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Study & Solidarity with

Venezuela

an online community of learning & action

Facilitated by: Eleanor Hancock & Juliana Barnet

Guest teacher: Ricardo Vaz

Co-sponsored by Code Pink & Friends of Latin America

No war. No imperialism. Venezuela is for Venezuelans.

Respect the will of the people. Protect the Bolivarian Revolution.

Study & Solidarity with Venezuela is an online course and a learning community for anyone who stands against imperial aggression and for the right to self-determination.

The Trump administration’s recent assault and kidnapping of President Maduro is an escalation of longstanding imperialist aggression towards the Venezuelan people and their Bolivarian Revolution. It is also part of this administration’s efforts to revive the Monroe Doctrine, and destroy Cuba. The majority of the people of the US do not support these grotesque colonial adventures. We want housing, healthcare, jobs and dignified lives ... at stake is the question of sovereignty throughout the region, and self determination for all of us.

This course creates the opportunity for you to join with others in the midst of a critical juncture in U.S. imperialist policy, form a community of concern and engagement, cut through the propaganda that prevents us from understanding and appreciating the Bolivarian Revolution and bolster our ability to take action in solidarity with the Venezuelan people ... action that we take for the benefit of all, including ourselves, at this high stakes moment in history.

The format of the program is an interactive study group, with a curated group of materials (written, audio, video, etc) shared ahead of each live session that the group can then “unpack” together with the support of course facilitators. Study materials will include a variety of sources, and will prioritize Venezuelan perspectives.

The course will be facilitated by Eleanor Hancock, Director of Comrades Education, and Juliana Barnet, an anti-imperialist educator with decades of participation in Latin American solidarity movements and close ties to grassroots Venezuelan society.

We’ll be joined on Feb 26 by Caracas-based journalist Ricardo Vaz to support our process with his experienced analysis and direct, on-the-ground reporting!

Primary goals for our work together include:

  1. dispelling propaganda and opposing imperialist aggression while understanding, respecting and taking a solidarity stance with the Venezuelan people’s socialist project

  2. applying critical analysis of US imperialism and white supremacy to the Venezuelan context, and (esp for participants joining from the US) considering how we practice solidarity toward countries and peoples whom our government targets

  3. developing and/or deepening our understanding of the Bolivarian Revolution

  4. taking immediate action and assessing long-term commitments we can make in order to support Venezuelan resistance to imperialist/capitalist threats

Mural photo credit: Venezuelanalysis

Course Details

Three Thursday sessions:

Feb 19, Feb 26 & March 5

8:00-9:30pm eastern time

Live attendance is not mandatory.

Sessions will be recorded. 

Register now

Suggested registration fee: $125-325

No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Comrades Education is a US-based organization. We love having folks join us from outside the US, but you will need to do some translating between the work of this course and its application to your location. For information about participant expectations, please see our ground rules document for the course.

Guest Teacher

Ricardo Vaz

is a journalist, political analyst, and editor for Venezuelanalysis, based in Caracas, Venezuela. Growing up in Mozambique with a strong anti-imperialist, pro-Chavismo perspective, he focuses on covering Venezuelan politics, popular power organizations, the impact of sanctions, and critical analysis of corporate media coverage.

Course facilitators

Eleanor Hancock

built Comrades Education (formerly White Awake) from a small website to an organization of national significance. As founder and director of the organization, Eleanor holds a strong vision for Comrades Education’s work, and has built a supportive team of leadership to guide it. Her leadership grows out of years of experience as an activist, academic, artist, educator, and mother of a multiracial young woman. For more on how Eleanor frames her work, you can listen to this interview on Upstream Podcast.

Juliana Barnet

is an anti-colonial anthropologist, activist & writer focused on activist culture and representation in fiction. She lived for two decades in Mexico, participating in the popular education movement there and engaging in solidarity action for revolutionary movements in South & Central America.

Juilana has been a supporter of the Bolivarian Revolution for many years. She participated in the 2019 DC-based “Embassy Protection Collective”; had an immersive experience in the Venezuelan Commune System as part of the 2023 Kevin Zeese Solidarity Brigade; was an international election observer in 2025, and recently launched a grassroots story-telling project with members of the Cinco Fortalezas de la Revolución Bolivariana commune. You can learn more about Juliana’s work here.

What participants have said about our courses

  • “I am so grateful for the language, the love, the empowerment, and the honest respect shown by the facilitators for everyone's experience. This is the kind of work I've been looking for. You have helped me feel so much less alone.”

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  • “This course helped me to feel more motivated to work in community and at a community level - that there could actually be meaningful change that comes from that kind of action."

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  • "Many of the activist spaces I have been in used shame tactics to bring people into the movement, and it was really meaningful (and healing!) for me to be in a space that instead focused on what we can do starting now and what our individual and collective capabilities are."

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This course is actively supported by our Advisory Council Members:

Katrina Messenger

Betty Burkes

Bonnie Duran

"Why do you charge for your work?"

We believe the work that we do is significant, and we want to do it well. To this end, we charge a modest fee for our online programs, and solicit donations from participants and supporters, in order to meet our financial needs. This allows Comrades Education staff and instructors to focus their time and energy on the educational work this project promotes, for the benefit of all.

Comrades Education and our instructors support a transition away from capitalism, imperialism and white supremacy; we support reparations to historically targeted groups, communities and Peoples; and we make our work available to all regardless of financial means.

If you have further questions, please contact: info@comrades.education