contributions

British MP’s Establish “Friends of Venezuela” http://venezuelasolidarity.org.uk/ven/web/2006/labour_friends_venezuela.html
Next Tuesday, March 28th, the setting up of a group of Labour MP’s “Friends of Venezuela” will take place in the House of Commons in London.
A press release from the Venezuelan Embassy in London has indicated that the initial number of MP’s making up the group will be 102.
“This is an extremely unusual initiative which is testimony to the high level of support (…)

An interview with Orlando Chirino, National co-ordinator of the new Venezuelan workers union UNT
Orlando Chirino is the national coordinator of the new Venezuelan workers’ union UNT, a member of its classist trend, and also leader of the Committee to Promote the Construction of the Revolution and Socialism Party, which is currently being formed in Venezuela.
Franck Gaudichaud: A few weeks ago, the sixth World Social Forum (WSF) was concluded. A part of this polycentric WSF was held for (…)

The U.S. gulag prison system: Shame of the nation and crime against humanity
by Stephen Lendman
Photos: © Jacob Holdt 2004
No, not the gulag you think, outrageous as it is. I’m referring to the U.S. prison system that’s with no exaggeration about as shockingly abusive as the gulag abroad. It qualifies for that label by its size alone - more than 2.1 million as of June 2004 and growing larger by about 900 new inmates every week.
Blacks, mostly poor and disadvantaged, especially (…)

http://www.sfbayview.com/081804/band081804.shtml
There’s so much BS and baloney thrown around about Venezuela that I may be violating some rule of U.S. journalism by providing some facts. Let’s begin with this: 77 percent of Venezuela’s farmland is owned by 3 percent of the population, the ‘hacendados.’
I met one of these farmlords in Caracas at an anti-Chavez protest march. Oddest demonstration I’ve ever seen: frosted blondes in high heels clutching designer bags, screeching, “Chavez - (…)

http://www.sfbayview.com/092502/africanvenezuelans092502.shtml
by Professor Alejandro Correa and Professor Emeritus Willie Thompson
This month, for the first time in history, Venezuelan people of African descent have total control of their historic Black university, the Instituto Universitario Barlovento. They are already planning a university administered hotel and a restaurant for students, faculty and the community. This is an achievement of a lifetime, and the people of Barlovento (…)

www.sfbayview.com/020106/blacksally020106.shtml - 15k - 6 avr 2006 -
President Hugo Chavez salutes his people. He often speaks proudly of his African and Indigenous heritage and uses Venezuela’s oil wealth especially to uplift those who share his bloodlines. Like their cousins in the U.S., they have long been oppressed.
Sometimes it’s just hard to go against a guy when you know in your heart that he ain’t as bad as they say he is. So what should you have to say about Mr. Hugo Chavez: (…)

Connecticut latest state to accept Venezuelan oil
by Venezuelanalysis.com
This Little League team in Meriden, Connecticut, is sponsored by the East Main Street Citgo station. They were the 2000 playoff champs.
Residents of Connecticut become the latest northeasterners to receive discounted heating oil from the Venezuelan-owned oil company Citgo, after the state’s attorney general dismissed questions by the state governor that the program might be illegal.
Record crude oil prices (…)

The Vatican Connection: How the Roman Catholic Church Influences the Republican Party.
John M Swomley on how, in the 1996 elections Robert Dole’s endorsement of the Catholic political agenda, along with a similar endorsement by the Republican Party platform, made the Republican Party in effect a religious or sectarian party, how the Catholic bishops took action to aid the Republican Party and how Henry Hyde, in turn, according to the National Catholic Reporter, invited Catholics to help (…)

www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1697
Monday, Mar 27, 2006
By: Tim Anderson - Green Left Weekly In late 2005, while war raged in the Middle East and oil prices rose drastically, governments and oil companies repeated the “market forces” mantra, saying there was nothing they could do about oil prices. However, the Venezuelan government-owned US-based petrol distribution company Citgo (with eight refineries and 14,000 petrol stations across the US) decided to discount up to 10% (…)

April 7, 2006 Cutting and Running in Baghdad by Robert Dreyfuss and Tom Engelhardt Tom Dispatch http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=8818
It didn’t take long after the invasion of Iraq began in March 2003 for one of the radioactive words of the Vietnam era to make its first appearance, even if in stunted, referential form. Media pundits, former military men, and others began fretting, even as American soldiers advanced, about the "Q word." They were, of course, worrying about (…)