AUT: The "National Strike" in Venezuela

["chris wright" <cwright@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Thiago,

> If what is going on in Venezuela right now is NOT a general strike , then
the
> most sensible thing for Venezuelans to do would be to go on strike, or
better
> yet, take over the factories. Getting the cops out to beat up
demonstrators and
> the army to break a (supposedly non-existent) strike is, I think, highly
> dangerous. There ain't much meat on the bone of the Bolivarian revolution,
and
> such a course of action could strip it bare. Given this situation, the
best
> thing for us to do is to stop supporting the nasties, and let the
Venezuelans
> work it out.

This is a relatively interesting article on Venezuela.  Some of the workers
are, according to this, of the mind to take over the factories.  There is,
from what little can be seen at a distance, still a great deal of confidence
in Chavez from important sections of the working class which see him as "one
of theirs" on some level.  Suffice to say, I am rather more of the same mind
as you and Harald.

Cheers,
Chris

Venezuela's 'National Strike'
by Justin Podur; ZNet; December 10, 2002

The 'general strike' called by the opposition in Venezuela is now on its
eighth day. The strike is the fourth called by the opposition over the past
year, including the failed coup attempt in April. The economy is suffering.
There have been at least three killed in the violence already, in a shooting
on December 6 in Caracas, and although it is unclear whether the opposition
to the Chavez government were responsible for the shooting, they have
labeled
it the 'Altamira Massacre' and one of their leaders-- Carlos Ortega, head of
one of the opposition unions-asked for an external intervention to remove
Chavez because of it.

On December 3, the anti-Chavez forces stopped a bus, doused it with
gasoline,
and set it on fire earlier today to enforce the strike-only the driver was
inside, and he escaped unharmed. On the fourth day of the strike the
captains of the oil tankers began a blockade on the transport of oil to and
from Venezuela.

The 'Bolivarians', who support Chavez and his reforms, are fighting back. On
December 10, they surrounded the TV stations, a natural tactic in a country
where the mass media is openly for the oligarchy and against the poor. On
December 7, a peace march brought 2 million out in support of the
government,
an event barely covered by the media. Last week, workers at a Pepsi-Cola
plant in Aragua, Venezuela, took it over against the wishes of management in
order to not join a national strike. Their slogan is "Fabrica Cerrada -
Fabrica Tomada", or 'Close the Factories? We'll take them over!" The
government has sent troops to take over the oil installations and there are
reports that oil workers in some parts of the country are working. But the
strike has slowed oil production and the economy in general.

Much of this struggle is about oil. Venezuela is the world's fourth largest
oil producer and its oil industry is critical to its economy. Chavez's
'bolivarian revolution' argues for a role for the state in the oil industry,
the redistribution of oil income, and the use of revenues from this resource
to build economic independence. But since 1974, the oil industry has been
moving in the opposite direction. At that time, the state-run-oil company
kept 20% of its revenue in operating costs and turned 80% over to the state.
In 1990 it was 50-50 and in 1998, when Chavez was elected, the company kept
80% and turned 20% over. What the neoliberals had in mind in the late 1990s
was full privatization-not a reversal of the trend of the previous 20 years.
Added to this, the administration of the oil industry is in the hands of
anti-Chavez forces, making it possible for them to go on strike in order to
promote privatization.

What are Chavez's other crimes? Severance pay was restored in the
constitution of 1999, after being eliminated in 1997. Social security was
set to be privatized in 1998, but was also impeded by the constitution of
1999. The Land Law, passed last year, was an agrarian reform law that tries
to make rural life viable for Venezuelans and slow rural-urban migration at
the expense of large plantation owners and real-estate speculators.

What is going on in Venezuela is a reversal of the situation in most of the
countries of the world. Elsewhere, governments quietly pass neoliberal laws,
privatize state assets, and undermine agrarian reforms under the direction
of
local elites. The people-and quite often the employees of the state organs
to be privatized-protest, and are repressed by the government. In Venezuela,
the neoliberals tried and failed to take over the government in April 2002.
Their remaining weapons are the strike, the media, and the dream of external
intervention.

The strike is becoming a war of attrition. Many workers defied the strike
from the beginning, but if the skilled work of the oil industry is
monopolized by the neoliberal opposition, the strike will continue to hurt
the economy. The media continues to be a totally partisan, active member of
the opposition.

What about external intervention? The opposition clearly isn't hoping for
external intervention from the Worker's Party government in Brazil-it is,
instead, hoping for help from a northern country that happens to be in the
business of 'regime change'. The United States is militarily and politically
preparing for a war in Iraq. Many analysts believe that a US intervention in
Venezuela shouldn't be ruled out, and that Colombia's civil war will offer a
pretext for such an intervention. While the US has made it clear that it
would recognize a Venezuelan government that successfully overthrew Chavez,
preparations for a direct military intervention do not seem to be in the
works in the short term.

Hans Dieterich argues that the opposition's impatience is because time is on
the side of the government. In January, the Land Law and the Hydrocarbon Law
come into effect, strengthening the government's hand. Last April, the coup
plotters lost much of their support in the middle class and the military
during their 24 hour dictatorship. The poor are committed to defending the
gains they have made, and are continuing to organize and learn from each
attack of the opposition.

There is also a small, but growing movement of international solidarity with
Venezuelans. There are solidarity committees that have formed in the US and
elsewhere since the coup in April, and delegations traveling to Venezuela to
exchange with the bolivarians. It is to be hoped that the World Social Forum
3 in Porto Alegre does a better job of hosting and hearing from people from
Venezuela's remarkable movement than it has in previous years.
Internationalists can sometimes find it difficult to support a government,
however popular, out of a sensible desire to not become apologists for any
regime. But so long as Venezuela's regime acts in the interests of the
people, it merits international support and solidarity, and needs it.

Marta Harnecker, a Chilean sociologist, has been following events in
Venezuela closely and recently interviewed Chavez for 15 hours. Just two
weeks ago she stated her belief that "if Chávez wanted to lead an
insurrection today, he would have the strength to do it. That is, the people
and the army at this moment would permit a victorious insurrection. The
problem is what will happen tomorrow. I think he's sufficiently mature to
understand the correlation of forces in which he finds himself and to
understand that insurrection would not be the solution." The solution,
instead, is to continue with democracy, to continue to struggle honourably
against opponents who fight dirty. Venezuelans should not have to face this
battle alone.

See Znet's Venezuela Watch for more coverage of Venezuela. Justin Podur is a
regular Znet commentator and can be reached at justin.podur@xxxxxxxxxxx




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