Vienna, May 12: Hugo Chávez to speak at ‘Hands off Venezuela and Cuba’ Rally!

President Chavez will be the major speaker at a Hands off Venezuela and Cuba event which will take place at the “Arena” in Vienna, Austria this Friday, May 12. The rally is set to start at 6.30pm. Together with Chavez, Alan Woods (founder of the international Hands Off Venezuela campaign), Ruben Linares (one of the national co-ordinators of the UNT, Venezuela) and Aleida Guevara (the daughter of Che Guevara) will be addressing the meeting. A number of high-ranking officials of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) will also be present. A total of 7,000 posters will be put up by our activists all over Austria, to advertise the meeting.

As Austria currently holds the presidency of the European Union, the rally will be of enormous international significance. Media from all over the world will be present. The EU has been pursuing an increasingly hostile foreign policy towards Cuba and has condemned last week’s measures by Evo Morales to take control of Bolivia’s hydrocarbon resources. It is no secret that Europe’s strategists of capital share Washington’s “concerns” about the swing to the left in one Latin American country after another. Because of this it is important to show that there is a different Europe as well – that ordinary working people and students support the cause of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Friday’s rally is the peak of a series of events that will take place this week. Ruben Linares of the UNT will speak at Hands Off Venezuela meetings in Linz (May 8), at a rally for trade unionists in Vienna (May 10), and in Graz (May 15). He is going to visit a number of factories, address a union conference, talk to leading trade union officials and speak to the international committee of the ÖGB. This could be a major step forward in the campaign for the recognition of the UNT by Austria’s trade union federation. Details about these and other events can be found at www.haendewegvonvenezuela.org.

In addition to this, the latest edition of the theoretical magazine Aufstand der Vernunft of Der Funke (the Marxist tendency in Austria and Germany) will be launched this week. It contains articles on the perspectives for the Bolivarian and the Cuban Revolutions, an answer to the sectarians’ allegations of Chávez’s “bonapartism”, an analysis of Venezuela’s cogestión, a balance sheet of workers’ self management in Yugoslavia, a critique of Heinz Dieterich’s views of socialism, an interview with Alan Woods on Venezuela and Cuba, as well as an article by Alan Woods on agrarian reform in Venezuela. It can be ordered via www.derfunke.at or www.derfunke.de.

May 8, 2006