What position do left communists take on these events, when many workers went on strike following a strike called by, for and supported by the ruling class of Venezuela, against the presidents hugo Chavez who they considered 'too left wing'? It was a top down strike where arguably workers were being manipulated and the whole series of events was aimed at empowering the ruling class. What would you have done, or advocated, if you were in venezuela at the time, etc?
This extract from an article by our comrades in Venezuela may help answer your question. Some strikes in Venzuela have indeed been manipulated by the right wing opposition - and this would include the one linked to the 2002 coup - but others were genuine workers' strikes which the Chavista government denounced for 'playing the game of the right' (2000, and the more recent strikes in the oil and steel sectors repressed by the Chavez regime). http://en.internationalism.org/wr/277_venappeal.htm see also: http://en.internationalism.org/iccon...teel-struggles http://en.internationalism.org/iccon...-oil-struggles ""The Chavists and the opposition have concentrated their activity on the oil industry, the main source of national income: both of them have brought about a progressive weakening of the unity and solidarity that was expressed in the first months of the Chavez's government, when oil workers in 2000 paralysed production in protest at attacks on their social benefits. The National Guard (the Praetorian Guard of Chavismo) used the opportunity to unleash a powerful repression which led to the death of two workers and several injuries. The unions controlled by the opposition gained a better control, while the government developed a disgusting campaign about the oil workers being a 'workers' aristocracy' on the side of the oil elite. This work of division and erosion of workers' solidarity was taken further with the clearly bourgeois oil stoppage at the end of 2002, when we saw some workers lining up behind the petty-bourgeois oil elites regrouped around the "oil gentlemen", and many others were paralysed by the government's blackmail and repression. With the failure of the stoppage, the government summarily sacked 20,000 oil workers, half of the workers and administrative personal. Although there were solidarity demonstrations with the sacked oil workers, the divisions within the heart of the class stopped this movement gathering enough strength to oppose the jobs massacre". http://en.internationalism.org/wr/277_venappeal.htm http://en.internationalism.org/iccon...teel-struggles http://en.internationalism.org/iccon...-oil-struggles If a strike is for class demands, we support it. If it’s directly being manipulated by one faction of the bourgeoisie against another, we would call on workers to struggle for their own demands not the demands of their exploiters. [FONT=Times New Roman][/FONT]
