UW Professor Barrett Heads to Caracas

Fresh from his talk to the Dane County Democratic Party, UW Madison Professor Patrick Barrett is taking theories of radical voting reform down to rapidly radicalizing Venezuela.

Wisconsin Green Party Leadership Heads to Caracas: Members of the Green Party of the United States will be among the 100,000 social activists from nations throughout the Americas attending the World Social Forum (WSF) in Caracas, Venezuela, January 24 to 29. Greens heading to Caracas for the WSF include Patrick Barrett, Ben Manski, George Martin, Peter Camejo, and James M Leas. Barrett, Manski and Martin are all three from Wisconsin.

The meeting in Caracas is significant in 2006 because it recognizes the challenges that some governments in South America (especially those led by Presidents Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and President-elect Michelle Bachelet of Chile) pose to the U.S., especially to the Bush Administration's pro-corporate agenda and attempt to control fossil fuel industries in the Western Hemisphere; U.S. military incursions in Colombia and threats against Venezuela and Cuba; and U.S.-backed international trade agreements that have damaged democracy, worker and environmental protections, and economic conditions throughout the Americas.

The gathering is self described as “non-governmental and non-partisan” and while there is some concern that “Venezuela is overly politicized and that the strong leadership of Hugo Chavez and his popularity would turn the forum into a ¨Chavista Forum”, the Caracas setting is undoubtedly at the center of the most dynamic active socialist experiment on the planet.

Land of Change: The Venezuelan government is carrying out agrarian reform, redistributing government land and large private estates. It has launched mass literacy and adult education programmes, and set up basic health centres across the country -- many staffed by Cuban doctors.

I wonder if the good Professor will have a chance to explain to Chavez the Four Pillars of the Green Party, especially the part about violence being morally wrong and logistically ineffective, because violence doesn’t address the root cause of problems.