San Francisco: Organizing to Defend Venezuela

San Francisco HOV organized a lecture and film showing on Friday, January 27, in San Francisco  in which approximately 30 people attended.  The film documented the efforts by the oil workers and the surrounding community to stop the sabotage of the oil production in late 2002, when the bosses opposed to Chavez were trying to destabilize the government by bringing oil production to a halt. Fortunately, these worker-community efforts were successful, and before long production was resumed.  The film conveyed a clear sense of the rising awareness of their own power that ordinary people in Venezuela are experiencing.

Christina Vasquez Gutierrez, who just returned from spending several weeks in Venezuela, gave a moving, but balanced account of her experiences there and strongly encouraged members of the audience to join HOV in order to support the revolutionary movement in Venezuela.  The power of her remarks was evidenced by the lively discussion that followed.  At the end of the evening,  many members of the audience expressed their gratitude for the event.

We managed to raise $100, which will go to funding the tour of Luis Primo, representative of the UNT, who will be coming to the Bay Area in March.