Canadian meetings salute 10 years of Venezuelan revolution (Feb 26-March 7, 2010)

Two Caracas-based activists, Federico Fuentes and Kiraz Janicke, will speak in Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal, Victoria and Vancouver between February 26 and March 7, in a tour organised by the Centre for Social Justice and the Venezuela We Are with You Coalition in Toronto.

Their tour takes place at a decisive turning point in the Venezuelan revolutionary process, as US-backed rightist forces escalate attacks on the movement of working people and the Bolivarian government.

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Venezuela’s revolution faces crucial Battles ahead

by Federico Fuentes
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During the eleven years since Hugo Chavez was elected as president of Venezuela, his country has become a focus of hope on a world scale. At the Copenhagen climate conference, Venezuela helped lead the countries calling for international social and ecological justice.

Throughout these years, popular participation and control has been the strength and promise of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution. The Fuentes-Janicke tour will focus on the gains of the people’s movement and the dangers and challenges it faces today.

Federico Fuentes is an associate of the Centro Internacional Miranda, an independent agency funded by Venezuela’s Ministry of Popular Power for Higher Education in Caracas. Together with Marta Harnecker, he leads two CIM study projects: “Political Instruments for the 21st Century” and “Popular Participation in Public Management”. He is a member of the Caracas bureau of Green Left Weekly.

Kiraz Janicke is a journalist for Venezuelanalysis.com, the foremost independent English-language source of news on Venezuela. She is editor of the Peru en Movimiento website and a member of the Caracas bureau of Green Left Weekly.

Both Federico Fuentes and Kiraz Janicke are regular contributors to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal and are members of the Australian Socialist Alliance.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FUENTES-JANICKE TOUR:

Toronto

• Friday, February 26, 7:00 pm
  Public Forum: Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution: Profile of a Peoples’ Movement
  Koffler House Rom 108 – 569 Spadina Ave. (North of College St.)
  Speakers: Federico Fuentes and Kiraz Janicke
• Saturday, Feb 27, 9:30 am – 5 pm
  Teach-In: Venezuela’s Revolution: The Second Decade
  Ten panels on topics related to Venezuela, with 25 speakers, including Fuentes and Janicke.
  Sidney Smith Building, Room 2117 — 100 St. George St. (North of College St.)
  Donation: $10 or what you can
  
• Wednesday, March 2, 5:00 pm – 8 pm
  Seminar: Popular Education in Venezuela
  Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, room 7-119

For more information, email: vzteachin@hotmail.com

Kingston

• Monday, March 1, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
  Indigenous Resistance and Popular Sovereignty in Bolivia and Venezuela
  Public Meeting with Kiraz Janicke
  Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre, 146 Barrie St.

For more information, email: vzteachin@hotmail.com

Ottawa

• Monday, March 1, 7:30 pm
  Public Forum: Venezuela’s Alliances for Sovereignty & Development: A Participant*s Report
  PSAC building, 233 Gilmour Street (at Metcalfe)
  Speaker: Federico Fuentes
• Tuesday March 2
  Federico Fuentes speaks at University of Ottawa

For more information, email: rfidler_8@sympatico.ca

Montreal

• Thursday-Friday, March 4-5
  Public Meetings with Kiraz Janicke

For more information, email: svaud097@gmail.com

Victoria

• March 3, 7:30pm
  Public Forum: Venezuela’s Revolution – The Second Decade
  BCGEU Hall — 2994 Douglas
  Speaker: Federico Fuentes

For more information, email: rogerannis@telus.net

Vancouver

• March 5, 7:00 pm
  Public forum: Hope For Haiti In Latin America
  Vancouver Community College, 250 W. Pender St., Room 420
  Speakers:
  -Federico Fuentes, Centro Internacional Miranda
  -Jon Beasley-Murray, Professor of Latin America Studies, University of British Columbia
  -Andrea Pinochet, Haiti Solidarity BC
  -others to be announced
• March 7, 2:00 pm
  Public Forum: Bolivia and Venezuela’s message: ‘Change the system, Not the climate!’
  Unitarian Church of Canada, 949 West 49th Ave at Oak St. (west of 49th Ave Canada Line station)
  Speakers:
  -Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s representative at the United Nations and lead spokesperson on climate change at the Copenhagen Summit
  -Federico Fuentes, Centro Internacional Miranda

For more information, email: rogerannis@telus.net