[News] Venezuela: The Hip Hop Movement Gets Organized

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Venezuela: The Hip Hop Movement Gets Organized

January 9th 2010, by Hip Hop Revolucion
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5058

Over the 17, 18 and 19 of December the first conference of activists 
and militants of the Venezuelan Hip Hop movement was held. Convened 
and organized by the Hip Hop Revolution collective and with the 
participation of activists from over 8 states from the west of the 
country, the [congress] discussed and debated the creation of urban 
art schools, a joint project of the HHR Collective and the Ministry 
of Communes.

For three days at the headquarters of INCES [the National Institute 
of Socialist Education and Training] in La Azulita, Merida state, 
workshops were held on political education, music production, 
screening of documentaries (provided by the National Film Archive), 
group discussions and the creation of the definitive curriculum of 
the urban art schools, whose classes began over this period.

During the meeting a joint statement was drafted which we reproduce below:

Hip Hop is one expression of the creative power of the people. It is 
a culture that originally emerged from conditions of poverty, in the 
most neglected, marginalized and oppressed sectors of society. We 
view ourselves as a resistance movement that confronts capitalism and 
its system of domination. We view ourselves as the successors of the 
historical class struggle that led our people to their first 
nation-wide rebellion in 1814, the first act of genuine rebellion of 
an insurgent people who spilled into the streets to destroy the 
society that screws us.

As a tiny part of the people, we do not view our movement as a form 
of isolated struggle, we recognize our origins and we join with the 
collective construction of our neighborhoods and communities for a 
fully just society.

We realize that the struggle of our movement begins within ourselves; 
we must try to destroy our individualities and understand that alone 
no progress is possible. Our culture is collective from its roots, 
for this reason we look beyond the four elements of our movement, we 
view our cultural creation as an act of freedom that can neither be 
bought nor sold, traded nor negotiated; it is simply for living and building.

Part of the commitment of our movement is to achieve horizontal 
organization; we rule out competition between partners and brothers, 
the proposal is to be inclusive, to convey the message to the people, 
our people.

We base our knowledge on experience and invention, producing and 
generating spaces of thought and discussion, pointing inward toward 
the internal, inviting our people to investigate, discuss, activate 
and collectivize, making art, inclusive art, that is born of the 
people, that is not seen in museums, that they still do not want to 
show, the art of collectively creating with words, painting, the 
body, sounds and the spirit.

We believe in collective discussion and construction, because 
"knowledge" and the so-called "intellectuals" and "middle class 
thinking" have screwed over the world. We choose and identify with 
the "uneducated" people, with their unwritten words, with their 
unstudied knowledge, with their unanswered questions, with their 
hunger without food, their homes without a home.

We are committed to the transfer of knowledge and action to the older 
and younger generations. Our shared project of the popular urban art 
school is an option we propose as a grain of sand towards new 
thinking and the construction of a new society, where neither race 
nor gender nor religion, nor training are separated, but are 
amalgamated into one piece, in one territory and in permanent construction.

Committed and activated,
Epatu, Activate.

Translated by Kiraz Janicke for Venezuelanalysis.com




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