[ssf] Fwd:16th World Festival of Students and Youth in Caracas, August 5-13th, 2005

[Dan]

*If you are interested in going to

*_*The 16th World Festival of Students and Youth in Caracas, August 
5-13th, 2005

*_*then come to

Simunye Café, London Road*
*Saturday 29 January, 2pm
e-mail: mazzav at hotmail.com
*
*The World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS)*, initiated in 1947, is 
the biggest event organized by progressive and democratic youth and 
students around the world. The WFYS is one of the main expressions of 
anti-imperialist, anti-fascist and anti-colonialist struggles led by 
youth. After the successful 15th WFYS in Algeria in 2001, held for the 
first time on the African continent and Arab region, the 16th WFYS will 
take place in Caracas, Venezuela, from August 5 to 13, 2005. 20,000 
young people from all the continents of the world are expected to attend.

In *Venezuela*, a country that is the fifth largest oil exporter in the 
world, 80 per cent of its population was living in poverty. President 
Chávez was elected in 1998 by a popular majority on a clear programme to 
tackle poverty and to empower the people by using the great oil wealth 
of his country in the interests of the people as a whole. Since his 
election, his government has introduced reforms such as literacy 
programs, free community health care, especially in the remotest and 
poorest neighbourhoods, large-scale financial aid for the poor to attend 
a university, subsidized supermarkets in poor neighbourhoods, and 
employment for graduates from the educational missions. It has also 
redistributed land to over 100,000 families, and the urban land reform 
program is providing barrio inhabitants with titles to their self-built 
homes and terrain.

As a result, the Chávez government has received opposition from the 
powerful elite and the US government, which have supported the 
reactionary right-wing opposition in a series of attempts to destabilise 
and remove Chavez from office. This has included strikes, interference 
with the media, demonstrations and a coup in April 2002, which failed 
when millions of Venezuelans came out in the street in support of their 
ousted president. Since 1998, in almost every one of the nine elections 
Chávez and his supporters have won about 60% of the vote, including a 
referendum in 2004, which was calling for the government to stand down.

This makes the hosting of the *16^th World Festival of Youth and 
Students, *by Venezuela, a particularly exciting opportunity to visit a 
country, which is delivering to its people and offering an alternative 
to neo-liberalism. The Festival will be a space to exchange ideas and 
experiences and provide a platform to coordinate our efforts and 
intensify the struggles in our respective countries. It also provides an 
opportunity to extend our solidarity to the people of Venezuela, and its 
Bolivarian Revolution (named after Símon Bolivar, who liberated the 
country from Spanish rule in the nineteenth century.)

*If you are interested* in going to the festival, or supporting a 
Sheffield delegation, please attend the meeting. By working together to 
raise money, we are hoping that some of the costs involved would be 
covered, to enable anyone who is interested to attend - *ALL ARE WELCOME. *