[The following article by venezuelanalysis's Steve Mather argues that the problems at last month's UNT labour congress reflect ideological divions among the UNT's different factions. --Ed]
The Second UNT Labor Congress One Month Later:
The Real Fracture in Venezuela’s Labor Movement is Ideological
By Steve Mather – Venezuelanalysis.com
July 10, 2006
With punches being thrown and the odd chair flying through the air it was clear there was a good old fashioned labor union debate taking place. The different factions or currents within the National Union of Workers (the UNT, the pro-Chávez confederation of labor unions) had fallen out over priorities. Should there be a leadership election now or should that wait until after the Presidential election in order to devote all energy to that? While that is an accurate portrayal of the dispute at the II Congress there was much more to it than that. Under the surface a more dangerous quarrel is simmering away that could have consequences for the government and its revolutionary credentials. What is up for grabs is the meaning of XXI century Socialism and the UNT’s role within it. On the surface the Bolivarian Revolution, internally, is sound: the flagship social missions, participatory democracy at the local level and occupied factories under partial worker’s control are empowering Venezuelans and are examples of which the government is proud. People come from all over the world to offer support, solidarity and to learn from the experience of Venezuela. But regarding the co-operative factories in particular, there are disagreements within the MVR (the governing party), the state bureaucracy, and within the UNT. There is a divergence of views over the form they should take, the extent of workers control and how predominant they should be across different sectors of the economy. This was all at play at the Congress. The UNT and the Second Congress The UNT was formed after the old confederation, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV in its Spanish acronym) sided with management during the PDVSA bosses lockout of December 2002. It claims to have over 600 000 members but it is said that many more unions claim to belong to the UNT, despite not having formally affiliated themselves. It is divided into five currents: The Class Unity Revolutionary and Autonomous Current (C-CURA) led by Orlando Chirino, the Bolivarian Workers Force (FBT), led by Osvaldo Vera, the Autonomous Union, the faction of Franklin Rondón, and the collective led by Marcela Máspero. And like most organizations it is a broad ideological church, spanning social democracy at the right of the political spectrum to Marxism-Leninism on the left. It was, as Orlando Chirino puts it, “forged during the heat of struggle”: the leaders of different unions agreed a national coordinating committee, hence the entire organization was formed from the top down with little discussion or debate at the grassroots level. While this may have been understandable at the time, three years on the UNT still lacks direction, purpose and legitimacy. The II Congress was supposed to put an end to these deficiencies. But the congress was a disaster if not a total farce. The entire first day of a three day conference was taken up with accreditation and a lot of the accommodation for those traveling from outside Caracas was actually located outside of Caracas, nowhere near the Congress. All of this already had delegates’ tempers raised, so when the key issue of elections came to be debated, violence broke out and all but C-CURA left the hall to reconvene in another location and the Congress was split in two. Both sides have pointed the finger, blaming each other for attempting to sabotage the event. Máspero’s collective was responsible for the organization of the accreditation and hotels. While she blames C-CURA for deliberately kicking up a fuss over the hotels in an attempt at sabotage, Chirino claims her collective deliberately caused the accreditations fiasco so as to wreck the Congress. Needless to say, both sides blame the other for starting the violence that resulted in the split and both are calling each other “CTVistas,” the ultimate insult. Without taking sides on the issue, it is important to note that C-CURA is the only current that wants the elections this year but it is actually bigger than the other four combined. They could have been expected to win the vote in the Congress for elections if it hadn’t been disrupted. And for the same reason it is conceivable that if and when elections for the national coordinators do take place, it will be those of the other four currents that will most likely lose their positions and the prestige and privilege that goes with them.
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