Venezuela 101: From Capitalism to Socialism in the 21st Century

(Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez, Greg Wilpert, Antonio Gonzalez)

This panel will discuss the political and economic history of Venezuela with a concentration on the period from the 1989 riots that met President Carlos Andres Perez’ implementation of structural adjustment policies which laid the groundwork for the Bolivarian movement that ultimately led to the election of President Hugo Chavez. The goal of this panel is to bring conference participants and the general public to the same level of information in preparation for the more specific topics for the Saturday and Sunday panels.

Agents of Change Part 1: Workers and Peasant Movements

(Gonzalo Gomez, Marcos Garcia, Camila Piniero)

Labor union rank and file, members of agricultural and factory cooperatives, workers of seized factories, peasant farmers benefiting from land reform are all on the forefront of the Bolivarian process. This panel will answer the question, “What do people in the US need to know about the role of workers and peasants movements in building the Bolivarian process?

Agents of Change Part 2: Social/Ethnic Popular Movements

(Jorge Guerrero, Clara Herrera, and Noeli Pocaterra via video)

Afro-Venezuelans, indigenous peoples, and the women’s movement are authors of their own discourse within the Bolivarian movement. This panel will answer the same question as panel one from the perspective of the social/ethnic popular movements.

The Economy, Energy and the Enviornment

(Adina Bastida, Mark Weisbrot, Vice Minister of the Environment Manuel Rodriguez)

Venezuela’s economy is driven by oil and oil revenue funds the Bolivarian missions and other programs of economic equality. Resource extraction also creates challenges to the environment and indigenous autonomy. This panel will explore the facts about the state of Venezuela’s economy, the environment, and the benefits and challenges for its diverse population.

Popular Democracy: What is it?

(Gonzalo Gomez, Mayor Julio Chavez, James Early)
One of the pillars of the Bolivarian process is the right of the people to participate in governing. From the Community Councils to the cooperatives and worker owned factories, democracy in Venezuela has advanced beyond the Western liberal concept of citizens simply going to the polls periodically to vote for which candidate of the political class will “represent” them. This panel will explore popular, or participatory democracy in Venezuela and its lessons for those of us in the US and other countries who seek broader democracy in our own countries.

Traditional Democracy: How does it fare in Venezuela today?

(Judge Fernando Vegas, Greg Wilpert, Olivia Burlingame Goumbri)

While popular democracy is growing in Venezuela, it continues to have liberal democratic structures and rights including freedom of speech and press, contested elections, and institutions of government. This panel will examine the state of those institutions and rights which we loosely describe as “democratic values.” We will learn what we in the US need to know about freedom and institutionality in order to counter the mainstream media and US government propaganda that would have us believe that Venezuela is a one-man dictatorship.

International Relations: Venezuela becomes a player and a target

(Eva Golinger, Steve Elner, James Jordan)

This panel will discuss Venezuela’s contribution to Latin American integration, fair trade rather than free trade relationships, rejection of neoliberal economic prescriptions, and resistance to US government/corporate hegemony in the hemisphere. It will also discuss the reaction to those initiatives by the US government and multi-national corporations.