PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION

As the situationists stated, May '68 was the first generalised insurrection against an economy that worked well. Indeed, on May 1st the fourth week of paid holiday was decreed. France is doing fine. Its political, economic and ideological credit is great. The integration of the working classes by means of consumerism opens up debates among philosophers, sociologists and militants on the disappearance of the proletariat as a revolutionary class. Youth is "apolitical", except for some unyielding small groups, with obsolete Marx-Leninist tendencies in most cases. For years France has been experiencing an acute process of modernisation: consolidation, industrialisation, wage rises, Fordist rationalisation of work, state intervention, standardisation of merchandise, intensification of production, etc. Political, patron and union bureaucracies merge with the aim of expelling forever the crisis and irrationalities of the system which in one way or another generated World War II.

Nevertheless, "France is bored". And, suddenly everything explodes. The whole country is paralysed by a general strike and this vacuum is filled by new political practices, new languages, new subjects, new worlds.

Where did these subversive social energies come from? What did that so-called "depolitization" really mean? Where can we find the "seeds and germs" of a movement defined among other things by a critique of everyday life, by "seizure of speech", the creation of new links between different practices-worlds-individuals (intellectuals, workers and students, for example) and the invention of new ways of social self-representation by the exploited people themselves?

In contrast to "reactive memory" (political, sociological and media), according to which it could be said that the event came out of the blue, it is necessary to state that the movement focused on different ways and different levels of malaise and processes of new political ways that were undefined in the '60s: the "disidentification" with the French State aroused by the mobilisations against the war in Algeria; Vietnam; new autonomous working class struggles; the existential malaise which could be observed in both the desperate rebellions of the Blousons Noirs and even the organised manifestations such as the student movement; the fertile activity of the "active minorities" whose thinking and the concept -as well as other ways of producing critical awareness, such as "workers testimony"- the development of new ways of political action, the new aspirations, the criticism of new ways of domination: for example, Socialisme ou Barbarie and the Situationist International; or the collectives of film directors seeking out -in the act of film making in itself- another way of doing things (cooperatives and collective authorship, investigation and experimentation of film formats, independent distribution channels, "seizing of the image" that is parallel to "seizing of speech", etc.).

The matter of "seeds and germination" is not only of "historic" interest but also enables us to question very contemporary facts-for example, how to read social processes? Or what cause to fight for? Does 68 inaugurate a political sequence in which battles do not take place by "accumulation of forces"? Does it radically question the idea that we fight "out of necessity"?

So, today, when we have moved from the bureaucratic society to the network society that mobilises life instead of repressing it, what is the current status of critique of everyday life? What role can an "active minority" play? How do we open spaces for liberated speech?

Amador Fernández-Savater.
The conception of this project flows from the conversations held
with the participants in the seminar during the research phase.

PROGRAMME

PROGRAMME

SCREENINGS
Date: 12th, 14th, 15th November 07, 18.00 h
* The programme of screenings is free to all
* Venue: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (c/ Américo Vespucio 2. Isla de la Cartuja. Sevilla)

The screenings of this first encounter are part, as a prologue, of a wider film series -In and Against Cinema: on the Subject of '68-, curated by David Cortés and Amador Fernández-Savater, which will be held next year, aiming to present a set of practices that, due to the singularity of their proposals and their opposition to usual distribution channels and marketing, have not received adequate attention nor have been considered in their full potential for uprising.

The title -In and Against Cinema- of a text that appeared in the first issue of the magazine Internationale situationniste can be situated as the most suitable heading to refer to the film practices developed in France from the end of the '50s to their peak in May '68, which meant a full questioning and critique of prevailing forms and at the same time a statement of the possibility of films to intervene, register and generate a debate on contemporary living conditions and politics. Indeed, if there is anything that brings them together, this is precisely the inclusion of the debate in the inside of its processes, away from the narrow and traditional concept of militant films. Debate can affect the film format itself, as in the radical experimental proposals of Guy Debord or the ciné-tracts of May '68 -extremely short anonymous films lasting two or three minutes, whose ultimate goal was direct political participation in the events-; can literally shape their contents, such as in the documentaries about workers and students' lives filmed in the '60s; or can be found in the very source and training of numerous collectives and cooperatives that, fighting the idea of authorship, appeared during those years, especially after 1968, such as the Medvedkin, Slon, Dziga Vertov or ARC groups.

Monday, 12th November 07
Grands soirs et petits matins (1978), William Klein, 105'

Ten years after filming with a camera on his shoulder the most relevant events that took place during the demonstrations of May '68, photographer and film author William Klein edited with the original footage an intense and complete documentary that reveals the main events, but above all, its atmosphere, that which discourse can barely grasp: the "seizure of speech", the occupation of the streets, self-organisation, surprise, subversion of everyday life, etc.

Wednesday, 14th November 07
A bientôt, j'espère (1967), Chris Marker/Mario Marret, 43'
La Charnière (1968-69), Medvedkin Groups of Besançon, 12'

The documentary by Marker and Marret portrays in a direct way the strike that took place in the textile plant of Rhodiaceta in the town of Besançon in March 1967. La Charnière, a film with no image, is precisely the soundtrack for discussion and debate between film producers and workers that took place after the première. That debate gave way to the collective experience of the Medvedkin groups, dedicated to the production and editing of militant films by the workers themselves.

Thursday, 15th November 07
Sur le passage de quelques personnes… (1959), Guy Debord, 20'
Critique de la séparation (1961), Guy Debord, 20'

There is always a source for paradox in the film works of a personality such as Guy Debord, whose theoretical legacy is precisely based on a determined critique of colonisation of the real by the spectacle. His films are a critique of cinema with his own tools, as can be seen in the process of dérive or drifting in Critique de la séparation, in which the soundtrack and subtitles question the images, borrowed or belonging to his personal life, that make up the film.

DISCUSSION TABLES
12th-16th November 07
* The programme of Discussion tables is free to all
* Venue: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (c/ Américo Vespucio 2. Isla de la Cartuja. Sevilla)

Monday, 12th November 07
· 20.00 h
'68 and Today with the participation of Daniel Blanchard, Jean-Pierre Duteuil, Amador Fernández-Savater and Monserrat Galcerán

A debate on the possible meaning of recreating in common the memory of '68, from and for the present.

Tuesday, 13th November 07
· 19.00 h
Reactive Memory and Faithfulness to the Event with the participation of Monserrat Galcerán, Jean-Franklin Narodetzki and Kristin Ross

40 years after May '68, there is already a stereotyped way of remembering those events, halfway between regret, nostalgia and/or a condescending attitude. All of them are ways of breaking the link between past and present. "Reactive memory" (political, cultural, media) of the society of spectacle has taken over the memory of 68, reducing the sense of the event to a student riot, a hormonal issue, a sharp acceleration of modernity (in the form of an explosion of hedonistic individuality and a transformation of lifestyles), etc. How has this "reactive memory" operated and how does it operate today? And what could be the meaning of a memory that is both active and faithful to the events?

Wednesday, 14th November 07
· 19.00 h
Seeds and Germs of '68: Mobilisations against the War of Algeria, Workers' Fights, Student Movement with the participation of Prisca Bachelet, Jean-Pierre Duteuil and Kristin Ross

What was society like prior to 1968? What kind of shake-up was meant by the movement against the war of Algeria? What impact did the imperialistic aggression of Vietnam have in consciousness? What was the student movement like? How is it explained that society had the force to catalyse and unleash a movement such as that of May '68? What were the workers fights like that battled to be released from bureaucratic alienation?

Thursday, 15th November 07
· 19.00 h
Active Minorities During the '60s: Socialisme ou Barbarie, International Situationist with the participation of Daniel Blanchard, Mario Perniola and Eduardo Rothe

Old politics, heavily hegemonic during the '60s, linked social change to deeper political and economic crisis, to greater degrees of exploitation and poverty. But some revolutionary groups rejected that deplorable blackmail and began to aim their analysis and hopes precisely towards subjective aspects of political struggle: everyday resistance in work and life spaces, rejection to everyday life alienation, signs of collective creativity, new forms of conflict, politization of existential malaise, new processes for production of theory (working class surveys or enquêtes), etc. In some way those groups, in spite of being rather small, were an anticipation of May '68, drawing up on the fringes of society some ideas that suddenly became socialised among millions of people as essential needs, although finally the shake up caught them completely by surprise and placed them in a critical situation.

Friday, 16th November 07
· 19.00 h
Global Mobilisation. Analysis of reality and way of politisation nowadays with the participation of Franco Berardi (Bifo) and Santiago López Petit

Taking Socialisme ou Barbarie and the International Situationist as a starting point, there will be a collective discussion on the following subjects: current status of the critique of alienation in times of total mobilisation and frantic capitalism without any revolutionary horizon; the sense of politicising life when there is no longer an attempt to transform it into a work of art, an "intense" or more "conscious" life. Also, the discussion will deal with what an active minority can do today. That is, how can we address anonymous people, open up spaces for personal voices and disrupt reality, etc.?

SEMINAR WHAT DOES A POLITICAL MEMORY OF '68 MEAN?
Date: 13th-16th November 07, 11.00 h - 13.00 h
* People wishing to be present in these workshops may contact the director of the project, Amador Fernández-Savater at Esta dirección de correo electrónico está protegida contra los robots de spam, necesita tener Javascript activado para poder verla .
* Venue: Universidad Internacional de Andalucía (c/ Américo Vespucio 2. Isla de la Cartuja. Sevilla)

Internal work seminar in which main figures, researchers and militants will debate subjects such as the current meaning of '68, the case of Nanterre, Socialism or Barbarism, the International Situationism, among others, with the participation of Hélène Arnold, Prisca Bachelet, Daniel Blanchard, Franco Berardi (Bifo), David Cortés, Jean-Pierre Duteuil, Amador Fernández-Savater, Monserrat Galcerán, Joan Miquel Gual, Juan Gutiérrez, Tomás Ibáñez, Leónidas Martín, Santiago López Petit, Jean-Franklin Narodetzki, Mario Perniola, Kristin Ross and Eduardo Rothe.

PROGRAMME

Monday, 12th November 2007
· 17:00 h
Presentation of the project by Amador Fernández-Savater and the film series by David Cortés Santamarta

· 18:00 h
Screening of the film Grands soirs et petits matins (1978), William Klein, 105'

· 20:00 h
Discussion table '68 and Today with the participation of Daniel Blanchard, Jean-Pierre Duteuil, Amador Fernández-Savater and Monserrat Galcerán

Tuesday, 13th November 2007
· 11:00-13:00 h
Seminar What Does a Political Memory of '68 Mean?*

· 19:00 h
Discussion table Reactive Memory and Faithfulness to the Event with the participation of Monserrat Galcerán, Jean-Franklin Narodetzki and Kristin Ross

Wednesday, 14th November 2007
· 11:00-13:00 h
Seminar What Does a Political Memory of '68 Mean?*

· 18:00 h
Screening of the films A bientôt, j'espère (1967), Chris Marker/Mario Marret, 43' and La Charnière (1968-69), Medvedkin groups of Besançon, 12'

· 19:00 h
Discussion table Seeds and Germs of '68: Mobilisations against the War of Algeria, Workers' Fights, Student Movement with the participation of Prisca Bachelet, Jean-Pierre Duteuil and Kristin Ross

Thursday, 15 November 2007
· 11:00-13:00 h
Seminar What Does a Political Memory of '68 Mean?*

· 18:00 h
Screening of the films Sur le passage de quelques personnes… (1959), Guy Debord, 20' and Critique de la séparation (1961), Guy Debord, 20'

· 19:00 h
Discussion table Active Minorities During the '60s: Socialisme ou Barbarie, International Situationist with the participation of Daniel Blanchard, Mario Perniola and Eduardo Rothe

Friday 16th November 2007
· 11:00-13:00 h
Seminar What Does a Political Memory of '68 Mean?*

· 19:00 h
Discussion table Global Mobilisation. Analysis of reality and way of politisation nowadays with the participation of Franco Berardi (Bifo) and Santiago López Petit

* People wishing to be present in these workshops may contact the director of the project, Amador Fernández-Savater at Esta dirección de correo electrónico está protegida contra los robots de spam, necesita tener Javascript activado para poder verla .

PARTICIPANTS

PARTICIPANTS

Hélène Arnold
She was a militant in Socialisme ou Barbarie from 1961 to 1965. In May '68 she actively participated in the March 22nd Movement. At the beginning of the '70s she travelled to the United States and joined the counter culture movement, meeting Murray Bookchin (she translated his first book into French). She is currently a translator and has translated several books by Cornelius Castoriadis into English. She has formed part of the group that organized the anthology of texts from the magazine Socialisme ou Barbarie recently published in French (Acratie Editions).

Prisca Bachelet
She studied Drama with Tania Balachova, Sociology with Pierre Bourdieu and Philosophy at the Paris-Sorbonne University. She was a member of the Students' Union (UNEF) and the Arts section of the Union of Communist Students (UEC). During 1967-68 she directed the cultural service of the city of Nanterre and was an active participant in the 22nd March Movement. From 1968 until now she has been a philosophy lecturer.

Daniel Blanchard
With Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort, Jean-François Lyotard and many others participated between 1957 and 1965 in the activities of the revolutionary group known as Socialisme ou Barbarie, which developed a radical critique of the East and West regimes based on the "revelator" which consisted of the capacity of self-organization in the workers movement. In 1959 Daniel Blanchard became friends and collaborated with Guy Debord, leader of the International Situationist. Both men wrote "Preliminaries Towards Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Programme", a manifesto which included art critique and specialised politics. In May '68 he actively participated in the collective uprising from the March 22nd Movement and the Action Committees. In the early '70s he lived in the United States and joined the counter culture movement. He is a writer, poet and translator. He has published Crisis de palabras; notas a partir de Guy Debord y Cornelius Castoriadis in Spanish (Acuarela & A. Machado, Madrid, 2007).

Franco Berardi (Bifo)
He was one of the founders and promoters of the magazine A/Traverso and Radio Alice, the first free European radio station, two of the most important initiatives of the struggles known in Italy as "long May". During the past three decades, Bifo has dedicated himself to reflecting on the transformation of the world of work and the contemporary media scenario, always linking his reflections to political and communication experiments. In Spanish he has published La fábrica de la infelicidad (Traficantes de Sueños, Madrid, 2003), Telestreet: máquina imaginativa no homologada (El Viejo Topo, Barcelona, 2004) and El sabio, el mercader y el guerrero (Acuarela & A. Machado, Madrid, 2007).

David Cortés Santamarta
He is a lecturer of Art History and Theory in the School of Art and Architecture of the European University of Madrid. Co-Curator with Breixo Viejo of the film series titled Samuel Beckett: film and television work held in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid (2006). Among his most recent publications are his work as editor of the book George Benjamin (OCNE, Madrid, 2005) and as co-editor of the catalogue Samuel Beckett (MNCARS, Madrid, 2006), as well as the essays included in Hans Werner Henze. Komponist der Gegenwart (Henschel, Berlin, 2006) and Henze. Phaedra. Ein Werkbuch (Wagenbach, Berlin, 2007). He has collaborated with the magazine Archipiélago and the supplement "Cultura/s" of the La Vanguardia newspaper. As a specialist critic on contemporary music, he frequently contributes to the magazine Ritmo and to the publications by the Royal Opera House (Teatro Real) in Madrid.

Jean-Pierre Duteuil
He was a student in the University of Nanterre since it opened in 1965 and was one of the founding members of the anarchist group of his faculty. Shortly after he participated in the extension of the radicalisation that led to the creation of the March 22nd Movement in '68 following the occupation of the university's administrative building. He wrote Nanterre 1965-1966-1967-1968. Vers le Mouvement du 22 mars, published in 1988, which is a faithful account of the series of events which in time led to the emergence of a radically new movement beyond the oppressive dynamics of small groups and unions. Today he is in charge of Acratie Publishers, he collaborates in the publication of a communist libertarian monthly magazine called Courant Alternatif and is working on a book in which he wishes to show how, contrary to the simplistic view that "it all started in Nanterre", what happened there was also the re-emergence of a worker and agrarian movement of a new type which, during the two years that preceded May '68, played a determining role.

Amador Fernández-Savater
He is co-director of the magazine Archipiélago and of the publishing house Acuarela Libros, which during 2007 and 2008 will publish a series a books on the subject of May '68. He has participated in different social movements (anti-globalisation, the movement against the war in Iraq, the housing movement Movimiento V de Vivienda). He currently collaborates with the new daily newspaper Público. He has co-ordinated -in collaboration with UNIA arteypensamiento (artandthinking) - several seminars on contemporary political issues, undertaken from the point of view of new emancipation practices: , New Right: Ideas and Means for Counter-revolution (I and II), Universality, Citizenship and Emancipation.

Monserrat Galcerán
She has a degree in Philosophy and Classical Philology from the University of Barcelona and a doctorate in Philosophy from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. She has also furthered her studies in Heidelberg and Paris. Since the end of the '60s she was an active participant in the anti-Franco regime revolts. Today she is Professor of Philosophy of the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, where she lives. She has published several works including La invención del marxismo (1997), Innovación tecnológica y sociedad de masas (1997) or Silencio y olvido; el pensar de Heidegger en los años 30 (2004). She has also written various contributions for international seminars on contemporary philosophy, marxism and feminism, as well as some scripts for documentaries on philosophy. More recently she has participated in new social movements, especially since she was actively involved with the Grupo de Estudios Universidad Nómada/Globalización y Movimientos Sociales (n. of t.: Group of Studies Nomadic University/Globalisation and Social Movements).

Joan Miquel Gual
He is currently in his second year of his doctorate thesis in "Theory, analysis and film documentation" in the Pompeu Fabra University and he also participates in the collective activities promoting more accessible housing called "V de Vivienda" in Barcelona. He works in the field of video creation in which he has produced Otro mundo nuevo, a documentary feature film produced by Fundación La Villa del Cine from Venezuela; and as a film maker of La casa invisible, a video about the centre also called "La Casa Invisible" (The Invisible House) located in Málaga's city centre. Currently he is preparing a militant research called The Emergence of New Forms of Labour Precariousness which will be finished and presented at the beginning of 2009.

Juan Gutiérrez
Engineer, left for Hamburg to study philosophy. From the ivory tower of the faculty he descended to the streets in 1967 to join the movement against the Vietnam war and practically everything else. In this way he lived his youth to the full. He started the short-lived "Universidad crítica". He was at the head of marches, chaired debates, occupied high schools and was the students representative in the university staff meetings for four years. He worked for eight years as a social assistant in a shipyard. He also militated half-heartedly in a Maoist party. He directed an ecological centre in Madrid and founded and directed a centre for peace and conflict management in Gernika. Today he advises and collaborates with associations for those affected by political violence.

Tomás Ibáñez
He contributed in founding the LEA (Liaison des Etudiants Anarchistes) in the Sorbonne, where he studied in the academic year of 63-64. LEA's members, initiallly a few, grew to have a considerable influence in the University of Nanterre and the formation of the March 22nd Movement. Simultaneously he supports the foundations of the CLJA (Comité de Liaison des Jeunes Anarchistes) where, as of 1964 most of the young anarchists of Paris would converge, overcoming the fragmentation in small factions. By a funny coincidence, in May '68 he was working in a laboratory located in front of the Sorbonne, which allowed him to participate in the first and spontaneous street confrontations on May 3rd, caused by the irruption of the police in the University. From that moment on, a member of March 22nd Movement, he became immersed in the daily workings of the "events" until he was arrested on June 10th in the confrontations of Renault-Flins. Due to his status as a political refugee the order for expulsion from France turns into an order of exile and confinement. He returned to Spain in 1973 and later participated in the reconstruction of the CNT union. Some of the articles he has published in various European libertarian publications including Archipiélago, of which he is a co-founder, are collected in ¿Por qué A? Fragmentos dispersos para un anarquismo sin dogmas (Anthropos, Barcelona, 2006).

Santiago López Petit
He is a militant philosopher -if we are to give him a label- with one obsession: the construction of a radical way of thinking that can free the will to live from its captivity in the structure of passive waiting. But this trajectory has not been a solitary one: in the '70s he was involved in working class struggles, particularly occupying factories. Today he participates in several political initiatives along with the groups Oficina 2004 and Espai en Blanc.

Leónidas Martín
He is a doctor of Fine Arts, and a professor of Video, New Technologies and Contemporary Art in Barcelona, where he co-directs Lab-Media, a space for production and discussion of multimedia art. He also teaches and gives seminars in different European universities and participates actively as a conference member in congresses and festivals in museums and art spaces of different countries. Some of the projects he has taken part in recently include Las Agencias, Yomango, V de vivienda, etc. As a multi-media artist, he bases his artistic production on a hybrid territory in which social processes blend with new technologies and aesthetics, always showing an interest in producing co-operative processes where personal authorship is overcome. A member of the cultural association "Enmedio", he currently centres his activity in the development of a video and television channel on the internet, interven.tv. His nickname on the web is "Leodecerca".

Jean-Franklin Narodetzki
He participated in the creation of the 22nd of March Movement in the faculty of Nanterre (Paris X). In 1975 he published, with his first name, El Discurso del poder (collection 10/18, no. 922). In 1976 he was sued and condemned by French authorities for his participation in the occupation of the USSR embassy by the group of the movement known as Marge. On the subject of the May-June movement of 1968 in France, he published in 1988, under the name of Narot, an article titled "May '68 Told to Children. Contribution to the Critique of Organised Unintelligence" in the magazine Le Débat n° 51, and ten years later, under the name of Narodetzki, a preface for an anthology of graffiti, leaflets and songs titled "May 68 for Use by People under 20" (Actes Sud, Babel, colección "Revoluciones"). Psychoanalyst since 1985, he has worked in the psychiatric ward of the Koševo Hospital in Sarajevo during the siege of the city, after having been one of the founders of the Group against ethnic cleansing and nationalisms. In 1999 he published Serbian Nights and Western Fogs. Introduction to Complicity of Genocide (L'Esprit frappeur Publishers), a set of articles about the backing lent by the UN and Western states, mainly the French and British nations, to the pan-Serbian genocide policies and their contribution in the destruction of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Mario Perniola
He is a lecturer of Aesthetics in Tor Vergata University, Rome. During the "long May" of Italy (67-77) he participated in several initiatives of critical thought: the magazines Agaragar, Errata or L'Erba Voglio. The assassination of Aldo Moro signals the end of an era and the beginning of the post-modern climate (1978-89). After 1989, during the period he calls "cyberpunk", he publishes several important works such as Del sentire (1991), Il sex appeal dell'inorganico (1994) and L'arte e la sua sombra (2000). According to Perniola, since 2001 we have entered a new period; he has participated in it through Agalma, a magazine dedicated to cultural and aesthetic studies which he has directed since 2000 and which has organised a seminar dedicated to re-considering the legacy of "heretical communisms" in October 2007. His latest works published in Spanish are: Against Communication (Amorrortu, Buenos Aires, 2006) and The Situationists; Critical History of the Last Vanguard of the 20th Century, recently published by Acuarela & A. Machado.

Kristin Ross
She has written May '68 and its Afterlives (Chicago, 2002, soon to be published in Spanish by Acuarela & A. Machado), a study of the way in which the political uprisings in France during the `60s have been interpreted, forgotten, debated, buried under commemorations and prey to endless ideological manipulations -a study, in other words, that attacks the misrepresentation of the memory of May by many of its old student leaders. The initial inspiration for the book comes from the winter strikes of 1995 in France, a political climate that opened a new perspective of 1968 and a discussion about what could be seen and heard about that particular past. Translated into French in 2005 by Le Monde diplomatique and Éditions complexe, the book came out in the context of the referendum of the so-called European Constitution and was interpreted by many as being in line with the vote against a neoliberal Europe governed by the banking industry. Ross, who teaches literature in the University of New York, has also written a study about anarchist cultural movements during the Paris Commune called The Appearance of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune (Minnesota, 1988), which next year will be translated into French by Éditions Textuel. Her book on modernisation and de-colonisation of France towards the end of the Sixties, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (MIT, 1995) was published in France last year by Flammarion under the title of Rouler plus vite, laver plus blanc. She is currently working on a study of black or "polar" novels which is one of the strange contexts in which one can feel the sense of political sociabilities of the '60s and '70s.

Eduardo Rothe
He started his political activity in the beginning of the 1960's in the underground movements in Venezuela, where he was also involved in the creation of political groups with a council-communist orientation. He was a member of the Situationist International from 1968 to April 1970. He actively participated in the May events in France. Later on he went to live in Italy and became involved in the Italian "long May". He stays in Portugal during the revolution (1974-1978). In Venezuela he was involved in several social actions, above all in the revolt and soviet of Macuro in 1988. Since 2002 he is engaged in the media-oriented defence of the Bolivarian Revolution as well as the ground organisations, within the process of the Venezuelan revolution. Currently he holds the post of advisor at Telesur.