Workers' Liberty

Two reasons to cheer in Venezuela recently, as socialists restarted the task of building an independent workers’ party, separate from Chavez’s ruling bourgeois PSUV.

Chavistas try to split UNT

Pro-Chavez union leaders backed by the Labor Ministry have launched a new trade union centre in Venezuela – though it is not clear whether they will succeed.

On 14 March, Venezuelan police — the “Bolivarian National Guard” — attacked a demonstration of striking steel workers from Latin America’s biggest steel works, the SIDOR factory in Ciudad Gu

Click here for background; and here for campaign in France; and here for wider international support. Please email news of any branches passing this motion to solidaritosconchirino@yahoo.com.

The campaign to defend sacked Venezuelan trade union leader Orlando Chirino is gathering momentum within the country as well as internationally.

A call is on circulation in France to support Chirino's reinstatement in the oil public sector company PDVSA.

More than 14,000 workers at Venezuela's largest steel plant, Ternium Sidor, were on strike last week in a dispute over their pay and conditions.

Venezuelan trade union leader Orlando Chirino has been sacked from his job in the state-owned oil company PDVSA.

The new Hands Off Venezuela film No Volverán (Never Again) is misnomer, because inspite of its title, it repeats the mistakes of earlier lefts.

Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, lost his referendum on constitutional reform by a tiny margin, with 4.5m votes against (50.7%) and 4.4m (49.3%) in favour. Chávez has accepted the results, saying that the proposals had not been approved “for now”, but that he would continue to struggle for his version of “socialism”.

Hugo Chávez lost his referendum on constitutional reform by a tiny margin, with 4.5m votes against (50.7%) and 4.4m (49.3%) in favour.

Greg Wilpert, Changing Venezuela By Taking Power: The Policies of the Chávez Presidency 1999-2006, Verso 2007

I had an interesting altercation with some rrr-revolutionary “anti-imperialists” Workers’ Power people at a post support group meeting yesterday.

Iranian sugar workers strike

There is a useful article on workers’ control in Venezuela, explaining in detail the recent struggles of workers at bathroom manufacturer Sanitarios Maracay, as well as the difficulties they face.

There are signs of a revival in worker organising in Venezuela, but it is not clear whether it will be independent of Chávez.

Last week a “unification commission” of the two major factions within the UNT union federation met to organise elections for the leadership, which are long overdue. Leaders of the pro-Chávez Colectivo de Trabajadores en Revolución (CTR) and the more independent Corriente Clasista Unitaria Revolucionaria y Autónoma (CCURA) said they want to organise elections later this year.

Venezuela

By Milton D Lein of the Juventud de Izquierda Revolucionaria group in Venezuela

There is a useful article in English by Venezuelan socialists fighting for class struggle trade unionism in Venezuela. Defend union independence by Milton D’León explains how Chávez has attacked the unions as part of his drive to form his new party, the PSUV.

Oaxaca

As we went to press, teachers in Oaxaca city were planning to take strike action in a further sign of the revival of the movement which rose to prominence last year.

After the attack on Sanitarios Maracay workers recently in Aragua state in Venezuela, more evidence of anti-union activity by the Chavistas.

According to Greg Wilpert on the Venezuelanalysis website:

Workers from Sanitarios Maracay in Venezuela, which has been occupied and run under workers' control for more than 5 months, were subjected to brutal repression last Tuesday 24 April.

Workers were travelling by bus to Caracas to participate in a national march called by FRETECO, the Revolutionary Front of Workers in Occupied Factories. The workers have demanded that the company be nationalised under workers' control. They want to produce bathroom suites for the housing projects.

By Paul Hampton

In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez has nationalised companies in telecom and electricity privatised by previous administrations. Chávez says he wants to form a new Bolivarian socialist party. And he has announced the extension of communal councils and even “workers’ councils” as a means of recasting the state.

Hugo Chávez announced his timetable for a new ruling party last week, and it is clear that it will be a top down affair. Chávez has created a special committee of political leaders, including vice-president Jorge Rodríguez to oversee the process over the next nine months.

Hugo Chávez has announced a new law to nationalise the last remaining oil production sites that are under the control of foreign companies in Venezuela. The nationalisations affect oil production in the Orinoco oil belt, which is said to contain the world’s largest reserves of extra-heavy oil and will take effect on 1 May this year.

By Pablo Velasco

Around 6,000 workers marched through the streets of Caracas on Thursday 8 February demanding nationalisation of all strategic industries under workers’ control.

Workers welcomed the Chávez government’s nationalisations of EDC, Venezuela’s largest electric company and the Compania Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV) telecom company. But they called for others such as steel firm Sidor and bathroom firm Sanitarios Maracay to be nationalised - and for workersÕ control in all these industries.

In determining a political analysis it is important to look at what people do not say as well as what they do say. It is easy to paint a picture if you are selective about the story you tell. Take Venezuela for instance. A cursory glance at the political system is very confusing. On the one hand there are elections, freedom of speech, an extensive free press and media. All the things that one would attribute to a bourgeois democracy. On the other there is a President who is a former military man, the leader of a failed coup, and whose connections to the military are out in the open, moreover a military that is itself integrated into the everyday life of the country. In short some of the features we would expect from a Bonapartist or even military dictatorship. Throw in some references to this or that action that appears authoritarian, and you can swing the picture clearly in that direction.

Around 6,000 workers marched through the streets of Caracas on Thursday (8 February) demanding nationalisation of all strategic industries as well as steel firm Sidor, manufacturing firm Sanitarios Maracay and others under workers’ control.

Jim McIlroy and Coral Wynter, two very well-respected and experienced socialists from Brisbane, members of the DSP, have just returned home after spending a year in Venezuela.