Chavez comes to London!

President Hugo Chavez is planning to visit London at the invitation of Mayor Ken Livingstone on Monday and Tuesday 15/16 May. Chavez will be returning from the EU Latin America/Caribbean summit, which takes place in Vienna a few days earlier. In London, Chavez will be greeted by Hands Off Venezuela activists and supporters who have been waiting anxiously for a long time for this visit.

Chavez’s programme in London will include a meeting with the London mayor, a press conference and meetings with supportive members of Parliament and with leading members of the British trade unions, which are preparing their first official delegation to Venezuela.

President Chavez’s visit is particularly important because of all the hard work of the British solidarity movement over the last three years in defending the Venezuelan Revolution. This is particularly the case after Tony Blair's recent attack on Chavez in the House of Commons.

"This will be a fantastic occassion”, stated Jorge Martin, the international secretary of Hands Off Venezuela. "This visit by Hugo Chavez will bring Venezuela up the political agenda and give a tremendous boost to the solidarity campaign."

The Hands Off Venezuela Campaign will be in the forefront of promoting this visit. The visit coincides with the launch of the new colour HOV magazine, which will be energetically sold in particular throughout Chavez's stay.

During Chavez’s visit, Hands Off Venezuela will be organising a public meeting on Tuesday 16th May to celebrate the visit. We will also be holding a social/screening that evening at a nearby location.

"This visit must be the launch pad to push the campaign onto a higher level", says Rob Sewell of the HOV National Steering Committee. "We must seize this golden opportunity with both hands!"

Following on the successful resolutions supporting Venezuela at the National Union of Students and Scottish TUC conferences, other motions supporting the Venezuelan revolution, based upon the Hands Off Venezuela model resolution, are to be discussed at the conference of USDAW (the shopworkers’ union) in Blackpool, the Communication Workers Union in Bournemouth, and the College of lecturers’ union NATHFE, all of which are taking place in May.
For more information contact:

britain {[AT}] handsoffvenezuela.org