Student festival to strain US-Venezuela relations
The government of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has sent another message of defiance to the United States. Venezuela is to host the 16th World Festival of Students and Youth in Caracas, the nation's capital, this August. The event is organised by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) which represents an estimated 300 million young people and students, including the Union de Jovenes Comunistas (Young Communist League) of Cuba.
Founded in London on 10th November 1945, WFDY united various youth organisations from around the world, but it was dominated by groups from the Eastern Bloc from the beginning. This did not hold back the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS), as the youth wing of the Labour Party was then known.
As Cold War tensions increased many members, including LPYS, left the organisation. By the 1960s WFDY was chiefly composed of Moscow orientated communist youth organisations and groups involved in fighting for national independence. Thus the youth wing of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party and the youth group of South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) joined, remaining members to this day.
Although WFDY's fortunes suffered with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it continued to function from its Budapest headquarters. WFDY still enjoys consultative status with the UN and the support of several sizeable members. The 16th World Festival will undoubtedly be well attended; thousands travelled to Algeria for the 15th Festival and whilst it will not attract much attention in the mainstream media the event sends a clear message to the United States.
The Festival will be co-ordinated by the Venezuelan Communist party's youth wing, whose parent party supports President Chavez in the National Assembly. Mr Chavez, first elected president in 2000, survived a coup attempt in 2002 and a recall referendum in 2004. He places the blame for efforts to overthrow his government with the United States and repeatedly voiced his support for democratic socialism.
Venezuela's links with Cuba have become closer under Mr Chavez's administration, much to the chagrin of Washington and his domestic opponents. The Festival, which takes solidarity with Venezuela as a theme, will certainly strain relations with Washington further.
As Karl Berlin, spokesman for the US delegation puts it, "This is the time for building. This is the time of constructing the basis for our World Revolution, building our forces, and opening channels of communications. This August, the first brick is laid." It seems that many in Venezuela are determined that she should join the outposts of terror so feared by the Bush administration.
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