Venezuela Speaks!: Voices From The Grassroots

Venezuela is in a rough transition now. But for over a decade, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution captured international attention. Poverty, inequality and unemployment dropped, while health, education and living standards saw a commensurate rise. Throughout this, the international mainstream media has focused predominantly on Venezuela’s controversial leader, President Hugo Chavez, who has routinely been in the headlines. But without the active participation of large and diverse sectors of society, Chavez’s moment on the scene would have ended long ago.

Venezuela Speaks!: Voices from the Grassroots is a collection of interviews with activists and participants from across Venezuela’s various social movements. From community media to land reform; cooperatives to communal councils; the labor movement to the Afro-Venezuelan network, Venezuela Speaks! sheds light on the complex realities within the Bolivarian Revolution. These interviews all come together to offer a compelling oral history of Venezuela's democratic revolution, from the bottom up.