DALLAS — Here and in other Texas cities — Garland, San Antonio and Fort Worth — Communist Party national board member Elena Mora reported on her recent trip to Venezuela. Her whirlwind Texas tour in the first week of October was directly linked to the People’s Weekly World fund drive.
The fund drive continues until the end of December. The PWW continues to provide an alternative to the corporate media’s version of national and world events, but the process, like Mora’s trip, takes resources that are provided in small sums by supporters.
Texans made immediate contributions to the PWW, or they filled out pledge cards with sums to be paid by Dec. 31. They got more than their money’s worth with Mora’s refreshing report of the truth about Venezuela, which contrasted starkly with what we are being doused with by corporate media.
Mora, along with 80 other international guests, attended the Venezuelan Communist Party convention in Caracas last July. She was one of the speakers there, along with activists and leaders from the world communist movement and top officials from the Venezuelan government.
Progressives in Venezuela maintain independent organizations, but they are united in support for the amazing transformation being led by the country’s Bolivarian Revolution, she said.
Mora explained that Venezuelans are taking charge of their own destiny, not being ordered around by dictators, as the corporate news media falsely reports. The country has gigantic nationwide “missions,” which bring health care, employment and literacy to a population that was 80 percent impoverished before the Bolivarian process began.
Unlike most countries that have progressive leadership, Mora said, the Venezuelans have oil, which makes the solutions to their problems more direct, but still not simple.
The presentation was full of Mora’s personal humor and enthusiasm for the people she met and the processes she witnessed. She said it is particularly amusing to compare what North Americans are being told about Venezuela with what is really happening there. President Hugo Chávez, for example, has won three elections by great margins and expects to win another one soon. Increasing democracy and voter participation have characterized each election. Yet, newsmen here invariably refer to Chávez as a “dictator” or “strongman.”
By comparison, she said, George W. Bush has barely squeaked by in two elections as Americans lost confidence in his honesty, and he has led the biggest reversal of Americans’ democratic rights in a lifetime — but is often revered by the media!
While Bush is despised world wide, Chávez is making friends with workers everywhere. Elena Mora, the People’s Weekly World, and the Communist Party of Texas are making friends here.
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