Hands Off Venezuela Campaign- www.handsoffvenezuela.org


Extraordinary meeting of Chavez with workers in Madrid
“The working class must be the vanguard of the revolution”
By Emilia Lucena, El Militante


It is nearly five o’clock. A shy autumn sun bathes the Prado Avenue on our way to the headquarters of the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) in Madrid. When we arrive there are already more than 300 people queuing to get into the meeting hall. They patiently wait to attend the meeting with Chavez which is scheduled for 7 pm.

There is chaos. Lope de Vega is a narrow street and more and more people arrive to attend the meeting. The hall stewards are overwhelmed, some of them surprised by the enormous expectation, some ask what is the matter with Chavez and some even ask who Chavez is (one mixes him up with Andalusia president Chaves). The police officers cannot understand and do not know what attitude to adopt. One of them tries to show that he is in charge, and demonstrates the usual arrogant and contemptuous attitude of the police, but nobody pays any notice. They are all either sufficiently happy or enthused with the perspective of meeting Chavez, and are not prepared to fall into any provocations. During the nearly two hour wait, the queue breaks into singing and shouting of slogans in defence of the Venezuelan revolution and its president.

It is nearly 7pm when the doors open, and the human tide is allowed in, in groups of five. We must go through a metal detector. It is just four days since the State Prosecutor investigating those involved in the April 11 coup has died, assassinated in a terrorist attack carried out by the forces of reaction. Nobody complains. We all understand the need to take all necessary security measures. We are aware that the international counter-revolution has set its sights on Chavez.

Slowly the meeting hall fills up. There is the shouting of slogans and the singing of songs. We are shown a video of the revolution. Some singers and musicians go on stage to entertain the people before Chavez’s arrival. Amongst them are the extraordinary Olga Manzano and Quintin Cabrera, but also many others, who do not feature in the commercial music scene, but want to show their solidarity and sympathy for the revolution. Of course, [Spanish singer] Alejandro Sanz, the gusano who said that Chavez should resign because the people of Venezuela were against him, and who has now been shut up by the results of the recall referendum, is not there.

A terrible moment. It is announced that the president will not come. It is half past eight. The audience is stunned. Disillusionment runs through all those present, but it is agreed that the meeting will continue. We want to show our support for the revolution, but the mood has changed from one of enthusiasm to a disheartened one. We wanted to listen to Chavez, the leader of the Venezuelan revolution.

William Lara, the former president of the Venezuelan National Assembly and Member of Parliament, addresses the audience. His speech does not connect. He says that Venezuela is a paradise for investment from Spanish businesses. There is a stunned, and a little bit of an angry silence. These are the same businesses that exploit us day in and day out. These are the same businesses that hire young people and immigrant workers as cheap labour without rights, and demand more flexibility for wages and working conditions! We know they are not going to create wealth in Venezuela, in the same way they do not create wealth for the people here. William Lara continues with his speech and at the end adds, like an afterthought, that this investment will not have the same exploitive character as in the past. The question everybody is asking themselves is: does William Lara really know what employers are? Does he know that their profits come from our exploitation? Does he realize that they will not invest a single cent unless they have a firm guarantee that they will recover their investment tenfold by keeping the majority of the population in poverty? While Lara speaks a rumour makes the rounds: “Chavez is coming”, first it is just in the front rows, then moves throughout the hall. Nobody pays much attention to anything apart from whether Chavez is coming or not. From the stage nothing is said about this, William Lara continues to speak. At the end a powerful voice from the audience says: “Chavez is coming”. There is a spontaneous ovation. The mood is cheerful again. Now the musicians go on stage and we all sing along and clap to the songs. Later we found out what had happened. A group of people, led by Manolo Espinar of the Haydee Santamaria organisationa and JM Municio from El Militante, had gone to the Circulo de Bellas Artes, where Chavez was meeting a group of intellectuals and actors, and explained to him that 1500 workers and youth were waiting for him in the CCOO meeting hall. And they managed to bring him along! When Chavez found out that we were waiting, he did not hesitate: “I am going over there, even if it is just to give a 15 minute greeting”. As he himself said later: “thank you, you have rescued me from the intellectuals to bring me to the workers”.

The hours go by and he still does not arrive. The banners in the hall still speak solidarity from the walls. Amongst them is one from El Militante and the Sindicato de Estudiantes (Spanish Students Union) which reads: “Venepal: nationalization under workers control”.

Nobody leaves. Now and then the news is confirmed: despite the delay, Chavez is coming. We are waiting. Messages of support are read to the meeting. At the beginning two were read from the Alliance of Anti-imperialist Intellectuals and another one from Culture against War. Then they read the one from the Sindicato de Estudiantes, which was interrupted by ovations twice. Then, in between the songs, others are read: from the Communist Party, the Red Current, El Militante, the international Hands Off Venezuela Campaign ... We sing some songs and then The Internationale. The whole room has raised fists as the Internationale comes out of our throats like the shout of revolutionary struggle, solidarity and proletarian internationalism.

At last, at 10:30 pm, after waiting for more than 5 hours, Chavez arrives! The enthusiasm is overwhelming. There is a standing ovation and raised fists as we greet him.

He is standing on stage. He is obviously tired but also moved by the greeting and the enthusiasm overfilling the hall. He apologises for the delay, and starts by reciting a poem by [Spanish revolutionary poet] Garcia Lorca.

He begins to address the crowd. He talks about the revolution, the oppressed, the oligarchy and imperialism that organized the coup in April 2002, how he thought he was going to be shot dead, and how the soldiers, arms in hand, avoided it. “There, facing the death squad, I though of Che (...) how men die”. He explains how thousands and thousands of workers, the poor, surrounded the Miraflores Palace defending the revolution. “They tried once and failed, and if they tried again they would fail again, because in Venezuela the arms are in the hands of the soldiers, who are part of the people”. He mentions the coup against Allende: “the Chilean revolution failed because it was a peaceful and unarmed revolution. The Bolivarian revolution is peaceful... but armed”. We understand very well what he is talking about. We also know about our own past. The audience begins to shout, fists raised again, “the people, armed, will never be smashed” (“el pueblo armado, jamás será aplastado”).

Now he talks about the money from [state oil company] PDVSA, which is being used for social programs, and he mentions Cuba and the Cuban doctors. There is another standing ovation and shouts of “Chavez, Fidel y el Che”.

He mentions the shipyard workers [fighting for months against the closure of the shipyards]. The whole audience shouts, “The shipyards will not be closed down!” He talks about the democratic revolution in Venezuela, of how the people support the revolution. He talks of the peoples of Latin America. “If Bolivar lived today, he would be a socialist”. He also mentions Marx. Incidentally, on his way in, he stopped to browse at the bookstall of El Militante. He spoke to the comrades. When he saw Alan Woods’ books he said: “Oh, Alan Woods. He is a friend of mine”. We want to give him the books he has chosen as a present, amongst them several by Alan Woods, Ted Grant and Trotsky, but he insists he wants to pay for them. At the end he accepts Alan Woods’ “Bolshevism, the road to revolution” as a gift.

He now talks about the workers and the need for unity. “There is a socialist international and a Christian Democratic international. Why can’t we form a democratic and revolutionary international? Unite all the oppressed peoples, the workers, the indigenous peoples ...”. There is another standing ovation. He develops the idea: “the working class must be the vanguard of the revolution (...) It should not only concern itself with immediate or wage demands, which are necessary and must be fought for, but it must also look beyond, to the transformation of society as a whole”. The enthusiasm is overwhelming. “Long live the working class”, and “the working class has no borders” are slogans which become alive and are shouted by the whole audience as one.

During the speech, standing up, he has been given cups of coffee which he drank. It has been a very packed day. He was at the Complutense University, where the students also received him with enthusiasm, surpassing all expectations. He met with Zapatero, with artists and intellectuals in the Circulo de Bellas Artes, and then at 10:30 pm he met with the workers... The best part of it, he snubbed a meeting with big business. Today the media complain and say this is not acceptable because he snubbed a meeting with 200 “business leaders”. Today, workers understand more who Chavez is and the support he receives from Venezuelan workers.

It is past 11:30 and finally he says goodbye. As he leaves the hall, as when he came in, there is a standing ovation. We are all shouting, “the revolution forward, forward, and those who do not like it, will have to stand it” (“La revolución p’alante, p’alante y al que no le guste que se joda y que se aguante”.)

As always, everywhere he goes, this enthusiasm is also expressed in the desire to get close to him, to greet him personally. Despite the bodyguards and the security measures, when he comes out he is surrounded by a sea of hands showing their solidarity and support for the Venezuelan revolution. He is extremely polite, tactful and educated, and in an impossible attempt, he tries to greet and talk to all those who come close to him. He understands that this show of solidarity reflects the desire of workers to show, through him, to the workers and the oppressed in Venezuela, the hopes that their revolution has raised amongst workers and youth around the world.

Madrid, 23-11-04