They were putting up posters in Caracas city centre in solidarity with workers’ leader, Rubén González, indigenous leader, Sabino Romero, and Williams Sanguino, a student leader, all of whom have been imprisoned for defending their fundamental right to protest. They were picked up and taken to a “secure” area, where they were held for over one hour and a half under no charges, justified only by the allegation that they were ‘disseminating political propaganda in prohibited areas’, despite the fact that their posters had been placed in publicly visible places, where there were also other posters of various social, political and commercial organisations.
The comrades immediately contacted the various networks, organisations, movements and collectives which support the campaign, to alert them to the situation, and of the possibility of more serious such actions by the state forces.
All organisations contacted were put on alert and vigilantly monitored the situation, which ended with the 8 comrades being freed, after their details were recorded, with no justification given.
This action was nothing more than a test in repression and intimidation of the independent social, popular and revolutionary movements, who try to raise their voices in protest against what is taking place in the name of the “Bolivarian Revolution”, where the authorities have adopted force as a method of resolving social and political conflicts; criminalise social protest and arrest leading activists.
Of the eight comrades arrested, two – Johan Rivas and Joseph Alvarado – were members of Socialismo Revolucionario (CWI in Venezuela). We reject and repudiate every attempt at intimidation and repression against the popular and revolutionary movement.
We demand:
– The voice of the people and the working class will not be silenced! Repression and criminalisation of struggle is not socialism!
– Freedom for all prisoners from the social, popular and revolutionary movements, locked up for defending their rights!
– No more criminalisation of social protest!
– An end to the impunity of the bureaucrats! For democratic control of the judiciary!
– For the building of a revolutionary, democratic socialist alternative!
Thousands of secondary school students awaited A-level and GCSE results anxiously last month. Again it was another record-breaking year for Northern Ireland students who again improved on the previous years results. But even pupils who have achieved top grades will be forced to compete for the miniscule amount of university places on offer. This, and the fact that the education budget faces cuts of 25% this year, leaves tens of thousands of young people in the North without any access to education or a decent job.
The ‘Great Recession’ has already led to millions of jobs being lost across the world. According to the International Labor Organisation, in the US alone 7.2 million jobs have been lost in less than two years.
In an obituary of George Best, comrade Peter Hadden wrote “George Best composed poetry with his feet”. What a wonderful complement to a football genius from the working class streets of Belfast. And now Marie Jones and Martin Lynch have gone one further. They have “Besty” using those poetic feet dancing. And that soft Northern Irish accent singing in their unforgettable play “Dancing Shoes - The George Best Story”.
When 50,000 students marched through London on November 10 both the police and student union leaders were shocked at the scale of the mobilisation. This was, however, an indication of the depth of the anger at the Con-Dem coalition's savage cuts and a growing determination to fight back. PETER TAAFFE assesses the significance of this event and the potential to build an all-Britain movement against the government's plans in an article to be published in the December-January 2010/11 edition of Socialism Today.