Kings Legacy Lives on-- In Venezuela

KING'S LEGACY LIVES ON -- IN VENEZUELA

Op-Ed by Julianne Malveaux
Published in USA Today
January 16, 2004

People too often celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. as a "dreamer" who 
envisioned a day when people would be judged by their character, not the 
color of their skin. That was not all he wanted, or what Monday's 
holiday is entirely about.

Although King is an icon of the civil rights movement, he hardly belongs 
only to African- Americans. As he underscored in his Nobel Peace Prize 
speech when he asserted his "audacity to believe that people everywhere 
can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for 
their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits," King 
championed all people living in poverty worldwide.
I was delighted, therefore, when I traveled with others from the 
TransAfrica Forum to celebrate King's birthday in Caracas, Venezuela. We 
went with Minister of Education Aristobulo Isturiz to open a school 
named after King. It's among more than 3,000 "Bolivarian" schools 
created since Hugo Chavez became Venezuela's president in 1999. The 
schools, open all day, provide two meals and a snack to poor children.

There's also a new Bolivarian University, which increases higher 
education's availability, especially to poorer students. Further, more 
than a million adults have taken literacy classes in the past two years.

Chavez has taken his message of economic justice from Venezuela to the 
whole of Latin America. He opposes a free-trade agreement for the 
Americas and suggests that a development fund be established to help 
poor Latin American countries withstand economic oscillations and 
eliminate poverty.

Not surprisingly, Chavez and George W. Bush have clashed because of 
their different views of Latin American economic development. Chavez, 
for instance, appropriately described national security adviser 
Condoleezza Rice as "illiterate" about Latin American politics and 
economics.

Many middle- and upper-class Venezuelans chafe at Chavez's leadership 
and support a recall initiative now underway. But with poverty in double 
digits, it is hard to quibble with the way Chavez has embraced poor 
Venezuelans and focused on eliminating poverty through education -- in 
some ways, more than our own government has done here.

King was more visionary than dreamer. Parts of his vision now are being 
implemented -- in Venezuela.

Julianne Malveaux, an economist and author, is on the board of directors 
of the TransAfrica Forum.
________________
NOTE: The Venezuela Information Office is dedicated to informing the 
American public about contemporary Venezuela, and receives its funding 
from the government of Venezuela.  More information is available from 
the FARA office of the Department of Justice in Washington DC. 

-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
		--Brecht.



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