After failed coup in Venezuela
Unionists question AFL-CIO role
By Milt Neidenberg
A controversy has landed squarely in the laps of the AFL-CIO
hierarchy in Washington, D.C., involving the labor federation's
international bureau--the American Center for International
Labor Solidarity (ACILS). Was ACILS connected with the
counter-revolutionary forces that sought to overthrow
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his democratically
elected government?
John J. Sweeney became AFL-CIO president in 1995 when he
defeated a right-wing bureaucracy led by Lane Kirkland and
Thomas R. Donahue that had been in power for over 17 years.
Optimism grew as Sweeney cleaned house of the "old guard,"
including in the international section, which had been a front
for U.S. foreign policy and participated in the overthrow of
progressive governments. The old name of that section, the
International Affairs Department, was discarded to remove the
stench that had arisen from its activities.
Now the Sweeney leadership is coming under scrutiny.
Unionists are asking, what did they know, and what did they do,
during the fateful days that led to a short-lived coup in
Venezuela?
It is indisputable that the failed coup exposed the
machinations of the Bush administration, which had given aid
and comfort to the coup leaders before and during the 48-hour
takeover. Washington praised the fascist coup in its early
hours of control. It then hastily retreated when it failed,
hiding behind a façade of arrogant, pseudo-democratic
mutterings.
The Bush administration openly hates the Chávez
regime for its warm relations with Cuba and Iraq, its
independent oil policy, and its opposition to the Free Trade
Area of the Americas (FTAA), the centerpiece of Washington's
trade strategy for this hemisphere.
Did the AFL-CIO leaders get caught up in this web of a
fascist coup? On Feb. 12, a month before the coup, the AFL-CIO,
in collaboration with the National Endowment for Democracy
(NED)--which is well known for providing a moral-sounding cover
for CIA-type activities--sponsored a closed, high-level meeting
featuring Venezuelan Labor Federation (CTV) representatives.
The CTV leaders had recently participated in a number of
lockouts and other activities in collusion with
Fedecámaras, the main organization of Venezuela's
business oligarchy, and a sector of the military, to shut down
the Venezuelan state oil company (PVSA). In retrospect, these
activities were a dress rehearsal for the coup.
NED funded the entire event, which included meetings with
several AFL-CIO leaders, according to Katherine Hoyt,
co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network. Hoyt was an organizer
of a picket line at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington to
protest that Feb. 12 meeting. The ANSWER coalition also
participated in the picket.
Labor group relies on gov't funding
NED is a government agency created and financially endowed
by Congress during the Reagan administration in 1983. It and
the Agency for International Development have been the main
funders of ACILS.
NED has rich experience in subverting governments resistant
to U.S. imperialism's demands--Nicaragua in 1989, for example.
With an annual appropriation of $33 million and much more from
private sources, it conspires with the U.S. government to scour
the globe, from Africa to Asia to Latin America and the
Caribbean, seeking allies where direct U.S. government
officials might be unwelcome. Its reputation for subversion and
bribery is widespread.
Much of this has become public since the fascist coup failed
and Chávez was returned to power. The New York Times of
April 25, embarrassed by the turn of events, carried a banner
headline, "U.S. Bank rolling Is Under Scrutiny for Ties to
Chávez Ouster." The article said that "as Mr.
Chávez clashed with various business groups, labor and
media groups, the endowment stepped up its assistance,
quadrupling its budget for Venezuela to more than
$877,000."
The article mentions that ACILS received $154,377 from NED
for its Vene zuela project--just part of the reported $4
million a year the NED puts into this AFL-CIO center.
Predictably, the Times steered away from covering the larger
role the Bush administration played. Its intent was to expose
only NED and its link to the AFL-CIO.
Shaken by these revelations, the AFL-CIO decided to issue a
statement: "The AFL-CIO and Worker Rights in Vene zuela," which
can be found on its web page. The thrust of the statement was
to strike out wildly against President Chávez.
"From the moment he took office in 1999, Hugo Chávez
led an assault on freedom of association, attempting to weaken
or eliminate the principal institutions of Venezuelan society
including the unions." Defending the role of the CTV, the
statement goes on: the midst of this assault, the CTV conducted
an impressive process of internal democratization with the
assistance of the AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center."
The statement also "unequivocally condemns the coup attempt"
and tries to clean up the CTV's participation. "There is no
evidence that the CTV or its leaders went beyond the democratic
expression of discontent," it concluded. "The AFL-CIO will
continue to support the CTV."
There is much in the statement that is disingenuous,
misleading and disturbing to many progressive unionists who
have been following the Venezuelan events. It is undeniable
that the CTV did participate in the coup and that NED was
intimately connected with the CTV, financing its
counter-revolutionary operations. The AFL-CIO statement covers
this up. Nor is there a comment or an attack on the Bush
administration for its open support of the coup.
CTV close to coup leader
Even the New York Times of April 25 had admitted, "The union
leader, Carlos Ortega, worked closely with Pedro Carmona
Estanga." Carmona, the head of the big business group
Fedecámaras, was chosen to head the short-lived fascist
government along with sections of the military. It was
responsible for the 48-hour reign of terror against the working
class and the progressive movement, who supported President
Chávez. The workers came into the streets by the
hundreds of thousands to return him to power.
Venezuelan Minister of Education Dr. Aristóbulo
Istúriz, himself a former teachers' union leader and
vice-president of the Constituent Assembly, gave a vivid
account of the coup to an audience of progressive unionists
gathered at AFSCME District Council 1707 in New York on May 10.
He said that during the coup, "Carmona went to Miraflores [the
presidential palace] and he brought together all the oligarchy
who were in control of the economy, but, interestingly, he left
the mafia leaders who control the unions outside, basically
because they looked too much like us." It was a wry comment on
how the big bourgeoisie have no respect for their own lackeys
in the labor movement.
The AFL-CIO leaders have put themselves in an untenable
position. Their ties to NED have put them on the wrong side of
the class struggle in Latin America. The workers throughout the
hemisphere have demonstrated deep hostility to U.S.
intervention. They are opposed to the role of the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank and, most important, to the
threat the FTAA poses to their lives.
Since Sept. 11, the AFL-CIO has been weakened by President
George W. Bush, who has seized the moment to unleash a racist,
anti-labor offensive. The leaders have succumbed to the Bush
administration's decision to trigger a wider war abroad and to
justify an "anti-terrorist" campaign at home.
Hundreds of billions of dollars have been shifted from
people's needs to the Pentagon and "homeland defense." Both
major parties have initiated cuts in social programs, a more
repressive welfare bill, and, more recently, support for FTAA
by giving Bush more power to expand his globalization strategy.
To add to Sweeney's woes, his base within the bureaucracy is
under attack from right-wing Teamster President James Hoffa,
who is collaborating with the Bush administration. Hoffa sat in
Bush's box at the inauguration and has demanded more support
for Republican candidates.
It's a sorry situation all around.
However, repression breeds resistance. Movements against
these pro-imperialist, corporate/banking policies continue to
grow. One example is the turnout of 100,000 activists on April
20 in Washington to oppose the war on the workers, the
immigrants and the poor at home and its expansion abroad,
particularly against the Palestinian people.
The development of technology has revolutionized the means
of production but has brought immeasurable misery to the
working class, so many of whom are unable to buy the
necessities of life while the idle rich and their oligarchy
feed insatiably off the laboring masses.
The class struggle is contagious. It is worldwide. It will
continue to feed on this discontent and strengthen the
development of international solidarity.
The promise of international solidarity is building from
below. Due to the insatiable appetites of profit-driven Wall
Street and the corporate/banking establishment, resistance will
grow among the 13 million multinational members of the AFL-CIO,
women and men.
Can the AFL-CIO find its way to these forces and break with
the pro-war, anti-labor policies of both capitalist parties? It
is best to view the current AFL-CIO position from the
perspective of the global class struggle that is unfolding. On
May Day, a day born in class struggle, tens of millions of
workers, socialists, progressives and class-conscious activists
spilled into the streets around the world to raise the many
issues confronting their class. Much of it was against U.S.
imperialist war aims. The events were inspiring and
exemplary.
Reprinted from the June 6, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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