Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
A March 30 meeting of almost 1000 Venezuelan trade unionists decided to organise a national congress in May of the National Union of Workers (UNT) — the major national confederation of militant and revolutionary workers.
The UNT was established in 2003 in direct opposition to the reactionary, traditional union federation, the Central Union of Workers (CTV), which supported the failed right-wing coup against President Hugo Chavez in 2002.
Green Left Weekly spoke to some prominent leaders of the UNT about their views on a number of the key issues confronting Venezuelan workers and the way forward for the UNT itself. There are a number of organised currents within the UNT, with differing political ideas and varying opinions on tactical questions.
UNT national coordinator Marcela Maspero, from the National Federation of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industrial Workers, told GLW: "Inside a plural and democratic organisation like the UNT, there are many different sectors of workers. On March 30, we all came to an agreement to have our congress on May 25-27. Our congress will formulate a program and ideology because we want to define the UNT and strengthen the program, and also define the type of workers' movement we want at this stage of the revolution.
"There will be three themes: in the first place, discussion of a balance sheet of the cogestion [workers' co-management] movement, with a joint policy document; secondly, to discuss the program of the working class; and thirdly, assessing the political situation, where we find ourselves under attack from imperialism, which is opposed to the revolutionary process. We need to decide on a new constitution for the UNT, and to establish an electoral commission in order to have elections from the grassroots.
"The congress will decide the date of the UNT elections. There are different opinions about this. One group thinks that there should be elections within three months of the congress. However, a fundamental point is that the Venezuelan presidential elections will be held at the end of this year, and we need to achieve the re-election of Chavez to deepen this revolution." At the founding congress of the UNT three years ago, national coordinators were appointed without a popular election by the membership.
"It will be an important congress, which will decide the authority and direction of the UNT. But there are a lot of preparations needed for the UNT elections, and we don't want a clash with the presidential elections. Nevertheless, this will all be decided by the workers at the May congress."
Maspero outlines how the UNT has been "organising strongly over the last three years. We are facing difficulties in the private sector where they are attacking workers' rights", but "the president has a policy of deepening workers' rights and giving priority to the organisations of workers."
Maspero said Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution "has given many rights to workers that they have not had for many years", while "management has launched a propaganda campaign against workers' rights. We also have a big conflict in the public sector. Some of the mayors and governors are sacking workers. We are organising mobilisations and reclaiming the rights of these workers in the public sector."
A new socialism
According to Maspero, "Workers here are expressing the will of President Chavez to once and for all transform this country towards socialism of the 21st century, which is quite different from past experience. The workers have a fundamental role to play in the construction of a new socialism, and the UNT will be in the forefront of the struggle ahead."
Luis Primo, a UNT national coordinator and regional coordinator in Caracas-Miranda, and a member of the Revolutionary Marxist Current (CMR), explained to GLW: "We consider that the UNT should be an instrument in the fight of the workers. Some of us think that some questions have been avoided so far in this struggle. We consider the workers' movement should be in the vanguard of this revolutionary process, and we are pushing for a policy that sees the participation of the workers in control of businesses. We are arguing for recognition that the actions of the comrades at Invepal and Inveval [plants occupied by their workers and expropriated under co-management by the government] and other businesses signify a change from a capitalist production model to a socialist one."
According to Primo, "We are also pushing for a fight in the National Assembly". He argued that a new assembly needs to be based on participatory rather than representative democracy. "That is to say, a democracy that is revolutionary and pro-active, that really makes the decisions. Representative democracy simply means the system of capitalist democracy, in which representatives are chosen every five years, but we don't know what the person chosen actually does — there is no social control ... There must be changes in the state. It must change from a capitalist state to a new type of revolutionary state. This is the policy, more or less, that we are developing in the UNT.
"Of course, this must be combined with a policy of supporting the struggle of the workers, and the UNT must contribute to the electoral campaign for 10 million votes for Hugo Chavez. For us, within this electoral process, we must fight for the development of a revolutionary socialist program. We are going to fight for the 10 million votes for Chavez, but also teach the workers to organise what we call the UBEs [Units for Electoral Battle] of the workers, and struggle for a new state of socialism.
"It is clear that in a situation of transition from a capitalist system, there are evident contradictions that affect workers who form part of the state sector. There are problems, for example, involving mayors and governors who are restructuring. Restructuring simply means that they are throwing out some workers and hiring others. Therefore, we are against this, and are fighting to stop it.
"These mayors and governors are Chavistas ... they are in the Chavista movement, but are sacking workers in the name of efficiency, eliminating workers' positions. We are opposed to this. This is an elementary contradiction that exists.
"But we consider all this forms part of the workers' struggle, part of the push to transform the workers' struggle from being purely economic to being political. This is a fight for the vanguard of the revolutionary process."
Solidarity against imperialism
Sending a message to Australian workers, Maspero said: "We are in solidarity with Australian trade unionists who are facing a difficult situation with the imposition of laws that restrict all the rights of workers. And we offer the solidarity of Venezuelan workers."
Primo, referring to his recent successful speaking tour of the United States, organised by the Hands Off Venezuela campaign, said: "The experience that we had in the US, with meetings involving many unions, the service sector, transport including truck drivers, with a broad section of the people, made us understand that there are great problems in these countries. In the US, the basic problem is the war in Iraq, together with other social problems, such as immigration.
"We consider that these problems are repeated in all the developed countries, including Australia. The best form of solidarity [with Venezuela] is not only to organise solidarity activities — which is indispensable — but to develop the fight against imperialism, against the system of capitalism in your own country. This is the best form of solidarity.
"But this means for us in Latin America, and for you as well, this fight must achieve the transformation of the US and other countries. This transformation of the developed countries means the liberation of Latin America and the whole world — it is a fundamental fight.
"The struggle for workers' rights in France over the youth work contracts is important. The fight against immigration laws and the fight against the war in Iraq are fundamental struggles in all the developed countries. This means for the less-developed countries a process of liberation for them as well.
"This struggle must be a united one, and it is important that Australian workers fully join this struggle for their rights, for trade union rights, and social rights. Neoliberalism exists for the benefit of the system that is oppressing us all. The fight that is now developing in Australia assists the struggles of the underdeveloped countries as well. This means, finally, the end of the capitalist system and the transformation of the world into a new, liberated, socialist system."
From Green Left Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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