Uni elections
ULA (University of Los Andes) is having its student council elections soon, in the beginning of March. I went down there because there was going to be an action by the left wing, but it didn’t happen. Still, the campuses are covered with banners and posters for the various competing groups: the two main ones being, obviously, opposition and pro Chavez.
As you can see from the photos, the opposition are running a ‘Nixon’ ticket, who is running for mayor in November. If they win these uni elections (which I think is very likely) it will give them leverage and resources for the local elections. There has already been a few minor conflicts, and it’s likely that things will get even more tense on campus as the election date draws near.
ULA (University of Los Andes) is having its student council elections soon, in the beginning of March. I went down there because there was going to be an action by the left wing, but it didn’t happen. Still, the campuses are covered with banners and posters for the various competing groups: the two main ones being, obviously, opposition and pro Chavez.
As you can see from the photos, the opposition are running a ‘Nixon’ ticket, who is running for mayor in November. If they win these uni elections (which I think is very likely) it will give them leverage and resources for the local elections. There has already been a few minor conflicts, and it’s likely that things will get even more tense on campus as the election date draws near.
Mission Che Guevara
Yesterday I met up with a few friends and we went up the road to the Mission Che Guevara- to learn more about it, but also because we were interested in some of the courses (History of Venezuela, Spanish etc). It turned out the courses had already started and are only offered as part of a long term qualification course (eg if you are studying ‘tourism’ you will study basic computing, history of Venezuela and so on as well). As was later explained to us, this is an ‘integral’ approach to learning: that is, you don’t just study your career, but context as well.
The woman at the mission referred us to the director of INCES- who looks after all the education missions. He wasn’t there, but another person took out 15 minutes of his time to answer our questions.
Integral education, creating the integral person, he explained, involves identity, culture, the physical (sport etc), and the intellectual. It doesn’t include religion, which is personal and varies person to person. The philosophy, he said, is to ‘learn while doing it’- ie not just studying through books, but through experience.
Mission Che Guevara is open to absolutely anyone, from ages 15-60, and its main aim is training to help people form and run cooperatives. Areas covered include commerce, tourism, textiles, construction, and industry.
I asked the man (Ebhert) about some of the administrative problems in Mission Sucre. He answered that it’s a massive project that has been started very quickly. He is right, mass education all of a sudden is hard! Of course there will be mistakes and so on. But also part of the aim of the education missions, to form people on a moral level, which includes things like educating against corruption. But the impact of such education takes a while. Generations even.
Frente Francisco de Miranda (another kind of education)
We thought we might as well pop in and say hi to the Frente, whose office is just a few buildings up from INCES, and who are also organising courses of ‘formation of the social Bolivarian fighter/struggler’ at the moment, which we were interested in enrolling in. We also told them about our new ‘Foreigners in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution’ group, to see if we can do some joint seminars or work together in some way.
David explained that the Frente are formed of members who have all studied in Cuba for 2-3 months. They do a range of stuff, including social work, working with the missions, the government and politics. Lately they have been organising ‘anti imperialist tribunals’ which are street events that go for 1-2 hours and include poetry, speeches, music, etc, they work with community radio, organise street festivals etc. They also have a program of education, both for their own members, and going to collectives, batallons etc, and educating them about socialism, Marxism etc.
For example, for 2 hours a week they get together and have political study, which generally involves reading an article together, discussing it, and reaching conclusions. They have a list of 300 movies and documentaries they use for discussion, and they publish a range of texts (sometimes in conjunction with Ocean Press).
Their teaching methods have been inspired by a range of people including Rodriguez (Bolivar’s teacher). They have a school called ‘Robinson’ which was Rodriguez’s alias, and use a range of creative learning technics, such as quizzes and powerpoint. David showed us, excitedly, a comic version of the Communist Manifesto.
Meanwhile, at work
My students have been pretty stressed lately, they have a major project due over the next few weeks, and have been less focused in class. They seem to be a bit confused about the exact requirements of the project, and as they will be graduating soon (in just 1 month, after over 5 years of study!) they are anxious about grades. Yesterday, by 7 (the classes start at 6.30) I only had 3 students, and they suggested the rest were working on their projects- so we went and had coffee. Oh, poor things. Finally more arrived at 7.30, so we had a short class, but I feel bad teaching them English when I know it’s the least important thing on their mind right now!
