Palestinian support for revolution in Venezuela

On Thursday, 23 November 2006, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine organised a festival of solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution called “Festival of the Popular Front in Solidarity with Venezuela and its revolutionary leader Chavez” at the cultural centre of Almishal, in Gaza. During the activity comrade Ghazi Surani made a very important speech and statement.

We publish here the information of this activity of solidarity and the full text of the speech by Comrade Ghazi Surani and we apologise to the comrades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and to all our readers for this delay in the publication of this article. We had technical problems that prevented us from accessing one of our e-mail accounts and so we were unable to read this important correspondence.

We also renew our commitment and our constant readiness to publish the news of all the activities of solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution organized by left-wing parties and movements and workers’ and youth organisations in the Arab world.

“Sisters and brothers, comrades,

“From Palestine, the front line of the conflict with the Zionist enemy, we send our comradely greetings and sincere internationalist solidarity to the revolutionary leadership of Venezuela and its leader, comrade Hugo Chavez. During the days before his registration for the candidacy for the presidency, Chavez said he felt confident and proud that the "Bolivarian hurricane" will start. He has set a target for himself: to achieve ten million votes to ensure victory.

“When Chavez stood up in the United Nations General Assembly on 15/9/2005 to defy the USA and its allies, he said: ‘In only seven years of Bolivarian Revolution, the people of Venezuela can today be proud because of the social and economic achievements.’

“In order to help the poor masses with food and medicine 17 million Venezuelans – almost 70 percent of the population – receive healthcare. ‘They deliver more than 1,700,000 tons of food for more than 12 million people at reduced prices supported by the state, almost half of the people, a million of them receive that food completely free’.”

“These achievements are thanks to the revolutionary leadership in Venezuela because the economic approach adopted by the Chavez government, since reaching power in the late nineties, is to have the economy at the service of the people, rather than have the people at the service of the economy. This is the fundamental idea towards the abolition of the capitalist exploitation and it is the first step to socialism.

“This revolutionary approach would demolish the liberal capitalist model and will be a blow to the imperialist interests. Chavez and his government are well aware of this fact and realise that the fate of the country depends on the resistance against pressures, and Chavez and his comrades are men of principle as Castro once said. They are like the real gold, so it is not surprising that the revolution is advancing in Venezuela. Rather than collapsing, Chavez won, Bolivar held up, and the economy resisted. And the masses’ support for the Revolution increased.

“The credibility of Chavez and his revolutionary acts against the interests of imperialism and Zionism, in the service of the interests of the masses of poor workers and peasants, was undoubtedly one of the factors that have helped Chavez and his party to achieve a resounding victory in the referendum on 15/8/2004. And he will win the next presidential elections in December 2007-2013. In the meantime U.S. imperialism continues to exercise pressure on Latin American governments to help it to isolate the Venezuelan revolution, which is an example for the angry masses on the continent. Against the imperialist attacks, poor people stand with their revolutionary leadership. The true allies of the people of Venezuela are the oppressed workers and peasants of Latin America. They are always the only forces which can be relied upon to defend the Venezuelan revolution and any other revolution in this world. We in Palestine affirm our internationalist solidarity with Chavez and the revolution in Venezuela, which will continue announcing the collapse of imperialism and its stooges in South America and become a basis and an ally for the Palestinian revolution and the left-wing revolutionary movements in all the countries of the Third World.

“The defence of the Venezuelan revolution does not come through diplomacy, but through a revolutionary and internationalist policy. Its aim is the spreading of the revolution across Latin America and beyond, in Africa, Asia and all countries of the Arab world.

“The Venezuelan revolution is a national democratic revolution on the path to socialist revolution, and in this context, the so-called "democratic" bourgeoisie is only a fraud hiding behind it the dictatorship of capital with the leadership of the right-wing coalition led by bureaucratic agents and stooges of imperialism.

“Only the revolutionary movement of the masses has prevented the counter-revolution from achieving victory. Experience has shown that the only solid base that supports the revolution is the poor masses, especially the working class and peasants.

“Our sincere message from ourselves, the PFLP, to the leadership and workers in Venezuela is: trust only in your own forces! Trust only in the revolutionary movement of the masses! This is the only force that can sweep aside all obstacles and defeat counter-revolution and begin to take power in their hands. This is the only guarantee for victory. In this way, what is needed is a revolutionary programme based on scientific grounds, and there is no theory that can achieve this apart from Marxism and its party, the party of workers and poor peasants.

“The struggle for revolutionary democracy cannot win unless it becomes a struggle against the dictatorship of capital and its class collaboration. Therefore, in order to win the struggle for democracy, it should lead directly to the struggle for the seizure of power by the workers and poor peasants and for socialism. There is no ‘third way’.

“The future of the Bolivarian revolution will be determined, in the final analysis, by the degree of its spreading to the rest of Latin America and beyond. Che Guevara understood very much this idea when he said that the Cuban revolution could be protected only by creating "one Vietnam, two Vietnams or three or more". Here we see that Venezuela and other Latin American countries are on the path to achieve the Guevarian dream.

“The revolutionary movement has since been extended to other countries as we have seen with the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Lula in Brazil, and in Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Nepal and many countries of Asia, Africa. The Arab countries are not far from this revolutionary wave.

“The Bolivarian Movement will win, and move forward beyond the limits of bourgeois democratic revolution, and achieve socialist revolution. We in the PFLP reaffirm our confidence in the revolutionary leadership and in comrade President Chavez towards further progress on the path of socialist revolution in South America, which will be a beacon and a leadership and example for our comrades in the Popular Front and for all the Arab left-wing revolutionary fighters for national liberation, democracy and socialism in our country.

“Be aware that any blow to the Venezuelan revolution is a blow to all of us and that the steadfastness of the revolution and its victory is a victory for all the oppressed and all those who are struggling for freedom, progress and socialism.

“Long live the socialist revolution in Venezuela, which is invading all of Latin America today and threatens the interests of imperialism and the Zionist presence in our country.

“Long live the internationalist solidarity against the Zionist imperialist alliance in our country. The red flags of freedom and socialism will fly in our country the same manner that it is flying in Venezuela today. Guevara is not dead and will come back... Open the doors... Put up masts for the flags of the left that are flying high in Venezuela and Latin America, Asia and Africa announcing the beginning of the steps towards the defeat of imperialism and its Zionist ally and all the reactionary forces in our country.

“Long live the Popular Front, one of the left vanguards in the Arab world.

“Long live the socialist revolution in Latin America, the vanguard of internationalism in this era.”

Source: Arabic Hands Off Venezuela