BY JORGE JORQUERA
Venezuelan student leader Alvaro Guzman explained the revolutionary process underway in his country to hundreds of people at public meetings in Brisbane, Canberra, Newcastle, Wollongong and Sydney during the second week of his Australian speaking tour.
In Brisbane, Guzman spoke before 100 members of the local Chilean community and supporters at a meeting commemorating the 30th anniversary of the US-backed military coup against leftist Chilean President Salvador Allende.
On September 14, 65 people packed the Brisbane Activist Centre in Fortitude Valley to hear Guzman, who described explained the origins of the "Bolivarian revolution" and the social gains made by Venezuela's workers and peasants since Hugo Chavez became the country's president in 1998, including an increase in education funding from 3% to 4.8% of GDP, guaranteed drinkable water to regional areas where this was previously lacked, an increase of one million people who can now read and write due to a massive literacy campaign, a decrease in the infant mortality rate and land reform to redistribute land to the poor.
The meeting was picketed by a handful of right-wing Venezuelans who handed anti-Chavezista leaflets out and who fled after the organisers of the meeting invited them to participate.
The next day, Guzman spoke to a meeting of 40 people at the University of Queensland. Later that day, he addressed a meeting of students at Griffith University.
In Canberra, Guzman addressed a meeting of 40 people at the Australian National University on September 16. That evening, 50 people attended a public forum addressed by Guzman, which concluded with a performance by local singer/guitarist Jorge Borges.
Canberra Resistance organiser Stuart Munckton, who organised the Canberra leg of the tour, told Green Left Weekly that "it was really inspiring for activists in Canberra to meet a representative of a real life and death struggle against imperialism, and to learn from it".
While in Canberra, Guzman met with Greens Senator Kerry Nettle and office bearers from the ANU Students Association.
A highlight of Guzman's visit to Wollongong was the attendance of 55 students at an 8.30am voluntary meeting held at the Illawara Grammar School.
On September 19, Guzman spoke to 170 people at a public meeting held in the Sydney Trades Hall.
After speaking at Sydney campuses on September 20 and 21, Guzman will conclude his tour with a meeting in Perth on September 26.
From Green Left Weekly, September 24, 2003.
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