Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Hands Off Venezuela, Defend the UNT and Venezuela's Sovereignty!
Support the UNT's "Open Letter to the Workers' Group of the ILO!
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Venezuela is coming under renewed attack from the Bush administration.
The Financial Times reported on March 14, that "Senior U.S.
administration officials are working on a policy to 'contain' Hugo Chávez,
the Venezuelan president, and what they
allege is his drive to 'subvert' Latin America's least stable
states." The policy is being prepared "at the request of
President George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, senior
U.S. officials say."
Three years ago, the CIA was behind the attempted coup that unseated
Chavez for 48 years -- until the movement of millions of Venezuelans,
mostly the poor and disenfranchised, defeated the coup plotters and
returned Chavez to the presidency.
Six months after the failed coup, the right-wing forces in Venezuela --
with massive funding from the United States through the so-called National
Endowment for Democracy -- attempted to bring the country to its knees
economically to provoke a popular uprising against Chavez. The
Coordinadora Democratica and the CTV trade union federation took the NED
funds - a portion of which reached the CTV through the AFL-CIO's Americian
Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) -- to stage a two-month
work stoppage/lockout in the country's oil industry.
But this U.S.-funded attempt to paralyze oil production in the world's
fifth-largest oil-producing nation also was defeated by the mobilized
workers' movement of Venezuela. The overwhelming majority of oil workers
repudiated the lockout and their union leadership's direct complicity with
U.S. imperial interests, and they kept the industry running -- without the
managers and supervisors. These workers went on break with the CTV and to
form, together with the majority of organized workers in Venezuela, the
National Union of Workers (UNT) on April 5, 2003.
Despite these failed attempts to remove Chavez, who was elected
democratically to the presidency, all the country-selling forces in
Venezuela -- funded and supported by the United States -- kept at it, this
time using the provisions of the new Bolivarian Constitution to seek to
oust Chavez. They placed on the August 15, 2004, ballot a recall
referendum, hoping that with the control they still maintain over most
media outlets in Venezuela and the massive funding from Washington they
could buy the election.
But in the face of a radicalizing Venezuelan people, this effort, too,
failed. On August 15, more than 60% of the people -- in an election that
was monitored minutely by Big Business interests -- voted "NO"
on the recall referendum, affirming yet again that the revolutionary
process under way in Venezuela would not be reversed by the agents of U.S.
imperial interests.
The victory of the "NO" vote was further extended in late
October 2004, when the "Chavista" candidates swept the elections
to state and city governments.
Deepening Revolution in Venezuela
This electoral victory, in turn, deepened the direct action of
Venezuela's poor peasants and workers against all the partisans of the Old
Order.
On January 10, under immense pressure from the landless workers' movement,
which had occupied the lands of anti-Chavez large landownders, Chavez
announced the deepening of the country's Agrarian Reform program. One week
later, on January 17, Chavez announced the nationalization of Venezuela's
third-largest factory: the cardboard-producing Venepal corporation. This
factory was one of an estimated 290 factories that have been occupied by
workers following the decision by the bosses to shut their plant gates and
refuse to resume production under a Chavez regime.
In the aftermath of these two momentous decisions in mid-January, Chavez
went on to proclaim on his weekly public TV show that capitalism offers no
hope and solutions for the immense majority of the population in Venezuela
and around the world. He proclaimed, for this first time, his commitment
to building a Venezuelan-style project of socialism that would not waver
in placing the interests of working people first.
The "original" form of socialism, Chavez, explained would be
built out of the dynamic of the unfolding struggles and would included
"novel" forms of worker organization -- from self-management, to
co-management with "nationalist" sectors of Venezuelan capital,
to outright nationalization under forms of workers' control.
The U.S. officials quoted in the Financial Times article of March
14 call this deepening revolutionary situation in Venezuela and the
example it is setting for workers and peasants throughout the region
"a drive by Chavez to subvert Latin America's least stable
states." They talk about Chavez employing a "hyena
strategy" in the region.
These, of course, are fighting words.
Not Only Threatening Words
But they are not only words. U.S. news agencies have reported that
U.S. military forces have been staging naval operations off the coast of
Venezuela on the island of Curaçao.
Just this morning (March 15) the Venezuela news agency Aporrea reports
that right-wing Cubans in Miami are taking to the airwaves to call either
for direct U.S. military intervention to oust the "subversive
Chavez" or a CIA-style commando operation to assassinate Chavez.
These statements were made by top Cuban exiled officials on the
"Maria Elvira Confronta" program on Miami's TV Channel 22.
Key to the U.S. effort to prepare the stage for a possible military
intervention -- or at the minimum an international boycott/embargo of
Venezuela followed by commando-style operations -- is the drive promoted
by the United States in alliance with Venezuela's employer association,
Fedecamaras, to win an international condemnation of Venezuela in the
UN-affiliated International Labor Organization (ILO) for alleged
violations of "labor rights in Venezuela." These right-wing
forces have filed a Complaint against Venezuela and are mobilizing all
their allies to win passage of the Complaint at the March 8-24 session of
the ILO.
On February 3, Venezuelan Labor Minister María Cristina Iglesias
explained the stakes of this fight in the ILO. She told a visiting
delegation from the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
(ILC) -- a delegation that included this writer, Daniel Gluckstein from
France and Julio Turra from Brazil -- that in her view, the U.S. State
Department and its cronies in Venezuela are out to "crucify" the
Venezuelan government at the ILO in attempt to "isolate"
Venezuela and secure backing from the Organization of American States
(OAS) for any further action against Venezuela by the U.S. government and
its proxies. She called on all supporters of labor and democratic rights
to reject the unfounded accusations against the Venezuelan government
contained in the ILO Complaint.
This same view was expressed by the national coordinators of the UNT, who,
accordingly, have issued an "Open Letter to the ILO Workers'
Group" urging them to reject the ILO Complaint.
The ILC fully support this international campaign initiated by the UNT. We
believe it is possible to generate sufficient pressure within the labor
movements around the world to compel the union representatives in the ILO
Workers' Group to reject the FEDECAMARAS-CTV Complaint.
This campaign, we should note, already has destabilized the efforts by
Fedecamaras to win what was hoped to be easy approval of the ILO Complaint
against Venezuela. The discussion of the Venezuela point at the meeting of
the ILO Governing Body was scheduled initially for March 9th. Now it has
been postponed till the end of the session -- on March 21. This
postponement clearly shows that the UNT-ILC international campaign has had
an impact, and that the backers of the U.S.-promoted initiative are not
sure they have the votes at this stage to condemn Venezuela.
Step Up Campaign Around UNT's Open Letter!
We have made a difference with this campaign -- and, with your support and
that of your unions and federations -- we are confident we can ensure that
this session of the ILO Governing Body does not issue a condemnation of
Venezuela. Were we to prevent such a vote, we would be providing
immeasurable support to the right of the Venezuelan people to determine
their own affairs, free from intervention by the United States and its Big
Business partners.
We call again upon all trade unionists and activists -- particularly in
the United States, where we have a major responsibility to turn around the
stance by the national AFL-CIO leadership -- to endorse and help us
promote for wider endorsement the "Open Letter to the Workers' Group
of the ILO" that has been issued by the national coordinators of the
UNT.
Please send us your endorsement of this Open Letter AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
[See Open Letter and Coupon below.] We have only six days till the ILO
Governing Body takes up the specific discussion of Venezuela. Please
forward this message to your lists and print out copies for endorsement by
your unions. And please send us a much-needed financial contribution to
help us ensure the success of this campaign.
Just one note on this campaign: I will be leaving for Madrid on March 16
for one week to participate in the ILC World Conference (where, I should
add, UNT National Coordinator Marcela Maspero will be one of the keynote
speakers). I therefore ask all of you to please send your endorsements to
the following email addresses:
Alan Benjamin <abenjamin87@yahoo.com>
Luc Deley (Swiss Member of Parliament) <dellu@bluewin.ch>
Julio Turra (CUT) <julioturra@cut.org.br>
and UNT at following four addresses:
<mmmaspero@hotmail.com>
<untve_23@hotmail.com>
<unt_internacional@hotmail.com>
<mmmaspero@gmail.com>
We have only a few days to force the rejection by the ILO of these
unfounded charges -- but with your help we know we can succeed, as we have
succeeded with so many of our other international labor campaigns.
We thank you in advance for your support for this important effort in
defense of Venezuela's sovereignty and in defense of genuine trade
unionism in Venezuela.
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin,
U.S. Support Committee
ILC
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