Tamil Nadu   

Message for youth from Venezuela

The 16th World Youth Student festival opposed imperialism and supported peace and solidarity

Amidst his busy schedule, the president of the SFI Tamil Nadu unit, G. Selva, who is caught up in protests against the Supreme Court order on self-financing colleges, takes a few minutes off to chat with J. Malarvizhi about his recent visit to Venezuela, where he attended the 16th World Youth Student Festival, a forum for progressive and democratic young people.

The festival was first held after the Second World War to build solidarity and express opposition to fascist regimes. Organised every three years in a socialist country by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the fall of the Soviet Union put it in temporary crisis. Recently the festival was held in Cuba and Algeria and now in Venezuela.

The Venezuela festival was attended by around 17,000 delegates from across the world. Selva was a member of the 200-strong Indian delegation and sole SFI representative from Tamil Nadu.

The week-long event began with a flag march at the Fuerte Tiuna military compound where several participants, including Selva, stayed.

Other participants report in blogs that the parade, with countries marching in alphabetical order, the `C' section was the longest, as the biggest contingents from outside Venezuela were from Cuba and Columbia. That also explains why "almost everyone was talking in Spanish. They laughed at us when we tried to speak in English and said we should speak in our mother tongues. I realised that it is only in our country that speaking in English is such a big deal. Some groups such as the Japanese and Russians brought interpreters along. Some did not."

Fidel Castro, staunch supporter of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, sent a video carrying his message and good wishes for the students. He urged them to oppose the creation of a unipolar world. "The first time Mr. Chavez appeared to address us, he was welcomed with a roar of applause. All the soldiers in the camp where we were staying passionately believed in Mr. Chavez and the revolution," says Selva.

The days were filled with seminars, workshops and cultural programmes on the broad theme of opposition to imperialism.

Participants were introduced to changes made in Venezuela by Mr. Chavez, including the nationalisation of oil and provision of free education.

"Even delegates from the developed world were against privatisation. They say it has done nothing but harm."

But the voices were coming from different kinds of people: communists, democrats, environmental activists and individualist groups. A resolution of students and youth against imperialism and for peace and solidarity was adopted.

Mr.Chavez, a practising Christian who says that Venezuela is in a `pre-socialist' stage, could talk of Marx, Gramsci and Christ with equal ease, says Selva.

"The nicest thing about Venezuela is that tradition is cherished, but not in a reactionary sense. Leaders like Bolivar are remembered."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Message for youth from Venezuela
A festival of flowers and feast
When flowers beckon
Devout following
Bundle of burden
My sweet home!
Peaceful culmination
Courtesy call
Village to get e-connectivity with Rashtrapathi Bhavan
First-ever All-India Urdu Mushaira opens
Study working of State Electricity Boards, demands workers' union
Briefly

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu