It’s
true to say that some things are the same all around
the world, no matter how far you go. Alexis took
a fair deal of coaxing before he would sing us all
a song but once he got going we couldn’t shut
him up. It was my last night in Caracas and for
the last hour of my English class at the Juan Alberdi
School, we had pulled our chairs around in a circle
and chatted about different things. They wanted
to know more about Ireland and quizzed me on the
weather, landscape; food etc whilst I drew crude
maps of Europe on the blackboard for them. It was
typical for the Friday classes to finish like this.
The missions were about meeting socially too and
sharing experiences and knowledge gained during
the last week. I enjoyed these Friday evening s
immensely. They bubbled with excited Spanish and
laughter. I was usually the main target of all the
banter (being the novelty in the class) and my last
night was celebrated with the women teaching me
the salsa, meringue and rumba dance steps and in
exchange I had to sing an Irish song for the class
at the blackboard. At home this kind of abandonment
of prudence would be unspeakable in sobriety, but
here in this classroom in Western Caracas, such
was the joy and abandon that it would have been
embarrassing not to have joined the melee.
It
would of course be better to have had visited the
poor Barrios of Caracas both pre and post Chavez,
but I doubt that such vitality and spirit existed
there ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Maydays march in Caracas was one event that I had
looked forward to with great anticipation. James,
my English host, travelled with me by Metro to the
marches starting point at the La Bandera district.
The Metro was heaving with people in red chavista
t-shirts moving hurriedly; talking excitedly. When
we ascended to ground level at La Bandera station,
I was taken aback by the size of the crowd waiting
to disembark. It was a sea of red with the occasional
truck dressed with flags pumping out lively Latin
music that the crowd naturally danced along the
route to. The sheer vibrancy of the crowd swept
me away. The contrast between the Mayday processions
that I had attended in Belfast was stark. Our processions
were conservative, orderly, almost sombre, as though
we were commemorating socialism as an old friend
that we had buried in 1989. Here in Caracas, half
a million people were celebrating socialism and
workers solidarity as something very much alive
and growing. They danced and waved flags as they
snaked their way through Caracas to the rally point
where Hugo Chavez gave his rousing address. I was
able to get quite close up to the speaking platform
and heard him describe the goals of the revolutionary
process; “the creation of a new fair and equal
Bolivarian Socialist Venezuela we see forming and
building around us”. The people responded to
all of his strong points with cheers, whistling
and flag waving. I proudly waved my Starry Plough
high over the crowd and was elated to see it on
the Venezuelan news channel that night.
What was evident that Mayday in Caracas and in the
classrooms and every Barrio I visited was the exuberance
and enthusiasm that the people had for the revolutionary
process. Venezuela is embarking on, what is in many
respects, a unique revolutionary transition. It
is taking place in the context of various socio-economic
and political factors which are also unique to Venezuela
and to try and replicate the Venezuelan model here
in Ireland would be in vain. However, we can take
certain elements and lessons from it. The Bolivarian
government has begun to organise its society around
the needs of its people. It has begun to use the
land and resources as a commonwealth for the benefits
of its people. In doing so it has relieved many
welfare and economic pressures that the people suffered
and created space for them to fulfil their full
human potential by whatever means they wish. It
is creating a culture where success and achievement
are not measured strictly in material gain but in
sports, arts, technological, agricultural and industrial
development.
It’s true to say that some things are the same
all around the world, no matter how far you go.
If we can find the imaginative ambition, tempered
with the reality of our own socio-economic and political
status-quo, to create the space for our own people
to develop our society along similar lines, radical
change would surely follow. It is how we do this
is, in my opinion, our greatest challenge.
One
of my motivations is to see the same vitality and
vibrancy that I experienced on my last night in
that classroom in Western Caracas. I left the classroom
that night sad that I was going home, but with my
heart swelled with joy, my head bursting with ideas.
