Reports from the World Festival of Youth and Students in Venezuela

In the beginning of august, four DePaul students joined 120 young Chicagoans and seven hundred people from around the country to go to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to visit the 16th World Festival of Youth & Students, a gathering that has met since 1947 in many different countries. There we met with some fifteen thousand delegates from over one hundred different countries, and thousands of young Venezuelans, all activists who are struggling for social and economic justice in their respective regions, and against imperialism worldwide. We will be planning reportbacks in the coming months, but here are some of the reports from a DSAW militant.

Today is the first official day of the World Festival of Youth & Students, and there is a bus leaving so I must be quick (I´ll try to come back and add more later). I’ll report on some of the details a little bit later, but right now ill begin with the entry into Caracas yesterday, where I and seven other Chicago delegates entered wondering how organized it would be. we were immediately greeted with several coordinators and a large WYF banner, and after we breezed thru customs we were thrown into the two-level lobby where hundreds, possibly a thousand delegates from around the world were eating the snacks given to us from the Festival and excitedly making conversations. Most of the Salvadoran delegation are from the FMLN and they quickly explained to me the need to boycott Tacas Airlines- the Central American airline that we had just flown in on. I began shaking hands, saying ¨United States¨ and most of the replies were ¨France¨or ¨Mexico¨, although over one hundred highly organized delegates from Suriname with Surinamese WYF yellow polo shirts came by. Unfortunately, of the people I was with I spoke the most Spanish so I became the resident translator, but I can use the practice.

Then came the sad part, where we found out about accommodations. The Venezuelan Festival organizers, worried about the possibility of an international incident, decided to put the seven hundred person U.S. delegation in barracks in a military base an hour outside of Caracas on a mountain overlooking the city of Los Toques. Our movement so far is highly controlled, but I have to go jump on this bus to the city. I´ll be back more to continue...

Well, I have a little more time now to chill and write. And it turns out that most of the delegations are being housed in military barracks. Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the trip thus far has just occurred. The US delegation over filled Conscript, the base where we were, and one hundred of us were asked to voluntarily relocate to a base that housed Caribbean delegations. About seventy of us signed up, while another seventy five who had just arrived at the airport were also enlisted to go. The first base we went to was outside of Estado Miranda where Los Toques is, and was the wrong one. Then we arrived at the base where we had meant to go, which was predominantly (sleeping) delegates from Puerto Rico and Trinidad, but it was full, so for over an hour, we waited in the rain in a covered basketball court, making the best of it. Toward the end of our wait, some eight or so Puertorriquenos finally ventured out, and told me that all of the PR delegation is independentista, but an amalgem of different national and community groups from the island. They were also very excited to hear that Paseo Boricua (the Division Street Puerto Rican Nationalist enclave) had a large delegation.

Now the one hundred and fifty of us from the US spillover have arrived at a fourth base, where a bus load of Syrian delegates were being displaced, as the US colonizes yet another land. The single Jordanian delegate, herself from the National Student Union in Jordan, translated during my brief chat with the Syrians, most of whom were older men from the National Student Union and Nation Youth Union. They told me that another fifty or so Syrians were to arrive from that country´s Communist Party, and as with the Puertorriquenos, they were very happy to speak to an estadounidense. Don´t worry, I have been representing the resistance within the US Empire very well. The Jordanian woman told me that the Palestinians had been denied visas, or hadn´t received them until too late, and so they were going to be represented by Venezuela´s Palestinian community. Another tip, this one from some Puerto Rican delegates yesterday, has it that there are only four Iraqi delegates, all from the Iraqi Communist Party.

At this base there are also 24 Japanese , a Libyan and some others. According to a Japanese activist I just spoke to, half of them are from the Communist Party and the other half are from their youth group, although there is another delegation from a social democratic group in Japan. And at the airport he told me of large delegations from India, Viet Nam and one of the Coreas (he wasn´t sure which).

I am being shepherded off of the computer due to time restraints, but I will return with more. Stay tuned.

I have now met with some of the at least one hundred thirty Dominicans here and they are all mostly from their branch of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (which is generally connected to the national Communist Parties), but they say there are Dominicans from cultural groups too. There are also about one hundred Libyans, and I am told that they are from University groups, perhaps also WFDY connected. But there are also large delegations from Algeria and Morocco, and I have not received word of where they are from. Soon we will have a national meeting for the entire US delegation, and then to Caracas to the opening session.

The US just had its first official delegation meeting with 700 delegates crammed inside what is known on this base as the Ping Pong room, where they announced some numbers amongst the different delegations. There are over twelve thousand delegates from the Americas outside of Venezuela, including 1800 Cubans, 3000 Colombians, over 750 Brasileiros, 700 from the US, and there are another 150 from Viet Nam, whose delegation has been very eager to connect with us from the US.

The woman from Jordan, whose delegation was not able to come through (she was studying in London and was able to get in), told me that there are up to 200 Libyans and perhaps 350 Algerians. She wore a kaffiyah which was half black&white and half red&white, signifying unity between the Palestinian and Jordanian cultures, as well as between the different political movements in the Palestinian struggle.

Now we finally go to Caracas for a march where all of the delegations to march together. The US delegation, as per the suggestion of American Indian Movement veteran Robert, will march the US flag behind the Indigenous peoples´ banner, although I wonder about the wisdom of marching with the US flag at all.

>Finally, I would like to end with a note. I am not writing this for my health. Please send feedback on these notes.

MIERDA i stubbed my toe. that was sunday night, and it was deep and bloody. but the venezolanas were prepared and i received my first visit with a real doctor in over three years, excepting a late night visit with a friend´s father back when i had the pneumonia. and this first real doctor visit was with a CUBAN doctor. his name was roberto, a handsome man in his early thirties, who had worked for two year periods in Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, and now Venezuela, as is required and requested by Cuba for all of its medical professionals. But he had gone above and beyond and done it for longer than the usual. Perla Marina, a slightly older Venezuelan volunteer who was sweet as honey, took me to him, and we chilled, joked around, and I got real medical treatment.

I can only be briefly go into the events of yesterday, the march, the delegations, etc. First, all seven hundred or so estadounidenses met at one of the bases, and the highly impressive turn out from Chicago groups like the Batey & Zocalo delegation and the University of Hip Hop, Geny Y, and Southwest Youth Collaborative delegation, both which had organized entirely on their own, were very apparent.

Most national delegations, from the 300-person Angolan delegation from the MPLA to the Algerians who are with their National Student Union, are with only one organization which is usually connected with their equivalent of our Communist Party (which in virtually all cases are very moderate). This is a large disappointment, but it was something I had anticipated. Some delegations also have their Socialist Party present.

The Cubans too are almost entirely from their youth communist group, but I was fortunate enough to meet up with the Cuban who coordinated my trip back in 2000. We had not seen each other since, and lost contact, but he ecstatically charged after me and offered to show me some of the more militant local and international activists in a neighborhood I had heard of previously known as something like 23 de Febrero. I will correct that later if it is incorrect.

As we drove in, we saw the beautiful and coordinated delegations from Brazil, Viet Nam, Guyana, Algeria, Western Sahara, and elsewhere, and we felt ashamed. But the most exciting part of the day for me came early on in the march, when I found the 20 members of the PANAMANIAN DELEGATION. And they did not disappoint. At the sight of this insane Panamanian-American they were immediately jubilant and welcomed me into their group. Every single one dropped their email on my note book or gave me their card, and eventually we had all eighty of the Panamanians together. Only three of them were comrades from my trips to Panama, but they were easily one of the funniest, loudest, most festive and most militant groups, largely along with other West Indian delegations from St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. For those who wonder where I get my louder-than-a-megaphone vocal cords, apparently it´s in my blood.

But what was most impressive to me about the Panamanian delegation was the politics. They had one of the most diverse delegations in the entire festival politically, almost all youth from the University and some from the unions, and virtually all of the over nine or ten heavily divided Marxist groups in the University were present. As the Panamanians explained to me, they left their ideological contradictions and divisions in Panama, because here in Venezuela at the Festival they are one. And I saw not one moment of tension between groups. Indeed, they proudly told me that the real language of our country is the kiss. For most of the rest of the day I stuck with them, although forays into the crowd found me warmly embraced by most of the rest of the delegations. particularly affectionate were those from Peru and Granada, among others, but all were warm and eager to trade contacts and take pictures.

Before I go, I must give special mention to Iraq. There was one Iraqi delegate in the march, a Iraqi Communist Party member from Canada, but later three unaffiliated radical Iraqis who study in Canada seized the Iraq sign and took over the delegation. The day ended with a speech from Chavez, but the estadounidenses were rude enough to walk out (forcing me and others who wanted to stay to come along to our buses). It is obvious that I will have the best experience when I am with my second delegation- the Panameños!