Revolution in the Camden air as Chávez - with amigo Ken - gets a hero's welcome
He may be scorned in the US and labelled a terrorist, but in London Hugo Chavez was given a hero's welcome during his public meeting with Mayor Ken Livingston.
It is highly significant that Chavez has chosen not to meet Tony Blair during this visit, preferring the company of our maverick socialist Mayor instead.
"Sometimes I'm a terrorist according to Washington or a guy who does military coups," said President Chávez, in front of a backdrop of his country's red, blue and yellow flag. "But all we did was participate in a revolutionary movement, which is what we are doing now." He went through a history of revolution in Latin America and described how his hero, Simon Bolivar, had visited London in 1810.
He said: "I am a Catholic and a Christian and a very committed Christian and I was talking to the Pope about the struggle against poverty - I call it Christ's cause." Then he was talking about the first time he had met Fidel Castro.
He won applause from a large contingent of banner-bearing women when he said that one of the features of capitalism is that it excludes and exploits women.
On the platform with him were many leading figures of the left. He pointed out Tariq Ali, and made him show the crowd a satirical poster he had portraying Chávez, Castro and Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, as the Pirates of the Caribbean. He attacked the administration in Washington as "the greatest threat to this planet ... Imagine they launch this attack on Iran. They've got it planned. If the US attack Iran, people in England who drive cars will have to park them. Oil will be $100 a barrel."
The man who survived a coup in 2002 - "planned in the Pentagon and the White House" - told the audience to huge applause: "I know there are plans to kill me. It doesn't matter. It won't stop me."
The London audience recognised Chavez as one of the first leaders of an oil rich country to use his oil wealth in an attempt to eradicate poverty, the kind of socialist thinking that seems to most enrage Washington, who think any country with oil should have maximising corporate profits as their first consideration.
Ken Livingston applauded his actions by stating:
Venezuela is a state of huge oil wealth that was hitherto scarcely used to benefit the population. Now, for the first time in a country of over 25 million people, a functioning health service is being built. Seventeen million people have been given access to free healthcare for the first time in their lives. Illiteracy has been eliminated. Fifteen million people have been given access to food, medicines and other essential products at affordable prices. A quarter of a million eye operations have been financed to rescue people from blindness. These are extraordinary practical achievements.
Little wonder, then, that Chávez and his supporters have won 10 elections in eight years. These victories were achieved despite a private media largely controlled by opponents of the government. Yet Chávez's visit has been met with absurd claims from rightwing activists that he is some kind of dictator.
It is a sign of how little David Cameron's Conservative party has changed that London Tories are boycotting today's meeting with Chávez. This contrasts, of course, with the Tories' longstanding feting of the murdering torturer General Augusto Pinochet. To justify their position they ludicrously compare Chávez to Stalin. Sometimes it is necessary to choose the lesser of two evils. Britain fought with Stalin against Hitler. But with Chávez the choice is not difficult at all. He is both carrying out a progressive programme and doing so through the mandate of the ballot box.
George Bush's refusal to respect the choices of the Venezuelan people shows that his administration has no real interest in promoting democracy at all.
Not since the 1973 coup that brought Pinochet to power have people faced a clearer or more important international choice. In Venezuela millions are struggling to take their country out of poverty. They are doing so by means that are among the most democratic in the world. Both are inspiring.
Today Venezuela is being opposed largely on the basis of lies. We have to make sure Venezuelans have to face nothing worse. It is the duty of all people who support progress, justice and democracy to stand with Venezuela.
As I argued yesterday, if we respect democracy, then we must respect any country's democratic choice as leader. The fact that Bush doesn't, reveals as hollow his claims to be exporting it.
As the starvation of the people of Palestine shows, Bush only really supports democracy when it provides him with leaders of which he approves.
Were we all allowed to make that distinction, then the American elections would carry less legitimacy than any other election on earth.
We might not like the fact that George Bush was elected by the American people, but we recognise him as their representative.
It is time for the US to reciprocate and recognise the legitimacy of both Chavez and Hamas.
Democracy doesn't always throw up the leaders that you want; that's it's beauty.
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