gambia-lers,
Just though that some of you might find this quite interesting.
Sidibeh
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Workers World - May 5, 2005 issue
http://www.workers.org/2005/world/venezuela-0505/
Workers are taking control in Venezuela
By Betsey Piette
Caracas, Venezuela--Everywhere in Venezuela today workers
are forging ahead with new formations of workers' organization. They are
taking over factories here, experimenting with co-management there. Workers
are challenging the old class relationships and coming to a collective
realization of their historic role in the struggle for socialism.
There are no guarantees that they will succeed. The problems faced by
the Venezuelan working class are massive: 80 percent live in poverty,
millions are in need of better housing, education, higher wages and
better benefits. But as the workers of Venezuela begin to flex their
muscles and to exercise their rights under the Bolivarian
Constitution, there appears to be a growing recognition that their
collective power should stop at nothing short of state control. It is
a struggle that holds out great hope for the world's working class.
Throughout the process of the Bolivarian Revolution, the role of the
workers has gone through a dramatic transformation. In April 2002,
workers were participants in massive demonstrations that turned back
an attempted coup d'etat against President Hugo Ch嫛ez. Progressives
within organized labor played a key role in defeating employers'
lockouts during the pro-business "general strikes" of December 2002
and January 2003. But today the momentum of the class struggle is
propelling workers into a leadership role.
To understand just how dramatic is the change taking place in
Venezuela's working class today, we need to take a brief look at the
history of organized labor in this oil-rich Latin American country.
For over 30 years prior to the U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Ch嫛ez
in April of 2002, the workers' struggle against neoliberalism was held
in check by the leadership of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers
(CTV), the country's main labor council.
The CTV subordinated the interests of the workers to big business
political parties that opposed Ch嫛ez. From 2001 to 2003 the CTV
cooperated with Venezuela's largest chamber of commerce federation,
the Fedecamaras, in four job actions they called "general strikes,"
which most observers admit were really employers' lock-outs.
It also appears that the CTV received continuous financial assistance
from a known conduit for the CIA, the National Endowment for
Democracy, disbursed through the AFL-CIO. This is documented in an
article on ZNet by Alberto Ruiz entitled "The Question Remains: What
is the AFL-CIO doing in Venezuela?" (March 2, 2004)
Many former CTV members left it after becoming aware of this U.S.
backing.
Workers form new labor council
In 2001, the CTV was forced to hold the first leadership election in
its history. However, it was so corrupt that 50 to 70 percent of the
workers refused to participate in this process, and Venezuela's
Supreme Court refused to recognize the results. In 2003, during the
CTV-backed lockout by the business opposition, many workers responded
by occupying factories to keep them open, running them as
cooperatives. When owners threatened to shut down factories, workers
took over plants, including a Pepsi-Cola bottling facility in Villa de
Cura owned by an active supporter of the coup.
A large grouping of Venezuelan workers, fed up with the CTV's
corporate unionism, gave up attempts at reform. In May 2003, at a
jubilant gathering in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, workers from
nearly every sector of the country's labor force joined together to
form a new confederation, the National Union of Workers (UNT).
In less than two years the UNT has demonstrated astonishing growth. In
2003 and 2004, 76.5 percent of newly signed collective bargaining
agreements were with UNT-affiliated unions, compared to 20.2 percent
with the CTV. The UNT clearly dominates the public sector. However,
even among workers covered by private sector collective agree ments,
it represents 50.3 percent compared to 45.2 percent for the CTV.
Overall, the UNT has 600,000 members to the CTV's 300,000.
The UNT has been at the forefront as workers exercise their rights
under Vene zue la's new constitution to form parallel unions to
replace the old corporate unionism. This constitution contains many
provisions that guarantee workers' rights. An English version is
available at http://www.vheadline.com.
The UNT has pushed for regular, open elections and supports workers'
co-management or self-management in workplaces. With an increased say over
what gets raised at the bargaining table, the new unions have excited
workers about their prospects for improving working conditions, wages and
benefits.
The UNT has adopted the slogans "No to globalization, yes to
worker-management" and "Workers of the world, unite." They are clearly
taking the struggle beyond the economic confines of traditional trade
unionism, from a fight merely to improve wages, benefits and working
conditions to one prepared to challenge capitalist control over these
conditions.
The massive popular demonstrations that turned back an attempted coup
in 2002 opened the floodgates for revolutionary change and swept the
working class of Venezuela onto center stage. They face many problems.
The forces of counter revolution, while temporarily set back,
nevertheless remain poised in the wings to re-emerge.
The workers, however, are making it clear that they will not be
satisfied with a simple change in plant management here or workers'
control over a plant there. They want workers' control over the state;
they want socialism. They know that in the struggle ahead they have
nothing to lose but their chains.
[Piette participated in the Third World Gathering in Solidarity with the
Boli var ian Revolution April 13-17 in Caracas and attended a conference
workshop in the state of Carabobo at which workers analyzed their
co-management of several workplaces.]
*
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