Thursday, October 20, 2005

Bolivarian Venezuela - Part I. The World Festival of Youth and Students, August 8-15, 2005

From mrzine
Poor neighborhood -- "barrio" -- in Los Teques, the capital of the state of Miranda, near Caracas, where we spent our nights during the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students. My group -- including delegates from Libya, Japan, and the United States, plus a Jordanian and a Puerto Rican -- stayed in an abandoned Gilette factory, which now serves as a government building since being taken over by the state.

Opening ceremony of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Caracas, Venezuela, attended by about 16,000 delegates from 144 countries, according to official sources. The theme of the festival was "For peace and solidarity, we struggle against war and imperialism." The Festival has a Communist history, having been organized in the past almost exclusively by Communist Parties (with a capital C). Communist Parties had a large presence at this festival in Caracas as well, but they were by no means alone. Delegations from the Americas were very diverse, including youth groups, student groups, Trotskyists, liberals, anarchists, Maoists, and other leftists and progressives of many sorts.

see whole article with photos