| VENEZUELA |
| Written by UST – Venezuela |
| Friday, 12 April 2013 18:27 |
 The UST calls for spoilt votes Venezuela will face presidential elections, amid a very serious economic situation for the working people. All prices of the basic food basket increased and hardly fit the popular budget. Sugar, flour, butter, toilet paper disappear … And when some products appears in the market interminable lines are made to buy them. Therefore, the salary does not reach the end of the month. The hoarders of goods and the unscrupulous are doing their business in plain sight, and the government has taken no action to solve it. No emergency increase in wages is announced to alleviate this critical situation. The limits of the Chavista project For 14 years the plan of the late President Hugo Chavez has been applied. Beyond the pompous name of “Socialism of the XXI century”, it is nothing but a bourgeois nationalist reheated plan, i.e., within the limits of capitalism. It is not socialist. It’s the same plan applied by Nicolas Maduro and has already demonstrated a total inability to solve the structural problems of the country, leading us to a dead end for not having a independent policy from imperialism and the national bourgeoisie. The Missions are a momentary palliative to the problems of hunger, education and health. But, by not attacking the anachronistic dependent capitalist structure of the country, based on oil income and rampant exploitation of the working class, any of these problems can be solved. Instead, aggravates them. And all this in the context of the country’s growing debt to the international bankers, which today reaches the sidereal sum of US$ 160 billion, which emphasizes our dependence on imperialism. This dependence is what explains the evils we suffer: galloping inflation, dollar speculation, hoarding and shortages of basic commodities. By not addressing the causes, Nicolás Maduro will not solve any of these problems. In turn, the MUD (Democratic Unity Table), whose presidential candidate is Capriles, believes to see in the current paralysis of the government an opportunity to achieve victory and throws itself to an aggressive campaign, promising anything to gather votes. Needless to say the falsity of such promises. They momentarily hide their unpopular plans and promise 40% of wage increase, food bonus for pensioners and retirees, to create 3 million jobs, to end the insecurity, etc. In reality, they care little for the size of their promises, because, like any businessman, they blatantly lie. Capriles became more Chavista that Hugo Chavez and criticizes Maduro by “the left”. This way, he wants to go to Miraflores (the presidential headquarter) before he gives the coup against the workers and keeps PDVSA and oil business for his bourgeoise faction. The working class and poor people cannot, under any circumstances, see Capriles as a voting option. The isolation and dispersion of struggles Many workers, far from expecting “solutions for after the elections,” as bureaucrats (mounted on theirs luxury 4×4) in different areas of government say, throw themselves to claim wages rises and collective bargaining agreements, severance and an end to outsourcing, etc. As workers of the cement industry, teachers, workers of Polar, etc. are doing. But these workers are struggling with their “hands tied”, because their union leaders do everything in order not to fight and, when the fight goes on, they leave them isolated and dispersed. Thus, it is very difficult to win. But the struggles are expressing the emergence of new leaders … and that patience is running out. Why the call for spoilt votes? As explained above, neither Maduro nor Capriles are a way out. Unfortunately, workers and popular fighters don’t count on a candidate independent from bureaucrats, businessmen and military in this election. Orlando Chirino could have submitted his candidacy to offer it as a reference point to the vanguard workers and the left, but he has given up this fight, leaving them without a class alternative. We think it was a mistake on the part of Orlando Chirino and his Socialism and Freedom Party (PSL) not giving this battle, when it is more necessary than ever to start building an alternative. Moreover, the current Constitution, excluding and bureaucratic, restrains and prevents the formation of new parties that fight for class independence. Given this inability to have an alternative, we call to vote null. For a Workers Political Tool But this situation should not happen again. The UST proposes boosting the formation of a workers political tool, beginning with the support of the conflicts, demanding from and denouncing the union leaders that leave the innumerable struggles that develop in the country to its fate and dispersed. This task can start now, with all those organizations that supported Orlando Chirino in the previous election around a program of working-class independency. This program should include: 1. For a general wages rise. Minimum wage equal to the family food basket, adjusted for inflation; 2. Fighting outsourcing and casualization of labor. The same salary and employee benefits for equal work. Equal rights for women workers; 3. The decisions have to be in the rank and file’s hands; for the workers’ democracy; 4. Against the criminalization of workers and popular protests; 5. Trial and punishment for the killers of Sabino Romero. Constitution of an independent investigating committee, including people sympathetic to the Yukpa’s demands; 6. For the trial and punishment of the material and intellectual killers of all murdered labor and popular leaders; 7. For the non-payment of external debt; 8. For the nationalization of oil: 100% Venezuelan. No to the joint ventures; 9. For a workers and people Government to implement this program and start building socialism. We call on all honest comrades who support Chavism, whose expectations in this new government are collapsing and begin to see the need for an independent organization of workers, without bureaucrats, businessmen or bribed union leaders. We call them to together begin to build this tool. We also call the leftist organizations, which in the past supported the government of Hugo Chávez, and now, when the much-criticized bureaucracy is occupying more space in the national government, the states and municipalities, to break with this bureaucracy and to withdraw their political support. Finally, we call all workers to build this political tool, based on workers ‘democracy, the support of all struggles, national and international, and in the struggle for a workers’ government. |