Steel Strike in Venezuela

[Devrim]

From Libcom:
Workers launched a 72-hour strike at Venezuela's largest steelmaker, Ternium Sidor, late on Tuesday to protest stalled contract talks.



"The strike is for 72 hours and it started last night," said union leader Jose Rodriguez.
Workers have repeatedly shut Sidor, 60 percent owned by Argentina's Ternium, as part of demands for higher pay in what has been a 14-month dispute for a collective contract. The union on Monday called a 24-hour strike as part of the same dispute.
This is the sixth time this year that the plant, located in the southwest state of Bolivar, has been shut down as part of demands for higher pay. The union says it will not accept a daily salary increase of less than 53 Bs.F (US$24), however, the company says its final offer is 44Bs.F (US$20.5) per day.
An earlier protest by Sidor workers on March 14, in the midst of an 80 hour strike, was broken up violently by 120 functionaries of the Bolivar section of the National Guard and 60 state police. One union leader was wounded by gunfire and more than 50 people were arrested during the clashes.



Devrim

[black magick hustla]

No Devrim, you are wrong these are not workers. I suggest you move this to the labor-aristocrat forum. :crying:


Viva la Revolución Bolivaria! :lol:

[Devrim]

Huh? When did steelworkers stop being workers?

It is called sarcasm. You are excused for not getting it as you are American.:)

Devrim

[Luís Henrique]

Well, this is a working class strike, not a lock-out by the bosses (like the PEDEVESA "strike") or a petty-bourgeois law & order movement (like the "White Hands" movement).

Luís Henrique

[Die Neue Zeit]

Well, this is a working class strike, not a lock-out by the bosses (like the PDVSA "strike") or a petty-bourgeois law & order movement (like the "White Hands" movement).

Luís Henrique

I don't know how left-communists have the absurd notion that the 2003 strike by PDVSA folks was a "workers' strike."

Back then, I would've hoped that Chavez took a more militant approach and BUSTED the strikers right there and then. :(

[Entrails Konfetti]

It is called sarcasm. You are excused for not getting it as you are American.:)

Devrim

Nationalist!

[Alf]

our comrades in Venezuela have written this article on the steelworkers' strike

http://es.internationalism.org/node/2230

Any Spanish speakers out there willing to do a translation?

[black magick hustla]

I'll translate it. Give me a moment

[black magick hustla]

Ok this is the first half, the one with the news in it. The olther half is a more theoretical explanation, which I will translate tomorrow:

-------------------------------------




Chavez' bourgeois government -with the support of the Opposition and of the trade unions- unleashes a repression against the workers of the Steel Zone in Venezuela – the latter who have been fighting for their most basic needs. Here we can see the TRUTH OF MR. CHAVEZ AND HIS FARSE OF “21th CENTURY SOCIALISM”.
Here we diffuse the intervention leaflet written by our comrades of INTERNACIONALISMO in Venezuela. We commend their efforts, since they have been done in the very difficult conditions of repression and Chavista blackmail. We manifest our solidarity with the workers of the Zone and with out comrades, and we call for the diffusion and discussion of this intervention leaflet. The proletariat's struggle is INTERNATIONAL, and it must confront all forms of the Bourgeois State, whether these are “liberal”, “dictatorships”, or adopt the mask of “socialism” like in the case of the weekly protagonist of “Aló Presidente.”


Chavez' bourgeois state clashes against steel workers.
After more than the 13 months of discussion and collective bargaining, the workers of the steel plant Ternium-SIDOR have said they had enough. Upset, thanks to the hunger-salaries they receive (very close to the minimum wage, in one of Venezuela's regions were living is the most expensive), the deplorable working conditions that have caused the death of 18 workers and dozens of ill laborers in less than a decade, and the reluctance of the company to give into their demands, the workers have stopped working.
Various media outlets have made echo of the company's campaign of self-victimization; the latter who states that the benefits demanded by the workers surpass annual sales. These lies form part of the informative “black out”, whether from the government's media or from the opposition's, about the true causes of the steel workers' struggle. The steel workers, since the 90s, have been subject to policies that reduce their wages and other benefits, through processes of Restructuring, that have placed their benefits in a lower level than from the other workers in the region. The steel workers are only fighting to have acceptable living conditions. They know that if they accept the conditions given in the company's hiring contract, they would be tied for more than 2 years of miserable raises of wages and benefits, while, according to the untrustworthy figures of the “Banco Central de Venezuela” (Venezuelan Central Bank), the prices of food and life rise over a yearly 30%, . Other important demand of the movement, is to pass the hired workers (who represent 75% of the 16000 workers in the company) to the category of fixed workers, the latter who have better benefits than the former. In this sense, the struggle of the “sidoristas” express the terrible conditions and the uneasiness that dominates the working masses of the country's region, who have to confront the non-stopping rise of prices of basic needs, and the unacceptable work conditions.
In this same way, the steel workers have said they had enough with the “peloteo” and “mamadera de gallos” of the representatives of the company, the government and the trade unions; all the latter have succeeded in pulling back the initial demands of the movement (the unions “demand” today only for a daily wage of 50 Bs., after the demands of 80s Bs from the initial negotiations). After the workers were able to accomplish all requirements in order to be able to strike, the government, the trade unions, and the company, came with the stupid idea of forming a high level commission, with all of the latter three as the nefarious members. At the same time these nefarious elements discussed inside the building and behind the backs of the workers, the latter, assembled in front of the steel plant's doors, decided to strike. The most important strike was the one of March 12, which was 80 hours long and demonstrated a radicalization of the movement. The response of the state and the company came stomping in no-time: in March 14, the National Guard and the police unleashes a brutal repression that leaves more than 15 workers wounded and 53 detained. With this repressive action, the government of Chavez lays naked before the workers: it disposed itself of the “working class uniform” and instead, got dressed with its true colors as the defendant of the interests of national capital. It isn't the first time that the “socialist state'” clashes against workers fighting for their vindications: only to give an example, last year, the petroleum workers felt the repression with their flesh when they fought for better benefits.
But the trade union SUTISS is also co-responsible of the repression against workers (independently that some union leaders have also been repressed), since it has worked as a “fire-fighter” against the embers of the movement. It tries to put itself in front of the movement while it negotiates with the company and the state the lowering of the wage demanded.

[Alf]

excellent work Marmot, thankyou!

We will put it on our English website shortly

[Kyznetsov]

The chavez government objectively is a 'bourgeois socialist' regime, it uses unscientific rhetoric and welfare capitalism to create illusions of damage at foreigners in a crude nationalism and refuses to concentrate on the internal class struggle, it gives cheap neccessities to the poor to keep them happy but that's about it.

As Lenin said, 'I support them [social-democrats] as a rope supports the hanging man'.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I don't think there can be a thing such as "bourgeois socialism," though. You are right about the welfare capitalism part. However, given my remarks in the "social democracy" thread, it seems to me that Chavez is more of a genuine reformist (read: radical reformist) rather than a mere economist (like today's "social-democrats").

[el_chavista]

It seems that something is really wrong. Yes, Chávez is a Kerensky! But where are the communists? Are we simple expectators or are we supposed to take every chance to impulse the real socialist revolution?

[black magick hustla]

ok people I wont be able to have the second half finished today, but probably tomorrow for sure

[Entrails Konfetti]

Who are the nefarious elements, the workers or the government, union and bosses?

[black magick hustla]

Who are the nefarious elements, the workers or the government, union and bosses?

lol all of those except the workers

[black magick hustla]

I finished with the second part (and also i fixed some funny sounding things in the first half):

-----------------------




Referendum and nationalization: new traps against the movement.

Due to the workers' relentlessness, the bosses have pulled out another of their traps: a referendum to consult each worker about his or her agreement concerning the company's proposal. The referendum, backed by the chavista Minister of Labor (who is either a trotskyist or ex-trotskyist), has received the trade union SUTISS' bless. However, as expected, the referendum comes only with certain “conditions”. Class instinct has lead to some workers reject this trap – a trap that after all, intents to bulldoze through the sovereign assemblies (where the real force of the working class is expressed): the referendum treats each worker as a “citizen”, who in an isolated manner would “confront” the company and the state through the ... ballot boxes! In response to this action, workers must reaffirm themselves in their sovereign assemblies.
Another trap against the movement, proposed by the trade unions and various “revolutionary” segments of chavismo, is to nationalize again SIDOR, with most of the company on argentinian capital's hands (the venezuelan state only owns 20% of the stocks). What this campaign pretends is to distract workers from fighting against their true objectives, because in this case, they wouldn't have other option than to fight against the company's capitalists, whether the latter are argentinian or venezuelan state bureaucrats. The nationalization of the enterprise doesn't means the destruction of the conditions of exploitation: the state-bosses, whether they disguise as “working class”, have no other options than to wage a permanent war against the wages and living conditions of the workers. The leftists and the left wing of capital, who see the concentration of enterprises in the hands of the state as the path to “socialism”, dismiss one of the basic teachings of marxism: that the state is the great representative of the interests of each national bourgeoisie, and for that reason, enemy of the proletariat. The chavista bourgeosie, the head of the venezuelan state, what searches for is to increment their extraction of surplus value, and in the name of “bolivarian socialismo” surpress proletarian confidence through missions and cooperatives (you should ask the workers of Invepal or Inveval).
This “revolutionary bolivarians” intent to erase from the memory of workers that SIDOR, since its founding, has been for many years a state own enterprise, and that workers many times had to battle not only against the repressive state-bureaucrats that administrated it, but also against the unions (capital allies inside the factories) – to the extent that in the 70s, workers burnt part of the CTV's offices in Caracas in response for the latter's anti-worker action.
The state, in hands of the chavistas since 1999, hasn't lost through voodoo-magic its capitalist character. What has happened is a change of clothings through “socialist” ramblings, but still keeping its fundamental structure as a defender of capital against labor intact. Just because Chavez disguises as a “sidorita” or “worker” when it is in his interests, we should never become confused by the class character of the chavista government- a government which was implanted by capitalists to defend an exploitative system that throws us, day after day, into poverty. We the workers aren't as naive as those “revolutionaries” with their panacea of “re-nationalization” think -”revolutionaries” who live like the bourgeosie, earning salaries that are 30 or more times the official minimum wage.


The only possibility to success: the true solidarity between workers.

The movement's option for success is the search for solidarity. Its crucial for there to be working class solidarity from also the other industrial branches, whether from regional or national level, because all of us are equally pummeled by the economic crisis (local expression of the world crisis of capitalism) that the state or private capitalists discharge against us. Its also necessary to have solidarity with Guayana's population, which is being affected by the attacks against workers' wages, unemployment, high living costs, and for other problems that the state is unable to resolve, like crime, housing, etc. But this shouldn't be a solidarity built through the trade unions, because the latter are organs which are principally used to deter struggles, create divisions through branches or sectors, and in the worst case, complement the state's repression. Also, we shouldn't filter our solidarity through social organizations created by the state, like the community councils. The solidarity needs to be “self-managed” by the workers and for the workers, through open assemblies.
The steel workers' struggle is also our struggle, since fighting to lead a good life benefits all the proletariat. But the best benefit, apart from a better salary, lies in becoming conscious about the power that the proletariat holds in its hands, which is expressed in sovereign and other forms where it self-organizes to defend its own interests outside of the margins of the trade unions and other institutions created to control us.
The national bourgeosie knows that Guayana's situation endangers their interests. The concentration of workers and the experience of past struggles that exists in this zone, makes the zone incredibly explosive, because there lies accumulated a proletarian discontent generated by the years of constant attacks against employment and living conditions. In this manner, the Steel Zone, has the potential to become a reference to the proletarian struggles in the whole country, like the way it happened in the 60s and 70s.
The workers of SIDOR have taken the only possible path when confronting the attacks of capital, the one of struggle. The spread of this struggle to other branches of regional and national production, with also the search for popular and working class solidarity, will open the path that would lead the venezuelan proletariat to an international fight for the overthrow of capital, and the building of the bases for a true socialist society.
25-03-2008

[beltov]

Thanks Marmot. The whole article is now available in English on our site here:

The bourgeois state of Chavez attacks the steel workers
http://en.internationalism.org/icconline/2008/apr/steel-struggles

So, where are all the Chavistas now eh? Here we see the real Senor Chávez and his "socialism of the 21st century"

B.

[el_chavista]

I recognize it is a tragedy, indeed. What can I say? Even Trotsky had his Kronstad situation.

[Luís Henrique]

So, where are all the Chavistas now eh? Here we see the real Senor Chávez and his "socialism of the 21st century"

I don't know where are the Chavistas now, but you certainly are not in a good position to criticise their unwillingness to comment on this issue.

Luís Henrique

[Leo]

Luis, please keep the references to the students movement in the thread about the student movement.

[Luís Henrique]

That's interesting. When we were in fact discussing the students movement, the "but Chávez" argument popped out every other post. Apparently, we could not understand the White Hands without understanding the situation as a whole. Now, however, we should stick to the SIDOR context, and everything else be split into other threads.

To notice that I didn't even made any reference to the students movement in that last post... I merely told beltov that the ICC not in a good position to lecture anybody else about Venezuela.

Luís Henrique

[Leo]

That's interesting. When we were in fact discussing the students movement, the "but Chávez" argument popped out every other post. Apparently, we could not understand the White Hands without understanding the situation as a whole. Now, however, we should stick to the SIDOR context, and everything else be split into other threads.

I think this is pure demagogy and I think you know it as well. Obviously Chavez and his state had to do with the student movement, as they were shooting students in the streets if nothing, they interacted with the students. Obviously, Chavez and his state has to do with the strike in SIDOR, as the state forces went there against the strikers, the state interacted with the workers. The students, however, have not interacted with the strikers, there isn't any connection between the students and the strike. I think this is obvious.


To notice that I didn't even made any reference to the students movement in that last post... I merely told beltov that the ICC not in a good position to lecture anybody else about Venezuela.

... because of your opinions on the previous position regarding the student movement, so it was a reference.

[Luís Henrique]

... because of your opinions on the previous position regarding the student movement, so it was a reference.

Oh, yes. The reason that I think the ICC doesn't know the difference between a petty-bourgeois law-and-order movement and a proletarian movement is because they confused both regarding the White Hands.

How else would then I state that I think their opinion about the Chavistas' silence is a case of pot and kettle?

Luís Henrique

[Entrails Konfetti]

Oh, and who was correct about the Chavista regime not being working-class, and repressing and oppressing workers?

[Luís Henrique]

Oh, and who was correct about the Chavista regime not being working-class, and repressing and oppressing workers?

I, for instance, was.

Luís Henrique

[Entrails Konfetti]

It's not always about you.

You know what Luis, I was going to write to the ICC anyways, I'll bring this up.

In the meantime, if all you're ever going to do is troll when a Left-Communist posts something, and if it's so important to you to try to discredit Left-Communism by bringing up an old article, on an online message board-- you've got some dull objectives.

[Luís Henrique]

In the meantime, if all you're ever going to do is troll when a Left-Communist posts something, and if it's so important to you to try to discredit Left-Communism by bringing up an old article, on an online message board-- you've got some dull objectives.

Right. Foolish me, thinking that revleft was a place to discuss politics.

Luís Henrique

[Leo]

Oh, yes.

Right, so please keep the discussion in that thread.