Venezuela Speaks! Voices From the Grassroots Book Tour

This book tour is happening in many places- come support the local Hartford date- January 27th, 7pm at Charter Oak Cultural Center (21 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford CT 06106). For more info email abbey.willis@charteroakcenter.org or call 860.249.1207. Listen to an interview with the author here.

Please re-post widely and wildly!

While Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues to capture headlines for his inflammatory remarks and controversial policies, a much larger story involving a wider cast of characters has gone largely ignored.

The perspectives and sentiments of Venezuela’s grassroots organizations and social movements participating in Chavez’s so-called Bolivarian Revolution have remained largely outside of the public eye.

In a pivotal new book, Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots (PM Press, $22.95, January 2010), authors Carlos Martinez, Michael Fox, and JoJo Farrell investigate the views and activities of these grassroots political activists through a collection of interviews.
Venezuela Speaks! highlights the stories of grassroots participants in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, and explores the relationship and tension between these social movements and the Chavez government.

These illuminating stories include the Indigenous University of Venezuela, a university that was created independently by five indigenous groups to make sure that their ancient knowledge would continue to be taught to their youth. One of the university’s rectors, Wadajaniyu, explains that the university was inspired by Venezuela’s new constitution passed in 1998 under President Chavez which placed a premium on the rights of indigenous peoples to developing their own education. Nonetheless, after nearly a decade in existence the university is still struggling to receive recognition by the government so that they can sustain its existence and growth.

Other stories include interviews with a founder of the Center for Women’s Studies, Alba Carosio, who discusses the gains and challenges for the women’s movement in Venezuela; members of the Afro-Venezuelan Network who talk about their myriad efforts to confront racism in a country that tends to ignore the topic of race altogether; and members of a campesino organization who explain their complex relationship with a government that has promoted land reform.

Co-authors Martinez, Fox, and Farrell have been intimately embedded with the social movements that they explore.

Carlos Martinez and JoJo Farrell both lived in Venezuela for two years, serving as program directors for human rights organization Global Exchange’s Venezuela Program, where they coordinated various educational delegations for people from the United States to learn about the realities of Venezuela’s political situation. Michael Fox is a journalist, reporter, and documentary film-maker who lived in Venezuela for three years and continues producing the weekly radio headlines on www.venezuelanalysis.com.

PM Press (www.pmpress.org) publishes lively books on progressive politics and current affairs.