Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
Australian trade unionists who were part of a solidarity brigade to Venezuela participated in Caracas's huge May 1 demonstration and had an opportunity to address the crowd from the front stage near Miraflores, the presidential palace.
Participants in the brigade, which kicked off on April 25, included four representatives from the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and one from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). Mike Treen, senior organiser from New Zealand's Unite union, also participated. The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network sponsored the brigade.
The unionists marched as a contingent, complete with ETU and AMWU flags and a large banner expressing solidarity with the Venezuelan people.
ETU activist John Cleary gave greetings to the Venezuelan workers on behalf of the Australian delegation. He welcomed the revolutionary advances made by the Venezuelan people through the Bolivarian revolution.
He also recounted the Howard government's attacks on Australian workers, and called for mutual solidarity between Australian and Venezuelan trade unionists. Cleary called for victory to the Venezuelan revolution, to applause from the crowd.
That night, the Australian union delegation appeared on a live TV discussion program with officials from the UNT union federation. The program, Constructing the Republic, gave brigade participants the opportunity to answer questions on their opinions of the Venezuelan union movement and the challenges facing trade unionists in Australia and NZ.
The solidarity brigade gave Australian unionists the opportunity to meet a variety Venezuelan workers and activists, including the UNT's Jose Ramirez; Dr Marcelo Alfonso, director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine at the Central University of Venezuela and a long-time left-wing activist; and union activists who belong to the Communist Party of Venezuela.
At Ciudad Bolivar, the brigade met the teachers and students of a new program to train thousands of electrical workers for Venezuela's rapidly expanding industrial and domestic electricity projects. The visit was sponsored by the National Institute of Youth. The ETU members discussed possible future exchanges of information and assistance with organisers of the training program.
On April 27, the brigade visited the huge ALCASA aluminium plant in Ciudad Guyana. The plant was taken over by its workers and is currently under "cogestion" (workers' co-management with the state).
In Puerto La Cruz, participants met members of the Oro Negro (Black Gold) movement — a rank-and-file movement of oil workers seeking to take over control of the local oil industry union federation, which is currently dominated by the right-wing CTV federation. Brigade members took part in a media conference with Oro Negro leaders, who are contesting upcoming union elections and hopeful of success.
Back in Caracas, the brigade visited Barrio 23 de Enero to hear the inspiring story the poor urban community's struggle to take control of its affairs. The barrio (neighbourhood), whose members played a key role in the mass mobilisation that brought President Hugo Chavez back to power after a US-backed coup in April 2002, now manages its own security after corrupt metropolitan police were forced out of the area. Barrio 23 de Enero now has the lowest crime rate in Caracas!
[Arrangements are being made for the participants in the union solidarity brigade to report back to their unions and the wider community when they return to Australia. For more information, visit <http://venezuelasolidarity.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 10, 2006.
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