsidized childcare centers, as well as the acknowledgement of housework as producing a social and economic value. A young student from Egypt also noted that within the uprising in her country, women are playing an important role, and that she anticipates a much needed opening for women’s rights in Egypt. The issue of abortion was an important theme at the conference. Despite advances in women’s rights in Venezuela there is still not legal access to abortion, including in incidents of rape. In Latin America, Cuba is currently the only country with universal access to free and safe abortions. The delegates from Peru and Argentina brought their experiences of working on a national level in their home countries in fighting for abortion rights. There was a consensus among the women participating in the workshop on sexuality that abortion rights are fundamental to women’s rights. While there was participation in the conference and march by Les-

bians, Genderqueer, and Transgender people, specific rights for Queer communities were not visible on the agenda. Rumi Quintero, a transperson and president of the Divas Civil Associaiton of Venezuela, who runs the first and only feminist television program in Venezuela said, “Venezuelans see the dichotomy of heterosexuality and homosexuality, and homosexuality as a problem, And so we are coming up with response to the people of Venezuela, Latin America, and the world, that we are not people who will be cast into marginalization, in fact we are fighting against marginalization, and we are breaking it down daily with our presence with our ways of being, and with our work”. Gloria Jilambe of the organization Women Together in South Africa said, “We want women to awaken in our country so we can fight side by side. We are confronted by the Pandemic of HIV and AIDs and unemployment. Our families face so many ills because of capitalism and imperialism”. Women from Venezuela shared the advances that they have made in terms of recognition and rights within the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution, such as a constitutional guarantee of all rights, a ban on discrimination of all forms, including based on sex or gender, provisions for equal pay for equal work, a valuing a housework and factoring in that value to social security payments, as well as the first anti-sexist language within the Constitution. Women from Ecuador also shared of the constitutional gains that they have made within the 2008 Constitution, which also bans all forms of discrimination. Despite these incredible constitutional gains, not all of these legal documents have translated into reality, but they have created a firm platform for struggle. When asked what message the participants of the event want to communicate to women of the world, they all echoed eachother, “Women, unite and organize”. T/ Cory Fischer-Hoffman Upsidedownworld.org

NoÊxÈUÊFriday, March 18, 2011

The artillery of ideas

Culture | 7 |

Hip-hop lives on in Venezuela I

t is 7:00 on a Wednesday evening in Caracas’s southern barrio known as La Vega. In a small classroom lined with worn-out wooden desks, youth of all ages sit and listen to a local DJ talk about the historical roots of hiphop culture. After the discussion is over, the youth quickly disperse and hip-hop beats begin blasting as dancers practice their footwork and emcees prepare to show off their latest rhymes. Caracas may be further then a stone’s throw from hip-hop’s birthplace in the Bronx but in communities like La Vega, known for its large African descendent population and oral traditions, hiphop’s emergence there seemed only natural. Allowing for youth to express themselves, while connecting them to their ancestral roots, hip-hop has become a wayof life for many. Thanks to a program called EPATU (the Spanish acronym for Popular School for the Arts and Urban Traditions), Venezuelans as young as 2 and as old as 76 are experiencing a growing hiphop culture first hand. So far over 30 hip-hop schools have opened in 15 states around the country, mobilizing a new generation of youth through music. However, for EPATU organizers starting a hip-hop movement in a country largely consumed by salsa and reggaeton music has not come without a backlash from community members. Karine Esparragoza, a 19-year old emcee who attends classes at EPATU in La Vega, admits that her family members are not comfortable with the hip-hop culture. “They associate hip-hop with drugs and violence”, she told me in an interview, “but I’m here because I strongly believe that is what we are fighting against”. Overcoming the negative stereotypes of hip-hop is one of the biggest challenges facing organizers and one in which the participants are trying to change. They do so by targeting those most likely to get involved with violence – young males and children living on the streets. Hip-hop’s counterculture appeal draws the youth in while also giving them an alternate way of expressing themselves. HIP-HIP REVOLUTION In La Vega, EPATU has had nu-

merous successes, attracting anywhere between 20 to 50 kids on any given evening. Their school is located in a park at the bottom of a road that leads up to what were in the past some of Caracas’ most notoriously dangerous streets. “The point” as the park has been named, is the original headquarters of hip-hop in Caracas and has survived the ups and downs of a decades long movement. As La Vega-based rapper “ElEga” claims, “hip-hop in Venezuela, like around the world, was born as a cry against the oppression we faced in our communities and as a call for protest”. In the 90’s, hip-hop music had clashed tremendously with the ruling government, a trend that changed when President Hugo Chavez, himself a hip-hop fan, took office in 1999. While hip-hop was less mobilized in Chavez’s initial years in office, it saw a rebirth with the rise of a nation-wide collective called Hip-Hop Revolucion (HHR). HHR, which since 2005 has held an annual International Hip-Hop summit, was born out of radical movements in the barrios of Caracas. The collective is home to a number of well-respected artists and has grown to include members from around North and South America. It was from HHR, that EPATU was born. A project that had been on the backburner for years and

a dream of many of those hopeful to pass hip-hop music on to future generations, EPATU was officially launched on the 18th of January in 2010. Before its inception, organizers from around the country worked tirelessly through workshops and conferences in preparation. Each individual school operates according to the needs of the communities in which it resides but all are expected to incorporate political formation into their coursework. Generally, one day a week is devoted to discussions and workshops that cover topics anywhere from racism to consumerism and cultural imperialism. Other nights are saved for the four elements of hip-hop (breakdancing, emceeing, graffiti and DJing). Before the official commencement of EPATU, HHR put out a statement that read:

“We realize that the struggle of our movement begins within ourselves; we must try to destroy our individualities and understand that alone no progress is possible. Our culture is collective from its roots, for this reason we look beyond the four elements of our movement, we view our cultural creation as an act of freedom that can neither be bought nor sold, traded nor negotiated; it is simply for living and building”. In a country undergoing radical political change known to many inside Venezuela as the “Bolivarian Process”, EPATU organizers hope to keep the movement autonomous of state as well as private institutions. As the national lead organizer, Julia Mendez notes, however “We are a 100% revolutionary organization and we fully support the [Bolivarian] Process”.

President Hugo Chavez has given support back and has gone so far as to invite numerous hiphop artists from HHR onto his well-known Sunday television program, Aló Presidente. As La Vega coordinator, Tirso Maldanado argues, however, “our allegiance is not with the government nor with the President but rather with our community”. EPATU recently formed a relationship with the Ministry of the Communes but many of the promised resources have yet to arrive at the schools. As a result, national coordinators promote local projects to help sustain each individual EPATU school. Encouraging schools to do their own fundraising or begin their own businesses, organizers want to see EPATU last long-term, independent of who is in office. The movement of course is not without its own contradictions. While the main coordinator of EPATU is female, the schools are overwhelmingly dominated by males. In a country known for its extreme machismo, however, the movement has arguably made strides in allowing women to express their own frustrations with the current status quo. And while coordinators try to promote politically conscious music, youth often have a difficult time differentiating between corporate rap from abroad and music coming from their own communities. Images of flashy cars and scarcely dressed women give false illusions to youth about what the music represents and makes the work of the coordinators that much more difficult. Yet, despite the obstacles EPATU continues to grow. Finishing off its first year, it has been successful enough that hip-hop artists from abroad have used it as a model for their own communities back home. Most importantly, though, it has set a standard for so-called conscious hip-hop artists to live up to their own lyrics by putting their work as community members and educators ahead of their individual careers. While in the United States, artists have gone so far as to claim the death of hip-hop, in the barrios of Venezuela its legacy lives on. T/ Lainie Cassel

FRIDAY | March 18, 2011 | No. 56 | Bs 1 | CARACAS

ENGLISH EDITION The artillery of ideas

A publication of the Fundacion Correo del Orinoco • Editor-in-Chief | Eva Golinger • Graphic Design | Alexander Uzcátegui, Jameson Jiménez • Press | Fundación Imprenta de la Cultura

OPINION

welve years since the start of the Bolivarian Revolution, let’s draw a few little doves that help grasp the worrisome statist orientation of this Revolution. A pertinent clarification: the following data is not from Wikileaks.

Ah…that Chávez!

ECONOMY AND FINANCES • Liberation of the country from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) • Increase in the international reserves • Reduction of the public debt from 47.5 to 25 points (2003-2006) • Elimination of the tax on bank debiting • Creation of the large banks: of the Treasury, of Development, and of the South

COMMUNICATION • Creation of Telesur and the Bolivarian News Agency (ABN) • Approval of the law for social responsibility in radio and television • Placing in orbit of the Simón Bolívar satellite, for the development of tele-medicine, tele-education, and for information independence ENVIRONMENT • Increase to 6,700 birds in the population of Caribbean flamingos, species considered to be in danger of extinction • Planting of 20 million trees since 2006 (Tree Mission)

PETROLEUM • Recuperation of the oil industry • Recuperation of OPEC as an organization that defends the price of oil • Liberation of state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) from the securities commission of the United States, paying the corresponding debt (26 billion dollars) • Increase in the oil reserves with the recuperation of the Orinoco Oil Belt

SOCIAL SECURITY • Increase in the number of people affiliated to Social Security, as well as in pensions for the elderly • Payment of all debts to professors, doctors and retirees • Retirement for catholic school teachers at ‘Faith and Happiness’ who for 50 years had not received retirement or bonuses • Construction of penitentiary cities intended to resolve of prison problem

AGRICULTURE AND PRODUCTION • Rescue of lands for agriculture and their handing over to the peasantry • Diversification of production: creation of factories for the production of tractors, bicycles, and automobiles as well as cement in association with Iran

ARMED FORCES • Independence of the Armed Forces from the influence of the School of the Americas (SOA) • Exit of US military technicians that conducted espionage in the barracks as well as diversification in the markets from which arms are purchased

HEALTH • Creation of a new National Health Service (Inside the Barrio Mission) • Equipping of hospitals with incubators and other sophisticated equipment • Construction of Children’s Cardiology Center • Thousands of people with their vision recuperated (Miracle Mission) • Reduction in the infant mortality rate by 27 percent • Increase in the life expectancy rate to 73.18 years of age • Construction of the first Popular Indigenous Clinic in the state of Apure and an extensive network of outpatient clinics for the indigenous WOMEN • Creation of National Institute of Women (Inamujer) • Creation of the Simoncito program (attention for children from before birth) • Extension of the period for maternal nursing, which forces employers to give more maternity leave to working mothers

•Support for 200,000 mothers with economic difficulties (Mothers of the Barrio Mission) EDUCATION • Bolivarian University in all states as well as the University of Sports, in Cojedes • Creation of continuing secondary education programs for thousands of people, with more than 200,000 graduates to date (Ribas Mission) • Literacy achieved for over 1.5 million people, for which UNESCO declared the country free of illiteracy • Recuperation of over 100,000 education campuses • Creation of 58,236 new schools • Creation of 255 technical-training schools where 203,000 students study: the goal is to reach 500 of these schools for 500,000 students • Publication of over 50 million books distributed free of charge so as to increase the people’s cultural level • Equipping of the country’s public libraries • Creation of over 6,000 Bolivarian schools and 75,000 classroom libraries • Payment of all debts to teachers and substantial increases in salaries

• Elimination of tuition fees for state-operated schoolhouses POVERTY, WORK AND HOUSING • Reduction of poverty from 80 to 30 percent (1998-2008) • Attending to hundreds of people, including children, living on the streets (Negra Hipólita Mission) • Network of free Soup Kitchens for those in need • Declaration of workplace immobility, to impede firings • Program for the substitution of shacks for houses • With benefits, the minimum wage of a Venezuelan worker amounts to 638 dollars per month SERVICES • Increase in the number of people that today have drinkable water and electricity • Creation of the PDVSA Social Districts to assist hundreds of communities throughout the country • National plan for gasification (natural gas piped directly to communities/homes)

INTEGRATION • Entry into Mercosur • Creation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the People’s of Our America (ALBA) as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) POLITICS • Increase in the self-esteem of the Venezuelan people • Establishment of the country’s sovereignty • Glorification of the history of popular and national struggles • Effective democracy Jose Steinsleger José Steinsleger is a writer and journalist. He is a founding member of the Latin-American Federation of Journalists (FELAP, 1976), of the Latin-American Agency of Special Information Services (ALASEI-UNESCO, 1984) and the movement, “In Defense of Humanity” (Mexico, 2003). Since 1996 he maintains a regular column in the Mexican daily La Jornada. He is also author and co-author of several books on the Latin American historical political reality.