This book tour is happening in many places- come support the local Hartford date- January 27th, 7pm at Charter Oak Cultural Center (21 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford CT 06106). For more info email abbey.willis@charteroakcenter.org or call 860.249.1207. Listen to an interview with the author here.
Please re-post widely and wildly!
While Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues to capture headlines for his inflammatory remarks and controversial policies, a much larger story involving a wider cast of characters has gone largely ignored.
The perspectives and sentiments of Venezuela’s grassroots organizations and social movements participating in Chavez’s so-called Bolivarian Revolution have remained largely outside of the public eye.
In a pivotal new book, Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots (PM Press, $22.95, January 2010), authors Carlos Martinez, Michael Fox, and JoJo Farrell investigate the views and activities of these grassroots political activists through a collection of interviews.
Venezuela Speaks! highlights the stories of grassroots participants in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, and explores the relationship and tension between these social movements and the Chavez government.
These illuminating stories include the Indigenous University of Venezuela, a university that was created independently by five indigenous groups to make sure that their ancient knowledge would continue to be taught to their youth. One of the university’s rectors, Wadajaniyu, explains that the university was inspired by Venezuela’s new constitution passed in 1998 under President Chavez which placed a premium on the rights of indigenous peoples to developing their own education. Nonetheless, after nearly a decade in existence the university is still struggling to receive recognition by the government so that they can sustain its existence and growth.
Other stories include interviews with a founder of the Center for Women’s Studies, Alba Carosio, who discusses the gains and challenges for the women’s movement in Venezuela; members of the Afro-Venezuelan Network who talk about their myriad efforts to confront racism in a country that tends to ignore the topic of race altogether; and members of a campesino organization who explain their complex relationship with a government that has promoted land reform.
Co-authors Martinez, Fox, and Farrell have been intimately embedded with the social movements that they explore.
Carlos Martinez and JoJo Farrell both lived in Venezuela for two years, serving as program directors for human rights organization Global Exchange’s Venezuela Program, where they coordinated various educational delegations for people from the United States to learn about the realities of Venezuela’s political situation. Michael Fox is a journalist, reporter, and documentary film-maker who lived in Venezuela for three years and continues producing the weekly radio headlines on www.venezuelanalysis.com.
PM Press (www.pmpress.org) publishes lively books on progressive politics and current affairs.
CT-WSA hosted a stop in Hartford for the Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots book tour. Two of the three authors, Carlos Martinez and Michael Fox, as well as Yanahir Reyes who is directly involved with the women’s movement in Venezuela (she’s from Caracas) came and shared their stories. As well, the photographer for the book was able to come as well (she’s from Brazil).
The book is a series of interviews that the authors conducted with grassroots organizers in Venezuela. In mainstream media, we mainly hear about the Chavez government and what’s going on with that. We don’t really hear about the folks who are organizing from below, who advocate socialism from below. This book covers some of those folks, and it seems really awesome. The authors are pretty spot-on and extremely nice.
Yanahir was a fucking amazing speaker. She spoke in Spanish while Carlos translated for her. She asked us all questions about ourselves, our thoughts. She fucking ruled when she started talking about what the fuck the point of reproductive rights are when you can’t even afford them (BTW- abortion is illegal in Venezuela, as it is in most S. American countries). She brought a class-analysis to everything. She problematized rich feminists, while still acknowledging that they face gendered oppression, so I love her, of course. I hate when folks says things like “Who the fuck cares about rich women, or rich gay men or lesbians, etc…” We all face oppression on many fronts and I’m not about to start saying I don’t give a fuck about the sexism that rich women face, the violence they face. That doesn’t mean we can’t still center our analyses and struggles around the most marginalized women, of course. But thank god she said that. I love her.
Anyway, we talked a lot about union organizing, anarchist-specific organizations, as well as the tension organizers face when finding the need to be in support of their gov’t at times, but struggling against it at the same time. They call it “a movement within a movement.”
Yanahir also talked about the universities in Venezuela and how they’ve failed the people, for the most part. She said they don’t do much to help the people- to struggle against their oppressors.
After the talk we went out to a diner and had a fun time, talking, eating, laughing, etc… These folks were nice and they were funny and their politics seem solid.
Carlos will be at the San Fran Book Fair the 2nd weekend in March, and he’ll also be at the Left Forum in NYC at the end of March, if you want to try to catch up with him at either of those dealies.