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National Solidarity Conference
on Venezuela
March 4-6, 2006 -- Washington, DC
pulsa aquí por información en español
George Washington University, 1957 E Street NW
See below for the conference report.
Read an excellent report on the conference from the Pan-African Newswire.
Read a great article about conference from Bill Rau at Consumers for Peace.
Read the March 6 Associated Press article by Nestor Ikeda about the NED demo (Spanish).
Sunday, March 5 Panel. From L to R: Stephanie Weiner, Phoebe Jones, Father Roy Bourgeois, Jose Garcia and Deborah James. Photos by Bill Rau.
National Venezuela Solidarity Conference Report and Invitation to Steering Committee
Thank you for helping to make the March 4-6 National Venezuela Solidarity Conference an important step forward toward building a US movement able to stop US imperialist aggression against Venezuela and to stand in solidarity with the revolutionary process in Venezuela through which people are building a better nation and a better world.
An incredible 471 people registered for the conference and 49 national and local organizations co-sponsored the event. Between 50-100 people participated in Lobby Day visits on March 6 and a similar number picketed the National Endowment for Democracy and AFL-CIO to demand Hands Off Venezuela.
A well-attended workshop, "Venezuela and the African Diaspora" produced a new network -- "People of African Descent in Solidarity With Venezuela" (PADS-V) – with commitments from 15 cities to start chapters and a commitment to join the Venezuela Solidarity Network.
The final plenary of the conference by acclamation adopted the following resolutions the text of which can be read at www.lasolidarity.org as soon as the site is updated.
1. A Calendar of Actions
2. An Emergency Response Network
3. Support for Venezuela's sovereignty
4. A Call for the extradition to Venezuela of mega-terrorist Luis Posada Carilles
5. A Condemnation of Plan Colombia
Finally, and most importantly, a proposal to form the Venezuela Solidarity Network was consensed to as was its interim governing structure. Several issues of wording and office location were deferred to the Interim Steering Committee either because there wasn't a strong enough consensus or because we ran out of time.
The Interim Steering Committee structure was agreed to in the plenary. That is:
"We declare that the Venezuela Solidarity Network will be broadly and democratically governed with an Interim Steering Committee composed of those organizations which planned this conference augmented by any organizations which share the above mission, goals, and principles that would like to join in building the broadest possible grassroots solidarity network. We affirm that the Bolivarian Circles and other progressive organizations of Venezuelans play an important role in the Interim Steering Committee."
That means that ANY national or local groups that share the goals and mission of the Venezuela Solidarity Network are invited and encouraged to volunteer to serve on the Interim Steering Committee. To make that perfectly clear YOUR ORGANIZATION SELECTS ITSELF to be on the Interim Steering Committee and commits to work to build the Venezuela Solidarity Network.
The first meeting of the Interim Steering Committee will be Monday, March 20 at 8:00 pm EST (5:00 pm PST). That is the Spring Equinox, an auspicious date to hold our first meeting.
It is impossible to know how many telephone lines to reserve, so please RSVP to nicanet(at)afgj.org if you want to participate. Please include the name of the organization that is committing to serve on the Steering Committee and the name of the individual who will be on the March 20 call. (Organizations do not have to be represented by the same individual each time.) I will send you the phone number and code in response to your RSVP. That will also build our roster of what organizations comprise the Interim Steering Committee. I'll send an agenda out closer to the meeting. Please forward any agenda suggestions to me as soon as possible.
In solidarity,
Chuck Kaufman
Nicaragua Network/Alliance for Global Justice
March 10, 2006
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