Opposition "strike" or bosses lock out? An eyewitness account

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 By: Hands Off Venezuela Campaign

International commentarist Jorge Martin writes: If we were to believe the information we get from the international mass, we would get the impression that there has been a two months' general strike in Venezuela and that President Hugo Chavez Frias is an extremely unpopular and authoritarian ruler who is about to be overthrown in a mass popular revolt.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the "national civic strike" called by the opposition on December 2, demanding Chavez's resignation and early elections has been a complete failure since the beginning. When I arrived in Caracas on December 11, the airport was working normally, as well as public transport (buses, coaches and the Caracas Metro), shopping centers, restaurants and bars. The basic industries (iron, steel, aluminum, etc), which are State-owned, were working at 100% capacity because of the decision of the workers and their unions to oppose the 'strike'.

In Carabobo State ... one of the most important centers of manufacturing industry ... the 'Class Struggle' and 'Democratic Trade Union Block' ... which brings together workers from 52 different unions in the most important factories in the state (including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Pirelli, Good Year, Firestone, MAVESA, and others) ... declared its opposition to the 'strike.'

Some factories remained open, but at others, the workers went to work and found themselves locked-out by the bosses ... they demanded their wages, since they had gone to work, and in most cases they were paid. The same was true in some sections of the food and beverages industry, which is controlled (almost in its entirety) by Grupo Polar, which is owned by the powerful businessman and opposition leader Mendoza.

This was not a strike at all, but a bosses' lock-out.

The fact that this protest has the support of the executive committee of the CTV, the main trade union federation in Venezuela, should not fool anyone, since its Executive Committee has never actually been elected. The people who sit on it appointed themselves before the end of the ballot in extremely irregular elections in November 2001. This also explains why it is not recognized by most of the federations and local union branches.

The only part of the economy that was seriously hit by the opposition protest was the oil industry. Here, a small group of managers, directors, supervisors and technicians organized the sabotage of production and brought the industry almost to a halt.

Oil production is highly computerized, and a few managers who withdrew their keys and passwords caused a lot of damage ... they also made sure they fixed the administrative procedures so that they would still receive their (very high) salaries while they were on 'strike.'

A number of captains and crews of some of Venezuela's oil tankers mutinied and prevented normal deliveries ... and it is important to note that oil workers' union leaders (who in April had supported the opposition-led attempted coup), did not even dare make a public statement this time in favor of the 'national strike.'

Slowly but surely, oil workers took over the refineries and oilfields and started to get the industry back to normal ... by January 10, the State-owned oil company, PDVSA was working at 50% of capacity.

The opposition protest has been accompanied by a campaign of lies, half-truths and the blatant manipulation of all the private media ... particularly the TV stations, which are also controlled by the opposition. All TV stations suspended their normal programming to broadcast only 'news' about the success of the 'strike' ,,, and gave all their commercial breaks over to opposition propaganda.

To give just one example of the level of hysteria which the opposition and the media are trying to whip up against the government, when the government finally got a court order to take over the oil tankers that had mutinied, the opposition claimed that the new crews were Cuban, and that this was a further sign that the country was rapidly moving towards "Castro-Communism." This direct lie was repeated by the media, until a couple of days later, when it was directly challenged by the Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister and opposition leaders were forced to retract their allegations, admitting that there were no Cubans working in the oil tankers.

At the beginning of January, faced with the failure of their actions to bring the country to a halt, the opposition decided to up the stakes by announcing the closure of banks and that schools and universities would not re-open after the Christmas break.

Again, both actions failed.

Most banks remained open, and those that did close did so only for 48 hours. In most schools around Venezuela, an alliance of parents, teachers and students guaranteed the opening of the schools and colleges ... in some cases against the will of the headmasters.

As for Chavez being an unpopular dictator ... nothing could be further from the truth.

The opposition has been regularly calling demonstrations against the government demanding his resignation, and they can manage only to mobilize 100,000, 200,000 or even 300,000 people onto the streets ... mainly from the rich and middle class areas of Caracas. What is not generally reported is that the Bolivarians (as the supporters of the revolutionary process call themselves) can get far bigger crowds onto the streets. On December 7 ... right at the beginning of the opposition protest ... a massive demonstration of more than 2 million people took to the streets of Caracas against the 'strike' and to defend the democratically-elected government.

In fact, the result of the opposition 'strike' has been to further polarize Venezuelan society and push many people who had not previously taken sides, to openly declare themselves against the opposition ... which they rightly see as being responsible for the fuel and food shortages.

There have been many instances where people, queuing for hours to get petrol, have expelled opposition supporters from the petrol station queues for having the audacity to try to blame the government for shortages. Chavez is most definitely not a dictator.

It is in fact his supporters who are demanding that the government take stronger action against the opposition, which is hell bent on overthrowing a democratically-elected government. The only people who are currently in prison as a result of the April 11 opposition coup last year are actually government supporters who were defending the Presidential Palace against the coup!

Pedro Carmona Estanga, who appointed himself President for a few hours following the coup, was put under house arrest for a few days, and later escaped to Colombia.

The opposition newspapers (all of them apart from two or three exceptions) carry numerous articles and editorials openly calling for a military coup to remove Chavez and appealing to the armed forces to overthrow the government, and no measures are taken against them!

There is a group of military officers who have declared themselves in rebellion against the government and, instead of being arrested, they have been allowed to set up a permanent camp in Plaza Altamira, a square in the center of Caracas (mind you, these "courageous" individuals leave their "permanent" camp at night to go to sleep in luxury hotels!).

Chavez and his government have been put to the test in seven different elections since he was elected in 1998 ... and they have won every single one of them.

Furthermore, Venezuela's new Bolivarian Constitution allows for all elected public officials to be subject to a recall referendum half-way through their term of office. This includes the President, who is up for such a referendum in August 2003. The problem is that the opposition is convinced they would lose such a referendum, and that is why they are demanding Chavez's resignation. What they did not achieve in April, by means of a military coup, they want to achieve now by a combination of economic sabotage, chaos, appeals to the armed forces and international pressure.

The reason why the local oligarchy and the USA are opposed to Chavez is that even his limited program of democratic reforms (land reform, maintenance of PDVSA as a state-owned company and the extension of political democracy amongst others) and the process of mass mobilization and organization which they have generated, directly clash with class interests. But the very actions of the reactionary forces are pushing the masses to take direct action and push forward their revolutionary cause.

On January 10, for instance, 400 workers at Covencaucho (a tire company in Lara State) decided to take over the factory and declared themselves on "strike against the strike," when they were told that the company had decided to join the opposition protest.

Oil workers at one of the refineries had been running the installations under workers' control throughout Christmas and New Year ... when a new manager was appointed by the government to replace the old one, who had joined the opposition protest, he was told by the workers that he was welcome to join them, but that the refinery was now under workers' management.

Also, on January 17, the National Guard, with the support of the workers and the local population, took over a Panamco beverages warehouse in Carabobo State belonging to the powerful businessman and oppositionist Gustavo Cisneros, justifying it as collective rights before private rights ... all these are just some indications of the deepening of the process of the Venezuelan revolution.

The main discussions taking place in the trade union and popular movements at the present time are about popular control of the mass media, workers' control and management of the State-owned companies, occupation of privately-owned factories, popular management of schools, nationalization of the banks, etc.

Through their own experience, the workers, the poor peasants and students are drawing the conclusion that in order to defend the revolutionary process it must be strengthened and deepened.

The most urgent task for Venezuelans is the building of a leadership that can help draw necessary conclusions in a process adopting a clear approach as the only way to guarantee final victory.

Jorge Martin (Secretary) Hands Off Venezuela Campaign handsoffvenezuela@yahoo.co.uk