Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
"The Venezuelan revolution is a very popular mobilisation, which was revealed especially in the opposition to the counter-revolutionary coup in April 2002 and the bosses' strike of early 2003", Pedro Eusse, general secretary of the United Centre of Venezuelan Workers (CUTV), explained to Green Left Weekly in an interview on April 17.
"The working class played a very decisive role at certain moments of the Venezuelan revolutionary process, in particular the right-wing petrol strike", said Eusse. "But, in general, the working class as a movement in its own right is not playing the key pro-active role at present. And, the role of the working class is one of the most important points of our revolution."
The CUTV is the Communist Party of Venezuela-led union federation, formed in the early 1960s after the Democratic Action (AD) government, under the direction of the US, hounded leftist and Communist unionists out of the official union federation, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV). Since then, the CTV has degenerated into a reactionary rump organisation, supporting the US-backed 2002 coup attempt and the January 2003 bosses' strike.
Eusse explained that "AD used the police force and open fraud to expel the Communist Party from the CTV. Only contracts made by the CTV were recognised by the government and the CUTV was made illegal."
On the current state of the union movement in light of the mass radicalisation that has accompanied the Bolivarian revolution led by socialist President Hugo Chavez, Eusse argued: "The movement is very divided, with insufficient organisation, and with the absence of a defined program. The working class as a whole has not arrived at a revolutionary consciousness. There are sectors that have, and we are trying to change the situation."
He explained that for many years the union movement was dominated by "a reformist and reactionary tendency in control of the CTV, which accumulated the majority of unions into its organisation. This tendency still represents a great danger today, affecting the consciousness of the workers."
In the PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, "there are union leaderships that present themselves as Chavistas, as Bolivarians, but whose practices are the same as their old practices. This is doing a lot of damage."
Eusse explained that the workers employed by PDVSA were divided between three union federations and that this "hinders the possibility of acting as a united, powerful force".
"Many of the leaders of the federations are not committed to the revolution", Eusse added. They fight for a better collective contract, better wages, better conditions of work, but not for an active role for the working class in the revolutionary transformation of society.
"We still haven't made a qualitative jump in the revolution until now", said Eusse. "We have had success in social advancement, but we haven't yet succeeded in a deep transformation of the economy.
"There have been some significant advances in the factories seized by the workers, such as Invepal and Inveval", he said. These are two factories that were occupied by their workers, then expropriated by the Chavez government and are now owned and run jointly by the state and a workers' cooperative — a practice labelled cogestion (co-management). "But they are relatively isolated cases and don't yet form part of a great national policy of recovering factories. They have little influence on the national economy."
Eusse also pointed to problems with "co-management": "The workers become partners of the state or private companies through co-management — a form in which they can act as the boss, and not with the consciousness of the workers as a class.
"In Invepal, through co-management, the workers are involved in a co-operative that has 49% ownership. The cooperative contracted other workers to work for several months. They operated as a commercial business, exploited these workers, who were not allowed to become part of the cooperative. This is the logic of capital.
"The law says that after five months, the [newly hired] workers must be converted into associates of the cooperative, but the cooperative dismissed these workers five days before completing the five months. In this way they are reproducing the behaviour of neoliberal bosses.
"The other problem is that in this factory with the workers in a cooperative, where there is supposed to be active participation, the trade union disappeared.
"The movement of advanced, revolutionary workers is going backwards, weakening, causing problems. In this form, [co-management] is not the revolutionary solution."
Eusse argued that therefore "it is necessary to have a great debate within the trade unions and with the workers to define what exactly must be achieved in order to advance the struggle. Part of this discussion is how to strengthen the conscious politics of the workers as a class. A great challenge is to confront the divisions in the trade union forces."
Asked about the National Union of Workers (UNT) — the federation formed by pro-Chavez unionists in 2003 to replace the CTV that is now the largest union federation in Venezuela — Eusse said that the "CUTV is discussing our integration into the UNT, as the best way to support the union movement".
Referring to a debate within the UNT that will be resolved at its congress later this month, Eusse said: "Our incorporation into the UNT would be made easier if the elections were held next year", given the need for pro-revolution forces to focus on the campaign for Chavez's re-election in December. He also said that it would be "important to achieve a greater incorporation of the different union forces in the UNT before union elections are held".
These elections "have to be conducted in the right conditions, not on the run. We need consensus, or at least a minimum of agreement. It is more important to have the congress to try to get agreement between different currents, so that they define a program, organise a united leadership and an electoral commission.
"They must make the effort and sacrifices for the unity of the movement, because the differences and internal fighting are all contaminating the Venezuelan revolution.
"The great challenge we have is the threat we face of intervention from the United States. They are fomenting a plan of assassinations and destabilisation. Therefore, we need the workers to be organised to defend the country. The changes in the political situation introduced by Chavez mean that the differences that we have can be resolved, with the participation of the workers. This is a process that can take place at the congress, if there is sufficiently broad representation."
Holding union elections now "could break up the UNT", Eusse argued. "The elections can be in the first three months of next year. We are worried very much that at this moment there is a current in the UNT that is pressing very hard for elections" to be held in the near future.
Discussing the work of the CUTV, Eusse said: "We have coverage in the private sector. We have not been able to achieve coverage in the public sector — the largest sector that is unionised here in Venezuela. We are a small union and we have members in the automotive, chemical, plastics, construction, manufacturing, food and agribusiness industries.
"The main issues we concentrate on are health and safety, participation of women, and political education of workers.
"As a result of Chavez coming to power, all the left currents considered what was the best way to defeat the CTV. Many Chavistas tried entering the CTV. In 2001, the left forced elections in the CTV. However, the Chavistas lost as a consequence of massive fraud carried out by AD, and the errors committed by the left.
"Political leaders of parties with no experience of operations in the CTV decided on policy, not the trade unionists, leading to mistakes. After that, they withdrew from the CTV, and set up the UNT. These methods were not very democratic. The organisers came from the top, without any consultation with the workers at the base.
"The CUTV decided not to participate in the UNT at that time. The UNT is very weak structurally. We see our role, if we can now integrate into the UNT, to play a part in the unification of the UNT, and in raising the consciousness of workers.
"With Venezuela threatened by imperialism, we ought to defend the revolutionary process. We must unite our forces, and the working class must give an example to the rest of the population. The distances between the currents has made it more difficult for our fusion, but we hope that this will be overcome and that we can create one, large central union that definitively buries the moribund CTV, once and for all."
From Green Left Weekly, May 24, 2006.
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