The Workers, The National Workers’ Union (UNT) and the Future
of the Revolution
By Roberto López Sánchez, UNT-Zulia
The ongoing passage of time without the resolution of the National Workers’ Union (UNT) dispute could in the short term affect the very stability of the revolutionary process. Setting aside the differences between the sectors, the same thing is happening in the workers’ movement that is happening in universities, where the absence of revolutionary politics in the last nine years has allowed the birth of an oppositional social movement.
What have we had to date with the UNT? The plan laid out by the Bolivarian Workers’ Federation (FBT) in January of this year to promote the elimination, liquidation or dismissal of the UNT as a Bolivarian union organization, and to construct a bureaucratic parapet that could be controlled by the “true socialists and revolutionaries” (as they proclaim themselves to be) hasn’t moved forward much, but neither has it been defeated by the Bolvarian workers. A united front of revolutionary and class-struggle sectors has not yet arisen to demand the historic validity of the UNT and that we are onside with it continuing and being strengthened. Here in Zulia we’ve united all the different tendencies (Futez-Ccrua, CTR and PCV) but at the national level we notice that divisionism and sectarianism continue for subaltern reasons, divisions that should be put aside in this critical juncture for the future of the Venezuelan workers movement.
Through out 2007, the FBT has advanced, through its political practice in relation to the Ministry of Labour (MOL), to convert it into the most deep-seated, regressive bureaucratic instrument within Chavismo, disposed to selling workers’ interests in exchange for zones of power in the Bolivarian government. This is shown through its conduct around the oil contract discussion, in terms of the contracting of public employees, and in the particular treatment they are carrying out in the various labour boards (inspectorías – trans.) in the country when there’s a decision to be made for the interest of the workers or the boss.
Through the control it exercises at the MOL, the FBT is laying the groundwork to generate a huge crisis in the heart of the Bolivarian workers’ movement. The destructive conduct that it promotes continues to generate disconcertion and dispersion within the revolutionary union movement. The weakness of the class-struggle tendencies is influenced by this as they seem not to have enough strength to politically defeat the FBT through serious workers’ mobilizations that reject the UNT liquidation proposals. The FBT doesn’t have the power either to liquidate the UNT or to defeat the tendencies led by Orlando Chirinos and Marcela Máspero (UNT National Co-ordinators – trans.), which was an explicit objective the FBT put forward in the January congress this year.
The foreseeable result of this confrontation could be the development of a oppositional workers’ movement, with new faces, different from those of the out-of-date CTV leadership (Venezuelan Workers Confederation – the major union and key opponent of Chavez – trans.), which is something similar to what’s happened in the student movement. At this point real signs of this likelihood aren’t being seen but undoubtedly someone will fill the political vacuum that is causing the lack of a Bolivarian workers’ union. And that someone can be a new workers movement that puts limits on the revolution, that opposes it, under the manipulation of the imperialist forces that today conspire to defeat the Bolivarian revolution.
To avoid the continued building of this damaging scenario, it is absolutely necessary to unite all of the true Venezuelan workers’ class-struggle, revolutionary and socialist tendencies, to confront and defeat the FBT’s destructiveness and guarantee the continuity, strengthening and legitimacy of the UNT. The unity among Marcela Máspero, Orlando Chirino and any other class-struggle and socialist sectors disposed to strengthen the UNT is fundamental. It’s necessary to immediately call for a rank-and-file election of a new UNT executive committee. To do this, we’ll have to deal with the obstructions and sabotage that surely the FBT and the MOL will carry out.
Working people need a legitimate and strong UNT that provides leadership for workers’ participation in this process that challenges the path of the Bolivarian revolution. If we don’t achieve this objective, it is likely that the revolutionary path is at risk, or that it’s weaknessess with finally allow imperialism to defeat us. We’ve got the chance to build a key tool of this Bolivarian revolution – the National Workers’ Union .
This article appears in the first issue of Marea Clasista y Socialista (June 23, 2007), published by former members of the Party of Revolution and Socialism who have joined the PSUV, the new party created by Chavez. Translation by Sheila Wilmot.
