Socialism and voluntary labour

Source: Venezuela: Translating the Revolution blog, 20 July 2011.

The following is an article from the Socialist Debate website about the role of voluntary labour in Venezuela's housing construction program, Mision Vivienda, launched in April this year to address the shortage of housing in Venezuela. It discusses the significance of voluntary labour in the transition to socialism.

Welcome socialism
By Neftali Reyes, Debate socialista
Translated by Owen Richards,

Practice has had the last word: this process is headed for socialism. The facts have already appeared on the social horizon. Reality has outstripped the Byzantine discussions of the philosophical pretenders who deny our socialism. They have their refutation from within the bowels of life itself.


An historic event has occurred in Venezuela: the oil workers were summoned to Voluntary Collective Labour in Mision Vivienda and arrived en masse. And the number exceeded fifteen thousand.


Voluntary Labour, where the worker goes off to work motivated by altruism, and committed to the society to which they belong and in which they feel wanted, is giving labour a new meaning: it is liberating it, experimenting with it, and prefiguring free labour. It is now done without the compulsion of survival.


Voluntary Labour is the “sharp tool” that must be used to build Socialism. It radiates to all of society the new ethics of the loving relations, and through it the working class leads the revolutionary process.


The massive surge of oil workers to Voluntary Labour means that the conditions for the flourishing of socialism exist in Venezuela. It’s indicative of the class struggle that socialism unleashes on the old world, against capitalism, a system that hangs on in a thousand ways. It unequivocally indicates that the Socialist battle takes place here in our midst, even though we sometimes misunderstand it.


Without a doubt, the Bolivarian Revolution has created conditions to build socialism as never before in our history. Socialism can arise in Venezuela because it expands and reinforces the state-administered Social Property. This form of property enables the fruits of labour to be the property of society as a whole, constituting itself thus as the basis of the Consciousness of Social Duty.


The workers become more and more aware of their power and their historical role, a role that goes beyond merely making demands; they’re committed to showing the way to the new world. This is the material basis for the advance of the process.


Furthermore, the government, political power, is in the hands of the Revolution, embodied in president Chavez. The call to socialism, to anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism that came down from the high command, unleashed the contradictions that generate movement and make the way toward socialism possible.


After years of struggle, favorable factors converge: Social Property administered by the state; a working class that is conscious of it historical role; Popular Power lead by Chavez – the most important Venezuelan revolutionary of the last hundred years in loving harmony with the masses; the Housing Mission as the auspicious setting for demonstrating the power of voluntary labour.


Centuries of hope, hope in the possibility of greatness, hope that we can defeat the deadening mediocrity, finds its concretion here. We are privileged: socialism is almost within our reach.


There’s no excuse to get lost in shortcuts or to use blunt instruments. We must have faith, break with custom, and follow the example set by the oil workers.


This is Socialism. Now we must pass beyond adversities, deepening socialism, nurturing it and extending it.


The country needed its best sons, and more than fifteen thousand patriots from within the heart of the oil industry stepped forward. The march to Socialism, which is the attempt to build a viable society, needed real action to demonstrate that humanity is able to surpass egoistic behaviour and to wholeheartedly build that other world that the Liberator dreamed of. The oil workers stepped forward and said, “present”.


Now they are the example and the promise, showing the way, they are the evidence that Socialism is more than a utopia; it’s a reality that’s taking shape before our very eyes.


They were called to Voluntary Collective Labour, invited to give of themselves to the Mision Vivienda, they gave themselves to society, to its Revolutionary Government, generously offering their most valuable possession: their labour power. And they came, without asking for explanations, and without hesitating, more than fifteen thousand good souls with a will to commit themselves to the future.


This act, which not by chance passes almost unnoticed, is one of the most important things that have taken place in the Bolivarian Revolution, placing it in a new dimension on the path.


Labour, always appropriated by the ruling classes, acquires with the gesture of these oil workers the condition of being an instrument of liberation, it’s the harbinger of a new world where exploitation - which is nothing but the appropriation of social labour on behalf of a minority - is overcome through the establishment of loving relations for the benefit of all.


What took place in Mision Vivienda with the Voluntary Collective Labour foreshadows the emancipation of labour, when labour will belong to society, to everyone.


The material and social foundations upon which to build a society where “to each according to his ability, to each according to his need” are established. In that world, exploitation, the appropriation of labour, robbery, will no longer be possible. It will no longer make sense. That is True Socialism.


Beyond the will of its protagonists, Mision Vivienda exposes the Revolution’s basic contradiction: the confrontation between capitalism and Socialism.


The capitalists, the anti-social, put a high price on their “collaboration”, they expect payment in cash, and, most harmfully, they do so with an egoistic consciousness.


Voluntary Labour is a socialist tool. It approaches the problem of housing with moral and spiritual vigour. By the end, we will have housing, but more importantly, we will have a conscious mass, a mass able to understand and confront the challenges along the road to Socialism. They will be a symbol of that which we struggle for. And an active, conscious vanguard will have formed, that has proved its effectiveness, its loyalty to Comandante Chavez, willing to step forward when called upon.


The challenge of the oil workers is great: now they have the responsibility to show the way, to guide the rest of society in the building of Socialism.


Let the gesture that these pioneers made be known throughout the country and around the world. Let their selflessness and their understanding of the historic moment be known.


The spirit of our nation’s heroes, of the Paso de Los Andes, of Carabobo, is embodied in this gesture of the workers. They are a prelude, a good omen of the successes we will have in the coming battles.


May society reward them, returning love for the love that they gave to all of humanity.

[For more information on Mision Vivienda, see: Venezuelanalysis.com]

Cuba's anti-malaria program in Ghana

Cuban Anti-Malaria Program Brings Positive Results in Ghana
Source: Prensa Latina, 07 July 2011

Efforts by specialists from the Cuban laboratory and pharmaceutical company Labiofam have reduced the rate of malaria by 75 percent in this capital, according to the Labiofam director.

Ghanaian Health Ministry authorities termed very positive the work carried out in this country by 22 Cuban cooperation workers from that institution, Labiofam director Jose Antonio Fraga told Prensa Latina.

Before leaving for the Republic of Congo, Fraga also stated that the objective of his stay in Ghana was to work with local authorities to assess the state of the Cuban anti-malaria program.

"We also discussed the possibility of expanding the plan nationwide," Fraga noted.

Fraga and his accompanying delegation met with Ghana Health Minister Joseph Yieleh Chireh and other officials to discuss the development and difficulties of the anti-malaria plan, the control of vector-borne diseases, and other issues. In the Republic of Congo, the Labiofam delegation will meet with a group of World Health Organization directors for Africa.

President Mills meets Cuban doctors in the Castle Gardens, June 2010.

President acclaims Cuban Medical Brigade for excellent job
Source: Ghana News Agency (GNA), 10 June 2010.

President John Atta Mills on Friday expressed appreciation to the Cuban Medical Brigade for their invaluable services to deprived communities.

He appealed to the Ghanaians doctors who were unwilling to serve in needy communities for various reasons to take a cue from their Cuban counterparts. He said the Cuban example was a demonstration of deep love for the people, and that should make an impression on Ghanaian health professionals to accept postings to the interior parts of the nation.

President Mills gave the commendation during an interaction with the a delegation of the Cuban Medical Brigade, Labiofam Entrepreneurial Group and Cubans lecturing Spanish at the University of Ghana and the Ghana Institute of Languages at the Osu Castle. Labiofam Group is engaged in a mosquito and malaria control programme in the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions on pilot basis.

President Mills commended the large presence of the Cuban medical doctors, saying: “Your dedication and commitment to duty impresses me most.” He said Cuba had been a friend to Ghana for years. President Mills promised that his Administration would strengthen the already strong relations between the two nations during his term of office. “Whatever challenges you face, we’ll sit down and look at them, so that we’ll able to remove the impediments for the success of your operations,” President Mills said. Dr Miguel Perez Cruz, Cuban Ambassador, announced that his country was prepared to increase the number of Cuban doctors from 200 to 250. He said steps were being taken for the construction of a factory for biolarvacide in Tamale.

Dr Cruz said a total of 1,179 Ghanaian students had graduated from Cuba at different levels of education, including 540 at the university level and 630 as technicians. In the present academic 33 Ghanaian students are studying medicine, 13 in other universities, and three at the International Sports School. Dr Phillipe Delgado, Leader of the Brigade, said the only problem the members faced in their assignments was that they miss their families back home.

Venezuela’s Chavez increases funding for social programs

Source: Correo del Orinoco International, 29 April 2011.

Taking advantage of an international rise in oil prices spurred by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, President Hugo Chavez signed a new decree last Thursday that will direct a greater portion of state revenues to a range of social programs designed to improve living standards for the Venezuelan people. The decree, announced by the President during the television show La Hojilla, modifies current legislation, known as a Windfall Tax, that dedicates money generated from elevated oil prices to social welfare programs in areas such as housing, education, and employment benefits.

Previously, when the price of oil reached between $70 and $100 per barrel on the international market, 50 percent of the price difference was funneled to the government’s National Development Fund (Fonden) to be put to use for social projects. With the new law signed last week, 80 percent of the price difference between $70 and $90 per barrel will now be destined to Fonden, translating into more concrete benefits for residents of the OPEC nation. Ninety percent of the difference will likewise be handed over to social programs when the price rests between $90 and $100 and anytime the price reaches over $100, a full 95 percent of the revenue difference will be deposited in the nation’s development fund.

Last week, the price of Venezuelan crude reached more than $108, the highest level since August 2008. In 2011, the Venezuelan government formulated its budget with the price of oil calculated at $40. With the recent spike in prices, the average price for 2012 is now just under $95 per barrel. “This is a law that creates a new mechanism so that the people receive much more. It also brings us to terms with the reality of the exorbitant oil prices”, Chavez said of the new decree during a call to La Hojilla.

OIL FOR PEOPLE, NOT PROFITS
Venezuela, the fifth largest producer of crude in the world, exports some 2.5 million barrels a day and counts on the revenue generated from the oil industry for the majority of national income. Since Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999, the government has been using this wealth, traditionally concentrated in the hands of an elite minority, to fund anti-poverty and educational initiatives as well as a vast array of other social programs, known as missions.

Through these missions, the government has been able to reduce poverty by more than half over the past 12 years. Similarly, the Chavez administration has been responsible for eliminating illiteracy in the country, providing free health care to all residents, increasing university enrollment to one of the highest rates in the world, guaranteeing the availability of affordable food staples, and slashing unemployment rates. The new law, signed last week, will ensure that this trend of redistributing the nation’s oil wealth continues, Chavez affirmed, as billions of dollars will be directed towards social spending. Housing, food sovereignty initiatives and an increase in the nation’s minimum wage will form part of the costs that willbe covered by the higher oil revenues.

SOLVING HOUSING
In addition to the signing of the new decree, on Thursday night, the Venezuelan head of state also reported that he has approved 422.8 million bolivars ($98.3 million) for housing construction across the country. Chavez also announced that the launching of the government’s new program, Mission Housing, will take place on April 30th. The new “Mega Mission” plans to construct 2 million affordable homes in the country by 2017.

1.3m Latin Americans treated under Mision Milagro (Operation Miracle)

Operation Miracle Benefitted 496,000 Venezuelans
Source: Prensa Latina, 23 May 2011.

A total of 496,071 Venezuelans have benefited in seven years with the Operation Miracle, implemented in that country to treat visual impairment, said Monday the coordinator of the Ophthalmology Center in the department of Vargas, Carlos Padilla.

Padilla explained to Venezolana de Television that the social program was born on 8 July 2004 as a result of an agreement between the governments of Venezuela and Cuba for ensuring free eye treatment to low-income persons.

The initiative was formalized a year later, on August 21, 2005, through the Sandino Commitment, signed in the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, between the Venezuelan and Cuban presidents, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, respectively.

In December of that year, the program expanded to other countries in Latin America and since then more than 1,324,000 patients from 12 Latin American countries have been treated, said Padilla.

According to the report of Padilla, out-patient consultations exceeded 15,539,000 up to 2011 and more than 21 million eyeglasses were provided.

From the Caracazo to the Bolivarian Revolution

Maria and Sam McGill, Venezuela correspondent for Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI), chart the development of Venezuela from the Caracazo in 1989 to the victory of Chavez in the 2003 referendum.

written for RATB, 23 May 2011.

The Caracazo [1]
The Caracazo (Caracas explosion) which occurred 21 years ago was the start of the Bolivarian Revolution. It happened due to the people's dissatisfaction and frustration with the overnight rise in the cost of transportation and in the deterioration of life, especially among the poorer people during the crisis created by the fall in the oil prices in 1989.

The resulting repression cost the lives of thousands of Venezuelans and thousand were injured. The repression was carried out by the governmental forces especially in the poorer parts of the capital. On 27 February there was a popular fight. It was the clamour and desperation of repressed people who displayed slogans like: ‘there are no sold people here’ and ‘street democracy is developed’.

It all started in Guarenas city, a suburb of Caracas, but it spread quickly across the capital, because a package of measures was introduced, that beheld the liberalisation of prices that generated a very abrupt readjustment for people on lower incomes.

This was a popular fight and it changed the way of thinking of people that were extremely fed up with 40 years of Neoliberal governments. Poor people came down from the hills and as a spontaneous response to such grave economic crisis, the suppressed fury exploded. The men and the women that today form the Bolivarian revolution woke up. Blood scattered can not be forgotten and this work up the people’s conscience. February 27^th was the day of former President Carlos Andres Perez’s massacre. The biggest genocide in Venezuela in the 20^th century. After three days of violence and ransacking, the managerial firms sent the army to the streets to repress the people with the order to shoot to kill.

After the Caracazo
What happened to the dead and the missing during the Caracazo? According to official figures given, there were 276 dead, several injured, a few missing and many material losses. These figures were discredited with the discovery of mass graves. Most of the deaths were due to indiscriminate shooting carried out by Venezuelan state police. There was hiding and destruction of evidence as well as the use of institutional mechanisms to assure immunity for the murderous police.

During the incidents of February and March 1989, the State used High Executive powers to proceed with the burial of unidentified people in mass graves located in the sector called The Pest, in Cementerio General del Sur Caracas (the General Cemetery of South Caracas), an infringement of legal and administrative procedures. Civil servants denied the existence of such graves.

On 23 October 1990, COFAVIC, a human rights group, and other people reported to the Public Ministry about supposed irregular burials of non-identified corpses in the Cementerio del Sur, between 27 February 1989 and 15 October 1990. This matter was referred to the 10^th Penal Court of First Instance [High Court – ed.] under the Law for the Safeguard of Public Patrimony for the judicial circumscription [denominated geographic area] of the metropolitan area of Caracas. An investigation was started on 30 October 1990. On 5 November judicial inspections of the cemetery were carried out to determine if there were any irregularities.

It was claimed that there was no evidence in the record books of people buried in the northern Sector 6 of the Cementerio del Sur, from the massacres of 27 February 1989. Later on, the same court ordered the exhumation of corpses from the Cementerio del Sur, which started on 30 November 1990 under the direction of a multidisciplinary team of the General Division of Medicine.

On 28 November, news of the disappeared people was released o the general public, based on the exhumation of several corpses. 68 corpses were of people whose deaths occurred between February and March 1989. 64 corpses were identified and returned to their families.

By 1991 the process of corpse exhumation was stopped. In 1997, the same Penal Court of First Instance decided to have the investigation re-opened until all the perpetrators and killers were identified.

Since 1989 there have been several ‘investigations’, from the homicides to the irregular burials of corpses. Investigation involved questioning of various members of the public, army and NGOs and in some cases by investigations carried out by instruction organisms. The penal investigations were kept secret and the victims families were never allowed access to them. Today there are still 437 cases open and these are still at the preliminary phase.

Venezuela to increase minimum wage

Venezuela: President Chavez announces 25% increase in minimum wage
Source: Correo del Orinoco International, No 61, April 29, 2011.

An additional 45% increase was announced for those working in the public sector at all different pay grades and levels, marking the first increase for public servants earning above minimum wage since 2008.

In celebration of International Workers’ Day on May 1st, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced last Monday that residents earning the nation’s monthly minimum wage of 1,224 bolivars ($284) will soon see a 25 percent increase in their salary as well as other, non-monetary benefits designed to further enhance living standards for the population.

“For the twelfth consecutive time, we are announcing a salary increase. Here, we aren’t going around cutting wages or pensions” like in other countries, Chavez said during a Ministerial Cabinet meeting that took place in the presidential palace of Miraflores. The raise will be divided into two stages. The first hike, of 15 percent, will be made effective as of May 1st and the second, of 10 percent, will be allocated to workers beginning in September.

As a result of the raise, the total monthly minimum of those working in Venezuela will now be set at 1,548 bolivars ($360), one of the highest in Latin America.

PENSIONS & STIPENDS INCLUDED
According to the Venezuelan head of state, the measure will also increase incomes for more than 2 million pensioners and will benefit nearly 350 thousand state workers currently earning the minimum wage. Also benefiting from the measure will be nearly 100 thousand economically disadvantaged women who are granted 80 percent of the minimum wage salary through the government program Madres del Barrio or Mothers of the Shantytowns.

The program, first started in 2006 by presidential decree, “is directed towards all women who perform house work and have dependents (children, parents or other family members) whose families do not receive an income or whose income is less than the cost of the basic food basket”, a government website states.

“Taking into account that house work should be compensated”, the site continues, “Madres del Barrio recognizes the value of the labor that women carry out in the domestic realm”.

FOOD BENEFITS
In addition to the monetary increase, other benefits including food tickets used in the nation’s grocery stores in order to guarantee the affordability of basic staples will be added to the wage hike. Venezuela’s Food Law now mandates that all private companies provide their workers, irrespective of the number of employees, a basic food ticket package. Previous food ticket measures exempted employers with less than 20 workers from providing the additional benefit.

More than 5.7 billion bolivars ($1.32 billion) of state money has been allocated for the new increases as vacations and a yearly three month salary bonus, Chavez affirmed, will continue to be effective for all state employees. “We’ve been working a lot, calculating figures and looking for a way to sustain our decisions from the point of view of incomes and how to responsibly continue to raise the living standards for our working families”, Chavez said.

During the Ministerial Cabinet meeting on Monday, Labor Minister, Maria Cristina Iglesia, reminded the public that the raise in the minimum wage is effective for all sectors of the Venezuelan economy. “The minimum wage is obligatory. No active worker can earn less than this salary in the public or the private sector and no pensioner can earn less that the legally established minimum wage. Workers must demand compliance with this measure”, she said.

PUBLIC SECTOR
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan President also met with workers in a major event celebrating workers’ advances during the Bolivarian Revolution. During the mass act, Chavez announced an additional 45 percent increase for public service workers at all pay grades, a step not made since 2008. “The increase on the pay scale is 45 percent. This raise I’m announcing is for all pay grades, 45% above the current salary level. This is justice, and this will contribute to creating more consciousness and will help provide more resources for the country and for our families”, exclaimed the Venezuelan head of state.

DIGNIFIED HOUSING
Also during the Cabinet meeting, President Chavez officially signed off on the delivery of 46 new housing units for residents left homeless after torrential rains flooded parts of the country late last year. “It’s very beautiful what’s happening. We’re taking steps in the direction that we set for ourselves in December. We’ve told refugees that they will leave the shelters and will be given houses, dignified houses. We set a goal and we’re achieving it”, the head of state said. The apartments form part of a new building built by the Caracas Metro located downtown in the capital city.

The beneficiaries of the apartments had been taking shelter in the presidential palace of Miraflores since December when Chavez ordered the opening of his residence to the displaced. According to Haiman El Troudi, president of the state owned Caracas Metro company, many refugees with construction experience worked to make the new building, called the Three Roots, a reality. El Troudi informed that in addition to the construction, many refugees who organized themselves in Socially Productive Units with government assistance, worked on the 250 wooden doors that were installed in the new building.

Many of these workers will continue to have employment opportunities as the government ramps up its housing construction efforts, the Metro president said. Providing affordable housing to refugees and the public at large, Chavez reminded the viewing public last Monday, will continue to be a foremost priority of his government as it seeks to build 2 million new homes by 2017.

With respect to costs, the majority of homes will be subsidized by the state. “Those families that receive housing and have an income less than the minimum wage will have a subsidy of up to 100 percent the cost of the home. If the family possesses an income equivalent to the minimum wage, they will pay 20 percent of the homes and if the family has an income twice that of the minimum wage, they will need to pay 50% [the cost of the home]”, Chavez specified.

The Venezuelan President also renewed his call to turn housing complexes into economically viable production centers with employment and education opportunities for residents. “We have to remember that it’s a commitment and that the construction of socio-productive spaces is very important. It’s from there that people can work in textiles, food and other productive activities for the benefit of all of us”, he stated.

Mission Milagro

The miracle of sight
by Edward Ellis, 30 July 2010.
Source: Correo del Orinoco International.

The Venezuelan and Cuban health care program, which performs free eye surgery for people around Latin America has treated over 1 million patients since 2004, according to data released by the Venezuelan government earlier this month.

The social program, known as Mission Miracle, is one of the many agreements signed between Cuba and Venezuela in the area of health care. Completely free of charge, the program provides vision related surgery to low-income individuals who would otherwise not have the fi nancial resources for these operations. “Providing medical attention is a very important act”, said Noris Villalonga, Coordinator of Mission Miracle in the Venezuelan states of Lara, Yaracuy, and Portuguesa. “I think the value of providing the people with excellent care where there is quality and humanity is immeasurable”.

MORE THAN ONE MILLION TREATED
According to offi cial statistics, the exact number of patients treated by the mission has reached 1,139,798 with an average of 5,000 operations occuring on a weekly basis in 74 medical centers around Venezuela. “We travel all over our assigned regions to make diagnoses, so that underserved populations receive this attention becuase the costs of eye surgery are very high and there are people that don’t have the resources”, explained Villalonga.

In the first four months of 2010, the Mission has helped 101,112 people recover or repair their vision. The majority of problems treated by the program include pterygium, cataracts, strabismus, retinopathies, glaucoma, myopia, ptosis, and diffi culties in the cornea.

HEALTH CARE FOR HUMANITY
Although the vast majority of surgeries are performed on Venezuelans, residents from other Latin American nations have also benefi ted from the program.

This year, 3,398 operations have been performed on non-Venezuelans. Lida Segura is one of the 5,733 Ecuadorans who has been attended by the mission since 2005. Segura recently received an operation in the state of Lara and spoke about the difference that it will make in her life. “I’m 82 years old and I haven’t been seeing well for some 4 years now in either of my eyes. When I can see well, I will go out again and for this I am really happy. Now I can already see clearer thanks to the operation”, she said. “This has never happened… None of the earlier presidents cared about us, they only denied us assistance”, indicated Segura, thanking Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the chance to receive the free medical assistance.

Another Ecuadoran patient, Frenda Villasilva, commented on the quality of care and the significance that improved eyesight will have for her. “I have been treated better than in my own home. I’m 65 years old and you can imagine what it means to be able to see well at this age. To have 20-20 vision is to be practically reborn”, she exclaimed. Residents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay have all benefited from the free operations.

Last week, the Venezuelan National Assembly approved a law laying the groundwork for the program to reach the residents of El Salvador. Salvadoran doctors will evaluate eye-related illnesses and select patients who will then receive treatment in Venezuela.


During its initial phase, Mission Milagro was based in Cuba where 204,000 Venezuelans in need of care were sent for surguries. Venezuela is now the site of the operations where Cuban and Venezuelan doctors work side by side. Of the over 900,000 operations that have been carried out in Venezuela, 570,902 have been performed by Cubans and another 368,643 has been performed by Venezuelans.

“I am a doctor and a health promoter”, declared Coordinator Villalonga. “For me it’s a great responsibility that I must assume with dignity. Health cannot be played with. And to be able to receive such a great number of our Latin American brothers and sisters is the most amazing thing because it integrates us more as a region”.

Cuban nurses arrive in Jamaica

Source: Jamaica Gleaner, 14 January 2011.

In an attempt to stem the critical shortage of nurses in Jamaica, 35 nurses are now in the island from Cuba to begin working in the public health sector. According to the Ministry of Health, the nurses will be deployed to facilities across all four health regions. Health Minister Rudyard Spencer, in a release, said the batch of 35 represents a percentage of the total of 51 nurses who were recruited during a trip to Cuba by health ministry officials in June 2010.

Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer embraces Ana Iris, one of 35 Cuban nurses who arrived in the island Wednesday to take up various positions within the primary health care system, during a welcoming ceremony in the VIP Room at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

The remaining number is expected to arrive in the island in about three months.

"The Government of Jamaica entered into a bilateral agreement with the government of Cuba to train and supply critical health workers for the local sector. We signed two agreements in July 2009, one which led to the development of the Eye Care Centre located at St Joseph's Hospital and the other which would see health specialists from Cuba supporting our public health-care system," Spencer said.

The 35 nurses include operating-theatre nurses, ophthalmology, pediatrics, neonatal, intensive care nurses and 15 to be deployed in primary health care. Spencer said that in going forward, the ministry was interested in attracting other health workers from Cuba, including physicians, biomedical engineers, biomedical technicians, other technicians such as a/c refrigeration and electro-mechanical, paramedicals, nurse educators, dental mechanical engineers and dental nurses.

The current bilateral agreement comes to an end in July 2011. According to the findings of a report published last year by the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean Region, at least three out of every four nurses trained in Jamaica have migrated to developed countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Mission Barrio Adentro

Mission Barrio Adentro: A socialist concept of Medicine
by Pearl Nguyen,
Translation: by Eva Golinger.
Source: Correo del Orinoco International, no. 22, 30 July 2010

In Venezuela, the concept of social medicine in which health is viewed as an essential part of humanism and as a right of every citizen and not a business, continues to grow. The work of Mission Barrio Adentro, a Cuba-Venezuela initiative, has been fundamental to achieve this end.

The relationship between Cuba and Venezuela has developed steadily since October 30, 2000, when Presidents Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro of Cuba signed a Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement Cuba-Venezuela. In April 2003, the first Cuban doctors of Mission Barrio Adentro arrived to Caracas to jumpstart the social program, which was soon extended to the rest of the country. The initial goal was to bring healthcare into poorer communities, where most people had never had any medical care and had little or no access to preventive healthcare campaigns.
The mission currently is run by Cuban and Venezuelan doctors as part of an overall healthcare strategy and state policy of the Chavez administration, explained Vice-Minister of Health Networks, Iver Gil.

Today, more than 15,000 doctors are working in Mission Barrio Adentro, with a large percentage of Venezuelan doctors now working with human sensitivity and social commitment. There are approximately 30,000 Cuban collaborators, including medical and technical staff in hospitals throughout the country, with the goal of strengthening the national public health system.

NEW HOSPITALS AND CLINICS
The objective this year is to complete the construction of more than 500 comprehensive diagnostic centers (CDI), where Venezuelan and Cuban doctors provide care and counseling in the areas of healing, promotion and prevention. Students are also trained in social medicine at these centers, based on the notion that healthcare is a right, not a commodity, and is essential to aid in the improvement of quality of life in Venezuelan communities.

“It’s a joint program with doctors and communities working together to improve the quality of life and health of residents. We are now developing integral health community services, so that communities have an area or network with medical health services at the preventive, diagnostic and treatment levels to promote health and prevent disease”, explained Vice Minister Gil.

Gil reported that in the next two months 17 more CDIs should be inaugurated and 64 new hospitals built, along with the renovation of other public hospitals in specific areas such as operating rooms, laboratories, delivery rooms, emergency, among others. Gil stressed that the most important aspect of Mission Barrio Adentro is the promotion of social medicine, curative and preventive healthcare and proper rehabilitation.

“In many areas that never had access to medical consultations before, there are now popular, free clinics. During the program, we have increased the number of neighborhood clinics from 4,000 to 11,000 nationwide”, said Gil.

TRAINING
Vice-Minister Iver Gil also explained that previously in Venezuela, medical education was elitist, with limited spaces at universities. “A medical degree was seen only as a profession to make money or earn large sums of money, and the concept was of a doctor waiting in his offi ce for the patient to come with problems”.

With the new concept of socialist healthcare in the country, Gil noted the whole medical community is being reshaped. There are currently more than 28,000 students of Comprehensive Community Medicine studies in six experimental national universities. “In five years, we have incorporated more than 8,000 students into the public hospital system who will graduate in December next year, trained in social, socialist, integral medicine, which takes into account the community environment and not just the body or the sick person alone, but also how we live and how we can improve the quality of our lives. This is a process that includes home visits, and students are forming these clinics and networks in their own communities”.

PROVISION OF MEDICINE
The Ministry of Health has several strategies to ensure the provision of medicines and medical equipment for communities, hospitals and clinics. Alliances with ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas) countries and UNASUR (Union of South American Nations), including Argentina, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Paraguay, have enabled agreements to buy medicines at low prices.

Also, Gil noted that through these partnerships, major surgical equipment for hospitals and other medical supplies have been acquired. “Now we are engaging in agreements to enable Venezuelan industries to produce pharmaceutical drugs in our own country. This involves the transfer of technology and know-how from other nations, which is an essential part of these accords”, he said.

45,174 Venezuelans treated in Cuba

45,174 Venezuelans received free medical assistance in Cuba
by Ministry of Peoples Power for Foreign Affairs, 30 November 2010.
Source: Ven-Global News.


“It has been 10 years after the endorsement of the Comprehensive Health Agreement Cuba-Venezuela and the results can be clearly seen: 45,174 Venezuelan affected by different pathologies went to Cuba in order to receive assistance for their health problems.”Explained the coordinator of the cooperation program Jhonny Ramos.

Ramos assured that there are cases of patients who were declared terminally ill in health centers of Venezuela. These people suffered from cancer, CVAs and conditions in their vital organs. They underwent a proper medical treatment in Cuba and now enjoy perfect health and have a better quality of life.

He explained that one of the conclusions about the neglection of patients with serious diseases is that a significant number of Venezuelan doctors have a mercantilist conception of health. Thus, doctors send home patients who cannot afford a medical treatment.

“In Venezuela, there are excellent doctors, they are among the best of the world. The difference stems from the point of view in which medicine is considered. Venezuelan doctors had the idea of making money, while in Cuba they have the idea to help those human beings in need.” Ramos pointed out.

“We understand than a professional of medicine has studied to have a better life but a persons health cannot be priced, and that is what has occurred in our health care system.” He said.

However, thanks to the agreement endorsed by the Venezuelan and Cuban governments, the philosophical conception of health in Venezuela is being transformed through the education of new professionals of the Latin American Medicine School (ELAM).

More than 1,000 graduates are doing postgraduate courses in Cuba and Venezuela to date. A group of these postgraduates have joined the flagship binational health program: Mission Barrio Adentro.

“The directors Mission Barrio Adentro are Venezuelan. There are currently around 10,000 students in the last year of the medicine school and all of them are professionals with another way to conceive medicine, as socialist medicine, in which people is not treated as merchandise.”

Another decade to go
On November 10th, President Hugo Chávez Frías and Raúl Castro Ruz ratified the comprehensive agreement for another decade.

Ramos stated that this new phase has the aim to create centers of specialized assistance. The main objective during the first ten years was to consolidate Mission Barrio Adentro in its phases I, II and III, which include primary health care, comprehensive care, Centers of Comprehensive Diagnosis, Comprehensive Rehabilitation Rooms and restoration of public hospitals.

“The specialized centers allow not only to give assistance to the patients, but also to contribute to the education of the human resources. We are currently working on the creation of the Oncological Hospital, the National Center for Neurological Restoration and the National Center for the Treatment of Addictions.” Ramos remarked.

The agreement will enter a new phase in 2011: “10,000 Venezuelan doctors will join the program. They are going to progressively replace our Cuban brothers because the health system is intended to be managed by Venezuelans.” He added.

Cuba to send medical reinforcements to Haiti

By Shasta Darlington, 27 November 2010
Source: CNN.


Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Fidel Castro announced Saturday that Cuba will send another 300 doctors and health specialists to cholera-stricken Haiti, where the Communist country has maintained a strong presence even before the devastating earthquake in January.

The new delegation will bring the number of Cuban doctors, nurses and health technicians working in Haiti to 1,300.

"It is of extreme importance to prevent the epidemic from extending to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, because under current circumstances it would cause extraordinary damage to the countries of the hemisphere," Castro said in a message posted on the state-run website Cubadebate.

"The need to find efficient and fast solutions in the fight against the epidemic is upon us," he said.

The additional 300 specialists comprise the "Henry Reeve Brigade," created by Cuba to respond to natural disasters.

Castro said the decision to send them was taken by the Communist Party and the government.

US interference in Venezuela

Wikileaks in Venezuela: Espionage, Propaganda and Disinformation.
By Eva Golinger, 5 December 2010.
Source: Postcards from the Revolution.


The first batch of recently released secret and confidential US State Department documents obtained by Wikileaks include over a dozen dispatches from the US Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, evidencing espionage against the Chavez administration, use of opposition media and politicians as informants and insulting remarks about the country.

The Wikileaks release last Sunday, November 28, of over a quarter million US State Department cables obtained illegally has caused scandals worldwide over the methods, perspectives and dirty maneuvering of US foreign policy.

Almost no country or government is exempt from mention in the thousands of secret and classified documents, which are being released over a period of months in order to appreciate the quality of the information, while also subjecting Washington to a type of prolonged torture.

The first several hundred documents made public primarily originate from US embassies in Europe and the Middle East, as well as direct from the State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself.

But Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, classified as a "terrorist" and "enemy combatant" by the United States, has also released a select group of cables from US embassies in Latin America.

Approximately 14 documents so far have been published that were dispatched by the US Embassy in Caracas, though several other cables from different US embassies worldwide reference Venezuela and President Hugo Chavez. Of the documents released, the majority refer to Washington's obsession with Venezuela's relations with two particular countries: Cuba and Iran.

ATTACKING HEALTHCARE, FOREIGN POLICY
One document, the first published on Venezuela by Wikileaks, criticizes Venezuela's successful healthcare program, Barrio Adentro, by claiming it is "usurping funds from the public hospital system".

The cable, which was authored by former US Ambassador Patrick Duddy in December 2009, quotes only anti-Chavez sources, including a journalist from the opposition newspaper, El Universal, and several doctors working in private clinics and public hospitals.

There is little serious mention of the billions of dollars the Venezuelan government has pumped into the public hospital and healthcare system in order to not only renovate older facilities left in disarray by former governments, but also to create a new healthcare system, which the Embassy cable cynically calls "parallel", to guarantee free, universal care to all Venezuelans.

At the end of the cable, Duddy's comments show either ignorance or an intentional distortion of fact, when he claims, "The quality of healthcare in Venezuela has declined as the GBRV (Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) has shifted resources from the traditional medical system to "Barrio Adentro".

The hard evidence shows the contrary.

For the first time in the nation's history, all Venezuelans have access to quality, free healthcare, from the preventive care level, up to complex, high-tech treatments and interventions.


INFORMANTS AND SPIES
The Embassy cables on Venezuela don't just reveal a distortion of Venezuela's reality, which is an attempt to portray the Chavez administration in a negative light, they also provide insight into who the US government sources are and how US diplomats operate as spies in the country.

One document, a scathing analysis of the alleged Cuban presence in Venezuela's intelligence services and a host of other government institutions, would at first glance be alarming.

The cable, cynically titled "Cuba/Venezuela Axis of Mischief: The View from Caracas", was written by notorious former Ambassador William Brownfield in January 2006, and claims Cubans have penetrated almost every aspect of Venezuela's government, culture and economy.

It's reminiscent of Cold War era fear-mongering about the "communist expansion" and "red scare" in the hemisphere. This time, however, instead of the Russians, it's the "Cubans are coming...they are everywhere".

Be alarmed, be very alarmed.

Except that, when read in detail, it becomes clear that the sources behind this alleged "Cuban communist takeover" are actually high-profile opposition leaders, such as ex Governor and now fugitive from justice, Manuel Rosales, big business executives and journalists from anti-Chavez media.

Brownfield even writes in the cable statements such as "Anecdotal reporting suggests...", "Less reliable reports indicate..." and "Unconfirmed sensitive reporting suggests...", evidencing the weakness of the information provided, which was marked "Secret/No Foreign Distribution" and was sent to the Secretary of State, the National Security Council, the Pentagon's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and a host of other US embassies and consulates ranging from Brasilia, La Paz, Lima, Managua, Quito, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Mexico, to Brussels, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London, Rome and The Hague.

Information that is unconfirmed, comes from exclusively biased sources (all anti-Chavez) and overall has no foundation in reality, is then used to craft US policy towards Venezuela.

The documents published by Wikileaks evidence that this dangerous scenario is repeated in US diplomacy around the world. The Caracas documents also evidence how Embassy employees violate their status as diplomats to engage in espionage against the Venezuelan government.

In the "Cuban scare" cable, Brownfield reveals that the Department of Defense monitors flight activity from Cuba to Venezuela daily, and then Embassy personnel try to gauge the number of passengers coming of the planes: "Embassy officers have noted regular flights of Cubans - or Venezuelans returning from official visits to Cuba - at Caracas' Maiquetia airport...Post cannot determine how many Cubans are on the flights..."

What Brownfield is most concerned about, apart from standing vigilance at the airport watching the planes come and go, is how the US could be affected by the Cuba-Venezuela relationship.

"The impact of Cuban involvement in Venezuelan intelligence could impact US interests directly", he claims, concerned about "the expertise that Cuban services could provide...about the activities of the USG". More or less, Washington is worried their clandestine actions in Venezuela will be exposed as the Venezuelans improve their intelligence capacity.

In another document, titled "Explaining Venezuela's coziness with Iran" Ambassador Brownfield invokes the "Iran scare" and comments, "Venezuela's support for a country that has nuclear ambitions, supports terrorism and talks about wiping Israel off the map is of grave concern. It also alarms nations - such as France...We can exploit this alarm". How exactly would they do that, interfere in Venezuela's relationship with France?

Brownfield remarks that Washington should not "dismiss the uranium rumors", referring to allegations that Venezuela was providing uranium to Iran to make bombs. But a later cable, written by the more steady-headed Charge D'Affairs John Caulfield in June 2009, contradicted Brownfield's war-mongering attitude.

"Although rumors that Venezuela is providing Iran with Venezuelan produced uranium may help burnish the government's revolutionary credentials, there seems to be little basis in reality to the claims...it is highly unlikely that Venezuela is providing Venezuelan uranium to third countries".

PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN
In 2008, the US Embassy in Caracas decided it was time to employ the heavy services of the Pentagon's psychological operations team to bombard Venezuelans with pro-US propaganda, to counter, what an Embassy cable claimed in March 2008, "Chavez's anti-americanism".

"Embassy Caracas requests DOD (Department of Defense) support in the execution of its strategic communications plan. The goal for this program is to influence the information environment within Venezuela...DOD support would greatly enhance existing Embassy Public Diplomacy and pro-democracy activities".

Influencing the "information environment" in Venezuela with Pentagon support is clearly an outright violation of Venezuela's sovereignty, which appears to be a common denominator in most of the Embassy cables published so far on Venezuela.

The State Department's 2011 budget includes a special multimillion-dollar fund for a "30-minute, 5-day a week program in Spanish in Venezuela" and the Pentagon's includes a new program for "psychological operations" in the Southern Command (Latin America).

Some of the information in the cables can be verified by fact and corroborating evidence, while other data remains in the realm of rumors and bogus sources.

What is clear is the that the documents reaffirm the increasing US aggression against Venezuela and its hostile foreign policy against the Chavez administration, including a willingness to use unsubstantiated rumors to make dangerous accusations.

Venezuela and Cuba provide free eye surgery for 1 million people

Venezuela Provides More than One Million Free Eye Operations to Latin Americans
by Edward Ellis, 2 Aug 2010
Source: Correo del Orinoco International

The Venezuelan and Cuban health care program which performs free eye surgery for people around Latin America has treated over 1 million patients since 2004, according to data released by the Venezuelan government earlier this month. The social program, known as Mission Miracle, is one of the many agreements signed between Cuba and Venezuela in the area of health care. Completely free of charge, the program provides vision related surgery to low-income individuals who would otherwise not have the financial resources for these operations.

“Providing medical attention is a very important act”, said Noris Villalonga, Coordinator of Mission Miracle in the Venezuelan states of Lara, Yaracuy, and Portuguesa. “I think the value of providing the people with excellent care where there is quality and humanity is immeasurable”.

More than One Million Treated
According to official statistics, the exact number of patients treated by the Mission has reached 1,139,798 with an average of 5,000 operations occuring on a weekly basis in 74 medical centers around Venezuela. “We travel all over our assigned regions to make diagnoses, so that underserved populations receive this attention becuase the costs of eye surgery are very high and there are people that don’t have the resources”, explained Villalonga.

In the first four months of 2010, the Mission has helped 101,112 people recover or repair their vision. The majority of problems treated by the program include pterygium, cataracts, strabismus, retinopathies, glaucoma, myopia, ptosis, and difficulties in the cornea.

Health Care for Humanity
Although the vast majority of surgeries are performed on Venezuelans, residents from other Latin American nations have also benefited from the program. This year, 3,398 operations have been performed on non-Venezuelans. Lida Segura is one of the 5,733 Ecuadorans who has been attended by the mission since 2005.

Segura recently received an operation in the state of Lara and spoke about the difference that it will make in her life. “I’m 82 years old and I haven’t been seeing well for some 4 years now in either of my eyes. When I can see well, I will go out again and for this I am really happy. Now I can already see clearer thanks to the operation”, she said. “This has never happened…None of the earlier presidents cared about us, they only denied us assistance”, indicated Segura, thanking Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the chance to receive the free medical assistance.

Another Ecuadoran patient, Frenda Villasilva, commented on the quality of care and the significance that improved eyesight will have for her. “I have been treated better than in my own home. I’m 65 years old and you can imagine what it means to be able to see well at this age. To have 20-20 vision is to be practically reborn”, she exclaimed.

Residents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay have all benefited from the free operations. Last week, the Venezuelan National Assembly approved a law laying the groundwork for the program to reach the residents of El Salvador. Salvadoran doctors will evaluate eye-related illnesses and select patients who will then receive treatment in Venezuela.

During its initial phase, Mision Milagro was based in Cuba where 204,000 Venezuelans in need of care were sent for surguries. Venezuela is now the site of the operations where Cuban and Venezuelan doctors work side by side. Of the over 900,000 operations that have been carried out in Venezuela, 570,902 have been performed by Cubans and another 368,643 has been performed by Venezuelans.

“I am a doctor and a health promoter”, declared Coordinator Villalonga. “For me it’s a great responsibility that I must assume with dignity. Health cannot be played with. And to be able to receive such a great number of our Latin American brothers and sisters is the most amazing thing because it integrates us more as a region”.

RATB reports: FUSPD - United Socialist Front of People with Disabilities

On Saturday 10 April 2010, Frente Unido Socialista de Personas con Discapacidad (FUSPD - United Socialist Front of People with Disabilities) celebrated its first birthday with a friendly basketball game in Municipio Guacara, Valencia, Carabobo State, Venezuela. Jose Rodriguez, the President of FUSPD explained to Sam McGill of RATB, the history behind FUSPD and its aims.

RATB: What are the objectives of FUSPD?

JR: Our objective is to achieve, in accordance with our capacities, the integration of people with disabilities, into family and community life. To mediate direct participation as citizens, with our rights, incorporated into the joint participation of society and family. We also focus on using community spaces that rightfully belong to us as members of Venezuelan society, participating in areas of work, politics, social (society), economy, health, culture and sports, with equal conditions and rights. We support people and ourselves to demonstrate our capacities.

RATB: What was the situation like for people with disabilities before the Bolivarian Revolution?

JR: Before, it [cost] approximately 80,000 bolivars for the eye operations like I’ve received. After I had a motor bike accident, I received my eye operations free with Mission Milagro (Miracle); I’ve received free operation on my legs, skull, and teeth-with the Mission Sonrisa (Smile). I went to live in Maternidad, Caracas in a “Centro de attencion integral a personas con discapacidad” (Centre of integral attention for people with disabilities). For one year I received free food, free healthcare, free clothes, toiletries and I lived there for free. This helped me to get rehabilitated. The programme works with the Mission Negra Hipolita and also provides attention for people with drug and alcohol problems and those on the streets. The Centres have a 3-month minimum programme where if you want to receive treatment you agree to stay there 3 months without leaving. This is due to the connection between disabilities and drug/alcohol use.

Of course not everyone who has a disability lives on the streets or becomes addicted to drugs but because before this government, people with disabilities were literally left out on the streets to die, the issues often go hand in hand. With these rehabilitation centres you can stay there for one year without paying a thing, this is really important because many people can’t work or their families can’t support them. Depending on you disability or problem you are encouraged to take courses, practice sports, everyone has to get active in doing something. If after a year you want to stay more you can do but you have to contribute, they help you find work, and you contribute what you can afford. This means that people get back on their feet and get their lives back. Obviously there are people who can’t ever work or can never live independently and there are other projects and places where they can live and get the support they need. For me, the government helped me with my house that I live in now. They provided me with a house and kitted it out with all the equipment, all of which is worth 150,000 Bolivars, now I live independently, work and run FUSPD with others.

Before, disabilities or people left incapacitated after accidents and injuries were ignored, outcast and segregated. If you had money you could get treatment, but if you didn’t have money the doctors would turn their backs. With the arrival of the Cuban doctors with Barrio Adentro, people began to be attended to and be treated. Now with the 2007 “Ley de personas con discapacidad” (Law of people with disabilities) we have rights that have to be respected, there are laws, for example each enterprise has to employ people with disabilities, at a rate no less that 5% of its workforce.

RATB: Can you tell me more about the work of FUSPD; is it National or local to Valencia?

JR: With support from friends and comrades I set up FUSPD in 2009, first it was just in Valencia, in Municipio Guacara, that’s still where most of the work is based but it is national and anyone with disabilities in any area in the whole of Venezuela can get involved. Our work consists of finding and meeting people from the community with disabilities. Getting to know them, organising sports games, like basketball. We run a computer course in the el club la Guajira (Guajira club), share information about rights and the laws. Our work is incorporated in the table of the local communal councils (consejo communales). Now we’re working with the Mission Che Guevara which is currently running a pilot project, supporting people to get involved in work, job training and education opportunities. Of course we fight for equal rights within everything we get involved in too. We go out and incorporate people with disabilities into daily life with dignity and support them to stop just being social welfare projects.

RATB: You’ve achieved a lot in one year, how did you begin this kind of work?

JR: I was so grateful for the attention and support I was given, once I’d got back on my feet, got some vision back, and started walking again, I wanted to do something to support the revolution, give back some of the support I’d got. But I needed to think of a good way to do it, I can’t give much money, I don’t have training as a doctor or teacher or anything so I decided to set up FUSPD because I realized there are lots of people like me and we need to get involved in the revolution, fight for our own space within it and also give back the support that we’ve received by giving political support to the revolution.

You can’t just take all the time, you need to give back too, we need to raise consciousness-sometimes when people receive their money or wheelchairs or other equipment they need they sell them on and just think about the money that they make, this damages and robs from the revolution. I also wanted to build consciousness and show to other people that we have a place in the revolution and we can build to support it. FUSPD is getting support from the Mayor of Guacara, the Contraloria Municipal, the municipal council, PDVSA, Mission Ribas and the Mission Che Guevara. This kind of support and the rights we have won can only be possible in a socialist revolution, a socialist process and so we need to defend it.

Interview by Sam McGill

FUSPD can be contacted on 0416 243 69 14 and the group meets every Wednesday at 2pm in el club la Guajira, Municipality Guacara, Valencia, Carabobo State, Venezuela.

RATB reports: ENFODEP - Test of Formation of Popular Educators

ENFODEP, revolutionising thought and community education since 1992

by Sam McGill reporting from Venezuela.

"Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." - Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the Oppressed)

Drawing on the theory and practice of Paulo Freire, ENFODEP (Ensayo de Formacion de Educadores Populares - test of formation of popular educators) has been developing the political reflection needed for sustained community action since 1991.

I was lucky enough to volunteer and live with two of its founding members in Vargas State for seven weeks and get an insight into its aims and achievements. Rafael and Ivonne Delgado began in the 1970’s and 1980’s as active members of ASOCITE (Associacion Civil de Terepaima- a community organisation and system of barrio committees founded in 1976) in La Vega, Caracas. Primarily the experience of Rafael and Ivonne began with applying Paulo Freire’s methods of teaching literacy to communities of La Vega. Active in a time of extreme poverty (70% poverty, 40% extreme poverty in 1998 before the Chavez government) and repression, the work of ASOCITE developed into a struggle for housing, education and social rights including hunger strikes, government office occupations, a newspaper and a radical radio show.

It has to be remembered that at this time, political action was criminalised and repressed. Rafael explained that meetings and production of material had to be done in secret and even possession of Marxist or revolutionary books or music was criminalised. This political oppression, coupled with soaring poverty and economic plunder through an IMF agreement under presidency of Carlos Andes Perez resulted in the Caracazo on 27-28 February 1989.

The Caracazo or popular uprising was met with the full force of the state, anywhere between 270 people-10,000 people were estimated to have been killed as army and police opened fire on people in residential areas, then detained thousands, many of who dissapeared. Rafael and Ivonne recounted that at this time there was an explosion of popular consciousness yet many of the left were busy with other things and the explosion needed a direction, a formation in order to develop from a spontaneous explosion to something more sustained and capable of challenging the state and transforming the future.

ASOCITE began to discuss and meet with other similar groups in Caracas with the aim of coordinated development and political formation. At this time Rafael graduated from CEPAP, a programme of investigation and a nucleus of the National Experimental University of Simon Rodriguez (UNESR). Within this context, in 1991, Rafael, Ivonne, ASOCITE, and other groups such as INVEDECOR and the National Association of Social Workers, founded ENFODEP with a view to political, critical socialist discussion of community struggles and the formation of popular educators, the process of transformation where people become protagonists of change.

Popular educators, in the view of ENFODEP are not simply community workers or youth workers, but any member of the community who takes on the role of raising consciousness and critical thought of their family, co-workers, and neighbourhood. This can only be achieved through self reflection, and action within a group. In this manner and with self financing from member and supporter donations, ENFODEP was created through the fusion of the ideas of ASOCITE, Paulo Freire and CEPAP.

In 1997, ENFODEP developed as a course recognised by UNESR. Although it differs from a university programme in that students, graduates, founding members and friends/supporters alike are all part of its development and thought; students of ENFODEP are supported to work within three projects for 4-6 years and then receive a qualification recognised by a university. Currently ENFODEP has 25 participants over 3 centres in Vargas, Caracas and Portuguesa. Over the last 13 years, 50 people have completed the course and gained the qualification. The most important aspect however is the self-development and group reflection of participants.

Currently ENFODEP in Vargas, where I was volunteering, meets every Saturday when students get together to share their experiences, critically and politically analyse their assignments, supported with reflections from Rafael and Ivonne. In March 2010, ENFODEP Vargas held the annual meeting to discuss and develop the curriculum. This was mainly focused on revising aspects of the course to include the changes and developments within the Bolivarian Revolution. It has to be remembered that ENFODEP was formed in the context of a repressive neo-liberal regime, shattered by the election of Chavez and the progress of the Bolivarian Revolution. Now the focus needs to be critiquing the revolutionary process, but with the aim to improve and develop it and the popular community power that it offers.

The aim for 2010-2011 is also to expand the network of ENFODEP, developing the project further in Portuguesa state and expanding into Lara, Cojedes and possibly Carabobo states. If they can secure advertisement funding for the Saltaire, a community newspaper based in Vargas state, then this will also financially support ENFODEP in this development.

Although ENFODEP is the main project in Vargas and Caracas for Rafael and Ivonne, they continue to practice their commitment and methodology through sustained work in their community, La Salina, a rural village on the coast in Vargas State.

They are part of the Paulo Freire cooperative that runs the Salvador Garmendia community library and cinema. The library is open every weekday for students to come and investigate coursework and seek advice with their studies. The cinema functions every Thursday for adults and Saturday when young people come to watch free films. They continue to publish Saltaire with input from the local population and have been key to bringing Mission Robinson, Mission Ribas and Mission Cultura to La Salina and neighbouring Puerto Carayaca. With over 30 years of community experience they are certainly significant protagonists in the continued development and process of the Revolution in Venezuela.

ENFODEP continues to facilitate community activists, popular educators and revolutionaries and demonstrates how a small organisation of politicised, conscious and committed participants can have a big impact, supporting the national transformation of the Venezuelan people into protagonists of change, determining their own future and sovereignty.

RATB reports: Life in La Salina, Parroquia Carayaca, Vargas State, Venezuela

by Sam McGill, who is a member of Rock around the Blockade (RATB) reporting from Venezuela.


La Salina is a small rural village of about 2000 people in Vargas State approximately ninety minutes from Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. I had the opportunity to volunteer there for seven weeks working in a communal library teaching English, supporting the facilitators of Mission Ribas, (a high school level free education program for adults) and volunteering in the local school.
My partner also had the opportunity to work with the library making music with local young people. We were invited here by Rafael and Ivonne Delgado, two people whose history precedes them. Rafael and Ivonne have about 30 years of experience of working in the community. Within this time they have been active members and founders of ASOCITE (a community organization which began fighting for housing, education and social rights in the 1970’s and 1980’s) in La Vega, Caracas and also ENFODEP (Ensayo de Formacion de Educadores Populares), which trains, forms and qualifies popular educators who work in community development with a strong socialist political analysis. ENFODEP was created through the fusion of the ideas of ASOCITE and CEPAP an organization of the National Experimental University of Simon Rodriguez (UNESR). They began work with ENFODEP in 1992.

Currently ENFODEP in Vargas meets every Saturday when students get together to share their experiences, critically and politically analyse their assignments and receive first class training from Rafael and Yvonne, themselves popular educators with decades of experience. They are part of a network of three ENFODEP centres nationally in Caracas, Vargas and Acarigua.
They are also part of the Paulo Freire cooperative that runs the Salvador Garmendia community library and cinema. The library is open every weekday for students to come and investigate coursework and seek advice with their studies. The cinema functions every Thursday for adults and on Saturdays when young people come to watch free films. For an activist from England, a country where there free youth activities are hard to come by, free children’s films are a refreshing change from the expense of £5-7 for one person in the mega cinema complexes in the UK.

Casa Communal
In addition to the library where ENFODEP and the cinema are based, the community has organised a casa communal (communal house), a housing project, a casa de alimentation (local food provision centre where food and meals are distributed freely to the most needy) Mission Ribas and a grandparents club.
The casa communal is the base of the local consejo communal (community council). Although the community council has had a turbulent history where one council disintegrated and currently another has been formed and is functioning with few of the original members of the old council; the casa communal has many achievements to be proud of; there is a housing office in the casa as part of SUVI, (a project that aims to substitute new housing for Venezuelans who live in precarious shanty towns). Organised with the support of Mary Luz Pestano and Mirtia Yauquez, the housing office covers La Salina and nearby Puerto Carayaca and to date eighty people in the local area have benefited from home transfers, support after house collapse (a common issue in Vargas especially after the mudslide disaster in 1998) maintenance of houses and assignation of new houses. To date they have engaged 105 employees, donated paint and assisted with house decorations for forty families and organized various sports activities for the community.

INCES (the National Institute of training and Socialist Education)
The casa communal has existed for two years and also houses committees of health, services, education, tourism, sport, culture, communication and Mission Negra Hipolita. Negra Hipolita nationally provides free rehabilitation centres and programmes for people on the streets focusing on drug addicts, people with mental health issues or physical problems, alcoholism and other social problems that often keep people on the streets. The casa communal also functions as a community centre, providing karate classes, children’s theatre and, since February 2010, electricity classes have been provided in the casa communal by Eduardo Urbina, a local tutor through the INCES project. INCES (the National Institute of training and Socialist Education) is a state funded project that was taken over from the old INCE organization that solely focused on preparing young people for work. Now with INCES in conjunction with the “Socialist Che Guevara Mission” (La Mission de Che Guevara Socialista), socialist thinking runs through the project, developing Che’s ideas of “The New Man”(and woman) and raising political consciousness among young people.

INCES provides free education in a number of practical subject to students outside of school or work who want to gain qualifications for employment. The INCES project in La Salina is currently training twelve students who after 241 hours of classes will gain a certificate allowing them access to an occupation in electricity sector. This is particularly relevant for the young people of the area as La Salina is next door to a CORPOELEC (the state-owned electricity company) thermoelectric plant.

I also had the opportunity of visiting an INCES centre of formation in La Quizanda, in the state of Valencia. The centre provides training in areas such as topography, electricity, painting and decorating, unit pricing and financial management, carpentry, construction and metal work. We were invited to observe a carpentry class by Angel Cedeño, a local activist. We also had the chance to discuss with the students about their experience and compare education in the UK and in Venezuela. One of the main things that stood out was the privatization of education in the UK in comparison to Venezuela. For example in the UK during 1980’s and 1990’s there were many more technological colleges that trained people in skilled manual labour. Now many colleges have been run down and often young people take on apprenticeships with employers. This might mean working with an employer for up to two years on low or no pay in the hope of securing a job with the employer afterwards. Predictably, many employers use the logic of capitalism to treat the apprenticeships as a source of free and cheap labour. Instead of taking on the student as an employee with a salary and contract rights, they often ditch them and take on another student for two years. The young people of INCES were shocked to hear of the situation in the UK as so often it is painted in the media as a democratic safe haven where all needs are met and we all have tea and biscuits at 3pm every day!

The La Quizanda centre is one of five in Carabobo state; there is usually one main centre of INCES in each state with many local or specialist branches which reach out into local and rural areas like La Salina. It was great to see the national centre of formation serving a range of areas and teaching over eighty students, then to see the INCES in action in a rural area like La Salina, providing education for work in local sources of employment.

Casa de Alimentation
The Casa de Alimentation (food house) in La Salina, is fundamental to many of its members in the community. It was opened in 2003 and currently supports 150 people who can visit it for a free hot meal every day. Usually its members are older people, alcoholics, drug users, ill people, single mothers or unemployed. With the support of Mercal (a socialist state subsidized food market) the state pays the workers of the Casa de Alimentation and also for the food, and for special occasions, like Christmas, also provides free bags of food. The members get involved with the cooking, cleaning and general running of the centre which helps to create a sense of communal property and dignity.

This project runs alongside the Madres de Barrio (mothers of the neighbourhood) which supports young single mothers with money to buy food, clothes, medicines and other necessities for them and their children. Approximately 100 young women are inscribed in the project, which also supports them in studying and organizes community voluntary work.

A backbone of health services to many rural communities is the Barrio Adentro project. La Salina houses a walk-in clinic which runs Monday to Friday and provides the local population with free healthcare. I had the opportunity to go door to door with Barrio Adentro in order to carryout the local census that is essential for the first phase of a national vaccination plan. On the 12 March 2010, eight female community activists began a voluntary brigade with a doctor and nurses from the clinic. They have now visited every family in the area in order to find out what vaccinations have already been received by each family member and which vaccinations they need as part of the national plan. The national plan is offering ten free vaccinations across various age groups. This has been organized by the Ministry of Popular Power for Health under the banner “vaccination is a right!”, again this is a refreshing change from the health service in the UK, although currently it is a public, thirteen years of Labour Government has seen the selling off essential sections of our health service to private companies whose only interest is making a profit.

Mission Ribas
I also had the opportunity to get involved with the local Mission Ribas which currently has twenty students enrolled in night school classes at the local school. Mission Ribas was one of the first free education missions to be initiated in Venezuela in 2003, after Mission Robinson, a literacy and numeracy program and Mission Sucre, a university entrance program.

Using a system developed in Cuba, the mission teaches English, maths, grammar, science and Venezuelan history amongst other subjects, with the aid of specially formulated DVD’s. After 2-3 years students graduate from the project with a qualification that allows them to study at university. The Mission is mainly focused in supporting people who didn’t finish school with a qualification, thus preventing them from inscribing on a university course. Mission Ribas began in La Salina in 2003 and before this Mission Robinson functioned in La Salina. Currently Mission Robinson does not function as everyone who wanted to participate has passed through the course. The Missions were introduced by Ivonne and Rafael along with other community activists and original students like Alba Taillae have passed and become facilitators of Mission Ribas or become involved in the local section of Mission Cultura in the area.

Although La Salina, and Venezuela in general, primarily has a young population, the grandparents have certainly not been forgotten. I had the privilege of spending a few hours with Haideé de Amato who helps organise the local grandparents club that meets every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with the support of Barrio Adentro. The club provides free and regular medical checks for the older people and includes 45 minutes of exercise. Thirteen people from La Salina attend each session and a sister session in Vista al Mar higher up the mountain overlooking the community serves another thirty-three people.

As a local weekend and vacation destination for city dwellers of Caracas and surrounds, La Salina regularly hosts crowds of Venezuelans looking to relax by the beach. Whilst this obviously supports the local economy it also contributes to pollution. As is the case in so many cities and villages in Venezuela, the problem of rubbish is huge. Often after a weekend or national holiday, the beach is littered with plastic, glass bottles and paper, something which is compounded by a lack of bins. However, recently children from the local school have been carrying out questionnaires and surveys with the aim of commencing a project to clean up the beaches and develop better rubbish bin provision. This is also helped by daily rubbish collection from the local state services and a weekly beach litter pick.

The local PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) battalion is located centrally in the village and holds meetings twice monthly. They are now gearing up for the national assembly elections in September and soon will be going house to house to start the campaign. Over 80% of the population of La Salina is inscribed in the PSUV and almost everyone supports the Chavez government and the Bolivarian revolution. As Haideé de Amato from the Grandparents club emotionally told me, “never before has a president done so much to support the poor people of Venezuela, almost everything here in the community of La Salina is new thanks to this government and our revolution, we have Barrio Adentro, a new Bolivarian school, the education Missions, the housing project, the food house. That’s why so many people here support our president; we will fight for our revolution as we can’t afford to loose all the gains we have made”

All in all my experience of living in La Salina has been a revolutionary one. The kind of community provision and process of popular power, while not perfect and with obviously many improvements that can be made, has built a community that has a future worth fighting for, a future in the Bolivarian Revolution.

 
Viva Chavez!