Milwaukee Bolivarian Circle sponsoring delegation to people’s Venezuela

By Bryan G. Pfeifer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Daisy Bouman is excited about supporting the unfolding progressive developments in Venezuela.

Bouman, a Korean student majoring in Community Arts at Mount Mary College, has been working with the Milwaukee Bolivarian Circle (MBC) for about a year. She says the MBC, like many others in the United States and internationally, has its own flavor depending on geography and membership amid other factors but they all support the progressive activities in Venezuela and firmly oppose U.S. intervention.

The Circles are “to show solidarity with Venezuela, to educate people in the United States and to promote relationships between people of both countries,” says Bouman.

The MBC namesake Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) led the political liberation of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela from Spanish colonialism. Bolivar proclaimed the abolition of slavery and with the assistance of Haiti, Bolivar liberated Venezuela. His quest for social justice and the integration of the countries of the region is a foundational principle of the current Venezuela Republic.

The MBC has been in existence since January 2006 and its members are an eclectic grouping some newly involved in social justice issues and others that have been involved in Latin American and other international solidarity movements for decades.

MBC solidarity activities thus far have included educational forums and meeting with city officials such as Mr. Michael McGee Jr. regarding possible heating oil assistance from Venezuela for poor Milwaukeeans, possible cultural exchanges and more. Most recently, from Nov. 2-14 in various community locations the MBC sponsored the screening of three films, “Venezuela Bolivariana: People and Struggle of the Fourth World War,” “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” and “Turmoil,” on the revolutionary process in Venezuela.

The MBC’s current initiative is sponsoring a delegation to Carora, Venezuela Jan. 6-13, 2007. A major cultural center in Latin America, the MBC has proposed Carora as a sister city to Milwaukee. Members are working with interested Aldermen and women at the Milwaukee City Council along with progressive individuals and organizations to make this happen.

Bouman a 2007 delegation organizer and first time traveler to Venezuela, said youth and students are a particular focus and the Circle is looking for sponsors and/or donations to enable this constituency and low-income individuals to participate (See below for contact information).

Bolivarian revolution advances

In 1999 after Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was sworn in, a new constitution was drafted with the active participation of all sectors of the population of 27 million through a Constitutional Assembly and was overwhelmingly approved through a nationwide election. The Bolivarian Constitution is thoroughly progressive and establishes the rights of the Afro-Venezuelans, Indigenous, women, workers’ organizations, and all those who had been excluded previously, some for centuries. It is the legal framework for the Bolivarian revolution now taking place (www.venezuelaanalysis.com).

Chavez has been democratically elected four times since he first took office most recently receiving over 61 percent majority Dec. 3, his largest percentage yet.

“These elections are historic really. They decide for the next several years how things will go for the Bolivarian revolution,” says MBC member Erik Sperling who has been living and working in Carora and is now preparing logistics for the January delegation.

Attorney Mr. Henry Hamilton is a former judge and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) trial lawyer and serves on the NAACP’s Milwaukee branch executive board.

In the op-ed, “U.S. could learn from Venezuelan voting,” published in the Dec. 11 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hamilton describes his experiences in Venezuela.

“As an official international observer of the recent Venezuelan presidential election, I was impressed with the level of participatory democracy and integrity reflected in that country’s voting process…. I observed no evidence of fraud or illegality…. The express will of the Venezuelan voters was realized,” writes Hamilton who’s observed many U.S. elections as well.

Milwaukee Alderman Mr. Joe Davis and other Milwaukeeans also observed the Venezuelan elections.

Venezuela: A People’s Republic

The pre-Chavez Venezuelan governments were tied to United States imperialism through a vast network of finance capital and the military.

Chavez in contrast is a people’s leader says MBC member Babette Grunow. Despite the effects of over 500 years of neo/colonialism and the ongoing challenges arising from this, Chavez’s government is one “that really came together to bring the people to power-to really change people’s lives,” she says.

Grunow, a longtime progressive Milwaukee activist who’s worked in conjunction with the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission through its U.S. affiliate GHRC/USA, has had many friends injured and killed by U.S. supported and controlled Latin American governments.

In November 2004 Grunow traveled to Venezuela with a U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange delegation for a union-to-union federation meeting between AFL-CIO member unions and Union Nacionalde Trabahadores (UNT) member unions.

Grunow supports the Bolivarian Republic for many reasons but among the most important she says are the constitutional guarantees to the historically most disenfranchised and exploited: Afro-Venezueleans, the Indigenous, women and children.

The constitutional provisions such as language, land, literacy, education, healthcare, housing and women’s (economic, social and political) rights, show why there is such deep support for the Venezuelan revolutionary process among the historically most oppressed and exploited throughout Latin America says Grunow.

To concretely put these and many more progressive and revolutionary constitutional measures into practice Chavez and the National Assembly have spearheaded various economic and social programs such as “Misiones,” or Missions.

“The missions really are spectacular, they do a lot with what little they have,” says Grunow who describes the ongoing Venezuelan process “a peaceful revolution.”

‘Reaching the people’

“It’s amazing to see the programs they [Venezueleans] are doing from the grassroots level. The people are taking control of their lives to live and work with dignity,” says Mike “Slim” Helbick, a 2006 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Helbick and other initial MBC members were inspired to start the organization when they first visited Venezuela in August 2005 for the International Youth Festival. Bouman and Helbick will be staying in Venezuela until late spring 2007 and will be working with the MBC from there.

Prior to attending the progressive World Social Forum in Caracas in January 2006 Helbick toured various cities including Barquisimeto and Carora in Lara State in Venezuela for about two weeks with Venezuelan Chicago-based Consulate Omar Sierra.

Sierra has spoken at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and met with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the Milwaukee Common Council regarding diplomatic relations such as the sister city relationship and heating oil assistance. Sierra and other Venezuelan officials have also toured the Dr. Martin Luther King health clinic in Milwaukee with city officials.

Helbick is a believer and active supporter of the Bolivarian revolutionary process. He looks forward to seeing the progress of the community clinics and numerous other projects such as a tourism cooperative run by neighborhood members many initiated, organized and led by women and people of color. He’s quick to point out, that unlike countries controlled by U.S. corporations and military, these projects are not sweatshops-everyone is paid a living wage, has adequate working conditions and is treated with dignity and respect. Many larger industrial and manufacturing plants in the Republic are now worker-run and/or unionized or progressing towards this goal.

As Helbick walked through Carora he also became aware of the vibrant community radio imbued with grassroots community, national and international news as well as rich cultural programming. The Bolivarian Constitution specifies that a certain percentage of a given medium’s content must be dedicated to Afro-Venezuelans, the Indigenous, women and others historically disenfranchised in Venezuela.

The radio medium is bolstered by the joint regional effort of Telesur satellite TV launched in 2005. Telesur’s programming is geared to a non-imperialist world-view and its staff is representative and responsible to the region’s inhabitants. In the April 2002 attempted coup of Chavez his opposition, made up primarily of large landowners and industrial capitalists tied intimately to U.S. capitalists/imperialists, used their privately owned media to disseminate lies and sow confusion often in racist terms as Chavez’ ancestry is Afro-Venezuelan and Indigenous.

Helbick, similar to many from the U.S. who’ve traveled there, is particularly impressed with Mission Barrio Adentro (“Inside the Neighborhood”) where Cuban doctors in neighborhood clinics facilitate, develop and provide healthcare free of charge. The Cubans work in dual-level buildings with a clinic on the first floor and their living quarters on the second floor. Many easily preventable diseases and health conditions that used to kill or severely disable for life thousands of poor Venezuelans annually because of a lack of access to health facilities or the cost was too high are now receiving free treatment and medications.

Under a bilateral agreement with Cuba, the original advance team of 58 Cuban doctors in the barrios of Caracas in April 2003 to initiate Mission Adentro, has now grown to over 18,000 Cuban doctors, dentists, nurses, optometrists and other technicians who work with thousands of Venezuelan healthcare students and professionals throughout Venezuela.

The literacy program Mission Robinson, established with the aid of Cuba’s literacy program Yo Si Puedo (Yes, I can), has wiped out illiteracy in Venezuela in just a few years. Similar to Cuba, the Bolivarian Republic has been declared illiteracy free by the United Nations and other international bodies.

Another program in progress is Operation Miracle where poor people from around the world will be able to travel to Venezuela for free eye surgeries for cataract removal and other operations performed by Cuban optometrists.

Helbick says these initiatives are “a quick and effective way to reach the people,” and are “paving the way for permanent social and economic justice” in Venezuela.

Oil for the people!

Venezuela, under Chavez’ leadership, is now using its power as a nation with the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves to engage in mutually beneficial trade agreements with other nations that have commodities or human resources it might need. Pre-Chavez oil profits went to enrich only the wealthy. Venezuela is the United States’ fourth largest oil supplier, supplying about 15 percent of this nation’s oil imports as well as its second largest trading partner in this hemisphere.

According to the progressive New York-based International Action Center, in its fact sheet, “What the people of the U.S. should know about Venezuela,” many of these types of agreements such as the Missions between Venezuela, Cuba and other Latin American countries are being made possible through ALBA, or the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a trade policy based on regional integration and cooperation. Other similar agreements and trade proposals are in progress with an array of African nations, China, Iran, Russia and others.

This and other progressive trade measures and actions by Venezuela are in direct opposition to the FTAA or the U.S. Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. This trade policy is where the IMF, World Bank and other imperialist finance capital institutions formulate how to plunder Latin American countries human and material wealth in exchange for wrenching living conditions and poverty for the majority of the region’s inhabitants. Many progressives view FTAA as a modern day Monroe Doctrine.

In the U.S. perhaps the most well known gesture of international solidarity with low-income people is Venezuela’s heating oil assistance program through PDVSA/CITGO, the Bolivarian Republic’s national oil company. Venezuela has committed that at least 10 percent of CITGO’s oil profits will be put toward assisting the poor internationally with a significant portion of its remaining profits going to subsidize programs like the Missions inside the Republic.

According to the CITGO pamphlet “From the Venezuelan Heart to the U.S. Hearths: The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program 2005-2006,” in the United States various discounted heating oil programs, have now helped181,000 families/households in eight states. Over 40 million gallons of oil since November 2005 have been distributed including to hundreds of homeless shelters serving thousands of residents as well as various Native Nations.

“Until this program came along, I was using my gas stove and oven to heat my house. The fuel oil I’ll get through CITGO and Catholic Charities will be a big savings. It’ll tide me over for the rest of the winter. I can buy food without worrying about how I’m going to pay other bills. I’ve been living here since 1972 and this was the first time someone offered me some real help. I really appreciated being with people who listened and then came through,” said Lena Gaines, an African American elder living in Wilmington, Delaware regarding her heating oil assistance from CITGO (‘….’Heart to Hearths….’).

International solidarity needed

The MBC stresses that the Venezuelan revolutionary process, despite its accomplishments and support thus far, is still in its early stages and needs active support and assistance internationally particularly from those in the United States.

The U.S. government and multinational corporations, most starkly represented by its actions in the attempted 2002 coup of Chavez and 2003 PDVSA/CITGO bosses’ lock out, would like nothing better than return Venezuela to a neo-colony with the rich in control.

The MBC with the January 2007 delegation looks forward to building support for the Bolivarian revolution, extending a hand of solidarity to their Venezuelan sisters and brothers and continuing their internationalism in the U.S. upon their return.

Says Bouman, “The Bolivarian revolution represents a beacon of hope for the world, particularly the poor. We look forward to visiting, bringing back information and building support for a nation that is proving every day that we can have a world of dignity and respect and that is free of poverty and misery.”

The cost of the eight-day delegation is $400 USD. The delegation fee covers all set-up, preparation, meals lodging, interpreters and transportation within Venezuela. This fee doesn’t cover airfare which is approximately $600-800 USD. For more information call 414.702.2440 or 414.447.8369 and/or email: mkecircle (at) gmail.com.

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© 2006 Bryan G. Pfeifer. Article may be reprinted in part or in whole provided full attribution is given to author.

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