U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome Italy anti-war demonstration in Rome

Past Events


Solidarity with Bradley Manning
December 17, 2011

No to "war as usual"
March 19, 2010

Winter Soldier Europe
March 14, 2009

Palestinian Flags Flutter
Alongside Peace Banners

January 17, 2009

Close Guantanamo Now!
January 17, 1009

10-Day Vigil for Gaza
January 8-18, 2009

Supporting La'Onf
October 29, 2008

Free the Cuban 5
Sept 13, 2008

Cheney in Chains
Sept 8, 2008

No Bush, No War
June 11, 2008

May Day ILWU Solidarity Action
May 1, 2008

War Tax Day
April 15, 2008

World Social Forum Global Day of Action
Jan 26, 2008

Shut Down Guantánamo Now!
Jan 11, 2008

No U.S. Military Base in Vicenza
Dec 15, 2007

Meeting Iranian Artists
Dec 05, 2007

End the War in Iraq, No War on Iran
Oct 27, 2007

Report on Final Days of No Dal Molin Festival in Vicenza, Italy
Sept 16, 2007

Camping for Peace in Vicenza, Italy
Sept 12, 2007

Impeach Them Both +
Judiciary Fax Blast

July 23, 2007

I-M-P-E-A-C-H !
April 28, 2007

4th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq
March 20, 2007

No Dal Molin, Vicenza, Italy
Feb 17, 2007

Congress: Act Now to End the War
Jan 27, 2007

No Military Bases, Vicenza, Italy
Dec 2, 2006

No War, No Cluster Bombs
Sept 23, 2006

Protest Calling for Cease-fire in Lebanon
July 26, 2006

Military Spending
Bean Poll

July 18, 2006

Stop the Escalation
in the Middle East

July 17, 2006

Refusing to Kill
July 06, 2006

Shailja Patel:
Poetry in Times
of War

July 05, 2006

Troops Home Fast
July 04, 2006

Italian Vote on
Military Missions

June 27, 2006

Peace Parade
June 02, 2006

Michael Uhl of
Veterans for Peace

April 29, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Hidden in Plain Sight

April 26, 2006

War Tax Day
April 15, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness

April 12, 2006

National Anti-war Protest in Rome
March 18, 2006

Soldiers Against War
March 18, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Aristide and the Endless Revolution

March 15, 2006

Women (and men!) Say No To War
March 8, 2006

An Eyewitness Account of Post Katrina New Orleans
March 2, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Life and Debt

February 09, 2006

Vote to Renew Italian Mission in Iraq
February 09, 2006

Cindy Sheehan
February 06, 2006

NBC Today
Show Blitz

February 06, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
The Revolution Will
Not Be Televised

January 26, 2006

Cindy Sheehan
In Rome

January 18, 2006

Crimes & Lies:
with Dave Lindorff
and Maurizio Torrealta

January 13, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Peace Propaganda and
the Promised Land

January 12, 2006

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
The Oil Factor

December 15, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Plan Colombia

December 01, 2005

Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre
November 30, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Wal-Mart

November 17, 2005

Protest at U.S. Embassy: White Phosphorus in Fallujah
November 14, 2005

Control Arms Petition
at Piazza Chiesa Nuova

November 12, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Invisible Ballots

November 10, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
The Corporation

October 27, 2005

Movie Night:
Viva Zapatero

October 25, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Hidden Wars of
Desert Storm

October 13, 2005

Anti-war rally
at U.S. Embassy

Sept 24, 2005

USC4P&J Social
at the Beehive

June 22, 2005

Die-In with
Articolo 11
at Palazzo Chigi

June 21, 2005

Collecting Photos
with Control Arms

June 18, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Unconstitutional

June 16, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Outfoxed

June 09, 2005

Eyes Wide Open
Film Series
Weapons of
Mass Deception

May 19, 2005

Vigil at Palazzo Chigi with Articolo 11
May 05, 2005

Vigil at Palazzo Chigi with Articolo 11
April 28, 2005

Vigil at Palazzo Chigi with Articolo 11
April 21, 2005

International Day of Protest
March 19, 2005

 

Eyes Wide Open Film Series, Part III
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

January 26, 2006

Exxon-Mobil and Shell “seat and unseat kings and presidents, finance palace plots and coup d'etats, have innumerable generals, ministers and James Bonds at their command... make decisions about peace or war in every field and every language" writes Uruguayan essayist and historian Eduardo Galeano in his Open Veins of Latin America.

The award-winning documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, shot on-the-spot in Venezuela by two Irish filmmakers during an attempted coup there three years ago, shows how such attempts at regime change are carried out. But this time – and here's the twist – the attempt failed. (See the handout distributed at the Eyes Wide Open Film Series)

First a little background: in 1998 Chávez, against all odds, won the elections and became the leader of the world's fourth largest producer of oil. His first act was to fire the heads of the state petroleum industry, in cahoots with the multinational oil firms; make the state a major producer of petroleum products, not just an exporter of crude oil; and redistribute the profits in social projects starting with the poorest parts of the country. Enough to chill the spine of any Exxon stockholder.

Add to it the flamboyant style of the man, one that irritates the State Department no end. As J. Hobermanìs in the Village Voice describes him: “With his caudillo strut, Chavez is the hero of rallies where a thousand Che posters bloom, delivering anti-globalist rhetoric with a definite Cuban backbeat.”

In his one-man war against the oil interests, which control five of the nation's six TV channels, “Chavez nearly fell victim to Bushie petropolitik”, Hobermanìs goes on to write. “Shades of September 11 — September 11, 1973, that is—when the CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Barely considered newsworthy in the Belly of the Beast, the Chávez story is instead a gripping narrative that played out on TV and in the streets, as well as inside the presidential palace, where the filmmakers Bartley and O'Briain, working on a Chávez profile, happened to be at the time.”

Their documentary, in addition to being a sensational scoop, “does an excellent job in deconstructing the Venezuelan TV news footage of blood, chaos, and rival crowds. As befits its title, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is nearly a textbook on media manipulation.”

In the end, it would appear that Chavez' followers were able to thwart the CIA-sponsored and media-led golpe thanks to the loyalty of the palace guards and the heroism of the Venezuelan people, who thronged the streets around the Presidential palace making it difficult to attack. Nonetheless, it is a fact that throngs have been massacred in similar circumstances on many other occasions. So one still wonders -- as Hobermanìs concludes his article -- “how in fact did Hugo Chávez manage to escape the Matrix and how long can he keep on doing it?”

The surprisingly large crowd that turned out to see the film at the Linux Club on January 26th, seemed gripped by the history-in-the-making scenes and contributed to a very lively discussion afterward.

Patrick Boylan

For background on the film and the Chavez phenomenon, see: www.chavezthefilm.com. For more on Chavez' “Bolivarian Revolution”, see the very informed Italian site: www.perlumanita.it. For a sharp criticism of the film, calling it partial and misleading, see the article in the Coumbia Journalism Review by British journalist Phil Gunson, ex-president of the Foreign Press Association in Venezuela, plus the rebuttal written by the film directors, Bartley and O'Briain.

Details of the film: The Revolution will not be Televised (Production: Ireland, 2003); screenplay, directing, photography by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain; editing by Angel Hernandez Zoido. Length: 74 minutes. Available in DVD In Spanish with English subtitles for $25 ($5 for the unwaged) from: Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, info@venezuelasolidarity.org.uk, P.O.Box 2917, Wolverhampton WV2 2YA, Britain Tel: +44 (0) 121 288 1388. Produced by: Power Pictures 2002 Ltd., 4 High Street, Galway, Irland telephone (+353) 91 569707, powerpix@iol.ie.

Kim Bartley is a freelance producer and director working mostly in Africa and Latin America, where she directs and films short documentaries for a number of international aid agencies in crisis or conflict situations. Donnacha O'Briain is a freelance filmmaker working in Russia, South East Asia and Australia; he produced and directed the documentary The Seminary, which shows training for priesthood today.


Special thanks to Linux Club for their hospitality.

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Ongoing/Future Events


Our Eyes Wide Open Film Series is suspended; for further information click here.


Upshot of our Nov. 9th group discussion on current politics:

It wasn't the Russians that got us Trump. Or Comey. Or even the massive GOP election fraud. It was the DNC.*
*Dem National Committee

To learn how to stop the DNC from delivering us another Trump, read Autopsy: the Democratic Party in Crisis.


Photo of a school in Yemen bombed by Saudi Arabian jets supplied by the U.S. and fueled in the air by the U.S. Air Force. Tell Trump to STOP THIS CARNAGE, not fuel it! Click here.

Also participate in the CodePink email and/or phone initiative:




Click here to sign a petition, to put an end to the sanctions against Syria - their only effect is to take a terrible toll on the population, causing them to migrate! And click here to see the video by the Italian Committee to lift sanctions against Syria.



Iraq Deaths Estimator
Did someone tell you that U.S. military intervention in Iraq was over? Not true: we're at it again. This time the pretext to drop bombs is "curbing ISIS" (which was created by the U.S. in the first place, to overturn al-Malaki in Iraq and then Assad in Syria, and is now out of hand. Like what happened to "our" creature al Qaeda in Afghanistan). And the death toll continues to rise...
Write your senators and tell them: "Enough! U.S. out!! Iraq has shown it can curb ISIS by itself!"

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Copyright © 2006 Patrick Boylan  All rights reserved.
U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome, Italy