The past few months have seen the return of right-wing attacks on the Venezuelan government and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Also implicated in these attacks has been Alan Woods, the founder of the international Hands Off Venezuela campaign and editor of the popular Marxist website In Defence of Marxism . We were fortunate to have Alan speak at Casa Romero in Toronto’s west-end via video-link, where he answered the lies of the world’s corporate press, as well as why they have attacked him and the HOV campaign personally.

This past weekend, the Canadian Hands Off Venezuela campaign and its sister organizations, the Société Bolivarienne du Québec, the Toronto Bolivarian Circle "Louis Riel," and the Vancouver Bolivarian Society organized a series of events and meetings in solidarity with the upcoming Venezuelan elections on 26th September.  The meetings were part of an international day of action in over 20 countries, organized by the international Hands Off Venezuela campaign.

The National Assembly elections in Venezuela, which will take place on September 26, will mark a turning point for the Bolivarian revolution. What is at stake is not only who will have a majority in the National Assembly, but the future of the revolutionary process itself.  Hands Off Venezuela is organizing an International Day of Action in support of the revolution for 17th-18th September. In Canada, there will be solidarity events in four cities--Fredericton, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.  As well, please sign the petition of support at www.handsoffvenezuela.org .

On 8th May, about 40 people filled the OPSEU union hall in downtown Toronto to listen to a report-back by Fightback editorial board member Camilo Cahis, and Toronto Young New Democrats (TYND) Co-Chair Jennie Ernewein. Both Camilo and Jennie were part of a Hands Off Venezuela/Bolivarian Circle “Louis Riel” delegation to Venezuela. Although the delegation was originally intended to participate in the founding conference of the V International (which has now been postponed until after the September parliamentary elections), the two comrades were able to visit worker-controlled factories, participate in the bi-centennial independence celebrations, talk to ordinary workers and PSUV members, and were invited to attend the congress of the Marxists within the PSUV.

On Tuesday 4th May, representatives from HOV/SBQ in Montreal and HOV/CBLR in Toronto travelled to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to present on the human rights situation in Venezuela. A parliamentary committee is set to report on Venezuelan human rights in September, at the same time as the crucial parliamentary elections in Venezuela.  These hearings come at the same time as the Conservatives and Liberals have shut down debate on the human rights situation in Colombia.

Hands Off Venezuela, the Bolivarian Circle “Louis Riel,” Latin@s, the Latin American Solidarity Network, and the Venezuelan embassy and Consulate-General in Toronto gathered for the launch meeting of the Latin American Peace Initiative (LAPI), which seeks to prevent a new war in Latin America. The need to build an anti-war campaign for Latin America has gained a new impetus given last summer’s coup in Honduras and recent attacks on Venezuela by Canada’s Peter Kent and the US’ Hillary Clinton.

On Sunday, 13th September, Hands off Venezuela/Société Bolivarienne du Québec celebrated their one-year anniversary. Before their merger last September, HOV and SBQ were both doing similar work within the Latin America solidarity movement. After working together on numerous occasions, a general assembly of both organizations decided that a merger would allow for more coordinated work, and therefore more success in the general goal of supporting the revolutionary struggles of Latin American peoples.

Last week Hands Off Venezuela and the Louis Riel Bolivarian Circle were able to bring to Toronto one of the most creative leaders of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution, Julio Chávez. He is not related to President Hugo Chávez, but is often referred to in his country as “the other Chávez”. He came to give Canadians a very clear message -- that the people of Venezuela have assumed control of their natural resources, their government, and their destiny by taking it -- through clean and transparent elections -- from wealthy elites, clients of global capital, who had marginalized the great majority of Venezuelan for the past 40 years.

In the early morning of Sunday, 11th October, around 20 people attended a workshop presented by the Société Bolivarienne du Québec/Hands Off Venezuela. “The Bolivarian Revolution: The truth and the myth” was one of many workshops which were presented by many social organizations during the five days of the Forum Social Québécois in Montreal from the 8th to the 12th of October.

On 29th September in Toronto, Hands Off Venezuela and the Bolivarian Circle “Louis Riel” organized a film screening of the recent documentary produced by Vive TV about FRETECO. This latest documentary explores the revolutionary movement of occupied factories and workers’ control in Venezuela. At the core of the film, workers young and old, male and female, explain how they came to the realization that demanding nationalization under workers’ control is the only way forward for the Bolivarian Revolution.