Dear Friends,
For some time, there has been a lot of confusion outside
Venezuela about what exactly has been happening there. How could
progressives and trade unionists support the Venezuelan government
despite its support of the poor through land reform and income
redistribution and its attack on neo-liberalism and the FTAA---- given
the dedicated opposition of the Confederation of Venezuelan
Workers (CTV)? How, when there was a general strike, could we side with
the government rather than workers? For trade union
organisations, the problem has been even more difficult--- given the
support for the CTV by international labour organisations (including
the ILO). Nevertheless, as the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) noted in
the statement issued by Ken Georgetti on 18 April last year
after the defeated coup, the role of the CTV in that coup against the
democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez raised serious
questions about the character of the CTV and its place in the crony
capitalism and sham democracy that had left 80 % of the population
in poverty in an oil-rich nation.
Today, though, there should be no confusion. Because the CTV has
been exposed as just an arm of the Fedecamaras, the
Employers Association with which it has been allied-- in the coup and in
the so-called general strike. A strange general strike, indeed.
One in which workers in the oil industry (blue collar), electricity,
transport, public sector, basic industries and the subway, among others,
kept working. One in which workers were laid off by the conglomerates
(the monopolies) and transnationals and told that they would get
full pay for the period of the lock-outs--- only now to discover that
this promissory note was dependent on the companies defeating the
Chavez government. (They are being offered half-pay, loss of vacations,
etc... and those that protest? They're in the queues at the
Ministry of Labour filing complaints over their dismissals.)
Make no mistake about it--- this so-called general strike was a
capitalist offensive, supported by the US and its clients, against the
Chavez government. Its immediate effect has been an enormous blow to the
economy because of the loss of oil revenues for several
months as the result of the sabotage (economic, technical and physical)
of PDVSA, the national oil company, and also because of the tax
revenue losses resulting from the lockouts and a tax strike by the
companies. The resulting 'Opposition Deficit' will make this year a
difficult one under any circumstances but particularly so in the attempt
to meet the enormous needs of the Venezuelan people.
Yet, a longer term effect of this offensive by Venezuela's
oligarchy has been the increase in the consciousness of the poor (most
of
them in the informal sector) and organised workers. There is a mood
among workers of self-confidence-- one which emerged when the
workers in PDVSA ran the company by themselves after the management and
technicians abandoned it. In workplace after workplace,
workers are talking about auto-gestion and co-gestion, about taking over
and running their enterprises as cooperatives (as is occurring in
the Sheraton Airport Hotel and was the subject of discussion among the
workers in the hotel in Caracas where I was staying). PDVSA
itself now has two representatives of its workers in its management, and
an associated firm in petrochemicals is being run as a
cooperative. In particular, the take-over of enterprises by workers is
occurring when the owners threaten to shut down--- in one case
occurring as the workers decided to prevent the removal of machinery.
This process is just beginning, but it looks like capital has lost
one of its major weapons, its ability to threaten a capital strike---
rather than giving in, Venezuelan workers are moving in.
There is another significant aspect of this new consciousness
among workers--- which is why there should be no longer any
confusion about the CTV and its role in the Venezuelan working class.
Yesterday (29 March), a new labour federation was formed---
the National Union of Workers (UNT), which has been described as a
'classist, national and revolutionary' union. This new federation
has emerged as the result of a long process of discussion which began
last July among the Bolivarian Workers Force (FBT), the workers
movement fully aligned with the Chavez government and with the
Bolivarian movement active among the poor in the Bolivarian Circles,
and independent unions (both in and outside the CTV) that are not
'Chavist' but which support the general direction of the government.
(This latter group includes in particular the steel workers, subway and
petroleum workers.) At the core of these discussions was the
question of how autonomous the new federation would be in relation to
the government; now, after the last capitalist offensive, the
matter has been resolved--- UNT ('unity') will be independent,
class-oriented, democratic and revolutionary.
This new federation begins with more workers than have been
nominally represented by the CTV, which will lose any credibility it
has had outside Venezuela as its member unions leave. (Indeed, the
petroleum workers union from which Carlos Ortega, the current
head of CTV, came is itself a key union in the formation of UNT.) Of
course, capital does not give up so easily. Through the CIA and
its various fronts such as the National Endowment for Democracy (which
financed the American Center for International Labor
Solidarity in its support for the CTV), the opponents of 'the process'
in Venezuela will attempt to maintain their hold over the positions
of labour federations such as the AFL-CIO, international labour
federations like the ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions) and the ILO.
This is why it is especially important now for progressives and
trade unionists to inform themselves of what is happening in
Venezuela and in the Venezuelan workers movement. I'm including below a
call from the organisers of the 'Bolivarian Forum' which
will be taking place in Caracas on the anniversary of the defeated coup.
Take a look at those topics for discussion at the Forum, and
you'll get the sense that something quite significant is happening in
Venezuela and that this occasion to demonstrate international
solidarity with this process which has been scrupulously democratic and
constitutional will be quite unique. As you'll see near the bottom
of this notice, too, during this period there will also be a conference
for trade unionists organised by the Bolivarian Workers Force
(FBT)--- the themes of these meetings will be worker solidarity and the
struggle against globalisation and neoliberalism.
No one in Venezuela thinks the struggle is over--- not when the
stakes are so high. Caracas on 10-14 April offers an opportunity to
show solidarity with the most significant movement happening right now
in the Americas and to inform yourselves so you can battle
effectively against the enemies of this process (who are the enemies of
anything similar elsewhere).
in solidarity,
mike lebowitz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A BOLIVARIAN FORUM OF THE AMERICAS
(April 10-14)
On April 11th through 13th Venezuela will be celebrating the first
anniversary of the
people’s uprising that led to the disintegration of the right-wing
coup d’Etat that had
briefly ousted the legitimate government of the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela. Though
the failed coup had tragic consequences in particular, the
killings of dozens of
civilians during the dramatic incidents that led up to the coup and
then, afterwards,
during the initial repression of the uprising in the poor districts of
Caracas it also
had some very positive effects, both in Venezuela and abroad. In
Venezuela, the
realization that the country’s overwhelmingly popular constitutional
project could be
hijacked by reactionary forces jolted legions of passive citizens
into action. A fresh
wave of Venezuelans began participating in the various experiments
in participative
democracy that have emerged in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez was
elected in 1998.
Internationally, the coup and the people’s uprising generated a wave
of concern and
interest for what was happening in Venezuela. Ever since the coup,
an international
solidarity movement has been gradually taking form as an
increasing number of
progressives have come to the conclusion that there is a fragile
people’s movement in
Venezuela that faces major internal and external obstacles. And so, it
seems fair to say
that April 13th is about more than just a failed coup: it is about
a national and
international awakening that has greatly fortified “el Proceso”, the
process of social,
political and economic change in Venezuela.
To commemorate this awakening, the organizers of the first annual
Bolivarian Forum of
the Americas* will be holding a series of workshops and seminars
focused on Venezuela’s
Bolivarian Revolution, as well as other progressive movements underway
in other parts of
Latin America and the world. For four days (April 10th to 14th),
grassroots activists,
academics, alternative media journalists, elected officials, etc.,
from Venezuela and
the rest of the world will be taking a close look at the “Proceso”
and sharing their
ideas and experiences. There will be a series of seminars featuring
speakers from
Venezuela (e.g., Luis Britto García, Alberto Müller Rojas, Samuel
Moncada, Margerita
Lopez Maya, Walter Martinez, Edgardo Lander, Javier Birardeau, etc.)
and from around the
world (e.g., Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina), José Bové
(France), Evo Morales
(Bolivia), Armand Mattelart (Belgium), Walden Bello (Philippines),
Perry Anderson(UK),
Daniel Hertz (Brazil), Rafael Alegría (Honduras), etc.), and a
series of workshops
organized by both representatives of Venezuelan grassroots
organizations and
non-Venezuelan visitors. The workshops will be grouped around three
main themes: the
Bolivarian Revolution: accomplishments, shortcomings and future
prospects; Venezuela and
the emerging resistance to neoliberal globalization in Latin America;
How to confront
the conspiracy to subvert democratic people´s movements in Venezuela
and elsewhere in
Latin America. Among the proposed workshop themes are the
following:
- Simon Bolivar’s ideas in today’s Venezuela;
- The elaboration and legacy of the Bolivarian Constitution;
- Putting participative democracy into practice;
- The April 11th Coup d’Etat
- Impunity and Judicial Reform;
- Economic Sabotage: the paralyzing of the oil industry and its
consequences;
- The civilian-military alliance;
- The Venezuelan private media and the destabilization of
democracy;
- The renationalization of PDVSA (the national oil company);
- Land reform, the repopulation of rural areas and the development of
agricultural
self-sufficiency;
- Bolivarian schools and the creation of an active citizenry;
- Promoting indigenous and Afro-American cultures in Venezuela;
- Racism and the class divide in Venezuela;
- Creating ecological consciousness in an oil state;
- Building a democratic labor movement;
- The Bolivarian Constitution and the fight for women’s rights (with
the participation
of women’s organizations from Venezuela and other countries);
- Venezuela's’indigenous communities and the Bolivarian Constitution:
repairing the
crimes of history;
- The lessons of the April 11th coup;
- The Venezuelan private media and April 11th: a conspiracy to subvert
democracy?;
- How to break the corporate media’s monopoly on information (with the
participation of
representatives of alternative and corporate media groups);
- The coup and the counter-coup within PDVSA (the national oil
company): will the new
PDVSA help the poor of Venezuela? (with representatives of the
cooperativist movement
within PDVSA);
- The Bolivarian Revolution and the armed forces: can the Venezuelan
army play a
progressive role in Venezuelan society?;
- Bolivarianism in Latin America: sovereignty, self-determination and
Latin American
economic and political integration;
- The Free Trade Area of the Americas and its alternatives;
- Bolivarianism and the challenges of the current geopolitical
situation;
- Building an international Bolivarian solidarity movement (with the
participation of
representatives from solidarity movements worldwide).
If you or your organization would like to participate in the
organization of one of
these workshops or would like to propose other workshop themes that
you think you could
co-host with one or more Venezuelan organizations, please let us know
as soon as
possible at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact us at this same
e-mail address for any other
information concerning the forum or for practical information such as
accommodation
possibilities (some free accommodation will be available courtesy of
various
Caracas-based community organizations), visa requirements, contact
information for
participating organizations, etc.
Finally, a number of other events will be taking place at the same
time as this forum.
The events of April 2002 were truly magical: millions of Venezuelans
took to the streets
and saved their Constitution and their President. All over Venezuela,
people will be
celebrating this anniversary, one way or another. Here is a partial
list of some of the
other events that will be taking place:
- “El Foro Popular”, the forum of Caracas’ barrios (April 11th-14th),
in which community
organizations from Caracas and other Venezuelan cities will be
celebrating the great
awakening of April with numerous community meetings, workshops dealing
with themes that
directly concern Venezuela’s poor communities (e.g., participative
democracy projects),
theatre, mural projects, concerts, film projections, exhibits of art
produced in the
barrios. These events will be taking place in schools, theatres,
squares and public
gardens all over the barrios of Caracas.
- A “Trial of the Venezuelan media” (April 11th) organized by the
Comité de Usuarios de
los medios de communicación (Committee of media users). At this year’s
Porto Alegre
World Social Forum there was a “Hearing on the Venezuelan media” and,
at this event,
supplementary evidence and testimony will be submitted to a group of
“jurors” made up of
media specialists and free speech activists from all over the world.
The “accused”,
i.e., a cluster of Venezuelan media outlets, will have the opportunity
to defend
themselves against accusations of unethical practices (producing
political propaganda,
using subliminal images, promoting violence, lying, presenting rumours
as facts, and,
last but not least, helping a group of putschists carry out a coup
d’Etat).
- A “Gran Fiesta Popular” (big community street party) with musical
groups from
Venezuela (Madera, Cecilia Todd) and elsewhere (Manu Chao, Afro-Cuban
All Stars) on
Caracas’ Avenida Bolívar (April 13th).
- A Mass for the Victims of April 2002 (April 11th).
- An exhibit: “Reviving the Historical Memory of the Venezuelan People
in their Struggle
for Liberty”: An exhibit that will, with documents and video archives,
retrace the
history of popular struggles in Venezuela since the arrival of the
first slaves to the
region (starts April 10th).
- An "international revolutionary labour movement conference" (April
11th-14th)
organized by the Fuerza Bolivariana de Trabajadores (the Bolivarian
Workers' Force).
This event will bring together union leaders from Latin America, North
America and
Europe to discuss issues such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas
and neoliberal
globalization, and to develop strategies for building international
solidarity for the
Fuerza Bolivariana de Trabajadores (a labour movement that is opposed
to the leadership
of Venezuela's main labour confederation, the CTV).
If you’d like any more information on these events let us know at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
and we’ll try to direct your requests to the appropriate
organizations.
*(Bolivarian Forum of the Americas (FBA) is a recently created
foundation based in
Caracas, Venezuela and dedicated to organizing and coordinating an
annual forum that
will bring together activists from around the world to discuss topics
linked to the
future of Latin America and its peoples. The FBA is administrated by a
commission made
up of representatives of Venezuelan organizations that include ATCC
(Artists and
Cultural Workers for the Constitution), the campesino organization
Coordinadora Ezequiel
Zamora, Profesores por la Paz (Professors for Peace), ATTAC-Venezuela
(the Venezuelan
chapter of the association for a tax for citizens), Universitarios por
la Equidad
(Academics for Equity), la Coordinación Nacional de los Circulos
Bolivarianos (National
coordination of Bolivarian Circles), and the indigenous movement
CONEVI. In the coming
weeks, more organizations are expected to join this list).
---------------------
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Cuba. Can be reached via:
Michael Lebowitz
c/o MEPLA
Calle 13 No. 504 ent. D y E, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba
Codigo Postal 10 4000
(537) 33 30 75 or 832 21 54
telefax: (537) 33 30 75
---------------------
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Cuba. Can be reached via:
Michael Lebowitz
c/o MEPLA
Calle 13 No. 504 ent. D y E, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba
Codigo Postal 10 4000
(537) 33 30 75 or 832 21 54
telefax: (537) 33 30 75
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
