Venezuela
New workers' front challenges old federation
By
Monica Somocurcio
Venezuela is in the process of rapid political and social
change ushered in by the election of President Hugo Chavez and
the recent overwhelming vote given to his Patriotic Pole
coalition in the newly elected National Constitutional Assembly
(ANC). The ANC is reordering the priorities of the government,
to much resistance from the Congress and the judiciary.
Venezuela, although a rich country with abundant resources
including oil, has been growing poorer for decades. The urban
poor have taken to the streets repeatedly. In 1989, police
killed at least 300 people fighting against price increases.
Chavez's election was a virtual rebellion against the old
system and the enormous gap between rich and poor.
Now a struggle has broken out between the Workers
Constituent Front, which supports the new administration and
the ANC, and the Venezuelan Workers Federation (CTV), which is
tied to the traditional governing parties.
The CTV is part of the "clientelism" of the former regime
and does not represent the workers' interests, said leaders of
the workers' front in the Venezuelan daily El Nacional on Aug.
30. Those interviewed were Rafael Colmenarez, Angel Rodriguez,
Nicolas Maduro and Froilan Barrios, representing various
unions.
For 40 years, according to Maduro, the CTV functioned more
like an employer than a union. "In the construction industry we
receive constant complaints that the CTV chiefs are firing
workers not affiliated to their unions, throwing them off the
work sites,"said Maduro.
The CTV delivered a million votes to the conservative
parties in general elections. Now that the power of these
parties has been challenged by the ANC, Colmenarez feels a
confrontation with the leadership of the CTV "is
inevitable."
Rodriguez says that "the workers' support for these
traditional labor figures in our country is zero." But he
thinks that having the ANC dissolve the CTV and thereby
"interfere with the union activities of the country" would be a
mistake. The process of "democratization and legitimization of
the labor leadership," he says, "should be from the
workers."
El Nacional asked the workers' front leaders if the
UN-affiliated International Labor Organization, which recently
sent a delegation to Venezuela, had threatened them over the
proposed dissolution of the CTV.
Rodriguez said, "We made it clear that the intervention of
the ANC and of the workers in it is to deepen the
democratization of union activity in what has been a top-down
totalitarian system."
But they also told the ILO, "Where were you when they
kidnapped the social programs of the workers? What did the ILO
do when union activity was not democratized in Venezuela and
the participation of the workers started to wane?"
`CTV will be dissolved
by the workers'
Maduro added, "The CTV will be dissolved by the workers.
What the National Constituent Assembly will do is create the
juridical and political framework so that that path can be
taken in the short term. Taking down that structure will be
difficult, because it is alive and has many resources.
"What we are trying to do is build a structure that the
workers really belong to. The Workers' Constituent Front is an
expression through which various organizations of the Patriotic
Pole can develop a level of organization that the workers
belong to. We want to go from a trade union movement in which
the political parties intervene to one in the hands of the
workers, in which all political currents can coexist
democratically but none predominates."
Froilan Barrios said, "We were not afraid of the ILO. The
dissolution that we have proposed to the ANC wasn't just a
constitutional act; it would be accompanied by the intervention
of the workers in a referendum. This is very different from
other governments' positions, like that of Velazco Alvarado in
Peru who established a state labor federation. We don't want
government-organized federations.
"In the decree that will be discussed next week, we will ask
the ANC to propose to all the workers, to all locals, that
through a referendum the workers decide 1) if they want to
unify the workers' movement, and 2) if they want to create a
workers' federation. If the workers say yes, we will
proceed.
"The CTV has no possibility to be regenerated, and the only
possibility in the labor movement is the general participation
of the workers. In the next months, we will have a referendum,
when the Suffrage Law establishes this possibility in article
181. The CTV is in danger of disappearing."
Nicolas Maduro added that if the CTV "doesn't understand the
process of change, the workers will. This force of workers that
is in the process of joining the national fervor--in this case
the Constitutional Workers Front--will have a definitive
expression, and the Venezuelan workers will have a powerful
workers' federation."
Will this federation challenge Chavez, the newspaper wanted
to know. Maduro answered, "It doesn't have to, because Chavez
represents the transformation of the country."
Constitutional right to strike
Referring to the period since Chavez became president,
Maduro said, "We have had six months of total union liberty, of
a right to strike, of worker mobilizations. We have been part
of these mobilizations. The new Constitution guarantees, for
the first time, the right to strike."
Maduro said the leaders of the CTV "are afraid to lose their
privileges," while the workers' front leaders were in the
streets in 1996 and 1997, when the previous government went
after militants. "Look at the press of that time," he said.
"Our homes were broken into, we were taken to prison and they
threatened our families."
President Chavez has proposed reducing the workday. El
Nacional wanted to know why it is necessary to put this in the
new constitution.
Colmenarez said, "The proposal by President Chavez has been
made for the benefit of the Venezuelan worker." Rodriguez
added, "They should also reduce the working hours at night. It
should be in the constitution because many violations
exist."
Maduro said, "It's a basic point to establish norms that
take into account the physical and mental restoration of the
worker."
Barrios agreed. "This is a fundamental gain; also, it will
have a direct impact on employment. The reduction of the
workday is a worldwide trend."
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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