Solidarity with Cuba, Venezuela

With the world summit coming to the United Nations here, government leaders of many countries will be in New York. This includes some of the heroes of the world’s workers and oppressed peoples and also some of the worst criminals. There will be both greetings and protests.

Leaders of the two popular revolutionary countries of the hemisphere, socialist Cuba and Bolivarian Venezuela, plan to speak to the progressive movement in New York.

On Saturday, Sept. 17, at 6 p.m., the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the U.S. invites people to a special forum with President Hugo Chávez and community and religious leaders on issues of poverty and justice in the globalized world.

The meeting will be at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist, 263 W. 86th St., between Broadway and West End Ave.

On Monday, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m., there will be a welcome for Ricardo Alarcón, the Cuban National Assembly president, and for Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, at the Church of the Intercession, W. 155th Street and Broadway, in Harlem, N.Y. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Attendance is by invitation only and is being organized through those groups that have shown solidarity with revolutionary Cuba or Bolivarian Venezuela, or both.

Chávez has been a particular target of U.S. imperialism in the recent period, including a public assassination threat by Pat Robertson, the racist fundamentalist with close ties to the Bush administration. Cuba is a perpetual target of U.S. imperialism, especially coming from the ever narrower circle of counter-revolutionary Cuban terrorists centered in Miami.

Many New Yorkers are hoping that, despite these security problems, they will have the opportunity to hear the voices of and greet the leaders of the two countries in this hemisphere that have expressed the hopes of humanity. For more information, contact the International Action Center at (212) 633-6646.