Nick Everett
In September last year, the owners of Venepal, a paper mill in Venezuela's Carabobo state, decided to cease operations and not pay their workers' wages. A year later the paper mill, now known as Invepal (Venezuelan Endogenous Paper Industry), is operating under workers' control with an expanded work force.
In August, myself and six other participants of the Australia-Venezuela solidarity brigade travelled to Moron, in Venezuela's industrial heartland to the west of Caracas, to observe the factory operating under the system of workers' co-management.
We were greeted at the factory by Rowan Jimenez, the government representative on the company's board, and William Mena and Manrique Gonzalez, the president and vice-president of Coimpra (the workers' cooperative). Both were formerly union leaders at the plant.
Invepal made headlines on February 21 when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in his weekly television address Alo Presidente, announced a new direction for economic development, centred on the slogan "made in Venezuela". He made the announcement from the Invepal plant, just one month after it had been reopened under workers' control.
Venepal had employed 1600 workers and controlled 40% of the national paper market until the company's management allowed the plant to be run down. Some of the company's major shareholders were present at the swearing in ceremony of Pedro Carmona, who assumed the presidency during a failed coup attempt against Chavez in April 2002. The company also tried to shut down its operations during the bosses' lockout — an attempt to destablisise the economy and bring down the Chavez government — in December 2002.
On July 4, 2003, the company declared bankruptcy, leaving 600 workers without jobs and owing them large amounts in unpaid wages. The company had accumulated debts to banks of US$100 million, as well as $30 million owed to the Venezuelan state in unpaid taxes, insurance and power bills.
"We held a mass meeting involving the local community and the workers and resolved to occupy the installations and run them ourselves", explained Mena. The occupation lasted 77 days, with support from Bolivarian MP Iris Varela and the commander of the local garrison, General Acosta Carles.
Under the new Venezuelan constitution, adopted by referendum in 2000, article 87 guarantees workers the right to employment. Following the plant's closure, the workers presented a plan to the government, initiating a legal process to achieve the expropriation of the plant and equipment.
Prior to the plant's reopening, on January 24 this year, "we had to maintain a 24-hour armed guard on plant machinery to prevent sabotage", Mena said. Another group of workers worked with the government on the transfer of the plant, while a third group organised support for the workers who didn't have an income.
Support poured in from branches of the National Union of Workers (UNT), the community and community media.
"The private media and the CTV [Central Union of Workers, controlled by anti-Chavez forces] claimed the plant was a training centre for guerilla warfare with Cuban assistance", explained Mena. "They even claimed Cubans could kidnap you and torture you in concentration camps!"
Jimenez said the system of workers' co-management represented "a new form of social production". Invepal is 51% owned by the government and 49% owned by the Coimpra. "All decisions are made by an assembly of the workers." While half of the factory's revenue was committed to repaying a loan from the government, the other half is destined for the community "to resolve problems of health, education and infrastructure".
Jimenez explained that since the factory was reopened, production had expanded significantly, with plans to increase the work force from 500 to at least 800. Two new Invepal plants are being opened in the neighbouring state of Maracay that will produce notebooks and photocopy paper to be used by the government-backed education missions.
The plant is now self-sufficient in the production of electricity and water. Water used in the plant's hydraulic systems is recycled and purified for consumption by the community. Revenue from the plant has enabled the local Moron community, numbering around 1500, to establish a medical clinic, a school, a cinema, a market and a sports complex. The workers at the plant also produce a fortnightly community radio show.
"We are building a new socialism to improve the quality of life, reduce illiteracy, provide new sources of work and improve health", declared Jimenez. "This is the socialism we believe in, this is the socialism we are fighting for."
From Green Left Weekly, November 9, 2005.
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