VIC’s first AGM was held on Saturday 30 June at Congress House, hosted by SERTUC. The packed meeting was attended by more than 100 delegates, representing the range of organisations and individuals who constitute VIC, including trade unions, local groups, special interest groups and community organisations from all over Britain. A constitution was agreed and five officers and 25 Executive Committee members were elected.
Lively exchanges at VIC's AGM
In a session chaired by TUC President and UNISON representative Alison Shepherd, the AGM passed motions highlighting the need to continue to build the broadest possible campaign in solidarity with Venezuela, to strengthen support for the advances in social progress and democracy in Venezuela, to support Venezuela’s right to determine its own affairs free from foreign intervention, to lobby to ensure that the British government and the European Union develop constructive policies towards Venezuela and to reject the hostile position of the US government towards Venezuela.
The AGM also noted that the London-Venezuela mutual co-operation agreement will benefit up to 250,000 Londoners with half-price transport and provide much needed expertise on planning, the environment, transport and other areas to Venezuela. It resolved to prioritise raising awareness and building support for the London-Venezuela co-operation agreement.
Other motions covered the need to step up VIC’s important work to challenge the media lies about Venezuela and to strengthen its Media Action Network, and further develop Lesbian and Gay Friends of Venezuela, Teachers for Venezuela and Students for Venezuela; to foster links between women’s groups in Britain and Venezuela.
The AGM was followed by a panel discussion chaired by Tony Burke, Assistant General Secretary of Unite the Union, with Rod Stoneman, Executive Producer of the inspiring documentary “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and Dr Julia Buxton.
Reporting on his recent trip to Venezuela, Rod spoke of his visits to the new TV channel -- TEVES -- which last month was granted the broadcasting licence previously held by RCTV. He was impressed at the quality of TEVES programming as well as that of community-focused stations such as Vive and Avila. He added that community radio and television stations have mushroomed throughout the country in the past couple of years and enjoy large support among the population.
Rod Stoneman discussing the media and Venezuela
Dr. Julia Buxton, expert in Venezuelan affairs, emphasised the intensification of the media war against Venezuela and warned that we should be prepared for an increased onslaught. The US was stepping up ‘Voice of America’ broadcasts into Venezuela and considerably bolstered funding through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was being channelled to Venezuelan “human rights” groups. There had been attempts to smear President Chavez with accusations of non-compliance with anti-drug initiatives - despite evidence to the contrary endorsed by the UN Office on Drug Control (UNODC) who had recently given a very positive report on Venezuela and even the British government had stressed support to Venezuela’s anti narcotic operations through a reply to a parliamentary question of Colin Burgon MP. There had also been attempts in coverage of President Chavez’s current trip to Russia to portray him as a war monger seeking to build up Venezuelan military capacity, despite the fact that Venezuela now spends US$200million per annum less on arms than it did in the 1980s.
Julia added that the reason for the US efforts was clear. Chavez’s global vision sought to promote a different version of international co-operation and to strengthen South-South links and initiatives. Examples of this were the recently created Bank of the South (Banco del Sur) to finance aid projects in the developing world and funding for projects in Africa along the lines of Venezuela’s successful social programmes/missions (Venezuela has recently opened 13 embassies in Africa). These initiatives provided realistic alternatives to the IMF and World Bank and thus undermined the self-interest of the US.
Dr Julia Buxton: latest developments in Venezuela
Julia highlighted the critical importance of the post-election formation of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) which has the enormous potential to gave more influence to grass-roots movements. She spoke about the “five motors of the revolution” which included directing US$6 billion of funding to support 17,000 community councils thus empowering the barrios and small rural communities.
VIC Secretary Gordon Hutchison closed the AGM saying that the day had left delegates inspired and renewed in their commitment to continue building an effective, broad-based campaign in solidarity with Venezuela. He said that it was possible to win the argument with large sectors of the British public concerning developments in Venezuela and this had to be a top priority for the coming year. He asked that everyone become directly engaged in VIC’s work and that they return to their localities and branches with the message that we had to engage with all sectors of society and tell them about the inspiring example of Venezuela which gave real hope of the possibility of building a better world.
