World Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity

From The New York Times comes a report of Venezuela's 8th Annual "World Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity," which was held in Caracas in October. Perhaps biased in its reporting (note the author's tone here: "Mr. Gajurel joined some 200 other leftist thinkers from around the world who convened here for a few days in October to discuss transitions toward socialism, even as many people in advanced Western countries were losing sleep over the spreading financial crisis of global capitalism."), the article nevertheless gives a glimpse of this meeting of the minds:

"In hotel corridors where oilmen in business suits once hatched deals over glasses of whiskey, delegates in Birkenstocks and guayaberas discussed Marx and Antonio Gramsci, the leftist Italian writer. Such meetings have become a staple of life in Caracas, with Mr. Chávez’s government flush, at least for now, with petrodollars that can be used to attract sympathetic members of the chattering classes the world over.

Officials here have organized international encounters for philosophers, women’s rights advocates, the government spokesmen of nonaligned countries, poets and, in September, specialists in body painting." Continue reading >>>