My Evening with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
September 21, 2006
I received an invitation that I could not refuse to spend yesterday evening at Cooper Union’s Great Hall with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. I arrived at the historic college a little after 7:30pm and joined the huge line of people that snaked around the building. Luckily Ardeshir Ommani had spotted me and brought me halfway up the line to join his wife, dear Ellie. Emma Loftin-Woods joined us soon thereafter.
While we chatted excitedly in line, I saw five Neuterai Karta Rabbis who had attended WESPAC’s Made in Palestine exhibit in November 2004. They had with them a huge bouquet of flowers for Chavez. They wore flags of Palestine pinned to their black traditional orthodox clothing. Rabbi Yisroel Weiss asked me to write my contact information on the back of one of his business cards. I wrote it down and then looked to give him the information but couldn’t see him anywhere.
We proceeded through security with Venezuelan Officers, both male and female, in their attractive Bolivarian uniforms and red berets. It was around 8:45pm when we finally made it inside and found our seats. The Great Hall filled quickly with people from so many different backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities, but we were all united in our aspirations for a very different world based on universal principles of social justice.
I spotted the Rabbis seated in front of me, and went quickly to give Rabbi Weiss my information. They were very happy I had come and asked me to take some pictures of them with their digital camera from the front of the hall. I was happy to oblige and moved to the front to get a better view of them. As I fumbled with the camera, the guards escorted Chavez into the room! People rushed to the front and I found myself pushed right up to Chavez with the Rabbis right behind me. I couldn’t quite believe it and had to extend my hand to Chavez which he embraced very warmly in greeting. The Rabbis pressed very close to him and held his hand; I heard them giving Chavez their blessings. It was a very beautiful moment.
Harry Belafonte introduced us to Chavez “from one African to another”. And then Chavez began to speak to us. He thanked Cooper Union for affording him the opportunity to be with us that evening. He mentioned the critical speech that Abraham Lincoln gave at Cooper Union on the issue of federal control of slavery, and that the first meeting of the NAACP was convened at Cooper Union. He covered many topics last night. He started by acknowledging various people in the room including Roger Toussaint, the current President of the Transport Workers Union and asked him several questions about the number of buses and subway trains, and the ownership of these trains and buses. He asked how much oil these buses consume!
He recognized the Rabbis who had given him such a lovely bouquet of flowers and spoke about Jewish People, about their history of suffering, the pogroms, the Inquisition, the attempts at genocide. He spoke about Jews in Venezuela as fully part of Venezuelan Society. He said some try to paint him as an anti-Semite, but he is not. He said he will speak out against all imperialist aggression no matter who the perpetrator, and that the current Government of Israel is not to be confused with the Jewish People.
He acknowledged the Haitian Contingent last night. His remarks on Haiti’s struggle for independence were met with lively chants in Creole. In fact, the whole evening, we were enthusiastically involved with his presentation with clapping and shouts of “Gracias, Senor Presidente”.
He spent a lot of time speaking about education as a birthright of all people and how it must be provided, like clean air, free of charge to everyone from pre-school through university. He spoke of previously decrepit schools in Venezuela that are being transformed into decent institutions of learning. He spoke about how Venezuela is eradicating illiteracy. How hundreds of thousands of low-income people who had to drop out of school as children to support their families have now returned to school and are receiving high school diplomas and college degrees. 80 and 90 year old grandmothers are returning to school to finish their education. It was very moving.
He spent a lot of time honoring women and confirming that women are the ones who will transform this planet. He said that women suffer most when it comes to poverty and wars. He recognized courageous women in the room including Eva Golinger who wrote The Chavez Code and documented how the CIA was involved in the failed coup attempt of 2002 in Venezuela. He blew a kiss to Cindy Sheehan for all she has done to raise awareness about the horrors of the ongoing US Occupation in Iraq.
Chavez spoke of Iraq, a country that has been destroyed by the US invasion of 2003. He spoke about the hardships of ordinary Iraqis who still do not have basic services restored since the invasion. He spoke about the condition of hospitals in Iraq. He spoke about the American use of chemical weapons in Iraq, especially in Fallujah, about how after the siege of Fallujah, all living beings were found dead, including the birds, the cats, the dogs…We heard very little about Fallujah in our media.
He spoke about the horrors of capitalism as a system that only leads to “hell” and that capitalism is not compatible with people’s democracy. He boldly stated a vision for a 21st Century Progressive Socialism based on the universal values of compassion and deep love for humanity. He asked us to please work hard for a more benevolent American Government in the next two years. He said the peace-loving world was not asking for a socialist government in the U.S. but rather for a more benevolent government that has genuine feelings of love and compassion for humanity.
He mentioned Chomsky’s book on Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States. He said if we continue on our current course of action, there may very well be no humanity left on this planet. At that point a security guard came forward and delivered a fax that the Venezuelan Embassy had received earlier from Noam Chomsky. Chomsky was saying that he had heard parts of the address to the General Assembly that Chavez had made earlier in the day, and wanted to provide Chavez with further documentation on some of the points he had made!
As the evening drew to a close, Chavez presented some gifts to people present. He presented a huge portrait of Francisco de Miranda to Harry Belafonte. de Miranda was a Venezuelan soldier and a monumental figure in the independence of Venezuela and Latin America. He served bravely in the American Revolution and was then sent to Cuba. He served in the French Revolution, and attained the rank of major general. The name of de Miranda is on the "Arc de Triomphe" in Paris among those of the great captains that fought in that Revolution. Chavez asked us to know our history and the ties that we have in common with people like Francisco de Miranda. He offered framed documents to representatives of the U.S. Historical Society.
It was a memorable evening, an evening that inspired hope in the real possibility of another world; a world where our political leaders are not motivated by greed and the urge to dominate and control but by a burning passion for justice in all spheres of life. It was well after one o’clock in the morning by the time we returned home, but I was buzzing with the renewed sense of joy and belief in the possibilities within our movement for progressive social change. Let us work collectively to usher in this new era sooner rather than later!