[Upd-discuss] Declaration: In Defence of Knowledge for All from the World Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists in Defence of Humanity, Caracas, Venezuela, 5 December 2004

[Zapopan Martin Muela-Meza]

>From John Pateman at IFLA list.
-------------------------------
         In Defence of Knowledge For All
Date:   Sun, 05 Dec 2004 19:46:14 +0000

Caracas, Venezuela, 5 December 2004

In Defence of Knowledge for All is one of the
subjects for
discussion at a
round table of the World Meeting of Intellectuals
and
Artists in Defence of
Humanity being held here in Caracas, Venezuela.

The outcome of this round table was a declaration
and some
resolutions. Here
are some extracts from the report.

Report

The Commission considered that knowledge
constitutes one of
the key tools
for the defense of humanity today and one of the
fundamental ways to face
problems such as environmental crisis and the
rise of
poverty.

With great concern we have noticed how the
characteristics
of the dominant
socio economic system have turned knowledge into
just
another commodity,
which is based on the demands of the market and
not on
social needs.

In the same way knowledge plays an important role
in the
development of a
new arms race based on advances of modern science
and new
technologies that
sets the basis for the re emergence of new forms
of fascism
world wide.

Proposals

To create an international network of information

solidarity, coordination
and mobilization that links intellectuals and
artists with
social forums and
popular struggles, and guarantees the continuity
of these
efforts and their
articulation in an international movement in
Defence of
Humanity that will
include among its objectives the Defence of
Knowledge For
All

To protect, promote and strengthen the public
libraries
networks, museums
and other knowledge diffusion centres, ensuring
free access
for all walks of
society without any kind of exclusion. To
emphasise the
role of the book as
the main vehicle of culture.

To foster policies of acknowledgement, protection
and
promotion of all
languages, as a support to knowledge and a means
for its
diffusion.

These ideas were debated by the conference in the
presence
of the Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez. This debate lasted for 8
hours and
gave the President
opportunities to talk about the Bolivarian
Revolution in
Venezuela.

Chavez spoke about the Robinson Rivas and Sucre
Missions to
tackle
illiteracy and basic education. There are over
1.2 million
people involved
in these programs which are being funded by the
government
and cost 50
million dollars every month.

Chavez mentioned the 70 year old man who could
not read and
write for most
of his life but who is now fully literate. And
the
grandmother who could not
help her children with their homework due to
illiteracy but
who was now able
to help her grand children.

Chavez also talked about the attempts by the rich

oligarchies to destroy the
Revolution through strikes and sabotage. One
strike lasted
for 64
consecutive days and nearly bought the country to
its
knees. There was no
food or power and the banks were closed.

Chavez went into one of the poor areas and was
invited into
the home of an
old woman who was cooking some kind of food on a
fire. She
told Chavez that
she was using her bed for fire wood. She said
that she was
prepared to tear
down her whole house if necessary but that he
must not
surrender. He did not
surrender and the Revolution survived and is
growing
stronger every day.

After the debate all delegates were invited to
the
Presidential Palace for
dinner and entertainment with traditional
Venezuelan music
and dance.

President Chavez will be attending today´s final
plenary
session of the
conference to hear the Caracas Appeal which will
be a
combination of all the
resolutions from the 10 work tables.

John Pateman
Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group
5 December 2004

********************************************************

=====
Vorwärts!

Zapopan Martín Muela Meza
PhD student Information Studies
Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
http://www.shef.ac.uk/is/research/phd.html
http://www.geocities.com/zapopanmuela/index.html


		
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