Closing Ranks: Venezuela's largest foreign business chamber endorses Monday's general strike

Closing Ranks: Venezuela's largest foreign business chamber endorses Monday's general strike ^ | October 17, 2002 | AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's largest foreign business association threw its weight behind a general strike called to demand that President Hugo Chavez call early elections.

The 1,200-member Venezuelan-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, or VenAmCham, told its affiliates Wednesday that their employees can join a strike called by domestic business and labor groups.

"The foreign and multinational companies in our institution take no political positions in Venezuela. However, they are committed to democratic values and freedoms because they are based in nations where those values are firmly defended," VenAmCham said.

The chamber has criticized 49 laws, including a land reform law, it said threaten property rights. It also denounced the existence of "mobs" and "irregular" labor movements that are "harassing" executives at large companies and attacking the local news media.

In the first half of 2002 political instability and the mismanagement of resources were blamed for a 7.1 percent contraction in GDP. According to government statistics, unemployment is 16.2 percent.

Fedecamaras, Venezuela's largest business chamber, and the Venezuelan Workers Confederation have called a 12-hour general strike for Monday to demand early presidential elections.

Chavez has rejected demands that he resign or call early elections to resolve Venezuela's political crisis. He says the opposition can call a referendum on his rule next August or wait until the next presidential election in December 2006.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Rafael Marin, secretary general of the Democratic Action Party, signs a pact against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, October 17, 2002. The Venezuelan opposition, closing ranks before an anti-government strike October 21, 2002, signed a pact setting out a blue print for democratic rule after President Chavez, but pledged they would seek to oust him only by democratic means. REUTERS/Kimberly White

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

[NeoCaveman]

Nice. Labor turning against the Marxist Chavez, I like it.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Turning into another Cuba isn't their cup of tea.

[NeoCaveman]

Good for them :-)

[Free the USA]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[livius]

Exactly. There's kinda-left and then there's Cuba left, and the kinda-left unions know which side their bread is buttered on. Not the Cuba side.

[marron]

Right. It isn't that the unions aren't left, its that they aren't Chavist.

Unions are almost always leftist in orientation. But the first thing that happens in a totalitarian country, is the government must take control of the unions. Chavez has been trying.

The unions supported him in the beginning. But Chavez tried to take over their leadership, and failed, and then he tried to organize competing unions, and force the workers to join the new ones. Only strikes by the Chavist unions are legal, strikes by the original unions were outlawed. He made the membership of the original unions subject to firing.

The pre-Chavez labor unions have been struggling for survival since he took office, in the face of official threats and harrassment, and consequently are hostile to him, most especially the oil workers unions. They were among the first to run up against him.

Union workers, like all workers, have seen their living standards plummet since he took power. Oil workers tend to be the most militant, since they know that the industry earns billions, and they want their share. But Chavez, like most of his predecessors, has turned the oil company into his personal piggy bank, and uses its revenue to finance the entire country. Like one-industry, government-run economies everywhere, its hopeless.

[livius]

Very good points and a great analysis! I wish this could get out into the mainstream press in the U.S. (dream on...).

The situation in Venezuela is extremely important and the fact that it is not the subject of public knowledge and comment is something that I find very frustrating.

Thanks for a very good description of the state of affairs in the Venezuelan labor world. It will be interesting to see what happens next Monday.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Oil helps smooth relations with Chavez - Embattled president threatens to torch Venezuelan oil fields ***But analysts say it is still unclear how deep the Chavez government's willingness to please Washington runs. "They want to show Washington there is cooperation," Shifter said. "But I'm not sure how much there will be.'

Indeed, Chavez continues to play with fire -- at least rhetorically. In the same interview with Harnecker, the Venezuelan president warned that his removal, even by "institutional" means, could set the country -- and in particular the oil fields -- alight. "The country would become a powder keg," he said. "If in Colombia there is sabotage against the oil pipelines, what would happen here, where a whole people and an army see Chavez as the incarnation of hope?"

Other government figures have made the same threat in recent months, one going so far -- in a private meeting with university administrators -- as to say the country would be turned into "another Kuwait" (a reference to Saddam Hussein's torching of the Kuwaiti oil fields after the Gulf War).

How serious is the threat? "It's a bluff," says Romero, the political scientist. The U.S. Embassy is more cautious. "I don't think any of us knows," the spokesman said. There are many reasons why Washington would not want to see Venezuela descend into chaos. But few doubt that political turmoil -- with or without sabotage -- could disrupt the flow of oil. And that alone is a good enough reason for the United States to seek to reject any violent attempt to remove Chavez. ***