Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
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Political Report from Venezuela by Julio Turra, Coordinator of the ILC Delegation to Venezuela and National Executive Director of the CUT Trade Union Federation of Brazil (sent out at noon on Monday, August 16)
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VENEZUELA:
Historic Victory for the "NO" Vote on the Recall Referendum;
The People Reaffirm their National Sovereignty, Giving a New
Impulse to the Revolutionary Process Under Way in Venezuela
By JULIO TURRA
[Introductory Note: Julio Turra, national executive director of
the CUT trade union federation of Brazil, sent out this dispatch at noon
on Monday, August 16th from Caracas, Venezuela, where he has spent the
last week with a labor delegation from the International Liaison Committee
(ILC). The ILC delegation was invited to Venezuela by the Venezuelan UNT
trade union federation. Other members of the ILC delegation include Robert
Irminger, IBU/ILWU delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, and Fred
Hirsch, Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 delegate to the San Jose Labor
Council. The ILC is one the organizations that make up the OWC
Continuations Committee.]
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Beginning at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 15, the
Venezuelan people began to gather at the polling booths. Enormous lines
formed, as some people had to wait as many as 10 hours before they could
vote. But no one left before voting; the stakes were too high. The
National Elections Council (CNE), in fact, had to extend the voting till
far after midnight.
For the first time in their country's history, an elected president had
placed his mandate to the test of a recall referendum. This consultative
mechanism, which was established by the Bolivarian Constitution under
President Hugo Chavez, was used by the U.S.-financed opposition forces in
an attempt to remove Chavez from office. But this U.S.-backed effort
failed squarely: Close to 9 million voters, a record turnout, went to the
polls, and a large majority reaffirmed Chavez as their president.
At 3:47 a.m. on Monday, August 16th, in a climate of great tension, the
National Elections Council announced the first official results: With 94%
of the vote counted, 58.25% had voted "NO" on the recall
referendum to oust Chavez, with 41.74% voting "Yes." Hence, more
than 5 million people voted "NO" to imperial intervention,
"NO" to the FTAA, and "NO" to the IMF -- thereby
reaffirming the sovereignty of Venezuela against any and all forms of
interference by the U.S. government.
At 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning, a huge crowd began to assemble in front of
the Palacio Miraflores, the presidential building, to celebrate the
victory of the "No" vote. Hugo Chavez came out to address the
crowd from the "people's balcony," stating this was a victory
for the Venezuelan people over the "false democracy of the elites of
the Punto Fijo" (or Fixed Point, a reference to the pact of political
parties that had ruled the country since 1958). It was a a vote in favor
of "equality, justice and democracy," Chavez stated, after which
he called on all the opposition parties to recognize and respect the vote
cast by the majority of the Venezuelan people.
Minutes after Chavez had concluded his speech, however, Henry Ramos Allup
of Accion Democratica, speaking in the name of the Opposition Coordinating
Committee, went on nationwide TV to state that the opposition coalition
would not recognize the election results, which, he claimed, were marked
by "massive fraud." Ramos Allup claimed that the exit polls
conducted by the opposition gave a victory to the "Yes" vote,
but he provided no factual documentation or numbers to back his baseless
claim.
At this writing, there has not been any official announcement by the
international observers, including the Carter Center and the Organization
of American States, regarding the validity of the official election
results. Likewise, the Bush administration has not issued any statement in
relation to the Venezuelan election.
[Translator's Note: Later in the day on August 16th, Former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter, who helped monitor the referendum, endorsed
returns showing that Chávez won the vote. "Our findings coincided
with the partial returns announced today by the National Elections
Council," Carter told a news conference (Reuters, Aug. 16). The
anti-Chavez opposition did not back down, however, from its denunciation
of the "gigantic fraud."]
The continued claim of "electoral fraud" by the opposition
forces places as an immediate task for all trade unionists and democratic
rights activists in the Americas and around the world the need to remain
vigilant and mobilized to continue to defend the sovereign will of the
Venezuelan people against any attempt to confiscate their electoral
victory of August 15th.
As the leadership of the National Union of Workers of Venezuela (UNT)
stated in a declaration on August 16, the victory of the "No"
vote will provide new impulse to the revolutionary process under way in
Venezuela, helping to strengthen the working class and popular sectors
which -- with their "patrullas" (or popular patrols), their
UBS's (neighborhood committees) and their independent, class-struggle
trade union movement -- produced the mass mobilizations that proved so
decisive to ensuring the resounding defeat of Bush's allies in Venezuela.
The UNT trade union federation was founded in April 2003 following the
defeat of the bosses' oil strike organized by the Venezuelan Chamber of
Commerce in cahoots with the top bureaucrats of the CTV union federation.
After just 16 months of existence, the UNT now represents more than 60% of
the organized workers in Venezuela.
Throughout the streets of Caracas, the victory of the "No" was
acclaimed loudly. One large group of workers and youth, all dressed in red
T-shirts, proclaimed in full voice, "No Volverán!" -- or
"They Will Not Return!" -- a reference to the corrupt
politicians of the Accion Democratica, COPEI and other pro-U.S. parties
that have ruled Venezuela over the years in the interests of the ruling
rich, the U.S. government, and their corporate backers.
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Report from the ILC Delegation in Caracas:
International Liaison Committee Joins Battle for a
"NO" Vote
CARACAS, Venezuela-- An international labor delegation from the
International Liaison Committee (ILC) was present in Caracas from August
12-17 at the invitation of the UNT (National Union of Workers) trade union
federation. The delegation was there to add its support for the victory of
the "NO" vote in the August 15 recall referendum.
Present on the delegation were Mexican trade unionist Armando Pasos
(Metropolitan University Workers Union of Mexico/SITUAM); U.S. trade
unionists Robert Irminger, IBU/ILWU delegate to the San Francisco Labor
Council, and Fred Hirsch, Plumbers and Fitters Local 393 delegate to the
San Jose Labor Council (United States); and Brazilian trade unionists
Julio Turra (national executive director, CUT), Tomás Jensen (Nuestra
America Association, Sao Paulo), Walter Matos (CUT Amazonas), Isaac
Oliveira (Federal Judiciary Workers, SINTRAJUF, Pernambuco), and Ricardo
Jacome (Public Sector Workers, SINDSEP-DF, Brasilia).
Beginning on August 12, the ILC delegates initiated their activities
alongside other international unionists and activists also present in
Venezuela to support the "No" vote (including an official
delegation from the Workers Party/PT of Brazil that included Joao Felicio,
general secretary of the CUT, and Federal PT Deputy Luis Eduardo
Greenhalgh).
The first set of activities, coordinated by Maximiliano Arvelaiz, special
advisor to Chavez, included visits to the popular barrios, or
neighborhoods, where many of the "missions" of the Chavez
government (healthcare, housing, education) are being implemented -- all
with funds from the state oil corporation (PDVESA), whose administration
is now controlled directly by the government, with the participation of
representatives elected by the workers.
The members of the ILC delegation were able to observe first hand how
these "missions" had become a centerpiece of the Chavez
government and the battle to defeat the recall referendum. For the first
time, the poor and disenfranchised had been given access to quality public
services.
The ILC delegation then met with members of the leadership of the
International Relations Bureau of the Movement of the Fifth Republic (MVR),
the political organization set up Chavez, and with the Samuel Moncada,
coordinator of the Comando Maisanta (the "No" campaign). At
these meetings, the ILC delegates presented copies of the United Appeal in
Defense of Venezuelan Sovereignty and Against U.S. Intervention, initiated
by the ILC supporters in Peru, which had gathered hundreds of endorsements
from leading trade unionists and activists across the Americas and Europe.
The various resolutions adopted by trade union bodies around the world in
solidarity with the Venezuelan people's struggle for self-determination
were particularly well received. This was especially the case of the
resolution adopted by the recent convention of the 2.8-million-member
California Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) calling on the national AFL-CIO
to refuse taking money from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to
promote Bush's foreign policy objectives in Venezuela and elsewhere. This
resolution had been submitted to the California Labor Federation
convention by Fred Hirsch and by his local.
Brother Hirsch's presentation of this resolution at the various high-level
political and trade union meetings in Caracas made a huge impact and was
reported widely on radio and TV.
The ILC delegation also participated on a program of Venezuela's National
Public Radio. Compañero Armando Pasos from Mexico described the ILC and
its campaigns and went on to present a proposal to convene in Caracas, on
the basis of the UNT trade union federation, an international conference
of trade unionists in defense of national sovereignty and independent,
class-struggle unionism. This proposal was greeted with great enthusiasm
by the leaders of the UNT, who, on August 13, organized a special meeting
in their national headquarters with the ILC delegation and with unionists
from various countries.
At the meeting with the UNT leadership, Orlando Chirino, one of the
national coordinators of the UNT, explained the origins and ongoing
campaigns of his union federation. Julio Turra, on behalf of the ILC
delegation, read the Declaration of the ILC in Support of the Victory of
the "NO" Vote in the Recall Referendum, a declaration that was
signed by Daniel Gluckstein, international coordinator of the ILC, and by
all the members of the delegation (as well as by other leading trade
unionists from Brazil present in Venezuela, such as Edson Silva from the
CUT of Sao Paulo and Joao Osorio, president of the CUT in Brasilia).
The ILC delegation was able to visit various workplaces in and around the
capital city, including the power plant operated by the state-run National
Energy Corporation, thanks to the transportation provided by the compañeros
of the Electrical Workers Federation of the UNT (Fetraelect). At this
state-run energy corporation, the workers also elect their representatives
to the administrative board.
On Sunday the 15th of August, the members of the ILC delegation split up
into various groups. Some visited and observed the various voting stations
across the city, accompanied by compañeros of the Comando Maisanta, while
others remained stationed at the headquarters of the UNT alongside union
leaders Marcela Máspero, Eduardo Piñate and Orlando Chirino. There the
delegates were interviewed on national radio and TV about the solidarity
efforts under way in their respective countries with the people of
Venezuela.
In the face of the stance taken by the Opposition Coordinating Committee,
or Coordinadora, not to recognize the results of the August 15 referendum,
a meeting will be held later this evening [Monday, August 16--Translator's
Note] at the headquarters of the UNT with the aim of drafting a Common
Appeal to the International Labor Movement by Venezuelan and international
trade unionists to affirm the incontrovertible victory of the
"NO" in the election and to urge working people the world over
to remain alert and prepared to mobilize in large numbers against any
attempt by the U.S. government or its surrogates in Venezuela to undermine
the sovereign decision by the Venezuelan people to continue its struggle
for profound transformations of the economic and social structures of the
nation; that is, for the deepening of the Bolivarian Revolution, which the
Venezuelan masses have imbued with a deep and clearly anti-imperialist
content.
-- by Julio Turra, from Caracas -- noon on Monday, August 16,
2004