http://www.pyr.org.ar/spip.php?article623
Monday, December 22, 2008
VILLA CONSTITUCION - SANTA FE
¡Sí, se puede! ¡Sí, se puede! ¡Si una mujer avanza ningún hombre retrocede!”
The chant by the women from Paraná Metal, growing ever stronger, was heard in the Villa Constitución Plaza on December 19. The drums stopped beating so the 5,000 people present could hear: “Yes, it’s possible! Yes, it can be done! If a woman steps forward, no man retreats!”
They are the wives, sisters, mothers of the Paraná Metal workers. They are the women of Villa Constitución, members of the Women’s Commission.
When the Paraná Metal bosses decided to suspend more than 1,300 workers without paying them their wages and stop production, the workers responded. They are at the factory entrances with a tent, taking shifts in the factory to prevent it from being stripped. They are demanding what is theirs.
On December 19, an historic day, they marched from the entrances of Paraná Metal to the Villa Constitución Plaza in a big workers’ and popular contingent, generating support from the entire community of Villa, with businesses closed, with neighbors applauding from balconies. The column grew larger as it proceeded, and workers from Acindar, from Tenaris, from the workshops, hospital workers, teachers, housewives, neighbors joined.
The women of Paraná Metal have gotten organized and already had two meetings of the Women’s Commission in the auditorium of the Villa Constitución UOM [metalworkers' union]. Last Saturday, some 80 women participated. Because, as they said in the meeting, women are the ones who have to keep house, many of them are also workers, and they are ready to fight beside the workers.
This December 24, they are calling on all the workers and all the people of Villa to go with them in the factory entrances to spend Christmas. Donations of food, beef, pork, beverages and sweet bread for everyone, from the city council and several unions, are already promised.
Pan y Rosas is joining this struggle, marching with them, going with them in the tent, on the ticket line. We are also joining the Women’s Commission to offer them our complete support, to contribute so that they will win, and be at their disposal, for whatever they need and decide.
Today the women of Villa Constitución are an example!
34 years ago, other women made heroic history in Villa Constitución, when from the Women’s Commission they organized to support the struggle, through a big strike fund, adding to the community, confronting repression.
Today the daughters of the Villazo are in the street, fighting once more!
Total support to the women from Paraná Metal!
Total support to the workers from Paraná Metal!
Women’s Group Pan y Rosas
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
ARGENTINA--Workers' struggle at Paraná Metal
From: http://www.pts.org.ar/spip.php?article11474
Friday, December 19, 2008
Big workers’ and people’s march in Villa Constitución
More than 4,000 people mobilize in support of the workers at Paraná Metal
By PTS Santa Fe
At 9 a.m., they were already gathered in front of Paraná Metal. The mobilization began with a picket at the former Metcom. There was a lot of enthusiasm, and the workers from Paraná Metal were not alone. The workers from Tenaris had already endorsed the call. The women’s commission in struggle was there early, exerting all their strength.
The workers’ contingent was moving foward along the road. The first stop was at the entrances of Acindar. Lots of emotion. Applause. The workers from Acindar, on foot and motorcycles, joined the march. Local workshops also came out and joined.
“You have to jump, you gotta jump. The one who doesn’t jump is management” was heard, growing ever louder. “The people united, will never be defeated.” Two hours of walking, and at every step the column grew larger. Applause again, when the workers and young people who arrived from Rosario in a bus, lined up on the side of the road to join.
Teachers, workers from the hospital, from the EPE, from city government, everyone coming together in the mobilization. Delegations from AMSAFE, ATILRA of Rosario, CCC, Raúl Castells, the women's group Pan y Rosas, the Agrupación Marrón from Rosario, the students' center from Villa Constitución, the PTS, Polo obrero, and others accompanied. During the whole march, the young people from Paraná Metal did not stop chanting very energetically.
When the march reached the city, families were applauding from their balconies, housewives, neighbors, waiting on the sidewalk for the contingent to walk by. All the businesses had closed. The city of Villa Constitución was moved by the struggle of the workers from Paraná Metal.
Finally they got to the Plaza. "If this is not the people, where are they?" A group from Paraná Metal added another chant: "Occupation, a wave of people, workers' control to throw out the bosses!"
The rally was held in the historic Plaza of Villa Constitución (where the Villazo took place). There were speeches by leaders from CTA Rosario, AMSAFE, ATE, CTA Mar del Plata, leaders of the [metalworkers' union branches] UOM Campana, UOM Casilda, UOM Las Parejas, and also a metalworkers' representative from the CUT of San José Dos Campos of Brazil. Leaders of the [metalworkers' union] UOM Villa Constitución concluded the rally. It was very emotional when two women who belong to the Women's Commmission of Paraná Metal went up to the speakers' box. "You can feel it, you can sense it, women are present," and "Yes, we can, yes, we can! If a woman steps forward, no man retreats!" the women were chanting.
Support from Villa, from Rosario, and from all of Argentina, was extremely strong.
Support also arrived from the corps of delegates of the Buenos Aires subway.
One of the delegates from the internal commission announced that through Caló (national UOM) the government will soon give them 500 pesos for each worker before the year ends. They managed to restore the 600 peso subsidy for each worker that the government had already been giving the bosses for wages, but for after January 15. Now the workers continue to be without a single peso to take to their families.
Today they have a meeting at the Ministry of Labor in Rosario, and another on Monday in Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires secretary of commerce, but until now, there is no news.
The women invited the audience to spend December 24 in the tent alongside of the workers. They already received a donation from the town council of beef and sweet bread for everyone, and donations of pork and food from other bodies. The Santa Cruz oil workers offered beverages for 3,000 people for those days. The Contraimagen Group, which was filming the whole march, publicly offered to screen films in the tent for the workers and their families.
The resolutions from the workers' plenary meeting that took place on Wednesday, December 17, in Rosario, that include a rejection of layoffs and suspensions, distributing the hours of work, workers' putting every plant that closes back to producing, non-payment of the foreign debt, and support for all the struggles, were read from the speakers' box.
It was an historic mobilization, that generated a lot of popular support for the workers' victory in their struggle, for insuring that the workers do not pay for the crisis. The Women's Commission called a broader meeting for 6 p.m. on Saturday, in the UOM auditorium.
From the speakers' box, they called for continuing to back the struggle and participating in the tent.
Today the workers of Paraná Metal are a great example for all workers of Argentina and the region, next to those of GM in Alvear and others. Actis, leader of UOM Villa, and of Paraná Metal, asserted in conclusion that “if all else fails, we workers will set the factory to producing.” This is a report of a great day of an historic struggle.
Total support to the struggle of the workers of Paraná Metal!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Big workers’ and people’s march in Villa Constitución
More than 4,000 people mobilize in support of the workers at Paraná Metal
By PTS Santa Fe
At 9 a.m., they were already gathered in front of Paraná Metal. The mobilization began with a picket at the former Metcom. There was a lot of enthusiasm, and the workers from Paraná Metal were not alone. The workers from Tenaris had already endorsed the call. The women’s commission in struggle was there early, exerting all their strength.
The workers’ contingent was moving foward along the road. The first stop was at the entrances of Acindar. Lots of emotion. Applause. The workers from Acindar, on foot and motorcycles, joined the march. Local workshops also came out and joined.
“You have to jump, you gotta jump. The one who doesn’t jump is management” was heard, growing ever louder. “The people united, will never be defeated.” Two hours of walking, and at every step the column grew larger. Applause again, when the workers and young people who arrived from Rosario in a bus, lined up on the side of the road to join.
Teachers, workers from the hospital, from the EPE, from city government, everyone coming together in the mobilization. Delegations from AMSAFE, ATILRA of Rosario, CCC, Raúl Castells, the women's group Pan y Rosas, the Agrupación Marrón from Rosario, the students' center from Villa Constitución, the PTS, Polo obrero, and others accompanied. During the whole march, the young people from Paraná Metal did not stop chanting very energetically.
When the march reached the city, families were applauding from their balconies, housewives, neighbors, waiting on the sidewalk for the contingent to walk by. All the businesses had closed. The city of Villa Constitución was moved by the struggle of the workers from Paraná Metal.
Finally they got to the Plaza. "If this is not the people, where are they?" A group from Paraná Metal added another chant: "Occupation, a wave of people, workers' control to throw out the bosses!"
The rally was held in the historic Plaza of Villa Constitución (where the Villazo took place). There were speeches by leaders from CTA Rosario, AMSAFE, ATE, CTA Mar del Plata, leaders of the [metalworkers' union branches] UOM Campana, UOM Casilda, UOM Las Parejas, and also a metalworkers' representative from the CUT of San José Dos Campos of Brazil. Leaders of the [metalworkers' union] UOM Villa Constitución concluded the rally. It was very emotional when two women who belong to the Women's Commmission of Paraná Metal went up to the speakers' box. "You can feel it, you can sense it, women are present," and "Yes, we can, yes, we can! If a woman steps forward, no man retreats!" the women were chanting.
Support from Villa, from Rosario, and from all of Argentina, was extremely strong.
Support also arrived from the corps of delegates of the Buenos Aires subway.
One of the delegates from the internal commission announced that through Caló (national UOM) the government will soon give them 500 pesos for each worker before the year ends. They managed to restore the 600 peso subsidy for each worker that the government had already been giving the bosses for wages, but for after January 15. Now the workers continue to be without a single peso to take to their families.
Today they have a meeting at the Ministry of Labor in Rosario, and another on Monday in Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires secretary of commerce, but until now, there is no news.
The women invited the audience to spend December 24 in the tent alongside of the workers. They already received a donation from the town council of beef and sweet bread for everyone, and donations of pork and food from other bodies. The Santa Cruz oil workers offered beverages for 3,000 people for those days. The Contraimagen Group, which was filming the whole march, publicly offered to screen films in the tent for the workers and their families.
The resolutions from the workers' plenary meeting that took place on Wednesday, December 17, in Rosario, that include a rejection of layoffs and suspensions, distributing the hours of work, workers' putting every plant that closes back to producing, non-payment of the foreign debt, and support for all the struggles, were read from the speakers' box.
It was an historic mobilization, that generated a lot of popular support for the workers' victory in their struggle, for insuring that the workers do not pay for the crisis. The Women's Commission called a broader meeting for 6 p.m. on Saturday, in the UOM auditorium.
From the speakers' box, they called for continuing to back the struggle and participating in the tent.
Today the workers of Paraná Metal are a great example for all workers of Argentina and the region, next to those of GM in Alvear and others. Actis, leader of UOM Villa, and of Paraná Metal, asserted in conclusion that “if all else fails, we workers will set the factory to producing.” This is a report of a great day of an historic struggle.
Total support to the struggle of the workers of Paraná Metal!
PTS Argentina, blasts Israeli massacre of Palestinians in GAZA
Urgent—Press release
We repudiate the Israeli massacre against the Palestinian people
By PTS, Argentina
Sunday, December 28, 2008
(PTS, 27-12-08) Christian Castillo, national leader of the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS) indicated today that "with the massacre of 200 Palestinians in Gaza, Israel again shows that it is a terrorist state, which does not hesitate to bomb the civilian population indiscriminately. It is a state that took the lead in introducing the doctrine of 'preventive war,' the legalization of
torture and murder of its opponents without any judgment, something that afterwards the Bush administration did itself." He also condemned "the complicit declarations of the imperialist governments of the US and the European Union, that want to turn the victims into murderers. This is not surprising, since these are the same states that maintain the colonial occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, among other territories."
In conclusion, Castillo stated that "the Palestinian people are one of the most oppressed on the planet. One and a half million Palestinians, those whom Israel seeks to crush with hunger and terror, are crammed into the worst poverty, in the Gaza Strip, a territory of scarcely 360 square kilometers. We from the PTS are in complete solidarity with the Palestinians. There will be no peace in the region until the oppression of the Palestinians is ended once and for all, a matter that can only be achieved by expelling imperialism from the region, ending the terrorist and colonial State of Israel and setting up a workers' and socialist Palestine where Arabs and Jews may live in peace."
PTS
Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas
Argentina
We repudiate the Israeli massacre against the Palestinian people
By PTS, Argentina
Sunday, December 28, 2008
(PTS, 27-12-08) Christian Castillo, national leader of the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS) indicated today that "with the massacre of 200 Palestinians in Gaza, Israel again shows that it is a terrorist state, which does not hesitate to bomb the civilian population indiscriminately. It is a state that took the lead in introducing the doctrine of 'preventive war,' the legalization of
torture and murder of its opponents without any judgment, something that afterwards the Bush administration did itself." He also condemned "the complicit declarations of the imperialist governments of the US and the European Union, that want to turn the victims into murderers. This is not surprising, since these are the same states that maintain the colonial occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, among other territories."
In conclusion, Castillo stated that "the Palestinian people are one of the most oppressed on the planet. One and a half million Palestinians, those whom Israel seeks to crush with hunger and terror, are crammed into the worst poverty, in the Gaza Strip, a territory of scarcely 360 square kilometers. We from the PTS are in complete solidarity with the Palestinians. There will be no peace in the region until the oppression of the Palestinians is ended once and for all, a matter that can only be achieved by expelling imperialism from the region, ending the terrorist and colonial State of Israel and setting up a workers' and socialist Palestine where Arabs and Jews may live in peace."
PTS
Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas
Argentina
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Social revolt in GREECE: Country paralyzed by 24 hour general strike
From: www.ft-ci.org
A country paralyzed by a 24-hour general strike:
Social revolt in Greece
By Simone Ishibashi
Thursday, November 11, 2008
A trigger-happy act became the fuse for a social explosion in the streets of Greece, as we relate in these pages. The young people's explosion in Greece is taking place in a context of chronic unemployment and extremely precarious employment and was preceded by different struggles and mobilizations in recent years. In 2006 and 2007, Greek students led harsh conflicts with assemblies of around 70,000 students, massive mobilizations, and seizure of almost all the schools, and then, following their example, high-school students seized almost 1,000 schools. The neo-liberal policies of the Karamanlís administration were also confronted by the workers with a series of general strikes in the last few years. The current rebellion of young people and students in Greece is not an isolated case. In Berlusconi's Italy, a privatizing reform of education was answered by "the people of the schools" in the streets, together with other groups of workers in a big national day of struggle. In Gemrany, privatizations also aroused high school and university students, and teachers, who organized a one-day strike with demonstrations in around 40 cities; more than 100,000 students filled the streets. Similar actions were carried out in the Spanish state and Ireland, as we show in this issue. It is clear that the entire European bourgeoisie has been trying systematically to undermine what remains of the conquests, like public education, with the privatizing Bologna Plan, by striking at the youth, that has been one of the groups most affected by unemployment and the results of the economic crisis. But it is also clear that young people in Europe are ready to resist. The revolt by the "Generation of 700 Euros" (as they call young workers with precarious jobs in Greece) is a sign of that.
On Saturday, December 6, the streets of the main Greek cities, like Athens, Hania, Crete and Salonika, were seized by thousands of demonstrators, who were protesting against the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15 years old, by the police. The demonstration, in spite of having been harshly repressed by the cops, lasted for hours, stretching out until Sunday and leaving a toll of 40 wounded.
However, the fierce repression did not manage to intimidate the youth and popular groups that rose up against the brutal murder carried out by the police. After the confrontations, university professors, who were already preparing a mobilization against social security reform and the economic policy of the worn-out Costas Karamanlís administration, the right-wing New Democracy Party, announced that they will join the three days of protests, scheduled to occur beginning December 9, while the University of Thessalonika was occupied by hundreds of students, who responded to the attacks of the police with stones and Molotov cocktails. A march on the night of December 8, at which the main Greek unions should appear, was also called by the Greek Communist Party and PASOK, the socialist party.
The repercussions of the Greek social revolt were already going through the European Union. On the morning of December 8, the Greek consulate in Berlin was occupied by 15young Greek citizens who were carrying a sign that read "The state murders." The Greek demonstrations expressed popular rage against the government and the effects of the economic crisis, which have struck Greece harshly, worsening the already dreadful distribution of the country's income, and they could be the herald of big onslaughts in the class struggle, and a profound political crisis of the servile and reactionary Greek government. So the confrontations in Greece are part of the first responses by the movement of the masses to the effects of the capitalist crisis, and they could transform the ancient birthplace of Western civilization into a frontline barricade of the international class struggle, now that it has assumed a political character, to the extent that the government of Costas Karamanlís is being questioned.
Greece: Political and economic crisis
The current Greek political situation is marked by a profound impact from the international economic crisis. Despite the numbers presented by the government, that were certifying advances in the economic indicators beginning with Greece's entry into the European Union in 2001, from the beginning of this year, Greece, beside countries like the Spanish state, was one of the first to see its economy fall. The Greek economy, which is largely sustained by the service sector, with 74.5% of the national GDP, of which, tourism is responsible for a large part, has suffered with the recession of some of its European neighbors. However, it is the industrial sector, responsible for 20.7% of all economic activisty, that has been the most battered: total exports fell by 13.2% compared with last year, while industrial activity as a whole shrank by approximately 3.5%. The jobs created in the last year are still mostly precarious, not having reversed the proportion of 1 in every 5 Greeks living below the poverty line, earning less than 5,000 Euros/year. Furthermore, Greece was already in the sights of the European Union because it exceeded the deficit permitted to countries of the Euro Zone.
The Costas Karamanlís government has been one of the most determined to unload the crisis on the backs of the workers. As a way to heed the opinions of the main imperialisms of the European Union, the government is trying to privatize difference businesses, including the state-owned airlines, besides carrying out reforms that immensely attack the pension system, with a plan that increases retirement age and reduces the value of pensions. The New Democracy government is alos responsible for cutting investments dedicated to social programs, increasing taxes, and attacking higher education. So the popular reaction that exploded in recent demonstrations is also a response to the rescue costing billions, announced by the Greek government to save the finanical system and the banks, following the US and the European Union. Thus, contrary to the bourgeois discourse of greeting Greece's entry into the European Union as a means of economic growth, in view of the crisis, it is obvious that countries with less economic power, besides continuing to keep structurally the same disparities that impose immense sufferings and privations on the masses, entry still means for these countries attacks on historically won rights, in the name of "seeking competitiveness," and "modernization" imposed by the European imperialist powers. This confirms that the European Union, as we have already discussed in other articles, is only an attempt by the main European imperialisms to subjugate their own proletariat and those of other countries of the Continent.
Inside Greece, the effects of the economic crisis are added to a big political crisis that is beginning among highly-placed officials in the New Democracy government. As if the goverment's attacks were not enough, and the harsh situation to which a immense part of the population and the Greek workers are subjected, an endless number of ministers are being accused of corruption. Together with the explosion of the international crisis, in September of this year scandals came to the surface that involved the Merchant Marine Minister, Yorgos Vulgarakis, who was forced to resign after the discovery that hidden, lucrative deals of his family were based on abuses of power. Other institutions that were favored by the New Democracy government, like Orthodox Church itself, were also targets of corruption scandals, which weakens the allies of Costas Karamanlís. In an attempt not to appear even more weakened, the Greek President, after having lost a series of other collaborators, was forced to refuse the request for resignation of Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Minister of the Interior, who was ready to hand over the job because of the murder of the youth in Athens. However, this decision could increase popular rage, contributing to his government still more.
Recover and strengthen the tradition of struggle by workers and young people
Greece has been one of the most unstable countries of Europe, and it was already the stage for several confrontations of workers and popular groups with the government. The social revolt that has exploded in recent days is one more episode that shows the immense fighting spirit of the Greek youth and people. The workers' entry on the stage could raise the demonstrations to a higher level. In spite of the treacherous pacifist line adopted by the PASOK bureaucracy, than, when it was in government in 2001, tried to pass similar attacks on the pension system and was also almost overthrown by popular demonstrations, and of Communist Party (the KKE, according to its Greek initials), it is possible that the mobilizations could break out again, that oculd force the leaderships to go much further thna they wished, giving continuity and radicalizing the different mobilizations that occured since the beginning of this year.
These mobiizations were very large, like the 24-hour strike on October 21, that had the support of 90% of service sector workers and culminated in a march with the participation of 15,000 people in Athens, against the government's attacks, and with the slogan, "We cannot tolerate any more." The high-school and university students' movement actively joined in protest against the privatization of higher education and against cutting budget items for education, culminating in the occupation of 250 institutes and schools throughout the country. The strike ended with the occupation of the central building of Olympic Airways by workers, who were also harshly repressed by the police. The shutdowns continued on October 22, and this time included rural groups, that had almost 100% participation.
Today, many people are already comparing the social revolt detonated by the murder of the teenager with the demonstrations led by the students in 1985, when the police also murdered a young man who was participating in the tributes to the November, 1973actions. It is a tradition of the Greek youth, popular groups and workers to go out to the streets to remember the fall of the so-called "Colonels' dictatorship," a regime led by General Yorgos Papadópulos, that had subjugated the Greek people and workers with great brutality since the coup d'état driven by the colonels on April
21, 1967. The 1973 demonstrations, with the students as vanguard, quickly became massive, including broad popular and workers' groups, that made the occupation of the Athens Polytechnical School the epicenter of the mobilization. This movement helped enormously for the fall of the Colonels' dictatorship in 1974.
So it is necessary that the workers enter the stage with their historical methods of struggle, equiping the social revolt that was setting the streets of the main cities of the country on fire, with a program capable of imposing a workers' solution and finishing the road opened in 1973, preventing the economic crisis from being unloaded on the backs of the workers and the Greek people. The combative working class and the Greek youth need to surpass their leaderships, now in the hands of the KKE and PASOK, and unify their ranks, by struggling to impose a definitive solution to the misfortunes imposed by the Costas Karamanlís government and its bourgeoisie connected to the interests of the European Union. Let us follow attentively.
A country paralyzed by a 24-hour general strike:
Social revolt in Greece
By Simone Ishibashi
Thursday, November 11, 2008
A trigger-happy act became the fuse for a social explosion in the streets of Greece, as we relate in these pages. The young people's explosion in Greece is taking place in a context of chronic unemployment and extremely precarious employment and was preceded by different struggles and mobilizations in recent years. In 2006 and 2007, Greek students led harsh conflicts with assemblies of around 70,000 students, massive mobilizations, and seizure of almost all the schools, and then, following their example, high-school students seized almost 1,000 schools. The neo-liberal policies of the Karamanlís administration were also confronted by the workers with a series of general strikes in the last few years. The current rebellion of young people and students in Greece is not an isolated case. In Berlusconi's Italy, a privatizing reform of education was answered by "the people of the schools" in the streets, together with other groups of workers in a big national day of struggle. In Gemrany, privatizations also aroused high school and university students, and teachers, who organized a one-day strike with demonstrations in around 40 cities; more than 100,000 students filled the streets. Similar actions were carried out in the Spanish state and Ireland, as we show in this issue. It is clear that the entire European bourgeoisie has been trying systematically to undermine what remains of the conquests, like public education, with the privatizing Bologna Plan, by striking at the youth, that has been one of the groups most affected by unemployment and the results of the economic crisis. But it is also clear that young people in Europe are ready to resist. The revolt by the "Generation of 700 Euros" (as they call young workers with precarious jobs in Greece) is a sign of that.
On Saturday, December 6, the streets of the main Greek cities, like Athens, Hania, Crete and Salonika, were seized by thousands of demonstrators, who were protesting against the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, 15 years old, by the police. The demonstration, in spite of having been harshly repressed by the cops, lasted for hours, stretching out until Sunday and leaving a toll of 40 wounded.
However, the fierce repression did not manage to intimidate the youth and popular groups that rose up against the brutal murder carried out by the police. After the confrontations, university professors, who were already preparing a mobilization against social security reform and the economic policy of the worn-out Costas Karamanlís administration, the right-wing New Democracy Party, announced that they will join the three days of protests, scheduled to occur beginning December 9, while the University of Thessalonika was occupied by hundreds of students, who responded to the attacks of the police with stones and Molotov cocktails. A march on the night of December 8, at which the main Greek unions should appear, was also called by the Greek Communist Party and PASOK, the socialist party.
The repercussions of the Greek social revolt were already going through the European Union. On the morning of December 8, the Greek consulate in Berlin was occupied by 15young Greek citizens who were carrying a sign that read "The state murders." The Greek demonstrations expressed popular rage against the government and the effects of the economic crisis, which have struck Greece harshly, worsening the already dreadful distribution of the country's income, and they could be the herald of big onslaughts in the class struggle, and a profound political crisis of the servile and reactionary Greek government. So the confrontations in Greece are part of the first responses by the movement of the masses to the effects of the capitalist crisis, and they could transform the ancient birthplace of Western civilization into a frontline barricade of the international class struggle, now that it has assumed a political character, to the extent that the government of Costas Karamanlís is being questioned.
Greece: Political and economic crisis
The current Greek political situation is marked by a profound impact from the international economic crisis. Despite the numbers presented by the government, that were certifying advances in the economic indicators beginning with Greece's entry into the European Union in 2001, from the beginning of this year, Greece, beside countries like the Spanish state, was one of the first to see its economy fall. The Greek economy, which is largely sustained by the service sector, with 74.5% of the national GDP, of which, tourism is responsible for a large part, has suffered with the recession of some of its European neighbors. However, it is the industrial sector, responsible for 20.7% of all economic activisty, that has been the most battered: total exports fell by 13.2% compared with last year, while industrial activity as a whole shrank by approximately 3.5%. The jobs created in the last year are still mostly precarious, not having reversed the proportion of 1 in every 5 Greeks living below the poverty line, earning less than 5,000 Euros/year. Furthermore, Greece was already in the sights of the European Union because it exceeded the deficit permitted to countries of the Euro Zone.
The Costas Karamanlís government has been one of the most determined to unload the crisis on the backs of the workers. As a way to heed the opinions of the main imperialisms of the European Union, the government is trying to privatize difference businesses, including the state-owned airlines, besides carrying out reforms that immensely attack the pension system, with a plan that increases retirement age and reduces the value of pensions. The New Democracy government is alos responsible for cutting investments dedicated to social programs, increasing taxes, and attacking higher education. So the popular reaction that exploded in recent demonstrations is also a response to the rescue costing billions, announced by the Greek government to save the finanical system and the banks, following the US and the European Union. Thus, contrary to the bourgeois discourse of greeting Greece's entry into the European Union as a means of economic growth, in view of the crisis, it is obvious that countries with less economic power, besides continuing to keep structurally the same disparities that impose immense sufferings and privations on the masses, entry still means for these countries attacks on historically won rights, in the name of "seeking competitiveness," and "modernization" imposed by the European imperialist powers. This confirms that the European Union, as we have already discussed in other articles, is only an attempt by the main European imperialisms to subjugate their own proletariat and those of other countries of the Continent.
Inside Greece, the effects of the economic crisis are added to a big political crisis that is beginning among highly-placed officials in the New Democracy government. As if the goverment's attacks were not enough, and the harsh situation to which a immense part of the population and the Greek workers are subjected, an endless number of ministers are being accused of corruption. Together with the explosion of the international crisis, in September of this year scandals came to the surface that involved the Merchant Marine Minister, Yorgos Vulgarakis, who was forced to resign after the discovery that hidden, lucrative deals of his family were based on abuses of power. Other institutions that were favored by the New Democracy government, like Orthodox Church itself, were also targets of corruption scandals, which weakens the allies of Costas Karamanlís. In an attempt not to appear even more weakened, the Greek President, after having lost a series of other collaborators, was forced to refuse the request for resignation of Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Minister of the Interior, who was ready to hand over the job because of the murder of the youth in Athens. However, this decision could increase popular rage, contributing to his government still more.
Recover and strengthen the tradition of struggle by workers and young people
Greece has been one of the most unstable countries of Europe, and it was already the stage for several confrontations of workers and popular groups with the government. The social revolt that has exploded in recent days is one more episode that shows the immense fighting spirit of the Greek youth and people. The workers' entry on the stage could raise the demonstrations to a higher level. In spite of the treacherous pacifist line adopted by the PASOK bureaucracy, than, when it was in government in 2001, tried to pass similar attacks on the pension system and was also almost overthrown by popular demonstrations, and of Communist Party (the KKE, according to its Greek initials), it is possible that the mobilizations could break out again, that oculd force the leaderships to go much further thna they wished, giving continuity and radicalizing the different mobilizations that occured since the beginning of this year.
These mobiizations were very large, like the 24-hour strike on October 21, that had the support of 90% of service sector workers and culminated in a march with the participation of 15,000 people in Athens, against the government's attacks, and with the slogan, "We cannot tolerate any more." The high-school and university students' movement actively joined in protest against the privatization of higher education and against cutting budget items for education, culminating in the occupation of 250 institutes and schools throughout the country. The strike ended with the occupation of the central building of Olympic Airways by workers, who were also harshly repressed by the police. The shutdowns continued on October 22, and this time included rural groups, that had almost 100% participation.
Today, many people are already comparing the social revolt detonated by the murder of the teenager with the demonstrations led by the students in 1985, when the police also murdered a young man who was participating in the tributes to the November, 1973actions. It is a tradition of the Greek youth, popular groups and workers to go out to the streets to remember the fall of the so-called "Colonels' dictatorship," a regime led by General Yorgos Papadópulos, that had subjugated the Greek people and workers with great brutality since the coup d'état driven by the colonels on April
21, 1967. The 1973 demonstrations, with the students as vanguard, quickly became massive, including broad popular and workers' groups, that made the occupation of the Athens Polytechnical School the epicenter of the mobilization. This movement helped enormously for the fall of the Colonels' dictatorship in 1974.
So it is necessary that the workers enter the stage with their historical methods of struggle, equiping the social revolt that was setting the streets of the main cities of the country on fire, with a program capable of imposing a workers' solution and finishing the road opened in 1973, preventing the economic crisis from being unloaded on the backs of the workers and the Greek people. The combative working class and the Greek youth need to surpass their leaderships, now in the hands of the KKE and PASOK, and unify their ranks, by struggling to impose a definitive solution to the misfortunes imposed by the Costas Karamanlís government and its bourgeoisie connected to the interests of the European Union. Let us follow attentively.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
VENEZUELA--Punish those who murdered the 3 workers' leaders in Aragua
[From www.ft-ci.org]
In view of the murder of three workers
Big national demonstration in Venezuela
By the LTS of Venezuela
Thursday, December 11, 2008
On Thursday, December 4, the big national protest meeting against hired killers and against impunity, called by the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores of Aragua state and several leftist political organizations, was carried out. Different national and regional coordinating committees of the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores, rank and file union leaders and hundreds of workers from the various factories of Aragua and the rest of Venezuela, participated. The event took place in Maracay in the facilities of Saniplásticas (opposite the enterprise Sanitarios Maracay, at the end of Avenida Aragua). The meeting had as its central objective denouncing the murder of the three union leaders of the regional union federation in Aragua, comrades Richard Gallardo, Luís Hernández y Carlos Requena, and demanding speed and transparency from the national government and the appropriate entities in the investigations of those responsible for this horrible homicide. The meeting is part of the regional plan of struggle adopted by the union federation of the state of Aragua to condemn and confront the scourge of paid assassins in the region and in the whole country. The members of the workers’ commission negotiating with the regional government presented a report on the state of the agreements. The Liga de Trabajadores por el Socialismo (LTS) was present at this big meeting called by the comrades of UNT-Aragua, as part of the tireless struggle that this crime should not remain unpunished, since, as we had said, this triple murder constitutes a harsh blow against the working class and its organizations. If we let it pass and remain as an unpunished act, the bosses, who daily resort more and more to “Colombianization” as a method to decide workers’ struggles (paying hired killers and paramilitaries to eliminate trade unionists), will not hesitate to rise up against all those workers that are calling for their basic rights and demands. It is the blood of the workers that is at risk, in view of the impunity of capital and the secret cooperation of the government.
During the demonstration, there was a call for the big national march that will take place in Maracay on Thursday, December 11, at 2 p.m., leaving from Avenida Bolívar and Ayacucho, and ending up at the former regional government headquarters, located beside Plaza Bolívar.
In view of the murder of three workers
Big national demonstration in Venezuela
By the LTS of Venezuela
Thursday, December 11, 2008
On Thursday, December 4, the big national protest meeting against hired killers and against impunity, called by the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores of Aragua state and several leftist political organizations, was carried out. Different national and regional coordinating committees of the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores, rank and file union leaders and hundreds of workers from the various factories of Aragua and the rest of Venezuela, participated. The event took place in Maracay in the facilities of Saniplásticas (opposite the enterprise Sanitarios Maracay, at the end of Avenida Aragua). The meeting had as its central objective denouncing the murder of the three union leaders of the regional union federation in Aragua, comrades Richard Gallardo, Luís Hernández y Carlos Requena, and demanding speed and transparency from the national government and the appropriate entities in the investigations of those responsible for this horrible homicide. The meeting is part of the regional plan of struggle adopted by the union federation of the state of Aragua to condemn and confront the scourge of paid assassins in the region and in the whole country. The members of the workers’ commission negotiating with the regional government presented a report on the state of the agreements. The Liga de Trabajadores por el Socialismo (LTS) was present at this big meeting called by the comrades of UNT-Aragua, as part of the tireless struggle that this crime should not remain unpunished, since, as we had said, this triple murder constitutes a harsh blow against the working class and its organizations. If we let it pass and remain as an unpunished act, the bosses, who daily resort more and more to “Colombianization” as a method to decide workers’ struggles (paying hired killers and paramilitaries to eliminate trade unionists), will not hesitate to rise up against all those workers that are calling for their basic rights and demands. It is the blood of the workers that is at risk, in view of the impunity of capital and the secret cooperation of the government.
During the demonstration, there was a call for the big national march that will take place in Maracay on Thursday, December 11, at 2 p.m., leaving from Avenida Bolívar and Ayacucho, and ending up at the former regional government headquarters, located beside Plaza Bolívar.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
VENEZUELA--Reflections of the crisis in petro-"socialism"
Venezuela: Reflections of the world economic crisis in petro-"socialism"
By Max Trinidad Cerén
Sunday, November 30, 2008
One of the elements that shows that the government of Chávez is moving without foresight and is adrift in the context of the international economic crisis, is the fact that among strong international economic storms and a clear world recession, it approved a national budget of 167.4 billion bolívares fuertes, based on US$60/barrel, and after just a few days, it found itself forced to rush out to correct the numbers, given the sudden drop that has already hit the floor of US$45/barrel on average for crude so far this month. In this context, the situation of world economic crisis and the repercussions of the recession that are happening in the economies of the main countries of the world, and their impact on oil prices, will have an effect on the national [Venezuelan] economy, to become the determining element for the certain adjustment measures they will apply, that highly-placed members of the [Venezuelan] government are already expecting.
For the last week of November, according to figures from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, a barrel of Venezuelan oil was at $40.68 US, the lowest level recorded since the first quarter of 2007. In July, it had reached the maximum of $129.50 US, which shows it is not a matter of just any decrease. If this dynamic continues, the loss of income will be considerable, which could worsen as the recession of the world economy deepens. For some analysts, although an average price of $60 US/barrel will prevail during 2009, Venezuela will experience a reduction in its oil income of almost 40%, around $25 billion US, and that is sufficiently serious for a country where public expenditure is the motor that keeps the economy active, a country more closely tied than any other, to what happens in the unpredictable casino of oil prices. Taking into account the fact that oil represents 94% of Venezuela’s exports, and that only oil makes it possible to pay for imports, obviously shows the extremely volatility of the Venezuelan economy and its great dependence on international fluctuations.
During the whole election campaign, the [Venezuelan] government did everything possible to avoid talking about the subject of oil, because it wanted to create the feeling that things are going well, and that the Venezuelan economy is immune to what is happening with prices. But the specter of the world crisis is hanging over Venezuela; it is sufficient to recall that around 1998, the price of oil approached less than $10/barrel, also because of the effects of an international financial crisis – in that case, because of the 1997 crisis in Asia. Now with a barrel below $45, which looks like a breaking point in Chávez’ plan, marked by the bonanza in crude oil.
In spite of the government’s insistence at the beginning of the world crisis that Venezuela was not in the path of the hurricane, the faces have begun to change, and quite rightly, since, if the crisis deepens, big contradictions will come to light, and the crisis will unmask the rhetoric of Chávez’ “twenty-first century socialism,” that is no more than “socialism with businessmen.” And the problem is, Venezuela is a country that is closely connected to the international economy, like all the dependent countries, but it has the characteristic that it is a net exporter of oil and importer of everything needed for consumption and production. It is a country in debt to the international financial markets, with a public debt of about $50 billion US.
And by way of example, regarding only current conditions, the Venezuelan economy slowed down in the third quarter of 2008, with an index of 4.6%, reflecting a drop compared to the second quarter that had an index of 7.1%, and for the end of the year, a GDP rate of 2% was predicted, when the economy was growing. While petroleum activity kept growing from 3.2% to 6%, the non-petroleum sector fell from 7.8% to 4.5%; in that sector, construction activity went from 12.8% to 7.2%, manufacturing fell from 4.4% to 0.3%, transportation and storage, from 6.6% to -0.5%, etc. At the same time, inflation continued to be out of control, with a cumulative rate of 24.7% in the first ten months of this year, a much higher figure than the initial goal of 11%, and now it is estimated that in 2009 inflation will reach about 39%. If a more severe economic slowdown, combined with high inflation, develops, it will open up the unflattering prospect of stagflation in the country.
The oil bubble created incentives on which the government bet a lot, in view of the exuberant expansion of public expenditure and state economic activity. The impact of that global economic recession environment will come from an extreme slowdown of economic growth, from increased fiscal costs because of a drop in oil income, given the lower prices of oil production and of a likely fall in the Venezuelan oil supply.
In spite of the cushion of economic reserves, we will suffer the consequences already in 2009
It is true that the quantity of funds that Chávez' government would have cumulatively, for discretionary use, in organizations like the Central Bank, the Economic and Social Development Bank BANDES, and the Treasury Bank, have created a shock absorber to be taken into account; the point is, what will happen after the surplus resources run out? Because the behavior recorded by prices up to October is what allows the year's average to be around $97, guaranteeing a surplus of $62/barrel, since a reference price of $35 was anticipated for hte current year. Beyond the fact that in immediate terms the abrupt drop in Venezuelan crude is not affecting the fiscal accounts, since income continues to come from invoices signed three months ago and bought and sold at prices above $100/barrel, when it makes itself felt, the government will have to apply belt-tightening measures to make up for this abrupt drop. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) stressed that Venezuela needs prices between $85 and $100 to keep its accounts balanced in 2009, and for some analysts, like Maza Zabala, Venezuela, with the reserves it has, could enjoy a truce of one and a half years or two, which is really an excessively optimistic forecast.
But, outside of the effects on ordinary expenditure, the drop in prices is affecting the so-called "parallel budget." Given the increase in prices, the government manipulated the tax on the sudden profit in crude oil, which is applied when Brent exceeds $70, and the resources that originate in that way nourish the National Development Fund. Between June and September, that tax generated $5.8 billion, but in the face of the behavior of Brent this month, there is a reduced possibility that the industry and mixed enterprises will make those additional payments. As a result, an international scene with reduced growth or prolonged recession would impact the levels of income of Venezuela both for oil income and fiscal income that results from a reduction in tax collections from the petroleum and non-petroleum sectors, owing to less growth of export prices and royalties, as from our economy in the different sectors.
And beyond all the anti-Bush rhetoric that the government has maintained, economic dependence on the US, the main epicenter of the world economic crisis, is large and significant: the bulk of petroleum exports continues to be directed to the main North American power. For Venezuela, this is intensified, taking into account the fact the crisis we are now witnessing originated in the heart of the world capitalist system, the US, and has spread from there like a poisonous stain, seriously striking the European Union, Japan, Russia, and the countries of the capitalist periphery.
From the government, they had been talking about diversification of the oil market, taking China as a market, but that country is also feeling the crisis with the collapse of the myth that the Chinese economy could be “unfastened” from the crisis: the numbers reveal that China continues to be an economically dependent country that lacks the ability to act like a great power: it occupies position number 100 in terms of per capita income and represents only 6% of the global economy.
In the face of the deepening of the crisis, a workers’ solution
Although in the context of high oil income, the distribution of the national income left much to be desired, in the economic scene, the contradictions for the government will be sharper, taking growing demands into account, since the limits will be more serious for any policy of distribution Workers’ demands have been making themselves felt, where the struggles for readjustment of wages is spreading throughout the country and through the most diverse sectors of the working class, forming a very widespread picture of struggles such as has not been seen for many years, the result of big political polarization and Chávez’ immense leadership over the entire mass movement.
As James Petras states, about the government, “Venezuela will blame the fall of profits coming from oil and world recessions on the coup; the flight of capitals is increasing in spite of controls, and private capital is reducing investments or withholding credit in spite of considerable incentives. The government is unable to continue its large-scale financing of public social and economic projects, and, at the same time, subsidize private exporters, the food and agriculture, and, above all, importing luxury articles.” But in a more general sense, the proposals from the government and the local and continental chavista movement, do not go beyond being utopian. A meeting of economists was promoted by the Miranda International Center and the government; the economists published their “Responses to the world economic crisis from the South,” which proposed as a solution, the strengthening of ALBA and the Banco del Sur, new, regulated economic institutions, and a Latin American monetary agreement, to face up to the crisis, turn out to be completely utopian, These projects, which could not even be seriously set up during the previous period of economic growth, clearly remain without any foundation.
Faced with this situation and the crisis that could begin, the working class and the people must fight for a program that strikes at the material bases of the capitalists, that Chávez’ “socialism with businessmen” has limited itself to concealing, instead of taking serious measures. Faced with threats of layoffs, we must demand that the accounting books be opened and the expropriation without compensation of any firm that closes or has layoffs, and its being put into operation under workers’ control. Not a single bolívar to save the banks and capitalist enterprises. To prevent the flight of capitals and guarantee cheap credit for working-class families, small-business owners and the impoverished middle classes, it is necessary to fight for the state monopoly of foreign trade and for expropriating and nationalizing all the banks into a single state bank controlled by workers and depositors’ committees. It is a matter of setting up the power of the working class and of showing the only realistic road so that they do not unload the crisis on our shoulders: the struggle for a government belonging to the workers and impoverished people.
By Max Trinidad Cerén
Sunday, November 30, 2008
One of the elements that shows that the government of Chávez is moving without foresight and is adrift in the context of the international economic crisis, is the fact that among strong international economic storms and a clear world recession, it approved a national budget of 167.4 billion bolívares fuertes, based on US$60/barrel, and after just a few days, it found itself forced to rush out to correct the numbers, given the sudden drop that has already hit the floor of US$45/barrel on average for crude so far this month. In this context, the situation of world economic crisis and the repercussions of the recession that are happening in the economies of the main countries of the world, and their impact on oil prices, will have an effect on the national [Venezuelan] economy, to become the determining element for the certain adjustment measures they will apply, that highly-placed members of the [Venezuelan] government are already expecting.
For the last week of November, according to figures from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, a barrel of Venezuelan oil was at $40.68 US, the lowest level recorded since the first quarter of 2007. In July, it had reached the maximum of $129.50 US, which shows it is not a matter of just any decrease. If this dynamic continues, the loss of income will be considerable, which could worsen as the recession of the world economy deepens. For some analysts, although an average price of $60 US/barrel will prevail during 2009, Venezuela will experience a reduction in its oil income of almost 40%, around $25 billion US, and that is sufficiently serious for a country where public expenditure is the motor that keeps the economy active, a country more closely tied than any other, to what happens in the unpredictable casino of oil prices. Taking into account the fact that oil represents 94% of Venezuela’s exports, and that only oil makes it possible to pay for imports, obviously shows the extremely volatility of the Venezuelan economy and its great dependence on international fluctuations.
During the whole election campaign, the [Venezuelan] government did everything possible to avoid talking about the subject of oil, because it wanted to create the feeling that things are going well, and that the Venezuelan economy is immune to what is happening with prices. But the specter of the world crisis is hanging over Venezuela; it is sufficient to recall that around 1998, the price of oil approached less than $10/barrel, also because of the effects of an international financial crisis – in that case, because of the 1997 crisis in Asia. Now with a barrel below $45, which looks like a breaking point in Chávez’ plan, marked by the bonanza in crude oil.
In spite of the government’s insistence at the beginning of the world crisis that Venezuela was not in the path of the hurricane, the faces have begun to change, and quite rightly, since, if the crisis deepens, big contradictions will come to light, and the crisis will unmask the rhetoric of Chávez’ “twenty-first century socialism,” that is no more than “socialism with businessmen.” And the problem is, Venezuela is a country that is closely connected to the international economy, like all the dependent countries, but it has the characteristic that it is a net exporter of oil and importer of everything needed for consumption and production. It is a country in debt to the international financial markets, with a public debt of about $50 billion US.
And by way of example, regarding only current conditions, the Venezuelan economy slowed down in the third quarter of 2008, with an index of 4.6%, reflecting a drop compared to the second quarter that had an index of 7.1%, and for the end of the year, a GDP rate of 2% was predicted, when the economy was growing. While petroleum activity kept growing from 3.2% to 6%, the non-petroleum sector fell from 7.8% to 4.5%; in that sector, construction activity went from 12.8% to 7.2%, manufacturing fell from 4.4% to 0.3%, transportation and storage, from 6.6% to -0.5%, etc. At the same time, inflation continued to be out of control, with a cumulative rate of 24.7% in the first ten months of this year, a much higher figure than the initial goal of 11%, and now it is estimated that in 2009 inflation will reach about 39%. If a more severe economic slowdown, combined with high inflation, develops, it will open up the unflattering prospect of stagflation in the country.
The oil bubble created incentives on which the government bet a lot, in view of the exuberant expansion of public expenditure and state economic activity. The impact of that global economic recession environment will come from an extreme slowdown of economic growth, from increased fiscal costs because of a drop in oil income, given the lower prices of oil production and of a likely fall in the Venezuelan oil supply.
In spite of the cushion of economic reserves, we will suffer the consequences already in 2009
It is true that the quantity of funds that Chávez' government would have cumulatively, for discretionary use, in organizations like the Central Bank, the Economic and Social Development Bank BANDES, and the Treasury Bank, have created a shock absorber to be taken into account; the point is, what will happen after the surplus resources run out? Because the behavior recorded by prices up to October is what allows the year's average to be around $97, guaranteeing a surplus of $62/barrel, since a reference price of $35 was anticipated for hte current year. Beyond the fact that in immediate terms the abrupt drop in Venezuelan crude is not affecting the fiscal accounts, since income continues to come from invoices signed three months ago and bought and sold at prices above $100/barrel, when it makes itself felt, the government will have to apply belt-tightening measures to make up for this abrupt drop. A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) stressed that Venezuela needs prices between $85 and $100 to keep its accounts balanced in 2009, and for some analysts, like Maza Zabala, Venezuela, with the reserves it has, could enjoy a truce of one and a half years or two, which is really an excessively optimistic forecast.
But, outside of the effects on ordinary expenditure, the drop in prices is affecting the so-called "parallel budget." Given the increase in prices, the government manipulated the tax on the sudden profit in crude oil, which is applied when Brent exceeds $70, and the resources that originate in that way nourish the National Development Fund. Between June and September, that tax generated $5.8 billion, but in the face of the behavior of Brent this month, there is a reduced possibility that the industry and mixed enterprises will make those additional payments. As a result, an international scene with reduced growth or prolonged recession would impact the levels of income of Venezuela both for oil income and fiscal income that results from a reduction in tax collections from the petroleum and non-petroleum sectors, owing to less growth of export prices and royalties, as from our economy in the different sectors.
And beyond all the anti-Bush rhetoric that the government has maintained, economic dependence on the US, the main epicenter of the world economic crisis, is large and significant: the bulk of petroleum exports continues to be directed to the main North American power. For Venezuela, this is intensified, taking into account the fact the crisis we are now witnessing originated in the heart of the world capitalist system, the US, and has spread from there like a poisonous stain, seriously striking the European Union, Japan, Russia, and the countries of the capitalist periphery.
From the government, they had been talking about diversification of the oil market, taking China as a market, but that country is also feeling the crisis with the collapse of the myth that the Chinese economy could be “unfastened” from the crisis: the numbers reveal that China continues to be an economically dependent country that lacks the ability to act like a great power: it occupies position number 100 in terms of per capita income and represents only 6% of the global economy.
In the face of the deepening of the crisis, a workers’ solution
Although in the context of high oil income, the distribution of the national income left much to be desired, in the economic scene, the contradictions for the government will be sharper, taking growing demands into account, since the limits will be more serious for any policy of distribution Workers’ demands have been making themselves felt, where the struggles for readjustment of wages is spreading throughout the country and through the most diverse sectors of the working class, forming a very widespread picture of struggles such as has not been seen for many years, the result of big political polarization and Chávez’ immense leadership over the entire mass movement.
As James Petras states, about the government, “Venezuela will blame the fall of profits coming from oil and world recessions on the coup; the flight of capitals is increasing in spite of controls, and private capital is reducing investments or withholding credit in spite of considerable incentives. The government is unable to continue its large-scale financing of public social and economic projects, and, at the same time, subsidize private exporters, the food and agriculture, and, above all, importing luxury articles.” But in a more general sense, the proposals from the government and the local and continental chavista movement, do not go beyond being utopian. A meeting of economists was promoted by the Miranda International Center and the government; the economists published their “Responses to the world economic crisis from the South,” which proposed as a solution, the strengthening of ALBA and the Banco del Sur, new, regulated economic institutions, and a Latin American monetary agreement, to face up to the crisis, turn out to be completely utopian, These projects, which could not even be seriously set up during the previous period of economic growth, clearly remain without any foundation.
Faced with this situation and the crisis that could begin, the working class and the people must fight for a program that strikes at the material bases of the capitalists, that Chávez’ “socialism with businessmen” has limited itself to concealing, instead of taking serious measures. Faced with threats of layoffs, we must demand that the accounting books be opened and the expropriation without compensation of any firm that closes or has layoffs, and its being put into operation under workers’ control. Not a single bolívar to save the banks and capitalist enterprises. To prevent the flight of capitals and guarantee cheap credit for working-class families, small-business owners and the impoverished middle classes, it is necessary to fight for the state monopoly of foreign trade and for expropriating and nationalizing all the banks into a single state bank controlled by workers and depositors’ committees. It is a matter of setting up the power of the working class and of showing the only realistic road so that they do not unload the crisis on our shoulders: the struggle for a government belonging to the workers and impoverished people.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
ARGENTINA--Big demonstration in front of the Venezuelan Embassy
[From the Partido de Trabajadores Socialistas, Argentina]
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
In repudiation of the massacre of workers in Aragua
Big demonstration in front of the Venezuelan Embassy
(PTS, 01/12/08) Today a big rally and demonstration was held in front of the Embassy of Venezuela in Buenos Aires to repudiate the brutal murder of the comrade workers' leaders Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos Requena and to demand an investigation and punishment of the murder. Around a thousand comrades from the different tendencies of the left that had called the action accompanied a delegation of leaders that delivered a statement before the authorities of the Embassy. Juan Carlos Giordano (Izquierda Socialista), Vilma Ripoll (MST), Néstor Pitrola (PO), Christian Castillo (PTS), Juan Carlos Beica (Convergencia Socialista) and Héctor Heberling (MAS) had an interview with an official, who could not answer why up to that moment -- three days after the cowardly murder -- President Hugo Chávez had still not repudiated this massacre of workers. Then a comrade from Izquierda Socialista read a report of the different workers' and popular mobilizations that took place after the crime against these workers' leaders and part of the plan of struggle launched by the leader Orlando Chirino and the comrades of the UNT to demand the investigation and punishment of the massacre. Finally, the national leader of Izquierda Socialista, Juan Carlos Giordano, spoke, giving a moving biographical sketch of the life of dedication to the workers’ cause of these comrades, explaining that a harsh blow against the class-conscious left had taken place, but that “from every Richard, from every Luis, from every Carlos, from each one of them, a thousand class-conscious, anti-imperialist and socialist workers will go out, just like they were.” “They will not be able to finish this struggle for class independence; they were struggling for a truly socialist society, without exploited or exploiters, a society without businessmen, for a society that is not the present Venezuela: that is why they killed them.” Comrade Giordano also recalled how, 24 hours before he was murdered, comrade Richard Gallardo had raised the need to prepare workers’ self-defense, “a question that he did not actually see, but that is set out now more than ever, in the Venezuelan working class.” In his intervention, Giordano rejected the version, promoted by the right-wing Venezuelan opposition, that the comrades were murdered for having made public an alleged fraud in the last Venezuelan elections, when two of them were independent workers' candidates for the Unidad Socialista de Izquierda (USI): "The facts are more than clear; the comrades were actively backing the struggle and the seizure by the workers of the Colombian multinational 'Alpina,' and they had been violently repressed by the Aragua state police the very day of their assassination, after they demanded a repudiation by the brand-new Governor Elect from the PSUV." In ending the demonstration, Christian Castillo stated that "we promoted this united demonstration as a first step of an intense internationalist campaign that we have now begun with the comrades of the Fracción Trotskista (Cuarta Internacional) from Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Europe, together with tendencies like the UIT-CI, the LIT-CI, the comrades of the PO, of the MST, and all the tendencies that are present here today to repudiate and demand the investigation and punishment for the massacre of the class-conscious leaders of Aragua." "The fascist assassins acted in accord with the repression against the workers of 'Alpina,' repression that should not surprise us in the so-called "socialism of the twenty-first century," of Venezuela. We have already seen repression against the workers of Sanitarios Maracay and the workers of Sidor; such a strange 'socialism,' that permits exploiting and murderous multinationals like 'Alpina' or that of Pepsi Cola, where comrade Luis Hernández was a leader, multinationals that hire assassins with complete impunity, to eliminate those who fight for their rights, and their businesses are defended by the repressive forces of the [Venezuelan] state."
The demonstration ended with the emotional cry: "RICHARD GALLARDO, LUIS HERNÁNDEZ Y CARLOS REQUENA: ¡PRESENTES! ¡HASTA EL SOCIALISMO SIEMPRE!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
In repudiation of the massacre of workers in Aragua
Big demonstration in front of the Venezuelan Embassy
(PTS, 01/12/08) Today a big rally and demonstration was held in front of the Embassy of Venezuela in Buenos Aires to repudiate the brutal murder of the comrade workers' leaders Richard Gallardo, Luis Hernández and Carlos Requena and to demand an investigation and punishment of the murder. Around a thousand comrades from the different tendencies of the left that had called the action accompanied a delegation of leaders that delivered a statement before the authorities of the Embassy. Juan Carlos Giordano (Izquierda Socialista), Vilma Ripoll (MST), Néstor Pitrola (PO), Christian Castillo (PTS), Juan Carlos Beica (Convergencia Socialista) and Héctor Heberling (MAS) had an interview with an official, who could not answer why up to that moment -- three days after the cowardly murder -- President Hugo Chávez had still not repudiated this massacre of workers. Then a comrade from Izquierda Socialista read a report of the different workers' and popular mobilizations that took place after the crime against these workers' leaders and part of the plan of struggle launched by the leader Orlando Chirino and the comrades of the UNT to demand the investigation and punishment of the massacre. Finally, the national leader of Izquierda Socialista, Juan Carlos Giordano, spoke, giving a moving biographical sketch of the life of dedication to the workers’ cause of these comrades, explaining that a harsh blow against the class-conscious left had taken place, but that “from every Richard, from every Luis, from every Carlos, from each one of them, a thousand class-conscious, anti-imperialist and socialist workers will go out, just like they were.” “They will not be able to finish this struggle for class independence; they were struggling for a truly socialist society, without exploited or exploiters, a society without businessmen, for a society that is not the present Venezuela: that is why they killed them.” Comrade Giordano also recalled how, 24 hours before he was murdered, comrade Richard Gallardo had raised the need to prepare workers’ self-defense, “a question that he did not actually see, but that is set out now more than ever, in the Venezuelan working class.” In his intervention, Giordano rejected the version, promoted by the right-wing Venezuelan opposition, that the comrades were murdered for having made public an alleged fraud in the last Venezuelan elections, when two of them were independent workers' candidates for the Unidad Socialista de Izquierda (USI): "The facts are more than clear; the comrades were actively backing the struggle and the seizure by the workers of the Colombian multinational 'Alpina,' and they had been violently repressed by the Aragua state police the very day of their assassination, after they demanded a repudiation by the brand-new Governor Elect from the PSUV." In ending the demonstration, Christian Castillo stated that "we promoted this united demonstration as a first step of an intense internationalist campaign that we have now begun with the comrades of the Fracción Trotskista (Cuarta Internacional) from Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Europe, together with tendencies like the UIT-CI, the LIT-CI, the comrades of the PO, of the MST, and all the tendencies that are present here today to repudiate and demand the investigation and punishment for the massacre of the class-conscious leaders of Aragua." "The fascist assassins acted in accord with the repression against the workers of 'Alpina,' repression that should not surprise us in the so-called "socialism of the twenty-first century," of Venezuela. We have already seen repression against the workers of Sanitarios Maracay and the workers of Sidor; such a strange 'socialism,' that permits exploiting and murderous multinationals like 'Alpina' or that of Pepsi Cola, where comrade Luis Hernández was a leader, multinationals that hire assassins with complete impunity, to eliminate those who fight for their rights, and their businesses are defended by the repressive forces of the [Venezuelan] state."
The demonstration ended with the emotional cry: "RICHARD GALLARDO, LUIS HERNÁNDEZ Y CARLOS REQUENA: ¡PRESENTES! ¡HASTA EL SOCIALISMO SIEMPRE!
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