Last night was the first of the series of Bethnal Green meetings on Latin America. Twenty people turned up and they included a significant number of sensible local lefties, people I didn’t know – always a good thing at these events and a man from the 9/11 campaign. This excludes him from the sensible people of course. Happily he didn’t speak and we were all a bit disappointed that he didn’t hand out the customary free dvd.

Jeremy Dear gave an excellent introduction on Venezuela and his trip there as part of the TUC delegation. We carried a report of it in SR a couple of months ago. The consistently impressive Jorge Martin reported on events in Mexico. Did you know that in Oaxaca teachers have taken over the role of the police? Kate from Hackney NUT who chaired the meeting is going to propose that Hackney teachers do the same. One could summarise Jorge’s introduction as saying that parts of Mexico are on the threshold of a pre-revolutionary situation but that the leadership is absent.

I thought that the discussion reflected the poor coverage in the English language press of events in Latin America, most scandalously in Mexico but everyone there was seriously interested in the politics of the region and appreciates its possible significance for socialists internationally. It motivated me to try to get to Caracas with the delegation that’s going over for the elections.

Next is the event with John Mc Donnell and George Galloway for which I’m still seeking a venue. I think the event demonstrated that it is possible to begin building local solidarity networks if a very small number of people are willing to take the initiative. What are you waiting for?