"A revolution is sweeping Latin America, and Venezuela is at the centre of the process that is radically changing the social order there", Jim McIlroy told a forum on October 22.
McIlroy and Coral Wynter were guest speakers at a meeting of 15 people, organised by the New England branch of the Socialist Alliance, called "Eyewitness report: Latin America and Venezuela".
McIlroy and Wynter lived in Venezuela for a year in 2006 and again for six months until May this year. They wrote regular reports for Green Left Weekly, the only Australian newspaper with a bureau in Caracas.
They told the meeting about progress and challenges in Venezuela, the integration of leftist forces across Latin America through ALBA — the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas — and the US's response to these developments.
In particular, McIlroy and Wynter described the revolution that is allowing ordinary Venezuelans to take power under the leadership of socialist President Hugo Chavez. Wynter presented a slideshow demonstrating the growth of grassroots organisations, social missions, communal councils and new communes, designed to be vehicles for people's democracy in Venezuela.
The slides also showed a solidarity brigade from Australia, sponsored by the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network. McIlroy and Wynter urged the audience to show solidarity with Venezuela and Latin America as a whole in the face of the threat of increased US attacks against the Latin American revolutions.
In particular, they urged solidarity with the people of Honduras, in the face of a US-backed military coup intended to halt the advance of the revolutionary process in Central and South America.
The presentations were followed by a lively discussion of issues and challenges facing the revolutions in Latin America.