Venezuela

By Paul Hampton “Control lies in the hands of the workers. This means: ownership and right of disposition remain in the hands of the capitalists. Thus, the regime has a contradictory character, presenting a sort of economic interregnum… “In a developed form, workers’ control thus implies a sort of economic dual power in the factory, the bank, commercial enterprise, and so forth. “If the participation of the workers in the management of production is to be lasting, stable, ‘normal’, it must rest upon class collaboration, and not upon class struggle. Such a collaboration can be realised only...

By Pablo Velasco Pakistan Six Pakistani left parties and groups have united to form Awami Jamhoori Tehreek (AJT — the People’s Democratic Movement), which has the potential to become the fifth-largest political group in Pakistan. The AJT aims to contest the 2007 elections. The parties in the AJT are the National Workers’ Party (NWP), the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), Awami Tehreek (AT — People’s Movement), Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party (PMKP), Pakistan Mazdoor Mehaz (PMM — Workers Front) and Meraj Mohammed Khan Group (MMKG). The AJT has announced a campaign against growing militarisation and...

Pablo Velasco reivews Venezuela and Revolution in the 21st Century by Joseph Choonara, Socialist Worker pamphlet The emergence of an independent labour movement in Venezuela has been one of the most exciting developments in Latin America in recent years. The formation of the UNT, whose leadership includes many class struggle militants, is a welcome development after forty years of domination by the bureaucratic and corrupt CTV union federation. Embryonic elements of workers’ control in some factories show that the labour movement has the potential to challenge both state and capitalist control...

The election of leftish governments in Latin America continues with the recent Presidential victories of Morales in Bolivia and Bachelet in Chile. Other left candidates are likely to win in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela this year. The trend is largely a reaction to the neo-liberal polices pursued by Latin American governments for over two decades, which has led to huge increases in poverty and unemployment, and disillusionment with the formally democratic regimes that replaced military governments. Not all these governments have the same political complexion or roots. Most still implement neo...

By Paul Hampton 1) The AWL Socialism is the self-emancipation of the working class Our conception of socialism is a thoroughgoing democracy – at work, in communities, self-rule by organisations The key issue = solidarity with workers fighting back against local, national and global capital - Help workers to help themselves - Solidarity not charity Concretely we support workers who take industrial action, such as strikes, sit-ins, factory occupations etc We support workers setting up their own factory committees, trade unions, political organisations – independent of the employers and...

Venezuela The Venezuelan revolutionary socialist party, the Partido Revolución y Socialismo (PRS) has debated standing a candidate against Chávez in the presidential elections in Venezuela in December. The majority of the PRS, including well-known trade union leaders such as Orlando Chirino, decided last month to back Chávez and his campaign for 10 million votes. However a significant minority within the party, the Juventud de Izquierda Revolucionaria (JIR) has argued for standing a candidate, as part of the fight for working class political independence. The JIR, which is part of the...

Indonesia A wave of protests — including on May Day — by Indonesian workers has forced the government to put off its draft labour law. According to union leader Dita Sari, the stakes are high because the labour law “will become a normative regulation that will be binding on workers for years and years into the future”. However the overall situation for workers is not great. One danger is the government’s emphasis on copying China and Vietnam, which have lower wages than Indonesia and no independent trade unions. Sari said: “The president’s reference to Chinese and Vietnamese models of labour...

By Visha Gopal In a left-wing culture where the normal method of “debate” is either to slanderously misrepresent your opponent or ignore her existence, the discussion on Venezuela at this year’s No Sweat conference was a welcome change. It provided the 80 or so anti-capitalist activists who came to the session with a chance to consider and discuss clearly distinct assessments of the ongoing struggles in Venezuela, while at the same time raising a number of issues of major importance to Marxist theory. The speakers were Paul Hampton from No Sweat and Rob Sewell from Hands Off Venezuela. Paul...

The UNT demands the nationalisation of bankrupt factories and cogestion, translated as co-management or worker participation. Chávez has said he wants all basic industry under state control. The government has assessed 700 closed enterprises, evaluating their suitability for expropriation, to preserve 20,000 jobs. Last month he said, “we are not just recovering these factories, we are recovering our true sovereignty.” Chavez also said that people had to be patient. He said, “We cannot speed up. We cannot drive ourselves crazy. We must be conscious that this is a process with a far-off deadline...

By alan porter Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has claimed victory in his encounter with George Bush at November’s Summit of the Americas. Bush had been using the summit as a vehicle to implement a neoliberal economic zone across the continent, the Free Trade Area of the Americas. In reaction to Bush, Chávez staged a rally at a football stadium close to the summit, with tens of thousands of activists, attacking neoliberalism and the USA’s influence in South America. The crowds were addressed not only by Hugo Chávez, but Bolivian reformist Evo Morales and, perhaps more strangely, Argentinian...