In the Land of Bolivar by Antonino D'Ambrosio  Caracas,
Venezuela -- Under the elevated lines in the Kensington section
of Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union has been
waging a battle against poverty that has taken them to center
stage of the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela.  Led by
Cheri Honkala, a formerly homeless mother, the KWRU began by
building encampments for the homeless in 1990 by taking over
abandoned houses that were not only heated but also plentiful
throughout Philadelphia.  "The fact is," Honkala explains,
"there are more abandoned houses that the government pays, takes
on, and heats than there are homeless people . . . so why can't
these people be housed . . . if they won't house them, we
will."  Like many inner city neighborhoods in the United States,
Kensington has been plagued by an economic downturn that has
lasted for over two decades.  Kensington's fall began when
longstanding textile and brewery jobs left the city, pushing
tens of thousands of the city's working f