NAME: Ira Grupper
EMAIL: irag@iglou.com
DATE: 05/08/2007

TITLE: Venezuela

LABOR PAEANS—April 2007
by Ira Grupper
(published by FORsooth, newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky chapter of F.O.R. [Fellowship of Reconciliation] )

Venezuela

While the U.S. has focused, for the last few years, on destroying Iraq and murdering our former CIA operative, Saddam Hussein, slowly a “specter” of socialism has been sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean. It is no longer just Cuba. Brazil, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Venezuela have been, to varying degrees and in different ways, changing our neighbors to the south toward production for human need and away from corporate avarice and private profit.

Of special interest to your columnist is Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela. Here is a country, the fourth largest supplier of oil to the United States, whose president calls our president a donkey (so that’s what all that braying is at the White House), and who is regarded as a hero in so many quarters, all over the world.

It was with this in mind that your humble scribe visited Venezuela, February 16-25. Fourteen of us were from Louisville, one from Bowling Green, Kentucky, one from Chicago,, and the rest from Utah. Our trip was sponsored by Witness for Peace, which first came to my attention in the 1980’s when they stood on the Nicaraguan border, unarmed, to try to block U.S. backed Contra mercenaries from overthrowing the Sandinista government.

We spent most of our time in Caracas, a city of six million people, but also two days and nights in the tiny mountain hamlet of La Magdelena, and one day in a fishing village.

Note. We were requested by WFP not to mention names of spokespersons for the various organizations with whom we met. This seems ridiculous to me, but I will comply, with one exception, out of my respect for WFP.

Our delegation met with many groups. Provea (Venezuela Education Program—Human Rights Action), is an eighteen year old organization, we were told by its spokesperson. “President Chavez says we are in a revolutionary process, peaceful, but armed. Peaceful—to be carried out within the framework of the country, but with support of the army.”

He spoke of “public policies favoring the poor,” agrarian reforms and the elimination of illiteracy, promotion of health care with the support of 30,000 Cuban doctors. Also, “peaceful change within the framework of the constitution.”

Interspersed, however, were many serious criticisms “Poverty has (now) been reduced, but not as much (as should be) given eight years (of Chavez governance).” “The police force violates human rights. Executions by police of civilians (after detention) has risen. Police…also carry out tortures.” He emphasized kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking and rape, perpetrated by “national, state and local police forces.” Crime is rampant.

Your columnist did not know about every one of these charges, but has learned that many deeds, in many countries, carried out in the name of socialism, are nothing short of atrocities, and he will not whitewash atrocities. Yet, the harshly negative turn in the conversation seemed practiced and blanket, damning with faint praise. “Police corruption, not poverty, has led to crime,” and this led me to perk up.

Someone asked the Provea speaker if he voted for Chavez for president. “I didn’t vote for Chavez, or for the opposition. I consciously decided not to vote.” And then my suspicions of this group were confirmed: to not vote for Chavez was to objectively support the oil thieves and plunderers.

I began to question Witness for Peace’s judgment. Are there no human rights groups in Venezuela that are not right-wing?

The next day my friend Jim Flynn, a Catholic priest, originally from Louisville, and long-time Witness for Peace activist, restored my faith in WFP. His “reflection” at breakfast was on the word “compañero,” companion, friend. Jim parsed it into “con” (with) and “pan” (bread).

We met with the group Fundalatín, in the Carapita Barrio (poor neighborhood). It is a Christian ecumenical organization, “based in liberation theology.” commented our speaker. “In the 1970’s, during the National Security Doctrine, perpetuated by the SOA (School of the Americas) in the U.S.:…It (didn’t) matter if people violate(d) human rights if they (were) on our side.”

Fundalatín dealt first with people “disappeared” (kidnapped, never to be seen again) in three countries…”When Chavez came to power, the IMF talked to him about privatizing the oil company to pay off debt.” Chavez, instead, raised the per-barrel price of oil, which “allowed us to pay down external debt and fund social programs.”

The social programs are set up in the form of “missions”; they function quite well today. Space does not permit quoting the compañero’s detailed historical presentation of the multi-national ALBA, Venezuela’s alternative to U.S.-backed control, and specifics about the missions.

Our Witness for Peace leader, later, gave a detailed explanation of U.S. policy, honing in on oil and regional stability. The U.S. has been bad-mouthing Chavez for years, and has meddled in internal Venezuelan affairs thru the U.S. Congressionally-funded National Endowment for Democracy (N.E.D.), and C.I.A. funding as well.

The U.S. supported the government that formed after the short-lived coup against President Chavez, stated WFP. The (U.S.) Office of Director of National Intelligence has a Mission Manager devoted solely to Cuba and Venezuela. And I don’t think they are scouting for baseball players for the New York Yankees.

We paid several visits to the Mercals, government-subsidized supermarkets. The Mercal (mission) is an effort to provide nourishment to the 80% of Venezuelans who live in poverty. It also has succeeded in preventing price speculation.

Printed on the sides of pasta and bean packages are small parts of the Venezuelan constitution, and information about the government—a most creative way of educating people. When was the last time you got informed by reading a Pepsi can?

Two Mercals in Caracas had many food staples; one store had a refrigeration compartment for perishables. In the tiny town of La Magdelena the Mercal was a counter and small room inside a cooperative bakery.

Government officials from two agencies, who were scheduled to speak to us, had to cancel, and I became depressed because two upcoming events were with the far-right: Primero Justicia (N.E.D. funded), and the armed fortress that is the U.S. Embassy (the latter I refused to attend, and not only because we were prevented from quoting the official by name).

WFP leadership, at my urging, set up a meeting with the progressive labor federation, U.N.T. It was an honor to hear from Eduardo Sanchez, National Coordinator of the National Workers Union. He introduced several other UNT officials. Compañero Sanchez juxtaposed his federation to the C.T.V., “who keep ‘labor peace’—low salaries below the standard of living.” Shades of the U.S. dilemma, at times.

“In twenty five years (prior to Chavez), not a single strike was declared legal by the government. In 1998, Chavez wins, and proposes a referendum for a Constitutional Assembly…(Organized) labor proposed labor law reforms, increasing social rights: the right to strike, collective bargaining…rights for the unemployed. It was put to a referendum, and passed by more than ninety percent. So, we now had workers’ power, (including) free elections in unions for the first time.

“We decided to create a new workers’ federation…in 2003. We are now the biggest labor federation in Venezuela in number of unions and number of workers. We’ve dealt with a coup, a management strike in the oil sector, La Guarimaba resurrection, and recall election. In all of these, the workers won.

“(We are) consolidating a new society: equality, solidarity, equitable distribution of wealth. 1,700 businesses, abandoned by owners or struck (by workers) are now in the hands of workers. The process of nationalization—telecommunications, electricity—is with the knowledge and participation of the workers. We are moving toward modification of the constitution—for a new socialist state.”

He romanced us with his knowledge of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, the U.S. roots of May Day, and so much more. He encouraged us to get true information, “not the CNN truth…There are economic conflicts, poverty, misery. But we are dealing with them. They are the consequences of forty years of brutal capitalism. 80% of Venezuela is in poverty; 52% in crucial poverty, 18% of the workforce is unemployed.” I was, indeed, impressed with the progress that has been made.

In La Magdalena, the mountain hamlet, we went to a Bolivarian school. To become such a school you have to be open from 6a.m. until 4p.m., and provide two meals and a snack.

The principal introduced us to the president of the school, a fifth grader. She was the former chief justice of the school Supreme Court. Whereas most children that age, speaking before strangers, would look down and be uncomfortable, this girl, or rather this esteemed school president, looked directly at us, and spoke with knowledge and self-confidence about school programs, and plans for the future.

If the United States government has its way, this society would cease to be. Will we allow our government to dash the dreams of this young girl?

(Note: We met with BanMujer, the women’s bank that has empowered poor women, and other groups. Your columnist will cover these in a future column).

Contact Ira Grupper: irag@iglou.com

March, 2007 Newspaper
http://www.ccds.org/newsletters/labor_paeans_Mar07.html

February, 2007 Newspaper
http://www.ccds.org/newsletters/labor_paeans_feb07.html