Peter Rafael, Brisbane

“The essence of the revolution is humanity — how can you oppose a process that has allowed 20,000 people to see their first sunrise; that has allowed a 70-year-old woman to write her name for the first time?”, Paul Benedek, a participant in the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade, told a packed audience at the Brisbane Activist Centre on September 14. The meeting heard from several activists recently returned from Venezuela.

Hospital worker Dominic Natoli described the stark contrast between the increasingly money-based First World health system he sees daily, and the radical new people-based health care he witnessed in Venezuela. “In Australia, the health budget is a fixed amount, while in Venezuela, the health budget is whatever the population’s needs are. The key health program is Barrio Adentro that is getting health care to the poor areas where previously medical care could not be accessed. Barrio Adentro has now treated 17 million people — two-thirds of the population — with the assistance of almost 30,000 Cuban doctors and health specialists.”

University of Queensland student and Resistance activist Josa Rubbra described her amazement at Venezuela’s new, completely free, education system. Rubbra met an indigenous community near the Brazilian border which, having gone through Mission Robinson to gain full literacy, “was becoming empowered, and wanted more education resources as soon as possible”.

“Education is the base of the revolution and it is a broader education, which gives everyone an understanding of how they fit into society, and how they can help build a better world.”

Union activist and Socialist Alliance member Andrew Martin spoke of the revolution in workers’ rights. He described the expropriation of factories that have been closed down by business owners, and their reopening under the control of workers. Martin, who visited the state-controlled oil company PDVSA, told of the desperate 71-day-long battle between a corrupt management and privileged workers, backed by US interests, and lower level workers and the Venezuelan people, over control of the oil industry. The people’s victory means that “the wealth can finally be put toward the amazing social programs that benefit the entire country”.

Benedek urged solidarity with the Venezuelan revolution. “Every progressive person who looks in despair at Iraq or New Orleans and knows their has to be a better way, can see in Venezuela that there is a better way, it’s happening in practice, and its an inspiration for humanity.”

From Green Left Weekly, September 21, 2005.
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