Bolivia: 'This is a fight between rich and poor'

Federico Fuentes
Caracas
27 September 2008

Speaking from within the belly of the beast, Bolivia’s indigenous President Evo Morales announced at the 63rd United Nations General Assembly that the world today is paying witness to a “fight between rich and poor, between socialism and capitalism”.

“There is an uprising against an economic model, a capitalistic system that is the worst enemy of humanity”, Morales said.

With his confidence boosted following the recent rolling back of a right-wing offensive whose objective was a “civil coup” against his government, Morales used his intervention at the UN summit to do what he had done last year: denounce capitalism.

Morales also used the opportunity to refer to recent events in his own country. Following his crushing victory in the August 10 recall referendum — in which close to seven out of 10 voters demonstrated their support for him and the process of change he is leading — the right-wing pro-autonomy opposition based in the east of Bolivia unleashed a desperate wave of violence and terrorism aimed at toppling his government.

In response, Morales expelled the US ambassador due to his role in leading the coup conspiracy and decreed marshal law in the department (state) of Pando — site of the most intense violence. Pando’s opposition-aligned prefect Leopoldo Fernandez ordered the September 11 massacre of pro-government peasants. With the official death toll reaching almost 20, and more than 100 people still missing, the military successfully hunted down the fugitive prefect, who is now facing trial for charges of genocide.

Three days after the massacre, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) convened an emergency summit to declare “their fullest and decided support for the constitutional government of President Evo Morales” and “warn that its respective governments energetically reject and do not recognise any situation that implies an intent of civil coup d’etat, the rupture of institutional order, or that compromises the territorial integrity of the Republic of Bolivia”.

“I would like to hear representatives of the US government rejecting these acts of terrorism”, proclaimed Morales during his speech to the UN General Assembly. “But you know, they are allies, of course they will never condemn this.”

“When you work for equality and social justice, you are persecuted and conspired against by certain groups, not concerned about equality”, he said.

The battle for Bolivia’s future
Since being inaugurated as president in January 2006, Morales has faced a constant right-wing campaign aimed at undermining and ultimately overthrowing his government. Elected with a historic 53.7% of the vote, his entrance into the presidential palace represented an important leap forward for Bolivia’s indigenous movement, which had set itself the goal of moving “from resistance to power”. But as Morales has explained, winning the elections didn’t equal holding power.

Backed by Bolivia’s powerful indigenous, peasant and social movements, the Morales government quickly moved to implement a number of key election promises such as the nationalisation of the country’s gas reserves — the second largest in Latin America — and an “agrarian revolution”.

The centrepiece of the government’s program, however, was the holding of a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution and “refound” Bolivia. The demand was first raised in the early ’90s by the indigenous peoples of the country’s east, and gained strength during the cycle of social struggle opened up with the community rebellion in 2002 against Bechtel. The transnational corporation bought Cochabamba’s water supplies and intended to more than double the price of water. The Constituent Assembly was officially inaugurated in August 2006.

From day one, the right-wing opposition pulled out all stops to try to block the advance of the Constituent Assembly. Following the escalation of a wave of violence against assembly delegates, it was forced to convene, without the presence of most of the opposition delegates to the assembly and in a military compound, where the draft of a new constitution was approved by a clear majority of elected delegates.

The new draft constitution, along with “constitutionalising” the gains made until now in the “democratic and cultural revolution” headed by Morales — such as nationalisation of natural resources and agrarian reform — would also dramatically increase the rights of Bolivia’s traditionally excluded indigenous majority within a new “plurinational” state.

Sensing the threat this represented to their economic interests, the agribusiness elites and gas transnationals, through their control of the prefectures and civic committees of the departments of the east, have done all they can to stop the advance of the indigenous nationalist project that Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) government represents.

But “these coup plotters made a mistake, they do not have either national or international support, and happily there exists a consciousness in the people to reject these conspiratorial acts”, stated Morales

Back to the negotiating table?
As a relative calm — one which resembles those that come before a storm — returns to Bolivia after weeks of right-wing violence and terrorism during which state institutions were burnt down, beatings were meted out to indigenous peasants, police officers and soldiers, and takeovers of airports and blockades of major highways occurred, the government and opposition returned to the negotiation table.

At the same time, social movements aligned with the MAS government initiated a massive mobilisation on September 17, marching on Santa Cruz to demand the resignation of the prefect. While stating his disagreement with the demands of the protesters, Morales said that the movements were autonomous from the government and that they were reacting against the right wing and in favour of democracy.

The three key issues for discussion at the negotiation table are the new constitution and autonomy statutes promoted by the right-wing prefects, the redistribution of the Direct Tax on Hydrocarbons and the filling of vacant spaces in judicial bodies such as the Constitutional Tribunal.

Expressing its clear desire to see the negotiations advance within the context of a new balance of forces following the referendum vote and the repelling of the “civil coup” attempt, the Morales government denounced the unwillingness of the right wing to truly participate in a dialogue.

Not content with the proposals by the government to give way on some of these issues, the opposition demanded that discussion be reopened on the draft constitution.

For Morales, the opposition forces were “counterposing themselves to the sectors that have mobilised for so many years demanding a Constituent Assembly, and with it a new constitution … In doing so they are opposing the refoundation of Bolivia which seeks equality between Bolivians.”

Stating that it appeared as though the will to reach an agreement did not exist among the opposition, Morales said “the people will oblige them to approve the new constitution”.

The negotiations were halted on September 24, in recess until the following Monday.

The social movements announced on September 25 that they would meet over the weekend to plan further actions in favour of approving the new constitution.

While suspending their march shortly before reaching the capital of Santa Cruz, the social movements that make up the National Coalition for Change (CONALCAM) — which makes up the majority of the indigenous, peasant and social movements in Bolivia — announced that they will most likely initiate a march on parliament to force the approval of a law to hold a referendum on the draft constitution.

From New York, Morales announced that a meeting of CONALCAM would be held on September 27 where “for sure, if the prefects do not guarantee an agreement, once again there will be mobilisations until the prefects understand the clamour of the Bolivian people which is for the refoundation of Bolivia with a new constitution”.

Fidel Surco, head of CONALCAM, added that while the social movements had “been flexible in lifting the mobilisation on Santa Cruz, we greatly lament the fact that the prefects do not want to dialogue over the constitutional text. Either way, we will approve the new constitution. No matter what, the referendum will go ahead. If they do not support it, they should vote No. We have decided that once again we will surround the Congress.”

Surco stated that, along with the option of surrounding Congress, there was also the possibility of reinitiating the march on Santa Cruz.

On previous occasions, indigenous and peasant organisations have surrounded parliament and forced the approval of laws such as those regarding agrarian reform and the new gas contracts.

The peasant federation of Chuquisaca has announced, that regardless of what CONALCAM decides, it will restart blockades around the capital of the department, Sucre, to force the local prefect to sign an agreement for peace in the country.

International solidarity
Meanwhile, international solidarity with the government and people of Bolivia continues to grow. A declaration by the Presidency of the European Union stated that “The European Union supports the step taken by UNASUR, whose Heads of State held an extraordinary meeting in Santiago on 15 September with a view to helping resolve in a peaceful and democratic manner which respects Bolivia’s territorial integrity the crisis gripping the country”, adding that it endorses the terms of the UNASUR resolution.

Kintto Lucas reported on September 22 for IPS News that “Indigenous organisations from several countries in Latin America declared their solidarity with Bolivian President Evo Morales with respect to the crisis in his country …

“Humberto Cholango, the head of the [Confederation of Peoples of the Quechua Nationality of Ecuador, Ecuarunari], which groups Quechua communities from Ecuador’s highlands region, warned that an attempted coup against Morales could trigger a generalised uprising by indigenous people throughout the Andean region.”

“The indigenous movement in Ecuador and other countries is on the alert to any attempt to overthrow our brother Evo by economic power groups backed by the government of the United States”, Cholango told IPS.

“The indigenous leader said that ‘a great global chain of solidarity with Bolivia’ is being created by indigenous and social organisations as well as intellectuals throughout South America, which will culminate in a major demonstration in La Paz [Bolivia’s administrative capital]”, IPS reported

ECUARUNARI, together with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the Movement of Those Without Land (MST, Brazil), Via Campesina and others are holding a meeting in solidarity with Bolivia in Santa Cruz on October 23-25.

Venezuela: Second wave of nationalisations launched
Federico Fuentes
Correspondent in Caracas, Venezuela
Green Left Weekly, Australia
[ Green Left Weekly issue #765 ]

September 3, 2008 -- On August 27, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez announced the end of negotiations with former owner Ternium over the nationalisation of the Sidor steel factory, stating that the government would "take over all the companies that it has here", and that Ternium "can leave". Speaking during a televised broadcast, Chavez explained that Ternium "did not recognise our sovereignty".

"The deadline for reaching an agreement has expired. We will move ahead and pay them what it really costs. Moreover, it will not be all in one go as they wanted. No, we will pay them at a pace that is appropriate for us."

Until the April 9 decision to nationalise Sidor, the Ternium consortium, whose biggest shareholder is the Italian-Argentine transnational Techint, had 60% control of one of the largest steel factories in Latin America, located in the industrial state of Bolivar.

Chavez stated in his August 27 broadcast that a tentative agreement on the purchase price, reached the previous week, had broken down when Ternium tried to impose unacceptable conditions. Among the transnational's demands was a law giving it immunity from any future lawsuits related to abuses committed by Ternium against the Sidor workforce.

The decision to nationalise Sidor came after a 15-month dispute between the workers and the transnational over a collective contract. Having intervened in order to help reach a resolution, Venezuela's vice-president, Ramon Carrizalez, declared that negotiations with Sidor's management were no longer possible, due to its "coloniser attitude" and "barbarous exploitation".

"This is a government that protects workers and will never take the side of a transnational company", Carrizalez said.

Nationalisation push
During the August 27 broadcast, Chavez stood alongside business owners from the cement industry, with whom the government has also been negotiating since the April 3 announcement that it plans to nationalise the three largest cement companies, which control 90% of the sector.

The government had reached agreements to buy out the majority of shares from the French company, Lafarge, and the Swiss company, Holcim, but negotiations had stalled with the largest company, the Mexican-owned Cemex.

On August 18, after the negotiation period expired, the government announced that it would expropriate Cemex, and ordered the takeover of its installations.

By law, there is a 60-day period starting from the declaration of intent to expropriate during which the two parties can reach an agreement. Cemex is asking for US$1.3 billion, but the government has stated it will not pay more than $650 million.

However, Chavez said that, in contrast to the record with Ternium, there were positive signs that an agreement could be reached.

Chavez also used the broadcast to explain a new law, approved in the first round of discussion by the National Assembly, that will put the distribution of fuel back into government hands. The state oil company PDVSA will supply fuel directly to the 60% of the country's service stations that are privately owned (many by small proprietors), eliminating the capitalist intermediaries who now sell to them for a profit.

Negotiations will now begin with the seven largest companies, including Texaco and BP, and 650 other firms that currently finance a majority of private service stations. Energy minister Rafael Ramirez also announced that the government was looking at similar measures regarding the distribution of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.

Last month, Chavez announced plans to nationalise Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela, an action that will almost double the state's control of the financial sector from its previous 10%.

Reversing neoliberalism
Together with the announcements made earlier this year to take control of more than 30% of milk production and food distribution, and last year's decision to take majority control of the oilfields in the Orinoco Belt, these moves are part of a second wave of nationalisations, focused on industries related to production.

The first wave, begun at the start of 2007, was directed at telecommunications and electricity, to guarantee all Venezuelans access to basic services.

The August 25 edition of the Caracas daily El Universal reported that since last year 11 industries have passed into state hands.

While pro-capitalist governments privatised a number of important industries during the 1990s (including Sidor, part of the electrical sector and telecommunications company CANTV), they always had their eyes set on the big prize, PDVSA. Chavez's election in 1998 halted that privatisation plan. Since then the government, backed by the majority of the population, has worked towards rolling back neoliberalism.

Unsurprisingly, the first major showdown was a result of government attempts to gain full control over the nominally state-owned PDVSA. Fierce resistance by the parasitic capitalist class, accustomed to leeching off the rent produced by PDVSA, led to a military coup that briefly overthrew Chavez in April 2002 followed by a shutdown of the oil industry by the pro-capitalist management in December 2002.

Both attempts by the capitalist class to bring down Chavez were carried out in alliance with the corrupt trade union bureaucracy of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV).

During more than two months of intense struggle caused by the shutdown, oil workers, working alongside poor communities and the armed forces, reopened PDVSA and restarted it under workers' control.

This victory was crucial in ensuring that the government could begin to redirect PDVSA's profits away from the capitalists and towards funding the social missions that provide, among other things, free health care and education. The missions also helped organise the Chavista grassroots supporters.

Publicly declaring in January 2005 that he had become convinced that his project for national liberation and the eradication of poverty could not be achieved within the bounds of capitalism, Chavez argued for the need to move towards a "new socialism of the 21st century".

That same month, he announced the nationalisation of the Venepal paper company, whose workers had been fighting to reopen it after the bosses shut down operations in December 2002. Renamed Invepal, the company was handed over to the workers as a joint state-worker cooperative. Since then, a number of other smaller companies that had been shut down and then taken-over by their workers have been nationalised.

However, the nationalisations initiated in 2007 marked a qualitative leap in the process of state recuperation of control over strategic sectors.

State planning
These nationalisations have been carried out in accordance with the government's overall economic plan, which seeks state control over strategic industries in order to direct production towards the needs of the Venezuelan nation.

Now under state control, the three cement companies will be merged into the new National Cement Corporation and will integrate its production plans with PDVSA and Sidor — focusing on infrastructure development, creating new industrial centres and pushing forward the government's badly needed housing construction plans.

The Steel Corporation of Venezuela is also being created — it will manage the whole steel production chain that is now 80% under state control, from primary material to finished products. Production will be directed towards the needs of small and medium companies, the oil industry and the housing sector.

And, while no specific public statements have been made, it seems likely that the nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela will lead to reorganisation of the public banking sector into a single national public bank.

The new Public Administration Law, decreed on July 29 as part of the package of 26 laws issued by Chavez, states that where various state companies exist they should be grouped into one. This can include companies in different industrial sectors that, due to their nature, work together.

With the recent nationalisations, the number of workers in the state sector will increase by 41,400 to just over 2 million, according to the National Institute of Statistics. This does not include those in the fuel distribution and LPG cylinder distribution sectors, which are slated to come under state control.

This represents a 53.5% increase in the number of public sector workers in the last nine years. Importantly, Chavez has raised the need to eradicate the practice of contracting out labour in the state sector, which will further increase this number.

In the same period, employment in the (formal and informal) private sector grew from 7.3 million to 9.4 million.

Worker and community participation
Almost none of the recent nationalisations are the direct result of workers' struggles in favour of such measures, although in many cases labour disputes were factors. This was the case with fuel distribution, where unions have been warning that the bosses were trying to manufacture shortages and provoke strikes to undermine the government.

In contrast to most of the earlier nationalisations involving small factories, only in Sidor can it be said that the demand for nationalisation came from the workers. Even then, the demand was raised only in the last period of the struggle after persistent campaigning by a small nucleus of Sidor workers.

Yet, the future of the nationalised companies depends on the political and organisational capacity of the working class in running these industries, and the working class currently finds itself in a state of dispersion and fragmentation.

Unofficially, according to the daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias (April 27), there are no fewer than 3600 unions in Venezuela. This fragmentation is due to numerous factors, but two in particular stand out. First, with the coming to power of Chavez and the expansion of workers' rights and union freedom, workplaces across the country experienced an explosion of union organising.

In the aftermath of the defeat of the bosses' lockout, a majority of the pro-revolution unions came behind the formation of the National Union of Workers (UNT), which rapidly overtook the CTV as the largest union federation. However, the UNT is plagued by bitter internal disputes. These divisions deepened earlier this year when two currents left the UNT to form a new union federation.

Added to this are negative experiences in some cooperative-run factories, including the exploitation of contract labour and self-enrichment by co-op owners.

Second, actions by sections of the government and state bureaucracy have also worked against the self-organisation of workers and their participation in running state industries. Under the previous labour minister, Jose Ramon Rivero (who actively worked against the Sidor workers), parallel unionism was promoted in order to favour the union current from which he came and to dampen labour disputes.

In PDVSA and the state electrical company, workers have faced attacks at the hands of a bureaucracy that is afraid of losing power if workers take on a greater role in management.

The recent nationalisations have coincided with the launch of the "April 13 Mission". Chavez has stated that part of the mission's aim is to transfer control over services to organised communities through communal councils and communes, and the creation of productive units and factories that will be socially owned and run.

Without the participation of workers and organised communities in the running of industries and in democratic planning, control of state companies will remain in the hands of bureaucrats who are more interested in maintaining their share of power and privileges. This would restrict the ability of workers to fully develop their creative potential, boxing them into their role as simple providers of labour power.

This has created situations like the one in the nationalised Inveval valve factory, run under workers' management. It has the capacity to produce valves for PDVSA, but it has been pushed aside by PDVSA bureaucrats who prefer to continue their contracts with private companies.

Significantly, it was reported on August 28 that Inveval will become a mixed company, jointly owned with PDVSA, and will directly supply the state oil company with valves.

A crisis threatens the electrical sector, where, despite repeated warnings by the workers, power generation and distribution plans have failed to take into consideration increased demand caused by the boom in industrial and housing projects.

Speaking on the eve of this year's May Day demonstrations, Chavez once again repeated his call for the working class to take the lead in the struggle for socialism. "There is no revolution without the workers, and I would add, there is no socialism without the working class", he insisted. "That is why the working class that the revolution needs has to be very conscious, very united", he said.

"The Bolivarian revolution … needs to be ‘proletarianised' … the ideology of the proletariat should dominate in all spheres, a transformational, truly revolutionary ideology, and overcome petty bourgeois currents that always end up being … counter-revolutionary".

Venezuela - Second wave of nationalisations launched

Federico Fuentes
Correspondent in Caracas, VenezuelaGreen Left Weekly, Australia

September 3, 2008 -- On August 27, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez announced the end of negotiations with former owner Ternium over the nationalisation of the Sidor steel factory, stating that the government would “take over all the companies that it has here”, and that Ternium “can leave”. Speaking during a televised broadcast, Chávez explained that Ternium “did not recognise our sovereignty”.

“The deadline for reaching an agreement has expired. We will move ahead and pay them what it really costs. Moreover, it will not be all in one go as they wanted. No, we will pay them at a pace that is appropriate for us.”

Until the April 9 decision to nationalise Sidor, the Ternium consortium, whose biggest shareholder is the Italian-Argentine transnational Techint, had 60% control of one of the largest steel factories in Latin America, located in the industrial state of Bolívar.

Chávez stated in his August 27 broadcast that a tentative agreement on the purchase price, reached the previous week, had broken down when Ternium tried to impose unacceptable conditions. Among the transnational’s demands was a law giving it immunity from any future lawsuits related to abuses committed by Ternium against the Sidor workforce.

The decision to nationalise Sidor came after a 15-month dispute between the workers and the transnational over a collective contract. Having intervened in order to help reach a resolution, Venezuela's vice-president, Ramon Carrizalez, declared that negotiations with Sidor’s management were no longer possible, due to its “coloniser attitude” and “barbarous exploitation”.

“This is a government that protects workers and will never take the side of a transnational company”, Carrizalez said.

Nationalisation push

During the August 27 broadcast, Chávez stood alongside business owners from the cement industry, with whom the government has also been negotiating since the April 3 announcement that it plans to nationalise the three largest cement companies, which control 90% of the sector.

The government had reached agreements to buy out the majority of shares from the French company, Lafarge, and the Swiss company, Holcim, but negotiations had stalled with the largest company, the Mexican-owned Cemex.

On August 18, after the negotiation period expired, the government announced that it would expropriate Cemex, and ordered the takeover of its installations.

By law, there is a 60-day period starting from the declaration of intent to expropriate during which the two parties can reach an agreement. Cemex is asking for US$1.3 billion, but the government has stated it will not pay more than $650 million.

However, Chávez said that, in contrast to the record with Ternium, there were positive signs that an agreement could be reached.

Chávez also used the broadcast to explain a new law, approved in the first round of discussion by the National Assembly, that will put the distribution of fuel back into government hands. The state oil company PDVSA will supply fuel directly to the 60% of the country’s service stations that are privately owned (many by small proprietors), eliminating the capitalist intermediaries who now sell to them for a profit.

Negotiations will now begin with the seven largest companies, including Texaco and BP, and 650 other firms that currently finance a majority of private service stations. Energy minister Rafael Ramírez also announced that the government was looking at similar measures regarding the distribution of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.

Last month, Chávez announced plans to nationalise Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela, an action that will almost double the state’s control of the financial sector from its previous 10%.

Reversing neoliberalism

Together with the announcements made earlier this year to take control of more than 30% of milk production and food distribution, and last year’s decision to take majority control of the oilfields in the Orinoco Belt, these moves are part of a second wave of nationalisations, focused on industries related to production.

The first wave, begun at the start of 2007, was directed at telecommunications and electricity, to guarantee all Venezuelans access to basic services.

The August 25 edition of the Caracas daily El Universal reported that since last year 11 industries have passed into state hands.

While pro-capitalist governments privatised a number of important industries during the 1990s (including Sidor, part of the electrical sector and telecommunications company CANTV), they always had their eyes set on the big prize, PDVSA. Chávez’s election in 1998 halted that privatisation plan. Since then the government, backed by the majority of the population, has worked towards rolling back neoliberalism.

Unsurprisingly, the first major showdown was a result of government attempts to gain full control over the nominally state-owned PDVSA. Fierce resistance by the parasitic capitalist class, accustomed to leeching off the rent produced by PDVSA, led to a military coup that briefly overthrew Chávez in April 2002 followed by a shutdown of the oil industry by the pro-capitalist management in December 2002.

Both attempts by the capitalist class to bring down Chávez were carried out in alliance with the corrupt trade union bureaucracy of the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV).

During more than two months of intense struggle caused by the shutdown, oil workers, working alongside poor communities and the armed forces, reopened PDVSA and restarted it under workers’ control.

This victory was crucial in ensuring that the government could begin to redirect PDVSA’s profits away from the capitalists and towards funding the social missions that provide, among other things, free health care and education. The missions also helped organise the Chavista grassroots supporters.

Publicly declaring in January 2005 that he had become convinced that his project for national liberation and the eradication of poverty could not be achieved within the bounds of capitalism, Chávez argued for the need to move towards a “new socialism of the 21st century”.

That same month, he announced the nationalisation of the Venepal paper company, whose workers had been fighting to reopen it after the bosses shut down operations in December 2002. Renamed Invepal, the company was handed over to the workers as a joint state-worker cooperative. Since then, a number of other smaller companies that had been shut down and then taken-over by their workers have been nationalised.

However, the nationalisations initiated in 2007 marked a qualitative leap in the process of state recuperation of control over strategic sectors.

State planning

These nationalisations have been carried out in accordance with the government’s overall economic plan, which seeks state control over strategic industries in order to direct production towards the needs of the Venezuelan nation.

Now under state control, the three cement companies will be merged into the new National Cement Corporation and will integrate its production plans with PDVSA and Sidor — focusing on infrastructure development, creating new industrial centres and pushing forward the government’s badly needed housing construction plans.

The Steel Corporation of Venezuela is also being created — it will manage the whole steel production chain that is now 80% under state control, from primary material to finished products. Production will be directed towards the needs of small and medium companies, the oil industry and the housing sector.

And, while no specific public statements have been made, it seems likely that the nationalisation of Banco de Venezuela will lead to reorganisation of the public banking sector into a single national public bank.

The new Public Administration Law, decreed on July 29 as part of the package of 26 laws issued by Chávez, states that where various state companies exist they should be grouped into one. This can include companies in different industrial sectors that, due to their nature, work together.

With the recent nationalisations, the number of workers in the state sector will increase by 41,400 to just over 2 million, according to the National Institute of Statistics. This does not include those in the fuel distribution and LPG cylinder distribution sectors, which are slated to come under state control.

This represents a 53.5% increase in the number of public sector workers in the last nine years. Importantly, Chávez has raised the need to eradicate the practice of contracting out labour in the state sector, which will further increase this number.

In the same period, employment in the (formal and informal) private sector grew from 7.3 million to 9.4 million.

Worker and community participation

Almost none of the recent nationalisations are the direct result of workers’ struggles in favour of such measures, although in many cases labour disputes were factors. This was the case with fuel distribution, where unions have been warning that the bosses were trying to manufacture shortages and provoke strikes to undermine the government.

In contrast to most of the earlier nationalisations involving small factories, only in Sidor can it be said that the demand for nationalisation came from the workers. Even then, the demand was raised only in the last period of the struggle after persistent campaigning by a small nucleus of Sidor workers.

Yet, the future of the nationalised companies depends on the political and organisational capacity of the working class in running these industries, and the working class currently finds itself in a state of dispersion and fragmentation.

Unofficially, according to the daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias (April 27), there are no fewer than 3600 unions in Venezuela. This fragmentation is due to numerous factors, but two in particular stand out. First, with the coming to power of Chávez and the expansion of workers’ rights and union freedom, workplaces across the country experienced an explosion of union organising.

In the aftermath of the defeat of the bosses’ lockout, a majority of the pro-revolution unions came behind the formation of the National Union of Workers (UNT), which rapidly overtook the CTV as the largest union federation. However, the UNT is plagued by bitter internal disputes. These divisions deepened earlier this year when two currents left the UNT to form a new union federation.

Added to this are negative experiences in some cooperative-run factories, including the exploitation of contract labour and self-enrichment by co-op owners.

Second, actions by sections of the government and state bureaucracy have also worked against the self-organisation of workers and their participation in running state industries. Under the previous labour minister, José Ramón Rivero (who actively worked against the Sidor workers), parallel unionism was promoted in order to favour the union current from which he came and to dampen labour disputes.

In PDVSA and the state electrical company, workers have faced attacks at the hands of a bureaucracy that is afraid of losing power if workers take on a greater role in management.

The recent nationalisations have coincided with the launch of the “April 13 Mission”. Chávez has stated that part of the mission’s aim is to transfer control over services to organised communities through communal councils and communes, and the creation of productive units and factories that will be socially owned and run.

Without the participation of workers and organised communities in the running of industries and in democratic planning, control of state companies will remain in the hands of bureaucrats who are more interested in maintaining their share of power and privileges. This would restrict the ability of workers to fully develop their creative potential, boxing them into their role as simple providers of labour power.

This has created situations like the one in the nationalised Inveval valve factory, run under workers’ management. It has the capacity to produce valves for PDVSA, but it has been pushed aside by PDVSA bureaucrats who prefer to continue their contracts with private companies.

Significantly, it was reported on August 28 that Inveval will become a mixed company, jointly owned with PDVSA, and will directly supply the state oil company with valves.

A crisis threatens the electrical sector, where, despite repeated warnings by the workers, power generation and distribution plans have failed to take into consideration increased demand caused by the boom in industrial and housing projects.

Speaking on the eve of this year’s May Day demonstrations, Chávez once again repeated his call for the working class to take the lead in the struggle for socialism. “There is no revolution without the workers, and I would add, there is no socialism without the working class”, he insisted. “That is why the working class that the revolution needs has to be very conscious, very united”, he said.

“The Bolivarian revolution … needs to be ‘proletarianised’ … the ideology of the proletariat should dominate in all spheres, a transformational, truly revolutionary ideology, and overcome petty bourgeois currents that always end up being … counter-revolutionary”.